My Adults only WDW trip report. August 16-22, 2009.

[Jingle]

Part I

Cast of Characters:

Julie (me) age 48. First trip to WDW June 1973 staying at Fort Wilderness Campground. Several trips both on site and off throughout the years.

Kelly (SO) age 52. Until he met me 12 years ago, spent about 2 hours in the Magic Kingdom. He made fun of my Disney trips the first few years we were together. So I left him home and went with my kids. He finally decided to come along in 2002 bringing his son along too. He had a good time, but was not a true convert until we went alone in 2004. Two adults alone at WDW is a blast! It’s so much easier to get around with only two people.

Our last visit was in May 2007 with my 2 adult kids and my parents. While it was a great trip and I enjoyed spending time with my family, traveling with a group can be stressful at times. This trip is going to be all about us and what we want to do. Fortunately we both have very similar styles in traveling, so what it boils down to is I pretty much get to do exactly what I want to do. It’s OK to be selfish once in awhile.

This has been a busy summer both at work and in our personal lives. My daughter got married two weeks before this trip so the summer has been busy with all the wedding planning. I’m also going to be a first time grandmother around the end of September. Actually, I gained an 11 year old step-grandaughter when my daughter got married. heh heh heh…..payback is coming sooner than I expected! Ah, those teen years. So much fun! My son is also in a serious relationship with a woman who has a 8 year old son. But, I’m going to enjoy having a baby around and yes, I’m already planning his first WDW trip in a few years. That will be another big family trip with four generations of family members and probably 15 people. But this time, it’s just Kel and I and we’re looking forward to it.

As a side note, my daughter gave me a t-shirt for mother’s day that says…Grandchildren are God’s reward for not killing your children. I think I’m going to like this grandma stuff!

Around the first part of May, one morning Kel said, you know, I’m getting the itch to go back to WDW. He actually started looking for deals that morning! We decided the price was just too good to pass up and booked the trip within a few days. Then a few days later I found out that my daughter and her fiancé decided to get married before their baby is born. I hadn’t told anyone in the family that we had booked a trip (otherwise other family members would want to go too) so I held my breath a little while waiting to hear the date. Whew! They didn’t pick any of our trip dates. However, the financial aspects of a wedding almost made us decide to cancel the trip, but I’m glad we didn’t. I’m really looking forward to going and I need a break from reality.

Of course Kel will not admit to anybody that he was the first one of us to bring up going to WDW this time. He tells everybody it was all my idea and he had nothing to do with it and he gets to pick the next place we go and blah blah blah. Right. Sure. Uh Huh.

We have direct flights from Milwaukee to Orlando, 6 nights at ASMu, 7 day park hopper tickets and the free dining plan. Heat and humidity don’t bother us too much and some rain won’t hurt either. We fly in mid day the first day and don’t leave until 7:30 p.m. the day we go home. We’re going Sunday to Saturday so we have a non-work day to get ready and a non-work day when we get home to ease back into real life.

We’re going to go with the bottled water delivery from Costco. We are also going to attempt to pack some vodka and captain morgan in our checked luggage. We will get smaller bottles (yes plural, as in multiple bottles) (hey, they’re not the BIG ones) and pack in bubble wrap and one of those great big zip lock bags in case of any “accidents”. We will then have extra room in our luggage to bring back anything we buy. Oh yeah, maybe I shouldn’t admit this here, but I’m packing two old ASMu refillable mugs—and, we’re going to use them. Shhhhhhhh. We actually bought them in the “good forever” days but some people still have a problem with it. That’s OK. If I really felt it was wrong I wouldn’t do it. But I’m doing it so I don’t. I also wouldn’t use these at another resort.

I, being the good Diser that I am, called exactly 90 days out at 7:00 a.m. (CST) for my ADR’s. I got everything I wanted, although some of the times were a little later than I would have liked. I was happy with what I got so I haven’t tried to play around with the times or anything on the on-line reservation system. We can be more flexible with just the two of us. I actually made 8 table service ADR’s just in case we have to cancel any along the way. We have “Ohana at 9:30 p.m. on our first night, Sunday August 16th. We’ll be doing EMH at MK after dinner since it will be open until 1:00 a.m. On Monday we have a 12:50 lunch at Coral Reef. Over the next few days we have booked lunch at Prime Time Cafe, dinners at Planet Hollywood and Kona Cafe, breakfast at Crystal Palace, dinner at Le Cellier on Friday night at 8:30 and Chef Mickey’s on Saturday morning. If I had to guess now, I’d say we will probably end up cancelling the Planet Hollywood and Chef Mickey’s, or maybe just Chef Mickey’s. We could always pay out of pocket for Planet Hollywood and use the $15 voucher that comes with our package. I’d also like to maybe eat at Rainforest Café. We’ll see what happens.

Now I just need to make arrangements for our dog, get his vet records, clean the house (it’s been chaos the last two weeks!), do a bunch of laundry, cash in my change jar, pay the bills, take back my shoes that started to peel after wearing once for a few hours, catch up on my work at work (ha), have the mail held, buy our “adult beverages”, hold the newspaper, get medication refills, mow the lawn, break the news to my kids, or then again, maybe not break the news. Maybe I’ll just not tell them. Then when they call and ask what I’m doing, I can say something like, oh, we’re just about to get on Splash Mountain.

To be continued……….

 

[Jingle]

Part 2

As I’m writing this part, it’s a week or so later and three days until trip time! A few things have changed. Our dog will be going to stay with my daughter and her husband. He’ll like that. The dog I mean, not her husband—although fortunately he likes the dog too. She can take him to work a couple days and she also might drop him off at home for a few hours so he can be in a familiar place when she’s not home. Oh yeah, obviously we broke down and told her we were going. A couple glasses of wine can do that to a person. Actually, by now I’m so excited to go that I want to tell everyone so it didn’t take much to get me to spill the beans.

We never got around to ordering water from Costco, so we’re just going to throw a few bottles in our checked luggage. Between that and our good old refillable mugs we should be just fine. I also read that we can take up to 5 liters of alcohol in our checked luggage. We are now probably going to be checking two bags, one for each of us, to make sure we stay under the weight limit. I THINK we should be able to take along enough booze to satisfy our needs. Ya think? I’m going to have to pack carefully! Thank goodness all of our clothes are very light this time of the year! We are taking a soft sided cooler that we can just fold up in our luggage to keep a few things cold.

For shoes we are each taking a pair of tennis shoes and a pair of Teva’s. Kel’s had Tevas for a couple years but I just bought my first pair a few weeks ago. I had been buying crocs, but Kel talked me into trying the Tevas. Once I tried on this one pair though, I was completely sold! These are the most comfortable sandals/shoes I’ve ever had! I’ve been wearing them to take the dog for walks and I think I’m going to end up wearing these most of the week. One big difference between these and the crocs, is that my feet don’t slip in these when they get wet. Since I sprained my ankle July 31st (yeah, at the rehearsal for my daughters wedding, but that’s another story!), it’s best that I’m not slipping around in my shoes since I do expect we will have some rain.

So, our suitcases are out and we have clothes spread out in an extra bedroom and we’re starting to get our stuff all together to go. That brings me to another subject. Fanny packs. Why do people hate them so much? Yeah, I know they aren’t the prettiest thing, but unless you’re wearing them UNDER a nice long shirt so you have a big extra bulge under your shirt, are they really that bad?

Earlier this summer when we went to Summerfest in Milwaukee, I started out carrying a small purse. I ended up throwing out the purse and buying a fanny pack. I needed my arms and hands free to carry other things, like shopping bags, beer, wine coolers and martinis! You know, that isn’t as easy as it once was. Buying a fanny pack that is. I can still carry the shopping bags, beer, wine coolers and martinis just fine!

The selection has gotten really small compared to what it once was—for fanny packs. The selection of beer, wine coolers and martinis was just fine. However, I was able to find a lightweight leather pack with a spot for my phone and room for all I’ll need, including one of those nice Disney rain ponchos. I’m getting a new one this year since the ones I have are the old yellow ones. I just have this feeling that I might need that rain poncho at least once while we’re there.

I will not be alone in my wearing of the Fanny Pack. Kel has one too, so we’ll just walk around looking like a couple of unfashionable nerds together. I will, however, remember not to wear polka dot underwear under white shorts while going on a ride where you get wet. I also promise not to take my shirt off and attempt to walk around the parks in my bra, wear shirts that show my belly, shorts that ride up my butt cheeks or have “cute little sayings” plastered on my behind. I won’t be wearing any high heels either. Not only are they uncomfortable for walking all day, but they can be dangerous! (Refer back to spraining my ankle at my daughter’s wedding rehearsal.)

I’m going to be keeping my eye out for snakes and alligators. I haven’t seen an alligator in the wild since 1973 and I’ve never seen a snake there! Now, I’m not looking to be surprised, and I wouldn’t want a snake to see me first, fall out of a tree, slither in my room, swim with me or touch me in any way. I just want to see one—from a safe distance. During the day. With plenty of room between me and the snake. I also don’t want to see one move fast. Staying still or slithering slowly is OK, but fast is not! I don’t want to scare any little children with a panic dance & song and a fast snake would have a very real possibility of making me do that! I also don’t think Kel would pick me up and carry me. Claims he has a bad back or something.

I’m looking forward to doing a few new things this year. We’ve never seen the Lion King Show or Flights of Wonder at AK. I’ve also never seen the movies in China and France and the American Adventure. Yes, it’s true. I’ve never seen the American Adventure. On our last trip, we watched the Voices of Liberty and then were ushered into the theater for the show. The show never started. There were technical difficulties. We never made it back. Then of course Toy Story Mania and the American Idol Experience will be new for us too and we’ve also never seen the Lights, Motor, Action stunt show. Oh, and we’ve also never seen Turtle Talk with Crush.

We will also be trying out those Sea Racers. I’d like to take a ride over by the old River Country and see what I can see. I remember when we tried out those little boats back in 1973 when staying at Fort Wilderness Campground but haven’t rented one since. We’ll use our voucher for the free one for a half hour and rent a second one for a half hour. We can’t ride together. Not unless one or both of us can lose a total of 35 lbs by next week. Maybe if we walk a lot…………

So now I’m off to start my shopping and packing list for the next few days. I’m a little late at doing that this trip!

To be continued……..

 

[Jingle]

Part 3

Packing and getting out the door. Somehow that’s never easy for me to do. I ended up doing laundry, packing and cleaning all day Saturday until about 10:00 at night. How can it take anybody that long?

We ended up packing a bottle of Vodka, a bottle of Spiced Rum and ten bottles of water in our checked luggage. We packed everything in large zip lock bags. Those things come in handy! We also packed a soft sided cooler for the room. Everything made it there safely.

We left home at 7:30 Sunday morning. We dropped our dog off with my daughter and were on our way. We got to Milwaukee, parked in the remote parking lot and took the shuttle to the terminal. Everything went very smooth. We were checked in and through security very quickly. We had plenty of time so we had some Quiznos subs while we were waiting to board. They weren’t the best quiznos subs I’ve ever had. We got the seats right behind the business class people that had the nice extra leg room. The flight was very uneventful and we landed right on time at 3:40 p.m.

We had to go pick up our luggage because we didn’t receive our magical express luggage tags before we left, but that wasn’t too much of a hassle. Actually, they never came! One thing I started noticing at the airport and it lasted throughout the week was that a lot of people would just stop right after they walked out of a door or got off an escalator. They would stand there and look around deciding where to go or waiting for the rest of their party. It was a good reminder to me to keep on walking when going through a door and then getting off to the side if we needed to stop for something.

We got our luggage and easily found the magical express check in area. That also went very quickly and we were on our bus within 10 minutes of getting to the check in area. We were the last two people on the bus. There were several people who like us had their luggage with them. It didn’t seem to be a problem. We dropped people off at ASSp first and we were the second stop. We walked in the lobby and right up to the person who handled the people who did the advance check in. She handed us our packet and we asked if we had gotten a king bed room like we requested. She said no, but let me see what I can do. It took her and another person about 10-15 minutes, but after moving some other people around she came up with a king bed room for us. Yeah! It was even better when she said we had a much better location than our original room. We don’t know where our original room was, but our new room was in Jazz building 9. If you’re walking from the main building back through the pool areas, it’s the Jazz building on the left hand side. We were just right around in the back on the first floor. It was nice and quiet back there. I commented that we never had a first floor room before and I hoped that no snakes got in the room because there are lots of shrubs back there. Kel said huh? I said, yeah, I was just hoping no snakes slithered in our room. He said you’re kidding, right? So, I told him about a few stories I’d read on the Dis about snakes in rooms. After that, Kel was a little paranoid and always made sure I closed the door tight every time. I’d prop it open for a couple minutes and he would insist I close the door right now so no critters came in. It was kind of funny and I enjoyed teasing him on occasion.

It didn’t take long for me to realize that I really liked having a first floor room! No stairs after a long day of walking. There wasn’t any noise that bothered us either. We brought along my atomic clock because it has different sounds you can play like rain, waves, summer night and stuff like that. I figured we would just turn that on and it would block out any noise when we were trying to sleep. As it turned out, there could have been a loud party outside our door and I doubt it would have kept us awake. We were dead tired after running around the parks day and night and didn’t have any problem falling asleep!

We unpacked, put everything away and while getting ready for our first adventure had an arrival cocktail. At first it looked like there wasn’t much drawer or storage space, but we found that everything we had fit quite nicely into the storage spaces they had. They also had the privacy curtain by the sink area. We didn’t have any complaints about the room. It worked just fine for the two of us.

We left the resort about 7:30 to head to the Polynesian for our first ADR, ‘Ohanna at 9:30 p.m. Our fanny packs were firmly secured. We caught a bus to the Magic Kingdom within 5 minutes and then caught the monorail to the Polynesian. Although we could have gotten seats, we decided to stand and let others sit because we just got there and still had energy! We had great luck with bus transportation all week! I right away started looking for others with fanny packs. We didn’t see as many as we used to, but there are definitely some people still using them so we weren’t alone.

We each ordered a cocktail at the Tambu Lounge. I had a Bahama Mama, and Kel had some specialty drink from their drink menu with vodka in it. I walked over to the check in podium, explained we had an ADR for 9:30, and asked if it was possible for us to get in earlier. She checked us in and gave us a pager right away. We were on our second cocktail when our pager went off and were seated right by the window at about 9:00. They said we could see Wishes from there if we were there that long. Wishes was at 10:00.

Dinner was excellent and this was my favorite meal of the trip. I wish I had made two ADR’s there! I especially loved the mixed greens with honey lime dressing and the pork dumplings. I ate a ton of those two things! The chicken wings were good too. I’m not a huge meat lover, so I only had the skewered shrimp. I couldn’t believe it, but we were too full for desert. I really wanted that desert, but we couldn’t take it with us and we felt so full I thought I’d be sick if I ate any more. So, I sadly passed and didn’t get to try it. We don’t like to drag out meals, so we were gone right before Wishes started. But, we had plans! We were going to the Magic Kingdom for their EMH from 10:00-1:00. We arrived at Magic Kingdom about 10:15. On through the bag check, put our tickets through, scanned our fingers and we were in.

We were both very excited when we first walked in the park and up Main Street USA! The castle was beautiful. We had arrived! First we went to the Jungle Cruise. It had been a long time since I had been on that and Kel had never been on it. I wanted to go at night because I heard it was more fun. We had about a 5 minute wait. Unfortunately, our boat captain was not one of the best. Her timing was off delivering lines and most of her jokes just fell flat. I made myself laugh anyway because I couldn’t stand just sitting there in silence and I didn’t want her to feel bad. We made it through our jungle adventure alive and well and headed on to our next adventure.

Next we checked Splash Mountain, but at 40 minutes the wait was too long for us and there weren’t any fast passes. On to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. They had fast passes left so we got one.

Next it was on to the Haunted Mansion. We had not seen the updates yet so were looking forward to this. This was basically a walk on too. I wanted to look at those head stones outside the entrance but we were being ushered right in so really didn’t have time. While I couldn’t name all of the updates for you, we did like them.

After that we still had a little time until our BTMR fast pass time so we went to Pirates of the Caribbean. That was pretty much a walk on. When that was done it was time for our BTMR fast pass time. We sat in the third row from the back. This was definitely more fun to do at night and we had fun people all around us hootin and hollerin the whole way.

After that we decided to call it a night. It was a long day and we were tired. This was actually a long time for us to stay up. It’s been a long time since we were up that late!

We made our way out of the park and made the long trek to our bus stop. The bus stop was pretty full but a bus pulled up within a couple minutes. We were the last two let on the bus. We were standing up by the driver and had a nice conversation with him on the way back. We went by this truck on the side of the road and saw some lights down by the swampy ditch. The bus driver said, I guess they haven’t found him yet. Found who? Oh, the really large alligator! Apparently there had been a rather large alligator hanging out earlier that day. If I heard the driver right, it was over 12 feet or so. He said it could have eaten one of his kids! His youngest was 10 so he wasn’t talking about a toddler. They were looking for the gator to relocate it because they said it was too big to be in that area. That took us to a discussion of snakes. Yes, those snakes again! I hate them but yet they fascinate me. The bus driver was pointing out spots where there were generally lots of snakes. Kel was getting more paranoid about snakes getting in the room as the discussion went on. And no, we didn’t end up with any snakes or other critters in the room. Not even a bug.

We made it back to the room and it didn’t take us long to collapse in bed. We were tired! We left the bed spread on too. And walked on the carpet with our bare feet. Not only that, but earlier we just picked up the TV remote control and used it with our bare hands. We live dangerously. My new Tevas held up very well and my feet didn’t hurt at all. They were the most comfortable shoes/sandals I’ve ever worn to the parks.

 

[California Jenn]

Sounds like a great start to your trip! And congratulations on becoming a new grandmother in September! We've never eaten at O'hana before, so will definitely have to try that out next time we are there.

 

[katepass72]

I am loving your report . . .can't wait to hear about the rest of your trip! Glad to hear it was snake and gator-free (at least so far)!

 

[girliewhirlie]

Love the detail!!! Can't wait for more.

 

[MouseKTeer]

"As a side note, my daughter gave me a t-shirt for mother’s day that says…Grandchildren are God’s reward for not killing your children. I think I’m going to like this grandma stuff!"



I bet you will, too! There's nothing like it, and you get to enjoy the kids without being responsible for the discipline. Boy, you did need a break...a daughter's wedding is a big deal and lots of work. Hope you actually got to relax some on your trip--when we got back from WDW last month, I told DH I thought I needed a vacation from our vacation .

 

[Jingle]

Thank you all for reading and for the nice comments! Every day I get more excited about being a Grandmother. Her due date is four weeks away so it won't be much longer.

Now, back to the story.........

Part 4

This morning we were heading to Epcot. I got up first around 7:00 and showered. Then Kel got up. He went and got us some coffee—yes, in our old refillable ASMu mugs. We were a little slow this morning and didn’t make it to the park until about 9:10. Once again, we didn’t have to wait long for the bus to come.

We headed to the Land to check out Soarin. The standby line was 45 minutes so we just decided to get a fastpass. We were hungry so we each used one of our snack credits at the Sunshine Seasons Counter Service. I got a cinnamon roll and Kel got a bagel with cream cheese. Then we headed over to Mission Space. The stand by line said the wait was only 10 minutes. I thought we could handle that. We choose Orange side, got our Orange side cards and got in line. We quickly moved into the building and then stopped. After a few minutes we moved again, but just a little bit. Then we stood there. And stood there some more. We kept seeing a different line going in and at first assumed it was all fastpass people. It was really the people in the green side line. Our line moved ever so slowly and was at a complete standstill several times. It actually took us 30-40 minutes to get on the ride even though we didn’t have far to go. I’m not sure what was going on, but all of a sudden our line started moving just like the green side line was moving. It seems that something was holding up the Orange side, but I’m not sure what. I heard one of the CM’s at the ride say something about a nurse being there so I’m wondering if someone got sick. The intense side of MS has never bothered me, and it didn’t this time either. We just keep our heads back and look straight ahead, like they tell you to do. The only issue I had was there was air blowing in my face, actually right in my eyes, which bothered my contacts. I wish there was a way to adjust that because it was uncomfortable at times.

Our fast pass time for Soarin was up so we stopped over at Test Track and got fast passes. Then we headed over to Soarin and got in the fast pass line. We got to skip a lot of people because they were looking for a party of two and we were the first party of two they found. We were put in section C row 1, the last two spots. I was thinking that we were going to be on the very end in the front row but when we got in there we actually had the last two seats closest to the middle section. Yeah! I’ve only been on the very end in the first row before. On our way in, a couple ladies sat down in our seats because they didn’t want to move all the way down, but the CM’s made them get up and move to the end of the row. Another great ride.

We headed to Spaceship Earth, but wow, that line was long! I don’t know what the standby time was, but I knew we weren’t getting in that line! We passed that right on by. Kel had never been to Ellen’s Energy Adventure and I haven’t been for years, so we decided to go on that. We walked in near the end of the preshow and then after about a minute we walked right on to one of the ride vehicles. Now it will be many years before I go again. It’s an OK attraction, but not one to repeat often.

With that done, we headed over to the Seas with Nemo. We also had an ADR for lunch coming up at Coral Reef. We joined the queue to head to our clam shells. There was a woman and a young child (7-8) ahead of us in line. She was obviously looking for someone behind us as she kept turning around and looking, looking, searching……walking in front of us very slowly, not keeping up with the people in front of her at all and the people behind us were on our backs breathing down our necks. At a turn in the queue, we finally all went around her because she came to a complete stop and stood there looking. At that point we couldn’t see the people in front of her anymore. After that we were able to just walk through and jump in our clam shell.

This attraction is definitely not something I need to repeat. I thought it was rather boring and was hoping they would have more real sea life in there. We passed up looking at more of the aquarium and decided to go check in for our ADR at Coral Reef even though we were a little early. We got our pager and waited about ten minutes to be seated. We were in the second row from the tank. Mmmmm, I already knew exactly what I was going to have! I had been looking at all the menus for the places we were going. Lobster salad on a toasted baguette, a cup of lobster soup and mixed greens. Yep, it’s right there under the lunch entrees on the on-line menus I looked at. But, I thought I’d just glance at the menu anyway. Hey, wait, where’s the lobster salad, soup & mixed greens? It’s not there? Great, they changed the lunch menu. Was that just for the free dining or is it a permanent change? So, I had to settle for something else. I had Lobster Ravioli and Kel had the sirloin steak. Both were good, but I was still disappointed because they didn’t have what I really wanted. We each ordered the chocolate wave for desert but took them back to the resort because we were too full to eat them there. Our waitress here was very friendly and accommodating, as were all of the wait staff we encountered during the week.

After lunch we decided to head back to the resort for some pool time. Once again we made the long trek back to our bus stop. That’s a drawback of staying at the values! We didn’t have to wait long for a bus. Maybe two minutes. Like I said earlier, we had great luck with the timing of the bus transportation! We proceeded to take the slowest bus ride back to the resort. It was like the bus driver was in slow motion. Everyone was passing us! Maybe she was new. We did however finally make it back there. We got on our swimming suits, made an afternoon cocktail and headed to the quiet piano pool and hung out for a couple hours. The water felt so good! We alternated between laying in the sun and going in the pool to cool off. Then it was back to the room to get ready for the evening. We were going back to Epcot and eating at Cantina de San Angel, the counter service place in Mexico.

Out to the bus stops we went and an Epcot bus pulled right up for us. When we got back to the park we decided to first use our fast passes for Test Track that we got earlier that day. We were about to walk through the doors to the loading area when four people (two couples) pushed in from the side and pretty much elbowed their way in front of us. I guess that was our fault for leaving a couple inches between us and the people in front of us and not hanging right on their backs and stepping on their heels. No big deal. We were seated in the front seat of a car along with a teen age girl from the single riders line. She was very pleasant and wasn’t afraid to talk to us. The three of us in the front were all wearing Tevas so we mentioned that and commented on how comfortable they were. Two of the people who pushed us aside were seated in the back seat of our car and the other two people who pushed ahead of us were in the back seat of the car in front of us. We enjoyed our ride and then decided to head back to World Showcase, have a drink and then some food.

I went to the place where they sell the different flavors of Margueritas. Kel had a Dos Equis and I ordered the Fiesta Marguerita. They started to put the first flavor in my glass but it wasn’t working right. I said that’s OK, two flavors were fine. Well, the second flavor wasn’t working either. Hmmmm, I really didn’t want just the original flavor. Well, there was another kind. It was blue. I don’t remember exactly what it was, but it was stronger than the other kinds and was also more expensive. I ended up with a mixture of the blue kind and the original lime flavor for the lower price. That was very yummy and I could definitely feel the effects of it! We thought we’d head over to Cantina de San Angel counter service, find a table to enjoy our drinks and then order food.

We ended up looking a bit for an empty table. Even though it was only 7:30, all of the tables with a view of the lagoon were taken, with most of them occupied by people who weren’t eating or drinking anything at all! There was usually one person at a table with stuff piled on all the chairs. OK, now I know people want to stake out their claims to a spot for Illuminations, but this really was rather irritating. We just wanted a table to eat at the place we were getting our food. But, we did end up getting a table but I saw others carrying around trays of food that weren’t so lucky.

After we found our table and enjoyed a bit of our drink for a couple minutes, I went up to order our food. We knew what we were getting. We had looked at the menu before we came. We were having the Plato Combinacion and Tacos el Carbon. Except they weren’t there. Huh? Am I blind? Where are they? I can’t see them on the menu! Because they weren’t there. They changed their menu. Was that just for the free dining? Were we going to run into this all week long? I can’t even remember exactly what we had. I know we had Cantina Nachos and then something else that was somewhat like a chicken burrito, but I can’t remember the name. We split the two. We got bottles of water that we took back to our room and two churros, which we didn’t completely finish. It was good, we were full, but still disappointed about the menu change.

The original plan was to hang around for illuminations, but we were tired. We just can’t stay up as many hours as we used to be able to! Since this was only our second day/night, we thought maybe we should head back so we didn’t wear ourselves out. We walked back to the front of the park, and now Spaceship Earth didn’t have a line so we decided it was a good time to ride. We both liked the updated and refurbished scenes on the way up. I knew there was going to be something on our screen with our pictures on the way back down but didn’t know exactly what. Kel wasn’t expecting it at all. We answered our questions and then enjoyed the little scene that played out with our pictures. I remember it made us laugh, and that’s always good!

We then headed out and had a nice long walk to our bus stop. Eeks, it was FULL of people. Was our bus luck running out already? Just as we got to the end of the line, three All Star busses showed up at the same time. We ended up standing near the back of the bus. We got back to the resort and the bus stopped. Then it suddenly lurched forward and he slammed on the brakes again. I turned around, and hey, Kel, what are you doing sitting on that mans lap in the back seat? Is he OK with that? His little daughter thought it was pretty funny anyway. So, I grabbed Kel’s hand and helped him up. Sorry to break up your fun guys! Kel apologized to the guy and we were off to our room. We got in bed and turned on the TV, but we both started falling asleep right away so we just turned it off. We sure didn’t need any white noise from my atomic clock to get us asleep! You know, my atomic clock, that automatically sets the time when you choose the time zone you’re in, would not set the time right there. It would always come up with some way off time from what it really was. I thought I’d move the clock the next day and try to set the time from a different location in the room. It never worked. We didn’t need it anyway. It did work perfectly fine when we got home, so it just must have been the location we were in.

 

[Jingle]

Part 5

This morning we were headed to Disney Hollywood Studios. We knew we wanted to be there before park opening because we were headed to the place that most others were headed to. Toy Story Mania.

So, this was another early morning for us. I headed to the shower and Kel first headed to get us some coffee. After my shower I turned the TV on and started eating my chocolate wave from the Coral Reef yesterday at lunch time. That was when we first heard the news about the cast member who was killed in a rehearsal for the Indiana Jones Stunt Show the night before. How very sad that there were three deaths of cast members recently!

We headed out to the bus stop and were in line about 2-3 minutes when a DHS bus pulled up. By that time, several more people had joined the line behind us. We got a seat on the bus and kept it because there was not anyone standing who appeared to need a seat worse than us.

We made it to the park about 40 minutes before it opened. We really didn’t expect to catch a bus so quickly that morning. We got in line just to the left of the middle because we didn’t want to fight crowds with people heading to Tower of Terror and Rock’n Roller Coaster. We had four people in front of us at the ticket turnstile. The wait was entertaining and went quickly. They came out and did their American Idol thing where they recorded the crowd cheering and some individuals to use later during the shows. They were also asking for people who wanted to audition. Two people from the morning crowd asked to audition so we all cheered them on.

There were also four interesting people in front of us in the line. It looked like two mothers and two older teen age daughters. What was interesting to me? Well, it appeared that it was just the four of them together and from listening to them, I’m quite sure it was just the four of them going and they weren’t meeting anybody else. They each had their own backpack stuffed full, and I mean stuffed FULL! Obviously I don’t know what they had in there because I couldn’t see in them. However, they appeared heavy as it looked like it took some effort for the mothers to pick up their backpacks. I guess I just can’t imagine taking that much stuff into a park and carrying it around all day! Why would each person need their own backpack absolutely stuffed with things? I’m sure someone has some logical ideas, but I guess I just can’t see loading myself down like that to walk around the park in the heat and to go on the attractions. I guess they were prepared for absolutely everything.

They finally opened the turnstyles and people rushed in, many running as soon as their ticket was through. Running to the rope. Then people had to stop and wait again. I told Kel to keep to the left so we wouldn’t have to try and get through people turning right to go to R&R and TOT. Then I was amazed at the number of people over on the left side of the pack who then turned right and tried to swim through the swarming crowd over to the right to head to R&R and ToT. Likewise, there were many people heading to Toy Story Mania who were way over on the right hand side and then had to try and bob and weave through the people turning right.

I must say, the running of the mob to TSM was one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a long time! People trying to do a fast run/walk and others just outright running at full speed with strollers and other kids trying to keep up. In particular, this one woman looked very funny. She was a person who carried her weight in her behind. This is not a comment about weight. Some people carry their weight in different places. Me? I carry my weight in my stomach, so really, I’m not criticizing her weight or butt. However, she had on a short kahki skirt and when she was trying to do her really fast run/walk her arms were a pumping and her butt was just a shifting up and down, left to right, as fast as it could go. It really did look funny. So did lots of other people. We had a ton of people pass us. I just didn’t have it in me to weave in and around people or push them aside so I could get a little closer. I knew we would make it there and we would get a fast pass. When we got there, the fast pass area was of course extremely busy. We picked our fast pass line and got in to wait. The lady two people up from us had about 15 or so tickets in her hand and when she got to the fast pass machine I thought the guy in front of us was going to pee his pants! He was bouncing up and down, shifting from one leg to the other, then looking over one of her shoulders and then the other one. She obviously knew he was there because his head was right over her shoulders as he was bouncing up and down, back and forth, right behind her. She was not going slow or anything like that. Then he would look over to the standby line and start bouncing up and down again. I think his family was in the standby line and he wanted to join them. When he got up to the FP machine he started shoving his tickets in as fast as he could and then took off over to the side. I saw him look at his fast passes, a look of frustration came over his face, he threw his hands up and then stomped away. I was thinking maybe he missed a ticket, or used one twice and ended up with a nonvalid FP. If that were the case, I would have gladly let him step in front of me and get what he needed. But, he stomped off first. It’s just not worth getting that worked up over a ride or attraction. The standby area was mobbed so we decided to head towards Tower of Terror and Rock’n Rollercoaster.

We first headed to Tower of Terror. We pretty much walked straight into the library room. We headed to the elevator way over on the left side. The CM there was having problems getting people to stand in the row numbers he assigned. He got people straightened around and soon we were on our way. We were in the middle row in the two seats closest to the center. Kel grabbed my hand and held on tight. Very tight! Ow, you’re crushing my hand! People may have thought I was screaming in terror, but I was really screaming in pain! Let go of my hand! We had a nice sequence of drops. It seems that I end up with better drop sequences in the elevator way on the left. It’s probably just my imagination or a coincidence because aren’t they all supposed to be random?

After the dents popped out of my hand, we headed to Rock’n Rollercoaster. Ooooh, that standby line is 60 minutes already? We couldn’t get a fast pass yet either. Well, I don’t like long lines, and Kel likes them even less, so we decided to pass on that one for the moment. We headed back towards the Great Movie Ride. What, a long line there too? Over 30 minutes? I must say the crowd levels were a little higher than I was hoping for. I thought I was a better planner!

We were getting hungry. So, we went to the Starring Rolls Bakery. There was quite a line there too! But, it looked like it wouldn’t take too long and I’ve heard good things about this place. We went in and I got a yummy cinnamon roll and Kel got a bagel with cream cheese. Everything looked good in there! We “paid” with two snack credits and walked outside. We couldn’t find any empty tables, but two kind people offered us two chairs at their table. Thanks! That was very much appreciated. We ate our yummy snacks and headed over towards Star Tours. Oh boy, that’s quite a long wait too! We looked at the Muppets and there were all kinds of people waiting outside. Hmmmmm, that doesn’t look too good either. Well, it wasn’t too long before our TSM fast pass time was up so we found a place to sit and just people watched until it was time for TSM. Wow, that was a lot of fun! It took a second to figure out exactly what we were supposed to do, and then we were on our way. Kel beat me, but I think if I had a little more practice………. After we got done we saw that there were still fast passes left for later that night, so we got one.

We had a PS at Prime Time Café at 12:50, but decided not to stay that long so we cancelled that ADR and headed out for the long trek back to the bus. And what a hike that was! Why? Well, we just started heading toward the bus stop number that we had the previous two days while at the parks. So, we headed to the right and walked all the way down that side. Oops, the bus stop number we were looking for, wasn’t ours! So, we continued around the “block” looking for our stop, and of course, it wasn’t there either. Obviously we should have looked at what our bus stop number was! We didn’t make that mistake again. So, after checking out the stops way over there, we saw that there were actually two more sides to check—or else we could go back to the beginning and look at the sign. That would have been the smart thing to do, but we didn’t. I think the heat was affecting our brains! We decided that the thing to do was cross over to the other side cutting through the parking lot. uh huh. So, we finally got to the other side, and started checking down the far sidewalk, but it wasn’t the first stop. Little did we know, but if we had gone one stop further we would have been there. But no, we decided it was time to go back to the beginning and check the sign for our bus stop number. By the time we actually made it to our bus stop we were hot and crabby! Fortunately, a bus pulled right up and we had a nice cool ride back to the resort. We were sitting in some side facing seats right behind the back door.

When we made our first stop at ASSp, there were a lot of people getting on the bus. This family with two little girls ended up standing back near us, so we got up and told them we were getting off at the next stop so they should take our seats so the little girls would not have to stand. As we got up, some young approximately late teen people that were standing further back on the bus tried to slip into our seats, but I saw it in time and got a good butt block in at the last second to foil their plan. The little girls got their seats. They were about 5-6 years old and were really too little to be standing safely.

We decided to grab something to eat at the ASMu food court first. I had a quesadilla, and Kel had some kind of pasta. We grabbed a couple cookies for desert and Kel got a bottle of water and I grabbed a bottle of coke—because I needed it for mix for my afternoon cocktail! Hey, I’m on vacation! We ate and headed back to the room to get ready for some pool time.

We changed clothes, made our afternoon cocktails, and headed to the piano pool. When we got there, surprise, there was nobody in the pool and there were signs that the pool was closed. There was a guy walking around and he told us it was because there was a storm in the area. It wasn’t raining yet, but rather cloudy, and we sat there and talked to this guy for awhile. It didn’t look like the pool was going to open any time soon, so we headed back to the room for a little reading and nap time. I was really tired. This day wasn’t going liked I had planned. I did sleep for about an hour and I guess it rained, and then we decided to get ready and go back to DHS. That was really a mistake.

Kel had not slept at all and I really should have slept longer! We got there late afternoon and it was crowded! Everything had lines. We headed to Rock’n Rollercoaster, and fast passes were gone for the day and the stand by line was way too long for us. We wandered around for awhile, trying to decide what to do until our fast pass time for TSM. Nothing really appealed to us, so we gave away our TSM fast passes and decided to go back to the resort and order a pizza for in the room. Looking back, that wasn’t the best use of two table service credits but we were tired. We stayed in the room, ate pizza, and watched America’s Got Talent. I saw a lot of it, but I kept falling asleep. I finally gave in and just went to sleep for the night. I needed that! Besides, we had another early day the next day. We had an ADR at 8:25 the next morning at the Crystal Palace.

 

[katepass72]

Your experience at HS is the same one I have had for the past two years . . .we walk and walk and try to do things, and then just throw up our hands and give up! I just don't have any luck at that park (and I don't try too hard either, I must admit )

Looking forward to the rest of your report . . . .!

 

[Jingle]

Why can't I figure out how to edit the title of this thread? I know it can be done but I'll be darned if I can figure it out! It's probably really easy.

Part 6

When we got up this morning we both felt better. We both got a little more rest the night before. Walking around those parks in the hot weather can really wear a person out! On a bright note, my Tevas were still going strong and my feet don’t hurt a bit! That’s amazing to me! Kel’s Tevas weren’t doing as good a job and he’s been switching back and forth with his tennis shoes. His are two years old though and a different style. I had the Teva Open Toachi’s.

Anyway, I was thinking that we might have a problem getting to our ADR if the busses didn’t start running until an hour before park opening. I don’t know where I got that idea. We checked at the front desk at about 7:00, and the CM said that busses started running at 6:45. We walked outside, and sure enough they were running, and the Magic Kingdom bus was there so we got on. It wasn’t that crowded so we easily got seats.

We went to the turnstyles you use to enter for character breakfasts before the park opens. We got there a little before 8:00. Before we put our tickets through, a CM asked if we had breakfast reservations. We said yes, at the Crystal Palace. She said at what time, and when we told her 8:25 she said OK, go on through.

This is the first time I’ve ever entered a park early for a breakfast. It was so peaceful walking up Main Street without all the crowds. We were early, but went to check in at CP anyway. She couldn’t find our ADR. Fortunately, I had my confirmation number. I gave it to her and she said that our ADR was for 8:25 PM that night. Interesting since the same CM I made my dining reservations with also made us an ADR for 6:30 PM that same night at Kona Café. It wasn’t a big deal. They got us in within five minutes anyway. She asked if we were celebrating anything and I said, well actually, it’s our 12th anniversary today. We aren’t married, but it was 12 years that day since our first date. She asked where our anniversary buttons were and we said we didn’t have any, and so she pulled out a pin for each of us. After that, we got many Happy Anniversaries throughout the day when we wore our buttons. Our server also brought out a card signed by all the characters. It was a very nice touch.

As I said, this was our first breakfast at the Crystal Palace. We absolutely loved it! It was our second favorite meal behind ‘Ohana for dinner. I really loved the puffed French toast and also the biscuits with sausage gravy. I think Kel’s favorite thing was his made to order omlet. Besides our favorite things, they had many other excellent selections. This is definitely a breakfast I will repeat. As for the characters, they did come to our table and we got a few pictures of me with the Characters. Kel wasn’t interested. I enjoyed seeing the characters, but they could tell we just wanted a quick stop by and then they were on their way. That was fine because there were lots of kids who wanted to see them. We were done and out of there before the park opened. We decided to head to Splash Mountain first, and waited at the front of the crowd for rope drop. It wasn’t long. The CM’s at this rope drop had far better crowd control than at the DHS rope drop for Toy Story Mania. For Toy Story Mania, they didn’t even try to control the crowd. They just moved quickly out of the way so they didn’t get run over. We were on one of the first logs of the day in the third seat back. The people in the front two right hand side seats got the wettest when going around that first corner where you get a splash from the logs coming down the big drop. This is such an enjoyable attraction and one of my favorites! To me, it’s a classic Disney attraction. After we were done we stopped and got fast passes so we could ride again later.

We then walked over to Fantasy Land and went on It’s a Small World. We had also not been on this since its refurbishment. I remember being completely enchanted the first time I rode this attraction when I was a kid back in 1973 and I’ve ridden it every time I’ve been there, except for the time it was closed for refurbishment. The only thing that was a bit distracting was the mother who was pointing everything out to a small child in a rather loud voice. It was a bit distracting, but not upsetting at all though because they were obviously enjoying the ride and weren’t intentionally trying to bother anyone. It’s very easy to have that attitude when you’ve been on attractions multiple times in the past.

After that we walked right in to Mickey’s Philharmagic. It was great timing! We did have to climb over people who plopped down in the middle of the row and wouldn’t get up and move. There were several rows where people sat down in the middle and wouldn’t move! I would feel very self conscious and embarrassed to do that but they weren’t going to bother me. I just climbed over them and kept going. We were about ¾ of the way across the row, so the people who stopped in the middle and sat down really didn’t gain anything. This show is so enjoyable that it’s a must see for us each time we go.

Peter Pan, as usual, had a pretty long stand by line and we couldn’t get another fast pass yet. This is one I won’t wait for because I’ve been on it so many times and really think that it’s just OK. I enjoy it, but it’s not worth a long wait.

We were walking by the Carousel and the line was pretty short, so we jumped in line, waited about a minute and we were on. It has been a long time since I’ve ridden this one! I haven’t ridden this since 1973. It’s a short ride, but it was fun anyway. I can’t believe I never took my kids on this when they were younger! I think their grandmother may have taken them on this if I remember right.

After that, we saw another short line at the tea cups. Now, this is one that I can’t ever remember riding before. I’m thinking I must have back in 1973, but I really don’t remember. We spun our cups with the best of them! Fortunately, spinning rides have never bothered me. I love rides and attractions of all kinds.

In addition to Peter Pan, we also didn’t do Snow White or Winnie the Pooh or Dumbo. These are attractions that we do sometimes, but not all the time. I’m not too worried about missing things because, god willing, we’ll be back many times! Besides, I know I’m going to want to go on these things with my grandson in a few years! Wow, my daughter’s due date is only three weeks and 3 days from right now. It’s getting close and I’m getting more excited every day. I’m very anxious for him to be here safely with us.

We wandered over to Tomorrow Land. We were disappointed that Space Mountain and the TTA were closed, but we knew that before hand. We are looking forward to riding Space Mountain when it’s refurbished.

Buzz Lightyear had a fairly long line and we still weren’t able to get another Fast Pass so we popped into Stitch. This was a first for both of us. We pretty much walked right on in. We won’t be going back on this again if we can help it! What a waste of space. I didn’t LOVE Alien Encounter, but at least it was better than this!

I didn’t notice if Carousel of Progress was operating, but we weren’t going to go on this time anyway. That’s something we generally do every other time.

We walked on the path that goes from the left side of Space Mountain to the train station in Toon Town. A train pulled up right before we got there and we easily made it on. We rode around to Frontier Land to use our Splash Mountain fast passes. The standby line was pretty long at that point. I think about 60 minutes. I suppose I would stand in a line that long if it were my first time there and fast pass wasn’t available, but fortunately that’s not the case.

We got the back seat in our log. We had five people in front of us that were only speaking Japanese I believe. We didn’t understand what they were saying, but they were obviously enjoying the ride and we did too. Their enthusiasm along with this great attraction made for a very fun ride!

At that point we started wandering to the front of the park to head back for some pool time. We looked in the shops all the way down Main Street. I really noticed the lack of variety in the merchandise between all the shops. I kept seeing the same things over and over, no matter where we went. I was looking for an outfit for my grandson, and never found anything I liked in a 1-3 month size, or actually, a 1-12 month size! My daughter wanted a Disney outfit to bring him home in.

We headed out of the park and to our bus stop. Once again, the bus came very shortly after we got to the stop.

Back at the resort, we went to our room, changed into swimming suits, and Kel made a cocktail for him self, in his old ASMu mug, to take to the pool. I needed to get a bottle of coke for mixer, so we headed up toward the food court. On the way I stopped to look at the specialty drinks at the little pool side bar. I don’t know the name of it, or even if it has a name! The Long Island Iced Tea looked attractive, so I ordered one. It just so happened that the bar tender there was Roger from Milwaukee, so we started chatting about things in Wisconsin. Then Kel decided one of their drink specials looked appealing too, and so ordered one for him self. I forgot exactly what it was. We were the only two sitting there, and had a fun time talking to Roger. We stayed there for two drinks. We were feeling pretty good after that!

While we were chatting, Roger mentioned that we had a really old ASMu mug. Kel said we were making drinks in them. Roger said, you know, you can use them at the beverage station here too (yes, we’d already used them for a cup of coffee in the mornings). He took a good look and said they were from back in the day when they were supposed to be good forever, and nobody would have a problem with us using them now. I didn’t feel bad using them for a few cups of coffee, but if we were there and not on the dining plan so we’d use them more, I’d buy new ones. Honestly, I didn’t see anybody there using anything but the new ones so I felt self conscious even using them for a cup of coffee in the morning.

Some more people started coming up to the bar so we said good bye to Roger and headed back to the Piano Pool. After jumping in the water to cool off, I kind of melted on a lounge chair for awhile. While I was doing that I noticed that the first movement from Moonlight Sonata was playing—over and over. It kept repeating the entire time we were there. Strange.

After our afternoon of lounging around, we got ready to go to our 6:30 ADR at Kona Café. We took a bus to the Magic Kingdom and then the monorail to the Polynesian. We checked in about 6:00 and they gave us our pager. We had one drink at the Tambu Lounge and our pager went off right as we were finishing. We were seated pretty much right in the middle of the room. I had the shrimp and scallops and Kel had the Ribeye. I loved the scallops, but wasn’t too thrilled with the shrimp. Kel loved his Ribeye. Once again, we felt too full after eating to have desert. We would have taken some with us, but we planned on going to a park after dinner so we passed, a little reluctantly. We decided we were going to head over the DHS as they had their EMH that night. We thought maybe, we might get to do a couple things we weren’t able to do the day before.

After dinner we went to the bus stop to catch a bus to DHS. I think this was our longest wait at about 10-15 minutes.

We got to DHS and walked back towards Rock’n Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror. The place was a zoo. People everywhere! It didn’t take us long to figure out that we were getting out of there! Should have taken that desert after all. We walked directly to our bus stop, without wandering all over the bus stop/parking lot area this time. We now check our bus stop number every time, even if we think we are sure what it is.

So, back to the resort we go and the results show for America’s Got Talent was on. I got ready for bed and then started watching the show. It didn’t take me too long to fall asleep so I missed most of it. Geez, I didn’t used to fall asleep so early all the time! Some time when I’m there I’m going to have to sleep in and not get up early. That’s hard for me to do because I feel like I’m wasting the best park time if I’m not there when the parks open. However, I keep missing all the night time shows and fireworks these days!

 

[Jingle]

Part 7

This morning we were heading to Animal Kingdom for the first time this trip. Actually, the only time this trip. When we got there they were letting people through the front turnstyles. We walked right up to the crowd of people as they did rope drop, and we headed on over to Expedition Everest. We were going to get a fast pass first, and then get in the stand by line. However, by the time we got our fast passes, the stand by line was getting pretty long so we decided to head over to Dino Land. That was a good move. We walked right on Primevil Whirl. It was just the two of us in our ride vehicle. I was hoping we would spin a little more than we did. By the time we got off, the line had grown considerably so off we went to Dinosaur. This was pretty much of a walk on too, but that didn’t stop the people behind us from breathing down our necks and practically stepping on our heels. We are not slow walkers either, so it wasn’t like we were just taking our sweet time. I thought about just saying, hey, go around us. But, by that time, I could see that it was likely we would be in the front row of our vehicle—which I like. We were. We were the only two in the front, and the heel steppers were behind us. We made it back safely.

We stopped a minute to figure out what we were going to do next. Our fast pass time for Expedition Everest was not that far away, so we decided to head back there. The standby line had shortened considerably, so we decided to hit the stand by line since we still had some time before we could use our fastpass. I love this ride! We were through so quickly, that it was still a few minutes before our fast pass time when we got off. We must have hit the standby line just right, because it had now grown quite a bit again. We were standing near the fast pass entrance, over to the side so we weren’t blocking the entrance. Nobody was going in the fast pass entrance at that time. The CM standing there said when is your fast pass time. It was still two minutes away, but she said, go on in. I was a little surprised because they are usually sticklers about not letting you in one minute early!

By now we were getting hungry, but it was still a little early for the lunch places to open. At that time, we were considering Yak and Yeti Counter Service for Lunch. There was a Flights of Wonder show starting at 10:30, so we thought that would be a good show to see right before we had lunch. Neither one of us had seen this show before. They were doing a little pre show out front of the theater. As we approached the people standing around watching, I stopped at the back of the crowd. Kel however kept right on walking because he didn’t realize that was where we were going. I had to chase him down and haul him back. We were let into the theater and took a seat near the back, but not on the way back bleacher seats. There was a good crowd there, but it wasn’t jam packed. We both really enjoyed this show and were glad we went to see it! Those birds are beautiful and entertaining. I wouldn’t mind seeing this again!

After the show was over, we wandered over to the Yak and Yeti Counter Service place. When we got there, Kel said that wasn’t what he wanted. I suggested Flame Tree Barbecue so that’s where we headed. We actually passed it a bit and ended up by the fast pass machines that were all together for the different attractions. We thought that since we were there we would grab a fast pass for the safari. We then went on over to Flame Tree Barbecue. I had the ½ slab of ribs and Kel had the ½ chicken. We also got a key lime pie and chocolate cake, a diet coke and a regular coke. I really liked my ribs and ate all of them. They were very meaty and had a great flavor. I could go for some of them right now! This was my favorite counter service meal. Kel also liked his and ate all his chicken too. We also scarfed down the cole slaw and beans. We ate some of the deserts, but ended up tossing most of them.

After our delicious and filling lunch, we went in to see It’s Tough To Be A Bug. I really love these 3D/4D shows. This is another show where we walked through the queue and then walked right into the theater. I noticed that there were several people who sat down in the middle of rows so people had to climb over them. Once again, we just climbed over them. Now, we didn’t have a problem doing that, but think about small children, elderly people or others with certain physical issues and how difficult it could be for them. If these people don’t want to sit on the very end, they should either let people enter the row before them, or at least go most of the way down the row to minimize the number of people that have to crawl over them. I’ve never really noticed much of a difference no matter where I’ve sat in a theater.

Ah, what to do next. Even though there was so much more to do there, we decided to head back to the resort for some pool and laundry time. I don’t usually like to do laundry on vacation, but we needed a minimum of two outfits a day and wearing things more than once really wasn’t an option in that heat. We put two loads of laundry in and then went to spend some time by the pool. Wait, what’s that I hear? Yep, it’s the first movement of Moonlight Sonata again, and again, and again. We were in the pool and I commented to Kel that Moonlight Sonata was on—again. Someone heard me say that, and they said they noticed the same thing. It was about time for our washers to be done, so we went inside to put our clothes in a couple dryers. Then I ran back to the room to grab some hangers, because we have some things that I don’t like to dry completely in the dryer. By then those things had been in the dryer long enough, so we hung them up and then took those things back to the room. We made an afternoon cocktail and took it back to the pool.

Shortly before entering the pool area, something caught my eye.

uhhhHHHHH (sharp intake of breath)

AAAHHHHH (short but high pitched scream)

SNAAAAAKE!

Kids started running and screaming SNAKE SNAKE SNAKE!!! Not because they were afraid, but because they wanted to see the snake too.

There on the sidewalk, slithering right in front of us, was about a 3 ft. black skinny snake. I got to see the snake that I had wanted to see. Now, why do I want to see something that scares me so much? It was a little closer than I would have liked though—but it could have been a lot worse. From reading about the snakes in the area I knew this was not a venomous snake. However, if we had not stopped right then, I would have stepped on it and that could have been very harmful to me because I would have completely freaked out. Well, it quickly slithered into the bushes on the other side of the walkway. These young kids practically dove into the bushes looking for that snake. It wasn’t very smart of their parents to let them do that. Most of them had not seen the snake and so did not have any idea what kind of a snake it was.

I don’t know why I’ve been so preoccupied with snakes lately. Since we got home, I’ve discovered that a snake is living in the back of our and our neighbor’s yard. I’m not sure what kind it is, but it’s highly doubtful it’s anything venomous. However, I’m not happy about this turn of events at all! We’ve lived here, in the middle of town, for over ten years and we have never seen any signs of snakes in the area. Now I’m going to be afraid to mow around our bushes and in the back of our yard. Now when I have to walk under our tree branches, I’m looking up to make sure there are no snakes hanging from the limbs. Worst of all, now I’m terrified it’s somehow going to get in our house or garage. I think I’ve been reading too many snake threads on the Disboards.

OK, back to WDW. By the time we got done with all this commotion, our remaining laundry was dry. We folded it up and took it back to the room, then went back to the pool to hang out some more.

After that, we decided to go back to Epcot for the night. We went back to World Showcase, had a margarita, and wandered around. Once again, we weren’t feeling very energetic. We’re going to have to change our touring plans because we didn’t seem to be getting much done the way we were going! Oh well, it is vacation after all. We ended up heading back to the resort and eating in the food court. I had a quesadilla again and Kel had a Cheeseburger & Fries. I grabbed a bottle of coke, and Kel grabbed a bottle of water. Tonight I decided to have ice cream for desert, so they stamped my receipt at the register and I went back after we ate to get my ice cream. I had a brownie with ice cream and chocolate topping. Kel didn’t want anything for desert, so I grabbed a mickey rice krispie bar and took it back to the room. We watched a little TV and went to sleep. Wow, we are exciting people! Oh well, we were relaxing and enjoying ourselves. I think I’m going to need to build up a little stamina though for our next trip or maybe not get up early every day.