2015 ... Disney, Remember The Magic Journal!
2015 ... Disney, Remember The Magic Journal!
Friday, March 20, 2015
2015 ... Remember The Magic Journal
Friday March 20th:
After finishing up taking care of the last customers orders early afternoon it’s off to Walmart for some travel size shaving creme, a travel size container for shampoo, and a plastic flask for some whisky just in case I get the urge. This will be a beer vacation as Dave and Brenda have done us a solid by bringing our beer, snacks, wine, and my golf clubs in there van. Yes, Dave and I will be terrorizing Disney’s 9 hole Oak Trails Golf Coarse this year. We last golfed Disney at Osprey Ridge many years ago. This will be a nice change of pace. Greg and Michelle will be in Orlando also at Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort with grand kids William and Brady so hopefully there may be some events we will meet up with them for. The DTC is heated to Florida temperature and is ready for an evening of NBA, MLB, Music, and of coarse drinking adult beverages. Who will be there? Well, me for sure. After that I really don’t know as that’s classified. But the kickoff night before is and always will be one of the highlights of each year for me whether I am daydreaming all by myself or there are guests. Hard to believe it’s the 29th year. It seems like just yesterday a 4 year old Kirstie and I were marching around the pool table the night before singing all the songs from the Aladdin movie sound track after seeing the movie a record 12 times at The Marcus South Town Theatre. What magical experiences will happen this year. What arguments will any of us get in to. How many assholes will we encounter. Will Larry or Brenda start some shit with a cast member? Will Shelly or Brenda come back pregnant? Only time will tell as the never ending story continues with 2015 ... Disney, Remember The Magic!
I am downstairs at 6:00PM for the Bucks game. Shortly after Jenny arrives so its just three for now. Next door neighbor Scott shows up around 7:30PM and is our designated bartender. I have 8 beers and 2 early times. Shelly has 4 stiff Southern Comfort Old Fashions. She is hammered. Scott, well I lost count but he definitely did a good job tending bar. Especially considering he had to be up at 5:00AM to go to work delivering mail on the east side. Upstairs around 1:30AM and I am in for some take advantage of the drunk girl fun. Kirstie told us a Steve line Thursday two in the .... and one in the ....., I op to skip the second:) Fall asleep a little before 3:00AM. Glad I am not getting up for a early flight.
Saturday March 21st:
After just over 6 hours of sleep I can’t stand it and get up for some final packing. Kirstie will be here at 1:00PM for our ride to the airport. Brenda sent a text last night that our rooms are next to each other 6102 and 6103 on the third floor near The Hippy Dippy Pool. Far out. We end up leaving for the airport at 12:30pm. Baggage checkin takes 10 minutes and we stop at Quiznos for a turkey and swiss sub. We lounge around there for around 30 minutes and then proceed to security at 1:30PM. They don’t have you take your shoes off anymore and you don’t have to remove your computer from its case. They seem to be a little lax with security unless they have better equipment that can see things better. I get my hands swabbed for explosive residue but Shelly doesn’t. We are at our gate C22 around 1:50pm. I didn’t checkin on time yesterday so we are C2 C3 which isn’t very good. Sure enough we are literally the last two passengers on the plane. The good news we are in rows 1 and 2. The bad news we are split up. I have a very friendly guy on one side of me and deaf mute on the other. Well, he might as well be. He didn’t say anything the whole flight. Who cares, they have free wi-fi so I watched the golf channel all the way down. Push back at 3:05 15 minutes late but they kick it in the ass and we arrive at MCO on time at 6:10pm. We’re off the plane quick because of the front two rows and on to Magical Express at 6:45pm. While exiting the plane I realize that my perfect year with no mistakes has had one. I forget to grab Shelly and my Disney ID pins from the message board at The DTC. They’re not going to let me pull my shifts as a poser cast member without my ID pin. I text Kirstie to get the pins from the DTC and pop them in an envelope at the airport post office and ship them next day to Pop Century. I hope she succeeds as other than that we forgot nothing this year. How much could it cost to send two little pins overnight. The bus stops at Art Of Animation first and then to Pop at 7:30pm. We express checkin and are in our room 6103 quickly. Dave and Brenda have returned from Epcot to meet up with us. We put our drinks in the fridge and are off to MK. Arrive at MK at 8:30pm. Immediately head over to Seven Dwarfs Mine Coaster in The New Fantasyland for a 8:55 fastpass. First time on this ride and it is awesome. Fast, smooth, with fantastic theming during the ride and in the queue. Next as we haven’t eaten since Quiznos we go to Pinnochios for meatball subs and fries. Our seats have a good view of Small World loading area. After eating we make our way around towards Hall Of Presidents to get to the hub for Celebrate The Magic and Wishes. It never fails, there is an asshole that talks through most of CTM like he is trying to convince his teenage girlfriend that he is cooler than this show. I move away. Wishes shortly follows and now I have a mexican guy that is talking through the show in spanish to his kid that is whining and obviously doesn’t want to be there. When Wishes ends we make our way to Adventure Land and do Jungle Cruise, Pirates, and end up at Big Thunder for a 10:55pm fast pass. Next we go to Haunted Mansion and after the new Haunted Mansion gift shop. Dave has told me of a new thing there that I might like to get. They take your picture, and they process it so that when you look at it from different angles it morphs into a hideous dead skull version of yourself. Just like how the pictures morph on the wall in the beginning of the ride. The picture is $20.00 and the HM frame is $25. Well worth it though. Seldom is there something that is so new and innovative that I have to have it. It is really cool. I would post a pic of it but that wouldn’t do it justice. You have to see it in person. Next we went for the coldest ice cream in MK. Where? just ask Nick, we go every year and get a brain freeze. It’s right around Mickeys Philharmagic. Dave and Brenda are tired and decide to leave at around 1:00am. Shelly wants to go and have her picture taken with Elsa and Anna from Frozen. After that she wants one with Rapunzel and Cinderella. Next we go to Mickeys Philharmagic and then I got a rootbeer float in Tomorrowland. We were going to ride Wedway but it is not running so we go on Buzz Lightyear. I win with a measly 159,000. to Shellys 51,000. Nick would of kicked both our asses. We next go and check out the new fast pass areas for Wishes. They are very nice. Fenced in with astro turf to sit or stand on. The areas are across from the Main Street Bakery and Casey’s. We shop on Main Street for a half hour. I get a new Disney baseball hat and Shelly gets a necklace. We exit the park at 2:40am and are back at the hotel by 3:15am. I am documenting and Shelly is up for a while but now dozing off at 4:15am. I have only had one brew so far and still need a shower. Estimated bedtime 5:30am.
Sunday March 22, 2015
Up at 11:30am. Out of the room at 1:10pm heading for Studios to take the boat to Beaches & Creme. Arrive at Studios 1:30pm. Boat is leaving so we don’t get that one. But less than 10 minutes later another arrives. 15 minutes later we are at Yacht & Beach Club. Off the boat and over to Beaches where we find out the wait is one hour plus. Shelly hem haws like maybe we shouldn’t wait but I over rule. We sit down and no more than 2 minutes later our buzzer goes off. Someone canceled and we are on deck. We both have the Beaches Angus Burger with ham, swiss,sauteed onions, horseradish ranch sauce, lettuce, and tomato, plus a side order of fries and onion rings. After gorging ourselves we walk over to Epcot. Heading over for a fast pass on Soarin we stop off and see The Immaculate High School Chamber Choir and Wind Ensemble from Sommerville New Jersey. Very good. Meet Dave and Brenda for our 3:45 fast pass on Soarin. Afterwards we go to The Butterfly House and roam around some of the floral displays for ideas on our yards. After that we take the boat across World Showcase to catch the 5:30pm En Vogue show at American Gardens theatre. I grab a Chocolate Brown Ale beer before the show at a new craft beer stand that is right next to The American Experience. This is a fantastic girl band that is very tight and talented. The only song I am familiar with is You’re Never Gonna Get It. The other songs are good and performed flawlessly. The crowd is predominantly old white people who don’t give them the props I think they deserve. They are very good and in a different venue they would have the crowd swinging from the chandeliers. After the show Shelly realizes she has set her sunglasses down somewhere in the last hour and they are gone. She is not very happy and gets a little pissy. But, after a Bass Ale at United Kingdom waiting to see The British Revolution and Brenda and Dave arriving to see the next show she settles down. After the set we move over to Italy out on the peninsula that Nick and I watched Illuminations last year multiple times. The show is flawless with no glitches. Before the show though a japanese guy starts pressuring Brenda about “Is anyone sitting in the spot next to you” She says yes and he backs off. A nano second later I loudly ask when are Penelope and Morris going to arrive. Without any prompting Brenda joins in with her own brand of bullshit. We go back and forth about the make believe Penelope and Morris. When did he get out of prison? Did Penelope really cheat on him when he was in prison. What about my stint in prison. Pretty soon Shelly and Dave (Wanda and Brett) are joining with their own bunch of lies to create the illusion of people that are coming to watch who really aren’t. This goes on for at least 20 minutes. It gets so ridiculous that we can hardly stop from breaking out laughing from the twists and turns of these make believe people. It reminds me of Kirstie and I believe Julio at McDs in SM. Whether it was Julio or not Kirstie told a tale of making up a totally bullshit story complete with vocal accents during a shift that some coworkers that didn’t know them bought in to. That is what this was like. After the show we slowly make our way around World Showcase. Shelly and I go in Mouse Gear to shop and Brenda and Dave go back to the hotel. We get a bus quickly when we get to our stop and are back at the hotel by 10:30PM. Shelly goes for a pizza and I go to the room and shower up and do the journal. Shelly arrives back with the grub and all of us are just hanging out drinking beer and eating pizza. It’s 12:40AM now and Shelly is going to bed. Dave and Brenda are doing a tour of WDW called The Back Stage Magic Tour which encompasses all four Disney parks behind the scenes for 7 hours. Shelly and I have our lunch with an imagineer at The Brown Derby. I anticipate being up till 2:00AM. Word has come from Kirstie that our pins will be arriving before 12:00 noon tuesday. This is nice so I can continue my valuable work here:)
Monday March 23rd, 2015
Up at 10:30am. Hooter had many episodes last night, I would bet she has sleep apnea. I just go back to sleep after she wakes me but she is really taking a gamble not addressing this. Out the door for DHS at 11:15AM. Arrive at DHS 11:30AM. On the way in I realize I left my magic band in the room. No worries, I can use my plastic media to get into the parks and fast pass. I am right. But later in the evening I find out that I can’t charge food on it. We arrive at The Brown Derby and shortly are ushered in to a small private room where our Imagineer Joni Van Buren and our head server David are waiting. It is a long table for 12 and Joni sits at the head of the table. There are four coarses , soup, salad, main dish, and desert. Shelly and I have the Fillet. David our server goes into detail about how each coarse is prepared at The Brown Derby and its history going back to the early days with Sid Cuwanga, the owner of the Gruman Chinese Theatre. Sid who ate at The Brown Derby quite often had a recent dental procedure that made his mouth very sensitive. The Brown Derby came up with a salad that was finely chopped up to make it more tolerable for Cuwanga to eat. The creator of that special salads last name was Cobb. Hence the salad was born that many have heard of a Cobb Salad. It was quite delicious. This takes him about 5 to 10 minutes to tell more tales and secrets of the bygone days of Hollywood and The Brown Derby before he turns it over to Joni. She is a older woman between 60 and 70 who has been working for Disney 27 years. She is an Art Director for Walt Disney Imagineering, responsible for character sculptures, figure finishing for audio-animatronic figures in all attractions and directing artists throughout the Walt Disney World property. Joni first served as a contractor producing props and costumes for several of Disney’s theme park shows throughout the mid 1980s. She realized that Disney roles in sculpting were hard to come by and wanting to be a part of the Disney family had accepted a role as a hostess at the Main Street Camera Center. While at the Camera Center , Joni would sculpt characters for the desks of management of Main Street. This eventually led to a position with Disney’s Theme Production where she sculpted figures for the Emporium animated windows, as well as characters for locations throughout Disney properties world wide. Some contributions Joni is responsible for, include the Character topiaries in the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival, the sculptures that were on the Magic KIngdom Castle for the Happiest Celebration on Earth, Photo ops from the twelve foot tall Stitch on the World Of Disney to Buzz Lightyear at the toy store, and figures for the Disney Cruise lines and Disney Vacation club locations. The sculptures vary from the size of a dime to a forty foot tall Baloo at Disney’s Pop Century Resort. One particular story she told was of sculpting the 25 ft. Ursula for The Little Mermaid Show at DHS. One day she got a call from Pat Caroll the voice of Ursula in the movie who had seen her work and wanted to meet her. They did meet for lunch. Imagine, she said being at lunch talking with Pat Caroll talking about the many inside stories about the production of The Little Mermaid. The highlight Joni says is when Pat started reciting Joni’s favorite lines from the movie in Ursulas voice in person. After about and hour and a half of eating and discussing questions all of us had Joni leaves and David finishes up with giving us our commemorative pins and Joni Van Buren autographed plates. We also get a copy of the menu we ate from and a commemorative picture of all of us at the table before we start. It was very cool. After our lunch we walk around the corner for Beauty & The Beast Stage show. Excellent, all talent top notch. When we exit the show Shelly finds out that Greg, Michelle, William, and Brady are near by getting autographs with Big Hero 6 at the end of the Animation Tour. We walk over and hang out with them for about an hour. The kids are having a blast and quite well behaved. They have a dinner reservation at Hollywood & Vine for 4:20PM so we walk them over and split up when they go in to eat. Next we go to Gerties to get a chocolate waffle cone outside Indiana Jones. There is no wait, which is rare. Shelly next goes to get some sunglasses as she has lost her glasses yesterday. We now get word that Dave and Brenda are entering DHS after there 7 hour tour of all 4 parks. They say it was really worth the cash and that they learned a lot of interesting things. Their lunch was at Whispering Canyon at Wilderness Resort. We meet up with them for our fast pass on TOT. Exit TOT and get a beer to drink while we wait at Rosies for our fast pass on RRC. When we get off I step on something on the way out of the gift shop. It’s a magic band. I pick it up and almost simultaneously a girl next to me says her magic band is gone off her wrist. I think I have helped her out until I turn the band over and it says Shelly. Shellys band just fell off her wrist after the ride.The girl is out of luck. We next enter Fantasmic for the 8:30PM show. Good seats stage left. We have a couple of beers and some nachos and roasted sugar/cinnamon coated almonds. The show is great with two flaws, one of which I have only seen once in my life. There are only two canoes instead of four and one has a torch not working but lights half way across the scene. The other which is quite rare is the paddlewheel boat that normally carries the characters at the end doesn’t come out but instead all the characters appear on stage. We have seen this once before and I then read up on it that this is a plan B finale when the boat malfunctions. Disney has many protocols that can be put in to place in the case of a variety of malfunctions that will complete the show without anyone being the wiser. Except for fan boys like us that notice the unnoticeable. Dave and Brenda head out while we go back to The Derby to pick up our stuff from the dinner. We shop a little but buy nothing. We have a short wait at the bus stop and are back to Pop by 10:05PM. We go to the food court where I get a cold turkey and swiss sandwich from the deli and Shelly waits in a long line to get a barbecue pulled pork sandwich. When I get to the room I take my card out that got me in the parks, got me in fast pass, but didn’t allow me to charge food. I tap the card on the door and the door won’t open. I knock next door and hang out with Dave and Brenda till Shelly gets back. Once she’s back I enter our room to get my magic band on the table but it isn’t there. I knew I wouldn’t have been so stupid to leave it on the table. Mine must have fell off somewhere just like Shellys did. We have two new ones they gave us on day one that we didn’t need so I will use one of those now. We have some brew and talk till midnight when Shelly wants to get to her snoring for the night. I am doing you know what and having more beer. It’s 1:30AM now and I am anticipating a 2:30-3:00am bedtime. Tomorrow first fast at DHS is 1:50pm Toy Story Mania, followed by 3:15pm TOT and 4:30pm For The First Time In Forever: A Frozen Sing Along. At 5:30pm we all eat at Sci Fi Dine In Theatre. Bye
Tuesday March 24th, 2015
Up at 12:30pm. Horrible night of sleep. Shelly had me waking up at least 10 times with her sonic snoring. No where to run, no where to hide. Found my magic band this morning. I must have taken it off in bed Sunday night and set it on the night stand. I guess I am stupid. So I got that going for me, which is nice. Out the door at 1:15pm for DHS. Enter DHS at 1:30pm and head for Toy Story Mania where we meet Dave and Brenda for our first fast pass. After Toy Story Mania we go down the street to Studio Catering by Bugs Life Play Land. We split a turkey wrap and fries because we don’t want to fill up and spoil Sci Fi Diner at 5:30pm. After we eat we go around the corner to Streets Of America to see the actual carriage from the Disney movie Cinderella. There is a waiting line about 30 minutes long for girls who want a photo op. They have a glass slipper on a velvet pillow that the girls hold for the photo. We plan to have me on my knee handing Shelly the pillow with the slipper. We haven’t had 30 or more minutes to spare yet to do the shoot. Shelly is insisting on getting this picture before we leave. Next we get a Mickey Premium Bar to eat on the way to our 3:15pm Tower Of Terror fast pass. After TOT we go on The Great Movie Ride. Next we move to For The First Time In Forever: Frozen Sing A Long Show. On the way we stop for 10 minutes and watch Mulch, Sweat, and Shears. Fantastic rockers that don’t let us down. At the Frozen show it couldn’t be better. They have two really funny narrators that tell the story of Frozen through their dialogue and pictures and video clips from the movie. They cover almost every song except Fixer Upper. The audience sings along whenever a song is playing, with the video from the movie playing on the screen. The words are underneath like a karaoke show. It is a total hit. Everyone is singing along when it is time and the two narrators have the audience in stitches with there banter and humor during the show. Anna appears early in the show, then Kristoph midway through, and Elsa during the finale. Elsa belts out Let It Go at the end and uses her powers to fill the theatre with snow. It is really something that I for one will go see at least one more time this week. You can see really nice film of the show on YouTube. When the show ends we have 5 minutes to go around the block to Sci Fi. Dave and Brenda are there waiting and we enter shortly. Shelly has The Schrimp Pasta Dish and I have my standard Reuben and Fries with a side order of onion rings. We are there for about an hour until we leave for Muppets. When we exit The Muppets we go by Cinderella Carriage again to see if the line is any less. It isn’t so we can’t take the picture yet. We go to Fantasmic at 7:30pm for the first show. We are in Malificent Row G. The show starts with no sparks coming out of MIckeys hands, then there are only two canoes again. Malificents green flames don’t go off when her part comes, and once again there is no paddle wheeler. I hope they are not discontinuing the boat. The show is fantastic but it’s easy to notice when something is different. After the show we exit and get back in the line at 9:15PM for the second Fantasmic at 10:00PM. We are let in to the theatre at 9:30pm. Shelly goes and gets seats center Mickey Row O while I get two more beers, a hot dog, and some nachos. After show two we are at the bus around 10:50pm and leave shortly for the hotel. Upon arrival Shelly goes to the front desk to check if our credit card needs to be updated. It doesn’t, they don’t do that anymore. She gets a turkey and swiss sandwich from the food court while I go back to the room to take a shower and do the journal. Upon entrance there it is. Our care package from Kirstie with our ID pins. Thank you DEE DEE. Now I can resume my cast member duties. I’m wrapping up the journal now at 12:00 Midnight and Shelly is reading her dirty book on her Kindle. Maybe I’ll get lucky:) Got to be up at 7:00AM tomorrow for Dave and I to go golfing at 8:30AM at Disney’s Oak Trails Golf Coarse. Shelly and Brenda are getting up early too and going to Magic Kingdom to see the 9:00AM morning opening ceremonies. Then they are going to Chef Mickeys on top of The Contemporary for a 10:15AM breakfast. See ya tomorrow.
Wednesday March 25th, 2015
Up at 7:00AM on the dot. Teeth brushed, dressed, and ready to go by 7:20AM for our scheduled 7:45 departure to the golf coarse. Shelly and Brenda are at the bus stop 8:00AM for the bus to Magic Kingdom. Golf is excellent. I haven’t been out in almost 2 years. My eye surgery hasn’t affected my game at all. I’m still just as bad. I shoot a 54 and Dave shoots a 51. We golf with a guy and his 12 year old son. The kid is pretty good. I’m jealous and I tell the guy he is lucky. After our round we plan to go to the bar and have one but we can’t seem to find where the bar is. The nearest looking thing at Oak Trails is this little dumpy garage looking thing. We walk towards The Magnolia Coarse and approach a man of a certain color. I ask, “Hey, where is the bar from here”, He says, why, are you looking for some hard stuff. I look puzzled and reply no, we just want to have a beer after our round. He points to the dumpy little place we saw already. Reverse racism? It had a feeling of if we didn’t blow a fortune for the fancy coarse they didn’t want us in the Magnolia club house. Dave drives me back to Pop where I exit and go eat at the food court. Sloppy Joe with onion ring and fries. Dave goes to MK to meet up with Shelly and Brenda who have finished there morning breakfast. After I eat I go to the room and shower again, change into some fresh clothes, and snuggle up in the freshly made room and start to watch Braveheart and pass out for a 3 hour nap. Up around 4:30 and down to the bus to MK. Bus leaves Pop at 5:05pm and arrives at MK 5:25pm. I text Brenda that I am almost there but I don’t get a response as I have texted the wrong number. I enter the park and hop on the WDW Railroad for a ride over to Fantasyland. Off the railroad I go in Dumbos Big Top gift shop to look around. Nothing really grabs me so I leave and next go on Ariels Undersea Adventure. After Ariel I go to Gastons where I have a chocolate croissant and a mug of Lafoe’s Brew. It is a apple cider laced light marshmellow tasting drink with marshmallow creme over the top. It is delicious like nothing I have ever tasted before. But the best thing is it comes in a Gaston & Lafoe mug that I can use. More beer? What for! Nothing helps. Now I find out the rest of the gang is in line for Pooh. After my mug I go there and have another chocolate ice cream from Storybook Snacks with the coldest ice cream in MK. Next Dave, Brenda, & Shelly go to eat at Pinnochios. I just watch because I want Columbia Harbour House later. After they eat we all go on Goofys Barnstormer, Dumbo, and back to Big Top Gift Shop. I leave the gang and take the railroad over to Adventureland. I exit and make my way to Columbia Harbour House to have a Fish Basket with fries and coleslaw. I just finish and Electric Light Parade is approaching. It’s not Spectromagic but it is still pretty. After the parade it’s over to the hub for Celebrate The Magic and Wishes. I have no idiots around me this performance. Just quiet fans watching in amazement. When it’s over I slowly exit the Magic Kingdom at 10:15PM and am soon on one of the new double busses by 10:30PM. Back at Pop around 11:00PM. Drinking beer out of my new Gaston mug in contentment. Shelly is reading her dirty book and Brenda and Dave are doing something in their bed. It’s 11:38pm now and I anticipate a 2:00pm bed time.
Thursday March 26th, 2015
Up at 12:15pm. Get cleaned up and watch Bones. Shelly was up and out at 10:00AM down by the pool doing laundry and sunning. Shelly arrives back around 2:00pm. We head out for Epcot at 2:40PM. At Epcot we ride Spaceship Earth first and then Shelly and I go for a photo shoot with Mickey, Goofy, and Minnie at The Character Spot near Starbucks. After we do the photo op we take the boat across World Showcase as there is a possible storm coming and we don’t want to get caught in the rain. It does start raining lightly but we are under cover at the boat launch. The rain lets up as we exit the boat at Germany.We check in for our 5:00pm German Biergarten buffet at 4:45pm. We are called in 10 minutes early and Dave isn’t here yet. He went golfing again with his buddy who lives down here. He arrives right at 5:00pm and we are seated. Second tier stage right. Our waitress is very nice and the food is awesome as always. We all over eat heavily while enjoying the german music and atmosphere. Shelly and I exit at 6:20pm and take the boat back across for a 6:40 fast pass on Soarin. After Soarin I go on Mission Space by myself. I take the pussy version and it really still is just as cool, just not the stroke inducing G force as the original. After Space we walk towards Mexico and stake out spots for Illuminations next to where we were the other night. Not out on the peninsula as there is a private party on it tonight. We are just north of the section towards American Gardens Theatre. While waiting two cast member pan and sweeps approach me about my light up pins. One of them could be Julios brother only a little lighter. We talk for close to half an hour about all kinds of Disney and Universal things. Really nice guys. I go for a beer and sit by the stage for a while watching Starship roadies set up the bands equipment for tomorrow night. Illuminations comes off without a hitch. The rain hasn’t started yet but the wind is kicking up like something is coming. Nothing does. We all exit Epcot at 9:30pm and ride with Dave and Brenda in their van. Back at Pop a little after 10:00pm drinking beer from my Gaston mug and practicing my typing. Dave, Brenda, and Shelly are in the other room doing something. There is a lot of groaning and noise. I though I heard the sound of a bull whip and a sheep. Maybe it’s just the beer. It’s only 10:34pm now. Tomorrow night is day one of Mickey Thomas and Starship at Epcot. We probably will catch a set there. Other than that who knows. Anticipated bedtime 1:30am.
Friday March 27th, 2015
Up at a unusual 10:30AM. Out of the hotel room at 11:20AM bound for Downtown Disney and a visit to The Earle Of Sandwich. We arrive at DTD at 11:43AM. Shelly and I each have the Hawaiian Barbecue sandwich with a bag of Mesquite Barbecue chips. After we shop at a few stores and Shelly gets a new sweat shirt. Next we take the boat to Port Orleans Riverside just for the ride. From there we take a bus to Epcot. At Epcot we go to Ellen’s Energy Adventure and then the old Met Life Pavilion (Now The Garden Show Center) to see if there is anything interesting for the yard. There isn’t. While there I take care of the last two days of eating:) We exit Met Life and go on The Finding Nemo Ride at The Living Seas. After we go in Turtle Talk which is very funny. Two really cute kids ask some great questions to which Crush has some snappy responses that have the crowd laughing. Next we go to see Captain EO with next to no wait. That’s the way it’s been all day as it’s been raining lightly on and off all day. We have our umbrellas today so it doesn’t matter. After Captain EO we go to The Land to eat. We both have the Mongolian Beef and rice plus pig pen Larry has a slice of cheese cake and a slice of chocolate Mousse. Fatty. We get word that Dave and Brenda are entering Epcot and they are soon there for our 6:40pm Soarin Fast Passes. After a short wait we are entering Soarin at 7:10PM. When we get off Dave and Brenda head over for Test Track I think. Shelly and I are going to watch Illuminations from the bridge near France and do a quick exit out the back on the boat for DHS after Illuminations for the 10:00PM Fantasmic at DHS. We change our mind and take the boat before Illuminations to make sure we get at least one viewing of Fantasmic without rushing. At DHS we shop for a while before going to Hollywood Hills Amphitheatre to set up for Fantasmic. There is hardly anyone at the second show. We are in the center Mickey Row N. Tonights show is like Forest Gump. You never know what your going to get, like a box of chocolates. First there is no giraffe in scene one, the ostrich is just propped up on the stage without an operator:( Next there are four canoes with working torches:) But when the snake sequence comes up there are not enough cast members to make the snake move. It just lays there:( Then Malificents green gas flames don’t ignite when she takes the stage with her “ Now you will deal with me” scene:( Finally at the end we are not expecting the boat as one of my two Disney cleaning buddies I met at Epcot told me the boat was down for refurb. But there it is coming around the bend. Sparklers ignited but no running lights around the rails, no logos or striping. It’s battleship grey like it just came out of the paint shop before the detailing could be done. Mickeys appearance at the helm doesn’t start with a puff of smoke and some fireworks. He just comes up from the ladder and starts steering. Weird show. It’s pretty windy and the water jets from the show make the cast members during the princesses boat scenes have to dance through a shower of water. We leave Fantasmic after the show with hardly any people in the park. It closed at 9:30pm and it’s now 10:30pm. Bus is there and we are on and back to Pop before 11:00PM. 11:49PM now, Shelly is on her computer, Dave and Brenda are watching tv in their room and I’m you know. Tomorrow is their last day and night. They will leave early Sunday morning. We are all going to meet at Epcot for the 5:45pm Starship concert and then hop to DHS for one last Fantasmic for The Glowackis. We will probably leave DHS after 8:30pm Fantasmic for MK as it is open until 2:00AM. Gotta have another beer, I’m getting low on calories:)
Saturday March 28th, 2015
Up at 11:00AM. At the bus for MK at 11:50AM. Last night while Shelly was showering the light in the bathroom all of sudden went out. She turns it on and moments later it goes out. Same for me. A guy comes to fix it while we are leaving the room. Our bus arrives at 12:00 PM and we’re off to Magic Kingdom. We arrive at MK at 12:15PM. As soon as we enter we take the train over to Frontierland for a 12:40PM fast pass on Splash Mountain. We have our ponchos so we don’t get wet. After Splash we walk over to Columbia Harbour House to eat. Shelly gets the food while I grab a table on the second floor overlooking the walkway below to Haunted Mansion. I have the Anchors Aweigh tuna with fries and Shelly has the fish and chips with a side order of chowder. After eating we go in Hall Of Presidents. Next we go to the entrance of the park where the fast pass area is for Festival Of Fantasy Parade. The parade is awesome as usual. Disney has really hit a home run when they can get Shelly and I to come in Magic KIngdom at 3:00 in the afternoon for a parade. When the parade ends we go to The New Fantasyland for fast pass on Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. I think it is cooler looking at night. Off the Mine Train we go to the Fantasyland train station to take the train over to Main Street Station. We exit the park from Main Street and take a small boat over to The Polynesian and Ticket Transportation Center to take a picture of our block. It’s still there looking pretty good after 17 years. Next we take the monorail over to Epcot. Shelly leaves me and joins Dave and Brenda over at Test Track while I take a boat across World Showcase at 5:54PM for the 6:45PM Starship show at The American Gardens Theatre. First I go and eat at America. I have the grilled chicken BLT and fries. After eating I go and catch the show. Starship opens up with Find Your Way Back, then Sara, Nothings Gonna Stop Us Now, Set The Night To Music, We Built This City. Mickey Thomas tenor voice still cuts like a knife. When the show ends I walk to the boat near France and leave for DHS at 7:20PM. I arrive at DHS at 7:45PM and am in Fantasmic by 8:00PM. Dave, Brenda, and Shelly are already there in Pocahontas Section Row O. After the show Dave and Brenda exit for the hotel to pack up and get ready to leave early tomorrow morning. This was there last day. It’s a long drive back to Milwaukee. Shelly and I exit Fantasmic and get back in line for the second show at 10:00PM. After show two we exit at 10:30PM and are on the bus for MK at 10:55PM. Arrive MK at 11:10PM. As we enter MK The second Electric Light Parade is going. We make our way down Main Street to get over to Cosmic Rays for a little Sonny Eclipse to go with my Barbecue Pork sandwich and fries and Shellys Chicken Nuggets and barbecue sauce. After eating yet again we go on Wedway People Mover, Buzz Lightyear, Indy Race Cars, Ariel’s Undersea Adventure, Mickey’s Philharmagic, Peter Pan, It’s A Small World, and Haunted Mansion. We exit MK at closing time 2:00AM. Over to the bus stop where the bus is waiting. We are back to Pop at 2:30AM. I am doing my journal and having some brew. Shelly is snoring already. The movie Gran Torino just started and I know I will watch the whole thing. Estimated bedtime 4-4:30AM.
Sunday March 29th, 2015
Up at 12:45pm. Last night turned out to be 5:00am bedtime for me. Out of the room and at the bus stop at 3:07pm for DAK. Shelly already left at 1:30pm to catch the first fast pass for Finding Nemo The Musical 3:00PM show. Bus leaves Pop at 3:15pm and I arrive at DAK 3:28pm. I stop for a Mickey Premium bar on the way to Killamanjaro Safari. While waiting to see if Shelly shows up for Kilamanjaro I find a ID tag for Marleys bar stool at The DTC. It’s a Mickey head with Marleys name engraved on it. I plan to two side tape it to the stool. The seal the deal was free personalized engraving. Marley is not that common a name in the Disney name tag biz. It’s actually a key chain but I will re-imagineer it for my own purpose. After I exit Kilamanjaro I go to Restaurantasauraus for a 1/3# Angus Bacon Burger with lettuce,tomato,fried onions,mushrooms,ketchup, and mustard. Because I’m diet conscience I get a diet coke to wash it down:) After eating I exit DAK at 6:00pm for Epcot. I arrive at Epcot at 6:21pm. I make my way to the right around World Showcase and stop at “Canada, Turn It Off” 360 degrees. After the movie I stop at United Kingdom for a Bass Ale and walk towards America. Once at America I get a Bud Light and wait for the priority seating line to enter the theatre. While waiting one of my two new Disney buddies (Not the Julio Looking One) recognizes me and walks over and we shoot the shit for 10 minutes. This time I take notice of his name tag, his name it M’kail. The priority line for Starship is in the theatre so I tell M’kail I have to go and get another beer and enter the theatre. I grab another Bud light and get my seat 2nd row middle section. The band opens with Jane, followed by Sara, Miracle,White Rabbit, Don’t You Want Somebody To Love, and closes out their last performance with We Built This City. I set up for Illuminations at the usual spot at Italy but 15 minutes out I need to go to the bathroom. I get this crazy idea to walk towards the front of World Showcase while waiting for the start of Illuminations thinking I will find a spot. Now I remember why we go to Italy an hour before showtime. There are no good spots. I just exit without seeing the show and get a guaranteed instant bus ride back to Pop avoiding the rush. On the bus at 9:20pm and back at POP 9:40pm. Take a shower and start the journal. It’s only 10:24pm now. Shelly is on the way back from MK and is going to grab a pizza. Bedtime, probably 2:00AMish.
Monday March 30th, 2015
Up at 11:45AM. Shelly goes down to the pool while I lounge in bed watching a Steven Segal movie Under Seige. 2:00PM and I still am Mr. Lazy watching an episode of Bones and eating two left over pieces of pizza from last night. Magical Express envelope on the door. Pickup is at 6:25PM Tuesday.Out of the room and on the bus for MK at 4:10pm. We are at Magic Kingdom at 4:30pm. We wait around an hour for the Cinderella Castle Stage Show. I seem to be the go to can you take our picture guy as I get called to duty 3 times. After the show we go to Pecos Bill and split a barbecue pork sandwich with fries. We don’t want to eat much as we plan on going over to Miss Pollys on Tom Sawyer Island for desert. Brenda sent a text that it was open so I checked the menu on my phone and found out they have some great deserts. Apple pie sundae is the only one of four I remember. When we get to the point in line to get on the barge to cross over to the island I ask the cast member if Miss Pollys is open. She says no, it closes at 4:00pm. Glad I asked or it would have been a lot of wasted time. We circle around to the Libertybelle Riverboat and board for a trip down the river. When our tour there ends we go to Sleepy Hollow Treats next to the castle for a Waffle/w powdered sugar. It’s delicious. We find that there is a path up from Sleepy Hollow that leads right into Fantasyland. Heading towards Philharmagic we stop at The Friars Nook for the much talked about but never tried mac and cheese. There are 3 kinds, we get the Pot Roast Mac & Cheese. It is creamy and goey topped with some melt in your mouth pot roast chunks. As if that wasn’t enough in less than an hour we next travel 20 feet further to Storybook Snacks for a Fudge Brownie sundae for Shelly and a Caramel Sundae for me. It’s now nearing our 8:00pm fast pass for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, so we move back to Frontierland and ride it. It’s 8:15pm after Big Thunder so we go and stake our spot for Celebrate The Magic. I know it’s probably next to impossible but I swear the same asshole teenagers we had behind us last year are there again. One in particular is over reacting to every scene shown on the castle. Loudly saying things like, “Oh my god I can’t believe that” and “I love you Elsa”. This goes on through the whole show as guests look on in disgust. At the end of the show I leave to another area which turns out to be great. Shelly on the other hand chooses to turn and lecture the kid about how everyone is here to see the show not listen to this bozo try and turn the show into his personal stage to perform his brand of rudeness for everyone. Bravo Shelly. When Wishes ends I text her to meet at Ariels Undersea Adventure where our next fast pass is. Within 15 minutes we are both at the entrance and go on. After Ariel we go on Cinderella’s Carousel. Next we go in Mickeys Philharmagic, then Carousel Of Progress, Wedway People Mover, and then I eat again at Cosmic Rays. Barbecue Pork Sandwich w/Fries. As I start to eat Shelly reminds me of something that we both were supposed to remember at 9:20pm. Check in 24 hours prior to our flight. Ooops. We did it again. I finish eating and clean the barbecue sauce of my hands and log in to the Southwest site. Well, everyone else must have been having fun on their last night in Orlando too as we get A35-36 after logging in a full two hours late. Bonus. Our last stop today is Seven Dwarfs Mine Train fast pass. We are briefly slowed down as someone has spilled something, thrown up, or something so they are cleaning up the mess and the ride is stopped temporarily. We are soon on board and through the ride. We exit Magic Kingdom for the last time this trip at 12:04AM. The park is open tonight till 1:00AM but we want to get some sleep before the final day tomorrow. The bus arrives at 12:15AM and we arrive back at Pop at 12:35AM. Back in the room making ready for a quick departure from the room in the morning. Got no beers left of mine but Shelly has 6 left from her 12 pack. I guess I’ll have to take one for the team and finish them:) It’s 1:20AM now, estimated bedtime 2:30am. Tomorrow after hotel airline luggage checkin and our carry ons checked in to bell services we plan 5-6 hours at DAK, We have three fast passes, Finding Nemo The Musical at 1:00PM, Expedition Everest at 1:55-2:55PM, and Kilimanjaro Safari 3:15-4:15PM. the rest of the open time we will eat somewhere and probably see Flights Of Wonder or something. Our pickup for Magical Express isn’t till 6:25PM so it’s like almost a whole day in the park. Bye
Tuesday March 31st, 2015
Up at 10:30am with the bags packed and ready to go except for toiletry stuff. Out the door at exactly 11:00am and down to baggage services. I check the luggage with Southwest while Shelly checks our carry ons with bell services. We are at the bus stop for DAK at 11:17am and shortly our bus arrives. Pull in to DAK at 11:50am. We plan on eating at Restaurantasauras but the crowd is so huge there is a line out the door. Instead we stop at a small cart on the way to Finding Nemo The Musical for a pulled pork sandwich and chips. After eating its off to our 1:00pm fast pass for Nemo. When the show ends we go to Flights Of Wonder. It is also packed to its maximum. DAK is crowded today. After FOW I do two fast pass rides in a row on Expedition Everest. Make our way over to Africa where we have a Mickey Premium while waiting for Kilimanjaro Safari fast pass time. It’s now 3:15pm and time for Kilimanjaro fast pass. Kind of a dull tour guide and hardly any animals compared to yesterday. Next it’s on the train to Rafiki’s Planet Watch. We roam around there for about a half hour looking at all the exhibits before returning on the train to Harambe. Our last Disney attraction for 2015 is It’s Tough To Be A Bug on the way towards the exit. We exit DAK at 5:30pm and are back at Pop at 5:52pm. Shelly grabs the carry ons and we wait for our 6:25pm Magical Express bus. It’s right on time and we are off to the airport. Arrive at McCoy at 7:10pm, and go to our gate 107. One last bad meal at the airport, Shelly has Sbarro chicken Parmesan and I have McDonalds Grilled Chicken value meal. The plane departs right on time. There are only 67 passengers so everyone gets the luxury of not having anyone directly next to them if they like. They have to balance the weight of the passengers by spreading them evenly throughout the cabin. With the free tv Southwest offers it seems like in no time we are descending into Milwaukee. I had our drop off and pickup set with Kirstie but Shelly while in Orlando goes ahead and changes horses in mid stream. Kirstie is a little pissed as she has changed her work schedule to start at 11:00am wednesday. She planned on hanging out at our house for a while after picking us up. We arrive 20 minutes earlier than scheduled. When we get to the luggage carousel our bags are already there. Shelly calls for our pick up a half hour straight. Nick is not answering his phone. I tell her to call Kirstie. Kirstie is not answering. Now it’s near 40 minutes we are sitting ready to go home with no driver. I tell her call Steve. She does and this wakes Steve up which prompts Kirstie to call Shelly. Her phone is on silent because Shelly has told her that Nick is now the designated driver. Kirstie is on the way now. Shelly now tells me that Nick told her before we left his phone doesn’t work. I’m incredulous. You mean you changed the existing plan of Kirstie picking us up to Nick knowing he doesn’t have a phone that works. How did you plan on contacting him. She now tries to spin the conversation to what do I think is wrong with his phone and why didn’t I fix it. Kirstie arrives shortly and we hang out at the kitchen table till 1:00am. I go down to The DTC and have four beers and watch NBA till 3:00am. Up Wednesday at 12:30pm and within an hour everything is put away and back to normal. Ahhh, it’s good to be home.