Last Minute Trip: Twenty-something Couple Playing Hookie in WDW...Update: Chapter 1

[kristinanderic]

This reminds me alot of when DH and I went to Disney before DS. Back when we could get up at the crack of dawn and stay out til midnight....ahh the memories.

 

[smartestnumber5]

This reminds me alot of when DH and I went to Disney before DS. Back when we could get up at the crack of dawn and stay out til midnight....ahh the memories.

This comment made GF and I laugh because we see ourselves as being so tired compared to people who have the energy to chase kids around WDW

I guess at this point in the trip report, we're still pretty energetic, but just wait til the end of the trip! Towards the end we were taking like 3-5 hour long naps because we were so exhausted. We would leave the hotel after 10 am, go on one or two rides, have lunch, and then we were so dead we had to go sleep. Actually a few times when we were sitting on benches feeling tired we'd watch all of the parents carrying pre-schoolers or pushing double strollers and say, "Gosh how do they have the energy?" We decided we're going to have to get very persuasive about convincing other family members to join us on our Disney trips after we have kids so we don't die of exhaustion!

 

[kristinanderic]

This comment made GF and I laugh because we see ourselves as being so tired compared to people who have the energy to chase kids around WDW

I guess at this point in the trip report, we're still pretty energetic, but just wait til the end of the trip! Towards the end we were taking like 3-5 hour long naps because we were so exhausted. We would leave the hotel after 10 am, go on one or two rides, have lunch, and then we were so dead we had to go sleep. Actually a few times when we were sitting on benches feeling tired we'd watch all of the parents carrying pre-schoolers or pushing double strollers and say, "Gosh how do they have the energy?" We decided we're going to have to get very persuasive about convincing other family members to join us on our Disney trips after we have kids so we don't die of exhaustion!

Oh believe me...people with kids wear out just as fast!!! We sat on benches throughout our trip and just people watched. It was too much work for us to load the baby, stroller, and our stuff to go back to the room for a nap....so we just found a nice place off to the side and recharged ourselves.....and we only have 1 child....so I can't even imagine how the people with 3 & 4 kids are doing it!

 

[smartestnumber5]

After a dip in the pool and GF's nap and my "Top 7 Things at WDW" fix, we headed out to dinner. We had reservations at 7:20 pm at Rose & Crown. We had been hoping for a patio table for the view of Illuminations, but didn't get one. Dinner was okay, but not great. We ended up not staying for Illuminations as the viewing area at Rose & Crown was tiny and full of people that we had trouble seeing over. GF was feeling crowded and bored a few minutes into it, so we headed on out and beat the rush. We had decided to go to Downtown Disney and left through the International Gateway. When I heard we were going to transfer at one of the Epcot resorts, I knew I had to have a No Way Jose sundae at Beaches and Cream.

GF and I stopped at the podium outside the shop and we're told about a 20 to 30 minute wait. GF was already not all that excited about going to Beaches and Cream (she was really just indulging me), so I was sure she was not going to want to wait up to a half hour just for me to have a sundae. So I was a little bit disappointed I told the hostess, "We need a minute to think" and we tried to step a bit away from the podium.

However, just as we began to step away and look at one another to decide what to do, a man who was standing near the podium walked over to us and began talking to us. He was very clearly drunk and said something like, "Paula (the Beaches and Cream hostess) will take care of you. She's from ______(somewhere, I don't remember where), Paula. She's a good one" in a slurred voice . The hostess looked at us with a face that said, "Oh God, please help me and make this drunken man stop leaning all over my podium and bothering me." We just smiled at the guy, and he began asking us about how our vacation was going. Soon we were involved in a conversation in which we had to answer every question twice because within 30 seconds he'd forget what we said. Eventually he asked where we were from and we said "Michigan." He replied "Fantastic" in a drunken way and suddenly another drunk seeming man behind us turned around and excitedly said, "Nantastic--you're from Natastic?" (Did he mean Nantucket?) Drunk man #1 said, "No, they're from Michigan." Drunk man #2 replied, "Massachusetts?" (Apparently these were New Englanders ) We repeated again: "Michigan." "Oh" he said. He no longer seemed interested. By this point Paula (the hostess) had come back to the podium after having been inside the restaurant for awhile and after having seated a group that had been waiting. She interrupted and told us, "there's an available table now." Yea! We said we'd take it right away. I can't say we were sad to have to leave the drunk people who wished us well.

The sundae was yummy of course. We actually got it w/ the pb on the side so GF could have sme too. Afterward we were both feeling a litttle uncomfortably full so we grabbed some rocking chairs outside on the porch in front of the Yacht Club Galley. I had never seen Stormalong Bay empty, but apparently that night they were cleaning or refurbishing or something because it had signs saying it was closed. GF and I got to admire it given there were no people in the way and we both really wanted to get to go swimming in it. While rocking we gave a call to the friend who was watching our kitties. She said the big one was screaming at night (which he usually does to us to) and keeping her up. Bad cat!

We then headed out to the buses to transfer at Downtown Disney. We decided that the Beach and Yacht Club was actually a really peaceful place, and we might just have to stay here someday...like our honeymoon . We ended up too tired to do anything at Downtown Disney so we just caught a bus back to Pop and watched a bit of TV before bed.

 

[smartestnumber5]

Our morning was apparently the same as every other morning because I don't remember it and I didn't write anything down about it in my Trip Report notes.

We chose MGM for today's morning/early afternoon activity because we had a lunch reservation in mid-afternoon at a resort. We figured since MGM is our least favorite park that we might be able to get our fill of it in one day.

Around 10:40 am we arrived at MGM and head straight for the Tower of Terror. GF commented that the walk from the entrance to ToT seemed so much shorter this time compared to last time. Wow sleep apnea machines work wonders!! ToT said 20 min for standby line. We got a FP in case we wanted to come back later and do it again and then got in line for standby. The line was actually more like non-existent--we walked right into the room with the Rod Serling video without every having to stop walking. Do they count the time it takes for that video and the queue after that as "waiting" time?

We both liked the ride, of course, though GF said she remembered it being more fun and less terrifying Actually, though I enjoyed it, I did feel like my stomach didn't tolerate it like it usually does. Usually I don't notice anything in my stomach, but this time my tummy felt a little weird after. I chalked it up to having not eaten more than a granola bar for breakfast, and I suggested that we get a pretzel to hold us over til lunch. GF sat down while I searched for a pretzel stand and found one in a few seconds. They didn't have cheese sauce though, so I had to settle for mustard. GF was quite willing to help me out in eating the pretzel--she's always so giving in that way

While we ate we discussed what to do next. It was going on 10:40 am and we wanted to see one of the stunt shows and go on the backlot tour and we had to leave the park around 12:40 am. The next Indiana Jones show was at 11:00 am, so we decided to hit that first and then do the backlot tour after which would take us right to the time we had to leave.

GF wasn’t that impressed w/ Indiana Jones. I didn't think she would be. She did say she liked the fire parts though. I had seen the show a few times before and remembered some of it. I was actually shocked at how full the theater was. They kept asking us all to stand up and walk as far to the left or right as possible and then sit down again to make room for more people on the benches. Our row just kept standing up but there was no where to walk so we'd have to sit right back down where we were.

After the show we started walking towards the backlot tour, but GF was hit by a wave of tiredness. We took a seat on a bench for awhile and as it was quickly approaching noon, I started wondering if we really had time to do the tour since it's so long. We ended up going on a search for real coffee—not the Nescafe crap--instead. We just happened to hit upon the Writer’s Stop which had actual espresso—yay! It was right around the corner from the Sci-Fi Dine Inn and near the Muppets I think. GF was very excited. I decided to try a brownie since GF was getting a drink. We took a seat on their comfy couches for a few minutes and then headed back out.

We intended to go on Star Wars but as we walked toward the entrance we realized GF's coffee wouldn't do well there with the motion simulator. So we opted for Sounds Dangerous instead since it was right there. I warned GF ahead of time that it's a pretty maligned attraction. Strangely, though, she enjoyed it--though she did have some ideas about how they could improve it. Just after the movie had started and the lights had gone mostly and then completely off, some folks who were waiting in the queue outside began opening the doors and entering the theater. They just stood by the door and held the door open. I'm not sure if they were confused or looking for someone or what. The CM who was inside the room began yelling at the people to wait outside and close the door. But they didn't budge. She yelled again and there was no response. At that point the whole room had gone black, so she actually had to get a flash light out and walked over there and made the people go outside and shut the door. Weird.

By the time we were done at Sounds Dangerous it was time to leave MGM and head over to the Grand Floridian for lunch. We spent the busride pondering the bus system and which resort has the best buses. The monorail resorts always seem to have buses that are mostly empty (at least that's what we've noticed when we've taken those buses to and from the resorts for dinner), but they share buses so we assume their commute times must be longer than a place like Pop. After all, I'd say it takes a good 7 minutes just to go from the Contemporary to the Poly. On the other hand, the Pop buses are almost always full, but there is only the one stop. Are there really that many more people at Pop than at the Cont, GF, and Poly combined? Or is just that people at the monorail either aren’t going to the parks or aren’t using Disney transportation as much as the Pop people?

We arrived at the gfc just in time for our reservation. GF had never seen the gf except from the monorail and she admitted it was much prettier in person and pretty peaceful. Still, I think it's too fancy for our tastes. Our lunch was okay, but we were a bit disappointed. We decided that perhaps we would make out better with more “theme” restaurants such as Sci-Fi (which we'd been debating going to) or more all-you-care-to-eat or buffet places given we really like Boma and Ohana.

After lunch we got back to the hotel a bit after 3 pm and took a 2 hour nap. At this point in the trips the naps just started getting longer and longer--we ended up sleeping 10 or 11 hours a day!

 

[kristinanderic]

Pop Century has 2,880 rooms.

The Grand Floridian has 900 rooms.

The Poly has 847 rooms.

The Contemporary has 1,000 rooms.

So the GF, Poly, & Cont. combined have 2,747 while the POP has 2,880 rooms.

 

[smartestnumber5]

After an afternoon break we left around 7pm to go to Downtown Disney. On the way we saw a sign for Bonnet Creek Resort (which we'd seen numerous times before). We were wondering what it is and why it appears to be on Disney property? Maybe that's the edge of Disney property? (Ah, just looked it up and it's a golf course! Mystery solved!)

When we arrived at Downtown Disney GF commented that the walk from the buses to the entrance to the marketplace (the one that is about 50 ft long) seemed so much longer last time. Boy that sleep apnea machine works wonders!

We wanted to eat at Earl of Sandwich for dinner but we weren't quite hungry yet. We stopped in to see what time it closed and were told 11:30 pm by a CM standing near the door.

Next we went to the pet store--or what we thought was the pet store. It had actually been taken over by the "Under $10 store" that was connected to it. The pet store is no longer a store in itself but was merged with the general Disney type store next to it and now hardly has any pet stuff. And there was almost no cat stuff at all. How come there's always so much more merchandise for dogs than cats? I think cat people are really an untapped market.

I had been unable to totally wake up from my nap so I finally decided it was time for some coffee. Unfortunately I have acid reflux and can't have very much coffee because of its acidity. So if I do want any coffee/caffeine, I generally have to forgo the $1.25 refillable cup of regular coffee at the local coffee shop and instead go for an espresso drink which has approximately 1 shot of espresso per 20 oz of milk for $3.50 That means, of course, that a lot of places that have regular old coffee but not espresso drinks don't offer anything I can drink. Luckily, though, I had seen a sign outside of Goofy's Candy Co. which mentioned espresso. Yes--jackpot

I wanted a large latte with one shot of espresso and a shot of flavor (my usual), but the drinks only came in one size (small/medium). That wouldn't be enough milk to to hide the acid (I know, I've tried), so I asked for just half a shot in the drink. But the CM said the machine made the drink so she couldn’t alter it. (Actually, from watching her work that she pushed a button that made the espresso come out of the machine and then she added the milk. So I think all she had to do was move the cup away from the spout once the machine was about halfway done releasing the espresso.) I figured I was out of luck in that case, until GF suggested a café au lait instead. I’d never had one, and only vaguely knew what they were. GF encouraged me to try it and asked the CM to go very light on the coffee. I also asked for a shot of flavor for good measure. It worked! I'm guessing there was 3 oz of coffee tops with 10 oz or so of milk. And my stomach didn't object to it! I can’t believe I never thought of this before--especially given it's a lot cheaper than espresso drinks. Even worse, GF is a lover of coffee and used to work at a coffee shop and she hadn’t thought of telling me about it before! Good to know about now I guess.

In addition to the coffee, I also got some create your own candy things at goofy’s. I think I was the only adult doing so, but they're just so yummy Next we headed over to the world of Disney store and picked up a sovenier for the friend watching our cats. And by that time we had worked up an appetite and headed back to Earl of Sandwich.

It was still pretty busy for that time of night. As we were waiting in line, the same CM we asked about the closing time earlier came up to us in line and said “oh you’re back again." He then said something I didn't hear and GF responded in a surprised voice, "What do we want for free?" I was confused. Did he just offer us free food? The CM looked kind of embarassed and just shrugged and said something like, "Free...." and then shrugged and smiled. There was an awkward pause and then he asked us what we were thinking of getting and recommended things to us. I didn't know what had happened. After he walked away GF swore he had said, "You're back. So what do you two want for free?" Did GF lose our free food because she announced *free* too loudly?

We really, really liked Earl of Sandwich. After eating we walked toward Pleasure Island and I spotted the CS place with deep fried snickers bars open. Last time it was closed, so I got excited. GF convinced me that I shouldn’t overdo it and stuff myself and that we could come back in the next few days for me to get one. (I knew then that I should get it while we were there because I probably wouldn't end up having a good chance to get it later. And indeed, that's what happened, )

Once at Pleasure Island, we debated about getting a pleasure island 5 for 5 pass or seeing what AP/DDE discounts were available, but weren’t sure it was worth it. We couldn’t be sure we’d go back this trip and we were supposed to be doing things cheaply, with no extras. So we decided it would be nice to just get back to the hotel a little early (this was 9:30pm) as we’d been so tired the last few nights when we got back.

We headed to the bus stop and found a group of people waiting for the bus, so we took a seat on an empty bench one bus stop away. I kept thinking about how tired GF had been last trip when we were leaving Pleasure Island a couple of nights. On our last night I thought she was literally going to fall over if the bus didn't come! After about 10 minutes of sitting the group of people waiting had grown significantly to probably about 25 people and shortly after a bus showed up. When the lights in the bus went on, it was clear that there were already probably 25 people standing on the bus, and there was no way the group waiting was getting on. Most of the folks just stood there staring at the bus apparently thinking “What the heck is this? There’s no room!”

One of the groups of people waiting to get on the bus was a few elderly folks, one of whom was in a wheelchair. The bus driver came out and told this group that there was no way that he could fit a wheelchair on that bus, so he would radio for an empty bus. While he was calling a woman and two children managed to squeeze on the bus, but it was clear no one else would fit. This was at about 9:55 pm and most folks had been waiting at least 15 minutes already when that bus pulled up.

Everyone went back to waiting. GF and I were near to a family with young children who had been there when we showed up. As time started to pass, the family started to doubt that this “empty” bus was ever going to come; they figured that since the buses at Dowtown Disney stop at Marketplace first and then Pleasure Island, every bus was always going to be horribly full. Indeed, in the next 15 minutes or so we saw every bus but Pop show up. After that we saw a 2nd and 3rd and even 4th bus for some resorts—especially POR and CSR. The man next to me whose daughter was asleep in his arms kept speculating that perhaps the number of buses was determined by the price of a room at that particular hotel. "Wow the rates at Coronado Springs must be through the roof--that's the 4th bus in the last 20 minutes!" he'd say

By this point significantly more people had arrived up at the bus stop. Of course, the way the crowds gathered people who had been waiting for going on 40 minutes tended to be sitting on the benches or standing near them under the pavillion. New arrivals, on the other hand, tended to fill in the area between the people already waiting in the curb. This, of course, meant that all of the people who would be able to get on the bus first would be people who'd only been waiting for a few minutes! And if the bus that finally came ran out of room, it'd be the people who'd already been waiting who'd have to wait for the next bus

One of these new arrivals was a bus driver in uniform who began talking to people a bit. I couldn't hear what he was saying, but I was guessing that people were telling him how long they'd been waiting. I thought, "hey, if nothing else maybe he can call in and tell them about the huge crowd gathering." Finally around 10:30 pm another bus showed up. This one didn’t have a crowd of folks standing, but all its seats were already full. The driver who was waiting in the crowd switched places with the driver of the bus and then announced, “Okay folks. We’re going to get you all on the bus, but we’re going to get the woman in the limo on first (referring to the woman in the wheelchair).” (I have no idea what the heck that comment was supposed to mean.)

We just barely fit all the people in the crowd on the bus and were packed in like sardines. GF was standing in a precarious position on the stairs between the upper and lower level of the bus. The bus driver sat down but seemed to be taking his time with actually pulling out. He decided he needed a few minutes to fool with the mirrors and such. Then he started announcing what he was doing—“Don’t worry folks—I just drove one of these for the first time this morning so I haven’t got all the buttons down yet.” Umm, hello. We are packed in like sardines and have been waiting almost an hour for a bus--just drive!

When he finally started pulling out he slammed on the breaks three times—making all the people standing lurch forward and back—and called out “Sorry, haven’t quite figured out these breaks yet!” Okay, this isn't funny. Even if we weren't all ticked from having to stand around for an hour waiting for a bus, this would still not be funny. You have 25 people standing and squashed into this bus. One of them is going to go flying and get hurt.

He did the break lurching again a few times on the way out of the parking lot and then started asking if anyone knew the way to Pop Century. At this point almost all of the adults in the back of the bus were grumbling and had begun wondering if he was drunk. For the rest of trip he did trivia and got kids to sing songs. That was annoying given the state of most people on the bus, but fine. And then on the way into Pop Century he purposely exaggerated the twisting of the road causing all the people standing to sway back and forth. I don't know what in the heck he was thinking?! I mean, maybe if the bus was very empty and everyone was sitting exaggerating the curves wouldn't be so bad (okay, even then, it seems like a bad idea to use bad driving as a way to make people laugh). But come on buddy, you have at least 25 people standing on this bus and none of them can move an inch without hitting someone else. This prompted some clearly angry yelling from the back of the bus which the driver just ignored as he went on with his jokes.

We were sooooo glad to get off that bus. I really think he might have had too much to drink.

 

[smartestnumber5]

On Sunday morning we had an ADR for breakfast at Whispering Canyon at 10:30 am. It was supposed to be a light meal, but we ended up getting the skillets and pigging out After the skillet and a milkshake + each, we were stuffed and decided to just go right back to the room and take a nap. I napped for 3 hours which is amazingly long for me--I often can't nap at all! After I got up GF just kept going. I tried to wake her up a few times telling her she'd end up messing her sleep schedule up (this happens at home sometimes when she takes long naps during the day), but she was dead to the world. Finally after 5 1/2 hours she woke up. (Amazingly she slept another whole 8 hours that night with no problem!)

Our plan had been to go to EMH (which were 8pm to 11pm) at Magic Kingdom that night. We didn't have a dinner ADR for that night and earlier we had planned to try Columbia Harbor House (a counter service place) for dinner since we'd had a table service breakfast. We figured we had to get there before 8pm though since we didn't know what CS places would be open during EMH. After GF woke up though we had a minor issue (me being teary since we were kind of going all the time and just sleeping when we were back in the room, so not really having a lot of couple time--which was especially hard given we'd been pretty stressed and snippy with one another just before we left for the trip).

By the time we got that sorted out it was already almost 7pm and we didn't think we'd make it to CHH. GF also thought maybe tempting me with another nice dinner would cheer me up. She suggested Kona Cafe which I've been wanting to try. She called Disney Dining right away and asked about Kona Cafe since I'd been wanting to go there. They had a reservation for 8:50 or so; I nodded "yes" to GF when she asked if she should take it. While she was getting the confirmation #, though, I realized that EMH were from 8-11. If we ate dinner around 9, we would either have to go to the park for just an hour before dinner or even less time after dinner. Hmm, what to do?

GF hung up and said she just had just had the same realization. So then we thought, what if we get a reservation for a TS restaurant inside MK. That would help us out. I called Disney Dining this time while GF got ready to go. I talked to a CM who was not very helpful at all and kind of snippy. I told her I was looking for something that night at MK during EMH at one of the TS places--anything they had. She replied in a short voice, "Well what restaurant do you want?" I said, "Well, do you know which restaurants are open during extra magic hours tonight?" She replied nastily, "No, I don't. You have to tell me what restaurant you want." Taken aback at her rudeness, I replied, "Okay, how about Tonys or the Plaza." She quickly said, "Well Tony's isn't doing EMH tonight." (Huh? She just said she didn't know which restaurants at MK were open during EMH tonight. But clearly she did know, at the very least, that Tony's wasn't doing them. That information could have helped me if she'd told me up front.) She then looked for the Plaza and didn't find anything. I got off the phone as fast as possible and exclaimed "What a witch!" when I hung up (except I didn't say "witch").

We decided to try again at the conceirge desk instead of on the phone. The CM we talked to was sooo much more helpful than the one on the phone. She found us a dinner at Concourse around 9:30pm and found us one at Citricos around 7:45 pm (no way we could make that in time). She also suggested that during EMH there are often some openings for CRT, because people often don't know it's still serving after normal park closing time. Nothing was open, though, for that night. At that point we were pretty confused about what to do since none of the options worked well with going to MK for EMH. We decided to just get on the bus and decide on the way over.

GF suggested that we could just get a snack at MK and go to Downtown Disney for a later dinner. We got to MK during Wishes and managed to pretty easily walk through the groups of people watching on Main Street and headed into Tomorrowland. We got a pretzel and frozen coke and sat down to call Disney Dining to see what was available at Downtown Disney for a late dinner. We were specifically interested in Rainforest Cafe, and it turned out they didn't take reservations but they closed at 11pm. So we decided to aim for that.

We hit up the Stitch ride which had no wait and when we were done with that the Wishes crowd had begun to filter out and the other Tomorrowland attractions had 20-30 minute waits. At this point I started to feel a little unsure about our plan of waiting so long to eat. I wasn't really feeling all that excited about EMH and was kind of hungry, but at that point there was nothing to be done about it. Next we headed over to Adventureland. Pirates was listed as a 15 minute or so wait, but it turned out to be more like 5 minutes. At that point it was about 9:20 pm. We had decided we should leave by around 9:40 pm. GF suggested we try to do one more ride so we headed over to Big Thunder Mountain. I did not really want to do another ride and was a little worried about time, but I went along with GF. This ride was listed at a 20 minute wait as well and this time they meant it (well, more like 15 minutes). I kept checking my watch compulsively while we waited. We were still in line around 9:45 pm and I realized that we actually might end up being pretty late to Downtown Disney. I started calculating and realized we wouldn't get off of BTM til 10pm. Then we had to walk out of the park and to transportation. That would take us to 10:10 pm at least. Then we had to get to the Contemporary since (as far as I know) there is no bus to DD from the parks. That would take us to 10:25 pm. And a bus from the Contemporary to DD would take until about 10:45 pm or later. I started panicking that maybe the DD restaurants wouldn't seat us if we got there so late. GF noticed my panic and apologized, but at this point we were in the middle of the line and there wasn't really an easy way to get out of it. She suggested that we stop at the restaurants in the Contemporary and see if there were any late seatings. I was pretty sure, though, that even California Grill didn't seat after 10pm, and there was no way we could get there before then.

It ended up that we did get to the Contemporary after 10pm and neither Concourse nor California Grill were still seating. So we went and got a bus to DD (which luckily came right away). At this point I was a little cranky and worried. When we got to DD I went ahead of GF since I walk faster. We arrived around 10:40 pm and I was hoping they were still seating. They were and I felt relief! Turned out though that the dinner was so bad it probably would have been better if we hadn't have been seated.

We left DD an hour and twenty minutes later unhappy and unsatisfied food-wise. But at least this time we didn't have to wait 45 minutes for a wacko bus driver.

 

[kristinanderic]

You ever gonna finish this up? I'm still waiting you know!

 

[smartestnumber5]

You ever gonna finish this up? I'm still waiting you know!

I've really fallen down on the job. Now it's been so long I don't remember what we did on our trip! I'll have to rely on my notes...working on the next chapter now!

 

[smartestnumber5]

On Monday we went back to MK. Even though we'd been there the night before, we thought it would be empty since it was the morning after evening extra magic hours—or so says the conventional wisdom. The conventional wisdom was right! It was way more empty than during EMH. We got on Buzz Lightyear and Space Mountain in about 2 minutes each and then hit Tommorowland Transport. (GF wanted to buy the picture of us from Buzz Lightyear, but me being cheaped just kept us moving along past the buying area. GF made me promise that on our next trip we'll get a picture if it comes out well.)

We walked on over to Fantasyland with a quick stop for a cigarette for GF in the smoking area near the speedway. There were these weird black bugs I've never seen before that seemed to be swarming in the bushes nearby. Being kind of bug-phobic, I had to leave the area to get away from them. (Maybe they are the "love bugs" I've heard about?) Lo and behold in front of the Mad Hatter's Tea Party were Alice and the Mad Hatter. We’ve talked about Alice for the name of our first kid if it’s a girl so we thought we needed a picture.

We didn't come to "Alice" because of Alice in Wonderland, but realized after agreeing to Alice that it was a nice coincidence. Of all the female Disney characters she's probably the one that we'd most want a child to look up to with all of her curiosity and intelligence.

Anyway, back to the Magic Kingdom. Next GF wanted to do peter pan. It was a 20 min wait so we got a fastpass and got lunch at Columbia Harbor House. We still had some time til our FP so we checked out the jungle cruise, but it had a 30 minute wait. So we went back to peter pan and got in line a few minutes early. GF gave the ride a thumbs down. She thought the people waiting in the now 40 minute standby line were going to be very disappointed. I figure little kids would probably enjoy it much more than we did.

On the way out of the park we needed snacks, of course. She got an iced cappucino which was a horrible store mix rather than actual cappucino and a dole whip. I just can’t stomach the dole whips—just way too acidic--so I hit the Main Street bakery for an ice cream sandwich .

On the bus ride home we debated what we could name a 2nd child/boy. (In our mind, the 1st is a girl and the 2nd a boy-- ) We thought if our first is told all about Alice in Wonderland and has that special thing at Disney to get a picture with Alice, then what about the 2nd kid? What Disney or storybook character could we name that kid after? We thought Peter Pan was kind of like Alice in that there's a larger history to the story than just the Disney version, which could be nice for when the kid gets older; plus lots of decorating possibilities. But neither of us like Peter as a name. I suggested Pan, but that didn't go over well. We'll have to work on this.

We got back to the hotel and took a nap. We set the alarm for an hour and a half and then went swimming and had some drinks. Since it was getting towards the end of our trip, and we were skipping some classes in order to go on the trip blush, we had to do a little work. We sat out by the pool until it was time to leave for dinner.

We had an ADR at Spoodles so we took the bus to MGM and then got the boat to spoodles. On the boat ride, we discussed the merits of someday staying at the Beach Club for the pool and the closeness to the boardwalk and restaurants. We thought that might be a good way to get us to rest a little—having a lot around the hotel to do. Plus stormalong bay just looks sooo nice.

Spoodles was yummy. Our server was kind of negligent and seemed kind of rushed. But she was also nice and friendly and apologetic so it was a nice change from the night before at our horrible dinner at Rainforest Cafe. At dinner GF got a glowtini which pleased her greatly:

It was late by the time we were done with dinner, so we had to transfer buses at Downtown Disney. It was a much smoother ride back to Pop from DD this time--except for a person sitting right behind us who insisted on talking about 5 decibles too high to her kid. She kept asking the kid “What did you do today?” loud enough for the whole bus to hear. The kid, on the other hand, seemed to be talking at a normal level when answering, but the mother was screaming. At one point she turned back in the bus to scream to her husband (who was apparently sitting pretty far behind her), “Look Cirque de Sole” as we passed the Westside of DD. Then she went on singing children’s song with the little girl. She also kept saying, “Are we there yet?” or telling the child, “Almost there honey, almost there” even though the kid didn’t seem ancy at all and never asked if we were there yet. As we got off the bus the woman yelled, “I’ve never been so happy to see a hotel!” A woman a few seats in front of us looked back and must have caught the woman’s eye. The yeller said to her, “Oh did you hear her singing? Honey, you were singing so loud the whole bus heard.” And then, “Sorry about that, but as long as she’s behaving...*shrug*” GF commented as we walked away, “Uh, lady it isn’t your kid that’s loud—it’s you!”

 

[kristinanderic]

MAYBE, she just got off the plane and her ears were still a bit messed up...she couldn't hear herself....??!??!

I know on our flight down there I had some ear issues and couldn't hear for a good 2 hours after we were on Florida soil....although I don't think I was singing on the bus.

 

[mickeymum]

ALRIGHT AN UPDATE!

 

[smartestnumber5]

Another thread I haven't updated in forever--oops.

Our trip was beginning to wind down by this point. We decided to go back to Animal Kingdom for the morning to do some stuff in Africa. GF wanted to do the safari and the conservation station. We arrived a little after 10 am and though Everest had no line, decided to hit the safari first just in case. It was the day after extra magic hours and the park was pretty empty. That must be the trick!

GF had to stop a little on the walk to the back of the park as the tiredness had finally hit full force, so we hit up some benches. We got to the safari and got on in a few seconds. There's something about how the trucks line up with the numbers on the ground below that always mixes me up about which row is which. The CM told us to go to row 4 and I went into what I thought was row 4 which already had two people in it. I didn't understand why they'd make us get in a row w/ 2 others when it was so empty. Plus it's kind of a tight squeeze for four adults in those trucks when two of us are on the larger side. As we tried to squeeze the CM came over and pointed to the row in front of us and said, "Actually this is row 4"--oops

We saw a ton of animals during the Safari; I guess since it was so cool out, they didn't have to sleep in the shade and could roam about.

At the end of the ride a little boy in front of us—maybe 7—turned to his sister—maybe 5—and told her how the poacher scene at the end with the plane and the baby elephant is all fake. The little girl looked distraught and emphatically denied this. The boy insisted and his sister said, “But why?!” in a tortured voice that reminded me of when kids learn the truth about Santa. A minute or so later as we were unloading the little girl brought it up again and just wouldn't believe it was fake. The little boy insisted, “The man in the plane is fake. He isn’t moving.” She replied matter-of-factly, “He must be sleeping while he’s awake.” They were sooo cute!

Next it was time for lunch. GF went to tusker house while I just got a smoothie and a pretzel since AK isn’t so great for vegetarian food. We sat outside in the back of Tusker House—a nice seating area, but probably only useful in the few months that it’s relatively cool out. At this point we were already kind of tired. We decided to just hit Rafiki’s conservation station, which GF was excited about and then leave. We spent the train ride on the way to the station trying to see what was behind the train. Since the train is set up so that everyone has to face straight ahead we thought maybe there was some big secret on the other side . But if there was a secret, we couldn't crane our necks enough to see it.

GF found the conservation thing crappy. There were signs on the walk there telling us to allow animals in our backyard—to put out birdbaths and such—and to set up a habitat on our apartment patios. Huh? I guess they'd be fun for kids, but GF was looking for something more sciency. At the station we looked inside the building and had just missed an examination of a tiger. Other than that, nothing very interesting was happening. We went back to the train within 10 minutes of arriving. GF found the whole thing to be an insult to conservationism.

We were pretty tired by then and decided to just head back to the hotel instead of doing more rides. We had to stop on benches a few times on the way for GF to rest. We'd definitely hit the wall! At the bus stop we found a few rocks to sit on while we waited. There were a few other people in line for the bus and a little boy about 3 years old was running around a bit. Somehow he tripped and went flying onto the concrete. His mother (I assume) was about 20 feet away but she went running toward him and flung herself underneath a railing to get to him. The poor kid was screaming and crying; they picked him up and decided they'd better walk back to the entrance of the park to make sure he was okay. We remarked that we'd just witnessed "mother instinct"--a perfectly average seeming woman had just seemed to become superman and fly through the air at the sound of her child in danger. It was pretty impressive!

There were only a few people on the bus and a few times I got the feeling that we were being stared out. GF and I both noticed this one other time on an Epcot bus. I assume with the bus so uncrowded it was easy to spot us holding hands or to overhear our conversation and figure out that we're a same-sex couple. We also noticed at one point people staring and appearing to be angry once when someone in an ECV was entering the bus.

We got back to the hotel and took a nap. I tried to set the alarm for about 2 hours from then, giving us some time for relaxing and work and maybe swimming before dinner. Apparently, though, I forgot to actually put the alarm on because more than 3 hours later, I woke up and thought, “hmm, I feel like I’ve been sleeping forever!” I woke GF up and jokingly accused her of turning off the alarm, but she informed me that it was my fault, not hers when she saw that I'd set the alarm for AM rather than PM. Oops.

After our long nap GF took a bath while I went to pop for a snack for us—latte, pudding, rice crispy treat, pizza, cheesecake. Probably not a great snack for 3 hours before our dinner time, but it had been 6 hours since lunch and all I ate was a smoothie and pretzel. We chowed down and I realized too late that I’d eaten a little too much. How, oh how, am I going to have room for all of the great food at California Grill in just a few hours?

Somehow I managed. We had a yummy dinner at CG as usual. I was disappointed, though, that we'd made CG our last dinner of the trip. It's just so good that you don't want to save it until the end.

Our server was nice enough to take our picture: