NMAmy - Day 4

NMAmy

Can speak food in German
Joined
Oct 25, 2000
Messages
15,229
Day 4 – 3/1

Cast:

Alex – DH and stepfather to:
Caitlin, 13
and me, Amy, official trip planner

The combination of the princess and the pea bed (that’s PEA) and the two beers with dinner worked like a charm. For the first time this trip, I slept really well. I was like a whole new person—so, so, annoyingly happy to be at WDW. I got up early, took a shower, made the Diet Coke trek and…tried to wake Cait up. She’s been fighting a cold since last week but she was just really tired this morning. We were supposed to go to AK this morning for EE—I’ve never been and I’ve been dying to check it out. Caitlin went last year on her school trip and just didn’t enjoy it very much. I let the kiddo sleep in while Alex and I read on the balcony. Alex has been going through all the books I brought along like a house afire even though I keep telling him to pace himself. I remember my great book hunt of 2000—books are virtually impossible to find at WDW. I’m sure this seems weird, but I’m kind of like an addict when it comes to books. I always have to have a few ready and waiting for me. Alex ignored me to his peril as you’ll see when we get to the Great Book Hunt of 2004. The hotel gift shops always have a few paperbacks but never really anything that jumps out at you.

I went down to Tubbi’s again to scrounge up some breakfast and made one of my most popular discoveries. Frappoccino. How I ended up with a kid who loves coffee, I’ll never understand. I also found the Tubbi’s version of the Egg McMuffin. They’re huge—I got one for Alex and one for Cait and I to split. This became our regular breakfast order—I highly recommend them.

Once Cait had some breakfast she was feeling a little more chipper and wanted to try MK again today. I wanted to do AK when we could go early and see the animals so we decided to do this on one of our unplanned days. Off we went to catch the bus. We got to the bus stop and OH, MY GOD. So far, every day, there were only a few people catching the bus or the boat to anywhere—this is one of the huge advantages of a convention hotel. This morning there must’ve been 100 people in red shirts waiting for the bus. I whispered to Cait that maybe they were going to AK. The AK bus came and no one got on. “Maybe Downtown Disney,” I whispered. We crossed our fingers but when the DD bus got there, again no one got on. We sighed knowing we were going to have to wait at least a half hour when we were already getting a late start (I think it was all of 10, but we’re early morning folks). We got to chatting with another family that hadn’t caught the bus here before, it was their first day. Well, the bus came and you guessed it—the red shirts were in a mad rush to pile as many of themselves onto the bus as they could get in there. I made Cait and Alex just wait with me and the other family followed our lead. Bless that bus driver’s heart, he called in and while the red shirts were all still pushing onto the first bus, another bus pulled up behind! We and our new friends were the first ones on this bus before they even realized it was there.
We decided to head over to Frontierland since we really hadn’t gotten over there yesterday. BTMRR has always been one of Cait’s favorites since she was about 5 and it was the first “real” coaster she’d ever ridden. I’m a big Cedar Point fan and I’ve been working her up to the big coasters since she was tall enough to get onto them. She was a little nervous because of the accident at DL but she got over it by the time she got onto the “Wildest Ride in the Wilderness.” I always forget about the theming along this ride—it’s really amazing. We rode twice—once in the back and once in the front. We like the back better, the front is a little pokey over the hills—you don’t speed up till you’re about halfway down the hill.

We headed over to Space Mountain (apparently it was coaster day) but the line was pretty long—well, we’ve been spoiled. Actually the ride was only 25 minutes long, but we decided to Fast Pass it and come back later. While we were getting the Fast Passes, a very kind man came up to us and passed along his four Fast Passes—apparently his daughter had chickened out. I just love WDW—chatting with people and most folks are on their most magical behavior. The passes were for right now so we got some for later, found a single rider who could use the extra pass, and we were off.

We had a while before our next Fast Pass was due so we decided to get some lunch at Cosmic Ray’s. I’d never eaten here before and I was just delighted with Sonny Eclipse. Even at a fast food place Disney gives you some fun entertainment. A group passed through as we were eating—I think they were doing some kind of a birthday scavenger hunt.

Time for Space Mtn again, this time on a full stomach. Well, apparently I’m tougher than I look because it didn’t bother me at all.

Cait wanted to go again (sheesh!) but I begged and cajoled us onto Carousel of Progress. This is just one of my all-time favorites, I’m glad they have it open all the time right now. It brings back so many happy memories of my childhood and Cait’s childhood too. The theater was pretty empty so we sang along. We did learn a very important lesson on COP today, though. A little boy and his parents were in the front row. When we got to the 1940’s, the little boy went up to the stage and was hanging on the front of it. When it got to the end of this section, we heard “There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow shining at the end of every day,” but we didn’t go anywhere. People were getting restive. I mean, it’s good the first time around, but no one really wants to sit through it twice. We heard the announcement saying there were technical difficulties—please stay in your seats. A CM came rushing in and said, “Was anybody touching the stage?” He immediately looked at the little boy in the front row and kind of raised his eyebrows at the parents. They apologized. The CM said that if you touch the stage, the show won’t continue because it thinks someone has climbed up onto the stage. He said we’d have to watch this one again, then the show would continue. <sigh> Yadda yadda, rat race, Patty’s dissing her friend’s boyfriend, Jr’s carving a pumpkin who looks like Patty (who is prettier than the two of you, according to Sarah), Sarah’s got paint all over her rump-us room, yadda yadda yadda. Then two folks toward the back tire of this and make a dash for the door. <sigh> The music starts again and we still sit here. Apparently if you open the door during the show it doesn’t move either. After a few minutes, these people are ushered back in and we FINALLY move toward the future! It’s a good thing, I really thought there might be a riot if we were forced to listen to it again. It’s almost as bad as being stuck in Small World. So let me impart this wisdom to the rest of you—Don’t touch the stage—and don’t try to leave. Your fellow happy WDW’ers might actually tar and feather you.

Cait and I did two more rounds on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority “hey, there’s my church!” We figured out that if you buy a bag of popcorn, you can munch it on this ride and you’ll be finished by the time you get back to the station. It’s our new moving dining room. “Next stop—Carousel of Progress!” NO!!

We took a little stroll down the back way to Toontown but it was really crowded when we got there and Cait was feeling a little puny still so we decided to call it a day and head back to the Dolphin. We hopped the train in Toontown and rode on into Main Street and headed back. (Another DL memory—I LIKE the corny diorama there).

We went down to Tubbi’s to grab some lunch—they had that gooey cafeteria macaroni & cheese that Cait and I like so much. I blame myself for this failing on our part. When I was pregnant for Cait, one of my cravings was for the nastiest, cafeteriaish macaroni & cheese I could find. I make a great homemade mac-n-cheese, but that wouldn’t do. We each got a child-size bowl and it was very comforting. Then we headed up to the room and we all took a 2 hour nap. It was heavenly. Perfect vacation—MK in the morning, naps in the afternoon.

After the naps, we decided to stroll over to the Boardwalk for dinner. It was kind of early so there wasn’t much going on. Cait is a great basketball player and a big sports fan (another thing I can’t figure—I’m terrible at sports and yes, Alex is British, so he could care less) so we thought we’d take her to the ESPN club for dinner. They were broadcasting a show and had some football guy there. Blah, blah, blah—NO, I don’t have a question for him, I don’t know who he is! It was good grub though, Alex had nachos (which I shared—I get all the jalapenos and well, you can’t eat jalapenos without some chips and some cheese and maybe some tomatoes), Cait had the Chicken Caesar Salad and I had some very delicious clam chowder. I wanted nothing with French fries—I was so tired of French fries by the end of this trip!

Cait wanted to take the boat again so we rode the 3 feet over to the Dolphin in the back seat because it was pretty out. We also found out that Caitlin can not only speak whale and parseltongue but also duck. She’s so multilingual. Then I took Cait down to the pool for some swimming and a little hot tubbing. Then I prepared my tall, comfy bed and we all conked out.
 
for a quick second it thought it was my family running thru Cosmic Ray's.. but alas we did that on Tuesday, not Monday. It's the Family Magic Tour, and one part is sneak up on Eclipse, yell "HI!!!", and run out. We also did a bunch of other wacky stuff during the 2 hour tour, but we had a blast!

Missed COP, yet another thing we forgot to do. I'm going to have start a list for our Oct trip of things we missed/want to do again!
Sounds like you all had a great time.

Can't wait for the next one!
 
breakfast at Tubbies.....especially the Tubby special.....yummy.......I can hardly wait.......you still did alot in your days......thanks so much for posting it and I know how the afternoon naps fit in......having fun is alot of work
thanks again
 
Well, Pumba, I know why they call it Tubbi's! I feel a bit tubbier after our vacation!

Sweetpea--I wondered what they were saying to Sonny. I missed you by a day. That's such a coincidence. I think we'll have to do the tour next time--it looked like a blast!

Speaking of coincidences...I just found out yesterday that one of my friends from high school (who I still see fairly regularly) was at WDW the same days we were, but I never saw her. That would have been a hoot to go all the way to Florida to see someone who lives an hour away from me!
 















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