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Sue Holland -- October 2000 -- Walt Disney World (OKWR)

Who/When/Where:

• Who: Sue (me - turning 42 11/4), DVC member
• Dates: October 30 - November 11, 2000
• Travel Method: Personal car
• Resort: Old Key West Resort (studio)
• Experience: Extremely experienced, averaging 6-7 weeks a year at WDW (and wanting more)

INTRODUCTION:

This trip started out as a vacation with a bunch of online friends from around the country. Some of us have met before, but many have never met in person. Like previous DVC ladies' weekend trips, this one is strictly for us - no husbands, kids, or responsibilities! For many of the women this is their first time going to WDW without having to be mommy and wife, so we're looking forward to doing whatever we want to do, and acting as silly and inappropriate as we wish, since our kids won't be watching us <g>!

However, I don't particularly like weekend trips - even long weekends. For me they're just not long enough, and I find them frustrating (guess that's like seeing the glass as 1/2 empty rather than 1/2 full, but it's the truth). Also, there are some friends who live in the WDW area that I really enjoy seeing, and wouldn't be able to do that while vacationing with my other friends. Finally, I really enjoy my solo time as well. I love seeing lots of shows at the Comedy Warehouse, rollerblading at WDW (now that it's finally getting cool enough) and just wandering around. The obvious solution was to schedule a long enough trip to accommodate all of those things, and being a DVC member I don't have to pay for my lodging, so budget isn't a consideration. If I was paying cash to stay at a resort, I'd definitely feel pressure to keep costs down...with DVC I stay longer & longer without paying anything (dues don't count - guess now I'm seeing the glass 1/2 full rather than 1/2 empty, lol).

The most difficult decision was how to make the trip as long as possible without creating the image of never being at work - since I took 2 weeks in August, a week in September, and will be gone again 2 weeks over Christmas! I ended up with a 10 night stay, with 3 weekend nights plus a holiday thrown in there, to minimize the time away from work. A couple months ago an opportunity presented itself - I'm champion of a team at work that's looking at unmet needs in the community, and one of the things we're developing is a camp for developmentally disabled people. There happens to be a successful camp in the Orlando area, and also a camp for terminal & seriously ill kids about an hour away from the first one, so a co-worker who will be coming to a conference in Orlando the first week suggested we visit them both. The day she suggested was the day before my vacation was due to start, so of course I jumped at the chance! I eventually was able to add 2 more nights at the beginning of my trip at OKW, giving me 2 more nights of Comedy Warehouse and a little extra WDW time during the day.

There's a group of DVC members who planned a reunion trip that overlaps my dates (I purposely planned to come in early enough to catch the end of the DVC meet), so I'll get to attend one of their events to see some old friends and meet a few new people! The dates my internet friends are here are being spent with them...they're the priority, so I'll likely be spending more time than usual in the parks, and eating at a few places I don't normally hit. I'm skipping any other meets during those dates - there just isn't time. I'll list the people in the group on those specific dates - partly to respect their privacy now, and partly because although I have a pretty good idea who's going to be there, I doubt I could name everyone without missing someone (the 7 dwarves are hard enough to remember, and there's more of us, lol). I am sharing my OKW studio with Gail (jdocter7) for the 4 nights she's in town - we've met a few times before, and I'm looking forward to spending more time with her. DVC friends - one of my internet friends is Jan, our board monitor...so please play nice on the board while she's gone <g>! Anyway, it should be a fun trip!

I'll be posting daily, and putting pictures on photopoint. I've got the album set up (I think it's called 11/00 WDW Trip, or something like that) - but it's empty right now. I also bought a new digital camera, which takes REALLY nice pictures! It's a Sony Cybershot DSC-S70, 3.3megapixel, with a great zoom. Hopefully the picture quality will remain when I shrink the pictures down somewhat for uploading to photopoint. I can't afford spending 5 minutes or more per picture to email them up there! At the 2nd lowest resolution the picture takes 3 minutes to mail, and takes up over 500kb of disk space, vs. an average of 50kb for the pics with the old cheapie digital camera. I'm sure I'll have fun playing with it.

I've listed plans for most days, but they're extremely flexible after the first week. Some things are still in the idea stage - but not confirmed. My priorities (not in any particular order) are Comedy Warehouse, seeing friends, eating/drinking at Food & Wine Festival, rollerblading, Stormalong Bay, banana nut bread, seeing Cirque again, and also celebrating my birthday with the internet friends at dinner & a MK fireworks cruise. I actually just returned from a 3 night business trip to WDW on Thursday 10/26, and went to the Food & Wine Festival twice (got some great food) and to the Comedy Warehouse all 3 nights, and it's a real treat to be returning for a longer trip just 4 days later!

The plans so far...

Monday 10/30: Work 1/2 day, check in to OKW, Comedy Warehouse

Tuesday 10/31: Business during day, Comedy Warehouse or a park during the evening

Wednesday 11/1: MK, Meet Pete & Judy (internet friends), Comedy Warehouse

Thursday 11/2: Rollerblade, Internet ladies arrive, Visit some park, Epcot lunch w/group, Comedy Warehouse

Friday 11/3: Cinderella's Royal Table breakfast, MK w/group, Stormalong Bay or rollerblade, Cirque du Soleil

Saturday 11/4: AK, 'Ohana's dinner w/group, MK Fireworks Cruise

Sunday 11/5: Rollerblade, Some park, Meet DVC friends at Bellevue, Comedy Warehouse

Monday 11/6: Rollerblade, Possible Stormalong Bay day with Nancy, Comedy Warehouse

Tuesday 11/7: No specific plans for the day, Comedy Warehouse

Wednesday 11/8: No specific plans for the day, Disney Cruise Line reception early evening, Comedy Warehouse later

Thursday 11/9: AK, Stormalong Bay, Rollerblade, Comedy Warehouse

Friday 11/10: No specific plans

Saturday 11/11: Super Soap Day at MGM, drive home

DAY 1 - MONDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2000:

Who: Sue (me - turning 42 11/4), DVC member

Plan: Work 1/2 day, check in to OKW, Comedy Warehouse

Actual: First - an apology. I'm not sure what's up with AOL, but I noticed the installment from yesterday came through without any apostrophes at all. Ugh - I may not always have perfect punctuation, but I certainly do a better job than aol portrays!

I spent the morning at work, leaving the office about 12:15. With 1 stop for gas, I arrived at Old Key West just before 3pm - excellent time! The guard at the entrance said "Welcome Home", as they're supposed to (but often forget), and I was the 3rd person in line at check in. Happily, my studio was ready, so after buying Gail's E-Ride Night ticket for this Thursday (I didn't buy one for myself, because I'll probably do Comedy Warehouse, but if I change my mind I'll buy one later) I was out of there by 3:15.

My studio is in the Old Turtle Pond section, which is 1 of the 2 sections I like best, and I'm in a building I've been in several times. All my requests were met - top floor, water view, and most importantly - NO smoking. The bus stop is very close, yet I don't get any bus noise, and the pool isn't far away either. I'm very happy with the location, and hope Gail is too. I checked on the housekeeping schedule, and wasn't happy with it so later on I called housekeeping to change it. I was due for 2 full cleanings and 1 trash/towel - which is really more than I need. They had the first full clean scheduled for the day Gail arrives - and since I'll be meeting her at the studio I don't need to have housekeeping needing to do a full clean! I switched this to a trash/towel - they can empty the trash & give us fresh towels. Her bed will not have been slept in, so there's no need to change her sheets. I switched the full cleaning to the 6th, which is the day Gail leaves. That will give me fresh towels for the rest of the trip - and they'll change the sheets & make both beds. I had them just skip the other full cleaning.

When I got to the studio I carried as much as I could into the room (electronics mostly) and dumped it in the room. Since it was getting late, I figured the first order of business was grocery shopping. So, I left the rest of the stuff in the car & went to the bus stop to catch a bus to the MK. Yes, the MK is my grocery store <g>. The MK bus was the next one to arrive, and I was on Main Street by 4pm. I went first to the bakery, where there was just a single piece of banana nut bread left...which I bought. The family behind me also wanted banana nut bread, but had to settle for the zucchini bread (glad I got there first). From there I went to the candy store, and stood in a very slow moving line to buy my marshmallow thingy (it looked better than the pitiful thing they passed off as a marshmallow thingy last time - but the real test will be when I eat part of it), and also got a milk chocolate Mickey truffle to eat now.

Exiting the candy store, I took a bite of the truffle, and was shocked to find it was dark chocolate - a very poor substitute for milk chocolate in my opinion! However, I was hungry, and even dark chocolate is better than no chocolate, so I ate it. I wanted to check out the camera store to look for a bag for my new digital camera, and at first was surprised it wasn't in it's usual spot (it got replaced when the candy store expanded). I was about to leave MK, and then realized it was probably in the big building with the huge Kodak sign (next to Tony's) - so I went in. I did find a nice leather-look bag with Mickey heads embossed on it, but they had 2 different sizes and I hadn't brought the camera with me. I think I'll probably end up with the small one...I don't like big stuff to carry around, and will probably buy one of them when I'm back in the MK Wednesday morning.

I returned to the bus stop, and had a fairly long wait for the OKW bus. Once there, the drivers were switching, and eventually we were on our way back to OKW on a very uncrowded but noisy (screaming child) bus. The kid's mother (I didn't turn around to see how old he/she was) was commenting to the other people in her party that this was nothing - he usually throws himself to the floor & screams. I know some kids are more difficult than others, but this was ridiculous - luckily they're not staying in the unit next to me, so I won't have the pleasure of listening to them again <g>.

On the way up to the studio I grabbed another load from the car. It ended up taking 3.5 trips (I had to leave some stuff from the last trip on the stairs & go back for it) to bring everything in, and I didn't finish putting everything away until almost 6pm! It's a lot of work when you move in for such a long stay. I've got quite a few things I wouldn't have brought for a shorter trip, but I really don't mind....OKW is my "home away from home" and I enjoy being as comfortable here as I am back in Ft Myers.

There was a message on the phone - inviting me to the members update/breakfast in the morning. LOL, I forgot all about that - but since I already got my banana nut bread I'll skip the breakfast. Besides, I'm not in the market to add any more DVC points. I ate a little of the banana bread and updated the report, then read a few of the messages I'd downloaded earlier today.

It feels so strange for it to be dark outside so early - it makes it feel really late! Tomorrow fog is expected in the morning, and hopefully it won't create a problem for me since I'm driving to the camps. Tonight I left the studio just after 6:30, and drove to Pleasure Island. I figured I had better get some food, so I went to the outdoor window at Bongo's for a chicken empanada before heading for the Comedy Warehouse. It was delicious, as usual - the perfect light meal. After eating I thought about stopping in at DisneyQuest but decided instead to watch a little of the video in the Cirque du Soleil show.

After dark the temperature dropped to about 70 degrees pretty quickly. I wore a light dress all day (even to the MK, lol) and still had it on tonight. I carried a light jacket, but ended up never putting it on. It was expected to be down to about 65 by later tonight, but it never really felt cold.

I entered Pleasure Island just after 7, and since it was too early for the line to form at the Comedy Warehouse I just stood around talking to cm Joe, and later cm AnneMarie joined us. We chatted about 40 minutes, and then it was time to get in line. The time passed really quickly (initially I thought I'd be bored waiting almost an hour for the show), which was great! I was seated in my favorite row, and the cast was Mark, Matt, Jennifer, Jen & Jake - all people I really like. The show kind of struggled though, and wasn't their best. Once in a while that happens, despite their incredible talent. The waitress was one who knows me, so she asked if I wanted my Bye Bye Blues, and also brought me the show schedule so I could see who was working and what the skits would be. I saw they'll be doing Forgotten Songs in the last show - I love that game, but a 12:05 am show is just too late for me when I've got to get up in the morning! To close the first show they asked for an embarrassing story, so I told about putting my foot on a swivel chair to tie my shoe at work last Friday and looking up/losing my balance when someone walked by and said hi. The chair turned, and I fell down - like a klutz. They made up a cute western ballad & that part was funny.

After the show ended I decided to get in line immediately for the next one, no matter how bad my seat might be. The alternative was waiting almost 2 hours, which was not what I wanted to do! I got I line, and the woman ahead of me turned and asked if I was Sue. At first I thought she recognized me from the last show, but it turns out she reads my trip reports and recognized me from the pictures. Her name is Sherry (she's a lurker rather than a poster), she's a DVC member, and she & her husband are here for 2 weeks on their honeymoon - staying offsite at his timeshare. The 3 of us talked until it was time to go inside, and they were both really nice people (congratulations again on your marriage)! Once inside, AnneMarie had 1 seat left at the end of my favorite row, so I was sent down there <g>.

This show was much funnier. The cast was Mary, Layden, Mark, Jennifer & Matt. Jennifer & Mark did a great job improvising a scene where they were on a melting iceberg in Tahiti, having to incorporate 3 songs that were each a different style (Mozart, Blues, & one other I forgot). After this show I thought about getting in line for a 3rd, but since it would be a 1/2 hour wait & I have to work tomorrow I decided to just call it a night. I was back in my studio by 10:15 or so! I absolutely LOVE going home to OKW - it's so much more convenient than any other WDW resort, or :::heaven forbid::: an offsite hotel!

Back in the studio I finished up the report, downloaded & sent a pic of Jamie the keyboard player to a girl who's creating a Comedy Warehouse web page, and then got online to see how chatty my internet friends had been with e-mail today! They'd managed over 65 messages in 3 hours this morning...guess there's a lot to talk about with our trip coming up in only 3 more days!

I did everything in the plan today. Getting the banana bread & marshmallow thingy (haven't tried it yet, so I still don't know if it's good) was a bonus, as was meeting Sherry & her husband (Frank??). It's wonderful being back at Old Key West, and I'm looking forward to a terrific 13 days here :-)

Miles walked: Don't know - no way to hook the pedometer to my dress

DAY 2 - TUESDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2000:

Who: Sue (me - turning 42 11/4), DVC member

Plan: Business during day, Comedy Warehouse or a park during the evening

Actual: I didn't describe the studio yesterday, assuming that most people know what they look like by now...I'm sure I've posted pictures on past trips. If anyone wants to know anything, just write. The studio is in excellent condition, and all amenities are present. Rick Gabauer will be happy to hear that my door is freshly painted & not all scraped up <g>!

A friend sent me the url to a photopoint download to make sending my pics up faster. With the new digital camera that will come in handy - even the lower resolution pictures on it are so much bigger/better than the old camera, it takes a while to send them. So far, I haven't sent any up, and probably won't for a few days. I'll post the url again once I've put something in there.

It was completely quiet last night - no noise from buses or neighbors. Staying in a more hotel-like resort such as the Boardwalk, avoiding noise is more difficult - that's one of the very long list of things I love about OKW. I don't feel like I'm in a hotel - I feel like I'm home. At home I don't have people walking past my front door - and I don't need that on vacation either! Perhaps if I didn't travel so much I'd feel differently, and being in a hotel would be more of a "treat", but this year I'll spend over 100 nights away from home (most of them in a WDW resort or cruise ship), so the thrill of being in a hotel has pretty much passed.

I was up at 6:30 (I'd set the alarm), and put on some exercise clothes and rollerbladed over to the Disney Institute since the sun was already up. Other than a few joggers and some guys working on the golf course, I didn't see any other people. The fog they predicted last night didn't materialize - it was clear, sunny & beautiful! I noticed 4 hot air balloons flying around, which looked really pretty. I think there's a place in Kissimmee where you can pay to go up in one - but I'd never seen them before.

I got back to the studio just after 7:15, showered, and ate one of my yogurts (low fat strawberry with Nestle Crunch pieces - very good). I'd only taped about 10 minutes at the Comedy Warehouse last night, so I reviewed that and recharged the battery. I'm not able to get my usual cappuccino anymore, so I'd brought a couple containers of the new Folgers Cafe Latte - today I'm drinking the chocolate mint mambo, and I also brought decaf vanilla vibe. The chocolate is pretty good - but I can tell it's loaded with caffeine. Before leaving the studio I cut a small piece of the banana nut bread, knowing that lunch may get missed today.

Today's business consists of visiting 2 specialty camps. Camp Thunderbird is a camp for adults & children with developmental disabilities (mostly mental retardation), and The Boggy Creek Gang Camp is for children with terminal/serious illnesses. Since I work at an institution for adults with developmental disabilities, and chair a team responsible for developing part of our strategic plan on meeting unmet needs of the community, AND we've entered into partnership with other groups to develop a camp on our grounds, it made sense that I should visit Camp Thunderbird since it's the closest one to us. I'll be picking up Janet (co-worker who handles volunteer services & community stuff) at her hotel in downtown Orlando, and we'll go together.

I left the studio at 9, picked up Janet at her downtown hotel at 9:30, and headed for Camp Thunderbird. I was surprised to see it didn't feel like we were in Florida at all - it reminded me of Hilton Head, with the Live Oak trees and hanging moss stuff. It was really pretty, very rustic, and we got a lot of good information. From there it was another hour north to Boggy Creek Gang Camp (I was right - no time for lunch, lol), and that place is indescribably GORGEOUS!! It makes Ft Wilderness look like a slum - it's THAT nice! It's only 5 years old, and every building is just breathtaking. Disney is one of the contributors, along with many other major corporations. They've got a professional theater that cost almost $1million, and it was built by Universal. While we can never match the luxuriousness of the physical plant, we still learned a lot and came away with several ideas & suggestions. I dropped Janet off back at her hotel, and got back to OKW close to 4:30. It was a long day, but very worthwhile - I'm really glad I took the opportunity to visit these camps.

Back in the studio I was most interested in food, lol - but also wanted to do some online stuff before heading for the Comedy Warehouse. I'd brought a packet of microwave popcorn, so I popped that & ate a few bites of the marshmallow thingy while the popcorn was popping (the marshmallow thingy appears to be fine....not substandard like last time, lol). There was a phone message from the recreation staff informing guests of the Halloween parade this afternoon at the resort, but I'd already missed that. I like that the DVC resorts do extra things like activities - they realize that we're more likely to be spending time at our resort than other WDW guests.

While I was online replying to some work-related emails (I'll count it as work time <g>), my friend Bob beeped. So, I got offline to call him - we used to work together & now he's the head of our agency in this area. It was good talking to him, and he wants to have dinner some night - he'll call tomorrow to finalize the plans. The sunset was very pretty tonight, and I saw it from my studio - I still haven't used the porch like so many of my DVC friends (Darla particularly) except to step outside to check the temperature. There's just no time, but maybe since there's electrical outlets out there (there are none at BW, and the nearest outlet inside is so far you'd really need an extension cord to be comfortable) I'll do the online stuff outside some day. About 6:30 I drove over to Downtown Disney and wandered around for a while before entering PI. At the Marketplace they had trick or treating for the kids, with cast members stationed outside each store to pass out candy. There were lots of kids in costume, having fun. As I passed near the stage I heard Mary's (from the Comedy Warehouse), and saw that she was the emcee for the kids' costume contest - she was doing a super job, of course <g>. I only watched for a few minutes, and then continued on my way. At Ghiradelli I got my free piece of chocolate and saw that they'd marked some stuff 40% off - including the milk chocolate filled with chocolate orange cream that I like. It was $1.80 rather than $2.99, so I bought one. I browsed through the World of Disney, and then took the walkway to the West Side.

It was a toss-up between wandering the West Side vs. just entering PI and hanging around, and I ended up entering PI. It really wasn't time to get in line at Comedy Warehouse, so I decided to just walk the street <g> and as I headed down the hill I heard someone yelling my name. I turned around, and it was the family from Ft Pierce that I'd met from the Comedy Warehouse line in the past! It was so good to see them again, and we ended up spending the evening together. As a reminder, they are Don, Sue, & their adult daughter Kelly. They said they always look for me here, and had recently commented that it had been a while since they'd seen me. I laughed and admitted I always look for them, also! They drove up just for the evening, since Kelly works as a teacher & has to be at school tomorrow.

We saw the first 2 shows. The first one had Layden, Mark, Jen (long hair), Jake & Krista, and for the 2nd show Krista was out and Mary was in. I really like all 6 of these actors, and both shows were excellent. Kelly was chosen for the Fill In The Blank game, and did an excellent job with her suggestions. I wish I'd thought to tape it for them, but perhaps another time. Between the shows Don asked the cm outside about a photo of the cast that allegedly was available upon request, and the cm told him he'd need to ask one of the actors to see if any were left. I was unaware of this, but suggested he ask Layden after the next show, since Layden seems to always know what's going on & have access to stuff. After the 2nd show, I stopped to talk with Leigh (the food & beverage manager), who is expecting her first baby, while Don asked Layden about the picture. I also chatted briefly with Jen & Jake - with Jake mentioning he'd recently gotten engaged. They've got a lot of newlywed, newly engaged & pregnant people there right now and were joking it was something in the water....good thing I stick to my Bye Bye Blues - Chris doesn't need a brother or sister!

Layden went backstage and came out with a couple of the current cast photo for Don, and Don gave one to me. It's a goofy sort of picture - each actor is either wearing a wig or some sort of costume, making a silly face, but they each autographed it - which was a nice touch. Layden went to their locker room and came back with 4 of the original cast photo from 1989 and gave them to us. That photo is priceless - it's so funny to see the actors as they looked 11 years ago (generally thinner & with a lot more hair, lol)! >From that photo, only Layden, Mark, Mary & Krista still remain. The rest have moved on to other things at WDW or have left the company. Anyway, it was a special treat to receive the pictures, and I'm so glad to have run into the Ft Pierce family!

After the 2nd show we just wandered the streets and watched part of the costume judging, and I shared some of the Ghiradelli bar with them (they liked it). Initially I'd considered skipping PI tonight, afraid that without a costume I'd feel out of place, but I'm really glad I went. It was extremely crowded, but it was a nice crowd, with everyone having fun. There were well over 100 people in costumes who entered the contest, and some were very creative & elaborate. The first prize is a trip to New York, $1500 spending money & tickets to a Broadway show - not bad! Had I been by myself I doubt I would have stayed as late as I did, but we were having so much fun watching the festivities we didn't leave until just before the New Year's Eve stuff. We exchanged email addresses, so we can let each other know when we'll be here - and I took a picture of them that I'll send to Kelly & also to Sue/Don. I've still not posted anything to photopoint, and won't until probably Thursday/Friday (Nov 2 or 3) at the earliest.

I was back in my studio by midnight, finished the report but decided to skip the online stuff until morning. The day went according to the plan, only better! The day spent at the camps was really wonderful, spending time with the Ft Pierce people was great, and getting those Comedy Warehouse photos....you'd think I was a kid in a candy store <g>! It's been a fantastic trip so far, and I've not done a single thing in the parks except buy some snacks at MK yesterday - yet there still aren't enough hours in the day. We'll see what the next few days bring :-)

Miles walked: Skipped the pedometer again today...will start tomorrow.

DAY 3 - WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2000:

Who: Sue (me - turning 42 11/4), DVC member

Plan: MK, Meet Pete & Judy (internet friends), Comedy Warehouse

Actual: I woke up just after 6, and decided to get up. Rich (Richym1) & I talked via IM for a little bit - he & his family are here at OKW now also. Our plans for the day will put us at opposite ends of WDW, so perhaps we'll run into each other some other day.

I should perhaps clarify that last night at PI the costume contest appeared to be for adults only. I wouldn't want people to head their next year thinking their kids would get to participate! The kids' contest was earlier at the Marketplace, and PI was delightfully kid-free last night (not 100%, but there were far fewer kids than normal).

This morning I had some of the strawberry orange juice I'd brought (from a citrus place at home), and adjusted the refrigerator setting to eliminate the ice chips in the juice! I showered & got ready, finished the banana nut bread with some cappuccino, and threw a nutrigrain bar thing in the backpack for later. It's another gorgeous day - no rain expected for at least 5 days, high temps in the low 80's, into the 60's at night, high 50's by after midnight.

The one drawback to the studios at OKW is they all attach to a 1br unit to create a 2br unit. The connecting doors do a lousy job of soundproofing, and this trip I've been cursed with a family who has 2 kids in strollers who do a lot of screaming, crying, shrieking, etc. I imagine they don't realize how it carries over here, but thankfully they make the most noise when I'm not trying to sleep. Hopefully they'll be checking out soon, and will be replaced by a nice quiet guest. That's really the only thing I can complain about at OKW.

I left the studio about 8:45, took the bus to MK, and arrived there at 9:05. The first thing I did was mail my travel expense voucher back to the office, using a mailbox on Main Street. It felt strange to be mailing "real" mail vs. postcards from the MK, lol! I headed straight to Tomorrowland and was amazed to see nobody at Space Mountain. There were no people at the Fastpass machines, nobody in line that I could see, and only 1 party of 3 sitting outside on a bench! I got my Fastpass, and since the standby time said 10 minutes I went inside (Fastpass time was 9:50). There wasn't any line at all until I was almost to the turnstile. They were only loading the right side, which is normal when the park first opens, but it seemed to be moving much slower than normal. Eventually I got on though, and was seated in the very last seat with a group of very elderly people. I thought it was great they were riding - sort of breaking the senior citizen stereotype in a way. When the ride ended I heard one lady exclaim "I'm NOT riding THAT again", lol! I know I plan to still be riding when I'm in my 80's, but I give her a lot of credit for trying it at least once.

Next I pretty much walked right on to Buzz Lightyear, and ended up with a really pitiful score. I read about people scoring really high on this ride, but I guess I'm just not coordinated enough or something. It's almost embarrassing knowing that the people behind me can see how badly I did, lol! After Buzz I walked over to Fantasyland and since there were hardly any people in line for the Pooh ride I rode that. For me it's not worth a wait, but I think it's a cute ride & will do it if I've got a Fastpass or can walk right on.

By now it was 10am, so I returned to Space Mountain and used the Fastpass. This time the cm put me in the front seat, which I always enjoy but don't usually request. I did the Tomorrowland Transit Authority (an old favorite) next, and then rushed back to Main Street to meet Pete & Judy at the candy store. Pete & Judy have been reading my trip reports for quite a while, and would usually write to me. Our friendship developed from that correspondence and they are new DVC members here on their first DVC stay. We've seen photos of each other, so recognizing each other was not a problem. We spent about an hour visiting, and found we'd been to or lived in some of the same places. They were every bit as nice in person as they are in e-mail, and I enjoyed spending time with them. We'll be meeting at Comedy Warehouse tomorrow night for the first show, which should be fun (I'd pretty much already decided that E-Ride Night was not more appealing to me than Comedy Warehouse, especially since I'll be back at the MK with my friends the next morning).

After we left to go our separate ways I went to the camera store to buy the case for the digital camera. I really wanted the smaller one, but with the zoom lens the camera wouldn't fit! Good thing I brought it with me! I ended up with the larger one, which is more than I need but I still like it ($28 plus tax). I ate the nutrigrain thing as I walked back down Main Street, and stopped in the Bakery to buy 2 pieces of banana nut bread (one for me, one for Gail - arriving tomorrow). This time I didn't have to settle for the last end piece, lol - these look really good.

I headed to Frontierland, and saw where they're building the Aladdin's Magic Carpet ride. I don't think I'd been in this section of the park during the past few trips. I was glad to see they're taking out retail space to build the new ride rather than removing an existing attraction. It wasn't overly crowded, but with the construction narrowing the walkways it made it seem a little congested.

I decided to ride Pirates of the Caribbean, which had a very short wait. I was seated in the front row, by myself, and I sat in the middle to avoid any splash from the hill or cannon battle. Imagine my surprise when we went down the hill and at the bottom the equivalent of a small bucket of water came splashing up at me! I've NEVER experienced or heard of anything remotely like that every happening before. My (white) shirt was soaked through on part of the front, part of my hair was wet, water was dripping off my arm, and my backpack was dripping still when I got off the ride (it had been on my lap). I have no idea what happened - but it was very strange. Of course, being wet I felt really cold for the rest of the ride, and couldn't wait to get outside into the sun to dry. I stopped at the restroom and got some paper towels to wipe off the backpack and the sole of my sandal, lol! Very strange....

There wasn't anything else I wanted to do in the MK (Big Thunder is closed for refurbishment), so I headed out and went to the bus stop. I didn't have a destination in mind, but figured I'd see what buses were there & come up with a plan at that time. There were 2 - Coronado and Swan/Dolphin. I took the bus to the Swan, and walked along the Yacht Club/Beach Club into Epcot. I turned left and started walking around the world, beginning with United Kingdom. It was much less crowded early in the afternoon than it is later! In China I stopped at the Southeast Asia stand and bought the chicken satay. For $3 it's a large portion, and was my favorite item last year, but this year I like the chicken on sugar cane stick in Africa much better. So, this is my last chicken satay! I continued around the world, stopping in Morocco for a glass of white wine ($2). As I passed the Tangierine Cafe I noticed the menu was updated. They've added a couple of wrap sandwiches, and I didn't see my tomato/cucumber salad listed. I checked inside, and they no longer make it - damn, that was my favorite item, and one of my "regular" meals. I'll miss it, and doubt I'll be bothering with Tangierine Cafe any longer :(

I continued walking, repeating UK & Canada, and entered Future World. Test Track was operating, so I sat over there & finished my wine before getting into the single rider line. From the time I got in line to when I was back outside it was about 20 minutes. They still had fastpasses, for 4:30 (2 hours away). There was a nervous little boy in the back seat, and his sister (seated up front next to me) kept turning around to tell him there would be an inversion, or a giant hill, etc! Just your typical loving sister, lol!

After Test Track I decided I'd had enough time in the parks, so I headed towards the exit. There wasn't anybody in line for Spaceship Earth, and since I knew I had time before the next OKW bus I went in to ride that before going to the bus stop. The OKW bus came in about 5 minutes, loaded up the few people and then immediately left. Usually they sit there for a little while, but maybe she was running late. The first stop was Peninsular Road, so I got off there and walked back to Conch Flats. I checked at the front desk, and UPS had already delivered my memory stick, so the cm gave me that box. Amazing, the memory stick is the size of a stick of chewing gum, and it came in a box the size of a shoebox, lol!

I took a quick stroll through the pool area but didn't recognize any DVC people I know, so I walked back to my studio. I spent a lot of time and had a horrible experience trying to resize/shrink some of the digital pictures I'd taken. It kept cutting off big chunks of the pictures, rather than shrinking the entire image down to the smaller size. I think to counter this headache I'll set the pictures I know I won't print to the lowest resolution before taking them!

I was able to update the report, do some online stuff, and relax. I ate some of the Ghiradelli bar & the marshmallow thingy while watching my soap (General Hospital). Oh - somebody had written asking if there really is an E-Ride Night on the 6th, and it IS listed on the E-Ride literature at the front desk.

At around 6:30 or so I got ready and drove over to PI. Since there was time, I headed to DisneyQuest for a little while. I ended up only spending about 20 minutes there - playing a few of the video games (rather poorly, I might add, lol), and then I decided to leave. It was fairly busy, but nowhere near as bad as in the summer. Once outside I stopped at the outdoor window at Bongo's and got a chicken empanada for dinner.

I entered PI around 7:15, and decided to check the Jazz Club. Tonight the door was unlocked, so I went inside to visit with Nancy & finalize our plans for Monday. She suggested rollerblading with me - which sounded great to me! Hey Darla - you should take this as a challenge...find those skates before April, lol! Nancy & I will also look at a bunch of digital pictures, and may go to Stormalong Bay, depending on the weather.

I left the Jazz Club to head up the hill & get in line at Comedy Warehouse at 7:30, and the line had already formed. I ended up with a great seat though, and didn't really mind the 1/2 hour wait. Tonight we had new guy Josh, Philip, Layden, Krista, Greg & Jake (5 of them in each of the first 2 shows). I like Josh - usually it takes a while for me to get used to a new actor, but he's been pretty funny & seems to be fitting in well. I talked to Layden for a while after the 2nd show, and Jake stopped to chat when Layden got called away temporarily. Jake has shaved his head in preparation for a temporary job at the Pirate Festival coming up in Key West (but he'll be back at Comedy Warehouse after it's over). I'm pretty sure all of the actors take side jobs as they come up - you never know where you'll find them. After finishing with Layden I left the club, and left PI to return to OKW.

Back in the studio I downloaded some digital pictures I'd taken for someone, and finished up the report for today. I'm not going to bother getting online, since I'll have time for that in the morning. Today was a great day, and I did everything on the plan plus some time at Epcot.

Tomorrow starts the next phase of my trip - the arrival of my internet friends, which is a day we've been looking forward to for about a year it seems. We communicate via a private email list, and we get pretty wild at times (most of the time). We are totally irreverent, disrespectful, and will laugh at just about anything. We call each other rude names, make use of sarcasm, and frankly have the most wonderful time making each other laugh by being outrageous. Once they arrive, if our in-person time is anything like our online time, writing the report will be a challenge, to say the least! If there's anyone reading who may be offended by such silliness or rudeness, I strongly suggest you just skip days 4 & 5, and possibly part of day 6. I won't be apologizing for anything we do, and frankly am not interested in reading any posts or emails from anyone who feels the need to tell me we shouldn't be behaving in such a manner. So, if it sounds like fun, come along for the ride....if it's not your thing, close your eyes <g>.

As I was finishing up the report, the phone rang....(glad I wasn't online) and it was Ronda!!! She & Bay are already here (they're 2 of the internet friends), over at Wilderness Lodge for the night, and it was so much fun to actually talk to them both rather than type to them <g>. They're so excited to be here, and are looking forward to tomorrow! 3 other people are arriving late tonight, and the rest come in Thursday morning. Ronda threatened that they're going to run me ragged at the parks, chasing after me with marshmallow thingy sticks, lol - guess I'd better get a good night's sleep!

I'll be skipping park time tomorrow, in favor of rollerblading & relaxing in the studio waiting for Gail to arrive. LOL, I wonder how much sleep any of us are going to get tonight...we're like kids on Christmas eve!

Miles walked: 9.42

DAY 4 - THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2000:

Who: Sue (me - turning 42 11/4), DVC member, Gail(jdocter7), Jan(Janinwa), Maria(mpepe84), Krisi(KL69130843), Bay(Bayuthl), Missy(missy3840), Pat(dsneydiva), Judy(judfud), Nina(excagirl), Ronda(WDWdotcom), Diana(dhester917), Linda(MrsEbb17)

Plan: Rollerblade, Visit some park, Epcot lunch w/group, Comedy Warehouse

Actual: I decided to not set the alarm last night, and woke up at 6:30, thanks to the children next door. I'll be so glad when they check out - between the kids making noise & the dad shouting at them to stop doing stuff, it's not very peaceful since I have to keep the TV on to help muffle their noise.

It was a beautiful morning, so I got dressed and headed out at 7 to rollerblade. Today I went further, and skated all around inside the Disney Institute. I passed several joggers and saw lots of people at DI headed to their meetings. I was gone an hour, which means I must have skated about 7 miles. It felt great, and I'd taken a bottle of water with me. Unfortunately, as I neared OKW again it dawned on me that I'd made a huge (& incredibly stupid) mistake! I'd meant to leave my resort id in the trunk and carry my car keys in my pocket, but as I felt my pocket I found my resort id.....which means I'd locked my car keys in the trunk. I do have one of those emergency keys, which I keep in my wallet - which is also in the trunk. Damn...I had visions of the morning being ruined as I sat around waiting for AAA to send a locksmith!

I took off and carried my skates up to the 3rd floor studio, and got out the phone book to call AAA. They put in the call for me, saying a locksmith should arrive in about an hour or so. I decided to call the front desk to alert security so it wouldn't be a problem letting the locksmith onto the property and the cm transferred me to Howard in the security booth. Howard told me I could have just called & had the Disney locksmith come out at no charge. He wasn't very optimistic that the Disney guy would be here before the AAA guy, but I asked him to make the call. I poured a glass of the strawberry orange juice & sat down to begin waiting. Right away the phone rang - it was AAA calling to report it'd be 35 minutes for the locksmith - he was on his way. I hung up from that, and the phone rang again - it was Howard saying the Disney locksmith had just come thru the gate, headed to my car!!! I quickly called AAA to cancel that call, then ran downstairs to meet the Disney guy.

He was able to get into the car in no time - and doing so set off the alarm, lol! I crawled across the seat to release the trunk latch to get the key thing to shut off the alarm. From the time I got to my studio to make that initial call to AAA until I returned to my room (with my keys) after Disney got the car unlocked, it was a total of 20 minutes!! I was very pleased/relieved at how easily this problem was resolved...and hopefully it'll be another almost 42 years before I do this particular stupid thing again!

I showered, had breakfast (yogurt, banana bread & cappuccino), and got online to post yesterday's report & do other online stuff while waiting for the arrival of Gail! Chris (my son) has been emailing while he's at his Dad's house - just goofy fun stuff, so I replied back to him & filled him in on what I was doing (briefly, leaving out any bad parts, lol).

A little background information....One of the ongoing things we joke about is that Nina & I

share

Tarzan. Actually, Nina will insist he's hers and she's merely letting me borrow him because she's supposedly nice or something, but we all know he really prefers me <g>. Tarzan is the Tarzan we saw at Disneyland together, who is so gorgeous he took our breath away and has every female and gay male (lord knows there are plenty of them working for Disney) salivating as he'd ride by on the elephant float in the parade. I won't get into the raunchy details, but suffice to say that it was assumed Tarzan would be spending time with me in my studio <g> and therefore since I have a roommate for 4 nights we needed some signal to let Gail know it was NOT okay to come on in. We settled on a loincloth or thong hanging on the doorknob - that would mean Tarzan's inside and to go away & come back later. Diana, our respected board monitor and MAJOR instigator (and writer of hysterical stories) IM'd me the other day and we agreed to set up the thong thing. Diana is picking up Gail, Linda & Judy at the airport and delivering them to their resorts, with OKW being the first stop. She's got them all coming up to the studio with Gail, supposedly so they can see the studio, and the thong is supposed to be hanging from the doorknob at that time! The tricky part is housekeeping is due to do the trash/towel service....I certainly don't want some housekeeper seeing or taking the thong - or wondering what the heck is going on! Hopefully all the other guests will still be in the parks, also <g>. Of course, this morning there was a male cm outside cleaning the railings, a female cm cleaning the units in this section, and various other cm's coming & going. I could see them out my window - it's like Grand Central Station around here, lol!

It did feel like an awful long time sitting around the studio, but chatting with friends & replying to emails helped pass the time. Linda's husband IM'd to let me know she was on her way, lol - he's just as excited for her as Linda is herself! Just before noon I could hear laughter outside the studio, and it was the 4 ladies! At first Gail didn't know what was hanging from the doorknob, but quickly realized it was a thong and started laughing! I opened the door and got to meet Linda & Judy for the first time - Diana & Gail I'd met before. They looked around the studio, and then continued to the other resorts while Gail unpacked.

We left the studio about 12:30, heading for Epcot. I decided to drive, so we parked at Boardwalk and walked in from there. We made a complete loop of World Showcase, looking at all the Food & Wine booths along the way. Gail got a frozen cappuccino from the pastry shop in France, and I got a glass of white wine from the cart in Morocco, then we continued walking to Future World. As we approached the pin station I saw Linda (elfriar), so went over to see her. I'd gotten my weeks mixed up and thought she was in Disneyland this week, when in fact it was last week. I introduced Gail, and we chatted for a while - Linda will most likely join me at Comedy Warehouse later in the trip.

Gail & I went to Innoventions and sent an email postcard to her family and to Chris. We then headed back to World Showcase and went to Canada. At the bottom of the hill we saw a woman sitting alone, writing in a journal, so we went over. When we got around in front of her we saw it was Jan!!! She recognized both of us, and shouted our names, then jumped up for hugs. We were all a little early, so we hung around talking - it was the first time either of us had met Jan in person. A little later, 2 women came from another direction, and called our names - it was Maria & Missy!! Again, much screaming & squealing & hugging went on. I'd been warned by someone that Maria was planning to pinch my butt, and sure enough she made an attempt but I quickly moved out of her range, lol! We tease that she's recently "come out", and so she's making a play for more than one of us (don't tell her husband)! She's also my "stalker" because she IM's me when I'm on trips and pretends to be outside the window, lurking in the bushes - and I toss her granola or whatever I'm eating. Anyway, it was wonderful to finally meet her in person! Missy is someone I used to think was very quiet & serious, but since she's been hanging with Maria she's gotten really wild & funny - a lot of fun to have around!

It wasn't too long before Diana, Linda & Judy were coming down the hill. Diana saw us and threw open her arms and began a slow motion movie style run, and Maria did the same coming from the other direction. Other guests just laughed & watched, lol! We went inside Le Cellier and were waiting to be seated when Bay & Krisi arrived. The other ladies weren't planning on joining us for lunch, so now the group was complete for today. It was funny - Bay & Krisi were at a disadvantage because they didn't know who everyone was....which face went with which name. I'm afraid we weren't much help, purposely trying to confuse them. There was some confusion on who was Maria & who was Sue, since we both are short & wear tight slutty clothes (another thing we joke about).

We were seated, and ordered lunch. Bay got chocolate moose cake, many people got the cheese soup, and some shared entrees. We used the DDE card for 20% off and with the tip lunch was only $81 or so (for 10 of us). Everyone was very happy with their food, and we had a lot of fun being silly at lunch. It was between lunch & dinner, so we pretty much had the place to ourselves most of the time. Krisi was behaving like the tramp that she is, buy grabbing the big brown pretzel breadstick and waving it in the air with an evil glint in her eye. I knew what she was trying to say, but aol would probably send me a nasty letter if I explained it here <g>. At the end of the meal someone said I had to take the pretzel stick with me, so I named him Denzel (Denzel Washington was the first attractive African American male that came to mind), toyed with a bit, then wrapped him in the paper and put him in my backpack - sticking out the top. Who ever knew a pretzel could provide so much fun to so many women <g>!

We went to Future World, and since there was nobody in line we sent about 4 email postcards to the friends who were not able to come on the trip. Some were serious pictures, and some were silly. Diana kept trying to take off her shirt & flash her boobs for the picture :::sigh::: Some people you just can't take anywhere!

With the pictures done, we decided to ride Test Track - single rider line of course. We were the entire single rider group, but once we got into the loading area the ride broke down. Fortunately it was a brief breakdown, and we all got to ride. Some people were seated together, but we didn't care if we rode together or not. After Test Track Gail, & Jan headed to the Magic Kingdom (they'll be doing E-Ride Night), I split from the group & the rest of them headed for Spaceship Earth.

I walked back to BW to get the car & returned to OKW to quickly update the report and grab what I needed for Pleasure Island. Maria's meeting me there, and Pete & Judy said they'd be there for the first show. The rest of the group will either be at MK or seeing Illuminations.

At 6:30 I left OKW and drove to PI. Maria was already there waiting, so we got her ticket and then browsed in Hoy Poloi on the West Side until it was time to enter PI. Once inside, we met up with Pete & Judy, and all stood around outside the Comedy Warehouse until it was time to get in line. The first show was wonderful - with Layden, Matt, Jake, Josh & Krista. Matt was great as a bi-polar brother to the other 3 guys, and Layden left the stage & came back as their Jewish aunt - pretty funny! After this show Pete & Judy headed to the Adventurer's Club and Maria & I returned for show 2. This time we were pretty far back, but we didn't mind. The cast was Layden, Philip, Greg, Jake & Krista - and this show was great as well.

Maria was pretty tired, and I wanted to not keep Gail awake all night long while I'm online, so we left PI after the 2nd show. I dropped Maria off at Dixie Landings and returned to OKW. Gail arrived about 15 minutes later, bringing a yummy pecan pie type pastry with chocolate chunks in it. We shared that, and sat around talking for a while. We've got an early day tomorrow, and need to figure out when to get up in order to get 2 women thru the shower/bathroom routine!

It was a great day, and I did everything on the plan. It was amazing how quickly the afternoon/evening passed! When the ladies all met in person for the first time, there wasn't even the slightest moment of awkwardness or shyness - which was a little bit surprising, but nice! It's like we're all long lost friends, even though we don't necessarily know where we live or what each other's last names are, lol!

Miles walked: 6.5

DAY 5 - FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2000:

Sue (me - turning 42 11/4), DVC member, Gail(jdocter7), Jan(Janinwa),Maria(mpepe84), Krisi(KL69130843), Bay(Bayuthl),Missy(missy3840), Pat(dsneydiva), Judy(judfud), Nina(excagirl), Ronda(WDWdotcom), Diana(dhester917), Linda(MrsEbb17)

Plan: Cinderella's Royal Table breakfast, MK w/group, Stormalong Bay or rollerblade, Cirque du Soleil

Actual: We'd set the alarm for 6, and I got up first to shower & get ready. Gail slept in until 6:30. We weren't sure if the MK buses would be running early enough to get us there by 8, so we decided to drive. This way if I decide to rollerblade, I can do so from Wilderness Lodge, since the skates are in the trunk...I'll just be sure to put the CAR key in my pocket this time! I also packed my swimsuit in my DVC tote bag & left it in the trunk, in case I decided to spend any time at a pool today. I may end up just staying with the ladies, since they're so much fun <g>, but can't really see myself in a park all day!

Gail & I were up & busy on time...with the mirror, sink & electrical outlet in the kitchen area, we were both able to be getting ready at the same time. We left the studio at 7:30 and drove over to Wilderness Lodge. We looked in the shop briefly, and saw DVC shirts that already have "member" embroidered on them! They had a white polo shirt for $48 and a screen printed tee shirt that says member. They also had polo and tee shirts in a beige or mauve color with the Wilderness Lodge Villas logo (don't think these said member, but I think it did say DVC resort). There were several etched glasses & mugs that said member as well. We commented that it would be nice if they'd sell the member stuff in the existing DVC resorts....instead of just the one that's not even DVC yet!

We went out back to catch the boat to MK, but once there saw the sign said the boats start at 8:30. Since our priority seating for breakfast is 8:10, we headed back inside and took a bus to the TTC and switched to a monorail to the MK. We arrived just after 8:10, so we missed the ladies who had cart wheeled down Main Street earlier this morning! I think Gail was signed up to be an observer, and I was down as a banana nut bread eater or something <g>, so missing it wasn't a big deal. At the castle the rather nasty cm informed us that our party had already been seated because they'd said they were all there - 12 instead of 14! We couldn't believe they'd really do that, so we politely persisted & were told to go upstairs and give them our table numbers (we had 3 tables in the same section). We got up there, and sure enough - plenty of empty seats at our tables! Most of us were wearing either a princess hat or a tiara, since we were eating in the castle! Bay brought everyone a key chain, someone else passed out candles, and Nina brought a goody bag of stuff from Disneyland for everyone.

Nina commented that the cm's here at WDW were awfully cranky compared to the ones at Disneyland, and I'm sorry to admit she's absolutely right. I noticed when I was there in April how different they were from most of the FL cm's. When Gail & I entered the MK this morning, there were 2 cm's at the turnstiles who were standing there having a lengthy personal conversation, and were blocking the turnstile. Geesh - it's bad enough they stand around ignoring guests while having a personal conversation, they should at least have the courtesy to get out of the way so guests can enter the park! Ok - enough ranting about rude/ignorant cm's (there are many wonderful ones also - but the bad ones seem to be increasing in number).

Breakfast was delicious! I got the healthy choice, and everyone else got the traditional. Mine was a thin layer of blueberry yogurt with a huge pile of fresh fruit on top, then a bunch of Mueslix cereal sprinkled on top. It was wonderful - but too much fruit to eat in one sitting. I tried a bite of Gail's French toast, and it was delicious also. The characters didn't make it to our side until late in the meal. A couple of us had our picture taken with Aladdin, since he was such a cutie...I think Maria may have gone running to him and threw her arms around him - she's such a loose woman! I posed with him also, and I think the other ladies thought I was going to do something improper to him, but I behaved (he looked way too young, lol).

Esmerelda stopped by our area, and I could hear Missy talking to her & mentioning my name. Next thing I know, Esmerelda is doubled over laughing and came over to ask if I really hung a loin cloth from my door, lol! I assured her I certainly did no such thing....it was a thong. She remained in character, but was cracking up.

There were other silly moments - including Nina taking a photo of my butt (without my knowledge - that pic had better NOT end up on the internet) trying to tell if I was wearing a thong or not (she's so sick!). She later took a picture of Gail's butt....maybe it's a fetish or something <g>.

We sort of sensed that the cm's in the castle were looking forward to our departure, so we eventually left, getting downstairs about 9:15. We headed to Frontierland next, and left Nina at a payphone so she could call in to be a guest on a radio show in CA. She's got to do this a couple more times during the trip (she's a celebrity in Palm Springs). Pat & I were the only 2 not riding, and the rest of the group got pretty wet! As Pat & I were waiting near the exit, I caught a glimpse of a handsome, studly man rushing towards me with outstretched arms. This happens all the time (yeah, right) so I looked more closely at him, and realized it was Rich (Richym1)!! His wife Deb (Debkay) came over later, so they got to meet our board monitor Jan and some of the other DVC members & DVC board posters in my group. We chatted a while, then went off in our different directions. At this point we were down to me, Gail, Diana, Nina, Jan, Ronda, Linda & Judy. The others had gone off on their own or in pairs to do other stuff.

We decided to ride Pirates, so we went there next. Ronda was using an ECV, but transferred to a wheelchair for the queue. Nina insisted on being the one to push her, and then immediately started shouting about her back hurting, lol! As we approached the final descent to the loading area she threatened sending Ronda rolling down the hill <g>, but behaved. After the ride we lost Nina for a few minutes. She'd found a handsome cm named Patrick and was trying to convince him to give her his socks (don't ask....).

After Pirates Gail decided to return to OKW for a nap, so the rest of us went to Tomorrowland. We got fast passes for Space Mountain, and then 5 of us (Jan & Ronda took a smoke break in the smoking area) rode TTA - squeezed into 1 car! After that, Jan & Ronda went to Carousel of Progress, Judy left to go shopping, and the other 4 of us wandered Main Street to see the marshmallow thingy before returning to Space Mountain for fast pass time. We each had 2, since some of the others weren't riding - so we rode the left side first and then the right side.

On the 2nd ride we had a very attractive (handsome AND a terrific body) cm - he asked how many in our party & Nina told him we were 4 attractive women....and he was attractive too so why doesn't he come with us & make it 5! He laughed, and said he wished he could. We suggested he meet us at the exit to lift us out of our rocket....but he wasn't able to leave his station! We had 2 screamers ride with us the 2nd time - and Diana commented that it sounded like really good sex back there, LOL!

We met Jan & Ronda outside, and now it was my turn to leave. It was noon, and the park was getting horribly crowded by my standards. We made some plans to met later, and I left. I'd just missed the WL boat, so I had to wait about 20 minutes for the next one. I took a few pictures of the new WL Villas - they look nice now. The new pool area is right between the old & new buildings.

I went to the car & put on my rollerblades, then skated along the path to Ft Wilderness. Along the way, a great big deer came out of the bushes. He looked at me, then decided to cross the path to the other side - it was so cool to be so close to it! Once over at Ft Wilderness I skated the loop through the campground, then returned to WL. I don't think I skated a full 5 miles, but since I had other things I wanted to do, that was ok.

I drove back to OKW, arriving shortly before 2. After changing into my swimsuit I went to the pool at Turtle Pond and did what little bit of laundry had accumulated. By 3 I was back in the studio to download the pictures and update the report. Gail came back around 3:30 or so - she'd made the trip back to WL to get one of those DVC shirts for her husband (Hi Joel!!).

We left the studio about 4:30 or so, and drove to the Beach Club. The ground is cleared for the new DVC Beach Club Villas, but there's no building construction yet. Gail went to wait by Cape May Cafe for the rest of that group, and I walked into Epcot. This time I started with the United Kingdom, and ended up making the World Showcase loop twice. I stopped at the Africa cart and got the fantastic chicken on sugar cane stick - hands down the best food item here this year (in my opinion). It's a big portion, the chicken breast is moist & tender, and with the sauce it's really spicy! I ate every last morsel, and look forward to the next one <g>. In Morocco I got a small glass of the white wine - no surprise there <g>. It was so pleasant walking around, or sitting on a bench watching others. I've come to realize that I just HAVE TO come back for Food & Wine next year. I'd scheduled 2 weeks in July, the week of Labor Day, and 2 weeks at Christmas - and although I've got the points to add a week or so this time of year, I'm not comfortable taking 6 or more weeks of vacation during the last 6 months of the year (there are other trips planned the first half of the year also) - and need to allow for the fact that there will undoubtedly be business trips to squeeze in. I'll have to review my priorities & either cut the July trip down, or cancel the Labor Day week. It's just too nice here this time of year to miss! The Ft Pierce family said I needed to come for Halloween next year, and I'd said that wouldn't happen, but we'll see.

I left Epcot and returned to the Beach Club, stopping by Cape May Cafe to see if I could spot the others. They were seated in a corner right by the hall, so I was able to stop and talk to them for a short while. Later I heard that they enjoyed the food, and had spoken to the manager about the bad experience Noel had there last week - and the manager brought the "bad" waiter out to talk to them. Their service tonight was wonderful, and their waitress happened to be Gardenia's mother (Gardenia is a well-known poster on RADP).

I drove over to Downtown Disney, and the parking lot was jammed! I ended up parking by DisneyQuest, and walked over to PI. Judy arrived shortly after me, and when I went to buy her 1/2 price ticket with my DDE card I remembered that it was Friday - I was able to get her a free ticket with my PI annual pass. Nina arrived then, and we entered PI and waited until it was time to get in line at Comedy Warehouse. We were seated in the perfect row, and the cast was Krista, Mary, Philip, Jake, & Greg. They Tortured Greg with an unusual saying, and he did a very good job figuring it out. For the embarrassing moment I raised my hand and told a story Nina had told us on the way in (she told me the story for the Comedy Warehouse, and it was a true story). Today at Shades of Green she decided to call her husband. She's got a prepaid phone card, where she dials 1-800-xxx-xxxx, so she looked at the phone instructions to see how to call from the room. The card said to dial 9, then dial 1. So, she dialed 9 - 1 - then looked at her card and dialed 1-800....and was shocked when the 911 operator answered the phone!! She said "oh my god, I dialed the wrong number" and hung up the phone. Before she knew it, there were people banging on her door - because there'd been a 911 call made from the room. She opened the door & sheepishly explained what had happened, and they left. Shortly after that, the room service food she'd ordered arrived, and she mentioned to the delivery person that she was so embarrassed because she accidentally dialed 911 - and the girl exclaimed "that was YOU - we saw it come up on the computer", LOL! Anyway, the cast at Comedy Warehouse made up a blues song about the incident, and did a great job with it!

After the show, Nina & Judy got in line for show 2 & left PI for the West Side. I stopped in the Candy Cauldron to buy a small Mickey truffle, and then browsed in the Cirque store until it was time to go in. I met up with Jan, Diana & Linda at the top of the stairs, and we went to our seats. I'd purposely called about 6 months ago, and suggested seeing Cirque after coming back from Las Vegas in April....calculating that by November we should have the best seats. Sure enough, we were in section 203, row AA (front row), the same seats Chris & I had the first time.

While waiting for the preshow to start we exchanged what stories we'd heard about what was going on with the different groupings of people today & yesterday. In keeping with tradition, Bay is weeping & sobbing her way through WDW <g>. She sobbed at Tapestry of Nations, overcome by the beauty of the parade, wept at Illuminations, and planned to bring a fresh box of Kleenex to the Flag Retreat Ceremony. Missy is having fun actually doing some of the things she reads in my trip reports, calling it "doing a Sue", lol! I forget what specifically it was that Diana mentioned, but it was pretty funny.

The preshow began, which was cute/amusing. Then the show itself started, and it was just amazing. I'd seen it once before, but it was the first time for the other 3. Afterwards Jan commented that you just cannot describe that show, and she's right. There's so much going on that it's impossible to notice everything the first (or second) time there. If you've seen La Nouba, then you know how wonderful it is. If you haven't, I can't possibly do it justice, and won't waste my time trying. Just buy a ticket - it's worth every penny of the $71 & change it costs. If you'd told me a couple years ago I'd buy a $70 ticket to a show I'd already seen before I'd insist you had lost your mind, lol - but I can see myself buying a ticket to see it a 3rd time down the road.

After the show Diana & Linda drove Jan back to All Stars, and I drove back to OKW. Gail had gotten in shortly before me, and had bought me a birthday present. She said I could open it tonight, so I did - it's a 3 pin set....Tarzan, of course! LOL - It's certainly an appropriate & thoughtful gift, and it'll keep Tarzan in my heart on those rare nights when I send him back to Nina. Although, the handsome bare-chested young man with the washboard abs and incredible strength in La Nouba would be an acceptable substitute if Nina wanted more time with jungle boy, lol! WOW!!

I ate some of the Denzel pretzel breadstick and finished up today's report while Gail fixed the settings on her digital camera and turned in for the night. It's so late (midnight) that I won't get online to post until after sleeping - otherwise I'd be up until 3am or so.

Today was another wonderful day. Everything on the plan was done, and I was able to do both the rollerblading and pool time (but not Stormalong Bay) - plus I had dinner at Food & Wine Festival - plus saw a Comedy Warehouse show. It might sound like a lot of stuff to do, but it didn't seem rushed or stressful at all - just fun! As an added bonus, the noisy neighbors must have checked out - there's not been any noise from over there today :-)

Miles walked: 10.77

DAY 6 - SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2000:

Sue (me - turning 42 11/4), DVC member, Gail(jdocter7), Jan(Janinwa),Maria(mpepe84), Krisi(KL69130843), Bay(Bayuthl),Missy(missy3840), Pat(dsneydiva), Judy(judfud), Nina(excagirl), Ronda(WDWdotcom), Diana(dhester917), Linda(MrsEbb17), Noel(firstno)

Plan: AK, 'Ohana's dinner w/group, MK Fireworks Cruise

Actual: Today the group made plans to meet at 9am in AK to ride the safari (probably with Fastpasses), then people are free to split off however they want until we regroup at 6pm for dinner & the cruise. Since I needed to get online, I checked with Gail & left the alarm set for 6am. I got up then & got my shower out of the way, and then went online to post the report & send pictures to photopoint (www.photopoint.com my albums are at WDW1972@aol.com). Gail got up around 7, and we had a leisurely breakfast of banana nut bread (I also had yogurt) with our cappuccino or coffee. We left the studio just after 8:30 and drove to AK. However, we didn't arrive at the safari until almost 9:10 and there was no sign of any of the others. We figured they must have gone on the ride, so we got enough Fastpasses that everyone could ride again if they wanted to, and sat on a bench to wait. About 9:30 Pat & Nina showed up, so we talked to them. Pat went to visit the gorillas - she's not as big of a gorilla nut as my friend Kathy, but she loves them a lot! Nina disappeared, but we heard her voice & realized she was flirting with 2 cast members.

About 10 we decided to just ride the safari & not wait any longer for the others, so we walked right on using 4 of our Fastpasses. We saw just about every animal up close, including both lions. They were playing with each other for a few seconds - it was really cute! After getting off the ride I went to the standby entrance and gave away the rest of the Fastpasses - making a few families very happy! Pat had a couple that she gave away also.

We stopped to use the restroom at Tusker House, but I'd been delayed by stopping to get rid of the Fastpasses. You know how when man is coming out of a door, and a woman is approaching it's somewhat instinctive for him to hold the door for her??? Well, as I was approaching the restrooms a man was coming out and stepped back to hold the door for me.....except he was coming out of the men's room, lol! He didn't realize what he was doing, so I just smiled & went to the ladies' room <g>. At this point Nina & Pat left for Spoodles. Gail & I walked towards Asia to find the secret path. We found it easily, and also found Diana, Jan, Ronda & Linda on the path (so much for being secret, lol). It's very short, but nice. The others were staying in AK to see some other stuff, and that had been Gail's original plan, but the crowds were so awful she decided it wasn't worth it. She left with me, and we drove over to the Beach Club.

Gail took the bus from there to Downtown Disney. I headed to Stormalong Bay! After showing my resort id (cm's were checking at every entrance) and getting my hand stamped, I took my towels and got set up on a chaise lounge in my usual spot. I spent about 1/2 hour floating around the lazy river on my noodle, and then laid on the chair. With the breeze & low humidity it was very comfortable! I'd brought the rest of Denzel with me, so I ate that while reading a magazine. Just about all the chairs were taken, but the pool near me was relatively empty. Things tend to be busier in the other 2 sections (where the slide is, and the shallow kiddie section). The waterfall was just off to my left, and provided peaceful & relaxing background noise.

I was getting hungry, but didn't want to eat much since we've got a real dinner planned tonight, so I went to Hurricane Hanna's and got a Happy Hurricane (virgin banana daiquiri with chocolate syrup drizzled inside the cup) and a large chocolate chip cookie - $5.30 plus tip. Nancy wasn't there to eat her 1/2 of the cookie, so I brought it back to OKW with me (but I doubt it'll still be there when you arrive on Monday). I ended up staying at Stormalong Bay about 2 hours or so, then got changed & drove back to OKW.

Gail was in the studio reading when I arrived, after yet another shopping expedition, lol! She's already shipped some stuff home, and is concerned about how she's going to get the rest of it home. She stopped by the store here at OKW to see the new member's pin, but they'd sold the last of them. They may have more in tomorrow, so we'll check again.

The message light was blinking, and Gail hadn't checked them, so I did. There was a desperate message from Bay. Evidently she'd been driving around offsite looking for a Wal-Mart, and had spent hours without finding one. She asked if I could please come over and get them and take them to Wal-Mart. Actually, she didn't realize that Gail & I had just returned from Wal-Mart. We'd been stopped at the door by the greeter though, and told we couldn't enter because it looked like we'd washed our hair that day. We admitted we had, but even saying we'd been sweating a lot since then wasn't enough to get us in. Finally we said we were friends of Bay, of the Big Honkin' Trip Report fame, and the took us into a side room and greased our hair up a bit so we could go in. There's nothing better than spending as much time as possible at Wal-Mart when you're on a WDW vacation, after all! (note to confused people - this paragraph is sort of an inside joke and NOT to be taken seriously, lol)

Bay had also told Gail that they'd had lunch at Hooters while they were offsite, and had told them all about Diana. Diana is proud to have the biggest boobs in the group, and evidently the Hooters people are very interested in meeting her. Perhaps Diana will give up her career in nursing to work at Hooters, lol! Although, like most of the ladies - she's already got a part time job "working" Main Street, if you catch my drift...... I was never one of those working girls, since Tarzan occupies all of my time <g>. One of the ladies had a package waiting for her when she checked into her resort (I forget who, we'll have to watch the trip reports), and it contained handcuffs & assorted "toys" - tools of the trade, lol!

Gail & I drove over to Character Premiere in the Premium Outlets to look for pajamas for one of her daughters. She didn't find anything she liked, but I picked up a couple of shirts for Chris & my Dad (Christmas presents). We only went to the one store, and then returned to OKW.

At 5 we left for the evening, catching the bus to the MK and then the boat to the Polynesian. We got there early, so we went to the Tambu Lounge for a drink to wait for the others. Maria was first to arrive, and eventually all 14 of us were there. I ordered a Malibu Macaw - Malibu coconut rum, melon liqueur, pineapple & cranberry juice. It was a sort of ugly color (due to the cranberry juice) but it tasted good. Nina brought me a gift from her & Tarzan - what she calls "a year's supply of food" - packages of cookies & candy...plus a tin of Altoids (those have their own special meaning to our e-mail group....not something I can say on aol though). She sometimes makes fun of me because she says I'm skinny, but I think she really loves me - otherwise she wouldn't have shared Tarzan with me <g>! Pat brought me a toy Tarzan action figure - it's so cute! He rides on a skateboard (like you see those in the jungle, lol) and you pull it back to propel it forward. Thank you to everyone for the cards & birthday wishes - it was very nice!

Our priority seating was 6pm, but at 6:30 we were still sitting there. We'd planned a chocolate exchange, so we decided to do that now, since we likely wouldn't have time after dinner. Each person brought 14 of the best chocolate from their state or town, and gave 1 to each person. Since Ft Myers isn't a chocolate capital, I brought 14 chocolate alligators made by a candy company in Orlando. The chocolate exchange was a lot of fun - it was like Halloween trick or treating for grown ups, lol! Jan's son Anthony had given her some of his Halloween candy for us, since he's not a big chocolate lover - that was really sweet of him.

Finally we were seated - in the corner (2 tables) of course! Our server was a friend of Noel's, who was very nice. However, we kept having to ask for things, and the meal took an awfully long time. People were leaving before the pineapple & caramel even came out, since we had to get to the boats. The food was good, and we had fun, but service should have been better and much faster. The ladies bought my dinner, which was very nice - Thank You! The ukulele player/singer guy came over and sang happy birthday to me, and they brought a cupcake which everyone was too full to help me eat.

We went out to the marina, and got on our boats. The other boat had seemed to be having a lot of fun. Krisi was groping the driver, and doing a seductive dance. Nina was threatening to show her boobs. They were all laughing and zipping around the lake. Our boat was a little different. We tried to make our own fun, but the driver was suffering from some relationship problems and latched onto Jan for advice. Most of the cruise was Jan basically counseling the guy on his girlfriend problems - what to say/do, where to take her, etc. There were times he was so engrossed with his "therapy" session that he stopped driving....we were sitting still in the water, looking at each other & trying not to bust out laughing. Finally the rest of us crowded together into the front of the boat and made our own fun. We were pretending to try to jump overboard & swim to the other boat when we were close to it, and told stupid/embarrassing stories from our pasts. The fireworks were great, and watching them from the lake was really nice. Afterwards, we got to see the Electrical Water Pageant up close, which was an added bonus.

The drivers dropped us off at the Magic Kingdom, and unfortunately some guy in a suit was there and was it was obvious they were in some kind of trouble for dropping us off there. Several of the ladies stopped at City Hall inside MK to fill out comment cards about how awful the "suit" acted, and how great the driver was. Those of us on our boat couldn't get off the boat fast enough....what a strange cruise, lol! Most of them went into MK to catch the 10pm MSEP, but I'd had enough fun for one night. I went to the bus stop, where it was a good 15 minutes or so before an OKW bus arrived. I got off at the Peninsular Rd stop and walked back, since I enjoy walking at OKW.

I downloaded the pictures & finished up today's report, then got online. Gail returned after 11, and said the parade was great. I'm looking forward to Spectromagic's return, but thought MSEP was pretty good.

Today went according to the plan, with the addition of time at Stormalong Bay. Spending my birthday with so many friends made the day really special - thanks again to everyone for your company!

Miles walked: 4.32

DAY 7 - SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2000:

Who: Sue (42), DVC member

Plan: Rollerblade, Some park, Meet DVC friends at Bellevue, Comedy Warehouse

Actual: This morning most of the group was meeting at the Studios to ride Tower of Terror & Rock & Roller Coaster. I don't ride either, and since the group would likely split up after those 2, I decided to skip it.

We'd set the alarm for 7am, and I didn't wake up until then. I'd been awake for quite a while last night, keyed up over the events of the day/night I guess. I brushed my teeth & got changed, then went rollerblading over to the Disney Institute. Gail got ready to go to the Studios. Skating was fun, but I tripped & fell at one point. I wasn't hurt at all, and probably wasn't on the ground a full second before jumping back up in case anyone had seen me, lol! I must have hit a crack going from the street to the sidewalk - and made good use of the kneepads I wear since my last fall this past January. I definitely look my age, but my body thinks/feels like I'm in my early 20's, so falling like this is no big deal (not that I want to make a habit of it, lol). Too bad we can't always look as young as we feel.....

When I returned to OKW, Gail was at the bus stop so I stopped to fill her in about an email exchange with a mutual friend (Roz), since she was already asleep when I got the message last night. Back in the studio I showered & got ready for my day. Breakfast was juice, cappuccino & banana nut bread. I decided to run a couple of errands - getting gas, etc, and then head to MK to replace the banana nut bread. I parked at Wilderness Lodge just after 10am, and went to the dock. The boat to MK was just pulling away, but the blue flagged boat that runs between WL, Ft Wilderness & Contemporary was pulling up, so I got onboard and rode directly to the Contemporary. From there I walked to the Magic Kingdom, where as usual there were very long lines at the turnstiles but upon looking closer I could see that although the turnstiles tend to be in groups of 2, all the tourists stand in line at 1 of them....leaving the other one free for people who actually have a clue (like me, Larry, and hopefully you) to walk right past everyone and enter the park....kind of like turnstile Fastpass, lol! You would have thought the cm standing there would have told people to use both open turnstiles, but he stood there like a lump doing & saying nothing. The MK was very crowded, being after 10:30, so I headed to the Bakery.

The line here was pretty short, but I was behind a guy who had to be the most unorganized/without a clue tourist in the park that day. He'd order drinks in the food part (no big deal, the cm just went down and got his drinks), then order his food - 1 item at a time, and then at the register after the cm rings it up he leans over me to order yet another item to add to his total. Then he wants to charge it to his room, so he gives her his resort id, which is not signed - so he has to sign it. The computer denies it, and the cm notices it says "not valid for charging" - duh! He started getting upset with the cm, saying it should be good, and I asked him if he gave a credit card at check in (he said yes). He then started telling the cm he checked in at 1am and the cm was so obnoxious, yadda yadda yadda. Shheesh - I had a pretty good idea what may have contributed to that cm's "obnoxiousness", lol! I 'd had about enough of this nonsense, and had the exact change for my item in my hand, so the cm let me give her the cash and get the heck out of there.

I headed into Tomorrowland, which was also packed. It didn't bother me though, since if I'd had my heart set on actually riding stuff at MK I would never have waited until 10:30 to arrive, lol! I took a quick spin on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority, then left the park to walk back to the Contemporary.

The pool wasn't very busy, yet many chairs were "saved". I never saw the owners. I cooled off under the shower, then laid on my lounge chair and did some reading for about an hour or so. It was very pleasant! Around 12:30 or 1pm I got dressed & took the boat back to Wilderness Lodge, got the car & drove back to OKW. Gail was still at the Studios, but returned about 30 minutes later. I had a strawberry yogurt with Nestle Crunch pieces for lunch, FINALLY finished the marshmallow thingy from 6 days ago (it was still great in the zip lock bag) and updated the report. Gail said the Studios crowd had a great time, including lunch at the Commissary. She mentioned to Linda that Linda's husband was IM'ing me to discuss underwear (mine initially, but then his, lol). She got busy packing, since she's leaving tomorrow morning.

We left OKW at almost 3:30 and drove to the Boardwalk. There was a "meet" of aol board people scheduled for 4pm outside ESPN, so we headed in that direction and recognized some of our group. Also there were Lips, Striske & her husband, and Cheryl (cheryl1106). Cheryl & I live barely a mile from each other and had met before at her house, so it seemed funny to "meet" her at WDW! We stood around chatting for a while, then took a group photo before people started heading off.

Gail & I headed to the Bellevue Room at Boardwalk Inn for a DVC meet scheduled for 4:30. Debbie (deseylou) set it up, and she was there with a friend (Mary - who just joined DVC today). Dottie & Joe were there, also Donna (iluvWDW) & her Joe. Jan arrived a little later, then Alex & Kelly (luvmickey66) and finally Adie & Lisa. Adie & Lisa brought me a birthday gift, which turned out to probably be the single most memorable/special gift of my entire life. They designed & printed a tee shirt with my daily food items at WDW - it is hysterical! There's a picture of it on photopoint (may not get posted until Tuesday 11/7). They even listed chicken satay and then crossed it off by drawing a line thru it - the shirt is so clever! I showed it to my other internet friends later that evening, and they were all screaming with laughter. Thank you again, Adie & Lisa!

We stayed until 6:15, then dropped Debbie & Mary off at OKW on our way to Pleasure Island. Gail & I went to Bongo's outdoor window for a chicken empanada for dinner - it was her first one, and it was also listed on my tee shirt. She liked it a lot, and thinks Joel (husband) would like it too. We entered Pleasure Island at 7:15, and ran into Nina, Linda & Diana almost immediately. Nina told us the story of how & why she slept in her car this afternoon - not something I'd want to do, but it worked for her since she needed a nap and the housekeeper was due up to clean her room.

We hung around outside Comedy Warehouse until it was time to get in line, and ended up seeing the first 2 shows. Both shows featured Layden, Philip, Mark & Christine, plus Matt worked the first one and Jen (long hair) the second one. Both were great, but the 2nd one was especially funny - we all laughed so hard! Gail & Linda had never been there, and they seemed to have a really good time. We all ordered Bye Bye Blues, lol! Nina was chosen to go on stage for Fillin the Blank during the first show. At one point the story turned to roses, and she was trying unsuccessfully to think of the word "thorns"....but what came out of her mouth was "pricks" - LOL! Later Christine told us she knew what Nina was trying to say, but had to take what she actually said. Layden took "pricks" and turned it into something that was allowed by Disney, lol.

The embarrassing story during the 2nd show was about the time Diana accidentally shot a giant wad of wet lemon stuff onto her waiter's crotch (he was unaware for quite a while) while fixing her iced tea at a romantic anniversary dinner with her husband at Cinderella's Royal Table. I taped it, and will send her a copy so she can share it with her husband - the cast did a great job with it! She'd also suggested the saying used in the torture the actor scene, and called out another time - as she kept telling us, "It's all about MEEEEEEE", lol!

Jan had been in the 2nd show & hooked up with us afterwards. Adie & Lisa were there also, so I got to meet the relatives they were traveling with. Out on the street we heard this screaming, and saw Krisi running towards us, and Bay not far behind. The group of us went into the Adventurer's Club (Nina had gone in ahead of us & was already in a show in the library) and sat in the main salon. Several of the actors came by, some talking to us, and the Colonel picked on Linda. It was a lot of fun, and at 10:55 we went into the library for Samantha Sterling's Cabaret. This isn't my favorite show, but since the others were here for the first time, I stuck around. I was shocked to see the actor playing Samantha tonight was Mary from the Comedy Warehouse! It was really strange to see her over here....in my mind she doesn't belong there and it was hard to relate to her as Samantha, but she did a very good job. The other ladies all enjoyed it very much. We were back outside just after 11:30.

Bay & Krisi went back to Mannequins to flirt with bartender Gordo some more (they'd met him a couple nights ago). They noticed their drink prices kept falling....and the drinks were stronger, lol! The rest of us hung around outside and watched the New Year's Eve show (boring & loud - not worth sticking around for in my opinion) until it was time to get in line at the Comedy Warehouse, and we saw the last show of the night (12:05). Bay came back in time to see it with us - her first show! Unfortunately, the show wasn't that great....normally the late shows are really funny, but the crowd was pretty small, and there were a couple of skits that kind of fell flat in parts. Once that happens, it can be tough to reverse the trend. The cast was great - Layden, Mark, Matt, Jennifer & Christine - but the show wasn't as funny as the earlier 2 shows we saw.

We left PI just after 1am (Bay went back to Mannequins to try to pry Krisi off of Gordo <g>), and Gail & I returned to OKW. I made myself a cup of the decaf vanilla cappuccino (cappuccino was listed on the tee shirt also, lol) and settled down to finish writing today's report. I doubt the pictures will make it up until Tuesday, since I'm busy Monday during the day & at night. I've got a feeling that the rest of the week is going to be busy - at least every night will be!

I did everything on the plan today, although the park time was very limited (by choice). Spending the time poolside at the Contemporary was a much nicer activity than running around a theme park.

Miles walked: No pedometer today

DAY 8 - MONDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2000:

Who: Sue (42), DVC member Nancy (N5W), Nina (ExCaGirl)

Plan: Rollerblade, Stormalong Bay day with Nancy, Comedy Warehouse

Actual: We'd set the alarm for 7am - Diana, Linda & Krisi were coming to pick up Gail at 9 for the trip to the airport. They arrived right on time, and we said our final goodbyes for this trip - but hopefully we'll meet again! I told Krisi that Judy had already spilled the beans about her & Bay's new

romantic

relationship, lol! Their poor husbands...

I settled in online to catch up some, and IM'd with Kathy for a while. We've changed our plans from the DCL reception Wednesday to just hanging around together on Tuesday - should be fun. Nancy arrived about 10am and we chatted for a while before heading outside to put on our rollerblades. She hadn't skated in over a year, but she was the one to suggest skating - I don't try to kill ALL of my friends (just Darla, lol). Anyway, she did great, and before long was used to the rollerblades again. We started behind the Turtle Pond pool and skated to the Conch Flats Trail. The section just past the bridge to the Tree houses had a lot of long cut grass blocking the way, and as Nancy came flying down the hill through the piles of grass she lost her balance and took a dive into the soft grass to the left of the path...being careful not to roll down into the Trumbo Canal. She burst out laughing, so I knew she wasn't hurt...it was actually pretty funny the way she went flying forward in slow motion like that - like a real professional stunt skater <g>! She got right up and we continued to Disney Institute and skated around in there for a while. We sat at a table at one of the pools for a little while, then skated back to OKW. I have no idea how long we were gone - probably a little over an hour or so.

Back in the studio we drank some strawberry orange juice and shared pictures from our last vacations. She'd brought a CD with a bunch of hers on it - and it was so easy to view them on the laptop (pictures of Arizona mostly - really pretty scenery). We were getting hungry, so we drove up to Olivia's for lunch. At 1pm it wasn't busy at all, and our waitress was really nice (forget her name, but she's from France). Nancy got the mozzarella & tomato on mixed field greens salad, which she declared was excellent. I got the mixed field greens salad (my usual) which is always good. She also got a lemonade, and we shared a piece of free (with AP) warm gooey chocolate chip pecan pie.....yummy! With the 20% discount and free dessert, lunch was just over $12 including the tip!

We stopped in the store to check on the new member pin with a dangle, and it's sold out but we were able to see one hanging in a frame on one of the walls. It's kind of strange - it references 1991 (the year DVC started), but it has the current logo. I think it should have the 1991 version of the logo. Outside I saw Angelo was working at bell services so we stopped to chat with him for a little while, then drove back to the studio. Seeing Angelo at OKW is sort of symbolic of being "home"...he just belongs there, and it doesn't feel right to arrive & NOT see him at the bell stand.

We decided to go to the pool, but didn't want to bother with Stormalong Bay so we just headed to the pool at Turtle Pond. We spent about an hour & a half there enjoying the warm water & nice weather. It was a wonderful way to spend the day, and I'm glad Nancy was able to be there. She had fun too, and we plan to spend another day like this when I'm back next month (maybe without the swimming if the weather is cold). Boy, it's nice to be able to make plans for "next month", that sounds so much closer than saying "next trip". Hey, Bay & Krisi - Nancy knows your friend "Gordo"! They worked together at Comedy Warehouse.

She headed on home, and I returned a phone call from Bob...but he was off at a conference call. His secretary/assistant thought he'd be back by 5, so I decided to stick around until then so we wouldn't keep playing telephone tag. I updated the report and watched a little TV. Bob called, and we made plans for Friday (off property, lol - can I handle it???).

About 5pm I drove over to Beach Club and walked into Epcot. Tonight I headed to the right, starting with France. I got a glass of the white wine in Morocco, and continued walking. As usual, it was very busy in World Showcase. The sun was setting, and it was a beautiful evening (nice & warm). In Germany I thought about getting the apple strudel, but decided to wait for a day when I'd be hungrier. I passed the Africa stand with the chicken on sugar cane stick because I wanted to see which restaurant was being featured at the Marketplace stand. This stand is just before Mexico as you enter World Showcase from Future World, and features food items from a different WDW restaurant each day. Today it was Concourse Steakhouse, and one of the items was a flourless chocolate cake for $1. That's a "don't miss" for me, lol!

I returned to Africa and got the chicken on sugar cane stick. The cm working there might have been the same one who talked to me the other night. Tonight he came over to the bench I was sitting on and asked how the chicken was - and I told him it was wonderful. We chatted a while, and he told me it'd be on the menu at one of the restaurants at the new Animal Kingdom Lodge. He brought me a brochure for the resort and also confirmed the rumor I'd heard that the resort will be off-limits to everyone except those registered guests and people with a priority seating for a meal. That should be interesting to see how they handle that! I may have to go over there for my chicken sometime....but I don't imagine I'd choose to stay there vs. OKW, even though we will be able to use our DVC points. Anyway, the chicken was excellent again tonight - very spicy - hot enough to make my nose run, lol!

After eating the chicken I walked back to the Marketplace stand to get the flourless chocolate cake. It was delicious, and the perfect size for me! It was topped with a large raspberry, and looked very nice on the plate. I ate the cake as I walked back towards the International Gateway exit. I got the car from the Beach Club and drove over to Pleasure Island, then walked down to the Marketplace.

I spent about 1/2 hour browsing some of the shops, and then entered PI to meet Nina. We sat and shared what we'd each done today, and then got in line at the Comedy Warehouse. We saw the first 2 shows tonight, which were both very good. First show featured Mark, Matt, Jake, Jen, and a new girl named Melanie. Jake was tortured - they're doing that game a lot now, which is good because I always enjoy it! I liked Melanie, and thought she did a good job. Usually it takes me a while to warm up to a new actor - it's like they're intruding on "my" cast or something, lol, but she was ok. We'll see if she lasts. The 2nd show was Mark, Matt, Layden, Mary & Melanie.

I found out Carol Stine (popular keyboard player) has a broken leg. She'd stepped on a carpet that had been cleaned but was still wet, and when she stepped off the carpet on the regular floor she fell (at work). Evidently, the cast who were there didn't realize she was hurt, and they laughed....and later found out she'd broken the leg. No word on when she'll be back. :(

After the 2nd show there's a 30 minute wait until the next show starts, and I decided to go home and make it a relatively early night. Nina headed to the Adventurer's Club for a hot chocolate & one show, then plans to return to her resort. Tonight I remembered where I'd parked the car (last night Gail & I zigzagged from one section to another trying to remember where we'd parked. I'm here so often I don't pay attention when I come in sometimes, and park in so many different places it's hard to remember which place I'm in tonight! Sometimes I forget my room number too, and confuse it with a room number I'd stayed in the previous week when I'm traveling a lot, and have to stop & think about it. Those things just blur together in my mind, I guess! Tonight I was back in my studio by 10:15, and got to work finishing the report so I could get online to post it.

Today was a great day. The Stormalong Bay plans were abandoned but really the main event was spending the day with Nancy - whatever we ended up doing. As it turned out, the rollerblading, lunch at Olivia's, and time at OKW pool was perfect. Having Nina at Comedy Warehouse was fun, too - I never mind being there alone but I'm enjoying seeing the shows & chatting in line with her.

Miles walked: 4.62 starting at 5pm

DAY 9 - TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2000:

Who: Sue (42), DVC member Kathy (Dznynut), Debbie (Deseylou), Nina (ExCaGirl), Mary (friend of Debbie's)

Plan: No specific plans for the day, Comedy Warehouse

Actual: Today's election day in the US, and I'd mailed in my absentee ballot before starting the trip, which made all the political ads the past 3 weeks seem like a waste of time since I'd already cast my votes.

I'd set the alarm for 7, and got up then. My new neighbors sound like they're all adults, judging from the voices I heard at 4am when they got in. Hopefully they'll sleep more tonight, lol! This morning I thought I'd go to the 8am DVC member update breakfast thing, but decided against it. I don't need free food when I've got banana nut bread, lol, and have enough DVC points right now. I was mostly interested in hearing about WL Villas, and I'll get to see them in person tomorrow! I plan to take pictures, and will post them as soon as possible (hopefully Wednesday afternoon 11/8).

I had my usual cappuccino & banana nut bread for breakfast, and read some of the downloaded messages until it was time to head for MK. I've been slowly working my way through the electronic birthday cards I received, during my online time - if I haven't acknowledged your card it's because I haven't opened it yet, but look forward to doing so soon! About 8:30 I left the studio to drive to the Beach Club. From there I took their bus to MK, arriving at almost 9:30. Already there were 30 minute waits at Pooh and Space Mountain! I got some Fastpasses at Space Mountain, and then walked to Fantasyland.

Peter Pan had a posted 10 minute wait, but it looked much shorter so I got in line. I was finished with the ride about 5 minutes later. From there I went to the Haunted Mansion, and saw that they have the Fastpass machines set up & operating here now. It seems incredible stupid - who on earth would need a Fastpass for Haunted Mansion??? It's never more than a 15 minute wait any time I'm ever here, and usually it's 5 or less! They've got the whole outer area a mess with chained off queue lines - it really looks silly, unless they're expecting a huge surge of people flocking to the Haunted Mansion from now on! I walked up to the group waiting at the door, and we were inside in a couple of minutes.

By now it wasn't quite Fastpass time (10am-11am) yet, so I walked back to Tomorrowland and rode the TTA. That occupied me until just after 10, so I went and rode Space Mountain next. They had the line extended almost to the Astro Orbiter because they only had the right side operating. By the time I rode & left, I could hear them sending rockets on the left side getting it ready to open. I still had 2 Fastpasses left, but decided to give them away. I found a couple about 40 minutes back in the line and they were thrilled to have their wait eliminated, and it felt good to spread a little Disney "magic".

I was finished with the MK at this point - it was way too crowded for me! I stopped at the Bake Shop to pick up my final supply of banana nut bread for this trip, and the line was extended out of the queue and filled the entire store :( It ended up only being a 15 minute wait, but it felt like forever due to 3 extremely hyperactive little boys running their father ragged in line directly behind me (Mom was off with the 4th child in a stroller....4 little kids - I'd have to shoot myself, lol!). When it was my turn I got 2 pieces of banana bread and left the MK.

As I got on the waiting Yacht/Beach Club bus, the driver told us she'd be stopping first at Poly, GF & MGM - which is really irritating! It took about 40 minutes or so to get back to Beach Club. I'd planned on spending time at Stormalong Bay, but decided now to just go home. I drove back to OKW and stopped at the front desk to check my account and pay whatever balance there was. I had 2 pages of local phone calls (Gail, there was no charge for any of the 800 or 888 calls)- too many to keep track of, so I assume they're all ok, and 1 other charge, so I paid for it all and drove back to the studio.

I nibbled on some of the chocolate from the chocolate exchange (it'll be gone by Saturday<g>) and changed into my swimsuit & went to the Turtle Pond pool. The pool was fairly busy, but not too bad. I went in the water a while, then laid on my chair reading. At the snack bar I got a non-alcoholic pina colada ($3.98), which was very tasty. About 1:45 I returned to the studio and got dressed, updated the report & did some online stuff until it was time to meet Kathy.

She arrived right on time, as usual - and at 3pm we drove over to Property Control behind the MK. This is where cast members can buy damaged/discontinued stuff, and unclaimed lost & found items. Sometimes there are good finds there, but I'm not one to really dig through bins of stuff searching for that great bargain - I'm much too lazy for that. However, it's always interesting to see what's there, even though we didn't buy anything. They do have a store off to the side called Cast Connection, and I'm allowed to buy stuff there. I got a couple of cards with a nice photo of the Magic, and a Ralph Lauren polo shirt marked down to $9.99 for Chris' dad.

Next we drove over to the Marketplace and walked around there. They've started putting up the Christmas trees in the stores. I got some stuff - including a couple of the orange filled Ghiradelli bars that are on sale for 40% off right now, and a pair of earrings (that will come in handy later). I always enjoy spending time with Kathy, and today was no exception. Soon it was time for her to get to her 5:30 rehearsal for the Candlelight Processional, so she dropped me off back at OKW. Thanks again for coming out, Kathy!

I grabbed the camcorder, PI cup and drove over to Beach Club so I could get some dinner at the Food & Wine Festival. I'd never quite gotten around to having lunch (except for the pina colada & some chocolate), so I wanted something "real" - like chicken on a sugar cane stick! I walked into Epcot, and headed directly there. As I approached, the cm at the register looked at me and said "chicken" & smiled at me. I just laughed and said yes - she's come to recognize me I guess. The guy from last night wasn't working, but another one I've seen there was cooking the food. He handed me my chicken and I went to sit at one of the tables near the Refreshment Outpost to eat my dinner (skipped the wine tonight - not enough time to walk to Morocco).

As I was sitting there eating, the guy from the Africa stand came over and put another order of the chicken on my table. I was confused, and gave him a puzzled look. He smiled & said "It's on me - since you've been here every day." I thought that was really nice, and thanked him. Somehow I managed to eat every bite of both portions, too! Afterwards I stopped at the Africa booth to say thanks again, then left Epcot & returned to the Beach Club.

I stopped in the rest room at BC, and noticed I was missing an earring. It probably came out when I took off my shirt at some point, but I have no idea which bush it might be under, or who's back seat it might be in! <g> Maybe I'll ask Tarzan if he's seen it. Anyway, I drove back to OKW and put in the new pair, then drove over to Pleasure Island. It was almost 7, so I entered PI and headed to meet Nancy at the Jazz Club. We spent her dinner break together, and she had brought me a big box of Ghiradelli chocolates, a really pretty travel coffee mug, and a few different Ghiradelli coffees (birthday gift)! I loved it all, and can't wait to start eating/drinking! Thanks again, Nancy - you've got great taste!

At 7:30 I headed up the hill to meet the others. Debbie & Mary had already arrived, and Nina showed up shortly. We're all DVC members, and Debbie had remembered Nina from when Nina used to frequent the DVC board. Everyone got along really well right from the start, and we had a lot of laughs tonight! We saw the first show (from the perfect seats) - which had a great cast but really struggled. Working were Layden, Josh, Jake, Mary & Jennifer. We skipped the 2nd show & went to the Adventurer's Club, which was really funny! We did the new member ceremony, interacted with Hathaway Brown (very cute up close), and saw the sing along show in the library.

We went back to the Comedy Warehouse for the 10:30 show, and this time were seated pretty far back. The cast was Layden, Josh, Krista, Mary & Jennifer. This show was better than the first one, but still not their best. The audience was kind of weird, too, which didn't help them at all! The show got us out of there at 11:30, just after they'd closed the exit I normally use, so we had to walk the long way back to our cars. It was a fun night - but I wish the shows had been funnier.

For a day with no specific plans, I did quite a bit :-) and enjoyed everything I did (except the long bus ride from MK).

Total miles walked: Didn't bother today

DAY 10 - WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2000:

Who: Sue (42), DVC member Nina (ExCaGirl)

Plan: No specific plans for the day, Disney Cruise Line reception early evening, Comedy Warehouse later

Actual: The plan changed a few days ago, when Kathy found out the reception was limited to cast members only. The new plan was to meet Nina at AK, have lunch with her at Rainforest Cafe, tour the new WL Villas, and then Comedy Warehouse at night.

After being up online (and watching the election nonsense) until 2:30, I got up at 6:30. It seems no matter what I try, my nights at WDW are always short...I really need to somehow get 30 hour days when I'm up here <g>. I showered, had some cappuccino, juice & banana nut bread for breakfast, and did some online stuff before leaving the studio at 8:30 to drive to AK. The parking lot wasn't bad yet, but the park was very busy. The lines at the turnstiles were very long, and it appeared that all the turnstiles were being used, until I got closer. T