Mayhem Marauders Meet-up Part Deux!

[mindflipper]

Y'know, guys, if you're getting nowhere with NaCler in sharing his scoop, then contact Soarin08 with PM to ask her. You could also pester...I mean, ask - WWDRH what the secret is too.

[Amy]

Y'know, guys, if you're getting nowhere with NaCler in sharing his scoop, then contact Soarin08 with PM to ask her. You could also pester...I mean, ask - WWDRH what the secret is too.

I implored both NaCler and H on facebook last night. To no avail I guess we will have to wait until they want to spill...

[wewantsdaredhead]

I am working on my version of the TR right now. I will probably upload the pics and load some of it Sunday night. Sorry guys we are camping this weekend. There is no way I could type a TR on this iPhone!

Soon enough SSRers...

[Amy]

I am working on my version of the TR right now. I will probably upload the pics and load some of it Sunday night. Sorry guys we are camping this weekend. There is no way I could type a TR on this iPhone!

Soon enough SSRers...

Make sure you use bug spray ~ can't have you getting West Nile Virus before you spill the EPCOT secret
Have fun...we'll be waiting...patiently....waiting....patiently....waiting....somewhat patiently....

[NaCler]

But Amy... Sunday night isn't that far away...

[mindflipper]

But Amy... Sunday night isn't that far away...

Actually, it's already here and there ain't any trip report here yet...

[Amy]

But Amy... Sunday night isn't that far away...

Actually, it's already here and there ain't any trip report here yet...

Thanks for saving me from having to say it mindflipper...hmmm, guess the antici....pation will be building for a little while longer....sigh...

[dstrawn9889]

RHPS references now, huh?

follow this one...

audience: 'whats your favorite color?'
furter: 'Magenta'

[wewantsdaredhead]

Sorry Gang! I had a major problem loading the pictures. And you all know how I cannot access SSR at work...so you know what I did? Ran over to starbucks for free wi-fi just to get this in...albeit a little late.
So without further ado...I present the TR.
NaCler: Feel free to chime in, change anything, or correct my hazy ( ) memory.

Trip background:
Our last trip to WDW was in January for the WDW Half Marathon when I got initiated into the Maurauders via the top secret process (I showed up). And I had no line of sight to our next trip, but I always find a way, don’t I?
A Co-worker of mine ‘heard’ that I was the guy to talk to about WDW. I helped him plan his trip over the course of a month or so and it really had me craving another trip. Perhaps I could squeeze in one of my famous weekend trips—down on Friday, park Sat-- Drive home Sunday. I told my wife I needed to scratch my itch and she didn’t have to go if she didn’t want to. She surprised me with a “Let’s do it!”
Yayyyy
We always do these quick trips “on the cheap” and I even considered using my hotel points for a free stay about 20 mins away. But I passed on that once they came out with cheap summer rates. We selected ASMo.
NaCler and I had been texting back and forth and we decided to meet up if it worked out. Now it was just a waiting game—you all know how much fun that is.
The Trip:
We drove down Thursday night (we left work a little early--shhhhh) and setup camp around 7pm. Crazy dumb luck…we had some friends that posted on FB that they were headed to see mickey the prior Monday. I msg her and said—“we will be there Thursday, when are you leaving?” “Friday.”
So we got to see some friends of ours that we don’t see that much anymore! They were staying at ASMu, just a few bldgs over from us—crazy, right?!
We stayed up until 1am and chatted and drank all the beer I had brought for the trip. But it was great to see them. We miss them lots.
Friday:
So Friday was a little rude when the sun shone through the curtains. I believe some people call this a hangover—lol. We got up and swam and ate and I eventually drove to the grocery store for a few things. Today was just a day to relax and do nothing (and recover!)
We headed to DTD for the Earl of Sandwich—we walked around and I took the wife and kids over for a free Ghiradelli sample Mmmmmmmmm. Last of the Big Spenders.
Back to the hotel for more swimming and relaxation before dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings around 6. Nothing major-- just a nice, easy day—perfect day to get ready for tomorrow’s assault on EPCOT!

[wewantsdaredhead]

Saturday August 11th.
The Plan:
Meet up at rope drop. Hang out with NaCler at EPCOT and have a few beers. Go until the sun chases us out. Then hit the ASMo pool before getting ready for a walk around WS with my lovely wife.
Actual:
My wife and I are in training for half marathons; her: the local city we live in Half and me: The 2013 WDW Half!! So, we normally do our long runs on the weekend, and this weekend would be no exception. We were scheduled to run 6 miles, so we mapped out a run and got up at 5:45 to execute. Our thinking was: It would be cooler at that time, plus we could run, eat and shower well before 8. I decreed that 8 would be the time we leave the hotel—we like being there well before rope drop. Plus a little buffer for the famously reliable WDW Transportation.
Everything went as planned. We ran from our room wayyyyy down the bottom of ASMo (Fantasia 2000 bldg) out of the resort, up past the McDonalds, past Blizzard Beach and into Coronado Springs. That was just about 3 mi and then all the way back. It worked out well—it was nice and cool. We all got ready and were out the door by 7:45.
My wife was ordering a cookie and a coffee from that little pastry shop at the entrance of EPCOT at around 8:20. Very nice!

We sat around for the opening and waited for NaCler to arrive. We had been texting back and forth so I knew he was on time and would be there soon. My boys decided to wait at the turnstile. They were pretty close to the front.
NaCler showed up shortly thereafter and we chatted for a few waiting for the big opening. (Decent, but not as cool as MK.)

We chatted as we strolled to Soarin` (what else). My kids had gone ahead and we told them to just ride without us—we would catch up to them. We walked right onto Soarin`--I think it was a 5 min wait posted. We grabbed FP for 9:55-10:55.
It was very comfortable meeting with NaCler—he truly is like a long-lost friend. We have very similar tastes and opinions on things. I appreciated getting to know him a little better. After the fact, my wife even said that she really enjoyed his company. And he was very gracious saying that he gets to come to WDW ‘all the time’ so he was up for whatever we wanted to do. He would just let us take the lead.
The kids went over to M:S and they were determined to do the Orange Team---my younger son had never done it and was worried about. NaCler, my wife and I went over to SSE and the kids texted us just as we were walking into the huge sphere. All was well—no protein spills.
My wife wanted to go on Mission: Space with the kids so we moseyed on over there. NaCler and I decided to go back across the park to see Captain EO!!!! One of our favorites. My kids were especially glad that we chose to go see Captain EO’s rag-tag band while they were on M:S
We had fun with that and I received a text from my wife saying that they were done (already—she said they walked all the way into the training area) and to meet her at Soarin` for our FPs.
We got a CM to take our pic at CE:

We meandered over to Soarin` with MJ songs stuck in our head and met my wife—the kids had decided to go on LwtL.
Here we are about to hang glide over CA:

By the time we got out it was just about Beer:30 so we headed to the WS to find us some fermented malt and hops. 1st stop: Canada! What? No beer yet? Too early? Who knows???
Ok for sure England will be ready to quench our thirst…but alas it was not to be. I was convinced that if we walked to Germany we could find liquid gold there. We stopped in France for a quick pic:

Eureka! We finally found some beer in Germany!! MMmmmm good. Oh man it was good. I tried to get my wife to take a picture of us with our first beer, but she wouldn’t take it until she had a sip—it was getting HOT!
Beer #1:

If you look closely you can see my shirt filling up with sweat.
After that we decided to walk around to Norway—my wife really likes to ride the Maelstrom for some reason. So we would ride it and then get us a Carlsberg afterward…
After the ride—more sweat…

Do we make good Vikings? Not very scary are we?

We got a Carlsberg inside the Kringla Café (the bakery) and NaCler surprised me when he said he had never been in there. He has younger kids and I know how it is with kids—they would rather just not even go through the WS, so when they have to, they just walk around it and miss all the nooks and crannies. When we got our beers, the CM asked us if we were “drinking around the world” to which we laughed and said, “No why do we look like trouble or something?” We got a good chuckle out of it.
Here we are with Beer #2:

It was hot, but not hot enough for me to drink two beers at once! That was my wife’s beer—I swear! She was gracious enough to take all these pictures of us. Thanks, Babe!
Next up: Mexico and Jalapeno margaritas! NaCler and I both agree that the Mexico Pavilion is awesome. You go in there and it’s like going to another world. You can forget you are in FL after a while (or a few margaritas!)
Here are my boys:

A round of margaritas! We had the jalapeno (of course) and my wife had the blood orange.

Yes it’s nice and cool in there. We took our time and enjoyed the A/C and chatted, and then my wife made us try on sombreros:

I texted Mousekedude and told him that we finally inaugurated NaCler into the club!
Finally we decided to head over to Canada for beer and Martin Short when we were accosted by a certain “bear that shall remain nameless.” We saw him walking by and decided to get our picture with him (for Amy of course). We still had our margaritas in hand and we were wondering how that would go down, but they made us put them to the side. You can’t see it from this picture, but NaCler and I are both telling the bear how much we despise him. And I have a certain special finger up behind my back (you guess which one) J/K! We would never do that to him (her?) we just wish he would go for a swim in the WS Lagoon and never come back!


Hang in there…hang in there—I am getting to the part you are all (read as: Amy) waiting for.

[wewantsdaredhead]

We decided to head to England to eat lunch—we were all pretty hungry so we grabbed some fish and chips (and beer) I believe my kids went over to the Electric Umbrella at some point, so they didn’t eat with us.
Beer #3: (Harp)

OK—here is the highlight of the trip. After we ate, I remembered reading a TR on the DIS Boards and the girl listed the phone numbers to the phone booths in England. The two over by the bathrooms are actual working payphones and as you know everyone goes in there to have their picture taken. So I figured it would be fun to call the phones up when people walk in there and pretend like I was calling from England. Fun was an understatement!
The tough part was getting it to ring before they picked the phone up to ‘pose’ with it. And, of course, not laughing too loud when they looked around to see if they were on Candid Camera.
We had a blast! I think we spent a full hour doing this. I would tell them (in my best British accent) that I was conducting a survey and “Were they watching the Olympic Games?” Some people would just hang up on me; others would answer a few questions and then hang up. Some even talked to me so long that I ran out of things to say! NaCler, my kids and my wife all sat on the benches with some strangers and we all just laughed and laughed and laughed. I told some people that answered that I was “headed right over, so go ahead and pour me a pint of bitter…” like I had the wrong number.
I even got a CM to answer the phone! She worked in England and when I asked her if we were spending too much on the Olympic Games, she said “Yes.” And then looked around, saw me—then laughed and waved.
I mean we had a BLAST. I sent NaCler the numbers and I believe he called them after he got home.
Here are a few pictures…
Waiting for another victim:

Some confused folks:

Everyone had the same reaction…it was like a quick double take back to the phone like they were startled.
NaCler testing the phone to make sure it worked:

Wow—what a hoot. Even the people on the benches were giving me ideas of things to say. So after about an hour of that, we moved onto Canada. Would you believe that I didn’t take a picture of us with our beers? I took one of my wife:

***Edit: I found it: Delicious Moosehead from Canada.

Then we went to see Martin Short and all the snow up in Canada. They made us finish our beer before we went in so my wife had to pass, she had too much left, but NaCler and me were troopers—bottoms up!!
I also had the phone number to the booth in Canada, but it wasn’t as fun. You can’t get a good line of sight to see when someone is coming or what they are doing, and it’s not as busy up there where the booth is.
After that we decided it was too hot to stick around, so we headed back to the hotel for siesta. Pool time and possibly a nap. NaCler was talking about maybe headed to MK to look for packwingfan but he wasn’t sure, so we invited him to come sit poolside with us at the luxurious ASMo. He accepted and off we went. He had no swim trunks, but went swimming with us nonetheless (he wore his shorts—they looked like swim trunks anyway). In fact, he was in there already when I got back from the room. Oh, I almost forgot…On the way out of EPCOT, I offered up Captain EO—no takers
This is a special picture to me because it’s one of the only I have with all four of us together at my favorite place. Thanks for taking it NaCler! It seems one of us either doesn’t come on the trip, or has to take the picture.

After swimming for a good long while I declare that I was going to take a nap before we headed back to EPCOT. NaCler convinced me that I shouldn’t bother with the nap, because it was so late already. He will have to fill you in on his adventures from here because I don’t even know what he did…That was the last I saw of him.
We were milling about the room and the food court when he texted me and said it was POURING at MK and to wait it out. We hung around the food court and shops until it lightened up, then we got on a bus to EPCOT for our usual walk around the WS and enjoy ourselves until Illuminations. (My favorite!!)
We trekked back to Germany to eat—we were starving. Brats and Pretzels all around (and beer for dear, old Dad): (please forgive that horrible looking creature behind my son)

We walked around after that—I took a picture with my favorite: “Hello Kitty”!

I like this shot of Son #2 (who shares a name with one of NaCler’s kids also!) It’s very Indiana Jones-esque or something.

The love of my life and me in France:

Then we went back to England and the British Revolution was playing so we enjoyed that for about ½ an hour. They are very good—the Beatles medley at the end was superb. Here is a pic of my son giving them some tips (he plays guitar). Seriously, I think he had a question about their guitar tone or something.

We tried a few more calls to the phone booths, but Off Kilter was playing so I thought that maybe the people could hear the band playing so we only made a few. Plus NaCler wasn’t there to egg me on
My older son decided that he had enough and was going back to the hotel, while we found a nice spot over by Mexico for Illuminations. Other than some people talking very loudly throughout it, we enjoyed it as always.
We texted son #1 to grab our mugs and meet us at the food court for pizza! He was there before us—lol. We chowed that down and I hit the pool one last time before falling asleep. I had asked NaCler to text me when he was safe and sound, and he agreed, but then he never did, or so I thought. When I got up the next morning I wondered why he never texted me. Then later I was looking through my phone and saw he had texted me and when I told my wife she said, “Ahh yeah—we heard it last night.” Boy I must have been tired!!!
The next day we drove home. The end. LOL
Anyway, it was great to hang with NaCler—we really had a great time. I look forward to seeing him (and hopefully others) when we come back in January! Yes I am officially signed up for the WDW Half. We don’t know any more details than that. We might even stay off-site with my brother, we are not sure yet.
Thanks, NaCler for hanging out. I would encourage anyone to meet-up with him on your trips if you have time.
Until next time…If you hear a payphone ringing--grab it. It just might be me on it!
Henry

PS if these pics are not sized right I will fix them tonight. You should see the setup I am using to get this on here. It's complicated but I am determined to get this posted!

[Amy]

YAY!!! I was so excited to see you had posted your trip report!!!
I love all the photos ~ thanks to your lovely wife for taking so many of them I like how both of you still have your ball caps on under the sombrero Your boys are getting tall! (Your #2 son looks a little like the actor that portrays the young man on Two and a Half men. At least in that photo of the two of them at the Mexican pavilion) And NaCler is getting trimmer ~ very nice ~ keep up the good work!
Prank calling the phone booths in England ~ that is awesome! I must get those numbers the next time I go. That would be so much fun ~ more fun with a fellow mayhem marauder of course
Sounds like you had a great weekend ~ meeting up with new friends and old...Lots of adult beverages...A photo with everyone's favorite bear...Taking in Captain EO and surviving...A little mayhem in the parks...And a family photo with all of you in front of Spaceship Earth.
Great report H ~ thanks for sharing
Good luck with the marathon training ~ that is dedication that you both ran on vacation!

[NaCler]

Awesome job WWDRH. The pleasure was all mine. Thank you once again for letting me spend the time with your great family.

I'm wiped out tonight so I will have to delay my part of the TR. I hope I won't get too severely chastised for it...

[Amy]

Awesome job WWDRH. The pleasure was all mine. Thank you once again for letting me spend the time with your great family.

I'm wiped out tonight so I will have to delay my part of the TR. I hope I won't get too severely chastised for it...

Whooooo would do something like that?!

[wewantsdaredhead]

Oh I forgot two things...
NaCler asked my wife: So you think he is totally weird for listening to Disney music all the time?
Her reply: Oh, yeah-totally!
lol
Love ya too babe!

And we were going to say that we scored walk-up Le Cellier ressies...but we knew you guys wouldn't buy it---
We were walking by Cananda and NaCler said: Hey, let's sit here and listen to all the people that get laughed at when they ask if they can get a table---lol