Friday, January 16th, 2004

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Park Hopping - MGM & Epcot!

Don't buy hair gel and toothpaste with similar bottles, because...

What is it about imprinting a character on a Disney logo on a waffle that makes you say, "Gimmee one of those." Because I happily skipped to a table to eat my Pop Century waffle for breakfast.

We parked our car at Boardwalk and took the boat to MGM. This way, we can take the boat to Epcot, and leave through International Gateway at night.

Glorious weather! I don't even need a sweatshirt and pants for the early morning! Shorts and a T-Shirt the whole day! And the crowds are low! Heaven!

Spur of the moment, we jump into Sci-Fi for a late lunch. We love the atmosphere here, not to mention the milkshakes. And I love when the cast members scream along to "The Colossal Man". The little boy in our car was given a drivers license! Then the cast member kept referring to us as hitchhikers since we took up the back seat after the other family was already seated. We told the couple this meant they had to pay our bill.

Sci-Fi Drive-in theater: you gotta love those trailers with the alien space women and their line: "I've never seen a man before." Yeah right. I've used that line on John; he didn't buy it!

Cast member at International Gateway let me see the name badge Hidden Mickey!

The balloon man in France is hysterical! Definitely check out his show if you get a chance.

While watching the balloon guy, a woman asks me where I got Kahluá, and I told her at MouseGear. You could see that she, like me, had a Disney bear at home and hesitated buying another one. I ask her if that was true, and then tell her what John said: "It's a Disney bear that hugs you all day." She got this light in her eyes and was a blur as she sped for MouseGear. Her boyfriend told me, "Thanks a lot." Anytime, buddy!

We sat in the lounge in the Matsunoma Lounge in Japan. It's the first time we've done this in the early evening,, and the view is beautiful. I like how they hide stage lights in their lamp shades so as not to spoil the pavilion's look. I got a good picture of the two "globes". (See pic)

For a second, in this lounge, we contemplated ordering munchies and beverages until 9pm so we could watch Illuminations.

As we sit in a spot where the Spain pavilion had been for the Food & Wine festival, John jokes how easily another country pavilion could be put here to add to the World Showcase. "Right here, Erin. WHOOSH!! Czechoslovakia!" Czechoslovakia?

Hey! Another little dog went by as a mental health therapy dog! That's it! I'm signing my dogs up!

OK, who took the Hidden Mickey out of the Germany train village and could they let Pal Mickey (and the Hidden Mickey book) know?

I did it again! Brushed my teeth with hair gel!

I'm a mess: lost my Nemo flashlight, lost my moleskin (do they have to call it that? That's gross.), and brushed my teeth with hairgel. And they hand me a knife when I sit down to eat?

Ah, could we get more recycle bins in the parks (and other places) please? Disney stresses conservation, and then it has 1 recycle can in all of Epcot.

What happened to pin trading? It used to be this fun thing that we all took part in, admiring each other's rare pins, trading for some fun ones. Now people are on the extremes: people who are as rabid as Trekkies with their plastic pointed ears asking you to name every yellow planet from the first series. Or people who freak on you because you don't want to part with your rare, never to be found again Disney University Store pin for their AAA Mickey in a car pin.

This goes with the Stupid Guest pin for not paying attention to what you're told. It's the Sci-fi DRIVE IN THEATER! That means it's dark! They tell you so! But no, we have to get jerks next to us who say, "It's dark! Why is it dark? Anything in the dark can't be good, it means they're hiding something." I start to leap over the cars as an aerial assault, but John tells me he won't bail me out of prison.

A week from this night, we'll feel like we've never been here.

There's so much we didn't do this week that we had planned to do! How did that happen with so much time?!

Right off the bat, (besides the hair gel) we think we did something wrong. We get this fantastic parking spot at the Boardwalk. It's the first spot! Right at the walkway for the entrance! We kept walking around it, thinking it's for handicapped or for cast members, but there's no signs. Then we thought, maybe it's on the ground and dropped down to make sure the pavement's not parked. Even walking away, we start to go back, swearing we must be illegally parked and the car will be towed.

Only 14 mins. of video tape left! John says he just knows I've taken 5 hours of meerkats or something.

At "Millionaire": they do phone a stranger. The woman on the phone asks: "Am I supposed to be his friend?" We all laugh, even understanding that she's asking is this the replacement for "phone a friend". The host misunderstands her and think she's trying to pick up the guy in the hot seat. The host tells her that if she gets the question right, he'll set her up on a date. She laughs and says, "Great! My husband will love that!"

John turned up the brim of his bucket hat. (See pic in Favorite Photos section)

As we pass the "Honey, I shrunk...." playground, John points out: "If I was a kid, and heard that bee buzzing sound, it'd scare the piss out of me! I saw that bee in the movie grab that kid -- and now it's coming after me? I swear they do that just to clear the playground."

As we leave MGM, I need to use the restroom, but John says we'll miss the boat. That I should just wait for Epcot. So off we dash so that we can sit there for 20 minutes!! As I start to go into a fetal position from the bladder pain, John starts singing the jingle, "Gotta go, gotta go right now!" and making water falling sounds. At last, we push off and the bota captain announces we won't reach Epcot for half an hour!! I can't stand it, especially as John starts singing again and tickling me. I get off at the Boardwalk, running like a madwoman.

For a second, we're alone on the Friendship boat and John pole dances.

OK, this is only funny for my oddball husband. As he tickles me, he notices... shall we say, the roll of skin created by good Disney meals? He takes to pinching this into a mouth and saying, "Hi! I'm Pal Rolly! Your spongy friend!"

This is one for the books. I ran to the bathroom and swore John said he'd meet me "out here" (in the hallway). I came out, no John. I figured he was in the men's room, so I waited. No John. I remembered he'd thrown a bag of extra clothes in the car, and mentioned changing his shoes. So I walked all the way out there. No John. Back to Boardwalk and search the lobby, the hallway out the restrooms, no John. Go outside and look all around. No John. Go back inside and hear a very frustrated, "ERIN!" He had said "meet in the hallway outside the men's room", and apparently the 10 minutes I thought I had waited was more like 2. He had been looking for me, and we must have kept passing each other! He kept saying, "What part of I'll wait outside the bathroom sounds like Meet me at the car?!" And on top of it, we did need to go to the car so he could change his shoes!

On the boat to Epcot (no, we didn't walk it! Yes, we know it's close from the Boardwalk!), the driver announces the last boat to MGM. He starts, "And if you missed the last MGM boat--" when a guest shouts, "You'll take us anyway!" The cast member laughed. "Yeah, fantasies are everywhere here in Disney World."

The balloon man in France picks out a 3 year old volunteer and is so good with him, many people in the crowd go up to the boy's family to say how much they enjoyed watching him. His grandmother says the boy's name is, no lie, Jack Kennedy. John whispers to me, "Think they're Irish?"

We stop at the train village near Germany. These "villagers" must be early to bed, early to rise or just can't afford electricity because it's dark!

A cast member on a segway zips by in Epcot with a spinny thing reading, "My feet hurt!"

John holds his Walt Disney watch to his ear, pretending it's Pal Walty. He says, "What's that, Walt? Epcot is all wrong? You wanted something else?"

"Wow! Around the world in one day! Thanks for carrying me, pal! I usually run out of steam somewhere around... oh, Morocco."

Favorite pictures (click thumbnail for larger photo):

Romantic moment for a PDA (Public Display of Affection)

Bridge before France, John's favorite spot!

We sat on a bench between the countries, a spot that, for some unknown reason, nobody else used. John called it Limbo. We could see the Wishes fireworks over at Magic Kingdom, and then the fountain show began in front of it. We just sat close together, enjoying the moment.

We make a list on the pocketPC of what souveniers we want to consider for our trip to World of Disney tomorrow. We're actually good through MouseGear and other places, not giving into impulse buys. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

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Pleasure Island:

Wow! In the Adventurers Club, we (meaning everyone there) meet a real National Geographic photographer! A real adventurer!

Carol Stein's parents are at the Comedy Warehouse!

The cheerleader competition keeps them out of the clubs. Hooray!!

We go back to our room. The last night. John sleeps and I watch Gargoyles, then read until I sleep. Sigh.

Read Day 8