patchchild
Mouseketeer<br><font color=deeppink>Shorties of th
- Joined
- Nov 28, 2004
- Messages
- 1,036
Cast of Characters
Little John (28): best friend since high school, tolerates us women folk planning yet another disney trip. Keeps pretending he doesnt love it too.
Piglet (29): best friends wife. Disney nut!
Stitch (26): my husband. Since the discovery of Stitch, hes a Disney fanatic as the rest of us. Thank goodness for that little blue troublemaker.
Me (26): desperately in need of this Disney fix. Lover of all things bouncy and sparkly.
Friar Tuck: Little Johns father. Spontaneous addition to the trip but a great man to travel with.
Maid Marion (29): Little Johns sister. Unexpected addition to the trip. Not quite sure yet why shes coming.
We were so glad that we gave up on watching the fireworks and just headed straight to bed last night. At our 7:30 food court meeting with Piglet and Little John we were awake and cheerful while they were wishing they were coffee drinkers. Our goal was to get to Epcot for opening, meet up with Friar Tuck and MM, and make the mad dash for Soarin. Quite surprisingly, this actually went as planned! We arrived at Epcot 15 minutes earlier than expected and loved having the time to enjoy some of the decorations while we waited.
Once our group had arrived we quick walked our way to Soarin, planning on picking up Fast Passes. The wait was only 10 minutes so we hopped right on. I think the actual ride wait was even less than that. Ok, please dont get too mad, but I thought Soarin was just ok. Now, please hear me out. It was absolutely beautiful. I especially loved the Mickey head shaped fireworks, but the whole screen thing wasnt as amazing as I had hoped. Ive always lived near Boston and the Science Museum has a HUGE Omni screen that Ive grown up going to. Ive taken the Omni helicopter tour over Boston, Omni soared through the ring of fire, and Omni explored Alaska and this felt the same but on a slightly less tall screen. Not to say that the ride was bad at all. It was lovely, especially the orange scent and the feeling of needing to lift your feet over mountain peaks, I guess Im just a little spoiled.
From there we took the Land boatride for my first time. Very cute and lots of fun once you get out to the greenhouse. Id love one of the tomato trees in my yard. Thousands of tomatoes just waiting for you. Yum. Next trip Im going to have to fit in the behind the seeds tour, just to get a little more detail about their growing processes.
We headed, in quick succession, through the Living Seas and Figments Imagination before making our way towards the countries. This should have been a nice, relaxing, simple process but things rarely go the way youd like. We started by Canada and Little John realized that he was starving. Not just hungry but ravenous. This needed to be remedied quickly or Little John would be prone to eating small children. He gets that hungry. Figuring that the Mouse wouldnt care much for the scene that would make, we started the ever walking quest for food. Little John ducked into Canada, hoping for a walk-in reservation at 12:00 on a Friday afternoon. No luck at all, they had no tables until dinner. We continued to stroll, while reviewing all of the upcoming options. MM has a variety of allergies so many counter service locations were out. We finally went as far as America before stopping. Quite a walk with a desperate, child eating man in your midst.
Burgers, BBQ, (and a childs meal for me) consumed, we returned to our questing. Stitch and I, in our sprint to America, had noticed a sign in front of England for their tea preparation event and wanted to try and make the 1:30 time slot for that. Now, no one else in the party drinks tea yet they all decided to walk back to England with us and stand around outside while we had tea and VERY yummy shortbread for half an hour. Let me just state for the record that this was NOT my idea. Needless to say, they were not in the best of moods when we emerged happily caffeinated and spouting tea facts 30 minutes later. It seemed time for a strategic retreat. The six of us had ADRs for 4:45 at the Garden Grill as part of the Candlelight Processional package and it was about 2:00 at this point. Leaving Piglet and Little John to deal with their parents, Stitch and I headed back to the hotel for some down time (yeah sitting!!) while they conquered a variety of countries in our absence.
Miraculously, we all managed to rejoin, again on time, at the Garden Grille. It was a 15 minute wait to be seated but this was the BEST character interaction Ive ever had. Im still unclear as to the real relationship between the CM playing Dale and the waiter Nick, but there was definitely something going on. They spent the whole evening picking on one another. At one point, Dale was up on the second tier at our table while Nick was greeting a new table to diners just below. Nick is hamming it up for the two little girls at the table, handing their mom a straw, each girl a straw, and then getting to the dad while still explaining the family style dining. He paused at that point and began listing the drinks. We have coke, (throw a straw at the dad) Diet Coke (throw a straw at the dad) Sprite (throw a straw at the dad) Lemonade (throw a straw at the dad) Orange Soda (throw a straw at the dad). With that, Dale had to get in on the action. He scooped a sugar packet off our table and and hurled it at Nick, perfectly timed with the word Sprite. Gesturing to us for more packets (which we foolishly provided) he proceeded to keep pace with the drink list. One packet, directly into Nicks chest, with each of the 10 or 12 drinks listed. Nick didnt miss a beat and the two little girls at that table were practically falling over with laughter. Just ignore the fuzz ball and hell go away, added Nick hopefully at the end of the drink list. Fortunately, Mickey showed up at this point and chased Dale away. And that was just the start of the meal. The food was yummy, although I miss the old menu, and our server was even nice enough to bring Little John the kids dessert since he didnt care for any of the regular choices.
After the meal we wandered slowly across the park towards America. As timing had it, we were able to stop along the way to get some fun pictures of the tree lighting ceremony. Very pretty. I loved seeing the park all decorated for the holidays. There were decorations everywhere but none of it (ok, none but the Osborne lights) were over the top.
We finally made our way to America, perfectly timed for our Candlelight Processional Seating. The music was beautiful, the choir amazing, and Haley Joel Osmet highly lackluster. Fortunately, he wasnt reading often and you were generally able to ignore his uninspiring reading in favor of savoring the music. It was a beautiful way to start the holiday season. Next year though, I may just opt for grabbing a table nearby and sitting to enjoy the show with a snack, rather than being squished on the benches in the pavilion itself. You could enjoy the show just as well from there.
After the performance we shopped our way around the world, looking for a good spot to watch Illuminations from. I was hoping to find somewhere with a table to trash can to set up my camera on its tiny tripod and try to catch some of the fireworks. Wouldnt you know it, this was the only time that trash cans were hard to come by. In the end we were almost out of the world showcase before we stopped and found a spot. The pictures were fun and I loved having the tripod. It meant I could set up and aim the camera, then just keep hitting the shutter button while I watched the show myself. Arent digital camera great?
The special holidays extra at the end of Illuminations, Let there be Peace on Earth, was beautiful and we were glad one of the CMs had let us know it was happening. Lot of people started walking out in the pause between the regular show and the second set of fireworks so there was some confusion as they started up again. We stayed comfortable on our bench, drinking hot chocolate, and waited out the crowds before heading home for the night.
For tomorrow, another early morning, Animal Kingdom, and a Grouchy Group
Flying Through the Holidays, Day 1
Flying Through the Holidays, Pre-Trip
Little John (28): best friend since high school, tolerates us women folk planning yet another disney trip. Keeps pretending he doesnt love it too.
Piglet (29): best friends wife. Disney nut!
Stitch (26): my husband. Since the discovery of Stitch, hes a Disney fanatic as the rest of us. Thank goodness for that little blue troublemaker.
Me (26): desperately in need of this Disney fix. Lover of all things bouncy and sparkly.
Friar Tuck: Little Johns father. Spontaneous addition to the trip but a great man to travel with.
Maid Marion (29): Little Johns sister. Unexpected addition to the trip. Not quite sure yet why shes coming.
We were so glad that we gave up on watching the fireworks and just headed straight to bed last night. At our 7:30 food court meeting with Piglet and Little John we were awake and cheerful while they were wishing they were coffee drinkers. Our goal was to get to Epcot for opening, meet up with Friar Tuck and MM, and make the mad dash for Soarin. Quite surprisingly, this actually went as planned! We arrived at Epcot 15 minutes earlier than expected and loved having the time to enjoy some of the decorations while we waited.
Once our group had arrived we quick walked our way to Soarin, planning on picking up Fast Passes. The wait was only 10 minutes so we hopped right on. I think the actual ride wait was even less than that. Ok, please dont get too mad, but I thought Soarin was just ok. Now, please hear me out. It was absolutely beautiful. I especially loved the Mickey head shaped fireworks, but the whole screen thing wasnt as amazing as I had hoped. Ive always lived near Boston and the Science Museum has a HUGE Omni screen that Ive grown up going to. Ive taken the Omni helicopter tour over Boston, Omni soared through the ring of fire, and Omni explored Alaska and this felt the same but on a slightly less tall screen. Not to say that the ride was bad at all. It was lovely, especially the orange scent and the feeling of needing to lift your feet over mountain peaks, I guess Im just a little spoiled.
From there we took the Land boatride for my first time. Very cute and lots of fun once you get out to the greenhouse. Id love one of the tomato trees in my yard. Thousands of tomatoes just waiting for you. Yum. Next trip Im going to have to fit in the behind the seeds tour, just to get a little more detail about their growing processes.
We headed, in quick succession, through the Living Seas and Figments Imagination before making our way towards the countries. This should have been a nice, relaxing, simple process but things rarely go the way youd like. We started by Canada and Little John realized that he was starving. Not just hungry but ravenous. This needed to be remedied quickly or Little John would be prone to eating small children. He gets that hungry. Figuring that the Mouse wouldnt care much for the scene that would make, we started the ever walking quest for food. Little John ducked into Canada, hoping for a walk-in reservation at 12:00 on a Friday afternoon. No luck at all, they had no tables until dinner. We continued to stroll, while reviewing all of the upcoming options. MM has a variety of allergies so many counter service locations were out. We finally went as far as America before stopping. Quite a walk with a desperate, child eating man in your midst.
Burgers, BBQ, (and a childs meal for me) consumed, we returned to our questing. Stitch and I, in our sprint to America, had noticed a sign in front of England for their tea preparation event and wanted to try and make the 1:30 time slot for that. Now, no one else in the party drinks tea yet they all decided to walk back to England with us and stand around outside while we had tea and VERY yummy shortbread for half an hour. Let me just state for the record that this was NOT my idea. Needless to say, they were not in the best of moods when we emerged happily caffeinated and spouting tea facts 30 minutes later. It seemed time for a strategic retreat. The six of us had ADRs for 4:45 at the Garden Grill as part of the Candlelight Processional package and it was about 2:00 at this point. Leaving Piglet and Little John to deal with their parents, Stitch and I headed back to the hotel for some down time (yeah sitting!!) while they conquered a variety of countries in our absence.
Miraculously, we all managed to rejoin, again on time, at the Garden Grille. It was a 15 minute wait to be seated but this was the BEST character interaction Ive ever had. Im still unclear as to the real relationship between the CM playing Dale and the waiter Nick, but there was definitely something going on. They spent the whole evening picking on one another. At one point, Dale was up on the second tier at our table while Nick was greeting a new table to diners just below. Nick is hamming it up for the two little girls at the table, handing their mom a straw, each girl a straw, and then getting to the dad while still explaining the family style dining. He paused at that point and began listing the drinks. We have coke, (throw a straw at the dad) Diet Coke (throw a straw at the dad) Sprite (throw a straw at the dad) Lemonade (throw a straw at the dad) Orange Soda (throw a straw at the dad). With that, Dale had to get in on the action. He scooped a sugar packet off our table and and hurled it at Nick, perfectly timed with the word Sprite. Gesturing to us for more packets (which we foolishly provided) he proceeded to keep pace with the drink list. One packet, directly into Nicks chest, with each of the 10 or 12 drinks listed. Nick didnt miss a beat and the two little girls at that table were practically falling over with laughter. Just ignore the fuzz ball and hell go away, added Nick hopefully at the end of the drink list. Fortunately, Mickey showed up at this point and chased Dale away. And that was just the start of the meal. The food was yummy, although I miss the old menu, and our server was even nice enough to bring Little John the kids dessert since he didnt care for any of the regular choices.
After the meal we wandered slowly across the park towards America. As timing had it, we were able to stop along the way to get some fun pictures of the tree lighting ceremony. Very pretty. I loved seeing the park all decorated for the holidays. There were decorations everywhere but none of it (ok, none but the Osborne lights) were over the top.
We finally made our way to America, perfectly timed for our Candlelight Processional Seating. The music was beautiful, the choir amazing, and Haley Joel Osmet highly lackluster. Fortunately, he wasnt reading often and you were generally able to ignore his uninspiring reading in favor of savoring the music. It was a beautiful way to start the holiday season. Next year though, I may just opt for grabbing a table nearby and sitting to enjoy the show with a snack, rather than being squished on the benches in the pavilion itself. You could enjoy the show just as well from there.
After the performance we shopped our way around the world, looking for a good spot to watch Illuminations from. I was hoping to find somewhere with a table to trash can to set up my camera on its tiny tripod and try to catch some of the fireworks. Wouldnt you know it, this was the only time that trash cans were hard to come by. In the end we were almost out of the world showcase before we stopped and found a spot. The pictures were fun and I loved having the tripod. It meant I could set up and aim the camera, then just keep hitting the shutter button while I watched the show myself. Arent digital camera great?
The special holidays extra at the end of Illuminations, Let there be Peace on Earth, was beautiful and we were glad one of the CMs had let us know it was happening. Lot of people started walking out in the pause between the regular show and the second set of fireworks so there was some confusion as they started up again. We stayed comfortable on our bench, drinking hot chocolate, and waited out the crowds before heading home for the night.
For tomorrow, another early morning, Animal Kingdom, and a Grouchy Group
Flying Through the Holidays, Day 1
Flying Through the Holidays, Pre-Trip
