elgerber
DIS Legend
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2000
- Messages
- 24,404
Cast of Characters
Erika, me, 32, Disney fanatic for as long as I can remember. Would really love to live in WDW.
Steve, dh, 33, not as fanatic as I, but really enjoys WDW.
Matthew, ds, 8, also not as fanatic, but loves WDW
Alexa 5, huge fanatic, just like me. Also would like to live in WDW.
Day 8, Saturday September 1st
Today we had no plans for the morning. Nothing until Spectro at 8:15. It was also our 11th anniversary. We wanted to some stuff packed, because we had to leave the hotel by 9:30 the next morning, and it took us forever to pack last trip. We packed all dirty clothes, and any clean clothes we weren't going to wear. I still had not had my Beaver Tail, so we decided to wander Epcot for a little while, then come back and spend the last afternoon in the pool. Of course, on our way there we remembered that the World Showcase doesn't open until 11 LOL, so no Beaver tail quite yet. We thought we'd try one last spin on Test Track for ds, and when we got there, the singles line was non-existent. Ds and I walked the ramp and went straight into their little room where they show that silly video. There were only 5 other people in there with us LOL. When it was over, straight into a car we went. We were even in the same car. I am glad we ended up in the same car, since Test Track picked this time to go offline, and we had to sit for a good 5 minutes, in the barrier test area, right before you speed up to blast out the door. We were both thankful we weren't in the hot room LOL. Dh had gotten a baby swap pass, and back they went for ds's next ride. Dd and I went to Mousegears to shop while we waited. I had been looking for a long sleeved shirt the whole trip, that wasn't a sweatshirt, and I figured this was my last hope. No luck here either. I did find some beautiful elbow length gloves with Cinderella on them for Alexa's Halloween costume. They don't have these at the Disney store, so we had to buy them. Cinderella just isn't complete without her long gloves. I also bought a book with tons of great color photos off WDW. Lot's of ride pictures, which would be great for first timers, so they would know what to expect. Of course, you have to be in the World to get it, which kind of defeats that idea LOL. It is a great book though. A brief stop at the misters to cool off, and back through the World Showcase for my Beaver Tail. I know many people complain they aren't as good anymore, but I have nothing to compare them too. I thought it was fabulous!!! I got cinnamon sugar, and even my kids liked it. While I was getting it, my kids struck up a conversation with a CM at the cart from Canada. They spent so much time talking to her, that we finished the whole Beaver tail while they chatted. She was so nice. Dd had just bought the talking Jesse she had been dying for at Mousegears, and she was carrying her. The CM asked Alexa if she could yodel, and she said no, but pulled Jesse's string, and Jesse picked that time to do her yodel LOL. The CM thought that was pretty funny. We exited Epcot for the last time, and went back to the hotel. Ds had been bugging us to go find the quiet pool at our hotel, so we did this now. At the BC you can see the quiet pool when you walk by, but after 7 nights, we had yet to see it at the YC. What a winding trip it is from our room to the quiet pool. We finally found it, and it was definitely quiet, not a soul in it. It was very nice though, and kind of a nice break from Stormalong Bay if you needed one. We found a door, that actually left us with a brief walk back to the lobby. Guess we just went about getting there the wrong way LOL. We put on our suits and headed out to the pool. They went swimming while I went to get lunch from Hurricane Hanna's. Being a Saturday, and a holiday weekend, there were no tables anywhere at the pool. I can understand saving lawn chairs while you are in the pool, but unless you are eating lunch, you have no business saving a table with your towels and shoes. It took awhile to get our food, they were really busy, but I lucked out just as I got my tray, a table emptied out over by Hanna's. Now I had to go find my family. The guy checking ID's gave me a towel to keep the birds off our food while I hunted the kids down. Took me a few minutes, I found ds first, then we searched for, and finally found dd and dh. After lunch, more swimming. My dd decided that her new favorite thing was jumping off the edge and yelling cannonball! LOL. Keep in mind, that 2 or 3 weeks prior to our trip, she could not swim at all. Now she is a little maniac. The night before I had asked at the front desk if there was a place I could get a balloon that said "Happy Anniversary". The wonderful CM Tomomi (who had also booked my Fantasmic package) said "that's my job". She said she'd get me some the next day. By later afternoon, after the pool, there were still no balloons. Oh well. We were resting a little while before we left for the MK, and someone knocked. I opened it and was handed a box and an envelope. The box had gold handwriting and said "Happy 11th Anniversary from Capt. Bob". In the box was a blue jewelry type box, that had doors that opened to display a beautiful pin that said Happy Anniversary and Yacht Club on it. I was so thrilled, it was much better than balloons and it will last forever. In the envelope was a color photo card of tons of characters in the MK, and signed Happy Anniversary , by Mickey, Minnie and Donald. What a great gift! We hopped the bus to the MK for the parade and fireworks. I had warned everyone in advance, that this would be wall to wall people, and we wouldn't be able to do much but sit and wait. We grabbed dinner at the Plaza Pavillion then grabbed a spot on the curb at 6:20 for the 8:15 parade. My park map said the park closed at 9, with one parade at 8:15. We had time to kill (a lot of time LOL) so dd and I grabbed Buzz fastpasses for the guys then went to see if we could get on the Barnstormer. NOT. That little coaster had a 40 minute wait! The only thing we were able to do was the carousel. We only had to wait for 2 rides to complete on there. I could not believe those lines, and that people will actually wait in those. The line to see Ariel in her grotto had spilled out onto the street! Yikes, these people must not understand how to manage their days to avoid these lines. We never had that problem. After the carousel, we noticed the sky had gotten really dark (uh oh). We walked through Sir Mickey's to get back to our spot, and there, hanging in plain sight, was a long sleeved shirt, that was not a sweatshirt! It was black and said Magic Kingdom and had a small sparkly silver silhouette of the castle. Victory! While I was paying I saw ponchos on the counter. I radioed dh and asked how the sky looked. Looks like rain he says. Should we get ponchos? Let's wait. BIG MISTAKE! After we got back to our spot, I left them on the curb, and went to get a bottle of water. While in line (a huge line), crack, BOOM!!!!!!! The sky lit up, and lightening appeared to have hit the castle. It was so loud, even the popcorn vendors jumped. I craned my neck to see my kids, I know they get freaked. They seemed to be doing pretty well. Just then, with only one more person ahead of me for water, the skies opened up. I don't mean a little rain, I mean water running down the street in rivers rain. I fought my way out of the line, which was not easy, as people were fighting to get in the area because it was covered, and went back to my family. We were stumped, do we stay or go? We stayed for a few minutes, we hoped it would pass, and did not want to lose our spot. Several people stayed in their spots, of course most of them had ponchos or umbrellas LOL. After awhile, we had to bail, and ran across the bridge and ducked under cover at the Plaza Pavillion. We were soaking wet and it was windy, YUCK. After about 10 minutes the rain slowed, so we went back to our spot. A few minutes later, it started pouring again. We tried so hard to get our good spot for the fireworks and parade (I had the tripod again for photos), and we figured it was all over now. Just then they make an event announcement, stating the MK is open till 10(huh? My map says 9) and join us for Spectromagic at 8:15 and 10:00! I couldn't believe that had extended the hours and added a parade. We stood in the rain for nothing LOL. At that point we figured none of that was going to happen anyway. We gave up and ran under the little pavillion area, down the path from the Mickey and Minnie topiaries. They ran ahead of me, I was wearing Birks and could not run. When I got under the shelter, a woman looks at me and yells "I think we have a winner!" ROFL!! I asked what my prize was, they didn't have much of an answer LOL. We stood under here for a good 15-20 minutes, when some CM shows up with roses. "Sorry you have to leave, we have a private party". By this point we were wet to the bone and freezing cold. It had slowed some, so we booked it around to Mickey's Star Traders in Tomorrowland and bought new t-shirts for everyone (oh dear, I was forced to shop VBG). I was pretty much grabbing the closest cutest shirts I could find in the right size. We went to the bathroom and changed into dry shirts. We still had soaking shirts and underwear, but it was so much better with dry shirts. It was still sprinkling, so we bought ponchos (idiots, we should have bought them about an hour ago LOL). They had officially cancelled the parade at this point. I said we spent this money on the ponchos, we might as well walk around for awhile to get our money's worth. As we headed out of Tomorrowland, we saw some lighter spots, and noticed a few people sitting by the curb. We thought what the heck, we may get these fireworks in yet. The guys had tried to use their Buzz passes after we bought the shirts, but it was broken down. Their fastpasses ended at 8:55, so looked like those were going to be wasted. As it approached 9, it was still not storming, so we hurried and set up the tri-pod, and then, magic! The music came on, the castle lit up, and we got to see our fireworks!!! No Tink tonight, which is kind of sad, but we got to see the fireworks. After they were done I said, "hey, we've waited all night, and this is our last night, let's try for the 10 pm parade. Back on the curb we went. I put dd in her stroller sideways, to take up some space and sat on my poncho. At that point, since there was still 45 minutes to wait, I told dh he and ds should try to see if they could get on Buzz since it was broken when it was their pass time. This time they got right on. While they were gone, and after they returned, I got to experience all the rudeness I read about while people try to squeeze and push in for parades. I wanted to stand up for the parade to take pics, and a family with 3 small kids came and sat behind me while I was sitting. I told them I was going to stand when it started, but I would give their kids my curb spot, if I could stand behind them to take my pics. That was fine them. Once it got really close to parade time though, the really rude people show up. I felt like a sardine. When the parade was going I tried to bend down to smack a bug on my ankle, and I couldn't because the people behind me were too close. Creepy. Then about halfway through, someone pushed their two older kids in front of me, and behind the other kids I had let sit. There was no room for them there, but they did it anyway. The one kid actually ended up sitting on my foot. Other than that, the parade was fabulous! What a great way to end a trip and our anniversary! I could not believe we actually got to see the parade and the fireworks, after the way the evening had gone! Even with the rain and the wet, it was a totally magical evening!!
Erika, me, 32, Disney fanatic for as long as I can remember. Would really love to live in WDW.
Steve, dh, 33, not as fanatic as I, but really enjoys WDW.
Matthew, ds, 8, also not as fanatic, but loves WDW
Alexa 5, huge fanatic, just like me. Also would like to live in WDW.
Day 8, Saturday September 1st
Today we had no plans for the morning. Nothing until Spectro at 8:15. It was also our 11th anniversary. We wanted to some stuff packed, because we had to leave the hotel by 9:30 the next morning, and it took us forever to pack last trip. We packed all dirty clothes, and any clean clothes we weren't going to wear. I still had not had my Beaver Tail, so we decided to wander Epcot for a little while, then come back and spend the last afternoon in the pool. Of course, on our way there we remembered that the World Showcase doesn't open until 11 LOL, so no Beaver tail quite yet. We thought we'd try one last spin on Test Track for ds, and when we got there, the singles line was non-existent. Ds and I walked the ramp and went straight into their little room where they show that silly video. There were only 5 other people in there with us LOL. When it was over, straight into a car we went. We were even in the same car. I am glad we ended up in the same car, since Test Track picked this time to go offline, and we had to sit for a good 5 minutes, in the barrier test area, right before you speed up to blast out the door. We were both thankful we weren't in the hot room LOL. Dh had gotten a baby swap pass, and back they went for ds's next ride. Dd and I went to Mousegears to shop while we waited. I had been looking for a long sleeved shirt the whole trip, that wasn't a sweatshirt, and I figured this was my last hope. No luck here either. I did find some beautiful elbow length gloves with Cinderella on them for Alexa's Halloween costume. They don't have these at the Disney store, so we had to buy them. Cinderella just isn't complete without her long gloves. I also bought a book with tons of great color photos off WDW. Lot's of ride pictures, which would be great for first timers, so they would know what to expect. Of course, you have to be in the World to get it, which kind of defeats that idea LOL. It is a great book though. A brief stop at the misters to cool off, and back through the World Showcase for my Beaver Tail. I know many people complain they aren't as good anymore, but I have nothing to compare them too. I thought it was fabulous!!! I got cinnamon sugar, and even my kids liked it. While I was getting it, my kids struck up a conversation with a CM at the cart from Canada. They spent so much time talking to her, that we finished the whole Beaver tail while they chatted. She was so nice. Dd had just bought the talking Jesse she had been dying for at Mousegears, and she was carrying her. The CM asked Alexa if she could yodel, and she said no, but pulled Jesse's string, and Jesse picked that time to do her yodel LOL. The CM thought that was pretty funny. We exited Epcot for the last time, and went back to the hotel. Ds had been bugging us to go find the quiet pool at our hotel, so we did this now. At the BC you can see the quiet pool when you walk by, but after 7 nights, we had yet to see it at the YC. What a winding trip it is from our room to the quiet pool. We finally found it, and it was definitely quiet, not a soul in it. It was very nice though, and kind of a nice break from Stormalong Bay if you needed one. We found a door, that actually left us with a brief walk back to the lobby. Guess we just went about getting there the wrong way LOL. We put on our suits and headed out to the pool. They went swimming while I went to get lunch from Hurricane Hanna's. Being a Saturday, and a holiday weekend, there were no tables anywhere at the pool. I can understand saving lawn chairs while you are in the pool, but unless you are eating lunch, you have no business saving a table with your towels and shoes. It took awhile to get our food, they were really busy, but I lucked out just as I got my tray, a table emptied out over by Hanna's. Now I had to go find my family. The guy checking ID's gave me a towel to keep the birds off our food while I hunted the kids down. Took me a few minutes, I found ds first, then we searched for, and finally found dd and dh. After lunch, more swimming. My dd decided that her new favorite thing was jumping off the edge and yelling cannonball! LOL. Keep in mind, that 2 or 3 weeks prior to our trip, she could not swim at all. Now she is a little maniac. The night before I had asked at the front desk if there was a place I could get a balloon that said "Happy Anniversary". The wonderful CM Tomomi (who had also booked my Fantasmic package) said "that's my job". She said she'd get me some the next day. By later afternoon, after the pool, there were still no balloons. Oh well. We were resting a little while before we left for the MK, and someone knocked. I opened it and was handed a box and an envelope. The box had gold handwriting and said "Happy 11th Anniversary from Capt. Bob". In the box was a blue jewelry type box, that had doors that opened to display a beautiful pin that said Happy Anniversary and Yacht Club on it. I was so thrilled, it was much better than balloons and it will last forever. In the envelope was a color photo card of tons of characters in the MK, and signed Happy Anniversary , by Mickey, Minnie and Donald. What a great gift! We hopped the bus to the MK for the parade and fireworks. I had warned everyone in advance, that this would be wall to wall people, and we wouldn't be able to do much but sit and wait. We grabbed dinner at the Plaza Pavillion then grabbed a spot on the curb at 6:20 for the 8:15 parade. My park map said the park closed at 9, with one parade at 8:15. We had time to kill (a lot of time LOL) so dd and I grabbed Buzz fastpasses for the guys then went to see if we could get on the Barnstormer. NOT. That little coaster had a 40 minute wait! The only thing we were able to do was the carousel. We only had to wait for 2 rides to complete on there. I could not believe those lines, and that people will actually wait in those. The line to see Ariel in her grotto had spilled out onto the street! Yikes, these people must not understand how to manage their days to avoid these lines. We never had that problem. After the carousel, we noticed the sky had gotten really dark (uh oh). We walked through Sir Mickey's to get back to our spot, and there, hanging in plain sight, was a long sleeved shirt, that was not a sweatshirt! It was black and said Magic Kingdom and had a small sparkly silver silhouette of the castle. Victory! While I was paying I saw ponchos on the counter. I radioed dh and asked how the sky looked. Looks like rain he says. Should we get ponchos? Let's wait. BIG MISTAKE! After we got back to our spot, I left them on the curb, and went to get a bottle of water. While in line (a huge line), crack, BOOM!!!!!!! The sky lit up, and lightening appeared to have hit the castle. It was so loud, even the popcorn vendors jumped. I craned my neck to see my kids, I know they get freaked. They seemed to be doing pretty well. Just then, with only one more person ahead of me for water, the skies opened up. I don't mean a little rain, I mean water running down the street in rivers rain. I fought my way out of the line, which was not easy, as people were fighting to get in the area because it was covered, and went back to my family. We were stumped, do we stay or go? We stayed for a few minutes, we hoped it would pass, and did not want to lose our spot. Several people stayed in their spots, of course most of them had ponchos or umbrellas LOL. After awhile, we had to bail, and ran across the bridge and ducked under cover at the Plaza Pavillion. We were soaking wet and it was windy, YUCK. After about 10 minutes the rain slowed, so we went back to our spot. A few minutes later, it started pouring again. We tried so hard to get our good spot for the fireworks and parade (I had the tripod again for photos), and we figured it was all over now. Just then they make an event announcement, stating the MK is open till 10(huh? My map says 9) and join us for Spectromagic at 8:15 and 10:00! I couldn't believe that had extended the hours and added a parade. We stood in the rain for nothing LOL. At that point we figured none of that was going to happen anyway. We gave up and ran under the little pavillion area, down the path from the Mickey and Minnie topiaries. They ran ahead of me, I was wearing Birks and could not run. When I got under the shelter, a woman looks at me and yells "I think we have a winner!" ROFL!! I asked what my prize was, they didn't have much of an answer LOL. We stood under here for a good 15-20 minutes, when some CM shows up with roses. "Sorry you have to leave, we have a private party". By this point we were wet to the bone and freezing cold. It had slowed some, so we booked it around to Mickey's Star Traders in Tomorrowland and bought new t-shirts for everyone (oh dear, I was forced to shop VBG). I was pretty much grabbing the closest cutest shirts I could find in the right size. We went to the bathroom and changed into dry shirts. We still had soaking shirts and underwear, but it was so much better with dry shirts. It was still sprinkling, so we bought ponchos (idiots, we should have bought them about an hour ago LOL). They had officially cancelled the parade at this point. I said we spent this money on the ponchos, we might as well walk around for awhile to get our money's worth. As we headed out of Tomorrowland, we saw some lighter spots, and noticed a few people sitting by the curb. We thought what the heck, we may get these fireworks in yet. The guys had tried to use their Buzz passes after we bought the shirts, but it was broken down. Their fastpasses ended at 8:55, so looked like those were going to be wasted. As it approached 9, it was still not storming, so we hurried and set up the tri-pod, and then, magic! The music came on, the castle lit up, and we got to see our fireworks!!! No Tink tonight, which is kind of sad, but we got to see the fireworks. After they were done I said, "hey, we've waited all night, and this is our last night, let's try for the 10 pm parade. Back on the curb we went. I put dd in her stroller sideways, to take up some space and sat on my poncho. At that point, since there was still 45 minutes to wait, I told dh he and ds should try to see if they could get on Buzz since it was broken when it was their pass time. This time they got right on. While they were gone, and after they returned, I got to experience all the rudeness I read about while people try to squeeze and push in for parades. I wanted to stand up for the parade to take pics, and a family with 3 small kids came and sat behind me while I was sitting. I told them I was going to stand when it started, but I would give their kids my curb spot, if I could stand behind them to take my pics. That was fine them. Once it got really close to parade time though, the really rude people show up. I felt like a sardine. When the parade was going I tried to bend down to smack a bug on my ankle, and I couldn't because the people behind me were too close. Creepy. Then about halfway through, someone pushed their two older kids in front of me, and behind the other kids I had let sit. There was no room for them there, but they did it anyway. The one kid actually ended up sitting on my foot. Other than that, the parade was fabulous! What a great way to end a trip and our anniversary! I could not believe we actually got to see the parade and the fireworks, after the way the evening had gone! Even with the rain and the wet, it was a totally magical evening!!
