Sue Holland - April 2004 - Pop Century Resort

Time of Year: Spring
Travel Method: Personal Car
Resort: PCR
Accommodations: Standard
Ages Represented in Group: Adult
WDW Experience Represented in Group: Veteran
Comments: Sue seems to be only getting short trips in lately (too much time on those cruise ships!), and here she squeezes in another to hook up with fellow trip report writer Larry Wilmot and family on their annual visit from Scotland. Aside from her visits to Comedy Warehouse, this trip will be played by ear according to the whims of her companions.


Sue Holland — April 2004 — Walt Disney World (PCR)

Note: As Sue spent time at Pleasure Island and in other adult venues on this trip, this report has some information that may not be appropriate for young readers.

Who/When/Where:

Who:

Sue (me), DVC member
Leesa, Comedy Warehouse regular
Wilmots from Scotland - Larry, Jill, Greg & Edward
Tom & Leanne, daughter Kim, grandson Chris
Dates: April 2 - 5, 2004
Travel Method: Personal car
Resort: Disney's Pop Century Resort

INTRODUCTION:
At last, the Wilmot clan has returned to Florida for another 2-week trip at WDW. Our friends Tom, Leanne, Kim & Chris booked 4-5 days, but I was only able to get away for the weekend. Originally I planned to come up Saturday and leave Monday, and booked myself into Pop Century for the 4th time. This is my last Pop Century stay for a very long time - I like the resort well enough (except for the parking headache) but I want to get back to the dvc resorts! At the last minute I decided I might as well drive up after work on Friday and Leesa graciously invited me to stay at her place that night. I'm meeting the rest of the gang for our traditional LeCellier meal for lunch on Saturday, so this way I won't have a 3-hour drive ahead of that!

This trip is so short, and really was only scheduled to spend time with the others while Larry is in town, so besides a couple of nights at Comedy Warehouse I plan to play it by ear and see what the others want to do. Unless they'll be doing something I really can't stand, I may spend a bit more time in the parks since I'll be with the others. I do want to stop by and see the new Earl of Sandwich at the Marketplace, and hope to see some local friends, but otherwise don't have any real plans.

The plans (subject to change) so far...

Fri 4/2: Work, Drive to WDW, Comedy Warehouse w/Leesa
Sat 4/3: Check in Pop Century, LeCellier lunch
Sun 4/4: Some park with others, Comedy Warehouse w/Leesa
Mon 4/5: Possibly MK, Drive to Sunrise (FL), Sawgrass Mills Mall

DAY 1 FRIDAY APRIL 2, 2004:

Who: Sue, DVC Member
Leesa, Comedy Warehouse regular
Wilmots from Scotland - Larry, Jill, Greg & Edward
Tom & Leanne, daughter Kim, grandson Chris

Plan: Work, Drive to WDW, Comedy Warehouse w/Leesa

Actual: I worked a full day, partly because I had a lot to do but also because I didn't want to tell my new boss I was leaving early. Luckily traffic wasn't bad and I arrived at PI before 8pm. I called Leesa as I entered WDW property and found her almost ready to order something to eat. I convinced her to wait and share a caprese sandwich with me at the new Earl of Sandwich shop at the Marketplace. The PI parking lot was very busy, but I found the only empty spot over near the Marketplace end and then walked quickly back to meet Leesa outside of PI. After getting my wristband we walked quickly to the Marketplace. Once there I ran into a guy who worked for me as our food service director up until 8 days ago, but we didn't have time to do much more than say a quick hello.

Earl of Sandwich had a long line, just as I feared. At this point we didn't have time to go somewhere else and risk a line there, so we decided Leesa would head back to let them know at CW we were here, and I stayed to order the sandwich. Everything comes wrapped "to go" here, which makes it easier in my opinion. Once I got the sandwich it was after 8:15 - no way would I make it to the back door by 8:20 so I told Leesa to just go in and save me a seat. Sure enough, the back door was already closed, so I went upstairs and got at the end of the very long line going in. Since tonight is Friday night, the back door tends to be somewhat busy with some of the regulars who come out on this night, but tonight it seemed like they all brought a bunch of friends with them - it was mobbed! We sat in Sandwich row, which is right across from long row. The lighting from this angle isn't good for photos, and the actors generally aren't looking in this direction anyway, so I didn't take very many pictures. We ate our caprese sandwich - I thought it was great, but I think Leesa wasn't as thrilled about it. I'd definitely get it again, and I think the 2nd half would be ok eaten later even though it wouldn't be hot (after walking from the Marketplace this one wasn't exactly hot either).

Carol Stein was on the keys tonight, and I spotted my friends Larry, Jill, Tom, Leanne & Kim further back - but didn't have time to go up and visit since I had a half sandwich to eat. The 8:20 cast was Lisa, John, Brian, Matt & Christine. Matt & Christine told a story called Fast Bike, as 2 doctors who gave up driving their cars to save the earth. It went kind of long but it was pretty funny. Madrigal was next, with the tabloid headlines "Wolfman marries J Lo", "Iraqi submarine found in Lake Superior", "Ashton Kutcher gets his belly button pierced" and "President Bush is drinking again."

Actors Nightmare was performed, with it being Brian's nightmare. This was very short, perhaps because the other structures had run long. It was funny while it lasted, though - and this was a good first show. Afterwards we met up with the newly svelte Larry from Scotland and the rest of the entourage. I really enjoy our get-togethers twice a year here - I see Larry more often than I see some friends in this country, lol! Joe very nicely included them all with us at the back door, even though that wasn't our intent since we were a party of 7. It was great getting to sit together for the next show, though - we took sandwich row again since otherwise we would have hogged most of long row.

The 9:15 cast was John, Lisa, Matt, Krista & Christine. They opened with a poem called "I love to jump rope." Emotions was next, with Krista & Matt as coworkers in a lumber mill. Emotions is almost always funny, and we enjoyed it tonight. It moves quickly, and can get downright silly! Lisa sang a spanish song about being tall, and was accompanied by John on a banjo & guitar and Matt on bongo drums. They also did Letters to the Editor, about fossils. Chris was writing to EMS (magazine for paramedics), John was Dave Schwartzenager writing to Muscle Mustang, and Lisa was a drunk Chelsea Clinton writing to Game Pro. Overall this show wasn't as funny as the first, even with Emotions. Krista commented afterwards blaming it on our being seated on the wrong side - if we move back to our seats the next show should be funny <g>.

I agreed to meet Larry & some of the others at 8am at Pop Century tomorrow (egads - coming from Kissimmee that makes for one EARLY morning <g>), then they left. John came over to say hi and we talked to Krista briefly, then Leesa & I headed out to wait about 15 minutes for the next show. The backdoor was still mobbed - usually the Fri night regulars don't stay this late, but they were doing so tonight! We made sure to get in quickly and sit in long row this time, letting some of the others take a different row this time.

The 10:30 cast was Krista, Brian, Philip, Christine & John. When the jerk on the phone said a 4-letter word that isn't allowed, the technicians cut him off and rang the phone in another row. We had drunks earlier in the night - like the guy who kept yelling out "*****" for every emotion and the one who claimed growing up he always dreamed of being a proctologist. Oh well, I guess they think they're funny, even though nobody else does. The cast did a good job with the opening song, and even included a verse about the jerk with the foul mouth.

Most of the rest of the show was Conducted Story, which is another of my favorites. It was called "It came from the couch" and was directed by Krista. John was the first to die - killed by the audience for laughing at his own joke. He died by hockey puck, with Philip helping out as a funny zamboni driver. Brian was next to die, when his piece of the story got just plain weird - in a Mary-like way (starting logical but rambling into something that makes no sense at all but is VERY funny). They didn't buy the idea that when the kid in the story met the local bully who'd stolen her money, her dad was notified immediately by a morse code network of concerned parents. For his death Brian got a lady from the audience to come up on stage. She'd had a fight with her boyfriend and Brian portrayed the boyfriend and died by a bouncy ball. His death was hysterical, and the woman had to check with her boyfriend to see what his name was (they've been together a year - very strange). Brian parodied the boyfriend, who was practically nonverbal & perhaps didn't speak English, and it was really funny.

That left Christine telling the story in the style of a thriller and Philip using the style of religious drama. After a few exchanges Christine was laughing too hard to continue, so she was the third to die. She died by green eye shadow in Dillards. Christine was a customer trying to return the green eye shadow she'd bought for Travis, her drag queen boyfriend. Krista was great as the sales clerk, acting with obvious fake gushing over the customer. Philip kept doing walk-ons as different customers (a norwegian viking asking where they sell the halibut), and Brian was in an out as a flamboyant gay guy who I think also works in the cosmetics dept. John came through a few times as a security officer or cop interested in Krista. It was a great death - lots of fun to watch. After that Philip wrapped up the story. We headed out after that, since I had to be up early in the morning. I had to stop & get gas on the way to Leesa's, and despite trying to call it a night early it was almost 2am before I finished the brief report and checked my mail. I decided against hooking the laptop up to send the report, figuring if Adie can wait until late afternoon then so can I! The alarm is set for 6 am - so it looks like I'll only be napping tonight.

Overall it was a nice evening - I wish I could have gotten here earlier from work, and really shouldn't have stayed up so late. For sure tomorrow will be a much earlier night since I won't have the drive at the end of the evening.

DAY 2 SATURDAY APRIL 3, 2004:

Who: Sue, DVC Member
Wilmots from Scotland - Larry, Jill, Greg & Edward
Tom & Leanne, daughter Kim, grandson Chris

Plan: Check in Pop Century, LeCellier lunch

Actual: I was up at 6, actually waking up a few minutes before the alarm was set to go off. I quietly showered, dressed, made hot chocolate, posted yesterday's trip report, and got ready to leave. By 7:20 I was on the road to WDW, and once at Pop Century there were only 2 people ahead of me in line to check in. Larry arrived while I was finishing the check in process, and soon Jill and the boys arrived from breakfast. My room was ready, which means the resort is not sold out even though it's the weekend before Easter. I asked for a room in the 80's since parking is easiest there, and they put me there in a ground floor room. For 2 nights I didn't really care what floor I'm on. I decided to leave everything in the car for now, and rode with the Wilmots over to All Star Sports.

We exchanged Greg & Edward for Leanne. Tom, Kim and the boys were headed to Epcot, while Larry, Jill, Leanne & I were headed to Celebration for a Disney Liquidation sale. Carole from the DVC boards had notified me about the sale, and the others wanted to check it out. It was basically a garage sale, but it was held inside the school's gymnasium. There was a lot of the same merchandise seen in the outlets, and also lots of non-Disney clothing. Some of it was hideous, but there were some decent things. Everything was 70% off the original price, and we all managed to find at least a bag full of stuff. In my case I picked up some things that can be used as Christmas gifts, and a couple of things for me. The sale continues tomorrow (Sunday).

We drove back to WDW, stopping first at All Star Sports so Leanne could drop her stuff off in her room, then we all rode to Pop Century. The others went to the food court while I moved my car and brought my stuff into the room - meeting back up with them 20 minutes later in the lobby. My room is at the end of the building near the Potato Head family, fairly convenient to the food court building. At 10am the food court was still a zoo! Jill said it's been very crowded during breakfast every day, which won't affect me since I have my biscotti & cappuccino, but it's not too pleasant standing in lines before you even leave the resort!

We drove over and parked at Beach Club Villas, with Larry wearing his "dvc member" lanyard and flashing my member card <g>. A year or two ago someone tried flaming him for parking here but I own points here and know the parking lot is nearly empty during the day - which is when Larry might be parking here. In any event, the flames won't deter us since it's obvious we are not in any danger of taking the last empty parking space. We walked into Epcot and Leanne bought her new annual pass at the International Gateway. Once that was done we entered the park and wandered towards Future World. It was pretty busy for only being 11 am, and when we got to Spaceship Earth the line was much too long for any of us to wait. Instead we decided to ride the boat in Mexico, which not surprisingly was a walk-on. We even had the boat to ourselves, so we were able to carry on a conversation the entire ride without disturbing anyone else. After browsing the merchandise areas we had just enough time to finish walking around World Showcase before meeting the others at LeCellier at noon.

When I booked our priority seating they had to book the 9 of us as a party of 5 and party of 4, but as they have always done in the past our tables were pushed together so we all sat as one group. Service was slow, but the server was very pleasant and we didn't have anywhere we needed to be. As Kim said, she'd rather have a slow pleasant server than an efficient grumpy one, and she's right. I got my usual - the riesling and cheese soup. Several of the others got the steakburger or chicken sandwich, along with soup for some. Edward got the kids' chicken nuggets, which were NOT anything exciting at all. Leanne substituted mashed potatoes for the noodle dish that came with her sandwich - if you've never tried the mashed potatoes here they are excellent! Most of us were too full for any dessert, but Edward & Greg shared a Chocolate Moose. We didn't get out of there until almost 1:45, after arriving at noon.

The boys decided to go to DisneyQuest, and caught the bus from Beach Club. Kim & Tom headed back to All Star Sports, and the rest of us went to the car and drove back to Pop Century. Larry went to the room to work on his mega-masterpiece of a trip report before he forgot whatever jokes we'd thought of so far, and I drove over to the Premium Outlets with Jill & Leanne. We only bothered to visit Character Premiere, and I picked up a couple more Christmas gifts (well, maybe one I'll keep for myself if my niece will be too big for it by December <g>). They had some really cheap Christmas chocolate, which ordinarily I would have snapped up like crazy, but since I'll be on the road for a while yet I figured it would only melt in the car.

We drove back to WDW and dropped Leanne off at the sports ghetto before returning to Pop Century. They have a cm stationed at the entrance to the 70's parking lot asking for your room #. If your room is not in the 2 70's buildings you'll be redirected to your lot. The 70's lot is tiny, and fills quickly. It's also right next to my 80's building, so I imagine many of the cars have historically belonged to people staying in the 80's. Jill went to her room and I went to mine and updated the report. We were due to meet at the bus stop at 5:15 so I had about an hour to relax before then. We must be insane, as we made plans to spend the evening at the Magic Kingdom to see Wishes even though it is a Saturday! However, the park closes at 11pm tonight but is open until midnight starting tomorrow night, so I doubt it will be any less crowded tomorrow. Larry suggested commenting that we're with dvc members, hoping the crowds would part to accommodate us <g>, or announce that I'm a friend of the Voice of Epcot - but somehow I don't think either approach will be very effective <g>! Whatever happens, I'm sure we'll have fun though.

When I arrived at the bus stop a MK bus was waiting. Larry & Jill arrived just in time for us to board that bus, and we arrived at the park by 5:30. We wandered around the art store and Kodak pavilion, then met the others at 6pm. We decided to check the tip board and found the waits were too long for us just about everywhere, and I asked the cm working there about fastpasses to see if there would be any left at specific attractions. Mickey's Philharmagic sounded like a possibility for fastpass so we headed there, only to find the return time would begin at 9:40. Instead of doing that we joined the standby line and got in to the 2nd show after our arrival. It was a full house, and for once people cooperated by moving all the way to the end of the row as instructed. This show is excellent - the best 3D so far, but also lively and fun. Larry was convinced Ariel was flirting with him, and we all humored him in his fascination with the lovely seashell-clad mermaid.

Jill suggested riding Small World, so we did that next. Leanne loves this, but the men call it torture! Both lanes were filled in with people - it's not often there is a wait for this attraction. Larry & I were discussing the fact that our being here tonight made no sense at all, lol, but we knew it would probably be mobbed when we decided to come. People were getting hungry, so we ended up at Cosmic Ray's. There's really nothing there for me, so I ended up with a side order of french fries. We could see Spectromagic passing in the distance, and stayed at our tables relaxing until it the parade passed. Once that was done we went out and found a viewing spot in the rose garden area to watch Wishes.

We had a great view of Tinkerbell, and it was a different experience watching the show from such a close position (vs the top of the train station). Everyone enjoyed the show, and I do think it's the best fireworks show WDW has done yet. Some of the fireworks are really impressive. Less impressive is the awful mob scene leaving. Kim & Chris headed back to Tomorrowland and decided to give the crowds a chance to clear out. The rest of us trudged to the bus stops and waited, and waited, and waited for a damn bus. The buses were running as quickly as they could, but the number of guests to be moved was HUGE. I was further ahead in line, and got on the 3rd Pop Century bus to arrive. Larry's family should have made it on the next bus. I was back in the room shortly after 10, and set to work finishing the report. Tonight we turn the clocks forward, so we lose an hour. For that reason, early entry at MK tomorrow was out of the question <g> as it would have felt like 7am. Instead the thrill riders will meet at MGM at 9 and the wimps will join them at 10. I'll be in the 10am group <g>.

Today was a really nice day, just because of spending the day together with the others. Lunch at LeCellier was terrific, and is a tradition for us. We'll need to make our priority seating for July soon! Even though the MK was mobbed and we didn't do very much, Philharmagic and Wishes were both excellent. I really think the best way to spend an evening at the MK is to do it while staying at the Contemporary so you can avoid the buses, boats & monorail!

DAY 3 SUNDAY APRIL 4, 2004:

Who: Sue, DVC Member
Leesa, Comedy Warehouse regular
Wilmots from Scotland - Larry, Jill, Greg & Edward
Tom & Leanne, daughter Kim, grandson Chris

Plan: Some park with others, Comedy Warehouse w/Leesa

Actual: I slept until just before the alarm at 8am - very late for me, but it was nice for a change. Breakfast was cappucino and biscotti, since I wasn't about to deal with the food court! By 9:30 I was out the door, driving over to MGM. The faux security was a breeze, and the lines weren't bad at the turnstiles at all. I chose to use the turnstile with no line at all, but all the other guests seemed to want to stand in a line and all stuck together <g>. I had a few minutes, so I made a couple of phone calls - one was to Disney reservations seeing if I can come in a night early next time when I'm staying at Port Orleans French Quarter. Unfortunately, they didn't have any rooms but could put me elsewhere for all 3 nights. The only thing is, I specifically wanted to give FQ another try and don't know when I'd be back and not be staying in a dvc resort. I could do a value resort Friday night and then check in to FQ on Saturday as planned, but I'm not sure it's worth it if I have to check in twice! Of course, I know a FQ room won't be ready when I arrive, since they're sold out the night before, so I'd be homeless even coming from home, so I'll have to give it some thought and figure out what I feel like doing.

Everyone but Jill and Edward were on time, and they were only delayed because Tower of Terror was having problems this morning. We decided to get fastpasses for Millionaire and do the Backlot Tour while waiting, but when we got there we saw they hadn't opened the fastpass machines yet. Figuring we could get in on standby to the 2nd show, we headed to Backlot and found a cm just putting up the barricades to say it was closed. It was open for about 10 minutes before closing! We ended up going back to Millionaire after all, and were seated with plenty of time (and several seats) to spare.

After the first question we looked to see how many of us were on the board, and Greg was #1 so he headed down to the hot seat. As he was playing, each time they'd show the scores one of us was in the top spot <g>. He got past the 1000 point level, but then lost before reaching 32,000. He had some tough questions, especially for a non-American! They showed the top scores to get the next person for the hot seat, and it was Larry! He was under pressure to at least get past the 1000 point level so Greg didn't beat him <g>, and he also told everyone that Leanne had written a book - giving her a plug! Actually, her book is a Scottish romance novel - I didn't expect to enjoy it because she billed it as "historical", but I couldn't put it down once I started reading it. The characters are great, and it's nice & smutty, lol! Anyone interested can find an excerpt at leanneburroughs.com.

Larry did well, except for not knowing Visine is eye drops. That was the first question, so he had to use a lifeline right off the bat. If people didn't know he was from Scotland they might have wondered about him! He got past the 1000 but lost on a Golden Girls question before reaching 32,000 points. Just before then, I was in the #1 position but I messed up the Golden Girls answer, and we ran out of time once Larry lost anyway. It would have been funny if he'd lost on the question before, and then I would have been down there - we were seated Greg, Larry next to him, and me next to Larry - all in a row!

We waited while Larry & Greg did their paperwork to pick up their prizes, which will probably end up on ebay soon <g>. We checked the Backlot Tour but it was still closed, so we decided to ride the Great Movie Ride. There was a line outside, but the queue area inside wasn't filled in so we had a short wait. By the time we got seated though, the line was quite long and by the time we got off it had a posted 40 minute wait, so we got lucky with our timing! One thing that irritated me - they were only using the last 2 cars, which stop in the gangster scene. I thought maybe they didn't want to pay a cm to operate the 1st 2 cars as well, but when we got inside they had a cm riding in the empty set of cars! Then I thought maybe the bank explosion effect isn't working, but when we got there I could see the smoke still clearing from the explosion that occurred for the empty cars! It made no sense and was aggravating that the wait was double what it needed to be! We enjoyed our ride, although they were cramming so many people into the row Tom & Leanne were a bit squished. My row had me, Kim and the 3 skinny boys, so we had plenty of room <g>.

We weren't sure what to do next. The park was very busy, as we expected it would be. The tip board wasn't much help, as everything had long waits. We ended up going to Rock N Roller Coaster to get fastpasses for the others, and then Kim suggested eating at 50's Prime Time Café. That's another of "our" places, although there's never really been anything on the menu that isn't too big for me. I figured I'd leave and get a caprese sandwich for lunch & dinner over at Earl of Sandwich, but then decided to go check the menu at Prime Time. Kim had been able to get a 1pm reservation for the 9 of us, and if I could find something on the menu I wanted to stick around for 1 last meal with the gang. To my surprise, they had a new appetizer of fried boursin cheese with raspberry sauce. That sounded just disgusting enough to end up being surprisingly delicious, or I could order the chicken noodle soup and pick out the carrots.

Everyone but Kim & I went to do Sounds Dangerous, and we walked around for the next half hour or so. We could see the construction for the new stunt show, which opens next spring. We thought about doing MuppetVision, but would have been cutting the time too close. We met the others at 50's Prime Time a little before 1, and were seated pretty quickly. Our server was cousin Jimmy and he was a lot of fun. It's so much better when the server gets into the game here! A teen girl on spring break had to sing the teapot song, and another guy had to stand up for a big bite of green beans. We got a lot of scolding for elbows on the table, but didn't have to actually get up to do anything embarrassing. Cousin Jimmy said Tom looked like a messy eater and put an Ariel bib on him. Poor Larry was jealous! A co-worker called me to see if I wanted them to call law enforcement due to an allegation made by 1 of my staff against another (one of my departments works 7 days a week), and based on the players involved I said to go ahead. A credible employee saw a troublesome employee put some food products in her purse, but later that employee opened her purse and there wasn't any in there. Maybe she got rid of it, or maybe the 1st one was mistaken - my money is on it being gotten rid of, but in any event we canceled the call to law enforcement since we knew the evidence wouldn't be there. Oh well, at least they weren't calling me because 1 of them had gone after another with a knife - unfortunately that has happened before.

Our lunch was great - everyone but Ed & I had the fried chicken dinners, with some people sharing a dinner. Ed got a coke float and the peanut butter & jelly sandwich. I had the fried boursin cheese, and to my delight it was absolutely delicious!! It really sounded weird to me, and still does, lol - but all that matters is that it tasted great. I hope it stays on the menu, so I can eat here with these friends another time. A few people shared sundaes or banana splits for dessert, but I was too full for anything. After lunch we split up. Some were going to Beauty & the Beast, some to Rock N Roller Coaster, and I was leaving the park. I might run into Larry & Jill at PI later, since they're planning to visit the Adventurer's Club.

I rode the tram out to the car and drove over to the Marketplace. I mainly wanted to get some pictures at Earl of Sandwich, for a future article, and that didn't take very long. I stopped in Ghiradelli to pick up a container of foil-wrapped chocolate Easter bunnies, but they had sold out earlier in the week! The foil-wrapped leaves I bought last fall are almost gone, so I'll check the Ghiradelli store at Sawgrass Mills for the bunnies and buy them there while I'm on the business portion of this trip. I got the car and returned to Pop Century, and spent the afternoon updating the report and getting online for a while. I did run out for a while to take some photos at some of the All Star resorts for a future article, and that alone made my decision to stick with PO French Quarter next trip. Now I just need to decide if it's worth staying at All Stars for the 1 night before! Patty called and we talked about plans for later today.

Adie IM'd me to say she & Lisa decided to drive over from their Tampa trip to join me at Comedy Warehouse. I hope they don't get caught in horrible construction traffic going home, but at least they're aware of the possibility! I've done the trip to CW from Tampa, and it's bad enough without 35 miles of night construction going on - so I wish them luck!

Around 6:30 or so I headed for the bus stop. Knowing that parking is an absolute nightmare here, and figuring it would also be bad at PI, I decided it was best to use the dreaded Disney transportation. Unfortunately the line was extended beyond the queue area and was back to the Animal Kingdom stop - absolutely ridiculous! Eventually a bus came and I was able to squeeze onto it for the stand-up ride to Downtown Disney. Several others were left standing at the curb to wait ANOTHER 20 minutes for the next bus, so I felt like I was one of the lucky ones! I got off at the Marketplace, which was mobbed. I knew I'd be hungry later and thought a caprese sandwich from Earl of Sandwich would be good - I could eat half now and eat the other half later or for breakfast tomorrow. HA! When I walked in the door and saw the line that completely filled the queue area and ran the length of it again outside the ropes - I figured it would be about an hour before the person at the end of the line would get their food. I wasn't willing to do that! A cm was standing nearby, so I asked what time they would open tomorrow and she said 9am. I asked what time they started serving lunch, and she said right then - if that's what you want. Perhaps I'll swing by on my way out of town tomorrow, unless it's too early.

I browsed in Basin and World of Disney briefly, but it was too crowded for me. The lines at the cash registers were ridiculous, so even if I saw something I wanted I wouldn't have had the patience to wait in line to buy it. I stopped at Pleasure Island to get my wrist band, then walked through PI to get to the West Side. Susan was working outside Comedy Warehouse, so I chatted briefly with her, then continued on my way. I thought about getting a pretzel for dinner, but the line at Wetzel's was out the door. Every place was mobbed, and the West Side was a sea of people. Anyone who can come other times of the year but chooses to be here now is just plain nuts, in my opinion! I guess I fall into that category <g>, but I wouldn't have been here this weekend if not for those blasted Wilmots from Scotland!

While I was walking around I noticed the cars circling the PI parking lots - searching for an empty space. I was glad I left my car at the resort, although I was dreading waiting for a Disney bus later. Leesa called to say her ride was late, so she ended up missing the first show. As I walked past CW I didn't even notice Adie & Lisa until they yelled at me after I walked past them - oops! They started rambling about how they almost didn't recognize me because I'm wearing pants and they've never seen me with my pants on - and it took me a while to realize they were talking about me. I just figured it was some lesbian lovefest they were reminiscing about, but they were simply noticing that instead of shorts I was wearing long pants tonight. Susan let me bring them with me to the back door, so we headed down there to wait for the first show.

A lady in a wheelchair and her friend arrived about the same time as us, and then Karl came out from the break area dressed in the Amil Bleehall character costume from Adventurer's Club. We exchanged greetings but couldn't really talk at all because of the other guests - Karl had to stay in character. Later Jake came outside and introduced me to his dad, and I was finally able to give him some prints I'd ordered from the show he did on Sanibel last December.

The 8:20 cast was Jake, John, Brian, Christine & Joy - with Carol Stein on the keys. They did Fill in the Blank with 2 audience volunteers. John and Joy were a couple looking for his lost rubble ring in the trash can. The scene took place in a major city, and both Brian and Christine played a couple of neighbors. It was quite funny - a great start to the evening. They did Schmeopardy next, hosted by John. Christine was Madge Sorenson, a human resources specialist. Brian was a very spacy Sky Nimbus, a cloud counter. Jake had the most entertaining character - Chester Chalewski, a blacksmith working at a theme park in PA called Dirt Floor America (theme park focused on the era when we had dirt floors in our houses). There were some funny moments, but it wasn't the best Schmeopardy I've seen.

After the show I read my text message from Patty - she was circling the parking lot and hoping to find a parking space before the next show started (she did). Leesa had arrived, so we went outside to join her. Patty arrived shortly after that and I chatted with a guy named John who's worked for Disney since 1955 and was interested in my MousePlanet articles on Comedy Warehouse. He seemed like a nice guy. Soon it was time for the next show!

The 9:15 cast was Philip, Brian, Jake, John & Christine. We also had the displeasure of a row of drunken idiots seated below us on the stools against the back wall on the floor. The actors opened the show with a poem called "Short bread". From there they did Song Cue, with Jake & Brian as a prisoner (Jake) and parole officer whose shoelaces are tied together. They did the reggae song "Goin' to Canada", a bluegrass song called "That's why I'm a parole officer", and an R&B song called "You suck as a bank robber". It was a fun scene. Jake then rang the bell for Should Have Said, with Christine & John as customers in a comedy club. Brian went out into the audience and pretended to be the person on stage, responding to John being drunk & Christine eating popcorn. My description sucks <g>, and to be honest it was weird and I don't think I actually knew what was going on. I just know it was funny but weird! At one point I was showered with popcorn, which was a new experience. I looked back to see where it came from, but it turns out it was the drunken idiots below me - they threw popcorn up into the air and I guess I had my head down writing notes or something and didn't see them. I picked the popcorn out of my hair and cleaned it up off our counter.

The next structure was Scene Freeze, where each actor creates a scene about a certain word, then they rotate between the 4 different scenes. Philip had wife, Christine had math, Jake had brussel sprout and John had supercalifragalisticexpialidocious. It was funny, with the physical positions adding to the humor. They closed the show with an embarrassing story about a guy who went in for a colonoscopy and went to use the bathroom not realizing he was exposed as he walked down the hall. The drunken idiots got up and were performing their own show while the actors were on stage singing the verses they created about the embarrassing story guy. Leesa thought a couple of them were simulating oral sex, but it also looked like maybe they were pretending to give one of them a colonoscopy. Real classy bunch of guys, here on a convention and probably sucking up free booze before coming here. After the show when we went downstairs that entire row was a mess - popcorn was all over the floor (one guy ordered 9 popcorns, for the 9 of them, and when the server brought it 2-3 of them said they didn't want it, so I guess that meant they could toss it around and stomp it into the carpet. There was a pile of ice melting on the counter, dripping onto a couple of stools. I cleaned up the counter before we headed back outside. Jake's dad came back for the next show - he seems like a really nice, friendly guy.

The 10:30 cast was Jake, Mary, Philip, Brian & Joy. They got the cutest couple on the phone and did a good job on the opening song. Most of the rest of the show was Conducted Story, and the story itself was hysterical! It was called "Where's my johnson?" and it was conducted by Joy. It had Richard Simmons with a boat rowing weight-loss program where all the fat people lots lots of inches by rowing around the lake. Much of it made no sense at all, which made it all the funnier. There were a number of times when someone should have died, but the audience was enjoying the story too much to remember to yell DIE! Finally after they could no longer say any word that starts with the letter S, Philip was the first to die. He went very quickly, burning in a hot spring. Jake died next, bringing a guy up on stage who had left his wife at home instead of bringing her on vacation. She was blonde, so they put a blonde wig on the guy and he played his wife. Brian & Philip were the 2 kids, and Jake was her husband - who she killed for not taking her on vacation. Mary died next, and did a rap death by yoyo, accompanied by Philip. I generally can't stand when they do rap, but they both did a nice job with this one. Brian then wrapped up the story in a poem.

After the show I talked to Mary briefly, and had already decided I was sticking around for her next show. Since I've made so many short weekend trips lately, I've not seen many of her shows so I decided to cancel plans for the parks Monday morning in favor of staying for her midnight show tonight and sleeping in tomorrow. Patty headed over to the Adventurer's Club, and Adie & Lisa chatted with Leesa & me outside for a while then left to drive back to Tampa (they're on a business trip there).

The 12:00 cast was Mary, Joy, Philip, Brian & Christine. The music to start the show started too soon - Carol wasn't even at the keyboard yet, so she had to come rushing out to take her seat. It was either a practical joke or a mistake, as it was about 3 minutes too early! Brian wrote a play with the help of the audience, and it was called "Mickey Mouse is riding a harley." Philip was a harley salesman and Mary was a Disney rep buying harleys for a new parade at the MK. At one point she got 2 guys from the front row and introduced them as 2 of the dwarves - Grumpy & Sleazy. They tried out the harleys meant for the Snow White section of the parade, and were good about riding around the stage on these invisible bikes! It was a funny scene, but it would have been more fun if the audience was more responsive. It was a small crowd, and they were a serious bunch.

Up Your Alley was next, about being a stand-in for an actor. Philip was host, as a nun named Sister Mary Judgmental. Chris was a redhead named Beverly Bonaduce, a stand-in for Ann Margaret. Joy was Phyllis Position, and agent who hires stand-ins. Brian was Thad Rock Blickman-Smith, a stand-in for all the hunky big name actors out there. Overall it was kind of slow, with a lot of the credit going to the audience for their lack of response. We talked to Mary again after the show, then we headed out. Leesa waited for her ride, and a friend gave me a ride back to the resort - so I was spared the indefinite wait for a Disney bus (THANK YOU).

I got back to the room and the laptop was still online. I cleared the away message and immediately the trip report vulture (Lisa of Adie & Lisa) IM'd to demand to know where the damn TR was. She told me Adie had set up a webcam in my bathroom and that's how they knew I was back (those girls are trouble - don't let them fool you), although Adie was confused I had gotten back so quickly. Lisa figured out I'd gotten a ride though - guess she's the brains of that couple (sorry, sweetie).

We exchanged barbs back and forth, then I decided what the hell - I might as well write the damn report instead of waiting until I get to Sawgrass tomorrow like I'd told them earlier tonight. So, I finished up & posted the report, finishing before 3am. Looks like it'll be another nap tonight, but I really don't have to get up until 8-9 or so.

Today was mostly a very good day. It was a pain losing an hour last night, and the crowds in the parks and at Downtown Disney are getting tiresome. We had a wonderful time at the Studios though, and although I don't like the Millionaire game it was a lot more fun since the people in the hot seat were my friends! Lunch was fun too, and that boursin cheese thing was such an unexpected surprise - it was delicious. I also enjoyed my last night at the Comedy Warehouse - and spending time with those friends. I wish it wasn't going to be another month before my next trip, but that's the way life is sometimes!

Tomorrow hopefully I'll hit the Earl of Sandwich and then head out to the highway to start a business trip in Miami.

DAY 4 MONDAY MARCH 5, 2004:

Who: Sue, DVC Member

Plan: Possibly MK, Drive to Sunrise (FL), Sawgrass Mills Mall

Actual: I got up around 8:30 and almost immediately the phone starting ringing. It was mostly work, and I just wanted to be left alone - so much for my day off! I'm already leaving without doing anything to drive to Miami, and taking a conference call at 4:15, but the calls this morning were really unavoidable (whine, whine, whine). I made some cappuccino but skipped breakfast. Shortly after 10 I left the room for the last time and drove over to the Marketplace to get a caprese sandwich from Earl of Sandwich.

Parking was easy this early in the morning, and the Marketplace was delightfully uncrowded! I think spending the morning shopping, the afternoon by the pool, and the evening at Comedy Warehouse would be better than fighting the crowds in the parks this week - but the parks are the reason most people visit. I ordered my sandwich, and it seemed to take an awfully long time to be ready considering there were only a couple of customers in the place. I occupied myself looking at maps, since I'd decided to take a different route than what Mapquest had given me. The sandwich was good - I ate what I could and threw away the rest since I didn't think it would be worth saving.

Not sure what time I got on the road, but I hit virtually no traffic and $20 in tolls later I arrived in Sunrise, Florida around 2pm. I got settled into my room right away, watched my soap at 3, did a conference call at 4:15, and then headed to the Sawgrass Mills Outlet Mall - a place I always enjoy.

SUMMARY:

Although this trip was very short, it was full of fun. It's always a good time hanging out with the Wilmots and Burroughs families, and even the heavy crowds in the parks didn't prevent us from having a good time. We had a couple of great meals, did some stuff in the parks together, and of course monopolizing the Millionaire attraction will always be a fun memory! I also enjoyed my time at Comedy Warehouse and seeing all of those friends - looking back it feels like I did an awful lot in only 2 days!

My next trip will be another short one. I'd scheduled a week in the middle of May, but canceled that to do a cruise instead. However, the thought of not being back for 2 months was too unpleasant, so I booked a room at PO French Quarter for May 1st & 2nd. It'll be good to see how that resort looks after the rehab, and I'm hoping I won't hate it like I did on my 2 previous visits (years ago). If so, at least it'll only be 2 nights <g>.

Until next time - thanks for reading.

Sue Holland