Friday 5/16-
On tap: DHS
Once again, the start of the day was later than we wanted. No rope drop for us.
I usually am adamant about the rope drop thing. This trip, I realized I can get there an hour later and still do everything I want. I think that knowing in the back of our minds that we are going back in October really took part of the stress off of me wanting to cram it all in.
Dont get me wrong- we did do a great many things. Weve just now been so many times that we know where to be when and what to see and what to skip. I guess youd say were regulars! Which means that Disney has gotten a whole heck of a lot of our dinero through the years, LOL.
I got up and began trying to track down Mighty Good Neighbors. I thought I remembered her telling me that they were going to be in the WL, but I also know that their favorite resort is the AK. So I began the long process of searching for them by calling down to the front desk of our resort- ASMu. The lady I got, Olympia, was so very kind. She checked both the AK and the WL and said there was no one registered under the name Mighty Good Neighbors at either resort. I thanked her and hung up.
I got ready and called back down to the front. I got another really nice lady by the name of Rosie and she looked in every resort for the entire weekend. No luck. Mark came in from running and got ready.
I didnt have my book with their cell phone number in it or their home phone number so I called information on my cell to get their home # thinking they might not have left SC yet. I got the #, called- it wouldnt go through. Im thinking WTH?? Redialed, must have been, 6 more times. Frustrated, I called my house to talk to my Mom. She couldnt find my book with their #s- so she said call back down to the front desk and ask for a contact to the Ironman event.
So I called BACK down to the front and got Athenna, a wonderfully helpful person. Told her my plight and she put me on hold for 20 minutes, checking back with me every few minutes to tell me she as still searching for some info. Mighty Good Man at this point was becoming Mighty Restless Man and said the lady probably was drinking coffee, watching her watch tick by- not really looking. I said she was a nice person, and we laughed. She came back and told me the only thing she could say was to go onto the Ironman website. I thanked her for her troubles and Mighty Good Mans watch went off. Ten Oclock. Were even later than we thought. I looked at him and said if Mighty Good Neighbors knew how badly we wanted to see them, theyd be so happy. Mark nodded in agreement.
Jumped into the power lock car and zoomed fast fast over to DHS. Parked in Stage parking, not sure of the number but who needed it? Weve got THE PANIC BUTTON. I should note here, however, that the panic button only worked when you were 5 feet from the car. Not to be picky, but if Im in a panic, I need it to work way before that, thank you very much.
WE bolted through bag check thankful for no encounters with another Officer Mouth and scooted quickly over to TOT. Stand by was 30 minutes, so we got a FP. Needed coffee and a place to sit so we went in a store and asked an older lady where a good place to get good coffee, not Nescafe Nasty, was. Bless her heart. She looked so upset- like she wanted so badly to tell us the correct information. She suggested Starring Rolls the bakery next to The Brown Derby, and if not there, then past the ABC commissary at The Writers Stop. Went first to Starring Rolls. Nope. Nescafe Nasty.
Asked a younger CM and she without hesitation said The Writers Stop. So we walked over and I got a latte and Mighty Good Man got a large regular so as not to become Mighty Grumpy Man. We went out of the café and back to the area by The ABC commissary. There was a lovely place to sit outside underneath the palm trees, so we sat and had our morning coffee- just like we do at home. Its our special time, so its very important that we do it, even on vacation. There was neat music playing- all of the TV shows and so we tried naming them all. Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley, Brady Bunch- lots more. Just sitting there- the breeze barely blowing, looking up and seeing the palm trees swaying ever so slightly. It was a special moment. We were at peace and happy.
Mighty Good Man says I really want to see Mighty Good Neighbors. What else can we do? ding-ding-ding! JoBird has a lightbulb moment!!!!!!
Mr. Mighty Good Neighbor is a Doctor!!!! Lets call information and get the number to his practice!!! yay me! I am brilliant, if I must say so myself.
Mighty Good Man pulls out the Treo and gets right on it. The practice answers on the first ring. Mighty Good Man says I am good friends with Doctor Mighty Good Neighbor, could you tell me if he is in Orlando running the Ironman? The other side said yes, I think so to which Mighty Good Man boldly asks for his cell phone number to reach him!! I grin, knowing theres no way in heck theyd ever give it to him. Hold please is the response. I am in disbelief. The lady comes back and says she is not at liberty to give out that information. I laugh. Mighty Good Man says my name is Mighty Good Man and please tell Doctor Mighty Good Neighbor that I need him to call me. He also told her to tell him that we were in Orlando too, so as to not worry Doctor Mighty Good Neighbor that something bad had happened.
He hangs up and says Do you think they will call him? and I say but of course. They are now worried you are stalking him. We both roll with laughter at the idea and Mighty Good Man does his best imitation of a creepy guy on the phone
Hello. I am Charles Manson. Could I get Doctor Mighty Good Neighbors number and oh yeah go ahead and tell me his address while youre at it.
Just as we get finished laughing- it had been only two minutes- the phone rings and of course its Dr. Mighty Good Neighbor. They laugh and joke and Dr. Mighty Good Neighbor says he told the receptionist- its only Mighty Good Man, of course you could have given him my number- but she had no way of knowing it wasnt Charles Manson, so we all forgive her.
Dr. Mighty Good Neighbor had just landed at the airport and his wife and kids were flying in at 2 that afternoon. So he says hell call us later when they land and well plan on getting together.
We are happy that our mission had been a success and Dr Mighty Good Neighbor was thrilled. We walk hand in hand to RNRC to get a FP for later and see that it only has a 10 minute wait- so we go standby and ride in the front of the coaster. Perfect launch, perfect ride.
We walk to TOT and use our FPs the wait is posted at 30 minutes, but I truly think it was more like 20. We used the FPs anyway and we went to the Right side Library. Ive never done that side before! This is my fave ride in all of WDW so I am loving every second of it. We go to the Boiler room and go right- the first elevator- all the way to the right side. There is a group of young grade school girls- all speaking a foreign language, all at once. Some of them were scared, some were wide eyed. I didnt know if I wanted to be on the ride with them screaming, but we ended up riding with them. We got the last seats all the way on the back row- top right hand side.
We were the only adults in this elevator of doom with screaming non English speaking preteens. When the elevator went straight up at the beginning of the ride, they all started screaming that high pitch scream that only young girls can do so well. I was sure that the dog from the graveyard scene in the HM at the MK was howling. Mighty Good Man decided hed have some fun with them and he started yelling with all his might and they all stopped screaming and looked at him. Im scared, he said. To which they all realized if this big 200 pound muscle man is yelling because he is scared, then they were surely all gonna die. So they start screaming. All the way up. All the way out. All the way down. Up--- YAHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Down----YAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! Up, down, up down, up, down. They screamed so hard and so long that at the end, when it was time to stand up, one of them stood, staggered, and looked as if she was going to faint. Might Scared Man laughed.
Our picture shows all preteens with their mouths like this :
--- and there on the top row in the second to the last seat, you see Mighty Scared Man with his mouth like this:
and next to him me, with my mouth like this:
That was a wonderful experience, but it paled in comparison to what would come later in the Tower of Doom
.
We were hungry so we walked over to have lunch at our favorite CS- Studio catering which I think is now called Terrace Grill, at least thats what the receipt says. Any way, we ordered 2 Greek Salads and a bbq sandwich that I cut a corner off of for myself and Mighty Hungry Man proceeds to devour the rest. Cheap lunch at $21.
We found the entrance to the Backlot Tour and were happy to have some shade as it is getting pretty dang hot. I climb onto the Tram and the host crams two more people onto our row with us. I got aggravated b/c it was hot and the tram wasnt full at all, so I was annoyed. As was the other lady sitting with us. Of course we had never been on the ride before, so we had no clue that the left hand side gets you soaking wet. As we approach Catastrophe Canyon, I am crawling on top of Mighty Big Man and hes trying his best to keep me from getting wet. I sort of end up hanging onto the other couple as 9,000 gallons of water are dumped onto our tram. As the water recedes, I look at Mighty Perturbed Woman and say I bet you didnt realize you were going to have a new Best Friend when you got up this morning to which she giggled.
When we got off, we had a look around the AFI part and saw lots of costumes from movies- including some from the new Prince Caspian movie! Very interesting stuff.
Afterwards, we think weve had enough of DHS for a bit, and since we had ADRs for later at Prime Time, we decide to bolt and go get a Dole Whip from the MK.
Midway to the parking lot of the TTA, Mighty Good Man decides that he wants to take the walkway over to the Poly and check things out at that resort. I remembered Sulley saying that we could get a Dole Whip there so we decided that it would be a great idea. We were looking forward to sitting in some shade and resting by the beach. Or so I thought.
We walked around the Poly and Mighty Good Man became Mighty Insane Man (my goodness the transformation and different personas hes been, LOL) and decided at that moment, he did NOT want to go back to the ASMu with the moldy shower. He wanted to stay THAT NIGHT and the next night AT THE POLY and he wouldnt let me stop him. He marched up to the registration desk and told the man behind the counter that we were in ASMu, we werent happy and we wanted to move resorts. He even said he didnt care about price. I was dumbfounded. I am standing there, my mouth wide open and I cant speak. Mighty Insane Man is grinning like there is no tomorrow and I cant say anything. Mighty Insane Man whips out his wallet, pulls out the Credit card and the CM says that the only thing they have left is Lagoon View. $500 + tax per night. Grand total room only, rack rate for 2 nights- $1200. Insano Man says Well take it.
Oh. My. Gosh.
The CM says that we will have to go and check out at ASMu (its now 3:15) and that the room is reserved in our names, but we wont be checked in or give a Credit card until we come back.
Mighty Insane Man is grinning, thinking hes really made my trip special and I am not sure what to say. I mutter- Im still getting my Dole Whip. And he says Of course you are. And we go stand in line.
I am standing there, looking at him and say There is no way we should even think of doing such a thing. Insano Man says why not and I said b/c at the end of the trip wed be ashamed for being so foolish with our money. Hello- we do have another trip to pay for in October!!!
Imagine! Me! Paying Rack Rate! The thought curled my toes and hurt my insides. I told him I wasnt comfortable doing it and he said he wanted to do it for me. Just then the phone rings. Its Dr. Mighty Good Neighbors Wife. She is screaming in the phone with her wonderful Southern Drawl, youd think shed won the lottery. Get over here at 5PM-, she says. Weve got reservations at Whispering Canyon- I just added you two.
Its 3:50. We have no time to get to the resort, pack everything up, check out of ASMu, check in at the Poly and get over to the WL for supper. Mighty Dejected Man looks sadly at me and says I tried. I told him hes my knight in Shining armor whether were paying $84 a night or $500 a night. He smiles and off we go to shower quickly and get dressed for dinner.
We get to the WL and around the corner come Dr and Mrs Mighty Good Neighbor and their beautiful babies- 6 year old cutie Blue Eyed Boy (he and Belle are exactly one month apart- his mom and I were so cute pregnant together) and 3 year old cutie girl with a big bow in her hair. They come running and grab us and I pick up Big Bow and exclaim at the Southerness of her having the bow being bigger than her head. Oh how I love love love the Southern girly way of dressing babies. Biggest bow you can find and smocked clothes. We all hug and laugh at the absurdity of meeting in Orlando and off we go to our table.
I have never been to Whispering Canyon, so I was happy to get to try it. Our waiter was a Spanish man that told us his name was Sergio (said with a heavenly accent)- but that we should call him Dusty Trail. Somehow Mighty Good Man and Dr Mighty Good Neighbor start calling him Dusty Tail and it goes downhill from there. The napkins were thrown at us, the straws were thrown at us. Mrs. Mighty Good Neighbor says that we are celebrating Blue eyed Boys 6th Birthday and Dusty Tail says that That is fine, but you know the one who announces the Birthday is the one who gets to ride the Pony, so get ready blondie, cause you getting ready to ride that Pony!!! We died laughing. We had the best time with that waiter! Both Me and Mighty Good Man ordered the skillet- and it was so very good. Loved it, would definitely like to bring the kids back in October.
After dinner, Dr Good Neighbor wanted us to see his new $5000 bike, so we go to his room. First floor, courtyard (?) view I think is what they had with bunk beds. A very nice room. Their kids are getting rambunctious from all of the excitement of their first night of vacation, and Blue Eyed Boy somehow slams Big Bows thumb in the patio door. Party over. I give kisses and hugs to the babies and we promise to meet up with them the next day at AK. Blue Eyed Boy wanted to ride his first big coaster- EE(!) and demanded that we all ride together. How could we refuse?
So we run out to the car and I grab a change of clothes and change in the restroom so that we could head back over to DHS for the late showing of Fantasmic.
We got there and headed straight back to The Writers Stop for another round of coffee. Im beginning to think our veins run a constant caffeine drip, with all the coffee we drink, but thats our way of life. We got our coffee and sat back at the same table by the ABC Commissary. Ahhh, peaceful moment. Palms swaying again, warm breeze of it finally cooling down after being a hot day. Oh wow. We miss the South. It just feels like home to us. Talk about future plans of how long till we could possibly get back down there to live.
All of a sudden, out of nowhere, interrupting my very happy moment comes a crazy man, wielding a stroller, yelling the most horrendous language at this poor lady carrying a child that looked to be about 18 months old. Mighty Good Man instantly becomes Mighty Muscle Man and says Baby, if it gets physical, Im in. Grab the wallet and get me out of jail. He keeps a keen eye towards the fight, all the while the crazy man is saying to the lady- This vacation is all about you and your precious Princess Daughter and what YOU want to do. Mighty Muscle Man says under his breath-Dude, youre in Disney, what do you expect?? I said Perhaps he wanted to go to the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique himself? The poor lady finally walked off but Crazy Man followed her screaming at her the entire way. The little baby looked at that raging idiot like she was terrified and was clinging to her mom with all her might. We were very sad for the situation and hoped things didnt get out of hand any more than they already were.
We sat there for another moment and another man came walking by and stopped and shared a bit of his story with us. It was his wedding anniversary, but his wife had gotten cancer 13 years before and she fought like hell to beat it. He said that one night he had to get up with her 27 times to help her and that she finally had had enough. The next day when he told her he was running to the store- he came home to find she had committed suicide as an act of love to him- to not be a burden b/c she knew shed never get well. Oh my gosh. I started crying and he had tears in his eyes. Mighty Good Man reached over and kissed my hand and we wished the man well.
Such a stark contrast of peoples relationships- all in the course of a 15 minute time span.
I told Mighty Good Man that I needed to do something fun in order to get my mind off of what had happened and he said What do you want to do? I told him that I had always wanted to ride TOT at night, and that since they were showing two Fantasmics and the first had already begun, we might luck out and get a quick stand by line. Mighty good Man said great and we were off.
I was right, of course, there was no one around TOT and it was actually quite eerie as we walked through the gardens with no one else. We got up to where the CMs stand and again, we got the right side Library again. 6 other people went in with us. The doors close and we are all alone, listening to the Twilight zone spiel. I am a bit scared- its just kind of creepy at night- and I grab onto Mighty Big Man, thanking God for the muscles he had. The library doors open and I am the first out. We went right at the split in the boiler room, like always- and theres only a handful of people boarding ahead of us. About half full. I get up to the CM and say very sweetly to him Is there any possible way that we could ride the ride tonight all alone? The CM looks at me, then at Mighty Big Man and says You want to ride all alone? Tonight? Now? I nodded and he looked behind us. There was no one else in line. He said Okay. Youre mighty brave and laughed this weird guttural laugh. I immediately asked myself what I had done.
He put us all the way to the right had side and had us stand on the little squares in order to be in row 1, seats one and two. Some other people come and they load them onto the middle elevator squares. Were still standing there. More people come. They put them into the middle elevator squares. That middle elevator is starting to fill up. More people. Again, the middle elevator. They complain, saying they could ride with us. No, the CM says they have to ride the middle one. Up they go.
Our elevator doors open and the CM says very creepily, Proceed. We get in and my heart is hammering in my chest. He tells us the belt buckle should be buckled left to right. Im so scared Im trying to buckle right to left. The CM is still saying Left to right, Left to right. He finally bends down and says with much enunciation LEFT to right. I say, Ohhhhhh, Left to right, haahaha. And I am nervous as all get out.
We sit there for another minute with the doors still open, prolonging the sheer agony of the situation I have gotten us into and the CM still in character comes to our door with the phone in his hand. He says to the other person on the other end so that we hear him No, theres only two of them. Are you sure? He looks at us and says It seems the brakes are out. To the person on the other end he says Oh no, it will be fine. Send them anyway, they dont weigh much, Im sure the brakes will catch. He looks at us, doffs his hat and wishes us a pleasant stay. The doors close and we are sucked up into the Tower of Doom.
Its at this point, JoBird begins to scream.
I scream and I scream until I think I am going to faint from terror. We get up to the top, begin the outward ride in order to get into place and the drop begins.
They must have picked us up and dropped us for a full minute. On and on and on and on and on and on. Over and over and over again.
Just as I thought we were finished theyd pick us up again. I screamed the entire time. When its finally over, I am clinging to Mighty Big Man so hard that my knuckles are white. The doors open and a CM is there and says Do drop in any time. My knees were weak.
Our picture looked like this : Me
Mighty Big Man:
While I am happy I did it, I dont think Ill ever ask for that again.
We went over to RNRC and had a 5 minute wait and rode and loved it. Afterwards, I was overcome and needed some water, so we stopped at the Popsicle stand and waited for the second Fantasmic to get closer.
When it was 10:15, we walked slowly over, went inside, chose a spot right in the middle of the stadium, sat down and had no one around us. Hardly anyone was there. In fact, most of the sides were roped off.
The show began at 10:30, we watched it and then walked slowly out of the near empty park to the tram and were back in our hotel room showered and in the bed at 12:30.
Wonderful day all around!
Up next- our final day--AK, Epcot and the MK all in one day!
so we had 3 hours to kill 
probably the MOST RANDOM things that anyone could ever order at 7 am in the airport 
... fried zucchini - mozzarella - and boneless buffalo wings 
yuck 
awwwww... he's cute - i think it's cuz he has a crush on minnie, but we'll get to that in a few days... 
... and generally i wouldn't wait that long - but we still weren't familiar with where everything was and didn't want to not make it back for the FP or something stupid... plus we just got there - and we didn't want to run around too much yet) 
yay: - soooo good) and the chicken sausage for bob (mah.... not really my scene - but still pretty good)
YAY we all made it and on time too!! We chat for a few minutes and go inside. No line at WPE today! So we all order and get a big table together. We had a nice lunch and a great time. I don't think my boys stopped talking the whole time. 
oh my, buy hey it was their money. I'm not sure what else we got that day, but we went to nearly every store at DTD! Oh and stopped at Goofy's Candy Co on the way out for some chocolate covered pretzels! 
I felt so bad, he shouted "I don't like this" through the whole ride. Other riders were even consoling him! So during that time DS9 talks DH into riding RNRC with him. Well, DH HATED it!! Poor baby! 
I tell them that they WILL make it up for Illuminations tomorrow night because we have never seen it yet, and they agree. We get back to CSR and lay in the hammocks and the wind picks up and we even feel a few rain drops. The only rain we got all week. We hope for a cooler day tomorrow!
What's really funny is last Christmas my DGD kept singing, "Tinkerbells, tinkerbells, tinker all da way..." 
