[dixie]

Pleeeze Cubby hurry and finish the story- dying to get to the MK part- and David I am so sorry its making you cross reliving the event-once its all out in the air and we are all saying how right you were to be so cross with this rude lady then I am sure you'll find the sharing cathartic......I hope!

[chastmastr]

*pokes cub to post* (in addition to telling him in real life)

[mickeysgirlz]

Come on come on . . . take a break from all that HARD WORK, sit down (in front of computer) and RELAX . . . tell us about MK!! Don't worry we're on your side, we'll cheer you up!!

[chastmastr]

Well, since Cubby hasn't posted, and I'm semi-insomniac at 3:30 AM, here is more...

The night of the beach we went to Macaroni Grill, which was pretty good, as always. No specific conflicts then off the top of my head...

And now, zero hour. No, no, not that Zero Hour, I mean the Monday MK trip.

We woke up... sometime, I no longer recall when. But we were delayed by a couple of things, neither of which have to do with the obnoxious houseguest.

Our lawn people showed up shortly before we were going to go, and their riding mower needed a jumpstart (what would they have done had we not been there? Well, I'd assume they'd use their truck but maybe they didn't have cables?) and then, en route to MK, when we were almost there --

-- we got an increasingly flat tire.

I got the car raised off the ground with the jack in the trunk, but none of us could get the ... lug nuts? I think that's what they're called * -- off the tire. Happily a passer-by at the gas station (when I realized what was happening I headed to the nearest exit rather than get stuck on I-4) got it done the rest of the way.

So, we made it at last to MK, which was open till midnight unexpectedly (allearsnet had said 11), yay hurrah, all was finally going more or less well, still bits of tension re the mother's attitude but nothing really awful (Cubby was realizing his old friend was not too gracious and we were worrying about whether they'd enjoy Disney or not, I think, but the daughter seemed to be, at least). We got on the monorail from the TTC and went to MK.

They didn't seem too ooh-and-ahh about the monorail, as Seattle has one (oh well), but we got to MK all right. Alas, no scooters for me in stock as it was so late, but I had the handy-cane and Cubby had his own scooter. We almost headed right down Main Street toward the castle -- except both visitors wanted to go right into the gift shops. They shopped a little as we inched castle-ward. Again, no oohs and aahs, but again, this was not the Big Conflict, just a little bit of a let-down. Cubby and I were hungry at that point and we all wound up at Casey's Corner where he and I and the daughter ate. The mother did not. This is plot material for later. Remember it. It was a hot but beautiful day.

Honestly, the best thing to come out of this particular trip was how, after our less-happy visit on our own earlier in the month, when we'd worried we were jaded (but mainly it was our health issues, and we are working on those -- just got health-food-store cereal tonight, in fact...), we saw all manner of wonderful, beautiful things at Disney, and were maddeningly baffled that we couldn't get them (especially the mother; the 15-year-old daughter is, well, at the age and of a personality type (she's more Goth than pink, if you see what I mean, which is fine) where she doesn't want to show the kind of vulnerability that oohing and ahhing at Disneyesque stuff requires. She still liked a lot of it, though) to just -- see it! If you see what I mean. I'd think the first glimpse of the castle in a Disney park ever would rate some kind of "wow"... but Cubby and I are always enthused by the egrets and ibises and the cute little ducks and so on, not just all the man-made stuff -- and again I couldn't understand how that wouldn't make them go "wow" either... so our own sense of wonder is, happily, intact, if only reawakened by sharp relief against perceived cynicism.

David
* fulfilling non-mechanically inclined stereotypes since 1997

[chastmastr]

So, at this point the castle show, Dream Along With Mickey, was getting ready to start. We managed to entice them to see it. They mostly liked it though the mother didn't care for the princess part. (I held my tongue here. I'm not wildly enthusiastic about some aspects of the whole "princess" thing either, but I also know that Disney can't exactly retcon the way the stories, movies and songs were done from 1937/1950/etc. Indeed, arguably the characters are less passive than some might suggest, but that's a thesis for another time.) And then off to Fantasyland.

They enjoyed Philharmagic enough, which is good. And then more shopping, alas. We lost them and then found them again, I think.

Then they wanted to get on the teacups. This is where things start to go wrong...

[dixie]

OH David-talk about leaving someone hanging in mid-air!! Hurry to the tea-cups!! (love the background/plot setting too)

[tiggerlover1971]

oh wow we are getting to the good stuff now ... We want to hear it pleassssssssssse .

[dznylvr]

What happened on the teacups!!!!!????

[bethishooked]

Originally Posted by chastmastr

They didn't seem too ooh-and-ahh about the monorail

we saw all manner of wonderful, beautiful things at Disney, and were maddeningly baffled that we couldn't get them (especially the mother; the 15-year-old daughter is, well, at the age and of a personality type (she's more Goth than pink, if you see what I mean, which is fine) where she doesn't want to show the kind of vulnerability that oohing and ahhing at Disneyesque stuff requires.

This is why DH won't let me invite any family or friends to go with us. He's very concerned that they won't see the magic as I do, and that it will incrediably hurt my feelings.

[lovemysons]

Aye aye aye! I can not believe that someone who is a guest, let alone an old friend, would behave that way! I am sorry that you two had to deal with all of that attitude.

None the less, I do want to hear more!

[mickeysgirlz]

Originally Posted by bethishooked

This is why DH won't let me invite any family or friends to go with us. He's very concerned that they won't see the magic as I do, and that it will incrediably hurt my feelings.

So true, when someone doesn't share your passion it's a true downer!


OK SO WHAT HAPPENED ON THE TEACUPS??

[Peppertink]

Originally Posted by chastmastr

David
* fulfilling non-mechanically inclined stereotypes since 1997

So....what happened on the Teacups??? Enjoying your story telling even though there def. seems to be a villain in it. Hmmm...so does that mean there was a dreaded PRINCESS in the mix?

[quakercub]

So, mother and daughter wanted to ride the teacups. No problem. We went there and they got in line. DaddyBear and I chose not to ride, so we found a bench nearby. The smell of the popcorn drew us to the snack cart that was next to our bench, so we got a bucket of that and a Mickey ice cream sandwich and waited for them to be done. The wait time said twenty-five minutes so we figured that plus 5 minutes for the ride. So, we finally relaxed a bit and enjoyed the sun, the snacks and MK by ourselves for a bit.

After the time was up, we went back over to the teacups only to find that mother and daughter had been on the ride and vanished. (hear the ominous rumblings of the "Jaws" theme). We waited at the ride for them to return. After a few minutes, mother showed up and said that daughter was in line for Peter Pan's Flight! Did not occur to either of them to ask if we wanted to go on it apparently (which we would have, btw; it's a favorite)!

Anyway, we walked over to the PPF area and mother started looking for her daughter in the line. When we saw the wait time, we knew we weren't getting in line for it. Mother would not get on it because of a major phobia of heights ("Jaws" music getting a bit louder and faster). We were suffering from too much sun by this time, so DaddyBear and I decided to get on IASMW mostly for the air conditioning. We asked mother to join us and she said, no that she was looking for her daughter in line. She was somewhat irritable at this point, but in that sun I suspected that many people were, so I didn't think anything of it. We got on IASMW and enjoyed it, especially the nice, gentle breeze.

tbc.

[quakercub]

cont'd

After getting off our ride we went back to PPF to discover that daughter had just boarded it. So, mother, DaddyBear and I waited for her over at the smoking area behind Cindy's Castle (mother needed to indulge).

Finally, daughter got off the ride and we headed toward the Jungle Cruise and POC. We went via Liberty Square and stopped outside the Haunted Mansion, which we all rode and enjoyed. It was beginning to get dark by now, and we headed over to Adventure Land via Frontier Land. Daughter had been talking about maybe going on Splash Mountain, but decided against it. So, we moved on toward POC and stopped so DaddyBear could make a quick detour. Mother, daughter and I waited on a bench and were talking about POC. I mentioned (for the second time) that there was a drop on the ride, which the mother had heard before and not reacted to. Suddenly, she got upset and demanded how big the drop was, I told her it was a small drop, only about 14 feet ("Jaws" music getting much louder and faster now!!!!!!!!). "THAT'S NOT A SMALL DROP, DAVID," mother screamed. She then began to whimper softly like the child that she still, unfortunately, is. Daughter put a comforting hand on her shoulder. Mother informed me that she had a fear of heights and, that getting on a three-foot tall ladder was difficult for her. She then sulked for a bit. When DaddyBear got back, we went on the Jungle Cruise, which we all really did enjoy. Next came POC. I stayed off the ride with mother so that she wouldn't have another fit while DaddyBear and daughter rode it. We looked at the gift shop and at other little shops nearby and waited for our riders to return ("Jaws" music begins softly again). Mother mentions getting dinner (not unreasonably, it was getting on to 10 p.m).. The only place still opened at that hour was Cosmic Ray's; unfortunately, the fireworks were starting, making it impossible to get there in a timely fashion.

Guys, I'd love to finish this tonight, but my eyelids are being held open by toothpicks which are beginning to really hurt. More tomorrow without fail.

[Andrea]

Thanks for the update! Looking forward to the grand (ahem) finale!