FINALLY!! Day 6 added - Epcot/Home! Mickey Cheeseheads, Band Geeks and Pixie Dust

[marciemi]

Introduction

Hi – I’m marciemi (Marcie) and have been on these forums for well over a decade now, and I know many of you know me primarily from my signature pic – which is now (gasp!) over 12 years old!! This trip report has a much larger, yet smaller, cast of characters than normal since we were going down for a band trip with our sons’ high school band from January 20-25, 2011. However, the thought of 25 hours on a bus wasn’t particularly appealing to either of us (can’t imagine why!), plus the time would be limited, so DH (Royce) and I decided to do our own parallel trip with the boys. The band stayed at the Springhill Suites in the Marriott Village, but we opted to stay onsite at Pop Century in order to take advantage of the EMH’s and the free dining. Free dining started the second day of our stay, so we did a room only reservation for the first night and picked up the package the next day.

When we booked our air, we couldn’t get any times that worked well out of Milwaukee. We wanted to get the boys off to school before we left, but still maximize our time at Disney of course! They had their last day of finals that day and then the bus was leaving after school. We decided to book a one way flight out of Green Bay (where we live) instead and finally found a reasonable price and time that worked. However, we found that flights coming back were too expensive or took way too much time with the connections, but found a Southwest flight at the time we wanted (late afternoon) going to Milwaukee. Since Royce travels a lot and had a lot of free rental car days saved up, we used one for that return home and rented the car from Milwaukee to Green Bay for just $11 in taxes. But the Southwest flight was only $69 one way, which gave me another idea. Why not have the boys stay with us the last night, giving us and them another day at the park and a little bit of time together, and sparing them from the bus torture ride on the way home? Although they were a bit opposed to the idea at first (“But mom, the bus ride is half the fun!”) they quickly became convinced, especially after enduring the ride down! When I asked my youngest son when we picked him up if he was glad he was flying home (he was the most opposed because of wanting to be with his GF for the ride back!), his reply was “Oh, YEAH!” Guess trying to sleep sitting up isn’t all it’s cracked up to be!

So the main cast of characters is simply me (44 at the time!) and DH Royce (46) for most of the trip. We decided to do our own thing based on recommendations online but of course make sure to see the band in the parade and the boys if it happened to work out that way. I made approximately a zillion ADR’s over the 6 months or so prior to the trip – seemed like every month there was a new update with what the band (and hence we!) were doing and I’d change them all again. Luckily traveling in January, unlike our last 2 trips in the summer, made changing ADR’s much easier. I think I can say with certainty that none of the ADR’s I made at the 180 day mark were ones I used on the actual trip – maybe the same places, but not the actual times/days. I think I ended up with just stacks of paper with my ongoing ADR’s and cancellations but it all worked out in the long run! We ended up eating at the following restaurants: Chefs de France (lunch), Le Cellier (dinner), Boma (dinner) and ‘Ohana (dinner, with the boys). Since it would be our first trip without kids since, well, before we HAD kids, we decided to note that we were celebrating our 23rd Anniversary (actually a couple months later) as well. You’ll see as I go through the report that we really didn’t get anything exceptional out of this, but did get some attention and occasionally a cupcake or a special decoration for our dessert, which was about the right amount of “extra” – just a way to reinforce that we were there having fun without the kids and celebrating 23 years together and make it a little bit more special.

The secondary cast of characters includes our sons Stephen (17) and Eric (15) and their various friends/GF, etc. We had a rough Christmas break – with 2 ER visits in 6 days – one for each of the boys. Eric ended up breaking a wrist playing ultimate Frisbee in gym class – we waited it out for a few days telling him it would get better but finally ended up with a cast shortly before Christmas. A few days later, Stephen was doing pull-ups in the laundry room and somehow managed to pull the bar down on his head and got a fairly serious concussion and some significant memory loss. So the time leading into the trip was a bit stressful, and not knowing what, or how much they’d be able to do at Disney was also worrying. Luckily Eric got the cast off 2 days before the trip, so that he was able to play in the parade (he’s a snare drummer) and Stephen got the go ahead from his doctor and neurologists that he could do anything at Disney. We still opted to skip the orange side of Mission Space just to play it safe though!

Of course no Disney trip is complete without the typical Countdown Calendar that we’ve done for all our trips (at least back to 1997 that I know of!). They’ve gotten a bit more elaborate over time, recently including bits of trivia and pictures to go with them, and of course the requisite Mickey paint chips from Home Depot:

We decided that we needed to rent a car since we’d have to pick the boys up on their last day and it would be a hassle carrying everything back to the hotel via Disney transportation. Plus we just really like the independence of driving to the parks on our own. Couldn’t find anything under $200 when I first started looking months out, but by the time we left I’d gotten the rate for a compact down to $114, which was more than worth it to us. We got in touch with the band travel agent and paid the extra $10 each to upgrade the boys’ passes for an additional day and we were pretty much ready to go. Leaving Green Bay for sunny Florida is never hard in January so it was looking to be a good trip!

Going to be a lot more pics in the upcoming posts but for this one I’ll just leave it with a family shot from Christmas of us with all 3 boys. Oldest son is at the Air Force Academy in Colorado, so wasn’t able to join us on this trip – first time without all 3 boys. If you’re interested in any of my previous trips, you can find the links in my signature of our 2007 trip (16 days offsite in a house) and 2009 (just me and Stephen – 6 days at Pop with free dining).

Next up – Day 1 – Arrival and Magic Kingdom – January 20

 

[macraven]

woo hoo.......

i'm the first to check in here.............




love the report already marcie..

 

[Tinker-tude]

Mac, you're the first.

But certainly NOT THE LAST!!!!!!!

 

[keishashadow]

me 3

 

[CreightonsMomma]

I'm in!

 

[marciemi]

Thanks everyone for reading! Let's get on to the real action now!

Today started bright and early. Got the boys ready and everything packed into the appropriate cars. Due to the exam schedule, Stephen didn’t need to be at school until 9, so we’d decided he’d drop us off at the airport, saving us the money for parking. I left the boys a list of the remaining things to remember (wallets, phones, chargers), then at the last minute grabbed Eric’s phone charger (rather than relying on Stephen) and threw it in his backpack for the trip, which was already in the car they were going to take. Again reminded Stephen to bring those last remaining critical things of his, which he’d have plenty of time to do after dropping us off before 7am.

We got to the airport which was pretty much empty. Said goodbye to Stephen, and went to the desk and checked our bag. Went over to security and we were the ONLY people anywhere to be seen besides the TSA people. All my stuff went through without issue, but when they got to Royce’s carryon, it caused them to send it through several times. Meanwhile, we’d cleared the area and were back with our shoes on waiting while they literally took everything out of his carryon bag and sent it through the machine, a few items at a time. Royce made the joke “How many TSA agents does it take to look through one small bag? Evidently 7!” since at one point that was the count. Again, no one else in the entire area. We had no clue what the issue was and Royce was starting to get annoyed when they grabbed the bag yet again to send it through, dumping the Garmin onto the ground. He verified it still worked while they continued to send the bag through. Finally, a good amount of time later, he got everything back. I asked what the problem had been, to try to avoid a similar issue on the way back, and all they could suggest was that we had too many electronics in one bag – camera, camcorder, Garmin. Sounded pretty weak to me! By this time a line had begun to form (okay, there was one other person now waiting!) so we were glad to get to the gate.

Waiting at the gate, we got the text from Stephen asking “Eric wants to know if you packed our band t-shirts.” Informed him that I’d packed whatever clothes they’d given me that they wanted to bring so if they’d given me a shirt then yes, if not, then no. He decided to go look for their band shirts and pack them himself. Meanwhile, it’s about 7:45 and our plane is supposed to leave at 8 and there’s still hardly anyone around. Here’s a pic of us in the beautiful Green Bay airport:

Around 7:55 they make an announcement saying that since there are a total of 11 people on the flight, we can all just go ahead and board whenever. Okay, fine with me! We get on and each grab a row to ourselves to be more comfortable (keeping in mind that a “row” is a whole 2 seats on this small plane). And we sit. And sit some more. Finally they come on and tell us that they can’t get the de-icing truck started so we need to wait. Right around the time that I’m starting to stress out about our connection, the truck shows up, de-ices the plane, and we take off. Uneventful flight other than the temperature. The morning we left Green Bay, it was a balmy -11, with a wind chill of around -32. And the forecast was 80 for when we landed in Orlando! Needless to say, it was challenging to dress for both! I was wearing a t-shirt, a hoodie and a light jacket which simply wasn’t nearly warm enough for the Green Bay temps. And evidently the 11 people on board didn’t generate enough revenue (or body heat!) for them to heat the plane with. I was freezing for nearly the entire flight – and even worse when I went back to the restroom at once point which had to have been another 20 degrees cooler than the rest of the plane! I was surprised on that small of a plane and that short of a flight that we still got snacks and beverages – a whole can to ourselves! Must have had some extras since the plane was empty! We were glad to get to the warmth (?) of the Cleveland airport – a first for either of us to fly into.

Since we had arrived a bit late, we pretty much had enough time to run to a bathroom (this time warmer!) before it was time to board. Here I saw something I hadn’t seen before. Despite the fact that we’d already gone through security and were in a secure area, as people boarded, they had additional security personnel randomly pulling people out of line and going through all their carryons. Seemed strange to me and definitely added to the boarding time. Luckily, after our exhaustive search in Green Bay, we weren’t tagged this time and got on quickly. This was a larger plane and more full, but we still ended up with an empty seat between the two of us which was nice.

I’d looked at the snack options on our previous flight (not offered due to size) and we decided to share one of them. It was a lot of fun/variety and only $7. The snack included a container of olives, cheese, salami & crackers, hummus and pita chips, dried fruit & nuts, and a granola bar. We split the snack and it was a good mid-day filler:

Finally we arrived in Orlando, right on schedule. We decided to go pick up the car first and then head down and get our bag after that. Checked in to the rental agency, filled out the paperwork and got the car info quickly. Then went back up a level to baggage claim, only to wander aimlessly for quite awhile looking for our baggage claim. Finally asked for help, only to be told that we’d somehow ended up in the wrong baggage claim (A vs. B). Since we weren’t sure if we could get the car at the other claim, Royce decided to go get the bag while I waited with everything else. Luckily, it only took him a few minutes to get across the airport and retrieve the bag and come back to where I was.

Definitely felt hot and humid outside to us so we peeled off a few layers and went out to the car. Found that none of the super-cheap cars we’d opted for included such luxuries as cruise control, power doors, or power windows. Royce asked about the possibility of upgrading, but for $11 a day, we decided just to deal with what we had. Put everything in and took off out of the airport.

Here’s where we I did the same thing I do every trip. Pack a bunch of change for the toll booths and then have it end up in the backpack that’s in the trunk when you hit the first toll! Scrounged through the wallets and came up with enough for the first toll and eventually made it to Pop after a few stops to pay again! We checked in with no wait and found that we were very close to our room from the last trip with my son – this time in 3433 vs 3445 the previous time! However, this time we faced the lake rather than another building, which was actually much quieter and offered great views of the Epcot fireworks from right on the bed!

Each time I’d only requested “top floor, quiet area” so that must be what they consider that area to be! We did a quick job of unpacking and headed over to the Magic Kingdom, via car and then tram and monorail:

We went to Guest Services, since we were planning to do the Early Ticket Pickup. I’d read about this on the DIS – since our package didn’t start until the next day, but we wanted to go to the park on the arrival day (and not pay the price of a full one-day ticket), evidently you can pick up the tickets up to a couple days early at any park Guest Services, NOT at a hotel. When we got up to Guest Services, it took quite awhile to accomplish (maybe 15 minutes?) but they knew exactly what we wanted to do. They said they couldn’t add on the extra day there because it would mess up our resort/package reservation the next day, but could give us the tickets early and we could get it all sorted out the next morning, get the keys on one card, and add in the extra day. Which ended up being exactly what happened.

So we went into the park, stopping for our first photopass pic, and then headed over to pick up a Jungle Cruise FP.

We wanted to try to ride it in the dark, and this would be our only evening at the MK. We went from there to Pinocchio’s, since the airplane “snack” was a thing of the distant past, and we were definitely hungry. Royce wanted to see where it overlooked Small World, so we got a seat by the window and I went and got us some food. Not yet on the dining plan so we got one pizza, one kids meal, and a glass of water, which ended up being more than enough.

Once we were finished eating, we looked at my Lines App to try to see where we should head. It said that Space Mountain was only a 10 minute wait, and since it had been closed on our 2009 trip, we decided to head over there. Got in line and were immediately suspicious of the wait since the line extended quite far back in the queue. But we decided to wait it out and see – I timed it and it ended up being well over 30 minutes, which was frustrating since we had a lot of things we’d hoped to do that evening! I didn’t really notice any changes to Space Mountain, other than obviously the picture being added.

We left there and decided to also try the TTA at that point since it wasn’t quite dark enough for Jungle Cruise yet and that was another one that was closed on our 2009 trip. As we were cruising along, Royce got a text from Stephen telling us that – oops – he had forgotten his phone charger. I only reminded him approximately 100 times, PLUS left it on a note! What can you do? I suggested he ask his brother to share his (which I had packed – yay for me or they would have had neither of them!) and we’d try to give him a spare that we had once we saw him in a couple days!

By this point it was at least past dusk, if not fully dark, so we worked our way back to Jungle Cruise and walked right onto a boat with the FP. It seemed to get much darker as we went through the ride, and we had an engaged and funny captain, unlike each time we’d attempted the ride on our last trip.

As soon as we got off though, we knew we needed to get over to the hub area to see the MSEP/Preshow/Wishes trio! Normally I would never wait for these, but Royce had never really seen all of Wishes (we watched it while rushing around in 2005), this was only the third night of the new Castle Memories Preshow, and we hadn’t seen the Main Street Electrical Parade since 2000 at WDW and 2003 at DL so really wanted to make sure we had a seat for all of these.

Of course by this point – around 6:20 for a 7:00 MSEP, it was already packed. We went to the center of the hub (to hope to see everything) and managed to find a couple seats a few rows back – at least not behind any wheelchairs or strollers which seemed very difficult to avoid! It was definitely crowded and became more and more so as it got closer to parade time.

No one was overly rude, but it just felt uncomfortably close! Finally the parade came by – I’m not certain on what the etiquette is for this. It seemed like some people all stood up for it – even if they were in the front row and other places stayed seated in the front which made more sense to me. The people to our right were all standing so I couldn’t see the parade coming, but at least those in front of us stayed seated so we did as well. However, the people behind me decided to stand and were very uncomfortably close to me. I did a few of the “whip my head back unexpectedly” things to prevent a crotch or two from leaning up against the back of my head – eww! We enjoyed the parade, but my husband insisted they had cut it down from the last time we’d seen it and left out his favorite part – anyone know if that’s the case? Was it changed/edited from the earlier versions?

At this point, pretty much anyone else stood up once the parade was passed and moved closer to the castle. Since we were close enough, we just sat and held our ground (harder than you’d think!) but it was only a few minutes until the preshow started. We really enjoyed this – definitely something new and exciting, but I can see how it would be difficult to see if you weren’t at least in the hub area. The pictures especially were difficult to pick out when they were in the smaller sizes. Not that we really expected to know anyone. A couple interesting points to me though were that first of all, I’d expected that the pictures each night would be new and from that day. I’d watched the first showing of the preshow on Youtube a couple days earlier and recognized many of the pictures from having seen it then. Also, I recognized at least 3 pictures from the Wolf (sp?) family video – one of the best Disney videos ever, so if you haven’t seen it, definitely look it up! I wonder actually how many of the pictures are changed daily though!

After the preshow, it was only a few minutes until Wishes began. One learning point is that for the Pre-show, you really need to be at least in the hub to be close enough to see the pictures on the castle. But then you’re definitely TOO close for Wishes. In the future, if I were to do this, I would then move back towards Main Street immediately after the preshow, since many of the fireworks were blocked by the castle since we were too close. However, we enjoyed the show and since we were still on central time and it only felt like 7:30 or so, decided not to fight the crowds and just hang out and enjoy the MK while everyone left. Except it really didn’t work that way. I thought most shops and food locations were open at least for a bit after the park closed, but other than on Main Street, that definitely didn’t seem to be the case.

We strolled through Adventureland and Frontierland, but nearly everything was dark and closed by this point so we headed back to Main Street with the crowds. Decided to do some preview shopping in the stores, and stopped for a few pictures. Stopped in the Main Street Bakery and decided to try one of the recommended ice cream sandwiches – complete with freshly baked chocolate chip cookies and ice cream! Very good but extremely challenging to eat – luckily we found a table and were able to use a knife and fork! We went in the store where you can buy build-your-own Mouse Ears, and Royce bought 2 of the black ears (at $2.50 each) to modify his cheesehead later on. Tried to stall as long as possible, but still by the time we walked out of the park around 45 minutes later, the monorail and ferry still seemed to be completely mobbed.

Decided the ferry was the lesser of the two evils so we waited there, only to be completely packed on. Interestingly on the ferry we saw the Electric Water Pageant, but it obviously wasn’t time for it yet, so it was being towed backwards to get it into position, without any music or anything, but still lights (although again, not changing like normally). We got off the ferry (in a complete mob scene!) and rushed to the trams with everyone else. Finally got on a tram a couple later and made it out to our car. Back to Pop easily and got everything ready for an early morning the next day, especially since we needed to still pick up our package and get an extra day of tickets, etc. so we called it an early night as well.

Next up – Day 2 – Epcot and Animal Kingdom – January 21

 

[CreightonsMomma]

Leave it to the kids to forget the one thing they were reminded about bringing!

I am very happy to hear that you were able to avoid some crotches to the head! Yuck! Some people are so oblivious to their surroundings. Maybe they just don't care

Can't wait to read more!

 

[keishashadow]

i didn't know that re the tix/packages either, good idea

ive pretty much given up on parades, even when i stake out a prime spot hate defending it against last minute poachers

excuse me if i cringe on cheese head day lol

 

[minniejack]

Thanks everyone for reading! Let's get on to the real action now!

Today started bright and early. Got the boys ready and everything packed into the appropriate cars. Due to the exam schedule, Stephen didn’t need to be at school until 9, so we’d decided he’d drop us off at the airport, saving us the money for parking. I left the boys a list of the remaining things to remember (wallets, phones, chargers), then at the last minute grabbed Eric’s phone charger (rather than relying on Stephen) and threw it in his backpack for the trip, which was already in the car they were going to take. Again reminded Stephen to bring those last remaining critical things of his, which he’d have plenty of time to do after dropping us off before 7am.

We got to the airport which was pretty much empty. Said goodbye to Stephen, and went to the desk and checked our bag. Went over to security and we were the ONLY people anywhere to be seen besides the TSA people. All my stuff went through without issue, but when they got to Royce’s carryon, it caused them to send it through several times. Meanwhile, we’d cleared the area and were back with our shoes on waiting while they literally took everything out of his carryon bag and sent it through the machine, a few items at a time. Royce made the joke “How many TSA agents does it take to look through one small bag? Evidently 7!” since at one point that was the count. Again, no one else in the entire area. We had no clue what the issue was and Royce was starting to get annoyed when they grabbed the bag yet again to send it through, dumping the Garmin onto the ground. He verified it still worked while they continued to send the bag through. Finally, a good amount of time later, he got everything back. I asked what the problem had been, to try to avoid a similar issue on the way back, and all they could suggest was that we had too many electronics in one bag – camera, camcorder, Garmin. Sounded pretty weak to me! By this time a line had begun to form (okay, there was one other person now waiting!) so we were glad to get to the gate.

I'm thinking that your problems at airport security were caused by the color of the shirts you were wearing--must've been Steeler fans.

 

[stich626]

Cannot wait to see what your hubby did with his ears.

 

[BookTrout]

Hi, I'm new to this board and am really enjoying your current trip report, Marcie. You have a great looking family and I can't wait to read all about the rest of your adventures. Sharon

 

[macraven]

Cannot wait to see what your hubby did with his ears.

wait till you see the pic of royce.
it's a hoot.


i saw it already and have to say, he did a very good job with it.

 

[marciemi]

Leave it to the kids to forget the one thing they were reminded about bringing!

I am very happy to hear that you were able to avoid some crotches to the head! Yuck! Some people are so oblivious to their surroundings. Maybe they just don't care

Can't wait to read more!

I can't tell you how many cases we have of this lately (forgetting the one thing they need) so it was just like occurrence #2.5 million!

On the plus side, the crotches to the head were at least teen girls, not middle-aged guys! I think it was more a cultural thing than an oblivious thing but it was still annoying for some reason!

ive pretty much given up on parades, even when i stake out a prime spot hate defending it against last minute poachers

I haven't sat and waited for a parade for ages and we weren't planning on it this time until I read about the new preshow. Then it seemed like if we were doing that, we had to do it all. I don't think I would again.

I'm thinking that your problems at airport security were caused by the color of the shirts you were wearing--must've been Steeler fans.

Um...we were in the GREEN BAY airport!

Cannot wait to see what your hubby did with his ears.

Coming up on day 4!

Hi, I'm new to this board and am really enjoying your current trip report, Marcie. You have a great looking family and I can't wait to read all about the rest of your adventures. Sharon

Welcome! Hope you stick around even if I do tend to get too wordy at time!

wait till you see the pic of royce.
it's a hoot.

i saw it already and have to say, he did a very good job with it.

And this even from a Bears' fan! Thanks Mac!!

Day 2 coming up!

 

[marciemi]

Ugh, I forgot the limits on images & smilies - going to have to break this up into 2 posts!

Day 2 we woke up to some pretty unappealing weather – a steady drizzle early in the morning and it was definitely still dark! Royce showered quickly and then went down to the lobby to work on getting our cards/package/tickets all taken care of while I got ready. He had no trouble adding a day to our cards and getting the tickets from yesterday, the room card from yesterday and the new package with dining all put on one card for each of us. Meanwhile, we went with the elaborate breakfast of Pop Tarts and water. We were ready and out the door by around 8:10, and put our ponchos on and headed to the car.

We parked very close to the entrance and walked over. Got behind another family near a turnstile, but still very close to it. Which was good when about 5 minutes later it started POURING! As in full out, lightning and thunder, etc. No one stayed out in the open – people either huddled by the turnstiles or back under the ticket booth area. And there weren’t actually all that many people there at this time for some reason! As we waited, we had a chance to meet up with the family in front of us from NC and their three kids. Shared some pins and other Disney trinkets I had in my fanny pack and instantly had some new friends. I was talking to the dad for a bit and we were looking on our iphones and he asked if I had heard of the Lines app. Well, of course I had! So we were instantly comparing screennames from the app (he was Jayhelms and I’m – obviously – marciemi) and sharing posts while our spouses looked on tolerantly. (Actually his spouse was busy trying to keep two young boys from running out into the rain, which seemed to be their objective for some reason!). Royce got a pic when we first arrived of a large - um, I’m not sure exactly what it is – on the turnstile early in the morning as well.

Well, they did a quick countdown and we were through the turnstile quickly and moved even more quickly to the area for the rope drop heading to Soarin’. It was raining more lightly at this point, but evidently still no one else wanted to brave the rain. We got to the rope and waited. And waited some more. And still were the only people on either side of the rope drop waiting area.

Saw the Test Track folks but no Soarin’ folks yet. Guess they were lonely too, so the Test Track people came over, asked us how many in our group, and asked us if we wanted to be the Test Track family of the day! We must have looked a bit hesitant because the CM quickly promised us 2 fast passes good anywhere for us, along with the first ride on Test Track, if it was open. So of course we accepted! She told us that normally we’d get to ride in the Test Track car over to the ride, but because of the rain they weren’t able to use it. As we walked over, the CM told us that she was a big Packers fan as well, kind of hinting that was why she chose us in our nice Packers ponchos! We walked over to the TT area, but the ride was closed due to the rain. Still, Royce ran over quickly and grabbed us a set of FP’s before the “official” time of park opening even!

So she brought us over to Mission Space, where we were met by the CM’s there and told we’d get a behind-the-scenes tour there instead. They took us in and we got to go in a lot of the places you don’t normally see – we went behind the big “rotating wheel” in the waiting area, and shown some of the “inside jokes” among the CM’s, and some of the leftover props from when the ride was Horizons, along with some from “Mission to Mars”. They explained what many of the items meant and where they originated, and then we got to go in the “control room”. This is the area to your right as you get near the end of the line, right before being placed into the “preshow/briefing” area. You can see it through the glass windows.

The CM who conducted most of our tour:

Other CM’s attempting to work with us in the way!

About half of the room is apparently for “show” – that the guests can see through the windows – and all the buttons/switches, etc. are just for fun. Again some interesting trivia there that the CM pointed out as we watched some of the video clips, etc. that came up. On the other side of the computers are the actual controls for the ride, so we got to go watch what the CM’s there are usually watching for or viewing. Additionally, they showed us on the big display/decorative image on the wall that there are several Star Wars references if you look really closely, including an X-Wing Fighter and a Tie Fighter:

Around this time Royce was beginning to be concerned that I would be upset that all of this was messing up our Touring Plans for the day! I quickly explained to him that any time you can do something “behind the scenes” or that’s not available to everyone, you have to take advantage of it! We got a few more pictures and they took us out to ride Mission Space, again taking us a backstage way through the CM area to get into an available centrifuge!

So...great day so far, right? Well, we decided when we got off that we’d go back over to Soarin’ and try to grab another FP since we were nearly in our window already. However, as we walked off the ride, we were once again met by our original CM friend, who told us that Test Track was now operational and asked if we wanted to go over there and ride. Well, of course! So we followed her over there, got put right at the front of the ride, and went through. Again as we planned our next step as we prepared to get off, another CM asked if we wanted to go again! They unloaded everyone else and sent our car through just with the two of us. We got off and were met by the original CM (I’m so sorry I forgot her name – I did know it for a few days at least but I guess the memory is going! ). She brought us through the gift shop and allowed us to pick out which photo of the two we liked better and got a 5x7 of the photo printed for us and sent back to Pop! And took our names so that she could make sure we had reserved seating for Illuminations that evening!

As you can imagine, by this time any semblance of a touring plan/strategy was shot! On the plus side, we had two FP’s good anywhere (both stated for a party of 4), and a FP for Test Track already, plus we’d ridden MS and TT twice! And had the excitement of the privilege of the MS tour. So we certainly couldn’t complain! Fortunately, despite today being a “red day/park to avoid/etc.”, the crowds really didn’t seem at all bad yet, probably due to the rain. As we walked back over to now finally try to get the FP for Soarin’, we decided to check out Innoventions on the way and find Sum of all Thrills, which we hadn’t seen before. There was no line at all so we walked right into the preshow and then designed our rollercoaster. I found this to be very similar to the Cyberspace Mountain ride at Disney Quest, although the ride portion itself was MUCH smoother. We grabbed one of the “fast passes” for the Kim Possible Missions, and FINALLY made it over to the Land Pavilion.

Even though it was around 10:30 by this time, the FP return time was still reasonable so we grabbed one. Did the Land boat ride while we were here, which we always enjoy and was closed on our last trip:

Decided we still had time to stop in Club Cool (or whatever it’s currently called!) and tried a variety of the sodas. Got a cup of the one we liked most (mine is the one from Mexico; DH likes the one that’s a lemon-lime kind of like a Mtn Dew flavor) and headed over to Journey into Imagination. Which was completely empty – we were the only people in our group of 4 large cars, so each time we’d turn to watch a scene (and we could see the other 3 cars), we’d be the only ones in the room!

From here we walked to France – stopping quickly at the Kim Possible kiosk near the International Gateway to see if we could possibly get our Kimmunicator there, but they insisted we had to go over to Italy as our FP indicated.

Decided to stop for lunch first at Boulangerie Patisserie and used our free dining for the first time. We each got a quiche, and also got a dessert – Royce went for the chocolate croissant and I recalled liking the chocolate mousse from previous visits so got that. Got a bunch of napkins and wiped off some tables outside so that we could enjoy the improving weather.

Definitely a good meal and more interesting dining credit than burgers or pizza! We worked our way over to Italy, where we finally picked up our Kimmunicators. We ended up being assigned to Germany, so walked over there. I’d done the KP missions before, but Royce hadn’t. Although on my last trip (Aug 2009) with my son, it had been WAY too hot to actually enjoy doing the missions. But by now the rain had stopped, and it was just nicely cool, at least with a sweatshirt on! Royce particularly liked seeing all the things that happened within the mission, so once we had completed it, we decided to do another mission in Mexico as soon as we could work our way over there.

Continued around World Showcase, stopping once in America to see Royce’s favorite characters, Chip and Dale:

Then headed over to ride Maelstrom in Norway (no wait).

Then on to Mexico, where we rode the new Rio del Tiempo ride (I’m sorry, I can never remember the new names for the rides – but the one with Donald in any case!). Having read about La Cava de Tequila on these forums, we decided to check it out. We saw someone with a Tequila flight and asked if they still had the Margarita Flight available as well. We were told it was no longer on the menu, but they’d make one just for us! (Well, of COURSE they should, we’re the TT Family of the Day, right?) Just kidding – of course that had nothing to do with it! We had 5 flavors of Margaritas, from left to right (I think!!), Hibiscus, which was just okay; Pineapple, which was good; Blood Orange, which was horrible!; Avocado, which was really, really good and I meant to make it back there at some point for another one but it just never happened!; and Passionfruit , which was also just okay.

It was a lot of fun to try, and cost about $20 total. Strangely, we were never offered the option of having anything else with the drinks and didn’t feel motivated to go ask at the bar again (we’d grabbed a seat on the side) so we didn’t get the chips & salsa we’d been planning on. From here we went out and started our next KP mission, which all takes place inside the Mexico pavilion. This has some pros and cons to it. The advantage is that you’re out of the weather – wish we’d known that when I visited with my son because we would have enjoyed being in the AC in August! But the con is that the Kimmunicator, like many cell phones, has reception problems when you get indoors at Disney! After having it lock up twice and going outside to try to get assistance from the nearest kiosk, we finally gave up on this mission and decided to work our way out.

We still had an early morning TT FP, so headed there next and rode quickly. Then walked all the way over to Soarin’ to ride that for the first time this trip. Royce was definitely getting tired and cranky by this point (too much too soon I guess!) and the crowds were starting to build in anticipation of the EMH tonight, so we decided to head over to Animal Kingdom. We’d originally had that park blocked in for Sunday afternoon, but of course with the Packers playing in the NFC Championship Game that afternoon now, we’d had to make some last minute plans. Luckily traveling in January it was still possible just a few days before the trip to switch those two ADR’s to the alternate day (Boma dinner and Chefs de France lunch) so it all worked out.

Day 2 continued in next post...

 

[marciemi]

Walked out to the car and drove over to AK. Since by this point it was almost sunny and felt very warm to us (probably upper 60’s), we decided we were way overdressed in our sweatshirts and left them in the car. By the time we’d taken the tram from the parking lot to the park entrance, I was regretting that decision. Of course it started sprinkling lightly and once the sun was gone, it felt much cooler! Pulled my poncho on at least for a little bit of warmth! We entered the park, got a few photopass pics, and went over to the safari to see if we needed to get a FP. Since there was literally no line (we got on the next vehicle as quickly as we could walk through the queue!), we rode right then.

Not sure if it was because of the rain or that it was afternoon, but the animals seemed much more active than on our usual safari rides (nearly always in the morning in the past). First we saw a hippo who seemed more than a bit disgruntled to see us:

Then had the chance to see one of the recent “arrivals” at AK:

Finally, we got to see the lions, engaged in activities demonstrating that no matter how fierce they appear, they’re actually just big kitty-cats! Our tour guide’s comment upon pausing for this view was along the lines of “Hm, he’s very flexible!”

Our only other objectives for AK were seeing the Finding Nemo show (possibly my favorite attraction in all of WDW) and riding Everest, which we figured we could do single rider if necessary. We walked the long distance over there and the wait board showed a 10 minute wait, but my Lines app showed it was closer to 5. I tried my first attempt at submitting an actual (as opposed to posted) wait time, and it ended up being only 3 minutes from entering the line to boarding the train! However, evidently it started raining again during those 3 minutes as we quickly discovered (with ponchos no longer on!) as we pulled out of the station. A bit wet of a ride, but we still enjoyed it. We walked from there quickly over to the Finding Nemo show, where they had already let everyone into the auditorium (probably due to the rain). We got a seat and I started catching up on email and updating people on my forums/FB while we sat and waited. And realized as other people were coming in that it was now POURING again outside – complete with lightning and thunder so it was a good thing we were inside, waiting for a nice, long show. Except it didn’t start. Time passed and more time passed and we were well past the published start time. They announced a delay and around 5 minutes later, another one. Finally about 15 minutes after the show was supposed to start it began. Enjoyed the show as always and headed out into the light drizzle at this point.

We looked at our timeline and determined that we really didn’t have enough time to go back to the hotel for any length of time, but it was a bit soon to head over for our Boma reservation, so we decided to go catch It’s Tough to be a Bug. Got a quick pic before heading in:

Decided to start working our way out, but stopped at all the photopass photographers we saw on the way. We got to our car and drove the short distance to the Animal Kingdom Lodge. We wandered around for a bit – checking out the area around the pool, the areas with the animals and the lodge itself.

Since we were getting hungry, we decided to check in even though it was a little bit before our ADR time. We were given a beeper, but seated almost immediately in a nice table in the corner of the room next to a large, full length glass wall looking outside. No animals visible from there, but it was still a pretty view and just beginning to get dark. We enjoyed the buffet, even Royce who is a pretty picky eater! But we both ate WAYYY too much food and were definitely feeling it by the time we left. We didn’t do a very good job of getting pics of what we ate, probably because it seemed like we were both never sitting down at the same time – definitely one of the drawbacks to a buffet meal, and we were seated about as far from the buffet itself as you could be. Nice since we didn’t have traffic by our table, but it did seem like we were going back and forth a lot and didn’t have much time to just sit and relax. A pic of one of our dessert plates, and us together:

It was now around 7pm, so of course we needed to get back to Epcot in time to get our reserved seating for Illuminations! We drove back over there, getting a good parking space once again, this time in the empty areas where people had already left for the day. We went in and decided to ride Spaceship Earth, since it had been closed in 2007 and Royce hadn’t been on the 2009 trip. We both enjoyed it; especially the ending sequence where you get a glimpse into the “future” then can walk out and see your pictures and locations on the wall. We were going to try to catch Captain EO, but didn’t realize the entire pavilion closed at 7pm. So we just went back into World Showcase, slowly working our way to our seating in Italy and doing some shopping on the way. We got there around 8:30, and although they told us we really didn’t need to come back until a few minutes to 9, we didn’t have anything else we wanted to do nearby and were of course still stuffed from dinner, so just sat and waited. My parents were leaving the following day on a cruise so I called them and chatted briefly while we waited. We enjoyed Illuminations:

By now we were definitely getting tired – I can’t imagine why!! But it was a late EMH and we felt obligated to enjoy some of it! We decided to work our way slowly out of World Showcase and at least use one of our “good anywhere/anytime” fastpasses! (We hadn’t used either by this point!). By the time we got over to Soarin’, it was close to 10pm. The wait time at that point showed as 90 minutes – incredible we thought for an EMH. We asked if we could still use our special FP’s and they said yes, as long as we had room keys of course. So since they were valid for 4 people, we figured we might as well make some new “friends”. Found another couple walking in to the standby line and asked if they wanted to join us and avoid some of the wait! Not surprisingly, they were glad to become our instant friends and we had a great time talking in line with them, which still ended up probably taking about 20 minutes until we started getting near the boarding area. Probably 20 people in front of us for the next ride and they came by and asked for a party of 2. Royce raised his hand automatically, but I told him we needed to stay and hang with our new friends (and continue socializing). The couple directly in front of us then volunteered, and when they left we realized we were now standing behind Jay and family from the turnstiles this morning!! Obviously with 3 young kids, they’d taken a nice long afternoon break and were enjoying their EMH as well. So quickly all of us from all 3 families, and the kids, were chatting happily. All too soon it was time to board and even more quickly the ride was over. We said goodbye to all the friends we’d made throughout the day and worked our way out. Got back to Pop not too much before 11pm, and quickly got ready for the next day and fell asleep almost immediately!

Next up – Day 3 – Magic Kingdom, Marching Band and Le Cellier – January 22

 

[macraven]

i look forward to each new day of your trip report.

 

[keishashadow]

I'm:

homesick seeing pics of AK

blind from the ponchos

jealous re TT family, how freaking cool is that?

 

[CreightonsMomma]

Wow! You had a lot of pixie dust on your epcot day. That was so awesome!! What a special day.

 

[marciemi]

This morning we were up again bright and early, despite the late night the evening before. However, we wanted to go to the Polynesian before heading to the Magic Kingdom and try some Tonga Toast at Captain Cook’s. We drove to the TTC, parked very near the walk to the monorail, and asked a CM how to walk over to the Poly. It actually took less time to get onto the Poly grounds than to find where we were headed within the resort itself. We decided that 2 orders of the Tonga Toast might be a bit too much sweetness for us so got an Adult Breakfast meal as well as the toast. Enjoyed all of it and it worked out well having a variety of foods to eat.

We walked upstairs to the monorail and took it over to the Magic Kingdom. After entering the park, we got a few photopass pictures then went over to wait for the rope drop near Tomorrowland.

Royce went with the crowd and got Space Mountain FP’s while I just started walking slowly towards Fantasyland. He quickly rode Winnie the Pooh, noticing the new queue, and took a quick pic of the honey “paint” you can play with:

Then rode Snow White (evidently for the last time ever!) and unfortunately hit Peter Pan along with a large tour group. Honestly, around 100 people at least. But this was our last ride in Fantasyland, and we figured the lines would only get worse, so we bit the bullet and got in line after them. Didn’t have any issues at all other than the longer wait time.

Even though it wasn’t much after 9:30, the park was already starting to feel crowded. We headed to Haunted Mansion, along with a large group of (my guess) CM’s-to-be. Thought they would go into the stretch room with us but they waited outside, evidently for more briefings. This was Royce’s first time on this ride since the update in 2007 so I was trying to remember what parts were new at all to point out. We went from here over to Thunder Mountain, which was a bit of a wait, but probably not more than 5 minutes when we got through the queue before boarding. Grabbed a FP for later in the day and headed out.

That was about the end of our time without crowds! We walked over to Adventureland and wanted to try Jungle Cruise, but the line already looked huge and said 25 minutes. We walked down to Pirates and still waited about 15 minutes, but think we chose the correct side of the line since most people seemed to be heading to the right. Again we ended up with large numbers of Tour Groups, and the boats around us were filled with them. I had to admit though that I was pleasantly astonished (especially after past experiences on this ride) that no one in our boat or the boats ahead of us that I could see ruined the ride for anyone by taking pictures. Honestly, no flash pics made this my best recent time on this ride!

We came off and made our way to Aladdin’s Carpets, just to get a couple picture opportunities. We waited a full ride cycle to ride, but not very long and the weather was pleasant outside so not a bad wait.

Finally we went to Swiss Family Treehouse – Stephen and I had done this for the first time (okay, I did it once when I was 12 I think!) on our last trip and enjoyed the views. But even this was getting crowded – you know the park is crowded when it looks like this in front of you on the treehouse:

But after this it was pretty much hopeless. There were by far more tour groups in the parks than regular visitors – probably on a scale of 3 to 1. You couldn’t walk without getting caught up in a group of one color or another with identifying/matching flags (and lots of giggling teenagers!). We walked through the hub area and had our first encounter with some of the folks from our high school’s band, who were just arriving in the park. Stopped and said hi to a couple of the teachers/chaperones and walked through to Tomorrowland, where we picked up a FP for Buzz. Decided to catch Monsters Inc since the lines were pretty prohibitive for anything else. We enjoy this show, although this is Royce’s favorite part – the vending machine in the waiting area:

However, the most hilarious part for this show was that when they showed the picture of the “Will Buy Churros for Everyone!” person, it was our High School’s Head Band Director! Of course we cheered, and told the students from then on when we saw them to have their band director buy them a churro! Coming out of the show, we coincidentally ran into our middle son, Stephen:

Talked him and his 4 friends into going on TTA with us, where we quickly talked with him and caught up on the previous couple days’ worth of activities:

We asked if they wanted some of our FP’s, but the two we had each for various attractions didn’t really help the 5 of them since they had to remain in their groups. We texted our other son (Eric) and asked if would want any so we could try to plan. Since he was in a group of 4, we decided to try to get one more set of FP’s for his group. We rode Space with our FP’s from earlier in the morning, and then Buzz with our recent FP’s

Finally, took a break and had some down time in Carousel of Progress. Then we decided Royce would go get FP’s for Thunder Mtn, and I’d head ahead to Pinocchio’s and order food and we’d meet up there and eat and ride It’s a Small World.

Well, that idea was quickly squashed as I got near the restaurant. Two days earlier we’d walked in the side door, immediate ordered and gotten our food. Today they had someone guarding that entrance and directing everyone over to the side entrance, where the line to get in stretched nearly back to Dumbo. I was texting Royce at the same time I walked to IASW which had a 35 minute wait at that point as well when I met up with him. Determined that wasn’t going to happen, but it was getting late and we were getting hungry. However, we saw a lot of people walking in Philharmagic and decided we’d just see if we got in the next show and otherwise just leave. Well, we did get inside, but I guess didn’t realize there was an entire preshow waiting area so we ended sitting there for around 15 minutes while I scrounged through my purse to dig out any candy/jerky, etc. so we wouldn’t quite starve! Finally we were let in and watched the show.

By now we were really tired, cranky, and hungry and decided we had to find food. Since I knew that Cosmic Rays was a very large restaurant, with a lot of different lines, thought we could beat the crowds there, but once again we were wrong. The line there stretched outside for a large distance as well, and you couldn’t enter the restaurant other than through that one door. We took a quick look inside and decided yet again that this simply wasn’t worth it. But we needed to get something to eat before getting in position for the marching band/parade. I think what was frustrating about this whole situation was that Disney just seemed totally unprepared for the numbers of people there. Yes, the CS restaurants were jammed, but they didn’t have any of the seasonal places – El Pirata, Tomorrowland Terrace, Friars Nook, many of the window service ones – open. So the few that were open were overwhelmed by people. I’ve been there over the summer on my last two trips and while the crowds may have been similar, never encountered the lines for food like we did this time since nearly all options were open. One quick general crowd pic:

Recalled Main Street Bakery from our last trip where we’d gotten a decent lunch of sandwiches and cupcakes and decided it was worth a shot. Evidently most people consider that somewhere to get breakfast, not lunch, so there were only about 5 people in front of us in line. Royce went to look for a table and I said I’d find us something to eat! However, the people directly in front of me ended up having a long debate with the CM’s behind the counter. I couldn’t really understand what they were asking to do but know the CM’s kept shaking their heads and telling them no. Finally they walked out in frustration. Since I wasn’t sure what the problem was, I first asked if I could use the dining plan, (thinking that may have been the issue) and the answer was “of course”. Okay, confused, but works for me!

I ordered a large sandwich for us to share and then tried to pick out a dessert. I knew we’d both liked the ice cream sandwich we’d had here a couple days ago so asked if I could get that as my dessert. This ended up causing a lot of confusion as evidently this hadn’t been asked before and no one knew. Finally they told me to just wait while they tried to get a manager and I gave up and just ordered a cupcake instead:

Royce had snagged a small table and even two chairs so I sat down gratefully deposited the tray. Then went and got things like napkins, straws, mustard, etc. In the meantime, he’d started talking to the people at the table next to ours, where the dad was wearing a West Point jacket. Coincidentally I had mine stuffed in my purse at this point and turned out he was there a few years before my husband and I were, which of course let to a long conversation. Finally, we decided we really needed to head out and start staking out a place to watch the band (they were marching right before the parade).

Our older son had told us that he would most likely be on the right side of the band since he was the drum major. We decided to try to stake out a few different spots – Royce took the camcorder and his phone for pics, I took my phone for videos and the camera for pics. He got himself a spot near Casey’s so he could make a quick cut through and catch them again in Frontierland. I went up by the castle and got on the right side. Royce ended up being invaded by a large group yellow-shirted teens:

It was a VERY windy day and while I was waiting, I saw one of the CM’s with the balloons struggling to hold on to them. Royce took a nice picture of a different CM and I think it came out very colorful! Unfortunately the CM I was watching wasn’t as successful and when she tried to take one off for someone, we all got to watch nearly half of them fly away into the sky!

Finally I could hear the parade coming in the distance and as they reached the Hub area, they announced the school. I quickly figured out that my son was on the wrong side, but was determined to tape and get pictures as well as I could. Well, Royce wanted to let me know that he was on the other side, so called me, unfortunately right in the middle of taping, which stopped the tape on my phone. By the time I could get it to start again, the band was already past me, which was of course frustrating. I cut out of the hub area before the “real” parade got there, sprinted through Adventureland and popped out into Frontierland shortly before they got there. This time I focused on getting pics and gave up on taping. I was able to cut around back behind people and pop out a few times and grab some more pics. Finally ran into Royce as they disappeared back into the “off limits” area. We asked where we’d meet them and were told we needed to walk down past Pirates and find the big wooden fence there and that was where they’d come out. The band:

Eric on snare (tallest drummer near the right side):

Stephen as drum major:

We got there and waited. And waited, and waited and waited. Spoke with a few of the other parents who were waiting for their kids as well and still waited. Decided I’d go run and get us a Dole Whip Float while we were waiting so I went over there only to find a huge queue line for the Dole Whips as well. Texted Royce to let me know if they came out and stood in line for quite awhile. Confirmed with the people in front of us that the parks did in fact seem astronomically crowded for mid-January! Finally got the float and was walking back as Royce called to let me know they were finally there. Rushed back and had a bite or two on the way before Eric appropriated my float from me, telling me that even though it was 4pm, he hadn’t had lunch yet! They were ready to take off with their friends again, but since we’d sat there waiting for them for an hour, we at least made them take one pic with us first!

Since it was rapidly cooling off, still completely packed, and we were exhausted, we decided to head back to the hotel for a bit to rest before going to our 7:35 Le Cellier ADR. Got partway to the main entrance and realized we still had our Big Thunder FP’s so Royce ran back and met up with Eric and gave them to him for his group. Took the monorail back and walked to the car and made it back to the resort and rested, if not actually napped, for an hour or so.

Meanwhile I was trying to look and see if we’d have time to catch the American Adventure before our dinner reservation. I couldn’t find anywhere that listed the exact times - my best guess from looking at the earlier Voices of Liberty schedule I could find on Steve Soares was 6:40 -so we decided to head over a bit early and try to make it. We got in the park and asked a CM who found it on the schedule (which we didn’t have a copy of) and told us it was actually 6:45. Since it was currently 6:30 and we had just entered future world, we decided we really needed to hurry to make it. Luckily we move pretty quickly and got there by around 6:40 or so and were seated with plenty of time. Apparently 6:45 is the time they start getting ready to bring people into the theater, not the actual show time. Which led to the next problem though – since the show didn’t actually start until closer to 7pm, and our ADR was at 7:35, and it was a 30 minute show, I was beginning to worry from that perspective. However, once the show ended (a couple minutes before 7:30) we just rushed out and over to Canada, making it there maybe a minute or two after our reservation time. No problem!!

Of course there were approximately a zillion people waiting for their reservations all crammed in the small lobby, and it was more than a bit cool outside (I’d guess lower 50’s by this point) so no one wanted to wait out there and I wasn’t sure if we’d be able to hear them call us even if we did. We moved down the crowded small hallway a bit and I sat down on the floor with some others while Royce stood and talked to various Packers’ fans (he was wearing his jacket). After around 10 minutes, he went back up to the hostess station and asked how long of a wait we were expecting. He came back and told me in a bit of frustration that they were running around 20 minutes behind schedule. Since I’m a pretty Type A person, I think he was expecting me to be upset by this. However, I’m also a prepared (for Disney at least!) person, and had read of and was expecting a much longer wait. I’m sure I caught Royce by surprise with my answer of “That’s not bad!” Meanwhile, they had a CM going through and asking various bits of trivia to keep everyone entertained. At some point someone came over to us and told us we’d be next to be seated. We were probably seated a couple minutes after 8pm, which I think is reasonable for that time of evening. The restaurant was full, but of course due to the timing, by the end of the meal was emptying out and there was no one waiting by the time we left.

We went in and had a nice table actually for 4 and joked that we could have even brought our two sons with us (who were still at the MK at this point). We sat down and were greeted quickly by our waitress. We got a bowl of cheese soup to use as a dip and they brought us the breadsticks quickly as well so we had something to start with.

Royce went with the New York Strip Steak and I went with the Filet, which I’d had on our last visit and really liked. Now here’s the frustration of Disney dining – you spend months looking at the menus, deciding exactly what you want and drooling over the menus for months, then get halfway through the meal and are completely stuffed! Of course that’s what happened this time – loved the soup and breadsticks and Royce asked for extras. So by the time our meal came, we were getting full! I managed to eat most of my filet and about half of the risotto before I had to give up. One change – when we’d gone in 2009, my son had also ordered the strip steak and both time the menu said roasted Yukon potatoes. My son got more of what I consider roast potatoes – small, whole cooked potatoes. My husband got more of a mashed potato mixture. Both were fine, just different. I’m including the picture of his below just for anyone interested, even though he’d already started it by the time I got the camera out!

We found that being in “The Cellar” we had very spotty cell coverage which was relevant because the boys were still texting us occasionally. We found one corner of our table that if we put the phone there, and sent a message, it would eventually get it to go through. Similarly if we left the phone there, the messages would come through. Eventually. We’d recommended to both boys that they go see the preshow (before Wishes at the MK) and that they’d really like it. Eric ignored us but Stephen dragged his friends over to the hub to watch. In the midst of our meal we got the following verbatim text from Stephen (all in caps!): “MIND BLOWN FROM PRESHOW. SO FRICKING AWESOME!!”. This from 17 year old boy! I actually replied to him to make sure he wasn’t being sarcastic (can’t tell sometimes with teens!). But his next reply was “Um, no, the technological work was just mind blowing!”. So I guess even “cool” teen boys like the new show! No pics from him but Eric at least got a pic of him and his GF with the fireworks in the background:

Quite a wait between dinner and dessert and the waitress apologized a couple times later – don’t remember the reason but we weren’t really in a hurry (and were SO full) so it really didn’t matter. We ordered the chocolate cake and the chocolate moose for dessert and both of them came nicely decorated with Anniversary wishes which was nice. I think Royce ate all the moose and about half of my cake. We finished up and headed out into the cold.

Illuminations was still going on, so we made it our goal to clear the park before it ended. As we entered Future World, the finale was just finishing, so we got out right ahead of the crowds. But we hadn’t had to take a tram so it really wasn’t a big issue to walk to our car and get out of the park. We headed back to the hotel and quickly got to sleep, with another big day at Epcot ahead of us tomorrow!

Next up – Day 4 – Epcot, Mickey Cheeseheads and Packers Championship Game – January 23

 

[keishashadow]

droool, cheesesoup & pretzel bread!

im picturing u sprinting to get the pics, good job!