A Very Mickey Christmas Trip Report: ***DAY FIVE JUST ADDED ***

[WDW Poly Princess]

Oh no, poor Powerbook! I hope it recovers quickly! I need good reports to read so I can procrastinate finishing my own!

 

[fizz13]

So sorry this had to happen now (and not in a selfish way at all ) Hope it gets sorted and will look out for more. Happy New Year for when you come back,

Claire xx

 

[Alysa]

love your report! gorgeous family too!

 

[budbeerlady]

Cannot wait to read the end!!!

 

[Princess Mommy]

Hi Viki!
I am LOVING your report!
I am so sorry about your computer

Your pic's of the BC are GREAT! I am so sorry we missed it this trip- we'll be there this August, I am so looking forward to the rest of your report!

 

[Viki]

NOTE: There will be photos, many, but the problem that caused the delay still lingers. My Powerbook is in the shop and the guys at the local computer store didn’t think transferring my 700 WDW photos over on to the loaner was the best idea they’d heard. So, photos, coming soon…



Well, if you’re even half paying attention you have surely noted that I am less than enthused about the “magical” part of Magical Express. One of many reasons is that Danny and John failed to have their luggage delivered anywhere near the time we had arranged to have a mini-Dis meet with a few friends from the Gay-Friendly Thread (formerly residing on the Adults and Solo travelers board, but recently moved to our new Gays and Lesbians at Disney board - come by and visit!). Fortunately, both boys are a lot less fashion conscience than our brothers from “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.” Perhaps it’s because they are both naturally gorgeous; clothes are almost beside the point (Don’t you hate them? Me, as previously mentioned, I need all the clothes I can stand to wear). So it was with great equanimity that both of them waived off my dismay, freshened up, and prepared with the rest of us to wander over to the Rose and Crown at Epcot for the twin purposes of meeting up with the aforementioned gaggle and for giving our British buddy Danny – who, for a variety of reasons, can’t make a return visit to Britain - a taste of the Mother country, this last goal even knowing, as I do, that the food at our dear R&C is less than stellar, but thinking the true magic (and copious amounts of liquor) of Epcot might cover a multitude of sins.



So our boys were up for it, but, as events would demonstrate, I wasn’t and I’m still stumped as to why not. We all left the room in plenty of time, even with the horrendous crowds (remember, anytime I can see other people anywhere near me at WDW – that to me is a crowd), to make our 5:30 pm meet. But here’s the thing. I left the room without my cell phone. That’s right. I’m about to attempt to meet six people I have never met before in my life – and don’t even have a good enough photo of – at a restaurant and bar jammed inside and out with complete strangers from many nations, all people-watching, and I’m convinced that I am somehow going to divine these six would-be friends from all the rest. Well, let’s just say I could have done it in SEPTEMBER - when there REALLY are NO crowds, but then we’ve already established, haven’t we, that December is NOT SEPTEMBER (No matter what the bloody charts say. Btw, Danny tells me that the word “bloody” really is a very bad word that his mother would have washed his mouth out for using back in the Mother country).



Sigh. Even though I am quite sure that you all have justifiably high opinions of my ability to rise to the occasion (and I still think my plan should have worked, how many families are there out there made of up four Caucasian adults and two African-American teens?), the dreadful truth is that I must confess that because I forgot my cell phone we never did meet up with Orlando Mike. He came. He called (five times!). But he did not see. And he left. Mea, mea culpa. We did chat the next morning, a conversation during which he was the definition of gracious, but that really only makes it worse, don’t you think?



Well the whole meet would have been a disaster, a complete and total bust, and it looked well on its way to meeting that goal, if not for the fact that thirty minutes past the scheduled meet time, during which time I released the teens to go off and do whatever the teens do (don’t tell me), and the four adults comforted ourselves with everything from lager to dirty martinis (that last would be me), my dear partner Gwen turned to me and said, “I don’t want to go out on to big a limb here Vik, but do you think there’s any chance that the those five women, with VERY SHORT hair, sitting all together at a table, looking like they are having a fabulous time, on the OTHER SIDE of the bar, near the nottagayguy playing the piano, MIGHT be the five women we were supposed to meet up with?”



Well that’s it then, isn’t it? Brilliant. I don’t know how she ever figured it out and, NO, at that point in the evening I’d only had ONE, count ‘er, ONE dirty martini. In fact, at that point, I was still working on the old (dirty) girl. Nevertheless, there’s the truth of it. Gwen picked out our would-be lady friends across the room and we finally managed to hook up (so to speak), with five really fun folk who looked like they were having a smashing time before got there and after we left, because, of course, by the time we had actually identified them (OK, by the time Gwen had actually identified them), we were thirty minutes into a fifty minute wait for our 6:20 Rose and Crown ADR (and this with no crowds!), and only had about twenty minutes for fun and frivolity before being called away.



Another big sigh… really big, because aside from looking like they were having a really smashing time, all five of them - before we ever got there - had already planned a joint return trip to the World for May – a trip we can’t possibly make at that time of year because we’ve got kids who can only be yanked out of school for the educational experience of WDW so many times in a school career before their teachers lose their pleasing personalities and start talking truancy. But, no worries. I’ve gotten them back. Of the 700 photos my girl took at WDW that week? Not one of them. Enough said.



And I wish enough was already said about the dinner that followed. At the risk of being labeled as a dreaded “Anglophobe,” let me ask the simple question, “How bad can BAD English food be?” And the answer? Yorkshire pudding capable of a big bounce. Now, there’s enough said. You get my drift. Put another way, the Rose and Crown dining experience was NOT getting Danny all warm and fuzzy, with thoughts of Mum’s own home cooking dancing in his head. But, dear friends, fear not, we WERE getting Danny all warm and fuzzy. It only took two bottles of wine, two dirty martinis, two gin and tonics, and multiple pints. Or something like that. I wasn’t taking notes. Did I mention that Yorkshire pudding bounces? Like a ball?



At any rate, how could we go wrong? We couldn’t. Because bouncing puddings or no bouncing puddings, two hours and forty-five minutes later, as we were still dining (and drinking), on the patio of the Rose and Crown (and, yes, we left her a HUGE tip – and lots about which to gossip with the girls), with two great kids, and our two best friends, we were treated to the still breathtaking spectacle of Illuminations, complete with the holiday rendition of “Let there be Peace on Earth.” At that last? I stood. Really, you had to. It was that moving. Really, well done. Bravo.



And then, dear friends, we went to sleep. Perchance to dream. More to come (yup, 8 more days to come – this could take awhile).

 

[MsSpinShady]

Great trip report Viki, but shame on you for leaving me at Day 2!!! Now I'll have to keep checking back, and I'm sure I must have some work to do...

More, more...

MsSpinShady

 

[joanjett1976]

my dear partner Gwen turned to me and said, “I don’t want to go out on to big a limb here Vik, but do you think there’s any chance that the those five women, with VERY SHORT hair, sitting all together at a table, looking like they are having a fabulous time, on the OTHER SIDE of the bar, near the nottagayguy playing the piano, MIGHT be the five women we were supposed to meet up with?”[/size][/font]

That is too funny! I guess none of us are having any chance with our meetings, huh?

 

[TinkerChelle]

Viki love the report so far!!! AKL is my favorite resort. My partner, Amy and I, spent our honeymoon there in 2001. The pics brought back fabulous memories. I am sure you'll really enjoy your anniversary trip there.
I can't wait to read the rest of your report.

 

[glass slipper girl]

Just wondering what happened on day 3 and beyond!

 

[Viki]

Just wondering what happened on day 3 and beyond!

I can't believe it but Apple still has my powerbook - four weeks and counting! In the mean time I'm working on a loaner, but I don't want to download 700 WDW on to it, so I'm waiting... patiently.

Thank you so much for going to the trouble of digging this poor little report off the back pages.

I promise, I'm going to get this done with all due speed just as soon as I get my baby back!

 

[Princess Mommy]

Oh No Vickie!
I am so looking forward to the rest of your report when you can finally post it!

 

[Viki]

Thank you, Mommy! And I do intend it. It's now four weeks and counting an sign of my powerbook. I think they're trying to convert me to the dark side (PC-ville).

 

[THE HAT]

looking fwd to the rest and the pics that are soon to be (hopefully)!!! such an enjoyable report!! tks for sharing. loved the family pic you posted, indeed beautiful

 

[Belle23]

I can't wait until your next report. I loved what you posted so far and love the photos.

 

[Viki]

Hey, guys, after all of the activity on the Trip Reports board I've decided to move this poor little trip report over to our home board. I WILL be finishing sometime within this century.

 

[PennyW]

...five women, with VERY SHORT hair, sitting all together at a table, looking like they are having a fabulous time

LOL!! The five of us did manage to spot each other in record time! But (thanks to Gwen ) we did get to have some fun conversation with you too!

 

[Princess Mommy]

Viki~ I have been watching this for updates!
Can't wait 'til you can post more!

 

[Grammyof2]

I was wondering if you were ever going to finish. I've been looking forward to more pics of your great jackets.

So much drama lately, have to run all around to find all the unfinished TR. Can't wait for more.

 

[Viki]

Note: OK, I already reported our first full day once, but it's been a good, long time, I forgot I did it (you really have to embrace your own dementia), and in my first new installment in forever, I wrote it up again. Sheesh. I can't even believe it. But, hey, having both versions side by side should provide a good opportunity for some literary criticism. And, hey, at the very least, this new version has PHOTOS! So, here we go!


It’s been four months, but it’s finally Monday night, the occasion of our first ever, tres historic, mini-Gay and Lesbian Disboards mini-meet – this when we were still a thread, without a dream of being a board!

If you recall – God Bless You if you do – things up to now were going pretty well. Gwen, the kids, and I had arrived the night before and checked into AKL for a one-night concierge stay, a planned foretaste of the AKL concierge feast to come in August, when my girl and I celebrate 20 years of “nonlegal” marital bliss (the nonlegal part took place twenty years ago this June on a camping trip, three years into our relationship, under a canopy of stars, back dropped by thousands of lighting bugs flashing in synch; the bliss part happened then too – and before and after, for a total of 23 years and counting – life is good). Danny and John, on their very first, and much resisted (on Danny’s part), trip to the World, had arrived just that afternoon, lunched at Beaches and Cream, seen their room as part of the 2-bedroom that we had rented on points at BCV, wished diligently, but politely, that Magical Express had sufficiently supplied both enough Magic and Express to deliver their luggage within four hours of their arrival so that they could freshen for dinner (we never did learn when the luggage arrived, but it was in the room by the time we returned very much later that evening). In any event, they’re gay. They looked good.

So, off we go, all prepared – I think – to meet as many as seven or eight people, who had been chatting on our “Gay-Friendly” thread for months, and who all just happened to be at the World at the same time, at the Rose and Crown for drinks. We – Danny, John, Gwen, the kids, and I – had ADRs – I thought - for dinner at 6:50 PM, but the date with the dis-buddies was “just” for drinks. Sight unseen we were all being politely cautious. No dinner plans. No moving vans. Just drinks – and, really, we only managed to just pull that off, mostly, because as I was feeling gleefully confident that this was all going really, really well, we all walked out of the resort and over to Epcot, only to discover that I had forgotten my cell phone.

Let’s review – my plan is to meet with 8 or 9 people - WHOM I HAVE NEVER MET AND OF WHOM I HAVE NO PHOTOS - at one of the largest theme parks in the world and I forgot my cell phone. No problem, I think. I’ll know them. And better yet – they’ll know us, because how many families that evening, in that place, will consist of two (lesbian) women, two (gay) men, all of whom are Caucasian, and two African-American teens? Apparently too many because no one recognized anyone, at least not during the first hour or so, during which we later learned OrlandoMike called me – on my cell phone – five times. Not easily daunted, he even came by at the exact time we were nestled on the balcony between dinner and Illuminations, confident of his imminent arrival, because we had even instructed our straight-from-Britain server to be on the look out for him (not that any of us knew or still knows what he looks like). He came. He sat at the bar. He had a drink. He left. Ships passing in the night. So close and, yet, so far. We missed him. More, we missed the bleu cheese stuffed olives he brought for my dirty martini drinking pleasure. We’ve since heard from Mike. We’ve never heard another word of those olives. It’s a mystery.

The other mystery is how we all missed each other. Well, OK, not exactly, ALL of us. Five of the group managed to recognize each other, find a table, sit down, start drinking, and get close enough in less than hour that they were already planning their next trip together. Did I mention that they’d known each other less than sixty minutes? Thank God they were only meeting for drinks. Did I mention that they were all lesbians? But, and I have to emphasize this, there were absolutely no moving vans!

So there they were, five beautiful lesbian women, sitting on one side of the Rose and Crown, perched right next to the worst piano player in the world, while our party of six was not thirty feet away, standing near the bar, easily in eyesight. We were even looking for them. Or at the very least Gwen was. I was thinking my dirty martini would be much improved with a bleu cheese stuffed olive. That wasn’t happening. But dinner was and soon and I was quickly losing heart that in the middle of a very crowded bar – hey, thank God this was a low season at the World! – we were ever going to meet up with our friends, when Gwen suddenly nudged me and said the following, “Hey, Vik, I don’t know, but weren’t we looking for lesbians?” “Yes,” I said cautiously, recognizing a certain smug edge to her voice. Hey, it doesn’t take me more than twenty-three years to learn how to read my partner’s subtle tonal inflections. “Well,” she said, “maybe it’s just me, but do you think it’s in the least possible that those five women, sitting at that table, right next to the piano player, thoroughly engaged in one heck of an animated conversation, all with VERY SHORT HAIR, might be the girls your looking for?”

Alleluia. Alleluia. Alleluia. Alleluia. Al-le-lu-ia.

Well, you get the idea, which is all you're going to get, because not one of us geniuses took a photo. Finally, there we all were. Together at last. And the only problem was that in all of my compulsive planning somehow the Rose and Crown wound up with a slight discrepancy in our understanding of when dinner was. I thought it was at 6:50. They thought it was at 6:20. So, after 75 minutes of searching and 12 minutes of meeting, our first ever, tres historic mini-meet was drawing to a close. But, it was good. Very, very good.

Very unlike the dinner that followed.

Danny and John on balcony:

I know. I know. We’re hardly Disney neophytes and not even those folk expect good food from England, let alone from an England transplanted to the USA. But here was our thinking: Danny is British and Danny can go home to Britain any time he wants. But for a complex set of reasons he hasn’t in a very, very, very long time, so I thought if we can’t take Danny to Britain Disney can, at the very least, bring Britain to Danny. Good thought. Bad food. Apparently, British pudding isn’t supposed to bounce.

But if this saga proves nothing else – we are survivors. And survive we did. The kids had cokes with very fun flashing cubes. The adults had many adult drinks for when Illuminations started flashing. I remember multiple bottles of wine, many pints of beer, a couple dirty martinis, and the best rendition of Illuminations we have ever seen – it was the Xmas version, and by the time they got to, “Let there be Peace on Earth,” I was on my feet – at least for a moment or two, and then I sat back down.

My son on Rose and Crown's balcony, watching Illuminations:

And then we all went home – to our second home – BCV, to try and get a sufficient amount of sleep so that we could manage MGM commando style in the morning! So that’s it. One full 24-hour period at the World. Imagine the joy we will all share in coming years if at this pace I continue to relate this riveting tale!

Our Christmas:

And Winston: