What sort of foolishness would you like to see?-The end 9/27

[Hedy]

We boarded. Mickey and Minnie were ahead of us, and Jack, Mordie and Sally were behind us. Ferdie was talking about how the last time, he had his fingers on his chin in the picture. This time…his fingers were on his chin. I did enjoy some of the animatronics details this time, and I’m glad Rome still smells like burning. I still think the bit at the end is stupid and hokey, but Ferdie really liked it and the pictures at the end. I think maybe SSE is now trying to intrigue the Ferdies of the world.

We headed onto TT. It took a long time to get into the prescreen room-I think it may have been the weather. Jack thinks the safety video is too smarmy. The boys and I were in the front of one car, and everyone else was in another one. We had a good ride, although Mordie was not amused by the father in the family behind us talking. I got a Photopass card and added the ride picture onto it. We stopped to look at the cars. I asked the boys if they wanted me to take their picture in the convertible-they weren't sure if it was allowed. I pointed out it was unlocked. They had fun, I think. We browsed in the shop. We decided to eat lunch at the Electric Umbrella. I had the vegetarian wrap (meh, but not horrible), Mordie and Ferdie split a burger (they were a fan), Minnie had the chicken, Jack had the veggie wrap and Sally had a burger. I asked if we could ride Figment. Minnie asked if anyone else wanted to ride it. Ferdie announced that he loved Imagination, Jack and Mordie went to MS, as Mordie wanted to ride Orange, but no one else did. However, there is no longer a single rider line for MS, so they joined us. In the queue we discussed the different versions of Imagination-I’m glad I missed the Figment free version. We had a good time on the ride. The boys had fun in the play area afterward.

The plan had been to head onto Soarin’. Minnie was not that into Soarin', so she went to go get FP’s for MS. The FP line for Soarin is pretty blah. As we buckled up for Soarin', I noticed that Mordie was using the extra strap, which I thought was odd, as Mordie is pushing five feet tall, but figured WDW was covering their tail. I later found out that Mordie is too tall for the strap, but like it anyway. I wonder why they don’t have everyone use the leg straps. We soared over California. Jack found it odd I was riding without shoes (sidenote-at DCA they tell you to take your Crocs and Flip-flops off, but it’s not advertised at WDW). I’ve actually never ridden Soarin’ with shoes. We enjoyed it-Mickey pointed out places he’d been in Yosemite, Ferdie was thrilled when he saw the hidden Mickey on the golf ball. We headed off to MS. Mickey and Ferdie were riding green, Jack was going through the line with Mordie, who was riding alone on Orange. Now, I know that logically I was only a couple of months older than Mordie when I was able to go off on my own for blips of time on our trip in 96, but I was still impressed he rode alone. It was also around now that I realized I became my grandmother-Mordie had hurt his finger picking up an air hockey puck, and I kept on asking him if it hurt, I also asked if he needed anything before he went on the ride. Minnie, Sally and I played the game at the end of the ride, Sally thinks that Orion always wins. Jack appeared, after doing what he dubbed the “walk of shame” of going through the chicken exit. Shortly thereafter Mordie appeared, announcing he felt fine, and it was nothing tweens. Mickey and Ferdie appeared-they were the only ones in their capsule, Ferdie was concerned with getting the jobs done. Sally wanted to ride Nemo, so we rode. The boys played in the shark area (Mickey loves sharks, so they had a good time with that). We stopped by Club Cool. I’m partial to the Watermelon and Manzana Lift (I drank soo much Manazana lift when I lived in Mexico). Both boys tried Beverly, they did not like it. Then Sally tried it and also did not like it. We decided to head off to the “soccer shop,” as Jack called it. I grabbed an Aero and Flake bar, everyone else just browsed. We headed back to our hotels.

I stopped by the front desk to pick up my room assignment (7071) and request my bags be taken to my room. I headed up to my room-it was right by the elevator, It was huge-two queen beds, a balcony with a view of the Boardwalk (I don’t know if I was upgraded because of SPG or my code). Very nice.

My luggage was delivered. There were two water bottles with price tags on them, I was unsure if they were included in my resort fee (they have a $10 resort fee that includes two bottles of water, free local and 1800 calling, 20 minutes of long distance, and free internet). There was nothing in my room to tell me what my resort fee included-I had to call them to see if these were my free waters. They were. It was sunny out, so I packed my shawl in my Bagalinni and left my windbreaker in my room. (sidenote-I picked up a windbreaker that folded into a little pouch at LL Bean-it worked great. They had you take your ponchos off on rides, but I could keep my windbreaker on. Also, I was wearing quick dry shorts and shirts, which really helped).

Up next, Boma-or, as Mickey put it “Our reservation is at 5:10, I want to be eating soup at 5:20.” Or-will Fay rain on our parade?

 

[MeMom]

Preface:

I took this picture to annoy the people who were whining about pictures of half eaten food-LOL.

Two of my favorite Pop Century things - Everything Pop shopping and tie-dyed cheesecake!

 

[teruterubouzu]

There were two water bottles with price tags on them, I was unsure if they were included in my resort fee (they have a $10 resort fee that includes two bottles of water, free local and 1800 calling, 20 minutes of long distance, and free internet). There was nothing in my room to tell me what my resort fee included-I had to call them to see if these were my free waters. They were.

It was just two short weeks ago that I was in one of those rooms at the dolphin. It sounds stupid, but I love seeing that photo of the counter. We were also a bit confused about the water and had to call down. Oh well. The front desk was always pleasant to deal with.

 

[DisMomAmy]

Minnie prompted Ferdie to tell me about his surprise dinner, which was at the Coral Reef (interestingly, they did not remember it from <I>Full House</I>. “There was a cahd that said ‘Happy Birthday Ferdie.’” “Who gave you the card?” I asked. “The waiter. And then there was one for Mordie, and his said ‘Welcome to Disney Word, Mordie.’” “And what else was there?” Prompted Minnie. “And then there was a diver, and he had cahds that said ‘Happy Birthday, Ferdie’ and ‘Welcome to Disney World, Mordie’ and he threw up the shells.”

 

[Hedy]

Dumb question-what font do I use in Word so my apostrophes aren't question marks? I tried c&p into notepad, but it still happens.

 

[NMAmy]

Sorry I'm late to the party--it's been my crazy weeks at work but I'm catching up now, kiddo!

Either that, or watermelon gummies and HSM snackmix are the new tools of Al-Queda.

Well, sure. Gummy weapons of mass destruction. Very sticky.

I then grabbed a quick linner at TGI Fridays of fried green beans, and a berry margarita.

Linner of champions.

The A group was called-I was amused to see that the Tink and HSM family was on my flight.

As I like to say, Moms are always right.

Is there anyone my age whose first cellphone didn’t look like this?

Well, I'm older than you so I remember my FIL having the Gordon Gecko enormous walky-talky looking cell phone and we thought it was SOOO cool.

 

[NMAmy]

I put in a request for an Epcot view (hoping it would keep me out of the forth floor lattices of doom).

I'm so glad you remembered that! And it looks like you got a great room. I hope you enjoyed the Dolphin. I love going through the IG before WS opens, too. It's so fun to have it practically to yourself, isn't it?

Sounds like you were enjoying your trip, Three Day Cinderella! That was pretty hilarious.

 

[Hedy]

I'm so glad you remembered that! And it looks like you got a great room. I hope you enjoyed the Dolphin. I love going through the IG before WS opens, too. It's so fun to have it practically to yourself, isn't it?

Sounds like you were enjoying your trip, Three Day Cinderella! That was pretty hilarious.

I came this close to saying to the nice check-in person "Can I please put in a request for anything but the fourth floor," but sometimes I try to hide the crazy.

 

[Hedy]

Sorry for my absence-my Disneyitis was bad, then we were in NYC this weekend. I'm currently suffering from a case of Post Disney Depression, hopefully the TR will keep it at bay .

Funny story I forgot to share: when we got off of Soarin’, Ferdie went running after Mickey, yelling “Uncle Lastname! Uncle Lastname!” I have no idea where that came from (he has two Uncle Lastnames, Mickey and OldestBrother). :Confused3

Anyway, the white minivan everyone was riding in pulled up at the Dolphin. Before we had separated, Minnie had verified that I was staying at the Dolphin, as opposed to the Swan. Apparently there had been some discussion about this earlier, and it became a running gag. It was sunny, but we were keeping an eye on the sky, as Minnie had scheduled a surprise Wishes cruise that night. The check in desk for Boma has moved to sort of the left of the entrance to AKL. Minnie checked us in, and we hung out in the lodge.

We were seated, and gave our drink orders. I ordered the white wine flight, Sally had a mojito (not to be confused with a moe-gee-toe), Jack had a No-jito (no booze), Mordie and Ferdie had chocolate milk, Minnie had a Sprite, and Mickey ordered a Sam Adams (because you can't get that anywhere in MA ). We were set free to get our food. Mordie and Ferdie helped themselves to French fries, macncheese, and penne pasta w/meatballs Sally grabbed a seafood stew. Mickey had the butternut squash, he has shellfish issues, so a couple of soups were out of the question for him . I had butternut squash soup, bread with hummus, and the papaya, grapefruit, avocado salad.

. The waiter came out and announced they were out of Sam Adams, so Mickey had the red wine flight. Ferdie was spearing a French fry on his fork, followed by macncheese, which he recommends highly. Then it was entrée time: I had falafel, fufu (which I thought looked different this time), pap, couscous and jolof rice. All were excellent as usual.

. (I think I watch too much Alton Brown, because I’m now pondering if slaves brought Pap to the South, which became grits). Mickey was a fan of the potatoes with Afritude. I then headed onto dessert, I had tarts, cookies, and cobbler. I forgot to tell our waiter I was a vegetarian, so I did not have the chocolate mousse, as I was unsure if it contained gelatin. All were good. Mordie had the candied fruit, which Ferdie then wanted, but only the orange ones. All in all, Boma remains my favorite WDW restaurant. The boys were being a little squirmy as they wanted to know what the surprise was. At this point, Minnie had confirmed to me that the surprise was a fireworks cruise. Ferdie asked me how I knew what the surprise was as I have a no baloney policy in dealing with the boys I responded “I spent far too much time on Disney message boards.”

We headed out by the animals. Ferdie was playing around with Sally’s new camera, although Sally tried to point out that Ferdie had gotten a perfectly good camera for his birthday from Mickey and Minnie (Mordie got a camera for his birthday from Mickey and Minnie, when Minnie asked if Mordie would be ok with Ferdie getting a camera, he said he would be as long as Ferdie got a smaller memory card).

So we were hanging out at AKL, admirirng the African bunnies Am I weird if I wonder if the animals are up there going "Oooh, check out the specimen of New Englanders on Zebra Trail today.” Wait, don't answer that. As I said, the sky looked foreboding. A group of maybe 10 twenty-something women came out-they were dressed in black, so I think they might have been a bridal party. They set up their tripod, and woosh! The rain began, it was biblical, build an ark rain. We ran inside. We then realized that Mickey had left his poncho in the car, he went to get the car. At this point, we were wondering what to do between the hypothetical Wishes cruise and now. Mordie wanted to swim, but it was not swimming weather. We'd debated going to the Boardwalk, but it was so wet. We decided to head back to the Villa.
Now, I'd seen a 2 bedroom villa on my DVC tour in Decmber, but seeing one in person was really something. I can definitely see why it works for Mickey and Minnie-they had their room, Jack, Sally and the boys had their own room, they had a shared living room. They used the dryer to dry out clothes and sneakers a lot. They had an awesome view

Minnie called to see if Wishes was going on, We watch EPSNU (did you know logging was a college sport? We didn't), and Are you Smarter than a 5th Grader (the guy was not, he works in the mortgage industry-make your own joke). Minnie was on hold. And hold. And hold. Finally, Mickey and Minnie went down to concierge to see what they knew. We waited. And waited. Finally, Mickey and Minnie returned saying that even concierge could not tell them if Wishes was going to happen, but if it did and we weren't there, Minnie would get charged.

So we loaded up the minivan and headed to the Contemporary. We were briefly waylaid by being directed to the grand gathering cruise, there was a massive group of children as well as Captain Hook* and Smee off to do some sort of pirate activity. The boys were very polite and let the large group go ahead. Then Mickey and Minnie braved the storm, while we waited inside. I tried to entertain Mordie by pointing out the big Mickey photo op, but that disintegrated into him pondering if his camera had a timer. Minnie, Minnie and a gazillion gallons of water (they were dryer in the wave pool at TL later that week, seriously) came back. No wishes, so we were off to the Ahcade. I felt badly for Minnie, though. We had a good time at the ahcade, I was surprised by how affordable the games were and how reasonable the prizes were. We played some skee ball, Jack played boxing and a battleship type game, Mickey, Minnie and I played Elvis pinball. Sally played PoTC pinball. There was a toddler toddling around a skee ball that Minnie was playing, Minnie offered the toddler that he could throw one of her balls in. Whap! Whap! Whap! He kept on chucking it at the plexiglass. I cashed in my prizes for pop things, a shark, and Smarties. The boys got sharks and army men. I think Mickey ended up with a few sharks. I headed over to do some shopping in the Fantasia shop-I got the two license plate pins you need to buy, and I traded for a third one. I also got the LGMH keychain. Everyone came in to join me, and I noticed they had their pin board out. Ferdie was collecting the pirate cuties, but needed Goofy. Sure enough, I saw on the pin board that they had a Goofy, but Ferdie did not have his pins (Ferdie had one pin that he kept trading all week). So I loaned Ferdie a pin. He was thrilled, and excitedly went to go tell hs parents. Of course, then I had to give Mordie a pin, he traded for a test track pin. The vendor was giving me some grief over trading for two pins of the board-I though it was two trades per CM. We headed back through the rain to the van, and rode home. On the ride home, I told Jack he could check his YahooMail via VZW mobile web. I headed back to my room, she had left a voicemail for me telling me to have fun at Boma. She had also called ,y room, because she "wanted someone to tell her to have a magcal day." Of course, as I was at the Dolphin, they only tikd her to have a nice day. I called my mom. I told her about Mordie going on MS, and she asked if that was the ride I waited in line with my dad for then chickened out. I said no, that was Dinosaur (hint: this conversation will be on the test).

Know what? I had an awesome time, despite the rain. I got to go to the CR, which is my favorite resort, and I hadn’t been there since the Chef Mickey’s Incident of 06. I played in a Disney arcade , which I don’t think I’d ever done before. I was with the boys, which would make the plague fun. I know sometimes OTP’s can get blue that their plans don’t work out, but just because they don’t doesn’t make an alternate activity bad.

*When Ferdie was very, very wee (it was around when I left for college, so he was just 3), he had this fear of “Cap-taN-Ook.” We went to see a versionof Peter Pan at a local college, there was a woman who played the crocodile-he loved her-he was smiling and nodding. We saw another version a couple of months later-I knew Capt. Hook’s brother, which I thought would help things, but Ferdie had to leave at one point .

Up next: I'm a princess, and Jack gets whapped; followed by, I'm never riding that again, or greatest ride photo ever!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Hi! So sorry I am late in getting over here. I am here now though and eagerly awaiting all your updates!

 

[DisneyMom5]

Still reading!

The title makes me giggle every time I see it. Love the Muppet Vision 3-d! LOL

 

[Hedy]

I was up bright and early to head to AK for Tusker House's breakfast. At this point, I found I was lacking both pair of sunglasses I brought-I think I left my LL Bean ones at Pop, and I later learned I left the other pair at the villa. Now, no sunglasses are not an option for me if I wanted to function in the sunlight, so it was off to Daisy's Garden. The sunglasses weren't outrageous, but you'd think they could make them cuter for adults. I have a big head, so kiddie sunglasses weren't an option. I was wearing my Mickey T shirt, then I had packed a quick drying shirt, waterproof pack for my camera, and my chamois in case we went on Kali. I took some arteestic shorts of the Dolphin while I waited using color spot.

We stopped at the AK parking lot. We were in Unicorn section-I took the opportunity to educate the boys on Beastly Kingdom. We boarded the tram. There was a wait at bag check. Ahead of us, I saw Wes Palm, Pocohontus, and Baloo. But we had an ADR to GAT to, I suggested using the RFC entrance, but we decided against it. We were in, and I GATted like there was no tomorrow. Fortunately, Minnie arrived as I was getting in the Tusker House's line, although I was fully prepared to tell the CM I was Minnie Lastname checking in. We waited, and got in line for the picture. I realized I was in the front, which given that I'm taller than Minnie or Sally, seemed like a poor idea. However, Sally decreed that people under [cough they were all alive during Woodstock cough] would be in front. I had them take a picture with my camera, but it was in black and white. We were seated-I was hoping we'd get the great CM I had in December, but our waitress was good, she told us when to expect characters. We met with Donald, and then got food.

That’s Mordie’s autograph book and sharpie Donald has. I hate eggs, and don't eat meat, but there was a decent amount of stuff for me-biscuits, cornbread (OMG so good-rustic bread studded with corn), sweet potato casserole, tater tots, Mickey Waffles.

Everyone else seemed pretty happy too. Mordie was especially fond of the bacon. We met Mickey and Goofy, then there was a cute little parade with maracas. I elected not to hurt Goofy's feelings by asking him why he never called my mother after flirting with her in CA. Jack and Mickey were our Fastpass runner for the safari. We also met Daisy, Donald Duck came back. The kid at the table behind us was named Mordie, and I kept on looking around confusedly when his parents would talk to him. In between characters and bacon, the boys were busy collecting as many straws as possible to put in their chocolate milks. I was drinking my passionfruit juice like no one's business. A CM kindly asked if "I would like more juice, princess?" Princess would, thank you. Meanwhile, Minnie went to get more food. Photo hawker came to our table, and Jack said something to the effect of "Wait until she (indicating Minnie's empty seat) comes back, she's off being a pig." :rotfll: Photo hawker playfully whaps Jack. Jack spent the rest of breakfast pondering his suit against photohawker lady. Jack also began asking me about my autograph books-it's probably disturbing that I can tell you which autograph book I had on which trips (pink floral for '93 and '96, also has an autograph from an ex-Sox player who came to my dad and Sally's work, noteable autographs include Bean Bunny. Blue for '02. Red 50 years for DLR '05 (containing Brenda Song and a pre-HSM Ashley Tisdale) and wdw '06. Blue for '07 and '08, including Figment.) Hi, my name is Heather and I'm a character floozy. While discussing what we wanted to do after the safari, Mickey announced he would demonstrate what he wanted to do-he stood up, jutted out his jaw and began flapping his arms. "Get it! Giant bats!" We stopped in the bathroom, and had a momentary loss of party-I left before people were done eating, plus I think me thinking another father and two sons were Jack and the boys didn't help. In all fairness, the older one was giving a Mordie-type diatribe on wanting to go on EE.

We all got on KS, and rode. Much like Soarin', I had never been in the KS FP line, it moves much more smoothly than the regular line. We boarded, I had a photoable seat. We rode along. Lalalala. Animals.

When we passed the flamingos, our tour guide pointed out how the little grey ones turn pink because of the shrimp they eat. Now, Ferdie loves shrimp. He has run over to the platter at Christmas Eve dinner with his arms out stretched yelling "shhiiiiiiiiiiimp!" It momentarily crossed my mind that it's a wonder Ferdie isn't pink, and which point Jack announced "I wonder why Ferdie hasn't turned pink yet?" We captured the poachers, and we headed onto Maharaja jungle trek. Sally's cellphone rang-two friends of Jack, Sally, Mickey and Minnie, J and N, were in town as J had a conference. They would be boarding a bus and call us when they got to AK.

Ooh, tigers. We then saw the bats, and they reminisced to how Ferdie used to be not allowed to see the giant bats when he was little.

I, meanwhile, was staring at every CM hoping I'd see Tinkerbelllvr7, but I did not. I was wondering along, wondering why I never go on the Maharaja jungle trek, then I saw Mickey pick up a guide. Birds! I do not like birds. They then began to pontificate about the time Minnie got pooped on by a bird when they were there with OldestBrother. I busied my brain with poop schadenfreude. We left the birds, and planned the rest of our day. Ferdie wanted to go on KRR, but decided he didn't want to get wet. The plan was to go to Dinosaur, then everyone but Ferdie, Mickey and Minnie would ride EE. I think it was around now that Mordie and Jack were talking about something, and Jack said "Ferdie, you can blah blah blah." Mordie responde, then suddenly announced-"Wait, Dad, did you call me Ferdie?" Jack replied "You knew I was talking to you."

We headed towards Dinoland, I stopped off to use the ladies' room. Apparently there are no FP's for Dinosaur anymore. I got to Dinoland, and stopped by the Boneyard, where Sally, J, N and Mickey were talking. We headed onto Dinosaur. Ferdie had decided he was going to ride Dinosaur until he liked it, but wasn't up to protecting me from the T-rex. I figured that I was slightly better off going on with J and N as well, as they increased the number of people taller than me whom I could hide behind. We got in line. Mickey suggested that the oil layer in the Dinosaur queue could solve the energy crisis. I admired the fake Sue, I saw the real Sue in Chicago in January and it is a very good likeness. We got to the prescreen room. I watched the movie. I remembered exactly why I did not want to ride it in 2002. We headed down to our cars, I considered taking the chicken exit, I really shouldn't do anything as light and dark as Dinosaur, might set off my migraines, right ? I figured that if Minnie and Ferdie were going on it, it couldn't be that bad. We got in our cars. I ended up in a row with Ferdie, Sally and I was on the outside. To be eaten by the dinosaur. Great. We rode off. Ooh, light, ooh, pretty dinosaur-cool! Then we got the fist carniverous dinosaur, and I was not happy. I tried to tell myself I'd ridden the exact same ride at DLR, only it was Indiana Jones. Nope, my eyes were closed. We made it back. I got out of the ride, and headed toward the exit. There was our ride picture-I'd figured my eyes would be closed, but I was bent over-I looked like I was either about to pray or die. Minnie bought the picture for Ferdie. We recouped while Minnie got the picture. I may have yelled “Minnie you are not buying that picture!” She said she was buying it for Ferdie. In retrospect, I should have told everyone else to tell the CM that some crazy chick ruined their ride photo, could they ride again. Jack offered that they could photoshop my head on my body. Mickey was unaware that I'd never been on Dinosaur before. I informed him I was never riding it again. Matters were not helped by a stretcher being wheeled in. Now I have done Dinosaur, and I will never ride it again. I'm not glad that I went on it, but at least I now can say concretely that I don't like it. I have stated that I will go on Snow White in another 14+ years when I go with my great-nieces, if I have any. There is no such tagline for Dinosaur. I'm never going on it again. Period.
I don't have the real picture, and figured it would be silly to wait as I'm blurring everyone else out, but here's the redneck version.

In case you were confused:

Up next-are Heather and Mordie eaten by the yeti?

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Sounds like a great day at AK. Alek and Erich asked me about the unicorn section in the parking lot and I didn't have an answer for them but now I do.

 

[tigger536]

Great report! I love your writing style!


PS: My apologies - but curiousity has gotten the better of me - what was the Chef Mickey's incident of '06?

Anyway - great report. Sounds like you and your family are having a terrific time!

 

[Hedy]

Great report! I love your writing style!


PS: My apologies - but curiousity has gotten the better of me - what was the Chef Mickey's incident of '06?

Anyway - great report. Sounds like you and your family are having a terrific time!

Thanks!

I had lousy service (inattentive waitress, I over heard her referring to Donald's c-o-s-t-u-m-e (emphasis mine) to a family in front of the kids).
This was capped off after I left a note saying I was going to the ladies', after she had told me I could stay for a bit longer although I was staying. I came back to find my stuff cleared. I still like Chef Mickey's, but it's made me a little wary of them.

 

[TheDISneyFamily]

Nice 'arteestic shorts of the Dolphin'! You should post more of them! I love seeing out of the ordinary WDW pics! BTW, I'm still drooling over your Boma pictures. My bad for reading your updates at lunch. Not to mention the Donald breakfast! Oy! How do you like the new Tusker House breakfast? We haven't been to Donald's breakfast since it was in Dinoland.

Ummm... I'm guessing that no one gets eaten by the Yeti... well, maybe one of them gets eaten.

 

[Hedy]

Nice 'arteestic shorts of the Dolphin'! You should post more of them! I love seeing out of the ordinary WDW pics! BTW, I'm still drooling over your Boma pictures. My bad for reading your updates at lunch. Not to mention the Donald breakfast! Oy! How do you like the new Tusker House breakfast? We haven't been to Donald's breakfast since it was in Dinoland.

Ummm... I'm guessing that no one gets eaten by the Yeti... well, maybe one of them gets eaten.

Thanks!

I really liked the Tusker House breakfast-it's a little more low-key than Chef Mcikey's, and has a nice variety of food. I also felt like there was a decent amount of character interation

 

[NMAmy]

I busied my brain with poop schadenfreude.

You know, there are just certain times when I REALLY wish I was a Tag Fairy.

In case you were confused:

Well, sure, I'd have recognized you anywhere, pal! You know, I think I'd like Dinosaur just fine if it wasn't so darn LOUD.

 

[DisneyJo]

Looks like you got a great room at the Dolphin and the view from the villas is lovely!

Love the Dinosaur shot, luckily my girls don't want to ride it

 

[Hedy]

Grr. I'd written about half of this installment in a Gmail draft, then deleted it.
J and N had FP's for KRR, so they were off to ride that. Mickey, Minnie and Ferdie were off to ride Dinosaur again. Jack, Sally, Mordie and I were off to EE. We got in the FP line. Try to get in the real queue-the FP queue is pretty dull. There were warnings that the rain might cancel our expedition-I was hoping it held out. We boarded. Mordie and I were in the front of our car, although not in the same car as Jack and Sally. I couldn't fit my bagalinni in the net, so I put it between my legs. We were off. I like EE a lot-a little more each time. The Yeti was in B mode, which is pretty dull-I can't fault Disney for doing it though, especially with the rain coming. Our ride picture was pretty funny-Mordie and I are sitting there straight-faced, holding onto the rail wile the people behind us are whooping it up (I hate to admit it, but there's a part of me who still thinks of Mordie as the toddler who bawled the entire time he rode the train at the carnival with my dad. Later we were discussing the carnival, and Mordie announced "I went on the twain wif Gampa!" Apparently it was a happy memory. He was also scared to ride the carousel at the zoo later that year, so I had to ride alone). Tragically, they took down the picture before I could redneck it...I kind of wish I'd bought it now*. Oh well. Jack wanted to look around at the gift shop, but couldn't find an EE shirt that he liked. I was disappointed that they no longer have the airtank Christmas balls-Jack and the boys were big fans of that Everest reality show, so I thought it would interest him. We headed off, under a very forboding sky, back to Chester and Hester's Dinoland (Mickey thought one Dinosaur was Chester and one was Hester, but a CM corrected him). Mickey, Minnie and Ferdie were waiting for us.

We had discussed going on Primeval Hurl, ut the boys decided that they weren't dying to go on. To tell the truth, they had a larger mission-earlier in the week, Ferdie had acquired a stuffed dragon at one of the midway games (I *think* Mickey may have won it and given it to him, but I'm not sure), and Mordie needed to win a stuffed animal. Fortuitously, Mordie won a very large stuffed turtle. At this point, it had begun to sprinkle, so Minnie and Mordie set off to get a bag to keep the then nameless turtle dry. Oddly enough, they didn't take the turtle with them, as I have a photoshoot of Mickey with the turtle. We then discussed time-I said that if the boys wanted to see the High School Musical2 show, we might need to get moving. Mordie had said he wasn't interested, but we wanted to check with Ferdie. After some whispering, it was decided that the boys did npt want to see the show. So we begged up the nameless turtle (head first, call the MSCPA ) and were off to get floats. Ferdie said that he wanted a Fanta float which Sally was trying to talk him out of, as she did not think he would like it. Mickey, Minnie, Jack and I got in line. And then the heavens opened up. The rain was crazy, then the line was moving slowly. It appeared that there was only one CM, plus there were a lot of "Oh, what do you want?" Shouldn't you decide what you want BEFORE you get up to the counter? Anyway, Jack had his rootbeer float, the boys got soft serve, and I had a Coke float. We huddled under an edge, and enjoyed our snacks. I spilled part of my Coke float on my shirt.
We waited, then headed out-Sally wanted to pick something up for a friend of their's child, and Minnie wanted to pick something up for her nephew (her Dsis' DS). We stopped in one of the big gift shops. I didn't see anything, Mordie and Ferdie tried to press a penny but it went flying out of the machine. Mickey and Minnie had told Mordie and Ferdie they would buy them a hat or t-shirt of their choosing. Mordie, as you may remember, collects Disney hats. This trip he was wearing the one I think is his favorite one-the navy blue one with Mickey through the years. It looked pretty beat up and well worn. Anyway, Mordie picked out a red and yellow Mickey hat that said "It all stated with me!" on it. Ferdie wanted the same hat. Minnie wanted the boys to be sure that this was the hat they wanted, forsaking all others. Ferdie argued that he did not have any Disney hats. I pointed out that my mother had gotten Ferdie a POTC hat for Christmas. After some tumbleweeds blew through the gift shop, Mordie and Ferdie got the hats. We headed out of AK, stopping at the lockers for Mickey to pick up his stuff. We headed off to the tram-it was kind of full, so everyone else took a row and I hopped into the end with some other people. There was a family behind me, the daughter was standing up, and her mother was combing her hair. The tram operator announced "All people must remain seated." Child still standing. "All parties must be seated." "You in the back, please sit down." Nothing. "You in the yellow dress-you're brushing her hair. Sit down!" Finally the kid sat, and we were off. Apparently Ferdie was worried about where I was. We got out, and headed to the van.

We headed back, it was 4:15ish and I'd given 4:45 as the time that I wanted to head out. They considered having the boys head back to the villa, as Ferdie wanted to dry his sneakers, but we decided there wasn't enough time for that. The buys and I would be dropped off at the Dolphin. After getting the reminders to behave and stay together (superfluous, really, the boys are quite well behaved) from their parents, as well as ensuring that Mordie had his room key in his lanyard, the boys and I hopped out of the minivan. We entered the Dolphin, all set to holler and hootenanny and otherwise have a great time free of the adults, whilst they ate at WP at DTD with J and N. After looking at the fountain, we headed up to my room to use the facilities, Auntie Heather could change her shirt, and we could pick up our light-up necklaces to have fun at DHS. We were almost at the elevators** when my bag began playing "Tessie"-my ringtone for Jack and Sally's phone.

What was almost forgotten?

*We went out to eat with Jack, Mordie and Ferdie yesterday. Our real goal was to see if the Geniuses at the Apple Store could fix Mordie's iPod shuffle (which they did, w00t!). Mom was saying that she wished she had a camera, as Mordie and I were sitting in the exact same position at the Genius Bar. I then commented that I wished I'd gotten out EE photo. Mom replied "But I thought Minnie got that card-thing?" I think she needs to stop hanging out with me.

**I know the whole conventioneers at the Dolphin is a hot topic. My room was right by the convention area, so I saw a lot of them. And yes, some of them were in a state I last saw around my college house on a Saturday night. That said, I think I found them noticable because of where my room was-if I was in the west wing I might not have noticed. But don't avoid the Dolphin in fear of convention people.