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And to think we spent eleven days and I am only on day 3. Maybe I can combine a few here.
Monday, the 10th, is our water park day. We sleep in a little, Mickey wakes us up and a birthday card from Goofy is delivered to our room for DH, we eat breakfast at the End Zone Cafe, and by 11 am we are at Blizzard Beach.
I am impressed. First thing is a CM convinces DH to buy these outrageous swim trunks totally out of his style, I love them. We get our locker, our refillable mug for the water parks, and off we go. For not being a fan of water parks DH and I enjoyed all of our time there. We lost track of time and until the rain storm hit was having a great day. I did Summit Plummit, never again, DH and I raced on the different rides, found the cousins later in the tide pool when the rain started to come down... Stayed there until the thunder and lightening came. On our way out of the park, our cousin decided to ask about getting a pass to come back since we were rained out basically. They said not a problem we were in the park before noon, and were rained out in under 3 hours, they could give us passes, or since they just then reopened the park let us go back in. We opted for the free pass, and were on our way back to the hotel.
Since it was DH's birthday, he was able to choose dinner. He chose the Biergarten in Germany. Our cousin took her kids to the Kid's Yacht club, met us for dinner. And for the viewing pleasure of my DH she and I went down and did the birdie dance at the Biergarten during the dinner show. Now tell me that isn't humbling. Of course DH videoed it all and is threatening blackmail with it now, LOL!.
At this point we decided against Pleasure Island later in the evening. Kathy then goes and gets her kids so that they can come and watch Illuminations with us all again. Once again on the bridge at Italy, we had wonderful seats and met a wonderful couple from the Bronx in NY and spent the half hour before the show chatting with them.
Watched Illuminations, went to Test Track, DD, and had a Birthday Sundae at Ghiradelli's, which made us almost homesick for San Francisco.... Almost, but not quite.....
Once again in bed by 1 am.
On Tuesday the 11th, we head for the Magic Kingdom. We have PS seating at the Crystal Palace for 8 am. You see, Kathy is willing to knock over small children to spend time with POOH. We have wonderful breakfast, a belated birthday cupcake for DH, and am noticing how beautiful a day it is. We head over to the castle to take some early morning pictures, and then off to Space Mountain.
First we stop at Buzz Lightyear and get womped by our 10 year old cousin. I think DH needs to learn how to steer.... Then onto Space Mountain.... I have to say, Since we are avid fans of Space Mountain in Disneyland, the ride in Magic Kingdom came as a small disappointment to us. We were looking forward to the tight turns, fast spiraling down to the center of the ride, like it is here on the West Coast. Though I enjoyed the ride, it just wasn't the same, and maybe that was what I was looking for. As we come off of the ride we noticed that they were heading us directly out of the gift shop and were asking everyone to leave the park... Not knowing what has happened, due to being in the park early, we were in a kind of daze as to what was going on. We stopped a CM and asked if he could give us some information, it was at that time we heard for the first time of the tragedy in New York....
For us it hit home rather quick. Our cousin's fiancée was just at the WTC the week prior to this, and then when we found out about the Pentagon, both DH and I have uncles that work there.
WDW was amazing on this morning of tragedy.... With all that was happening around us in the world. The CMs were calm, and they kept the crowds of people calm.. I know that the parks were anything but full on this day, yet within an hour and a half we were back in our hotel rooms.
When we were told we needed to leave the park, the CM that informed us of what was happening said that they would contact us at the hotel with a plan of action. The All Star bus stops were crowded but within half an hour of arriving at the bus stop we were on the 4th bus back to the Sports hotel. People were very considerate, very helpful to each other. We placed our 10 and 12 year old cousins on our laps, giving as much seating space as possible to everyone on the busses.
We arrive back at the hotel, and head to our room to catch up on what is going on. The tv's come on, and the message light is blinking on the phone. Already family members have gotten through to us. I start calling parents back, as DH watches the news. It is an unreal situation. Thank you to ATT who opened up our cell phone service to nationwide. We appreciate being able to get messages back and forth. As DH and the cousin's kids take nap, Kathy and I plan on who calls whom. We get most everyone covered, except my parents. It was odd. Everytime I called California, I spoke to someone in Louisiana. Very nice woman by the name of Leann. Thank you, Leann, for your concern. At about 5:00 I receive a message from the gift shop some of our packages have arrived. Kathy and I arrive down in the lobby and it looks as if we never left the theme parks.
WDW has sent the characters on a roving patrol of all of the resorts. There are coloring stations for the kids, and we are recommended to go visit other resorts. The CM manager we spoke to said if they needed to get a hold of us they would notify us by phone and if necessary wait outside our room until we showed. She also mentioned that for today and tomorrow all phone charges would be waived. Thank you very much WDW. You have made a difficult time easier.
That evening we go All Star resort hopping. I have to say, I am impressed by all the All Star Resorts. The themeing in wonderful, the atmosphere is great. The one reason that I will probably always stay at the sports though is that it is the first bus stop, and having a seat is important to me....
All of us girls get our hair wrapped. Mine in Red, White, and Blue. Then it is back to the room, for pizza, some news, and an early night to bed. They just informed us that the parks will open as normal, and we all got an extra day added back to our tickets. I finally get through to my parents and find out that all family members have been accounted for. Mom wants to know when we are coming home. We all had discussed it at this point and to end our vacation early would have been for us an admission of defeat. We were already there, getting home would take us a few days at best, maybe by the end of the vacation we would be able to get home faster if we stuck to our original plans. Needless to say mom was not happy, but she understood.
The next morning, we were up early having caught up on sleep, had breakfast at the End Zone Cafe, and were off to the Animal Kingdom. At the entrance to the park, they asked if they could search our bags. That was great. It would have been nice if they had actually searched the bags rather than look at what you opened up for them... If they saw all the stuff under the ponchos that I carried they would have been amazed. Anyway, off to the Safari and through the park we go. I stop on the way and buy the Mickey Icon flag pin early, and out of my entire lanyard that was the one pin I would not trade. At that point the others meant nothing to me.
We do the safari, saw all the animals, wander through all of the lands, love the tigers, Kali River Rapids was fun, Lion King show impressive, and the Tarzan show the best. Dinosaur was good, and then it was time to split from the cousins. DH and I had not had too much time alone and I was in desperate need to spend some time with him.
The cousins headed for MGM and we were off to Epcot. I wanted to go the Land and the Sea. I wanted to see the fountains, all of which were running. With just Dh and I we did not feel the need to keep the kids entertained. We could go were we wanted and stop and enjoy the sights if we wanted. We then noticed it was time for Illuminations yet again, only this time I was going to video it. Never video something if you have a cold. I had caught a cold before we left, and still had the sneezes and cough that come with it. You know how hard it is to hold a video camera still while sneezing because you forgot the tripod yet again.
After Epcot we decided to go to DD yet again. Neither of us want to shop, so we decided to try DQ. It was included on our tickets why not. We get there at 10 pm and am really sorry it closed at 12. We had a blast. DH is a computer software engineer and he was fascinated by the virtual reality. The CM's kicked us out of there and so back to the hotel we go. We talk with the cousins, and decided it us time for another partial day off, so to Blizzard Beach we go on Thursday.
Blizzard Beach is a blast. We are really getting into the water rides when the tropical storm hits. Our luck. Oh well. Off to MGM studios we go, stop by see Aunt Brenda at the Prime Time Cafe, and then of to WWTBAM, the back stage tour, Rockin Rollercoaster, and we are told Fantasmic will not be showing, though as we leave the park it is going on. We were bummed but knew we had another day to come see it.....
Because we are expecting our Aunt Dino to arrive from CA anytime on Friday. Who knows for sure when her flight will get out, we decide that the whole day will be at DD, more than likely at DQ... DH and kids are excited.
However a change of plans ensue and we are back at MGM for Hunchback, and Little Mermaid, and some pin trading, then it is off to DQ we go. We arrive at about 2 pm and are kicked out after midnight when we finally get to ride all of our cyber Space Mountain rides. DH recommends taking a break between rides if you are going with more than one person. He did not do real well, after riding with his 12 year old cousin and then me. Her coaster was calm, mine was 5 screams. He was sick to say the least.... LOL!
We get back to the hotel, and no message from Dino yet, so we hope she is on her way. At 1:30 after we all went to bed she arrives. Happy that she can make it even though her vacation was cut short by 3 days.... At least we are all together....
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