Thumbs up! Now point at it! We're baaack..1/23-2/1

Yep yep yep! We're back! I actually kept notes like a good girl and have been true to form by procrastinating on writing this report. All my text is finished. I still have to proof read as I go. I'm still in the process of uploading photos and video. I ain't even gonna try to edit any of that. I'm just gonna plug it in and go with this thing. Yeah, it's gonna be a heck of a journey for you readers so get ready. It was a heck of a journey for us along the way.

If you missed my pre-trippie & are interested, here's the link for that:

http://forums.wdwmagic.com/showthread.php?t=389610

Again, this is my 1st ever trip report. It may get a little wordy at times but bear with me. Here we go!

 

[DisneyGigi]

Great report so far! Can't wait to read the rest.

 

[happymom52003]

Very entertaining report! Reading trip reports like this are the only thing keeping me sane with my next Disney trip being so far off!

 

[sweetpee_1993]

great report. i especially loved your video on primevil whirl. :ROFLOL:

It's funny to listen to myself riding it...like when I say something about 'I hate this' and Jerry asks 'Why?' At some point I guess I should learn how to do video editing.... LOL!

Thanks for sharing your trip with us! The Photopass guy does look like Chris Farley!! Love your t-shirts! Did you make those yourself?

We did! The artwork was created for us by a sweet Dis'r who does them out of the goodness of her heart. I also ordered the high-quality transfers from another Dis'r. I printed them off at work and Jerry helped me iron them all on. I love having coordinating shirts on the trips. Thanks for the compliment!

I love your trip report! Thumbs up, then point at it!

Keep reading...at some point very soon we're going to decide we're doing it wrong. We started doing the 'Disney Point' rather than the old single finger. LOL!

Ooh I love the Daisy Duck pictures!! Keep it coming:sohappy:.

And I especially like all the silly pictures you take throughout your trip. I can just see how much fun everyone is having!

Daisy's my main chick (no pun intended..LOL)! She's a girlie-girl, gets things her way, and handles-up on Donald like a pro. Yeah, we have a lot in common. LOL! The silly pics... I guess that's what we love best about being at WDW, we can leave reality behind and just let the inner-silly run rampant and it's okay. Thanks so much for the compliments, Holly. Your reports are the ones that inspire me to lay mine out there. It's fun to bring others along for the adventure!

Great report so far! I'll be watching to see what happens next!
Cool t-shirts! Tour groups suck for jumping in front of you...too cool about your little dino-lover/safari-lover...I had no idea you could watch Wishes and play the soundtrack on Resort TV...love the "thumbs-up and point at it" bathroom pic!...and I also love the Animal Kindgom theming!!

Thank you! The tour groups we encountered weren't as bad as I've seen in the past. There were just sooooo many of them that they could easily add 1/2 an hour or more to a que within a matter of minutes. Our 1st stay at the Contemporary we didn't know how to get the soundtrack and the front desk CMs didn't know when we asked. I read where to get the soundtrack on another fansite and was sure to give it a whirl. I was so glad it worked! Those bathroom sign pics had me rolling. I came out of the ladies room and the guys called me over to see what they found. I couldn't believe it!

Great report so far! Can't wait to read the rest.

I'm uploading more pics trying to get more posted asap. I was up until 2:30 last night working this stuff. I'm soooo frustrated because I edit a lot of my sideways pics to be upright but they don't post that way so I have to leave them out. Aggravating! Grrrr!

Very entertaining report! Reading trip reports like this are the only thing keeping me sane with my next Disney trip being so far off!

Awwww...that's too sweet! Yeah, trip reports keep me rolling, too. This site gets some good ones and there's another fansite I frequent that gets some really great reports. I'm even going to do a trip report like this for an upcoming Cabbage Patch event I'll be attending at the end of April. I love the reporting so I'm glad you enjoy the reading. And we're glad to have you on our journey with us!

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Day 4-1/27: Yes, laundry CAN be magical, too!

Holy smokes! I went to sleep at 12:30 and got up before 6. Have I mentioned that this was not the trip for anti-morning people???

We were at the early bird rope drop at Magic Kingdom for all the people having their early breakfasts and tours. It’s so worth getting up for, though. There’s nothing quite like soaking in Main Street when it’s so sparsely populated and taking pics in the hub with very few people around. It’s one of my favorite things to plan for on our trips. I love it.

Lots of early morning pics...you've been warned:

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Day 4...continued...

...continuing the early morning pics:

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Day 4...continued again...

...a couple more early morning pics before it's on to breakfast...

We had breakfast at the Crystal Palace at 8:05. We were seated within moments of checking in and were among the first people in. The Pooh characters don’t really appeal too much to us so we generally don’t wait for all of them to get around to us. We were done eating and back out on the hub by 8:45.

Breakfast pics:

He couldn't wait to get back to the table:

Tracey takes his second plate very seriously!

The characters! Eeyore is my mother-in-law's fav so Tracey always does his pic with him for his mom. So sweet!

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Day 4...still...

Pics prior to rope drop:

When there's nobody else around you can see that this is a giant compass:

Almost time to move:

OMG! Here comes the tidal wave!

 

[sweetpee_1993]

...and Day 4 continues more...

We walked through the castle to stand at the rope to Fantasyland. Little did I know I was all set to experience another tourist herding phenomenon. When that rope was pulled back the stampede to Dumbo’s Flying Elephants was quite a thing to see. My kids being a bit too old for elephants that never really get anywhere, we made a dash for..yeah..you guessed it..Pooh’s Hunny Pots. LOL! We walked on the ride with Pooh followed by more walk-ons at Peter Pan’s Flight, It’s a Small World, and Snow White’s Scary Adventures. By now it was 10:00 so we thought we’d go take a look around Toon Town. The guys don’t get much out of this part of the park but I really do. I love the whimsy! I thought with it being so soon after Toon Town had opened we could go look in on the Fairies Meet-n-Greet but were surprised to see that the line was already at 30 minutes. Wow! Chandler, Tracey, and I went to hold court with the Princesses while Jerry took Brian to get his face painted.

Princess meetin':

And my painted son:

Brian loves his Christmas present from Mom & Dad:

When we all met back up in the big shop I talked the guys into humoring me through a visit to the Judge’s Tent to see Mickey & Minnie together. Our visit wasn’t as lively as the one Tracey & I had last May but it was still fun.

All the pics from the Judge's Tent are on photopass but I did have this snippet:
http://s228.photobucket.com/albums/ee262/sweetpee_1993/5-DISNEY JAN 09/?action=view&current=MicMinnBoys.flv

We walked the little path behind the speedway over to Tomorrowland. We had a quick ride on Space Mountain with not much wait. Afterwards the boys wanted to ride again but us old folks couldn’t hack a second round. Knuckle Jerry offered to take the boys off for some Magic Kingdom fun while Tracey and I headed back to the resort to do laundry. It’s a yucky chore but has to be done.

Back at the Contemporary, we hauled our huge sacks down to the guest laundry room in the Garden Wing. There’s only 6 washing machines in the room and 2 were broken. They’ve redone the machines, though, so you don’t put quarters in anymore. You swipe your Key to the Kingdom card and the 2 bucks goes onto your room charge. I don’t know what you’d do if you didn’t have the room charging option. Anywhoo, with only 4 machines working and a dad already in the room finishing up his last washing loads it took a while for us to get through our 8 loads. Yes, it was 8 loads. My front loader at home would be like 4 or less but those itty bitty machines they have don’t hold much at all. The other guys made it back just as we were finishing up folding everything. What timing, huh?

 

[sweetpee_1993]

..Day 4 goes on and on...

The boys and I went directly to the Contempo Café to start ordering lunch. I thought it was funny that one of the cooks came out from behind the counter, approached me, and asked if I really wanted to order 4 of the cheese flatbreads. Apparently there’s been problems with little kids who like the touchscreens and send all sorts of crazy orders back to the kitchen.

We took a 2 hour nap which felt heavenly. Then we hopped the monorail over to the Poly for some shopping fun before heading over to the Wilderness Lodge for dinner at Whispering Canyon, another of our family favorites. We had “Bob” from Newark for our waiter and he was a ton of fun. I also got the recipe for the apple vinaigrette dressing while we were there. I need to make it soon!

I dunno if this is sunrise or sunset so I just picked time-slot for it because it's pretty and shouldn't be left out:

Wilderness Lodge and The Whispering Canyon. It's a Brian Totem:

This is where we corrected ourselves! Use the Disney Point!

Tracey's so deliriously full he can't even get the sign down:

Chandler doesn't fall for it:

Instead of trying to hit a park (not that any were open with the limited park hours) or do anything else we opted to get back to bed for another early morning. We started out in line for the boat that goes to the Contemporary but it was really cold standing out there waiting. With no other boats in sight we were perfectly happy to take the longer route by getting on the boat that goes to Ft. Wilderness and then Magic Kingdom. We figured we could hop a monorail from the Magic Kingdom back home. We debated the route, time, etc. in front of the boat attendant before we boarded the boat. After the remaining passengers were dropped at Ft. Wilderness the boat captain came over the PA and let us know that since we were the only people aboard and we needed to go to the Contemporary he would just drop us off at our resort next. Wow! Sometimes it’s the little things that make the biggest difference. Yaaay!

Jerry & Brian find fun props while Tracey is thanking the Man Upstairs and/or the boat captain that we're going home:

As the day drew to a close…I was back in bed writing out the last of my notes for the day and listening to Stacy’s Top 7 Must Do’s at 11:30. Nighty-night!

 

[Disneyfalcon]

Great report so far!! I have loved reading it and seeing all the pictures! Thanks for taking the time to do it!

All the pictures with your boys and princesses are cracking me up too!!

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Day 5-1/28: Balloons, Stampedes, Himalayas, & Kitchen Sinks!

It was another early morning. Surprised? Didn’t think so. I was up before 6 and the sun. This was an interesting sunrise, though. When I went back into the room and pulled the curtains back to wake up the guys around 6:45 I noticed a partially inflated half of something in the open area across the road from the Contemporary near the Seven Seas Lagoon. We watched as we got ready and the sun came up. Turns out it was a hot air balloon that looked like Spaceship Earth with the arm/wand on it. The balloon remained tethered to the ground at all times. There was a boom/bucket truck situated a short distance from the balloon so that they would have the beautiful colors of the rising sun with the castle in the background. This had to have been a set up for promo video or pictures of some sort. It was really pretty.

Here's some video links & a pic of the balloon:
http://s228.photobucket.com/albums/ee262/sweetpee_1993/6-DISNEY JAN 09/?action=view&current=Balloon1.flv
http://s228.photobucket.com/albums/ee262/sweetpee_1993/6-DISNEY JAN 09/?action=view&current=Balloon3.flv

We took a taxi over to the Beach Club resort for Goofy’s Cape May character breakfast. It was super early when we were seated. The majority of the restaurant was still empty. Our waitress, Betty (whom we later learned from another cast member at Beaches & Creams used to be one of the Weekee Watchie Mermaids in her younger years), took our drink order. When she got to Tracey he asked for Coke since he hadn’t yet had his caffeine and was still kind of groggy. Without missing a beat Betty gave him a very serious look and said, “No Coke. This is a healthy restaurant.” I thought he was going to cry. He had the most broken-down, astonished look on his face. I started giggling and Betty broke. We all got a good laugh. I told Betty she needs to be playing cards with that poker face. She was good!

Breakfast pics:

We made it over to Hollywood Studios with time to spare for rope drop. Yes, we were willing participants in the race for Toy Story Midway Mania. This rope drop herd o’tourists was the worst. When the rope goes down and the herd surges forward there’s a line of TSMM cast members that keep the pushing crowd under control by walking everyone back to the attraction. I was directly behind a cast member with both my boys behind me holding on. Well, a group of 3 young adults, 1 guy and 2 girls, tried to shove across in front of me as we approached the ride. Later I found out the same guy (he was kinda on the skinny side) had tried to push past my brother (who's a big guy) but little guy got checked into a wall instead. Anywhoo, they tried to push across in front of me but I threw up the elbow and stood my ground. Apparently the next move was to shove and run over my children as they shot past the front of me into the que at the very last second. Once in the que area they all threw their arms into the air and started cheering “First! We are first!” I won’t repeat what I said to them (it was a little less than magical to say the least) but I let them know that they were quite the heros for shoving children and they’d better run when they got off the ride. Mama bear don’t play when it comes to her kids. I did see them as we were exiting the ride but lost them in the crowd outside the building. Believe me, I looked and was fully prepared to take care of business. Grrrr! Jerry, the kids, and me took the 1st ride on TSMM while Tracey got Fastpasses. He said he was like maybe the 9th person to put his passes into the kiosk and the time spit out was already at 10:45. Amazing!

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Day 5..continued..

After the Toy Story drama we headed on over to Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster for some thrillage fun. We got 2 rides in then hit Tower of Terror. Chandler doesn’t usually like Tower of Terror mostly because of the anticipation and dark but he wanted to give it a try. He screamed that high-pitched death scream and ducked his head down like he was trying to get into the floor but he lived! Yay Chandler for conquering a fear! We crossed back over to Pixar Place to use our Fastpasses. We were back outside the ride at 10:55 to get another set of Fastpasses which came out a return time of 3:05 – 4:05. Isn’t that amazing??? They go so fast!

Next we walked over to Star Tours, hit Muppets 3D (which is sentimental for Jerry and me because we never missed a show on Friday nights at our grandparents' house when we were kids; our late grandfather loved the Muppets), passed through the Great Movie Ride, then walked through Walt, One Man’s Dream.

We high-tailed it back over to Lights Motors Action! And got seats with only 5 minutes to spare before the show started. I won’t go into a lot of details because I had started a thread in the Rumors & News section within a few days of watching this show and the unfortunate accident that we witnessed in the finale. I really need to freeze a still shot from the video footage. I’ve tried to get some for this report but I've never worked with video files and can't seem to get the stinkin' program(s) to work with me. ((If there's anyone out there who can do this I'll email you the file if you'd be willing to help a girl out.)) All indications from following days imply that the driver wasn’t hurt which is what we cared about most. So kudos to the LMA team for their hard work.

Video links to the emergency vehicles considering the 'Doubting Thomases' from the News & Rumors thread so that you can see that this occurance was NOT the norm:
http://s228.photobucket.com/albums/ee262/sweetpee_1993/6-DISNEY JAN 09/?action=view&current=LMAmedics.flv
http://s228.photobucket.com/albums/ee262/sweetpee_1993/6-DISNEY JAN 09/?action=view&current=LMAfireresponse.flv

Following our exit from the show we wandered into the Monsters Inc. meet-n-greet. Mike Wazowski was all by his lonesome and the Photopass guy was having some problems with his equipment so we didn’t get very good pics. That irked me! We were all pretty hungry so we stopped for some light eating at the ABC Commissary. Wow, that place leaves much to be desired. Ick! We felt like the park had filled up a bit much for our comfort and we were pretty tired from such an early morning so we decided to give away our TSMM Fastpasses and head back home for some rest.

Early mornings are tough:

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Day 5...some more...

After some rest we headed over to Animal Kingdom for Evening Extra Magic Hours...aka Everest Adventure. Jerry took the boys for a run through Dinosaur while Tracey and I had a little picnic of rice crispy treats and soda (which is highly unusual for me considering I rarely drink sodas). The wait for Primeval Whirl was pretty long so we stepped on over to Expedition Everest. We were able to score a ride with only a 15 minute standby wait. All the guys looped around again for another ride while I sat it out. When they came out Tracey sat down with me and Jerry took the boys for a 3rd run. Next we walked back to check the wait for Primeval Whirl which was still pretty long with only one side running now. We collectively decided there wasn’t much else we wanted to do in the park so we headed out around 6:30.

The gang waves goodbye to the day guests and hello to us:

I thought this sign was cute and witty:

Instead of just returning to our resort we took the bus from Animal Kingdom to the Beach Club. We played in the arcade while waiting for a booth at Beaches & Creams which none of us had ever been to. We had a quick dinner and then…drumroll…The Kitchen Sink for dessert! With 5 of us working on it we still weren’t able to finish. It was so yummy and I had always wanted to do get one. No regrets!

The Kitchen Sink approaches..."Yes, a whoooole can of whipped cream!"

Before:

After:

Our waitress who also played along with me when I told Tracey he was a bit snippety and should apologize. He felt so bad..was so sheepish and pitiful. She razzed him pretty bad over the whole thing which was sooooo much fun for me! LOL!

We walked through the gift shop in the Yacht Club then grabbed a taxi back to the Contemporary. I love days when you end up going places you didn’t plan to. It puts the spontaneous wanderlust fun back into the adventure. We made it home just after 10:00. Another fantastic Disney Day is done.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Day 6-1/29: Nothing brightens a rainy day like LeCellier.

Today I did actually sleep in. Well, for this trip it was sleeping in! 8:00! Where has the day gone?! We struck out from our home resort heading for Downtown Disney via the ‘long-cut’: walked to the Magic Kingdom, took a boat to Wilderness Lodge, then a bus to Downtown Disney.

Jerry is 'King of the World':

At Downtown Disney we shopped (duh..like we went there to do anything else). I got my usual custom ornament(s) from the Days of Christmas store. In Once Upon a Toy I finally got my tater-head parts I’ve been meaning to get the past 3 trips. The funny CMs at the register sent me back to put more parts in the box because they didn't think I had enough. LOL! We ate lunch at the Earl of Sandwich where Jerry, once again, ordered the most pitiful thing on the menu (although I forget what it was, it was a sad imposter of an Earl sandwich). At World of Disney I bought nothing. I think that’s a first for me! All the guys went to the Lego store where my sons both spent some major bucks buying mucho Legos. I passed through Arribas Brothers on my way back over to Summer Sands. The guys all met back up with me in Team Mickey where Tracey bought the most valuable souvenir ever: a golf umbrella.

You may wonder what the big deal is with this pic. Well, Chandler thought it would fun to try and run thru the water fountain play area and not get wet. He didn't make it. Look closely and you'll see it looks like he wet himself. LOL!

I think Knuckle Jerry was trying to pose the boys who were being a little uncooperative but our efforts weren't very coordinated. LOL! I love Tinker Toys, tho!

We had these:

Wow. What's with my expression here? Oh! I remember! The boys were still not being cooperative with the camera and I was juuust about to pitch a Mom-fit:

On days when they don't want to be still for pics you just go with what you can get:

I want this!

We headed back home for a rest. The rain started at about 2:00 in the afternoon as we were waiting for our bus at Downtown Disney. I guess it was 5:00-ish when we set back out in the on/off drizzlies for Epcot. When we got there Tracey and I huddled under his new umbrella while Jerry and the kids sported the ever-fashionable Disney ponchos.

We walked onto Mission:Space with zero wait even for the briefing room. Jerry isn’t one to ride spinning rides and after a previous try in the Green Team he was ready for the Orange Team challenge. He had his barf bag in hand as the ride began. He says he didn’t feel the spinning although I always do. He didn’t get sick which was quite remarkable considering the number of times I’ve seen him exit a spinning ride literally green in the face and spewing.

The guys walked onto Test Track (I wasn’t about to ride outside in the rain) although you’d never have thought so with how long they were in the ride. When they came out they said they were on the ride just on the inside of the crash barrier when the ride stopped. The funny part was that there was a car load of dance team girls in the car just on the outside of the building squealing about being rained on for 15 minutes or so. Apparently Brian was quite tickled by their predicament and some shouting back and forth through the door took place. I don’t make it a habit to wish bad things on anyone but after all the rides that we had endured with squealing, loud teenage girls it felt like sweet justice. THe guys ended up getting an evac which made me oober jealous.

I also have to note that while I waited in the new car display area and gift shop I witnessed what I had only ever read about on these boards. I watched a lady with a boy that looked about 5 years old stand by their stroller IN the shop and hold a Dasani bottle while he releived himself in it. After he finished she put the bottle in one of the bottle holders of the Disney stroller and they walked off like it was the most natural thing in the world. Icky-poo!

I apologize for my lack of pictures here. Even though my camera is waterproof I didn't take a lot of pics. I wish I had!

We walked through the rain over to Soarin’ and was able to ride with no wait. That was odd…and great! Then it was time for the ADR that I had waited for the entire trip. Yes, it is my favorite, the meal I dream about. Yes. It’s LeCellier. It was a killer meal again which makes us 3 for 3 here. I liiiive for the filet mignon cooked medium over the mushroom risotto. And the pretzel bread with the butter makes my mouth water just thinking about it. Mmmmmm….

I could make a meal of these with the butter:

I literally dream about this before our trips:

When we came out of dinner the rain had stopped and Illuminations was just starting. Perfect! We weren’t quite ready to head home so we walked over to the Boardwalk to check out the gift shop. We got some ice cream, too. Brian wanted his in a cone but we knew he'd end up wearing it so we asked if he could have a cone but turn it over into a bowl. The CM got real excited and said she'd have a surprise for him in just a minute. Look at what he got!

We took a taxi back to the resort and another wonderful day concluded.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Great report so far!! I have loved reading it and seeing all the pictures! Thanks for taking the time to do it!

All the pictures with your boys and princesses are cracking me up too!!

You know, I was pretty surprised Chandler was willing to participate with the Princess Meet-n-Greet. I didn't bribe him, I didn't beg him, heck..I don't think anything was even said aside from, "Are you going to do this, too?" and he was 100% onboard. I'm not sure if it was his pre-teen scoping-the-chicks even if they were Princesses or if he still had enough kid in him that he was interested in characters, too. As into it as he was, I don't feel at all like he was just trying to be nice to me. I can always tell when they're just trying to humor Mom, ya know? Anywhoo, I was very proud of my young gentleman. Each Princess commented on how lucky I was to have 2 handsome princes all to myself. Lucky indeed!

Thanks for the compliments! I've shared the link to this report with a lot of family & friends who aren't necessarily members here...yet. It's a wonderful way to bring everyone along on the adventure. I'm really enjoying it, too!

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Day 7-1/30: Um..Who is that character???

I finally had a day of what some would call real sleeping in. I call it barely sleeping in but that’s just me. I got up at almost 9:00. Whoa! It was rainy and cold outside so the motivation to stay in bed was serious.

We left the resort around 10:30 and decided on Hollywood Studios in spite of the continuing drizzles. The Disney Weather Gods had their timing down because as soon as our bus pulled up to the Studios the rain stopped and we didn’t get rained on again. We walked into the Indiana Jones show with 5 minutes to spare and scored seats in the front on the left of the stage. Guess who got picked as an “extra” in the show? Me!!! WooHoooo!!! Again, Brian was seriously perturbed that I scored a spot in a show. I don’t know that he cried this time, though. The experience wasn't quite as long as it should have been because they didn’t do the ending of the show with the airplane like they normally do I guess because of the weather.

After the abbreviated Indy show and some photos with the guy who played the Indy character we were pretty hungry. With no reservation we got into Hollywood & Vine with maybe a 5 minute wait. I guess that should’ve been our big red sign that it wasn’t much worth reserving. We had no idea who any of the characters here were. It’s been many years since my boys watched Playhouse Disney and I assure you those weren’t the shows we watched. Maybe I would’ve been more impressed had we seen Rolie Polie Olie or PB&J Otters. Some other parents got a good laugh at us when we asked them who the characters were. Boy, was it ever loud in there! The food was none too impressive. There was a whole section of the buffet dedicated to sandwich fixings. We should’ve thought more on the target audience here before deciding to give it a shot. I did enjoy the corn casserole stuff (it tasted much like the corn souffle that I make only for the holidays because none of the guys in my family eat it) and the kids liked the ice cream for dessert. It was a restaurant we had never experienced before. Once did it for us, too!

I'd love to tell you who this is. Even though some other parents told us, I can't remember.

Whoever this is sure was popular with the children around us. I give up. LOL!

Tracey decided he wasn’t in much of the park navigating mood so he was a good hubby and went back to the resort for laundry duty all by himself. What a good guy I have! Jerry and I took the boys for some serious ridin’ time. First we hit Tower of Terror with a 15 minute wait time (which I suspect was due to some technical difficulties by the CMs not in costume we saw working with the ride controls). This worried Chandler only a little. He was determined to go again and stay off the floor. Next we made a 2nd run through the Hollywood Tower Hotel with barely a wait at all. Chandler really started to enjoy the ride this time. We decided were ready for some Rock-n-Rollercoaster thrills. The standby was posted at 30 minutes so we grabbed some Fastpasses and hopped in the standby line. After the 1st run we turned back around and used our Fastpasses for a 2nd trip. Soooo fun! We all just love this ride!

We decided maybe we should head back to see how the laundry was working out. We timed it well because as soon as we arrived Tracey was returning with all the clothes washed, dried, and folded. I put away everything and caught a short catnap. Everyone freshened up and we grabbed a taxi over to Beach Club Resort for our 5:40 dinner ADR at Cape May for the clam bake. The food was pretty good although not as good as we remembered in May. We got about halfway through our meal when a dance team came in and the loud mega-chaos ensued. They were seated next to an older couple and the gentleman stood up, informed a manager he was not eating with the insanity, and they left. We rushed to finish our meal and get out, too. I told the same manager I wish I’d known they were coming because I would’ve cancelled. It was amazing how the atmosphere instantly went straight to the toilet and the mass exodus of all the other guests speaks volumes.

We walked over to Epcot via the International Gateway at 7:00. We went straight over to the American Adventure for the 7:30 show. This is one of my biggest favs of all the Disney shows. It just speaks to me. I grew up in a different time when patriotism was real and celebrated.

We exited the American Adventure as Illuminations was in its final throws. The big finish went off as I was fixing my cup of coffee at the stand out in front of the pavilion. We slowly moved around towards Germany so I could pick up a special gift for our friend who took care of our fur-baby, Riley Belle. We continued around to Norway to see if any of the Deadliest Catch t-shirts had been restocked in XL or XXL sizes. They weren’t, dangit! We are huuuuge fans of the show! Jerry snuck off to buy Tracey a Helly Hansen jacket. Much of the Helly Hansen merchandise was seriously marked down. I really regret not buying one for me. We thought we’d give Test Track a shot so we headed back to Future World via the old Odyssey bridge. As we approached the bridge the man came over the PA announcing that there was going to be a large fireball on the inferno barge and as some sort of final salute or something. I’d only ever heard of the torching of the leftover flammables on the barge. We had never seen it before so we ran to the water’s edge to count it down and see the spectacle. That was very cool! I’m glad we finally saw the fireball go off. Veeeery cool and it warmed us up, too.

Test Track had a 30 minute posted wait time but what else were we going to do besides stand in a line somewhere. After standing in line for no less than 45 minutes we were coming out of the briefing room when the ride went down. Everyone in line was pushed out of the building and given Fastpasses for the same night or the next day. Gee, thanks. How about a Fastpass for an attraction that’s actually running. Duh! We figured with limited attractions open and operational and one of the biggies down the Evening Extra Magic Hours weren’t very worthwhile. We hopped the monorail back to our resort.

When we got back to our resort we picked up more packages and headed to bed. I was in bed writing my last notes at midnight. It totally blows to be staring down the barrel at your last full day of vacation. **sniffle, sniffle**

 

[HollyBelle]

Wow you all do a lot of character meals!!! We need to revisit Cape May for breakfast... I noticed in your pictures that Donald is making appearances now. Last time we were there was when it was Minnie's. Are the chipmunks no longer in the line up? I just noticed pictures of Goofy, Minnie and Donald. Who's the fouth, if there is one?

And I LOVE Beaches and Cream, it's a must do for every trip. So glad you guys got to enjoy it!

 

[mouselvrmom]

Wow you all do a lot of character meals!!! We need to revisit Cape May for breakfast... I noticed in your pictures that Donald is making appearances now. Last time we were there was when it was Minnie's. Are the chipmunks no longer in the line up? I just noticed pictures of Goofy, Minnie and Donald. Who's the fouth, if there is one?

And I LOVE Beaches and Cream, it's a must do for every trip. So glad you guys got to enjoy it!

Oh, my! I saw the Donald picture, but it didn't even register in my mind that it was Cape May where he didn't use to be. :lol: I love his costume! We will have to try it again now that he's there. When we were there it was the chipmunks too. So I'm eager to hear who else might have been there.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Wow you all do a lot of character meals!!! We need to revisit Cape May for breakfast... I noticed in your pictures that Donald is making appearances now. Last time we were there was when it was Minnie's. Are the chipmunks no longer in the line up? I just noticed pictures of Goofy, Minnie and Donald. Who's the fouth, if there is one?

And I LOVE Beaches and Cream, it's a must do for every trip. So glad you guys got to enjoy it!

Oh, my! I saw the Donald picture, but it didn't even register in my mind that it was Cape May where he didn't use to be. :lol: I love his costume! We will have to try it again now that he's there. When we were there it was the chipmunks too. So I'm eager to hear who else might have been there.

Wow! This was our 1st time doing Cape May for breakfast so we didn't know who the normal characters were. Yep, Donald was at this one. I thought his costume was really cute. Holly, the other character was Mickey but we didn't wait on him because we were trying to make the DHS rope drop. Now I sorta wish we had considering the not-so-magical way the rope drop turned out. Nope, no Chip-n-Dale. I wish! They're in my top 5 favs for characters.

We do a lot of character meals because it's a chance to see the characters without waiting in lines for them in the parks. We enjoy the dining experiences a lot. We have to eat so we try to incorporate cool experiences into something we have to do anyway. Right? Also, there's so many restaurants/meals we love that it's becoming more and more impossible to squeeze everything in. I always gain at least 5 lbs. each trip even with all the walking. I gotta stop doing that! :hammer:

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Day 8-1/31: I did NOT put the smack-down on...

...the line-cutting kiddies at the Fairies Meet-n-Greet!

Today is our last full day. It was tough keeping the blues at bay long enough to soak up the last full day of fun. I had no problem at all getting out of the bed at 6:30.

We really thought we had zero chance at a walk-up at Chef Mickey’s for breakfast but the guys all humored me long enough to check. We checked in at the podium at 7:20, took our picture, and were seated within 10 minutes. Wow! The food was good but the service was surprisingly terrible. We couldn’t get the right drinks or refills on the ones we had no matter how hard we tried. I’m not entirely sure we even had a waiter. The food was good. I live for Goofy’s Vegetable Lasagna. The service was so bad, though, that we opted to not use our Tables in Wonderland card to eliminate the automatic 20% tip. We left $3 only because we didn’t want to wait all day for our change.

This is the BEST video ever! Brian was gettin' down to the Celebration song but then Mickey walked up. Mickey actually looks impressed! Then Brian realizes he's being watched and he tried to hide under the table. Look at how red his little cheeks are!
http://s228.photobucket.com/albums/ee262/sweetpee_1993/9-DISNEY JAN 09/?action=view&current=BrianChefMicDance.flv

And the pics:

Emotions were running high. Can ya tell?