Stitch and Crystal do WDW - FINALLY finished~!

[WDW Poly Princess]

Our Fabulous Cast:
Crystal- WDW Poly Princess- 23 year old solo traveler extrordinare. Front desk clerk, bellydancer, travel writer wannabe.
Stitch- Age unknown, small blue alien. His first trip back to WDW since I met him there last year.
Katie- Florida resident who I sucker into keeping me company. 25, with a job which will be constantly redefined on this trip!

Wow, is it already time to be writing a pre-trip report again? (And hey, ever notice that until you book your next trip, it’s been SOOOO long since your last trip! But as soon as the next trip is booked and approaching, it suddenly hasn’t been all that long since you were there?)

Let’s start out simply here. This is Stitch:

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If you saw our thread on the Theme Parks board, you know that Stitch will be traveling with me to WDW.

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Stitch has been doing his own research, and even took requests for things people wanted us to see or do on our trip. You can see that thread here. (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=955275&highlight=stitch+requests)

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If you’ve read any of my reports before, you know that I’m a big fan of the resorts, and a major resort hopper. 5 resorts on an 10 day trip? Sure! It’s the best way to hit your favorites, stay in deluxes without blowing the budget, and try out some new resorts all in one trip! So, this was the original resort plan for this trip!

Pop Century-Arrival night
WL (woods view)-4 nights
AKL (savannah view)- 2 nights
Polynesian (garden view)- 2 nights
POR- 2 nights

All of my favorites, the perfect trip! And thanks to AP rates, still affordable!

Then came Best Rate, and after a lot of trip planning crazyness, the above plan ended up as follows:

OKW Studio (rented from DVC member)- 4 nights
Swan- 3 nights ($129 + tax Mousefest Rate)

I can see you gawking. No WL? No Poly?! But they just refurbished the rooms! The Swan??? No way! Crystal’s been replaced by a Pod Person!

I thought so, too. But I did some rationalizing- I’ve always wanted to stay at OKW, and I’m only paying a little more per night there than I would at POR, so that’s pretty good, right? And although I’m convinced that the giant Swans are headquarters for some shady government operation, it’s still an Epcot resort, right? And who doesn’t love being by Epcot? They have chocolate mousse there!

So, after checking airline rates, I find that it’s about $100 cheaper if I fly on the 26th instead of the 27th. No problem! Just add on a value for a night! Only about $55 with AP rates! No big deal….err..wait. Best Rate. D’oh! Oh well, I’ll call Disney and see how much it would be for a night at Pop. $99!? No way! Really? Oh. Back to the DVC Rent/Trade board!

The whole DVC/Swan thing was still freaking me out. I even decided to stop at a travel agency, in hopes that they could find me a room at one of my favorites for a slightly less crazy price. The travel agent I talked to had Disney stuff all over her desk. Oh, yay! She will understand my problems, right?

“I’m wondering if you can help me with a room for December? The new AP rate program screwed up my plans.”

“New program?”

“Yeah, the Best Rate thing.”

“Oh, I hadn’t heard about that.”

(travel agent taps some keys on her Magical Computer of Travel Knowledge.)

“Which hotel? All Stars?”

“Um, Wilderness Lodge. Lodge View.” (She’s starting out with the cheapest? I guess because I’m going solo?)

(pause while she clicks on some things)

“Let’s see, for Fort Wilderness…”

“Um, no, Wilderness Lodge.”

“Huh? Oh. Nothing available there.”

“Port Orleans Riverside?”

(Travel agent phones Disney, on what I assume is the Super Secret Travel Agent Line. I wait eagerly, dreaming of a lagoon view Polynesian miracle room for ten nights for $50. It will look out to the castle, come with free room service, and entitle me to my very own monorail.)

“They have a standard view for $134.”

(sound of Crystal falling out of chair)

“Per night?!”

“Would you like to book it?”

“Um… can you ask about discounts? I know I can’t get AP rates this close, but…”

(to phone lady) “She’s wondering about discounts? Something about AP, have you heard of that? Or a new program? I haven’t heard anything about it, have you? Oh, okay.”

(to me) “No, no discounts.”

(imagine me with a far-off look in my eyes as I remember the beautiful days before Best Rate, where I could call up and get POR for $89).
“Can you check on a cruise for May while I’m here? We’ve been thinking about going then.”

“Sure…”

“7 night Western Caribbean, May 6?”

“And you want an inside cabin?”

“Huh? Um, verandah. Category 6.” (Who taught this lady how to market?)

(on phone again.) “I need to check prices for the May 6th cruise on the Wonder?”

(me) “Magic.”

“Huh?”

“The Magic.”

(phone again) “Yeah, 7 nights on the Wonder, Western Caribbean?”

A few minutes later, she hangs up the phone and quotes me a price. It’s big.

“That’s per person?”
“That’s for one person, yeah. They charge more if you’re by yourself.”
“But I won’t BE solo on that trip!”

I’m sure things were said after this point, some sort of faked politeness in which I thank her for her help, but I don’t remember it. In that moment, I was deciding that I really need to finish my Travel Agent course, and get a job as one. The people need me.

So, now comes time to book airfare. After watching all of the major internet sites for several weeks, it finally became clear that flying out on the 27th was out of the question ($630 to fly on the 27th vs $250 to fly on the 25th!) I hadn’t even thought about Thanksgiving when I had made my trip plans, but now it was having quite an effect!

Checking the airline websites, it seemed that if I booked to come home on the 4th as planned, I would be stuck on a 6am flight, so I considered leaving the 5th instead. Finally one morning, a fare for $229 leaving on the 25th and returning on the 5th popped up, and I snatched it up! I finally broke down and booked All Star Music through Travelocity for about $100/nt (I called CRO, but they said they had no value resort rooms left for my dates, but they were available through Travelocity- no rooms doesn’t always mean no rooms!) and I rented OKW again for the night of the 4th. I was ready to go!

[WDW Poly Princess]

I dug out my suitcases to pack, but anyone with cats knows the rule- leave a suitcase unattended for more than a minute, and the cats will do the packing for you!

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Removing the cat from my suitcase, I then proceeded to use everything I ever learned from playing Tetris to smush all of my stuff in. I did the whole “suitcase inside a suitcase” thing so I’d have extra room coming home. Poor Stitch barely had room to breathe in there!

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Because I work front desk at a hotel, I thought it would be fun to put something together for the front desk people at the resorts I stayed at. I found some cute holiday mugs at Wal-Mart for $1 each, and planned to buy some candy to fill them with just before my trip, since I wanted something that all of the desk staff could share.

I went to Wal-Mart the night before Thanksgiving to pick up some of the last minute things on my list, since I knew I wouldn’t be able to go on Thanksgiving, and there was no way I was setting foot near it at 5am on Black Friday!!! I got the usual vacation supplies (little travel sized toothpaste, new socks, etc), but as soon as I got home, I realized what I had forgotten- candy for the front desk gifts! I hoped that I’d be able to find something at the airport or WDW!

My final trip preparation involved leaving my mom instructions for feeding my fish. Somehow I always give detailed instructions about how fish really don’t eat much, and then I come home to tanks that look like someone’s been pouring a ton of food in every day. This time, I was prepared with visual aids:

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I crawled into bed with my cat Tallulah around 2am the night before my trip. I had no idea how I was going to make it through more than a week with no big black and white cat sleeping by my side! Could you?

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This is what I wake up to every day!

[WDW Poly Princess]

The next morning started out splendidly with my oversleeping. My cat has magical powers of knowing when I need to get up, so she started shredding a piece of paper right next to my bed, one of the few noises that never fails to get me up. After a few ear scratches fail to make her quit, I look at my alarm clock and see that it’s been more than a few minutes since it first went off. I must have hit the snooze a little too hard.

I stumble upstairs to my mom’s bedroom (I live in an apartment downstairs from her house) where the neon green numbers on the clock glow that the current time is 5:20am. Mom had planned on getting up at 4:15 (she’s one of those people who needs two hours to get ready, even if she is just dropping someone off at the airport), and mom is still in bed.

“Mom! You overslept!” I call, and she wakes up immediately.

“There’s no way I can get ready in time!” she expresses, already halfway down the hallway. By the time I’ve stumbled back downstairs to get dressed, she is curling her hair. It takes me about twenty minutes to get ready, and I spend the time after that sitting with Tallulah near my mom’s bathroom door, spending some time with both before embarking on my adventure.

We somehow manage to leave the house at 6:20, a miracle considering we had originally planned to leave at 6:15, and we both overslept. I make a quick stop at the ATM, and then the gas station for bottled water, where I find that the guy who sells me my coffee each afternoon is already there.

The drive to the airport passes quickly, and we don’t run into any of the traffic we expected at all. It’s about 7:30 when we arrive at the airport. The man who checks me in at the American counter asks if I’m going to WDW, and when I tell him that I am, he says that he will be there next week, and that he’s already checked in two other people today who are on their way to the World. Apparently now’s the time to be going, he says!

While we’re sitting around, I discover that I’ve made a stupid mistake: I left my jacket at home. I had planned to wear it to the airport, but since it was so cold out, I threw on my leather coat instead, planning to put the jacket in my bag, but totally forgetting. There’s no way I can do WDW in December with no jacket- it’s a staple in my wardrobe, putting it on over a t-shirt every morning and wearing it till early afternoon when the sun begins to warm things up. Mom offers to send it to me at the hotel, but I decide I’ll probably just hit World of Disney tonight and pick one up. Goodbye, $40 or so! If I can’t find one there I like (or at least not one I like enough to spend the cost of a week’s worth of food on), however, I’ll call her and have her send it.

Mom and I decide to grab breakfast in the airport’s café not because we are particularly hungry but because we always end up eating there to kill time, because there’s nothing else to do at our airport, which has one restaurant, one gift shop, and ten gates. The food is good (and much too much in my case) and before we know it, it’s time for me to go through security.

I snap a picture of the tiny plane at the gate. It has ten rows, with two seats on one side and one on the other, making a total of 30. There isn’t even an overhead compartment.

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As the plane is making its way through the labyrinth of paths leading to the runway, I think about how much I love this part- takeoff is one of my favorite things in the world. In this moment, I feel the rebirth begin, and I realize that I am doing what I am made to do, I am a traveler, and this is where I belong. It’s one of those few moments in life when you get the sense that you are exactly where you need to be right now. (Although it’s also said that there’s nowhere you can be that isn’t where you’re meant to be. Also, all you need is love.) The flight attendant is wonderful, and he even offers hard candies just before we begin landing, something I don’t think I’ve ever seen before.

I stop in the airport bathroom to put on some makeup, partly because I don’t want to scare the small children I’m sure will be on the flight to Orlando, and partly because there seems to be an abundance of cute single men out today. At first I feel a little out of place standing at the mirror with my makeup spread out before me, painting away the evidence of lack of sleep, but then I notice that the woman to my right is brushing her teeth, and that the woman to my left is applying lipstick. Suddenly I feel less alone, and more a part of a community.

In need of some coffee (I only got about an hour and a half of sleep last night) I walk back to the Starbucks near C2, and they only have the bottled frappuccinos in the mocha flavor, which I detest, so I decide to walk down to the C17 SBux (Gotta love that they are only 15 gates apart.) I am distracted from my mission for a few minutes by the sight of a bookstore right across from SBux. Books! I search the shelves for the new Neil Gaiman, but I can’t find it. I do however find Eliot Hester’s new book, Continental Drifter, and am very tempted to buy it. I just finished his first book (Plane Insanity) about his experiences as a flight attendant last night, and I really liked it, so I’ve been looking forward to this one. Plus, I’ve been moving through the only book I brought to read much too fast. The $23 hardcover price seems a little too much of a dent in my cash flow right now, though, so I shelve the idea for the present time.

I cross back over to Starbucks, and Bingo! Vanilla frap in a bottle. I tell the girl working the register that she is my hero, and fork over about $2.50. Pricey, but sooo worth it.

I notice that there are only two people seated in the area near the gate right across from Starbucks, and decide to park myself there for a while. The cold coffee feels wonderful on my sore throat, and it’s half gone instantly. It’s 11am now, just over an hour till my next flight boards. My seat facing the window affords a good view of planes taxiing down the runway, but I can’t see the takeoff or landing from here. I’m tempted to walk back up to the area between C and B terminals where I noticed a lot of the flight crew sitting, probably on breaks or layovers, watching planes take off. (A cool looking military jet was taking off when I walked by, very Top Gun.) (Of course, right after typing that I can’t see take offs from here, a plane takes off right in my line of vision.)

I think I can see why people get into the airline industry, how they become addicted to flying. There’s an energy to it all, perhaps something to do with defying gravity itself. I find myself fascinated by the planes rolling past the wall of windows in front of me, marveling at the technology.

People begin to accumulate at the gate I’ve chosen, so I think about moving to a new one. My leg is asleep and although what I really want to do is get down on the floor and do some yoga and deep stretching, I instead stand up, stretch a little, and sit back down. Airports need yoga lounges- a nice quiet room where you can stretch and contort yourself silly without people looking at you funny.

I pack up my laptop and set off in search of a quieter gate, and make an effort to move back towards my actual gate in the process.

Back at C8 (which I have already nicknamed Cate), I notice someone laying by the wall, and deciding that looks comfortable, I plop myself down next to another wall, enjoying the luxury of stretching my legs out. Now THIS is good!

The flight from St. Louis to Orlando is mostly uneventful. I’m on a much larger plane this time, the kind with two seats on one side and three on the other. I’m by the window with two people between me and the aisle, which is great except for one small problem- about halfway through the flight, I really need to get to the restroom, and they are both asleep. I spend about half an hour just waiting, hoping they will wake up or the flight will magically be over, and my chance finally comes when a little bit of turbulence wakes them up. I feel a little stupid because they both stand up and get out into the aisle in order to let me out, and the process is repeated when I come back. Why do I like window seats again? (And why can’t anyone build a plane with enough legroom that you don’t have to befriend the people sitting next to you just to get out?)

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After what felt like the longest flight ever (I tried being patient, but it took too long!) we arrive in Orlando. Mickey, here I come! I practically hug the monorail when I see it. The monorail! That means I’m here! We glide over to baggage claim where I grab my checked bag and then hoof it over to the Magical Express counter, approximately eighty-three miles away. (Because I booked DME so close to my trip, they didn’t have time to send me luggage tags, which meant I took care of my own luggage).

Checking in with Magical Express took only a few minutes, and I was given a voucher for my trip, and pointed towards the All Stars bus line. The wait for the bus was only about ten minutes, and we were on our way!

As we’re rolling along towards the All Stars, our DME bus driver tells us that of all of the land Walt bought for WDW, 1/3 is already developed, one third is available for future development, and one third can’t be developed (it’s swampland, etc.). This got me thinking- with the amount of available land, WDW can pretty much double in size. Can you imagine? Eight parks, six water parks, forty hotels, two Downtowns, six golf courses, four mini golfs… see where I’m going? I have enough trouble seeing everything I want to in a week, imagine how long you would need to be here to see all of THAT!

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About a half hour later, we arrived at the All Stars, where we stopped at Sports first, followed by Music. There were only a few people in line to check in, and before I knew it I had my key in hand and started my trek out to Country Fair Building 6!

I think they call it the country building because “Yee Haw! It’s a long hike out here!” If you aren’t familiar with the Music resort, I’ll paint you a mental picture. In order to get to my building, you would walk out of the lobby, past the really really green Calypso buildings, past the pool, past the Jazz buildings, past the fountain, past the other pool, past the Broadway building, and then you see Country fair! It was kind of a long walk. In fact, the strap on my pretty new pink laptop bag actually broke on the way (somewhere between Jazz and Broadway, I think), which made carrying it plus my backpack plus my suitcase extra fun!

The marathon of getting to the room behind me, I decided to snap a few pictures before I messed everything up:

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Welcome to ASMu!

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I think the entertainment center at All Stars is so ugly!

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Although the idea of walking back to the lobby so soon was a little daunting, I was starving, and Disney food was calling! The walk was much much easier without 40lbs of luggage, but still long! I always snap a picture of my room number in case I forget it.

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(Um, Disney? It might be time for some touch-up painting at ASMu. Thanks!)

The sun was just beginning to set, so I snapped a few dusk pictures as I walked up to the food court.

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The view from outside my room

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back side of the country building

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Broadway

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...and Jazz

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The food court

Yeah, long walk. However, waiting for me at the other side were things that made it all worth it!

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For some reason, I found the napkins amusing:

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After eating, I considered just going to sleep around 7pm, but I really wanted to go to World of Disney and buy a sweatshirt, so I hopped a bus to DD. On the way, I got a little misty-eyed as we passed Spaceship Earth, glowing it’s beautiful purplish color in the darkness. Epcot is my favorite park, and this was the first “icon” I’d seen on this trip, so it made me really happy!

[WDW Poly Princess]

I did a little bit of browsing in Marketplace, including the art store, which has some amazing stuff:

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I stopped in Basin to buy a bath bomb, as I’ve seen recommended on the boards. What better way to start the trip than with a yummy smelling bath?

I went to World of Disney in search of my sweatshirt, but it was SO packed! I could barely walk around without stepping on kids or running into adults. It was only about 7pm, why weren’t they all out at the parks?? I only saw a couple of sweatshirts, and none of them suited me (plus they were $49!), so I gave up on World of Disney for the night, planning to come back when it was less crowded.

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Nobody can pass up a picture of the dragon!

I decided to duck into the Adventurer’s Club for a minute (although since they changed the admission to where you have to wait in line at each club entrance, you can’t really just “duck in” anywhere anymore!”. I peered down into the club from the zebra mezzanine, and it looked like a show must be going on, because the main club area was mostly empty except for a handful of people at the bar who Hathaway Brown (a new one!) was talking to.

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Not being a big fan of doing the club by myself, I decided to keep walking over towards West Side. Determined to do something tonight, I went into Disney Quest, where I walked around for a few minutes, and then suddenly felt really weak and lightheaded, and remembered that I’d been awake for almost 18 hours after only sleeping an hour the night before! It was time to admit defeat and go back to ASMu for some sleep.

I came back to the room, called home, and hopped in the bath to try out my bath bomb from basin. The peach/oatmeal smelled yummy, but the downside was that it turned the water a funky brownish-yellow color usually only seen after really bad Mexican food (no wait! It is also the same color as the Country building!), so that kinda ruined the mood.

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Bath bomb before it liquified into an offensive color

I’m now in bed at 10:30pm, something that certainly hasn’t happened in a long time. The plan for tomorrow is to hit DAK for EMH, and then maybe Eppycot later in the day. If I can get a hold of Katie, I’ll see if she can take me to Wal-Mart for a hoodie.

Although I'm exhausted, it takes Stitch a little while longer to settle down.

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Day 0 Summary:
The weather today was: Really nice, a little chilly after the sun went down
The best thing today was- seeing the Epcot ball
The worst thing today was- forgetting my jacket, crazy crowds, needing to pee on the plane
The funniest thing today was- Nothing, unfortunately
Today I tried- a chocolate croissant
And the result was- Yummy!
The most magical moment today was- first takeoff, seeing SSE
Solo Trip Lonelyness factor- not much at all, perhaps a 3
Worried that work has already fallen apart without me factor- much less than expected
# of photos taken: 76
Wakeup call set for: 7:35

Meals:
Breakfast-biscuits and gravy at airport
Lunch/Dinner- pizza and chocolate croissant from ASMu
Snack- brownies from home, snack mix from plane, Sbux

Surprising Thing- I wish I had packed my fuzzy slippers

[fizz13]

Great start to the report! I love threads with photos and you are doing a great job, I really felt the excitement of seeing that WDW signage. Will look out for more and give Stitch a hug from me :grouphug:

Claire xx

[agotta]

Sounds like a ton of fun and I love reading your report!! Can't wait for more (and to write my own! :) )

[swankybeth]

Great start! I love your report and photos, can't wait for more. :flower:

[declansdad]

Great report and pics! You are a very good story teller. If I had your talent I might have finished my last trip report.

I can't wait to read and see the rest.

[tubachick]

I Love all the Photos!!! Keep them coming.... so far you and Stich have had a great trip!!!

[WDW Poly Princess]

Sorry for the long time in between posts! I spent most of my shift at work today writing up days 1 and 2 and sorting/resizing photos, so at least part should be ready to post tomorrow!

Thanks for the great comments!

[BionicEar]

I am loving the pictures! Looking forward to the next installment.

[bbump]

Love your report and your pictures... it is helping me re-live our vacation. Can't wait to read more!!!

[Cinerama]

Great report and pics--I'll be looking for more! Thanks!

[Thumper's Tara]

Removing the cat from my suitcase, I then proceeded to use everything I ever learned from playing Tetris to smush all of my stuff in. I did the whole “suitcase inside a suitcase” thing so I’d have extra room coming home. Poor Stitch barely had room to breathe in there!

I crawled into bed with my cat Tallulah around 2am the night before my trip. I had no idea how I was going to make it through more than a week with no big black and white cat sleeping by my side! Could you?

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This is what I wake up to every day!

Ahhhh! Thanks for the great report so far. I can't wait to read more!

I can totally relate to the cat in the suitcase. My cat, Trouble, is the same way. The hardest thing about traveling is not having Trouble to wake me up for some morning attention!

[ckmommy]

Please post more---I need my WDW fix!!!!

[WDW Poly Princess]

We’re finally to the official “Day 1”! (November 26th)- Hooray!

Mickey (and Stitch) called to wake me up as planned at 7:30- it’s amazing what a difference getting some sleep makes! I felt sooo much better this morning!

I considered taking a photo of my feet before I left, since I knew they wouldn’t be looking so good by the end of the day. (Side note- it’s too bad I didn’t take a picture- I’m typing this two weeks after getting back, and my feet still don’t look normal!)

My plan was for Animal Kingdom to be my first park this trip- I usually don’t get there until two or three days into the trip, and by then my feet are already sore and I’m getting tired, so I wanted a chance to enjoy it fresh from the plane.

I made it to Animal Kingdom at 8:30, and stopped at the entrance to take a few photos of the tree:

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I’d like to point out that most of these decorations are bigger than my tree at home is.


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Hey look, a park entrance! I guess I might as well go in!

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Now at Animal Kingdom, there seem to be two schools of people- the first rushes into the park and back to the safari, and the second group rushes into the park and does other stuff. And then there’s me. I like to go through every little trail of the Oasis, and make friends with every single animal.

I stopped at the first little animal area, and saw…nothing.

“There’s an anteater, down there” the CM said, pointing to something furry in a ditch. It was passed out.

“Wow, Mr. Anteater and I have similar early morning interests!”

“Actually, it’s a girl.”

“Oh! Sorry, Ms. Anteater! You have my humble apology. Have a nice nap!”

“Have fun, and be sure to tell everyone about the neat animals!” chimed the CM as I left.

Um, okay, but this is Animal Kingdom, I’m pretty sure most of them will notice the animals on their own.

Anyway, here I am telling everyone about the animals. They were neat!

The next little stop on the trail led to a black swan. He (or she!) was taking a bath, but I figured I could probably still get a decent picture anyway. Well, at least I tried.

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Hey, could you hold still? Wait! Stop moving so I can take your picture! Can’t you bathe later?

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1swan5.JPG
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http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1swan9.JPG

Finally, a decent shot!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1swangood.JPG

(according to the time info on the pictures, I spent three whole minutes taking pictures of the Swan. I figured I should be nice to him since I was staying in his hotel later in the week)

Continuing my “wandering slowly” theme, I went into one of the shops to look around. It was completely empty except for me and the CM, and I mentioned to him how nice it was that it was so quiet. He said it was usually pretty empty for the first hour or so that the park was open- everyone was rushing off to one place or another. We got into a conversation about all of the neat details in the shop- lamps at AK aren’t just lamps, they have llamas on them!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1llamalamp.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1llamalamp2.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1llamalamp2.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1llamashelf.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1llamaexit.jpg


I also saw this cool looking frog basket hanging from the ceiling.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1frog.JPG

As much as I hear parents yelling at their kids “Hurry up or we won’t see anything!”, I’ve found that the opposite is instead true- slow down, or you’ll miss everything!

[WDW Poly Princess]

I made my way over to Africa…


http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1harambe.JPG


This poster was too cute not to take a picture of, but it had the unfortunate quality of being on the wall right outside the men’s restroom door. I was afraid that everybody thought I was a freak for appearing to take pictures of the men’s room. I was really just photographing the poster, I promise!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1sign1.JPG

This one was in a less embarrassing location.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1sign2.JPG

The store in Harambe is one of my favorites- besides selling the usual park stuff, they also have some amazing African art.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1plates1.JPG

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1plates2.JPG


Continuing the earlier theme of how cool the shops are, I snapped this picture of the back side of a merchandise shelf:

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1display.JPG

Anywhere else, this stuff would be in a museum. At WDW, it holds up t-shirts and goes overlooked.


Outside the shop, I ran into this guy:

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1drumman.JPG


He had a crowd around him, and was handing out various percussive instruments for the kids to play. He was hilarious, and really good at playing his xyleophone thingey!

The line for the safari was only 10 minutes long, so I hopped in.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1safarisign.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1reserve.JPG


I ended up being at the end of the bench in the safari vehicle, which is perfect if you’re planning to take pictures! I talked to the man seated next to me, who was from FL, and started pointing out good pictures to take. “Oh, you can get good photos of the giraffes up here!”

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1safari.JPG

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1hippos.JPG


Hippos!


http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1rhino.JPG

Rhino!

The cute bumper sticker on our vehicle:

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1nohurry.JPG

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1wildebeast.JPG

Wildebeast!

I also have an extraordinary number of pictures of this guy, because I would turn around to take pictures, but my camera would focus on him instead of the animals:

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1safariguy.jpg

About halfway into the safari, we had to stop, apparently because animals were blocking a vehicle up ahead. We eventually got to pull up further, and we could now see that a bunch of giraffes were responsible:

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1giraffes.JPG

The finger in this photo seems to be saying “Hey! Look at that over there!” I have no idea what we are looking at.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1pointing.jpg

We found Little Red, who had been kidnapped by poachers. Poor Little Red has such a traumatic life, he always seems to be in trouble!

[WDW Poly Princess]

Near the safari exit, I saw a building with these words painted on it. I snapped a picture so that I could come home and translate it, since my Swahili isn’t quite fluent, to say the least.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1swahili.JPG

Unfortunately, words in Swahili seem to each have several meanings, and so it translates roughly as “no employers/older siblings can be here alone”. Unless someone can find a better translation, maybe? :confused3

Anyway! Up next was the….

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1pangani.jpg

I have no idea why this rock was on the trail. There are no buffalo at AK, and no water buffalo that I know of. I made sure to beware just in case, though!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1buffalo.JPG

I love how far Disney carries out the theming of these areas!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1news.JPG

This is where the trip report gets a little creepy. If you don’t want your illusions about the cuteness of Timon-like meerkats shattered, I suggest you skip this part!

Over in the meerkat area, an unusual number of people were gathered. I assumed they were just watching the meerkat, and jumped into the crowd. It wasn’t until I heard a lady say “I don’t think I can watch this anymore!” that I figured out something was up. Instead of just the meerkat, there was also what looked like a bunny. Given that this is AK, it was probably some form of cool African bunny, but we’ll just call it a bunny for the sake of the story, okay? Well, the bunny was staring at the meerkat like she was awfully displeased with him. It was then that I figured out why- the meerkat had a baby bunny in it’s mouth, and was carrying it around. Baby bunny didn’t look too healthy.

Now wait a minute. Didn’t Lion King 1 ½ make a big deal about meerkats being at the bottom of the food chain? I mean, there was a whole musical number about it! So what was this meerkat doing with a baby bunny, looking like he was planning to EAT it? I didn’t want to stick around to find out.

After I got home, I looked it up:
“Meerkats eat mainly insects, spiders, centipedes, scorpions, eggs, small birds,
mammals, lizards, snails, and some plants.”

Uh oh. That said mammals! This is a report about Disney, so we’ll just say that this happened to be a vegetarian meerkat, and that the baby bunny is okay. Deal?

This is awfully blurry, but you can see the mother bunny and the offending meerkat. Um, I mean the vegetarian meerkat!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1meerkat.jpg

(I would also like Disney to maybe throw in a disclaimer on Lion King 1 ½ updating us on meerkat eating habits. That’s the last time I take my animal info from a cartoon!)

(Um, also, why the heck didn’t an AK CM jump in and do something about the situation? Did they not know there was a baby? If so, why did they put it in the same area with something that would eat it??)

-----This ends the disturbing part of the trip report-----

Up next on the trail were the gorillas, who were kind enough not to be eating anyone. They were even nice enough to make the video I shot of them interesting! No sooner had I started filming one of the males when he grabbed a tree limb and carried it off! I’ll post the video link for now, but I might have to take it down if I start going over my bandwidth:

Gorilla Video (http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/gorilla.mov)

Am I the only one who finds that really funny?

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1gorilla3.JPG

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1gorilla2.JPG

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1gorilla1.JPG

I was getting a little tired, and definitely ready for a break, so I started walking towards the front of the park. On my way through Africa, though, I heard drumming. After a couple of years of bellydancing, I am now physically incapable to walk past live drummers without stopping. I found a spot on the bench, and watched. Or at least that’s what I meant to do.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1drummers.JPG

A minute later, I (as well as about six or seven others) was pulled up into the show! They showed us different dance moves, and we followed along. I’m sure my performance was enough to bring a tear to your eye, but since I was alone, I have no video to document it. (Whew!) I do, however, have this picture:

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1medancers.JPG


After my African dance stage debut, I decided to wander back behind the Dawa bar to a quiet little seating area, where I sat down for a few minutes to have some water and call my mom. I got the answering machine, so I grabbed my stuff and set out for the park exit. I was so worn out by now (the first day at WDW is always so long!) that I wasn’t sure I was going to make it all the way to the front of the park! I eyed the kids in strollers enviously, wishing I had someone to push me around. Or better yet, carry me around in one of those Cleopatra-type things, complete with the men with palm leaves… But I digress…

I decided to exit through the Rainforest Café to see if they had any cheap sweatshirts (hah!), and as I was leaving, I saw a person in the fish tank. A guy was scuba diving in there to clean! I reached for my camera to snap a picture, but my camera wasn’t there! I knew it must be back in Africa where I had stopped to sit down, so I had to run (really fast walk) back through the park to Africa. I was already totally exhausted, so I’m amazed that I made it, but I was also freaking out because I was worried my camera wouldn’t be there- I looove my camera, I just got it half a year ago, and there’s no way I could afford to replace it!

I got to the table I had been sitting at, and it wasn’t there. I asked a couple sitting at a nearby table if they’d seen anyone pick it up, and they said they had only been there for a few minutes, but they hadn’t seen anything. They suggested that I ask at the bar, which I did. The man I asked said nothing had been turned in, but then the woman working with him said that someone had just taken a camera to the restaurant! I dashed over to the neighboring restaurant (Tusker House, right? I think?) where I told them what kind of camera it was, and the CM disappeared back through the doors for a really, really long time. Time passed, the seasons changed, the 5th theme park opened, and the DIS-boards finally came to a consensus on the issues of resort mugs and pool hopping, and then finally the CM returned, carrying my camera! Reunited and it feels so good! Just to be sure, I clicked it over to the “play” function, just to make sure it was mine, which it was! Hooray!

Now it was time to exit the park yet again! This time I was so happy to be reunited with my camera that I totally forgot to go back through RFC to snap the picture of the scuba guy. Too bad I didn’t- if it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t have realized I lost my camera for at least thirty more seconds when I went to reach for it for some other reason!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1giraffe.JPG

[WDW Poly Princess]

I usually go back to my own resort for my afternoon break, but I was much more in the mood to go over to Animal Kingdom Lodge. It was nearby, way cooler to hang out at, and I really wanted to try the zebra domes!

I love that at AKL, if you’re walking up from the bus stop, you hit the gift shop before you even come to the lobby. The gift shop here is awesome, and I highly recommend a trip if you haven’t been. It seemed to have a little more generic Disney stuff and less of the cool African stuff than it did back when the lodge opened, but it still has some amazing stuff, like this art:

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1afart.JPG

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1gpainting.JPG

(the first time I saw that giraffe painting a few years ago, it took me forever to figure out that the purple thing was its tongue!)

Yeah, I’m too poor to buy the paintings, but I can take pictures of them! The shop also sells nifty watercolors of the lodge.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1zwadi2.jpg

In my Stitch thread where I took requests for the trip, AussieTink asked for photos of the insides of shops, and so here is one of Zwadi marketplace! (The AKL giftshop, which I have mistakenly been calling Zwandi for years).

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1zwadi.JPG

I really like the lobby at AKL, mostly because it feels a little like the lobby at WL (They were in fact done by the same designer.) I wandered around the lodge a little, just taking various photos:

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And then I made my way down to the Mara. If you want some zebra domes, there’s no need to pay more than $20 for the Boma buffet- you can get them right here at the Mara- a combo pack of zebra domes and chocolate mousse thingeys sells for less than $4!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1zebrad.JPG

I was wondering if they still did the art tour of the Lodge that I’d heard about, so I asked the girl at the cash register at the Mara. “What lodge?” was her response, I kid you not. “Um, this one?” I asked. She finally got it, and told me that no, there was no tour. (I later asked another CM who also said no. Then I checked the events board on my way out of the lodge, and yup! There is a tour!)

This hippo is painted on the wall mural in the Mara. I won’t make any jokes about his nose being funny-looking.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1marahippo.JPG

I sat outside in a pool chair that was actually nowhere near the pool to get some sun and enjoy my zebra domes. I was surprised to find myself wishing that I was staying here at the Lodge- I liked it last time I was here, but it was never a favorite. Now I’ve got the urge to go back, though. Maybe second time’s the charm?

After eating all I could of my zebra domes (yum!), I decided to be stupid and see if I could take the leftovers with me. They were too yummy to throw away! I carefully set the package in my backpack, and hoped it would stay closed.

I decided to pick a hallway and wander down it, stopping at the windows to peer out at the savannahs.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1dakl2.JPG

How cute is that lion painted on the building?

I got all the way down to the end of a hallway (I think it was on the zebra trail?), but I didn’t want to look stupid and walk back past the housekeepers I had just passed, so I went out a door marked stairway, hoping I wouldn’t get locked out or something. Instead I discovered that from this open-air stairway, I could see animals! A few African cows (Ankole cattle, if I remember right?) and some giraffes. Free savannah view!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1lodgegir.JPG

I was making my way down the staircase, getting better shots of the animals with each floor I went down, when suddenly one of the cows mooed. (Is that the word for “Moo” in the past tense?) For some reason, this cracked me up. I guess I had been expecting African cattle to say something more African- Moozwa!, maybe? Moo sounded awfully funny. Or maybe I had spent too much time in the sun today.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1moo.JPG


I went out by Arusha Rock to check out the animals when my phone rang. It was Katie, my friend who lives in Orlando, calling to make some plans.

“An African cow just moo’d at me!” I said as a greeting. Somehow it was hard to explain just why this was so funny.

Katie told me that she was busy today, but free tomorrow, so we made plans to meet up at MK.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1suite.JPG

(I snapped this one while I was on the phone with Katie)


I decided it was time to get back to my own resort and grab some lunch (Mara didn’t have the amazing breadsticks on the menu anymore!), so I walked back down to the bus stop, only after stopping to snap a picture of the line to check in.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1checkin.JPG

(I planned to show these to my coworkers at home, complete with tales of the scary hotels that make front desk people do real work!)

I fell in love with this horse on the building near the bus stop. He was just cute!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1horsie.JPG

[WDW Poly Princess]

Back at ASMu, I had to wait while they cooked my pizza, so I sat in the food court and looked through the pictures on my (beloved! Precious!) camera. It was then that I noticed that one of the dancers painted on the wall looked like Sarah Jessica Parker.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1sjp.JPG

Wait a minute, so did one of the singers!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1sjp2.JPG

Please tell me it’s not just me who sees the resemblance?

I got my pizza and carried it back to the room so I could eat and watch TV.

In case you are wondering, this is what leftover zebra domes look like if you leave them in your backpack on a hot day for almost two hours:

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1smushed.JPG

The thing is, they still *tasted* yummy!

After eating, I spent some time hanging out in my room, and then decided to go over to Epcot.

When I got there, I took a few pictures of Spaceship Earth:

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1sse2.JPG

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1sse.JPG

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1sse3.JPG

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1ssehand.JPG

Living Seas had just reopened from rehab a few days earlier, so I went to check out the changes. Luckily I overheard someone say that you now entered through the old exit, because I probably would have gotten really confused otherwise.

The good thing about entering through these doors is that you don’t have to wait. Before you had to wait in the big round room with the pretty wave design (which I kinda missed), and then wait on the hydrolator, and then finally get there. Now you just walk in (which as to confuse the heck out of kids who actually bought the whole “our hydrolator is taking us way under water..” bit.)

The line for Crush was huge every time I checked on the trip- apparently word has gotten out about what a great show it is! Just last year the CM’s were standing at the entrance trying to talk people into going in to fill up space!

I went over and sat on one of the ledges by the glass. This is the best place to be, because fish swim right up to you, which is a kind of freaky sensation. I had just sat down when a huge school of fish came out of nowhere and swam right past me! Here, I’ll try to recreate the moment for you. Just stick your head right up to the monitor:

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1school.jpg

Look who I found!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1nemo.jpg

[WDW Poly Princess]

I decided to make a quick loop around the World Showcase. It must have been a really quick loop, because the time info on my photos shows that it was only 50 minutes!

I also hardly took any photos. I did, however, snap one in France:

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1france.JPG

From France I could hear that MoRockin was playing, so I hurried over to Morocco, where they had a pretty big crowd. I caught two and a half songs, including Nani Nareen (no idea if I spelled that right), which is one of my favorites.

I didn’t buy anything on my quick loop of the world, but I did take this picture of Morocco:

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1morocco.JPG

And this one of a pretty display in Japan:

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1japan.JPG

And this fuzzy one of the British Invasion:

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1britinv.JPG

And hey, there’s America across the water!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1usa.JPG

And the tree! (Can you tell I don’t have any notes from this trip to Epcot, and have no idea what I did?)

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1epcottree.JPG

I stopped in Mouse Gears on my way out of the park for a quick look around- I love this store! My favorite item was the pirate rubber ducky:

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1duckies.JPG

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1ssent.JPG

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1sse4.JPG

On the bus back to ASMu, I had a nice conversation with a family from Minnesota. Back at the hotel, I grabbed a chocolate croissant (yum!) and set off on the 37 mile hike back to Country Fair Building 6. I plopped down on the bed to get my photos from the memory card, and then ended up laying around watching the Lizzie McGuire movie so my feet could recover. (Yes, when you are at WDW and only get a limited number of TV stations, you too may end up watching the Lizzie McGuire movie. Twice.)

It was only about 10pm, and I wasn’t quite ready to sleep yet, so I took a walk up to the main building to check out the gift shop. I love the 50th anniversary antenna toppers!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1toppers.JPG

If you look in the display case near the bakery section of the food court, you will see these guys! (I want a pair for my kitchen!)

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1eggs.JPG

On my way back to my room, I saw this amazing spider web. He was still there when I left, so I guess Disney just lets them stay!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1spiderweb.JPG

I took one more fabulous photo of the Country building-

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1country.jpg

And then as I was laying in bed, I noticed something weird.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1watt52.JPG

They were using 52-watt bulbs! Who has ever heard of a Fifty-TWO watt bulb? Weird!!

Coming up tomorrow, my review of ASMu, and Katie finally makes it into the trip report!

[declansdad]

Another fun read. Sounds like you had a great time.

[fabumouse]

You have a superb eye for detail and such a lovely way of describing it! Thanks for sharing all those great photos. I bought that pirate duck for my neice. Soooo adorable.

[MazdaUK]

I'm really enjoying your reports! More please :-)

[cannp123165]

Brilliant Start!!!!!! I am looking forward to the next installment!!!!!!!!. :-))))).

[Canuckdad]

You have a great writing style -- I'm totally digging your observations. Can't wait for more!

[krismom]

You're sense of humor is exactly like mine. I would love to do a solo trip- I secretly dream of escaping my life and running away ALONE for a few days to WDW. Can you tell I am a stay at home mother?!
More reports please!
:Pinkbounc

[goodeats]

I'm loving your reports! Keep them coming!

Hmm, maybe I'll get to take a solo trip one of these days!

[swankybeth]

Great report, I love all of the details you add. LOL about the zebra domes and you managed to salvage them too, good work! :rotfl:

[WDW Poly Princess]

WHEW! I just finished typing up day 2- it is twenty-two pages in Microsoft word! :earseek: :rotfl2:

I should probably hand out awards to anyone who makes it through reading this whole report alive!

Day 2 coming soon! (After I upload all 173 photos. I need to learn to just say NO to the camera! :tilt: )

[pixiedust23]

Great Report! I'm loving it!!

[Minniespal]

Fantastic report ~ Can't wait to read more.

[WDW Poly Princess]

Day 2- November 27th

Today it was time to say goodbye to ASMu. My own personal way of saying goodbye to a place involves a lot of photo taking. (Okay, there’s another explanation. If I thought getting my luggage *to* the room was hard, it was a million times harder getting it back to the lobby with the strap of my laptop bag broken! Thus, I stopped occasionally, and took pictures while I rested!)

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2boot1.jpg

I love how the star on the sidewalk echoes the one on the heel

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2caypso1.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2calypso2.jpg

I noticed for the first time on this trip that each level of a building is a different shade of the same color. For example, the Jazz building is light, medium, and dark blue. Now I know we’ve all made fun of the funky shade of green that the Calypso building is, but could someone please explain to me why that out of all the colors in the world, they chose to paint the Country building *that* color?

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2countrybrown.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2country1.jpg

Funny enough, the line to drop off my bags at bell services was the longest line I waited in all week! The line at the bell services stand was at least twenty minutes- crazy! Every other trip I’ve been able to walk right up.

All Star Music Review:

Cleanliness- There was a nasty looking burn mark on my nightstand- it looked like a cigarette burn even though it was a non-smoking room. I was a little surprised that Disney hadn’t replaced the table.

Burn mark, actual size

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/cigburn.jpg

The room itself could have stood a nice deep cleaning- there was dust around the edges of the carpet, and the bathtub was dripping when I got there. However, since I work in a hotel I’ve got a different idea of what a normal amount of wear and tear looks like, so by normal standards, the room was very clean. By Disney standards, it was a little icky. The resort itself looked great, no trash lying around, everything was well-maintained (except my room number star obviously needed some touch-up paint!).

Value- I took paying $100/night for a value resort a little hard, since I’m used to getting it for $55 with an AP discount, but I still think the resort is a good value for the money at $100. You’d be paying $70 for a comparable room most places across the country, and this room has the added bonus of being in Disney with free transportation, so totally worth it!

Food- I am now a big fan of chocolate croissants! I nearly made a trip back to ASMu later in the trip just to get another one. I really like the food court here- lots of choices, and they have a much better selection than the counter service places at the WL or the Polynesian. My only complaint is that I wish they would keep a few pizzas around during the busy parts of the day instead of just putting one in the oven when you ordered it, which meant a 5-10 min wait each time.

Atmosphere- Lets be honest here- if you’re staying at a value resort, you trade in the ambiance of palm trees and white sand beaches or a breathtaking lobby with a huge fireplace for three story cowboy boots trimmed in neon. Somehow, however, Music still seems beautiful at night to me. It’s something about the flickering streetlights near the jazz building, or the tranquil sky blue water of the empty pools at night. The magic of Disney resorts is still there, in the foggy windows of a cab sitting between the Broadway buildings, or in the slow fade of colors as the Jazz icon changes from blue to green.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/1jazzguy.JPG


After checking out, I took the bus to MK, and then hopped the monorail over to the Polynesian- I needed to go “home”. The Polynesian is the first resort I ever stayed at, and it will always feel like home, even when I’m not staying there.

Instead of just going straight from MK to the Poly, I decided to hop off at the Contemporary for a look around. As many times as I’ve passed through the resort on the monorail, I’ve only set foot in there two or three times, so I wanted to do some exploring!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2contempmono.jpg

I went down to the gift shops, and I loved that one of the shops (sorry, not sure which!) had large windows with a really nice view!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2fromcontemp.jpg

I’m guessing that rooms on this side of the building would have a similar view?

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2contempshop1.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2contempmick.jpg

[WDW Poly Princess]

After sufficient wandering around, I hopped back on the monorail to the Polynesian.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2outlunch.jpg

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In the gift shop, I nearly fell over laughing when I saw that they had a turkey (emu!) leg dog toy! (The one in the middle, sorry it’s blurry!)

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I noticed that there were new light fixtures up throughout the main building- they were cute, but up close, they kind of looked like the designs had been drawn on in permanent marker:

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They’ve moved the Wyland gallery to where News from Civilization used to be. I stopped in to look around- the art here is always so beautiful! The paintings have this quality where the moonlight looks real.

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I wanted this turtle table for my house!

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I’m not sure if I can explain this so that it makes sense, but this painting was in the display window outside the shop, and the image you see in this photo is actually the reflection of the painting on the glass, which made it look like the image was just floating in air.

I was excited to check out the new Boutiki shop- I saw a few photos online before I left home, and it looked nice.

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I spent some time just wandering around the resort, drinking in the atmosphere. Man I love this place!

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My favorite building!

[WDW Poly Princess]

My main reason for visiting the Polynesian was to grab a Mickey rice krispy treat (breakfast of champions!) and just bliss out on the beach for a while. I’m sure this is probably the equivalent of pool hopping, but I needed some quality time at “home”!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2mickeyrice.jpg

Being shaped like Mickey makes it taste better.

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Can’t beat the view!

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Except that the view involves my ugly shoes!

I called my mom from the beach to see how things were going at home, and to check on the cats. Then I called Katie, and found out that she was on her way, so we made plans to meet up after she made it to MK.

While I was hanging out on the beach, I noticed a weird looking structure on the little island out in the lagoon. I used my camera zoom to check it out- it looks like some kind of watch tower, maybe? What do you think?

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2tower.jpg

As much as I love the Polynesian, I was itching to get into the park, so I wandered over to the boat dock to catch a boat to MK. Ready for a confession? Of all the times I’ve stayed at the Polynesian, I’ve never taken the boat to MK. I didn’t even know where the boat dock *was*. (There are signs pointing to it, thankfully. You can find it too!)

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2luausign.jpg

The signs look a lot like this, but you would want the one that says “boat dock”, not “luau cove”. Just wanted to make that clear.

There’s something about seeing the resorts from the water that makes them look extra-pretty.

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Even the giant toaster looks nice.

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(SorcererDonald16 requested some Contemporary photos in my request thread, and I aim to please!)

When I got to the MK, it took me a minute to figure out what was different about the entrance.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2trainstn.jpg

Thankfully WDW knows how many people take pictures of the entrance to MK, and instead of just slapping up some “this train station is being refurbished for your future enjoyment” walls, they did this!

Main Street is set up with the food on the right side and most of the shopping on the left, with the theory that people walk on their right side, and that they’re hungry when they come in the park, and ready to shop in their way out.

I laughed in the face of this theory and went over to the Emporium on the left side.

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Stitch stayed in the hotel room today (jet lag is harsh when you’re an alien), but I found his cousins at the Emporium

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Of course when I started taking pictures, they started dancing around, making it blurry!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2stitches2.jpg

[WDW Poly Princess]

I love how the MK entrance is set up like you’re going to a movie. First, you have the ticket counter and the turnstiles, then the “Coming Attractions” posters…

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2poster.jpg

Then you hit the popcorn and soda stands, and in front of you is the “red carpet”, that lovely red shade MK uses for the sidewalks:

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2horse.jpg

(I’m not really sure where the horse fits in to the whole thing.)

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Then, after you’ve made it past all of that (including the opening credits up on the windows), you come to the star of the show.

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I was expecting to hate all the gold, but I really didn’t. In fact, I wouldn’t mind some of it sticking around, if they at least take off the “magic mirror”. (Which is kind of neat on a temporary basis, but I don’t want it there forever.)

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2castlemirror.jpg

I took 30 photos of the castle, and originally had 15 set to go in the report, but then I remembered my bandwidth, decided it might be overkill, and narrowed it down to these:

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http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2castle7.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2castleback1.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2casdumbo.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2casdonald.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2pinnoch.jpg

(Yeah, not a castle photo, but where else would I put it?)

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2castle6.jpg

Look, a spire with no gold!

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Now, there’s this whole phenomenon when you first get to Disney where *everything* is just beautiful. Trash cans themed to the lands bring a tear to your eye. (Oh come on, you get mushy about the details, too!) Anyway, that is my explanation for this photo. The big bed of pink flowers was *really pretty*, okay?

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2flowers.jpg

I decided to walk up and through the castle, and on my way there, the cutest little girl danced her way in front of me.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2princess.jpg

This was one princess who was ready to get to the castle. I wanted to grab her hand and skip up the pathway with her, but people tend to frown upon total strangers skipping off with their kids. Instead, I went up to the front of the castle to take a picture of Main Street:

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2mainst2.jpg

It later occurred to me how many of those people down there were taking pictures of the castle, and therefore of me. If there’s a girl in a red shirt in your castle photos from November 27th, that’s me!

I love the shop inside the castle, simply because it’s inside the castle. I like their old selection of souvenirs better, but the art stuff they have now is neat, too. For instance, you can buy a statue of Stitch!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2stitchshop.jpg

I thought this Ariel statues was cute, too!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2shopariel.jpg

[WDW Poly Princess]

The mosaics in the castle are incredibly beautiful. I wish the walls of my house looked like this!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2mosaic3.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2mural1.jpg

I wish this next picture had turned out a little clearer, but it’s just an example of how much detail WDW puts into everything- this was on a column inside the castle:

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2incastle.jpg

This photo is simply to show how freaking crowded MK was today.

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Oh no! The strollers are multiplying!

I love how the buildings near the castle have a similar architectural style

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2fantbuilding.jpg

And this one is because flowers are way prettier at Disney World than they are at home. Shut up, they are!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2fantflowers.jpg

I knew Katie would be there soon, so I wandered around Fantasyland a little looking for a ride with a short enough wait time. Most of them were 30 minutes and up, but then I stumbled upon Pooh!

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Only 5 minutes! Score!


But then I took two steps to the left…

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Oops! A little longer than five minutes! Maybe I’ll just skip the whole ride idea and just take some more pictures!


Inside the Pooh shop I found heffalumps…

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2heffalump.jpg

And woozles!

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And look at the cute cash register!

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With time to kill, I took a few more pictures…

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Have you noticed the swords in the pavement over by where the Sword in the Stone is?

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Topiaries over by the teacups

[WDW Poly Princess]

I like how if you come upon the castle from this angle, it feels like you’ve just stumbled upon it in the forest.

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I seem to have gotten a little carried away taking pictures of Sir Mickey’s:

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Katie called to tell me she was in the park while I was over by the castle taking pictures of random flowers. I suggested we meet at the Partners statue, and asked if she knew it. She said she did, so I walked back down towards the hub. I waited at the statue for a few minutes, and then called her again.

“I’m at the statue!” she told me, “Where are you? Um, wait. Which statue did you want to meet at again?”

“The partners statue. I’m there!”

“Oh! I thought you said the bench statue!”

“Bench statue? Um, Katie, that’s not a statue. It’s an actual bench. Kindly step away so tired people can sit on it.”

“No, there really is a bench statue! I swear! Hang on, I’m taking a picture to prove it!”

“Tell ya what, can you see the Town Square Expo hall from there?”

“Yup!”

“There’s a Goofy on a bench outside. It’s another kind of bench statue! I’ll meet you there?”

This is what I look like when I’m walking down Main St to find Katie, hoping that she isn’t erecting some kind of plaque in front of the bench to honor it’s artistic value.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2crystalmainst.jpg

This is Katie’s photo of the “bench statue”.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2benchstat.jpg

Ohhhhhhh, *that* bench statue!

“You are both welcome and encouraged to make fun of my shoes”, I told Katie before she had a chance to notice the Crocs for herself.

“Oh my. Those are… something!”

“They’re comfortable!”

“They better be!”

We walked back up towards the castle, and then paused to figure out what we wanted to do. Well, the answer was obvious- we wanted to take pictures in front of the castle!

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The beautiful thing was that a random passerby saw us contorting our arms at odd angles, trying to take a picture of the two of us with the castle in the background, and stopped to offer to take the photo for us. Thanks, random passerby guy! We won’t even make fun of you for *cutting half the castle out of the photo*. Well, at least not much.

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(We obviously both got the memo that it was red shirt day.)

We also had some photos taken by the lovely Photopass people

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We decided to do Pirates first, but we are very easily distracted by shiny things (and short lines), and ended up on the Jungle Cruise instead. The guy at the front of the line struck up a conversation, and asked where we were from. When Katie said she was from near Orlando, this seemed to make Front of the Line guy happy, and as we got into the boat, he mimed “Call me!” to her, complete with cheesy finger-phone-to-ear gesture. And yes, we are one ride into this vacation (actually one LINE for one ride), and Katie is already picking up men. I’m so proud.

Our jungle cruise captain introduced himself as Safari Steve.

“Hey! I think I know him!” I whispered to Katie, who then gave me a look that said “We’re one ride into vacation, and you already see someone you know?”

We saw amazing things on our cruise, like elephants!

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And whatever this blurry photo was supposed to be a picture of! (Oooh, look, jungle cruise plants!)

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2jcplants.jpg

At the end of the ride, I asked So-Called Safari Steve if he was the Safari Steve from the Dis-boards.

“Nope, but I get asked that a lot!” was the reply. So, Safari Steve, just in case you didn’t know, there is an imposter Safari Steve out there! So-Called Safari Steve either needs to get a new nickname or sign up on the boards already!

As soon as we got out of the ride, Katie yelled “Hey! Is that elephant on fire?” and took off towards the fence. I’ve known Katie long enough to not find this particularly alarming. To her credit, she really did see both an elephant and fire:


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What I did find disturbing, however, were these random skulls:

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We discovered throughout the trip that Disney really likes to fill any empty terrain with random skulls. Just stay tuned, you’ll see!

There was some kind of bird (Don’t ask us, we aren’t botanists!) perched on the rail near the flaming elephant, so we decided to see who could be the best “wildlife photographer”. Here are the results:

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Katie’s shot

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2mybird.jpg

And mine

Yeah, we both suck. But check out this photo I took of Katie taking a photo of the wildlife!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2ktwildlife.jpg

[heaven2dc]

My sides hurt from laughing - your report is great!! :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Would love to bring you along on vacation - you'd fit right in with our "crazy" family - my daughter is our "photographer" and am showing her pics of your report, she has an eye for detail like you do. Can't wait for more reports!!

[swankybeth]

Great pictures, I just love all of the detail. Polynesian is my favorite resort too and now that I think about it, I don't think I've ever taken the boat to MK, just the monorail. Next time we stay there, I'm definitely doing the boat! :sunny:

[WDW Poly Princess]

My sides hurt from laughing - your report is great!! :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Would love to bring you along on vacation - you'd fit right in with our "crazy" family - my daughter is our "photographer" and am showing her pics of your report, she has an eye for detail like you do. Can't wait for more reports!!

Hey, I'll gladly go along! I'm easy to care for, don't eat much, and totally potty trained! ;)

[WDW Poly Princess]

Yeesh, we’re still on Day 2? This is becoming a novel!

When we last left our heros, they were now back on track to Pirates of the Caribbean.

“This is a ride?” Katie asked, in honor of every stupid Disney visitor who came before us.

“Nah, Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom are in that building in person to reenact the movie for us.”

We both stopped for a minute to gaze dreamy-eyed at the building, thinking just how beautiful that would be. Sorry for the thirty-seven stroller-pedestrian collisions I’m sure were caused by two people stopping suddenly in the middle of an Adventureland walkway. Depp and Bloom just have that kind of power.

Anyway, while zooming through the line to Pirates (because it was empty, not because we’re notorious line cutters), we came upon this little table and chairs. It was just sitting there in the line, with no apparent purpose that we could figure out. Maybe for when the line was hours long, people could have pizza delivered to their spot in line, and sit here to eat? Or so that random games of Texas Hold Em poker could be played in line? Or for very public baby diaper changings? Whatever it was for, we had to have a picture of it:

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2kttable.jpg

Pirates was the first ride of the trip to remind us that “no bad dancing is allowed”.

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I had actually had the foresight to e-mail Katie the lyrics to the song before the trip, so that we could study up and be fully prepared to sing along. I’m sure that the other people in the boat appreciated the effort we put into it.

At the end of the ride is, of course, a gift shop. In that gift shop, we did exactly what you are supposed to do in gift shops- play with the toys!

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Our next stop was the Haunted Mansion to pick up some hitchhiking ghosts, and mourn the loss of the bat they replaced in the queue area.

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I actually stopped to feel of the wall near the exit hallway- the rocks there are in fact fake! (See the “stupid overheard stuff at WDW” thread for an amusing story of a man who whacked his head into the wall after discovering this.)

As we were walking through the hallway that leads out, I think I scared a few people by yelling “Lizard!” and stopping suddenly. Hey, at least I didn’t yell anything about flaming elephants, okay? There was a little lizard crawling on the outside of the window, so that all that was visible from here was his little lizard shadow. He looked like a little lizard ghost! Unfortunately, I didn’t take a picture, so you’ll just have to trust me on the whole lizard ghost thing. (I saw about eight million lizards on this trip, and yes, I stopped and yelled “LIZARD!” with various amounts of pointing every time. You would think I’d never seen a reptile before.)

We wandered through Fantasyland and somehow ended up on It’s A Small World.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2smworld.jpg


Now with fresh glitter!

In the last room, we were both a little confused as to what country it was supposed to be (it’s the one with dolls from every country, where they’ve all come together). When we finally figured that out, I admitted that at first I thought it was the “We are from cold countries!” room, because of the color scheme.

So did Katie.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2smcold.jpg


We are from cold countries!

I wanted to point out the “Sa Wat De Krap” sign to Katie, but we couldn’t find it. Instead, we found something much better!

Ma’assalama! This became our new favorite word. I can’t break it up into separate words, or the moderators might kick me, but feel free to use it like this:

“I just bought these jeans, but they don’t fit anymore! Ma’assalama!”

In nice terms, we translate it as “My posterior region resembles a creature not unlike an alpaca.” Ma’assalama!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2maassalama.jpg


(I should point out that Katie took the Ma’assalama picture- that’s why you can see my camera in it. My pictures turned out all fuzzy. This is making me seriously doubt my skillz as a photographer.)

If you’ve ever noticed the little bridge that goes over the ride at the entrance, you’ll know that there’s a CM sitting up there that controls things (or maybe just sits up there?). Either way, ours was the spitting image of Britney Spears (except I’m pretty sure she was wearing shoes). I tried to take a sly picture of her as I got out of the boat, but this is how that turned out:

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2britney.jpg


I guess you’ll just have to trust me on the whole Britney thing, too.

We stopped in Tinkerbell’s Treasures, where I tried to show Katie the Tink in the dresser. Guess what? It was just dark in there. I tried to take a photo, but…. Well, you can probably guess by now:

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You people who have posted the pictures of Tink in the keyhole—How did you DO that? I am in awe of you. Know that.

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http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2peterpan.jpg

How great is it that this CM gets to work with Peter Pan?

It was now after 3:30, which meant two things: 1) we were getting cranky and needed a nap, and 2) It was now late enough to go check in at OKW!

We hopped on the bus from MK to OKW, and little did we know we were in for a long ride! We had no idea which bus stop we needed, and the trip around the resort seemed to take forever! At each stop we would crane our necks around looking for something that resembled a place where we would check in. When we finally found the stop we needed, the line to check in was huge! It took about an hour total between when we pulled into the resort and when I finally had my keys.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2okwline.jpg


Voila, the long check-in line. Given that I work front desk (and am in fact typing this up at work because we have, I kid you not, four rooms rented tonight), that line freaked me out. “Those poor front desk people!” I kept saying, now feeling really guilty for forgetting to buy candy for them.

After getting checked in, we checked to see if Goods had cheesecake (they didn’t. I was seriously craving cheesecake today!) and then went to the bus stop to wait for a bus that would take us to the other side of the resort (My reservation had listed a bunch of different building numbers within walking distance of the hospitality house. The girl at check-in squinted for a while and then asked if being on 3rd floor was important. Nope! I’ll take whatever floor as long as I can be near here, since I have no car. She squinted at the computer some more, did some scrolling, and then asked if a smoking room would be okay. Nope, Katie and I both have asthma, so a smoking room was out. She didn’t ask any more questions, so I assumed that she found something close, but I when she showed me the building location on the map, it was almost as far away as you could get!)

As we walked out to the bus stop, I spotted my bags sitting in a pile near Bell Services, under a sign that said “C”. Um, shouldn’t those be filed under my *last* name, not my first? And hey, isn’t it kind of weird that they have all of these bags just sitting out? They didn’t really appear to be watched at all (although knowing Disney they had eighty secret cast members guarding them silently). I waved to my bags, just in case I never saw them again, and then stopped by the bell services desk to ask if they could drop them off in my room.

After waiting a few minutes for the internal resort bus, I asked Katie if she wanted to just go straight to Epcot. We figured that by the time we got an internal bus, found the room, got settled in, and then got back to the bus stop, it would be at least seventy three hours later, so if we wanted to get to Epcot sometime today, we should probably just go now. The bus gods must have smiled upon this decision, because an Epcot bus appeared shortly after. However, in the short time we were waiting, we were lucky enough to bear witness to some great wisdom. A little girl was playing at the bus stop, and started trying to take her dress off. Her mom came over and said “Okay, remember rule #1? We don’t take our clothes off!” We decided that sounded like a good rule, and adopted it as our rule #1 for the day as well.

On the bus to Epcot, we were treated to the entertainment of a little girl around the age of 5 who was singing every Disney song she knew. Very cute!

We started our Epcot night by hopping on SSE, and then heading over to Innoventions East to send some internet postcards. Somehow the part where it takes your picture came before we were ready, so the photo ended up being of Katie not in it (she jumped out of the way), and me looking over at her and laughing, totally confused by her behavior.

I won’t point out what it looks like I am doing to the manatee in this photo.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2postcard.jpg

The next one turned out slightly better

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2KTCrystal.jpg


Our next stop was the Land, where I was still in search of cheesecake, and Katie was in search of real food. Nothing sounded good at the time, so we checked the Soarin wait (60 min) The fastpasses were already gone for the day (It was 6pm), so we put it on our “to do later” list.

I was glad to see that the balloons were back, even though they’d been through a bit of a makeover. (On my last trip, they had been in the midst of building Soarin, and the balloons were gone! The ceiling had looked so empty without them!)

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2landballoons.jpg

I don’t know about you, but I’m not a big fan of the new look here. Before it was so peaceful, with the fountain and the prettiness! Now, it looks like this:

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2land1.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2land2.jpg

[WDW Poly Princess]

Since Soarin was out of the question for now, we decided to start our tour of the World Showcase.

“Oh! Wow! They have McNuggets!” Katie exclaimed as we passed the McDonalds stand at the Showcase entrance.

“You’re a big McNugget fan?” It was an awful lot of excitement for chicken.

“Actually, I don’t like them much. I have no idea why I got that excited.”

Ten minutes later, Katie decided she wanted some McNuggets, so we went back to buy them. My main theory right now is that McDonalds uses some kind of subliminal message to convince perfectly normal people that they want McNuggets, even when they are standing in a showcase of really good food from around the world.

We wandered through Canada, saying “eeh?” a lot, and then went into the toy store in the UK. It was in this store that we saw two very good looking men. We did what any normal girl would do and… tried to take pictures of them without them noticing.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2cuteboys.jpg

“I think we just crossed some kind of line,” I said to Katie with shame after clicking the camera button.

“Hey, it’s only wrong if you get caught.” Words to live by- this became rule #2. (We added a rule #3 later that day, but we both managed to forget what it was by the end of the day, and we never did remember it.) We gave up man watching and instead amused ourselves with the books.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2books.jpg


http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2book1.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2book2.jpg


Our next stop was to go visit our beloved “botany garden”. If you read my last trip report, you hopefully already get the joke, but if you didn’t, you can either go here (http://www.lovemanythings.net/WDW04/index04.html) and read the report, or go here (http://www.lovemanythings.net/WDW04/part11.html) and read just the botany day, or just smile and nod and pretend you understand. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

(insert jeopardy music here.)

Oh, fine, I’ll summarize for the truly lazy amongst you. We were sitting in the little garden in the UK trying to figure out what the different herbs were. After a series of questions like “Do you think this is dill? Hey, is that parsley?” I asked Katie if she thought we could get back into the tea shop through that door. Her response? “I don’t know, I’m not a botanist!”


http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2uknotbot.jpg

Katie’s “I don’t know, I’m not a botanist!” face.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2ukme.jpg

I am blinded by the beauty of botany!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2ktbotany.jpg

Katie ponders the botany

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2cbotany.jpg

And so do I. Hummm, botany.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2uk1.jpg

I have absolutely no explanation for this photo other than that botany sometimes makes you giddy.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2uk2.jpg
“And here we have a lovely example of botany!”

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2uk5.jpg

Again, I have no explanation.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2uk3.jpg


http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2uk4.jpg

The famous door we could in fact get back to the tea shop through.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2ktdoor.jpg


After getting our fill of botany, we walked over to France. Is it just me, or aren’t there supposed to be more lights here?

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2france.jpg


http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2francekt.jpg


This is what happens when you try to take a picture of the scenery, and Katie thinks she should be in it. (In fact, Katie became so well trained that whenever I would stop and say “I’m going to stop and take a pictures!” she would pose. It became Pavlovian, really.)

We went to the Boulangerie Patissirie, where I got chocolate mousse, and Katie got hot chocolate. It was here that I discovered that the rumors were true- the silverware at WDW *IS* now all black! The horror!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2mousse.jpg

But it still helps you eat mousse, so I guess all black silverware is acceptable.


We followed the signs to “additional seating” which led to the France shop. How weird! I’ve been in this shop a million times before, and never noticed there was seating.

There is also this sculpture!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2statuefr.jpg


Just after we sat down, Katie took a big sip of her hot chocolate, and then made a face. I didn’t know at the time, but this was the “Oh my gosh this is REALLY hot, should I spit it out and look like a freak, or swallow it and burn my mouth?” face. It’s possible that her tongue still hurts. Be warned- the hot chocolate is HOT!

“Hey,” I asked, after pondering the sculpture for a while, “What’s that big hunk of goop next to the sculpture?”

“Um, clay?” Katie guessed.

“But why would you have clay if you are making that kind of sculpture?”

We never did figure it out.

[WDW Poly Princess]

The mousse was too rich for me to eat much of, but instead of waste it, I got a bag to stick it in. Katie said that I was going to be one of those old ladies who carries ziplock bags to buffets. If all of the food stashing I did on this trip is any indication, I should start stocking up on plastic bags and roomy purses now.

If you ever took geography, you know that if you have just walked through France, you will inevitably run into Morocco. Thus, that’s where we now were.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2fez.jpg

“Look! You can tell by my hat that we are in Morocco!”

I heard drumming, so we followed it to see where it was coming from, and found that the people working at the kidcot station were amusing themselves by playing the drums and talking guests into dancing- fun!

We kept wandering around Morocco, but the sounds of live drumming kept drawing me back. Apparently I’ve been conditioned! Of course when the guys working there would ask if I wanted to dance, I couldn’t- For some reason I’m great at doing choreographed stuff, but when it comes to improvising, somehow everything I know flies out the window!

Since we were spending so much time in the pavilion, we ended up talking to one of the CMs who worked there, and another who was off work and waiting for the first to finish up. (We’ll call the guy Joe to protect the innocent.) They told us that Joe would be getting off work in about 20 minutes, and invited us to go hang out in the Showcase with them. How often do you get to hang out with people from Morocco? Not too often if you’re us! We decided to walk around for a while, and told them we’d be back by the time he was finished.

After some wandering, Katie decided that she was going to die of thirst, so we went over to the Tangerine Café to grab a coke. As we were walking out that way (it’s outside the “gates” of Morocco, back towards the lagoon), we saw Joe and his friend wave at us, and considered running back to tell them that we weren’t leaving, just getting a drink, but figured they’d see us go in the restaurant. Of course, as luck goes, when we went back to where they had been, they were gone! We asked the guy who was now working if he was gone.

“Gone? Yeah, he’s gone. Joe is dead.” Um, I think something was lost in the translation. You? Anyway, we figured out after a little more conversation with the guy that Joe had already left. We felt really bad, since we were sure he thought we had abandoned them! We waited around for a few minutes, just in case he was just off changing clothes, but we never saw him. We decided to just head off around the world, and keep an eye out for them as we went.

We were mostly just walking along around the lagoon, occasionally stopping in a shop, but mostly just making a quick loop, since we were getting tired, and ready to call it a day. As we were walking through America, all of the Candlelight Processional singers were walking into the theater. They come from one side of the walkway, and cross over, which means that if you get there at the wrong time, as we had, you have to wait while 300 people walk in front of you- it looked like a never-ending line coming from backstage!

Over in China, we had to stop for pictures with “Party Buddha”. That made me miss Nate (Aerobics on the DIS and Passporter boards), since we haven’t vacationed at the same time in years, and it was with him that I originally developed my friendship with Party Buddha. I couldn’t miss him too long, though, because it’s impossible to be unhappy when you’re hanging out with Party Buddha. You have to throw your arms in the air and way “woohoo!” It’s the law.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2cbuddha.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2ktbuddha.jpg

We have a rule that even if you’re just breezing through the showcase on your way out, you have to stop in Norway. There are very pretty men in Norway. It is not allowed to just walk past. Also, when walking around in Norway, you can’t help but recite “You are not the first to pass this way…nor will you be the last.” The only problem was that when Katie said it, she sounded like the Maelstrom narrator, but when I said it, I sounded like the Swedish Chef.

I’m pretty sure that this was supposed to be a photo of a good looking Norway CM. Why are none of my “cute boy” pictures turning out?

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2norwayhuh.jpg

I had no idea where we took this next picture until I looked at the info for the files (My camera is nice enough to tell you what time and date each picture was taken! So handy!) With a little detective work, I figured out that we took them while we were being held captive…err… while we were waiting to get out of the holding area in Norway! (I’m pretty sure they broadcast subliminal “You want to stay for the movie!” messages while they’re keeping you in there.)

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2norway3.jpg

Let’s throw in some pictures of strangers enjoying Norway while we’re at it!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2norway2.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2norway1.jpg

As soon as the doors to the movie theater opened, we scurried through and back out into the free world, where we then made a right and set off for Mexico.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2mexftn.jpg

I have been obsessing over those cool wood sculptures in Mexico for a whole year now. I gaze at my pictures from last year and kick myself for not buying one. This year I actually set aside a $40 budget to buy one with. So, Katie waited patiently as I spent fourteen hours examining them:

I was particularly fond of this horse-unicorn-pegasus type one

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2carving1.jpg

The zebra was cute, too.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2carving2.jpg

Oh no, they were all cute!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2carvings.jpg

I decided to think about it for a while, and come back to buy one another day. So, we hopped on the Mexico boat ride, something we would do a countless number of times on this trip.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2volcanomex.jpg

We got a weird boat made to accommodate a wheelchair, though, so Katie and I were separated by a big wide aisle, which meant we had to yell our snarky comments back and forth. Snarky comments just aren’t as funny when you can’t use your inside voice and make them under your breath!

We momentarily considered staying for Illuminations, but then decided we were much too tired, so we called it a night. Katie drove home, and I took the bus over to OKW to finally see my room.

Now I am a smart girl, but OKW confused the heck outta me. I got off at the right bus stop, and kept following the signs that pointed towards my building number. Just finding the right building took about ten minutes, but to my credit it was dark, and I had never been there before! Now you would think that once I found the right building, finding my room would be easy, right? Hah! Now if you are at PO-R or All Stars, for example, once you find your building, you can then take the elevator or stairs to your floor, and find your room from there. Each building at OKW is broken up, however, an each staircase leads up to only two rooms! So I would climb a staircase, get up to the second floor, and find that I couldn’t get to my room that way! After about two staircases, I discovered the signs that told you which rooms were upstairs. Ohhhh! I located the 4225/4226 staircase, and from there finding my room was much easier!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2okwdoor.jpg

(pssst! It’s this one!)

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2number.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2welcome.jpg

It was awfully dark out, so I couldn’t really tell what I had a view of, but it looked like it might be cool:

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2okwview.jpg

I noticed that my bags were not in my room, so I called bell services, who said they would bring them right up. Oh yay, they hadn’t been stolen! While I was waiting for them to arrive, I took a few pictures of the room:

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2okw2.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2okw3.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2okw1.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2okw6.jpg

the little kitchenette

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2okw5.jpg

and the closet

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/2okw4.jpg

The man who delivered my bags told me that the strap on the laptop bag was broken when it got there, and I assured him that it had broken days before, which made him look relieved that I wasn’t about to yell at him. (Given that I work in a hotel, I know that he must have been expecting me to be mad, since I’ve been yelled at by hotel guests for every circumstance you can imagine!) I gave the relieved kid a few dollars, turned the TV on to watch Grey’s Anatomy, and pulled my leftover chocolate mousse out of my bag. (For the record, chocolate mousse travels well! It just sticks to the inside of the cup where it belongs. Good to know for the future!)

I was amazed when I took off my shoes and saw my little toe- there was a blister so big that my toe had doubled in size! You mean I wore ugly shoes all day and still got a blister? Unfair!

Day 2 Summary:
Number of Photos Taken: 325
Number of videos taken: 15
Number of new international friends made, and possibly offended: 2

[declansdad]

your reports are killing me! :rotfl2:


Keep'um coming.

[Cinerama]

M'assaslama since I've eaten about 300 Christmas cookies in the last 3 days.
Keep the reports coming..... :rotfl:

[MichelleVW]

Girl you are too funny!!! :rotfl2: I am seriously cracking up over your trip report...probably because you and your friend sound so much like me and my best friend. We come up with rules and laugh over silly stuff too...I love all the pictures in your reports too.

keep the reports coming!!!

[Velsignet]

I won’t point out what it looks like I am doing to the manatee in this photo.


...and I won't point out that it's NOT a manatee! Heheh. I know, I know, you're not a botanist.

(Guess who joined the DISboards so I can make snarky comments about the trip report! Hooray!)


Katie

[WDW Poly Princess]

[I](Guess who joined the DISboards so I can make snarky comments about the trip report! Hooray!)

Hooray! It's always good to have a partner in crime!

Day 3 is coming along slowly! Soon work will be closed for the winter, and I'll have tons of time to write (and contemplate the wonders of unemployment!)

[fizz13]

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

I have an asthma attack from laughing so hard at your report (don't worry, my medication is with me at all times). Just when WDW thought they had politically corrected IASW you found a flaw :rotfl2: .

Fantastic trip report, will be looking out for more, especially now there are two of you to write it. Welcome to the DIS Katie!!

Claire xx

[Alysa]

cute report - love it!

[swankybeth]

Great report, really looking forward to more. Welcome, Katie, feel free to post many snarky comments! ;)

[tazz23]

:goodvibes one of the best trip reports ive read in ages! Love the comments and the silly photos :teeth: can't wait to read more!

[Velsignet]

I have been obsessing over those cool wood sculptures in Mexico for a whole year now. I gaze at my pictures from last year and kick myself for not buying one. This year I actually set aside a $40 budget to buy one with. So, Katie waited patiently as I spent fourteen hours examining them...

Nah, it wasn't fourteen. More like thirteen. :rolleyes1

So Crystal, which one did you end up buying this time?


It's Peanut Butter Jelly Time! :banana:

[WDW Poly Princess]

Hey guys!

Sorry for any technical difficulties with the pictures the last couple of days- my web site host has this charming habit of shutting me down when I hit 80% of my bandwidth, which happened on the 31st. It should have come back up on the 1st, but it doesn't look like it has yet! Hopefully soon!

And Katie, I am expecting that $250 dragon carving as a late Christmas present! I will call it... "Go-zirra!"

[wilma-bride]

What a fantastic report - funny, detailed and your photos are amazing. You pick up on so much detail that the rest of us miss by rushing around, trying to ride as many rides as possible. What a shame none of your 'cute guy' photos turned out though - are you sure you didn't imagine them ;)

Your cats are gorgeous, by the way :)

[WDW Poly Princess]

Sorry for the delay! Let’s get this show back on the road!

Day 3

Today started out with a lazy kind of morning. Mickey called at 9, but then I laid around in bed for about half an hour, before finally getting up and dressed. I considered going up to Goods for breakfast, but I just wasn’t up for a bus ride yet, so I checked the Turtle Shack, since it was right near my building, but it was closed.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3turtleshack.jpg

Ha ha, no snacks for you, suckers!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3okwpool.jpg

There were a few light drops of rain coming down, so I retreated back to my room. Katie called and said she would be out about noon, so I spent the next two hours hanging out, uploading photos, checking my e-mail (I had housekeeping bring up an Ethernet cable), and watching The Price Is Right. I also spent some time amusing myself by calling Mom and sending her pictures through e-mail while we talked. I love having my computer on vacation!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3stitchonline.jpg

Stitch checks his thread on the theme park board for any new requests.


Hanging out in the room, I discovered that OKW has HUGE peepholes for peering outside! Normal hotel rooms have ones a little smaller than a dime, but these were larger than a quarter! It was so big I was able to take photos through it!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3peephole.jpg

Now that it was daylight, I was able to actually see the view from my balcony- not bad!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3okwview2.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3okwview.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3okwstitch.jpg

Katie arrived a little after 12:30, and we hopped the bus to Animal Kingdom.

I stopped to see the black swan that had been bathing yesterday when I tried to take his picture, and today he was napping.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3akswan.jpg

The rain started pouring as soon as we got past the oasis and into the park, so we ducked into a shop to try to get as close to Pizzafari as we could without going outside. (We were starving, and needed pizza!) We decided to kill some time in there playing with the hats


http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3hats1.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3hats2.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3hats5.jpg

“This is my serious adventurer hat.”

We made it to Pizzafari without drowning (amazingly!), and really liked the decorations inside.


http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3pizzafari1.jpg

Katie “swims with the fishes”

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3pizzafari4.jpg

The pizza here was different from any other WDW pizza I’ve seen. We split a cheese one, which worked perfectly.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3pizza.jpg

When we finished eating, it was still raining pretty hard, so we scurried over to Tough to Be a Bug, dodging raindrops on our way. “Drowning in the rain and jumping over puddles isn’t bad, it’s just an adventure!” We hummed the Adventurer’s Club theme song as we forded streams and tried not to think about what our hair looked like soaking wet. Instead, we swam..err..walked… through the trails into the tree, which was blissfully dry inside!

(Um, did I mention it was raining today? In fact, here's Katie's take on the day: "I've been dredging my brain for Day 3 memories, and here's all I came up with: IT RAINED. A LOT.")

We posed for the required Bug Glasses Photos, and made Stitch do the same thing.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3bug2.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3bug1.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3stitchtree.jpg

By the time we got out of the show, the rain had let up, so we made our way over to Asia, stopping to Oooh and Ahh over the distant Everest.


http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3akboat.jpg

This is not a mountain, but it is still pretty!

[WDW Poly Princess]

Over in Asia, we decided to become adventurous jungle explorers, and do the Maharajah Jungle Trek. You can tell we were adventurers by our adventurous photos (and the hidden flasks of Kungaloosh!)

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3ktadventure.jpg

“Look at the adventure I am having with this bamboo!”

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3cadventure.jpg

“Wow, look what I discovered!”


As we trekked deeper into this adventurous Asian forest, we came upon this thing.

We still don’t really know what he was. We invited him to join us on our adventure, but he was apparently not the adventurous sort.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3animal.jpg

Who am I? What am I? Such deep questions.

Through the bat room (Love them!) and down to the tigers.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3bat.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3maharajah2.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3maharajah1.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3tigers.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3tigers2.jpg

Why do the tigers appear to be grazing?

While we were watching the tigers, Katie suddenly poked me and pointed discreetly, looking all excited. At first I expected that she was pointing to some cool animal she had spotted, but nope, she was pointing to a nun who was walking down the path. “We have a sister!” (Katie and I decided a while back that maybe we should just give up on dating and join a convent. Our plan is to be cool nuns with a convent built in Epcot, where we will study botany. You have your dreams, we have ours!) We kind of wanted to follow the nun around and see what kind of good things she was off doing today, and maybe pick up a few pointers, but we have a really short attention span, so we just went back to watching the animals.

I can’t remember what these guys were called, but the dark brown one is the only male in a herd of 15 females. We named him the Pimp Deer.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3derpimp.jpg

“Check out all my honeys, yo.”

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3moo.jpg

Do you think he says Moo, too?

We followed the new path all the way out towards Everest to get a closer look:

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3everest1.jpg

Hello, I am a mountain. You can call me Everest.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3everestkt.jpg

Hi, I am Katie, and this is a mountain!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3useverest.jpg

Look, us with a mountain!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3everest3.jpg

Look at how the shape of the altar mirrors the shape of Everest! Nifty!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3meeverest2.jpg

We decided to call it a day at AK and go over to Epcot. That part coming soon!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3tree2.jpg

[WDW Poly Princess]

Around 3pm, we decided to hop a bus over to Epcot.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3ep1.jpg

We hurried over to Soarin, hoping for fast passes, but they were already gone for the day. Good thing I still had almost a week left!

We ventured into the Living Seas, hoping to go see Crush, but the line was huge! So, instead we watched the sting ray feeding that was going on. The CM said that the rays had been trained to come up and touch their nose to a red cup that the person in the water was holding in order to get their piece of food. This was supposed to teach them that they were only being fed if they touched a red cup, and therefore keep them from swarming around just anyone who was in the water and expecting food. I never knew sting rays were smart enough to be trained like that!

Next we went back over to Innoventions to send ourselves more internet postcards.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3pc5.jpg

Gotta get stitch in the picture!

We tried to get one with Stitch flying through the air…

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3pc3.jpg

…but the camera obviously doesn’t do well with movement! Now that we knew that…

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3pc4.jpg

We were both starting to get hungry again, but couldn’t decide what we wanted to eat, so we decided to just start our way around the Showcase, and stop when we found something that looked good.

In Mexico, I stopped to check out the carvings again, still trying to decide which one I wanted. I want them all!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3carvings5.jpg

I was in love with this dragon, but he was $250!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3carvings3.jpg

I love the little baby opossums hanging from the mom!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3carvings2.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3carvings4.jpg

With the CM who was painting them. She said it takes about 5 hours to paint an average one.


These next two weren’t for sale, just in a display case. I love them, though!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3carvings6.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3carvings7.jpg

Grrrrr! I am a big green dragonish thing! Fear me!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3mexico2.jpg

“Hola!”

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3mexico1.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3piniatas.jpg


Over in Norway, we went into the bakery to search for food, and found some amazing looking strawberry cheesecake!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3cheesecake.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3bakery.jpg

Some of the other offerings inside Kringala bakery

We sat outside to eat the cheesecake (YUM!), and then did some more exploring in Norway.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3stave.jpg

They’ve changed the exhibit inside the stave church to one about Vikings.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3vikings.jpg

Diet coke: the official beverage of Vikings everywhere.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3ctroll.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3norwaykt.jpg

What’s up with this mannequin’s pose?

Up next, China!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3china.jpg

We found some really pretty fans on a cart outside the shop

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3fans.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3fan.jpg

China now has some lucky cats similar to the ones in Japan

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3chinacat.jpg

[MaMa3Princess]

Your trip report is wonderful. I really loved looking at your pictures, makes me wonder if I will ever get to slow down and see so many details once our kids are older. Keep them coming your amazing details have given me my trip fix.

[WDW Poly Princess]

It was starting to look like it might rain, but luckily it was still holding out. We took the opportunity to take a few pictures in Italy

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3italyc2.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3italykt.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3italyc.jpg

Oh yeah, check out those sexy shoes. The fish look all "Grr! Why aren't we on top of a hotel?"

Over in Morocco, we met up with “Joe”, the CM we had met the night before. We all apologized for missing each other the night before, since we had thought it was our fault, and he thought it was his! He said he was working until 6:30, and it was 5:45 now, so we decided to finish up our World Showcasing, and then come back to meet him.

First, we killed some time in Morocco:

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3moroccocrys.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3moroccokt.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3habibi.jpg

Katie kept picking up this book every time we were in Morocco- I think she read it about three times over the course of the week. Who doesn’t love stories about camels?

Over in the UK, I found another example of how Disney seems to be obsessed with sticking lots of skulls in random places. Why are there skulls over the kidcot station??

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3skuls.jpg


Okay, this next picture requires a whole story.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3rachelfire.jpg

A while back, Katie came to the Food & Wine festival with some friends. The key word there is probably “wine.” They were watching Illuminations when her friend Rachel started spinning around really fast and flailing her arms. Drawing from logic (and wine), Katie assumed that a spark from the fireworks must have hit her, and Rachel was on fire! So, everyone starts freaking out, but it turns out that there was just a bug after her. Therefore, every time we pass this spot, Katie has to stop and point out, “This is where Rachel caught on fire!”

You have your WDW landmarks, we have ours. In fact, we would be adding another landmark to the list later tonight, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

We went back over to Morocco, and just as we made it there, the skies opened up, and rain of biblical proportions started coming down. We met up with Joe, and tried to decide what to do, since just wandering around the Showcase wouldn’t work, unless maybe we built an ark. So, instead, we sat inside the Fez house, under the little part with a roof, and just talked for a while. We spent probably close to an hour just sitting around discussing the “how long have you been here”, “what do you do at home”, “what’s it like to work here” “how did you end up working here?” stuff, and Joe asked about us- we learned later that he has a really good memory- he remembered details we mentioned even days later.

(On a slightly out of order note, when we had been talking to some of the other CM’s in Morocco, Katie explained to one that she works as a children’s librarian, reading books to kids. The CM then told someone else that “This is Katie, she is a babysitter!” Um, close? Also, everyone seemed to have trouble with my name- they got Katie, but Crystal just didn’t translate somehow. Well, except for one CM, who said “Oh, Crystal! That is like my girlfriend in Texas!” Thus, I was introduced as “Crystal, like my girlfriend in Texas!” to several people.)

When the rain still hadn’t let up ages later, we went into the museum area in Morocco (can’t think of the name! Gallery something?) and Joe told us about the things they had on display there. Who needs the Hidden World Showcase tour when you can have your own private guided tour?

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3moroccokt2.jpg

Katie in the museum type place

If you look around the door in the picture above, you’ll notice the carved details. The whole building is full of amazingly beautiful carved details like this- here’s a close up:

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3morocco1.jpg

And yup, it was all hand-carved by people the King sent over!

The rain had *finally* stopped, so we wandered around for a while. We stopped in a few countries, and Joe introduced us to friends he had working there. In Italy, we had a somewhat surreal moment of Joe and his Italian friend having a conversation in French. Talk about multicultural! (Turns out Joe speaks Arabic, English, French, Italian, and German, if I remember correctly. Katie asked him if he was actually fluent in them, and he said “Well, not German.” Slacker!)

Just before Illuminations, we found a spot to watch it from in either Germany or Italy (I think it was Germany?) As we were standing there waiting for the show to start, I noticed that our torch wasn’t working. I mentioned it, and Joe said “Oh, no, it will come on later, it’s for suspense!” Um, okay! So, later in the show, he leans over and says “Hey, Crystal! Watch the torch!” Of course at that point, every other torch around the lagoon lights up, but ours doesn’t. “Oh. I guess it’s broken!” Torch #7, we love you, even if you don’t work!

We said our goodbyes (and took a picture of the three of us that turned out so very awful), and Joe got Katie’s number so we could try to meet up again. Katie was parked at Epcot, so she drove home from there, and I hopped on a bus back to OKW, where Stitch volunteered to clean up, since you only get housekeeping every four days there.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/3stitchdishes.jpg

Day 3 Wrap-Up:

Number of Photos taken today: 138
Nuns spotted: 1
Animals seen eating other animals: None! Yay!
Number of times we’ve made it on Soarin so far: 0! How sad!

[Grammyof2]

Loving the report. I really agree with rule #1. :rotfl2: I always try to follow it whenever I travel.

[VanniGirl]

Can't wait for more!!

[Velsignet]

On a slightly out of order note, when we had been talking to some of the other CM’s in Morocco, Katie explained to one that she works as a children’s librarian, reading books to kids. The CM then told someone else that “This is Katie, she is a babysitter!” Um, close? Also, everyone seemed to have trouble with my name- they got Katie, but Crystal just didn’t translate somehow. Well, except for one CM, who said “Oh, Crystal! That is like my girlfriend in Texas!” Thus, I was introduced as “Crystal, like my girlfriend in Texas!” to several people.

Wow, I'd actually forgotten about that! That was pretty funny!

[Philadisney]

your report is magical! and so are your pictures! hooray!
i bought the same exact blue crocs for my trip in may. i hope yours did not give you anymore blisters! eeek.

[snubie]

We are all patiently waiting for more. Please don't make me beg.

[Christina1]

*bump*....please post more!!!

[WDW Poly Princess]

Day 4- November 29, 2005

For the first time ever on vacation, I slept in till 11am!

After lazing around the room for a while, I went out to the hot tub for a few minutes. It was sprinkling a little bit of rain on and off, but I got the impression from how soaked everything was that it was mostly over now. Back in the room, I changed clothes, packed up my backpack, and was ready to go!

Now, I don’t know about you, but after five previous WDW trips, I have about ten photos of MGM total. I don’t know why exactly, but I never seem to take any pictures there! Therefore, I set a goal of 200 MGM pictures for this trip.

Sometimes MGM makes me a little bit sad, because it’s the one park I think my dad would have enjoyed. He spent most of his early twenties in Hollywood pursuiting acting, and given that this was in the mid 40’s, it’s probably the time when Hollywood was closest to the “Hollywood that never was” that’s portrayed at MGM. My dad also had a thing for antique cars, which are all over the park. I’d always snap pictures of them to show him when I got back, and he would stop at each one and talk about the year it was made, the one like it he had, and so on. Miss ya, dad!

I took the bus out to MGM, and got there around 12:45.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4entrance.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4tree.jpg


After a quick stop in the first shop for some postcards (the theory being that I could write them while I ate lunch), I went over to Pizza Planet for a pepperoni pizza. I used to LOVE pizza planet’s pizza- it was always overflowing with cheese, and just plain yummy (although from what I’ve seen on the boards, it was a love it or hate it thing), but the pizza I got today was just like what I got at Pizzafari yesterday. Good, but not what I had been in the mood for. I couldn’t believe how busy Pizza Planet was! Usually when I go upstairs to the upper level to eat, there is nobody there, or maybe one or two tables full. Today, almost every table upstairs was full! I found a seat where I could watch the people below in the arcade playing Dance Dance Revolution and air hockey.

Since Muppet Vision 3D was so close, I decided to go there next.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4muppetsign.jpg

I love this show- although the 3D effects aren’t as good as in the other 3D movies, I think this one appeals to the largest audience, and there isn’t anything in it that makes the kids scared, which is always a plus. I love the store of Muppet store when you exit- it’s full of signs that say things like “Why are you looking here?” and “Chickens only beyond this point”. Also, for a reason I cant quite figure out, it is made to look like a hotel- I felt so at home!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4muppetstuff.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4wetpaint.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4hotelstore.jpg

Think those rooms are DVC?

I wandered up New York Street- this is one of my favorite parts of the park because there isn’t really anything here other than theming. Almost everyone just passes by, but if you stop and look closely, there is so much to see.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4decorated.jpg

Even the decorations were decorated!

The displays in the windows on NY street are constantly changing, as if little businesses are opening and closing in between your trips. What a fun job it must be to update them! Here’s one that caught my eye:

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4window.jpg

And of course if you start walking in New York, and just keep going, sooner or later you’re going to end up in San Francisco!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4sf.jpg

Close-up of the San Fran mural:

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4sf2.jpg

Writer’s Stop was just around the corner, so I decided to stop in and check out what they had. I was ready to kill for caffeine at this point, so I bought an iced cappuccino, hoping it would be a suitable substitute for my beloved Starbucks frappuccino. The caffeine did its job, but it was nowhere near as yummy- it tasted just like cold watered down coffee. The accompanying chocolate chip cookie I bought was really good, though, and big! I only ate a few bites, and stuck the rest in my bag for later.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4coffeecookie.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4writers.jpg

Next stop was Tatooine Traders, or Nerd Heaven, as I like to call it. I was hoping to find some cool Twi’lek stuff, since my character in Star Wars Galaxies is a Twilek. I didn’t find anything, but there was a Twi option at the booth where they put your face on the body of on of the characters. (Might have to come back for that on a day when I actually have makup on!) I saw a Star Wars shirt I’m considering buying, a great Darth Vader Who’s Your Daddy?” bumper sticker, a book about the costumes of Star Wars that I was afraid to look at the price of, and astronaut ice cream, which is my favorite thing to buy that (must go back for it later!)

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4tatsign.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4tattoine.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4yoda.jpg

Love Yoda I do!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4jedi.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4tattoine2.jpg

I took this photo because the guy working the entrance looked like Joss Whedon.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4joss.jpg

More coming soon!

[DisneyDreamer2]

Wonderful reports! I love them. Thank You!

[WDW Poly Princess]

I wandered around the park just exploring and taking photos for a while. I found it particularly funny that the local birds seem to have chosen Dinosaur Gertie as a favorite place to perch.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4bird.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4gertie2.jpg

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Can’t blame the birds- Gertie is just cool in general!

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http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4gertie1.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4gertiesign.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4footprints.jpg

Gertie’s footprints leading over to her spot in the lake

I decided to break up my “wandering around not really doing anything” with a stop inside One Man’s Dream. Last time I was in here (right after it first opened), I got yelled at by a CM when I pulled out my camera (I never saw any no photography signs!) I still didn’t see anything saying there was no photography, but I was still afraid someone would yell at me again, so I tried to be all sly taking pictures, which explains the slight blurriness.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4omd3.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4omd5.jpg

Hey, look, some place called Disney World opened!

Just after I got into the area by the movie theater, the CM said that it was the last call for the movie, so I had to decide between getting in with no wait, or having lots of time to look around- I obviously went with the looking around. Being stuck in a room like that makes you really slow down and drink everything in in a way you normally wouldn’t. I still wish they had an exit for people who don’t want to stay for the movie (even though I love the movie and like to stay for it, but if you just miss getting in, you are stuck standing around for 20 mins, which could be really inconvenient.)

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4omd4.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4omd2.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4animatronics.jpg

I spent a long time studying the big map of Epcot they had up- it is really cool if you get a chance to check it out!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4omd1.jpg


I ended up down by Tower of Terror, which I considered riding, but the standby wait was forty minutes, and I was planning to leave the park soon, so fast pass wouldn’t work either. Instead, I wandered up the exit path to the gift shop. They have a neat selection of stuff here, including, for some reason, the Harry Potter books.

It also makes a good spot to take photos from.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4tot5.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4tot7.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4valet.jpg

I love that the “Valet Parking” is stroller/wheelchair parking! This actually remdins me of a story from work. As I’ve mentioned, I work front desk at a hotel, and a few months ago, I was faxed a reservation for a room, and in the request area, it said “Near the valet room”. Valet room? What on earth is a valet room? We’re not even a big enough hotel to have valet parking, and even if we did, why would you want to be near the room where the valets are? I passed the fax around the office, trying to figure out what it mean, and nobody could. I finally called the agency that had booked the room, and they couldn’t figure it out either! Finally the woman on the line said “Oh! Not valet room, Valet! They want to be near the Valet family!” I looked in the computer and yup! There was a reservation under the last name of Valet for the same date! OH! So, long story for no real reason, but I thought I’d tell it anyway.

[WDW Poly Princess]

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4tot4.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4totclose.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4totcreepy.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4totsign.jpg

And a few from around front, as well:

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4tot1.jpg

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http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4tot6.jpg

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http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4totsign2.jpg

The wait time sign looms evilly overhead

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4tot9.jpg

I stopped in a store of Christmas items called “Once Upon a Time”, where I found a great ornament of the Partners statue that I fell in love with. It was only twelve dollars, and didn’t look breakable, so I decided to go ahead and buy it. (It made it home in great shape!)


The Villain store is down by TOT, and I love the decorations in this place!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4mgmwitch.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4dragon.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4jack.jpg

A shot for Nightmare fans


The parade was going by as I headed out of the park, so I cut through the shops to avoid the crowds. I hopped on a bus to Transportation and ticket center (to get to Magic Kingdom, since there is for some reason no direct bus from MGM), and the wait for the TTC bus was only a few minutes. I left with a total of one hundred thirty eight photos- not quite two hundred, but still a lot more than I usually have! Here are a few others that I haven’t put in yet:

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4brooms.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4walt.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4piggy.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4building.jpg

I don’t know what this building was, but it looked cool!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4cameraman.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4mama1.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4mama2.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4balloons.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4hat.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4scoops.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4totbillboard.jpg

Up next- the rest of Day 4 at MK and WL

[popisme]

This is kinda OT but I was wondering what kind of camera do you use. My DH and I are looking into purchasing a Digital camera after using a 35mm SLR for 3 or 4 years. I am impressed with the clarity of your pictures and was wondering what camera you used.


Also your trip reports are great... We are going at the exact same time in 2006 so it is great to see how your trip when. I keep scanning the pictures to get an idea of the crowds.


Thanks again for your reports. Patiently waiting for the next installment.

[heaven2dc]

I really am enjoying your reports - can't wait for more!! Your pictures are so clear and was wondering the same thing as Popisme - which camera are you using? You have such a great eye for the out-of-ordinary pics and capture so much more than what I remember of WDW - you have inspired me to take it slower next trip!

[roberrl187]

Great trip report. I can't wait for more. Thanks

[WDW Poly Princess]

I used a Nikon Coolpix 995 (I think that's the number!) this trip- it is a little slower than my old one, but I like that it takes video clips, too!

I also use paint shop pro to sharpen things up a little when they need it :)

Thanks for reading!

[WDW Poly Princess]

Hi again! If you’ve made it this far, I am impressed!

When we left off, I was taking the bus from MGM to the TTC, en route to MK

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4ttc.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4monorail2.jpg

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A shot of Space from the monorail

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4potcpost.jpg

One of the “Coming Attractions” posters at the entrance.

MK didn’t seem as crowded as the days before, but it was around 4 pm, and they would be closing at 6 for the Christmas party. The characters were out in full force around Main Street- I saw Chip & Dale (Chuck & Dave!), Goofy, and several others right near the entrance.

How about some Main Street photos?

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4mainst.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4balloons2.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4balloons3.jpg

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http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4lessons.jpg

You’ve probably read about this window on the boards- if you sit near it for a while, you’ll hear the singing and dancing lessons going on. Another window on the same street caught my eye, though-

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4mkwindow.jpg

So pretty for something that nobody ever sees!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4confectionary.jpg

Outside the Confectionary

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4confectionary2.jpg

And inside!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4waltwindow.jpg

And of course, Walt’s window over the ice cream shop.

Inside the Main Street Cinema, you can now pick up brochures with scavenger hunts to do in the parks, which you can turn in for VMK prizes. I don’t play VMK, but I stopped in to pick up the hunts anyway, to do for fun. I also saw this cute display there-

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4cinema.jpg

My plan was to hit Tomorrowland to ride the TTA, and then go from there. On the way over, I spotted these guys hosting their own little parade.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4ducks.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4ducks2.jpg

I was amazed to see that the Carousel of Progress was actually open! This is my 6th trip, but the first time it has ever been open while I was there! There was almost no wait, and I was lucky enough to be in the same ride area as a guy who was having a ton of fun on it- clapping and singing along every time the song came on. Good times!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4cop.jpg

TTA was next- just remember that there is no bad dancing allowed on the ride!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4nobad.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4stitchtta.jpg

[brneyegirl24]

I have loved reading your trip report so far. I'm going to WDW this year right after Thanksgiving so it's been great to read your report. I think I need you to travel with my DH, DD, and me on our trip so you can write a report for me. I can't tell ya how many times I've just cracked up laughing :rotfl: while reading your report! Please hurry with more!!!!!!

[WDW Poly Princess]

When we got to Space Mountain, I noticed that it looked a little light in there- I hoped that meant the ride was down and the lights were on, since I’d never seen it like that. I was in luck! Lights were on, and I snapped some video of the track, but it didn’t really turn out. I did catch the hidden mickey, though!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4tta.jpg

The sunset outside was really beautiful! I took a lot of pictures trying to capture it, but none of them are quite the same. So, here’s a combo of my sunset pictures and castle pictures!


http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4partners.jpg

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http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4castle4.jpg

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http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4castle1.jpg

There was about half an hour till the start of Mickey’s Very Mery Christmas Party, so I went out towards the park entrance. The CM’s were already out with See Ya Real Soon signs- a very cute touch!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4seeya.jpg

It was still early, but I wasn’t really energetic enough for another park, so instead, I decided to go to WL to hang out for a while. There was a big line for the boat over to WL, but the ride was beautiful with the pink and blue sunset surrounding the lake.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4gf.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4wlboat.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4wlwalk.jpg

At the Lodge, I stopped in the gift shop for some postcards, milk, and a t-shirt. I bought the same shirt that I did last year, because I left the last one in the room on accident, and they never found it. Hopefully I’ll be able to hold on to this one! My next stop was Roaring Forks to buy one of the brownies I love, which I took up to the sitting area on the 4th floor, which is my favorite place in the lodge to sit, watch what’s going on down in the lobby, and just relax. I really wish I were staying at the Lodge this trip! It’s so amazingly beautiful there, the transportation is great, and nothing is ever far away from your room.

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My favorite sitting area on 4th floor

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4wlstitch.jpg

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http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4wllobby.jpg

The strange thing was that they had the water that bubbles up in the lobby and flows out to the pool turned off. It looked really weird with the stream being dry!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4wlhose.jpg

After I ate my brownie and soaked up the resort for a while, I was ready to get back to my room and relax. To get back to OKW, I decided to take the bus to Downtown Disney, and then a bus from there to Old Key West, There was about a ten minute wait for the OKW bus at WL, so I called my mom to check in on things at home, and say hi to my cats. It was about 6:40 when the bus showed up, so I figured it would give me plenty of time to get back to the resort and grab some groceries, and still make it back to the room to watch Gilmore Girls at 8.

A woman on the bus was mad that there was no West Side stop, which she didn’t figure out until the bus was pulling off Downtown Disney property. She asked the driver to let her out there, and he said he couldn’t let people out anywhere other than bus stops. She yelled that she needed to go to West Side, and didn’t want to go all the way back to the resort again, and she wanted out here. He told her he could get in trouble for stopping anywhere other than the stops. She started yelling that he should have said that there was no West Side stop, and told them to get out at PI, which he told her that he had. The other couple on the bus told them they could just stay on the bus to get back to DD, and that there hadn’t been a west side bus stop in three years. The woman started complaining loudly again that the driver should have said something, and the driver actually yelled back that he had made an announcement (not sure if he was yelling to be heard or because he was annoyed!) If the lady hadn’t been so annoying and mean to the driver, I would have pointed out that there were boats from OKW to West Side, but at this point I didn’t want to get involved.

I decided to get off the bus at the Hospitality House to grab some groceries, with the plan to just hop on the next internal bus to get back to my bus stop. I went in the general store to shop around, and ended up with a bottle of milk (to go with my leftover cookie and brownie), an extra bottle of water, and a “lunchables deluxe”.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/4groceries.jpg

Grocery shopping, Old Key West style:

I went back out to the bus stop and waited. And waited. I waited so long that the condensation from my water bottle soaked the paper bag and my stuff fell out. When a DD bus finally came, I asked if they had done the other resort stops yet (the OKW/DD busses stop at the Hospitality House both first and last), and they had, so I decided to wait for the next one. About half an hour had passed, and I knew that I should have just walked back to my room by now, but I knew that if I left, a bus would show up, so I kept waiting. I finally decided that I would just get on the next Downtown Disney bus wether it had made the resort stops or not- even if it had to go to DD, it was only a few minutes there and back, so it would be better than waiting.

I ended up on the Downtown Disney bus with the Loudest Kid Ever. The bus contained me, an older couple, and a family of two parents and two sons, one of whom is now crowned Loudest Kid Ever. The LKE sat up front, and his dad and brother were in the back. As soon as we pulled out, LKE screamed “Dad, I can’t see you!” (being funny). He continued to yell back to his dad at full volume through most of the trip. Given that the bus was almost empty, a normal speaking voice would have worked just fine, but he seemed to really like to yell. He yelled about how he was tired of having to wait for his mom’s wheelchair to be loaded and unloaded. The other couple on the bus started talkingto him, apparently hoping to get him to quiet down, and asked him what he had done at MGM that day, to which he told them that the stunt show was boring, and then he went back to yelling back to his dad. I was so happy to see Marketplace!

My plan of just staying on the bus back to OKW was foiled because the bus was now going from DD to the Contemporary. So, I hopped off at Marketplace, and made my way over to the OKW bus stop. I waited there about ten minutes, and then decided to pop into the Christmas shop since it didn’t look crowed. I did a quick walk-through (It was around 8:15, so I gave up on making it back to OKW by 8 to watch Gilmore Girls), stopped by the restroom, and went back to the bus stop, and the bus still hadn’t come. It showed up about five minutes later, and I was finally on my way back to my room!

About this time I realized that Gilmore Girls wasn’t even on tonight because of the Felicity movie, so I felt a little better about not being back at the room yet.

I finally made it back to my room at 8:57. I had left WL at 6:40, so if you subtract the 5 mins I spent on my grocery stop, my travel time was 2 hours and 12 minutes.

Lesson learned? I really should have just walked!

I spent some time eating and going through the day’s photos, and then cleaned up the studio a little, since my towel and trash service was scheduled for the next day. Come on, you know you clean up for housekeeping, too!

Number of toes with blisters: two
Photos taken today: Two Hundred and fifty
Number of videos taken: twenty two

[Velsignet]

Yay! Now I can catch up on the days I missed! You should periodically mention that while you were having a fun-filled day at Disney, I was at work. You know... babysitting. :banana:

Katie

[Credit Man]

Really enjoying your report. You do Disney right.

[THE HAT]

love the report and pics!!! :cool1:

[imLissy]

i started reading your report before our trip and everytime we went on a ride I'd point to the little sign and say to my friends, "no dancing." carolyn thought i came up with that, I had to inform her I wasn't that clever. She was very disapointed, lol.
ya, I've been to Disney like 14, 15, maybe it's 14... i dunno, a bunch of times now and I'm reading this and I'm like, I never saw that, I never noticed that, there's an exhibit at Norway??
it's amazing all the little things you miss
question: have you ever had the magical marshmallow smores at prime time? my friends and I can't figure out how they make them so perfect. Our leading theory is that it involves pixi dust

[WDW Poly Princess]

question: have you ever had the magical marshmallow smores at prime time? my friends and I can't figure out how they make them so perfect. Our leading theory is that it involves pixi dust

Nope, haven't tried them yet, but they are definitly on the to-do list!


Day 5 photos are finally all sorted out, now I just have to finish the writing part! Can you believe I still have five days to go? Yeesh!

[THE HAT]

sooo happy you still have five days to go.............more to read, and more pics to view :thumbsup2 !!

[Ghost]

Awesome reports...

I'll be on the edge of my seat waiting for more on your adventures... Keep it coming

[liznboys]

I'm enjoying your report!! Great job, will be watching for more! :sunny:

[Donnask8pro]

We were there the exact sames dates as you. Seems like similiar days at parks also.. 10 days to short...

[WDW Poly Princess]

You'll have to let me know if you pop up in the background of any of my photos, Donna!

I just got e-mail from my web host that I've hit 80% of my bandwidth, so if the photos go down, I'm working to upgrade my account so I can get them back up ASAP :)

[alite]

Just a FYI- There is a exit for One Man's Dream for those who don't want to see the movie. I usually use it as an excuse to get in a smoke break while everyone else watches the movie. I believe it's a green door before the corridor where the movie entrance is. I'm really enjoying the trip report, great work :thumbsup2

[WDW Poly Princess]

Just a FYI- There is a exit for One Man's Dream for those who don't want to see the movie. I usually use it as an excuse to get in a smoke break while everyone else watches the movie. I believe it's a green door before the corridor where the movie entrance is. I'm really enjoying the trip report, great work :thumbsup2


Ooh, good to know! Thanks for the info!

Day 5 should be ready to post soon! It includes exciting news!

[VanniGirl]

Day 5 should be ready to post soon! It includes exciting news!

Looking forward to hearing more :teeth:

[never_enough_pooh]

Great trip report! Can't wait to read more!

party:

[sheridac]

great report!

[krismom]

You should rent yourself out to accompany people who usually go with people who have no sense of humor and no sense of disney!
More Please?!

[ltinker]

Great trip report... Can't wait to go again!!

[kabauer]

I've always vacationed with my family, however I would love a trip to Disney by myself now. I love how all the things that are always overlooked seem so obvious to you...

[swankybeth]

Great pictures as usual! Looking forward to more. :cheer2:

[WDW Poly Princess]

Day 5- November 30, 2005

Before I really get started on Day 5, I have news! My sister called up about a week ago and said that she has a week off coming up in Feb, and is thinking of going to WDW! I’m the “go-to girl” for Disney info in the family, so it didn’t surprise me that she called, but what *did* surprise me is that she is taking me with her!!! How cool is it to be going back before I even have my last report finished? I like this schedule!! You know how when you get home from your trip, and you have that big “to do” list of things you didn’t get to do that you’re kinda bummed about? (For me the list is more things like “try the chocolate in Italy” than “ride Space Mtn again”) I’m so excited that I get another shot at the things I missed! Anyway, I really want to finish this report up before I go, so I might be writing a little less, and doing more pictures with commentary, if I get crunched for time!

Okay, back to day 5! I was a little slow getting going again today- I’m getting worn out! I managed to be up and ready to go by about 10am, though. My hairstyle of choice today was “mouse ears”, which I tried to capture on film, rather unsuccessfully:

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/5hair.jpg

A quick shot on the balcony, and then we’re off to MK!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/5okwbalc.jpg

I realized as I was walking to the bus stop why it seems like such a long walk to get around OKW- at all the other resorts, you’re either walking through the hallways, or along sidewalks that run between the buildings, while here you’re walking through parking lots. For some reason, that just makes it seem farther!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/5okwlot.jpg

This picture was taken from just outside my room- to get to the bus stop, you walk across the parking lot to where the red arrow is, go around the corner, down the sidewalk, and across the street. The stop sign you can see to the left of the one way sign (which is under the arrow) is a little under half way to the bus stop, if that helps you judge distance a little.

Here are a couple of screen shots of OKW from Google Earth (a fun program, if you haven’t tried it!)

Here is the whole resort – did I mention it is BIG?

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/okwearth2.jpg

The blue dot is the hospitality house, the yellow is my bus stop, and the pink dot is my building.

And here’s one of the area I was in

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/okwearth1.jpg

I always seem to go to Adventureland first, and today was no exception. I was in the mood for a dole whip, but they weren’t open yet- boo!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/5aloha.jpg

(Check out the mickey head on the bald guy’s head! Awesome!)

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/5advland2.jpg

My first stop was the Tiki Room, where I ended up sitting next to “Scream Kid”. Was he screaming because the attraction scared him? Nope! He was at it while we were still in line! I love how kids will throw a tantrum about anything at that age- when his family sat down next to me in the theater, he started shrieking, and when his mom asked what was wrong, he yelled “There are PEOPLE in here!” Welcome to Disney World, kid.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/5tiki.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/5advland.jpg

I read somewhere online that the mosaics in the pavement near Aladdin are from a building that used to stand there. Kind of a neat tribute!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/5mosaic.jpg

At the store by the Aladdin ride, I found an awesome wooden giraffe carving that I had to get- it as about a foot tall, and only $12! The guy in the shop told me that they’re made in Zimbabwe, and they only use wood from trees or limbs that have already fallen, so they aren’t cutting down any new trees for the wood. Neat! I had it sent over to the Swan (yep, we’re checking in there today!), so I wouldn’t have to carry it around.

Up next, Pirates!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/5potc1.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/5potc2.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/5potc3.jpg

I just noticed that the lettering looks kinda like a tattoo!


http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/5shirt.jpg


More Adventureland…

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/5tikis.jpg

And then over to Frontierland!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/5pecos.jpg

I’m always amazed at how many birds are hanging out over by the fry cart in Frontierland!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/5frontier.jpg

I read about the “Ghastly Mansion” sign on the boards, but this is the first time I’ve ever seen it!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/5signs.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/5sign.jpg

A little too chilly for me to ride Splash, but that doesn’t mean other people are!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/5splash.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/5mill.jpg

And one of my favorite rides-

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/5hm.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/5hmroof.jpg

Can you pick out the chess pieces on the roof?

And now it’s time to watch Grey’s Anatomy, so I’ll finish up day 5 later!

[krismom]

How fantastic about your sister trip in Feb!!!!!
My sister and I are planning a trip in the fall for a long weekend with NO KIDS!

Looking forward to more later- and wasn't Grey's Anatomy great last night?

[Philadisney]

yeay! another trip for you means more trip reports for us! :sunny: thanks for a great read!

[Tinkbellfan]

When in Feb are you going. Which resort? Can't wait for more reports

[WDW Poly Princess]

When we left off, I was over at Magic Kingdom, so let’s pick up there!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/5cindy1.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/5cindy3.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/5cindy2.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/5mirror.jpg

I think this is the only time all week that I saw the mirror showing a castle other than the WDW one!

I was ready for a resort break, but I made a quick stop at the wishing well- someone had asked in Stitch’s request thread for us to toss a coin in the well and make a wish for her, so I wanted to be sure we did before we left!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/5cwell.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/5stitchwell.jpg

Wilderness Lodge sounded like a nice place for a break (yes, again. I really should be staying there! And speaking of which, I am SO happy that Disney got rid of Best Rate! I did a little dance when I found out- I will get to stay at my favorite places again!)

I hopped on the boat that runs from MK to WL, but the boat driver was very, very new, because the trip took 45 minutes (it is usually about 20), and included a stop at the Contemporary! Oops? Here are a few boat ride pictures-

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/5beach.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/5spacecontemp.jpg

Some construction going on at the Contemporary

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/5contempcon.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/5refurb.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/5contemp.jpg

And a bird over at the Fort Wilderness boat dock-

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/5bird.jpg

FINALLY, we made it to WL!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/5wlsign.jpg

I picked up a pizza from Forks, and went up to the balcony off of 4th floor to sit and eat.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/5pizza.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/5hose.jpg

Still no water in the stream!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/5balc.jpg

When I was about halfway through my pizza, a man came out and sat right behind me and started smoking. Of all of the outside places available, he had to pick the one where someone was eating? I picked up my stuff and went across the Lodge to another sitting area, where I could eat without icky smoke smells.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/5wl2.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/5wl.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/5totem.jpg

I want some WL Lincoln logs! They’re $50, if you’re wondering.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/5logs.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/5logs2.jpg

I had been planning to go back to a park after my break, but I was really tired, so I decided to go back to OKW for a nap. I played about a twenty minute game of peek a boo with an adorable little girl sitting across from me on the bus back to OKW. I am easily entertained!

After my nap, I decided to get started on packing, since I had to be out early tomorrow. I picked up my stuff from the bathroom counter, stuck it in my bag, reached in to get something I needed, and when I did, sliced finger open on my razor that I had just put in the bag.

“I need a side of the top of the right index finger band-aid!” was my first thought after “OW!” Of course since I have one of those girly razors with lots of blades, I had three identical gashes in my fingertip- OUCH! I wrapped it up tight with a band-aid to stop the bleeding, and decided to hop a bus to Downtown Disney, where I would at least be out of the way of sharp things to hurt myself on. While I was on the bus, I started to feel a bit like I belonged in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire- “Blood of the adventurer, given stupidly…” It would be one thing if I’d forgotten that my razor was in there, but I had *just* put it there, and yet it didn’t occur to me that I needed to be careful. Vacation is exhausting my brain!

I did some shopping in Marketplace, picking up a few souvenirs for people (and my cat) back home, and another pair of the comfy black Mickey sandals I got last year. I also went over to the Virgin Megastore to stock up on virgins for ritual sacrifices…err.. to buy some new belly dance music, since they have a huge Middle Eastern section. I spent about an hour drooling over the choices, and then settled on a few cds (Hakim’s greatest hits, Oojami, and a 2 CD Arabic Music set). It wasn’t until I was in line that I realized that I hadn’t brought my credit card, only my resort card, and I wasn’t sure if they took those here! The line was long, so instead of waiting, I decided to just come back later in the week and buy them then. Does anyone know if they do take resort charge at Virgin or not?

It was about 9:45, and MK was supposed to be open until 11pm, so I thought I might go catch a ride or two there before it closed, so I hopped on the bus from DD to the Contemporary, and took the monorail to MK, getting there about 10:30, but they weren’t letting anyone else in. I thought that during EMH you could get in up until closing, but I guess not! There was a pretty big line for the bus back to OKW- I watched the monorail make a full loop while I was waiting.

Since this is my last night at OKW, let’s sum up with an Old Key West Review:

This is one of the first resorts that I’ve stayed at and not totally fallen in love with. I would rather be at Riverside (or even still at Music), and it’s about tied with French Quarter on my list. The main drawback for me is how hard it is to get around. I couldn’t just walk over to Good’s, whereas at Riverside even the really distant buildings still feel like they’re within walking distance of the main building. I usually have no problem finding my way around resorts, but it took a few tries before I even go the hang of finding my room from the bus stop. I think it’s the walking through roads and parking lots that makes it confusing, since at Riverside or All Stars, you just have a path to follow. I’m sure that I’d feel a lot different about OKW if I’d either been at a building near the hospitality house, or had a car.

I did like having the kitchenette, even though I didn’t use it as much as I had planned. I wish every room had a fridge and microwave!

Does the Sassagoula Pizza Express still deliver to OKW? There was no pizza button on my phone, and nothing about it in the room or resort newsletter. I would have loved to have ordered a pizza on my first night and kept the leftovers in the fridge. Yeah, in retrospect, I could have just called the front desk and asked, but for some reason that never occoured to me at the time!

Being right by the pool and hot tub was nice, and would have been even better if the Turtle Shack had actually been open.

The room was a great size, and very clean. The little extra kitchen area made it feel a LOT bigger! I never heard anyone in the rooms near me, so I don’t know if the walls are thick here, or if the other rooms were just unoccupied!

I’ll be staying here again the last night of the trip, so we’ll see if a different room location makes any difference.

Up next- Day 6! Checking in to the Swan

[MaMa3Princess]

As a mom of 4 YOUNG kids, your trip report are so nice. I am just so amazed at all the detail I miss because we are to busy concouring the parks and not enjoying the beauty and art. Oneday I will stop and smell the roses, but until then keep your trip reports coming :woohoo: :bounce:

[Carrieannew]

Swan!!! Swan!!!! Swan!!!! This is the part I have been waiting for. I love your reports!!!!! :banana:

[fan of the TTA]

i always like reading reports of others.

thanks for sharing it with us

[roque]

crystal ....where are you ?? don't you just hate it when real life gets in the way? LOVING YOUR REPORT KEEP IT COMING :cheer2: :cheer2:

[Tinkbellfan]

:surfweb: :hourglass Waiting for more!

[Minniespal]

Lovely report ~ Thanx for posting.

[WDW Poly Princess]

Sorry for taking so long in between posts! I got a wisdom tooth pulled this week, so I haven’t really been up to writing!

We had a little scare where the trip later this month almost got canceled, but now it is back on, as you can see by the neat little counter in my signature! I only have about 10 days to finish up this report- yeep!

So here is my confession about day 6- I don’t have many notes, or many pictures (um, in comparison to other days..), and so I have absolutely no idea what I did for part of the day! But anyway, here’s what I do know!

I woke up at 9 this morning to COLD weather! It was in the low 50’s, which feels like 2 degrees when you are in Florida. I don’t know why, but 20 degrees at home doesn’t feel as cold as 55 does in Florida. It’s a weather mystery!

I called up bell services to have them come pick up my bags, and they arrived at 9:20, and even offered to give me a ride up to the hospitality house. I declined, since I wasn’t quite ready to leave yet, but I thought it was funny that after spending my whole stay here wishing it was easier to get up to the hospitality house, I suddenly had a ride when I didn’t need one! There are internal busses that run around the resort, but I hardly ever saw them.

I finished getting ready and hopped a bus to AK.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6duck.jpg

“Hi, I’m a duck, and I live at Disney World. Aren’t you jealous?”

Check out the cool random totem pole-type thing!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6totem1.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6totem2.jpg

What better way to start out than Festival of the Lion King? This show is my very favorite thing on property! Show was great as always! My favorite guy was still there (the one that sings Be Prepared- there are at least two different guys that do it, my favorite is the one you see in the parade on Christmas. The other guy is good, but it just isn’t the same!) My favorite dancer guy wasn’t there, but there was another girl who was really good who became my temporary new favorite.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6folk.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6folk2.jpg

Okay, this next confession amazes even me, but this is my 6th trip, and the very first time I’ve set foot in Dinoland, other than for Tarzan. How crazy is that? I didn’t spend toooo much time there, but at least I got to look around a little! I found this little trail with a few life-sized dinosaurs, including one that would make a great photo opportunity to pose with! (I tried setting my camera on the time delay nearby, but I couldn’t get a decent shot with me in it. So, make friends! Bring them to WDW with you, if only for the opportunity to use them as photographers!)

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6ctrail.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6dino.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6dino2.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6dinosaur.jpg


Next, Asia!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6asia.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6asia2.jpg

There was a tiny little building that looked like it is usually used to sell drinks, but it was empty. However, it was full of really, really cool decorations, both inside and out! Major overlooked work of art!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6kiosk1.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6kiosk2.jpg

I noticed that people were walking over towards Everest even though it wasn’t open yet, so I thought I’d follow them to see how close I could get. The area around the ride is amazing! Really great theming! Can’t wait to see the decorations in line!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6signs.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6everest1.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6everest2.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6everest7.jpg

[WDW Poly Princess]

I love how they make it look like backpackers are actually passing here, it looks just like a hostel in Nepal!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6everest3.jpg

Hee! Opening next season!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6everest8.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6everest9.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6everest10.jpg

I think my favorite part of the decorations were these posters on one of the buildings. I loooove the art in the temples in India/Nepal/etc, so these were right up my alley!


http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6everest6.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6everest4.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6everest13.jpg

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http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6everest11.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6everest14.jpg

The Everest trail comes out right over by Tarzan, and I noticed that the show was just about to start, so I went on in. This isn’t my favorite show, but since it would be closing soon (is closed now!), I wanted one last trip. I ended up talking with the family next to me for a while before the show started. I can’t remember where they were from, but they were in their early sixties, and it was their first trip- they were having a blast! I love hearing people rave about things they’ve seen- it is almost more fun to see others having fun at WDW than to be doing things yourself. Almost!

I tried to get photos of the yummy Tarzan, but I didn’t have much luck, so you get this photo instead.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6tarzan.jpg

Does the lead singer guy remind you of Justin Timberlake, or is it just me?

I was in need of a rest and some zebra domes, so I took the bus from AK to AKL, which happens to be a great place for both of those things! And lucky for me, the bus I ended up on had a great bus driver!

“Welcome to flight number 3840 (the bus number). We’ll be cruising at about 35mph at an altitude of about three feet. The bus has no flight attendants, so there will be no food or beverage service on this trip. We should be landing at Animal Kingdom Lodge in about five minutes.”

Followed by…

“Please be sure your seat backs are in their full upright position, and tray tables are locked as we prepare to come to a screeching halt.”

I love bus drivers with a sense of humor!

I picked up some zebra domes from Mara (Is it wrong that I am counting down the days till my next trip just for the zebra domes?), and found a pool chair just outside in a nice quiet area (away from the pool) where I could kick back and write some postcards.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6zebradomes.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6zebradome2.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6zmickey.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6zebralabel.jpg


Part of me wanted to go back to AK to keep exploring, and part of me wanted to go check in at the Swan so I could stop being “homeless”, and part of me wanted to stay at the AK Lodge till 3:30 to catch their free tour, and part of me just wanted to spend the rest of the day in the chair I was in, eating zebra domes!

What did I do? Find out soon!

[WDW Poly Princess]

When we left off, I was sitting at AKL trying to decide what to do next! I decided to go check in at the Swan, because being in between resorts drives me nutty! I need somewhere to call “home”, and I like having my room key to charge on. (Come on, you know charging stuff to your room key is way more fun than using your credit card!)

While I was waiting for the bus, I notice that it looked like one of the busses had a “boo-boo” with the roof of the bus stop. Wonder what happened there!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6busstop.jpg

You know it is WDW when even the soda machine is themed to the resort!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6drinks.jpg

Oh, Disney busses, I miss you so! But I’ll see ya real soon!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6bus.jpg

I took the bus to AK, where I got in the line labeled “Walt Disney World Swan, Dolphin, Boardwalk, Yacht Club, Beach Club” I am impressed that they fit all of that on one sign!

Lucky me, the Swan was the very first stop! Yay!

I’ve never even visited the “Swolphin” (or “Swan & Mahi Mahi” as I heard someone at the bus stop call it (heehee! Love it!), so other than pictures online and seeing it from afar, I really wasn’t sure what I was in for!

Check in was pretty much like any WDW resort, except my room keys had the Swolphin on them instead of Tinkerbell, and they did this weird thing where they pre-charged my debit card for incidentals, which would be refunded if I didn’t use it. Very weird!

I got my keys, found the East elevator, and went up to the 9th floor. I was thrilled that my room was right there by the elevator, but I was more thrilled once I got inside! The room was HUGE, and I had the best view EVER! Okay, the castle view at the Poly may be the best ever, but this one was REALLY cool!

From my balcony, I could see…

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6dolphin2.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6swanview3.jpg

The window washer platform was up there the whole time I was here

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6swanview7.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6stitchview.jpg

Straight ahead, the Dolphin, and if I looked to the right of that...

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6swanview1.jpg

Space Mountain and the Contemporary! And if I kind of leaned over on the balcony and looked waaay to the right…

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6swanview2.jpg

Epcot and the boardwalk! And to the left?

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6swanview5.jpg

The Tree of Life and Everest! (And what the heck is that other really tall tree?)

and straight below, me…

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6swanview6.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6swanview4.jpg

the resort!


Let’s check out the room, shall we? (Room 913, if you are wondering!)

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6swan2.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6swan3.jpg

For some reason, I was really excited about the cordless phone!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6swan4.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6swan5.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6swan6.jpg

The new “Heavenly Bed”

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6shower.jpg

Cute shower stuff

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6tea.jpg

The coffee & tea selection

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6mirror.jpg

Oh, you know you can’t resist that whole “Look! There are a hundred of me!” thing when there are multiple mirrors! (The jacket is the one I borrowed from Katie. I was not, in fact, a member of the Orlando Science Center Opening Team.)

[WDW Poly Princess]

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6stitchtv.jpg

Stitch “found himself” on tv while I decided to explore the minibar!

We had drinks…

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6minibar3.jpg

And real drinks

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6minibar2.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6minibar1.jpg

And food! Including…

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6jellybeans.jpg

Jelly Bellys in a jar with a Swan Dolphin logo lid! How cute! Maybe I’ll…

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6prices.jpg

$7.50 for jelly beans? Nevermind! Instead, I put that money (plus a few more dollars) to use for a day of “the internets”!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6internets.jpg

“Oh, e-mail, myspace, disboards! I missed you so!”

Remember at the beginning of day 6 when I said I had no idea what I did the last part of the day? Well, we’re there now! The good thing is that I figured out where the 2nd half of my pictures were- I stuck them in the folder for the next day! Oops! Ayway, I know that I hung out in the room until about 4, and then took the boat over to Epcot for a few hours. I went to Canada, where I watched the movie for the first time. Watching a circlevision movie is a lot like going to a movie with a lot of really paranoid people- everyone is constantly turning their head to look around them. Fun!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6canada3.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6canada2.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6canada.jpg

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http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6canada5.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6canada6.jpg

After the movie, I picked up some strawberry mousse in France to take back to the room (remember earlier in the week when we learned how well mousse travels?), and then after a quick stop to ride Figment, I headed back to the resort.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6figment.jpg

I decided to go to Tubbi’s at the Dolphin to find some dinner, but the map in the Dolphin lobby was kind of confusing, so it took me a while to find. (Anyone else have trouble finding it the first time?)

I was THRILLED to see that Tubbi’s carries the bottled Starbucks frappuccino! I was in heaven! I ordered a grilled cheese, and took it back over to the Swan with me. This might possibly be the best food deal at WDW! They give you three halves, as in a sandwich and a half (no idea why, but I love it!), with fries and a pickle. And it was under $6! I was in love!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6sandwich.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6mousse.jpg

(I didn’t like the strawberry mousse as much as the chocolate, but still good)

When I got back, I managed to catch Wishes from my balcony, and then Illuminations from the window down at the end of the hall. (If you want a *really* cool Illuminations viewing spot, head up to the 9th floor of the Swan! You don’t get the music, but seeing the fireworks from above instead of below is supercool!!)

I laid in bed to eat and watch movies, and then it was time for sleep!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6stitchbed.jpg

By the way, if you thought the view was cool during the day?

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6nightview.jpg

LOVE it!

And here are a few other photos from today that I didn’t have any other place to put:

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6twinnings.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6dolphin.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6swan7.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/6swans.jpg

I love how it looks like the water is coming out of their nostrils! Hee!

And on that note, I hereby end Day 6! Coming up tomorrow, Katie and I spend all day at Epcot!

[MACPlink]

This is really cool! I can't wait to read all the other days! Seeing these pictures brings back a lot of memories! BTW I have the same Stitch lol! :cloud9: :goodvibes

[MACPlink]

I LOVE the pics pf the Wilderness lodge! The best hotel in the world!! (To me lol) Brought back memories of our last two trips! That made me really happy but man how I miss it! i hope to go back soon!

[THE HAT]

you must finish this report b4 u leave for the next trip!!!! loving this one and can't wait for the next TR too!!! :cool1:

[Thumper's Tara]

Now you did it...Lucky Bunny and I will have to back again! I never tried Zebra Domes and I didn't do the AKL Tour. I will have to put them on the list for next time!

As always, the new installments were great. Bummer about the tooth! I hope you are feeling better.

[krismom]

Uhg! root canal is the worst! I don't see how it affects your typing though! :smooth:
Your fans are waiting!
:rolleyes1

[brneyegirl24]

Please post more ASAP!!!!! I love everything I've read so far. :Pinkbounc

[imLissy]

aw, we always stay at the boardwalk. your pictures of the swan make me homesick :( lol
my favorite part about the swan is the karaoke place... even if they did kick us out last time

[MACPlink]

The pictures of Everest were awesome! It's so huge!

[Minniespal]

Expedition Everest looks huge!

[WDW Poly Princess]

Day 7

Whew! So, here is my challenge: I have days 7, 8, 9, and 10 (the day I went home) still left to write. I leave for WDW again on the 18th, so that means I have just four days left to finish! This is going to be interesting!

That said, lets get started!

Today was another sleep in kind of day. I had plans to meet Katie at Epcot later that afternoon, so I decided to walk on over, find some breakfast, and hang out in the park for a while until she got there.

The walk over to Epcot is so pretty! I could do this every day.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7dolphin3.jpg

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http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7bw3.jpg

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I took this photo in a mirrored window on the Boardwalk. Handy!

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http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7bw1.jpg

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http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7sweets.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7bakery.jpg

Check out the name on the window- huge croissant!! Hee!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7yc.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7friendship.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7epcot.jpg

On the walk over, I started thinking about how much healthier we (or at least I) tend to be on vacation. I know it sounds silly, but if you think about it, you’re walking about 10 miles a day, probably sitting down for real meals instead of just eating cookies at your desk for lunch, you’re less stressed, laughing more- all good for you! I bet that if we all just lived in WDW, we’d be very healthy people!

So, now that I’ve said my bit about healthier living on vacation, let’s get back to the story! Today I had peanut butter cups for breakfast. Oh, come on, that is totally healthy!!!

I had actually planned to pick up something breakfasty from the Fountainview Café, but the line was HUGE. Serioulsy, this place should have Fastpass during breakfast! Every other counter service place seemed busy, too, so I went to Mouse Gears to see if I could find something to eat, and ended up with a package of peanut butter cups. Don’t judge me! ;) I found a spot in the butterfly garden near Mouse Gears to sit and eat my Breakfast of Champions, and relax a little before hitting the park.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7butterfly.jpg

A quick picture of Imagination as I passed by-

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7imagination.jpg

I went over to Soarin to check out the wait time- It wasn’t too bad since it was still early, but I wanted to wait for Katie so we could ride together, so I hopped in the standby line for The Land, which was around 20 minutes. I bet this ride has been a lot more crowded since Soarin opened, since it is an easy to hop in line here while you’re waiting for your FP time for Soarin.

A few photos from the greenhouse:

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7land5.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7land3.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7land4.jpg

They place the Mickey-shaped containers around the pumpkins as they are growing, so that they will conform to the shape. Neat!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7land2.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7land1.jpg

Wait a second, they grow coffee AND chocolate here? I may never leave!

Katie said she would be there in about half an hour, and I was near Universe of Energy, so that worked out perfectly, since that ride is pretty long. Ellen complimented my hair, and we were off on our journey into energy. I ended up with a whole row to myself, so I sat at the far left side of the car for a good view.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7energy.jpg

I think everyone’s favorite part of this ride is the dinosaurs, right? How cool are they? Now, however, I am enemies with one of the dinosaurs. I don’t know what kind he was, but he was over on the right side of the ride, and he SPIT at me! He was on the right, and I was ALL the way at the left of the row, but he hit me right in the eye! I doubt he could have had that good of aim again if you tried a million times! I started thinking about the DIS’s WDW Water Drinking Association from days of yore, and wondered if I had just been promoted to some kind of super-member, for “appreciating” WDW ride water on a whole new level! I spent the rest of the morning waiting for my eyeball to fall out of my head, since there’s no way that water can be good for you! ;) At least I left with a good story, though. How many of YOU have been personally attacked by an audioanimatronic? Should we start a support group?

Just as I left the ride (still in possession of both eyes) Katie called to tell me that she had just parked over at the swan, and was on her way into the park. We agreed to meet in Canada by the totem poles, and I got this picture to get her back for the one she snapped of me at MK: ;)

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7kt.jpg

[agnes!]

WDWPolyPrincess -

From your photo caption(Post #111, 02/08/2006)...
"The Tree of Life and Everest! (And what the heck is that other really tall tree?)"
I think that is a disguised cell phone/communications tower.

agnes!

[WDW Poly Princess]

We decided to hit the World Showcase again, starting out in the UK:

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7uk1.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7uk2.jpg

These “Holiday Cheer” booths were all over WS. We naturally thought that “Holiday Cheer”= alcohol, but this one was selling barbecue or something. Weird!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7cheer.jpg

We never stop being amused by the books in the UK:

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7books1.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7books2.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7books3.jpg

I literally collapsed into a fit of giggles trying to get this picture.

And then we admired the botany some more.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7convent.jpg

We’ve been joking for ages about giving up on finding good men to date and just becoming nuns, as I’ve mentioned elsewhere in the report, and have amused ourselves sending back and forth “nuns and botany” pictures for a while, so we thought this little place would be the perfect place to build our convent! All of you jaded single girls are welcome to join. We wear fishnets under our habits.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/nuns.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7pub.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7rosecrown.jpg

A question- does anyone know the significance of the 11 in the circle? I just noticed it as I was editing photos, and wondered what it meant.

I remembered reading that there was a garden back behind the fish & chips in UK, so we went to explore. Oh, my goodness, the bird issue back here is CRAZY! I guess because of the fries from the fish & chips, but there were more birds swarming around this area than I’ve seen almost anywhere else in WDW! We were really paranoid that one of the birds was going to have an “accident” on one of us, but we stuck around long enough to snap the obligatory World Showcase pictures:

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7ktshowcase.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7cshowcase.jpg


http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7france1.jpg

I don’t remember Epcot being all that crowded today, but France looks swamped here!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7chairguy.jpg

We call this guy “The guy who arranges furniture”.

Over to Morocco…

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7morocco.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7morocco2.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7molantern.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7morocco3.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7fezhouse.jpg

Please take a moment to appreciate these next two pictures, because they were almost impossible to get! The person taking the picture had to stand way back from the archway to fit everything in frame, which meant that eight zillion people walked through the photo before we could get a shot!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7morocco4.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7moroccocw.jpg

Note the leg arting out of the archway in my photo.

Don’t worry, we didn’t forget about Stitch!!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7stitchmorocco.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7stitchmorocco2.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7stitchmorocco3.jpg

How CUTE is that costume? I want to have a daughter just to dress her in that.

[WDW Poly Princess]

WDWPolyPrincess -
I think that is a disguised cell phone/communications tower.


Ooh, that makes sense! I couldn't remember any other really tall thing around AK!

[WDW Poly Princess]

Up next, Japan!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7stitchjapan.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7japan.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7japanc.jpg

How fun are these hats? I ridiculed Katie for not “totally commiting to the hat”- you gotta take your other hat off first, or you just don’t get that “a cartoon creature is eating my head!” effect.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7japank.jpg

We were getting hungry (amazing after my huge nutritious breakfast, I know!), so we set off in search of food.

Guess what Katie got.

No, seriously.

Yup.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7mcnuggets.jpg

Seriously.

We decided we needed another piece of the amazing strawberry cheesecake from Norway, so we reversed our World Showcase direction, and headed over to Kringala Bakery. The line was a little long, so Katie went to find a table, and I amused myself taking pictures of the floor:

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7tile.jpg

The couple behind me cracked me up- they ordered three beers, two glasses of wine, three desserts, and four food items. I assumed they must have someone else with them, but when we all got to the seating area, it was just them! They totally got the spirit of eating their way around the world, I guess!

We dug into the cheesecake, and although she denies it, Katie totally stole the little white chocolate decoration off the top, which is a huge violation of the Cheesecake Sharing Rules, Chapter Five, Section 6, which specifically advises against saying “I get the chocolate thing!” and popping it in your mouth. The Cheesecake Sharing Authorities are on the case, though, so don’t worry too much.

So, about halfway through the cheesecake, it happens.

I look down at the cheesecake, aiming my fork to grab a bite, and there it is.

There is a hair in our cheesecake- a long, blonde hair.

We both have brown hair.

EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!

So, what do we do? The line for the bakery is huge, and we don’t want to embarrass the people working there by telling them what we found in front of a big crowd, but we’re a little squicked out by the whole thing. After a good minute and a half of debate, we make an executive decision. We use a knife to dissect out the part of the cheesecake that had the hair, and we eat the rest.

Yes, we are ashamed. But it was really, really good cheesecake, and we couldn’t just throw it away!
If you knew how good this cheesecake was, you would have eaten it, too.

Please don’t let me end up with some kind of “eats hairy cheesecake!” tag!

Katie took this picture of me examining the remaining cheesecake suspiciously before devouring it.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7cheesecake.jpg

I look awful in that photo, but then again I had just suffered a severe loss (about three square inches of cheesecake!)

In the shops in Norway, we were checking out the chocolate selection (okay, totally forget everything I said at the beginning of today about being healthy!), when Katie made a great discovery.

Daim!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7daim.jpg

You have to use some sort of accent when you talk about it,

“You want some daim chocolate? It’s daim good! I don’t give a daim if we eat it all!”

Katie bought a bar for everyone she knew.

It was time for Photos with the Troll:

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7trollc.jpg

I am cracking up because the troll is “cupping my bottom.”

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7trollkt.jpg

Notice that guy walking in the doorway behind Katie? Well, he didn’t notice that there was a rope up across the doorway, and ran right into it. I was trying not to crack up, because we all know it is not nice to laugh at other people, but I couldn’t help it.

That went a little like this:

Me: “That was really funny.”
Random passerby guy: “It was really funny.”
Katie “What happened?”

Random Passerby Guy and I filled Katie in on what she missed while her back was to the door, and then Katie and I laughed about some random person jumping in to the conversation out of nowhere.

I wanted a picture with a Viking hat, but my hair wouldn’t fit underneath! (I had it up in two buns again, “mouse ears”). However, I found a hat that was missing one horn, and just stuck one of my buns through the hole made for the horn! Perfect!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7norway1.jpg

We hit China next because, um, it was next to Norway.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7china3.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7china4.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7china5.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7chinakt.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7chinac.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7stitchchina.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7china.jpg

[WDW Poly Princess]

The store in China is one of our favorites. TONS of stuff, and mostly really affordable!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7chinawant.jpg

“Want Want”! Love it!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7china2.jpg

WOW! Three Party Buddhas for the price of one! I really need to buy this on my next trip!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7china6.jpg

Here I am with the Chinese Hugh Hefner.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7china9.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7china8.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7china7.jpg

We started to walk from China over to Germany, but we got to the bridge right as they were bringing through the Illuminations barges!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7bridge.jpg

Apparently, having to wait made Katie very sad.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7sadkt.jpg

Or maybe she is still just mourning the cheesecake incident.

I noticed that they had a bunch of drums set up in the Outpost area, and I just couldn’t resist. I played for a few minutes, and gave Katie an impromptu drumming lesson with some Arabic rhythms.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7drum.jpg

We went into the German shops to do some browsing (for cute German CMs in leiderhosen.)

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7germany1.jpg

You may think this is a picture of Katie and a beer stein, but that isn’t what the picture is of.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7germanyclock.jpg

Katie decided this picture of the German clock would look way better with her arm in it.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7germchicken.jpg

“Hey! Take a picture of me with the chicken!”

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7ktplane.jpg

“I could fly that plane!” (Katie takes flying lessons, and any planes we came across in WDW had to be examined closely to decide if she was capable of flying it or not.)

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7germany3.jpg

Neuschwanstein, the castle that Walt patterned the Disney castles after!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7smurfs.jpg

We aren’t really sure why they sell Smurfs, since Smurfs are actually Belgian, but we had fun arranging them anyway.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7germantoy.jpg

Each dinosaur toy came with a little person. Why? Why??? The best we could guess was that it was for size comparison?

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7germany2.jpg

It looks like this guy had a little too much German beer!

Germany leads right into Italy…

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7stitchgerm.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7italy1.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7italy2.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7italy3.jpg

“Wow, that would make a good picture,” I said to Katie, who was standing in a pretty doorway.

“Um, do you want to take one?”

“Nah, I’ll just take a mental picture.” Yup, the end of the vacation was nearing.

[WDW Poly Princess]

Around 5:30 we started our walk back to the Swan for a break before Illuminations. At the World Traveler store right outside of the International Gateway, we saw Santa’s list of good girls, and noticed that our names were nowhere on the list.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7list.jpg

As we walked along the boardwalk, we were treated to one of the greatest things I have ever seen at WDW. There was a family coming towards us on one of those family surry bikes, and the little boy in the front seat was ringing the bell with such joy and enthusiasm that we had to impersonate him the rest of the trip. His arm was swinging back and forth with the bell rope wildly, and his whole body got into the act.

Come on, try it yourself! Stick your arm in the air, ring an imaginary bell, and let your head fly back and forth with glee. Fun, isn’t it?
The boat to Epcot was pulling up to the Dolphin as we left, so we decided to hop on. Yes, the boat is way slower, but our feet needed a break! The boat was really crowded, so we ended up standing.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7dolphin.jpg

“I have Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow stuck in my head,” I informed Katie, who was standing a few rows in front of me.

“You, too?” asked a new Random Comment Guy. I guess everyone at WDW has one song or another stuck in their head!

The boat was slow and crowded, so we hopped off at YBC to hoof it the rest of the way.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7bwnight.jpg

We walked along the YBC beach, snapping photos of the Boardwalk, and learning that the big ship thing was a slide! (Katie was the brave one who went to investigate).

I can’t remember where we watched Illuminations from this time, but our torch worked!

On the walk back to the hotel, I stopped in the Boardwalk Bakery for something sweet, and got a piece of the best cake ever! I carried it back to enjoy in the room. Katie and I made plans for tomorrow, and she drove home, while I took my cake upstairs for dessert!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7cake.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7cake2.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/7milk.jpg

Wineglasses must be used for your milk when the cake is $5/slice! (Milk from Tubbi’s at the Dolphin, where I made a quick stop on my way back to the Swan. This is one of the handiest places to get food on property!)

Coming up in Day 8- Filming the Christmas Parade at MK, and Osbourne Lights at MGM, plus one more viewing of Illuminations, complete with video!

[lucky978]

I'm sad your trip is coming to an end, but glad you are returning soon!

I really enjoy your posts. I can just picture my friends and having the same reaction to the cheesecake incident...and doing the same thing you two did!

:thumbsup2

Keep up the good work!

[roberrl187]

Thanks for posting. I now have "It's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow" stuck in my head too. :rotfl2:

I look forward to the next installment.

[imLissy]

my friend and I paused in adventure land once to figure out what we were going to do next when suddenly water comes down upon us! is it raining??? no! like the silly people we are, we happened to have stopped under the spitting, what are they, camels? 'least I think there's more than one, though I think just one spits... but yes anyway, we were mad, those watching were amused.

[WDW Poly Princess]

Day 8!

I got up much earlier today, because I wanted to get to MK as early as possible- they were filming the Christmas parade today! I had considered signing up for the super early before the parks are open viewing, but I knew there was no way I’d get up for it, so I just tried to arrive as early as possible instead. They were filming the Festival of the Lion King part of the parade when I got there- YAY! This is my FAVORITE thing on property! I didn’t care how many takes they had to do, I could watch it over and over! I found a spot where a lot of people were standing towards the end of the street, but after about thirty seconds, a CM came up and told me you have to move.

“You can’t stand here.” Um, there were about 20 other people standing there, too!

“I can’t stand here?”

“You have to keep moving”

“I can’t watch the parade?”

"You have to be in the roped off area to watch"

"Can I just go in the area, then?"

“You have to keep moving.”

By now I was getting frustrated.

“To WHERE?”

“To the end of the street”

“Is there a place to watch from there?”

“Yeah, just keep going down to the end.”

So I walked down Main Street, and guess what- nowhere to watch from! I tried to get some info on how the whole watching the parade thing worked, and if there was anywhere to watch from, but the rest of the CM’s were as helpful and friendly as the first one. I had nothing but great CMs otherwise on this trip, but I guess they must have been stressed from the whole parade thing, because this sucked! I was getting really frustrated that I’d been looking forward to this day, and now I couldn’t even get any info from anyone! I decided I needed a heavy dose of the Magic, so I went over to Philharmagic. It was a great miracle cure! I was in a much better mood by the time I got out of there, partly because of the cute little boy next to me who tried to grab everything that came out of the screen!

I went over to Fantasyland to check out the new Pooh kids area. It is nice to have a place for little kids to run around and just be kids, but I’m surprised that’s all that came out of the old 20,000 leagues area!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/8tree.jpg


I never remember to go to Toontown, so I went over to run through Mickey and Minnie’s houses. They were both surprisingly crowded!

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Mickey’s kitchen looks just like mine!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/8house1.jpg

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http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/8mail1.jpg

And of course, Mickey’s garden!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/8house5.jpg


And then Minnie’s house

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And of course, and homage to the Corn People:

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/8corn.jpg


I walked over to Tomorrowland along the quiet path that runs between there and Toon Town, just for the sake of taking the path. It offered a much different view of Space Mountain than I’m used to seeing:

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/8space.jpg

Ready for an embarrassing story? While I was in the Stitch store, the doors to the Stitch attraction opened, and I was walking while craning my neck to try to see in, and in the process, I ran into a display shelf, whacking myself in the forehead. It hurt!

I was getting hungry, so I started out of the park, but as I got to Main Street, I noticed there was now a lot of space in the roped-off areas, and people were just ducking under the ropes. Apparently, I could have just done this all along! I found a spot, and spent about an hour watching. They were filming at the other end of the street, but I got to see everyone as they were preparing to go on, and the camera guy was going around shooting spots of people clapping (to imaginary music) and acting excited, and he even came to me once!

There was a LOT of waiting- they would shoot for 5 minutes, and then there would be a 20 minute wait while nothing happened. Still fun, just for the experience, though! I’m amazed that some people spend ALL day there for the filming- a couple of hours was more than enough for me. I cracked up at the family next to me- they were one of the groups that took the filming thing very seriously! They had been there since like 6am, they were all dressed in Christmas sweatshirts (it was like 80*, but wintery scarves and hats and other Christmas-looking stuff was common!) and I heard the dad say that after this next scene, they could go do lunch. I hope they at least ended up on TV for all their efforts!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/8parade1.jpg

At one point a group of girls came down the street, and a lot of people started screaming. I had no idea who they were, and some asking around told me that they were the Cheetah Girls from the Disney Channel movie. They signed a few autographs, and then went to their float. All I remember is that they were really short, and one was wearing huge heels!

I started to leave for lunch, but I found a great spot to watch from further down the street, so I stuck around for a few minutes longer. Every now and then it would feel like you were just at the regular parade, but then you’d look up and see reminders of the filming everywhere.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/8parade2.jpg

After 20 minutes or so, I started to leave again, but couldn’t resist going up to the train station to get an overhead view of things.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/8parade3.jpg

Apparently Regis & Kelly were there somewhere, but I never saw them!

[WDW Poly Princess]

Okay, up next is some kind of freaky Disney phenomenom.

The dancers from the Cheetah Girls float were coming around the corner, so I snapped a couple of pictures (because I had no idea who they were, and wanted to find out when I got home- heh!)

Okay, two pictures:

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/8dancers1.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/8dancers2.jpg

Did you catch it? Check out the back guy on the float.

Freaky, huh?

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/8cheetah1.jpg

Oh! There were 5 of them!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/8cheetah2.jpg

You can’t really see here, but the blonde girl in grey had HUGE high heels on. The heels had to have been at least 6 inches high! Crazy! She was so tiny cup close, probably less than 5 feet, and that was with the heels! If only I had a good picture of them for badshoe.com!

I was finally ready to leave, so I went out to the WL boat dock to wait for the boat. (Yes, I really wish I’d been staying at WL this trip! I spent so much time at the resort anyway!) From the boat dock, I could see the huge crowd that was now coming into the park:

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/8crowd.jpg

It was 12:30 now- I would hate to see what the crowds looked like by later in the day!

It was a kind of long wait for the boat, which resulted in a lot of monorail pictures!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/8monorail2.jpg

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The boat finally came, and I got a shot of Space from the water

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/8space2.jpg

I noticed this tree over by where River Country used to be- it was full of shoes! Does anyone know the story behind this?

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/8shoetree.jpg

I grabbed a pizza from Roaring Forks and went back up to the balcony to eat.

I only took ONE picture at WL! Aren’t you proud??

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/8wlview.jpg

Katie called and said she was on her way, so we agreed to meet up back at the Swan. (Yes, I do occasionally visit my own resort!) We got there at about the same time, and took advantage of the cool view from the windows!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/8window1.jpg

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MGM was our Park of the Day, so we set off, stopping only for a quick photo or two of the cool gingerbread house in the Swan lobby:

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/8ginger1.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/8ginger2.jpg

And I have to throw in this awesome picture Katie took as she was walking in from the parking lot!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/8ktswan.jpg

I don’t really remember much of what happened at MGM, so I think we’re doing photos with commentary again! (Sorry!)


http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/8mgm1.jpg

This dog kind of reminded us of the one Joey had on Friends

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/8sign.jpg

This sign somehow totally confused us. We were trying to find the Backlot Tour, but we couldn’t figure out which way the sign was pointing! I know it looks obvious here, but we were confused! We had to literally stand under the sign and face the direction of the arrow- the street sign version of putting the map on the ground and standing on it!

On our way there, we couldn’t believe what we saw!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/8mgmstitch2.jpg

Someone had an identical Stitch, and had abandoned him on their stroller while they were in a show! Poor lonely Stitch!

[WDW Poly Princess]

We did the whole Backlot Tour thing, and especially enjoyed the Villains display at the end! The best part of the whole tour though was that there was a little boy about 6 or 7 on the tram in front of us with his face painted like Darth Maul- and he was flirting! Every now and then he would turn around and wink at us, or do the little point with his finger. SO cute!!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/8gmr8.jpg

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I loves me some Vader!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/8gmr9.jpg

Can you feel the love?

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/8gmr6.jpg

But I love Maul more!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/8gmr3.jpg

Um, Katie, you appear to be in mortal danger!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/8gmr1.jpg

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Katie takes a cell phone call…in hell???

Of course, fun was also had in the shop after the ride-

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/8stitchhands.jpg

Stitch and I, we are like one.

We were walking down New York Street, taking New Yorkish photos, when we came upon Mulch, Sweat, and Shears playing Christmas music over by Youse Guys Moichendice (they were great! Wish I’d had my video camera).

Just after they finished, there was an announcement that the Osbourne Family Spectacle of Lights would be starting in like 10 minutes, so we decided to stick around. We found a spot on the curb to sit, and before we knew it, they were counting down to the start of the lights.

Three…two…one… the music started, and Katie screamed.

Not just screamed, but hands in the air, jumping three feet of the ground, total freak out scream.

The music scared her.

Even though they had just counted down to it from 10.

Eight hours later, when I picked myself off the ground from laughing, I made her recreate the moment for a picture:

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/8ktscream.jpg

Classic!

The “snow” started drifting down, and it became apparent which one of us lives in Florida, and who lives in a part of the country that has evil winters. Katie was all “Ooh, snow, pretty!” while I was a little less friendly with the snow. Snow and I are not good friends.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/8osbourne14.jpg

Our comfy waiting spot, before Katie’s music trauma

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“Snow, I will tolerate you for about three minutes. Don’t try to get friendly!”

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“There is stuff falling from the sky!”

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Apparently, Stitch is big here!

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[WDW Poly Princess]

I shall now present you with the funnies photo of the whole trip. While I was taking pictures, Katie called to get me to turn around so she could take a candid photo. She was aiming to get something like this:

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/8osbourne2.jpg

Instead, she got this

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/8osbourne1.jpg

It’s okay. I know you’re laughing *with* me.

You can stop laughing now.

Seriously!

Please?

Fine.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/8osbourne12.jpg

My photos kept ending up all blurry, since taking pictures of lights at night is totally not a skill I have mastered, so I finally just shook my camera all around while I took pictures, which resulted in very pretty things like this:

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/8osbourne11.jpg

Over at the Singin in the Rain (my favorite classic movie!) umbrella, we started to pose for pictures, but neither one of us could remember how we were supposed to stand! This is the best we could come up with:

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/8umbrella1.jpg

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http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/8umbrella3.jpg

The Great Movie Ride was starting to sound good, because sitting down is fun! Along the way there, we came across this billboard for Grey’s Anatomy. We’re both big fans (*cough* of McDreamy *cough*), so we had to get a picture!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/8greys.jpg

Anyway, yeah, Great Movie Ride!

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While we were waiting in line, a little girl came up behind me and handed me something. It was Stitch!!! I’d had my backpack partly unzipped with his head peeking out, since we kept getting him out for photos so often, it was easier to keep him easy access. Well, I guess it had come unzipped- I had almost LOST Stitch! I am so lucky that girl found him! How embarrassing would it be if I had to title this “Stitch and Crystal do WDW…until she loses him in an incedent of blatant alien neglect!” Thanks, nice little girl!!

Believe it or not, despite being a Star Wars fan, I had NEVER ridden Star Tours! We decided that we had to resolve that situation, and lucky for us, the line was only about 10 minutes. Yay for short lines!

“Cool, Star Wars!” Katie said, making a V with her fingers as we waited for the ride to start.

“Um, Katie? That’s Star Trek.”

“There’s a difference?”

Hee!

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I love Christopher Lee!

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“Captain’s Log, 1203, I am about to slay an entire villiage of Ewoks with this green…light…stick…thing!”

We had plans to watch Illuminations from the Swan tonight (I had discovered that watching them from the window in the 6th floor hallway was REALLY cool!), so we went to catch the boat back to the Swan. In Katie’s defense, she wanted to just walk back, especially since there was a huge line for the boat, but I was worn out, and a big wimp, so we waited.

There were three little boys in line who had a lightsaber that they must have bought at Star Tours, and I swear that must have been the best money their parents ever spent, because they played with it the entire 20+ minute boat wait! Katie and I (and some other random people) were amused by watching the ducks- they were doing this thing where they landed on the water and then skimmed along, making it look like they were waterskiing. Very cute!

We had a fun boat driver who let people come up to tell jokes. Katie told me a few from our seats- I can’t remember the first one, but the second was:

Did you know Helen Keller had a pony?

Neither did she.

(groan!)

So, when we got back to the hotel, we were walking to the Dolphin to pick up a grilled cheese to share, we were telling stupid jokes, and I tried to repeat Katie’s back to her, but it came out like this:

“Did Helen Keller know she… Oh no! I ruined the goat already! (pause) Joke! I ruined the joke! Not the goat!”

Only I can ruin a goat.

We got the yummy grilled cheese, and I picked up two of the bottled Frappuccinos that keep me alive. I hadn’t been paying attention to the price, since I always bought other stuff at the same time, but I had probably drank about a zillion in the time I had been staying at the Swan. Tonight, however, I paid for them separately, and it came to over $8 for the two!

“Wait a second, these are $4 each???” I had to ask the register guy just to make sure. Yup, they were! OH MY! At home I buy them for about $5 for a 4-pack! I had assumed they would be $2.50 or so since this was WDW, but $4! Yeesh! Caffeine addictions are pricey!

(Dave from Passporter was at Tubbi’s at the same time as us the night before, by the way, but I didn’t say anything to him. I never know what to say to internet people when I recognize them! I had planned to go to the Mega Mouse Meet today, too, but then with the parade stuff and everything else, I never made it. Oops! Next year for sure!)

We ate our yummy sandwich back up in the room, and then went to the window at the end of the hallway to watch Illuminations.

I brought my video camera to tape it from this cool vantage point, because it is a totally different perspective of the fireworks, and I thought it would be neat on film.

The video, however, turned out much different than we expected.

I don’t know if it was 8 days of vacation, or the fact that we had seen Illuminations like 7987 times by now, or of Tubbi’s puts something in their grilled cheese, but we were very, very easily entertained by Illuminations. We thought it was funny that we had no idea what part of the show we were at without the music. “Is it over?” was said about eight hundred times. Before the show even started, I was dancing in the hallway, and whacked my hand against the ceiling light, causing a big THUD. We felt really bad because we were right outside some guest rooms, but we are just not people who are capable of being quiet. I really hope nobody was trying to sleep in there!

So, we asked if the show was over a lot, we did the evil “Just blow everything up!” routine, and we watched a van drive along the road below, where it looked like it was going to collide with some people. And we laughed. A lot.

I guess you had to be there?

Fine, you can!

Thanks to the beauty of youtube.com (they let you upload videos for free, so you don’t have to waste your precious bandwidth and make your hosting company mad at you, like I keep doing!), here’s a short clip of our Illuminations viewing experience!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhd7lDzYSz0

(pardon my voice sounding freaky, 8 days into this trip I was looking and sounding awful! But you’ll hear more about why on day 10) Yeah, about halfway through the video, I did literally crawl into the window for a better view. And yeah, there are a lot of Strong Bad refrences in there. We’re really cool like that. (Oh man, we are so nerdy!)

Fireworks behind us, it was time for some Kungalooshing! We went down to the bus stop to wait for the bus. (Katie totally did not believe me that this was really the bus stop, since we saw no busses for at least 10 minutes.)

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Katie was a little upset that the machine had no diet coke.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/8tilt2.jpg

Bad Katie!

Eventually a bus DID come, proving to Katie that I wasn't making us stand in the middle of nowhere for no apparent reason. Yay!

Remember the pictures of the Adv Club from Day 1? Well, now everyone was decorated in their holiday best! Santa hats for everyone!
Santa Hat on the Colonel?

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/8ac5.jpg

Check!

Santa hat on God with a Rod? Check!

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http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/8ac2.jpg

Santa hat on the Yakoose? Check!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/8ac4.jpg

Santa hat on Babylonia? Check!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/8ac3.jpg

Smart adventurers practice safe flying.

We were a little sad that we didn’t recognize any of the cast tonight- I’d read on the boards that a lot of the old favorites had been moved to different jobs, but I was hoping that at least our favorite Hathaway would be there! The new people were good, but it didn’t feel like they had really settled into their roles yet- it still felt like they were acting instead of being able to believe that they really *were* that character. Still, even mediocre AC is fun! The main joke about the night seemed to be about “hoochies!”. As some women walked across the room to the bathroom during the induction ceremony, Otis announced “The hoochies are going to the bathroom!” and when they returned, “The hoochies have returned from the bathroom!”. And a note for the “should I take my kids to a bar?” debate- when a girl about 12 or 13 went, it was “There goes a hoochie in training!” We were amused, but the girl’s parents may not have been. Of course, we have now adapted it as a term of endearment.

I don’t know if we are just getting old (mid twenties, ancient!), or if it was because the new cast just wasn’t as fun, but we were totally exhausted by midnight, and decided to just call it a night even though all we had seen was the show in the Mask room and the new member induction. We made plans to come back tomorrow night and actually do it right, since Katie was planning to just stay in my hotel then. There’s always tomorrow! (Um, well, for now! After tonight, my vacation has no more tomorrows! How sad!)

At the bus stop for the Swan, a bus finally pulled up after we had waited about 10 minutes, and we started to get on, but he told us that he was only dropping people off. Um, okay, weird! So we waited about 5 minutes more before another bus came- he was doing the same thing! What the heck? About four busses did this before one finally stopped and kept the doors open.

“Can we really get on? Really?”

We had started to feel really rejected!

Back at the hotel after I said goodbye to Katie, I was ready to just fall into bed and sleep, but there was a small reminder that I still had some packing left to do.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/8packing.jpg

No sleep tonight!

Just one real day left to write! How crazy is that? On Day 9 we say goodbye to the Swan, hello again to OKW, end up on a crazy car ride, and Stitch gets to meet his hero!

[Velsignet]

I read this before work, mug of tea in hand. Wasn't a problem until I got to various lines that nearly caused me to spray tea out my nose at the screen! OMG, am I a nerd. And yes, people, I'm really like that in real life. But at least I didn't almost lose Stitch on his grand Disney vacation! :cool1:

Katie

PS- I believe shortly after seeing the little bellringer kid was when I quite suddenly launched into the "it's peanut butter jelly time" song. Which Crystal had never heard and so required explanation. :banana:

[Thumper's Tara]

While we were waiting in line, a little girl came up behind me and handed me something. It was Stitch!!! I’d had my backpack partly unzipped with his head peeking out, since we kept getting him out for photos so often, it was easier to keep him easy access. Well, I guess it had come unzipped- I had almost LOST Stitch! I am so lucky that girl found him! How embarrassing would it be if I had to title this “Stitch and Crystal do WDW…until she loses him in an incedent of blatant alien neglect!” Thanks, nice little girl!!


Oh, thank GOD! I am not the only one who almost lost her mascot. Phew. I am glad Stitch wasn't permenantly lost...that would have been too horrible!

[YCFAN]

I just read this entire thread and I absolutely love your reports! And just think....it's almost time to go again!! Lucky girl.

[WDW Poly Princess]

PS- I believe shortly after seeing the little bellringer kid was when I quite suddenly launched into the "it's peanut butter jelly time" song. Which Crystal had never heard and so required explanation. :banana:

Hey, some of us don't know the PBJ song, (which will now live in my mind with JP jokes.), others just don't know where Morocco is (ahem!). It takes all kinds!

[VanniGirl]

Looking forward to reading the rest - and to your next trip report :)

[never_enough_pooh]

I noticed this tree over by where River Country used to be- it was full of shoes! Does anyone know the story behind this?



I had ready on another post that this is where boat (or maybe it was bus) drivers threw their shoes when they retired from WDW!

Great trip report.. can't wait to hear the end. It looks like you and Katie had a great time!!!

[lizardqueen]

You are just too much! I would love to have traveled with you! I have never laughed so much in my entire life!

[Velsignet]

Hey, some of us don't know the PBJ song, (which will now live in my mind with JP jokes.), others just don't know where Morocco is (ahem!). It takes all kinds!

I almost included the JP joke with that post, but figured I'd be nice. Actually, it was more of a self preservation move, just in case he ever stumbles across this board!

And isn't Morocco somewhere near Syria? :thumbsup2 At least I was in the right hemisphere. Apparently the #1 guess is somewehere in South America.

[Velsignet]

One day before Round Two, and one day left in the trip report. Can she do it?!?

[WDW Poly Princess]

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

I fell asleep! I can't believe it! And here I was doing so well!

I got up super early this morning to run my eight zillion "day before dance perofrmance and vacation" errands (Do you KNOW how hard it is to find a strapless bra if you have been blessed by the **** fairy? Or that fitting everything you need for your trip into one suitcase really is totally impossible, no matter the size of the suitcase?) So, I got home about 3:30, pulled out my big list of stuff to do at home today, and... fell asleep!
Didn't wake up till 8:30! EEP!

So now I am going to run around like crazy to get ready for tomorrow! That probably means no end to this poor trip report until I get home. Until then, you are free to make up your own ending. Are we abducted by aliens while in line for Soarin? Do I refuse to leave the Swan, resulting in Disney having to send security over and physically pry me from the place? Or do Hugh Jackman and I meet across a fastpass machine in Epcot, and I am now typing this from my lovely new home in Australia?

You find out in a week!

A teaser for the next trip report: Here in the buzzing metropolis of Kimberling City, MO (Population 1000), the temperature in the morning is going to be -7 degrees. Tomorrow in Orlando? 82! Hooray! Now if only I can make it from here to there!

Aloha, trip report board buddies! I'll see you on the other side!

[jennstew]

I loved your trip report so far. You have really reminded me to stop and enjoy the details about WDW. I can't wait to read the rest of this report and your next one.

[Belle Amy]

Honestly, made me laugh out loud...

I don't know what was funnier, the fact the Joss Whedon is now working at Star Tours (I knew cancelling Firefly and Buffy AND Angel was a bad idea) or the video with you and Katie during Illuminations, and the various Strong Bad references... (it's Oooover).

Can't wait to read more!! Hope you have an amazing time this trip as well!!!

[WDW Poly Princess]

Hey guys!

I am at Disney Quest right now, getting a few minutes of internet time in while my sister and nephew are off video gaming. We're having a fun (but exhausting!!) trip so far! The rest of this report will go up when I get home, and then I'll start one for the trip I;m on now!

Off to play some Ms Pac Man! ;)

[ltinker]

Great report, loved your pictures, some I don,t remember seeing. Everyone says it is my age, but I don't beleive them, it is that you see a lot and then you don't remember it again till next time.

My favorite place to stay is AMK.

I also can't wait to go back with my DLH and theNever has enough Pooh and her DLH. :wave:

[kathymc]

after reading your witty post about writing trip reports - I had to pop on over here. took 3 days of peeking during work (dont tell) but its been fun - not finished but fun!

so do we get the end of this one or the beginning of the next......

thanks for sharing! :stitch:

[IlluminationsUK]

Awwww, I just got excited you might have posted more on this report but no...*sigh*... come on girl, we need the rest of this one so then you can get started on your new one!

I'll admit it... I'm a junkie!

[WDW Poly Princess]

WOW, okay, I finally understand what you guys mean about missing the small stuff when you're not traveling solo! I'm back from my Feb trip, totally exhausted, and I don't think I saw anywhere near what I usually see! But that's a whole other trip report, let's get back to this one!

Now it’s time to say goodbye… (sniff..sniff…) To all our company…. M-I-C

Wait just a second! No goodbyes yet! We still have a whole day left! There are still things to do and stories to be told! For instance…

This morning is a little sad because I’m packing up and leaving the Swan, which also means that I only have one more night (which will be at OKW) before it is time to go home! Katie and I decided to meet at Downtown Disney around 1pm, so I finally said goodbye to the Swan around 10am, and decided to enjoy the walk to Epcot one more time.

A few parting photos of the Swolphin, first:

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/9swan2.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/9dolphin2.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/9dolphin.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/9swan.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/9swanbw.jpg

Oh no! Now they are putting giant swans on top of the Boardwalk, too!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/9bw.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/9bwcoffe.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/9bw2.jpg

I loved this sign over on the Boardwalk boat dock!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/9bw3.jpg

This awning just makes me happy for some reason.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/9yc.jpg


I love coming in through the International Gateway before WS opens! I decided to take my time this morning, stopping to take a few (million) pictures, and just drinking it all in.

A few UK photos…

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/9uk3.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/9uk1.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/9uk2.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/9uk4.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/9uk5.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/9uk6.jpg

One little Canada photo (ever notice this?)

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/9canada.jpg

…and a few SSE photos

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/9sse3.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/9e.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/9sse.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/9sse2.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/9sse4.jpg

[WDW Poly Princess]

And I finally stopped to check out the Leave a Legacy up close- there are some really funny pictures in there if you look closely!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/9legacy.jpg

Hee! The Mick Jagger one cracks me up! Love it!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/9busstop.jpg

I had the bus stop ALL to myself!

I hopped the bus from Epcot over to OKW, so I could go ahead and check in- the line was HUGE again, and I waited about half an hour to check in. Is it just always crazy here?

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/9okwline.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/9okw.jpg

Can you believe I never took this photo last time I was here?

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/9olivia.jpg

I think the artwork on the Olivia’s sign is really cool!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/9shells.jpg

I spent a lot of time earlier in the week sitting at OKW bus stops wondering if the shells were real or fake.

My room wasn’t ready yet, so I took the bus over to DD Marketplace to kill time until Katie got there. Now, is it just me, or do you guys turn into shopaholics on your last day of vacation? I went into “haven’t bought enough stuff!” mode, and picked up a Tink photo frame, and the 2-cd Happiest Celebration set, and a box of vintage Disney stickers that turned out to be really cute! (I hate when they sell stuff in boxes where you can’t tell how many there are inside, or what they look like- I end up having to buy it just to find out!)

I stopped in the art shop for a quick look around- I wish I could afford some of this stuff!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/9art1.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/9art2.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/9art3.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/9art4.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/9art5.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/9art6.jpg

Poor Katie spent about half an hour searching for a parking spot before we were able to meet up (At the dragon. You can’t miss it, Katie, I promise! Yup, she found it.)

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/9dragon.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/9dragon2.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/9tail.jpg

We decided to drop Katie’s car off at OKW, since she would be staying there with me that night, but my room still wasn’t ready. We weren’t sure what building I would be in, so we just picked a spot out in front of building 14, since it was right across from the Hospitality House, and then set off for Epcot. (Yes, we spent pretty much this entire trip at Epcot!)

So, yeah, Epcot. We did stuff. You get the idea by now!

After getting our Epcot fix, we went over to AKL to have lunch at the Mara- I needed more zebra domes before we left! We got a cheese pizza to split, and a box of zebra domes (or “zebra balls”, as Katie kept accidentally calling them.)

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/9zebradomes.jpg

Katie got to enjoy her first zebra dome, but after she took a bite of one of the chocolate mousse domes, she got a look on her face, not that different from the one when she drank the boiling hot chocolate. What could possibly be wrong with a yummy chocolate thing?

“It crunched!” At first I thought she meant there was something in the mousse (haven’t we had enough of that kind of thing on this trip?? We still haven’t recovered from the hairy cheesecake!) Then I thought she might be talking about the layer of chocolate at the bottom, so I pointed that out to her. “Yeah, there’s something crunchy in the chocolate!”

Uh oh. Katie is allergic to nuts. Are there nuts in these? I grabbed the lid to read the ingredient list- flour, sugar, chocolate, eggs, butter. No nuts? No nuts. Whew! We never really decided what the crunch was, but we were pretty sure that Katie wouldn’t die, so that was good enough. I try to limit the number of friends I kill on vacation.

We wandered around AKL a little, since Katie had never really seen it, and then took the bus back over to AK, since I had to see Festival of the Lion King one more time.

[krismom]

that rainbow awning makes me happy too.

:wave:

[WDW Poly Princess]

Okay, I bet I can finish this report today! I think I can, I think I can, I think I can…

Okay, are you ready for something totally crazy? Katie has NEVER seen Festival of the Lion King! I know! And she lives near Orlando!! I didn’t discover this fact until we were walking into AK, and I think I may have frightened a few passersby with my stopping in the middle of the walkway to rant about her never having seen it.

So, we started walking towards Camp Minnie Mickey, our destination in mind when…

Wait. What’s that?

Over there.

OH YAY!

Yup, it was time for Stitch to meet the real Stitch! There he was at the side of the path, with only a few people in line!!!

When I walked up to Stitch, he took Stitch Jr. and hugged him, and then crouched down with him, and lifted him over his head. It took me a minute to figure out what he was doing, but then I got it! Think the very beginning of the Lion King where they hold up Simba!!!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/9stitch1.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/9stitch2.jpg

Stitch gave Mini-Stitch and I kisses, and we continued on our way, glad that Stitch finally got to meet Stitch! (And seriously, how cute was that Lion King thing?)

Okay, NOW we were on track to Festival of the Lion King! There was a huge crowd waiting, which meant that the show must be starting soon! We only had about a five minute wait before we got in.

I noticed that my favorite dancer guy didn’t seem to be there anymore, but my new favorite dancer was the girl in green, who we shall call “Snake Girl”, since well, she was wearing a snake on her head. (Yeah, I’m a dancer, so I watch the dancers! I keep saying I’m going to run off to WDW to get a job as a zebra.)

As if we didn’t already think Snake Girl was cool, at one point in the show she was right over near where we were sitting.

“Hey!” she called over, “May the force be with you!”

It took me a minute to figure out why she said that, but then I remembered I was wearing the Star Wars t-shirt I’d bought at MGM. Hee!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/9folk.jpg

Snake Girl is the one in the bottom right.

We decided to go over to Epcot, because hey! We’ve hardly been there at all this trip! (HAH!)

A few final internet postcards from Innoventions-

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/9postcard1.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/9postcard2.jpg

Jazz Hands!

Outside, Katie re-enacts her attempt at being cool on Star Tours

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/9strek.jpg

We rode Figment, and then had some fun with the photo postcards at the end. Here’s mine—

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/9tiger.jpg

(Katie, did you do one?)

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/9moon.jpg

One more SSE shot, this one complete with the moon!

We started walking towards World Showcase, thinking that food was starting to sound good again. I meant to ask which countries we hadn’t eaten in yet, but that of course came out “Which countries haven’t we eaten yet?” Rawr! Girls eat countries! Roar!

We stopped at the first aid station near Mexico because the band-aid on my finger was coming off, so I needed a top of the right index finger band-aid to replace it, and Katie needed one for a blister that was starting to annoy her foot.

Inside the first-aid station, I didn’t get the “which finger? Top or bottom?” questions, because I just showed her my finger, but I got much better- I stuck out my finger, and the doctor actually put the band-aid on for me! I felt five years old, and it was fun! I was amazed that Katie wasn’t laughing.

Why wasn’t Katie saying anything?

Turns out that just as I walked into first aid, Katie’s phone rang- it was “Joe”, the CM we met in Morocco earlier in the trip! She told him that we were hanging out at Epcot again, and it turned out that he was there with a friend, too!

We met up with them in Mexico, but only had a few minutes to talk because Katie and I had fastpasses for Soarin, and our time was approaching. We made plans to call them later, and meet up if they were still there.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/9hoho.jpg

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/9hohoho3.jpg

(We actually took these photos on day 8, but they got mixed in with day 9, so you are getting them here instead!)

[WDW Poly Princess]

We got our one last ride on Soarin in, and then went over to check the wait time on Test Track, since I’ve never ridden it. (It’s even become a running joke- every time I get a FP, I either miss the time somehow, or I’m all the way over by America, or the ride breaks, etc etc!). The standby line was short, so we decided to ride. Fun!!

Afterwards, we met up with Joe and his friend again in Morocco (how appropriate!), and then went over to France to get desserts from the Boulangerie. We spent around an hour just sitting in France talking and eating, which I’m pretty sure is what one is supposed to do in France! At one point I spent several minutes looking at the big banner that was stretched overhead between the buildings, trying to figure out what it said. “Sur la terre… that’s on the earth… and that means celebration… and that’s happy… “ Oh, duh. It even said “Happiest Celebration on Earth” right underneath the French text.

Joe wanted us to stick around for Illuminations, and maybe go out afterwards, but we already had our Adventurer’s Club plans for the night, and kind of wanted our girls’ night, so we weren’t sure what to do! We tried to convince them that I was tired, needed to pack, and had to be up early (which was all totally true, so we weren’t really telling any lies!), but they kept begging us to stay (Can we help being so fabulous?). We finally convinced them we needed to go, so they volunteered to drive us back to the resort. We said we could just take the bus, but they said driving was no problem, so we agreed. Yes, I can hear you all yelling at us for getting in a car with people we didn’t know that well! We kept joking that our mothers would kill us. Kids, don’t get in the car with strangers! Do as we say, not as we do! (In our weak defense, we figured that Disney probably doesn’t hire serial killers, so at least Joe seemed safe!)

Hey, did you know that the Epcot parking lot is really big? Really really big?? Joe’s friend couldn’t remember where he parked, and since we had no idea what the car looked like, we weren’t much help. We wandered around the (big!) parking lot for about ten minutes before we finally found the car. Katie and I crammed into the back seat, and traded amused glances while Joe’s friend flipped through the radio station, in search of “cool” music. We were starting to feel like we were in some kind of after-school special warning people not to get into cars with strangers, especially once we saw how the friend drove!!!!

We somehow made it to OKW alive, and had them drop us off at the hospitality house, partly because we didn’t know where my room was yet, and partly because it seemed a little weird to tell them which building we were in. We said goodbye, and pulled out the cell phone to call OKW to get my room number. It turned out to be in building 14, the same building where we parked the car! When we got there to find the room, it turned out to be RIGHT next to where we parked the car! How cool is that? We have Room Number ESP! We stopped in the hospitality house gift shop in search of food. I ended up with a Lunchables thingey, and Katie got…um, something? I remember her using the toaster, so maybe it was a bagel?

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/9towelanimal.jpg

We had a washcloth animal waiting!

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/9phonebook.jpg

Katie and I have developed a love of the Japanese TV channel over the years- we like to watch the soap operas and make up “translations” of what’s going on.

http://www.lovemanythings.net/wdw05/9japantv.jpg

Katie took about a million photos of the tv, so you can thank her for this one.

I changed clothes for the AC, and then settled down on the bed to watch some Grey’s Anatomy while Katie got ready. She came out and sat down for a while, because she was feeling a little sick.

She was debating taking a shower, but also wanted to get to the AC, so I suggested…

“Take a shower! You’ll feel better or be clean!”

“I’ll feel better OR be clean? Not both?”

“Err, I meant you’ll feel better or at LEAST be clean!”

I was happy to sit and watch Grey’s Anatomy while Katie showered, and then afterwards we had to stay there and watch until the show was over.

(We have no photos of the TVduring Grey’s, which seems like a shame! Lets see what I can dig up…)

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e361/CrystalW07/dreamy.jpg

By the time the show was over, Katie still didn’t feel good, and I was getting really tired. No AC for us tonight! We decided to just give up on our fun night out, and sleep instead. I think we were asleep before our heads even hit the pillow.

[WDW Poly Princess]

Day 10

I can’t believe I’m finally to the end of this trip report, can you?! Wow!

Today is a very short day, report-wise. Katie and I struggled to get out of bed, since I had to catch the Magical Express super-early (8:15!) I got up and did some last minute packing, and we finally figured out that Katie could just stay and sleep, since we had the room till 11. She woke up long enough to say goodbye, and then I hauled my eight zillion bags across the street to the hospitality house to wait for the bus.

At the airport, I started feeling icky, so I found a spot to curl up with my book and just sit for a while. By the time I was on the plane I was feeling really icky. If you’ve never felt sick on a plane, I don’t recommend it! Sitting still for two hours in a cramped seat isn’t all that bad in general, but doing so when you’re feeling sick is awful!

Long story short, I fell asleep as soon as I got home, and slept a LOT, figuring that I was just really tired from the trip- ten days of running around the parks IS a lot!

A few days later, still sick, I went to the doctor, and told him that I’d been sick since I left FL.

He prescribed another trip. I laughed.

Who knew it would end up being true?

Two months later, as I was sitting at home, doing nothing since the hotel I work at closes down for two months in the winter, the phone rang. It was my sister, asking if I wanted to go to WDW with her in Mid-February.

And now that I’ve finished this report, it’s time to write that one!

(I normally like to conclude my report with some final thoughts, but honestly, by now it has been soooooo long since this trip that I can’t really remember any of it! Sorry about that! I promise to do better on the next one!)

[Philadisney]

splendid report, i love that you included so many pictures!!! i am looking forward to your next one!!! :goodvibes

[MACPlink]

WOW! That was a fantastic report! Can't wait for the next!!! Ahhh those pictures make me want to be there again!

[Cinerama]

Loved it!! I'll be looking for the next one.....

[PrincessNED]

subing

[never_enough_pooh]

Great report!! I can't wait for the next one!

:cheer2:

[kimbac3]

Thanks for sharing!!! :thumbsup2
Kimba

[ltinker]

Thanks for the memories. :wave: :bounce: :rotfl2: :cool1: :grouphug:

[DVCTiff]

Every time you whack yourself on a light fixture or store display, I crack up! Hope that doesn't make me a bad person. Great report! Thanks!

But, seriously, I'm a little worried about your nutrition. You can't live on pizza and zebra domes, my friend.

Can't wait for your next report!

[IlluminationsUK]

Great report, really looking forwards to the next one. :thumbsup2

[Stitchy]

Wow awesome trip report, very funny! :rotfl: I loved the pictures, esp. the Wilderness Lodge, I LOVE LOVE LOVE that hotel!

[casey49781]

what a great report,,

[jodistar]

Loved your report! I have been worrying about going solo to Disney next January but I think I will be okay......after reading your report and seeing what fun you had.

I too will be meeting my friend (who lives in Florida) but for the majority of my time - I will be at the resort myself. Thanks to your report, I think that I will be just fine!

Jodi

[bellelayne]

Hey that was truly great and inspiring. If I can journal half as much as you that would be remarkable. Did you make a report for your second trip?
Good luck with the writing career. I'd buy your book!

:disrocks:


ONly twelve more days for me. Wow I can't believe it.....

party:

[Jennifer Hemric]

Thanks for the report.

[FigmentKid]

Thanks so much for the great report! I really appreciate your sense of humor! I will definitely read your next one!

I have a question, do you know the name of the store that had that haunted mansion framed picture!!? Did they have any of the other pictures from that room??? I looooove those and I need to get one on my next trip.

[WDW Poly Princess]

I think the Haunted Mansion picture was at the Art of Disney store in Downtown Disney Marketplace. I've seen a few different ones, all of the stretching room portraits- love em!

[daisy_77]

Hi! I stumbled upon your trip report and I loved it!

Thank you for sharing!! :goodvibes :cool1:
Stitch is too cute!

[__disneygirl]

This was an awesome trip report, so glad I found it! You like to do WDW in a similar way as me, so that's always nice reading. Thanks! Can't wait to read your next one. :thumbsup2

[ead79]

Wonderful report! Thanks for sharing your adventures with us! :sunny:

[Beana9802]

Thanks for your inspiring trippie. I was afraid of going solo, and have some friends who work there, so I could do like you and have a few days of friends. You and your friend, Katie, are hysterical. I just came across this TR, so I read the whole thing. HOLY!!! I almost lost it when Katie jumped in the air after the countdown. Loved the Strongbad references...he's the man. I wish you lived closer, we'd make excellent friends! :0) :rotfl: :lmao: :rotfl2: :banana: (and who doesn't know about PBJT, HA!?)

[Simba22]

Your trip report was awesome! It took me a day and half of "work" to read through, which is great because my job doesn't close for ANYTHING....snow, sleet, tornados (no kidding...a couple of weeks ago we had a tornado warning and the managers were like "just keep taking calls until you hear warning sirens!") Anyway, your report was great, and I can't wait to go back (12/1 - 12/10!) and write my own report. I just got a new camera and I'm uber excited to bring it WDW! I'm glad you didn't lose Stitch permanently (my BF and brother bought me the Omega Stitch :stitch: from Mouse Gears on our May trip...the $50 one) and I was considering bringing him back in December...but i need the room for when I buy more stuff.

thanks for writing! I'm looking forward to reading your February report!