Trip Reports

I started this trip report many, many weeks ago and, between one thing and another, it never seemed to get finished. If anyone has been searching the newsgroup daily for this report (yeah, right), sorry for the delay! You may find that the initial few pages are full of detail but that, when I finally got around to writing the end, the details became few and far between.

Memory loss. Mid-forties. What can I say?

What was I saying?

Welcome to the latest installment of the hopefully never-ending saga of "The Saroufim's do Disney"! Our entourage was slightly different than that of previous trips as we took my husband's sister and niece, both who had visited Walt Disney World years previously, stayed very much off-site, and thought that the Magic Kingdom was the whole deal. A little introduction is necessary here if only to inform you as to who are the children in the party and who are the adults. Of course, our chronological age has nothing to do with how old we become in the "world"!

Tony, mid 40's, tribal leader, Type-A but all-around nice guy and good sport,
Dotti, me, right behind Tony in age (we won't mention maturity) and much less the theme park commando type,
Joe, almost 15 and what my friends call the "babe magnet", a really special kid who still enjoys WDW with his family,
Elie, 11 years old and sometimes a little too bright to the point of distraction - his distraction, our distraction - causing many searches to find where the latest distraction has led him,
Peter, turning 10 on this trip, lovable and great company for mom who sat out a few of the more adventurous attractions,
Amal, Tony's sister, mid 40's, the easiest person in the world to travel with! I said, "Eat", she ate; I said, "Walk", she walked; I said, "Sleep", she slept!
Nada, Tony's 18 year old niece, gorgeous and a dead ringer for Jasmine.
Amazing how many young, male cast members we met on this trip…

I hope to not make this report too detailed. I promised Paul McKenna, a fellow radp'er, that I wouldn't give you the times that we brushed our teeth, what toothpaste we used, and how many inches of floss we tore from the container.

I will, however, add many details that were important to us because this is also our journal - a way for us to remember in years to come where we ate, how we slept and who was tickling whose feet in the middle of the night. I don't want to just remember that the line for Splash Mountain was twenty minutes on a Friday morning. To put myself back in that magical time, I need to remember the beauty of the sound of the birds each morning, how we laughed until we cried when Nada flubbed her lines on stage at the Hoop De Doo or how we joked that the evil-tasting Florida water has something in it to make everyone smile to one another.

Day One, Saturday, August 16

Waking up on Saturday morning was like a dream. It didn't matter that this was our eight trip in 5 years. It didn't matter that we had just flown to WDW in May of this year. This was "D-Day" and I had put as much planning and effort into this trip as I would have if it were the first. Maybe more so since the first trip is sort of like your first child - the one that you practice on to make subsequent ones easier. The anticipation of bringing Amal to all of our favorite places, the worry that the probability of one in seven getting sick for this trip was not too small, the confusion of living with kitchen remodeling for a month and having no clue where all my belongings were - all of this made me feel as if this day would never arrive!

We were early to the airport and flew with no delay. I miss the movie and the music and those little snack packs are a joke, but the flight is blessedly short. We touched down at approximately 11am, picked up our luggage, and headed straight for the Dollar Rent-a-Car counter. This is our third time dealing with Dollar and each time has been a pleasure. The wait was short, the representative courteous, and the rate was reasonable. We had a minivan for $209/wk using the keyword "Globe" from our local Boston newspaper. We weren't even hassled to buy that unnecessary extra insurance.

We were on the road by 11:30am and all decided that, since our accommodations at the Old Key West Resort weren't guaranteed until 4pm, we should make a pit stop for lunch. We headed over to the Disney Village Marketplace, parked and walked over to the Rainforest Café. Noontime. 40 minute wait. Well, what did I expect? We roamed through the World of Disney Store while we waited the allotted time and I decided that, yes, visually, this is a wonderful place to roam and no, I really don't like feeling as if my children could disappear in a heartbeat, never to be seen again. Too big.

Lunch was wonderful, albeit noisy. We sat under a glaring gorilla who spooked us throughout the meal. For an appetizer, we all shared the six pieces in the Pieces of Ate. For our main meal, I had the Mojo Bones, Nada and Joe each got the Chicken Monsoon, Elie ordered the Jurrasic Tidbit, Peter and Tony split a pizza and Amal ordered the Islander Salad. Total for lunch with drinks was $86.85. Everyone agreed that my Mojo Bones were the best. (Read that as "everyone ate Dotti's lunch".) Our server told us that there were over 600 people working at this particular Rainforest Café and that 180 people could be on in one shift. He said that he often works with someone and never sees that same person again. Probably eaten by those creepy gorillas.

After lunch, we rode over to the Old Key West even though it was still early, only 2pm. It's hard to describe the feeling that I get when passing through the entrance for the first time. We've stayed at many WDW resorts and we've loved them all but, somehow, the OKW has become where we call "home". We have no desire whatsoever to stay elsewhere.

The line for check-in was depressingly long but moved quicker than we thought possible. A very pleasant cast member (CM), one of many that I forgot to get the name of, plowed through our paperwork, printed our passes, checked my meal itinerary, and presented us with a decision to make. Did we want to wait until our 4pm and get the building that we requested (Bldg. 26, close to the Hospitality House and a bus stop) or did we want to take a unit in another building that was ready? Third floor. Lots of luggage. Views of the fireworks at both the Studios and Epcot? (Tip for anyone who thinks that this is an incentive….think about how often you'll be in your room at 9pm…doh!) Well we took it, a two-bedroom unit in Building 33, directly next to the Turtle Pond bus stop and very close to a pool with an arcade and a snack bar.

It was lovely and we were quite happy especially once Tony recovered from hauling the bags up the stairs. It was fun watching Amal's and Nada's reaction to the size of the unit and Amal said that she could live forever in an apartment this size. I said that I could live forever in this particular one, no problem! I'll skip the description of the unit (only because I can go on forever), but if anyone would like more info, please feel free to email me.

My first stop (radp'ers who know me know that it's *always* my first stop <g>) was to my balcony. Our view was of the golf course and of a small pond where all types of birds congregate. It was way too hot to even contemplate coffee, but I was looking forward to it the next morning. Morning coffee on this balcony, slowly waking up to the sound of the birds, rates way up there in my favorite Walt Disney World activities! Interesting observation on third floor units: birds love to perch on the railings. Birds love to relieve themselves while perching. Kids love to put arms on railings while enjoying the view. Although this gave me a simple cleaning solution, the kids were not pleased.

We rested a bit until Type-A Tony decided that he had to move. While I enjoyed a delightful, unexpected visit from my friend Barb/gardenia, the "boys" went off for a swim. Barb showed me the radp scrapbook while I marveled at how different everyone actually looked compared to my mental image of them.

Barb had to leave to be on time for our 6pm meet at the Wilderness Lodge and I rounded up my group for showers and miraculously made it there my 6:20pm. I can't speak for anyone else but for me, my first official WDW radp was a major highlight of the trip! We walked in and found waiting along with Barb, Kenny, Chad, Don and Pam Liles and their two lovely daughters, Beth and Miriam, Marc and Di Shwartz and their daughter Erica and son Jeremy (both of whom Tony wanted to adopt by the end of the evening), Dan and Nancy Tynes and their friend Suzanne (who I wanted to adopt by the end of the evening), Ron Satterfield, a lovely couple celebrating their anniversary (who I'm sorry to say that I can't remember the names of) and their children, and our late arrival, John VDO. Barb did what gardenia's do best, bringing the crowd together, organizing photo shoots, making sure with multiple trips to the restaurant podium that all the birthdays and anniversaries were being noted on our priority seating, and making friends with and being loved by half of the management in the process.

After two hours of gabbing and getting to know one another, we were, again thanks to Barb, seated for dinner all in the same section - all 26 of us! I love dinner at the Whispering Canyon Café, but I honestly don't remember how anything tasted…I was having too good a time with my new friends. We, of course, were the brunt of many a server joke. Rick O'Shea (sure did love that name once I finally got it!) spent most of the evening trying to fix Peter up with every young (and not so young) female in range. Miriam Liles spent time standing on her chair with chewing gum on her nose while another server, very loudly stating his intentions, went through her backpack looking for gum to share. This girl was a very good sport! This same CM had Peter up in front of the restaurant to lead all the diners in the Hokey Pokey. Our server was Ivana Diamond, a sweet girl who very patiently sat at the end of the evening with Tony to calculate each and every bill so that we could all pay our dues.

I'm only sorry that I couldn't talk more with those at other tables. Kenny only teased my about my Bawstuhn accent half as much as he could have! (Accent? What accent?) After many good-byes, we headed "home".

Day Two, Sunday, August 17

Wow! Our first park day! We decided to give the Magic Kingdom a shot, one reason being that the Early Opening was the day before. We were to find out that Jeff Spencer's strategy of going to the parks the day *after* the day of early opening worked well for the entire week. Magic Kingdom was busier on this Sunday than on any other Sunday that we had been there. We expected this due to the anniversary, due to it being a weekend, but mostly due to the fact that we cannot possibly get our whole group out of the room at an early hour.

We arrived at the gates at around 10:30am. We galloped after Tony (it takes him half of the week to get out of the "I'm running for my train to get to work" mode) to the boards posting the wait times and saw that there was only a 20 minute wait for Alien Encounter (AE). Another sprint (huff, huff) brought us over to the entrance of the attraction, with me all the while wondering why a family would consciously decide to arrive late to the Magic Kingdom and then think that moving fast will get them on an attraction any sooner. All that energy should be reserved for those who want to do all the mountains before 9am. The twenty minute wait was a joke. We looked at the AE line and opted for Timekeeper. Amazingly, no matter when we've seen this (and it's been many times), it has always been a walk-in. Not complaining, but why haven't people picked up on how wonderful this is?

After our flight back and forth in time, we walked outside to see that the line for AE now looked to be the estimated 20 minutes so we decided to wait it out rather than face larger crowds at some other point in time. We placed the kids in the shade while the adults stood in line. I know that people don't like them hopping in later on, but I couldn't see the sense in everyone roasting together. I usually strike up a conversation with the people behind me so that, by the time they're ready to do their hopping, we've become best buddies and no one complains. Once Joe got back in line with us, we played the "crying children" game. It was a no-lose situation as almost all the children in this group came out in tears (and some adults!). Amal handled the whole thing well (like I said, she's easy) and Nada, as we expected, totally freaked out! Joe poking her in the pitch darkness helped.

We refueled at the Plaza Pavilion (just fries and a few personal pizzas to share), checked the time for Space Mountain (much too long) and walked over to Fantasyland. All of our favorites were way too busy, even with our intentions of bringing Amal and Nada onto everything. We had a short wait (in relation to the rest of the attractions) for It's a Small World (IASW) and, although Amal and Nada saw this on their last trip, they loved it nonetheless. They even survived Joe's endless drivel, his only way to survive the trip with any sanity left. Fourteen year old boys and IASW don't mix well and is probably only second to walking down the Barbie aisle in our local Toys 'R Us.

Liberty Square and the Haunted Mansion was next. The wait was about twenty minutes, probably the longest we've ever waited for this. Now, this is probably our twentieth time through this ride and, for some reason, this time I noticed lots of things that I've never seen before. The major thing, and my most favorite, was at the beginning of the ride where the "doom buggy" goes by the organ playing itself. I noticed (and strangely, Joe, who was in another car, mentioned the same thing when we exited) the shadow on the floor of the organist. Was this always there? If it was, please tell me (Kenny?) that it sometimes malfunctions and that's why we've never seen it? Another thing was the shadow of the clawlike hand passing by the clock on the wall. Thirdly, the bride has a brand new outfit and curly locks. What is with that? Very weird. Not at all scary…just weird.

Our next stop was ice cream - Mickey Ice Cream Sandwich for me - yummy! All but me and Pete headed over to Big Thunder Mountain while we finished off our ice cream and looked for a shady spot (and a bathroom). We found both near the outside queue for Splash Mountain, a queue which I have never seen them open before. The wait was approximately one and half hours! When I exited from the bathroom, we found the new "Laughing Place" (a very cute children's play area) and took some pics. On the way out, we literally ran into Brer Fox and Brer Bear and the only other people around were those poor souls stuck in that horrendous line for Splash Mountain. We got some really good pictures, especially of Brer Fox being quite mischievous with Peter - turning him backwards for the camera and covering his face for the frontal shot! I love a character in character!

We met up with everyone and, while Tony and Joe went into Pecos Bill's for a something for all of us to drink, the rest of us watched the Remember the Magic Parade from its starting point. I actually like it much better from there…the floats *all* come out before the interaction begins, so if you don't care to watch that (and I personally don't) you've seen the entire parade and are ready to leave before that part of it begins.

Our next stop was Pirates of the Caribbean with only a 10 minute wait (Amal and Nada missed this on their last trip) and then off to the Jungle Cruise expecting to walk right by because of the lines. There was no one there!! I mean no one! Well, the Cast Members were there of course…. I guess everyone was still in line for Splash Mountain <g>. We had a great skipper named Andrew and actually heard some new (to us, anyway) JC jokes! And also one of our old favorites, "Watch your head and step, and if you bang your head, please watch your language."

Our priority seating for Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary was for 5:15pm so we had enough time for a trip around the MK on the Walt Disney World Railroad. I wanted to ride it in memory of Walt. I can now say I've done it. I can now say that I probably won't bother to do it again.

We arrived at the Contemporary slightly before 5pm and, while we were checking in at the podium, Tony was nice enough to go to the car and get my video camera. We were moved to a bench to wait for our server to collect us and were watching the antics of Mickey, Minnie, Chip, Dale, Goofy and Pluto (no one was seated yet, so they were all in the greeting area) when suddenly I heard women and children screaming over by the podium. My first reaction was that they had seen a mouse (not the type who stand on their hind legs and wear suspenders) or maybe even a celebrity. I stood up to look and was stunned…two grown men (physically, at least) were punching and shoving each other, one finally getting the other into a neck hold and pounding his head with his fist. It was then that I realized that Peter was missing and I felt like screaming myself. He had gone around the podium to look for Tony and tell him where we were and was almost in the middle of the fracas. A few minutes passed before the men were pulled from each other and everyone calmed down. Much of the screaming resulted from the men toppling onto a bench where a little girl around 6 years old was seated. The bench collapsed and fortunately the girl, although terribly shook up, was only mildly hurt.

After retrieving my son (I wanted to hug him forever but didn't want to embarrass him), we were seated by our server, Thomas. We were all settled with our plates of food when I noticed how pale Peter looked and how he wasn't eating. He told me that he was too shook up, that he had never seen two grown men fight, and that he really couldn't eat. He was also concerned about the little girl. I went quietly over to Thomas and asked if he could please just find out what happened to the two men and the little girl, as my son was really upset and probably would be more assured if he knew that everything was under control. He brought the manager over (Brenda?) who sat with us, apologized profusely and told Peter that the little girl was fine and that security had dealt with the issue of the two men, something that was thankfully not her problem. I was really pleased that she made the effort to personally give him the message.

Peter finally calmed a bit (noticing the "make your own sundae" area cheered him up considerably!) and we noticed a family with a small boy and girl at the next table getting lots of attention from Goofy - he was sitting at their table, bringing the girl a stuffed Mickey and almost standing on his head to get the two children to laugh. It finally dawned on me that this was the little girl that got hurt and that Goofy was doing for her what the manager had just done for us!

I should mention, for anyone interested, that we did love the food here. The selection isn't quite as extensive as the buffet at the Grand Floridian, but the food was all tasty, the characters were a blast, and the restaurant was much more "fun" for us (not including our pre-meal entertainment, of course) than 1900 Park Faire. Tony was about to pick up the bill to pay for the meal when Thomas came by, picked it neatly out of his hand, and said that there had been a mistake. The meal was on the house. Please come again. Disney once again makes a potentially un-magical memory turn itself around. Of course we'll be back!

I had a secret little mission of bringing my in-laws on all kinds of Disney transportation so we left the Contemporary by way of boat to the Wilderness Lodge. From the Wilderness Lodge, we got another boat over to the Magic Kingdom and I amused my family by getting very excited about taking pictures of clouds that looked like Goofy. Yes, I am a bit strange, but they *really* did look like him!

Our timing was a bit better and we managed to see The Lion King with a minimal wait. We then got in a long line (20 minutes) for Peter Pan's Flight, and Nada and Joe opted instead to head over to the Frontierland mountains with plans to meet us at 8:45pm for SpectroMagic. We exited the ride with only enough time to head over to Frontierland and stake out my spot. My favorite viewing spot is almost right next to where the parade goes backstage, facing Splash Mountain, with Pecos Bill's to my back and right. It was only 8:40pm and the parade doesn't get to this spot until 9:20pm but I wanted my space all the same. This was the first of many occasions where Nada's personality (not to mention beauty) would help us out! We were sitting on the ground under the rope, first row, though some of us were under that part of the rope which would be moved to close off the walkway when the parade arrived in our area.

We met a Cast Member named Charles, early twenties, who was on parade duty. In between clearing people from the walkways, he would come over to us, give us a bit of WDW trivia and flirt with Nada. (Nada did her share of flirting back until she saw the wedding ring, a ring that Charles claimed he used to attract females. Uh-huh.) Charles made sure that, once the rope came forward, all of our party came forward with it, giving everyone a front row seat for the parade. I will always remember Charles. His voice runs through my entire taping of the parade.

After SpectroMagic, we walked by Splash Mountain to check the time and it was still a 40 minute wait. However, the CM told us that he could let anyone on until 10pm and that once in, they were guaranteed that they would ride. We told Nada and Joe to go ahead but decided to wait for them, not being sure if the buses would still be running (the CM told us that we would be cutting it very close) and not wanting to worry about how they were getting back. Thank goodness by 10:50pm they showed up (with Charles, no less!) because I was half dead on my feet and shopping on Main Street was still elbow to elbow even at that hour. I don't know why I sleep so well at WDW (other than the fact that we walk 10 times more than on a normal day)…maybe that same thing that they put in the water to make everyone smile also acts as a muscle relaxant.

Silliest question overhead at Alien Encounter: "Dad, why do they make these lines so long?"

Silliest question asked to Charles about Splash Mountain: "Sir, how many people are in that line?"

(Neither question asked by Saroufim family, thank you.)

Day Three, Monday, August 18

As is our mode of operation, we got to MGM on the late side, around 10:30am. We managed to see the Great Movie Ride with only a 10 minute wait and got the gangster side. Thumbs up from both in-laws. From there, we caught with no wait, the new ABC Sound Show. The younger kids thought this show to be much improved with the addition of kids to do the actual sounds. I really missed the old Martin Short/Chevy Chase movie and will probably see this again but only for the kids. What I did love was, in the hands-on area at the exit, the addition of the new (I think) "Movie Mimics". These were movie clips giving the user the opportunity to dub his or her voice onto one of two films, "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", or a Clark Gable/Jean Harlow movie whose title slips my mind. Watching Eddie speak to Roger Rabbit with a Lebanese accent (courtesy of Tony) was hysterical!

We had a much too early priority seating (11:30 a.m.) at the 50's Prime Time Café, where I got a sticker for saying "priority seating" instead of "reservation". Our server was Bojon, a cute kid who brought Tony a cup to share Peter's milkshake after seeing him get the evil eye from me when he attempted to order one of his own. Elie bought his drink in the Prime Time's new refillable plastic cup (good all day at the park) which has a most unusual shape, long and narrow and bulging on the top and bottom. Cute, but a bit awkward to carry around. Our experience was just ok. I've been the biggest advocate for others trying this restaurant and this is our fourth trip there (maybe part of the problem?) and, through no fault of Bojon, we were just not into it. Still like the meatloaf though.

Although it was still fairly early, I convinced everyone to head over to the Hunchback of Notre Dame Stage Show (HoND). I had read the riot act to the boys before leaving home. We were going to see this show with *no* complaints that they had already seen it. We were the fourth family in line and, once we were let in, we managed to snag seats in the third row right up against the walkway. My older boys had originally seen HoND without the preshow and I had a really good time glancing over at them throughout Matt the Juggler's routine and watching them laugh. The show was even better than I remembered it and my entire family was suitably impressed. Nada even got her hand kissed by Pheobus! Clopin has to be the most talented performer that I've yet seen in WDW and I could listen to this show for hours on end. (Actually, I do just that - I came home and immediately purchased the movie soundtrack - but Clopin somehow just doesn't sound "right"! <g>) Joe walked out behind me saying, "Ma…I *liked* it!!" and marveled most at the way the puppeteers kept their facial expressions in character with the puppets that they were manipulating.

Our next stop was MuppetVision 3D. I know that this sounds a bit weird but, after being so moved at HoND, I was almost hesitant to do something so silly so soon. The term "silly" is used here with the nicest connotations. I guess I wanted to hold on to the mood of HoND for a bit longer. Nothing to worry about there. By the time we got through the queue, I was more than ready!

I found something else to love about MupperVision. Instead of paying such close attention to the preshow, I was watching the words go across the "preshow clock". While everyone else was focused on the monitors, I was having a grand time, elbowing Joe and laughing at the phrases going by. What a hoot! As always, I loved the show and got predictably annoyed with Miss Piggy. Does anyone actually *like* her?

Star Tours was next and, although they wouldn't tell us, I'm guessing that Nada and Amal could have skipped it without feeling that they had missed much. Star Tours, for me, is a ritualistic as visiting It's a Small World in the Magic Kingdom. No trip to WDW would be complete without it!

We decided to get out of the heat for a bit and drive over to the Yacht and Beach Club for a swim in Stormalong Bay. I was apprehensive about the pool being fenced in, wondering how it would affect the look of the resort. I must have been imagining something that was 8 feet high and made of barbed wire because the nice white picket fence surrounding the pool was a welcome relief.

I don't, however, like the way that it is fenced in so that there is little access to the porch from the pool. It makes for a very long walk when bringing food to your poolside table. Our ID's were checked (even after the CM noticed my DVC t-shirt) and the kids and even Amal (who does not like anything to do with swimming) cooled off in the pool.

After some fries and a change into dry clothes we continued on my quest to ride all modes of transportation and took the Friendship Launch back over to MGM for Sorcery in the Sky, my favorite fireworks at WDW. Tony, Joe, Nada, and Elie took another ride on the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror (TZToT) while Amal, Peter and I people watched and drank iced coffee (well, not Peter of course) from the cart at the TZToT's exit. They were out in time for the fireworks (loved them!) and we took another of our brisk walks back to the dock to ride back to the YC and our car. Our driver on the way back was Zeke and he was the highlight of the day! Between the corny jokes and the forced renditions of Zip-a-dee-doo-da and If You're Happy and You Know It (forced as in, "I'll shut the motors and we won't go anywhere if you don't sing"), we were crying from laughing before we docked! He made such an impression on Elie, that he uses "Zeke" as a nickname! Back to the room, tired and happy, to watch part of a movie and hit the sack.

Day Four, Tuesday, August 19

Woke up and staggered, coffee mug in hand, to the balcony to try to wake up. Looked at the bird poo on the railings the size of eagle droppings. Birds have such a life at WDW. After enough caffeine to wake up a sleeping rhino, I got the beach bag packed for a day at Typhoon Lagoon. It's really a good idea to have a list handy on what you normally bring to swim because, when packing up for everyone in the morning, something is bound to be forgotten. We decided to drive, arrived at around 10am, bought our tickets with our DVC discount ($23.81each) and found what was probably the last shady spot near the wave pool. We deposited our gear and headed first to Castaway Creek. I know that the smarter plan would have been to hit the slides before the lines got too long, but I wanted to float around the park before all the tubes were taken and nobody disagreed. Our day was pretty relaxed with us spitting up to pursue our own pleasures, some of us in the sun, some on the slides, some in the wave pool. We had a decent lunch at Typhoon Tillie's and hit the "ice cream of the future" stand a few times for sustenance.

One interesting way that Joe and I found to pass the time on one of our visits to Castaway Creek was to "rescue" three extremely cute teenage girls from two obnoxious pre-pubescent boys who were trying to make a lasting friendship. (I almost gagged when one of the boys asked them, "So, where are you going after *this*?) We actually had a good time positioning ourselves between the girls, who we came to know quite well, and the boys, who saw a great deal of our backsides. The girls were grateful, the boys were annoyed, and Joe had a pleasurable hour and a half of swimming in good company <g>.

We left TL at 4pm so that we could get back, shower, change and be on time for the Hoop-de-doo at 7:15pm. We usually try to pair the Hoop-de-doo with a water park so that we don't waste a park pass day. We drove to Fort Wilderness, parked, waited only a few minutes for the "Chip" bus to Pioneer Hall and arrived about a half an hour early. I really like the system that they are using now. Outside of Pioneer Hall, a cast member checks your name off the list of reservations. He or she then tells you which side of the stairs to enter in, assures you that you have an assigned seat and tells you that there is no need whatsoever to stand in line and wait. Just come back at 7:15 and you'll be seated. Took them enough years to figure this system out…

We dutifully returned at 7:15 and found that our two reserved tables were thankfully only one reserved table and that it was the first table at the bottom of the stairs from the stage! This was our third time visiting the Hoop-de-doo and although I really wanted Amal and Nada to see it, I honestly thought that I would be bored. I left my video camera in the room (purposely major mistake) and also left my still camera (accidentally). As usual, we had a blast! Our table was picked as part of the initial welcoming song. Tony was, for the second time, a major part of the show (picked from Six Bit's side of the room to help out the other side of the room in the noise department), and Nada was picked as the can-can dancer!

For those who haven't seen this show, I don't want to give too much away but this little gem is too hard to resist…At the end of the show, there is a skit about Davy Crocket. In the skit, there are numerous "bear" jokes and, for one of them, when Nada is asked to kiss the bear, she is supposed to reply, "I can't do that - I'm too em-"bear"-assed". Somehow Nada lost it. Instead she replied, "I can't do that- I'm not your bear dancer"! The cast cracked up, everyone in the audience who had seen the show before (and that is a lot of people) cracked up, and Nada was almost in tears from laughter. In the very end of the skit, the bear is holding Davy's head while he's dying. Six Bits, the character in the bear suit, now almost crying himself from laughing, says, "Don't worry Davy - I'll *always* be your "bear dancer"!! How much fun to watch such a talented cast recover, bring the audience into the recovery, and come out having the show looking even better than what was originally planned!

We drove over to the BoardWalk for a short visit after dinner (laughing all the way) and spent a short time strolling around. By that time, the swimming, the sun, and the laughter had all taken its toll and I was more than ready to go back and get into bed!

Day Five, Wednesday, August 20

This was our first day for Epcot and we arrived at our usual late hour, around 10:30am. Incredibly, after looking at the line wrapping around Spaceship Earth (longer than we have ever seen it) and thinking the day would be a wash-out, we were able to walk right into Honey I Shrunk the Audience! Maybe there's a mean streak in me, but I just loved listening to Nada scream! On the way out, we saw the three girls from Typhoon Lagoon, putting poor Joe in a dilemma. I could almost see the gears at work in his brain trying to figure out how to convince me to go in their direction.

We walked over to the Land pavilion but opted to save all the attractions there for another time because the line for Living with the Land was very, very long. Horizons was a walk-on and I still love it after umpteen times seeing it. I hope that what replaces it isn't another thrill ride. Next was the Wonders of Life pavilion and Cranium Command (no wait) and Body Wars which Joe and I skipped. Joe and I headed over to the Electric Umbrella for something to eat and for me to watch the fountains. While in line, we saw the girls from Typhoon Lagoon again!

We met up with the rest of the family, ate some more, watched the fountain a few more times and finally caught a show of the JAMMitors after many previous attempts to be in the right place at the right time. I think that I could pay my admission and just wander all day around Epcot watching the shows, the fountains and the people and never feel that it was overpriced. I can never understand why people think that park passes are expensive when 2 hours of a Broadway show will cost you twice as much!

Ellen's Energy Adventure was next, with us missing a few seconds of the preshow and the boys begging to see it again because we came in "late". Good grief.

After actually waiting in a line for Spaceship Earth, I was determined to get my way (although everyone in the family insists that I *always* get my way, in one way or another <g>) and insisted on heading back to the OKW for some R&R.

After movies (free rentals with the DVC membership - now *that* tidbit of information should make a few of you run over to your phone and buy some points ) and a snooze, we were refreshed and ready to head back over to Epcot to attack World Showcase.

We drove this time to the Y&B Club and walked over to World Showcase through the International Gateway, making a beeline for Germany and forgetting how very far it is from the entrance. We arrived a few minutes early for our 6:20pm priority seating at the Biergarten and were seated immediately. Unfortunately, none of us were terribly hungry and, although we all liked the ambience and the entertainment, we didn't love the food and will probably stick to our favorite, the Restaurant Akershus, in the future. I'm still craving Rice Cream as I didn't get any on this trip . The bill came to $105.93 with tax, without tip.

Tony had found an entertainment schedule for Epcot (something new?) and saw that it was close to the time for the next appearance of the Living Statues in France. And what better way to work off German sausages than a brisk trot to France from Germany…When we arrived, they were already out in the courtyard with unsuspecting guests posing in front of them, some actually believing them to be only statues. Boy, was this fun to watch!! When my family posed for their picture, as I was taking the shot, one statue's hand came down and removed Elie's cap from his head. I have a great pic of everyone's startled look as his hat slowly rose too high for him to reach. The statue then played a "come and get it" game with him, not surrendering the cap until Elie gave a kiss in return!

I herded my gang into the theatre to view Impressions de France although they probably would have stayed with the statues all evening if I gave them the choice! Afterwards, our timing was great as we exited just in time for the show of Bubble Nicholas. This was unique…very artistic and very well done.

8:30pm…time to meet Deb and her parents, gardenia, and Scott (eskay) in the not-so-secret park to watch IllumiNations 25b. Our mini-meet turned out to be a full-blown radp meet!! Along with the originally scheduled crew, Marc and Di Shwartz and family were present along with the Liles, DocWombat and roommate, Genie, and Kenny! After our front row, private party viewing of the fireworks (thanks again to gardenia for holding those seats!), some of us headed over to the Beach Club to sit on the sand and cool down. My boys and Nada, along with Beth and Miriam Liles, took a walk to the Boardwalk to see about renting the surreys. What a treat to be able to speak with other adults for a few moments without, "MOM!! I need money for the video games!!" Too bad people have to eventually sleep…I would have loved this night to have gone on and on and on! Tony dropped us at "home" around midnight and he and Amal went out to stock the refrigerator - Deb and gardenia were coming for breakfast!!

Day Six, Thursday, August 21

Deb and gardenia arrived at 9 a.m. and we feasted <g> on muffins, fruit and coffee. Tony gave me a real vacation from my demanding children by taking them out, heat and all, to rent surrey bikes and we three women, after months of chatting electronically, got to *really* gab for over two hours! Absolutely one of my best memories of this trip…knowing these two wonderful women has so much enriched my life!

After we said our goodbyes, the family decided on a visit to the Disney Studios preceded by a stop at the front desk to buy four E-Tickets (Tony, Elie, Nada and Joe) and lunch at Planet Hollywood. We walked right into the restaurant and were seated on the third floor, back against a wall. Not a great view but better than waiting. I ordered a very interesting looking lasagna and loved it, and I can't remember at all what everyone else ate though I do remember that everyone did a good amount of sharing. I also remember it being incredibly noisy. We will probably skip this on our next trip. Total for lunch was $67.70.

Parking at the Studios was better than we expected it to be. It was 1 p.m. and we were able to park in the very first row after the handicapped area. Our first stop was the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular. Our first stop was supposed to be the Hercules Parade but no one but me showed any interest. This turned out to be a wise decision as it began to pour (*really* pour) as soon as we were under cover at the show. It poured enough that they cancelled the rooftop scenes and the desert scene for safety reasons. Nada was chosen from the audience as an extra and had to stand "frozen in fright" on the stage. She was great!

The rain finished, the show finished, and we moved on over to SuperStar Television where we met up with our neighbors from the Hoop-de-doo. I only remembered them because they had a son, around 8 years old, who had the heartiest laugh that I've ever heard! Joe was picked as the newscaster in the first scene (I don't think they realized that he wasn't yet 15 years old). He did such a good job that Nada, backstage watching (she was chosen as part of the singing group on the Ed Sullivan show), didn't know that he wasn't part of the original film!

From there, a five minute wait for the Backstage Tour, another trip to the moon of Endor (minus Joe and Nada), and a showing of The Voyage of the Little Mermaid (long wait, but everyone enjoyed it except for the woman who complained that we stepped on her feet while filing into our row).

We drove over to the Swan, hoping to use our $50.00 off coupon for a quick meal before we split up for the evening, Amal, Peter and I planning on the Disney Village Marketplace and the rest of the gang using their E-tickets for Magic Kingdom. For those not keeping up with the thousands of posts of radp, this was during the time of the "BIG CONTROVERSY". The Dolphin had, that week, refused to honor the coupon for a fellow radp'er and much protest had ensued.

Unfortunately, in the evening, there is no fast food to be found in the Swan.

We meandered over to Gulliver's Grill (Tony's idea of meandering - huff, huff) to check out the character dinner and were surprised to be told, it now being after 6:30 p.m., that we would be seated immediately. The restaurant was almost empty! We took a look at the menu and were no longer confused. This place is expensive!

We asked about the validity of the coupon and were told that it would be honored so decided to stay. The theming was on the "cute" side, extra large thimbles to drink from, servers in Gulliverish costumes. The food was good to very good but not exceptional. The prime rib was cooked to order so a wait of over 30 minutes for your meat was standard. I can't even imagine having dinner there with a family younger than mine. The characters were a hoot, however! In attendance was Tigger and Pooh, never at the same time, making us believe that they got off cheaper by hiring one person to change suits quickly in the back room. Pooh sat with my boys and played Hangman and tic-tac-toe.

Tigger was very huggable and, probably because we were among few diners, gave us lots of time and attention. I don't see myself going back, but mostly because of the very long wait for dinner. I *did* like the Great Chocolate Fantasy, however <g>!

We went back to the OKW, Tony planning to drop us off so that he and his crew could continue on to the Magic Kingdom for the E-Ticket Express. I know that most of you reading this are aware of what this is but for those that are not….This was the first week of this special offer. For on-property guests who have a multi-day pass, Magic Kingdom would stay open from 10 p.m. until midnight on specific days for an extra ten dollars. Guests must have used their multi-day pass on this day. Only 9 attractions would remain open -all three mountains, Timekeeper, Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted Mansion, the Country Bear Jamboree, Astro Orbitor and Alien Encounter. A few shops and eating areas were also kept open. Most of these made sense although you'd have to wonder about the state of mind of anyone who would like to see the Country Bears over and over again after midnight. Tony reported that the whole ordeal made him exhausted but the younger members of his crew thought it was "awesome".

Amal, Peter and I caught the first bus to the marketplace. We shopped around for a while, picking up the freebies handed out by the Disney Adventures Magazine (it was the end of "Kids' Summer Nights") and looked at a lot of items that we really didn't need to buy (and, for once, didn't). I told a CM at the World of Disney Store about my soap/shampoo/etc. collecting efforts for the kids at Children's Hospital in Boston and she promptly found two rolls of Mickey stickers to donate…over 1000 in all! We luckily again caught the first bus back to the OKW and were back in our room by 11:30 p.m. We let Peter watch a bit of a movie since his older brothers were still off gallivanting in the MK.

Day Seven, Friday, August 22

We all slept late (surprise), even ever-ready Tony. We then all argued about where to go. Well, not Amal or Nada, but the rest of us. I was vetoing Epcot (it was early opening and we were far removed from "early"), they had just been to the MK the night before and it was questionable as to whether there was enough left in the Studios to satisfy everyone. I won…I mean we *all* decided to go to the Studios.

We arrived around noon and saw that there was a 30 minute wait for the TZToT so Joe and Nada headed in that direction. The later reported back that the wait was much less than that and were glad that they went. Amal and I went over to see the 12:15 showing of Beauty and the Beast (BatB) and Tony and Elie went over for their final fix of Star Tours. Poor Pete, through a misunderstanding, ended up with us watching BatB when he would have much rather gone with Tony to Star Tours. After we all met up, we went to Mama Melrose's for lunch. Sadly, they no longer have the "make your own whatever-it-was" dessert for the kids. Lunch was good though. We did a lot of sharing, ordering calamari, fried mozzarella, ceasar salads, lasagna, and few meals from the children's menu. Total for lunch was $67.16.

This time it was Tony and Peter who went to Star Tours while the rest of us voted (truly…a *real* vote) to see the HoND one more time. We sat as far up in the bleachers as possible as I wanted to be able to stand to film the entire show (can you say, "obsessed"?). I forgot one thing. Fans. Big fans.

Noisy fans. Not the type that clap and cheer. The type that go around and around and blow air. The filming came out wonderful but the sound effects could be better.

Nada wanted to see SuperStar Television one more time, this time from the audience rather than from the stage so off we went. From there, another time on the Great Movie Ride (cowboy side, mission accomplished) and back to the OKW for a break. We always seem to finally learn how to unwind and relax when there's only a day or two left of vacation. Just more ammunition for my argument of needing a full two weeks at WDW.

After relaxing, Amal, Nada, Joe and I took the pontoon boat over to the Disney Village Marketplace while Tony and the younger boys stayed for a swim. We shared the boat with a lovely family from Winthrop, Mass (only a few miles from our home) who told us horror stories about their one night trip to Vero Beach. We weren't aware of it at the time, but this was the beginning of the big mosquito scare. They arrived and received notice that all of the evening outdoor activities were cancelled. Then, they were told that the water was unsafe to drink and that they would have to boil all of their water until the morning when bottled water would be supplied. The final straw was when the mother, getting up to get a drink for her son, switched on the kitchen light to find hundreds (her words) of bugs all over the countertops! They immediately changed rooms (still bugs but much less) and checked out first thing in the morning after fighting for and receiving full credit for the night.

We decided to try the World of Disney again, this time without younger children to search for. Still too big. After exhausting ourselves shopping and trying to locate each other, we stopped for a quick bite at the Wolfgang Puck Express which had opened recently. We all loved the garlic mashed potatoes and should have made this our whole meal. The rest of the food was good but not memorable. I thought that the service was a bit odd in that they tried to direct you, upon entry, to the least busy area to order your food, whether what you wanted was in this area or not. I hope that they work this out as it is a bit annoying. I had to return a cup of coffee that was the consistency of pea soup and they were very accommodating. We were back to the OKW by around 11pm.

Day Eight, Saturday, August 23

Already, our last full day!! We arrived at Epcot around 10 a.m. and were greeted by the Future Corps, a traveling brass band playing big band music. I enjoyed them very much! We made a beeline to the Land Pavilion as this was the only one that Amal and Nada had not yet seen other than the Living Seas which we had all agreed to skip. Coming down the escalator, I hear Tony yell, "Deb!!" and sure enough, Deb Wills was walking by, below us! We said a too quick hello to Deb, Chuck, Bev and Barb and ran over to the Living with the Land ride which had NO wait!! Amal was so impressed with this ride and the giant lemons and cucumbers, that we rode again! We had debated on seeing Food Rocks, thinking it was too childish for the older kids, but Nada loved this one and Joe even got a chuckle out of it now that he's so music-savvy. Next was the Circle of Life, another big hit for Nada.

Joe and Nada had planned all week to rent the peddle boats at the OKW, so they took off to meet us back at the resort. While the rest of my gang went into Innoventions, I went out to the fountains…dang!…just missed the 2 p.m. Yanni music! Caught the next one on tape, however.

On the way out of Epcot, we were lucky enough to catch the EpBOT show. What a hoot! And who would believe that robots could be sexy?!? One odd thing happened here. A woman, clearly not knowing what she was doing, walked up to the EpBOT's in the middle of their performance thinking that it was a great Kodak moment! I think that most of the audience thought she was a plant (not the sprouting kind) and were waiting for the punch line…nope…this one was for real! We exited after the show and waited 15 minutes for the OKW 3 p.m. bus.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch….

Peter and Elie decided not to swim (the reason we went back), but decided to fill up the jacuzzi instead. I didn't mind this at all…cooled them off, no danger of skin cancer, and I could watch them from the bed in my air-conditioned room.

Joe told us later of his escapades on the peddle boat. I guess that Nada's boat just about peddled itself, so off she went leaving him in a cloud of dust…or mist. Poor Joe would peddle and peddle and get nowhere. After a while, everyone who passed Nada would yell out, "Hey, do you know that kid back there? He's STUCK!!" Finally, after peddling in circles, Joe gets the brainstorm of peddling up to the rocky shore to give himself a good push and head in the right direction. Of course, now he really gets stuck. So….he half hops out of the boat. He has one leg in and one leg out…and the boat becomes unstuck. Nada comes back to find Joe almost doing a complete split while trying not to fall in the water. He's also thinking that this is a great time to be yelling, "We're all gonna die!!". They laughed a lot! We laughed a lot watching them laugh a lot!

This night was a night I had planned for since last February! We were having dinner at the Cape May Café followed by the birthday party pontoon cruise to see IllumiNations! The best part of it was that the birthday party was for Peter…and he had *no* clue! Also, friends of ours from Boston, whose son is in Peter's class at school, would be meeting us for dinner! The anticipation was getting to me! I showered and sneakily put the gifts for Peter in my backpack. We drove to the Beach Club and arrived around 5 p.m. I should mention that we were *never* stopped at the guard houses on any of our trips to the other resorts. As soon as they saw our OKW identification on our dashboard, we were waved right through.

Since we had an hour to play before dinner, Tony, Amal, Peter and Nada hoofed it over to China to see the Pu Yang Acrobats. It is so convenient to have that separate schedule of Epcot entertainment. I hope that they continue this practice. Tony said that this was a different show than the one we saw in May and I'm sorry that I missed it! He also said that Nada had the pants scared off of her while being chased by the Cirikli, the "wandering birds"! Joe, Elie and I were so hot that we just couldn't bear the thought of chasing them so we headed into the United Kingdom. The British Invasion was playing and we stood in the shade of an umbrella and listened to "Obla-dee, Obla-da, life goes on…" but I didn't sing along as Joe was taping and I really didn't want to hear *that* forever and ever!

We were also lucky enough to catch a show of "Romeo and Edna" which was very funny though not as funny, in my opinion, as the Holy Grail skit that they perform.

I headed back to the Beach Club as it was nearing 6 p.m. and wanted to find our friends. We got our table and a few minutes later, Tony arrived with Peter.

What a surprise for him to see his friend Mark, Mark's parents Bob and Claire, and little brother Gregory, sitting at our table with us! We were lucky to get our favorite server, Linda, and she was kind enough to pose for pictures with Peter. The food was great but the new dessert bar is phenomenal! I tried the cream puffs made into swans, the little teepees (?) made with multi-colored wafers and covered in chocolate, and a delicious little pastry that tasted like a chocolate baklava. Yummy! Linda brought over a birthday cookie and everyone sang and passed Peter his gifts.

I kept watching the sky as it had grown *very* dark and I was so afraid that our cruise would be rained out. It poured for a while as we were eating…and only because it's Disney…it was only sprinkling as we left the restaurant and made our way across to the BoardWalk marina to find our boat. I told Peter that we had to meet a CM who was a friend of gardenia's and that we had to give the CM a message from her. (Sorry, gardenia, but I couldn't think of any other way to get him over there without suspicion!)

We arrived and found our driver, Leah (or "Princess" as her Star Wars fan friends call her!). She asked who was Peter and announced that a boat, with his name on it, was anchored at the end of the dock. I get teary-eyed when I think of how his face looked when he realized that this boat, with the balloons and the banners, the Mickey cake and the drinks, was *his*, even if only for an hour! He then said that the only thing that would make this cruise even better would be if the boat would take him to see IllumiNations!

Seriously!

We rode directly to Epcot and anchored under the bridge at the UK. Almost everyone we passed on the shore was yelling, "Happy Birthday!" and, after we anchored, Leah had *all* the people on the bridge above us sing to Peter. What a hoot! Nada then offered everyone (yes, everyone) cake… Luckily, only one man came down for a few pieces and he was most grateful! After cake and drinks and the passing around of goodie bags to the kids, big and little, Peter was handed a card by Leah. It was a birthday card from the big cheese himself, which consisted of a signed photo and a birthday message. Then, Leah announced that she had another card which was dropped off that afternoon. Peter opened it to find a birthday message from Deb Wills and gardenia…what a nice surprise!!

I can't even begin to tell you how wonderful it is to sit on a boat, with the breeze blowing off the water, without sweaty bodies crowding you for a good spot….and just lean back and enjoy those magical fireworks! I felt as if I was dreaming!

After the show, we cruised back past the YC/BC and the BoardWalk and over to the Disney Studios and back. On the return trip, we stopped for a bit in front of the Atlantic Dance Hall where a disc jockey was getting a good crowd of people to actually dance the Macarena. Of course, we were all feeling silly enough to rock the boat a bit (literally!) and join in.

After our goodbyes to Leah, we strolled the boardwalk a bit with our friends before calling it a night. Back at the OKW, the kids had a huge pillow fight in honor of Peter's birthday while I did the dreaded packing. <sigh>

Day Nine, Sunday, August 24

Peter's birthday!! Also, our last few hours at WDW <sob>. We awoke at 7:30 a.m. to ready for our priority seating for the character breakfast at Olivia's at 8:30 a.m. This ended up to be only the boys and I as Tony, Amal and Nada were still really full from the night before and didn't want to spend the money on a big breakfast. I didn't blame them in the least but Peter and I were pretty disappointed that he was to have his birthday breakfast without our whole family.

We arrived to find a very busy restaurant but were seated almost immediately. Breakfast consisted of a plate of mini-muffins and juice and coffee served first, followed by scrambled eggs, Mickey waffles, bacon and toast. The mini-muffins, bacon and toast were very good. The eggs were absolutely disgusting, tasting like those frozen scrambled eggs that you only eat once and never buy again. The waffles were the consistency of styrofoam. I can honestly say that this is the worst meal that I have ever eaten at WDW and that I was secretly relieved that the rest of our family didn't have to be exposed to it! I had read the warnings on radp…However…the characters were another story! Pooh, Eyeore (I just love Eyeore!) and Tigger circulated throughout breakfast stopping at our table more than once. They were quite animated and loads of fun to watch. Our server, another Linda, rang a bell and everyone in the restaurant sang Happy Birthday to Peter. He was quite embarrassed (but loved it)!

We hopped on a bus to get back to our room where I sat on my balcony and took pictures of the birds. So hard to say goodbye….

Drove back to the airport, boarded the Delta mini-jet back to Boston and spent the ride home talking about our favorites which were:

Elie - the radp meets!
Amal - the Hoop-De-Doo, SpectroMagic, the Cirikli, the Hunchback of Notre Dame stage show….everything!!
Peter - The pontoon cruise and the resort
Nada - The Hoop-De-Doo
Joe - the girls
Tony - The Hoop-De-Doo
Me - as always, sitting on the balcony at the OKW, sipping my coffee, soaking up whatever is that Walt put in the air to make everyone's fantasy come true!
There are always so many special memories from WDW that I'm afraid that, through the quantity, I may lose track of their quality. Just for my own benefit, as I get older and memory fails me, I've written some of my favorites:

Amal and Nada laughing at the Lebanese game shows on the television in our resort room,
The "Bear Dancer"!
Peter's face when he realized that he had his very own private boat,
Wiping bird crap from the OKW balcony railings…and actually laughing about it,
Claire's stories about housekeeping arranging her son's beanie babies…one time so elaborately that there was a swimming pool in the middle of their bed, complete with slide, made from blue trash bags and towels, with the beanies lounging around the pool, one even set up as the lifeguard!
Meeting so many radp friends and seeing how well Tony fit in,
Watching Goofy work with the little girl who was hurt at Chef Mickey's…watching her laugh again,
Joe and Nada massaging each other's feet at the end of a long day,
One person actually recognizing my radp button at the Emphorium!
Listening to countless male cast members tell Nada that they could get her a job at WDW,
Breakfast with Deb and Barb…woohoo!!!
If you've hung in this long, thanks for reading! Feel free to email me with any questions, comments, or if you want more info on "S.O.S. (soap or shampoo) for Children"!

Dotti <who booked the Grand Villa for next August and thinks it's going to be one heck of a long winter>

dsar@aol.com

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