After our spin on the fake Space Mount’n, we head out into the blinding sunlight (seriously, it’s like we were bats coming out of a cave) only to discover the Caravan O Fun had just pulled up and all the characters were signing autographs.
Now if you want to get autographs from the characters, this is the place to do it. IF you time it right. Unfortunately we did NOT time it right.
Heck, we were oblivious and just walked smack dab into the middle of it.
Because of this, the lines for the characters were already
waaaay outta control. Before we left, DS said he just HAD to meet Pluto this trip or he would
explode.
Well, whaddaya know… there stands the Big Dawg in all his tongue wagging glory. DS spots him first…. “
THERE HE IS!! THERE HE IS!! RIGHT THERE! GIMME MY AUTOGRAPH BOOK!! QUICK!!!
It is at this point that we notice the mile long line of kids just as excited as DS is about meeting the Big Dawg.
“Son, look at that line. There is absolutely NO WAY we are standing in that line.” DH tells him.
DS pleads his case, still half thinking that he can actually talk us into waiting until Illuminations begins in order to get a 5 foot tall dog’s autograph. Mwaa Haa Haa. Silly child. We do not budge. There will be another time, we explain. We are here all week.
Poor DS hangs his head and follows the group. As I watch him look back longingly over his shoulder, I suddenly remember I still want a Dole Whip.
We pass by Mission Space and all join together in saying "Ooooh...ahhhh."
And that is the extent of our MS encounter.
Last year, we took the kids inside to the Space Base and that was pretty cool. I am quite sure this is a really cool ride, but I do not do fast spinning rides. I don’t do slow spinning rides. They all tend to bring on horrible flashbacks from one particular county fair back in high school that I’d like to forget. I won’t go into details, but lemme just say it involves a spinning ride and lots of gumbo.
Besides, show me a ride where they give out barf bags at the door and I will show you a ride I ain’t getting’ my tail on. As one of our esteemed clients oh so eloquently put it once, “I may be stupid, but I ain’t
that stupid.”
From there, we head on over to the World Showcase.
Ahhh, the sights. The sounds. The smells.
Yeah, it’s the no deodorant thing again. People, please!
It’s almost time for our ADR at Biergarten so we make our way through Mexico and China towards Germany.
We stop in China to look around. A couple of months before our trip, I am proud to announce that my sister and BIL adopted a sweet baby girl from China. I wanted to bring back a little something for her from the China Pavillion and before we left, I found out (on the DIS, of course) that they will personalize fans, etc. with the Chinese version of any name for an extra four dollars. Yep. That was it. It was added to the list.
Here we go with the high expectations again.
In my mind, I envisioned my new niece’s flowing Chinese name actually being engraved or at least printed in gold leaf onto a beautiful fan or parasol, you know, a keepsake. Something special.
So we pass through China and I remember. We find a little cart and we all grab a few things each for family members. I pick out a beautiful lavender Chinese parasol because I remember that my sister had one just like it in her room when we were growing up. Don’t ask why. She was just cool like that. I tell the girl working the stand that I want to have it personalized with my niece’s Chinese name. I pay the extra four bucks and inform her that the name which shall be engraved upon the parasol is Xiaoling.
Fairly certain that this very Chinese looking CM has never heard this name before in her entire life, I proceed to spell it for her. In English.
She gives me a timid laugh and then informs me that the Chinese alphabet does not go by letters. Each symbol represents a sound.
So then she pulls out a black Sharpie from her pocket and proceeds to write two teeny tiny little symbols on my parasol.
It takes her all of two seconds.
I feel cheated. I feel duped. Sure, it was personalized. But the first time it rains, it’s gonna
smudge. Heck, DH says he woulda done it for nothing. (yep, he added that last sentence. Told ya I couldn't hold him off much longer
)
But that’s the value of four bucks in Disneyworld, folks. The gold leaf probably would have set me back at least 400 bucks.
For four, I get black magic marker.
I leave China feeling slightly jaded and fully understanding why I had to pay for the personalization FIRST.
I am in need of some good vibes by this time so we mosey on over to Germany for our ADR at Biergarten.
We really enjoy this place and would even go so far as to say that no trip to the World is complete without a stop here. We just really like holding up our glass mugs and yellin’ “Tiki Taki Tiki Taki
OY OY OY! “
I know the last part is right anyway.
DH was transferring our trip video onto DVD today and I watched the band perform again. They are really good. I especially like the fastest hand bells in the world and the guys playing the really long horns.
I keep waiting for someone to stand up and yell….” Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiicola.” But no one does. Pity.
The food is surprisingly good and the kids love it bc they get to do the Chicken Dance and hang out on the dance floor for the entire length of the show.
We always buy lots of candy in Germany and this trip was no exception. DH loves those Hit cookies and Toblerones. For some reason, I am always reminded of Joey from Friends when I see a Toblerone bar.
We will usually make it a point to buy something that we have never tried and by doing this, we found another chocolate cookie that we will have to put on the list. The kids always get to pick out a bag of those really good Haribo gummies each. We usually forget about them until the drive home when we are desperately looking for something to prolong the Disney experience. The Cola flavored ones rock, BTW. I always bring the kids’ teachers back a chocolate covered apple from Germany, but decide to wait until later in the week to pick those up. Those things are awesome so I decide to snag one for me and me alone. Mama like.
We leave Germany with a bag full of future belly fat and stroll around the rest of the World Showcase.
In Norway, we rode Maelstrom. Hey, have ya heard? It’s a Fastpass.
Then we hightailed it through the theatre (yeah right…like we’re gonna wait for that one) and were spilled out into another gift shop. I saw a grin come over DH’s face as he made a beeline for something. Hmmm….what could it be that he was so interested in?
Then I hear him say, “Hey, hurry up. Get a picture of this.”
I turn around and he is wearing one of those Mack Daddy Viking hats on his head and the dumbest expression possible on his face.
Surprisingly, this is his favorite photo of the entire trip. Seriously, it was on our computer desktop for the longest time after we came back. After the first couple of MONTHS, I changed it and the darndest thing happened. It popped right back up 5 minutes later after I left the room.
Methinks he is trying to send a message.
You see, to him it is not just a picture of him wearing a silly look on his face and a hat with a couple of two foot long horns mounted on top that everyone and their brother had already placed on their head.
To him, it is a symbol of all encompassing power. It is an analogy of how he thinks things are around here. He is the man. He wears the Big Horns.
I think he even did the Tim the Tool Man Taylor bark when he put it on.
Not to be outdone, the boy decides to get in on the act.
Only he had donned the smaller version of the Mack Daddy Viking hat.
He knows his place. He is a man in training. He wears the Little Horns.
Of all the witty sayings and stories that have crept their way into our family jargon over the years, I think this one will probably have the most staying power.
The other day DH got onto DD and she was pretty upset about it. She came running to me, pleading her case that she should , in fact, be allowed to stretch out and sleep in the middle of our bed and not hers. She was in tears at the mere mention of actually having to lay her head down in her very own room for the night. The child desperately wanted someone in her corner and she desperately wanted her Mommy to overrule her Daddy on this issue. Our daughter, merely four years old, then cut her eyes at me, wiped the tears from her face and stated very matter of factly, “Daddy wears the Little Horns, Mama. You wear the Big Horns.”
Out of the mouths of babes.
Back in the World, we sing Neil Diamond as we make our way to America. We really like The American Adventure and were hoping to be able to see it, but we didn’t time it right and we were too tired and hot to wait another 20 minutes for the show.
Movin’ on.
The kids played hopscotch in England.
We saw Snow White all by her lonesome just waiting for someone to come and mob her. We obliged.
We were really hot and really tired by the time we made it around to Canada, so we decided to head back to POR for some pool time. We needed to do some laundry so we opted for the quiet pool. Perfect set up, by the way. Swim and keep an eye on your clothes at the same time. Nice.
We got a couple loads of clothes done and had a very relaxing visit at the pool with our friends. We sit around the pool and talk and laugh and just have a good time together. It’s always such a crazy pace when we vacation at DW because we're so busy running around, trying to squeeze all the value that we can out of our stay that we forget that the best times are sometimes spent just relaxing and doing nothing in particular besides a couple loads of laundry, floating around in a quiet pool and bonding with old friends.
We go back to the room and discover that after several days worth of tipping mousekeeping, we have our first official towel thingy. I can't call it a towel animal because, really, it was just a towel wound around Mickey and Minnie like a bed, but hey, it was something, right? We tipped mousekeeping every day of our trip last year and didn't get squat. I was starting to think we'd have a repeat this year, but hey, there it was in all its glory.
A towel bed.
How cool is that? Our first indication that mousekeeping liked us. They really liked us. I took about 5 pictures of it from different angles. Here's one.
After we (okay, I) come back down from our towel bed high, we remember that we better get a move on if we want to make our ADR for Boma at AKL. So we all get cleaned up and jump in the van and truck it on over to AKL.
We were very excited about this dinner because we are total Boma fans. The zebra domes and mango dressing alone are worth the trip to the World. Not together, of course. We arrived a good bit earlier than our ADR and headed out back to check out the wildlife.
We love the firepit and on our trip last year, we actually timed it so the kids got to sit around the fire and listen to a CM tell a neverending story about some imaginary African wildlife. You think 1000thhappyhaunt’s story is neverending….you ain’t seen nothin’. Anyway, this year we were there earlier and the firepit was empty, but we still got some cool pics of us sitting around in the rockers. The kids all loved seeing that one giraffe and all the birds.
It was time for our ADR so we made our way inside. The meal was awesome but I gotta say, the coconut tiramisu almost beat out the zebra domes this trip, though. Not that the zebra domes weren’t up to par, they were. But something about that coconut tiramisu had the table abuzz.
After supper, we hopped in the van and headed back to POR. Since it was still pretty early when we got back, we went down to the gift shop and did a lil’ shopping and then took the kids over to the arcade. DS went through 10 bucks in two minutes so we hightailed it outta there. As we leave, we notice POR has a caricaturist.
??????
How ‘bout I just tell you they have this really talented artist who will draw your caricature. Was that better?
For those of you who have thought of doing this before and passed on it, try it the next time you’re down there. We had him do both the kids in full color and we were amazed at how talented this guy was. He was really quick but he got both of the kids down to a tee.
DHF and DH were bored and out of quarters so they decided to go check out the bar while we ladies waited in the lobby for him to finish drawing the kids. I’m sorry I don’t remember the name of the bar, something Roost. Help me out. Anyway, we tell them to bring us a lil’ sumpm sumpm if they can while we wait in the lobby.
Now to be honest, we’re not big drinkers, DH and I. I’ll have a drink every now and then on occasion, but we don’t normally drink. And yes, we too drink Coke with dinner. Sorry to disappoint, Vettechick.
So when they can only bring non alcoholic out in the lobby, that’s fine by us.
I tell DH to bring me a Pina Colada and DHFW tells her hubby to go fetch her a daiquiri and fetch it now, boy, ‘fore I whup yo………..anyway.
Well, apparently the bartender doesn’t get many requests for nonalcoholic drinks at the Rooster place bc DH said when they placed their “to go” orders, they received their first ‘sprouting the third eyeball’ look of the week.
I can just see DH pull up to the bar…
”Hey, what’s up Man…yeah, gimme a virgin Pina Colada and my man here will have a virgin Strawberry Daiquiri. And how ‘bout you throw those puppies in a couple cups with some lids for me, my man. And don’t forget the straws. And hey, while you’re at it, could ya throw somethin’ together for me that’s like a non alcoholic mud slide? Yeah, I dunno, maybe just some ice cream and chocolate syrup mixed up together? Yeah, that oughta do it. Out.”
So as we are all talking and laughing at ourselves and slurpin' down our non alcoholic goodness, the artist finished up.
We wrap it up and head back up to the room sporting a couple more laugh lines than we had earlier in the day. It had been a really good day. DH brought his laptop along and starts uploading our pics that we have taken so far. This will get to be a nightly routine for us for the rest of the trip. We go through and remember what we did that day and laugh out loud about it together. Good times indeed.
Up Next: “The Bo Bo Turns Ugly”
IMHO this ranks with the battle for the wallet ( the one that started me reading this crazy board).
I knew we weren't the ONLY ones out there that thought so! Thanks for the great comments, disgram! Too bad you can't leave 'em on the ground in line for Splash, right? 
Guilty as charged. 
These days, an exciting Friday night just doesn't involve the same things it used to. Heck, I'm happy if we go out to eat and then go to Target afterwards!!!! Pathetic, I know. 
Of course the whole time I'm like wonder if dd is ok, wonder where dd is, wonder if... ok maybe not... 
seriously this woman was serious, but to me - heck we do that all the time - and I'm not Wiccan, or crazy!! BUT an imagination is a beautiful thing - thank you for taking me on that carpet ride!!
)
