Cast of characters: Me (28 yr female), Mom (56 yrs), Dad (57 yrs)
Disney experience: Tons. We are true Mickey-aniacs. This will be our 6th or so trip in as many years.
Travel: Plane, Magic Express, Disney buses, walking….

11 DAYS AND COUNTING!!!

Hi everyone – after having done two trip reports (located here: http://mousepad.mouseplanet.com/showthread.php?t=114276 and here: http://mousepad.mouseplanet.com/showthread.php?t=99722 if you’re interested), I’ve decided to start this one off with some pre-trip info.

My small family of three (my folks and I – who because of the economy and my home office and lack of attachment to any significant others yet - has allowed me to still live at home) were originally going to go in early December of 2008. We like going when it feels like you have the whole park to yourself. However, due to work schedules we had to postpone the trip and scheduled it for sometime in April of 2009.

Well then I got wind of this really cool offer that most of you probably know about by now – the buy 4 get 3 free deal – and we just couldn’t pass it up. So in mid-December of 2008 we called and rescheduled the trip for late January of 2009. Sure it cost us $300 ($100 each) to change the plane tickets (which were already otherwise paid for) but we’re going during the time when we get an extra $200 as a Disney rewards card so it was OK. Plus, we managed to snag a concierge room and the total (which I believe was around $6000) still came to less than it would have been for the same situation a few months later in the year.

We are opting not to do the Disney Dining Plan, because a) we plan to take serious advantage of the near constant stream of eats in the Innkeepers club that I’ve read so much about, and b) we’re light eaters anyway, and c) We’re going to use our $200 rewards card as well as an extra $250 that we quality for from our own Chase Disney visa card for food, and finally d) we’ve already decided on the restaurants we want to eat at.

So far, the itinerary is as follows:

Saturday morning we leave at 7:00 AM (yawn) from Portland, Oregon to Seattle, Washington. After a 45 minute layover we go direct from Seattle to MCO and are scheduled to arrive at 5:00 PM. By the way, I NEVER used to have any issues flying but ever since 2001 I have uneasiness starting almost two months before even getting on a plane, and I only think to mention it here because its been eating away at me and I feel better letting it out. I hope I’m not the only one, because the other trip reports I read always sum up the plane ride in like a sentence, but to me it’s kind of a big deal and I’m nervous.

Anyway, moving on – we have dinner reservations at Rose & Crown for 8:00 PM which I am hoping is timed perfectly for us to catch illuminations before heading back to the hotel and hitting the hay.

At the moment it escapes me which days we did reservations for these other restaurants, but I know we’ve got lunch at the Canada place (beer cheese soup…. Ah….) – maybe Tuesday? Also dinner at Artist Point – maybe Thursday? And I know we have dinner reservations for 5 PM at the California Grill on Friday timed so we can catch ‘Wishes’, and then head to the evening extra magic hours at EPCOT which we can take full advantage off because we can walk back to our room after and this will wrap up the trip because then we leave at some crazy hour like 5 AM the next morning for home.

My mom and I have been training for a half marathon – thought it was going to be the Princess in March but now probably not. Still, we’re excited to try our hand at jogging around the boardwalk lake and also from Boardwalk to Hollywood.

We’re also looking forward to Toy Story Mania, which I haven’t done yet but have heard lots of good things about. I’m going to try to make sure we get fast passes as early as possible for that, Soarin’, and Expedition Everest.

I’d like to stop by the Grand Floridian to see what kind of info I can drum up on getting married at Mickey, which I plan to do someday. I also want to try and take advantage of the Photopass opportunities, which for some reason we passed by last time. I’ve purchased 10 official Disney pins on EBAY to trade (which is a favorite thing of mine to do because I like to accost the cast members and quiz them). I might even stop by the French pavilion in search of Eddie, the man who doesn’t know I exist but is awfully cute. Oh who am I kidding of course I am going to stop over if nothing else but to gaze. Longingly…. And treat myself to some mousse while I'm at it. Oh. My. Gosh. Amazing stuff.

I want to buy some new perfume while I am there, as well as some authentic English tea and, if I can manage and it’s still avaliable, a limited edition canvas of Kinkade’s Cinderella Castle. I purchased a Pal Mickey last time I was there and will probably bring him along. I also finally caught up with the 21st century and got a Verizon WIFI account for my laptop, all of which I am bringing, so if there’s time and I feel like it I might do trip reports while I’m actually there…

I can’t think of anything else to write, at the moment. I’ll post more I’m sure as we get closer to leaving. :) Thanks all for reading so far!

Have a wonderful trip, OregonGirl!

I look forward to reading all about it. :)

Saturday morning we leave at 7:00 AM (yawn) from Portland, Oregon to Seattle, Washington. After a 45 minute layover we go direct from Seattle to MCO and are scheduled to arrive at 5:00 PM. By the way, I NEVER used to have any issues flying but ever since 2001 I have uneasiness starting almost two months before even getting on a plane, and I only think to mention it here because its been eating away at me and I feel better letting it out. I hope I’m not the only one, because the other trip reports I read always sum up the plane ride in like a sentence, but to me it’s kind of a big deal and I’m nervous.


Raising hand here!!
Um, it took me years to get the courage to just book our WDW vacation (yes because I had to F-L-Y !)
I promised myself that I would take my son (at the time 15) to WDW before his 16th Birthday.As the years ticked by I began to wonder if I would muster up the courage to follow my dream...

My mom passed away in March of 08' and then I lost my best friend (our golden retriever) in June....It was time for a 'happy break'.
I got on the phone with WDTC and booked our trip for Christmas, saving the air for last...(makes me sweat just thinking about it)
All booked and counting down the days (watching that ticker on MP...oh how I hated that ticker!)
After some coaxing from friends I spoke with my Dr. about taking something to help with the anxiety, before, & during the flight. Thank goodness, 'drugs can be good' :)

So... while on the plane,(heading to Orlando) sitting next to my '17' yr old I apologized for being such a baby, he looked at me and said, "Mom, you are the brave one because you are on the plane conquering your fear"!
Did I meet my deadline of taking a 16 year old to WDW..almost.
I conquered my fear and watched as my family enjoyed a wonderful and joyus Christmas at WDW..would I do it again (flying that is)? yes a hundred times yes;)

I share the flying anxiety. I begin to feel ill when I book my flight and it only goes down hill from there. My doctor gives me something for the anxiety also. My poor husband and children have to be responsible for each other, the lugguage and me. Bless their hearts.

I can't wait to read your trip report. Have a fun and safe time.

In 10 days time I will be at the Airport, probably all ready on the plane, and I have knots in my stomach just thinking about it.

Unfortunately, I don't think drugs will work for me. My anxiety has to do with first thinking of people causing problems on the plane (i.e. terrorists - damn them), but then I can calm myself down but truly believing that this is an unlikely scenario and even if something DID happen my dad and I have decided that we wouldn't stand for it and would take action. ;)

But then - and again this is only after 2001, darn it, I move on to thinking about how incredibly high I am in the sky and how I am completely at the mercy of the pilot and the plane itself and how I have absolutely no control over any of it and that gives me a sick feeling. Again, I can usually calm myself down because there are so many flights every day and its probably more dangerous to drive a car or do any number of other things... but I am doing those other things... you know?

Ugh. And for me, IF anything were to happen on the plane I would want to be awake and alert for it. So no drugs. Its worse too because I'm not really worried at all about the lower flying, smaller commuter plane from Portland to Seattle, and so my main anxiety is going to start when I'm not even in my home town, which is added stress in itself. And I don't even like to think about it or type it on here because I don't want to send any vibes of any sort in that direction whatsoever. Yuck. I need to go take a shower now.

But other then that, I am excited about going and I recently decided with a girl friend to travel to Italy for my birthday in August and talk about a long, high plane ride, so I might as well just embrace the upcoming flight and let it pass over me.

KiKid - I see you just got back - I hope you had a great time! Thanks everyone for the comments thus far and I am excited to post our trip report as it unfolds. And no more mention of planes, either.

If you read my trip reports, I'm always talking about how much I HATE to fly. Me too! Me too!!!

I count really slowly to 100, then I'm usually ok. Valium does indeed work--might want to check with the doc. No reason to be a nervous wreck for 12 hours!

Hi Tina (and everyone else reading my posts)!

Seven days to go now, and I am willing myself to relax about the P-Ride. The news yesterday about New York City and the Hudson actually made me feel good cause no one got hurt.

But no more talk about any Ps. :) I am going to perhaps get something soothing for the ride as has been suggested and I'm not going to sweat it. So moving on...

I wanted to post mainly because I forgot to mention earlier that another reason why we are passing on the dining plan is that we're going to use that grocery service that delivers to your room in Florida for some items we'd otherwise buy in the parks. Bottled water being one of the main items. I purchased a camera bag that I reorganized to be my day pack and all my pins are on the outside of it and it fits 2 bottled waters and our park tickets and things nicely inside and hopefully that will keep us from buying any bottled water anywhere and at time. :cool:

I also had a question for anyone that may have stayed at the Boardwalk concierge before - do you know how many concierge specific cast members work that floor and are there DVD players in the room?

We leave in a week and I'm excited!
:D

- Carey

Just looked up the Boardwalk Inn website, deluxe hotel. DVD or DVD/VCR
player seems to be standard in every room.

I'm curious which airline you're using. PDX to Sea-Tac to MCO, pretty cool.
I hope the flight goes smoothly for you, have fun...

Hi, Oregon Girl

I am looking forward to following your trip report. We leave for our trip in about 2 months; and I am also going with my Mom and Dad (I live with them too), taking the direct flight out of Seattle, and staying concierge.

Have a great time!

Hi Kermit! Oregontraveler!

Thanks for looking up the DVD info for me - I was hoping that I would have a way to do my Yoga video each morning. :)

I believe we are flying Horizon Air - they used to have a direct from PDX to MCO an it was either an all day (8 am to 5 pm) or a red eye (9 pm to 6 am) flight and we would take the red eye, but they've since nixed it and so we have to make a stop in Seattle.

It's nice to see another Oregonian in the house! Looks like we'll miss each other by just a few weeks.

Kermit - are you staying at the Boardwalk also? That's been our selected resort for the past several visits to WDW but this is our first on the Inn Keepers club level. I'm really looking forward to it.

safe, safe trip. Hope you don't get too stressed or worry too much! Can't wait to hear your trip report, here's hoping we have great weather and no line ups!

Oregon Girl,

We stayed at the Boardwalk a few years ago and thought is was lovely, but the following year we tried the Beach Club and found our "home".

:) here is what works for me in stressful situtions . i close my eyes & visulize my happy places . past trips to disney, rose & crown pub with my buddies , singing along with pam brody , british invasion , bob jackson , toy story mania , soarn , seeing space ship earth for the first time , seeing cindys castle light up @ xmas , siting in the lobby @ the grand floridian & listening to the piano player & the little band on the 2nd floor , seeing the osborne ligts for the 1st time .oh ! my list is endless you know i wonder why some people think i am strange ? :p

Don't forget.....
Have a 'grand marnier slushy' for me!:p

Have a fantastic trip!!!! (and I hope you find your french hottie hehe);)

One more solid night of sleep and then tomorrow night is get to bed early to wake up at 4 AM to make it to PDX for a 7 AM flight!

Thanks everyone for your kind wishes and comments! I'm getting excited and every time I get nervous about a particular aspect of the trip I just breathe and think about my happy places. :)

And I will most definitely be swinging by the French Pavilion just to see if Eddie is around. I even went shopping just yesterday and when I was trying on tops and deciding if I looked good in them I was picturing bumping into Eddie and striking up a conversation. Of course, its not going to happen that smooth and casual because he never leaves his restaurant greeter post and he's not going to remember or notice me anyways. ::sigh:: at least there's always mousse.

Hugs to everyone and I am looking forward to writing my trip report!

- Carey :D

Hello everyone!

We are back, safe and sound, from Walt Disney World! I am in the process of writing my trip report and hoped to have had it finished by now, but on the last day of the trip I fell ill with some nasty flu and I am still fighting it. I am blaming a coughing, sickly looking kid that rode the bus with us from Animal Kingdom back to our hotel mid-way through our trip, but more on that in my upcoming trip report....

Please stay tuned as I will have an in-depth report soon! :)

Hope you feel better OregonGirl!

Did you get to see Eddie?;)

Sat. Jan 24

In true night before Disney style, none of us three in the family got to bed early or slept very well. Suddenly at a brutal 4:00 AM my cell phone alarm goes off (complete with the female voice of “Wake up, you’re off to Disneyworld!” – did you know you can program your TREO to do that?)

Anyway, so we take showers, grab our bags (which we packed the day before), say goodbye to all our horses, cats and dogs, and drive off to the airport. After the 40 or so minutes we get to PDX, park in economy and catch a bus pretty quickly to the terminal. The line for Alaska Airlines was pretty short and so we check in, drop off our checked baggage, and head towards the tail-end of a terminal I have never been to because its only for hopper flights from PDX to Seattle.

As I mentioned in a previous post, this flight was not one I was too worried about because I could still make out cars and buildings and trees below me – and it was a quick flight. We land in Seattle and hustle all the way to another concourse for our flight to MCO. It’s about 8:00 AM at this point. The flight was long, but uneventful. (Phew!).

We arrive at MCO a little early – around 5:00 PM – and head down to magical express. During this time of day that area is crowded, but the Disney cast members were well organized and soon we were on our bus to the Boardwalk! Oh, I take it back – we stopped at Caribbean Beach first – but that was quick and we were practically the only one’s left after the CB guests filed out.

So we get to the Boardwalk and go over to the check in counter. I wasn’t sure what to expect because we were staying on the concierge level but I wasn’t disappointed. The lady immediately phoned “upstairs” and then escorted us up to the forth floor. We exited the elevator and walked all the way down the hallway until we got to the concierge desk and ‘Michael’ greeted us and checked us in. I was a little disappointed that even though we requested a boardwalk view we ended up with a garden view on the other side of the hall, but the grounds were pretty and we’ve stayed boardwalk view several times before so it’s wasn’t too bad.

After checking and settling in we headed out to Epcot for our 8:00 PM reservations at Rose and Crown. The park seemed really busy (well, just the UK part that we saw), and for the rest of our trip that would prove to be the busiest night at Epcot, which was great for us because we were only in time for food and fireworks.

We got our table at Rose and Crown which was inside, but we discovered that at 15 minutes to 9 PM our server will escort us to a private viewing area for Rose and Crown guests for the fireworks, which worked out really well. So I had to potato and leek soup – very good – and my folks split a cheese and cracker sampler. We ate slowly and managed to head out to the fireworks just before our main course was ready. A great location and view, and after we came in and I had chicken and my mom and dad had bangers and mash.

Even though the restaurant and park closed at 9:00 PM, we didn’t feel rushed at all to get out of there and our waitress had nice conversation until we were ready to go. We strolled leisurely back to our room and drifted off to sleep for our first night at MICKEY!!

TOMORROW – Animal Kingdom and a method to my madness….

PS, I am STILL getting over this darn flu I caught the last day at WDW, so my trip report has been slow coming. Sorry about the wait, everyone, and thanks for being patient and reading!

Sun. Jan 25

Ok, so before I continue I need to explain my park visiting plan. I used trip reports I’ve read, along with info from Anita Answer at allears.net and also the trip planner people to compile several pages worth of data that suggested which parks to visit on which days, as well as who has doing extra magic hours when.

We’re not much for early rising so I assumed we’d be taking advantage of the evening extra magic hours mostly. But today, being a Sunday, was ranked as the second busiest for all parks according to my notes so we decided to start with Animal Kingdom.

According to the timestamp on my camera, we went to the bus stop at 10:13 AM on Sunday to wait for an Animal Kingdom bus. We had pretty good luck with buses this trip (except for typhoid boy, which I will go into later), and so by 10:47 we were at Animal Kingdom and walking through Discovery Island. There is the prettiest purple succulent looking flower with a pineapple leaf base that is just so neat, and grows in Discovery Island, and I am somewhat of a gardener back home but I doubt it would grow in the wet and cold Oregon climate. But I snapped a picture of it, which I why I bring it up.

We headed for Kilimanjaro Safari but there was a 45 minute wait so we grabbed fast passes and took the train to Rafiki’s. We’ve been on a previous trip and I know there is not too much there but we figured why not, we have the time, and so went. We passed paddocks on the way that I don’t remember seeing and walked through and looked at the bugs and snakes and, ugh…

Heading back to the train we saw a sky writer finishing up a “Trust God” in his plane, and it was an absolutely clear day and I had never seen a sky writer before. Nevertheless he was working on the D and the TR were already getting fuzzy and blowing away in a high wind. Oh well. Later on I remember seeing the remains of some insanely long sentence and I couldn’t make out any of it. But he did manage a smiley face.

Ok, so we used our fast passes at KS – it’s 12:14 PM according to my pics logs – and I got some really good elephant pictures. As we got off I saw a cardinal and we don’t have those in Oregon so I managed to get a semi good shot of him. It’s 12:37 PM at this point. We head over to Asia because Expedition Everest is my absolute favorite, and we pick up fast passes because it was a 30 minute wait I think but we wanted lunch. So we head from EE past Nemo (stopping to listen to an African band), and into Dinoland. I know we said we were hungry but we wanted to see the wait for Dinosaur. It was more then I wanted to wait for (30-40 minutes maybe) and I knew that later in the week the opportunity would present itself for us to just walk on (and it did) and so we passed for now and decided to head back to the hotel for lunch and then come back for our fast passes.

We got back to the boardwalk around 1 PM and wanted to check out the Inn Keepers club to see what the ‘afternoon snack’ entailed, but it turned out to be just that – snacks. No protein items and so we went down to the boardwalk and decided on hot dogs from a vendor. I have pictures of the seagulls as we ate.

We must have also gone back to the room to rest because it looks like we don’t get back to the busses until 3:00 PM. Once back at the Animal Kingdom, we rode EE (yes! Always a fave) and then over to Dinosaur. As I suspected, there was no line at all, and we walked right on. A fun ride also but I think I like EE better. After we wandered through the shops and left Animal Kingdom at 5:20 PM.

I don’t have any more pictures from Sunday but I recall we wanted to check out the light dinner offerings from 5-7 at the Inn Keepers club and that did not disappoint. One can – and we did – eat every single dinner here each night and got quite full. Those little PB and J sandwiches they had – Oh. My. Gosh. I know they were probably meant for kids but I couldn’t keep my little mehooks off. So good.

After those little delights we headed back to the room to recharge and check email (I brought my laptop with my Verizon wireless internet card for access), and then headed back to Epcot to catch Illuminations. Always a classic and I for some reason am not remembering where we sat but I am almost positive we did see them that evening because we shared a chocolate mousse at the French Pavilion – which by the way is pure heaven in a cup – and I came to the sad realization after having talked to the UK waitress last night that most of those folks are only at WDW for a few months on an internship. This was undoubtedly the case with Eddie, and sure enough he was no longer the door man for the restaurant. Sob. Oh well, We’ll always have Nov 2007. Sniff. So I didn’t get to see my French hottie, but I hope that where-ever he is, he is happy. Au revoir, chéri

TOMORROW – Epcot and, I guess more Epcot….

the rose & crown is one of my top 5 res. just love the english people . one of my fav all time cast members is miss pam brody in the pub. hope to see her in t-4 working days & counting. :)

Terrific start! Hope you feel better soon...

Looking forward to more...from your fellow Oregonian!

HOLY-COW-AND-A-HALF!!! It has been over 5 months since I posted about this trip. As I think I briefly mentioned in an earlier post, my whole family caught some disease (that I’m pretty sure we caught during our Mickey trip), and it really knocked the life right out of me and then some. Since February I’ve been aware that my half finished trip report was waiting for me, but life/work/construction/etc has just gotten in the way. UP TILL NOW. I am going to finish this report if it kills me, dammit! Besides, just the other day we made reservations to go again this December (whee! I will be starting a new TR thread for that one), and I thought I ought to finish this TR before starting any new threads. So, continuing on….

MON, JAN 26th.

We entered Epcot at about 9:00 AM after stopping at the concierge lounge for what was fast becoming a normal breakfast pit stop for us. We walked through the empty World Showcase piece towards Future World (it’s always fun to see any part of Disney deserted, even if its because that part is closed) over to The Seas. It’s been awhile but I am going off of my billions (almost literally – it’s like a drug with me how many pictures I snap) of photos to help remind me of what we did. Apparently we rode Nemo (which makes sense), which I recall is a fun ride that I enjoy.

Afterwards we looked around in some shops. I have a photo that reminds me that my mom was on some crazed hamster quest to find the perfect 5x7 landscape Mickey frame. Have you ever tried looking for a 5x7 landscape Mickey frame? Oh no my friends – a 5x7 vertical frame there are scads of to be had, but try looking for something that will fit a horizontal photo, and suddenly the world is against you.

I would hazard a guess that our shopping was limited to MouseGears (where I probably bought something, knowing me), because according to my photos our next stop was Test Track. Always a favorite. Oh! And I remember that the lines were a little long, but my dad had these purple ‘front of the line’ tickets we got from doing the backstage EPCOT tour years ago (and I don’t even think they issue these tickets anymore), but we decided to try them out on the cast member in the fast pass line and he seemed to not even bat a second eye at them but instead let us right on through. So even though we had not taken the time to get a fast pass earlier in the day, we still got to take advantage of the fast pass line. Very cool.

Oh jeez, I just noticed that the next picture in my roll is of my dad and I posing inside the Test Track briefing room, and with the flash you can clearly see by pink bra underneath was is apparently more of a see-through knit top than I realized. How embarrassing.

After test track we headed back to our room at the Boardwalk for a mid-day rest break which turned into a daily thing and which I wasn’t always hugely enthused about, but in retrospect it probably helped us all recharge because on most days we would go back into the park and almost always participate in the extra magic hours.

After our rest break we went back into EPCOT and strolled around the world showcase area, just taking in the sights and sounds. I will say that going in mid-January was a little bit busier than I had hoped and so many of the shops and little side streets and attractions that I am used to just walking into were crowded and held us back from enjoying this time around. I guess it’s hard to find any time of the year where you can expect that anymore, but given the supposedly hurting economy I was surprised at how many families were still at Disney World.

We wanted to try whatever that ride is called in the giant golf ball (I am seriously drawing a blank here on the name), because we hadn’t ridden it since the upgrades. I enjoyed it, but there are some things I think I preferred the old way. Unfortunately its been long enough that I can’t quite remember exactly what about the ride bugged me, but something did. It may have been the narration, I dunno. Helpful, aren’t I?

The rest of the day is kind of blank to me. I don’t have any photos to go off of and I honestly can’t recall the exact list of activities we participated in. I don’t think we stayed for Illuminations – my guess is we went back to the Boardwalk, had ‘dinner’ at the inn keepers club, and lounged in the room for the rest of the night.


Tues. JAN 27

For some reason I didn’t take any photos until later in the day, so I’m really not sure what we did in the earlier part of the day. Actually, now that I am going through my photos I think that on Tuesday morning we chose to take a tour of the Disney Vacation Club. We did this for two reasons: 1) At the time they were offering a special of a $100 Disney gift card if you did the presentation, and 2) We were genuinely interested in the idea and had questions.

So after a breakfast at the inn-keepers club (and did I mention we did not do the dining plan in anticipation of food on the concierge level? As it turns out, this was an ideal option for us, as we spend very little on food except for a couple of times when we had reservations at nice food places). Anyway, after breakfast we got picked up by a special Vacation Club van in front of the Boardwalk (we had the whole van to ourselves, very cool), and our driver took us to the ‘flagship’ vacation club resort – Key West.

Now, my dad and are both are not at all interested in high pressure sales pitches and I know time share sellers have a bad rep for doing just that, but the Disney guy we talked to really wasn’t like that at all. On the one hand, you could tell he was hoping we would want to buy, but on the other I didn’t feel pressured or intimidated at all to buy. Although he did through out some pretty amazing discounts available to us because we were a) currently vacationing at WDW, and b) the Bay Lake Towers wasn’t finished yet.

He showed us room layouts of the Animal Kingdom Lodge and BLT, and then took us back to his office for a breakdown on costs and afterwards to an onsite ice cream parlor for free ice cream. I have to say, my whole family liked the idea of the Disney Vacation Club and were very interested in taking advantage of the offer, but it just required a little too much $$, even in a few payments over the next few months, that we could quite bring ourselves to afford. I have no doubts though that when the timing and $$ is right, we are going to get ourselves a membership. And I hope the BLT priority ownership rooms are still free because that would be my first choice.

Ok, so anyway, this takes up a few hours of our time and afterwards our driver (we have a van to ourselves again) can take us anywhere we request to go, but we decide to head back to the Boardwalk for a little rest and lunch snack before heading out again.

I don’t seem to have any pictures until 4:00 PM, and I don’t quite recall what we did, but its entirely possible knowing my parents that we spend a good 3-4 hours back at the room relaxing and whatnot before doing a late night at EPCOT.

Come 4:00 PM we caught the boat from the Boardwalk to EPCOT, and began our nighttime stroll through world showcase, starting at the UK and going clockwise. I only know this because based on my pictures, we stopped just to the left of the American Pavilion to watch illuminations (although I think my camera time stamp for that day might have been off because it says 5:58 PM with a picture of the illuminations globe, which can’t be right…. Hm…). Fabulous as always, although according to my photographic evidence m parents both look a little woofed.  I will try to figure out a way to post the pic so you all can see. Hee hee.

I just remembered that during illuminations, against, my better judgment, I got a sugar coated, chocolate dipped elephant ear (although I think at WDW they are called something else. OH. MY. GOSH. Talk about sweet. And overpowering. And huge. And rich. And all around too much. Even between my mom and dad and I, I think I still threw away some of it. Ew. Not my cup of tea at all.

After illuminations we strolled back to the hotel, and I remember thinking of those signs you see sometimes that say ‘if you lived here, you’d be home by now’, and smiling and thinking that for that particular night, I did live there and I was almost home and it was great. It took all of 15 or so minutes to get back to our room from the park and that’s with stopping at a shop to browse.

AND OH!!!! How could I forget to bring up pin trading until just now!!! For those that have read my previous TRs, you know that I like to pin trade. For those that haven’t --- well, I am a pin trading fanatic. Well maybe not quite that bad but I do really enjoy pin trading. Every time I go to Mickey, I buy about 20 misc. (authentic and official) Disney pins through ebay SPECIFICALLY to trade with cast members once I get there.

I didn’t know it at the time, but for this trip my sought after pins were of Disney felines and specifically MARIE. I have a white, long haired cat named Abigail who looks very similar to Marie and is very much a princess and so I simply had to have Marie pins.

But that’s a side story introduction, because at this point in the trip I hadn’t really starting doing a lot of trading, but almost any chance I had to look at a cast members trading pins (especially the merchant ones), I would take.

COMING SOON (and this time I promise within the next day or so)…. Day three – downtown Disney and more EPCOT…

Thanks for finishing it up (or I should say, Thanks in advance for eventually doing so). LOL! The "golf ball" is Spaceship Earth

Looking forward to the next installment!