Walt Disney World Trip Nov. 2005
Cast:
Alan: 36
Lisa: 35
Olivia: 15
Owen: 6
Information, how the trip came about:
Deciding when to take this trip was difficult. We went last Nov. and really enjoyed the weather. The past 2 trips before that were in Jan. and we were tired of the cold trips. So November seemed like a good idea again. Plus last year Olivia and I attended the Super Soap Weekend (SSW) for the 1st time ever and had fun. For some reason even though I have been watching these soaps for about 15 years longer then her (she’s watched about 2 years!) she seemed to have the time of her life at SSW! I think it was because to her these people were HUGE stars (well ok, to me too!). So going back in Nov. meant we could be there attend it again.
However, Alan had a chance to attend a convention in Orlando in Jan. 06 and that could mean a cheaper trip. Hmmmmmmmm I was leaning toward Jan. but he just kept reminding me how much Olivia and I enjoyed that SSW! Also he would not know for sure about the convention till late fall. So my thoughts were to plan for a Jan. trip and if it were a business trip we could stay somewhere nicer (Wilderness Lodge was my choice!) and if it turned out not to be a business trip we would just stay at Pop Century again. Then we found out Olivia would be starting drivers education in early Jan. and would be missing 5 days of it! We have no problem pulling her out of regular classes but I really didn’t want her to miss that class. DARN! My brief dreams of the Wilderness Lodge were crushed! But at least Alan would be off on an actual vacation while we were gone and not messing with the convention. Plus we could now plan around SSW!
So in late spring, I think May, we booked 4 Frequent Flier seats to Orlando! We haven’t flown directly into Orlando for years! At least 5 years and maybe more then that! Since we always use the FF miles we can never seem to get non stop flights into Orlando so instead of changing planes we go with nonstop into Tampa. I always felt it was a bit of a pain but now after having completed the trip and flown into Orlando I can honestly say that Tampa airport is so much quieter, uncrowned and stress free!
I also went ahead and booked Pop Century early since we would be arriving for not only SSW but Veteran’s weekend and the end of the Food and Wine Fest! I knew that arrival weekend would be very busy!
This trip was going to be a little different then the others because we were staying onsite for 10 nights instead of our usual 7 or so. We would also have 10 day passes thanks to Disney’s new Magic Your Way passes. I really wasn’t happy when they changed the passes because I understood the others and always knew which ones were the best for us. With the change it was one more thing I needed to learn about and figure out what kind of passes to get. We knew we didn’t need the water park ones since we have some of those left on old hoppers and we usually only go with 4 or 5 day hoppers and then have a couple non park days. Most times it is the 5 day passes that we end up with. But when looking at the prices and seeing that the longer you stayed the cheaper the passes got it was easy to pick the 10 days. Plus I was stupid enough to think that this would mean we could take things at a slower pace and not be up and going from dawn till dark! We were all excited about the 10 days though.
As the summer went along my parents talked about going with us. They have no interest in Disney at all but knew the kids would enjoy showing Disney to them. They would only stay 4 or 5 days and only go into the main parks 2 days with one other day at a water park with our extra free water park passes. So I made all our dining reservations trying to decide what days they would join us etc. This was NOT easy making decisions about dining and everything since they don’t tend to plan out there trips they just say lets go somewhere and go! I could tell they thought it was crazy that I needed to know which days they would be with us. They were just thinking that since we’ll be there 10 days they will just show up for 4 or 5 of them. Then after summer vacation was over they decided not to come after all. Something about not ever really wanting to leave home, not sure! HAHA! They are all talk and no action. I think they were afraid of 2 things. #1 that they were going to mess up our plans and #2. that we were going to drag them around and tire them out too much and #3. that they would HATE it! (I only said 2 but I threw that last one in there anyway!) Plus they didn’t want to spend the money, so I guess that makes it 4 reasons!!
I gave them time to change there mind and then eventually called and changed the dining reservations around a bit. I also cancelled their hotel ressie at Pop. I know that made someone out there happy because it was booked solid on some of those nights!
So it is back to just the 4 of us. Although I spent the whole week while we were in Orlando waiting for Alan’s cell phone to ring and them to say “We changed our minds again and we are here!!” This did not happen! We did however, spend the whole time saying things like “OH! Grandma would hate this!” or “That would have scared the crap out of them!” also a few times we said things like “they would have been in bed hours ago!” So they were out of sight but not out of mind!
Dining Plan! Do we or Don’t we?????
This was a tough one for me! It was new this year for the big 50th Celebration and EVERYONE online was talking about it. Of course it sounded great but cost too much for us! Then there was the special deal with the FREE dining plan! Now THAT would have been great! I read about everyone who got that deal with SUCH jealousy! But since we weren’t going in the major hurricane season when this was offered that deal wouldn’t be happening for us! Then after that special ended I waited hoping to hear that they were extending it since they had done that back in September. No luck with that one. But then they offered the half price dining offer! Hey not free but I’ll take it! I kept busy with learning all about it and figuring out how to book it. I thought I knew everything about Disney but this was new and I knew nothing!! I was excited and wanted to share my joy with others but I knew no one else cared! As a matter of fact I don’t think I explained it to Alan till the drive to the airport! I knew he wouldn’t listen to me at home and in the car I had a captive audience. Plus this way all the info would be fresh in his brain. I briefly thought of not even bothering with explaining it to him but then realized that there would be times that we would not be together on the trip and I wanted him to know what he was doing! Plus after we used it for the 1st time he would of course be full of questions. He seemed intrigued but was not really excited till we used it the 1st time and he didn’t have to hand over any cash! He always carries all the cash on our trips since I don’t take my purse to the parks and I don’t want to wear a fanny pack. So he always pays for all the meals at Disney and he liked the idea that he didn’t have to fork over all his cash when it was time to pay! On past trips in order to stay on budget we have used the envelope system putting some cash in an envelope labeled with the day on it and keep it in the room safe. Then we have to trek to the ATM after a couple days and restock! But on this trip we didn’t have to do that at all!
To refresh my memory for when I read this years from now the dining plan is that for each day of your stay you get one fast food meal, one sit down meal, and one snack per person per day. With our family of four that will be 4 fast food, 4 sit down and 4 snacks per day. These were totaled up for our 10 night stay and we were given a grand total of 40 dining credits for each of these categories. They could be used in what ever order we wanted we wanted. We didn’t have to use them per day we could use them at a rate of 4 a day or could use 8 in one day and none the next if we wanted. But once those 40 credits for each category were gone we were done and then had to pay for any other food we needed. We (that would actually be ME) planned this out so that we wouldn’t need any other food for our trip other then the dining credits. I know that we always get a little tired of eating the boring breakfast foods in the rooms on our trips so I was hoping that we would be able to share some meals so that we could use our 4 fast food meals allotted for one day by sharing 2 for breakfast and then 2 for lunch! I also planned a couple of breakfast buffet meals since Alan loves his hot breakfasts! But I was determined not to spend any other money on food! The regular price of the dining plan is $35 for adults and $10 for kids. This comes to $115.00 and half price makes it $57.50 a day. The great part about the plan is it covers tax and tip! That tip can really get you on those expensive sit down meals! I will admit that I spent way too much time and energy trying to figure out this dining plan thing though! Where to eat, what places don’t accept it and how to get the biggest bang for our buck! But once we actually got there I was so sick of stressing over the dining plan that I no longer cared about how to get the biggest bang for my buck! I knew were getting a lot more food then we were paying for so I just didn’t care anymore! As long as my 40 credits lasted for the whole 10 days that was all I cared about! I think I was having planning overload with this thing! I was having nightmares about dining credits! I will also say that now that I am back it wasn’t as hard as I made it seem. So for each fast food meal there is one combo meal, one beverage and one dessert. For every sit down meal there is one appetizer (at the majority of the places these are not the size of an appetizer at a regular non Disney type of place, they are smaller.) one main entrée, a beverage and one dessert. Then the snacks that were included were a choice of either a frozen ice cream item like a chocolate Mickey bar, a small popcorn, a bottle of water, bottle of soda, or a piece of fruit or bag of chips. Confused yet??! ME TOO! Ok, on with the story because believe it or not we actually did do more then just eat and add up our credits!!
Leaving for St. Louis airport for park and fly:
Alan worked today and the kids had school but they did get out an hour early and were home about 2:15. Alan also managed to leave early and was home at 3:15. Olivia went straight to her room and worked on some of her homework so we didn’t have to take it all with us. She had already been given some, finished it and turned it in before we left. She ended up only having to bring one big book with us which she read on the plane and that was it. Alan and I finished stuff around here and we all said goodbye to mom and dad and headed out at 4:35pm! We stopped at DQ for dinner to take along because the kids claimed to be hungry already and they were having a dollar sale. (Spent $12.00 and I announced that it was the last cash I intended to spend on food for the next 10 days!) As soon as we got our food we remembered that I forgot my cell phone charger and we stopped back home for that. So now we finally leave town at 5pm. Alan says he has a sore throat! Great!
Owen fell asleep after he ate and slept 45-50 minutes. We entered St. Louis at 6:30pm and decide that since we are ahead of schedule (we weren’t even going to leave home till 6 if Alan hadn’t gotten off early!) we would stop by the JCPenney outlet store not to far out of the way as you enter STL. This would also give some of the traffic time to die down. When we got out of the car at 7pm I told them we didn’t have long as I wanted to be in the hotel room watching LOST at 8pm! I bought Owen 10 shirts for .99 cents each and that was it. Oh, and some undies for myself! By the way the kids threw a HUGE fit that we had to stop and shop! Alan had to remind them that this was HIS vacation too and he will shop if he wants too! (it is very hard keeping a straight face listening to him give that speech! He gives it EVERY trip!) You would think they would learn that dad likes to shop but nope they complain and get yelled at every time anyway.
We pull up to the hotel at 8pm! We are at the Renaissance by the airport. Now is the awful part where we have to unload ALL of our luggage! YUCK! We got a park and fly rate of $79, this is really good for such a nice hotel. Alan checked us in and since he is Platinum we are on the club level so it takes us a minute to figure out the key card in the elevator thing. We dump everything in the room and head straight to the lounge for free drinks. Are we thirsty? NOPE!! but it’s free so we go anyway. We also grab some very yummy cookies too. Owen is smart and takes plenty so he will have some for breakfast. He’s always thinking about his next snack! I love this hotel it has such nice rooms and nice big fancy comfy beds but yet every time we stay here we arrive late at night and check out at the crack of dawn. As a matter of fact we don’t usually see the place in the daylight hours. Owen watches the planes take off and land and I watch the last half of LOST. I missed the 1st half getting cookies and drinks. (shows my priorities doesn’t it!)
Oh, and we called mom to let her know we were there! We were so excited about our club level room and free goodies and then my show that we forgot to call. Alan made us all go to bed lights out at 9pm! I was bummed! We had been there barely one hour and I was just starting to have fun but oh well, the kids were out fast though. I will point out though that if it had have been me that wanted to have lights out at 9pm he would have refused!
Alan and I tossed and turned all night. He drives me crazy even though we weren’t even sleeping in the same bed! Also it is a lot harder to kick him when he snores if he is in a different bed. But don’t worry I got out of bed walked over, smacked him and then got back into my bed! (did that twice!) I also had to smack Olivia a few times since she sleeps like some kind of animal!
At 3:30am Olivia and I were woke up to this horribly LOUD noise which freaked us out but turned out only to be Alan blowing his nose! I bet the people in the room next to us wondered what the heck that was! At least he wasn’t snoring! We are now all 3 wide awake for some ungodly reason and Olivia is laughing so hard at that noise that Alan made. She is becoming very rowdy rolling around laughing in bed and getting on my nerves since it seemed like I had just gotten to sleep. The alarm is set for 4:30 and I knew there was not enough time for all 3 of us to shower and leave on time so I jokingly told her that if she was THAT awake maybe she should just go in and take a shower. Well believe it or not she did! We couldn’t believe she actually did that at 3:30am! But since she takes for EVER to bathe Alan and I knew that we could now get a little more sleep and that is what we did. At 4am she was finally done and Alan took his turn. I am not as crazy as them I didn’t budge out of my bed till the alarm went off at 4:30. We didn’t have to leave the hotel till 5:30 so I wasn’t in THAT big of a hurry. Owen of course, sweet boy that he is slept through all of this and some of us weren’t very quiet. By the way Olivia had decided that she was now tired while Alan showered and she laid back down and fell back to sleep. Jeez!
At 5:10 we had waited all we could, we were all dressed and ready and it had to be done! We woke sleeping Owen and all stood back expecting him to be ticked off at us but he jumped out of bed like a ray of sunshine and couldn’t have been happier. We all looked at each other amazed. We got him dressed and gave him all of his medicine’s (allergies, asthma and an ear infection!) We left the room at exactly 5:30 just as planned! WOW! I wonder though how all that would have played out if we had all slept till that alarm went off! Not pretty I bet.
Alan stopped by the front desk since they had charged us for parking on our bill and shouldn’t have. Then we loaded onto the shuttle with some pilots and flight attendants. We were dropped off and had to do a head count of all the luggage. We had our new Disney luggage name tags on our bags and Owen really wanted to have HIS tag on the bag which had HIS clothes so he could pull HIS bag. Well the clothes were all mixed up in different bags (I have a fear of lost luggage and one of us with no clothes walking around Disney naked!) so the bag he had his tag on did not have his stuff in it but he thought it did and he took great care of not losing HIS bag! He would also only help out and pull HIS bag. Who knew that a free Disney luggage tag would make him this happy!
We checked in and got rid of all our big bags. We had kept our swimsuits and some emergency personal items in our carryon’s since we were using Disney’s Magical Express bus service from the airport for the 1st time. I waved goodbye to our luggage and prayed that Disney would not let me down and that I would indeed see my stuff again later today.
We made it through security, had to remove our shoes though. Then over to Cinnabon for Olivias breakfast. I had brought a package of cinnamon rolls that I bought before we left home at the grocery store so that we wouldn’t have to spend any money on food this morning. However, this wasn’t good enough for Olivia. She didn’t want my grocery store bought rolls she wanted Cinnabon! So I said FINE pay for it yourself then! And she did. Plus she got extra icing. Alan got us a milk to drink and the rest of us suffered through with our cheap rolls which I must say would have been a lot better if we hadn’t have had to look at hers while we ate ours! She spent $4.00 of her money on this and I want it to be known that she had no problem forking over her money to do so. However, it would about another whole week into the trip before the girl would part with any more of her OWN money! She just didn’t want to spend it too soon into the trip. NONE of it! But she claimed that this $4.00 was well worth it!
We were then off to our gate to wait. We boarded and left on time. As soon as we were up in the air Owen wanted to do his homework. Actually I don’t think we were even in the air yet! He has always watched Olivia do homework on other trips and we proud and pleased that he could join in the club! His kindergarten teacher didn’t give him any real homework just some pages that he could do in his spare travel time if he wanted to. But he REALLY wanted to! Alan sat with him and they worked on every single paper he brought. Olivia did her English but she didn’t want to.
We landed on time maybe a few minutes early and went straight (after a REALLY fast potty break) to magical express. We arrived at 10:50am (I checked the clock) there was a line to check in but it moved very fast and then we went to wait in our bus line. It felt like it was taking forever but that was just because we were so excited. The whole wait time combined was about 20 minutes. We loaded on the bus and watched the cute little movie which seemed like a commercial for Disney and I just kept thinking that if anyone is on this bus watching this movie then we have all already bought into the hype and they can stop trying to sell it to us. Pop Century was our 1st stop YEAH! And we arrived at exactly 11:50. As we stood up to exit the bus I asked Alan what time it was and we both realized that it was exactly one hour from when we walked up to the Magical Express check in area. He was impressed and I was relieved! I figured something would go wrong and he would say I knew we shouldn’t have done this! So yeah! Go me!
I headed straight to the check in line leaving him to get the kids, carryons and the stroller from the bus. Olivia helped so it’s not as bad as it sounds. I wanted to get in line before all the other people on that bus!
Our room was ready but they had us on the 3rd floor and I asked about getting a room on the 4th floor. I really hate listening to kids run and jump above me. And if I am going to listen to people above me then I want the convenience of the 1st floor. However, both times we have been at Pop we have been on the 4th floor and not heard any noise. Plus since we are here for 10 nights I really wanted to like my room location. The CM didn’t really want to look for me and told me that they already had this room assigned to me. Well it was noon and a Thursday and I knew there had to be other rooms so I just stood there and finally after a minute he went to go in the back and check. I waited a good while and he finally came out and had one for us on the 4th floor in 70’s. This is our 3rd trip being 4th floor in the 70’s building! Can you tell we don’t like change? At least we know what we are getting.
By the time we are done with this everyone else that had been on our bus that I had gotten in front of in line were all checked in and probably in there rooms! Our room wasn’t ready yet but that was ok with us we had planned ahead for it. I took the kids to the restroom to change into shorts. Then we took our carryons to the storage area. We have never done this here before because our room has always been ready. Also if we had taken the other room on the 3rd floor it was ready now.
The CM who checked us in gave us the room keys and room number even though he said that the room wasn’t ready. Instead of the usual “call back and we will activate the key”. So I said I bet it is ready since he told us the room number etc. But he had made such a big deal that my 3rd floor room was ready and if I wanted 4th floor I would have to wait for it. So we took a little walk and went to find the room. The maids cart was right next door to our room so I figured she had just finished it. I put the card in, opened the door and NOPE! Thankfully there was no one in the room but it hadn’t been cleaned yet either! We quickly got out of there.
Now the moment we’ve all been waiting for…………… nope not a ride………. Nope not a theme park ………. Nope not the pool……….. our 1st use of the dining plan and I’m hoping that I actually know how to use it and that it works like I think it will?! Ok, not all of us had been waiting for this but I had. I just wanted to use it that 1st time to get it over with. I guess just to make sure like I said that it works, and that I know how it works and that it wasn’t a big mistake!
Now my mind twisting plan was that instead of telling them that we are all going to share 2 meals that I will just let everyone order what they want this 1st time and prove to them that it is too much food! That way I save the argument and I will not be being a bossy know it all! However, Olivia isn’t very hungry (guess is was the $4 Cinnabon!) and decides to share an adult sized chicken strips meal with Owen. They did this several times on our last trip. So that is what they had. I had a cheeseburger and Alan had a cheese steak sandwich. The kids had a carrot cake to split. I had one too and shared some of mine with them too. Alan had cheesecake. And YES he and I agreed that it was too much food. I acted just as surprised as him! (Our lunch bill would have been $30 something dollars but I didn’t write down the exact amount.) So now when I mention sharing something he won’t argue and he will realize I am right! Yes, I had to waste and extra dining credit on this meal to make that point but it was worth it to me. Later you will see though that his food tastes and mine are not the same and there were plenty of times we didn’t share!
At 1:30 we left for the Magic Kingdom. We waited a long time for a bus. There were 3 for Animal kingdom and 2 for MGM. They were all looking at me like maybe we should just take one of those but the kids like to hit MK 1st and so do I. Plus that is where our dinner ressie is at and they can’t start messing with my plans yet! It’s only the 1st day and I’ve worked way too hard.
We arrive about 2:15 and go to Splash Mountain and get fast passes for 4:30. The crowds were very big there was a 60 minutes wait for splash. We went over and got on Pirates with a short wait since the afternoon parade had just started. We also got on the jungle cruise with a short wait too. Owen is funny on this since he seems to think everything he is seeing is real. By now the parade is over and we for some dumb reason head to fantasyland where we find a 20 minute wait for Small World! Timed it just right though for walking right into Donald’s Philharmagic.
After this we walked back so that Owen could ride Goofy’s Barnstormer. When we ended our last trip we closed down the park with Owen finally being brave enough to LOVE this ride! He and Olivia rode it about 10 times in a row that night. So that this where he wanted to go again. On our way we passed the Tea Cups with not too long of a line and Olivia tried to talk him into riding it with her but he was NOT interested at all! On to Barnstormer and we find a 45 minute wait! We told him that it was just too long of a wait and that we would be here for 10 days so he would have plenty of chances to ride it.
We had given the little speech before arriving to the park today that it was a going to be busy with the holiday weekend coming up but that we would just ride the things that didn’t have a long wait and then come back after the busy weekend was over for lots of other rides! We also were having a character dinner tonight and with our early flight this morning we weren’t planning a late night or anything.
This speech of course meant nothing to Owen. At 6 years old all you really want to do is ride and since he’s use to the slow season of no long lines he doesn’t seem to get it. But we know better then to get in a 45 minute line with a kid who never waits more then about 10-15 at the most for a ride.
Back to the teacups and out of protest I guess?? Owen refused to ride it. So Olivia and I rode by ourselves. While the boys just watched and waited on a bench. Why he wouldn’t ride I do not understand.
We made our way over to use our fast pass for Splash! Owen finally LOVES this ride. He declared it his favorite! Yeah! Once we were done it was time to head to our 5pm dinner and then the plan was to leave the park to check on the luggage, unpack and not be out late tonight. But when we got off splash we decided to get another fast pass since the return time was for roughly the time we would be done with dinner and we could get in one more ride. (this was my idea not Alan’s he was more interested in leaving since he wasn’t feeling that great but he got the FP’s for us anyway!) He had to fight through some major crowds around that area to go get those passes.
Now on to Liberty Tree Tavern for our character dinner. We have never eaten here before but always walk by and wonder if it is good. Alan checked us in and I took the kids upstairs to the bathroom. This place needs a bigger bathroom! I think there were 2 stalls and a line of at least 6 people waiting to get in. By the time we were all done and back downstairs Alan had been waiting for us because our table was ready. We were in a room in the back of the place and there were some little kids in there screaming like you wouldn’t imagine! We were thrilled to see they were almost done eating! This is an all you can eat meal that is brought out to your table served family style. We had the salad 1st which we all hated! YUCK! I know a lot of people talk about liking this salad with that dressing but we did not.
We also had dinner rolls, Turkey, ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, and mac & cheese. That is all I remember but there may have been more. Owen doesn’t like the turkey and we all declared the ham to be gross it had a strange taste. So we asked about something else for him and they brought out some corn dog nuggets. This took awhile though and he was starting to look like his long day was catching up with him. When they brought his corn dog he proceeded to take the dog out of it and just eat that! He could have just ordered a hot dog!? Silly child! They brought out dessert and we had a cherry cobbler with ice cream. Owen of course just had the ice cream. We got to see Pluto, Goofy, Chip, Dale and Minnie while eating too.
I should mention that Alan doesn’t like turkey so he didn’t care too much for this meal since the ham was not good and none of us ate it. He also was feeling like crap with a bad sore throat and all stuffed up. I however LOVE turkey so I was happy! Olivia and I really liked the turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy and had a good time chowing down! When we got our bill for the meal our 1st expensive one on the dining plan it was right around $100.00! Alan no longer cared that he didn’t LOVE the meal he now LOVED the dining plan! HA! I should say that they bring you out a bill of what your bill would be with tax, tip etc. and you sign it then you keep the copy that shows you were not charged and the total was now $0.00. So even though Alan didn’t care for this meal he was happy now anyway. I didn’t expect it to be our favorite meal but I wanted to try some different places and there aren’t a lot of sit down choices in the MK.
So we head back over to Splash and ride with only about 10 minutes to hang around and wait for our fast pass time to be up. By the time we were done it was about 7pm and we headed out of the park. Took the bus back and went to see our room.
As we opened the door we prayed that our luggage would be there and it WAS! YEAH! We counted and all 9 or so pieces of big luggage and carryon’s were there. Now came the bad part! Unpacking ALL of this stuff, at least Alan helped me for the 1st time ever but I am not sure how much was help and how much was just being in my way! This process took at least an hour and a half and at one point when I was close to being done Alan and the kids went down to the food court with our mugs to get drinks and brought one back for me. Then he had the job of blowing up Lib’s air mattress that she gets to sleep on for 10 nights! It is comfortable (she has admitted it) but she complains anyway.
We finally settled down and watched TV while I wrote some notes from today’s travels and then went to sleep!
No alarm today since we had an early day yesterday and had no major plans this morning. Slept in a little then got dressed and ready. We went down to the food court for our breakfast. This is not usual for us it is usually pop tarts and cereal in the room. However, with the dining plan we are mixing things up a bit. Alan loves his breakfast foods Olivia and I even made fun of him later in the week saying that nothing comes between dad and a breakfast buffet!
This morning we all order breakfast and using 4 dining credits. Our plan is a big breakfast with no lunch and then a 6pm dinner. We had a variety but there were eggs, bacon, sausage, waffles, biscuits and chocolate milk and OJ. This was not bad for counter service but was a pain to order at all the different stations and then check out together.
We now are headed to Epcot today and we arrived at 10:30 am. Our only goal for the day was to get a fast pass for Soarin! Then we were going to just take in what ever didn’t have a long line, spend some time at the Food and Wine Festival and have dinner at LeCellier in Canada tonight. We head straight for Soarin only to find that all the FP’s are gone for the day already! There is also a 2 hour stand by line! Alan is NOT happy and neither are the rest of us but he did not take this as well as Owen took missing out on Barnstormer last night. We had to have the same talk with Alan reminding him that we had a whole 9 days and we would get our chance later. I will say that I could not believe that FP’s were completely gone at 10:30 in the morning. We expected a long return time like any time this evening but nope! Alan doesn’t take no for an answer well! With his work he’s very much the “let me speak to your supervisor” type but that doesn’t work here!
We were like lost puppies and didn’t know what to do next. The crowds were horrible! It just seemed like people were everywhere. I can say that we have NEVER been to Epcot when it was this crowded.
We took a minute to think over the plan. Do we leave and go to MGM? Will that be just as bad? Probably plus we will waste at least 30 minutes getting there. We have a rental car reservation for tomorrow so we thought we would call and see if we could pick it up a day early and go do some outlet shopping and other things offsite and just escape the crowded parks completely. Alan calls and finds out they have NO cars until tomorrow so that plan is out. While he is on the phone we realize it is getting pretty darn warm out and so I suggest going back to the hotel and swimming for the afternoon then coming back tonight for our dinner plans. Owen is game (he’s always up for a swim or a snack!) and I think I could have gotten Lib on my side, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to or not. However, Alan was not interested in this idea at all. Notice how he was ok with the rental car/shopping plan but not the swimming plan! I think it was because we had just gotten dressed, combed and curled and left the room and not done anything yet so going back would have made the past 2 hours a total waste of time. I realized that but now that this trip is over one of the things I would have done differently is put my big foot down and said we’re leaving!! The whole part of the 10 day trip and 10 day passes was to come and go as we pleased, to be able to spend the day by the pool and the evening in Epcot. I know people do this I have read about it in trip reports!! (and been jealous of their leisurely pace).
Perhaps if I had said that was the plan to begin with and we would have eaten breakfast and then went swimming for a few hours then he wouldn’t have questioned me! We could have then went to Epcot about 3-4pm. He never seems to question my daily schedules but I just thought sleeping in, late big breakfast, FP for Soarin, some Food and Wine snacks followed my the dinner in Canada sounded like such a nice plan. I knew when making the plan that the parks would be crowded but being there in the crowds is a whole different thing! It was also one of the warmest days we had in the whole 10 days!
I have dwelled on this long enough. I sulked while we went and picked up Fast Passes for Test Track. But we then spent the afternoon wandering around Innoventions sending a lot of silly email postcards. And doing some other stuff they have there then we go and ride the Figment ride which we haven’t done in about 10 years and I have no memory of really ever doing? Then on to World Showcase. We wondered along through the countries and tried a few things at the Food and Wine Festival booths. I thought it was great we could use our snack credits for this however, the lines at all the booths were a little long. Alan, Lib and I each had a shrimp on the Barbie, we also had some bottled waters. (did I mention this was a hot day?) Owen got a Kaki Gori (LARGE snow cone) this was only $2.25 and was the best money we spent the whole 10 days! This thing was so good! Who knew shaved ice and flavoring could taste so good! Lib took one bite and got one too. I wanted one too and I could tell Alan did too but he was giving me the “I had to pay cash for this, they don’t take the dining snack credits look” and even though I said I wasn’t spending money for food there are SOME times you must break the rules! So instead I just keep stealing bites of Lib’s which is only fair since she had stolen some bites of Owens. We’ve been coming here since 1993 and never had these before!
After this we went and tried the Chicken Sha Cha with peanut sauce over in China. Alan waits in the line for it and Lib is looking over the samples to see if it looks like something she wants. Owen and I are searching hard for some shade so we can eat our snack. Alan waits in that long line only to show up with ONE count it ONE chicken sampler! HELLO!! It is sized for one person to eat it not 3! Plus you didn’t have to pay the cash price of $3.50 for this item it was bought with the snack credits! He is used to paying for these items at Food and Wine fest. and us being cheap and sharing them all the time but not this time and plus Lib was eating with us too! So the THREE of us took a tiny nibble and it was gone! He says you want me to get another one? Once again HELLO did you not see that line that you stood in? I just didn’t understand his cheapness there was no need for it! (Also at the end of our trip we had snack credits left over which wouldn’t have happened if he would not have been so tight with them!)
We now realized that it was almost time for the Candy lady in Japan. Last year she made something for Lib but Owen slept through the whole thing so we wanted him to see her. Well we were clear over in China and now had to hurry back to Japan so Owen could be front and center and get chosen. Well Alan took off with him and Lib and I were sweltering a bit and my feet were bugging me. I had on my new Crocs for the very 1st time today and so far I wasn’t loving them! (that will change) They take some getting used to. Plus I was a little irked at Alan. So Lib and I walk along fighting our way through the huge crowds and just as we are entering back into Japan we pass the Kaki Gori snow cone stand so I am hot and I don’t have Alan around to stop me so of course I bought one!! As I came wondering up to where they are waiting for the Candy Lady I could tell Alan was jealous that I had one and he didn’t or maybe he was just mad that I had spent $2.25. Either way I could have cared less and I didn’t share with him either. Lib however took plenty of bites of mine since I had some of hers earlier. We are such a strange family. A normal family would have just all had one of these snacks each to begin with and sat down and enjoyed it together. But instead we eat one at a time and give dirty looks over shared bites of snow cone! Awww good times!
So now the candy lady showed up and made something for 2 other little girls 1st then finally chose Owen to pick a candy animal to be made. He picked a shark. And he was very happy with this but he was so shy that you would have never noticed it. Once we were done Alan and Owen walked around a store in Japan and looked at toy’s. (see more shopping!) Lib and I sat outside in the shade (it’s very nice in the shade!) and relaxed. I think she was starting to think that my swimming idea from earlier wasn’t such a bad one after all!
Now off to see the American Adventure. Lib and I had seen it back in the spring of 2001 on our 4 Day Weekend Girls Only Trip Of Fun but I don’t know if Alan had ever seen it or not. Owen of course could have cared less. But Alan had a good time trying to stump Lib on her history knowledge! And I of course pretended like I knew the answers to everything he asked when several times I did not! For some strange reason (sun had fried our brains?) we were giggly in here and I was trying very hard to keep us all under control and quiet. I didn’t want people talking online about the rude family in American Adventure! After the show Alan and Owen did some pin trading and browsing (these two love to shop!). Before we headed over to use our fast passes for Test Track. Owen doesn’t love this ride and wasn’t in the mood for it. So instead of all 4 of us riding it Lib and I went on. When we came off Alan was going to ride with her but we exited the ride and found him spread out lying down on a bench with Owen spread out lying down on top of his dad! We took a pic of that one! And the family on the bench next to us was from Pop (we had road the magical express bus with them) and were laughing at them right along with Lib and I.
Alan said he was comfortable and told me to ride again with Lib so I did. Don’t have to tell me twice! By the time we were done we had to quickly make our way to Canada for our dinner at LeCellier.
We checked in and were seated quickly but it was in a dark corner. There were only 3 tables back there and ours was in the middle of 2 other families. One family had a small child about 1-2 yrs. And another one 3-4 yrs. They were well behaved children. However, the family on the other side was unbelievable! They had a girl 8-9 yrs and a boy about 5ish. The girl was fine but the boy was awful. He was SO loud he would just scream and yell and they would ignore him and just keep on talking and eating. This kid was sitting closest to Owen and I so I got a terrible headache from it. But also Owen who is just a little boy himself was being driven crazy by the kid who was just screaming! The tables were so close together that the skinny little waiter could hardly get in there to refill glasses and serve the food! Owen and I were close enough we could have reached over with a fork and sampled their food! Owen was just sitting there coloring and being so good after our long hot day and when this kid would start screaming Owen would put down his crayon and cover his ears! If this were at any other restaurant I would have been moved but at Disney we all know that there are no other tables, they are all full!!
At one point the mother took the boy to the restroom and when they came out of the restroom this boy took off running all over the restaurant while she ran trying to catch him and this boy was in a full sprint! She got him by the back of his shirt and brought him back to the table. By the time we were ready to order our dessert they finally left.
If it hadn’t been for this little terror of a kid it would have been a wonderful meal. The food was all very good.
The last time we ate here Alan and I had to split an entrée since we wanted to try the place and still be cheap. But I can remember that being the best steak I had ever had! Even Alan who when traveling on business eats a lot off good steak dinners agreed! So we were pleased to each get our own steak this time. We had the famous cheese soup for our appetizers and Owen got to order an appetizer too so he ordered the shrimp ($10!!) which he of course didn’t eat but we all did. I can’t remember lib’s but I think she got a salad. Then for our entrees Owen just had a kids meal while the rest of us had steaks which were all good. I know a couple of us ordered different ones and then the 3 of us traded bites so we could sample and argue whose was best. Alan had crème brulee for dessert, I had the apple crisp, lib had something chocolate and Owen had the kids dessert campfire smores, it was cute with sprinkles and marshmallows on a stick. He was impressed! This dinner was around $130.00 without even adding in the tip! Once again Alan bows to the dining plan Gods!
After dinner we had to make our way out of the park. The crowds were so thick it was just crazy! That is one reason I had planned for us to leave the park after dinner. We have all week still to enjoy the parks without such big crowds. Plus Lib and I have to get to bed at a decent hour tonight since tomorrow is Super Soap Day!! WooHoo!
Back at Pop we watched TV before falling asleep and today’s episode of General Hospital was on Soapnet. Lib and I watched a few minutes but we were taping all of the episodes at home and didn’t want to watch them out of sequence so we shut it off and went to sleep. Oh yeah, and we set a wake up call for 5am!
Otherwise known as Super Soap Day!
Ok up very early and I woke Lib up before I got in the shower. She had to use the sink area and be done and dressed by the time I was out of the shower it was a very fast system. While I quickly curled my hair I had her call down for a cab. She was to have it pick us up at 5:45am but when the lady on the phone asked her if we were heading to MGM? She told her yes and the lady said that she had been sending cabs over there since 3:00am!!!!!!!!!! Lib then told me that with a look of panic on her face and I said well tell them 5:30 then?!? Thinking that I don’t know what an extra 15 minutes is going to do for us but there wasn’t much else I could do. I briefly thought that if that was true then there was no way we were going to get the autograph we were hoping to and maybe we should just go back to bed? However, with knowing my daughter the way I do I knew she would kill me right there on Disney property! So Alan, who was laying awake in bed trying not to laugh at us wished us good luck and we left. (I tried not to think about the fact that he was going to be spending the whole day with Owen all alone which is something he NEVER does! Hoped my son would be in one piece later when I saw him again!)
It was pitch dark out and we walked to the front of the resort to wait for our cab. We were the only ones out there for a few minutes. A cab pulled up and I walked over to see who they were there for. Not us. Then another mom and daughter showed up also waiting for a cab. The cab was not for them either. Then a group of 3 women came out and were loud and rowdy, too early for that in my opinion but they walked over to the cab and it wasn’t for them either. So we all stood around out front but not together. After a couple more minutes the group of girls goes up to the cab and one is leaning in talking to the driver the next thing we know they get in the cab. As they are doing this two other girls walk up out that they don’t seem to know but they yelled at them and asked them if they wanted to join them? Well of course they did so now all these people who had gotten there AFTER us were off in a cab!! We just turned to the other mom and daughter and exchanged looks. Another 10 minutes or so went by and we walked over to them and said that if our cab comes 1st they can ride with us and they said the same. But then a taxi van pulled up and yelled a last name to us and it wasn’t for either of us. The guy just sat and waited. This is when we decided that if we were going to get there early enough for autographs that we were going to have to be a little pushy too. We all went over closer to the van and tried to look sad, he said hop in lets go. We didn’t really have to be pushy at all. So we got to ride over in a van and we talked with them about Pop Century and Super Soap and of course General Hospital! Well once out on the main road in front of MGM there was a HUGE traffic jam. What a nightmare. The cab driver had told us that he heard they weren’t letting cars into the parking lot till 6am. But we weren’t getting anywhere with the traffic jam at the stop lights so the driver gets out of line and heads in a different direction so that the traffic lights would be to our advantage. If it hadn’t have been for this guy we wouldn’t have gotten our much coveted Steve Burton (Jason Morgan) autograph!! He got us in there fast and we all commented that those pushy girls were probably still sitting in a cab back at the lights!
We paid the driver and then speed walked to the front and had to endure the security check. Lib had a bag and I had nothing on me so I stepped ahead to wait for her and while I was waiting a water sprinkler came on and nailed me! As soon as she made it through we ran (yes ran) the short distance to where the lines were formed. We managed to be in that area between the turnstiles and the ticket window about in the middle. Some people had hotel sheets spread out and were sitting on them. They were playing all the theme songs for the ABC soaps and that was fun since it really got everyone woke up and in the mood! This is where we stood for the next hour to hour and a half! But at least we had our free soap opera digest’s to read that they were handing out. Lib gave up and sat down but I was afraid that if I sat down I might not be able to get up and that hard concrete didn’t look too comfy! But the sun was shinning and thank God we had good weather. If it had rained Lib would have demanded that we stay and it would have gotten ugly!!
After a good while they brought out the Soap Sisters. These were 3 ladies that work for Disney and were basically streetmosphere entertainment and they were so funny!! Each one liked a different ABC soap and they would say some funny comments about different characters from the soaps mostly the males on the soaps!! They wore matching outfits and big bee-hive hairdo’s!! We loved them!
Eventually they opened the turnstiles and we started to slowly enter. The ladies that we shared the cab with had been in the line right beside us but of course their line moved faster and they made it in before us. Once inside the gate we did another short “run”. There was a CM yelling which line to get into for each of the 3 soaps. The line for GH started right about where the very 1st store is right where you enter the park and it stretched clear back to the Indiana Jones Stunt Show area. That was where the fast pass machines were located for GH. We immediately meet another mother and daughter in line with us from the NY area. We chatted with them and the line started moving so we really didn’t wait too long here. They had been several times and we got some more tips from them. The daughter had also been to the soap awards show in NY before (daytime Emmy’s if I recall correctly) so she told us about that. She has seen Tony Geary (Luke Spencer!!) Once we reached the Indiana Jones area the line wrapped around inside the area and then back out. The fast pass machines were located at the exit. While we were in the inside area they announced that Steve Burton (the one we wanted) was on his second session. (they do a morning session and an afternoon session) So we knew our chances were getting even smaller. At this point we had to decide who to get if we didn’t make it in time for Steve. Lib was going for Kelly Monaco (Sam, and also from Dancing with the Stars) and I was getting Greg Vaughn (Lucky Spencer). Well with much tension and stress we made our way up and they announced that Steve only had about 10 left and we managed to be about 6th or 7th in the last 10!!!!!!!!!!! Cue the screaming and jumping and hugging and excitement!! As soon as we both had our FP’s in our hot little hands we just screamed jumping up and down and hugging each other! The CM’s were laughing at us and we didn’t care! We were blocking the area so we moved over to the side out of the way and continued with the screaming, hugging and jumping!! So all this excitement and it was only around 8am!!
Taking the advice of the lady in line she said that One Life to Live usually has the shortest line so we got in that line since you can have 2 FP’s but you have to get back in line for the 2nd one. However, after standing for so long already and wanting to conserve a little energy since our FP wasn’t till 4:30 we said forget! We got the one we wanted and we were HAPPY so we got out of line! We went and sat down for a little bit and looked over the schedule for the day. We sat down and called Alan to let him know! Like he really cared! But on the other hand he would have had to put up with us in foul moods if we hadn’t have gotten it! If I recall they were still laying in bed when I called. I really could have went back to the room now and taken a nap and came back later but I was with the Soap Nazi!! She would have whacked me on the head and thrown me in the bushes! And possibly sold my Steve Burton FP for big bucks!! So since I fear her wrath I didn’t even dare to mention it!
After what she deemed as enough of a rest we decided to go check out the soap store. We didn’t get to go in it last year as there was always a long line waiting to get in. They only let a certain amount of people in at a time. Well since everyone was in lines for autograph FP’s we got right in and looked around. Lib really wanted a GH T-shirt but all they had was white with a tiny GH on the pocket and so she didn’t get one. They have a ton of clothing for all 3 ABC soaps that where worn on the shows. Each thing was tagged with the name of the soap, the price and which Character’s outfit it was. Very tiny clothing! There were a lot of very fancy dresses that had been worn to various Ball’s and such. They also had a few wedding dress’s. Some of these dresses still had the makeup stains on them.
We looked all around and only bought a souvenir photo album for $10.00. We are just too cheap! We wanted a key chain or magnet too but couldn’t find a GH one.
We exited the shop and didn’t know what to do next! As we wondered around aimlessly for a few minutes we noticed an area where the stars were being brought in and out of and there were people all waiting there to see them coming and going. So we just hung around there briefly and sure enough we saw several of them with their Disney security. If you can picture a rock concert and an area where security takes the stars in and out this is what it was like!! It was very exciting and the people would scream like crazy! After a bit it was getting crowded and we were thinking of leaving the area and BOOM here comes another Disney security guy with Steve Burton! I yelled to lib that I thought it was him and she took off in that direction I stayed put since I knew he would be coming right past me!! I took several pics and was close enough to grab hold of him!! I was so worried that Lib was missing all of this! Turns out she had taken off with her camera and shoved her way in enough to get close to him too. I didn’t find that out though for about 3 very long minutes! I say that because I couldn’t find her! I tried to stay in the area where I was when she left me thinking she would be able to come back! However, the crowds were bigger because of our star sighting and I just stepped out in the middle of the area and screamed OLIVIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nothing happened !!!!! Finally after what felt like 10 minutes but was probably only 2 minutes she came running up to me jumping up and down screaming and freaking out about how close she had gotten to him! We exchanged stories of our last couple of minutes and then I told her how I thought I had lost her and had been yelling her name! She didn’t seem too concerned! Apparently I was the furthest thing from her mind during the frenzy and she hadn’t been looking for me at all! Hmmmmmm!!
With this excitement over we left and headed to walk around and see some of the stars that were out giving autographs. Steve was coming out for his so we waited with the crowds and I mean CROWDS! I have never seen that many crazy women!! The pushing the shoving, it was ugly. Lib was getting really claustrophobic and had to get out of there. She’s such a drama queen! Plus we had already just seen him and none of these woman here had been over in that area! We heard later in the day when we showed up for our autograph session that the 1st session had gotten very out of control and that extra security had to be added! Something about a crazy woman in the bushes! If Olivia hadn’t been with me at the time I would have bet that it was her! The 2nd session was more controlled.
We needed a break and decided to get an early lunch before all the crowds! (learned that from last year!!) So we went to the closest place, Pizza Planet. The line wasn’t terribly long, I sent Lib upstairs to get us a table and I ordered our lunch using our dining plan counter service credits. We each had a personal pizza, salad, drink and for dessert I think it was just a cookie. We chowed down and talked about our day so far! It was nice to have some air conditioning and rest our feet. I did hate having to carry the tray full of food and drink up those stairs to the 2nd floor though! I don’t have great balance but I made it ok!
From here we thought we would go try and get into one of the shows that was coming up. We had seen a similar show last year with different actors. When we got over there it was still close to an hour before the show but there were lines everywhere. Turns out that there was no way we could get into the next show even though it wasn’t starting for over an hour from now because they already had more people lined up then they had room for. We were SO bummed and after Lib argued with a couple of CM’s for there poor handling of the mess (she’s kindof like her dad! I was waiting for her to demand to speak to a superior!) she really was not wanting to take no for an answer! She even started to climb over a rope and I stopped her thinking that if she gets her butt thrown out of here then she can’t get her picture with Steve later!! We were so depressed now that we just plopped down on the steps out front. There was some other woman sitting there leaned over with her head in someone else’s lap sound asleep! I sure do hope they knew each other! Ha!!
After wallowing in our self pity for a good while we went off to find a spot to watch the stuff going on outside in front of the big sorcerer’s hat. We found a spot not too far away it was over to the side in front of the Brown Derby and we had to climb up and stand behind some lucky people who were sitting. Yes we were standing in the landscaping after stepping over a small fence but so were hundreds of others. About half way through the One Life to Live interviews someone who had been standing down front in front of the stage PASSED OUT! One of the actors had to bring it to everyone’s attention and they had to clear that whole area down in front of the stage. After a couple minutes they had the actors leave the stage. Also at some time during this someone who was sitting in front of us got up and I JUMPED down to grab their seat! NOT an easy move! Now Lib was stuck standing behind me. There was still a long wait till the GH show started so I let Lib sit in my seat while I went to find a bathroom. I had to walk all the way over by the Animation building to find one without a line out the door. I had also hopped to find us a couple of drinks to use a couple of our snack credits on but there were at least 20 people in every place I saw. So I made my way back to Lib who had wondered what took me so long but at least she got to sit while I was gone! Since all the lines were so long I had rinsed out a soda bottle in my bag and filled it with water at the fountain outside the bathrooms. We also had our cookies from lunch that we hadn’t eaten so we had ourselves a little snack. I thought Alan should be showing up soon and I hoped that he wasn’t in the park right now while they were dealing with the lady who passed out because I figured for sure that he would just assume it was ME!! I tried calling him but one of us didn’t have a signal at that time.
Soon the 5 GH stars came down the street riding in their own little parade up to the stage. We screamed we yelled and I even climbed back up on top the concrete stoop to see better! We took some not so great pics. It seemed just like with other parades as soon as you take the picture they turn their head to look at the other side of the street! The interview was good fun but we sure were really sad not to get into the other one because it lasts longer and you can hear it all much better. There was one strange thing during this time though and it was another group of people standing up behind where we were and the little girl with them about 4-5 years old started crying because she couldn’t see her favorite stars. The lady who I had been sitting by looked at me and we both commented that it was ridiculous that the adults were asked to move so that some kid so young could see. She had no business watching soaps at all and it seemed like a ploy so that her mom could get closer! I also can’t imagine subjecting a child that young to a day at Super Soap! God forbid the child has to pee! Good luck finding a restroom without a line out the door.
Once this was all over I was SO ready to leave. But we had our FP’s still. Oh, and at some point during that wait we called Alan back and got a hold if him. He and Owen were going to meet up with us so they could video tape us meeting Steve! We also had dinner reservations for after we were done for all 4 of us. The guys were just getting the rental car picked up at Downtown Disney that we need for tomorrow. So we walked around and collected some more of the pre-autographed pics from the stars and then we sat for a few minutes of rest before using the restroom to check our hair before our autograph time. Well we checked the hair and Lib’s was in a ponytail and looked fine. Mine however, was hopeless. There was nothing to do to make it look better besides a shower, blow dryer and curling iron! So we go and meet up with the guys and the 1st thing Owen said was something about all these soap psycho’s!! It was now almost our time so we went over to wait where we could see Steve. Alan and Owen pushed there way into the crowd so they could video tape. Owen was up on Alan’s shoulders so he wouldn’t get trampled! As lib and I made our way closer in the line we were getting very nervous. She went before me so that I could take some extra pics of her. She hands her camera to the CM who takes a pic of you with the star and then I stood and shot some good ones of her with Steve. He asked her what she had been doing today and she said “just trying to see you”! He said “Sorry”! In her pics with him he has his arm around her and she has hers wrapped WAY around him! Then it was my turn and I felt like my heart would jump out of my chest. He was nice, and as he leaned down to sign his picture he said “so talk to me for a minute so I can have a rest” And I responded with “I don’t know” !?!?!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!!WHAT?? WHAT KIND OF COMMENT WAS THAT!! Here he was willing to speak to me and I couldn’t think of a thing to say. So then he asked me something that I can’t remember it is just a blur. I think I answered. And I do remember that before I walked away I said “thanks for coming THIS year”! And he said no thank you for coming! And then I grabbed my bags and walked off. As I am walking off there are people yelling at me because I had forgotten my camera which I had handed to the CM! And several CM’s and also security people were yelling at me but I was in a daze and didn’t seem to hear them. None of them!! Lib was standing there at the exit and she told me and I asked her to go run back and get it for me because I was so embarrassed and because I honestly felt faint!! I really can’t believe I didn’t say anything to him! I had told Olivia that she should make a comment to him about this being a “mob scene” I said I think he will “get” it! Since on GH he is a hit man for the mob!! I told her to put the emphasis on the work MOB! I said your more likely to stick out in the sea of people he saw today if you make him laugh! Well of course she didn’t do it and I didn’t either!
Alan and Owen found us and Alan actually had to ask me if I was going to be OK? I was not sure!! But then I kind of snapped out of it and Lib and I started the screaming, jumping and hugging again! Several people were staring and laughing I’m sure! But we did NOT care!! They were just jealous that they didn’t get to put their arms around him!
We were now a few minutes late for our dinner ressie at 50’s Prime Time Café so we headed over there. We walked up to the podium and I said sorry we’re a little late but I have a good reason and I showed her my Steve Burton autograph fast pass. She laughed and said it was fine.
We went to wait inside. It was crowded but eventually we all got a seat in the waiting area. After at least 30 minutes of waiting Alan went to look and see if we were close to being seated and we were not! So we gave up and left. Lib was afraid we wouldn’t be done eating by the time the end of the day parade of stars began. And I was afraid that if I sat any longer I would fall asleep. At this point some parts of me hurt and some parts were numb! Super Soap day is not a good day to try to get into a sit down place that offers a full bar! The place was VERY busy and a lot of ladies were drinkin!
So we leave the restaurant and the guys decide they have seen enough of the soap opera world so they are just going to leave and eat elsewhere. I think they just went back and ate at Pop. Us girls never did eat. Lib the Soap Nazi didn’t feel there was time for such a silly thing! Instead we had to fight more crowds again to get a spot to view the motorcade. We had an ok spot but not great. We waited about an hour or so in our ok but not great spot at which point I knew that my feet were dying and I wondered if I could just leave her there alone? This really did go through my mind! I was sure she could find her way back to the hotel she has been to Disney so many times that she knew her way around plus with her take no prisoners attitude that she had with her today she would be fine! But then I also thought that same attitude could get her into trouble and I should be there to keep her out of it! So of course we made some more friends. We took a pic for a group of 3 ladies and they visited with us. Don’t know why we didn’t have them take a pic of us? I probably didn’t have the energy to dig for the camera in the bag. The motorcade started and believe it or not we found the energy to yell and scream some more! (I’m surprised we had any voice left!) Then the stars got up on stage and danced with the Disney characters. That was funny to watch as our guy is too cool to dance and just stood toward the back with his arms crossed. That was a bummer we would have liked to have seen him shake what his momma gave him!!
Then the stars left and they started the evening concert. I had missed this last year since I had tired out and left. Lib had seen it though since she talked her dad into taking her to it! She said it was GREAT!! Even Alan said it was pretty good. But I have listened to her tell me for a year to how great it was and all that I had missed! We had to get up the next morning that year at 4am for our flight home so after the long day I just couldn’t stay for the concert! Well this year the concert was not so great, even she admitted that it was not nearly as good as the year before. It seemed that most people wanted to sing slow and depressing songs. There were a few upbeat ones but not enough to make up for how bad I was wanting to leave! Finally when it was ALMOST over she took pity on me and we left. This was probably near 9pm or so. We were also starved since we hadn’t had dinner yet and lunch had been at about 11am!
After we got out of the crowd we sat down on the curb for a few minutes and you can’t imagine how my feet felt. It is truly a wonder that I was able to walk around the parks for the whole upcoming week after torturing them all day today!! Alan had told us that if we wanted he would come pick us up so we wouldn’t have to take the bus and chance not getting a seat on it. So we called him while we sat on the curb listening to one of the last singers in the distance. Then we slowly made our way out hitting the restroom along the way, also hitting several sitting areas too. Once outside we thought we were dying of thirst and were sitting right beside some soda machines so I gave Lib a dollar and said get a drink. She came back and said “Mom, its $2.50!” I said we’ll we’re just gonna have to die of thirst then, I guess I must have somehow forgot we were at Disney with those soda prices! About then Alan called and was out in the parking lot and we had to find him somehow in the dark and without having even seen the rental car before! He had rented an 05 Mustang and Lib got to squeeze into the back with her brother and we were on our way. Back at Pop Alan had the nerve to think he was going to park in the lot and that I was going to walk from there! HA! I don’t think so!!! He pulled us up closer and instead of just going to the room and having him go down and grab us some food we stupidly went to the food court for our dinner. Alan and Owen ran up to the room to get our mugs for us. Several of the food areas were closed which made us mad. I don’t recall what we had but I do recall that Alan said earlier the cashier stamped their receipt so they could come back up for ice cream after they ate their hot food so we did that too. When we were almost done eating Alan went up and got in the ice cream line for us to get our dessert. The problem is that there was a LONG line which I couldn’t really see from where I was sitting and it took him forever!! I think it was all the people who had just returned on the bus from Super Soap in line! We finished eating and sat and waited and waited! Then we just gave up and left him there to go to the room figuring that he could figure out where we were! We were just so tired and I HAD to take my shoes off NOW! And of course he was in the room within a few minutes. We walked slow but he must not have been far behind us. We watched TV and then went to sleep!!!!!!! What a day!! And of course Lib is saying Let’s do it again tomarrow! And she is dead serious!!
******** What did the guys do all day Saturday by themselves? Well Owen had known ahead of time that him and his dad were going to be spending the day alone together. He is his mother’s son (nice way of saying momma’s boy!) so he wasn’t too sure about this. He kept saying that it would be boring “cause dad is SOOOOOO boring”! He said it, not me! Well I assured him that it would be fun and then I later while alone I threatened Alan to make it fun for Owen!
Well since we have been here we haven’t been swimming yet! So Alan was going to take him to the pool. They slept in late then went and had breakfast in the food court. They put on their swimsuits and took there stuff with them so that after breakfast they could hit the pool. Well it was barely 10am and when they hit the pool it wasn’t quite warm enough yet for the two of them so that didn’t last long at all! They scrapped that plan and changed clothes to take the bus to MK because Owen wanted to ride Splash again. Now keep in mind this is a Sat. and a holiday weekend! But somehow they managed to ride a few times. They waited in a short line and also used fast pass. They rode some other rides too then when they thought it was getting too busy later they went back to Pop. Spent some time in the room relaxing (i.e. watching TV) and then hit the game room for awhile. After this they went to DTD to pick up the rental car and stopped off at Walmart for some hot wheel shopping. Not sure if they stopped anywhere else but I don’t think so because they met up with us at 4:30 at Super Soap. Once they left us at Super Soap which was probably about 5:30 they went back to Pop ate at the food court and spent some more time in the game room. Owen really likes wasting his quarters in the game room! So all in all I think they had a pretty good day. Owen was very pleased that he got to ride Splash a few times. I just wish he would have gotten to swim too. Too bad they didn’t head out to the MK 1st and then come back and swim later. But the main thing is that Owen never told me that his dad had been boring and he survived the day without me!
The I DON”T want to leave DISNEY day!!
The Original plan……………….. (this is important to me to set the tone of the day!)………. was made way in advance of the trip and was that Lib and I would go to Super Soap on Sat. while Alan and Owen went to visit Alan’s dad and step mom who live in Jacksonville. However, there was something going on with them on Sat. or something I honestly don’t remember the story. And it ended up we were moving this all to Sunday. Lib and I however had decided that we didn’t want to do Super Soap in Sunday because if we hadn’t have gotten to see our favorite star on Sunday then there was no back up day. By doing SS on Sat. if something happened and we didn’t get to see and do all we wanted we could always come back and do it again on Sunday. There was much stress on our part over this whole thing. So I had left it up to Alan to call his dad and make plans. Alan realized that driving to and from Jacksonville with Owen in one day didn’t leave a lot of time for fun. So now the plan has been changed to meeting in the Daytona Beach area for a meal and visit At some point and time in this planning I had said “well if your just going to drive over to Daytona beach for dinner and a visit then I guess we could all 4 go” Big mistake! So now what was just supposed to be something for the boys to do while we did the soap thing was changed and we were all going to go. I had made my peace with that but had said to Alan “when you call and set up the time and place etc. make it for early evening/late afternoon time” I was thinking meet about 4pm have a “nice” relaxing, early dinner with time for visiting and then that was IT they could go home and we could go back to DISNEY! Also with the evening plan it gave us till about 2pm on Sunday to do other things either in Orlando with the rental car or at Disney and it wouldn’t take up our whole day by planning the meeting right at noon or something. This would also give us a chance to sleep in and recoup from the big day before.
Well fast forward to Alan actually calling his dad and setting this all up. He waited till we were IN Florida! They knew we were getting together and what day he just didn’t call and make the final exact plans till after we arrived. The evening he called he couldn’t get a signal on his cell inside the room so he took a little walk around outside while talking to his dad. He came back when he was done and told us the plan was to meet on Sunday in Daytona at a certain exit off the interstate at 11:00am!!!! WHAT?????? Did he not hear me before when I said that Lib and I may want to go back over to super soap on Sunday morning till noon or so?? I guess not. I thought about sending just him and Owen but I could tell this made him mad since he had already told them that we were ALL coming. (lying is not his thing!, neither is thinking fast on his feet!) His defense was that THEY really didn’t want to meet in the evening!?! Well too bad! We haven’t seen them in 3 years and they also weren’t interested in driving to Orlando to meet up with us either. So I am thinking what has happened to the “anytime you are in Florida just let us know and we will come see you” (meaning they would come to us) this included the Tampa area where we were last year! ARGHHHHHHHHH I couldn’t believe that Alan didn’t say that we had things to do in the morning!!
But Alan just looked at me like I had 3 heads and didn’t seem to think it was a big deal. Lib was NOT happy though, she saw her extra and final few hours of fun at super soap being squashed before her eyes! Keep in mind that this info of our plans being messed up took place before we had spent the whole day there on Saturday. So we really actually thought we would want/need to go back for Sunday morning stuff! Olivia wanted me to do something about this plan but I could tell that Alan wasn’t budging and it could be a full fledged war! She did not care, she was thinking divorce him and we will go to Super Soap both days ALL day!!
I was finding myself wanting to do just that because I was so mad that he had messed up our plans on Sunday all for his dad who could really not give a flip about any of us!!
Once Sunday arrived I knew doing Disney was not an option for me today but more then wanting to use my Sunday for another day at super soap I just didn’t want to leave Disney property for the whole day! And I REALLY wanted to sleep in late and be lazy for the morning!! After all yesterday had been a very long day!
So now on with our day! It’s gonna be a LONG one! AGAIN!
Alan set the wake up call for 8am. He wanted to set it for earlier but I put my very sore tired foot down! After that long day on Sat. I had really planned on a sleeping in day so I was defiantly not getting up before 8am! I actually was thinking more like 8:30 but he was sure we would need more time then that would allow. We leave Pop Century at 9:15am. We are due to meet them at 11am. It is a Sunday morning so there is no traffic and we show up to our meeting spot at 10:20am! Great, now we have 40 minutes to sit in a gas station parking lot and wait. Well at least we are sitting but I just couldn’t get comfortable enough in that mustang to take a short nap!
So we call them on their cell and eventually they show up. We decide to head down to Daytona Beach for a bit because we couldn’t think of anything else to do. They had brought Alan’s step brother with them (Matt) who is in his mid 20’s, he still lives with them while he goes to school. Also Matt’s son (Austin) who is 2 years old and Natalie which is there granddaughter from one of Shirley’s other kids but they raise her and have since she was a baby. She is 6yrs old. So on our drive to the beach we are following them and they pull into a gas station parking lot. It seems that BOTH of the kids had to go pee! We just left a gas station parking lot about 4 minutes ago and the adults in their group had all went and used the bathroom but the kids didn’t have to go. Now they do! I sit in the car thinking to myself “lets go people, lets get this thing over with I am in a hurry to get back to Orlando”! So on toward the beach where we pay $5.00 and drive out onto the beach. This just doesn’t excite me like it does some people but maybe that is because we paid $5.00 to drive on the beach but all we really did was park on it! We just pulled right in and parked we never did really “drive” on the beach which the kids would have thought was cool. They did seem to think it was interesting that we could park right there in the sand though. Daytona Beach just isn’t a pretty beach at all I don’t think.
So we get out and just stand around in the sand while the kids chase the waves away and play in the sand. None of the kids were in swimsuits so they were told not to get wet. The adults just stood there and talked for about an hour. My feet did not care for the 1 hour standing visit I really needed a sitting visit today! Austin and Natalie were soaked within minutes but Owen played with them and managed to stay dry. Just as we were about to leave he was squatting in the sand and a wave got his butt wet! We decide to leave and go find some lunch. They wanted to stop somewhere 1st and get some dry clothes for the kids though and we had passed a Target down the road so we suggested it. However, they had seen an Old Navy and wanted to go there instead. So off to Old Navy, Alan and his dad stay out in their cars with the younger ones while the rest of us go inside. I really didn’t think that Owen needed a new pair of shorts his butt was a little wet but he wasn’t nearly as soaked as the other 2 were. They picked out whole new outfits for their kids spending $20-30 dollars! I just found some shorts on clearance and bought those. I also must note that there were only 3 pairs of shorts in the ENTIRE boys dept. that also includes looking in the toddler area for some and none over there either. It was all jeans, sweat pants, sweaters, long sleeves shirts. Do these people not know that this is FLORIDA and it is still very warm. Even those in our group who live in Florida think it is stupid.
So after getting some clothes and changing the kids in the car we left to look for food. We went to at least 4 places and none of them could seat a party of 9 for at least 60-90 minutes! We finally gave up and went to someplace called Friendly’s. We don’t have any of those around home and I had never seen one before but it had the biggest menu with tons of choices. I would say it was similar to a Perkins. We were all starved by now since we had spent an hour driving around trying to get in somewhere! Everything was good and the kids meals came with ice cream so they were happy! The bill for the 4 of us was $33.00. Uh Oh! No dining plan here we had to actually use cash! Alan shot me a look! I was thinking “hey buddy this is not my fault I didn’t even want to come and he is YOUR dad would it kill him to buy us lunch since he see’s us every 3-4 years these days!!” I could have stayed at Disney and had a nice lunch with my dining credits but Nooooooooooo!!
As we walked out to the car it was getting close to 3pm and we were ready to get back to Orlando but we didn’t know if they were wanting to do something else so we just started with a “well it was good to see you” and then a quick round of hugs and we were out of there as fast as our Mustang would take us. Have I mentioned how comfy cozy the Mustang is?
On the road back to Mickey Mouse and I have a MAJOR migraine!! Major! So we drive awhile and stop when we see a Walmart. I bought myself some new kind of Tylonol that is supposed to be fast acting stuff! We also HAD to stop because Lib was going to pee her pants. And I think she meant it! We almost had to pull over to the side of the highway she had to go SO bad. Jeez you would have thought she was 3 years old!
We had a cooler in the trunk of the car with some sodas in it and I don’t recall what I used but I found something to use, made myself a cold compress with the cold half melted ice in the cooler and placed it on my dieing head to help the migraine. I think it was stress related! About 30 minutes later it was starting to get a little better!
I decided that I should call and check in with mom at home and she could tell from my voice that it wasn’t the best day ever. She thought Lib and I were going to super soap today so she was confused about the change in plans. Well it is hard to complain about Alan, his family and his planning ability while he is sitting right there beside me in the comfy cozy mustang! However, I believe she sensed that he was in the dog house!
Once we arrived back in Orlando my migraine suddenly was completely gone and I felt like a new woman! Seriously! The kids were not pleased with what was about to come…………………shopping! I don’t understand there aversion to it since we always buy something for THEM! Actually it is Olivia who freaks out when we say shopping! Owen is usually all for it! What teenage girl doesn’t want to shop?
We stopped at the Belz outlet mall to hit the Disney stores that they have there. We always find a few souvenirs here and they are always much cheaper. Usually it keeps the kids from asking for other stuff during the trip if we take them out and buy some things at the outlets first. However, this year the plan that has worked so well for so many other years did not work so well with Owen. His shopaholic gene took over!
So at the 1st store we found a new Mickey shirt for me $10, a Buzz one for Owen for $5, and a Tinkerbell one for Lib for $6. Then across the parking lot to the other store and I found some track pants for Owen for $3. Lib bought some big Disney suckers for her friends at school and she got a really nice Mickey head shaped ring marked down to $1.99. We closed down the store at 6pm. We weren’t really done shopping yet but they were pulling down the gates so we had to leave!
We left and headed back toward Disney. We had decided to go to Downtown Disney for dinner. We were going to use our fast food credits for dinner tonight since we didn’t have any reservations. Alan had asked what our choices were at DTD and I listed them off but when I said Wolfgang Puck Express he knew that was where he wanted to eat. We sat Lib and Owen down at an outside table and went in to figure out the menu. Owen wasn’t eating here since he wanted McDonalds! Lib was just sharing with me. I don’t recall what Alan had but I had one of their fancy Pizza’s. I had always heard how good the pizza was at Wolfgang Puck’s, it was good not the best ever though. We also had 2 desserts with our meal but I don’t recall what they were.
Once we were done eating we had to walk over to the McDonalds area to get Owen a happy meal. He wouldn’t take no for an answer on this one! He acted like he hadn’t eaten there in a year or something! On the walk my slide on sandals were killing my feet so for some crazy reason Lib and I changed shoes. She had on a pair of $2 flip flops but they felt SO much better on my feet! Once we got as far as the World of Disney store Lib and I decided to just grab a seat and let the boys walk the rest of the way over to get Owen’s food. As we sat we were having fun making fun of other people and then Lib cut the cheese and I made a loud comment about it to embarrass her! She tried to push me off the back of the seat into the landscaping! The boys were really thrilled to find us causing trouble. We made our way to the car with the Happy Meal in tow and Owen was…… happy! Back at the hotel we watched TV and relaxed for awhile.
Then I started to get this sad feeling that we have wasted the entire day and barely done anything “Disney”! So about 8:30pm I get a 2nd wind and suggest we go do something. Oddly enough Alan was all for it he just said “you tell me what you want to do and we’ll do it”!! Which translates into don’t ask my opinion cause I have no idea! Owen was also game for some fun. Lib however was a bit skeptical! But we just told her too bad we’re going so get a move on it!
Well as for what to go and do??? We had passes into the parks but MK and AK were both closed by know and I knew they wouldn’t want to do Epcot. I thought of MGM but then I remembered the end of the Super Soap weekend and the concert would be going on etc. I really didn’t feel like fighting that mess again. Hmmmmmm what to do what to do? We had just came from Downtown Disney so we didn’t want to go there! I know! how about mini-golf!! The troops are very excited about this since they still have fresh memories about our mini-golf adventure on a past trip (embarrassing dance moves, a security van, etc) So I make the decision of what shoes to wear and I decided on the Crocs! Mostly because they are big and roomy and I couldn’t bear putting my feet back into the tennis shoes, this turns out to be a good choice and even though my 1st day with the Crocs didn’t go so well tonight we fell in love! Our love affair continued through the rest of the trip!
One of the other reason’s I had suggested the mini-golf was that we still had the rental car and last year it was a pain in the butt to get to and from the golf place without a car!
So we head off to the Winterland Summerland mini-golf. There was only one other group there playing and they were almost done when we started. We took our time playing and took lots of silly pictures. Especially of Owen because when it wasn’t his turn he took that opportunity to pose like a model for me on the piles of fake ice and snow. He wasn’t really posing for me he just started doing it and I had to take his pic so then he just kept it up. In the pictures it looks like we must have told him to pose for us be we didn’t at all.
And we don’t know what it is about mini-golf and Disney but it just makes us crazy! We are loud and wild and stupid and always doing something dumb! Lib plays like a maniac and hits the ball in the bushes several times. Owen made 2 or 3 holes in one!! It was just us and the 2 CM’s that were working but they kept looking at us like they were keeping an eye on us or something. Once we were done we asked one of them to take a picture of all 4 of us together. It turned out good. And I also took a pic of Alan and the kids all I said was pose and Alan and Lib raised there clubs in the air to make it look like they were about to beat Owen with them and he cowered down laughing! They came up with that all on there own, totally unplanned in just the second it took me to turn on the camera! And it turned out really cute! So we turn in our stuff and head to the car, this is when we realize that it is about 10:05 and the reason the CM’s were probably looking at us was to see if we were almost done so they could close and go home!
We leave and are driving back to Pop and when we drive past the MGM area I mention that MGM is open late tonight for extra magic evening hours and Alan gives me a look! So in keeping with our long day we decide to keep it going and we pull into MGM. We park in a front row and as most everyone is leaving the park as we are entering. EVERYONE looks as us like we are crazy! We didn’t even have to stop for security because we were empty handed and plus they had gone home for the night! So I tell Alan and Lib to go ahead and head over to Tower of Terror and Rock n Roller Coaster while Owen and I take our time wondering around. We notice that the Great Movie Ride is open so we go and ride that then we walked around some of the stores. Once we were done we just found a bench and waited for them. We didn’t wait long and they were done, they had rode Tower of Terror a few times and were pretty pleased with themselves! So we headed out of the park since they were closing down and this would be the 3rd place we closed down today!
Back to Pop Alan and Owen drop us girls off at the sidewalk area and go find a parking place and as Olivia and I are walking to the room it is around 11pm and someone had a envelope hanging on their door. We were walking right past and Olivia walked over to the door to see what it was or something I am not 100% sure what her reasoning was but it was at least 11pm and people were sleeping so I told her to get away from their door! And then I moved her so that I was the one walking closest to the rooms and she was on the other side of me by the bushes. Well she didn’t care for my bossyness I guess and she started giving me her reasons for what she was doing etc. I argued with her, she argued back so remembering earlier in the evening at downtown Disney when she tried to push me back into the bushes I gave her a LIGHT shove towards the bushes!! It was only meant to be a “warning”!! Well the girl toppled over like a feather!! And she fell on her butt right into the big shrub!! I was shocked I was not expecting that I do not think I pushed her hard enough to knock anyone over! Well I started laughing and she reached her hand up to me so that I could help her up but I know her and I thought no way!! I could see what would happen I give her a hand she will just pull me down into the bushes with her!! So instead I left her there and took off running figuring that once she was up and out of the shrub she was gonna kill me for what I had done!! So I RAN like I had never ran before! Faster then at super soap and also with my crocs on!! It’s a wonder I didn’t fall and kill myself! Well I went around the corner to the elevators but didn’t want to be a terrible mom and go to the room without her so I sat down on the stairs and waited for her I was panting and laughing! The look on her face was flashing through my mind and also the fear of what she would do to retaliate!! Well about 2 minutes go by and I think sitting in a stairwell area at 11pm or so is probably not the safest thing to do even if it is well lit and at Disney! So I go back to find her and she isn’t there! The guys have also not shown up either so I figure they must have found her and went the other way to the room or something. I am now worried about her. I go to the room and I find all 3 of them there. Owen is sitting on the bed having a snack watching Disney stuff on TV like he has been in the room for a good little bit! Alan opened the door to let me in and said that Olivia is PISSED! He said that she is in the bathroom and not happy at all. He also said this while fighting back a little laughter of his own! I am just puzzled! I couldn’t figure out how they all got to the room without me when I was sitting on the steps by the elevator waiting for them!! I’m not sure if I ever got an answer on that one or not? Why would they have taken the long way???
So I go to the bathroom door and try to get her to let me in and no chance of that! FINALLY she cracks the door open and even though she is crying because apparently it was some kind of thorn bush and it was painful she is also laughing!! Until she sees me start to laugh then she gets mad again. She comes in and lays on the bed and I try to defend myself that I never in a million years thought she would actually fall into the shrub! And I am also explaining it to Alan who missed it all! Well lib goes back and forth between being mad at me and cracking up laughing! I think if it had not been a thorn bush it would have all been ok! She did have some thorn marks on her butt cheeks that showed us! I felt really bad she finally forgave me but told me paybacks are H**L!! So we were forced to settle down and go to sleep because Alan said so plus it was now midnight!!
*** by the way we would walk past the same shrub for the rest of the week and it had a large whole in the center of it where it had been squished by her butt! Owen really enjoyed pointing it out EVERY SINGLE TIME!! And I reminded Olivia of all my past vacation mishaps when I was a child and how my family always thought my pain was funny so she should just get over it and call it Good Times!
.
Slept in finally!
Left the room about 10am we had to return the rental car this morning but 1st we went over to the Lake Buena Vista outlet that is close by for a little more Disney outlet shopping. We didn’t buy anything except for Owen, of course! He found some kind of pirate toy that came with a sword, eye patch, parrot and I don’t recall what else but it was orig. $25 marked down to $5.99 so we bought it and he had it opened up before we got to the car! We headed back over to Downtown Disney stopping to fill the rental car up 1st and then returned it to the Hilton Hotel. It didn’t take long at all. The kids and I used the bathroom and when we came out Alan was done and waiting for us! We walked out and crossed the street to Downtown Disney at the busy intersection then we made our way to the Disney bus stop and waited for a bus to the Swan/Dolphin or Boardwalk area. It didn’t take too long about 10 minutes and we were on our way. Of course now it is almost noon and I am kicking myself that we are going to be entering a park so late in the day! This is just so unlike us! I am getting that panicked feeling that we only have 5 days left and we have barely even been in the parks and defiantly haven’t ridden much at all!! It was a depressing bus ride with all this stupidness going through my head! We did have the bus to ourselves though and Owen was happy as a clam that he had is new pirate toys to play with. He could have rode the bus all day long playing with his new purchase! It’s all about the shopping with him! Rides? Who needs Rides?? There are shops to look in 1st!! Well except for Splash Mountain!
So we arrive at the Boardwalk and take the boat over to MGM at least that is what my notes say. I don’t recall that AT ALL! I remember the shopping and returning the car etc. but I don’t remember where we took the bus to or that we got on the boat either. I guess it was my late night the night before and I wasn’t fully awake. OR I spent that whole time traveling around worrying that we are missing out on everything because we are getting such a late start! YEP! I bet that is exactly what happened! I don’t remember it because my mind was in other places at that time! I am sure of it! One odd thing was that every time we passed the Disney gas station during the 10 day trip the price of gas was lower. I don’t mean every day I actually mean every time! This could be 3 times in one day and the price lowered each time! Also the price of gas is cheaper onsite then off! The ones just right outside are really high but then you enter Disney and it is a normal rate that you would be paying at home. Just thought this was interesting.
So we enter MGM and grab a map which of course we don’t need after all our trips here but we do need the show times schedule that is on it! We have a major goal for today and that is to see the new Stunt Show! I thought Owen would really like it and might want to see it twice this week. (turns out I was right!) The next show was starting soon and we debated if we had time to do something else 1st but we decided we didn’t want to miss the show so we headed over that way a little early.
Owen wants to play in the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground area which is huge and sized so that adults can play along too so we made Olivia go in and play with him for a few minutes. We are talking about 15 minutes and then I go in and hunt for them, they are up high climbing on the rope thing and Owen is very proud of himself for not being afraid of it this year! I tell them to get down and come on so out they come and I can see from the look on Olivia’s face that something is wrong but Owen is laughing! Hmmmm what could be going on??? Turns out that Olivia go PEE’D on!!!!! Yep! Some little girl that was wearing a dress and was about 2 yrs old or so was climbing and had to go pee and Olivia got nailed by her!! She is mortified!! I of course thought it was disgusting but couldn’t help from laughing a little. Then Olivia points out the little girl who is now over with her mommy and Olivia is pointing and saying “her she did it!! she pee’d on me!!” And I believe there was a comment about putting a little one in a dress too or perhaps a diaper something like that but I am not sure! So I make both kids clean up just in case Owen came in contact with it too and they used soap and water and then after that they also used my antibacterial wipes for good measure. Olivia just couldn’t believe her bad luck! Owen was amused by this though! He’s such a good brother!
So now it is time to go to the show but people are still lined up so we go and get some snacks with our credits because according to my notes all we have eaten was something in the room when we 1st woke up. We got 2 popcorns, 2 sodas and Alan got roasted almonds. He had waited in the long line wanting roasted pecans but they were out by the time it was his turn! (note: that the nuts were not included on the dining plan credits but he paid cash for them however lets not forget the snow cone fiasco! Hmmmmmm!!)
This show turned out to be a string of bad luck moments! We saw it later in the week and did not have these problems though! 1st of all we are loaded down carrying our snacks and fighting over them since of course we don’t have the exact same amount of snacks and drinks that we have people! We think we are running late so we are hurrying to join the crowds since the crowds are moving like they are being let in. We are walking along and then all of a sudden we go underneath the GIANT bleachers where everyone sits to watch the show and boom everyone comes to a stop. We are all standing there under this huge amount of concrete with butt to butt people and no air movement at all! I thought Alan was going to kill someone!! Seriously! Even Owen asked what was going on and why we weren’t moving? We don’t know for sure but I guess they won’t open the bleacher area and let people in till either a certain time or till there is a huge enough crowd? Not sure but everyone commented that if this is the way they did things in the hot summer months people would be passing out!! Finally we start moving and go up to get seats.
We got what we thought were good seats not very far up cause with who wants to climb up there if not necessary! We settle in with our snacks and wait for the show to start. We enjoyed the trivia and stuff on the giant screen. Then the clouds start rolling in and we are looking a little worried. We also hear thunder in the distance and the clouds are looking REALLY dark. They start the show anyway with an announcement that the show was made to go on even in bad weather. The stadium has covered seating on about ¾ of it but of course the lazy ones that we are we didn’t climb up and sit in the covered area! Why wouldn’t they cover the whole thing??? So now as you can guess the rain starts and it is large hard drops of pouring rain. We sit and get wet for awhile and then we move for higher ground so now we are climbing up the bleachers in the rain when they are good and slick!! Plus we are missing some of the show! Alan and the kids climb over the backs of people and I mean literally climbing over peoples HEADS!! I said I don’t think so!! I ended up standing in the back watching the 2nd half of the show with a lot of other people trying to get out of the rain! A few minutes later the CM’s come through and say that this standing area is only for people who are with the wheelchair families! We all just looked at each other thinking where do they expect us to move to??? So once I saw that they were really serious and were making people leave this area I decided to become close personal friends with some old man in a wheelchair! I stood RIGHT behind this wheelchair as if I were pushing it I think my feet even went so close that they were touching his as he was sitting in the chair! But it worked because the CM walked through and all those other people were made to leave but not me! I knew if I left I may never find my family again! I also knew they would starve to death if they were left with their dad for the rest of the day because we hadn’t had lunch yet even though it was well past time and Alan would be afraid to use those lunch credits!!
Of course by the time the show is over the rain was only a very light drizzle! We left and went to find our wet stroller and as we pull the stroller out of its parked position Owen hops right in faster then we can stop him!! We all yell NO! but it is too late the seat was cloth so of course he got soaked! This is ironic since any other time he doesn’t want to sit in the stroller and it is mostly used to haul our stuff till he gets tired and needs a rest.
So we are off in search of real food. We went to the closest spot the Toy Story Pizza Planet! We used 4 lunch credits and then Alan and Olivia took off for Rock-n-Roller Coaster and Tower or Terror! Probably not wise on full stomachs! I don’t recall what all Owen and I did but I bet it involved shopping! Later on in the afternoon we went to watch the daily parade which is where we told the others to meet us at. Owen and I went into the candy store and I bought 2 chocolate dipped strawberries and he wanted cotton candy so he got that. He claimed that he was a deprived child that had never eaten any before but I don’t know if that was true or not! So out to sit and wait for the parade and eat our treats. We watched the Streetmosphere entertain the crowds and they were very funny. Alan and lib showed up in time to see most of it. Then the parade began. We had planned for this parade since there is a Star Wars section in it and Darth Vadar walks along the side of the road. Owen brought is small Darth mask from home and we carried it with us all day for this very moment. He strapped it on and Alan put him up on his shoulders so he could be seen well by Darth. Then it happens! The parade starts and it is the STUPID Christmas parade!! It is still a full 10 days BEFORE THANKSGIVING so NEVER in a million years did we expect this! Of course everyone thinks I am a fool since I plan plan and over plan and think I know it all and I did NOT know this! Owen was SOOOOOOOOOO disappointed and I felt so bad for getting his hopes up. Turns out it was the 1st day of the X-mas parade! In all my years of planning trips for Nov. they don’t start the X-mas stuff till Thanksgiving weekend! But they started it right after the big Super Soap weekend thing was over with. So to refresh what that means, it means that if on Friday when we were in Epcot with the huge crowds and we considered going over to MGM if we had done so we could have see DARTH!!! Also Luke Skywalker, and R2D2!!!!! I am not happy with this info at all!! We never did tell Owen that he missed those characters but he was still upset about Darth! We also never told him that we could have seen them if we had just went on Friday! SO MAD!!
So after being disappointed by the parade we went over to see the Beauty and the Beast stage show. We used to see this all the time when Olivia was little but then she grew up and rides the big rides with Alan and since this show is located beside the big rides Owen and I always go see it while they do the scary stuff. However, on this trip since we had the 10 days passes and more time in the parks Olivia said she wanted to take the time to see some of the shows and stuff that she doesn’t always get to see.
After the show they used their Fast Pass’s for Tower of Terror and RnR Coaster while Owen and I went to meet Chicken Little. We had just seen the movie about 2 weeks before our trip so this was a brand new character and he was excited about that. We had made plans to meet the others on the main road, so that put us right in front of the shops so of course Owen shopped some more! We got a name tag made with his name on it. They don’t ever have his name just like they never used to have Olivia’s but they have a machine and can make any name you want for no extra charge. He was pleased with this and we put it on his shirt. Alan and Olivia showed up and he showed lib some of the things he had found in the gift shops that he thought she might like! He even thinks of others while he shops! She however is too tight and didn’t buy anything today!
We left the park now and took a bus to Fort Wilderness for our reservation at the dinner show called Hoop De Doo Musical Review. It is a hilly billy western style show and we have heard about it for years because it has been around for many many years. We have never done it before because the price is huge! It is $50.00 for adults and $25.00 for kids!! So $175 for the 4 of us! Yeah I don’t think so! However with the dining plan as if it wasn’t confusing enough there are a few different dinner shows at Disney and you can attend them with your credits but it will cost you 2 credits per person instead of 1! So our plan had been just to order a pizza one night for dinner and pay cash for it instead of using dinner points that one night so we could use double points to try this show. Well since we ended up going to Daytona on Sunday and eating out without the credits and then using fast food credits that evening we evened out on our points so we could use the double ones tonight and still have enough for dinners each night of the trip. Sounds confusing but really it wasn’t.
I have read so much about this show online since I 1st discovered the internet many years ago and everyone loves it so I had high hopes! However, I was mostly hoping Alan wouldn’t hate it! So you go to Ft. Wilderness which is Disney’s huge campground where you can rent a cabin or camp in a tent. The dinner show is in a big place called Pioneer Hall and you have to check in 30 minutes early with your tickets which we picked up when we checked in at our hotel. I should also mention that you can book this show up to 2 years in advance and supposedly your table location is based on how soon you make your reservations. They even have seating upstairs where you have to look down at the stage and there are tables pretty far back from the stage. I was worried about our table location! I had only booked about 2 months ahead of time.
So we arrive and check in with our tickets and then what do we do for the next 30 minutes? Well the only thing there is to do, we walk around the gift shop of course, where Owen finds the same pirate toy that he had bought this morning at the outlet only the one here is still $25.00! Once done we all take a trip so the restroom so that no one will have to go during the show. Then we get in the long line to have pictures taken. They take one of all 4 of us then take one of just the kids. These are pretty over priced and after being caught in the rain today we look pretty scary so we didn’t buy them. Now they start letting us in and someone takes you to your pre-assigned seat and we are in the very center just about 3-4 rows from the stage! Very good seats! I was shocked and pleased!
Our waitress takes our drink orders it is all you can drink with choices of soda, tea plus it includes beer! Awwww beer at Disney is expensive and even though Alan hardly ever drinks at all he must have some of this “free” beer! They also serve sangria which I have no idea what it is but people online always talk about loving it and it is some kind of alcoholic beverage so just like Alan I say bring me some of that “free” Sangria. She brings it out and I HATE it!! Unfortunately, it took awhile for me to find her and tell her that I hated it and wanted good old ice tea! Free or not that stuff was not good! Lib had soda and Owen had a huge chocolate milk! The meal is all you care to eat but is served family style which means they bring out to your tables in serving bowls and you can serve yourself. So they bring our salad and rolls and the performers come out and do some of the show then we are served buckets yep, small buckets of fried chicken, pork ribs both of which were VERY good! Turns out I no longer had to worry whether Alan would like the show because he LOVED the ribs so was happy! Also some side dishes were served which I can’t remember but Alan got 2nd’s on the ribs and lib got seconds on the fried chicken. After this they do the main part of the show it is funny but I was afraid Owen might not get some of the comedy. Not that it is adult of course but he is just young. However, I was wrong because he was actually belly laughing at times! Alan was sitting by Owen and Alan would kick me and point to Owen who was cracking up! Olivia was also really enjoying the show too. I think of all 4 of us I liked it the least but I think that is because I have read so much about it that I felt like I knew what was going on instead of just enjoying the show. I did enjoy it though!
Oh, we were also served strawberry shortcake for dessert.
So when the show is over and everyone but me went to the restroom and then they had busses lined up to take you back to your hotel. Instead of one bus per hotel they had one bus that went to 3 or 4 different hotels. But everyone is loading on and I am waiting for the troops to come out of the bathroom! I was worried we would miss the bus and have to take a cab or figure something else out. So they come out of the bathroom and I said the bus is almost full and ready to leave. We haul butt to the bus and jump on. There are no more seats since it is so full and we are standing near the large side door near the back of the bus which is still opened. As we stand there waiting for the bus to leave Olivia says “wait what about our stroller”????? CCCCCCRRRRRRAAAAAAPPPPP!! Alan just turns around and jumps off the buss and RUNS in a full sprint to go find it. You really had to see this to get the full effect but he just jumped down off that bus before we knew what had hit us!! It is dark out and the stroller is clear up near the building which is a good distance from the bus! As he ran off into the darkness I figured the bus would pull away and it would be 2 hours or more before we would ever see him again! That Ft. Wilderness is very out of the way and hard to find transportation to and from!
The guy standing with us on the bus was cracking up and as a matter of fact several people were laughing at us or at least at Alan! By some miracle he made it back just as they closed the doors. He was a little out of breath though! Turns out they actually do wait around long enough for people to use the bathroom after the show and about now I was wishing I would have gone too! But it must be mentioned that Olivia gets full credit for saving the stroller and she won’t be afraid to tell it to you either. She told us over and over that it was a good thing that she remembered it and if it wouldn’t have been for her etc etc etc!!!!!
1st the bus stops at the Poly (my favorite hotel) then the Beach Club (hey we’ve stayed there! Without little Owen though!) and then to the Caribbean Beach Resort which is a pretty place but is so spread out and I would hate having all those bus stops and last of course was Pop Century!
We got the room around 10pm or so and crashed!! Jeez that was a long day too!
MAGIC KINGDOM DAY!!! WooHoo
We are spending the whole day in the MK today. Except for Alan and Owen’s short trip there on Saturday morning we haven’t been to MK on this trip since our arrival day! This is our favorite park so we are all excited. We were up at 7:30 on the bus at 9 and into the park at 9:15 I noticed this because try as we do we can never seem to make it here for the actual opening ceremony! I had made lunch reservations for the Crystal Palace but Alan loves his breakfast buffet’s so we called this morning and were able to switch it to 10:30. This was the morning that Olivia kept saying that nothing comes between Dad and his breakfast buffet!
So we went straight to the Buzz Lightyear ride and over to the race cars. Alan and Owen rode together and I made Olivia ride without me so that I could tape it and take pictures instead. Once we were done we rode the tea cups which Owen was fine with riding today but had wanted nothing to with the other day. Then over to Toontown just as they had opened at 10 and Owen was pleased to finally get to ride Goofy’s Barnstormer twice with no line!
We now had to head to breakfast but along the way we walked by the Peter Pan ride to grab a fast pass for later. So we are off to the yummy breakfast with Pooh, Tigger, Piglet and Eeyore. They have some kind of stuffed French toast thing there that is very GOOD! Actually it was all very good and we paid with our sit down meal credits. It is not the biggest bang for your buck with the credits but we wanted the breakfast anyway and it was good. There are not that many sit down places in the Magic Kingdom that we care for and I had planned it for lunch instead of dinner because I figured we would be busy enjoying the evening activities and getting ready for fireworks and stuff tonight. But hey I was nice and let Alan change my dining plan a little bit. Oddly enough we had been scheduled for an early lunch at 11:30 I think, which was almost the same time we were leaving.
So off to use our Peter Pan fast passes and we watched the Donalds 3-D movie which Olivia and I LOVE and Owen is learning to love. For some crazy reason it kind of scared him when we saw it for the 1st time last year. There is nothing scary about it though!! We also went over and rode splash several times and got FP’s for Big Thunder.The park was not crowded at all but for some reason Big thunder had a 45 minute wait. It was pretty warm out today and all of a sudden we all decided we were tired. I knew I wanted to be in the park till closing for the Wishes fireworks and stuff. So even though I didn’t want to leave my favorite park we had been going so strong for so many days that today has turned out to be the day it really hits us!! So we decided to go back to the hotel and take a swim and a rest. We rode the train to the front of the park and went in to look at our pictures that we had taken when we got here this morning. We bought one in front of the castle and one with Mickey. By they time we got back to the room it was 2:30. It was very warm at the park today but when we got to the pool you had to stay in the sun in order not to be too cool. If you went over to the shaded areas it was chilly. We were in the pool close to an hour and big clouds came in and looked like rain. It never did rain but the clouds made us cold in the pool so we gave up and went to the room. Alan had a work phone call about something? And we laid around the room for about half an hour or so. Then got dressed and took the bus back to the MK close to 5pm.
We were refreshed and ready to go now. I just wish the park had been open later tonight. We finally had our energy level up! We just rode rides all evening and had planned to grab some fast food to eat for dinner while watching Wishes but instead we rode Splash Mountain so many times that it became too late! We had gotten so lucky that we rode at least 4 times without even getting out of our log! And on the last time we could have gone one more but Alan said he couldn’t take sitting in the log any longer I think he had lost feeling in his legs! Plus some of us had to use the bathroom. So Wishes is about to start and we just didn’t have time to wait around in the long lines for food. Plus we had snacks of popcorn and ice cream bars when we got back into the park tonight around 5:00.So we decided to wait till we got back the hotel food court. We found an area to sit and see the Castle but they turned the lights off everywhere to make the show better for viewing except they didn’t turn off the lights in our seating area so it was good but it could have been better in the total darkness!
We fought our way through the crowds. Sometimes we just sit for awhile and let the crowds die down but it is now 7:30 and our breakfast had been at 10:30-11:30 this morning and everyone was hungry! So out to the bus and of course we didn’t get seats and had to stand on the way back.
Once we were back at Pop we went to the food court but two of the stations were closed I think there are 4 of them all together. So our choices were more limited. Between the 3 “adults” we shared a turkey wrap and a burger. Lib and I were going to share the wrap but she didn’t like it so I shared some of it with Alan. Owen had a kid’s meal. Then we had ice cream cookie sandwiches except Owen who had carrot cake. Those ice cream cookie sandwiches are very good they are fresh baked cookies with whatever ice cream flavor you choose. Yum! On one of our trips before they had invented this dining plan we rarely had a dessert so everyone ordered their dinner and I ordered last and got this $5.00 ice cream sandwich as my dinner. I saw everyone eating them and they looked so good but I couldn’t see spending the money on regular food plus $5 on this so I just got this. The family looked at me like I was crazy but then once I let them try it they thought I was pretty smart after all and wanted me to share!
Went back to the room to watch TV and relax for awhile before bed. It wasn’t as late as last night but I think we got back to the hotel around 8pm then had dinner so it was probably 9pm by the time we got to the room. It was too bad that going strong all these days had to hit us today!
Especially since we were in the MK and there were very light crowds today! But it is that mid trip slump. We go strong from the time we get here till about mid way through and then we wear ourselves out! Even though we thought with that 10 day pass we could relax a bit more there is just so much to see and do!
This was our day to get to Epcot early to get on Soarin! Well guess what…………. No alarm so we slept in and didn’t arrive till between 10:00-10:30! Almost the same time we showed up on Friday when all the FP’s were gone. However, that was a holiday and today is not so we managed to have better luck! We got FP’s for a return time of 11:45-12:45 and then Alan was SOOOOOOOOO excited to ride this new ride that he made us wait in the 60 minute line!! YEP 60 minute!! I actually think it turned out closer to 45-50 but still! Lucky for him and for us it was all new to us and Disney did make the waiting area as interesting as possible. The whole thing is set up to look like you are in an airport and they had huge screens on the walls that had a lot different trivia questions that pop up and nothing entertains Alan and Olivia more then proving each other wrong with that trivia stuff. I already know that I don’t know any of the answers so I just stand there quietly but these two jokers both think they know it all and are not afraid to yell out the answers whether they are actually right or not! They will each be dead certain that they are right while each is picking a different answer so clearly one of them is going to be wrong!!
Anyway, Owen and I were bored while waiting in line! Finally it is our turn and there have been signs all over warning you about not riding if you are afraid of heights! Plus I had heard all about it on the internet. But we rode this same ride years ago when it 1st opened in California so I knew what to expect. The only problem is that my fear of heights seems to get worse the older I get! Owen was not at all sure what to expect since he had never been on it years ago and wouldn’t remember even if he had! The boy was a little scared since he seems to think he is afraid of heights just like his momma! Well the ride was good it is such a cool thing and it is nice that it isn’t a coaster type of thing it is something everyone can enjoy. Young and old! Even with my fear of heights I can’t help but enjoy it!
Owen however, he declared that he was not doing it again! HA!
We had some time to kill before our fast pass time was up and we could ride it again so we went to get some lunch. They have a fast food place right in that building but Alan walked around looking at the menus and said nothing looked good so we left and walked to the electric umbrella to eat, mostly chicken strips and burgers. After lunch we went back but still had about 15 minutes to waste. We sat outside and Olivia messed with the video camera for awhile and the kids started arguing about something and I mean really arguing! So we went back into the building to wait. They were doing the little kids jr. chef thing at the Nestle area where kids get to put on a chef’s hat and bake a batch of cookies. But Owen wanted NO part of it! Too shy!
Finally our time was up and we forced Owen to go on Soarin’ again! He was not happy with us but it’s not scary I mean for goodness sakes I can handle it! It’s a giant IMAX with seats that raise up to make it feel like you are hang gliding! That’s it! And believe it or not he did survive!
Once we were finally done with all ours flights on Soarin we went and made a bunch of postcard pictures to send home and did some other stuff in inoventions. Then at 1:30 it was time to get our free 5x7 pic with our Disney Visa. We got it taken with Minnie and Goofy and once we were done we were going to leave the park so we stopped by to pick up our picture and goofy was completely blocking my whole head! The lady working told us to just go back and tell them and to have it re-done. So yeah! We are now at the front of the park and on our way out but we have to go back and have the picture re-done! The CM working outside of the picture room was fine with it and went in to tell the others but once we were let in they acted a little odd like they didn’t know why we were back and like we were trying to get 2 free pictures out of them! I said to the CM with the camera that one of us was completely blocked by Goofy and then they all seemed fine and were apologizing! So I guess the CM that went in the back to tell them hadn’t really told them! We take the pic and trek back to the front to view it. They had taken a few different shots this time so we picked out the one we wanted and then headed out of the park and back to Pop for another swim! It was pretty warm again today and we heard it was supposed to turn cooler tomorrow. So this would be our last chance for another swim.
We got to the room about 2:30 and I take the kids swimming while Alan relaxes in the room. We swam till 4:00 then all got changed and ready for our dinner at O’hana’s!
We were cutting it close because our reservation was at 5 and we had to take a bus to MGM and then hop on a bus to the Polynesian. We waited for a long time for a bus from Pop to MGM! I think it was just about 5pm when we finally got on the Poly bus which had to stop at the Wilderness Lodge 1st! I had a nice conversation with a lady on the bus about my Crocs! She had seen them on a lot of people and wanted some. I told her how I didn’t care for them the 1st day I wore them but that since then I haven’t taken them off and have loved them. It is almost like not wearing any shoes at all! Well except that I do seem to trip over my own feet a lot! Alan and the kids are amused that I can make friends anywhere and everywhere at Disney! I do this all the time.
So we arrive a little late for dinner but are seating in less then 5 minutes and were seated at a window table! You could see the MK! Last time we were in the side area where you feel like you are missing all the action. I always read about people who get the window table with a view of the castle and am always so jealous! Our table wasn’t the closest one to the window but we still had the view. We were a little nervous about eating here with the new menu changes well actually Alan and I were the kids didn’t know about the changes! Owen ordered a kids meal from the restaurant next door since they allow that for picky eaters! Thank God! He wanted no part of the O’hana’s food! But the rest of us had a great meal. For starters we had the salad which was good and the fried wontons with the 3 dipping sauces but most of us didn’t really care for those. Then we had the sweet and sour shrimp which was very good! And the honey glazed chicken wings. I just don’t like chicken wings at all but they looked really good! After all this they brought out the skewers of steak, pork, grilled turkey and the sausage. The sausage is a new thing on the menu and we didn’t really care for it but the rest of it was all very good. To go along with the meats we had stir fry veggies which had way too much onion for our liking and the new scalloped potatoes which were so good I think we got 3rds on those! I wish I had that recipe! At some point during the meal they did the coconut races which Owen participated in but didn’t act like he wanted too. He’s just so shy! I told him that they give out gummy worms at the end because they used to when Olivia did it but they must have changed that! He was not happy with me! He also did the hula with a large group of people. We had a good time at dinner and we were pretty loud laughing and carrying on! You would have thought we were drinking alcohol with our meal! I was singing some silly song I had made up and I didn’t know the waitress was right behind me and she heard me singing it! She was laughing at me! So was the family! Then it happened she said she would bring out dessert and we let her know that we were disappointed about the pineapple and caramel being gone! She told us this new dessert is really good. We thought yeah right! So they brought it out and we ate that right up. Owen just had the plain ice cream off the top of it so we asked for some more ice cream for it and then she said you just want another dessert? So Alan said sure! So we ended up with seconds on dessert!
Once we were sure we could eat no more she brought us the bill which was right around $100
And once again Alan is loving the dining plan! The last time we ate here Alan was just at the end of a business trip and we didn’t have to pay for him, just me and the kids. I don’t think we have ever eaten here and paid for all of us. Plus in the good old days Olivia was charged a child’s price!! And on our trips when Owen was age 3 and under he ate free!
After dinner we went outside and caught the monorail with a lot of other people to go to MK for evening extra magic hours! We were also going to see Wishes one more time and this time from straight in front of the castle and in an area where they turn off the lights for the best view. We arrived and it was packed! Luckily A LOT of these people were leaving after the fireworks!! We used the restrooms and then called home and the kids talked to grandpa I think grandma was already in bed? Not sure but I didn’t talk they did and I think that is what they said and that does sound pretty accurate!
We now go and squeeze ourselves into Main Street with the crowds to watch but it wasn’t the regular Wishes it was Christmas Wishes!! HELLO PEOPLE!! It is not even Thanksgiving!! What is it with these people and the rushing of the X-mas stuff!?!?!? It was an extra long show and was very good but since Wishes is my favorite I was disappointed a little! But every time you thought it was over it wasn’t! Very long! And just awesome fireworks!
Then it finally ended and the crowds went toward the front gate! But not us! We had the fun of trying to walk against the traffic to work our way over towards Buzz! We got there and it was a 20 minute wait! HUH? What happened to Extra Magic Hours and low crowds? But as the evening went on the crowds got smaller and smaller! Also it seemed Tomarrowland was where most of the people were at! I wanted to ride the TTA but it was closed even though it was listed as being open. I thought it would give our stomachs time to settle with all that food before doing anything big! The kids instead tested there stomachs and went on the tea cups! After that we hit Fantasyland and did everything with no more then a 5 minute wait. Well except for Dumbo which was more like 15 minutes.
At this point we realize that it is 9:50 and the park closes at 11pm! So we are running out of time and we need to head to Frontierland! The haunted mansion was closed for rehab or at least that’s what the sign said but later in the night it was open! So over to Splash and we all rode 3 times without getting out again! Then Olivia and I rode Big thunder and they were letting the train before ours stay on for another ride but not ours because they needed to put ours up for the night! NO Fair! It was now 10:55 so we gave up and headed out of the park slowly and managed to get on a bus that was waiting for us and even got seats!! Seats are good at almost midnight! By the time we got back to the room it was midnight and we were tucked into bed with lights out at about 12:30.
Hmmm should I even say it again or is it just a given at this point? That was another long day!!!
With no alarm today we slept in till 9:00. We had made a reservation for Donald’s breakfast buffet at Animal Kingdom for 10am but we missed that! I can’t believe this is the 1st time we have been to AK this trip! A whole week at Disney and just now entering this park! We arrived a little after 10am and grabbed a fast pass for the Safari and then walked through the gorilla area. We got to see at least 5 gorillas out and some up close! Then we went to the Tusker House for lunch. We’ve never eaten here before the only thing we have eaten at AK is usually pizza! But this is a fast food place that has a lot of different types of choices then regular fast food and is a little more expensive. So with the dining plan we wanted to try it. But since there were some different things on the menu Owen of course didn’t like or want ANY of it! I think the kids meal had peanut butter and jelly which he hates! (only hates the jelly!) So he just had some fries of Olivia’s and some of my dessert and we fed him later. Alan and Olivia both had the fried chicken sandwich Alan got his with some kind of seasoned rice but Olivia had fries. I had the rotisserie chicken with garlic mashed potatoes and green beans. For dessert Olivia and I (and Owen) had carrot back and I think Alan had cheesecake again! Not your usual fast food! But that is why we wanted to try it. This meal without our credits and also without even getting anything at all for Owen would have been $38.00! That is why a lot of people like to eat here on the dining plan and why we have never eaten here before.
As soon as we finished eating it was time to go on our Safari. We saw A LOT of animals out today. It was cooler out today so maybe that is why they were more active. Today was the day that cooler weather kicked in and the high was in the low 70’s. But until today it had been 81-84 degrees.
After our safari ride we went to the bird show and then to see Tarzan Rocks. I have said last year that I didn’t care to see this show again. It’s just not my favorite but this was the last time we will see it for sure because they are closing it after the holiday’s to redo the area and bring in a new show for late 2006. So I guess Alan felt it was necessary to go see it one last time? It always surprises me that he wants to see it at all! We do all enjoy watching the skating monkeys!
After the show Owen was hungry so we took him to Dinoland and found the McDonalds! It is so strange to have a McDonalds in a Disney park! I ordered him the 10 piece nuggets! He had wanted the 6 piece but they only had 4 or 10! So I used a dining credit and got him the adult 10 piece meal and that way we got the big sized drink too. Oh, and a brownie too. So Alan and Olivia went and rode Dinosaur while I sat with Owen and he ate and ate and ate!! The boy managed to eat 9 nuggets!! Only a few fries though, we threw the rest out and we saved the brownie for later.
Olivia and Alan came and found us and wanted us to come in and see her picture from the ride! She said it was really funny. So we walked back there and it was quite funny she looked just like the kid in the movie Home Alone! She had her hands on her face and her mouth WIDE open! The CM working thought she had posed like that on purpose but she hadn’t. It has been along time since she has ridden that ride and I guess she didn’t really remember it.
Olivia and I went over and rode Primeval Whirl twice but it is such a wild ride and I swore I heard something in my back snap. Seriously I thought something had snapped or cracked or popped! So 2 times was it for me. Owen and Alan had rode Triceratop Spin and then Alan gave Owen $2.00 for a carnival game and of course they lost. The kids wanted to ride Triceratop Spin again so they went on it while Alan and I watched a group of street performers called Spit, Slatter and Dip! They were really good and the kids watched too after their ride. Once they were done we walked over to the parade area and sat on a bench sharing a popcorn waiting for it to start. Alan got up and Owen took his spot so Alan picked him up upside down and was tickling him while holding him upside down. Olivia was sitting there with her popcorn looking like “miss cool teenager” giving me the peace sign and I took a cute picture of them. Unfortunately, Olivia’s peace sign didn’t make it into the picture she was still raising her fingers up when I snapped the picture but it is still cute. I had made a vow to stop only taking pictures when a character was around and take just more non posed pictures. Move of just us.
By they way I think I did a pretty good job of remembering to do it.
We waited till we heard the parade coming and then went up closer to look. The nice thing about this parade is everything is up higher off the ground so you don’t have to be in the front row to see. The second the parade passed us we squeezed our way across the street to go to the Bugs Life 3-D movie.
It’s been a long time since we have seen this! Owen being scared of his own shadow means we have avoided this for years. It turns out that Owen was a little scared but Olivia was the one we needed to worry about! She had no memory of watching this thing and when things started happening in the dark she freaked out and jumped up into her seat and was sitting on her feet and yelling “What the” “What the” over and over!!! She never finished the sentence and only said “What the” without adding anything on the end of it but I was laughing hysterically at her and she was grabbing and pulling on my shirt trying to strangle me! She such a drama queen! The people in front of us, a mom and a teenage boy were turned ALL the way around looking at her when the lights came back on!! Thank God there was no one sitting on the other side of her! Owen of course didn’t care much for it either I don’t remember it being that scary I knew it had been too scary for Owen when he was little but that’s about it.
After traumatizing our kids the park was about to close and so we made our way to the front but not before stopping in every single shop and looking all around but not buying anything! The plan had been to take the bus to the Contemporary for our dinner at Chef Mickey’s but Owen still had some money left and had picked out his main big souvenir that he wanted and they only sell it at Buzz ride in the Magic Kingdom. We had planned to pick it up last night but that spot was closed down during evening extra magic hours. So since we were a little early for our dinner we decided to take the bus to the Magic Kingdom but it was the longest bus line I have ever seen! So instead we got on an almost empty bus to the Grand Floridian and went there. When we arrived and walked through the lobby we got to see them working on the HUGE gingerbread house which we would later see on the food channel! We caught a waiting monorail over to the MK and headed straight to Buzz for his purchase! Once we arrive he decides to change his mind and pick a different Buzz toy! I was not happy since this one that he ended up picking they sell RIGHT IN THE POP CENTURY GIFT SHOP!!!!!!! AAARRRGH!!!!
Since we were there we rode buzz and the TTA and then took the monorail to the Contemporary and waited in a VERY long line to check in. I don’t understand why every time we eat here which is always in the off season by the way, there always is such a long line of people waiting just to check in! And except for the 60 minutes that we waited for Soarin the other day this was the longest line of the trip! Don’t worry though I wasn’t bored while waiting in this very long check in line. I had the pleasure of listening to the two ladies behind me who were NOT together but where chatting and were both from the New York area. There is nothing about these people we do not now know! Alan and I stood there with our ears wide opened and listen about their jobs, commute, where they went to college, where exactly they live, their old jobs before kids, their old commute before kids, how many kids they had, where their kids were born, on and on then they started in about Disney! What hotel they were in, how much they had paid, how long they were staying they went on and on. And don’t get me wrong I have no problem making friends by chatting about Disney but they were getting a lot more personal then that. They were also WAY over dressed for Chef Mickey’s I wondered if they were confused and were supposed to be at the California Grill?? Then just when I thought I knew them better then I wanted to one of there spouses shows up and we get to hear it all over again while they fill him in on all the stuff they have just discovered!
Finally we are saved as we reach the check in desk and are seated very quickly. We bypassed the picture here. There is no way we are going to buy a picture of us looking the way we do after a whole day in the parks anyway. We had all the usual stuff to eat which was all good and our waitress did mention to us after we had already ordered our soft drinks that we could have frozen drinks too! So Olivia and I had something strawberry and I don’t recall what Alan had. Owen was fine with a ton of chocolate milk!!
The drinks were very yummy but I took a big long drink through the straw and then stood up to go get dessert with Olivia and by the time I got to the dessert table I thought I was going to die!! I felt like my brain was exploding! I have never in my life had a “brain freeze”!!! but I was defiantly having one now! They had some chairs lined against the wall that were just extras and I had to sit down! Olivia was embarrassed by me but I can’t blame her cause I was embarrassed myself! Here I sat right beside the dessert bar holding my head with both hands and kindof rocking back and forth! I even considered putting my head between my knees since that is what I did when I almost got sick after riding Rock n roller coaster! But I didn’t really think that would help the brain freeze! Well, by this time she had pilled a plate full of goodies and was waiting for me and so I got up and fixed a dessert plate (hey, my head didn’t hurt THAT bad!!) and we went back to the table. About the time I sat back down it went away and I felt better. So I did what any smart person does with a yummy frozen FREE drink in front of them………… I took another big swig!!
A funny or at least amusing to us side note: There was a table with a large family sitting near us and they had the same waitress. It was elderly grandparents, parents, grandkids etc. I would say about 7 or 8 people. We paid a little attention to them because the characters would stop at there table 1st before coming to ours. But when they were done eating and they got up and left they didn’t all leave at once I think the mom took the kids out 1st and then they last few adults left. We thought nothing of any of this but then the waitress came over to their table and was either bringing them the bill or was coming to pick it up? Not sure which it was but the look on her face!!!!!!!!!!!! And then out loud she said “oh no”!! Alan and I both realized that these people had left without paying!! Well at $27 per adult and $12 per child that was a big bill!! Also must mention that this family was very well groomed and manicured and looked like they had some money to their name!! So the waitress took off like a bat out of he$$!! We were done eating at this point and knew that it could be awhile before we got our bill since she looked pretty busy so we just sat back and enjoyed the show! After awhile she came back with the quite elderly man who went over and sat down with the bill and paid it looking a little confused too. The waitress was very relieved! But I don’t think this man had tried to leave without paying maybe he thought someone else had paid or maybe he thought you paid on the way out but he must have been pretty far out of the restaurant since it took several minutes for her to find him or maybe not since it so crowded out there with people waiting to get in! Beats me but it was interesting.
So we signed our dining plan bill and left. We had to either walk or take the monorail over to the Magic Kingdom to catch the bus back to Pop. We choose to walk since Wishes was just starting and we were hoping that by speed walking we could get to the bus stop before all those crowds! Well we made it and got seats on the bus! We even got back to the room a little early tonight! It was about 8:30-9:00!!
I guess this would be considered a not so long day for us!
No alarm again today!! This is just so unusual! On most trips we have only ONE day with no alarm! But anyway we woke around 8:30 and got to MGM about 10am. Olivia’s pass wouldn’t work so they made us go to guest relations and wait in a line there! Turned out that the pass worked just fine there?! Who knows? So I sent Alan and Olivia on to get fast passes for Tower of Terror for later and told them to meet us in front of the Indiana Jones Stunt Show in 30 minutes!!
I don’t know what Owen and I did during that time but it was probably browsing the shops! I also remember we saw Mickey and Pluto out signing autographs wearing their holiday outfits and I asked Owen if he wanted to get a picture with them. He said NO! If this had been Olivia when she was 6 years old we would have spent a couple hours per day seeing the characters but he doesn’t seem to get into it as much. He did like the Incredibles and always likes the Toy Story ones but when Olivia was little she never meet a character she didn’t like!
So the 30 minutes goes by and we are waiting and waiting and getting madder and madder! Finally they show up running, all smiles and looking for us! Those dirt bags didn’t get fast passes they ROAD it! TWICE! While we sat and waited on them! That was not the plan! We went on into the show and Olivia and I had flashbacks to Saturday at Super Soap when we waited in that long line right here in this very spot for our Steve Burton fast pass!! Olivia is the reason we are seeing this show. Owen and I see it quite often because we watch it while they ride the scary and fast stuff! But as I said before she wants to see some stuff that she doesn’t usually have time for since we had those 10 days passes this time! Owen does like the show too because he’s a boy and stuff gets blown up, catches on fire, people fall from high up and bad guys are chasing people!
After the show we followed the crowds to the Star Tours ride. Owen didn’t want to ride he just wanted to shop in the store. However, being the mean parents that we are we lied and told him that you can only get in the store after you get off the ride! He fell for it. I guess his desire to shop overcame his fear! It’s not scary and he does love Star Wars so I didn’t feel too bad about getting him on it. He did fine and we exited into what was Owen’s own little Heaven! A whole big store of Star Wars CRAP! So more stuff was bought he got some “cheap” little figures that were $3.75 each. And as we left the gift shop totally forgetting about our little lie to him he notices all the people just walking right in and not having to ride the ride to get in!! We were busted! But since he had toys in his hot little hands he got over it very quickly!
Owen hopped right in his stroller was busy playing with his new purchase’s. But as we kept on walking Buzz and Woody were out so we stopped and got a picture with them since that is the 1st time we have caught them out all week.
After the pictures we kept going on back to the new Stunt show (lights motors action! Or something like that) we of course had already seen it earlier in the week but Owen really liked it and we wanted to see it again when it wasn’t raining! We grabbed some snacks. Owen wanted his very own popcorn. He was serious he said he wanted his own and he didn’t want to have to share! The rest of us were going to get ice cream sandwiches but they were out so we had Mickey ice cream bars. These are just like a Klondike bar but shaped like a Mickey head and they are not easy to eat sitting on the bleachers with a lot of other people in the sun! I made a mess. But we got to see the show again without having to get rained on or move to a different spot.
Once it was over we left with all the crowds and walked to One Man’s Dream. I just love this! Walking through all the old Walt Disney stuff and watching the movie of Walt’s life. As we are walking through all the stuff Owen decides he has to go to the bathroom and when he says he has to go he means it since he can hold it forever!! So Alan (not really caring to see all this Walt stuff again anyway) took Owen out and said they would meet us outside. Olivia and I went in and watched the short movie. Then we left to go find them!
They were not out front like they said they would be so we walked up and found them in front of the big hat watching some cheerleaders perform! Apparently 2 big Florida schools were playing each other that weekend and they were having a “pep rally” of sorts. They said the cheerleaders were going to do a dance and Olivia wanted to watch that so we hung around for awhile but they never did it so we gave up. We hurried over to where Chicken Little and the Ugly Duckling were doing pictures and autographs because Owen had seen them earlier in the week and Olivia wanted to see them too. We just barely made it, we were the last family to be let in before they left for the day!
Once we were finished we slowly walked over to the Sci-Fi Dine in Restaurant for our early 4:30 dinner. There were a few people checking in but there was no wait at all. We got put in our own car and I should have gotten up right then and took pictures but instead I waited and a few minutes later we had a couple seated in the 3rd row with us! Darn! I could have kicked myself!
So anyway for dinner we had all kinds of stuff! For appetizers we had one order of onion rings, one spinach and artichoke dip (which I didn’t think we would like but there weren’t a lot of other choices so I thought we’d just try it!) and Alan had the BLT soup! (yuck from me but I think he liked it). Also Owen got to pick a kids appetizer so he got the fruit and cheese plate with a side of yogurt. He liked it all but the yogurt! I don’t remember what Owen had for his meal but it was probably the usual! Alan and I both had the steak and Olivia got the cheeseburger which is only on the lunch menu but our waiter let her order it anyway. The steaks weren’t all that great but I kind of expected to not love the food everyone always says stick with the burgers, onion rings and shakes here. We mostly ate here because the kids like it. They like the way it looks like a big drive in and sitting in the cars! Oh and we all also had shakes for our drinks! So even though we were all full dessert is “free” so of course we had to order it! All of us except Owen! It had finally happened he was finally full and tired of desserts! The waiter came to take our dessert order and he said to Owen “I bet I can guess what your gonna order for dessert” (only 2 choices for kids, fruit or a sundae!) and I said I bet your wrong! The waiter couldn’t believe Owen didn’t want anything and since his tip is based on how big the bill is he offered to give him the fruit in a cup to go!! We thought that was very nice but it ended up being a mushy mess and getting thrown away! However, the rest of us had desserts! Olivia and I both had the Hot Fudge Sundae Spectacular! YUM! And Alan had the Cheesecake with caramel sauce and decorated on the plate was caramel corn! We were full! The bill for this one was around $120 or so! Jeez! It’s going to be hard to ever eat out again once we are home without this dining plan!
We walked outside and it was now dark and the crowds were all heading back for the Osborne Lights. It was also cool out. I had to put on my sweatshirt for the 1st time this whole trip! Alan and Olivia wanted to go and get on Tower of Terror or Rock n Roller coaster again! It is a good thing they have strong stomachs since they always ride that stuff on full stomachs!
Our goal for tonight was to see Fantasmic. This was our last chance to see it on this trip since we don’t want to be out late tomorrow night and we haven’t seen it in the 9 days we have been here! Never enough time to do it all! The funny story about seeing this show is that we have seen it in the past and Alan, Olivia and I don’t see what all the fuss is about we just don’t think it’s all that great. Give me Wishes any day or any other night time stuff at the MK! And Owen has never seemed to have an opinion about it at all. However, last Nov. we were here for 7 or 8 nights and never did see it but then on the plane trip home Owen asked why we never got to see the show where Mickey fights the dragon and there is FIRE! He was sounded so disappointed that we didn’t get to see it and Alan and I looked at each other like OOOPS! Who knew he liked it! This is the 1st we have heard of it! So I said we’ll see it next time. And then for the past 12 months when anything is mentioned about Disney he says he is going to see Mickey fight the dragon! So we knew we had to see it and we aren’t sure how or why we ended up saving it till the end of the trip? I don’t think they have it every night in Nov. but maybe I am wrong! But anyway it just never worked out with the schedule. So tonight is the big night. Nothing will stop us!
So Alan and Olivia took off and were supposed to meet up with us in front of the Fantasmic entrance at a certain time. Owen and I were going to walk over and see the Osborne Christmas lights but it wasn’t opened up yet and the amount of people was huge so I just looked down at Owen who was in the stroller and I said do you want to see this and he said no. Well that was all I needed! We left. I would have liked to seen it but not with that many people. If we hadn’t been going to Fantasmic later we could have walked back and seen it once that big crowd was gone.
I don’t recall what Owen and I did while we waited till our meeting time. But we did show up on time to meet Alan and Olivia and we waited and waited! They weren’t showing up. We sat for awhile then we ended up standing in the middle of the walkway and Owen stood up in the stroller and yelled their names a few times. Then Owen needed a potty break. We came back and they still weren’t there. People were flocking into Fantasmic and I was starting to get worried. We had about 20-25 minutes till the show started! Then when they announced that there was limited seating left for the show I made the BIG decision to go in without them! This was a bit scary since I know how big the place is and that we will never find them. I envisioned Alan getting very mad at me for leaving without them! But that was chance I was willing to take. There was no way I could stand there with Owen who was really looking forward to seeing this show and then miss it! My boy needed me to step up so I did!! HA!
So we parked the stroller in an area right by our meeting spot hoping that Alan would see it and take the hint! And off we went for the long walk to the show. There was no way to sit where they could see us so we just went where they told us but when we walked down to sit in a bleacher row we sat on the end of the row hoping that would help. It is dark out and there are thousands of people and Owen is very worried about his dad and sister. I get the bright idea that I should take off my sweatshirt which is dark navy blue so that maybe they will spot us better with my T-shirt on. It is VERY BRIGHT GREEN!! It is a neon green Disney tee that I bought many years ago and have gotten several comments on throughout the years. People seem to like it since they always ask me where I got it but this morning when I went to put it on I almost wore a different shirt instead I said this shirt just seems to get brighter every year that I wear it. But Alan said “just wear it, it’ll be easy for us to spot you all day” well this turned out to be true! There we are sitting on the bleachers and Owen is actually standing on the seat looking back for them toward the entrance. We see them walk in and Owen still standing up yelled DAD!!!! DAD !!! DAD!!! I said Owen almost everyone here is a dad yell ALAN!! So he did that. There was also NO WAY that they could have heard him.
I stood up and waved and in the literally thousands of people they see me and wave back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!WHAT!!!!!!!!! We were a HUGE distance away and it was dark out (they did some have lights though) and they had no idea where we were but they spotted me! I was TICKED!! It is defiantly time to retire this shirt! They made there way over to us and I was so ticked that they spotted me that I was no longer mad that they didn’t meet up with us when they were supposed to. They did say something like “everything was a walk on”! Like that is an excuse!
While we had been sitting there waiting Owen found a light up thing he wanted for $5.00 and I didn’t have any cash so we had to wait for dad. Well turns out that Alan had no cash either but he was carring the kid’s cash and Owen only had $3.00 left! (well minus the $30.00 or so that he is in the whole to us! HAHA!!) Seems Alan didn’t think cash was necessary what with the dining plan and all! So I told Olivia to give her brother $2.00 so he could get this light up thing. She looked at me like I was INSANE! Well this girl brought $50.00 and she has not spent hardly any money at all! She bought the Cinnabon at the airport, a few ones she gave me to tip the cab driver when I didn’t have any ones, and also some suckers for her friends. But I paid for her new Tink T-shirt. So I figured she could spare $2.00 it’s not like it was her last $2.00! And we all know how bad her little brother needs yet ANOTHER souvenir!! HA! I should have said no to Owen and been tough but the trip was almost over and I am too nice!
Then the show started and Owen was happy he had his light up toy necklace around him and he moved to the end of the isle so that he could see better. I was sitting beside him and watching him. He was in AWE. He was almost hanging off into the big isle in order to see it all! His mouth was hanging open the whole time. Then he leaned over and asked me where the dragon was? When something really loud happened he JUMPED so fast that his light up thing came off his neck and he grabbed my arm with a death grip! Alan saw it happen and laughed. Owen didn’t even notice that though. I think that all three of us were watching him more then the show.
Then at the end when all the boats full of characters came by he would say “hey mom there is the beauty and the beast” then hey mom there is Captain Hook and on and on he went about each character like it was the 1st time he had ever seen them!
The show was over and I can defiantly say that Owen really enjoyed it!!
However, now we have to get out of here! So the four of us made our way out very slowly, getting totally squished along the way. At some point Alan put Owen on his shoulders so he we didn’t have to worry about him getting lost or trampled. Once we had made it to the big stroller parking area the crowds thinned out and I gave Alan and Olivia the go ahead and off they went for one last ride! Jeez! The park closes at 8pm so they only had about 30 minutes.
Owen and I had a hard time finding the stroller since it had been moved. At 1st I panicked and thought it was gone for good. Then I decided that probably wasn’t such a bad thing. This stroller has been through a lot with us! MANY trips to Disney and being smashed on planes, buses, and trunks of rental cars. Owen has used this thing since he was 18 months old and mostly just at Disney and it is covered in the Disney stickers that the CM’s give you. Plus we had said this would be the last trip with the stroller and it was after all the end of our trip and it kind of seemed fitting that the stroller be put to rest in Disney World! (I might also ad that when I bought the thing it was a $60 stroller that I got an awesome deal on for $13.00!!) So once I had taken about 10 minutes to make peace with the fact that it was gone for good all the while still wandering around looking for it while this goes through my head.
Well I turn around and there it was!! Instead of happy I was a little disappointed!! Weird I know! So Owen and I take the stroller that I had just had a sentimental flashbacks of and wondered over to sit down on a bench. He played with all his Star Wars figures while we waited. He was having a good time but I was bored and ready to be moving along! I knew though that the lines at the busses would be huge so at least we had a seat while the others got one last ride. But I will say that I thought I would only have to sit there till 8pm since that is when the park closed. Well it was 8:20 once they showed up! They were still all fired up and raring to go! I guess being dropped all those stories in an elevator will do that to you!? I wouldn’t know!
We walk slowly toward the exit but Olivia wanted to look in the Tink gift shop. It is a whole store devoted to Tinkerbell. Which I must say is a little annoying. See YEARS ago Alan decided that he likes grumpy he found a shirt and hat with grumpy and this was back when it was hard to find things with grumpy. Well that is part of what made it fun the thrill of the hunt and especially the thrill of finding something with grumpy that was cheap! Also years ago when Olivia was just starting to out grow the whole princess thing she discovered that she liked Tinkerbell. WELL!! That was fun too and it wasn’t everywhere on everything you saw it was again the thrill of the hunt! But now Tink is on EVERYTHING which to me just makes it less special! So I really wasn’t all that pleased to see a whole store devoted to Tink!
However she had not bought anything and wanted to get a souvenir. Plus she was afraid that if she didn’t spend her money her brother would spend it for her!!
This is hard at her age! At Owen’s age it is SOOOOOOOO easy! He just wants everything! But she is older and wiser. So she spends a very long time and decides on a small Tink globe thing for $15 and also finds 2 small little gifts for her friends back home that also like Tink. Plus the gifts were half off and only $5 each! She ended up using the tink gifts for X-mas presents for her friends after she remembered that neither of them brought her back souvenirs from there vacations! Smart girl! So Finally we are ready to leave and the doors to the store have to be unlocked for us to get out! There were other shoppers in there still though we weren’t the only ones!
Out to the bus and we defiantly got seats! Back to the room and we were all tired. We tried to get to bed right away since tomorrow is our last day and we want to go to MK early to get in a few things before the Thanksgiving week crowds arrive! Well we got new neighbors next door to us! We have stayed at Pop many times now and for long amounts of time and never even heard a peep from our neighbors! But these people were total trash! These people did not deserve to be in any hotel room at all! We listened to them come and go with the big luggage carts and we were giving the benefit of the doubt because they were just unloading and excited! However there were at least 5 luggage carts that came and went! They had 3 rooms and a TON of people! And I mean TON! The luggage carts were loaded with case after case after case of soda and beer and they would pull the cart half way in the room and unload the cases by picking them up and SLAMMING them down on the ground! I would know because I watched this all out my peep hole! And they of course did that famous thing where you hold the door open with the latch and then SLAM it constantly!! Every 10 seconds it would slam! While the men unloaded more and more provisions there were a couple of woman who were in there house coats like the old lady kind of housecoats and were outside our room smoking and talking and we could NOT sleep!! After over and hour of thinking that they would unpack and settle in they were not letting up and we called the front desk! They said they would send someone up which I never did see and if they did come it didn’t help at all so I called back again! I mean they were screaming and yelling and slamming and smoking right in front of our room! The people that I spoke with on the phone were very nice and apologetic but never did anything happen! Even the kids couldn’t sleep through it! At some point everyone fell asleep but me I had the hardest time because my head was closest to the door where all the action was at! So I laid there and plotted my revenge for in the morning when they were all sleeping!
At some time after 2am I feel asleep.
At 6am THEY WOKE ME UP!!! The neighbors that is!! Well there went my plan!! And I was PISSED!! So I got in the shower while everyone was asleep and then without curling my hair (which is scary!) I left the room around 6:30am and walked down to the lobby and waited in a short line and told the lady that either they had to move those people or move us!! Now this is the Saturday before Thanksgiving and I am sure they have a lot of people checking in today but they are not all checked in by 6:30 am! I looked like crap and told her my sad story and she was super nice and goes in the back to talk to someone to see what can be done! She was gone FOREVER I thought about laying my head down and taking a nap on the counter! She finally comes out and said that it took so long because they were trying to find us a room not too far away but yet away from those people. So she put us in the 70’s building that has the giant Mickey phone on the 1st floor. Almost directly across from out hated neighbors except they were on the 4th floor! I explained to her that whoever they put in our room will also be down here complaining and that those people really need to be thrown OUT and also that they were WAY over the allowed amount of people in a room! She said she had told her managers but who knows if they did anything? But we didn’t see them out there again that evening. Of course they were probably just in the parks.
Also when I left the room to go throw a fit and when I came back they were ALL out in there PJ’s smoking and talking and laughing with all 3 room doors propped open! AT 6am!! I got to walk by them!
So back to the room I go and they are all awake wondering where mom is? I told them to get a move on because we are moving!! Alan did NOT look happy!! But luckily I had been packing for about an hour last night but had only packed the dirty things and the swim things since it had gotten a little to chilly for swimming the last couple of days. I had also cleared away a lot of the clutter stuff that we had everywhere. However we still had a lot to do!! So while Alan showered and the kids ate and I got busy! As I got a bag packed I pilled it up in front of the door and once Alan was ready he took a load and the kids got dressed and helped too! We deflated the air mattress because we thought we might look even more white trash then our neighbors walking around with that thing! So I will just have to sleep with Lib tonight! Anyway after many trips we finally got it all and with each trip we had to squeeze past the dirt bags! So they must have known what we were doing since as they leaned on the railing there view was of our new room across the courtyard! I was afraid they would come and haunt us later tonight since they knew where we had moved to!
So once we were finished and we had declared this a truly relaxing morning! We walked to the bus stop expecting a wait since it is a Saturday but WOW!!!!! Never seen lines like this before at a bus stop to leave a hotel!! It looked like the lines after Spectro parade had just gotten over at the MK!!
We waited and waited and every single park had a huge line! A bus came but we didn’t manage to get on it. Then 10-12 busses came and went without another one for the MK!! People were getting very ticked! Finally we get a bus and of course we had to stand! This just shows how long the line was since we had been in line a bus had filled up and left! Usually that means that at least you will get a seat on the next one! NOT TODAY ZURG!!
It was now almost 10am and we had been waiting for a bus since 9:15!! We have a late breakfast reservation for the Crystal Palace at 10:10!! We had hoped before our big room change to get there and do a few big rides, grab some Fast Pass’s and then have breakfast but now we will be lucky if we make it there at all!
As we exited the bus it was exactly 10:10!! So much for allow 1 hour to get to your reservation! It had been an hour!! I was bummed that we weren’t even going to have time for grabbing a FP before eating and but Alan was determined! We saw the amount of people trying to get checked in at Crystal Palace and he and Lib took off over to Splash to grab FP’s! Plus Owen and I need a bathroom visit before our meal so I thought they might have time to do this! After the restroom I checked us in and they gave me a beeper thing. For once I was actually hoping it would be a little bit but no it went off right away! I told her the rest of my party was in the restroom and she said that was fine just come on up to the podium when we were ready. Well I turn around and here they come running and out of breath! So we got seated and were all exhausted from our already long morning! But also starved! Alan and I hadn’t eaten yet and the kids had eaten the last scraps of junk in the room! So we could have cared less about the characters we wanted breakfast!
We were seated just one table away from where we sat earlier in the week and we didn’t waste any time having breakfast.
After we were done we went ride Buzz but there was a HUGE line! We got a Fast Pass and then rode the TTA which has a small line! Jeez! This place is packed! If this is how busy it is the Saturday before Thanksgiving I would hate to see it on Thanksgiving weekend!
We went over and watched some of Cinderellabration! Because Owen wanted too! We thought that was a little odd he usually doesn’t care about this sort of thing. We left before it was over and went to ride Haunted Mansion with a 20 minute wait. This is where I got separated from the family! The doors open to where you get into your Doom buggy and everyone just shoved through and I got left behind! And no one around me seemed to care that my family was up there ahead of me! Alan and the kids of course don’t realize that I am not right behind them at 1st but when they got through the roped area and make that turn to get into the doom buggy and I am still was back behind a rope they are not happy! Alan unhooked the rope and I went through with them finally!
We have never even rode this ride before when we had to weave through the ropes! The ride stopped several times I think there was a large special needs group on there that had to get back into a lot of different wheelchairs and they stopped one time for what seemed like a full 5 minutes and right in front of a screaming ghost! That gave me a headache!
From here we went over to take our ride on Splash Mountain! Owen gets so excited about this since it is his favorite now! Then we cut through adventureland and rode the Aladdin ride. Alan wanted to get an egg roll from the cart so I got one too. They were very hot!! We walked back toward Tomarrowland and Buzzlightyear while we were eating our egg rolls but we were almost there before I could even take a bite since they were SO Hot! They parked the stroller and went to go get in the FP line! They didn’t seem to want to wait for me to finish my egg roll so I had to shove the rest in and chew while in line! Nice! I don’t remember the wait time but I know we waited and rode it a second time.
By now we know our time in the park is getting close to over! We have a dinner reservation at Whispering Canyon over at the Wilderness Lodge for 5:30 and then we aren’t going back into the park since we have to fly home in the morning.
So with long waits for everything we decide to see the Carousel of Progress. I hear about it online and have never seen it! How can I call myself a Disney fan!? So on our way over Alan’s cell phone rings which he actually never takes inside the parks but did today since we were in such a hurry that he forgot to leave it in the room safe! It was his sister Susan, she didn’t even know we were in Florida and was calling to tell us bye because they were leaving for a Thanksgiving trip to visit her husbands family. While we were waiting for Alan to get off the phone it started sprinkling. So we went in the show. Owen thought it was boring, lib liked how the whole thing would spin and I liked it because I could ride something with no line!! Oh, and sit down! HA HA!! Plus now I can say I have seen it. But I did sing the song in my head the rest of the evening!
When we came out it was still sprinkling and we didn’t have much time left but we took a spin on the TTA for one last view of the area. Olivia got to see Space Mountain with the lights on inside! I have seen this dozens for times but she is usually in line to ride it while Owen and I are on the TTA so she thought that was cool.
So that was it, our last ride of the trip! We had to say goodbye to the Magic Kingdom which I really hate to do! I could just spend the whole 10 days in this park! But we left and took a boat to the Wilderness Lodge. It looked so pretty all lit up in the dark. It always seems so odd to me that just a short distance away from the hustle and bustle of the MK is the very quiet and woodsy looking Wilderness Lodge and the Ft. Wilderness too.
We got checked in and they said it wouldn’t be long. While we waited I spoke with a woman with young kids who asked me how long they told us our wait would be and when I said 10 minutes she was not too happy! She said “oh, you must have had a reservation?” I said yes. She told me that she had made a few but that she did not think she would need one to eat in her own hotel! She had also asked me where we were staying and I think she was ticked off that we had come from a different hotel (also a cheaper hotel too!) and didn’t have to wait but she was paying big bucks to stay at that hotel and had to wait 60-90 (can’t remember which) minutes to eat! She also told me how terrible there day had been. She thought they were coming in the slow season and all they were able to do at the MK today was have breakfast and ride Buzz and that was it so they left! She also said they were only there for 3 nights and asked how long we were staying. I told her 10 nights and this was our last night. She said that must be what you have to do is stay 10 nights and then just do 2-3 hours a day! Little does she know that we did more like 12 hours a day and sometimes more!! After all this her husband came over to her from somewhere and asked her how long it would be and she told him. He took it pretty well but then our buzzer went off and as we turned to walk away she told him that we only had to wait a few minutes and we weren’t even staying at THAT hotel!!
So we were seated and I can’t remember who our server was but, I did see Bobby (famous server from online!) but he was in the back room though! I hadn’t told Alan or anyone that this is one of those places where the wait staff is wild and will make you the butt of their jokes!
We all ordered the all you can drink milkshakes! Alan was impressed with this especially when I told him that the refill didn’t have to be the same flavor that you started with! His eyes lit up!
For our appetizers I know that I ordered the nachos and I don’t remember what Alan ordered but we shared it all. Olivia was going to get the All you care to eat skillet so she had the salad that comes with it for her appetizer. Then with the skillet she had BBQ pork ribs, pulled pork, chicken, sausage, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, beans and slaw! Oh and corn bread! Well when she was done you could NOT even tell that she had eaten anything yet!! Alan got a steak and I had the grilled pork chops that everyone raves about. The pork chops were very good and Alan said he wished he had gotten that when we saw them. I don’t know what Owen had but it was something from the kids menu.
We had to stand and do the hokey pokey twice and Owen did the stick pony races but did not look like he was having fun just looked like he wanted to go sit back down! Why is he so shy? Our server didn’t really get into the joking around like some of the others. some of them were really crazy! All our server did was throw a hand full of straws at us as he walked by and kept coming up behind me and scaring the crap out of me! During the meal if someone asks for ketchup the server will yell KETCHUP!!! And everyone will get up and bring you there bottle until you have about 20 bottles on your table! Several people did this before our food was there so when Owen needed it and the waiter yelled for it the people at the next table just handed us there bottle and that was it! No one else brought us any! So much for that joke!!
For dessert which we were really to full to eat Owen had the Worms and dirt! And I think the rest of us ordered the cinnamon tortilla with bananas, caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream! Unfortunately it wasn’t nearly as food and the dessert at O’hana’s!!
So this was it, our last sit down meal on the plan and we were stuffed! The bill for this one was huge! I believe it was $140! The food was all good but the interaction and silliness I had read so much about didn’t happen for us. Our day started out very early and hectic and is catching up with us and we are tired.
We went out to the boat dock to catch the boat back to the MK so we could get our bus to Pop. But it seems that tonight is the Spectro parade and everyone else is heading to the MK too. So we had a very full boat ride over to the Ft. Wilderness where even more people got on! Luckily Owen and I had a seat and I can’t remember if the others did or not. Once we got back to Pop we just couldn’t believe the mobs of people heading into an already very busy park! We caught a bus and since no one else was leaving the park at this time we got seats! Yeah!
Back to Pop it was early for us between 7-8pm. And we were still all packed up from our move this morning so the good news was that I didn’t have to come back and do all that packing! But I did have to find our PJ’s, clothes for tomorrow and a few other things. I also did some luggage organizing. Then I called mom but had no signal inside the room so I stepped outside which I will say was a nice thing about being on the ground floor. I could just walk around out in the courtyard and not bother my neighbors! The kids came out and goofed around with me for a few minutes then back inside and tried to go to bed but Alan insisted on finishing some stupid movie that he was watching on TV which he has seen before!
By the way when we came back to our new room tonight we noticed some baby items sitting outside the room right next door and I thought to myself CRAP! I was thinking that if we were kept awake again tonight after all that room moving that we did the family would not be very happy with me and neither would I! However, I am pleased to say that we never heard a single peep all night long! We also didn’t see our old noisy neighbors outside visiting tonight but we did get to bed early so maybe they just hadn’t returned from the parks yet!
Woke up with an alarm this morning! Alan went down and got us a luggage cart while the kids and I got ready. Then we went down to do the magical express luggage thing and I had lost our paper work that they had put under our door just the other day! Well in my packing frenzy I stuck it in one of those places where I would be sure to find it! NOT! Couldn't find it anywhere! Well it turns out that we aren’t the only ones this has happened too and everything was fine.
So once we had dumped off our luggage and said goodbye to it! We went to the food court for one last meal. We used the last of our counter service credits for breakfast but I can’t remember how many it was that we used. We also had 7 snack credits left. I sat in a booth with Owen and all our carry on stuff, such as stroller, camera bag, back packs, etc! And Alan and Olivia went up to use the 7 snack credits. They got the rice krispy treats and I thought back to this past week of Alan being afraid to use those snack credits! The Food & Wine Fest. Snack booths!! The shared treats we had blah, blah blah! And now here we are with 7 rice krispy treats! And they sell some plain and some with the mickey ears dipped in chocolate! He got only 3 dipped in chocolate! Those were good and I wished all 7 had been dipped!!
We took one last look at all the cute stuff in the gift shop that we didn’t buy! Then went outside to wait for our Magical Express bus and we had a CM take a group picture of all of us waiting but she didn’t so something right because it didn’t take at all! Bummer! The bus came and we loaded up and were back to the airport in no time. Our flight was at 11 something in the morning. We couldn't
believe the crowds at security at Orlando’s airport! We are so used to flying out of Tampa and there is never a line at all. Well here we waited forever with some very rude employees barking orders at us! Oh and we also hit the big Disney gift shop at the airport too! HA!! Don’t have that in Tampa! I sent Alan outside the shop with Owen while I bought him some Star Wars things that we hadn’t seen before to save for X-mas.
Flight left on time around 1pm and we arrived back in St. louis on time. We waited with a little doubt at the luggage carousel for the luggage that we hadn’t seen since kissing it goodbye at Pop Century! Well it all made it! YEAH! Took shuttle to our van, loaded and were on our way home!
So another trip to Disney is over and it was a GREAT one if I do say so myself! All that planning and making reservations and using the magical express for the 1st time and the dining plan too was a little stressful (but fun!) but it all paid off! Also want to add that 10 days is still not enough time! We did cram a lot into the 10 days though. We saw Soap Stars, we hit all 4 parks, we swam, we had a side trip to Daytona, we ate 10 sit down meals a new record for us, and we hardly ever set an alarm! We had the best 10 days together! We came, we saw, we had FUN! And we will be back!!