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Day Three
Well, this is our last day, so we set the wake up call for 10:00 am. We (well, actually Chris) were woken up before that by the housekeeper who was bringing us a big bag of Mickey soap. The week before we left, we took a huge bag of stuff to our local hospital's pediatric ward and among the stuff we donated were the surplus Mickey Soaps we'd had hanging around. They were such a hit that I'd left a note for the housekeeper explaining what we do with them and asking if it would be possible to get some extras. There is a foundation set up to hand donate them to, however we just happened to be donating a bunch of stuff to our hospital, and are planning another large batch so I figured I'd add to the collection.
In any event, after thanking the housekeeper, Chris hopped back in bed until the wake up call came. I slept right through it. He went on about his way, getting ready, then tried again to wake me. Didn't work. So, he ran out to the car with some stuff, came back and tried to set up a late check out. That wasn't a possibility, so he finally was able to drag me out of bed at 10:45. I got dressed, and we did a final check of the room before heading out.
Thankfully, it had stopped raining. The ground was wet and the sky wasn't looking too friendly, but there was no rain coming down. We loaded up the car and then headed out to Epcot.
We parked the car (strangely enough on the left side of the tram way- that has never happened to us before, we're always parking on the right side of it) hopped on the tram and headed into the park. We headed right for the Land, and hopped on our favorite ride.
After we finished the boat ride, we wandered back down to Innoventions Plaza and decided to hit the Foutainview Bakery for dessert. I had a Boston Cream and Chris got a slice of Butterfinger Cheesecake. While I was trying to decide what I wanted, two older women pushed me into the display case. I got out of their way, and instead of saying excuse me or apologizing, they began trying to order. They were two of the rudest people I've ever met, and I felt sorry for the CM's that they were abusing. They ended up ordering bagels, and when they were given their tray one of them just stood there staring at the CM. Finally the she yelled to her," Aren't you going to give me a knife" When the CM explained that they were behind her on the condiment stand the woman launched into a loud diatribe on how indifferent people were, and they were supposed to be more friendly. Then one of them went back up to the counter with a half eaten bagel, threw it down and started complaining that it wasn't toasted, it was supposed to be toasted and that she wanted it fully toasted. The CM's ended up giving her a new fully toasted bagel, and then the woman started complaining about how there was too much food and she thought it was ridiculous that the portions were so big and that so much was wasted. I guess even Disney can't change some people's moods.
Moving on, we headed back out into the World Showcase. We wandered through Canada and the UK and up into France, where we came across Clopin. I got his autograph and we then ducked out the International Gateway exit and started a walk around the Boardwalk. We headed out to the Boardwalk Resort and took some pictures of the decorations, before continuing around the lagoon ending up at the Beach Club. We decided to have lunch at Beaches and Cream, since there was only a 25 minute wait.
We sat by the pool until the pager went off, then were seated. Chris asked about purchasing a bowl for the Kitchen Sink, but at 200.00 it was a bit more than we wanted to spend. We both ordered burgers, fries and sodas and sat back enjoying the atmosphere. Two different parties, one a group of little boys, the other a group of little girls, ordered the Kitchen Sink, so there was a bit of a contest over who could eat more. Our food came, and we settled in to eat.
A few bites into our burgers a child hopped off her stool at the counter (it's an L shaped counter and we were sort of tucked into the inside corner of the L) and proceeded to cough, without covering her mouth, all over our food. I was outraged and about to say something to her about covering her mouth (She was between 9 and 12, so definitely old enough to know better) but Chris stopped me, saying he didn't want to get in a fight with her father because of it. Still, I wish I'd said something.
In any event, we finished up eating and paid the bill. If we hadn't been heading home that day, I might have tried one of the desserts, but as it is, I'm allergic to milk and couldn't risk getting sick on our drive home.
After we left Beaches and Cream, we headed back into Epcot. We resumed our tour of the World Showcase, this time taking pictures of the holiday decorations. When we got to Italy, Chris realized that there had been a problem with the digital camera and none of the pictures we'd taken had come out. So, we took the Italy pictures again, the continued on through, taking pictures.
I stopped again in Germany to watch them make the dolls. Chris offered again to buy me one. I told him no, not this time, and we continued on to Mexico. When we reached Mexico, we turned around and headed back, retaking all the pictures we'd missed because of the camera. On the way back, we ran into Mulan in China.
When we reached the International Gateway again, we headed out and hopped on a boat to MGM. That was one of the longest boat rides ever. It's about a half hour ride, but there were too many people on the boat and there were a bunch of kids screaming and running around the boat.
We arrived at MGM and after a brief stop to repair the damage a bug bite had done to my leg, we took some pictures of the tree and the Santa Stitch, then headed into the park.
We spent a while wandering around, looking at the decorations and came across the door where the Monsters Inc characters come out. We decided to rest there a bit and see if they'd be appearing again. It was us and a family with two small boys. Eventually the greeter came out and when he saw the small group, he asked if it was just us. We said yes, so he let us in the door he came out of (not the garage door that says Monsters Inc, the one around the corner from it.) We went in and there were Mike and Sulley. We let the little boys go first, and they had a hopping contest with the Monsters, and then they left. We got our picture with them (they can't sign) and played with them for a bit before leaving. It was nice having our own "private audience" with them.
We headed over to the Muppet area and saw Kermit standing outside. I got in line to get his autograph, but apparently he doesn't sign, either, so I got my picture taken with him instead. Then we wandered back to the New York Street and found a stoop to sit and relax on.
While we were sitting on the stoop, two CM's came by carrying cases of the Osbourne lights glasses. They climbed up the stairs we were sitting on and started clowning around saying that they were just going to knock on random doors and see what happened. They knocked, no one answered, so they tried the doorknob. It was locked. The one CM kept saying to the other,"Come on, you can outsmart the door" Chris and I were trying hard not to laugh, but they couldn't open it. They went off and found another CM, this one in dressy street clothes who had keys. She couldn't open it. Then another one came, this time with more keys, and he couldn't open it. They tried going "backstage" to see if they could get to the area another way but couldn't.
From what we could gather, the door was locked from the inside. CM after CM was unable to open it. It was pretty funny and I'm still dying to know what was behind the door. While all this was going on, I took off and came back with a pretzel and a drink and we shared our little snack while sitting on the stoop.
Eventually we got up and headed back to await the lighting of the Osbourne Lights. They came on and we wandered through the exhibit, taking pictures as we went. Chris was thrilled to see Stitch hiding out on one of the houses.
We finished the Osbourne Lights and headed out of the park. We decided that instead of taking the boat again, we'd walk back to the Boardwalk and from there to Epcot.
I guess I should mention at this point that I was still wearing the sandals we had bought the night before. My feet hurt, a lot. But, we figured the walk would do us good and so we set off. I decided to try going barefoot, and stayed that way for most of the walk. We eventually hit the Boardwalk, where we took a quick break and then we made our way around the Boardwalk and back to the International Gateway.
Once safely back inside Epcot, we checked out France, the UK and the Canada pavillions and took some more pictures. We stopped for a break in Canada and then things got sort of hairy. I had been quiet for a while (hard to believe, I know) as I'd been thinking more and more about the Engel Puppen dolls in Germany. I am not a doll collector. I never even really had a lot of dolls as a kid, but I just fell in love with these, and was devastated at the thought of not getting one. I was the one refusing to get it, as I didn't think we should spend the money and I didn't want to say anything to Chris because I knew he'd just insist that I get the doll.
He kept bugging me about what was wrong, and after dodging for a long time, I finally came out with the fact that I wanted the doll. And, as I guessed, he immediately said, let's go get it. We went back and forth for quite a while, and ultimately, I gave in. However, it was quite a process and I'm sure we looked crazy while sitting on the bench going around and around the issue.
We then headed back over to Germany, via the World Showcase Plaza where Chris took some pictures of the tree and the topiaries behind it. We arrived in Germany just at the end of Tapestry of Dreams, which luckily had been heading toward America, so we were able to duck into the Hummel shop, come out the other side and then head into the doll shop.
I picked out the head for my doll, and then picked out a dress. The owner of the company (he has turned it over to his son to run) signed and dated the body, and his top designer (who had come with him from Germany) put the head on. She dressed the doll in the outfit I picked out (a red velvet Christmas dress) and then Chris and I debated over the hair color, length and style. The doll was supposed to look like me, so we picked out some long brown hair and had it put in a ponytail ( I almost never have my hair down) tied with a big red bow. Chris took some pictures while it was being made, and then it was done, and I had my doll. She was put in a box, along with a stand and we were off. Well, first Chris had to pay for the doll. (For anyone interested the doll is 65.00, the dress is 55.00. You have to buy a dress with the doll, so basically it works out to 120.00 for a regular dress and 130.00 for a Disney dress. They have all the princess dresses to choose from. The stand was 4.00)
I was thrilled, and was very protective of the giant bag I carried out of the World Showcase. Chris took some pictures of the Lights of Winter and then we headed out. We stopped briefly, because the fountain was finally doing a Christmas show. (Can you tell I love the fountain?) Then, when it was done, we left the park.
We walked out to the car, loaded the doll into the backseat (no, I didn't put her in a seatbelt, I left her in the box) and headed over to Downtown Disney.
At this point, I could barely stand up, let alone walk. However, I was determined to do some shopping, so I persevered. We parked by World of Disney, then walked over to Disney Days of Christmas. This is the only other place that we were aware of the Pop Warner kids. They weren't exactly on their best behavior, but to be honest, neither were some of their parents.
We took a quick trip around the store before picking up the Advent Calendar we'd come for. We put up two trees, one real and one fake. The real one goes in our living room and has a predominantly Pooh theme. The first year we put up a tree, I made a tree skirt with the Pooh characters riding a train. I also made two stockings, one just Pooh, and the other Pooh, Piglet and Tigger caroling. Finally, since Piglet is our favorite character, I was determined to have a Piglet tree topper. I ended up cross stitching Piglet dressed as an angel holding up a star, which I then made into a star for the top of the tree. They had a Pooh Advent calendar that fits exactly with the rest of the stuff I made, so of course we had to buy it.
Then, we took a quick trip to Disney at Home. I love that place. There they had a huge Princess blanket, made out of sweatshirt material. Chris of course offered to buy it for me (my family nickname is "the Princess"- not because of my behavior, actually because of something my father said at work, but anyway) I said no, I have my doll. There was another one that had Grumpy on it, and I tried to convince him to buy it for himself, but he refused, so we wandered over to the Gourmet Pantry. After opting not to try any of the desserts, we headed out to World of Disney.
On the way, we realized that we didn't stop at the pin store to get the Limited Edition Piglet Christmas pin Chris wanted. He didn't feel like walking back (did I mention that he was still wearing his "dry" shoes, his steel toes from work?) so I went ahead and bought the pin for him. It's cute, it has Piglet holding a present, the box is hinged, and you can open it up to see a little bear.
I met up with him in World of Disney and we picked up the stuff we came there for. Chris bought the Astro Orbiter to add to his monorail set, along with the ride adaptor thing, so it would work. My other "souvenier" was the Disney Christmas DVD. This DVD (it's available on video, too) shows highlights of the Christmas celebrations at Disneyworld. It's actually sort of cheesy, since they tried to put a plot in it, and it skips around a lot, but it does give a nice overview of the stuff. It's kind of like watching a travel channel show about it. Chris had also wanted to get a Mickey Iced Tea Pitcher and two matching glasses, plus some Iced Tea to go with it, but they only had the Iced Tea there. So, I offered to go to Disney At Home while he paid for that stuff and get him the pitcher and glasses.
I ended up hobbling over there barefoot, as I couldn't stand to wear my shoes, and when I got there, they didn't have it. I could have cried. In fact, I almost did. But, I went ahead and bought the Grumpy sweatshirt blanket for Chris. (We normally don't buy each other Christmas gifts, this year, however, he's giving me the Belle Tiffany Lamp, and his gift from me is our Christmas Eve trip to WDW to see the CP with Gary Sinise as the narrator. We decided this year, that since we won't be making the rounds of our families on Christmas and therefore won't have presents to open that we'd fill a stocking for each other. The limit is 75.00 and the rule is that at least part of each item must be in the stocking) I bought the throw with the thought of it being a stocking present.
I left the store and settled on a brick wall to wait for Chris to find me. He came over and I explained that they didn't have it and said let's go check out Gourmet Pantry again. He told me that it wasn't that important to him, that he probably wouldn't use it anyway and that it would just be clutter (he's doing flylady with me) so, he decided not to get them. Well, there wasn't anything for me to do but give him the blanket then. So, I told him that the package was his last present (after all, I'd gotten a doll). He refused, since he knew it was supposed to be a stocking present. We bickered about it (we do this a lot, we've actually been accused of being brother and sister because of it, but it's always good natured) and finally I won. He opened the bag and was totally surprised to find the blanket. (I'm not sure why, he knew the store I was in and it was the only thing he'd looked at in it, but in any event, he was surprised)
I then kicked off my shoes, and we headed back to the car. We pulled out of the parking lot and across the street, where we got gas and some dinner and snacks (lunchables and cookies) and then hit the road. It was about 10:20 pm when we finally headed home.
We got home, unpacked, sorted the laundry and put all the souvenirs away, then collapsed into bed at nearly 5 am. We got up at about 1:30 pm, started the laundry, went for a walk and then I settled in to bake while Chris went to work. After 8 batches of cookies and 3 kinds of fudge, I started the trip reports, and here I am.
The trip was wonderful, as always. We have tons of pictures from this trip (and actually tons from other trips) that we haven't gotten around to uploading and organizing, but I'm hoping to do that this weekend for anyone who may be interested. If you're still with me, thanks for taking the time to read all this.
Jessica
Day One Day Two, Day Three
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