Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho!

[Where'sPiglet?]

I quote: "And don't hold out on us for the photos!! " -Where'sPiglet, from my solo TR.

I was in Wal-Mart restocking my Diet Coke supply and they had Lion King playing on the big-screen TVs in the back. So of course I gravitated over and ended up buying The Lion King and Tangled. I HAVE to get out of vacation-spending mode.

Scar is pure awesomeness. Don't get me wrong, I like Simba just as well, but heroes without villains are just regular guys with no story. You need an awesome villain to have a great hero with a compelling story. (That sentence started out with a lot more "awesome"s in it, but it was getting silly.)

Anyway, photobucket is finally ready to roll, so there should be a real live beginning to this TR by tomorrow.

BTW, the Disney PhotoPass site is a total FAIL. And GEAUX SAINTS!

Ugh. I had clicked on my User CP many times yesterday to check for updates, and there never was one for this report. I didn't know you had updated.

Erhm, I guess that really IS something I would say.

I bought Lion King the other day, but I have not yet bought Tangled. I'm not sure if I will. I did try to buy Coke today, but the store I went to was sold out.

Hmmm....I suppose I had never considered that point of view about the villains.

GEAUX SAINTS! That was a close one yesterday!

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

Ooooh! PHOTOS!!!

The pirate rooms look really neat. When I stayed at CBR, it was one of the first trips I had taken that was not with my family. My parents always requested to stay on the top floor. I think they didn't want feet noise from guests upstairs. Well, I got assigned to a first floor room at CBR. As it turned out, I LOVED it! I got upgraded to a king bed, corner room in Aruba section. I loved not having to take the stairs at the end of a long day. I also liked how there was lush foliage out the window.

How did the 2nd floor (above the main deck ) work out for you with no elevator?

Yummm....Earl of Sandwich. I don't know what they put in that food to make them so good. And good timing!

Your DTD loot is impressive, and the new Lego statue blows away that family walking the dog. WOW!

Is the pin trading thing contagious? Because I'm getting a little concerned I might catch it from you if I'm not careful!

The gift shop at CBR is quite nice. I'm not surprised you found your way there and browsed a bit. I know CBR doesn't get as much love as the other moderates, but it just might be my favorite. I really enjoyed my stay there. In fact, one reason I haven't stayed there again yet is that I'm afraid my stay won't be as good as the last one and it will tarnish the memory! (Silly reasoning, I know...)

 

[jwhtewolfd]

Ugh. I had clicked on my User CP many times yesterday to check for updates, and there never was one for this report. I didn't know you had updated.

Erhm, I guess that really IS something I would say.

I bought Lion King the other day, but I have not yet bought Tangled. I'm not sure if I will. I did try to buy Coke today, but the store I went to was sold out.

Hmmm....I suppose I had never considered that point of view about the villains.

GEAUX SAINTS! That was a close one yesterday!

I don't know what's up with the update notifications, or lack thereof. I only got Tangled because I had walked down the Disney DVD isle and had four or five DVDs in my hand before I came to my senses and put them all down except for Tangled and Lion King. That was $100 I did not need to spend. Yikes. And HOW do you run out of COKE!? That's just...WRONG.

Ooooh! PHOTOS!!!

The pirate rooms look really neat. When I stayed at CBR, it was one of the first trips I had taken that was not with my family. My parents always requested to stay on the top floor. I think they didn't want feet noise from guests upstairs. Well, I got assigned to a first floor room at CBR. As it turned out, I LOVED it! I got upgraded to a king bed, corner room in Aruba section. I loved not having to take the stairs at the end of a long day. I also liked how there was lush foliage out the window.

How did the 2nd floor (above the main deck ) work out for you with no elevator?

Yummm....Earl of Sandwich. I don't know what they put in that food to make them so good. And good timing!

Your DTD loot is impressive, and the new Lego statue blows away that family walking the dog. WOW!

Is the pin trading thing contagious? Because I'm getting a little concerned I might catch it from you if I'm not careful!

The gift shop at CBR is quite nice. I'm not surprised you found your way there and browsed a bit. I know CBR doesn't get as much love as the other moderates, but it just might be my favorite. I really enjoyed my stay there. In fact, one reason I haven't stayed there again yet is that I'm afraid my stay won't be as good as the last one and it will tarnish the memory! (Silly reasoning, I know...)

Second floor wasn't TOO bad. At least the stairs weren't too steep. We were in the building closet to the bus stop, but of course on the side of the building furthest from the stop. Buses were good, for the most part. Trinidad South is the last stop for all the parks except MK, so when we got on we were headed straight to the parks. And I think we had standing room only
just once in the morning. Luckily two of the four parks are only like six minutes away, so even if you get stuck standing, it's not for long. I love how centrally located CBR is.

Earl is delicious. I always get the Original - roast beef with horseradish. If we have CS credits left, we'll stop there before we head home to have sandwiches for the road.

The DTD loot is collective. We were both buying for different people, so it added up quick, but I think we did pretty good getting a hefty amount of the shopping done ahead of time.

As for the pins, I only trade a little. I have a couple from buying those mystery packs that I trade around, but for the most part I buy the ones I like and use the locking backs on them. I did manage to find three more Scar pins through trading though, so it's always a good idea to have a few spares and be on the lookout for the CMs' lanyards.

I really liked CBR. The pirate room is really neat; even the bathroom area is nice. I like the pics of the Nemo rooms; they look really light and airy, while the pirate rooms are a little dark. I don't know that I'd spring for it again b/c I just don't spend that much time at the resort, but there wasn't anything about it that I didn't like. Our bus lines got a bit long at park closings b/c of the size of it, but more often than not we had two buses pulling up after a bit of a wait.

 

[OhMari]

I love the theming of the room, but I heard the shortened the beds, to fit the frames. Did you notice?

I have you moved.
Ohmari

 

[jwhtewolfd]

I love the theming of the room, but I heard the shortened the beds, to fit the frames. Did you notice?

I have you moved.
Ohmari

Thanks for the move!

The theming is excellent. Even the bathroom area is really well done. We are both short, so we didn't really notice any issue with bed length. The mattress is more a thick pad on the box spring, not a full top mattress, but neither of us felt it was uncomfortable.

 

[jwhtewolfd]

I budgeted us some extra time in the morning for waking up and getting ready in a strange place. We made great time and were ready to go and on the bus by 7:30am. See...ready to go:

There weren't many people by the train station when we arrived:

But the people came pouring in as it got closer to 9am. I knew we'd be in for some crowds what with it being pm EMH, but I've already learned the hard way that I must spend my first day in MK. So we braved the crowds for the first day and expected to have the place to ourselves the rest of the week. Except that wasn't the case. Lines were managable, but all week long I kept looking for the empty parks we saw in '08 and '09 and it just didn't happen. It didn't make the trip terrible, but it was a slight disappointment. Another big disappointment was that we didn't get the full rope drop show this morning. We got characters and a countdown, but no "Good Morning" song. It felt just a little less magical stepping onto Main Street without being welcomed by the Mayor and singing along as Casey Jr. pulled up.

As we entered Main Street my plan was to catch a FP for Mickey or the princesses and head off to Space Mountain. When we walked up there were only two families ahead of us for Mickey, so we decided to just wait and meet him right then. That was the end of my carefully laid plans...pretty much for the whole week. Don't get me wrong; we did want we wanted to do: met lots of characters, rode favorite rides several times. We just always seemed to be running a bit behind and it didn't feel like we got to "do" quite as much as we were used to accomplishing. For instance, it felt like we were always arrivng for parades and shows just as they were starting, whereas we would normally be waiting for those things well ahead of time. Perhaps it was because we didn't follow the "plan" and I'm sure heavier than normal crowds contributed to slowing us down. Character lines were much longer than we were used to seeing for this time of year, as well as lines in general and crowds in the walkways.

At any rate, back to day one, where the first thing we do is meet the Mouse himself:

A gentle reminder that Tony was put in charge of taking some pictures this trip. Between him and the Photopass photographers I ended up with some truly awful pictures at times. Tony got a little better as the week wore on, but there were a few meet and greets that we came away with not a single good shot. ::cough:::JackSparrow:::cough:: So this is not a great picture, but it's the best we got.

The visit was a bit more unorganized than I expected, even though Tony and I had gone over our strategy to effciently have pictures together and indivdually. Minnie and the character attendant slowed us down. We were already a bit off track as we made our way down Main Street toward Tomorrowland. Between the hectic meet and greet taking so long and the infamous crane looming behind the Castle, I didn't get my usual every-twenty-steps pictures of the Castle, but I managed to grab one shot to commemorate that "first walk."

We were already off schedule, so when we saw Stitch hanging out in front of his ride, we figured why not stop for a quick hello. I always tell Stitch something like "be good today," so of course when Tony went up for his picture Stitch tried to steal his hat.

Finally we were on our way to Space Mountain. We walked right on and settled in to get down to business. Tony happened to be sitting in front of me, so when his new hat flew off it somehow miraculously hit my arm, and instead of me reacting with a "what the heck was that" jerk of the arm to send it sailing into limbo, I somehow grabbed it, realized it was a hat, realized it was HIS hat and held on to it. Total dumb luck all the way around. We aren't all that lucky, so the new rule: no more hats on rollercoasters.

Our traditional second ride is Buzz.

We actually rode twice because the first time around we were so out of practice that our scores were intolerably low. Tony just beat me the first time and I eeked out a win the second time. We decided not to do one more for the tiebreaker, and set off for Fantasyland. Our Pooh FPs spit out a bonus PhilharMagic FP. It's a nice surprise, especially since we love PhilharMagic, even if it is utterly useless. Come on, who FPs PhilharMagic? Not us. We just walked right in through standby. The only thing I don't like about PhilharMagic is that I can't see it again for the first time and be totally blown away like I was that first time. Even still, it's awesome.

Pooh FPs weren't ripe yet, so we killed some time on "it's a small world." And there was A LINE! Not a big line. A walking through the queue the whole time, keep moving line. But a line, nonetheless. This is madness!

After our happiest cruise, we were off to Winnie the Pooh. Good thing we got the FPs, because Pooh was popular. Sixty minutes popular. More madness! Our FPs got us on in a reasonable amount of time, but there was no chance of two rides in a row. It wasn't quite 11am yet, so we had time to squeeze in one ride on Haunted Mansion before lunch. We skipped the new optional graveyard queue area because it's just plain faster that way. HM ride was uneventful, except for that pesky hitchhiking ghost that blew Tony's head up like a balloon. A scare like that calls for a hearty lunch. We approached Columbia Harbor House, where a town crier was ringing a bell and ushering patrons in, assuring us, "you need no reservations; in fact you should have no reservations...about eating here!" We sure didn't.

Tony had the fish and shrimp combo and an apple crisp. I was boring and went with the chicken nuggets and chocolate cake. Boring, but tasty. Onward to the first of many high seas adventures!

Just one problem...

Look at that line! That's right at the entrance! For Pirates! I've never seen such a thing. The sign said 20 minutes. That's my outer limit for line-waiting, but it's PotC, so we decided to walk the plank...um, wait in line. It was closer to 15 minutes, but that still gave me time to get a few queue pics. Unusual since I'm usually hustling through the empty, winding queue to get to the load area.

And the obligatory shot:

In the natural progression of Adventureland after you ride Pirates, you ride Jungle Cruise. Another 20 minute line. This is getting silly.

No surprise when, after Jungle Cruise, we atteneded a full-occupancy show for the new, old Enchanted Tiki Room.

We wound our way back around toward Splash and Thunder Mountains, only to find Splash high and dry. This suited me just fine, since I don't like drops or getting wet, but Tony wanted to do it, so I was going to suck it up. Lucky for me B'rer Rabbit was not in the soaking business at the moment. I suggested we go on Thunder Mountain anyway, but Tony said he didn't want to walk up the queue. He's not a big fan of Thunder, so I think he was just a little bit upset to see me quietly rejoicing about not having to ride Splash. With nothing left to do in Frontierland, we saw the Liberty Belle pulling up to the dock and figured "why not."

As we were boarding, I happened to overhear a CM saying that with both mountains down they were going to be crazy busy. Did I hear that right? Sure enough, as we floated past Splash Mountain the water wasn't running down Chickapin Hill and Thunder Mountain had no trains running and we could hear CMs talking over the loudspeaker and see them walking the track. The CM was right; while we were lazing around the river the crowds that should have been by the Frontierland Mountains were swamping Liberty Square. Check out the crazy line for HM!

And good news for anyone going for Christmas - they are busily hanging those Casle lights.

That was always already done by the last week of September in the past. I don't know what the hold up was this year, but I've never had the dreaded crane during my visits before. Scrims all over, yes, but the Castle lights were always finished and visible in a close up or zoomed in late-September Castle picture.

After a leisurely ride on the Liberty Belle, we started to stake out a spot for the 3:00 parade. Guess what time it was? By my count, that set of pictures will put us over our 20-pics-per-post limit, so this is as good a time as any to take a midday break, so to speak. Up next: the 3:00 parade. (I'm not much one for cliff-hangers.)

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

Wow! You really made it to the park early! I love that picture of the train station with nobody in it!

I cannot believe they skipped the Good Morning, Good MORning! song! That just MAKES the show what it is!

What a bummer that it was so much more crowded than usual. I wonder if the combination of free dining and the 40th anniversary had to do with it. Also the Wine and Dine Half Marathon was during your trip I think. I guess a lot of people made a week out of the events.

And two of the mountains down at the same time?

I'm not sure if I've been there at the same time as the castle crane. I've seen it in many photos, but I don't think it's in any of mine.

 

[jwhtewolfd]

Wow! You really made it to the park early! I love that picture of the train station with nobody in it!

Not early enough to be family of the day, though. I have no hope of ever being picked for something cool like that.

I cannot believe they skipped the Good Morning, Good MORning! song! That just MAKES the show what it is!

I KNOW! We were so disappointed.

What a bummer that it was so much more crowded than usual. I wonder if the combination of free dining and the 40th anniversary had to do with it. Also the Wine and Dine Half Marathon was during your trip I think. I guess a lot of people made a week out of the events.

Yeah, there was a lot going on. I'd be tempted to try earlier in September, but then you miss out on Food and Wine and have the potential to be VERY hot.

And two of the mountains down at the same time?

I don't know what the deal was, but Splash was down again later in the week. We saw it running during MNSSHP, but we didn't have time to do it then, so we didn't get to ride this trip.

I'm not sure if I've been there at the same time as the castle crane. I've seen it in many photos, but I don't think it's in any of mine.

I know the lights have always been up earlier b/c you can zoom in on my older pics and see them already up. So the crane was a first for me this year. It was down later in the day, but it'd be nice if you could get your rope drop/Main Street pics without it there.

 

[jwhtewolfd]

As promised: 3:00 parade!

If you look closely in that last picture, you can see where we went from a sunny day to Lake Frontierland in a matter of minutes. Normally we watch the parade from Main Street, but, again, we were running behind and were lucky to find a spot to sit when we did. The drizzle that started just as the parade got to us rapidly turned into a pelting. The parade dancers stopped dancing and just walked and waved and the characters on the floats all pulled out clear unmrellas.

The rain started so fast, and it was still so sunny, that even though it was pelting down I was sure it wouldn't last long, so we were hesitant to break out the ponchos. We still didn't want to get drenched, so we huddled into the masses crushed under the little Frontierland porches. This just wouldn't do, so I decided to put us on the move. We stealthily followed plowing strollers and lithely weaved through a gauntlet of shoulders and elbows until we made it to a cut through and emerged in Adventureland. Well you know what that means...Pirates!

By the time we were done plundering, the rain had stopped and we had accomplished everything we needed to for the day (save for those busted mountains). Now we just needed to kill time until Disney turned off the lights...I mean nightfall. I checked the times guide for our options and we decided to try to stay close to Main Street with our Plaza ADR coming up. We caught the Main Street Philharmonic and then hung out a bit in the hub taking pictures and giving Tony a photography tutorial until it was time to back track to Captain Jack Sparrow's Pirate Tutorial.

We still had a bit of time left, so we crossed over to Tomorrowland for a quick ride on TTA before finally checking in for our 5:00 Plaza ADR. They told us they were running behind beacuse of the rain (I still don't know what that means) so we sat at an umbrella table and watched the entire Castle show from afar. Very afar. The sound is nice and clear even though you can't see much, but I knew from the January trip that if I was patient it would pay off with a great picture. Just as the fireworks were about to go off, our pager started beeping. Tony jumped up, shook the table and stuck his head in my now blurry and obstructed perfect shot I had been waiting for. I gave him some choice words and told him they made us wait this long, they can wait 10 more seconds for us. And on the second round of fireworks, I got my shot:

Our Plaza waiter gave me some nonsense about the milkshake not counting as a drink on the dining plan. I know this to be total bull, but he was adamant in his misguidedness. I told him I didn't care if he counted it as my dessert, just bring it as my drink. He then had the nerve to question my dessert choice, because they have "the best desserts in the park." Look, DUDE. Quit. Messing. With. My. MILKSHAKE! Not only is he trying to deny me my milkshake, but he is wearing my magic thin on top of jeopardizing his tip for questioning what I obviously know I want. At long last:

It was delicious, but it would have been more delicious if I didn't have to be aggravated and fight for it. What's wrong with simply bringing a milkshake when someone orders one?? Tony ordered the burger with American cheese, while I ordered the burger with cheddar, bacon and grilled onions. I don't know why he wanted such a boring burger, but they were both tasty.

Tony then used his dessert credit to order the Brownie Sundae. He ate the ice cream and I worked on the brownie, but the two of us together couldn't finish it. The same could not be said for the milkshake.

That brings us to the picture limit for this installment. MSEP and Wishes to follow.

 

[jwhtewolfd]

We've got a little bit of time and a spare set of Buzz FPs to burn before MSEP, so it's off to Tomorrowland. There was no wait (is there ever?) for Stitch's Great Escape, so we gave it another chance. It's sad because it's not BAD, but it could be so much better. Tony took advantage of the ride stopping while we were on Buzz and blasted the heck out of that volcano.

We were running later than I had planned (see the theme?) and could only snag second row spots in the hub for MSEP. We had the Castle at our backs and were looking right down Main Street.

I took the opportunity while we were standing around waiting to call home to find out that the Saints beat the Texans 40-33! Saints fans sitting near us rejoiced. Then I disdainfully watched MSEP. WHEN will they bring back SpectroMagic?

Then Elliot puffed right at us. That was semi-cool. But I still prefer Spectro.

Then we turned ourselves around and watched The Magic, The Memories and You.

I got what I felt like were the best pictures I could get of MM&Y in January, and being close enough for that really puts you much too close to the Castle for Wishes. So I didn't bother trying to get many pics from so far away. But a few minutes later I was merrily snapping away. WISHES!

This is one of my favorite fireworks:

Tony's favorite part of the music:

That's the end of Wishes and the pics-per-post limit. I know I said no cliff-hangers, but there's a tiny surprise coming next.

 

[jwhtewolfd]

I'm no good at surprises. Wishes ended and we pressed through the crowds into Adventureland. We were headed for a nighttime Jungle Cruise, when a Meet and Greet sign for the fairies boasted a 15 minute wait. FIFTEEN MINUTES! I gave Tony no chance to argue; we did a hard to starboard and found ourselves in line behind just three families. Unfortunately this is one of those times when we came away with not a decent picture in the lot, but Rosetta was worried that Tony's hat meant he was a pirate and Tinkerbell pegged me as an animal talent based on my pins and Fawn-braid.

Crowds were thinning out, so we were able to go on a ride-whirlwind. In the three precious extra magic hours we had left, we did (list alert):

 

[jwhtewolfd]

Disclaimer: I don't have a lot of pretty pictures from today, which is probably a good thing. Many of my pretty Epcot shots from previous trips were taken while waiting for Tony to finish his smoke breaks. Fortunately, we didn't have to make those stops this year. So on with the text.

We had another good early start and were first in line at the turnstiles. The new no-rope-drop works GREAT if you find yourself in this position. The rest of the masses are held to a controlled flow while you make your way to Soarin' at a quick-yet-reasonable pace. This method is SO much better than showing up early, only to be herded into the corral to be released at the same time with the shovers, elbowers and long-legged genetic freaks, AKA tall people who are faster than me. Even with my short (slow) self, we were in the first row of the first ride of the day for Soarin'. We snagged some FPs on our way out and made the long trek across the park to Test Track. We walked right on, not even stopping for the pre-show. Then we basically walked on to Mission: Space...orange side, of course. The sign said 10 minutes, as opposed to 5 minutes for the green side, but that was a total lie. It was more like 10 seconds in the queue until they opened up the pre-show room to line us up in our teams and get our briefing from Gary Sinese.

Sorry if this is sounding boring, but we weren't really interesting this morning. We were just cruising along, riding rides and making good time. I took a bathroom break after Mission: Space. I only mention it because I seemed to really need to do that a lot more often than usual this trip, which meant I saw quite a few bathrooms I hadn't ever used before. My normal MO is to hit a convenient bathroom every so often as we pass them, but this trip there were a few times where I had to seek one out, pronto. I attribute this to the fact that it was a tad bit warmer than it had been on previous September trips. Not intolerable hot, but upper 80's warm. I had felt unusually fatigued about midday on the first day, which didn't make any sense to me until I realized that I hadn't been hydrating. I may have overdone it on the Gatorade after that. In my opinion, Future World bathrooms are not all that conveniently located if you really need one.

My pit stop slowed us down a bit, so we encountered a true 15 minute line at The Sum of All Thrills. For both of us basically being ride weenies, we cooked up a pretty intense "Lightning Twister" with 3 inversions, a loop and corkscrew, plus an aptly named element called a tornado. Apparently we're much more adventurous with our thrills when there is no actual risk of death.

From Innoventions, we went to ride Spaceship Earth, only to find that it was down. Two mountains and a golf ball in two days, what gives? With a little unexpected time on our hands before lunch, we hopped on Finding Nemo and spent a little time exploring the The Seas. Finally...pictures!

I kept trying to get a decent picture of the manatees, but they decided to take a midday nap. That must mean it's time to head next door for lunch at Coral Reef.

Ok, that's not exactly a picture of Coral Reef, but it's the beautiful view you get when you round the corner on your way there. I decided to try the infamous Blue Glowtini and Tony went for another Pina CoLava.

We started with the appetizer for two: crab cakes, fried shrimp and lobster bisque. All absolutely delicious.

Tony ordered the lobster ravioli and I had the New York strip, of course. The ravioli was good and the steak was cooked perfectly.

I usually get the chocolate wave, but we both decided on the Baileys and Jack Daniels chocolate mousse. I forgot to take pictures. The presentation has changed a bit, but it's still just as delicious as always.

After lunch we went back into The Seas to catch Turtle Talk, then over to the Land to use our FPs.

We scored first row again and had a great flight...until we were walking down the hall to exit and I realized I didn't have my camera in my hand. I ALWAYS have my camera in my hand at Disney unless I have to put it away for a ride. I know I had it in line for Soarin' because I had put it in the front pocket of my bag to stow it for the ride. I turned tail and hauled it back to the exit door in time to see it close. I sent Tony back to the front of the ride to check with the CMs there and spent a long, anxious forever waiting for the door to open again. Soarin' music sounds totally different when you WANT it to end faster. It's the longest piece of music in the world. I finally heard the fireworks and braced to make my argument and throw myself at the mercy of whatever poor CM opened the door. The doors finally swung open, but, duh, there are no CMs manning the exit doors, so I slipped in, fought my way upstream against the crowds moving out and practically assaulted the poor kid who had been riding in my seat, "Was there a camera in there?!" I anxiously half-inquired of the dad next to the kid, as if I was going to wait for an answer. Kids don't carry stuff around in WDW; their parents do all that pack-muling for them. The kid hadn't touched the under-seat compartment. So I didn't assault the kid, but I did brush past quickly and dove at the seat, reached into the pocket and at first grab - nothing...then, off to the side - MY CAMERA! PHEW. A wave of relief washed over me like no Soarin' breeze could. I shuffled out with the rest of the exiting crowd while my adrenaline levels normalized. Lesson learned. From now on the camera would be hitch knotted to my bag any time it had to leave my hand.

Crisis averted, we were headed to Living with the Land when I finally had to take a minute to sit down and check out the status of the toe that was making every step more and more painful. Even though I apply preventative moleskin, it was no match for the rain yesterday and I now had a nice big blister covering the whole bottom of my little toe. This wouldn't be so bad, except that I also had a fairly decent blister happening on my big toe on the same foot. I doctored it up the best I could, but it got the best of me from time to time and played a factor in some of our decisions to head back "early" and not spend EVERY night out til midnight. But for now we were pressing on. After all that excitement and pain, a peaceful boat ride was just what I needed.

We decided to bypass the Imagination pavilion for the time being so we could check out the new British Revolution band. So that wraps up Future World for us, and it's as good a time as any to wrap up this rather wordy installment. Next up: World Showcase.

 

[jwhtewolfd]

We trekked from The Land to the UK, which is no small task with blistered toes, and parked it on a bench. I confess that I never made time to stop to hear The British Invasion, so I'm not making comparisons, but British Revolution was fun. Not as fun as Mulch, Sweat and Shears, but they had a pretty nice playlist.

From here, the plan was to go to France, get Grey Goose Citron and Grand Marnier slushes, watch Serveur Amusant and work our way around World Showcase catching shows. That was the plan. Here's what happened.

The second we had drinks in hand, the sky opened up. We huddled under the sparse overhang of the France kiosk and sipped slowly until there was no slush left. And it was still raining. A little more waiting around and it became apparent that this storm cloud was not moving on. World Showcase is not a particularly nice place to be when it's raining. The shops get really crowded, most of the shows are cancelled and the walkway floods in random places. I decided our best bet would be to break out the ponchos and head for America, where we could catch Voices of Liberty and the American Adventure all in the comfort of the great indoors.

They ended with a crazy verse of Old McDonald that included just about every animal you can imagine, and we were shuffled off to the theater for the American Adventure. Unfortunately I ended up dozing off through most of it. When we emerged the rain was lighter, but it was still wet and dreary. We made a pit stop and then set off to see what we could find to occupy our time until our ADR at Tutto Italia.

I saw the Illuminations globe being brought out as we started to head toward Italy.

We made it to a bench in Italy when the profanity started flying from Tony. He had lost his lanyard with upwards of $100 worth of new pins on it. His search for lost items is less anxious and more angry than mine, so I can't get into much detail, but the short version is that he took it off in the bathroom, left it there, someone turned it in to Lost and Found at the gift shop in America and that's where we found it. So that killed some time. Let's try again. We set off to see what we could find to occupy our time until our ADR at Tutto Italia.

::Flashback::The night before we left, I went out to eat with my parents. My dad tried to give me some money for the trip, but I had told him not to worry about it. I had already asked them what they wanted as souvenirs and they had both said "nothing." Then dad pulls me to the side and says he wants me to get mom a nice jacket.

OK. 1. He just bought her a really expensive, really nice Saints jacket last Christmas. 2. It's September. In Florida. Not much selection in the winter clothes department. 3. It's Disney. A "nice" jacket is going to be well into the three digit range dollar-wise.

I rolled my eyes and said I'd find something nice.::end flashback::

There's not a lot of shopping in Italy that really holds my interest until you get to the last room with the Venetian masks. They are all so pretty. And so expensive. I always look at them longingly and always tell myself they are too expensive and delicate for me. But they would be perfect for mom. So I had decided what to get her, now came the impossible task of choosing just ONE. After much indecision, I finally chose a ceramic mask with red velvet accents. I opted to have it sent to the front of the park for pick up so I wouldn't risk smashing it around for the rest of the night. They had it packaged up so nice that I was afraid to open it until I gave it to mom, so I didn't get a picture of it, but you can take my word for it that it was gorgeous.

My indecisiveness ate up all the spare time we had, and it was time to check in for dinner. To my dismay I learned that Tutto Italia no longer serves veal ravioli. That's two times in a row that I've come to Tutto only to find that the one thing I had been looking forward to was no longer on the menu (the Bugie dessert was no longer offered last time). We keep coming back because Tony says it's his favorite restaurant. Maybe I just always order the wrong thing, but each visit I've only had one thing that I liked, and the rest of the meal has always been just ok.

Tony wanted meatballs for an appetizer. Not a photogenic dish, but I admit they were good.

I ordered veal roast on the recommendation of our waiter. It wasn't bad; it just tasted like plain old roast. As a beef eater who prefers her beef still red, roast just isn't my favorite flavor.

Tony ordered the short ribs and continued to say he loved this place. Again, I don't dislike Tutto, there's just other things I'd perfer to eat.

Dessert was a toss up. I LOVE the lemon sorbet, but there was a tasty chocolate torte that was miraculously still on the menu from last time. The torte won out because eating ice is just not as appealing when it's wet and dark outside. Tony went for the dessert trio of mini torte, cannoli and tiramasu.

It was still a little drizzley after dinner as we continued to make our way around World Showcase. As we walked along I heard someone running up behind me "Mam! Mam!" I turned around, confused. "You dropped these." Sure enough, my new sunglasses had fallen off my shirt. (New only because my old ones broke, I'm usually good at keeping one pair of sunglasses for a while.) We were loosing stuff left and right, but at least we had a good track record of getting it back. 3/3 so far. But it would be better if we could simply stop loosing stuff. Pressing on, we ducked into Norway for a few minutes to see what the Viking exhibit was all about. I'm not sure that it's big enough to call it interesting, but it's...there.

We chose what turned out to be a great Illuminations spot on the railing just before Norway at 8:00 and took turns switching out holding the spot and resting on the bench on the other side of the walkway. Normally we have no problem sitting on the ground, but although the rain was finally letting up, the ground was still a soggy mess.

We decided some margaritas would be the perfect antidote to waiting, so Tony limped over to Mexico and came back with, well, basically it's a snowball. Mexico is a bit stingy with their tequila.

Gonna run out of room, so Illuminations pictures coming right up.

 

[jwhtewolfd]

"Good evening, on behalf of Walt Disney World, the place where dreams come true, we welcome all of you to Epcot and World Showcase. We've gathered here tonight, around the fire, as people of all lands have gathered for thousands and thousands of years before us; to share the light and to share a story. An amazing story, as old as time itself but still being written. And though each of us has our own individual stories to tell, a true adventure emerges when we bring them all together as one. We hope you enjoy our story tonight; Reflections of Earth."

I must have been really tired all day, because for some reason I kept thinking that Epcot had pm EMH today, when really it was HS that had them tonight. I didn't figure this out until the next morning. I kept insisting to Tony that we couldn't leave when there were EMH, but he was hearing none of it. I was kicking myself when I realized my mistake, but Tony insists it wouldn't have made a difference and that he definitely wouldn't have gone to another park. But I had such plans for those EMH! We were going to ride Star Tours all night long! Either way, we called it a night early. We agreed to take a look around Mouse Gears and then made our way out.

I stopped to pick up mom's package at the front of the park. It's a pretty easy process once you find the place. We had a short wait for the bus and were back in the room much too early for my tastes. But we pushed hard yesterday, had a long day planned for tomorrow, and we ended up having no shortage of Star Tours rides later in the trip, so I guess it worked out ok.

 

[jwhtewolfd]

As we stood in line at the turnstiles, I pitched a new plan to Tony. He takes the tickets and goes on ahead to get TSMM FP while I catch up with my short legs and we jump in the standby line together. As they let us through the turnstiles, I shooed him forward, "Hurry, get to the rope." So he scuttled off...to the rope...and allll the way to the left? Really? You STILL have no idea where you're going? My admonishments were met with a defensive tantrum, so I simply told him he'd just have to walk that much faster. As they set the stampede free, Tony took off and I was immediately shouldered out the way, complete with a totally believable "excuse me." 'Cause it was definitely an accident. Not intentional at all...Um, no, I don't think I WILL excuse you, buddy. But he was long gone. My stumble put me quite a bit behind the crowd, even though I had been standing against the rope.

When I finally caught up and found Tony, we jumped/filtered into the standby line. Tony said he was second in line for FP and got a return time of 9:50am. We were out of practice and didn't score very high. Both of us earned beaver prizes, but I just barely won by 700 points. We walked out of TSMM at 9:33 and headed toward RnR. We started to get in line to ride, but it was already a 20 minute wait, so we decided to wait a couple more minutes to get another FP and come back later. The problem with HS is that it's smallish, but that just makes it so that there isn't much to do in one area, so we end up crisscrossing back and forth all day long. So on the first of many back-trackings, we crossed over to Star Tours.

Before I was brave enough to ride real thrill rides like RnR, Star Tours was my favorite ride, so it holds a special place in my heart. I guess it goes back to that whole "it's much easier to enjoy thrills when there's no actual risk of death" thing. Our first ride on the new Star Tours took us to a pod race and the Death Star. Very fun and acceptable for a first ride. We both approved and agreed to come back. In the meantime, we looped around through the Streets of America to make our way back to TSMM to use our FPs. We made a quick stop on the Streets to snap a picture.

That would be Tony's crooked picture-taking. We're working on it...I am sad to report that no matter how I stepped, stomped, stamped or jumped on the panel, no rain came down. Moving on, we encountered the Green Army Men for the first time, so we had to stop again.

I don't know why he saluted with the wrong hand.

We rode TSMM with slightly better results, and I won this time by a sound 10,800 points and earned a cat prize. Time was running short, so we ordered lunch from Fairfax Fare and brought it into the theater to watch Beauty and the Beast.

Luckily for us the show was delayed, so I got to finish eating before it started. And I learned an important lesson - if you're going to be eating in a theater, order something that's easy to eat, like a burger or chicken nuggets. It was a bit awkward attempting to eat chicken and ribs in bleacher seats. We tried to pick seats off to the side and near the back so as not to disturb anyone with our lunch, so picture opportunities were limited.

After the show, we walked down the street to use our RnR FPs. This is the third time we've crossed the park, for anyone keeping track. There was a guy a few rows ahead of us that decided it would be fun to film the ride with his camera's external light on. Kinda ruins the whole effect. I think I've only ridden RnR once without buying something in the gift shop afterwards. Must be the adrenalin making me throw spending-caution to the wind. Plus all the cool Aerosmith shirts. I'll have pictures in the new shirt posted on the next HS day. For now, here's a pretty shot I took as we back-tracked to do some Meet and Greets in the Magic of Disney Animation building.

We cheated and went in through the store. Nothing against Mushu, we just had limited time in HS today. First we went to meet Pooh, who did not like my Scar shirt at all.

He consulted the photographer for advice.

Once we had convinced him that it was just a costume for the Halloween party, all was forgiven and we were friends. (Sorry about the grainy pictures, they are pictures taken of the photopass pics on the computer - yeah, I cheated again.)

Next was the big cheese himself.

Then the Incredibles. Mrs. I insisted on superhero poses for everyone.

I'm not sure what superhero pose Tony is doing there.

I stayed for Animation Academy, but Tony refused to try. He went outside to do - whatever it was he did, I never asked - and I went in to draw Rapunzel. Our teacher, Brian James Fichtner, was really informative, funny and entertaining the whole time. (Did you know that the same guy who designed Ariel also designed Rapunzel? Note the characteristic large eyes.) I know his name because I won his drawing at the end of the class by answering the trivia question. He originally asked who was the princess in the Black Cauldron, but no one knew. Then he asked the name of the horse in Tangled, and of course I knew that! Maximus (we had just watched Tangled the week before we left, but it helps that it's Russel Crowe's name in Gladiator)! Brian signed his drawing for me and told me that my Rapunzel was good! I guess they say that to everyone, because when I came out and presented my drawing to Tony, he did not know who it was. What do you think?

This is his:

and mine:

The eyes aren't the same size, but I think it gives her a kind of crazy, yet determined look. No? Oh, well. That's it for the pic-limit. We'll finish up HS and go to dinner in the next update.

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

I was a little behind with this!

I am enjoying reading about your trip. I can't believe you lost 3 things! I would be beside myself! I am so glad you found all three things!

How cool that you got the picture the artist did! I have one from the artist from the time I did Stitch. I don't remember answering a question. I think he just felt sorry for me because of the issue I had with the chair. You see, I tend to lean forward when I'm focused on something, and those stupid chairs are on springs! It went sailing out from under me when I didn't have enough weight on it! I was in the front row and that chair slammed back into it's default position. It was rather embarrassing.

I like your photo of the DHS entrance. The weather looks perfect. What time were you getting to these parks to be the first ones there every day? And were you going on amEMH days or regular days?

 

[jwhtewolfd]

I was a little behind with this!

I am enjoying reading about your trip. I can't believe you lost 3 things! I would be beside myself! I am so glad you found all three things!

How cool that you got the picture the artist did! I have one from the artist from the time I did Stitch. I don't remember answering a question. I think he just felt sorry for me because of the issue I had with the chair. You see, I tend to lean forward when I'm focused on something, and those stupid chairs are on springs! It went sailing out from under me when I didn't have enough weight on it! I was in the front row and that chair slammed back into it's default position. It was rather embarrassing.

I like your photo of the DHS entrance. The weather looks perfect. What time were you getting to these parks to be the first ones there every day? And were you going on amEMH days or regular days?

Yeah, whoever thought those Animation Academy chairs were a good idea was ODed on pixie-dust. We were on the morning buses between 7:30 and 8:20am, so we were at turnstiles well before 9am everyday. I didn't schedule any AM EMH, so these were all 9am openings. It was a little warm, more-so in our black MNSSHP shirts. It was upper 80's all week except for our last day. The last day was low 80's, just beautiful enough to taunt us that we would be leaving just as the weather was cooling down.

 

[jwhtewolfd]

We strolled over to the Streets of America for Mulch, Sweat and Shears. They are always so much fun; this show they played the "every song from the '80's" compilation.

This is not my video, but it's an awesome set and you should watch it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUJvl6p3gKI&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

Did you know them all? I had to look some of them up because I was only 2 years old in 1985, New Sensation, Rock You Like a Hurricane, Livin' on a Prayer, No Matter What, Addicted to Love, Let's Go, Cars, You Shook Me All Night Long, Money for Nothing, Burning Down the House, My Sharona, Working for the Weekend, and 1985 again.

Our time at HS was almost over, but luckily we had prepared and stocked up throughout the day:

The Star Tours line was completely hit or miss. We rode three times in a row. For the first two sets of FP, the line was crazy-out-the-door, but for the last set the entire queue was deserted. It was the same on another day when we rode several times. I've got to assume the key is to time your rides between all the shows letting out around it. You've got Muppets, American Idol, Indiana Jones and Jedi Training Academy going on all day long funneling exiting viewers right toward Star Tours. My advice is if you see a line, grab a FP, do something else for 30 minutes, then come back and ride at least once with the FP, if not twice because the line will be gone by then.

On this set of rides we saw Darth Vader, the pod race, the Death Star, the Wookie planet, Yoda and Leia. We got the Death Star and the pod races A LOT. I was starting to get a little disappointed that we were getting so many repeats, but then I told myself "hey, you loved this ride when it was guaranteed to be the exact same thing every single time" and that helped. Some of the scenarios are definitely more bumpy and fun than others, but none of them are disappointing. I advise to ride it as many times as you can. I had to catch a bathroom break and when I returned Tony proudly held up the light saber he had just built.

We would have ridden again, but it was time to start making our way to the buses so we could be on time for our Kona ADR. We checked in a few minutes before they opened at 5pm. This was my fifth time eating at Kona and only the first time I was not seated in the first or second booth along the right wall. It was weird to me to be sitting on the left side of Kona, but everything tastes just as good on either side. I ordered the awesomely tart Antioxidant Cocktail and Tony got the awesomely expensive Lapu Lapu. And of course we had our sweet bread, which was, as always, awesome.

We started with the Sticky Wings for Two, which I had missed last time because they will not make a Sticky Wings for One.

Tony was very disappointed to find that the BBQ Pomegranate Pork Chop had just been removed from the menu. He was reluctant to try the coffee-rubbed pork chop, so he went with the Shrimp and Scallops, hold the scallops. So basically he just had fried shrimp, but he liked it, so that's what counts. I was relieved to find they hadn't messed with my Ginger Crusted Ribeye.

For dessert Tony went with the Banana-Chocolate Creme Brulee.

I went with the Kilauea Torte, which is what the Chocolate Wave at Coral Reef used to be, but no longer is. THIS is it. The official menu description says it all: An explosion of warm liquid Chocolate inside Chocolate Cookie Volcano. Yes, it is as good as it sounds, and it's better than it looks in this picture. The ice cream was good, too. It's that nice mild vanilla that's more cool than vanilla.

We had started discussing our drive home and the fact that we needed to find out if there was a radio station that would have the Saints/Jaguars game. Tony asked the waiter, who asked the sushi chef, who did not know. Oh well.

It was time to hop on the monorail, but our car was commandeered by pirates! We entered MK and got our wristbands with much less confusion this time. I steered us straight over to PotC, only to encounter an already impressive line for Captain Jack Sparrow. We got in line at 6:45. The Captain made his appearance at 7:00 and we got to the front of the line to meet him at 7:45. While we were waiting, another bathroom urge hit me, so I set off to find the nearest facilities. I located another restroom I had never used before, this one well hidden behind PotC. It is themed beautifully with iron braces on the stall doors and a very spanish-main feel.

When our turn came to meet Jack, the PhotoPass people failed us miserably. I mean MISERABLY: out of focus, Tony's eyes closed, Tony standing completely in front of me, my eyes closed, Jack looking off in another direction...the most important meet and greet of the entire trip and we honestly have not ONE, SINGLE decent shot. The interaction started off interestingly enough. Jack read my Scar shirt "Long Live the King" and asked, "So you're the king?" I had to explain Scar was the king, of the Pridelands, and he hadn't heard of it because there were no oceans there. Then things went completely down hill. Jack commented on Tony's light saber, "I see you have one of those swords with no blades." He had no use for them, but Tony had to interject that they were good for cutting cheese. Yeah. I stood in line for an hour to meet Captain Jack Sparrow for him to spend half of our meet and greet time going on about cutting cheese. Ug. Of course Tony found it hilarious. At long last he signed my book by scrawling a fairly unimpressive signature and we took posed pictures. I apologize, but these truly are the best pictures we got from the whole interaction, and that's not saying much.

I believe it's a Disney law that after you meet Captain Jack you must ride Pirates. I'm not totally certain, but I wasn't going to chance it. After PotC, we didn't DO much. We spent much of the night watching the Boo to You Parade and the Villains Mix and Mingle twice each, not to mention HalloWishes and villain meet and greets. Because of picture limits, I'll try to group events together, but there won't be much commentary. Ready. Set. Pictures!

First Boo to You Parade from Frontierland - we stood behind a sitting family and in front of the last loop of Splash Mountain (apparently it was working at least once while we were there). Unfortunately this parade is SO hard to photograph; the lighting is horrible and I think my camera is starting to die.

We'll end this post with a couple of cool shots of the Castle taken while waiting for the Villains stage show:

More spooktacular fun to come!

 

[jwhtewolfd]

It appears my Halloween party updates are timed perfectly. On with the show - Villains Mix and Mingle:

The Snow Queen (we were first in line for her):

Caught a glimpse of Malificent while in line for Dr. Facilier. Her line was INSANE.

The Shadow Man:

HalloWishes - everybody scream!

I've been mistaken this whole time; it's a 25 picture per post limit. Even better.

 

[jwhtewolfd]

Tony wanted to try to get pictures with Maleficent, so he was to hold a spot in line while I tried for more stage show pics. He came and found me and reported that her line was already around the corner, so no dice.

We met Captain Hook instead.

We lined up for the second Boo to You parade in front of the ice cream parlor at the corner of the hub and Main Street. We fought to keep our few precious inches as people kept stopping and getting told to be in front the tape or keep walking. Many people chose to be oblivious to the fact that there was no more space in front the tape.

We were running short on time, so we had to make some tough choices. We gave up on Gaston and Mickey in costume and decided to head back to Fantasyland and got in a couple of important rides - Winnie the Pooh, Snow White (they keep saying it's going to close) and Mickey's PhilHarmagic. Party time was over and we made our way out.

We didn't DO as much as we're used to accomplishing, but we had a good time and accomplished our main goals. Some parting atmosphere shots: