Waiting for Ariel, Dinner at LTT, Injuries # 3 & 4, and the Extra CS Credits Fiasco
I had made breakfast reservations at Crystal Palace for this morning at 9:15am. Due to a series of unfortunate events (i.e. Mike and Erika can’t get up on time) we didn’t even leave CSR until 9:15, By the time we got on the bus is was 25 after and by the time we go the Magic Kingdom and through the gates, it was 9:40am. Of course, there was a mob of people outside CP and I thought for sure we were going to get turned away, but the CM at the check-in desk was very nice and told me that us being late was not a problem. She gave me a pager and I went and sat down on a bench with Lumar while Mike and Erika watched (what they could see from that distance) of the Dream Along With Mickey show. About 5 minutes later, our pager was going off and we went in to be seated. Eeyore was just walking by our table and the CM said he was going to give a second to sit down and he would bring Eeyore back to see us. Yeah right….I had to follow him around as we wer LEAVING the restaurant to get a picture of him!
Mike and Erika went up to get breakfast first and Pooh came by while they were gone so just Lumar and I got a picture with him…and the CM that took the picture didn’t get that great of a shot (notice the blurriness) but it’s not too bad:
Tigger came by next:
And then Piglet:
Breakfast was really good and I was very happy that I made this last minute reservation. After eating, we headed straight for Fanstasyland so that Erika could fulfill her lifelong dream of meeting Ariel. When we first walked into the playground area, I swore the sign said 10 minute wait, but as I got closer I noticed that it actually said 40. I was a little perturbed but I figured this was probably the only chance we would have to do this and since it was the only thing that Erika really wanted to do on this trip, I figured it would be OK. Of course, this was before we noticed how exceptionally SLOW this line moves (for what reason, I have no idea) and 99% of the line is in direct sunlight. So we are all sitting there sweltering and then Erika says “I’m going to go sit on that bench in the shade so I don’t sweat my makeup off.” Me and Lumar were so PO’d! We were, after all waiting in this line because SHE wanted to meet Ariel….so how come she gets to go sit in the shade and we all have to stand here melting? Why is it OK for the three of us to look totally beasty in the picture but not her? Finally after waiting in line for an hour, we made it into the shady part where the rocks are….we were first in line at the rope and the CM says “Ariel’s taking a short break, she’ll be back in a few minutes.” 15 minutes later the CM comes back and lets us in. And as upset as I had been with Erika while waiting in line, it all went away when I saw how happy it made her to meet Ariel! Yes she cried (Drama Queen, hello?) and was totally speechless and maybe it was an exaggeration but I like to believe that it wasn’t. It really was one of those moments that you think about all the time and can’t help but smile because you know that there is no other place in the world that you can get this kind of “magic.”
So after meeting Ariel, we headed over to Pinocchio’s so we could all use the bathroom and then grab some water. Erika and I also split a cannoli (YAY!) then we walked down to Toontown to meet Mickey!
As we walked back through Fantasyland, I saw Rabbit doing meet and greets across from the Teacups and I really wanted to get in line but I felt bad for Mike and Lumar after standing in line for Ariel and I agreed to actually get on the Teacups instead. For anyone who doesn’t already know, I HATE the Teacups! There are only two kinds of rides that I can’t do: the first is anything that hangs you upside down for extended periods of time, the 2nd, is teacup type rides. I didn’t actually get sick but I really wished I had gone to meet Rabbit and let the others ride without me.
We walked back through the hub and over to Adventureland where we waited 30 minutes to ride Pirates and then I stopped in the gift shop to buy a t-shirt for my dad, then we went back to the Agrabah Bazaar so Erika could get a skirt to wear since she was roasting in those jeans she had on. I don’t know how all of this took 3 ½ hours but it did and it was now 3:30pm. Erika and Lumar stood in line to get Dole Whips while Mike and I sat in the shade to wait:
Our dinner at LTT was at 5pm and although Mike and Erika kept saying they were tired, they opted to just stick it out until after eating and then they were going to go back to CSR for a nap before Wishes. We left the shady spot in Adventureland at 4pm and for some reason, it took us 45 minutes to get from Aloha Isle to LTT. We were debating on squeezing in a ride on HM before dinner but the sign said 45 minute wait so we skipped that and went back to put our names in. They were able to seat us right away and we had a fantastic meal here! This is another place that I don’t understand what people hate about it!
This is Mike going “I’m so full!!” just as I was taking a picture of all the stuff on the wall behind him:
After dinner, we stopped at the bathrooms and Mike and Erika decided they were going to head back to CSR. I gave them their room keys and Lumar and I headed back to Toontown and rode the train all the way around the park. Remember, no bad dancing on this ride!
We stopped to buy some pins on our way back out of Toontown, then went back to Liberty Square and saw Hall of Presidents for the first time. We both really liked this and we knew that Mike would really enjoy it too, so we decided to take him and Erika back here tonight. Something at this point in my life told me that I needed to take out our room keys and I’m really glad I did because I accidentally gave Erika my card instead of hers so she wasn’t going to be able to get back in the park! I called her we agreed to meet at the front gate at 8:30pm
The HM still had a 45 minute wait and it was 7:45. We decided to wait anyway since the line appeared to be moving quickly and said that we would leave at 8:15 if we weren’t close to getting on. By 8pm we were not only inside, but getting on our doombuggy. We were psyched that we got to ride before we went back to get Mike and Erika, but one thing we forgot to take into account was SpectroMagic. So at 8:15, Lumar and I are pushing and shoving our way through a packed Main Street, trying to get back to the front gates. We made there exactly at 8:30 and then we all had to push back up Main Street to get the hub, while 1000 other people were all trying to get out of the park. It took us another 20 minutes to get back to that noodle place and Wishes started right at 9. We had a really good view of the fireworks but you can’t hear the music from back there so that kind of sucked.
After Wishes we were going to head for Space Mountain but there was no line for Laugh Floor and we hadn’t done it yet so Mike, Erika, and Lumar, all duck under the chains and get in line. I go to follow but with the backpack on, I can’t get under the chain so I try to step over instead. Can someone please explain to me HOW I manage to get one of my toes stuck INSIDE one of the links on the chain? And to make it worse, when I pulled it back out the chain snapped back and whacked me in the shin, and that caused me to lose my balance and fall slightly forward, dragging the same shin all the way down the chain. It was probably one of the worst moments of pain I have ever had in my life and to this day (literally a month later) it STILL hurts! The bruising went away but there is a still a lump where the chain hit me, and the whole bone is extremely sensitive to the slightest touch. Shaving my leg is very painful, that’s how hard I hit this thing!
The Laugh Floor Comedy Club was highly entertaining. While you are waiting in the queue to go in, they have TV’s that say you can text your joke to some number and if they like it, they will use it in the show. So Erika, texted in a joke and unbeknownst to myself she said that she was “Alison from Florida” – meaning me and I happen to be in Florida at the time. The joke went like this: Two muffins are baking in an oven. The first muffin turns to the other and says “It’s kinda hot in here, eh?” The second muffin responds “Holy moly a talking muffin!” Not the funniest thing I ever heard but they used it in the show!
We headed back to Space Mountain which had a 45 minute wait but lucky us had those FP’s they gave us on Sunday when the ride shut down and we were able to get right on. After Space we hightailed it back to Liberty Square, knowing that the Hall of Presidents plays every half hour and it was almost 10:30pm. Imagine how PO’d we were to arrive at 10:28pm and find that the last showing was at 9pm. But it wasn’t a total loss because SpectroMagic was traveling through that area and there was no crowd so we stayed to watch and then we hit the Haunted Mansion one last time.
Here are my attempts at taking cool Photopass pictures. I think they are actually pretty good representations of what it would be like if you were drunk in the MK…notice how the castle appears to be falling over in this picture of Lumar….
I finally got a good one but it’s just the castle and there is no pretty reflection in the water…
On the way out, Mike and Lumar wanted to stop at Casey’s so Erika stayed with them while I went to Exposition Hall to get our Photopass CD made. The CD used to be $100…the CM told me that they were “having a special” and if I bought the CD for $134.99 I would get 3 free 5 x 7 prints with character signatures or whatever I wanted on them. So in reality, they jacked up the price to $134.99 to cover the cost of those 3 prints and the CD is still $100. And I was über mad when we got home and I realized that I forgot to put the pictures from
MNSSHP on the CD so I ended up spending another $60 to have those 6 pictures printed directly from Disney and now I can never make reprints. While we’re on the subject of the CD, I thought I would mention that I totally forgot all about it and Lumar reminded me as were on our way to Casey’s.
While they were getting their food, the CM that was ringing them out mentioned to Lumar that he and I still had 8 CS credits to use, and Mike and Erika still had 7. Then he noticed that we were checking out the next day and said “if you guys go to the Main Street Bakery, practically everything there is a CS credit but it’s stuff you can take home with you.” We were really excited as we had never gotten anything from the bakery before. So we get in line at the bakery and when we got up to the counter, I asked the CM “what items count as Counter Service credits?” She replied (and I quote) “everything except this first tray and the Uncrustables.” Well Erika happened to be talking at the same time so I asked the CM the same question again, just to be sure, and she gave me the exact same response as before. The 4 of us are going through the items adding them to our trays like a bunch of pigs. Seriously, by the time we got to the checkout lady, we each had a cinnamon bun, an apple turnover, 2 muffins each, a bunch of cookies, cheesecake, chocolate cake, and some other things that I don’t remember. Erika went back to get herself a bottle of water and I tell the CM at the register that we are paying with CS credits. She looks at me and says “none of these are CS items, they are just snacks…” My jaw must have hit the floor because Erika came over and asked me what was wrong. I told her what the CM just told me and her jaw then hit the floor. Both of us said that the CM in the line told us that everything was CS except the first tray and the Uncrustables. She said that there was probably a misunderstanding and the CM probably thought we were asking what snacks we could get with a CS meal as the dessert. I told her point blank, look – we don’t want all of this if we just have to pay OOP for it, because that totally defeats the purpose. So I asked her if she could ring it up as CS – we didn’t care if, in the end, we were losing some money by not getting the whole meal. She said that she can’t do that because they have to keep track of what they sell. So then she said we could just get the complete meals and have sandwiches made. I was like it’s 11:30pm and I am not going to sit here and wait for them to make 15 sandwiches that we weren’t even going to eat. So she told us to go sit for a minute and she would call over a manager to see what they could do. So the manager comes over and tells the CM that we can get one drink per credit in addition to the snacks we had, and to just pick anything and ring it out as the entrée then put it all in as CS. So Erika and I went back to the drink island and got a bunch of drinks (some juice and water bottles) and put everything into a couple of Disney bags. By the time we actually walked out of the Magic Kingdom it was 10 of 12 – and I still had to go back to the room and START packing!
As I was running around like a maniac trying to pack everything (while Lumar was lying in bed half asleep, by the way) I managed to hurt myself YET AGAIN and I kicked the leg of the bed with my little toe. I swear I thought I snapped the darn thing right off of my foot. At that point it was 2am and I gave up on trying to shove things into our luggage and just put everything that was left over into 2 Disney bags and left it on the bed…I would go down to Panchito’s in the morning and buy another duffel bag. Keep in mind that I had both of our suitcases and two duffel bags that I packed empty, just to carry souvenirs home in, plus each of us had a backpack and I STILL didn’t have enough room. The problem I ran into was that I had been planning to send all of our souvenirs home from the gift shop in one box but in order for them to do that, you need all of the receipts. Well do you think I had those? No, of course not. So all of the stuff I was planning to ship, now had to come home on the plane with us. AAAHHHH!!! Next time, I’m keeping the receipts!
And since I (purposely) bought one with the year on it, I can’t even use it for a picture from our next trip or previous trips:
I swear this was like the LAST straw! I know that it seems like a silly thing to be upset over…I mean, this is vacation and all. But when we have reservations for something, that you knew about in advance, and you knew that we had to be there by a certain time to pick up our tickets, you should not be getting ridiculously overdressed…especially since I was wearing a regular skirt with a polo and my Crocs flip-flops, and Lumar was wearing denim shorts and a Boba Fett t-shirt (from Star Wars, for those who don’t know). So at 7:45, I’m PO’d because she’s still not ready and Mike isn’t helping. So Lumar and I left without them so that I could at least get there to pick up our tickets. Yeah….that was all well and fine except that a DTD bus didn’t show up until 8:10. By the time we actually got the PI bus stop it was 8:40. We walked as fast as possible, cussing out Erika the whole time, and got to the ticket window about quarter of 9 (the show starts at 9, BTW). The CM was really nice and told me I could still get my tickets (which I was seriously, about 30 seconds from crying when we got to the PI bus stop because it was so late). I had sent Mike a text message with directions on how to get to the Cirque tent from the bus stop. I called them 3 times and they never answered and then finally at 8:50, Mike called me and said they just got off the bus. I told them to run and he said that they couldn’t because Erika was wearing stiletto’s. 
“W/T/F IS WRONG WITH HER???” I shouted at him, then told him to pick her up and carry her or something, but of course he wasn’t going to do that. By then it was 8:55 so Lumar and I went in and found our seats. They were spectacular! Right in front of the stage and we were in the first row on the balcony so there was nothing but a wall in front of us! They were perfect! Literally a minute after we sat down, Mike called and said they were there, so Lumar went outside to meet them and give them their tickets. I was so mad about the whole thing that I didn’t even look at her when they came to sit down. The show was so phenomenal though, that I was feeling better afterwards and in a bit of a better mood although I was still a little upset. I decided I needed to get something to eat, because that would make me feel better. Well, of course it’s 11pm and everything is closing so our only option was Wetzel’s Pretzels/Hagaan Daz. I got in line for ice cream and Mike and Lumar got in line for pretzels. Erika said her feet hurt (well duh!) and she was going outside to find a table. As I was walking outside, I saw her sitting at a table over on the side so I made a quick left out the door and WHAM! I walked right into a bench, hitting the top of my thigh on the top corner of the back of the bench. I hit it so hard that I actually felt pins and needles go shooting down my leg into my calf. 
When Mike and Lumar finally came out, I was halfway done with my ice cream, but they have literally both arms full of food. Erika and I both asked them why they bought so much and they just looked at each other. Then Mike says “well actually, I only paid $1.05…” and Lumar says “yeah I paid $1.05 too.” They each had 2 sodas, two pretzels, and 2 cups of pretzel bites. So Lumar proceeds to tell us that the two of them were talking to the CM that was ringing them up and he was telling them about how terrible the manager is and how he treats the employees like garbage, then goes on to say that all day long, people treat him like garbage because he “works at the pretzel place and must be a moron.” So I guess Mike and Lumar were nice enough to him that he decided to be nice back and only charged them for one pretzel each. 
That was just the icing on the cake wasn't it?
If I blow it up, I only get Lumar and Erika in the picture. And it also has a feature where you can turn a horizontal picture into a vertical one and that just cut the quality way down so I didn't do that. I might just have to fake it and use a picture of Lumar and I from our December 2006 trip...that was ALMOST 2007 so it counts right?? 
!
