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

[Mary626]

I went down to the entrance to the lobby where Jim was waiting. Jim says to me “mary, the bellhop says they can take our luggage for free and transfer them to the hotel for us!” I told Jim I knew that, but that I didn’t want to wait a few hours for our luggage and the taxi was only ten dollars, I’d rather just do the no-hassle thing.. Jim says “I think we should just put it on the buss”… I was like “Jim, don’t mess with the girl with the color-coded, laminated 10-day itinerary that she has been fine-tuning for the last 12 months!! Occasionally I do happen to know what I’m talking about!!”

I asked jim to hold my vase of flowers for me while I went back to the gift shop to return the metal broach that I had worn to the dessert party after the metal clasp on my sweater broke. It would have been good to keep it for the memory, but it was 30 bucks! I also had a pair of kissing mickey and Minnie magnet figurines that I had gotten two sets of, I didn’t have a receipt for that, but I told the cast member I was fine with store credit. The guy said it would be no problem, but tried ten different things and none of them worked. Finally she had her manager come over and help her. It ended up taking about 20 minutes. I didn’t complain, I was glad to have the extra Disney money, but I was worried about jim waiting there with 10 bags of luggage.

Finally they finish, give me a merchandise card for about 65 bucks, and I go back to Jim. Jim said “your vase of flowers spilled on me, are you sure you want to take it with you?” and I jokingly made fun of him and told him I managed to walk down the elevator and hallway and not spill any, and he was sitting there and it spilled on him? Hey I wanted to keep my flowers for as long as I could!

The bellhop called a taxi for us and we loaded our ton of luggage in and told him to take us to the Port Orleans French Quarter. I don’t like using taxi’s while on WDW property, but I knew that would require the least amount of hassle, and for 10 bucks it was worth it. But okay, after this trip I will NEVER be taking any taxi services in WDW ever again! I won’t go into why as of yet, the first part of that story begins a little later, but I will say that I noticed that the taxi driver kept taking “a wrong turn” to extend what should have been a 7 dollar fare into an 11 dollar fare. Hey if that’s how he wants to do it then I wasn’t going to tip him… but Jim felt bad and left him a few dollars, darn it! Oh well..

Anyway, we get to the Port Orleans French Quarter. Yay! I was excited! I LOVE entering a new Disney hotel for the first time! A bellhop opens our door and welcomes us to the port Orleans, and they take our bags and give us a claim ticket and me and Jim go line up for check in.

The fountain in the lobby

Me with my vase of flowers I wasn’t ready to part with yet

While in line, Jim and I discussed how to pay for the hotel, we had saved up a ton of money for the trip so I wasn’t worried, we just weren’t sure what the best method would be. He had forgotten to move the money from his savings over to his checking but said he could go on the internet and switch it real quick. I said “no, it’s my honeymoon and I don’t want to have to worry about money or going on the internet, I especially don’t want to have to go on the internet, just use the credit card..” So we get to the check out counter and, it’s very obvious that we’re on our honeymoon, so the lady congratulates us and asks about the wedding. Jim and I are very chipper as we tell her about how beautiful everything was and how wonderful everything had been. She says our room is all ready and how would we want to pay for that. Jim gives her his debit card to his account, and I say “are you sure, wont’ they charge an overdraft fee on your bank, why don’t we use the credit card?” and jim says “eh it’s fine, I’ll use the internet when we get in the room and move the money over”.

Now I was pretty tired still, and was drained from swimming in the sun all day, and I got kind of upset at jim here since I had just told him I didn’t want him on the internet yet, I wanted to go to the magic kingdom right away and not deal with financial things on my honeymoon. I didn’t mean to snap at him, but it came out before I could stop myself and I was like “I just said I didn’t want you using the internet today!!” and right as the words come out of my mouth I immediately get really embarrassed and feel awful. The lady behind the counter had a look of “wow that honeymoon is over….” On her face.. ugh I was so embarrassed and felt so awful. We finished up and went outside. I apologized profusely to jim, but I could tell he was pretty upset that I had yelled at him in public. Ugh. I wanted to be happy, I LOVE being in new hotels for the first time and wanted to concentrate on that. Instead I felt like a horrible human being. I didn’t want to enter our new hotel room on such a sour note so I sat down on a bench by the lobby. Jim sat down next to me. I was mad at myself for being such a b-! And that girl must have thought I was such a witch, ugh I was embarrassed. I was just exhausted or I never would have yelled in public like that. So me and jim talked it through and settled things a little bit, but really I felt guilty about it all day.

 

[Mary626]

The resort was really quaint and adorable! Our rooms were pretty close to the lobby so we didn’t’ get to see much of the resort grounds but I wanted to go explore it later when we got back.

The back entrance to the lobby and food court and gift shop

To the pool area right across from the lobby and food court

someone on a carriage ride

Building 2

We got to our room and opened the door and I see 2 mardi-gras bead necklace on the table. I thought ‘how cute I have ones at home like that”.. but then I look closer and see they have little figures of a bride and groom and I was like “oooh how cute, I guess I don’t have ones at home like that!” and then I notice the poster taped to the wall that says “Congratulations, mary and jim!” awwwwwwwwwww that was so sweet!!! I was so happy! And there was a towel animal!!! I didn’t even get any towel animals or ANYTHING at the yacht club and I was there on my wedding day and it was very obvious btw.. anyway I was really liking the port Orleans French quarter!!!!

The table with our wedding mardi-gras beads and happy honeymoon poster on the wall

our beads

our beds

my first towel-animal at Disney ever!

Jim in the room with is mardi gras bead necklace on

the bathroom

Jim pointed out the key card the lady had given me.. it said Mary Corbin!! Awwww!!! All before the wedding I was planning on hyphenating my name or maybe even keeping my name, but all of a sudden I really wanted to be Mrs. Corbin.. how weird! I told jim “maybe I will change my name to corbin!” and jim was like “really??” (he really wants me to).. but then I said “well, let’s wait and see how I feel when the honeymoon is officially over”. I pulled out my key card from the yacht club and placed them side by side. One said “mary adams” and one said “mary corbin” I was very tickled by that.

I called the bellhop for our luggage and he came right away. Much better then the hour I had to wait at the yacht club! I didn’t have any real cash on me, so I asked if I could give him a tip in Disney dollars, and he said “sure thing, disney dollars are like real dollars to us!” So I gave him a ten with a stitch on it, since that’s all I had,, and he seemed very happy about it!

We freshened up a little but left quickly and headed to the bus stop for the Magic Kingdom. There it was, day 7, and we had yet to see the castle from main street or do anything in the magic kingdom. I was really antsy to go!

 

[Mary626]

Us walking back to the bus stop area

We left Port Orleans around 2 and we had reservations at Tony’s Town Square on main street at 3. We hadn’t eaten a thing all day so we were both starving and still exhausted and worn out from swimming in the sun all morning, but we both wanted to see the magic kingdom really badly. We got on the bus and I was like “Jim there’s space mountain!! There’s the contemporary!! There’s the castle!!” I was so excited to finally be heading into the Magic Kingdom!!

By the time we got there, got through security, put in our tickets and did the biometric thing that didn’t work a single time I was there, it was 10 minutes until our reservation time. Jim wanted to head straight to tony’s, but I said “I at least have to SEE the castle from main street, I just have to see it, take one picture, and then I’ll be happy!”. We walked to the center of main street and there it was!! I haven’t been in the magic kingdom since 1999 and so I just so elated to finally be there with my new husband,, on main street, looking at the castle. It’s one of those things that feels like a dream and like you’re going to wake up any time now. I was happy!!

Yay the castle!!

We went and checked in at Tony’s and watched a little bit of the “Lady & the Tramp” movie that was playing in the waiting area. I was like “wow that is one clean movie!” since Jim was one of the digital restoration artists for this and a few other Disney movies, he is very proud of his work.

The greeter calls our name and takes us to our seats.. Originally I had made the reservations for 4 thinking Jenny and Kevin would come with us, back before they changed their departure date so they would be returning one day earlier,but I never bothered to change the reservation to 2. The greeter took us to our table and I saw the confetti on the table and was like “aww that is so sweet!” But then all of a sudden the greeter gets nervous and is like “wait.. were there four of you? You are the adams table right? Did I bring you to the wrong table? I better go check…” I kept trying to explain that I made the reservation for four, but she was a little strange about it. Obviously we’re wearing wedding ears, lady, this is the right table, it’s not that complicated… She left before her head explodes and me and jim were like “that was weird” and go back to being happy about the confetti.

mickey confetti!

We had a nice view of main street and I knew the 3 o’clock parade was going to be coming by pretty soon (it started in the opposite direction in frontierland). The place was bright and airy and Jim and I were both really happy. Jim kept throwing confetti at me occasionally during the meal and trying to get it down my shirt, oye.. At one point, not sure when, he puts one piece of confetti on my forehead and I didn’t notice it the entire time it was there! And so there I am, with a piece of mickey confetti on my forehead in all of my pictures for this meal. I don’t know if I looked dumb or what.

 

[Mary626]

We both order the spaghetti and thought it was pretty good. I ordered the smoothie because I wanted the souvenir mug to take home. We tried to get a picture of ourselves similar to the famous scene in lady & the tramp but it didn’t work out so well..

the back of the mug

the breadsticks we ordered as an appetizer

our spaghetti

me with a piece of mickey confetti on my forehead I didn’t know about until later

well, we tried

we could see some of the parade, it was cute! Jim said it was like an elaborate commercial for snowglobes, but I love Disney snowglobes so I didn’t care! I saw Mickey in his snowglobe and I was like "there's Mickey, hey we know him, he came to our wedding!"

The waiter was really nice and friendly and we really enjoyed our meal! At the end of our meal, 3 of the waiters come out and ask us our names.. I say “mary” and jim accidentally says “mary.. I mean jim” ha, too funny!

The head waiter who had a heavy Italian accent says loudly to the restaurant “everyone, this couple here is on their honeymoon, so on the count of three I want everyone to say “Happy honeymoon, mary and jim.. that’s amore.. and then give a little kiss like this.. mchwaaa!!” (I can’t think of how to spell the sound of a kiss!)

So he counts to three and the waiters and a few of the people in the restaurant say “happy honeymoon Jim and mary, that’s amore… mshwaaa!!!” It was really adorable, it just made me really happy!!! They also brought out a free dessert for us – it was delicious!!

I was so happy about our meal and was just raving about Tony’s townsquare.. I asked the waiter if I took the smoothie mug with me or if he gives me a new one, he says I take the receipt to the cashier and they’ll give me a new one. Okay cool!

We go to the cashier and I ask for the mug and show her the receipt. The cashier was the lady who had taken us to our table and acted really confused about it. She looks confused and says “it doesn’t look like you paid for the mug”. And I looked at it and he had charged me for the smoothie but not for the mug. I wanted my mug though, so I told her “well the only reason I got the smoothie was so I could get the mug, so can I buy the mug?” She looked really stressed about the whole thing and was like “ooh I don’t know I think I’ll have to call the manager”… I could tell she just wanted me to say “forget about it”, but I really really wanted my mug! So I said “that’s okay, I will wait..” she looked like she wanted to cry… really.. oye… Jim and I kind of look around the gift shop while her manager comes down, which took about ten minutes.. the manager looks at the receipt, takes it off somewhere, comes back ten minutes later and says “ahh he didn’t charge you for the mug just the smoothie”.. I was like “I know, I had asked for the mug though, can I please get the mug?” and she askd for the three dollars difference.. I gave her my key card and she went off to charge it.. now I had worked in the Disney college program before and they always talked about “guest recovery” and how to win back guests satisfaction in a situation such as this. I had just waited twenty minutes for my three dollar mug when none of it was my fault.. if I had been the manager working I personally would have just given the mug to me so I could be on my way and apologize for the wait, but it ended up taking another 10 minutes for her to go charge my card and bring me back a mug… well I have my mug now., and a story! But I could have done without the half an hour of wasted time.

 

[Mary626]

Jim and I were feeling pretty tired from our meal and the day in general, but we were in the magic kingdom, we couldn’t wuss out now!! We decided to head to Tomorrowland and try the new Stitch ride that neither of us had done and since we are both big stitch fans, we wanted to try it.

Now I have been on this ride when it was “an extraTERRORestrial encounter!” and always thought that was the coolest ride ever!! I have heard so many bad things about the new stitch ride so I knew I needed to lower my expectations really low, but I thought “how bad could it be really? Its probably cute, people are probably just mad they replaced the old ride”

I really really really wanted to like this ride! We get out of the ride and I tried to convince myself it was good. But I just couldn’t do it. I don’t know what went wrong, it should have at least been cute. Jim said he thought it was okay so maybe I was just comparing it to the old one too much in the back of my mind. But then, I just really didn’t like what they did with Stitch’s character, it was like they made him really stupid. He’d go up to people and say “are you my friend?” and was just being stupid. Maybe he really does need Lilo to balance him out! It took me a while to go back to loving stitch again after going on this ride. Jim said the part when he burped up his chili dog right into our faces almost made him throw up. I would have laughed so hard if Jim threw up on the stitch ride and not on mission space or something!

I understood why they replaced the old ride – it was much too scary for young children and every time I went on it all the children would be crying and screaming during the show.. In my opinion, I think the original ride would have fared much better at MGM studios or somewhere else, I don’t think parents expected a ride to really be that scary to their children at the magic kingdom. So while the original may have been too much for adults, I think the new ride is way too much for children. I think it has potential, they just need to change the writing, dialogue, and some of the gags, and then both children and adults may actually enjoy the ride.


Jim and I were both feeling really tired. Darnit, I wanted to explore the magic kingdom but felt exhausted! Usually on trips to WDW I always take mid-day breaks and go back to the hotel to take a nap. We wake up early and get to the park at opening, take a break, and go back to the parks later on.. this way the crowd levels are always manageable and we’re rested up.. But since we switched resorts and hadn’t been to the parks at all that day our schedule was off. So while I felt like we should really go back and take a break, we had just gotten there and there was so much I wanted to do at the MK!

We decide to try to fight it off and we get on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority. This ride used to be one of my family’s favorite. It is so relaxing and it takes you around tomorrowland and it is just a cute cheesey little ride! There’s never a wait and it lasts a good ten minutes or so, so it’s a good place to get off your feet and just enjoy the atmosphere of tomorrowland. I’ve never been on this ride with anyone but my family though, so it made me miss them.

I was exhausted and actually fell asleep through about three minutes of the ride.. okay we needed to go back to the hotel. I was so mad for being so tired, our vacation was going by so quickly and I’d barely begun to explore the parks.. but then again, it was our honeymoon and if we were exhausted we should really just go relax and give ourselves time to take it easy too. So we both decided we’d have more fun just relaxing, explore the hotel grounds maybe,, and maybe take a carriage ride or something later.

Me falling asleep on the TTA

Taking some pictures as we leave tomorrowland

While walking out of the MK, we did catch a little of “Cinderellabration” and stopped to watch a little of that. It was cute but nothing I would go out of my way to watch.

Cinderellabration,.. incidentally you can see the lighting tresses for Grad Night that was one of the reasons I cancelled the MK photo shoot for the wedding..

Right before the train station we saw Chip & Dale taking pictures, and I figured we should at least get one picture with some characters before heading back, so we got in line. I got up to Chip and said “hi dale!”, normally I know which are which, but I was tired and got it wrong, he shook his head “no” at me and pointed at his nose, and I said “oh yeah, chip because you have a chocolate chip nose, sorry!”.. I didn’t mention to him the other mnemonic I have for remembering their names, that “Dale looks Drunk” (the red nose and goofy expression on his face).

We took our picture with them and got on the hotel bus. I kind of nodded off on the bus once or twice.

 

[Mary626]

We went back to our hotel room and I unpacked some of our bags and got situated. I called my family to see how everyone was. They had gone straight from the airport to the hospital to see my brother and his wife and new baby. Jenny picked up the phone and said mom was holding the new baby, Kayla, and that she was really cute. Noone seemed too interested in talking to me, I was old news at that point , so I congratulated my brother and asked how Rachel was feeling, and told them to call me later.

Jim and I got comfortable and tried to take a nap. I think I fell asleep for about twenty minutes and then was woken up by someone in the hotel that was talking really really loudly. It sounded like he was right outside of our hotel room. Well we were close to the pool, maybe he was watching his children play. I looked outside our window and noone was there. Weird, well maybe they were in the room above us or something. I don’t know where he was, but he was LOUD. I kept trying to drown him out but I couldn’t fall back asleep. Finally me and Jim just decide to get up. We kind of just relaxed and were being lazy for a little while.

Jim said he wanted some of our wedding cake but we didn’t have any forks or anything and he didn’t feel like going to the food court. I was like “just use your hands – we’re on vacation and noone can see us.. I won’t tell anyone”. But Jim felt that was too silly and didn’t want to do it.

Jim seemed kind of like he might be a little depressed or something so I thought I would try to cheer him up.. so I took out one of the pieces of cake out of the ziplock bag, and was like “I’ll do it then..” and took a bite out of it. Jim was like “that’s classy” and took a picture of me.

I was like “come on have a bite of cake jim” and took the piece over to him,, I was going to smash it into his face but he knew me well enough that he wouldn’t let me get too close. I kept telling him I was just going to give him a bite and that I wouldn’t smash it into his face, but he didn’t’ believe me.. I waited about two minutes when he wasn’t expecting it, and pretended I had forgotten about the cake, and then went up to him and smashed some of the frosting on his face. I was laughing so hard. I know I was being stupid but I didn’t care. Jim was laughing too but was like “thanks!” I was like “okay, that was mean, you can do it to me too if you want”, so he takes a little bit of cake to smash in my face but ends up getting it all over my hair and in my eyes. I was like “hey I just got a little around your face, not in your hair, yuck!!” But I was laughing about it. Okay, cake fight over, we cleaned up the floor and our faces, and I rinsed my hair. It got us both into better moods though and we decided to get dressed and go somewhere.

Real classy

we kind of made a mess (but we cleaned it up)

We had had reservations at Artist’s point at the Wilderness Lodge around 8 and were thinking about going with Matt. Earlier in the day I told Jim I wasn’t in the mood for an expensive meal later in the day and that I was fine with eating at the POFQ food court. But now I kind of wanted to get out of the hotel and go somewhere else. I had stayed at the wilderness lodge back in 1998 and LOVED the hotel, and I wanted Jim to see the lobby.

So we called Matt to see if he still wanted to go, and he did, so we quickly got dressed. Our reservation was for 8, and it was about 7:15, so we knew we had to hurry. I would have been fine with taking the buses over to the MK and then taking the ferry to the wilderness lodge but I didn’t think we had enough time to do that and make it to our reservation, so we opted to take a taxi.

So this begins the first of a two part series of “Why I hate cab driver #353”. We get in the taxi and he takes us to the wilderness lodge. Our fare is about ten dollars, so jim gives him his credit card to pay. Cab driver 353 looks at is and is like “aww man, you don’t have any cash??” and Jim was like “sorry, just Disney dollars and credit cards”.. the guy says “do you think you can get some cash out.. it’s just that they charge us way too much for credit cards…” in a completely whiney voice.. Jim looks at me and asks if I want to go exchange some Disney dollars at the Wilderness lodge lobby or something. I look at him and was like “umm no!” I tell the cab driver, I said “sorry, you didn’t mention that you don’t take credit cards at the beginning of the trip, and it says right on the window of your cab that you accept credit cards”… the guy says “oh I can take credit cards, it’s just that they charge like 20% and I’d really appreciate it if you had cash”… but I’m like “sorry, we want to pay with credit card..”

So Cab driver 353 pulls over to the side so he can ring up the credit card machine, jim goes by his window to wait for him. Jim told me he’d give him a tip since he felt bad about not having any cash,, I was like ugh, whatever… I’m sitting on the bench close to the lobby doors and am waiting. And waiting. And waiting. The whole point in taking a taxi was to save time, and I look at my clock and I had been waiting ten minutes, what the heck! So I go over to Jim, at the very least I was going to tell him not to tip this guy.. Jim says the guy’s credit card machine froze up and he kept trying to ring it up and it wasn’t working.. so I’m getting annoyed and was like “fine I’ll go get some cash”.. so I take the atm card, go into the lobby and ask where an atm machine is.. go get some cash out, pay the 2 dollar atm transaction fee, and go back out. I didn’t give the money to jim because I didn’t want to tip this guy, so I hand the guy ten dollars, thinking the total was 10.. but the guy says “actually the total was 10.25..”… I was like “whatever..” hand him another dollar just so I could get the heck out of there and leave.. I look over and see jim hand him another 2 dollars.. grrr!!!! That guy did not deserve a tip! He was whining, took forever, probably lied about the computer being down so I would go to the atm, and was just a jerk.. and it really made me mad…

But whatever, we were at the wilderness lodge and so I decided to forget about it and just enjoy the time I was with Jim. But it did make me mad, so I told jim to check with his credit card company later and make sure he didn’t charge him on the credit card too. I didn’t trust that guy. Jim and I made sure to memorize his cab number just in case. It turned out to be a good idea. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the end of cab driver #353.

 

[Mary626]

So I forget about the annoying cab driver and take Jim into the Wilderness Lobby. I was really looking forward to seeing Jim’s reaction to the lobby. This is such a beautiful resort! Jim enters the hotel and looks around and I was not disappointed by his reaction, his jaw practically dropped. He says to me “why aren’t we staying here?” and I laughed. I get into my “tour guide mary” mode and show him around. I love this hotel! I had put it on my Hotel room block so guests could stay there at a discount if they wanted to, but everyone chose to stay closer to epcot for obvious reasons, so the discount on the hotel went to waste.

Pictures don’t really show off the charm of this hotel

I showed jim the fireplace and told him how it accurately represented the strata of the Grand canyon. Jim and I had just visited the grand canyon about a month before hand so that was actually more impressive to us then it otherwise would have been. I pointed out the totem poles and the tipi chandeliers. Then I showed him the babbling brook that starts in the lobby and continues all the way out into the lake.. I was like “it’s really cool, watch where it begins..” and then I took him outside, showed him how it fed into the waterfall.. the waterfall appears to feed into the pool (it doesn’t really but they make it look like it does)… then on the other side of the pool the brook continues forward, until it appears to feed into the lake.. I just think that is so cool!! We looked around the outside a little and then went back inside and explored the lobby some more. I asked Jim to call Matt, and then I look around and Matt is right there.

Jim and I in front of the huge fireplace

me in front of the waterfall

matt arrives, he had been having a drink in the lounge

We took some more pics and then I go check in for our advanced dining reservations. We were seated close to the windows so I enjoyed watching a little bit of the sun set.

cute little napkins

 

[Mary626]

Jim and Matt both ordered the porkchop with mac & cheese.. I was planning on ordering that too but since they were both getting it I opted for the salmon instead. They brought the salmon out while it was still sizzling on a wooden platter thing, and put it on my plate. It was very nice presentation. Jim and Matt both said that was the best pork chop they ever tasted. I’ve read rave reviews about the salmon here, but while it was good I actually make better salmon at home and have salmon here in California all the time that tastes much better and is much cheaper. Maybe it’s because we live on the west coast and our salmon arrives much fresher then it would in florida? Maybe it’s good salmon for florida, but I thought it was okay. I was a little disappointed about paying thirty dollars for something that I make better at home for a third of the price. I ate about a third of it and took the rest of it back to the hotel.

But Jim & Matt both really liked their meal, and we decided to split the berry cobbler. The berry cobbler was absolutely delicious! It wasn’t too tart, but was nice and fresh. It was really good! We had a nice meal together,, though I don’t remember anything we talked about. I used my Disney Dining Experience card again and saved 20%. I loved that card, it saved me SO MUCH money the whole trip, and used it pretty much at every restaurant we ate, except counter service.

My salmon with little potato things? I wasn’t sure what those things were even while I was eating them

jim and matt’s pork chop and mac and cheese meal

delicious berry cobbler!

We left around 8:55 and I was like “if we make it in time we can see the geyser!!” and matt and jim both looked confused. When I had stayed at the wilderness lodge 8 years prior, the geyser had been under refurbishment and I had never gotten to see it erupt. It was pretty disappointing at the time, and darnit, I wanted to see the geyser. So I double-timed it Mary-disney-commando style to the geyser as jim and matt trailed behind trying to keep up with me. We got to the geyser at about 9 exactly, but noone was around. I thought maybe we missed it since there was noone there waiting to see it or anything, but decided to wait a few minutes anyway. At about 9:02 the geyser went off. It shot maybe 10 feet into the air. For some reason when I was younger I had pictured it shooting up like 50 feet or something, so I was like “that’s it?” and laughed at myself for running out to see the show. It was still cute, I just thought it was funny how what I pictured compared to what it actually was. It was still cute though, and I was happy I got to see it erupt!

The geyser shooting water up about 10 feet in the air

I asked Jim if he wanted to wait around for the electrical water pageant. Matt asked what that was. Matt didn’t know what it was? Woohoo! That made me feel good knowing something about WDW that matt didn’t know, since he’s been to WDW a lot more times then I’ve been. I said “it’s a cheesy little light show on these small little sail barges that go around the lake to the different hotels.. it’s not worth going out of your way for, but if you’re here it’s kind of cute and cheesy”.. We decided not to bother to wait for it though, since it was a half an hour away. So we went to the dock and waited for a ferry that would take us to the magic kingdom. Since we were heading to the MK to get on the buses that would take us to the POFQ, jim said he was going to use the bathroom at the wilderness lodge instead of waiting an hour until we were back in the hotel. The ferry driver said they only had one more boat after that coming, so I was worried Jim might miss the boat. When he came back, the Wishes fireworks had started and we got to enjoy watching them from the dock by the lake.. I still wanted to actually go into the park and watch them, but it was a nice end to the night.

Jim and me in front of the fireworks

We got on the ferry boat and as it’s heading to the MK, I see some of the barges from the electrical water pageant, and I get all excited. “look jim, it’s the electrical water pageant!!” I say in my mary-sounds-like-she’s-three-years-old voice.

We only got to see a few of the barges, the ones with the American flag and stars on them, but I was still glad to see some of it so Jim and Matt knew I wasn’t crazy or something!

I didn’t take any pictures of it at the time, so I borrowed this picture from another site, it’s pretty much exactly what we saw and how we saw it

We boat dropped us off in front of the Magic Kingdom, and we went over to the bus stop. We said goodbye to Matt and got on the bus and headed back to POFQ.

At some point in all of this, Jim had called his credit card company and asked if there were any charges from the cab company that day for $10.25. Not only did Cab driver #353 charge our credit card, it turns out he charged it three times!!!!! Ugh what an awful awful cab driver! Not only did he charge his credit card, but he also took the cash, which meant we just paid 45 dollars for a five minute taxi ride!!! We get back to POFQ and go to the bellhop lady and explain the situation. One of the things she tells us is that the Mears cab driver people were REQUIRED to accept credit cards, that was part of the deal they had with WDW, she put us on the phone with the cab company so Jim could explain what happened.

I’m not a big fan of confrontations or complaining, it always stresses me out, so I went in the lobby and waited for Jim while he dealt with it. While waiting in the lobby, they had a musician playing in the Scat Cat lounge nearby. I sat on a bench and was really enjoying his music. He was playing a few different songs, mostly jazz, but then he starts playing that song, I don’t know what the name of the song is.. but it’s a medly of “Somewhere over the rainbow” and “What a wonderful world”, that was originally sung by a famous hawaiin singer, Israel Kamakawiwo'ole (I had to look that up)... but it’s a really good song but sort of depressing too. I remember Jim telling me the hawaii’n guy had sung the song when he knew he was dying soon, something like that. That made it even more depressing of course.

Here’s a link to a 15 second sample of the song…
http://www.amazon.com/gp/music/wma-...14/ref=mu_sam_wma_001_014/103-5127039-3540621



But I was listening to the musician sing the song, he was really good. Even on a normal day, I can’t listen to this song without wanting to tear up a bit. There’s just something about it. So I sat there listening to it, and I started to think about how happy I was to be married to Jim. It was almost like I could see the rest of my life flashing before my eyes and I could see myself with Jim, getting old, having children, and just living our lives together.. . I know that sounds really weird, maybe I was just really tired and still emotional at the time, but I just felt really happy and content in a weird way. Jim came into the lobby, having finished up complaining about the cab driver, and before he said anything, I hugged him and started to cry and told him how much I loved him and how happy I was to be his wife…. Then I made fun of myself about the whole thing and we walked back to the room together. Here’s another confession, I’m tearing up right now just thinking about it lol.

Jim said he got a hold of someone at the company and they looked up the charges and saw that the guy had charged Jim three times in a row, and said they would refund the money. Jim had also mentioned how the guy had whined about even taking the credit card to begin with, so we weren’t sure if he was trying to scam us or what, they said they would make a note of it and send it to his supervisor. This still isn't the end of the story of cab driver 353.

The rest of the night we just relaxed and watched some tv. Jim got on the internet to see if they had any new superman news up yet. I checked my email and saw pictures of my new neice, awwww!

It had been a full day and we were exhausted, but really we had only done two rides. Sure we went swimming, switched resorts, and ate at two full service restaurants, but I felt like we hadn’t done anything at the parks yet.. I asked Jim if we could wake up early the next morning so we could actually do some park exploring, and he said sure… woohoo! So I set our wake up call and we fell asleep.

 

[calanniebu]

I've been following along and just wanted to say thank you for sharing! you both seem VERY happy and very much in love ... and btw, you are/were a BEAUTIFUL bride!

 

[mantysk8coach]

Okay, I finally got through the whole thing. I think this should win "Trip Report of the Year Award" or something! I don't think I'd have the stamina to write that much. Great report!

I am anxiously awaiting the next chapter in the "driver 353" saga! How awful!

 

[jackdis]

Sounds like you are continuing to have a great trip. It's definitely continuing to be a great trip report!!! We stayed at the POFQ a few years ago. Your pictures reminded me so much of our trip. Ugghhhh to the horrible cab driver!!!

 

[nurseypoo5]

Wow Mary!! This is the bestest ever trip report! I've cried atleast 3 times myself! I so understand that feeling of "omgosh is it over already"? I remember at my wedding (18 yrs ago lol) my Grandma yelled at all the guests to run outside to throw birdseed NOW NOW NOW since my photographer (my brother...we were on a budget lmao) had to leave. I had only been at the reception for an hour. Everyone LEFT! I was so upset! I too got married out of town and most of my guests were out of town also...they all left. Funny now, but then not so much.

Cab driver 353...cant wait to here whatelse is up with him! I would have been all over that confrontation. I love that kind of stuff. He would have been cleaning the poop up from the horse carriage rides instead of driving a taxi if i had had my way. What a wiener he was!

I'm getting that bummed out feeling you were describing since I know i've just read the last page so far and have to wait for more.

BTW I feel like I was at your wedding, thanks for inviting me!!! You were so beautiful, and your hubby had that *blank* eating grin on his face the whole day...love love love it!!!

 

[mindystar]

Ah Mary, you had me laughing and tearing up--great elements used by a wonderful story teller! I want more, more, and more, but at the same time I DO NOT want your trip report to be over Yet we all know there's an ending cause you're back writing it
I can't believe that will be my sister in three weeks! I was looking at your pictures taken in the parks and it made the soon-to-be trip more real
Thank you Mary so much for taking the time to post!

 

[Laurafoster]

Wow Mary your wedding report is great! i just spent my entire morning catching up with it! Sounds like you had a wonderful day and you looked fabulous!

 

[heatherlynn444]

just caught up, once again, absolutely love it! i don't know what I am going to do when you are done!

I hate cab drivers too. I am from New Orleans and they are so terrible and try to scam you there, too, reading about your experience made my skin crawl!

 

[honeybee213]

I can't wait to hear about the end with that cabbie. Thanks for sharing all your joyful moments

 

[dsnyfan6/18]

C'mon Mary! Tell us more about the cab!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[somcgregor]

Mary- I just finished catching up on your trip report, took me almost two days, can wait to read more and you were a very beatiful bride. hope all is well

 

[J and R's mom]

What a fun trip report. Great pictures. And a very cute couple!

CONGRATS!

 

[Mary626]

Nurseypoo - how awful that everyone left so early, that's so depressing! I wish you had been there with us to deal with the cab driver. Like I said, I'm not very good at confrontations!

Thank you all so much for your comments!! I hope I haven't hyped up the saga of cab driver 353 too much or anything, lol! I will give away one spoiler and say the next part occurred on Sunday, April 30th.. I am about to post Thursday, April 27th, so I still hhave two more days to write about until I get there. I will be visiting my familly in michigan for a week to see my new neice and all that stuff, so I'm not sure if i'll be able to finish any more segments until I get back. Who knows though, i might get really bored, so we'll see. Thank you all again!!!



**********
Thursday, April 27th (Day 8)

At 7:30 am the next morning, Stitch and Mickey woke me up. The Magic Kingdom didn’t open until 9 am so we took our time getting ready. Jim said something about it being too early, and I remarked to Jim that today was the day we had had the Magic Kingdom Photo Session scheduled for, and that if we had decided to keep it, we would have been up at 3 am that morning.. it made him feel a little better lol.. We were both pretty glad we had cancelled it at that particular moment..We got to the bus stop at 8:55 and I realized I had forgotten my Minnie ears. Jim asked if I wanted him to go get them, but I decided to take a break from wearing them for the day.

Jim looking very majestic while waiting for the bus

me looking like a dork on the bus to the MK

We got to the magic kingom and were on Main street at 9:30, a half an hour past opening time, so the crowd level was still pretty low.

Woohoo we were in the magic kingdom again! It felt like it was the first time I had been to the Magic Kingdom since I had been so tired the day before it barely felt like I was there at all. And we were there early enough where we could go on the rides without waiting in line for an hour. As we were walking down Main street, a singing/dancing troup came out and were dancing to “Clang clang clang goes the trolley!”. This is one of Jim’s mother’s favorite songs, apparently, so Jim called her cell phone (she was back in California by this time), and he put the cell phone up in the air so she could hear the song.

clang clang clang goes the trolley

We didn’t want to linger too long, as we could see the crowd level building up, so we decided to head to Fantasyland. I hadn’t yet had a chance to see “Philharmagic” and my family had all told us it was a must see. We were going to walk through the castle to get to Fantasyland, but they had that entrance blocked for Cinderellabration, so we had to make a left towards frontierland/liberty square and go around the back way.

ooo pretty castle