My parents had left for another chapter in their own adventure across the country. JS's mother flew in on Friday, Jan 2 and his Dad and his wife Karin arrived later that evening. They were in town for JS's promotion to take place the following Monday.
Sidenote: the pics for this portion of the TR are overexposed. I apologize. At this point I had no idea what I had done to my camera and didn't know how to get it back.
So, new cast of characters:
Myra: JS's Mom. Also known as Grandmyrie. She went with us on our first trip to WDW. I love my DMIL and we have a lot of fun together. Oh, one note about the DMIL, she is terrified of birds. Actually anything that flitters or flaps its wings.
My favorite story is one time their whole family went camping. JS and his brother thought it would be fun to feed the seagulls. Then they thought it would be fun to throw the bread in the direction of Myra. It got so bad that Myra wrapped herself around the axle of a van and the owner of the van and Buddy had to crawl underneath the thing to get her lose.
Buddy: JS's Dad. Also known as Granbuddy. Yes, that is his real name, not a nickname. Funny thing is, his middle initial is "F", so he is Buddy F. Skinner, but not the famous one. He is very laid back and just goes with the flow. He is also a smoker.
Karin: Buddy's wife of 10 or so years. Also known as Uma. She is from Germany.
Here is a pic of the new cast members:
Buddy, Karin, and Myra (can you believe the exwife and current wife sitting together)
Karin was the one that called us up and said, "I want to go to Disneyworld when we are there for at least one day!" I was excited.
One night JS is talking to her trying to describe the parks, I finally grabbed the phone away from him and we decided on Epcot. We had already made reservations for Biergarten. I would have changed the reservation, but we wanted to make sure we could get in if Epcot ended up being the park. Myra surprised us and said she wanted to go also.
While they were all here visiting us, I was sick. I'm talking lay on the couch or in the bed and not get up. They did all the cooking while they were here and the cleaning of the kitchen. I'm still trying to find some stuff. They even went to the Manatee Viewing Center and Dinosaur World while I layed in bed. I wanted to feel better so I could go to WDW. No way were they going without me.
So Sunday we all got up and made the drive to Epcot. All six of us in our truck. That was an interesting drive. I was surprised they wanted to be in the same vehicle as me. I had to laugh at JS because he wanted to take two vehicles in case I started feeling bad and wanted to go back home. If I felt bad enough to leave WDW, would I feel like driving for an hour. I think not.
We made it to Epcot about 10:30am.
JS wasn't happy I already had the camera out. I snapped it right before he gave me a certain symbol of dislike.
We get in the park and everyone heads for the restroom, while I head to get FP's for Soarin'. I get there and there are long lines, but the time for the FP return is 1:50, we have 2:00 lunch reservations. So I actually look for the longest FP line and end up with a 2:05 FP return time. That gives us until 3:05 to get back to Soarin'.
I meeet up with everyone at Mission: Space. JS, Jacob, and Myra are on the ride since I won't ride the orange side and Buddy and Karin figured they had better stay off. So, I took a couple of pics of them:
Well, we had about a 40 minute wait, so I thought we could do Universe of Energy. As we walk up people are walking out and the CM's are telling everyone it is closed.
Karin had mentioned she wanted to buy her Grandaughters something, so what better store to shop at than Mousegear. I tried to call to see if I could make our lunch reservation a little earlier, but my phone kept cutting off.
Things were not going so well.
We did some shopping and then the rest of our party caught up to us and we headed over to:
JS was excited because Jacob rode with his Grandmyrie so we could ride together. JS normally ends up riding by himself. One day I will get some good shots inside this ride.
From there I led them to Figment. Jonas didn't want to ride and Jacob doesn't like to because it stinks, but I love it. I love to watch people jump at the unexpected things, plus there has never been much of a line when we ride it. So, within 5 minutes we were on it and everyone thought it was very cute. They loved the "smell".
I warned Jacob when we were getting to the smell and he covered his nose.
From there we went to:
My DMIL remembered this from our trip two years ago and wanted to see it again. It was so funny because Karin about came out of her seat during the snake scene. I haven't ever seen anyone react like that to the snake.
Now, the one thing I hate about HISTA is the fact there is only one way around to get out of there. (If I have missed a pathway, please let me know.) Sure would be nice if there was a shortcut to head over to World Showcase, which is where we were heading since it was getting close to lunch. We decided to take the boat over and had fun watching all of the birds.
Remember Myra is afraid of birds. She just kept looking at the ground the whole time. We rode the boat over and made our way over to Biergarten in hopes of getting in a little early so we could get to Soarin' in time for our FP.
We had about a 5 minute wait and got seated at the reservation time. Now, I had hoped to be the one to check us in, but JS beat me to it. When I made the reservation, the CM asked if we were celebrating anything. I said no at first, but then thought, yes we are. So I told him we were celebrating JS's promotion. He put it down. There was a line to check in, so I didn't want to jump in and see if our request was marked, plus JS would probably kill me for mentioning it.
We got a really nice table with two other people. Of course, Karin had to speak to every CM in German. We didn't think we would ever get our drink order in. The Grandparents all had a beer. I stuck to tea since I was sick. Of course Jacob didn't eat. He just played with his DS. We had wondered if Karin would like the food since she is from Germany and she loved it! She ended up buying the lunch, which the CM charged us for Jacob which irritated me, but guess I should have asked her beforehand. When we were there in the Summer the nice waitress didn't charge for him, only his drink.
And nothing was done for JS's promotion. Guess I needed to remind them.
Of course I got pics:
So, by this time we had 5 minutes before our FP time passed us by. Would we make it? Will the CM let us on if we are late?
