The Mousekecouple's December '09 Trip Report: A Love Story

[Mouseoholic]

Day 4. Friday, December 11, 2009

As told by Mouseoholic

In the months/days leading up to today, I was really nervous about this one day. There were so many factors at play that I was not sure we could conceivably accomplish it all successfully. I knew I tried to cram too much into the day but did not have a choice. I wanted to do it all. Here was the plan, and you will see what I mean….

5:00 a.m. We had to wake up early, pack, and call for a Bellhop
Sunrise on the Savannah:


6:00 a.m. Send our luggage with the Bellhop to be transferred to the Saratoga Springs Resort.
6:30 a.m. Check out of the Animal Kingdom Lodge
6:45 a.m. Grab a bite to eat at AKL
7:00 a.m. Hop a taxi to the Saratoga Springs Resort
7:15 a.m. Check in at Saratoga Springs Resort
8:00 a.m. Take a taxi to the Dolphin Resort
8:20 a.m. Arrive at Dolphin and line up for entrance into the Dis-Unplugged Seminar with Lee Cockerell & Marty Sklar (Disney Legends – more later on this subject)
9:00 a.m. Seminar begins (Meanwhile, my parents arrive to WDW at 10:25 a.m. and check-in to Saratoga Springs)
12:10 p.m. Lunch ADR at Tokyo Dining in Epcot
1:30 p.m. WDW Today Great American Podcast Live Podcast Taping at the American Pavilion
5:00 p.m. Meet Parents at the entrance to the Hollywood Studios Rock ‘n Rollercoaster
6:20 p.m. Dinner ADR at Sci-Fi
6:30 Fantasmic! Showing

As you can see this was a grueling schedule. Not only were we switching resorts and my parents were arriving, but we also had 8 major events scheduled that day.
Well we managed it somehow. Michael was very sick that day. He got sick just prior to our trip and had a relapse this day. He spent most of the seminar sleeping on one of the sofas in the lobby area. He was so patient with me and my hectic schedule. The Seminar with Lee Cockerell, former Executive Vice President of Resort Operations was awesome. As a Corporate Trainer, hearing him speak is one of my life long dreams. He wrote the book “Creating Magicâ€

[Mousekedude]

Thanks for all the compliments, guys! And the idea for opening a business.

I don't know..... how much of a cut do you want, Mindflipper?


Oh, and yes, sweetie, I will "sit my lazy hind-parts" down tonight and work on Day 5.

[MmeLeota]

(if I can get him to sit his lazy hind-parts down and get to work on it! LOL).

M-oholic, you are hilarious! (and you say you're not funny... )

I was tired just reading about that day! But I can see it being totally memorable! To hear Marty Sklar speak alone would do it for me!

[mindflipper]

I agree, MmeLeota, you could subtract the hotel swap, it sounds like a cool day at WDW!!

And Mouseoholic, you and Mousekedude together reminds me of Mousekedude & Jacca5660 comedy pairing! You are funny!

M-dude, just joking about % cut - but if I need to hire you, how about for the first time free?

[Mousekedude]

And Mouseoholic, you and Mousekedude together reminds me of Mousekedude & Jacca5660 comedy pairing! You are funny!

Are you saying I should have married Jacca? I don't think he's my type.... too old.

M-dude, just joking about % cut - but if I need to hire you, how about for the first time free?

Have your people call my people.... maybe I'll pencil you in for a consult.

[Mousekedude]

M-oholic, you are hilarious! (and you say you're not funny... )

She gets it from me..... like a virus....

[mindflipper]

Are you saying I should have married Jacca?

Not unless you're planning on moving to Vermont, dude.

No, I was just saying you and Jacca sometimes are so funny you could start a comedy tour. However, you and Mouseoholic are hilarious too!

She gets it from me..... like a virus....

Around here, it does seem contagious!

[Mousekedude]

Day 5: Saturday, December 12, 2009

Narrative by his Mouse-ness, Mousekedude!! (Yeah, I sat my lazy hind-parts down… etc. )

Early morning, hot coffee on the balcony, all is well! Except for me, of course. I was sick. Major bummer. But for Amber and her parents, it was going to be a glorious day! While I lay all alone, suffering… (cough, cough), they went to Animal Kingdom and had a blast. Okay, enough with the melodramatics….

Amber and I have been to AK too many times to count over the last four years, but we never saw the Flights of Wonder show (imagine that!). So they did. She says it was fantastic. All kinds of cool birds doing all kinds of crazy-cool stuff. One even almost pooped all over a handler…. Oops… I wasn’t supposed to include that… Anyway, here’s a picture:



Then they headed toward the Kilimanjaro Safari and had an awesome experience along the way: They unexpectedly ran across Divine! Up close! Here’s a couple pictures:




When they got to the Safari itself, it was closed at first, and no one knew if it would re-open. So they decided to go on the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail. But just as they started to go on it, they saw that the trucks for the Safari were starting to run, so they went back. That’s when they realized why it had been closed: all the animals were out, and were lounging across the road and everywhere else, so much so that they couldn’t run the trucks! It was truly amazing. So when they did go, it took longer than usual to get through the Safari because the animals were all still very active, and somewhat in the way (I’m so jealous… every time I’ve gone, we didn’t get to see much of anything). Here’s some pictures:






As they were finishing the Safari, I was feeling somewhat better (guzzling a half-bottle of Dayquil did the trick), so I called them and had them meet me at the entrance to the Pangani Forest thing. It was cool. After that we had our lunch at Tusker House, then we went on Kali River Rapids… three times! It was walk-on! Way cool! Of course, we got soaked, despite wearing ponchos, so we bought a towel (remember that point. Oooooo… foreshadowing…!...) and then just generally goofed around till our special reservation at the Finding Nemo show. That’s right! Those who have lunch at the Tusker House at just the right time get special admission and prime seating at the Finding Nemo show! Here’s a couple pictures of that:





After that we went on Dinosaur a couple times, and then the Tough To Be A Bug show. Here’s a picture of me and her parents at “Bug.â€

[mindflipper]

Sorry about the wallet incident! I have nearly been pick-pocketed twice - once in Paris, once at WDW. Beware, because they work in groups. In most cases it is not a singular person. Popularly, its a three person team: one to distract, another to lift the wallet, and then lifter passes it onto a third person to hold. That way, the person who lifted it, if caught, has nothing incriminating on them. And worse, some will use their small children to steal it (because they can run fast and get lost easily in a crowd, and if they get caught one can explain as a child "acting out badly"). That's popular in Europe, but it caught on in the USA some years ago. I never keep my wallet in my back pocket. It makes it too easy. I usually wear shorts with deep pockets and/or can close the pocket, like with a zipper. Unfortunately, you got to be paranoid about the wallets when in large crowds at WDW.

[MmeLeota]

While the wallet incident was a terrible thing, at least you were able to retrieve it! It's scary to think that you have to worry about pickpockets at WDW!

On a positive note, the pics are gorgeous!

[mindflipper]

Has anyone ever been able to take a picture of the lion when it was sleeping? They told us that it sleeps all day and prowls at night. It's not like you're trying to get a photo of wildlife, it's like you're taking a photo of a male college student...

...no offense, Len90, but you got to admit, you and the lion keep the same hours.

Mouskedude, you take some wicked photos, dude.

[Mouseoholic]

LOL the funny part about the picture with the lion is his leg in the air...

Len,
Is that the way college students sleep?

While Mousekedude and I were writing this post there were so many things we wanted to say. Disney was so great. I noticed that my wallet was gone when we were about to purchase a huge bag full of jelly beans. You know...those expensive ones. Well, the CM gave them to me. She felt so bad. She had to fill out a little paper work and we were on our way. My DH thought I had lost it and he was so mad at me for a short while. I tend to be a little ditzy about things like that sometimes. However, for the record....I have never lost my wallet or keys etc. You know the important stuff in life. I just perfer to call it a temporary misplacement of something. It always shows up eventually. However, this case was different.

Thanks for the tips. I will forever more be parnoid and more cautions.

Normally Disney makes you pay for another Tables in Wonderland card ($50.00). The CM at Customer Service gladly replaced it for free. Of course he let me freak out first and panic until he printed it and handed it to me. Our whole trip was based on saving money with this card. We love to eat at all of the table and signature restaurants and without the card....well, would break the Mickey bank.

P.S. 98% of those pictures of mine!!!! Mousekedude has the points....I have the pictures!!!


Ok. He can take some great shots too.... When on the Safari it was great because the truck kept having to stop. Normally it is difficult to get good shots of the animals because the truck is moving so much. I was on top of the world with these babies!!!!

[mindflipper]

Len, Is that the way college students sleep?

I don't think Len can answer right now - I think he's sleeping through the whole holiday break between semesters to make up for the lack of sleep he got during the semester.

BTW my cat sleeps like that. I guess its common amongst the feline world, regardless if the cat is big or small.

My bad. YOU take great photos, Mouseoholic.

It is nice to know that when you're in a jam like you were that there are CM's that will cut you a break like they did!

[Mouseoholic]

I thought I had seen that pose somewhere. Now that you mention it, our two cats sleep like that. It is usually when they are in a very deep sleep.

We did come across several Disney "Employees" on this trip but where it counted they were truly CM's that Walt would be proud of.

At the start of our vacation we had some medication stolen from our bag. We are not sure when it happened. It could have been when our bags were with Bell Services or my the Mousekeeper. We turned the room upside down and never recovered it. Then we noticed that one of the lids to another bottle of medication had come off and spilled in the bag. Neither of us had got into this bottle. Lids to medication do just not come off you know..... Thankfully, it was not critical to either of our health.

The economy really brings out the worst in people but it also put the burden on us to be diligent about securing our possessions. I was glad we went for such a long trip because after all of the events that transpired (more to come) they pale in comparison to the wonderful time we had on this trip. If the trip had been shorter and all of these things happened, I probably would feel very different about this trip .

[MmeLeota]

Yep, my cats sleep like that too...especially Louise. In watching the behaviors of big cats, you begin to realize that to a degree, all felines act in particular ways. Sometimes I watch the big cats and think "they're just housecats on steroids"...but to think of that litter box!


Btw, mouseoholic, I love the up close pic of Divine! She is beautiful! You take some fabulous pics!