jenseib

Aug. 16 ~ Tuesday ~Day 3 I had the alarm set for 6 AM. I was surprised to wake up and find that Brook was already up and in the shower. I never heard her alarm or get up! I guess I didn’t sleep as badly as I thought I did. Brook warned me that the shower took FOREVER to warm up. Thinking back now, we should’ve reported it. It was like that everyday….. AND it never got really hot either. We got ready and Brook headed off to Cape May, our meeting spot for breakfast this morning. I was a bit behind and stopped off at a bench to call home first and see how things were going. I got to Cape May and took a few pictures around the Beach Club while we waited for the rest of the group, and then to be seated. Soon we were called in and seated at a couple of tables. Everyone went straight up to the buffet, but I went and took a few pictures of it first, so I wouldn’t forget to later. And my plate. Evidently I felt it needed a picture from every angle possible.

I haven't forgotten about this. I just took time off from updating over the holidays. I do have one segment written up though now!

It did look pretty long. The only positive was that it ended right near our room, but I am kind of thankful I didn't walk it that late evening.

I stopped off before heading over towards the dance party. I “think” I had filled my mug with some water from the fountain and just relaxed a bit and drank some water. I do remember I had a pounding headache (which seemed to be a theme the whole trip) and took some ibuprofen, so I was probably just hoping it would take effect fast! While I was standing on that side of the wall…the music stopped and the party was over. Well I guess I wasn’t meant to check it out, which was OK. I finished off my drink and the head was starting to feel better, so I headed towards Toy Story Mania and see what kind of line it had. Toy Story Mania was showing a 50 minute wait at almost midnight…No Thanks. I was too hot to stand in line for that. I just kept on moving along, taking pictures as I went. Like I said, I had no real plan at all. I just kept going and taking pictures…till I came up to Star Tours! The line wasn’t too long for Star tours, so I decided…what the heck. I hadn’t been on it since the late 90’s, so now was a good time to see the newest updates. I went to get in line and the guy directed me to the Fast Pass line. Not sure why, as I didn’t have one, but I didn’t complain. I noticed he directed a few others in behind me as well. The FP line was basically nonexistent, so I just walked all the way through and snapped a few quick shots as I went. I came to the conclusion that the ride was actually getting a bit busier, so they were opening up more decks/ride simulators. We were directed to a door that was going to be up and running in just a few minutes. I was the first one in, in the first row. I do not recommend this seat. I was so far over; it made it hard to see everything. I asked if I could hold my camera on my lap because the little storage area under the seat didn’t look too safe for it. He actually encouraged me to do so. The show got started, and I think I missed part of it being so far over. I couldn’t see the screen straight on, nor could I see the little robots, or whatever, out front of the screen very well. The show was nice, but I got motion sick. Really bad. My eyes hurt and I just felt very sick after the ride. I think if I had a straight on view, it might’ve been better, but from where I was seated, I felt awful and couldn’t see well to top it off. I can’t tell you what version I had. I know there are several different versions, which can be combined together to make more. I think I heard a CM said there were 50 different ones in total. I decided it was time to head out now. I was just feeling awful and the hot air didn’t seem to help at all either. I did take several pictures on my walk back towards the front though. I have to admit that I am not super familiar with Hollywood Studios. It has always been my least favorite park, so we have skipped it on a few trips. I have never spent a full day there yet. I would like to take the time to look it over some more and get more acquainted with it. It has some great picture taking opportunities. As I was getting closer to the hat, I could hear music…GOOD music…my kind of music….late 70’s and 80’s music…… It was Mulch, Sweat, and Shears. I have heard of them, but never heard them before…and they were great. I just hung out in the area and took pictures while I listened to a couple of songs. That motion sickness I had felt earlier….totally wiped away by this toe tapping music. I did feel really tired though and decided to slowly make my way towards the front. The band would talk in between songs and they would play a little teaser of songs well. Some they would then make up their own words to. It was pretty funny…..but one teaser they kept playing was for My Sharona…I LOVED that song as a kid…..and as I walked, I kept saying to myself…”Come on, play the real song…...Come on!” And finally they did. So I did stop for a few minutes on my way to the front to hear it all. At 12:30ish I left DHS. I actually thought about walking back to the Yacht Club, just to see the path, but I went the wrong way….I actually never did figure out where to go for the walking path, and just jumped on the next boat. I just caught up a little on facebook while traveling back. I walked back to my room and found all the lights on. I almost thought Brook was still up, but no she was sleeping. I don’t know how she did it with all those lights. LOL! I quietly got ready for bed and tiptoed around and turned off the lights and flicked on the ceiling fan…which I loved, and set the alarm on my phone. It did take me a little bit to fall asleep. I had so much on my mind. We had learned so much, I had seen so many new things; it was just really hard to shut my brain off for the night. I did finally fall asleep, but I never felt like it was a good sleep, with tossing and turning. The bed was comfy, but my mind was just full of excitement. And that was the end of day 2. Yes! All that has happened in just 2 days time! I still have 4 more fun filled days left of my trip!

We headed into the lobby of YC. Brook was hitting the sack. She said she was dead tired. I can’t remember what Patty and Mindy said they we going to do. And I was still wired. We stopped for some lobby pictures, and then headed back to our rooms. We were going to exchange gifts, and I was also going to hand out the Mouse World T’s I had made prior to coming. I took the outside route back to the room. I like a little alone time here and there, and this was a peaceful walk, and I got to take some night shots outside. Once I got back to the room, the first thing I did was look for my photopass card…and sure enough, it was sitting right on the desk. I swear I don’t remember taking it out, but there it was…and I quickly snapped a picture of it. Brook and I gathered our stuff to take up to Patty and Mindy’s room. I gave the girls the T-shirts that I had made with our travel agency on it. Mindy had also had me order a notebook. I then also gave them the “Dream” shirts I had made for all of us. We decided we would all wear them the next day. Brook handed her gifts out, Mindy gave us each a 911 remembrance pin and Patty gave us an AWESOME gift….Not to say the other gifts weren’t good, they all were, but Patty made us Mickey shape caramel apples. I took a picture at some point in time, and once I come across it, I’ll post it. I didn’t eat it till I got home, but WOW, it was soooo good and HUGE!. I kept hiding it, as I would cut a slice or 2 off here and there over a couple of day’s time, and Skip kept finding it and doing the same. This thing is the stuff dreams are made of. Mmmmmmmm! So, I guess while we were in the room I decided to take a few pictures. Well it looks like 2. I’m not sure why I didn’t take more, because their room was slightly different than ours…they had a couch in theirs, which it looks like I didn’t take a picture of. You can kind of see part of the couch in the reflection of the mirror here. We all decided to find where we could fill our mugs, for those that had them, and I think Patty ended up buying one. We found that Beaches and Creams did fill mugs, but they had a limited selection. I think they were out of diet coke, so I probably got lemonade. I have to note, I found it very odd that the Yacht Club has no where to fill up mugs. There is very small bar/lounge right off the main lobby, I can’t remember the name, but if they are not busy or depending on the CM working, they will sometime refill it for you. Other than that you had to walk to Beaches and Creams or over to the food court at the Beach Club. If I ever stayed at the Yacht Club again, I wouldn’t buy a mug unless it came with my dining package. It was a pain to have to walk such a far distance to get a drink. We walked into the carryout side of Beach and Creams. This was the first time I had ever been in there, so I took a few shots…..It looked pretty busy. Back to the Yacht Club lobby. My fellow agents were all heading back to their rooms. It was around 11. I wasn’t ready yet. So I kept taking pictures. There’s some of that cross selling. I moved down one of the hallways for more pictures. This was a little phone area, I believe near the elevators. And on to the bathroom nearby. Hello! And then I headed outside…still not sure what to do. HS was open late with EMH’s, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to go over there. I ran into Mindy and Patty for a few minutes, and Patty almost seemed like she wanted to do some more, but they were both pretty tired from getting up early and flying in that day, so they headed off to their room. I took more pictures. I sat my camera on the post to try and get better exposures. I love this shot of the windmill spinning. I have about 10-15 more pictures of the boardwalk across the lake. I’ll just post one more…Not sure why I took so many; I guess I was trying to get the perfect one. I still had my mug with me, so I did the very classy thing, where you loop the handle through your belt and wear it on your hip. Yep, I was really stylin’ now! I walked around a bit and saw a boat coming to the launch. I made a spur of the moment decision and got on it…it was heading to Hollywood Studios. I think it was around 11:15 at this point, and I just sat and relaxed…and actually talked to a family while riding over. They had been there for quite some time, like 10 days or so, and were having a blast. They were DVC owners and it was really a nice chat with them. Being that it was pretty dark the whole trip over, I did not take any pictures and just admired the scenery as we past it. This ride is not speedy in anyway, but the walk looked long too and with my aching feet, I was glad to sit for a bit. I didn’t have a plan of attack. I mostly just went to take a few pictures. I stopped for photopass. And then kept on going. I could hear music going…really jamming, then I remembered hearing about a kids dance party at DHS during EMH’s. I kind of toe tapped my way over there.

Once again, while traveling on the bus, Rita talked to us. We were told we would be arriving in Epcot by going backstage and being dropped off behind China. We were told no pictures were allowed. Bummer…but we knew that would be the case. We all were looking around, and trying to take it all in as we drove. Honestly, it’s not that fascinating. A bunch of junk was piled up back there. A lot of old props and such and not very magical looking at all. I can see why they don’t want you to take pictures to spoil it for others. We stopped behind China and were led in. I think Brook took a picture of the door to remember where we came in at. Once we passed through the door, it was truly like being in another world….World Showcase…that is. I pulled the camera out and shot this. We made our short walk over to Norway and I tried to document where we went in at. We were having a welcome dinner and meeting in the Norway Loft. I had tried to research the Norway Loft prior to the trip, but there was very little info out there. A few Dis friends did find some links and sent them to me, which was interesting. It sounds like this place is not used much. Sometimes it is used when an outdoor wedding reception is rained out, and a few small conventions, but not much else and very little info floating out there on the net. This is where we went in and up. When we reached the top of the stairs, there was a bar area and restrooms. I didn’t take pictures. So much was going on that I just forgot. We had a selection of drinks, and I grabbed a Bud Light. It was very refreshing on a hot day like this! We walked into another room and a buffet was set up and several round tables. I took this quick and REALLY bad shot of the buffet table. First thing on the agenda…DINNER!!! We were all pretty hungry at this point. I believe the food was Norwegian dishes, and most of it was pretty darn good. After I got my plate, I went back up and took a few pictures of the food. Tommy sat at our table and we talked a bit about marketing and our expectations, etc. The bud light I had was so good and went down very fast. I don’t drink too often, so even though another one sounded really good, I switched over to diet coke. We all made a couple of trips up to the buffet. It was really tasty. At some point in time I realized I didn’t have my photopass card anymore. I was kind of panicky and mad at myself for not taking a picture of it early on. I hoped and prayed it was in the room. I didn’t remember taking it out of my lanyard, but I could’ve. I know I mentioned it a few times to my fellow TA’s…they were probably about to strangle me. I tried not to think about it, but I was still mad at myself for not keep better track of it. After we finished up eating we had a bit of class. I can’t remember what all we covered then, but we learned a little bit about marketing and Disney in General. We also went over our homework that we had to do prior to coming. For anyone who is going in the future, this is not strict. We just kind of talked about our answers and thoughts. There really were no wrong answers, but some did “fit” better. We also were given a bit more homework to do over the week. All very easy and no grades, more for your personal gain. As we were wrapping up, and were all kind of standing right near our table, a cell phone goes off. Who the heck was so rude to leave their cell on!.....…..that would be me. OOPS! I quickly turned it off…but everyone got to hear a good portion of “She thinks my tractors sexy” before I could get to it. I felt so embarrassed. But Tommy quickly told us the story of one time when everything was silent at some important event and Rita’s phone starts playing some Kenny Chesney song. I didn’t feel so bad then….but I did try to remember to silence it in the future. It was time to head out and make our way over to France for our Dessert party. As we walked, I grabbed a few pictures on the way, but they aren’t very good. We had a little laugh on our way to France. We had a CM walking ahead of us carrying a light up in the air. I think I would be embarrassed to have that job. LOL! I got to walking alongside Patty and we talked a bit. Patty and I ended up doing a lot together over the course of the trip. We had a lot in common. We both had no family along with us….or coming (Brook’s family was there and Mindy’s was arriving on Thurs.) Both of us had our children starting school while we were gone, her boys starting on Tuesday and Claire on Wed….and many other common bonds we found out throughout the week. Soon we had arrived in France were directed to a roped off area down by the water. And yes we all smirked at the VIP treatment we were getting. We found a table of 4 and Brook, Patty, Mindy and I sat down right alongside the water. We were allowed to go get desserts right away. I am sad to say I never took a picture of the dessert tables. It was dark and hard to see what we were getting, and crowded. I don’t think they actually had enough room for the entire group. They had a few small stand around type tables, and I think several were gathered around those. I took a picture of three of our plates. Mine is the last one…the one with the MOST sweets on it. LOL Before long it was time for Illuminations…and we had a front row, exclusive seat! I did try to take pictures…but I still haven’t mastered fireworks, as you know…and I did not have the tripod with me either to at least help a bit. I took many more, but they were just pure crud. We were wowed and very excited after the show. But now it was time to head back to the resort. Many of us had hoped to just walk back to the Yacht Club, but Rita said no, they had to talk to us again on the bus about the next days activities, so we all had to ride the bus back. The bus was now pulled up behind Morocco, so we headed that way. As we headed out the door, one guy stopped and asked who we were and where we were going…..Um, yes, we are celebrities, using this exclusive backdoor exit….Actually he was probably hoping to find a short cut out. LOL I did get one quick picture of the door we went out of…I don’t know if I would ever find it again though. We boarded the bus once again and were reminded not to take any pictures. Brook started tweeting (or something) and told me she had picked up free wifi back there. I then told her that a few times during the day, my phone was picking up free wifi….from Starbucks? LOL! We were given the agenda for the next day, told what time to meet at Cape May, where we would be having breakfast, and questions (if anyone had any) were answered. We were each given a Mickey rain poncho to keep along with us if needed for rain during the week. As we exited the bus, we also each received a pin for our lanyard. I think this one was Tinker bell. Throughout the week we received fastpasses for each park, I can’t remember if they gave us some more that night, or waited till the next day. We were now on our own for the evening. Would we go to bed, walk around and explore, swim, or hit some parks?

Again, Tommy pointed out different things and explained about the theming of the resort. We then walked over to the awesome pool area. As you can see it was still really sunny and playing tricks on my lens. And look how cool this pirate play area is…..I want to play here! We now headed off to tour a room. I had been pretty impressed with Caribbean Beach Resort at this point. It was very pretty, but again big too. I can see why some people complain about the walking to Old Port Royale. I can’t remember if we walked over here or bussed here. It was so hot out, that they did have us do a lot more bussing around places rather than walking….but we soon arrived…and a little bit of disappointment set in. I “think” we toured Trinidad North, but I could be wrong. Take note of the landscaping Or should I say…lack of. Tommy told us that they were redoing the landscaping in the area. We found this strange though. Disney is famous for redoing stuff like that overnight. This was not being worked on at all, just left out for guests to see….it was very unDisney like. I didn’t take a lot of pictures of it, but parts of it looked really bad. We kept walking to our destination. I think this was the start of a Bamboo…..I know there was a reason I took it, and that is what I am thinking Tommy told us. I believe we ran into the other group of agents and that is when we found out that the key to the room didn’t work. They went on and Tommy went to find a Mousekeeper to see if he would let us in. A few random shots of us waiting around. It looks like Tommy’s shadow is in this picture, so I assume he was telling us something. Brook, on the other hand was dreaming of corndog nuggets! LOL! We ended up finding out that the room we were to tour had a bad key thing. The battery was out and it needed repairs……which is why the room wasn’t given to anyone yet. We did find a room near by that had the curtains open and we all peeked in really quick (it was unoccupied) and took a look. I had seen many pictures of the rooms before, it looked just like what I had seen. A nice enough room, but not my favorite of the resorts. I took a few more shots in the area and then we headed off to the bus to ride over to tour the pirate rooms. Our bus ride was very short, but in this heat, was welcomed. The room was really neat. But it was crowded because we all were touring at the same time. The carpeting is made to look like a wooden floor. The headboards looked like ships. The table has a compass on it. The tv stand looks like crates. The mini fridge is in this barrel. Does this look familiar? The curtain that divides the bedroom from the vanity area. And one more bed shot. I think the bedspreads were really neat too. I guess I didn’t take any of the bathroom. I did however get this shot of Brook, enjoying a quick sitdown. The pirate rooms were impressive, but they really were extremely far out. I don’t know if I would book one if I knew I would be walking up to Port Royale regularly. Also with the cost higher than the other rooms, it makes it less enticing for me. But I can see why they made them in that building…to entice people to stay that far out. I won’t rule it completely out though. Maybe someday we’ll spend a night there. We loaded back onto the bus…next stop…..Epcot…via the back door!

We talked about the Grab-N-Go market, the food court and how they had also added a Table Service Restaurant not too many years ago to the place. (Shutters). Inside of Shutters. Tommy stopped and explained how Disney often cross sells without us even realizing it. As you can see by the picture of the Disney Cruise ship. We headed outside to take a look around, and work our way to tour a room.

A few last pictures of the room. We then headed out and worked our way towards the convention center. Many of us stopped and grabbed a quick drink of water. We peeked in a conference room. Tommy stopped to point out a few things. We must’ve taken a potty break then. I believe these are a few pictures I took as we left…I am not sure if I was randomly taking pictures, or if I was actually trying to shoot something. LOL! Something about this next picture, just made me have feelings of when I was young…it’s like it triggered a memory…but not sure what it is…but it makes me feel good. We were now on our way to Caribbean Beach Resort. I was a little disappointed that we didn’t get to see more of CSR, like the main pool, but we had very limited time at each resort, and we did see quite a bit in the short time we were there. While we traveled, Rita would get up and talk to us……usually reviewing what we had just seen, or giving us info about the next stop. And then we make it to CBR! Tommy ran into the Custom House, the main building where Guests check in. This is a separate building from the rest of the resort. While he was in there, Rita explained a bit about the Custom House, which in theory sounded good, something many places in the Caribbean have, but here …not such a great idea. Disney soon found this was kind of pain in the butt, basically. Guest complained about the distance to the “front desk”, so Disney added a Desk at Old Port Royale where guests can asks questions and get some basics services. Tommy was back soon and we drove over to Old Port Royale. Once again we gathered in the lobby area and separated into our groups.

My room mate and fellow TA, Brook, LOVES Boardwalk Inn. She has stayed a couple of times there and it's her favotite. I hope to at least tour it some day. I never even walked over there, even though I looked at it every day across the lake. I just didn't have enough time for everything...and the heat really drained me too.

Thanks!!! Those were beautiful...and I saw them all over. I wish we had some neat tropical flowers in OH, of course they would die then. LOL

We made our way over to the Casitas area. Each area/section of the resort has a slightly different theme. The Casitas were themed more to the regions urban areas, offering beautiful accommodations amidst colorful plazas, fountains, and palm-shaded courtyards. On a side note, for those who don’t know, Coronado Springs has a Northern Mexico and American Southwest theme….basically Tex Mex. I’m not sure what these plants are (I never see them around my area), but I thought they were just so cool looking and I would see them all over WDW. We headed over to Casitas one to take a look at a room. We would be touring one of the suites. The one side, was basically the suite side, and it was beautiful, the other side was extra beds, which is really like what a regular room looks like…for the most part at CSR. The little details in the room were just so neat. Here is a picture of Mindy in the mirror…..It’s kind of a cool picture…it would be really neat of her if the others weren’t in it as well. I wish I got a better picture of this light fixture. It was really neat. The lighting in the room itself made it hard to get fantastic pictures. I must add that we were a group of 21 plus Tommy, when touring these rooms, so at times it was hard to get pictures with all the people in there. Either you got pictures with others in them or you were bumping into each other…we just did the best we could. What a gorgeous bathtub….. We all made our way to the bedroom with 2 queen beds (I think they were queen, I know all Mods should have Queens in the next few years). This room is what a typical room at CRS looks like.

We then headed back inside. I think Rix Lounge is fairly newer. Tommy said they put it in because many convention goers wanted a bar/lounge to go to in the evenings. It was pretty neat looking inside too. We moved on, passing CSR’s Pepper Market. I have heard good things about this place in the past. Tommy did say it was pretty popular, and since this was a big convention center, they put in a counter service restaurant that served several items. Next we made our way over to they Maya Grill. Tommy told us about the restaurant and we all snapped pictures. The details in this restaurant were great. We next walked outside to explore some more.

I am soooo jealous!

I will warn you all now…..I took a LOT of pictures at each resort. I know that some of these places I may never get back to, or at least stay at, so I wanted to try and get as many as I could. We gathered in our groups and we started off in the lobby, while Rita’s group went off to tour the rooms. We got a bit of an overview of the resort and the theming and background as well. It was all very interesting. This resort has a Convention center and like most of the other moderates, it has a perimeter road running around the resort and a table service restaurant. We them moved outside for a bit…and the heat about knocked us over. Tommy is a Florida Native and even he complained about the heat. Tommy told us more about the resort and pointed out a few things.

No, we haven't....but we keep talking about going out there. For us, airfare there is really high, but eventually we plan to get there.

I kept working my way towards China. I guess after Japan, I didn’t take anymore pictures…… I made it to China and bought the parasol. It was quick and easy and they wrote her name on it in just a few seconds time. I then got smart…and opened the parasol and used it to shade the sun off my head as I walked back. It was kind of funny. Many people commented on what a smart thing that was as I worked my way back to Epcots back door. I stopped off for one more Photopass before I left the park. The guy joked about having a Chineese parasol with France in the background. Time to leave. I was SUPER hot…Dripping sweat, really gross hot. My feet were killing me and I had a beat read face. I just wanted to sprout wings and fly back…or maybe someone would be kind enough to carry me? Nope …neither happened, so I just kept walking. Once I made it to the Beach Club, I went inside and tried to walk back to our room using the air conditioned corridors as much as possible. I did have to go outside once or twice, but as soon as I found a door to go back indoors, I would go back in. Nothing like going to meet someone for the first time…dripping with sweat and I’m sure smelling my best as well. LOL! I got to the room and Brook, Joe and Henry were all in there. It was a great meet…like we have known each other our whole lives. Henry was just too cute. Brook informed me that Henry had spotted my carryon right away and opened it up to take a peak. LOL! Henry informed me that he had seen snacks in the bag. LOL! I told Henry I had a gift for him, and he instantly became my new best friend. I went to my big suitcase to get it out. That’s when I discovered something was wet inside there. I later figured it out. I had forgotten to close the cap of my Paul Mitchell hair lotion and it had dripped on the bottom of my case. It wasn’t bad, but strangely it did discolor my tie dye shirt that it was near….But being it was tie dye, you really couldn’t tell. Henry opened his gift. I got him a Handy Manny toy, a pez dispenser and one of the washcloths that is in a square and then when you get it wet, it expands. He quickly had Joe help him put together the Handy Mandy toy. He told us that one of his friends had the same toy too. As he played, I could see he kept eyeing my suitcase with the chips. I told him he could have a bag if his Mom said it was ok, and she did, so he had a little snack and played and talked a mile a minute. I then had him meet Phineas and Ferb. I sent one picture home for Claire. The next day my MIL asked me who Henry was, and I told her. She laughed, because she said she asked Claire who he was and she told her he was a character at Disney….Which I guess makes sense. Usually whenever Claire has seen a picture of Henry, he is at Disney…so I guess he is a character to her. LOL! Henry played with Phineas and Ferb and those boys got a lot of playtime. They were thrown and whipped all around…their idea of fun. I also had a gift for Brook. It was a t-shirt, like the one I had gotten for Tom and Karin, with a DCL picture on it. Also I had ordered us all a t-shirt with our travel agent name and logo on it. Those we had planned to get and they had paid me for them prior to the trip, so I gave that to her as well then. Brook had a gift for me as well. A black and White cookie from New York. I had never had one before, and I saved it for when I got home. It was really good, and I had to fight with Claire to eat it. LOL! She also got us each a NYC Disney pin. After a bit of chatting…and Brook calling a couple times looking for her luggage, I got changed and cleaned up a bit. Ideally, I should’ve taken another shower, but time had gotten away from us, and I was just happy to wipe the sweat off and put some fresh clothes on. Brooks luggage finally made it over and she too changed. Before long, it was time to head off to meet up with the AEP group. I knew our other 2 agents had arrived, as they had texted me during the day as well. In fact, Mindy gave me a lecture, telling me to stop marking my texts as urgent when I replied. LOL! OK, I don’t even have that feature, and I did look to be sure, again, but nope, it must be something that her phone does for me (I am important after all. LOL), because no one else was getting their messages from me marked as urgent. We made it to the lobby and saw Patty and Mindy right away and said hello. A man came over to Brook and I and checked us in and introduced himself as Tommy. He then walked off and I was kind of in my own world, just looking around, looking at other agents, and taking it all in. Brook then tells me that Patty has just told her that Tommy is the Professor. I quick take another look at him and sure enough…He is…. We have a celebrity in our mists! You are now probably wondering who the heck the “professor” is? Well to be able to sell Disney vacations, we had to take online classes at the Disney College of Knowledge (COK). We also had to be graduates in order to attend the AEP. Tommy is the Professor at the COK. We do these video classes and the professor comes back in several still shots, with these hilarious, cheesy motions, and reviews the courses and gives us quiz’s. If you do well, you get a great cheesy shot of him say congrats, if you miss a question, you get a sad face. We all laughed about these when we took the courses. They are just so funny. Tommy was that guy…and we also had another “leader” named Rita….She never made a cameo on the COK course though. Not long after getting there, I realized that I left my camera on the bed back in the room. UGH! So I ran back quickly and retrieved it. I guess I took this picture while walking back. And then I tried to get a picture of Tommy, which was really hard to do, because when he talked he moved around a lot. Soon it was time to get started and we made our way over to the bus that would take us to our first onsite inspection. We went down some hallways towards the convention center to catch the bus. That is Rita leading us…and we really walked fast….we were on a mission, no lollygagging around here. We loaded onto the bus and on the way over to Coronado Springs, we were given an introduction. I soon realized that Rita had my “Dream” job…..I wanted to be her…and I no sooner thought that, and Brook leaned over and said “I want her job”! LOL! We were told that we would be divided into two groups for the tours and those with a Mickey on the back of their name tag would be going with Tommy, while the Minnie’s would be going with Rita. We had Tommy. Before we knew it, we were pulling into CSR and Tommy got off the bus. We found out this was the routine at each resort. Tommy would get off and tell them that we had arrived and he would then get the keys to the room or rooms we would be touring. While he was checking in, we all unloaded and made our way to the lobby.

I enjhoyed it...what was nice about it is that it is different than the everyday fast service type foods a lot of places serve. I know Claire wouldn't like it, but I wouldn't heisitate to eat there again. Of course there are many other places I need to try yet.

I just want to add, I do have a blog, with pictures from the trips, as well as other stuff I take every so often. It contains a few of the older TR's as well on it. I just thought I would post the link in case anyone would like to venture over there every so often. http://jensmouseworld.tumblr.com/

The sprinkle actually felt wonderful in this 110 degree weather. It wasn’t hard at all, just a light sprinkle to cool me off a bit. I continued taking pictures with the point and shoot camera. I made it to France and took a couple pictures with Phineas and Ferb. I also asked for a magical shot. This would be cool…if I didn’t have such a creepy looking look on my face. I think I might be possessed. I also got the Grand mariner slushy. I debated between that and the Grey Goose one. The people in front of me in line also debated. I decided to go for the orange one this time and try the other next trip. Ok, the verdict is…its just OK…. Nothing to write home about. I doubt I’ll get one again…for that price at least. It wasn’t orangey enough for me. I did drink it all, it was a very hot day after all, but I just didn’t love it. At this point in time, Brook had texted me that she was making her way to the Yacht Club to check in and was going to show Joe and Henry our room as well. I told her I was ready to leave to, but had to go buy 1 more thing for Claire before I left. This is where I regretted NOT buying the parasol back when I was in China…it was a very LONG and HOT walk back there, plus my feet were hurting as well. I worked my way there though, as I wasn’t sure if I would have a chance to get it later in the trip. I did stop and ask about the ones they had in France, but it was going to be a couple of hours before they could personalize one for me there. So I just backtracked and took some pictures along the way. The rain had stopped and it was just has hot, if not hotter than before. I also stopped and had a few photopasses taken as well.

On to China…. I stopped and took a look at these parasols. They were so cute and they would write you name in Chinese for free. I thought it would nice to get one for Claire, but I decided to wait and come back. I should’ve just gotten it then. It was so hot that day and extra walking was not a wise thing to do. I spotted Mulan and took a quick picture of her while walking by. My next goal was to head towards France. I wanted to try a Grand Mariner Slushie. I took pictures on my way…..of course. This picture would be neat….if it wasn’t so dang blurry! These looked sooooo good. Good thing I was now full. I took a wander around the Christmas store…And just had to take a picture of the pickle tree. It started sprinkling then. I checked my watch…it was about 1:15….A little early for the 3 o’clock daily shower. LOL! It wasn’t much rain, but I put my SLR away and pulled out the point and shoot camera.

My destination was now in sight! Kringla Bakery….I know it’s a bakery….but what many people don’t know, is that it serves regular lunch items as well. I have read the food was good…and now I was going to find out for myself. This wouldn’t be a place Claire would chose for lunch, (she doesn’t like sandwiches) so I doubt we would’ve normally stopped here for lunch if we were all together. When I walked in, there was a gal in there wiping the condensation off the cases. ( I later {in the week}put 2 and 2 together and realized she was one of the agents at AEP) She told me not to mind her, but she writes a blog and takes pictures of food. I told her no problem, I do the same thing. So we both took some pictures of what they had to offer. I believe I got the Roastbeef sandwich and chocolate mousse, and a milk to drink. It was VERY good. It actually had a different taste, but not bad, just different. But I really enjoyed it. The mousse was very good as well. I really wanted to get mousse from France, and debated on getting it here. I decided that you could never have too much mousse and went for it. I also expected we would be having mousse that evening. We were having a dessert party in France to watch Illuminations. I was sure they would serve it….and I was wrong, so I was even more glad to have gotten the mousse for lunch. As I was finishing up, a friend came over to check things out. I took several pictures of him, because he was RIGHT next to me, but I swear they all turned out blurry or he would look the other way. It was just like taking a picture of my own child. I felt much better after eating and headed out, taking a few pictures on the way. Maelstrom had a short wait, so I got in line for that. Not a favorite of mine either, but with a short wait…why not? I got the front row of the boat to myself. A little creepy, wouldn’t you say? The ride was soon over and I made my way through the dump shop. I took some pictures of the area before moving on to China.

Yeah...Yeah, thats what I was doing. LOL

LOL! Yes it has. Life keeps getting in the way.

It was so hot out, so I decided to walk through Mousegears and cool off for a second or two. Again I pulled out the guys and took a few shots of them for Claire. I then made my way towards the Seas. I peaked in here really quick to see how long the line was….LONG…so I kept going. Of course I had to get the “Mine Mine’s”. I’m really not sure why I rode this ride. It’s not a favorite of mine at all. I usually do it for Claire. Maybe I was missing her. I am thinking I did it to fill time till my Fast Pass time was up. I wanted to head over to World Showcase soon, so I think I just decided to fill time. I did browse the dump shop and bought myself a combo pack of 2 tank tops. I wanted them in XL, but the biggest they came were L. So I got it, as the one I pulled out looked good enough….BUT I didn’t look at the 2nd one till the last day…when I wore it home. It is MUCH smaller than the first one. I’m not sure if it was labeled wrong or if it is supposed to be that way…but needless to say, I won’t be wearing it again till I lose some weight. I then went over to Soarin and used my Fast Pass. I lucked out totally!!!! I got the center, center, first row. I never had been in the center before. I LOVED it. I actually smelled the smells this time around. The first time ever I have been able to, but the other 2 times I have rode it, I have been in an end seat. It was by far the best Soarin Ride I ever had. I was starving by this time. I looked around and didn’t see anything that was nutritional in the area…and since breakfast was just 1 ½ pretzels, I thought I should eat something decent. I figured I would wait till I got to World Showcase and get something. But I had a headache from being so hungry, so I popped a few Ibuprofens to help. I wanted to do one more thing before heading to World Showcase….Captain EO. I have never seen it, and always wanted to. Back in high school (80’s) I was a HUGE Michael Jackson fan. But once he started getting weird and turning white, I lost interest in him fast. I still had that curiosity and needed to see this. I walked in as the pre-show was coming to an end. Which I didn’t mind…I was hungry after all. I have to say, I am glad I saw it, but it wasn’t anything great. And I don’t know if I had a bum pair of Glasses, but things kind of flickered every so often and it made me a bit motion sick. Probably being hungry didn’t help either. It is definitely an 80’s film. I laughed at the costumes and thought the story was just awful. But now I know what I missed all those years ago…and back then, I probably would’ve loved it. I can’t remember if I rode Figment or not. I keep thinking I did, but I didn’t write it in my notes….and I could be mixing it up with my last visit in April when I did actually ride it. I headed off to World Showcase now. I knew where I wanted to get lunch. I had read reviews, but never been there myself…and since this was a learning trip…I wanted to try a few new things. I did a quick walk through Mexico…my lunch destination was a little further away.