DAY 8 Sunday, July 17
Today was back to the MK by 10am to get FPs for Splash for 10:25. While waiting, my 2 DDs got photos and autographs from Brier Rabbit and Brier Bear. Splash was great. My DW and I hadn’t been on it for a number of years and it was my DDs’ first time on it.
We had a 12:40 for lunch at the Crystal Palace again and were seated fairly quickly. It was great to give my 2 DDs another opportunity to see Pooh and friends. We then got FPs for the Pooh ride, which was a 40 min wait. While waiting, we went to Ariel’s Grotto which had a really long line. It always seems that this line is long. It started to rain so we took the train from Toon Town to Main St. We saw Pluto in front of City Hall and wanted to get pictures and autographs but he went in due to the rain. It poured and we got soaked making a run for the monorail.
After we relaxed at the room, it stopped raining and we walked to the TTC to get on the monorail to EPCOT. We were most fortunate to be able to drive right in the front with the driver, a family first.
When we arrived in EPCOT, we went straight to the Living Seas for Turtle Talk. While we waited on a short line to go in, we watched them demonstrating the diver using the lockout chamber. Turtle Talk with Crush was very entertaining. This is a must-see for anyone visiting the Living Seas. It would be interesting to see it again to see how it changes with a different audience.
After seeing the rest of the Living Seas tanks, and exhibits, I came to the following conclusion. The Nemo theme is too powerful for the place. I often felt like it was put in like a new paintjob, and not part of the original design, however flawed. Maybe
Disney should just go all out with the Nemo stuff and cover over the SeaBase Alpha type stuff. BTW, upon our return, we went to the exit door area where the Hydrolators let you out. The door all the way to the left says CM Only. Well, this door leads you into an area with the same length as the Hydrolators (hint, hint) and then to another door. This second door leads you into the main exhibit area. We just passed on in as we watched everyone get held up going into the Hydrolators to leave. LOL.
After Living Seas, we went towards World Showcase to the McDonalds stand to buy two of the light-up souvenir mugs they wouldn’t let us buy after Illuminations ended. After I paid for two of them, the CM (earning her ears) could only find one even with getting some help. After about 10 min of confusion, they still couldn’t find any. Fuming, I had enough at this point. They still had one on display so I asked if I could just have that one. Still confused, the CM finally returned with the mug. I have two points from all of this. First, I often found many of these vendor stands very disorganized, from not having everything in stock, being out of change, and having cash only (communication problems). Secondly, I found on this trip, more than any other, an awfully large number of CMs that were being trained or were new (“earning their ears”). Not that I have anything at all against a person just starting out on a new job, I truly sympathize with their difficulties, but why in the name of Walt does it have to jeopardize the Disney quality? I think that both of these issues are related and hope that this is not going to become a trend.
After the mug fiasco, we went in search of the all-elusive gold Mickey eared antenna toppers for the Celebration. I previously scoured several shops in the MK, DTD, MGM, and some in AK for them to all be sold out. We finally found them in Mousegears and quickly bought two. For a while, I was hating the idea that I might have to resort to eBay to get one if the parks couldn’t deliver. They are definitely a hot item. I won’t actually use them, I just really wanted one to put in my DW’s china closet full of Disney stuff. If you are going to be in WDW, grab one if you can. They make a great addition to any trip memorabilia that you may have.
After leaving EPCOT, we took the express monorail to the MK around 8:15. Our main reason for going was to get us all embroidered gold ear Mickey hats. When it was our turn, the CM, Ladonna, asked my DD-7 to come behind the counter and help her cut the string to her embroidered hat. Ladonna was a real pro at sewing. I overheard her mention to someone else that she trains other CMs on how to embroider the names.
We were going to leave and say goodbye to the MK since we were leaving in the morning, but my DD-7 wanted to go on the Pooh ride once more. We had to plow through a lot of people to get to Fantasyland via the Starlight Café route since they were lining up for Spectro. On our way, my DW was bumped by someone and lost my DW-5s’s mylar Mickey/Minnie balloon. I was able to backtrack and get another one for her. Pooh was a short line and my DDs were happy they got to ride it again.
After Pooh, we wanted to leave the MK. Here’s where we made the worst strategy mistake of the trip. We thought we would get around the Spectro crowds by taking the train from Toontown, which is relatively close to the Pooh ride, to the Main St Train station. When we got there, however, the train already left for its berth for the night since the MK was closing at 10pm. So we had to go back towards the hub and Main St., to exit through the crowds. Now, mind you, Spectro was going on at 9pm from the Firehouse area and usually lasts until about 9:25-9:30 around the hub. It was now about 9:25 and the hub was absolutely packed with several people deep, and all ways to get out were blocked. When Spectro did finally completely pass the area, everyone in the crowd was still standing there for several moments. It was like they were hypnotized, just staring up at the castle. Now it dawned on me that they were waiting for Wishes to start. But it was only 9:30, not 10:00!! Finally the crowd started to slowly inch forward, but it was kind of scary. Several people were complaining about the gridlock. My DW and I were having a tough time pushing our DDs through with their matching umbrella strollers. I was in the lead with my DW closely behind. A woman in back of me to my right, but out of my sight, started to tell their teenage kid to just push their way in. They were pushing a rented blue stroller into my right ankle, trying to separate my DW and I. I held my ground but they did manage to push my DW out. DW complained a great deal and some of the people around her were getting annoyed at this woman’s behavior also. It took a long long time to get down Main St. Our shortcut through the stores was not even that productive because so many people were shopping, it was difficult to navigate with a stroller.
When we did make it to the train station, we bought our last 2 buckets of popcorn and said our farewells. With the crow levels so high, we were actually happy and relieved to leave. This is not the norm for us, who are always teary-eyed. We love WDW, but I don’t think we would go back in July anymore. Too hot, too crowded, too many South American tour groups (however polite). It’s weird, because, either 9 days is not enough to see what you want, or it’s too much dealing with the heat and the crowds. I would love to stay longer so we have the extra time to get completely away from the crowds and still have more time to see things we missed.
In my next installment, I will highlight DAY 10 – Departure, and our Breakfast at Ohanas.
PiratesFan
