"Our TR - Now with 100 % less POFQ!" - Nov 10th-20th(3/5-Last Day & Final Thoughts!)

[joy13]

All caught up (via links) it's funny to compare what your daughter likes vs mine since they are about the same age. My daughter has her pickiness too, but seems to be opposite of yours. My dd loves Soarin' - wouldn't even consider Star Tours, mine loves all the characters (though didn't want to stand in line too long to see them most of the time), but we had to leave the Indy show last time because the fighting and fire scared her - so she wouldn't see it this time. Kind of funny.

 

[skier_pete]

All caught up (via links) it's funny to compare what your daughter likes vs mine since they are about the same age. My daughter has her pickiness too, but seems to be opposite of yours. My dd loves Soarin' - wouldn't even consider Star Tours, mine loves all the characters (though didn't want to stand in line too long to see them most of the time), but we had to leave the Indy show last time because the fighting and fire scared her - so she wouldn't see it this time. Kind of funny.

Nice - glad to see someone use those links!

Kids are so funny that way. DD doesn't like the fire parts very much - she ducks down and covers her ears - but I think she must really like the stunt parts.

 

[skier_pete]

Happy New Year everyone! I'm back and updating again. Hopefully I can continue to do this pretty regularly and be done by the end of February. You also might notice a new ticker appearing at the bottom of the page. Expect a Pre-Trip report link to be coming along very soon!

Anyways, back to the update. When I last left off, we were heading to 50s Prime Time Cafe (PTC) for lunch.

This was the only true “new” restaurant we tried this trip…we’ve pretty much done all the TS ones within the parks, so it’s hard to find new ones. ’50s PTC is pretty much what is says, a restaurant themed to a ‘50s/’60s TV show, like you are at the supper table at Lucy’s place. We got there and we had to wait about 20 minutes to get a Table. It was warm out, but all the seats inside were full, but I got a spot at the bar, and DM and I decided to get a cold beer.

The bar – TVs were sort of everywhere in this place:

No ‘50s sitcom would be complete without the Aluminum tree.

We finally got seated. I think much like the Jungle Cruise, a lot of the pleasure you get out of this restaurant requires (1) a really good CM and (2) embracing the conceit of it. In our case, we got a fantastic CM waitress who was Aunt Doris or something like that. I didn’t get her picture for some reason. She really played the role joking with our table and all the tables around us. You could tell she’d been working there a while. Some of the other waiters and waitresses around weren’t as into it, though so I think we were very lucky in that respect.

The other important thing was – how was the food? It was fantastic. DW and I started out with shakes for our drinks. I had chocolate and she had chocolate peanut butter.

They were huge, each metal glass held like 3 glasses worth of shake. I don’t think I finished it! The meals were all really good. DM had the chicken pot pie, DW had the pork chops, and I decided to try the combo platter of meatloaf, pot roast, and fried chicken:

They were all quite delicious. Comfort food at its best. DD had the chicken and pasta, and liked hers as well. She actually ate some vegatables, though I was disappointed the waitress didn’t make her eat ALL of them!

We also had desert, but somehow I forgot to take pictures of them! Where’s my DIS head. We really didn’t need the desserts, though. I just remember getting the s’mores dessert and not being able to eat more than half of it. Overall, we really really enjoyed this meal, a lot more than I was expecting. While I still prefer the Sci-Fi, this is definitely a fun alternative, especially if you get a willing and able cast member running your table. Overall, I give it a 8 out of 10.

By the time we got out of there it was already something like 2:30 PM, and we had a LOT left that we wanted to do so we had to time things just right to accomplish them.

Continued in next post.

 

[skier_pete]

Since I didn’t take a ton of pictures of what was next I will just sort of list things off. It was mostly shows, so even though it was sort of a hectic pace it really wasn’t too tiring:

1st: Voyage of the Little Mermaid : Good show, but to me really good use an update/modernization.
2nd: Disney Junior Live of Stage: Kill me now! Kill me now! I so hope by the time we get back again DD has outgrown this awful thing.
3rd: Beauty & the Beast – this was a 4 PM showing, and I blew it off to try and squeeze in RnRC and ToT as I didn’t think there was any other way for me to get these in.

So, I’ll digress here a bit, because I got in the single rider line for RnRC. The single rider line is great, because you not only bypass the stand-by line before the preshow (which the FP line does), but when you come out of the Aerosmith preshow the single riders get there own, almost non-exisitant line, so in this case I was basically at the cars with no wait at all. However, the ride immediately broke down. After standing there about 5 minutes, they let everyone out. They offered me a FP to return, but I said, “No Thanks!” So instead, I headed over to ToT and rode it twice. On the second ride, I took at little nap (lower right).

Took this FP shot on the way back to TSM:

4th: TSM – used our FP for a re-ride
5th: Animation Academy. Of course our timing was bad here, and we JUST missed the 5 PM session, so we had to sit and wait about 25 minutes for the next one. In the meantime, DW and I met with the Bob and Helen Parr.

By the time we were out of the animation academy, it was almost 6 PM, and this meant we missed the lighting of the lights. DD was getting tired (it was a busy day) and she threw a fit saying she didn’t want to see the lights. Ugh! She drives me crazy sometimes. Well, we eventually dragged her there and of course once she got there she was much better. It of course helped that we bought her a pretzel. For those that haven’t seen the Obsorne Lights, they are just absolutely incredible. I am not one for excessive Christmas lights on a house, I like simple and pretty, but this is just so over the top, it really works amazingly well. It’s one of the few things that I see in Disney World that I think effectively gets me to feel like it is really Christmas:

It was down this alley up high that they had “Purple Cat” hidden. As you can see, it wasn't easy to spot without just the right angle.

I wanted to find Purple Cat, and I was looking all over. A CM overheard me telling my DM about it, and he took me to find it. He also told us the story behind purple cat. He claimed that when the lights were originally shipped to Disney, they were unpacking all the boxes and they found a purple cat. They couldn’t figure what it the world that had to do with Christmas, and when they asked Jennings Osborne, he said that it was a Halloween decoration that had accidently been packed in with the Christmas ones. Well, a CM decided to put it up anyways, and it has become a Holiday tradition to put the cat in a difficult to find spot. Well, this one this year was pretty difficult, as you had to stand in exactly the right spot and look down a side alley to see it. It was so specific that you really couldn’t even see the whole cat at once. Here’s the best picture I could get, which I already posted earlier but will repeat here:

So, my DM and I left DW and DD at this point. My DM is a real big American Idol fan, and I wanted to be sure she got to see the show. The finale show was scheduled for 7:30 PM, and it was still only about 6:30 PM, so I suggested we kill time by checking out the Great Movie Ride. Now, I’m not a huge fan of GMR. Some of the concepts are good, but I think they did just a very poor job in most cases of capturing the fun and excitement of the movies that I just don’t care for it very much. Some concepts are good – having the Tram taken over by a movie character – but just not that great in execution. However, DM did enjoy the ride quite a bit, and I didn’t mind it, so it was a fine diversion. And by the time it was over, we had to head in for AIE.

I am not a big fan of American idol. I have nothing against it, it’s nice that they at least get people that can actually sing and give them their big break. However, I find the format of the show so filler-ific that I can’t stand watching it. If there is 30 minutes of actual singing in a 2 hour episode of AI I would be shocked, and the results shows are even worse. But, I knew my mom would enjoy this show, and so these a the sacrifices we make for our families!

This was the first time I ‘ve sat through this show, and it was a pretty accurate rendition of the actual show. They have people come out and pump up the crowd, show videos of former contestants, and introduce the judges.

Actually, I got a bigger kick out of seeing the judges, because two of the three were former Adventurer’s Club CMs. The middle one I saw play Samantha Sterling the last time I was in there, and the guy I’ve seen play Fletcher Hodges as well.

It’s funny that they introduce these people as “record producers/executives”, I wonder if the contestants think they really are that. I would hope not. It’s also funny that they are so accurate to the real thing that they have Coke product placement in front of them.

The show involved the “champions” of all the shows for the day. Each one got to sing 2 minutes of a song. And honestly, while none of them were terrible, none of them really stood out either. (I decided not to post pictures of anyone because I probably shouldn’t.) The one thing I found annoying is that some of the song mixes actually included someone singing along in the background. If I’m judging people singing, how about letting me hear them sing?

But in the end, someone won, got the “golden ticket” from Willie Wonk…I mean the Ryan Seacrest clone and the show was over. I don’t think I will ever need to sit through that again.

At the end of the day, we made our way back to the hotel. The crowds at the bus wasn’t bad, and neither was the wait. It was funny in that it was sort of a pack-filled day with us opening and closing the park, but it really didn’t feel too bad. We were pretty beat though, and by the time we got back to the room were pretty much ready to go to sleep. I think we might have gotten some food at the time, I got an oriental chicken salad but didn’t finish it as I was still pretty full from lunch some 8 hours before. It was a fun day and we got quite a bit done.

Since I forgot to do this for Day 4:
Characters Met: 4
Rides/Attractions seen: 3
Waits of > 5 minutes: 0

Day 5:
Characters Met: 6
Rides/Attractions seen: 13*
Waits of > 5 minutes: 0
*I only counted the Muppets/HISTK Playground as 1, and BatB/Tot as 1, since we did them concurrently.

Totals (5 days to date):
Characters Met: 16
Rides/Attractions seen: 50
Waits of > 5 minutes: 1

 

[orcasandowls]

Catching up via links and subscribing. Looks like an awesome trip!

 

[Chicago Mo]

FINALLY The Purple cat!!!​

I didn't know anything about the purple cat what a great story!!

Happy new year!!!

 

[Moodyzblu]

Congratulations on being able to photograph the elusive purple cat !!

 

[skier_pete]

Catching up via links and subscribing. Looks like an awesome trip!

:Welcome: and thanks for joining in! There's still a long way to go for the end.

FINALLY The Purple cat!!!​

I didn't know anything about the purple cat what a great story!!

Happy new year!!!

Congratulations on being able to photograph the elusive purple cat !!

Looking back, I realize I didn't even describe how "elusive" it really was. The picture before the purple cat, the one with the basketball hoop, shows exactly where the cat is, but you can't see it. It is actually on top of that blue and green lighted building, directly to the left of the basketball hoop. If you look at the previous picture right above this one, you can't even see where the alley is. Two more above that is a further back view, and you can sort of see the alley (just below the Lion King billboard). You have to position yourself not too close to that alley, and at just the right spot so you are looking down it at the right angle to see the top of that blue & green building. The CM that helped me knew where it was and had a hard time finding it. It definitely would be a major challange to find on your own.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Nice updates and thanks for sharing Osbourne. I haven't yet been lucky enough to go to the World during Christmas...it is on my bucket list....so I'm always enviously looking at the Christmas TRs with the beautiful decorations.

That's a great story about the purple cat. I've seen heaps of people post pictures of the purple cat and had wondered why. Now I know.

And I like that new ticker of yours..

 

[skier_pete]

Nice updates and thanks for sharing Osbourne. I haven't yet been lucky enough to go to the World during Christmas...it is on my bucket list....so I'm always enviously looking at the Christmas TRs with the beautiful decorations.

You definitely should. You don't even really have to come at Christmas. It was still almost 40 days away when we visited!

That's a great story about the purple cat. I've seen heaps of people post pictures of the purple cat and had wondered why. Now I know.

So nice that the CM helped us out...it just makes me think how wonderful all the CMs we interacted with on our trip were. I'm sure there are bad ones out there, but we always get such great interaction. I think because we always have a smile and are polite to them. I'm sure they have so many rude customers and I sometimes wonder if the times you read about problems its really the tourist being rude first before the CM. But anyways, the CM at Osborne lights overheard me searching, and not only took me over to find it but also told that story. Great job on his part!

And I like that new ticker of yours..

The planning (and the PTR) will be starting in earnest very very soon. You know I will be picking your brain some more!

 

[joy13]

I thought about 50's Primetime for Dinner - actually had an ADR there - but then cancelled it because I wasn't sure how Maddie would respond to the schtick they do there. One day she could love it, but in the wrong mood, it could bother her, so I wasn't going to take a chance - LOL! Food looked great too! The night we were at DHS, it closed early for some convention group - so the Osborne lights were so crowded, I don't think I was able to get down that alley - but I remember the basketball hoop

 

[Colleen27]

50s Prime Time looks great! DD10 insisted on an ADR there and your review actually has me looking forward to it for the first time.

Great job finding the purple cat! When we were there at Christmastime my family ran out of patience on me so I never did track it down.

 

[FosterA]

Great updates!
Very interesting about the purple cat thing. I had heard DIS people talking about it some here and there but now I know the REAL story. pretty cool! I wish I knew to look for him before we went.

I think you got some super photos of the lights!

speaking of great photos....gotta love that one of you sleeping on TOT!

Glad to hear the deets about American Idol too. David was slightly interested in seeing that but we ran out of time and I really didn't do a lot of "research" on it anyway but now I sort of have a better idea. Maybe next time.....?

 

[skier_pete]

I thought about 50's Primetime for Dinner - actually had an ADR there - but then cancelled it because I wasn't sure how Maddie would respond to the schtick they do there. One day she could love it, but in the wrong mood, it could bother her, so I wasn't going to take a chance - LOL! Food looked great too! The night we were at DHS, it closed early for some convention group - so the Osborne lights were so crowded, I don't think I was able to get down that alley - but I remember the basketball hoop

You definitely can't be overly sensative at 50's PTC. I was constantly scolded for having my elbows on the table (a bad habit I know).

50s Prime Time looks great! DD10 insisted on an ADR there and your review actually has me looking forward to it for the first time.

Great job finding the purple cat! When we were there at Christmastime my family ran out of patience on me so I never did track it down.

A lot will depend on your server, but the food was good regardless. I forgot to mention the prices weren't too bad either...though this was the meal that was originally planned as OOP, but when we ended up skipping out on Restaurant Marrakesh we got to put this one on the DDP.

I could see where the family wouldn't have pateince for you searching for it! I don't think I ever would have found it on my own.

Great updates!
Very interesting about the purple cat thing. I had heard DIS people talking about it some here and there but now I know the REAL story. pretty cool! I wish I knew to look for him before we went.

I think you got some super photos of the lights!

speaking of great photos....gotta love that one of you sleeping on TOT!

Glad to hear the deets about American Idol too. David was slightly interested in seeing that but we ran out of time and I really didn't do a lot of "research" on it anyway but now I sort of have a better idea. Maybe next time.....?

Thanks for all the praise...much appreciated to know people are enjoying the updates! I was trying to come up with fun things to do in the ride photos. I actually like the guy next to me and his "panic face".

I guess I didn't say it with the AI review, but my mom LOVED it. I think it's one of those attractions that if you are already a fan, you would enjoy it, but if you are not, you don't think too much of it. It's definitely not an attraction that will outlast the end of American Idol when it comes.

 

[khertz]

Dinner looks great! We haven't eaten there since the last time I was still living with my parents and we went on a trip. Once when DH came with us (when he was still DBF!) he gulped his glass of Coke down in seconds, and the waitress made a smart comment about it and said she'd get him a refill. She came back with a tray of about 5 or 6 glasses of Coke for him! He tried valiantly to finish them all just to show her he could, but there was no way. Definitely a great memory from that place. The right waiter or waitress really makes the whole experience fun. And their fried chicken is delicious!

at you sleeping on ToT. And I learned the hard way that the single rider line on RnRC is not always great!! I think that's coming up on the next day of our trip.

Yay, Osborne Lights!! I know both you & I were very excited about them this year. I just LOVE those lights! And how cool that you found the purple cat!!

I'm with you on American Idol...so much filler. I can't watch it unless it's on DVR so I can fast forward through the junk. Especially the results!! I always fast forward to the last five minutes just to see who goes home. And all of this is only for seasons where the contestants actually keep my interest. Last season didn't at all, and I'm thinking it was the judges, so I may not be an AI viewer much longer! All that, and I have NO desire to see any of the AI shows in the parks. But it was nice of you to see it with your Mom. I bet she appreciated that!

Great updates!! Although I'm curious, how did your Animation Academy drawings come out? You should post them!!

 

[DisMomAmy]

We love 50's Prime Time - I'm glad you enjoyed it.

I LOVED seeing the Osborne Lights!! I didn't know about the purple cat though! If I ever get back while the lights are up, I'll be sure to look for it!

 

[pld5]

Looking forward to reading more.

I was going to post to ask about your wife's shirt from your AK day, but decided to read through your report again and saw that you answered this on page 8 of this thread.

Please pass along to her again how cool it is. I hope to find something similar in 2 weeks when I am there.

 

[skier_pete]

Dinner looks great! We haven't eaten there since the last time I was still living with my parents and we went on a trip. Once when DH came with us (when he was still DBF!) he gulped his glass of Coke down in seconds, and the waitress made a smart comment about it and said she'd get him a refill. She came back with a tray of about 5 or 6 glasses of Coke for him! He tried valiantly to finish them all just to show her he could, but there was no way. Definitely a great memory from that place. The right waiter or waitress really makes the whole experience fun. And their fried chicken is delicious!

at you sleeping on ToT. And I learned the hard way that the single rider line on RnRC is not always great!! I think that's coming up on the next day of our trip.

Yay, Osborne Lights!! I know both you & I were very excited about them this year. I just LOVE those lights! And how cool that you found the purple cat!!

I'm with you on American Idol...so much filler. I can't watch it unless it's on DVR so I can fast forward through the junk. Especially the results!! I always fast forward to the last five minutes just to see who goes home. And all of this is only for seasons where the contestants actually keep my interest. Last season didn't at all, and I'm thinking it was the judges, so I may not be an AI viewer much longer! All that, and I have NO desire to see any of the AI shows in the parks. But it was nice of you to see it with your Mom. I bet she appreciated that!

Great updates!! Although I'm curious, how did your Animation Academy drawings come out? You should post them!!

I totally agree the server would make 50s PTC. Too funny that your DH tried to drink all that Coke! I guess I'm lucky I got a beer at the bar, because I would've gulped down my first drink that fast as well.

I guess I skipped over part of the Animation Academy experience. Well, we ran into a problem in there - as we are walking in, I'm going into a row, and I turn around, and this other family has barged in between us. Well, they wouldn't give up their seats, so we only had two seats in the row, and by the time we realized what was going on, the whole place had filled up. We gave the seats to DM and DD, and in the end they gave us a spot in the front row, which only had a lap desk. DW was really upset because this is one of her favorite things. Then on top of that, they had us draw Karl Fredrikson (from UP), which to me was rather an uninteresting choice. I guess that's why my mind blanked out on describing the experience. We did save the drawings, though. If I think to, I'll take pictures of them and post them.

We love 50's Prime Time - I'm glad you enjoyed it.

I LOVED seeing the Osborne Lights!! I didn't know about the purple cat though! If I ever get back while the lights are up, I'll be sure to look for it!

Well, since you were "Finally getting to see the lights" I would hope that you loved 'em!

Looking forward to reading more.

I was going to post to ask about your wife's shirt from your AK day, but decided to read through your report again and saw that you answered this on page 8 of this thread.

Please pass along to her again how cool it is. I hope to find something similar in 2 weeks when I am there.

Thanks for joining in. How awesome that you are fulfilling a childhood dream (as in your avatar) with a Disney stay! My wife bought that blouse in Animal Kingdom at the store in Africa...we can't remember the name, but across from Tusker House. She bought it in 2009, so hard to say if they still have them.

 

[skier_pete]

As we pass the ½ way mark of our trip, we start to go back to parks we’ve already been to. In doing so, I start to loosen up the rope drop rule. In particular, with Epcot it’s really not necessary, especially since the family consensus was we did not need to ride Soarin’ again. So, the plan was a more leisurely pace this morning, with a target of getting to the bus stop around 9:30 AM.

Well, DD woke up early and decided that she really wanted to go down to the pool. It was a pretty warm day again (the last of the really warm days we had) so I was OK with the idea. We went down around 8:30 AM, with the idea to swim for about 30 minutes. At that early a time the pool was fairly empty, the slides weren’t yet open and the lifeguards weren’t on duty yet. We got down to the pool, and DD asked if we could stay long enough for the slides to open. I said, “OK, but just a few minutes after.” We still had to go back and get dressed to go to the parks. Well, the lifeguards start arriving, and DD is chomping at the bit to go on the slides…the head lifeguard sees this and says to her “Would you like to help us open the slides?” She says “Yes” and so they set her up with a pirate hat, eye patch and a sword and they have her declare the slides open. They also have her do a countdown to when the water on the slides turns on…countdown from 20, and they must have it timed just right, because when they get to 1 the water starts gushing out of the slide.

Of course, this is the one time I didn’t bring my camera with me, so I didn’t capture ANY pictures or video of it. We ended up having to stick around for about 15 more minutes because they gave her a “Magical Moments” certificate. (This sort of stuff started up with the “Year of a Millions Dreams” promotion back in 2007/2008.) We got back to the room, and I had her put on all the pirate gear and go up to the door to surprise DM and DW. They got a kick out of it. I then finally got her picture in full pirate regalia:

After we changed we headed out to Epcot. We had a little different plan, basically after lunch we were going to split up. My DM wanted to explore the countries a bit more, while we wanted to hit a little bit more of Future World. We had a dinner ADR at Biergarten at 5:45 PM, so we were going to meet there at dinnertime.

As we entered the park, we were asked to participate in the new “Next-Gen” gate entry. This was big news on the boards around that time (and even got talked about in the podcast). DW was excited to help out, as she said it meant “we were part of the EP in EPCOT” – that’s “Experimental Prototype” for those that don’t know. They put a sticker on each of our tickets that had a RFID chip in it, and then they scanned our ticket. We then went up to the new-style entrance gate. You were supposed to scan your ticket in front of the Mickey scanner, and then still give your finger scan. When it was successful, you just walked through, no turnstile.

DW was excited, I was annoyed. This worked just terribly, it probably only took about half the people on the first try. We maybe had 10 people in front of us and it took about 5 minutes to get through. For our party, two of the four of us never got the scanner to work, and the tickets were scanned separately. I hope they bring it back to the drawing board, because the last thing I want to do is be held up entering the park at Rope Drop. In this case, it was somewhat less annoying because we were already an hour into the park hours, but I still wanted to get through. We stopped for a photopass shot on the way in, you can see the sun is well up over the ball by this time.

So, it was pretty close to 10:30 AM by the time we got into the park. We had decided we would try something “new” and see Ellen’s Energy Adventure. But first, a picture of poor, dead “Wonders of Life”:

DW and I had done this back in 1997 or 2000, and we hadn’t done it since. From what I remembered, the show is amusing but way too long. After doing it again, I would say my assessment hasn’t changed. But DM and DD both really liked the show a lot. DD especially liked seeing dinosaurs without the fear of being eaten. She even wanted to ride it a 2nd time, but we held our ground on that one!

We had picked up FP for Test Track on the way in, and by the time we came out, I pulled another set for Mission: Space on the off chance I could get the family to ride it. By this point, we were all ready for some lunch, so we headed across the park for our third stop of the trip at the Land for Sunshine Seasons. This place is quite possibly the best Counter Service location in the entire park. The quality of the food combined with variety makes it a great choice for a meal. We each had something different and unique and it was all quite good. I had the pork loin chop with mash potatoes, but got a rice crispy treat to save for later.

DD got an adult meal because she loves Chinese stir fry noodles and a chocolate cake. (The DDP doesn’t know the difference between kids meals and adult meals on CS.)

DW also got a Chinese stir fry meal with a strawberry shortcake.

DM got a grilled veggie sandwich and Tiramisu.

As expected, the food was really excellent and we enjoyed it a lot. Next up we split.

 

[skier_pete]

After lunch we split up, with DM heading to World Showcase. I will return with some of her pictures later. In the meantime, we had to return to the Seas for DD, who can’t go to Epcot without a quick search for Nemo. We also found a very,very small hidden Mickey in the “Shark” area:

More Shark pixs:

We then headed over to TT and used our FP. We basically walked right up to the pre-show rooms, but then after the pre-show the wait was probably about 10 minutes, so this one I guess goes over the 5 minute limit. Test Track was fun as usual, not a great ride, but I do love the ending. We tried to do silly faces for our photo, but messed up where the photo spot was, so nope just boring. (And DD was ducking down for some reason, so she is “missing”:

I then did what I thought was fruitless and tried to convince my family to try Mission:Space. Amazingly, DD and DW both agreed to it! DD was nervous, but I was so proud that she agreed to try a ride without any threatening or cajoling. We rode the green side and guess what, everyone loved it! We were only the three of us, so I had to play two roles. (There was no wait at all.) Afterwards, we played some of the games in the exit area, and we sent some electronic postcards home.

As usual with Epcot, the day just seemed to be slipping away. It was already around 3:30 PM, and we hadn’t even had a chance to hit World Showcase yet. We wanted to at least see Miyuki in Japan and do one Kim Possible mission before meeting DM, so we decided to take the boat from Mexico to Germany and then walk over to Japan. First, a photopass op. We used this photo in our Christmas Card this year:

Well, the boat was only running from Mexico – Morocco – Germany circle (the dock in Canada was closed) so we got off in Morocco. I left DW and DD in Japan and headed over to the KP station near Italy to get a Kimmunicator. On the way over, I noticed this next to the American pavilion…they had a Characaterpalooza going on, Smee, Pluto, Chip and Dale, Tigger and Goofy, all out at the same time. Since other than Smee we did not need any of these characters, I only stopped to take a picture. An hour later they were all gone.

I went back over to Japan. DD wanted to do Pick-A-Pearl, so we did this first. I don’t know why I bother, but she seemed to enjoy it. She doesn’t want any jewelry, just the pearl. I think she has three now.

We then went through the KP mission, and it was time for Myuki, the candy lady. She shapes animals from hot sugar candy, and is strictly speaking awesome. DD got picked for an animal, so asked for a Cricket and somehow Myuki didn’t know what that was. Then DD asked for a seahorse:

I headed over the Germany before Myuki’s show was over, because we were running a bit late. I just didn’t want DM wondering where we were. She had had a good time on her own. See the next post for some pictures of her adventures.