I typed this whole thing last night after singing in a concert at Carnegie Hall and managed to delete the whole thing right before submitting it, so here I go again freshly up and out of bed!
Monday, February 10
Up and showered early to get to the bus stop to go to AK for EE to exchange the manpurse. It was another gray day. The bus came just after I got to the stop and off we went. Went through the security checkpoint pretty quickly. I have to say that all of these park checkpoints were very well run. The guards were all pleasant and thorough and pretty quick. The store where I bought the bag did not have anymore, they sent me across the street. They did not have any, and said they didn't ever carry them and sent me to another store in Harambe. There weren't any out where the similar line of things was so I asked a CM and she went into the storeroom and brought out a brand new one still in it's packaging. We checked all the seams and it was fine. She also let me trade my big green conservation pin for the new purple one. I get one each trip I make and now I have three colors! Since I was right there and I wasn't meeting my friends at Epcot until a little later, I rode the safari again. This time my camera worked all the way through. The lions were up and the male was pacing back and forth. Our driver/guide was Mike from Atlanta and he was great. Two really good safaris in one trip. There was even a brand new animal on the savannah. It had just been released the day before and this was the first sighting. A very pretty deer-like animal with a big white blaze on its' face. After the safari, I headed back through Harame to find breakfast and right outside the store a man in bright African Garb had a line of drums with a reed xyklophone in the center. he would pull kids and adults from the passersby and teach them how to play the drums and when he got them all going, he would play a tune on the instrument. It was very cool and you should have seen the faces of the drummers. Like they were surprised that they could make music. Stopped into Tusker house to see about their breakfast menu but decided to try out Breakfastasaurus. On the way got my pic with Lilo, Piglet and Pooh and then was seated right away because I was alone. My waitress was Lisa and she was a blast! it was a great breakfast! lots of good food and they even have krispy kreme donuts. All the characters stopped at my table for pictures even though I was an adult and alone. So they people at the table next to me took my ppicture with Donald, Goofy, Pluto and Mickey. The waitress was so good, she kept checking in on me to make sure everything was fine and that I was getting enought to eat and drink, that I asked for a comment card to write her up. They did not have any so someone brought the manager out so I could talk to him. He seemed kind of surprised that I would ask to write someone up for doing such a good job. As I left, Ithought about hanging around for the Tarzan Rocks show but decided I should probably just go on to meet up with the group. This is theonly thing about this trip that I would change. We did not watch any shows. I love watching the shows but this crew was more ride and shopping oriented. I think that the next time, I will go see the shows and only ride rides around the free times between shows! It is so hard to do everything, you need two weeks!!
I went to the front to find out the best way to get to Epcot and found out there is a bus right from AK, so I went out to find it. There was a bus to the TTC so I took that and rode the monorail to Epcot. There was absolutely noone on the platform except CMs So I did not know which way the train came in. I asked a CM which way was the front and he told me to go sit on the pruple bench and someone would come to me. So, I sat on the bench and as the train was coming in a lady with two kids sat down too. When the train stopped a CM came and said follow me, and took us to the drivers room. Who knew!!! I got to ride with the driver. The view as you are driving along is great, everyone should try this once. The lady was from Michigan and she said the cold weather was all her fault. So when we get to Epcot, each of having asked a ton of questions to the driver, he handed us little cards as we got off. I did not realize until later that it was a co-pilot license for the monorail!! Right through the security checkpoint again. I stopped of at Leave a Legacy. I ahd wanted to do this the last time but had already spent most of my money, so I had put some aside for this and then it turned out to be a flex feature so I got to do it!!! Then on to the Living Seas. I thought about riding SE until I saw the line. Then got intot he Living Seas and it was packed so I bailed out of there and headed on over to JIYI, having done the Land pavillion our first night there. Walked right on to JIYI, I love that figment is back. Then on to HIStA also a walk right on and as I was leaving it started to rain. As I pulled on my poncho, which fit very nicely in a pocket of the manpurse, I saw one of the people in the group. He did not want to do HIStA so he was waiting outside. We chatted with a CM until the show let out and I hid behind the big rock you walk past as you leave the show and just joined it the back of the group. No one noticed that I was there for about a minute! It was very funny. They wanted to ride JIYI so I rode again with them. We walked right on again!! Still raining so we walked over to get fast passes for TT and then go to EEA. Yet another favorite thing to do. We still had time after that so we wandered into the Wonders of Life and some of us rode BW. Then two of us went into CC. This and the making of me were on my list for this trip, having never done them before. It was time four our FP to TT so off we went. It was great! I think it was even better than the last time we came. The the group decided to split up for the afternoon. One friend let his wife go shopping and the two of us went back for TMOM and then on to Innoventions. WE did the tour of the house of tomorrow and both agree that the bathtub/jacuzzi/entertainment center is a must for our homes. You gotta see this thing. It is huge and there is a big tv screen and speakers, about the only thing it doesn't have is a refrigerator for cold drinks. An absolute must! Then on to see nex technologies. We saw the handsfree portable monitoer on a headset and some other great software that is being developed. We sent some e-mails and then on to the game section where we got to try out Kingdom Hearts. A pretty good game. Violent but good. Then on to the kiosks to try our knowledge of WDW and then to the special are for Mission: Space the new ride which we just missed getting to test ride!!! Rats. That took up the time and we had to leave to make it to our respective dinner appointments. Three of us had a ps for the San Angel Inn in Mexico and the others were doing the Buffet in Germany. Since I did not have as far to go I strolled through the store there and then onto Mexico where we met at the bottom of the stairs. We all arrived at the same time! In to the restaraunt and seated almost immediately right by the water. I had the Plato mexicano, I thinkt that is what it was called. Excellent! Not too spicy and my friends had the chicken in mole sauce which I tasted a little tiny bit of. It was very spicy with a hint of chocolate! Then we had to get right over to the American pavillion to meet up with the others. They enjoyed their meal too. We went to Japan for shopping and while three of them were getting their pearls, I went out to watch the parade which was just starting. I had seen ToD but never at night. It was really cool how the puppets all had lights on or inside them. It was great to see the kids when the puppets would touch them or reach out to them. Then we sort of followed along behind to watch the end. After the parade we shopped in Morocco for awhile and then the othere were pooping out from Illuminations but I was determined to stay and see it. Cold as I was. I did stay and it was well worth it. Two of us watched it from between Norway and China and it was a great spot, even with the couple in front necking. Ah to be young and in love and at Disneyworld. Then on to the bus stop to wait for a bus. This was a long wait but it finally came and it went home the back way so instead of last we were the third stop! The sun had come out after about twenty minutes of rain so over all the day was really nice, but towards the end of the evening it got really cool. We got back to the room and what a sight awaited us. They had taken a handtowel and wrapped a clear plastic garbage linerinthe center of it and had it coming down to the bed from the pillows on top and all the animals were lined up waiting their turn to come down the wateslide....how funny is that! and there was a monkey made froma towel hanging from a light.
AS it was still fairly early, I changed my shoes, grabbed my dirty clothes and lots of quarters and my cassette and tapes and did some laundry while practicing my songs out by the beach. Then I wrote up the day while things were drying. This is the first time in three days the sun has come out and what a difference that makes. We have always had great weather for our trips so we really cannot complain. To bed to sleep very well.
Monday, February 10
Up and showered early to get to the bus stop to go to AK for EE to exchange the manpurse. It was another gray day. The bus came just after I got to the stop and off we went. Went through the security checkpoint pretty quickly. I have to say that all of these park checkpoints were very well run. The guards were all pleasant and thorough and pretty quick. The store where I bought the bag did not have anymore, they sent me across the street. They did not have any, and said they didn't ever carry them and sent me to another store in Harambe. There weren't any out where the similar line of things was so I asked a CM and she went into the storeroom and brought out a brand new one still in it's packaging. We checked all the seams and it was fine. She also let me trade my big green conservation pin for the new purple one. I get one each trip I make and now I have three colors! Since I was right there and I wasn't meeting my friends at Epcot until a little later, I rode the safari again. This time my camera worked all the way through. The lions were up and the male was pacing back and forth. Our driver/guide was Mike from Atlanta and he was great. Two really good safaris in one trip. There was even a brand new animal on the savannah. It had just been released the day before and this was the first sighting. A very pretty deer-like animal with a big white blaze on its' face. After the safari, I headed back through Harame to find breakfast and right outside the store a man in bright African Garb had a line of drums with a reed xyklophone in the center. he would pull kids and adults from the passersby and teach them how to play the drums and when he got them all going, he would play a tune on the instrument. It was very cool and you should have seen the faces of the drummers. Like they were surprised that they could make music. Stopped into Tusker house to see about their breakfast menu but decided to try out Breakfastasaurus. On the way got my pic with Lilo, Piglet and Pooh and then was seated right away because I was alone. My waitress was Lisa and she was a blast! it was a great breakfast! lots of good food and they even have krispy kreme donuts. All the characters stopped at my table for pictures even though I was an adult and alone. So they people at the table next to me took my ppicture with Donald, Goofy, Pluto and Mickey. The waitress was so good, she kept checking in on me to make sure everything was fine and that I was getting enought to eat and drink, that I asked for a comment card to write her up. They did not have any so someone brought the manager out so I could talk to him. He seemed kind of surprised that I would ask to write someone up for doing such a good job. As I left, Ithought about hanging around for the Tarzan Rocks show but decided I should probably just go on to meet up with the group. This is theonly thing about this trip that I would change. We did not watch any shows. I love watching the shows but this crew was more ride and shopping oriented. I think that the next time, I will go see the shows and only ride rides around the free times between shows! It is so hard to do everything, you need two weeks!!
I went to the front to find out the best way to get to Epcot and found out there is a bus right from AK, so I went out to find it. There was a bus to the TTC so I took that and rode the monorail to Epcot. There was absolutely noone on the platform except CMs So I did not know which way the train came in. I asked a CM which way was the front and he told me to go sit on the pruple bench and someone would come to me. So, I sat on the bench and as the train was coming in a lady with two kids sat down too. When the train stopped a CM came and said follow me, and took us to the drivers room. Who knew!!! I got to ride with the driver. The view as you are driving along is great, everyone should try this once. The lady was from Michigan and she said the cold weather was all her fault. So when we get to Epcot, each of having asked a ton of questions to the driver, he handed us little cards as we got off. I did not realize until later that it was a co-pilot license for the monorail!! Right through the security checkpoint again. I stopped of at Leave a Legacy. I ahd wanted to do this the last time but had already spent most of my money, so I had put some aside for this and then it turned out to be a flex feature so I got to do it!!! Then on to the Living Seas. I thought about riding SE until I saw the line. Then got intot he Living Seas and it was packed so I bailed out of there and headed on over to JIYI, having done the Land pavillion our first night there. Walked right on to JIYI, I love that figment is back. Then on to HIStA also a walk right on and as I was leaving it started to rain. As I pulled on my poncho, which fit very nicely in a pocket of the manpurse, I saw one of the people in the group. He did not want to do HIStA so he was waiting outside. We chatted with a CM until the show let out and I hid behind the big rock you walk past as you leave the show and just joined it the back of the group. No one noticed that I was there for about a minute! It was very funny. They wanted to ride JIYI so I rode again with them. We walked right on again!! Still raining so we walked over to get fast passes for TT and then go to EEA. Yet another favorite thing to do. We still had time after that so we wandered into the Wonders of Life and some of us rode BW. Then two of us went into CC. This and the making of me were on my list for this trip, having never done them before. It was time four our FP to TT so off we went. It was great! I think it was even better than the last time we came. The the group decided to split up for the afternoon. One friend let his wife go shopping and the two of us went back for TMOM and then on to Innoventions. WE did the tour of the house of tomorrow and both agree that the bathtub/jacuzzi/entertainment center is a must for our homes. You gotta see this thing. It is huge and there is a big tv screen and speakers, about the only thing it doesn't have is a refrigerator for cold drinks. An absolute must! Then on to see nex technologies. We saw the handsfree portable monitoer on a headset and some other great software that is being developed. We sent some e-mails and then on to the game section where we got to try out Kingdom Hearts. A pretty good game. Violent but good. Then on to the kiosks to try our knowledge of WDW and then to the special are for Mission: Space the new ride which we just missed getting to test ride!!! Rats. That took up the time and we had to leave to make it to our respective dinner appointments. Three of us had a ps for the San Angel Inn in Mexico and the others were doing the Buffet in Germany. Since I did not have as far to go I strolled through the store there and then onto Mexico where we met at the bottom of the stairs. We all arrived at the same time! In to the restaraunt and seated almost immediately right by the water. I had the Plato mexicano, I thinkt that is what it was called. Excellent! Not too spicy and my friends had the chicken in mole sauce which I tasted a little tiny bit of. It was very spicy with a hint of chocolate! Then we had to get right over to the American pavillion to meet up with the others. They enjoyed their meal too. We went to Japan for shopping and while three of them were getting their pearls, I went out to watch the parade which was just starting. I had seen ToD but never at night. It was really cool how the puppets all had lights on or inside them. It was great to see the kids when the puppets would touch them or reach out to them. Then we sort of followed along behind to watch the end. After the parade we shopped in Morocco for awhile and then the othere were pooping out from Illuminations but I was determined to stay and see it. Cold as I was. I did stay and it was well worth it. Two of us watched it from between Norway and China and it was a great spot, even with the couple in front necking. Ah to be young and in love and at Disneyworld. Then on to the bus stop to wait for a bus. This was a long wait but it finally came and it went home the back way so instead of last we were the third stop! The sun had come out after about twenty minutes of rain so over all the day was really nice, but towards the end of the evening it got really cool. We got back to the room and what a sight awaited us. They had taken a handtowel and wrapped a clear plastic garbage linerinthe center of it and had it coming down to the bed from the pillows on top and all the animals were lined up waiting their turn to come down the wateslide....how funny is that! and there was a monkey made froma towel hanging from a light.
AS it was still fairly early, I changed my shoes, grabbed my dirty clothes and lots of quarters and my cassette and tapes and did some laundry while practicing my songs out by the beach. Then I wrote up the day while things were drying. This is the first time in three days the sun has come out and what a difference that makes. We have always had great weather for our trips so we really cannot complain. To bed to sleep very well.
