When we planned our ADR's for this trip we knew that 50's Prime Time had to be at at the top of the list. Heck, it was the only place that OFFICIALLY didn't throw us out last year! What better place to start off on our first night. When we left The Great Movie Ride it had started to sprinkle but we don't melt so we set off towards the restaurant. Of course about 3/4 of the way there the sprinkle turned into a good Florida rain. We went ahead into the waiting area, and I took my
scooter hoping the rain would let up before I had to park it outside. And it was so busy in there I wouldn't have had a place to sit down anyway so I needed it.
I parked myself where I thought I would be out of the way, on the right side of the waiting area between the bar and lobby area. Yeah, I probably couldn't have been more in the way! That ended up being where the hosts and hostesses stand to announce the names of those to be seated. (names have been changed to protect the innocent)
" MOM IS CALLING THE HUMPERDINK KIDS"
"MOM IS READY FOR THE ZEPERONI KIDS"
right in my ear! And we were hungry, so we thought maybe if those families weren't there then they would take us instead. So we decided to let each host and hostess know that those other kids wouldn't be available.
"MOM IS CALLING THE FUZZLE KIDS"
"Oh, they had to stay after school for detention. They're not here."
"MOM IS READY FOR THE MUMBLEFUMBLE KIDS"
"We just saw them playing outside in traffic."
"MOM IS READY FOR THE QUASI KIDS"
"They were just arrested on the playground. We heard it was drug related. So sad"
"MOM IS CALLING THE TUPLE KIDS"
"They decided to have dinner at Johnny's house."
Then something strange began to happen. Where the hosts and hostesses had been standing right next to us in the doorway calling this out -- and getting our very helpful feedback-- they began to walk all the way into the bar area. Heck they were going almost into the middle of the room before making their announcement. I guess Mom decided that with those kids taking so long to get to the doorway they would get closer to them and help walk with them out of the room. Isn't Disney customer service the best?!!
Eventually they called the TnT kids and since we are all good kids we were right there, fresh faced and ready to be taken to the table, much like one of Mom's other favorite kids:
At our table we met Cousin Laurie. She was so cute and sweet looking, we knew she was in for trouble! As it turns out she was a perfect fit for our group, she was a princess wannabe. In fact she told us that she actually emerged from the womb doing the princess wave! We introduced her to Queen Shuggie and she was suitably impressed to be in the presence of such royalty. I had bought a set of Princess Ears for Queen Shuggie and so we decided that Princess Laurie needed to borrow them. She loved them!
Cousin Laurie took off to gloat over her new royal status in the kitchen and to her coworkers. Somewhere in there she did agree to take our drink and food orders. I don't even remember ordering. HOWEVER, I must point out one thing. THEY NO LONGER HAVE FRIED CHEESE!

This did not go over well with our group. Everytime we heard one of the servers around us asking their table if they would like to start with an appetizer we all yelled "YEAH, THE FRIED CHEESE!" Send your cards and letters people. It is just not the 50's Prime Time without the Fried Cheese.
There was a lovely family seated next to us. Mom, Dad, and 3 boys ranging in ages from about 6-12 ish. Well behaved--we never once had to say "NOT MINE". But the Mom was in awe of the fact that we had all left our children and husbands at home and come by ourselves. We tried to convince her to come and join us at Epcot for the Food and Wine festival but she seemed to feel she had to stick with her family for some reason. Party Pooper. As they got up to leave we again asked her to join us.
"You are welcome to come and play with us at Epcot tomorrow."
She said no and her husband said for us to have a drink for him while we were there. Kim, being the very sweet inviting person that she is then suggested that maybe HE would like to join us at Epcot!

We didn't know Mom could move that fast. . . she grabbed his arm and pulled him out so fast we thought the place was on fire! Oh well. Hmmm, new victims-- I mean kids-- at the table next to us! And their server was nice enough to ask them if they would like an appetizer.
"FRIED CHEESE!"
A few more pics:
Kim ordered a Lemonaid something that came with a glowing ice cube. She seemed to have gotten a defective one and had to ask later if she could have another one.
Queen Shuggie prefers Chicken Legs so Phors was happy to share with her.
Cousin Laurie brought over Uncle Jeffery for us to meet. He really loved her new Princess Ears and wanted to try them on for himself. I then let Laurie try on my original Princess Tiara from last year and she decided that she loved that much better and wore it for the rest of the night. So Jeffery got to try on the Princess Ears. We told him he made a beautiful Princess, but he then informed us that he was actually a Queen. O-kay, we understood that! BUT, then he back peddled and told us that he was actually one of the few straight guys that works there and that he is always having trouble convincing customers of that, but he is definitely straight. Since a picture is worth a 1000 words, we will let you all decide for yourselves.
Made up your mind yet? We'll get back to him later.
Much laughing and talking went on. It is hard to relate much of it back since of course half of it is only funny if you were there, and the other half isn't DIS appropriate!

We did find out from overhearing a server behind us helping out a customer that you go out at the EXIT sign. Yep. Who would have thunk it. Apparently they a lot of very confused patrons that have no idea that they need to head to the EXIT sign when they want to leave. Again, isn't Disney customer service great?! We decided to help out too and whenever we saw someone get up we pointed and showed them the Exit sign so they wouldn't get lost.
Also, if any of you that went last year are reading this, like Merle. We got in a fight with the SAME server we did last year! Remember the one we fought with over what drink it was? This time she was carrying a big stack of things and dropped a large metal something and it made a hellacious noise. We all jumped and comments were said. She yelled back at us "you try carrying all this stuff!" and a brief "discussion" ensued. I would have loved to get her photo with Flat Shuggie but frankly, I am a bit scared of her!
Cousin Laurie was unhappy about my inability to finish my veggie from my pot roast. I did pick out the carrots, but I can't stand onions. But Kim and I had a brilliant plan, she had a lot of noodles left on her plate so we put the veggies in there an covered it with the noodles and a napkin. BRILLIANT! If it hadn't been for the SNITCH--you KNOW who you are!-- that told Laurie to check the plate.

So she decided to feed that nasty onion concoction to me.
It didn't stay in though! I really HATE onions so decided that they were going back in the napkin!
So Laurie decided it was time to put our Princessness to work. She asked if we knew any good jokes. Mike and I were both able to come up with some so we were told to go and tell them to the other tables. Darn, I can't remember her joke--Kim or Phors will have to chime in. It was something about a Zombie. Mine was:
Why did the chicken cross the playground?
To get to the other slide!
Hey, I never said I was a comedian! Here we are visiting the other tables with Flat Shuggie:
I don't remember why were were dancing???
This was a large extended family and there one of those odd anomalies that you really only seem to find at WDW-- several of the children apparently were ALL born on the same day! I think 3 of them were wearing birthday buttons. Has anyone else noticed how many families there are at WDW where Mom seems to managed to give birth to all of her kids on the exact same day, different years?? I wonder what the odds are of that??
Cousin Lauri brought us our check and then it was time to figure out who owed what. But first we had to educate the Princess. Sorry for the photo, but there were 2 reciepts in the folder. On one she had marked "MINE" and the other said "YOURS". I promptly scratched that out and corrected her-- "NOT MINE".