[Caldercup]

<font color="blue"> <u>Thursday, December 1, 2005</u>

<u>Our Party: </u>
Me (Eileen), 39, complete Disneyphile, 11th trip
DS (Calder, also called CJ), 9, all-around-great-kid and Disney World addict, 8th trip

The wake-up call came at 7:20 and I bounced up, shouting “Ya ready? Ya ready?” Calder moaned at me and rolled over as I hit the speaker phone to hear… absolute silence. After about a minute, Stitch and Mickey finally do their greeting/yelling/threatening/apologizing thing and Calder’s grumpy face is transformed into wreaths of smiles. He just remembered where we were!

I hopped in the shower – phew, did I need that! – and Calder picked out his clothes and got dressed. By 8AM, we were walking to the food court to pick up something to eat. (I hadn’t sent a food box to the resort, so we didn’t have cereal cups to munch on for breakfast.) We grabbed some bananas, chocolate milk and OJ (getting to use the DDE card here -- since POFQ doesn’t have a sit-down restaurant, you can use it at the food court!) and then headed out to the buses. We were barely done eating before an Animal Kingdom bus drove up.

We were at the AK gates by 8:45 and I had a good feeling that we’d finally get to see the park opening show. As we were walking in, I saw that Calder didn’t have his new hoodie pullover on and he was rubbing his arms to warm up. Oh, oh! This could be expensive!

We managed to get through the gates without any ticket problems – don’t know what I’ve done in the past, but I always seemed to demagnetize our tickets. So far, so good. We pushed through the Oasis and I could tell that Calder would’ve liked to stop and chat with the CMs holding lizards and bugs to show guests, but I was on a mission. I really wanted to see the wake-up show and I pushed him on with promises that we’d take our time later. We just made it over the bridge to find the crowd stopped for the opening. Since we were still a little bit on the bridge, we were higher up and could see fairly well over everyone’s heads.

Just then, Minnie, Pluto and Goofy rode out on a safari vehicle and the show began.



I had to pick Calder up so he could see Mickey when he showed up at the tree. It was very cute, but, if I try to do this again someday, I’ll get there even earlier so we can get closer.

We pulled off to the side and waited a moment for the crowd to disperse. Calder was really rubbing his arms and looked a little shivery. Oh, well… there’s nothing to do but spend money now! We stepped into the Island Mercantile and Calder suddenly wanted to buy everything. I tried to keep him on task and led him back to the clothing. He wanted another hoodie and he wanted it to be a zip up. Of course, they were the most expensive styles available! Then he saw a Stitch hoodie and that, as they say, was that. $36 lighter in the pocket, we left the mercantile to find ourselves running smack into the blue alien himself.

Calder hopped in line right away and pulled out his autograph book. He wanted Stitch to get the full effect of his new sweatshirt, so he zipped it up – over his fanny pouch, Pal Mickey and his hat. He looked oddly lumpy and a little pregnant! Stitch didn’t mind though – he made such a fuss over Calder and they hugged and danced for quite a while. Calder showed him his autograph book (which had Stitch wearing a Santa hat) and then told him that he’d reserved the first page for Stitch’s signature. Stitch was overjoyed and hugged Calder again!

Doesn't he look pregant here?!


My boy stepped back in a daze of euphoria… he just loves the characters, especially Stitch! When he looked at Stitch's signature, he noticed that Stitch had signed with a heart!

Before we left Philadelphia, I had emailed Sharla at Plan, Snap Scrap.com and asked if she still needed any pictures. She gave me a list with terrific suggestions for funny pictures! I was doing my best, but I was struggling with Bob’s new camera – I’m not used to all the settings. Well, anyway… I snagged these:



As we stepped near the FOTLK waiting area, we saw two bears that I’ve never seen before except in the movie. (Looking at everyone else’s TRs from Mousefest, Kenai and Koda seemed to be all over the place this December!) There was no line, so I asked if Calder wanted to meet them. He was a little reluctant, but seemed keen on it after a minute of thought.



He played around with them and I chatted with their handler, who looked very cold. Jeez, it was 65 degrees – very warm for Philadelphians! The CM stayed in character and had funny comments and facts to give about the bears. Calder liked the totem that Kenai had around his neck. While we were with the bears, a line had formed behind us, so we let others have a chance!

Then it was on to FOTLK. We got in early and sat in the giraffe section very close to the front. The show was wonderful, as usual, and we were delighted to see the actress who had been Mama Dacia (at our Grand Gathering AK Safari in May) playing The Gift. The tumble monkeys came over to us several times and made faces in our camera.




Afterwards, I wanted to get close-up to the floats and Calder dubbed this picture of Pumbaa “The Nostril Shot!”


As we stepped out into Camp Minnie Mickey, we realized that the character trails were open. It was off to Minnie first where we chatted in line with a woman from the Disboards who had made special pillowcases for the characters to sign, which she was giving to a family her church had “adopted” for the holidays. Then it was our turn and I asked the handler to take our picture. &lt;sigh&gt; It came out terribly blurry. Oh, well… Minnie was a doll and liked that she was on my signature book. I loved that her shoes were red for the occasion!



Then it was on to Goofy wearing the full Santa regalia, including a beard. He and Calder danced around and were very silly a few moments before they settled down to pose for a picture.



Finally, we saw Mickey – who looked dashing in his holly sweater and scarf. (I just love the holidays at Disney – so charming!)



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As we started out of CMM, we saw Pluto's tree -- it's all decorated with bones and dog toys. We joked that Ruby and Treelo (our border collie mixes) would devour this thing!



Then we saw something else the dogs would've devoured - Chip and Dale!! Calder ran for 'em and nearly bowled them over. (Chip and Dale maintain their special place in my heart as Calder's "first"... he met them in the Magic Kingdom on our very first day of our first trip in 2002!)





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We were just about out of CMM when we saw Donald in his park ranger outfit with a hatband full of holly. Ooooh, I always wanted to see him in this costume! Calder ran up to him and told him about an experience at Breakfastosaurus when Donald hadn't been too happy about all of Calder's Mickey paraphernalia! Donald was appropriately sheepish, but was in a devlish mood. He kept sticking his hand in front of Calder's face and my boy got a case of the giggles!



Now both of us were in a character “daze” and we wandered out of Camp Minnie Mickey with dreamy smiles on our faces. A CM from the Family Fun station motioned us over and commented that we looked so happy! Then she got Calder to do the activity – which was to feel inside a log and correctly identify the shapes he felt inside. There was a pinecone, a turtle shell, an antler, and a small log. Then she stamped a booklet for Calder and told him to visit the other stops. He suddenly was “on a mission,” but, when I started looking at a map to find the other Family Fun stations in the park, he announced a desire to go to Downtown Disney. Sigh… he has the attention span of a gnat!

After a rest room break, we headed out to the front of the park, stopping long enough to admire the AK tree and the cool stuff underneath it. Calder loved seeing the Chip and Dale snowglobe and the Stitch train.




We got into an AKLodge bus line and waited a little bit for the next bus. We didn’t even step into the resort – one of our favorites! We just sat on a bench for the DTD bus. As we were sitting there, we started a conversation with a well-dressed lady (in heels!) who was going to DTD too. She mentioned that she was at the AKL on business with Disney and said that she was part of a web team for a new, large sponsorship of Disney rides and attractions. I was bold enough to ask if she was from Siemens and she seemed surprised that I knew about their new relationship with Disney. &lt;shrug&gt; Calder told her I knew everything about Disney! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

We took a moment to call Bob and found that he had stayed home sick – something he NEVER does. I suspect it was 10% not feeling well and 90% that he could play Halo on the ginormous new TV without interruption!

Our bus arrived and we hopped on.

&lt;Up next: DTD and the search for a Santa Goofy hat…

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