Excuse me, you'll need to see security. What has Mickeystoontown done? Update 3/25x2

[shan23877]

Happy Anniversary to you and John and to Lacey and Jesse!

That's awesome that Hunter is adjusting so well to high school!

Love all of your pictures from Hot Springs. That drawing setting is really cool.

Can't wait to hear about the rest of your anniversary weekend!

 

[MEK]

I am not even going to try to read your Arkansas update until I can see the pictures. One of my favorite things about the DIS is reading about trips to non-Disney places. I love them. So now I have something to look forward to.

Happy Anniversary to you and John and Lacey and Jesse.

So glad that Hunter loves high school thus far. 630 freshman. Yikes! Nick's graduating class is only about 80. I do think there are some advantages to going to that large of a school. It has to help with the adjustment to a large college/university.

Sounds like you have been dealing with some health stressors. Hope everything works out smoothly with John's seizure meds and Mama's cataracts.

 

[racefanof88]

PSSSSSST............don't look now, but I see someone on your report that hasn't been here in a while.............. I have been busier than a one legged man in a butt kicking contest, but I will now go back and at least catch up on pictures.

 

[sewmess]

I loved the information and pictures of Hot Springs. My family is really into history & historical places. When I was a kid this is exactly the kind of place we would have gone. Of course, when I was homeschooled, I hated it - everything became educational, so it was like I was at school even when we were away from home.

Great news about your mama not needing the more indepth surgery.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Happy Anniversary to you and John and to Lacey and Jesse!

That's awesome that Hunter is adjusting so well to high school!

Love all of your pictures from Hot Springs. That drawing setting is really cool.

Can't wait to hear about the rest of your anniversary weekend!

Thank you!

Hunter is one of those kind of guys who never meets a stranger and can make friends in no time at all so I'm sure he'll adjust very well.

Isn't the drawing setting neat?!?

I am not even going to try to read your Arkansas update until I can see the pictures. One of my favorite things about the DIS is reading about trips to non-Disney places. I love them. So now I have something to look forward to.

Happy Anniversary to you and John and Lacey and Jesse.

So glad that Hunter loves high school thus far. 630 freshman. Yikes! Nick's graduating class is only about 80. I do think there are some advantages to going to that large of a school. It has to help with the adjustment to a large college/university.

Sounds like you have been dealing with some health stressors. Hope everything works out smoothly with John's seizure meds and Mama's cataracts.

I love reading about other destinations as well. As a matter of fact, I posted on your trip report about the fact that I wanted to send my sister the link to the report you did when in Hilton Head and Savannah.

Yes indeed...630+ students and they are still enrolling. I forgot how many students are enrolled in the entire school. I think it was near 2,000.

We'll eventually get the medical issues straightened out. I'm 100% confident of that. Just relying on the Lord!

 

[mickeystoontown]

PSSSSSST............don't look now, but I see someone on your report that hasn't been here in a while.............. I have been busier than a one legged man in a butt kicking contest, but I will now go back and at least catch up on pictures.

Let me get up from the floor! Are my eyes deceiving me? Is that my old friend Dana I see posting?

Seriously, I am happy to see you back on the Dis and are here to catch up.

I loved the information and pictures of Hot Springs. My family is really into history & historical places. When I was a kid this is exactly the kind of place we would have gone. Of course, when I was homeschooled, I hated it - everything became educational, so it was like I was at school even when we were away from home.

Great news about your mama not needing the more indepth surgery.

I can certainly see how going on an "educational" vacation wouldn't have been that great back in your homeschool days. Like you said, it would seem like you're still doing your lessons.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Wow, those Drawing and Watercolor modes are way cool!

Glad Mama will only have a minor surgery for her eyes.

Sucks about the smell in the bathroom on the cruise, but I guess they can't have as good a disposal system as on land.

Also sucks about the rain in Nassau, but that under the sea boat looked cool.

It's so nice to see you on the Dis again! I'll give you a pass for your absence 'cause of that pretty little girl of your's. ADORABLE!

The bathroom smell was a bit annoying but it wasn't so bad that it ruined the trip for us.

The semi-submarine was so cool! I would definitely do that again!

Hey Lisa!
I didn't realize that you and Lacey had your anniversaries so close together...that is too cool!

We are keeping your family in our prayers and hope everything goes well with everyone's health.

I cannot imagine having that many people in a school! My kids go to the same school I did and I believe we had like 75 people in my senior class...that is just crazy! My oldest is starting 5th grade next week and then its off to middle school . Not ready to think about that yet...I want to keep him little as long as possible!

Also I am enjoying your side trip report about Hot Springs. Hoo Hoo...lol
I remember my husband and I joining my parents one summer to go there, around eight years ago, and we knew little about Hot Springs at the time but we stayed at the Arlington and I remember after getting over the shock of how much we had to pay to stay at this rotten but historical hotel , I spent the entire trip feeling like I was on one of those ghost hunting shows...it was soooo creepy! Anyways can't wait to hear more

-Jenn

They actually wanted to get married on our anniversary simply because it was sooner rather than later than the 20th but the church was booked.

Thank you so much for the prayers!

The high school has grown so much since I went there. There's now an "old" gym and a "new" gym, six wings, a boardwalk, a research building and tons of other buildings and rooms. It's a good thing they put signs everywhere or else the kids would get lost those first few weeks.

Hand on to the kiddos and relish every minute with them. They do grow up way too fast.

The Arlington is a dump! It's crazy that they can get away with charging the rates that they do. I know I certainly wouldn't recommend it to anybody.

 

[MHTeacher]

I feel as if I've been gone from the DIS for weeks, but instead it's only been one week--I've just been so busy lately. I was glad to see I hadn't missed so much that it was impossible to catch up!

Looks like the anniversary trip was off to a good start. Great family pic of the three of you! Can't wait to hear about your trip to the water park!

 

[rndmr2]

Glad to hear that your mother doesn't need the cataract surgery, that will be much easier on her.

That is a big school that Hunter is going to, 630 in the freshman class? I went to a big school, too, I graduated with 690. I think it was just over 700 when we started as Freshman. It was originally 2 schools, Archbishop Ryan for Boys and Archbishop Ryan for Girls, they went co-ed when I was in 10th and 11th grade (in stages) so there are 2 of everything.

He is Lucky he makes friends easily, he should do well in a big school. I remember senior class picture day- I went into that Gym and there were a lot of kids there I didn't know or thought they were in other grades, which I expected, but then there were some in that room that I didn't remember ever SEEING before at all, and I had been going to the same school with them for 4 years! That's when it really hit home how big the school was.

Looking forward to your next update!!

 

[MEK]

That is one crazy place, that bathhouse. And, hey, why is the man's side of the bathhouse nicer than the ladies? Actually, both sides look a little scary to me.

Thanks for such an informative tour. Looking forward to more. Looks like a very interesting destination spot.

 

[deedeew80]

Hi Lisa! Loving the report on your weekend trip to Arkansas!! It seems so interesting there!!! Cant wait to hear all about the roller coasters!!! (they are my fav!)

Happy Anniversary to Lacey and Jesse!!! I can't believe it's been a year already!! It seems like only yesterday you were talking (writing) about it!!! Time sure does fly!!! Hope they had a fantastic first year of being a married couple!!

So glad to hear Hunter is enjoying HS so far! I'm sure he is happy to have some friends in all his classes!! Even though Hunter makes friends rather quickly & it wouldn't have been an issue if he didn't have any friends in the classes! Hope he has a great full first week of HS next week!!!!

 

[wakica]

So glad to hear Hunters 1st day went so well My dd starts highschool in a week and a half and I'm sure hoping we have a GREAT start to the year too.

I hope things get figured out soon for Johns meds. It sounds like VERY frustrating stuff to have to deal with so often

Loved the hanging frog!!! lol that's hilarious! I love getting towel critters and thanks for the lovely pirate headgear fashion show LOL It really is fun to try things on your head and take pictures. You'll notice in my TR that my DD could not go a DAY without posing with things on her head. haha

Your firework shots were great!!! They can be SO tricky to capture on camera especially if your like me and too shaky to operate a camera in any dark conditions.

Enjoyed seeing your trip to Arakansas and especially the bath house. Sure is interesting the things people used to do!!! I can't believe you have time to add side trips to your TR - I can't even keep on top of my one trip!!! lol

 

[PhoenixStrength]

Caught up! Looking forward to reading the rest of your weekend report, and loving the artsy pics you took!

 

[GrammyJudy]

Quick update on Mama. She went to the surgeon today and he said that she does not need cataract surgery. The surgeon said that the drooping eyelids are impairing her vision and they will schedule the surgery for sometime in October. Recovery time is expected to be just a few weeks!

GOOD NEWS LISA! Tell Mama I am praying for her and a quick recovery

 

[KatMark]

I am behind (again), but I am caught up so far on your anniversary trip to Arkansas. Love the sunset picture, and enjoying "taking the tour" with you.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Rollercoasters and Lazy Rivers!

Magic Springs opened at 10:00 a.m. so we were up and at ‘em around 8:00 a.m. or so. Hunter and I went down to grab us a bite to eat from the continental breakfast. There was quite a bit to chose from...scrambled eggs, sausage, biscuits, gravy, waffles, various dry cereals, boiled eggs, two different flavors of yogurt, bagels, muffins and break to toast. There were lots of condiments too with my favorite being the strawberry cream cheese. Yum! And then several types of coffee, milk, orange juice and hot tea. We went back upstairs to eat our goodies and to share with John.

We couldn’t decide if we wanted to wear our “theme park” clothes or put on our “water park” clothes or put the water park clothes on underneath our clothes or just change when we got there. We finally decided to just change when we got there. I packed the swim suits in the bag along with sunscreen, deodorant (hey, I don’t want to stink later in the day) towels and we were ready to go.

When we first started visiting Hot Springs many many years ago, there were just two lane roads and, over the years, the city has grown immensely. Even though we knew that we could take the new main highway to Magic Springs, we chose to go the old route through the mountains and past the pretty streams. That also meant that we had to go back downtown which, fortunately, for us, wasn’t busy at all even though it was Saturday morning. I guess everybody was shopping at the mall.

Along the way, we drove past Oaklawn which is a horse racetrack.

In off season, it’s also a casino and concert venue. We all laughed outloud at one of the events that flashed on the outdoor billboard. Apparently, there was an event called “kidnapping” something or other coming up later in the month of August. What an odd name for an event! Soon, we were in the middle of the main strip of downtown and the streets were pretty much empty:

We took the winding road through the mountains and past the streams and soon ended up on the highway that led to Magic Springs. You can see the top of some of the coasters in the next couple of pictures:

I tried to take a picture of the entrance to Magic Springs. It’s not anything spectacular but I still wanted a picture but this is what I got. Yeah, not that great and I didn’t even get the sign in the picture.

As we approached the parking lot, we could see that there were, at least, a hundred church buses and vans already there or lined up to pay the parking fees. Seems like the youth groups would be out in full force. We paid and parked and walked towards the ticket booth. We tried to find some sort of landmark so that we wouldn’t forget where the car was parked since there were no parking lot numbers or anything on the light posts or on the lot itself. Pluto, we aren’t in Disney World any more.

Before leaving home, I had ordered a Hot Springs vacation guide which came with $8.00 off admission for up to six (or was it four?) in your party. I told John and Hunter to wait and I’d go buy the tickets. No need to have everybody standing in line.

To say that Disney’s way of doing things and their efficiency has spoiled us is an understatement. The poor little senior citizen ladies working the ticket counters were trying their best but people were coming at them with Mountain Dew cans that had $ off admission on them, others had printed coupons, some, like me, had coupons out of the visitor’s guide and then still others had what looked like flyers in their hands. A lot of the hold up simply had to do with the people in line. Even though there were bars that separated the lines to the windows (and exit lanes as well), people were standing back in one big lump and not moving forward through the bars. Or they’d try to come out the entrance lane. I just wanted to shout and tell everybody “look, this is what the bars are for....this is how you go forward to the window....please have your money and coupons ready.....this is how you exit after getting your admission tickets”. I swear some of those folks acted like they had never been anywhere in their entire life.

One of those such women just happened to be in front of me. The piece of paper that she had in her hand said $10 off admission for each person in the party and then something about a “friend” ticket. Apparently, she didn’t looked at the fine print (which, by the way, wasn’t that little ‘cause I could read it from behind her) which said that the $10 off wasn’t valid on weekends. The lady in front of me got pretty mad and said “well I would have brought the $8 off if I had known that”. Oh well, lady....read your stuff before you get to the ticket window. She ended up paying full price for the tickets, turned around, pushed past me and walked down the entrance lane.

I got to the window, handed over my coupons and my money all at the same time. I could see the look of relief on the lady’s face when I did this and she gave me a big smile and said thank you. I bid her goodbye, found my men and we were through the turnstiles and in the park within minutes of me approaching the ticket window.

As soon as we went in the park, a castmember (I’m going to call them that because I really don’t want to type park employee every time.) approached us and asked if she could take our picture in front of the fountain. We said sure and as we walked over to the fountain, Hunter said “nice camera” in a whisper. As we turned around, I could see what he was talking about. It was a small Kodak camera not much bigger than the one that I carry on trips with us. Again, another indication that we have been jaded by Disney. She took two pictures and then told us to just go to the picture store whenever we got ready to leave the park. If they couldn’t find our picture there, go to the store next to it and they would look for it. No card, no ticket, no nothing. Poor employees who had to look through all those hundreds of pictures every day.

Our plan was to find one of the set of lockers and then hit the water park section of the park before it got really hot and busy. But, as we approached the gate to the water park, we could see that it was closed. We couldn’t find anything that said what time it opened nor could we find a castmember to ask. Guess that plan won’t work. We decided to just put our tote (a Walt Disney World tote by the way) in a locker and go rides some rides.

The lockers were really easy to rent with a touch screen that allowed you to chose the size locker you wanted, assigned you a locker number and then walked you through the steps of entering your birthday and then making your own pin number. Easy peasy! The only complaint I had about the lockers was the fact that the backside of the lockers (where we rented) had very little standing room and it was super cramped when waiting in line to get to the touch screen.

Once I had the locker rented and our stuff stowed away, we made our way into the theme park section of the park. Look at how empty it was:

We passed by a ride that I just know Mary Ellen would love to go on NOT!

The Hawk:

You wouldn’t catch me on that thing nor did you catch Hunter or John on it. We walked a little further along and came upon the Old No. 2 Logging Company Log Flume.

While this certainly isn’t a thrill ride, I am always thrilled to see it because it brings back memories. John and I rode the log ride on our honeymoon twenty-eight years ago. They took our picture and gave it to us in one of those little viewfinder things. You know those things where the picture is about the size of a quarter, you look through the opening....let me see if I can find a picture of one to show ya’ll................................................................................................

Here you go, it looked like this:

**Continued in next post

 

[mickeystoontown]

Anyway, John got a phone call from his brother, Mac, just as we were about to get in line so he said for Hunter and I to go ahead. He didn’t care if he missed it. Well, looks like it only holds sentimental thoughts for me.

The loading and unloading area are one in the same:

This was a continuous loading ride. Once the guests were out of the logs, the logs moved forward ever so slowly and the next set of guests got in. At Magic Springs, when you get on a ride, they ask that you take off your sunglasses, hats/caps and leave your bags, purses and camera in the loading area. I didn’t like that at all. Who wants to just leave your purse laying there in the open for anybody to pick up?

Hunter and I sat our stuff down and then got in the log. There was no way in the world that I was leaving my camera just sitting there so I had it stuck in my pocket. Before we started up the first little hill, I told Hunter to turn around so I could take his picture:

and he took mine:

There is really no theming as you travel along in your log. We went through a covering that I assumed was supposed to have flowers and vines growing all over it but they had already died because of the heat:

We waved to John as we passed him and then started up the hill:

I tucked my camera into my pocket because there’s a castmember sitting in the booth at the top of the hill and I didn’t want to get reprimanded. Given that fact, this next picture is, obviously, borrowed from the internet:

You’d think, from the looks of that splash, that we would have gotten soaked but we didn’t. We did get a little wet but not much. From there, we made our way over to the Twist & Shout which is similar to Primeval Whirl at the Animal Kingdom but without the spinning and cute dinosaurs holding the signs and asteroids flying around you:

Again, they told us to put our hats/caps, sunglasses, bags and purses down. John didn’t like that one little bit. He told the guy that if anything was missing or if he saw the guy wearing his sunglasses or cap, he’d come back and stomp on him. Uhhhhhh somebody (not naming names JOHN) thought that leaving valuables in the broad open for anybody to pilfer through was a stupid idea. The castmember just laughed and said not to worry. Obviously, he thought John was kidding.

Even though I said that the Twist & Shout was very similar to Primeval Whirl, I gotta tell you that you will get beat to a pulp on the Twist & Shout whereas on Primeval Whirl, the spinning seems to keep the beatings down to a gentle punch. The braking system wasn’t the best either. There was no gliding to a stop. It was a full-on screeching stop and we all had the bruises on our backs to prove it. Never again! Never ever again!

I took pictures of the cute little cars and the track when we got off:

I guess we are a glutton for punishment because next up on our list of things to do and attractions to ride was Big Bad John, one of the two wooden rollercoasters at Magic Springs. Magicsprings.com’s description of Big Bad John:

Hang on! You’re on a runaway mine train! Big Bad John is ready to take you on a twisty-turvy journey through the Arkansas wilderness, then bring you home to a screeching tunnel finale. This wood coaster delivers a ride you won’t forget – it’s a family favorite!

See that big metal building in the picture above? That’s the building where you wait to board the coaster. You enter the building and you’re in one big wide line until you get to where the “gates” are to board the train. Here’s a picture inside the building that I found on the internet:

When you get to the part of the line where you must go to one of the gates, there were no castmembers there asking how many were in your party or directing you down to the end of the line or giving any direction on what to do at all. Therefore, people were doing one of two things. 1) Going to one of the gates and stopping even if it was already crowded in that area and people were trying to get by; or, 2) Just standing in a big wad at the end of the gate area.

We stood there and waited for a while and finally someone knocked some sense into the people in front of us and they figured out that “hey, maybe we should go all the way down”. Once they did that, we were able to move down too. Because there were no castmembers telling anyone where to go, you had to find your own gate to stand by and also make sure that everybody in your party would stay together. We ended up having to move down a bit more in order to find two gates with the same number of people in it. Oh, I forgot to mention the fact that there was only one train running. So, it was imperative that we find two spots that assured us that we would all get onto that one train together.

We had to wait for the train to make two passes before we were able to load. Speaking of loading, some of the people didn’t have any idea that they were supposed to go straight ahead to the car in front of them. Some were going to the one to the right them or in front of them or to the left of them which messed up the parties who were trying to sit together. How did boarding a roller coaster become so difficult to comprehend?

It was our turn next and we were told by the two castmembers who were loading, checking the belts and bars and also operating the control system, that we had to leave our belongings on the other side of the train (the unloading side). While we were standing there waiting for our turn, we watched others get off the train and I realized just how easy it would be for someone to take another’s purse or bag and walk off with it. I looked around and didn’t see security camera number one in the area. Boy did that reassure me that my stuff would be safe.

Big Bad John was off and we were climbing the hills, zooming around curves and then making the final dip before arriving back at the station. Again, I’m borrowing pictures from the internet since I wasn’t allowed to have my camera out so I had it in my pocket.

It was starting to get pretty crowded in the park by that time so we figured we’d go see if we could get into the water park. We had only had the opportunity to ride three things due to the fact that Magic Springs only had one train/log/car running at once on the tracks so it took lots longer to do things.

As we got closer to the water park area, we saw people walking around in the swimsuits and they were wet. And wearing flip flops. Wearing flip flops because the concrete was hot. Did I remember to put the flip flops in the bag? Heck no! I figured we’d be fine without them but John said he thought we needed them. We ducked into the store that sold all sorts of swimwear, flip flops, sunscreen, etc. and came out almost $50.00 poorer. But, we had flip flops and a Mountain Dew to show for it.

I retrieved our bag from the lockers and we all went to change clothes. Dumb me, went to the ladies room instead of the women’s changing room and it took me forever. John and Hunter were waiting on me when we got out and said that the men’s changing room was nothing but one big room with no stalls, just wide open space. I’ve never figured out why people think it’s okay for men to whip it out and pee in front of others or to strip down and shower in front of others. I’d had a problem with that if I were a man. I wouldn’t like that at all.

Anyway, I stuffed our things back into the locker and we were off to find a chair to put our stuff on and to rent the tubes needed to do the water slides and lazy river. We found quite a few empty chairs out in the wide open sun but that was fine with sun worshiper John so we dropped our things and were off to rent the tubes. Three tubes, $15.00 paid, and 10 minutes later, we were floating along on the lazy river. Hunter was in charge of the camera:

Obviously, I was either talking to myself or yelling something at Hunter because my mouth is wide open:

**Continued in next post

 

[mickeystoontown]

At some point, Hunter handed the camera over to me:

Looking up:

On our second, third and fourth loop around, we had been watching one of the female lifeguards (who was walking up and down a stretch about 10 or 15 foot long) and saw that she was talking to one of the guests who was, obviously, one of her friends. During loop 2, she was telling the guy that she was going to “call her out and tell call her the b***h that she was”. Hunter was pretty far ahead of us so I didn’t know if he had heard it but I had. John, with his hard of hearing self, didn’t. Loop 3, she was still talking to the guest and I could hear her saying a few more choice words. On Loop 4, she was still talking to the guy and still fussing about whoever “she” was. Mind you, the guy she was talking to had stayed in one spot, leaning over a railing, the entire time so, at times, she was talking a bit loudly.

John couldn’t hear the exact words she was saying but he could tell that she was using a tone of voice that shouldn’t be used around other guests. He stopped his tube on the side and asked her her name. She said “why do you want to know?” John said something like “I just want to know your name.” I think she was so dumb and ignorant that she thought John was hitting on her or something. John told her “Never mind, I’ll find out.” I told John that I was going to stop at Guest Relations on our way out and complain about the potty mouth lifeguard.

John said that he was going to get out when we got to the exit and laze around on the lounge chair but Hunter and I were itching to hit the slides. Oh and Hunter asked us if we had heard the lifeguard cursing. He said that he overheard her using the F word. That did it! If I hadn’t been ticked off at her behavior before, that sealed the deal for me. I told John to remind me to stop at Guest Relations before we left because I wanted them to know about the cussing lifeguards.

Hunter and I chose to do the tamer slides first. We hauled our tubes up and waited about thirty minutes before it was our turn. The tube/slide that I was given was enclosed the entire way and was really skinny and HOT! My legs are pretty long and I was swirling around like a mad woman with my legs hitting the sides and burning up from the heat. Needless to say, while it was fun, I was happy to hit the pool at the end. Hunter came out about the same time as I did.

We went back to John and told him that we were going over to the bigger slides and he said to take our time, he was going to sit in the sun and work on his tan. I had to ask a castmember how to get to that area of the park since we hadn’t been there since they built it and it was in an area that was off to the side of the park. We found our way over and saw that there was a pretty long line for the slides but there were several slides so we joined the line.

Despite the fact that we were climbing higher and higher, my fear of heights didn’t kick in until we were a few steps away from the loading platform. That’s when you could see the entire parking lot and all the way down. Don’t look to the side! Look straight ahead! There was just one teenage guy working the slides and he was loving his job. Seriously, he loved his job. You could tell. He was talking to all of the guests and splashing them before they’d take off on their tubes. It was our turn next and he asked what color slide we wanted and I told him the tamest one. He told me to take the turquoise one and Hunter was given the red and we were off!

This slide was the bomb diggidy! I was flying down the tube, splish splashing from side to side, then I could see sunlight and a funnel! My innertube went round and round the funnel and then slushed down the middle and out I went into the pool! I turned around just as Hunter came out of his. Had the line not been so long, we would have done it over and over again!

We made our way back to John and told him how much fun the slides were but there was no convincing him to go. He was happy right where he was. Hunter and I gave the tamer slides one more go without him. When we got done, we realized that we were starving and were in need of food. John said that he was hungry too so we walked up the walkway and right into the crowds! Crowds and crowds of folks waiting to get something to eat. There were other eateries in the park but they were in the theme park section and I wasn’t about to walk all the way over in my swimsuit. The only thing that Hunter wanted to do that we hadn’t was another set of slides but after he thought about it, the hunger pains were stronger than the need to ride another slide.

I got the bag from the locker and we all changed into our shorts and t-shirts and set off in search of food. We walked to the other side and the lines were long. Really long! Really long for chicken strips and hot dogs. We looked at each other and said we would rather just leave and go somewhere in Hot Springs and eat. It wasn’t until then that we realized it was after 3:00 p.m.

We figured that we’d pass on looking at the pictures that the castmember took. I am sure it wasn’t that great and I didn’t want to spend the time or money anyway. I remembered that I wanted to visit Guest Relations which is just a little window near the ticket booths. As we got closer, I could see that the girl there wasn’t much older than the lifeguard and I figured it wouldn’t do a whole lot of good to complain to her.

There was another castmember checking the guest counter at the turnstiles and I asked her if she had a minute. She said that she did and I told her about the lifeguard. You could tell that she was upset and asked if I saw her nametag. When I told her that she didn’t have one on and the castmember said that all employees were supposed to have on their nametags. I described the lifeguard to her, what time we had seen her, where she was standing, etc. She said that it wouldn’t be a problem finding out who was at that post and she would make sure that she was reprimanded. She said “We are a family theme park, not a carnival. We don’t allow that kind of language here.” She apologized to us and said that she hoped it wouldn’t keep us from returning again and we assured her that it wouldn’t.

After a little looking around, we found the row that we were parked on. We immediately turned the air on full blast and rolled down all the windows to let the heat out. It was sweltering hot in the SCAR. There were no sings on the rows or in the parking lot telling you which you were to go to get out. We finally asked a castmember who said that we were to go out the way we came.

By the time we made it back to town, we were all starving and ready for something to eat. There was an Applebees near the hotel and it wasn’t busy so that’s where we ended up. We had beat the dinner crowd and there were only three or four other tables taken in the restaurant. By the time we were done, though, more and more people were coming in and it was full by the time we left. We boxed up our leftovers (the hotel room had a microwave) and went back to the hotel for a little rest and relaxation.

**Up next: A hole in one and a dangling table leg!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Well, phooey, I am noticing that some of the images aren't appearing. I've got to do two pleadings and a Judgment so I don't have the time to come back and fix them. Maybe I can do it this evening. At least you have something to read and some pictures to look at.

 

[DisneyMom5]

This mini trip report is going to be what I point to when people say [insert whiny know it all voice here]:
"WHY go all the way to FLORIDA just to go to an AMUSEMENT park??? There are AMUSEMENT parks in [insert state of choice here], and THEY don't cost HALF as much as DISNEYLAND [not a mistake--you know they can't tell the difference]."

I like how you guys have positive attitudes and are going to have fun together no matter WHERE you go!