This trip promises to have perfect weather in the upper 70's and low 80's. The second leg of the flight was a little bumpy but we have had worse. Still makes me a little nervous.

I worked on my school work (Internet & World Wide Web-How to Program) while Don read Harry Potter. We plan to see the movie and Don thought he would read the book first. This is the perfect opportunity for him to do so. As it turns out the lady sitting next to Don who is from Canada is reading the book also. It has a slightly different title replacing the word Sorcerer for Philosopher. Seems in Canada Sorcerer is not allowed.

 

I surprised Don with Tiffany Town Car for our ride to the resort. As we were going to get the luggage Don says, Why don't you sign us up for Mears and I will get the luggage"? I saw Daniel our driver right in front of us with the sign Jennings on it and said why not just go with this guy? Don looked at me a little puzzled and said, "Why would we do that"? I told him it was the surprise that I had planned for him. I had asked that they put our first name on the sign also but they didn't. Daniel was pleasant and chatted about his wife and himself. They are from Rio Brazil and are here to learn our language. He said that they could get better jobs there if they know the English language well.

Check in was a breeze and the room was in the perfect location.

 

We are sharing the room with Beth from Seattle and she had gotten there the day before. All we had to do was get our key. The room location was perfect, the second closest room to the food court and bus stops. It was the Fantasia building, which also sits along the pool. Even though the room was close to the pool once we are inside we cannot hear any of the noise from outside. I had faxed a request to be on the first floor of a building close to the food court and bus stop and it was granted. Of course I added a few words like making a magical trip and loving Disney in the request. Not sure if it makes a difference but it works every time to get the room location that we want so I will continue to do it for each trip. Beth was in the room when we arrived. She had been to MGM all day (it was 4:30) and was going to rest before heading to PI for the evening. She asked if we liked to unpack when we get there. Don says, "There is only 1 hour and 18 minutes left for MK and we want to get as much as we can of it before it closes.

 

The wait is 1½ minutes for a bus to pick us up and take us away to the park. We are the only people on the bus. Talk about impulse shopping, we planned on hour at the park and instead decide to purchase tickets for MVMCP that is that evening from 7 pm to 12:00am. Entering Town Hall to get our tickets there is no line but before we are finished there is a line 15 deep. What luck we manage to have. Don tried to get us Priority seating for dinner eaten since noon and I was getting hungry. Studying does that to me. :o) Crystal Palace had a time for 5:15 but that is right now. We take a chance walked over and Don asked if we could be seated. They said no room available but Don informs them that we were just at Town Hall and the man said there was seating for 5:15 open. Girl says nothing open and the guy behind her says how many? Don says "just two adults" and he says "no problem it will be about 10 minutes". He was right. I love the way things seem to magically work out for us when we are here. Dinner was fun with the Characters wandering around. They love to mess Don's hair each time they come to our table. I of course always sit on the inside of the table.

 

After dinner Don heads to the smoking area and a CM stops him. We assume that since we have our armbands for MVMCP on that it is ok. The CM says it is ok but that there is nothing open in Frontier Land so don't go down there. There is a full moon tonight and it adds a nice touch. A little flash back, we are at the character greet area at the Liberty Tree tavern and this is where Elysia discovered that the characters are not real because she noticed a seam on Balous costume. Even though we have not ridden a thing and had been there over 2 hours I was having a wonderful time. My honey asked me to sit on his lap at the Crystal Palace after dinner for a moment. I am always saying you can find romance anywhere you look for it OR make your own.

 

At 6:43 we are relaxing in the rocking chairs in front of the Liberty Tree Tavern watching the riverboat, waiting for the party to begin. All of the trees are illuminated in red and green enhancing a Christmas feel. At 6:52 we notice people wandering towards Splash Mountain and decided to head back.

We rode twice on Spash and BTMR with out having to get off for the second ride. The water was directed differently on Splash this time, you don't get hit on the outside with a splash like we use to instead it all stayed on the platform. Then as we fall into the Briar Patch the water shot at us at a different time than usual. I still giggled and laughed at the same place on the rides and Don always getd a kick out of it. Don says it is always the same volume and pitch and that he is beginning to think it is part of the sound track. We then headed over to the Haunted mansion. I love this attraction at night. It gives a spooky feeling in the cemetery while waiting for the doors to open. We always manage to see something that we have not noticed before even though we have been on it many times.

 

It now was almost time for the parade to start and we decided to head over and catch a bit of it. I was totally surprised to see Katie and Chrisie walking past. They were not going to be here as Katie had a dance competition here in Florida that would not allow time for WDW. But Chrisie decided at the last minute to come a day early and spend a few hours at MVMCP and then head over to her competition the next day. It was a very nice surprise. They had had PS for Crystal Palace at 5:30 that they didn't go to. I think we may have had their seats. So they head off for dinner and we head to the parade and plan to try to meet up later at the fireworks. After only a couple of minutes of watching the parade I decided that we have seen this before and want to head over to Fantasy Land, and since Don is not a parade lover it is fine with him. We walked onto Peter Pan's Flight and soar over the top of the city and imagine Peter Pan saving Wendy. And we cannot be in Fantasyland and not visit "It's a Small World". Don is not fond of this ride so he looks for things to count. Once it was dolls, this time it was flags. There are 11 in case you are wondering. I on the other hand love the singing of the happy tune and the dancing dolls showcasing the dress and culture of the many nations. I love the end when the goodbye is displayed in the different languages. It is now time for the fireworks and to see if we can find Chrisie. We had to walk around the castle because Cinderella's carriage picture taking was right in back of the castle. It is very crowded and we are thinking there is no way we will find them and lo and behold Katie pops up in front of us and says "Come on follow me". She spotted us walking across the bridge and braved the crowd to get to us. The spot they had picked was perfect. Rudolph flew right over our heads and the fireworks were going off all around us. Magnificent!!!!! Time for more Fantasy Land with Katie and Chrisie joining us. Katie and Don take a wild spin on the Tea Cups. She wanted it to go fast and he did his best to oblige her and at one point thought she was going to hurl. But in the end Don said he thought she made it through better than he did. Pooh and Snow White are next with each enjoyed. Buzz light-year was disappointing because I had a laser that did not work. It is kind of hard to hit the "Z's" when the laser doesn't work. The day has been a long one and I am tired so we head towards the front of the park. Walking up Main St. we get to see the entire parade. Even though we have seen it before and were not interested earlier, this time we watch it to the end before heading out the exit to catch a bus home. The bus is waiting for us and fills up fast and we are off. It is 11:53 and we unpack and hit the bed.

 

This morning we meet up with riends for a ride on the Safari Ride at Animal Kingdom. It was a wonderful ride with lots of animals out. Don and I have never walked the path through Asia and so that is where we headed next with Beth, Bruce Metcalf and his wife Marta. On the way we see this vine that appears to be moving. It is! It runs up a pole about 12 feet. Then it turns and we see it is a lady totally covered in vines on stilts and long pole arms completely covered in vines. It was so much fun watching the children's and adult's reaction to her. 

The walk through Asia was about what we had expected from all that we had heard from various people. We saw the bats that everyone comments on and the tigers were up sleeping up close to the glass. Don had a long conversation with a CM named Mike about the birds in the atrium. An interesting fact is about the species of Woodpeckers housed there, there are only 5 in the country and 2 of them are females. There is a pair of them in Milwaukee that they are breading. If there is a female, Disney has first option to get a female if one is born because they provided the male. It was sent to Milwaukee from Discovery Island because it was not a safe environment for them there. Now with AK they can provide a safe habitat for them so they are ready. Mike was very knowledgeable.

 

Leaving there we run into Randy who is hanging around before the Kali River Rapids meet and he joins us for lunch at the Tusker House. Also Linda and Margaret join us. It is our first time eating there and I found the food to be very good. We separate and go our separate ways now. Don and I head towards Camp Minnie Mickey since we have never been there and along the way we see this woman jumping up and down all excited to be seeing Brer Rabbit saying "you are my favorite" and she wants her picture taken. It turns out to be Deb Wills and when she spots us she asks us if we would like to join her party to see the Lion King show. They have VIP seating compliments of Barb (Gardenia) and had room for 2 more to join them. What luck! We love this show and to have seats right up front is a great treat. The entertainment so close you get eye contact and the lively music ringing in our ears was superb. Thanks again to those who made this possible for us.

 

Pocahontas was next followed by a look at the Character Greeting place down where the boats to nowhere use to dock. As I am looking down the path it reminds me again of what lengths Disney goes to make the parks different. Imbedded in the walking paths are footprints of various creatures along with real looking twigs and colored stones. All that detail is there to discover if you take the time. Dino Land was not much fun. Just a carnival, but we did ride the Dino ride that is just another Dumbo ride. Because there was no line and eventually we would like to be able to say we have seen everything we rode.

 

Mickey Bars are next for us. WE enjoy several of them each trip, finding a place to sit and watch people milling around. We thought we would stay and watch the parade but the wait was an hour and not for us. We go shopping at the Rainforest Cafe to use the gift certificate I have had for about a year now. I kept trying to get Don to eat there but it hasn't happened so I used them to buy some stuff for me and we are both happy.

Time to go to the room and what a fun ride we had. The bus driver entertained us with word games the whole way. He had everyone on the bus laughing.

 

Beth is in the room getting ready to nap. Poor Beth, she says she cannot understand why her body is aching all over because all she did was walk. But here at Disney it is a lot of walking so being sore is understandable. Don is ready for a nap also because we will be up late at Pleasure Island tonight, so I head out to check out the pool. It is a little late and cool for me to take a swim so I wander up to the front desk area to see if I can find a marker to make a sign for our granddaughter Alexis. She loves Minnie and I told her I would see Minnie for her. I wanted a sign for Minnie to hold that said Hi Alexis. The CM at the desk said to wait for him after he gave me a marker and while I was waiting I hear someone asking about a package that someone was suppose to leave for them at the front desk. Turns out to be Lori and it is me she is looking for. I had not left the package yet. It is strange how we both are at the desk at the same time. They waited with me for the CM to return and he has a sign that he printed on the computer for me to have Minnie hold saying Hi to Alexis. I had made one similar to that at home but lost it here somewhere. Lori and Catherine and I head to the room to get the package and we spent a 1/2-hour chatting before they left.

 

At 6:55 we are going through the gates to MGM and people are asking the CM's "why are people entering the park when it is closing?" He explains to see the Osborn lights. From the end of Hollywood Blvd we see "the hat". I think it looks nice but prefer the old view better. We were here in August and it was still under construction and thought then it did not fit. I still think that. I hope it is not permanent. The lights are beautiful once again. Going at this time which is about an hour after they turn them on is perfect because there are people milling around but it is not crowded and for us short people we need it not crowded to be able to see a lot of it, like the bicycles and yard decorations.

 

The smell of roaster almonds got me, so we enjoyed them while we slowly strolled enjoying the light displays. Don says that the Disney commercials must be working because we see a lot of older couples walking holding hands and appear to not have any children with them. Just like us. :o) The Christmas music is playing and snow is falling and at this point I just feel SO GOOD! There are some lights that we think might be new because we don't remember them. In light of September 11 there is a red, white, and blue Mickey.

 

It is now time for some dinner before we go to Pleasure Island. As luck would have it there is a bus waiting to take us to Downtown Disney. Dinner was another first for us as we eat at Planet Hollywood. The food was scrumptious. If you have a chance to have the lasagna, do. Halfway through the meal Don says, "I will trade you all my French fries for one of your lasagna tubes". He agrees it was very good. I think there is a Planet Hollywood about 3 hours from us so maybe a day trip to there is in order in the future. It is soooo good. The noise level is high in there so I don't know how often we will eat there in the future but the food is worth the trip. I would also like to add how efficient the staff is there. One person walking with a clipboard looking to see who is almost done and when you are done immediately there is someone there to clean the table and another right afterwards putting down the table service. With in a minute and a half the next person is seated because they are on the way while the table is being prepared for them. All the staff has headsets to keep them informed. I was impressed with the whole operation. I had 2 gift certificates for dinner to use and had to call for a manager because the waiter said I could not use both of them to pay for the dinner. They are gift certificates and therefore could be used at the same time. I had heard of this happening before I left home so I was prepared to call for the manager.

 

The Adventurer's Club at Pleasure Island was lots of fun. We had gone here once before but did not stay long enough to see any of the entertainment. This time we were prepared to stay and are glad we did. We definitely will try to make it here again. Don experienced a Kungaloush for the first time and says he must have another. It was after midnight went we hit the bed exhausted.

 

Today there is no alarm to wake us and so we miss the first meet of the day at Spaceship Earth. I tried to get into the park on a pass that has only two minor park admission days on in instead of my AP. After 5 minutes of panic and emptying out my fanny pack I locate it my AP. How embarrassing. The "cemetery" at the entrance as Don calls it is just as ugly as ever. I don't think I will ever appreciate it. We strolled back to Test Track to meet up with the brave souls for a ride on Test Track. The fountain is working today and that is the most beautiful site. It has been down on our last two trips. About 15 minutes after we arrived the gang make their way there.