Trip of a “Million Dreams” Well laughs anyway*Last Installment 4/2 pg 12,#171 w/Pics

[Goofster57]

Welcome to our Trip Report of our latest visit to Walt Disney World. We didn’t see too many of the “Million Dream Squad” members, but we still had a lot of laughs and a good time.

The Cast of Characters; All Disneyland Veterans

Goofster (Trip Report Writer) 6th trip to WDW
Approaching 50 at a very high rate of speed
(AARP here I come)

Sorceress (Wife) 6th trip to WDW
28 and holding and still able to work her spells on me

TinkerBoo (Daughter #1) 8th trip to WDW
21-Makes us wish we had gotten a boat instead of having a child

Indy-1 (Boy Friend of Daughter #1) 6th trip to WDW
24-Not a bad guy, even if he is a Republican

Swimlover (Daughter #2) 5th trip to WDW
18-Makes us wish we had gotten a truck with a camper to pull the boat

Eeyore (Family Friend) 1st trip to WDW
18-Worries us once in a while, but gives us hope for the future of the world

Master Flash (Brother-in-law) 2nd trip to WDW
Younger than Nugget

Nugget (Sister-in-law) 2nd trip to WDW
Older than Master Flash, but no charges were ever filed
Also keeper of the “BOOK” more on this later

Boot Strap (Nephew) 2nd trip to WDW
5-Newphew extraordinaire makes me thankful we had girls

Dates of Trip; January 3, 2007 through January 13, 2007

Method of Travel; Delta Airlines-Red-Eye Non-Stop from Los Angeles for most of the party, Flash, Nugget and Boot Strap will be traveling the following day on American.

Side Note: We could not all travel on the same flight at the request of my Mother-in-law (Bless her heart)

Transfer Transportation: Tiffany Towncar

Accommodations: Wilderness Lodge-Woods View-Cast Rates

Background
It seems that some people do backgrounds of previous visits so, what the heck. Let me bore you with some more information.

We have had annual passes to Disneyland since around 1985 and visit the park on a weekly basis, there have been times that it has been a little more frequently. Back in 1995 during the 40th anniversary someone in our family visited the park 273 times that year and got hooked on a stage show that was performed over at the then Tomorrowland Terrace stage. This member of the family saw the show 572 times to be exact during that year (there’s nothing wrong with that), it was a really good show.

So to say that we are Disneyland veterans I think is an understatement.

Side Note: So if you have any question about where the best place to eat or where to watch the parade from or were the best place to view the fireworks is feel free to contact us, we will be glad to pass the information on, However you will be sworn to secrecy under punishment of banishment to IASW, we can’t have everyone knowing all the tricks of the park.

As for our experiences with Walt Disney World our first trip was back in 1988 with my parents, my sister, her husband and daughter, my wife and I and our daughter. My BIL was a Cast Member at Disneyland and this trip was arranged by cast services. We stayed at what were back then the Disney Villas, which is where the Sarasota Springs Resort is now. They were very nice one-bedroom suites; they had a bedroom, kitchen and a living room. We were there for 7 days that trip. We didn’t know much about the resort back in those days, but had a great time.

Our next excursion was in July of 1999, it was pretty much the same cast except we had added a daughter to our entourage and my sister and her husband didn’t go, but my niece did. This time we stayed at the Wilderness lodge for 10 days. We had a standard room on the forth floor above the Whispering Canyon Café. We were a little bit better prepared this time thanks to the different Disney boards.

Then in August of 2003 and December of 2004 my wife, daughters and I took trips to the World for 9 days each time. We stayed with friends that live about a mile away from the back gate of the Magic Kingdom, they were and still are Cast members. These were really cool trips. We were able to go in the back gate behind the Magic Kingdom with our friends and then head to where ever we were going for the day.

Then our last trip was in August of 2005, the cast was the same as this trip except for Eeyore, she was supposed to go, but there were some issue that came up so she was not able to join us.

Side Note: We really missed having her go with us and are all really thrilled that she made this trip.

We stayed for 9 days, 7 at the Boardwalk Villas and 2 at the Saratoga Springs Resort.

So now you are updated with more information than you ever wanted to know, if you quit reading this then I can’t say I blame you, however you wouldn’t know that I said that since you are no longer reading, if you are still reading this…WHY?

Next Installment; Day 1-Travel Day or was taking separate flights necessary…

 

[blue_river]

Side Note: We could not all travel on the same flight at the request of my Mother-in-law (Bless her heart)

awww........sounds like my MIL

at your cast of character jokes!

Subscribing and looking forward to your next installment

 

[pumba]

I know that my MIL had a hissy fit when hubby and myself....our two kids their spouses and the grandkids all on one flight.......I thought people spazz over anything.....we went anyways...
I love your description of your family.......made me laugh at it......thanks for the start of your vacation

 

[fizz13]

Ok, we've been introduced, now I'm ready to hear it

 

[Goofster57]

Blue_river, pumba, fizz13, Thanks for the comments, I enjoy writing these reports, but you never know if anyone is going to enjoy reading them.

If you think my family sounds funny, you should have to live with them. Being the only normal one in the bunch it does get to be a challenge at times.

My DW would not let me include my MIL’s main reasons for wanting us to take two different flights; she has three kids, two daughters (Sorceress and Nugget) and one son. So if any thing should happen she had some concerns about any shall we say “Quality of Life” decisions to be made down the road by surviving children. Enough said, probably too much, I may be sleeping outside tonight.

Next installment is on its way.

 

[Goofster57]

Wednesday January 3, 2007
The Plan
Load up our van and drive to my parent’s house and have my dad drive us all too LAX and drop us off. He would take our van back to his house and then return on the 13th to pick us up.

Actual
After figuring out how much luggage we were going to have with six people going to the airport, we decided that there was no way we were going to be able to get all of us and our luggage and my dad as the chauffeur into our Ford Windstar. So a day or two before the trip we booked a reservation with Prime Time shuttle for the trip to LAX. The cost for an “exclusive” van was $90 each way, exclusive just meant that we would be the only people on the van, that sounded good. We decided to go ahead and have the van pick us up at my parent’s house so we could leave our van in their spare driveway. So around 6:00 p.m. we loaded up our van and headed to my parents, luckily it is only a few miles away, with all of our stuff everyone had a bag on their lap for the ride and we didn’t even have Eeyore or her luggage with us yet, good thing we got the shuttle. Eeyore’s grandparents were going to drop her off at my parents; they wanted to see her off. We got to my parents at about 6:15 or so, the Prime Time van was supposed to be there at 7:00 p.m. We had just finished unloading the luggage from our van when the Prime Time van turned the corner, they were 30 minutes early. This was fine with me; I would much rather sit at the airport with a boarding pass in hand then sit around the house waiting.

We got the luggage loaded into the van

The driver almost left Indy1 at the curb

Once we were all aboard, we were on our way

We got to the airport in about 45 minutes, checked our luggage at curbside went in and got our boarding passes, went through security screening and were at the gate in about 20 minutes. Now we just had to wait for our 10:55 p.m. flight.
Swimlover

Indy1 and TinkerBoo

Eeyore

Swimlover and the Sorceress

Delta made a few announcements that our flight was going to be delayed in taking off because our plane was late arriving to LAX. They estimated that we would be departing at around 11:30. With about 30 minutes to go before boarding time we noticed that the over head TV monitor showed that the gate for departure had been changed. None of us heard an announcement to this effect, but luckily TinkerBoo and Indy1 noticed it. So we made the move over a few gates and started boarding soon after. We got out of LAX about 45 minutes late, the pilot came on and apologized for the delay and said that he would be able to make some of the time up in flight.

Next Installment- Did we make up the lost time and yes I promise some stuff about Disney

 

[JJBEAN]

Hi Goofster57! Great start! You guys look like a fun bunch. Glad to hear you made it to the right gate...kudos to TinkerBoo and Indy1! Can't wait to hear more!!

 

[fizz13]

i didn't think the luggage pile looked too bad for 6 people. great photos BTW, some great personalities i think. looking forward to more

 

[jcanter426]

Great so far, the only trip report I have actually read this far through, I usually see the length and though I am very interested....I can not convince myself to read that much.....your introduction of your family however had me hooked!!!! Ready for more.........!!!!

 

[blue_river]

Good thing you made it to the gate

Looking forward to more Goofster

 

[Goofster57]

Great start! You guys look like a fun bunch. Glad to hear you made it to the right gate...kudos to TinkerBoo and Indy1! Can't wait to hear more!!

Thanks, Glad you are enjoying it so far. We do have a lot of fun together.
I guess it is a good thing that we had her instead of getting a truck

i didn't think the luggage pile looked too bad for 6 people. great photos BTW, some great personalities i think. looking forward to more

Well we also had four purses, two backpacks and a duffle bag, I guess it could have been worse; TinkerBoo did leave a few pairs of shoes at home

Great so far, the only trip report I have actually read this far through, I usually see the length and though I am very interested....I can not convince myself to read that much.....your introduction of your family however had me hooked!!!! Ready for more.........!!!!

Thanks, We are a special bunch, hopefully we will keep you coming back for more

Good thing you made it to the gate
Looking forward to more Goofster

Me too, if we (I) had gone through all of this and then missed our flight it could have gotten ugly. Glad you are enjoying it.


Just remember you all asked for more, so I can not be held responsible for what happens

Should have the next installment up tonight

THANKS

 

[Goofster57]

Thursday, January 4th
Day 1-Travel Day or was taking separate flights necessary

The Plan:
Most of the Cast arrive at 6:30 a.m. after taking a red-eye from Los Angeles.
Head for Downtown Disney since our room will probably not be ready yet.
Flash, Nugget and Boot Strap will arrive at 3:55 p.m. this afternoon from Los Angeles
We both will use Tiffany Town Car to get to the Wilderness Lodge.
MGM in the evening for the Osborne Lights
ADR-9:40 P.M. Whispering Canyon Café

Actual
Weather-85/Humid
Well the pilot was a man of his word he was able to make up about 35 minutes or so and we arrived in Orlando about 10 minutes behind schedule.
I think we all got some sleep on the flight, some not as much as others.

We headed down to baggage claim where our Tiffany Towncar driver was waiting for us. She helped us retrieve our baggage from the carousel and led us down to the lower level it must have looked like a mother duck and her ducklings, she was in the lead and we all followed single file pulling or carrying our luggage. Once we got down stairs to the shuttle parking area she went and got her van,

We loaded up and were on our way by a little after 7:00 a.m.
It was a nice ride; our driver had Disney propaganda for us, Guide Books, Park Maps, and Show Schedules etc.
We let Eeyore sit in the front seat since she had not been here before and our driver was really nice and slowed down a bit so Eeyore could get pictures of sites along the way.

We were heading under the Walt Disney World Gateway in what seemed like minutes, but had to be longer than that.

And shortly after that we were arriving at Wilderness lodge

We gave our luggage over to the bell service and went inside to check in. The Sorceress, Indy1 and I went to check in while the rest of the group crashed in the TV area next to bell services

There was no line at all to check in, now the plan was to go and rub Humphrey’s nose before we did anything since this is supposed to bring you luck for your trip. We forgot and were about to pay for it. When we go to check-in we inform Ms. Happy to be Here the Cast Member that we are part of a “Grand Gathering”, she finds our reservation and informs us that our rooms are not ready (which we figured would be the case) and that they have upgraded all three of our rooms from standard double bed/bunk bed rooms to water view rooms with two double beds.

WHOAAAAA back the upgrade truck up, thank you for the un-requested upgrade, but we need to have bunk beds in at least two rooms. We inform Ms. Happy to be Here that we need to have bunk beds in at least two of the rooms and that when we made the reservation through Cast Services that they had told us that was the only type of room we would be allowed to book, which we were happy with because it worked out great for us because that is the type of room we preferred due to the sleeping arrangements of all parties involved. She “pounded” on her keyboard some more, took a walk into the back, came back out and “pounded” some more, went to the end of the desk and spoke to another cast member standing there and returned to tell us that the best they could do was put us into bunk bed rooms tomorrow. We expressed some displeasure with the fact that we would have to lose time at the parks tomorrow to pack up and move rooms. She went in the back again and this time came out with a cast member she introduced as Mr. I. M. Bothered, her manager that informed us that there was nothing that could be done. He then asked “You are here on the “Cast Experience Plan” right?”, we told him we were not sure what that was, but we did have a Cast Member in our party.. He then stated in a rather miffed tone with a scowl on his face and I quote “Cast Members are the first ones to be inconvenienced if we need to make changes, the regular guests needs come first”.

This kind of shocked us a little, even if we did have a Cast Member in our group we are still paying customers and to be told that are needs are not as important as others are did not sit well with us (me). I do understand that we were getting a reduced rate on the cost of the rooms, but we are still spending a large sum of money and at least if I am going to be told that I am a “Second Class” guest because we are here on the “Cast Experience Plan” (Thanks a lot Indy1) you could at least do it with your best Disney voice and smile.
Now before the flame throwers come out about our displeasure with this situation, with our experience visiting Disneyland so much and having made a number of Cast Member friends there and do to the fact that TinkerBoo used to work attraction there and Indy1 still does (that’s how they met) we have great compassion for Cast members, we know that they have take a lot abuse, usually for things that are not their fault, so it wasn’t easy for me to do, but I swallowed hard and we told him that if that was the best that could be done we would make the best out of it.. We inquired as to how we would make the move the next morning this is when Mr. Bothered turned with out a word and walked away, and we were left in the hands of Ms. Happy to be Here who told us that there would be a message on our phones in the morning informing us what we needed to do.

Sorceress and I talked about if we needed to move or not and decided that the two double beds would be fine so we informed Ms Happy that we only need to make the change for two of the three rooms and that the one Sorceress and I would be in did not need to be changed.

So after a few minutes we received our welcome packages for two of the rooms and the phone number to call later to see if the rooms were ready. We figured that maybe the Cast Members had been on all night and had a very busy and disturbing night, bless their hearts, so we decided not to let this overshadow our trip

It was early and we were hungry so we decided that we would head to Roaring Fork for some food, but before we headed down the hall I made everyone go over and rub Humphrey’s nose, multiple times.

And then we had the kids imitate the Totem for added luck

We got to Roaring Fork and they had changed it since our last visit back in 2005, you now got your ordered items at the counter instead of at the service window in the dinning area. We all got something to eat with out too much trouble and enjoyed it out on the pool deck with the ducks and birds, there seemed to be a lot of them since no one was paying any attention to the signs that requested that you not feed them.

After some nourishment the kids went to bell services to get some things out of their bags and to change into cooler clothes, cooler meaning temperature wise. The weather was warm and muggy. Once that was done we headed for the boat dock and our first Disney transportation ride of the trip and caught the boat to Magic Kingdom.

When we arrived at the Magic Kingdom Indy1 and TinkerBoo headed to Guest Services since Indy1 was signing TinkerBoo into the park. Well come to find out they have changed the procedure on how that is done since our last visit. It used to be that the Cast Member went to guest services and using their Cast ID got tickets for themselves and guests, now you go up to the Cast Member entrance and do it there.

The rest of us had our Hopper Passes on our room keys so we got right in and headed for Main Street. First order of business was a nice leisurely walk down Main Street to enjoy Florida’s version of the Magic Kingdom in, there was some shopping thrown in to the mix also, I knew that would happen with my girls, I sure that Eeyore would have rather headed for some of the rides, but my girls are like Pavlov’s dogs, they see a store and hear the sound of a cash register and they start salivating and tugging on their leashes. We did lose Eeyore a few times, she would be taking pictures and we would walk off and leave her, we are such bad people. What made this a little worse is the fact that Eeyore had forgotten her cell phone back at home, so we had no way of contacting her if we got separated. Luckily this would be rectified soon her mother is sending it to the Lodge by Federal Express.

We finally made our way to the end of Main Street and took a right and headed into Tomorrowland, first stop was the Tomorrowland Transportation Authority for a bird’s eye view of Tomorrowland.

I noticed that the ride seemed to be a little cleaner then on our last visit in 2005 when I noticed that there seemed to be a lot of little presents from the local winged community. I noticed this trip that it looked like there had been an effort to clean some of those presents up a bit, I did notice in the scale model section of the city of the future that there was a rather larger what appeared to be a cob-web going from the glass to one of the buildings in the city. While riding around Tomorrowland we noticed that it appeared to be a little crowded this morning, we were not sure if it was Magic Hours or not, in our overly tired state of arrival we did not consider that fact in our decision as to what park we were going to head first. After a quick trip around on the Tomorrowland Transpiration Authority we headed over to the Sorceress’s favorite ride the Carousel of Progress, which was transplanted from it’s original home at Disneyland.. I think she still has issues with that, bitter party of one.

After our nostalgic trip through the decades we headed back over to Main Street to the Plaza Restaurant for our lunch ADR’s. We have always enjoyed our experiences at this eatery and this trip was no different. We devoured some cheeseburgers, chicken sandwiches, cheese steak sandwich and a club sandwich. TinkerBoo, Swimlover and Eeyore washed their lunch down with really good chocolate malts. Of course I had to sample them to make sure that they were up to the expected standards we have come to know and they were, I think they have some of the best malts that I have ever tasted at the Plaza.

After prying ourselves away from the table we headed over to Frontierland to see about a ride on Big Thunder Railroad. When we arrived it was close due to technical problems. As we were discussing how crowded it was and what we were going to do next I decided to head down to Main Street, it was just to crowded for me in my current state of crankiness after being up since early Wednesday morning. Now I did catch a few winks on the flight but it was not enough to deal with the crowds. The rest of the group walked over to Toontown by way of Fantasyland, jumped on the train and rode it around the park back to Frontierland and then took their time walking back up to Main Street via all the shops they could find.

I headed down to Town Square and found a nice rocking chair in the shade and people watched, this is probably my favorite thing to do on vacation. This was especially fun today as this area was also heavily populated with characters for meet and greets. There was one father that was holding is young son, probably around three years old try and approach Pinocchio for a picture. The guy’s son wanted nothing to do with this at all, he was crying, screaming and trying as hard as he could to get out of his dads arms to run away. It was so bad that Pinocchio started backing away from the man and son so that maybe the son would settle down a bit. No luck, the dad finally put his son down, who instantly ran to his mom about 15 feet away and the dad proceed to get his picture taken with Pinocchio while complaining what a scaredy cat his son was to be afraid of a puppet. Don’t think we will see Mr. Compassion in the Father of the year award competition.

I sat on the porch for a while and the rest of the group finally showed up, they had been shopping, AGAIN, go figure. It was around 2:00 so we gave the hotel a call to see if our room was ready yet, (we found out that the number you call is not the resort you are staying at it is some central location that checks for you) and to our surprise our rooms were ready, we had room 3159, and the kids had 3147. So we headed out of the park to the boat launch and back to the Wilderness Lodge for much needed SHOWERS and sleep.

We got back to the Lodge, headed up to our rooms, called bell services to get our bags delivered, got showers (nothing like a long, hot shower to improve you disposition) and laid down for a nap. This is when my wife spotted our first surprise from Mousekeeping, no it wasn’t a towel animal it was a spider web (not cob web) covered in dust, it was about six inches across and went from the bottom of the lamp to the top of the head board, luckily it looked like the spider had been gone for a while. So I know that I need to dispose of this surprise if we have any hope of getting some sleep, so I got a damp wash cloth and took care of the web.

Here is a view from our room

Finally we can get some much-needed sleep, or so I thought, Sorceress’s cell phone rings and it is Boot Strap letting us know they are here, then click. Well it would have been nice to know where here is, the airport, the resort. It turns out the first call was from the airport and they arrived at the resort shortly after that and called us from the lobby to let us know they were checking in.

Now I felt like I had been asleep for a couple of hours and was feeling pretty good, until my wife informed me that it had only been maybe 40 minutes if that long. Oh well.

So off to the lobby we go and find Flash and Nugget checking in with Boot Strap sitting in the TV area. Now something you need to know about Boot Strap and TV watching when he is watching TV you can talk to him until you are blue in the face and he will never answer you or look at you, you could set off a firecracker next to him and he probably wouldn’t even blink.

He gets it from his father Flash; luckily for us it was Disney TV and not Sponge Bob. If it had been Sponge Bob and Patrick we would have had to call out the Jaws of Life to get him out of the chair.

As we were walking by Nugget told us that they had been told there were no bunk bed rooms available and that they were not going to be available, Sorceress told the CM that we had already taken care of this issue this morning and that Ms. Happy to be Here told us she made a note of the reservations for Nugget’s room. Well it turns out there was a note on file and the CM just hadn’t looked for it. All that Humphrey nose rubbing for nothing, so they were assigned room 3161 right next to our room (Thankfully no connecting door) so off we went to the rooms. On the way to the elevator I gave Humphrey a quick kick in the backside. We let Nugget and her family get settled in a little with plans to head over to MGM for the Osborne lights around 6:00.

We caught a bus to MGM and headed back to New York Street to see the Osborne lights; this was the first time for all of us to see them on New York Street.

This would be the first time for most of the group to see the lights, my family had seen them when they were located in their original home on the Back Lot Tour Street. We all really enjoyed the way they were done. We stayed until we had seen all three of the different synchronization presentations, thanks to Indy-1 for suggesting that we see them before they started taking them down in the next couple of days.

After the viewing the lights we started heading out of the park back to the lodge for our Whispering Canyon ADR’s at 9:40, but first we made a stop at Star Tours for a quick jaunt around in our Star Speeder…or what ever it is called. Once safely back on Terra Firma it was off to the buses for the ride back to the lodge.

We got back to the lodge a little early around 9:10 or so and everyone took off in different directions to do different things, shopping, potty etc. I went to check in at WCC just in case we could get seated early. It appeared that we would be able to and then the panic that I am known for kicked in. Everyone was spread out through out the lodge, what if they called our party and everyone wasn’t there? What would I do? How would I stall until everyone arrived? Well as usual I was worried about nothing everyone was there in plenty of time to be seated when called to our table. We had a nice big table against the windows by the exit to the bathroom, which would come in handy later. Swimlover formed a special relationship with Mo one of the CM that would pull her chair away from the table every time he walked by. We all looked at the menu and decided to order the skillet all around. Our server (who was great, but I forgot her name) took our drink orders and retuned with our napkins that she threw in the air for us to catch, followed by our straws being tossed in the air also for us to retrieve. She then returned with our drinks and some corn bread, now you would think that none of us had eaten in days. There was one basket of corn bread with 23 hands reaching in it; well there really weren’t 23 hands it just seemed that way. Once we all had shoved healthy amounts of corn bread into our faces a feeling of full contentment came over us and we started watching the show going on around us

We watched as a table with a dad and two little girls, probably 4 and 6 requested ketchup, well we all know what happened, as the night wore on these little girls would return the favor as other guest asked for ketchup, the cute part was when they ran out of bottles on their table they would go get them off other guest tables and deliver them to the recipient of the most recent request. These girls were adorable, I am afraid that Dad is going to be in big trouble when they get older and the boys start hanging around, of course if he is smart he will parlay all that attention into getting his house painted and lawn mowed.

Our server delivered our first skillet loaded to top with smoked pork ribs, pulled pork, oven-roasted chicken, pork sausage, mashed potatoes, beans and corn on the cob. After Flash was done serving himself we asked our server for refills on everything so the rest of us could try the food and see how it tasted. I would have to say the most popular item were the mashed potatoes, between Nugget and TinkerBoo they went through about 4 platters full, well in all honesty Flash helped with the last platter and then kept the platter so he could have more food from the skillet. Most of us were to full for desert; however Nugget and Flash did each have a really good-looking apple caramel pie desert.

Some of the entertainment during dinner was of course napkin waving and hollering for various birthdays and anniversary’s, the stick pony race which Boot Strap participated in and received a cool wooden nickel for his efforts. We were witness to a guest sobriety test administered by our server to the table next to us, they were made to stand in the middle of the room and perform a number of silly moves kind of like a sobriety hokey pokey of sorts. A good time was had by one and all.

After paying the bill (after Cast Member Discount, this will be important later) we all headed off to get some much-needed rest so we would be ready for our full day tomorrow.

 

[blue_river]

Goofster, I'm sorry to hear about your bad experience with the Manager while checking in. Nothing more frustrating than having to bite your tongue.

Too bad you couldn't have taken the upgrade though??

Loved your resort pics - thanks for sharing

 

[meloneyb21]

Love your report and the pics so far. Thanks for sharing, can't wait for the rest .

 

[Goofster57]

Goofster, I'm sorry to hear about your bad experience with the Manager while checking in. Nothing more frustrating than having to bite your tongue.

Oh if you only knew, I drive my whole family crazy because I can’t keep my comments to myself. There was a few times this trip that it was real challenge.

Thanks for reading and commenting.

Also I am trying to catch up on my reading and your report is on my list, see you over there soon.

Love your report and the pics so far. Thanks for sharing, can't wait for the rest .

Thanks, Glad you are enjoying it

 

[Goofster57]

Friday, January 5th
The Plan:
Magic Kingdom in the morning
Epcot in the evening
TinkerBoo/Indy-Typhoon Lagoon

Actual
Weather 80’s/Humid
We started out this morning with limited numbers; it was Sorceress, Swimlover and I, the rest of the group was too tired to get out of bed, Wow!! One whole day and they were tired all ready (youth is wasted on the young). We were going to head to Epcot and meet up with the rest of them later in the day. Since there was no way of telling when “later in the day” would be we decided to just go ahead and do what we wanted and when the rest finally joined us and we had already done something they wanted to do then we could do it again or tell them “see you later” and continue on.

When we got to the bus stop around 8:30 there was a very large line for the Epcot bus. The bus arrived with in a few minutes and everyone started piling on. Now here is my first gripe about today’s society, there were a number of people in front of us in line and a number of people in back of us with some very un-scientific deduction I figured that at least Sorceress and Swimlover could get a seat. When the bus pulled up guest from the back of the line and some that we just walking up came up around the side of the line and started pushing their way onto the bus, by the time we got on the bus it was standing room only. Now normally I would have made some comments to all of those guest that were being rude, however I had promised my family that I would refrain from voicing my opinions about these type of situations on our trip. So tongue in cheek (AGAIN), mentally chanting my mantra of “Let it Go” we boarded the bus for the ride to Epcot.

So as we are riding over to Epcot I am confronted with my gripe #2 with today’s society, when we get on the bus which is full, the aisle is full of guest standing most of these guest were Women, including a young mother holding her small child in her arms, and most of the seated guest were Men, now I use that term loosely because not one of them got up and offered their seats to the Women. Now I know in this modern age some Women may not feel that that is necessary because of women’s lib or equality and so forth, which is fine if that is the case, but the offer still should have been made, at the very least to the young mother holding her child that was trying to hold on to her child and keep her balance which is no easy task as the bus headed to Epcot. My tongue is really sore at this point, If this keeps up I won’t be able to talk with in a day or two, which I am sure would be fine with my family.

We arrived at Epcot and headed for the turnstiles, our plan was for me take off after we got in and go to Test Track for Fast Passes, and the girls would head to Electric Umbrella to get breakfast. So I head off to Test Track and grab FP’s for 10:25 and start back to Electric Umbrella. My cell phone rings and it is Sorceress telling me that Electric Umbrella isn’t open for breakfast. Oh really. Well how about the Fountainview Café for pastries? Sorry that is also closed, she tells me the only place open for breakfast is the Sunshine Seasons counter service in the Land, however when she checked it out there were about 3,000 other guests with the same idea about getting some breakfast. I inquired of a CM about where we can get breakfast (not that I didn’t believe my wife, but I couldn’t believe that with all the guest entering the park that there was only one option for food) the CM informed me that it is either Norway (Princess Breakfast) or the Land, well Norway would be to expensive and more food then we were looking for and it sounded like with the crowd at Sunshine Season they would be serving lunch by the time we got in. So off we went in search of nourishment and low and below we spy the newly refurbished Coke Cool Zone. No really coke is nourishment, really it is. We had the place to ourselves except for the CM that was very friendly asking us were we were from, when did we get in, when were we leaving. So we tried a number of samples, except for the very special one that we all know about. As luck would have it they had items of nourishment also, so we got a bottle of Coke and Ice tea and a bag of pretzel’s and Toffee coated peanuts, now that is a breakfast of champions, I am sure that a number of the guest getting ready for the marathon this weekend were consuming this same breakfast at the very time we were.

After our breakfast we headed over to Mouse Gear to shop, because that is what Swimlover does best. We walked through the store and Swimlover did find an outfit that she wanted to get and change into because it was already getting pretty warm. She got a Tinker Bell shirt and some sort of skirt, now I have absolutely no fashion sense at all (Hawaiian shirt, denim shorts, black ankle socks and white tennis shoes, see what I mean), but I think it looked very nice.

After the purchase in Mouse Gear we headed over to Test Track to use our Fast Passes, and then checked out all the cars that we could only hope to own once Ed McMahon called us.

Swimlover

Mine

Well there was one that we put a down payment on, but we are still waiting to see if our loan has been approved.

After the loan papers were completed we headed out to World Showcase to start our walk around the world. First stop was at the end of the entrance plaza and an attempt to reenact the finger on the Eifel Tower picture, with some success. Not sure what happen to her head.

We headed off to Mexico first and walked up the steps of the pyramid and went inside to browse the shops (I see a trend forming here) and I went to confirm that the El Rio del Tiempo ride was in fact closed for refurbishment. Our whole family loves to go on this ride, not sure why, hopefully we will find out during a therapy session some day. Well, go figure Swimlover finds a hooded poncho-sweater thing that she likes and wants (the trend continues) we convince her to wait and think about it. She agrees, at least until we start heading to Norway were we pass the little stand of souvenirs outside of Mexico across from the Margarita stand and she sees a different hooded poncho-sweater thing that she must have, what’s a parent to do, she did buy it with her own money and she had thought about it for at least 5 minutes.

After our purchase was complete in Mexico we wondered over to Norway to see about getting something a little more substantial than pretzels and peanuts to eat. After a short comfort station break and pictures in front of the Viking ship we were ready to head into the Kringla Bakeri og Café when Sorceress’s phone rang and it was the rest of group letting us know that they were arriving at the front of the park, we let them know where we were and it was decided that we would meet up back at Mexico (I love to back track) so breakfast was put on hold again and we headed back to south of the border.

We met up in front of the pyramid and headed in, they wanted to go in and confirm that El Rio del Tiempo was indeed down. I told them that I had already checked and it was, well this was not good enough for them (did I mention the big sign in front of the pyramid stating that the ride was closed) so we walk around the shops some more, Deja vu I have seen this stuff before so I head outside to wait for them to finish. They all come out about 15 minutes later and make the proclamation that El Rio del Tempo is in fact closed.

Now being the understanding person I am I feel that I needed to point out to them that I felt so much better that they had checked it out for themselves, just because before we left we saw on Deb’s site and Mouse Planet that the ride would be closed, the fact that there is big sign in front of the pyramid that said it was closed,

and the fact that I had already gone back and checked just in case it was a conspiracy I was glad that they had confirmed that the ride was indeed closed. So with that conspiracy put to rest we headed of to Norway again.
We arrived at Norway and headed off to do battle with the Trolls on The Maelstrom, which is a Fastpass ride, but we didn’t need to get one today as it was a walk on. After we survived our encounter with the Trolls and going down the falls backwards and taking the traditional Troll picture

We decided that we needed some nourishment so we finally headed into the Kringla Bakeri og Café to see what we could find. The different items that we got were Waffles, Lefse, a really good Jarlsberg Cheese soup, I decided that I would try the Peanut Butter sandwich kids meal, which turned out to be a Smuckers Grape Uncrustable…go figure, I travel 3,000 miles to eat something I could have gotten out of my freezer at home, oh well. All of the food was enjoyed, especially the Cheese Soup that Sorceress got, I don’t think she got as much of it as she wanted since it got passed around a couple of times. It brought back very dark memories for me of a Beaver Tail incident over in the Canada Pavilion years ago.

After our nutrition break (remember those in Jr. High, wow more bad flashbacks) we were headed for China when we passed the Stave Church

and actually saw someone go in the door that we have passed on multiple trips before and not realized that you could go in this building were there is a nice exhibit of Viking artifacts such as authentic weapons, clothing, as well as figures of important Norwegians. We all found this very interesting and filed it away as a place to go to when visiting in the summer months, as it was very cool inside.

After reading about the Vikings we moved on over to China and headed for the shops. My girls could spend a good part of a day in this shop; they really like to look at all of the really intriguing items. Things were going pretty good until Swimlover remembered that this is were she bought a set of plastic Nun-Chucks, or (Numb-Chucks as we call them since after being beat with them for a couple minutes you are Numb) during our 2005 visit which were destroyed before the day was over do to the over usage of the weapons of great Numbness. So not really knowing what I was thinking I thought Boot Strap would like a pair of this educational, coordination building equipment. Okay if you would have looked up “Stupid Idea” in the dictionary that day you would have seen my picture. Not only was I thrashed to a bloody bruised pulp before we got out of China, other guest were running in fear of this little Bruce Lee and his Numb-Chucks of Fury.

After a brief stop at Central First Aid for Ice Packs and Band-Aids

Some of the group wanted to see the Reflections of China movie, so while they got ready to do that Sorceress, Swimlover and I went into the Tomb Warriors exhibit that is now on display in the China pavilion, this was a very interesting exhibit and was enjoyed by all.

The three of us moved on out of China and headed to the Outpost for some liquid refreshment of Ice Cream (Ice Cream can be considered a Liquid right?) and a frozen Coke drink while we waited for the rest of the group to finish watching the movie in China. When the rest of group joined us again we decided that we needed a couple of pretzels to go with our liquid refreshment, so Sorceress went over to Germany and brought them back to the Outpost.

Once we were finished with our Liquid nourishment we walked over to Germany for more… you guessed it “Shopping”. We were finally able to start heading to Italy with a short stop to enjoy the little train village were while we were taking in the sights this horrible beast made its presence know by crashing through the forest at the top of the village, we were in fear for our life’s as we thought that maybe it was an escaped Yeti from the Animal Kingdom, we told Boot Strap to get his Numb-Chucks of Fury ready to defend us from the beast. Well luckily in turned out to just be a very well fed squirrel that was looking for a hand out, I really wasn’t scared, really I wasn’t.

We got to Italy in time to catch the World Showcase Players perform their version of Romeo and Juliet, with the help of some unsuspecting guests; we watched the show

and did some more shopping then moved onto the American Pavilion where we decided to catch the American Adventure show. Now we really enjoyed this performance well those of us that stayed awake we won’t single out anyone (Flash does snore when he sleeps) some of us had seen it before during past trips, while it was the first time for a few.

After exiting the show some of us took a seat on some benches across from the round planters out front right next to a mother changing her child’s diaper (didn’t notice it until after we had sat down) while others went shopping. Now let me set the stage for you, it is a nice sunny afternoon, crowds are very light, in fact in the area we are sitting except for the guest on the benches it is empty. There was a young boy running around the planters burning off some energy and he fell and does a face plant right in front of us where upon the lady changing her 2 years old diaper on the bench with the soiled diaper laying on the bench preventing anyone from sitting down comments “Where is that child’s BAD Mother” at which time Nugget having not heard the mothers comment gets up and goes over to Boot Strap to make sure he is okay. Now this lady next to us continues with a string of comments about how bad a Mother Nugget must be for letting her child run around in public and how it’s her fault that he fell and got hurt, Nugget did not hear any of these comments either. Now Nugget and I don’t agree on everything mostly about movies (Team America enough said there) but to insinuate that she is anything less than a loving and caring Mother is absurd. There was nobody in the area that Boot Strap was running around in, he was not yelling and screaming at the top of his lungs, he was being a 5 year old. So after it was ascertained that Boot Strap would survive his encounter with the concrete we headed for Japan. As we are walking away all of us that were privy to the comments stared harassing Nugget with telling her what a “BAD” mother she was, she responded with a total of look of bewilderment as to what was going on. Well actually it is the same look she usually has on her face (Love Ya Nugget)

So we arrive at Japan and we discover the healing powers a Kaki Gori (rainbow flavor) has on Boot Straps scrapes, so with Boot Strap on the mend and a few of us joining Boot Strap in a Kaki Gori (totally in a show of support only) we proceed to do what we seem to do best, shopping. If shopping was an Olympic event I guarantee that my girls would always be in medal contention.

After bolstering the Japanese economy we decided to catch the friendship across the lagoon and head for Future World. When we got off the Friendship there was a Kiosk selling Balzac, as we approached the cart the CM threw one to Boot Strap who proceed to engage in a game of catch with the CM for about 5 or 6 minutes, they were joined by a couple of other children and all of them were laughing and being silly. Now I was totally taken a back at how these children’s “BAD” Mother’s could be letting these children have fun and act this way while they were in public, I knew it was only a matter of time before someone got a Balzac in the face and got hurt. (Love Ya Nugget)

After leaving the Kiosk we headed to the Journey to Imagination Pavilion to take a ride with Figment. Now originally Boot Strap had told us that he would not go on this “little Kids” ride, but Indy1 was able to convince him that he would be cool if he went on it, so he did. Everyone had been on this ride before except Eeyore who seemed to enjoy it just as much of the rest of us did, including Boot Strap. Eeyore did express some disappointment in the fact that we forgot to mention that she might want to hold her nose in the smell lab, Sorry our bad.

We then headed over to The Seas with Nemo and Friends to get a ride in the Clam Shells; the new technology incorporated for this ride is quite impressive. They are in the process of incorporating this technology in the old, but soon to be resurrected Submarine ride out at Disneyland, after seeing it here we are looking forward to the debut at Disneyland. Once we got off the ride we went up to the aquariums observation deck and enjoyed watching all the sea life including some divers that were in the tank, because there we so many we figured it must be a Dive Quest program.

After surfacing from Nemo’s underwater world (am I the only one that misses the Hydrolators?) some of the group wanted to go and see if they could get on Mission Space and Test Track, while the rest of us headed to the Electric Umbrella for some refreshments. We all meet back up at the Electric Umbrella and headed to the front of Epcot, before heading out we took a ride on Spaceship Earth to end our long 14-hour day in the park.

We got back to Wilderness Lodge; some mugs were refilled then off to slumberland to be rested for our day at MGM tomorrow.

 

[tinkgurl]

Lovin' this trip report! I can't wait to see what happens next!

 

[fizz13]

well i might as well go and call social services on myself right now, clearly I am a bad mother too great report again, loving your adventures,

 

[blue_river]

(youth is wasted on the young)

This is so true Goofster!

So tongue in cheek (AGAIN), mentally chanting my mantra of “Let it Go” we boarded the bus for the ride to Epcot.

Probably was a good idea.

Now I know in this modern age some Women may not feel that that is necessary because of women’s lib or equality and so forth, which is fine if that is the case, but the offer still should have been made, at the very least to the young mother holding her child that was trying to hold on to her child and keep her balance which is no easy task as the bus headed to Epcot.

I'm not one of those women and there were late evenings on the bus when I would have been ever so grateful to any man (any person) who offered me their seat

So off we went in search of nourishment and low and below we spy the newly refurbished Coke Cool Zone. No really coke is nourishment, really it is.

As luck would have it they had items of nourishment also, so we got a bottle of Coke and Ice tea and a bag of pretzel’s and Toffee coated peanuts, now that is a breakfast of champions

Sounds like our first morning in MK...couldn't find anything that resembled a breakfast without having to wait in a long line and ended up eating Mickey Bars

Not sure what happen to her head.

What a cool picture - too bad you didn't get her head in the shot!

It brought back very dark memories for me of a Beaver Tail incident over in the Canada Pavilion years ago.

Okay...being from Canada ... you have to tell me about this dark memory!

Once we were finished with our Liquid nourishment we walked over to Germany for more… you guessed it “Shopping”.

Sounds like our family

Excellent update Goofster

 

[Goofster57]

Lovin' this trip report! I can't wait to see what happens next!

Thanks,
Hope we can live up to the expectations, unfortunately I think we will.

well i might as well go and call social services on myself right now, clearly I am a bad mother too great report again, loving your adventures,

Thanks
I do believe there is a fine line between kids having fun and being annoying to others. Nugget has always done a fine job of making sure that Boot Strap doesn’t cross the line, now when he his hanging with his Uncle that is a different matter. That’s what Uncles are for right?

This is so true Goofster!
Probably was a good idea.

My Family totally agrees with you on this

I'm not one of those women and there were late evenings on the bus when I would have been ever so grateful to any man (any person) who offered me their seat

I could not believe how many times this happened during our trip, it just amazed me.

What a cool picture - too bad you didn't get her head in the shot!

I don’t think this was my fault, I think someone did some editing in Photobucket, Here’s the one from our trip in 2004 that didn’t work out as good as you can tell from the look of frustration on her face.

Okay...being from Canada ... you have to tell me about this dark memory!

Okay, here is an excerpt of a trip report that I wrote back in 1999 for Mouse Planet.

I had some how ended up with a Cinnamon & Sugar Beavertail from Canada. A thin pastry like thing, I had a bite and then offered to share it with the rest of the family, I won't ever make that mistake again, I hear it was really good.

I had been waiting all trip for one of these, I heard so much about them and then to only get one bite, a small bite at that was devastating. Of course I never got back to get another one on that trip and then they closed the stand down permanently some time after that.

BITTER PARTY OF ONE

Thanks for hanging in there and reading