The Katies Do Disney, Or Why Two Katies Are Better Than One

[evildiva]

So here it is, a little late But I guess that's why they say better late than never. So for the sake of everyone's sanity here is a quick review of our cast:

Cast:
Me: Katie B, Katie S' best friend, planner and Disney enabler

DBF: Katie S, my best friend (yes we have the same name, we also have the same middle name, and have known each other since Kindergarten), lets me do all the planning, loves the Mouse

DBFH: Randy, hubby of best friend, known each other almost as long as Katie and I have known each other, pursuing his PhD so he will only be making a cameo appearance for the wedding

* No photos of Randy, I actually didn't really take very many pictures this trip, which is odd for me. So you will just have to use your imagination, unless Katie S is able to get on here and post one that she has.*

This TR was originally going to be a tag team report, but apparently some of us are busier at work than others, so Katie S will be giving her expert opinion when she can. She is a very important person in her marketing department, and barely has time to talk to me neverminde posting on the Dis. Shocking I know. So here goes with the trippie. As previously promised there will be a short accounting of our days spent in Clearwater, since we used our friend's wedding as an excuse to go to Disney I can at least fill you in on the details while we were there.

Departure Day – April 26

It’s here, it’s finally here we are leaving for Disney today! At least that’s what I said when I woke up this morning. After a good nights sleep I was ready to fly to Florida for our long awaited trip! Too bad, that I had to wait until 5pm that night. Anyways, I had a few errands to run that morning while my travel companions were at work. So I took myself to the mall and returned a few items, then made my required stop in the Disney Store. You gotta make sure there isn’t anything you’re forgetting before the trip. As it happened they had the themed t-shirts on sale so I got the “I’ve Got No Strings” t-shirt for $ 7 and two Mickey pens. The t-shirt is so I would have something clean when I got home, and the pens were for writing stuff down while on our trip.

Katieroo called me to find out what I was doing, and I told her that I had a vacation surprise for her when she picked me up at 12:30. After that I stopped by my Mom’s office to say good-bye to her, since I wouldn’t be seeing her for the next 8 days. Usually that wouldn’t be a problem, I mean I’ve gone overseas for longer than that and she has been fine. But I was getting ready to settle on my first place when I got home, and she was feeling very much like an empty nester.

Katieroo picked me up at 12:30 and we headed to her place so she and her hubby to could finish packing and we could get to the airport. Of course her hubby insisted on weighing the suitcases before we left. I found this hysterical, until Katieroo had to shift items on our flight home (but that’s getting ahead). So once the bags were weighed and everyone was under the 50lb mark we piled in the car and headed to BWI.

Since I was able to check us in the night before for Southwest (and for anyone keeping track my last vacation anxiety dream did in fact come true) we were able to check our bags with the skycap and head directly to security. It is so nice having the SW hub in Baltimore, they have their own dedicated pier at BWI so the lines for security were not as bad as they could have been.

After a pre-flight snack we got into our A line and found three seats together! Now I am usually wide awake for the flight to my vacation destination (which never works well when you fly overseas at night) but this was not the case on this flight. After watching my latest Anderson Cooper 360 podcast, I turned on the shuffle on my iPod and slept for the majority of the flight.

We landed in Tampa International about 10 minutes behind schedule (our plane was late arriving in Baltimore) and we made our way to the fake monorail to claim our bags and our car. The bags were easy, mine was the first one off of the plane and Katieroo’s and her hubby’s were soon to follow. The line for Dollar was another story. It was so long, (how long was it?). It was so long that the guys in front of us went to Budget instead since there were tumbleweeds blowing across their reservation counter. We had a bit of trouble since I made the reservation and Katieroo was going to pay for the car, but all was sorted out and we were given a red Dodge Charger for the week.

We headed out with my mapquest directions in hand to find the LaQuinta in Clearwater City. As it turns out mapquest sucks and we drove way past the hotel. However, we were able to stop at a CVS and purchase out toiletries, so it was not totally a lost trip. We checked in without problem, I was able to use my good government job to get us a discount on the room, and then we headed to Smokey Bones for dinner completely famished. I think everyone enjoyed their meals, honestly I was too hungry to actually taste what was in front of me.

After dinner we called it a night and headed back to the hotel for some much needed shut eye. We did not have to be anywhere the next day until 1pm so the Do Not Disturb sign was placed outside and visions of Magic Kingdom danced in my head.

That's it for this installment. See you real soon!

 

[evildiva]

Friday April 27, 2007 – Clearwater

We woke up late in the morning today, showered and headed to Checkers for some lunch before our Beach Party get together for the wedding guests. It was a beautiful Friday afternoon in Clearwater, not too hot, very breezy and lots of sun. Once we made it to the beach (how many bridges do people in Clearwater need anyway) we found our couple-to-be and two other guests. Everyone else decided to take the day to themselves so the 7 of us made one large sandcastle and had some fun in the sun.

We had dinner that night with two of the girls attending the wedding and played some miniature golf. Here is a photo of the aligator/crocidile (I can never tell them apart) pond that they had at the mini golf place. There were also two turtles in the enclosure named, Ike and Tina Turtle.

I will finish up our pre-Disney trip in the following post.

 

[evildiva]

Saturday April 28, 2007 – Wedding Day

Sorry no photos from this day.

We had an early morning today to have mani-pedi with the bride-to-be. Then it was a quick stop at Chick-fil-A for lunch and time to get dressed for the wedding. Katieroo was asked to do the bride’s hair so we had to leave early for the wedding. Good thing to, because the traffic to get there was backed up for miles. For no reason other than a little construction that really wasn’t taking up much room. However, there is a traffic circle that people have to drive around, and just like Baltimore, no one knows how to drive the circle. We finally made it to the hotel with plenty of time to spare and got started on the bride’s hair. It turned out beautifully, Katieroo really does a great job with people’s hair. The ceremony was on the beach and just wonderful, and then we all met at a restaurant called Columbia for dinner. After dinner we returned to the hotel, for a short time (Katieroo’s hubby had a very early flight the next morning) and enjoyed a drink with the bride and groom.

It turns out the one of the bride’s friends was on the same flight home as Katieroo’s hubby so we planned on taking her to the airport as well for their 6:30 am flight. That means we had to be on the road by 4:30 am. All too early if you ask me. So an early night it was.

Next time on to the mouse!

 

[disneydance]

ok i'm in my name is also katie so it makes ur tr all the more interesting

 

[evildiva]

Thanks disneydance! I hope to have another installment up sometime today. It's good to be a Katie!

 

[evildiva]

Sunday April 29, 2007 – Travel Day (EPCOT and Magic Kingdom)

Apparently Katieroo got absolutely no sleep the night before, so when I got up at 4 am she was wide awake and ready to leave. I immediately knew something was wrong, since she loves her sleep so much. It turns out that the dinner the night before did not really agree with anyone, but we all had our individual reactions at different times. Katieroo had hers while everyone else was sleeping. As we are getting ready to load the car up, the maid of honor comes over and offers to drive Katieroo’s hubby to the airport, and we can get an extra hour’s shut eye. So everyone said their goodbyes and they were off to the airport, while the Katies hit the hay for a little while longer.

Around 6:30 am, we were on the road for Disney, and made one gas stop about 10 minutes out of Disney. We didn’t really need gas, but figured since we were planning on using Disney transportation the rest of the week, that we could save the gas stop when dropping the car off at the airport in Orlando.

Once we got off of I-4 we saw this little baby:

We got to Pop Century, our new home away from home around 7:45 am and headed in to check-in and pick up our Luau tickets.

The line to check-in was not too bad, however it took a little while to sort everything out. No big deal, and the gentleman that helped us (I suck at names so don’t expect any, my best friend has the same name as I do so I can remember it) was awesome. Our room was not ready yet (surprise!) but he promised it would be ready around lunch time. Perfect!

We went back to the car to lather up with sunblock and jumped in line for the bus to EPCOT. We never really had any long waits for the busses, with the exception of the morning of our tour. We actually made it just as they were finishing the rope drop on the other side of Spaceship Earth and we made a beeline, with about a zillion people to The Land Pavilion. First things first, we grabbed fast passes and then hopped in line for Soarin’. This was not our first flight, and we were sure to follow Puddy’s flight check list. Once our flight landed safely back at EPCOT we decided that it was time for some food in our tummies. So a short stop at Seasons was in order. (I am not intending on doing a separate dining report, since I didn’t take any food pictures so I will offer my opinions here). Katieroo had a banana that she said tasted great, and I had the lemon poppy seed muffin (confident that there would be no random drug testing while in Disney). The muffin was very yummy, and I actually regretted not having another one while we were on our trip. We were on the DDP, but decided to save our snack credits for something better.

After breakfast we used our fastpasses for Soarin’, how we do love that ride. Afterwards we headed over to the Living with the Land ride. I have never been on it before, and I really thought it was very interesting. I don’t know if I would wait in line to ride it again, but I am glad that I rode it this time. Afterwards, I had a missed call from my cousin, who I had been trying to get together with while I was down there. We finally reached each other later in the day and decided to meet Wednesday night.

After the Land we headed over to the Living Seas with Nemo Pavilion. I fought with the sea gulls about who the fish actually belonged to, but they won out in the end MINE! We rode the new Nemo ride and thought it was very cute. We also witnessed our first meltdown of the day while waiting in line. This family with a little girl came into the line area, and the poor thing freaked out (I think she was scared of the dark) she started screaming that she didn’t want to do the ride. Initially her parents tried to make her stay (which I am totally against, your kids should b able to decide if they want to do things or not) but she was able to break free of her mom’s hand, and she ran out of there like a bat out of you-know-where. After successfully finding Nemo we decided to skip Crush since the next showing was not for an hour or so and we headed out to Innoventions/Test Track. On our way to Test Track we commented on the amount of smoke in the area (this would come back to haunt us later in the week) and rode the ride, twice. The second time through we rode the single rider line and I was stuck with 5 screaming teenage girls.

Oh how my ears rang when we were done. On our way out, I spoke with my boss’s husband, Ed, about our plans for dinner that night. We decided we were hungry and went to the Electric Umbrella for an early lunch. Afterwards, we went to Mouse Gears for a little retail therapy. Since I was getting ready to settle on my new condo, Katieroo wanted to get some things for my kitchen for me from Disney. I told you she was the best friend ever! So while we didn’t purchase anything at the time, we scoped out what we liked.

Katieroo called the hotel and our room was ready, so we headed back to Pop around 1:30 and we were able to take a nice shower and get everything unpacked for the week. We also were able to rest for a little while before our dinner with my boss and her family in Magic Kingdom.

We headed out for the buss around 3:30, our ADR was for 4:25. The bus came right away and we were off. Once we got to the park we were able to take a few pictures outside the main gate. I had my birthday button on, so the photographer had me stand by myself and put one arm on my hip and one in the air, then he counted to three and he and Katieroo sang “I’m a Little Tea Pot.”

Very funny. Then we headed inside and had a few more pics taken on Mainstreet.

Then it was off to Liberty Tree Tavern for dinner. My boss, Maribel, her daughter Theresa and husband, Ed were already there waiting for us. (It is worth mentioning here that Maribel and her family arrived the week before and were leaving Disney the next morning.) So I pulled out my trusty business card for this ADR (I got the idea from a TR on this board, don’t ask me who because I can’t remember but it was really helpful throughout the week) and we checked in. When I made the initial ressie I was told that we would be at separate tables near each other, but once we checked in we were seated at the same table.

The dinner was great. I especially loved the cornbread stuffing. It was particularly great for Theresa, who had not had a character meal while they were on vacation, so she got to meet a lot of characters that she missed while they were down there.

The park was open until 2 am that night, so after dinner we told Theresa that she could pick what rides we were going to get on, but we would be starting in Fantasyland. (Never a good idea to do a big ride after an even bigger dinner.)

First off we hit up Mickey’s Philharmagic and had a great time! Then we were off to Neverland, I have to say that this is probably one of my favorite rides in all of Disney. I know that it isn’t the best, but I have always loved Peter Pan, and I just love the ride that much more. Then we rode Snow White’s Scary Adventure and the Winnie the Pooh ride. Apparently Theresa had missed a number of these rides during their stay, because she wanted to ride the big ones (who can blame her?)

Then we headed to Toon Town to ride Goofy’s Barnstormer. Thankfully the line was very short, I hate waiting in a long line for a ride that is less than 30 seconds long. Theresa loved it though, and I have to admit that I like the ride myself. I just will not wait in line for it. Next we walked through Minnie’s house and played around in her kitchen. Then we took the super secret path to Tomorrow Land.

Once there we checked out the line for Space Mountain (very long) so we got fastpasses for later that night. Then Katieroo, Theresa and I rode the Wed-Way-People Mover (I am old school Disney). While we were on this ride Theresa asked us if we thought that Cinderella was sitting in her room right now in the castle. I almost cried right there. I told her that I heard she had moved out for the year to let other families sleep in her room. It was here that I decided we had to stand on the bridge between the hub and Tomorrow Land for the fireworks. After the People Mover we rode the Carousel of Progress (It’s a great big beautiful tomorrow) and took in a showing at the Comedy Club. This place was awesome! I really loved how they interacted with the audience and picked on the same person during the entire show.

After the comedy show, we made our way to the bridge for the fireworks, and had some popcorn to pass the time. Apparently Theresa heard the woman next to her talking about Tinkerbell flying so, it tipped her off to the surprise. She was very excited though, when Tink flew right over our heads. Wishes was great, I love that show. Afterwards we headed back to Space Mountain to use our fastpasses. It was about 10 pm when we got off the ride and they wanted to ride Stitch next. Katieroo and I told them we would meet them afterwards. There is nothing I hate more than rotten Chili Dogs. Also Katie had now been up since 8 am the morning before and she was starting the drag a little. After Stitch we made our way to the second Spectromagic parade. I had never seen this one before, the last time I saw a light parade in Disney was when my high school marching band kicked off the old Electric Light Parade in 1997.

After the parade we headed back to defend Earth from the Evil Emperor Zurg and help our buddy Buzz Lightyear. I did not do very well, but it’s still a fun ride.

Then we decided to head off to Adventureland with visions of Pirates in our future. We walked onto Pirates (you gotta love using the right side of the queue area) and then we went to ride Aladdin’s Magic Carpets. After this, we took a ride on the Jungle Cruise at night. This is another favorite of mine, I love the corny jokes and can repeat half of them on command. After our cruise we headed to Liberty Square and rode the Haunted Mansion. What a great ride that is at night. Much to our excitement it did not breakdown while we were inside.

Then we were on our way to Frontier Land. Theresa wanted to ride Splash Mountain, but there was a bit of a chill in the air, since it was past midnight and all. So we compromised and rode Big Thunder Mountain twice. Katieroo and I were very tired at this point and we all decided it was time to head out. On our way out though, Theresa, Katieroo and I rode Dumbo. Then it was definitely time to leave, we walked down an amazingly empty Mainstreet at 1:30 am and said our good-byes. Their trip was over, but ours was just beginning and we needed to get as much shut-eye as possible. We headed to the bus stop and made it back to the room by 2am.

That's all for now. See you realy soon!

 

[evildiva]

Monday April 30, 2007 – Sleep and MGM

As you may remember from our pre-trip report, we were set to adopt Fauna Crocker today. We had set up the hand-off over emails with her previous family before our trip and agreed on 7:30 am in the lobby. Around 7:15 our phone rings and her previous family is leaving early for AK and will leave her at the counter with our name. I look at Katieroo, turn off my cell phone alarm, and tell her to go back to sleep. Around 8:30 I wake up again, Katieroo asks if I am ready to get up, and I say something to the effect of “My eyelids look so pretty, I want to look at them some more.” Finally around 10 we get our sorry butts out of bed and get ready for the day. We were both so tired from the days before, and very hungry. So we decided that this morning/afternoon would be the perfect time to go to Downtown Disney for our shopping. We got ready, left out mousekeeping envelope for the day, and headed out to the busses. Once we reached DD we headed to Planet Hollywood for lunch. When we planned our trip we thought that on the DDP you received credits for days spent in the park, but its really nights in the hotel. So we had allotted one extra of each and needed to trim down in places. (This actually worked out very well. They give you so much food, that sharing lunches really paid off for us.) So we took our $15 credit for booking a MYW package and had bacon cheeseburgers at Planet Hollywood. Not the best in my life, but they were hot, and at a discounted price.

With our tummies full, we tackled the mission at hand….SHOPPING. We began in World of Disney looking for kitchen accessories for my new place. Katieroo gave me the Mickey Salt and Pepper grinders, Mickey head ice cube trays, the Mickey sugar and creamer and the Mickey pasta strainer. I didn’t want to go overboard in my place, but you have to have a little bit of Disney in your life. On my part, I was looking for the bathroom accessories only to find out that they no longer carry them in the parks.

After some retail therapy we headed back to the hotel, grabbed some frozen coke (the best part of the food court) and relaxed for a little while before heading out the MGM for their EMH. We walked out to the bus stop and magically the bus appeared almost right away, with very few people in line. Once there we tried to ride the Backlot Tour, however the line was way too long. Then we headed to Light, Motor Action Extreme, to find it was closed for the night. Then we tried Star Tours, the line was again way long and fastpasses were gone for the day. (We never did make it back for these rides.)

Next we went to the Muppets 3-D movie ride and low and behold we found the key under the mat at the door.

Fauna also found a not so Hidden Mickey on the street:

Afterwards we walked the streets of America before heading over toward ToT and RRC.

We rode both, (well Katieroo rode ToT. I am a big scaredy cat and sat that one out.) Then we shared a counter service of pizza, salad and chocolate cake. In the meantime, the first Fantasmic had already ended and we cruised the shops for a few minutes before lining up for the next showing. We had never seen this before, and we both thought it was awesome! I can’t wait to go back to see it again! Afterwards we decided that we could divide and conquer ToT and RRC. We each rode our respective rides and met in the center. Then we headed to the Great Movie Ride. Afterwards we started to head out, and returned to our hotel room around 1 am.

 

[evildiva]

Tuesday May 1, 2007 – Animal Kingdom and EPCOT

We awoke semi-early today in order to make it to Animal Kingdom for a ride on Everest. We made it to the front gates probably 5 minutes after opening and made a beeline for Everest.

The last time we were in Disney they were still building the latest mountain, so we were very excited to take our first ride. We checked out the stand-by time, less than 10 minutes and grabbed fastpasses before getting in line. Well let me tell you, there was absolutely no wait for Everest whatsoever. We walked right onto the ride and had a great time. I kept my eyes shut for the first trip, except to see the Yeti. We had so much fun that we got off and got right back on. First however, I needed to grab a quick drink of yucky Florida water. Then we took our second ride with the Yeti, in the stand-by line with absolutely no wait for the second time in a row. After our second ride, which I kept my eyes open for, we both decided that we had enough of going backwards for one day. (I usually do not do backwards rides, I get sick on the Monorail if I don’t face forwards.) So we made our way over to the Theatre in the Wild to check out the Nemo show times, and found the only snack cart open in the area and promptly purchased two cokes. After some much needed caffeine we headed over to the safari, to try and save Little Red. Much to our dismay the line for the safari was overflowing, and the fastpass machines were broken. No safari for us this time, I would just have to put the fate of Little Red in the hands of the toddlers in line. Since we were back there, we decided to walk the Pangi (?) trail, since I really wanted to see the gorillas. We were not disappointed here. Since it was still pretty early, we saw the ladies of the family tribe, and three of the gentleman from the bachelor tribe.

After making nice with the large animals it was getting close to the time to line up for the Nemo show. One thing that needs to be understood about Katieroo and I is that we are magnets for the elderly and children. Seriously we can be standing in line for the bus at Disney or for the checkout at our Superfresh and the elderly person in front of us and the child behind us will tell us their entire life story. It’s great though, because you get to meet the greatest people that way. I tell you this all, to tell you about the little girl we met in line for Nemo. I have no idea what her name was, Katieroo may be able to help on that one, but she took to us like a duck to water. First we played school and she was the teacher, then when they opened the doors to let us in, she grabbed both of our hands and told her mother that she wanted to sit with us. So we sat in the second row of the theatre and watched the Nemo show with our new little friend and her mother. What a spectacular show! I cried! It was really so good, very much like the Broadway Lion King. If they move this show to Broadway, I predict much success! Afterwards we said good-bye to our new friends and headed out of the park for the day.

It was time to head back to the hotel for a little lunch and RnR before our big night at EPCOT. Once we got back to POP we grabbed a little bit of lunch, to share and headed to the pool. The Bowling Pin Pool was pretty crowded and too warm for my northern bones. I like a warm pool just as much as the next person, but I have taken hot baths that were cooler than this water. So I got out after a few minutes and took a nice cool shower to cool off and relax. Let me tell you it did the trick and I felt like a new woman. We relaxed a little more in the room, and picked up our spoils from the day before. Then we headed out to EPCOT for our dinner at Le Cellier.

Once again the buses did not disappoint, we had little to no wait at the bus stop and were at EPCOT in no time flat. Once we arrived we checked out Soarin’ to see what the wait time was, and if there were any fastpasses remaining. The wait was too long for us, and the passes were gone. So we planned on doing what we did the last time we were in Disney and riding Soarin’ during Illuminations. Neither one of us is a huge fan of the show, so we feel our time is better spent on the greatest ride ever! Next we decided to try and find Figment on the Journey Into Imagination. We scored a front row, front car seat and were ready to begin our ride, when it broke down. They eventually got us out of the cars, but couldn’t get them moving again. We decided to come back later.

After our failed attempt to meet Figment, we strolled on over to the Character Connection at Innoventions and met a few of our good friends:

Off to World Showcase to check out the countries. First stop, Mexico. The last time we rode El Rio de Tiempo (or however you spell it) we had just finished some very alcoholic beverages at the San Angel restaurant and found the entire ride hysterical. Now with the addition of Donald Duck and the Three Amigos all I have to say is, “Isn’t this the same exact thing as before?” I mean it’s a great ride, when it’s hot out, because so many people don’t even know its there. But I would never wait in any kind of line for it.

We continued into World Showcase, breezing through Norway since Maelstrom was down, and we were going to dinner soon, so no need for School Bread. We made our way to the American Adventure to see the stage show there. I had never seen it before, and was pretty impressed. Feeling very patriotic we continued our rushed journey to Canada. Stopping only to check on the status of Cadbury Chocolate with Caramel in the United Kingdom (sadly I must report that they were plum out of Dairy Milk with Caramel), we checked into Le Cellier for our 7 pm ressie. After waiting maybe 5 minutes for our table (we were most likely early, so the wait doesn’t really count) we were seated at a lovely table surrounded by children, and one very rude man who thought he knew everything. While neither the children, nor the man made our dinner any less enjoyable, they provided hours of entertainment during our meal. I had the cheese soup, 7 oz filet and crème brulee (vanilla only, they were out of maple). Katieroo had the beef barley soup, strip steak and s’more for her meal. We gave a collective thumbs up and five stars for our meals. Probably the best steak I have ever had (don’t tell my father).

After dinner we went back to Soarin’ and rode again twice in a row with little to no wait whatsoever. Afterwards we were both feeling pretty exhausted and decided to hit the road. Our Keys to the Kingdom tour was scheduled for the next morning and we needed to get up early to meet the buses. When we got back to POP I remembered reading in someone’s TR that you could use a snack credit for a box of doughnuts, so when I refilled our mugs for the night I grabbed a box of doughnut holes for breakfast the next morning. Best thing I ever did! I was so thankful for the tip on the TR or I never would have thought about it.

 

[the_princess]

Great TR... I'll remember the doughnut box tip... Good way to save some cash..

 

[xo juicy splash]

I love the title. Great TR & pictures.

 

[evildiva]

Wednesday May 2, 2007 – Keys to the Kingdom Tour and some Katie Time

Knowing that today would be an early day, we woke up early and got ourselves ready and out the door by 7:15. When we got to the bus stop the Magic Kingdom bus was filled to the gills (NO EMH that morning BTW) and was pulling off. Knowing that we may not be able to catch the ferry or monorail that early from the TTC we took our chances waiting for the bus. Well I must tell you that I am early for everything that I have ever done. So waiting for the bus to make it for our 8:30 tour I thought I was going to have a fit right there. Katieroo was great! She kept apologizing, even though it wasn’t her fault (I assured her that it was in no way her fault), and she was reassuring me that they would not leave us behind. Then another couple came up behind us, and of course we started talking with them. They told us that they had done the tour previously and loved it, but that we would probably miss the beginning. I have to say that I think they were trying to help, but while we were standing in line they only made me more nervous. Once the bus made it to Magic Kingdom at 8:22 we ran for the gates. I also want to point out that we are not runners. Once we made it to City Hall to check in they reassured us that we had not missed the tour, took our complimentary lunch order, and offered us each a bottle of water (YAY!).

I will not go into the tour at any great length here, because I do not want to ruin either the magic or the tour for anyone else. However, if you have any questions please feel free to PM me and I would be happy to answer them for you. I will say that our tour guide was awesome, he had so much history to share and I found that the most interesting of all. Everyone knows that you get to go backstage, however, we had previously seen most of that since we had done the Magic Music Days parades while in high school. The lunch provided at Columbia Harbor House was good and a good time was had by all. After the tour, we went through the shops on Mainstreet and then headed out to the busses for our afternoon siesta.

Back at POP I made plans to meet up with my cousins (who live in Brandon) that night. Our plans changed around a little bit in the afternoon so Katieroo decided to hit Magic Kingdom on her own and catch up with us if she could. So with Magic Kingdom closing at 8:30, my cousin, his very pregnant wife and their 2 year old son picked my up at POP around 6. It was quite comical when I first got into the car. You see I have never actually met my young cousin in person before, so he was amazed when mom and dad stopped at the resort to pick up this strange lady. It took him probably two minutes to figure out who I was, and then the next thing out of his mouth was that he had been trying to call me all week. Too cute.

We made it to Magic Kingdom, and I called Katieroo. She was on Splash and we were headed to Fantasyland, because were else do you go with a two year old and woman who is almost nine months pregnant? We took in a viewing of Mickey’s Philharmagic, better known to my cousin as Donald’s Tail. Then we rode It’s a Small World. It actually was not that bad, I caught up with my cousins on the ride, so I was able to block out the singing. Then we had dinner at Pinocchio’s Haus and rode Dumbo, better known to my cousin as Bumbo.

By this time it was inching closer and closer to 8:30, so we made out way over to the Crystal Palace and found a spot to watch Wishes right on Mainstreet. It was so much fun to watch it again with my 2 year old cousin. They go all the time, so he was singing along and telling his father where the next set of fireworks was going to go off at. He is really going to be quite the young person.

After Wishes we made our way out of the park, with a bazillion other people. Thankfully we parked at the Contemporary and my cousins drove me back to POP instead of making me stand in the hellish line that was forming at the bus stop. Even though we only got to spend a few hours together, we had a great time and I remembered just how much I missed my Florida family members.

Back at the room I met back up with Katieroo, and we took a walk to refill our mugs and explore POP a little. The last time we stayed there, our trip was so short that we only ever went from our room (in the 50’s then as well) to the main building and the bus stop. So we wanted to look around a little. I have to say that I really enjoyed our little walk around the place, and was very surprised by the Twister boards in the middle of the courtyards. However, I realized just how much I liked staying the in 50s building. Even with a room facing the pool I was never disturbed by the people outside. I cannot speak for Katieroo though, I tend to sleep like the dead. When we got back to the room, I caught the last few minutes of LOST and we hit the hay. We had early ressies tomorrow for the Crystal Palace.

 

[evildiva]

Thursday May 3, 2007 – Magic Kingdom, Blizzard Beach and a Luau

This morning we had an 8:05 ADR for the Crystal Palace. While neither or us are huge breakfast eaters, we both love the spread at Crystal Palace. We were able to get in just ahead of the EMH people and Katieroo was able to catch a few people-free pictures of the castle.

I checked us in for our reservation, and we were soon seated at a lovely table for two on the right side of the restaurant. We quickly made a bee-line for the buffet line, and I made quick work of the French toast puffs. They are so yummy! I also wanted to take a minute to commend a server at CP. There was a low vision/blind gentleman by himself at a table behind us, he had a different server, and she could not have been better! Even though she had several other tables to wait on she walked with him to the buffet lines and helped him carry his plates back to the table. He made two trips and she could not have been more helpful on either trip. So hats off to her!

A few pictures from breakfast:

After breakfast, we had a few pictures taken in front of the castle before starting our last day in Magic Kingdom.

We started back in Fantasyland and rode Small World and Peter Pan one last time. Then we tried to ride Pirates, unfortunately it was down. So we made our way to Frontier Land to take a ride on Splash Mountain. On our way up the track into the actual ride part we were lucky enough to be splashed by a raft going down the flume. Words cannot describe how wet we got! Then we enjoyed the inside of the ride, with some high school girls who were there for the parade later in the day. They were all very excited, and it sounded like it was their first time marching in Magic Kingdom. Soon we splashed down the huge hill, and low and behold, we got exactly no water on us at all. Funny how that works out sometimes. Anyways, after our ride I was waxing nostalgic about our times marching in the House of Mouse.

We headed back to Pirates, only to find that it was still closed. However, we were in luck! The tutorial was about to start, something that we had not seen yet! So we took a seat and had a front row spot for our favorite Pirate. I cannot tell you how great the kids were that they chose too! One little boy was so into it, he was even dressed like Peter Pan.

Afterwards we headed for a Dole Whip (absolute heaven in a cup) and then walked through the shops one last time before leaving our precious Magic Kingdom. We boarded the buses and headed back to POP. Since we had not done a water park yet, we decided to grab some lunch and then head to Blizzard Beach for a little while.

We rented a locker and some towels, and hit the Teamboat Springs tube ride. It was so much fun! That we climbed the steps and did it again. (NOTE: We are not usually step climbers but the line for the ski lift was forever and two Sundays long) On our second ride down, I was backwards and laughed the entire time. Until we ran into the tube in front of us. That tube housed a father and his small daughter, our tube housed two full grown women. Needless to say, we pushed them the entire way down. Most of the time we were worried that our weight was going to flip their tube, in the end everything worked out for the best. We took a lap in the lazy river, decided there were no more slides that we wanted to do (I’m not a slide person and I have a feeling that Katieroo was skipping stuff that she wanted to do so we could hang out together). We rode the ski lift one last time and came down Teamboat Springs for our final slide of the day. Then we dried off and headed for the bus stop.

The bus stop stunck! Not literally, but it took forever for a bus to come and get us. Much longer than the posted time, and other resorts had two or three buses before ours came. But we finally made it onto a bus and back to the resort to shower and change for the Luau at the Poly.

Not wanting a repeat of Wednesday morning’s bus-capades (see us Katies like to make up our own words) we left much earlier than we needed to in order to get to the Poly. This however, allowed us some time to brose the gift shops, I forgot how much I loved their shops! Then we made our way to Luau Cove, had our non-photopass picture taken and waited to be seated for the show. The food and the show were great! As much fun as I can remember from when I was ten. I’m not sure that I would do it, if we hadn’t been on the DDP, but we still had a great night.

Even Fauna got into it. She had a grass skirt and a tropical umbrella.

After the Luau we were originally going to go to DTD, however, we were both pretty tired and I had started to get pretty sick. It seems that the combination of smoke in the air from earlier in the week and nice air conditioning gave me a lovely sinus infection. I went to say something to Katieroo as we were leaving and I actually squeaked. I had absolutely no voice at all. So not wanting to transfer back to the Magic Kingdom to wait in long lines for the buses, we grabbed a cab and went right back to POP. Best $20 we spent the whole trip! We got back to the resort, grabbed some frozen coke, and started packing our things.

 

[evildiva]

Friday May 4, 2007 – EPCOT, DTD, Home

When I woke up on our last day I sounded absolutely horrible. I didn’t feel that much better either. I was very congested, and dreading getting on a plane later that evening. We finished out packing, Katieroo had to help me re-pack my suitcase to fit the kitchen items she had purchased me earlier in the week. Then we loaded up the car, and checked out. Before we headed out to the park we used two CS for a late breakfast. Then we headed out to EPCOT. However, due to the enormous line at the bus stop, seriously we would have had to wait for three busses before we would have been able to get on, we instead hopped on a bus to Magic Kingdom, then transferred by Monorail to EPCOT.

First on our agenda was purchasing our photopass CD. We were not sure how long the entire process would take, and wanted to make sure we had it done first, instead of rushing around later in the day. Then we headed to Test Track for one last ride. We actually went through the ride twice, both times in the single rider line. Then we hopped on a boat (too tired to walk) and headed to World Showcase, I had a mission to accomplish. Before we left for this trip, I had said that I wanted to do the pick a pearl thing in the Japan pavilion. Once we got there, I paid the nice lady my money, and Katieroo and I got to go looking for the ugliest oyster we could find. Katieroo found it in the tank she was assigned to, and low and behold I had twins! They beat a drum and everything. Now after this, a load of kids paid money to try and have twins of their own, so perhaps they could have given me a deal on my setting but whatever. I decided to have them set into a lovely pair of earrings, promising Katieroo she could borrow them whenever she wanted. Katieroo also found a former childhood friend while we were there:

We then grabbed the boat back and rode Journey Into Imagination. There was a nice mother there with her three young sons behind us, we offered them the front of the car, but they were a little nervous about the ride, and preferred that we take the first wave of whatever Figment threw at us. After this we headed out of the park to POP. Time to pick up the car and do a little last minute shopping before our trip home.

Once we made it back to POP, we inquired about the best way to get to DTD and were told to go this way, than that way, then this way. Katieroo of course understood it all, which is why she is the driver. We made it there, with no problem at all, and purchased a few last things. Then we had dinner at the Earl of Sandwich. I have to say that I am very happy that we saved this for our last counter service. I had about had it up to my eyeballs with chicken fingers (I know there is more to life, but I usually stick with food that I know if safe with my sensitive stomach). We both had wonderful sandwiches, and marked it down for a must return on our next trip.

After all of our shopping was done, and our bags stuffed to the gills we headed out to the airport for our trip home. Being the planner that I am, I had packed a few rolls of quarters for the tolls, and we were able to breeze through with no problem at all. Once we made it to the airport, we had a bit of trouble finding the Dollar return center, but got there easily enough. However, once we checked the car in our bill was for $200 more than what we thought. We had to go in a sort it out with the manager. I told Katieroo that I would put on my ‘ugly face’ if I needed to, but she handled everything wonderfully. It turns out we were charged for insurance that we turned down at the time of rental. We made our way to the Southwest E ticket counter. Katieroo’s hubby had checked us in the night before, so we were able to print out our luggage tags and A boarding passes with no problem at all. After a little shifting of luggage on Katieroo’s part our suitcases weighed a combined total of 99 lbs and we headed off the security. The line here was awful since they only had two scanners working, but we made it through and onto the fake monorail for the sad trip home.

Once we made it to our gate, the flight before ours was boarding, and I quickly staked out the second spot in the A line. We played cards, and read our books waiting for the plane to arrive. Then about ten minutes before we boarded a man came out of no where and butted in front of us in line. Well let me tell you, I was sick, tired and ready to sleep in my own bed. The woman in front told him that the end of the line was over there, and he responded “I can’t see it so I will stay here.” I then asked him if he intended to let everyone else that was already in line ahead of him, and he responded, “Maybe.” Well if looks could kill, then it is safe to say that he would have been the 1000th ghost at Haunted Mansion, because I was having none of his shenanigans on the way home. He eventually moved, and we boarded the plane with no incident.

We found the two seats by the emergency exit and were happy not to have to share the row with anyone else. Once we were at cruising altitude Katieroo moved to the vacant row behind me and we had a very uneventful flight home. I however, was not able to sleep at all, and had a rather painful landing (being congested sucks on the plane). We arrived in Baltimore a few minutes early and beat Katieroo’s husband and our friend to the luggage carousel. We then made the ride home, with a stop at Taco Bell for our very empty tummies.