The "Griswolds" do Disney and MNSSHP *UPDATED: One last visit to DTD*

[OhMari]

I got you moved to the TR Board.
I hope you had a great vacation to WDW.

Oh well, if he gets hot, he had the chance to get shorts. I just realized how unfortunate men are. They can’t wear capris (half of my wardrobe for this trip). They can wear shorts or pants, but they don’t have the option of capris, how sad for them. Okay, this thought was obviously a product of my early, pre-Disney awakening this morning. I

Guess what, men have been wearing capris for about 2 years now in Europe. I wonder if the trend will come to the U.S.

 

[White as Snow]

Yeah, class ticked by slower than a ToT queue in the middle of July!! I was so restless.

I'm going to update soon. It doesn't look as if class will be a possibility tomorrow (I can barely talk), so I may have time to put up the rest of arrival day and part of day one. First I have to finish watching Project Runway.

 

[White as Snow]

Thanks OhMari!!

Hmmm, maybe Robert could be the one to start the trend of men's capris in the states - yeah, and maybe the sun will burn up.

 

[serendipity]

Man capris were popular here in manhattan for awhile like 2 years ago by the way....very popular in the village, and caught on across the island

 

[White as Snow]

Arrival day part deux:
We stopped to eat at a Cracker Barrel somewhere around 9 I think. Of course, we had to drive through the ghetto before we could settle on a place to eat. Dad has this knack for finding the shady part of any town. I thought we were going to have an honest to goodness Griswolds moment - I was afraid our hubcaps were going to be stolen!! I fell asleep after we got back on the road after dinner.
I forgot to mention in my previous post that when Robert picked me up from school he had a surprise for me - not THE surprise, but a surprise nevertheless. He got me this awesome Snow White purse from the Disney Store.

Okay, back to the trip. When I woke up we were very close to Orlando. I started seeing the signs for Disney World, so I whipped out my iPod and listened to “Just Around the Riverbend.” I nearly cried. Just driving into Orlando makes me excited for Disney.

We finally arrived at the hotel (after having to call DB Joey for directions). It was so great to see Joey again. We’ve actually been closer as adults than we ever were as kids, I think it has to do with the 10 year age difference. We unloaded the van (which was quite a feat) and headed up to our rooms. Joey and Holly had put trick-or-treat pumpkins in our rooms filled with candy and snacks. We had to debate about what to do as far as a schedule, because....... of the surprises.

Okay, are you ready for the surprises? My surprise for Robert was a breakfast at 1900 Park Faire. He loves organs and I had heard about “Big Bertha” at 1900. Also, he’s my Pooh Bear, so a Pooh type character breakfast was also perfect. Our reservation was for 10:50, but we had to meet Holly at Epcot at around 9. Robert’s surprise for me was a spa day at the Grand Floridian - he’s such a sweetheart.


We finally decide to leave the Hampton Inn (convention center) at 9:30. This proved NOT to be the best idea as far as Robert and I were concerned. Oh well, hind sight is always 20/20. Robert and I went to sleep around 4:30. We were so excited it was really hard to fall asleep.

Next up: Day 1 Epcot and the 2 surprises.

 

[Luvamouse]

So I am tired and kind of "tripped and fell" in here and I love your Pre-TR and TR! I am definitely going to keep following you all. It's so fun to read and you all sound like you are having so much fun! I drive down next year with my DH and 2 DD's to be met by my parents, my cousin and her family of 5 and her parents! You all sound like us! Hope you are having a blast-- can't wait for the surprise!

 

[White as Snow]

Thanks Luvamouse! I'm glad you like it so far. We did have a lot of fun; we all really needed this trip! It certainly sounds like you are planning one heck of a trip in 2007. Have fun planning, that is half of the fun.

 

[Luvamouse]

Thanks Snow-- I do agree that the fun is in the planning! I am also a huge advocate of the fact that you can't take too many pictures-- Once a day is over, it is all about the memories. Thanks again for sharing!

Heidi

 

[White as Snow]

Day 1 Part 1

Robert and I told each other our surprises before we went to sleep the MORNING of day 1. We decided to do this so that we could help each other plan how to get to the surprises. As it turns out, we think alike since our surprises were both supposed to take place at the Grand Floridian. I would SOSOSOSO love to stay here some time. Unfortunately we don’t have any pics of Robert’s surprise because we got to the breakfast and our camera’s batteries had died ( so much for the long lasting/rechargeable bit). But, I’m getting ahead of myself.

Mom, Joey, and I had debated about what would be best for everyone. Dad drove the whole way, so he was pretty darn exhausted when we got to the hotel. However, being the stubborn Mitchell that he is, he insisted that he would be fine to head out to Epcot with everyone else. I can’t comment too much on his stubbornness though - I inherited it and will most likely one day pass it on to my kids. Anyway, we left the hotel ten minutes past schedule - which is normal for us. None of us really know how we end up always being late, but it just happens.

Mom, Dad, and Joey wished us well as Robert and I ran through Epcot to catch the monorail. A small (DIS) part of me wanted to scrap the whole breakfast thing and do Soarin’ and Test Track before the park got too crowded. Eventually, the loving wife part of me won out and I practically ran to keep up with Robert. (He wonders why I walk so fast when we walk together - he hasn’t grasped the concept that he has nearly a foot of height on me and therefore his legs are about twice as long as mine) We reached the monorail at 10:40. I was so afraid that we wouldn’t make our 10:50 ADR in time. I thought that if you missed an ADR they wouldn’t let you in - this was our first trip dealing with ADRs, I should have DISed a little harder I guess.

We got to Park Faire around 11:00, and had to wait about 5 minutes. Mary Poppins wasn’t out when we got there, but she came out right before we were seated. There were two small children playing with her, so we didn’t ask for a picture. I’m all for character pics, but I have some guide lines for them. I won’t always let kids go in front of me if I’m already in line but if it is JUST that child and the character, I let them have all the time the handler will let them have with that character. I guess I’m trying to get some good karma going for when I take my kids to WDW.

The woman who seated us was so sweet! Robert’s and my last name is Gable, so when she called us back she looked at Robert and said, “Oh, you are like Clark?”

Robert: (laughs) “Yes, I guess so.”
CM: “You are more handsome, though. I love my Clark!” (to me) “You are his Tara?” ( I think she meant Scarlett, but I love Gone With the Wind so I knew what she was referring to).
Me: “I am!”

Our waitress came around to take our drink orders. I seriously considered getting the Mickey’s Magic to drink (it sounded sort of like an Oreo milkshake). I basically let my diet go to heck when I’m on vacation. I passed up the drink though, I figured I would find enough sinfulness at the buffet. Good news, I did!! The only complaint I have about 1900 was that the buffet area does not allow for good crowd flow. It was so crowded it was hard to see what food was where and then it was even harder to get to said food. My favorite thing was the bread pudding with vanilla sauce. I think Robert’s fave was the strawberry soup as well as the corn beef hash. He got the soup as kind of an afterthought but he really loved it. I liked it but didn’t eat but a spoonful - I was too full. They had some interesting offerings, I mostly went for pastries ( I adore sweets for breakfast). The only thing I would not recommend was the southwestern eggs.

Most of the characters were really good at this breakfast. Pooh was the best. He came up behind Robert and patted him on the back. Robert told him “Hi” and he came over to me and kissed my hands. Robert looked at him and told him to watch it. Pooh covered his face with his hands and shook his head like he was in trouble. I patted him on the back and told him it was okay. Robert told him that as long as I was happy it was fine. He then noticed our dead camera on the table (we had tried to take pics with Alice and found that the batteries had died). We told him that it wasn’t working and he covered his face again. He waved to us and went to the next table.

Belle was at this breakfast. I guess the Mad Hatter had another tea party to go to. I was slightly disappointed because I had never seen him before. She and Alice seemed surprised that there were two adults without kids at a character breakfast. I thought a lot of couples without kids went to character breakfasts. Tigger didn’t really seem to want to talk to us after he found out that our camera didn’t work. Overall the characters were good though.

After breakfast, we went to one of the gift shops in the GF. We didn’t look at all of them, I still feel awkward going in some of the nicer stores/restaurants at Disney dressed in park clothes, even though I know they allow it (well, with the exception of V&A, Jiko, etc.). I love shopping at Disney - I need a 12 step program for souvenirs, but remember I warned you all that I would be going souvenir crazy on this trip. However, I didn’t buy anything at this stop because I knew I’d have to carry it for the rest of the day. After we got our first burst of shopping out of the way, we hopped on the monorail back to Epcot.

This was the first monorail ride we’ve ever taken where the monorail actually broke down. We heard the whole “Please stand clear of the doors, Por favor....” a million times over and over again, it was reminiscent of IASW. The horror. We did manage to make some friends while we waited for the technicians to fix the offending monorail door. They were kind enough to offer me a seat when Robert and I boarded the car. It was a fairly numerous group from NJ. The woman who was sitting beside me had a “Wicked” song as her ring tone. I commented on it (we adore “Wicked”) and the conversation went from there. We saw them the next day at Tusker House - it really is a small “World” - I crack myself up.

The monorail finally pulled into Epcot’s station again and we headed to the American Pavilion to hear the Voices of Liberty. They are really great if you haven’t heard them yet, check them out the next time you are in Epcot.

Well folks, I’m still sick so I’m going to go get some rest. Hope you enjoy the first installment of day 1.

Next: Day 1 finale complete with rude smokers and Illuminations

 

[serendipity]

1900 sounds like a blast. That's strange that the characters acted weird around you guys . Well, I can't wait to hear more!

 

[rthutchens]

Can't wait for more trip report.

 

[nolacindy]

Just found your TR and am loving it so far! Cant wait to read more

 

[Mouse511]

Can't wait to hear more

 

[White as Snow]

Thanks for the support guys, I'm almost done with the rest of day 1. I should have it up by the end of the night.

 

[White as Snow]

Day 1 Part 2!
I just realized that I left out a most important part of day 1. Prior to this trip, I had never had a funnel cake. My family thought that this was just a travesty. So, I decided to get one on this trip. I even passed up getting one at IHOP because I wanted my first funnel experience to be at WDW. We hopped in the somewhat long line to get a funnel cake before the next performance of the Voices of Liberty. Mom basically threatened Robert and me within an inch of our lives if we didn’t let her pay for everyone’s funnel cake. We got three with only powdered sugar to split among the 5 of us. They were SO good. I will give this tip for eating a funnel cake outdoors - don’t stand down wind of them. Dad and I were on the receiving end of a sugar snow storm. Of course, Dad and Joey had to make jokes about the way the sugar looked on us. This would be a sampling of the Homer Simpson side of Dad.

After the funnel cake and Voices of Liberty (and a $16 pack of batteries for our camera), we decided to move onward toward France. We shopped around a little. The last time we were in France in 2004, Robert and I had found this really great china. We asked if we could order it from Disney (or, more importantly, if our wedding guests could order it since we were newly engaged). Of course, they said the only way to get it was from the store or the supplier in France. It wasn’t there this time - bummer. I did fall in LOVE with the tapestry pillows they had. I’ve always wanted an overthetop dining room. Decorated like an old banquet hall ala King Henry VIII or something. I guess that’s why I drooled over those for 5 minutes. I debated buying a magnet with a painting of ballerinas on it ( I know it was a famous French painting, but I don’t know the name nor do I particularly feel like googling to find it at the moment) for a friend of mine. I nixed that idea after I saw the price tag and we headed toward the UK. As we started to leave France, we saw Belle, the Beast, and Aurora. This is the part where we ended up lying to Belle. We had told her at 1900 that we would stop by and see her in France. We neglected to tell her that we wouldn’t come see her in France if her line was nearly to Morocco.

Here’s us walking in Epcot

Dad claims he has spent approximately 1/3 of his life waiting on Mom. So, here’s Dad waiting and holding Mom’s bag. We call this “Are we having fun, yet?”

I had never noticed until this trip how many rude smokers there are at Disney. I probably wouldn’t care so much if I didn’t have asthma. However, since I do, I rarely don’t notice when someone is smoking where they shouldn’t be. The UK Pavilion was the WORST! Maybe it was just because we spent a lot of time there. Dad loves the Beatles type band that performs in the UK ( the name is sadly escaping me at the time). They were about to play when we got there, so Robert went shopping and Mom and I found a bench to relax on. We were NOT in the smoking section. However, this guy sits down a foot from the bench and lights up. The wind was blowing his smoke right in our faces. Robert had come out and gotten drinks for us so that I could take some Tylenol (my lupus stayed pretty well under control during the trip, but I had to take some anti- inflammatories to make sure that it didn’t ruin the Disney magic). When the man started smoking, Robert found a nearby CM and asked if she would request that he move to the smoking section (which was just around the corner). She said she was sorry the smoke was bothering us, but there was nothing she could do. Okay, if one guest was beating up another guest, or in some other way jeopardizing their health, a CM would do something about it, correct? However, when one guest is blowing harmful cigarette smoke on another guest (which is harming their health ESPECIALLY if they have asthma), the CMs won’t do anything about it. That doesn’t make sense to me. Why have smoking sections and other rules if they aren’t going to enforce it? Okay, the gripe session is over now, in case anyone was wondering.

I decided to go shop around a little since my feet had rested some (note to self: next time I WILL have Crocs). Robert bought himself a pair before we left. I adore the shops in the WS, especially the UK Pavilion. My heritage is Scotch-Irish, so it holds a special place in my heart - and my pale skin. I nearly broke down and bought books in one store, but then I figured that amazon.com would have them for half the price. The toy store is so cute. Since we’re big fans of Pooh, I nearly bought a stuffed Pooh to give to Robert for his birthday, but then I thought, he would probably like something he could use - he’s not like me in that he doesn’t cover his desk (and every other part of the house) in kitschy unusable stuff. I just claim that since I’m a composer, I draw inspiration from all that stuff - that’s buyable, right? Sure. So, I resisted the urge to buy all kinds of Pooh, Alice, and Peter stuff and walked back out to meet the rest of the crew.

We decided to walk on to Soarin’ to see what the wait was - haha it was somewhere around 90 minutes. The longest wait we saw the whole time we were there. Now, I’ve been dying to ride Soarin’ since I started reading the DIS. I totally would have waited that long if anyone else would have gone with me. However, the vote went to going to find something for dinner. We had planned on going to Beaches and Cream, so we left Soarin’ I was mentally dragging myself away from it.

After we found B&C - which, if you don’t know exactly where it is, is quite a feat, we were seated almost instantly. I probably won’t do a DR for this trip, so I’ll just give our opinions of the food and restaurants here if that won’t throw off anyone’s karma.

Our overall thoughts on B&C were that it was great. Our servers were pleasant and the service was quick - it was almost rushed feeling, but that feeling wasn’t blatant. The atmoshphere was really fun and different. We loved the ice cream cone light fixtures. We joked that we were going to get my cousin Marc one of the pastel striped uniforms. Some of the guys in there didn’t look too happy to be wearing them. I think we all had a burger of some sort. Mom had onion rings and the rest of us had fries. The burgers, fries, and onion rings were extremely good. The burgers had that great chargrilled flavor (which I know is being investigated as not being good for you - but oh well, it’s a burger and fries we’re talking about, not tofu.) We all split two (it might have been three, but I can’t remember). Okay, Robert says it was three, so three it is. These were heavenly, especially since we are big peanut butter + chocolate fans.

We thought Holly might be able to get away from work in time to meet us at B&C. She didn’t make it, so we decided to meet at the UK Pavilion (shocker). Before we got to the UK we saw Snow White near the International Gateway. Everyone told me to go on, but there were a lot of little children, so I said I would just do my character meets at MNSSHP. We were watching her with the children and her handler started saying “Hey, sir I like your shirt.” (or something along those lines). Dad finally realized that he was speaking to him. I think Dad’s daily amount of love for Disney ran out after the funnel cakes. Anyway, Dad had on a University of Alabama shirt. Turns out that Snow White’s handler was from Gadsden, AL. So they chatted for a minute and then the handler must have realized that Snowy was about to be mobbed by kids. We proceeded toward the UK.

Joey and Holly love Harry Ramsden’s Fish and Chips, so Holly got an order of that and she settled down with the rest of us for another viewing of the British Invasion. My Disney ADD kicked in again so Mom and I went shopping. We saw Alice and Tigger and almost went back out to get Robert so that we could get our missed picture from 1900 PF. In the end, we just stood back and admired the way this Alice was totally in character. These characters make Disney, Disney. She was curled up in the window seat coloring a mask. That was just fun to see, it was also kind of a special Disney moment that Mom and I got to share together. We headed back out of the shop and the British Invasion had almost finished their concert. I had hoped we might be able to head back to FW to catch Soarin’ and maybe even Turtle Talk (since we’ve never done either one). However, it was after 6:30 and FW closed at 7. We decided to walk back into the WS. Dad has really bad knees and they don’t work well with Disney. He staked out a spot to rest and wait for Illuminations in Morocco. Robert and I went on to Italy because we LOVE that Pavilion.

I can’t remember if I have already mentioned that I decided not to keep my reservation for the Spa at the GF. Robert and I would have ended up spending most of the day at the GF. We really wanted to see Epcot, so I decided to reschedule the appointment for departure day.

I was pretty tired by this point and somewhat disappointed that we didn’t get to see the new attractions (well, new to us) in FW. I decided to rest a minute in the Italian pavilion (after drooling over the handmade masks in one of the shops. I have always wanted one of these with the pieces of music on them. Robert told me he was going to buy some amaretti cookies that they carry at the market where he works, but get this - they’re cheaper at Disney. That has to be a first. Anyway, I went to the other store in the pavilion, the one with all the perfumes. I briefly considered buying some Bulgari perfume (Robert bought me some on our honeymoon in NY and I haven’t seen it anywhere else). Finally, I couldn’t take all the strong smells and wondered back over toward the mask/candy store. I sat down outside and notice a CM leaving with a box wrapped in a shopping bag.

Robert came out, held out for around 3 minutes, then told me that he had bought me the mask that I wanted. Really and truly, this is my big surprise because I decided I would rather spend more time in the parks than spend time in the spa. He’s such a sweetie. It now has an honored spot in our living room.

Robert and I went on to the German pavilion. I love this pavilion because they usually have Snow White merchandise. We didn’t really find much of interest (well, we did just not much we could afford.) Robert tried to talk me into getting a ring that had a crystal Mickey glove on it. I told him that I would hold off on it. Since I’m a pianist, rings are hard for me to do on a daily basis. I finally got used to my wedding rings. Anyway, Mom found us about this time and told us that they were definitely going to watch Illuminations from Dad’s spot in Morocco.

We wondered around a little more and debated going to Norway to get school bread. We got as far as the little African pavilion and then decided we wouldn’t have time to go there and get back to Morocco in time considering it was almost 8:00.

We found Mom, Dad, Holly, and Joey on a bench near the Friendships launch in Morocco. Now, I’m sure those of you who are Illuminations pros will know that this is NOT the best viewing spot. We are not Illuminations pros, though, as you will see. We sampled some of Robert’s amaretti cookies. They were very tasty. Robert and I wanted a pic of all the lights around the WS. Sadly, our camera does not do that well at night. This was the best one out of around 50.

Here we are waiting for Illuminations to start.

So, if you saw this picture in real life and thought, “What a bunch of weirdos.” Have mercy, it’s us.

Around 8:30 we went to sit at the bottom of the wall because there were some people sniffing around for a spot. We asked if we could go down onto the ramp for the Friendships, but the CM said it was reserved for VIPs (there ended up being 6 people in that whole space, wow).

This is us guarding our spot.

Now, having never seen Illuminations before, I did not realize that where we were standing, we would not be able to see the globe at all after it finished moving. We could see most of the fireworks, just not the globe. Robert and I were the only two in our party who had never seen the show, so we scooted as far over to the left as we could, and we could see the globe! Until...... some extremely rude woman WITH A CIGARETTE!!! came up and took the spot Robert and I had been standing in. I was beyond annoyed. I believe I actually cursed at this point. Robert asked the CM guarding the ramp if she would mention to the woman that that was NOT a smoking section because I have asthma. The CM just said, “Well, no, she’s not supposed to be smoking there, but there’s nothing I can do about it.” Thanks. I think Robert ended up asking the woman to put out her smoke if she was going to stand there. She got all mad and threw the cigarette down onto the ramp. (Yeah, lady, sorry to inconvenience you, I mean you only could have sent me to the hospital - but we’re the rude ones.)

Here are two shots from Illuminations.

After the fireworks, we said good night to Joey and Holly and headed back towards the International Gateway. I don’t know why, but I felt the urge to do some souvenir shopping. We stopped in World Traders or Travelers, something like that. Sadly, we didn’t find anything we couldn’t live without, and walked on to the Boardwalk. While I would love to stay at the GF, I would “settle” for one of the hotels near the Boardwalk. Apparently they were showing the tail end of the Auburn game at ESPN, so Dad had to stop. We told him we were going to check out the bakery. The bakery was completely wiped out. They only had a very few things left, so we left. We went on to the candy/fudge/ ice cream shop. Here again, we resisted buying various sweets until we could go to Goofy’s in DTD. Dad found us and we trudged on to the car - we had trudged before now, I just neglected to note when.

We all basically collapsed when we got back to the hotel. Robert thought I was crazy for getting a shower before I went to bed. I believe his exact words were, “If you’re so tired, why don’t you just go to bed. You’re just going to wake yourself up by getting a shower.” What Robert has forgotten, is that #1. I hate going to bed feeling unclean, and #2. while the shower might wake me up, the hair dryer has this weird power to put me to sleep. I think it does this because my mom used the hair dryer on me when I had chicken pox. Now the whirring sound of a hair dryer or a vacuum cleaner puts me to sleep. Yes, I do know that that is weird, thank you for your concern.

The only eventful thing to happen during the night was a monster of a cramp in my ankle. I knew we should have stretched before we did Epcot.

Well folks, that’s the complete Day 1. Hope you enjoyed it, and hopefully Day 2 will be up before too long - complete with EE and Robert’s first time on RnR!!

 

[mlill]

Love the pictures! So glad that you finally got a funnel cake in WDW! We always have to get one or two on each trip! You went to Beaches & Cream and didn't get the Kitchen Sink?!? Sorry you had to deal with rude people - I just hate it when people think they can smoke wherever they please! You should definitely try to stay at the Boardwalk someday - you wouldn't be 'settling' at all! It's my 'home away from home' after all, and I love it!!! Looking forward to reading more...

-Michelle

 

[3NJDisneyDivas]

Great trip report.
I love the pics.
Can't wait to read more.
Thanks
Lisa

 

[White as Snow]

Michelle-I'm glad you're enjoying the TR. We debated heavily about the Kitchen Sink, but then decided we wouldn't come close to finishing it. We're also huge PB+chocolate fans, so the No Way Jose was right up our collective alley. I'm also glad I'm not the only one who gets annoyed with people who smoke outside designated areas. I've never stayed in anything other than a value resort (we just prefer to spend the money on souvenirs and food), so none of them would really be "settling" - shouldn't have used that word My dream place would be Sugar Loaf Key at GF though, because I have a cameo fetish. The Boardwalk seemed like a really great place though - I would definitely love to stay there some day, too! And AKL, and the Poly, and POR, and well, you get the idea.

Lisa - Thanks for reading! I'm so glad people actually like my ramblings. This is the first of what I hope will be many TRs over the years so it's nice to know I'm doing it "write." Stay tuned!!

I have a school break coming up for Turkey Day, so maybe I can get some more TR done then.

 

[White as Snow]

Day 2 Part 1

The next morning we (Robert and I, I don’t know many details about everyone else’s morning) got up, got ready and were down to the lobby for breakfast in a reasonable amount of time - imagine. To explain my sarcasm, I should tell you that Robert and I stayed at a hotel that offered a complimentary continental breakfast everyday. Robert and I never made it down there to get it - not once. So, it was pretty amazing to me that we actually took the initiative to go down to breakfast. It was pretty good as continental breakfasts go. I don’t remember exactly what we had. I remember bagels and yogurt on my side, and it seems like Robert had something that required a fork - go figure.

After breakfast, we went back up to see if Mom and Dad were ready yet. Dad was, Mom wasn’t that’s the usual story in our family. Luckily, she was in the home stretch. We headed out for AK.

We parked at AK and Joey and Holly ended up parking right behind us - small smidge of pixie dust there. We boarded the tram and off we went. Here’s a pic of Joey and Holly all revved up for AK, well, Holly is anyway.

As we were walking in, we spotted the first of many character photo ops. We love Robin Hood (every time Joey and Holly pass a Hess gas station Holly says “Stop hessing in my ear!”) Anyway, everyone chickened out except for Hootier and me. Here we are with Friar Tuck. For some reason, he wouldn’t hug Holly, maybe because she wasn’t paying attention - oh dear, she’s caught Mitchell ADD. Robert is also showing symptoms.

Aaaah, the Tree of Life

Okay, after a hot day at Epcot, AK is an oasis of Disney happiness and shade. You can tell this is the newest park because in our collective opinion, it is the most guest-friendly. Plenty of shade, benches, and relatively close ride proximities.

I had a definite game plan today, none of this “What do you want to do?” reminiscent of the Jungle Book vultures. Come heck or a stampede of preschoolers, we were going on EE! Robert and I were halfway there when Holly stopped to get popcorn - I think this was a stalling tactic - it didn’t work we still got to EE. I was shocked. I expected the line to greet us at the howler monkeys. There was a 20 min wait posted, but we really walked right on. We noticed that some spiritual tourist had left a chewed gum offering to the yeti - nice. This was an awesome ride. We all really liked it, Holly got kind of sick afterward, and I have to admit that I was a little woozie - can’t decide if it’s general lupus stuff or the fact that I had a strep type virus the second we got home. Anyway, we hung out in the gift shop until everyone had collected themselves.

Here are some pics we took of the howler monkies and EE.

After EE we decide to meander over to KS since Mom, Dad, and I had never done it before. Everyone enjoyed it, our driver was funny, but he didn’t really explain the story line very well, oh well, I don’t think I would have enjoyed it as much if he had been all concerned with the story instead of letting us look at the animals. Here are the pics we took on the safari.

I think it really freaked Robert out for a minute that the crocodiles/alligators (I can't tell the difference) were SO close.

Roll Tide!

Yes, we did try to edit out the rhino butt. It didn't work.

Okay, here comes the “I could have had a V8” moment. When we exited the safari jeep, we saw the people from the jeep right in front of us admiring their new Dream Fastpasses! I think Mom and I were the only ones who noticed, or cared but it wasn’t that big of a deal since there were really no waits that day. After this, Mom, Robert, and I went to shop around in the store right outside of the safaris. Holly and Joey went to find drinks for everyone and Dad did his customary “stand outside the store and wait” routine.

Joey and Holly came back and asked if everyone just wanted to go eat lunch instead of getting drinks. We all decided it was chow time and went to Tusker House. I think it was split up that each couple got the same combination of food. Mom, Robert, and Holly had the roast chicken and Dad, Joey, and I all had the fried chicken sandwich - which is delicious. Everyone who had the roast chicken said that it was very good also.


Here’s some Disney serendipity for you. Robert’s and my friends from the monorail were sitting behind us (or in front of us if you were Dad, Holly, or Joey). We said “Hi” to them, but that was about as far as it went. Here’s a video of everyone. Mom is a slow eater, so we have to give her a hard time about it. This is all of us lovingly giving Mom and hard time. I’m the commentator and, yes, I know I have a thick as molasses southern accent.

For some reason, Photobucket won’t upload my video, I’ll try to edit the video in here some other day.

Before I wrap up this section of the TR, I need to add that I left out one of the funniest parts of Epcot day. Mom always brings these little clear plastic cups so that we can share water, cokes, etc and not waste any. Okay, she whipped those out when we were at the Funnel Cake stand and Joey said, “What are these for, in case Mickey comes up and says, “Ha, ha, screening time!” The funniest part was that Joey actually did a Mickey voice, complete with the Mickey laugh!! Maybe it was the funnel cake talking, but I nearly fell over laughing, which is usually my reaction to things that issue from Joey’s mouth.

Well, read this part slowly because I may not be back until after finals, or at least until after juries! Up next: We get some extra pixie dust!!!!!

 

[tinawv]

I am really enjoying your trip report. What great photos; especially the one of the Tree of Life. Hope you are feeling much better.