[HiddenMickey]

We talk to the monorail driver a bit, but he is not talkative really and the other couple never says a word other than between themselves.

We get off that monorail and walk across the station for the MK monorail. The couple that was sitting with us, asks to be in the front again and are able to ride there. We don't ask again….let someone else have a chance, I say. We make our way around the lagoon and to the MK platform. It is now raining, but not too badly and we do have our ponchos, so I put mine on as we exit the monorail. Teresa opts to wait and see if the rain gets worse before putting hers on (which she never does).

Our main goal is ice cream at the Parlor, but we think a ride on Splash Mountain might be a good idea, seeing as how we hadn't been able to do it the other day. As we get to the line, we hear a CM telling people that they are closing the ride down due to the weather. UGH. There is a lot of thunder, but what the CMs don't realize is that the storm has actually already gone over the park and what they are hearing is the thunder on it way over to Orlando. Not much we can do about that though, so we turn around and decide to walk through Fantasyland and see what the waits are like there. All are too long, so we make our way over to ToonTown (which I haven't been in since 2000). We want to check out Minnie and Mickey's houses. Since Minnie's was first we went there first. The place was MOBBED….I'm talking no room to move at all. There was a family group in front of us that was trying to videotape everything. The funny part of that though, is that they were being really quick with the movements and filming in short bursts. The tape is going to give them a headache when they try to watch it later. Also, the mother figure in the group yells up ahead to one of the kids that is out of her sight and says "Donovan…I'm gonna smack the s-t out of you if you don't stop". There is no way she can see what he is doing either. Not a nice moment at all! I hate that other kids had to hear that. L We have to really push our way through to get out of the house and then we go see Mickey's. His house is not nearly as busy and we can actually spend some time looking at the different rooms. We skip going to the Judge's tent and take the "secret" walkway to Tomorrowland. Tomorrowland is very busy, so we just keep on walking and make our way to the Plaza for our ice cream. Yum! Then it's out of Main Street and back to the monorail.

We don't bother trying for the front car again and ride back to Epcot with our ice creams. Once back, we see that Spaceship Earth finally has no line and we take a ride. I'm really glad, because I haven't done this since my family's first trip and I've pretty much forgotten what it was like. Loved it actually. We stopped for a minute or two when we were at the top, but other than that, the ride was smooth.

So it is getting close to 8pm now and we decide that it would be best to make our way to the railing by Norway to stake out a space for Illuminations. When we get there, the Tapestry of Nations Parade is just ending and exiting to the backstage area….so Teresa gets a small taste of the parade. We had hoped some of the people on the benches would get up afterwards, but they all seemed to be settled in for the evening, so we make our way to the space we had seen open earlier. Unfortunately, at this point there is really only room for one of us at the railing, so I grab that spot and Teresa sits down adjacent to me. She goes looking for something to drink shortly after and I eventually grab a beer from the Norway cart (I thought it was quite good.). We had a nice conversation with the family on one side of us. They were from Delaware and were staying at Caribbean Beach on a military overflow rate. We enjoyed their company a lot and they had two very well behaved kids.

Once the was ready to start, we all turned around to face the lagoon and watched the spectacular show. There was a lot more fire out in the center of the lagoon than I remember from previous shows, but other than that, it was just as I remembered from last December and other previous viewings. Teresa was in awe. Because the crowd was 5-6 people deep where we were, we ended up letting a couple kids stand in front of us. Only fair to let them have a great view too, right? J

Once the show was over, we said goodbye to the family we met and made our way slowly toward the entrance. We knew we didn't want to be in a huge crowd at the bus depot, so we took our time. We visited the World Showcase store and then entered MouseGear for a last minute look at what was available in those stores. We left the park at 10pm and got on a bus that was just pulling up. Our timing couldn't have been better. A quick bus ride back to the resort and Teresa makes her nightly call to her DH. I look around the gift shop and when she is done, she gets some milk to eat with the pastry from last night. The long walk back to the room, and we see we now have a neighbor next door. There is a "do not disturb" sign in the key hole. We get ready for bed and watch the end of "Romy and Michelle's Reunion" for a few laughs. Then lights out.

Monday, August 5 (Last Day)

I am up at 7:30 today and finish packing up. Teresa and I say goodbye to the room and make our way with our bags to Bell Services by 8:20. We leave our bags with a female CM and head out to the bus stop for a bus to MK. There is one waiting and we board only to find our "friends" that we've ridden with each morning. J We say Hi and let them know that this is the last morning we are here, so we won't be following each other tomorrow. The bus ride to MK was quick and we are at the turnstiles at 8:45. There are quite a few people in line, but the crowd is not huge. We are too far back to see what is happening at this morning's opening, which occurs at 8:50. Since today is the Fantasyland day and there are huge crowds headed for the castle, we decide to wait at the enterance to Liberty Square. There are two Haunted Mansion CM's working the rope and we are soon let into the park. We make a beeline for Peter Pan.

There is no line (of course) and we get a nice ride over Neverland. Then we make our way across Fantasyland for Winnie the Pooh. As we are walking up to the entrance, Pooh and Tigger are on their way in too. And lo and behold----Tigger gets into our car!!
Wow, I've never ridden with a character before. I sit next to him and Teresa sits behind us. We take a picture of me and Tigger and off we go. Tigger enjoys the ride and makes lots of gestures of happiness, worry, and excitement during the ride. He points out the picture of Owl and Toad on the wall in Owl's house. I make sure to act like a kid and talk to him a lot about the ride. "Is this your favorite part?" when we are in the Tigger area and we point out his character everytime we see it. That was FUN! J Pooh rode with a family behind us (the two little kids with Pooh and the parents seated behind). Tigger stays in the car for another round and we exit into the Thoughtful Shop. Didn't get the sensation of honey as much as in the past this time.

OK, now to Splash Mountain. Maybe this time, we'll be able to get on. I've never done a trip where I haven't ridden this multiple times, but the tiki-gods were against us this trip. There is no line for Splash Mountain and we are quickly seated in the front row of a log. There is a couple behind us in the middle and no one in the back. Oh no….we are destined to get wet with all this weight in the front! The ride is great and I hold up my hands as well go over the hill (but not too high so I don't cover the girl's face behind me) and we do get wet….but not as badly as I had feared! We are off quickly and debate doing it again as there is still no wait, but decide to do a couple other things in the little time we have left this morning. Our picture is not all that great, but its always fun to look at them anyway.

We are going to be criss-crossing the park a bunch this morning. We decide to go over to Space Mountain and get fastpasses since the chances that I get to ride this again anytime soon are pretty slim. We notice that Timekeeper won't be open for a little while yet as we walk past, so after getting the fastpasses, we decide to go to the Tiki Room, since that had been closed the two evenings we were here before. The wait about 10 minutes and then the preshow starts and before long we are in the hut. There is a Scandinavian family in front of us and I'm not sure how much of the show they understand, but they are all smiling and moving with the music, so I can tell it's a hit with them. We enjoy the stay too. Love the thunder and rain and the singing totems in the wall best of all.

Then we make our way back to Tomorrowland, past a showing of the Cinderella show, and we are soon at the opening show of Timekeeper. I haven't seen this in a long time, as it's almost always closed during the off-season when I usually visit (plus the fact it's basically been closed since 9-11). I'd forgotten how good this story is. Teresa and I both like it a lot. Only, Teresa had to close her eyes so as not to feel sick during the Indy racing scene. Once we are done there, it is within time for our fastpasses at SM. We make the long trek up the queue and are sent to the left side this time. Yeah….we get to try out both on this trip. We are seated in the 4 and 5 of the 6 seats and are off----! This time the ride is not as enjoyable though as it feels much rougher to us…almost to the point of giving us headaches. Glad we did it though.

Now I didn't take notes for the last day and so I am unsure of the times, but at this point we are getting hungry (having had no breakfast) and if I remember correctly it was near 11am. So we decide to try out Pinocchio's Village Haus. I have a cheeseburger and fries and Teresa gets a chicken sandwich. This restaurant has a fixings bar, which I hadn't expected, so that was a nice surprise. We sat near the windows for the light in the workshop area…as the restaurant is a bit dark. There is a family next to us with 4 little girls who have to all be under the age of 5. They are so well-behaved. I just am in awe of their ability to traipse around a theme park with such a load of little kids! Once we are done, we have around 40 minutes left of park time. We figure we can get one more ride in if we don't have a huge wait, and we still need to shop for some pins my kids want (no luck finding them during the week, so the made rush is on). We make our way toward Frontierland thinking we might do Pirates again, but see that although Haunted Mansion says 25 minute wait, there is no way the line is that long and decide to ride it as our last ride of the trip.

Sure enough, we only waited maybe 10 minutes for the doors to open and we got to see Leota's eyes a couple times while we waited. This time we were stopped on the ride…..just as we were leaving the ballroom scene. We were able to see the ballroom still, so this was a great place to get stopped (unlike the time my family got stopped in front of the screeching bride..talk about awful). Gave us a chance to really look around the room. And before we knew it, we were picking up a hitchhiker and were done. Last ride on the last day L.

We made our way over toward the Tiki Room area because one of the pins we wanted was of the Tiki Room. No pin near there, so we made our way to the Emporium, but first make a stop for a Dole Whip. Teresa opts to wait and see if there is a line for ice cream at the Parlor instead. There is, so we skip it. While we are in the Emporium, there is a CM putting pins on the racks so we ask her about the Tiki Room Pin. She says they haven't made one of those yet, but wouldn't doubt that at some point they will. So, we bag the idea of pins and Teresa buys a couple postcards. I decide to take one last look at the pin cart near the entrance and the CM working asks us if either of us is Disney Club member. I say I am, and she tells me there is an exclusive Disney Club pin for sale starting today. We have to enter Expo Hall and ask the CMs there about it. All the CMs are busy, but we eventually learn that we have to wait in the Picture Pick-up line. Turns out the pins are Tinkerbell, (I have a Tink already) so I buy one for each of my kid's lanyards and we are on our way out of the park at around noon. Bye-Bye Magic Kingdom! L

There is a bus waiting and we leave shortly for the All Star Music resort. When we get off the bus, Teresa uses the phone to call her DH and I watch the cartoons on TV for a little while. Those benches are not comfortable at all. Why don't they have nice chairs and hassocks like at some of the other resorts? Teresa grabs a few park maps from the old Guest Services desk area and then we look out the doors toward Bell Services. We see a black towncar in the driveway, and figure it might be our driver, but as we walk through the doors, he is driving away. A female CM asks us if we are waiting for Mears. We tell her we are waiting for Tiffany Town Cars and tell he we thought that driver might have been there for us (he is now parked in the parking lot across the street). She says he had just dropped someone off. We still think he might be our driver, so we ask her to get our luggage. Meanwhile there is some sort of soap opera happening behind us at the Bell Service desk. There is a large group of people (extended family with all ages) that seems to have a problem. We can't quite make out what is going on, but it seems like all these people are trying to stay in just a couple rooms. The Bell Service person is telling them that they can' t all stay, there are too many of them. Wish we could have heard more, it was looking pretty interesting. But, sure enough, once we have our luggage, the black towncar comes back and it's our driver. He loads us up and we are off. He tells us that the resorts won't let them park in the Porte Cochere area anymore and he had figured we were his riders but he had to drive away and come back closer to pick up time due to the All Star Bell Service rules. We assure him that it was no problem for us.

We get to the airport to find a line at the Sky Cap desk. Decided it would be better to check in at the counter. The line is just about as long, but air conditioned. J When it's our turn for getting checked in, we find we are too early to get our Southwest Airlines boarding passes. She gives us temporary ones to use to get through security for now. We have no problems at security and make our way to the gate. There are only a few people in seats and we still have about 20 minutes before they start giving out Boarding passes, so we take a seat. Shortly after that, a gentleman walks up the counter and starts the line. I quickly get in behind him…..I refuse to be a 'B' ticket this time. The ladies who were sitting nearby grumble that there is now a line forming (and probably that we "jumped" in front of them, since they were there first) and get in line behind me. I wait the 20 minutes and after the first guy gets his pass, I get mine. There are two men behind the counter today….one is training the other. Then I make a beeline for the restroom and once back with Teresa, tell her I'd like to get some food. End up with a Chef salad that had plenty of turkey. Not too bad. The rest of the wait time is spent reading my book, Clive Cussler's Valhalla Rising.

We still had a bit of a wait. But once again as soon as the airline employee starts the spiel about how they board, the lines start. We get in the 'A' line, but by the time the plane starts to load, a woman started a new 'A' line (she was behind us and moved) so that there are now two lines of 'A' passengers. They get all the folks with kids aboard, as well as a minor flying alone and then we get to load. It's like two lines of car traffic merging into one…..ugh. We get on the plane and see a man sitting alone and ask if we can sit next to him, NO, he's waiting for his wife. What? Don't families usually board together? So, we go back a couple more rows and find another fellow who is more amenable to having us next to him. He sees what I am reading and we discuss books a bit. Today Teresa is in the middle seat and I get the aisle.

Just before we get ready to leave, the airline attendant asks for a guy by name. Turns out "Mr. I'm waiting for my wife" didn't show his boarding pass when he got on the plane, so they didn't have his ticket stub…AND when he gives them his boarding pass.. he is a 'C' ticket. How in the world did he get on the plane?! He boarded with the 'A's bypassing the attendants…..this sounds like a security breach to Teresa and I. Seems like they should have made him get off the plane with his things and reboard or something. This is just not right. But, he gets away with this deceipt and I'm sure he'll try the same in the future.

The flight went fine and we were back home before we knew it. Took a good long time for the luggage to show up and we eventually made it to the bus to the parking facility. The car was hot as blazes from sitting in the sun all day for 5 days. But we were soon on the highway….at rush hour….only to meet up with bumper to bumper traffic. Not the best way to end the trip, but we are glad to be back. Teresa's husband was waiting for us at my house and they were soon off to celebrate his birthday (which was that day). And my kids gave me great big hugs…especially DS who couldn't be seen hugging me around his friends the day we left J. He didn't seem to want to let go. It was wonderful.

We unpacked all the "loot" and the kids spend the evening playing with their souveniers.

Hope you enjoyed the trip report. I know it's a bit long, but I tried to get in as much as I could remember. I also didn't want to post just a bit at a time, as I personally like to read a whole report at once (I print them out once you guys finish yours up and read at my leisure). Let me know if there are any questions. -Suzi (aka HiddenMickey)

[ 08-23-2002, 03:16 PM: Message edited by: HiddenMickey ]