Eep! I just realized that I never posted day 6! Luckily I already wrote most of it, so I didn't have much writing to do today
Day 6
Well, this is it. If I can just make it through today, I will have officially survived nearly a week of vacation with my sister and nephew, sharing very close quarters.
They should award medals for this kind of stuff!
For the morning of Day 6, everyone actually got out of bed, because we had a mission! We had to get to Ice Station Cool, and then pack in as much Disney goodness as we could before it was time to leave!
Being a total nerd, I had packed up my stuff after coming home from the AC last night. Thank goodness! We all went down to get breakfast one last time, and I was a little sad that I wouldnt be forking over my money to Mabel every morning anymore.
Back in the room, I ate while they packed and ate, and before long, we were ready to drop our bags off for the resort to hold while we went to Epcot.
Club Cool (Youll always be Ice Station Cool to me!) was already open when we got there, so that was stop #1! A cup of Beverly for everyone- welcome to the club, newbies!
( I just discovered this smiley by the way
. How freaking creepy is that?)
Today is unfortunately a very short park day. Our Magical Express bus will be picking us up at Pop at 4pm, and we didnt get to Epcot until about noon. Time is of the essence! Must cram ever last bit of Disney magic into this time!
So, of course, given our limited time, my sister wants to get in some last minute shopping. Stupidly, I show her Mouse Gears. After shes browsed for ten minutes, Jesse and I go sit outside and people watch. Half an hour later, we go in the shop to tell her were going to go somewhere else while she shops. Luckily, she has decided on what she wants, so we just have to wait for her to pay. Forty five minutes after showing her the shop, were on our way to Mission Space so Jesse can ride one more time. I dont think I need to say much about how we felt about spending 45 minutes of our last 4 park hours waiting for her to pick out a t-shirt!
Mission Space luckily only had a ten minute wait, so Jesse went to ride. (Theres no way you can get me on that ride- thats probably the only thing at WDW that I flat out will not ride!), so Thelma and I got in line to get pictures with space Mickey and Goofy. Thelma had seen Mickey at the character area earlier, and had freaked out when we hadnt stopped, but now was the perfect time for pictures- hardly any line, and we had ten minutes to kill, anyway! (Plus, Mickey in Costume = extra fun!)
(I solemly swear to NEVER forget to take makeup to Disney ever again!)
Okay, is it just me, or does Goofy always flirt with you ladies? Every goofy ever! (Err, not that theres more than one.) My second trip to Disney is the first time I got character pictures- on an e-ride nite at MK, and that Goofy sat next to me at the hub and put his legs across my lap. Today, Goofy motioned for me to call him as I left. How do you look up Goofy in the phone book?
After our pictures, Thelma found this Hidden Mickey in the pavement outside of Space:
We went in to the gift shop to kill some time until Jesse got out, and even found the place to send video postcards! (If you dont ride MS, you can still go in through the gift shop and check out the neat interactive area at the end of the ride!)
This Stitch pin in the MS gift shop felt very appropriate today:
With time starting to run low, as soon as Jesse was out, we stopped in Innoventions to send one last photo postcard home, and do some looking around.
This sums up my Disney World philosophy!
Next we stopped at the character greeting area for a few more photos. There were no lines at all- it was great! We took a bunch of pictures, but Ill just show the most important:
FIGMENT! I was singing his song while we waited for Jesse to snap the picture (
eyes big and yellow.. horns like a steer
but a loveable fellow!), but he didnt really react. Apparently Figment isnt a morning person, either!
Jesse still hadnt been to Living Seas, so we decided that would be our last stop before heading back to the resort. On our way there, Thelma saw the DVC info booth and wanted to stop, so we left her there and went to say goodbye to the fishies!
After some looking around, I sat outside to wait for Thelma so Jesse could look around a while longer. While I was sitting outside waiting for my sister when these coral walked by.
The best part was the Australian man sitting on the bench next to me, who looked up from the book he was reading to comment, Well. You dont see THAT every day!, and then went back to reading.
I have to admit that I was a little grumpy most of today, because we were having a difference in opinion about when to go home. I wanted to go ahead and drive home from St Louis tonight, which would put us back in Springfield around 2am, and me home around 4am. I always feel like once my vacation is over, I just want to get *home*, to my cats and my own bed. I wish I could just click my heels as soon as I pass under that see ya real soon! gate, and be transported back home instantly. My sister, on the other hand, was in anything but a hurry to get home. She wanted to spend tonight in St Louis, get up the next morning and go see the arch, maybe stop in a casino for a while, and then drive home. I pointed out that if we didnt stay in StL tonight, wed save the hotel money, which would mean more shopping at WDW, but even that didnt do much for my case. We decided to see how we felt when we got to St Louis, and go from there.
We made it back to Pop with just enough time to get our bags out of storage and join the huge crowd waiting for Magical Express. Huge crowd. Giant crowd. Really, really big crowd.
A few minutes later, a bus pulls up, a bunch of people get on, and its full. Off they go, with promises that another bus has been called to come get the rest of us.
Now wait a sec. When you make ME reservations, you tell them what time you need to be back at the airport, and they tell you what time theyll pick you up, right? So wouldnt they know how many people to expect at Pop that day? So if you know you have X number of people to pick up at Pop at 4pm, wouldnt you send enough busses?
Nope!
Twenty or so minutes later, another bus came, already half full of people- I guess a bus from another resort was sent our way. Luckily, the rest of us made it on, and we were off to the airport!
At the airport, Thelma and Jesse went to get food, but I had only one mission- the Lush store! They ate, I bought bath bombs. Everybody was happy. (Well, as happy as you can be when youre going home!)
We ended up staying in St Louis that night, of course. By the time we got to St Louis, we were all pretty tired, and just werent up to dealing with renting a car and driving. We stayed in the same Days Inn as last time (two beds this time!), and drove home the next day. (My sister did manage to drag the 3 hour drive home out to about 7 hours, including a 45 minute Wal-Mart stop.)
However, before we were able to embark on that drive, we encountered a HUGE roadblock.
I hadnt made rental car reservations, since we werent really sure if wed be driving home yesterday or today. We did some calling around for the best price, and settled on going to the
Avis office that was right across from our hotel. Well, everything is fine until the rental car agent tells me that since Im paying by debit card, they will be charging me an extra $400 deposit, which will take up to two weeks to credit back to my account after we turn the car in.
You want to charge me a WHAT?
Um, I just went to Disney World. My bank account does NOT have an extra $400 in it! Actually, my bank account never has an extra $400 in it!
We decide to go on over to the airport and shop around at the rental car desks for a car. We stop at Every. Single. Desk. Nobody will rent on a debit card without a huge deposit! I try calling my mom to see if she can book us a car online, like I did the first time, but its really hard to talk someone through that on the phone, so I go off in search of somewhere in the airport with internet. I find a little office area where I can get 5 minutes for $5, so I do some of the speediest internetting ever (good thing that years of e-mailing and message boarding have brought my typing speed up to about a million words per minute!), but Im not having any luck. When my 5 minutes is up, I give up, and decide to go suck up to the rental car people again.
Finally, a beautiful, lovely lady at the Hertz desk calls her manager for me, and they work it out where I can rent a car with just a $50 deposit instead of hundreds of dollars. I was pretty sure that I had an extra $50 in my account, so we promised to build a cult around the Hertz agent, building statues of her many stories high, and went to pick up our car. (It was some kind of Ford, totally not as cute as the Chrysler Anonymous.)
Anyway, the moral of the story- renting cars is evil! Either have a regular credit card to do it with, or lots of extra money in your bank account that you dont need back any time soon if you want to use your debit card.
The Wrap Up:
First, lets look back at the goals I posted for this trip back in the pretrip:
I will...
*Eat my weight in zebra domes
I did get my package of domes, so I think we can call this one a success.
*Try something from the Boulangerie Patisserie other than the chocolate mousse. (I need a Chocolate Mousse 12 step program or something!)
Another success! Got the cheese plate this time, and it was yummy!
*Remember that it is their first trip, and therefore be patient when they don't know/understand things (such as that we can not just walk on to Soarin at 6pm)
This one was hard! No, we cant just go walk on to Splash Mountain right now. I think I did a pretty good job of being patient, though.
*Per request of my friend Tina, "eat an actual meal in a restaurant, not just pizza!"
Sorry, Tina! Wait, unless you count the aforementioned cheese plate? Ill try again next trip!
*Search far and wide around WDW for a substitute for my beloved Wilderness Lodge brownies, since Roaring Forks will be closed (they make the best brownies there, with a ton of yummy frosting. But back off, they're mine!)
Funny enough, Forks DID have the brownies, even though they were only half open! Unfortunately I passed on getting one, since Id just had cheesecake for breakfast, making this the first trip since 2001 with no WL brownies! (For the record, the Polys brownies do not compare!)
*Have the camera ready when they try their first sips of Beverly- We just read about this in Day 6!
*Try my best to share some of the history, the hidden details, and the magic, without turning into Tour Guide Barbie- The funny thing is that we all spent a lot less time together than I expected, so I didnt get to show off too many of the little things. They did both end up as Hidden Mickey addicts, though!
I will not...
*get frustrated by the crowds
Failed miserably at this one. I dont think I ever stopped complaining about them. But seriously, a LINE for the TTC??
*try to sell the clothes off my back/vital organs/the promise of my first born in order to bribe the staff at the Polynesian into giving me a room
Came very close to doing this once or twice, but I did in fact survive the whole trip not just having to live without resort hopping, but in a value resort! I am quite proud. (I will make up for this on the next trip by dividing it between WL, Polynesian, Swan, ASMu, PO-R, and AKL.)
*Eat corn on the steps of town hall
I resisted the urge.
*Punch out a dwarf
I dont think I ever saw any!
*Hold a sit-in for emu rights in front of the turkey leg stand
Didnt do that either!
*Stick a party hat on Lincoln at the Hall of Presidents.
Im really a little sad that I didnt do this. I havent even made it to H of P in a few years, which is sad since Im one of the people who really like it!
What I Learned:
I am not cut out for going during busy times of year.
Renting a car is evil! If you must do it, be SURE you either have a regular credit card to charge it to, or several extra hundred dollars in your bank account that you wont miss being gone for a few weeks!
If you do end up going during a busy time of year, Animal Kingdom is best seen on a nice cloudy morning with early extra magic hours.
The beds at Pop are really tiny.
Trips with family members seem to work best (at least for us!) if you all go do your own thing now and then. A lot of times my sister would sleep in, Jesse would go to the water park, and Id hit a park before it got crowded. This worked out way better than being together 24 hours a day for almost a week!
Next trip? Solo in January! (And a short one after that for a Kentucky Derby party Katie and I are planning next May. Were going to wear gigantic ugly hats, and youre invited!)
Thanks for reading, and your patience while I finished up!
