crazycatperson's trip report!

Addition to Thursday's report: while we were strolling around the World Showcase, we heard part of the Pointer Sisters show. Those women look darn good for being, what, in their 50s? And sound as good as ever.

Whoa! Wish I looked half that good, and I'm younger than they are! Yes, they sound exactly the same. Clearly they've been living right.

Friday, October 26 - Magic Kingdom

I woke up a little before dawn Friday morning and, fool that I am, rolled over and went back to sleep even though I knew MK opened at 8:00 that morning. I woke up again somewhere around 8:30, realized I was already missing park time, and hustled butt out of there while hubby snored away. Fortunately an MK bus came fairly quickly and I was on my way. At this point, there was no rain, spotty clouds, and winds that were brisk but hardly hurricane-force. I just hoped it would stay that way.

The crowds weren't terribly heavy even though the park had been open over an hour by the time I arrived, and since the castle shows hadn't started yet I walked through the castle to check out the new Fantasyland - once again, it was closed to park guests. So unlike many of you, I missed out on previewing the new attractions. I headed over to It's a Small World so hubby wouldn't have to ride it when (if) he showed up. The wait time sign showed nothing - not even 5 minutes - and I walked right on. Somewhere along the way I got a call from hubby saying he thought the weather looked all right and he was on his way - can't recall if I rode Haunted Mansion once before he arrived or waited till after he was at MK. (Doesn't matter; I rode HM a lot.)

The first thing we did once hubby had arrived was get Peter Pan's Flight FastPasses. By this point in the trip I'd done so many things so many times that I'm not 100 percent sure the order in which we visited attractions. While over in the Fantasyland/Liberty Square area we rode Peter Pan's Flight, Haunted Mansion, visited Mickey's PhilHarMagic and the Hall of Presidents, and ate lunch at Columbia Harbor House. Hubby got the fried fish platter and declared it good but not as good as the fried fish at ABC Commissary in DHS; I ordered the grilled salmon and wished I'd gotten the fried shrimp instead. I had the shrimp last year and really enjoyed it; the salmon was healthier but rather bland (I added barbecue sauce to spice it up a little), and while I liked the couscous, the broccoli did nothing for me even though it was cooked about as perfectly as broccoli can be - just tender enough without being mushy.

The Hall of Presidents is one of my favorite attractions, and not just because I saw the Lincoln attraction at the New York World's Fair. Over the past several years I've been slowly reading biographies of every U.S. president, and it's really cool to see the less famous presidents nod their heads when their names are called and know who they are. I'm up to Woodrow Wilson now, which leaves only a couple of presidents more before I get to the ones I'm already familiar with because they were either recent history or current events in my lifetime.

We stopped by Splash Mountain, but it was closed for repairs, so our next stop was Tomorrowland. We got Buzz Lightyear FastPasses and visited Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor while we waited. I asked hubby to act curmudgeonly so maybe he'd get picked to be "that guy," but no luck. Even so, I always love that show. We took a spin on the People Mover and Carousel of Progress (and I think it's time to update the Christmas scene; it seems almost as dated now as the original 1960s final scene would) and then used those FastPasses. Hubby declined my invitation to ride Space Mountain without me - not one of his favorite roller coasters - so we headed back to Splash Mountain. The water was flowing again and folks were streaming into the standby line, but we didn't want to chance a long wait since we had our final meet-up soon, so we got FastPasses and headed over to Pirates of the Caribbean. (BTW, yes, there are mermaids now.)

We finished up just in time to meet for Dole Whips. I sent hubby into the (rather long) line to get us both a Dole Whip float while I scouted out a table in a nearby seating area. None were available, so I stood among the tables waiting for a table to free up and watching for the other WDWFG people. A small group of 20-somethings got in line, and a girl in the group kept eyeing the tables - I knew she was going to make a dash for one even though, hello! I was clearly waiting there. Sure enough, she did, but I beat her to it and then gave her the stink-eye (which she gave me back several times; too bad, chickie!). Shortly after I claimed the table Dee arrived, followed by Kristin, Beckah, and a few traveling companions - oops, our table was not big enough! Fortunately a neighboring table had emptied out, so we pulled it over and had room for everyone.

What a great time we had! We all shared our WDW stories and got to know one another. Silly me, it took several minutes before I realized Beckah was from WDWFG also - duh! I was going to take a photo with my little cell phone, but then Kristin whipped out her huge honking professional camera, so I didn't bother. So check out Kristin K.'s trip report to see Dee Beckah, Kristin, and me post-Dole Whip. While I'm thinking of ice cream, I got the float with pineapple juice and vanilla ice cream; hubby got pineapple juice and orange ice cream. Both were delicious.

If I recall correctly, Kristin and Beckah left first. And who should show up then but Robyn and Simon! They'd planned to go to the beach Friday, but changed their plans when Hurricane Sandy started churning up the surf. So we lingered a little longer and caught up with them. Dee handed out some more Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom paraphernalia (thanks very much, Dee!) and then we all headed over to Splash Mountain, since our FastPass window had opened. But bummer! Splash Mountain was closed again! So we never got to ride it this trip - very disappointing since that is one seriously awesome ride.

Friday, October 26 - Magic Kingdom continued

We parted company then, and hubby and I wandered over to (you guessed it) Haunted Mansion for one more ride. By that time we were thinking about heading back to Old Key West to pick up the merchandise we'd had delivered from Animal Kingdom the day before (at OKW you pick up merchandise at the resort store), get some laundry in the washer, and take a quick bath before going to Animal Kingdom Lodge for dinner at Boma. So we walked through Storybook Circus to catch the train to Main Street and the bus back to OKW.

We arrived at AKL a good half hour before our reservation and checked in hoping that, once again, they'd seat us early, but the crowd waiting in the lobby told me that wasn't going to happen. A cast member had a little trouble programming a pager for us; on the second try he declared everything was set and handed the pager to us. We checked out the menu at Jiko, read the sample menu for Boma, and finally found a seat in the Boma lobby. Half an hour passed and we were still waiting. By then everyone who'd arrived before or at the same time as us was seated. After another fifteen minutes I was starting to think maybe the second pager wasn't working; about then a cast member came over and asked if we'd been helped. I explained that we were waiting to be seated; he took our name and our pager and went to check it out.

While we were waiting for the second CM to return, who should show up at Boma but Dee! She'd passed on her Ohana ADR because of the cool, windy weather and instead got a last-minute reservation at Boma.

A few minutes later the CM returned and took us to a table, so I'm pretty sure that first CM had not programmed the pager correctly. We were both very hungry by then, but fortunately Boma is a buffet so we didn't have to wait. There are so many good things at Boma that I don't think it's possible to try them all. I especially enjoyed the couscous with dried fruit, curried coconut seafood stew, braised pork, and Durban-spiced chicken. And of course the zebra domes and Kenyan coffee tarts!

After seriously overeating (hey, we were HUNGRY), we headed for the Downtown Disney bus, and who should show up but Dee again! We were the only people on the bus, and as we passed Pop Century (Dee's resort for this trip), we joked that it was too bad the bus driver wouldn't open the door and let her out there. He overheard us, asked where she was going, and took a detour to Pop Century, shaving a good chunk of time off Dee's trip! He didn't ask where we were going, but it wasn't a big deal since Old Key West is much closer to Downtown Disney and we didn't have to wait terribly long for to get back.

Now, here are two lessons that I learned that Friday evening: First, don't make an ADR at a resort clear on the other side of WDW on the night before you leave. Second, if you're going to do laundry, don't wait till the night before you leave to do it. Between getting in late from dinner and waiting up to get the laundry dry, I didn't get to bed till past 1:00 a.m. Fortunately, we didn't need to be checked out till 11:00 or on the Magical Express till nearly 1:00 Saturday afternoon, but boy was I tired by the time I finally got to bed.