Setting Sail on a Mousefest Adventure!

[TLinden16]

Day 1—Saturday, December 6, 2008

Heigh ho, heigh ho to Disney World we go

I was up at 5:30 a.m. to get ready for my 8:45 a.m. flight to Orlando. I always have this fear of a major blizzard in Boston when I’m getting ready to fly to Orlando for my annual December trip, but not this year. I’ve been anticipating this trip for nearly two years, when I first booked the Mousefest cruise with my good friend Goofy4Tink.

A car picked me up a little after 6:30 a.m. to take me to the airport. I arrived at the airport just about 7:00 a.m., and was greeted by a short line to drop off my bags, and a long line to get through security. Goofy4Tink was already past security, and impatiently waiting for me so that we could grab a quick bite to eat at Johnny Rockets before our flight.

Our flight took off about 15 or 20 minutes late. Since our flight was a bit later than the flight we normally take to Orlando, there was no Hip Hop Harry on the TV, so I couldn’t rap and dance in my seat. I passed most of the flight watching “I Love Lucy” on TV Land. I love JetBlue TVs.

Our flight was a very special flight. It was the Snot Rocket Express to Orlando. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a plane that had so many people coughing and sneezing throughout the flight, including the guy sitting next to me.

We landed a bit late, and headed to Magical Express check in after making a brief pit stop. The walk from the JetBlue gate to Magical Express is a bit long, as they are in opposite ends of the airport. The line to check in for Magical Express was very long—it extended all the way back to the rental car counters. Goofy4Tink stepped aside to call home while I waited in line for 20 minute to check in for Magical Express.

Thankfully, the bus was waiting for us when we were checked in, and left within a few minute of us sitting down. We had trays at our seat, so we asked our driver when beverage service would begin, and he just laughed. Old Key West was the first stop on the bus. We arrived at Old Key West about 70 minutes after our flight landed, which wasn’t bad considering the line we stood in to check in for Magical Express.

When we arrived at Old Key West, I spotted my friend IluvDisney’s Owner’s Locker waiting to be picked up. After checking in, I stopped and had Goofy4Tink take a picture of me with IluvDisney’s locker

Our room was ready, so we dropped our carryon bags off. We were in room 1416, which was in the building directly across the street from the Hospitality House. I have to say that one of the things I didn’t like about Old Key West was the lack of a crosswalk to get from the Hospitality House to building 14. The street is pretty busy, and cars drive pretty quickly.

Our room had a bit of a musty smell when we opened the door, but it appeared to be nice and clean. I liked the size of the studio unit—it was nice and roomy. It was nice to have two real beds so neither of us had to sleep on a pull out couch. The beds were very high off the ground, though—they should provide oxygen masks in the rooms because of the high altitude of the beds. The bathroom was huge, but it could have used a bit of updating. The kitchenette was small, but had a good set up, so it seemed bigger than it was. Old Key West is a very pretty resort, but I really have no desire to stay there again—it’s just too big for me.

After quickly dropping out things off, we hopped on the boat to Downtown Disney so we could get a bite to eat at Wolfgang Puck’s Express, and Goofy4Tink could renew her annual pass. We were on the slow boat to Downtown Disney. I didn’t realize how slow the boat would be, and the stop at Saratoga Springs seemed to take forever.

When we arrived at Downtown Disney, I went to order our food while Goofy4Tink got her annual pass. We both ordered the barbecue chicken salad and crème brulee. They changed the salad a bit since the last time I had it in October. They added black beans and corn. I don’t really care for black beans, so I just pushed them to the side, but made note to myself to remember to have them hold the beans the next time I have this salad. Despite the beans, the salad was excellent. The chicken was warm, and had a tangy barbecue sauce. The dressing was excellent, and the veggies were nicely chilled. The crème brulee was excellent.

After lunch, we headed back to the boat to go to Old Key West for a DIS meet hosted by Danny1649 and his wonderful wife Belinda. They are gracious hosts, and had snacks and drinks for everyone, as well as little goodies for everyone. It was nice to spend a bit of time with Danny and Belinda. It was a small but fun group at the meet, and it was fun to catch up with the folks I had already known, and meet some new folks.

TLinden16, Danny1649, and Goofy4Tink

One of the goodies that Danny and Belinda gave us was those blowers that they give kids at birthday parties. I was having a lot of fun blowing that thing in Goofy4Tink’s face. So much fun—for me.

After the meet, Goofy4Tink and I stopped back at the room for the bit before heading over to Epcot. Goofy4Tink was surprised to see that the dish towel was soaking wet, and she threw it at me, which was pretty disgusting. We were surprised that they just rinsed the towel and left it to dry on the faucet—I always figured that they washed them with the towels and put a clean one in the room after each guest. It will make me think twice about using a dish towel at a DVC resort (not that I ever wash dishes when I’m on vacation).

Our friends IluvDisney and KarenNY were leaving on a cruise that afternoon, so I called them up to wish them up to wish them a happy cruise. I serenaded them with my own version of “Happy Trails,” and Goofy4Tink joined right in:

Happy sails to you
Until we meet again
Happy sails to you
Bon voyage goodbye my friends

They called back later to tell me I was crazy, but they did like the message.

We headed over to the bus stop to catch a bus to Epcot. We just missed a bus, so we had a bit of a wait. I was overtired and being silly, so every time a bus, car, or cart drove by, I would say, “That’s not my bus.” After hearing me say that’s my bus about two dozen times, I think Goofy4Tink was thrilled when my bus finally showed up.

Once through the gates at Epcot, we stopped to take pictures of the topiaries. While we were taking pictures of the Mickey and Minnie topiaries, some woman climbed across the flowers and put her daughter who was no more than a year old in front of the topiaries. Little Kaylie was trying to eat the flowers as her mom and others started to snap a bunch of pictures of her.

We had a reservation for Tutto Italia as part of the Candlelight Processional dinner package, and we had a bit of time before dinner. We were going to go on Spaceship Earth, but the line was very long, so we decided to skip it. We then decided to try to go on the Gran Fiesta Tour, but it also had a long line so we decided to wait until later.

We headed over to Tutto Italia early to see if we could get seated early, and we were seated right away. I ordered the lasagna, which was fantastic. It was very meaty, and the noodles were nice and tender. For dessert, we both ordered the profiteroles, which is just about the best dessert on Disney property. The waiter gave us a bad look when we ordered the dessert, but I knew they would be excellent. They featured vanilla gelato in a flakey pastry puff covered with a delicious chocolate sauce poured on top right at your table. They are so decadent. I could have eaten a dozen of them. Yummmmmmm.

After dinner, we went on the Maelstrom and the Gran Fiesta Tour. We walked over to the Christmas tree to check out the lights on the tree and in the archway. They were really gorgeous.

We browsed around in the shops, and made our way over to the line for the Candlelight Processional. We got in line about 20 feet in front of the archway in Japan and waited for them to seat us. It started drizzling, and then pouring while we waited in line. I ran over to the gift shop in Japan to buy ponchos, and by the time I got back, it had stopped raining. Neither of us put on our ponchos, but I successfully stopped the rain just by going to buy them. I wound up returning them after the Candlelight Processional when we knew for certain that we wouldn’t need them.

Shortly after 8:00, they finally let us into the theatre for the Candlelight Processional. Brian Stokes Mitchell was the narrator that evening, and I was very excited to see him. I have seen Stokes in “Ragtime” and “Kiss Me Kate” on Broadway, so I knew he had an excellent speaking voice. And Stokes didn’t disappoint. In fact, I rank him as the best narrator I have ever seen, taken over the place held by Louis Gossett Jr. who was the first narrator I ever saw back in the late mid 90’s. Stokes has a big booming voice, and he spoke the story like he believed it. It’s been a few years since I saw a narrator who seemed to really feel the story.

Stokes!

We wound up sitting about five rows from the stage on the side. It seems like we are usually in the back half of the theatre, but this time, I really wanted to be undercover in case it started to rain again—I knew I wouldn’t enjoy the show as much if it started raining again. We were really close to the horn players on the sides, and every time they blew their horns, they blew our eardrums out.

After the show, we started to walk around the World Showcase to pick a spot to watch Illuminations from. We stopped at the ladies room in Morocco along the way, and when we walked out, we saw a man walking out of the men’s room carrying a beer in each hand. I expressed my surprise to the man, telling him that they didn’t sell beer in the ladies room, and then I said, “At least I hope it’s beer.” Without missing a beat, he responded, “It’s cold.” So, I learned something new about Morocco on this trip—they sell beer in the men’s room, but not the ladies room—it must be a cultural thing.

We walked until we found a spot we liked for Illuminations, leaning against a rail on the far side of the pathway in Canada. It was actually a nice spot, and it was nice to have something to lean against. I’m not a big fan of Illuminations. I find the globe part to be long and boring, but I always go see it during the holidays so that I can see the holiday ending—I just love watching the fireworks display to “Let There Be Peace On Earth.” It gives me goose bumps ever time.

After Illuminations, we headed out of the park, and walked to the bus stop back to Old Key West. When we got to the bus, the driver was shaking his head, and we thought it was because we climbed over the rope to get to the door, but we soon learned that wasn’t the reason at all. There was a family of three on the bus who had obviously drank their way around the world who was leading the bus in a Christmas sing-a-long.

Goofy4Tink had originally made her way to the back of the bus, but I asked why she was moving to the back when the fun people were in the front of the bus. So, we sat down behind the daughter in the family, and joined right in on the singing. The entire bus sang Christmas songs really loudly throughout the ride back to Old Key West, including “Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer” and “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” It was one of the most fun bus rides I’ve ever had.

When we got back to the room, I called to request a wakeup call. Empress Aurora of the World answered my call and informed me that wake up calls were illegal on vacation. I explained to Empress Aurora that we needed the wakeup call because we were being picked up to go on our Disney Cruise early the next morning. She asked us to bring her along, and promised to give us a wakeup call, as that is one of the exceptions to the illegal wake up calls.

Overall, it was a great start to my vacation. Magical memories were already being made, and I had only been in Orlando for about 12 hours.

 

[TLinden16]

Day 2—Sunday, December 7, 2008

Setting course for adventure, my mind on the Mousefest Cruise

I did not sleep well at Old Key West. I usually don’t sleep well the first night in a new place. I guess I just need some time to adjust to a new bed. Or maybe it was just the excitement of the Mousefest cruise. Or maybe it was the high altitude of the Old Key West beds. Or maybe it was the blinding light coming in from the peephole that was shooting like a laser on my bed. It could have been all of the above.

I finally gave in to my inability to sleep, and got up early to take a shower and get ready for the cruise. When we were ready, Goofy4Tink and I brought our bags over to bell services to hold until our ride came to go over to port. It was just about 7:00, and much to our surprise, the restaurants at Old Key West didn’t open until 7:30. Maybe more folks eat in their rooms at Old Key West, but I thought this was way too late for the restaurants to open. If you want to go to early entry, you can’t even get a meal at the resort before heading to the parks. If I ever stay there again, I’ll definitely make sure I have some food in the room.

We ran back to our room to get the rest of our things, and headed over to Olivia’s at 7:30. I ordered a breakfast platter that had eggs, bacon, Olivia’s potatoes, and a biscuit. The food was very good, especially the potatoes, which were nice and cheesy. I was amused watching the hostess and manager at Olivia’s singing along and dancing to the Chipmunk Christmas song, joking with them that I didn’t realize that Olivia’s had a show while you dined.

After breakfast, we met up with our friend DinkyBean from Tagrel and her friend Mackey for the ride to port. Our SUV was there right or time, and our driver Ed was helpful and personable, and expertly got all of our bags in the back of his car.

After a quick stop for water at 7 11, we were at port in record time. We were first in line to drop our bags off with the porter, and we positioned ourselves at the gate. When the porter Rob came out, I told him that we loved him. When I tried to read his name tag, he took off his hat and said, “Joe the plumber.” I said, “You are much better looking than Joe the plumber.” He said, “You’re a flirt, and I love it.” I continued to flirt with Rob, and the security guard, the Silver Fox, hoping it would get our bags checked sooner, but alas it didn’t work.

Let me in!

When they opened the gates to start taking luggage, Rob took our luggage first, and Goofy4Tink and I were the first ones into the security line (except for a few concierge guests). We scored a group 2 boarding card, and were checked in within minutes.

We walked around the terminal a bit, snapping pictures, and mingling with all of the other Mousefest cruisers. Someone had given Deb Wills from All Ears a tiara, so Goofy4Tink and I dubbed her Princess Mousefest.

We also saw the cutest little 10 month old girl wearing a sailor suit in the terminal. I didn’t realize it at the time, but she was sweet little Emily, the daughter of the DIS’s WeLuvDCL. I saw Emily many times during the cruise, and also at the Mega Mouse Meet, and she always seemed to be smiling. She was just the sweetest little angel with a sunny personality, and it always brought a smile to my face when I saw her.

After posing for our embarkation picture, and snapping some more pictures of our friends around the terminal, we were finally able to board the ship. The gangway was still broken from the winds that knocked it down, so we had to go down a level and walk in on one of the lower levels. It was a bit of a hike, but I was happy, so I skipped and high fived all the cast members along the way.

A cast member took Goofy4Tink, our new friend Duck Addict form the Passporter boards, and myself up to deck 3 in an elevator, and lead us to the main lobby, where another cast member announced that everyone should welcome Karen, Diane, and Donald to the Disney Wonder. The cast members in the lobby cheered for us as we made our way across the lobby, and made our way to Parrot Cay for lunch.

Goofy4Tink, Duck Addict, and I were seated at a table for four near a table for 8 that Deb Wills was sitting at, waiting for others to join her, including DinkyBean and Mackey, StephaMickey, and Tinker1bell. TiggerTails wound up joining our table when she boarded the ship a bit later.

Minnie stopped by to see Goofy4Tink and I at lunch

The food at Parrot Cay was very good. I really enjoyed my salad, and the pork and chicken dishes that they had. The potato soup was good, but a bit bland. I wasn’t overly impressed by the desserts at the buffet, though.

On the ride to port, DinkyBean, who is from Japan, mentioned that she loves the grapes in the U.S. She said that the grapes they get in Japan are different of our grapes. I saw DinkyBean walking by with a bowl of grapes, so of course I had to get a picture of her with her grapes. She held them over her mouth, and looked like a Greek goddess with her grapes.

At one point, one of the servers, Niko, was changing a table cloth at the table next to ours. He kind of tossed the table cloth, and got it to fall perfectly on the table. We all applauded Niko for his great work putting the table cloth on the table, and I told him that I loved him. He came over to chat with us, and put his hand up to give me a high five, but when I went to slap his hand, he moved it on me. Goofy4Tink thought it was the best thing ever, but I thought Niko was being mean after I had just told him that I loved him. I told him that I didn’t love him anymore as he walked away.

After lunch, Goofy4Tink and I walked around on deck 10 for a while. Despite the chilly temperatures in the 60’s, there were still some kids in the pool. We wound up grabbing some lounge chairs and sitting in the sun by the adult pool.

At 1:30, we headed down to see if we could get into our room. We were in stateroom 5020, a secret porthole room. The stateroom was a decent size, although I couldn’t imagine having more than two people in it. The view from the porthole was fine with a minimal obstruction.

I surprised Goofy4Tink with a Bon Voyage Celebration package from Jerry, the figment of imagination that shows up at Boston area DIS meets. I was a bit disappointed to see that the decorations were for a congratulations instead of the Bon Voyage decorations I had ordered.

At 3:00, we headed up to the soda station for a quick DIS meet. It was nice to mix and mingle with all of the DISers on the ship—and there were a lot of us. I’d start a list, but there were far too many of us there to remember everyone, and I don’t want to leave anyone out. We grabbed slices of Hawaiian pizza while we were up on deck, and I thought it was surprisingly good.

After the meet, Goofy4Tink and I went back to our room to work on our bags for the fish extender exchange we were doing. At 4:00 p.m. we grabbed our life jackets and headed out to deck 4 for the muster drill.

After doing a bit more work on our fish extender gifts, we headed up to deck 10 to go to the sail away party meet. It was fun singing and dancing along with all of the excited Mousefest folks getting ready to set sail on a four night cruise! TiggerTails had little bottles of bubbles for everyone.

Goofy4Tink and I stayed on deck 10 until Goofy4Tink’s daughter saw the ship go by a webcam. Goofy4Tink was more upset about not cruising with her family than she thought she would be, as she was crying as she talked with her daughter on the phone as we waved to her on the web cam (not that she could really see us or anything).

We ran back to our stateroom really quick to get ready to head to “The Golden Mickeys.” TiggerTails had some seats near her in her row up front, so we wound up sitting with her. The show was really cute. It was fun to see scenes from some of my favorite Disney movies. I couldn’t help but sing along to some of the songs.

After the show, we browsed around the shops for a bit before heading for dinner at Animators Palette. We lucked out and got an excellent table. We were seated with TiggerTails, Deb Wills and Linda Lou from All Ears, Beci from Mouse Fan Travel, Rita who worked for Disney, Matt and Marisa Hochberg from Studios Central, Bob who knew the owner of Jellyrolls, and Tony and Ray, who were at Palo the first night. Everyone at our table was very nice, and we had a lot of fun and laughs each and every night we dined together.

We had horrible servers on the cruise. On my last cruise, our servers knew everyone by name by the second day, and they had our soft drinks ready for us as soon as we got to the table. On this cruise, I felt the severs made very little effort, and while they were pleasant enough (especially on tip night), they just were not very attentive. We know who was at our table at the earlier seating, and the servers were just as bad for them—we heard of one story of a boy who ordered chocolate milk every night, and they had to ask for it repeatedly before they brought it to him, sometimes after he was finished with his entrée.

Hernan was our head server, and Roland was our assistant server. We were always the last table served, and Hernan always seemed to miss something that we ordered and had to run back to the kitchen to get it. He just seemed very confused or overwhelmed each night. I was also shocked to see that he had a huge stain on his vest the first night. I’ve never seen a cast member with such a dirty costume.

Roland seemed to be pushing the wine every night, and gave me a hard time for ordering a diet Coke. I like lime in my diet Coke, and the first two nights, I requested diet Coke with lime, and he would repeat the word “lime” but bring me a lemon. By the third night, I gave up on getting lime with my diet Coke because I knew I wasn’t going to get it. And getting a refill on a soda was nearly as impossible (and a few nights we had a trainee server as well, so we had three people serving us). Even if you asked for a refill, you were lucky to get it. One night, I timed it to see how long my glass would sit empty until I got a refill, and it was over 20 minutes.

The food at Animator’s Palette was excellent. I started off with a Ceasar salad, which had a very flavorful dressing. For my entrees I ordered the lemon pepper chicken, which was actually very tomatoey, and served with some delicious mashed potatoes. I also ordered the Alfredo penne with turkey and prosciutto, which was one of my favorite dishes of the cruise. It had a nice flavor to it, and lots of turkey and prosciutto. For dessert, I ordered the pound cake with vanilla sauce, which was very bland and dry.

After dinner, I met TiggerTails and Rita at WaveBands for the Match Your Mate Game Show. This show was absolutely hysterical. They pick three couples to participate in a Newlywed Game type game show. The couples that were chosen were absolutely hysterical, and most of the answers are not appropriate for me to put in my trip report. I’ll just say that I haven’t laughed so much in a long time.

After the show, they were having a disco party. I’m not a fan of disco music, so I said good night to TiggerTails and Rita and headed up to deck four to get some fresh air before heading back up to the stateroom to get some sleep.

 

[TLinden16]

Day 3—Monday December 8, 2008

Off to Atlantis—the home of the $7.50 baked potato

I had another restless night. I just never sleep well the first night in a new bed. I finally got up around 5:30, threw on some clothes, and headed up to the drink station on deck nine to grab a soda. Surprisingly, there were quite a few people wandering around on deck grabbing drinks this early in the morning. It was a bit chilly, so after grabbing my soda, I went back inside and wandered around a bit.

I headed back to the room to shower and get ready for a day at Atlantis. I also organized our gifts for the fish extender exchange, and when Goofy4Tink was ready, we walked around the ship delivering our gifts. The fish extender exchange took a lot more time than I expected. While it was fun to come back to our room and find gifts every day, it was a lot of time to put our gifts together and deliver them.

After delivering our gifts, we headed up to the Beach Blanket Buffet for breakfast. I got some yummy Mickey Waffles, and cinnamon rolls. The scrambled eggs were a bit runny, and the bacon was flavorless. It was decent for a buffet, but not the best food I’ve ever had.

After breakfast, we walked around on deck, and watched the ship pull into Nassau. I got my first look at Atlantis, which was just massive! From the ship, it really looked like it was a neat building, and I couldn’t wait to head over there to check it out.

Atlantis from the ship

As soon as we were able too, Goofy4Tink and I left the ship to take a cab over to Atlantis. On our lengthy walk to the cab stop, we ran into Marilyn Monroe, who was outside waiting for people to ask her to braid their hair. We passed on the hair braiding. We rode over to Atlantis with a party of three from the ship who were heading over to Atlantis to swim with the dolphins.

When we arrived at Atlantis, Goofy4Tink and I wandered around the lobby a bit. It was really beautiful. The details in the lobby were just gorgeous. We also checked out the Dig, where we saw all kinds of fish, sea turtles, sting rays, and other marine life. There was also a diver in the tank wiping down the glass with the tiniest sponge.

At one point, we stopped to have our picture taken in King Neptune’s chair. We had the photographer cracking up because we were acting silly for the pictures. At one point we threw our hands up in the air and acted like we were on a roller coaster. It was loads of fun.

We also spent some time in the casino. Goofy4Tink had beginners luck and won some money in the casino. She started out saying she won about $40, but with each person she told, the amount increased, and it was soon $50, and then $60. On the last day of the cruise, I think I heard her tell someone she won a million dollars. I also had lots of luck in the casino, but unfortunately, my luck was all bad.

We also wandered around outside in the marketplace. It was a very quaint shopping area, and fun to walk around there. I had heard many people mention that the restaurants were expensive at Atlantis, but I was surprised by just how expensive it was. I glanced at the menu at the steakhouse, and I was surprised to see a $7.50 baked potato on the menu! I wouldn’t pay that kind of money for a baked potato.

Everything at Atlantis was expensive. I thought Disney’s photo pass pictures were expensive until I saw that they charged $20 for them at Atlantis. I stayed clear of eating or drinking anything at Atlantis because of the prices. The prices at Johnny Rockets were a bit more reasonable than anything else we saw at Atlantis.

When Goofy4Tink and I had our fill of Atlantis, we took a cab back to the ship. We browsed around the shops at port a bit, and stopped to take some pictures of the ship. I asked someone to take a picture of Goofy4Tink and I in front of the ship, and found out later in the trip that it was DISer Pluto1979.

Goofy4Tink and I in front of the Wonder

On my next cruise, I will be staying on the ship in Nassau. Although it was worth checking out Atlantis, I had no desire to explore downtown Nassau. My overall impression of downtown Nassau as we drove through it was that it was dirty, unimpressive, and overpopulated.

When we got back on the ship, Goofy4Tink and I went up to the Beach Blanket Buffet for lunch. The line for the adult side of the buffet was a bit long, and there was no one in the kids’ side, so we walked down there to get some food. I got some yummy jello, and I really liked the turkey and ketchup macaroni and cheese. We hit the adult side of the buffet after, and the beef ribs were excellent.

After lunch, I went to the Walt Disney Theatre to see “Bolt” in 3D. I sat in the first row behind the split in the theatre. A few minutes before the show started, a family plopped down in the row behind me. For some reason, the grandma thought the best seating arrangement for the family would be for her to sit in the seat behind me to the right, her 3 or 4 year old grandson sit in the seat directly behind me, and grandpa sat behind me to the left. Grandpa tried to switch with the little boy, but grandma told him that the boy was fine. The boy spent most of the movie walking back and forth between grandma and grandpa and hitting me in the back of the head.

“Bolt” was cute with some funny moments. I always love the way Disney throws little innuendos in their films that go over the kids heads but make the adults laugh. I enjoyed the movie, but don’t have a desire to see it again—and I probably wouldn’t have seen it if I wasn’t on the ship.

After the movie, I wandered around the ship a bit, and headed to the DVC Member Celebration. Each family got a bag with four DVC hats, some lanyards, and information on DVC. Deb Wills stole the show at the DVC event, impressing the DVC cast members and everyone in attendance by talking about the marketing tour of Bay Lake Towers that she had done earlier in the month.

At one point in the DVC meeting, they started talking about the new Disney ships that are being built. Theresa, the DVC guide, asked if anyone knew what they were going to name them. Of course, they haven’t officially named them yet, but I shouted out my names for them, “The Vault and the Money Maker.” Everyone started laughing.

After the DVC meeting, I headed over to Wavebands to see a question and answer session Jim Shore was doing. For those of you who don’t know who Jim Shore is, you have probably seen his work. He does these amazing sculptures with vibrant colors and carved patterns. I have a beautiful one of Santa Mickey in a sleigh with Pluto, and a bag of toys. They sell his pieces all over Disney World, and in gift shops across the country. It was interesting to hear Jim Shore talk about his pieces, and the process he goes through to create them.

I then headed over to see “Toy Story: The Musical” with Goofy4Tink. We ran into Ray Sharpton there, so we sat with him. In my opinion, this show ranks right up there with Stitch’s Great Escape as one of the worst things Disney has ever created. This show was an hour of my life that I will never get back. They lyrics of the show seemed very forced—they made them rhyme even if though they usually didn’t flow right. The worst song of all was the song sung by Sid that included the lyrics:

I’m the DaVinci of Destruction
I’m the Van Gogh of violence
I’m the Rembrandt of wreakage

The show was just terrible, and not something I would ever have the desire to see again.

On my way out of the theatre, I ran into our cruise director Clayton, so I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to go on the I’m on vacation dance with him.

I then stopped by the Promenade Lounge, where Dave, Jennifer, and Alexander from the Passporter were hosting a meet and greet. It was fun to chat with some of the other Mousefest cruise attendees for a bit.
I then headed over to Parrot Cay for dinner. Most of the folks in line were waiting to get their antibacterial hand wipes from the cast member on the right, so I headed to the left and saw that it was Evil Niko handing out the hand wipes. I told him that no one wanted to get hand wipes from him because everyone knows that he is evil. I told the other cast member, Dragan, that he was much nicer than Niko and I would only get hand wipes from him next time.

I started off my meal at Parrot Cay with the Smokey Chicken, Vegetables, and Cheddar Cheese Fritters. It was served with pomegranate barbecue sauce. They were pretty disgusting. The reminded me of the frozen Howard Johnson’s Chicken Croquets that my mother used to buy when I was a kid. I also got a Ceasar salad, which was excellent.

For my entrees, I ordered the Island Roasted Rib-Eye of Beef and the Gnocchi Au Gratin. The rib-eye was excellent, very tender and flavorful. It was served with a fantastic twice baked potato. The gnocchi was very interesting, but a bit on the dry side.

For dessert, I ordered the Crème Brulee Cheesecake and the Chocolate S’mores Vanilla Cake, which I shared with Rita. The cheesecake was excellent. It was rich, and had a nice flavor. I could only eat about half of it. The Chocolate S’mores Vanilla Cake was outstanding. It was very light and tasty, one of my favorite desserts of the trip.

Throughout the meal, Niko and I kept on giving each other eyes so that we would know we were watching each other. I started him down every time he looked in my direction.

At some point in the dinner, Dragan came over and tried to talk me into taking Niko home with me, saying he would pay for the plane fare to send him home with me. I told him that I wouldn’t do it because that would mean I would be stuck with Niko. I finally told Dragan that we could send Niko to Newark and abandon him there. Dragan seemed to like that idea, and put his hand up for a high five, and when I went to slap his hand, he moved it just like Niko. That evil Niko plotted against me. He got his good friend Dragan who hailed from his home country of Croatia to play a trick on me. I originally thought I liked Dragan, but now that I knew he was in cahoots with Niko, I knew that I couldn’t like him either.

After dinner, I headed over to WaveBands with TiggerTails and Rita, where we caught the tail end of the Quest, where groups have to bring things up to the host. Among the crazy things people had to do was having a man going up dressed in women’s shoes, bringing up a key, a man in lipstick, and a woman in a man’s shirt. It was a lot of fun to watch everyone rush up to try to win the quest.

After the Quest, a juggler named Jeff Cirrielli put on a show. He picked out a guy in the audience to be the cheerleader for the night. He made the man put on a blue wig, and every time the man saw Jeff do something he liked, he had to stand up and scream, “You’re the man, Jeff.” Jeff was a very entertaining juggler, and he got some folks up onstage to help him out.

After the juggling show, the cruise staff hosted the Livin’ Large Dance Party. At one point, they were looking for volunteers to go onstage and strut with a poodle in a purse ala Paris Hilton. I wound up going onstage, and strutting across the stage, violently swinging the purse around and around my arm. Tisa, the hostess, said she was going to call the Animal Cruelty authorities on me, but thankfully the dog was OK, so she let me slide by.

TiggerTails, Rita, and I went out on deck four to relax and get some fresh air. The ship was still in Nassau, as it was staying there until 2:00 a.m. While we were sitting on the deck chairs chatting, a couple was looking at something on shore, and they mentioned that they saw a huge rat scurrying on land, and hiding under the gangway. Thankfully, someone sitting out front scared the rat away before he could get on the ship to see his cousin Mickey.

I was very amused watching some of the cast members leaving the ship for a few hours of fun before the ship would set sail again. The girls were all dressed to kill, and one of them had the ugliest dress that I’ve ever seen on. It looked like something that Carol Brady would have worn in the 70’s.

Around midnight, I said good night to Tiggertails and Rita and made my way back to stateroom to get some sleep. I got my first good night’s sleep of the trip. I didn’t even wake up when the ship left Nassau at 2:00 a.m. I guess I was tired.

 

[OhMari]

Hi Karen,
I always enjoy your TR's.

I didn't know you could take a boat to Old Key West to DTD, I thought it only went to Saratoga Springs. I would of made my dh check out that resort too.

Did the motion of the cruise boat get you sick.
Our family wants to do a cruise and this is one of their worries, plus they will all lynch me if it is a WDW cruise. (They don't get my addiction).

 

[TLinden16]

Did the motion of the cruise boat get you sick.
Our family wants to do a cruise and this is one of their worries, plus they will all lynch me if it is a WDW cruise. (They don't get my addiction).

The motion of the boat did not make me sick, although it made me feel like I was still swaying for a couple of days after getting off the ship. A lot of people were wearing those motion patches, so that could be an option.

 

[TLinden16]

Day 4—Tuesday December 9, 2008

We’re going to Castaway Cay—or not

Tuesday morning, we made our second round of fish extender deliveries. It was a bit easier this time around as we knew where we were going. It still took longer than I expected, but it wasn’t as bad as our first delivery.

We then headed over to Triton’s for breakfast. When we walked in, our assistant server Roland walked over to me and said, “Niko is here waiting for you.” We were lead to a table in the middle of the room. Niko was serving tables on one side of the room, and Dragan was serving on the other side of the room. Both of them made a point of coming over to give me grief during the meal. I told Niko that he ruined my meal by showing up at my table.
Dragan came over right after our server brought my waffles to our table. A server named Slaven was waiting to pour syrup on my waffles, and Dragan pointed out that he was also from Croatia. I asked Slaven if Niko sent him over to give me a hard time too, and poor Slaven just looked totally confused. All’s Slaven really wanted to do was give me some syrup, and run far far away.

I ordered the Belgian waffles with bacon and hash browns for my breakfast. The waffles were served with syrup and fresh whipped cream. The waffles were fantastic. They had a nice flavor to them, and the whip cream was excellent as well. Once again, the bacon was flavorless, but the hash brown was good—it reminded me of the grammar school cafeteria.

After breakfast, we went up on deck to watch the ship dock at Castaway Cay. Captain John came over the PA system and announced that they weren’t able to dock at Castaway Cay due to the current and the wind. He told said they would give it another try in an hour. We hung out by the adult pool with IluvMickey from Tagrel and her Kevin, and her mom Linda. We even took a dip in the pool and soaked in the hot tub for a bit.

At about 9:30, Captain John announced that we would not make it into Castaway Cay today. It was a bit disappointing because we were close enough to see the workers waiting for us on shore, and the Flying Dutchman. But in the long run, it was probably a better thing because it was really windy and cool, and the weather looked better for the next day.
So, this would now be our at sea day, and off to sea we went. The crew had new Navigator’s out to us within an hour. Our Palo brunch was also switched to today as well. I headed back to the stateroom to get ready for brunch, and then went to do some shopping. I bought myself some scrapbooking stuff, a Christmas ornament, and other odds and ends.

At noon, Goofy4Tink and I headed up to Palo. It seemed like just about everyone we knew who was on the ship was at Palo when we got there. Half of our tablemates were there, as were DinkyBean and Masayo.
We started off with the buffet. I got some fruit, crackers and cheese, and a delicious warm sticky bun. We ordered a pepperoni pizza to share, which was excellent.

For my entrees, I ordered the chicken parmesan, which was served over a cheesy risotto, and the veal saltimbuca. The chicken was excellent. It was pounded very thin, and had a light sauce and cheese on top of it. The risotto was excellent, probably my favorite thing I had at Palo. The veal had a nice flavor to it, but it was very tough.

For dessert, I had a crème puff, and éclair, and some chocolate mousse. The crème puff was tasty, but I didn’t really like the éclair. The chocolate mousse was very rich—it was like eating a rich fudge sauce. I could only eat a couple of spoonfuls.

After dinner, we stopped in the rest room. DinkyBean and Deb Wills were in there. Goofy4Tink was trying to figure out how she could tell if someone was in the stall or not. I showed her how there is a marker on the handle that turns red when the stall is occupied. Goofy4Tink was saying she couldn’t see it, and she didn’t know it. I sat there turning the lock, saying, “Occupied, not occupied. Occupied, not occupied.” Deb Wills and DinkyBean got a kick out of it, and Deb told us we were a hoot.

Goofy4Tink was feeling a bit under the weather, so she went back to the room to rest, and I went out to deck four to do some laps and work off some of the food I ate at Palo. I wound up doing six laps around the ship (about four miles).

One of the things that was most fun about doing laps around the deck were all of the nice people who chatted with me along the way. They saw me so many times, and were impressed that I was taking the time out of my day for a brisk walk around deck. Amongst the interesting people I saw were:

*An older couple who stopped me to ask me how many times I was going to walk around the ship. The woman was actually counting my laps for me. They told me they were celebrating their 40th anniversary.

*A mom and dad with their adult married children who were playing shuffleboard. They were really having a blast playing shuffleboard, and the mom said they should have been walking laps like me.

*Then there was cute little Agatha who was about two years old. Every time I walked by her, she was smiling and waving at me.

*And little Dagny, who put her hands out like she was waiting for me to cross the finish line, and then started running because she wanted to race me.

*There were also two guys smoking cigars, and playing shuffleboard. One of them told me he was impressed by my discipline to do my laps while on vacation, and I told him that he didn’t see what I just ate at Palo.

After my walk, I went up to deck nine to get my picture taken with Goofy. Goofy actually played ping pong with a little boy while he was waiting for Stitch to take some pictures. Goofy wasn’t a very good ping pong player, though. While I was waiting in line, I saw sweet little Emily and her dad get a picture with him. Emily really seemed to love the characters. Mackey was also up there waiting to get a picture with Goofy.

After getting my picture taken, with Goofy, I wandered around the ship for a bit, and wound up going to the art auction. I placed my bid number up for a mystery offer, and wound up purchasing a giclee of Moments Away by Rodel Gonzalez. It’s a beautiful piece. It’s a painting of the castle with Cinderella’s couch in front of it. Rodel was actually on the ship, and I got his autograph, and a picture with him.

Here I am with Rodel Gonzalez and the artwork I purchased

I then headed over to the Treasure Ketch to go to the Jim Shore signing. I bought a Mickey and Minnie sculpture for myself and a snowman sculpture for a my sister for Christmas. Jim Shore personalized them to each of us, and I got a picture taken with him.

I then joined a bunch of folks in the Promenade Lounge to chat before dinner. I met so many nice people on this cruise, including a couple who live near me. Goofy4Tink was still feeling under the weather, so she decided to skip dinner this evening.

I headed over to Parrot Cay with the others for our Pirate Night Dinner. I started off with the Pasta Envelopes (aka fried ravioli), which were very tasty, but a bit cold. I also got a Caesar salad, which was as good as the ones I had earlier in the trip. For my entrée, I ordered the beef tenderloin, which was excellent—very tender. For dessert, I got the Lost Banana Treasure, which was good even though the bananas were a bit over ripe.

Niko and I continued our staring contest throughout dinner. He came over to try to give me high fives several times, but I refused to give him one. I told Niko that I went to Palo for brunch that afternoon, and the best part of it was he wasn’t there. Dragan came over to try to make up with me for being mean, but I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. I did get a picture with Niko and Dragan, though.

Here I am with Dragan and Niko--the evil Croatian servers

After dinner, I headed up on deck for the Pirates in the Caribbean party. The party was a lot of fun, despite the fact that it was extremely windy on deck. It was a lot of fun watching the characters dance, and Pirate Mickey sure can fly through the air. The fireworks weren’t the most impressive display that I’ve ever seen, but it is really cool seeing them being shot from the ship.

Go Pirate Mickey!

After the pirate party, I went to WaveBands for karaoke with IloveMickey and her DH Kevin, IloveMickeysmom, TiggerTails, Rita, DinkyBean, and Mackey. IloveMickey started the night singing solo, and later TiggerTails, Rita, and I sang back up for her on “California Dreaming.” IloveMickey and Kevin also sang “Endless Love.” They were giving out free shots to anyone who sang, and I drank one. It was super sweet.

At one point a woman named Monique got onstage to sing a Donna Sommers song, and a drunk woman got up and danced beside her. When the drunk woman started singing, Monique told her that it was a solo act. The drunk woman sat down, and her drunk husband/boyfriend took her place dancing with Monique, except he was doing the dirty dancing with her. Monique had about four shots when she went up to do her song, and IloveMickey actually donated her shot to Monique when she went up to sing “Endless Love.”

Another funny moment came some women put up a song for their husbands to sing. As the husbands walked by, I said, “Please let it be ‘It’s Raining Men.’” One of the guys said, “Knowing our wives, it probably is.” But it actually ended up being “I Am Woman.” The guys were tone death, and did a horrible job, but that made it the best song of the night. At one point, I shouted, “You go girls” to them. Gotta encourage the singers, you know.

After saying good night to everyone, I went for my nightly fresh air on deck 4 before heading up to the room and going to sleep.

 

[TLinden16]

Day 5—Wednesday, December 10, 2008

The skies are clear. The winds are calm. Surely Captain John can make it into Castaway Cay

Just looking our out secret porthole, I could tell it was a better day to make it into Castaway Cay. Land was within our sight, and shortly we would be lounge on the beach, and enjoying a day at Castaway Cay.

Goofy4Tink and I went up on deck nine to watch the ship dock in Castaway Cay. We had rented bikes for the day, but Goofy4Tink wasn’t really feeling up to it. I was teasing her about feigning illness and missing the pirate dinner and party to get out of riding a bike with me. MKMommy walked by while we were on deck, and she mentioned she was thinking about renting a bike. I invited her to take Goofy4Tink’s place, and she agreed, so we set a meeting time.

Our first stop of the day was the All Ears Rock/Roll/ Stroll the Plank against Breast Cancer meet with the folks from All Ears and Mouse Fan Travel. Unfortunately, Deb Wills missed the event because she was sleeping in, but Miss Diva was there to lead us on our leisurely walk around deck ten.

Here I am with Miss Diva

Goofy4Tink and I then went to have a quick bite to eat at Topsiders before changing into our bathing suits and heading out to Castaway Cay. As we walked to the beach, we saw Captain Jack Sparrow, so we stopped to have our picture taken with him. When I thank him by saying “Thanks, Jack,” he got mad at me and said, “That’s Captain Jack.”

Goofy4Tink and I then went and found some beach chairs by an umbrella at the far end of the family beach. I stepped into the water, and it was very very cold. I don’t know how people were going all the way into the water. Just looking at them made me cold.

At one point, we saw a large group of people who were all dressed up walk by, and we realized there was a wedding on Castaway Cay that day. Shortly thereafter, we saw the bride ride by on a golf cart. It was truly a glorious day to get married—even though they were getting married a day late.

I then headed over to the bike rental area to meet MKMommy for our bike ride. It was nice to spend some time with MKMommy. She is very sweet, and it was nice to get to know her. I told her she was much better company on the bike ride than Goofy4Tink would have been. I know Goofy4Tink, and I know she would have complained—and I told her that to her face. But I like Goofy4TInk anyways.

The bike ride itself was very pleasant. We went out early, so there weren’t that many people riding yet, and it wasn’t too hot. We rode all the way to the look out point, and saw some folks kayaking in the distance. We also went on the bike trail, and stopped to walk up the tower. It was really a fantastic ride, and one of my favorite parts of the cruise.

After the bike ride, I ran into TiggerTails, and we took the tram over to Serenity Bay. I was telling TiggerTails about how much fun I had on the bike ride with MKMommy, and how nice she was, and when we got to Serenity Bay, I realized MKMommy was sitting a couple rows behind us on the tram. I joked that it was a good thing I wasn’t saying anything bad about MKMommy—I really only had nice things to say about her.

TiggerTails, MKMommy, and I picked out some chairs under an umbrella, and relaxed for a bit before heading into the water. We heard that there was a huge star fish in the water, so we wanted to go check it out. The water on Serenity Bay was a lot warmer than the water at the family beach, which is a good thing because we had to walk in pretty deep to go in far enough to see the starfish.

The starfish was pretty cool to see. It must have been at least a foot in diameter, and it was very active. It really got quite the crowd of people checking it out.

After our dip, we went back to the beach for a bit, and then TiggerTails and I headed over to Cookies to get some lunch. The food was surprisingly good. I really liked the ribs and the chicken. The cheeseburger I got was surprisingly good, as was the cous cous salad. For dessert, I got a cookies and cream ice cream.

After lunch, we took the tram back to the main beach, and I spent quite a bit of time washing the sand off my feet. I think I had half the sand on the beach on my feet at that point.

TiggerTails and I stopped in the gift shop, and then took the tram back to the ship. We stopped to take pictures of the Christmas tree, and snowmen in front of the ship. WeLuvDCL was there with Emily and the rest of the family taking pictures. Emily is just such a sweet little girl, and I’m sure they got some great pictures for the family Christmas card. I had my picture taken with WeLuvDCL and Emily so that I would always remember how much I enjoyed seeing them on the cruise.

TiggerTails and I then went up to the pool for a dip. The water was great, and the pool was pretty empty. We also went into the hot tub for a while, but it got too hot for me, so I went back to the pool.

After my dip, I went back to the stateroom to finish packing, and get ready for my last night on the ship. I headed down to the Farewell Party that Mouse Fan Travel was throwing. They had some yummy appetizers and drinks for everyone, and Stitch showed up to crash the party. At one point, Beci was speaking about the cruise, and Captain John took over the PA system, and Beci stood there pretending to talk like she was Captain John.

At the party, I gave Alexander, the son of Dave and Jennifer from Passporter, a small gift of some of the stuff we were giving out as part of the fish extender exchange. Alexander is such a sweet kid. He was so appreciative and excited about everything in the little gift bag I gave him. When he saw the beaded necklace I left him, he told his dad that it was real diamonds, and it was beautiful. He is a great kid, and it’s been fun seeing how much he’s grown each year at Mousefest.

After the Farewell Party, Goofy4Tink and I headed over to the Castaway Club event. They had soft drinks, cookies, and rice krispy treats for everyone. They also gave out some cool clocks, but we didn’t win them. While we were there, I met DISer Inkognito, who was on her 65th Disney cruise. We also met Captain John. Goofy4Tink told him that she saw the pictures of him barefoot and in shorts from the day that the gangway fell, and he seemed a bit embarrassed that the pictures were out there. I told him that bookings were way up since people saw his knees though.

Goofy4Tink and I stopped in front of the Walt Disney Theater and had our picture taken with Mickey and Minnie, who were dressed up in their holiday best. Mackey was there to meet Mickey and Minnie as well. While we were waiting for Mickey and Minnie, I was enjoying playing with the kids waiting in line. There was one little girl who was whining while she was waiting, and I must have spent ten minutes making my Mickey lens cloth disappear and reappear for her, which made her giggle.

A Disney trip just isn't a Disney trip until you see Mickey and Minnie

I then headed over to the Disney Dreams show. This is probably my favorite show on the ship. I just like the story line, and it’s a great way to end a great cruise. We all can use a little more faith, trust, and pixie dust in our lives. I know that I for one won’t grow up, and will always do whatever I can to have more fun than anyone else.

I then went over to Jackpot bingo. I couldn’t bring myself to spend the $69 to use one of the electronic bingo machines, so I bought one of the push and punch cards. TiggerTails met me there, and she got one of the electronic ones. I didn’t win, but it was fun to play.

TiggerTails and I then headed over to Tritons for dinner. This was probably my worst meal of the trip, and it was also the meal that we got the worst service at. Hernan and Roland were being very nice to us (because it was the night they got their tips), but their overall service was the worst of the cruise. We waited a long time for them to take our orders, and then we waited a long time to get our food. And when they did bring our food, they forgot some of it, and had to run back and get it. I had gone down to prepay my tips earlier in the cruise, but I wished that I had tipped them in cash so that I could give them less of a tip, because they didn’t do anything to earn a full tip on the cruise.

I learned that at Tritons you have to dry your own dishes before you can eat. My bread plate was filled with water, and I poured it out on the table and had to dry my plate before I could put bread on the plate.

The bread at our table was as hard as a rock. I don’t know if it was just stale or if they left it in the crisper too long, but it wasn’t very edible. Marisa and Beci were banging the bread on the table because it was so hard. They cleared the bread and bread plates from our table before we even got our entrees, and Deb Wills asked Roland where our bread was. Roland said that he took it away because it was cold. He brought us new bread plates and bread, and the other end of the table realized what our end of the table had realized earlier—the bread was as hard as a rock. Deb joked that she was going to save the bread in case she need to hammer something later.

I think Roland was a bit jealous of my interaction with Niko because he was trying to play with me all night long. He was trying to give me high fives, and was trying to force me to take some escargot. I didn’t want the escargot, but he kept on trying to give it to me. I finally told him it wasn’t going to happen, and he moved around the table trying to get everyone else to take the escargot. Finally, Matt took the escargot.

One thing of note about our horrible servers. When they had the parade of servers during the meal, most of the tables were applauding when their severs went by and waving their napkins in the air. With the exception of TiggerTails who was waving her napkin, our table pretty much just continued eating (of course, we had just gotten our meals as the server parade was about to start). I watched as the other servers in our area got high fives when they returned to their sections, but our servers got no warm welcome back after the parade from our table or the other tables that they served. It may seem rude, but I personally could not bring myself to applaud servers who I couldn't even describe as adequate during our cruise.

I wasn’t overly impressed by the food at Tritons. I started off with a garden salad, which was good. I then got the beef tenderloin, which was served with French fried rutabaga and baby food mashed peas. I wish I had ordered a baked potato to go with it like some of the others at our table, as the rutabaga looked pretty scary.

Deb was asking me why I decided to come on the Mouse Fest cruise this year. I told her that I thought the cruise would be an opportunity to meet different people, and spend more time with them. I told them that I booked the cruise while I was on my last cruise, and I asked Goofy4Tink to join me so I wouldn’t have to pay the single supplement, joking that she was only there to save me money. Everyone laughed at that one, but in all seriousness, Goofy4Tink was a great stateroom mate, and I really did enjoy being on the cruise with her.

At one point, I asked Niko to come over so that I could give him a tip. I gave him a tip envelope that I wrote Mean Server Niko on, and handed it to him. I had placed an $5 bill in the envelope with a note saying, “I’m giving you five even though you wouldn’t give me five.” It was a lot of fun messing around with Niko all week, and he definitely earned that $5. I also gave Dragan a $5 tip.

The best part of Tritons was the dessert. From the start, I was saying I was going to order two crème brulees. I also decided to try the crepe suzettes because I had never had them before, and they sounded interesting . Roland was teasing me about ordering two crème brulees, and he said I wouldn’t be able to eat them both. I told him that I would. I then joked that I wanted five crème brulees and two crepe suzettes, and I wanted Niko to bring them out balancing them on his head. Roland gave me five spoons to eat all of my desserts.

By the time our desserts were brought out, there was barely anyone left in the restaurant, and one by one, the folks at my table started to leave until I was all alone eating my crème brulee and crepes suzette. I did wind up eating both crème brulees, but I only had about a third of the crepe suzettes. It was a bit too sweet for me, but I was glad I tried it. But I’d rather eat the crème brulee any day.

When I finished dinner, I went to the character farewell. I got my picture taken with Goofy and Pluto, and watched the characters wave good bye to everyone. The characters also sang and sign languaged “Let There Be Peace On Earth.”

After the show, I made my way back to the state room to get a few last minute things stuffed into my bag, and put it outside to be stored until they took it off the ship the next morning.

When my bags were gone, I headed over to the Cruise Crew Happy Hour with Goofy4Tink, TiggerTails, ILoveMickey and her DH Kevin, and DinkyBean. The crew gave us a quick recap of our cruise, starting with the muster drill, and highlighting all of the parties that were held each night.

The crew then performed a little skit that is performed on most cruise ships called “If I Were Not Upon the Sea.” In this skit, different each crew member comes out and talks about what they would do if they were not working on a cruise ship, and they have a line that they perform with hand gestures that is performed each time another crew member joins the group. Beyond that, a description just doesn’t do it justice. It’s really something that you have to see for yourself, and worth catching if you are on a Disney ship. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so hard.

If I were not upon the sea...

After the skit, they started the a dance party by playing “Sweet Caroline,” and everyone in our group got up on the dance floor and sang along. For some reason, pubmaster Jay, who was dressed as a ballerina reached for me during the hands, touching hands part of the song and just wrapped his arms around me for the rest of the song.

After saying goodbye to some of the cruise staff, Goofy4Tink, TiggerTails, DinkyBean and I went out on deck to get some fresh air. We lounged out of the deck chairs, and Goofy4Tink, TiggerTails, and DinkyBean even dozed off. It was nice to just enjoy the last evening of the cruise with some of the great group of people that I spent so much time with on the cruise.

Goofy4Tink and I said goodnight to TiggerTails and DinkyBean and headed up to our stateroom to get some sleep. We knew we were off to Disney World for Mousefest, and sleep would be hard to come by.

 

[rtobe]

Great report and great photos. Looking forward to reading more about Mousefest land portion

 

[heaven2dc]

You look SO familiar! I swear you were standing in front of me at the Boardwalk Villa bus stop last week when I was there. or was it your twin?

Loving your report so far! How exciting to take a Disney cruise - I would love to make that my next adventure!

 

[TLinden16]

You look SO familiar! I swear you were standing in front of me at the Boardwalk Villa bus stop last week when I was there. or was it your twin?

Loving your report so far! How exciting to take a Disney cruise - I would love to make that my next adventure!

It was probably me. I was at the Boardwalk after my cruise.

Don't mention that there could be a twin of me. It would scare too many people.

 

[sharonW]

Good TR, Karen but ya know I still don't have any
desire to take the cruise. Give me the parks and I'll
be in heaven!! Sounds like you had a blast though!!

 

[TLinden16]

Day 6—Thursday, December 11, 2008

Land ho! We’re off to Mousefest!

Goofy4Tink and I woke up early to get ready to head off the ship. Our breakfast at Tritons wasn’t until 8:15, but we were ready long before then. We walked around on the upper decks for a while, and even saw a dolphin swimming next to the ship. We ran into Ray Sharpton on deck three and chatted with him for a while.

At one point, I went over to the windows outside of Tritons to mess with Niko. He was setting his tables for breakfast, so I knocked on the window and acted like he was doing a horrible job.

Around 8:00, we got in line for breakfast, and ran into Matt and Marisa. When we were finally seated, everyone at our table joined us for breakfast except for TiggerTails. We had such a great table, it was nice to have one final meal together, even though we knew we would see each other again on land later in the day.

Hernan and Roland continued their trend of horrible service on the ship. We had a diet Coke issue. For some reason, Roland brought me two diet Cokes, but failed to bring diet Cokes for the two other people who ordered it. Goofy4Tink told me a story about how Deb Wills ordered ice water and decaf coffee, and Roland asked her what kind of juice she would like. Deb repeated that she wanted ice water and decaf coffee, and again, Roland asked her what kind of juice she would like. She again told him she wanted ice water and decaf coffee.

Niko came over to say goodbye to us, and in the end, I finally gave him a high five. He’s a lot of fun, and a really nice guy.

I have to say that I enjoyed myself on the cruise more than I could ever imagine. I really enjoyed the company of my table mates, and also getting to know some of the folks on the cruise who I had never met or only met once or twice in the past. It was really a wonderful way to get to know in a more relaxed setting away from the craziness of the land portion of Mousefest.

After breakfast, Goofy4TInk and I met Masayo and DinkyBean for the ride back to port. The gangway was now working again, so we were able to exit from deck three. There were lots of inspectors around, making sure that it was safe.

We grabbed our bag and made our way through customs within minutes. We called our driver, and he was there to pick us up within a few minutes. We made a quick stop at a grocery store on our way to Disney World so I could feed my diet Pepsi addiction. I could also feel a cold coming on, so I picked up some cold medicine, which wound up being my best friend for the rest of the trip.

It started raining as we drove to Disney World, and it continued to rain until the late afternoon. Our driver dropped DinkyBean and Mackey off at Pop Century, and then took me over to the Boardwalk. He then left with Goofy4Tink to take her to the Dolphin.

As soon as I arrived at the Boardwalk, I ran into several ladies from Tagrel. After some hellos and hugs, I checked in, and got my key to the world card. My room wasn’t ready yet, so I decided to walk around the resort for a while, and browse in the gift shop. I ran into some folks from the DIS who I had met in October when I went to the meet and greet with John from Owner’s Locker at Epcot.

Since I wasn’t feeling great, I decided that it wouldn’t be a good idea to go to the parks in the rain. Rather than waste time, I decided to head over to the monorail resorts to check out the decorations. I took the bus to the Magic Kingdom, and then took the monorail to the Grand Floridian. I walked around the resort for less than 10 minutes, snapping pictures of the Gingerbread House and Christmas tree.

When I got back to the monorail, the same monorail I just got off of was still sitting there. They weren’t letting anymore passengers on, and it left a few minutes later. Another monorail came a few minutes later, and we all got on, only to have it stop before the Magic Kingdom for a few minutes due to a disabled train. It finally moved to the Magic Kingdom, and after several minutes, they told everyone to exit the monorail, and take the boats to the resorts, or get on the other monorail line. There was a disabled monorail on the rail, and it was going to be a while before they could get it off the rail.

I was heading to the Contemporary for the Mouse Fest kickoff reception, so I started to walk there in the rain. I ran into Goofy4Tink along the way, so we walked to the meet together. We arrived as they were finishing up the Mouse Fest 101 meet. We mingled with some of the folks who were there, and were happy to meet up with our friends Towncrier and WebmasterKathy from the DIS.

At one point during the meet, I decided to run up to the Contempo Café to grab a bite to eat, but wound up leaving without getting anything. I didn’t like the set up of the quick service restaurant at all. You had to order your food at the touch screen, then head over to the cashier to pay, then backtrack to the pick up area to get your food. Everyone was complaining about how long it was taking to get food. I found the set up to be disorganized, and it was just too much work to get a quick meal.

When the reception ended, Goofy4Tink, Towncrier, WebmasterKathy, and I walked over to the Magic Kingdom. We went to the Monsters Inc. Laugh Factory, which was very funny. They did the one where they retell the story of Monsters Inc. The little girl they chose to be Boo was absolutely adorable, and she played peek-a-boo with the monster.

We then headed over to Mike Scopa’s Dole Whip meet. We got our Dole Whips and mingled with the folks at the meet. I didn’t see too many familiar faces at the meet, but I did chat with some new folks for a while.
We then headed out of the park, and took the monorail over to the ticket and switched to the Epcot monorail. We were meeting some of our DIS friends for dinner at Biergarten, so we walked back to Germany as soon as we arrived at Epcot. Our dinner party consisted of: me, Goofy4Tink, Towncrier, WebmasterKathy, Tiger Lily03 and her husband Ted, Brian_WDW74, KristaTX, Dagny, and her friends Lauren and Skippy. It was a nice group, and we had a lot of great conversation and laughs. We even broke into song, singing “Edelwiess.”

Dagny, WebmasterKathy, and I enjoy dinner at Biergarten

I really liked the atmosphere at Biergarten. It was so quaint and pleasant. The food was OK, but nothing was particularly memorable. I had never particularly had a desire to eat there, but I thought it would be a fun place to go with a group, and I was right about that.

The entertainment at Biergarten was a lot of fun. The singers sang some fun songs, and told some nice holiday stories. At one point, they invited people (mostly children) to parade around the restaurant. The folks at my table said that I should go join the parade, so I did. I bet some of the people at our table didn’t think I would actually do it, but most of my friends knew I would.

After dinner, I walked to the Boardwalk with Tiger Lily03 and her husband Ted, and Goofy4Tink (well, she kept walking to the Dolphin). My room was finally ready, and I wanted to get settled in. Tiger Lily03 and Ted had told me the story about what happened when they checked into their room. They noticed a bad odor in their room, and figured out it was coming from the couch bed. It looks like someone had wet the bed, and although the sheets appeared to be fresh, the bed itself was very stinky. When they looked under the couch, they saw a brown mound, and thought it was poop, but it turned out to be a cupcake. They wound up getting their room switched.

Well, when I got into my room, I went to use the rest room, and there was a large poop mark on my toilet seat! I don’t know what’s up with the Boardwalk Mousekeeping this month, but they didn’t do a very good job on at least two rooms. I wound up calling Mousekeeping and made them come up and clean the toilet again.

After unpacking my things, I headed over to Jellyrolls for the 6th Annual Jellyrolls meet. We really had a great turn out—there wer e about 30 of us there. It was nice to have so many friends there, and meet so many new folks. Goofy4Tink didn’t make it to Jellyrolls, though, as she feigned a second illness to avoid going. She missed all the fun, as it was one of the best nights I had ever spent at Jellyrolls.

Tommy and Michael W. were the first pair of piano players. At one point, Michael told the audience that I love Scotty and Ray, and they are my favorite piano players, and everyone else is just filler. I’ll admit that Scotty and Ray are my favorites, but the others aren’t filler. I love them all.
I was spending some time buzzing around the bar, and handing out light up bracelets to everyone who came to my meet, as well as some of the other folks who were at Jellyrolls that night. Tommy said from the stage, “Karen, you look like your very busy.”

My friend PeachyT was joining us at Jellyrolls, and I have a really great nickname for her. For reasons I will not give here, I have dubbed her Britsey (a combination of Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan’s first names). So, naturally, I had to request that Scotty sing Britney Spears’, hit “Hit Me Baby One More Time” for Britsey. Britsey turned twelve shades of red when she realized that I had the song dedicated to her, which was pretty funny. Everyone thought it was one of the funniest things that they had ever seen.

Camcolt put up a request for “Dirty Water” for all of us Boston folks in the bar. When Ray was singing the song, when he got to the line about all of the things you find in Boston, he sang my name. Later in the evening, Tommy paid tribute to Boston by singing the theme song from Cheers. Camcolt, Lauren, and I stood up and sang along.

Dagny had mentioned to wdwr that she wanted to do a kickline, and wdwr made the mistake of mentioning it to me. So, of course, I had to put up a request for “New York, New York” and dedicated it to Dagny, who was dying to do a kickline. Ray announced that the song was for Dagny, and Dagny, Camcolt, and I stood up and did a kickline. We were eventually invited up onstage to do our kickline, and we were joined by about 8 or 10 other people.

Kickline (photo stolen from CamColt)

I also had Scotty do a Disney medley for us. Of course, we were all singing along to every song. Ray called us Disney Geeks, and we were all extremely proud of that moniker.

The cold was really taking a lot out of me by this point, but somehow I managed to stay until Jellyrolls closed. It sure had been a great day in Disney World with great friends.

 

[sharonW]

I'm enjoying your trip, Karen...sounds
like a real HOOT!!!

 

[CamColt]

Day 1—Saturday, December 6, 2008


Since our flight was a bit later than the flight we normally take to Orlando, there was no Hip Hop Harry on the TV, so I couldn’t rap and dance in my seat.

Noooo!

And ummmm....thanks for taking the absolute worst picture of me to post.

 

[TLinden16]

Noooo!

And ummmm....thanks for taking the absolute worst picture of me to post.

I didn't post the absolute worst picture of you. I have pictures of you that are even worse. Blackmail, my friend.

 

[TLinden16]

Day 7—Friday, December 12, 2008

Craziness by day and by night—that’s what Mousefest is all about

Despite the cold and late night, I was up at about 7:45. Goofy4Tink called me to see what my plans were for the day. I had planned on sleeping in after a late night, but forgot to turn the ringer off on my cell phone, so I was up and wide awake after the phone rang.

After getting ready, and having a quick breakfast in the room, I went to catch the bus to the Animal Kingdom. The security lines to get into the Animal Kingdom were ridiculously long and slow. Once through security, the lines to the turnstiles were just as long.

Once in the park, I made my way back to Everest, where I met up with Goofy4Tink, Towncrier, and KristaTX. We grabbed some fast passes, and jumped in the stand by line to get a quick ride on it. I really love this coaster. I could ride it all day.

We then made our way over to the Harambe fort for the All Ears meet. We spent a bit of time mingling with the folks there before heading back over to Everest to go to the meet over there. We got in line with about 75 other people to ride Expedition Everest. It was a lot of fun to yell and scream to the other riders as their coaster was taking off.

After the meet, we thought about going to see the Finding Nemo show, but wound up changing our mind and going to see “The Festival of the Lion King” instead. This is my favorite live show on Disney property. I love the music, and the tumble monkeys are so much fun. Timon even had an articulated face. Some of the cast wasn’t very good this time, but I still enjoyed the show.

We then headed over to Anandupar Local Food Cafes to grab some lunch. I got the Crispy Honey Chicken and a side of Chicken Fried Rice. The food was piping hot, and very flavorful. This is my favorite quick service restaurant at Walt Disney World. I love the menu, and the food is always good. KristaTX left us after lunch.

We then headed over to Dinosaur for a ride. We had a bit of a wait, but finally made it in. I’m not a huge fan of Dinosaur. I think that it’s too dark in there to truly enjoy the ride, and the Indiana Jones ride in Disneyland blows this one away.

We had grabbed fast passes for Expedition Everest after lunch, and decided to give them away to other people as we were leaving the park. I spotted a party of three and asked them if they would like them. They were so excited and appreciative that it made all of us smile.

Towncrier then drove Goofy4Tink and I over to the Dolphin. As we drove, I spotted WebmasterKathy driving down the road. Towncrier beeped at her, and we wound up rolling down the windows and chatting with her about our plans for the afternoon.

When we go to the Dolphin, Goofy4Tink and I hung out in her room until it was time to meet Towncrier to head to the DVC Member Merry Mixer. We had agreed to meet near the tree in the lobby but that wasn’t specific enough, as Towncrier was waiting on a different side of the tree than us.

The mixer was about the same as it always was, although I didn’t see as many people I know there as I usually do. This year, each person could only get one treat rather than the unlimited treats they offered in the past. I guess too many people were grabbing too many rice krispie treats. We did get really cool Christmas ornaments though, and I got a picture with Santa Goofy (I asked him for more DVC points for Christmas, but he didn’t get them for me—maybe next year).

After the mixer, Goofy4Tink and I had to head to Disney Hollywood Studios to meet our Tagrel friends for dinner at the 50’s Prime Time Café. We tried to catch the boat, which we would have taken to the Boardwalk to save some steps, and then walk the rest of the way, but they had just started pulling out. We shouted to the boat crew that we would beat them to Disney Hollywood Studios, and they told us that we had 25 minutes to do it. We did beat the boat by at least five minutes.

When we arrived at the studios, we went to meet our dinner party of 74 in front of the restaurant. WebmasterKathy was there in the Single Riders Standby Line, hoping that someone would cancel so she could take their spot, which did happen.

SusanL really did a great job or organizing the meet. She had a list of all of the tables, and moved folks who were late to other tables so those who were there ontime wouldn’t have to wait.

I had a great table for dinner. It was me, Goofy4tink, WebmasterKathyl, Amymouse, OhMickeyYou’reSoFine, RooDad, and Carl. We were seated pretty quickly after checking in, as were most of the parties, but one table in our group had to wait over an hour for their table!

I was the trouble maker at our table. Our server, Cousin Cooper knew right away that I didn’t know how to behave. I had my elbows on the table, and refused to take my baseball cap off. Cooper was a great server, and really played around with us a lot.

I ordered the pot roast and a vanilla milk shake. The milk shake was very yummy. It was very thick and tasty. The pot roast was good, but not the best pot roast I’ve ever had at 50’s Prime Time Café. It needed some extra gravy. I really wanted to get some S’mores, but I was just too full to eat them after dinner.

Kathy told Cousin Cooper that she thought he looked like Matthew Broderick. I joked that he probably wished he had Matthew’s money and wife. Cooper said he only wanted the money, and said, “I’m a guy working for Disney. Put two and two together.”

Our cousin Roy from another table was celebrating his birthday at the restaurant. Cousin Cooper made everyone in our room sign a card for him. WebmasterKathy wrote that he was a handsome devil, and Roy just loved that.

While we were dining, a couple at the next table asked me if I had been on the Disney Wonder that week, and it turns out that they recognized me from the ship. And as we talked, we realized that they were DISers, T and T. It’s always nice to run into a DISer, especially when it is a totally random thing.

Goofy4Tink did not finish her pot roast, so Cousin Cooper had to feed her a
bite or she would get no dessert. Goofy4Tink was very defiant about it, and tried to refuse the bite, but Cooper was relentless. Goofy4Tink was in a battle she wasn’t going to win. We all made airplane noises as Cooper feed Goofy4Tink.

Here comes the airplane, Diane

After dinner, Goofy4Tink and I headed over to the Ho Ho Ho Lotta Lights meet. At one point, I was dancing around to the lights, and some guy walked by video taping, so I told him he could video tape me dancing, and he did.

I really have to say that I still don’t like the location where they put the lights up. It’s just not a big enough space to truly enjoy it. At home, when we are driving around and a house has a lot of lights, I always say that it looks like Christmas threw up. Well, at Disney Hollywood Studios, it looks like Christmas has been projectile vomiting for a year.

As we were walking out of the lights, Goofy4Tink and I were singing along to the music, and swinging the light up fans that Zakerdog and Cruiser gave us. I joked with a cast member that I could help directing traffic, and stood next to him pointing people in the right direction. Goofy4Tink tried it with another cast member, but when she did it, she whacked the poor kid in the face with her light,

Goofy4Tink and I then went to ride on the Tower of Terror. I love going on this ride in the night time. It makes it extra exciting, and really ads to the theme.

We then headed out of the Disney Hollywood Studios. I went back to the Boardwalk and took a break before heading over to the Beach Club for the Tagrel gift exchange. I saw Moley on the Boardwalk, and I gave her a small gift I had purchased for her. It was a waddling pooping penguin. If anyone had to have a waddling pooping penguin, it’s Moley.

I was running early for the meet, but ran into WebmasterKathy so I stopped and chatted with her for a few. I then ran into Brenda from Mouse Fan Travel, and stopped to chat with her. I wound up being a few minutes late for the meet.

The gift exchange was a lot of fun. Sheryl made cute little memory books for everyone, which was very sweet of her. I was one of the first names picked for the gift exchange. I had made a big deal about keeping the gifts small so that they would fit in a suitcase, so I said I had to find the smallest gift. I wound up getting a Winnie the Pooh book and magnet.

One thing that is interesting about gifts exchanges is they can make good friends turn into vicious enemies for a few hours. There was a lot of gift stealing going on, and a lot of trash talking and threatening when people got an in demand gift. The most popular items were the Mickey head afghans made by IloveMickey, some Jim Shore pieces, and a brown Mickey travel bag. RougePony was particular vicious, I made a mental note not to steal any gifts from her at future gift exchanges.

ChefLizzy was one of the last people to pick a gift, and she wound up stealing a blue Mickey head afghan from someone. She said that no one could steal the afghan from her because it matched her apartment perfectly, and it would make Brian (Frogman) cry. No one dared steal that afghan after that little speech. Not that we didn’t try to get someone to do it.

LynneR was the last person to pick, and the entire room started chanting, “Make Brian cry. Make Brian cry,” hoping that she would steal that afghan from ChefLizzy, but LynneR was just too nice to do that. She wound up stealing a Jim Shore piece from someone else.

When all the gifts were opened, we posed for a group photo. WillCad set his camera up on a tripod, but the remost wasn’t working properly, so we stood there forever while he tried to figure out what the problem was. After several minutes, the picture was finally taken.

I then walked back to the Boardwalk with TwirlerGirl and her husband Dave. It was a gorgeous night out, and it was nice to have a relaxing walk back with my good friends.

 

[CamColt]

I didn't post the absolute worst picture of you. I have pictures of you that are even worse. Blackmail, my friend.

Great report, BTW!

 

[TLinden16]

Day 8—Saturday, December 13, 2008

Mega Busy, Mega Long Day

Saturday morning, I woke up before the sun rose to go to a special sale for annual pass holders and DVC members. SusanL was kind enough to offer to drive Goofy4Tink, Bookwood, LynneR, and me over to the sale. We met in the lobby at the Boardwalk at 6:00 to head to the sale.

The sale was very disorganized, and a bit confusing. Someone told us we needed a wrist band to get into the sale, and we got into the wrist band line. When the doors opened, we heard a cast member say that you only had to show your annual pass or DVC member card to get into the store. We found out later that the wristbands were for people to get the free pin and/or Christmas ornament.

Once in the store, the sale itself was better than I expected. All T-shirts were 40% off. Most of the Christmas decorations and ornaments were 50% off. There were some doorbusters that were only available for an hour of the sale. I decided to purchase one of the doorbusters—a 26 inch suitcase that was 25% off.

After doing some shopping, I got in a line to pay for my stuff. The lines moved very slowly as they were having lots of problems with the computers, and things not ringing up properly. I waited in line for 45 minutes to purchase my items, and it took nearly as long to check out.

When I finally got to the register, the suitcase was not ringing up at the sale price. The cast member at the register had to call a manager to come do a price override. He stood there for five minutes doing nothing while we waited for the manager, and I suggested that he ring in the rest of my items so that the people waiting in line behind me wouldn’t have to wait as long.

The manager finally came over, and did a price override on the suitcase. At this point, the first cast member to help me was scheduled to go on break, and another cast member took his place. When she started to give me the extra 10% off, the register overloaded, and my entire order was lost! They now had to unwrap all the ornaments I had purchased and rering everything I purchased.

At this point, everyone else had been done shopping and checked out. I had suggested that they go ahead without me, and I would find my own way back, but they had insisted on waiting. Ten more minutes had passed, and it didn’t’ look like I was getting out of the store any time soon, so I insisted the leave. The others left, but Goofy4Tink waited for me.

When the cast member told me that they were going to have to rering my items, and wait for a manager to come back and do a price override again, I was so frustrated. By this point, I was embarrassed that my order was causing so many problems, and I felt bad for the folks waiting behind me in line. I had been repeatedly apologizing to them for the wait. I was so frustrated, that I started to walk out of the store without purchasing anything, but the nice people behind me in line encouraged me to stay since I had already waited so long.

When the manager finally came back to do the second price override on the suitcase, she gave me a shocked looked and said, “You’re still here?” I said, “Can you believe it?” Finally, after standing in line for 45 minutes, and waiting an additional 30 minutes at the cash register, I was finally leaving the store.

Ironically, the suitcase got damaged on the way home. A plastic foot broke off the suitcase, and it no longer stood upright. I wound up having to pay $40 to package and ship the suitcase back to Disney World. Since the suitcase couldn’t even make it one flight, I decided to request a refund rather than getting a new suitcase.

I then went out to meet Goofy4Tink, and we made our way to the buses, which were now running. We had to wait a few minutes for the bus to the Boardwalk, and then had to wait for the bus to leave. When the bus finally left the marketplace, it stopped over at Pleasure Island to switch drivers. The two drivers talked for several minutes, and the second driver did a thorough investigation of the exterior of the bus before getting on the bus and driving us to the Epcot resort area. I got off at the first stop, the Swan, and walked to the Boardwalk to drop off my things.

I then met Goofy4Tink to head over to the Mega Mouse Meet at the Yacht Club conference center. The Mega Mouse Meet is always a fun way to see friends, and meet new people. It was fun chatting with some of the podcasters, webmasters, and authors. They had some yummy filled pretzels for refreshments for the people who registered for Mousefest.

After the Mega Mouse Meet, Goofy4Tink and I walked over to Epcot. We had lunch at the Electric Umbrella. I ordered chicken breast nuggets and fries. They were good, but I like the old chicken strips better.

Goofy4Tink and I then waited in a 20 minute line for Spaceship Earth, and then a 10 minute line for Journey Into Your Imagination! If the economy is doing bad, you’d never know it by the lines at Epcot!

We then went into a store along the World Showcase, and we were shocked to see that most of the items we purchased at the sale in the morning were on sale in the shops there. All of the T-shirts were 40% off, and the Christmas stuff was 50% off, and the items would remain that way at all stores on Disney property for the remainder of our trip. Most of the sale items that we thought were only for annual pass holders and DVC members were available to anyone who visited any shop on Disney property. The only item I bought that wasn’t on sale every where else was the suitcase. I would have stayed in bed if I had known that I could have gotten things at any store for the rest of my trip. I was so angry it made me not want to spend another dime on Disney property this trip.

Goofy4Tink and I then walked back to our resorts, ranting and raving all the way. I was going to do some laundry, but the washers and dryers were full, and folks were already waiting for them to be emptied. So, I wouldn’t be doing any laundry today. I went back to the room and relaxed for a while, as I knew it would be a late night.

After my rest, I met up with Goofy4Tink to walk to Disney Hollywood Studios. I had planned to do a group photo with some of my friends in front of the hat. Due to craziness, many people were only seven of us for the picture. I mentioned that I was grumpy, and then it hit me. We should be the Seven Dwarfs in the picture. I was Grumpy. Goofy4Tink was Sneezy. Camcolt was Happy, and her husband Peter was Dopey. ChipandDaleExpress was Sleepy. Towncrier was Doc. WebmasterKathy was Bashful. Some of us did an excellent job on our dwarfs, but there seemed to be a lot more Happys in our group than there should have been.

Goofy4Tink, Camcolt, Peter, and I then headed over to Mama Melrose’s for dinner. How crazy is it that Camcolt lives about 15 minutes from me, and Goofy4Tink lives about 45 minutes from me, and we have to go all the way to Florida to have dinner.

When we were seated at our table, our waitress came over to take our drink orders. I ordered my usual drink, diet Coke with lime, and Goofy4Tink ordered the same. When our waitress brought our drinks over, she had forgotten to bring us the lime. I started telling Camcolt about our servers on the cruise, and how we couldn’t get them to bring us any limes with our soda.

Well, next thing you know, our server comes over with some lime. She overheard our conversation, and it reminded her to bring the lime. She apologized and explained that the lime isn’t where they store the glasses, so it is easy to forget it.

Later in the meal, Camcolt and Peter ordered diet Cokes, and Peter said, “We don’t need lime in ours.” I said, “No. They like cranberries in their diet Cokes.” The waitress thought it was the funniest thing. She brought their diet Cokes, and said that if they had cranberries, she would have brought some over to us. She said that she will always remember us as the cranberry table.

The meal at Mama Melrose’s was one of the best meals of the trip. I started off with a Caesar salad, which was excellent. For my entrée, I ordered the wood-grilled chicken, which was served in a four cheese cream sauce. The chicken was fantastic. It had a nice flavor, and was very filling. I didn’t have room for dessert.

After dinner, Goofy4Tink and I met up with KristaTX to go on the Great Movie Ride. We were on one of the last runs of the day, and the cast members showed it. Our driver spoke everything in loooong syllables. He put absolutely no feeling into it.

We had a female mobster take over our vehicle. She was young enough that I would guess she was part of the college program. I have to say that I liked this ride better when they cast appropriate actors in the roles of the mobster. A 19 year old pimple faced kid in the college program just does not make a believable mobster.

After the ride, it was time to head over to Pixar Street to check in for the DIS Toy Story Midway Mania meet. Due to some confusion, we wound up taking a side trip to Sunset Blvd. before heading back to the Backlot Express to check in.

The Toy Story Midway Mania meet was the most amazing event of the week, and definitely a night to remember for everyone who was able to attend. The folks from Dreams Unlimited Travel and the DIS Unplugged rented out Toy Story Midway Mania for three hours, and threw a big dessert party for the lucky attendees. It was great to ride this popular new ride over and over again with no wait. I rode it about 15 times during the event.

One of the things that was most fun about the event was getting to ride with so many of my friends. It was so much fun riding with different people, and trying to beat my high score each time.

There was a very silly cast member handing out ice cream bars at the Toy Story meet. His name is Eddie, and he looks exactly like Dana Carvey. He even did a little bit of the Church Lady for us. Eddie claimed that he could guess what kind of ice cream anyone would want in one try. He went to hand me a Mickey bar, but what I really wanted was the Nestle Crunch bar.

Poohbrlvr, Dagny, Britsey, Shelley, Lauren and I hang out with Eddie

Dagny, Britsey, wdwr, and the rest of their crew talked Eddie into asking his boss if he could go on the ride with us, and his boss said it was fine. Britsey rode with Eddie, and it was a lot of fun watching him because he got so excited about it like a little boy.

As the meet was coming to a close, I took a final ride on Toy Story Mania with Camcolt and Peter before we started heading out of the park to walk back to our resorts. It was really neat walking out of Disney Hollywood Studios at the end of the night when there were only a few people around. I got a picture of me all by myself on Hollywood Blvd, and also pictures of the hat with no one in them.

It was a long but fun day. One that I won’t soon forget.

 

[TLinden16]

Day 9—Sunday, December 14, 2008

I ran into Prince Charming, but did the shoe fit?

Despite another late night, I was up bright and early again. I was still a bit run down from the cold, but I was at Mousefest, and there is no time for illness at Mousefest. I knew that I would fight my germs because I didn’t want to miss a moment of fun with my friends.

Since I was up so early, I decided to do a load of laundry. I grabbed a pastry, and ate breakfast in the room while I waited for the wash to be ready. When my laundry was done, I headed over to MGM, er Disney Hollywood Studios (it will always be MGM) with Goofy4Tink. We took rides on the Rock ‘N Roller Coaster and the Tower of Terror.

We then headed to the bus stop to head to the Magic Kingdom. We took the bus to the Ticket and Transportation Center, and then the monorail to the Magic Kingdom. We headed into Tomorrowland, and took a ride on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority. There was a steady line of people heading to the ride, not something I was used to seeing.

After riding the TTA, I said goodbye to Goofy4Tink, and headed over to Cosmic Rays, where I was meeting wdwr, PeachyT (Britsey), Dagny, Lauren, poohbrlvr, and Skippy for lunch. It was nice to spend a bit of time with a bunch of my Virtual Magic Kingdom friends.

After lunch, we headed over to the Rose Garden for the Capture the Magic meet. Capture the Magic is a photo scavenger hunt through the Magic Kingdom, and it’s loads of fun. You have to run all over the Magic Kingdom getting specific, including some that required you to ask some other unsuspecting park guests to join you in the pictures. My team consisted of me, Goofy4Tink, TwirlerGirl, and her husband Dave. WendyBird and Mike were late, and joined us for some of the pictures, but didn’t stay for the entire thing.

We had a lot of fun on the Capture the Magic meet. They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, and these pictures can better describe the Capture the Magic meet than my words could.

Somehow we managed to get 4 strangers to do a kickline with us.

I will not go on Splash Mountain

Aren't we cute Mickey pirates?

Singing and dancing with the Dapper Dans

Camcolt will share her Dole Whip float with us.

After the Capture the Magic meet, Goofy4Tink and I were headed back to our resorts to take a break and put on some warmer clothes for our night at Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas party. On the way out, we were stopped by one of the survey people, and asked to do a computer survey about our dining experience at the Magic Kingdom.

While I was doing the survey, another survey person noticed a shoe under one of the computers, and he said, “Did anyone lose a shoe?” When no one responded, he started to walk out of the room, but I said, “Wait.” He turned and looked at me, and I put my foot out. Without missing a beat, he got down on one knee, and put the shoe to my foot to see if it fit. Here I was, in the Magic Kingdom, just steps from Cinderella’s castle, with Prince Charming kneeling in front of me checking to see if the shoe fit. It was magical. Unfortunately, the shoe was much too small for me. That’s the story of my life. But how many people can say that they had a true Cinderella moment in the middle of the Magic Kingdom.

There's my Prince Charming, but the shoe didn't fit

Goofy4Tink and I then headed for the bus back to our resorts. I was going to try to take a nap, but I just couldn’t sleep, so I decided to use the time to packing up some of the stuff I had to get into my two suitcases to get home. How did I end up buying so much stuff on my trip?

Later, I headed to the bus stop to go to the Magic Kingdom, where I would meet Goofy4Tink. I had a long wait for the bus. When the bus finally arrived, there were several Tagrel people getting off the bus. At one point, the driver stepped off the bus, and told people not to enter the bus through the back door. He then got on the bus, and proceeded to close the back door on Sheryl from Tagrel. Everyone was yelling for him to open the door. Thankfully, Sheryl wasn’t hurt.

It was a very slow, long ride to the Magic Kingdom. I just couldn’t wait to get off that bus. I was very thankful when we finally arrived at the Magic Kingdom, and got off the bus as soon as I could.

I headed over to the Plaza Restaurant, where I was meeting Goofy4Tink for dinner. While we were waiting, I saw someone wearing a lime green Mickey head, so I knew it was a DIS person, and I had to go over to say hello. Imagine my surprise, to find out that it was rtobe, a DISer who I chat with in the DIS chat room every week. It was so nice to put a face with the name.

rtobe, me, and Goofy4Tink

Goofy4Tink and I were seated in the restaurant within a few minutes. I ordered a garden salad and a steak and cheese sandwich. I had requested the sandwich without the peppers and onions, but when the sandwich came, it had the onions on it, so I sent it back. They brought me a new sandwich, but this one had mushrooms on it. I didn’t notice that it said mushrooms on the sandwich on the menu, so I couldn’t send it back this time. But I wasn’t really all that hungry, so I didn’t care too much.

After dinner, Goofy4Tink and I took went on Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin. I can’t remember what my score was, but I know it was one of my best scores ever.

We then headed over to see Mickey’s Twas the Night Before Christmas. We saw rtobe and her friends looking for seats. There was room for two of them in our row, and the people sitting near us were kind enough to squish in a bit so all three of them could fit in.

This show is one of my favorite parts of the Christmas Party. It’s definitely a must see. My favorite part continues to be when Minnie Mouse sings Santa Baby to Santa Goofy. It was kind of weird seeing this show with the articulated faces, especially the faces on Chip and Dale.

We took advantage of the short lines to ride on some of the attractions during the party. We got on the Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Thunder Mountain, which seemed to be a lot faster than it normally is. It was very thrilling.

We went to the front of the castle to see the fireworks. I really enjoyed the fireworks, although the soundtrack was a bit of a snoozer.

We originally sat on a bench along the spoke that leads to Liberty Square to watch the parade, but when the parade started, it looked so good that we walked over to the hub and found a good spot to watch it. The parade was so much fun, and there seemed to be some new floats in the parade.

After the parade, I headed back to the bus to go back to go to Jellyrolls. I was so busy in the evenings on this trip, that I didn’t get to Jellyrolls as much as I would have liked to, and I wanted to catch Scotty and Ray’s last set of the evening.

When I arrived at Jellyrolls after midnight, Tommy and Michael were on the stage. I sat in the back of the room. Tommy said, “This next song is for our friend Karen from Boston. Don’t see that we don’t see you hiding in the back.”

After he said that, I heard some scream my name, and saw that Camcolt and her husband Peter were there. So I went to sit with them. It’s a good thing Tommy pointed me out, as there was a pillar between Camcolt and I and we wouldn’t have seen each other otherwise.

I was really glad I decided to go to Jellyrolls that night. It was nice to be able to see Scotty and Ray, and they were fantastic. Camcolt and Peter left around midnight, but I stayed until Scotty and Ray were done for the night so that I could say goodbye, as it would be the last time I would see them on my trip. It was nice to catch up with Scotty for a bit.

I headed back to the room, and sat out on the balcony for a while enjoying the view and the fresh air before heading to bed.

 

[sharonW]

Still reading and enjoying your TR.
You disney days are certaintly full.
I can see you make the most of your
trip!!