March 5 - 12 Poly/Wonder Land/Sea report

[jlowejd5]

Well, it’s finally here. The trip we booked over a year ago. The trip that we bribed, begged, and bothered our friends into going on. The trip that turned out to be a dozen people and a lifetime of fun, crammed into a single gorgeous week in March.

Programs! Getcher programs here! Ya can’t tell the players if ya don’t get a program!!

Me: I’m 32, an attorney for a software company in central Ohio. No kids, but a kid at heart. I’m the planning guy behind this whole mess. I don’t work very hard, so I spend a frightening amount of time planning Disney vacations. It’s a sickness, but I don’t much care.

DW: aka Doc, 32, a fourth-year (senior) OB/Gyn resident (under 100 days to go!!). She starts her official practice later this summer, so this was our last big vacation fling while we could. We went to high school together, started dating senior year of college, and got married just over two years ago. This is our third Disney vacation together (a Land/Sea at the Beach Club, and a 4-day honeymoon cruise). We spent most of the last week before the trip packing and watching Disney movies (like cramming before a final).

Muffin, 31. One of Doc’s best friends from college. Currently between careers, but he’s dealing. One of the coolest guys we know. He was down visiting (he lives in Cleveland) in May of last year. We casually mentioned the Disney trip. When he said he’d never been, we put the hard sell on him. We tied him to the big comfy chair and showed him WDW and DCL planning dvds until we broke him. Now he’s hooked.

Peaches, 29. Muffin’s sister. After we broke him, he jumped on his cell phone and called her, and basically told her that she was going to WDW in March of ’06. Didn’t take much convincing. She’s an advanced-degree research-type science person at a major university in Cleveland (my undergrad alma mater, in fact). We realized about half-way through the week at WDW that she and I share the same brain. Spooky.

The others: Tom and Judy, Muffin and Peaches’ dad and step-mom. Some of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. Tom has loved Doc since they met twelve years ago, and Judy is really funny. They were with us for the entire week. We also had Judy’s extended family with us for the WDW portion. There were six of them, including the 3-year-old, who had us refer to her as Princess Jasmine for the duration of the trip.

Muffin, Peaches, Doc, and me

The build-up

Since Muffin and Peaches had never been, and they knew I had, (and was the Disney nut of the group) they left the majority of the planning to me. Which was fine. I’m cool like that. My mom says so. Doc and I traveled up to Cleveland about three weeks before we left to meet everybody and go over some last-minute plans. They had some questions (which, with the help of this board and my own Disney OCD were easily answerable), but mostly it was just a fun weekend. We traded phone calls with Muffin about every other day throughout February, counting down the days and talking about how much of our luggage was already packed. It was just really great to have somebody so excited about the trip. Doc and I love going, but after a week, you end up running out of stuff to talk about. And these guys are such good traveling companions. But more on that later.

We were glued to the Weather Channel’s website for the week prior, and every day the forecast got a little better. Plus, flying out of Ohio in early March is sometimes tricky, but the bad weather held off up here, too. Although it was cold (in the lower 20’s) when we got to the airport on Sunday morning.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!!
Travel, check-in, and the MK

So the alarm goes off at 4:45am. Guh. My bags were already in the car, and all we had to do was load Doc’s toiletry bag. Hit the road at 5:20am, right on schedule. Get to the airport, park, shuttle, to the terminal. We checked in, and (yes!) sitting in the Exit Row. Oh, a joyous thing. 6’3”, 275lbs. me (think Tommy Boy-era Chris Farley, not bloated drug-addled dead Farley) looooooooves the Exit Row.

I had bought Doc an iPod nano for our anniversary last month. Filled it up with her favorite songs. She’s not yet mastered the “iPod voice” however. We’re sitting at the gate, waiting for the flight. It’s 6:30 in the morning. Nobody’s awake. It’s almost dead silent. I’m reading a magazine, she’s in her own little iWorld. She leans over, taps my leg, and asks “WHICH WAY’S THE BATHROOM?”. After I quit giggling, I was fine…

Flight’s a little delayed for de-icing, but in the air by about 7:20. Completely uninteresting flight. I had my “Disney Mix” going on my iPod, which really made the flight seem shorter. Just a thought. Has any human being ever bought anything from the SkyMiles catalog? Seriously? Land at MCO at one of those little fake Delta Connection gates (the ones where you have to walk across the tarmac and into the building, because the planes are teeny). We know we’ve got plenty of time, because the Cleveland flight doesn’t take off until 9:00am. At this point, it’s about 9:20. So we leisurely stroll up to the mini-monorail. We were sure to mantengense way far alejado of the puertas, for the first of many times this week. Hit the main terminal, and that’s where things get a little dicey.

The first time we were down here (early 2001) the DCL folks met you on the gate side of the mini-mono. Two years ago, they were on the outside of the Security line, but they still were in that main terminal atrium. I had gotten the little “go to Side A” map with my cruise docs, but I thought that was just for the Magical Express folks, and that us DCL folk would continue to have special service. D’oh. So we headed down the escalator to the bowels of the A Side. Silly me, I follow the DCL signs, past the Magical Express madhouse, way over to the DCL desk in the corner.

I felt bad for the family in front of us. They had gone down to baggage claim, gotten all their bags, brought them to the DCL desk, and were putting their luggage tags on them at that point. I didn’t really read the instructions with the tags, (as I knew the story) but I’m wondering now if there was a communication problem, or they just didn’t pay any attention. Meh.

So we check in with the DCL desk people. Oops. Turns out we technically should have checked in with the Magical Express desk. I didn’t feel too bad, though, as there were 100 people in line at the ME desk and 1 family in line at the DCL desk. The DCL CM got us squared away in the right line. We stood there maybe ten minutes (at the outside) waiting on the MK resort bus. But in that short time, we heard at least two different groups of people complaining about how long it was taking. C’mon people. Disney moved what, like over a million people through there on the ME buses since May? Just breathe, it’ll be okay.

They come to get us, and we head out to the buses. I understand that Disney is trying to stand out, but good gravy that lemonade and slate color scheme is hard on the eyes. They scan our transfer tickets, and we sorta head to the back and get comfy. Bus driver comes on, we hit the road for the Polynesian and ‘home’ for the next four days.

Well, sorta. First stop, Wilderness Lodge. What a gorgeous building. I think the next time we come down, we’re going to do 10-14 days just on land, and split the time between the AKL and the WL (and add in a couple days at Universal while we’re there). After that, a stop at the Contemporary. There’s now only Doc and I and like two other groups on the bus. We start heading down the road, pass the turn for the Poly, and head to the GF. Everybody gets off but us. So we just move up to the front seats. The driver gets back on and gives us this look like “uh-oh”. I said “Polynesian?” He felt so bad, but our beepy scanner thing didn’t get registered on his “where to go” itinerary, so he didn’t have anybody on his manifest heading to the Poly. We were just laughing (again, the Muffins were an hour or so out yet), so we whip the bus around, swing the turn, and arrive at the Poly.

We’ve never been to the Poly before, and it’s going to be hard not to come back every time we’re down there. Just incredible. Holy cow. We get in line to check in (which takes all of ten minutes). The CM sends us to 2311, in Aotearoa. A quick stop at the DCL desk to turn in our paperwork for the cruise, and we’re off to the room. Walk through the grounds, over to the building. Up to the second floor. Down to the end of the hallway. There’s no 2311 here. What the…? We look again. First floor is the 1000’s, third floor the 3000’s, so we know we should be on two. I pick up the hallway phone and ask for help. The CM I talk to says “ah, that’s because 2311 is in Fiji”. D’oh. I swear somebody is plotting against us ever getting to the Polynesian. So we walk across to Fiji (right next door) and up to our room. Right on the end, overlooking the marina. The room is awesome. Love the flatscreen, love the decorations, and the bed is so comfy. Plus, it’s HUGE. More room than we can use.

We take a half-hour or so, change into our park clothes (good-bye, blue jeans, hello short pants), and just sort of relax. Check out the tv, the publications, the park guides, maps, etc. We then took a walk all around the grounds, spent some time in the shops in the GCH, and got a snack. We knew approximately what time they’d be getting to the Poly, so we went out and found a bench and hung out. Within 20 minutes, up pulls the bus. Now, Judy’s family was staying at Coronado Springs, so we wouldn’t see them until later that evening. They get checked in, and they’re over in Tahiti. So we’re technically at opposite ends of the resort, but honestly, we don’t care.

We hook up with Muffin and Peaches (the old folks are going to meet her family later on) and walk over to the TTC to hop the monorail. At this point, the two of them are so excited they can barely sit still. Through security, through the turnstiles, and we’re finally here. Muffin’s camera is going a mile a minute. Around the corner, and there’s Pluto. And Chip and Dale. And the Castle. Wow. Muffin wants Mickey Ears, so we go in and get him one (and get it stitched with his name). Whoo! By this time, it’s a little after 2:00, and we’ve got a full park to tour. So off we set for our day.

Next up: The Magic Kingdom

 

[E&BMom]

Can't wait for the rest...don't keep us waiting tooooooo long!!!!

 

[jlowejd5]

Up Main Street, USA towards the castle we go. We got some nice pictures with the “Partners” statue of Walt and Mickey. My favorite interpretation of that piece that I read somewhere is that Walt is saying “Mickey, my boy, I’ve taken you as far as I can go. My time here is nearly through. It’s up to you to lead the way from now on…”

The lump firmly settled in my throat, we head left into Adventureland. There really aren’t that many people in the park today, or at least that’s the way it seems to me. There’s Rafiki (my favorite monkey). The pictures didn’t turn out too great, but it doesn’t matter…is in de past!! To set the mood, we start off with the Tiki Room. With that song stuck in everybody’s heads, we walk over to the Jungle Cruise. I think we waited 5 minutes. I think most people are off lining up for the 3:00 parade (whatever time that starts…). I warn them before we get on that the jokes will leave them in physical pain, and our skipper doesn’t disappoint. Sheesh…

Now, I’d heard conflicting things on the actual closing date of Pirates for the first part of the rehab. One place said March 1, another said March 6. Well, it was the first. D’oh. But that was okay, because at this point, we were starving. Around the corner to Pecos Bill’s Café. If memory serves, this is where we’ve eaten lunch the last three times we’ve been to the MK. We always head for Adventureland instead of Tomorrowland, and by the time we turn the corner (usually after BTMRR), we’re hungry. Not much of a line at all. Good food. The people, however… There’s one family where the dad is just screaming at his kids because they want to sit at a table over here, and he wants to sit at a table over there. Another little darling princess daughter is determined that she’s going to have some toy RIGHT NOW. Mom, to her credit, says no. And sticks to it. Good for you, mom, whoever you were. Now, to be fair, assuming these folks got to the parks at rope drop, they’ve been there five hours or so, and there’s only so much “fun” you can have in a day when you’re four.

Tummies full, we walk up to BTMRR. D’oh, it’s down. We skip Splash (we’re not huge water ride fans) and head back down for the Country Bear Jamboree. Cheesy and corny, but a part of the history of the parks, so we wanted to make sure to see it.

At this point, we decided to hop the monorail back to the Poly to change for dinner. Judy had made reservations for the entire group at CRT for dinner at 7:15, and it was getting a little chilly for Doc and Peaches. MK was also the late EMH park that night, so we knew we were going to be there late to get everything in. Plus, none of us had slept much the night before, and traveling is just so stinkin’ tiring. We were just getting to the monorail station when we heard Cinderellabration start, so we missed that. I just sat down for a half-hour and changed socks. That’s my best advice I can give to keep your feets fresh. I change socks every opportunity I get.

Got back to the MK about 6:00. Immediately headed to HM (waited less than five minutes). Knocked out Small World on our way over to the Castle. After that mental trauma, a nice dinner was welcome. I was a little slow on the shutter, so I ended up mostly with pictures of the back of the Fairy Godmother’s head. But the food was delicious. The only downside is that by the time we were done stuffing ourselves, the forecourt was pretty packed with people waiting on the fireworks. We threaded our way down to that little landing to the right of the Castle to get our EMH wristbands. That done, we worked our way back through Fantasyland to the plaza in front of the Liberty Square Riverboat landing to watch Wishes. We lost a little of the “castle-as-backdrop” feeling, but I wasn’t standing on top of anybody, which was nice.

After the show, we walked back to BTMRR and rode it. Now, I didn’t realize this at the time, but Peaches is not a roller coaster kinda girl. She had fun, but that was pretty much it on the giant thrill rides (although she LOVED Mission:Space. Go figure, huh?) Muffin spent most of the ride screaming, so Doc and I spent most of the ride laughing. He’d only ridden a couple of coasters before, so this was all new to him.

We looked at repeating HM (Peaches’ favorite), but the line looked too long. So back into Fantasyland. Saw PhilharMagic. Awesome show. Just incredible. We were starting to wear out a little, so we skipped Peter Pan, Snow White, and Pooh. A bit of a line at each, and we really wanted to get to Tomorrowland before we fell over. Doc and Muffin went off to Space Mountain, and I felt bad for scarring Peaches, so she and I took it easy with a trip around the TTA. I thought if she saw the guts of the coaster, she might want to ride, but no dice. Afterwards, we met back up and knocked out Buzz (I won, because I’m the video-game nerd of the group). On the way out, we hit Stitch. Ugh. I’d read everything, all the negative reviews. They were right. At this point, we’re pretty much done for, so we hit the road. Back to the monorail, hello Poly, hello bed. I think Doc was asleep before her head hit the pillow.

Tomorrow: Epcot!!

 

[nluvwithmickey]

Ohhh how I am gonna miss not being able to go to the parks before the cruise. It hurts just reading how much fun you seemed to have.

Next trip gotta be a land/sea.......

Can't wait to read the rest of your report.
Makes the waiting so much easier

 

[ibouncetoo]

I hope you plan on spending all night and all day Sunday finishing this....OK?

Really enjoying your report, your writing and you photos

 

[ntburns22]

I have really enjoyed this so far. I don't know how I am going to get through the next 16 months waiting for my first land and sea.

 

[jlowejd5]

You mean I gotta get outta bed? Oh, geez. Okay, okay, I’m up!! We meet Muffin and Peaches for breakfast at Captain Cook’s Snack Company. Mmm…Mickey waffles, juice, bagels. Pretty good food. Although the joy of this morning was a boy I’ll call “Brandon” (to protect the innocent, the guilty, and the overwhelmingly annoying). Apparently “Brandon” wasn’t overly pleased with something, and had decided to act a fool. Muffin began counting, and by the time we finished breakfast (a rather quick operation, mind you), mom had said the name “Brandon” sixty-two times. Brandon. Brandon. Brandon, stop. Stop it Brandon. Put that down, Brandon. Eat your waffle, Brandon. Brandon. Brandon. AAAAUUUGGHHH!!

Okay, I’m better now. We finish breakfast, say farewell to Brandon, and head to the TTC for the Epcot monorail. And it appears that my research (thank you UG) has led us well. At 8:50 (parks open at 9:00), the line for MK is down the ramp back into the plaza, while the Epcot line has like six of us in it. Properly mantengense-ing, we head for Epcot. And I know this is minor, but am I the only one who’s annoyed that, when you arrive via the Epcot mono, you have to walk half-way back to the airport just to get down to the ground level? Meh… We’re comfortably in the park by 9:15. And it’s empty. This is what the crowds looked like at this point of the day:

We start to head to The Land and Soarin’. But Peaches and Doc see a CM beckoning us into the character greeting area there in the Innoventions building. With less than 20 people in the building, we get to hang out with Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pluto, Chip and Dale, and Mary Poppins. We actually kinda felt bad for Mary, because not many people were getting their pictures taken with her. Well, Chip & Dale took a shine to Peaches, and wouldn’t let her leave. There weren’t any other people in the building, so we had plenty of time. They took her by the arms and shuffled over to the corner. One of them proposed. It was really funny. I also got a great picture of Muffin dancing with Donald. Ten minutes and forty pictures later, we head over to Soarin’ with big stoopid grins on our faces.

Soarin’ (a ten minute wait) was really, really cool. The smells were spot-on, and we had a really good time. After that, we headed straight across to Mission:Space. Now, Doc does NOT do spinning, so she sat this one out. I think we were in line a grand total of four minutes. And most of that was waiting for the one in front of us to finish. The three of us had a car to ourselves (but I could reach the buttons on the empty station, so we weren’t going to crash). I actually felt a little dizzy, but nothing too bad. Peaches is laughing the whole time, and Muffin comes off the ride cold, clammy, and having almost sweat through his shirt. He was laughing, too. Great ride, but Doc would have been dizzy for four days afterwards.

We did Ellen’s Energy Adventure, then Spaceship Earth (with no wait for either) and headed over to The Living Seas. I’m not sure I like the new layout, as it was very confusing. We were there between Crush shows, so it was absurdly crowded. I miss my hydrolators.

Muffin at the Living Seas

After that, we headed over to the Circle of Life (Lion King is my all-time favorite Disney movie, so I’ll pretty much watch anything with those characters). We skipped HISTA for now, and headed to Norway, where Judy had made us reservations for 1:00 for the Princess Lunch at Akershus. We knew we had a huge day still to come, so all four of us ordered from the kids menu (but so did most of the other adults). Our little Princess Jasmine (in full costume) got to meet all the princesses, so she was very happy. Although I was intrigued to see Mulan in with the other Princesses. I really don’t remember Cinderella or Belle ever hitting a guy with a stick. Meh. And, for the grown-ups in the group (the guys, anyway), the VERY grown-up Princess Jasmine was worth waiting around for. Oh, my.

I'm a pretty, pretty Viking...

Anyway, after lunch we did Maelstrom and El Rio del Tiempo, got margaritas (which were very bad) and headed back to the hotel for a rest. I love the monorail. Headed back to the parks (with new socks) a little later. Knocked out HISTA and started around World Showcase. We didn’t have a lot of time, because I wanted to make sure we hit the American Adventure show. So we strolled (quickly) back to the American pavilion. We saw the show with about 40 people in a theater that seats 1,000. BTW, the last time we were here, there was a group of high schoolers sitting behind us at the American Adventure show, and at one point a guy leaned over to a girl and said "why is Ben Franklin hosting this with Colonel Sanders?" Now, to her credit, the girl immediately said "That's Mark Twain, you idiot".

Doc had been jonesing for a funnel cake since seeing “Dave” eat one in the 2005 WDW planning dvd. The rest of us went over to the Liberty Inn and got some food. Not bad, and fairly cheap. We browsed around for a while, and then watched Illuminations from the plaza near the gondola in front of Italy. It was pretty far from the entrance, but we were in no hurry, and got a great view.

Ka-boom!!

Afterwards, we took our time strolling out (to let the rush die down) and only waited about five minutes for the monorail to get back. Also in our car was a high school glee club or choir or something, because these kids could SING. We joined in, but I think they were just pitying us because we’re old. Did I think 32 was that old when I was 16? Eesh. Anyway, that was a hoot. Even at the end of a long day, that was a little extra Disney magic. We were bone-tired, but we had big smiles on our faces for the walk back to the Poly.

Tomorrow: Animal Kingdom!!

 

[E&BMom]

Aren't you up yet!!!????? Can't wait for the rest!!!!!

 

[jlowejd5]

I’m conquering Everest this morning. That helped get me out of bed. Hop the bus (waited less than five minutes) and headed to AK. It was a little more crowded here than at Epcot, but I think the majority of the crowd was there for EE. We headed that way, past a lot of groups who were deep in their maps trying to figure out how to get there. Prior proper planning, folks. The sign said 20 minutes, but we were in line less than 10. I almost wished it would have gone slower, because the theming and decorations are just astounding, even by Disney standards. As for the ride itself? Oh man. Forwards, backwards, light, dark, big hairy monster, big drop, sweet spins. What more can you ask for? Did some souvenir shopping while we were there. Muffin got a shirt with Everest’s silhouette over the (accurate) words “Screams Like A Girl”. Peaches mocked him. We got my nephew a bendable Yeti doll. It’s scary looking, so we’re hoping he doesn’t get traumatized.

Fresh from that, we took a walk up the Majarajah Jungle Trek. I’m just amazed at the time that Disney puts in to stuff like this, and the speed at which a lot of families sprint through it. We tried to take our time, and I think we got to see some cool stuff. From Asia, we trekked over to Africa, but we got a surprise. An appearance by DeVine. She was wrapped up in a tree near the path. The only downside is a guy I’ll call “Floyd”. Some old retiree, black socks and sandals, the whole nine yards. He walks up so he’s within a yard of her, and just stands there. Big fat head in the way of thirty of us trying to take pictures. Goober. Look and move, look and move…

Into Africa, we get a FastPass for the Safari (our first FP of the week) and take a stroll up the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail. Two good stories. First, we’re in the part with the okapis (those things with the zebra butts) and the Stanley cranes. One of the okapi is running around, goofing off. He decides it’s time to chase the cranes around. The cranes are not amused. He picks one out and is just tormenting it. Chasing it to the back of the compound, and down into the water at the front. Well, at one point the crane zip-a-deed when shoulda doo-dah’d, because the okapi knocks it down and steps right on its head. The crane is down. For a minute or more. I’m wondering at this point if the toddlers in the crowd have just witnessed the Circle of Life, when it starts flapping around, trying to stand up. It looked drunk. It would get both feet underneath it, then fall over. It was far enough away that we couldn’t see any permanent damage, but I’m sure there was at least some. I was trying not to laugh, because that’s horrible, but it was hard not to. I keep picturing the drunk stork from that Bugs Bunny cartoon (yeah, I know, not a Disney property). It eventually gets up and totters off to the back of the enclosure, hopefully to some medical assistance.

So we move on to the gorillas. As always, there’s a crowd. The CM doing the narration is being funny, but there’s enough ape action to keep us entertained. The big silverback is sitting over in the corner. One of the younger males is tormenting an older female. It’s like watching human kids testing their boundaries. He’d walk up and poke her until she yelled at him or took a swing at him. He’d scamper off, only to come back a minute later and start it again. After ten minutes of this, she’s sitting in the center of the viewing area. He walks up and gently puts his hand on her wrist. Then moves it up to her forearm. Then her elbow. Then her bicep. Then he reaches up and pinches her shoulder. She screams and jumps at him. Well, apparently by this point, dad had had enough. He snaps, jumps up, and with a huge roar, chases junior up the hill and out of sight. We giggled for five minutes.

Safari was awesome as always. Front row. After that, we headed back to Discovery Island and Pizzafari for lunch. Yum. I like their pizza, I don’t care. After that, we ran over and took in Tough to Be A Bug and looked at the Tree of Life for a while. It was coming up on showtime, so we headed over for Festival of the Lion King. I love that show.

After the show, we called it a day and headed back to the resort. Did some pool time and just really relaxed for the first time on the vacation. Afterwards, we got cleaned up and headed out for Downtown Disney. I had made us a reservation for Fulton’s Crab House earlier that day, so we headed in for dinner. Oh my. That was a LOT of food, and some of the best we’ve had at WDW. The service was outstanding, and we had a really enjoyable time. I had the crab claws (which come pre-cracked), and there were like fifteen of them. Doc had the lobster tails (which they take out of the shell, grill, and put back on the shell for a gorgeous presentation). Muffin had a ginormous filet. I can't for the life of me remember what Peaches got, but we all ended up sharing everything.

After dinner, we spent WAY too much time and money shopping at Downtown Disney. Doc and I are building a big house this summer, and we know that one of the spare bedrooms is going to have a Disney theme. So we’re always looking for fun stuff to go in there. And we found a lot of stuff. I almost had her talked into the $295 two-foot tall replica of “Partners”, but it was really, really big. Maybe some other time. Back to the Poly and off to bed.

 

[DutchsMommy]

Loving your TR - looking forward to Tom-morrow

 

[jlowejd5]

We knew that DS wouldn’t take us all day, so we slept in and met in the GCH at 10:00 for a late breakfast. Headed over to DS and joined the crowd surging down Sunset Boulevard. We checked the ride times, got a FP for RnR and headed over to ToT. Maybe a 10 minute wait. Muffin screamed like a little girl the whole time and kept grabbing my arm. We wanted a picture of it, because he was sitting between Doc and I, but something happened and our picture didn’t come up. Boo. We walked over and onto RnR, and ended up in the first two cars. I tried to get Muffin up front with Doc, but he’d have none of it. We could not stop laughing. He just kept yelling “we’re gonna die!!!” Oh, my goodness. .

While we were taking on ToT and RnR, Peaches was making new friends. Apparently, she was wearing a sign that she couldn’t see that said “hey, creepy people, talk to me”. She met a new friend. She learned WAY too much about her new friend. And her new friend’s son. And his gastrointestinal distress. (lil’ Timmy had the poops, apparently) But she enjoyed herself. People-watching is really the great American pastime, and there are few places better for it than at WDW. Between the Mullet Family (mom, dad, and the 2-year-old) on the Jungle Cruise to the veritable freak show that happens any time humans get into a crowd, we had a blast. We finished up that end of the park by seeing the Beauty and the Beast stage show. That’s Doc’s favorite movie, so she was really happy with it

The most important lesson we learned at WDW? NO DISCO DANCING!!!

After that, we worked our way around the park. Great Movie Ride, Star Tours, and the Muppets. If you're big Muppets fans (like we are), take a few extra minutes and appreciate the level of detail that you see in that Muppet Plaza in front of the attraction. Between the signs, the fountain, and the little bits of Muppet business worked into the building itself, it's quite a treat.

We had our Fantasmic Dinner Package seating at Mama Melrose’s at 3:30, so we had an early dinner. After that, we tried to do the Backlot Tour, as Muffin is a HUGE Golden Girls fan, but it was down when we walked by. Oh, well. We walked through One Man’s Dream, which was pretty cool.

Before we knew it, it was time for Fantasmic. So we go to the secret Cool Kids entrance and got to our seats about 15 minutes before showtime. I love that show, and Muffin and Peaches were touched. Out with the masses, and back on the bus to the Poly.

After we got back to the GCH from Fantasmic, I walked over to the desk and inquired about doing the O’hana character breakfast before it was time to leave for the ship. The CM brought up the screen, and said “we have one at 7:15…”, and I thought “I do NOT want to get up that early”. Luckily, she also had one at like 9:30. So we booked that for the four of us. As “dinner” had been six hours before, we got some pizza from Captain Cook’s. That was good. We did some packing and cleaning up in readiness for tomorrow, when we’ll be leaving for the Disney Wonder!!

 

[ibouncetoo]

Oh goodie, can't wait for the cruise part!

 

[ImMarcik]

What a great report! I can't wait to read more.

 

[jlowejd5]

They came by about 8:15 to pick up our luggage, and we headed over to the GCH and met Muffin and Peaches. They took our picture (the best one we’ve seen of the four of us), and we chilled out waiting on our table to open up. We waited about 15 minutes for breakfast, but got a good seat. We could see the spires of Cinderella Castle from our table (which was just way cool). Breakfast was very good. The Mickey Waffles went quickly. The eggs were good, and not runny like they sometimes can be. We’d had some bad experiences with the giant sausage links (because an hour later you need to drink a gallon of water), but we still nibbled.

We'll call this "after".

We got to meet Mickey, Pluto, Lilo & Stitch. Stitch happened to stop by just as Peaches was lamenting the fact that her OJ wasn’t a mimosa, and she got ridiculed and pantomimed as a drunk. Very funny stuff, to be mocked by a giant blue fuzzy thing-a-ma-bob. The second time around, Stitch had the remains of a Mickey waffle in his ear. Ew. But at least it wasn’t a chili dog (bleah).

After breakfast, we went down to the ground floor of the GCH, met up with Tom & Judy, and waited for the DCL bus. There were quite a few of us, so we found ourselves on the second bus. Which was fine, as the first was chock-full of little tiny people. Although we didn’t see “Brandon”. Although we did see a guy that we’d been seeing all week long. Kinda looked like my brother plus 30 lbs. and a scraggly beard. This guy and his party must have been on the exact same schedule as us. We saw them checking in on Sunday. Twice in the MK. Once at MGM. Once at AK. And almost every evening around the GCH. On the cruise. On the Delta bus back to MCO. In the security line. At the gate next to us. It was kinda spooky.

Our second bus was only about half full, and after a quick stop at the WL for a few more guests, away we went to the Port. I really liked the new cruise video they have for that drive. On the honeymoon, they showed a couple of old Pluto cartoons and a chunk of some movie I’d never heard of. This was much better. It got the characters involved, showed some cool parts of the ship, and was really well done.

That reveal shot of the ship as you come up over that hill is breathtaking, and this is our third cruise. Muffin and Peaches were beside themselves. We got into the security check line, got through it okay, and headed up the escalator. I took a little extra time (because everybody had to pee) to look around the terminal and take some pictures. Always before, I was too worried about checking in or getting Palo reservations or whatever. Not this time.

Hey, we’re onboard the ship! We got lucky, because even though we’d made our reservations two months apart, from different cities, Muffin and Peaches were right next door to us (6576 and 6578), and Tom & Judy were just a few doors down (6584). It made meeting up for dinner very easy. We scooted up to the room and checked the dining cards. Minor issue. We were all on the same rotation (PTA), but they had Doc and I at a different table. D’oh. We had decided to do Palo instead of Parrot Cay, and I’d volunteered to handle that. So I take a walk down to Wavebands (3 Foreward) and go in. It’s dark, and I’m the only guest in there. Spooky. The CMs at the “fix my dining” table were more than helpful. She sounded surprised that it had gotten fouled up, as we’d booked through DU, and DU and DCL are usually on the same page. But no worries. My guess is that when Tom & Judy booked, and asked to be linked to Muffin and Peaches, that, since they have the same last name and were coming on the same flight (and we don’t and weren’t), maybe DCL’s computers pulled them together and pushed us out? I dunno. Regardless, it got fixed, and we had a table for the six of us. Palo was equally easy, although moron me missed the giant signs that identified which night you were looking to book. There was one line for Thursday / Saturday, and a second line for Friday. But we also got that taken care of, and we had a reservation for six at 6:30 Thursday night. Whoo! I let everybody know that we’d been fixed, had our Palo reservation, and then I just sorta slothed on the couch for a while.

We headed up to Beach Blanket Buffet for some lunch. It was good. We got some tables outside, and Doc and I let the other guys have some “family” time. The whole trip worked out well. Tom & Judy spent most of their time with Judy’s family on land, and then with us on the ship. Very well planned. We walked around the ship for a while, Doc took a half-hour power nap, and then it came time for the lifeboat drill. By this point, I think all four of our luggage pieces had arrived (two big suitcases, one of shoes, and a garment bag). We managed to get both big suitcases stowed underneath the bed (oh, thank you DIS boards for that tip). The drill is always a hoot, because everyone looks equally absurd.

That out of the way, we went up on deck to the Sail Away party, which was already in full swing when we got there. We were watching from up on Deck 10, and it was starting to get really windy. That will become important later on. We watched the Carnival Fantasy back out of its moorings and set sail. I’m just happy it didn’t have a big “beep-beep-beep” reverse thingie. After mulling around for a while, it was time to get ready for Palo. We noticed while we were getting dressed that the seas seemed a little rough. I’m generally immune to seasickness, and while I wasn’t feeling ill, I could definitely feel the ship rocking and rolling somewhat. I actually laughed at us walking down the corridor towards the aft lifts, because we were in a single-file line that kept weaving back and forth as a group. It was really funny.

We’ve done Palo on each of the previous two cruises, but it’s never been this good. Our waiter was Michael, and he was simply outstanding. By my recollection, between the six of us, we had seven or eight appetizers, eight entrees, and ten desserts. He just kept bringing food. And we kept eating it. It was a nice little system we had worked out. I don’t even remember what all we ate, but it seemed like everything on the menu. We did a lot of sharing, and mumbling “oh, god, you gotta try this” through a mouthful of some exotic food product. I can’t even talk about the chocolate soufflés, because I’m getting hungry for one. We each had one, and then Michael brought three or four other things from the menu, just so we got a chance to try them all. I still don’t know how we all managed to waddle back out of the restaurant at the end of the meal.

After dinner, we went the distance to the theater for Hercules The Muse-ical. Peaches begged off and headed back to the room, as the seas were starting to get to her a little. I really love this show. It’s funny, it’s timely (as Hades, Pain, and Panic have a lot of improv they can do), and the music is really good. I actually just saw the original animated movie about two months ago (part of the build-up to the vacation), so I was hip to the minor characters and some of the backstory that they develop in a 90-minute movie but wash over in a 45-minute stage show.

After the show, we were all pretty much wiped out, so we headed back to the rooms. I was still a little stir-crazy (and thirsty from the breakfast sausage), so I took a walk up to 9 to get some pop. I very much like the new beverage station. I think it’s a good idea, and free is better than paying for the mugs. It was also fairly orderly, and people weren’t being fools, which was nice. I realized after I got up there that the wind was really, really whipping around. I’m no weatherman, but I’d guess sustained winds of 25-30mph on the side decks. Well, I’m not too bright, so I walked all the way up to the front of the ship, in front of the wind screen that protects the basketball court. Y’know, the “I’m King Of The World” spot, but up on Deck 10. The wind was actually pushing me around, and I’m not a small guy at all. I would guess 50-60mph, out in that unprotected spot. It was a little scary how hard the wind was blowing. Stuff was rocking back and forth, and the ship was both bouncing and rolling. Eesh. I decided to call it a night, and headed off to bed.

Empty, windy Deck 10.

Tomorrow: Nassau!

 

[jlowejd5]

I'm working on getting the last two days done, but I keep having to stop because I'm laughing too hard at the Ron White thing on Comedy Central.

You Can't Fix Stupid. How true that is...

 

[ibouncetoo]

OK, you're forgiven.....Ron White just crackes me up too!

 

[jlowejd5]

Friday morning dawned bright and clear. Or, I’m assuming it did. I didn’t wake up until 8:30. Tom, Judy, and Peaches had booked a snorkeling excursion, so they met early and were off. Doc, Muffin, and I went up to Parrot Cay for breakfast. We had kind of a strange encounter while there. There was a little bit of a line (less than 15 people) and the CMs were working quickly to turn over the old tables and to get us new guests seated. They pulled the three of us and the three people behind us, and we followed the CM over to a table towards the center of the room. We sat down. One of the other three turns to the CM and says something that started with “We’re NOT sitting…” and then she turned away and I couldn’t hear the rest. The CM led them off, and we didn’t see them again. Hey, we’d taken showers that morning, and we were all wearing pants, so I’m not sure what that was all about. Oh, well.

After breakfast, Doc went to find herself a lounge chair and Muffin and I headed off into the big city for adventure (and shopping). He had read in the literature about the Nassau store that sold the luxury watches at 35% off (Mondavi? Mondano? Former Giant outfielder Candy Maldonado? I don’t remember). So we go up the pier and head toward The Gauntlet Of Cheesy Stores that you get funneled through to get out into the sunshine. Leave it to Disney to figure out a way to make you exit a ride into a gift shop, even in a foreign country… We get out, and are immediately besieged with offers of taxi rides over to Atlantis, boating expeditions, and even a romantic horse-drawn carriage ride for the two of us. I didn’t think we looked that much like a couple, and I’m totally not his type anyway. We politely declined. Well, we declined in that we didn’t make eye contact and just kept walking. Either way.

The watch store was a disappointment. Sure, it was 35% off, but that was only after a 60% markup. Muffin had seen the same watch two weeks before at the BJ’s in Cleveland for $120 less than the discounted price. So that was a bust. We swung through the Harley store (and boy, did WE look out of place) to pick up a little trinket for Doc’s cool aunt and uncle, who both ride. Just wanted something that said Harley and Nassau. Ended up with a cool black and purple lightning-bolt bandana. They can fight over it. We walked back onto the ship, and were back on while some people were still lined up to get off.

Muffin went off to meet up with Doc and catch some sun by the adult pool. I potzed around the ship for a while, and ran into Peaches (back from her snorkeling adventure). We got some pizza and chicken fingers for lunch, and just sorta relaxed for a while. Muffin, Doc, and I had booked one of the glass-bottomed boat tours, and so we changed and met down in Wavebands at 2:30. Peaches took over the “lying in the sun” duties. (heh heh…duty)

Close-up of the game tables in Diversions. The pieces are magnetic.

The excursion was okay. I was a little nervous when I saw the boat, as it was a big tall three-level boat, and I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how the heck I’m supposed to see fish from 20 feet above the water. We cruised out through the harbor, and the MC kept up his patter all the way out past Atlantis, past Barry Bonds’ house (which is NOT shaped like a giant hypodermic needle), and past Oprah’s house (where we did not see Steadman, or James Frey).

Casa de Oprah

Now, I’m convinced at least a part of what he was saying was just completely made up, but it sounded good, so say “yea, mon!”. We got to some random spot, and we all headed downstairs. Now this makes more sense. We ended up seeing a lot of fish. We also motored out to the “outside” of the harbor to a shipwreck. Some freighter that had sunk there back in the 40’s. Lots of coral formations and aquatic life. We zipped back to the pier and headed back to the ship about 4:45 or so.

On the way back onboard, we were watching DCL unload bags of trash into a couple of huge dumpsters. There were two guys, and they were jumping on top of the trash bags, trying to mush them down. And we’d only been on board 24 hours at this point. I can’t wait to see how full the garbage hold is after six straight sea days on the trans-Atlantic crossing. Holy cow.

DCL Trash-Jumpers

Tonight’s dinner was at Triton’s, and it was here that we got to meet our “real” servers for the first time. They were good, but it’s hard to go “back down” from Palo, even as good as the regular servers are. Again, between the six of us, we had almost every appetizer on the menu. As for the entrée, well, it was a Friday during Lent, so the fish was VERY popular. The desserts were also good, although I don’t think anybody ended up with their crème brulee.

After dinner, we changed into comfy clothes and headed (all six of us) to the theater for The Golden Mickeys. I like this show, but I do think it’s the weakest of the three. The “Rona Rivers” doing the pre-show out in the lobby is cute, but goes on a little too long, IMHO (just like the real Joan and Melissa). I’m all for the enthusiasm, but on a screen that big (and that loud) it’s a lot to take in.

Muffin and Peaches were very happy after the show that the seas had calmed down. They’d never been on a cruise before, and they were very worried that if every night were as rough as Thursday night, they might not be able to go back. But Friday was calm, the winds were almost nothing, and they’re moving a lot slower leaving Nassau.

We headed back to the staterooms to get ready for Pirates. Doc decided to call it a night, because she was just worn out. So Muffin, Peaches and I got tarted up and headed up to Deck 9. Much in line with conventional wisdom, there weren’t many people dressed up. We didn’t go much beyond silly hats, fake tattoos, and some beaded necklaces. Well, Muffin had a fake mustache and goatee that made him look like the lost member of the Village People, but that’s beside the point.

Yarr.

The party itself was fun, even during the times it was more an aerobic workout than deck party. We stayed until after the characters had left, and then wandered off. That was pretty much the end of the evening.

Tomorrow: Castaway Cay!!

 

[jlowejd5]

Ahhhh. Finally. I’ve been thinking about burying my toes in the sand of Serenity Bay for almost two years. Unfortunately, we had a bit of a setback this morning. Well, Peaches did. She had decided to take advantage of the Spa and do yoga on the beach early in the morning, and then do a cabana massage. I was surprised that she was able to get a slot, because I know they’re popular. She she’s up and moving early on Saturday. Muffin, Doc, and I grabbed some breakfast and headed out a little while later. We bought some souvenirs (including the postcards I needed to write) and headed to the tram to Serenity Bay. We got there, and found Peaches perched on a lounger. She didn’t look overly happy. Apparently, the CM she’d talked to when they booked the yoga had told her the wrong meeting place. She was told to go to the Spa, and apparently the group was supposed to meet on the island. So they missed that.

She then went up for her cabana massage, figuring that that would take her mind off it. She was only gone about 10 minutes. Uh-oh. The CM who had taken her reservation had booked her for a 10:00 cabana massage, but when she got up there, the CMs told her that cabana massages didn’t start until 11:00. (those times are as best I can remember, it may be a half-hour either way) So she missed out on that as well. She wasn’t happy at all, but after a while on the beach, she came to terms with it. Even a bad day on Castaway Cay is better than a good day at work.

The weather was absolutely gorgeous. I heard the temperature was 92 that day. Breezy, sunny, just wonderful. We all got a little sunburned, but nothing too bad. We got some lunch there at Castaway Air Bar, which is oddly unadvertised in the Disney literature. My guess is that maybe they don’t want people to see a long line at Cookies and come sniffing around. We really enjoyed the food. Any time I can get a big old greasy cheeseburger, grilled outdoors on a beautiful day, I’m a happy little monkey. They even had a soft-serve ice cream machine out there that I don’t remember from last time.

Doc got a float and floated, Muffin and Peaches did some wading and splashing about, and we all just relaxed and enjoyed ourselves. Tom and Judy got a raft and a tube and went out into the water. Judy had a drink in one hand, a paperback in the other, and was doing fine. Well, about a half-hour later she realized she was WAY out beyond the orange markers. She’d floated out and was over a sandbar a couple hundred yards offshore. She hops out of the tube and starts walking back in. She steps off the sandbar and hit about 8-foot-deep water. Book soaked, hat soaked, cup gone. She paddled out of the deep stuff and waded back in, laughing at herself the whole way. She felt bad about the cup, but it was gone quickly.

The scary thing was that about an hour later, a younger guy came running in from the shallow water and found a waiter who happened to be right next to our seats. There was an older guy, in a tube, who had floated about 150 yards out past where Judy had stopped herself. He was really hard to see. Luckily, Muffin had a little pair of binoculars. The guy was waving and splashing, but he was at least 500 yards out and moving away. The waiter runs off to the guy at the float rental place, and a few minutes later we see a girl on a jet-ski come zooming up to the guy. She gave him a ski rope and towed him back to the shallows. Yay! He seemed embarrassed but none the worse for wear.

We headed back towards the ship not long after that. They stopped at She Sells, and I went ahead to the post office. I had printed up a half-dozen address labels for the people back home, so that made everything easier. They were mailed on the 11th, but I haven’t heard yet if they’ve made it to anybody. I couldn’t bring myself to send one to us here, because that would just make me sad…

Muffin's great pic leaving CC.

Dinner was at Animator’s Palate that night. It was very good. The only complaint I have is that either the diners were too loud or the “show” music was too soft. I know my Disney music forwards and backwards, but it was really hard to identify the songs and anticipate the show. That’s a small complaint, I know, and not overly important in the grand scheme of things. After the show we headed down to the theater for Disney Dreams, which is my favorite of the three shows. Just before the curtain went up, I leaned over to Muffin and said “remember, all you need is faith, trust, and a little pixie dust”. I think by the time it was over, we were both almost in tears.

Y’know, the thing that I love most about Disney productions is that, at the heart of almost every Disney movie and show, the central theme is that the most important thing is to be true to yourself and believe in yourself and your abilities. And as simplistic and archaic as it sounds, that’s a neat thing. You may look different, act different, and think different things than those around you, but you are you and that’s a cool thing to be.

We headed back to the cabins after the show to finish packing (waaah) and start thinking about the end of the vacation. What we didn’t know is that Muffin decided to turn the tables on us. He stopped by the DCL reservation desk and talked to the CM there for ten minutes or so. Muffin comes back and sticks his head around the divider on the verandahs and starts his sales pitch. The deposit is only $250 per. They’re giving 10% off. A $200 stateroom credit. It's refundable up to a few months before the cruise...

Yeah, we’re booked on the December 1, 2007 Western Magic cruise.

As we walked away from the booking desk, we were looking over the atrium area where they were doing the character greeting. Muffin yells "Hey, Snow White!! We're coming back!!"

Tomorrow: I can't even say it...

 

[jlowejd5]

Well, with that taken care of, it was a little easier to get off the ship. Not much, but a little. We said our goodbyes to our amazing travel companions and headed off the ship. We knew we were coming back in 628 days, but it was still a little sad. We got a porter, got our luggage, and headed back to the bus. Got back MCO about 9:00, and our flight didn’t leave until 1:45. Which got pushed to 2:30. Meh. We got some paperbacks, found an empty gate, and claimed some floor space. We eventually found ourselves back in Columbus. Made it home by about 5:30 or so. Sigh… But on the way home, we drove past the big hole in the ground where they’re building our dream home. Whoo!!

So that’s about it for our trip. I will divulge this, though. As I’m writing this, it’s Thursday March 23. Today in the mail I got a beautiful photo album from Muffin. Meanwhile, our suitcases are on the bed in the spare room. Still half-packed. I’ve done some laundry. Doc wears scrubs every day, so she really hasn’t needed to yet. We figure that if we don’t ever unpack, the vacation isn’t technically over. Right? Right?

Forgot to post this earlier. Our countdown...

----

I always see questions about what movies are playing. Here’s the list from our cruise:

In the Buena Vista Theater:
Annapolis; Casanova; Chicken Little; Chronicles of Narnia; Eight Below; Glory Road; and the prem-ear of The Shaggy Dog.

On the stateroom tv:

The movies:
Good Night and Good Luck; Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire; Pride and Prejudice; Prime; Yours, Mine, and Ours; and Zathura

Animated Classics:
Aladdin; Beauty and the Beast; The Jungle Book; The Little Mermaid; Lion King; Pinocchio; Sleeping Beauty

Animated Features:
a bug’s life; Finding Nemo; Lilo & Stitch; Monsters, Inc.; Mulan; Tigger: The Movie; Toy Story;

 

[jlowejd5]

Okay, that's our trip report. That got a little longer than I thought it would be. But I hope you enjoyed it.