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

[Mary626]

Wow those people in the background sure must walk slow and in reverse motion as well, talk about super powers LOL.

Love reading your trip report Mary!!!

Hey it was metaphorical, not necessarily literal or accurate

 

[jackdis]

Mary,
i would like to see some of your sister's wedding pictures, too. We stayed at the Swan and Dolphin a few years ago.
Hey, wait....I wish I lived in Michigan so I could meet up with you guys too! lol.... I feel left out....lol.....

 

[FSUDisneyGirl]

Mary,

I am loving your trip report! You are a very entertaining writer! I was just a bridesmaid in a wedding and one of my fellow bridesmaids was just like your sister...we even shut her out of the hotel room once!

And about the alligator/crocodile...I go to FSU in Tallahassee, and we have a lake where it's free for students to go kayaking/canoeing etc....so I went about two days ago, and what did we see...but a small alligator! Of course, when you're in a kayak in the water next to it, it doesn't matter how big it is...and I'm sure his mom was around there somewhere!

Sorry for the tangent....your pictures from Animal Kingdom reminded me! Looking forward to reading so much more!

 

[Mary626]

jackdis - I will try to upload some before I leave in the morning.. Hopefully Jeny won't mind me showing them, I guess I should ask her first Wish you could meet up with us too, that would be cool!

FSUDisneygirl - egads!!! I would have been out of that water so fast!!!! There aren't many things that I'm afraid of in this world, but I think I would rate swimming with crocodiles/alligators pretty high on that list!! Thank you for the compliment and I'm glad you are enjoying the trip report! That is funny about the other bridesmaid, I guess there is always one.. but they keep things interesting! But I love lisa dearly and she is really sweet when she's not being melodramatic about something! She called me a few days after the wedding and apologized and told me how beautiful everything was and was really sweet, so it's all good.

 

[MinneMouse29]

Hey mary! I read your trip report last night from like 11- 3 am!!!! I was soo interested and hooked on your story! Your wedding was lovely and I really feel like I know you and your new hubby after spending so much time reading and looking at your wonderful trip. I hope that I can be a beautiful bride like you were on your wedding day. I am june 10th with my honeymoon at the polynesian resort. I saw that you ate there one night. How was the food?? If you mentioned it in the story, it must of slipped my mind, LOL. Thanks for posting, it really made me look forward to my big day. Congrats again!

 

[karentan]

just found your at home reception photos (via your pre trip report thread, not a stalker honest!! ) looks like you had a great time, hope you have a great life together cos the start of it looks pretty great!

ps: your dog is too cute!

pps: just noticed the photo in your signature looks like you've got a really elaborate tiara!!! that epcot ball on your head must have been heavy to carry round all day!!!

 

[Jesussavedme]

pps: just noticed the photo in your signature looks like you've got a really elaborate tiara!!! that epcot ball on your head must have been heavy to carry round all day!!!

 

[JJClemson]

Hi Mary! I just had such a hectic few days at work and school and did not have any time until this morning to read your TR! I was sooo upset all week, but I finally got to read it. It was so good as usual! Love the pics, your writing, everything! I know we will definitely eat at Boma next time we go!

A funny thing about It's Tough to be Bug... last year DF and I saw it for the first time. Let me tell you, I am terrified of bugs. I swallowed a centipede when I was 7 and ever since then I get anxiety whenever I see a bug (not to good to be living in the South!). For some odd reason, "A Bug's Life" is one of my favorite movies. So, I decided to be brave and see It's Tough to be a Bug. Well I was sitting properly in my seat and DF was all the way forward. I felt all the special effects and screamed and jumped onto DF's lap and he looked at me like I was crazy. He had no idea what was going on b/c of how he was seated I ran out of the theater b/c I was humiliated! I want DF to see It's Tough to be a Bug again b/c he doesn't believe me that anything "happened" during the show. He still says it was in my head! He said he will only go if I go with him, and I am not sure I can do it!

 

[honeybun7677]

mindystar - sorry about the bad timing, hope you enjoy the installment when you get home!

honeybun - I'm glad you are enjoying the trip report and I'm glad I could give you some ideas! You'll have to tell me what ideas you're thinking of though, I'm really curious!! I think it is so funny that everyone seems to like that song.. I have to admit when I first heard it I thought it was way too cheesy and actually asked Stan to change it, but now that I've listened to it a few times I'm starting to like it! I had never heard it before, but I googled the lyrics and you'll never guess who sings it..... Wayne Brady!!! It is called "Beautiful" and is written by Jim Brickman.. I know it's available on the itunes music store if you want to take a look.

Mary - Oh gosh...there are so many of your ideas that I like. They are not all wedding related but also on trip planning in general...like I will be eating at some of the restuarants you talked about...Boma and Artist's Point for sure. I will also be making several reservations a day so they are booked in case we want them. I can't tell you how many times I've been to Disney and wanted to go to a restaurant or character meal and couldn't b/c we didn't plan ahead and make a reservation. I go to Disney a few times a year to see friends that I made while on CP and I just never think about making dining reservations until I am there but I will NOT be doing that for my wedding trip. As for some of the wedding related stuff I like...I LOVE your tip envelopes (which I think I told you before), I also like your invitation wording, the frame with the family pics and the note down the middle, the guest book among other things. On another note, I can't believe that song is sung by Wayne Brady!! I can believe that it is written by Jim Brickman but not that it is Wayne Brady singing. Thanks for telling me and letting me know where to find it. I am just loving your TR...keep up the good work!

 

[DawnaJean]

LOVE the Preggers Jenny doll!!!! You are so creative!!!

Dawna

 

[Mary626]

MinnieMouse29 - Thank you so much for all your kind words!! Wow june 10th is so close - congratulations!!! I'm sure you and your day are going to be absolutely beautiful!!! You will love the polynesian it is such a romantic place to be and the food at 'ohana is SO GOOD! One of my favorite restaurants in Disney, though I have a lot of favorite restaurants in disney

karentan - Thank you so much and that is too funny about the tiara My dog thanks you too!

JJClemson - thank you again!!! Ugh that centipede thing sounds so AWFUL!! I don't blame you for not liking the show!! You should point out this part of the TR to your DH so he knows you're not crazy!! That centipede thing is grossing me out just thinking about it

honeybun - I hope you are not dissapointed in any of the places I mentioned, I hope I didn't hype any of them up too much!! I'm sure you'll have a great time though no matter where you go!! Like I mentioned before, the tip envelopes and door hangers idea I got from this forum (not sure from who exactly), but I'm glad you liked the idea, I thought they were so much fun to put together and use!! Thanks again

DawnaJean - thank you so much I don't think I'm that creative actually! Occasionally an idea pops into my head but very very rarely! I appreciate the compliment though!



On a sadder note, I can't believe the news about OctoberBeauty. I was looking through this thread and re-reading some of her posts and just can't believe that something so awful happened to such a sweet caring person I read the news the other night and it really upset me. If you haven't seen the thread about it, here's a link http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1127125
I wish her a quick recovery from her burns and her and her family are in my thoughts, I can't imagine what they must be going through right now.

 

[Mary626]

Oh, I forgot to post the link to my sister Jenny's wedding at the Swan (the Swan & Dolphin) from November 11, 2001.

They are out of order and I haven't had time to caption them, but here they are.

I will also be done with the next part of my trip report soon, just copying and pasting the photo links right now. Hope everyone is having a good weekend.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimmary/sets/72157594151876646/

 

[Mary626]

Friday was probably my least favorite day on the trip. It was one of those days where you wake up kind of groggy and cranky, it’s really hot and unbearably sunny outside, and the crowd levels jump to ten times what they where the day before because of Grad Nights. It wasn’t a bad day, just the least productive and my crankiest


I woke up before the alarm went off and decided to stay up.. We thought we would start the day out by heading to MGM and maybe hopping over to epcot later in the day. When planning I had made my ADR’s (advanced dining reservations) based on which park I thought we’d like to visit that day or which park was projected to be the least crowded.

It was Friday, and Friday and Saturday were grad nights in Walt Disney World. My tour guide books that I had read pretty much said to stay out of the magic kingdom on these days, so I was following their advice. I don’t remember what my source was but for some reason I thought MGM and epcot would be the least crowded for grad nights.


As we were getting dressed, Jim was testing his camera settings and just taking random pictures in the room as he tried out the different settings. He was about to take one, and I ran and jumped into the frame of the camera just to be silly. I didn’t think it would actually turn out, since if it were my camera it would have blurred for sure, but it actually came out and I thought it was pretty funny!

Ugly picture of me, but I crack up every time I see it

I kind of felt like taking a break from wearing the Minnie wedding ears today, but Jim was disappointed that I wasn’t going to wear them. He said he thought I looked cute in the ears! I decided to bring them with me in case I wanted to wear them later on.

MGM didn’t open until 9 that morning, so we took our time, but we ended up taking our time a little too much and didn’t head out of the hotel room until around 9:15 am. Since we were running behind schedule, we opted to skip breakfast again. That was a really bad habit that we shouldn’t have done. We wanted to save our appetite for lunch at the Sci-Fi dine in theatre, but we really should have had a bite to eat in the morning to keep us going, which was probably another contributor to me being crabby that day..

We headed to the bus stop and it took the bus a while to get there. We were waiting for a while and the epcot bus came by. Jim asked if we should get on the epcot bus since it was right there and just do epcot. I kind of liked the idea! Right as we were about to board though, the MGM bus came by and so we decided to stick with our original plan. I kind of wish we had gone to epcot, I think it would have probably been less crowded then MGM was.. oh well though..

The bus came and a short while later we were at MGM.

Here begins my three paragraph rant about the security check-points in front of the theme park. I'm sure there are a variety of opinions on the subject, so I hope noone takes offense to my personal opinion of the matter. Feel free to fast forward to the next post to avoid my whining!

We saw the line for the security checkpoint and it was REALLY long, and if you had no bags you could walk right through. I thought “that’s ridiculous, all I have is my dinky little bag with my ears in it…” Before going near the security people I got an idea.. I had nothing in my purse except for my cameras and ears and wallet.. I put my wallet around my neck (it was one of those travel wallets), and put my ears on, and shove my tiny little piece of fabric that was my purse into my pocket. I held my cameras in my hand and was feeling kind of clever!

We walked past the security line and a security guard stops me and tells me to get into the security line. At first I thought maybe he had seen me putting my purse in my pocket and so I could very easily understand why he wanted me to go through security…. but then he points to my wallet around my neck and says they have to check it… I was like “but it’s just a wallet, are you sure?” and he said “doesn’t matter, get in line”… I’m sorry but this REALLY aggravated me.. If I had put the wallet in my pocket it would be okay? WHAT were they checking for? What could I possibly fit into this tiny little wallet? Forget about the AK-47 that jim may or may not have in his pocket.. if you’re wearing a wallet around your neck you’re clearly a threat to society!

If I could JUST understand WHAT they were trying to accomplish or WHAT they were looking for, I really wouldn’t have cared. I don’t complain about the security at the airport or anything like that.. but this is ridiculous, it is so obviously just for show and is completely ineffective!. I don’t want to go on a tangent or vent about this, but suffice it to say it really made me mad. I don’t even think THEY know what they’re looking for in the security line. If they really wanted to make it safe, they’d have to treat it like the airport and check EVERYTHING. If it was a practical, effective security measure I wouldn’t care. All it does is treat mothers with diaper bags like criminals, while guys who carry nothing but their wallet and cameras can walk right through…


Okay, rant over, I promise!

So I go through the security line, they look at my wallet and deem that I wasn’t hiding an atomic bomb or any sticks of dynamite behind my drivers license or credit cards, … while not noticing or worrying about the big bulging purse that I had shoved into my pocket…. And while skipping over Jim’s wallet that was much bigger and bulkier then mine but since it was in his pocket it wasn’t a danger…. , and we went in.

Okay so the rant was almost over, but now it is, for real this time!

 

[Mary626]

I was a little cranky from the security thing, but was trying really hard to tell myself to drop it. I was in MGM, I hadn’t been in there since the dessert party, I tried to think about that and get out of my funk, though I complained a little more to Jim. Jim was smart enough to just agree with everything I said and nod his head while I was in my cantankerous state, smart man!



While I knew that everyone in MGM had the same idea – go to Rock n’ roller coaster and Tower of Terror, I thought since it was only about an hour past opening it might not be that bad… There wasn’t really much else I wanted to do at MGM, and as long as we got those two things done I knew it wouldn’t matter to me if we came back to MGM or not. I just wanted to check those two things off the list and then anything else we did while at MGM would just be bonus! We already did Star Tours after the dessert party, and I watch “muppet vision 3-d” all the time at the Disney’s California Adventure park here… While the stunt shows are good, and I was hoping to catch at least one, I knew I wouldn’t care if we missed them..

So anyway, as long as we did the two big rides, I would be happy!

We head down Hollywood Boulevard and stop to look at the tip board. It said both rides had really low waiting times, I was happy, woohoo! We went down Sunset boulevard and walked towards Rock n’ Roller coaster. The line there said the wait was 65 minutes and fast passes weren’t returning until around 2 pm. Okay, forget that! Now this was stupid of me, I should always ALWAYS just get a fast pass for the rides I want to do even if I don’t think I’ll be in the park when I can use them! We decided to check out the wait time for tower of terror to compare, and it said the wait was a half hour. Ahh okay, cool! I told jim “let’s just wait in line for tower of terror and then we’ll see what the wait time for rock n’ rollercoaster is when we get out”. So stupid of me, why didn’t we just get fast passes for one or the other!!

Ever since the first time me and my sisters first went on the Tower of Terror, we notice everyone says the name of the ride quickly as possible, making a five syllable phrase into a two syllable phrase – Tar Ter, so that is what we all affectionately call this ride

We walk through the queue and a cast member asks me if I wouldn’t mind wearing a red tag, timing thing (can’t think of a good title for these things…) The cast member scanned it before giving it to me, and told me to give it to the cast member at the end of the line, who would also scan it. That way they can more accurately project the correct waiting times for the ride. Ooo I felt honored, I had a mission!

We got in line around 10:07 am or so.

It became quickly apparent while we were in line that it was grad night at walt Disney world, and that it was in full force. We looked around at all the various groups of teenagers with their matching t-shirts. The noise and obnoxiousness level of the line was higher then usual too. I was also still slightly cranky from lack of sleep and me being mad about the security line, which was stupid I know, but when you’re in a funk mood it is sometimes hard to get yourself out! And waiting in the heat in a long line with large groups of teenagers never helps either.

And then of course there was the fact that the ride BROKE while we were in line and we ended up waiting more then an hour and a half for the ride!! If we had known that we would be waiting that line, we would have gotten out of course.. but we had been waiting about 30 minutes and were pretty close to the entrance when a voice came over the speaker and said “the tower of terror is currently experiencing technical difficulties which may make your wait time longer then originally projected”. Jim said we should just get out of line and come back later. I should have listened to my husband again, but I was being stupid! I said “maybe it will thin out the herd a little bit”, as some people were leaving after the announcement was made. Of course most people who left were behind us so that didn’t really help us out much.


Jim wearing the t-shirt I had gotten for him at the animal kingdom the day before

When a ride breaks down it is frustrating, because you don’t know if it will be up in a matter of minutes or if it will take an hour. Each time we got really close to leaving, the line would start to move just enough to make us think we would be there in a matter of minutes! Not helping matters was that every time the ride was back up, they would let the fast pass people go ahead of the regular line. I can’t believe we waited an hour and a half for this ride, maybe even longer.

If we had just gotten fast passes for the tower of terror and gone back and went on rock n’ roller coaster, we could have done both rides without all the frustration! Bad planning, mary, bad!

I talked to Jenny on my cell phone for a little while while waiting. She was stuck back in reality and was working and was back to feeling naseous and throwing up. I complained to her about the security thing and she completely commiserated with me, it actually makes jenny more mad then it makes me, and she was like “yep, get used to it, Mary, we’re criminals now until proven innocent!” But at the same time she was like “well at least you’re still in Disney and not stuck at your stupid job like I am.” She had a good point.

Jim and I started taking random pictures of each other to help pass the time and alleviate the boredom.

Jim’s nose

jim’s ear

his eye

jim’s wedding ring

magical wishes

Our sci-fi dine in theatre reservation was for about 11:30, and at 11 we were still stuck in line and hadn’t moved for twenty minutes. Even if the line started to move at a normal speed just then, I wasn’t sure if we could go on the ride and then make it to the reservation. Jim said he would rather do lunch, but I felt like.. we had waited SO long, if we get out of line now, that last hour would have been a complete waste! This logic was what had made me stay in line for as long as I did and looking back it was stupid, but anyways..

But we both really wanted to eat the sci-fi, so I said “let me call and see if I can change our reservation time for later..”, I pulled out my cell phone and dialed the number. Jim started to laugh at me, I was like what?, and he says “you have the number to Disney dining memorized?”. Well of course! Anyway it was easy to remember – 407 wdw dine.. not that hard! That made him feel a little better about the sanity level of his wife.. I didn’t bother to tell him that if the number hadn’t been so easy to remember I would have programmed it into my cell phone.

Here’s another tip I will impart that was a lifesaver while on our wedding and honeymoon: program EVERY phone number you think you might need into your cell phone..I had programmed and saved Randy chapman’s number, stan’s number, three of our coordinator’s number, our officiant’s number, the cosmetologists number, EVERYONE in my bridal party and as many guests numbers that I had, and more into my cell phone. I had also printed the list of all of these and kept it in my purse and had given copies to my mom and a few other people. So even if the number to Disney dining hadn’t been a mnemonic, I would have had it in my cell phone!

Anyway, so I call Disney dining and ask about the sci-fi. They said they only had one opening left that day for around 4 o’clock. Jim and I were starving since we skipped breakfast, so I said no thank you and we figured we would see what happened.

Jim wanted to get out of line and just go eat lunch, he was starving and excited about the restaurant. I said I would wait five more minutes and if the line hadn’t moved at all we could get out. Besides I was on a mission – I had to return the red time tester thing to the cast member, I couldn’t fail! Right around then the line started moving quickly, hoorah!! Finally!!

 

[Mary626]

Me about to go crazy if the line didn’t start to move

Jim looking tall against some fluffy clouds

me in the lobby, finally!

making ugly faces to pass the time

entering the library

It was 11:25 or so and finally, FINALLY we enter the Hollywood Tower Hotel lobby and wait to enter the library where Rod Sterling would tell us about the twilight zone.. The first time I rode on this ride, back in 1995 I think it was, I had stupidly thought that it was the library that fell 10 stories while we were standing up!! All the commercials for the Tower of Terror at the time would show a group of people enter a room, and then the room would fall while they were standing up. Seriously that is what they showed on the commercials so that is what I expected! I was so relieved when I found out that it wasn’t till we got to the elevators that the floor dropped from beneath us.. and that there were seatbelts involved!!! (or lap bars actually at the time)

We go through the boiler room in the basement, I give my red time tester necklace to the cast member (mission accomplished!), and we get in our elevators. The cast member tells us goodluck and to enjoy our stay at the Hollywood tower hotel and the door closes.


Jim has never been on this ride in walt Disney world. He’s been on the version they built in Disney’s California Adventure, which was a pale comparison I am sorry to say. The one in California takes you up, the door opens and you see the ghostly figures, and then it drops. Missing from it is the part where the elevator comes forward and you step into the twilight zone. I’m not sure if there were any other differences, but I remember being very disappointed in it and I wanted Jim to experience it at MGM.

Jim knew that the elevator dropped you in random sequences. His brother Chris had gone on it the week before and was telling us that on their ride… it took them up, dropped them a few times and then took them to the end of the ride where the doors opened as if they were about to leave.. Then before the seat belts controls were released, the door closed, the ride went in reverse and they shot back up to the top again!!! That must have been so cool and completely unexpected!

Jim didn’t know that the elevator went forward the way it does. For some reason that made him more nervous then when he went on the California one. He says it seems like it would be much more secure just going straight up and straight down. Since it moved forward I think he thought it had a better chance of coming off the track or something! Anyway, I love this ride. Of course I don’t know anyone who’s been on it who doesn’t love this ride! The ride took us to the top where we could see out over MGM and it gives you that moment of tranquility lulling you into a false sense of security, before plummeting you to the ground faster then the speed of gravity, and then shooting you back up, dropping you, shooting you back up and dropping you again. So much fun! I discovered half way through that if I didn’t hold onto the safety bars, if I just let the seatbelt do the work while I held on to nothing, it was so much more fun because it felt like I was in free fall, so cool!! There’s nothing like falling 10 stories faster then the speed of gravity repeatedly to get you in a good mood again!

 

[Mary626]

We got out of the ride at exactly 11:30. We really wanted to make it to our lunch reservations, we were starving and tired from waiting in line for so long. But I don’t think we could have been at any further point away from the Sci Fi restaurant in MGM. We were as far away from it as we could be while still being in the park.

We decided to try to make it, maybe they would take us even if we were a few minutes late. I started speed walking as fast I could, occasionally breaking into a jog or a slow run, and we double-timed it towards the sci-fi. Jim was lagging behind a little, but I kept walking as quickly as possible. I shouted back to him “I’ll go sign in, just meet me there” and started jogging towards the restaurant, but Jim was like “wait, Mary, I don’t know where this place is!” so I slowed down a little, but not a lot. I reached the check-in counter at the sci-fi around 11:41 or so and told them we were a little late for our reservations but they said they could accommodate us, woohoo! Jim came in shortly after I got there and we both sat down for a minute to catch our breath. I took a few photos while waiting. It didn’t take them long to call our name, and we were escorted towards the back of the drive-in and took our seat in the back of a car.

Jim in the waiting area

us in our car

We shared the car with another family who were in the front seat, but there was plenty of room between us so it didn’t feel like we were dining with complete strangers. I love love love the atmosphere of this restaurant! I know it gets bad reviews for the food , but the atmosphere is worth it, even if you just go and get a milkshake. It is a nice, fun, cool place to go rest your feet while at MGM. The brown derby has better food, but the sci-fi dine in theatre is one of a kind!

Cute coffee stirrer thingies

cute napkins

Jim ordered an oreo milkshake, sans alcohol but with a glowing ice cube, and we order an appetizer – spinach & artichoke dip with chips. We sit back and enjoy the clips of different sci-fi B movies or old Disney shorts about what aliens on other planets might look like. I think most of them are so funny. I love the 50’s version of the future.
Maybe it’s because we’re sci-fi dorks, but I love this restaurant. I think we have eaten here on every trip since 1992.



I had a few sips of the oreo milkshake, and it was really good! Our appetizer came out quickly, and it was so good I could have ordered just that and would have been happy. The dip was so good I could have eaten it with a spoon.

Jim’s oreo milkshake with glow cube turned off

spinach and artichoke dip with chips – delicious!

We had two waiters, one guy and one girl who was in training so was following the waiter around or doing drink refill runs. For the meal, Jim ordered some ribs that the menu said had been cooked in coca cola, that sounded interesting. I wasn’t sure what I wanted. I wanted something kind of light and sort of healthy-ish, so I thought I would get the turkey sandwhich. . I didn’t like it at all. I thought the bread was gross. Jim told me to eat it without the bread, so I did and actually enjoyed it much more that way. The watermelon salad that came on the side was kind of interesting.

Jim’s ribs

my sandwhich – bleh

We ordered an apple crisp for a dessert to share. It was pretty good but we’ve both had better.

The waiter came by with our souvenir refillable plastic cup thing, and he said something like “you can give it to your baby when it arrives, and congratulations again”… I was confused,, I wasn’t sure if he thought I was pregnant or if he was joking around since we were on our honeymoon, we would be having a baby soon? Jim thought he was probably joking around. I thought it was funny either way, really.

He then came by and gave the bill to Jim and said “here’s your ticket for back seat driving and putting cheap moves on your girl”.

We used our 20% discount card and left the theatre. We both had a great time and will definitely return!

 

[Mary626]

We left the sci-fi dine in theatre and since we were right there, we decided to go into the star wars gift shop again. Jim had been wanting to buy a hat the entire trip. I kept telling him he should get a hat to block the sun, but he kept saying “I want to wait and buy one at the star wars gift shop”, consequently he went a whole 8 days without wearing a hat, darn him! He saw a few hats he liked, I told him which one I liked the best, so he got that. They had a bunch of cute stuff I wouldn’t have minded buying actually if we had had a lot more money and the will to deal with the hassle of taking it home with us. Oh well, next time maybe. Jim was looking at t-shirts to buy, and I saw one that I liked, it was very plain and just said “star wars”, simple is good. I told jim if he got that one I would borrow it occasionally, so he bought it for me and we left.

Jim running away from the AT-AT (Imperial walker – the big white robot thing)

some star wars merchandise that we took pictures of instead of buying (much more economical)

We were walking past the Indiana Jones Stunt show to see what time the next show started. The next one wasn’t for another 2 hours or something, so we just went straight to the gift shop without seeing the show. (we both saw it like 14 years before and really once is enough unless you happen to be walking by when they are letting people in..) The Indiana Jones movie are like Jim’s favorite ever. I think he may even like them more then Star Wars actually (but not more the superman!). They had a t-shirt with the poster for “the last crusade”, but they only had them in smalls or extra extra larges. We asked the girl if they had any in large, and she said they had been out of larges for a while. We looked around some more towards the back, and lo and behold there is the t-shirt in a large right there! How strange, but cool. I also noticed that they sold the plastic “ball and chains” that Kevin had got for Jim before the dessert party.

Jim trying on hats in the Indiana jones gift shop

It was about an hour or so after we had eaten at the sci fi, so we thought maybe we would split an ice-cream cone (hey walking around the parks all day makes you hungry!). We were right by Dinosaur Gertie’s and went to check it out. To our dissapointment, they only sold Vanilla, Chocolate, or the swirl of both of them. Pretty lame selection for such a cutely designed ice-cream stand, so we decided against it.

Me in front of Dinosaur Gertie’s (when leaving mgm but I thought I would put it here)

We walked past the fake Chinese theatre and saw the characters for the movie “Cars” out with their engines revving and people were going up and taking their pictures with them. The cars had voices, I don’t know if the actors were inside the car or off somewhere doing it by radio-control, but they were interacting with the guests. That was pretty cute!

The guy behind jim looks like he’s about to kick him and run

We went to the tip board and saw that all the lines for all the rides were extremely long. Well, it was about 1:30, right around the time that the parks are at their most crowded, especially with the grad night crowd around, it really made a difference in crowd levels. MGM was really crowded on grad night, which surprised me because all of the tour guide books I had read said to head to MGM or epcot on grad night days. I think the tour guide book was wrong in this case. Come to think of it, it seems intuitive that the grad night teenagers would head to MGM, since it has the tower of terror and the roller coaster attraction.

Jim and I talked about what to do next, we could either take a mid-day break and go back out again later, or go to another park. We both kind of thought that Epcot might be the least crowded since it didn’t seem like the kind of place teenagers would go, as long as we didn’t try to do Soarin’, Mission Space, or Test Track… There I was being stupid again, I should really start following my own advice and just take mid-day breaks and come back later.. But I really wanted to explore the parks more and didn’t feel like heading back to the hotel yet, so we decided to hop on the bus to take us to epcot…

As we were walking out, we stopped to watch some “streetmosphere” – the actors they have that go around in character amusing the guests.. We saw one streetmosphere actor pretending to “hustle” some guests into playing cards with him, and Jim was like “hey it’s chris!” It did remind me of his brother, Chris!

We left MGM and I hoped that the next time we came it wouldn’t be as crowded. I was really worried that the crowd levels might stay like that all weekend. At that rate we were never going to get to go on any of the rides..

 

[Mary626]

By the bus stop

We walk towards the bus outside of MGM that would take us to epcot. We get on the bus, and at first we were standing in the aisle, and then this girl behind us starts pushing everyone and is like “everyone move forward there are more seats in the back”, .. thank you bossy teenager :rollseyes: We find the last two seats on the bus, across from each other, so that me and jim are facing each other across the aisle... Then a few more people come aboard and it seems like the bus is at its fullest capacity.. But then all of a sudden out of nowhere comes this HUGE group of teenagers all wearing bright neon green t-shirts telling the bus driver to wait. I was thinking “there’s no way those teenagers are going to fit aboard (and thank goodness)…”.. but somehow, don’t ask me how, the bus driver lets them on board, and everyone pushes into the back as much as they possibley can and the bus had more people on it then I would have ever thought possible. It was jam packed. All I could see in front of me were some limbs and the neon green color of their t-shirts. I thought this bus HAS got to be over capacity! If it was that bad while we were standing still, how was it going to be when we were in motion? I couldn’t see Jim at all or hear him to talk to him, it was funny> I was wondering what he was thinking about all of this. The bus started moving and every time there was a turn, it seemed like a dozen teenagers would be pressed up against me. The lady a few seats over from me was talking to one of the teenagers asking where they were from. They were from New Orleans and were telling her about how “most all of us here were watered”. This confused the lady greatly until someone explained that “watered” meant that they had water damage to their house or something (I didn’t know that either).

My view

jim’s view (I think it’s funny we both took pictures even though we couldn’t see or hear each other to communicate)

20 minutes later we all get off the bus and finally I could breath again. Jim tells me that he was pressed up against some guy, we were both very grateful to be off the bus. But then, we were worried that epcot would be just as crowded since it seems like half of the people at MGM were now at epcot. We went through a long security line, and then stood in a REALLY long entrance line to get into epcot . Right as we got into epcot, I was a little crabby and Jim asks me if I wanted to go back to the hotel and take a break. Why didn’t he ask me that BEFORE standing in the 2 longest lines of the day??

I kind of did want to head back, it was unbearly hot and sunny and really crowded, but ugh, we had gone through all of that just to turn back around? And I felt like we were never going to get anything done at the parks!! I was getting crabby again when I had just been in a pretty good mood after the sci-fi meal. I asked jim if he wanted to head to the yacht club and maybe rent some water sprites at the marina, maybe walk around the boardwalk or something, or maybe get some ice cream at beaches n’ cream again. Jim didn’t like any of those ideas, which made me mad, because I thought they were good ideas and thought they sounded like a lot of fun!!! So I was like “well what do you want to do then??” really snotty and jim was like “mary, stop, I didn’t do or say anything wrong so don’t get angry with me..” He knows me too well. I sat down on a bench and gave myself a “time out” as I tried to relax and think of what we wanted to do. It was obvious that epcot was going to be just as crowded as mgm and all the lines were already really long. I just wasn’t in the mood to wait in a long line for anything. I didn’ t know what I wanted to do, but I didn’t want to head back to the hotel yet either. Jim suggested we do the world showcase, he didn’t think the teenagers would want to see a bunch of boring countries.. I agreed that that sounded like an okay plan so we thought we would head there.

Here’s another time when I really did bad strategizing. I really should have just gone back to the hotel, taken a nap, ,and then gone back out to the parks in the evening when the crowds had thinned out. But like I said, I felt like since it was already Friday I was never going to get anything done that way so I wanted to stay in the parks. A midday break would have been much more prudent.

The sun was out and in full force and was beating down on us. I could feel myself getting sunburned even though I applied lots of sunscreen in the morning.

I didn’t really want to walk around the world showcase in this heat.

Jim and I talked about the “leave a legacy” at the entrance to epcot. I had told jim I thought it would be cute to get one, since we had gotten married there and all, but I had thought the prices were like 125 or something, like the bricks at Disneyland… Jim saw a sign and said “how much did you say the leave a legacy was because that sign says it’s only 25 dollars..” I was like , you’re kidding! There has to be a fine text there somewhere.. is it more to have your picture or something? But sure enough it said it was only 25 dollars… We decided it would be fun to “leave our legacy” on othe trip that we got married in the park, so we went into the store to ask a cast member where to go.

While in the store, jim pointed out a hat that had Tinkerbelle on it and that said “Mood subject to change without notice” and said he should get that for me. I thought it was funny, it was the exact sentiment of that day.. I kept going from really happy to crabby and back and forth again all morning.

We find out where we need to go, and go over to the ‘leave a legacy” area. Someone gives us a info sheet to fill out with our names and address on it, and we fill it out. Then they put us into position to take our picture. They told us we needed to get as close to each other as possible. They took the picture and showed us what it would look like engraved, and ugh it was awful.. they took a second one that was just slightly better.. I didn’t want to stand there all day getting our picture perfect,.. I knew noone would know it was there really but us anyway, who cares what it looked like… so we said it was okay, and they gave us an information card and told us it would be up in maybe 6 months. That seemed like a long time but we probably won’t be back until after that anyway.

Jim talking to the cast member about how to leave a legacy

these arrived in the mail a few days ago

wow these things are not flattering!

Cool, we left our legacy in epcot!!


**edit, I completely forgot to add in the part about japan, not a big deal but still.. a whole country got edited!

We headed in the direction of the world showcase. The sun was really bearing down on us now. We walked towards the world showcase and took some pictures along the way…

aaah! Matching t-shirts everywhere! I wonder where the guy in the flannel shirt with the keg of beer is headed

The last few times we had been in the world showcase we had done at least a little bit in each country except for Japan and the American adventure, so we head to Japan and enter the Mitsukoshi department store. I have a fondness for Japan, I studied the language for about two years (sad to say I’ve forgotten most of it though!) and visited the country for about a month staying with a Japanese friend of mine at the time, one of the highlights of my boring life. We looked through the stores and they really did have a great selection of items that I haven’t seen since actually being in the country. I saw a lot of items that brought back memories of my visit, and was pointing things out to Jim and telling them my stories about them. Jim wanted me to talk to someone in Japanese, but it has been too long since I actually spoke it to anyone, I was far too embarrassed and didn’t feel like making a fool out of myself, so I passed.

the toy museum display

We looked around the pavilion and was telling jim what each building in the pavilion was built to look like, and Jim was asking which ones I had visited or not. The five story pagoda looked like the Horyuji temple in Nara, the building in the back (that was actually being refurbished while we were there and had a big tent over it) was modeled after the castle in Osaka, I believe. And the red torii gate in the water was based on the red torii gate in MiyaJima island, close to Hiroshima. It was fun to reminisce about my trip with Jim and tell him about it. I always love being able to reminisce about that trip, I had had so much fun. He’s never had the chance to go there, hopefully one day we will have the opportunity to visit together.

 

[Mary626]

There was a bunch of cute stuff in the Japan gift shops but I really didn’t feel like spending any money on anything that I didn’t really need. I’m actually not big on shopping but I enjoyed looking around. Jim wanted some sushi, so we went over to the yakitori counter service restaurant and ordered a Tokyo Roll, which is basically a California Roll, but I’m guessing they felt silly selling something called a “California roll” in the japan pavilion. Anyway, not the most authentic japan meal, or the freshest, but it was good and we enjoyed sitting in the outside eating area and listening to the water flowing over the bamboo garden.

We split the sushi, it was good but it tasted like the sushi that we sometimes buy in our local grocery store, like it had been made in the morning and had been sitting there for a while. But since it was the first sushi Jim and I had had in over a year, we both really enjoyed it.




We finished up and walked over to the American Adventure. We saw a team of fife players walking around playing “yankee doodle” on their fifes. Jim remarked at how incredibly authentic that was to modern American culture, and I agreed and said “I know I see fife players walking down the street all the time in the streets of LA”. Jim didn’t feel like watching the half hour show inside of the American pavilion, and other then the show there really isn’t anything to do in the pavilion that I know of, so we walked past it and headed to the Italy Isola.

We got there and it was the first time that we actually got to be ON the isola since our wedding, since the last few times it had been closed off for parties. We sat in some of the chairs they had by the ugly construction wall and we reminisced about our wedding day. I asked him more about what went on before I got to the ceremony, and about how he felt on the day, and pestered him with a billion other questions about the morning of the wedding. We were in the shade so it was fun just sitting there and thinking about how we had just gotten married there and what a beautiful ceremony it had been.

It’s a rare thing in life, I think, to have a day filled with nothing but beauty and love, and that’s what our wedding day had been.

While we were there we saw one of the bridges over between china and Germany go up as one of the sail barges came out, setting up for Illuminations I guess. It was cool to watch the bridge go up and down, I didn’t know it did that.

It was a little after four at that point. We had eaten at the sci-fi around noon so we were getting a little hungry even with the small pieces of sushi we had just had. Jim decided to get another cinnamon pretzel at the American pavilion, but I wanted to save room for some food from the bakery in the France pavilion.

jim experiencing déjà vu

For some reason, with all my visits to epcot and walt Disney world, I have never done the France pavilion. We either explore the world showcase clockwise from mexico and are too tired by the time we get there, or something always seems to be off in our timing. The bakery was one of those things that I had read a lot about on the DIS restaurant forum and was really looking forward to trying. Neither Jim or I were particularly in the mood for sweets, but I thought we could take a few things back to the hotel to try over the course of the next few days. Like before, I just wanted to try things, one bite would suffice, as long as I got to taste some new items that I don’t normally get to try in daily life.

We head in the bakery and everything looks really good! I have no idea what most of the items are, like pithiviers? I wanted something a little substantial to eat, so I ordered a quiche and Jim ordered a ham and cheese croissant. We ordered 2 crème brulee’s for later, and I wanted to try a strawberry tart. It really wasn’t a lot of food, actually.

The bakery

I don’t like writing about this part actually. There are 2 things that happened on our honeymoon that if I could go back and undo, I would, and this was one of them.

We get to the register and there are two young French girls there as part of disney’s exchange internship program. One girl telling the other girl what to ring up, and the cashier. The one girl tells the other girl our order, and then she says something in a whispered tone, in French, to the cashier girl.. the cashier girl looks at me, kind of gives me a once-over, and giggled a little bit. Now this could have been nothing at all completely, but what a thing to do to make a guest feel completely uncomfortable and paranoid. I kind of made eye-contact with one of the girls and she looked embarrassed and looked away.. Ookay..

Now you might all be thinking that I’m just being really paranoid here since I’m so insecure anyways, but I have traveled pretty extensively in this country and many others, and I’m not at all uncomfortable around people who speak different languages. We have had two foreign exchange students living with us, (Yugoslavian and Japanese), and I have studied a few different languages actually, so that I could actually try to speak some while in other countries (spanish, Japanese, and a little bit of thai). So I’m not exactly a xenophobe or something.. But you just get a feeling in the pit of your stomach when you think someone’s been talking about you, and I had that feeling then. Jim and I paid for our meal and went outside. Jim remarked, before I even told him what I was feeling “that was pretty rude”, so it wasn’t just me, he had noticed it to.

I sat on a bench, I was getting angry. I hated the thought that those two brats had said something about me right in front of me and were being smug about it. They might have just as well been just talking to each other about absolutely nothing related to me, but you know… this was walt Disney world, it wasn’t actually france, and Disney world has standards in how their employees behave. I know if I had done something like that during the college program I would have gotten in trouble for it.

I gave some thought to how I would feel if I said something versus if I said nothing. I HATE confrontations and would have felt much better at the time if I had just walked away and tried to forget about it, but I KNEW that it would always bother me if I just walked away. I was on my honeymoon in Walt Disney World, I shouldn’t have to be paranoid about something like this!

I didn’t know what I was going to do but I decided to do something. I asked Jim for the receipt and told him to wait there and I went back inside. I asked someone if they had a manager on duty and if I could speak with them. The girl looked surprised and said she would go find him. Ugh I hate confrontations, my heart was racing and felt like it was in the back of my throat and I started getting kind of shakey.

A young man came out and asked what was wrong. I had the receipt in my hand so that I had the name of the cashier, and I politely explained the situation. I emphasized that for all I knew they could have been saying nothing, but that it made me feel pretty uneasy about it. The guy had a hard time understanding my English, and he asked in a thick accent “what was wrong with the items you purchased?” I tried explaining it again, and he said “I’m sorry, let me get the manager, I’m just the assistant manager, she’ll be able to help you” (I don’t think he understood what I said, but that was fine).. The bakery was really small and I could tell people were listening to my conversation and probably thinking I was just being a paranoid you-know-what, but I didn’t care.

A few minutes went by and he came back with the manager. She saw my magical wishes button and said “oh congratulations!” I thanked her and then repeated my story to her. She was really nice and listened to me and asked a few questions here or there. She seemed to understand what I was upset about. She said “I think I know the exact two girls you are talking about, do you happen to have their names?” I showed her my receipt that had one of the girl’s name, and said it was her and her friend. I said “I’m not trying to get anyone in trouble, I really don’t want any trouble for them, I just think you should know that this happened so you can mention it to them to avoid this again in the future, so other guests don’t have to feel paranoid about what they may or may not be saying.”

The manager was really really nice about it and didn’t make me feel stupid or like I was being paranoid at all. She said “I know exactly the two girls you are talking about, I promise you they weren’t saying anything bad about you, they are young girls and are always talking to each other and I always have to tell them to stop.. I know how you feel exactly, when I first came to this country I always felt like that, like you don’t know what people are saying about you.” I explained that I have visited foreign countries before and didn’t have a problem with people speaking other languages in front of me, it’s just that sometimes you just get a feeling in your stomach, sometimes you just KNOW when people are saying something about you, and that was one of those times.. She apologized and tried to reassure me again, and said she would definitely speak to them. I mentioned again I wasn’t trying to get them in trouble, I just wanted her to know about it so they could avoid making another guest feel the same way in the future, and she agreed. She then asked me if she could get me some items from the bakery to apologize for the mishap. Well that certainly wasn’t why I complained, but I figured what the heck. It HAD bothered and I WAS upset, so I said that that would be nice. She went in the back and picked out four different items, apologized again, congratulated me again, and I left.

I hated having to be confrontational about anything, it always produces such a physical response from me and I feel like crap afterwards for an hour, but I did feel slightly better and was glad I had said something. I really don’t think I should have been sitting there wondering if they had said something about me or not. The manager had been really nice and I really felt like my concerns were listened to and I had a strong feeling that she would say something.

I went over to Jim and explained what happened and showed him the treats she had given us – a napolean, a peach tart, another crème brulee, and another strawberry tart. He asked if I was okay, and I said “yeah I’m fine but now I really feel like going back to the hotel and not doing anything the rest of the day.”

It was almost five at that point. We had been out from 9 am to five pm, we figured that was a pretty long day. Not to mention how sunny it was and how sunburnt we felt. And then that whole thing bothered me. It was time for a nap.


We walked back to the front of futureworld and got to the bus stop, and I just couldn’t get there fast enough.

 

[Mary626]

As we were walking, Jim told me that earlier in the day the taxi company had called about cab driver 353, and said they refunded Jim his money and they fired the guy. I was really surprised! We certainly hadn’t been trying to get him fired – we just wanted the forty dollars he stole from us back, but I certainly wasn’t sad about it. He did steal our money after all! I was surprised that they actually fired him though, and thought it was really cool that they called us to let us know about it. I felt a little bad about it on one hand, but was pretty glad about it on the other. Well I shouldn’t have been either, because it turned out NOT to be true, but I didn’t find that out until Sunday..

We got back to our hotel around 5:30 and changed into our comfy clothes. A nap sounded great. When Jim was changing out of his t-shirt I noticed his sun tan line, it was bad! He had gotten so sunburnt. Jim doesn’t put sunscreen on, it always makes me so mad, he always says “I don’t burn”.. well that doesn’t mean you won’t get skin cancer! Well he had burnt that day, I don’t know why today felt so much sunnier then other days. It was probably that epcot just doesn’t have as much shade as the other parks, and we were there right as the sun was at it’s highest.

My small quiche and jim’s ham and cheese croissant

The two crème brulee’s and strawberry tart

the “free food” she gave me

I ate my quiche (I love me a good quiche), but was pretty disappointed in it. Jim ate his cheese and ham croissant and thought it was okay. I tried a bite of the crème brulee and thought it was actually pretty bland. I guess I only like flavored crème brulee. It sucked because we had three of the crème brulee’s and didn’t eat any of them, just the bite. I took a bite of the strawberry tart, and that was really good. I put the rest in the fridge to try later.

We both got into bed and closed our eyes. We slept for about 2 hours, punctuated occasionally by waking up to the loudest person on Earth that was somewhere in our hotel building, Captain Loudy Pants. Ugh, he always seemed to be at the hotel when we were trying to take a nap. He was really really annoying! I could not figure out what room he was coming from or I would have called and politely explained that I could hear every word he was saying. After a while we just decided to give up. We didn’t want to sleep too much anyway, or our schedules would be off.

Around 8:30 pm, we got dressed and decided to explore the hotel grounds a bit. It was dark outside but it was quiet and they were playing light jazz music in the hotel sound system throughout. We walked by the river, Jim didn’t even realize there was a river on property! We strolled around the pool area and looked at the cute little water slide.

jim being eaten by the water slide

We went and looked around at the different fountains and street signs. It was a cute, quaint little resort with a lot of atmosphere and charm. I went to the second story of one of the buildings so jim could take a picture of me. I was like “stella! Stella!” which greatly confused Jim. I was like “haven’t you ever seen ‘A streetcar named desire?’... marlon brando, vivien leigh…. no, nothing?…..”

the pictures don’t come out very good at night

We watched a horse carriage go by. I had planned to go on a horse carriage ride that day (it was in my color coded itinerary that I had), but neither of us felt it was worth the money at that particular time, or we thought we might do it another day. We never did get a chance to do it, kind of a shame.