Trip report - "Dreams do come true" (video complete - pg 45)

[Mary626]

Tuesday,, April 25th 2006 (Day 6)

Jim and I slept in pretty late the next morning. Our original plan was to eat at the restaurant inside the mexico pavilion for lunch, we had our reservations for noon. I woke up once or twice and thought about getting up to go, but decided I’d rather sleep, so I went back to bed. We would have kept sleeping, actually, but my sister Jenny woke us up around noon and was like “wake up! You said you’d eat the Kitchen Sink with us today!” Jenny and I had been talking about eating the Kitchen Sink at Beaches n’ Cream for the last YEAR and had been really looking forward to it. Since I had just woken up and had not had any REAL food, icecream didn’t exactly sound appetizing though. But I knew if we didn’t order it we’d regret it later, so Jim and I slowly got ready. I wasn’t sure what to wear, it was pretty hot outside. I had a few nice sleeveless shirts and decided what the heck, if I can go sleeveless for my wedding I can go sleeveless in a theme park! I made sure to slather on the sun-screen everywhere. I had gotten a little burned at my wedding the day before and my face was a little red. I burn so easily!

I was kind of groggy but looking forward to our first day of actual park exploring since the animal kingdom. It was our sixth day at WDW and we had only done the animal kingdom, I was getting anxious to get into the park and go on some rides!!


We went down to Beaches n’ Cream around 1:30 and saw Jenny & Kevin waiting with a pager outside the soda shop. Jim and Kevin decided to go play some arcade games while we waited at the arcade next door while Jenny & I talked.

The cute little tables that we sat in

Kevin & Jim in the arcade

Our pager went off and I went and got the guys. We all sat down and everyone looked at the menu. I was like “aren’t we getting the kitchen sink?”, and Jenny was like “well I want some real food to eat too”. I knew what she meant, I wanted some real food too, but mostly I wanted to save room for the kitchen sink! Now that I was there I was really looking forward to it.

Jim ordered a hot dog with no bun and fruit.. I thought it was pretty funny that he was half trying to be healthy but at the same time was about to eat a huge bowl of ice cream.

The waitress got our kitchen sink and announces at the top of her lungs to the whole restaurant “EVERY FLAVOR OF ICE CREAM AND EVERY TOPPING IN THE HOUSE ALONG WITH THE WHOLE KITCHEN SINK – these four piggies here think they can finish it, give them a big round of applause!” or something like that. I’m glad I hadn’t ordered it by myself lol!

The guy at the table next to us offered to take our picture for us – thank you random stranger!

 

[Mary626]

They gave us bowls to divvy up some of the ice cream into. It took a while before we actually got to the icecream. I took out the brownies and angel cake as I didn’t really want to waste my appetite on them, I mostly wanted the icecream. Every time I’d put a spoonful into my bowl it would kind of melt. It was more of an icecream soup. Kevin had a good idea, he said they should freeze the kitchen sinks so it was like a frosty mug when they brought it to you and the ice cream wouldn’t melt as quickly.

We took out the brownies and angel cake stuff

Half way through the kitchen sink, they brought out the “real food” (if hot dogs, French fries, and sauerkraut can be considered real food?). By the time the food came out none of them really wanted it, and I kind of laughed at them. Except Jenny, she managed to eat most of her meal, but then she’s eating for 2!

While we were still eating the icecream, I asked jim when his dad was leaving, since he was leaving that day I wanted to make sure we said goodbye. Jim didn’t know so he called up his cell phone and his dad says he was at the bus stop waiting for the Magic Express. Crap! Kitchen sink or saying goodbye to Jim’s dad… tough choice!

Jenny said “you can go say goodbye, we’ll stay here and watch your icecream for you” , so me and Jim double-timed it over to the bus stop in front of the yacht club. I asked jim on the way why his dad hadn’t called us to say he was leaving, and he said his dad didn’t want to bother us on our honeymoon. That was a sweet sentiment but of course it wasn’t a bother!

We got to the bus stop and talked to his dad for a while, thanked him for everything, and said goodbye. Two minutes later his bus pulled up and he left for the airport. Talk about goodtiming!

We ran back to Beaches n’ Cream, there was still some ice-cream left but most of it had melted. No biggy, I got to say I ate the kitchen sink like I had been planning to for a year! Not sure if I can consider it “finishing” the kitchen sink though since about half of it was still present but in liquid form.

me and jim, full from the kitchen sink

 

[Mary626]

Then it was off to epcot, we could finally do some park hopping, woohoo!! We said goodbye to Jenny & Kevin who were going somewhere else, and walked over to the international gateway on a full stomach. We put in our tickets and did the biometric thing again that never worked a single time I was there, and we were in epcot, yay!!!

We were going to head straight to futureworld, but we stopped to take a few pictures along the way by the topiaries again, just because they’re so cute.

By Canada, Jim started to cough and kind of got one of those tickle in your throat things, so we stopped for a water. There was no line, but the lady was doing dishes or something as jim continued to cough. Finally I was like “can we get some water please?” as jim’s face turned a slight pink.

We sat down on the benches in Canada and he drank some water as I watched the duckies and looked out over the lagoon. We weren’t too far from where we were the first time we had come to epcot, listened to Off-kilter, and where I had been crying back on Thursday, that seemed so long ago all of a sudden.

Jim recovered fine and we walked towards futureworld, I asked Jim if there was anything specific he wanted to do and ran through a list of rides and attractions.

I didn’t think about it till after the honeymoon, but the funny thing is I didn’t once look at a park map or guide the single time I was there. I had everything in my head! I think I took it for granted that since I knew the layout of the land so well, everyone else probably did too. I think Jim had a hard time keeping up with me.. I would be like “well we could walk over to test track and then do mission space since they are right next to each other, but if you want to do soarin’, we can get fastpasses there and then go do the imagination pavilion there since there aren’t any waits and then hop over to living seas.. Jim would be like “what about Ellen’s energy adventure”? me: “well that’s a fun ride but it’s 45 minutes long and it’s kind of out of the way, why don’t we just do the imagination pavilion first since it’s on the way” .. jim: “why did you bother to ask what I want to do?”



So we walk towards the imagination pavilion. I had never done the figment ride. A lot of people had told me not to bother, but hey I hadn’t done it before and I was anxious to get on a ride, any ride!

I knew the ride would be more for kids but I thought they might do some cool visual illusion stuff to show you how your sights can deceive you or something. I liked walking through the insitute leading up to the ride – seeing the doors leading to the offices of different “professors”, some of those gags were pretty cute.

We get on the ride and the cast member tells Jim he should take off his sunglasses off his head. I thought he was joking, like it was a roller coaster or something. Figment takes us through a ride of the 5 different senses.. and I guess imagination is a sixth sense? I’m not really sure what the whole point of this ride was. It started off kind of cute. The song figment was singing was pretty awful, and it got into my head for the rest of the day. Half way through the ride I could see it wasn’t going anywhere, and was just waiting for it to go somewhere. When going through the “sense of smell” area, I think, there was a big puff of air for some reason, and my Minnie ears went flying back. Oh okay, I guess the guy wasn’t joking! I grabbed onto the veil part of the ears before they flew away. That was such a pointless ride.

I have no idea what was going on

And this song stayed in my head for the rest of the day…
http://www.mouseears.net/imagination.wma

imaaaaaaaaaaginaaaaaaaaation… imaaaaaaaaaaginatioooooooooon…

 

[Mary626]

We exited the ride and walked around the “what if” labs. There was something where if you swung your arms around you could compose music. We tried that but I didn’t really get it, so we moved on.

We saw a presentation being given where they chose a little girl from the audience and were showing all the cool things you could do with digital cameras, it was sponsored by Kodak how surprising.. The little girl did not look at all amused by anything going on, it was pretty funny. As we looked around somemore we could tell the whole area was pretty much a Kodak commercial. We went over to the kiosks where you can take a picture of yourself and make it look silly and then send it off for free to some friends. I love doing those and sending them to people, so we did that and created a lovely portrait of ourselves.

We walked outside and played around the fountain areas a little bit. I love the jumping water, they are so cute! I love watching kids play with the water, they are always so enthralled by it.

We walked back to the center of futureworld and I saw the new ClubCool place. I was so disappointed that they got rid of the old igloo with snow in it. It was such a great place to go cool down!! And then they just replace it with a big coca cola store. Oh well.

They have free samples of the most popular coke products from different country. It’s been a while since I last tried them but I remember them being awful. And I knew from the DIS forum that the Beverly is rancid and tastes worse then cough syrup.. so of course I tell jim “Jim, try the Beverly, I hear it’s really good!” I’m recording him as he tries it, thinking he’s going to spit it out and have a look of disgust on his face.. he takes a few sips, thinks about it, then drinks the WHOLE FRIGGIN CUP of Beverly!! He says “eh it’s okay”.. I was like “what?? Wait let me try…” so I fill up the cup, take a few sips, and am like “BLEEEH!!!” and have a look of disgust on my face..

Me getting a picture of jim thinking he’s going to spit the drink out any second..

So yes.. I tried to trick Jim and it COMPLETELY backfired on me.. Jim couldn’t’ stop laughing.. it was pretty funny. Darn him!

Right as we’re leaving Club Cool, the fountain show started up so I sat down to watch it while Jim went to find a restroom. They changed the music from the last time I was there. When I used to work at MouseGears I’d often be the greeter right by the exit that faced the fountain and I loved listening to the music and catching glimpses of the fountain show occasionally while I worked there. I miss the old music, but I guess it probably changes quite often.

 

[Mary626]

Jim came back and we walked over to Space Ship Earth and walked right on. It was the first ride that I’d seen the wait time for listed as “0 minutes”. Usually they’ll say 5 minutes even if you walk right on it.

I’ve always liked this ride. I love how in a few of the scenes have a certain smell to them. When we passed by one of the scenes that had a newsie kid trying to sell newspapers, Jim and I both said at the exact same time “papers, get your papers!” (like chris was saying at our wedding). When we got to the top of the sphere, our vehicle stopped and we heard a voice say “Please stay seated your vehicle is preparing for your return to earth”. And then again “please stay seated your vehicle is preparing for your return to earth”. And then again and again for the next five minutes. That’s always fun!

Ascending into the sphere

Jim is excited about communication

While we were stuck there, Jim was asking me when the last time the ride was updated. I thought it had never been updated since it originally came out. Jim thought that was impressive if that was true, since there seemed to be so many things predicting the internet in the ride. I hadn’t thought about that, so as we left the ride we asked one of the cast members who worked there. The guy was very knowledgeable about the ride, I was surprised, I figured he’d have no idea.. but he told us how it had been updated a few times, how the voice used to be walter Cronkite and then it was someone else (can’t remember), and then Jeremy Irons.. and he said since Siemens’ was sponsoring it now it was scheduled for another update/renovation sometime in the next year. Ooo very cool!

As we left Jim and I were talking about how the ride was kind of cool because it dealt with the evolution of different forms of communication, and if you thought about it, since we met through the internet, we wouldn’t have been there getting married if it wasn’t for things like that. I was like “yeah I guess it would have been kind of hard to meet through a telegram service or morse code or something… a/s/l stop!” (that’s probably a very obscure joke, but anyway)..


We went into the electric umbrella to use the restroom. While I was waiting for Jim, I threw something away in a garbage can and the garbage can said to me “mmm French Fries my favorite!” I had heard about the talking garbage can many times but I had never been able to locate it before.. I found the talking garbage can! I couldn’t wait to show Jim!

As I waited for Jim, a couple came up to me and the girl asked if I was on my honeymoon. I told her yep I had just gotten married yesterday. She congratulated me and told me that her and her husband honeymooned in WDW a few years ago and now they were there with their child for the first time. That seemed so sweet to me. She told me “if you go to pleasure island, tell them it’s your honeymoon, and they might let you be the ones to set off the fireworks for the night.. we did that for our honeymoon and they gave us free tshirts to mark the occasion and everything – it was really cool!”. I thought that sounded pretty cool. Even though Jim and I had no plans to go to pleasure island I thought maybe Jim would like to do that. I thanked them for the tip and went back to waiting for jim so I could show him the talking garbage can.

Jim comes out of the restroom and I give him something to throw away. He throws it away and the garbage can is like “dude, watch the shades!”. We open and close the lid a few more times to hear the other sayings and were pretty amused by it. Other people started coming around to listen to it too. Hey we drew a crowd! We let other people take over and Jim and I moved on.

 

[Mary626]

We decided to head to Mission Space.. Neither Jim or I had ever been on it and we both were really excited about it. When I was younger I wanted to be an astronaught so badly, I studied anything I could get my hands on related to space travel and aeronautics. Well, I may not have gotten into NASA, but I could ride Mission Space and darnit that was close enough!

There was only a five minute wait for the ride. Well that’s one good thing about false alarms of people dying after going on the ride – short lines!

Or everyone was on Soarin’. Since Jim and I have done that ride so many times in Disney’s California Adventure, and the wait time for Soarin’ was always over 70 minutes, we never felt compelled to ride it. I was disappointed when I heard they were building Soarin’ but it would be the exact same ride. I was like, why don’t they change it for Florida, or put it by the American adventure and show scenes from around America – like the statue of liberty, the grand canyon, mt. Rushmore, or something like that! Or do one for the world showcase with scenes from around the globe. What another wasted opportunity. Ah well.. anyway back to mission space!

We queue up and Gary Sinise tells us about our mission and the various tasks that it was our responsibility to undertake as commander, pilot, engineer, or navigator (I think). I thought it was funny when Gary Sinise says “you’re all probably a little nervous…” because I could tell everyone in line really was nervous! Jim was a little bit too, and since he’s a little prone to motion sickness sometimes, I told him a tip I had heard on the Dis boards.. I said “if you think you’re feeling sick,, don’t’ pay attention to the tasks they have you do, just sit back and stare into the screen.. the ride’s the same no matter if you push the buttons or not”.. as I was saying this, I could tell everyone in line was listening intently to what I was saying and paying heed to my advice…

The doors open up and we take our positions in front of the doors to the ride. Gary Sinise tells us we would be entering hypersleep so our journey to mars would feel like only a few seconds. He then tells us what our individual roles are. I was engineer – woohoo! Very appropriate since I’m a science nerd, and Jim was commander.. I kept calling him “Commander Jim” before and after the ride.. As we got in our seats I said “goodluck, commander jim!” I noticed they had barf bags in front of the seats. I hoped we wouldn’t be needing those!!

The countdown begins and we are staring up at the launch pad tower, the ride starts up and we start ascending into space. I could feel the G-forces pressing against us and my cheeks were being pushed back like on the gravitron at the fair, it felt soooo real… WOW!!!! That’s all I had to say, I kept giggling, I was giddy! It really felt like we were taking off into space!! I loved it!!!! I had no idea how they were pulling it off at the time, it just felt real!! Gary Sinise tells us when to perform our tasks, and both Jim and I did our part to make the mission a success. We land on Mars, but the doors open up and we’re still on earth. Darn! Oh well.. “good job, commander Jim!” I tell my DH.

We walk out into the gift shop “fancy that, we’re in a giftshop” I say to Jim (see Day 2).

Commander Jim

Jim thought the ride was really cool too, but he did have a slight headache. I felt just a tad bit disoriented, but I’ve felt that way after getting off big roller-coasters before so I wasn’t worried. Five minutes later we were both fine.

We were right next door to Test Track. Jim had never been on that either (there’s a lot Jim has never done in WDW – the last time he was there was in 1992). I said “why don’t we go get fast passes for later” since Jim didn’t feel like doing it right after Mission Space, and there was a 50 minute wait. Jim didn’t really want to, but I was like “come on, we don’t have to use them, but if we want them and don’t have them it will suck”. We go there, and the fast passes they are giving out say to come back about 3 hours later, so right as I was thinking that we’d just forget about it, someone comes up to me and asks if we want his fast passes that were for one hour later, since him and his wife were leaving. I was like “Sure!” and thanked him.. how nice!! Cool!!

One hour, that would be perfect timing if we could do Ellen’s Energy adventure and then get out and use the fast passes before moving onto world showcase! We walk to the restrooms located right between Test Track and Mission Space and jim was like “I feel bad for the janitors assigned to these bathrooms – what a bad location”.

We headed to Ellen’s Energy Adventure and took a few pictures while waiting in line.

Jim getting eaten by a stegosaurus – I thought those were herbivores?

me waiting in line

Jim asked me if the hypersleep on the way to Mars helped me to catch up on my sleep. I wish! We waited in line for five minutes before the doors open up, and we find a seat on the benches in the big room inside and wait for the preshow to begin.

Pretty soon Ellen appears on the three huge screens in the room and explains how she was watching Jeopardy when she sees “stupid Judy”, someone she used to hate from high school, as a contestant answering each question correctly, including the questions about energy. Bill Nye the science guy comes in as Ellen makes a remark about how energy wasn’t really that important anyway. We board the cars that carry us through the ride as Ellen falls asleep and dreams she’s on the show with Judy and Albert Einstein and each question is about energy. She’s losing big time, but half way through the show,, Bill Nye comes in to teach her about energy by taking her back to the Big Bang and up through the dinosaur age to now.. It takes us through the animatronic dinosaur part and then we see an animatronic ellen. Ellen goes back on the show and gets every answer right. The last question being “This is the one energy source will never run out”.. which I won’t divulge the “answer” to. Cute ride, so much better then what was there before!! I told jim how the old show was just a really really boring documentary about energy, and then it was three minute of dinosaurs, and how when we were kids we just wanted to see the dinosaurs!!!

When we were done we headed to Testtrack to use our fastpasses. Jim still wasn’t sure if he wanted to go on it since he’s not a huge fan of roller coasters, but I was like “jim, it’s like being in your car, it doesn’t go faster then 65, if that, trust me”. I remember when I worked at epcot sometimes guests would ask me how fast the ride went, and I’d say “about 65 mph and that’s just for a few seconds” and people would be like “oh that’s way too fast for me, I’m not going on it!” and me and my friends would be thinking “you go faster then that in your car, Lady!!!”

We used our fastpasses and were in the car in less then 10 minutes. The ride, in my opinion, is a good attraction, but not a very good thrill ride. It has a few twists & turns that are fun, but really it’s a show. Jim agreed with me and said it was no big deal. We exited the ride and talked about where to go next.

 

[Mary626]

It was about 6:30 pm when we got out of test track, and future world was closing at 7, so we decided to head into the worldshowcase and leave the rest of futureworld for another day. The sun was starting to set casting a pretty glow on epcot again.

We stopped and took some pictures of where we got married at from across the lagoon

The only thing I had eaten all day was the Kitchen Sink, and I was craving “real food” again. Before the trip, I had made at least 2 or 3 Advanced Dining Reservations per day so that I would have a few choices each day without worrying about the lines. We had a reservation at Italy for around 8 pm for 9 people. I wasn’t sure if I was going to use it or not, but it was there if we wanted it.

First we thought we’d give the Mexico restaurant a try. We slowly meandered into the mexico pavilion. It was pretty crowded in there and I couldn’t really move around. I was like “there’s no way we’re going to get a walk up for the restaurant”, but we decided to try anyway. The wait time was 80 minutes, which would be around the same time as our reservation in Italy. I thought Italy would be more fun since we had just gotten married the day before, and we could invite some of our family to join us, so we opted for that. However I was kind of hungry and wanted something to tide me over until dinner.

I asked Jim if he wanted to ride “el rio del tiemp” but he didn’t feel like it, so we skipped it. I thought we’d be exploring the world showcase more another day so I was fine with that, but darnit I never did get to ride it!

We went outside and I called around to see if anyone wanted to join us. Jim’s family was having dinner somewhere else already so they said they would skip it.. so I called Jo & Jim, Jenny & Kevin, and my mom and dad and they all said they were up for it. Lisa and Lynne were doing something else. I asked Jim if Matt wanted to join us too, so he called him and he did. 9 people exactly, how funny! That was the exact number that I had made the reservation for 3 months prior.

So we had about an hour to explore some of the countries before heading to Italy. We went to Norway, the maelstrom ride had a 45 minute wait on it.. there was no way I was going to wait 45 minutes for that ride so we skipped it. I was hungry and really wanted to check out the “kringla bakeri og kafe” in Norway.. a few of the items there were really hyped up on the DIS restaurant forum, so even though I was not in the mood for sweets, I didn’t want to pass the opportunity to try anything I had been daydreaming about for the last year..

An old stave church replica

We get in line behind a kid of about 12 years old. This poor kid, I noticed he kept trying to get someone’s attention behind the counter to order something, and the cast member kept ignoring him and asking another adult what they wanted. I felt bad for him but was kind of amused by it too, he was getting so frustrated! Finally a castmember asks me and jim what we want, and I’m like “I think he was first” and the kid seemed so grateful lol! He ordered a piece of cheesecake and the cast member went to get another piece. I told him that the cheesecake looked good, and the kid was like “yeah I saw it earlier and came all the way back here from the japan pavilion to get it.” .. I thought that was funny and told him the story about how when I was 12, we had gotten something called a “chocolate ball” in that exact same Norway Bakery, and it was so good that the next day we came back all the way from another theme park mostly to get another chocolate ball (this is a true story btw!)… (unfortunately they no longer sell said chocolate ball)…

I told Jim that the DIS boards recommended the rice cream and the school bread. He decides to get the rice cream, so I figured I would try the school bread. Like I said, I just wanted to try them, one bite would suffice. We got our food and went outside to find a seat. Jim really liked his rice cream.. I had a few bites and while it was good, it just tasted like rice pudding with strawberries on it. I didn’t really see what the big deal about it was unless you had never had rice pudding before. Jim had never had rice pudding, so it tasted unique and good to him. I tried my school bread – again it was pretty disappointing. It tasted like a coconut donut with custard filling. I had a few bites and got a box to take the rest back to the hotel with me. I didn’t think I’d eat it but thought maybe I’d give it to someone in my family or something.

Jim’s rice cream

school bread

The sun was close to being set and I was getting cold. I called around and asked my mom or jenny if they could bring me a sweater from the hotel room, but they all said they had already left. Darnit I was getting cold!

We took some more pictures along the way..

 

[Mary626]

We slowly walked towards the Italy pavilion,, taking pictures along the way. The whole day that me and Jim were in epcot, we would occasionally say to one another “hi husband…” “hi wife”… “hey we’re married, how about that?” and cheesey stuff like that. We were totally in the “newlywed” phase.

We wanted to walk on the isola again so we tried to hurry before they set it up for another dessert party… We got there and they were just closing it off to decorate it.. darnit!!

pretty sunset

I looked around the shops in italy and germany for a sweater. All they had were hundred dollar sweaters that said “italy” or “germany” on them. I didn’t really feel like wasting my money on those so decided to just be cold.

We found some seats in Italy and waited for people to come. Jo & Jim arrived first, woohoo! The had been trying to fit in as many theme parks as they could into the one and a half days they had to explore, so they had gotten up really early that morning for the magic kingdom. They said they did splash mountain as one of the first rides and then were walking around the MK with went pants.. that totally sucks!

Matt and Jenny & Kevin all came soon after. Jenny gave me a bag with a new WDW 2006 sweater in it for me. At first I thought she was lending me hers but it still had the tag on it.. Awww she bought it for me so I wouldn’t be cold, thank you Jenny!! My mom and dad called and said they were running a little late but that she had brought a sweater for me. D’oh! Oh well, I like my new sweater, I wear it all the time now!

I went and checked in for our reservations and they said it would be about 15 minutes. While we were waiting, I had jim show me where his “appointed seat” was the morning of the wedding, and he showed me where he sat and where Stan took him to say his message for me and all that. I asked him if it was bringing back memories for him and he was like “not really” and I laughed and was like “it was so long ago you don’t remember it anymore?”

We were seated soon after that. I ordered a Caesar salad as an appetizer for myself. My mom called and said they were in so I went out to get them to show them where we were seated. Since they came late, they sat at the end of the table and I didn’t really get to talk to them at all during the meal.

this Caesar salad rocked – and I know my Caesar salads!

While we were eating someone walked by the table with his son to use the bathroom and when he left Jo’s Jim said “that was Scotty pippin!” he said something about wanting to get a picture of him but didn’t want to be obvious about it.. I was like “I’ll get him with my camcorder as he’s walking by, I’ll pretend to be recording you guys talking or something..” so Scotty pippin walks by again, I have my camcorder out recording and am like “so jenny what was your favorite ride today”.. and as I’m recording it, everyone at the table stopped talking and just completely clammed up and looked really nervous. It was so funny. I was like “way to be subtle guys”.. then I said “why did you all stop talking” and Matt said, kind of loudly, “because we were too busy looking at scotty pippin!”.. argh.. goodjob…

When we were eating the bread they put out on the table, I was just eating the inside of the bread and not the crust. I always do that, but Jenny saw it and was making fun of me for it..

I ordered the fettucine alfredo, thought it was a little too bland for my palette but it tasted better after adding some more parmesan cheese. For dessert I had tiramisu and jim had a canolli, I thought both were kind of bland too. But the Caesar salad I had as an appetizer was delicious!!

The fettucine alfredo most of us ordered

jim’s canolli

Towards the end of the meal I saw what looked like a big ball of flame to the right of my field of vision. It scared me for a second until I realized illuminations had started. I didn’t know we’d be able to see any of it from inside the restaurant, that was kind of cool! It wasn’t exactly the best seat for the fireworks, but since I had already seen them twice it was a cool addition to the meal.

At the end of the meal, I was trying to count everyone’s money and our money and make sure we had the right amount. I was trying to figure out the tip and Matt said “just double the tax”, which usually works in California because the tax here is 8.25 percent, but that didn’t’ seem right in my head. I counted it twice and had jim count it to make sure it was okay and then we left.

As we were walking past the international gateway leaving epcot I suddenly get really paranoid that I undertipped them. Did I double the tax? If I doubled the tax then I would have shortchanged them like 20 bucks. I couldn’t remember if I left 20 or 40 for the tip and was feeling guilty about it. I asked jim and he said I left 40, since he counted the tip, but I couldn’t for the life of me remember. Well, I hope I left the right amount or I’ll feel bad, but I knew there was no way I would be able to tell for sure since we paid in cash.

 

[Mary626]

Jo had left her curling iron in my hotel room from the wedding day so they needed to come back to the hotel to get it. I asked if they wanted to go swimming, I wasn’t sure what hours the pool was open to though. We went to the front desk and asked, and I cant’ remember but I think he said “11 to 9”.. darnit it was closed! That sucks, I think they should keep it open a little later so people can use the pool after the parks close, but oh well. I thought maybe Jim and I could use it in the morning before we checked out and switched to the port Orleans French quarter.

Jo & Jim came back and got their curling iron, and we said goodbye to them. I hope it won’t be another four years until the next time I see them again!
A little later we had a delivery to our room, it was a bag of goodies from Ali & Nene, (the two family friends that were late for the bus the morning of the wedding), along with a card.. Awww the gifts were so cute!! I can’t wait till we move into our new home and I can put them in our kitchen!

Minnie glovemit, mickey and Minnie salt and pepper shakers, punch bowl set

It was getting pretty late. Everyone in my family was leaving early the next morning. I’m glad they had at least stayed through Tuesday or I would have been depressed. Jim & I went to “make our rounds” to say goodbye to everyone.

We went to Jenny & Kevin’s room first. She wanted to show me her ultrasound pictures and kept forgetting to bring them, so when I got to her room she got out the photos. I couldn’t’ really figure out what end was what and it kind of looked like the predator to me. She pointed out the head and how it was sucking its thumb. She said “it makes more sense if you see it moving first”. I was excited for her and glad to see her so happy.

Her and Kevin had gotten us matching necklaces, they are “dog tags” with Mickey’s head and “Mary and Jim 4-24-2006” engraved on the back. How cute! I asked if they were supposed to be for dogs but she said humans could wear them too. Maybe it is for dogs, but I wear mine all the time and I don’t care!

Kevin was packing while we talked and showed jim his flashing glowcube from the sci-fi dine in theatre.. Jim really wanted one! They had the tv on to the WDW-info channel and we talked about how annoying the girl was that hosted it. We always look forward to watching that channel when we get into a Disney hotel and they totally ruined it! They spend the whole time focused on the girls face and barely show any of WDW.. and she says things like “I’m about to get my RIDE ON!” or “italy.. morocco, france.. yummy.. yummy.. yummy” .. I shudder just thinking about it.. We both said we put it on the Spanish version of that channel because the Spanish version actually shows the park and the girl is less annoying. I spent an hour talking to Jenny & Kevin but we needed to go say goodbye to other people too, so we hugged them and said goodbye. Aww I didn’t want them to leave!

Kevin’s glowcube that Jim decided he must get

We went to Jim’s mother’s room next. I didn’t realize she wasn’t checking out until 3 pm the next morning. She said she requested a late-check out, I didn’t know you could do that! She said to call house-keeping to ask if we could have late check out.. Since jim and I were switching resorts that would be perfect… I called house-keeping but they were closed and it said to call back in the morning. Sue showed us the photos she took and we talked about what we had been up to the past day since the wedding. Sue hadn’t packed a lot and she asked if I wanted her to take one of our suitcases home with her.. Heck yeah!! Oh my god what a lifesaver that turned out to be!!

We would see her in the morning before she left, so we said goodnight and went to my mom and dad’s room. I don’t remember what we talked about or said, but we spent about an hour talking and saying goodnight. I was going to miss them too! At least this time I would be seeing them in one month and then I was moving back to Michigan. It’s hard being in California and being 2,000 miles away from my family, I’m really looking forward to moving closer to them this summer. We said goodnight and I said I would try to wake up to say goodbye in the morning before they left.


I went back to the room and started to pack – I had a LOT of packing to do before we switched resorts. I couldn’t depend on late-checkout so I needed everything to be manageable. It was a little better since we were switching resorts and not heading to the airport, I didn’t have to worry about what went in what suitcase and the weight and size limits of my bags.. I just shoved everything in to any bag I could find..

Since Sue said she would take a bag home with her, I got out our biggest suitcase and put as many wedding-related items in it that I could fit, including my wedding dress. I felt bad doing it, but I folded up my wedding dress and shoved it in the bag so I wouldn’t have to deal with looking at it or trying to take it home with me. I carefully carefully packed our cake-topper and unity candle, and as many wedding related things as I could fit in. I didn’t want to look at them until I got home in case I got depressed again! I did a good job of fitting everything into the bag and picked it up to gauge if it was under 50 pounds or not – I was pretty sure it was. I was so relieved that I wouldn’t have to deal with all that stuff!!

It took me over 2.5 hours to pack everything up. I was tired but knew I needed to do it. I do better packing by myself, though occasionally I would ask jim to help me fold clothes or to zip up a suitcase. I told Jim I wouldn’t be mad if he used the internet while I packed, so he got on the laptop and uploaded some of our wedding pictures that Kevin took onto our website and emailed a bunch of people the link. He also checked out the latest news about the new superman movie – he really really wanted to see the new trailer for the movie that was supposed to be coming out some time that week.

I left out our swimsuits and beach towels and a change of clothes for the morning. If we could do late check out I wanted to go swimming!! I hadn’t had a chance to try out Stormalong Bay and that was one of the reasons I wanted to stay at the yacht club!

After all the packing, it was pretty late and I was pretty exhausted by the time I got into bed. I set the wakeup call and fell asleep as quickly as my head hit the pillow.

 

[slk537]

I am still definitely enjoying your report - one piece of advice about your new Mickey bowls and glasses...when they say "not dishwasher safe"...they mean it. Trust me, I know...

 

[nkkilala]

Mary,
The trip report is wonderful!
When I saw the picture you posted of Jim with tigger it reminded me of this one I took of Ryan (left) and our friend and best man Noah (right)

 

[Mary626]

Mary,
The trip report is wonderful!
When I saw the picture you posted of Jim with tigger it reminded me of this one I took of Ryan (left) and our friend and best man Noah (right)

That picture is too funny, I love it!!


slk537 - Thank you for the tip, I love my punch bowl set and definitely don't want them ruined!

 

[JJClemson]

They had the tv on to the WDW-info channel and we talked about how annoying the girl was that hosted it. We always look forward to watching that channel when we get into a Disney hotel and they totally ruined it! They spend the whole time focused on the girls face and barely show any of WDW.. and she says things like “I’m about to get my RIDE ON!” or “italy.. morocco, france.. yummy.. yummy.. yummy” .. I shudder just thinking about it.. We both said we put it on the Spanish version of that channel because the Spanish version actually shows the park and the girl is less annoying.

Mary, DF and I were cracking up when I saw this! We put the WDW-info channel on the Spanish version too b/c she is so annoying! At least we cannot understand what she is saying then. Disney definitely needs to get a better host for that channel!

I am still loving your TR

 

[Emmo]

Mary- Pic of you two on post 257 (3rd one i think) you look stunning! You really have fantastic eyes and you truly were a beautiful bride. How cool to dance with Mickey and Minnie on your wedding day, despite the other dances! Great report, I will have nothing to do when it ends. maybe you could do a life report and keep us all up to date!!

 

[Codie]

Jim came back and we walked over to Space Ship Earth and walked right on. It was the first ride that I’d seen the wait time for listed as “0 minutes”. Usually they’ll say 5 minutes even if you walk right on it.

I’ve always liked this ride. I love how in a few of the scenes have a certain smell to them. When we passed by one of the scenes that had a newsie kid trying to sell newspapers, Jim and I both said at the exact same time “papers, get your papers!” (like chris was saying at our wedding). When we got to the top of the sphere, our vehicle stopped and we heard a voice say “Please stay seated your vehicle is preparing for your return to earth”. And then again “please stay seated your vehicle is preparing for your return to earth”. And then again and again for the next five minutes. That’s always fun!
QUOTE]


I KNEW I liked you!!! That is one of my favorite rides and when I took a group on it during our last trip I pronounced the same. When we came out they all decided that if that was my idea of a great ride, they weren't listening to my suggestions anymore I think it is one of the few original rides that still give the feeling of what EPCOT used to be all about. I agree to with your assessment of Club Cool--it was much "cooler" before!

 

[Beana9802]

Jim came back and we walked over to Space Ship Earth and walked right on. It was the first ride that I’d seen the wait time for listed as “0 minutes”. Usually they’ll say 5 minutes even if you walk right on it.

I’ve always liked this ride. I love how in a few of the scenes have a certain smell to them. When we passed by one of the scenes that had a newsie kid trying to sell newspapers, Jim and I both said at the exact same time “papers, get your papers!” (like chris was saying at our wedding). When we got to the top of the sphere, our vehicle stopped and we heard a voice say “Please stay seated your vehicle is preparing for your return to earth”. And then again “please stay seated your vehicle is preparing for your return to earth”. And then again and again for the next five minutes. That’s always fun!
QUOTE]


I KNEW I liked you!!! That is one of my favorite rides and when I took a group on it during our last trip I pronounced the same. When we came out they all decided that if that was my idea of a great ride, they weren't listening to my suggestions anymore I think it is one of the few original rides that still give the feeling of what EPCOT used to be all about. I agree to with your assessment of Club Cool--it was much "cooler" before!

Codie...that happened to me too! My friend, Catherine, basically reinforced my nickname of nerd after that ride. Sheesh! They simply do not understand!!
Mary...loving this TR....

 

[mantysk8coach]

Okay, I'm only on page 2 so far, but I just have to say that is awesome that you saw the Nelsons! (See my sig.) I am a huge fan and have always wanted to see them at Epcot, but the timing has never been right.

Great report, I am enjoying reading it, and loving all of the pictures!

Congratulations on your marriage too!

 

[Mary626]

JJClemson - that is hilarious that you watched the spanish version of the channel too! I guess there is probably a lot of us that feel the same way, we should send some complaint letters or something

Emmo - thank you so much!! That's funny, I can just picture writing a life report " day 232.. I get out of bed.. studied for my exam until my eyes popped out, and then went to school, took the final exam..., called Jim and told him how much i hated the teacher and how unfair his tests are and how I was going to form a cabal to get the teacher fired.., and then went home, studied some more and fell asleep... next day, I find out I aced the exam and tell Jim how good the teacher is and how fair his tests are and how the other kids should stop complaining..." etc..

Codie - I know exactly how you feel!! I've taken a few friends with me to WDW once or twice, so excited to share my enthusiasm for the place with them, and they've always seemed completely unimpressed by everything. I always thought maybe I hyped things up for people too much, so since this was Jim's first trip to WDW since he was 12, I tried my best not to mention that anything was my favorite and to see his reaction. I would go on a ride, ask if he liked it, and if he said he did i would say "great, that's one of my favorite rides!!" and would start geeking out about it! I love spaceship earth, and agree with you about how it feels like what epcot was supposed to be! I love all the details in the ride, like when they show all the roads leading to rome and you can see a few of the chariots galloping down the roads.. or the monks that fall asleep while transcribing a book.. I just think it's a great ride!

Beana - thank you again!

mantysk8coach - thank you and I love the pic in your signature!! My sisters and I used to love the nelsons back in the early 90's, we were totally into glam.. i used to love skid-row and the nelson twins and all those bands!


I finished up the next day's trip report..... have a good memorial day weekend everyone!



*************

Wednesday, april 26th – day 7

I woke up around 7:30 Wednesday morning but let Jim sleep in more while I packed a little more. I called my parents to see if they were still at the hotel, and they were but were leaving in about ten minutes. I ran over there to hug and them and say goodbye. I gave them some of the cake I had cut into pieces. I Can't remember if I had a chance to say goodbye to Jenny and kevin again or not...

I went back to the room and Jim was still sleeping.I went out on our balcony and enjoyed our view, it was very peaceful in the morning. I saw some jack-rabbits by the gazebo and some ducks by the roses, how cute! I was going to miss our view when we switched hotels. At 8 I called house-keeping and asked if I could get late-checkout and they said it would be fine.. woohoo! With no rush to leave, I could go swimming and take our time.

You can see the jack-rabbit by the roses

For some reason in my head I thought the guy at the front desk said the pool opened at 9. Thinking about it later I’m sure he said something like 10-9 and I got it backwards, but of course I didn’t realize it at the time. It was around 8:30 and I really wanted Jim to get up so we could go swimming. I tried waking him up a few times, he’d sit up in bed, say he was up, and then fall back asleep. I decided to let him sleep a little longer but at 9 o’clock I really wanted to get going! Finally he woke up and said he had a big headache. I knew he didn’t want to go swimming, but darnit I did! I gave him some advil and said maybe some food would help it go away, so he ate the rest of our leftovers from the Chinese restaurant,, I know great breakfast. He was tired and had a headache. I said I wanted to go swimming but if he just wanted to stay somewhere in the shade I was fine with that, I just didn’t want to go alone.

We both put on our swimsuits and slathered on the sunscreen and left for the pool around 9:30, I was thinking it was already going to be crowded a little bit. We go down there and I’m stupidly like “hey look no-one’s out swimming yet, cool we have the pool to ourselves!” We go to the gate and one of the life-guards tells me it’s not open till 10.. darnit!! I felt so bad, I dragged Jim out of bed with his headache just to come down there half an hour earlier. We were kind of confused by what the life-guard had said and thought they’d open it up in about 15 minutes so we waited around. He gave us our wristbands so we wouldn’t have to bother with that later. Oh well it was a nice sunny morning and I was glad to be out. I just felt bad for Jim, though he said his headache was getting slightly better.

Us waiting for the pool to open because I stupidly thought it opened at 9

the lifeguards preparing for duty

Around 9:50 the lifeguards let us in to find a seat and get ready. I saw them take off the railings around the pool that said “closed”… silly me, I figured since it no longer said “closed” that must mean it’s open, so Jim and I got into the pool. Then we hear this young lifeguard girl say “get out of the pool, it’s CLOSED!!!” Ugh, what a snot! Now I remember why I hate swimming in public pools.. thanks lady, I’m not five years old you could have been nicer about it and just said you weren’t open yet!!

Between having to wait a half an hour for the pool to open up when I thought it opened at 9 and being yelled at by a girl like 10 years younger then me I was starting to get in a bad mood. Jim asked if I wanted to go back to the room and I kind of did, but I had been through so much just to use the pool I would have felt stupid if we didn’t even end up going swimming lol. Darnit I wanted to enjoy our last day at the yacht club and go swimming!

Finally they start letting people go in the pool, and me and Jim went in. I had never gone swimming there, I knew there were quite a few different areas of the pool, but I didn’t know which was which. So we got in and it was the lazy river area that had a strong current that was pushing us around.

The “lazy river” isn’t so lazy when you don’t have an innertube!

I’m not the worlds strongest swimmer so we left that area once we got to a different area and went by the waterfall. It was kind of pretty and Jim was having a good time putting his head under the waterfall. When you have to worry about your contacts getting washed out, you can’t really do things like that so I skipped it and took some pics while Jim enjoyed the waterfall.

 

[Mary626]

We went to a more relaxed pool and had fun just bopping around. I’m pretty short (5 foot 2) so I could only occasionally feel the sand on the bottom of the pool, but it was nice and squishy when I could reach it. Then we went further down the pool and there was an area that had a whirlpool current in it that pushed you around in circles, it was fun!

the whirlpool

the whirlpool to the left and the exit to the water slide on the right

We went over to the end of the pool where you come out when you’re on the water slide. Jim was thinking about doing the water slide, and I said “do you want me to hold your sunglasses for you?” the lifeguard on duty over heard and said “oh you can wear your sunglasses on the water slide, I wear mine down all the time”. Jim asked if I wanted to go too. I haven’t gone on a big water slide since I was like 12, and the last time I was on one I remember it being kind of scary and hating it and vowing never to go on one again. Well, this was 14 years later, maybe I could handle it now? And if I was allowed to wear my sunglasses on it probably wasn’t that bad, I reasoned, so I decided to give it a try.

We walked over to the entrance and climbed up the spiral stairs that take you to the entrance to the water slide. Jim went first. I was scared. I told myself not to be stupid and that people go on waterslides all the time and are fine. When the lifeguard told me I could go, I get in and give myself a push downwards.

The entrance to the water slide

where you exit the water slide

Now the outwards appearance of the waterslide makes it look like it’s just a straight-down plume, like maybe it would last 30 seconds or so at most. I figured I could handle that.

I start going down the water slide and at first I’m thinking “okay this is kind of fun, what was I afraid of?” but then it keeps going and going and going, and I’m building up speed and it’s going around in spirals and I started to kind of freak out a little. I closed my eyes because I was worried about getting water in my contacts, and then towards the end of the slide water was splashing in my face so much that I held my breath for a while so I wouldn’t swallow any water, so I had my eyes closed, was holding my breath, and had no idea how much longer this tortuous waterslide would continue for. It was really freaking me out.

All of a sudden it dumps me out and I’m at the bottom of the pool. I was scared and wasn’t sure if I’d be able to pull myself up. I was probably down there for a few seconds but I kept telling myself to pull myself up because I didn’t want the embarrassment of the life-guard jumping in after me! So I reach the surface but I keep my eyes closed because I didn’t want my contacts to fall out. Thank god that was over! I hear the life-guard ask me if I was okay, and I nodded my head yes. Jim was there and asked if I was alright, I said I was fine I just needed a towel. I blinked a few times though and luckily my contacts stayed in, so I told him nevermind, but I realize my sunglasses were missing. The lifeguard lends Jim his water goggles and Jim swims around to look for them. I was thinking “great there goes another pair of 150 dollar sunglasses”.. since that was the THIRD pair I had bought in the past few months because my stupid dog kept eating my other pairs, no matter how high up I put them. And I really need a good pair of sunglasses because my eyes are so sensitive all the time, I didn’t want to go without them while in Florida..

Anyway, luckily Jim finds them, wooh! I say to jim outloud “now I remember why I hate water slides!” and told him how I kind of freaked out. The lifeguard over there was really nice and said “you should try it again, I promise if you freak out again I’ll go in after you”. I thanked him and said it was okay.. I figure.. I’m not afraid of heights or rollercoasters or any type of bugs, and have no irrational fears that I know of.. I was perfectly fine with being afraid of waterslides!

I didn’t want to admit it to jim, but it was kind of a jarring experience. I told Jim I was going to get out for a few minutes and go take some pictures with my camera, but he should stay in a little while longer since he was having fun, so that’s what I did.

 

[Mary626]

Jim got out a little later and we went back to where our beach towels and things were. When we’re over there we see Janiece, josh, and gracie swimming in the sandy bottom shallow pool. Gracie was too adorable in her little outfit kicking around in the water! Jim and I got back in the kiddie pool – the kiddie pool I could handle and I liked the sandy bottom part! We talked with them about the past few days, we hadn’t really had a chance to talk to them much. I guess since they had never been there before they were doing everything commando-disney style and trying to fit in everything they possibly could. I thought that was cool that they wanted to see everything!

This was my favorite part of stormalong bay!

jim drying off

Gracie was too adorable!

Jim’s mom came by and said her and Chris were going to go eat at Cape May Café for breakfast. Jim and I got out a little while after that and went back to the hotel room to shower and change. It was almost 11, we had been swimming for almost an hour and the sun had zapped up a lot of my energy.


We were in our hotel room getting ready to go, and Jim gets a call from his brother Chris. Chris was calling to ask jim how the heck Goofy knew Jim and knew that it was our honeymoon. Jim was like what??

When Chris and Sue went to the character breakfast at Cape may Café, Goofy wrote out a note saying “How’s Jim?” Chris looked confused and said “jim’s good…” and then Goofy wrote out “honeymoon?” which completely baffled Chris. Jim related the story to me and I was like “they must have had it written on their reservations”, but Jim said they had walked up to the podium, they didn’t have reservations… how weird.. then I said “well did they give them their name while they waited?” but the funny thing about that was, Chris told us later, he had said “corbin” but she saw the lady write down “torbin” or something completely wrong, and so they knew they didn’t look it up on the computer or anything.. how weird!!

Wait, I said “maybe it was the guy in the mickey suit from our wedding, that must be it”. But then we were like “wait, Mickey and Minnie were really short and goofy is a tall character, what the heck!!”

The only explanation we could think of for it was that it was the character escort that was taking care of Mickey and Minnie? I know sometimes they take turns being the escort and being the characters. Honestly though, it remains a mystery to me!! If anyone here has any idea how Goofy knew enough to recognize Chris & Sue, remember Jim’s name and the fact that he was on his honeymoon, I would love to hear your ideas!!

Chris & Sue came up after their meal was done and showed us Goofy’s note. What the heck! We all joked about Goofy stalking Jim.

Goofy’s note to Chris

I gave the suitcase I packed for Sue so she could take it with her, godbless her, and we said goodbye to Chris & Sue. Since we’d be seeing them in less then a week I wasn’t as sad about them leaving as when my own family left.

We called for a bellhop to help us with the luggage and got everything ready. I still had my flowers from the florist out,, I wasn’t ready to part with them yet. Obviously I couldn’t think of a good way to pack them so I decided to carry them with me. I did pack my bouquet in one of the suitcases, I was thinking about trying to press some of the petals or dry them out for keepsakes. We wore our mickey and Minnie wedding ears because it was easier to wear them then to pack them.

The bellhop came and we put our suitcases on them and Jim walked with him down to the front of the lobby. I told jim to wait there with the bags as I double checked the room and took care of one or two more things.

I made sure I had everything, took my vase of flowers, and said “goodbye room, it’s been fun”, which is a weird ritual of mine that I always do before leaving a Disney hotel room.