So....we got off of Splash, still laughing hysterically, and met up with Sher and Horsey, who were dripping wet (literally!!!) and waiting for us. We all traveled together to go buy our pictures. Because, of course, THIS had to be documented for posterity. And for trip reports, naturally. See Jamis picture above. Thats the same one I have. Because, as you know, all of my pictures belong to others, and that one was hers. There were multiple technical difficulties, photo machine malfunctions, and delays. Bottom line, it took a while. Again, though, the CMs were great. We probably didnt get paid up and out of there until 12:30 a.m. But they were very nice and patient. And we were happy to have our frickin NOF awesome pictures. (Was there a Horsey & Sher picture? I cant remember seeing one. H, feel free to scan and post if you have it.)
We then set off for the ladies room. To TRY to fix ourselves. We were all kind of a mess, but Horsey and Sher were just soaked! Literally, they were wringing out their clothes and making puddles! Am I the only one who thinks that Disney management REALLY needs to put a couple of hand dryer thingies in the Splash restrooms? Like the ones they have all over the Animal Kingdom? This just seems like common sense to me. And I have found myself making this wish many a time after riding this oh-so-fabulous ride. Especially lately. (I had a couple of COMPLETE drenchings on my most recent trip.)
After doing what we could to get the streaked make up off of our faces, we headed out. Through a TOTALLY EMPTY MK. Very unique experience. With the castle turning colors. And the CMs sweeping and cleaning all around us. The behind-the-scenes people that keep the MK looking so lovely for those of us who show up at opening. Bless them. We headed toward the castle. And posed for some pics. Heres a good group shot:
Notice the only idiot in high heels? Yeah, you know, the one with the sprained ankle? It doesnt look bad at all in that photo, but it was not happy, I tell ya. I was very ready to get the sucker elevated and iced again. Which I did, after bidding adieu to our fellow adventurers and catching what I think was the very last boat over to WL. Phew!
MONDAY MORNING
Our big day. Or what we originally thought was going to be the big day when we planned this trip. Our meet at Maelstrom, our favorite ride. Which is a fastpass, TFI. Of course, as mentioned earlier, our original plan didnt include all the other meets. And dinners. And adventures. So, by now, we had pretty much met everyone. I ran through it in my mind. The only frequent posters that I had not yet met were GeorgiaAristocat (GAKitty), Javamom (Steph), and Backstage Gal (Marita). I knew we were expecting a couple of others who I did not know as well, too. So, we got up at our now-normal time of about 7:30 a.m., took our time getting ready, and headed down to Roaring Forks for a little quick sustenance. As we were in line, we were shocked to see a friend of my sons with his mother. WOW, small world! Davids face lit up when he saw us, until we broke the news that our son wasnt with us. But, as it turned out, they were leaving in about 2 hours, so it didnt really matter. After saying goodbye to them, we sat down to eat, then headed to the bus stop for Epcot. It was so strange to be bussing it there. We normally stay at Epcot area resorts, so I think this may have been the first time (since 1987, anyway) that we had come through this entrance! Since we didnt have much of Future World on our agenda, we hadnt made a big effort to get there at opening. In fact, I think we arrived at about 10:00 or so, give or take 30 minutes. We headed over to grab a fastpass for Soarin. En route, Jay said, Theres Mark. Sure enough, Mark, Rhonda and Wesley were just ahead of us. We caught up with them and heard about their 10 minute wait at Soarin (at opening) that turned into much longer. The old lagtime between the posted wait and the actual, I guess. They were headed to Test Track, I believe, then over to Norway for the meet. We went into the Land to grab fastpasses for Soarin. #1, 4 & 7 were just coming up the stairs as we were heading down. We told them wed see them at Maelstrom in a few. Jami gave us the scoop that two of our yet-to-be-met crew was down in the food court. GAKitty and her family, as well as Steph and Crashdad (Mr. Javamom...) were both finishing up breakfast. I sought them out to say hi. GAKitty is such a cutie! Her previously posted pics just did not do her justice. Her hubby is a cutie, too, and the kids are just adorable. I told her daughter happy birthday, because I recalled it was close (think it was the next day?) Then, we went over to say Hi to Steph and Crashdad. Nice little quick chat with them, too, then we headed out toward the Maelstrom meet. (Note: something else mustve happened here, because I know we were running late. I cant recall the exact timing, but I know when I called Jami, we found out they were going to be just as late as us, so I didnt stress too much.) En route, we also ran into Mr. Silly (Steven) and Max & Sophia. Epcot was just teeming with Maelstromers today!! Steven informed me that Haley was already in Norway. Of course she was. She is Ms. Organized, and Im sure she wanted to make sure we were all being gathered appropriately. I wonder if she had an attendance checklist?
As we hurriedly walked toward the WS, we noticed how very hot it felt. Even more so than yesterday. Hot, hot, hot. I had flashbacks to my first trip to Epcot in 1987. In early September. Our 2nd anniversary trip when our short-lived marriage almost headed to divorce court because of my cranky self in the heat. I silently vowed to control myself today. And to be willing to cut and run if the heat got the better of me. Even though our marriage is rock solid, I didnt want to ruin the day for either of us. Even after the poop incident of the other day, the hotel pool was sounding appealing for later.
We landed in Norway just a few minutes late, and happily greeted the many already gathered. Grammy was hysterical, wearing Chris extremely short skirt, aka belt, that she had stolen from her room (I guessed). Chris didnt know she was wearing it. Hahahaha! It was very funny. And, if I may say, Gram looked damn good in it. Pulled it off better than I couldve. It wouldnt have made it past my knees! Chris arrived shortly afterwards, and got a good laugh out of it. Then they headed to the ladies room to make a switch. Me thinks Grammy was a lot more comfy after that. I also got to meet Marita, SpectrumTurbo and a few of our lurkers (some of whom dont lurk as much anymore...Eeyore45!) We had a fun time chatting and meeting, hugging and sharing stories. Eventually, we headed over to the Viking ship to pose for pictures. It was a looooong ordeal. Jay, wonderful picture architect that he is (remember, hes in politics), did a nice job of arranging everyone for the CM who was snapping the picture, but his arranging didnt help the shorten the time, by any means. I love him dearly, but he is sometimes overly patient. I am not. Especially in the heat. So....here is one of the shots. This is from Grammys camera. I have about 6 different shots of this pose. None of them are very good!
After the endless picture posing, we headed over to RIDE Maelstrom together. This was a blast! I dont think the CMs knew what hit em! The were all of a sudden inundated with this huge crew of crazy people who all wanted to ride together. I believe we filled 3 boats. Here are a few of em. Dont ask me WHAT I was doing. Guess its good we werent on Splash or the picture wouldve been washed away!
I know it doesnt look like it above, but dear sweet Frickles was sitting next to me. She must just be leaning over Horseys shoulder for the pic. Anyway, this was perhaps the longest amount of quality time I got with her the whole trip. She had a shopping bag full of peanut-free products for her son, courtesy of YAK. Evidently, there are certain advantages to living in Canada. In addition to NOT being hated in every other country of the world, you also have a tremendous assortment of peanut-free products to choose from at the grocery store. YAK has kinda become Fricks supplier, so to speak. I also think (am I wrong here? Im not sure.) that Frick told me that she had never ridden Maelstrom before. At any rate, we Vikings all had a grand time riding, the Mothership(s) on the ride for which our CB thread, and our group, has been named. And Im sure the ride will never be the same.
After disembarking, we headed into the dump shop. Many of us stuck around to pose for a lot of unflattering pictures with the Norway Troll, wearing ugly viking hats. Believe it or not, I think this was the best of the bunch:
Notice the braids on Mr. Silly. And adorable Wesley up front with the sword. And, of course, the fastpasses that several are holding up. To illustrate that, indeed, Maelstrom IS a Fastpass!
Honestly? I think we were all just postponing the inevitable foray out into the stifling heat. BUT....we had some more fun ahead. Because the plan was to meet for margaritas and an early lunch in Mexico. Many of us headed that way. Some had to leave. But we still had quite a crowd. We kind of took over the Cantina de San Angel. (Are we sensing a theme here? The Vikings are sort of a marauding bunch...as we should be, I guess.) Several of us indulged in frozen margaritas. Yum. And nice and cold, which was key. We called and spoke with many of our Maelstromer friends who were at home. Phones were passed around, and speaker phones were used to leave messages en masse. I remember speaking with Minnie Moo and Master Gracie. Probably more, but it was kind of hectic, so Ive forgotten now. For some reason, I dont have pictures from this part of the day. I guess we were just having so much fun chatting and bouncing from table to table, that not many people took the time to break out the cameras. Or maybe we were just sick of posing. There is one from Kims camera that I have, which I love, of Sher and Wesley. But its too tiny to post. I dont know why. Bottom line, Wesley and Sher spent quite a bit of time together. Even as we were all jockeying to get to spend time with Wesley. Because he is such an awesome kid. He fit right in with us, even though hes only 4. This kid is gonna go far in life. No doubt. Must have something to do with his great parents
.
Eventually, Jay and I decided to head out to browse the booths at the Food & Wine Festival. But, as I believe Ive mentioned, it was hot. We got a few things. Nothing that really sticks out in my mind. I think I had the $3.00 meatball that Mark mentioned in his TR. And some kielbasa w/sauerkraut on a pretzel roll. Jay had a slice of pizza, I think. I was hot and sweaty, and feeling the crankiness creeping up. And I knew that Id be back here in a month. When the weather would be much cooler. So we bagged it pretty early and headed back toward Future World to use our Soarin fastpass. At some point earlier, we had decided that we would skip Test Track, as it was in the opposite direction. And, again, wed be back in a month, so we could ride it then. We got to Soarin and found something interesting. A posted wait of 90 minutes. And NO LINE. We had used our fastpasses and were surprised to see only about 20 people on the standby side. I asked one of them what the scoop was, and he said he had been there about 5 minutes. This was a phenomenon that I noticed again on our most recent trip to the World a few weeks ago. Evidently, the Soarin attraction needs a better approach to wait estimation. If you ever see a long wait posted, it might be worth going in anyway to check out how long the line actually is. And if you see a SHORT wait listed, but find a long line upon approach, you might be better off turning around and getting a fastpass. But I wouldnt take the posted wait time as gospel on this attraction.
As usual, the ride was fun. Now that I think of it, we may have ridden it in the morning before the meet, too. Maybe we rode it, AND got a set of fastpasses for later. That would explain why we were running late back then. This comes to mind because I recall not being able to smell the pine the first time, but then smelling it very strongly the 2nd time. Anywoo, its still one of my favs. Very cool, and relaxing. It was a nice thing to do on our way out.
We caught a bus, headed back to the WL, and hit the pool. After getting the obligatory soft serve ice cream. I think I napped a little in the sun. I wanted to rest, as I knew we had another late night ahead.
UP NEXT: Alfredos, Illuminations, and another late night adventure!!
This was indeed the high point for me too. I am thankful no one has the wet tshirt version of some of us who got especially soaked. I still can't believe we didn't wait for you. We honestly just didn't think you'd make it. 
See, the thing is, then Chris and I would have been able to sit on either side of Zzub, and THAT would have been a thrill. 
And I didn't want them to think I usually just wore a belt for a day at the park, so I had splaining to do. I think Sheri tripped me in the ladies room, but I am sure it was an accident.
