Note: Min's trip report is in Coral and Bill's comments are in Blue.

Click to Read:   Intro  -  Part 1  -  Part 2  -  Part 3  -  Part 4  -  Part 6

Part Five

October 25, 2003 - Saturday

After our late night, Bill forgot to set the alarm. Fortunately, my body clock woke me up around 7:30. A half hour later than the alarm would have. We got ready and headed downstairs to catch the bus. First it was the bus to the Magic Kingdom and then the monorail...

It was like deja-vu, all over again. Didn't we do this yesterday?

...to the Grand Floridian for our breakfast PS at 1900 Park Fare. Bill got a picture of me in the lobby with Mary Poppins and Bert. We were seated right away. The food was very good. We really like the omelet bar here and they had their signature strawberry soup on the breakfast bar as well. Bill loves this soup, I also think it is very good. The characters were great, we got pictures with Pooh, Tigger and Alice.

The food here was very good with one exception. Like Cape May Cafe earlier in the week, the breakfast bar did not have a "real" potato dish. It only had the processed triangle-shaped hash brown things. I talked to the manager about it and he said that they had had a lot of feedback on the issue. He also said the chef was considering bringing back some type of breakfast potato dish.

After breakfast, we caught the monorail to the TTC and then switched to the monorail to Epcot. We rode up front with the pilot of the monorail and got our co-pilot licenses.

The pilot was great, she was very personable. We were riding with another couple as well as a maintenance technician. It seems the pilot had been hearing some strange squeaking noises where she took right hand corners and wanted them checked out. This lead to a conversation about monorail train construction, maintenance and safety procedures. It was very informative and we learned a lot about the monorail trains.

After a quick security check, we decided to try Test Track again but the line was too long. Then we went back up to the front to ride Spaceship Earth. The line was not moving at all. It had turned the corner was building up along the side of the building. We decided we would ride it later on our way out. We were both dragging, so we stopped by Ice Station Cool and had a few Coca-Cola product samples. We checked the time and it was still too early for the World Showcase to be open. We headed over to Mouse Gear and did a little shopping. I got a "The Magical Place to Be" 2003 t-shirt but Bill could not find one in his size in a color that he liked. He ended up getting a garnet colored golf shirt with Goofy on it. We were really tired from the night before, so we decided to head back to the hotel. We stopped at Pin Central on the way out and picked up a few pins. Bill got a Boss' Day pin for his boss. We also got the Food and Wine Festival AP pin, it has Mickey decorating a cake on it and a Halloween 2003 pin with Mickey, Goofy, Donald and Pluto on it. We caught the bus back to the resort. We were back so early that housekeeping had not yet cleaned our room.

This began our tired trek around the hotel. We went to Zawadi Marketplace for a little while. Then we found an animal viewing lounge right off of the lobby next to the check-in desk. We went out on the balcony and watched the animals for a while and then went back into the lounge area and sat down. The chairs were pretty comfortable, so we decided to stay and rest for a while. We both ended up falling asleep. We slept for about an hour before deciding to go back to the room. Housekeeping had still not gotten to our room yet, so we hung up the do not disturb sign and napped most of the afternoon.

After napping, we watched some of the FSU football game and the golf match.

Yep, it was the Funai Classic week. We got to see some really great aerial shots of the parks and resorts from the blimp that was covering the tournament.

After resting most of the day, we got ready and headed downstairs to catch the bus. First it was the bus to the Magic Kingdom and then the monorail...

Again? Isn't this a repeat of this morning?

... to the Contemporary for our dinner PS at Chef Mickey's.

Oh, guess not... different resort and restaurant.

The food was very good. The pasta with mushrooms was awesome. I loved the peel and eat boiled shrimp, too. Bill and I both enjoyed the prime rib. Although I could never eat it as rare as he prefers it. The couple next to us was very friendly and we talked with them throughout the meal. It was fun watching their little girl's reactions to the characters. Speaking of characters, we got pictures with Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Donald.

I really like eating at Chef Mickey's, the food is always good. The only drawback is that it is the loudest character meal at Walt Disney World.

After dinner, we caught the monorail to the Magic Kingdom. We wanted to see Wishes and SpectroMagic. There were LOTS of people. We went to our usual place near the Liberty Tree Tavern to watch SpectroMagic. We sat next to an older couple and chatted until the parade began. After the parade, we tried to find a place nearer to the hub to watch Wishes. We ended up on the bridge between Crystal Palace and Adventureland. It was the best place we could find and had a pretty clear view of the top half and sky above the castle. It turned out to be a bad place from which to watch Wishes.

We could not hear soundtrack very well and some of the shots ended up on the left hand side of the castle and were blocked by the trees. After the show we felt a bit underwhelmed, Wishes had gotten a lot of hype and we had really been looking forward to seeing it. In the end, we decided to reserve judgment on the show until we had the chance to watch it from another area on a future trip.

After the fireworks, we headed for the exit. There was a crush of people in front of the Crystal Palace and after working our way through the crowd, we ducked into the Emporium to do so shopping. Bill replaced the birthday pin that had fell off my fanny pack and got the "Four Parks, One World" pin (the one pictured on the first page of the "Min's 30th Birthday Celebration" trip reports). He finally settled on getting the blue "The Magical Place to Be" 2003 t-shirt. It was either that one or a bright red one and he really did not like the bright red one. We also got the "Four Parks, One World" t-shirts with the same logo as the pin. I went outside and sat down, while Bill waited in line to pay for our shirts and pins. Then we headed to the bus and back to the resort. We made the last of our nightly stops at the gift shop and then went up to our room. Tomorrow was our last day, but we did not do any packing. We just went right to bed.

Even with all the rest today, we were exhausted... or maybe just depressed. After all it was our last night...  :(

October 26, 2003 - Sunday

We decided to sleep in but we were still up by 8:30. The time change messed us a up a little bit. We were packed and ready to head Downtown Disney by 9:30. We did a little bit of shopping at World of Disney, Once Upon a Toy, Disney's Pin Traders and Pooh's Corner. Afterwards, we got the car and drove over to the WestSide to have lunch at the House of Blues. We were seated right away.

Then came the "sweet tea fiasco." When asked what I want to drink at the House of Blues, I typically make a joke about it being rather ironic that a restaurant with "southern inspired cooking" does not have sweet tea. Our server, Kim, responded that the restaurant now had sweet tea.

Bill was happy that they now had sweet tea and ordered some… wrong, they have Nestea there is a HUGE difference.

Oh well, guess it is back to lemonade for me...

Other than the tea incident, we had a great meal ordering our usual.

Maybe we are in a rut, but I really love the Voodoo Shrimp as an appetizer and the Jambalaya as an entree.

After lunch, we were both feeling tired so we started home.

I still think it was depression over the trip being over and not exhaustion... We had had a great trip, but as they say all good things must come to an end... I really don't know who they are and why many of the truisms of life are attributed to them... one of life's unsolved mysteries, I guess... maybe we should call Robert Stack and have him look in to it...

Click to Read:   Intro  -  Part 1  -  Part 2  -  Part 3  -  Part 4  -  Part 6