Part 11
December 12, 2005
Concerning Our Cast:
*Crystal (WDW Poly Princess)- Turning 23 on this trip, my 5th trip to WDW, 3rd solo trip.
*Kiki- Friend from Orlando who makes a cameo appearance as our superhero, Airport Transport Girl.
*Katie- Twenty-something friend who lives just outside of Orlando. We met on an online horse message board about ten years ago, and have been in touch ever since.
*JP- Katie’s brother, who I’ve talked to online for years, but have never met until now.
Mysterious Noises: Thud! Clank clank! Thud!
Me: Huh? That wasn't Mickey calling to wake me up. Humm. Back to sleep.
Mysterious Noises: Thud! Rumble rumble! Thud!
Me: That wasn't Mickey, either! Too tired to get up yet.
Mysterious Noises: Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.
Me: What the heck is that?
Mysterious Noises: Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.
Me: FINE! I'll get up!
As you can tell, this morning did not start well. My room was right by a room marked Cast Members Only, which I can only assume is where the mousekeepers store their stuff, and there were some LOUD noises coming from there early in the morning. I somehow managed to fall back asleep, only to wake up later to a loud beeeeeeeeeeeeeep noise coming from that area as well. At first I was worried it was a smoke alarm or something, but people didn't seem to be fleeing the building, so I decided to get dressed. I finally had to put on my headphones and take my CD player in to the bathroom with me to do my hair and makeup because the constant beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep was so annoying! It went on for at least half an hour! No idea what it was! (Looking back, I have no idea why I didn't call the front desk and tell them about it!)
My plan for today was to meet Katie at Epcot, but since I'd been woken up so early, I had some time to kill. I decided to go over to the Grand Floridian to check out their Christmas decorations, namely the giant gingerbread cake.
I've only walked part of the GF/Poly beach path before now, stopping when I got over by the wedding pavilion. Today I decided it was so nice out that I would just walk from the Poly to the GF instead of taking the monorail, so that I could enjoy the stroll. As I passed the wedding pavilion, there was actually a couple outside by the carriage posing for their wedding photos! Cool!
There are actually people INSIDE the house selling...what else? Gingerbread!
A close-up of the decorations. Yum!
I decided that rather than walking back the way I'd come, I would take the monorail to the TTC so that I could see the Contemporary's decorations, too.
That was a total lie. Actually, once I got to the GF, I realized how stupid I was to have walked when my legs were already tired from the last few days, and I still had a whole day of park walking ahead of me. Oops! Either way, monorail it was!
The trees outside the Contemporary always look so pretty!
The Polynesian from the monorail- great from any view!
I switched to the Epcot monorail at the TTC, and arrived there about 15 minutes before Katie was supposed to meet me, so I grabbed some cheese fries from the Electric Umbrella, which was a perfect way to kill the time, because she showed up right after I finished.
I had been hoping that we could catch some MoRockin and British Invasion shows, but they were BOTH off for the day! Drat! Instead, we decided to hang out in Future World for a while.
We set off for Ice Station Cool, because hey! Who doesn't like free soda? Well, most of the free sodas. While in there, we saw someone fill up a cup with Beverly, and hand it to their grandmother. Some people are just mean!
I had been telling Katie how cool Turtle Talk With Crush was, so we made the Living Seas our next stop. Unlike the other day when the CM had been begging people to come in, there was actually a line today! You know how there's that thing whenever you're standing in line, and EVERYONE seems to pick you to cut in front of to get to the other side of the line? We had one of those days. I guess we were just standing in a high-traffic area, but it seemed like everybody was going through the line (walking in front of us) instead of going around the line. We started joking about it, trying to guess who was going to cut through and who would walk around, and nearly got knocked over by someone in an ECV who cut through the line, too. By this point we were totally cracking up, joking that we should put up a People Crossing sign in front of us that says "Hey! Here's a path through the line!" We were discussing how they really should make some kind of designated path through this area, since the Crush line really was in the way of people trying to get around the pavilion. At this point, a man further up turned around and said "The path has other names, like courtesy." We nodded in agreement and laughed, but then he got angry, asking "You think that was funny?" We were totally confused. I still have no idea what he meant. Poor misunderstood man out there, trying to impart us with his wisdom.
Anyway! Crazy line antics aside, we eventually got in to see Crush, and it was great again! Not as good as the first time I went, but still good.
A dolphin presentation was starting as we got out of Crush, so we went to watch, but there was already a huge crowd. We found a spot to watch for a few minutes, but gave up since we couldn't see anything, and went to see the other fish. We were standing next to the tank of cuttlefish trying to decide what to do next when Katie noticed that one of the fish had fallen in love with me. It was just staring at me through the glass, as if it had just found what it had been looking for its whole life. I, of course, was instantly smitten as well.
Giving the fish smooches
Katie also befriends the fish.
Ellen was closed, and there was nothing else in Future World that sounded good at the time, so we moved on to World Showcase.
The thing I like about Epcot is that if your friends are stupid enough, you can show them your photos and convince them that you’re just back from an around the world trip. However, if you and your friends are even stupider than that, you can have as much fun as Katie and I did. That old World Showcase- It's Something! (I shall now refer you back to the beginning of the trip report when I posted a photo of the rollercoaster t-shirt boasting the slogan "It's something!" This is the day when that becomes one of the phrases of the day)
We decided to check out the tea shop in the UK, and were easily amused by all of the cool tea and accessories. Katie, however, was very confused by the cookies called "Digestives"
Katie: "It's Something!"
We were also big fans of the "Little Miss" books.
We made our way around the UK, and ended up in the little herb garden out behind the tea shop. We were doing the thing where you squeeze the leaf of the herb to be able to smell it, and trying to figure out what they were.
Crystal: Ooh, smell this one. Is that parsley?
Katie: Humm, I don't know.
Crystal: Can we get back into the tea shop through that door?
Katie: I don't know! I'm not a botanist!
(pause) (insert hilarious laughter here)
Apparently Katie's brain was running a few questions behind. That, or you really do have to be a botanist to know about which doors you can go through! Anyway, "Not a Botanist" became a running joke from that point on.
I have no idea what these things are- I'm not a botanist!
What is this thing? I don't know! I'm not a botanist!
Can we get in this door? Don't ask me! I'm not a botanist!
(If you are really clever, you noticed that it is dark in these photos. We didn't think to take any to commemorate the evening at the time, so these were taken later, when we made a special trip back just for photographic purposes.)
After a quick run through the hedge maze near the herb garden, we left our beloved UK behind to continue on through the Showcase. In Japan, I found some adorable sushi dishes printed with monkeys that I wanted to bring home for a friend that loves monkeys, and also a big fat gold Lucky Cat that I wanted. It was the cutest lucky cat ever! It could EAT the Lucky Cats I already had! In fact, it probably got that fat from preying on the tiny lucky cats in the shop.
Beware, little lucky cats! It's behind you!
Either way, I had to have it. However, since I certainly didn't trust myself to carry around two breakable things all day, I took advantage of the "send stuff to your resort" thing for the very first time, and had them sent to PO-R, where I would be checking in later. I even got to try out my (limited!) Japanese with the CM, and was thrilled when she didn't laugh at me. Not to my face, at least.
We walked past America, and considered going in to look around, but decided that "Nah, we've been to America before."
All through the World Showcase, I had been in search of unique chocolate. We had tried some in the UK that billed itself as "bubble chocolate". I had been expecting a sort of mellow version of the pop-rocks effect, but it was really just more like chocolate with holes in it. Not that exciting. However, the chocolate shop in Italy provided much tastier samples (and I was too shy to try out my Italian with those CM's.)
We browsed Germany for German chocolate (and cute male German CM's in leiderhosen), and then moved on to China, where we took the usual photo with Party Buddha. We searched Norway for chocolate (Okay, we were actually looking for cute Norwegian CM's.) and ended up riding the Maelstrom. I love the narrator's accent on that- Norvay! It's something!
We went on El Rio in Mexico just so that I could show Katie the little dancing doll guy that I love. It should be illegal to ride El Rio without trying to copy Dancing Escaped Small World Doll's dance. It mostly consists of making two fists, and pumping your arms up and down, while leaning forwards and back. A good time for all!
By now it was late afternoon, and Katie was starving, so we decided to go check in to Port Orleans Riverside, so Katie could get food, and I could get my room. Amazingly, at check-in, the CM actually let me choose my building! That has never happened before! I knew that I wanted Magnolia Terrace, and I got it! Hooray! We grabbed some food from the food court and walked over to the room, where we spent the next hour or so watching crazy Mexican game show TV (we were hoping for Japanese soap operas, which we had so enjoyed on my last trip, but there was only news on the Japanese channel), and then watched parts of the videos I had filmed so far on my trip. We got a huge kick out of the video I had made in the Polynesian the night before out of sheer boredom. Katie's favorite part is the audible *click* as I run the video camera lens into the glass door when I'm trying to film outside. I am fond of when I say "You can look down there and see the pretty palm trees!" It is home video at it's finest. I would post a clip, but it really is embarrassing, so I'll save what little dignity I have.
So, after we had fed ourselves, and progressed from Spanish TV to Awful Reality Dating Shows, we started discussing whether or not it was too cold to go see Illuminations. We finally came up with the brilliant plan that we would go outside and pretend that we were watching fireworks for a few minutes to see if it really was too cold or not. So, we walked outside, and I hummed the Illuminations music while Katie made impressive fireworks noises. After a minute or two of this, we decided that yes, it really was way too cold for fireworks. We turned around to go back into the room and... oh no! I had the key from the Polynesian in my pocket, but my new PO-R key was back in the room! Doh!
A good quarter mile hike back to the front desk later, I was handed a shiny new key. Hooray, I was saved! So, totally freezing, we walked back to the room to get in. I popped the key in the slot and... Doh! It didn't work! Walked BACK to the front desk, got ANOTHER key (still really cold outside!) and Bingo! This one worked! Well, by now we had already been outside in the cold for at least half an hour, so we decided that going to Illuminations probably wouldn't kill us. I grabbed my PO-R key and we set off for the bus stop. As we were approaching, we saw people boarding a bus. As we got closer, we could see that it was the Epcot bus! The whole key fiasco had set us back in time, so if we were going to catch Illuminations, we NEEDED to be on that bus! We took off at a sprint, tearing down the pathway to the bus. Katie got there before me and asked the bus driver to wait, which luckily he did, since I was still back around the corner out of sight. Whew!
The bus dropped us off at Epcot, and we went to the entrance and... OH NO! I had left my AP back at the hotel! Things were NOT going according to plan tonight. But how can I be expected to remember something like my park pass-- I'm not a botanist! We went up to guest services, where I told the guy at the window, "Hi! I am a HUGE dork, and I left my AP back in my hotel room. Help!?" He laughed and said "Well, that sounds like two different issues, but I can help you with the pass part." He printed me up a new AP, and we were on our way! Guest Relations-- They're Something!
We had around 20 minutes till Illuminations, and I was craving more chocolate mousse from France, so we decided to watch Illuminations from there. I got in the (long!) line at the Boulangerie Patisserie, but Katie decided that she was in the mood for hot chocolate instead, and was pretty sure she had seen some back in the UK, so she went that way to find some. 10 minutes later, I was almost to the checkout of the Boulangerie, and Katie still wasn't back! She finally appeared at the door right as I was coming up to the cash register, and informed me that she had ended up running all the way to China in search of hot chocolate, and couldn't find any anywhere! Of course, at that point I looked over and realized that they had hot chocolate right there in the shop we were in. I added a cup to my order, and we made it outside just in time for the show to start.
Now I've always been a big fan of Illuminations, but Illuminations + Chocolate Mousse is the best combination ever! I got very into it, "conducting" the music with my spoon from the mousse, and eventually claiming that I was using the "Magic Spoon of Power" to set off the fireworks. I'm sure it was just because of the crazy day we'd just had, but it was really funny at the time.
After the regular Illuminations came the “Special Holiday Finale” (It’s something!), which plays, appropriately enough, to a song about Peace on Earth. The conversation went a little like this:
“Aww, that’s really pretty.”
“Very pretty. Yay, peace. Also, yay, chocolate mousse!”
“You know….it’s kind of weird that they use fireworks that look like missiles during a song about peace on Earth.”
“I was just thinking the same thing. It’s like “We really want peace, and we’ll use as much firepower as it takes to get it!”
Fireworks: “BOOM BOOM BOOM!”
“Wow. That was…something.”
“I feel more refreshed than anyone.”
“It’s kind of like “Hey, we have all of these leftover fireworks, let’s just light them all at once!”
After Illuminations, we managed to get lost on our way back to PO-R, and when we finally made it, Katie dropped me off in the parking lot by my building, and we made plans to meet up in the morning for Sea World. I walked over to my room and... you guessed it! The key wouldn't work! One final trip to the front desk for a new key, and then the day was finally over. Even Botanists need their sleep.