Hi guys,
I seem to have fallen off the face of the Earth.
Our last full day at WDW started off by arriving at DHS at rope drop so that the hubster had a chance of riding RNRC and TOT without a long wait. The rope dropped and we were off, racing down Sunset, as the crowd was headed to the aforementioned rides. The hubster went straight to RNRC whiel I stood in line and got hima FastPass for TOT. I guess I was in line longer than I thought, because the hubster got in line for RNRC and got a child swap pass and then went through a second time with the CS pass (as I would never ride this). So I got him the FP for TOT and waited, and waited, and waited.......as I was waiting I was looking at the DHS map and times guide for what to do next and Disney Playhouse caught my eye. I remembered that I wanted to take Cuddlebug to see this, so I texted the hubster (gotta love text messaging in line) to see where he was in line, and if it was okay for us to go on over to the Disney Playhouse. He texted back it was okay,a nd that he was about tot get on, so I texted back directions and told him to meet us there.
I figured the line for the show would be long, but it wasn't. Cuddlebug and I waited 10 minutes and they started to let us in. The hubster texted that he was headed our way, so I sttod up to let him see where we were in the theatre. Now, on with the show. Sadly, Cuddlebug does not know the Disney characters too well. She's into Sesame Street and Barney, however she was enthralled by the show. The part where bubbles were released was her fav, and she cried for for bubbles. All in all, a good, cute, great show and it kept her entertained the whole time.
I told the hubster that I had gotten his FP for TOT, but we started discussing lunch. While waiting on Suset for rope drop, I had called Dinsye Dining to cancel our TS lunch ressie for The Coral Reef over at Epcot. Grandpa and Grandma were on there way from Tallhassee, and we figured that they would arrive around the time of our ressie (1:40) so we decided to cancel. Well, I was just thinking of grabbing a CS at DHS, but the hubster asked if I wnated to head over to Epcot anyway (it was around 11 a.m.) and see if we could find somewhere to use our last TS credit.
We jumped on a bus over to Epcot and decided just to try Coral Reef first. Wouldn;t ya know, they only had a 25 minute wait, so we got to have our CR lunch afterall. I know we were oddballs, not ordering seafodd at CR, but the hubster had the steak and I had the chicken. Cuddlebug had grilled chicken as well. I topped it off with the chocolate wave and the hubster asked for the make your own sundae. We were going to try to do the Nemo ride, but figured we'd better head to the resort.
Perfect timing, on our way in to the resort, who should we see getting hassled (just kidding) at the guard gate, but Grandma and Grandpa. We had told them when they arrived to meet us at the Carraige House, so we stayed ont he bus and got off at the Springs. By this time, G&G were sitting on benches near the pool. We all headed back to our room.
After a while Grandma wanted somethign to eat, and we were still making plans (as we only had the nighttime to go to a park if we wanted) so we were weighing pros and cons. We headed up to Artists Pallete so G&G could get a quick bite. While at AP, I realized I had an online quiz for grad school due by 6 p.m. so whatever we decided to do, I had to take my quiz first (it was around 3). We came back, where Cuddlebug showed off for G&G, and I took my quiz (did I mention I had not read the chapers I needed, so I had to look everything up as I went along with only an hour time limit). Got done with the quiz and reloaded the diaper bag, and off we went to my favorite park --- MK (I seriously could spend everyday of my vacation there).
We arrived at MK, where just like the day before, they had a van at the entrance to the bus area controlling traffic. We overheard the bus driver say something about being at capacity, so when we got off the bus, I asked the driver if the park was at capacity. She explained that it had been at 3 p.m. but that it was lightening up (it was close to 5 by this time). I told her that they day before while we left MK to have lunch at the Poly, we had heard about the park being closed the day before. She explained to me that they have three levels of admittance to the park, and it was likely that they had reached "red light" the day before (no one admiited as the park had reached capacity). She said that even though there was a huge crowd earlier in the day, they had only gone to "yellow light" (resort guests only). "Green light" is resort and day guests admitted.
So we headed to Frontierland, as the night before when the hubster and I went back we had stayed in Tomorrowland. The line for BTMR and SplashM were 80 minutes each, so I made the call that we should ride Splash so that we'd dry off as we walked around the park. It was decided that G&G and I would ride and the hubster would stay with Cuddlebug. Well the estimated time was so off for the stand-by line. It took us two hours to get through the queue, so just as we were about to board I complained and got two CS passes. As soon as the three of us got through the ride, the hubster and I rode and of course with the FP/CS it was a walk-on ride so we did it again. We ended up not getting the least bit wet.
Meanwhile while the hubster had waited for us for 2 hours to ride Splash, he worked the system to get multiple CS passes for BTMR (we figured out the system). He had also gotten us FPs for BTMR so we were aqble to ride multiple times in multiple combos, except for Grandma who knew that she didn't want to ride it.
After our stay in Frontierland, we decided to do something Cuddlebug could do, so there were brief stopovers at Haunted Mansion, It's a Small World,a nd Mad Hatter's Tea Party. Then we went back over to Tomorrowland for Space Mountian.
As I stood in line with Cuddlebug to get a CS pass, this British guy walks up to me and says, "Are you going to be in the park much longer?" I replied "Yes" and out of his pocket comes a handful of FPs that he and his group had collected throughout the day. Alone I had 10 FPs for SpasceM. So I got out of line, found the hubster and G&G, and we rode in multiple combos again. The hubster has managed while I was in the back of the FP/CS line to walk up and get a CS pass and got Grandpa to ask for one as well, so we used all but 4 of out free FPs I had received (we decided to cut the evening short). Just as we rode SpaceM for the final time, we foudn out the Joey Fantone and the guy who played Carlton on "fresh Prince" were in the park and later foudn out that they rode SpaceM just ahead of us on one of our rounds. The hubster asked what ride I wanted to do last,a nd we headed back over to BTMR, as it is such a different ride/experience to do at night. My gifted FP pack included, FP for BTMR, plus we still had our Fp from ealier in the day (refer to the 2 hour wait), so before we left Tomorrowland, I walked into the end of the stand-by line ofr SpaceM and gave away the last 4 FPs I had. At forst some refused, and told me that the window had passed when they saw them, but then I explained that FP could be used all day. Shocked and astonsihed, I am glad to have made someone's night!
We headed back over to BTMR and I did the same thing on our last ride witht he last 3 FPs I had for BTMR, except I gave them away just as I boarded the train. There was a group of three teens behind me and I leaned out and asked one of they wanted to ride it again. The guy said yes,a nd I handed him the last 3 Fps I had. He was thankful and said that I was "So awesome for doing this" and then showed his friends. So as my train pulled away, they were screaming out thank you's. I shot back a thumbs-up and enjoyed riding BTMR, again, in the dark, with an amzing view of the castle at night.
We left MK later than we did the night before, and arrived back at the resort at 1 a.m. Needing to pull out the couch for G&G and wake up and pack in the morning.
More pics soon, and our last half-day report to come soon., Sorry I fell off the face of the earth. I am slowly reacclimating to "civilization" and alreay planning our next trip. The question is do we want a full week at Spring Break again or do we want to do a longer trip and use all of our use year points for a stay in June of next year????? To be decided later on. Of course I told the hubster to decide soonish, as I can book next year's trip for SB next month at AKV, our home resort.
Joan
