Off to college and our 2nd trip of 2010-August 8-20th

[Mindy5767]

On Aug 15, we began our day after sleeping in by a nice breakfast at the Pop food court. We went out for the bus to Animal Kingdom. This time, we waited while one after another, buses for Downtown Disney and EPCOT passed us one after another. That was sure abnormal. We usually had a very short wait. But then our bus came and we were on our way to the Animal Kingdom. The first stop was to get a fast pass for Kali River Rapids. It was a very hot day, and there is nothing more fun on a hot day than Kali River! I LOVE that ride. Then we walked over to the Ananadapour village and to Expedition Everest..otherwise known as the Yeti Ride. Heidi wanted to ride with Henry. It was her first time being tall enough. I of course, sensibly waited in the gift shop. It was a pretty long wait. I browsed through the gift shop and then walked over to where the ride exits. I chatted with the CM over there for a bit, then went back inside the gift shop. Finally they came out. Heidi loved it. We decided it was time for lunch. We went to the Yak & Yeti quick service and shared a Honey Chicken entree and drank lemonade we'd brought from our cooler in the room. We brought with us our University of Maryland, insulated backpack. There is a little drink counter near the food counter. I got a delicious tropical drink called a Yak Attack.. something with mango and rum and something red...

After lunch, it was time for our Fastpass for Kali River, so back we went. Yeah.. we got wet... and it was rather refreshing. After Kali, we took the train up to Conservation Station.

What's with the guy peeping into my character moment!

The petting area: Heidi got to brush a goat:

language is not a barrier for little ones... Heidi and these girls were having fun!

We browsed in the gift shop, then returned to Asia and went back to Kali river rapids two more times. Surprisingly, it wasn't that crowded. Everyone must have been over waiting at EE.

We went over to the Island Mercantile and I bought two beaded animals, a panda for a gift for Lily and a tiger for my collection.

We posed in these photo boards over at the DVC station.

Then it was time to leave the park as it was closing. We returned to the Pop to shower and change for dinner. The mousekeeper had been creative.

We went to the Pop food court for dinner. Heidi had the kids cheese pizza, Henry and I got the grilled salmon which included rice, greenbeans and oddly.. a little mini loaf of corn bread. This meal is pictured on the advert. board in the elevator, and in that picture, the meal includes a dinner roll. Maybe they decided to change it up? It didn't matter. It was all very delicious and prepared just right.

Afterwards, we took the bus over to Downtown Disney to do some shopping. I went into the Christmas shop to look for Hanukkah stuff. There had been some items in the past. I bought a Mickey head hanukkah bell door hanger thingie a couple years ago. But other than a child's storybook which we have plenty of, there wasn't anything else. We went to Goofy's candy company to refill Heidi's Build-A-Mug. The man told us that they are not allowed to directly refill the build a mug anymore per some new health regulation. He said he'd have to fill up this clear plastic domed cup and then hand it to us. We could then pour it into our build-a-mug. You had to schlepp your build-a-mug over there.. but then they can't fill it? What a waste of plastic. So we then poured the frozen coke into Heidi's Build-a-mug, of course, it wouldn't ALL fit. She had to finish off the plastic cup first so we could throw it away. That seems like a silly new rule. We looked through the pins at the pin traders, and then headed back to the Pop for the night.

 

[Mindy5767]

Today was going to be a nice change of pace. We again ate at the Pop food court for breakfast. I had my Kashi cereal, but then I shared a 1/2 an apple turnover with Henry. Had my coffee and we then drove over to the Caribbean Beach Resort to get together with my friend Mindee, her husband Steven, and her daughter Ashleigh. We pulled up to the Main building and asked for a map. We then drove to the parking that was near the feature pool. I got our pool stuff and Heidi and I walked over to find Mindee and Ashleigh. Henry left in the car to go find a Wal-Mart or some sporting goods store to buy Body Glide for his chaffing and some other small items.

There was a mighty threatening looking cloud above us. We hurried to get in the pool. We were in the pool all of 5 minutes when a very inconvenient thunderstorm hit. Everyone had to get out of the pool. Not fun. So we went over to the food court to wait it out. We pulled up a table. We got some snacks and chatted a bit. We took turns browsing in the gift shop.
The pool finally reopened and we got maybe a 5-10 minute swim. Heidi and Ashleigh went down the big slide. Lightning is spotted and the pool is once again closed for a Thunderstorm. This playdate.... is doomed. Henry returned from shopping about 5 minutes before the pool closed, so he just got a short dip.

Heidi and Ashleigh make a towel baby:

a short swim

We finally give up on swimming. We hang out a short time with Mindee and Ashleigh and then its time to head back to the Pop for the Dis Meet.
I went to the food court and quickly found Teresa Echols and her husband Kelvin and daughters Stella and Grace. I met Kathy Werling, both from the Disunplugged Podcast. Cheshire Figment from Everything about Tickets sticky was there as well as some other Disers. We sat at a table in the food court and chatted a while. Teresa gave us all disunplugged pins for our lanyards! I didn't have time to change, and it was hot, so I was wearing my blue one piece with my Minnie Mouse Hawaiian wrap skirt. After the Dismeet, I went back and caught up with Henry and Heidi and went back to change for dinner. We walked back into the food court, and found Teresa, Kathy and some others were just then leaving. I had another very good meal at the food court. I got Veggie Lasagne, salad and breadstick. Then we took the bus to the Magic Kingdom. I took Heidi over to dumbo. After a pretty long wait.. we rode.

Then the Carousel and then we got Heidi to agree to Snow White's Scary Adventure as the line wasn't long. We next went into Mickey's Philharmagic. We waited on the inside lobby, and they had small instruments for the children to play with while waiting.

When we exited the ride, Wishes Fireworks were going. They'd finished the Summernightastic and back to Wishes. I'm surprised they didn't extend it. We went over to ride Winne The Pooh, which had a wall around it, but it was still open. then over to the tea cups.

and then on to Tomorrowland Motor Speedway again. We then walked back to main street and ate in the bakery during the Main Street Electrical Parade. We enjoyed our ice cream and watched the parade from inside through the window. The bad part of that was that then everyone is leaving the park at the same time. Oh well. It was crowded. We got the last seats on the bus, Henry stood. We got back to the Pop and immediately got ready for bed and went to sleep.

 

[Mindy5767]

We are going back to the Magic Kingdom.
This morning, we don't rush too much. We wake up at 9:00am, shower, get dressed and head for the Pop food court. This has become a habit. I eat my usual Kashi cereal and have a cup of coffee. Heidi had scrambled eggs and made a mess all over the table out of them. We go out to wait for the bus. By the time the bus comes, we ride the 15 minute ride to the Magic Kingdom, we arrive and go through the gates and its already after 12:00 noon?! Where did the time go? We decide to head into the Main Street Exposition Hall to see the classic Mickey movie. We find out that closed a long time ago. The only movie screen is inside the store called Art of Mickey. We go inside and look around.

We watched the Celebrate IT parade.

Then we went off so that Heidi could try to pull the sword out of the stone. I did not know, until I read it on the disboards, but the sword CAN come out of the stone, and it does so on occasion.. and it is a BIG deal!

Heidi then got Pinnochio's autograph:

We went and got a fastpass for Peter Pan (first time resorting to fastpass for that one) and got Heidi a coke float.
We headed to the Tiki Room:

We found the Riverboat was closed for Refurbishment. I didn't expect that. We'd have liked to ride that. Next time!
We went to the Country Bear Jamboree. We hadn't done that one in years!

Next... and this was the big mistake for me... we decided to go ahead and eat at Pecos Bill and have Taco Salad. What could be a problem you say?
The Taco salads were tasty enough. There is a fixings bar where you put everything on it. When you get it, it is just a shell with the seasoned meat in it. Nothing else. We snapped a picture of the burger that was about to be eaten by a patron at the next table when they slipped away for something. I had to take a picture because it was just too unbelievable. A heart attack on a bun! Really!!

After eating our taco salads, we headed back to Peter Pan with our fastpasses.

After Peter Pan, I started to have a stomach ache from the taco salad. Henry took Heidi over to the Haunted Mansion while I decided that I'd better hop on a bus back to the Pop for my own "refurbishment".

I walked briskly back to the bus depot, and there was a Pop bus along right away, and I was back at the Pop in under 15 minutes.

Henry called me that he'd taken Heidi to EPCOT. So, I boarded a bus and headed to EPCOT. I had trouble catching up with him. He had taken Heidi to the severe weather simulator. When I found him in line, the CM would not let me join them. I headed over to club cool to get some gingerale. I finally caught up to Henry just after Innoventions closed.

We headed over to World Showcase to do a Kim Possible Adventure. Heidi had a lot of fun saving France. We decided to skip Illuminations and headed over to do something else we had never done. We went to the China pavilion to watch the movie Reflections of China. We checked hours of things open during extra magic hours. We went to Lotus Blossom and there was no Lo Mein. Forget that!! We instead went to Germany for franks and kraut. We went to Der Teddy Bier and bought grandparent smurfs for Heidi's collection. Then we walked over to the Canada Pavilion. Another place we'd never been to in all our visits to EPCOT over the years. We walked the movie about Canada. I had no idea that whole cavern thing was there. I guess that's where Le Cellier restaurant is. We've never eaten there. Then we had to go back up to get our stroller and walk to Test Track. Heidi of course wants ice cream, but I'm not sure that we have enough time to get the ice cream before Test Track. We walked to Test Track by way of the Odyssey Building. There are clean bathrooms in there!! Stopped for my billionth time. The wait sign at Test track says the wait is 55 minutes, but we see that the line is inside, not sticking outside by the sign. We ended up waiting about 20 minutes. We ride Test Track. Lots of fun. Then we looked around in the new car showroom at the end of the ride. I am not really impressed with the offerings. The SUV's really are not as roomy as my van. We walked back to the buses which were pretty crowded by now. We get a seat. We showered, refilled the ice chest, snacked on cookies and leftover coffee with ice.. and were in bed at a very late 2am.

 

[Mindy5767]

Wake up at 7:45am when Howard calls and wakes us up. He wasn't really aware that we were on vacation because he forgot. He wanted Henry's help with something with his computer. Henry ignores the phone and Howard calls 3 times. Try to sleep, but my knee hurts. I take an advil. Again try to sleep, but there is no point. Its light out. People are talking and moving about the resort. Sigh!

Henry goes to get a shower while I check the weather report. With the humidity, the temp humiture combination is 105. Joy! There is a dangerous heat warning. Our daily plan is to do Innoventios and clean-up the room to pack the car. at 9:50am the heat factor is already over 90. Slight chance of thunderstorms..... ya think?

After eating, we head to EPCOT
We got into Innoventions West and get in line for our Disney Visa photo op. We were there first, but nobody could tell us where to line up. Finally, a CM comes out with a portable podium. Sets it up.... and we're not standing in the right place... so now we're like 5th or 6th in line. Behind a family with 3 severely disabled adult children in wheelchairs. This is going to take some patience. and time...

After we finally get our photo taken, we decide to do the Fire Prevention Game. The instructions aren't completely clear, but its easy to catch on. If only my fire spotter worked properly.
This is the pre-game area:

After that, we decide to take the boat to the Boardwalk for Welcome Home Wednesday at Atlantic Dance Hall. That is an event every Wednesday for Disney Vacation Club Members.
We go in. We're a few minutes past 4 when we arrive. The place is mobbed. We are given a raffle ticket and three tickets for snacks. We look around and can't find anyplace to sit. I'm exhausted and my feet hurt. We're also a little moist from the on and off rain. So we go over to the bar and get our choice of snack. We choose Cracker Jacks and a water. We end up going over and sitting on the floor near some tables. We can't see well, but they've got some members up on the "stage" and they are playing a Jeopardy like game with Disney trivia.
On our way out, they give everyone a nice Disney Vacation club cloth baseballs style cap with the DVC logo embroidered on it. Nice!

We head back to EPCOT. We go over to Norway and the Kringla Bakery for some pastry and then we ride Maelstrom. The movie is out of service.

We then head to the Coke Pavilion for some needed beverage relief.

For dinner, we decided to go to Yakitori House in the Japan Pavilion. Henry and I get the Teriyaki chicken. Heidi has a sweet pretzel from Norway. We then buy her the cute helmet with braids that's she's been wanting.

We then did Space Ship Earth, and Heidi played some of the games afterward.

It was then getting late, so we headed back to the Pop for bed.

 

[dolfinjuls]

Wow...you got a lot done! Guess you have to get ready for your next trip! I haven't seen you on FB...how have you been feeling?

 

[carrie6466]

Hey Mindy. There was a bunch of updates all at once! Hope everything is okay with you I know you are getting ready for your next trip now. Kind of sneaks up on you; huh? LOL

 

[Mindy5767]

Wow...you got a lot done! Guess you have to get ready for your next trip! I haven't seen you on FB...how have you been feeling?

I've been on facebook. Keeping my farm running! lol

I've been feeling ok. I have days that I feel completely normal and other days that I keep having heart palpitations. I have an appointment I leave for in a few minutes with the cardiologist. WE're going to go over the results of my echocardiogram, blood work, nuclear stress test AND halter monitor. I'm so nervous about it. I want answers, but am worried about what they'll be. And with my trip just about a week away!! I already know I"m not going on some of the rides I usually would, like Tea cups and splash Mountain. But I'll be just so happy to be there and see all the holiday stuff.!

 

[dolfinjuls]

I hope the appt goes well. Let me know. I'll be thinking of you!

 

[Mindy5767]

I hope the appt goes well. Let me know. I'll be thinking of you!

Well, it went well... so to speak. There are no structural problems with my heart. I don't even have the mitral valve prolapse I was diagnosed with in 1981. The blood vessels going to my heart look clear and good. My heart is getting adequate blood flow. The halter monitor didn't show any abnormalities. That's because I didn't have an "episode" during that 24 hours. My blood work all showed normal too, including Thyroid. The next thing they want me to do is twofold. They want me to wear the 21 day halter monitor. She wanted to hook me up to that and start it today, but... we're leaving for Disney in a week. If I did that now, I'd have to wear it the whole vacation. I would have three leads on my chest at all times, attached to a round unit that I'd wear on a lanyard around my neck, and then I'd have this monitoring unit that looks like a large old cellphone to wear on my belt (I don't ever wear belts) or I could carry in my purse, but then I can't get more than a few feet away from it or the alarm will go off. I wouldn't be able to get it wet, so I could take it off for showering. I REALLY didn't want to have to be tethered to this thing for my whole vacation. She said I could do it when I get back. I could tell she thought that I should do it now, but she said it was up to me. So I didn't get hooked up. Once she got the box out and showed it to me, and the oversized cell phone thing. It would certainly restrict my activity, and It would show in all the pictures. I could hide it if I was going to wear jeans and bulky sweaters, but that's not what I expect to be wearing.

She also wants me to see a endocrinologist to explore the avenue that is making my heart speed up that might be endocrine related. the 21 day monitor would be to see if when I'm having an episode, if while my heart is racing, is it beating normally, just really fast, and what is it doing right before it speeds up. She also said I'm not drinking enough fluids and she wants me to drink at least 6, 12 ounce cups of water a day. I drink from my 12 oz Disney refillable mug all the time, but I'm not refilling it enough she thinks. True enough. I drink maybe 3 of those a day. And still I'm not allowed to have caffeine til we get to the bottom of this. Waaaaa I want my coffee.

Hopefully I won't have any more episodes. They are so random. Oh yeah, and she wants me to spend one night attached to a machine that monitors oxygen concentration. There is a company that does that and they will call me this week to set up a time for them to come out and set the machine up. But at least that is one night. The 21 day monitor will be a mild inconvenience just about daily life. If I have to wear it at Disney.... major effect on my enjoyment of my trip. I just hope I don't regret that decision.

 

[dolfinjuls]

Well thankfully nothing showed up. Hopefully it was just a few random incidents. I'm sure you'll be okay during the trip. You'll be having fun and stress-free!

 

[Mindy5767]

Well thankfully nothing showed up. Hopefully it was just a few random incidents. I'm sure you'll be okay during the trip. You'll be having fun and stress-free!

Yeah, they are so random. Some days I have several small ones and other days none. After I had the first incident, the 2nd one wasn't until 9 days later. Then none the next day, then one that woke me up in the middle of the night the next day... then none.

 

[sjs314]

Try not to worry and enjoy your vacation. I do not blame you for not wanting to wear the monitor during your trip. I wasn't drinking enough water back in December when I had the episode and ended up in the hospital, I was dehydrated What I do now is buy bottled water and even then there are days I don't drink 6, today I lost track think I just finished #4 but I know before I was drinking a lot less using just a cup during the day.

 

[Mindy5767]

Try not to worry and enjoy your vacation. I do not blame you for not wanting to wear the monitor during your trip. I wasn't drinking enough water back in December when I had the episode and ended up in the hospital, I was dehydrated What I do now is buy bottled water and even then there are days I don't drink 6, today I lost track think I just finished #4 but I know before I was drinking a lot less using just a cup during the day.

Yes, she said I wasn't drinking enough water. I brought my Disney mug with me. She wants me to drink at least 6 of those a day. I kept up well yesterday, but not today. I better go find it! Its hard to drink that much being on a diarhetic. I'll be stopping to pee at every exit! That the Lord for Cracker Barrel!

 

[carrie6466]

Can I just say that I Cracker Barrel?

 

[Mindy5767]

Can I just say that I Cracker Barrel?

Yes you can!! Do you remember before Cracker Barrel, when your parents took you on trips and you always stopped at Stuckey's!! LOL yuck!

 

[carrie6466]

We never really did trips when I was a kid. I am on of 5
I think that is why I'm so obsessed with going on vacation all the time. Maybe I'm making up for lost years?

 

[Mindy5767]

We never really did trips when I was a kid. I am on of 5
I think that is why I'm so obsessed with going on vacation all the time. Maybe I'm making up for lost years?

When I was a kid, most of our vacations were to visit relatives. We did take a family trip to Switzerland when I was in Junior High. We went to Disney one or two times in the early 70's when it was new... but I think it was "on the way" to visit relatives in Miami. I know we never stayed on property. My DH went to DisneyWorld in January 1972 and stayed at the Brand New Contemporary. It was so new that some of the classic rides weren't even there yet.

When DH and I were first married, we couldn't afford vacations and we usually ended up flying home to visit family. We had a rare trip to Disney in 1990 when DD22 was 2. We drove all the way from Houston (where we lived at the time) to Orlando, we stayed with a close friend who worked at Ft. Wilderness (he still does). No hotel costs, no plane fare, our friend got us in free with his complimentary cast member tickets and we ate only QS. Our next trip to Disney after that was in 2000 and then 2005... so since 2007, we've been making up for lost past trips!

 

[Mindy5767]

Our last full day usually is a Friday, but this trip, it was Wednesday. I woke up 7:45 when Howard, a friend of ours from back home, called Henry's cell phone. Henry ignored it, which woke me up even more. Howard proceeded to call 3 times. My best friend Pam passed away 5 years ago, Howard was her husband. Henry often helps Howard with things relating to his office computer system and phone system and printer... basically anything from this century. Howard is an insurance agent, and he is a technophobe. Anyway, I think Henry finally took the call and told Howard we were at Disney World. I try to continue sleeping, but I can't because my knee hurts, so I get up and take an Advil and Henry goes and gets a shower.

I put the news/weather channel on... Oh Joy! its 105 degrees with the humidity factor. There is a dangerous heat advisory... basically... don't go out! Yeah! Not at Disney World Mr. News Anchor! I am running out of clothes, because its so hot that some of the shorts I brought are just too heavy to wear. At home, jeans shorts and sturdy bottom weight fabics are fine... at Disney now... not so much. One pair of my shorts needs to be worn again and again just because its so light weight.

Our plan is to do Innoventions, clean up and pack up the van.

Its now 9:50 am and the heat factor is already above 90. and there is a slight chance of Thunderstorms. Of course there is.... When has there not been.

We ate breakfast at the food court, and headed over to Innoventions at EPCOT. We wanted to do the Disney VISA photo op free 5x7. We found where we thought it was, but nobody was there. We finally found a cast member who told us what time it opened. We could not get in line yet because there was no line yet. She had not set up her podium. So we walked around. All of a sudden we see her get the podium out. Its not set where we expected it to be... and now another two or three families are in front of us. The family right in front of us has 3 family members who are severely disabled in special wheelchairs. I can see this isn't going to be fast. How did they get in line before us anyway?

We finally got our turn with the characters. We had Mickey, Minnie and Goofy. We took our pic pretty quickly and we were outta there! We went over to play the Fire Prevention Game. I played with Heidi. This was something we hadn't done before. Usually Heidi just loves to run around the "playhouse" they have set up. It took a while to get the hang of the game as I'm NOT a video game player. Heidi picked it up right away, and we spotted out the fire hazards in the projected room scenes. Of course, my scanner devise had to be the "challenged" one! We enjoyed that game... but looking at the time, it was about 3, so we decided to head over to the Boardwalk to Atlantic Dance Hall for our first Welcome Home Wednesday. We've been members of DVC since 2007, and this is our 6th trip since we joined, but we had not done that yet.

We head over to the back dock and rode a water ferry over to the Boardwalk. Did I mention its starts to rain? When doesn't it?

When we finally arrive, its almost 4:00. We enter the building and gosh darn it! Its jam packed and there isn't even any place to sit. We are given some raffle tickets and a ticket for snack. We walked around looking for a place to sit. There is none. We go up to the bar where they're giving out the snack. We get some water bottles and a box of cracker jacks for each of us. Not the classiest of snacks. We look around for a place to sit. There still are none. We end of having to sit on the floor over near the back. I had to sit down. The master of ceremonies is in the dance floor area, and they've started some sort of Jeopardy like game of Disney trivia. We watch this. After about 1/2 an hour a little boy and girl who are sitting on random chairs get up and walk away. I khopped the chair. khopped is yiddish for I grabbed it quick!! I'm sitting there for a minute before I realize the chair is wet. The boy must have had a wet swim suit bottom on. The chair has a cloth seat so I didn't know this right away. It figures.. That what kind of day it is. But the show ends shortly, and then they call numbers for the door prize. There are some interesting prizes such as dinner certificates and free hours of water activity at Sammy DuVals at the Contemporary. Nothing for us... but on the way out, we're each given a really nice DVC baseball style cap. We need these because its so hot, and it also helps contain my super frizzing hair!

Its now 5:00pm, so we take the boat ride BACK to EPCOT and ride Maelstrom. The movie is malfunctioning again.. So we leave Norway and walk back to the Coke Pavilion... Club Cool. We need to drink up all the sample sized beverages.

We then walked over to Japan and had dinner at Yakitori House. We had no trouble getting a table inside which is surprising considering it feels like the surface of the sun! We all have the Teriyaki Chicken and We walked over to Kringla Bakery and bought Heidi a sweet pretzel and she ate that in the covered area. Our cell phones ring and we talk to Lily. She's always having a crisis of some sort! We went into Puffins Roost and buy Heidi the cute Viking helmet with the blond braids.

As we walked back to the front of the park, we stopped at Space Ship Earth. Always love that ride... but Heidi loves the games at the end. We created a funny postcard with our head shots. The game where you push the energy needs to the homes and businesses is Heidi's fave.

We head back to the Pop to get yummy fish sandwiches at the food court and get to bed because we have a big day leaving tomorrow.

 

[Mindy5767]

We get up and shower and get dressed... can't leave that part out lest you think we skipped it! I decide to walk over to the laundry area in the 80's decade and find one of those laundry basket carts with the hanging rack. That will be useful to ferry our stuff to the car. On my way over to that building, I finally saw someone's DIS window. ---- which apparently I can't upload because it is on my phone card but I never uploaded it to facebook. Photos posted here have to be hosted somewhere. I should definitely look into photobucket. All the photos I post are in albums I have on Facebook. Ok.. so.. We start loading the car. By the time we get to breakfast in the food court, they're already serving lunch. Doesn't matter... I have MY cereal and they always have cereal available. You just can't get scrambled eggs after they close down the last breakfast grill, which is at 11:30 I think. Heidi and I have our cereal and some yogurt but Henry opts for Beef with Broccoli. you know how disturbing it is when the smells from that invade your cereal!

We didn't have to go to check-out as out bill had been delivered under our door. We decided to keep our van with us so we wouldn't have to make our way back to the Pop later.. so we drove to EPCOT. When you park at the parks, you have to park where they tell you to. We end up at the very far end of row Discovery 15. Normally, I don't really care if I have to walk a far distance... but did I mention that the parking lot asphalt was the temperature of the sun!

We boarded a tram to the park entrance, entered the park, and Henry went to go get a stroller while Heidi and I hung out taking pics near the memory wall... which reminds me of the Vietnam War Memorial in DC. Although that wall only has names, not pictures.

A photo pass photographer was so charmed by Heidi and her Alien and took several pictures of her, including some "" ones... which I don't have because we accidentally missed the photopass deadline and our pictures expired and were deleted. Needless to say I'm not too happy about that since we had alot of cute pics. Here is one that I took.

We then walked over to Test Track to get Fastpasses. Nice.... (sarcastically).. 7:10-8:10pm. Well, at least we'll get another ride on my favorite. We walked on to Ellen's Universe of Energy. I always enjoy that one. After that... we just walked onto Figment. We did some of the imagination games, and then visited the gift shop. Heidi has been begging for a stuffed Figment for a long time.. many trips... so we finally give in and buy her one.

We would like to do Soarin' again... ok... Heidi does... that feeling of falling always gets me when you soar over the aircraft carrier. That's eye closing time. We walk over to Soarin'

skip that...

We walk on to Nemo & Friends

Henry shoots this photo and then a cast member tells him not to lean out of his clamshell!

Did I mention the threatening cloud?

We have plenty of food options at EPCOT, but we really want to go to Beaches & Cream, so we head on over to the boats and board the boat to BC.

As we arrive at the dock... it starts to rain. Nice... so we head inside. We get a seat right away. I order a hamburger with a side of fruit instead of fries and Henry gets the roast beef with fruit. I really like that they offer the fruit instead of fries. Fruit is healthier AND its so darned hot... you really want fruit. Heidi orders the kids hamburger which comes with fries which she wants. Fine.. she can afford to eat the fries..and a rootbeer float.

Heidi's mouse sundae.. which had a cherry stem tail.

and my dessert:

now... I should mention the table behind us. There is a family with 2 people in wheel chairs, and they;re celebrating a birthday. The girl whose birthday it is is mentally challenged. This family has ordered a Kitchen Sink for the birthday celebration. If you're not family, this is an ice cream served in a giant metal bowl shaped like a sink. It contains one scoop of every flavor B&C has and all the toppings, syrups and mix ins. This table of people is behind us, along the 1/2 wall that borders the walk-up ice cream line. We are by the juke box near the door. The mentally challenged girl gets up and races outside, and barfs up all over the place on the trash can, the walk-way .. all over. This is not what you need to watch as you are eating. Her mom follows her out and tries to care for her. We watch as the cast members at the Beach Club spring into action. A Cast Member in a wheel chair, wearing gloves, she must be a manager... comes out and assesses the situation. She reports into a walkie talkie and other cast members come out and start cleaning up. A hose is brought out and the walk-way and trash can are hosed off. I'm amazed at how quickly and efficiently the CM's take care of the problem. The girl returns to her table. They should not have ordered that ice cream monstrosity. We do our best to finish our meal. Heidi doesn't quite finish.. she never does. We head out as it starts to pour. We look over toward EPCOT and the sky over that was is totally black. There is a straight line across the sky. The lifeguard at the BC blows his whistle and closes their pool. We have to get back to EPCOT so we walk... with umbrellas and ponchos.. in the rain. We forgot to go to the DVC store at the BC to get another lanyard case for Henry. His case is breaking. This is where he keeps our passes and room cards etc. Its just about time for our fast pass, so we walk over to Test Track and ride with our fast passes. Its amazing that TT did not get closed for rain or lightening. It usually does. We buy Heidi a TT pin in the store. We look outside and the rain has passed. We headed back to the tram, to get our van... and then we drove to DTD. We bought a couple of souvenirs. I want to get the promotional luggage, but we haven't spent the $$ required... however, we had spent that much getting the stroller rental. A CM tells us we can show our receipt and get the luggage. We have to wait for a manager.. and then another manager who knows how to do it. One manager tells us that the other one told us wrong.. but they allow it, and we get the luggage set promotion for $25.00 or something like that. Its a nice rolling carry-on sized bag with a tote sized duffle inside. We pull out of the parking lot.. say goodbye to Disney.. and go to the Hess station for gas at $2.59. Back on the road...

 

[annmarieda]

I have been working tons and have not been on the boards for a while. I am sorry to have missed so many updates!

Sounds like there was a lot of heat and rain.

My dd did a lot of "first times" on rides too. Was Heidi thrilled to be big enough to go on all of the "new" rides? The helmet with braids is something that my dd always wants too. I almost always get a pic of her in one....

I think you are brave for enduring the meal at Beaches and Cream. I would have been done once the other guest got sick. I am so paranoid about vomit...I would have worried it was contagious.

Wow, won't be long till you are back at WDW!! I have to say I am a bit jealous. I have been slowly starting to encourage dh to think about our next trip...but I am sure it won't be for another year. I am hoping for 12/11...