08/01/02 to 08/05/02 ALL STAR MUSIC:HiddenMickey gives Teresa a whirlwind tour of WDW About This Page:

[HiddenMickey]

Just a little background on this trip before I get started with a report. Last year I bought an Annual Pass because I was at WDW with my family for a week and planned a return trip to WDW in December 2001 for the Passporter Meet. In December I took my 6 year old daughter along for company. To be fair to my son, I promised him a trip in the Spring, which ended up being the last weekend in April. I thought I was done with WDW for a while and had no plans in the works for another trip.

Fast forward to late June 2002. The family is watching taped episodes of Zorro and Walt Disney Presents on TV after dinner one night and my husband says to the kids.....if we keep watching all this Disney, your Mom is going to want to plan another trip to WDW. HUH?! I hadn't been thinking about that at all and say the same to hubby. He replies that I still have time on my annual pass, I should go back by myself or take one of the kids. Now my head is SPINNING...the wheels start turning...and three days later I have a trip planned with one of my co-workers for a long weekend at the beginning of August. Yea!

Details...
HiddenMickey---6 trips in less than 3 years
Teresa (coworker) ---a one day trip with her husband in spring 2001 to Epcot/MK

Flying Southwest Airlines and using Tiffany Town Car from airport to resort

Staying at All Star Music August 1-5
5 day DC park hopper for Teresa/AP for me

Preplans went something like this....

Thursday Aug 1 Magic Kingdom after arrival for rides and fireworks
Friday Aug 2 Animal Kingdom for highlights/Resort Hopping/E-ride night
Saturday Aug 3 MGM/Disney Studios all day (shopping either midday or after Fantasmic at Downtown Disney)
Sunday Aug 4 Epcot all day through Illuminations
Monday Aug 5 Magic Kingdom for missed rides; leave for airport around 1:15

As I mentioned in a post a few weeks ago....Midway nearly cancelled our trip when they decided to stop flying 2 weeks before our trip. Luckily Southwest Airlines still had similar flights at a good rate available for the same days and I was able to book them and get my money back from Midway.

I will be back with the actual events later----

[ 10-28-2002, 01:53 PM: Message edited by: HiddenMickey ]

[TINKN]

Great start! Let's have some more!

[Tara O'Hara]

Good for you, Hidden Mickey!! That sounds awesome! What a great hubby you have! [img]graemlins/love.gif[/img]

Tara

[wdwlovers]

Can't wait to read the actual report! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[tikibird]

Wow, you have a great hubby, for sure! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Looking forward to hearing all about your adventures!

[luvnwdwgal]

Wow!!! 6 trips in 3 years!!! We have only been able to get there once every 3-4 years!!! Another 39 days and we'll be there again!! Looking forward to hearing all about your trip!! [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[GoofyMom]

Wow, HiddenMickey, you've got yourself some great hubby! "Honey, why don't you go to WDW and leave the kids with me?" Is there an emoticon that shows how envious I am? [img]images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] Mine hasn't even taken me out for my birthday dinner yet (and my birthday was 3 weeks ago!!)

[Fortissimo]

HiddenMickey, can you have your husband talk to my husband about how APs shouldn't be wasted on only one trip?

Can't wait for more! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[tikibird]

Patiently waiting for more details!..... [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[HiddenMickey]

Thursday August 1. Today is the day. I get up as usual and get the kids to daycamp. As I'm driving away, I realize my kids didn't kiss me goodbye….I think they forgot I'm going to be gone for 4 nights. Once I get to work, I resolve that Teresa and I will leave the office a little early so I can go by and give them that kiss before driving on to the airport (it's on the way).

At 11:50 we are walking out the door and adding Teresa's luggage to the back of the car. We make the stop at camp….the kids are just leaving the pool area and I get a great big wet hug from my daughter. My son looks less than happy to have his Mom trying to kiss him in front of his friends. Oh well. He'll be happy about it later. Then back to the car and on the way to the airport.

We park in one of the commuter lots and as we are walking up to the bus stop, the waiting bus pulls away. I mention to the other family walking up that I thought he was waiting for us….they thought so too. So we wait about 15 minutes for another bus and are dropped in front of the terminal around 12:30. There is a very short line at the ticket counter and we get our boarding passes for Southwest (B) and proceed to security. We pass through without any problems. Since it is lunch time we make a beeline for the grill counter and order some wrap sandwiches. We people watch while we eat. It's always interesting to see what people choose to wear to travel in. There are so many inappropriate outfits for traveling, particularly bad shoe choices. This will be a continuing pastime throughout our trip J.

Once the gate host starts talking about the boarding procedure, just about everyone jumps up to form a very unorganized set of lines (A, B, C). We opt to sit it out until they call the B people. The plane doesn't start loading up until about 10 minutes before we are due to take off. Obviously we will be a bit behind schedule. We are able to find two seats together a nearly the back of the plane (aisle/middle) and we sit next to a very nervous flyer. Her poor hands were clutching the seat pretty hard. She hardly makes a sound the whole time. Unfortunately for her, we had a very turbulent assent. A couple times my stomach made a flip. Once we were at altitude, all was ok. Snack was a coke and Cheese Nips (yuck….what happened to pretzels?). The staff on this flight includes an absolutely hilarious young guy. He has us all cracking up during the pretake-off spiel and as we are coming into the airport. As we fly closer, clouds get thicker and we can see that thunderstorms are in the Orlando area. We have no problems landing and are quickly into the terminal aboard the monorail.

We meet Marcello at the bottom of the escalator and he goes off to get the car while we wait for the luggage. Teresa's come pretty quickly, but we have to wait a bit for mine. Once we get the suitcases, we make our way to the position Marcello mentioned, but he's not there yet and another vehicle is in the spot. We start to wonder if we heard him right, when we see a black towncar driving up. We are quickly ferried to the All Star Resorts. Marcello is not a talker. I don't think he said much of anything to us the whole trip.

The All Star resort front desk is not particularly busy and I only wait a short time for check in. I had requested a room in Jazz and we were put in Rock Inn. Ugh. Oh well. She says there is nothing else. We put the room on my credit card and have Teresa's park pass put on her credit card using my DC discount. We ask about buying tickets to the Friday night E-ride night and she looks on the handout and points out that the next one is on Tuesday the 6th. WHAT!? Sometime in the past two weeks they dropped our E-ride night! We are a bit bummed, but figure we'll just adjust our plans a bit to work around the loss of those hours.

We make the rather long trek to Rock Inn, pulling our bags behind us. We get to the room (first floor) and unpack just enough to get changed into shorts and t-shirts. As we are changing, we realize that our room is a connecting room…and that the woman next door is screeching at her children. It is loud and decidedly unpleasant to have to hear that. We are definitely worried that we are in a bad room, but decide not to do anything about it now as we want to make it to MK in time to do Carrousel of Progress before it closes at 6pm.

We time our walk from room to Melody Hall at 4 minutes. We walk up to the MK bus stop to find a bus waiting. We enter and he takes off with just the two of us aboard. It is now about 5:00pm. The All Star Buses are in the farthest spots at the bus depot. I find it interesting how many people put something similar to this in their trip reports (for just about all the resorts J ), so I add it in here. We get through a short security line and head through the gates. The flag retreat ceremony is just starting (first time I've seen this) and the band sounds wonderful, playing a very patriotic song. Lots of people are standing around watching, but we don't stop….we're on a mission, remember. We head straight to Carrousel of Progress, but decide to make a quick detour to the Fastpass machines for Buzz Lightyear (6:15-7:15 return) and then to walk right into the show of CoP. Yea!

Teresa is thirsty, so we stop at the Lunching Pad for water and chocolate milk for me. By this time, we are ready to enter Buzz Lightyear. We only wait a minute behind the FP line and we are in our spaceship. Our scores are nothing to write home about…..I'm somewhere about 100,000 and Teresa is somewhere below. When we walk out, we head over to Space Mountain to pick up new Fastpasses (8:55-9:55 return). I am happy to get Fastpasses for this attraction this late in the day. I don't think there are all that many people at the Magic Kingdom today. [This is proven right by tomorrow night's crowd].

We head over to the Haunted Mansion through Fantasyland. The wait time posted says 25 minutes. I look at the line and determine that there is no way it is that long, so we get in-line. Sure enough, the wait is about 10 minutes. We did see the special tombstone, but boy, you gotta look quick or you miss it. The ride was it's usual fun and we are out to find the restrooms between Frontierland and Adventureland. We want to the Tiki Room, which the Times Guide says is open until 8pm, but it actually closed at 6pm, so we walk on past and debate whether to go back to Jungle Cruise or go on to Pirates of the Caribbean. Jungle Cruise has a bit of wait, so we decide the Pirates will be it. Good choice….there isn't really a line and we get to ride in the front row of our boat. It's a bit like riding alone up front. We like it.

By this time, we are getting pretty hungry and decide to head back to Tomorrowland and eat at Cosmic Rays. We go in thinking we'll get Chicken strips, but decide to split a Rotisserie chicken and mashed potatoes…..Man, that is a good meal! We see someone nearby with a bowl of mashed potatoes and decide that would make a great filling snack at some point [we never do this though]. Afterwards, we head up to the TTA, but we aren't allowed on with our drinks. So, we still have time to spare before our Space Mountain fastpass time, and decide to see if there is anything in Fantasyland without a much of a wait. Teresa wants to ride the Carrousel, so we get on some pretty horses and ride around to the music of Aladdin and Cinderella. We can see that there is a small line for Snow White from the vantage of our steeds and head there directly after we dismount.

Snow White is one attraction that my kids don't like. The evil queen as the witch is just too scary. So, I haven't done this one for a while. Definitely not made for little kids we decide. We exit that attraction and head back to the TTA. We toss the drink cups and have a nice cool ride around the area. There is still a few minutes before we can enter Space Mountain, so we "window shop" that carts in the area around TTA. At 8:55 we enter Space Mountain. Now I haven't done this ride since I was in college nearly 20 years ago, so this is exciting to me! I remember the queue being long, but it was really longer than I remember. We are directed toward the right side loading area and end up in the last seat of the first car and the first seat of the last car (smack in the middle, just the way I like it). We screamed and laughed our way through the attraction. That was fun!

As we exit the ride, we spy the phone booths near the restrooms, so Teresa calls her husband. We head toward the hub area thinking we'll catch some of the parade tonight, but as we pass Alien Encounter, I see that they are letting the small crowd into the preshow room, so we decide to bag the parade and do that. Teresa's reaction to the attraction was great. She really had no idea what was going to happen. I remember doing this with my son last year and how much he enjoyed it and how proud I was of him for doing a 'scary' attraction at his own request.

Once out of AE, we walk to the hub and see that the parade passed by some time ago. It is now about 9:30 and we think it will be good to have ice cream while we wait for the fireworks. So we get into line at the Ice Cream Parlor on Main St. and order cups of mint chocolate chip ice cream. We walk down past the Plaza Restaurant and stake out a spot just before the ramp into the Plaza Pavillion. We think we'll get a good view of Tinkerbell from here. Unfortunately, when the fireworks start, Tink does not appear L. And the fireworks were a lot less spectacular than those of last summer. Hard to put a handle on, but I just think there was less light in the sky most of the time. Still, Fantasy in the Sky is a nice show and a great way to end the day!

Not wanting to deal with a huge wait at the bus depot, we opt to browse the shops on the Emporium side of the street and take our time leaving the park. No purchases tonight, but got a few ideas. The bus depot has a many people still waiting, but not the huge mobs we would have been in had we exited earlier. We get a bus very quickly, standing, and are back at the ASMu before we knew it. The ride is really only about 15 minutes. Back at the resort we head straight for the room and get ready for bed. It's quiet next door, so maybe this afternoon was an aberration. Lights out around 11:30. What's that!? Oh, my gosh. It's 12:15 and the family next door just arrived…..with a large banging door and the mom screeching at the top of her lungs again. She's telling the kids they need to have a shower tonight and get the pajamas on. Some mumbling and then the mom screeches that the pajamas are probably in the drawer where they unpacked them. This is horrible. These people have no idea how noisy they are! I try knocking on the connecting door to get their attention…nothing. I write a note and slip it under the door and knock again. [Could you please be a little quieter, we can hear everything you are saying, Thanks.] Still nothing. Determine at 12:30 that we can't live in this room next to these people for 4 nights, so I call the front desk. I explain the problem and ask when our neighbors will be checking out (not until the 6th…after us). Would we be able to get a new room tomorrow? She replies to that we should check at the front desk tomorrow morning and they will try to help. Luckily, the family does settle down in a bit, and we are able to get back to sleep. A rocky sleep at that, first night in a hotel with an unfamiliar bed and pillow and the worry about whether we will be able to move in the morning.

Friday, August 2

I am up around 7:45 due to the alarm going off next door and noone turning it off for a couple minutes! I jump in the shower quickly. After I get mostly ready, I tell Teresa that I am going to the front desk to see about our room. I make the four minute walk to find one person at Check-in, two at Check-out, and two at Guest Services. The lines for the latter two had several people in them, and since I think Check-in is the place to be, I get in that line (two people who are together ahead of me). Little did we know that the woman being checked in would take 30 minutes to accomplish her task. She must have asked a bunch of unusual questions because the CM had to keep leaving her post and deal with the manager at the desk and do something behind the scenes. It was a bit irritating to see the other lines moving along and we were just standing there. When I finally get up to the desk, the CM is completely understanding of our situation and calls someone on the phone who determines that there is a room that is non-connecting available in another building now. The CM has a LOT of trouble printing out our new key cards and when she finally does, I find that we are now in the Country Fair section. Oh well. At least no loud neighbors (crossed fingers). Ad I get back to the Rock Inn area, there is Teresa coming to find me. She tells me she was sure I'd be successful, so she's already repacked. I just have to repack my things and we leave a tip for the housekeeper and we walk further down the resort to the Country Fair building 6. We are in 6410…..the very last room at the end of the resort on the first floor. The only rooms further away are those on the back side of the building.

Sidebar: I have to note here a strange thing-- The room next to us, 6409, has it's shades open and lights on. The beds have been partially stripped and the door is propped open with the security bar used to lock the room. There is a box of bologna or ham on the bathroom counter. There is no housekeeper in sight. Hop ahead to tonight. The room is in the same state. Hop ahead to Saturday morning, the room is in the same state! Hop ahead to Saturday night, the door is now closed, but the room is still the same. Sunday morning the room is STILL the same. What is going on here? Doesn't housekeeping ever check on the rooms? This is too bizarre. The only good thing is, we have no neighbors to disturb our sleep. J Still it is kind of spooky. We just can't figure out why the room was like that for so long. Sunday night …..we return to find something different. The curtains are closed, the lights are on inside and there is a Do Not Disturb card in the door lock. We have neighbors…and they are quiet.

Once we have our things in the room, we get together what we'll need for today and leave the room until tonight. The sky is perfectly clear and it is actually not too humid this morning. Yesterday evening was a sweat bath until after dark. Teresa needs some breakfast so we stop by the food court for a quick croissant meal and juice. We are out at the bus stop by 9:30 and hop on bus to Animal Kingdom. I know that there is a Festival of the Lion King show at 9:50 and we'd like to make it into that one, so there is no leisurely walk through the park once we arrive. Women on a mission again. J We are seated in the Warthog section (which is where my son wanted to be in April) and the show starts shortly afterward. What can I say? This has got to be the best show at Walt Disney World! Teresa says she nearly cries several times thinking about what her nieces and nephews would think about it. [Even when the trip is over, this is still her favorite attraction at the park.] Everything worked just like it should today (no missing performers from what I could tell…we had a show without the girl bird once).

We walk over to Africa with intentions of Fastpasses for the Safari, but it has only a 15 minute wait and we decide to stand in the line instead. It really was about 15 minutes and we were seated in one of the cars that has a cut-out in front for a wheelchair. We had the second row, which consists of two seats on the left of the car. There were very few animals out in the first portions of the reserve and even in the savanna area we only saw a couple of giraffes and a couple hoofed animals. I've always seen a lot of animals there, so this was surprising. The lions were asleep, as was the cheetah, but we could see them clearly. I don't think Teresa even got the Big Red/Little Red theme. Our driver (from Mexico City) was not into her role at all and didn't carry it out well. It felt like the plane and ranger with Little Red were just thrown in without a prestory. When we were wandering out into Africa afterwards, we saw Flik making is way off-stage. I took a quick picture before he walked out of sight. I was so excited. I've been hoping to see him ever since we saw him on one of the Planning Videos.

We had decided before we came to WDW to try the Meal Plus Certificates here at Animal Kingdom, so we entered Pizzafari on our way over to Discovery Island to purchase the certificates. We wanted water and figured we'd use our drink certificate for that. We decided to buy the kids meal certificate ($5.99) as we didn't think we'd need much lunch with the heat the way it is, and we planned to eat a sit-down meal tonight for dinner. The park is definitely hot and air is not moving well at all.

We head to the Bug's Life line as it says the wait is 10 mins. Teresa spies a cart and gets out of line to get her water and walks back to where I am a couple minutes later. We look at all the carvings on the way in and they open the doors to the theater shortly after we enter the waiting area. Teresa was blown away by the show! She had no idea what to expect and was screaming and laughing the whole time. It's so fun to experience this with someone new. I, myself haven't been in here since our 1999 trip, because the kids didn't like it, so I had a lot of fun too.

After we get out and wander with the hordes through that poorly thought-out exit queue, I was thirsty and found a cart to get my drink at shortly. We headed for Dinosaur and opted for Fastpasses as the line was about 25 minutes and the return time wasn't too much after that. So we turned around and got in line for Primeval Whirl which was posted at 20 minutes (really more like 15). I still like this ride (did with son in April) but she wasn't enthused about the spins. So once was enough this trip. We did bathroom break in the Chester-Hester area and then headed for Dinosaur. We walked into the preshow just after it started and caught all the important stuff. The ride was just as always, dark, bumpy, yet fun in a weird way. I was even surprised again by the dino at the end (you'd think I'd remember that!).

Well, it was now time for some lunch. We went in search of chicken strips kids meals. Let me tell you…they are not to be had at Animal Kingdom. (Restrauntasaurus has McDonalds nuggets which I find yucky). At Flame Tree we could have had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or something else I wish I wrote down. At Tusker House it was Mac and Cheese. So we opted to go back to Pizzafari for kid's pizzas. The pizza and carrot sticks meal was actually a very nice meal and just the right size.We enjoyed the room with the artwork pieces on the ceiling and the snails on the walls. Afterwards, we headed to Kali River Rapids but the wait said 45 minutes and fastpasses were for 2:45-3:45…and we didn't plan to stay that long. So we wandered into the Maharajah Jungle trek and looked at the Fruit Bats and Tigers. As we walked toward the entrance of the park, we picked up our last certificate item….ice cream. I got the cookie sandwich and Teresa opted for the Mickey Bar. We sat down on a rock bench and people watched while we ate.

Afterwards, we walked through the Oasis and out of the park. And who should we see with a short line for autographs and pictures…..Tarzan and Jane. COOL! I waited in line for a picture with them. Both were very much in character and Tarzan doesn't wear much, just like in the movie. Then we made our way over to the bus depot to pick up a bus to the Contemporary. We were going to tour the MK resorts (minus Wilderness Lodge…because after my experience with the buses between AK and WL last April, I didn't want to waste 40 minutes on the bus). A bus arrived shortly after we got to the stop and we and several others joined a few who had been at Blizzard Beach on the trip to the Contemporary. Once the bus arrived at the Contemporary, we went up to the 15th floor and went out on the observation deck to take in the view. I've only been up there at night, so it was a treat for me to see all around like that during the day too. You really can see a long way. We used the VERY nice restroom on the 15th floor and then headed down to the 4th floor to look at the pin station area. On the way down in the elevator, we stopped at the 6th floor to pick up a new passenger, who happened to be a CM riding on a Segway that she said they were testing out as a means of making deliveries in the resort. She said it was working wonderfully. Looked like fun to us! We didn't see anything we had to have at the Pin cart (I was searching for a Trash Can pin and a Tiki Room pin) and went up to the monorail platform to a waiting monorail.

I decide we would see more of the Polynesian if we got off at the TTC and walked through the resort from there. We strolled the path and entered the Tahiti building (where my family stayed last August) and out onto the beach. There was a young girl in the far hammock, but otherwise there wasn't a sole on this end of the beach. We walked up past the Hawaii building and past the quiet pool to the volcano pool. It was quite busy (no surprise) as was the beach nearby. We crossed the bridge and went into Captain Cook's for bottled water. We wandered around the shops on both floors and got the lady at the pin cart to change my battery in my daughter's Magical Moments Pin that I had been carrying around. Then we decided to use the path to the Grand Floridian instead of the monorail. That way Teresa could see the Wedding Chapel and the outside of the resort. There was a limo just leaving the chapel so we figured there was a wedding today. It was very humid and you could tell a storm might be developing at any time. We sat around inside for a while. The piano player was there when we first entered. There was a group of ladies wearing hats sitting nearby with a Birthday cake in front of them, but no party actually happening. We saw people having High Tea and a wedding party taking pictures near the grand staircase.

As we sat there, we decide on our plans for the rest of the evening. We decided we'd get the monorail and return to the Polynesian for dinner at O'hana and then go to the Magic Kingdom until close afterwards. We arrived back the Polynesian around 4:15 and noted that dinner starts at 5:00. Since we didn't have PSs, we figured it would be best to hang around until someone showed up at the podium and then quickly get on the list for dinner. We ordered drinks from the bar and people watched and glanced at Frasier on TV occasionally. At one point a couple children further down the bar ordered something to drink (smoothies) and then Teresa and the bartender looked at each other with funny looks and he said, something about her not being a novice. Turns out the little girl asked for salt on the rim! J We all got a chuckle from that. She was practically jumping out of her skin with happiness when that drink was delivered.

At 5:00 the hostess got to the podium and Teresa made a mad dash and was second in line. The first fellow had a PS. She was given the electric pager and we sat for about 5 more minutes before we were called. We were led to a two-top at a window near the center of the room. It was the perfect spot. And as we sat down, it began to pour outside. In fact it poured rain during our entire meal! Timing could not have been better. The food was just as good, if not better than I remembered. We agreed that the steak was the best part of the meal. By the time the pineapple arrived, I could only eat one piece. I was that full.

It was still raining when we left, but not nearly as hard, so the plan to go to Magic Kingdom was still on. Once through the gates, we headed straight for Splash Mountain for fastpasses. Teresa stopped into the Briar Patch to buy a new poncho, as it didn't look like it would be letting up soon (I had my poncho-from King's Dominion---I like the orange color). We decided to do the Hall of Presidents since that would get us out of the rain and I'm not sure I'd ever seen it before (maybe in the early 70s when my family went). It was much different than I imagined, and I enjoyed it a lot. I'll be sure to do this attraction with my kids at some point in the future. I'm not too sure about a lot of those president's faces though….lots of them didn't look like pictures we've all seen and I identified several of them wrong.

The rain had basically stopped by the time we left the theater (now Teresa has an extra poncho). We headed for Jungle Cruise, which I think is fun to do at dusk. The line was about 15 minutes, so we decided to get in line. The line took all of that time too, and then….just as we were in the next group to board….something went wrong. The boat that had just left…came back, backwards. The skipper said that the boat in front had broken down. Now comes the weird part. No one seemed to be doing anything. The CMs just talked to each other while everyone stood around wondering what was going on. In just a little bit, we could see the broken-down boat floating back toward us….this took about 15 minutes and was being accomplished only by the current in the water. No boat was sent out after them, they had no paddles to get them moving. Once they were almost back to the dock, the other full boat reversed all the way back out of view and they offloaded the group in that boat. At that point, a manager (wearing a tie) comes up to find out what is going on. Where were you before? They get the broken boat backed up to where they keep the boats and get the full boat going through the jungle and then load the people who got off, on the next boat up. Then they take off into the jungle. Yea…we get to go aboard. But, wait, what's this? We are just moving back and forth in the dock area! The skipper keeps telling us she has to wait for a rescue boat before she can go. Huh? We have no idea what she is talking about and she just keeps trying to get us all in conversation….we just want to get moving! After all we spent a good deal of time waiting in that darn line. Teresa and I would have gotten out if we hadn't been in the next group to go. We were amazed at all the people who stayed in line behind when it was obvious there was a real delay. Finally, the first boat out of the dock rounds the bend and is in view and our skipper is allowed to pull out (why couldn't she have just said that?). We do the tour of the jungle….our skipper is OK, I've had better and I've had worse. We all are happy when the ride is over and we can get out of the jungle. J

So, our Splash Mountain window is open (and has been for a bit), so we head down there. We get to the queue start and the CM is telling folks that the ride has broken down and they aren't sure how long it will be before it's up again. Ugh. That's two bad luck things in a row….will there be a third? We decide it's not worth waiting and make our way toward Fantasyland to see what the waits are like there. Everything has a long wait except Small World, so we get in line for that. We are almost to the boarding area, when a boy slips past us to join someone a little further down, then a man does the same thing, and in the end, about 4-5 people cut line. Not a huge deal really (at least for this ride), but I just don't understand why people can't wait until they are all together before they enter a queue. It's so rude to get one person in line and then have several more join as they get to the entrance. And this happens all over the park with family groups.

As I get on the ride, I notice there is a poncho stuck in the tracks behind our boat and point it out to a CM. She looks like she wants to reach in and get it, but thinks better of it and rushs up to the booth to tell the guy running the boats. Then we are off to see the "little people". I try to quiz Teresa on which countries the different areas represent…she isn't too good at it, so I just start telling her which are which. After we leave, we go to the phones near Peter Pan so she can call her hubby. While I am waiting, I get two different people that ask if I work there J. The first I was able to help…she wanted to know when Tinkerbell is supposed to fly. The second is a gentleman who wants someone to take care of a mess in the men's room. Sorry, can't help there. Yuck.

It is now parade time, so we work our way through Liberty Square to the area just off the bridge to the hub. There is still some space to see the parade as it comes over the bridge with an unobstructed view. UNTIL, the camera lady for h--- appears. I have never seen someone so crazy to get pictures. She was just manic about it. She pulled her preteen son over near the wall between some strollers that we were standing behind and starts jumping around trying to get the best shots, some with him in them. At one point she even makes him climb up on the wall (he looks like he's gone fall in the moat) so he can get in a shot. I can't really describe it well….it may be one of the those things you had to see. The people sitting at the outdoor tables near us see that she is disturbing our view and enjoyment and offer up two of their seats (that some of their party had vacated) so we can sit down. Really a nice gesture…and it did take the woman out of our direct line

[HiddenMickey]

view! We really enjoyed the parade (Chernaborg's wings didn't open, so that float looked like a volcano the whole time) and I'm glad Teresa got to see it.

We had thought we'd try to see if Tinkerbell flew tonight, but once the parade was over, I realized I was totally wiped out. I've never felt that way in the parks before…really worn down. So I suggested we go back to the room. Teresa agreed….the same feeling had come over her. We wandered down Main Street with the masses…more people leaving than staying it seemed and out to the bus area for a very short wait. We did have to stand on the way back, of course. We stopped at Maestro Mickey's at the resort and bought a couple snacks and some pins for my kids. Took the long walk to the room and were asleep before midnight.

Saturday, August 3

I am up at 8:00, before the alarm ring and in the shower quickly. Once Teresa and I are ready, we leave the room. It is about 9:00 and we head for the food court so Teresa can get her breakfast. She orders the croissant sandwich again. Today I just get milk. As we are eating (near the checkout), Teresa points out to me that there is a woman on the floor at one of the registers. She is clearly not well, and her husband (who had been standing at a table near us…trying to get her attention earlier) is holding her. The CMs are on the phone, we assume with paramedics. Teresa said the woman had been looking kind of pasty and trying to get someone's (her husband's) attention before she got in line.
We have to leave before any help arrives, so we just have to hope she's ok.

When we get to the bus stop, a bus for MGM is just pulling out. Darn it. Luckily another pulls up 5 minutes later. Short ride and we are at the park. Saw the big Stitch at the entrance and took his picture before going through security. The woman working security in our line is a talker….she has a conversation with everyone she deals with. Makes for a much longer check-through than usual.

Once in the park, we split up. I send Teresa to get Fastpasses for Rock n Rollercoaster while I head for the Big Hat. I need to see about getting a new Magical Moments Pin. The battery that was replaced yesterday works, but the pin is not going off like it's supposed to…even when I press it, it barely works. I explain the problem to the CM, and she says I can replace it. So, I get a new pin and make my way back down toward RnR. Teresa is waiting with the fastpasses. She says the wait time since she's been standing there has gone from 20-40 minutes. Our fastpasses are for 10:20-11:20. We turn around and walk up to Tower of Terror which has a wait of 35 minutes posted. The wait is really 10 minutes and we are quickly in the library. There are a lot of really tall people in there and Teresa's view of the TV is blocked somewhat. My MM pin goes off as we walk through the boiler room. We are seated in the front row of our elevator and we are off! The ride was great. We laughed and screamed. My MM pin went off several times during the ride too. When we exit, we decide, we've got to do it again later and plan to pick up new fastpasses after we ride RnR. We walk slowly toward RnR as it's not quite our window of time yet. When we get to the fastpass queue and there are several people waiting for their time to come up. We have about 5 more minutes until 10:15 arrives.

Sidebar: While waiting, we notice that a mom and teenage son who had been on the bus with us are in line next to us. We acknowledge the coincidence with them. I put this in a sidebar because for the next three days we happen to ride the same bus to the same theme park at the same time in the morning with this same family (there is a Dad too, who doesn't seem to do the rides)! What are the chances? And we always ended up in line with them on at least one ride after we enter the park. By Monday morning, they are asking us where we are headed once in the park. I ask if they want to know so they can avoid us, or join us J.

The CM at the fastpass entrance lets us go in a bit early, but there is a line in the queue area for fastpasses, so we have to wait a couple minutes before entering the preshow anyway. Once in, we see the preshow and head out to the alley. Teresa sees the cars taking off and I think for a moment, she'll want to back out. But, she is a trooper and we are placed in the third row from the back of the limo. The ride is over in no time…and we decide once is enough for that ride. We make our way over to the ToT fastpass booths and secure a time (I forgot to write it down). We go get water at one of the booths and find the restrooms in the alley off the street. We decide to do the 11:15 showing of Indiana Jones. We get some seats about 5 rows from the front on the center-right of the audience. After we sat down, I mention to Teresa that I've seen this attraction a lot and that I think I might try to volunteer for the extras. She says go for it. So once the Casting Director appears and starts her choosing, I stand up and wave and yell. I am not picked in the first group, but make the group that has to laugh! J I hand Teresa my fannypack to Teresa and tell her to take some photos with my camera and head down the stairs to the stage. This is way exciting! I am asked to do the belly laugh and just about kill my throat in the effort. It actually hurt….not sure what I did. Then our group is sent to the top of the auditorium to get costumed. We sign a waiver (I always thought that was a joke), get into our costumes and are given a cup of water (much needed for the sore throat) and we watch the first segment of the stage show from the top rows.

When they are setting up the second scene we are sent down to the stage. It is fun to get this view of the workings. Never knew there was a bad guy hiding in the "rugs". We do our best to look like busy Cairo natives and enjoy yelling at the stunt people doing their thing. When the final car roll-over is done, we are sent back upstairs to give up our costumes and get another cup of water. I thanked the "casting director" for picking me out of the crowd, since it was so fun to see the show from the stage perspective. Then I went back down to my seat next to Teresa. She said she took several pictures. Haven't gotten the film developed yet, so I have no idea if they came out well at all.

After the show was over we slowly made our way out of the theater with the masses and headed back toward Tower of Terror. I decided to stop on the way and try and make a PS for lunch at the 50s Prime Time Café. The CM working was very friendly and was able to find a slot for us at 1:05. It is now noon, so we figure we can get in our return ride on ToT and another attraction before lunchtime. No wait at all and we are into the library. The second ride on ToT was almost as much fun as the first. The CM loading us into the elevator was talking to us and just as the doors are closing he says-"Whatever you do, don't…" and the door closes on him. It was pretty funny to us at the time. We still have plenty of time before our PS and we decide to try to get into Who Wants To Be a Millionaire-Play it! We figure we will be a couple minutes late for our PS since the show is ½ hour and we are doing the 12:30 showing. We are directed into the theater by a couple CMs trying to get a full audience by pulling people off the street.

The theater looks a lot like I remember the TV show looking. There is a stage director to get the crowd going and explain the set up. Then she introduces Dennis, our Regis for the day. He is great. Really has a perfect feel for the job. The first fastest finger contestant was Lisa (can't recall where she was from). She was so nervous when she first got on stage….she could barely talk. Then as she was there longer, she was much more relaxed. She was so excited to get to the 1000 point level, because she really wanted the hat. Turns out that most of her party (extended family group of about 8 people) already had hats of their own! She got all the way to the 32000 point question and got the wrong answer. She used all the help during the game…and even tried phone-a-stranger (didn't get the answer in time). Teresa didn't realize she could play along after the fastest finger question, so missed answering the 100 point question and so was out of the running. I had missed a question somewhere in the group and was also out of the running. A lot of Lisa's family was doing really well according to the overhead board, but a guy (who's name I can't remember) from a couple rows down was #1 when she missed. He was really great and didn't seem nearly as nervous as Lisa. He was doing really well and so was I! At the 1000 point level I was #4 on the boards. So far I had known all the questions and I had answered really quickly. I kept right up there with "guy" and at the 32000 point question (What Ivy League school is home to the Fogge Art Museum? Brown, Princeton, Harvard, Yale.) He used his 50/50. He guessed correctly…..Harvard. I, too, had guessed correctly and I was now #2 on the boards!!! Of course at this point I knew there was no way I would be able to go on the floor as there was only 5 minutes left in the game…BUT, I didn't care! I was doing great! Then the 64000 point question (What country's McDonald's serves McSpaghetti? Canada, Italy, Phillipines, Japan) He used ask the audience and the split was pretty even. He ended up guessing Canada. He was wrong. But guess what!? I was right with Phillipines and when they checked the board at the end of the game, I WAS #1! J I walked out of there with shaky legs….I had so much fun! I was so glad to get a chance to play this game finally and to do so well at it!

Well, we cleared out of there pretty quickly to make our lunch date at Prime Time. We walked in just at 1:05 but had to wait a bit while a walk-in was helped. Once we were greeted, we sat down in the "living room" to wait and were called in about 5 minutes. We are seated toward the back (table next to the one my family sat in when we ate there previously) in Patty's section. She was great. We each ordered the Chicken Pot Pie and a Coke and then I made a bathroom run. While I was gone, Patty got on Teresa for having her elbows on the table (Teresa said she turned bright red)! The table next to us had a family that Patty was having fun with too, so we got in on their action. J Over on the other side of the room, where we couldn't see, there were a couple people getting in trouble and the whole room had to razz them. Hadn't seen that done previously. The food was great. Patty gave Teresa a hard time about not eating her carrots (egged on by me) and when I was finished, she found a ½ a piece left on my plate and gave me a hard time. We had no room for dessert, so paid, thanked Patty for a fun meal and were on our way to more fun….or so we thought.

We walked out the door to find BLACK skies creeping in. Decided doing an indoor attraction would be good and opted to try for Voyage of the Little Mermaid. It was right around 2pm now. They were just letting people in the theater holding area, so we joined in and had a 10 minute or so wait until the doors opened up. It was a good show, but we had to sit up too close….I like the back. Teresa really enjoyed it. The puppetry is so wonderful. When we walk out, it is raining. So we look through the shop and then decide to try The Great Movie Ride (which we had been saving for tonight) to see if the rain would stop while we were in it. There is a bit of a line and we watch just over one full showing of the movie reel. We get the gangster scene and a little 3 year old next to us was VERY scared at the bullets noise. He had to hide his face in his Dad's shoulder for much of the rest of the ride. When we exit, it is still raining, so we make a beeline for the restroom and then decide it's time to go shopping at Downtown Disney.

We leave the Studios at around 3:15 and catch a DD bus. It makes one stop at the Pleasure Island stop. Now this was weird for three reasons…..1. When I rode a bus to DD last time, that area was no longer being used 2. Pleasure Island was not open yet. 3. It meant everyone had to take the long walk to either Marketplace or Westside. Since we didn't have our ponchos (remember the nice sunny skies this morning) we were a bit wet when we entered the Lego Store.

The Lego Store was a major destination because my son requested a specific Bionical figure and a specific Bionical hat from the store. We found the figure without problem, but they only had one type of hat available, and it was not what he wanted. Turns out (from asking an employee) that they are only making hats with the logo now and have discontinued the hats with the characters. UGH. Total disappointment. He'd lost his during soccer last year and wanted a replacement. Ended up buying two figures. Then we walked in the rain to the World of Disney. Teresa and I both were overwhelmed here. There is just so much to see, but of course, we had only partial luck finding the things we wanted. I got my daughter a Belle doll (like a Barbie), a 100yrs hat for my son, a 100yrs tank top for my daughter, a CD player case for my daughter….and something I forget there, using my DC discount. Teresa finds herself a hat similar to the one I've been wearing around the parks. It is a wide-brimmed khaki hat with a string to hold it around your neck. Then we make our way over to Team Disney where we find things for our husbands. I found a wonderfully soft polo style shirt on sale and got a DC discount on top of that.

Next stop is the new toy store, Once Upon a Toy. What a wonderful place. So much neat Disney stuff. I debate whether to get some Mr. Potato Head pieces, but decide against it. I help a family that is putting together a Mr. Potato Head understand that they can stuff as much into their box as they can….they don't have to limit themselves to what fits on Mr. Potato Head at one time. They are happy and start searching for more stuff to add. Teresa finds a Flounder stuffed animal for her niece and has a conversation with the CM checking her out about the CMs 150 stuffed animals. We look around the new Pin store next. There is a lot there, but no pins I need. I do ask a Pin Trader with his book out if he has the Fantasyland Trash Can Pin, and he shows it to me. It is really cute…wish I could get me hands on one or two. The door even works only one direction like a real trash can. Teresa is flabbergasted at the amount of pins those pin traders have. The guy I talked to was having a discussion with another trader about mistake and rare pins….very interesting. Last stop is the Christmas Store. Smells good in there, but why do ornaments have to be so expensive? Oops, we see a build your own keychain booth nearby and go there before hitting the bus. Teresa has been searching the stores for a keychain with Flounder on it. Unbelievably, there is a keychain already made up with a Flounder bead on it. It is just right and Teresa buys it! There didn't seem to be any single Flounder bead pieces left either, so she really lucked out. If you like keychains, this is the place to go.

We make our way to the Marketplace bus stop for a ASMu bus (still sprinkling at this point) and wait about 15 minutes for a bus (there were already several people waiting when we got there). After we are all on the bus, the driver asks if anyone is going to Westside and no one answers so he announces he is headed straight to the resort. Yea. BUT, as we pass the entrance to West Side, a guy from the back of the bus makes his way up front to discuss something with the driver. Turns out, he and his friend wanted to get off at West Side but didn't hear the announcement L. Instead of turning around, the bus driver takes them to Typhoon Lagoon and they get out to catch another bus back to DD. Just a little delay, but annoying none-the-less. Once back at the resort, we head to the room and leave our bags of purchases, get a little more put together and head to the food court. At about 6:30, we get some Chicken Strips (finally) and use the refillable mugs I brought for the first time. (Because our room was so far from the food court and because they are selling a new design mug, I wasn't sure about using them until now. We are headed to MGM after dinner for Fantasmic, so I won't mind having to hold on to the mug for tonight. We did see a few people using the older mugs as well).

Once we are done, we head outside for the bus. It is about 15 minutes wait and we are the only ones waiting at our stop. We enter the park and since we still have some time before we need to get a seat at the theater, I suggest we make our way to the Muppet Show and make it in for the 7:30 showing. Fun show, but not nearly as good as Bugs Life says Teresa (I agree). We walk through New York Street and head toward the Fantasmic theater, getting our seats around 8:10 for the 9:00 show. We are seated about 7-8 rows from the bottom near some families with young kids who keep us entertained. Teresa and I take turns using the facilities and I bring some (awful) popcorn back to Teresa, at her request. The show is wonderful and runs really well, except for when Belle's barge runs into the "wall" and she and the Beast almost lose their footing. The kids who had been so rambunctious before the show, were just mesmerized. We all sat around for a while afterwards to let the crowds disapate. One of the families had two sons and left a bit before us, as we were walking out, we saw them up ahead and the older of the two sons (maybe 7 yrs) was hitting his Mom. She had to back up to get out of his line of attack and the Dad gave him a huge scolding. That was too bad. I think they were pretty tired at that point.

I stopped near the Big Hat to get a nighttime picture as we made our way out of the park. There were a lot of people doing the same thing. We wandered into a couple shops and made a point to go in Sid's since I haven't checked it out before. Lots of interesting posters and stuff. We get to the bus stop around 10pm and still have to wait for 2 buses to fill up before we get on the third. We are back at the resort around 10:30 and Teresa calls her husband from the Lobby while I look for snacks in the gift shop (Entemann's Pastry and milk). We watch the end of the last Cheers episode and lights out afterwards.

Sunday, August 4

Today is our Epcot day. Teresa has seen some of this park before, but basically missed doing most of the rides or even entering most of the pavilions. We have a lot of ground to cover in short time. I am up at 8am and we are out of the room by 8:40 (a record for us I think). We don't stop for breakfast in the food court today as we had some pastry from last night and I've got a surprise breakfast planned for Teresa at Epcot. We wait only 5 minutes for a bus and enter Epcot around 9:10. We make our way to Test Track to get Fastpasses (10:05-11:05) and then go to the Wonders of Life pavilion to do whatever we see first. Body Wars is the first thing, so we get in line for it and are soon seated in the pod. However, there is a mechanical problem, soon after the doors have closed and the CM has to entertain us for a short time until the ride is reset. I'd forgotten about the famous folks that are part of the film. I enjoy the ride, though it really seems pretty short. We spent more time with the CM than on the ride.

Teresa knows we are having breakfast in Norway, but had no idea that it is a character meal. I wanted her to experience one while she was here and this new meal was a perfect opportunity. We made our way from Body Wars over to the World Showcase entrance where we were met by a CM from Mexico. We told her we had a 9:50 breakfast PS and she lowered the rope for us. There were several more Norwegian CMs along the walkway pointing the way to Norway. Once we got there, we checked in at the podium (outside) and were given a flashing pager. Since it was already really hot , we chose to spend most of our wait wandering in the shop and looking at the pricey goods. The ride is covered over with burlap and the roof of the shop is in midrepair (looks awful). Our pager goes off about 10 minutes later and we are led to a table. The table is set and there is a two-tiered server with a plate of fruit (melons, strawberries) and a plate of muffins/buns. We are greeted by Tonya and Morten (he's training) and asked what we'd like to drink. They serve coffee and orange juice. You can order fancy coffees and mimosas or bloody marys for an extra cost. We just want oj. Eventually, the princesses make their appearances. We are visited by Snow White, Mary Poppins, Belle, Sleeping Beauty, and Jasmine. All of them were delightfully friendly and we had pictures with most of them taken. Afterwards we were served sausages, bacon, scrambled eggs, potato casserole, and French toast sticks. Mostly average food, but enough to hit the spot for us. We were there nearly an hour, World Showcase is still closed as we exit into Future World, but people are lined up waiting for it to open.

We are just in time to get to Test Track to use our Fastpasses before they expire. The ride was fun and felt really FAST today. My hair was a total mess afterwards. We exited and looked at some of the cars on display and debated whether to do the virtual reality sales pitch. Decided not to (line was long) and went outside to get another set of fastpasses for later.

We make our way over to Ellen's Energy Adventure. There is a huge line, but I figure that only means they are almost ready to start another show. Sure enough, the line starts moving inside shortly after we join it. I kind of like this attraction… but it does seem a little long. We leave there to go over to Innoventions and tour the House of the Future. I like the things they have in that house….the best being the washer and dryer that can handle 22 bath towels at one time…WOW! We leave there and head for Ice Station Cool because Teresa is thirsty. Being the nice friend I am, I don't make her try Beverly.
We are now headed for the other side of Future World, with Honey, I Shrunk the Audience being the main draw today. On the way there we run into a mom and son from last night's Fantasmic showing. We call him turkey boy because this 5 year old was chowing down on a big leg before the show. Today he found a small toad on the sidewalk (like the one's my son and I saw in April) and he wanted to show us. We don't think they recognized us, at least I didn't until Teresa pointed out who they were. We walk into the already running preshow and are quickly let into the theater. We get seats in the center. Teresa is really surprised by the mice and I have to warn her when the snake appears (hates them). Overall, she liked this a lot too. We play in the Kodak playground a bit and then watch the fountains outside. As we are leaving the pavilion, I suddenly remember about Journey Into Your Imagination being open, so we detour into the ride.

The ride really was changed a lot from it's previous incarnation. I'm not too sure I like it. Sure Figment is cute and the song is a nice catchy one, but the ride itself didn't do much for me. I thought it should have spent more time actually helping us get an understanding about our imagination….but what we got was Figment wreaking havoc before any learning could begin in each area. I'll do this again when visiting with my kids, but I'm not in love with it. We exit and head over the The Land. Our original intention was to get a quick snack in the Sunshine Season Faire, but all the lines are too long, and the food choices are just more than we want right now. So we get Fastpasses for Living with the Land (wait is 50 mins) and head over to Test Track as our second set of Fastpass times is already up. I made sure to put my hair up this time, but it still comes out a mess in the end. We were seated with a kid who is pretty talkative. He seems disappointed when we tell him we've done the ride before….I think he was hoping we'd be scared or something.

We decide it must be time for Spaceship Earth by now as there are never lines in the middle of the day. So we make a beeline toward that area and stop at the nearby restrooms. Unfortunately, there is a line right now, and I suggest we find something else to do….there won't be a line later at some point. Since it is getting close to 3:00 and we have a 3:30 PS time for Teppanyaki, we decide to make our way back to World Showcase. We take our time walking there. I am surprised to find a large portion of the Canada structure covered in burlap. Definitely ugly. We don't see any entertainment in Canada, UK, France or the Moraccan pavilions as we walk through. I do tell Teresa a bit about the different acts that each land has for future reference. Once we are in the Japan area, I notice that Miyuki is going to be doing candy in about 10 minutes, but since our PS time is nearly here, we'll miss her. Teresa says she's seen candy making like hers on TV though, so that's OK.

We enter the department store in Japan to look for some Yu-Gi-Oh cards my son wants. There are quite a few choices and we decide the best bet will be to call home and see what he wants after our meal. So, we make our way upstairs and check in at 3:15. We are seated almost right away. There are already two parties at our table. One group of 3 young people is already eating their salads, the other group of 3 women closer to our ages has their drinks, but no salads. It is weird to be at different parts of our meal at the same table….never had that happen before. Our waitress soon takes our order and we get our cokes and salads without too much delay. The cook we get today is not much into showmanship, in fact I only remember him tossing shrimp tails into a bowl and that was it. Nothing else..where's the fire, where's the tossing knives, making things land in your hat? The meal was fine. He overcooked my scallops (pretty usual for these places), but the rest was fine. I smothered my food in soy sauce and that always works wonders. None of our tablemates was particularly chatty with anyone besides their own group. I tried to get people talking at one point, but it fizzled out shortly after we got past where everyone was from.

After we had paid our bills, we headed downstairs to find a pay phone. There doesn't seem to be one in Japan, so we make our way over to the Liberty Inn in the American Adventure. I called home to speak with my son, but he was at a friend's house. So, had a quick chat with my husband and daughter about the last couple days and decided on what to buy my son. Teresa's feet are bothering her, so I left her in the Liberty Inn and I went back to Japan's department store for the items. Unfortunately it took me a lot longer than I had hoped as there were lines at both registers. Once I got that done, I made my way back to pick up Teresa so we could see the 4:30 American Adventure show. When we entered the rotunda, there was a group singing. They were wearing various styles of clothing from different eras. I'd never seen them before (don't know their name), only the more modern group. They did a wonderfully, beautiful rendition of America the Beautiful. Just lovely! Then we all made our way up the stairs/escalator to the theater. We found ourselves in some middle seats and enjoyed the show. Teresa liked the flags in the stair area (I do too) and we did notice the World Trade Center flag, but didn't go up for a close look. Teresa still gets choked up about that day.

When we left the theater we can see that rain is imminent. We make our way over to the ride in Mexico and on our way notice that the Campanile in Italy is covered with burlap (what's with all the burlap?) and look at the trains (which aren't running) in Germany. Of course Maelstrom is closed (burlap), so we walk into Mexico, check out the glass blower…he was just starting something new so we couldn't tell what it was going to be, and then got into the queue for the ride. Teresa had eaten here with her husband when they visited and remembered this pavilion with fondness. She was surprised to learn how close the ride was to the restaurant from this perspective. The Magical Moments pin did it's thing twice during the ride. I really like this one….I like the music, the coolness, the relaxation of it, and the fact it is one of my daughter's favorites.

We decide that an ice cream treat from the Plaza Ice Cream Parlor in the Magic Kingdom sounds good, so we make our way toward the Monorail station. We look at Spaceship Earth and see it still has a line, so bypass it for the monorail. As we are walking onto the platform to catch the waiting monorail, one of the Cast Members starts saying "Passporter, Passporter". Turns out this guy is named Jeff and he is a member of the Radp newsgroup and has met Jennifer and Dave before. He told me to tell them Hi and then as a kind of afterthought, I ask him if the front cab is available. He yells down to the CM at the head of the monorail and it turns out there is two people riding, so there is room for us!! Yippee J Teresa is just amazed that I knew you could do this. And I am excited because there is nothing like being in the front during a ride between Epcot and the TTC. 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

[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