Anniversary Trip 2009 Part 2

Wednesday 01/28/2009

This was the first day of the trip that we had absolutely nothing planned, no parks, and no ADRS zip zilch. Jeff had wanted to get back to MGM for Lights Motor Action stunt show again so that he could bring his big camera for photos, so we decided that was the plan for the day. We got up rather early this morning (early is a relative term), about 8:30-9AM, got ready and drove to MGM, this was the last time in the trip we used the car for getting to a park. We arrived at about 10:30 grabbed a park schedule and figured out our plan of attack.

We knew that the first stunt show wasn't until about 1:30 or so, so we had plenty of time to kill. We had done Toy Story Mania on our previous trip in November, so while it wasn’t a high priority on our first visit on Sunday we figured it was fun so we should fit it in today. So our first trip was over to Toy Story Mania for fast passes, it was about 11Am but we weren't able to get fast passes until about 4pm! It would be one of the few attractions that needed a fast pass this time of year. With fast passes in hand, we headed off to an attraction we visit on every trip, One Man's Dream. By this time it had limited hours and had found out on Sunday that it closed at 3PM. We both truly enjoy this small attraction and of course sat for the movie at the end. I personally think this is one of the most overlooked attractions at Disney world as a whole. For after all none of it would be there if it wasn't for that one man. After the show we both decided we were getting hungry and it was about an hour and half before the Stunt show time, so that gave us plenty of time to find something to eat.

We had counter service credits to spend but at MGM those are few and far between (plus the quality is always well... iffy quality) I never realized that I had eaten so little Counter Service at MGM, mostly if I have eaten at MGM (which has never been often) it was at a table service! In November though we had eaten at ABC Commissary and found it to be decent so we headed there as it was right around the corner anyway. Last time, I had wanted the Cuban sandwich but they had ran out by the time of day we visited, this time it was earlier so I knew what I was getting. I ordered the Cuban sandwich with apple slices and chocolate mouse, Jeff ordered the cheeseburger (any surprise?) and chocolate mouse. I don't think he ordered to Cuban because it had ham and for some reason he doesn't like ham. (Weird in my book) We were both given large size coke and diet coke.

I greatly enjoyed the Cuban sandwich, and LOVED the pickles (I am a pickle person), it tasted somewhat panini-like, but had more flavor I think. Apples well they were apples. Jeff thought his cheeseburger was ok, about the same as everywhere in Disney, but did taste my Cuban and thought it was good. (See told yah!). Feeling very full I only ate about half the chocolate mouse and gave the rest to Jeff. Did I mention the dining plan is a LOT of food yet?

After eating we headed over in the direction of Lights Motor Action, we were quite early (we knew we wanted to get there 30 minutes before show time for good seats), but had to wait for the gates to open so we caught about five minutes of the High School Musical show that was preempted there from their sorcerer's hat location.

About twenty minutes before show time they let the group of us waiting for the 1st show into the stadium, and we choose to go to the left side, about 1/3 of the way up. It was a great view, and great for photos. The show though... did I mention that we broke rides? Remember Soarin' and American Adventure on Monday? Well that luck followed us to MGM and Lights Motor Action. The first segment, the ballet I think is what it is called; the red "hero" car broke down about half way through the segment! This briefly caught the host off guard, but they switched out the cars in a few minutes and started over with "take 2". All was well and good until the very end, the last stunt where the "hero" car flies down a ramp and then jumps through the flames (it’s used for the logo of the show)? This worried us a bit, as the car came off the jump it appeared a little crooked, and after the car entered the tunnel, everyone on the "shoot" came to a standstill, and the show quickly and abruptly ended. What we heard just a bit later is that the car had crashed through the main exit/entrance tunnel. We worried about the driver, but as nothing was ever announced and nothing was in the news it sounds like he was ok and with the later 4PM show going on as planned, it seemed that what happened may have been relatively minor. We do hope that the driver was okay though.

After exiting the theater (which took awhile longer as they did not allow use of the main exit/entrance tunnel), we stood around outside of the theater, watched as reddie creek fire dept showed up and an ambulance (why we were worried!), it seems that most people didn't realize how unusually brief the ending of the show was. Finally, figuring we weren't going to find anything out, and figured everything seemed okay anyway, we headed back out to the rest of the park. Our first stop was one of my favorites, Muppet Vision 3D, then we headed back to Toy Story Mania for our fast pass time. When I first rode Toy Story in November it caught me off guard as I didn't quite know what to expect, it made the 2nd time that much more fun. While I don't consider it an E-ticket like Tower of Terror it still is a fun ride, and after all not every ride needs to be an E-ticket. With that being said our next stops were the E-tickets! We figured we would check out the wait times and decide what we would do at that point. Turns out Rockin' Roller coaster advertised a 10 minute stand by time; this was about 5PM at the time! We walked in, waited about 2 minutes in the outer hallway, and then we went directly into the pre-show. Both Jeff and I are Aerosmith fans (our wedding's 1st dance song was the Aerosmith from Armageddon) and I love this ride.

The only thing that always leaves us a little surprised is that Disney the company known for high quality went with the Dutch coaster firm of Vekoma to build Rockin' Roller Coaster. Vekoma, the direct child of the American Arrow Dynamics firm (who built all those looping coasters back in the 1980's) are not known for their smooth rides. It is true that Rockin' Roller Coaster is not as bad as some, or even most to be honest, but still there are so many BETTER options, smoother options. Oh well, it’s still fun.

Last ride of the day was Tower of Terror again, and it had a stand by time advertised at about 5 minutes, it was a complete walk on, we waited about 30 seconds at the door of the library, but that’s it.

After riding we slowly head back down Sunset Blvd, had a photopass shot taken in front of Tower of Terror and then I put my deceptive plan into action. I stopped at the DVC booth on Sunset blvd to inquire about the member’s open house. Me being at a loss for the CM’s name, he was very outgoing, (to be honest our entire week we had great experiences with CM's everywhere we went) and confirmed the information on the open house at Saratoga Springs Resort, he advised me of the location, how to get to Saratoga Springs and times (5-7PM), we went into a lively discussion about DVC, he wished us a happy anniversary and chided us for not picking up "Happy Anniversary" pins (we had done this every year but this one for some reason), and just before leaving I found out he was a retiree of AT&T (the old AT&T) the same company that I still work for. Even though I realize AT&T employees thousands of employees, it was a wonderful turn of events to find another DVC membership that AT&T had a hand in paying for! My relationship with AT&T is truly a love/hate relationship, love the paycheck, hate the... well you get the idea.

We next headed over to the Star Tours area, and checked out the shop. I am a little bit of a Star Wars fan and almost bought a shirt there, Jedi Academy Est. 1977, as I was born in Sept 1977. I didn't though, and we headed back out. Our last stop was at one of my favorite shops in the park, the Hollywood Stars shop (green bungalow) at the very front of the park. We tried our hand at the trivia questions out front, and got all but one. We spent quite a bit of time there looking around, and then headed back out to our car, now it was about 5:30PM, and we spent almost our entire day at a park.

Instead of heading back to the Villas at Wilderness Lodge, our home for this trip, we headed to Saratoga. Jennifer's hidden agenda was coming to play, I really wanted to see those Contemporary villas, get Jeff interested in buying more points and yes, buy DVC logo polo at the Saratoga store (WL didn't have much DVC merchandise). We spent some time there, Jeff loved (as expected) The Contemporary 1 bedroom villas and has since been very interested in adding more points and dedicated to stay in 1 bedroom villas from here on out (YES!). We then headed over to the merchandise store, and while I was surprised that a DVC polo was $50 I still paid it, as my first major purchase of the trip. It was about 6PM before we headed back to WL, with a brief stop again at HESS for more coke for Jeff.

When we got back to the room, Jeff sat down the download photos and check his e-mail (our first time using the free internet), we also went online to check point charts for various resorts, and I also spent some time on the dis boards, posting on the point chart increase for 2010 thread. Gosh what a nerd I have become! Getting online on vacation. After spending some time relaxing we had to decide what to do for dinner, neither of us was particularly hungry, but figured a snack would be a good idea. Jeff again got a brownie, and I got a bowl of chili. The chili was very good, and felt it was a great deal (as it was basically a meal in itself) for a snack credit. Jeff to his credit said he just really liked the brownies. Oh well.

While out in the main lodge getting food, we also stopped at the mercantile and used another nice DVC perk, free movie rentals, and I have to say for being such a tiny DVC resort it has a HUGE movie collection compared to OKW. We ended up with "Wildhogs", and headed back to the room to eat and relax. After eating Jeff had his weekly "Lost" fix, and I figured as I was so out of the loop on Lost (I don't get home until 7:30 at night and miss quite a bit), that I would actually relax a little bit in the lobby (Iron spike room) of the villas. I had visited the villas numerous times in the past, so this would be the first time I would be using those lounge chairs "legally" so to speak! I spent about an hour reading "John Adams", and then went back up to the room to see what Jeff was up to as Lost had finally ended for the evening. We heard the water pageant going on, and decided to turn on the movie. I ended up falling asleep ALMOST at the end, but Jeff finished the movie and then fell asleep as well.

Thursday 01/29/2009

It was Wednesday night when I began realizing that our trip was half way over a very depressing thought. Thursday morning came though and with the threat of rain we headed out early for Magic Kingdom via boat. We had already visited once, but my main goal today was Splash Mountain as the rest of the week it was supposed to cool down, but it was still warm this particular morning.

Our first stop though was for an early lunch on Main Street USA. Originally, I wanted Cosmic Rays (we hadn’t eaten there for awhile and I knew it was a great value on the dining plan), but Jeff wanted Casey's, I figured we would be having a big meal later that evening at EPCOT, and Casey's turned out to be the wisest decision. Jeff had the beef hot dog meal (Jeff could live on hot dogs I swear), and I had the corn dog nuggets with apple slices, we both had the brownie. After finishing we sat there in front of the Main Street Bakery for awhile and people watched. We had done this quite a bit at other parks but I am surprised about how little we have done this at Disney, it was a great time, as it seems so many people hustle down Main Street USA and miss its charm.

After awhile I felt the call from Splash Mountain and we headed that way. It had a posted wait time of about 20 minutes, and I timed it, it was about 15, so not too bad. Like usual I didn't get very wet, and Jeff, poor Jeff he got soaked! Oh well he took one for the team and I said it was his fault for talking me into riding it originally in the first place (I used to be scared of the drop). After exiting we saw that Big Thunder's wait time was only about 15-20 minutes so we headed there next to dry off. The wait didn't seem too bad, and in actuality I think the wait time was more like five minutes! During the wait a CM came in over the PA system to announce that inclement weather was in the region and may cause the ride to shut down and then let out a high pitched cowboy yell (Imagine a person with an Asian accent doing a cowboy yell and you will get the idea) He came back for announcements one or two more times before we loaded always with the same cowboy yell. Now I am not trying to dis the poor guy for his cowboy yell, actually quite the opposite, Jeff remarked that someone had had an overdose of pixie dust this morning it sounded like and I had to agree! Great spirit in all its forms is always to be commended.

Also, letting guests in line know of an approaching storm front is to be commended as well. It was a nice Disney-like gesture. We ended up about 3/4 of the way back on the train for this ride and it was good fun like always. However, with weather heading in we knew it wouldn't be such a bad idea to get out of the area. Our last stop was for Haunted Mansion a second time and then we decided to head out of the park. We took the boat back, and it started sprinkling on the ride back to the Lodge, we ended up back home about 2PM.

When we arrived, there was no real consensus on what to do, we had several hours before our ADR at EPCOT, and we had no plans. People all the time say DVC has changed their vacations, well I guess now it has changed ours too, as for several hours we really didn't do much of anything park wise. After about an hour of watching TV and relaxing I decided to do some laundry, and realized I hadn't brought any duffel bag with me for laundry. My luggage and Disney store bags would have to improvise. I rolled the luggage down to the laundry room and found only one washing machine working; the other had a great puddle of water surrounding it, and a mechanic hard at work (turns out it was actually fairly new!).

I ended up doing three loads, one at a time, and learned a trick from a lady who was drying cloths while I was down there, to start the dryer about 10 minutes before the washing machine is done. It really helped out in the drying process and while it took awhile it gave us all clean clothes.

After cleaning clothes, reading, and watching TV, time was going by fast, and it was now about 5:30, we had an ADR at Teppan Edo for 7PM, and we figured leaving soon was a good idea. I put on my DVC polo and jeans (first time I had worn jeans since Sunday!), and rain coat and headed out. Now it had been raining slowly but steadily the entire day, and it made for a beautiful sight. Jeff didn't bring his camera (a good idea as you will find out!) but I think at some points he wish he had. Wet surfaces and a rainy evening make for some nice photos.

We headed for the boat dock, and for the first time decided to use Disney transportation from WL for another park besides MK. First we took the boat from WL to the Contemporary. From Contemporary we took the monorail to the TTC and from there to EPCOT. With all the transfers it took about 45 mins to get to EPCOT. When we arrived, it was about 6:45 and with the walk at World Showcase in front of us we figured we better get started. Well we made it as far as UK with a slight drizzle, and then the heavens opened up and it poured! I have never walked so fast around WS as I did then. We both had good rain coats, but my jeans were soaked by the time we arrived.

Teppan Edo was a restaurant I had wanted to try for many years, and while I may have approached the restaurant in not the most beautiful fashion (completely soaked and cold!) it was overall a great experience. Of course I knew ahead of time that the Japanese people are incredibly polite, however I was still struck by their friendliness even on entering the restaurant. The hostesses there were handing out dry hand towels to dry off with, and plastic bags (the ones that Disney uses for souvenirs) for our wet rain coats. I can't think of any restaurant I have ever eaten at that has ever done that!

We were given a pager, and same thing as Liberty Tree went over to sit down and literally less the 30 seconds later the pager goes off! We were the first couple seated at our table. It took a few minutes before the two other groups that would be dining with us were seated and in that time we discovered our hostess was from Hiroshima. Most know the history of that city as it relates to US history, however few realize that it is our home town's sister city, Independence, MO, for it is the home town of Harry S Truman.

Two families would soon join us, an older solo couple, husband and wife that sat next to us from Boston, MA and another family that joined us across the table (I think they were from Nashville, TN). We had a lively discussion with the two next to us (as there was no way we could have a discussion all the way across the table, we would have had to yell to be heard!) as they had been coming down to Disney every year same as we have been doing.

The hostess soon came back and went over the menu explaining what was included in the plan. Jeff and I settled with a Coke and Diet Coke. I ordered the Shrimp and Steak combination meal and Jeff ordered the chicken and steak combination. I should mention every time the hostess came out with drinks, menus, chopsticks, forks, etc they would be especially polite, there was a lot of bowing involved.

Our chef came out after awhile, introduced himself, it seems he had been a chef for I believe 27 years? (quite a long time!) He created the onion volcano, (which was made of the entire onion, it was over a foot tall!) and made a great show of it all. If he might not have been the greatest comedian, he made up in his cooking skills. Everything was cooked perfectly.

Over the years, I have found the sign of a great cook is that he can make anything taste good. This was true in this case as I usually hate onions. In this case though I tried them with the noodles and zucchini, and they were amazing! That was just the beginning though, as the shrimp and steak were also extremely good, especially with the different dipping sauces provided. I wasn't exactly starving when sitting down, but I cleaned my plate and it was a lot of food! Jeff and I both gave the meal two thumbs up, and have officially voted it our 2nd favorite restaurant in the World Showcase. It also means we are only missing two restaurants in WS, China and Norway. We have eaten in every country at least one time previous.

For dessert we picked ice cream (sorry for being so boring), which was well... ice cream. We again gave an excellent tip and packed up to leave. The rain had tapered off, and as we headed out the announcement that Illuminations would start in 30 minutes was broadcast across the park. At that time being cold, and wet, we decided to skip it, even though with the park being literally dead we could have picked anywhere in WS and had a great view. We did stop at the Norway store as the couple who dined with us at Teppan Edo had mentioned the great sales there, and I could only dream of my $400 sweater being on sale so we stopped. Sadly the $400 sweater was still $400, though I did seriously consider buying a raincoat there as they were marked down to $150. Me, being a little bit budget conscious, realized I had a good raincoat already and let it go.

As we headed towards the park entrance, we were both tired and wet, and didn't want to go back through the series of monorails and boats that it would take to get back to WL. Instead we decided to use the bus. Luckily as we approached the bus parking area (it was the first time we had ever taken a bus from EPCOT) the WL bus was already there and no one was on it! Yippee! We climbed aboard, and waited about five minutes before we were off. About 10 minutes later we were back at WL. Being an all around Disney bus hater I must admit the transit was faster then even a car would have been, and yes it was nice not to walk through a wet and cold parking lot looking for our car. My opinion of Disney Transportation was elevated on this trip as you might imagine.

When we arrived it was getting late, but we had two movies that we had "rented" (for free!) at The Mercantile earlier that day waiting for us, and we decided to watch Invincible. We had seen this at the movie theater, but it was a nice winding down end to a great, if somewhat soggy day.

Friday 01/30/2009

Move out day... Yes another sad day to add to the trip. We had packed everything up pretty well after washing the day before but it was still sad to leave our villa. Believe it or not it was one of our earliest out of beds of the entire trip about 8:30. We showered, finished packing up and headed out at about 10AM, and headed for the front desk to check into The Lodge. If you remember from eons ago (I certainly write a lot don't I!) the 2nd part of our trip, or last two nights, would be at The Lodge itself, as we only do have 50 points, and that wouldn't do us any good for weekends. At least not until we add on! :)

I was realizing that there was a possibility of our room not being available. I also knew that attendance was low at the parks so far, and that WL probably was not at capacity so a room being available might be likelihood.

To back track a bit first though, on Wednesday night when Jeff had logged in to check his e-mail there was an e-mail from Disney Destinations confirming our reservation at Wilderness Lodge for a courtyard view room. Courtyard view?! I had booked a standard? Was this one of those upgrades I had heard about? On check in, our wonderful CM confirmed our $144 a night Courtyard view room, and gave us a room that I had always wanted but never really asked for. A 1st floor pool view room. One of those that when you are sitting at the pool you are envious of as they can walk directly to their room through their balcony door. Yes, it was one of those! (Too bad it was too cold to use the pool but still we had a great view in the morning of the friendly ducks). Room 1155, not only had I not asked for an upgrade, not asked for a location, I didn't even request a king bed room (though we had on every other trip). Well Disney pixie dust was with us that day, our room was ready, it was a king bed, with a pretty decent upgrade and in my opinion great location! Okay it was HA, but I didn't really care at that point!

What made our check in CM so memorable was his friendliness, being as there was no line for check in, we entered into a long discussion about the furniture at The Lodge. Many people don't realize this but much of the furniture in the lobby, and Artist Point is Gustav Stickley. Solid quarter-saw oak, hand made, hand polished, those chairs in the lobby usually sell for $2,000-$3,000 each. Yeah it is a travesty for us to put a wet drink on one of those arms. He also told us about the furniture at Whispering Canyon, but I can't for the life of me remember the artist, but originally Whispering Canyon was to be named in his honor. Overall the conversation went on for several minutes, and it was enjoyable to speak with someone who not only knew such rare facts about the Lodge, but who truly enjoyed talking about it.

So with suitcases in hand, we rolled our way to the hallway near the Mercantile (yes THAT hallway), to the elevator and for the first time, went DOWN to the 1st floor. We checked everything out, took pictures of the towel Mickey head waiting for us on the bed, and sat down to check out the flat screen TV. I will have to say, and Jeff agrees with me that when we first saw photos of the remodeled WL rooms, we were less then happy with them, to put bluntly they looked bad in the photos. Though I still have to stand by the original design (I liked it better), the re-design looks a lot better in person, and WL still stands as one of my favorite room designs on property.

We relaxed for a bit, and unpacked a few things, before deciding the plans for the day. Now, originally the plan was to go horse back riding at Fort Wilderness before our Hoop Dee Doo ADR at 7:15PM. As it was I who wanted to do the horseback riding in the first place, I quickly vetoed that idea, it was cold, wet, and just would not have been fun. Yes, I became upset that I missed an experience I really had looked forward to, but looking back, I am glad I did. It would have been a waste. Instead we decided to head to Downtown Disney, and use our final Counter Service credit at Wolfgang Puck Express. In almost every trip in the past to Downtown Disney we had driven using our own car, this time though we decided to take the bus. And there must have been some serious left over pixie dust from earlier in the morning as we headed to the bus stop, what bus do you think was waiting there? The Downtown Disney bus! Wow! We climbed aboard and headed out for a quick ride, with no worries about finding a parking spot.

Upon arriving, our first stop was at the Christmas store, Art of Disney and Disney Home store. We made two purchases, our trip Christmas ornaments. Every trip we buy at least one Christmas ornament, usually two. The first one we bought was the round Wilderness Lodge resort ornament. I have been collecting them since they were porcelain, brass trim, and ribbon, since then they have downgraded, even though they are the same price. Jeff talked me into continuing the tradition, so I bought that first, and then second, we picked the Mickey and Minnie Tree Farm ornament to fit the woodsyness that we love about the lodge.

It was getting later on and we decided it was a perfect time to get some food, so we finally headed over to Wolfgang Puck Express. Jeff got the spaghetti and meatballs with cookie and I got the rosemary chicken with mashed potatoes and also a cookie. One thing that drives us both nuts is that there were kids all through the restaurant saving tables, there were almost no tables available inside when we were ready to sit down. Rant done. We picked one of the two tables in the kitchen area, sat down, and ate our cookie first while waiting for our food. When the food came... oh my gosh, that chicken dinner needs to come with a warning sign. It was HUGE, a full 1/2 a rotisserie chicken, and a huge serving of mashed potatoes.

Now I was pretty hungry and amazingly ate about half of what was there. Jeff doesn't like chicken much so he was no help! It was very good though, Jeff told me the meatballs were some of the best he had ever had, they were half pork, half beef, which if memory serves me is the more authentic way of making them anyway. They were very tasty from the brief taste I had. When we left, we were stuffed, and I felt terrible about leaving all that food, but there was nothing I could do. One thing that suprises me about WP Express is that is almost a quasi table service, kind of like Pepper Market at Coronado Springs. Waiter brings your food, and re-fills your drinks. It is a GREAT value for a CS credit.

When we left it was getting a little bit warmer which I was thankful for as in the jog to the bus I had forgotten my hoodie sweater. We headed for The World of Disney, otherwise known as the store that drains your pocket book. On check in we had been given a sheet to turn in for a free print, which we did first (we actually already had it from a previous trip so it was a duplicate, oh well free is free) and then we went shopping. Either I have been to Disney too often or the merchandise is getting boring but very little stood out to me there. We had already bought a few things already that trip, me the DVC polo shirt, and Jeff had bought a micro-suede WL jacket that was at the Mercantile. While there though we still purchased a few car window clings (the boy/girl/cat Disney stick figures!) and a few things for next years scrap book, not too much though.

After World of Disney our last stop was the LEGO store, one of my favorite places. A few years ago out in Disneyland I had filled one of those buckets you can fill for a set cost. I never have cared for the sets with directions to build things, I like just building whatever is on my mind. I guess just like Disney my mind never realized that I outgrew LEGOS (is that even possible?) :) About 1 o'clock I had had enough of freezing to death (remember me forgetting my hoodie?) and decided we should head back to the Lodge. We made our way back to the bus stop, this was one of the few times we waited, and at most it was a five minute wait. When the bus arrived it was pretty full and we had to stand for a few minutes. At the 2nd stop, Pleasure Island/West Side, a group of cheerleaders disembarked and opened up more then half of the seats on the bus. We all had plenty of room to find a seat, which we did. First we stopped at GF and then back to WL. I guess with our upcoming plans it might have been just easier to get off at GF but oh well.

When we arrived at WL, we sat down a few minutes to relax, I thought about swimming but quite frankly it was just too cold. After all the life guards had full cover up sweats on and they still looked cold! Now we had reservations for Hoop Dee Doo at 7:15 so we figured first to pick up tickets at concierge which we did, and as it was still only about 3PM, we had several hours ahead of us, and it was cold outside. We hadn't yet done our annual resort monorail hop, so Jeff mentioned this as an idea; I thought it was a great idea so we headed out to the boat to start at Contemporary first. Our stop at Contemporary did depress me, as I had so much wanted to add on at the Contemporary, but with the now required 100 point add on, that is no longer possible :( Maybe that will change. We only stayed at Contemporary for 30 minutes or so before heading over to the Polynesian. Polynesian is truly one of our favorite deluxe resorts, we stayed there once one night but haven't since. I actually considered it for this trip when the rate had dropped to $225 a night (AP rate) but I had also wanted to stay at WL so that won out at least this trip. We wandered through the shops, and I must say the Poly shops are some of the best at any deluxe.

A few days ago while at the Magic Kingdom we had stopped at a souvenir shop in Adventureland and noticed a couple buying a coconut postcard, $25 including shipping. Now we had wanted to bring back something for a couple which are friends of ours in Kansas City and this seemed like a great idea, but we had waited and hadn't been back to Magic Kingdom since then. Well guess what the Polynesian gift shop, had those same coconuts too! We decided nothing could be a better "souvenir" I filled out the address and short note with a sharpie (very hard to do on a coconut!) and after paying for it, handed it off to the Polynesian front desk for mailing. Even though I had some concerns about the legibility of the address, we found out it did arrive a few days after we got home.

Our last stop at the Polynesian was the Wyland Art Gallery. Turns out they were having a gallery opening for the bronze frog sculptor. We always stop and admire the work there, but we were offered free white wine this time, and I actually felt a little bad accepting it considering we had never purchased anything there. Maybe someday when we have more financial ability (AKA more money!).

We had spent quite a bit of time at the Poly and it was about 5PM before we left and headed for our last stop the Grand Floridian. Though our goal is to stay at every Disney resort hotel, I would have to say GF is not high on the list; the theme is just not that appealing to either of us. We did spend a few minutes browsing in the stores, and listening to the GF band, but Jeff had an idea to head for our annual stop at the Disney Wedding Pavilion. See a little over 7 years previous the Disney Wedding Pavilion was were we had married and it never failed that we had to stop there once a year.

So, we headed out to the walkway and slowly wandered that way. Being that it was Friday there were no weddings that day, only two rehearsals that were long over by what was on the marquee in front. However what was unusual is that the gates were open! In the last 7 years this had never been the case. So for the first time in seven year we would get to go back to the location we had originally been married at! Little did we know that more pixie dust would be sprinkled on us soon afterwards. As we made our way across the bridge I remarked how we had had one of the last dove releases (They discontinued it in 2002), and we found our way to the actual pavilion door. It of course was locked, but a nice cleaning man (I think), allowed us in anyway after we had mentioned we had been married there. It was a very special moment, being back in that pavilion for the first time since our wedding. It was amazing how little had changed. Great experience that cost absolutely nothing but meant so much.

Not to abuse his good will we left after just a few minutes and walked out to picture point, and after a few minutes of quiet solitary, we headed back out the way we had came and back to the GF. We knew it was getting close to the time that we should be heading to Fort Wilderness, so we caught the monorail and headed to MK to catch the boat to Fort Wilderness. We waited for about 10 minutes for the boat, and when it arrived sat inside. We caught a view of the old River Country on the way over, docked and headed for Pioneer Hall. Never having done Hoop Dee Doo Review previously we weren’t exactly sure what we were supposed to do on arrival, but were told by a CM to wait in line to check in which we did. I can't for the life of me remember our table #, except that it was close to 100, and then we had our picture taken. Amazing I didn't have to talk Jeff into taking that photo! It was about 7PM at that time, and it was cold waiting outside! We stood outside among the group waiting for entrance and were let in promptly at 7:15PM.

Our table ended up being almost in the very back of the main floor, right under the balcony; it was a 2-person table. I kind of felt bad for the couple that sat behind us; their backs were practically at the door! We started out with water, corn bread and salad. Our server CM never seemed very into all the action, and was actually kind of slow, but overall it was a fun experience. I really enjoyed the show, and was rather relieved that we were not picked on! (They got the people at the table right next to us though!) Jeff had once been picked for the UK traveling show as Sir Galahad, and since then I think has been absolutely terrified of being picked out of a crowd, so I think he was a bit more then just relieved! Overall we did enjoy the show, and I am glad we went to see it, but its not anything we are racing to go back to over the next few years at least. The food itself was pretty plain, the fried chicken was good though, and Jeff thought the ribs were excellent! Strawberry Shortcake, which was dessert, was also good, but I found the dessert at Liberty Tree Tavern much better. Overall as I mentioned food was just average, the show was definitely the best part! I do honestly think for the money though I would rather just go to Port Orleans Riverside for Bob Jackson again, just as good as a show I believe and it’s free!

Hoop Dee Doo would be our 2nd last use of credits on the Dining Plan, and after looking the receipt, we both felt it was a good use of the 2 TS credits. It was over $100 not including tip.

It was about 9PM when the show let out, and it was colder then it was even earlier in the morning! We were unsure by the signage if the boats were running so we went over to the bus stop area, which seemed very congested. We waited about maybe 15 minutes before the WL bus appeared, and then two of them appeared at almost the same time. We climbed on, waited about a minute and then left for WL. Last point of business for the night was our last remaining snack credit. We had had two each at the beginning of the day that had to be used by midnight that night. The first twp I had used up at Goofy's Candy kitchen at Downtown Disney earlier in the day. The 2nd snack credit we used for breakfast the next morning. I picked up a chocolate muffin and I can't remember what Jeff had... maybe a brownie again? Basically though we stretched the DP to the max and it fed us almost exclusively from Sunday Afternoon to Saturday morning!

We headed back to the room, and believe it or not Disney pixie dust was at it again! I had mentioned when making the reservation at WL that we were celebrating our anniversary. On entering the room we found our bed had been turned down (without asking), we had a wonderful little WL chocolate heart and a card signed from Mickey and Minnie! Plus… we had a towel animal! In the bathroom was a towel canoe, filled with unidentifiable towel animals. Very cute and wonderful surprise! We don’t usually tip maid service but this time, believe me we did! It was so appreciated!

Saturday 01/31/2009

Our last full day.... still I wanted to make the most of it with the time we had left. We slept in again this morning and got up, and ate the snacks we had bought the previous night with the last of the dining plan. The muffin may have had more calories then I wanted to think about but it tasted great! We thought about what we wanted to do and decided to again head to Magic Kingdom, we didn't arrive until 10:45 and it did seem quite a bit more busy then it was earlier in the week. Overall though we found the waits to be still fairly short. We wanted to take things slow, and it was a beautiful but chilly morning, the high today would barely hit 60. We walked through the lower train depot, looking at the photos of the four engines before they had been refurbed. We then headed up the steps to ride the train, and I stopped at the music box and had a quarter to spend. I love these old fashion style music players, especially the old Wurlitzer band organs that operate at a few classic amusement parks across the country. Just thinking about a time when it required a significant amount of human ingenuity before the electric circuit and computer to control everything. After watching we boarded the train, in this case the Roger Broggie, and rode it around to Mickey's Toontown Fair. It was a great opportunity to take photos of Big Thunder since you can't see a lot of the detail while you are actually riding it. We exited the train, and headed for Tommorowland. Space Mountain it appeared was down temporarily so we hoped aboard the TTA to see if the lights were on inside, they weren't but it was still a fun little ride. On exiting, I decided I wanted to ride The Speedway; it had been several years since I had rode it, and while it had about a twenty minute wait, these rides are always a lot of fun! You will notice a trend as you continue reading that on one of the busiest days we picked the rides sometimes with the slowest capacity (lowest number of riders per hour).

As we walked out of Tommorowland towards the hub we spent quite a bit of time strolling through the rose garden, down by the old swan boat station, and Jeff took quite a few photos, as the sky was a bright blue, perfect for photos! As their was no stage show at the time we headed into the castle to see the wall mosaic (which I love) and take a look at the menu at Cindy's Royal Table, we had considered maybe eating there for next year’s anniversary but I wasn't impressed with the menu so maybe not.

We headed directly into fantasyland, and another ride we hadn't ridden in awhile was the Carousel. I being the classic carousel freak, Jeff asked if I didn't consider it a "real" classic carousel as Disney had made some considerable alterations to the original before moving it to Magic Kingdom. I mentioned that no, most carousel fans, will take any classic operating carousel that is in as good shape as Magic Kingdom. I figured that this time would be a great opportunity to ride, and though we had to wait about ten minutes it wasn't bad (the ride cycle is pretty quick!). When we boarded one thing I noticed was that all the horses had a brass number on the opposite side of the horse, and after riding walked quickly around the floor trying to see if #1 was there. Nope, only #2. After exiting I had a realization. Cinderella’s' Carousel is a PTC, in fact it is PTC #45 (referring to it being the 45th carousel manufactured by Philadelphia Toboggan company, and every PTC carousel I have seen, usually the lead horse or #1 horse has a PTC shield on its saddle. It looks a little different on every carousel (as each was hand carved), but it was usually there. Obviously Disney would not have wanted a horse with another company’s logo on it, so #1 or the lead horse was removed. So in essence Cindy's Carousel has no lead horse, or if it does it is #2. Amazingly horse #2 was also the horse we used during our Magic Kingdom photo session after our wedding in 2002!

Wow what a long winded person I have become!

We headed back towards the hub and at the Liberty Square bridge we ran into a Photo Pass CM, who took our photo in front of the castle, then we moved down to the "the rack" near Haunted Mansion (sorry I am not sure of the official name), and through the help of a nice couple had our photo taken, we of course also took their photo too.

At this time it was getting close to 1:30, so we slowly headed out of the park via Frontierland/Adventureland and headed out to the monorail. It was here that I thought about possible calling about the Fort Wilderness horseback tours, I really had wanted to do that! When we reached the monorail station, I tried to call, but decided against it. I figured it would give me something to look forward on the next trip right? Turns out I really wish I had then, but oh well.

We ended up waiting for the front of the monorail, which took about ten minutes, and road over to EPCOT. First thing we did was grab a fast pass for Test Track, it had a wait time of about 40 minutes and figured it wasn't worth that wait, the fast pass wasn't until about 6PM so we had plenty of time. As it was a beautiful day we headed to WS via the Odyssey walkway and spent some time taking photos. It was all about smelling the roses today! We were getting hungry so we thought about going over to Beaches and Cream later on for lunch. Instead of going via UK and Canada though, we decided this time to travel WS via Mexico. We had checked the show schedule and decided to stop at the American Pavilion for the fife and drum corps. A little background we had visited Williamsburg, VA a few years previous and due to poor weather the fife and drum corps were out of commission there. It was depressing, so I knew I wanted to catch them at EPCOT as fife and drum corp. is not a common occurrence in Missouri! We ended up at the American Pavilion about 20 minutes before the next performance and we were pretty hungry so we decided *big shock* to eat at the American Pavilion.

Now when we count WS restaurants we never consider the American Pavilion, as well we never thought of the menu as anything special. However this is where we decided to eat and it wasn't actually too bad. I had the chicken Buffalo wings with fries and diet coke, Jeff had the shredded pork sandwich with fries and coke. We weren't on the dining plan at this time but it became the first meal of the trip that we paid for in full out of pocket. Even though it was completely dead when we entered the restaurant, once we ordered it took about 10 minutes for our food to be finished and set out. Overall it was pretty good, I thought the sauce on the buffalo chicken pieces was somewhat hot (as in flavor), but it was a pleasant surprise. Plus, now I can officially count all but two WS restaurants!

As we finished up the fife and drum corps came out and began playing so we went out to watch. It was nice to watch, but does anyone ever consider that four of the players are wearing red coats? Isn't that who we fought AGAINST? :) Just a little funny. Next up we decided as we had had so much bad luck with the American Adventure on Monday to try it again. This time it worked perfectly, Roy Rogers had no neck problems, and it was nice to see the update to the ending film footage. It doesn't just end in the 1980's anymore!

Next place we stopped at WS was in the Japan pavilion, I hem’d and haw'd about buying the bag I had seen in the store earlier, I am such a cheap skate! I ended up deciding to buy it to take into parks with me, it’s very small so it only holds my wallet, cell phone and park map but that's all I need it for. At that same time Jeff was sitting outside the store, on one of the concrete benches to check into our southwest flight via his I-Phone. We checked in and were in a pretty good position A 23 and A 28.

We also stopped in the UK and Canada shops. I am somewhat disappointed in these last few years with the Canadian shops. Several years ago I had bought the Roots perfume there, and fell in love with it. Two years ago when I went back to buy more they no longer carried ANY of the Roots products. I had to go to the real Canada to buy it! It’s disappointing that the shops on the 2nd level are no longer open.

We headed back out and decided to visit the Future world attractions we hadn't yet. It was about 5PM or so, and we first stopped at The Imagination Pavilion. As the sun was setting Jeff took a bunch of photos, we then went in to ride and like usual it was an absolute walk on. It's a fun ride, but sometimes I wish for the original version. It’s funny that they had a shirt in the exit show with the Dreamfinder on it! How long has it been since Dreamfinder was last in the ride? It was pretty cool.

We next visited Living Seas, the ride is cute, but I was there for the exhibits. Which were better then usual, the dolphins and manatees were both out and about, and we saw several small sharks and tons of sting rays. It was funny while there looking at the sea horses, a little girl and her mom came up to the exhibit, and little girl says look sea horses! Mom says, oh no those can't be! Little girl, showed her mom the sign, I guess maybe they had never seen a sea horse before? Its not to unusual to imagine that, as I have only seen them at Living Seas and Sea World!

One of our last two stops was the Coca Cola Cool Zone (I think it has a new name but that's what I have always called), fun like usual, and then Test Track for one last ride. Test Track was great as usual, and then finally we figured it was time to head out, as it was almost 7PM and we had been out in the parks for several hours now.

Instead of heading back via bus though again we decided on the monorail, but once we stopped at TTC, we didn't trade off for another monorail; instead Jeff mentioned walking to the Polynesian. First though we had to stop and visit our brick. Back in 2000, Jeff proposed to me in front of the Magic Kingdom, via a brick on the walk around the world. Only a year afterward of course it was moved to TTC, and has been in the same place that it is still today. Overall our brick is in great shape, especially compared to those surrounding it! We took a photo, and then headed to Polynesian via the walkway. I was really surprised how close the POLY is to the TTC. It was a very romantic evening, with the cool breeze and tiki torches. we headed into the main building, decided to by a Imagineering DVD we had seen there the day before, and sat down to take in the atmosphere. As I mentioned earlier it is a great resort and I think it along with the WL and AKL are the few resorts that seem to really get the theme.

A little while later we headed for the monorail, which we took the Magic Kingdom. About this time Wishes was starting, and as much as I hate crowds it was so beautiful I wish we had stayed to watch. Next time I guess too. We headed for the boat, and watched the fireworks as we sailed away. It is an image that is still burned in my head. They are truly spectacular. As we approached WL, it was our last night there, and it was sinking in, we would be heading home tomorrow. It made everything sparkle that much more brilliantly. We headed to the room, and with no DVD player we decided to watch the Imagineers DVD on Jeff's laptop (I know sad, but we both really wanted to see it!). After a little bit we heard the Electric Water Pageant, and went out to the beach to watch. It was a beautiful ending to our last evening there, and I wanted it to go on forever. Tomorrow would come soon enough.

Sunday 02/01/2009

It was the last day... I needed a shoulder to cry on! In foresight a few days earlier I had made last day reservations at Whispering Canyon for breakfast. I always usually talk Jeff into one breakfast a trip (he doesn't care for breakfast and I love it!) plus Whispering Canyon is a tradition for us every trip. (Well almost). We woke up early (for us) this morning, about 8:00 ish and were ready to go and out the door by about 9:15. Jeff had (thankfully) taken the hanging tag of doom off the door before I had a chance to see it. We loaded our luggage in the car (first time we had seen it in 3-4 days!), and headed back to the lodge for breakfast. It was about 45 minutes before our ADR (which was at 10:15), but I still went up to check in desk at Whispering Canyon to see if we could get seated earlier, we were given a buzzer and then went to sit down in one of those nice Stickley chairs. Only a few minutes later it went off and we were seated. I learned very quickly breakfast is much more subdued then dinner! We both ordered chocolate milk, and the skillet. Amazingly we were both pretty full from a week on the dining plan, so we only asked for seconds on the biscuits, everything was great though! They had pony races during our seating and the table next to us made the mistake to ask for ketchup! That is always classic. We used our TIW card that we had bought last January for the discount, and being completely stuffed headed out to face the world one more time.

Of course being COMPLETELY predictable we headed for Magic Kingdom one last time. It was a nice ending of the trip as when we arrived, the "Trolley Song" just started at the Hub on Main Street. We had to watch as I love the song, and as we were in the area checked the board of activities for the times of the Dapper Dans. I really wanted to see them and had missed them on the way to a ride it seems on every previous trip. That was the sign that for once it was NOT a trip that we had to hit every ride 15 different times. We took it slow this time and appreciated all the small things, the attractions that make Disney, well Disney. Of course their first show was until about Noon, and we figured we would catch them on the way out about 1:15. We headed around to Tommorowland as we had only ridden Space Mountain once during the trip and well this was our last time riding it in its "original" form. The stand by wait was posted at 20 minutes so we figured that wasn't too bad, and waited. It turned out the wait was about 30 minutes and we road the alpha side again. When we exited, we found the stand by time was posted at 40 minutes, so obviously the line had grown while we were in it!

We headed over to the opposite side of the park and hit the two classics Pirates and Haunted Mansion one last time on the trip, and then we figured it was getting close to 1PM so we headed towards Main Street and found the Dapper Dans. It was a great show, and like usual I loved watching also the people watching and walking by. It was amazing to watch the expressions as they seemed to be catching something they never expected, it was like watching the "So this is Disney!" moment over and over again! It was great, and of course so were the Dapper Dan's they. It was about 1:30 when they finished and for our last ride of the trip, we picked of course... the train. It was a great last ride. It was time; we had to head to the boat, for the start of the ride home... It didn't hit until we hit the Lodge, and we walked through the lobby one last time. It was a slow walk, trying to make it last, but we knew it was time, and then we headed for the car...

What made it worse of course was that we had arrived exactly a week prior. I don't know about anyone else but sometimes on a trip I think about exactly what I was doing a week prior. How happy I was arriving, listening to the radio on the way to Disney, and how I had that thought about my friend leaving while I was arriving. It was our time now. I guess to quote star trek, all good things must come to an end, and I began looking forward to next year!