Disney Quickie Part 3 - Funny party hats and a trip around the world About This Page:

[TiggGrrrl]

Date: Wednesday, December 5, 2001

Adventurers: Me - TiggGrrrl AKA Jeannie
DH - Joseph
DS - Shane

Resort: All Star Movies

Celebration: Our 5th Anniversary 12/3 and DS's First Birthday 12/6!

Got our wakeup call from Mickey promptly at 7am – but Joseph and I were up at about 6:00 for some bizarre reason. Shane got up with us and I did the usual morning routine (diaper change, bottle) while Joseph went to the Food Court to get breakfast. After eating, showering and getting ready we were, of course, running late – it was about 9:15 and we were supposed to be at Disney/MGM at 9:30 for the Walt’s Legacy Hunt. When we entered the Studios, we were given these cute paper party hats with Mickey ears on them – what fun! Our first glimpse of the Hat was awesome, it really is something to see. We got to the Backlot at about 9:45 and everyone but Jennifer and Dave were gone so we got our books and headed out. Note to anyone wishing to do a scavenger hunt with a baby on hand – don’t try it [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img] Shane got bored with us walking around in circles looking for answers to the clues really fast. What we did get to do was fun, though and Joseph and I enjoyed seeing things that we had never noticed before. We set out to watch the Stars and Motor Cars parade to give the baby some entertainment and he loved it. That parade is really cute and well done. The Mary Poppins car with the carousel horse was spectacular – wish I could’ve taken it home! After the hunt was over we decided to head over to Epcot and unfortunately we did not get to do Walt’s Surprise birthday party with the Passporter gang so I look forward to reading others trip reports that did attend.

Got to Epcot around 12:30 and headed right over to Future World to get our Fastpasses for Test Track. Then it was over to World Showcase – pretty much my favorite place in the World – to wander through the countries and see the shows and beautiful holiday decorations. Got to see the Spirit of America Fife and Drum Corps in America, Off Kilter in Canada, World Showcase Players in Great Britain (doing an hysterical rendition of A Christmas Carol!), as well as several holiday storytellers. We were so excited to see that Cast in Bronze was here again this holiday season (I wasn’t sure if they would be)! They are a wonderful band whose claim to fame is that they are the world’s only traveling carillon (it’s sort of a keyboard with hammers that hit a series of bells, for lack of a better description) band and they are not to be missed. Shane took it all in and seemed to really enjoy all the stuff to look at and listen to. We watched the 4:00 Tapestry of Dreams parade – not much different than Tapestry of Nations but still delightful. In between the entertainment, we got to take our quick trip on Test Track – I LOVE THAT RIDE! Joseph and I did the baby swap – I went first and waited about 10 minutes for the preshow and no more than 2 minutes to board after that. I don’t think I could ever get tired of that one and it was just to boost I needed since I was starting to run out of steam. This is why we don’t do commando style trips any more, I must be getting old…

We did some shopping and eating around the World, we had decided ahead of time not to do any sit down meals this trip since we’re going back in February for our regular big trip and this was just a quickie. We sampled foods from the counter service restaurants – mostly snacks…the diet was way out the window on this trip. Had a yummy bratwurst and German potato salad at Sommerfest, a beavertail in Canada and of course a Kaki Gori in Japan…although for the life of me I can’t remember what flavor. During the Spirit of America performance, we shared a 100 Years of Magic ice cream bar – chocolate ice cream covered in caramel and chocolate – evil, wicked good! As is our tradition, before leaving we ate at the Electric Umbrella – cheeseburgers and French fries, mmm mmm! On the way out we picked up our family picture with Spaceship Earth in the background, amazingly Shane was looking at the camera!

We were parked nice and close so we just walked to our car and headed back to the All Star Movies where we hoped to conk out and sleep the night away. Our neighbors had other plans however…

At about 1am they must have checked in because all was quiet before then and I had noticed a check out envelope that morning on that room’s door. These people were so loud, I can’t even describe it to you! I swear, you’d think we were surrounded by Jeb Clampett and family (ya know, the Beverly Hillbillies [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img] ) I realize people are excited when they’re on vacation but this was ridiculous. The racket went on for the next 2 ½ hours and we were so angry and frustrated – we should have called the front desk but I was in no mood to start packing up and moving to another room, nor did I want to be one of those people who complain about other people. Had Shane gotten woken up, though, I would have. We finally got to sleep somewhere around 3:30 – UGH!

Next: Shane’s Birthday with Mickey and “hey, it’s Regis and Kelly!”

[wdwlovers]

Too bad about the neighbors. We have suffered through people like that before. Not at WDW, but no matter where you are it's annoying. I don't understand how people can't have respect for others and keep quiet.