Disney in December (12/1-12/7) - COMPLETE (1/4) About This Page:

[Politzania]

:: peeks at countdown timer ::

7 hours and 20-some minutes before we fly from the Hoosier state to (hopefully) sunny Florida! We've had chilly rain for about the last week - so we need a change in the weather.

Cast of characters:

Scott - My 30-something "big kid"
Me - a slightly younger 30-something

We decided to get annual passes this year & plan 2 trips: our 11th anniversary in May and a holiday trip for December. The hotel discounts have practically paid for the AP's in and of themselves, I think! We kind of miss having admission to PI, DQ & the water parks included, tho, as we didn't get the UAP's.

Unfortunately, this trip may not be as merry as we'd hoped... Scott's mom passed away the middle of November. We considered cancelling the trip, but nearly everyone we talked to (including his dad) said we should go, as that's what she would want us to do.

Our basic itinerary - comments or suggestions welcome:
Wednesday 12/1
* Leaving Indianapolis 12/1 3:45 - arriving MCO 5:50.
* Meeting Happy Limo & guesstimating about an hour & 1/2 - to get to the hotel, including luggage pickup & a grocery stop.
* Staying at Port Orleans - French Quarter - our first time at a moderate!
* May take the boat to DTD, depending on how tired we are. Outside chance we'll go over to Epcot to catch the holiday version of Illuminations.

Thursday 12/2
Probably EMH at MK - making a beeline for Stitch's Great Escape! We'll probably stay at MK until we go to Epcot for....
* Candlelight Processional - 5:00 show and 6:30 PS at Biergarten (another new experience for this trip!)
* May visit PI in the evening - are they still doing the 5 for $5 deal? (Pay 1 night regular price & get 5 more nights for $5?)

Friday 12/3
* 8:30AM (2 hrs)- Taking the Around the World/Segway tour at Epcot - wanted to do this last time, but it was booked solid by the time we found out about it!
* No other particular plans for the day - probably Epcot for the rest of the morning. I'm leaning towards surprising Scott with a ride-along at the Petty Experience in the afternoon. Merry Christmas, sweetie!
* Maybe another PI visit or Fantasmic!

Saturday 12/4
* 8:45 AM (3 hrs) - Yuletide Fantasy Tour - REALLY looking forward to this - DH & I love the holidays!
* May take the boat to MGM the afternoon & catch a late lunch at SciFi Cafe & see the Hollywood Holly-days parade.
* MK is open til 11 tonight, so back to the hotel after the parade to rest a bit - then back over to see Mickey!

Sunday 12/5
MVMCP! Plans are up in the air for the morning (maybe AK or MGM again), but we plan on resting after lunch & then go to MK around 4:00 & eat an early dinner in the park.

Monday 12/6
* 8:00 - PS at Donald's Breakfastosaurus (hmm... maybe we should reschedule this for later? ) - we've heard there's a holiday theme for this character breakfast.
* Prob spend morning in AK; would like to stay around long enough for the Jingle Jungle Parade. Maybe we'll go visit the AKL.
* Might try to catch Fantasmic!, if we haven't seen it already by now. May need to make an early night of it here.

Tuesday 12/7
* Early check-out (last day - sob!)
* EMH is MGM, so may start the day there. We always end our trip in MK, waving goodbye to the castle.
* Back to hotel for limo pickup at 5:15 - flight leaves at 7:30.

Somewhere in there is a trip to Casey's, as well as Tangerine Cafe & Trail's End; we don't usually do a lot of PS's ahead of time.

A BIG thank you to Nanci at Magical Journeys - she got us the AP rate for PO-FQ even tho she was at a conference!

[Bert & Sully]

[ QUOTE ]
A BIG thank you to Nanci at Magical Journeys - she got us the AP rate for PO-FQ even tho she was at a conference!


[/ QUOTE ]

Aren't they just THE BEST?! They answer your email practically before you send it not to mention late nights or weekends!! Port Orleans is one of our favoritest resorts. Try and do a sleigh ride.

Your plans sound great and just what you need given the month you've had. Sending for travel and good luck!

[jakenjess]

Have a wonderful trip! Looking forward to hearing all about it!

[MickeyMAC]

[ QUOTE ]
Have a wonderful trip! Looking forward to hearing all about it!

[/ QUOTE ]

Enjoy yourselves!!!

[luvnwdwgal]

Looks like you've got a wonderful trip planned! Can't wait to read all about it!!

[wdwlovers]

Looks like a great trip! Can't wait to hear all about it!

[Colexis Mom]

I hope you have a great time Can't wait to hear all about it

[Wendyismyname]

Glad we Hoosiers had halfway decent weather for you to leave!! Can't wait to read your trip report!!

[Stephanie P.]

I hope you guys are having a great time!!

[Politzania]

Day 1 – Wednesday 1 Dec 2004

I worked a half day, while Scott took the day off. He was still recovering from a cold, so the extra sleep was needed. I got home around 11:30 & Scott had the truck packed and ready to go! I changed clothes and off we went. We ate lunch on the way down to the airport in Indianapolis. The weather was clear (after about a week of rain) and windy! Chilly, too – in the mid 40’s. I wore my Eeyore varsity jacket & Scott had his Coca-Cola jacket. We hoped we wouldn’t need them once we got to Florida.

We dropped the truck off at Indy Park, Ride & Fly & got right on a shuttle bus. There was a HUGE check-in line at the ATA gate, but it moved pretty quickly. We checked in at a self-serve kiosk, but had a little trouble getting someone’s attention to get the luggage taken care of. The security line was also long, but moved quickly too. Note to self: pack the coins for pressed pennies in the carry on, as it makes a big black splotch on the X ray machine & the bag checkers will want to look thru your carry-on
We still had about an hour and a half before our flight, so I read a magazine or two and people-watched, while Scott played with his new toy - a Game Boy Advanced. The flight was about 2/3 full (a first for our Florida trips, I think. We had seats A & B – the person in C moved to another row, so I scooted over to the aisle seat so we had some breathing room. The flight was quite smooth, with just a bit of turbulence a few times.

Landed on time in Orlando and got our luggage fairly quickly – only 2 bags. Our carryons were Scott’s laptop, the camera bag & my bag stuffed with the Passporter, our toiletries & some misc reading material, as well as the aforementioned coins. The sweatshirts & jackets got put away pretty quickly, as it was short sleeve weather. Called Happy Limo for our pickup and within about 5 min he was out in the loading area. Our driver was also from the Midwest and friendly without being overly-talkative. We’d scheduled a 15 min grocery stop & were a little concerned that it might not be enough time. We were back at the limo in 5 min with our breakfast stuff & snacks for the week.

We arrived at the hotel around 7:15 and got checked in with little delay. The POFQ lobby is gorgeous – especially decorated for Christmas! They had a couple of trees in the lobby, and lots of garland (with Mardi Gras masks!) and poinsettias. Our room was 3307: building 3, third floor. Quite close to the main building, yet nice & quiet. There was a family with small children next door, but we only heard them a few times & not too late/early. A bit of a change from All Stars & Pop – even considering this is slow season.
The room was nicely decorated with the New Orleans theme. The tub & tile floor looked to be original; a bit worn, but nice & clean. Mousekeeping did a great job during our stay – a peacock washcloth animal came to visit us after the first day. The refrigerator was the large dorm sized kind in its own cabinet - enough room for a gallon of milk & quart of OJ, as well as space on an upper rack and the door. Make sure to check the temp if you use the fridge; we ended up freezing our OJ.
The dresser was quite large, and the bench and shelf offered lots of storage & display space. We hung our Santa hats (Mickey, Tigger and Jack) on the pegs & put Mr Potatohead with his Christmas accessories on the shelf. He was joined by a couple of his Christmas pals later in the week: Mickey, Goofy and Figment! Make sure to look for the hidden Mickeys in the bedspread – I found seven of them.

After unpacking, we walked over to the dock to catch a launch to Downtown Disney – another plus for staying at this resort. The particular boat we rode had a very noisy engine! We passed what used to be the Treehouse Villas; one of the captains told us the students in the college program use them – a shame they aren’t still available for guests.
We had a late dinner at Earl of Sandwich – it had just opened when we were last here in May and the word’s apparently gotten around as the line was quite long. It moved fairly quickly tho – Scott got a meatball sub and I tried the All American. They’re quite good & definitely recommended. We did a little shopping, but were getting a little tired, so we got back on the boat for the resort. The lights for DTD look so pretty across the lagoon; unfortunately, we kept forgetting to bring the camera along. Make a note for next time. We could see the fireworks for Illuminations over the trees; we never did make it over to Epcot for that show; I kind of wanted to see the holiday version, but we had lots of other things to do.
We looked around a little at the gift shop, and bought our mugs. I also got some beignets – they were pretty good, but I’m not a big fan of powdered sugar. After the first of several long days, we got to bed around 10:45. My trusty pedometer got quite a workout this week: today’s step total was 8649 = about 3.4 miles.

[Politzania]

Day 2 – Thursday, 2 Dec 2004

Today's Event: Candlelight Processional

Woke up early, even before the wakeup call at 6 am. Got ready & had breakfast in the room and were heading over to Magic Kingdom by 7:15 for early entry morning. The weather was quite nice – I had on a Tshirt & shorts, with a denim shirt as a light jacket. We discovered that French Quarter is usually the first stop in the Port Orleans resort – which means you’re almost guaranteed a seat, but you usually have to wait thru the 4 stops at Riverside before you’re on your way to the park. We got to MK about 5 min before it opened.
We wore our Stitch shirts: Scott found a good picture of Experiment 626 in his space suit, holding his guns. The caption: “Take us to Stitch’s Great Escape and noone gets hurt”. On the back, another pic with the caption “Meega nala Queesta!” We got quite a few comments, especially from cast members. The attraction itself, well, we enjoyed it.

** POSSIBLE SPOILERS **

The storyline was fairly amusing and the Stitch AA is incredible! The first room has a briefing featuring the Councilwoman & Gantu. The second room is a demo of the transportation of level 1 prisoners. Skippy’s there as a jaywalker & the second “Skippy” is now a jelly-donut thief who burps a lot. There’s a touch of bathroom humour, too. On to the main room, where a level 3 prisoner is to be teleported to into the facility. The setup is nearly identical to what I remember of Alien Encounter; with the main addition being the tracking cannons. The room does get completely dark a few times & the effects can be a bit loud & sudden; we didn’t hear any screaming children, so apparently word is getting out to parents about the appropriateness of the attraction. I would have liked to have seen Stitch peeking out from a few places after his escape; and the video of him in the park didn’t change from day to night, as we’d heard it was supposed to. That video was also a lot shorter (a few seconds) that I thought it would be. The chili dog smell is pretty strong & kinda gross; IMHO that could be toned down a bit too!

** BACK TO THE TRIP REPORT **

Walked on to Buzz – of the 3 times we rode, Scott only let me win once! Controlling the spinning makes a difference I think. IIRC, we both made it to the upper levels of Ranger Class 1. Over to the TTA next, where we were the only people in our “train”. I think this is one of the overlooked attractions; you get a great view of Tommorrowland and can rest your feet as well!

Fantasyland was our next stop – where I rode the teacups. Spinning clockwise seems faster than counter-clockwise I think. Got my first autograph of the trip: the White Rabbit. There was a fairly short line for Pooh (less than 5 min) and then we visited Snow White. Apparently it was too early for Mickey bars, so we had to settle for the desserts at Philharmagic. The 3-D effects still just blow me away in this show; I don’t think there’s a bad seat in the house. Peter Pan was next, with the longest wait so far (about 10 min). We couldn’t remember if “Ariel” has always been one of the mermaids or not.

Over to Liberty Square and the first of a couple of visits to Master Gracey and his mansion. Scott’s Mickey Bar search was finally successful, and we had a snack while waiting for the Country Bear Jamboree – Holiday Edition. This show is a lot of fun & if you’re at all a fan of Henry, Trixie and Big Al – make time to see this! They do allow flash photography during the finale, but you have to be quick or you’ll miss it.

We continued around to Adventureland and visited the Pirates before getting lunch at Pecos Bill. I had the chicken wrap (pretty good) and Scott had a burger. We grabbed a FP for the Jungle Cruise and caught a show of the Tiki Birds while we waited. We also had time to visit the Swiss Family Robinson; something we hadn’t done the last few trips. After going up & down all the stairs, we remembered why! The views are quite attractive tho, and worth the trip up. Then we were off to visit our favorite skippers – listening for new jokes & groaning at the classics.

We headed up Main Street, collecting a few autographs along the way, as well as lots of photos of the decorations. Main Street is so pretty dressed up for the holidays! We hopped on board the train and rode it around to Toontown, which was packed. We browsed around the store a bit, decided to skip the autograph lines, but did take a quick tour of Minnie’s house. Back around to Tomorrowland and another trip on the TTA. Before we left the park, we browsed around Exposition Hall – make sure to visit the back hallway for some neat photo opportunities, including a Mr. Toad ride vehicle.

We had the Candlelight Processional dinner package scheduled for tonight, so we took the monorail over to Epcot. You can still see a lot of hurricane damage in the wooded sections of the property. From our chats with the bus drivers, they’re probably just going to leave those areas alone, except for eventual replanting. Our first stop in Epcot was Ice Station Cool – another overlooked attraction. We tried all the drinks again (except Beverly) – I have to remember to sample Kinsey before anything else, unless I want to pucker up!

We’d heard some good things about the brand new show at the Living Seas: Turtle Talk with Crush, so we visited there next. Outside the entrance, there was a living coral reef (aka stiltwalker in costume). Very cool interaction with the kids! Turtle Talk was totally awesome, dude! There’s a small theater with a fishtank screen up front. Crush swims over for a Q&A session with the audience. Working with a cast member inside “the people tank” with us, he calls on members of the audience (usually kids) to answer their questions and ask some of his own. The lip sync is really pretty good, and he’s got quite a repertoire of actions, as well. This is definitely going to liven up this pavilion; which is still one of my favorites, despite the sea cabs being long gone.

Figment was greeting guests outside his pavilion, but he wasn’t signing autographs. He’s a fairly new character, so we’ll try again in February. Of course we went on his ride.. but we never do seem to get the rose or mint scents; just the skunk!

It was around 4:00, so we headed over to the World Showcase, as we were attending the 5:00 showing of the Processional. Scott got another Mickey Bar to tide him over til our 6:30 dinner at Biergarten. I wanted to get a beavertail, but the stand was closed. I found out later, much to my chagrin, that they aren’t selling beavertails at all anymore; they’ve been replaced with the pretzel bread. A moment of silence, please...

We arrived about 5 min before they were letting people with the CP dinner packages in and ended up with pretty good seats – second section back, second row. We’d heard that you don’t want to sit too close, as it’s difficult to get the full effect from up front.
The Candlelight Processional was simply beautiful – the music, the singing, the costumes and lighting… Disney magic at its best. Kirk Franklin was the narrator for our show; I’d never heard of him before, but he did a wonderful job. It was a very moving performance; we both got a little choked up during the last few songs. After the show, we made sure to visit the kiosks outside the American Adventure to get the pins. I wanted the sweatshirt as well, but they didn’t have it in my size.

We still had some time before our 6:30 PS, so we browsed around Germany for a little bit. We sat with 2 couples and two men from Germany. We weren’t really in the mood for conversation, and apparently neither were they, as we didn’t talk much during our meal. I don’t think that atmosphere is quite right for us; however the food was very good; I liked just about everything I tried (and I tried nearly everything). Scott wasn’t quite as adventurous, but found enough to fill up on. We’d had a long day, so we walked slowly back to the front of the park, stopping at the main pin station and Mouse Gear.

We got back to the hotel around 8:30. Before going to bed, Scott copied his pics over to the laptop. I tried doing the same, but my new camera and the laptop don’t seem to play together nicely. I should have tried it before we left, as I still had pix on the camera from before the trip. Luckily, I had enough space to take most of the pix I wanted; besides, Scott’s the main photographer on our trips (and does a great job of it, too!)

The weather was overcast for most of the day, with occasional peeks of sun in the afternoon. It definitely cooled off once the sun went down & I was glad I had my denim shirt with me.
Pedometer totals: 17,287 steps = 7.19 miles. We got to sleep around 10:00.

[Tara O'Hara]

It sounds like you and Scott are having a great time! I totally agree wit hyou about TTA, which I will forever call the Wedway People mover! I completely missed te new show at the Living Seas! It sounds like fun! Hurry back with more!

[Politzania]

Day 3 – Friday, 3 Dec 2004
Today's Event: Segway Tour
Stitch & Mickey woke us up around 6:30 ... I had the Epcot Around the World tour scheduled for this morning & wanted to have plenty of time to get there. As I passed thru the lobby, I noticed the player piano was playing Christmas carols – typical Disney attention to detail! I was out to the bus stop around 7:15; it was a chilly morning – about 55 degrees, but clear & sunny. I wore jeans, a t-shirt & sweatshirt.
Had a nice chat with the bus driver on the way over, as I was his only passenger, even after stopping at all 4 POR stops. He was originally from New Jersey and moved to Central Florida in 1989 – we shared some snow tales and he talked about the hurricanes & how they affected the community. Scary stuff, but amazing how quickly WDW got everything back in order. The only aftermath we saw was lots of trees down in the wooded areas; I imagine they'll be left as is with maybe some replanting over time.

Got to Epcot just over a half-hour early. I waited with the Storybook Breakfast folks & their sleepy princesses all bundled up in sweatshirts and blankets. J I took a couple of pictures; a CM was nice enough to let me thru the gate for a bit to take some pix of the topiaries at the entrance. They came out a bit dark, tho. We entered the park at 8:00 (the first PS for the breakfast, I assume) and I went over to Guest Services to check in for my tour. We did have to sign some paperwork, saying we wouldn't sue if we fell & sprained our wrists, or something.

As soon as everyone gathered (we had 1 no-show, so 9 people total), our tour guides, Holly (already on her Segway) and Octavio took us over to the Segway Instruction Center, which is off the back hallway of Innoventions East. We watched a short presentation (basically the legal mumbo-jumbo) and then Holly showed us the equipment – they had 10 of them up against the wall, as well as Holly & Octavio's machines. I'd seen a Segway up close last trip, when they were doing the demos in Innoventions, but she reviewed the user interface in more detail, as well as how to step on and off, move forwards & backwards and turning.

We put on our helmets & were ready for some hands-on experience. Small traffic cones had been set up on the floor marking one "lane" per vehicle. We each chose a machine and one by one, Holly & Octavio helped us get up on the Segway. Like everyone else, I did the "Segway dance" as I got balanced on the vehicle. It was an odd feeling at first; the key seems to be to relax & bend your knees slightly. We practiced getting on & off a few times; then were ready to start moving (and stopping!) . Holly explained it as being all in the toes & the heels ... press down with your toes to move forward & dig your heels in to stop. Keep weight on your heels to move backwards. We practiced going forwards & backwards for a bit; then moved into turns. There's a control on the left handlebar that twists in the direction you want to turn. You lean a little as you turn, but not nearly as much as on a bicycle. The zero turning radius is very, very cool! We rode up & down our lanes, working on smooth & steady movement & control.

We moved on to slaloming around the cones & around the room… first clockwise & then counter-clockwise. We were all Segway newbies, but you could start to tell who was catching on & who was still a bit tentative. We then circled the perimeter of cones to practice moving a bit faster. No collisions or falling off, but a few cones did bite the dust.

Our last training tasks were working on ramps & obstacles. There was a long, fairly low ramp that we drove up & down (down was a bit scary at first) and they set up a small speed bump in the middle of the room. We were in 2 groups at this point, half on the ramp & half with the speed bump. I joked with another guest that we should name our vehicles – you know, Trigger, My Friend Flicka, Black Beauty…. As newbies, we didn't get to ride over the bump; instead we got off the Segway & used the power assist mode to ease it over the obstacle. We couldn't believe the first hour flew by so quickly! We took a short break & were ready to head out into the park. Since this tour is so popular, they run 2 sessions, so we left 1 set of vehicles in the classroom & mounted a second set that was waiting in the hallway.

With a gentle reminder that everyone else has the right of way & to be aware of our surroundings, we passed thru FW on our way over to the World Showcase. Octavio led us over in single file, with Holly bringing up the rear. We smiled a bunch & got a lot of attention from other guests on our way. The braver of us even waved a bit! We stopped in China and started the actual tour portion.

Either Holly or Octavio would talk a bit about the pavilion, then lead us through a "challenge". We wound our way thru narrow paths, up & over bridges and slalomed thru the columns, gaining experience & confidence as we went. Once we got to Italy – we had about 15 minutes of "play time". Holly & Octavio marked out an area for us to ride around & also took pictures, if you brought your camera. Since it was a sunny day, I'd put my ball cap under my helmet; it looked a bit silly, but it worked! I asked when we'd arrive back around by Canada (about 10:20) & called Scott so he could meet up with us & take some more pictures.

We finished our tour at the French pavilion & by this time I think most of us felt pretty comfortable on the Segways. I got the impression that the top speed was definitely influenced by passenger weight, as the "pooh-sized" among us kept getting passed by the skinny folks. We headed back into the "onstage" section of the park – back in single file & nice and slow. There were quite a few more people – including Scott, who got some good pictures of me grinning up a storm! We rode back to the building and into the room to park our faithful steeds. Holly and Octavio wrapped things up and handed out the pins. It took me a few minutes to get my "land legs" back – amazing how tiring it is to stand up in basically one spot for an hour!


Met up with Scott around 10:30 or so to decide what to do next. We hadn't really planned anything for the afternoon.. well, actually, I had. I tried to surprise Scott with an early Christmas present: the ride-along program at The Petty Experience. He said that he'd rather spend the money on an actual race ticket, so with the weather being so nice (sunny and in the mid 60's), we decided to go over to Animal Kingdom instead.

This park usually gets short shrift when we visit in May, since it's the warmest & most humid place on property. We wanted to see the Jingle Jungle parade & this seemed like a good day to do so. We got to the park around 11:15 and with rumblies in our tumblies, Pizzafari was our first stop. It wasn't terribly crowded and we got our order & a place to sit in less than 10 min. I tried the deli sandwich (OK) and Scott had the pizza. We shared breadsticks (yummy!) and the refillable sports bottle. Since we were planning on spending the rest of the afternoon there, $1 refills seemed a bargain.

We took in a safari, waiting no more than 15-20 min – I think the longest lines we encountered were waiting for our food back at the resort! On previous trips, we'd been on safari before in the early morning & there were definitely fewer animals out this time of day. Since the weather was still comfortably cool, we wandered along the Pangani Forest trail, something else we normally skip during the warm weather in May. We hadn't taken the train out to Conservation Station in the past few trips, so that was our next adventure. Unfortunately, there's not a lot that we find engaging out there. We did get to see an African porcupine at the tail end (so to speak) of his performance/visit and inside, a CM had a hedgehog tenrec. Being nocturnal, he wasn't too happy to be woken up & put on display, I think! We said a quick hello to the goats at the Affection Section & boarded the train back to the rest of the park.

Next stop: Dinoland! We headed in the direction of Dinosaur (Scott decided he was going to try it this time), we heard a screaming child & saw a crowd of people, CM's & a security person or two grouped around one of the grates… we're guessing a little one got some part of him/herself stuck, but didn't get to confirm that. There was only a 5 min wait, so we didn't pay much attention to the queue theming. To be honest, I like the Indy ride at Disneyland better – it's not quite as dark & I think the storyline is more interesting. Besides, the first time I rode this (it was still CTX), the carnotaur ate my hat! OK – maybe he just blew it off, but either way, the hat was a goner.

We looked around Chester & Hester's for a bit, then thought we'd see who was at Camp Minnie-Mickey before picking out a spot for the parade. We visited Mickey, Minnie (both in holiday garb) and Santa Goofy. We also had our first experience with the PhotoPass – the first time a Disney photographer takes you picture, you get a plastic card with a website URL, a code & magnetic strip. For subsequent pictures, the photog swipes the card thru a reader. You then use the URL & the code to view the pix online at your leisure (within 30 days), order prints & send the link to friends & family. It may have been expensive to set up, but I imagine people will buy a LOT more pictures if they don't have to wait in line at the end of a long day and make a spur-of-the-moment decision.

We picked out a parade spot in front of the FP machines for It's Tough to be a Bug, as they weren't being used. We were sitting the sun & it had warmed up nicely, so I took my sweatshirt off to enjoy the short-sleeve weather. We sat next to a mom & her young son, who looked about 4 or 5 years old. He started up a conversation by telling me he liked my Mickey Mouse watch. I asked him what he'd done so far today – they'd gone on safari and went to see the Festival – he really liked the guy with the horns. The conversation grew from there – he booed a guy wearing a Yankees shirt (he's a Red Sox fan). He then had his Sarari Mickey doll use his binoculars to look for airplanes.
"Sometimes airplanes crash. A long time ago a plane crashed with a baseball player on it and he died. He was taking food to his mom.". Yes, he was telling us about Roberto Clemente! "I have a sad story about my mom – want to hear it?" An "uh-oh" look crossed her face, but he went on to tell us that when she was little, she had a Tarzan lunchbox and the other kids made fun or her because she was a girl and girls shouldn't have Tarzan lunchboxes. Gotta love those conversations with little kids!

We'd seen the normal version of the parade on our last visit, so it was fun to see the holiday overlays. Lots of tinsel, garland and jinglebells, of course! The alligator float was now a reindeer, and the floats with trunks strapped to their sides now had gifts or Santa sacks. One of the floats had Nice and Naughty lists. Of course the villians were on the Naughty list, as was Stitch (presumably for escaping!). Donald was on both lists, with a question mark… hmm… I don't know where I'd put him either, with that temper of his!

Since we'd gotten the Photopass, we skipped the long picture line and headed out to the busses, timing our arrival almost perfectly. We really had good luck with the busses on this trip; the longest wait was later in the week when we visited the Animal Kingdom Lodge & got stranded there for about 20-25 minutes. With the exception of one DTD return trip, French Quarter guests were the first to get picked up & the first to get dropped off, so we were pretty much guaranteed a seat.

We got back to the hotel about 4:45 and stopped by the food court to get dinner. I tried the jambalaya (when in Rome…. er … New Orleans) and Scott got a burger, I think. As I mentioned before, the food court lines were probably the longest we experienced during our whole stay! We ate dinner & rested until around 7:15, planning to head over to Downtown Disney.

The boat ride was a lot chillier than the night before! We were both wearing jeans by this time & I'd put my sweatshirt back on. Captain Donald was the most talkative of our skippers: he told us about the signaling system they use to determine how they're going to pass – one blink for port-to-port (the usual) or two blinks for starboard-to-starboard.
We bought our tickets for PI and walked into the Adventurer's Club around 8:00. We became honorary members (again) and caught the first library show: Samantha, Otis and Emil did their songs and I got a hot chocolate Yakoose Mousse. Bailey's, crème de cacao & hot cocoa – heavenly! We then adjourned to the treasure room and Scott got dusted by Sugar Snap – ooh la la! We then snuck over to 8Trax so Scott could get his Leisure Suit, and got back to AC in time for the radio show, which we hadn't seen before. Jump Up for Jinkies! Scott got to laughing so hard at one point, I thought he was going to fall out of his chair.

We wanted to catch a show at the Comedy Warehouse, so about 9:15, we headed that direction. The improv group was quite a bit different from our visit in May; we only recognized two of the players. They opened with a phone call to the audience: talked to a Lakeland family that owned their own business, a furniture store called WoodWorld. Yep – they had lots of fun with that! Next was the List of Emotions skit – with two Trump Towers employees – one newly hired and one just fired. The longest skit was "Guess the Cliché" – this one was a toughie: "a dead head on a merry go round". He finally figured it out, with just enough time to do the Pet Peeves Blues – too many items in a grocery express lane.

We were pretty pooped out by this time & rode the boat back, having forgotten how chilly it was! We got back to the room around 10:45 and hit the sack soon after. Mileage for the day: 17,512 steps = 7.28 miles.

[luvnwdwgal]

I'm really enjoying your trip report!! More please!!

[lvstitch]

Great report. Thanks for all the info on the Segway Tour. I think I am going to surprise my husband with it on our next visit.