The Last-Minute Super-Bargain Bonus Trip ~ 9/11 Update: The $$$

[Dugette]

Welcome to our "last-minute super-bargain bonus trip"! This trip was planned 10 days in advance and for less than $700. We have Annual Passes this year and I had saved up a bit of “"fun money"” so that we’'d be able to take a quick weekend trip sometime this year, whenever we found a deal. Which we did! For more detail, feel free to peruse the brief pre-trip report, which can be found here: "The Last-Minute Super-Bargain Bonus Trip PTR"

For any newcomers, let me introduce us:



The cast consists of my husband “"Dug"” and me "“Dugette"”, as you see above. We also have a cat, Kitty, who stayed at home to guard the house:



And our dog, Bailey, was lucky enough to spend the weekend with my dad and step-mom, otherwise known as “"Puppy Wilderness Adventure Camp".” I couldn'’t be happier with the (free!) dog-sitting they did! They are very busy, active people and are often out of town themselves (running marathons, climbing mountains, etc. - seriously!), so this was only the second time they’ have been available to dog-sit for us. But they love it! They were nice enough to use their Blackberries to send us photo updates on Bailey’'s adventures (and we responded via Dug’'s iPhone with photo updates of our trip too). Here are some glimpses of Bailey'’s fun on a walk, on a run at Afton State Park, and relaxing afterwards:



Travel day in the next post!

Chapters
Day 1 - Travel
Day 1 - Magic After Midnight!
Day 2 - Captain EO & Beverly
Day 2 - Via Napoli
Day 2 - Godzilla & Boat Rides
Day 2 - Future World & Raglan Road
Day 3 - How Crazy People Spend Their Last Day
The $$$

 

[Dugette]

Summary: Car, City Bus, Car, Airport Shuttle, Airplane, Mini-Monorail, Magical Bus, Disney Buses

In case you didn'’t read our PTR, let me fill you in on our “creative” travel plans. We live in MN, in the Twin Cities area. We usually fly out of the airport here (MSP), generally on Delta. However, getting to MCO for a weekend from here has been running at least $300-$400/person this year. This was out of our “bonus trip” budget, clearly. However, 4 hours south of us, in Des Moines, Iowa, there is a little airport that Allegiant Airlines flies out of. Sometimes for very cheap! So cheap, in fact, that it’'s worth driving 4 hours to take a 2.75 hour flight! And we are just that crazy!

Our flight down Friday evening was $19.99/each. Our flight back on Sunday afternoon was $69.99/each. Including all taxes and fees, we paid about $126/ticket round-trip. Not bad! Gas to and from Des Moines turned out to be about $60 round-trip. Parking at the airport was only $11 total. Way, way cheaper than any possibility out of MSP!

So, our plan was to work the morning, but take the afternoon off work. Leave around noon. Dug dropped me off at the suburban park and ride where I normally catch the bus to work in downtown Minneapolis. He drove to work, on the west side of the Twin Cities. We worked, marveling at the fact that we'’d be in the Magic Kingdom that very night - yes, Extra Magic Hours extended until 3am!!!

I was expecting that Dug would call me before he left work, so that I’'d know he was on his way and I would have time to eat my lunch quick before leaving work (we were saving money by not having lunch on the road). Well, he called me from the road, only a few minutes away. So, I had to scarf down my microwave mac and cheese and yogurt! I’'ve never eaten so fast! Met him at the car and we were off!

We jumped on I-35, heading south. We were low-ish on gas, so stopped at an exit in Lakeville (southern metro area) to fill up. Even though Dug had just had lunch at work, he was enthralled with a sign reading “Baldy'’s BBQ” at this exit. We thought it might be attached to the gas station, but it was not. So, no time to get BBQ for Dug. He went into the gas station (while I pumped gas) and got us some drinks for the road. A bottle of apple juice for me and a Diet Sierra Mist for him.

Got back in the car, I took over the driving, and we hit the road again. Before we even made it back on the interstate, Dug opened his pop and it sprayed all over!!! Yikes! Fortunately, we had a fleece blanket in the backseat and used that to mop it all up.

I put on the Disney music CD that Dug had made me for my birthday earlier this year. He had put together a mix of 24 popular/good Disney movie songs. It really put us in the Disney mood!

The drive down I-35 to Des Moines isn'’t too bad. We were even lucky with construction: there were two places where it went down to one lane, with lots of signs about preparing for back-ups, but no back-ups at all when we went through!

Here’'s what it looked like most of the way through southern MN and Iowa:



Dug tried to get a picture of a sign showing the mileage to Des Moines, but this “"Moines"” is the best he could do:



The real “Iowan” thing was when we were nearing the Des Moines area. We passed a truck. I noticed there were pigs in it. One of the pigs had its little piggy-nose sticking out of a hole in the side of the truck. It was ridiculously cute! Unfortunately, we didn'’t have the camera ready for that. We let the truck pass us later, so we could take some pics, but only got the other side, which did not have a piggy-nose sticking out:





Ah, Iowa!

We were doing reasonably okay on time, so we stopped for a quick dinner at Wendy’'s in Ankeny, just north of Des Moines. While Dug was up getting the food, I sat down at a table and waited. There was another table with three elderly ladies and one elderly man at it. One of the women was VERY loud and VERY opinionated. I didn’'t want to listen to her, but the restaurant wasn’'t that big and I knew I would hear her from any table, so I stayed put. She essentially was slamming the current state of education, as opposed to "“in her day"” when they did “"reading, writing, and arithmetic - and some geography.”" Apparently, according to her, now all they teach in school is “"alternative lifestyles".” And, "“They don’t even teach, they have the computers teach."” She was so offensive to teachers!!! On another note, she also threw this one out at the guy (I’'m assuming her husband): “"You better eat that! We paid MONEY for that!!!”"

Boy was I happy when Dug came to the table with food and distracting Disney planning conversation! We ate off the value menu. I got a double stack w/cheese, chicken nuggets, and water. Dug got a Junior Bacon Deluxe, chicken nuggets, and water. Ate quick and headed out again.

We were in Des Moines quickly. I thought it was cool that we saw the capitol building:



We turned off on the road towards the airport. We ended up following a car with a Mickey antenna topper :



We turned into the airport with the goal of finding Economy Parking Lot 2. Pretty much had to drive through the whole place and come out the other end, but we got there (I'’m pretty sure they want people to give up on finding it and park at one of the more expensive lots instead).

We parked near the shuttle pick-up area, watching a shuttle pull away just as we pulled in. Oh, well, they run frequently. We got out of the car and started gathering up our stuff (moving some things between bags, etc.) The shuttle, which was empty, pulled around and waited for us right behind the car. Nice service in Des Moines! This actually set the stage for Good Transportation Karma for (almost) the whole trip.

Got on the shuttle and had a private drive over to the nearby airport. The shuttle driver somehow knew that we were going to Disney World. Apparently, there are just not that many other likely weekend trips people are taking out of that airport.

A few minutes later, we were being dropped off at the airport. Went inside and found the Allegiant check-in counter. We were travelling with only carry-on bags, so we checked them in the size-checker box thing. I had a duffel bag and Dug had a backpack. Both were fine, size-wise. However, when I put mine into the box, something must have shifted and I couldn’t get it out! I had to wrestle it back out. Rather embarrassing, but oh well.

We got checked in and found that we had seats next to each-other on the two-seat side of the plane (one side has 3 across and one has 2). That would be nice, so we wouldn'’t have to worry about any antics from random strangers next to me (see my past TRs if you want to know about people jumping over me or making me perfume-sick).

On the way through the airport, we noticed one store closing down for the night. It was only about 5:30pm. Crazy to think that the place we’'d be going would be open for MANY more hours.

We got to security and there were only short lines. Apparently, I picked the wrong one. The other line had a family with lots of little kids, but they got through way faster than I did. The line we got in had an older couple ahead of us, perhaps on their first flight. I can'’t imagine what would happen to this guy going through security in a bigger airport, but they seemed pretty casual about things in Des Moines. This guy took FOREVER to put his stuff in bins. He narrated to the security people. Explained how he bought his pocket-tool specifically because it had no blades (which was fine). I swear he was going in slow-motion. I couldn'’t even put my stuff on the table because he had too many bins spread out. Finally, he determined that he was ready to walk through the metal detector. I think it took him 3-4 tries, each time removing something else (belt, stuff in pockets, etc.). The guard actually asked him if he had stuff wrapped in aluminum foil in his pockets or something. By this point, my stuff had all gone through the machine and was waiting at the other end. But I was still waiting for this guy to make it through the scanner. Finally, he did and I went through right after without incident. I got through and immediately realized that he was DIGGING THROUGH MY DUFFEL BAG!!!!!!! Dude, do you have so many bags that you do not recognize one that is full of women'’s clothes, does not belong to you or even look like your bags, and is behind a tray containing my shoes and camcorder and toiletries!?!? I didn'’t say all that, but I did run up, tell him it was my bag, and take it away from him. Seriously, his hands were inside of it (I’'d left it slightly unzipped when I took out the quart-size plastic bag). Needless to say, we were walking away from security and he was still there, putting all his stuff back together.

After that, we found our gate (A-1) and sat for awhile. I think Dug was playing with his iPhone. I was re-reading the Hidden Magic book so that we could maybe keep an eye out for some of the things later. At some point, our plane came in:



It unloaded the passengers, we got on, and we took off about 15 minutes late (was scheduled to depart at 6:55pm). Not too bad, since I’'d heard that Allegiant can get pretty delayed sometimes. Thankfully, not this time, since we had Extra Magic Hours to get to that night.

The pilot let us know that there would be some minor turbulence early on, which there was. Then it smoothed out and we saw what the little girl behind me called a “"rainbow cloud"”:



Since Allegiant flies older planes than we'’re used to, we were impressed by the leg room. Nice. The seats were also pretty comfy. Except that the headrests were a little too far back, making your neck ache if you leaned back for long. Dug managed to get about 45 minutes sleep. I think I only got about 25, as I was awakened when one of the flight attendants crashed a beverage cart into the seats (it was loud and shook the seats). After that, I couldn’'t get back to sleep, but just rested.

The flight was great. I was nervous about flying an airline I hadn'’t even heard of until recently. And a $19 fare doesn'’t inspire tremendous confidence. But people on the DIS transportation board had recommended Allegiant, so I was hopeful. And I was not disappointed! You do have to be aware that you are getting a bargain flight (so they will attempt to nickel-and-dime you for everything under the sun), but it worked out well for us. I was really glad that I had read that it was best to have carry-ons that fit under a seat (as ours did). Because they run out of overhead room frequently (which happened right before we boarded), they check the carry-on bags that won’'t fit. Which would have meant wasting our precious EMH time at the baggage claim. Glad we avoided that!

Once off the plane, we hit the restrooms, then the Mini-Monorail, and went straight to the Magical Express area. Since we’'re used to arriving late at night, we usually have to claim bags first, so this was nice to just walk straight to the ME instead. Shockingly, there were people in line! It’'s always empty for our late-night arrivals. Fortunately, most of the people belonged to one family that was already being helped, so it only took a minute for us to get up to the desk and check-in. Then, they had us skip the queue area entirely and walk right out the doors and onto a bus. Nice!

The bus had people on it! That never happens to us! So, instead of our usual front-row seat, we had to settle for second-row! By the way, this was our first time on one of the Disney Cruise Line buses. Cool.

We were on the road to WDW by about 11:15pm. We’re pretty sure that we stopped a couple of other places first, but have no memory of where. But we did get to All Star Music around midnight. Oh, and we also got this shot (best we could do from the second seat and with a little rain):



We’'d done online check-in, so walked right up. The woman was British and I loved that she looked all our stuff over and exclaimed, “"Brilliant!"”

We were in the nearby (preferred room) Calypso building. Third floor, facing the pool. I think it was room 603.

Here'’s the outside of our building and the nighttime pool view:







We had an impressive towel animal waiting for us:



We also were impressed that we got a King bed room. We were going to request one, but never got around to it. Nice! The room had been refurbed and was very nice:



Here'’s the extent of our luggage:



We changed into more Florida-friendly clothes, packed up the backpack as our park bag, and headed out. By about 12:30am, we were on a bus to the Magic Kingdom. Lots of lightning was flashing, but there was no rain. We arrived to find people leaving the MK in droves! Awesome!!! We were definitely going against the crowd to make our way into the park. Once inside, we sent our dog a picture so she’'d know we arrived:



Up next: Our late evening in the Magic Kingdom! Rides and yummy food! And a punchy late-night bus driver!

 

[estherhead]

Very nice start!

 

[jc040404]

You've started!

Iowa looks awesome. Seriously, the piggy truck was too cute! I could see myself spending a ridiculous amount of time on the road just to try to get a piggy nose pic. How cute!

Lovin it so far! Can't wait to see what you end up doing til 3 in the morning! And that Via Napoli review, of course!!

 

[Dugette]

Very nice start!

and thank you! I hope you enjoy!

You've started!

Iowa looks awesome. Seriously, the piggy truck was too cute! I could see myself spending a ridiculous amount of time on the road just to try to get a piggy nose pic. How cute!

Lovin it so far! Can't wait to see what you end up doing til 3 in the morning! And that Via Napoli review, of course!!

Thanks for coming over here! I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought the piggy-nose thing was cute! If we hadn't had to exit for dinner, I probably would have passed the truck again, trying for a pic.

By the way, that intro pic is from Via Napoli, if you want to see what it looks like inside!

 

[karebear23]

Yeah! Sounds like you got done there without a hitch! Glad allegiant air worked out for you!

 

[MiaBella05]

joining in

 

[reelmom]

Yay for cheap airfare. I can't believe that you made it to the MK on arrival night. I would have been dragging by that time.

 

[emilita423]

Joining in! Love a super-bargain trip!!

 

[Tnkrbelle565]

I"m here

Bailey looks like he had fun!

I can't believe you went to EMH's after working and traveling!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Dugette]

Yeah! Sounds like you got done there without a hitch! Glad allegiant air worked out for you!

Yes, the travel day worked out about as well as I could have hoped for. And I'm so glad that Allegiant was good...I'd been fairly nervous about the unknown there.

joining in

Bailey would like to know if she could have some of that popcorn? Maybe you'll accidentally drop some like Daddy-Dog does?

Yay for cheap airfare. I can't believe that you made it to the MK on arrival night. I would have been dragging by that time.

for cheap airfare, agreed! I think that no matter what you've been through that day, the MK has a way of making you want to stay awake!

Joining in! Love a super-bargain trip!!

and thanks for joining! I love bargains too! I'll try to do a post with all our $$$ totals, once I have all the info sorted out. (Because I'm dorky enough to think that's fun!)

I"m here

Bailey looks like he had fun!

I can't believe you went to EMH's after working and traveling!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm glad you're here! Bailey had a great time...wasn't sure she would want to come home again...we don't take her running at state parks or anything!

With a trip this short, we knew we had to take advantage of those EMH to really get our money's worth. It made for a long day, but it was worth it!


I had hoped to get another update out tonight, but I had to work late (almost 9pm) and I have to be at work early tomorrow (by 7am), so I'm thinking I should get some sleep. I do plan to get this TR done quickly, though, maybe even by the end of this weekend?? We'll see...

Thanks for coming along on the journey, everyone!

 

[Disneymoon09]

woot woot! a weekend trip sounds so awesome! cant wait to read about it!

 

[Dugette]

woot woot! a weekend trip sounds so awesome! cant wait to read about it!

Can't wait to write about it!

 

[kdevoe]

I'm in!!! Wow! I don't think I could travel with just 2 bags. I buy a lot of souvenirs and sometimes don't pack too many things because I need the room for them. LOL Ahhhhh, EMH... What a wonderful thing!!! Can't wait to hear more.

 

[wlake]

So glad the discount airline worked out for you! I'm another one who would have driven around for a piggy nose picture!

 

[Dugette]

I'm in!!! Wow! I don't think I could travel with just 2 bags. I buy a lot of souvenirs and sometimes don't pack too many things because I need the room for them. LOL Ahhhhh, EMH... What a wonderful thing!!! Can't wait to hear more.

This was the lightest we've ever packed, but we were only there for two nights, so it worked. Although I wish I'd had a backpack too, as the duffel was pretty awkward to carry. We did pack a couple of reusable Target bags that fold very small, just in case we needed them for the way home (which Dug did do).

I love the evening EMH too!

So glad the discount airline worked out for you! I'm another one who would have driven around for a piggy nose picture!

Yes, I was pretty happy with our $19 flight!

And, for all those piggy nose fans, I borrowed this pic from the internet. It's almost like what we saw, maybe just not quite as cute:

 

[gellybean]

HERE!

going back to read

 

[Dugette]

HERE!

going back to read

Woo-hoo! Gellybean's here!

 

[Dugette]

We left off at 12:30am, with us arriving at the Magic Kingdom while everyone else was leaving! As we walked down Main Street, I remembered that the Hidden Magic book said that they pump out fresh-baked cookie smell on Main Street. As we got further down the street, we noticed the smell! Cool!

Since we hadn’'t eaten since Iowa, our first order of business was obtaining snacks. We had yet to try Casey’'s Corner and were looking forward to some Corn Dog Nuggets. Once Dug got near the place, the smell of sauerkraut convinced him that he needed a hot dog as well. We ordered the snacks and some waters. I managed to snag a bite of Dug’'s hot dog before he covered it with stuff - yum!

After Dug finished drowning his hot dog in toppings, we headed to the other room to sit. Dug wanted to sit in the bleachers. But, even at 12:30am, the place was packed. So, we made our way outside and grabbed a table there. One of my contact lenses was bothering me, so I was distracted by that for a bit, trying to fix it. I have absolutely terrible vision and it was quite dark, so you can imagine how difficult it was to fiddle with that tiny contact! When my eye was finally feeling okay, I got to try a corn dog nugget. Not bad. We found that the batch was inconsistent; some were better than others. Still a yummy snack, though:



By now, it was about 1am. My first ride priority was Pirates! We got there, showed our KTTW cards, and picked the right side. Walked right up and had to wait for just one boat. (The left side had zero wait). The ride was great, as usual. Although we did get a bit backed-up at the end.

Next up, it was time for a refreshment. After waiting in line for a bit (2nd longest line of the night was at Aloha Isle!) we split the Dole Whip Float that we'’d been craving:



Yum, yum! We took it over to the Haunted Mansion to consume while we waited in line. Yes, this was the longest line of the night. I think it was about 20 minutes. We finished the Dole Whip and still had some waiting to do. Here’'s the horseless carriage:



Enjoyed the Haunted Mansion, as usual. Even though we didn'’t see any footsteps on the stairways this time.

Next, it was time to cross the park to make our first attempt at Buzz. If you have been reading my last TR, you know that we were so bad at this game that we went online and found a “cheat” video, but we still couldn’'t get the coveted 999,999 score, even though we know the secret targets!

On the way over, we checked to see if the Lunching Pad was open, as we also had a cream cheese pretzel on our “would like to try” list. It was closed, though.

Buzz was a walk-on. We did pretty well for our first attempt of the night (Dug better than me):





We decided that, now that we were warmed up, we should try again. Walked right back on. Round two, we both did better, but Dug beat me again:





Dug’'s score was definitely the best we'’ve ever gotten!

At this point, it was about 2:30am and I was excited to see that the TTA was still going. I was also excited to see that it is now the “Peoplemover” again, just like when I was little:



We enjoyed our spin around the nicely lit-up Tomorrowland. We could see the track of Space Mountain pretty well when we went through. Love the Peoplemover!

Afterwards, Dug made me pose for a picture with my favorite little stand (love the aliens and the Claw!):



It was now about 2:45am, so time for another attempt at Buzz! Another walk-on. This time didn'’t go so well for either of us. Especially for me. My button didn'’t even depress. Sometimes, I could get it to shoot just by touching it right, but that was it! You can guess which score belongs to me:





Next, we headed straight over to Fantasyland to catch a ride with Pooh. Luckily, it was a complete no-liner, so we had time to jump on and bounce with Tigger!

Then it was off to Peter Pan. I love how the lines are zero for Peter Pan this late at night! We both love this ride!

By the way, we noticed that the characters were out riding things (Dumbo, Carousel) with little kids in Fantasyland at this late hour. We had this happen on our January trip, when Goofy rode Dumbo with us (he was in a car with a little girl) at nearly 2am. Dug asked me if I thought it made it less special to know that they apparently do this on all the late nights. As I watched a little girl walk by, hand-in-hand with Pluto, I said, "“No, I think it’s always special!”" What a great opportunity for character interaction for those little ones who are night owls!

After we got out of Peter Pan, there were only a couple minutes left until 3am. We decided to see if there might be one last showing of Mickey’'s PhilharMagic that we could get into. We asked the CM and she said no, the last one had just started. Another CM ran up, apparently overhearing, and sent us (and the two girls behind us) in. We all ran in, got our glasses, and plopped down in back. We caught most of the show. Glad the CM let us in, I love that show!

When the show was over, the MK was closed. We had decided to take our time leaving, to avoid any bus crowds, and to soak up the little details of the MK. The castle was pretty:



This is where the pictures start getting pretty silly. Keep in mind that it was after 3am, and I’'d worked half a day, driven 4 hours, flew to Orlando, and spent a few hours in the MK - because these are silly. We noticed the little character figurines and there was no one really around them. So I posed with them all:

















It'’s hard to see, but I also took a pic with the Walt and Mickey statue (and the castle) in the background:



At this point, we wanted to check if the Main Street Bakery was still open. We knew it was likely to be closed, but we thought it might be cool to get some goodies for tomorrow’'s breakfast. Not to be, it was closed. Oh, well.

Another thing I wanted to find (which was referenced in the Hidden Magic book) was the bench with Goofy on it. We'’d never seen it and couldn'’t find it now. The book said it was outside of City Hall. So, we went in and asked them about it. They weren'’t sure what we were referring to, but in a magical Disney way, they looked it up and found out that it was out being refurbed! Next time, I guess. I thought it was really nice of them to research our minor question.

As we stepped out, I heard some music that seemed to be signaling something. Then I remembered hearing about something called “"The Kiss Goodnight"”. They had talked about it on some of the WDW Today podcasts we listen to. They didn'’t describe it in detail, but we knew it was something that happened awhile after the MK closed. We ran over where we could see the castle. Sure enough, there was a little light show going on. Dug made me take a pic with the pretty castle in the background:



After a brief twinkling castle there was an announcement that was essentially the Magic Kingdom'’s way of wishing us a good night! Very cool - we didn'’t think we’'d be there late enough to catch that little bonus!

Before we left, I had to get a pic with Roy and Minnie:



We made our way out to the bus stops. Got right on an All Star bus. We realized immediately that we had a very “interesting” driver. I don'’t know if he'’s always like this, or if it’'s just when it gets near 4am. As we got on the bus, he was high-fiving everyone and saying, “"We'’re all all-stars!”" And much more. He couldn'’t quit talking the whole ride. He was usually funny. He said something like, “"No more pixie dust while driving for me!”" He was quite punchy; even said so himself. He did get a little questionable on a couple things, though. Like when he said, "“They only pay me $5 an hour, but I love my job!”" And definitely when he said something about "snorting pixie dust!"

On the way out, we were not the only ones who took pics of him:



Back at All Star Music, we hit that nice King bed immediately and were out!!!

Up next: Epcot and Via Napoli! And a hilarious Beverly incident at Club Cool!

 

[Dugette]

After our late night, we “slept in” this morning. Actually, Dug had been lobbying for being up for rope drop the night before, but when it came down to it, he was more than happy to savor the sleep for a bit longer. I say "“slept in"” because, although we got up at 10am, it was only maybe 6 hours of sleep. We woke to the sound of music coming from the pool area. They’re not kidding about All Star “Music” here, I guess.

We got ready and headed over to the food court for breakfast. It was raining on and off, so we grabbed our umbrellas.

I got a chocolate croissant and some cereal, Dug got Mickey waffles, and we split an orange juice:



Breakfast was pretty good. Afterwards, we wandered around to explore the resort a bit. We saw most of Music. However, with the rain, we decided not to go check out Movies and Sports, like we had planned. Plus, we wanted to get to Epcot at a reasonable time.

We got our park stuff and headed to the bus stop. Got on a bus to Epcot quickly and arrived around 12:45pm. We saw a Photopass photographer and had him take a picture of us in front of Spaceship Earth, so we could send it to our dog (and my dad and step-mom) for another update:



After that, our first priority was to make sure to snare Fast Passes for Soarin'’. We cruised on over there and were lucky to obtain Fast Passes, since they were getting towards the end of the day (6:18pm).

Since it was only a few minute wait, we decided to jump onto Living with the Land while we were there. It'’s a nice ride. So cool to see all the stuff growing there. And, really, I love any excuse to ride on a boat!

It was already hot out, so we decided to make our first visit of the trip to Club Cool. By this point, we knew what we liked. Both of us love the Costa Rican Fanta. We’'d buy it, if they sold it in stores here. Yummy! I also like the Chinese and Mexican drinks. The fruity ones, pretty much. I think Dug likes the Kinley? We both know to avoid the disgusting Beverly, despite our love of most things Italian.

While we were happily sipping our yummy drinks, a woman (talking on her cell phone) and her son (maybe 6-7 years old) walked up to use our machine. The woman grabbed a cup and said to her son, “"Oh, I remember this one’'s my FAVORITE!!! I LOVE it!!!”" and then proceeded to fill her cup with.......Beverly!!! Dug and I shared a look with each-other. But, sure enough, we had found one of the few people who genuinely loves Beverly! While she was blissfully drinking it, I swear she said, “"Mmmmmmm, sweet!”" So, of course, her little boy trusts his mom. Grabs a cup and fills it with Beverly. His mom is still on her cell phone, so I don'’t think she saw any of this, but I was watching the little boy out of the corner of my eye. He took a drink of the Beverly. Got a HORRIBLE look on his face. Went straight to the trash can and threw the whole glass away! Poor guy!!! I don'’t think his mom had a clue. When we left Club Cool, Dug and I were laughing hysterically about it!

Next, we headed over to see Captain EO. We were excited to see something “new” (old). We did have to do the obnoxious standing-for-a-long-time thing in the holding room, just like with Honey I Shrunk the Audience, but at least we were not subjected to advertising during it. Instead, we saw the original Captain EO pre-show movie. We had no idea that George Lucas had been involved with it! Cool!

We filed into the theater, took our seats, and put on our 3D glasses. We both really enjoyed this show! It was much longer than I thought it would be. Dug liked it so much that he wanted to see it again, if we had time (we didn'’t, but maybe in November, if it'’s still showing). Glad we got to see it, we recommend it!

On our last trip, we’'d wanted to go to the Disney Visa character meet-and-greet photo session, since I’'d just gotten a Disney Visa, but we weren'’t available during the time it was open. So, we headed over to Innoventions now, as we knew we were in the right time frame for it. However, we got there and found a LONG line!!! From the TRs I'’ve read, it seems like people usually don’t have to wait too long for this. But they told us that this line was at least 30 minutes long. We didn'’t have time to gamble on that if we wanted to have lunch at Via Napoli… - it was already pretty late. So, we had to skip it again. Add another thing to the November list, I guess!

It was time to get over to Italy, so we headed to the boat dock to wait for a Friendship Boat over to Germany. While we were waiting in the queue, an older couple strolled right in and squeezed by us and went ahead! Most people, including us, had been towards the left side of the queue, so this couple just walked right up on the right side, as if there were two lines. Dug said something like, “"This is the line!"” They said they just were moving up in case it got crowded (it was not crowded, but okay). They said they’'d still let us on the boat first (and they did). So, all was fine, just weird.

We sat outside, on the back bench of the boat. It had turned from a rainy morning into a beautiful afternoon! Dug took a lot of pictures from the dock/boat:



















We also saw the construction going on for the new restaurant in Mexico. Can'’t wait for that to open!:





We arrived in Germany and strolled over to Italy:



Via Napoli in the next post!