Thursday December 9, 2004

After a quick shower, I went out to the front doors of Classic Hall and was picked up by LimeGreenCheri's Disney Bus Service. We mad another stop, to pick up Cshore and BetsyAnn, and went to Port Orleans Riverside.

Boatwrights is a wonderful little restaurant in POR, and this was my first time eating there. Our small group staked out a spot just outside the restaurant to wait for everyone else to show up, and as each person arrived I got to deliver my line, "Reports of my absence are greatly exaggerated." I thought it particularly apropos since we were at Riverside.

Breakfast attendees included: LimeGreenCheri, Catyar, SusanL, BetsyAnn, Cinderella & Ronnie, Figgy & Dick, OhMickeyYou'reSoFine, Jimbolini, Topaz, and me. The group had a great time, gabbing and snapping pictures while eating an excellent breakfast. Our waiter, Jorge, not only did a great job of keeping our orders straight and our glasses filled, he also made up separate checks for everybody, which is very difficult for a group of 12. And we found that the mandatory gratuity for groups of 6 or more was not added to out checks. Naturally, we all tipped big and paid the guy a bunch of compliments.

Just about the time Jorge was taking care of our checks, SuzyQ Del dropped by to say hello. They couldn't stay long; I think they had just arrived from the airport and needed to check into the resort, but it was great that they made the extra effort to stop by.

When breakfast was over, I decided to head for the Port Orleans French Quarter. I had never been there, and it had been closed for an extensive room rehab last year, so I wanted to get some pictures, since I was in the neighborhood anyway. Since Sheri's Bus Service was taking a few others back to FQ anyway, I hitched a ride to the FQ lobby and started snapping. I was sure glad I had taken the time to go there, because the Christmas decorations were even better than those at Riverside. I also took some time to explore the grounds a little, and found the New Orleans theming to be beautiful and quite charming. I think I would enjoy a stay at POFQ a lot, and I see what the mass appeal has been among the online Disney community.

I took pics and explored for about a half-hour, then sat down on a bench outside the arcade to write some trip notes. Afterward, I hunted down an ice machine in one of the Guest buildings and filled my Brita bottle with ice and water, then caught a bus to Epcot.

As luck would have it, Mike was behind the wheel when I called, so his lovely wife Carol answered, "Hello Will!" (I love caller ID!)

"Carol," I said, "I'm calling you from in front of Spaceship Earth. DON'T TELL MIKE! I want to meet up with you guys and surprise him. Where are you guys going to be today?"

Doing her best to remain nonchalant and not give me away, Carol replied that they were on their way to the Belz outlets and would be going to MGM afterward; they planned on arriving around 11:30.

"Okay, I'll be waiting inside the MGM turnstiles at 11:30. Tell Mike I had to go back to work and get him to call me back when you arrive at MGM so I'll know you're coming!"

We said our goodbyes and I made my way through Epcot, stopping to ride Mission: Space and Test Track on the way to International Gateway, where I took a Friend Ship launch to MGM. I arrived a few minutes late at around 11:40, hoping that the Scopas hadn't arrived yet, and hurried through the gates to stand in front of the Crossroads info kiosk.

As luck would have it, the Scopas were running late as well, since Carol had to bodily drag Mike out of the Character Warehouse, so it wasn't until about 12:05 that my phone rang.

"Hi Mike. Where are you right now?"

"We're just getting off the parking lot tram at MGM."

Perfect, thought I, they'll be coming through the turnstiles in about 2 minutes.

But they didn't. Mike kept talking about the weather, and the stuff they had seen and experienced since they arrived at WDW on Tuesday; this was typical, since I always grill him mercilessly about every detail when he's there and I'm not. But he wasn't coming into the park. A few minutes later, Carol and Holly appeared before me; I cupped my hand over the phone and said, "Where the heck is he?"

"He's standing at the bag check. He doesn't walk while he's on the phone."

But Mike kept on talking. Carol took the opportunity to snap a picture of me, talking to Mike from only 100 feet away. Normally I hang on every word when he's talking to me from WDW and I'm at home, but this time I was itching to tell him, "Shut up and go into the park!" At one point he even noticed the excessive background noise coming from my end and asked, "Are you in the car?"

"No," I replied, grinning at Carol, "but I am outside!"

After a good ten minute conversation, I finally had to tell him, "Mike, I'm sorry but I've got to hang up. I'll have to call you back in about a half hour, okay?" We said our goodbyes and I replaced my phone in my utility belt.

And STILL he didn't come into the park!

Carol went over to the turnstiles and looked out; she reported that Mike was putting his phone away and adjusting his waist bag. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Mike approached the turnstile and fed it his pass. Carol stood just inside with her camera at the ready, and Mike stopped just inside the turnstile with a cheesy grin and cocked head to pose. But he still didn't see me.

He looked around and spotted Holly, who was standing about 6 inches away from my left arm, and began walking toward her.

But he still didn't see me.

When he got about 10 feet in front of me, I yelled out, "Hey Mike, should I call you back now?!"

The expression on his face was priceless.

I had never met Dawick, whose real name is David, though I had spoken to him on the phone once, and was eager to make a new Disney acquaintance.

We met David and his family at Rosie's All American Cafe, a sidewalk counter-service place with burgers, fries, and other typical counter-service fare. I was hungry by then, so I got a burger and fries, and sat with Carol and Holly, and David and his sister Lauren. The rest of David's family (I think there were about 15 or 20 of them), sat at another table with Mike.

After lunch, we moved as a group to get FastPasses for the Rock and Roller Coaster, then rode the Great Movie Ride. Mike kept pointing out hidden Mickeys as we rode; apparently, there are not only more hidden Mickeys in the ride than I ever knew, but more than I could see.

After the movie, er, ride, er, the movie ride, David, his brother Robert and sister Lauren, Holly, and I all rode Rock and Roller Coaster. I love that ride.

When we finished the coaster, we met the rest of the group in front of the ABC Theater to watch MGM's holiday parade, the Hollywood Holly-day Parade. But first, Mike introduced us to his friend Eldon, whom he described as "the biggest Disney World fan in the world." Eldon tours the parks in an ECV, and is a big pin collector; besides the 7 or 8 lanyards and hat he was wearing, all of which were totally full of pins, he also carried a large collection in the basket of his scooter. We chatted for a few minutes (Eldon's memory seems to be incredible), then moved up the stairs to get a better view of the parade. Mike gave us a great hint: the stairs in front of the ABC Theater are great for parade watching, because there is no observation area on the opposite side of the street, so the characters are always looking at you when they pass.

Though I'm not a parade kind of guy, I enjoyed the Holly-day parade.

I also got spotted by a friend from the Passporter boards, Sandy, who posts under the name whoSEZ. Yeah, she was sitting less than 10 feet from me and I didn't even see her until she shouted at me, but let's not go there.

When the parade was over, I stood around for a while talking to Mike, David, and Robert for a while. About this time my phone rang; it was Cheri. "As soon as you get to Magic Kingdom, call me so you can come get this dadburn tube!" I had left a poster tube in her van, because it was too big to fit in a locker, and she had been carrying it around the park with her all day so she wouldn't have to go back out to get it when I arrived at MK.

Well, I still had some time before I had to be at MK, so I said my goodbyes to Mike and David and headed off to the bus stops. I wanted to go back to Pop for a short rest, before heading to MK for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party. But when I got to the bus stops, I hit a bit of a brick wall: the bus to Pop was full, Full, FULL! Not only was every seat full, but the aisle was full from the back of the bus to the yellow line. It didn't look to me like there was even enough room in there to breathe; it was so full that I thought it was actually dangerous. Come on, people, if the bus takes a turn too fast or stops suddenly, some of those passengers would get to know each other a lot better than they wanted!

I let that bus go.

Waiting for another bus to Pop would take too long; I'd never be able to make it there, take a nap, and get to MK in time for MVMCP. Defeated, I got on a bus for MK instead.

Once I had my wristband, secure in the knowledge that I would not be thrown out of the park when MVMCP started, I made my way to Liberty Tree Tavern, where Cheri and her group were having an early dinner. I called her on the way to find out where they were sitting and was soon collecting that dadburn tube, and meeting a few Taginators that I had never met before, since there were three tables of them having dinner just then.

Since I hadn't been able to go back to Pop for a rest, and I knew that I would be out late that night, I decided to take an in-park sabbatical for the 70 minutes or so until my own dinner reservation at LTT. I sat in one of the rocking chairs on the restaurant's front porch, updated my trip notes, watched people go by, and dozed for a while.

The others in my dinner group began showing up around 6:40 (several more who didn't know I was coming to MouseFest), and we gathered on the porch until the whole group had arrived, since LTT will not seat you until your entire group is present. Our group was 10, and included, Tagrel, PaulF, Trixie, AliciaG, Moley, Darcie, Lady, Tramp, Scamp, and me. But there weren't any tables for 10, so we split the group into two tables, and I wound up sitting with Lady, Tramp, and Scamp.

I had never eaten at LTT before and was very happy with the food, which is simple roast beef, turkey, mashed potatoes, and vegetables. I was not terribly impressed with our server, whom we had to flag down any time we wanted more food, drink refills, or our check. The easiest way to get a good tip from me is to make sure I don't see the bottom of my glass, but this guy let me see the bottom more than I saw the Coke that was supposed to be in it. Oh, well, even at WDW, no restaurant is perfect.

Character interaction, on the other hand, was excellent. We were visited by Pluto, Goofy, Minnie, and Chip and Dale several times each, and they all took the time to pose for multiple pictures at our tables and to play with the kids at the tables around us. We even got two visits from the character manager to make sure the characters were getting around enough.

By the time dinner was over, MVMCP was in full swing outside, so when we had taken care of our checks and a few people made pit stops, the group moved off toward Adventureland, one of 3 locations in the park where Guests were having Christmas photos taken (included with the price of MVMCP admission). Our goal was to get the whole group into one photo, but after we gathered outside and did a headcount we realized that we had a total of 24 people, and the CMs informed us that 8 was the maximum number that could fit in a single shot. We compromised and broke up into 3 groups, figuring that when the photos arrived in a week or so we could digitally stitch them together.

We stood around gabbing for a while after the pictures, and I handed out the WDW aerial maps I had brought in the dadburn poster tube. I only had 10 of them, and I wish I could have brought more.

In a few minutes, though, I started feeling some serious allergy symptoms coming on, and I could tell they were being caused by something in the planters nearby. I coughed and sneezed, and my head ached, so I told everybody I had to get away from the planters, and a few others had similar reactions, so we moved as a group to Tomorrowland to try the new Stitch's Great Escape attraction that had replaced my old favorite, ExTERRORestrial Alien Encounter.

I had been devastated when I heard that Alien Encounter was being replaced by Stitch. AE was my favorite attraction in Tomorrowland. I tried to keep an open mind, but I had read many bad reviews of Stitch's Great Escape since it opened, so I fully expected to hate every second of the attraction. I was contemptuous when I saw how little of the attraction had actually been changed; walls, decor, screens, even the teleporter pods inside were totally unchanged from AE. All of the film clips were new, animated sequences that set up the main show, and the venerable old Simulated Intelligence Robotics (S.I.R., but you may call him Sir) had been transformed into some kind of robot cop.

The main show, as well, was nearly identical to AE, except that the dangerous alien that escapes the teleporter and roams the room is Stitch instead of some nameless winged monster. I thought the Stitch anamatronic was very good, though I might have felt different if it had spit on me, as it did to several other audience members, and the storyline followed AE very closely.

But it wasn't great. It was bland and boring, the story seemed like it was cobbled together quickly, without regard to details, and the portion where Stitch burps chili dog behind your head was uncomfortable and nauseating. And although I did not hate the attraction as much as I expected to, I didn't like it much, either. It's dark, loud, and scary for small kids, which is totally unexpected from an attraction that was recently rehabed ostensibly to make it more kid-friendly. In my opinion, the original AE attraction was gutted and ruined, but the new version is no more kid-friendly than AE, while drawing more kids into it because of the Stitch theming.

After Stitch, which did not get terribly good reviews from any of the group, we moved to Buzz, where I scored a record-high (for me) 334,300. Then the others went to ride the Tomorrowland Transit Authority (TTA), but I had to make a pit stop and refill my water bottle. It was still very hot and very humid, and I was dieing of thirst. I wanted to find a place to get some ice in the bottle on my way to the MK Rose Garden, but the crowds made it impossible to breath, and I found myself getting a bit claustrophobic. I gave up on my search for ice and simply filled my bottle from a nearby drinking fountain, then fought my way through shoulder-to-shoulder crowds in the hub (I believe the first Christmas parade had just finished) to the Rose Garden for my next meet.

As I descended the path toward the pavilion, I saw lots of Passporter, AllEarsNet, and RADP name badges, as well as several AllEarsNet staffers handing out MouseFest pocket guides and buttons. I also caught a glimpse of Jen and Dave Marx, authors of the Passporter guidebooks. Dave and Deb had staked out a prime viewing spot at the bottom of the path and already had a large group of people shaking their hands, hugging, and grinning from ear to ear (no pun intended) at the prospect of meeting these online celebrities. Jen and Dave Marx were similarly surrounded, since along with Deb Wills they are the prime motivating force behind MouseFest.

My camera came up and started clicking away. I ran into a lot of Taginators, and saw a lot of tearful reunions and first-time meetings, and had a few myself. MargaretJ was handing out 100 glow-sticks that she had bought on eBay, Belle's husband Beast was clicking away with his camera, people were laughing and joking and telling stories, and before long the evening blurred for me. I have one very clear recollection, of Figgy looking around herself at this huge crowd of friends whom she had met on the internet and being so overwhelmed that all she could say was, "This is great. This is just so great!" I got a little choked up myself at that.

Soon the lights went down and we all got to watch the fireworks extravaganza Wishes, complete with a holiday extra, a 360-degree finale that blows away any fireworks show I've ever seen. I must have taken 50 pictures during the show, most of which were either too dark to see or blurry from the slow shutter speed, but I did get a few good ones. And afterward I took a few more pics of various groups of people hanging around to gab; even if I didn't know them, I figured I'd take some shots for posterity.

By now I was not only exhausted from getting up at 6:15, but my allergies were really kicking in. I guess I got away from the planters in Adventureland too late, because the allergy symptoms that started over there had been steadily developing since, and I was desperate to get back to my room and take some medication. So when the Tagrel group rallied and headed off to do more attractions, I begged off and made my way out of the park o the bus stops, not even stopping to take more pictures on the way. I did snap one of the Contemporary from the Pop bus stop at MK.

I got back to my room about 11pm and took my medication, but the allergy symptoms kept me awake for another couple of hours, until I finally drifted off sometime between 1 and 2am.