Alrighty then. This one will have to be done in parts. So many days, so much to say lol. so let's get started.

Time of Year: August 24 - September 2, 2007
Travel Method: Plane and Rental Car
Resort: All Star Movies
Accommodations: Standard Rooms
Ages Represented in Group: a bunch, see below lol
WDW Experience Represented in Group: Veterans


The Cast:
· Mike (AKA NJ Mike) - 39 Years Old
· Mary (Mike's wife) - 39 Years Old
. Rebecca (Mike's daughter) - 15 Years Old
. Mikey (Mike's Son) - 12 Years Old

. Tom (AKA 91wingnut) - 42 Years Old
. Debbie (Tom's wife) - 40 Years Old
. Tommy (Tom's son) - 12 Years Old
. Justin (Tom's son) - 7 Years Old

Planning: Used Mouseplanet (of course), counted down every day from about the 220 day mark lol, had buget spreadsheets in excel, menus for everywhere we wanted to eat printed out, you name it. Yep, I'm the chronic overplanner lol.

Day One - Friday August 24, 2007.

The alarm was set for 4:30am....I was up and on mouseplanet at 3:30 lol.
We got the bags in the car and headed for good ol' Philly International at about 6:30 and arrived at the Air Tran Curbside at about 6:50. We had printed our boarding passes ahead of time, so we just checked the bags at the curb, and we bypassed the check in desk and went right to security. Tom, since he works at Philadelphia Airport for United Airlines, dropped Debbie and the kids off and took his car down to park at the hangar, and caught a ride up to the terminal with one of his co-workers.

We were through security by 7:15, and I was shocked. Anyone who has been to Philly airport knows the security line nightmares. :rolleyes: So we headed for our gate (which was conveniently located all the way at the far end of the terminal, as far as we could possibly have to walk (the walking starts already lol).

We were met at the gate shortly after by Debbie and the kids, and tom had come up into the terminal using his normal work ID and realized he was on the terminal gates side of security, so he had to grab his boarding pass and go back up through the terminal and go through security.

Ok, we're all set, the gang's all here, we're fired up, we're ready, the plane is supposed to leave at 9:15am. I look out and notice it is a little foggy, has been all morning, but not bad. Then i notice i have seen lots of planes taking off but none landing. Now come's the announcement. Our plane is coming in from Boston, and they had bad weather so the plane will not be in until 10am.

Ok. we sit and wait, still no planes landing, which is odd. At 9:55am, 5 minutes before they said the plane would be there, comes another announcement. Ground stoppage in philadelphia, and the plane will arrive at 11am.

The plane DID arrive at 11am, and we were finally on our way about 11:40 for Orlando. We arrived in Orlando at about 1:45 and we were off to baggage claim. Orlando is a BEAUTIFUL airport. I love it more and more every time we see it. Compared to Philly it's like Comparing a Lamborghini and a Ford Pinto. :rolleyes:

We had both (Tom and I) booked cars through Alamo and had pre-paid (boy is that a great thing), thus bypassing the Alamo Counter. We grabbed the bags, and headed straight to the cars. We were in the cars and on our way out of the airport by 2:15pm.

We had heard a lot of good things about the orlando premium outlets and the disney outlet there, so that is where we headed. The skies opened up on our way out of the airport, and it was a flatout downpour/monsoon by the time we got to the outlets about 20 minutes later.

Just one word about parking at the premium outlets...UNREAL lol. I'm thinking if you get there about, oh i'd say 1:30 am, you may get a parking spot for when the outlets open the next morning lol. We drove round and round, and waited a good 10-15 minutes to find a spot. That being said, we were in for a pleasant surprise.

The disney outlet in the Orlando Premium Outlets is fantastic! They had SO many things marked down, and with Tom and I being big guys, we were happy to find shirts and sweatshirts in 2,3,4, and 5x! When we got back to the room later that day, we had added up the total for the loot we bought lol. My family of 4 had purchased items that normally would total $434. We paid $149.
The deals were great. Examples? hmmmm, we bought a christmas tree topper we had seen online on the disney store website for $30. We got it for $8. They had a Pirate and Princess Party picture frame that was marked originally at $35. We got it for $14.99. We got 3x Disney World tees for $12. It really was a good first stop to make, and we now plan on making it a regular stop on our way from the airport to the hotel each trip.

We grabbed some lunch (late lunch lol) in the food court at the outlets after our mini shopping spree, and watched the rain fall. It was now about 5:15pm and we decided it was time to head for the hotel. The rain was really coming down hard on the way to the hotel, so much so that I really had to slow down because the wipers on full blast couldnt keep up with the rain enough for me to see well.

We arrived at the All star movies, dropped the families, and parked in the check-in lot, and made the mad dash for the awning/door to go check in. Yeah, two fat guys running across the parking lot in the pouring rain, man-boobs bouncing, it wasn't a pretty sight. ;)

A little rain never bothered us, life is good, we're in disney baby. (sound of a record scratching lol) We had requested one of the 101 Dalmations buildings, first floor, facing the courtyard. This would put us between the two pools. We were told the only 2 adjoining rooms they had left...(had left? didnt we make a request earlier? its not like we asked when we got there) were in the toy story building. Now i know, they try to accomodate requests, and its just that a request. But not even ending up in the same section was a surprise. I mean 3rd floor facing away from the courtyard would have been ok lol. So, like always we make the best of it.

We had pre-purchased on the disney website, shirts for us all from the grand gathering's merchandise that they offered. They looked really nice, and we got to add "Parker Family Grand Gathering" on the back. We were told to pick them up in Donald's double feature upon Check-in.

We head to Donald's double feature and the sales girl doesnt have a clue. She gets the manager. The manager then looks at us like we have 3 heads. We cannot be the first family to have ordered these. The manager then proceeds to say "yeah, I think someone bought them Once, and they were in their rooms waiting for them when they got in." Ummm Once??? In a 1900 room hotel, with an item that has been on the website for over a year now. Someone bought them once??? ok, so tom and I decide to head to the rooms to check it out.

We get to the rooms and the first thing we notice is that in Tom's room, there is no fridge, which they requested and NEED for tommy's insulin since he is a diabetic. Ok, we get on the phone to the front desk, and the frridge is on the way. I head into our room, open the adjoining door, and I'm met by the sound of tom turning the lock on his side round, and round, and round lol. He says something I can't repeat here lol, and we're on the phone to the front desk again. The "only" adjoining rooms they had left don't adjoin, the lock is broken and his door cant open lol. During all of this, we had left the families up in the food court to grab some refillable mugs, find a few tables, and grab some dinner for everyone. In case you're wondering, NO shirts in the room, no box. We checked all the drawers, everything, even looked in the showers lol.

So now we head back to the food court, tell the wives we're going to the concierge at the front desk, and find out what is going on. My brother walks up, starts explaining the situation and the girl interrupts "Oh, Mr. Parker, I just saw the package. We had to wait for you to check in, and now the package is being sent to your room". Ok, fine. At this point the wive's had the food, and we decided to sit and eat and then head back to investigate. We sopend a good amount of time in the food court with dinner (come on, look at us lol), and of course we all have to indulge in the first mickey ice cream bar of the trip. By now it's getting later, it's about 9:30pm, and we start cleaning up to head back to the rooms and take the suitcases (which are still in the cars due to the rain) in.

We get the suitcases into the rooms, look around, and notice that the fridge is there, the lock has been fixed (although they left some nice metal shavings on tom's floor), but guess what....No shirts, no box, no anything. Tom and I look at each other...between the delayed flight, the rain, the building change,the fridge, the lock, the shirts...we could laugh or cry. We starting byusting up laughing. Thats all you can do. The boys had all gotten jack sparrow pirate guns in Donald's double feature before dinner. Tom sticks one in the waistband of his shorts, and throws me one and says "come on, let's go".

We leave the rooms with the wive's just shaking their heads and saying "oh boy, here we go." Tom and I get up to the concierge line to see the girl who had "seen" our package. We were met by what we guess is the head of that desk. Nice guy, very well dressed, who informs us "gentleman, the desk closed at 10pm, and it is now 10:05. You will need to stop back tomorrow." Tom says that we need to speak to the woman "right there" for a minute, pointing her out (and she is currently with a customer). He says "i'm sorry but we are closed".

In retrospect, what I am about to say COULD have gotten us in a LOT of troble (dont try this at home, er on vacation). Tom pulls the toy pirate pistol from his waistband, points it at the man, and says "We are not leaving here tonight without the $160 shirt order we paid for, and neither are you." To which the guy laghs (thank god lol), and says ok, ok, let's see what we can do. My brother explains "it has been a very long and trying day" and explains the whole situation to the man. He says he's going over to Donald's double feature and look around. We explain that even the MANAGER of the store doesnt have a clue, and that is what we did first to avoid this whole mess.
The guy comes back 10 minutes later, lo and behold, carrying the box. He apologizes, and opens up the box for us to check them out. They're perfect. We ask him to perhaps clue in the manager that he should expect these over there if that is where they get sent, and he laughs and shakes his head and says "I don't know why he would be unaware, people order these all the time." Wait, all the time? Not just Once? lol The only thing we could figure is that maybe since it was a friday night, we have had the weekend manager on at Donald's Double Feature rather than the full time person, but that was never conveyed to us.

So, we're now all set, we're in the rooms, have the shirts, my brother held a disney concierge at toy gunpoint....life is good. ;) The trip goes MUCH more smoothly from here on out, trust me. ;)

Tomorrow we head for MK. and that is coming in the next post, but for now, my fingers are tired lol. :D

You had me laughing the entire time! I loved it! I can't wait to read more!

Question: When you prepaid with Alamo do you just head straight to the cars and just pick out the one you wanted (obviously the one in the size you booked)? And if you don't mind me asking, what size car did you get and were you able to fit all of your luggage in it?

You had me laughing the entire time! I loved it! I can't wait to read more!

Question: When you prepaid with Alamo do you just head straight to the cars and just pick out the one you wanted (obviously the one in the size you booked)? And if you don't mind me asking, what size car did you get and were you able to fit all of your luggage in it?

Yes, you have to print out the agreement (about 6 pages) and they advise to print 2 copies, one to keep in the car, and the other just took look pretty i guess, because no one needed it lol. Then you just get your luggage and go pick out your car. You hand the agreement(which got handed back in a minute) and the printout with your confirmation, along with your driver's license and credit card you used to pre-pay to the attendant at the booth as you are driving off the alamo section. It was very fast, took all of about 3-4 minutes and we were off.

On our last trip (not this one) we had rented a midsize suv. When we got there we got upgraded for free to a full size suv. The alamo guy told us they only had 5 mid size suv's and they are never available.

ok, given that, what would you do this trip? lol We booked a mid size suv. Well aside from the fact that alamo relocated to the bottom floor since last trip, they also bought a sh....... (oops disny board) Big Load of mid size suv's. No upgrades anymore, but we got what we paid for, no complaints. So we picked out a nice saturn vue, and while we didnt have EXTRA room for luggage left over, we got everything in the back (4 suitcases and 4 carry ons).

Have to say, i really liked the vue in orlando (no pun intended). I had never driven one, and it was really nice. Big enough, but not too big. Hope that helps.



ps. sorry for all the typos in the first post. egad, looks like I need to start using that spellcheck a little more lol.

NJ Mike, what a fun and humerous start to a trip report....but I'm sure the circumstances weren't so funny to you at the time! It sure makes "good read" for us, though. I still have to wait till the beginning of November for my trip, but reading my internet friends trip reports helps the time go by a bit faster. Can't wait for the rest of your report. I hope you can post a pic of THOSE shirts!

I know there are quite a few huge outlet malls in Orlando, but where exactly is the Premium Outlet? Is that the one next to the Shrine and Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede Dinner Show, or is it the one on International Drive?

NJ Mike, what a fun and humerous start to a trip report....but I'm sure the circumstances weren't so funny to you at the time! It sure makes "good read" for us, though. I still have to wait till the beginning of November for my trip, but reading my internet friends trip reports helps the time go by a bit faster. Can't wait for the rest of your report. I hope you can post a pic of THOSE shirts!

I know there are quite a few huge outlet malls in Orlando, but where exactly is the Premium Outlet? Is that the one next to the Shrine and Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede Dinner Show, or is it the one on International Drive?

It's on vineland avenue just off of intl. drive.

heres a link to their website:
http://www.premiumoutlets.com/outlets/directions.asp?id=17

Can't wait for more! OMG -- I'm off to tell my DH and son about the concierge at gunpoint :D

Yeah! Trip report! Great start -- it's like I'm right there with you. Thanks.

I hope you can post a pic of THOSE shirts!

These are the (now infamous) shirts. They also said "Parker Family Grand Gathering" on the back.

PIC (http://mysite.verizon.net/njmnm/Disney_1.jpg)

You Handled Your Self Pretty Well On That Shirt Caper . Sometimes Castmembers Need Some Pixie Dust Even @ Toy Gunpoint

Day Two: Saturday August 25, 2007.

MK, Magical Gatherings Fireworks Cruise.

Yay, our first Mickey wakeup call of the trip came at about 6:30am. We had our kids run up to the food court to refill the mugs and grab some breakfast to bring back to the room while momma and I were getting ready for the parks. This would become a regular thing for us each day, and if your children are at an age (ours are 15 and 12) where they can do this (don't ever send one child alone), it is a real time saver.

The kids brought the food and mugs back and we just ate breakfast in the room and watched the Disney Info channel (with the ever-so-catchy music).

Tom's kids are a little younger (12 and 7) and couldn’t really run up to the food court like ours did, plus they are more the night owls than the early risers, so they stopped on the way out at McDonald’s, which is right outside the gate, and ate. They would leave before us by about 1/2 hour each day, and we would call them on the cell when we were exiting the security gate at the hotel. As I approached McDonald’s he would be looking for my car, and to pull out and would simply pull in front of me and we were off. Worked like clockwork, and this is what we did almost every day.

We did the usual mk routine, parked, hit the tram, and then onto the monorail. This is when it usually hits me. We're on the monorail, and then you see the castle as your traveling around and whamo, it hits. OMG we're back in Disney World! It's the best feeling in the world to me, and that first day in MK (we always start with mk every trip) is a feeling I wouldn’t trade for the world.

We knew we were doing 2 mk days plus a pirate and princess party this trip, so there was no need to rush or try and see it all. Usually we start to the left (*singing* to the left, to the left...oops sorry). But this time we decided to step out of the box lol. We bee-lined for splash mountain. Sure, who doesn’t want to get soaked first thing in the morning? Apparently not many people because it was a straight walk-on. We had fastpassed the ride before going on. We rode splash once, hopped off and rode thunder mountain with only about a 15 minute wait, then came back and used the fastpasses for splash and rode a 2nd time.

We then headed for pirates to pay homage to the hairy leg. We did Pirates, then Jungle cruise, the tiki room, and the flying carpets. By now it was approaching lunchtime and we decided to hit pecos bills.

The heat (well actually the humidity) was real bad. I mean we had a bunch of 90+ degree days here in NJ before we left, it was August after all, but this was much worse lol. Basically after about 1/2 hour outside, you didn’t have to worry about sweating because you weren’t getting any wetter than you already were.

I say this because once we hit the air conditioning of pecos bills, we spent a good hour and a half to 2 hours there having lunch. We needed a break, and I can’t stress enough that if you go this time of year, you need to go at a slower than past trips pace. The food at pecos bills was good, not anything to write home about, but it was a burger and fries, what do you want? lol.

Once we were ready to head out of pecos bills, we looked at our watches and made a realization (cue the spooky music). It was 3:00 and the parade was starting. Given the parade route, we were now trapped in the only section we had already done of the park.

No worries. We weren’t in the mood for the parade since the viewing areas were already packed, so we took a short cut through pecos bills, which made us exit right next to country bears. (pretty nifty little shortcut). We hit the candy shop in frontierland for some Mickey chocolate bars. MMMM Mickey chocolate bars. Yes we just ate lunch, what's your point? lol. I have to say, the dark chocolate Mickey candy bars rock! I'm usually a milk chocolate guy, but I digress.

After our little dessert, if you will, we made our way to the pin store in frontierland to look around. We proceeded to watch a woman lose her ever-loving mind when she saw a pin she wanted on one of the display mannequins and was told they were not available for trade or purchase.
That was fun, albeit brief, entertainment.

The end of the parade was now passing as we exited the pin shop and we let the herd of people pass (as my brother and I stood outside the pin store making mooing sounds lol). After the herd had passed and you could actually have room to walk, we made our way up past the closed (grumble, grumble) haunted mansion to small world. We decided to skip country bears this time, not for any reason, but we decided to just move on. We also skipped hall of presidents, but that was for a reason. We had just eaten lunch, and seeing ol' George W. right after that may have had unpleasant results. :~D (hey, we paid good money for that food lol).

We rode small world, the peter pan line was NUTS (as always, which I still don't get) so we bypassed that, and went to hit philharmagic. Love philharmagic. It's still one of my favorites in all the parks. After Philharmagic we did a little shopping, then hit the carousel (well the kids did lol) They don't have any Clydesdales so tom and I didn't ride.

After the carousel, we noticed the skies were looking a little ominous: PIC. (http://mysite.verizon.net/njmnm/Disney_2.jpg) So we headed for the teacups. We rode the teacups a few times (2 or 3 I forget), and then we were heading for tomorrowland and Buzz Lightyear....Mother Nature had a different plan. Apparently, we didn’t get the memo, or take the hint from the look of the skies.

The skies opened up, and boy did they open up. We managed to be just between the teacups and Cosmic Ray's when the rain started and we ducked into some empty tables next to the bathrooms and the smoothie place right there between the teacups and cosmic rays.

We sat, talked, watched the rain, and wondered the fate of our fireworks cruise. We had to start to leave mk by 7 because we were supposed to be at the contemporary by 8 for the cruise. The rain started about 4:30ish. Well it poured until around 6:45. The rain started letting up (but it was still raining pretty good) and it was pushing 7:00pm. We tried to call guest services from the cell to see if the cruise was cancelled. The park closed at 10, so if the cruise was cancelled, we were just going to grab some ponchos and hit tomorrowland. We were told to head to the contemporary anyway. Ok, no problem. So we headed out of the park at 7ish and made our way down main street to the resorts monorail.

By the time we got into the contemporary, found where to go, and actually got there it was about 7:45.

We were met by a cast member who gave us each a really cool magical fireworks voyage pin, and explained that the reception would start at 8:00 and we were welcome to take a seat in that area to wait. (the reception area was roped off). We grabbed a seat on some real comfy couches and at 8 we were all let in to the reception area. It was great, they had sodas and water for the kids, coffee, little chocolate gold coins, bags of cotton candy, bags of chips, pretzels, and some other stuff lol, which was all included in the purchase price of the cruise. After a few minutes, Captain Hook and Mr. Smee
came in for meet and greets and pictures with everyone. They spent a good long time there (probably 45 minutes) until it was 9pm and time to head for the boats. The rain had let up, and the cruise was on.

The group (probably about 75-100 people or so) was split into two boats, hooks boat and smee's boat. We were on smee's boat. They then led each group through the hotel carrying a big flag (with either hook or smee on it) and of course all the other people in the hotel were looking on as we were creating quite a scene. We made our way down to the docks and boarded our boat (or is it ship? Captain jack would know lol). Our captain was very entertaining, making jokes, singing songs, and handing our trivia prizes as were made our way around the lagoon.

We anchored up the lights went off on the boat, and the music came up. It was incredible the timing of it all. The whole anchor, light, music sequence took about 30 seconds, and it seemed like the fireworks started just because we were now ready. It was quite impressive.

The view from the lagoon was a different one we had never experienced before. It was great. You could see the train station all lit up and the castle behind it. PIC (http://mysite.verizon.net/njmnm/Disney_3.jpg)

The show was fantastic. Wishes "was" (and you'll see later in the report why) my favorite fireworks show ever in WDW. It's really enjoyable, and from the lagoon it was simply magical. If you ever get the chance to take the fireworks cruise, I HIGHLY recommend it.

Upon returning back to the contemporary, everyone had a change for a meet and greet with peter pan. I had read previous reports where sometimes tink was there, and sometimes she wasn’t. This time she wasn’t. (but we'll see her later, as you will find out).

After meeting Pete, we headed up to catch a monorail to the TTC. Now this is when my over active mind kicks into overdrive. I had not thought before this that packed monorails would be stopping at the contemporary coming from the mk, and we wouldn’t be able to get on. A big sense of dread came over me lol. Well, to my surprise, they weren’t bad at all. We all had to stand on the way to the ttc, but so what. I didn’t think we'd have room to get on, but we did and everything was fine.

Since we hit the cars at about 11ish, we knew we couldn’t make the food court at the hotel in time, so we just hit McDonald’s on the way in and ate a very late dinner in the rooms with the adjoining doors open and talking about the day and the next day. A good way to wrap up the night.

The rain kept us from tomorrowland, but we'll have other chances during the trip. We didn’t let it bother us, and it was a great first day.

Tomorrow it's off to Epcot and some SCHOCOLATE MOUSSE! but that is for the next post. ;)

I am so enjoying your report. You and your brother are priceless. Can't wait to read more. Keep it coming.....:)

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Next trip not until 2009 :crying:

Keep it coming!

In Jan we are going with the "8 or more" but I thought all the magical gathering stuff was just another reason for Disney to suck more money out of my pockets... special shirts, special cruises, special meals...Did you really find it worth it to label your party as a magical gathering?

How much does the fireworks cruise cost and how do your purchase tickets?

Just wondering how you ordered the shirts....We're going w/ a Grand Gathering Group in December and I'd like to order them as a surprise for everyone. Thanks.

Just wondering how you ordered the shirts....We're going w/ a Grand Gathering Group in December and I'd like to order them as a surprise for everyone. Thanks.

The shirts can be found here:

http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/wdw/special/magicalgatherings/ggMerchandise

The website says adult s-xxl, but the order form you can print out says they have larger sizes. We got larger sizes, so they are available.

hope that helps. ;)

How much does the fireworks cruise cost and how do your purchase tickets?

Info on the fireworks cruise can be found here:

http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/wdw/special/magicalgatherings/ggSpecialProducts?id=GrandGatheringsSpecialProduct sPage

the website says to call WDW-MAGIC, but if you can also call WDW-PLAN and they will book it for you. Prices are on the website by clicking that link also.

We were supposed to go on a Fireworks cruise back in '03 but they cancelled due to weather. Glad you were able to go. I wish we didn't have to be "8 or more" to enjoy that. I would love to book it as a surprise to my family.

Keep it coming! It's cold here in Jersey (as you most likely know) and I need to think of the Florida heat!

Oh, I should be sleeping as I have to get up in 5 short hours, but I saw that your trip report was up. So much for sleep--get out the Pepsi Max (it really does work, but I digress).

Thanks for your wonderful report and your infectious enthusiasm (infectious in a good way;)). Looking forward to what comes next!

I want to go with you guys on my next trip! You lot sound like a lot of fun! It's also interesting (funny, some might say :) ) that Dubya might make you lose your lunch, but 2 or 3 trips on the teacups would not! LOL! Seriously, when you going down next; I'm in!

Great report so far! You are so entertaining and I feel like we are there with you. We are going in November and staying at the all stars music, this is the first time at a value resort. We have stayed at the Wilderness lodge in the past, but this time we wanted to go but had a much smaller budget. WE don't spend much time in the room anyway so we figured...let's give it a try! How do you like the value resorts?

Keep the report coming! Can't wait for the rest!

Day 3 - Sunday August 26, 2007 : Epcot

The morning started with the usual food court/Mcdonald's runs and we were off to EPCOT.

It was nice to see that they had gotten all of the wand down already. I never liked the wand. The hat I can live with, just move it but keep it. I have to admit though, the severed arm and wand (and also the severed hand with the hat) is a little creepy. Mickey body parts all over the place.

I mean I'm from jersey. It's like a mob hit gone terribly wrong. I always wondered what was next, mickey's severed leg sticking out from under the tree of life???

Last trip, all 8 of us had gotten the leave a legacy tiles done. My 4 had not seen ours yet, so we stopped and found those and took a few pics.

After that it was off to fastpass soarin. It seems everyone has this idea, but i still recommend doing this before anything when you enter the park. We had about an hour wait for the fastpasses (or a 40 minute wait for standby), so we held onto our fastpasses and headed for test track. We rode test track, and then mission space with relatively little wait and still made it back in time for our fastpasses at soarin. After soarin we hit the seas with nemo. The ride was really cute and well done. I dont know if it has tremendous re-rideability (is that a word?). I mean once or twice a trip would be enough for me, but I liked it. We did turtle talk and that was good also, but not as good as last trip. But hey, I guess it depends on the audience.

We spent a good deal of time in the cool, dark, seas as a few members of the family had some potty issues (can I say that in a trip report? more importantly, why would i? oh well it's done now lol). So, after everyone was feeling better we looked around the seas a bit, then made our way over toward electric umbrella and grabbed some lunch. It was real hot out now and we decided to take a break.

After lunch we probably spent a good hour or more looking through mouse gear (i LOVE that store).We made our way up toward world showcase and of course did MORE shopping at the shops right there by the lagoon.

Now, bear with me, i saw a cloud and *I* saw Mickey Mouse, so i took a picture. My family thinks I'm nuts, but i'll let you be the judge. I think this pic looks like mickey is laying on his side facing us. Nobody else saw it. Here is the pic, tell me what you see. PIC (http://mysite.verizon.net/njmnm/Disney_4.jpg)

Speaking of clouds....I think I should draw attention to the skies in general at this point. We had exited the shops and decided to take the water taxi (on the mexico side) to germany. As we were waiting for the boat to arrive, THIS IS WHAT WE SAW. (http://mysite.verizon.net/njmnm/Disney_5.jpg) Well now, it was time to play a little game. Would the family make it to Germany BEFORE or AFTER the rain came? lol

As we stepped off the boat in Germany....yup...It started to rain. we made our way into the back of Germany and at THIS point, decided we just wanted a few beers and to see the band play. Well we were informed that while they normally let people do this (we had done it NUMEROUS times before), at dinner time they cannot. Ok, makes sense to me. But now where to go? Mike (I love referring to myself in the third person) had a brilliant idea. Head to America. I cant tell you how many people I talk to never realized you can sit and eat in the pavillion. Seems strange, but a lot of people miss it.

As we made our way to America from germany, tom and his gang had on ponchos that were orange. Ours were clear. Well tom starts doing an oompa-loompa dance and singing the song, right there in the rain. I mirror him step for step and people are just walking by staring and laughing as our wives shake their heads. We're in Epcot, it's raining, but we're on vacation so if we have to make our own fun we will! :D

Sure enough, there were TONS of people huddled under the awning for the American Adventure, but soon as we entered the doors to the food section, there were PLENTY of tables, and cover, and food, and bathrooms to boot! lol.

Now the smell of the apple cobbler was just to much to take for tom and I (and the rest of us lol). So....We're sitting in America, eating warm apple cobbler, and a diet coke (stop laughing, it's called balance lol), and watching the rain fall.

We started playing a game of flicking a straw across the table and seeing if we could get it to hang over the edge without falling (See? more making our own fun lol). The rain let up after about 45 mins-1 hour (like always) and we were on our way. We looked through the shops in Japan for quite a bit, but the rain had meant that Miyuki was done for the day. We had never had the pleasure of seeing her, and it seemed our wait would continue (but just for a few days).

At this point, we decided that we would just go get some mousse, and then take the boat from morocco to the front. The rain had slowed us down, and we didnt have the urge to see much else. As we walked by the morocco dock on our way to get the mousse, it was 7:35pm. Well the last boat leaves at 7:30 (somebody forgot about that) :rolleyes:. So we kept on to France, and to our Mecca. The End-All-Be-All of chocolatey goodness, the infamous Schocolate Mousse. :D:D:D:D

The rain had started again as we approached France, so we Grabbed our Mousse, and Ducked inside To the inside tables in the Back of the Pavillion.
Now pictures speak 1,000 words. Now THESE are two jolly Fat Men! (http://mysite.verizon.net/njmnm/Disney_6.jpg) Santa doesn't have anything on us lol. Now you may have noticed in the picture that we were wearing hats. Yes, we had these made up and wore them the entire day in epcot. Here is a closer look: PIC. (http://mysite.verizon.net/njmnm/Disney_7.jpg)

As we sat there enjoying our schocolatey goodness, i realized that we should "christen" the hats, since this was the hats' first encounter with the mousse. I dug my finger (it was clean) into the mousse, and proceeded to make a mickey head on the underside of the brim. Tom looked at me, and without skipping a beat, then did the same thing. here's a pic of my (now scratch and sniff) mousse hat with the mickey head in mousse. PIC. (http://mysite.verizon.net/njmnm/Disney_8.jpg)
Some people work in oils, some pastels...I work in mousse. ;)

After we had had our fill (and more fill, and more fill) of mousse, we started to make the long walk to the front. It was perfect timing as we hit the front of the lagoon (between the shops) just as Illuminations was starting. We stayed and watched the show, then hit the Art of Disney store on the way out of the park. We also let the kids check out the lighted sidewalks and all and let the crowd get the heck out lol (this also makes finding your car MUCH easier);)

We pulled out of the park around 10, and headed back to the hotel and grabbed a small dinner ( i think i had breadsticks and sauce lol) at the food court.

Now, it may not seem like we did a lot this day, or that we missed all the countries. We've been to disney a bunch of times, and Epcot of course. We had made the decision before we left NJ that 1, it was going to be very hot down here, 2 the weather would probably interfere and/or get us mad, and 3 we would see what we could, and not see what we didnt and that was OK. I think it is very important when traveling with 2 families that you set the ground rules. First rule, no blow ups. Second rule, if we want to go in two directions, go, and everyone should be ok with that. We all have cell phones, and we can hook up again in a little while. Third rule, we arent going to see everything, so make it known what you dont want to miss, and make it known what is OK to miss. This always helps us a TON, and this trip was no different. We went to bed that night happy, not left feeling short-changed, and life was good.

Tomorrow is MGM and lunch at the Sci-Fi. But thats a post for another time. :D

Love your report so far Mike, can't wait to read the rest.
FYI - after close examination and a lot of consideration, I have come to the conclusion that you might want to stick to mousse Mickey's instead of cloud Mickey's. I tried Mike, I really, really tried. Even with tired, reading the notebook in bed eyes, it just wasn't there for me. Thought of waking DH to get his perspective, but I'll just wait til tomorrow!
Sore fingers be (what am I allowed to say again?) darned - keep it coming!

I love reading your report!

I am going to try to be the way you were for your trip (on our trip next summer). See what we can, make the must do's known and just know I won't see it all. Have a stress free vacation and minimal to know blow ups. My dad is going with me and my three kids. I am very much a go - go person and he has had two stints put in so I have to remember he can't go as far or as fast as I may want too. Also, knowing the kids might be up to going some, they will not be up to doing as much as I will try to push.

So, moral of the story? Do what we can and see more the next time! (Because I am already planning a trip for 2010!)

I LOVE the hats! It's just great how you've interspersed the report with pics. Speaking of which, I kind of sort of see Mickey in the clouds, I think :p

Can't wait for more!

Well, I saw the Mickey head; how could you miss those ears? Oh, and Mike? One word: sunscreen! :D Really enjoying your trip report...