It's cheap! It's free! Can this really be Disney???Complete with pics.

[scrap4u]

Having already planned a one week vacation to Disney for May 2006, we hadn’t really planned to visit again this year. But Disney came out with such a deal on hotels for September and offered the free dining plan, I told DH that we couldn’t afford not to go! Doesn’t that sound like a good excuse! It was sure good enough for us.

So before we had even left on our May trip, I had us booked to stay at Port Orleans French Quarter from 9/9-9/16 in a standard room with the free dining plan. We’d never used the dining plan before so we were really looking forward to this.

Cast list for this trip:
DH—loving husband that works 2 jobs to help feed our Disney obsession
Me—loving wife, Disney obsessed, scrapbooker,
K—internet friend from CA
A.L.—K’s aunt from Louisiana
S—my cousin in Orlando who is a CM
K2-cousin’s fiancée
D—S’s ex- fiancée
S2—D’s husband

We flew Air Tran for our May trip and ended up losing a day due to cancelled flights. This trip, we decided to fly Delta on nonstop flights. Much less chance of getting stuck overnight in Atlanta that way! Plus I had a buy 1 get 1 free coupon with Delta. More free stuff!!

Having just been to Disney in May, we didn’t need to purchase too many things to get ready for our trip. Shoot! That's half the fun of going, being able to justify buying new clothes and stuff.

We did buy DH a new suitcase. With the no liquids restriction that the TSA had in place at the time of our flight, we were going to have to put all our toiletries in our checked bags. Also, the airlines had just decreased the weight limit of each checked bag to 50 pounds. So I wanted him to have a lighter suitcase, in case I needed him to carry some of my toiletries!

I also had a lot of trouble with my feet and ankles swelling on the May trip. Swollen feet in tennis shoes rubbed bad blisters. My poor feet were miserable whole week. I had been reading the Dis board a lot and people kept talking about Crocs. I think they are pretty ugly but when I tried them on, they were very comfy. So I found a lime green pair—the official color of the Dis board—and bought em. I also read about the Jibbitz from DISUNC’s trip report and I found some cute ones and loaded up my Crocs to try and make them cuter.

The other thing I had to do was get my LGMHs (Lime Green Mickey Heads paint chips) from Home Depot. They are actually Alien Green and there is a whole thread on the community board about this.

Anywho--I used my label printer to print out DisBoards.com and Scrap4u which is my user name. I then laminated them and put green ribbon on them so I could hang them from our camera, fanny pack, etc, and I had a bunch to give out to any Disers I met.

I also had by Disney binder from our May trip. It has all the parks hours, EMHs, our dining reservations, flight confirmations, hotel confirmations, car confirmation, what to do if you lose your passes, things to see and do in each park, the best locations to view different parades and fireworks from, the best park to go to on each day. And most importantly all the info about Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party (MNSSHP) that we were attending on 9/15 for the first time. Most of the info came from Tour Guide Mike.

We really didn’t use the binder much this trip as we are getting to be veterans. The one thing we do use—I print out all our ADRs on heavy card stock paper. I then cut the paper up so each coupon (so to speak) is about the size of our room key. They have the date, day of week—you know how easy it is to lose track of the days when you’re on vacation—restaurant and time. When we leave the room each day I take out the coupons for any ADRs we have that day and put them in a ziplock bag and stick it in my fanny pack. (Yes, I know. According to the Dis, the fanny pack makes me uncool. But I love my Tigger fannypack!) That way they stay dry when I’m on Splash Mountain or any other wet ride. These come in very handy if a host/hostess can’t find our ADR when we check in.

Friday night before our trip, DH took a ½ night off from his 2nd job and we both tried to finish up our packing. When we were done we weighed our suitcases on the bathroom scale. I should have taken pictures of that! That scale may not be as accurate as the airport's but we figured as long as we didn’t come too close to 50lbs, we’d be ok.

We both packed a few changes of clothes and some shoes in our carry on bags. This helped with the weight in our checked bags and insured that we’d have clothes to wear if our checked bags got lost. We finished up our packing except for a few things we needed to get ready the next morning, and were in bed by 10:30pm.

I always love that commercial for Disney where the little boy tells his mom he’s too excited to sleep. After working all day and then packing and running around, we were both tired and out like a light!

 

[happybratpack]

Great start!! Can't wait for the rest...hurry!

Your Crocs were quite sylin'!

 

[scrap4u]

Our flight was scheduled to leave at 7:05am, so I set the alarm for 4:00am but the excitement caught up with me and I was wide awake at 3:30am. I woke DH up, but somehow the Disney excitement hadn’t reached him yet. He slowly got out of bed to get ready. We finished up our packing and ate a quick breakfast, loaded the car and were on the road by 5:20am. Just 5 minutes later then I had planned. Not bad for us.

The drive to the airport was uneventful. The sun hadn’t come up yet and there was barely any traffic on the highway. We went to a park and fly lot to leave our car and take their shuttle over to the airport. I had already printed out our boarding passes the day before so when we got out of the shuttle van, we were able to go right to Delta’s curbside check-in and check our bags. The sky cap didn’t even weigh the bags. He just picked each one of our checked bags up and decided they weren’t too heavy. We (I) breathed a sign of relief.

We left the very nice skycap with a very nice tip, said a quick prayer that our bags would be in Orlando when we got there, and headed into the airport. We bypassed all the lines and headed for security. We did the normal security strip--shoes, DH took off his belt, unloaded his wallet and phone and we got through security with no trouble.

We grabbed some seats at our gate and then went to get something to drink. This no liquids thing was killing me as I always travel with a bottle of water. Even in the car.

We sat next to a really nice woman from the Williamsburg area. She was meeting up with her daughter at her connecting city and they were flying to see her son in Hawaii. He’s in the Navy as a submariner and was on leave. She was very interesting and friendly which helped the time pass quickly.

There was another plane, not going to Orlando, leaving from our same gate prior to our flight. Delta called for the boarding of that flight and people started heading down the jetway. We noticed a security person at the gate rechecking random people’s carry-ons. I guess he was looking for any liquids they might have purchased in the gate area. Remember—still no liquids carried on the plane at this point.

Most of the people had gone down the jetway when all of a sudden they all came back into the gate area. There was some confusion as to what was going on. Finally the Delta gate agent came on and apologized to everyone for the confusion. The gate agents had gotten word that the plane was ready for boarding but it turned out the crew wasn’t even on board the plane yet. Too funny! So they were all told to sit down and they would be recalled for boarding.

During all this confusion, Delta decided to go ahead and board our plane. We walked down the jet way, down the stairs and out to the tarmac. The tarmac was empty of airline personnel. We were going to have play eeny, meeney, miney, moe and pick a plane as there were 2 planes on the ground, both with their engines running. We opted to follow the other travelers who were walking towards 1 of the 2 planes. Maybe, hopefully, they know which one is the right one! We climbed up the steps and when we got inside the plane we asked the flight attendant if we were on the plane to Orlando. She said yes (Yea!) so we headed for our seats.

The plane was so small that DH who is 6ft 1in couldn’t stand up straight in it. He had to shuffle down the aisle looking like the Hunchback of Notre Dame! Luckily we were seated near the front of the plane so he didn't have far to shuffle. We’ve been on these regional jets before but always forget just how small they are.

Some people were already on the plane when we got on. An older woman with a wheelchair starts telling the flight attendant that she isn’t going to Orlando. She is on the wrong plane! We were cracking up! We’ve never seen an airline employee put anyone on the wrong plane. They finally moved this lady off our plane and I hope got her on the right one.

We settle in with our books and who should walk onto the plane but my cousin S’s ex-fiancée D. S had already told me that D was coming for a visit with her husband S2 the same week we would be there. How funny that we were all on the same plane. Their seats were all the way in the back of the plane and we were up front so no chatting for us. Plus it wasn’t quite 7am and they didn’t look like they were quite awake yet.

We finally pulled away from the terminal and taxi for what seemed like 10 miles to the correct runway. Keep in mind, we don’t have a big airport. We taxied for so long we started to wonder if the pilot was heading for the interstate and was going to drive us to Orlando. Finally we take off! We’re headed to Orlando baby! The Mouse is waiting to see us! No delays! No problems….well..... except for the family sitting in the row behind us.

It was a mother, father and baby of unknown age in a car seat. I don’t think I ever actually saw the baby. Mom and baby are directly behind DH and I and father is across the aisle in a seat by himself. Baby evidently doesn’t like take-off so she starts crying. Mom tries to sooth her which works for a little while. The flight is supposed to take about 2 hours. Baby doesn’t like flying. Baby proceeds to whimper, cry and scream at an ear-piercing pitch for the entire flight. Mom and dad switch seats but dad isn’t much better at soothing the baby. The only person that makes the baby stop crying is the flight attendant. Too bad she couldn’t have changed seats with Mom! The screaming was so bad at times I couldn’t even read my book. I was just too distracted. I was hoping this wasn’t an omen of what was to come.

We didn’t look back at the family with nasty looks. We didn’t say anything to them—they would never have heard us over the screaming baby! We understand that flying can be hard on small children. But after an hour or so, inside my head, I was screaming along with that baby!

D and S2 were both sleeping for much of the flight so didn’t hear too much of the screaming. But D told me later while we were waiting for our luggage at baggage claim that she was pretty sure the commotion was happening near us. Lucky us!

My feet started getting really hot on the plane because I had socks on with my crocs. Yes, I’m a nerd! But the socks keep the crocs from rubbing the bottoms of my feet raw. Say that 3 times fast--socks keep the crocs! I decided to take off my socks and wear the crocs by themselves for awhile. I would find out very quickly that that was a mistake!

We land in Orlando, take our first thrill ride of the day—the airport tram to the main terminal, and follow the herd moving towards baggage claim. Our bags come right out—yeah, no lost bags—and we head for the National Emerald Aisle. I was able to get a free year’s membership in National’s Emerald Club. Did you catch that? Free again! So I booked National for this trip just so we could take advantage of the membership. Plus National had a really good rate.

We found the Emerald Aisle and walked up and down it looking at all the cars trying to decide which one we wanted. How cool that we could pick any car in the full-size aisle that we wanted! DH really wanted the VW bug but I wanted something bigger. We booked a full size car and I thought we would need the luggage space. We ended up with a Chevy Impala in a really cool blue/purple color. It should be very easy to spot in a parking lot.

We loaded up the trunk and drove out of the lot. All I had to do was show my driver’s license to the attendant, she printed out something and handed me back a bunch of paper that I don’t think I ever really looked at!

We made our way out of the airport and we’re on the road again. We make our normal pit-stop at Albertson’s to get bottled water and then head to Port Orleans French Quarter. We manage to take the right exit to get to the hotel.

OT--We’ve been known to miss the exit more then once and then we’re stuck on that main road, I forget which one, and we have to drive for miles before we can find a place to make a u-turn.

You don’t want to be following us down that road at that point. DH will be in the left lane doing 50mph while we’re both on the lookout for any teeny tiny place in the grassy median where we can legally make a U-do it. I’ll be telling him to slow down so we can make the u-turn when we find the spot. He will irritably tell me he can’t slow down because some idiot is riding his bumper. Inevitably, this tiny paved spot will appear from out of nowhere, on a curve, going up a hill so it almost invisible. I’ll scream—there it is! DH will slam on the brakes and whip the wheel so we’re screeching through the median on two wheels. But we made that u-turn—yes sirree! Of course everything in the car, including me has now been thrown to right side of the car!

Anywho--We made it uneventfully to POFQ and parked out front. I immediately started taking pictures of the front of the resort, the car and the license plate of the car. In case we lose it in the acres of Disney parking lots! Just a little tip for you. I made sure DH took a picture of me so we’d know that I was actually on the vacation as I usually take most of the pictures.

Went inside Port Orleans and there is no line. Yea! A very nice Mouseketeer in training checked us in. I didn’t ask for an upgrade and she didn’t offer one. My bad! But we did have a nonsmoking room which is a necessity for me due to allergies. We were in building 5 and decide to walk over and find our room first so we’d know where to park and unload our luggage.

The building was very nice. It overlooked a big open courtyard with a fountain at the front. We were pretty close to the food court and not far from the parking lot. The room itself was the same as we remembered from our trip staying here in 2005. It was on the third floor. Gotta love that long walk up the stairs at the end of the day! It had a big Magnolia tree right in front of our room so we couldn’t see much when we looked out the window. But we didn’t really care.

We walked back out to the front of the resort and moved the car to the closest parking lot. We managed to unload everything and lug all our stuff in 1 trip. DH had to be the pack mule and carry the checked bags up the 2 flights of stairs. He is such a good man! Bad back and all! I carried the carry-ons, 6packs of water, camera, and other assorted junk that we absolutely had to bring!

We were ready to unpack by 10:20am. Hard to believe we were here and almost ready to hit the parks this early in the day. Before we could unpack I had to sanatize the room! I got my Clorox disinfecting wipes and wiped down the remotes, the phone, the bathroom counter tops, the toilet etc. I never saw that 20-20 episode but I’ve heard about it. So I do my disinfecting thing and then we can unpack!

I’m not normally an unpacker. I would have just dumped the suitcases in the room and headed out to a park. But DH likes to unpack everything from his suitcases so the room feels like home. I have to admit it did keep the room a little better organized and we were able to just drop on the beds when we came back from the parks tired.

Well not really drop on the beds because I would never lay down on the bedspreads--watch the 20/20 special.

We finished unpacking and I put my socks back on as I already had a hot spot from the Crocs. I got my fanny pack ready – I know, in your head your saying what a nerd! We headed back out to the car and we’re heading for Epicot baby!

 

[scrap4u]

We drove to Epcot and were able to get a parking place pretty close to the front of the parking lot. As we were walking up to the entrance of Epcot, we noticed people were stopped and looking up. We stopped too—we had to look—you would have too—Admit it! and realized it was the space shuttle taking off. We couldn’t really see the shuttle too much but we could see the smoke trail as it headed for space. That was very cool!

I know it just looks like smoke. You'll just have to take my word for it that it was the shuttle. You can trust me! Really!

We found out a few days before we left home that the shuttle take off had been postponed until Saturday 9/9 around 11am. DH and I both really wanted to head over to see it take off but opted not to in case the launch was postponed again or our flight was late.

Not much of a wait to get through security and the turnstiles and lo and behold---we’re here! In Disney World. In Epcot. Ok it wasn’t the Magic Kingdom but it would do for now.

I hadn’t fully prepared my fanny pack before we left the room and realized I didn’t have any band-aids with me. So we stopped in a shop just past guest services and got a little first aid kit with a number of different sized band-aids and some Neosporin type ointment. I got the band-aids on my hot spots (note the plural now) and we headed for World Showcase. We were really hungry since breakfast had been back at 430am so we headed to Morocco and waited a few minutes for Restaurant Marrakesh to open. We both had the Sultan Sampler which was yummy! I think we were both stuffed and skipped dessert. We paid for this as I didn’t want to waste a table service credit on a lunch.

Nothing was crowded in Epcot that day which was wonderful. I kept wondering where all the people were. But it was unbelievably hot and humid! I’m not sure that the temps were much over 90 but the humidity was so terrible it took your breath away when you left the a/c and walked outside!

After lunch we went into the shops in Morocco and I again had a lovely Moroccan woman do a Henna design on my left hand and arm. It was really awesome looking.

Next we headed over to Soarin’ but it had a 30 minute wait for the standby line. FastPass return was 40 minutes later so we opted to get FPs and headed over to the Character Connection for pictures. I’ve missed this place every time we’ve come to Epcot so it was on my must do list this time. We walked right in and got pictures with Donald, Mickey, Pluto, Minnie, Chip and Dale. It was lots of fun and no lines.

They say the first step in recovery is to admit you have a problem. I have a problem. A character picture problem! I love getting pictures with the characters. But I’m not into the autographs. So there is hope for my recovery. But we’re character people. What can I say? I don’t think DH is addicted but he’s a good sport and gets in the picture with me. No offense to people in real recovery!

Next we headed over to Innoventions East to the plastics area to play with robots. First you play around on a computer learning all about plastics and how they are made.

Then you move into another area with 9 computer workstations set up. On the computer you choose the head, body, arms and legs of your robot. You choose a name for him/her and you choose their strengths and weaknesses. How well they will do in heat, cold, knocking down obstacles and jumping. They show all the robots up on a big screen for everyone to see and we all voted for the robots we liked best.

Next is the race. Each person has a doormat thingy in front of their computer on the floor. Like my oh so technical term--thingy! In order for your robot to run, you have run in place on the mat. If the robot needs to jump, you have to jump on the mat. DH and I each had our own robot in the robot race. I came in 3rd and he came in 6th out of 9 people. It was a lot of fun and really got the blood pumping. I don’t think I’ve done that much aerobic activity in months!

When the race was over and we had wiped the sweat from our brow, we got to go into another plastics area and choose real parts to make our own small robot to take home with is. They’re very cute as an eyeglass holder or toothbrush holder.

We went back over to Soarin and used our fps to ride our first real ride of our trip. And what a good ride it is! I can’t do 180 or 360 screen movies so I had been worried that this ride would make me motion sick but it doesn’t. I can’t ride it twice in row though. I have to have some time in between each ride or I do start to get sick.

We decided to head back to the hotel to rest and clean up as we had 550p ADRs for Chef de France tonight and we’re were going to meet my internet friend from another board.

I have a really good internet friend in Northern Ca. We met through the SS board about 2 years ago but have never met in real life or talked on the phone. When I told her we were going to Disney and getting the free dining plan, she decided to come and bring her aunt with her. For various reasons they ended up coming the week before we did but she managed to make the trip overlap by 1 day so we could actually meet. I finally get to meet my good friend tonight at dinner!

 

[scrap4u]

Thanks for the response HappyBratPack! Glad you're enjoying it so far. We had a terrific time and the crocs saved my feet!

 

[OhMari]

Your 20/20 insights were funny. I cringe too when I see people laying on the bedspreads at WDW. I just can't do it. I will actually bring my own sheets sometimes when I go on vacation. I am seriously thinking about sending sheets down with my bounce box.

 

[scrap4u]

OhMari--I know exactly what you mean. My DH can lay right down on the bedspread. Yuck! When we would take a nap in the afternoon I would turn down the bedspread and then lay a bath towel over the blanket and lay down on the blanket to nap. Paranoid? Heck yea!

Because we were usually hot and sticky, I didn't want to lay on the sheets.

Thanks for reading my report!

 

[Madsofa]

Really enjoying your report so far! Sounds like a great trip. We are heading to WDW in March '07, staying at POR. Still have to stop at HS to pick up LGMH's! Your henna looks awesome! I'll have to make a stop there and have something done, I've always wanted to try that. How long did it last?
Can't wait to read more!

 

[scrap4u]

Thanks for reading Madsofa! The henna itself usually cracks and falls off by the next morning. The stain of the image lasts me most of the week. I got mine that first day-Saturday and you could still see a little bit of the design the following Saturday. But the first 3-4 days are the best.

 

[Madsofa]

We plan on doing Epcot our 3rd to last day, so the henna should still show on my when I return. I want to show it off at home! We weren't planning on Epcot at all, but the more I read and see the more I think this will be a highlight of our trip...well on second thought I can't imagine a part of Disney that we wouldn't like!

 

[scrap4u]

We plan on doing Epcot our 3rd to last day, so the henna should still show on my when I return. I want to show it off at home! We weren't planning on Epcot at all, but the more I read and see the more I think this will be a highlight of our trip...well on second thought I can't imagine a part of Disney that we wouldn't like!

I think you're right on both counts! The henna should still look great when you go home and there's not much we don't love about Disney! The more time we spend at Epcot, the more we enjoy it!

 

[scrap4u]

We drove back to Epcot after a refreshing nap. We walked over to France and DH spots my friend K right away. He recognized her from pictures she had shared with us. We hug and chat like old friends. She introduces us to her aunt (A.L.) who was very cute and tiny and we checked in for our ADR. Here is where my coupons came in handy.

The hostess, a very nice young French girl can’t understand what DH is telling her when he tries to check us in. He calls me over to talk to her and she doesn’t understand what I’m saying either. Now I speak a little French, left over from high school—which was many, many years ago. But rather then struggle with the language barrier, I just hand her my ADR coupon. She looks at it and say Ah! Boy those little ADR coupons sure come in handy!

We are immediately seated at an ok table right on aisle so it was kind of busy. We had a very nice waiter whose name I don’t remember. He kept trying to take our order and we were all too busy chatting and getting to know each other. But we all finally ordered.

I had the onion soup which was pretty good. DH had the lobster bisque which he said was really good. I don’t remember what K and A.L. had for appetizers. For entrees A.L. got the macaroni and cheese. It looked really yummy and rich. DH had some kind of fish which he said was good. K and I both got the flank steak. Now I know that flank steak isn’t a really good cut of steak but if marinated and cooked properly can be quite tasty. Not here! It was tough and both of ours were cooked wrong. It was served with French fries which I thought was pretty strange for an upscale French restaurant and the fries were cold! I mainly ate my dinner roll.

We all got dessert since we all had the free dining plan. Someone (I can’t remember who) had the crème brulee and said it was good. I had a strawberry and rhubarb dessert. It sounded strange but was really good. My first time having rhubarb anything!

All during dinner, we noticed dark clouds coming in and then it started to lightening. By the time we left Les Chefs, it was pouring rain. We decided to head over to the American Adventure to see the show there. We had never seen it before but K and A.L had and said it was good. Plus it was a good place to go to get out of the rain until Illuminations started. I was worried we might fall asleep during the show since it was dark and we were all full but it was very interesting and not one of us snored!

After the show was over we walked over to the International Gateway bridge to watch Illuminations. K and A.L, had never seen it before and seemed to really enjoy it. It continued to rain through the whole show but we didn’t care. We had our Mickey ponchos and K had a Disney umbrella so we stayed fairly dry.

Afterwards, we took our time walking towards the front of the Epcot. I took some pictures of the ball with the fountains in front of it. Very pretty.

DH took a couple of pictures of K and me together and then we said goodbye to our friends. They were taking the monorail back to the Contemporary and we were driving back to POFQ. A nice ending to a wonderful day but I was sad that there wasn’t more time to spend with K. One evening just wasn’t enough.

 

[scrap4u]

Sunday 9/10 we had an 8:20am ADR at Donald’s Breakfastosaurus. As we left the room on our first full day at Disney and were walking to the parking lot, DH spotted LGMHs in the window of a first floor room in building 6. I walked up to the window to see what Diser it was and it was TikiRoomFan! As it was quite early, I left one of my LGMHs hanging on their doorknob. Yea! Our first Dis sighting, sort of.

We drove over to AKL and didn’t get lost. If you ever driven over to AK yourself, you know that their parking lot is big. And they made us drive all the way around the whole lot to get to where they were parking people that day. It wasn’t a very long walk to the front of the park but we felt like we had driven to Timbuktu!

Once we got to the park entrance, it only took a few minutes to get through security and the turnstiles. I love walking through AK when it’s empty! There was a photographer out that morning so we stopped to have him take a couple of pictures of us with The Tree of Life in the background. We have yet to see the opening ceremony here as we either get here early for breakfast or get here just after opening. One day we’ll see it, though I don’t think we’re really missing anything.

We checked into Donald’s and got our picture taken in front of the conservation sign. By the time the photographer was done the host was calling our name to be seated. We sat on the opposite side of the restaurant from where we were in May. Much closer to the buffet. Bonus! We had the exact same waitress as when we were here in May—Robin-- and boy is she a hoot! She’s very funny and has lots of personality!

The buffet has lots of yummy breakfast items on it from breakfast pizza to Mickey waffles to chocolate chip pancakes and the like. I wanted scrambled eggs but what they had looked really runny. I don’t do runny eggs. They are disgusting! To me anyway. More power to you if you can eat them that way!

So I asked the cook behind the buffet about getting some that were drier and not so runny. He very nicely told me to ask our waitress about it. So I asked Robin if I could get some well done scrambled eggs and she had them for me in no time. And a ton of them too! DH ended up eating about half of them. We got really good pictures with Mickey, Donald, Goofy and Pluto. When we ate here in May our pictures came out really dark. This time I made sure we used the flash on every picture and they came out much better.

Don't you love the closed eyes I have!

As we were finishing up our breakfast, we started to notice people walking around outside. It was getting close to 9am so we figured we better pay our bill and be on our way. We didn’t use any of our meal credits for breakfasts. Of course Robin had disappeared by now, so I suggest that DH go ahead outside and head for Expedition Everest as soon as they dropped the rope. He could ride it while I paid the bill and I would meet him there.

Robin finally came back, she had been putting through multiple payments for a large table. I paid the bill and Robin got me a coffee to go and I headed for EE. I found a seat outside of EE and sat and drank my coffee and watched all the excited people getting in line for EE or getting off the ride with happy faces. DH came out of the dump shop all smiles. He was in the front seat of the very first train that went out that day. He really liked being in the front. We both got FPs for later and walked over to Kilimanjaro Safaris. The standby line showed a 10 minute wait. We walked through the preshow and waited maybe 5 minutes for our safari vehicle.

We were seated in the front row of our vehicle which was great! Our driver was terrific! I say that because he was able to slow down and almost come to a stop a number of times for us to get pictures. I got some really good ones of the lions but never saw the leopard that morning. Even though we’ve ridden this ride numerous times, I always find lots of things to take pictures of.

We left the safari and decided to head over towards the Tree of Life. I stopped to ask a CM where and when DeVine might be out. He called the Character hotline and found out she was out right then and told us where to find her. She was on one of the paths to Asia. I forget which one. So we headed over there. We’d never seen her and I wanted to make sure we didn’t miss her this time.

We would have walked right by her except that we saw her handler. You can’t miss the character handlers with their eye-catching yellow, black, and white shirts and black shorts on. We stopped dead in our tracks and started looking around at all the beautiful foliage to find her. Sorry to anyone who was walking behind us at that moment. We didn’t give much notice that we were coming to a stop!

Finally we saw her standing in the foliage. She is so elegant looking, especially when she moves. Very graceful. There were only a few of us watching her. Some people would walk by in their own little world, hurrying to a ride or show and miss her completely. Something I’m sure we’ve done many times before too!

I got some really good close up pictures of her face. She was totally cool!

Another item I could check off my must do list! Hard to believe after 5 other trips in 3 years that I still have a list of things I’ve never done or seen. Just goes to show you how Disney World keeps evolving and changing.

Next we headed over to ride Dinosaur. We love this ride! I only rode it for the first time in May. I had avoided it on previous trips thinking it might make me motion sick. Nope! We get off this ride laughing like loons after being scared at the very end!

Next we went to It’s Tough to be a Bug. We always enjoy this show. Again, we waited just a few minutes to get into the show and the theatre wasn’t full.

We left the Tree of Life to head over to the Maharaja Jungle Trek to see the tigers. We could see EE and the ride was broken down. The train car was stuck on the first hill and at that point still had people in it. They were in the broiling sun too. I felt sorry for them because of the heat! Maharaja wasn’t very crowded and I got great pictures of the tigers and the fruit bats.

We headed over to Camp Minnie Mickey to see Festival of the Lion King. We were able to walk right in as they were just about to close the doors. We were seated right up front on the handicap row. I’m guessing they let us sit on the handicap row because it was just moments before the show would be starting. Or, they took one look at me and realized I was handicapped—mentally that is. No offense to any of you that might be mentally-handicapped! Anyhoo, I was able to get some great pictures of the performers! Some of the best I’ve ever gotten really.

DH and I both really enjoy this show and I always sing along with the songs. Much to the horror of the people sitting around me! As we were one of the last people seated, we were some of the first people out the door. This meant we didn’t have to move along through a herd of people to get out of Camp Minnie Mickey.

Our tummies were telling us it was time to eat yet again. So we decided to try Tusker House for lunch. We’d never eaten there and it came highly recommended on the Dis boards. DH had a turkey wrap with corn chowder and I had the fried chicken sandwich. Both were very good. DH had chocolate cake and I had cheesecake for dessert. They were pretty good too. But it was all even better because it was free! Do you sense a recurring theme here!

Next up was the Pangani Forest Trail to see the gorillas. This was a little bit crowded but not too bad. Not many gorillas out either. Way too hot for them I suppose. I got some great pictures of the Hippo underwater--very close to the glass divider.

Way cool! I did manage to get a couple of pictures of a gorilla but they were all of his backside. This happened with a few animals on this trip. I missed their faces and got their bee-hinds! Man, I should be a professional photographer! Not!

At some point that afternoon we walked near EE again and it was still broken down. The train was in the same spot on the hill but they had finally let the poor half-baked people get off the ride.

By about 2pm we decided we’d had enough of the heat. We made our way through AK, stopping at various places to check out the pins. When we exited the park DH said we needed to go one way to the car and I said we should go the other way. Trouble's acomin! So rather then argue about it, we split up and each went our own way. We could see each other the whole way though. Turns out both ways were right, but my way--following the signs to the lot!---ended up making me walk across a large grassy area to get our parking lot. Thank goodness--meltdown averted!

We both got to our steaming hot car and started what would become a normal routine for the entire week. Find the car, which in itself was a challenge. If I didn’t write down the lot we parked in or take a picture of the parking lot sign, we’d wander in the general direction of where we thought the car should be and look for the blue/purple color. But the dag-gone remote wouldn't work until you were within 5 feet of the car, so we couldn't use that as a homing beacon! You could hear other people setting off their alarms so they could find the car by the blinking lights. Not us though.

Back on topic—we would find the car, throw open the doors while trying not to touch them. I learned this the hard way, by almost getting a 3rd degree burn by placing my hand flat on the car door! Youch!

We would stand there and let the heat go out and come back into the car. Remember, it was 90ish most everyday so the air outside was almost as hot as the air inside the car. Then I would beg DH to hurry up and start the car and get the a/c going. Poor thing, he would try to reach in and start the car without touching anything so he didn’t get any burns. After a couple minutes of the hot-starting-to-get-cool air blowing out, we would risk the skin on the backs of our legs and arms and sit in the car. We’re having some fun now folks!

We got back to the hotel in no time and were walking back to the room when we decided today was a good day to hit the pool. In all the times we’ve visited DW, we’ve never used a Disney pool. Never enough time between the parks and naps. We were so hot and sticky from AK that all we could think of was jumping into the cool water.

But wait--there was a surprise waiting for us in our room. What could it be you ask? Well, I had envelopes for Mousekeeping for each day of our trip and I had left one out that day. When we walked in the first thing we saw was our first towel creation sitting with our robots from Epcot! Too funny!

We changed into our suits and headed down to the pool. We walked around looking for a shower to rinse off before jumping in the pool but never found one. Unless it was in the restroom. So we dropped our stuff on 2 chairs and jumped right into the pool, sweat and all. Aaaaahhhhh! Finally I felt cool again! I was also hoping that the chlorine in the pool didn’t turn my blondish highlights green. That was another reason to find the shower. To get my hair wet before getting in the pool so it wouldn’t suck up all that chlorine.

We stayed at the pool for maybe ½ hour just floating around and watching the little kids having a blast. We dried off and were heading back to our room when DH spotted some LGMHs in the window of a room in building 5 on the 2nd floor I think. So we walked up there and it was none other then GlendaMax! I didn’t really want to meet anyone after just getting out of the pool so we didn’t knock. I didn’t have any of my LGMHs with me so I couldn’t leave one for her right then. But I told DH I’d come back and drop one off. So we headed back to our room to shower off and rest until dinner.

Tonight was EMH at MK and we were dining with my favorite guy--Tigger!

 

[scrap4u]

We had a 6:15p ADR for the Crystal Palace and it was EMH at MK too. We drove over to MK and parked, took the monorail to MK. We tried to ride up front with the pilot but it was full.

I could feel the excitement building as we got closer to the MK. Finally Cinderella Castle came into view and I knew we were finally, finally here. We truly enjoy all of the parks at Disney World but I only really feel like I’m there when we hit the MK. We were on an express monorail so we went zipping through the Contemporary. We love this hotel too having stayed here in May 2004.

We exited the cool monorail for the hot walkway into MK. Very little line for security or the turnstiles and we headed straight for Crystal Palace and checked in about 20 minutes early for our ADR.

I think we had to wait about 30 minutes before our name was called. But we had a nice table and a good waiter, Gustavo. We love the food at CP. This time I had some of the best sliced herbed turkey breast I’ve ever had. DH had salmon and bbq. They had terrific garlic mashed potatoes and great salads. Lots of variety for dessert. Plus we got to see my favorite character—Tigger! Along with his friends Eeyore, Piglet and Pooh. And it was all free—on the dining plan! Yea!

After stuffing ourselves at CP we headed over to Pirates of the Caribbean. We were so excited to see the changes they had made to it. We walked right in and no wait to get in a boat. We were in the last row of the boat and the boat was full. What sounded like an Australian family was seated in front of us. Dad on the outside left, then mom, then daughter (maybe 6) and son (maybe 8-9).

So the boat heads out and the ride begins. Some of the newer changes are at the beginning of the ride and the Mom starts taking pictures using her flash. We had been told in the loading area no flash pictures are allowed. Now, I may not like that rule but I understand why they have it. The flashing sure takes away from other rider’s enjoying the ride. Especially if they are right in front of the flash which I wasn’t, but it's the principle! But I didn’t say anything thinking she was just going to take a few pictures of the new scenes. Wrong!

She started taking multiple pictures of every single thing in POC. The flash is going off nonstop! DH and I are looking at each other and shaking our heads at her rudeness. Her husband is rubbing his eyes from the flash going off all the time and saying something to her that she just ignores. I finally tapped her on the shoulder and said “you might want to turn off your flash since they asked us not to take flash pictures”. She whipped her head around and snarled “well everyone else is using their flash!”. I have to admit, I was a bit flabbergasted at that response. Flabbergasted is southern for shocked as h..l. TFI! I didn’t say anything else to her but told DH what she said.

Well, I couldn’t let it go. I was like a dog with a bone! It was so irritating to have the flash going off nonstop for the entire ride. So I started talking to DH and I knew she could hear me. “Gee, I don’t see anyone else’s flash going off!”. “How rude!”. The one that finally got her was when I said to DH “Gee, what a good thing to teach your kids. Even though you’re asked not to do something, because everyone else is, its ok for you to ignore the request/rules too! What a good role model”.

Well she turned around and said “is my taking pictures bothering you?”. And I said Yes it is! She then said something to me but with her accent and as fast as she was talking, I couldn’t understand what she said. So very nicely I said “I’m sorry, I couldn’t hear what you said”. She turned back around in a huff and stopped taking pictures. But she kept making comments about me to her family and her poor son kept turning around and looking at me like I had tried to kill his mother or something.

In my mind, I could just see the mom and I getting into a pushing/shoving match and people flying out of the boat and into the water. Then the two DHs would be pusing and shoving and the children would be crying. Oh my goodness--why did I ever say anything! Why didn't I just keep my mouth shut! I could just see the headlines in the Orlando Sentinel--crazy woman from Virginia is attached my mom from Australia during argument!

Back to the real story! She was huffing and puffing and making comments until we got off the boat. The husband just ignored her the whole time. When the boat came to the unloading area, she pushed her husband off the boat and grabbed her kids and practically ran out of the ride.

Well the ride was sure ruined for me but I would never purposely ruin someone else’s magical time in Disney World. I told DH that I felt bad that I had ruined the ride for them. But I also felt like the mom’s over reaction was due to guilt. She knew she shouldn’t be using the flash but was sure she’d get away with it. I called her on it and she didn’t like it. It definitely took me a while to stop thinking about that whole scene.

A sure sign of what was coming!

About 730pm it started to rain. We put on our Mickey rain ponchos and decided to head to Pecos Bill’s outside patio. It started raining even harder. We managed to get a seat under one of their huge umbrellas with a table. Between the umbrella and the ponchos we stayed pretty dry. But it just kept raining harder and harder and now there was a river of rain water running beside our table.

About 8pm they did finally start Spectro-Magic. A few of the floats went by. Then the Ariel floats came by and just stopped in front of us. Evidently Ariel’s float had died and they had to bring a small truck out to tow her float, Sebastion’s float and Neptune’s float away. And that was the end of the parade. I guess they didn’t run the full parade due to the rain. How disappointing.

We then headed over to Fantasyland to wait for Wishes. The rain finally started to die down and we were able to at least remove the hoods of our ponchos. Wishes started at 9pm and was wonderful as always. I get chill bumps singing along with the music and watching the spectacular fireworks. Again, I apologize to my fellow Wishes watchers for my singing!

We like to see Wishes from Fantasyland at least once during our trip. The fireworks are going off on both sides of you and right over your head. The ending fireworks literally take my breath away, they are so awesome!

When Wishes ended we walked over to the Haunted Mansion and rode that with no wait. It had stopped raining by this time but it sure wasn’t any cooler. We headed over to the Jungle Cruise but it was closed.

So we went back to POC and walked on again with no wait…and no rude flash picture taking mom in front of us this time! We truly enjoyed the all the new things Disney had added to POC. We were very happy that they managed not to lose the charm of the original ride.

We headed over to Splash Mountain and walked on that too. When they loaded our boat, DH and I were in the last row and 1 young man of maybe 11 or 12 was in the front row. He had been in front of us when walking through the preshow and he told us he had ridden SM like 10 times that day. Obviously his favorite ride! All during the ride he kept looking back at us, maybe to make sure we were still there. We would smile at him and let him know—yep! We’re still here with you! The boat in front of us was empty too so I guess it could be a little bit creepy being alone on that ride at night.

DH then rode Big Thunder Mountain. He did have about a 10 minute wait for it. I usually ride BTM once during our trip but it’s not my favorite ride. All the banked curves mess with my inner ear and can mess me up for the day. But DH loves this ride so he’ll ride it many times by himself.

We walked back to Fantasyland and checked on the wait time at Peter Pan…30 minutes. So we skipped it. DH knows I love It’s a Small World so he suggested we ride that since it was a walk on. Always very cute. Since I know this is one of his least favorite rides, it was really nice of him to offer to ride it with me.

We were getting tired and started to head to the front of the park. But before we left we decided we needed some ice cream. We headed for the Main St. Confectionary. On our way there, we saw a PhotoPass photographer taking pictures in the hub in front of the castle. Of course we stopped to have our picture taken. I make DH stop everywhere for pictures because you never know what will turn our good and what won’t. Plus we buy the CD of pictures and the more pictures on the cd, the more economical it is.

The picture did turn out great. It has us in the lower left hand corner with the castle behind us and the Walt and Mickey statue to our right. Great job Disney photographer! And it wasn’t blurry either. A lot of the night shots we’ve had taken on previous trips were blurry.

On to our ice cream! We used our snack credits and then sat outside by The Plaza to enjoy the evening and people watch. What better way to spend a hot late evening when you’re tired. The ice cream was so refreshing, it felt good to sit down and we could see Cinderella Castle in all her glory, changing colors. I can’t think of any other place in the world I’d rather be. When we finished our yummy cool ice cream, we walked through some of the Main St. shops and then headed for the monorail back to the parking lots to go back to our home away from home. The perfect ending to a wonderful day!

 

[team weasel]

Enjoying the TR. Glad you said something to the rude flash picture taking momma. Glad you said something to the rude lady. I've experienced the same thing on multiple rides and have never had enough guts to say something. Good For You!

 

[scrap4u]

Enjoying the TR. Glad you said something to the rude flash picture taking momma. Glad you said something to the rude lady. I've experienced the same thing on multiple rides and have never had enough guts to say something. Good For You!

Thanks for the thumbs up Team Weasel. It was probably a dumb thing to do because you never know how people will react. But I did try to be very nice about it.

 

[teentoddlermom]

Great TR... looking forward to more!

 

[Madsofa]

Great TR! I'm lovin' the pictures.

 

[Alice28]

I'm lovin your trippie so far! The pictures are great, and we were at POFQ almost the same week, but in 2005. You're bringing back (hot and sweaty) memories!

 

[Glendamax]

Scrapie, since we are such close friends, and have known each foreva eva, I must be totally honest with you and let you know that I just skimmed through your whole report to find a pic of you! Now I FINALLY know what you look like!

Ok - back to actually READING the report . . . .