Two Bunnies Return to WDW

[jwhtewolfd]

We're back. Going to get started on sorting through pictures and notes and try to get this report going. The laptop reports 2,859 files in the "WDW 09" pictures folder.

Quick summary:
WDW 5/5 - great, of course.
This trip 4/5 - good, not as great as last year. Not quite as excited this year, and took it easy. Feet and legs fared better, but didn't accomplish as much.
Food 3/5 - good, but not as good as last year.
Company 2/5 - questionable, at best. Could this be the end of the "Two Bunnies" series? We didn't book a bounceback...
Crowds 3.5/5 - crowds were surprisingly thick at times, but wait times were mostly managable.
Buses 4/5 - mostly punctual and reliable. Two or three 15 - 20 minute waits, but mostly had good luck. Of course long lines at park closings, but they kept coming one right after another, sometimes two at once.

 

[jwhtewolfd]

I set the alarm for 3am, and sure enough it went off. We took a little longer to get ourselves together than last year, but the car was packed by 3:30am. Then the garmin gave me a heck of a time locating Pop Century. I guess we were too far away. I gave up after fifteen minutes and just pointed us toward Orlando. It finally found Pop once we were in Florida.

I took the first shift driving. I noted that Tony was not nearly as talkative or hyper this time around. We crossed into Mississippi an hour later. Another hour and we were in Alabama. At this point the sun was starting to rise and Tony insisted we had to stop at a Cracker Barrel at 6am, instead of just waiting until we passed the next one. I plugged it into the garmin and started to follow the directions to the nearest one. Suddenly I realized the sunrise was behind us. But we are supposed to be driving east. The stupid thing was turning us around. I reprogrammed for Orlando again and we decided we wouldn’t stop at or try to find a Cracker Barrel until we could see it from the interstate. After an hour and ten minutes, we passed into Florida. We ended up stopping at the same Cracker Barrel as last year, only an hour later at 7am.

We did the breakfast thing. Tony had a proper eggs, meats, etc. and I went for biscuits and white gravy with a side of bacon and chocolate milk. I let Tony take the wheel to the nearby gas station, and since he had ordered coffee, I relinquished the driver privileges and settled in for a fitful nap.

After “napping” for 2 hours, in which I probably actually slept for 30 minutes, I offered to take over driving, but Tony declined. We started to look for gas with a quarter tank left, but ended up on some stretch of I-10 that left us high and dry until we were almost on empty. When we finally found somewhere to stop, Tony asked if I wanted to drive. I said I didn’t, but I would if he needed me to. He said he was ok, so I stayed in the navigator’s seat.

I was determined to make better time this year by staying the course until I-75 and not going through all those back roads and towns the garmin took us through last year. You do make better time, but you pay the price in over five dollars in tolls! There are considerably fewer motorcycles on the road on Thursday on a main interstate than on a Sunday on the back roads, so I contented myself searching the clouds for hidden Mickeys. And there were lots of clouds. See:

I thought for sure we were going to get drenched that evening, but we literally had 3 episodes of 10 second drizzles, and that was it. The Mickey search proved futile, but I did find a hidden Pluto!

Since I wasn’t driving this year, I had opportunity to snap all the exciting pictures:

And the most magical moment, that we missed last year, when the welcome gate comes into view:

Now I was snap happy as we followed the signs:

It was NOT this windy that day. These trees just stay this way:

And we continued to follow the signs:

Um, seriously:

Finally, at 3:15 pm (that’s Florida time now), the sign we’ve been looking for!

I had done the online check in, but the line didn’t seem any shorter, nor did it seem to move any faster. I had requested a king size bed when I booked the bounce back last September and I had called in a request for buildings one or three (Lady or Tramp) a few weeks ago. We got neither. We got 7138, Roger Rabbit at the furthest tip of the “T” from everything. Well, that’s a lie. It was the closest room to the parking lot. I asked if there was anything available in buildings one or three. The CM replied “Fifties?”, looked for a little while and then tried to put me in building TWO. Uh, no. Never mind. Obviously this is too difficult for you. We’ll keep the stupid 80’s room.

Tony, who has trouble following adult conversation, wanted to know “what my problem” was. I had to explain that we got a cruddy room because even though you request something a year ahead of time, it makes no difference. And you can’t make me believe that with all the families we saw there with school age kids that should have been in school, that there were no two-person-maximum-occupancy rooms available.

After the inexpedient online check in queue, we had to stand in a slow line yet again at the concierge desk to pick up the will call MNSSHP tickets. I had to ask for anniversary buttons there because the on-the-ball CM at check in didn’t give them to us.

We parked over in the eighties lot and were able to get nice and close to the room. Here’s the car from the room’s window with no zoom. It's the shiny blue one:

And here’s Tony unpacking the car while I take pictures:

Hey, someone had to take these snazzy shots of the room:

Dig the hidden Mickey in the bathroom wallpaper.

I unpacked the bags and called my mom to let her know we were alive, then it was dinner time. The daily bus walk consisted of walking up the length of our building, across the 80’s pool courtyard, across the length of the walkman building and cutting through the nineties parking lot to the front of Pop’s Classic Hall.

Next up: Chapter 2 and DTD

 

[disneygirlinnj]

uhoh...I'm not liking that company rating!

 

[jwhtewolfd]

This seems to be the theme of the trip, the theme at work, the theme of my life. That’s getting a little ahead of myself. Here’s a pic of the staircase we didn’t use - because we were on the first floor.

We made the trek to the buses and a DTD bus pulled in shortly after. So far, so good. For some unknown reason, the Marketplace bus stop was not in use, so we were dropped off by Pleasure Island. Which kind of sucked because we were on our way to Earl of Sandwich first. At least we got to see the cool Lego sculptures:

Then onward to the Earl. I ordered The Original: fresh roast beef and cheddar with horseradish sauce:

And decided on chocolate pudding for dessert:

I thought the Original was a little heavy on the horseradish sauce, but I love that the beef was still pink. My only other complaint was that the second half of my sandwich had cooled off by the time I finished the first half. The pudding was tasty enough, and I even ate the raspberry, but only once it was thoroughly covered with whip cream.

Tony had the Meatballs:

And picked potato salad for a side (that’s that white, blobby-looking stuff in the picture next to my pudding). He said the meatballs themselves were very good, though the red gravy could be a little more flavorful. He thought the potato salad had way too much vinegar.

After eating, I made a bee-line for the Design-a-Tee store. Alas! No Scar. No Shere Kahn. Ultimate Fail. I can’t very well make feline villain shirts without clipart of feline villains. We resigned ourselves to walking through the shops and snapping pics.

I tried my hand at some artsy shots:

And took some of the standard, obligatory DTD shots:

Tony liked the enormous mushroom by T-Rex and insisted on having his picture taken with it. See how proud he is of himself to be standing under a mushroom:

Just a side note, in case you hadn’t picked up on it yet, we didn’t get along really well on this trip. We squabbled at least once daily, had two major tiffs, a big ordeal in the car on the way home, and a knock-down, drag-out, two-hour fight in DHS. Luckily I scheduled to have three days off to recover from my vacation. While I enjoyed WDW, the trip itself wasn’t relaxing or stress-relieving. I’m just passing this along to forewarn you that there will probably be a good bit of sarcasm and sniping throughout this report when it comes to my travel companion. No apologies, hugs or good thoughts are necessary. These were old issues that had been festering for a while, and they just couldn’t be ignored this go-round. We are at a point where major changes need to happen one way or another. And that’s all I’ll say about that for the time being.

My aunt had asked me to be on the lookout for a Tinkerbell car magnet she had seen in June. I found it first in the under-ten-dollar store and snapped it up. In World of Disney I found a Scar hot button that says “I’m surrounded by idiots.” You just can’t understand how much I needed to have this trinket. Also picked out some pens to bring back to work and a Baby Simba for my cousin. While I had been browsing, Tony decided to buy some standard black ears for his nephew. And when I say “buy” I mean he literally purchased them without consulting me first. The only problem is that he charged them to the room. The problem with that is that he KNOWS that I get a discount at this store when I use the Disney card.

Cue the first squabble. No, he won’t return them so I can purchase them with the rest of my items and get the discount. No, he won’t buy his niece the princess ears because - well, I don’t know why not. But you can’t buy one kid ears and one kid a toy. It just doesn’t work that way. They both get toys, or they both get shirts, or they both get ears. Whatever you decide to get, it has to be the same, otherwise it will cause a fight. I thought this was common knowledge, but this was a whole new concept to Tony, and one that he wasn’t willing to believe. It’s not like he grew up with a brother or anything (he did!). After an embarrassing display of him storming in and out of the check out line, he decided on the princess ears for his niece, because he still wasn’t brave enough to return the ears he had already bought for his nephew.

Apparently his issues with being “wrong” run so deep that he can’t even bring himself to return a purchase. Keep this in mind. There’s a quiz later on. No, there’s not. But it comes into play again.

We’re in Disney World, so I’m willing to forgive and forget, and we make our way back to the Pleasure Island bus stop. Bus magic is with us, because it’s a very short wait. Back at Pop, I set a wake up call for 6:45am. The beds are REALLY soft. At home I sleep on a sleep number bed set to 100. Despite impending bad-back-doom, I managed to sleep fairly well. Exhaustion probably helped.

Here’s the loot we took home from DTD:

Up next: Chapter 3 and MK

 

[jwhtewolfd]

uhoh...I'm not liking that company rating!

Hey, welcome back! Yeah, I was hoping he could behave himself for WDW, but I was wrong. He was quite belligerent this year.

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

I know that Scar button! I LOVE IT! I was going to buy it last year in December but was too cheap.

It described my old job perfectly. Fortunately I would have less use for it at my current job!

I know you don't want hugs and whatnot, but I do feel a bit bad for you that your trip was not all you wanted it to be (relating to the company and the room assignment).

I am looking forward to more of your report and pictures!

 

[jwhtewolfd]

I know that Scar button! I LOVE IT! I was going to buy it last year in December but was too cheap.

It described my old job perfectly. Fortunately I would have less use for it at my current job!

I know you don't want hugs and whatnot, but I do feel a bit bad for you that your trip was not all you wanted it to be (relating to the company and the room assignment).

I am looking forward to more of your report and pictures!

I usually am pretty cheap, but I hadn't seen the Scar button last year, then read about it on here and couldn't believe I had missed it. The moment I saw it I knew I had to have it. I checked the price, of course, but unless it was some outrageous $15 or something, price was not an issue for this purchase. (I just checked my receipt, it was only $4.95!) I'm glad you feel like you don't need it as much now!

I had mostly resigned myself to the fact that this trip was never going to measure up to last year. I mean come on. Last year had so much going for it: first vacation since Katrina, first Disney vacation in seven years, first vacation without parents, first vacation with Tony, excellent room location in relation to the buses (even though we cheated and used Music's buses while we were staying at Movies). That's a lot to live up to.

Overall it was a good trip. I could have done without some tantrum moments, and we did miss a few things in the name of "taking it easy." The room ended up being not so terribly bad. We were hardly ever in it anyway, so it really didn't matter which icon was out front. We wanted the king bed, but we ended up each taking one of the doubles, which was way more comfortable than trying to cram both of us into one like last year. Since we did "take it easy" there wasn't the same feeling of dreading each additional step at the end of the day, so the distance from the bus stop wasn't too awful. I was just a little miffed that we didn't get a single one of three requests. And I still hold to my idea that there was no way all the king rooms were requested. There were too many families of more than two and we encountered suprisingly few ECVs or wheelchairs at the bus stops.

More report and many, many more pics on the way. (I was nice and pared down my nearly 3k pics to just 600 for sharing with family and RL friends.)

 

[portocall]

Just letting you know I made it thanks to Bethany's directions... now I am off to read!

 

[portocall]

I am sorry you didn't get any of your room requests. When Sean and I went to Vegas to celebrate our 10th anniversary, we were both kinda grateful to see the two double beds.

Also sorry about the company. That stinks, I was hoping it would be better for you. But I also hear what you are saying about the crossroads.

Did I read that right, did it take you 11 hours (with time change into Eastern) to drive to WDW? Just trying to time it out just right. Can't wait for the next installment!

 

[jwhtewolfd]

I am sorry you didn't get any of your room requests. When Sean and I went to Vegas to celebrate our 10th anniversary, we were both kinda grateful to see the two double beds.

Also sorry about the company. That stinks, I was hoping it would be better for you. But I also hear what you are saying about the crossroads.

Did I read that right, did it take you 11 hours (with time change into Eastern) to drive to WDW? Just trying to time it out just right. Can't wait for the next installment!

Yeah, it's at the point where if it's gong to be two people in the house, we need two incomes. If it's going to be one income, it needs to be just one person, b/c he won't contribute to the upkeep of the house enough to actually keep it up, and I just can't trust his decision making with tight finances.


But anyway, yeah, about 11 hours. We started driving at 3:45am (Louisiana time - thanks to the garmin not wanting to find WDW), stopped once for breakfast and gas, one more time for gas and arrived 3:15pm (Florida time). To help you break it up, it takes about 3 hours to get into Florida, 4 east across Florida, and 4 south down through Florida. Last year I drove most of the way there and back. This year I drove the first 1/3 there and let Tony do the last 2/3 there. On the way back we switched up approximately every two to three hours.

Sometimes I'm fine driving for hours on end and it doesn't seem like any time has passed, but sometimes I need to switch up. I get that road hypnosis where I just start staring at the lines in the road ahead of me and it's hard to shake it and concentrate. I also have horrible vision during low light times of dawn and dusk. The sun's not strong enough, but still just bright enough to make the headlights useless. I HATE driving then. I'd rather drive at night in the dark than at dusk or dawn.

Oh, and don't forget toll money. I usually don't carry cash and was lucky to have some on me. But we were counting nickles and pennies from the ashtray at some points. The tolls are outrageous! I'd bring two dollars in quarters and 10 singles, just to be safe...Although last year when we were leaving, we blew through several toll areas, thinking the side booths were exits, and I never got any citations. We stopped and asked an attendant when we finally realized what was going on, and she told us you can go through like four in a month before they'll cite/fine you.

I'm on a roll today, so a third update is headed your way. It probably won't be til Sunday or Monday that I get another one in, depending on how badly things at work fell apart while I was gone. Hope ya'll like it.

 

[jwhtewolfd]

Mickey and Stitch called right on time. The park bag was already packed and ready to go. We just needed to slather on the sunscreen (SPF 70, baby) and we were out the door. We got to the bus stop, with a bus waiting, at 7:45am and realized we forgot the Gatorade! Tony hoofed it back to the room while I waited. The waiting bus pulled off and another arrived. Before the second bus took off, a third bus pulled in behind it. Tony sprinted up with the Gatorade and we boarded the third bus.

Even with the Gatorade fiasco, we ended up first at one of the MK turnstiles on the left side. Since there was no need to high-tail it to Space Mountain, we settled into a shady seat on one of the big circular planters to wait for the Rope Drop show.

The obligatory Train Station pic:

An empty train passed through:

Celebrate Today! Notice how all the balloons are Mickey ears:

Mk decked out in its fall finery:

The show starts. The Mayor of Main Street welcomes us. We sing “Good Morning.” Mickey and the gang arrive on the train.

It’s all strangely hokey, yet strangely touching. I admit to welling up a little and getting a rush of goosebumps. We count down from 10, some lucky family gets to litter the courtyard with oversized confetti, and we’re allowed to surge forward and flood into the Magic Kingdom. Here’s our first glimpse of The Castle:

Of course it‘s blurry because we‘re on the move and don‘t dare stop for fear of being crushed by rabid early morning Dumbo riders. And the better, closer, more-in-focus picture taken at the end of Main Street:

With Space Mountain out of commission, we head to Big Thunder Mountain. We spot Frontierland Donald en route, and stop for a picture:

Tony was so excited to see Donald. He kept talking to him, even as we were walking away and the next group was trying to take their turn. He continued talking and ended up running into a queue rope, which finally turned his attention from the Duck. We continued on through Frontierland to Thunder Mountain. After riding the wildest ride in the west once around, the CM told us we could stay on for one more round, so we did. Since having tackled Space Mountain, Expedition Everest and Rock n’ Roller Coaster last year, Thunder Mountain didn’t seem quite so wild anymore. Consequently, I was actually able to pay attention to some of the theming during the ride and was delighted to see goats, mining equipment, possums, pigs, and I even spotted a security camera camouflaged in a distant rock. I’m still not confidant enough to break out the camera on a roller coaster, no matter how mild or wild, so you’ll just have to take my word for it!

Splash Mountain loomed above us next, and while the drop last year was not as scary as I had remembered it to be, I had little inclination to be soaking wet all day. I told Tony as much, and said I would ride it with him if he really wanted to ride it, but I’d be donning a stylish poncho. He decided we could skip it for now, so we pressed on to a much better, much drier water ride - Pirates of the Caribbean!

We had our very own boat, but the CM still said no flash photography. I should have apologized later rather than ask permission first. This is a pirate ride, after all. I did take more “ride innards” pictures, but Davy Jones was all I could ever get to come out decent with no flash. That does happen to be my favorite part of the ride, so I take that as a small consolation. We didn’t linger as long in the gift shop as last year, but long enough to take a picture of this shirt that I would have bought if it hadn’t been black:

Now don’t get me wrong. I love black t-shirts (in fact, I won't wear white t-shirts), just not in ninety-degree, high-humidity WDW weather. We also couldn’t find a single pair of the maroon pirate ears. Lots of pink girly pirate ears, but none of the nice ones that were everywhere last year. So we came away with no merchandise and moved on to the scarier waters of the Jungle Cruise.

Now we did Jungle Cruise quite a few times this trip, but there are only so many pics you can take before they start to get repetitive. So I’ll get most of them out of the way now, and only bore you with a few repeats later on:

Do you know what kind of snake this is? I'll give you a hint. It starts with a "P":

They broke camp, all right:

Speak. Louder. Spray the boat!:

Doesn't this one look all "Pride Rock" with the sun rays?:

They got the point...in the end:

Careful, Ginger snaps:

Speaking of boring, Tony did a lot more smoking on this trip, which left me sitting around a good bit fuming about wasting time. I made the best of it by snapping pics from whatever vantage point I had while waiting. This made for some interesting pics, very few worth sharing, but some, especially in Epcot, came out rather lovely. This was how I occupied myself in front of the Enchanted Tiki Room while Tony was off poisoning himself. I have some really zoomed in shots of the Magic Carpets, a nice, person-free shot of the totem poles across the way:

And of course, this:

I complain about the smoking because in general it does waste a good bit of time locating a designated smoking spot, backtracking to it or going off course to find one, and then just sitting there. But we actually made good time this morning. With all we’ve done already, it’s still only 9:55am. Finally, once inside the Enchanted Tiki Room, we found an obnoxious Iago:

A wise Zazu:

An angry Polynesian goddess:

And a chandelier full of a flock of feathered females:

To be continued in Part 2, due to reaching maximum picture quota for this post.

 

[jwhtewolfd]

Iago not so politely asked us to leave The Enchanted Tiki Room once the show was over. My original itinerary had us in the Tiki Room at 11am and then heading straight on to our lunch ADR at 11:30. We had some time to kill so we headed for the mostest bestest 3-D show in the World, and probably the world, for that matter - Mickey’s PhilharMagic!

As I said, we had some time to kill, so along the way we decided to check out the Swiss Family Treehouse:

While there are some nice views:

let’s just say I don’t feel a need to ever do that again. Now that I think about it, all those stairs are probably why I had shin splints the next day. I couldn’t understand how my feet and legs could be faring so well otherwise, but I still ended up with shin splints on day two. It all makes sense now.

On the way through the hub to Fantasyland, the path through the Castle was roped off for the Dream Along with Mickey show. We never did get to walk through the Castle to see the murals. Every time I tried, it was roped off. Since we were already there, I figured we should stay and see the show. It was almost show time, so I only got off a couple of waiting pics:

I took a ton of pics at this show last year, so I limited myself this time. Of course the pics I did get ended up not being as good:

After our Dreams Came True, we had to backtrack through Liberty Square to get to Fantasyland. It was at this point on the bridge passing the Castle that Tony started asking about lunch. I told him he knew where we were having lunch today and he insisted he didn’t. I told him that he picked where we were having lunch today and he was still clueless. Once I reminded him that today was our anniversary he realized we’d be eating at Tony’s Town Square. Yep. Remember we had that whole conversation:

Me: I know you want Tony’s on our anniversary, but I can’t get us in for dinner that night because it‘s our first day and it‘s already booked up by the people arriving before us. I can only get lunch, but there’s no steak on the menu at lunch.
Him: Do you really need to have steak at every meal?
Me: Is that a trick question?

Yep. 11:00am and he’s just realizing it’s our anniversary. Never mind that we have the “Happy Anniversary” button pinned to the bag he’s been lugging around. At that point I changed the converstaion as we passed a little girl in a princess costume and I exclaimed, “Wow, we just saw her on stage! Hi, Princess!”

We finally made it around to Mickey’s PhilharMagic. The sad part about loving an attraction so much is that you start to know it too well and you know when the end is near. I still love it, love it, but it just seems too short and I always get sad anticipating that it’s almost over when Aladdin and Jasmine start singing “A Whole New World.” And I love that part with all the wind blowing on us. I also love the Lion King section, and the champagne bottles popping during “Be Our Guest” always make me jump. I’m only sorry that I can’t watch it for the first time again.

Finally it’s time to head to Tony’s for lunch. We checked in and got our pager. We sat down and it went off a few minutes later. So we stood up and brought it to the front, where the CM told us that they didn’t page us, they were just activating it. Huh? Uh, ok. So we sat back down. And let me tell you, those Victorian chairs in the waiting area of Tony’s are deep and treacherous to get out of! (Please ignore the fact that I ended that with a preposition.) Both Tony and I fell back when we first tried to stand up from them. A few minutes later we were called, but I was disappointed. The other hosts were in character, calling out “Attenzione! Attenzione! Tony’s has a lovely table ready for the fill-in-the-blank party!” Our hostess just called out my name meekly and poorly pronounced. And our pager never did go off.

We were seated in the sun room (but not outside on the porch), which has considerably less ambiance than the inside dining room with the beautiful fountain and movie pictures on the walls. Especially with the sun beating in from all sides. This was all there was as far as Lady and the Tramp theme in the sun room:

They did at least sprinkle the table with confetti for our anniversary:

I had a pink lemonade (they only had pink available) and Tony had ice tea. We amused ourselves by chucking fistfuls of confetti at each other while we waited on the slow service.

We decided the split the Bianca Flatbread - mozzarella, garlic and basil - as an appetizer. It had a nice flavor; I think the amount of garlic was just right. I forgot to take a picture before we busted in:

I actually forgot to take pictures a couple of times, so I have some halfway-through and some after-eaten pics. I’ve seen before-and-after food pics posted before, so I’m guessing/hoping it shouldn’t gross anybody out.

I had the Chicken Parmigiana:

And Tony had Spaghetti with Meatballs:

Tony said the spaghetti had good flavor, but he would have preferred angel hair pasta. That’s my influence on him. I don’t like thick spaghetti and made him start using angel hair at home, and now he loves it. The chicken parm wasn’t bad. I’ve been on a kick where I just don’t care for red gravy much, but the chicken itself was very good. The breadsticks were REALLY toasted until hard and almost impossible to bite.

For dessert I had tried the tiramisu last year and was unimpressed. This year I tried the Green Apple Sorbet:

It was nice and light, as sorbet should be, but it had tiny pieces of apple mixed in and it gave it a gritty texture that I just couldn’t deal with. The flavor was good, but I just couldn’t get past the texture, and was only able to take a few bites.

Tony ordered the Lemon Walnut Layer Cake, which he said was good:

It must’ve been good, because he finished it. I didn’t try it; I was too absorbed in getting over gritty sorbet.

After lunch we ducked into the Emporium to look for the pirate Mickey ears for Tony and a hat for me. No ears or acceptable hats to be found. I did find some stuff I wanted, but my better common sense said to take a picture and leave it on the shelf:

After a test of willpower in the Emporium, we headed into Tomorrowland:

And in case you never bothered to look back, here's a pic of the Castle as you enter Tomorrowland:

First stop was to pick up some Fast Passes for Buzz Lightyear. I think the line was only 15 minutes, but why wait 15 minutes in a line when the Fast Pass will be good to go in 30 minutes and you can do something else in the meantime? Something like TTA! Twice in a row without getting off. Here’s some pics from onboard TTA:

Coincidently, I just read today that a new spiel was installed for TTA on 10/2. Also coincidently, we were in MK on 10/2, but didn’t ride TTA because…well, I don’t know why. We should have. We could have. I wanted to. We just didn’t. And we were supposed to be taking it easy. What could be more taking-it-easy than TTA?!? Sigh. I feel like I missed so much on this trip. With Space Mountain, Living With the Land and Flights of Wonder all closed, it was much easier to schedule to take it slower. But somehow I still missed Conservation Station and didn’t get to do a single Animation Academy class. We never did do Splash Mountain, we walked away with a set of Fast Passes for Thunder Mountain, Test Track and Soarin’ (and that doesn’t include the one set of Thunder Mountain FP Tony gave away on our last day). Even with the MNSSHP, we only met 7 characters, and 3 were a repeat of the ones we met at Crystal Palace. I feel like I need a do-over! At least I got more than my fair share of pictures, because I have to end here again for lack of picture space.

I guess the previous update could be considered Magic Kingdom West. This installment was mostly about the middle of MK (PhilharMagic in Fantasyland and Main Street), so next up: Chapter 3: Day 1, Part 3 - MK East.

 

[jwhtewolfd]

We went around on TTA twice. I thought we were having a nice, relaxing time…until we got to Buzz. The line was non-existent now, so we walked on without using our FP. Tony won this first match. I wasted too much time looking around trying to remember all the high scoring targets I had read about, in the meantime forgetting to hold down the trigger.

What the heck am I looking at? We walked around for a second Spin, still with no need for FP. The ride briefly stopped twice this time, allowing me to locate my targets and rack up a whopping 831,500 points to Tony’s 450,000. When Tony doesn’t win it’s always because his shooter wasn’t working properly. Looks like it worked to me, well enough to get 450k points anyway, but that’s beside the point. The point is that Disney knowingly keeps faulty shooters in the ride rotation just to foil Tony’s game. And they somehow know exactly where he is going to sit, even though we swapped places this time.

We used the FPs to go around one more time. Usually Tony is not a multiple ride kind of guy, but we couldn’t walk away with him losing. Like a fool, I played to the best of my ability, and even though I didn’t beat my last score, I still beat Tony’s score. Which he took very personally and very badly. And not in a joking way. He truly got thoroughly P-Oed, complete with mini-tantrum. He really is such a baby when it comes to his pride. And I swear on all that is swiss-cheese-holey, I was not talking any smack or rubbing it in. He really just can’t take it. Can I help it if he refused to listen to my ride tips when I was researching and planning this trip months ago?

Last year I had learned better than to try to dispute his “broken shooter” claim/tirade, so I diverted his attention to Stitch’s meet and greet in front of Carousel of Progress. As we walked up, he said something to about Stitch always causing trouble, and as we walked away he told Stitch to behave. Stitch acted embarrassed, covering his eyes and shaking his head. Tony’s seemingly-witty “repartee” boosted his ego a bit, and he started behaving himself a little better.

Seeing as how we were already there, it just made sense to stop and see the Carousel of Progress.

I tried as best I could to minimize the number of steps taken this trip. I can still vividly remember looking up at Expedition Everest on our second day of our ’08 trip and thinking “no way, my body hurts too much.” (That, and Tony had totally chickened out on me with riding RnR the night before so I was not wasting precious rope drop time on a roller coaster he wasn’t going to ride.) To that end, I scheduled less criss-crossing and backtracking across the parks for this year. We missed a few things here and there, but I definitely felt the difference in my legs and feet. I also did some preventative mole-skinning each morning and had a brand new pair of cushioned socks for each day. Yes, I bought a brand new pack of socks just for WDW. Thick socks make all the difference.

Where was I? Oh yeah. Already in front of CoP. Might as well ride it.

Valentine’s Day at the turn of the century:

Fourth of July in the ‘20’s:

Halloween in the ‘40’s:

Christmas in the near future:

Is it me, or is that dog really old? Must be the pixie dust keeping him going.

After CoP, we made our way out of Tomorrowland and headed toward the hub for the three o’clock parade. Guess what time it was. Hehe. I saw a photo pass photographer standing on the bridge between Tomorrowland and the hub with no one in line and figured we’d better get a pic in front the Castle. We managed not to get one last year. As I started veering us toward the photographer, Tony wanted to know where we were going. I said we were getting our pic in front of the Castle, and then he wanted to know “why?” Um, seriously? I dared not dignify that with a response, or it would have been one ugly picture.

He cut off our feet just below the knees, which is a little bit of an odd composition, but at least he didn’t cut off the top spire of the Castle. That’s a pet peeve of mine, and, yes, I checked the pic before we walked away so he could retake it if needed. I know. I know.

We continued on to the hub and got a spot on the curb right in front of the Castle. We didn’t sit because, well, the ground burned my be-hind. Obviously it was hot. So hot that I have to complain about the losers standing under the little canopy over the nearby water fountains. Now I certainly understand if you want to stand in the shade, but you can’t stand in front the water fountain and not let anyone by. After both of us standing on the curb for several minutes, making it quite clear that we were staking out parade turf, I turned and approached the water fountain, intent on taking a drink. Well this wasn’t cue enough for the doofus standing in front of it. I had to excuse myself, not once, but twice, just to get him to begrudgingly step aside so I could take a drink. Outrageous. It’s not as if his back was turned and he didn’t see me approach or hear me. I excused myself right to his face. Do I really look like such a rude person that I would excuse myself just to make you step aside so I could steal your two inches of shade? And I don’t think this was just a case of my being hot and cranky. I’m pretty sure this guy is just a bonafide jerk. I watched him park his large, EMPTY stroller in the shade where two more people COULD have been in the shade, IF he had not been so inconsiderate. People completely baffle me. This is why I work with animals. They’re more civilized.

Anyway, back to the curb. We ended up standing next to a lady from Belgium who makes the trip three times a year. (Jealous!) She looked like an interesting lady to talk to because she was decked out literally head to toe in Chip and Dale merchandise. All the way down to her hand painted Chip and Dale Converse sneakers. Gotta admire someone who knows what they like!

Last year with the re-release of Sleeping Beauty, we had a Sleeping Beauty pre-parade, so naturally, this year, with the re-realease of Snow White, we had a Snow White pre-parade.

I love the horse with all his Disney gear. And is it just me, or is that Elton John holding the reins?

That’s a pretty seedy looking Prince. Just look at those squinty eyes. Or it could just be the glare.

From left to right: Happy, Sneezy, Doc, Sleepy and Grumpy. I guess Bashful was hiding?

And Dopey. Don’t understand why he is so popular all of a sudden. Don’t we have enough dopey in the world?

I must have seen something in these clouds when I took this pic. I think it’s a genie lamp.

Here comes the three o’clock parade! Guess what time it is. (My camera says it was 3:16.)

Chip and Dale

And Dale and Chip

And Chip and…well, just a bunch of characters milling about. This shot courtesy of Tony.

And Pluto

The head mice. I actually liked this float better when it was painted to look like reels of film, but the colors are nice too.

Blurry shots are now deemed “action shots,” rather than failed photography.

This shot also courtesy of Tony. Check out the cape action.

Pinocchio and everyone’s favorite cricket. Look what time it is!

Can someone explain to me why Pinocchio and Gepetto have Italian names, but the story is set in Germany with cuckcoo clocks and lederhosen?

A decent shot of Jafar, courtesy of Tony. I think that’s my hand in the lower left corner.

The glare is still killing me. Aladdin should wish for some sun glasses.

Mary has the right idea. Keep the sun and glare under wraps.

Speaking of wraps, that wraps of this chapter‘s picture allotment. Celebrate A Dream Come True Parade to be continued in Part 3.1

 

[skyshelder]

Thank you so much for your posts, thoroughly enjoyed them! Made me wish I was there...maybe one day

 

[jwhtewolfd]

Thank you so much for your posts, thoroughly enjoyed them! Made me wish I was there...maybe one day

Glad you are enjoying them.

It can actually be more affordable than you may think. For the two of us, staying nine nights in a value resort, with the free dining plan, eight day park hopper tickets, going during September, driving from New Orleans, gas, souvenirs, extra food and tips, and MNSSHP tickets, we spent just under $3,000. That was EVERYTHING.

You could do it even cheaper staying off site, no park hoppers, less days, eating cheaper and limiting yourself to one or two souvenirs. I don't know where you'd be traveling from; that might be the only thing that significantly changes the total cost. We only spent $100 in gas round trip.

 

[jwhtewolfd]

Capatin Hook beats the sun with this snazzy wide brimmed hat:

I hope they’re wearing sunscreen. SPF 70, baby! I got home and looked like I’d been locked in a dark closet for two weeks. I should try out to play Snow White.

I hope they got sunburned. Meanies:

Here come the princesses:

Cinderella and her Fairy Godmother:

Cinderella and her Prince Charming:

I wonder if Cinderella was upset to see us squatting on her property to watch the parade. Too bad if she was. She should know better. If she were a New Orleanian she would have barricaded off her front yard.

Beauty and the Beast. I just love this arch. It’s hard to see with the glare, but I promise, it really is beautiful. And look at the ENORMOUS dragonfly in the upper right corner. I think it escaped from the Dinosaur attraction in AK.

Ariel and Prince Eric:

Celebrate Today!

This is my best shot of King Louie. I never much liked King Louie, not being a big fan of primates in general. But our cat Louie’s original name was Louis Prima, who was, of course, the voice of King Louie. Thrilled as I was with the Disney refernece, this wasn’t going to fly in our house. His official name became “Lucifer” (notice, also a Disney reference), but we stuck with calling him Louie so he’d still recognize his name. We even made “I Wanna Be Like You” his official theme song, but we change the “you” to “Lou” and the “talk like Lou” to “whine like Lou” because he always gives a big, loud whine when he enters a room to announce his presence. Anyway, that was a roundabout way of saying I dislike King Louie a little less because of the cat connection. Therefore, I tried to get a few pics of him throughout our stay.

Here’s Baloo. I like Baloo. I have no problem with bears. “Bear Necessities” is a great song, too.

This last pic was taken at 3:25, just in case you were keeping track.

We tried to follow the parade into Liberty Square, but were stopped at a rope on the bridge and were held up until some silly VIPs cleared off the benches on the bridge. Once the VIPs cleared out, I rushed us over to Sleepy Hollow. Unfortunately not for funnel cake. That was one snack goal I did not accomplish. I somehow also managed not to get any popcorn (I KNOW! How??) , breadsticks (unless you count the weird ones at Le Cellier) and Bugie (discontinued at Tutto - HELLO!? How do you just discontinue a Signature dessert?? But more on that later). Nope. I needed a serious caffine fix. I used a snack, which meant Tony felt like he needed to use a snack; he’s such a child that way. So we got a coke, a diet coke and a cup of ice. Make that a tiny cup of ice. Stingy good-for-nothings. The cup of ice went into the long-ago-emptied Gatorade bottle. We get Gatorade just for the fact that the mouth of the bottle is wide enough to dump ice into, unlike other water bottles.

Withdrawal symptoms subsiding, the first stop would have been the Liberty Belle, but she was out of commission today. I think they were painting, because it most distinctively smelled of paint when we rode a week later. We were actually headed into Hall of Presidents, but they wouldn’t let us in with our newly purchased snacks. They can pry my diet coke from my cold, dead hands, so we pressed on to Haunted Mansion, where they let you travel with your vices. I have in my notes an excited notation that they removed the tiny turnstiles just before the Doom Buggies, but when I posted as much on the Theme Parks Attractions and Strategies board, I was told there never was a set of turnstiles inside the building. I’m still waiting on a more definitive and authoritative confirmation on that one, because I can vividly picture them in my mind. Someone of small or average size may never have paid much attention, but someone of, um, sizable size would most certainly have noticed, and despised, them.

We decided not to make a permanent reservation in the Haunted Mansion and ::gulp:: backtracked (!) to the Hall of Presidents. I could hear my feet taunting “you’ll be sorry!” Here’s the liberty tree in front of the Hall of Presidents in Liberty Square, which I managed to completely miss last year.

I also managed to miss getting a picture of the Liberty Bell this year, though I did get some pictures of the Liberty Belle, which I also neglected last year…what was I saying? Oh, yes. Hall of Presidents. Like the stories, like the pictures, like the new Lincoln bit. There was some spattering of applause and “whooping” for the new president, which I found a little obnoxious. If I had voiced what I felt about the new president I’d’ve been thought of as classless and rude. Well same to the applauders. Keep it to yourself. It’s still rude. I never saw the appeal of applauding when there are no live performers, but if you feel the need, do so at the END of the presentation, not right smack in the middle of it so you can’t even hear what your precious poster boy is saying.

As polarizing as the last election was, I pretty much expected some form of opinion to come from the audience. Mine was in the silent minority, but if you leave out the unsolicited audience participation, the refurb is very good. It’s a very good show. A little glossy, sure, but how deep can you really expect to get in 20 minutes? Moving on to one show I WOULD consider applauding, even with no live performers: Mickey’s PhilharMagic! Overall, we didn’t get to see this show nearly as many times as I wish we could have (only 5 times, not much better than just 4 times last year, considering I had it on the itinerary at least 6 times). I could wax poetic, but suffice it to say that we enjoyed it again.

By this point the National Wildlife Federation backpack that my grandma had given me (which she received for free for making a donation) had started to fall apart. The little handle at the top was completely gone, both shoulder straps were ripping at the top and both straps at the bottom were unraveling. It was the first time the bag was ever used, but what do you want from a free bag? We stopped in at the Emporium to peruse the options. Tony refused to carry a tote bag (can’t say I blame him), so we settled on what was really the only backpack option that would hold the amount of stuff we were toting around. It says Walt Disney World and “Disney” is spelled out in letters that represent different characters. I do like the design idea.

It’s a drawstring cinch with a Velcro top closure (which turns out is a really bad design if you’d like to keep your drawstings in tact - we saw lots of people with fuzzy, frizzy drawstrings because of that darn Velcro). I wasn’t thrilled with the closures. I prefer a nice, secure zipper to a drawsting. I’m not too keen on Velcro either. A snap would have been nice, but I can see the logistic problems, because you really need to be able to brace the back of the snap in order for it to, well, snap; and a buckle would be far too cumbersome and time consuming. We added a little more peace of mind by tying the drawstring once it was pulled closed. It was only $30, which isn’t much more than most of the t-shirts. I was pleasantly surprised. I expected to pay $40 or even $50 for such a hot commodity. I also held on to the receipt just in case it started falling apart. I was fully intending to return it if it didn’t hold up for the length of our trip. It would just be flat out wrong to sell a backpack for use in WDW that couldn’t stand up to standard WDW use/abuse.

It was a MNSSHP night, so we needed to be heading out before the mass exodus at 7:00pm. After we exited the MK turnstiles, I stopped in at the little souvenir shop out front in a last ditch effort to find a hat. I really wanted a hat so I wouldn’t have to be concerned about how messy my hair looked. The frizz can be ferocious. Well guess what I finally found in the tiniest of MK shops - the pirate ears we’d been searching for all day. Eureka! Since I was making the purchase, I decided on a fairly simple black ’09 hat with some characters on it. Not a great hat, by any means, but I was getting desparate. I don’t even have any pictures of it or of me in it, but it sufficed for a day.

With the victory of finding the pirate ears fresh in our hearts, we made our way to the monorail to the TTC and caught a quick bus to Hollywood Studios for Fantasmic! We arrived in enough time that they hadn’t opened the gates yet and people were still sitting by the roped off opening on Sunset Blvd. After being let in and forced to now stand in line, I thought a frozen strawberry lemonade might help. It wasn’t really frozen anymore. It was more just pink goo. It still tasted ok, but it turns out they’ve switched from Minute Maid brand to Nestle brand frozen lemonades. Not a good decision, IMHO. The Minute Maid brand was much “cripser” and lighter and more icy. The Nestle brand is more gooey and almost yogurt-esque, and not as refreshing.

Finally they started herding us in. They tried to funnel us all into the Mickey section, which was almost full and would have had us sitting at the top of the theater. Thanks, but no. I didn’t just wait in line for 45 minutes to be forced into cruddy seats. They opened up the Scar section, just to the right, about 10 people after we passed it. I don’t think so! We, along with a good chunk of the herd, stepped over the bleachers and backtracked to the section where we could actually get close enough to see what was going on, much to the dismay of the CMs directing everyone to not step over the bleachers. Well, I wouldn’t have to if you hadn’t been blocking the stairs I was trying to use! Sorry lady, but I’m not wasting all this time standing in line for a bad seat because you want to fill up one section at a time. The whole point of getting there early is to get the best seats, not the nosebleed section because it’s more convenient for you. Normally I follow the rules really well and won’t cause any commotion, but you are not messing with my Fantasmic! show! We went all the way down and sat nine rows from the front.

Here’s the big cheese:

Just Can’t Wait to Be King:

Floats. Get it? “Floats.” Hehe…never mind.

Uh, oh! The Evil Queen:

What kind of nightmarish mischief is she up to? To be continued in Part 4

 

[jwhtewolfd]

“Magic mirror on the wall…”

“All the forces of evil I call!”

Mickey saves the day!

Celebrate!

Sorcerer Mickey!

These courtesy of Tony:

Some imagination, huh?

After MOOving to the exit, we lined up for a bus to the Polynesian. Fantasmic! let out at 8:30 and we checked in to Kona Café at the Polynesian at 9:25. Oh my, wow, what a place! Seeing the Poly at night for the first time, lit up by the tiki torches - I think I’m in love. Unfortunately, I was too tired and awestruck to remember to take any pictures while we waited ten minutes to be seated. The first word I have written in my notes for Kona is “rich.” Everything is loaded with flavor.

We were tucked back in a corner off to the right, so that helped with the atmosphere a bit. The first thing to the table was this big hunk of bread.

It looked a little blah at first, but then I picked it up and tried to break it. At which point I found I didn’t need to break it; it was SO soft, it just pulled apart. There was some kind of special flavored butter, but I couldn’t bring myself to put it on the bread, it was already so good. In fact, it was so good that I asked for another loaf to bring back to the room. I tore a chunk off each morning for “breakfast.” My one complaint about Kona is that they rushed out the app and entrée, and then took their sweet time with dessert and the check.

I’ve been reading people singing the praises of these sticky wings for over a year, so there was no question about it for me. Tony, however, was concerned about the “mustard drizzle” description on the menu. There he goes, suddenly trying to have an opinion after a year’s worth of asking him to pay just a teensy bit of attention to the planning. Objection overruled. We’re having sticky wings:

Slightly tangy, a little sweet, delicious. And rich.

The teriyaki New York strip is supposed to be the most popular dish, but due to an unfortunate incident with some teriyaki chicken, I can’t eat teriyaki anything without getting sick. That made choosing the ginger crusted rib eye easy. And I was glad I did. Just look at this:

Medium rare, cooked perfectly on the inside, seared on the outside, juicy, tender. Great, real mashed potatoes.

Tony went with the pomegranite barbequed pork chop:

He ordered it well, so I thought it was a little dry, but he raved and raved about it. He said he tasted like you hoped it would. The roasted potatoes were good enough to steal a few, too.

Time to order dessert and I was so full of rich food I could barely see straight. Before they seat you, they walk you in front of the desserts, and I had seen some kind of chocolate cake up there. I pointed to the first thing that I saw with the word “chocolate” in it on the menu. It ended up being the chocolate fondue.

But that was ok because I was too full to eat cake anyway. I ended up only eating the strawberries. There were some kind of coconut things behind that tall brittle pieces, but I don’t like coconut and the brittle piece was too sweet.

Tony had smelled the waffle cones when we first walked in and had been going on and on about wanting to get the Kona Cone for the waffle cone, but then suddenly changed his mind and went with the banana chocolate crème brulee.

He must have liked it, because as full as he claimed to be, he almost finished it.

MNSSHP was still going on, so we were able to monorail back to MK and catch a bus to Pop from there. The trip took about 45 minutes. Not too bad, considering it’s a 15-20 minute drive from MK to Pop and we had to catch two monorails and a bus. Which brings us to the end of Day 1. Up next: Day 2 - HS, Spectro, a diluted Wishes and Lake Magic Kingdom.

 

[jwhtewolfd]

We got back to the room and I tried icing my shins, because I could feel shin splints starting, probably from that dreadful Treehouse. Luckily I had packed several empty Ziploc bags that came in handy for just such an occasion. I fell asleep with the bags of ice in the bed, which were bags of water by morning. But they didn’t leak. Except for the shin splints, my legs and feet were faring pretty well, especially compared to last year on day two.

Morning EMH means Stitch wakes you up at 6:10am. Yeah, 6:10. I get every last minute of sleep possible. We’re going to ride Rock n Roller Coaster today, so we decide to wear out matching Metallica shirts, because we are, indeed, ready to rock. Bus magic is with us, because there is a bus waiting for us at the bus stop.

There was not as much magic at the turnstiles, however. We were first at the turnstiles toward the left. Not the last ones all the way to the left, but on the left side. I would have to say we stood there a good 15 minutes, with several CMs passing by us, until one CM walked over and asked if we had a breakfast reservation. Um, no. And then proceeds to give us some bull story about this line is only for breakfast reservations. Well, there are no signs and none of the other CMs seemed to think that was the case, not to mention the fact that we’ve been standing here for 15 minutes while all the other lines continue to grow.

I responded with a simple “You’re kidding, right?“ He just gave me some dumb look like he couldn’t possibly see what the problem was in making us move. The jerk still made us move anyway, behind all the people that had been arriving after us. Real nice, moron. Way to spread the Disney magic. I left him with some choice words under my breath. Oh yeah, I was mad. And I was 95% sure the jerk really had no idea what he was talking about. Yeah, I got out of bed at 6am to stand BEHIND a bunch of people at the front gate. Or not.

They finally opened up the turnstiles and our early morning appearance was a complete bust as hundreds streamed through before us while we sat behind the 30 fools who can’t figure out how to use turnstiles. It’s really simple people: card, finger, green light, go. I don’t get the hold up. There was no rope drop show, so we were able to jockey for semi-decent position as people stopped paying attention, about 4 - 5 people back from the rope. Then the race was on.

We went for the Toy Story Fast Passes first. I ended up last in line before the line started turning at the machine furthest to the left, which means there were maybe 10 people in front of me? They finally turned on the machines and wouldn’t you just know it, the clueless lady that was at the front of our line apparently had absolutely no idea what to do. The rest of the lines were flowing, and we were at a dead stop. Not even for three full minutes, but long enough that you start to crane your neck and try to figure out what the heck is going on up there. The guy behind her must’ve said something, because when clueless lady finally made her way through the exit, she was spouting off something about being rude and waiting a minute. The lady in front of me looked at me, and I gave her a knowing glance and a nod. She said (to me, the troublemaker lady was gone at this point) “if you can’t handle the heat, get out the line!” I agreed and said “That’s right, you can’t be messing with people’s plans like that.” We both had a light chuckle and our line started rocketing forward with people who knew what the heck they were doing.

Which brings me to this little rant: please! if you’re joining the morning crowds, please! know what the heck you are doing. It’s just sheer dumb luck if you end up in front of the people that have been planning for this moment all year. If you are in charge of getting FPs for your party, there are some simple rules to follow:

1. For the love of all that is swiss-cheese-holey, don’t shuffle you KTTW cards! Put one in, take it out, set it aside. Rinse, repeat. These machines are SLOW, you should be able to work faster than them.

2. You do NOT need to take out each FP before inserting the next card. Leave it alone! It’s not going anywhere. Just put the next ticket in. Take them all at the same time once all the tickets have been run through.

3. If for some reason something’s not working right, don’t just stand there looking puzzled and trying the same thing over and over again. Get the CM’s attention. That’s what they’re there for!

Ok, we can get on the ride now. The standby sign says 30 minutes, but it took us closer to 10 because the line was still moving the whole time. I won this round, and I guess Tony was still half asleep, because he didn’t throw a tantrum. He might have just been too excited for what was up next. Oh, I snapped this after we got off:

That’s a 40 minute wait at 8:35 in the morning. Yikes. I think we did ourselves a disservice by coming a week later this year. I thought it might be a little cooler coming the last week of September and into the first week of October, but it was even hotter this year than last year. We never even got a cool night. It wasn’t desperately horrible (by my New Orleans standards) but it wasn’t the nice mild weather we had most of the time a week earlier the year before. Also, I think the crowds came in for Food and Wine Festival. Last year’s pictures have very few people in the streets, this year there were a LOT more people to manuver around. Wait times weren’t terrible, if you knew what you were doing, but I saw a few lines that could really throw things off if you didn’t know any better. So, where were we? Oh yeah, on the way to RnR.

Snapped this while in line for RnR:

And, no, we didn’t ride it this year. By choice.

I wasn’t contemplating backing out, but for some reason I was REALLY nervous to ride RnR again. I’d already done it last year and liked it. I don’t know what my problem was. But we rode it, and it was fun. I think I’ll ALWAYS need to buy something in this store after riding RnR. I think it’s the adrenelin still rushing, so I throw financial caution to the wind. I bought this shirt and black fuzzy Mickey dice for the car:

Tony bought a sleeveless red shirt, that I’m sure I have a picture of him wearing at some point, and he snuck in a pair of sunglasses while I wasn’t looking. A disaster waiting to happen! To top it off, he decided to change into his new sleeveless shirt. This really didn’t sit right with me for two reasons. Number one, he had no sunscreen on his shoulders. He was wearing a short-sleeve shirt in the morning when we applied sunscreen, so I could just hear the whining I’d have to put up with after he got sunburned. Number two, we had agreed that morning to wear our Metallica shirts together, so we’d match, and now I’m stuck wearing a hot black shirt for the rest of the day for no reason.

He, of course, pulled this stunt when he went in the bathroom without consulting me first. So he comes out and I’m looking for a dark shirt, not a red shirt. That irritated me too. Then he has to go smoke. Another PITA. Not only will he not wait until we pass a smoking section, he decides to just start walking off to the ToT smoking section because he remembers one being “right there” last year.

Well, let me tell you, “right there” has a whole different meaning depending on if you smoke or not. “Right there” for Tony kept being completely out of the way in the total opposite direction than we needed to go. And frankly I refused to waste all those extra steps to sit around getting second hand lung cancer. Not to mention all the wasted time. Oh, and don’t forget that it’s more efficient to just start walking off to a smoking section you’ve used before than to actually consult the map and find the CLOSEST one that may actually be in the right direction. This was a MAJOR annoyance all trip long. He smoked way more this year than he did last year. And we won’t even talk about how embarrassing it is to end Every. Single. Meal. sitting Alone. while the check comes because he has to go off and smoke.

At any rate, while Tony trekked off to the smoking section that was NOT “right there” (but try telling him that), I waited on the bench by the bathrooms across from RnR. While I was waiting, the cutest little boy with a Scottish (?) accent runs up to the elderly lady sitting next to me. He, his dad and his grandpa had all just ridden ToT, and runs up shouting “I didn’t even scream!” It was so cute. He was so proud of himself. And I just throught to myself “I sure the heck screamed my head off and I’m never riding that crazy thing again.”

Next on the agenda was Voyage of the Little Mermaid. We tried several times to see it last year, and never did, so I was making sure not to miss it this time. I cheated a little and stood in line while I sent Tony to go get us another set of FP for Toy Story. But it turned out ok, because no one had gotten in line behind me by the time he got back. (For anyone interested, he got the FPs at 9:40am and the return time was for 2:35pm. When we approached the ride at 2:20pm, FP were gone for the day.)

It’s a really cute show. I like the lasers and the rain and how they incorporated the movie clips into the show. I think too often they stray away from the original animation. I think that’s a mistake; it’s the animation that people love. That’s what they bring into their homes and watch again and again. I’m so glad to see the return of the hand drawn animation. You just don’t get the same feeling from the computer animation.

And speaking of animation, next we head over to the Magic of Disney Animation. Tony started a to-do in line, insisting that he wasn’t going to do the animation academy because he didn’t want to sit there and “make a fool of himself.” HA! You will come to see just how ridiculous this statement really is later on. He truly has a warped sense of what constitutes “making a fool of himself.” At any rate, we sat through the Mushu bit, but when we came out the Animation Academy waiting area was already at capacity. Unfortunately there wasn’t enough time to wait for the next one and still make the 11:30am showing of Beauty and the Beast. It was still early in the day and we still had another day planned, so I didn’t think much of it. Tony, of course, had already scurried away to smoke, so I had to locate him before being able to head off to the Theater of the Stars.

Here’s some ambiance shots taken on the way to B&B:

And I popped in to the increasingly disappointing Villains in Vogue just to take this:

I wanted to make sure to get good seats for Beauty and the Beast because I know from experience it’s not something Tony is willing to repeat once we’ve seen it once that trip. We sat just in front of the “electronics pit.” Just going to mention now how uncomfortable those bleachers are. I don’t mind a bench seat, but they decided to put a back across the bleacher seat and, well, let’s just say if you have any kind of backside, they didn’t leave enough room for it to fit on the bench. Pictures aplenty for this show; the closeups are from me; the far away ones are from Tony:

Here in town there’s only she / who’s as beautiful as me

Be Our Guest:

There’s something there that wasn’t there before:

Kill the beast:

Beauty and the Beast:

I promise, I really did try to be selective with the pictures. We have over 25 of this show alone. At least we’re doing better, as we almost made it to lunch before running out of room this time. Next up: Chapter 4: Day 2, Part 2 - lunch and HS west

 

[jwhtewolfd]

Sorry for the delay. As of this weekend, Tony and I are no longer "Tony and I." It was inevitable, it was just a matter of when, but it's still rough after six years. I haven't been ready to go back to the notes and pictures of our trip yet; hopefully next weekend. Thanks for being patient.

UPDATE:

It's just Bugging me that this sits undone. Therefore, I give you the quick, pic-free version of the rest of the trip:

Lunch at Catalina Eddie's was unimpressive. LMA! I thought was cool, but the scenes went on too long for my taste (as action and chase scenes usually do). TSMM x2 w/FP (yours truly won both times). Uneventful Backlot Tour, followed by walk on Star Tours, Indy and GMR. Hop to MK - dinner from Columbia Harbor House on the curb, fighting off the rabid spot-stealers for Spectro. Heavy rain drove the crowds out, but didn't stop Wishes. And didn't stop Tony from rambling on with some stranger during the whole damn show.

Sunday - AK - gotta start with the Safari, and first showing of FotLK, then some shopping - leopard print ears and matching hat = awesome combo. Delicious lunch at Flame Tree BBQ. Meet Pooh, Eeyore and Tigger, grab EE FP and get in line for Nemo. Too much nasty rain and too much back and forth seeking shelter - head out for AKL and Boma. Getting off at the wrong stop sets off a Tony-tantrum. AKL - neat. Boma - don't need to do again. Back to Pop, but decide to skip Wishes after arguing about smoking in the bathroom. Pop pics ensue.

Monday - EPCOT - long wait for the bus, but knock out Soarin', Test Track, Mission: Space, and Spaceship Earth before lunch at Coral Reef. Next door to Nemo and Turtle Talk - too cute! Soarin' again, then Figment and Innovations west. Tony put himself in a video game and we reached our savings goal in the piggy bank game. Explored the area after Spaceship Earth for a bit, brief stop in Mouse Gears, then on to World Showcase. FOOD AND WINE! Breeze past Mexico again. Considerable amount of time in China - acrobats, 360 degree movie, shopping. Illuminations, and who knew they closed the F&W booths during EMH?! Stayed for American Adventure just b/c it was the only thing to do. Wouldn't have seen it otherwise, but turned out to be pretty good - esp. Voices of Liberty before it. Quick late dinner at Electric Umbrella on the way out since we spent so much F&W time in China.

Tuesday - AK - we **gasp** SLEPT IN! Got to AK just in time to eat lunch at Yak and Yeti CS. Walked the Jungle Trek and the TTBAB queue to get Tree of Life pics. FotLK giraffe section, followed by Pangani Trail and the most awesome parade - coming and going! Time to head off - ferry from TTC to MK entrance. Seated late at Crystal Palace, but got to ask Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore and Piglet if they were going to the party that night. Told Eeyore to have fun and Piglet to be brave. MNSSHP exploits - Pirates, Haunted Mansion, Small World, PhilharMagic, HalloWishes, Villain stage show, Boo-to-you parade (which triggered ANOTHER argument), m&g Baloo and Timon, Peter Pan, Dumbo, Snow White and a very last minute Winnie the Pooh, in which I spent way too much in the gift shop out of guilt for browsing while they were trying to close for the night.

Wednesday - EPCOT - 1st ride of the day on Soarin'! and ride stand-by again, b/c that's how we roll. Nemo and Turtle Talk finishes us Future World for today. French bakery = mega-drool. LeCellier = NOT overrated! Martin Short showed us around Canada, but drawn back to France - must have that grey goose limone slush! Mild exploring, then time for Garden Grill - ye gods, more food??! Overdid it with the food and alcohol, but pressed on for Spectro and Wishes. Great spot for Spectro at the last minute, and then felt fine. Even called to check in at work!

Thursday - HS - no wake up call sets us back big time, but we managed to have a lovely morning despite the plans-out-the-window issue. TSMM FP, Starring rolls breakfast, Mulch Sweat and Shears x 2, lots of pictures and shopping...until...lunch...and... the Hat. Cue three hour fight. One Man's Dream is a great way to ignore the person you are with. Brown Derby dinner was less than fabulous, but it could have just been the company. Even Fantasmic! x 2 couldn't salvage the night. And I never got to do an Animation Academy.

Friday - MK - Buzz x 2. To make peace, I point out the high-score targets to Tony. I still win both times. He's still mad about it. Some serious magic and playing pretend is in order to get through this day. The cure-all: Winnie the Pooh, Carrousel, Sword in the Stone and top it off with PhilharMagic x 2 and a crazy spin on the Tea Cups. Rail road from ToonTown all the way around and back to Main Street to meander up to the Plaza for lunch. Chocolate shake = !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Digest with a bit of meandering and avoiding crowds: Pirates, Jungle Cruise x 2, Liberty Belle, Country Bear Jamboree (why?), and more Pirates. 3:00pm parade at 3:00pm, then off to Epcot. Spaceship Earth, Turtle Talk, F&W, Japanese drummers, and Tutto Italia. Veal Ravioli! Chocolate Torte! Lemon sorbet! Illuminations! Things are finally good again.

Saturday - departure day pack and hit up Earl of Sandwich for lunch and car snacks. Lots of fighting in the car Overall - the destination was great; the company was terrible.