The Worst Morning Ever, Ride Buddies, and My (One & Only) Screw Up
Since you have probably figured out by now, the Mike & Erika never got up the first time I woke them, I’ll just cut to the chase and tell you that we didn’t leave our room this morning until 20 after 10. We went down to El Centro for breakfast at the Pepper Market, and we were going to grab stuff to go (like bagels and stuff) so we asked the CM at the podium for “To Go” cards. Well, Mike and Erika decided that they wanted waffles and eggs so we ended up sitting down to eat. About 30 seconds after we sat down, this guy comes over and asks us if he sat us there. We told him no, and I tried to explain that we were originally going to get our food To Go, but changed our minds. He launches into this long story about we can’t do that because it’s a different ticket and they have to make sure they have enough tables for everyone, and blah blah blah. In other words, since our tickets said “To Go” the cashier wouldn’t know to charge us the 10% gratuity. Like it wouldn’t be obvious that we ate all of our food already and weren’t walking out with 3 plates of waffles and eggs, and two bagels. So then he says “it’s OK for today since we’re not busy but next time, you have to tell us and let us seat you.” Ok fine, can I eat now?
Ok so earlier in the week, Mike had suggested that we all get “ride buddies,” or a stuffed animal to bring on the rides with us that would end up in our pictures. At MK, I bought a little Brer Rabbit, and Mike had the Jack Skellington pillow plush that I had included in his gift basket. Erika was determined to find Flounder, and Lumar wanted the little ghost and pumpkin Mickey beanies. So after breakfast we went onto Panchitos so I could pick up some postcards, and Lumar and Erika picked up their ride buddies. As we’re headed out of El Centro to get on the bus, Erika says she forgot her ring (the one she made yesterday at Epcot). I really was not planning on going all the way back to room for her ring but then she said she forgot to put on sunscreen, too. I was so mad, I swear I was about to get on the bus without them, but I knew if I let them go back to the room alone, they would probably go back to sleep. So we trekked all the way back to Casitas 5 and at 11:30 we were FINALLY leaving for the bus. As we are walking away from our door, Lumar says “did you grab the keys?” Of course I don’t have the keys – the keys are his job! So yes, our keys/tickets/
DDP card was now locked safely in our room.
And I closed and locked the door that joins our two rooms so we couldn’t even get in through Mike’s room. So Lumar and I hike all the way back to El Centro, and Mike and Erika stay behind. I told them to wait 5 minutes then head to the bus stop, get on the bus for MG and we would pick it up at El Centro. When we got the front desk, the lady tells me that we could have just called from one of the convenience phones (or Mike’s room) and they would have sent a runner out with new keys for us. So we go outside and sit down to wait the bus. I had told Mike to call me and let me know he was on the bus, but sure enough, an MGM bus came and Mike and Erika were not on it. So I call them and Mike tells me that they missed the bus by about 30 seconds…as they were getting to the stop, the bus was pulling away. Now, it took Lumar and I just under 10 minutes to walk to El Centro, 5 minutes to get new keys made, and then we were waiting outside for 5 minutes before that MGM bus came. So clearly, Mike and Erika did not leave the room when I told them to. So they got on the Epcot bus and took it to El Centro to meet up with us. It was another 10 minutes before a 2nd MGM bus came and it was 12:06pm when we finally sat down on the bus.
OK so when we got to MGM, we stopped to take a picture in front of the ToT:
We wanted to try and get to all of the shows today, since we did all of the rides on Saturday but we knew we wanted to do the rides again, too, since we now had ride buddies. So Mike and Lumar got in line at ToT and Erika and I went for RnRc FP’s, which had a return time of 2:55pm-3:55pm. The sign for ToT said 20 minutes but it was definitely more like 10:
And, again, I was not scared – the sun is just too darn bright!
So after ToT, we went to see Beauty & the Beast (FINALLY!!!) It started at 1:45 and we stopped for ice cream on the way in which was rapidly melting as we waited for the CM to let us into the theater. The show was really good and I’m glad that it was worth the wait (It only took me 6 trips to finally get to see it!). The opening act is an acapella quartet called 4 for a Dollar. They are so good, I would go see a show of just them performing. Sorry I accidentally hit the “stop” button part of the way through so it skips a few words of song:
It was about 2:15 when the show got out and we had a little less than 45 minutes before we could go back to RnRc so we went to meet Mike & Sully who were coming out for pictures at 2:35pm. Lumar, however, had been bugging me all week to find him cashews and the only place he knew that had them was the cart outside of the GMR so we stopped and bought him 5 bags of cashews, which he & my brother started eating while in line for Mike & Sully:
It was exactly 3pm when we left there and walked all the way back to RnRC. We were in the last car which, some people said feels faster than being in the front so we weren’t too disappointed. It definitely DOES feel faster but it was also really bumpy! My head was banging around all over the place! Sorry this picture is really bad – but you can see what G-Force did to Lumar’s ride buddy!
This is the part where things got ugly. I must have read the times guide 50 times that day and had decided that we would go see the 4:30 showing of LMA, and then go to see Indiana Jones at 5:15pm. But I totally messed up and we went to see Indy at 4 instead, because I was thinking that LMA was at 5:15. So after Indy we headed over to the the LMA theater and we could hear the cars already…I panicked thinking that the show started early so I reached for times guide and of course the show started right at time….at 4:30. And it was the last show of the day. So needless to say, we missed that. So we went on the Backlot Tour and I made Erika sit all the way to the left because she was the only one who didn’t know about Catastrophe Canyon….
We got back at 6:15 and headed over to Sci-Fi for our 6:30pm ressie. The food was OK but after eating in Mexico, we knew that nothing else on this trip was going to come close!
On a side note, the DDP was so worth it! It cost us $78 per couple per day and it included a CS meal, a TS meal, a snack, and an 18% tip. Here, we just spent $80 and that was dinner alone, without our breakfast (that was another $40 per couple), snacks, or the tip. Easily we would have spent about $150 per couple on this one day. Now that they have taken out the 18% gratuity for 2008, I’m not sure it will be as much of a savings as it was, but we are still planning to get it for our March trip, just because it’s so convenient to have basically all of your meals paid for in advance.
Ok so after dinner, we went back to Tatooine Traders so Lumar could pick up a t-shirt he wanted, and we headed out of MGM at 8:30pm.
Mike and Erika went to sleep around 9:30 and Lumar and I, shortly after that. Tomorrow we have breakfast at Boma at 9am!
Apparently, every so often, she gets a really sharp pain, almost like a cramp, in her left leg. She said normally it only lasts about a second and then it goes away and it happens randomly so she doesn’t know what causes it. Well this one last all though dinner and for the majority of the night. When they called us to our table, the CM saw that she was in pain and asked if there was anything she could do. Erika asked her for a bag of ice. The CM brought her ice, wrapped in a cloth napkin, so within 10 minutes the ice was almost completely melted and now not only was the seat wet, but so was the back of Erika’s skirt. 
You can see the water on the back of her skirt in the pic I posted of Mike carrying her. Imagine sitting through dinner and then the bus ride back to resort in wet denim? So uncomfortable...
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