MajorWoody
The View From My Office
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2002
- Messages
- 294
Who :
Bill, age 44, NYSP Investigator, AP holder and numerous WDW trips
Jenn, daughter, age 19, AP holder, last trip 12/00
Joseph, son, age 17, AP holder, last trip 12/00
Where:
All Star Sports - 5 nights
Coronado Springs - 5 nights
When :
12/7 thru 12/17/02
Hello again,
Wednesday found us getting up after a lousy nights sleep, due to the all
night rowdiness going on at the hotel. We dressed, and hit the food court
for breakfast. Usually on my trip reports I put some detail into all the
meals, plus the prices. However, it seems like there was nothing special
about the meals at the All Star food court that I wrote down in my notes. We
usually had generic pancakes and sausages most mornings, at about $5 a pop.
We used our refillable mug for beverages so that wasn't a factor in meal
prices.
After eating, it was off in the van to the Polynesian. I wanted to see if
they had a pin I had been told was only at that location, but it turned out
they didn't have it. We then hopped on the monorail to the MK, arriving at
11:45am. We went straight to the Barber Shop, and found it was a 90 min wait
once again. There was only 1 barber working today, which accounted for the
delay. I was getting a bit scruffy, so I decided to wait. We (Joe & I )
finally got our buzz cuts, which she charged us $11 each for, instead of
the usual $15. Seems reasonable since the buzz cuts only take about two
minutes each. We left her a nice tip, and she left me with a nice sprinkling
of pixie dust in my (now very short) hair. We then crossed over to Expo
Hall, and it was just in time for the Scoop Sanderson pin seminar. If you
are a beginner to pin trading, or even an old hand, you should make it a
point to catch Scoop at one of his seminars. He is a great CM, and is very
informative about pins. On our last trip I gave him a WWWD pin, which he
seemed to genuinely appreciate. I tried posting a write up about the pin I
gave him to the WWWD website, but it's been three months and still nothing.
Scoop recognized me from past trips, although he couldn't recall my name.
After the seminar he gave me a nice Tinkerbell pin, which was very nice of
him. We bid him adieu, and headed out for tacos, as that's what Joe wanted.
We strolled down Main St, and turned left at Caseys. We cut through
Adventureland, and went to the Pirate & the Parrot. We ordered two orders of
tacos, and a large coke, with the total coming to $12.65. We enjoyed the
lunch, and tried to decide what to do next. We hadn't seen the Hall of
Presidents in ages, so we made that our next stop. We caught the 4:30 show.
The theater was about a quarter full, and we got good center seats without
having to stop a line of people in doing so. After the show ended, we walked
towards the Castle, and ran into Sean and his family. He was impressed with
not only my haircut, but the little sparkly Mickeys strewn about my noggin.
He offered to take a picture to show at work, but I decided it was time to
put my chapeau on. We all watched the end of the Castle forecourt show, and
then we headed out. We had to monorail back to the Polynesian to get the
van, and then drove back to the All Stars.
The kids wanted to eat at the food court again, so we went down there.
Tonight they had the family meal deal with turkey, for $19.99. I asked how
much turkey was included, because I didn't want to get a measly couple of
slices after yesterdays portion of chicken. The CM told me it was done by
weight, and he couldn't predict how many slices we would get, but he assured
me it would be enough for the three of us. How right he was! When he
finished, he had a platter sized plate covered in sliced turkey breast.
There must have been 25-30 large slices of turkey, enough to feed half the
food court. I don't know if that's the correct amount for the meal deal, but
it sure made up for yesterdays minuscule portion of chicken. We ended up
eating less than half of it, plus the spuds and veggies.
After dinner, Joe wanted to stay at the hotel, and I went to PI with Jenn. I
bought my 1 day pass with the 5 day add on, and got an AP discount too, so
the total for 6 days came to $21, not bad at all. Our first stop was the
Adventurers Clubs. The night got off to a great start when Graves noticed my
two pin lanyards, and went and got me an AC member pin, which I promptly put
on my lanyard, and also wore the rest of the trip. It was an honor to get
it, especially when he told me they usually charge two clams for them!!
The plan for tonight was to catch as many Comedy Warehouse shows as I could,
so we made it over for the 1st show at 8:15. The crowd was sparse, but they
still had a show. The cast for this show was Krista, Jen, Mary, Joy, and
Todd. A good crew in my opinion. Krista did the opening phone call,
unfortunately I didn't write down what it was about so thats all you'll get
on that. They followed up the phone call opening song with the suggest a
scene, involving a used car. Again, my notes are rather lame, so I don't
recall anything else about it. Sorry, maybe I should enlist Sue Holland to
be my scribe when I go to CW shows, she seems to take much better notes than
I do. The next improv was a song based on "Cold Dog" sung by Todd. It was
OK, but nothing spectacular. They followed that with the letter to the
editor, with the subject being a lost wallet. Krista was writing for Cosmo,
Jen for Martha Stewart, and Mary for TV Guide. This was nicely done, with
three outstanding performers. They ended the show with a song based on "No
Questions Please", which also was very nice. No obnoxious drunks or idiotic
comments to ruin the show either.
We wandered around for a while out in the chilly night, then went back for
the 9:15pm show. The cast consisted of Joy, Jen, Todd, Eddie, and Mary. They
opened with a poem/song about Jambo, no phone call this show. They followed
that up with This Is Your Life, using a woman named Lea from Iowa.The next
skit was Up Your Alley, with Eddie as the host, and the subject being
scrapbooking. It was kind of a lame subject, but they did what they could
with it. The cast was Mary, Todd, and Jenn, which helped to make it better.
They followed that with the most embarrassing story, and some woman told one
about getting her head stuck in the car window. Once again, no drunks or
lowlifes screaming out stupid things to ruin the night.
We then did another lap around PI, with me seeking out elusive lanyard
series pins. We came back to CW for the 10:30pm show, again the crowd was
rather light. The cast was Eddie, Krista, Mary, Joy, and Kristine. They
opened with a phone call, to Chris from Rhode Island. Once again my note
taking leaves much to be desired, so thats about all I have on the phone
call. They followed that with a skit on emotions, with the subject of
raising corn. That was done by Kristine and Mary, and was nicely done. That
was followed by a crowd suggestion, which became Hard Table. This was done
by Eddie & Krista, and sad to say, even with Krista, it was incredibly dull.
They followed that with the freeze scene skit, which went from beach, to
volleyball, to punching out horses, to beer. It was excellent, and had the
crowd rolling with laughter. They ended up with the embarrassing story,
which involved a phone operator falling asleep while on the line.
We then hit the Adventurers Club for the 11:15pm new member ceremony, which
I already had my member pin (!) so I didn't have to be a run of the mill new
member. When that ended, we exited the club, and found that the NYE
festivities had been canceled, allegedly due to high winds. They must have
meant high, like five miles high, because there was no wind at our level.
We then went back to CW for the 12:05am show. This time the cast was Todd,
Christine, Mary, Krista, and Eddie. They opened with a phone call to Sherry
from Idaho. They followed up with ring the bell, which revolved around being
lost at sea, and was very funny. Next up was a song based on a suggestion,
which was roller coaster. Again, this was very nicely done. Then it was time
for a story based on a call-out, and the choice was fuzzy egg. This was done
by Mary & Christine. They ended with a Chicago Blues style song to a guest
called Norm, called "Do I Know You", which was outstanding. A very good
night of shows, with no jerks, drunks, or stupid suggestions all night long.
We definitely enjoyed the night, and I especially enjoy shows with Krista &
Mary, they are some of my favorite CW performers.
We then went back to the hotel, and what we saw there was unbelievable. It
was after 1am, and there were large hordes of teens running amuck, at least
40-50 in one group alone. They were yelling, screaming, kicking doors,
throwing things, and all sorts of wild behavior. When we got to the room,
Joe said he had called the desk twice to complain, and on the 2nd call he
had been told the police had been called and were responding. This rampaging
went on for another hour or so, and we called down again to complain. I have
no idea where these idiots parents or chaperones were, but I think the whole
bunch should have been evicted. The kids appeared to be part of the Pop
Warner football teams, and were just downright out of control. This is not
the usual kids horsing around, this was loud cursing, vandalism, and
screaming throughout the night, and this was the second night in a row. I
told the kids I would go to the front desk 1st thing in the morning, and
talk to a manager about this behavior. At no time did I ever see security,
CM's, or police there to control these jerks. I don't know what time we
finally got to sleep, but it was very late.
Stay tuned for Day 6...
Bill, age 44, NYSP Investigator, AP holder and numerous WDW trips
Jenn, daughter, age 19, AP holder, last trip 12/00
Joseph, son, age 17, AP holder, last trip 12/00
Where:
All Star Sports - 5 nights
Coronado Springs - 5 nights
When :
12/7 thru 12/17/02
Hello again,
Wednesday found us getting up after a lousy nights sleep, due to the all
night rowdiness going on at the hotel. We dressed, and hit the food court
for breakfast. Usually on my trip reports I put some detail into all the
meals, plus the prices. However, it seems like there was nothing special
about the meals at the All Star food court that I wrote down in my notes. We
usually had generic pancakes and sausages most mornings, at about $5 a pop.
We used our refillable mug for beverages so that wasn't a factor in meal
prices.
After eating, it was off in the van to the Polynesian. I wanted to see if
they had a pin I had been told was only at that location, but it turned out
they didn't have it. We then hopped on the monorail to the MK, arriving at
11:45am. We went straight to the Barber Shop, and found it was a 90 min wait
once again. There was only 1 barber working today, which accounted for the
delay. I was getting a bit scruffy, so I decided to wait. We (Joe & I )
finally got our buzz cuts, which she charged us $11 each for, instead of
the usual $15. Seems reasonable since the buzz cuts only take about two
minutes each. We left her a nice tip, and she left me with a nice sprinkling
of pixie dust in my (now very short) hair. We then crossed over to Expo
Hall, and it was just in time for the Scoop Sanderson pin seminar. If you
are a beginner to pin trading, or even an old hand, you should make it a
point to catch Scoop at one of his seminars. He is a great CM, and is very
informative about pins. On our last trip I gave him a WWWD pin, which he
seemed to genuinely appreciate. I tried posting a write up about the pin I
gave him to the WWWD website, but it's been three months and still nothing.
Scoop recognized me from past trips, although he couldn't recall my name.
After the seminar he gave me a nice Tinkerbell pin, which was very nice of
him. We bid him adieu, and headed out for tacos, as that's what Joe wanted.
We strolled down Main St, and turned left at Caseys. We cut through
Adventureland, and went to the Pirate & the Parrot. We ordered two orders of
tacos, and a large coke, with the total coming to $12.65. We enjoyed the
lunch, and tried to decide what to do next. We hadn't seen the Hall of
Presidents in ages, so we made that our next stop. We caught the 4:30 show.
The theater was about a quarter full, and we got good center seats without
having to stop a line of people in doing so. After the show ended, we walked
towards the Castle, and ran into Sean and his family. He was impressed with
not only my haircut, but the little sparkly Mickeys strewn about my noggin.
He offered to take a picture to show at work, but I decided it was time to
put my chapeau on. We all watched the end of the Castle forecourt show, and
then we headed out. We had to monorail back to the Polynesian to get the
van, and then drove back to the All Stars.
The kids wanted to eat at the food court again, so we went down there.
Tonight they had the family meal deal with turkey, for $19.99. I asked how
much turkey was included, because I didn't want to get a measly couple of
slices after yesterdays portion of chicken. The CM told me it was done by
weight, and he couldn't predict how many slices we would get, but he assured
me it would be enough for the three of us. How right he was! When he
finished, he had a platter sized plate covered in sliced turkey breast.
There must have been 25-30 large slices of turkey, enough to feed half the
food court. I don't know if that's the correct amount for the meal deal, but
it sure made up for yesterdays minuscule portion of chicken. We ended up
eating less than half of it, plus the spuds and veggies.
After dinner, Joe wanted to stay at the hotel, and I went to PI with Jenn. I
bought my 1 day pass with the 5 day add on, and got an AP discount too, so
the total for 6 days came to $21, not bad at all. Our first stop was the
Adventurers Clubs. The night got off to a great start when Graves noticed my
two pin lanyards, and went and got me an AC member pin, which I promptly put
on my lanyard, and also wore the rest of the trip. It was an honor to get
it, especially when he told me they usually charge two clams for them!!
The plan for tonight was to catch as many Comedy Warehouse shows as I could,
so we made it over for the 1st show at 8:15. The crowd was sparse, but they
still had a show. The cast for this show was Krista, Jen, Mary, Joy, and
Todd. A good crew in my opinion. Krista did the opening phone call,
unfortunately I didn't write down what it was about so thats all you'll get
on that. They followed up the phone call opening song with the suggest a
scene, involving a used car. Again, my notes are rather lame, so I don't
recall anything else about it. Sorry, maybe I should enlist Sue Holland to
be my scribe when I go to CW shows, she seems to take much better notes than
I do. The next improv was a song based on "Cold Dog" sung by Todd. It was
OK, but nothing spectacular. They followed that with the letter to the
editor, with the subject being a lost wallet. Krista was writing for Cosmo,
Jen for Martha Stewart, and Mary for TV Guide. This was nicely done, with
three outstanding performers. They ended the show with a song based on "No
Questions Please", which also was very nice. No obnoxious drunks or idiotic
comments to ruin the show either.
We wandered around for a while out in the chilly night, then went back for
the 9:15pm show. The cast consisted of Joy, Jen, Todd, Eddie, and Mary. They
opened with a poem/song about Jambo, no phone call this show. They followed
that up with This Is Your Life, using a woman named Lea from Iowa.The next
skit was Up Your Alley, with Eddie as the host, and the subject being
scrapbooking. It was kind of a lame subject, but they did what they could
with it. The cast was Mary, Todd, and Jenn, which helped to make it better.
They followed that with the most embarrassing story, and some woman told one
about getting her head stuck in the car window. Once again, no drunks or
lowlifes screaming out stupid things to ruin the night.
We then did another lap around PI, with me seeking out elusive lanyard
series pins. We came back to CW for the 10:30pm show, again the crowd was
rather light. The cast was Eddie, Krista, Mary, Joy, and Kristine. They
opened with a phone call, to Chris from Rhode Island. Once again my note
taking leaves much to be desired, so thats about all I have on the phone
call. They followed that with a skit on emotions, with the subject of
raising corn. That was done by Kristine and Mary, and was nicely done. That
was followed by a crowd suggestion, which became Hard Table. This was done
by Eddie & Krista, and sad to say, even with Krista, it was incredibly dull.
They followed that with the freeze scene skit, which went from beach, to
volleyball, to punching out horses, to beer. It was excellent, and had the
crowd rolling with laughter. They ended up with the embarrassing story,
which involved a phone operator falling asleep while on the line.
We then hit the Adventurers Club for the 11:15pm new member ceremony, which
I already had my member pin (!) so I didn't have to be a run of the mill new
member. When that ended, we exited the club, and found that the NYE
festivities had been canceled, allegedly due to high winds. They must have
meant high, like five miles high, because there was no wind at our level.
We then went back to CW for the 12:05am show. This time the cast was Todd,
Christine, Mary, Krista, and Eddie. They opened with a phone call to Sherry
from Idaho. They followed up with ring the bell, which revolved around being
lost at sea, and was very funny. Next up was a song based on a suggestion,
which was roller coaster. Again, this was very nicely done. Then it was time
for a story based on a call-out, and the choice was fuzzy egg. This was done
by Mary & Christine. They ended with a Chicago Blues style song to a guest
called Norm, called "Do I Know You", which was outstanding. A very good
night of shows, with no jerks, drunks, or stupid suggestions all night long.
We definitely enjoyed the night, and I especially enjoy shows with Krista &
Mary, they are some of my favorite CW performers.
We then went back to the hotel, and what we saw there was unbelievable. It
was after 1am, and there were large hordes of teens running amuck, at least
40-50 in one group alone. They were yelling, screaming, kicking doors,
throwing things, and all sorts of wild behavior. When we got to the room,
Joe said he had called the desk twice to complain, and on the 2nd call he
had been told the police had been called and were responding. This rampaging
went on for another hour or so, and we called down again to complain. I have
no idea where these idiots parents or chaperones were, but I think the whole
bunch should have been evicted. The kids appeared to be part of the Pop
Warner football teams, and were just downright out of control. This is not
the usual kids horsing around, this was loud cursing, vandalism, and
screaming throughout the night, and this was the second night in a row. I
told the kids I would go to the front desk 1st thing in the morning, and
talk to a manager about this behavior. At no time did I ever see security,
CM's, or police there to control these jerks. I don't know what time we
finally got to sleep, but it was very late.
Stay tuned for Day 6...
