Better Late Than Never/"How I Learned 2 Love Myself" - May 2007 Trip Report

[hershey4]

Ok - I have one question....Does Nan know you are writing these reports!?! Is she still your friend??? Ok, that's two questions. Thank you for posting them. I've really enjoyed reading them.

 

[emmaleigh47]

Up next: Magic Kingdom day --- or was it?

Ahhh, what a beautiful day – the sun is shining, the birds and singing, and well Nan is snoring. I remind her that we have breakfast ADRs at the Crystal Palace (which I am super excited to go to because I remember it from my last trip) and she rolls over and tells me – “go ahead without me, I think I am going to stay around the hotel today for a bit, I will meet you out later” WHAT!!! I remind her that I cannot get to the breakfast without her, because the shuttle doesn’t start running until 9am and she says – “well there is always breakfast in the hotel.” Okay, now I am fuming, but I don’t really have much of a choice so I grab my stuff, remind her that I have my phone and set out for another day of touring alone. Surprisingly though, I was not nearly as upset as I thought I would be. I was getting used to touring alone and I was getting used to having conversations with random Disney people!

I arrive at the hotel for breakfast – its okay I guess, but certainly not Disney quality. One aside note, this guy jumped right in front of me in the line for omelettes and then encouraged his whole family to do the same thing. I didn’t protest for the first few people, but I put my foot down after the third person. Unfortunately, the third person was his young child so then he just made me feel awful about it. Ack, some people’s children! Anyways, after the breakfast I headed to the shuttle – everyone else was laughing and chatting – families and friends – okay at this point I did start to feel a little bit lonely. But must march on – if I left it up to Nan I wouldn’t get to see anything.

I arrived at the MK and instantly decided to do something totally unlike me – I headed straight to Splash Mountain. Now usually I wouldn’t do a water ride because I hate being wet and I knew I wasn’t going back to the hotel anytime soon – but I decided who cares… its hot… I have never done it… and I am going to go for it. So with the carefully planned advice of the Disboards, I asked for the third row because that was supposed to be the driest one, right? Well outside, I got blasted with the cannon – kinda wet after that but not totally soaked, right. Well going over the last drop – DRENCHED! Seems that someone didn’t mention that if you are the tallest person in the boat and the front two rows are all children who duck, you will get the full brunt of the splash. Alas since I was already drenched, there was nothing to stop me from riding it again – and again – and again – LOL until every inch of me was drenched. And I was giggling and laughing and having a great time. I continued my tour around the MK going on BTMRR for the first time and thought it was a rough ride, but otherwise fun. Headed over to SM and did all of Tomorrowland and then it was over to Fantasyland – still no call from Nan and no sight of her either. About 4pm, as I was in the PP queue my phone finally rang and I let it go to voicemail. I got off the ride to find out that Nan was headed to the MK finally and would meet me by the Carousel. I called her back to let her know that I got the message – and I waited…. And waited… and waited. Over one hour went by, but I didn’t want to leave because I was trying to be a good friend and was hoping that we could meet up and enjoy dinner together.

Well she arrives alright, telling me that she had problems getting through the gate. She announces that she wants to go on Splash Mountain. Well although I was soaked before, I was finally dry with dry drawers and I had no desire to go on it again. She says … ok well she is going to go alone. I remind her of our dinner ADR at 6:30pm for the CP and she tells me she “just isn’t going to make it there, couldn’t we go somewhere later or a counter service.” Okay that’s it…. I have been looking forward to the CP meal for the whole trip since it was the one place that I have actually eaten before and proclaim “don’t worry; I will just go without you, AGAIN.” Arriving at CP I am noticeably upset – I mean I am a tough independent girl but I cannot believe that I am eating alone AGAIN! I checked in – looking at all of the families I just couldn’t hold it back anymore, I just started crying – right there at the table. I was sick of eating alone, I wanted to kill Nan, I missed my husband, you know the usually girly emotional moments. Of course right at that moment my waitress came up to take the drink order and I was sooo embarrassed. I explained some of the story and just said – “I just want to have a quick meal because I am starving and have been looking forward to the food for weeks.” She sweetly gets the chef for me (stupid coconut allergy) and instantly I am off to the buffet. Now the characters start to come around, and I just sweetly shoo them onto another table, I am just not in the mood. My sweet waitress Melissa comes back and learns that I didn’t take pictures with the characters and reminds me that I can have fun by myself too --- and then goes and gets Pooh and Tigger and takes our picture. Later Piglet comes by – now either they told him that I was upset or he is a smart pig because he sat right next to me in the booth for a good 5 minutes… lol, I felt kinda silly. After the meal, Melissa and two other waitresses come out – with Eeyore and Pooh and a bag and a card. Turns out they had given me a super cute Mickey Mouse necklace and a cute card that all of the characters had signed. I felt special and my mood was definitely uplifted. I even got pictures with the waitresses and thanked them for being so special and wonderful people. I don’t know if that was YOMD or what it was… but I have never experienced such kindness from strangers – furry or non furry ones.

I did meet up with Nan for the parade and I really didn’t tell her much about dinner aside from that the food was amazing. I didn’t want to tell her about the special treatment I had gotten just because she was a lame travel mate. The parade was great --- after the parade Nan wanted to leave and refused to stay and watch Wishes --- I REFUSED and said you know what, this is my trip too… I love Wishes and I am going to watch them. After Wishes, we did run to the POTC and went on one more time which was also super cool. We left the park and I was in a great mood – I figured if I cannot count on her to be a source of happiness, I would just have to make my own. I decided at this point I was going to be in control of my destiny and not let her get me down – this was after all my trip too and I paid just as much as she did. I was the master of my happiness dangit......

Coming up: Its an Epcot day ----- or is it?

 

[addicted2dizney]

OMG... she is horrible! just clueless to your feelings! ugh! I do have to know if you are still friends! Now that you look back... were there any signs of this kind of behavior in her before the trip? I would have killed her and then dragged her body to the CP for dinner, propped her up in a chair and took pictures of her with Pooh and the gang! lol!

 

[emmaleigh47]

I had high hopes for the next morning since it seemed that Nan was over her victim act and finally ready to enjoy WDW. Although she did complain a lot, she at least was an active participant yesterday, so I thought today would be better. Little did I realize though that this was Nan’s trip – evidently I was just along for the ride (even though she specifically asked me to plan it and agreed with all of my plans).

I woke up that morning excited to go to the Kona Café and super excited to try the Tonga Toast thanks to the pictures and recommendations of this board. I LOVE bananas and sugar so this seemed like a perfect combination. I got up the shower, only to find Nan still sleeping when I got out. Yep, you guessed it; she was refusing to go to breakfast again this morning. Well this time, I had already anticipated that and had moved breakfast back to a time when I could go without her. Yep so I headed over, took the shuttle, and took the monorail to the Poly and enjoyed the most WONDERFUL Tonga Toast ever – I was done being sad or lonely.

After breakfast I received a call from Nan that she was going to meet me at Epcot, so we did meet up and do some of the rides (the tamer ones) and I am having a good time. Well then the whining starts – and incredibly she is for once not whining about the heat, but now she is whining about how she missed MGM and how she missed Fantasmic and how much she wanted to see it. Seriously, I thought I was going to die. I proceeded to ignore her, and the whining started louder and louder and louder and I realized that she was not going to give up on it. I finally said….alright fine let’s see if we can get dinner at H&V with the Fantasmic package and if we can do it I guess we can go to MGM (and I guess I don’t get to spend time in Epcot). So off to the information desk we go and thankfully we are able to get ressie’s for H&V and I am also able to add another day to my park pass so that I can finally spend some time in Epcot. So now I guess we are heading to MGM again… ok with me I guess since it is my favorite park and this means that I can ride the ToT a few more times.

So we head off to MGM and park… and walk. And get into the park and watch the HSM show again (she loved it). Reservation is for 6pm. I asked Nan what she wants to do and she replies “I just want to sit here and rest for a while” Seriously! I thought I was going to die. I informed her, well she could rest here for a while but I was running down the ToT ride and that I would meet her in the restaurant (it was about 4pm). I happily ran off to ToT where I walked on the ride about six times and then it was time for dinner. I ran back for dinner where Nan informed me “she wasn’t really hungry but suppose she will eat for my sake, but she needs to be careful what she eats.” LOL, I had to try to keep from noticeably rolling my eyes. And Nan went up to the buffet and came back with … yep you guessed it, barbecue meatballs (and this is NOT on a bland diet) and then again had coke with her meal. After she continued to make drama about her stomach I finally couldn’t take it anymore and said “you know maybe you should make a better effort in following the low fat, bland diet that was recommended for you, I mean you should know better.” She just stared at me blankly and didn’t have a comment. Alas, the rest of the meal went without difficulty and yes I had another SEVERAL chocolate tarts with mousse (dang those things were good).

After the meal, we did tour around for a bit and went to a few shows. Then the skies opened up --- and this was not just rain, this was a downpour. I am all about getting wet, but even I gave in and bought a poncho. Nan’s response “let’s just go home then.”

I lost it – I mean smoke could have come out of my ears at this point. I finally just looked at her and screamed at her about how we could have been at Epcot and how I transferred parks because she HAD to see MGM and she HAD to see FANTASMIC and all my darned if I am going to leave just because it “might” be cancelled. I suggested that she put her big girl panties on and deal with it…and it is cancelled then fine, we can leave but otherwise I was staying. She just stared at me blankly --- but finally did agree to start touring again. At the regular time, we did go to the reserved seating and waited for Fantasmic to start. Captain negative kept saying many times “I am sure they are not going to have the show, they are going to cancel it.” In fact she said it so loud that she was upsetting children who were sitting around her … I head a little kid say to her mom, “how does that lady know that it’s cancelled.” I just glared at her and said “I am going to sit here until DISNEY makes an announcement saying that is cancelled and until then I am not going to worry about it. BTW, it wasn’t even raining that much anymore, so I was pretty hopeful that the show would go on as scheduled. Well, it did – and I loved every minute of it AGAIN. I think I could watch that show every single night. After the show, back to the hotel we went – I had survived another day.

Coming up: Universal, and how to really alienate your friends and be completely self-centered -- oh wait I think we already accomplished that!

 

[spencers_girl]

Oh my goodness. I would have blown up long before you did. That sure doesn't sound like the diet I was given when I had a gallbladder attack and had to be on a bland diet.

 

[OhMari]

I live south of you and the same train runs through my town.

I hope you come back and finish.