When we last left off with our princesses and piratess, they had set off for Adventureland since the piratess wanted to see a certain pirate again.
Now, after that set-up and the one in the previous installment, wouldn't it be terrible if we were never able to find said pirate? If we were left to wander all throughout Adventureland looking for the elusive,
wandering [see that nice tie-in to the title?] pirate, to no avail? And instead had to make do with a picture with a nonpirate in Tomorrowland?
And pictures in Fantasyland not only with a nonpirate, but a with thing that we could not even pretend is animate?
Wouldn't it be absolutely horrible if we missed Captain Jack entirely, despite our trek through Tomorrowland, Fantasyland, and back to Adventureland?
Yes, it would.
But let me present an alternate scenario: The Jiri of today, Trip Report Writer Jiri, does not remember the exact order of events during the Pirate and Princess Party that Jiri, Nevi, and Melneth experienced. Thus Today-Jiri is left to cobble the string of events together from Touring Plans, Times Guides, the order of select photos on her digital camera, and her belatedly written notes. Thus she doesn't know for sure when the above pictures "occurred"; Today-Jiri suspects that they, in truth, belonged in the previous installment. But then today's installment would be sorrily low on pictures. So she adjusts and fills in the gray bits the best she can.
And stops referring to herself in the third person on a long tangent she embarked upon solely to tease select impatient readers.
So we returned to Adventureland. I hoped to perhaps catch the Pirate Tutorial again since we hadn't seen it the whole way through earlier in the day.
Lo and behold, there was no Pirate Tutorial--but Captain Jack appeared with a handler, and we found ourselves descending upon a Captain Jack character greeting!
But to call it a "character greeting" now depresses me somewhat, since I was at Disney World and therefore letting my imagination rule and therefore to remind myself that Captain Jack wasn't
really Captain Jack (though of course the "real" Captain Jack is Johnny Depp pretending to be a character--evil word again!--named Captain Jack and isn't "real" to begin with) destroys that fantasy.
Anyway. Debates on the nature of reality aside, there is no DIS smiley that expresses my joy upon finding Captain Jack and handler, with a string of children before him.
So we queued up and allowed all the children to talk and smile with Captain Jack. I might have felt adjusted my ears a few times to ensure they weren't askew. I certainly dug out my camera in preparation, because though CJ appeared with a handler, there was no PhotoPass person. I feel sorry for all those who had forgotten their camera that night. Their only hope would have been that a companion had a spare slip of paper or napkin or something, a writing implement, and an uncanny skill at capturing the essence of CJ and whoever in about five seconds with only the paper and writing implement. A feat of which I am sure few are capable.
But I had my camera. And my ears. I was set.
Melneth agreed to be the picture-taker since she didn't have a strong desire to be in the picture. I think she was still working off her IASW satiation.
After we'd stood in the queue for about seven minutes, the handler, a late-fifites/early-sixties woman, which I thought an odd choice for a handler--or maybe not, if certain CJ fans were of a certain gender, age, and proneness to jealousy--came down the line. "Now," she told us, "Captain Jack is a wanderer. He likes to roam, so don't be surprised if he just ups and takes off."
Devastation must have shown on my face--er, the children's faces--because she continued: "You're welcome to follow him, and when he stops, you can talk to him and have your picture taken if you want. But he'll decide when to stop and where."
Having restored my--I mean, the children's--hope, the handler continued down the line to relay her message.
True to the handler's word, right after the young child in front of us had had his fill of Cap'n Jack and I'd given my camera to Melneth, Jack set off. Perhaps he had spied our beauty and, overcome, had to give himself time to recover. Or maybe the "wandering" bit was a means of crowd control--weed out those who don't
really want to see Jack and aren't willing to play Follow the Pirate.
But we were.
A brief comment on our footwear: Nevi had on a pair of maroon flip flops that matched her dress. Melneth had Celeste
Crocs. I had the infamous Hush Puppies clogs from the Soarin' incident. So we'd all opted for comfort rather than cuteness. Or at least compromised, since we didn't wear sneakers. Nevertheless, Nevi's flips had no arch support; Melneth's Crocs chafed her a little; and my Hush Puppies--well, comfort-wise they were fine, but all of us would suffer briefly from my shoe choice upon returning to the hotel room and my subsequent de-shoeing.
All that to say that while we had somewhat practical footwear, none of us were too keen on walking great distances, for various reasons.
But we followed after Jack.
He wove from side to side along the pathway. So did we. As did the more indulgent parents and progeny behind us. Jack paused to talk to children. I was too focused on my target to notice if the parents and progeny behind us ground their teeth at this favoritism. We paused when Jack did, but we did not speak to the children. It wasn't that kind of Follow the Pirate.
After what seemed like ten minutes of wandering but was probably closer to fiveish, Jack saw fit to engage me and Nevi in conversation (Melneth stayed a bit behind us so as to remain in a good picture-taking vantage point, so she was not included in the convo).
Jack to Nevi: Where are you from?
Nevi [Taking a Sparrowian drawl]: Texas.
Jack to me: And you're from Texas too?
Me [Attempting a Sparrowian drawl but instead just sounding offended]: Nooo. I'm from Colorado.
Jack: Oh. [Weaving a little from side to side] But you two know each other?
Nevi and me: Yes.
Nevi started to explain that we were college roommates, but Jack chose then to stop. We posed. Melneth took this picture:
And that was it. We didn't hang around to see how long it'd take the handler to announce that "Jack is a wanderer" or if his wanderlust would again be allowed to extend to the queue.
Instead, we headed for the castle to stake out our spot for the fireworks. Like CharlestonPrincess's son Connor, we expressed concern for Tinkerbell when she "flew" as fireworks were going off. But that's all I really remember, other than that there were flashing lights and I found them pretty.
I'm simple that way, and easily pleased.
We hung around for the second (and technically only) Dream Along With Mickey show. This one went off without a hitch or supposed injuries to Cast Members. Once Donald had successfully realized the importance of dreams, we returned to Mickey's Philharmagic. Still closed. So we went back to the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor, where we again did not submit a joke beforehand, but where again one of our party was selected for participation.
The spotlight shone on Melneth, and again on my elbow as it poked her in case she had failed to register the bright light radiating in her eyes or her visage on the JumboTron screen. I seem to have issues with trusting my friends to be the least bit observant.
That or I really like to show off my elbow on giant screens.
Boil Bradley or whatever the little monster is called had Melneth pick a number and say it while his "eyes were closed" so he "couldn't hear." He then had Melneth beam the number to him. Whereas Nevi's method of beaming was a moose-antler approach, Melneth's was more of a flashy motion with her fingers. Should Boil ever select me, I think my beaming method will be a full arm extension (advance apologies to whoever will be sitting in front of me; I have long arms) with opposing left arm/right arm waving. Somewhat similar to "swimming" in Pilates, only a little more fluid.
Anyway.
Melneth beamed her number to Boil. Boil's IQ or reception to beaming must have gone up in the hours we'd been away, because he got the number right this time.
Roz, being Roz, dumped him through the trapdoor nonetheless.
So after having helped Monstropolis stay powered for another night, we decided to call it a night ourselves. Tired but still exuberant, we decided to take the Monorail back to the TTC, and then we took the tram back to Pearl.
Though I don't think I mentioned in the last installment that we had to take the Tram from Pearl to the TTC entrance. But we did. So now you know, if you truly cared.
Pearl saw us safely back to the hotel and we reconfirmed since the next morning was our sleep-in day (well, for those of us capable of sleeping in, that is) we wouldn't set any alarms. We figured we'd maybe get breakfast somewhere if we felt like it, head to Downtown Disney to do the bulk of our trip shopping (the majority of our time in the parks occupied with touring), maybe eat a little lunch, and then head to DisneyQuest by 1ish.
After we'd each had our turn in the bathroom, it was lights out.
Guess who was the first one up in the morning.
Up Next: How DisneyQuest is like a Vision Quest.
If I don't forget and can think of a plausible tie-in, of course.
DSW! It's my favorite bricks-and-mortar shoe store. So much selection! I wouldn't call the shoes cheap, but it's good quality at usually a bit less than you'd pay elsewhere. 
I was still in bed and actually asleep when you posted that. 
), but this seems a bit much. Still, i'm glad you guys chose to follow him and got your pic! 
and no problem! 
Hard to motivate myself to do it.
