My December to Remember trip was soon going to be a memory. I only had a few more hours before Magical Express would be picking me up and whisking me away to Orlando International Airport.
After the late night and since I was feeling a bit run down, I decided I would sleep in rather than get up and rushing to a park for opening. That was the plan anyways.
But I wound up waking up at 6:30, and couldn’t fall back to sleep. I got up out of bed, and got ready for the day. I finished packing, and brought my bags down to the resort airline check in counter. I grabbed some breakfast at the Belle Vue Lounge, and headed back to my room to finish getting ready.
When I was ready to go, I walked to Disney Hollywood Studios and browsed in the shops for a while. I then made my way down Sunset Boulevard for two rides on the Tower of Terror and one ride on the Rock ‘N Roller Coaster. I then took a quick ride on Star Tours, where I ran into a couple of Stormtroopers.
After the ride, I started to make my way out of the park. Goofy and Pluto were posing for pictures in front of the hat, so I jumped in line and got a picture with them.
I then walked back to the Boardwalk and headed over to the ESPN Club to grab some lunch. I got the teriyaki chicken dingers and French fries. The dingers were very crisp and tasty, and the fries were served with honey mustard and ranch dressing for dipping.
After lunch, I walked up to the main entrance for the Boardwalk, got my bags from bell services, and went to wait for the Magical Express bus with Diane and Kate. Though I knew I would be back sometime in the next year or so, this was the first time in a long time that I was leaving without another trip set in stone.
When we arrived at the airport, we made our way to security. The expert travel line was a bit shorter than the next line over, but I remembered from my September trip that the length of the line is a bit longer than the line next to it, and it feeds into one of the new x-ray machines, which are a bit slower. Diane decided she would get in the expert traveler line, while Kate and I stayed in the line next to it.
Diane’s line seemed to move forward a bit faster at first, and she got a smug look on her face like she knew she was going to win. I knew we would eventually pass her and beat her through security, though. We soon caught up with her, and did make it through security a good 10 minutes before Diane.
I was right, Diane was wrong. Moral of the story, my friends, don’t get in the outside lanes of the security lines at Orlando International Airport. Choose one of the inner lanes.
When Diane finally made it through security, we boarded a tram to the gates. We found our gate, and Katie and I went to get an ice cream at Cold Stone. I got some yummy Birthday Cake ice cream.
While Kate and I ate our ice cream, Diane took a trip to the ladies room. When she came back, she told us that the bathroom was disgusting, and it smelled like a monkey cage. When I had to use the rest room a short while later, I was going to walk down the hall to another restroom, but decided that I would just suffer through the monkey cage rest room.
At some point, Diane and I were having a debate about how my carryon bag would fit in the overhead compartment. She insisted that bags always go with the wheels in and on the bottom. I told her on my last flight, my bag wouldn’t fit that way, and I had to put it wheels out and on the bottom, the way I had been instructed by the flight attendant on the way down.
So when we boarded the plane, I asked one of the flight attendants, Kevin, how I should put my bag in, and he told me wheels in and down. Diane got all happy because she was right, and I was wrong--or so she thought. I told Kevin that wasn’t how the flight attendant told me to put it in last week, and I told him that I didn’t like him anymore.
When we got to our seats, I started to put my bag in wheels out and down, but it was too long to close the door. Diane told me to just flip it sideways because it was too big, but I knew it would fit wheels out and down. So, I took my bag out, flipped it around, and put it in. A couple of good slams later, my bag was safe and secure in the overhead compartment.
I was right. Diane and Kevin were wrong.
We soon found out that it was Kevin’s birthday, and I felt guilty about telling him that I didn’t like him on his birthday. When he came by to do a cabin check, he asked if my bag fit in wheels down and in, and I told him that it did not, but it did fit wheels down and out. I also apologized for telling him that I didn’t like him on his birthday, and told him that I did like him. He told us that he was going to give Diane extra snacks, but not me. And he did come by later and offered Diane extra snacks, and told me I couldn’t have some. But it’s all right. I got extra snacks from a different flight attendant before Kevin came around. Kevin did come back later to offer me an extra snack, though.
We were soon on the ground in Boston. As we left the plane, Kevin thanked us for being so much fun, and gave us JetBlue wings, making us junior crew members. I wonder if that entitles us to any discounts?
When I stepped off the plane, I was back in Boston. Back to reality. But back with wonderful memories of fun times with my Disney family.
I woke up Sunday morning feeling a bit run down from the late night and the cough. I didn’t press myself to get up and out for park opening as I knew it was going to be a late night, as I was planning on going to Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party.
I arrived at the Magic Kingdom and stopped at the Main Street Bakery to get a cinnamon roll for breakfast. I always have to get at least one cinnamon roll at the bakery on my trips--they are so delicious. Skippy met me in the bakery.
After I finished my cinnamon roll, we made our way over to the Haunted Mansion. We also went for rides on it’s a small world, Peter Pan, Thunder Mountain, and Splash Mountain. By this point, I was feeling pretty run down, and could barely speak. Even though I was riding some of my favorite attractions, I wasn’t really having fun, so I decided it was time to head out of the park. I said goodbye to Skippy, and took the train to Main Street. I made a quick stop at the Emporium, and headed out of the park.
I had a book that I needed to drop off to someone in Epcot at about 1:00. I was going to run back to the Boardwalk and rest for a while first, but I realized it made more sense to go to Epcot first. I took the monorail to the Ticket and Transportation Center, and then transferred to the Epcot monorail. I rode on the monorail with an adorable two-year-old named Leo and his family. Leo was getting a little antsy, so I showed him the Magic Kingdom park map. He was so adorable with it. He was tracing the pathways with his fingers like he knew what he was doing. We were all getting a big laugh out of it.
Once through the gates of Epcot, I went to the Lotus Blossom Café in China to grab some lunch. I ordered the Orange Chicken, which was served with white rice. The chicken was excellent. It was large chunks of white meat chicken in a delicious slightly spicy sauce.
After lunch, I walked over to the old Odyssey restaurant to drop of the book, and then went to meet Kate and Diane for a quick ride on Soarin’ using a be our guest pass that I had that was good for three people.
After saying goodbye to Kate and Diane, I started to walk out to the International Gateway. I kept on running into people I know. I saw some friends watching Off Kilter, so I decided to wait until the end of the show so I could say goodbye to them. While I was watching, Krista and Todd came over to me. After the show, I said goodbye to my friends Debbie and her mom, and Nancy (NancyIL).
I finally made my way back to the Boardwalk and had a couple of hours to rest and pack before heading out again to meet some of my friends for dinner at Chef Mickey’s. The short rest definitely perked me up quite a bit. I took a bus to the Magic Kingdom, and then walked to the Contemporary, where I met Krista, Todd, John, Kathy, Masayo, Lori, and Meghan. Skippy was running a bit late, but I checked in for our reservation and we were seated within a few minutes, just as Skippy was getting off the monorail.
The character interaction at Chef Mickey’s was fantastic, as most of the tables around us were empty in the hour we were at the restaurant. Each character stopped by our table at least once, most of them twice. We got a lot of pictures, including a couple of group shots.
The food at Chef Mickey’s was your typical buffet fare--edible but not outstanding. I started off with a salad and some tasty chicken soup. On my second trip to the buffet, I got a mish mash of stuff, including carved prime rib, Mickey raviolis, and potatoes. For dessert, I tried the Mickey domes, bread pudding, and ice cream. Overall, the meal was good, but it was the company and the characters made the meal fantastic.
At one point during dinner, I went to the ladies room in what was one of the most unmagical places I’ve ever visited on Disney property. You had to walk down a flight of industrial style stairs to a very unimpressive ladies room.
After dinner, Kathy, Skippy, and I said goodbye to the others and took the monorail to the Magic Kingdom for Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party. John had given Kathy a couple of nips of rum from Sue (a gift in remembrance of the day that Kathy brought a nip of alcohol into the Magic Kingdom a few years back). Kathy had me smuggle the rum into the Magic Kingdom in my cargo capris!
It was starting to rain while we were on our way, so we headed t a few of the indoor attractions, starting with Pirates of the Caribbean. We followed that with trips to the Haunted Mansion (so Kathy could see the new ride queue), Mickey’s Philharmagic, and Snow White (which Skippy had never ridden).
We then made our way to the front of the castle to see the Magic, the Memories, and You show, which Kathy and Skippy had never seen before. I found us a decent spot on the lower side of the hub right behind a couple of scooters (I always look for scooters, wheelchairs, or strollers to stand behind for this show and the fireworks. They both really seemed to enjoy the show.
We stayed put for the Holiday Wishes show. With the cloud cover that night, the smoke never really dissipated, so it looked like there was smoke pouring out of the castle.
After the fireworks, we went for a ride on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority. We then headed to Fronteirland to find a spot to watch the Christmas parade from. We originally chose a spot on the porch at the Diamond Horseshoe (a spot we have watched the parade from many times before), but they had a dance party going on inside, and the doors were open so all’s we could hear was loud music. We wound up moving up the street a bit and finding a spot behind a bunch of people who were sitting on the ground. While we were watching the parade, some of the Country Bears came out and were dancing with the guests.
After the parade, we decided to start heading out. Kathy and I stopped to get some cookies and cocoa at the Crystal Palace, and wound up sitting an gabbing for a bit. Skippy was pretty beat, so he wound up leaving
Kathy and I then did some shopping on our way towards the front gate. We asked a nice guy to take a picture of us with the castle in the background, and he insisted on taking one of us with the tree behind us as well.
After saying goodbye to Kathy, I made my way to the Boardwalk bus stop. I was the last passenger to get on the very crowded bus, and we were soon on our way to the Boardwalk--or so I thought. The driver was having some trouble with the bus, and we wound up riding through the ticket and transportation center and stopping so he could adjust something. We then made our way towards the Boardwalk, and he called into the dispatcher about the issue with the bus. The dispatcher told him to continue heading to the Boardwalk.
When we got to the Epcot resort area, the bus driver decided to change the order of the stops on the bus, claiming that everyone would get to their resorts quicker that way. The order normally goes Boardwalk, Swan, Dolphin, but this time, he decided to go Swan, Dolphin, Boardwalk. Which was great if you were heading to the Swan, but not so good for the majority of the people who were heading to the Boardwalk. It took an extra ten minutes for him to get to the Boardwalk! None of us Boardwalk people were happy with him for that.
I made my way up to my room and fell into bed, exhausted from my very busy day and my cough.
I woke up early after a good night’s sleep. Thankfully, I didn’t have any nightmares about the encounter with the Disney Bus Czar. I ran down to grab something for breakfast, and on my way back to my room, I ran into my friend Ray Sharpton. If you want to meet one of the nicest guys in the world, you should try to meet Ray sometime because he is definitely one of the nicest, and I’m very lucky to know him.
After breakfast, I took a bus to the Animal Kingdom, where I was planning on attending a Photo Walk meet hosted by two of the fantastic All Ears photographers—Scott and Barrie. I met the rest of the group near the Animal Kingdom, and once again enjoyed mingling with everyone. Scott and Barrie had a lot of raffle prizes for the guests, including some 8 x 10 photos they took around Disney World. I didn’t win any of them, and too many people at the meet knew who I was so I couldn’t mug the winners for a photo either.
Someone suggested that we have a cheer in honor of the 15th Anniversary of All Ears. Scott asked John, our resident Towncrier, to lead us in the cheer. John stood up on the brick wall, said a few words about the wonderful community that lead us all to the Animal Kingdom, and led us in a cheer in honor of All Ears.
After the cheer, we all started to make our way in the park to take some photos on one of the trails and also go on the safari. I had plans to meet up with other friends, so I wound up leaving the rest of the group.
I made my way over to Expedition Everest. None of my friends had arrived yet, so I grabbed a fast pass and got in the standby line for Expedition Everest. By the time I got off the ride, Krista and Todd had arrived, so I got in line with them. When we got to the platform, a cast member tried to put me in a row with a single rider three rows in front of Krista and Todd, but I told him that I wanted to ride near my friends.
Skippy had arrived in the park by the time we got off the ride, and John showed up from the Photo Walk. Skippy, John, Todd, and I went on Expedition Everest again.
John and Todd on Expedition Everest
Skippy and I wanted to ride Expedition Everest again, so we said goodbye to the others. They gave us their fast passes before they left, so Skippy and I rode Expedition Everest two more times. Skippy had never ridden the ride in the front row, so we wound up requesting it both times.
After Expedition Everest, we were getting ready to leave the park. We had a late lunch planned for a Candlelight Processional Lunch Package, so we decided to get some egg rolls at the Anandupar Local Food Cafes before we left the park. I really love the egg rolls here. They are crisp, flaky, and bursting with flavor. These are the kind of egg rolls that Jesus loves and approves us, as Diane discovered last year on our December trip.
After our snack, Skippy and I made our way to the park exit. It looked like we were leaving just in time because a large pack of the scariest animals in the world was stampeding into the front gate. No, it wasn’t a group of lions or tigers or bears on the loose. It was much worse than that. It was a Brazilian tour group, all dressed in yellow shirts! There must have been 300 hundred of them! Grab the kids! Run for your life!
Yellow and Black Attack!
Skippy and I walked to the bus stop for the Ticket and Transportation Center. We were planning on making a brief stop at the Magic Kingdom to attend the Tomorrowland Transit Authority meet hosted by Len Testa, Matt Hochberg, and the rest of the WDW Today gang. Unfortunately, I had the wrong time on my itinerary—the meet was an hour later than I thought, and the time wouldn’t work for us. We did take a ride on the Tomorrowland Tranist Authority while we were there, though.
We headed out of the park and took a bus to the Boardwalk so I could drop some stuff off in my room, and then we walked to Via Napoli to meet Diane and Kate for lunch for the Candlelight Processional. There were already a bunch of people in the standby line for the Candlelight Processional three hours before show time! I guess everyone wanted to see Neil Patrick Harris!
I started my meal with the Beef Tortellini in Bordo (broth). The tortellini was excellent. It was tender, and had a nice chunk of meat in it. It was served in chicken broth, which seemed a bit odd to me. I figured it would be served in beef broth.
For my entrée, I ordered the Candele, which was candlestick pasta in a sausage ragu with cheese and meatballs. This dish was excellent. The pasta was very tender, and the sauce had a lot of flavor. It had a slight kick too it, but it wasn’t too spicy. The bite-sized meatballs were a bit stiffer than I usually like, but they were good.
For dessert, I ordered the vanilla gelato. It was good, but not as good as the vanilla gelato that I had at Mama Melrose’s the day before. The gelato at Mama Melrose’s was a lot smoother than the gelato at Via Napoli.
After lunch, we walked outside and saw that the standby line for the Candlelight Processional had grown considerably. It was already inching its way towards Germany about two hours before show time! We made our way towards the line for people who purchased the dinner package, and it was already back to Japan! We got in the line, and waited for them to start letting people in.
Kate and Diane
They started letting us in about 40 minutes before show time, and we grabbed seats about four rows back. I had been fighting a bit of a cough the past couple of days, and ran out of cough drops while we were waiting. The cough seemed to be getting worse the closer it got to show time. I was debating about going to get some water, but our row was full and I didn’t really want to climb over everyone. Diane had some gum, so that definitely helped.
When Neil Patrick Harris first started reading the story, I felt a huge cough coming on, and I did my best to stifle it so I wouldn’t disturb anyone else. I was holding it, and kind of gagging a bit. Diane looked at me, and started to giggle a bit as I was kind of gag coughing as I tried my hardest to hold the full blown cough in until the choir started singing so I could cough without disturbing everyone. Diane told me later that my face was as red as the maroon Gryffindor t-shirt I was wearing, and once she knew I was OK, she thought it was one of the funniest things she had seen. After that, I tried to cough when everyone was applauding, or the singing was loud so that I wouldn’t cough when Neil Patrick Harris was speaking.
Despite the cough, I really enjoyed Neil Patrick Harris as the narrator. He was definitely in my top five—right up there with Brian Stokes Mitchell, and Whoopi Goldberg. He seemed to take it very seriously, which I really liked. He stood stone faced during most songs, except for “Rejoice in Exceeding Great Joy” (when he moved his shoulders and bounced to the music) and “The Alleluia Chorus” (which he sang along to). Oh, and he was even more handsome in person than he is on TV. Good old Doogie.
After the Candlelight Processional, we started to walking to the International Gateway. The crowds were insane! We were like cattle moving between all of the people leaving the 5:15 show, the people waiting for the 6:45 show, and the people who were just trying to get from point A to point B! I don’t think I’ve ever been stuck in the middle of so many people!The dinner package line for the 6:45 line was insane—it was stretched out to France!
Diane, Kate, and I said goodbye to Skippy at the International Gateway, and walked to the Boardwalk. We were heading over to Universal Studios for the Disapalooza meet at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Diane rented a car for the night so we could drive over on our own rather than go on the DIS buses. We were picking Masayo up at the Animal Kingdom Lodge on our way there.
Even with a few short cuts like the one my dad used to take (i.e. wrong turns), we still made it to Universal in plenty of time for the meet. Diane parked the car in the garage, and we made the 15 minute walk to the front gate of Islands of Adventure. We ran into more of our friends there, including Mary Jo and Kathy!
Universal employees walked us back to a holding area just outside of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, where they were serving various soft drinks. We walked around and said hello to some more of our friends until they let us into the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
Shortly after they let us in, I ran into my friend Cristen from my “Rent” days. I hadn’t seen Cristen in about ten years, so it was great to see her again. It was weird to have my “Rent” world collide with my Disney world.
After a quick chat with Cristen, I headed over to Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, which I rode with Diane, Kate, and Masayo. I absolutely love this ride. It is just non-stop intensity from start to finish as you fly around all over the Hogwarts grounds, encountering gigantic spiders, dementors, and many of the characters that you know and love (or love to hate) in the book. My only disappointment was that they didn’t let us walk through the entire queue. The castle is an attraction in its own right, and it would have been nice to walk through the entire castle rather than just a small portion of it.
After our ride on the Forbidden Journey, we met up with a few more of our friends—Kathy, John, and Toby (SayHello)—and made our way over to the Dragon Challenge. Kathy didn’t want to go on it, but I told her that she had to join us on the ride. I told her that she would be fine, and she would enjoy the coaster. Unlike the Forbidden Journey, the sent us winding through the queue—which is at least a quarter mile long—instead of the much shorter Express Pass queue.
When we finally made it to the ride, we all climbed into our seats. I sat next to Kathy, who was now saying, “I’m going to kill you. I’m going to kill you.” over, and over, and over again. She screamed loudly throughout the ride, including screaming, “I’m going to kill you” at me a few times. But Kathy survived the ride, and even admitted that it wasn’t that bad.
After our ride on the Dragon Challenge, our group separated, and I went to see who else I could find. I wound up running into Krista and Todd. I talked Todd into going on the Dragon Challenge with me. Todd enjoyed it so much that we got back in line and rode the other coaster.
After our ride, I grabbed a Butterbeer. I ran into Megan and Lori, and also Diane and Kate, so we stood against a short wall to drink our Butterbeers. Eventually, John and Kathy found their way to us too. I wanted to go on the Forbidden Journey one more time, so I talked Kate, John, and Kathy into joining me on the ride. I told Kate that she would have a blast riding the ride with John because he is loud and funny on rides.
After the ride, Kate and I met up with Diane. They were just starting one of the Durmstrang and Beauxbatons show, so we stopped to watch it. This was a fun little show to watch if you happen upon it, but I don’t think I’d go out of my way to see it. I thought the Frog Choir show, which I had seen on a previous trip, was more entertaining.
After the show, Diane, Masayo, Kate, and I made our way out of the park. On the way out, I showed Masayo the Hidden Mickey I found inside the gate of Islands of Adventure last year. An employee walked us over to see it because he had never noticed it before. A very grumpy security guard at Universal was telling Diane that it wasn’t a hidden Mickey, and Universal doesn’t have hidden Mickeys. But it is a clear and distinct hidden Mickey. I think that security guardpooped all of his pixie dust out long ago.
It looks like a Hidden Mickey to me!
Overall, I enjoyed the DISapalloza event, although I wish it was more than two and a half hours. The only other thing that was a bit annoying was they had a DJ playing loud music and making announcements throughout the night. It really took away from the atmosphere of the area, and made it difficult to talk if you were standing in the area where the DJ was set up.
Diane, Katie, and I made our way to the car, and Diane drove Masayo back to the Beach Club. We stopped to fill the rental car with gas and made our way back to the Boardwalk just about 12:30. It had been another fun day with my Disney family.
