Diary of a Mad Lime Green Woman

[cynderella]

Debbie's DH is an arborist, and he's going to write a letter to Disney, offering his services in Epcot. Crossing that bridge between Future World and World Showcase is like crossing the Sahara. There's just no shade.

Oh, man, no kidding. I will mention this later on in my own TR...my DD, the drama queen, acted like she WAS crawling across the Sahara!

I love ERDT, and I'm wishing I was at that swim up bar right about now.

Boo hoo! My DH, the fire chaser, decided we didn't need to see El Rio del Tiempo, even though the rest of us clearly did. I knew it was going to be good!

Next we hit Maelstrom, which is very cute, but the movie at the end gives me the creeps. That oil rig in the North Sea is just so desolate, you might as well be on Mars.

We ducked out before the movie...I had heard here on the DIS that it might be a good idea to do so.

We come out into the gift shop, and I have to try on the Viking helmet with the blonde braids. The braids exactly match my hair color, and I can see that DH has taken a fancy to this look. However, the kids are watching, and I don't really want to explain why dad wants mom to get the helmet, so I leave it behind. Maybe some other trip, when it's just the two of us.

At Journey Into Imagination, the kids don't have the same fascination with they had last time we were here, but we all enjoy the Kodak picture center, and send morphed pictures home.

Another thing I got rushed out of the building on! Wah!

Lovin' your updates and sense of humor!

 

[dwheatl]

Can you make your pictures a little bigger so we can see them? Ok, the cat was a little creepy--sorry. Lovin' this TR, I feel like I'm with you.

SM, I thought you were being sarcastic about the pictures until other people said they couldn't see the pictures either. Every time I looked on my laptop, they were HUGE. I had to redo them, and then check on DD's computer. Thank goodness she's sleeping at a friend's house tonight.

 

[SleepingBeautyDreamr]

This is a great TR. I think it was so nice of who ever that was in the China Pavillion to try to cover up your stuff.

 

[Ltl Mermaid]

Very fun TR! Keep up the good (and quick) work!

 

[ericafny]

We got the surprise Living with the Land FP too!!! I wonder why there were doing that...anyone know?

 

[PrincessV]

Is there more??!! Loving your writing style!
SO funny - my Dad was always a fan of the "You think it's _____ but it's (s)not!" jokes and I'm pretty sure I remember at least one of those from my first WDW trip with him. He was also the guy asking if your face hurt when it was clearly sunburned. (The answer of course, was "No", followed by his punch-line: "Yeah, well, it's killin me! ha ha ha ha)

 

[dwheatl]

Day 6-July 31 (this TR goes to Day 9, if you're wondering )
This is a low-key day, as I have been doing the Disney commando thing, and everyone else is getting worn down. In fact, DH needs a day off from the parks altogether, so, while we head off to Typhoon Lagoon, he stays back with a honey-do list, including shopping and . He's such a sweetheart, and frequently does the laundry at home, so he doesn't complain when I ask him if he can take care of it on the trip. I call him my Cinder-fella .
DH drops us off at TL on the way to the store, and we meet Debbie and her family there. I had seen the pitch for Crush 'n' Gusher on the Disney travel show at the hotel, so we decide to do that first, before it gets crowded. If you look down while you are climbing up stairs to the slide, you'll notice that there really are bananas, coconuts, and pineapples growing right below it (you're supposed to be going through a fruit washer in a cannery). I love this slide. You bump along like you're on a roller coaster, and some big splashes come from behind. Debbie is not so thrilled (she's not the thrill ride I am) so she does not want to go on it again.
Next, we go to the wave pool, and it's a huge waste of time. After about 10 minutes, there's one set of the smallest waves you could imagine, and then we wait 40 minutes, and nothing. We keep asking the lifeguards when the waves will start, and they keep saying "very soon". People actually start chanting, "We want waves!", but still nothing happens. DS meets a boy from the UK who tells him he looks like Shaggy from Scooby Do. This gets me laughing hysterically, because that's exactly what I thought about DH when I met him. It must run in the family. Afer 45 minutes of waiting in the wave pool, we give up and head to Castaway Creek. Of course, about 10 minutes after we leave the wave pool, we can hear it working and everybody screaming. The kids want to go back, but we're ready to move on to something else.
We can't go all the way around Castaway Creek, because they are working on the cave, so we get out to do Gang Plank Falls, the family raft ride. I'm surprised the lifeguards at this ride don't wear black leather and carry whips, because KF spanks you (DisUnc, where is the dominatrix smiley?)! If you don't plant your feet and lift your backside, you get smacked every few feet coming down the chute. Once is more than enough for me, and why I vote for BB over TL as my favorite water park.
I joke about the lifeguards at Gang Plank Falls, but actually, something happens to one of them that is a little frightening. When we get to the top of the slide, they stop loading the rafts and pile them up to the side. Then we notice one of the lifeguards sitting off to the side, hands shaking terribly, trying to drink a cup of water while another lifeguard is pouring water over his head. After a few minutes, he's doing better, and the other lifeguard makes an announcement that the shaking lifeguard had heat stroke, and that everyone needs to be careful and drink lots of water. The ride (and punishment) go back to business as usual.
By now it's lunch time, so we get something from one of the little stands and find a picnic table in the shade. DS is disappointed that the salad dressing at the stand is caesar, with anchovies in it, so not really appropriate for a vegetarian. I'm adding that to my "Disney letter" of suggestions for the parks; a vegetarian dressing choice anywhere they have salad.
We do the two inner tube slides near Gang Plank Falls, and again, you need to keep your rear up on these two slides if you don't want a whoopin'. We hit Castaway Creek again, then go back to the wave pool, where there are now big, honkin' waves. I land on someone's knee one time, and someone lands on top of me another time. I'm glad I've been finding time to shave my legs!
We hit the Crush 'n' Gusher a second time, and I like the left side better than the right (there are three slides to choose from).
Debbie and her family head back to Fort Lauderdale, and we meet DH in the parking lot.

 

[dwheatl]

Now that it is just the four of us, we decide to go to Downtown Disney for dinner. I had read good things about the Earl of Sandwich, so we decide to eat there. I have a chicken Florentine sandwich (hot chicken, cheese and spinach), DS has a Caprese (cheese, tomatoes and other vegetables), DH has the jerk chicken sandwich, and DD the grilled cheese minus the bleu cheese. We all enjoy the sandwiches. In fact, it's DS's favorite meal of the trip, and the price is very reasonable.
We hit Once Upon a Toy next, and even though the kids are older teens, it's almost impossible to get them out of here (o.k. I admit it, it's hard for me to leave, too). We love all the POTC toys, the Mr. Potato Head stuff, and the virtual My Little Pony. What a great store.
DH is still not up to walking around much, so he parks it on a bench outside while we walk down to DisneyQuest. It's included on our tickets, so we decide to go in, even though we're pooped from our day at TL. We decide to do the virtual POTC (we're just a little obsessed), and while we're waiting to go in, we watch some Brazilian girls on the virtual Jungle Cruise, and they're rolling out of the boat and doing somersaults, etc. A CM looks over after a few minutes and sees the mayhem going on, and she vaults to the stop button for the ride. She tells the girls they must stay in the boat or leave, and when she starts it up again, we see why. The way the boat is rocking around, someone could have gotten pinned between the boat and the "water".
We go into the POTC, and it's just the kids and me. The kids clean my clocks on shooting at the other pirate ships, and we have a good time. However, we are exhausted, and DH is still waiting on the bench at the opposite end of DTD. If I weren't so tired, I would want to do the Jungle Cruise, Aladdin's Magic Carpet, and probably some other stuff we didn't get to see. We'll save that for the next trip.
Someone on the free stuff board had mentioned that the Ghirardelli website will give you a discount coupon if you sign up, so I had done that before the trip. We go to Ghirardelli and order dessert, and have it sitting by the lagoon. We save 20% with the coupon, and that's nothing to sneeze at. It had rained earlier in the night, but it's beautiful sitting by the water. It's a nice way to end the day.
Now we've had our "easy day". Tomorrow, the Magic Kingdom!

 

[Disney owl]

Thanks for sharing

 

[fizz13]

Gosh that was the easy day? Loving your style lady

 

[Lil' Grumpy]

> me enjoying one terr-iffy-ic report...

i think iam most impress with your "coping skills" & disposition..

yeah,that cm @ ellen's u. probably wasn't thinking but you went right over
the bump and kept on [ in reference to your lion king observations]

being so green, i expected you to have been more aggressive....instead
very calm & insighful..ha..i understood how kids reject any thing suggesting
educational....and that lil redirecting demonstrated your soft touches...
again, even with the lost purse, construction,changes,- you kept pouring the
all over your family....& you haven't even step one paw print in the kingdom... yet..can't wait!

* there are many things others can learn from your "disney ways"..including
the lil encouragment to interact with fellow guests..by accident, we have
benfited from these lil encounters in so many memories..once a lil
girl thought ours was the real ariel...as parents, we watched & felt the
meanings of 2 lil ..sharing walt's vision. poof..we never saw them
again...but will always live in our disney folklore.

soooooooo that's what all the women doing in the kali's powder room?
interesting...must be bigger than the guys to be doing that.

how come your fanny pack not's on your fanny?..my wife usually has her
on the front...and she uses like a bumper...

speakin of..i don't think i'll mentioned how your husband does laundry &
cooking ..might give her ideas... ..actually tried once and was
barred for reasons, you probably can imagine? anyhoo, our goal is to do
no "house chores" at disney...we usually there for 2 weeks..which means
comin home all funky..but does keep others away..just

great water park tip..i be sure to bring the camera and camped
out of the "bottom"..maybe send to funniest home videos? ...

being a FAMILY guy.. the way you guys added a lil tenderness ref.
over at norway...boy! you should do give your kids lots of good experiences
to fill their scrape-books?

cool cat woman pic too!

 

[dwheatl]

Thanks for the comments, Owl, Fizz, and Grumpy. I'll be back on tonight with MK-Day 1. And Grumpy, I know what you mean about the funky. Some of our clothes I thought should have been burned after the Dis sweat!

 

[lindajoan]

Really enjoying this TR. It's making me so excited for my next trip to WDW. I think I might hit DL in the interim....

~LJ

 

[GreatBiscuit]

Great stuff so far! Looking forward to more!

 

[Va-bear]

This is so great dwheatl!!!!!!!!! It seems like you guys had a ball! Its really getting me psyched for our trip!!! Keep it up!

 

[cynderella]

Here's the family at Epcot.

That pin on my chest is a LGMHPC nametag, and there's another one on my fanny pack.

I love this picture! We only got a couple of pictures of the whole family together (from the Photopass photographer, and we wished we had stopped for more)! We don't have a picture in front of Epcot ball! Yours looks great. Having fun with your funny TR and looking forward to more!

 

[dwheatl]

Really enjoying this TR. It's making me so excited for my next trip to WDW. I think I might hit DL in the interim....

~LJ

Hi Linda. Thanks. Hurray for DL and hurray for Pasadena. DH is a Monrovia boy, and I met him at UCLA, so much of our dating was in the MAD/Pasadena area.

 

[dwheatl]

I had to work on this picture, so it's actually from our first day at the Dolphin, but I'm just sticking it here. This is our balcony door with the LGMHPCs and the pcs and the kids peeking through. One of the things I like about the picture is you can see the reflection of the opposite wing of the Dolphin. I know not everyone is enamored of the architecture of the Dolphin, but I love it.
OK, with that business out of the way, we go on to Day 7- August 1
How could we wait so long for MK? Well, we go to DL in Anaheim at least twice a year, and MK is very similar, so I wanted to do the things we don't have "at home" first. By now, however, the anticipation is about killing us, and we're raring to go. None the less, we are still a "herd of turtles". Even though it's an EMH day, we end up catching the 8:45 bus and get into the park a little after 9.
We head right to Space Mountain, where there's already a 15 minute wait (not bad, but the park just opened), and we get FPs before we get in line. As we are waiting, we're looking in those cool "bubble windows" and DD shouts out, "It's the cookie!" When she was little (we started her on SM at DL when she was only 3) when she got scared on SM, we'd tell her to look for the cookie. It's the legendary meteor on SM that looks like a Toll House cookie (mmmm cookies ). It's no longer on SM at DL, and I didn't see it when we were riding at MK, so possibly the bubble window is the only place it still exists. The ride on SM is rough (Remember me? I love fast, sharp turns, big drops, loop the loops, whatever, but it has to be smooth!). DH and I can't take anymore of that, so we hand over our FPs to the kids, so they'll get to ride twice more with the FPs. Lucky them! (Is there a sarcastic smiley?)
We hustle over to POTC, and it's an absolute hoot to see the changes from the movie. DD wants her picture with Capt. Jack, who's hanging around outside, but we are moving too fast for that. After the ride, DD needs a pirate hat, so we stop to shop, and she looks adorable in a little 3 corner one. I'll have to ask her if she got a picture on her camera.
We decide to split up so the kids can use the FPs and we can move at our own pace. We head back to Tomorrowland for some sentimental favorites. We start with the Carousel of Progress, which was one of my dad's favorites, and it makes me feel like he's there with me while we're watching. We hit Buzz Lightyear next, and DH scores way higher than I do. That should do his male ego good. I enjoy Stitch's Great Escape. I know it's not everyone's favorite, but I laugh out loud when Stitch licks my head like the middle of an Oreo. Outside, DH sees a guy he swears is a perv taking pictures of kids. We look for security CMs, but there are none around. We aren't absolutely positive about this guy, so we don't call for anyone. We decide to go on the TTA, another sentimental favorite, and when we come back, the guy is gone. He'll turn up again later, in the creepiest of circumstances.
We eat lunch at Cosmic Ray's, and the condiment bar for burgers is fabulous. Ther'e are grilled onions, and sauteed mushrooms, and all kinds of yummy stuff. I see some kids making a salad from it in their french fry baskets. Some people on the Dis Boards complain about people doing this, but I'm happy to see kids eating their veggies.
Next up is the Jungle Cruise (always funny), and the Tiki Room (they've ruined it; we liked the corny classic show. In fact, we used to have an audio tape with the song from the Tiki Room that we would play in the car on the way to DL). We head to Liberty Square for the afternoon parade, and wait in the shade in the wheelchair area. Pinheaded people keep going to stand along the rope with a big wheelchair sign hanging on it, even though nobody in their party is in a wheelchair. Loudmouth me walks over to the pinheads and points out all of the disabled people waiting in the shade until the parade starts, and tell the pinheads that people sitting in wheelchairs can't see if they are standing there. At least these are nice, clueless pinheads, not mean aggressive pinheads, and they move along when I ask them to. It would have been nice if a CM had done this, but at least nobody gives me any trouble. I like the parade, but it's weird to see Uncle Walt come cruising by in his sweater vest.
After the parade we head to the Haunted Mansion along with about 1000 other people, but I still love it, and the Hall of Presidents, which is technologically impressive but a little dull, or maybe it's just the sleepy time of the afternoon. We meet up with the kids at Country Bear Jamboree, another of my dad's favorites, and I could just kick the DL execs who took it out at DL. The kids think it's strange because it's like the Possum party in The Goofy Movie. I try to tell them that CBJ came first and the movie was poking fun at it, but they just don't like it. Where did I go wrong?
We split again, ride Small World, where I meet a lady in line who's wearing lime green but not a DISer (she should be, she's so nice) We notice that, although the outside is not nearly as beautiful as IASW at DL, the inside is more impressive.
We meet the kids at Cosmic Ray's for dinner (DS wants all the fixings to build up his veggie burger). During dinner, they tell us they went to the Hall of Presidents because it was air-conditioned, and some creepy old guy sat next to them and kept talking to them and acting like he knew them. Guess whose description he matches? The weirdo from Tomorrowland. Now, I wish I had made more of a stink in looking for security. I guess DH knows what he's talking about (Wouldn't he love to hear that!).
We go to Mickey's Philharmagic next, and it's the best 3D show I've ever seen. I reach out to touch Flounder, then Ariel shows up on the screen. I slap DH's hands and tell him to put them down and behave himself!
That's all the energy DH and I have, so we leave the kids in the park and tell them to catch the bus back to the hotel (Thank God for the transportation system). After we've showered and gone to bed, DD calls to say they're stuck on Space Mountain. It's after 11:00, and I'm worried we'll have to go get them because they're going to miss the last bus. While we're talking, SM starts going again, so DD hangs up. They make it back to the room by midnight, so it's all good.

 

[averill94]

Really enjoying this-laughing out loud.
Thanks

 

[PoohGal05]

Your trip report is AMAZING! I'm enjoying reading it! MORE PLEASE!