Okay, it has been over a month since I’ve been home, I need to finish up this report! I am going to sit here and poke buttons on this keyboard until they turn into the end of day 8!
(I had a dream last night that I was posting on this thread to tell you guys I was off to WDW, and would have to finish this TR when I got back. I WISH!)
Now, where were we? Ah yes, off to Epcot!
I got to Epcot about an hour before I was supposed to meet the DIS group, so I’d have some extra time to hang out. The British Invasion were playing in the UK, so I stopped to watch for a while. These guys are my favorite WS entertainment after MoRockin. They don’t repeat songs during the day, so you can go see them several times, and get a different show each time!
After they finished playing, I had the sudden craving for a tangerine Kaki Gori from Japan. As in I MUST have one now, or the world would end! (I have a feeling that I will not be fun to be around if I ever get pregnant, if I’m this bad normally!) I had 10 minutes before I was supposed to meet up with the DIS group for Illuminations, so I did some quick thinking. I was in the UK, so Japan was just 3 countries away. I could make it there and back in 10 minutes, right?
I made it back to the meeting spot (The Rose & Crown) a few minutes late, half-eaten Kaki Gori in hand (I really should stick to the rainbow ones. A whole tangerine one is just a liiiittle too much tangerine for me.)
This meet was mostly planned on the Adult & Solos board- quite a few people had said they would show up, but you never know! Luckily, I recognized Care from her profile picture- she was already there with Nancy (whose DIS name I have already forgotten- I’m AWFUL with names!). We stood around talking for a few minutes, but nobody else showed up. We decided to go ahead and stake out a spot for Illuminations. We wandered towards France, and found a great spot on the bridge between UK & France, just above where the Illuminations cruise boats dock. Score! We were hanging out discussing our trips so far (Care’s very first WDW trip! Woohoo!), what we’d done so far, etc, when we were approached by Jeff (Copper3 on the DIS- the guy I had accidentally missed meeting at AKL!). He saw that nobody was at the R & C when he got there, figured we had gone to find an Illuminations spot, and managed to find us- pretty impressive! We all stood around talking about the things that Disney nerds talk about (Where are you staying? Do you like it? Have you done Everest?). The beauty of meeting DIS people is that you instantly have a ton to talk about!
Soon, the fireworks started, and we all shut up to watch. I’ve seen this show eight zillion times by now (seven zillion of those were on my 2005 trip!), but I love how watching it from a different spot around the lagoon gives you a new view point on it each time. I always get some kind of emotional watching this show- thrilled to be there, sad that I’ll have to go home soon, and generally, sappy about the friends I’m there with (much in the same way people get when drunk. You guys are my BEST friends EVER… ya know? In fact, I think my friend Nate and I decided we’d marry each other at 40 if we don’t find anyone after watching Illuminations. They totally must put something in that firework smoke! It makes you sure you should have spent $15k on DVC, get engaged to your gay boyfriends, or in my case tonight, really wish you didn’t have to go home tomorrow.)
I also tend to have bright ideas during fireworks (Hey… where did we park the car?). As the last few BOOMS were echoing across the lagoon, I had a thought- my trip doesn’t HAVE to be over already! I had planned to just walk back to BCV afterwards and pack, but why do that when Pleasure Island will be open for hours? There’s still more Disney fun to be had!
We all stood around talking after Illuminations ended, letting the crowds clear out. I think we were some of the last people left in Epcot tonight! I mentioned an Adv Club trip to the group, and Care was up for it, but the others had places to be (or sleep to do?), so we all started walking towards the front of the park.
That was not the best idea.
What We Should Have Done: Walk to the BC, catch a bus to Downtown Disney.
What We Did Instead: Walk to the front of the park, walk out to the bus stop, scratch our heads and say “Huh! They really DON’T have a bus from here to DD!”. Glance over at monorail. Shrug. Hop on monorail to TTC. Get to TTC and realize there’s no bus from THERE to Downtown, either! Feel stupid. Suggest we just walk to the Poly and catch a bus from there.
Poor Care, being led by my stupidity! I can’t believe I didn’t know better! We could have made it to DD within 20 minutes or so from Epcot, but instead it took us well over an hour (Maybe longer? It must have been longer!) Apparently we weren’t the only ones in this kind of situation, though! On our walk to the Poly, we ran into a guy who was walking by himself who asked us if we knew where the bus stop was. Well, hello there, tall guy with an accent! I do know where the bus stop is here! I am actually the princess of this resort, but you probably don’t need that much info, do you?
We found out that Tall Guy was trying to get back to his resort (One of the All Stars, I think?) so he went to the TTC to catch a Downtown bus (just like we did!) with plans to switch busses there. (It was about 10:30pm now, so all of the parks had been closed for a looong time.) We made our way to the Poly bus stop, which was crowded! There had to have been about 50 people there waiting for a bus. We thought there was no way we’d actually get on the bus, but we managed to get the last two standing spots- whew!
I think that we made it out to the Adv Club around 11pm. Way later than I’d hoped, but at least we had time to catch some of the shows!
The cast was totally different tonight, except that last night’s maid was tonight’s Samantha, and Emil was…Emil! HOORAY!
Care, maybe you remember better than me- did we see anything besides the New Member Induction and the Hoopla? (Hoopla!)
The funniest moment in the Hoopla was probably when Samantha started to sing her song about Hathaway, and he came over and started nuzzling her, and somehow ended up with his nose in her ear. She got flustered, blushed, and had to start the song over! It’s ok, Sam, Hathaway has that effect on all of us! (Oh, fine, even Emil has that effect on some of us, apparently!)
We stuck around until the club closed, which reminds me- Did the club used to be open later a few years ago? I seem to remember it being open until like 2am. That seems crazy now- maybe I’m just thinking it was open later because we’d go to the other clubs after it closed?
Care & I went out to the bus stops, and had a rather long wait for our busses. Bad night for transportation for us, I guess! The busses finally came, we said our goodbyes, and went back to our resorts. I was really glad that Care had agreed to come out to the Club with me- going alone isn’t as much fun, and a few extra hours of WDW was just what I needed to get rid of my “End of the trip blues!” (And getting to see Emil again didn’t hurt.)
The bus dropped me off back at the Beach Club… I’m really going to miss this place! I’m a little sad that I only booked 2 nights here. We’re considering making it the Official Resort of Disneyween 2007, but since I didn’t buy DVC and still have to rent points, our resort fate will mostly be up to the lovely DVC owners on the rent/trade board, and some luck!
I took this photo while slightly intoxicated- for some reason, I thought the whale was awesome at the time! (Well, ok, he IS pretty awesome.)
And so ends my last full day at WDW. Tomorrow, I’ll have to pack up, get on a plane, and head back home. Boo!
Goodnight, Boardwalk!
Goodnight, BCV!
WOW- only 3 photos in this part of the report! That may be an all time low for me!
I just had to say thanks for the laugh today!
I love those night time pics of the boardwalk...beautiful!!
Although I'm not sure I'd want to do trips THAT close together again, it was really nice to be right in the middle of that post-Disney depression, and get to cure it by going right back! 
, but I'll try to get started on day 9 tomorrow! Thank you all for reading and replying! 
You've been great motivation to keep going and going and...
