Leibesberger Grand Gathering - August 2005 • WDW Trip Reports

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Leibesberger Grand Gathering - August 2005

Leibesbergers - Neal (52), Holly (41), Casey (12)
Careys - Steve (45), Lorraine (45), Megan (14), Colleen (8)
Curriers - Mr. C. (76), Su (47)
Lehmans - Gene (44), Carol (41), Jessie (12), Danny (9)

When the alarm went off at 3AM it felt like I had just fallen asleep and I couldn?t believe the whole 4 hours since I went to bed had already flown by. After a quick shower, I went in to wake Casey up. Neal ran to get 2 LARGE coffees from Dunkin Donuts. We were smart enough to put all the luggage in the car the night before, so we just had to grab our fanny packs and the backpack. We left our house at 4AM to drive to the Carey?s house - which is about 20 minutes away. The whole party of 13 was being picked up there at 4:45AM by two vans. We arrived at Lorraine?s and as we were taking our luggage out of the car a van pulled up. They were 25 minutes early! We all started running in and out of the house to get all of their (Carey?s & Currier?s) luggage out to the van. I did a double take on my way down the steps, because instead of a second van there was a stretch limo sitting there! Well ? the kids starting jumping up and down saying they wanted to ride in the limo! Once we got the luggage in the van, we decided to let all 5 kids go in the limo with ?Aunt? Su. The other 7 adults had a nice quiet ride to Newark Airport in the van. When the limo pulled up and Su got out ? the look on her face was priceless! I asked her how the limo ride was, but she didn?t answer ? I think she was deaf already from listening to the kids all the way to the airport! A skycap was waiting at the curb and he managed to take the luggage for all 13 of us! He even escorted us to a group check-in desk. They checked our boarding passes (which we had all printed at home) printed out luggage tags and slapped them on the bags right on the cart and the skycap wheeled them away! We went through security with only one little problem. Mr. C. has and artificial hip and he always sets the beeper off. So after watching them search every inch of his body, we were able to continue towards the gate. We got the kids something to eat and the adults another cup of coffee. Our flight was at 6:45AM on Continental Airlines. We landed in Orlando at 9:25AM. We headed towards the baggage claim and found the Magical Express person with the big white hand. She directed us to the check in desk and it only took a few seconds to check in. Next they put you in line for your resort bus. We all walked through the queue to the front and another person was leading us out to the bus. We arrived at Pop Century at 10:30AM ? we were all really impressed at how quickly this transfer went! We checked in and were thrilled to know that our 4 rooms would all be in a row. We left our carry-on bags with bell services (don?t know if it?s really called bell services in the cheaper resorts) and went to catch the bus to the Magic Kingdom. This was honestly our longest wait for a bus on the whole 10 day trip! We waited and waited for over ? hour before a bus finally pulled in. We still managed to make it to the Magic Kingdom by noon! Eight of us had to stop and activate our annual passes and we were thrilled that there was no line at all. We all walked up to the windows and were done in just a few minutes. Once we got all 13 of us through the turnstiles, we realized that we were all starving! We walked up Main Street and decided in honor of my daughter, Casey ? we?d get hot dogs at Casey?s Corner!! We sat outside and ate a quick lunch. Our bill was $20.80 ? 3 Grand Slam hot dogs, 3 22oz. sodas and an order of fries. We were amused by the ducks walking right up to us to see if they could get a bite of our food! I wouldn?t say they were aggressive, but they certainly were not afraid of us at all. The kids were all dying to go on Space Mountain ? so we headed off to Tomorrowland after lunch. The line was pretty long, so we had one person get Fast Passes for the group while the rest of us got on line for Buzz Lightyear. The posted wait time for Buzz was 30 minutes, but we did not wait even 20 minutes and we were on the ride! When we exited Buzz, Pluto and Chip & Dale were standing there in Spacesuits! They were adorable and the kids wanted to meet them. Let me stop here for a minute and just say that I knew this trip was going to be different than our normal trips. My DH, DD and I had discussed many times the fact that we would definitely be moving slower on this trip. This is the first time we had ever gone to WDW in the Summer and the first time with a big group. We went into the trip knowing that we were going to just go with the flow and if we didn?t get to do and see everything it was OK. The point was that we were here with a bunch of good friends and we wanted to enjoy the time together. I had so many of the tips I?ve learned from the group and especially the things I?ve learned from Tour Guide Mike buzzing around in my head ? but at times I had to bite my tongue and just go with the flow! So even though it was going on 2PM and we had only been on one ride ? we stopped to meet Pluto and Chip & Dale. While the kids were waiting in line I realized that I was SOAKING WET! Did I mention how HOT & HUMID it was?! We were only in the park for 2 hours and I felt like we had been running around all day. We were all really dragging due to the fact that we only slept for a few hours ? if that! As soon as the kids met the characters we all headed into Carousel of Progress ? some of us LOVE this one and some just wanted to sit in the cool, dark seats and take a rest. I think 3 out of the 4 men fell asleep! When we came out of CoP we still had a little time to wait until our Fast Pass for Space Mountain. The skies were not looking real good so we decided to all hop on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority and take a ride around. While we were on it started to POUR!! We ended up taking 2 rides around, which was very relaxing and also kept us dry. By the time we got off for the second time, the rain had stopped and it was time to go on Space Mountain! 11 of the 13 of us went on the ride. We all walked right through to the loading area. The ride was great and the kids were thrilled that they didn?t have to wait in the long stand-by line. We were all really dragging today ? did I mention that the heat & humidity was killing us and that none of us had much sleep the night before?! Next we decided to let the kids do the teacup ride. All of the men sat on the wall to wait. I grabbed Lorraine and dragged her on with me! The other 2 woman watched and took pictures. I spun Lorraine silly on the ride ? but the joke was on me ? you know when you step out of your cup you are standing on the saucer ? well I fell off the saucer! I thought the kids were going to wet their pants laughing at me!! It was pretty funny ? I?m glad nobody was video-taping! We decided that we would try It?s A Small World if the line wasn?t too long. We had a 5:20 ADR for ?Ohana in the Polynesian. We knew we had to make our way to the exit and up the monorail ramp and ride around to the Poly stop, so we had to watch our time. The wait time was 30 minutes for IASW and it was already going on 4PM. We decided to save it for next time and head for the Polynesian. We checked in at ?Ohana and they gave us a beeper. By the time we found chairs to sit in, the beeper was going off already! We were seated in a corner at a large round table and a smaller table right next to it. We let the 5 kids sit together at the smaller table. This was our (Leibesbergers) second time doing this meal, nobody else in the group had ever done it before. I had one Pina Colada and I was almost on the carpet under the table. I guess the heat and lack of sleep made me a cheap date this time!! We all (even the kids) thoroughly enjoyed this meal. We all knew there was an Extra Magic Hours evening at the Magic Kingdom tonight, but nobody was up for it. I think the only person that even mentioned going back to the park was Mr. C.!! He is like the Energizer Bunny ? he just keeps going & going & going! We were all ready to drop and he was leading the pack. When we got off the monorail at the Magic Kingdom so we could catch our bus back to Pop Century, he asked us one more time if we wanted to go back into the park. Nobody wanted to go back in, not even the kids. All they wanted to do was get to the hotel and swim! We got back and went to our rooms for the first time. We were in the 50?s section ? rooms 2206, 2207, 2208 & 2209. Our building was the furthest 50?s building from the food court and bus stops. We were pleased to find all of our luggage in the rooms ? the Magical Express Service worked perfectly for us! We called and had our carry-on bags brought up and they arrived quickly while we were all getting our bathing suits on. We walked down and got our refillable mugs at Everything Pop ? they we $11.99 each plus tax ($38.31 for 3 mugs). We let the kids swim until around 9PM and then decided it was time to head for the rooms. Tomorrow is Epcot and we all knew it would be a long day! Even though we didn?t get a lot of rides and attractions in today ? it was a wonderful first day!

We agreed to meet in the food court at 7:30AM for breakfast today. We were heading to Epcot for a full day and I wanted to arrive as early as possible. We didn?t really do too badly ? we all ate, hit the restrooms, got on the bus and arrived at Epcot by 9:15AM. I actually thought it was going to be later with the big group! We headed straight to Soarin and got Fast Passes for the whole group. The return time was 10:24AM ? so we all went to Imagination to see Figment! There was absolutely NO line at all. We walked right on to the ride. The kids (and some adults) loved this one so much that we immediately ran around and went on a second time ? again no wait at all! When we came out the second time we let the kids play for a little while and the 3 older girls sent my mom a picture of themselves saying, ?We?re in Disney World!? We looked around the Figment store for a little while to see if the Figment fans in the group wanted to buy anything. We were told that you can meet Figment now ? but he was not out at this time. I checked our Fast Passes for Soarin and saw that it was time to use them! The whole group went on this one and absolutely LOVED it!! When we came out of Soarin, we sent 2 of the guys to get Fast Passes for Test Track and the rest of us went to Honey I Shrunk the Audience. The Lehman family had never done this one ? so our kids (Leibesberger & Carey) thought it was hilarious when the mice came and the Lehmans screamed! When we came out of the show, the guys were back with the FP for Test Track. They wanted to see Honey I Shrunk the Audience ? so the rest of us did Figment again while the guys did that. Su ended up buying a snow globe (she collects them) in the Figment store and filled out the paperwork to have them ship it home for her. The whole group met up again and it was time for a drink and a potty break. We went into the Electric Umbrella and the skies opened up for about 10 minutes. After our short break, the rain had stopped so we headed over to Universe of Energy. We walked right in and the pre-show was already started. We all enjoyed seeing Ellen and the dinosaurs and the cool, dark seats in this attraction! When we were done, we realized we could get another Fast Pass, so somebody got them for Mission Space. It was also the return time for our Test Track Fast Passes ? so we headed over to use those. My daughter, Casey just loves Test Track and she got a Test Track driver?s license out of the machine in the store when we came off the ride. The return time for Mission Space was here when we got off Test Track. Only 8 of the 13 were going on this one. While they were riding this one I walked over to the Gallery near Spaceship Earth to buy my counted cross-stitch kit. I got the Happiest Celebration on Earth one with the Castle and the characters in front of it! Since we got 13 Fast Passes and only 8 went on Mission Space ? 5 of them were able to ride again! We all met up again and had to head over to LeCellier Steakhouse in Canada for our 4PM dinner ADR. We all absolutely loved this place. The atmosphere was wonderful, our server was the sweetest young girl and the food was incredible! After dinner, my DH decided to go back to the resort and rest. The rest of the group felt good enough to keep going and decided to do the countries. We started in Canada since we were there already. The 5 kids all bought passports and had a ball going to all the kidcot fun stops. We got to meet Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore & Tigger in the UK. We saw the Spirit of America Fife & Drum Corps and VYBE in the America Gardens Theatre. We did not stay for the whole show, because Colleen was complaining about a stomachache. We continued on to Germany and they took her in the restroom. She ended up crying and telling her mom that she was going to throw up. Lorraine decided to take her back to the hotel. A few of us offered to go with her, but she said they?d be fine and they?d call one of us on our cell phones when they got back. The rest of us decided to stay and finish the countries. It was just about 8:45 when this was going on, so I said does anyone want to try to get a spot to see Illuminations? The Lehman family had never seen it, so we decided to try. We actually got a spot right at the fence near Germany. There was one tree in front of us, but the view was still very good. We put the kids up against the fence and the adults stood behind them. Tonight was the Extra Magic Hours evening at Epcot, so when Illuminations was over, we were able to continue working our way around the countries. This worked out beautifully, because most people were all heading for the buses and we were able to finish with no crowds at all. We walked right on to Maelstrom in Norway. While the kids did the kidcot stop, I decided to purchase the Laila perfume. I heard about it from someone on the MFL list and it is an absolutely beautiful scent. I fell in love with it as soon as I smelled it. The CM who checked me out told me the story of the perfume, how this young man made it for his mother and named it after her and when he had it finished her gave her the very first bottle for Mother?s day. We continued on and by this point I was ready to carjack one of those EVC?s or a wheel chair! We walked right on to El Rio del Tiempo in Mexico. The kids were looking for hidden Mickeys everywhere and there are some on this ride. One of the kids missed one and asked if we could ride again. The CM running the ride didn?t even make us get out, she just let us go around again! When we came out of Mexico, a couple of people had to use the restroom. The rest of us sat on a bench and got to witness something I?d never seen before. There was an announcement that something was going to happen out in the water and that it was planned and controlled. There was a loud explosion and a huge fireball rose up in the air. My DH and Steve said they probably do that to use up the extra fuel from Illuminations. We dragged ourselves out to the bus stop and it was 11PM. Wow ? 14 hours in Epcot! This was really a full day ? I was so happy to get back to the hotel and into bed.

Today is SeaWorld day! Mears was picking all 13 of us up at 8:25AM. We met in the food court between 7:15-7:30 for breakfast. When Mears showed up they had 2 vans. We had to split our group into 2 - 6 in one van and 7 in the other. We quickly got on our way and made it to SeaWorld very quickly. When we got into the park we just started with the animal exhibits that we came to. We saw Stingray Lagoon where the kids touched and some of them fed the stingrays. We saw Turtle Point. We spent a lot of time at Dolphin Cove where you can touch the dolphins and feed them. All of the kids bought food and fed the dolphins! This was my absolute favorite part of the day - I love the dolphins! After that we went over to Manatee Rescue and watched them for a while. Someone in our group had a good idea - before the park got crowded we should hit the two big rides that everyone (almost everyone) wanted to do! We headed over to Journey To Atlantis and 10 out of 13 rode this. It is a lot of fun - part water ride/log flume and part roller coaster! The only problem was that as we were going up the very first hill about 4 inches of water rushed to the back of the boat and soaked everyone's feet and ankles. We walked around squishing for the rest of the day and most of us got blisters this day. The ride was great and most of the group decided to ride it again as there was no wait at all. After we finished Journey To Atlantis we headed over to Kraken which is a roller coaster that turns you upside down 7 times and goes 65 mph! 9 out of 13 rode this one! My husband came walking back and looking a little green. He had to sit down for a few minutes after this one!! The rest of the brave ones went on again!! While we were waiting on a bench in the shade, the nicest employee was talking to us! The kids were looking at the hats and pins on her cart and she started talking to us. She recommended the Sharks Underwater Grill for lunch. When we all met up we went into the Penguin Encounter and had a ball watching them for a while. It was nice and dark and COOL in there! There was the cutest CHUBBY brown furry penguin in there. One of the employees there said it was a baby King penguin!! We all wanted to take him home - he looked like a stuffed animal! We walked over towards the Shark Encounter and stopped to ask if they had room for 13 for lunch. They had 2 tables right next to the glass available! We sat for the longest time in there and enjoyed a delicious meal and a really great view of all the sharks! After lunch we headed over to the Shamu show! It was wonderful as always - the one show we never miss when we go to SeaWorld! After Shamu we stopped to let the kids see the Budweiser Clydesdale horses and the little donkey from the Budweiser commercials! The adults all enjoyed a complimentary glass of cold Budweiser. We let the kids go out in Flamingo paddle boats and the adults sat and enjoyed another glass of Bud! We also visited Pacific Point Preserve and saw the sea lions and seals. The kids fed them too! We also got to see Blue Horizons -the dolphin and whale show. Some of the brave went on Kraken again before we left the park. We left SeaWorld around 6:30Pm and went back to Pop Century. We were split into two groups again for the Mears vans. 10 people went in one van and 2 of the men went in the other van. They actually tipped the driver to stop at a store and they brought back a couple cases of beer and a bunch of snacks!! Paying almost $5 for one beer at Pop Century was not making us happy! We all had dinner in the Pop Century food court and then let the kids swim for a couple of hours while we sat and relaxed and had a beer. Today was another wonderful day - we got most of SeaWorld done! Well - off to bed - tomorrow is MGM!

Today is MGM day - we met for breakfast at 7:30 in the Pop food court. We have quite a routine by now. We sit in the same section every day and we take turns running the refillable mugs back to one of the rooms after breakfast. We got on the bus and made it to MGM by 9:15AM. We immediately headed to Tower of Terror and rode it twice in a row with absolutely no wait! Two people did not ride, so we sent them to get Fast Passes for Rockin' Roller Coaster. When we finished Tower of Terror for the second time we went over to Rockin' Roller Coaster. There was only a 5 minute wait so we walked right through the stand-by line and rode. This was my daughter Casey's first time going on Rockin' Roller Coaster and she LOVED it! We bought the picture and she got a pin and a pressed penny. When we got off there was a longer line, so we used our Fast Passes and rode again! We were able to get another set of Fast Passes for later in the day too! Next we met the non-riders in the Beverly Sunset shop where they sell villain and Fantasmic gifts. Casey bought Nightmare Before Christmas pens and magnets for her friend who is watching her hamster while we're on the trip. After this, all of the women and children headed over to see The Little Mermaid show. The guys walked down to get Fast Passes for the Lights, Motors, Action Extreme Stunt Show. When we finished The Little Mermaid we headed to meet up with them. We made a quick stop on Mickey Avenue to get pictures with Sorcerer Mickey! We met the guys and went the Backlot Tour/Catastrophe Canyon. It started pouring when we were on the tram and at one point we couldn't even tell if it was rain or from Catastrophe Canyon. When we excited the ride we told all the kids to walk straight through the exhibit and store because we had to get over to the stunt show in time. They give you a 10 minute window to get in with your Fast Passes and then they let in the general crowd! We were all hurrying along and as we got to the area a few people needed a restroom. We still had 5 minutes to spare so they all ran in. Once they all came out we realized we were missing one of the kids - Jessica (12 years old) was not with the people that were waiting and she was not in the restroom with the ones that went in. Her parents immediately FREAKED out!!!!! I told them to tell the CM at the entrance to the ride. Some of us went in through the Fast Pass entrance to see if she had continued in when we stopped for people to use the restroom. Her mom was running along the stand-by line to see if she got mixed in with them. I called Steve on his cell phone and said run back to the store and exhibit at the end of the Backlot Tour, maybe she stopped to look at something there when we all ran through to get to the stunt show. He ran over there and found her with a CM in the store crying hysterically! She did the right thing by staying where she was and telling the CM that she was lost. Thank God he found her pretty quickly or I think we would have needed an ambulance for her parents. They all met us in the stunt show - the CM was nice enough to let them through the Fast Pass entrance even though the 10 minute window was over. Jessie was still crying after they sat down and I don?t think any of them enjoyed that show. It starting pouring right at the beginning of the show, but it stopped and the show went on. We were under the overhang, so once again we escaped the rain! The show was really great - the rest of us loved it. Thank God this was the only lost child incident we had during the whole trip. I think all the kids were extra careful after this happened, so maybe it was a good thing in a way. I still don't know how it happened, because we were all constantly looking and counting to 13 to make sure we were all there! Most of the time the 5 kids were all walking together in a pack. When we came out of the stunt show we were all really hot and thirsty. We walked over to Studio Catering and got drinks and a few people got snacks / light lunch. After our little break, we headed over to see Muppet Vision 3-D. This is a really fun one ? we all enjoyed it! Next we went over to Star Tours and there was no wait at all. We were able to go on two times in a row. We had an early ADR for the 50's Prime Time Cafe at 4:20PM, so we went to check in around 4PM. We were seated after only a few minutes and we had two tables next to each other. Our server, Richard was absolutely! We all loved him! He sat at our table and talked to us for the longest time! He reminded us so much of Jack from the show Wil & Grace! There was a thunderstorm while we were eating dinner, but by the time we were finished it was over. This was the third time today that it rained and all 3 times we were inside and did not get wet! We walked over to The Great Movie Ride and rode with no wait at all. After the ride, part of the group went to get seats for Fantasmic and the rest of us went on Tower of Terror and Rockin' Roller Coaster one more time! There were no waits for either one! It was after 8PM at this point, so we headed to Fantasmic. The show was awesome as usual - we had great seats right in the middle of the theater. We sat for a few minutes after the show and let some of the crowd leave. We headed for the buses and were lucky enough to get to our stop just as one was pulling in. It felt great to sit down in that air conditioned bus! When we got back to Pop we let the kids swim for a while. We decided that we were not leaving until about 10AM the next day, since we were going to Blizzard Beach.

Today we planned on a much slower start. No wake up call this morning! I let Casey sleep until 9AM. I started to wake her and someone was banging on our door! I opened it to find a few of the other kids already up and in their bathing suits! Of course, she flew out of bed when she saw them and got her suit on too! We headed down to the food court and met the whole group. My husband had gone down earlier and brought coffee and donuts back to the room. We sat and enjoyed another cup of coffee while the rest of them had breakfast. I took a walk over to the concierge desk (I was shocked that a ?cheap? place like Pop Century had a concierge ? I thought that was only for the Deluxe resorts.) Anyway ? I had a couple of old passes and wanted to see if there were any days left on them. The woman was very nice about checking all of them. We had 3 plus options left on a child?s pass ? so she told me that Casey could get into Blizzard Beach with that pass. She asked if I would like to buy our Blizzard Beach passes right there to avoid standing in line at the park. She also gave me a discount, since I have an annual pass!! By the time I came back, the group was ready to head out to the bus. We got to Blizzard Beach between 10:00 ? 10:30AM. Our family was the only one who had ever been there before, so the group asked me where to go first. I headed over to the Ski Patrol Training Camp area. This is the preteen area of the park and I figured with kids ranging from 8-14 we?d spend a lot of time here. We were able to grab 8 chairs in a corner that were actually in the shade! We put our towels, t-shirts and a couple of backpacks on them to save them. We rented a locker for any of the valuable things that we didn?t want to leave unattended. The kids immediately ran into the preteen area. The men and some of the kids went up to do Summit Plummet! The women and other kids stayed in Ski Patrol. After a while, my daughter and I went and took a ride around the lazy river ? I just love relaxing and floating along. When we got out nobody was back at our home base ? so we hopped back in the lazy river and went around again. When we went back the second time my husband was there ? he had been standing on one of the bridges looking for us in the river. We decided to grab lunch. Neal got a turkey leg, Casey got a bbq pork sandwich and I got a hot dog (thinking she was not going to like the pork and we?d switch.) Well, she loved the pork ? I was really surprised! As we were eating the rest of the group came back. They had been on the lazy river looking for us! After lunch the adults wanted to sit for a while so the kids all went back into the preteen area. The men and 3 of the kids went up to do Toboggan Racers, Slush Gusher and Snow Stormers. My daughter is not a real water park kid ? she had a lot of fun in the preteen area, but she had no desire to go on the big things. We were all just about ready to go on Teamboat Springs ? which is the family raft ride ? when they made an announcement that there were severe thunderstorms approaching the area. They had already stopped the chairlift that takes you to the top. A lot of people were walking down the stairs. As soon as we walked back to where our stuff was the skies opened up! It poured and poured for about 20 minutes. When it slowed down we decided to start heading towards the exit. My daughter had her picture taken on the lazy river and wanted to stop and see it in the gift shop. We ended up buying the picture because it really came out nice. When we were heading towards the bus stop it started to pour again! A Pop Century bus was just pulling away as we rounded the corner. The driver was nice enough to pull over to the curb ? not even at a bus stop and let us all on! It felt really good to get back to the hotel and get dry clothes on! We hung out together in the connecting rooms for a while and debated whether we should order pizza or trudge down to the food court for dinner. The rain had stopped, but I think we all just got lazy hanging out in the rooms. lol Well, the men really didn?t want pizza for dinner, so we decided to walk down and eat. When we were finished 2 people ran the mugs back to the rooms. We were going on our first Grand Gathering event tonight!! We were going on a Magical Fireworks Voyage!! We had to be at the Contemporary at 7:45PM. We caught a bus to the Magic Kingdom around 6:30PM and then we hopped on the monorail to the Contemporary. We were a little early, so we looked at pins and looked in the stores while we waited. When it was time, we had to check-in by family. They had a beautiful dessert table set up for us and another table with coffee, soda and water. We started to get some desserts and who comes in but Captain Hook and Mr. Smee! Well, they goofed around with the kids, signed autographs and posed for pictures the whole time we were there. Then 2 pirates came in and started singing and joking around. They split the crowd up into 2 groups and said one group was Captain Hook?s boat and one was Mr. Smee?s boat. Our group of 13 was all together with a couple of other families on Mr. Smee?s boat. Our pirate was Patch ? he was quite a character! He led us out to the marina and onto our boat. He came on the cruise with us and entertained us the entire time. We sailed out towards the Grand Floridian and dropped anchor. While we were waiting Patch asked if anyone was celebrating a birthday and several people raised their hands. He wished each of them a happy birthday and had the entire boat sing to them. Next he asked if anyone was celebrating an anniversary. Nobody raised their hand and something popped into my head at that moment. My friend, Lorraine kissed her husband on the bus earlier today and I said aw how cute! She turned to me and said she just remembered that their very first date was 26 years ago today! SO ? I put my hand up and told Patch! He came over and talked to them and wished them a happy anniversary. Then I see my daughter with her hand up and she tells Patch that it will be our 13th wedding anniversary soon. It is not until October, but I guess to her it is soon. So Patch comes over and makes a joke that we?re celebrating our 13th anniversary with our 14 year old daughter!! Then he makes us stand up and Lorraine & Steve stand up and he plays Kiss the Girl from The Little Mermaid and makes us dance in the middle aisle of the boat! Well ? the kids absolutely loved this and everyone took pictures and video taped. At the end of the song he made the guys kiss us and all the kids started screaming! Next we got a real treat - to watch the Electriacal Water Pageant! It was awesome to be right out there on the water and see that! We had seen it from the Wilderness Lodge when we stayed there years ago. Nobody else in our group had ever seen it. After the water pageant, they moved the boat over in front of the Magic Kingdom and we had a perfect view of Wishes. The sound was piped in through the speakers on the boat and it was just awesome! I was actually moved to tears as we sat there. On the way back to the Contemporary, Patch was asking the kids Disney trivia questions and giving out prizes. There was a blinking light on the little island we passed and he was yelling it?s Tinkerbell ? everyone wave to Tink! The kids really ate it up! Then he said everyone close your eyes and say I wish Peter Pan was here, I wish Peter Pan was here. As we pulled up to the dock ? Peter Pan was standing there!! The kids went wild!! As we left the boat, Patch gave everyone stickers and he had a treasure chest filled with candy you could help yourself to. Peter Pan signed autographs and posed for pictures with all the kids! When we boarded the monorail to head back to the Magic Kingdom to get our bus ? the kids got the front car of the monorail! They were so thrilled!! This was really a Magical evening! The kids talked about it all the way back to the hotel and even the next

This morning was an early one for Casey and I. Mears was picking us up at 7:25AM to go to Discovery Cove. We headed down to the food court at 7AM – we didn't even bring our mugs. I grabbed a bagel and coffee and she got bacon and chocolate milk (yuck!) Anyway, we walked right out to the bus stop and sat on a bench to eat. The Mears van pulled up a few minutes late and we quickly paid the driver and hopped in. We made it to Discovery Cove before 8AM. We had to check-in and get our I.D. – they give you an I.D. card with your picture on it and you wear it on a lanyard around your neck. You must have it on at all times. Every time they take your picture they take a picture of your card too. At the end of the day – you give your card at the photo pick-up and all of your pictures are there. They also put charging privileges on my card, so you don't have to carry anything else with you all day! As soon as we walked in a photographer takes your picture – this is a complimentary photo that you will receive at the end of the day. Then a guide shows you around and takes you to where you get your wetsuits or vests and masks & snorkels. We had an 8:30AM time to swim with the dolphin. We had to head to the Sand Dollar Cabana right away. We got a locker and put our backpack and masks & snorkels in it. You take nothing with you when you swim with the dolphin. You go in the cabana and meet the trainer that you'll be with and then you watch a little video. Then the trainer takes you out to the water and you wade in. Now let me tell you when it is on the 90's and the water is in the 70's – it feel COLD when you first wade in! You get used to it pretty quickly and is actually feels nice. Casey & I wore water shoes and I would recommend that to everyone. There are some big rocks on the bottom and some parts were slippery. You are in a group of about 8 people when you go into the water. You meet the dolphin as a group. The trainer has him swim by and you can reach out and pet him as he goes by. You also make him sing, wave, splash, spin and jump as a group. Then comes the one-on-one time. You come forward from the group and get up close and personal with the dolphin. He comes right up and puts his face in your hands so you can kiss him! You get to stand next to him and pet him. They are taking pictures and video during this whole session. They take individual pictures and family pictures. Then comes the swim part! You have a choice of staying in the shallow water or swimming out to the deeper water. Casey & I chose the deeper water. We swam out with one of the trainers and then the dolphin comes up along side you. You run your right hand down his back and hold onto his fin and then you take your left hand and hold onto the fin on the left side of the dolphin. Casey made me go first!! As I reached for the fin with my left hand – the dolphin took off – so I was only holding on with my right hand for part of the ride! It is amazing how strong these animals are and how fast they move through the water! Our dolphin was named Tyler. He was absolutely adorable and had quite a personality. He was fooling around and splashing us and he even took one of the fish and threw it up in the air! He was also very sweet and gently when he was close to you. When you finish your time with the dolphin, they lead you right into a cabana where you can see the pictures they took. Now – if you think going to Discovery Cove and swimming with the dolphin is expensive (about $250 per person) – you ain't seen nothin' yet!! You have to buy the pictures because they are just so awesome!!! We bought a package with three 5x7 pictures in the pretty folder/frames and 4 wallet size pictures, we bought a CD with 10 (actually 11 – they give you one free with 10) pictures and we bought the DVD of our session with the dolphin. The total for all of this was $301. The rest of our time at Discovery Cove was also very nice. We got to snorkel and see some really beautiful fish. We skipped the stingray area – we saw a few huge stingrays while we were snorkeling and we already touched and fed them at SeaWorld. We enjoyed the lazy river and some of the beautiful birds. There is a very nice lunch you get as part of your package. You go to the restaurant and choose any entrée, 2 sides, a beverage and a dessert. We did some shopping after lunch. Casey wanted to bring back something for the other 4 kids in our group. She found necklaces for everyone – even a black one with a shark's tooth for the boy. She also found a dolphin necklace with her name (Casey) on it, pencils for school and a shirt. We picked up all of our photos, CD & DVD and decided by 2pm that we were ready to head out. It was a very hot day and we were ready to head by to the hotel. Mears actually sent a taxi for us, since there were only 2 of us! The people at Discovery Cove were very friendly and attentive. They actually came over and asked if I was OK while we were waiting for the taxi. I was very hot and my face was red, so they came over and checked on me. They also brought out 2 nice cold bottles of water for us! We got back to Pop Century just in time – there was a wild thunderstorm about 10 minutes after we got in our room! We relaxed for about an hour and then decided to find out where the others were. My husband, Neal and Mr. C. rented a car and went to Daytona for the day. Steve & Gene took their kids to Kennedy Space Center for the day. I called Lorraine on her cell phone and found out that the 3 other women were shopping at Downtown Disney!! She said the men and kids were not due back until about 7:00-7:30PM. Casey didn't want to meet the women in Downtown Disney because we planned to shop with all the kids the next day. Casey & I decided to head over to the Magic Kingdom, since we didn't get a lot done on our first day. We hopped the bus and got there about 4PM. She wanted to go to the Haunted Mansion first! We walked over and got to see part of Cinderellabration as we walked. We went on the Haunted Mansion with no wait at all. Then we headed over to Fantasyland. We got Fast Passes for Peter Pan Flight – dumb mistake – we didn't look at the return time and it was after 8PM! Now we couldn't get another Fast Pass until almost 7PM! Oh well – we went on It's A Small World – no wait at all! It certainly looks a lot brighter since they painted it! Other than that – it is the same. Next we walked right into Mickey's Philharmagic! This is definitely one of my favorites!! I LOVE Donald Duck – so how could I not love this one! Of course when we came out we went into the store!! I got myself a new shirt – it is Donald and it says "Crabby" – then down the sleeve it says "yet loveable!" I also got 6 Donald Duck pens and a Philharmagic notepad & pen with Donald on them! After this, we went on Snow White's Scary Adventures. There was only a few minute wait for this one. When we came out we went in the gift shop and Casey bought herself a big gold key to the Magic Kingdom. Next we tried to go on The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh – but the line was really long. We couldn't get Fast Passes because of our dumb mistake with Peter Pan. We looked around in the store because we wanted to buy my mom a Pooh shirt. We didn't find anything for her, but I did get a cute hat for my nephew. It is a baseball cap – it is Tigger with ears sticking up and a tail sticking out the back! He'll be 2 in November and he knows Tigger because Casey loves Tigger and she always wears shirts and things with Tigger on them! At this point, we decided to head back to Pop Century. Neal had called to say they were back and he was waiting for us to come back for dinner. The guys and kids should be back around now too. We took the bus back to Pop and Neal met us in the food court with our refillable mugs! The rest of the group was in there eating too! We got our food and sat with them to eat. All of the kids were pretty tired and we knew tomorrow would be another long day. We let all the kids get ice cream and we headed back to the rooms. We hung out together for a little while and then decided it was time for bed! Today was different because we were not together with the whole group – but it was one of my favorite days so far. I will never forget that experience at Discovery Cove with that dolphin.

Well – today we have another Grand Gathering Event to attend! We are going to the Good Morning Gathering Character Breakfast at Tony's Town Square in the Magic Kingdom!! We had originally planned to go to Animal Kingdom today after breakfast, but as we were sitting around talking last night – we decided to spend the day in the Magic Kingdom. Animal Kingdom is really not a favorite (sorry to those who love it) of anyone in the group. We decided that if we have time on Thursday (our open day) we'll go to Animal Kingdom then. So – we all met at the bus stop by 8:00AM and caught a bus to the Magic Kingdom. We were there nice and early so we had our group picture taken in front of the castle. We all wore our matching shirts today. We ordered them through the Magical Gathering link on the Walt Disney World website. They are white t-shirts with the castle and "Magical Gatherings are out of this world!" and "Walt Disney World" on the front of them. The back had all 4 family names and 2005 trip on them. The photographer also took a close-up of the 5 kids holding Tinkerbell in their hands! We headed in to Tony's to check-in for breakfast. Tony was quite a character! He was a lot of fun – teasing the kids and making jokes for the adults and singing and roaming all over the place. He was sort of the host for the whole breakfast. Once we were seated and started to eat he introduced the characters. Pluto, Goofy, Chip and Dale were there. There were only a few other families there besides our group, so we had tons of time with each character. They even spent time with each adult! Tony came over to our table and took Mr. C's hat off and started polishing his bald spot with a cloth! Then a woman with Tony put nice dark lipstick on and kissed Mr. C. right on the head and left big lipstick lips on his bald spot! We all had a good laugh over this! During the entire breakfast I kept thinking Tony looked familiar. I asked the others in the group and a couple of them agreed with me. I kept thinking maybe he was another character we've seen. He got all the kids up with the characters and they we dancing all around the place! They did the chicken dance and the Hokey Pokey! The breakfast itself was very good – baskets of danish on the table when we arrived, juice & coffee delivered as soon as we sat down. The adult traditional breakfast was eggs, sausage, bacon and hashbrowns. They also offered a healthy breakfast that had granola and yogurt and I believe fruit. Nobody at our table went for that one, but it is good to know that it is available if someone wants it. The kids breakfast was Mickey waffles with bacon and/or sausage. When everyone was stuffed and the breakfast was over, Tony escorted us to another room where we had a private photo session with none other than Mickey Mouse himself!! As we were walking out I looked Tony right in the eyes to try one last time to figure out how I knew him. He smiled and whispered to me, "Did you enjoy your cruise the other night?" Then he winked at me and started to laugh! He was Patch – our pirate from the fireworks cruise! Wow – that was awesome!!! To me that was one of those Disney magical moments! When we were finished with our Mickey pictures we headed out and hopped on the train to Frontierland. We all went on Splash Mountain. We walked all the way through to the loading area and only had to wait while they loaded the boats in front of our group. Since there was absolutely no line we figured we'd run (not really run) over to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and see of that had a longer line. We again walked all the way through to the loading area and only had to wait for them to finish loading one train. It pulled out and our train pulled in and we loaded and took off!! We immediately ran around and went on again! By now we we're dried off so we went back and rode Splash Mountain another time. I couldn't believe we got these two popular rides in twice already with just about no wait! We headed off to the Haunted Mansion next. We walked up to the front doors and they opened – again no wait! We went right in and enjoyed the dark, cool break from the heat outside. We decided to brave Fantasyland after this and see how bad the crowds were. We got to Peter Pan and the wait time said 20 minutes. We decided to wait, since all of the wait times have been shorter than what is posted all week. We didn't even wait 15 minutes and we were on. This is another one that we all love. When we came out we went right over to It's A Small World. The time said 5 minutes, but we walked right down to the loading area and only waited about two boat loads before we got on. We really had a ball with all 13 of us in a boat singing that darn song! When we came out we headed over to Mickey's Philharmagic. There was no line outside the building at all, so we walked in. We walked all the way through to where you get your glasses and finally caught up with a crowd of people. The door opened moments later and we all filed in. We got seats right in the middle of a row – the theater was not even close to being full. I absolutely LOVE this one – I think I told you that in yesterday's report! I enjoyed it again – I could watch it over and over!! When we came out we realized that the line for Pooh was very long. My husband, Neal needed a restroom, so he offered to take all the passes and get Fast Passes for Pooh. The rest of us got on line for Snow White's Scary Adventures. We waited a little while for this one – probably about 10 minutes. The posted time said 15 minutes. After Snow White we wandered around until we found Neal. He gave us the Fast Passes and believe it or not the time was only a few minutes away! We looked around in the gift shop and when it was time we all went on The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. When we came off the ride we stopped at Mrs. Potts' Cupboard and got ice cream. Wow – it is some trick to eat an ice cream cone faster than it can melt in that Florida heat!! We went through a pile of napkins! We decided to head over to Adventureland next. By the time we walked there we were all dripping wet and decided that we'd do the Enchanted Tiki Room first so we could sit and cool off. We waited about 5 minutes for the doors to open and were thrilled to get inside and sit down. When we finished the Tiki birds we went over to Pirates of the Caribbean. There was absolutely no wait – we walked right through and all go into one boat together. We all really enjoyed this one as always! When we came off the ride we went right back through and rode again. The two younger kids wanted to go in the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse, so a couple of adults took them over while we rode Pirates again. When we came off the ride the second time, we looked around in the store for a little bit. Casey bought a pirate map and Su bought a shirt. We walked over to Jungle Cruise and met the ones that had just finished the treehouse. We all walked right through and got on the second boat to enjoy the Jungle Cruise. We were stopped at the end waiting to pull up to the dock and boat came up behind us and hit is in the rear. Luckily the CM driving our boat was paying attention and started to move our boat forward when he saw them coming. There was a brand new person driving the boat behind us and this was literally his first time driving alone. He got in serious trouble and they pulled him out of the boat when they got back to the dock. We had decided that after this ride we were going to head to Downtown Disney to shop and have dinner. The kids were all begging to go on Space Mountain one more time. A couple of the adults said they would take them. We let them go and the rest of us headed to Town Square Exposition Hall to see our pictures. We know you can buy them online now – but we wanted to see them now! I was disappointed to find out that they do not put the pictures in the folder/frame anymore. The CM explained that they stopped doing this. They just put your photos in a big cardboard envelope now. If you want to display them at home, you have to buy frames. Anyway – I was thrilled with the picture of the group in front of the castle, so I bought it. They put a "Happiest Celebration On Earth" border around it too. He said that is not available if you buy the pictures online. I also bought the one of the kids holding Tinkerbell and the group with Mickey Mouse. They put "Magical Gatherings Walt Disney World 2005" on the bottom of that picture. This would not be available online either. I was happy that I bought the pictures right there on the spot. The prices are the same online and you have to pay shipping. We all met up in Town Square and headed out of the Magic Kingdom at 5PM. The CM at the front gate told us to take the monorail to the Ticket & Transportation Center and then take a bus to Downtown Disney. When we got to the Ticket & Transportation Center we were told there are not buses to Downtown Disney from there. We had to get on the Resort monorail and take it to the Polynesian. We got off at the Polynesian and went to their bus stop to get a bus to Downtown Disney. So – we wasted a little time – but the kids love riding on the monorail and honestly we were sitting down and it was cool – so it was no big deal. When we arrived in Downtown Disney everyone was starving! We walked straight to the Rainforest Café to see if they could seat all of us. They actually said it would only be a 10 minute wait. Some of the group went to the restroom and I walked over and looked around in the Christmas store for a few minutes. We were seated and had delicious cold drinks in front of is within 15 minutes! We (adults) all got drinks in the light-up souvenir cups. The kids were happy because we let them keep the cups after we had the drinks! We all shopped in the World of Disney store, Pooh Corner, Disney Tails and the Disney's Days of Christmas store. The kids had been waiting to spend their money here all week. Casey and Megan decided that they were going to do scrapbooks, so they both bought the same scrapbook. They got a bunch of stuff for their scrapbooks and they have already been collecting stuff all week. We bought stuff for everyone on our list including our dog! Luckily we still have a few days to go, so we were able to ship it all back to the resort. We went back to Pop Century around 9PM and had a nice relaxing swim before it was off to bed.

Today was Universal Studios day. I was not really looking forward to this day. We spent a day at Universal and Islands of Adventure a few years back and we really didn't enjoy it. We were with people that we were not having a good time with (some of you may have read the blog I wrote about our trip in the motor home) and it rained all day long. I would rather stay in WDW and spend my time and my money there. Neal and Casey really want to go and give Universal another try, plus they wanted to stay with the group. So we all met for breakfast around 7:30AM. We went out to wait for our Mears shuttle about 8:15AM. The shuttle was supposed to pick us up at 8:25AM. We saw a Mears bus pulling away when we walked up and I asked the Disney CM if that was the Universal bus. He said no, that one was going to SeaWorld. So we all stood around waiting. There was another family also waiting for the Universal bus. After about 25 minutes, we asked another CM about the Mears shuttle to Universal. He said that big bus we saw at 8:15 was going to SeaWorld AND Universal!! Well – I was furious – first of all if that was the bus, then it pulled away 10 minutes early – second of all the Disney CM and the other family waiting said the driver definitely told them he was only going to SeaWorld! So, Disney CM ran and made a phone call for us. He confirmed that the bus was indeed the one that was supposed to take us and Mears dispatch didn't know how the mix-up happened. They also told him that we'd all have to wait for the 9:25AM bus at this point. He came back over and told our group and the other family all of this. Then he turned to me and said how many people are in your group? I answered that there were 13 of us. He said you can go now in two taxis (vans) and the cost will be even less than Mears! He even ran across the parking lot and got two checker cab (vans) for us. We split into 2 groups and took off for Universal. I felt bad for the other family, but they couldn't fit in with all of us anyway. I guess they waited for the 9:25 shuttle. We still made it to Universal pretty close to the opening time. We stopped on our way in to make a reservation for dinner at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville. We just started going around the park in a clockwise direction. We did Shrek 4-D which we all enjoyed. Jimmy Neutron's Nicktoon Blast which the kids enjoyed. My daughter, Casey finally got to meet Spongebob Squarepants when we got off this ride. She absolutely loves Spongebob and was very disappointed the last time when she didn't meet him. Next we did Twister and a couple of the kids hated it. I actually thought it was going to be better than it was. After that, some of the group did Revenge of the Mummy. I sat out with my friend, Lorraine, her daughter, Colleen and my daughter, Casey. When the others got off the ride, the two girls and the other woman, Carol said they all hated it! Megan said she was screaming because of all the bugs! I'm glad we didn't go! We skipped a couple of things and the group split up – some went to see the Beetlejuice show and the rest of us went on Jaws! I really wanted to go on Jaws and didn't get a chance the last time – so I was happy. Even though you know it's not real – I still jumped the first time that shark came up on my side of the boat! I thought it was a great ride!! After Jaws and Beetlejuice we all met up by Earthquake. I sat out with the kids that were afraid on Twister, because they thought this one would be the same. I was really hot anyway – so we got a cold drink and sat in the air conditioned waiting room. When they all finished Earthquake we headed over to see Fear Factor Live! My daughter, Casey loves Fear Factor and was really looking forward to this one! We got seats and they started picking kids to help out in the show. One of our kids, Danny (9 years old) got picked!! During the show he had to use a big gun to shoot water and one of the guys doing the challenge. This was a really good show that we all enjoyed – similar to the things they do on the TV show! After Fear Factor, we all went on Men In Black Alien Attack. A couple of the kids we afraid when we were on line, but a really nice man told them it was almost like the Buzz Lightyear ride in Disney – so then they were all excited to go on! It was similar the way you shoot at the aliens and score points, but it was definitely more of a thrill than Buzz Lightyear. You do not control your own car and it spins a lot! It was really fun though and part of the group went on a second time. We all needed a restroom break and a snack or lunch after this ride. We were in one line getting hot dogs and a few others we in line getting pretzels and the rain started coming down!! It poured for at least 15 minutes. When is slowed down we all made a run for it and found a place inside to sit and eat. I can't remember the name of the place – it was like a cafeteria style place and we just sat at the tables and ate. It was over near Back to the Future. After we ate, most of the group went to ride Back to the Future. A couple of the guys stayed put and watched all the backpacks. When we returned from the ride, we all headed over to E.T. Adventure. This one is a lot of fun – kids and adults enjoyed it! We skipped a lot of the other stuff in that section – some of it was for younger kids and none of ours were interested. Most of the group wanted to see Terminator 2. Casey & I had no interest in that one – so we went to the Lucy Tribute. I LOVE Lucy – so I couldn't wait for this one. We spent some time walking through looking at the exhibit and then I bought myself the Lucy & Desi scrapbook. It is really neat – I had seen it in a catalog a while ago. There are great reproductions of old photos and paperwork. I am having a ball going through everything that's in there and I'm learning even more about the lives of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. I took Casey into the Universal Studios Store and she bought herself a Back to the Future t-shirt and some mini postcards for her scrapbook. We met up with the group as they came out of Terminator and it was time to walk to Margaritaville for dinner. We checked in and got seated upstairs in the restaurant. This place was a lot of fun – Jimmy Buffet music playing – big drinks in souvenir glasses – lots of good stuff on the menu – and a HUGE margarita being mixed in the middle of the restaurant. At certain times, they play the Volcano song and everyone claps and screams and the volcano erupts and all the margarita mix runs down into the huge glass! It was pretty cool – the kids got to see it when it happened. We had a nice relaxing dinner after a long, HOT day. We walked out and went straight to the taxi area. I told the guy we had 13 people and he immediately sent 2 vans right over to the curb for us. It actually worked out very well for us. It was just under $30 per van – so it was $120 total for all us of there and back. Mears would have been $14 per person round trip – so 13 people would have been a total of $182. We let the kids swim again – they've sure been enjoying that bowling pin pool! We went to the Hippy Dippy pool once – but the bowling pin pool was closer to our rooms and a lot less crowded. The adults sat and soaked their feet and had a cold beer!

Wow – can't believe it is September! Time flies when you're on vacation! Today was our open day. We decided to let the kids sleep in a little. I woke Casey up at 9AM and we got ready to go to the food court for breakfast. We met the others down there. Steve and Gene were taking their kids to rent little boats at the Downtown Disney marina. Casey & I really wanted to go back to Epcot and do Soarin and Test Track again and try to meet Figment. We got to Epcot about 11AM and headed straight over to Soarin. The line was already 40 minutes long – so we got Fast Passes. The return time was 12:15, so we headed over to see if Figment was out. He wasn't so we walked over to Mouse Gear to look around and cool off a little. We went over to Test Track and it was closed because it had been thundering in the area. We walked back over to see if Figment was out yet and he wasn't. Casey asked for a snack, so we stopped and I got my first Mickey ice cream bar of the trip! We went back and used our Fast Passes to ride Soarin. That is one awesome ride! I could do it over and over!! When we came out of Soarin, Megan called Casey's cell phone to see where we were. They were just coming through the gates at Epcot, so we waited right by Soarin for them. We got Fast Passes for the whole group, because everyone wanted to do this one again! The women and children walked over together to see if Figment was out and he was!! The men went to see if Test Track was open and how long the wait was. We all had a ball meeting Figment – he is really cute! He's much taller than I imagined! We headed to Test Track which was open now. The guys had gotten on the line and were already inside the building when we got there. The stand-by line said 20 minutes, so we got on to wait. It seemed shorter than that to me and when we finished riding the kids all ran around again to ride. We told them to go on the single rider line because the wait was even shorter. When they came off the second time we had to head over to Soarin to use our Fast Passes. We thoroughly enjoyed the ride again and then had to make our way to the monorail. We had a 5:20PM ADR for Chef Mickey's! We took the monorail to the Ticket & Transportation Center and then the Resort monorail to the Contemporary. We were there right after 5PM, so we checked in and waited a few minutes for our tables. We had our group picture taken – it was pretty funny watching the photographer try to fit us all in! He did a great job – we ended up buying one of the packages. By the time the pictures were done, our beeper was going off to tell us our tables were ready. We had a table by the window with a view of the castle! It was a nice place to sit - up a few steps from the buffet area. We got to see each of the characters a couple of times during our meal. The kids had a ball with Donald Duck out in the middle – they were dancing with him and we got lots of pictures. He was SO cute in his chef jacket and apron and hat! Did I tell you how much I love Donald Duck yet?! I even pinched his tail when I walked behind him – he didn't feel it though. The people that saw me do it were cracking up! While we were sitting and eating, someone said what are we doing after dinner. One of the kids (I think mine) said lets go to MGM and do Tower of Terror and Rockin' Roller Coaster! The thought of that at the moment made me sick, but as we sat there I started thinking – tomorrow is our last day and it is really only a ½ day. When we finished dinner I volunteered to take the kids to MGM to do the two rides. Two of the guys came with us and Lorraine brought Colleen to do Star Tours one more time. So – 9 of us headed out to MGM, 2 went back to the hotel and the other 2 went to do more shopping. We were able to ride Tower of Terror with no wait. We rode Rockin' Roller Coaster with a very short wait and the kids chose Tower of Terror for the last ride – so they ran back and made it on one more time. I decided to sit the last one out – one ride on both Tower of Terror and Rockin' Roller Coaster right after dinner was enough for me. Fantasmic was starting while they were on the ride. A Disney CM came up to me while I was waiting and asked me if I'd do a survey. I said I'd be happy to, so I sat and answered a bunch of questions about our trip. As soon as they all came off the ride we walked to the corner of Hollywood Blvd. to meet Lorraine and Colleen. We made it out of the park and to the bus before Fantasmic ended, so we beat the crowds! We had perfect timing too – a bus pulled up as we were walking up to our stop! We got back to Pop and for the last time we hung out by the pool and let the kids swim until around 10PM.

I can't believe this is our last day and an early one too! We got a wake up call for 6AM. We had to get ready and get all of our luggage down by 7:00AM. Neal & Steve went down and borrowed two carts for the luggage. We loaded everything on and headed down to check-in at the Magical Express counter. We got our boarding passes and they took out checked luggage and put tags on them. We left our carry-on bags with the hotel luggage people. We had to catch an early bus to the Magic Kingdom, because we had an ADR for 8:20AM at The Crystal Palace. We made it there in plenty of time and got checked in and seated pretty quickly. We were on the right side as you go in the front door – all the way along the far wall near the buffet area. It was nice and close to the food, but it was not the best place to see the characters. Twice a character came over from the other side of the restaurant and both times, the CM pulled them away to another area before they saw our kids. We seemed to be the last table on our side of the restaurant and at least twice the characters went on their break before they got to us. We did get to see all the characters eventually, but we were literally sitting there waiting for a couple of them after we were done eating and had even paid the bill! We spent more time there than we really wanted to. Our server was making jokes about the union characters needing to take their breaks. When we finally got out of the Crystal Palace we went directly to Splash Mountain. We could not believe that once again there was no wait! We walked right through and got into 2 boats! We enjoyed it so much, that we went on a second time! After our second Splash down, we went over and rode Big Thunder Mountain Railroad – again no wait at all!! I'll tell you - if you can deal with the heat and humidity – this is the time to come!! We all took our time wandering over to Haunted Mansion next. I walked along near the water with the kids and we were lucky enough to see a cute duck with her little baby. We stopped to see them and boy was that mom protective of her baby! We let them be and kept walking to meet up with the others in the group. Haunted Mansion was fun – another one with no wait at all – in fact we had to wait outside for the last few members of our group to catch up before going in. After getting spooked – we went over to It's A Small World. Casey and I skipped this one, because she really wanted to go into the store by Mickey's Philharmagic and buy a CD that she saw there. We got the Happiest Celebration On Earth CD a few days earlier, but she really wanted to buy the Wishes CD. We got that and then we went in through the exit of Small World and waved to our group from the bridge at the end of the ride. The kids all got a kick of our this! We went over to ride Space Mountain, because the kids really wanted that one to be their last ride of the trip! There was no wait at all, so they were able to go on twice in a row! We slowly made our way to Main Street for the last time. It really doesn't matter how many times I come to WDW and even though I know I'm coming back again – I still feel so sad when it is time to leave. As we walked up Main Street there was a show going on with singing and dancing. Some of our group stopped to see it, but my family ran into the candy store to buy fudge. They have really fresh, delicious fudge here and we always get some to take home. We got some Rocky Road for my mom and we got an assortment for our house! We all slowly walked back to the Pop Century bus stop #18 for the last time and waited for our last Disney bus ride back to Pop. We made sure we got back to the hotel early enough to get our carry-on bags and be ready when the Magical Express bus came. We hung out in the food court for a while and made everyone use the restroom. We took our one last look through the gift shop and headed outside to wait. We got picked up promptly at 2:10PM and headed directly to Orlando International Airport. Our flight out was at 5:20PM, so we were there pretty early. We looked around in the stores and sat down for a while. A little before 4PM we went through security and headed towards the gate. Mr. C. set off all the beepers again with his artificial hip and we all watched while they searched him. We got settled by our gate and then a couple of us ran to get Burger King for the kids and any adults that wanted it. While we were eating we were watching the most spectacular lightening out the window in the distance. A few minutes later an announcement was made letting us know that our flight was being delayed due to high winds in Newark, NJ. They originally said we'd take off around 5:45PM, but later changed it to 6:15PM. We we finally able to board around 6PM. We pushed back and moved out to wait. We ended up sitting in the plane until 6:55PM when we finally took off! The flight was pretty smooth – Thank God – because they had warned us that it might be bumpy due to the weather! They even served us little turkey sandwiches, baby carrots and M&M's! The landing in Newark was very smooth – better than the one coming down to Orlando! I was very relieved, because we landed in wind one time and it was absolutely horrible. We landed a few minutes after 9PM, which wasn't too bad considering we were originally supposed to land at 8:10PM. We headed to the baggage claim and had to wait a while for the bags to start coming. I felt panic for a few minutes thinking that maybe Magical Express had messed up and our bags weren't coming. I was happy to see them start coming out and all 14 bags were there! We went right outside and Su called the car company to say that we were out there. Within 5 minutes they pulled up with a van and a stretch limo again! We threw all the bags in the van and the 5 kids and Su got in the limo and the rest of the adults got in the van and we headed to Bergenfield to Lorraine's house. We unloaded the bags and threw ours right in our car. It was now going on 11PM and we were all tired plus we still had a 20 minute ride home from here! We did not even go in the house – we kissed them goodbye in the driveway and hopped in our car to go home. Casey was out cold before we got to the corner. We got home and dragged the bags in and plopped them all in the living room. Casey crawled right into her bed – I'm not even sure if she really woke up to walk in the house! Neal and I crashed and got the best night's sleep we've had in a long time. Boy, did our own bed feel good! It's hard to believe that this trip is over. We all spent over a year planning it and it is all we talked about each time we got together. We had a really great time. We did pretty much everything we wanted to do. We all got along – kids and adults! We only lost one kid! Nobody got hurt or sick. We all came home as friends – as close or closer than we were before the trip. It was really a great trip! I guess the only thing we can do now is remember it. I always feel sad when we come home and somehow even more this time. I think it is because Lorraine and I really waited years to be able to go together. Well – as Neal pointed out to me today – Lorraine and I have annual passes :) In fact, 8 out of the 13 have annual passes – so who knows – we might get back down there before you know it!

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