Thursday, March 25
Well, back to work—excuse me--touring the parks today! Alex and I were up and at ‘em quite early and Brittany wanted to come with us to MGM for an early morning crack at Toy Story Mania. We arrived a bit late due to primping and there was already a 50 minute line for it. We got some fast passes for the girls to use after lunch and we waited in the standby line. This was Brit’s first time so we actually had a lot of fun checking out the queue.
All my practicing on the Wii version of the game paid off—I got 89,000 points but once we’d finished, Alex pointed out that he’d kicked my behind with 180,000 points. This from the guy who never plays video games. It was payback for my sneaky big win at Buzz.
On the way into the park, Brittany had realized that she had Caitlin’s park ticket along with her own. I’d been trying to call Cait to wake her up for lunch at the Sci Fi but she wasn’t answering her phone. The line for RnR was 50 minutes, too. Is this perhaps the standard standby wait time during spring break? We’d been fairly lucky with crowds all week but by Thursday, it began to get noticeably more crowded.
I really didn’t want Cait to sleep through lunch at another of her favorite restaurants so I decided to head back to the room and roust her out of bed. I left Alex and Brittany to ride RnR. As I was walking toward the entrance, she called me back. She was up, she was cranky, she was getting ready, and please stop calling her. I headed back to RnR to try to get Alex & Brit to come back to the end of the line with me. Alex was very grateful to see me because he’d decided that his gammy knee couldn’t really handle getting in and out of the low rider limo.
Brittany and I decided to try the single rider line which only had a 30 minute wait. This was a new one for me. When it was our turn, they actually ended up putting us together in the very last car so it worked out pretty darned well, if you ask me. We had an exhilarating spin with Stephen Tyler & Co. I love that ride—I can’t believe that I kept putting it off all week.
When we finished up, Caitlin called to say she was on her way over. My foot was hurting again—it was like I’d pulled a muscle in it somehow—so we did some shopping on…well, I want to say Main Street but I know that’s not right. We shopped on the main strip, the street in, you know what I mean. Hey, I’m not wearing a fake CM badge and I can’t even remember the street names in my own town.
Brittany got some Mickey ears embroidered for her sister and I picked up a few little things I couldn’t live without. One was an easy button kind of thing that has Scar from the Lion King that says, “I’m surrounded by idiots.” I bought that for a co-worker. Sometimes I borrow it.
Still being zen about arriving on time for ADR’s, I calmly met Caitlin’s boat.
Caitlin: I’m sorry. Are you mad at me?
Me: No, I’m not mad. Are you hungry?
Cait: Who are you and what have you done with my mother?
When we arrived at the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater, we were greeted by a woman who had not embraced the zen of ADR’s. Let’s face it, she was throwing a hissy fit. As I approached the podium, the CM motioned me around this woman who was apparently not going to move out of the way. As I walked up, the woman asked me, “There’s an hour wait if you don’t have a reservation.” I think she was expecting me to join her in her freak out and scream, “Wait! What? An hour?? We’ll starve, we’ll waste away!” When I told her calmly, “Okay” and gave the CM my name, she said loudly, “You MADE a reservation?” Umm…yes.
We took a seat and as we watched in smug amusement, this woman was loudly telling everyone who cared to listen, “I’ve been eating here for 20 years and I’ve NEVER needed a reservation! This is ridiculous! Whoever heard of needing a reservation at an amusement park?” Really, in 20 years you’ve never needed a reservation? She is so obviously not a DIS reader. I mean, I’m a rebel—no plan, no itinerary, no guidebook but even I make dining reservations. No one’s messing with my food plans, dang it.
Another lady checked in and sat down next to me.
Nice lady to me: Did you make a reservation?
Me: Oh, yeah.
Nice lady: Me, too. I wanted to tell that woman that you ALWAYS need reservations at Disney World but I didn’t want to get into a fight on vacation.
Me: It’s fun to watch, though.
Nice lady: Oh, yeah, it is.
We were seated pretty quickly in the very front row. Oddly enough, the restaurant was about three quarters empty. Am I the only one that thinks that the lady up front had irritated the CM’s enough that they were just pretending it was an hour’s wait? My real guess is that they didn’t have enough servers but it does make me smile to think of them keeping her waiting up there because of her attitude. Caitlin and Alex each got a burger. Brittany got a turkey sandwich and I had a Rueben. Everything was very good.
I heart our little pink car. Yoda got a seat up front. He loves sci-fi movies.
The girls left when they were finished but I wanted some of my favorite cheesecake for dessert. It was well worth the wait! I love cheesecake with caramel sauce, cracker jacks and M&M’s. Sounds weird but tastes GREAT!
Alex and I walked over to Muppetvision 3D to pick up a gift for a co-worker.
Buzz Lightyear--guarding the stores, I guess.
The girls met back up with us again and we found one of our favorite Streetmosphere guys. I recently read on here that this guy is retiring which is pretty sad because he is hilarious. We've watched him in different skits over the years and we'll miss him.
They were setting up a game for some kids to play. Here he is naming his team. He asked the first kid, "Where are you from?" New York. He asked the second kid, "What's your favorite color?" Reply--Red. No. Blue. He asked the third kid, "What's your favorite animal?" A lion.
He turns around and announces, "Our team is the New York Red Blue Lions!" He made his hand into a pouncing paw and yelled, "Ga-Rowl!"
So he tried fruitlessly to get these three boys to yell "Ga-Rowl!" every time he said the team name and the kids would just look at him blankly. Then he'd say, "No? Nothing? Okay, then. He was a hoot.
The girls did a bit more shopping so Alex & I stopped to get some Photopass pictures taken.
Our normal picture:
The photographer told us to put our arms up. Alex, even though we'd done this the other day at the castle, was perplexed. So I showed him what to do:
Then he poked me in the ribs and while the photographer tried to get that he ended up with this:
The photographer apologized for missing that but this ended up being one of my favorite photos.
The girls joined us then:
Cait remembered I'd mentioned this Stitch photo and asked the photographer if we could get one:
The obligatory balloon photo:
We decided to head back to the room and then Caitlin and I had our one and only fight at WDW. On the boat ride, she nonchalantly mentioned that she’d left the privacy sign on the room. She also mentioned that housekeeping had called while she was still in the room and she’d told them that she didn’t know when they should clean the room. Sigh. I kind of lost it. I’d been very frustrated with trying to get the room cleaned all week and I REALLY wanted a nap and I apparently really needed one as cranky as I was about the whole thing.
Yes, I admit it. I was unreasonable. Poor Cait got really upset that I was upset. I ended up calling her after the girls headed back to the AK and apologizing. So one fight and it was all my doing.
I did manage to get a short nap in which I’m sure EVERYONE was really pleased about.
Next up: More MK
And that was EXACTLY her plan, my friend. She knows how to work me.
Think I cold convince my Leo that the same goes for mother-son bracelets?! 
Hey, it took me a long time to develop this zen-like calm. Don't help me backslide.
High praise!
I think we can all probably say "been there, done that!"
