GADISNEYGIRL
<font color=red>Maelstromer!<br><font color=purple
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Trip Report: The Whirlwind Trippers Take It Easy (?!?)~the wifes report~Jan 18-29, 2006 (To be read in conjunction with the TR by FSUMARCHIEF)
Cast:
DH, Mark, 33 (FSUMARCHIEF), United Methodist Minister, lover of all things Disney. Likes to flip me out with Lets go to WDW today pleas, which turn into trips. (See FSUMARCHIEFS Pre-Trip.) Loves to eat, especially at Disney, and doesnt like to share (although he did a little better this trip); loves the princesses, especially Ariel and Jasmine (the partially clothed ones, you notice).
DW, Rhonda (thats me), 32, lover of all things Disney. Gives in to the Lets go to WDW today pleas, stresses out until we get there, but admits it was worth it in the end. Cries at Disney magic. Plays Magical Moment memories over and over in head when were not at Disney. Developed a huge crush on The Prince (aka The Beast) this trip. Im entitled, what with the half-clothed princess obsession Mark has. Weve made over 20 trips to WDW together.
DS, Wesley, 3 (4 in 2 weeks)~His 10th trip, *REALLY* into the MAGIC
, thinks he IS Peter Pan and/or Prince Phillip (depends on the day), and is quite the ladies man. They love him. Seriously, Belle and I are going to have to have a talk about my underage son!! Loves every ride and every character equally (except the two above mentioned, and their friends~they have top priority. For those of you who are not up on your Disney characters, and it seems that ¾ of the people who visit WDW are not, their friends include Wendy, Captain Hook, Smee, Princess Aurora~thats Sleeping Beauty~the three good fairies). Has been eating his veggies to be tall enough to ride Splash Mountain, BTMRR, and other 40 requirement rides.
Pre-Trip: (Also see Pre-Trip Report by FSUMARCHIEF~hes the husband)
The last few months have been crazy at work. This is unusual. Generally November through February is our least busy time. But this year its been nuts. Which has made me nuts. And the whole point of working part time is so that you dont have to be nuts about your job. Mark is a preacher, but I also work for the church~the larger church. I know, this means nothing to you if youre not Methodist and dont understand how our system works. Im the secretary for the district office of our church. Technically, he and I have the same boss, since we both report (directly~me, or indirectly~him) to the District Superintendent. She, by the way, thinks were psychotic because we are (as she says) obsessed with Disney. He asked if I could get off early on Wednesday (I only work 3 hours on Wednesdays as it is). Her reply was, Arent you going to be there for 12 DAYS?? I dont think you need any more time there! Needless to say, I did NOT get off early on Wednesday. Shes a nice enough lady, she just doesnt appreciate Disney the way we do. This is a woman who has not taken a real vacation (meaning~leaving town) in the almost 4 years that Ive worked for her. She tells me theyre going to New York over spring break, but she has yet to make the reservations. Ill believe it when I see it. So anyway, Ive been nuts over work for the last 3 months, and completely stressed out about getting everything finished in time to leave for our trip, and Mark was a little perturbed with me because I wasnt feeling all magical for the 3 weeks leading up to our trip (once Christmas was over), which just happened to be the most stressful weeks, jobwise, in all the craziness wed been having there. I didnt even want to listen to Disney music. Thats how bad it was. I kept promising to pull myself together, and that Id be magical once we arrived, but he wanted me to be magical right then, because he was. *sigh* And then came this whole discussion of where we would eat while on the road, and he makes it sound as if the whole thing is my fault, which of course it isnt, but I *am* a little tired of Krystal, weve had it on every road trip for the past 7 ½ years, and sometimes a girl just wants a change, you know? But at last the day arrived, and I packed up my toiletries (the last thing I had to do) and left for work as he was beginning to load the car and complete the To Do List I left for him. Kudos to him, he got it all done, and without any complaints, that I recall. So that brings us to
Day One, Wednesday, January 18
I arrived home from work at 12:25. The car was loaded, I just changed clothes, and we hopped in the car. We stopped at Wendys (its right at the interstate, and you can read Marks rant about it in his trip report) for some lunch, and off we went!
Wesley fell asleep at some point (just after Cordele, maybe?) and slept til almost Valdosta. Sometime while he was asleep, we realized that we left his Uncrustables in the freezer. Darn it. Once he woke up, we stopped at Wal-Mart in Valdosta to buy replacement Uncrustables, and I believe that was our last contact with the Real World. Maybe there was another bathroom break, but for purposes of this trip report, the Valdosta stop was our last contact with the Real World. Got it?
We arrived at All Star Movies a bit after 6. The plan was to check in, get some dinner from the food court, and go to Epcot to redeem Marks AP Voucher, upgrade my 2 day ticket to an AP, buy Wesleys AP, and buy a 2 day ticket for one of the friends who will be coming with us in February. Notice I said thats what the plan was. Before we even left home, Mark was already telling Wesley that we might JUST ride Spaceship Earth. Uh huh.
So. We arrived just after 6, got a Toy Story room (a blessing and a curse), supposedly got a refund for an amount we were overcharged (still checking on that), got back in the car, headed for Epcot (did not go to room OR get dinner, did you notice?), got all the ticket issues taken care of, and well, what else do you do with brand spankin new APs? You go into a park, of course, just because you can! In we go, and decide that really, Wesley would rather ride Figment (one of his favorites) and then we can ride SE on the way out. Except that we forgot Future World closes at 7, and by now it was about 7:10. So what to do? Why, go see if you can eat at the Garden Grill, naturally! (What, that isnt what you would have done?) Well, its what we did, and they could actually take us with a very short wait. During the wait, we decided to head down to the Soarin attraction for the moment of truth: Would Wesley, or would Wesley NOT, be able to ride 40 requirement attractions? And the verdict is (drum roll, please): HE CAN!!! HOORAY!!! This translates (YAY!) into a lot less time in Fantasyland, and a lot more time in Frontierland.
(We didnt actually ride Soarin at this time; just used their stick to measure Wesley.)
Back to the Garden Grill, where we waited maybe 5 minutes (so less than 15 minutes, total) for a bottom tier table. Food was good, as I recall, I liked the pork, every piece of flank steak I got was tough, every piece Mark got was tender. So~I just took the pieces he chose! I tried the fish (Im not a fish kind of girl), and let Mark have it. The dessert plate was better than the cobbler they used to have. Wesley didnt eat much (a trend that will continue), but did enjoy decorating his own cupcake. The character interaction was pretty good. Mickey sat down with him for a minute or two, he hugged on Pluto, and we always have a good time with Chip and Dale!
After dinner, we popped over to Mouse Gear to buy Pal Mickey. Wesley has been saving (our) change for 7 months, and he had $124 of his very own money. Pal Mickey was at the top of the To Buy list.
And then it was off to Spaceship Earth. I dont care what anyone says, I still love this ride! Afterwards, we walked backwards, watching Illuminations, as we left the park.
We got to ASMo (for the second time) about 9:30. Okay, the blessing and curse part~Toy Story. Everyone wants to be in Toy Story! So we got in~the blessing. Everyone wants to be in Toy Story! ~Therefore, it is normally full, and very, very loud~the curse. That very well might have been our last stay at a Value. Mark, in particular, is tired of them. The noise was just what we expected. Toilets flushing, people pulling suitcases outside of the room at something like 4am Funny, we used to think the values were great. We were younger then. Now, sleep is something we NEED at WDW. Neither of us slept well Wednesday night.
Day Two, Thursday, January 19
The Plan: AK most of the day, leave in time to check in at WL, boat/monorail to Ohanas.
What Actually Happened:
We were up at 7am, and Wesley was coughing. PLEASE!! This is vacation! We dont get up til 7:45 on a work day!! And the coughing thing~good grief!! I had been forcing Vitamin C, Echinacea, Flintstones, OJ, etc for weeks. We were going to be HEALTHY on this trip!! We kept him out of school Tuesday and Wednesday (Monday was a holiday) just in case there was something going around there! And now, on the first morning of our vacation, he sounds like hes got whooping cough. Anyway, we were in the car by 7:45. We pulled into the AK parking lot at 8:02, I think, and were the 4th car in the lot. We had an 8:10 for Donalds Breakfastosaurus, and we were pleasantly surprised, considering all the negative comments Ive seen about it. It wasnt nearly as loud as I was expecting~not as loud as, say, Chef Mickeys. Character interaction was pretty good, too. Last year, Mickey signed Wesleys Mickey hat. At breakfast, a handler asked if wed like to have Goofy sign it, so she whipped out a Sharpie, and Goofy signed it. Well then, of course, we had to have ALL of the Fab Five sign it! We got Donald and Pluto at breakfast, and later found Minnie.
After breakfast, Wesley and I had a round on Triceratops Spin (ha ha ha), which I found to be just as disappointing as Dumbo. Actually, more disappointing. Mark doesnt do anything that goes around, so I get to ride all those fun things with Wesley. Lucky me, huh? But I draw the line at the Tea Cups. If Wesley ever rides those, itll have to be with the Mad Hatter. Right, so Triceratops Spin. Then we saw Pooh, Eeyore and Tigger at the character greeting place right across from Flame Tree, and headed over to Camp Minnie Mickey. We saw Koda and Kenai, then made it in for the 9:45ish Festival of the Lion King show. Wow!! What an awesome show! Mark makes plans to leave the ministry and join this show. I politely say that I think he lacks both the acrobatic ability and the~how do I put this? Soul, shall we say?~to actually be chosen. Surprisingly, he agrees. Dont worry, hell find his place at Disney. We saw Minnie (she signed the hat), Mickey and Donald, and traipsed over to see Tarzan Rocks. Another great show~Im really sorry that its gone now. Im glad we got to see it before it ended. Too bad I didnt get a photo of Tarzan. (Though I must admit, now I dont even recall what he looked like. Its all because of The Prince. I mean The Beast. I mean~oh, never mind, youll see.) At this point, it wasnt even lunchtime, and wed just about had our fill of AK. We thought wed go to the WL and check in, even if our room wasnt yet available. On the way out, we saw Friar Tuck, Suzy, Perla, and LaunchPad.
We stopped for gas, then it was Welcome Home to the Wilderness Lodge!! Definitely one of my Happy Places! Wesley sat and watched cartoons while we checked in. He was so cute in his little rocker! Pixie dust was in the air, our room was ready, and we got a complimentary upgrade to a water view room. We could see the quiet pool and Bay Lake (to the left). We were even able to see the Electrical Water Pageant from the balcony. Very nice indeed! There was no fridge in the room (we thought they were actually IN all the rooms, but apparently not), but bell services requested one for us, and they brought it in less than 5 minutes. We spent a few minutes unpacking and getting organized, and then decided to forget the plan (as if we hadnt already) and go to the MK~4 days early.
We boarded the boat, and soon were feeling the excitement that comes only from the first view of Main Street and then the castle. We had not yet eaten lunch, so we thought wed try Pinocchios Village Haus. We had never eaten there, and I was certain that we should split a sandwich, due to our large dinner coming up at Ohanas. For the first time that I can remember, Mark agreed to SHARE food with me!! He always claims its because we dont want the same things but really its because he wants an entire portion to himself. (Yes, honey, thats true, and you know it is!) So~we shared the Italian sandwich, and also an order of Figaro fries. Okay, that was a weird combination of toppings on the fries, but it was surprisingly good! The food wasnt WOW, that was fabulous, weve gotta have this every time, but it was fine, and I think wed both go back there. AND, we both had plenty to eat, even with sharing. (See, I TOLD you!!)
Once done with lunch, we went to ToonTown and stood in line (a long line) to see Cinderella and Snow White. Fantasyland had 40 minute waits for Pooh and Peter Pan, so we bypassed them and somehow ended up in Frontierland, where we checked Wesleys height again, and basically walked on Splash Mountain. (Couldnt believe that, given the wait times in Fantasyland.) Wesley LOVED Splash Mountain! It had been a long time since we had ridden, and we both remembered how much we liked it, too. Heck, hes conquered the 50 foot drop~Big Thunder Mountain will be a piece of cake!! Except~the girl at the beginning of the Fast Pass queue (we didnt have FPs, we were just measuring him) said he wasnt tall enough. Well how is that possible? He just got off of Splash Mountain, and he was tall enough last night when we measured on the Soarin stick No, sorry guys, hes not tall enough, too bad. Hmph!! Not to be deterred, we scooted around her and over to the Stand By entrance. The girl there measured him and sent us off with an Enjoy the ride! Dont ask me how he was tall enough on 3 other sticks, and not on the FP girls. Who cares, were on! They measured him again before he was allowed to board~and again, he was tall enough. He didnt seem too enthralled with the ride, which we found surprising, but he was a trooper, anyway. He said he wanted to ride Splash Mountain again, but not BTMRR. Okay, thats fine! We decided not to ride again right then, but to go over to Pirates of the Caribbean. Peter and Mr. Smee were out, so we saw them before riding. After the ride, Wesley used more of his money to buy an additional Pirate play set (the one with Pete and Goofy) to go with his Mickey Pirate Ship that he got for Christmas. He also bought some pirate items to dress up with (patch, hook, swords~as if we dont have enough swords at our house already~we have one Peter Pan dagger, 2 Captain Hook swords, and one Prince Phillip Sword, with shield. Now we have 2 more pirate swords). That took him down to $27. But those pirate items and the Pal Mickey were what he had planned on buying, so he was happy with his purchases. On our way through Adventureland, Jasmine and Aladdin came out, so we followed them to their greeting place and took some pictures. Aladdin was very animated and talkative. From there we decided it was time to start to Ohanas.
We arrived a little early, and had to wait about 30 minutes before we were seated. This was one of the meals Mark, especially, was really looking forward to. The salad was good (Mark isnt crazy about salad that is more than iceberg or romaine, so he wasnt too keen on it), I liked the wonton chips (so did Wesley), and we particularly enjoyed the peanut and chimichurra sauces the potatoes were good, the veggies didnt really float our boat the meat was tasty. Nothing was dry, as Ive so often read, but none of it had amazing, knock your socks off flavor, either. It was good, but not outstanding. And then she brought out dessert. Now let me explain to you how we feel about bread pudding. Basically, we dont. Feel anything, that is. Or at least we didnt, until we had it at Park Fare, where it is~lets be honest here~just a vehicle for that wonderful artery-clogging vanilla sauce, because people look at you funny if you just dip yourself a big bowlful of that. But this... THIS!!! Here was the Knock-your-socks-off part of the meal! The dessert was worth the price of the whole meal! Seriously, one of the best desserts weve EVER had at ANY Disney restaurant. So, would we go back to Ohanas? Well maybe. Not in any rush, but it was by no means a bad meal. And that dessert WAS awfully good Oh, and I forgot to mention about the coconut races. Wesley was such a sport this trip~he gamely did his best at everything!! He made it to the finish line (with a little help from my foot), and he was quite proud of himself! He was showing his independence a lot more this trip, which makes me both proud and sad at the same time. You parents know just what I mean!
Now (making up a new plan as we go along), we thought it would be nice to watch Wishes from the beach. It certainly wouldve have been nice, if 436 other people had not had the same idea and talked (and smoked) through the entire thing! Still, not a bad way to end our first full day! We monorailed to the Contemporary, then waited for a boat to the WL. And waited. And waited. And waited some more. Really, it was a long time~30 minutes or so. Then it was back to the room, where we bedded Wesley down for the night, and went out on the balcony to debrief the day. (Love having that balcony!) Off to bed, where, for the second night in a row, I didnt sleep.
Day Three, Friday, January 20
The Plan: MGM all day; Hollywood & Vine; Fantasmic!
What actually happened:
Wesley woke up at 5:30. He finally went back to sleep until about 7. Guess what? He was still coughing. And now his nose was running, too. He didnt seem to feel bad, and he wasnt running a temp. So~on with the show. We took Dimetapp with us, and gave it to him every 4 hours.
Now, an aside. I have been forthright with you and told you that my son has a cough, and a runny nose. He is also sneezing occasionally. HOWEVER!!! We have taught him to cough and sneeze into the crook of his arm, not in his hand (which he will then touch everything in sight with), and not just in the air, which is disgusting. PLEASE!!! If you have children, teach them to do this!! Germs are not so easily spread this way! Call me a germaphobe if you want~I have gotten sick at Disney before, and it is no picnic. I was not having any part of that this trip! So he coughed and sneezed into his arm, and we used Kleenex to blow his nose, and we washed our hands very, very frequently. We also told him not to touch things like railings, etc while in line for rides, and he did very well. We had to remind him occasionally, but for the most part, he remembered and did great. But, oh, how many kids (and adults!) we saw cough, sneeze, expel a lung~right into the air, in some cases, right in our faces. Please, people, use some manners, and have the courtesy to not get all of us sick! Thanks, rant over!
For some reason that I cannot now recall, we decided to go to MK first, rather than MGM. Yes, I do know that the correct name is Disney-MGM Studios. MGM is just easier to type. At any rate, we were up and out in time to get to the MK just as the opening ceremony was going on. We hoped that Wesley could wake up Tink this morning, but we were the second family in the shop, and the other family had already done it. Hey, thats okay, weve got plenty of time! Still 9 days to go!
Lines were non-existent in Fantasyland today (hooray!), so we rode Snow White, Peter Pan and Pooh with virtually no wait. It was only 9:30, but Wesley has a dream of riding the Barnstormer with Goofy. We decided to take a chance, and wait at the rope for the ToonTown opening. One of the cleaning girls thought we were nuts. She kept saying, 30 more minutes, no open yet. We smiled and said, We know. She just shook her head and kept walking. She came back about 15 minutes later and said, Still 15 minutes to go! We continued to wait patiently. At some point, Mark spoke to a handler, who said that Goofy didnt normally ride with children, because most of them were frightened to ride with him. (Whats wrong with these kids?!? Lol!) However, he told us to wait in a particular spot and hed see what he could do. Minor disappointment~we got the Pooh characters as our opening, the Fab Five opened on the train station side. We went and waited where the handler told us to, but Barnstormer was having some problems, and wouldnt be running for a while. This wasnt a huge disappointment, we knew it was a long shot, and we had not told Wesley that it was even a possibility, and he was none the wiser.
We decided to get in the Princess room while the queue was still relatively short, and saw the handler wed spoken with earlier. He said that Goofy went straight into County Bounty, since he already knew (its his ride, isnt it?) that Barnstormer wasnt operating yet. We thanked him for his help, and went on in to see the ladies. Excuse me, the hotties. Dont believe Mark when he says Wesley did not hear that word from him! Here we got a surprise: Cinderella, Snow White, and DOPEY!! Wesley has never met Dopey, and hes always wanted to. But what happened? The sweatshirt we were having the characters sign was in the stroller, because wed already seen Cindy and SW and theyd signed then. Mark asked the handler (Dinah) if he had time to run get the sweatshirt and she said sure, we could stay until he got back. She was a real sweetheart, and when Mark finally arrived with the shirt, she let us go through the line again, so we could have pictures made with all of us in them, and then she asked if she could keep our shirt and have some of her friends sign it. Although part of the fun for Wesley is having them sign the shirt, hes done it before, and will do it again, and she really seemed to want to do this for us so we agreed, and gave her the sweatshirt. She told us what time to come back for it, and we went on our way.
We thought it might be a good time to try Splash Mountain again, so we started towards Frontierland. On the way, we saw Brer Rabbit, Brer Bear and a few other characters coming out to have a Hoe Down or something like that (we never actually saw it), and we ran to get a pic with Brer Rabbit. Then on to the ride, which Wesley loved even more than before. (So far, we havent gotten wet!) We had lunch at Pecos Bills (yes, the cheese sauce is great on fries), and went to pick up our shirt. Dinah looked at us apologetically, and said, I wasnt able to get too many~then she held up the sweatshirt, and it was COVERED with names! We counted later, and she had gotten something like 40 characters to sign! (The only signatures we had that we never actually saw the character(s) were Chicken Little, White Rabbit, Jiminy Cricket, Princess Atta, and Shaker~anyone know who Shaker is? We have no idea!) We thanked her profusely, had hugs all around, and started for the door. Next time youre in the Princess Room, tell Dinah we said hi! (By the way, we ended up with about 70 signatures on his shirt.)
It was about time for us to go back to the Wilderness Lodge for a rest, because we had Fantasmic! that evening, and then we were hoping to go to Epcot for EMH after that. We cut through Liberty Square to get to the castle, and here comes a LOAD of pixie dust!!! For some reason, Cinderellabration was not working (technical difficulties or something), so the cast was standing out front, and you could meet them! I cried. Do you know how hard it is to find Prince Phillip, The Prince (Snow Whites) and The Prince (better known as The Beast)????? Prince Charming is at Park Fare, so he wasnt such a huge find~but still! We got to take pictures with all of them in those gorgeous costumes, and we got to tell Prince Phillip how Wesley pretends to be him, and slays the dragon, then dances with Princess Aurora, and that was just a very special moment for us!! Mark wasnt too happy at the enthusiasm I displayed when I saw the Prince (the Beast, that is). My, oh my, Belle is one lucky princess!! We also got to see the Fairy Godmother, the King, and the Grand Duke, but for whatever reason~probably Wesley was too excited about meeting Prince Phillip, and I was still drooling over the Prince (no way can I refer to that man as the Beast!!!), and likely Mark just didnt think about it~we didnt have those three sign his shirt. We saw the Fairy Godmother later, but were sorry we missed the chance for the King and the Grand Duke to sign. Ah, well. Thoughts of the Prince kept me from being too upset with myself. Lol! I would feel bad, but for the fixation Mark has with Ariel, especially her seashells. I kept reminding him that at least I wasnt looking at the Prince with only half his clothes on!
Well, now were slightly behind schedule (oh, right, we have a PLAN, remember?), and as were rushing out of the park, we spy Wendy. And not just any Wendy. OUR Wendy. Thats how weve referred to her for the past year, which is funny, because until this trip, wed only seen her as Wendy once. The other times she was Alice. (Shh, dont tell!) She was just about to go in, and was actually acting as the handler for Cruella De Vil, so she was trying to tell people Cruellas line was closed. She never really even looked at us, and we were just able to get a really quick picture, and she signed Wesleys shirt, and we were off. Mark and I had a conversation about whether she was really OUR Wendy, because he didnt think she was. I KNEW she was. Honestly, why doesnt he just believe me about these things? Im ALWAYS right!!
Background: Why is she OUR Wendy? Well weve seen her several times, and each time (up til this really quick visit we had with her), she has been absolutely amazing. The first time was at Park Fare~she was Alice. She kept picking Wesley up and squeezing him and kissing him, and she talked to him quite a lot. He always wants to ask Alice how her cat is, so they had some conversation about that, among other things. That was in September 2004. That experience with Alice, and also Mary Poppins and Bert, remains one of our best character experiences ever. In February 2005, Wesley and I were at the MK, and there she was~as Wendy! I recognized her immediately, but of course she had no idea who we were~however, Wesley had on his Guest of Honor badge, so she was calling him by name. Later that day, Mark was with us, and we walked by again (not all that close to her), and she was out once more. She called out, Hi Wesley, coming to see me again? as we went past. The next morning, Wesley and I had breakfast at Park Fare (for his birthday). She was there that day as Alice. She was again very attentive to Wesley, and as we were talking, I said to Wesley, Ask Alice if she is friends with Wendy? And she gave me a *look*~and she knew that I recognized her, and she remembered him from the day before. Remember, this was in February 2005~almost an entire year ago. Ever since then, we have referred to her as OUR Wendy. Okay, end of background.
So we hopped aboard the boat for the Wilderness Lodge and once there Wesley FINALLY went to sleep. I got just enough of a nap to make me really, really tired. I think Mark went downstairs to change some ADRs~we had already eaten at the Garden Grill, so the night we had it, we decided to try for CRT instead, which we got. At 3:30 we thought wed better get to MGM, or we wouldnt have time to do anything at all. The parade was just ending as we arrived, so we watched that. Then we went straight to the Beauty and the Beast show, which wed never seen. I thought it was wonderful! I cried. We then saw Hercules, and then Chip/Dale and Lilo/Stitch together, which we found to be a strange combination. It was getting close to time for our ADR at Hollywood and Vine, so we trotted over there.
Initially, I thought it was going to be great. They had some very different items on the buffet and it had the potential to be very, very good~but didnt quite make it. Nothing was bad, it just wasnt much to write home about. We will likely not go back (except for the Toy Story meal, perhaps).
Then it was time for Fantasmic!, which would be another first for us. Wow, what a terrific show!! I cried. Are you sensing a theme here? I know, I know I didnt cry when I got engaged, on my wedding day, or when my child was born but I cry at Disney. Weird, huh? Mark is never surprised when I cry at things (happy or sad), because I do that often. However, he is often surprised when I DONT cry. Come to think of it, so am I. But anyway, thats me. Disney love and Disney magic just get to me.
Now we did something that probably wasnt the smartest parenting decision ever made, but we did it anyway. Decided we hadnt had enough, and went to Epcot for EMH. We rode Rio del Tiempo (one of our favorites think you dont like it? Walk around Epcot all day, in the blazing sun THEN try the ride. Its very cool and relaxing, and if you sit in the front row, you can prop your feet up. I highly recommend it!) We thought wed try to hit Soarin during Illuminations, which turned out to be a good plan. We walked around World Showcase as it was starting, and only had to wait about 15 minutes for the ride. (Another first~Soarin) We liked it, Mark said it wasnt worth the hype, but I thought it was nice. Wesley really liked it~can you guess which part was his favorite?? Seeing Sleeping Beautys castle, what else??
Then for some strange reason, we decided to do Living with the Land. That queue was forever!! But it was kind of neat to see everything at night. Wont wait that long again, though. After that we rode Figment (Ive gotten to where I hold my nose in the Smell Lab), and then went to Character Connection. Mickey, Pluto, Goofy, Donald, Chip and Dale were there, and almost all of the handlers were new. January must be a big hiring month for Disney. We saw a LOT of Earning My Ears ribbons during our stay. The handlers were all very nice, and gave Wesley stickers, which he takes as a true sign of affection. Wesley had been proudly showing off his Pal Mickey to all the characters. Donald took Pal Mickey away and stuck him behind his back for the picture. You know how Donald is! Then he took him and actually put him on a ledge until we were done talking with him. Really, Donald, the jealousy factor is a bit out of hand! (This whole exchange was hilarious!) We were back in the room about midnight, and hoped that Wesley would sleep in for a change.
Day Four, Saturday, January 21
The Plan: Epcot all day, lunch at Coral Reef
What actually happened:
We all slept til about 8:30. We lazed around until 9, when we finally got up. Left about 10:30 for Epcot. (So far, were actually following the plan, can you believe it?) We arrived just before 11, and thought wed try Ellens Energy Adventure, since Wesley had never done it, and had been asking to do the dinosaur ride (and he did not mean the one at AK). We explained to him that it would be loud, etc, and he did just fine. But that ride/show doesnt do it for me anymore. Kind of what ZZUB said in his report about Epcot. If you havent read it, you need to. Anyway, Wesley was less than impressed, too, and said he didnt want to do it again. Of course, later that day, he claimed it was his favorite ride, so who knows?
We had a minute to pop in Character Connection before lunch, and this time we saw Mickey, Pluto, Minnie, Chip, Dale and Donald. It was now getting close to our lunch hour, and we were curious about eating at Coral Reef (another first). We asked for a bottom tier table, and got it. I have fish issues, so I didnt think this would really be my cup of tea, but it was pretty neat. Wesley was kept (mostly) entertained by the fish, and we saw a couple of divers, too. The food was good, and I think wed go back there. Dessert was great! Chocolate Wave, I think is what it is called. Guess what? Mark actually agreed to share with me again! Wesley had the special drink with the glowing ice cube. More on this later. Since we were already at the Living Seas, we waited to see Turtle Talk with Crush. Mark has seen this previously, but Wesley and I had not. Neat! We stopped by Character Connection once more, where we saw the same characters as before, plus Daisy and Max. Then we had our special Disney Visa Cardholders picture taken. Mickey, Donald and Pluto were there, and our picture turned our really cute. We rode Figment, checked to see if any new characters were out at CC (they werent), and headed for World Showcase. (Naptime for Wesley.)
He was pretty tired, and actually went to sleep fairly quickly. We took a wine detour in France, and then saw that Sleeping Beauty was out. Darn, and Wesleys sleeping! We got some nice pictures of her kneeling beside the stroller, then we had our picture taken with her. We promised to come back once Wesley woke up. In Germany, we had more wine. Yes, Mark is a preacher. Ill let him give you the alcohol sermon in his trip report (that is, why he doesnt believe that alcohol is evil and of the devil). But let me just say, right here, that I could NOT hang with vettechick at Epcot. Vetttechick, I salute you. Two glasses of wine in an hour and a half is about my limit! We walked all the way back around, and Wesley woke up in UK. It was so funny, Mary Poppins was out, and he basically opened his eyes, popped up, and got out of the stroller to have a picture made with her. In France, we saw Beast, then Sleeping Beauty came back out. This was another magical moment. We had told her (while he slept) how he pretended to be Prince Phillip, etc, so she asked him to dance with her. We got some precious photos of them dancing together. Naturally, there was no PhotoPass photographer within 500 yards, but I got some nice ones. In Morocco, we saw Aladdin and Jasmine. In China, we stopped for eggrolls. The queue for Norway was longer than we were willing to wait, so we went to Mexico instead. We wanted to pick up our *free* Disney Visa picture, so did that and then rode Spaceship Earth. Then it was back to Mexico, where we rode twice. Wesley told the CMs Hola, Adios, Gracias he was really interested in talking to CMs this trip, which was neat. We had dinner at Tangierine Café, which is normally one of our favorites. It was okay this time, but not as wonderful as it usually is. We had wine with our meal, there, too (that makes 3 glasses today), one red and one white. Mark didnt like either of them. I thought they both were good. I think he drank the red, which is odd, because he REALLY doesnt care for any red wines. Back to the UK, where we saw Pooh, and let Wesley play with Thomas (as if he doesnt have EVERY Thomas character that there is at home) and the wooden castle they have there. We stayed in the UK to watch Illuminations, which is wonderful every time we see it. I cried. LOL! One funny thing from today~Wesleys drink from Coral Reef, with the glowing ice cube? Well, actually, it was flashing. Once it started getting dark, you wouldnt believe all the comments we got on his cup! Adults were tripping over themselves to get a better look at it. The flashing ice cube was the talk of Epcot that night! We were back at the WL by 9:45. (And for the first time, we followed the plan, all day!)
Day 5, Sunday, January 22
The Plan: Animal Kingdom all day, Bomas for dinner, to bed early
What actually happened:
Dont remember exactly what time we got up, but we arrived at AK at 10:15, after a brief delay during which we were searching for my sunglasses. They had gotten folded up in the stroller, thank goodness. Im very picky about my sunglasses, and buying new ones would have caused more stress than should be allowed on vacation. The crowd was massive. Like claustrophobic massive. It took about 20 minutes just to get in the park. On our way to Kilimanjaro Safari, we stopped for a pic with Flik. Grabbed FPs for KS, and boarded the train to Rafikis Conservation Station, or whatever its called. There we saw Pocahontas, Rafiki, and Stanley. I was very excited to see Stanley, its my favorite Playhouse Disney show. Wish theyd scrap Charlie and Lola and put Stanley back on for the full 20ish minutes. But I digress. Then we went to the petting area, which wasnt any big deal, really. We JUST missed the train back, and Mark was not happy about this delay. To this point, we just werent thrilled with Animal Kingdom. Once we got back, it was time for our safari, which was also less than thrilling. The whole thing about the poachers really made no sense, it would be better if they didnt try to make a story out of it. Oh well. We had lunch at Pizzafari, which was good, but again, massive crowds made it not very enjoyable. We later learned that it was an Expedition Everest preview day for Cast Members, so perhaps that was why the crowds were so high. At Camp Minnie Mickey we saw Donald, Chip and Dale, Koda and Kenai. Then we went to see FOLK for the second time. A truly great show. Almost worth going to AK for.
Next we scooted over for the Pocahontas show, which was also very good. Wesley felt very proud to be allowed to sit by himself. We walked around Discovery Island for a while, and around 3:30 parked ourselves for the parade. The idea was for him to take a nap before the parade, but he decided not to comply today. We were all a little grumpy. Combination of the crowd, being tired, not loving AK
The parade was fine, most everyone waved at Wesley, which was nice. But it might be a while before we go back. Maybe when hes 8 or 9 and doesnt require a stroller
We left just after the parade, stopping to see Mickey, Goofy, Donald and Minnie on the way out.
Time for Bomas, one of our favorites! It still is, but theyve recently changed the menu, our server told us, and some of my favorites were missing. We were seated very quickly, and had the pleasure of sitting next to a family with two screaming~and I do mean SCREAMING~children. They werent crying, or upset, they were just~screaming. For no reason at all. And the adults ignored it, which only made it worse. Unfortunately, they were there almost as long as we were. Our server started out okay, but then she asked where we were from, and we told her, and she said, Oh yes, Ive heard about your town, what an awful place to live (thats not exactly what she said, but it was close). Now granted, if we could live anywhere we wanted, we might not choose where we are, but we DO have to live here, because were appointed (kind of like a military assignment), and we just thought it was very rude for her to make a comment like that. Didnt affect our meal any, it was just such a weird thing for her to say!
After dinner we went back to the room just briefly, and then we did another not-so-bright thing~EMH at MK. Probably not the best idea, since Wesley hadnt had a nap, but who cares, its vacation! The arm band location was wrong on their printout, so it took us a little while to get to the right place. ToonTown was closed, we went to Splash Mountain instead. It was a walk-on~and for the first time, we got soaked. Yes, soaked. Well, thats what we get for doing EMH! We were headed out when we saw Meeko (who had not yet signed the shirt) and the Sheriff of Nottingham, then had to see Chip and Dale and Goofy, also. We stopped by the Confectionery for Mark to get a snack, and we bought some peppermints to help Wesleys cough. Wesley fell asleep on the boat, and we were back in the room by 10.
Day 6, Monday, January 23~One of the most magical Disney days EVER
The Plan: MK all day, Family Magic Tour, dinner at 1900 Park Fare
What actually happened:
Wesley woke up at 5. We convinced him to go back to sleep. He woke up again at 7. He and Mark went back to sleep until Mickey called at 8, but I was awake the whole time. Once up, we got moving pretty quickly, and we were at the boat dock before 9. At 9:45 we were at City Hall to check in for our tour. We met David-Logan, who would be our tour guide, and then we did restrooms, etc before the tour began. When we got back, we met the other family who would be on our tour. There were just the 6 of us, they had a daughter, about 7, I think, and she and Wesley hit it off immediately. Promptly at 10, David-Logan came out to begin the tour. I wont spoil the tour for you (if you want to know about it, PM me), but I will say this: YOU MUST BE PHYSICALLY FIT TO DO THIS TOUR!!! I wonder if we could have sued Disney if one of us had had a heart attack? I mean really, they should post a warning! It was a great lot of fun, and when we passed Captain Hook, he actually came out into the street and chased Wesley. When the tour began, Wesley was not very happy about it, but he soon changed his mind and ended up having a blast!! He really came out of his shell during this, and it was awesome to see him answering questions or figuring things out. Not to spoil anything for you, but just so youll know, thanks to Wesley, the Magic Kingdom was saved!!
The kids got a special treat (again, if you want to know, PM me), each family got a Magical Moment Certificate, and then it was over. Wesley didnt get that it was over, and thought it would just go on and on. After we helped him understand that his work was done, he seemed okay with it. But he and the little girl had gotten so attached that they wanted to spend the rest of the day together. We rode Small World with them, and had lunch together at Cosmic Rays, then went our separate ways.
We got FPs for Pooh, and then saw that a Storytime with Belle would be starting soon. That was something else wed never done, and we thought it would be fun. How right we were!! One of Belles helpers (Sarah) was flirting with Wesley right from the start. She asked him to be Papa (Maurice), which basically meant that he got to be onstage the whole time. He was shy, as is typical, but it was darling, a very nice experience. After the show we did PhilharMagic, which we all love, and never grow tired of, then Pooh, then to ToonTown to ride the Barnstormer. We checked on Ariels line, but it was very long, so we went to Adventureland instead, to see Captain Hook, Smee, and Wendy (not OUR Wendy), but we had seen this one before, too.
We thought we should get to the Grand Floridian for our Park Fare dinner about now. I was excited to see Prince Charming, not just for me (I knew he would not compare to The Prince!!), but also for Wesley. As has been discussed many times, there are just so few male characters at the meals
We arrived, saw the Fairy Godmother, and discovered that Prince Charming was not there at all!! It was Aladdin! Now I have nothing against Aladdin, in fact, I like him very much. But wed seen Aladdin a hundred times. Wed never had dinner with Prince Charming before, and that was the whole reason wed booked this meal! I got over it, especially when Aladdin got to our table, and wed seen him at the MK, and he remembered Wesley! He was the very animated, talkative Aladdin that I mentioned earlier. At one point, he was on the floor doing pushups with Wesley. Great, great interaction. So I couldnt be TOO disappointed. The handler was standing by our table, and we asked her if perhaps Prince Charming was anywhere in the building she said no, but she thought Tinker Bell was, and would we like for Tinker Bell to sign his shirt? Well, YEAH!! So she took the shirt to Tinker Bell and later brought it back to us. Very cool, thats two Tink signatures in one day!! (She had also signed our Magical Moments certificate from this morning.) Cinderella was very sweet to him, and we always have great interaction with Suzy and Perla. The food was excellent, and we will definitely go back. (In fact, we did, later in the week.)
Back to MK for SpectroMagic. Some magical moments there~many of the characters waved/blew kisses but Peter Pan actually came over and posed for a picture with him, during the parade! Afterwards, we hurried to Ariels Grotto, and we were the only ones there. (Everyone else was waiting for Wishes.) We had a wonderful experience there, she was great with him! She asked him if he had a princess at home, and he told her that he did, and that she will be coming back to WDW with us in just two weeks (now 7 days!). The handler there was one of the new ones that wed seen at Epcot a few days before, and she remembered Wesley. Neat, huh?
Time to retire for the night, we were at the WL by 9 or so, and watched the Tarzan bedtime story and our pictures from the day, then put Wesley to bed. We went out on the balcony with wine (a nightly tradition) to debrief and unwind. We talked to the parents of Wesleys princess (youll learn more about them in our next trip report), and thanked them for sending us a box from home (princess included a little love note for Wesley!!), and caught up on things there. We were tired, too, so we went to bed fairly early~around 10:30 or so.
Day 7, Tuesday, January 24~No, wait, THIS was the most magical Disney day EVER
The Plan: MK all day, CRT for breakfast, lunch at Tonys
What actually happened:
We had to be up early for breakfast at the castle. Mickey called at 6:30. Ugh. We took the boat to the Contemporary, then walked to the MK. We saw Cinderella in the lobby. We were seated very quickly, at the very same table we had last year (right by a window). The food was fine, but our service was terrible. The tables behind us seemed to have fabulous service, but ours was awful. We saw Belle, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and the Fairy Godmother. All of that was fine, but the service, coupled with the (more expensive) changes that are about to begin~I think our castle dining is over.
Our goal today was to wake up Tink. Did we make it? Yes indeed!! But it wasnt quite as magical as Id hoped~the CMs were unloading stock and didnt seem to be all that thrilled at the interruption. Oh well, it was still pretty neat! Then we started the Fantasyland sequence: Peter Pan, Snow White, followed by just Wesley and me on the carousel and Dumbo (Daddy doesnt do anything that spins, remember)~while Daddy went and had pictures taken with Ariel. Hmmph. How would he like it if I had a little one on one time with The Prince?? I think Id have to do a lot of Wishing on Stars for THAT to happen, but Im digressing again So after all the round rides, Wesley needed a picture with Ariel, too. Cant let Daddy have all the fun, right?
It was almost 10, so we thought wed head over to ToonTown for a short line on the Barnstormer. They were just opening as we arrived, and Donald and Minnie were standing over to the side, by themselves. We went over to get a picture, and Donald grabbed Wesleys hand (Minnie grabbed another child) and took him on a tour of Minnies house, with Donald pointing out everything that related to him. He took him all the way through the house and to County Bounty, into the character greeting room, holding his hand the whole way. Major pixie dust! We took photos with Minnie and Donald, thanked him for the tour, and queued up to see the princesses. Today it was Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and Cinderella. We said hi to Dinah (see Day 3), and then it was time to go see Cinderellabration. After all this time in the MK, we still hadnt actually seen the show. We thought it was just okay. I really liked that all the princes/princesses were there, but the story was kind of silly. Although I do have to wonder why Princess Ariel and Prince Eric were not invited. Perhaps her sea legs keep her from being a superb dancer?
I also have to question why Princess Ariel appears as a mermaid, when at the end of the movie, she is clearly a human... does she now have the ability to go from mermaid to human as she wishes? After all, she does have legs in the parade, and I think at PSB (weve not yet seen her there). Any ideas on that one? AND, why does The Prince always appear as The Beast, when at the end of the movie, he is clearly not The Beast any longer? I can tell you that I would ABSOLUTELY prefer to have more pictures with The Prince than The Beast! And then that brings the questions of how Disney handles the problems of the sequels. In Return to Neverland, for instance, Wendy is all grown up (a concept that Wesley has STILL not grasped)~and yet in the parks, shes the young girl Wendy, just as she should be. Too bad I dont work for Disney. I could really help them out, I just know it. But back to our story
Okay, so we saw Cinderellabration, which was okay, not awesome, except that The Prince is in it but where we were standing, I couldnt see him all that well. We rode Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion, then went back to Main Street for lunch at Tonys. It has been sprinkling off an on all morning, and had just started again. We went inside to check in, and noticed some movement down the hall It was OUR Wendy, Peter Pan, Alice and the Mad Hatter!! (They were inside, due to the rain.) We asked if we had time to go see them, and were given the okay.
As we walked down the hall, some other folks were having their picture made with the 4. They got done just as we got to them, and we thought wed take a picture and go have lunch. Not so!! Wendy took him by the hand, led him to the group, where we got to play with them all for 15 or 20 minutes! They talked with Wesley about many different things, all stood up and crowed (Peter Pan style) together, played Hatter Says, had a tea party, and during most of it, Wendy did not leave Wesleys side. At some point, Mark said to the handler, Can you settle a bet for us?, which was a really silly thing to ask, since I had already TOLD him she was OUR Wendy. When he said that to the handler, Wendy said (to Mark), Yes. The handler said, I dont even know what the question was. Wendy said, I know what the question is. Mark said, Okay. Then she said, Me before? Yes. There. Proof that I was right. As if I needed it. At another point, when she was talking with Wesley and me, she said, lets see, we havent seen you since August? Well, we didnt actually see her in August, but it was proof (again) that she remembered us. And later, I asked (illegally, I know) if we had seen her at Park Fare. She confirmed~and remember, that was in February 2005~and named the EXACT table where Wesley and I had been seated. Now that is amazing, that she remembered us at all (okay, so she had the month wrong), but to know the exact table~well, we are in awe! After more playing and more pictures (and kisses for Wesley~she got him on both cheeks!), we stood up to say goodbye. Peter asked if we would come watch them in the parade that day. We said that we would, and told them where we planned to sit. They all got so excited and said, Well tell all of our friends to look for you! It was so awesome, we were practically smothering in pixie dust!
We went on to lunch, which I thought was good, Mark thought was okay, and Wesley was too excited to eat after lunch it was raining again, hard enough for us to buy ponchos (we had some, but they were in the car, which was parked at the WL). Naturally, the second we got them on, it stopped raining, and didnt rain another drop the rest of our stay. We got a FP for Pooh, then saw PhilharMagic (have I mentioned that we love this??), then let Wesley play on the Pooh playground, which hed been begging to do. When our FP time came, we rode, and as we got out of the honeypot, a CM (Nick) was standing there and said, I dont mean to freak you out, but didnt I see you during the parade last night? And named where wed been sitting. When we said yes, he took some FPs out of his pocket and gave it to us, with an Enjoy your day! More pixie dust!
Then it was time to get to our parade spot. While we waited, Wesley and I practiced some princely manners. Namely, removing his hat and bowing, then kissing my hand. It was very, very cute. That became his new thing. No wonder all the ladies love him so! Also as we waited, a PhotoPass Photographer was nearby. She finally came over and said, Didnt I take your picture with Captain Hook and Smee yesterday? Well~yes, actually, I think you did! This was very interesting, with so many CMs remembering him this trip. That has never happened before, at least not to this extent!
The parade was incredible. Almost every single character waved/smiled/blew him kisses Minnie came RUNNING down the street, straight to him, gave him a huge hug Alice also gave him a big hug and said, Wesley, its so nice to see you again!. Captain Hook came by, looking very mean, but his pirates said, No Captain Hook, this is Peter Pans friend Wesley! Wendy yelled Hi Wesley!!! and Peter talked to him, too. If Belle (the Cinderellabration Belle) had blown him any more kisses she was going to blow her lips right off! All in all, it was another of the most magical experiences weve ever had at Disney. We couldnt stop smiling the rest of the afternoon!
When it was over, we started back to Main Street, hoping to see OUR Wendy again, to thank her for making that such a wonderful experience for us, but no such luck. We did see Chip and Dale, though. In Adventureland, we did see Wendy and Peter, but they were the wrong ones. And by now, weve spent enough time with OUR Wendy, that Wesley was starting to say, But she doesnt look like OUR Wendy~oh no, dont let that part of the magic end yet!!
And then Captain Hook and Smee came out, and we had another incredible moment!! Hook had a muffled discussion with his handler (which did not escape Wesley, who wanted to know why Hook was able to talk to HER), then proceeded to lay down on the ground, and had the handler position Wesley with one foot on his chest, arms raised in the air (Victory!) Ive never seen Hook do anything like this before, and concluded that he must have been the Hook from the parade, and remembered Wesley. Awesome!!
Next up was BTMRR Wesley had agreed to ride it again, and this time, he LOVED it! Then over to Tomorrowland, for Carousel of Progress, which Wesley had never seen before, but enjoyed, TTA, and (against my better judgement) the Indy Speedway. I let Mark take him on that. One of our rules is: Nothing at Disney that you can do elsewhere. But Wesley had finally caught on that little kids could actually go on that ride, and he begged to do it. There you go. Next was Barnstormer, then Peter Pan and Small World~we came out to find our stroller missing it had been moved over to the PhilharMagic stroller parking, but we had a few moments of panic, considering that our digital camera, video camera, and Wesleys sweatshirt were all in the stroller. We saw Ariel again (he did his bowing, hand-kissing thing, which earned him a kiss), then rode Haunted Mansion. We had yet to actually sit and watch Wishes, and as Pecos Bills was already closed, we went to Caseys, got some food, and sat on the ground just outside the door. It was actually a great spot! Back in the room sometime after 9 where we watched the video from today, put Wesley to bed, and retired to the balcony.
I dont think theres ever been a better Disney day!!!
Day 8, Wednesday, January 25
The Plan: Epcot all day, San Angel Inn for lunch
What actually happened:
Well, into every vacation, a little rain must fall, and after two pixie-dust filled days, we shouldve been expecting it. Wesley awoke (again) at something like 5am. This time, he refused to go back to sleep. What is with this kid? At home, we have to pry him out of bed at 8am. And there, he gets 12 hours of sleep! Hed been getting about 8 here, which just wasnt cutting it. He is EXTREMELY well behaved, unless he gets too tired. And when he gets too tired, he gets hyper and extremely silly, which causes Mommy and Daddy to lose their patience very quickly. Especially at 5am. After a long battle, he finally went back to sleep about 9:30, then we had to wake him up at 11. But of course, we missed out on any additional sleep. The day was not looking promising.
During that sleepless battle, Mark and I somehow came to the conclusion that we should cancel the CRT dinner for the next night (Thursday) and go back to Park Fare instead, so on our way out, we stopped by to make that change. So we replaced Garden Grill with CRT, then replaced CRT with Park Fare. The CM at the desk wasnt sure we REALLY wanted to cancel the castle, but Mark finally convinced her that we did. That change made, we drove to Epcot.
Lunch was at San Angel Inn, which wed been really looking forward to trying. Mostly for the atmosphere. Weve never heard fabulous things about the food. With the rotten morning still looming over us, we both opted for Top Shelf Margaritas. Mmmm. Mmmmm. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!! At $11.25 a pop, they certainly SHOULD have been Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm! We had only one each. But one was about all I needed. Wesley wanted to try it, and I let him. (Bad Mommy, right?) Turns out, he liked it better than his Sprite! I did limit him to about 3 sips, though Mark thought he might get a good nap if I let him have more And also, our food was great! We will definitely come back here! Our server was very nice, and we questioned him as to whether the food was authentic, and he assured us that it was, and told us a little bit about the food stands all around the cities of Mexico. Mark had the Tacos al Pastor (appropriate, no?), which he thoroughly enjoyed. (On Monday night, he wanted to go to our favorite local restaurant, because its also on their menu. Mistake. Hell stick with the Epcot version. Said the local restaurants version was yuck.)
We rode El Rio del Tiempo, then went to Character Connection, where we saw the same standard characters, plus Cinderella. After that we did our Visa picture, which today featured Goofy and Minnie (she practically swooned when he kissed her hand). We went to choose our picture, then rode SE. Mark detoured by The Land to get FPs for Soarin, and met us at JIYI with Figment. Then it was to the UK, where we saw Mary Poppins, Pooh, Tigger and Rabbit. In France we saw Belle and Beast. (More hand kissing, and the Beast also bowed to him.) Then we rode Norway and Mexico, and it was FP time for Soarin, so back to Future World we went. At CC we saw Cinderella again, then back to UK, where we saw Mary again, plus Pooh, Eeyore, and Piglet. In France, we saw Sleeping Beauty (I thought she was a terrible SB, she was having a hard time coming up with appropriate answers to such questions as: Where is Prince Phillip?), then Belle and Beast were out again, and remembered him from earlier. In Morocco, Mark went to Tangierine Café for some dinner, while Wesley and I got in line to see Jasmine and Aladdin. Jasmine turned out to be the Jasmine from the Cinderellabration show, and told Aladdin that she had met Wesley previously in front of the castle, and also saw him in the parade yesterday at the MK. Aladdin countered with, Really? Because I saw him here at Epcot a few days ago! (Which was true, it was the same Aladdin wed seen there earlier in the trip.) In China, I got eggrolls and a salad, and we ended up eating at tables in Norway. We had wised up a bit, and were back at the WL at 7:15. Wesley was in bed by 7:30, and was asleep before 8.
Day 9, Thursday, January 26
The Plan: Breakfast at Park Fare, MK all day (though we had discussed going back to MGM), dinner at Garden Grill, no, at CRT, no, at Park Fare
What actually happened:
We were up at 6:30 to get to Park Fare by 8:10. Park Fare was~EMPTY!!! Really~there were 4 other tables occupied when we arrived, and I think when we left there were 11 occupied tables. We saw Alice (same one we saw at MK with OUR Wendy)~and do you believe it? After all that, SHE didnt remember him. Oh well, everyone else has. We also saw Mad Hatter, Pooh and Eeyore, and Mary Poppins was in the lobby. She was a strange Mary Poppins. She looked the part, but didnt seem too keen on being there.
Off to the MK, we rode Snow White and made a detour by Ariels Grotto, then went to find OUR Wendy. She was just finishing up a set, and she grabbed Wesley and pulled him inside with her, telling us to follow her. We sat in Exposition Hall with her, and she spent pretty much her entire break with us, just talking to Wesley (and us) and fawning over him. She asked if we would be watching the parade again, and we told her where we planned to sit that day. We said our goodbyes, and started back down Main Street. Here, we saw the ToonTown Tuners (also known as the Sax Quartet). We had seen them previously (they were playing the Monsters, Inc. song), so we stopped to listen. Main Streets Fire Chief joined them to sing I Wanna Be Like You then we had a singalong of Zip a dee doo dah and Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious then Mark requested the Monsters, Inc. song, which they were happy to do. Lots of fun! Thats a great thing about a long trip~you have time to really appreciate what makes Disney Disney. (One morning, we were able to see the Main Street dancers, which wed never had time to stop for before.)
Wesley was ready to ride more rides, so we did Snow White, the Carousel (which Mark actually rode with him, because I was on a bathroom quest), Pooh and the Barnstormer. Back by the train station, tons of characters were out, and we had pictures with all of them. We actually had a PhotoPass guy follow us around, which was awesome!
We finally took Wesley on the train, something wed been trying to do for the last, oh, 10 trips. We rode all the way back to ToonTown, where we saw Bert was out with Mary, and we needed his signature. Got that, plus a few more, then rode Peter Pan, saw PhilharMagic, rode Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean, then staked out our parade spot. We had lunch from Columbia Harbor House while sitting in our spot. I had the hummus sandwich which wasnt great. It wouldve been good, except that the broccoli slaw was sweet, and gave it a strange taste. After lunch, Mark stayed at our spot while Wesley and I went to see Woody and Jessie.
Soon it was parade time, and Wendy had spread the word again. Once more, Wesley got lots of attention during the parade. (She is just awesome!!) Captain Hook spent more time with him, and Belle said, I remember you! among kiss blowing as she went past.
Time for BTMRR, we havent done that in two days! Then we saw Buzz and the Incredibles in Tomorrowland, and I wanted to see Cinderellabration again. Mostly, I wanted to see The Prince again. But we dont need to get into all that, do we? Well, actually, yes we do. Because I need to clarify something here. I LIKED The Prince. I mean, I thought (still think) that he was quite nice to look at, and pretty much that was it. But we were able to sit right up front (next to the chain), and there was a woman there who was~I dont know how else to say it~OBSESSED with the princes. All of them, I guess. She had this suitcase thing covered with pictures of the various princes. She had beaded things hanging from the suitcase that said, I love the Prince, I love Prince Charming, that kind of thing. To tell you the truth, it was a little creepy. She sang along with the songs~no problem with that, we sing along with things, too, including the Main Street music which typically includes songs from The Music Man, which we happen to love. But the way she did it was sort of well, creepy! Mark didnt want Wesley standing too close to her, for fear the cast think he was with HER. So~Prince lovin lady, if youre reading this, you might want to tone it down a bit, else the princes might think youre a stalker. Kind of hard to get the man when he thinks hes being stalked! JMHO. Enough of that. Just wanted you to know that I merely appreciated The Princes looks, and was not obsessed with him or stalking him. The fact that Ive looked at a picture of him every day since weve been home means only that I am appreciating Gods handiwork in one of his creations! (Okay, wait, now Im creeping myself out! I think the man is nice looking, lets just leave it at that, shall we? Though sadly, I figure that happyhaunt will get to enjoy Gary Sinise on Mission:Space much longer than I will be able to enjoy The Prince in the Cinderellabration show. Im done now. No, really, I am!)
So back to the show funny, I was enjoying it more than I did the first time. It was beginning to grow on me. I really, really think it is cool to have (almost) all of the princes/princesses taking part. Poor Eric and Ariel I was busy taking pictures of Prince Phillip and Aurora for Wesley, because as wed said, Prince Phillip is so hard to find and it was totally a coincidence that The Prince happened to be in many of the pics. Right, enough about him! At the end, when all the princes/princesses dance across the front of the stage, Wesley got many waves and kisses.
Cast:
DH, Mark, 33 (FSUMARCHIEF), United Methodist Minister, lover of all things Disney. Likes to flip me out with Lets go to WDW today pleas, which turn into trips. (See FSUMARCHIEFS Pre-Trip.) Loves to eat, especially at Disney, and doesnt like to share (although he did a little better this trip); loves the princesses, especially Ariel and Jasmine (the partially clothed ones, you notice).
DW, Rhonda (thats me), 32, lover of all things Disney. Gives in to the Lets go to WDW today pleas, stresses out until we get there, but admits it was worth it in the end. Cries at Disney magic. Plays Magical Moment memories over and over in head when were not at Disney. Developed a huge crush on The Prince (aka The Beast) this trip. Im entitled, what with the half-clothed princess obsession Mark has. Weve made over 20 trips to WDW together.
DS, Wesley, 3 (4 in 2 weeks)~His 10th trip, *REALLY* into the MAGIC
, thinks he IS Peter Pan and/or Prince Phillip (depends on the day), and is quite the ladies man. They love him. Seriously, Belle and I are going to have to have a talk about my underage son!! Loves every ride and every character equally (except the two above mentioned, and their friends~they have top priority. For those of you who are not up on your Disney characters, and it seems that ¾ of the people who visit WDW are not, their friends include Wendy, Captain Hook, Smee, Princess Aurora~thats Sleeping Beauty~the three good fairies). Has been eating his veggies to be tall enough to ride Splash Mountain, BTMRR, and other 40 requirement rides. Pre-Trip: (Also see Pre-Trip Report by FSUMARCHIEF~hes the husband)
The last few months have been crazy at work. This is unusual. Generally November through February is our least busy time. But this year its been nuts. Which has made me nuts. And the whole point of working part time is so that you dont have to be nuts about your job. Mark is a preacher, but I also work for the church~the larger church. I know, this means nothing to you if youre not Methodist and dont understand how our system works. Im the secretary for the district office of our church. Technically, he and I have the same boss, since we both report (directly~me, or indirectly~him) to the District Superintendent. She, by the way, thinks were psychotic because we are (as she says) obsessed with Disney. He asked if I could get off early on Wednesday (I only work 3 hours on Wednesdays as it is). Her reply was, Arent you going to be there for 12 DAYS?? I dont think you need any more time there! Needless to say, I did NOT get off early on Wednesday. Shes a nice enough lady, she just doesnt appreciate Disney the way we do. This is a woman who has not taken a real vacation (meaning~leaving town) in the almost 4 years that Ive worked for her. She tells me theyre going to New York over spring break, but she has yet to make the reservations. Ill believe it when I see it. So anyway, Ive been nuts over work for the last 3 months, and completely stressed out about getting everything finished in time to leave for our trip, and Mark was a little perturbed with me because I wasnt feeling all magical for the 3 weeks leading up to our trip (once Christmas was over), which just happened to be the most stressful weeks, jobwise, in all the craziness wed been having there. I didnt even want to listen to Disney music. Thats how bad it was. I kept promising to pull myself together, and that Id be magical once we arrived, but he wanted me to be magical right then, because he was. *sigh* And then came this whole discussion of where we would eat while on the road, and he makes it sound as if the whole thing is my fault, which of course it isnt, but I *am* a little tired of Krystal, weve had it on every road trip for the past 7 ½ years, and sometimes a girl just wants a change, you know? But at last the day arrived, and I packed up my toiletries (the last thing I had to do) and left for work as he was beginning to load the car and complete the To Do List I left for him. Kudos to him, he got it all done, and without any complaints, that I recall. So that brings us to
Day One, Wednesday, January 18
I arrived home from work at 12:25. The car was loaded, I just changed clothes, and we hopped in the car. We stopped at Wendys (its right at the interstate, and you can read Marks rant about it in his trip report) for some lunch, and off we went!
Wesley fell asleep at some point (just after Cordele, maybe?) and slept til almost Valdosta. Sometime while he was asleep, we realized that we left his Uncrustables in the freezer. Darn it. Once he woke up, we stopped at Wal-Mart in Valdosta to buy replacement Uncrustables, and I believe that was our last contact with the Real World. Maybe there was another bathroom break, but for purposes of this trip report, the Valdosta stop was our last contact with the Real World. Got it?
We arrived at All Star Movies a bit after 6. The plan was to check in, get some dinner from the food court, and go to Epcot to redeem Marks AP Voucher, upgrade my 2 day ticket to an AP, buy Wesleys AP, and buy a 2 day ticket for one of the friends who will be coming with us in February. Notice I said thats what the plan was. Before we even left home, Mark was already telling Wesley that we might JUST ride Spaceship Earth. Uh huh.
So. We arrived just after 6, got a Toy Story room (a blessing and a curse), supposedly got a refund for an amount we were overcharged (still checking on that), got back in the car, headed for Epcot (did not go to room OR get dinner, did you notice?), got all the ticket issues taken care of, and well, what else do you do with brand spankin new APs? You go into a park, of course, just because you can! In we go, and decide that really, Wesley would rather ride Figment (one of his favorites) and then we can ride SE on the way out. Except that we forgot Future World closes at 7, and by now it was about 7:10. So what to do? Why, go see if you can eat at the Garden Grill, naturally! (What, that isnt what you would have done?) Well, its what we did, and they could actually take us with a very short wait. During the wait, we decided to head down to the Soarin attraction for the moment of truth: Would Wesley, or would Wesley NOT, be able to ride 40 requirement attractions? And the verdict is (drum roll, please): HE CAN!!! HOORAY!!! This translates (YAY!) into a lot less time in Fantasyland, and a lot more time in Frontierland.
(We didnt actually ride Soarin at this time; just used their stick to measure Wesley.) Back to the Garden Grill, where we waited maybe 5 minutes (so less than 15 minutes, total) for a bottom tier table. Food was good, as I recall, I liked the pork, every piece of flank steak I got was tough, every piece Mark got was tender. So~I just took the pieces he chose! I tried the fish (Im not a fish kind of girl), and let Mark have it. The dessert plate was better than the cobbler they used to have. Wesley didnt eat much (a trend that will continue), but did enjoy decorating his own cupcake. The character interaction was pretty good. Mickey sat down with him for a minute or two, he hugged on Pluto, and we always have a good time with Chip and Dale!
After dinner, we popped over to Mouse Gear to buy Pal Mickey. Wesley has been saving (our) change for 7 months, and he had $124 of his very own money. Pal Mickey was at the top of the To Buy list.
And then it was off to Spaceship Earth. I dont care what anyone says, I still love this ride! Afterwards, we walked backwards, watching Illuminations, as we left the park.
We got to ASMo (for the second time) about 9:30. Okay, the blessing and curse part~Toy Story. Everyone wants to be in Toy Story! So we got in~the blessing. Everyone wants to be in Toy Story! ~Therefore, it is normally full, and very, very loud~the curse. That very well might have been our last stay at a Value. Mark, in particular, is tired of them. The noise was just what we expected. Toilets flushing, people pulling suitcases outside of the room at something like 4am Funny, we used to think the values were great. We were younger then. Now, sleep is something we NEED at WDW. Neither of us slept well Wednesday night.
Day Two, Thursday, January 19
The Plan: AK most of the day, leave in time to check in at WL, boat/monorail to Ohanas.
What Actually Happened:
We were up at 7am, and Wesley was coughing. PLEASE!! This is vacation! We dont get up til 7:45 on a work day!! And the coughing thing~good grief!! I had been forcing Vitamin C, Echinacea, Flintstones, OJ, etc for weeks. We were going to be HEALTHY on this trip!! We kept him out of school Tuesday and Wednesday (Monday was a holiday) just in case there was something going around there! And now, on the first morning of our vacation, he sounds like hes got whooping cough. Anyway, we were in the car by 7:45. We pulled into the AK parking lot at 8:02, I think, and were the 4th car in the lot. We had an 8:10 for Donalds Breakfastosaurus, and we were pleasantly surprised, considering all the negative comments Ive seen about it. It wasnt nearly as loud as I was expecting~not as loud as, say, Chef Mickeys. Character interaction was pretty good, too. Last year, Mickey signed Wesleys Mickey hat. At breakfast, a handler asked if wed like to have Goofy sign it, so she whipped out a Sharpie, and Goofy signed it. Well then, of course, we had to have ALL of the Fab Five sign it! We got Donald and Pluto at breakfast, and later found Minnie.
After breakfast, Wesley and I had a round on Triceratops Spin (ha ha ha), which I found to be just as disappointing as Dumbo. Actually, more disappointing. Mark doesnt do anything that goes around, so I get to ride all those fun things with Wesley. Lucky me, huh? But I draw the line at the Tea Cups. If Wesley ever rides those, itll have to be with the Mad Hatter. Right, so Triceratops Spin. Then we saw Pooh, Eeyore and Tigger at the character greeting place right across from Flame Tree, and headed over to Camp Minnie Mickey. We saw Koda and Kenai, then made it in for the 9:45ish Festival of the Lion King show. Wow!! What an awesome show! Mark makes plans to leave the ministry and join this show. I politely say that I think he lacks both the acrobatic ability and the~how do I put this? Soul, shall we say?~to actually be chosen. Surprisingly, he agrees. Dont worry, hell find his place at Disney. We saw Minnie (she signed the hat), Mickey and Donald, and traipsed over to see Tarzan Rocks. Another great show~Im really sorry that its gone now. Im glad we got to see it before it ended. Too bad I didnt get a photo of Tarzan. (Though I must admit, now I dont even recall what he looked like. Its all because of The Prince. I mean The Beast. I mean~oh, never mind, youll see.) At this point, it wasnt even lunchtime, and wed just about had our fill of AK. We thought wed go to the WL and check in, even if our room wasnt yet available. On the way out, we saw Friar Tuck, Suzy, Perla, and LaunchPad.
We stopped for gas, then it was Welcome Home to the Wilderness Lodge!! Definitely one of my Happy Places! Wesley sat and watched cartoons while we checked in. He was so cute in his little rocker! Pixie dust was in the air, our room was ready, and we got a complimentary upgrade to a water view room. We could see the quiet pool and Bay Lake (to the left). We were even able to see the Electrical Water Pageant from the balcony. Very nice indeed! There was no fridge in the room (we thought they were actually IN all the rooms, but apparently not), but bell services requested one for us, and they brought it in less than 5 minutes. We spent a few minutes unpacking and getting organized, and then decided to forget the plan (as if we hadnt already) and go to the MK~4 days early.
We boarded the boat, and soon were feeling the excitement that comes only from the first view of Main Street and then the castle. We had not yet eaten lunch, so we thought wed try Pinocchios Village Haus. We had never eaten there, and I was certain that we should split a sandwich, due to our large dinner coming up at Ohanas. For the first time that I can remember, Mark agreed to SHARE food with me!! He always claims its because we dont want the same things but really its because he wants an entire portion to himself. (Yes, honey, thats true, and you know it is!) So~we shared the Italian sandwich, and also an order of Figaro fries. Okay, that was a weird combination of toppings on the fries, but it was surprisingly good! The food wasnt WOW, that was fabulous, weve gotta have this every time, but it was fine, and I think wed both go back there. AND, we both had plenty to eat, even with sharing. (See, I TOLD you!!)
Once done with lunch, we went to ToonTown and stood in line (a long line) to see Cinderella and Snow White. Fantasyland had 40 minute waits for Pooh and Peter Pan, so we bypassed them and somehow ended up in Frontierland, where we checked Wesleys height again, and basically walked on Splash Mountain. (Couldnt believe that, given the wait times in Fantasyland.) Wesley LOVED Splash Mountain! It had been a long time since we had ridden, and we both remembered how much we liked it, too. Heck, hes conquered the 50 foot drop~Big Thunder Mountain will be a piece of cake!! Except~the girl at the beginning of the Fast Pass queue (we didnt have FPs, we were just measuring him) said he wasnt tall enough. Well how is that possible? He just got off of Splash Mountain, and he was tall enough last night when we measured on the Soarin stick No, sorry guys, hes not tall enough, too bad. Hmph!! Not to be deterred, we scooted around her and over to the Stand By entrance. The girl there measured him and sent us off with an Enjoy the ride! Dont ask me how he was tall enough on 3 other sticks, and not on the FP girls. Who cares, were on! They measured him again before he was allowed to board~and again, he was tall enough. He didnt seem too enthralled with the ride, which we found surprising, but he was a trooper, anyway. He said he wanted to ride Splash Mountain again, but not BTMRR. Okay, thats fine! We decided not to ride again right then, but to go over to Pirates of the Caribbean. Peter and Mr. Smee were out, so we saw them before riding. After the ride, Wesley used more of his money to buy an additional Pirate play set (the one with Pete and Goofy) to go with his Mickey Pirate Ship that he got for Christmas. He also bought some pirate items to dress up with (patch, hook, swords~as if we dont have enough swords at our house already~we have one Peter Pan dagger, 2 Captain Hook swords, and one Prince Phillip Sword, with shield. Now we have 2 more pirate swords). That took him down to $27. But those pirate items and the Pal Mickey were what he had planned on buying, so he was happy with his purchases. On our way through Adventureland, Jasmine and Aladdin came out, so we followed them to their greeting place and took some pictures. Aladdin was very animated and talkative. From there we decided it was time to start to Ohanas.
We arrived a little early, and had to wait about 30 minutes before we were seated. This was one of the meals Mark, especially, was really looking forward to. The salad was good (Mark isnt crazy about salad that is more than iceberg or romaine, so he wasnt too keen on it), I liked the wonton chips (so did Wesley), and we particularly enjoyed the peanut and chimichurra sauces the potatoes were good, the veggies didnt really float our boat the meat was tasty. Nothing was dry, as Ive so often read, but none of it had amazing, knock your socks off flavor, either. It was good, but not outstanding. And then she brought out dessert. Now let me explain to you how we feel about bread pudding. Basically, we dont. Feel anything, that is. Or at least we didnt, until we had it at Park Fare, where it is~lets be honest here~just a vehicle for that wonderful artery-clogging vanilla sauce, because people look at you funny if you just dip yourself a big bowlful of that. But this... THIS!!! Here was the Knock-your-socks-off part of the meal! The dessert was worth the price of the whole meal! Seriously, one of the best desserts weve EVER had at ANY Disney restaurant. So, would we go back to Ohanas? Well maybe. Not in any rush, but it was by no means a bad meal. And that dessert WAS awfully good Oh, and I forgot to mention about the coconut races. Wesley was such a sport this trip~he gamely did his best at everything!! He made it to the finish line (with a little help from my foot), and he was quite proud of himself! He was showing his independence a lot more this trip, which makes me both proud and sad at the same time. You parents know just what I mean!
Now (making up a new plan as we go along), we thought it would be nice to watch Wishes from the beach. It certainly wouldve have been nice, if 436 other people had not had the same idea and talked (and smoked) through the entire thing! Still, not a bad way to end our first full day! We monorailed to the Contemporary, then waited for a boat to the WL. And waited. And waited. And waited some more. Really, it was a long time~30 minutes or so. Then it was back to the room, where we bedded Wesley down for the night, and went out on the balcony to debrief the day. (Love having that balcony!) Off to bed, where, for the second night in a row, I didnt sleep.
Day Three, Friday, January 20
The Plan: MGM all day; Hollywood & Vine; Fantasmic!
What actually happened:
Wesley woke up at 5:30. He finally went back to sleep until about 7. Guess what? He was still coughing. And now his nose was running, too. He didnt seem to feel bad, and he wasnt running a temp. So~on with the show. We took Dimetapp with us, and gave it to him every 4 hours.
Now, an aside. I have been forthright with you and told you that my son has a cough, and a runny nose. He is also sneezing occasionally. HOWEVER!!! We have taught him to cough and sneeze into the crook of his arm, not in his hand (which he will then touch everything in sight with), and not just in the air, which is disgusting. PLEASE!!! If you have children, teach them to do this!! Germs are not so easily spread this way! Call me a germaphobe if you want~I have gotten sick at Disney before, and it is no picnic. I was not having any part of that this trip! So he coughed and sneezed into his arm, and we used Kleenex to blow his nose, and we washed our hands very, very frequently. We also told him not to touch things like railings, etc while in line for rides, and he did very well. We had to remind him occasionally, but for the most part, he remembered and did great. But, oh, how many kids (and adults!) we saw cough, sneeze, expel a lung~right into the air, in some cases, right in our faces. Please, people, use some manners, and have the courtesy to not get all of us sick! Thanks, rant over!
For some reason that I cannot now recall, we decided to go to MK first, rather than MGM. Yes, I do know that the correct name is Disney-MGM Studios. MGM is just easier to type. At any rate, we were up and out in time to get to the MK just as the opening ceremony was going on. We hoped that Wesley could wake up Tink this morning, but we were the second family in the shop, and the other family had already done it. Hey, thats okay, weve got plenty of time! Still 9 days to go!
Lines were non-existent in Fantasyland today (hooray!), so we rode Snow White, Peter Pan and Pooh with virtually no wait. It was only 9:30, but Wesley has a dream of riding the Barnstormer with Goofy. We decided to take a chance, and wait at the rope for the ToonTown opening. One of the cleaning girls thought we were nuts. She kept saying, 30 more minutes, no open yet. We smiled and said, We know. She just shook her head and kept walking. She came back about 15 minutes later and said, Still 15 minutes to go! We continued to wait patiently. At some point, Mark spoke to a handler, who said that Goofy didnt normally ride with children, because most of them were frightened to ride with him. (Whats wrong with these kids?!? Lol!) However, he told us to wait in a particular spot and hed see what he could do. Minor disappointment~we got the Pooh characters as our opening, the Fab Five opened on the train station side. We went and waited where the handler told us to, but Barnstormer was having some problems, and wouldnt be running for a while. This wasnt a huge disappointment, we knew it was a long shot, and we had not told Wesley that it was even a possibility, and he was none the wiser.
We decided to get in the Princess room while the queue was still relatively short, and saw the handler wed spoken with earlier. He said that Goofy went straight into County Bounty, since he already knew (its his ride, isnt it?) that Barnstormer wasnt operating yet. We thanked him for his help, and went on in to see the ladies. Excuse me, the hotties. Dont believe Mark when he says Wesley did not hear that word from him! Here we got a surprise: Cinderella, Snow White, and DOPEY!! Wesley has never met Dopey, and hes always wanted to. But what happened? The sweatshirt we were having the characters sign was in the stroller, because wed already seen Cindy and SW and theyd signed then. Mark asked the handler (Dinah) if he had time to run get the sweatshirt and she said sure, we could stay until he got back. She was a real sweetheart, and when Mark finally arrived with the shirt, she let us go through the line again, so we could have pictures made with all of us in them, and then she asked if she could keep our shirt and have some of her friends sign it. Although part of the fun for Wesley is having them sign the shirt, hes done it before, and will do it again, and she really seemed to want to do this for us so we agreed, and gave her the sweatshirt. She told us what time to come back for it, and we went on our way.
We thought it might be a good time to try Splash Mountain again, so we started towards Frontierland. On the way, we saw Brer Rabbit, Brer Bear and a few other characters coming out to have a Hoe Down or something like that (we never actually saw it), and we ran to get a pic with Brer Rabbit. Then on to the ride, which Wesley loved even more than before. (So far, we havent gotten wet!) We had lunch at Pecos Bills (yes, the cheese sauce is great on fries), and went to pick up our shirt. Dinah looked at us apologetically, and said, I wasnt able to get too many~then she held up the sweatshirt, and it was COVERED with names! We counted later, and she had gotten something like 40 characters to sign! (The only signatures we had that we never actually saw the character(s) were Chicken Little, White Rabbit, Jiminy Cricket, Princess Atta, and Shaker~anyone know who Shaker is? We have no idea!) We thanked her profusely, had hugs all around, and started for the door. Next time youre in the Princess Room, tell Dinah we said hi! (By the way, we ended up with about 70 signatures on his shirt.)
It was about time for us to go back to the Wilderness Lodge for a rest, because we had Fantasmic! that evening, and then we were hoping to go to Epcot for EMH after that. We cut through Liberty Square to get to the castle, and here comes a LOAD of pixie dust!!! For some reason, Cinderellabration was not working (technical difficulties or something), so the cast was standing out front, and you could meet them! I cried. Do you know how hard it is to find Prince Phillip, The Prince (Snow Whites) and The Prince (better known as The Beast)????? Prince Charming is at Park Fare, so he wasnt such a huge find~but still! We got to take pictures with all of them in those gorgeous costumes, and we got to tell Prince Phillip how Wesley pretends to be him, and slays the dragon, then dances with Princess Aurora, and that was just a very special moment for us!! Mark wasnt too happy at the enthusiasm I displayed when I saw the Prince (the Beast, that is). My, oh my, Belle is one lucky princess!! We also got to see the Fairy Godmother, the King, and the Grand Duke, but for whatever reason~probably Wesley was too excited about meeting Prince Phillip, and I was still drooling over the Prince (no way can I refer to that man as the Beast!!!), and likely Mark just didnt think about it~we didnt have those three sign his shirt. We saw the Fairy Godmother later, but were sorry we missed the chance for the King and the Grand Duke to sign. Ah, well. Thoughts of the Prince kept me from being too upset with myself. Lol! I would feel bad, but for the fixation Mark has with Ariel, especially her seashells. I kept reminding him that at least I wasnt looking at the Prince with only half his clothes on!
Well, now were slightly behind schedule (oh, right, we have a PLAN, remember?), and as were rushing out of the park, we spy Wendy. And not just any Wendy. OUR Wendy. Thats how weve referred to her for the past year, which is funny, because until this trip, wed only seen her as Wendy once. The other times she was Alice. (Shh, dont tell!) She was just about to go in, and was actually acting as the handler for Cruella De Vil, so she was trying to tell people Cruellas line was closed. She never really even looked at us, and we were just able to get a really quick picture, and she signed Wesleys shirt, and we were off. Mark and I had a conversation about whether she was really OUR Wendy, because he didnt think she was. I KNEW she was. Honestly, why doesnt he just believe me about these things? Im ALWAYS right!!
Background: Why is she OUR Wendy? Well weve seen her several times, and each time (up til this really quick visit we had with her), she has been absolutely amazing. The first time was at Park Fare~she was Alice. She kept picking Wesley up and squeezing him and kissing him, and she talked to him quite a lot. He always wants to ask Alice how her cat is, so they had some conversation about that, among other things. That was in September 2004. That experience with Alice, and also Mary Poppins and Bert, remains one of our best character experiences ever. In February 2005, Wesley and I were at the MK, and there she was~as Wendy! I recognized her immediately, but of course she had no idea who we were~however, Wesley had on his Guest of Honor badge, so she was calling him by name. Later that day, Mark was with us, and we walked by again (not all that close to her), and she was out once more. She called out, Hi Wesley, coming to see me again? as we went past. The next morning, Wesley and I had breakfast at Park Fare (for his birthday). She was there that day as Alice. She was again very attentive to Wesley, and as we were talking, I said to Wesley, Ask Alice if she is friends with Wendy? And she gave me a *look*~and she knew that I recognized her, and she remembered him from the day before. Remember, this was in February 2005~almost an entire year ago. Ever since then, we have referred to her as OUR Wendy. Okay, end of background.
So we hopped aboard the boat for the Wilderness Lodge and once there Wesley FINALLY went to sleep. I got just enough of a nap to make me really, really tired. I think Mark went downstairs to change some ADRs~we had already eaten at the Garden Grill, so the night we had it, we decided to try for CRT instead, which we got. At 3:30 we thought wed better get to MGM, or we wouldnt have time to do anything at all. The parade was just ending as we arrived, so we watched that. Then we went straight to the Beauty and the Beast show, which wed never seen. I thought it was wonderful! I cried. We then saw Hercules, and then Chip/Dale and Lilo/Stitch together, which we found to be a strange combination. It was getting close to time for our ADR at Hollywood and Vine, so we trotted over there.
Initially, I thought it was going to be great. They had some very different items on the buffet and it had the potential to be very, very good~but didnt quite make it. Nothing was bad, it just wasnt much to write home about. We will likely not go back (except for the Toy Story meal, perhaps).
Then it was time for Fantasmic!, which would be another first for us. Wow, what a terrific show!! I cried. Are you sensing a theme here? I know, I know I didnt cry when I got engaged, on my wedding day, or when my child was born but I cry at Disney. Weird, huh? Mark is never surprised when I cry at things (happy or sad), because I do that often. However, he is often surprised when I DONT cry. Come to think of it, so am I. But anyway, thats me. Disney love and Disney magic just get to me.
Now we did something that probably wasnt the smartest parenting decision ever made, but we did it anyway. Decided we hadnt had enough, and went to Epcot for EMH. We rode Rio del Tiempo (one of our favorites think you dont like it? Walk around Epcot all day, in the blazing sun THEN try the ride. Its very cool and relaxing, and if you sit in the front row, you can prop your feet up. I highly recommend it!) We thought wed try to hit Soarin during Illuminations, which turned out to be a good plan. We walked around World Showcase as it was starting, and only had to wait about 15 minutes for the ride. (Another first~Soarin) We liked it, Mark said it wasnt worth the hype, but I thought it was nice. Wesley really liked it~can you guess which part was his favorite?? Seeing Sleeping Beautys castle, what else??
Then for some strange reason, we decided to do Living with the Land. That queue was forever!! But it was kind of neat to see everything at night. Wont wait that long again, though. After that we rode Figment (Ive gotten to where I hold my nose in the Smell Lab), and then went to Character Connection. Mickey, Pluto, Goofy, Donald, Chip and Dale were there, and almost all of the handlers were new. January must be a big hiring month for Disney. We saw a LOT of Earning My Ears ribbons during our stay. The handlers were all very nice, and gave Wesley stickers, which he takes as a true sign of affection. Wesley had been proudly showing off his Pal Mickey to all the characters. Donald took Pal Mickey away and stuck him behind his back for the picture. You know how Donald is! Then he took him and actually put him on a ledge until we were done talking with him. Really, Donald, the jealousy factor is a bit out of hand! (This whole exchange was hilarious!) We were back in the room about midnight, and hoped that Wesley would sleep in for a change. Day Four, Saturday, January 21
The Plan: Epcot all day, lunch at Coral Reef
What actually happened:
We all slept til about 8:30. We lazed around until 9, when we finally got up. Left about 10:30 for Epcot. (So far, were actually following the plan, can you believe it?) We arrived just before 11, and thought wed try Ellens Energy Adventure, since Wesley had never done it, and had been asking to do the dinosaur ride (and he did not mean the one at AK). We explained to him that it would be loud, etc, and he did just fine. But that ride/show doesnt do it for me anymore. Kind of what ZZUB said in his report about Epcot. If you havent read it, you need to. Anyway, Wesley was less than impressed, too, and said he didnt want to do it again. Of course, later that day, he claimed it was his favorite ride, so who knows?
We had a minute to pop in Character Connection before lunch, and this time we saw Mickey, Pluto, Minnie, Chip, Dale and Donald. It was now getting close to our lunch hour, and we were curious about eating at Coral Reef (another first). We asked for a bottom tier table, and got it. I have fish issues, so I didnt think this would really be my cup of tea, but it was pretty neat. Wesley was kept (mostly) entertained by the fish, and we saw a couple of divers, too. The food was good, and I think wed go back there. Dessert was great! Chocolate Wave, I think is what it is called. Guess what? Mark actually agreed to share with me again! Wesley had the special drink with the glowing ice cube. More on this later. Since we were already at the Living Seas, we waited to see Turtle Talk with Crush. Mark has seen this previously, but Wesley and I had not. Neat! We stopped by Character Connection once more, where we saw the same characters as before, plus Daisy and Max. Then we had our special Disney Visa Cardholders picture taken. Mickey, Donald and Pluto were there, and our picture turned our really cute. We rode Figment, checked to see if any new characters were out at CC (they werent), and headed for World Showcase. (Naptime for Wesley.)
He was pretty tired, and actually went to sleep fairly quickly. We took a wine detour in France, and then saw that Sleeping Beauty was out. Darn, and Wesleys sleeping! We got some nice pictures of her kneeling beside the stroller, then we had our picture taken with her. We promised to come back once Wesley woke up. In Germany, we had more wine. Yes, Mark is a preacher. Ill let him give you the alcohol sermon in his trip report (that is, why he doesnt believe that alcohol is evil and of the devil). But let me just say, right here, that I could NOT hang with vettechick at Epcot. Vetttechick, I salute you. Two glasses of wine in an hour and a half is about my limit! We walked all the way back around, and Wesley woke up in UK. It was so funny, Mary Poppins was out, and he basically opened his eyes, popped up, and got out of the stroller to have a picture made with her. In France, we saw Beast, then Sleeping Beauty came back out. This was another magical moment. We had told her (while he slept) how he pretended to be Prince Phillip, etc, so she asked him to dance with her. We got some precious photos of them dancing together. Naturally, there was no PhotoPass photographer within 500 yards, but I got some nice ones. In Morocco, we saw Aladdin and Jasmine. In China, we stopped for eggrolls. The queue for Norway was longer than we were willing to wait, so we went to Mexico instead. We wanted to pick up our *free* Disney Visa picture, so did that and then rode Spaceship Earth. Then it was back to Mexico, where we rode twice. Wesley told the CMs Hola, Adios, Gracias he was really interested in talking to CMs this trip, which was neat. We had dinner at Tangierine Café, which is normally one of our favorites. It was okay this time, but not as wonderful as it usually is. We had wine with our meal, there, too (that makes 3 glasses today), one red and one white. Mark didnt like either of them. I thought they both were good. I think he drank the red, which is odd, because he REALLY doesnt care for any red wines. Back to the UK, where we saw Pooh, and let Wesley play with Thomas (as if he doesnt have EVERY Thomas character that there is at home) and the wooden castle they have there. We stayed in the UK to watch Illuminations, which is wonderful every time we see it. I cried. LOL! One funny thing from today~Wesleys drink from Coral Reef, with the glowing ice cube? Well, actually, it was flashing. Once it started getting dark, you wouldnt believe all the comments we got on his cup! Adults were tripping over themselves to get a better look at it. The flashing ice cube was the talk of Epcot that night! We were back at the WL by 9:45. (And for the first time, we followed the plan, all day!)
Day 5, Sunday, January 22
The Plan: Animal Kingdom all day, Bomas for dinner, to bed early
What actually happened:
Dont remember exactly what time we got up, but we arrived at AK at 10:15, after a brief delay during which we were searching for my sunglasses. They had gotten folded up in the stroller, thank goodness. Im very picky about my sunglasses, and buying new ones would have caused more stress than should be allowed on vacation. The crowd was massive. Like claustrophobic massive. It took about 20 minutes just to get in the park. On our way to Kilimanjaro Safari, we stopped for a pic with Flik. Grabbed FPs for KS, and boarded the train to Rafikis Conservation Station, or whatever its called. There we saw Pocahontas, Rafiki, and Stanley. I was very excited to see Stanley, its my favorite Playhouse Disney show. Wish theyd scrap Charlie and Lola and put Stanley back on for the full 20ish minutes. But I digress. Then we went to the petting area, which wasnt any big deal, really. We JUST missed the train back, and Mark was not happy about this delay. To this point, we just werent thrilled with Animal Kingdom. Once we got back, it was time for our safari, which was also less than thrilling. The whole thing about the poachers really made no sense, it would be better if they didnt try to make a story out of it. Oh well. We had lunch at Pizzafari, which was good, but again, massive crowds made it not very enjoyable. We later learned that it was an Expedition Everest preview day for Cast Members, so perhaps that was why the crowds were so high. At Camp Minnie Mickey we saw Donald, Chip and Dale, Koda and Kenai. Then we went to see FOLK for the second time. A truly great show. Almost worth going to AK for.
Next we scooted over for the Pocahontas show, which was also very good. Wesley felt very proud to be allowed to sit by himself. We walked around Discovery Island for a while, and around 3:30 parked ourselves for the parade. The idea was for him to take a nap before the parade, but he decided not to comply today. We were all a little grumpy. Combination of the crowd, being tired, not loving AK
The parade was fine, most everyone waved at Wesley, which was nice. But it might be a while before we go back. Maybe when hes 8 or 9 and doesnt require a stroller
We left just after the parade, stopping to see Mickey, Goofy, Donald and Minnie on the way out. Time for Bomas, one of our favorites! It still is, but theyve recently changed the menu, our server told us, and some of my favorites were missing. We were seated very quickly, and had the pleasure of sitting next to a family with two screaming~and I do mean SCREAMING~children. They werent crying, or upset, they were just~screaming. For no reason at all. And the adults ignored it, which only made it worse. Unfortunately, they were there almost as long as we were. Our server started out okay, but then she asked where we were from, and we told her, and she said, Oh yes, Ive heard about your town, what an awful place to live (thats not exactly what she said, but it was close). Now granted, if we could live anywhere we wanted, we might not choose where we are, but we DO have to live here, because were appointed (kind of like a military assignment), and we just thought it was very rude for her to make a comment like that. Didnt affect our meal any, it was just such a weird thing for her to say!
After dinner we went back to the room just briefly, and then we did another not-so-bright thing~EMH at MK. Probably not the best idea, since Wesley hadnt had a nap, but who cares, its vacation! The arm band location was wrong on their printout, so it took us a little while to get to the right place. ToonTown was closed, we went to Splash Mountain instead. It was a walk-on~and for the first time, we got soaked. Yes, soaked. Well, thats what we get for doing EMH! We were headed out when we saw Meeko (who had not yet signed the shirt) and the Sheriff of Nottingham, then had to see Chip and Dale and Goofy, also. We stopped by the Confectionery for Mark to get a snack, and we bought some peppermints to help Wesleys cough. Wesley fell asleep on the boat, and we were back in the room by 10.
Day 6, Monday, January 23~One of the most magical Disney days EVER
The Plan: MK all day, Family Magic Tour, dinner at 1900 Park Fare
What actually happened:
Wesley woke up at 5. We convinced him to go back to sleep. He woke up again at 7. He and Mark went back to sleep until Mickey called at 8, but I was awake the whole time. Once up, we got moving pretty quickly, and we were at the boat dock before 9. At 9:45 we were at City Hall to check in for our tour. We met David-Logan, who would be our tour guide, and then we did restrooms, etc before the tour began. When we got back, we met the other family who would be on our tour. There were just the 6 of us, they had a daughter, about 7, I think, and she and Wesley hit it off immediately. Promptly at 10, David-Logan came out to begin the tour. I wont spoil the tour for you (if you want to know about it, PM me), but I will say this: YOU MUST BE PHYSICALLY FIT TO DO THIS TOUR!!! I wonder if we could have sued Disney if one of us had had a heart attack? I mean really, they should post a warning! It was a great lot of fun, and when we passed Captain Hook, he actually came out into the street and chased Wesley. When the tour began, Wesley was not very happy about it, but he soon changed his mind and ended up having a blast!! He really came out of his shell during this, and it was awesome to see him answering questions or figuring things out. Not to spoil anything for you, but just so youll know, thanks to Wesley, the Magic Kingdom was saved!!
The kids got a special treat (again, if you want to know, PM me), each family got a Magical Moment Certificate, and then it was over. Wesley didnt get that it was over, and thought it would just go on and on. After we helped him understand that his work was done, he seemed okay with it. But he and the little girl had gotten so attached that they wanted to spend the rest of the day together. We rode Small World with them, and had lunch together at Cosmic Rays, then went our separate ways. We got FPs for Pooh, and then saw that a Storytime with Belle would be starting soon. That was something else wed never done, and we thought it would be fun. How right we were!! One of Belles helpers (Sarah) was flirting with Wesley right from the start. She asked him to be Papa (Maurice), which basically meant that he got to be onstage the whole time. He was shy, as is typical, but it was darling, a very nice experience. After the show we did PhilharMagic, which we all love, and never grow tired of, then Pooh, then to ToonTown to ride the Barnstormer. We checked on Ariels line, but it was very long, so we went to Adventureland instead, to see Captain Hook, Smee, and Wendy (not OUR Wendy), but we had seen this one before, too.
We thought we should get to the Grand Floridian for our Park Fare dinner about now. I was excited to see Prince Charming, not just for me (I knew he would not compare to The Prince!!), but also for Wesley. As has been discussed many times, there are just so few male characters at the meals
We arrived, saw the Fairy Godmother, and discovered that Prince Charming was not there at all!! It was Aladdin! Now I have nothing against Aladdin, in fact, I like him very much. But wed seen Aladdin a hundred times. Wed never had dinner with Prince Charming before, and that was the whole reason wed booked this meal! I got over it, especially when Aladdin got to our table, and wed seen him at the MK, and he remembered Wesley! He was the very animated, talkative Aladdin that I mentioned earlier. At one point, he was on the floor doing pushups with Wesley. Great, great interaction. So I couldnt be TOO disappointed. The handler was standing by our table, and we asked her if perhaps Prince Charming was anywhere in the building she said no, but she thought Tinker Bell was, and would we like for Tinker Bell to sign his shirt? Well, YEAH!! So she took the shirt to Tinker Bell and later brought it back to us. Very cool, thats two Tink signatures in one day!! (She had also signed our Magical Moments certificate from this morning.) Cinderella was very sweet to him, and we always have great interaction with Suzy and Perla. The food was excellent, and we will definitely go back. (In fact, we did, later in the week.)
Back to MK for SpectroMagic. Some magical moments there~many of the characters waved/blew kisses but Peter Pan actually came over and posed for a picture with him, during the parade! Afterwards, we hurried to Ariels Grotto, and we were the only ones there. (Everyone else was waiting for Wishes.) We had a wonderful experience there, she was great with him! She asked him if he had a princess at home, and he told her that he did, and that she will be coming back to WDW with us in just two weeks (now 7 days!). The handler there was one of the new ones that wed seen at Epcot a few days before, and she remembered Wesley. Neat, huh?
Time to retire for the night, we were at the WL by 9 or so, and watched the Tarzan bedtime story and our pictures from the day, then put Wesley to bed. We went out on the balcony with wine (a nightly tradition) to debrief and unwind. We talked to the parents of Wesleys princess (youll learn more about them in our next trip report), and thanked them for sending us a box from home (princess included a little love note for Wesley!!), and caught up on things there. We were tired, too, so we went to bed fairly early~around 10:30 or so.
Day 7, Tuesday, January 24~No, wait, THIS was the most magical Disney day EVER
The Plan: MK all day, CRT for breakfast, lunch at Tonys
What actually happened:
We had to be up early for breakfast at the castle. Mickey called at 6:30. Ugh. We took the boat to the Contemporary, then walked to the MK. We saw Cinderella in the lobby. We were seated very quickly, at the very same table we had last year (right by a window). The food was fine, but our service was terrible. The tables behind us seemed to have fabulous service, but ours was awful. We saw Belle, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and the Fairy Godmother. All of that was fine, but the service, coupled with the (more expensive) changes that are about to begin~I think our castle dining is over.
Our goal today was to wake up Tink. Did we make it? Yes indeed!! But it wasnt quite as magical as Id hoped~the CMs were unloading stock and didnt seem to be all that thrilled at the interruption. Oh well, it was still pretty neat! Then we started the Fantasyland sequence: Peter Pan, Snow White, followed by just Wesley and me on the carousel and Dumbo (Daddy doesnt do anything that spins, remember)~while Daddy went and had pictures taken with Ariel. Hmmph. How would he like it if I had a little one on one time with The Prince?? I think Id have to do a lot of Wishing on Stars for THAT to happen, but Im digressing again So after all the round rides, Wesley needed a picture with Ariel, too. Cant let Daddy have all the fun, right?
It was almost 10, so we thought wed head over to ToonTown for a short line on the Barnstormer. They were just opening as we arrived, and Donald and Minnie were standing over to the side, by themselves. We went over to get a picture, and Donald grabbed Wesleys hand (Minnie grabbed another child) and took him on a tour of Minnies house, with Donald pointing out everything that related to him. He took him all the way through the house and to County Bounty, into the character greeting room, holding his hand the whole way. Major pixie dust! We took photos with Minnie and Donald, thanked him for the tour, and queued up to see the princesses. Today it was Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and Cinderella. We said hi to Dinah (see Day 3), and then it was time to go see Cinderellabration. After all this time in the MK, we still hadnt actually seen the show. We thought it was just okay. I really liked that all the princes/princesses were there, but the story was kind of silly. Although I do have to wonder why Princess Ariel and Prince Eric were not invited. Perhaps her sea legs keep her from being a superb dancer?
I also have to question why Princess Ariel appears as a mermaid, when at the end of the movie, she is clearly a human... does she now have the ability to go from mermaid to human as she wishes? After all, she does have legs in the parade, and I think at PSB (weve not yet seen her there). Any ideas on that one? AND, why does The Prince always appear as The Beast, when at the end of the movie, he is clearly not The Beast any longer? I can tell you that I would ABSOLUTELY prefer to have more pictures with The Prince than The Beast! And then that brings the questions of how Disney handles the problems of the sequels. In Return to Neverland, for instance, Wendy is all grown up (a concept that Wesley has STILL not grasped)~and yet in the parks, shes the young girl Wendy, just as she should be. Too bad I dont work for Disney. I could really help them out, I just know it. But back to our story
Okay, so we saw Cinderellabration, which was okay, not awesome, except that The Prince is in it but where we were standing, I couldnt see him all that well. We rode Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion, then went back to Main Street for lunch at Tonys. It has been sprinkling off an on all morning, and had just started again. We went inside to check in, and noticed some movement down the hall It was OUR Wendy, Peter Pan, Alice and the Mad Hatter!! (They were inside, due to the rain.) We asked if we had time to go see them, and were given the okay.
As we walked down the hall, some other folks were having their picture made with the 4. They got done just as we got to them, and we thought wed take a picture and go have lunch. Not so!! Wendy took him by the hand, led him to the group, where we got to play with them all for 15 or 20 minutes! They talked with Wesley about many different things, all stood up and crowed (Peter Pan style) together, played Hatter Says, had a tea party, and during most of it, Wendy did not leave Wesleys side. At some point, Mark said to the handler, Can you settle a bet for us?, which was a really silly thing to ask, since I had already TOLD him she was OUR Wendy. When he said that to the handler, Wendy said (to Mark), Yes. The handler said, I dont even know what the question was. Wendy said, I know what the question is. Mark said, Okay. Then she said, Me before? Yes. There. Proof that I was right. As if I needed it. At another point, when she was talking with Wesley and me, she said, lets see, we havent seen you since August? Well, we didnt actually see her in August, but it was proof (again) that she remembered us. And later, I asked (illegally, I know) if we had seen her at Park Fare. She confirmed~and remember, that was in February 2005~and named the EXACT table where Wesley and I had been seated. Now that is amazing, that she remembered us at all (okay, so she had the month wrong), but to know the exact table~well, we are in awe! After more playing and more pictures (and kisses for Wesley~she got him on both cheeks!), we stood up to say goodbye. Peter asked if we would come watch them in the parade that day. We said that we would, and told them where we planned to sit. They all got so excited and said, Well tell all of our friends to look for you! It was so awesome, we were practically smothering in pixie dust!
We went on to lunch, which I thought was good, Mark thought was okay, and Wesley was too excited to eat after lunch it was raining again, hard enough for us to buy ponchos (we had some, but they were in the car, which was parked at the WL). Naturally, the second we got them on, it stopped raining, and didnt rain another drop the rest of our stay. We got a FP for Pooh, then saw PhilharMagic (have I mentioned that we love this??), then let Wesley play on the Pooh playground, which hed been begging to do. When our FP time came, we rode, and as we got out of the honeypot, a CM (Nick) was standing there and said, I dont mean to freak you out, but didnt I see you during the parade last night? And named where wed been sitting. When we said yes, he took some FPs out of his pocket and gave it to us, with an Enjoy your day! More pixie dust!
Then it was time to get to our parade spot. While we waited, Wesley and I practiced some princely manners. Namely, removing his hat and bowing, then kissing my hand. It was very, very cute. That became his new thing. No wonder all the ladies love him so! Also as we waited, a PhotoPass Photographer was nearby. She finally came over and said, Didnt I take your picture with Captain Hook and Smee yesterday? Well~yes, actually, I think you did! This was very interesting, with so many CMs remembering him this trip. That has never happened before, at least not to this extent!
The parade was incredible. Almost every single character waved/smiled/blew him kisses Minnie came RUNNING down the street, straight to him, gave him a huge hug Alice also gave him a big hug and said, Wesley, its so nice to see you again!. Captain Hook came by, looking very mean, but his pirates said, No Captain Hook, this is Peter Pans friend Wesley! Wendy yelled Hi Wesley!!! and Peter talked to him, too. If Belle (the Cinderellabration Belle) had blown him any more kisses she was going to blow her lips right off! All in all, it was another of the most magical experiences weve ever had at Disney. We couldnt stop smiling the rest of the afternoon!
When it was over, we started back to Main Street, hoping to see OUR Wendy again, to thank her for making that such a wonderful experience for us, but no such luck. We did see Chip and Dale, though. In Adventureland, we did see Wendy and Peter, but they were the wrong ones. And by now, weve spent enough time with OUR Wendy, that Wesley was starting to say, But she doesnt look like OUR Wendy~oh no, dont let that part of the magic end yet!!
And then Captain Hook and Smee came out, and we had another incredible moment!! Hook had a muffled discussion with his handler (which did not escape Wesley, who wanted to know why Hook was able to talk to HER), then proceeded to lay down on the ground, and had the handler position Wesley with one foot on his chest, arms raised in the air (Victory!) Ive never seen Hook do anything like this before, and concluded that he must have been the Hook from the parade, and remembered Wesley. Awesome!!
Next up was BTMRR Wesley had agreed to ride it again, and this time, he LOVED it! Then over to Tomorrowland, for Carousel of Progress, which Wesley had never seen before, but enjoyed, TTA, and (against my better judgement) the Indy Speedway. I let Mark take him on that. One of our rules is: Nothing at Disney that you can do elsewhere. But Wesley had finally caught on that little kids could actually go on that ride, and he begged to do it. There you go. Next was Barnstormer, then Peter Pan and Small World~we came out to find our stroller missing it had been moved over to the PhilharMagic stroller parking, but we had a few moments of panic, considering that our digital camera, video camera, and Wesleys sweatshirt were all in the stroller. We saw Ariel again (he did his bowing, hand-kissing thing, which earned him a kiss), then rode Haunted Mansion. We had yet to actually sit and watch Wishes, and as Pecos Bills was already closed, we went to Caseys, got some food, and sat on the ground just outside the door. It was actually a great spot! Back in the room sometime after 9 where we watched the video from today, put Wesley to bed, and retired to the balcony.
I dont think theres ever been a better Disney day!!!
Day 8, Wednesday, January 25
The Plan: Epcot all day, San Angel Inn for lunch
What actually happened:
Well, into every vacation, a little rain must fall, and after two pixie-dust filled days, we shouldve been expecting it. Wesley awoke (again) at something like 5am. This time, he refused to go back to sleep. What is with this kid? At home, we have to pry him out of bed at 8am. And there, he gets 12 hours of sleep! Hed been getting about 8 here, which just wasnt cutting it. He is EXTREMELY well behaved, unless he gets too tired. And when he gets too tired, he gets hyper and extremely silly, which causes Mommy and Daddy to lose their patience very quickly. Especially at 5am. After a long battle, he finally went back to sleep about 9:30, then we had to wake him up at 11. But of course, we missed out on any additional sleep. The day was not looking promising.
During that sleepless battle, Mark and I somehow came to the conclusion that we should cancel the CRT dinner for the next night (Thursday) and go back to Park Fare instead, so on our way out, we stopped by to make that change. So we replaced Garden Grill with CRT, then replaced CRT with Park Fare. The CM at the desk wasnt sure we REALLY wanted to cancel the castle, but Mark finally convinced her that we did. That change made, we drove to Epcot.
Lunch was at San Angel Inn, which wed been really looking forward to trying. Mostly for the atmosphere. Weve never heard fabulous things about the food. With the rotten morning still looming over us, we both opted for Top Shelf Margaritas. Mmmm. Mmmmm. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!! At $11.25 a pop, they certainly SHOULD have been Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm! We had only one each. But one was about all I needed. Wesley wanted to try it, and I let him. (Bad Mommy, right?) Turns out, he liked it better than his Sprite! I did limit him to about 3 sips, though Mark thought he might get a good nap if I let him have more And also, our food was great! We will definitely come back here! Our server was very nice, and we questioned him as to whether the food was authentic, and he assured us that it was, and told us a little bit about the food stands all around the cities of Mexico. Mark had the Tacos al Pastor (appropriate, no?), which he thoroughly enjoyed. (On Monday night, he wanted to go to our favorite local restaurant, because its also on their menu. Mistake. Hell stick with the Epcot version. Said the local restaurants version was yuck.)
We rode El Rio del Tiempo, then went to Character Connection, where we saw the same standard characters, plus Cinderella. After that we did our Visa picture, which today featured Goofy and Minnie (she practically swooned when he kissed her hand). We went to choose our picture, then rode SE. Mark detoured by The Land to get FPs for Soarin, and met us at JIYI with Figment. Then it was to the UK, where we saw Mary Poppins, Pooh, Tigger and Rabbit. In France we saw Belle and Beast. (More hand kissing, and the Beast also bowed to him.) Then we rode Norway and Mexico, and it was FP time for Soarin, so back to Future World we went. At CC we saw Cinderella again, then back to UK, where we saw Mary again, plus Pooh, Eeyore, and Piglet. In France, we saw Sleeping Beauty (I thought she was a terrible SB, she was having a hard time coming up with appropriate answers to such questions as: Where is Prince Phillip?), then Belle and Beast were out again, and remembered him from earlier. In Morocco, Mark went to Tangierine Café for some dinner, while Wesley and I got in line to see Jasmine and Aladdin. Jasmine turned out to be the Jasmine from the Cinderellabration show, and told Aladdin that she had met Wesley previously in front of the castle, and also saw him in the parade yesterday at the MK. Aladdin countered with, Really? Because I saw him here at Epcot a few days ago! (Which was true, it was the same Aladdin wed seen there earlier in the trip.) In China, I got eggrolls and a salad, and we ended up eating at tables in Norway. We had wised up a bit, and were back at the WL at 7:15. Wesley was in bed by 7:30, and was asleep before 8.
Day 9, Thursday, January 26
The Plan: Breakfast at Park Fare, MK all day (though we had discussed going back to MGM), dinner at Garden Grill, no, at CRT, no, at Park Fare
What actually happened:
We were up at 6:30 to get to Park Fare by 8:10. Park Fare was~EMPTY!!! Really~there were 4 other tables occupied when we arrived, and I think when we left there were 11 occupied tables. We saw Alice (same one we saw at MK with OUR Wendy)~and do you believe it? After all that, SHE didnt remember him. Oh well, everyone else has. We also saw Mad Hatter, Pooh and Eeyore, and Mary Poppins was in the lobby. She was a strange Mary Poppins. She looked the part, but didnt seem too keen on being there.
Off to the MK, we rode Snow White and made a detour by Ariels Grotto, then went to find OUR Wendy. She was just finishing up a set, and she grabbed Wesley and pulled him inside with her, telling us to follow her. We sat in Exposition Hall with her, and she spent pretty much her entire break with us, just talking to Wesley (and us) and fawning over him. She asked if we would be watching the parade again, and we told her where we planned to sit that day. We said our goodbyes, and started back down Main Street. Here, we saw the ToonTown Tuners (also known as the Sax Quartet). We had seen them previously (they were playing the Monsters, Inc. song), so we stopped to listen. Main Streets Fire Chief joined them to sing I Wanna Be Like You then we had a singalong of Zip a dee doo dah and Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious then Mark requested the Monsters, Inc. song, which they were happy to do. Lots of fun! Thats a great thing about a long trip~you have time to really appreciate what makes Disney Disney. (One morning, we were able to see the Main Street dancers, which wed never had time to stop for before.)
Wesley was ready to ride more rides, so we did Snow White, the Carousel (which Mark actually rode with him, because I was on a bathroom quest), Pooh and the Barnstormer. Back by the train station, tons of characters were out, and we had pictures with all of them. We actually had a PhotoPass guy follow us around, which was awesome!
We finally took Wesley on the train, something wed been trying to do for the last, oh, 10 trips. We rode all the way back to ToonTown, where we saw Bert was out with Mary, and we needed his signature. Got that, plus a few more, then rode Peter Pan, saw PhilharMagic, rode Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean, then staked out our parade spot. We had lunch from Columbia Harbor House while sitting in our spot. I had the hummus sandwich which wasnt great. It wouldve been good, except that the broccoli slaw was sweet, and gave it a strange taste. After lunch, Mark stayed at our spot while Wesley and I went to see Woody and Jessie.
Soon it was parade time, and Wendy had spread the word again. Once more, Wesley got lots of attention during the parade. (She is just awesome!!) Captain Hook spent more time with him, and Belle said, I remember you! among kiss blowing as she went past.
Time for BTMRR, we havent done that in two days! Then we saw Buzz and the Incredibles in Tomorrowland, and I wanted to see Cinderellabration again. Mostly, I wanted to see The Prince again. But we dont need to get into all that, do we? Well, actually, yes we do. Because I need to clarify something here. I LIKED The Prince. I mean, I thought (still think) that he was quite nice to look at, and pretty much that was it. But we were able to sit right up front (next to the chain), and there was a woman there who was~I dont know how else to say it~OBSESSED with the princes. All of them, I guess. She had this suitcase thing covered with pictures of the various princes. She had beaded things hanging from the suitcase that said, I love the Prince, I love Prince Charming, that kind of thing. To tell you the truth, it was a little creepy. She sang along with the songs~no problem with that, we sing along with things, too, including the Main Street music which typically includes songs from The Music Man, which we happen to love. But the way she did it was sort of well, creepy! Mark didnt want Wesley standing too close to her, for fear the cast think he was with HER. So~Prince lovin lady, if youre reading this, you might want to tone it down a bit, else the princes might think youre a stalker. Kind of hard to get the man when he thinks hes being stalked! JMHO. Enough of that. Just wanted you to know that I merely appreciated The Princes looks, and was not obsessed with him or stalking him. The fact that Ive looked at a picture of him every day since weve been home means only that I am appreciating Gods handiwork in one of his creations! (Okay, wait, now Im creeping myself out! I think the man is nice looking, lets just leave it at that, shall we? Though sadly, I figure that happyhaunt will get to enjoy Gary Sinise on Mission:Space much longer than I will be able to enjoy The Prince in the Cinderellabration show. Im done now. No, really, I am!)
So back to the show funny, I was enjoying it more than I did the first time. It was beginning to grow on me. I really, really think it is cool to have (almost) all of the princes/princesses taking part. Poor Eric and Ariel I was busy taking pictures of Prince Phillip and Aurora for Wesley, because as wed said, Prince Phillip is so hard to find and it was totally a coincidence that The Prince happened to be in many of the pics. Right, enough about him! At the end, when all the princes/princesses dance across the front of the stage, Wesley got many waves and kisses.
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It really gets me in thew "Disney!!" spirit. My fam is obsessed too. Oh sorry, I forgot you don't like to call yourselves obsessed. heehee. 
for writing. 
kristin
