larry's girl
Dead last finish is better than did not finish, wh
- Joined
- Dec 12, 2003
- Messages
- 675
Who We Are:
Larry - 47, always trying to figure out how to fit in one more Disney trip!
Susan - 40, always trying to help Larry figure out how to fit in one more Disney trip!
Tara - 17, always ready for one more Disney Trip!
Friday, July 1
We weren't able to leave Atlanta as early as we normally do - we headed out about 1:00 p.m. and arrived at the Boardwalk at around 8:00. Check in was quick, as there weren't many people waiting in line. We had a pool view room on the 5th floor, with the most amazing view across the Luna pool over to the Swan and Dolphin hotels. We had never stayed at Boardwalk before, and really enjoyed our time there this trip.
We headed out for Magic Kingdom, since tonight was extra magic hours. Once there, we received our wristbands and decided to pick up some snacks and call it dinner. We had ice cream from the Main Street Ice Cream Parlor first (hey, we're on vacation) and then shared turkey legs and a jalapeno cheese filled pretzel from The Lunching Pad in Tomorrowland. Then it was on to the rides! We got fast passes for Buzz Lightyear, then went to see the Carousel of Progress. As we were entering this attraction, the CM told us that we would miss the fireworks if we went into this ride, which we already knew, but I thanked her and told her that we had seen the fireworks many times before and weren't interested in viewing them tonight. There were only a few people on this ride, and as we walked in the CM giving directions said that he was going to say something to us that we probably wouldn't hear often on a Disney World ride - sit anywhere you want! We laughed, since we knew that generally speaking, you are always asked to move ALL the way down the row before sitting down. After we were seated, he instructed us to look under our seats for the 3-D glasses. Everybody bent down to retrieve these nonexistent glasses except Larry and I - we knew there were no 3-D glasses for this ride! The CM laughed and said something like sorry, folks, but they do let me have a little fun on these late night rides. Tara said she didn't think there were 3-D glasses, but it has been several years since she has ridden this ride and she thought maybe they added them. It was an entertaining start to our first ride on this trip, and we enjoyed the carousel very much. Next we decided to ride the TTA, as none of us had been on this in a while, and it was fun to be on it at night - very pretty view from up there! Tara reaffirmed her decision to never, ever ride Space Mountain in this life time after she saw the view of it from the TTA, and we kidded her about it not being as bad a ride as it looks. She is still determined it is not for her, though, so I guess Larry and I will have to continue to ride without her! Then we went back to Buzz and went through, with Tara getting the highest score possible and gloating about it for some time afterwards!
Next we made our way through Fantasyland, riding the Winnie the Pooh ride and Small World (which is Larry's favorite ride and one he always goes on at some point during each trip). We wanted to ride Peter Pan, but the wait time was 45 minutes and we decided we didn't want to ride it that much. We started over into Frontierland and Tara wanted to ride Haunted Mansion, but again the wait time was too long for us, so we moved on to BTMRR. This is Tara's favorite ride in the Magic Kingdom, so we enjoyed it with her and then went to check out Splash. The wait time there was also about 45 minutes, so we skipped it and will pick it up on our next trip.
We walked over to Adventureland, and enjoyed the PoC ride - which was a walk on, much to my surprise. By this point, it was late, we were tired and hot and we had done most of what we came to do, so we opted to head back to our room. Our wait for a bus was not long, and as we were seated, I heard a gentleman who was just getting on the bus say "Thank you, God!!" and realized that he was happy about being on an air-conditioned bus. I totally agreed with his sentiment.
Saturday, July 2
Today we were headed to Animal Kingdom. Just as we went through the gates, the heavens opened up and the rain, rain, rain came down, down, down. We continued on into Dinoland, but Larry was unhappy about getting so wet, so he opted to wait for Tara and I at one of the gift shops while we went on to ride rides. When we got to Primeval Whirl, there were lots of people standing around the line, but no one was getting in the line - I guess they didn't want to get wet. Tara and I were already pretty wet, so we decided to go ahead and ride. Off we went through the ride, getting wetter by the second and totally ecstatic about being at Disney and riding one of our favorite rides, even in the rain! When we got back to the entrance, we asked if we could ride again, and since no one was waiting to get on, the CM said we could - we didn't even have to get off! By the end of the second ride, we were ready to move on, so we walked over to Dinosaur and it was packed, with a 50 minute wait time. I guess everyone flocked there when it started raining because it was indoors. Anyway, we decided we didn't want to wait that long and we weren't going to be in the park long enough to use a fast pass, so we passed on it - we'll catch it on the next trip.
I wanted to see the Pocahontas show, since I have never seen it, but I knew it was probably not going to run while it was raining, so I just resigned myself to picking it up on the next trip along with our Dinosaur ride. We walked back to the store where we had left Larry and he wasn't there. I figured maybe he had gone to the bathroom or something like that, so Tara and I sat down to wait for him. After about 15 minutes, I began to get concerned - we had a 12:00 ADR at Kona Café for lunch and it was about 11:35 now. Tara went in the store to see if he was there, but he wasn't and I was beginning to get a little worried - and I really hated the fact that I left my cell phone in the room! Finally, we decided to walk a little further back towards the entrance and if we didn't see him en route, we would get help from a CM. As we walked past the store that was right beside the one we had been waiting at, there he was - sitting just where we left him! We had been at the wrong store the whole time. Funny, I could have sworn I got it right, but mix-ups do happen at Disney sometimes. Anyway, we were all together now and ready for our lunch.
We had never eaten at Kona, and even though we were soaking wet and cold from the air conditioning, our server took it all in stride, saying we were not the first ones to come in from the rain. After coffee and hot soup, I was getting a little warmer, and we truly enjoyed our lunch here immensely. We will definitely go back again. After lunch, we headed back to our room to change into dry clothes and rest.
Our dinner tonight was at Flying Fish, which is a must do for us and one that we always enjoy. After dinner, we went out to wait for a bus to go to Downtown Disney. There was a family sitting next to us that we chatted with for a few minutes, who said they were waiting for a bus to Disney MGM Studios. We talked about our favorite rides and bid them goodbye when our bus finally came for Downtown Disney (which took quite a bit of time tonight, for some reason). We were on our way to Downtown Disney when Tara said, "Mama, I know why those people we were talking to hadn't seen a bus to MGM Studios - THERE IS NO BUS TO MGM STUDIOS FROM BOARDWALK!! They have to take the boat." And she was absolutely right. The strange thing is, I knew that - all three of us did - and yet we talked with those folks for a good 30 minutes without it ever dawning on us that they were waiting in the wrong place. I felt SO BAD and I have wondered ever since how long they sat there before realizing there wouldn't be a bus to MGM Studios. I hope they were able to get there that night for at least a little while.
We shopped for a few minutes in the Virgin Megastore, which really is huge - I have never seen so much music in one place in my life. From there, we headed over to the Adventurer's Club, which I had really been looking forward to doing. None of us had ever been, and I had heard that it was a fun place, so we decided to give it a whirl. After 1 ½ hours there, seeing the entertainment in the lobby, a short show in the Treasure Room, and the longer show in the Library, we decided it just wasn't for us. I really wanted to love this place - I had heard such good things about it - but these folks just weren't all that funny, at least not to us. Other people around us seemed to be having a good time, so I guess it was just not our cup of tea. I was actually trying to figure out a graceful way to exit from the Library while the show was going on, but couldn't find one and didn't want to be rude by being obvious about leaving early, so we stuck it out. Now we know that if we want to be entertained by funny people at Downtown Disney, we should head for the Comedy Warehouse (which we very much enjoyed the last time we were there).
Sunday, July 3
Last night was a late night for us, so we slept in this morning and got up with just enough time to get ready for our lunch ADR at Restaurant Akershus in Norway. People without an ADR were being turned away, so we were glad we had planned ahead. We totally forgot that this was a princess lunch, so we didn't even bring our camera, but it was still enjoyable to talk with the characters and the food was excellent. We would definitely eat here again.
After lunch, Tara wanted to stock up on some candy that is only sold in one of the Norwegian gift shops called Skor Bukk. It comes in a yellow bag and is a rich caramel covered with chocolate. I have tried one of these, and they are truly much better than any other chocolate and caramel candy I have ever had. Tara had saved money specifically so that she could stock up on enough of this treat to last until we are back in November. She went straight to the area of the gift shop where the candy was displayed, and began to take bags off the display and hand them to Larry, keeping count of how many she had so that she would be able to purchase as many as she could afford. She cleared out two rows of the candy display, and as we started to walk to the cash register, the gentleman that was browsing in the area next to us commented, "That must be really good!" We laughed and assured him it was. Interestingly enough, the CM's at the cash register were not at all surprised at Tara's purchase of this candy in bulk. Apparently, she is not the only one who loves it and chooses to stock up on each trip.
We decided to take in the boat rides in Norway and Mexico, which we had not done in several years. The Norway ride was lots of fun - particularly the part where you go backwards. The Mexico ride was very colorful - sort of like a Mexican version of It's a Small World. We had fun on both of these, and I was glad we did them together.
Tara wanted to go to the Pin Central area in Epcot to get a pin book, and Larry volunteered to go with her. I am not particularly interested in pins, so I decided to go see the movie in Canada, since it has been quite some time since I have seen it. We parted ways, and it began to rain as I was walking over to Canada. I was a little damp by the time I got there, but I still enjoyed the movie very much and I was glad I decided to watch it. When I came out of the theater, I could hear Off Kilter playing on the stage next door. We love Off Kilter, so I wandered over to listen. They were about half way through the set, so I got to hear a couple of songs before they were done. As they were preparing to leave the stage, I walked up to Mark (the bass player) and asked him if they would be willing to play a song for me if I hung around for the next set. He said they would and I thanked him, telling him that Off Kilter was one of the few bands that my husband and daughter could agree to listen to at the same time and he laughed. As I waited, Randy (the lead guitar player) was talking with another group of people about his newborn son, which makes two boys for him and his wife, and how he now had one to keep him up all day and another to keep him up all night. As he started backstage, I told him that he should wait until they got old enough to drive, as my daughter now was, and then he would really experience staying up worrying about them! He agreed, and we chatted for a bit about how crazy Atlanta traffic can be. He said that they had driven through the Atlanta area many times, heading for gigs in the North Carolina mountains and other points north of Florida. He also told me that they were about to come out with a new CD, which I will definitely have to purchase as soon as I can.
When the next set began, the band was barely into their first song when it started raining pretty hard. I was sitting under an umbrella, so it was not a bother for me, but some other folks were getting pretty wet and beginning to leave. When they finished the first song, Jamie (the bagpipe player) said that if the rain kept up, they would have to cut the set short, and Mark reminded him that I had made a request. So they played "Alive" - my very favorite Off Kilter song - with me singing every word along with Mark and enjoying the song immensely. As they played this one, the rain ended as abruptly as it had begun and they decided to continue playing. The next thing Jamie said was, "Does anybody here like oldies music?" I shouted a yes and began bouncing in my seat, because I knew what was coming next - my second favorite Off Kilter song, their cover of "Johnny B. Goode" - and they did an absolutely awesome job on both of those songs, even though their keyboard player was not there for this particular afternoon. I was tickled pink that I had heard my two favorite songs played live by them, and called a thanks after the set was over. Then I set off for our room, only to discover that Larry was asleep and Tara was nowhere to be found. I woke him up and asked where she was, and he said that she had decided to go down to the arcade for a little while. She came back in a few minutes, and when I told her about the terrific Off Kilter performance I had enjoyed, she was totally ticked that she missed it. But she knows she will have other opportunities to hear them perform, so she wasn't upset for too long.
Dinner tonight was at Yachtsman Steakhouse. This was a meal I had been greatly looking forward to, but it was a disappointing experience. The food and service were only so-so, and I don't think we will be going back there again. After dinner, we headed to Disney MGM Studios for extra magic hours. As we were going through the turnstiles, we noticed that our Annual Passes (which had been drenched in the rain at Animal Kingdom the day before) were not working well, so we went to Guest Relations to get new ones. This was done quickly and cheerfully after we presented our I.D. Tara waited for Larry and I by the door, and when we received our new passes and turned to leave, I could tell by her expression that something was up. She looked like she was about to give someone a piece of her mind, and I ushered her quickly out of the area so she could tell me what was happening. She explained that as she waited for us, a young woman had come in to the Guest Relations area and demanded to see a manager. When the manager came out, she told him that she had just bought her sneakers a month and a half ago and that she had stepped in gum in the park - now her sneakers were ruined and she wanted Disney to do something about it. The manager explained that Disney does not sell gum in any of their parks, but there is no way that they can stop guests from bringing it in from outside the parks. He apologized for the fact that she had stepped in gum, but there was really nothing else he could do. As the young lady continued to argue with him, Tara was having a hard time restraining herself from butting in to the conversation. That's when we left, and I told her that although I agreed with her point of view, it was truly much better not to get involved with something that had nothing to do with her. She agreed, but was incredulous that someone would have the nerve to try to get Disney to replace their shoes after they stepped in gum. I just laughed and told her that you can definitely see some strange stuff if you people watch for a few minutes at Disney.
We headed over to the Rock 'n Roller Coaster area, but it was packed with people and hard to move through. The CM's were directing people in for the last showing of the Beauty and the Beast show for the day. Since we hadn't seen this in several years, we decided to go in and enjoy it. It was a beautiful show and very well done, I thought. Outside the theater, it was still wall to wall people, so we decided to go over to the 50's Prime Time Café to see if we could get a snack. Of course, it was also wall to wall people there and we had no ADR, so we people watched for a little while. After a few minutes, we headed back to Rock 'n Roller Coaster and the wait was 60 minutes, so we got three fast passes and went to get a snack at the pizza stand close by. We ate and talked until our fast pass time came up. Then Larry and I made a HUGE sacrifice and gave Tara all three passes, so she would get three turns on this ride. We waited for her outside and listened to the great Aerosmith music. It took quite a while for her to get through the line three times and ride, but we didn't mind the wait - it gave us a chance to talk a bit and take in the great atmosphere there. Tara barely squeaked by with the third fast pass - right after she went in, they stopped letting people in, as it was 1:00 a.m. She said she got to ride in the front car on the last RnR ride of the night on the last night of our trip, which she decided was pretty darn cool.
We made our way out and caught the last boat to go back to the Boardwalk. When we were about half way between MGM and the Epcot resort area, the captain saw four young people jumping off one of the bridges and swimming in the canal - a DEFINITE no-no. She only saw them at the last minute and barely managed to avoid hitting them with the boat. She beeped her horn at them and they scrambled to get out of the water. She called security and let them know where the kids were. I think we were all a little shaken up by that - we wondered what would happen to them, but the captain said she had no idea, since she had never seen anyone do that before. I truly didn't understand - with all the pools in Disney World, these kids had to swim in the canal? Oh, well, I hope they were caught and appropriately punished - what they did was extremely dangerous.
Monday, July 4
It was time to go home, which is never any fun. We packed up and checked out, then decided to have breakfast at Spoodle's. Our server was rather slow, but she was pleasant and the food was very good, so we were pleased with our choice for breakfast. We hit the road and were back home that evening.
That's all for this trip - next one is over Thanksgiving. Feel free to post any comments or questions - and as always, thanks for reading!
Susan
Larry - 47, always trying to figure out how to fit in one more Disney trip!
Susan - 40, always trying to help Larry figure out how to fit in one more Disney trip!
Tara - 17, always ready for one more Disney Trip!
Friday, July 1
We weren't able to leave Atlanta as early as we normally do - we headed out about 1:00 p.m. and arrived at the Boardwalk at around 8:00. Check in was quick, as there weren't many people waiting in line. We had a pool view room on the 5th floor, with the most amazing view across the Luna pool over to the Swan and Dolphin hotels. We had never stayed at Boardwalk before, and really enjoyed our time there this trip.
We headed out for Magic Kingdom, since tonight was extra magic hours. Once there, we received our wristbands and decided to pick up some snacks and call it dinner. We had ice cream from the Main Street Ice Cream Parlor first (hey, we're on vacation) and then shared turkey legs and a jalapeno cheese filled pretzel from The Lunching Pad in Tomorrowland. Then it was on to the rides! We got fast passes for Buzz Lightyear, then went to see the Carousel of Progress. As we were entering this attraction, the CM told us that we would miss the fireworks if we went into this ride, which we already knew, but I thanked her and told her that we had seen the fireworks many times before and weren't interested in viewing them tonight. There were only a few people on this ride, and as we walked in the CM giving directions said that he was going to say something to us that we probably wouldn't hear often on a Disney World ride - sit anywhere you want! We laughed, since we knew that generally speaking, you are always asked to move ALL the way down the row before sitting down. After we were seated, he instructed us to look under our seats for the 3-D glasses. Everybody bent down to retrieve these nonexistent glasses except Larry and I - we knew there were no 3-D glasses for this ride! The CM laughed and said something like sorry, folks, but they do let me have a little fun on these late night rides. Tara said she didn't think there were 3-D glasses, but it has been several years since she has ridden this ride and she thought maybe they added them. It was an entertaining start to our first ride on this trip, and we enjoyed the carousel very much. Next we decided to ride the TTA, as none of us had been on this in a while, and it was fun to be on it at night - very pretty view from up there! Tara reaffirmed her decision to never, ever ride Space Mountain in this life time after she saw the view of it from the TTA, and we kidded her about it not being as bad a ride as it looks. She is still determined it is not for her, though, so I guess Larry and I will have to continue to ride without her! Then we went back to Buzz and went through, with Tara getting the highest score possible and gloating about it for some time afterwards!
Next we made our way through Fantasyland, riding the Winnie the Pooh ride and Small World (which is Larry's favorite ride and one he always goes on at some point during each trip). We wanted to ride Peter Pan, but the wait time was 45 minutes and we decided we didn't want to ride it that much. We started over into Frontierland and Tara wanted to ride Haunted Mansion, but again the wait time was too long for us, so we moved on to BTMRR. This is Tara's favorite ride in the Magic Kingdom, so we enjoyed it with her and then went to check out Splash. The wait time there was also about 45 minutes, so we skipped it and will pick it up on our next trip.
We walked over to Adventureland, and enjoyed the PoC ride - which was a walk on, much to my surprise. By this point, it was late, we were tired and hot and we had done most of what we came to do, so we opted to head back to our room. Our wait for a bus was not long, and as we were seated, I heard a gentleman who was just getting on the bus say "Thank you, God!!" and realized that he was happy about being on an air-conditioned bus. I totally agreed with his sentiment.
Saturday, July 2
Today we were headed to Animal Kingdom. Just as we went through the gates, the heavens opened up and the rain, rain, rain came down, down, down. We continued on into Dinoland, but Larry was unhappy about getting so wet, so he opted to wait for Tara and I at one of the gift shops while we went on to ride rides. When we got to Primeval Whirl, there were lots of people standing around the line, but no one was getting in the line - I guess they didn't want to get wet. Tara and I were already pretty wet, so we decided to go ahead and ride. Off we went through the ride, getting wetter by the second and totally ecstatic about being at Disney and riding one of our favorite rides, even in the rain! When we got back to the entrance, we asked if we could ride again, and since no one was waiting to get on, the CM said we could - we didn't even have to get off! By the end of the second ride, we were ready to move on, so we walked over to Dinosaur and it was packed, with a 50 minute wait time. I guess everyone flocked there when it started raining because it was indoors. Anyway, we decided we didn't want to wait that long and we weren't going to be in the park long enough to use a fast pass, so we passed on it - we'll catch it on the next trip.
I wanted to see the Pocahontas show, since I have never seen it, but I knew it was probably not going to run while it was raining, so I just resigned myself to picking it up on the next trip along with our Dinosaur ride. We walked back to the store where we had left Larry and he wasn't there. I figured maybe he had gone to the bathroom or something like that, so Tara and I sat down to wait for him. After about 15 minutes, I began to get concerned - we had a 12:00 ADR at Kona Café for lunch and it was about 11:35 now. Tara went in the store to see if he was there, but he wasn't and I was beginning to get a little worried - and I really hated the fact that I left my cell phone in the room! Finally, we decided to walk a little further back towards the entrance and if we didn't see him en route, we would get help from a CM. As we walked past the store that was right beside the one we had been waiting at, there he was - sitting just where we left him! We had been at the wrong store the whole time. Funny, I could have sworn I got it right, but mix-ups do happen at Disney sometimes. Anyway, we were all together now and ready for our lunch.
We had never eaten at Kona, and even though we were soaking wet and cold from the air conditioning, our server took it all in stride, saying we were not the first ones to come in from the rain. After coffee and hot soup, I was getting a little warmer, and we truly enjoyed our lunch here immensely. We will definitely go back again. After lunch, we headed back to our room to change into dry clothes and rest.
Our dinner tonight was at Flying Fish, which is a must do for us and one that we always enjoy. After dinner, we went out to wait for a bus to go to Downtown Disney. There was a family sitting next to us that we chatted with for a few minutes, who said they were waiting for a bus to Disney MGM Studios. We talked about our favorite rides and bid them goodbye when our bus finally came for Downtown Disney (which took quite a bit of time tonight, for some reason). We were on our way to Downtown Disney when Tara said, "Mama, I know why those people we were talking to hadn't seen a bus to MGM Studios - THERE IS NO BUS TO MGM STUDIOS FROM BOARDWALK!! They have to take the boat." And she was absolutely right. The strange thing is, I knew that - all three of us did - and yet we talked with those folks for a good 30 minutes without it ever dawning on us that they were waiting in the wrong place. I felt SO BAD and I have wondered ever since how long they sat there before realizing there wouldn't be a bus to MGM Studios. I hope they were able to get there that night for at least a little while.
We shopped for a few minutes in the Virgin Megastore, which really is huge - I have never seen so much music in one place in my life. From there, we headed over to the Adventurer's Club, which I had really been looking forward to doing. None of us had ever been, and I had heard that it was a fun place, so we decided to give it a whirl. After 1 ½ hours there, seeing the entertainment in the lobby, a short show in the Treasure Room, and the longer show in the Library, we decided it just wasn't for us. I really wanted to love this place - I had heard such good things about it - but these folks just weren't all that funny, at least not to us. Other people around us seemed to be having a good time, so I guess it was just not our cup of tea. I was actually trying to figure out a graceful way to exit from the Library while the show was going on, but couldn't find one and didn't want to be rude by being obvious about leaving early, so we stuck it out. Now we know that if we want to be entertained by funny people at Downtown Disney, we should head for the Comedy Warehouse (which we very much enjoyed the last time we were there).
Sunday, July 3
Last night was a late night for us, so we slept in this morning and got up with just enough time to get ready for our lunch ADR at Restaurant Akershus in Norway. People without an ADR were being turned away, so we were glad we had planned ahead. We totally forgot that this was a princess lunch, so we didn't even bring our camera, but it was still enjoyable to talk with the characters and the food was excellent. We would definitely eat here again.
After lunch, Tara wanted to stock up on some candy that is only sold in one of the Norwegian gift shops called Skor Bukk. It comes in a yellow bag and is a rich caramel covered with chocolate. I have tried one of these, and they are truly much better than any other chocolate and caramel candy I have ever had. Tara had saved money specifically so that she could stock up on enough of this treat to last until we are back in November. She went straight to the area of the gift shop where the candy was displayed, and began to take bags off the display and hand them to Larry, keeping count of how many she had so that she would be able to purchase as many as she could afford. She cleared out two rows of the candy display, and as we started to walk to the cash register, the gentleman that was browsing in the area next to us commented, "That must be really good!" We laughed and assured him it was. Interestingly enough, the CM's at the cash register were not at all surprised at Tara's purchase of this candy in bulk. Apparently, she is not the only one who loves it and chooses to stock up on each trip.
We decided to take in the boat rides in Norway and Mexico, which we had not done in several years. The Norway ride was lots of fun - particularly the part where you go backwards. The Mexico ride was very colorful - sort of like a Mexican version of It's a Small World. We had fun on both of these, and I was glad we did them together.
Tara wanted to go to the Pin Central area in Epcot to get a pin book, and Larry volunteered to go with her. I am not particularly interested in pins, so I decided to go see the movie in Canada, since it has been quite some time since I have seen it. We parted ways, and it began to rain as I was walking over to Canada. I was a little damp by the time I got there, but I still enjoyed the movie very much and I was glad I decided to watch it. When I came out of the theater, I could hear Off Kilter playing on the stage next door. We love Off Kilter, so I wandered over to listen. They were about half way through the set, so I got to hear a couple of songs before they were done. As they were preparing to leave the stage, I walked up to Mark (the bass player) and asked him if they would be willing to play a song for me if I hung around for the next set. He said they would and I thanked him, telling him that Off Kilter was one of the few bands that my husband and daughter could agree to listen to at the same time and he laughed. As I waited, Randy (the lead guitar player) was talking with another group of people about his newborn son, which makes two boys for him and his wife, and how he now had one to keep him up all day and another to keep him up all night. As he started backstage, I told him that he should wait until they got old enough to drive, as my daughter now was, and then he would really experience staying up worrying about them! He agreed, and we chatted for a bit about how crazy Atlanta traffic can be. He said that they had driven through the Atlanta area many times, heading for gigs in the North Carolina mountains and other points north of Florida. He also told me that they were about to come out with a new CD, which I will definitely have to purchase as soon as I can.
When the next set began, the band was barely into their first song when it started raining pretty hard. I was sitting under an umbrella, so it was not a bother for me, but some other folks were getting pretty wet and beginning to leave. When they finished the first song, Jamie (the bagpipe player) said that if the rain kept up, they would have to cut the set short, and Mark reminded him that I had made a request. So they played "Alive" - my very favorite Off Kilter song - with me singing every word along with Mark and enjoying the song immensely. As they played this one, the rain ended as abruptly as it had begun and they decided to continue playing. The next thing Jamie said was, "Does anybody here like oldies music?" I shouted a yes and began bouncing in my seat, because I knew what was coming next - my second favorite Off Kilter song, their cover of "Johnny B. Goode" - and they did an absolutely awesome job on both of those songs, even though their keyboard player was not there for this particular afternoon. I was tickled pink that I had heard my two favorite songs played live by them, and called a thanks after the set was over. Then I set off for our room, only to discover that Larry was asleep and Tara was nowhere to be found. I woke him up and asked where she was, and he said that she had decided to go down to the arcade for a little while. She came back in a few minutes, and when I told her about the terrific Off Kilter performance I had enjoyed, she was totally ticked that she missed it. But she knows she will have other opportunities to hear them perform, so she wasn't upset for too long.
Dinner tonight was at Yachtsman Steakhouse. This was a meal I had been greatly looking forward to, but it was a disappointing experience. The food and service were only so-so, and I don't think we will be going back there again. After dinner, we headed to Disney MGM Studios for extra magic hours. As we were going through the turnstiles, we noticed that our Annual Passes (which had been drenched in the rain at Animal Kingdom the day before) were not working well, so we went to Guest Relations to get new ones. This was done quickly and cheerfully after we presented our I.D. Tara waited for Larry and I by the door, and when we received our new passes and turned to leave, I could tell by her expression that something was up. She looked like she was about to give someone a piece of her mind, and I ushered her quickly out of the area so she could tell me what was happening. She explained that as she waited for us, a young woman had come in to the Guest Relations area and demanded to see a manager. When the manager came out, she told him that she had just bought her sneakers a month and a half ago and that she had stepped in gum in the park - now her sneakers were ruined and she wanted Disney to do something about it. The manager explained that Disney does not sell gum in any of their parks, but there is no way that they can stop guests from bringing it in from outside the parks. He apologized for the fact that she had stepped in gum, but there was really nothing else he could do. As the young lady continued to argue with him, Tara was having a hard time restraining herself from butting in to the conversation. That's when we left, and I told her that although I agreed with her point of view, it was truly much better not to get involved with something that had nothing to do with her. She agreed, but was incredulous that someone would have the nerve to try to get Disney to replace their shoes after they stepped in gum. I just laughed and told her that you can definitely see some strange stuff if you people watch for a few minutes at Disney.
We headed over to the Rock 'n Roller Coaster area, but it was packed with people and hard to move through. The CM's were directing people in for the last showing of the Beauty and the Beast show for the day. Since we hadn't seen this in several years, we decided to go in and enjoy it. It was a beautiful show and very well done, I thought. Outside the theater, it was still wall to wall people, so we decided to go over to the 50's Prime Time Café to see if we could get a snack. Of course, it was also wall to wall people there and we had no ADR, so we people watched for a little while. After a few minutes, we headed back to Rock 'n Roller Coaster and the wait was 60 minutes, so we got three fast passes and went to get a snack at the pizza stand close by. We ate and talked until our fast pass time came up. Then Larry and I made a HUGE sacrifice and gave Tara all three passes, so she would get three turns on this ride. We waited for her outside and listened to the great Aerosmith music. It took quite a while for her to get through the line three times and ride, but we didn't mind the wait - it gave us a chance to talk a bit and take in the great atmosphere there. Tara barely squeaked by with the third fast pass - right after she went in, they stopped letting people in, as it was 1:00 a.m. She said she got to ride in the front car on the last RnR ride of the night on the last night of our trip, which she decided was pretty darn cool.
We made our way out and caught the last boat to go back to the Boardwalk. When we were about half way between MGM and the Epcot resort area, the captain saw four young people jumping off one of the bridges and swimming in the canal - a DEFINITE no-no. She only saw them at the last minute and barely managed to avoid hitting them with the boat. She beeped her horn at them and they scrambled to get out of the water. She called security and let them know where the kids were. I think we were all a little shaken up by that - we wondered what would happen to them, but the captain said she had no idea, since she had never seen anyone do that before. I truly didn't understand - with all the pools in Disney World, these kids had to swim in the canal? Oh, well, I hope they were caught and appropriately punished - what they did was extremely dangerous.
Monday, July 4
It was time to go home, which is never any fun. We packed up and checked out, then decided to have breakfast at Spoodle's. Our server was rather slow, but she was pleasant and the food was very good, so we were pleased with our choice for breakfast. We hit the road and were back home that evening.
That's all for this trip - next one is over Thanksgiving. Feel free to post any comments or questions - and as always, thanks for reading!
Susan
I don't know if I could have kept my mouth shut, like your DD. She did the right thing, though.
