This freezing weather is crampin my style! A Dec 2010 TR

[disneyaddicted]

I'm lonely. tho lonely

 

[disneyaddicted]

Laundry on our first night in disney. A total first for me. But Lo wanted soft shirts and I wanted Lo to be happy.

We went down do the laundry room, I expected it to be empty but it wasn’t, the place was full as well as all of the washers, we had to wait a while for one to open up. We only needed one, that was all. And once one was free she popped her clothes in. She didn’t need to buy any laundry detergent, a nice lady had some left over and gave it Lo. Once we got the wash going we went and sat outside for a while.

It was cold and I got a lot of looks for having such a tiny baby outside in nothing but a thin receiving blanket. But nobody said anything, nobody had anything to say until we went back into the laundry room.

I said I was tired of holding the baby and laid her on the table. A lady asked me if I thought it was safe. I told her “Sure, she can’t roll over.” the lady raised her eyebrows and said “she’s awfully small.”

I could have kept it going, I wanted to keep it going but I knew it would be mean and maybe go in a direction I didn’t want it to. I know mothers can get pretty huffy when it comes to babies, even if the baby isn’t their own. That’s kind of how I met Lo initially. She had a fake baby at a football game and I over heard her tell somebody that she doesn’t like to put hats on the baby because it messes up his hair, and that his feet were just too cute to cover up with socks. I was about to lay into her about that when she told somebody else, the body has poly pellets in it and she give it weight by adding sand.

So any way I told the lady that the baby wasn’t real. Once people get over the shock of how real it looks then they ask the questions I hate.

“But why do you carry a fake baby around?”

I always feel like a nut job when they ask, so I tell them it’s advertisement for my friends business. I didn’t know if it would be frowned upon to advertise her business at Disney, so I said we were in Disney celebrating my birthday and the baby was my birthday gift from Lo.

Other people joined in on the conversation. One guy said Lo should make one and sell it to Johnny Knoxville.

Oh Please. Even Lo doesn’t want that kind of publicity. There was a couple in there and the lady wanted one because her kids were grown and moved out of the house. She wanted a baby to hold. And trust me, these babies feel so real. There is something comforting about holding a baby ya know.

We all discussed the baby and then eventually moved on to other topics, I love how friendly Disney people can be when you’re just hanging out. I really want to retire and live the rest of my life at Pop Century. You think I’m joking but I am as serious as a heart attack.

I met another Dis’er in there and for the life of me I can’t remember his name, I think it was Bill Sears and I am probably spelling it wrong too. But he was a nice guy and we talked about the DISboards and our favorite authors of TR’s.

Another lady came in to do laundry and saw Baby Rose on the counter, so I just said outright. “she’s a doll.”

The lady nodded and said “I know, and she’s so tiny.”

I should have said , no the baby is a fake but I just was so over the discussion of the fake baby that I just kept quiet and she just kept looking over at her and smiling, probably reminiscing about her own kids once being so small.

It took the clothes a long time to dry. I was tired and achy and just wanted to go to bed. There was no place to sit down in there so I laid down my jacket and sat on it. I was close to falling asleep when Lo said her clothes were done. So I helped her fold them. Everybody in there wanted to know where Lo had bought her shirts and were surprised to hear she made them. Why would they be surprised she painted a few Disney shirts when after all she had made a real looking baby doll. But whatever. WIth the clothes washed and folded I grabbed up Rosey. "C'mon baby we need to dip." we left.

We went up to the room and Lo put her things away. Then we crawled into bed. I had brought my little fan for white noise and she had brought her spa sound machine (purchased at my store with my friends and family discount. shameless plug) she said she always has it set to static. Yuck, that’s like falling asleep with the T.V. on, so she said we try the rain setting. I loved that machine and now want one for myself.

I called Kent to tell him about my first day. He seemed out of it, didn’t have much to say, just gave me a lot of one word answers and grunts that were supposed to pass for words. I later found out (after I got home) that he had just wrecked his truck a few hours earlier but didn’t want to tell me because he didn’t want me to be worried about it while I was supposed to be having fun at Disney. He was ok, nobody got hurt, but the side of the truck is all messed up, you can’t use those doors or windows. But anyhow, I figured he was just being a booger that night so I didn’t stay on the phone with him too long.

During the night I woke up because I had a surprise set for Lo. I had bought Disney stockings at the dollar store and decorated them with our names in puffy paint and collected a bunch of little doo dads to put in them. I filled the stockings in the bathroom so I wouldn’t wake her. I had lip gloss. (if you know me you know I am a lip gloss addict, possibley even a lip gloss hoarder, I know I have a problem but I refuse the help) Disney travel tissue, Minnie mouse lanyard, a wallet, bubbles, disney pen, little disney ceramic ornament, candy, bubba teeth and other dollar store junk. Then I tip toed back out into the room and laid them on the entertainment center for Lo to discover in the morning.

The next morning the alarm went off, Lo hit snooze but I got up and got showered. Lo got into the shower after me and then we got set getting ready for the day. Lo was walking by the entertainment when she spotted the stockings. Her eyes got big and she turned and smiled at me, “what’s this?”

I jumped up and down on the bed (that was fun too) “Santa came, Santa came.”

She got both stockings and handed me mine, we sat on our own beds and looked through them, of course I acted surprised with each thing I pulled out. I rushed through the whole experience. Lo took her time going through her stocking, she loved the wallet, it was one of those little credit card wallets she was loving that as she didn’t bring any wallet and all of her money and stuff was just floating free around her purse. So Santa did good by giving her that.

After we finished getting ready and tidying up the room, which that is another thing I loved about traveling with Lo, she needs the room to be in order and looking clean too. I hate a chaotic looking hotel room, it makes me feel out of control. My room at home can be disheveled and I’ll be fine, but my hotel room has to be neat and tidy with everything in it’s place, she is just as anal about that as I am.

We chose our outfits by the park we would be at, I think my shirt looked kind of Epcoty, don’t you agree?

This one was fun to paint because of the glitter.

It was kind of a waste in the end, it was always so cold I was never able to take off my jacket and show off my art work. Lo hardly ever wore a jacket, she kept saying the weather was perfect. She would be walking around in short sleeves and I would be wearing my sweatshirt and sometimes hers and still be shivering so hard I couldn’t see.

But anyway, Epcot was our choice park for that day.

 

[disneyaddicted]

Did you all see Lo's nails in the post of her and Baby Rosey? aren't they cute?

December 3rd, Epcot.

We walked down to the bus stop via the lobby and store. Again we were hit with a smashing long line. It was so long it ran outside of the windy chain line up guide.

We waited and waited, 20 minutes and 2 busses later we were standing on the bus to go to Epcot. It seemed to me that Disney was a little more crowded than normal. I had been in December before, the same week, and it didn’t seem so crowded. But then again, I always had a park hopper and avoided the park that had EMH because they were rumored to be crowded. Lo and I didn’t get the park hopper so we planned our trip around EMH park days, so that could explain the crowdedness. The crowds did taper off after the weekend too. So who knows.

We were going through bag check as the rope dropped. I swear I could hear the mob of people running to Soarin.

Once inside I wanted to get a picture of Lo “holding” up the Epcot ball, I love pictures like that. I kept telling her, “left hand up, further, further, tilt it towards me, nope too much, wait hold that.”

Even after I had taken the picture I kept telling her to move her hands up or down, I just wanted to see how long she would stand there and let me boss her around. Hehehe
Lo liked the picture and for the rest of the day every time we would pass by the ball she would put her hands up in there and “hold” the ball.

Oh and “hold the ball.” that’s what she said

I love the office and I can’t help but say “That’s what she said.” poor Lo would say something in innocence but it would be too good to pass up, so “That’s what she said.” or TWSS.

It got to the point that Lo would say something and then right away say, “I know, TWSS.”

We walked to Soarin and the wait was 90 minutes. I don’t wait for rides, not if they have a fast pass. So we got FP’s with a return time of 11:30am. Then we went over to the Figment ride, I know it’s not called that but I can never remember what it is called. But it’s the boring let’s talk about your 5 senses ride. OK I shouldn’t call it boring, I will say outdated. Lo had never been on it and she wanted to do everything she missed, so we had to do it.

She didn’t like the skunk blast to the face, but seriously that was roses compared to what I have to smell during Kents trapping season. I always know when he gets a skunk too, I can smell it when I’m coming up through the hollow. He knows how to skin them without breaking the sack, but still, it stinks. Some days I beg him to let it go if he gets one. I can only take the smell for so long, but anyway, that’s off topic.

When the ride was over we played with the music maker things for a while. We totally coordinated an awesome routine and made beautiful music.

Then we soared around the castle, not on the soarin ride, it wasn’t time for that yet. But we soared with the magic of Kodak.

We waited a long time to do this, there was a family in front of us and it took a while to get them all situated, and the photographer was training so it was really slow moving. There were actually 2 families in front of us but the one dipped out because it was taking so long. But Lo and I are patient ladies, no worries. We had the rest of the day, plus it was EMH and we still had another Epcot day planned.

It was our turn and I had to lay down on a green box in front of a green screen, maybe I shouldn’t explain how it’s done, it might take away from the magic. OK never mind, I didn’t lay down on a green box, instead I had pixie dust sprinkled on me and off I went soaring around the castle. It was extremely cold up there since I had left my jacket in Epcot, but once the numbness took over and I got over my fear of heights it turned out to be a grand time. Lo joined me in the flight and so did Mickey Mouse.

When we got back we paid for our adventure and had our keepsake photo sent to our resort.

It was close to 11:00am now so we decided to have an early lunch at the electric umbrella. We were the first ones in there. We ordered the chicken tenders, fries, coke. I got the strawberry cheesecake and Lo got a cookie. She doesn’t like cheesecake, what a weirdo huh?


The food was good, we ate slow and enjoyed the quiet and calmness of the place. It was nice to be out of the cold and away from the crowd. Lo used the time to call home there were some issues going on back home with Lo’s youngest son, he had been sick for a while and had to go back to the Dr. they were testing him for whooping cough, but she wouldn’t get the results until the following week, so she was worried about him and calling to check on him frequently. They were treating him for whooping cough until the results came back.

Once we finished eating and cleaned our mess, (I am a messy eater according to Lo) we took our drinks with us for the long walk back to Soarin. I discovered very fast that it was too cold to be sipping soda outside. I tossed mine in the first trash I saw.

On the way to Soarin we saw the Jamiters. I have read about them for years but had never had the good luck of seeing them, then voila, there they were, I thought they were janinters, they were pushing trash cans, but then they stopped and starting setting them up, I got excited and grabbed Lo, "It;s the jamiters, we have got to watch them." I videoed them with my phone and sent it to Lo's oldest Son Holdan, he was the drummer in my sons band before he moved to Vegas. This kid (I say kid but he's 21) is always tapping or banging on something, I knew he would love the video. Texted back right away, "cool"

When it was done we continued on to Soarin.

 

[mom3sonstt]

Then they would talk about POC and Michael would ask again

“Are you happy?”

There is a young man that I see at the grocery store periodically that does the same thing. Everybody he sees as he goes up and down the aisles he asks if they are happy. He doesn't follow up with "Why are you happy" though. He just asks if you're happy, and if you answer yes he'll say "I'm happy too" then he's on to the next person. I would say this guy is probably in his 20's He's usually with another young man - and they don;t usually have a cart. Sometimes we'll see them eating at the little restaurant inside the store. In the aisles it looks like they just pick up a few things. It must be more of a fun outing than a major shopping trip for them.

 

[princess_reject]

Don't feel lonely...I'm here

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

That's a very sweet story about the autistic man and his mother.

MK on parade day!

 

[MAGICFOR2]

Seriously dude? Let me believe the lies I tell myself K?

I love it. Like you seriously thought someone was juicing pineapples while you wait and he just had to set you straight!

I loved the "When Harry met Sally" moment, too!

You two are so much fun together. I love the way you decided to just experience Disney as it should be experienced. I love to take lots of pics, but I think sometimes our efforts to get the perfect scrapbook or the perfect TR make us forget to stop and make the memories. Thanks for the reminder!

 

[disnic75]

Ty, I love your trip reports! You are a riot! I love your sick sense of humor with the baby. Can't wait for more!

 

[ericamcl]

Just checking in to let you know I'm here for the ride

My next trip isn't until September so I'm going to have to live vicariously through you.

Also, are you or Lo looking for a "side job" - I seriously need a couple of those fantastic shirts!!

 

[disneyaddicted]

There is a young man that I see at the grocery store periodically that does the same thing. Everybody he sees as he goes up and down the aisles he asks if they are happy. He doesn't follow up with "Why are you happy" though. He just asks if you're happy, and if you answer yes he'll say "I'm happy too" then he's on to the next person. I would say this guy is probably in his 20's He's usually with another young man - and they don;t usually have a cart. Sometimes we'll see them eating at the little restaurant inside the store. In the aisles it looks like they just pick up a few things. It must be more of a fun outing than a major shopping trip for them.

Isn't that the sweetest thing?

There's a young man who comes into our store about twice a month. He's always happy and every time he comes in he is buying a present for somebody and always gets it gift packaged. He fill out the card while I wrap the package and then he tells me, or whoever is doing the package that this is going to make the person happy.

Don't feel lonely...I'm here

Thank you.

That's a very sweet story about the autistic man and his mother.

MK on parade day!

They were so sweet together. The Mom was very involved in Michael and so patient, she answered his question of "Are you happy?" each time as if it was the first time he had asked it.

MK on parade day is so right. But if you avoid main street it's not so bad.

Seriously dude? Let me believe the lies I tell myself K?

I love it. Like you seriously thought someone was juicing pineapples while you wait and he just had to set you straight!

I loved the "When Harry met Sally" moment, too!

You two are so much fun together. I love the way you decided to just experience Disney as it should be experienced. I love to take lots of pics, but I think sometimes our efforts to get the perfect scrapbook or the perfect TR make us forget to stop and make the memories. Thanks for the reminder!

Yea, really. the guy felt the need to proffesor me in dole whips.

Lo was so when Harry met Sally, when it came to the dole whip. People stared.

I'm glad I didn't get caught up in the picture taking this time, it really relaxed the vacation, surprising huh? But I know I'm gonna be all about the pictures when I take my trip with my sister and mom, I'll try not to be as crazy, but it will probably be the first and last time my sister and I go together.

Ty, I love your trip reports! You are a riot! I love your sick sense of humor with the baby. Can't wait for more!

thank you. I'm glad you like my TR's. I just wish I could explain better how things happened ya know. I wish you all could laugh as hard as Lo and I did.

Just checking in to let you know I'm here for the ride

My next trip isn't until September so I'm going to have to live vicariously through you.

Also, are you or Lo looking for a "side job" - I seriously need a couple of those fantastic shirts!!

Hi thanks for checking in.

Your next trip is September? Lucky. I will then be living vicariously through you until my next trip, which by the way is now in December again. I talked to my Mom and Sister and they would like to see Disney all Christmasy and hopefully they will offer free dining again.

Side job? hmmmm. PM me.

 

[disneyaddicted]

Soarin. My all time favorite at Epcot. It changes though, because when I am on Mission space, that ride becomes my favorite. So maybe I have two favorites.

I love Soarin, but I don’t like the walk to Soarin, it just seems like the location isn’t put together that well. The stairs going down to it are always jammed, and that is to be expected for such an A list attraction, but the stairs don’t have to be crammed half as bad if parents would pick up their small child and carry them down, or up the stairs. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s precious that 2 year old Susie wants to walk like a big girl down the stairs by herself, and honestly I wouldn’t mind waiting and walking slow behind her. But I have to worry about the impatient people behind me who don’t understand the concept of personal space. I don’t like feeling this guys beer gut on my back, or my neck getting sweaty from his hot breath as he huffs and puffs. Maybe if I didn’t have a problem with crowds or closed in spaces this wouldn’t bother me so much, but I dread the stairs leading down to Soarin, that’s all.

What I do love is the FP. We walked right up to the front and had maybe a 5 minute wait. I enjoyed listening to the yuppies in front of us. I call them yuppies because I don’t know what else to call them. They were over dressed for Disney. The man in a sports jacket, the 2 ladies in heels. (ouch) I guess I shouldn’t judge, that could totally be what they feel the most comfortable in. It was their conversation of how smart they were compared to the rest of the world that had me tuned in. I like listening to others conversations, if you don’t want me to hear, then don’t talk so loud. But they were smarter than their kids teachers at school. And smarter than their childrens pediatrician. According to them nobody else knew anything. I must have heard the one lady say at least 20 times. “That teacher/Doctor/coach/psychologist didn’t know anything.”

I don’t know if Lo was listening to them and decided to give them a shock, or if she was just trying to embarrass me, but out of the blue she said, and quite loud, “We should push our beds together tonight.”

I have tried time and time again to embarrass Lo, to shock her, but the woman is tough and nothing phases her. But man can she make me choke on my own spit.

The line got quiet, I think they were waiting for my response. I was caught off guard on that one and had no quick comeback. All I could do was stare at her and I am sure I must have had a horrid look on my face because she laughed at me. And that was that.

I was quietly praying for a no foot view. So when we got up there and told the CM how many in our party I was ecstatic when she told us to stand in lin one . Yay! No smelling feet in my face. I told Lo we got a no foot view, she wasn’t sure what I was talking about and I explain, we were front row, we wouldn’t have dangling feet in our view. I mean I have had the foot view before and once you’re up soarin you forget about it, but a no foot view is like being in the cool group at school. You get the best table in the cafeteria and all that good stuff.

In we go to soar. We had the sweetest spot, almost dead center of the screen. I took my shoes off because I like the feeling of soaring in my stocking feet.
We get all strapped in then the glider lifts us up above the clouds. This ride brings out emotional feelings, I don’t know why, but it makes me so happy I could cry. My Mom did cry on this the first time she rode it, just misty tears but still, she felt it. The music is pretty and the scenery is pretty. I didn’t smell the pine this time, but I did smell the oranges. Maybe they were out of pine to pipe in. I finally saw the hidden mickey in the mountains, for just a brief second the boulders are a mickey head, I screamed to Lo, (yes screamed) “Hidden Mickey on the rocks” (kind of sounds like an alcholic drink doesn’t it?)

But Lo missed it, she also missed the hidden mickey on the golf ball. But as we soared the magic of Disney slowly crept up on me. Ahh there it is. For a while I was starting to feel broken, like Disney couldn’t provide that magic feeling for me anymore, like I was going to have to fake it for the rest of my life.

As we soared over the river rafters Lo said, “Let’s kick them all in the head and then tip over the kayaker.”

The guy next to me bust out laughing and actually pointed his foot to kick the rafters, he even made a noise as he pretended to kick each one.

The end came too fast as it always does, and with the fireworks exploding over the castle and tinkerbell flying by I let a few tears escape.
The glider lowered us back down to the ground and I told Lo that the wind blowing in my face always makes my eyes water. I wasn’t crying, really.

I put my shoes on grabbed my bag and then we high tailed it out of there stopping on the way out to grab another FP.

It was Lo’s idea to do living with the land. I had only done it once, and that was back when I went to Epcot with my Aunt Mikki and Uncle Keith when I was a sophomore in high school. I think I wrote about it in a pre trip report a couple years ago. I met a surfer guy there named Duffy. Anywhoo, I remembered seeing mickey head tomatoes. I being a teenager thought the ride was boring but since I wanted to do new and different things on this trip I said sure let’s go. The wait was 0. We walked right on and were seated in the first row of the boat.

I will honestly say that I have been a dummy to not have done this ride on any of my other trips. I really liked it. It didn’t bore me this time. I found myself wishing I had done this ride when I had taken my trip with my Mom the year before, she would have liked this ride too. It is at the top of my list for my next trip. My sister Bo who is a green thumb is going to eat this ride up. I see us doing this ride a couple of times so Bo can take notes.

What I didn’t see on this ride was the Mickey head tomatoes. I had my camera ready for this, but it never came. I did love the 9 pound lemon, it looked a bit shriveled but whatever. I think Kent would really enjoy this ride too. He has a huge garden every year and is always trying to come up with some new idea for his vegetables to grow bigger.

After that we visited the coldest bathroom in all of Epcot. You’d think being Epcot, the park of the future, they would at least have come up with a way to have warm toilet seats. I’m just sayin. Thank God the seats weren’t metal, that could have been catastrophic. Picture the scene from the Christmas Story, only instead of a tongue being stuck to a pole, it would be…well…I’ll just let you create your own visual.

We went over to Test Track and the posted wait time was 60 minutes, we weren’t able to get a FP yet because of our soarin FP. So we went over to mission space. Lo refused to do the orange side. She had done the green side first during her April trip and called me to ask how the orange side would be. I told her the orange side was the best, they do spin the carp out of you but it doesn’t last long. So she went on the orange side and I got another phone call from her, she was divorcing me as her friend. She had never felt so close to death as she did that day on the Orange side.

So on this December day she said no way to the orange and still was a bit hesitant for the green. I told her we could skip it, but she pulled up her big girl panties then after picking her wedge from hoisting the panties a little too high, we got our card for the green side and ventured in.

Lt. Dan came on the screen. “Yummy.” Lo said loud enough for the whole room to hear.
We listened to our mission. Then moved on to the next room and got our position assigned to us. Lo and I would be traveling with a Dad and his teenage son. I was a bit weary of this I mean I was putting my life into these strangers hands.
I don’t remember my job title, all I know was I was supposed to push a button and release the thrusters or something. Lo didn’t do her job at all, only because I took over, it took her too long to push the buttons and stuff. “Lo there is no time to hesitate.”

The teen boy was supposed to push the button for hyper sleep and he didn’t, “Push the button, Lo yelled, I’m tired I need a nap.”

When we overshot our landing Lo blamed me. “OMG! WTH? My BFF”
(I speak fluent IM)

Did I like the green side? It was fun, but I prefer the orange. I’ve said it before, I am a glutton for punishment.

When the ride was over we went out and sent some space e-mails to her family. I didn’t bother sending any to my family because my computer would never be able to open something so fun. My computer is a fun sucker.

We also browsed a bit in the shop. I was tempted to buy some space ice cream but passed, maybe if it weren’t so expensive.
I also was very tempted to buy a Chewbacca book bag, it was the fuzzy creature himself and would look like I was carrying him on my back. What a great Disney purse that would make. I passed on it for the time being.

We were able to get FP for TT by then, so we did and then we went into one of the innovations. I get them confused, but it was the one with Storm Struck.

We passed by it and we could hear it. “This one is loud, if it’s loud it’s got to be fun, ooohh and it has glasses so it’s 3-D, even more fun.”
So we grabbed glasses and got in line.

I paid attention to the video they showed while we were in line. Lo was face booking. I was sure she was missing some pertinent information but whatev!

It was time for us to go in and we got seats in the front row. Again I feel special, I’m in the cool crowd and have that coveted cafeteria table.

I have always skipped over the innovations part of Epcot and just went for the rides. All this time I was missing out on cool stuff.

Storm Struck was great. A lot of fun for something so educational. It was neat to be so up close to a storm but still be safe. It felt pretty real too, the water spurt to the face was not so nice.

I thought I knew it all when it came to rebuilding a stronger structure, I paid attention to the video before hand, but alas, I did miss one thing. I think my mom is going to enjoy this one too.

The whole trip Lo was taking notes for her next family trip, there was a lot they didn’t do and she kept saying how much they would love this or love that. I was doing the same thing for my future trip with my mom and sister.

After Storm Struck we ventured further in and I saw Sum of all thrills. I have been wanting to do this forever. We got in line. There was only a 15 minute wait. That surprised me. I thought people would be lined up for miles to create their own coaster.

We were each given a card and then sent into a briefing room. I was nervous, my math skills stink, I thought for sure we would end up designing a dud. We then went on to our designated design table. I was afraid we wouldn’t have enough time to finish our coaster. We knew we wanted fast, and upside down, and steep hills. It was really easy and we finished it with time to spare. We gave it a stupid name like thunder Eagle or something equally as lame. They give you words to choose from and put together, it would be so much cooler if we could just make up our own name from our own choice of words. The possibilities of great names would be endless. We had a few, but none that I can post.

We climb up some steps, put our stuff in a locker, then climb into our cabin thingy for our virtual coaster ride. I felt a little sick and Chlosterphobic at first when they closed me up in it. But then I could see Lo’s face on my screen, she was sticking her tongue out at me and making gross noises. What a lady, but I did the same thing back at her, cause I’m a lady too.

I knew we would get a virtual ride with a bit of simulation, but I never expected it to feel like I was on a real roller coaster, it was so amazing, and I screamed my head off. Lo and I did a danged good job designing that thing and we would be willing to sell our design to Disney for a small fee, it wouldn’t even have to be a monetary fee, it could just be a free vacation at Disney when ever we felt like it. I would even pay my own airfare.

We got to keep our cards too because you can take it home and view it on your computer. Well most people can, I can't because my computer is a fun sucker! I think I've said that before.

After that Lo and I decided to go back to the resort to rest and then comeback in the evening to use our fast passes for Soarin and Test Track.
We were wavering from our original plan but no worries, we knew it would all work out in the end.

So we headed to the bus stop and waited a few minutes for a bus to come. We actually got to sit for once. it was nice. The bus was full, but nobody had to stand.

Back at Pop we walked through the store and mentally made future purchases. I saw something I wanted for my car and couldn't wait to buy it.

It seems like we always heard the same 2 songs when walking to our room."I'm getting nothing for Christmas," and "I want a hippopotomous for Christmas." (I no longer enjoy those songs) I swear they would see us coming and play the songs on purpose.

We got to the elevator, and the closer we got to the room, the more tired I felt, I couldn't wait for jammies and a nap. We stepped into the elevator and stood there talking about how good a nap is going to feel and what time we should set the alarm for and whether or not we should eat dinner at Epcot or eat at Pop. The elevator was taking forever and then we realized duh! we forgot to push the floor level button...again.

SO once in the room, we raced to get our jammies on and then we crawled into our beds. I turned on my fan and Lo turned on her white noise and with the curtains drawn making it black as night in there we talked for a few minutes then fell asleep.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

I have always skipped Innovations but you make it sound really fun!

 

[disnic75]

Lt. Dan came on the screen. “Yummy."

 

[MAGICFOR2]

HIDDEN MICKEY ON THE ROCKS! Had me LOL! (I can't get the regular reply to come up so I'm using the boring quick) Where is that tag fairy??? There are so many good ones in this update!

I love the orange side, too. I haven't done much Innovations, either - that Sum of all Thrills looks really cool! congrats on constructing a great ride!

I was bored to tears on Living with the Land in 1997, so we haven't done that one again, either. Maybe we should give it another chance?

I'm guessing you slept through dinner and had to get a snack at the QS???

 

[All7OfUs]

What a great update, Ty!! All of it!


I confess that the land ride is one of my faves- I even did the seeds tour on my last trip. It was amazing in there- and they grow things that seriously should only be in Eden.

Orange side all the way- once. More than once, and I'd need the puke bags they liberally give out.

Dark as night has me very worried...

 

[disneyaddicted]

I have always skipped Innovations but you make it sound really fun!

Oh it's a whole new world in there, so much fun. Give it a try next time.

Oh yeah, it seems to be unanimous. Lt Dan is a hottie hottie hot hot.

HIDDEN MICKEY ON THE ROCKS! Had me LOL! (I can't get the regular reply to come up so I'm using the boring quick) Where is that tag fairy??? There are so many good ones in this update!
It does sound like a a alcoholic drink doesn't it? I may have to concoct something and call it that. Although my mom says it sounds more like a "Date" drug. But I'm not going to think of it that way. I'll come back with a recipe for a Hidden Mickey.
I love the orange side, too. I haven't done much Innovations, either - that Sum of all Thrills looks really cool! congrats on constructing a great ride!
Yay! Go big Orange!

Sum of all thrills was so much fun, I kep tthinking all day, "I just rode a coaster of my own design.
I was bored to tears on Living with the Land in 1997, so we haven't done that one again, either. Maybe we should give it another chance?

I'm guessing you slept through dinner and had to get a snack at the QS???

Well ya know, I forgot to mention we only had the QSDP, so sleeping through dinner was never an issue, now worries, just eat late.

What a great update, Ty!! All of it!

Thanks so much lady.
I confess that the land ride is one of my faves- I even did the seeds tour on my last trip. It was amazing in there- and they grow things that seriously should only be in Eden.
It really is a great ride, I only did it that one time but can't wait to go again. My sister would love the behind the seeds tour, I should look into that for her.
Orange side all the way- once. More than once, and I'd need the puke bags they liberally give out.
I could do the orange side a few times. I have used the barf bag in the past. on my very first trip on Mission space back in 06, I took the barf bag home with me to use in my scrap book, it was awesome for journaling the experience,
Dark as night has me very worried...

This was a no worries trip, so dark as night...no worries

 

[NancyLuvsMickey]

Finally made it here... Sorry I'm late...

Loving the TR so far and can't wait to hear more about it!!!

And the pic of you modeling your black "epcot" mickey shirt, it looks like you've lost even more weight... Keep up the good work!!!

And I hope you and Kent have found the magic again... Don't wanna lose your night in shining armor...

And don't want to be too nosy, but what's Jim doing now??? Was he ever able to get into the Coast Guard or Navy or anything???

 

[disneyaddicted]

Finally made it here... Sorry I'm late...
No worries, I'm glad you made it over though.

Loving the TR so far and can't wait to hear more about it!!!
I'm slowly pulling my next update together
And the pic of you modeling your black "epcot" mickey shirt, it looks like you've lost even more weight... Keep up the good work!!!
I have lost more weight, thank you for noticing. I seriously need to get back to my healthier ways, the holidays bring oo many good foods
And I hope you and Kent have found the magic again... Don't wanna lose your night in shining armor...
We are working on it, it gets a little better with each day.
And don't want to be too nosy, but what's Jim doing now??? Was he ever able to get into the Coast Guard or Navy or anything???

Unfortunatley Jim isn't able to get into any branchof the military. So for right now he is applying for jobs around here and in the spring he is moving in with my sister in Michigan, she can get him a job at her work place and he will start community college there in the fall, probably something having to do with music.

 

[disneyaddicted]

Sleep felt so good. I didn’t know exactly how tired I was until my head hit the pillow.

When the alarm went off I felt good to go, I wasn’t tired anymore, just lazy. I wanted to jump up and get ready but instead I stayed in bed and text messaged a few people. Finally hunger won out over laziness and I got up and got ready for the night.

I redid my hair as best I could and freshened up the war paint. I added a long sleeve shirt under my T-shirt for some extra warmth, grabbed my hoodie, actually it was Jim’s hoodie, it was black and I needed a black one since Marzi has yet to return the one I lent her last year. so I borrowed Jim’s from him. You can barely see the little gray skulls on it. I also grabbed some gloves and then Lo and I headed out the door.

We did our usual stand around in the elevator without pushing buttons for a while, then once we were on the ground floor I followed Lo out the door. Usually it was Lo following me, but sometimes I would let her lead, she never knew where she was going, I would follow with a smile until we ended up in the parking lot or by the pool. Then I’d ask, “where are you going?”

“This is why I follow you, I have no idea where I’m going.”

Poor Lo, several times she was ready to go back to the room and I wasn’t and she would end up getting lost. I’d get a text from her. “Lost” So I would call her and walk her through the steps of getting back to the room. She never did figure her way around Pop.

We cut through the lobby and the store. “I want a hippopotamus for Christmas.” was playing. It brought on the question, why?
Why would you want a hippo for Christmas? Giraffes are so much cooler. Think of all the neat stuff you could do with a giraffe as opposed to a hippo.

We discussed this for a bit, we really did.

There was a line for the Epcot bus. We had to stand on the bus for the ride to Epcot.

When we got off the bus at the park I was hit with the cold. I regretted coming back, we had another park day planned for Epcot I really wanted to be back at the resort in a warm bed and I felt a crankiness come over me.

Then when we were going up to the line for bag check a couple of boys came rushing past us, they didn’t bump into us but they did bump into an elderly woman, not a frail elderly woman, but still. They shouted back “Sorry.” and kept running. The lady gave them a look of disgust and sighed loudly. Well the mother of those boys went off on the elderly lady. “They said sorry, be the adult and let it go.”

The elderly lady defended herself. “I didn’t say anything to them.”

“No, but I saw the look you gave them.”

“Yea, just a look, that’s all.”

“Well they are kids and they are excited.”

The elderly lady left the line and went to another line, but this young mother followed her over to that line and kept going at it telling her that Disney is a place for kids and if you don’t like kids don’t come to Disney, You’re the grown up, you should set an example, don’t cause a scene etc…etc… Finally other people piped up and told the young mother that it was she who was making a scene and to just knock it off.

It got me and Lo to talking, how often in the real world do you see things like this play out? You can find the friendliest people at Disney World and strike up a conversation in about any line about any subject, (always leading off with Disney)
You don’t see much of that at your local Mall or walmart.

Then on the other hand, people will argue and fight over the dumbest thing at Disney World. Like waiting for a bus or you gave me/my child a dirty look. I very seldom see that behavior anywhere else. And I spend more time in the real world then I do at Disney so hmmmm? Makes ya think.

Of course working in retail, I see a lot of idiotic behavior.

But anyway, we moved on from that mess and went on to finger scans then on into the park. The first thing we did was go use our FP for TT.

We walked right on, almost. We were in the viewing room, where we get the lowdown on what tests they plan to run, Lo and I were right next to the door. We didn’t plant ourselves there, it’s just how things flowed into the room. But 2 teenage girls squeezed by us, I mean they had to suck it in to get by the door.

Lo gave me a look. “They are cutting aren’t they?”

I nodded, we laughed because, really? Test Track is that important?

The doors opened up and the 2 girls took off running, Lo and I walked at our leisurely pace and wouldn’t you know it, the line cutters are really no further ahead. We are all designated to ride in the same car. They would get the front, but so?

“Hey Lo?”

“What?”

“When your kids first started elementary school, did they come home with really fascinating rhymes, like no cuts, no butts, no coconuts?”

Lo laughed, we could be just as immature as line cutting teenagers, only we could be a little more discreet about our immaturity.

We got into our car, and of course Lo and I being discreetly immature agreed that we were going to be “scared” of this ride. So right as the car moves, we lean forward and SCREEEEEAAAAAAAMMMMMM!

And we kept screaming, we screamed until we couldn’t scream anymore. It was fun, even though I started out screaming just to be annoying, it ended up being such a free feeling, I usually work hard to control my screams and giggles on a ride, I won’t ever do that again! Yelling your head off as you fly around at top notch speed, that is major fun. I recommend it.

Oh hey speaking of screaming in cars. Once I was out with Lo, she was driving in her big ole Ford Explorer and a ground hog ran out into the road. Lo pulls her legs up (like it was actually going to touch her feet) takes her hands off the steering wheel and covers her head as she screams. So I’m screaming at her to take the wheel and the truck is all over the road. I thought I was going to die that day.

Alright, ride being over we left and checked out some cars on the way out, I saw a few I would love to own, and once I win the lottery it shall be so.

We went into MouseGears. They were doing some kind of construction around there. They had walls up, but the place smelled like an outhouse.
We browsed, we didn’t make any purchases. But we saw a lot of things to think about.

It was around 8:00pm so we went into the Electric Umbrella again for another dose of fast food. Lo took my order and went up to get the food. My leg was really swollen at this point and the skin burned. So I popped a couple of pills and put my leg up on a chair. I called my Mom and we were able to talk for a long time. I felt bad sending Lo off into such a long line, I would have stood with her if I could.

After almost 15 or more minutes Lo was back with our food, she even stopped and got all the condiments, she knows I love Mayo on my fries, my good friend got that for me too.

Our food was cold, not even luke warm but cold. I ate it anyway I was that hungry. It wasn’t until I finished my burger that Lo said, “I always worry about getting poisoned or catching worms from cold food.”

I wasn’t thinking about that until she spoke it, then all of a sudden I felt sick. it’s like the opposite of a placebo effect, if you believe it, it will work. Well all of a sudden I believed that I had food poisoning, I was ready to hurl. So then I had to counteract it with some more positive thinking.

Peppermint calms the stomach so I started chewing on some trident and sipping my soda slow while chanting in my mind, it’s all in your head. It worked, my tummy went back to normal. I was even able to eat my cheesecake.

Lo was ready to head back out, I wasn’t ready to face the cold yet. Our plan was to use our FP for Soarin then head back to the resort. But we changed our plans, since we were already out later than we had anticipated, we should stay and watch Illuminations and then on our next Epcot day do the countries and call it an early day.

So we tossed our trash and headed over to watch Illuminations, we didn’t have a good viewing spot and it was freezing cold waiting for that show to start. Lo kept saying we needed to be closer to the lake, I kept saying we were fine where we were at. I was too scared to venture into that crowd. I needed to hang back.

But once it started I realized Lo was right, we did need to be closer. We could see the fireworks, but we could barely see the earth part of it. So halfway through we gave up and decided to change our plans again almost back to the original plan.

We went to soarin and yay got a no foot view again. This time Lo saw all the hidden mickeys and kept yelling, “hidden Mickey.” I know she meant to say she saw a hidden Mickey on the golf ball, but with her excitement it came out a little backwards.
“I saw Mickeys hidden b---.”

I laughed my behind off, “TWSS”

When the ride was over we decided to head back to the resort. We got to Spaceship Earth and thought since there wasn’t a line we should pop on it real quick. We also heard the CM tell the people behind us that the park was open till 1:00am. We changed our plans again.
Spaceship earth was great, it was warm, it was relaxing, it was just what we needed.

I haven’t been on it since they added the take your picture part and show it to you at the end in a little cartoon. If I had known I was going to be put into a little story I would have never made a face in the picture to begin with.

I laughed so hard I choked. It was so funny, I should have taken a picture.---of the picture

After that we changed our plan of going back to the resort and decided to go see Capt EAO. We really did more walking than what was necessary. But with plans constantly changing what can ya do?

We got to Captain EAO just as the preshow was starting, I had warned Lo about the 20 minute Kodak commercial they show first, but Disney made a liar out of me and showed a “Making of” Captain EAO instead. It was good, but once it was over Lo asked if we should even go into the theater since they practically showed us the whole movie in the preshow. We decided we should go into the theater because we wanted to see it in 3-D.

We held back a bit when entering, we did that for all the shows, they tell you to move all the way to the end, and where as most people don’t listen and they stop once they hit the middle, we did listen, and we would move to the end, so by holding back and not being the first into the theater we were able to get seats closer to the middle without breaking any Disney rules.

We were so lucky to get to be able to sit in front of the guy who thought he was the funniest man in the world. You all know the kind, the one that speaks really loud and laughs at his own jokes.

He would not shut up, if he were funny it might not have annoyed me so much. I couldn’t take it any longer.

“OMG, you are so funny, keep talking.”

He did, Lo turned to me, “Your sarcasm has backfired in the worst way.”

I knew I needed to turn my sarcasm up to uber sarcasm, or to I’m so sarcastic now I’m bound to get slapped.

He said something else, it wasn’t funny enough to remember, but I laughed hard and loud, and even pretended to wipe tears from eyes, “Am I the only one who finds him this funny?” then people started laughing at me and my sarcasm and the guy behind me got the point. Not for long though, he was back at it, but he made a huge mistake, he started making fun of Michael Jackson and you just don’t do that in Lo’s presence. She whipped around and gave him the mothers stare, the kind only a mother can do, the kind that lets her kid know, one more word and it’s lights out for you.

We enjoyed the show in silence. And when it was over we clapped loud and called encore. There would be no encore, unless we went again. We thought we could time it so we wouldn’t have to stand through the preshow again. Maybe a trip to the coldest potty in the world would take up some time.

I was freezing when I went into the potty and frozen when I came out if that makes sense.

There was a vendor selling hot roasted almonds. They smell so good, Lo was sniffing the air.

I agreed they smelled delicious, “All I would love to do is hold that sack of warm nuts in my hands.”

It was a day of TWSS, and I had accidentally walked into this one. I was expecting Lo to call me on this one, but she looked horrified. “I don’t think even she’d say that.”

The laughter was uncontrollable, I had just gone to the potty but I still had to cross my legs as to not pee myself. “Yes, she would, she would totally say that.”

It was time to call it a night, we were slap happy. We agreed that we would save Capt EAO for another day. Lo wanted to come back anyway and throw panties at the screen while screaming and crying “Michael, Michael.”

“Just like when you were a kid right?”

The discussion turned to should we try and find a thong to throw, because I don’t know if Disney sells thongs, or should you just throw your granny panties. Wow, what effect would that have on the 3-D portion? what if the panties got hung up on the screen and we had to watch the rest of the show on the crotch of your panties? What if they catch you tossing the panties and throw you out flinging your panties at you as you do the walk of shame? They might make an example of you. Please do it, I need some good material for my trip report.

We could not stop laughing, the walk to the bus stop was so slow because we would have to stop and cross our legs, or we would be laughing so hard we couldn’t move.

As we passed Spaceship Earth, Lo was again trying to hold up the ball. It wouldn’t seem so weird if I was trying to pose her for the picture, but ever since the first time I posed her like that she couldn’t pass the ball without holding her hands up. So I snapped this picture to show her what a dork she is.

Although it looks like she's trying to roll it instead of hold it.
As we were walking to the bus stop we saw a teen boy wearing the Chewbacca back pack I had seen earlier. "It's Chewbacca, Lo pointed then started making a wierd mwoah noise. "That;'s the noise he makes right?"

"No, it's more like a (ya gotta roll your toungue when you read this) Drrraaaa."

I can speak Chewbacca, it's one of my many talents.
This poor kid had to listen to us following behind him to the busses, Drraaaa, Mwoah, drrraaa, Mwoooaaaah.

It became Lo and I's secret language for the rest of the trip. We'd act like we were carrying on a conversation that only we understood.

The bus line was long, and we waited and laughed and probably annoyed a lot of tired people. I do feel bad, and if somebody told me to shut up I would have done my darndest to try, but nobody said a thing to us.

But guess what? We got to sit on the ride back, the timing of two buses showing up at once allowed us a seat.

Lo has a smart phone. And she downloaded the fart button on it a while ago, she got her phone out and there was the big orange button, she handed it to me, “I dare you.”

I took the phone from her. The bus was quiet, it was almost midnight, the lady in front of me had nodded off, her head bounced and bobbled with each bump in the road. I placed the phone at her ear and Prfhtttt! Lo and I were the only ones laughing…at first. I pressed the button again, that was a juicer one I said. But my favorite was the one that started out thunderous and ended with a squeak!

I blame my mother for my fascination with fart sounds! I laughed so much on that bus ride. It was contagious, soon others were chuckling too.
We got off the bus at Pop and cut through the lobby. “I’m getting nothing for Christmas.” was playing. It hadn’t gotten old yet.

I stopped to watch some T.V.

and then Lo and I decorated the Christmas tree

We took our time walking back to our room, we loved seeing how people decorated their windows.
Once back in the room I took a fantastic bubble bath, I had brought pommegrant cider bubble bath, body wash and lotion, yummy!

I crawled into my bed and we set the alarm for 6:00am.

"Goodnight Ty."

"Draaaa, Lo."

 

[princess_reject]

I wish I had a friend like you or Lo to go to WDW with! You guys had too much fun!