Crashing the Passporter meet with a SURPRISE!!! About This Page:

[graygables]

Saturday, May 14th
We had bad thunderstorms all night so Sarah was up. I was sick to my stomach, too, so I got NO sleep at all. I was afraid my alarm wouldn’t go off, so wound up staying awake. I had picked up a rental car in a nearby town so that I could leave at 530am without waking the girls. So, 530, and I’m on my way! Made it to the airport with no problems, checked my bag and had an uneventful flight. The flight from CLE to BNA was only about half full, but on to MCO was 100%. Claimed my bag and went to the Alamo garage and the CS desk there. On the way, I passed the DME lines and was SO glad I didn’t have to stand in those…it was a ZOO! Got my car and I was soon headed to WDW. Called Nicole to have her meet me at the Pop. We checked in and got a very nice room, close to the buses and Everything Pop. We both drove to DTD (she had to work, I wanted to turn in the car). We walked in by Ghiradelli and I spotted Miss Tara O’Hara right away. She knew I was coming, but was still excited to see me. As we chatted, other Passporters arrived, some of them looking at me like who?? When I told them who I was, there were hugs all around! It was very exciting and I was SOOOO glad that I’d been able to keep the secret. Crashing the party was FUN! We hung out there for awhile and had a good time (some Challengers were better than others! Hey, at least I didn‘t have the whipped cream! ) Nicole got an armful of cameras and took our pictures. It was just soooo fun!


Nicole left for work and I drove back to the resort to “freshen up” and get ready to return the car. The car care center is always a hassle as far as I’m concerned. The shuttles take FOREVER and the desk staff is slow. I had plans to meet Sandy at 530 at the GF for an evening at the MK and got there a bit early. I bumped into Terri and we browsed a few stores before I met up with Sandy and we went our separate ways.

Sandy and I headed to the monorail and the MK and I was in awe as we walked down main street and saw the castle completed. It is GORGEOUS!



We decided to do dinner first and since pirate and perico was closed, we opted for Pecos Bill’s. Sandy!!! After dinner, we went to the Country Bears. I haven’t seen this since I was 18 and it was a hoot. We went on Pirates which was almost a walk on and we enjoyed that. We wandered around toward FantasyLand and decided to see how Small World had turned out. The colors are vibrant, the soundtrack was great, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was time for us to head towards Main street again to claim a parade spot, but we got a little hung up photographing the castle up close The street was already lined with people waiting for the parade, so we waited by the tip board for a bit. Terri called me to find out where we were…they were at Buzz getting ready to be Galactic Heros, so Sandy and I decided to call it an evening. We started toward the entrance and ducked in the confectionary to say hello to Nicole. We wound up waving at and being introduced to different people, including Nicole’s manager who talked with us for a bit about the pros and cons of Nicole staying on. He kept looking at Sandy like she was Nicole’s aunt or something, even asking her questions. It was very funny, and we took it in stride. By the time we were done there, it was almost time for Spectro, so we decided to wait and watch. We were right on the corner by the confectionary and it was a great view. I have never seen this in it’s entirety or up close, so it was nice. After the parade, we said our good-byes, arranged to try to meet at AK in the am, and I headed off to the Pop for the night. Memo to self: POP buses stink! The MK line was 3 “buses” long and it took forever. I got back to the resort, took a shower and crashed. Nicole got in about 1am, but I barely heard her.

Sunday, May 15th

Got to AK at 9am and waited for Sandy, but we never saw her (found out later that she had been delayed by Disney transportation) Nicole and I headed back to the Safari and got fast passes, then went to Dino Land to see Lucky the Dinosaur. He was pretty cool and they should keep him around. He was fun to watch.


We headed back toward Africa and stopped in Mombasa Marketplace and got leather bracelets for Sarah and Breeanna. We went to the Safari and Nicole asked if her roommate was working and she was, so we waited for her truck. The animals were not very visible; this was definitely not the best safari I’d been on When we were done, we went to Tusker House for rotisserie chicken for lunch. After lunch, we caught the acrobatic show outside Tusker, then headed toward the bus for Epcot. The line wasn’t too bad for that, but we were left standing (again). At Epcot, I took some photos of the Garden festival things and we went back toward the Land. Nicole decided she wanted a frozen coffee (oy), so I went on into the Festival Center, where I met David Doss (the artist who does the wonderful beachy Disney scenes. He was very nice and his work is beautiful. I got a pin, wanted a t-shirt, but they were only in white or off-white and I didn’t like it that much. Went into the Land and got FP for Soarin’. Nicole went on Living with the Land and then we had a cinnamon roll and drink from the new Sunshine Seasons (or whatever they are calling it now) We went over and rode Test Track, walked around to Great Britain and Nicole went on to Japan (she was dying to see their bamboo garden and couldn’t wait until tomorrow I hung around the UK and had a Twining’s tea tasting of Lady Gray tea. It was good and cool, but it was very funny to hear the Americans exclaiming that it was *ICED* tea, not hot! I thought the poor guy wanted to smack them. Then he wanted to smack me when I asked where the PG Tips was! J/K, buddy! Took some more photos of topiaries and started back to the Land for Soarin’ and dinner at the Garden Grill.



One word for Soarin’: Amazing, Awesome, Fantastic…OK, that was more than one, but WOW!!! I think it’s pretty close to being my favorite now. I was a little disoriented at the beginning (I don’t do IMAX well), but after I adjusted, it was great! We finished up and went on to our dinner PS. We checked in about an hour early and were seated fairly quickly. I was a bit worried about this one b/c the menu looked a bit dicey to me, but Nicole isn’t very good about being careful with other people’s money in restaurants, so here I knew it would be a set price. It is NOT all you can eat anymore…you get one entrée from the menu, which was a bit of a bummer, but Nicole ordered the other thing I wanted to try, so we shared. She had the red snapper and I had the beef filet, but with the orzo/barley with coconut lime essence on the side. Dinner started with breadsticks and 3 dipping sauces, all of which we really liked. There was a salad, but it was unexceptional. Dinner was very good, my filet was tender and flavorful and the snapper was good, as well. I like the orzo/barley with the sauce, but it was a tad too coconut and not enough lime for me. I asked for the dipping sauce recipes and the CHEF came and sat at our table, brought be a card to write down my e-mail and siad he’d get them right out to me. We chatted awhile about the food and it was quite a pleasant surprise! It is still a character meal w/ Chip, Dale, Pluto, and Farmer Mickey and they were hilarious. We had a PG Chip (kinda like the tea! ) He told us he was “hot” and licked his finger and sizzled his behind! We were After dinner, we wandered toward the World Showcase and actually found a bench to sit on to wait for Illuminations. It was beautiful as usual. We hobbled out to the bus and made our way back to the Pop. Took showers and crashed for our tour tomorrow.



Monday, May 16th

We had the Undiscovered Future World Tour this morning that we had booked on Nicole’s CM discount. Good thing. It began at 9 am with Robert and Mary Ann who were both pleasant, well-informed, and interesting, *BUT* this tour just seemed to lack structure and value. We started in the building behind SE (which Robert said they are seriously looking into putting in a thrill ride that would mainly be in that building and end in the sphere. I expressed extreme dislike of that idea and he kind of shrugged and gave a little lecture about changing to meet the needs of today’s audience. Phooey on that! We went to the Innoventions and through the house of the future there, then on to the fountain. We had a potty break and went to the living seas VIP lounge, which was being set up for a function. It is very nice, and would have been nicer had we been able to take a break here, for water and a snack, but onward to the Land it was. There were tidbits about building design and landscape design, but very few A-HAs for me. In the Land, we were given a 20 minute break for lunch so we grabbed a sandwich. I had the kid meal, a build your own sub thing that was very good for $4. Nicole was still eating so I got us more FP for Soarin’. We met back up and went to the Imagination pavilion. They took us upstairs which was where all the old (good) stuff was and I had SO many flashbacks to my brother and I “playing” in there for hours. I really miss that part of it. We headed back down to the gift shop and I saw Tina right away! Tara and Bill and Terri popped out, but I just had a minute to say hi and see what evening plans were. I told them we were going to the Adventurer’s Club (it was free for Nicole on Mondays and I had a plus on an old pass), but then I had to run (literally!) to catch up with the tour. It probably would have been more fun just to hang out with the Passporters instead!



Anyway, so next was the Energy pavilion where we stepped in a back door and got to take a photo of Pterry,



one of the former actors in the show who was supplanted by Ellen. A quick whisk by Wonders of Life, “it’s closed now”, and on to Mission Space. We got to see the control panels behind the control panels in the queue area. On he ones you see from the queue, there was an instruction manual (real one) and on one side of the page, a little child had penciled, “I love you Mommy” which made me teary. After MS we walked backstage to Test Track, which we were supposed to ride, but was not working, so we headed on backstage to the international trailer where we met a CM from Japan. She seemed uncomfortable and didn’t have much to say and no one had any questions, so we had a small bottle of water and moved on to the cast building. They took us in to costuming which was vaguely interesting (I didn’t know that Nike makes the shoes the characters wear *inside* the big shoes and they had Velcro on the bottoms. Yay, I learned something new. After that we walked around to the marina and saw the barge and got some facts and figures there and were handed our pins. We were told that we could show our name tag at 9 Dragons for a 20% discount on lunch (already *had* lunch back when we were starving at the Land) and they would walk us back to Test Track to ride if it was working (it was). We went in the VIP entrance and boarded for a quick spin around and that was that. I was not impressed, but felt sorry for Robert and Mary Ann b/c it really wasn’t their fault. The Backstage Safari tour just seemed much more organized and a better value to me (they included water and snacks and encouraged packing some along…at Epcot, we got one small bottle and that was it) It was also very hot and humid and extra water would have helped a lot.



We went back for our FP to Soarin’ (have I mentioned that I this ride???) and started around the World Showcase. We made it around to Japan and stopped for Kaki Gori (where has this been my whole WDW life??? ) It was definitely one of the best values in snack/beverages there. I took some more photos and finally asked Nicole if we could do the Friendship launch back to Mexico as my foot was really hurting and my energy was quickly waning. She agreed, so we hopped on. Walked out to the buses and I was mentally saying goodbye to Epcot. I wish we’d skipped the tour (I had tried to convince Nicole to cancel it yesterday, but she is stubborn ) and just spent time meandering. Oh well, live and learn.

We caught the bus back to Pop and went to the room to relax, cool off, and change for the evening. We decided to drive and valet at the Poly. Nicole doesn’t remember going there when she was little, so we walked around a bit and got to see the dance w/ sticks thing which was cool. We took the monorail to the MK and she dragged me through all the Main Street shops introducing me to everyone she knew (which was fine, but I could tell that some of them were *not* her friends like she thought ) We crossed Main Street and saw Cinderellabration starting, so I used the max zoom on my camera and took some pictures (not very good)
Nicole wanted to ride HM (I don’t know why, I hate it and so does she); she insisted that we had to see the CM’s hidden Mickey We rode it (I still hate it) and it wasn’t there (sometimes they rearrange the bread plates on the banquet table to be a hidden Mickey, but not today) After that, she was freaked, so we went on Small World (she works here and hadn’t ridden it yet ) and then to Mickey’s Philharmagic. We checked into Cinderella’s for dinner and asked for a window seat. They told us we’d have to wait a bit longer and I said, that’s OK, just so we’re there by 9 for Wishes. Oops. Wishes was at 10 So, we said whatever, just seat us anywhere. While we were waiting, Belle in her ball gown came in and was very fun to watch with the little girls (and not so little girls and not girls, but boys!)

We were finally called and were seated at the 2-top right in the center of the windows! It was a beautiful view. The waiter here was sloooowwww, and by the time Nicole cut every shred of fat off her prime rib ( Can you tell I have no patience for that???) we actually got to watch Wishes with our dessert. Mind you this is the child who is griping and complaining that we have to hurry up and get out of there so we can get to the Adventurer’s Club “in time” and she’s picking through every strand of beef. It’s not that she’s health or weight conscious BTW, it’s just one of her annoying things.



So, we finished and made our way down Main Street one last time to the monorail. The EWP was passing by and I had never seen it, so that was neat. We got the monorail back to the Poly and drove to PI. I’ve never been to a bar or a club before, so this was new to me. Nicole was freaking that they closed at midnight, so we’d only be there for ½ an hour, but they didn’t close until 1am, so we had plenty of time. I got us a cranberry juice and a club soda and we sat down in the mask room. We then made our way out to the main salon for awhile where I had to look at a replica of the statue that got me suspended in the 3rd grade as an alleged pornographer! There was a final hoopla that was fun and we headed back to the resort to crash at 1am)

Tuesday, May 17th

Today is the day I leave, so we decided to do DTD shopping this morning. I wanted some scrapbook supplies and we picked up a couple of $7 grab bags for Sarah and Breeanna. Went to WoD for Tinkerbell dinner sets that were their one big request this trip and made a final stop at Ghiradelli for DH. Started with chocolate, ended with chocolate! Nicole drove me back to the Pop and went on home. I found out later that she hadn’t bothered to check her work schedule and was due in at 115 (she thought it was “later”), so she was a bit late to her shift I repacked all of the souvenirs (she had given me the HCOE candy dispenser and it literally took up 1/3 of my suitcase , so I was trying to get it down to a manageable amount. I caught the DME bus at 1240 and was at MCO by 120ish. I had to walk alllllllll the way down the concourse to SWA only to find unGodly long lines. There was no way that my foot/knee was going to take that much standing (45 min outside, 90 min inside ), so I repacked yet again to get my 3 bags down to 2. It was heavy and bulky, but I did it and made my way through security. The flight home was uneventful and was nice b/c I didn’t have to change planes. When I landed, though, I had to call DH and talk him through getting to the airport (ARGGGGG!) I thought he was going to have a nervous breakdown (“where do I turn? Where do I turn?”) I finally talked him there and I took over at the wheel. Dds were delighted with their gifts (thank goodness for the grab bags!!!) and I was sorta glad to be home, although I’ve decided that I detest reality and I want to live in a fantasy world the rest of my life!

Memos to self:

Rent/use a car if staying at the Pop, the buses stink, but don’t use the Car Care Center…they stink, too.

Who you are with makes a huge difference in your experience. Be sure you are fully stocked with “fruit” (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, self-control) before you venture on a trip with challenging people. My fruit was on low supply by Monday.

Keep calls to Mr. Grumpy Gills at a minimum. Every time I called, I felt some of the magic sucked out of me and I had to recharge it. Bummer.

Skip the Undiscovered Future World tour. If we hadn’t gone on a CM discount, I would have gotten my money back. (Yes, I know, I was warned)

Plan the trip. I felt very un-Passporter-ish this trip b/c I had very little planned. As such, I didn’t get to do as much as *I* would have liked. I missed FOLK, Peter Pan, Pooh, Norway (I just need a whiff in the store and usually buy an ornament) Had I managed my time better, I think we would have been able to see all my must-dos.

[eeyore8484]

Great report! Love the pics.

[BritDisFan]

Great report Dawn, I too hope they leave Spaceship Earth as it is.

Karen

[LizardCop]

Great report Dawn, and glad to meet ya!!

I'll be posting pics of "Dawn, the camera queen" later, we just left WDW about an hour ago and still have just over 5 hours 'till we get home.

[JulieandChris]

Love the photos and well done for getting an extra trip in!

Julie.

[Cam22]

Great report with super photos! Some are just like postcards!

[DawnDenise]

Great report Dawn and your pictures are wonderful!!!

[Colexis Mom]

Thanks for sharing your trip with us Dawn

[lauren-roxy]

Sounds like you had a really good time on your trip Dawn, thanks for sharing!!!

[TinkMulanMickeysMom]

Dawn,

I loved your report!! I especially love your words of wisdom at the end - my favorite:

[ QUOTE ]
Who you are with makes a huge difference in your experience. Be sure you are fully stocked with “fruit” (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, self-control) before you venture on a trip with challenging people. My fruit was on low supply by Monday.

[/ QUOTE ]

So true!!!

[luvnwdwgal]

Great pics!

[Nala]

Thanks for sharing your trip with us Dawn. Your pictures are beautiful!!! Ok, so what kind of camera do you use?

[rileysmommy]

Great report, Dawn! For those of us who don't know, will you tell us who everyone is in the pic?? I only recognize you and Tara. Thx!

[MickeyMAC]

Thanks Dawn for sharing your trip with us. What a great Mother's Day present for you! WOW wish my kids would be that nice. Glad you had a good time, you deserve it after the long winter.
Please tell us who everyone is in the picture...I recognize, Tina, Maureen, Lynn, Tara, Bill but not sure on the others....

[Cheriemek]

Thanks for taking the time to write about your trip, and for adding those great pictures!