Rajah
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 17, 1999
Did you know that seeing a suspicious giant fireball soon after terrorist attacks followed by going straight to bed typically leads to strange and rather sleepless dreams? I don't remember what my dreams were about this time, but I do remember they were strange and left me unrested and rather disoriented when I finally realized the alarm was going off at 8:10.
Did I mention the alarm was set for 7:10?
Obviously, Michael and I both slept through the alarm this morning. We jumped up (okay, crawled is more like it) and rushed through our morning routine as quickly as we could since we had breakfast PS at the Garden Grill for 9:10.
My feet were very sore this morning, but rather than just being "bruised" like normal or fighting normal blisters, I felt like I was walking on needles every step I took. I swear the walk from the Dolphin past the Boardwalk and to the International Gateway tripled this morning just to make my feet hurt even more. I'd thought that switching from my sandals to my normal shoes might help since going the opposite direction had helped my sore feet last year. But that was a big mistake.
By the time we made it to the Gateway (where we were able to get in with no problem and were herded past an empty UK and Canada into the open Future World), I could barely walk. But I limped to the Garden Grill for breakfast.
Neither of us was really in the mood for breakfast this morning, and so the character meal was really just the usual routine instead of being really enjoyable. The CM helping us wasn't very helpful and was somewhat... well, rude is too harsh of a word, but he wasn't exactly friendly to the group that spanned the three tables next to us. He practically turned into a drill sergeant -- "You WILL get your cards out and have them ready on this corner at precisely this time" and that kind of thing.
We did get to see Chip, Dale, and Mickey, though I honestly don't remember much of this breakfast. Our pictures show that we had a good time, but it's all a blur to me after my sleepless night. And something about the food wasn't quite as good as usual. Though, once again, that might have just been because we were so tired and my taster never did taste things just right this entire trip (except at Jiko's and California Grill).
So we walked away from breakfast this morning feeling a little disappointed. The Garden Grill is usually one of our favorite breakfasts. We love the selection, the atmosphere of circling through the scenes is really neat, and the characters are usually fun. But this time, I guess we were just too tired to enjoy it, as we left very quickly compared to our usual leisurely breakfast. We probably would have been better off staying in bed and sleeping through breakfast this morning than we were by going to breakfast.
When we left, we decided to give Food Rocks a try. We still had some time before World Showcase would open, and even though neither of us really cares that much about counting calories or nutrition, we thought Food Rocks might be cute. Especially since our traditional ride after a breakfast at Garden Grill, The Land, had a bit of a wait.
We were the first people in line for the first show of the morning, so we sat down in the waiting area to wait the 10 minutes or so before the first show would start. I remember the waiting area being full of puns and color, but that's about all I remember beyond fighting to stay awake.
As we were both just about to fall asleep on the benches, the doors opened and we went inside. By the time the show started, the theater filled up to about 1/3 capacity.
We rather enjoyed listening to Food Rocks and identifying all the spoofs they were doing, and the light show was neat. But we were really wondering what the big deal was about this show because it was nothing but light and music. It wasn't until an animatronic character finally appeared about half-way through the show that we realized that indeed, the show wasn't functioning properly. All of those lights were *supposed* to be pointing to singing and dancing characters. I was about to get up and tell the CM outside that something was messed up when someone in the row behind us got up to do that very thing.
They finally got the animatronics at least partially working for the finale and a maintenance man was waiting when the show finished. I hope they were able to fix the animatronics before the next group tried watching the show. We didn't stay to find out.
Instead, we went to our old favorite, Spaceship Earth. Despite how much we like this ride, we both struggled not to fall asleep in the nice dark relaxing atmosphere. More and more, I was thinking we really should have just stayed in bed this morning. But we stayed awake to the top of the globe, where I asked Michael if he was going to look for the hidden Mickey. He said where. I said in the stars. He laughed. We didn't find it.
After Spaceship Earth, we decided to try Test Track. We headed for the ride by way of the new Space pavilion that was still under construction. But when we arrived at Test Track, we found that the fast pass system was down (it looked like it was down long-term because there were covers over all the machines) and the standby wait was 40-50 minutes. Since Michael refuses to do singles line, we just bypassed the ride for now and weaved our way past all of the smokers who don't understand what "smoking in designated areas only" means.
We found ourselves in Mouse Gears where once again we drooled over all sorts of merchandise (figuratively drooling, of course) but ended up as usual walking out with nothing. By this point, both of us were pretty drained and I think Michael's throat was starting to hurt a little (doesn't he *always* get a sore throat at Disneyworld?) and we both thought a Poweraid would help. Unfortunately, the nearest one was a good painful walk away, but we got some and settled back to watch a couple of minutes of the Kristos while we drank. We weren't there long before more smokers uncomprehending the "smoking areas" concept ran us off.
Forced away from our viewing area, we walked to the front of the World Showcase. It had already opened, but not by long. I had to stop and sit down and try to do *something* for my feet, so I tried putting lotion on the sore areas. That helped.
Until I stood up. Then I was walking on fiery needles once again. Sigh. So we limped over to the Festival tent where we expected to find the pins for the Food and Wine Festival. We'd missed getting them last year (except once again through the kindness of a friend) and were determined to get them this year, especially after seeing them. So they pointed us to the line.
Which stretched all the way into Canada.
Oh-kay. There's a line. Oh well, I really wanted those two pins, Michael rather wanted the pins, we didn't have anything else on our agenda. Why not? So we got in line.
Two minutes later, I got back out again. Leaving Michael with everything but my wallet and radio, I limped back past the Kristos and into Mouse Gears where I went on the Great Sock Hunt. I decided that the old worn socks I was wearing were a large part of the problem -- it was like walking on wire mesh instead of a soft sock.
I looked high, low, left, right, but could not for the life of me find adult socks. Finally, though, after exploring the store half a dozen times and about to give up, I spotted them. Unfortunately they didn't have any socks that were my preferred style, but by this point I was no longer picky. I grabbed a pair of the softest socks I could find, even though they were only ankle-length (I prefer longer socks). I do admit they're cute, even if not the type I usually prefer.
Then I trekked back to the bathroom closest to where Michael was in line and changed my socks. That helped.
For about 10 steps.
Sigh.
Actually, it helped in general, but my feet still felt like I was walking on fiery needles -- it's just the needles were more cushioned now.
I rejoined Michael in line, and then he took off to sit down for a bit and get the chance to rest because he was about dead on his feet. I visited with the people in front of me in line for the rest of the wait, and finally called Michael on the radios when we were directed to the building to pick up our pins. Their setup for getting pins was a little strange -- you stood in a long line along the World Showcase Lagoon, then were sent in groups of about 10 to one of the buildings along the Lagoon where we stood in line in an indoors line. And then we were able to buy our pins, two per customer.
I did have fun trying to tell Michael where I was. He missed my call to tell him I was being sent into the building, so he started wandering trying to find me. I saw him walk past the building so told him to stop, turn around, move forward, keep going, keep going, stop, turn left, your other left, turn turn stop, walk forward.... and so on until he finally saw me. I got a couple of chuckles from the people inside with me, and Michael got a couple of funny looks as he was trying to find me. All in all it was fun.
Pins collected and checkbook considerably thinner (or perhaps that should be card bill considerably thicker), we left the building and started around the booths for the Food and Wine Festival. But every booth we encountered had a very long line that typically stretched across the entire walkway and hardly moved at all. And some of the booths weren't even open yet! Here it was, 1pm, opening day of the Food and Wine Festival, and the booths aren't even open??
We finally made it to France and saw something we wanted to try. So we got in line. And waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. And I swear that line never moved.
Finally, we gave up. I was tired, hot, and very grumpy. Michael was tired, hot, and discouraged. The walkways were too crowded because of food lines blocking the walk at almost every booth. Nothing sounded good from the menus, and my feet were absolutely killing me. Eventually, there comes a time when even the most avid Disney park fanatic must admit defeat and return to the room for a nap.
So return we did. Or tried to. We first decided to wait for a boat and save my aching feet. But it seemed a boat would never come, so we got up and started to walk. But as soon as we got just past the queue for the boats, a boat showed up. My feet hurt enough that we decided to go ahead and take the boat even though it would take longer. So we got on the boat. And waited. And waited. And waited. Apparently, this was the boat's break time.
After what seemed like almost an hour but was in actuality no more than 15 minutes, the boat finally started off. Rather than wait for the boat to stop at the Boardwalk, Yacht and Beach, and then the Swan and Dolphin, we decided that the desire to get back to our bed was greater than the aversion to walking despite aching feet, and we got off at the Boardwalk. As usual, if we'd just walked in the first place, we would have gotten back almost 20 minutes earlier.
By the time we made it back to our room at the Dolphin, it was about 1:30 and we had decided that getting up this morning was a big mistake. The kind of day we usually have at MGM hit us today at Epcot, and neither of us liked that because we both love Epcot.
We crashed very quickly for a nap. Just for a half hour or so. Right?
3:30, we finally got up. I was still moving slow but Michael was ready to go well before I was, and he didn't miss this opportunity to tease me once again. He rarely misses an opportunity to tease me about him being ready when I'm not because so often it's the other way around. I just grinned and slipped on my sandals (leaving the tighter other shoes back in the room) and finished getting ready to go.
After our nap and a quick stop at the lockers, we walked into World Showcase in a much, much better mood. The temperature had cooled down several degrees so that the air was actually comfortable, and a gentle breeze blew through the streets to make things actually pleasant. The crowds had cut down considerably so that even though there were still lines at the booths, they weren't nearly as long. And at most booths, people had figured out how to stand in line without blocking the walkway. Much more pleasant.
We got in line at France again, which still was too long of a line, but after our naps we were more willing to wait. I did have to go sit down, though, because just watching how much escargot was coming away from the booth was making me sick. Michael kindly got me the chicken and mushroom dish while he tried the sausage and a medoc.
After we finished our French food (which as always was absolutely delicious), we paused to watch some cooking demonstration at a big booth nearby. We didn't watch for long, it was like watching an infomercial, but it provided a brief distraction.
Our next stop was at the Mediterranean booth where I picked up a combo while Michael went to look in the shop in Japan. I'd been wanting to try the Moroccan food, but was leery of trying a full meal of the stuff since I have so many food problems and Moroccan food is supposed to be spicy.
Once again I had to lead Michael via radio to the bench where I had found a place to sit, but he finally found me and we split the samples on the combination platter. I don't know what I expected, but this was absolutely delicious! I'll definitely try it again if we ever return to the Food and Wine Festival, and I may even be willing to try the food directly from the Moroccan pavilion too.
After the sampler, we decided to not pick up any more samples. It was getting close to our PS time at Le Cellier for dinner, and we didn't want to ruin our meal. So Michael finished up his sip of wine and I sipped at my coke (big mistake) and we made our way to the shop in Japan. As we were walking past the candy sculptor's booth, we noticed a crowd gathered. This was the first time passing that booth that we actually caught the candy maker in action. It was fun to watch for a few minutes. It's amazing what kind of art can be done with just sugar!
Into the shop where we looked for something for Michael's parents, but I think we came out empty handed this time. We also checked out the exhibit in the back of the pavilion, but it was on the Japanese form of baseball and we're not sports fans.
We continued around World Showcase in to the American pavilion, where we once again looked for more patriotic pins. Predictably, there were none there. At this point, I had to sit down for a few minutes because the caffeine from the coke I'd been drinking was making me sick instead of giving me energy. You'd think I would learn not to try drinking cokes while I'm at the parks, but I never do.
Our next stop was in Italy where some show that appeared to be a fashion show was well under way. The costumes were really neat, even though we could barely see them because the paths were so packed. We would have liked to watch them longer, but the area was just too crowded so we left instead and will try to catch them later.
Then on to Germany where I tried getting some different angles on the train set. Most people take pictures over the top of the railing, but I'd seen where someone was getting a different angle by getting down low and trying to make the pictures seem more life-size. I decided to try it, but my pictures didn't turn out as good as the other person's I saw. I had fun anyway
By now it was getting close enough to dinner time that we decided to head back. Looking at the distances and knowing we needed to stop at the locker first, we decided to ride the boat back to the front of the World Showcase. There wasn't much of a wait for a boat and it was a nice relaxing ride, but we might as well walked. By the time we got to the locker, we realized that the distance from Germany to the lockers and from the front of World Showcase to the lockers was pretty much the same.
After our brief stop at the lockers, we returned to Canada where we had dinner PS at Le Cellier. I kept my eyes open for Becky since she said she might be able to meet us at dinner, but there was no sign of her by the time we were seated. We didn't have long to wait at all to be seated, but the service was a little slow.
Our dinner was, unfortunately, less than enjoyable, however. We had a very friendly waitress, and everyone else who came by was friendly, but absolutely none of the food we had (with the exception of the bread) was of the quality we'd experienced during our last trip to Le Cellier. It was disappointing enough that I didn't even make note of what we ordered. I think we both had steaks, and I had a soup, but absolutely nothing tasted good. We were very disappointed in the food.
The highlight of the dinner was when Becky found us. Even though we were seated, she was allowed to come in and join us without having to order anything (I don't know if that's standard practice or because she was an off-duty CM, but whatever the case, she was able to find and join us).
This time, I know the poor food wasn't just me. Michael said his wasn't any good either, took a few tastes of mine and said it either had no flavor or tasted like pure pepper (which I had asked to be left off), and when Becky came she tried a taste and agreed it wasn't up to standard.
We left rather disappointed and decided not to get dessert there, even though we'd originally planned to order one of the dessert specials. Instead, we hit the Food and Wine Festival for our desserts.
Our first stop after leaving Le Cellier was at the Ecuador pavilion, where Becky picked up a snack (a shrimp item) and I ordered a banana treat (fried banana I think with chocolate, but I don't remember -- I do remember it was very good). While Becky and I were in line at Ecuador, Michael ran over to the Cognac booth in France and picked up a cognac.
After grabbing our snacks from Ecuador, Becky and I joined Michael in France and we all decided we wanted a dessert from the French pastry shop. The desserts there are always excellent! And, as usual, we were not disappointed. Michael and I split a dish that had a layer of banana pudding mixed in with some really good chocolate mousse. It was delicious! Becky ordered something similar, only instead of banana pudding it was a passion fruit mixture. Hers was good, too, but Michael and I liked ours better.
By the time we were done with dessert, it was about time to go stake out our spot for Tapestry of Dreams. Learning from our mistake a few days earlier, we decided to go watch the parade from Germany instead of from Morocco. At that point, we'd be able to see the beginning, middle, and ending of the show.
We staked out our spots fairly early and had a good time visiting while waiting for the show, then jumped up as it started. This time, Michael videotaped and I used the camera to get pictures. Tapestry of Dreams was much better when viewed from beginning to end. To be honest, I can see why people who only get to see the parade in the middle aren't too thrilled with it. But watching the opening and closing sequences, as well as everything that happened in the middle, was a lot of fun.
We skipped back to America after the parade was over, discussing the differences between the three variations of Tapestry. Michael and I both still liked the original Millennium Celebration variation of Tapestry the best, but for me Tapestry of Dreams was better than the re-done non-Millennium Tapestry of Nations. Michael and Becky agreed.
We again spent some time visiting as we waited for Illuminations, then enjoyed (as always) our view of Illuminations from America. The only downside was that we were, once again, in the path of the smoke created by the pyrotechnics of Illuminations. On the plus side, we did get to see some laser effects we've never noticed before. So being on the smoke-side of Illuminations wasn't that bad after all!
After the show, we decided to all go back to the Dolphin. Becky checked at the gate to make sure she, as a cast member, would be able to cut through the park on her way back to her car. They gave her a time and said as long as she was back by that time and showed her CM ID, she could do so.
So, with a time-limit in mind, we all continued on our way to the Dolphin. Becky hadn't ever been inside the resort, so we had fun showing her around before we went up to our rooms to show her our costumes from the Halloween Party the other night and some pictures and otherwise just catching up since we rarely get to see each other any more.
Finally, with just a few minutes to spare, Becky took off. We walked her part of the way back before returning to our room where I called my parents to make sure everything was still good for the next morning (and I got some advice for my feet, which still felt like I was walking on little needles of fire -- never wear wet socks/shoes all day in Orlando!).
Once I got off the phone with them, I found I had a message from Becky. She sounded rather distressed but not so, both at the same time. Almost all she said was that I was right -- turns out she was walking around the World Showcase Lagoon when that giant fireball exploded into the air. Remember what I saw the night before? It was indeed them burning off the remaining gas from the Illuminations fire barges, and it scared her to death! She was glad I'd seen the fireball the night before so she knew it was fairly routine. She also said the dancing fountain in Future World was going absolutely bonkers, giving more of a show than she's ever seen -- apparently they were running it through its nightly testing as well.
After retrieving the message from Becky and chuckling (and feeling better about last night's fireball explosion), we packed up our things and headed for bed. Tomorrow would be our last day at the World.
Did I mention the alarm was set for 7:10?
Obviously, Michael and I both slept through the alarm this morning. We jumped up (okay, crawled is more like it) and rushed through our morning routine as quickly as we could since we had breakfast PS at the Garden Grill for 9:10.
My feet were very sore this morning, but rather than just being "bruised" like normal or fighting normal blisters, I felt like I was walking on needles every step I took. I swear the walk from the Dolphin past the Boardwalk and to the International Gateway tripled this morning just to make my feet hurt even more. I'd thought that switching from my sandals to my normal shoes might help since going the opposite direction had helped my sore feet last year. But that was a big mistake.
By the time we made it to the Gateway (where we were able to get in with no problem and were herded past an empty UK and Canada into the open Future World), I could barely walk. But I limped to the Garden Grill for breakfast.
Neither of us was really in the mood for breakfast this morning, and so the character meal was really just the usual routine instead of being really enjoyable. The CM helping us wasn't very helpful and was somewhat... well, rude is too harsh of a word, but he wasn't exactly friendly to the group that spanned the three tables next to us. He practically turned into a drill sergeant -- "You WILL get your cards out and have them ready on this corner at precisely this time" and that kind of thing.
We did get to see Chip, Dale, and Mickey, though I honestly don't remember much of this breakfast. Our pictures show that we had a good time, but it's all a blur to me after my sleepless night. And something about the food wasn't quite as good as usual. Though, once again, that might have just been because we were so tired and my taster never did taste things just right this entire trip (except at Jiko's and California Grill).
So we walked away from breakfast this morning feeling a little disappointed. The Garden Grill is usually one of our favorite breakfasts. We love the selection, the atmosphere of circling through the scenes is really neat, and the characters are usually fun. But this time, I guess we were just too tired to enjoy it, as we left very quickly compared to our usual leisurely breakfast. We probably would have been better off staying in bed and sleeping through breakfast this morning than we were by going to breakfast.
When we left, we decided to give Food Rocks a try. We still had some time before World Showcase would open, and even though neither of us really cares that much about counting calories or nutrition, we thought Food Rocks might be cute. Especially since our traditional ride after a breakfast at Garden Grill, The Land, had a bit of a wait.
We were the first people in line for the first show of the morning, so we sat down in the waiting area to wait the 10 minutes or so before the first show would start. I remember the waiting area being full of puns and color, but that's about all I remember beyond fighting to stay awake.
As we were both just about to fall asleep on the benches, the doors opened and we went inside. By the time the show started, the theater filled up to about 1/3 capacity.
We rather enjoyed listening to Food Rocks and identifying all the spoofs they were doing, and the light show was neat. But we were really wondering what the big deal was about this show because it was nothing but light and music. It wasn't until an animatronic character finally appeared about half-way through the show that we realized that indeed, the show wasn't functioning properly. All of those lights were *supposed* to be pointing to singing and dancing characters. I was about to get up and tell the CM outside that something was messed up when someone in the row behind us got up to do that very thing.
They finally got the animatronics at least partially working for the finale and a maintenance man was waiting when the show finished. I hope they were able to fix the animatronics before the next group tried watching the show. We didn't stay to find out.
Instead, we went to our old favorite, Spaceship Earth. Despite how much we like this ride, we both struggled not to fall asleep in the nice dark relaxing atmosphere. More and more, I was thinking we really should have just stayed in bed this morning. But we stayed awake to the top of the globe, where I asked Michael if he was going to look for the hidden Mickey. He said where. I said in the stars. He laughed. We didn't find it.
After Spaceship Earth, we decided to try Test Track. We headed for the ride by way of the new Space pavilion that was still under construction. But when we arrived at Test Track, we found that the fast pass system was down (it looked like it was down long-term because there were covers over all the machines) and the standby wait was 40-50 minutes. Since Michael refuses to do singles line, we just bypassed the ride for now and weaved our way past all of the smokers who don't understand what "smoking in designated areas only" means.
We found ourselves in Mouse Gears where once again we drooled over all sorts of merchandise (figuratively drooling, of course) but ended up as usual walking out with nothing. By this point, both of us were pretty drained and I think Michael's throat was starting to hurt a little (doesn't he *always* get a sore throat at Disneyworld?) and we both thought a Poweraid would help. Unfortunately, the nearest one was a good painful walk away, but we got some and settled back to watch a couple of minutes of the Kristos while we drank. We weren't there long before more smokers uncomprehending the "smoking areas" concept ran us off.
Forced away from our viewing area, we walked to the front of the World Showcase. It had already opened, but not by long. I had to stop and sit down and try to do *something* for my feet, so I tried putting lotion on the sore areas. That helped.
Until I stood up. Then I was walking on fiery needles once again. Sigh. So we limped over to the Festival tent where we expected to find the pins for the Food and Wine Festival. We'd missed getting them last year (except once again through the kindness of a friend) and were determined to get them this year, especially after seeing them. So they pointed us to the line.
Which stretched all the way into Canada.
Oh-kay. There's a line. Oh well, I really wanted those two pins, Michael rather wanted the pins, we didn't have anything else on our agenda. Why not? So we got in line.
Two minutes later, I got back out again. Leaving Michael with everything but my wallet and radio, I limped back past the Kristos and into Mouse Gears where I went on the Great Sock Hunt. I decided that the old worn socks I was wearing were a large part of the problem -- it was like walking on wire mesh instead of a soft sock.
I looked high, low, left, right, but could not for the life of me find adult socks. Finally, though, after exploring the store half a dozen times and about to give up, I spotted them. Unfortunately they didn't have any socks that were my preferred style, but by this point I was no longer picky. I grabbed a pair of the softest socks I could find, even though they were only ankle-length (I prefer longer socks). I do admit they're cute, even if not the type I usually prefer.
Then I trekked back to the bathroom closest to where Michael was in line and changed my socks. That helped.
For about 10 steps.
Sigh.
Actually, it helped in general, but my feet still felt like I was walking on fiery needles -- it's just the needles were more cushioned now.
I rejoined Michael in line, and then he took off to sit down for a bit and get the chance to rest because he was about dead on his feet. I visited with the people in front of me in line for the rest of the wait, and finally called Michael on the radios when we were directed to the building to pick up our pins. Their setup for getting pins was a little strange -- you stood in a long line along the World Showcase Lagoon, then were sent in groups of about 10 to one of the buildings along the Lagoon where we stood in line in an indoors line. And then we were able to buy our pins, two per customer.
I did have fun trying to tell Michael where I was. He missed my call to tell him I was being sent into the building, so he started wandering trying to find me. I saw him walk past the building so told him to stop, turn around, move forward, keep going, keep going, stop, turn left, your other left, turn turn stop, walk forward.... and so on until he finally saw me. I got a couple of chuckles from the people inside with me, and Michael got a couple of funny looks as he was trying to find me. All in all it was fun.
Pins collected and checkbook considerably thinner (or perhaps that should be card bill considerably thicker), we left the building and started around the booths for the Food and Wine Festival. But every booth we encountered had a very long line that typically stretched across the entire walkway and hardly moved at all. And some of the booths weren't even open yet! Here it was, 1pm, opening day of the Food and Wine Festival, and the booths aren't even open??
We finally made it to France and saw something we wanted to try. So we got in line. And waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. And I swear that line never moved.
Finally, we gave up. I was tired, hot, and very grumpy. Michael was tired, hot, and discouraged. The walkways were too crowded because of food lines blocking the walk at almost every booth. Nothing sounded good from the menus, and my feet were absolutely killing me. Eventually, there comes a time when even the most avid Disney park fanatic must admit defeat and return to the room for a nap.
So return we did. Or tried to. We first decided to wait for a boat and save my aching feet. But it seemed a boat would never come, so we got up and started to walk. But as soon as we got just past the queue for the boats, a boat showed up. My feet hurt enough that we decided to go ahead and take the boat even though it would take longer. So we got on the boat. And waited. And waited. And waited. Apparently, this was the boat's break time.
After what seemed like almost an hour but was in actuality no more than 15 minutes, the boat finally started off. Rather than wait for the boat to stop at the Boardwalk, Yacht and Beach, and then the Swan and Dolphin, we decided that the desire to get back to our bed was greater than the aversion to walking despite aching feet, and we got off at the Boardwalk. As usual, if we'd just walked in the first place, we would have gotten back almost 20 minutes earlier.
By the time we made it back to our room at the Dolphin, it was about 1:30 and we had decided that getting up this morning was a big mistake. The kind of day we usually have at MGM hit us today at Epcot, and neither of us liked that because we both love Epcot.
We crashed very quickly for a nap. Just for a half hour or so. Right?
3:30, we finally got up. I was still moving slow but Michael was ready to go well before I was, and he didn't miss this opportunity to tease me once again. He rarely misses an opportunity to tease me about him being ready when I'm not because so often it's the other way around. I just grinned and slipped on my sandals (leaving the tighter other shoes back in the room) and finished getting ready to go.
After our nap and a quick stop at the lockers, we walked into World Showcase in a much, much better mood. The temperature had cooled down several degrees so that the air was actually comfortable, and a gentle breeze blew through the streets to make things actually pleasant. The crowds had cut down considerably so that even though there were still lines at the booths, they weren't nearly as long. And at most booths, people had figured out how to stand in line without blocking the walkway. Much more pleasant.
We got in line at France again, which still was too long of a line, but after our naps we were more willing to wait. I did have to go sit down, though, because just watching how much escargot was coming away from the booth was making me sick. Michael kindly got me the chicken and mushroom dish while he tried the sausage and a medoc.
After we finished our French food (which as always was absolutely delicious), we paused to watch some cooking demonstration at a big booth nearby. We didn't watch for long, it was like watching an infomercial, but it provided a brief distraction.
Our next stop was at the Mediterranean booth where I picked up a combo while Michael went to look in the shop in Japan. I'd been wanting to try the Moroccan food, but was leery of trying a full meal of the stuff since I have so many food problems and Moroccan food is supposed to be spicy.
Once again I had to lead Michael via radio to the bench where I had found a place to sit, but he finally found me and we split the samples on the combination platter. I don't know what I expected, but this was absolutely delicious! I'll definitely try it again if we ever return to the Food and Wine Festival, and I may even be willing to try the food directly from the Moroccan pavilion too.
After the sampler, we decided to not pick up any more samples. It was getting close to our PS time at Le Cellier for dinner, and we didn't want to ruin our meal. So Michael finished up his sip of wine and I sipped at my coke (big mistake) and we made our way to the shop in Japan. As we were walking past the candy sculptor's booth, we noticed a crowd gathered. This was the first time passing that booth that we actually caught the candy maker in action. It was fun to watch for a few minutes. It's amazing what kind of art can be done with just sugar!
Into the shop where we looked for something for Michael's parents, but I think we came out empty handed this time. We also checked out the exhibit in the back of the pavilion, but it was on the Japanese form of baseball and we're not sports fans.
We continued around World Showcase in to the American pavilion, where we once again looked for more patriotic pins. Predictably, there were none there. At this point, I had to sit down for a few minutes because the caffeine from the coke I'd been drinking was making me sick instead of giving me energy. You'd think I would learn not to try drinking cokes while I'm at the parks, but I never do.
Our next stop was in Italy where some show that appeared to be a fashion show was well under way. The costumes were really neat, even though we could barely see them because the paths were so packed. We would have liked to watch them longer, but the area was just too crowded so we left instead and will try to catch them later.
Then on to Germany where I tried getting some different angles on the train set. Most people take pictures over the top of the railing, but I'd seen where someone was getting a different angle by getting down low and trying to make the pictures seem more life-size. I decided to try it, but my pictures didn't turn out as good as the other person's I saw. I had fun anyway
By now it was getting close enough to dinner time that we decided to head back. Looking at the distances and knowing we needed to stop at the locker first, we decided to ride the boat back to the front of the World Showcase. There wasn't much of a wait for a boat and it was a nice relaxing ride, but we might as well walked. By the time we got to the locker, we realized that the distance from Germany to the lockers and from the front of World Showcase to the lockers was pretty much the same.
After our brief stop at the lockers, we returned to Canada where we had dinner PS at Le Cellier. I kept my eyes open for Becky since she said she might be able to meet us at dinner, but there was no sign of her by the time we were seated. We didn't have long to wait at all to be seated, but the service was a little slow.
Our dinner was, unfortunately, less than enjoyable, however. We had a very friendly waitress, and everyone else who came by was friendly, but absolutely none of the food we had (with the exception of the bread) was of the quality we'd experienced during our last trip to Le Cellier. It was disappointing enough that I didn't even make note of what we ordered. I think we both had steaks, and I had a soup, but absolutely nothing tasted good. We were very disappointed in the food.
The highlight of the dinner was when Becky found us. Even though we were seated, she was allowed to come in and join us without having to order anything (I don't know if that's standard practice or because she was an off-duty CM, but whatever the case, she was able to find and join us).
This time, I know the poor food wasn't just me. Michael said his wasn't any good either, took a few tastes of mine and said it either had no flavor or tasted like pure pepper (which I had asked to be left off), and when Becky came she tried a taste and agreed it wasn't up to standard.
We left rather disappointed and decided not to get dessert there, even though we'd originally planned to order one of the dessert specials. Instead, we hit the Food and Wine Festival for our desserts.
Our first stop after leaving Le Cellier was at the Ecuador pavilion, where Becky picked up a snack (a shrimp item) and I ordered a banana treat (fried banana I think with chocolate, but I don't remember -- I do remember it was very good). While Becky and I were in line at Ecuador, Michael ran over to the Cognac booth in France and picked up a cognac.
After grabbing our snacks from Ecuador, Becky and I joined Michael in France and we all decided we wanted a dessert from the French pastry shop. The desserts there are always excellent! And, as usual, we were not disappointed. Michael and I split a dish that had a layer of banana pudding mixed in with some really good chocolate mousse. It was delicious! Becky ordered something similar, only instead of banana pudding it was a passion fruit mixture. Hers was good, too, but Michael and I liked ours better.
By the time we were done with dessert, it was about time to go stake out our spot for Tapestry of Dreams. Learning from our mistake a few days earlier, we decided to go watch the parade from Germany instead of from Morocco. At that point, we'd be able to see the beginning, middle, and ending of the show.
We staked out our spots fairly early and had a good time visiting while waiting for the show, then jumped up as it started. This time, Michael videotaped and I used the camera to get pictures. Tapestry of Dreams was much better when viewed from beginning to end. To be honest, I can see why people who only get to see the parade in the middle aren't too thrilled with it. But watching the opening and closing sequences, as well as everything that happened in the middle, was a lot of fun.
We skipped back to America after the parade was over, discussing the differences between the three variations of Tapestry. Michael and I both still liked the original Millennium Celebration variation of Tapestry the best, but for me Tapestry of Dreams was better than the re-done non-Millennium Tapestry of Nations. Michael and Becky agreed.
We again spent some time visiting as we waited for Illuminations, then enjoyed (as always) our view of Illuminations from America. The only downside was that we were, once again, in the path of the smoke created by the pyrotechnics of Illuminations. On the plus side, we did get to see some laser effects we've never noticed before. So being on the smoke-side of Illuminations wasn't that bad after all!
After the show, we decided to all go back to the Dolphin. Becky checked at the gate to make sure she, as a cast member, would be able to cut through the park on her way back to her car. They gave her a time and said as long as she was back by that time and showed her CM ID, she could do so.
So, with a time-limit in mind, we all continued on our way to the Dolphin. Becky hadn't ever been inside the resort, so we had fun showing her around before we went up to our rooms to show her our costumes from the Halloween Party the other night and some pictures and otherwise just catching up since we rarely get to see each other any more.
Finally, with just a few minutes to spare, Becky took off. We walked her part of the way back before returning to our room where I called my parents to make sure everything was still good for the next morning (and I got some advice for my feet, which still felt like I was walking on little needles of fire -- never wear wet socks/shoes all day in Orlando!).
Once I got off the phone with them, I found I had a message from Becky. She sounded rather distressed but not so, both at the same time. Almost all she said was that I was right -- turns out she was walking around the World Showcase Lagoon when that giant fireball exploded into the air. Remember what I saw the night before? It was indeed them burning off the remaining gas from the Illuminations fire barges, and it scared her to death! She was glad I'd seen the fireball the night before so she knew it was fairly routine. She also said the dancing fountain in Future World was going absolutely bonkers, giving more of a show than she's ever seen -- apparently they were running it through its nightly testing as well.
After retrieving the message from Becky and chuckling (and feeling better about last night's fireball explosion), we packed up our things and headed for bed. Tomorrow would be our last day at the World.
