5/13/05 – Day 4: Nothing To Do

[PrincessTToo]

Despite my unintentional Actifed overdose, I woke up at 6:00 AM none the worse for wear. I woke up so happy that I didn’t have anything scheduled for the day.

After getting ready, I went to the AKL Concierge Lounge for a cold chocolate croissant and an inedible melon slice. My appetite was coming back but I couldn’t find anything else to eat there.

I decided not to play hide and seek with the car today (and it was probably a wise choice not to drive with that much Actifed still in my system), so I got in line for the MK bus at 7:45 AM. I just missed a bus to MK but there was still a long line of people ahead of me. And by the time the bus got there at 8:00 AM, there was an even longer line behind me.

I did get a seat on the bus and we were crammed in like sardines. Two guys in the aisle starting talking to the guy standing right in front of me. They said “oh, my wife just loves you”. Near as I could figure out this guy named “Dennis” was a frequent commentator on the Fox News Network including the Bill O’Reilley show. I guess he’s some kind of business commentator but I don’t watch Fox News enough to recognize him. He did dish about Bill O’Reilley and some of the other announcers on Fox but nothing that I’ll repeat here. Of all the celebrities staying at AKL that week, I can’t believe this guy was the only one I saw.

Anyway, we got to MK at 8:15 AM. The ropes were still up for Adventureland and Frontierland so I made my way to Fantasyland. I meandered over to Mickey’s PhilHarmagic where there was no wait. I also noticed there was no wait for the Carousel or for Snow White.

I still love Mickey’s PhilHarmagic. I have to sit on my hands not to reach out to help Donald when he’s getting sucked into the vortex. It was kind of funny because there was a kid in the audience who was shouting out each character’s name as they appeared in the film. And once again I could only smell the apple pie but I don’t know if that was my stuffy sinuses or the theater.

Next I went on Peter Pan which was listed as a 10 minute Standby but was really only about 3 minutes. When I got to the front of the line, I put up one finger for the CM to indicate I was solo. And she said “that’s unusual, isn’t it?”. Huh? I spent the whole “flight” contemplating what she meant. Was I some kind of weirdo to ride Peter Pan by myself or just a weirdo to come to WDW by myself? I love Peter Pan. Not from a little kid perspective but as an example of some of the best Imagineering in WDW. The ride vehicles are incredible and the forced perspectives and the sets are great. Now I’m starting to justify my whole existence. (Oh, by the way… I used my index finger. Just in case you were thinking she was questioning my use of any other digit!)

After PP, I went on IASM to see how much it’s changed. If it’s hard to justify PP, then it’s really hard to justify IASM. I thought the glockenspiel would be on the outside like at Disneyland but it’s on the inside and I didn’t see get to see it “go off”… if it does go off. And I was definitely not on enough drugs to make the ride palatable. I’m just not an IASM kind of gal. And I guess I don’t have to mention that IASM was a walk-on. It’s always a walk-on.

HM was also a walk-on. I just hated to see this one parent dragging their kid in there kicking and screaming. The same thing happened on POTC which was also a walk-on.

On my way out I caught the tail-end of Cinderellabration. It was really cute. I saw even more of it on the Live with Regis and Kelly show that I had Tivo’d.

I bought a big Diet Coke bottle on my way out and drank it while I rode the Resort Monorail to the TTC. I got to see the Wilderness Lodge on the way. Can’t wait until I’m there in December. It was also nice to see all the F&G Festival from the monorail when I finally got to Epcot at about 10:30 AM.

Now I have to say that I never swear out loud in WDW. In fact, I usually never swear at all except when I’m watching the Vikings. But when I got to the ground level at Epcot and saw miles and miles of school groups I let out a very loud S-word. The lines to get in were very long and it took quite a while. After I got in I headed straight for WS and only had to wait a few seconds for the rope drop in France.

The first showing of the France Movie wasn’t until 11:10 AM so I bought a Perrier at the bakery and sat on a bench on the other side of the Perfume shop. It was so beautiful back there and I had it all to myself. In fact I was so entranced that I missed the movie intro and got there just before the doors closed. No matter, I was so happy that I was in my favorite place and in my favorite attraction that I was grinning from ear to ear by the time the film was done. There’s no need to justify loving this attraction.

After a pit stop in Morocco, I weaved through the school groups to get to China. I went into the Nine Dragons restaurant but was told that it didn’t open until noon. There were lots of people waiting in the lobby but not enough to fill the restaurant so I just left and went exploring.

Inside the China theater pre-show area there was a guy playing one of those two-string instruments that sound like a woman crying. He was amazing. He told us that the instrument was 1,000 years old. I assume that he meant that the instrument was invented 1,000 years ago not that that particular instrument he was playing was 1,000 years old. He also told us that it was made of horsehair and snakeskin.

Then I walked through the Disneyland Hong Kong exhibit but the lights weren’t on in the cases so it was a little difficult to see. I thought the outfits for the “ambassador” were interesting. I also liked the carousel horse.

I got back to Nine Dragons just a little after noon and was seated immediately. But they sat me right next to a couple who I could tell felt very uncomfortable eating so close to a stranger and hardly spoke to each other at all. There was also a woman another table over who was not only on her cell phone but was standing up while she was talking. And it was just chit-cat. Just amazingly bad manners. The couple kept looking at her and looking at each other. No words needed to be spoken. I was also amazed at the sparrows in the restaurant. Just flying in and out and eating crumbs off the floor.

I had the one and only vegetarian entrée and it was pretty good. And the raspberry iced tea was really good. The service was a little slow but it gave me a chance to catch up on my journal. I really wanted to try something different on this trip and I’d never been to Nine Dragons before. I wouldn’t go out of my way to go there again but it was good.

After lunch I went to The Living Seas. After a long wait in line, I got in to see Crush. It’s already changed since I saw it in January. I wish the part with Dory was a little longer. After Crush I got a good spot to watch the 2:15 PM dolphin show. This time it was my buddy Calvin putting on the show. He’s such a sweetie pie. I just wanted to hug him.

But the most interesting thing happened at the start of the dolphin show. Rainier came over to the window even though they were calling Calvin. The trainer seemed quite surprised. But I wasn’t. I was just sure that Rainier knew I was there and had come over to see me. I waved at him and blew him kisses. After two Dolphins in Depth tours, Rainier and I have a “thing” going on. Anyway, the trainer angrily made Rainier go back to his training and that’s the last I saw of him. Would it be really, really weird if I booked a third Dolphins in Depth tour so that I could hug my boys again? I’ll have to think that one over and come up with a really good justification.

After the show I stood in line to talk to the trainer. I finally asked about Bob the Dolphin. The last time I took the Dolphins in Depth tour (Jan 2004), they were all excited because Bob was finally coming back after his breeding stint at another zoo. I had heard so much about Bob that I was anxious to find out what had happened to him. The trainer told me that Bob had passed away before coming back to WDW. And the children he fathered had also died. He said it was some type of congenital problem. I was so sad for the CMs in the dolphin program. They so loved Bob. I expressed my condolences and also asked the trainer to give Rainier and Calvin a big hug for me.

With a heavy heart I went for one last SE ride. And my heart got even heavier. There were lots of school kids on the ride and at one point the ride stopped and a CM came on the loudspeaker and screamed “Sit down. We can see you on the cameras.” And there was so much trash thrown onto the scenes. Someone had even thrown a feminine hygiene product at the feet of the Pharaoh. I was beyond disgusted and decided it was time to leave Epcot.

While I was eating lunch I had made a list of things I could do after Epcot. They included going back to AK to try and catch Lucky the Dinosaur, going to The Beach Club to buy a snow globe I’d seen on our trip in January, going to the Studios to catch the “Lights, Motors, Action” show or just going back to the hotel. Guess which one I did?

I know, I know, I know. I had promised a non-stop action commando day but I was so drained (physically and emotionally) that I just went back to the AKL. I videotaped my room, the hallways, the lobby and the pool area. The pool was packed. I had thought about going to one of the spa areas but one was packed and the other had one guy in it. I thought it would be a little weird to go into a hot tub with a single guy.

I stopped at Mara and got cheese, some bread and a beer and went back to my room and made a cheese sandwich. The beer was very hard to open so once again I really missed my DH and his wonderful muscular arms. I ended up using my scissors to hack away at the bottle cap and finally got it open. Beer seems to taste even better when you have to work at getting to it.

I phoned home and coordinated meeting my DH at the airport tomorrow. I was actually happy to be going home. Shortly after that I crashed for the day after setting the alarm for 5:15 AM.

 

[Marla Hellwig]

Sounds like you had a mellow kind of a day mixed with some sad news about Bob

Thanks for posting