Here's a shot you don't see all the time.
Does everybody know what it is?
From the patio by the Plaza, looking toward Tomorrowland. Which brings us to today, a MK day.
Early that morning after sticking my bald head out the door, Happy, happy, happy was going to be no match for Grumpy Gills today.
It was Freezing!
Ok, ok, it's a MK day, Magic Kingdom always makes me smile.
Fine, now, what to wear?
It's still early in the trip, but my situation is getting desperate, already.
In my designated drawers, as designated by "She who must not be disturbed", I still have 7 untouched tank tops, 6 untouched shorts, and countless shorty socks so I don't look like a complete dork when I wear the shorts.
None of these items have even been touched yet, except to be pushed out of the way to find something a tad warmer. It's tuesday, we've been in Florida since friday, and I'm still wearing long jeans, and regular type socks.
Trust me, today is not going to be any different. But I'm already down to 2 pairs of regular socks, and those are supposed to be for the drive home.
Hmnm, gonna have to improvise here. Let's see, yesterday because of the puddles and the holey shoes, that ate up two pairs. I checked the ones that got soaked, and yep, still soaked. Now, I hate putting on socks that have already been warn, but looks like I don't have a choice, and I only wore them half a day yesterday afternoon and night.
"Honey, have you seen the socks I had on yesterday?"
"Last I saw they were standing up in the corner next to the book bag. Why, You're not thinking of,,,,,,?"
"Shut."
"Up."
"You."
Like I said, improvise.
At least the rain had stopped, and you can see the sky breaking up, sun peaking through.
I ran down for a smoke, and to pick up a newspaper for later, sometimes they run out and Diane gets crabby when she can't do a Sudoku. Believe it or not, it's supposed to be a split stay day, with some pool time in between. Yeah, right.
As I walked past the pool I stopped to read the chalkboard. They have the high today at 53, and then the park hours. I did notice one thing, Blizzard Beach was closed.
Gosh, ya think?
On the way back up, I shared a ride with a young couple and their small son. None of them looked happy, with her looking like she was about to spit nails, and I could just tell that it was because of the cold, also.
So, you think I would just mind my own business and leave them alone?
Coarse not.
All I said was, "Next winter I'm going someplace warm, like Cleveland."
Nobody laughed, and she just glared at me, fire shooting out of her eyes.
I just looked down and mumbled, "hokay." Now that little remark brought a very small chuckle from the man standing next to me, a chuckle that I was certain he was going to live to regret.
And again, sans camera, we made rope drop with a lot more people than I would have expected. In the past I have always taken a picture of myself, and lately of Diane in the rocking chair in the smoking area near BTMR. But nope, not today, I don't want to remember this trip as the one where I wore a jacket most of the time. Besides, I don't look good in goosebumps. We will be back this trip, it's gotta be warmer sometime, right? As we are standing in the courtyard waiting for the good morning welcome routine show to begin, Diane suddenly hisses in my ear, "Steve, what are you doing? Put out the cigarette!"
One problem, I wasn't smoking, and I told her very loudly that I wasn't.
"I'm NOT smoking!"
"That's my breath you see, look, everyone is smoking."
It was that cold out. Once the ropes were dropped, the key was to stay in the sunshine, so everybody walked right down the center of the street. And, for some reason, nobody headed to Splash Mountain, the entire group of us made a right and went on to Tomorrowland.
What our plan here lately is, collect as many fastpasses we can in the morning, to use later when we come back. It's a good plan, especially if it's crowded.
Except not today. It's a tuesday in the tundra, crowds weren't a problem. We rode Buzz, got a fastpass. Then hit the dark rides in Fantasyland, which I liked much more than normal cuz they were inside, where it was warm.
Rodey Big Thunder, got a fastpass.
Did Pirates, Tiki Birds, yes, Tiki Birds, I like it, not sure why. At Jungle Cruise they weren't issuing fastpasses today, and the line was 25 minutes so we skipped it. Grabbed a fastpass for Space Mountain, then hit Laugh Floor and we were ready to head on back. It was about 11:30 and the sun felt pretty good, had the stupid idea that maybe if might be ok to at least lie in a lawn chair and read the paper.
Once again, in the room I put on my suit and pants over it.
And brought my jacket.
I thought that since the bowling pin pool was more enclosed by buildings, tht it might be less windy over there, so away we went.
Yep, wrong again, the buildings acted as a wind tunnel, we never even got settled in a chair, just turned around and went back to the Hippy Dippy Pool.
I lasted 20 minutes.
Which was about 15 minutes more than I would have liked. She said she was going to try it a bit more, and I went back to our room and changed again.
Then I started drinking.
Heh, Hey, nothing else to do!
With drink in hand, I then went and spent some quality time with myself in my special yo yo.
Later on, we are on our way back to the MK, Sunny D's in hand.
I have to say, it seemed like we were just going through the motions tonight, there was no Spectro, we positioned ourselves on Main street for Wishes and left without even using the Space Mountain fastpasses.
No, wasn't going to even try to give them away.
That night we had sandwiches and chips and cheese and crackers in the room, and I'm now getting gun shy about even turning on the weather channel. I remember on most trips, always watching the Disney preview channels, felt like I got to know Stacy personally.
Now, I don't want to even see her in her shorts and midriffs, looking all tan and sweaty.
Wednsday morning while Diane was getting dressed, I turned the dang tv on again, and that's when I found out.
"Diane, you will be just so proud to know, that two hours ago, we set the all time low temperature for this day in Orlando, it got down to 26 degrees, and I am just so thrilled that you and I could be a part of it!"
"Up yours."
Wow, "Mrs. Grumpy Gills" shows up, it was finally getting to her.
Now I'm wishing I had long underwear. THis is NUTS! I don't have even the slightest little band of white under my wristwatch band, cuz the rest of my body is still bone white too!
To coin someone else's phrase: "As God is my witness, I will never come back in February again!"
Today is another split stay day, Animal Kingdom this time. I have always done the AK on EMH day, it makes a great way to see all the shows, and get to be in the park at night which is pretty cool looking.
Before we left I ran to my yo yo for a quick smoke, and DAMN it was cold.
AHEM! Damn it was cold!
(Oh, ok, "How cold was it?")
thank you
It was so cold:
That two guys were ice fishing on the Computer Pool.
It was so cold:
That when the Magical Depress Bus pulled up, the folks waiting let out a big cheer!!
It was so cold:
That Mr and Mrs Potato Head went back in the oven.
And, it was so cold:
That before Wishes started, Tinkerbell's Flight was grounded due to icing on her wings!
It was that cold for a wednsday in Florida.
Yes, I know, I don't play with smileys much, but sometimes they can be lots of fun.
We drove to AK, that was mistake number one. You see, this weather is playing havoc with my foot, and with all it went through last fall, it is not holding up well. This was too far of a walk today for me, and the first thing we want to do is Kilimanjaro Safari, again, an incredible walk way to the back with the pushing and shoving throng.
We have made it in the second car in the past, and even though we started out near the front, no such thing was gonna happen today. About a hundred people passed us as I limped along. It still wasn't much of a wait, and apparently the animals were all looking for some sunshine too, as there were plenty to see today.
We sat right behind the driver/guide, and he was just terrific. What made me like him even more was that he had to yell at some folks in the back a couple of times to keep their kid sitting down.
I kept waiting to hear, "If I have to turn around one more time young man, I'm going to turn this truck right around and we are going back home!"
On the way out I told him he was excellent at his work, and he seemed to appreciate it. Then I tried to give him a fastpass. (just kidding)
Sorry, Diane and I didn't get into another "No new news on the gnus" today.
We saw the Screamin Kids Show, (It's tough to be a Bug), and then sat right up front for "Finding Nebo".
I mean Nemo.
I never get tired of this show, probably have seen it now 6 times, it is just phenomenal, don't miss it!
WIth that, we left.
Our original plan was to either go check out more homesites, but we have already decided we know where we want to live,,,,,, or go and check out Old Key West and maybe rent bikes there,,, but it was too dang cold.
In the car, I started thinking, uh huh, to a trained eye, which as myopic as it is, is still highly trained when it comes to DisneyWorld, you can see the cutbacks that have been made. For one thing, less DSA's. That's designated smoking areas for the uniniatated. I guess less clean up? I already said they cut down the life guards from 12 to 10 at the pool, but even the ride in Fantasyland yesterday. To a trained eye you will notice that it is now Snow White and the 4 Dwarfs.
They laid off Sneezy, Grumpy and Bashful.
Other things too, we had the longest wait at MK in the middle of the day for a bus, unusual for Pop Century. Plus, and I know it was colder this trip, we were there last February, and the pools at Coronado and the ASMO were much more heated. There was still more to come.
I cannot for the life of me remember what we did back at the resort, I think we tried to take a nap, with my version of a nap staring at the ceiling, but before I knew it, I was making drinks again, and we were ready to head on back to AK.
Now,,,,, THIS,,,,,, was a HUGE,,, MISTAKE!
as you shall soon see.
ttfn, neebs
on a side note, every once in a while I have a really great time writing an installment, and think that I done good. This was one of those times. No, the memories aren't the best, I AM SICK OF THE COLD!, but I was glad to find some laughs in a chapter when all I want to do is skip ahead to when it finally gets warmer. Hope you all enjoyed it too. nebo
and the irony of the applause afterward to try to bring poor tink splat back to life.... 
My second choice would probably be that Carnotaur at the very end of Dinosaur, that sucker makes me jump every time, especially at night when I can see him. 
