Disney in December - A Trip Report Part 14 added 07/18! The End!!

[Simba22]

Thank you to anyone who reads this! I hope I can deliver a report that lives up to your expectations! You will notice that I actually started writing the report in August. I didn't want to post it right away because you would have read it, then silently (or loudly for some of you) cursed me out when you noticed that you still 3 months to wait for the rest of it. So here it is, approximately 19 hours from take-off, and I am finally ready to share my 1st trip report. I will update the title and this page when I add new stuff. I hope you enjoy it! -Ali

Part 1:
Thursday: 08/24/06
I am starting my Trip Report early because I am so excited that I can hardly contain myself!

Cast:
Me – Ali (short for Alison), age 23 (turning 24 while on our trip!)
Boyfriend – Lumar (pronounced Loo-Mar …his parents were Luis and Maria so they just combined the 2 names!) age 22.

This will be our 4th trip to WDW together! It will also be our longest trip at 8 ½ days & 9 nights. We fly in to MCO on Friday afternoon (12/1) from Connecticut’s BDL (Bradley International Airport). Our flight is scheduled to arrive in Orlando at 2:30pm, which means we should get to the All Star Movies around 3:30 – perfect for check in! After we check in, we are planning to spend the rest of the night at DTD...hopefully see La Nouba and maybe eat at Planet Hollywood. Our last full day in WDW will be Saturday 12/9 (my birthday!) and we will be flying back to BDL on Sunday 12/10.

Okay, so as of today there are 99 days until our trip. I know, it seems like a lot… but when you consider the fact that we started our countdown when there were 122 days ‘til lift-off, it seems like the time is flying by. Exciting? Yes. But at the same time I’m nervous…for 2 reasons. One is that I am afraid we won’t have any money to spend while we are there (of course this is a common worry for me when it comes to ANY trip and we are always fine but I can’t stop thinking about it), and reason two is that Lumar is the assistant manager at a video game store in the mall and they have a “black out period” when employees can not take time off. Their black out period starts the week before Thanksgiving and doesn’t end until the second week of January. For those playing along at home, our trip is from December 1 to December 10. I know that he will work it out somehow (he’ll probably make up a family member and create a rare illness for him/her that requires us to be at this person’s bedside until sadly, they pass away.) I know, it’s unethical but this is DISNEY WORLD! And as long as it’s a FAKE relative we’re OK right??? ::Sigh:: See why I’m worried?

So anyway…I’ve already started buying Disney pins off of EBay to trade away when we get there. I’m telling you, this is the smartest thing I ever started doing. I swear that I just bought 8 pins for $1.96 each and that includes shipping! That sure beats running to a pin station and buying one at $6.50 plus tax just to trade it away for the one I really want. Plus every time I get them in the mail, I know my trip is getting closer!

Coming up: Riding in the elevator….and Aerosmith


12/11/06: New addition, Part 4, has been added below!

12/15/06: Part 5 has also been added below!

12/29/06: Part 6 has been added! See #11 below (how am I still only on page 1??)

01/11/07: Part 7 "Jammin in the Jungle" has been added - yes we're still on page 1. See #14 below!

01/13/07: Part 8 "Aye, Matey - and good treasure it be..." See # 15 below

02/06/07: Part 9 "Around the World in 12 Hours" See # 16 on page 2

07/09/07: Part 10 "Jammin in the Jungle Part 2" Page 2, #17

07/11/07: Part 11 "Epcot - Day 2 & MVMCP" Page 2, #18

07/11/07: Part 12 "Day Two @ MGM" Page 2, #23

07/16/07: Part 13 "My Birthday, Our Last Day at WDW" Page 2, #24

07/18/07: Part 14 "Final Chapter" Page 2, #30

 

[Simba22]

Tuesday 10/17/06 Pre-Trip Report Part 2 & 3

Part 2:
45 days to go! I’m sitting here at work…lamenting the fact that I’m here, but at the same time, loving the idea that in a month and a half – 6 short weeks – I’ll be on a plane to the Sunshine State. I needed to save up 48 hours of PTO (Paid Time Off) in order to take this vacation and I only earn 5.5 hours every 2 weeks….So for those of you too lazy to do the math, that means I have to work 9 pay periods, or 18 weeks without a day off, in order to have enough time saved. This is a record for me….I hate my job and the only reason I don’t leave it and do what I want to do, is because what I want to do is considered to be “volunteer work.” There’s no money in animal rescue so I’m stuck working for the proverbial “man.” But I digress….

We’re at day 45 and I am nearly bursting at the though of getting my DME packet in the mail. I got an email yesterday saying that our fight number for our ride from CT to GA has been changed…I wonder if I need to notify DME? I’ll have to call them later to find out about that….

For those of you wondering, Lumar will have no problem taking the time off of work for our trip. Thankfully the manager of the store he works at is a close personal friend of ours and they worked out a plan for the 10 days we will be away (or in-transit). Whew…no more worrying about that! AND, I have discovered that we will have more than enough money to last us for the duration of our trip so I don’t need to worry about that either. Things are really looking up and with the exception of worrying about New England December weather messing with our flights, I’ve pretty much passed the “worrying about anything and everything” stage. Our current debate is whether or not to go see La Nouba. We both really want to go but don’t know if we should spend the money on it this year. We probably will end up going, which is a good thing, but right now we just don’t know.
******Part 3********
It’s funny how each person prepares him/her self for a Disney Trip differently. For example: As lift-off draws near, I start counting down the days on the white board in the hallway, including “hidden Mickey’s” as the dots for my “i’s,” “j’s”, and exclamation points. I go crazy buying pins so that we have an ample stash to trade away at The World. I also start reading the DIS more often, which I truly didn’t think was possible…I mean, seriously! Earning my Ears to DIS Veteran in 4 months? Easy to some, maybe, but for my easily distracted mind, focusing on one subject for 16 weeks is a scientific breakthrough of some sort. OMG! Not taking at least one day off a month, AND focusing on something for more than 30 seconds?? Could it be that I am growing up????? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA yeah right! too funny! So anyway, the next thing I start doing is obsessively checking past weather reports and forecasts for the time period we will be traveling…just to get an idea of what it will be like. I also start making lists…a list of all the things we know we want to do, and a list of all the things we have yet to do. Finally, I go crazy on scrapbooking supplies…a book, stickers, paper, embellishments, and I start thinking of new layout ideas. Lumar on the other hand, starts to play Kingdom Hearts...again. That’s it. No countdown. No obsessive planning. I get into the elevator at work and immediately flashback to riding ToT. An Aerosmith song comes on the radio and I drive faster to recreate the feeling of riding RnRC. And Lumar plays Kingdom Hearts…again. Not that I’m denying the fact that it’s an awesome game…but compare my list of “exciting-ways-to-prepare-for-an-exciting-Disney-trip” to his non-existent list. ::Sigh::

While we’re talking about Lumar and his ability to frustrate me beyond comprehension…I was beginning to edit our packing list and was suddenly hit with the realization that all three of the t-shirts he bought in WDW on our 2005 trip are MIA. Two Mickey heads shaped out of dragons, and Scar…hmm. Well, he’s wearing one of the Mickey shirts in a picture from our 4th of July picnic…but that appears to be the last time any of those shirts have been seen. That was a year ago…Time to put all of those things I learned watching CSI: Las Vegas to use! All I need are some rubber gloves, a black light, a flashlight, and some red sunglasses. I’ll find these shirts in no time! After all, it only takes 1 hour (minus commercials) to find a killer/rapist/money launderer. T-shirts should be cake! Especially since Lumar only dresses and undresses in 2 places…our house, or his mom’s house. Flashlight in hand, I search high and low. Laundry room, bedrooms (and closets) of siblings and parents, dresser drawers, laundry baskets, boxes in the attic and garage, even under the bed. Nothing. Not one clue. This really was a mystery. How does one lose, not only three t-shirts, but three t-shirts that were all purchased at the same time? Now that takes skill.

My next post will be Sunday 12/10/06 when we get back! Pics will be included! Wait for me! TTFN!

 

[Bee]

Nice beginning!

 

[AshClan]

Sounds like a great trip. Can't wait to hear about it when you get back!

 

[Simba22]

okay so I guess that intro is a little over the top because I certainly am NOT excited to be back.....especially not back at work. But it happens and life goes on. Besides there are only 10 months, 2 weeks, and 1 day until our next trip.

So on with the fun stuff. I still have not finished all of my notes for the last couple of days of the trip. Taking notes was much harder than I thought it would be. For all of you who feel that you might be inspired enough to write a trip report after your next vacation...it's hard work! I found myself writing the WHOLE report instead of just taking notes and then I missed a day of note taking and forgot the order in which things were done the previous day. So I need to organize all of my papers and make sure that I have everything in the correct order (which I am planning to do tonight) and we can get on with it. But for now here is a general synopsis...I will go into detail later on when I have my handy-dandy....NOTEBOOK! (for those of you who watched Blue's Clue's).

Okay, so first thing I have decided is that we are never flying with a lay-over again. Not that Atlanta isn't a nice place to be....but once I get off a plane, I want off for the rest of the day. So even if it's going to cost an extra $200 to fly direct, I really don't care.
Decision #2: We will never go during Pop Warner Week again. Let me start by saying it really, honestly, and truthfully, was NOT THAT BAD. We hardly the saw the kids at all, and thankfully most of them were staying at the All-Star Music. But wow were those kids rude. And I do not mean the girls. The Cheerleaders were sweet as Mickey Bars, but the boys were just downright rude. And this includes even the little ones. We were on the bus one night and standing next 2 of them who were in 4th grade. They were calling each other the bad "N" word (although I guess it was in that friendly way, it still is offensive to me and I'm white. To me that is not an appropriate word for anyone to use at anytime....nevermind when you are 9 years old and surrounded by children that are even younger), they also called each other crack-head, the other word for donkey, and a colorful assortment of other descriptive tems. And guess where the coaches were? In the front of the bus, making their jokes about who-knows-what. Another night we were in line waiting for the bus to pick us up from Epcot. There were about 10 kids (older ones..maybe the 14/15 age brackett) in line in front of us. As the bus pulled up, the rest of the team (coaches included) started running up from the benches, and ducking under the ropes to get on the bus with the rest of the team. People waiting in line did start yelling at them to wait like everyone else but of course most of them didn't. Chaperones are not doing much chaperoning these days... BTW while were are on the topic, congrats to the Berlin, CT 12/13 year old Cheerleading Squad who are the Grand Champions!
Decision #3: Next time we go ANYWHERE, we are not bringing the following: more than 3 t-shirts, slippers, sandals, more than 2 pairs of pants. We always end up buying shirts, never wear the slippers/sandals, and only wore 2 pairs of pants each.
Decision #4: I will always check an empty bag to bring home souvenirs. This one I think is pretty self explanatory but for laughs imagine Lumar and I packing a suitcase full of 9 days worth of dirty laundry, 4 pairs (2 each) of clean jeans that we never wore, plus all of our souvenirs which included the giant yellow Mickey-shoe slippers that Lumar bought, 8 stuffed animals, some scrapbooking stuff, t-shirts & hooded sweatshirts we bought, pin pins & more pins, plus others. And FYI, we did utilize the ship-it-home option on more than one occasion. So, Sunday morning, we were downstairs in Donald's Double Feature buying a $30 tote to shove some stuff in.
Decision # 5: We will be looking at Moderate Resorts for future stays. Not that I don't like the All-Stars, actually quite the contrary. But we just need a change. Where maybe there aren't as many children with their obnoxious parents. Why do they always have to bring the parents?? Before I offend anyone let me clarify: If you are a good parent who actually watches your children and is sure to shoot them the evil eye when they even THINK of doing something wrong, this does not apply to you.

Up Next: And they're off!

 

[Simba22]

AshClan & Bee - thanks for the encouraging words! I hope everyone enjoys my report!


Part 5:

OK so as I think I mentioned earlier, the weather forecast for Friday was “rain with very heavy winds.” Perfect. Just what we need. With my Cirque du Soleil reservations in jeopardy, I pray really hard on Thursday night as I go rushing out of work at 5:30pm… an hour earlier than usual. We will be flying out at 9:00am and since my dad lives only about an hour from the airport, we will be staying over night at his house and then he will drop us off in the morning. I fly (in my car) to the nail salon and get there at about 5:45pm. Of course I have to wait….and wait….and wait. For ½ an hour, I waited. Meanwhile all I can think about is how I still have to go home and pack up the bunnies, drop them off at my friends house (who loves to chit-chat), and get home and pack all of my stuff and all of Lumar’s stuff since he was at work until 11:00pm). So anyway, at 20 after 6 I finally get called and who is my manicurist tonight but the one known as “Slow Lady.” Every salon has their own version of “Slow Lady.” The one who does an awesome job but takes……….for…………..ever. It took her 25 minutes just to put new acrylic on. She didn’t even have to take off the nail polish because I did it while I was waiting. At 8:00pm I was finally on my way out the door. I run to Stop & Shop and pick up some vegetables for the bunnies for the week then go home and pack them up. Anyone that has rabbits will feel my pain here….anyone who hasn’t owned a rabbit, here is your free lesson. It’s not like a dog/cat/hamster thing. They have 3 separate bowls (one for pellets, one for veggies, and a water bowl), they have a litter box, a pen (it’s one of those puppy exercise pens which is pretty heavy for a weakling like myself), and a Rubbermaid bucket full of other stuff – their toys, newspaper for the little box, a blanket, etc. Not to mention a garbage bag full of hay. And trust me when I say that yes, all of these are necessary items. OK, so bunnies are packed and I go drop them off. I finally leave my friends house at 9:15pm. On my way home, my best friend Tara calls. I feel bad because I haven’t really talked to her since Halloween so I answer the phone knowing I’m going to regret it. I listen to her talk while I rush around like an idiot trying to pack. I don’t know whether to jump for joy or tear my hair out when Lumar calls at 10:45 and tells me to come pick him up. Yes I want to get off the phone but I am SOOO not ready to leave yet! I go pick him up from work, we get back home and the first thing he does is sign onto the computer. UM…..HELLO!?!?! Packing? Please? Now?? HELP!!?? He gets annoyed that I’m “forcing” him to pack – “I don’t even know what to pack!” He whines. Thankfully I already know that he has no clothes packing coordination skills and all of his clothes, except socks and boxers, are already packed. I had washed a whole load of socks the day before so now we just had to sort though the basket to match them up. This is also something that Lumar can not, under any circumstances, be allowed to do. His idea of matching socks is putting a white one with a white one. He does not consider whether it has a pink or red stripe across the toe, whether it’s a crew sock, an ankle sock, or a tube sock. A sock is a sock to him because “nobody can see them.” So while I match socks, I make him pack his boxers. “uuhhhh….babe?” He says… I hate it when I hear that. “I only have 3 pairs of boxers in this drawer….” Nice time to tell me that you’re running low on clean clothes! Oh, and did I mention that our washing machine broke yesterday? So I tell him to dig through the dirty laundry bag, pull out 7 pairs of boxers from there and we will wash them tonight at my dad’s house. After all was said and done, we get in the car and drive 45 minutes to my dad’s. Anyone want to venture a guess as to what we finally went to sleep? Anyone? Anyone? 1:30am!!! Anyone want to guess what time we got up? 6:30am!!! Let’s just say I was a little cranky. Luckily I got early birthday presents before we left for the airport. We loaded up the car and were on the road at 7am. We arrived just after 8am, checked in. This is when I realized that I forgot to put a luggage tag on my suitcase. Thankfully the nice man at the Delta counter had few extras (AKA an overflowing basket). I was so panicked/rushed/exhausted that I later discovered I spelled my own name wrong on the tag….

We go through security and for whatever reason Lumar is told to take off his sweatshirt but I don’t have to. I’m thinking it’s because his was a zip-up and mine was a pull over. What the difference is, I have no idea but whatever. Of course he gets mad at this and they must be racially profiling because he’s Puerto Rican and I’m white. I sigh and put my shoes back on.

At around 8:30am we start boarding the plane. It’s one of those smallish ones where you REALLY get to know the stranger sitting next to you. We find our seats and Lumar lets me have the window. You know how when you book your reservations you get to pick what seats you want on the plane? Why is that the seats you picked on the diagram are never where they actually are? For example…I know for a fact that when I chose our seats I picked a row that was almost all the way in the back of the plane, and made sure it was not an exit row. So tell me why our seats are right over the wing? #1, I can’t see with this big old thing in my line of sight, and # 2 we’re right over the engine so even with my Ipod on full volume I could barely hear it. Not to mention we are in a row where the “window seat” is actually a “wall seat” meaning I am between 2 windows. I hate this because I love to watch the ground from up in the air. It’s humbling to see things from that point of view…not to mention that that earth doesn’t look so troubled from up there. But trying to watch it roll by with your neck at a 90 degree angle sucks. Here are some pics I took on the plane:

So I close my eyes and try to listen to music instead. I was completely awake when we landed 2 hours later. It seemed to me, as we approached the runway, that we were going a bit faster than what felt comfortable to me but I ignored it. These are professional flying people they know what they’re doing. HA! The next thing I know, my seatbelt has become a part of my anatomy and the pilot slams on the brakes. Everyone in the cabin went jolting forward and I swear I heard the tires screech…OK maybe it wasn’t that bad, but it took me by surprise. Once we stopped, the flight attendant gets on the PA system and advises us to watch our step because there is a slight gap between the plane and the loading dock. Lumar and I look at each other skeptically. A slight gap? This isn’t like our “smooth landing” is it? People were making jokes about having to take a running start to be able to leap off the plane onto the platform. Lumar thought that would be cool. Me? Not so much.

Now, for those of you who have never been to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport…it’s huge. Humongously huge. At least to me it is. First we need to walk all the way through the building past a food court to an escalator. We go down stairs and there is a giant line for the monorail thing so Lumar utters the following words of blasphemy: “Let’s just walk.” So we’re trekking on down the people movers passing all of this amazing art that I wish I had time to stop and take pictures of and I finally realize that we have already gone on three of these moving belts. WHERE IS OUR CONCOURSE? Lucky for me, Concourse T is not much further. Finally we arrive at Gate 7 like our boarding passes say and I’m a little curious when I see that there is no one there. At all. No people waiting for a flight and no employees. That’s when I see the big red letters roll across the screen: Our flight has been moved to Gate 1 which is like 20 miles from where we were. We drag our carry on bags all the way to end of the hallway and I was happy to find seats in a corner that were far away from other people. We had about 15 minutes before we would start loading so I thought I would begin taking notes for this report. I reach into my bag and realize….I brought a pen and no notebook. I know we passed a little convenience shop so I told Lumar I was going to buy a notebook. Of course, he doesn’t want to sit there alone. I tried to tell him that we would lose our seats if both of us went…I even tried to convince him to stay there with our bags so we didn’t have to carry them back and forth again. But no. He’s like a 3 year old when it comes to stupid stuff like this and if he doesn’t get his way, he pouts. For HOURS. Sometimes even a full day. I find a little notebook to take notes in, pull out my wallet to pay for it and realize I have forgotten something else….my debit card. **ALL TOGETHER NOW - ::Smack Forehead:: ** I also left the checkbook home, but at least that was done on purpose. In a way this is kind of a good thing. I got paid this morning and didn’t bother to pay bills before we left so not having access to that money will ensure I am able to pay everything when we get back. So my first official Disney Trip Purchase was $6.32 for 2 notebooks, a pack of SoftBatch Chocolate Chip Cookies, 1 bottle of water, and a snack for Lumar which I don’t remember what it was right now. We get back to our seats and I was able to write notes for 2 minutes and then we started boarding. Lumar let me have the window again and I was excited to see that we were actually in the back of the plane, not over the wing, and I had a real window to look out of and not just a wall! It was while looking out this window that I realize I forgot to pack our sunglasses and hats.
About an hour later we landed and everyone piled into MCO…that big, bright, beautiful airport . Lumar has to stop at the bathroom again (you will notice this become a trend over the next week), and I suddenly had a brain fart…how the heck do we get to the DME counter?? Oh yeah, lower level – B Side. We get on the little monorail thing and jettison off to the other side of the airport. Some little kids were sitting on the bench in our car and when we took off, one of them smacked his head on the glass. His parents just kind of looked at each other and laughed and since the kid didn’t cry it turned out to be kind of cute. When we got to the other side, we took the elevator down to the lower lever and walked for miles and miles and miles to get to the DME counter. By the way, when did DME become a Disney attraction? I mean with a line THAT long it might as well be an attraction! I waited in line for 30 minutes to check us in but the good thing was that by the time I was done there was already a bus there waiting for us so we didn’t have to wait anymore. Our DME driver was Cindy – she used to be a bus driver in Brooklyn, NY for school kids and she was awesome! Great personality and a great sense of humor – she really made the trip to the resort fun. And can I just say that the new video they show on the bus about all the parks and how to check-in to your resort is totally cute! Lumar and I found it entertaining, at least!

Here comes the first aggravating experience of the trip, which in a sad way I was kind of expecting. We arrived at the ASMo at 3:45pm. The line to check in was already to the door. At 4:30 we were finally checked in and on our way to the room. Why, why, why does it take 45 minutes to check in? There were about 13 groups in front of me and 3 CM’s. There are like 7 or 8 windows so why are there only 3 open? This is the reason I don’t shop at Walmart! Here are some pics of the lobby:

So anyway, I was happy to see that we were in 101 Dalmatians, since we were in Fantasia last time. And we were in Building 1 which is right next to the Main Building. Plus we were all the way around the back of the building so it was nice and quiet all week. Here's our room:

There was also a pair of bunnies that lived in the wooded area right outside our door and they were cute to watch. Our luggage arrived within ½ an hour, so standing in line to check-in for 45 minutes actually did have one perk. We changed and then headed to the bus stop for DTD at about 6:30. We got off in the Marketplace and walked all the way around to get to Cirque du Soleil. Now, we never really spent a lot of time at DTD but we both should not have been this stupid. Neither of us remembered that there was a bus stop on the West Side….so when the show was over at 11:00pm, we walked all the way back to the Marketplace. The show was amazing! When we first sat down, Lumar says to me “This better not suck” and now all he talks about is how great it was and how we need to go see other Cirque shows. We bought our tickets from Ticketmania.com and the seats were great. When people say there isn’t a bad seat in the house, they truly are not kidding. I don’t think I would like to sit all the way on the side of the stage because you can’t see the stage settings and things like that but since they aren’t the focus of the show, I would sit there if it was all that was available. Anyone who hasn’t seen this show needs to do it on their next trip. We got back to our room and went to bed sometime after midnight.


Coming up: Sweeeeeeeet Emooooooooooootion!

 

[Bee]

So we are off and running!.. Cant wait for more!

 

[icebrat001]

bring it on!

 

[Simba22]

thank you to everyone who is waiting patiently for a new entry. I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season, and I just wanted to let you know that I have the next 2 sections done, I just need to upload my pictures which I will do laster tonight. Thanks again for reading!

 

[MomofCKJ]

I'm enjoying your report! Glad you got there and didn't have to create a fake relative with an obscure illness for Lumar to get the time off!

I would love to see La Nouba sometime, going to have to add that to the large list of Things to Do at WDW!

Allyson

 

[OhMari]

Looking forward to seeing your pictures.

 

[Simba22]

Part 6:

Saturday 12/2
We woke up at 8:15am and although I wanted to eat breakfast, we wanted to be at the park for 9am so we figured we would just eat when we got there. We were on the bus at 8:50am and the first thing we did when we got there was take a picture of the giant Christmas Tree:

After we entered the park, we immediately went into one of the shops right there…Mickey’s of Hollywood I believe it was. After 2 pairs of sunglasses, a hat for me, and a couple pins for Lumar, I was signing a receipt for $80.00. I almost fell over when the CM read me the total. But I guess it’s par for the course so happily off we went. 10 minutes later, Lumar grumbles to me that he wished he bought a hat, too. Here's a look (sort of) at some of the Christmas Decorations:

We head over to RnRC and get FP’s, then go back to ToT and get in the stand-by line. It was only about a 10 minute wait and it was a great ride! We had one drop that kind of lingered in front of the open doors for a few seconds and the park from up there looks beautiful. I wish I wasn’t too scared to use my camera up there!

(don't I look thrilled? I don't know why I look so annoyed...probably because Lumar was attempting to operate the camera and I was horrified he was going to drop it)
(BTW, I apologize for the blurriness of the pics from the hotel room. They don’t look blurry on the digital camera screen and if I had known they were that bad I would have re-taken them.) After ToT, we went back to RnRC but the FP line was as long as the stand-by line so we decided to eat breakfast first. We walked all the way down the street to get to Starring Rolls Café and the line was out the door and around the corner. Lumar suggested we go back to Rosie’s All American. I think I mumbled something about not wanting a cheeseburger at 10:30 in the morning but I was too hungry to really care that much so all the way back to Rosie’s we go. Imagine the look on my face when we see the windows still closed. The sign on the side of the building says they don’t open until 11:00am. I’m ready to strangle Lumar for making us walk all the way back there but I just throw a little tantrum and we turn around and head back to Starring Rolls. The line was completely gone now and we were both relieved….but when we go inside it occurred to me that the people in line took all the food. The shelves were almost totally empty! Lumar asked me to get him a bagel with some grape jelly. I took the last plain bagel and then I took a chocolate croissant thing for myself and a cinnamon bun. I toasted the bagel and asked the girl behind that counter for jelly. She told me that the girl at the register would give me some. I stand in line and the girl at the register said they don’t carry jelly. A little PO’d, I grabbed Lumar some butter packets, already knowing that he was going to be upset. I get back to the table and tell him what happened, he’s mad but tells me he’ll deal with it and asks if I would go get him some more butter. I go back inside and low and behold there is a bucket on the counter with packets of GRAPE JELLY in it! I was too annoyed to say anything to the ding-bat at the register….but can I just say that the bucket she took the butter out of was RIGHT NEXT TO the jelly bucket. Luckily for me, Lumar liked the way the bagel tasted with the butter and the jelly on it and when he’s happy, I’m happy…usually. The cinnamon bun was WAY better than I expected it to be. And the chocolate croissant thing was just as good.

And here we are, happy again after eating some breakfast:

I saw this painted on the wall near the DVC booth and thought it would look cute in the scrapbook...

We headed back to RnRC (there were only 2 minutes left on our return time) and zipped through the line which had a 30 minute wait. Have I mentioned lately how much I LOVE this ride?

I could go on it 100 times in a row and not be bored with it. When our limo finally parked, we wandered through the gift ship where I seriously contemplated buying these really cute cotton capris, but I need to try clothes on before I buy them and since that was not an option, I skipped them. Although I am seriously regretting it now. The line to buy your ride photo was like 1000 miles long so we left and strolled back up Sunset Blvd. We were going to try to see Beauty & the Beast since we’ve never seen it before, but the 12:10 show had already been let in so we decided to wait. We kept going until we reached Hollywood Blvd and stopped to browse under the hat. We didn’t spend a lot of time there because it was a little crowded so we go in line for the Great Movie Ride. We missed this on our May trip and I really enjoy it, plus there was like a 5 minute wait and we got pulled to the front since we were only a party of 2 and they happened to have 3 seats available on a car that was about to leave. Now here’s the weird part (and nobody laugh at me!): we were leaving the Casablanca part and as our car pulled away, I continued to watch Humphrey Bogart…he turned his head and WINKED at me! At first I thought I imagined it, but then Lumar said he saw it too! Now, I know they are AA’s but Holy Wow was that frickin’ weird. After our trip through movie history, we decided a trip to Endor was in order so we got in line for Star Tours. Now when I tell you there was no wait, I am not kidding. We literally walked on. While we were waiting in front of the doors watching that little movie (with the lady with the ridiculous hair-do), a CM came up behind me and started playing with the little stuffed pirate Stitch hanging off my backpack. We chatted for a second before we were allowed onto the actual ride, and as we were sitting down, Lumar insisted that the girl had been “flirting with me” and I should “go get her number.” Seriously, we’re on Day 1 of our trip and I already want to hurt him. It was at this same time that he also noticed that all of the CM’s on this ride carry light sabers. As an FYI – try not to be the first person in line at the TV Watching Part. Sitting all the way at the end of the row next to the doors causes you to view the screen from a weird angle and not only did it make me kind of sick, it also isn’t the same experience…it kind of kills the ride if you know what I mean.
After Start Tours we went over to Muppet Vision 3*D. This was the first time we saw this show and we both loved it…we’ll definitely see it again! The two guys in the balcony are hilarious! We wanted to eat lunch as Mama Melrose’s but I didn’t make an ADR so Pizza Planet it is! This actually was not a misfortune because had we eaten at Mama’s, I wouldn’t have this funny story to share: We go to Pizza Planet and order our lunch then go upstairs to find a table. The place was not crowded and there were a lot of empty tables but we like to sit by the sunlight so we can see what we’re eating and sat at the table right at the top of the stairs next to the window. We sit down and all the sudden this guy in an orange t-shirt and a yellow hat comes rushing up the table, grabs some napkins and a couple packets of salad dressing and grumbles something about he was saving that table. I apologized and told him we would move but he just scurried way and sat down at the table across from us. Now….#1, napkins and salad dressing can be viewed as trash left at the table by previous occupants, which is exactly what I thought they were. They are not table savers. There were 4 people in this guy’s party, clearly one of them could have actually sat at the table and held it for everyone. #2, if you didn’t want me to move and let you reclaim that table, why bother pointing out the fact that you were saving it? If you didn’t want me to fix/change the situation there was no point in blubbering about it. I apologized and offered to find another table (like it would have been hard) and you were the one that would rather be Mr. Grumpy Gills. Am I wrong here? Someone please tell me if my thoughts are out of line….

After lunch we walked through some of the shops and spent a lot of money. Lumar had seen a gold pocket watch when we were here on our May trip, with a skeleton hand on the front of it and he almost cried when he didn’t see it in the case this time. He struck up a conversation with the CM about it and low and behold, she found a whole box of them that they had forgotten about. Lumar also decided that this was the appropriate time to buy those enormous yellow slippers that look like Mickey’s shoes, and I bought a stuffed Thumper (Bunnies = Love). By the time we were done shopping it was 2:55 and we decided to skip the parade and head over to the Animation Courtyard. I suffered a serious brain-fart here and was very disappointed to be told that Voyage of the Little Mermaid was not showing for another hour because…DUH….Ariel’s in the parade. On to Character Drawing! Now, I learned something very valuable on this trip…there is a way to get into the Studio, without having to sit through that little show with Mushu. I know, freaking DUH, right? But remember: Ali = primitive brain. Me no think straight…ever. So anyway, the show is cute and all, but #1, I don’t want to stand in any unnecessary lines (which you need to do before you are let into the show), and #2, I’ve seen this show about 400 times because I never remembered there was another way in (which is actually the way out, but whatever). So we sat through the show(because I made the above referenced realization AFTERWARD), (BTW way I took this blurry (again) picture of promo poster for The Incredibles in either Japanese or Chinese -I apologize for not knowing the difference- because it looked cool and Lumar liked it:

decided that we will probably go see Meet the Robinsons, then went into the Drawing Room and drew Winnie-the-Pooh. Wow was that BAD. At least when we drew Scrooge McDuck or Stitch, my interpretations were at least recognizable. Poor Pooh didn’t stand a chance though. My starting circle was lopsided (kind of flat on the right side) and it was all downhill from there. I made his ears WAY to small and I drew too dark so Pooh just kind of looks like he’s got two little knobs sticking out of his head instead of ears. And his cheeks really threw me off…Clearly I am not cut out for Disney Animation. But it’s still fun to take the class and our drawings make really good additions to the scrapbook, no matter how bad they are. So after the teacher guy laughed at me, I dragged my humiliated carcass out to the main part of the building where I further embarrassed myself in front of none other than Mr. Incredible. There he was, just standing there waiting for people to come meet him and greet him. Lumar and I got in line behind only one other couple. I took out my gorgeous new camera that I bought specifically for this trip, I might add (It’s a Canon Powershot 5.0 MP, 12x opt. zoom). I even remembered to bring my autograph book on this trip. It’s our turn, I hand his handler my camera, show her where the shutter is, put on a happy face and 1…2…3! Nothing. “It looks like it shut itself off...” the CM says looking at my camera as if it were an alien life form. I walk over, turn it back on and 1…2…3! “Nope it’s off again,” she says. That’s when I remember (dramatic drum roll) I left my re-chargeable batteries in the charger, plugged into the wall, at the hotel. And my non-rechargeable batteries, have just bit the dust. Meanwhile, a line about 8 people long has formed and they are all huffing and puffing at the idiot who forgot her batteries. So I give Mr. Incredible my book to sign, which he stamps (yeah, forgot about that one too!) and I hold the book in front of my face as we leave the Studio. I was going to go buy a pack of batteries and then go get in line again, but a 4 pack of AA batteries on Disney Property costs enough to feed a small country for a month ($16) and I was not about to spend that kind of dough when I had batteries back at the ASMo. Sorry Bob, we’ll come back and see you later in the week.

It was starting to get dark now, it was about 5:30 and so we headed back towards the Hollywood Hills Amphitheater. We stopped for ice cream at that little place next to Toluca Legs (the name of the place escapes me but I’m sure you all know exactly where I’m talking about because they have the greatest ice cream ever in the world.) We get in line for Fantasmic but they were already starting to let everyone in so we took our seats (sliding all the way in towards the middle to make room for everyone) and enjoyed our ice cream which was melting quickly in the 80 degree weather. Fantasmic started right at 7pm and even after watching it so many times, I still love every moment of it. The music is just amazing, that alone gives me goose bumps. But there truly is nothing like this show. Lumar and I had been discussing going to Disneyland one time just to see their Fantasmic show (which we heard has Peter Pan instead of Pocahontas) but we looked it up on You Tube the other night and the WDW show is WAAAAYYYY better. We have more villains, the whole Lion King thing in the beginning, Jafar as the snake, etc. They have Kaa in the place of our Jungle Animals/Lion King stuff, cut out the whole musical montage in the beginning with the bubbles and replace it with 5 minutes of Pink Elephants from Dumbo, and Jafar is non-existent. The Peter Pan thing is OK, but it’s not worth flying all the way to California for. Lumar and I both said they should add in the Pink Elephants and Peter Pan to the WDW show...and I know most of you will probably groan at this but we also think it would be cool to add in a PotC part. Imagine watching Davy Jones on the water screen then all the sudden the Flying Dutchman appears in the water! But since they are real people/CG instead of cartoon characters, it wouldn’t blend very well. But hey, it’s nice to watch in my head.

When we got back to hotel, it was about 8pm and we stopped for dinner at the World Premiere Food Court. I had pasta and meatballs with a side salad and Lumar got a spicy chicken sandwich. He regretted that decision for the rest of the night…which he spent “indisposed.” I had a nice surprise in our room when we got there:

A nice card from Mickey and Minnie wishing me a happy birthday - and there was a balloon too but I forgot to load the picture of it to my photobucket account. We stayed up watching Power Rangers for a couple of hours and went to sleep sometime around midnight.

Coming up: Jammin' in the Jungle

 

[swankybeth]

I'm enjoying your report, looking forward to the next installment.

 

[Simba22]

Part 7
Sunday December 3

We woke up on Sunday morning at 8am, showered, and went over to the World Premiere Food Court for breakfast (not making THAT mistake again!). We both had Mickey Waffles (mine with sausage and syrup, Lumar had his with strawberries) and we boarded a bus for the Animal Kingdom around 9:15am. It’s funny because people always say that AK is their least favorite park because there is “not much to do,” but it seems that time always escapes us in this park and we never get to everything. For example, our plan on this day was to get there for park opening at 9am, head straight to Kilimanjaro Safaris, and get awesome pictures of the animals eating their breakfast and such. Well, since you already know we didn’t leave the hotel until 9:15am, I’m sure you can guess that the rest of it is pretty much downhill as well.

I don’t know what it is about this park, maybe it’s just because I love animals so much, but this park just brings it all together for me. Mostly everyone else get’s “that feeling” when they enter the Magic Kingdom and see the Castle at the end of Main Street. But me....I’m all about the Tree of Life. So we wandered around Discovery Island for about an hour taking pictures:

I hate spiders but thought this was really cool

Macaws are my most favorite birds in the world - regardless of species - I love them all

After that we headed over to the Safari. The sign said the wait was 20 minutes but I don’t think it truly was...

After our 2 week Jammin’ Jungle Expedition, we walked through the Pangani Forest

then headed over to the Mombasa Marketplace for some shopping. It’s funny because this was my 5th trip to WDW and I’ve never been in this shop before. The stuff in there great and you can’t find it anywhere else! I bought a handbag and a ceramic elephant for Lumar’s mom (Christmas Present!). I spent about 10 minutes drooling over a hand-painted Lion King ostrich egg that was $125 and seriously considered buying it....I even walked away for a little while hoping Lumar would buy it for me as a birthday present....but alas, he did not. So we left, eggless, for lunch at Tusker House.

Now, I don’t know if this is an all-the-time thing or just my luck but you’ll see this happen a few times on this trip. We walked into Tusker House and the lines were almost non-existent. Pleasantly surprised, I told Lumar I’d wait and order our food if he went to get a table....15 minutes later I was still waiting for our food. How can the lines be so short but so ridiculously slow? I ordered the kids meal Drumstick with grapes and applesauce (though the applesauce was warm so I didn't eat much of it), and Lumar ordered the Crispy Chicken Sandwich. We found a table in the back of Tucker House to sit down and eat and it was beautiful. I read about this little area in other TR's and I'm so glad we got to eat here finally. The background "noise" that sounds like someone washing dishes, then a dish breaks, then you hear the baby cry and the mom start singing him back to sleep...sooo cool.
This is just one of those "everywhere birds" but she was too cute and too close to just ignore. She sat on this plant next to me the whole time we were eating. And this picture is darn good if I do say so myself:

What was not cool was the family who began to occupy the table next to us (I say "began to occupy" because they eventually found a table inside that all of them could fit at and so they left our area). There were 5 kids: 4 boys and 1 girl . The oldest boy was about 13. From the minute they stepped foot outside until the second they left, 15 minutes later, all he did was complain about how the restaurant didn't serve chicken strips. Now, I'm a VERY picky person. I am very particular about where I eat because I am not too keen on the really gourmet stuff. Chicken strips happens to be one of my favorite meals also. But I was taught a thing or two growing up: 1) if you don't like what we're having, go hungry. 2) If mom and/or dad tell you to stop whining, you stop before they finish their sentence. 3) If mom and/or dad are nice enough to offer to walk all the way across the Animal Kingdom to Mr. Kamal's in Asia to get you chicken strips, you don't reply (and I quote) "I don't care what you do I hate you for making me eat outside when it's hot!" Sorry, and please feel free to flame me, or boycott the rest of my TR, but when you're 13 years old and acting like this, you deserve a smack somewhere. And no, that's not child abuse, that's taking a page out of Aretha Franklin's book: "R-E-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it means." Your parents didn't pay around 10 grand for you to come on vacation to WDW and eat chicken strips kid. The drumstick served it's purpose, and the crispy chicken sandwich was really good too. And on top of the fact that it wasn't even that hot! It was like 75 degrees! So anyway, one of the other boys in the family was not much better..he also thought it was OK to yell at his parents and tell them things like "you suck." The youngest of the 5 was the only girl. My initial opinion was that there wasn't much hope for her based on how her supposed "role models" were acting...Boy was I absolutely right. She was spitting on the table, blowing "raspberries" at her brother, mom, and dad. She kept smacking one of the boys in the face, poking him in the eye, and then telling her mom to "shut up." She was maybe 7 years old. Part of me felt bad for the parents that their kids treated them this way....then I thought to myself "You know what? They spent $10,000 on this vacation, not you. If they want to reward this type of behavior then that's their problem." I was so happy when they left because that little girl spitting was really grossing me out (reason # 1 I don't want kids: I hate spit/saliva. It's incredibly gross).

Here is Lumar HAPPILY eating his crispy chicken sandwich:

After lunch we took the train out to Rafiki's planet watch.
Waiting for the train:

I never get to pet the donkey (which there are two of now, BTW) or the llama. That makes me sad, especially over the donkey because he looks so pet-able. We caught the end of the training show they do there and I made a mental note to come back and watch the whole thing later in the week(It's a shame my mental notepad is out of paper). I had to stop a goat from eating the map out of my back pocket, we tried to take pictures of/pet the cow but she was not having any of that, and I found a Hidden Mickey!

(and yes that is a sheep!)
We went back over to the main-land and trekked on over to Camp Minnie-Mickey for Festival of the Lion King. We never saw this show and we were both really excited about it. Lumar thought it was awesome, I was a little disappointed. Maybe it's because it was different then what I was expecting, maybe it's because I feel like the "mom" and the "dad" characters over-sing their parts...maybe it's because a CM yelled at me for trying to take a picture of Simba when the show was over ("You need to exit that way at this time, ma'am" she repeated like 4 times with an attitude like I was causing a glitch in The Matrix or something by not immediately exiting the theater) so I ended up with this horrible shot:

And I've never seen Lion King on Broadway so it's not even like I was comparing it to that....I don't know, I was just a little let down by it.
As we were leaving the theater, we happened to find a good spot for the parade so we stayed to watch, which we weren't originally going to do. It seemed to move faster to me than usual, and although the Christmas theme is cute, I heart the original parade with the original music and I really missed it. Plus I couldn't figure out how to work my brand new camera that I hardly practiced with before we left, so once again, my pictures suck.

Now this next part made me feel kind creepy. We had never seen the Pocahontas show, and me being the animal-lover that I am, wanted to see it. WOW - I didn't feel like the worlds biggest creep.... Lumar and I were the only 2 people in the theater who didn't have kids with them. Part of me felt like parents were looking at us like we were going to steal their children and become a Law & Order: SVU episode. Part of me felt really stupid for being 6 days away from my 24th birthday and still wanting to go to Disney World on all of my vacations. I got over this of course, but we will not be watching the Pokey Show (my brother used to call Pocahontas "Pokey" when he was little) ever again....as cute as that little racoon and bunny are. I didn't take any pictures during this show which makes me sad now, but probably because I was feeling so creepy. Well, maybe we will watch it one more time so I can take pictures....

We left the park at 5pm, went back to the hotel and watched Kuzco for an hour, then headed to the DTD bus around 6:30pm. We arrived there just around 7pm and went over to Rainforest Cafe to put our name in. I was overjoyed when he told me it was only a 45 minute wait. We were starving! We walked though Goofy's Candy Co. (which, off topic a bit, I always think of when I'm reading Harry Potter and they talk about the candy shop, Honeydukes, in Hogsmeade...sorry I'm done being a nerd now), then went into pretty much every store in the area until finally it was 7:35 and we headed back to RC for our 7:45 reservation. Our safari was in the Gorilla Room - I ordered the Planet Earth Pasta with Clam Chowder as an appetizer, and Lumar had the Chicken Fried Chicken. Our meals were good, but personally I thought my chowder was better than then main course. The pasta seemed kind of under-cooked but, whatever. I was hungry and it was over-all, pretty good. We ordered the volcano for desert but we were so full from dinner, we pretty much just ate the ice cream. And for the money we paid for it we might as well have gone to get real ice cream. $60 later we left and went over to World of Disney. I bought a pink WDW hat/T-shirt combo, and also a hooded sweatshirt since it was starting to get chilly. The CM who rang me out reminded me that by showing her my Disney Rewards Visa, I get 10% off so yay for us, and thanks to her for that!
By now it was late, just after 11pm. Everything was closing and we were tired anyway so we headed back to the ASMo. Watched Power Rangers (of course) and then went to sleep around midnight.

 

[Simba22]

Monday December 4, 2006

Can I just say that I think out of the whole week were staying in Disney World, I was looking forward to this day the most for one reason: Ohana. I had made breakfast reservations here (my first ADR ever!) and I couldn’t wait. We woke up at 7:15 , showered quicker than I ever thought was possible, and jumped on a bus to the Magic Kingdom at 8am. From there, we took the monorail to the Polynesian, and got in line to confirm that we had arrived. They gave us a little pager and told us to have a seat in the lobby (our reservations were for 9:20am) or we could go get a souvenir picture taken. We waited in line for the picture (which of course can’t be put on your photopass) then went and sat down for a few minutes.

I checked my email via cellphone (which I had no idea I could do until the day we left for this trip) and Lumar took a nap. Our pager started blinking a little early which was fine by us! It was about 9:10am when they brought us into the dining room and sat us down. I was a little nervous at first because I wasn’t really sure what to expect, and when we didn’t get a menu I really started to panic (remember, I told you I’m REALLY picky!) Our server (whose name I believe was Mike) brought us our juice (orange, mango, and guava - holy toledo was that stuff good!) and told us he would be back in a few minutes with our breakfast. We waited nervously for about 10 minutes while Lilo, Stitch, & Pluto made their rounds

and when Mike came back with our skillet full of food, our jaws nearly hit the table! Mickey waffles, scrambled eggs, seasoned potatoes, bacon, and sausage. Before he left, he refilled our juice glasses and said the magic words “remember, it’s all you can eat so if you want anymore, just flag me down.” Lumar and I stared at each in awe that can only be brought about by Disney Magic at work. I was actually kind of disappointed that I was full after only eating my half of the skillet. Everything was so good! I will absitively, posolutely be making reservations for Ohana again on our next trip. Of course before we left we watched the little Ohana Conga Line go around (yes the pictures are blurry because they were moving really fast!)

And we went to go visit Mickey (he doesn’t do “rounds,” you have to go up and meet him).

I think it costs about $15 per person to have breakfast here and it is totally worth every cent. It was a great time and Lumar was really happy that it “didn’t suck.”

After breakfast, we took the monorail back to the Magic Kingdom and met Chip & Dale right inside the entrance

then headed right for Pirates (stopping to take some pictures along the way, of course)

We were so excited to see the newly remodeled version for the first time, in person (we watched the video of Johnny Depp riding it about 400 times). It was really good and it seems longer to me than the original was. I know a lot of people were mad about them changing it but we really enjoyed the new version. It’s strange but I never noticed before - you know the part where you go under the bridge and there are pirates on the bridge looking down at you as you pass? It really looks like they are starting right at you as you go under them....kinda creepy. Lumar wandered around the gift shop for seriously, about 40 minutes collecting all sorts of stuff.

When we went to check out, there were 2 CM’s at the register: a young girl on the right, and an older gentleman on the left completely decked out in pirate gear. As Lumar piled his stuff on the counter, he noticed the man staring at everything and said jokingly “Hey, keep your eyes off my treasure, Pirate!” And CM (Captain) Bob replied in full pirate mode “Aye, Matey...and good treasure it be!” The whole time we were there (while the poor girl CM rang up all $250 worth of PotC Pins and other stuff), he never once said anything out of character. He was so great that we talked about him for the rest of the trip. He really made us feel like we aren’t the only ones in the world with a teeny tiny obsession (even though we know it’s his job to do certain things, he was the only one that took it to this level). So after we bought $200 worth of pins (I was seriously freaking out at this for the whole day) we went over to the Magic Carpets of Aladdin. Yes it’s a kiddie ride, and yes it was SOOOOO fun! We had never done it before and really wanted to try and do “different stuff” on this trip so we got in line and up we went! After our carpet landed we went over to meet Aladdin, Jasmine, and Genie.

Genie was WAAAYYY flirting with me and I told him I would come back for him on Saturday and we could fly away back to Connecticut together. Now, this was a pretty chilly day as far as we were concerned - somewhere between 65-70 degrees. But did that stop us from getting Dole Whip? NO WAY!

After we ate, we walked back through Caribbean Plaza and happened to catch a Pirate Training Session with none other than Captain Jack:

Such a good show! Definitely worth watching! We headed through Frontierland to BTMRR and got FP’s then went over to that shootout game (another thing we had never done before). We put our quarters in the slots and I went shootin’ away - Lumar on the other hand was pouting because his machine ate his money and of course there was no CM around to help him. So when I was done with my game (which was way more fun than I thought it would be) Lumar put another dollar into the gun I used and he played a round. After that, we went on the Haunted Mansion then headed back over to BTMRR and got in the FP line. While we were waiting (about 5 minutes) Lumar asked where we were going to eat lunch. I suggest El Pirata Y El Perico and took out the map to see what they serve. I told Lumar that I was assuming by the name that they serve Spanish food, but when I read to him that they serve tacos, he immediately became offended, stated that “tacos do not constitute as Spanish food” and said he wanted to go somewhere else (it was actually a good thing because I found out later in the day that El Pirata was actually closed for the season). So we went back over to Peco’s Bills Café where Lumar ordered the BBQ Pork Sandwich and I ordered the Chicken Wrap. Both were OK but Lumar said the pork was dry (like maybe it was sitting under a heat lamp for a while) and my wrap was good but there was too much lettuce and not enough chicken and there’s never enough dressing on those things.

As we left they were setting up for the parade and we were going to skip it but once again, found a pretty good spot so we stopped to watch. For those of you who haven’t seen the “new” 3 o’clock parade, let me warn you that it’s not really new. They just took the big plastic bubbles off of the floats and switched some characters around. The removal of the bubbles is actually very convenient, as anyone who has ever tried to take pictures of this parade before knows that at 3pm the sun is right in your eyes and reflecting off of the plastic. Lucky for me, it was also a little overcast today.

After the parade we went over to Fantasyland and were going to ride IASW but even though the sign said 10 minute wait, it looked more like 30 (probably because 1000 people just left the parade and got in line for it). Peter Pan also had a 30 minute wait so we went to see Mickey’s Philharmagic - something else that was new to us. This show was spectacular and I totally can’t wait to go see it again (quick question though - does anyone else’s eyes take a few minutes to adjust to 3-D movies? I always sit there cross eyed for the first 2 or 3 minutes of these shows before my eyes finally adjust). There were 2 girls sitting next to us that jumped up and tried to grab the gems out of the air during Ariel’s part and that was so cute it almost made me cry....I started thinking back to the days when I was a kid and we used to be cute like that....
Here's Lumar in the gift shop playing with the treasure of course

Snow White’s Scary Adventure was next (another new thing!)and yes, it was actually kind of scary. We skipped Toon Town and headed straight through to Tomorrowland. There was only a 20 minute wait for Space Mountain but it was probably more like 15 minutes, which is always nice. Some ding-bat spilled soda all over the ramp at one point so everyone’s feet were sticking to the floor as they walked. Someone mentioned it to the CM at the front of the line and his response was (and I quote) “Oh someone must have spilled something.” YEAH WE JUST TOLD YOU THAT! There’s an empty cup on the floor with the plastic top (straw still inserted into the hole) 3 feet away and all of our shoes are making sticky ripping noises as we walk! How about calling someone to come clean it up? Anyway, so I totally never noticed that you could see the cars from the ride in the dark sky above you while waiting in line! I always “saw” the cars but I thought they were a movie - I didn’t realize they were really the ride. That just makes it even cooler. I heard nasty rumors that Disney might be closing Space Mountain for rehab sometime soon, which is cool - you know, fix the tracks up, repaint, etc - but then I heard another nasty rumor that when Space Mountain was closed for rehab at another Disney Park (which one, I can’t remember) it was closed for 3 YEARS while the rehabbed EVERYTHING! I hope that’s just hear-say....

After Space, we went to Auntie Gravities for ice cream and were very disappointed to learn that (apparently) sprinkles are a seasonal item (I guess Sprinkle Trees do not produce sprinkles during Disney’s off season). Since the park was closing early for MVMCP, we headed over to Main Street to get a seat for the 6pm Wishes show. We caught part of the 5:35pm Dream Along With Mickey show, and after Wishes, headed back to the ASMo.

(Stupid girl standing in front of me!!!)
We ordered dinner from World Premiere (both of us had pasta and meatballs with side salads) which we brought back to the room to eat. We arrive to find Thumper, baby Simba, and Scar watching cartoons.

We watched Power Rangers at 10pm (which Lumar is actually watching as I type this). Around 11, I jumped in the shower, and we went to bed (say it with me now) around midnight.

 

[Simba22]

I started writing this about 3 days ago and halfway through I somehow managed to press the exact combination of keys on the keyboard to close the internet and therefore lost everything I wrote....hopefully I make it through this time!

Tuesday 12/05/06
We woke up on Tuesday and somehow made it to Epcot at exactly 9:00am. The first thing we did was head straight for Soarin, to get FP's. After the machine cranked out our tickets, we saw that there was only a 15 minute wait and the return time wasn't for another hour so we just got into the stand-by line. We were lucky enough to get in the front row this time, and although I can honestly say that this ride is spectacular from any row, the lack of dangling feet in front of us did give it that extra "oomph." As we were leaving the ride, we noticed that the stand-by wait was now 40 minutes so we gave our FP's to a couple who were just getting line. After Soarin,' we went over to Seasons for breakfast. We had never eaten here before and were pleasantly surprised at how good the food was. Lumar and I both bought the child-size French Toast meal, but the bacon egg & cheese sandwiches were looking mighty tasty as well. According to my pictures we also did The Seas this morning but I don't have that written in my notes...I think we didn't actually do it until Thursday....

After eating, we headed over to Mouse Gear so that Lumar would stop pestering me about buying Pirates 2 on DVD, as it had been released that morning and he was convinced that all of Disney World would be sold out by lunch time. We bought 2 copies (one for ourselves and the other for my dad for his birthday), Lumar picked up a couple of pins, and I got another lanyard. Since we were spending $65 we were able to buy a WDW throw blanket for $15 instead of the $40 that it normally cost, and we liked it so we added it on. Somehow it was already 11:00am and so we walked towards the World Showcase, stopping first at Odyssey to use the bathrooms. I took a couple pictures while waiting for Lumar:

When we arrived at the entrance to World Showcase, we decided to start on the Canada side since we normally start in Mexico. We watched the 360° Circlevision movie and although it was a cool experience it made me kind of nauseous. And the movie really needs to be updated as it is clearly from the early 80's.
This was taken in Victoria Gardens:

And here is a picture of Canada's version of Santa Claus (Papa Noel I think??)

We adopted 2 huskies on the way out

and then headed over the UK where we walked through the shops there.

One thing that people always fussed about on the DIS was the pastries in France so we stopped in there to check it out. Lumar asked the CM behind the counter how he was doing and the CM replied "Fine....we have the same eyes, me and you." Neither Lumar nor myself understood what the heck he was talking about: Lumar = dark brown eyes, French CM = light blue eyes. Was this a metaphor for something else or was he color blind? Well, whatever - we found a table in the back of the gift shop next door and sat down to eat. Lumar ordered a Strawberry Tart and I had an Apple Turnover. Both were good, but not as good as we were expecting. Next time I'll try something with chocolate in it....

I was quite disappointed, although not surprised, that I couldn't afford anything in the perfume shop (which was a shame because a few of them smelled really nice), but I did get to take some new pictures, one of which I am particularly happy with:

As all geography majors know, right next door to France is Morocco so we stopped in.

I found a really nice windchime that my mom would have loved but my intent was purchase a replacement for the wooden one she bought in AK a few years ago that had since rotted away in New England weather. This one here in Morocco was much smaller than the wooden one and much more expensive so we moved on. But of course, Lumar had to use the bathroom first so I waited on a little bench for him.

For anyone out there that is as obsessed with anime, as Lumar is, or Hello Kitty as I am, you will know exactly what we were feeling upon entering Japan. It's like the money just melts out of your pocket. However, I had been wanting to pick a pearl since our May 2005 trip and never got the chance to try it then, or on our May 2006 trip, so I made the decision to hold off on all Hello Kitty purchases until after I successfully picked a pearl. I know most of you are going to laugh at me here but after I made my decision on which oyster I wanted, I immediately felt guilty for killing it. But it's hard to hear the voice of guilt over the banging of that little drum and everyone "ooh-ing" and "aah-ing." My first pearl ever was a 7mm silver one. The CM told me they are very rare but the girl who went after me got a silver one too so I don't know how rare exactly, but it was still fun. I had it mounted onto a small butterfly pendant, and then I followed Lumar around while he looked for a register (like they are hard to find) where he could pay for the two $40 Kingdom Hearts figures he picked out. We left a short while later but I vowed to pick another pearl on our 2nd Epcot day which would be Thursday.

We stopped briefly in American Adventure to watch the Revolutionary War drumming and piccolo guys (who were very good but I don't know what they are officially called and to say they are the Revolutionary War "Band" or "Street Performers" doesn't really sound fitting to me). We decided to come back later that night for Apple Cobblers, something we talked about constantly since we had them on our 2005 trip. We moved on to Italy where we were going to eat lunch at Alfredo's but there was like a 45 minute wait and Lumar didn't want Italian food anyway (surprise, surprise. I'm Italian and I managed to find one of probably 2 men in the whole world who don't eat fish OR ricotta cheese. I asked him if he ever planned to eat again once we have our own place and I start actually cooking meals and he just kind of nodded but I don't think he exactly understands the fact that Italians eat 3 things: Pasta with fish, pasta with meat, and pasta with ricotta cheese.) I fell in love with another perfume here in Italy but once again, couldn't justify spending $60 on it.

On to Germany. It's when I arrive in Germany that I always kick myself for not forcing myself to like beer. There's so much of it here and so many different varieties and I don't like any of them. The smell of beer makes me gag and so, sadly, we don't spend much time here ever. If we do, Lumar will start drinking beer and for some reason right next door to the beer is a shop full of glass and crystal...not a good combination in my opinion. Even without the threat of alcohol, I still try to avoid staying here long for the reason that there are too many breakable items and Lumar is the kind of person that needs to look with his hands.

Finally around 2:00pm we hit China. I had been dreaming about eating at 9 Dragons again and was very happy to see that even though the main building in the China Pavillion was closed for rehab, 9 Dragons was not. I love the food here so much! There was a little "everywhere" bird hopping around on the floor inside, next to our table. I know a lot of people would have been totally appalled but we thought it was adorable and watched him throughout our whole meal (we both had General Tso's). Next up was Norway, and Maelstrom had a 20 minute wait so we got FP's and wandered around for a little bit. Seriously, why is this ride so cool? Even Lumar started repeating "You are not de furst to pass dis vay...nor vill you be de lahst."

While waiting for our return time, we went to Mexico and met the Three Caballeros and saw the Three Kings which was nice for Lumar since his family celebrates Three Kings Day.

By the time we waited in line for the Three Caballeros and the Three Kings performance was over, it was time for Maelstrom so we went back to Norway to ride that, then went back to Mexico for El Rio de Tiempo. As cute as this ride is, when are they refurbing this? The original ride, in it's original form, with the original movie? At least the movie could use an update. I bought a couple of things in the plaza for my step-mom (a margarita recipe book among them and I was seriously tempted to by the margarita mix with the glasses but I'm glad I didn't because they wouldn't have let me on the plane with the liquid and I hadn't yet discovered the wonder of shipping stuff home). Somehow it was about 6:30pm now, so we took the boat from Mexico across the lagoon to Germany and headed back to the American Adventure for some apple cobbler. WOW were we disappointed. When we first had this back in 2005, it was warm apple pie served with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce. Now, it's cold, sour apples mixed with a tiny bit of what I'm assuming was supposed to be pie crust...no ice cream, no caramel sauce. It was actually quite gross and we were really saddened by this. We walked all the way back around, in the opposite direction as earlier, and found great seats for Illuminations.

Yes, it was only 7:00pm and we still had 2 hours to go but our feet were tired and we knew we wanted a good view so we sat down in front of the railing just outside Canada to wait. Wow, did it get cold! Lumar actually wandered over to the gift carts in Canada to see if they had a pair of sweatpants he could buy to put on but they didn't. Which was OK actually, because while he was over there I remembered that we bought a blanket earlier in the day.... Illuminations was as beautiful as ever, and although I may be dubbed a blasphemer (wait let me put on my flame-suit), I'm starting to think that these fireworks are better than Wishes....Here we are waiting:

 

[Simba22]

Sorry it has been so long since I have written anything. I was getting discouraged because no one had been replying to my installments but then I saw how many people were actually viewing my report and thought maybe that someone out there was enjoying it (hopefully more than just one!). But then we started having construction done on our house and everything was just a wreck….I am finally ready to start up again so here we go…. (Also for anyone who has been following along, Lumar is once again, watching Power Rangers as I type this!)

Wednesday 12/6
I woke up this morning with a massive sore throat but it was to be our second day at Animal Kingdom and I figured maybe it was just allergies or something and would go away in an hour or two. I showered first, then went over to World Premiere food court to grab us some breakfast while Lumar took a shower. We made it to AK right for 9am and headed right to Kilimanjaro Safari. People on the DIS had been raving about how good the first ride of the morning was, and here I was: an animal lover with a new digital camera! We were on the other side of the truck this time and I was able to get some pretty good pics…

After the safari, we returned to Expedition Everest. Now, remember earlier when I told you that we had gotten FP’s for Soarin’ while in Epcot, but ended up not needing them so we gave them away? Well, the FP’s that were currently being given out were for a 10:55 return time…it was only 9:55 so we were kinda bummed but happy to get FP’s at all. Lumar was just about to put our tickets in the machine when a couple walked up to us and said “hey we took passes earlier but the wait time wasn’t too bad so you take them if you want” and handed us their two fastpasses with a return time of 10:05! Talk about good karma! We only had 10 minutes to wait so we mulled around the gift shop for a few minutes. We found some stuff we wanted and we were going to use one of the coupons (Dead Man’s Cash) we got for buying Pirates 2 on DVD…it was only for $5 off but we got two since we bought two movies. We handed the cashier our merchandise and the coupon and she hands it back saying you can only use the coupon on purchases of $35 or more. We only had like $15 worth of stuff (I bought a KS pin and Lumar bought the EE pin which were both $8 ones I think). Again, a bit bummed but we knew that the coupon would get used eventually so we didn’t worry about it. Our ride on EE was great, I just wish I had a scanner so I could share it. WDW really needs to work on getting your ride photos “Photo-Pass Friendly.” They did it with Test Track! What’s the hold up? I guess they make too much money off of the current system to make it a priority…. Here are some pics from the gift shop:

Anyway, another thing that we had never done that I was dying to see was Flights of Wonder. There was an 11 o’clock show so on our way out of Asia we went in to watch. It was VERY COOL! I’ll definitely go watch this again. Since my camera was still new to me, I didn’t get spectacular shots, but I got a few good ones:

We learned for the first time during this show that Bald Eagles are no longer considered to be an endangered species!

After the show we went on the Maharajah jungle trek….I got some of my favorite shots here:

The flying foxes are a lot of fun to watch when they are active. They do more climbing than flying and while doing some research for our scrapbook, I learned that that actually have perfect eyesight and eat only fruit, no bugs. But we didn’t notice that this guy was “flashing” us until we got the pictures back. Lumar (who is a big Batman fan) refers to him as the “Bat-a-wang.” But that wing span is impressive, isn’t it??

We were both getting hungry so on our way out of Asia we stopped at Mr. Kamal’s and got chicken strips (it is only day 5 of our trip and already we are sick of chicken strips but there wasn’t much of a choice in the area and Flame Tree was closed for the season). But Lumar found us a great spot on the water, in the shade and right under the Tree of Life:

After lunch, we headed for Dinoland and got FP’s for Dinosaur. While we were waiting for our return time, we walked along the Cretaceous Trail:

Ok now, everyone, right now, stop to think about what crocodiles eat. Raw, bloody meat, right? Can someone explain to me how his teeth are so pearly white? Aside from the fact that they are extremely long and razor sharp, they are gorgeous aren’t they?!

We still had some time left before we went back to Dinosaur so we wandered around Chester & Hester’s. Lumar had been seeing kids walking around with big stuffed frogs since our first AK day, and he talked about winning one since the first time he saw one….so here we were, and he never took out any cash to play the games with. There was an ATM right across from us in the gift shop or close to it, from what I remember….but he was feeling lazy. So no frog for the Lumar. We still had 15 minutes left before our FP return time so we went and sat on the benches outside the Dinosaur gift shop and just relaxed for a little while. Finally it was time for our ride and thankfully this ride is awesome every time we go on it. You know how some rides “get old” after the 3rd or 4th time? The only ride in WDW that I have had that problem with is Test Track, but Dinosaur still scares the ever-living daylights out of me. Again, I wish I could scan our ride picture so you could see me ducking down almost below the seats with a horrified look on my face…but alas, I still don’t have a scanner.

As we left Dinoland, we saw that the Meet & Greet Trail was still open and Pooh, Tigger, and Eeyore were down there taking pictures so we headed down and were pleasantly surprised to see that the line was not long so we waited. We got pictures with all three and I got their signatures for the scrapbook. Poor Eeyore came within half an inch of drawing on his own face with my permanent marker. Imagine being responsible for WDW having to replace almost an entire costume because of your marker?

We were going to head over to Camp Minnie-Mickey for some character greetings but that sore throat that I woke up with was now a full blown head case. I was just miserable and wanted to go back to the hotel. I was feeling feverish and every muscle in my body hurt. But we never It’s Tough to be a Bug so we stopped in for a show on the way out. It was much better than I thought it was going to be and not half as creepy as I had imagined (I really truly honestly despise bugs)…although I held my breath during the dung beetle part.….Does it really smell or did I hold my breath for nothing? I learned from the DIS that I should absolutely hold my breath on Stitch’s Great Escape, but even after doing so I could still smell that disgusting chili dog. I decided after this that I didn’t really want to leave THAT badly, so we went to guest relations to get my birthday button (since my birthday was not until the 9th, I didn’t want to get it first thing on our trip and have people fussing over me for 8 extra days. But Lumar made me get it today which was only 3 days early), and we were going to head back to CMM when I finally, after 4 previous trips to WDW and the Animal Kingdom, was able to get pictures of the grey kangaroo:

The otters (although the reflection off of the glass and their quick movement did not make for the best picture):

and after 27 shots, this is the best picture we could get of the anteater – this guy just will not sit still!

AS we were standing in front of the Kangaroo enclosure, a “just married” couple came up to us and we got to chatting about various things…including Hidden Mickey’s. I showed them the picture of the HM I found in RPW on the sheep’s butt and they got so excited to go and find it. It makes me happy to share cool WDW things with people who are just as excited about it as I am. We walked back towards CMM but came upon Lilo & Stitch so we hung out with them for a few minutes:

Then we officially left Animal Kingdom and went back to the ASMo. We watched Life with Derek for a few minutes but by now I was really feeling lousy so I took a nap while Lumar watched Kuzco. Two hours later I woke up and still felt horrible. Our original plan was to go to DTD but since I wasn’t feeling well we decided to just hang out in the room. Lumar went to World Premiere and picked up dinner for us and some medicine from Donald’s Double Feature (the gift shop/convenience store) and we went to bed around 9:30pm. Hopefully I would be feeling better tomorrow…..

 

[Simba22]

Part 11

Thursday 12/7

We slept a little late today since it was to be our 2nd day at Epcot and we had already done practically everything we wanted to. We arrive around 10:30 and went over to Leave a Legacy but the line was long and I was too lazy to wait so we decided to come back on the way out. We got on Spaceship Earth which is always a good ride. It’s funny because my notes for this say that we enjoyed the ride, as always, but it could use some rehabbing because the track was so loud that I couldn’t hear the narration or the AA’s. And now, SE is being refurbed and won’t be open in time for my trip in October.

After SE, we went and got FP’s for Test Track but went back to Mission Space since there wasn’t much of a line. I remember the first year that Lumar and I came to WDW together, only 2 years ago in 2005, I was sooo scared to get on this ride. But he really wanted to go so I went on it against my will. I really thought I was going to be ridiculously sick when we got off, I was terrified during the ride itself, but after it was over I was fine except for a small headache which was probably just due to me being completely tense. Now, I get excited to get on it! It’s always fun for me, I just hate the pushing buttons and steering part…I’m one of those people that just wants to enjoy the ride, I don’t want to work. But I do it anyway in an attempt to keep us from crash landing. After Mission: Sinise we went back to Test Track and I was happy to see that there was FINALLY a ride photo I could put on my photopass! What sucks is that Lumar and I have been on this ride so many times that we look totally bored to tears in the photo:

We headed back towards World Showcase and I got some good flower shots on the way:

We were so ready for lunch and I really wanted to eat at Alfredo’s since we had never been there. But the wait was 45 minutes and Lumar started complaining that he didn’t want Italian food (surprise surprise), so we walked down to Canada to try our luck at Le Cellier. Come now, all you ADR fanatics, say it with me: “YEAH RIGHT!” They were totally booked for the rest of the night, no room for walk-ins.” We went back to Electric Umbrella and got the usual stuff: cheeseburgers, French fries, side salad. We ate outside which was nice, and far less crowded than it was inside. I’m assuming it’s because there were so many birds out there begging for food but they don’t bother me one bit…they keep the bugs away! No fly’s, beetles, bees, or other nastiness. Birds are my friends!

After lunch we were going to do Honey I Shrunk the Audience but they had just started a show and the next one was like 2 hours away so we did Figment instead. I really like this ride, I know a lot of people hate it but I really hope they don’t close it down! In the gift shop, I found a lot of cool scrapbooking stuff, including the book itself. It was the first time I came across this particular book all week. There were 4 on the shelf but three of them were scratched, dented, ripped, or a combination of the three. The one I got was hidden on the top shelf behind some other books so it hadn’t been damaged. There was a line a mile long and only one cashier…and she was new. I wish I was joking when I say that it took her 15 minutes to ring out the woman in front me who purchased 2 of the exact same Figment plushes. That’s it. And it took her 15 minutes. When it was my turn, I told her that I wanted my stuff shipped home. Halfway through my transaction another cashier comes over and starts ringing people up, but alas it was too late to save me. The cashier I had, Dawn, told me to fill out the top part of the shipping form, which I did. I handed it back to her, she ripped off the yellow part and gave it to me stapled to my receipt. She put all of my stuff in a WDW bag, and put the packing slip in the cash drawer. I didn’t feel really good about this but I left, thinking that maybe the policy had changed or something since yesterday when I shipped stuff home…. No, this just wasn’t right. I pulled out my copy of the packing slip and realized that she never even printed my order on the slip. Then I remembered her putting my bag on the floor with no slip on it. I immediately went back into the store and the manager just happened to be already behind the counter talking to Dawn about the customer’s order she was currently scanning. I told him not to go far because I needed to talk to him when it was my turn again. I explained to him what happened, and he said it was no problem to fix, he would just pull up my order with the transaction number and reprint it on the packing slip. But where was my bag? Dawn starts nervously looking at the floor where she left the bag earlier, looks at me, then at the manager, then back at the floor. The manager asks her again “Where is her bag?” Dawn starts to mutter an answer when the other cashier saved her life by saying “I moved it into the back room, I thought someone left it behind by accident. Did it have a blue photo album in it?” I could have hugged her, I was so relieved. So now that we’ve solved that mystery, the manager pulls up my transaction. “Uh oh” he mutters, “it looks like she never charged you for the shipping, that’s why it didn’t prompt her to insert your packing slip to print the order on.” Out comes the credit card again for $11.95 to be added on for shipping. He prints the order on the receipt and sends me on my way. Luckily for him, I am not a confrontational or argumentative person, otherwise I would have fought to drop the shipping charges or something. But I didn’t, all because I felt bad that Dawn was new. As I sit here now and think about this, I really blame the training staff. How can you put someone out on the floor, behind a register, in charge of people’s money, credit cards, and vacation souvenirs, without being 100% positive that they completely understand how to ring people up? At least have someone stand with or ring next to her for her whole shift to oversee what she’s doing and to help her if she gets stuck and has questions. I mean this girl was there by herself for who knows how long! How many other transactions did she say would be “shipped home” that ended up in the back room as “merchandised left behind?” All I can say, I am glad I pay attention to stuff like this because I would have been FLIPPING OUT if my stuff never arrived.

I decided after this traumatic ordeal (I’m just kidding it wasn’t THAT traumatic!) that I needed to pick another pearl. So we walked back towards World Showcase. I ended up picking 2 more pearls: 7.25mm and 7.50mm pink ones! They are so beautiful, I was sooo happy with the pearls I got! Lumar decided to pick one too and he got a 7mm white-ish/greenish one which he had mounted to a sword pendant. I knew he would never wear it, but it’s nice that he did one with me. After pearls, Lumar went and picked out another Kingdom Hearts figure, but this one was for his best friend for Christmas.

We decided to head back to the resort for a little while before heading to MVMCP but all we did was grab some dinner at World Premier and by the time we finished it was 7:00pm, so we jumped on the bus to MK. We slid our tickets through the machine and got our wristbands, then got right in line, before we even walked under the train station; Santa Goofy was waiting for us!

This is me, looking completely exhausted:

We stopped in the Emporium for Santa hats:

…then headed towards the Castle. Main Street looked beautiful with all of the Christmas decorations & lights…and the snow was better that what we get in CT sometimes! (We live right on Long Island Sound so our snow is more often a “wintry mix” which is mostly rain with a few snow flakes here and there). And since it was cold, the hot chocolate hit the spot (and the sugar cookies were perfect! I hate burnt cookies and these were cooked to perfection!)

Now, I’m going to be completely honest with you folks: I have absolutely no notes from MVMCP. Not one. I remember that we went on practically every ride at MK: Small World, Haunted Mansion, Pirates, Space Mountain…everything is open and there were no lines for anything. Every ride was walk-on, but other than that, I know we watched the parade, and I know we watched Holiday Wishes. So rather than ramble on incoherently about made-up things, I’ll just show you some more pictures! Another warning though, there was a very annoying girl standing in front of me (and when I say girl, I mean she appeared to be in her late twenties but she SO did not act her age) who kept stepping in front of me every time I took a picture during the parade. I’ll try not to include the ones that she totally ruined. Some of the “floats” were recycled from the Dreams Come True Parade and Share a Dream Come True from last year, but it made me happy to get a picture of Rabbit!

(the horses pulled Cinderella’s Coach)

(Clarabelle was baking cookies on her float and they smelled SOOO good!)

Holiday Wishes:

(yes it’s a little crooked…no tripod for me!)

(“O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree!”)

On our way out after the party, we stopped at Casey's for hot dogs then went back to the resort and literally passed out. No Power Rangers, or anything, just sweet Disney Dreams for us!

 

[mommylovesdisneymore]

This soundslike a great trip we are going the first week of this december
I hope we have as much fun and luck as you

 

[Simba22]

This soundslike a great trip we are going the first week of this december I hope we have as much fun and luck as you

It was fantastic! You will have a great time! Thanks for reading!