There are a whole lot more words than pictures in this one. Sorry!
Day Two Part Three
We hopped on the Ticket and Transportaion bus, thinking we could take the monorail from there to the Contemporary for the Mousefest Kickoff. There weren’t many people on the bus and we all compared our levels of soakedness and laughed about our wet morning. I was a little nervous because I’d never taken a bus to the TTC and I wasn’t sure where to go. Luckily the paths were well marked. There is even a gift shop at the TTC. I guess that’s for that last minute souvies you might need. (We didn’t have time to stop.)
We noticed the line for the resort monorail was pretty long and as we waited , we were approached by an official looking Disney guy who told us the resort monorail was stuck in the dock. He said they were bringing over special buses, because it would be sometime until the monorail was removed. We talked about it and opted for the express monorail to MK and then walking to the Contemporary. I mean, at this point, how much more wet could we get?
We made the right decision. Once we were on the express monorail, the very official looking Disney guy came over the speakers to inform everyone what was going on. He encouraged everyone to use the walkway to get to the Polynesian, but that if you needed to go to the GF or the Contemporary, and I quote, “You are pretty much out of luck.”
I was so shocked. I’ve never heard anyone at WDW say anything like that. I mean, he was honest and I appreciate that, but it was still so not the normal Disneyspeak.
As we made our way to MK on the monorail, the driver came over the speaker to tell us all to look out of the right side and we would see something “really cool that you don’t get to see every day.” It was the monorail tow, waiting to get monorail pink unstuck. I didn’t get the camera out fast enough. But I did get some pics on our very wet walk over to the Contemporary. This monorail loving girl was very excited!!
As we got off the monorail, Mk looked deserted. I asked Chuck if he was sure he wanted to go to the kickoff and he was.
We found our way to the Contemporary and over to the Nutcracker Ball room. I am sorry there aren’t more pictures. I thought I had taken some, since this is a place not many people see, but I guess not. Anyway, we had missed Mousefest 101, but were in time for the big Mousefest Kickoff. Here is how our guide described it:
“Registered Mousefest attendees are invited to a special meet to kick-off the Mousefest activities. Drop by to say hello, meet Mousefest community leaders, and mingle with your fellow Mousefest attendees. Includes complimentary light refreshments!”
Oh yeah! We are all about the light refreshments. Basically it was a meet and greet so everyone could see who was there and compare their plans for the next few days.
Most of the crowd was out at the refreshment tables!
Now every year at Mousefest 101, someone (usually Mike Scopa) gets up and gives a speech about pacing yourself, getting rest, that you can’t do it all and not to follow the old saying, “No one sleeps at Mousefest!” So guess what’s on the refreshment tables……Full Throttle energy drinks! High energy trail mix! Chocolate covered expresso beans and tons of candy bars!! Oh, you know we loaded up!
Oh, there was fruit also.
We saw Heather/Circusgirl and Mike from the Be our Guest Podcast. (He’s great. You should listen.) We stood for awhile and tried to scan the crowd for Christine/2xcited2sleep, but since I had no idea what she looked like, it was more like, “hmmm do you think that’s her,” and “No, I pictured her with darker hair.” All the big wigs were there, Mike Scopa, Lou Mongello, Matt Hotchenberg. There were also so very stern looking Disney suits watching us crazy types to make sure we didn’t riot or anything. We didn’t stay long because I was getting tired (a major theme that weekend) and we knew we would see them all again. I wasn’t looking forward to the long, wet walk back to MK for a bus. I was rewarded, though. We got to see the monorail tow, towing the monorail. Here it is!!
And here it is again.
Please forgive the terrible quality. All we had was my camera and Chuck trying to chase it down.
As we neared MK, we struck up a conversation with a couple as we walked. They, too were at Mousefest and live right up the road from us in Rock Hill.
Here is how you know you are talking to Disney minded people. When you say, we just saw the monorail tow towing a monorail and they say no way, where? instead of looking at you blankly. They were our kind of people. They were at another resort, so we split up at the bus stop. I didn’t even get their names.
It wasn’t a long wait for a bus. We all wetly loaded on and would you believe, we actually left a family standing there. The mom refused to get on because they were going to have to stand. All I could think was, “You poor lady. What a long and sad trip you will have if you don’t learn to stand on the bus!”
Chuck and I decided to count the bus stops again to see if we were indeed the seventh stop. This is when we learned that coming from MK, the bus goes differently and we are only the fourth stop. Hmmmmm…. That is interesting. Wonder what other ones are different?
Back at the room, Chuck added minutes to the kids phone (we were getting a lot of calls from Em in Myrtle beach) and I napped. Again. During the day. What a strange trip.
)
this weekend.
I am feeling better. My headache is gone (I live in fear it will come back.) and my foot is definitely better. Yeah!!
to you and Chuck for braving the rain and heading over to the Contemporary. I was cowering at Pop. 
