nativetxn
<font color=teal>Moderator<br><font color=red>Hono
- Joined
- Feb 15, 2000
March 28th, Tuesday (continued)
Cast:
Katholyn: (newly qualified for AARP) Fell in love with Disneyland when it was brand new-decided I loved WDW even more on a short trip in 1982; felt cheated with a 3 day trip in 1991. Will use any excuse to go back again.
Wilgus: My husband who is severely Disney impaired; thought WDW was nice but not interested in ever going back and who I love anyway.
Kim: My sister's 24 year old daughter who is going through a divorce-never been to WDW and can't wait.
Dustin: Kim's 6 year old son and my surrogate grandson-never been to WDW
Thanks to Captain Derrell's excellent directions we found the Boardwalk with no problems. It was only a short walk to the boardwalk from the parking lot. All of us, including my husband, were looking forward to our illuminations cruise. We don't report to Captain Derrell until 8:10 and we're about 20 minutes early so we watch a couple of comedians who are juggling and cracking jokes there on the Boardwalk. One of them notices that Kim is videotaping them and takes the camera from her and starts taping the show himself. The other young man incorporates Kim into the act juggling pins over her head while his colleague mans the camera. At the end of their little act, the young man who was juggling points to his cheek for Kim to give him a kiss, of course, when she does, he quickly turns so that she actually kisses him on the mouth. She was very surprised. It was all light hearted and fun and we laughed a lot.
Soon enough, Captain Derrell is ready for us to board the pontoon boat. He has a life preserver for Dustin that fits him perfectly. We leave the dock and Captain Derrell takes us on a tour of the lagoon, entertaining us with trivia along the way. He told us about the two famous actors who were once Jungle Cruise Captains. Steve Martin and Robin Williams. "Did they get fired?" I ask . He admits they were fired because they wouldn't stick to their scripted lines. He told us about one of the alligators that live in the lagoon. We even saw the alligators eyes shining red in the glow of Captain Derrell's flashlight. Dustin was VERY impressed. We floated to a stop close to one of the bridges as Tapestry of Nations passed. It was beautiful and moving and we could see very well from the boat. Finally it was dark and he anchored us under a bridge to watch illuminations. Next to us was a pontoon with a birthday celebration aboard. They must have had the maximum of 12 passengers aboard. Captain Derrell asked us if we cared if the Dad from the birthday boat stood on our boat to videotape Illuminations. Of course we agreed. He stood behind us and didn't interfere with our view and he got his film. I guess we contributed some to Disney Magic ourselves that night. Captain Derrell showed Dustin a lot of attention and did everything he could to make this a special experience for us. It was great. After the show was over but before we left the cover of our bridge, I heard Dustin say, <b>"This was the greatest day of my life."</b> Well, I guess that just made the whole trip worthwhile.
I told Captain Derrell that I had learned about the illuminations cruise on the DIS and told him the url. I told him what a wonderful disney place it was and he was interested. Now I'm not positive but I have my suspicions that one of our new members, Cruise Captain, is really Captain Derrell. But I haven't gotten him to confirm or deny this yet. He told me that he used to be a stunt man until he took a bad fall from a 3 story building and then he was a Jungle Cruise Captain before he started piloting the pontoons for illuminations. <i>Does anyone know who Cruise Captain is? I'm just curious.</i>
We walked around Boardwalk for a while after the cruise and the restaurants looked very nice (and expensive). But we decided that we all just wanted some fast food and a bed. We were exhausted. We were all asleep by 12:00, very tired but very happy. After all, Dustin had just had the greatest day of his life.
Next: Magic Kingdom-the second day
Cast:
Katholyn: (newly qualified for AARP) Fell in love with Disneyland when it was brand new-decided I loved WDW even more on a short trip in 1982; felt cheated with a 3 day trip in 1991. Will use any excuse to go back again.
Wilgus: My husband who is severely Disney impaired; thought WDW was nice but not interested in ever going back and who I love anyway.
Kim: My sister's 24 year old daughter who is going through a divorce-never been to WDW and can't wait.
Dustin: Kim's 6 year old son and my surrogate grandson-never been to WDW
Thanks to Captain Derrell's excellent directions we found the Boardwalk with no problems. It was only a short walk to the boardwalk from the parking lot. All of us, including my husband, were looking forward to our illuminations cruise. We don't report to Captain Derrell until 8:10 and we're about 20 minutes early so we watch a couple of comedians who are juggling and cracking jokes there on the Boardwalk. One of them notices that Kim is videotaping them and takes the camera from her and starts taping the show himself. The other young man incorporates Kim into the act juggling pins over her head while his colleague mans the camera. At the end of their little act, the young man who was juggling points to his cheek for Kim to give him a kiss, of course, when she does, he quickly turns so that she actually kisses him on the mouth. She was very surprised. It was all light hearted and fun and we laughed a lot.
Soon enough, Captain Derrell is ready for us to board the pontoon boat. He has a life preserver for Dustin that fits him perfectly. We leave the dock and Captain Derrell takes us on a tour of the lagoon, entertaining us with trivia along the way. He told us about the two famous actors who were once Jungle Cruise Captains. Steve Martin and Robin Williams. "Did they get fired?" I ask . He admits they were fired because they wouldn't stick to their scripted lines. He told us about one of the alligators that live in the lagoon. We even saw the alligators eyes shining red in the glow of Captain Derrell's flashlight. Dustin was VERY impressed. We floated to a stop close to one of the bridges as Tapestry of Nations passed. It was beautiful and moving and we could see very well from the boat. Finally it was dark and he anchored us under a bridge to watch illuminations. Next to us was a pontoon with a birthday celebration aboard. They must have had the maximum of 12 passengers aboard. Captain Derrell asked us if we cared if the Dad from the birthday boat stood on our boat to videotape Illuminations. Of course we agreed. He stood behind us and didn't interfere with our view and he got his film. I guess we contributed some to Disney Magic ourselves that night. Captain Derrell showed Dustin a lot of attention and did everything he could to make this a special experience for us. It was great. After the show was over but before we left the cover of our bridge, I heard Dustin say, <b>"This was the greatest day of my life."</b> Well, I guess that just made the whole trip worthwhile.
I told Captain Derrell that I had learned about the illuminations cruise on the DIS and told him the url. I told him what a wonderful disney place it was and he was interested. Now I'm not positive but I have my suspicions that one of our new members, Cruise Captain, is really Captain Derrell. But I haven't gotten him to confirm or deny this yet. He told me that he used to be a stunt man until he took a bad fall from a 3 story building and then he was a Jungle Cruise Captain before he started piloting the pontoons for illuminations. <i>Does anyone know who Cruise Captain is? I'm just curious.</i>
We walked around Boardwalk for a while after the cruise and the restaurants looked very nice (and expensive). But we decided that we all just wanted some fast food and a bed. We were exhausted. We were all asleep by 12:00, very tired but very happy. After all, Dustin had just had the greatest day of his life.
Next: Magic Kingdom-the second day
