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| Lara Thompson -- February 2006 - Walt Disney World (PORR)The Cast:Lara (that would be me, aka: GaRain) Guest Appearances:Joey (Tampa or Ranch) Pre-Trip Planning:Well, someone, not sure who it was (Jerrame) decided that the mom’s on the Disney World Trivia board needed a trip to Disney World. They need a chance to take tours and take it easy and have an all girl’s, no kid’s trip. Ok, so I don’t have a kid, what is your point? I do have a niece that lives with me for part of the time, so that is how I am included. Lots of discussion was had on when to go, where to stay, what to do. I think that they were worried that I wasn’t going to be able to make the trip. I admit, it has taken a lot of saving and not spending, and asking for Disney Dollars for Christmas and birthday, but I am in. So, discussion on when to go – I vote for February since that time was great last year – weather wise and crowd wise. We end up deciding to go at the end of February. The other girls had made their reservations by the time I got my act in gear. So, my parents offered to pay the difference between a value resort and a moderate resort, so that I could stay at the same place as everyone else. We are staying at Port Orleans. I purchased my AP online and then called Disney to make my hotel reservations. The lady on the phone was able to help me get the AP discount, even though it was less than 90 days out. I think they have changed this rule since then. Oh, did I mention I already had my flight booked? I am heading down on Airtrain – got $69 each way, so for less than $150 (taxes, fees) roundtrip. However, the girls were planning to leave on Sunday. If I flew out on Sunday, that leg of the trip alone would cost $259!!!! If I flew out on Monday, it was $69 – we have a winner!!! Even staying one more night on property would not cost me that much. I checked into switching to a value resort to save some money, since the girls would be gone, it wouldn’t matter. But since the season changed, the value would cost more than the moderate. So, we just added that last day onto my trip at the same room cost. WOHOO!!! More discussion about the trip – we need to take a tour!!! Something that the kids could not go on. Well, we are going on the Dolphins in Depth tour. I can’t tell you how excited I am about this. Swimming with dolphins has always been on my top 10 things to do before I die list. Although it is a bit pricey, we are gonna do it!!! We also decided on the Mickey’s Magical Milestones tour – that should be fun! We have some PS’s (I know they don’t call them that anymore) for a couple of difference places I haven’t tried – Le Cellier, Mama Melrose and Chef Mickeys for dinner!!! I am typing this up about 2 weeks before we leave for the trip and I just can’t wait. This is a chance to meet some great online friends and spend time in my favorite place! The Trip: Wednesday, February 22nd: The night before leaving, I spent time packing, repacking and painting my nails – all that important stuff. I was like the kid in the Disney commercial “I am too excited to sleep!” However, I was up and ready to head to the airport by 6am. Gave Summer a call and she had already left her house, she is driving down! To the airport in plenty of time, have my Magical Express tag on my luggage that I checked in and I am ready to sit and wait. The flight was ok, window seat, pretty quiet. A little disturbed by the man on my row reading a book about the history of firearms – couldn’t you find SOMETHING else to read on a plane? Off the plane and people follow me to bag check, but that is not where I go. I go straight to ground transportation, check in with Magical Express and within 20 minutes of landing; I am on a bus ready to head to Port Orleans. I call and check in with the parents and with Jerrame; she is working today – UGH! After a stop at Saratoga Springs and Port Orleans – French Quarter, we make it to Riverside and I get off the bus and head to check in. I am so excited to finally be here. The weather is nice, the sun is shining and I at Walt Disney World! Check in was cool; they have me in a room ADJOINING Nicole’s. That is awesome. Never would have thought of that, we just asked to be near each other and in the plantation area, since neither of us had stayed on that side before. And the plantation part of things led to many jokes later on! Only problem, our rooms were not ready yet. So I headed to the bus stop (after checking in with everyone, getting their arrival times), and I get on a bus to the Animal Kingdom. I know that this park is not one of their favorites, so I am hoping to do a couple of things there that I love to do – The Safari, It’s Tough to be a Bug and The Festival of the Lion King. I arrive and head to guest services to get my AP done. Why did I think that they would take my picture? Nope, I get this CHEAP PAPER ticket. Are you kidding me? I am keeping this for a year? No hard plastic cards for AP holders? Now this just seems ridiculous!!! But I take it and head into the park. Man, it is getting hot and this place is PACKED! It is just about noon, and I head to Africa. My plan is to get a fastpass and then maybe go see the Tigers or the Bugs. There was a LINE for the fastpass, if you can believe it. The time I got was for nearly 2 hours away. Plenty of time to do some things, including check out the situation with Expedition Everest. Went to the Maharaja Jungle Trek to see the Lions and Summer calls – SHE IS HERE!!! They won’t let her in to park without paying…crazy. So, she convinces them that she is just gonna pick me up – and that is what she does. I jump in the car and she cranks the air – THANK GOODNESS!!! I was sweating big time by then. The plan is to head to Epcot. Summer got a Disney Dinning pass and has to pick it up at Epcot Guest Services since she didn’t receive it in the mail before our trip. That out of the way and into Epcot we go! There is no wait for Spaceship Earth, so we head in for our first ride. Wait, first we checked out Leave a Legacy, Summer has one and so does her sister. Ok, SE – we take bets on where the ride will stop – we both lost as it didn’t stop at all. Next, we head to the World Showcase, I am starving. My plan, get some Fish and Chips at the Stand in the UK. On our Epcot day, we have ADR’s (I learned, advance dining reservations) for Le Cellier, so I have to get my fish and chips fix ($9.57 for fish and chips and a regular coke)! But first, a stop to purchase a hat – I can’t believe I forgot to pack one – I got a pink princess hat (total cost $21.25 on my Disney visa). We sit down to eat and Nicole calls – she is at the front of the park!!! Woohooo! After Summer feeds some of the ducks her fries, we head to meet Nicole at Spaceship Earth. Summer had to stop for an ice cream on the way and I notice this lady with a pink princess backpack – “NICOLE?!” Yup, it was her!!! Many hugs and screams of “WE ARE FINALLY HERE”, we decide we have to do something – Spaceship Earth it is! Well, another bet on where we will stop and we all lost! Next we started to head over to The Sea (check the wait times on the board and Soarin’ was at something like 180 minutes!!!) On our way over, we passed Character Connection. This was new to me, so we stopped in. Wow, here not long and there is MICKEY!!! Summer is beyond excited. We all get a photopass and get our pictures made with Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Pluto, Donald Duck, Chip and Dale, Max, Friar someone and Meeko!!! This is awesome, I wish they had this when I brought my niece, this is like one stop character shopping and the line was not long at all!!! So, we head out of there and who do we see? Coral!! Two of them!!! Get some pictures and step into The Sea, we will be here tomorrow for our Dolphin Tour, but I was hoping to get to see Turtle Talk with Crush – yeah, that is not gonna happen. The place was packed and it was packed because the queue for Turtle Talk took up the whole thing! Moving on! We were trying to figure out where to head to next when I mentioned that I had never done Ellen’s Energy Adventure – so, we headed over! This is a cute ride, I think Ellen is pretty funny. But it is quite long….Got a phone call from the parents while on the ride. Looks like my car is gonna need a new transmission – well, color me happy that it is still under WARRANTY – YEAH!!! After this, I made a call to the resort to check on our rooms – they were ready! So we jump on a bus and head right over. My room was on the corner, so I had this huge sitting area with 2 windows – they were never open though. The girls were right next to me in an adjoining room – that door was open pretty much most of the time! After freshening up a bit, we head over to the Magic Kingdom – wow, 3 parks in one day. When will I ever do that again? We discussed where to eat and we decided to check out the wait at Crystal Palace. I had never eaten there before and had actually called for an ADR a couple of weeks ago. The sitting available wasn’t until 7:15pm and I didn’t want us late to meet Jerrame! Well, we walked up and we were in the door within 20 minutes!!! What a cute place! The kids are excited with all the action as Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore and Piglet walk around from table to table. They even did a parade with the kids through the restaurant! The food on the buffet was good, the deserts especially! Eeyore loved my jacket with him on it, but Tigger didn’t, as he knocked it to the floor. (Total cost after Summer’s dining discount - $71.55) Jerrame called while we were eating. She was here, finally, but not happy about taking a bus to the Magic Kingdom. Poor girl wasn’t in a monorail resort – we will never hear the end of it! Spectromagic had started and we made our way down Main Street. Unfortunately, we were on the opposite side of the parade from Jerrame and had to wait until it passed us by before the gang was all together – YEAH!!!! Summer forgot her Mickey Ears, so we went into the Chapeau Hat Shoppe to get her some. I decided to get my mom some, since she didn’t have any either. They now charge for hat personalization. I picked out a nice blue ’06 Mickey ears hat and had it personalized for my mom, Lynne – cost $12.25. The plan was to head to Fantasyland to get on Peter Pan’s Flight – our original meeting place. Well, we stopped at VMK Central and were there AWHILE! Jerrame actually had a kid there who knew who she was in the game – it seems the Trivia team is quite famous in VMK world! Summer and I run out to the street to catch WISHES! I just love this show, so moving and pretty. As soon as it was over, we were like fish swimming up stream towards the castle. We did stop by the Rose Gardens and had our group picture in front of the castle. Fantasyland was not very crowded, but of course the longest line was for Peter Pan! It really wasn’t that bad, and we were flying over London within 20 minutes. We each tried to take pictures of the other flying ship….not sure how they turned out. Next, It’s a Small World. I had not seen it since the rehab. I am glad my penguins are still there, and boy does it seem bright in here?! After getting the song into our brains, we decided to see what the wait was for Haunted Mansion. There was no wait and we headed right in – to the dead center of the room. Summer and I rode together and half way through the ride, Nicole reaches over and grabs my arm, scaring the pee out of me (not literally). Upon exiting the ride, Summer points out the ring in the pavement – quick picture and we are off! I think someone mentioned that Toad was buried in the pet cemetery? The second showing of Spectromagic had almost made it to Frontierland…..there was hardly anyone there, so we pull up a spot by the ropes and make ourselves as comfortable as you can sitting on cement! I do love this parade and I was able to get some halfway decent pictures. Summer was still wearing her pirate hat when Peter Pan came around. He asked if she was a good pirate or a bad pirate – GOOD of course!! After the parade, we slowly made our way to the front of the park, to head back to our resort. The buses were a bit crowded and we were all in different seats at the back, but we dominated that bus. Yup, we were THOSE PEOPLE, the ones you look at and wish they would just shut up. We couldn’t help it, we were so excited to finally be here. How did Summer get that hat? She “arrghhedered it”. Off to bed, with a wake up call for EARLY! We had to be up and at ‘em to go see our dolphins!!! Thursday, February 23rd: I really wish it were just a Mickey wake-up call. I just can’t stand Stitch’s voice that early in the morning. Well, I am up and I hear movement in the other room. Put on the swimsuit under the clothes, pack a change and we are off to Epcot. The park opens at 9am and we are supposed to check in with guest services at 8:45am. We get there and are told to be at the umbrella at 9:45am. We assume she means 8:45am….we go through bag check at the gate and take a look around the Leave a Legacy. We head to the umbrella where another guy tells me to check in with Guest Services on the inside of the park – so we go through bag check AGAIN! I think we ended up in and out 3 times that morning. It turns out the 9:45am time was right, so we head into the park and head straight to the Land The wait for Soarin’ is listed as 30 minutes, but we don’t have that kinda time. We pick up a fastpass, hoping that we will be able to use it after our swim with the dolphins. Then we decide to ride The Land. After this, we made a mad dash for the front of the park to meet with our tour! After introductions, we walk behind The Living Seas and are directed to a bathroom, given locks for lockers to put up our stuff. We then are taken on a tour of the place and learn a lot about the Living Seas. We are also instructed on dolphin psychology as well as the parts of the dolphins – yeah, I don’t remember any of it really. We go back down and change into wetsuits. These are not very attractive, let me tell ya! We go back to the tanks and we learn there is a rogue dolphin swimming around an won’t go into the back. After waiting for a while, the decide he isn’t gonna interfere too much and we head in with our trainer to meet CALVIN! He was awesome. The guy is huge and full of power, you can feel it when you pet and rub him. He was so nice to us and let us rub on him and feel his fins and he even did some tricks for us! We all got our pictures taken, and then switched dolphins and spent some time with Ranier. I don’t think he was as friendly…. Wow, I am so glad Jerrame suggested this tour – I had a great time! We are back in the restroom and we all shower off and change into our regular clothes. By the time we are back upstairs, they have our pictures ready for us. Turns out I was the only participant that had someone in the background of my picture. She they airbrushed her out, but gave me both copies! By this time, we were starved. We headed out into the Living Seas – that queue for Turtle Talk was HUMUGOUS! This put us close to The Land – yeah. We grab a table (this was not an easy feat as it was noon and the place was packed!). The girls all got some food, I was not as happy with the choices and ended up having a lovely rice krispy treat for lunch (also some popcorn and a water, cost $5.82). Joey joined us – he was not hard to spot with him being so tall, wearing his golden mickey ears and a VMK lanyard!!! He joined us for lunch – but didn’t have a fastpass for Soarin’ – we were to call him when we were done. We were able to use our fastpasses and walked past A LOT of people in the standby line. At the front we asked to be in the front, so we had to wait for the next ride – no problem! It is a great ride and I enjoyed it a lot. Jerrame tried to point out some Hidden Mickeys to me, but I didn’t catch them fast enough. After Soarin’ we left the Land, met up with Joey. On the way to Mission Space, I went to get us a locker. These bags with our wet bathing suits were getting heavy – rental $5, deposit $2. Next, Joey, Jerrame and I took a trip to Mars. The wait for this was NOTHING! It was a great ride and we met back up with Nicole and Summer back on Earth. We all grabbed a fastpass for Test Track and made our way over to the World Showcase – starting in Mexico. A trip in El Rio de Tiempo is always exciting, but that takes on new meaning when you are riding with Joey!!! Let us just say, this was the beginning of us being the entertainment for the parks!!! Some funny pictures in the pavilion and then we are headed to Norway! I don’t do water rides, and I heard you could get wet on Maelstrom (Malestorm, according to Jerrame). But I went on the ride anyways. Well, at the part where you start going backwards (I don’t want to spoil it too much), well, you can see the ride from the outside. We were screaming for someone to save us – well, someone was paying attention, and took our picture! We ended up running into this guy in the store afterwards and he showed us the picture! Then, we all took a picture with the Troll and our Viking Helmets on. It was then that we realized we better hike it over to Canada to make it to our ADR at Le Cellier on time. Well, the group decided to go around via the world showcase, when I suggested the other way might be shorter. Ended up being trapped right outside the African trading post by the bridge – they were bringing the barges out for Illuminations. Now we were really pressed for time and we started hoofing it past all the countries. Melissa was on the phone getting an update as we were trying to make our way quickly. Well, in Morocco, we saw The Genie, Aladdin and Jasmine posing for pictures – we had to lift and drag Jerrame away from there – we had not time. Well, it turns out, we had time! Once we got to Le Cellier and checked in, we sat down and waited. And waited. And waited some more. Jerrame checks with the hostess, it will just be a couple of minutes. Nicole checks with the hostess, just a couple of minutes. Joey checks with the hostess (after he made his mask at the kidcot!) and she tells him that our table is being bussed and it will just be a minute. 10 MORE minutes go by and it is my turn to check. I was told our table was being bussed and I told them they should fire their busboys!!! 45 minutes after our original ADR time, we are finally led to our table. Summer orders a shrimp appetizer and I think Jerrame ordered a salad. Nicole and Summer share an entrée, Jerrame ordered the prime rib, I got a filet and I am not sure what Joey ordered. But, because of his hand injury, Nicole ended up cutting his “meatball” for him. Yeah, we were not impressed with this place. After all the writes ups raving, we were let down. I think it started with the nasty service we had at the hostess stand. But I have had better steaks at Longhorns – and for a lot cheaper!!! (I didn’t get the receipt for this meal.) After dinner, we head over to use our Fastpasses on Test Track. This ride was a lot of fun! We hit Spaceship Earth AGAIN - this time I won the bet as the ride stopped on the way down….. By this time, Nicole’s cold was catching up with her, so she and Jerrame headed back to the resort while Summer, Joey and I headed over to see Figment. Alas, Journey into Imagination was closed, so we headed into the World Showcase to grab a seat to see Illuminations. We stopped at the UK bar for a drink, and got a seat near the bridge. Not a great view from here, but it was still great! After the show, we hearded out of Epcot like cattle. We paused to see Nicole’s Leave a Legacy picture. Joey was parked at the TTC, so we rode the monorail over to the Magic Kingdom and got a bus back to the resort from there. We did get to see the tail end of Wishes from outside the park. It was a long day, and we both went to bed exhausted. Had to be up for our Mickey’s Magical Milestones tour in the morning. Friday, February 24th Today is our other tour – this one is new to all of us, Mickey’s Magical Milestones. We are all up early, Nicole and Summer make a run over to the French Quarter to pick up some beignets for breakfast. After having our fill of powdered sugar, we head for the busstop. We actually arrive at the Magic Kingdom in no time and head all the way down to the left. We spoke to one of the Cast Members there, our names are on the list for a tour, and so we get to enter the park before it officially opens! YEAH!!!! We check in at the building next to Town Hall – I forget what this is called. They have spelled my name wrong on my nametag, but quickly change it. It looks like there are 9 people total on our tour, including the 4 of us. The tour will begin in about 20 minutes, so we used this time to take our pictures on Main Street, in front of the castle, with next to no one there! This is awesome. We also get our pictures of each other in Lou’s Spot. Lou Mongello is the one who really got us all together with his book and website Disney World Trivia. He has a picture of himself as a young guy, sitting on the curb of Main Street in front of the Watches store. Since he is now married with children, he has a picture of his daughter in that same spot. So, as tribute, we all have our pictures taken in Lou’s spot. It is cold out this morning and although I thought I could take it, I was chilly. I went into the Emporium to see if they had the Goofy hoodie in my size – but they didn’t. I ended up with this blue MK hoodie. It is cute. I also got a Stitch pin for Jerrame and a Tink pin for Kaitlin (my niece) – total cost $74.75. I think that Summer used this time to get a chocolate covered strawberry – she was having a snack later in our tour. We got to watch the opening ceremony from the other side. This was very interesting to see, and as the gates opened, so did the swarm of people. Man, it was a MAD DASH into the park as people were excited to start their day at the Happiest Place on Earth. One kid on our tour was nearly knocked over as he was trying to take pictures of the swarm. Our tour began on time and we headed over to Exposition Hall. Our guide took us into the back – if you have never been back there, you really should check it out. While there, we talked about the beginning of Disney as we know it today and about Oswald the Lucky Rabbit – yup rabbit! Eventually Walt lost the rights to Oswald and came up with another character – Mortimer Mouse!!! Well, Lillian didn’t like that name too much and renamed him, MICKEY!!! And now you really can’t talk about Mickey Mouse with out talking about Walt, and vice versa. Walt first drew Mickey Mouse while riding in a train across country – so it was our turn to do the same. Boy, this was pretty hard to do and lets just say that my Mickey Mouse drawing could scare little children. Some of the other people on the tour did a pretty good job. The train took us around the park and we ended up in ToonTown – before it opened. We were lead behind the rope and we entered Mickey’s summer house!! This was cool, as our guide pointed out some hidden mickeys in this house, we heard this THUMP THUMP THUMP - what could that be? It turned out to be Mickey!!! Wow, what a great meeting this was, as Summer nearly passed out from excitement! We all got our pictures taken with Mickey – which is rare, as we were told by our guide, that he takes pictures INSIDE his house as opposed to in the Judges Tent. After meeting us, he went outside to pick a kid to help him officially open ToonTown for the day – that was cute to see this kid walking around holding hands with Mickey Mouse!!! After leaving the house, we had a couple of stops in toon town, and then by the spinning tea cups before we headed over to Sir Mickeys. Here, we found a couple of more hidden Mickeys and then discussed Mickey’s Philharmagic. Did you know that there were hidden Mickeys in every scene. Our guide told us about all that the CM’s know about, but it was up to us to find the others. Heck, I didn’t even see the ones she told us about – but I did find a new one at the end, when Mickey takes back over the orchestra – if you look over his left shoulder, you will see some stars in the shape of a classic hidden mickey. After Donald’s movie – it really should be his, but who would stop to see Donald’s Philharmagic? – we headed out, following our tour guide to “a special place”. She lead us through Fantasyland, by the Liberty Bell, through Adverntureland and off to a little roped off area with a sign “Reserved for Mouseketeers in training”. Here, we got a message from Mickey Mouse – he sent us all our own Mickey Ears!!! This was awesome – even though they spelled my name wrong, again. They told me they would fix it and I could pick up my ears at Town Hall later today. After all our goodbyes, we headed over to Cosmic Rays for lunch – we were starving! The place wasn’t very crowded, and I love their fixin’s bar! I got some nice warm cheese sauce to dip my French fries into!! YUMMY! I think we all did that. Nicole still wasn’t feeling well, and I was glad she had been such a trooper through the tour – but she said she was good and would stick it out for the day. We called Joey, as he was gonna hang out with us today too! Nicole bought my meal for me as I made a restroom visit, I did give her $10 – the total cost for a double bacon cheeseburger, a cheeseburger, 2 fries, and 2 cokes was $19.23. After lunch, we headed into TomorrowLand, Joey caught up with us there, and we grabbed a fast pass for Space Mountain. Then we got in line for Astro Orbitors – we learn a lesson here people – this ride is NOT, I repeat NOT worth standing in line 45 minutes for. While the view from the top is nice, I can get the same feeling from ride Aladdin’s Magic Carpets or Dumbo! Well, we thought we would ride Nicole and I together, but that didn’t work – we just didn’t fit. As I am trying to get out of the rocketship, the CM yells “Are we ready for take off?” NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! I get out and run to an empty rocket ship. I got some good pictures of the others flying around, especially good one of Jerrame! I also got a pretty good bruise on my leg – ow!! After we landed in one piece, we headed over to Stitch’s Great Escape. Sorry, Jerrame, I thought this was kinda lame. After we got past that alien, we headed over to the PeopleMover – oh, excuse me, the TTA. We rode around and waved at everyone – why won’t anyone wave back at us? Are we really that weird? Then it was time to turn in our fast passes and head onto Space Mountain. I love this ride and have some great memories of yelling for my dad to DUCK as we went under each track! We all had our own seats, almost taking up a whole thing on our own. Pretty soon we were taking off into space and yelling and screaming our heads off – it was so much fun!!! Next, we headed over to Buzz Lightyear – To Infinity and Beyond!!!! There was some smack talk already going on as to who would score the highest – I didn’t join in as I knew it wouldn’t be me. I rode with Jerrame, she says she loves to spin to get into the best position to aim for the targets – but the girl didn’t drive, I ended up driving…..and scoring the lowest, I do believe. But we all had fun and all of them were captured by Zurg at the end – I have this great picture!!! I think that Nicole scored the highest and so Jerrame had to buy her a Mickey bar!! It was beyond time for a Dole Whip – we had promised some people to have one in their honor, not to mention, we LOVE THEM! This would be interesting, as the parade was going on and we would have to circumvent the route of the parade. We dashed through Fantasyland, cut through beside the Bears and into Adventureland, missing the parade! Joey heads over to get a citrus swirl – I had those when I was young – and Jerrame, Summer and I head to the Dole stand to get our floats! YUMMY! I love this stuff. After satisfying that craving, we head into see our Pirate Friends. We took some silly pictures while walking in. That was fun. We asked if we could get our own boat – and the CM asked if we were going to try to get out or something. Now why would we do that? We ended up in 2 rows, waiting for other people to share our boat with, now what was the point of that? In the Pirate’s Bazaar, we all did a little shopping, I got a Pirate pin and some Goofy Bandana Ears for my dad - $23.33. As we were leaving, we knew we would have to book it down Main Street to catch the monorail over to the Contemporary Resort – we had an ADR at Chef Mickey’s for dinner. And I needed to stop to get my Mickey Ears! Well, we didn’t make it far as I spotted Captain Hook and Smee. But then, Jerrame spotted Wendy and Peter! Nicole froze in her spot. The girl couldn’t say a word! They were part of her favorite movie and she had never met them in person. We immediately got into the line to meet them and boy were we lucky. The CM cut off the line right after me. That is not an easy job – to tell people who want their kids to meet Peter and Wendy to come back another time. We got to spend some quality time with Peter and Wendy – Nicole first of course. We told them how excited she was to see them and Peter noticed the Peter pin that I had bought for Nicole earlier that day – we never did find a Wendy pin!!! They noticed our DWT lanyards and decided to ask her a trivia question. She said don’t ask her anything; she didn’t even know her own name at that time. Well, our question was – Where did Peter get his feather and why was it red? Well, bad on us, none of us had a clue. Turns out it was from the Neverbird!!! We were also told that if we saw Aladdin and Jasmine, we were to tag them as IT from Wendy and Peter. After that, we head down Main Street and I pick up my Mickey Ears!! Jerrame, Joey and Summer made a brief (ha ha ha) stop at VMK central to pick up some more stuff. We head out of the park, but not until after Summer attempts a turnstile and nearly falls over it as the thing is locked – the guy didn’t let her know. Luckily she didn’t flip right over the top! We check into Chef Mickey’s and the wait isn’t too long. I refuse to get anything to eat until I get my picture with Donald Duck – I have not seen him here before – maybe it is a dinner thing. Nicole and I get our pictures and then we are digging into the fine food that they have on this buffet! They have these cute chocolate cookie things on the desert bar that have mickey ears on them! We had some great character interaction as Summer got to see Mickey Mouse again and he told her that he loved her. Well, bad thing was that Dale was right behind as we said Minnie better not hear this. Dale was gonna cause trouble and tell on Mickey. Luckily we were out of there before the female mouse caught on. Goofy did come by the table as well, and they all told him that he was my favorite, and he decided to have a seat next to me and take a nap on my shoulder – it was so cute!!! We got some great pictures and wonderful memories. (total with dining discount $126.06) After leaving, Jerrame and I stopped at the pin station. Have I mentioned that I was on a mission from Kaitlin? I was to trade some of our pins from 100 years of Disney to get her some princess pins? Jerrame really helped me get some good ones!!! We left the Contemporary and headed back to the Magic Kingdom. I was in such a good mood, I was singing “Be our Guest”, and I guess I didn’t realize that I was singing out loud!? Well, I was and one of the photographer CM’s near the Crystal Palace noticed and kinda looked at me strange. I told him I was just in a good mood, and that was when he pointed at me and said “Supercalifragilisticexpealidosis” And we both started singing along and pretty soon my whole group was singing and dancing around. We had a crowd gathered around us that were all clapping for us and even cheered a little when we were done. It was a great and classic Disney moment and I wish I had gotten this CM’s name to let Disney know what great Disney magic this CM has!!! So, off to Splash Mountain. I am not gonna ride and just plan to take everyone’s pass to get fastpasses for Big Thunder Mountain. Well, they convince me that I won’t get too wet and I reluctantly get on the ride with them – in the back row. During the big drop, I bend down and cover my head. Nicole has on her poncho – since she hasn’t been feeling well, she doesn’t want to get too wet either. While I think the storyline is cute and everything, I still don’t like water rides and I get off as the rest of the group goes for a second trip (wow, there was NO WAIT for this at all). Since Summer and Joey were in the front seat, they got SOAKED!!! So, what better way to dry off than to ride Big Thunder Mountain – I don’t think we waited 10 minutes for this and we had a great time. Such a good time that we rode it again. It was at this time that Nicole decided that she wanted to go back to the room, she was exhausted. It was a long day, and I was surprised she lasted as long as she did. Since my feet were killing me, and I didn’t want her to go alone, I went back to the resort with her. I don’t think she really remembers the ride back as her eyes were glazed over. Joey, Jerrame and Summer stayed at the Magic Kingdom and rode some other rides, took another picture in Lou’s spot, and then headed back to the resort – after saying goodbye to Joey for the last time. Boy will we miss him after spending 2 fun filled days with him. But it is off to bed – after icing down the feet – we have big doing’s tomorrow! Saturday, February 25th Today was the day we were going to attempt to get onto Expedition Everest. We had heard that many people had been on it during our trip so far, so we were pretty sure we would get this task accomplished. See, the ride was not “officially” open yet. We got to Disney’s Animal Kingdom EARLY – before the park opened and the lines at the turnstiles were already very long. We did get the chance to see Wes Palm this morning as he made his way around the crowd! I thought the plan was for Jerrame and Summer to take our passes and RUN to Everest – get us some fast passes and then get on the ride. Nicole and I would get there as soon as we could. She was still not feeling well, and my feet were absolutely burning with pain. Well, I must have been mistaken as the 3 of them took off running. I felt like the fallen man left behind and with every step I took, my feet hurt even worse! By the time I got there, I was in tears…I can’t even describe how much this hurt. But I sucked it up, had a fit and got on the ride with the rest of the crew. Sat next to Jerrame and sobbed to her for a minute and then got over it. We rode up front. Oh, and the girls met up with our friends from online already – Paul and Mandy – everyone recognized the DWT lanyards!!! We were on and riding up the mountain, then we stopped, as there was no track in front of us! Then we went through it all backwards!!! Man, this ride is AWESOME!!!! We all cheered as we got off. Since our fast passes weren’t good for about another 45 minutes, we headed over to ride Dinosaur. There was absolutely no wait and we walked right on. I do wish they had let us go 3 and 3, having our own car, but instead, 4 in front, 2 in back with 2 other strangers riding with us. But we prepared for our photo shoot anyways! The front row was Nicole (speak no evil), Summer (WHAT?!), Me (hear no evil) and Mandy (see no evil). In the back row, Jerrame was giving the dinosaur some Jersey girl attitude while Paul was just “scared”. It made for a great picture. After our trip through time, we had a trip to Everest again, this time in the back of the cars – I think we liked the front the best! Jerrame and I still ducked because we thought the Yeti would grab us!!! Well, even though I could do some other things at Animal Kingdom, we were heading over to Disney MGM Studios for the rest of the day. Paul offered to drive us and quite frankly, this man could get a job with Lights Motors Action!!!! And that was the first place we headed when we got there. This was a great show – hate the climb to the top of the seats though! We stopped at the Studio Catering Co for a quick bite to eat – I got a Kid’s Chicken Wrap, $4.25, and the girl behind the counter just handed me the wrap. Excuse me, but doesn’t a drink and some chips come with that? I think some fruit did too, but I wasn’t gonna press my luck – I didn’t even get that cute Mickey ears tray for it all. After that, we walked down Mickey Ave. We stopped in to see Sorcerer Mickey and we all got our picture together. As we walked along, I went to check when the next Who wants to be a Millionaire show would start, while everyone stood in line to see Donald and Daisy outside their trailer (remember, it is a movie set!). Well, we never did Millionaire, but had a good time with Donald and Daisy. First off, Donald REFUSED to take a picture of Summer with her Mickey ears on. So Daisy took them off her head! Somehow in all of this, Donald wrote on his beak! Daisy tried to get it off, but really doesn’t have a tongue to get her feathers wet. Then, as they are signing the autograph books Jerrame had made for her daughters, Jerrame told Daisy that she didn’t have her own page - she didn’t have any Daisy stickers! Well, to that, Daisy gave her the hand! It was too darn funny. Paul then struggled to take pictures with all our cameras – Donald and I had a good laugh as he struggled with all our bags and cameras. We kept walking down Mickey Ave and said hi to the guys from Jojo’s Circus. Then we went to ride the Great Movie Ride. There was a little bit of a wait for this, but it was all fun walking through the line and watching the movie clips – they really need to make that longer though, I think we saw it 4 times through. Since I had never had the cowboy side, we got that one – yeah! They squeezed all of us into 1 row – those things are not made to fit 6 adults, really! The ride was a lot of fun, but our “cowboy” couldn’t decide if he was Australian or from Texas. After our jaunt through the movies, we made a stop at the Sorcerer’s Hat Shop where I bought a couple of passholder pins ($23.33). After that, we headed back over to ride Tower of Terror and Aerosmith’s Rockin’Roller Coaster. The standby wait for ToT wasn’t that bad, so we headed to RnRC to grab a fastpass – the time was for 3 hours away and the standby wait was 50 minutes!!! As we are standing there (avoiding the afternoon shower that hit right then), a kid walks up to me and offers me 3 fastpasses for 10 minutes from now. I took them and we all tried to figure out what to do. Well, turns out our CM buddy was able to work a miracle for us and pretty soon we were on our way into the studio to see Aerosmith!! Summer and I rode in the front car, but the rest in the back, they actually got on before we did and we all met up in the store. They had this cute shirt I wanted “Groupie in search of musicians”, but none in my size, bummer. Time for Tower of Terror. Nicole and Mandy had never ridden this, so we had to get them some courage and we discussed how we would ride. I think we got on the bellhops nerves as we waited for a particular elevator and rearranged our seating….but it worked out and Mandy actually loved it. I think if you looked at our ride picture, you will see that Nicole did not. After this, it was time for us to split up. Mandy and Paul had reservations over at Le Chefs de France in Epcot and we had Fantasmic Dinner Seating at Mama Melrose. So, we head on over that direction, I have never been to Mama Melrose before, so I was looking forward to it. We were seated pretty quickly and our waitress explained how the Fantasmic dinner worked. We got 2 flat bread pizza appetizers – we went with the 4 cheeses and the pepperoni, both were very good. Then we had family style salad and bread – the butter was so cute with Mickey faces on it! For dinner, we each had an entrée, both Nicole and I got Chicken Parmesan, Jerrame got some sort of filet and Summer had a seafood pasta dish – they all looked good and we all enjoyed our meal. For desert, I just had some ice cream, same for Nicole. Both Jerrame and Summer had some fancy deserts that looked yummy, Chocolate Truffle Cake and a Hazelnut Cheese cake. No dining discount available here, total cost $137.09. During dinner, we discussed that each of us would pick one more thing we had to do in the park that day before we went to see Fantasmic. I wanted to see Muppets, Jerrame wanted Star Tours and I don’t remember what Nicole and Summer wanted to do. I think the only thing we got done was Muppets, as we were right there. During the show, the girls (NOT ME!) took a little nap….they were all tuckered out. After the Swedish Chef blew up the theatre, we headed out, with all intentions of going on Star Tours, but for some reason, the wait was 45 minutes – not gonna happen. So, we headed for the back gate where you go in for your Fantasmic Dinner seating. I think we stopped and shopped a little – remember, Jerrame is trying to help me trade my pins for princess ones for Kaitlin, my niece. I actually got a great Jasmine one from a CM on Mickey Ave, J nearly knocked me over for it! I am not sure what else we may have done before heading to Fantasmic seating. We got our seats about halfway up at the end of a row, not too bad. The place was getting packed and it was about 45 minutes to showtime. Nicole and I took a restroom break and then stopped for a churro, a diet coke and a water. I love churros!!! Nicole and I split this, when we got back to the seats, Jerrame had bought some cotton candy. I think we all had our share of sugar before the show. Nicole had always been to WDW with her kids, so she had never seen any of the nighttime shows or parades, so this was a first for her. And we all knew Summer loved this show, cause it is all about Mickey! I love Fantasmic, but can never get any good photographs, there is a secret to this, I am sure. We got up and started to head out during the fireworks. Mass of people (MOO) walking to the gates. I think the Studios had extra magic hours this night, so not everyone was exiting. Oh, and I think there was another showing of Fantasmic, we went to the early one. We left the Studios and headed back to the resort. Nicole was still not totally well, so she stayed behind as the rest of us headed to the Magic Kingdom to meet up with Paul and Mandy. We took Summer’s car, so we didn’t have to worry about transportation back to the resort, we planned to close down the MK that night – and we did!! As we were taking the parking lot trams to the gate at the TTC, who do we see? Paul and Mandy – what great timing!! We all get on the monorail and head on over. I think we got to see part of Wishes from the monorail again, and when we got off, we cut through the CM gate to get to the park. Once inside, we headed straight over to Adventureland – we wanted to check out where Paul worked and Jerrame had something she wanted to purchase. Summer had another Dole Whip – amazing that girl is, and it was getting kinda chilly outside. Jerrame bought her Jasmine photo frame – it really was cute. Then we headed over to ride Pirates of the Caribbean – again! Hey now, it was probably the last time we would see it in its original form, so we had to burn everything into our memories. Since there was hardly anyone there, we did get our own boat this time – no questions asked. We each had our own row on the boat. Part way through, we decided (was this Paul’s idea?) that we should all lay down for the drop! We did and it was so much fun, we were all giggling like 5 year olds!!! We then lay down with our feet stuck in the air – why? Because it was fun! Summer even got a picture of this!!! Things in my memory are starting to get fuzzy….I think after we left Adventureland, we headed over to Tomorrowland to ride the cars – Mandy had never ridden them before. Why is this line always so long? Well, we were in line a little over 20 minutes I believe. Meanwhile we talked and chatted and got to hear about their fabulous dinner, it really sounded good! It is finally our turn and I get into the first car and take off. I am halfway around the first turn and I slow down to get a look at everyone behind me – wish I had my camera! However, there was NO ONE behind me. Where were they? I putted along, slowing down to a stop. Still, not one of the others in sight. Finally, I see Mandy putting around the curve with Jerrame and Summer behind – where is Paul? Turns out that the kid that was in the car Paul was going to drive would not get out. I guess he wanted to go around again. Pretty soon we were all caught up with each other and putting around the course. I think that Mandy got a picture of Paul as he was getting out of the car. We got off the Raceway and went towards Tomorrowland. Mandy wanted to ride the TTA – another one she had not ridden before. We made a stop at the store there, and I went into Cosmic Rays to get a bottle of water ($2). They noticed my birthday button and everyone there wished me a happy birthday! They also insisted I take a brownie for my birthday – I don’t think I ever ate it though. It was pretty late by this time, and the TTA was already closed. We walked towards Fantasyland and Paul took off (had made a phone call first). Turns out he was off to get this sweatshirt hoodie for Mandy – has Tinkerbell on it!!! She looked very cute in her new jacket! The parade was coming down Mainstreet at this time, so we all hung out in the back of the castle for it to pass by. We had a GREAT time as people had pretty much cleared the place out. Some of the CM’s that were working there were cleaning up around us. The castle is so pretty at night, and we enjoyed taking pictures and basically goofing off. I think we got some great cartwheel pictures of Summer!!! We walked through the castle as the parade was ending, but it wasn’t our time to leave yet. Paul took some pictures of the girls in front of the castle – what a great guy he is, he even got on the ground to take an upward shot of us, turned out pretty cool. Soon, we were up and walking towards the hub and the Partners Statue. We stopped here to take a few more pictures….then on down Mainstreet. Jerrame wanted to run into the stores on the right, and I went with Mandy and Paul into the Watches store!!! Yup, this is the store we take a picture in front of for Lou – we handled that later. Inside, Paul was looking at watches - none that I could ever afford though! I found the princess pins, I was determined to find a pin of Jasmine that Jerrame didn’t have. I did buy a couple of pins, but it turns out, Jerrame had it already – so Kaitlin got to keep that one ($16.96). When we finally left the store, the park was CLOSED. And when I say closed, I mean it! I think we were the only ones there that were not working – some CM’s, and some security folks. We actually asked one of the security guys to take our picture in front of the Watches store!!! We hopped on the monorail to go pack to the TTC to get the cars. We decided to ride the tram as we were all exhausted. There were so few cars in that lot, a weird site to behold. We got to Paul’s van first, and we got in and he drove us to Summer’s car!!! Good nights and goodbyes were said and we were off, back to our resort. But not yet…first, we had to get totally LOST! So used to riding the buses, we had not paid attention to the correct turns to get back to our resort! We finally made it, I think it was past 1am at this time. All of us were so tired, but I knew that Nicole would be leaving that next morning. I said goodnight to Jerrame and Summer, told them to wake me before Nicole left!!! Sunday, February 26th I didn’t set an alarm today, but got up at who knows what time. Nicole was leaving – this was a very sad event for all of us! She packed up everything and she was off! I don’t think she was still feeling too well, but I think she was tired, but excited to see her family! So, the rest of us had to get up and at ‘em! We made a promise to Jerrame to go to the Magic Kingdom and make sure we got to see Aladdin and Jasmine. Summer put her stuff into my room, as they had to check out of their room today. Summer had been laid off her job before our trip, so I think I convinced her to just stay that night with me – plenty of room!!! Jerrame checked out and we headed out to the Magic Kingdom. Everyone was pretty much already in the park – we weren’t there when it first opened, not our usual. We made a stop at Town Hall to check out the schedule for Character Greetings. Then we headed to Adventureland to stake our spot in line to meet Aladdin and Jasmine. On the way, we got more dole whips – why? It was FREEZING, and yet we still had not fulfilled our dolewhip urges! I think Summer did not finish hers, however. Jerrame and Summer headed up the tree – Swiss Family Robinson’s tree that is. I was not interested and just waited on level ground. Was it before this or after that we ran into Aladdin and Jasmine? They were headed to the castle to take part in Cinderella’s show. And they had the same friend with them that was with Wendy and Peter a couple of days before, and she remembered us! I can’t recall her name right now – she wrote her email down for me, and now I can’t find it – AGH! Anyways, we wasted a little time until they came back from their performance. Jerrame and Summer stood in the queue and I took some pictures of the Tiki Room for my brother – his one request…. weirdo! Finally, the royal couple was back and they saw us in line – “Hey, you guys are here!” Jerrame was first, of course, and broke into tears while talking to them. Aladdin even told her that she should come visit them in Agrabah – I think she would if she could! Unfortunately, carpet was having his tassels rotated, so we couldn’t see him. They were all so nice, and I remembered that Peter and Wendy had asked us to TAG them it from the other day…. After we all got our pictures, we spoke with the Cast Member for a few more minutes and then we were on our way – we were HUNGRY! Yup, another trip to Cosmic Rays. This time I got Summer’s lunch while she had a restroom break (Kids meal corn dog w/ fry, cheeseburger +bacon and fries, small coke, water - total $13.59). Of course we got the cheese from the fixins bar – yummy!!!! After we were full, we headed out, to the Animal Kingdom!!! I think – ok, I think I will pause my trip report until I hear back from Summer. It is 3 weeks since the trip and my memory is gone!!! I think, according to Summer’s recollection, we rode Pirates and the TTA before leaving the Magic Kingdom that day. We also ran into PUSH – now, I had seen his relative at Disneyland, but this was Summer’s first time meeting the walking, talking trash can. He did ask how her nails got blue! Took their picture, and we went to check out the wait for Space Mountain – which was too long, so we left the Magic Kingdom for that time. We took the monorail over to the Polynesian, which gave Jerrame a chance to see her place! Her family usually stays here when they come to Walt Disney World. It really is a lovely place. We walked through, and then caught a bus to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Once inside, we went to see It’s Tough to be a Bug. This is such a cute movie! But unfortunately, this took up most of the time we had left with Jerrame. She really needed to get back to the resort and settled before her pickup time with Magical Express. This was a very sad goodbye as she walked to the front of the park and Summer and I continued to Africa to catch the safari. Everyone was lining up for the parade already and Summer and I were trying to make it to the Safari by running up the center of the street. Then we came to a block, and we had to choose a side. The CM there told us we could get to the entrance of the safari going to the left – well, she was wrong, and we had to backtrack. Luckily we made it to the other side right as the parade was starting out. We walked through the queue to the Safari and this was really weird – there was NO ONE THERE! I have never been through here where there wasn’t a soul in line. We got to the front and got into the back seat of the waiting jeep. The driver wanted to make us move to the front, but instead, we waited until other people joined us and then we were off on our 2-week journey. We did not see many animals out and about this afternoon, I think it was too close to park closing time and they knew it was time to come in and get fed! We did see the cheetah – they looked like they were staring us down. Also, the Lion was pacing on top of his rock. At the end of our safari, we came out the exit – skipping the pangini trail. And what is going on? The parade has circled back around and we actually get to watch it all. We decided to do this rather than try to get over to Camp Minnie-Mickey in time to see The Lion King. Love this parade, lots of color, energy and the character interaction was great – very few people left in Africa at that time of day. After the parade we were leaving the park and we saw The Man (that is what my niece, Kaitlin, calls him) – Mickey himself in his safari gear – so you know Summer and I got our picture with him. We were onto the bus back to the resort. We decided we would hit the Magic Kingdom one last time tonight for Extra Magic Hours. But to be able to do that, we needed a rest. Back in the room we both rested some, but not really lying down or anything. We decided we needed one last sit down meal, and after searching through Summer’s passporter, I suggested that we go to the Whispering Canyon Café – The Wilderness Lodge is near the Magic Kingdom, so we would almost be right there. We called and got an ADR for that evening, we called and checked in with home and with Melissa – she was our update guru for the message board during the whole trip, and we also put on some warmer clothes, the temperature was dropping – a sign of things to come! Then we were off! We caught a bus to the Magic Kingdom and it was packed. Then we stopped, the buses were backed up all the way to the Contemporary Resort. Turns out the monorails were down and the boats were not running, buses were the only things around and there was quite a back up. We were told that all the restaurants knew this and if we were late, they would be ok. We finally got to the Whispering Canyon and were seated rather quickly – we had a table right by the entrance. Now, I didn’t tell Summer anything about this place, so she had not a clue. Humble Aly was our server and she got our drinks and threw a bunch of straws at us. Hee hee, the fun was just beginning. After we ordered, I noticed that they had some things for the kids to color, including a Pirate Mickey. I begged the staff for one so that Summer could have it to color in. This may have been a bad mistake on my part, as she continually got in trouble with Humble Aly when she would spend more time coloring than eating. Then, it happened, Summer asked for some ketchup “WE NEED SOME KEEEETTTTCCCCHHHHHUUUUUPPPPP!!!!!” All of a sudden, we had about 15 bottles of ketchup on the table! Summer was in shock! We also got to witness the horse ride around the restaurant. I really need to bring my niece here to eat – since she loved Prime Time so much! We had a great dinner, I had the roasted chicken and Summer had a bar-b-q sandwich. We share this awesome desert with ice cream and bananas. (Total after the dining discount $31.83) We walked outside to catch the bus back over to the Magic Kingdom. I swear, at least 2 of every other bus came by while we were waiting. 30 minutes later, a bus comes by with “Mickey Mouse” as its destination. I asked the driver what that meant and he said it meant that he was going off duty after that stop. I asked if he could do me a favor and call in to transportation and tell them that the Wilderness Lodge needed a Magic Kingdom bus, we had quite a crowd waiting by then. Summer and I had made friends with these two little boys and their parents – they were so excited about everything. Even seeing those princesses. The driver said he would call in and I thanked him. He drove off and we waited another couple of minutes to see a Magic Kingdom bus drive up – oh thank you!!! Turns out it was the same guy – Mark was his name! He called in and told them he was gonna pick up these people and drop them off at the Magic Kingdom! What a great Cast Member – we all thanked him profusely for this! He even dropped us off at the curb, and not the regular resort bus stops – AWESOME!!! It really is the Cast Members that go out of their way like this that bring the magic for me. So, we get our wristbands and head into the Magic Kingdom for the last time on this trip!!! We head straight for Tomorrow Land and got a fast pass for Space Mountain. We then rode Buzz Lightyear, took a picture by the COP and then walked over to Fantasyland. Here, we rode the teacups and had tons of fun trying to take pictures of each other as we whirled around. After the cups, we rode Dumbo and Pooh, taking pictures the whole time. Man, it was FREEZING out, and spinning around up in the air on Dumbo was quite chilly. We thought about riding Peter Pan in honor of Nicole, but that line was LONG!!! Instead, we went on the Haunted Mansion one last time. Then I told Summer that I was about to reach my breaking point. Did she want to go ride Pirates for, say it with me now, one last time? And she could have my fast pass for Space Mountain and I would meet her at Lou’s spot? No way, she came with me, we rode Pirates and we stopped for a Dole Whip – remember it was FREEZING out? People were wearing hats and gloves and parkas (ok, not parkas, but some were wearing big coats!). Summer bought me a hot chocolate instead – it was yummy! Our plan was to then leave the park. But as we were walking out of Adventureland, we noticed that there were some characters hanging out at the hub. I told Summer that I saw Goofy, and I had to get my picture taken. Yes, we saw Goofy at Chef Mickey’s, but not in regular Goofy clothes!! So we stand in line and enjoy our treats as we wait to see Goofy. The girl in front of us in line got a really special picture when Pluto jumped into it with them!!! Then it was my turn. YEAH!! As we were posing, Summer yells “She’s your biggest fan!” At this, Goofy spins me around, we dance around the place and he leans over and kisses my hand! We pose for a GREAT picture, and then he gets a postcard or something from his CM and signs it for me! How SWEET! Summer gets her picture too. We then go visit Pluto and Summer scratches behind his ear, I think he really needed that. When I pose with Pluto, I ask him to stand with me by his statue! We say our sad goodbyes and slowly make our way down Main Street. As we are getting our bus, we have to wait for awhile for a new one, and when it comes there is someone in a wheelchair. The father of the family in front of us was making some rather rude comments about how long it was taking – I still can’t believe he said some of those things in front of his kids. I realize that you are tired, but that is not a good example. Pretty soon we are back in the room and crashing for the night. Tomorrow is the last day and we will head to Downtown Disney to do a little shopping – but no real schedule. I was supposed to meet up with another lady from the DWT site, but I was still sick and did not want to get her or her daughter sick. Plus, I just couldn’t do walking around another park. Packed up a lot of my stuff so that we were ready to check out the next day. Monday, February 27th Did not set an alarm, but I think we were up by 9am. Showered and packed up everything into Summer’s car. She drove me to the office so that I could check out. No charges to my room, so not really anything to do. Then Summer and I were off to Downtown Disney listening to Mousercize on the way! We parked pretty close to the World of Disney store – right next to an Imagineer’s van – had to take a picture! We walked around to the back and had to take a picture of Summer by Summer Sands – is that her store? It has her name…. We went into The Toy Store where I got more parts for Mr. Potato Head – yup, they had some that I didn’t have. I packed as much stuff as I possibly could into that box and still get it closed – the CM even said something about it. We bought a couple of pins at the Pin Station and then checked out the $10 store. Nothing here really jumped out at us. Made a stop at Goofy’s Candy Company, man, you can get a cavity just walking into this place! Summer got her chocolate covered strawberries and I had a make your own creation. It was cute – you fill out this form – do you want pretzels rods, rice krispy mickey head, or a HUGE oreo cookie? I think there were a couple of other things to choose from, but I can’t remember. Then, you choose what it is dunked into – white chocolate, dark, milk or even caramel. I chose milk chocolate. Then you pick your toppings – I got crushed oreo cookies, then drizzled with white chocolate. Man, this thing was rich, it made it safely home with me and took me 3 days to eat it all! I decided to skip the scrapbook store as it is just a bad place for me to go. Plus, I wanted enough time at the World of Disney before having to go back to the resort to meet Magical Express. We were both pretty hungry and stopped at that new Earl of Sandwich – man, that line was 30 people deep! We moved on! We finally made it to the World of Disney and made quite a few purchases here. Unfortunately, they did not have the cd that Summer was looking for. They did have it back at the Toy Store – so I offered to run back over there to purchase it while she looked for a shirt for her niece. Was going to meet her back right outside the World of Disney. I stopped at the pretzel place to get us a couple of pretzels since we still had not eaten. They were out – how can that be? Oh well…..we meet up and trudge to the car. Once back at the resort, Summer comes with me to the food court and sits with my stuff while I get some lunch – she is just gonna pick up something off property. I ended up with a pizza, some chips and the water I was already drinking. I also bought some Mickey straws as a thank you to some people that were helping in our Red Cross Blood Drive back at work in my absence. When I sat to eat, it was Summer’s time to go – boy was this sad….I was the first one here and the last to leave. She walked away and didn’t look back. I ate, freshened up and realized it was 5 til – I needed to check in with Magical Express! I ran to the front and they took my bag and I got on the first seat (hitting my head on the tv, ow!). I was out of breath, tired and still sickly, this run did me in. And then it hit me, we had all left now. I did tear up a bit and the CM that worked at the resort got back on the bus to check on me, he wanted to make sure I was ok – he said “I gotta make sure my kids are alright!” That was so sweet. I assured him that I would be fine, and the bus was off! After making a couple of pick ups and then a couple of drop offs at the airport, I was finally at the front, checking in my bag at the curb instead of that long long line inside. I got into the wrong security line, realized it and headed off to the other one, which was just as long. Really ridiculous the way this is set up with crowds of people trying to flow into 4 lines. No wonder this takes so long and Magical Express picks you up 3 hours before your flight. My mom had checked me in online and I was already assigned a seat in the exit row – tons of leg room! It was great. I pretty much rested the entire way home. Once back in Atlanta, I go to get my luggage. There are only 10 or so of us from that flight and no bags. We waited, and waited, and waited some more. We checked with baggage claim to see if they were coming off another terminal or something. We were given different answers everytime. Then the lady tells us that we will have to fill out forms to have our luggage delivered to us. This caused quite a ruckus, as some of the people were from 2 hours away, and 1 guy was there for a conference. A few minutes later our bags started trickling out, I grabbed my bag – and after some miscommunication with my parents, I was on MARTA (it is not smarta, really) on my way to meet them. My trip ended with me calling all the girls to let them know I had made it back safe and sound. Summer was still not home yet, and Jerrame just sounded awful. It did take a few days for all of us to recover. Here it is a month from the start of our trip and I still look back at some of my pictures (all 373 of them!) and laugh at all the good times. Thanks so much for reading my trip report – or novel as it may be at this point. Lara Thompson
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