Thank you new readers! It is so nice to see you here and so glad you found me! I recognize quite a few of your names from your outstanding trippies! I am honored to have you join me here!
And thank you for those that keep coming back! I'll keep trucking along and I hope you'll keep reading. I never knew writing one of these would be so much fun!
Now where were we???
Monday Dec 18th continued
We got back to Pop and it was going to be a quicky rest. A little lay down with the iPods and relax. When you draw the curtains at Pop the rooms are really dark. It was very conducive to resting. We didn't have time for full fledged naps though, no sir, we had big plans tonight.
Backtrack about 3 months. Through the TGM board I met a fellow December traveller, CZKMom. We were going to be there the same week, she and her DH and their 3 boys. We were both interested in an Illuminations Cruise and since they seat 10 we decided to share one. This was a great idea because it meant two of us would be on the phones trying to snag one and we could split the cost! We emailed a few times, getting very excited for our BIG day, Sept 19th I think it was.
So the morning dawned and the alarm went off. I was up at 6:40 to get ready for the 7am call. Poor CZKMom is in the Mountain Time Zone so it was way too early where she was. What we do for our families huh? We both had our info at hand, dialing fingers ready. Honestly it was a very nerve racking experience! I dialed, it was too early, got the recording, hung up. Redialed, it was time, got an agent and I quickly said "I would like the Epcot Cruise on such and such date" only to be told they were gone. GONE! Just like that. I was so disappointed, so disappointed.
How could it be? I got through at like 7am and 10 seconds.
I emailed my pal and sadly she struck out too. What a bummer.
Well little did I know we were about to get some serious pixie dust! I told her I would keep calling, once a day if I had to, to see if we could get one. What made me try that very day at 3:30pm I will never know but I did.
Me: Hello, I am looking for an Epcot Cruise on December 18th. Please?
Wonderful CM: Okay, yes I do have one here, and how many will there be?
Me: What, you have one? You are kidding right? You are not kidding? I love you!
Yes I went all nutty on this gal and somehow managed to get all the info out to her that she needed. I emailed CZKMom to tell her the good news too! We had our cruise booked!
I decided at this point not to tell Grumpy. I thought this could be a nice little suprise for him too!
So back the report. As we are resting I did tell Grumpy the plan. I needed him with me on the timeline thing and so I told him. He thought it sounded neat. Yup, neat was all I got.
So we rouse everyone from their rest and decide eating at Pop will be our best bet. We go over and it is a great food court but with so many choices and 5 people, well I am sure you can picture it. 5 people just aimlessly wandering around trying to make up their minds.
Well we finally decide and I think Grumpy had a Cheeseburger and the rest of us had a few cheese pizzas to share plus some desserts. It was good for Food Court food and the staff there from the cooks to the cashiers I always found to be cheerful and friendly. We even saw them to do the Hustle as it was 6pm.
Okay, so we ate and we got in line for the Epcot bus. Rode over and it was like a 10 minute trip. The buses park sooooo far from the entrance at Epcot, really could it be any further? So we do the ticket/finger scan, check the bag, you know the routine. It is already dark so it is nice for the kids first views to be of the lit up Golf Ball. Yes I know, it is Spaceship Earth, but to them it is the Golf Ball, just like it is for many other kids I am sure.
We need to be at the Yacht Club Marina at 8:15 so we have a little time. We head to the Imagination Pavilion but it closed at 7 the nice CM standing outside tells me. Bummer. We don't even attempt Soarin' or Test Track as the wait times are way too long for the time we have.
Instead we go to Club Cool or whatever the real name is of the Coca Cola place. It isn't too crowded and we have fun trying sips of this and that. I, being a good DISer, know all about Beverly. I fail to tell my family this and Grumpy and Bashful both try it.
They all liked the watermelon one, not sure which country it was but I think it is an Asian country.
We leave and start walking towards World Showcase. Apparently Goofy had too much funky soda in too short a period of time. As we are walking towards World Showcase out of no where he has a little protein spill!
Oh no! It just was one of those come out of nowhere things and it wasn't much thank goodness but enough for me to think "My son just puked in Epcot, what the heck do I do???". Nearby was a Merchandise stand with a line and a DCV booth with no line. I went to the DVC CM and asked if he could call maintenance or someone as we just had a little problem that needed to be cleaned up. DVC CM told me to ask at the Merchandise booth. Aaarrgghh! So I interrupted the Merchandise CM and asked if he could please call someone. He asked where, I pointed and he said he would call. THANK YOU!
We got Goofy some water and asked how he was. He was fine. He said he drank too much too fast. I think he was right. Too much odd tasting bubbly stuff just isn't a good idea. We will skip Club Cool next time.
So walked and enjoyed the music and lights and the fountains. Epcot at Christmas is probably my favorite of all the parks as far as the beauty of it.
As we made our way towards the Yacht Club we stopped and spent some time in Canada. It is really pretty here I think. We wandered and looked around. Then we started walking again. We breezed through the UK and headed out of the park towards the Yacht Club. The kids at this point still don't know where we are going or what we are doing.
Walking, walking, walking. It is a long walk to the marina. We passed the Beach Club and Yacht Club. What beautiful resorts! And Stormalong Bay, well my kids were drooling! "Can we stay there next time Mom" came the cries. "Umm, yes if we eat Ramen Noodles all year, sure". Unless we hit the lottery or Grumpy gets a big fat bonus I don't see it in our future but one never knows right?
So we finally get there and CZKMom and her family are there. We do hellos and introductions. She has 3 boys who I believe were around 12, 9 and 6. Lovely boys and my kids talked about them all week. My kids were in rare form. Goofy was in overdrive, I mean serious overdrive. He was moving a mile a minute and his mouth was going even faster. Talking, talking, talking. He had a new audience so he had lots to say. Bashful was uncharacteristically not bashful and went on and on about the ducks in the lake. On and on. In hindsight I think they were just really excited to be with some other kids. You know even though they were at Disney surrounded by kids they had really been with us all week and had not had personal interaction with other kids like they are used to at home and school. So I think they found themselves in a boat with 3 other kids and just lost control!
We met our skipper Scott and he explained a little to us and got the kids outfitted with their life vests. Any child under 12 I think it was needed to wear one. We went to the window with our envelopes bulging with cash and paid the bill. The Cruise is $275 for those interested. We also had $50 for a tip for our skipper that we would give him at the end.
So all paid up, life vests on, we boarded our pontoon boat. They are nice and very roomy. All 6 kids sat up front and that made me a little nervous but they did well. The 4 adults were in the back and Scott was at the wheel.
We cruised around and rode all the way down to MGM. Along the way Scott talked to us alot, offering tidbits about Disney, the Swan and Dolphin, Illuminations and lots more. He was really a wealth of knowledge and I know all of us adults really enjoyed talking with him and listening to him. At MGM he stopped the boat and told the kids to look up. Fantasmic was going on and right at that moment Mickey appeared, it was the finale I think. It was really cool, especially since we had missed Fantasmic. We got the boat going again and headed back towards Epcot.
One thing he told us was that when you are looking at the Dolphin there is a section that is dark, it was a big square on the side I think (forgive me the small details are sketchy at this point), anyway, this is there because they built it with the idea that the monorail might someday pass through it. Interesting!
So we got up to the bridge, it is the one that connects UK and France I think and we parked under this. He told us on NYE that some people line up on top of this bridge to get a spot for Illuminations 4 HOURS in advance. Yikes! Illuminations is my favorite show but 4 hours? No can do.
So he ties up the boat and soon another 2 boats are next to us. He passes out sodas and snacks (chips, popcorn,etc) and I must say looking up and seeing the masses waiting for the show I was feeling might special and lucky in my boat.
I can't say enough about how great Scott was. He told us exactly what would happen in the show and explained what it all represented. He told us what we would see on that big globe and what each set of images was supposed to depict. This knowledge made the show much more meaningful and it was nice to understand. He also told us we would get the Holiday ending which he said was really, really loud (he was right!).
Well the show started and from our wonderful seats you could feel the heat. It was so loud, so incredible, so awesome! This was one of those WOW moments and I am so, so, so glad we were able to do it.
The finale was awesome, just awesome! We have a 15 second video of it that I will upload and share. I have never seen so many fireworks go off at one time.
The show over we had planned to take a cab home from the Yacht Club. We just didn't want to have to walk all the way to the front of Epcot with the masses and wait for a bus. Scott being so nice offered to take us to MGM and drop us there. It was EMH there so he said there would be more buses. What a guy! So we enjoyed some more time on the boat and got to MGM. We tipped Scott, thanked him and said our goodbyes!
If you do want to do an Illuminations Cruise keep calling, people do cancel. And Scott said to call day of to the Marina directly and if they have open boats you can book right through them.
We said goodbye to our friends from Montana and parted ways for our buses.
It had been a really good day and a really fantastic night! We went home to catch some zzzz's.
The next day would be all day at the Magic Kingdom and then some fun at the Wilderness Lodge!
I'm so sorry your surprise didn't work out quite as planned; kids sure do like to keep us guessing, don't they?!
And your girls are so sweet to think of their brother like that. 
My HS boyfriend's parents took me on a road trip after I graduated, western Mass. to visit all manner of kith and kin. I got so frustrated because people kept asking me to "say something else!" 
It's kind of funny now but it was annoying then. 
I swear, they could sell a seperate admission to Stornalong Bay and make a killing! I'm dying to take my DS there, but I just can't afford the rooms.
