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Beth Hodges -- August 2003 -- Walt Disney World (ASMuR)

• September 1998
• January 1999

Hodges Family Trip Report August 03

Cast of Characters

• Beth (me), the wife and mom
• Gary, my very dear hubby and the dad
• Molly, our gorgeous and brilliant (no, really) 15 yo daughter
• Grandpa, my dad
• Grandma, my mom

Pre-Trip

This is the story of our first ever summer trip to WDW. We've always homeschooled Molly, so we've had the freedom to take our vacations when we like, which has meant that we've typically taken our trips to the World in January. However, last year Molly started taking some dual enrollment classes at the local university, which made us school schedule slaves like the rest of the world. No January trip - May was a possibility, but we decided on a few days in Washington DC instead. With our Florida Resident Seasonal Passes, that only left 1 week as a possibility - Aug. 15 - 23 (immediately after the summer blackout days were over, and immediately before the fall semester began). We were hesitant to do it, never having faced summer heat and crowds before, but we decided since it was now or not at all this year, we'd go ahead.

Back in June I got a Florida Resident rate on a campsite at Fort Wilderness (we camp in a 27 foot travel trailer and we adore FW). I requested our favorite loop (900) and we were good to go. However, not long after that, the transmission went out on our old Suburban, neccessitating a costly repair. All the discretionary income was going towards planning the trip, so we decided to put off the repair till after the trip, drive our Nissan Maxima, and (*gasp*) stay in a hotel instead of camping.

Next issue - Molly wanted to invite her best friend, Rachel, along. We've never done this before, but we decided it would be a lot of fun for Molly, and we're fond of Rae, so we agreed. Adding the extra person was stretching the budget a little, so we decided to look for a good deal on an (again, *gasp*), off-site hotel. I was leaning towards pricelining (is that a word?) a 3 star hotel, when I saw the deal on Mousesavers for the Hotel Royal Plaza at $50 a night. This seemed like a better idea, since it would give the girls freedom to come and go via the buses, so I made the ressie. The rate wouldn't kick in till the 18th (3 nights into the trip), however, so I decided to go ahead and priceline a room for those nights.

More drama ensued - Rae's parents decided, for various good reasons, that it wouldn't work out for Rae to come with us. Major bummer for Molly. On the bright side, our budget now had a little extra wiggle room, so we decided to go for a room at the All Stars instead of the Hotel Royal Plaza. I'm sure it would have been a nicer room, but we just really like staying truly on-site. Thankfully, I hadn't priclined the room for the first 3 nights yet, and the HRP ressie was cancellable. I was able to get a Florida Resident rate at the All Star Music (with a request for the Jazz section), so we were all set.

My parents had Seasonal Passes about to expire in September, so we invited them to come along, too. They decided to come for part of the trip (Monday the 18th - Friday the 22nd), and they got a room via Priceline at the La Quinta Lakeside, which worked out well, being quite convenient to the All Stars via Sherbeth Road.

In the end, I decided I couldn't stand not to leave as early as possible, so instead of driving down the whole way on Friday the 15th, we decided to leave Thursday evening as soon as Gary got off work and drive part of the way down. I pricelined a room for us at the La Quinta in Tallahassee for $30, and we were (finally) all set to go.

Day 0: Thursday, Aug. 14 - Travel Day

Gary finished his packing before he left for work this morning, and Molly and I spent the day doing last minute errands and our own packing. I was really tired since I was operating on very little sleep for the last few nights (3 nights before, we were woken with a wrong number call at 2:30 a.m. after which I never got back to sleep, and which seemed to set up some sort of pattern which had me waking at 3 or 4 the following nights). Still, even in my weakened condition I managed to get all the suitcases and stuff packed in the car before Gary got home, which impressed him very much, since he usually has to pack the trunk. Let me tell you, it was a tight fit, too. We're spoiled by usually travelling in the suburban, so I guess we haven't quite got that packing light thing down ;-)

We hit the road about 5:30, stopping for dinner at a great old burger joint in our city, where we watched the news while we ate - this was the first we'd heard of the power outage, and the footage was all of people walking out of Manhattan. One more stop to gas up the car, and we were truly on our way. I read aloud some from "Out of the Silent Planet" as Gary drove. We got to Tallahassee about 10:30. Our room at the LaQuinta was just fine, and I was glad we had pre-booked, since the place looked to be full. Watched a little more news about the blackout, then imposed one of our own, and off to dreamland.

Day 1: Friday, Aug. 15

Continuing my unfortunate pattern, I woke up about 4 in the morning, and couldn't get back to sleep. So as not to wake my family, I took my book ("The Hiding Place") into the bathroom and had a nice long soak while I read, followed by a shower. Gary woke up a couple of hours later, and after he finished with his shower we got Molly up and we were all ready to go by about 7:30. We got a quick breakfast at McDonald's, put gas in the car, and hit the interstate at 8:30.

I took the back seat so I could try to get some sleep (I had a roaring headache), and after we got out of Tallahassee Gary let Molly drive - she hasn't had much interstate driving experience yet, so this was a good chance for her to practice. I'm terrible at sleeping in the car, but I managed to doze a little off and on. The drive went smoothly. We took I75 to the Florida Turnpike, then 27 to 192.

We pulled up to All Star Music about 12:30. Molly and I have stayed here a couple of times, as well as one stay at Sports last year, but Gary never has. Check-in went smoothly, although they tried to put us in Country. Molly and I stayed there a couple of nights once and hope never to have to again. It's mostly the distance to the main building we don't like, but I'm also not fond of the theming back there. We had requested Jazz on our reservation, so I mentioned that to the CM checking us in, and said we'd be happy to wait for a room later in the day (the room in Country was ready right then). A little checking, and what do you know - a room in Jazz was suddenly available after all, and it was even ready right away. (This is the second time I've had my requests ignored at checkin. I realize they're not guaranteed, but if the room was there anyway, why shouldn't they have given me what I asked for in the first place?) No worries, though. We got what we wanted and everyone was happy.

We stopped at the Food Court and had some lunch first thing, buying 3 mugs also. I was mad at myself because I had left my Disney Dining Experience card in the car, which would have saved us a few dollars on the mugs. I had read on RADP that they were no longer accepting DDE at the All Stars food courts, but this was not true - we used it there the rest of the week. For those who don't know, the DDE is a discount card that Florida residents can buy which gets you 20 percent off on meals at participating WDW restaurants. With some exceptions, it's basically good at most sit-down restaurants, and at counter service places where there is no sit-down available (for instance, the All Stars food courts and the counter service places in Animal Kingdom).

After lunch, we drove around to the Jazz section parking lot, and began hauling our stuff in from the car to our room (2402, ground floor, facing the courtyard). We were pleased with the room and its location. Gary had never been in an All Stars room before, so it was fun to share it with him. After we got unpacked, we got back in the car to go to MGM.

Finally, we're approaching a park! I love this moment, the first step into a park at the beginning of a nice long trip, with so much to look forward to and everything still wrapped up in that shiny new feeling, all the better since we were all 3 together. Molly and I had been on a trip with my parents last September as well as one just the two of us in December for RADP 007, but we hadn't been there with Gary since January of 2002, and it felt good.

As we walked past the giant Stitch outside the park, Molly told Gary all about how he'd been dressed up for Christmas the last time we saw him. We got through the security checkpoint quickly, and then Gary had to go over to Guest Relations to trade in his voucher for a new Seasonal Pass (Molly and I were getting one last trip from the ones we bought last September). Through the turnstiles and *bam* we got hit by a survey taker, and not just the zip code kind either, but a real survey, all about what we were coming to the park for - had we come for any particular attraction, which one, why, if that one wasn't available which one would we come for, why, so on and so forth. Actually, it didn't take more than 5 minutes, but some of the answers were a little hard to come up with. I mean, there's a lot to why we're at the park, and most of it doesn't fit into a handy one sentence answer.

Ok, so now it's roughly 3:00 on a Friday afternoon in August, and durn, there's a lot of people here! Ok, duh, but we're used to the off-season, and even though we knew it would be more crowded than we're accustomed to, it still caught us a little off guard. Gary and Molly wanted to hit Tower of Terror first thing. I don't do Tower - something about it just bothers me. It's a combination of the way the drop makes my stomach feel and a claustrophbic reaction to the elevator. I'll do every other ride on property except Alien Encounter, which is also a claustrophobia thing for me due to the shoulder restraint. If you're curious about my claustrophobia and Mission: Space, well, you'll just have to keep reading, won't you? (insert evil cackle here)

The wait for Tower was too long, so the two of them picked up fastpasses, and we went to take a look at Rock N Roller Coaster - naturally that line was too long as well (welcome to the on-season). We wandered over to Who Wants to be a Millionaire - Play It!, and thought we might have a chance to get into the next show from the standby line, so we gave it a try, but they filled the theater before we made it to the door. We were able to make it into the next Indiana Jones stunt show, and then it was time for the Tower fastpasses to be good - Gary and Molly rode while I wandered through shops for a while, then met them at the exit. We tried again to make it into Millionaire from the standby line, with the same result, so we got some dinner at the Backlot Express.

The original plan had involved finishing the evening at the Magic Kingdom for fireworks and SpectroMagic, but we decided we were just too tired that night, and we'd have another chance, so we headed back to All Star Music for an early night, stopping in the gift shop on our way in for some junk food - it's just not vacation without junk food, you know.

A quick word about money - I've used the word "budget" a couple of times already, and we were definately operating on one for this trip, and every trip. I like to know ahead of time how much money I have available, with a cushion for emergencies. Our budget this time gave us $75/day for food, which is doable, although you have to be careful. We had brought cereal with us and planned on having most breakfasts in the room, which I figured would leave us enough money for one counter service and one sit down meal (with the help of the Disney Dining Experience discount) most days. It also helps the budget that we almost always order water with our meals, and we typically don't order appetizers or desserts. I think we went over budget a couple of days, but we were under on other days, so it actually averaged out a little less than the $75/day I had planned for (and yes, that figure is for all 3 of us).

Day 2 - Sat. Aug. 16

I had gleefully set a wakeup call for a ridiculously early hour, early enough to get us to MGM for early opening. I just love that Mickey wakeup call, and I really wanted somebody else to hear it. As I mentioned before, we usually camp at FW, so Gary's never heard it. Molly and I have been there without him a few times, staying at the All Stars and once at what was then Dixie Landings, but Molly always sleeps right through the phone ringing, so I don't think she's ever heard it either, despite my best efforts to make it happen. I was determined this time to at least get Gary to hear the little guy first thing in the morning. I was actually awake and already in the shower when the phone rang, so Gary picked it up and put it on speaker phone hoping maybe Molly would hear it, too, but he said he never heard Mickey. Bummer! Ok, so we'll try again tomorrow.

We had breakfast in the room, as per our plan, with Gary taking our mugs to the Food Court for coffee and hot chocolate. We caught the bus with a very short wait, and we were off to MGM. We started our day our usual way, with Gary and Molly heading straight for Tower of Terror. While they did that, I got fastpasses for Molly and I to ride Rock N Roller Coaster. In the same way that I never do Tower, Gary never does RNRC, along with several other rides around the parks - he had a little more trouble with motion sickness than I do, while Molly can and does ride anything and everything.

After I met the two of them at the exit to ToT, it was close to time for Molly and I to use our fastpasses on RNRC, so Gary took all our admission passes with him to get Millionaire fastpasses while we rode, with a plan to meet up under the big hat after our ride. After Molly and I had wandered around a little bit to kill the few minutes until our fastpasses were valid, we realized that they were tucked in with our admission passes, which meant that Gary had them with him (duh). The game is afoot - we set off to try and find Gary. First stop - the big hat, but of course he wasn't there yet, so I left Molly there to intercept him if he showed up and I took off toward Millionaire. It was pretty funny - I witnessed, from a distance, the very moment he realized he had the fast passes with him. He was just getting the passes out of his pocket at the Millionaire fastpass machines, when he did a little double take, stopped walking, looked down, looked up at the machines, looked down again, and finally turned around and started walking back my direction, at which point he saw me. We had a little chuckle together about the whole thing, then he decided to go through One Man's Dream while we took our ride, and we went our separate ways. I grabbed the kid on my way past the big hat, and we were off for a high speed limo ride through the freeways of LA. I love that ride, although I really can't do it more than once at a time (really, more than once in a day is pushing it, but sometimes I take the risk).

Having survived RnRC quite nicely, thank you, Molly and I met Gary at the appointed spot under the big hat, and made our way toward Millionaire. After our 2 rounds of almost but not quite making it in via the standby line the night before, we were thankful to have the fast passes. We really enjoy Millionaire, and usually do pretty well. All 3 of us typically make the top 10 at least once or twice during the show, and on past trips, I've been in the hot seat twice, and Molly's made it once. Our goal this trip was, therefore, to get Gary in. Molly and I were pumping his confidence and encouraging him to warm up his thumbs for button pressing while we waited for the show. We chatted some with the lady next to us, who was terrified that she might be called to the hot seat. She asked us if we had ever been in the hot seat, and when we said we had she made the biggest fuss over us to her 2 sons ("Oooh, look, these people have been in the hot seat- can you believe it?") It's always nice to have someone make a fuss over you, isn't it ("No, don't, stop; no, don't stop" ;-)).

The fastest finger round went by (none of us ever does any good on the fastest finger), and the person in the hot seat made it several questions in before biting the dust. Time to reveal the seat number for the next person in the hot seat, and a couple of us were in the top ten. Another go round with the person in the hot seat not lasting very long. The numbers go up again - Gary was number 3, I was number 2, and .... Molly was number 1!

Down the aisle she went, with us parents beaming, and the lady next to us just about to have the vapors. She did a great job, answering questions well and showing a lot of style doing so. She made it past the pins and baseball cap level and just kept on going. It was the 16,000 pointer that was her downfall - the question was, excelsior is the motto of what state. She had already used one lifeline, and chose to phone a complete stranger, who was no help to her at all, and she didn't choose the correct answer, which was New York. A great round, and we were all thrilled.

Leaving Millionaire, it was time for our lunch PS at Mama Melrose. Eating here was another thing that Molly and I had done, but not Gary. While we checked in at the podium, a little girl who had been in the Millionaire show came up to Molly. She said, "You were in the hot seat" in an awed voice. Molly replied, "Yes, I was." The little girl just stood and stared at her like she was a movie star. It was adorable, but a little awkward for Molly, who didn't quite feel like signing autographs at that moment ;-)

Lunch was fantastic. We all had the lunch special - soup or salad plus a flatbread pizza for $14.95. Molly chose the soup (Italian bread soup - we all had a taste, and it was great), while Gary and I had salads. Molly had the pepperoni pizza, and Gary had something with sausage, but I think I ordered the best one. Mine had chicken, sundried tomato, and fresh basil, and it was fabulous. Gary agreed with us that this is a great place for lunch, and we decided to try to come again later in the week after my parents had joined us.

Waddling out of Mama M's, we went to visit our old friends the Muppets. We were some of the first into the preshow area, so we wandered around the edges, taking in some of the funny props scattered around the place. If you've never done this, you've got to take a close look at the labels on all those boxes and crates. When the doors opened, we got our favorite seats on the front row, so we could see all the action in the orchestra pit - those penguins are another bit of that show that shouldn't be overlooked.

After the show, we spent a few minutes browsing the Muppets shop (one of our favorite souvenir spots), and decided we'd done enough at MGM for this day. Our plan involved Epcot for the evening, and since we all felt pretty good at this point, we decided to go to the MK for a bit in lieu of an afternoon break at the hotel. (Insert diminished seventh chords on a large pipe organ here.)

We took a bus from MGM to the MK, and once again we had that happy, first time in a long time feeling as we breezed through the security checkpoint and then the turnstiles. We stopped in the Emporium to look at sunglasses for Molly, who had forgotten to bring any along. She found a pair she liked, but couldn't quite make her mind up about them, so we left them there and made our way to one of our favorites, the TTA. It's so relaxing and refreshing on a hot afternoon, with the breezes rustling your hair and your feet up on the bench opposite you. Gary and I had some fun taking pictures of ourselves with the digital camera as we went (much to Molly's chagrin).

Just after we came around the turn from the back to the front of Buzz Lightyear, our vehicle came to a sudden stop. We generally enjoy getting stuck on rides (with some exceptions, like Test Track, which never seems to be any fun when you're stuck), and this time we enjoyed hanging out. After many repeats on the loudspeaker about how our vehicles would begin moving at any moment, about 20 minutes later the CMs finally came and walked us off. Being walked off kicks any malfunction of a ride up to the next level for us, and this was a treat. (I know, we're easily amused.)

Molly was feeling hungry again, so we headed off for Pinocchio's to get her a hot dog. As we walked, I saw the Enchanted Grove, where they have the Strawberry Swirls I've always wanted to try, so I told Gary and Molly to go ahead and I'd meet them at Pinnochio's. I got on the end of quite a long line, and it took a while before I began to realize that the line didn't seem to be moving much, if at all. It was also beginning to sink in to me just how hot it really was, and I was standing in direct sunlight on a concrete surface. I really wanted that Strawberry Swirl, but after a while I just couldn't take it anymore, so I gave up on it. Wandering through Fantasyland on my way to meet my family, I had the feeling that I had stumbled into Dante's Inferno by mistake. It felt like a million degrees, there were wall-to-wall people, families were arguing, children were screaming - this was definitely not "the happiest place on earth". I stepped briefly into line at Mrs. Pott's cupboard to get a milkshake, but this line (although shaded) wasn't moving any faster than the one at the Enchanted Grove, and I guess I just wasn't feeling very patient, so I gave up on this, too, and found my hubby and daughter in Pinnochio's, where they had managed to snare a table at the window overlooking Small World.

We relaxed there for a little while Molly had her dog and I tried to shake off the crabbiness that had been sucked in through my pores on my trip through the wasteland, and then we were off to the Haunted Mansion for another first for Gary - his first peek at Madame Leota's headstone, which he enjoyed a lot. Thankfully, there was just enough of a wait for him to take in the stone, then we were into the blissfully cool and dark Mansion. I was feeling more and more like myself. We said hello to the engagement ring in the sidewalk on our way out, and went to join the Pirates on their voyage through the Caribbean - another excellently cool and dark place with next to no line. We decided we'd had enough MK, and headed for the exit, stopping to buy those sunglasses for Molly that we'd looked at on our way in.

By now we were seriously starting to doubt the wisdom of our decision to skip our afternoon break, but the day was getting on, so we headed for the monorail station, with Epcot as our goal. We managed to get a car to ourselves on the way to TTC - oh, bliss! We all stretched out on our own benches and drank in the solitude. We didn't get as lucky after we transferred to the Epcot line, but at least we did have seats, and we always enjoy this ride.

Arriving at Epcot, we went straight for Mission: Space. This was the big moment. All of us (Molly especially) had been thrilled to learn that M:S would be opening for sure just as we arrived on this trip. Still, Gary and I had been round and round about whether we should ride it. We both have some trouble with motion sickness (Gary more than me) and I have a touch of claustrophobia, so we were nervous about it. We had decided to send Molly on the first time to report back. We wanted to go through the line though, and take the chicken exit, so we would at least have experienced some of what the pavilion had to offer. It was early evening when we got there, and we had decided to go through the single riders line. However, when we approached, someone was standing next to the CM at the entrance with a huge hip pack. He asked how many of us there were, then when we said 3, he dug through the bag and produced a special fast pass for 3. The bag looked like there were hundreds of fast passes in there. I have no idea what that was all about, but we gratefully accepted, although it made Gary and I feel kind of bad about our plan to bail out.

We zoomed through the empty fastpass line, and when they loaded us into the preshow room we told them we weren't going to ride. They said we should just stand on a number as if we were going to ride, then exit after the briefing. This system seems a little screwy to me, because it leaves empty seats that can't be filled. In our case, this meant that Molly ended up riding in a capsule with only one other person, who turned out to be one of the ride's Imagineers! She got to chat with him some, and she absolutely loved the ride. I can tell you that in the Imagineer's opinion, Pilot is the best seat, because he insisted that she ride there.

Gary and I played the big game (I can't remember the name of it) while we waited for Molly. I guess I was distracted by trying to make sure I didn't miss her when she came out, because I never caught the point of it at all. We did just manage to make eye contact with Molly when she exited, then joined her after our game. She told us all about the ride as we walked away, and her recommendation was that we should try it for ourselves, which we made up our minds to do.

By this time we were getting hungry, so we headed off for World Showcase looking for some fast food. Mexican didn't sound appealing, and neither did Chinese, so we went to Somerfest in Germany so Gary could get a bratwurst. Molly and I have never eaten here, and our intention was to get each person what they wanted even if it meant going to different places. However, at Somerfest I got a look at the Chicken Schnitzel, and decided to try that. Not wanting to be the only one not eating there, Molly decided to get a Frankfurter. She ending up regretting her decision (that Frankfurter is surprisingly unlike what we think of as a hot dog), but I was very happy with mine - the Chicken Schnitzel is a piece of breaded chicken breast on a pretzel roll with sautŽed mushrooms and tomatoes, and it was delicious.

I'm a little fuzzy in my memory about what we did after dinner, if we even did any attractions. I know we went at some point to shop in China, and Molly bought a pair of those black Chinese shoes - you know the ones, sort of like cloth Mary Janes, and the pair she bought had roses embroidered on them. Very pretty and she says they're comfortable - a rare WDW bargain at $7.00/pair.

I do remember that by the time we left, we might as well have been on the Baatan Death March, we were so tired. You know the drill - left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot, just keep dragging yourself along and nobody talk to each other, cause it's gonna get ugly if you try. Somehow we managed to make it to the bus stop for the All Stars (which is a long, long, *looooooong* way out at Epcot) and insert ourselves at the end of a line which looked like it was a couple of thousand hot, weary people long. In truth, we made it onto the second bus (which came quite quickly on the heels of the first bus), and best of all, we even got seats. Still, we vowed not to be caught without the car at the end of a park day again. Please, people, learn from us, and if you're there in the summer, *take the afternoon break*. You'll be so glad you did.

Day 3 - Sun, Aug. 17

Our plan this morning was to have breakfast in the room, then hit the Magic Kingdom for early entry. We had decided before the trip to take advantage of EE during the first part of our trip, before my parents came to join us. They would be staying off-site, so since EE wouldn't be available to them, we thought it made sense to use it while we could, then sleep a little later the rest of the week. Like yesterday, I had set a Mickey wakeup call, hoping that Gary would get to hear it. He tried again, and decided that Mickey's voice was there after all, but so soft that he couldn't make out what he was saying.

We repeated yesterday's routine with cereal in the room, only this time it was me who went to the food court to fill the mugs with coffee and hot chocolate. As I was walking up at about 6:50, I was behind a family (Mom, Dad, and 2 little ones). I thought they must be on their way to have breakfast then make it to MK for EE, since they were obviously on their way to a park (backpacks, etc.). However, when we got to the main building, they breezed right past the food court on their way to the bus stop. Ok, these people are *serious* about getting there on time!

Back to the room, everybody does what needs doing, breakfast is eaten, and we're at the bus stop by 7:20, and onto an MK bus by 7:30. This was one crowded bus, and we were the last 3 let on, which put us standing up front just behind the driver. As we went along, I thought to ask Gary if he had remembered to take his insulin that morning (he's a diabetic), and he had forgotten. He also did not have it with him. Further conversation revealed the fact that Molly had forgotten her room key, which might be needed for early entry to show that she's a resort guest (we'd had to show them at MGM the day before). We decided that the two of them would go back to the resort, and I'd go ahead and do early entry, meeting them about 9:00 at the Partners statue. As we approached the MK bus stops, Gary asked the driver if they should just stay on, but he wasn't sure he was going straight back to the All Stars. There was a van sitting to the side with what I assume must have been a supervisor, so the bus driver pulled over and spoke through the window to the guy, then told us we were in luck, that he could give them a ride back. I left them to do so, and headed for the turnstiles.

It was about 7:40 when I arrived, and people were lined up at the turnstiles. I chose a line to stand in, and we all waited about 10 minutes, when the morning welcome came over the loudspeakers and we all herded in. As I made my way up Main Street, I was interested to see the family I had followed up to the main building at 6:50 at the All Stars right beside me. I guess that extra half hour hadn't gotten them in any quicker - just gave them longer to stand outside the turnstiles. To be fair, I suppose it could have turned out differently.

I headed straight for Fantasyland. Nobody but me likes the Pooh ride in my family (Molly in particular still begrudges the loss of Mr. Toad), so I rode that first, followed in rapid succession by 2 go-rounds on Peter Pan and 1 on Snow White. By now it was sinking in to me that this was my big chance to do the little kid rides without my teenager there to roll her eyes at me, so I went for it and rode the Carousel. I had ridden Peter Pan right behind a large extended family with kids of all ages, and I rode the Carousel with them as well. I was tickled to see one of their teenage boys jump on the Carousel, shouting, "I'm riding Thunder Hooves!" as he made for his favorite.

After the Carousel, I was immersed enough in the moment to actually join the line for Dumbo all by myself. This really took me back to days gone by when we always began a morning at the MK with the "Dumbo Dash" to get little kid Molly on before the lines got big. The wait this time was only about 10 minutes, and when I got into my elephant, I took it straight up as high as it would go and loved my 2 minute soar high over Fantasyland.

This last ride pretty much did away with the remainder of Early Entry hour, so I headed for the hub to meet my people, who were there waiting for me, all objectives met. (By the way, as it turned out I wasn't asked for my resort ID, so Molly could have made it in with me, but who knew.) We headed for Frontierland, where the lines were already quite long for both Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain. We decided on getting a fastpass for Big Thunder in hopes that Splash would have less of a line later. Our plan was to just wander shops while we waited, and possibly get a little something to eat, since Molly was already feeling hungry (turns out she had only eaten half a milk and cereal bar for breakfast, which she had apparently already burned through, energy wise). What she wanted was a hot dog, so we went to Pecos Bills, but they wouldn't start serving till 10:30 (it was only about 9:30 now). Everybody's blood sugar was seeming to drop, so we sat down in the empty PB's and had some cheese crackers from Gary's bag, after which we all felt a little better, and also after which it was time for our Big Thunder FPs. We breezed through the line and took our trip through the mines. The line for Splash was still looking formidable, so we headed for another go round on the Haunted Mansion. By now it was 10:30, and Molly still wanted a hot dog, so we decided to grab one at Casey's on our way out (today's plan called for MK only for the first part of the morning, then a transfer to Epcot). Sadly, Casey's didn't start serving till 11:00, so we gave up on the hot dog and headed for the monorail.

Of course, our first stop at Epcot was Mission: Space to pick up fastpasses. Since Gary and I would be riding for the first time and I in particular was really nervous about the claustrophobia thing, we wanted to ride together, so we ignored the single rider line, even though it was very short at the time. With our fastpasses in hand, we headed over to World Showcase to kill a little time before our 12:00 PS at San Angel Inn. We walked past Mexico to Norway and enjoyed a ride on Maelstrom (apparently we were not the first to pass this way...) and then walked back to Mexico. It was about 20 minutes before our PS, so we floated down El Rio del Tiempo, and then put our names down and waited for just a few minutes before we were escorted to a lovely table right on the railing at the water.

It had been many years since we'd eaten here, so we were anxious to give it a try. I had the chicken nachos which were excellent, and Gary and Molly really enjoyed whatever they had as well :-) While we were eating a band came out to play in the pavilion who were not Mariachi Cobre. I thought they were a Tejano band (I'm no expert on the subject, I just thought the music sounded like what I'd heard in the Selena movie). We asked our waiter, and he thought I asked if they were from Tijuana, which got us started talking to him about our one visit to Tijuana, and also about Molly's week in Ensenada earlier this summer on a mission trip. It turned out he had grown up in Ensenada, so the two of them had a nice conversation about that. By the way, I really enjoyed the band, and our waiter said that they play there on the days that Mariachi Cobre has off.

By the time we had finished our lunch, it was almost time for M:S, so we headed that direction. We were nervous, and there was a little bit of a wait in the fast pass line which gave me too much time to think about what was coming. Still, I was determined to give it a try, and so was Gary, so before too much time had passed we found ourselves in the briefing room and then being loaded into our capsule.

That first ride I found myself doing a lot of Lamaze breathing exercises to stay calm, and as a result, I think I didn't take in too much of what was happening, but overall it was a positive experience. I thought the launch was very cool - I loved the way the blue sky receded seamlessly into the black of space. I found the claustrophobia factor to be not that bad - I think it does help that they blow the cold air on you, and that you have all those buttons and levers to play with. My advice - when you're loaded in the capsule, start playing with stuff right away to take your mind off the close quarters. In truth, the quarters really didn't feel as close as I was afraid they might. The illusion of looking out a window is pretty good, and I imagine that helps as well. As far as motion sickness, I walked away with a bit of a dizzy, disoriented feeling, but it went away fairly quickly. I never felt a sense of spinning. Gary had a little stronger reaction than I did. He felt a little disoriented briefly at the liftoff, and again during the slingshot around the moon. He thinks his eyes weren't lining up quite right (he uses reading glasses, but didn't have them on at that point). He was a little more staggery afterwards than I was, and took a little longer to feel better, but neither of us had anywhere near as bad a reaction as we did when we rode Body Wars.

After our ride, we walked over to the First Aid station, because I was getting some blisters on my feet and needed band-aids. While we were there, we got into a conversation with the nurse on duty and a lady who had just come off of M:S and wanted something to settle her stomach (what they had to offer was Alka-Seltzer, if you want to know). I asked the lady if she had kept her head straight, to which she replied that she had done everything she was supposed to do, but she still had to close her eyes ;-) The moral: if you close your eyes, you're not doing everything you're supposed to!

Molly had gone to the Imageworks at the Imagination Pavilion to send an email while Gary and I went to First Aid, so we met up with her there and the 3 of us did the Imagination ride together, after which we decided that if we weren't going to make yesterday's mistake of staying all day and turning ourselves into the living dead, now was the time to go back for a rest. We made the long, long, *loooooong* trek out to the All Stars bus stop, where we found an interesting group waiting. On the farthest bench a couple of guys were sitting, then there was an empty bench, then a family of 4 (Mom, Dad, school age brother and sister) spread out over 3 benches, mostly ignoring each other, but occasionally sending murderous glances in each other's direction. We took the empty bench and waited just a few minutes until a bus came. As we all got on the bus, the 2 guys and us went for the back seats so we could put our feet up on the facing seats, and the family spread out in seats as far away from each other as possible in the front section. After awhile, brother looks at Mom and says, in a tone that would be appropriate if a beloved pet had just died, "My money? You don't have my *money*?" Mom then puts her head in her hands and says, moaning, "Oh my God, the cell phone, oh my God, oh my God". Dad continues to look away in stony silence while sister moves even farther away from brother. After awhile, Mom gets up and stands (this is on a bus with only 8 people on it), presumably so she's not in danger of making eye contact with anybody. When we pulled up to the All Star Sports, Dad rushed off the bus first and took off for door of the main building at a run, while the other 3 followed a little more slowly. We speculated that one of them had probably left a bag with the cell phone and the kid's money and who knows what else in it at the food court, and they probably discovered this as they got off the bus at Epcot, causing them to have to wait for a return ride in the misery of wondering if it would be there when they got back. Hopefully things looked up for them and none of them are now in the slammer for murdering any of the others.

We continued on the bus for the next stop at All Star Music, where we stopped for ice cream at the food court before we made our way back to the room for a little rest. Feeling much refreshed, we took the car back to Epcot, and headed into World Showcase in search of an early dinner. After last night's meal at Somerfest which Gary and I enjoyed but Molly did not, we decided to let her choose the venue, and Yakitori House was what she decided on. Molly got the chicken and beef combo, and Gary and I both decided on Udon noodles, which come in a hot broth. Sadly, all the tables were taken, so we had to take our food to the outside tables. Situated next to the very pretty garden, this spot would probably have made for a lovely dining experience at some other time of the year, but at 6:00 on an August day, it was still blazing hot, as was the broth the Udon noodles were in, and by the time we finished eating, I thought the top of my head was going to have come open to let some steam out. I had to get into some air conditioning and fast.

I saw on my times schedule that there was about 45 minutes until the next American Adventure show, so I thought maybe there would be a Voices of Liberty or American Vybe show we could watch and cool down. We made our way over there, but the CM at the door of the pavilion informed us that there were no rotunda shows in the evening. Still, there was no way I was going to leave that wonderfully cool lobby, so we went in to sit down a bench. After about 10 minutes of rest I began to feel better, so we wandered off towards Germany in search of a piece of dark chocolate.

While there was plenty of chocolate to be had in the candy shop in Germany, none of it looked just right, so we blew it off and walked back to see the American Adventure. By the time we finished watching the show, I was feeling decidedly more like a human being than a human firebomb. By now it was about 8:00 so we decided to start scoping out a spot for IllumiNations. Gary wanted to try the area that's been built out near the boat dock at Italy. The best spots at the end of it were already taken, but there was some room at the side that looked like it would still give a pretty good view. We got ready to sit down on the ground to wait, but noticed the place was covered with ants, which ruled out any sitting.

After we stood there for a few minutes I was becoming increasingly dissatisfied with our spot, since we would have to look sideways to see the show, and since we were going to have to stand there for most of an hour to hold our spot. Molly wanted to wander in search of dessert, so we told her to keep her eyes open for a better spot as she went and call on her cell phone if she found one. Sure enough, in a few minutes she called from Germany saying she had a good place, so we gave up our ant ridden spot and went to find her. Her spot did turn out to be a good one, and we were glad we hadn't stayed at the one by Italy. Gary and I spread out on the ground, and Molly went to the bakery at Norway with instructions to bring back chocolate mousses for Gary and I along with whatever she wanted for herself. She fulfilled this duty handsomely, having chosen a Veiled Maiden for herself. We all enjoyed our treats, and then I went into Somerfest to get us some ice water. When I came back, I found that a British family had taken the spot next to us, and Gary was deep in conversation with the Dad. We found out that they were staying at an off site hotel. They were apparently frequent WDW visitors, but they always stay off-site, because, in the words of the dad, "We're only here for 3 weeks, so we don't really have any time to relax by a nice pool anyway." Wow.

We had a fabulous view of IllumiNations, then took our time getting out. We watched a little bit of a fountain show on our way by, and decided to wait for the tram instead of walking out to the car. Even though it wasn't very far out in the lot, my feet were really bothering me, and the tram pulled up almost right away, so we were glad we had waited for the ride. Back to the car, back to the ASMu, and off to beddy-bye.

Day 4 - Monday, August 18th

This was the day that my parents were due to arrive. We were expecting them sometime around 5 in the afternoon. Our plans for the day involved Animal Kingdom in the morning, lunch at Rainforest Cafe to use a gift certificate I had earned in an online rewards program, then eventually meeting them at the Magic Kingdom for fireworks and Spectromagic.

I woke up very early today, and since I needed some bandaids for the blisters on my feet as well as a few other things, I decided to drive to Publix while I waited for Gary and Molly to wake up. I pulled up in the parking lot at about 6:40 am to discover that the store didn't open till 7, so I sat in the car and watched the front door till it opened. Once it did, I found what I was looking for pretty quickly and checked out. At the car, I was dismayed to find that it wouldn't start. I called Gary on the cell phone, and we decided that it sounded like the battery was dead, and I should call AAA to come and jumpstart it. Once I hung up, I realized the battery on my cell phone was also almost dead, and I couldn't charge it any more off the car, so I went to the pay phone to call. When they asked for a phone number where they could reach me, I gave them the number of the pay phone, since I wasn't sure I could rely on the cell phone, but when they told me that they'd "try to be there within an hour", I regretted that, since it meant I would have to sit on the sidewalk by the phone instead of in the comfort of my car, just in case they needed to call me. I called back and gave them the cell phone number instead, taking the chance it wouldn't work. I went back into the Publix (this was the one on Orange Lake Blvd., if anybody wants to know), bought a magazine to pass the time, and went back to my car to wait.

At first I rolled the windows down, but then it occurred to me that I might not be able to roll them back up, so I went ahead and did it while there was a little power left, and just waited sitting on the hood of the car. I was not enjoying this all that much. I was running through scenarios in my mind that involved the AAA guy not being able to get the car running, with me stuck here and Gary back at the hotel with no good way to get to me. I had just gotten around to trying to decide if it was walkable when the guy showed up.

I had given a description of the car on the phone, plus I was the only person sitting on her car in the not very full lot, but still the guy drove right past me and went all around the lot looking confused before I finally got his attention. I guess I should have put the hood up - that didn't occur to me at the time. Of course, the first thing he asked me was "Did you leave your lights on all night?" in that leering, "stupid woman" tone of voice. I told him I had not, and I didn't know any reason the battery should be dead. When he attached the jumper cables, he said he could see what the problem was - there was corrosion. He said I could fix that with a can of Coke and a toothbrush, and it should be just fine, and for the time being, just to be sure to leave it running for at least 30 minutes. I thanked him, and I was on my way. Hurray!

It only took about 10 minutes until I was back in the parking lot at the All Stars, so I called Gary on the cell phone again, and he came down to wait with the car while it charged so I could go to the bathroom. When enough time had gone by, he came back to the room, and the 3 of us headed for the bus stop and the AK.

We had been planning on early entry again this morning, but that was shot. Oh, well, no worries - the car seemed to be ok, and here we were, so things were looking up. We picked up fastpasses for the Safari first thing, then had some breakfast at Tusker House (we were all starving by this time). We had a pretty decent Safari ride, the high point of which was getting to see the new baby elephant - he's outstandingly cute. I mean, come on - what could be cuter than a baby elephant?

After our safari, Gary went to pick up fp's for Kali River Rapids while Molly and I went to ride Dinosaur. The line at Dinosaur was too long, so we skipped it and met Gary at the exit. We had apparently done this exactly backwards, because there had only been a 15 minute wait posted for Kali. We decided to go straight back to Kali even though it wasn't time for the fp's yet, and sure enough the line was still really short, so Gary and Molly went ahead and went through the standby line, which turned out to be a walk-on. (I had decided that I wasn't dressed right for getting wet today, so I gave it a pass). After they got off, the fps were good, so they went for a second go-round. Naturally, by this time the two of them were quite a bit beyond damp ;-)

By now it was almost time for our 12:00 priority seating at Rainforest Cafe, so we headed that direction. That is to say, I walked and they sloshed. I was extra glad I hadn't gotten wet with them when we stepped into the semi frigid air of the RC - poor Molly was really uncomfortable. We like RC ok, and we don't have one where we live, so it's at least a little out of the ordinary for us, but it's not too high on our list of favorites at WDW, and we were really only there because I had that gift certificate to use. Molly ordered a pizza, and Gary and I got salads and then split the Awesome Appetizer Adventure (if that's not the exact name of the thing, it's something just as stupid sounding). We were all pretty underwhelmed with our food.

I had asked our server right off the bat if they did the Disney Dining Experience discount - I didn't think they did, but it never hurts to ask, right? She was unfamiliar with it, so she took my card to show her manager. She came back and said they didn't take it (no surprise), but they did have a discount for that "upgraded" AAA card. Now, I have AAA Plus, which is an upgrade from the basic AAA card, so I showed her the card and asked if that was what she meant. She said it was, so that sounded good. Later, when she brought the bill, she told me that she had found out it really wasn't the right card (apparently there's some kind of "diamond" AAA upgrade), but since she had said my card would work, they were going to go ahead and give me the discount. Ok, fine, by this time we were just ready to leave, so we paid the bill and got out of there. Of course, as we were walking away, I remembered that I hadn't used my gift certificate! Several minutes of grumbling accompanied by me trying not to kick anything or spit followed, but I eventually got over it.

Molly decided she was ready to go back to the hotel and rest, so she went and caught the bus. Gary and I hung out a little longer, and the two of us went on Dinosaur, then It's Tough to Be a Bug, after which we were ready for a break as well. Waiting for the bus this time turned out to be a low point of the trip - it was just so stinking hot, possibly the hottest we felt it all week. Thankfully there's a machine selling bottled water at the bus stop, so that helped while we waited, but it was still a long, broiling hot, and surprisingly crowded for early afternoon wait. I guess everybody else must have gotten too hot to stay at the same time as us. Finally the bus came, and we managed to make it on, although we did have to stand.

Arriving at ASMu, I stopped by the gift shop while Gary went to the food court for a snack. I got a can of Coke and a toothbrush to clean the car battery with. The only kind of toothbrush available was a child's, but I figured that would do the trick. While checking out, the CM asked me, "Oh, did somebody forget their toothbrush?" I told her about the battery, but I think it went right over her head, because her only reply was, "Ok, but did you remember your toothpaste?" ;-)

I went and collected my hubby (realizing as I did so that we could have just filled a mug with Coke for free instead of spending $1.50 on a can - d'oh), and we went back to the room. I had a little lie down while the man went out to the parking lot and acted manly, working on the battery in the hot sun on an asphalt parking lot. Afterwards, he said he wanted a rest, too - go figure, huh? Molly and I were feeling refreshed and ready to go, so we decided to go ahead and drive over to the MK, where he would take a bus and meet us later, as well as my parents. By the way, we had spoken to them sometime midafternoon, and arranged to meet them at the Plaza Pavilion at 6:00.

I sat in the passenger seat and relaxed while Molly chauffeured me to the MK parking lot. We rode the tram in sitting in front of a group of very foul-mouthed teenagers, and Molly told me that that's how all the kids talk where her friend lives in Tennessee (Molly flew up there last April to spend spring break with her friend). Yuck.

Inside the turnstiles, our first mission was to pick up fastpasses for Space Mountain, which turned out to be for 8:30, which was still several hours away. It seemed like a perfect time to ride TTA, so we had a relaxing ride, and enjoyed it so much we stayed on for a second ride. (Turn on the ominous music track now.) Apparently this was tempting fate. As we went through the Space Mountain portion of the ride, we found that Space Mountain had gone down, and so did we. This was cool at first, because it gave us a great seat to watch what was going on. We weren't sure if any riders were stuck on there, but we saw CM's moving around the tracks, doing we weren't quite sure what, and heard lots of mysterious sounding codes and things being broadcast on the loudspeakers. After a while, all the lights went out and we all just sat there in total darkness. Finally, our car began to move, but only enough to get us outside the building, where we stopped again. As we sat there, it began to rain, lightly at first, but then more and more until it was a downpour. We were covered by the roof, but some rain was blowing in from the side, so Molly and I got out our umbrellas and set them up beside us to keep dry. By this time it was approaching our meeting time, so I called Gary on the cell phone and told him where we were - he said they would all just wait for us where they were.

More time went by, with the recorded messages about staying in your vehicle playing every couple of minutes, interspersed with a CM saying the same thing live. We were just fine where we were, but we felt kind of sorry for the group of English people just behind us who had 6 people crammed into their car - fortunately 3 of them were children, but that's still pretty squishy. Ahead of us 2 couples were in the front car of our little group, and apparently they had some kids in a car farther up the track, because I kept hearing somebody calling to Mommy, and one of the ladies would wave and yell something cheerful up the track. The dad in the English group was busy keeping everybody's spirits up, cracking jokes and making merry, so everybody was doing really well. Actually, the general consensus seemed to be that everybody would prefer to just stay there and wait out the storm, but eventually CM's came to walk us off. When someone said something like "just leave us here", the reply was, "You don't want to be hit by lightning, do you?" (There were a lot of it going on, and very close too, by the sound of the thunder.) We all walked off like ducks in a line (this was feeling familiar, except for the added element of the life-threatening weather.) These CM's paid very close attention to us, showing us exactly where to walk and where to step. They helped us cross the track, and took us to a stairway where we could get down. Molly and I, as previously mentioned, were fortunate enough to have umbrellas, but everybody else just had to go down those open stairs in that drenching rainfall.

At the bottom of the stairs, we stood for a couple of minutes with everybody else under the track, but decided to make a run for the Space Mountain Arcade (the place we were standing was behind the arcade building, by the path that goes to Mickey's Toontown). We made it inside without being struck by lightning, and I called Gary and again and told him that if they were hungry they should go ahead and eat something there at the Plaza Pavilion, since Molly and I might be stuck here for a while - Grandma and Grandpa were there with him by this time. We were pretty hungry ourselves, so I bought us some nuts and trail mix, which were the only things available to eat besides candy. We stayed in there for about 20 minutes, with Molly campaigning for us to make a dash for it to the Plaza Pavilion. I was reluctant to do it because there was so much lightning, but eventually I caved in and we put on ponchos, got out the umbrellas, and ran for it. Somehow we escaped death by electrocution, and found our family at a table finishing up their food. Molly and I got dinner for ourselves, and we sat and talked for quite a while, hoping the storm would let up. Grandma and Grandpa had had an uneventful drive down, checked into their hotel (LaQuinta Lakeside via Priceline), and made it just inside the MK before the heaven opened up. We had planned to see the fireworks tonight at 9:45 and possibly SpectroMagic at 9:00, but hopes for these to go on were looking increasingly dim.

Eventually we all decided to brave the rain and try a ride on Buzz Lightyear, but when we had battled our way over there, the line was enormous. Molly really wanted to stay at least long enough to use our 8:30 fastpasses for Space Mountain, but at this point things were looking so soggy and un-fun that I told my parents they really didn't have to stay if they didn't want to. They gratefully accepted their release and headed back to their car in the parking lot.

The 3 of us decided to slosh over to Adventureland and ride Pirates, which was lovely, then Molly grabbed an ice cream soda from the Sunshine Tree Terrace, which she ate while we sat at one of those little tables inside near the egg roll wagon - I think they used to be for a counter service place which is no longer open. By this time our fp's were finally good, so we went back to Tomorrowland and got that ride in. It was almost 9:00 by now, and it looked on Main Street like they were setting up for SpectroMagic, although it was still raining lightly, but we were so exhausted we decided to give up on it and go back to the hotel. The lines for the trams were long, and our car was not that far out in the lot, so we just walked out, and somehow we managed to make the whole walk accompanied by the same foul-mouthed teens we were with on the way in. They were even worse this time. Double yuck. Finally we reached the sanctuary of our car, (which started up just fine, just as it had done earlier when Molly and I came to the MK), and back to bed, where we were very relieved to be.

Day 5 - Tuesday, August 19th

No more Early Entry days on our plan meant an extra hour of sleep this morning. I listened to the Mickey wakeup call myself today, and experienced what Gary had been telling me about - music at regular volume when I first answered, then Mickey's voice coming on very quietly. If I hadn't already known what he was saying, I doubt I could have figured it out.

This day dawned bright and sunny, in happy contrast to last night's terrible storm. Our plan of having cereal every morning in the room for breakfast to save money had faded to a memory by now, and we headed to the food court for something more substantial. We drove up there and parked in the check-in lot, because our plan was to drive to Epcot to meet Grandma and Grandpa for opening. We were dismayed to find that after breakfast, the car wouldn't start again. Grrr! We left it where it was sitting, and caught a bus to Epcot. We were concerned that our little setback would make us late for our set meeting with my parents, but as it turned out, we beat them there.

My mom had had a birthday a week before the trip, and as a little gift for her we had decided that we would arrange for she and Gary (the two gardeners in the family) to take the Behind the Seeds tour at the Land pavilion. Today was the appointed day, so while Molly and I waited, Gary went off to the Land to buy the tickets. Grandma and Grandpa eventually showed up, and the four of us headed off towards Mission: Space, our first objective of the day, since Grandpa was eager to give it a try. Gary didn't feel like riding today, so we had agreed that he would meet us at the exit. Grandma suffers from Menier's Disease, an inner ear condition that prevents her from doing anything that can cause motion sickness, so she went to get us all fastpasses for Test Track while Molly, Grandpa, and I all got in the single riders line at M:S.

There was a short wait (maybe 10 minutes) in the single riders line, then the 4 of us all went into the same briefing room. Molly had given Grandpa the 411 about what to do and not to do on the ride, but naturally we all went to different pods, so from this point he was on his own.

I enjoyed the ride more than my first time, noticing a lot of stuff I must have been too tense to take in before, and feeling less of the effects when it was over. I met up with the other 2 in the hall on the way out, and Molly and I were anxious to see how Grandpa had handled the ride. He seemed fine, and said he really enjoyed it. Outside, we found Grandma and Gary waiting for us. As we were talking with them in the hot sun, Grandpa started looking a little pale and saying he wasn't feeling all that great. We had just been talking about going to Cranium Command at the Wonders of Life pavilion right next door, and I told him he could get a soda at the snack bar in there, which sounded like a good idea to him. By the time we made it up the slope to the pavilion and inside, he was looking really shaky. He got a tall Sprite and said he just wanted to sit down and drink it, and that the rest of us should go see the show without him, so we did that. It was as enjoyable as always (although it is starting to look pretty dated). Afterwards, we found Grandpa right where we had left him, but looking considerably more lifelike, and saying he felt a lot better. By this time I was starting to feel bad that I had taken him on M:S, but he insisted (and this was actually true) that it had been his idea to go on it, and also that he really had enjoyed it, would do it again even knowing what he knew now about how it had made him feel, and that he plans to do it again, just not on this trip. I guess Mission: Space will become a once-a-trip ride for him, just like Rock N Roller Coaster is - he loves that ride, but says once a trip is enough for him, and that's all he ever rides it.

I decided to let go of the guilt (truth be told, though, I did continue to feel a little bad about it, even though I knew it wasn't my fault). We all went next door to Ellen's Energy Adventure, and by the time that was finished it was feeling like time for an early lunch. The Electric Umbrella was the fast food of choice, so we headed that direction. As we were walking, I heard Grandpa grousing to Gary (is that enough g's in one sentence for you?) about how you couldn't get a chili dog anymore. I'm not sure where he got that idea, but I assured him it wasn't true, and the timing was perfect, because I was able to point out to him the chili dogs on the menu at Electric Umbrella 2 minutes later. He ordered one and was as happy as a clam. Ah, don't you love it when you get to be right ;-)

Gary had bought tickets for the 1:00 Behind the Seeds tour, and Grandma had drawn Test Track fastpasses for 12:30 - 1:30, which was a little bit tight time-wise. However, we thought we could probably make it through TT in time for them to get over there with a few minutes to spare. However, when we headed over to TT after lunch, we were met with quite a long back-up in the fastpass line. We stood in the queue for about 10 minutes, and then Gary and Grandma decided they'd better give up on it and go for their tour. This was disappointing because TT is a favorite of Grandma's - it's one of the few high speed rides she can do without getting sick. However, as they left the fast pass line the CM at the front told them their fastpasses would be good any time they wanted to come back later, so they felt better about that.

Molly and Grandpa and I stayed in the line, and were on the ride about 10 minutes later. (I think it had mechanical difficulties that had caused the hold up - no big surprise.) This was not the greatest ride. It wasn't that it exactly broke down and stopped, but it just wasn't working quite right, and we went very slowly through the curvy section after the heat, cold, and corrosion chambers. Still, it worked just fine on the outside track, which is the best part anyway.

We had a little less than an hour to kill before we were supposed to meet up with our 2 tour-goers. Molly wanted to go back for a little more shopping in China, so the two of us headed over to the World Showcase via the Odyssey bridge while Grandpa headed off to the Living Seas. We stopped first in Norway for a quick Maelstrom ride, then went straight on over to China. Molly got another pair of the Chinese mary janes, this time plain black with no embroidery, and a tank top. We wandered back over to Future World and the food court at the Land, where we had agreed to meet. We found everybody there, and Grandpa arrived bearing soft serve for us all. After relaxing over our treat, Molly declared that she was ready to go back for her afternoon rest, so we bid her goodbye, planning to meet up with her later. Gary and Grandma wanted to take advantage of their fastpasses for Test Track, so they went off to do that while Grandpa and I went to Innoventions for a little while.

While we were in there, another storm blew up - a doozy like last night's. We hung out in Innoventions hoping it would blow over quickly, and trying to raise the others by cell phone every few minutes. We finally got a hold of Grandma, who was in MouseGear. We told her to stay there and we'd come to her, so we donned our ponchos and made for the shop under pouring rain and loud thunder claps. We found Grandma, and she said Gary was waiting back at Test Track, because I had his poncho in my bag - oops! I left my parents in the store and went to find my hubby, who was waiting with a large crowd under the overhang in front of TT. He and Grandma hadn't even gotten to ride, because it went down (undoubtedly due to the storm) just when they got to the loading platform. Bummer. I gave him his poncho, and he decided to go back to the hotel to see what he could do about the car. I kissed him goodbye and went back to find my folks at MouseGear.

We wandered around the very crowded store for a little while, then decided to go back to the Electric Umbrella for a coffee, hoping the storm would let up and we could still take our tour of World Showcase. I'm sure, gentle reader, that you will have guessed by now that everybody else in all of Future World had the same idea, and of course there was not a table to be had. Outside under the awning there were plenty of tables and chairs, but naturally they were all very wet, since that awning is a patchwork kind of affair and was never intended to keep out rain. It occurred to me, however, that there was enough space in a protected area near the door to drag 3 chairs over. We did that, wiped them off with napkins, and decided they were more than adequate seating for people in dripping ponchos. Grandma and I had a seat while Grandpa went to procure 3 decaf coffees. What he came back with was 2 decaf coffees and what he proclaimed to be a "decaf beer" for himself. :-)

We actually had quite a pleasant visit while we sipped our assorted decaf beverages, but slowly we began to accept that it was not going to stop raining anytime soon, and gave up on our dream for the afternoon. Grandma and Grandpa agreed to drop me off on their way to their hotel, so we sloshed out to the parking lot and into their car. As we drove, we talked about the evening. Our plan had called for Epcot until evening, when Gary, Molly, and I were going to E Ride night at the Magic Kingdom (an option unavailable to my parents, who were staying offsite). I wasn't sure if E Ride would be a go or not, so I said I'd talk things over with Gary and Molly and give them a call.

I found the 2 of them back at the room, and we talked it over. It was still pouring and nobody felt like E Ride would be very enjoyable unless the rain slowed down to a sprinkle. I called my parents and we decided a nice dinner together would be a great alternative, and they asked me to choose a restaurant at one of the resorts. We didn't want to spend quite as much as Boma or another of the buffets would cost, but I wasn't sure how much less expensive any of the other places I could think of would be. I decided to dial 0 and ask the Disney operator for some suggestions. I've never really used those operators for much, but I had heard they were fountains of information. I explained the situation to the very pleasant man on the phone, and asked him to tell me about the menus at 2 or 3 places, including Kona Cafe at the Polynesian and Olivia's at Old Key West. This guy took a ton of time with me, reading menus and talking price ranges. With his help, I decided that Olivia's sounded to be just the ticket. I was able to get a priority seating for 8:00, and arrangements were made for Grandma and Grandpa to pick us up at ASMu (Gary had been unable to do anything about the car, so we were still without wheels). However, just before we were due to go out to the parking lot to meet them, we noticed that the rain had, in fact, slowed to a trickle, and Gary and Molly made the last minute decision to go the the MK after all. I could have gone with them, but I was really tired and the nice relaxing dinner sounded better to me, so I sent them on their way up to Guest Services at the hotel to buy the E Ride tickets, and I went out and found Grandma and Grandpa in the parking lot.

The 3 of us went to Old Key West and did indeed have a very relaxing and enjoyable dinner at Olivia's, which I can certainly recommend from my experience there that evening. The service was good and the food tasted wonderful. I had the Baked Dorado Filet, Grandma had the Roast Beef Sandwich, and Grandpa had the Ribs.

After dinner, I asked if they could drive me to Wal-Mart to buy a tool Gary needed to fix the car. They graciously agreed to do so, and we set off to find our way there. I think I may have chosen the longest possible route, but eventually we found our way to the very crowded Wal-Mart parking lot on 192. Grandpa volunteered to go in and buy the wrench, while Grandma and I waited in the car. And waited. And waited. We were just starting to look around for a spare St. Bernard to send in after him when he appeared, wrench in hand. That place is a zoo in the evenings - I guess that's where all the tourists go after their day in the parks, but a manager in the store had told my dad that it's like that any hour or the day or night. Sheesh! We finally made it out of there and back onto WDW property, where they once again dropped me off and headed for the LaQuinta. I beat Gary and Molly home, who showed up a little after 11:00, tired but happy from a fun night at the MK. They had grabbed a hot dog at Casey's, ridden everything they wanted to once (but nothing twice - they found the lines to be a little longer than the E Ride nights we're used to in January), and the greatest thing that happened was Gary managing to max out his score on Buzz Lightyear at 999,999!

Day 6 - Wednesday, August 20th

After a late night at the Magic Kingdom for E Ride night, Molly had requested to sleep in. Gary and I got up and headed for the food court for breakfast. He was planning to tighten the cable on the battery using the wrench we had braved Wal-Mart to buy last night, in hopes that would solve the car problem. It was still sitting in the check-in lot where we had left it yesterday morning. After our breakfast, we headed out there to give it a try. As it turned out, it didn't help at all - the car was still completely dead. Gary now thought that if he could get a jump-start and let the battery charge again, the tightened cable would do its job and the battery would be ok.

This morning's plan (after the work on the car) was to meet Grandma and Grandpa at the Magic Kingdom, once again at opening. While we discussing the battery scenario, a bus for the Magic Kingdom pulled up. Gary told me to go ahead and take it to meet my parents, and he'd call for security to come and give him a jump, after which he'd come and meet us at the MK. Ooooookie dokie.

Grandma and Grandpa felt bad about being late yesterday, and since they get up at the crack of dawn anyway, I had no doubt they'd be on time today, so I wanted to be sure not to be late myself. I ran for the bus, and just barely made it on. As we were driving along, my cell phone rang. It was Grandma, calling to say that they were just leaving their hotel, so they'd be a little late again. Oooooooooookie dokie again. I made it into the Magic Kingdom just shortly after the turnstiles opened, and took up residence in front of Tony's Town Square to wait for them. After a few minutes, it occurred to me that it was going to be quite a while before they made it to the parking lot, caught the tram, went through the TTC, and got a monorail or ferry over. To console myself, I went into the candy shop and bought a dark chocolate Mickey truffle at 9:10 in the morning.

I returned to my station and recommenced waiting. And waiting. And (ok, you get the picture). I watched what looked like a million people stream into the park, all heading for what I knew must be ever-lengthening lines. Frustration was beginning to mount. To understand this frustration, you should know that before the trip I had asked my parents for a list of what they most wanted to see and do. They were only going to have 3 full days at WDW (this schedule was what they chose), and I knew I'd have to plan things carefully in order to get stuff accomplished. They presented me with a list that would have really taken 5 days to complete. I told them I'd do the best I could, that we probably really couldn't get all that done. I said our best shot was to be at each day's park at opening so we could do as much as possible before the crowds got too big and the thermometer rose too high. They heartily concurred with my plan, and they spoke several times (including yesterday) about how important it was to start your day in the parks right at opening. Uh-huh. I visualized all my plans on torn up paper, wafting gently away on the winds. Ok, so I was overreacting, but being the trip planner for a multigenerational group with car trouble and an inability to get places on time was starting to make me a little crazy.

During my wait, I spoke to Gary a couple of times on the cell phone. He told me that while he was waiting for security to come and jump off the car, a guest stopped and asked if he needed help. The guy had jumper cables in his car, so he very helpfully gave Gary the jump he needed. Gary then started to drive the car out of the check-in lot, but as soon as he got out of his parking space it died again. Completely dead. Dead as a doornail. So now, here he is with this dead car in the middle of the drive. Some ministering angels in the form of a car full of big, beefy guys (I'm not making this up) showed up at that precise moment, asked Gary if he needed help, pushed the car back into a parking space and drove away. Gary had by now officially decided that we were just going to have to buy a new battery. The question became, did we go to Wal-Mart and buy one he could install himself, or did we just have the car towed to the Car Care Center and let them take care of it? I knew the towing would be free, and I was leaning towards letting the Car Care Center do it so Gary could start relaxing and enjoy his vacation. I knew the chances of this were pretty slim, however - my hubby is a very handy guy who can fix most anything, and it just kills him to pay somebody else to do something he could do himself. We decided he should just come to the Magic Kingdom for now and we'd decide when he got there. He went to the room and got Molly (remember, we left her sleeping in), and the two of them began their trek to the MK.

Meanwhile, back in Town Square, I had been waiting for about 30 minutes when Grandma called to say they were pulling into the parking lot. Finally, after almost an hour total waiting time, they appeared from under the train station. By this time I had managed to get over myself and make a determination not to be so uptight. I had also had enough time to begin wondering if they'd be so upset with themselves over being late that they'd start their morning off on a negative note, but everything turned out fine. I joked with them about the chocolate I got out of it, and Grandma offered to pay me back for it :-)

The three of us headed for Frontierland to see what the situation was with the lines by this time. Naturally, both Splash and Big Thunder had quite lengthy lines going (this was looking like it could be quite a busy day at the MK). I asked them which of the two they would choose if they could only fit in one, and they picked Big Thunder, so we pulled fastpasses for that. We went and rode Pirates with a very short wait, then Haunted Mansion. Grandma is a fan of Small World - I can tolerate it, but nobody else will ride it with her, so we dispatched Grandpa to wait for us in Pinocchio Village Haus while she and I rode. We had a fun time identifying which continent we were looking at in each room. After the ride, we found Grandpa, who had spoken to Gary and Molly by cell phone while we were gone - they were in the park and on their way to meet us at Pinocchio's. Almost as soon as he had told us this, they appeared in the doorway. It was about 11:00 by this time, so we got an early lunch then and there. I tried something new - the Figaro Fries, and they were really good! I added some mushrooms and cheese sauce from the toppings bar, and if you're ever in need of a cheap but filling meal at the MK, this is the way to go.

Gary had decided that he wanted to fix the battery himself (no surprise there), so he asked for and received permission to borrow Grandma and Grandpa's car to go to Wal-Mart. He left us in the Magic Kingdom to retrieve their car from the lot. We now had 4 people (counting Molly) and 3 now valid fastpasses for Big Thunder Mountain, so I sent the 3 of them to ride while I went to pull fastpasses for Buzz Lightyear. We had arranged to meet by the merchandise cart in front of Haunted Mansion, and I was lucky enough to snag a rocker on the porch of the Yankee Trader right next door, where I could watch for their approach. That, by the way, is a wonderful place to rest your feet and people watch for a while.

My wait this time was quite short, the 3 of them appeared from their travels, and we all headed for the Haunted Mansion. We were able to show Madame Leota's tombstone to Grandma and Grandpa, who got a big kick out of it. Molly and I took the doom buggy in front of Grandma and Grandpa,which enabled her to reach forward after we had turned around and were traveling backward, and rap loudly on the back of their buggy. We had the satisfaction later of learning that this did, indeed, scare them to death, although they thought it was part of the special effects, never dreaming we could be so evil (heh, heh).

Taking our leave of the 999 happy haunts, we made our way to Tomorrowland, where we decided to risk a turn on the TTA :-) Gary and Molly had actually ridden it trouble free at E Ride Night, so we declared the curse to be officially broken and took our chances. We made it through with no breakdowns, bringing us up to time for our Buzz fastpasses. Molly had the high score in our group by a long shot, and we all decided we were ready to head over to MGM.

We took the ferry over to the TTC. As we were crossing the Seven Seas Lagoon, Grandpa declared that he'd really like to see the Wilderness Lodge sometime on the trip. I pointed across the water and said, "There it is" ;-) At the TTC we caught the bus to MGM, but once we arrived there Molly decided to go back to the hotel for a rest. I stayed at MGM with Grandma and Grandpa.

Our first stop was to pick up fastpasses for Millionaire. I tried to call Gary, but his phone wasn't on. Dad and I decided to take a little trip to the Forest Moon of Endor while Mom waited for us. I was beginning to worry about why I couldn't get Gary on the phone. When we finished the ride, we decided we just had time to see the Muppets before our Millionaire show, so we hotfooted it over there. Following the Muppets (Grandpa's favorite - he especially enjoys Statler and Waldorf), further attempts to call met with the same failure as before.

By the time we got to the Millionaire studio, I was starting to develop a whopper of a headache from the heat and the worrying. I tried to relax about it, but for some reason it was just really bugging me that I didn't know where Gary was and couldn't get in touch with him. I made an effort to put my worries aside and focus on the game. I couldn't believe it when my number came up at the top of the board! The timing wasn't great, but I made my way to the hot seat anyway, determined to give it a good try, and feeling glad at least that my parents were going to get to see one of us in the hot seat.

I did ok. The questions were, mercifully, much easier than the last time I was in the hot seat. I hadn't used any lifelines yet when I got to the 32,000 point question (the one where you win the polo shirt and the 10 pins), and I didn't think I needed one then either. I was wrong. I missed the answer and didn't get the shirt. It wasn't really that big a deal - I already have one of the shirts and it's not like I ever wear it or anything. Let's face it, the thing is pretty darn ugly. Still, I was able to get my third baseball cap, which is even uglier than the shirt ;-) The other thing this trip to the hot seat accomplished was getting my parents on the big screen, for the "family" shot.

After the game, my head was pounding worse than ever, and I was still worrying about Gary. I ducked into the ladies' room right outside Millionaire for a quick pit stop. Let me try to find a delicate way to describe what happened next. I had just stood up after being in a seated position ;-) when I heard my cell phone ringing. It was in my bag, hanging on the hook on the door. I had my hands full, being right in the process of rearranging myself. I was, by this point, desperate to answer the phone, so I made a lunge for it, grabbed it, and saw by the caller id that it was Gary calling from his cell. The conversation went as follows:

Me: Gary?
Gary: I can't hear you very well
Me: Gary, where are you?
My Phone: Beeeeeep (followed by text: Discharging)

AAAAAAARGH!

I got myself together and ran outside to tell my dad what happened and ask to borrow his cell phone to call Gary back. Finally, this worked. Gary was in the park (hurray!), he had Molly with him, and the 2 of them were waiting in the standby line for Tower of Terror. He said the line was posted at 30 minutes, and they had just gotten in it. I arranged to meet them at the exit and hung up, sagging with relief.

I don't think I truly had realized until that very moment just how tense I had really been. I also can't really explain what was so nerve-racking about the situation, but it truly had me tied up in knots. Finally, I relaxed. My parents and I decided to go to Starring Rolls for a decaf break. Of course, we also ended up getting something a big frosted brownie to share. We nibbled and sipped and I decompressed and the world felt right again.

My parents decided to go see the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular while I went to meet Gary and Molly. Mom had a lot of decaf left and thought she'd probably have to dump it on the way into the theater, but the CM stopped her from doing so and told her to go ahead and bring it in with her, which made her happy :-)

I made my way to the exit of Tower of Terror and settled in to wait. I have a lot of experience with waiting for them to get off this ride, and my favorite spot to wait is not on the benches outside the gift shop, not even on the padded benches in the photo buying area, but on the concrete slabs in the area where you stop to look at your photo when you first exit the ride. It may not seem like they would be comfortable, but to me they've got the other benches beat. The ones outside are too narrow (not to mention they're outside in the heat), and the padded ones are likewise so narrow that I really have to brace my feet on the floor to keep from sliding off. The concrete slabs on the other hand, are nice and wide and I can put my feet up on them with my back resting on the wall behind me, and get a nice little rest in.

As it turned out, I didn't have long to wait, because Gary and Molly had decided to give up on the line. I told them I wanted to show them what I had picked up while we were apart, and pulled my hat and pins out of the bag. They were excited for me, but disappointed they didn't get to see me. I told them I was disappointed too.

Now for where Gary had been. He had just gone to Wal-Mart like he was supposed to, filled my dad's car with gas, and gone back to he hotel to install the battery in the car. It all just took a long time, and I guess he had been leaving his phone in the car when he went in places, and I just kept missing him when I tried to call. Anyway, I was just glad to see the two of them.

Molly and I decided to check out the wait at Rock N Roller Coaster, and it was only about 10 minutes, so we hopped in line and had a great ride. Afterwards it was time to meet Grandma and Grandpa - we had a Fantasmic dinner package booked at Hollywood and Vine, and we had arranged to meet at the restaurant. Everybody showed up right on time, and we were shown to our seats quickly. We all enjoyed our dinner. The hostess had given us the pass to the reserved seating at Fantasmic when we first got there, but I didn't notice that it had a place for the server to sign it until after we had paid our bill. We spent a few minutes craning our necks trying to find her so we could get her to fill it out, but it seemed like we had seen the last of her, so we flagged down another server who graciously took care of it for us.

After dinner we had about an hour to spare before we were due to present ourselves at Oscar's, so we split up. Gary and Molly went to try again on Tower, and I went with my parents to the Great Movie Ride. We got the gangster side as usual. I like the Western side better - I'm a bit of a pyromaniac, so the bank exploding into flames is my favorite ;-)

We had a leisurely stroll and wound up at Oscar's with some time to spare before Gary and Molly showed up. It wasn't long before they did, and they had a surprise for me to rival my surprise for them earlier - they walked up with smug grins on their faces and handed me a business card that said - "Congratulations, you have found Zamgwar". !!!!!! Molly had spotted the Zamgwar T-Shirt when they were in the Library waiting for the pre-show to start and burst out with a loud "John Zamgwar!" They ended up riding with John and She Who Must Be Obeyed, his lovely wife Karen, and enjoyed their short visit very much. I was pretty jealous, I don't mind telling you, but at least I have the card now ;-)

We entered the gateway and took our short backstage walk to the reserved seating area, where we got good seats about halfway down. We had about 30 minutes to wait, but the time went quickly. The show was great, and we took advantage of what is, to my mind, the best part of the reserved seating - making it out ahead of 95% of the huge exiting crowd and beating them all to the trams. We actually walked right onto a waiting tram and were whisked straight out to the parking lot, where Gary had brought Grandma and Grandpa's car when he and Molly came to the park in the afternoon. They graciously gave us a ride back to our hotel, dropping us off in what had become the habitual spot, by the huge clarinet player in the All Star Music parking lot.

Day 7 - Thursday, Aug. 21

This day dawned bright and sunny, with all of us together, going to the same place in a car that works :-) We drove that working car up to main building to have breakfast in the food court, then we drove it to the Animal Kingdom, where we were due to meet Grandma and Grandpa at the Dawa Bar as soon after opening as possible. This time we actually only beat them by about 5 minutes, and we were off to the Safari. The wait was only posted at 10 minutes, so we didn't bother with a fastpass. Once again we got to see that adorable baby elephant - I'm so glad we were there for this trip while he was still so little. I don't know how fast baby elephants grow, but I'll be looking forward to seeing how he's changed the next time we're there (whenever that is).

We decided to go through the Pangani Falls Exploration Trail after the Safari. Molly doesn't care much for the trail, so we sent her off to get fastpasses for Dinosaur. We got some great views of the gorillas, and met up with Molly at Tusker House afterwards. The line for Dinosaur had been short, so she'd gone ahead and ridden it by herself after she picked up the fastpasses. Once we were all together again, it was time to split up :-) Grandma and Grandpa wanted to see the Maharajah Jungle Trail, and Gary and Molly and I headed for Kali River Rapids. I had brought some clothes just for the ride this time, so I ducked into a bathroom and changed before we went on. It was practically a walk-on, and Gary and I made it into the backwards spot on the way down the drop, so of course we were drenched afterwards. What to do now? Ride again, of course - I mean, why not? Once more was enough, though. Molly had worn a poncho so she was mostly dry, and I of course had dry stuff to change into so I was in good shape, but Gary was drenched and had to stay that way.

Our Dinosaur fastpasses were good now, so Molly and I stopped to pick up Primeval Whirl fp's, then rode Dinosaur while Gary waited patiently for us. After our ride we met Grandma and Grandpa at Pizzafari and we all had lunch, then Molly and I went back to Dinoland for our PW ride. Gary and my parents followed us there and when our car came out of the loading area to start the ride, the 3 of them were lined up on the fence like a group of paparazzi with all their cameras clicking away - we felt pretty silly about it, but it was fun. We rode with a mom and son, and I'm happy to be able to report to you that the mom asked us if Molly and I were sisters (God bless her!).

We caught the 1:00 show of The Festival of the Lion King, which was fabulous as always. We were interested to see that the sides were now covered with big curtains - I guess that was a step towards enclosing the theater, which I've since heard is in the works. Once the show was over, we all decided we'd done all we wanted to at AK for that day. Grandma and Grandpa wanted to go back to their hotel, so they took off that direction in their car, with plans to meet us at Epcot later. Molly also wanted a rest, so Gary and I dropped her off at the ASMu, then drove over to Epcot.

We took a ride through Spaceship Beth (we've always called Spaceship Earth by that name since Molly called it that when she was just itty-bitty). We wanted an ice cream, so we lined up behind a couple of other families at a cart near the fountain. The dad of the family who was first in line was paying with a credit card, but it wouldn't go through. He pulled out another, which also wouldn't go through, then another, and another - this was getting ridiculous! Finally, the man just pulled out the $5.00 in cash, and we all managed to refrain from applauding. When Gary and I made it up to buy our ice cream, our room key also wouldn't go through at first (we had some cash ready just in case), but the CM insisted on giving it another try, and this time it worked. There were some ominous looking storm clouds building, and he said that they often have trouble with their network when the weather's like that. Another funny thing about that - it wasn't until we were back at home and I was looking over our printout of charges from All Star Music that I noticed we got charged twice for that ice cream - it posted once on that day, and then reposted the next day. :-(

It was just about time by now for our appointed meeting with my parents, so we took our ice cream to the patio of the Electric Umbrella, the specified meeting place. While we were sitting, the storm broke loose and we ended up doing the same thing I had done with my parents a couple of days before - pulling chairs up next to the wall where the rain couldn't get through. They showed up before long and the four of us sat there waiting for it to quit. It was beginning to look like their hopes for a stroll around the World Showcase were cursed, but after a while the lightning stopped even if the rain didn't. Molly called on the cell phone to say she was on her way, so Gary and my parents went ahead to the World Showcase while I waited for her. When she got there, the 2 of us headed for Mission: Space via the single riders' line.

Once again, I noticed myself relaxing more than the last time I had ridden it, and enjoying it more and more. Since we were on the single riders' line, we were in different capsules, and we had agreed to meet up in the gift shop. I was confused when she wasn't there when I came out, since I knew she had gotten on before me (she was the last one let into the briefing room of one group, and I waited a few more minutes, so she should have been ahead of me). I waited in the shop, and a few minutes later she showed up, her capsule having been delayed for about 7 minutes before the ride began. A CM had spoken to her group when they were first loaded, saying it would be a few minutes and asking if they would like the restraints and the monitor wall to stay up to give them more breathing room. Molly was in there with a mom and 2 very obnoxious children who had insisted that they bring it all down so they could play with the buttons, making for a very long 7 minute wait while these kids played with the buttons and yelled at each other. Molly was glad to see the last of them when the ride finally took place and was over.

We called the others, who had, in the meantime, taken in El Rio del Tiempo and Maelstrom, and were heading into the movie in China. We made our way that direction, and met up with them in the same shop in China where Molly had bought both pairs of shoes on this trip. She somehow managed to refrain from buying a third pair :-)

People were feeling a bit peckish by now, so Grandpa and Gary decided to split a bratwurst from Somerfest, while I took Molly to the Liberty Inn for a hot dog. After this we went and hung out in Morocco for a while, browsing the shops and the little museum, all of which are extremely cool. We love the tile work, and some good photos were taken there.

By this time it was getting close to time for our 7:30 priority seating at the Rose and Crown. Naturally, we had made the seating in hope of snagging a patio seat for IllumiNations. We love the view and the ease of watching from a table there, but none of us are crazy about the food. It was still raining, and the patio seating scenario wasn't looking hopeful, so we decided to blow off the Rose and Crown. This began what turned into something very much like a nightmare while we tried to figure out where to eat. I think I'll spare myself trying to describe the details of what followed, but just know that it involved being turned away at Le Cellier, nobody being able to agree on anyplace else, a fruitless hike to Beaches and Cream and back again, and finally ending up with fast food at Yakatori House.

By the time we made it there, all of us were really on our last legs, and we weren't going anywhere else. Unfortunately, the place was packed, and it looked like we might have to repeat our outdoor seating debacle, only this time in the rain instead of broiling heat. I couldn't hardly face the thought, so (and I'm a little ashamed of this) I went and stood over a family that had finished but had not vacated their table yet. I mean, I pretty much lurked over them like a vulture, and eventually they got up and left and Grandma and I swept down on it, spreading our stuff out and generally making it clear that we were establishing dominance and nobody better mess with out territory. Meanwhile, the other 3 were in line, and it wasn't very long that we were table holders before they showed up. We ate and made small talk and gradually began to feel a little better, but frankly, not that much. We were supposed to stay for IllumiNations, but after dinner Grandma and Grandpa decided they were too tired, and were going to head out, and we certainly couldn't blame them. The sad thing was that they were leaving to go home in the morning, so this moment was the end of our trip with them. I felt bad that we were wrapping things up like this, but we hugged and said how much we'd enjoyed the time together, and we'd see each other in a few days (they live in the same town as us). They went on their way.

This left Gary and Molly and I to decide whether or not we wanted to try to find a place for IllumiNations (it was about 8:30, leaving us half an hour till show time). We had seen it once earlier in the week, and we all agreed that would be enough for this trip. Molly asked if we could spend a little time in the department store in Japan, so we did that. By the time we finished, IllumiNations was starting, but we just watched over our shoulders as we walked towards the front gate. We were very grateful to catch a tram with no wait, then we were to our car (still working, hurray!) and back to the hotel to sleep off our exhausting day.

Day 8 - Friday, August 22

It was the morning of our last full day at the parks. We held a powwow to decide what we most wanted to do with our time, and came up with some highlights at the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, and MGM. We felt satisfied with what we had already done at the Animal Kingdom, so we left that park off the list for today.

We all had breakfast together at the ASMu food court, then Gary had some errands he had to run first thing, so he took off to do his stuff, and Molly and I grabbed a bus for the Magic Kingdom. We grabbed a fast pass for Buzz on our way in, then hit Space Mountain. The line was pretty much of a walk-on, and we were able to get in 3 great rides one after the other. We had one minor irritation with the CM where the winding queues begin - you know, where you go right or left when both sides are open. We've been on SM something like a million times on the right side, and maybe 5 on the left (that side tends not to be open in the off season when we usually go). Consequently, we were excited about riding the left, which we like a little better. When we got up there, we could clearly see that both sides were pretty much even, and that neither side had more than about a 5 minutes wait. Here's our conversation with said CM:

CM: Please board to the right
Us: Would it be all right if we went to the left?
CM: Both sides are exactly the same
Us: We'd still like to go left, if it's open
CM: You'll have a much longer wait on the left
Us: We're willing to take that chance
CM: (in a disgusted voice) Oh, all right

I don't imagine this was entirely his fault - I guess he had his loading system all figured out and we were some kind of a wrench in the works, but his attitude was a little bit of a downer. No worries, however - we had a great time riding the left side (which we boarded less than 2 minutes after the exchange above). One more tidbit about this situation - about 30 seconds after we went into the left hand queue, he started sending the line that way :-)

When we had done our 3 rounds on SM, it was time for the Buzz fastpasses, which we enjoyed as always. Afterwards, we headed for Frontierland to pull fastpasses for Splash Mountain, which I still had never ridden this trip (Gary and Molly had done it at E-Ride Night). To pass the time until the fastpasses were good, we decided to take the Railroad all the way around the park. We had a lovely ride from Frontierland to Mickey's Toontown, relaxing with our feet up. As we passed Space Mountain on our way to the Main Street Station, it began to sprinkle. By the time we pulled into the station, the skies had opened up and it was pouring (again). We decided to blow off Splash Mountain (I'll make it next trip, whenever that is), and left the train at Main Street. Our plan was to monorail over to Epcot, but we needed to make a pit stop first, so we donned our ponchos, opened the umbrellas, and battled the downpour across Town Square to the Ladies room by City Hall, then back under the train station and to the monorail. We were met at the bottom of the ramp up to the express by a CM who told us we'd have to take the resort line. Gary had had the same thing happen to him a couple of days before when he left us at the MK - he said while he waited at the resort platform, 2 express monorails came and went. This exact pattern was replayed for us, but I managed to process the fact that people were getting off the express, but nobody was getting on. I guess maybe in the morning hours they don't take people back out that way, only bring them in. Does that save a lot of time? It seems kind of silly to me, but maybe it makes sense.

Anyhoo, we finally boarded a resort monorail, and eventually we were able to get on the Epcot line. The rain slacked off during our ride over, and it was nice and dry when we got there. I phoned Gary from the monorail, and he had just arrived at Epcot and was waiting for us at the fountain. Apparently it hadn't rained there at all, despite the downpour at the MK. Once again, we headed straight for Mission: Space to pick up fastpasses. Gary hadn't been on the ride since his first time, and he thought today might be the day he felt like trying it again. We were really looking forward to all of us riding together. Fastpasses in hand, we went to the Electric Umbrella for lunch. Molly had a little more shopping she wanted to do in Japan, so we made our way over to the World Showcase for one last stroll through the countries. It was really a beautiful day, and we were enjoying ourselves a lot.

We decided to take in the American Adventure again. There's one line in the song that plays during the film about the pilgrims that we've never been able to decipher, despite multiple times listening with great attention. (It's the one that says, "But a look o'er this wilderness brings me to dread, that the first winter will leave ________ dead".) Gary had come up with the brilliant idea that if we turned around and looked behind us, we could see it projected backwards for those reflective things that the hearing impaired use. If we could see it, we could probably read it backwards, and the mystery would be solved! No such luck, however - I guess nobody was using one that day, because it wasn't there when we turned around :-(

We continued on to Japan, where Molly finished up her shopping. We thought we might have time to squeeze in a viewing of Impressions de France before our M:S fastpass window was up, so we went to France. Unfortunately, we had just missed the beginning of the film, and we didn't think we could make it back in time if we stayed for the next one. As we were discussing whether to stay for the film or go back to M:S, Gary decided that he didn't feel like riding that day. I felt disappointed. I had really been hoping that Gary would ride again, because I was afraid he was psyching himself out about the ride, and that if he didn't ride now, maybe he never would again. Still, I knew it was his choice, and since he never gives me a hard time about not riding Tower of Terror, I had no business bothering him about this. We decided that he would stay and watch the film while Molly and I went back to ride M:S.

Our ride was great - I was really starting to get into this! Afterwards, we met Gary and headed to the car in the lot, and on to park number three for the day, MGM. We drove straight there, but as we pulled into a parking space, Molly started to feel like she had a migraine coming on, and we decided the best thing would be for all of us to go back to the hotel for a rest. After a little horizontal time and some ibuprofen, she felt much better, and we drove back to MGM.

Our main goal here today was our quest to get Gary into the hot seat at Millionaire. With that in mind, we headed straight to the standby line. We didn't know for sure if we'd make it into the next show or not, but we figured it was worth a shot, and if we didn't make the cutoff, we'd just pick up a fastpass for the next show (which would also be the last of the day). Unfortunately, we didn't make it in, and while we were still there in the standby line area, a storm kicked up. It quickly became apparent that it was going to be a big one. We spent a few minutes under the limited protection of the fabric overhang above the line area, then made a dash for the slightly (and I do mean slightly) drier environs of the next door sidewalk, which had a little bit of roof above it. This was a real gully washer, with heavy rain and strong winds - we saw a very few brave souls struggling against it, but mostly the walkways were deserted. A stroller was rolling by itself end over end down the street, followed a couple of minutes later by someone trying valiantly to catch it.

We stayed there about 5 minutes, then we overheard a CM telling someone that if you had a fastpass, they'd let you into the lobby of Millionaire to wait for the next show in there. This sounded like a no-brainer, so we dashed to the fastpass machines, got the passes, and made one final push to the door, where they did indeed let us in to wait, as long as we all took off our ponchos. We did that, found a spot against a wall, and sat down on the floor to wait. We were *very* happy to be inside.

Our wait was about 20 minutes, then we were in. Ok, time to put aside all the drama of getting here, and get Gary serious about that hot seat. Unfortunately, it wasn't to be, so the goal is still in place - we'll get him there somehow, someday, and he better win us a cruise, that's all I've got to say ;-)

It was still raining after the show, but just lightly. We had made a priority seating for the Prime Time Cafe. Molly and I had eaten here on our trip last December, and we'd had a dud of a server. He was competent enough, but didn't play. We hoped for somebody a little more fun this time. It seemed like a good omen when we got a TV table, but the bad news was that our server was not only somebody as dull as last time, it was the exact same guy as last time! I'm sorry to tell you that he had not livened up one bit. We were, at least, in a room with a big, fun family from New York that was having a great time with their server, so at least we got to watch some shenanigans, if not participate in them.

Our dinner was very good. Here's a budget tip for you - the fried chicken dinner at the Prime Time is *plenty* for two people to share, and that's what Molly and I did. We also had the onion rings with horseradish cream - oh, man, were they ever good.

After dinner, we wandered down Sunset Blvd. for our usual one-two punch: Gary and Molly on Tower of Terror, then Molly and I on Rock N Roller Coaster. We stopped in the toy store on the corner of Sunset and Hollywood Blvd. to pick up a gift for a friend of Molly's, only to have our room charge not go through. We wondered if this was related to the storm, like the day before at Epcot. The problem was apparently not with the card, because it had just been accepted at the Prime Time, and was also accepted immediately after that at Sid Cahuenga's, where we stopped on our way out. We lingered briefly, taking one last backward look, then it was out to the car, and back to the ASMu to start packing up for our journey home tomorrow.

Day 9 - Saturday, Aug. 23

We woke up to find, to our dismay, that it was *that* day - the day we had to go home :-( I think the worst part of this has to be the packing up and lugging stuff to the car. We had attempted to get partly organized last night before we went to bed, but we were too tired to get much done. This morning's work, however, went faster than expected, and we managed to get everything out and say goodbye to our temporary home at the ASMu without too much delay. We stopped by reception for a printout of our charges, and then we were on our way.

We had put some thought into a quick stop by one of the parks or Downtown Disney before we left for our drive home, but in the end we decided to settle for breakfast at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. We spent a couple of nights there the first year it was open, and we've been very fond of it ever since. We try to get there for a meal or just a visit every trip, and we hadn't made it yet this time. Our plan was to eat at the Mara. We did briefly toy with the idea of a Boma breakfast as we passed by it, but decided not to spend that much money.

We had our fast food breakfast, then walked out to the Arusha Rock to have a little looksee. There were hardly any animals around - just a couple of zebra *way* off in the distance. We went back inside, wandered through the beautiful lobby, and made one last souvenir run into the Zawadi Marketplace. We bade the AKL a reluctant goodbye, headed out to the car, and off Disney property.

Our drive home was uneventful except for another migraine headache that Molly suffered through a couple of hours from home. I read aloud again from "Out of the Silent Planet", which we finished after we were home. We enjoyed it so much we went to the bookstore as soon as we were done and picked up the other two books in the trilogy, "Perelandra", and "That Hideous Strength", which we're currently working our way through. We made it home by about 8:00 that evening. We were sad to see our trip end, but if you have to return to your real life, it's nice to have such a good life waiting for you. For the first time in a long time, I really don't have any idea when our next trip to WDW will be, but the Lord willing, we'll be there again sometime, and I've got a lot to look forward to.

Final Thoughts

We had a great vacation, even though we faced some challenges that were unusual for us. The car trouble was an irritation for a few days, but we were grateful that it could be resolved as easily and cheaply as it was. (For the record, after Gary put in the new battery the car ran great, and is still doing fine.)

WDW in August was something I thought I would never do, after being spoiled by many years of January trips. Life changes, though, and this time August turned out to be our best option, so we went for it. Being there in the heat and with the crowds was a real challenge, compared to our winter trips. We found it to be much rougher on our bodies. An afternoon rest is good anytime of year, but it's pretty much essential when it's this hot. The violent storms were also a bit of a hurdle. We live in Northwest Florida, and we're used to storms like this, but we're not usually on vacation in them.

I had a lot of trouble with my feet - both from blisters and from the dreaded "Disney Disease"that I've read about on RADP, but had never experienced for myself until this trip. It looked like a cross between a sunburn and a heat rash, showing up on my toes and the sides of my feet that were exposed by my sandals, and creeping up the back of my ankles. It was itchy and sore at the same time, and it lasted all through the trip and a few days after we got home. I'm happy to say it's just a memory now.

We had some great meals on this trip. I really enjoyed experiencing Olivia's at Old Key West for the first time, and my dinner there was delicious. Other high spots were our lunch at San Angel Inn and Mama Melrose's, and our dinner at the Prime Time Cafe (especially those onion rings with the horseradish cream - yum!). Is it a sign of aging when nice meals become a more important part of vacations? If so, I guess I'm getting older, but then again, aren't we all :-)

Noticeably lacking from this trip was any pin trading. Molly was quite a serious pin trader a couple of years ago, and still has a very nice collection of pins, but her interest has been waning lately, and she didn't even bring any with her this time. It may just have been because we weren't doing any trading ourselves, but it seemed to us like there was much less trading going on in the parks in general. Is pin trading a fad on its way out, or were we just not tuned in to it?

Walt Disney World with a teenager has its own set of special challenges and rewards. Molly was naturally disappointed that her best friend was unable to come with us, and I'm sure she would have enjoyed the trip more had Rae been along. Even so, we had a great time together, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. I do think that it helped a lot that we were staying on site, which gave us access to the bus system and afforded Molly more freedom to come and go on her own. Teenagers need a break from their parents every now and then, and vice versa :-)

The fact that we were 3 generations for part of the trip also added a special dynamic to our time in WDW. Being able to spend some time all together and other times split into smaller groups made for smooth relations between all of us. That way nobody felt trapped into doing something they didn't want to do, and we appreciated our time together more when we joined up again.

This was the first time the 3 of us ever stayed at one of the All Stars together. When Molly was just little, we used to stay off site, and we had a couple of nights together at the AKL once, but mostly we camp at Fort Wilderness in our travel trailer, so this was something different for us. I definitely missed FW. I just love it there, and I felt like something was missing from our trip because of not being there. I also missed being able to make some simple meals in the trailer. It's not like we do a lot of cooking at WDW, but we usually make eggs and bacon in the mornings, and sometimes come back for sandwiches or spaghetti at night. We tried doing the cereal in the room thing to save money at breakfast, but we found it just wasn't enough fuel to keep us going until lunchtime. My verdict on the All Stars? It's way better than staying off site, and assuming that the other Disney hotels are out of reach budget wise, it's fine. Still, I like Fort Wilderness much better.

And so we come to the end of my tale. To those who've made it through the whole thing, many thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it. I would like to express my appreciation to all the trip report writers out there. Reading about your adventures has entertained me, given me lots of great ideas, and helped me pass the time between my own trips. To my dear family, I love and appreciate you, and thanks for sharing this trip, and all the ones that came before, with me. I hope not too much time passes before we go adventuring together again.

Beth Hodges

bethhodges88@hotmail.com

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