Stitch and Crystal do WDW - FINALLY finished~!

[never_enough_pooh]

I noticed this tree over by where River Country used to be- it was full of shoes! Does anyone know the story behind this?



I had ready on another post that this is where boat (or maybe it was bus) drivers threw their shoes when they retired from WDW!

Great trip report.. can't wait to hear the end. It looks like you and Katie had a great time!!!

 

[lizardqueen]

You are just too much! I would love to have traveled with you! I have never laughed so much in my entire life!

 

[Velsignet]

Hey, some of us don't know the PBJ song, (which will now live in my mind with JP jokes.), others just don't know where Morocco is (ahem!). It takes all kinds!

I almost included the JP joke with that post, but figured I'd be nice. Actually, it was more of a self preservation move, just in case he ever stumbles across this board!

And isn't Morocco somewhere near Syria? At least I was in the right hemisphere. Apparently the #1 guess is somewehere in South America.

 

[Velsignet]

One day before Round Two, and one day left in the trip report. Can she do it?!?

 

[WDW Poly Princess]

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

I fell asleep! I can't believe it! And here I was doing so well!

I got up super early this morning to run my eight zillion "day before dance perofrmance and vacation" errands (Do you KNOW how hard it is to find a strapless bra if you have been blessed by the **** fairy? Or that fitting everything you need for your trip into one suitcase really is totally impossible, no matter the size of the suitcase?) So, I got home about 3:30, pulled out my big list of stuff to do at home today, and... fell asleep!
Didn't wake up till 8:30! EEP!

So now I am going to run around like crazy to get ready for tomorrow! That probably means no end to this poor trip report until I get home. Until then, you are free to make up your own ending. Are we abducted by aliens while in line for Soarin? Do I refuse to leave the Swan, resulting in Disney having to send security over and physically pry me from the place? Or do Hugh Jackman and I meet across a fastpass machine in Epcot, and I am now typing this from my lovely new home in Australia?

You find out in a week!

A teaser for the next trip report: Here in the buzzing metropolis of Kimberling City, MO (Population 1000), the temperature in the morning is going to be -7 degrees. Tomorrow in Orlando? 82! Hooray! Now if only I can make it from here to there!

Aloha, trip report board buddies! I'll see you on the other side!

 

[jennstew]

I loved your trip report so far. You have really reminded me to stop and enjoy the details about WDW. I can't wait to read the rest of this report and your next one.

 

[Belle Amy]

Honestly, made me laugh out loud...

I don't know what was funnier, the fact the Joss Whedon is now working at Star Tours (I knew cancelling Firefly and Buffy AND Angel was a bad idea) or the video with you and Katie during Illuminations, and the various Strong Bad references... (it's Oooover).

Can't wait to read more!! Hope you have an amazing time this trip as well!!!

 

[WDW Poly Princess]

Hey guys!

I am at Disney Quest right now, getting a few minutes of internet time in while my sister and nephew are off video gaming. We're having a fun (but exhausting!!) trip so far! The rest of this report will go up when I get home, and then I'll start one for the trip I;m on now!

Off to play some Ms Pac Man!

 

[ltinker]

Great report, loved your pictures, some I don,t remember seeing. Everyone says it is my age, but I don't beleive them, it is that you see a lot and then you don't remember it again till next time.

My favorite place to stay is AMK.

I also can't wait to go back with my DLH and theNever has enough Pooh and her DLH.

 

[kathymc]

after reading your witty post about writing trip reports - I had to pop on over here. took 3 days of peeking during work (dont tell) but its been fun - not finished but fun!

so do we get the end of this one or the beginning of the next......

thanks for sharing!

 

[IlluminationsUK]

Awwww, I just got excited you might have posted more on this report but no...*sigh*... come on girl, we need the rest of this one so then you can get started on your new one!

I'll admit it... I'm a junkie!

 

[WDW Poly Princess]

WOW, okay, I finally understand what you guys mean about missing the small stuff when you're not traveling solo! I'm back from my Feb trip, totally exhausted, and I don't think I saw anywhere near what I usually see! But that's a whole other trip report, let's get back to this one!

Now it’s time to say goodbye… (sniff..sniff…) To all our company…. M-I-C

Wait just a second! No goodbyes yet! We still have a whole day left! There are still things to do and stories to be told! For instance…

This morning is a little sad because I’m packing up and leaving the Swan, which also means that I only have one more night (which will be at OKW) before it is time to go home! Katie and I decided to meet at Downtown Disney around 1pm, so I finally said goodbye to the Swan around 10am, and decided to enjoy the walk to Epcot one more time.

A few parting photos of the Swolphin, first:

Oh no! Now they are putting giant swans on top of the Boardwalk, too!

I loved this sign over on the Boardwalk boat dock!

This awning just makes me happy for some reason.

I love coming in through the International Gateway before WS opens! I decided to take my time this morning, stopping to take a few (million) pictures, and just drinking it all in.

A few UK photos…

One little Canada photo (ever notice this?)

…and a few SSE photos

 

[WDW Poly Princess]

And I finally stopped to check out the Leave a Legacy up close- there are some really funny pictures in there if you look closely!

Hee! The Mick Jagger one cracks me up! Love it!

I had the bus stop ALL to myself!

I hopped the bus from Epcot over to OKW, so I could go ahead and check in- the line was HUGE again, and I waited about half an hour to check in. Is it just always crazy here?

Can you believe I never took this photo last time I was here?

I think the artwork on the Olivia’s sign is really cool!

I spent a lot of time earlier in the week sitting at OKW bus stops wondering if the shells were real or fake.

My room wasn’t ready yet, so I took the bus over to DD Marketplace to kill time until Katie got there. Now, is it just me, or do you guys turn into shopaholics on your last day of vacation? I went into “haven’t bought enough stuff!” mode, and picked up a Tink photo frame, and the 2-cd Happiest Celebration set, and a box of vintage Disney stickers that turned out to be really cute! (I hate when they sell stuff in boxes where you can’t tell how many there are inside, or what they look like- I end up having to buy it just to find out!)

I stopped in the art shop for a quick look around- I wish I could afford some of this stuff!

Poor Katie spent about half an hour searching for a parking spot before we were able to meet up (At the dragon. You can’t miss it, Katie, I promise! Yup, she found it.)

We decided to drop Katie’s car off at OKW, since she would be staying there with me that night, but my room still wasn’t ready. We weren’t sure what building I would be in, so we just picked a spot out in front of building 14, since it was right across from the Hospitality House, and then set off for Epcot. (Yes, we spent pretty much this entire trip at Epcot!)

So, yeah, Epcot. We did stuff. You get the idea by now!

After getting our Epcot fix, we went over to AKL to have lunch at the Mara- I needed more zebra domes before we left! We got a cheese pizza to split, and a box of zebra domes (or “zebra balls”, as Katie kept accidentally calling them.)

Katie got to enjoy her first zebra dome, but after she took a bite of one of the chocolate mousse domes, she got a look on her face, not that different from the one when she drank the boiling hot chocolate. What could possibly be wrong with a yummy chocolate thing?

“It crunched!” At first I thought she meant there was something in the mousse (haven’t we had enough of that kind of thing on this trip?? We still haven’t recovered from the hairy cheesecake!) Then I thought she might be talking about the layer of chocolate at the bottom, so I pointed that out to her. “Yeah, there’s something crunchy in the chocolate!”

Uh oh. Katie is allergic to nuts. Are there nuts in these? I grabbed the lid to read the ingredient list- flour, sugar, chocolate, eggs, butter. No nuts? No nuts. Whew! We never really decided what the crunch was, but we were pretty sure that Katie wouldn’t die, so that was good enough. I try to limit the number of friends I kill on vacation.

We wandered around AKL a little, since Katie had never really seen it, and then took the bus back over to AK, since I had to see Festival of the Lion King one more time.

 

[krismom]

that rainbow awning makes me happy too.

 

[WDW Poly Princess]

Okay, I bet I can finish this report today! I think I can, I think I can, I think I can…

Okay, are you ready for something totally crazy? Katie has NEVER seen Festival of the Lion King! I know! And she lives near Orlando!! I didn’t discover this fact until we were walking into AK, and I think I may have frightened a few passersby with my stopping in the middle of the walkway to rant about her never having seen it.

So, we started walking towards Camp Minnie Mickey, our destination in mind when…

Wait. What’s that?

Over there.

OH YAY!

Yup, it was time for Stitch to meet the real Stitch! There he was at the side of the path, with only a few people in line!!!

When I walked up to Stitch, he took Stitch Jr. and hugged him, and then crouched down with him, and lifted him over his head. It took me a minute to figure out what he was doing, but then I got it! Think the very beginning of the Lion King where they hold up Simba!!!

Stitch gave Mini-Stitch and I kisses, and we continued on our way, glad that Stitch finally got to meet Stitch! (And seriously, how cute was that Lion King thing?)

Okay, NOW we were on track to Festival of the Lion King! There was a huge crowd waiting, which meant that the show must be starting soon! We only had about a five minute wait before we got in.

I noticed that my favorite dancer guy didn’t seem to be there anymore, but my new favorite dancer was the girl in green, who we shall call “Snake Girl”, since well, she was wearing a snake on her head. (Yeah, I’m a dancer, so I watch the dancers! I keep saying I’m going to run off to WDW to get a job as a zebra.)

As if we didn’t already think Snake Girl was cool, at one point in the show she was right over near where we were sitting.

“Hey!” she called over, “May the force be with you!”

It took me a minute to figure out why she said that, but then I remembered I was wearing the Star Wars t-shirt I’d bought at MGM. Hee!

Snake Girl is the one in the bottom right.

We decided to go over to Epcot, because hey! We’ve hardly been there at all this trip! (HAH!)

A few final internet postcards from Innoventions-

Jazz Hands!

Outside, Katie re-enacts her attempt at being cool on Star Tours

We rode Figment, and then had some fun with the photo postcards at the end. Here’s mine—

(Katie, did you do one?)

One more SSE shot, this one complete with the moon!

We started walking towards World Showcase, thinking that food was starting to sound good again. I meant to ask which countries we hadn’t eaten in yet, but that of course came out “Which countries haven’t we eaten yet?” Rawr! Girls eat countries! Roar!

We stopped at the first aid station near Mexico because the band-aid on my finger was coming off, so I needed a top of the right index finger band-aid to replace it, and Katie needed one for a blister that was starting to annoy her foot.

Inside the first-aid station, I didn’t get the “which finger? Top or bottom?” questions, because I just showed her my finger, but I got much better- I stuck out my finger, and the doctor actually put the band-aid on for me! I felt five years old, and it was fun! I was amazed that Katie wasn’t laughing.

Why wasn’t Katie saying anything?

Turns out that just as I walked into first aid, Katie’s phone rang- it was “Joe”, the CM we met in Morocco earlier in the trip! She told him that we were hanging out at Epcot again, and it turned out that he was there with a friend, too!

We met up with them in Mexico, but only had a few minutes to talk because Katie and I had fastpasses for Soarin, and our time was approaching. We made plans to call them later, and meet up if they were still there.

(We actually took these photos on day 8, but they got mixed in with day 9, so you are getting them here instead!)

 

[WDW Poly Princess]

We got our one last ride on Soarin in, and then went over to check the wait time on Test Track, since I’ve never ridden it. (It’s even become a running joke- every time I get a FP, I either miss the time somehow, or I’m all the way over by America, or the ride breaks, etc etc!). The standby line was short, so we decided to ride. Fun!!

Afterwards, we met up with Joe and his friend again in Morocco (how appropriate!), and then went over to France to get desserts from the Boulangerie. We spent around an hour just sitting in France talking and eating, which I’m pretty sure is what one is supposed to do in France! At one point I spent several minutes looking at the big banner that was stretched overhead between the buildings, trying to figure out what it said. “Sur la terre… that’s on the earth… and that means celebration… and that’s happy… “ Oh, duh. It even said “Happiest Celebration on Earth” right underneath the French text.

Joe wanted us to stick around for Illuminations, and maybe go out afterwards, but we already had our Adventurer’s Club plans for the night, and kind of wanted our girls’ night, so we weren’t sure what to do! We tried to convince them that I was tired, needed to pack, and had to be up early (which was all totally true, so we weren’t really telling any lies!), but they kept begging us to stay (Can we help being so fabulous?). We finally convinced them we needed to go, so they volunteered to drive us back to the resort. We said we could just take the bus, but they said driving was no problem, so we agreed. Yes, I can hear you all yelling at us for getting in a car with people we didn’t know that well! We kept joking that our mothers would kill us. Kids, don’t get in the car with strangers! Do as we say, not as we do! (In our weak defense, we figured that Disney probably doesn’t hire serial killers, so at least Joe seemed safe!)

Hey, did you know that the Epcot parking lot is really big? Really really big?? Joe’s friend couldn’t remember where he parked, and since we had no idea what the car looked like, we weren’t much help. We wandered around the (big!) parking lot for about ten minutes before we finally found the car. Katie and I crammed into the back seat, and traded amused glances while Joe’s friend flipped through the radio station, in search of “cool” music. We were starting to feel like we were in some kind of after-school special warning people not to get into cars with strangers, especially once we saw how the friend drove!!!!

We somehow made it to OKW alive, and had them drop us off at the hospitality house, partly because we didn’t know where my room was yet, and partly because it seemed a little weird to tell them which building we were in. We said goodbye, and pulled out the cell phone to call OKW to get my room number. It turned out to be in building 14, the same building where we parked the car! When we got there to find the room, it turned out to be RIGHT next to where we parked the car! How cool is that? We have Room Number ESP! We stopped in the hospitality house gift shop in search of food. I ended up with a Lunchables thingey, and Katie got…um, something? I remember her using the toaster, so maybe it was a bagel?

We had a washcloth animal waiting!

Katie and I have developed a love of the Japanese TV channel over the years- we like to watch the soap operas and make up “translations” of what’s going on.

Katie took about a million photos of the tv, so you can thank her for this one.

I changed clothes for the AC, and then settled down on the bed to watch some Grey’s Anatomy while Katie got ready. She came out and sat down for a while, because she was feeling a little sick.

She was debating taking a shower, but also wanted to get to the AC, so I suggested…

“Take a shower! You’ll feel better or be clean!”

“I’ll feel better OR be clean? Not both?”

“Err, I meant you’ll feel better or at LEAST be clean!”

I was happy to sit and watch Grey’s Anatomy while Katie showered, and then afterwards we had to stay there and watch until the show was over.

(We have no photos of the TVduring Grey’s, which seems like a shame! Lets see what I can dig up…)

By the time the show was over, Katie still didn’t feel good, and I was getting really tired. No AC for us tonight! We decided to just give up on our fun night out, and sleep instead. I think we were asleep before our heads even hit the pillow.

 

[WDW Poly Princess]

Day 10

I can’t believe I’m finally to the end of this trip report, can you?! Wow!

Today is a very short day, report-wise. Katie and I struggled to get out of bed, since I had to catch the Magical Express super-early (8:15!) I got up and did some last minute packing, and we finally figured out that Katie could just stay and sleep, since we had the room till 11. She woke up long enough to say goodbye, and then I hauled my eight zillion bags across the street to the hospitality house to wait for the bus.

At the airport, I started feeling icky, so I found a spot to curl up with my book and just sit for a while. By the time I was on the plane I was feeling really icky. If you’ve never felt sick on a plane, I don’t recommend it! Sitting still for two hours in a cramped seat isn’t all that bad in general, but doing so when you’re feeling sick is awful!

Long story short, I fell asleep as soon as I got home, and slept a LOT, figuring that I was just really tired from the trip- ten days of running around the parks IS a lot!

A few days later, still sick, I went to the doctor, and told him that I’d been sick since I left FL.

He prescribed another trip. I laughed.

Who knew it would end up being true?

Two months later, as I was sitting at home, doing nothing since the hotel I work at closes down for two months in the winter, the phone rang. It was my sister, asking if I wanted to go to WDW with her in Mid-February.

And now that I’ve finished this report, it’s time to write that one!

(I normally like to conclude my report with some final thoughts, but honestly, by now it has been soooooo long since this trip that I can’t really remember any of it! Sorry about that! I promise to do better on the next one!)

 

[Philadisney]

splendid report, i love that you included so many pictures!!! i am looking forward to your next one!!!

 

[MACPlink]

WOW! That was a fantastic report! Can't wait for the next!!! Ahhh those pictures make me want to be there again!

 

[Cinerama]

Loved it!! I'll be looking for the next one.....