Driving Karen nuts in 10 rides or less **Updated 2/18** COMPLETE About This Page:

[LLaffinPlace]

Originally Posted by Caldercup

But, the single best thing about the whole night was what Bob and Larry did for us all next. They told us that they’d worked and worried and slaved over an idea they’d had. Charmed by the special event pins that they’d gotten from Disney for all the special tours and events they’d done over the years, they wanted to have something like that for our event – the first ever Bob and Larry Dining Experience.

Look – just LOOOOOOK – at what they came up with!



I can’t even tell you how blown away I was by this – and it was not only beautiful, thoughtful and touching, but it took a lot of advanced planning and painstaking attention to detail. Simply, simply amazing.

Bob and Larry, you two are some of the nicest, most sincere, most delightful people I’ve ever met. You totally knocked my socks off and I’m still floating on a lovely memory of “good friends, good food” that will stick with me for the rest of my days. Seriously – that was a highlight of my whole life!

To quote Buddy the elf – “I know I sound like a broken record but we are buddies. You’re my best friend, that’s it.”

Well, now I am getting verklempt! Such sweet things you said. <Sniffle> I cannot imagine a nicer or more wonderful group of people to share that meal with. Thank you so much for giving us that privilege.

Needless to say, all our agonizing over the pin [Is is too cartoony? Did we get all the elements we wanted in it? Can you recognize the toasting smilie? Should the background be silver?] was worth every minute. We really worried whether y'all would like it or not! It was definitely a highlight of my life, too!

BTW, we actually had more words that we were going to use: Good Friends, Good Food, Good Wine, Good Times. But there wasn't enough room. Obviously we were on the same wavelength as Karen and my eyes practically bugged out when I saw what she sent Jill. And yes, a pin went into Karen's box and we plan to collect on it by sharing a meal with her!

Here is the artwork:


What a wonderful, magical night that was!

[LLaffinPlace]

Originally Posted by chris889

Okay, I have only lurked here and this is my first post, but I just wanted to say that I saw you all at Artist's Point and you were having such a wonderful time. My best friend and I had left the kids with the husbands and were out for the night and you guys cracked us up! Good to see grown-ups so thoroughly enjoying themselves. We wondered what the crowns were for, figured it had something to do with Mousefest!

Uh, oh--witnesses!

Chris, I laughed and laughed when I saw this post. I am glad that we did not make ourselves too obnoxious. We DEFINITELY enjoyed ourselves!

[Caldercup]

Larry, you should know that I made a very special presentation of the pin in Karen's box -- I had a printout of our ADR from the concierge folks and folded it carefully to show the ADR info and then attached the pin to that. The whole thing was then wrapped up and nestled in the box in the place of honor.


Eileen

[Minnie Lor]

That is the coolest pin! It sounds like it was a fabulous night for everyone.

[DrDolphin]

Wonderful update!! Ap is one of my 2 fave WDW restaurants - and Bob and Larry - PLEASE add me to the list of people that want to dine with you!!! It sounds like such an educational and magical time!! I have drooled over many a B/L food TR that someday I want to get a chance to enjoy a meal with you two.

[mcc0313]

What a wonderful evening, not only did the meal sound surpurb (see I am trying new description words) but the company, the wine...the pins (what a great surprise and wonderful gift from Bob and Larry - just dining with them must have been the most amazing experience - I live for their reviews - The NY Times needs to hire them now!!!)

Anyway....I cannot even imagine your comment but Eileen covering her head with a napkin, it must have been a real doosy - look at what that wine did to you

I read Jill's version earlier and I will say the same thing here...this evening, I don't know what could beat it, it sounded amazing - and the "Elijah" seat for Karen, I am sure that she was feeling the love all the way in CA!!!

[mousestruck]

OK, first "Tiara Envy," complements of Joan, and now "Pin Envy"!!! Those pins are truly incredible and just such a special tribute to such a special friendship.

[clio]

What a wonderful meal you guys had with great friends. The pin is beautiful. Can't wait to read more.
Liz

[WDWfan]

Originally Posted by LLaffinPlace

Needless to say, all our agonizing over the pin [Is is too cartoony? Did we get all the elements we wanted in it? Can you recognize the toasting smilie? Should the background be silver?] was worth every minute. We really worried whether y'all would like it or not! It was definitely a highlight of my life, too!

Here is the artwork:


What a wonderful, magical night that was!

Larry - There was no need to worry. The pin is perfect! Everyone I've shown it to has been amazed - as I was that night! Again - I want to add my thanks to you and Bob for both the pin and the wonderful evening.

[MaryEL8775]

I wanna sign up for the Bob & Larry Dining Experience too...

[Grammy Grumpy]

OK, all caught up again. This TR has had me laughing, and crying. What an awesome group of people you all are. For the most part DH and I have been fortunate to meet and greet most of those mentioned in this TR, all except Bob and Larry! Looks like I need to plan a trip to Mousefest 2009!

Keep it up, need to hear more!

[pamcarey]

I was just as blown away reading your description of the Bob and Larry Dining Experience as I was reading it in Jill's TR. Just awesome! And there are no words to describe how absolutely incredible that pin is!! Sounds like a night of a lifetime!

[mcc0313]

Originally Posted by MaryEL8775

I wanna sign up for the Bob & Larry Dining Experience too...

[I live with a 'Stitch'!]

Miss Eileen~ I must thank you for such a delightful, entertaining recounting of your trip! It has done wonders for keeping me awake at work at 2:30 in the morning as I wish and dream I was there with you all!

[Caldercup]

Sunday - December 14th

On our very sleepy, slightly inebriated bus ride home from Artist’s Point the night before, Jill and Sharon and I strategized how best to taunt our commando (and not-so-commando-but-pretending-to-be-commando) blog commenters with updates on this, our first **real** day of touring the parks. We had crazy ideas of sending totally random pics of the various merchandise and food options, the inside of all the rest rooms in the parks, the faces of total strangers with whom we’d pretend to have spent hours in conversations.

Unfortunately, I didn’t want to waste ACTUAL time perpetrating this little joke, so had to settle with a short bit of “psych!” blog updates.

Of course, we started our morning with a brief stop at the Concierge Lounge to carbo load on cinnamon rolls, fruit and coffee – I may have even supplemented with a croissant, just for the extra boost in energy!

We headed down to the buses and I sent off the first update:



We arrived just as the opening ceremony was starting up:



I “set up” the joke by having the ladies stretch like Karen and Sharon did on their Rock Stars 5-Parks Challenge in June.



Since Thom hates Stitch's Great Escape so much, I sent a fake-out blog update saying that we’d gotten our first FP of the day --- for STITCH!! (Of course, at this point, we were racing over to Splash and Big Thunder.)

Just as we came across the wooden bridge, who did we see but Sharon’s buddy, Goofy, standing with no one around him. She raced up to him and had a “standard” meet-n-greet picture taken with him. Then we told Goofy that we were playing a trick on someone and needed his help! He understood right away what we needed.

<-- I just love the total acting job all three of them did for this pic!

We nabbed FPs for Splash and then got in line at Big Thunder – basically it was a walk on. In fact, I was madly trying to set up a tease on the blog. I pulled up a pic of IASW from my phone’s gallery of earlier photos and sent this off with news that IASW was our “first ride of the day”:



Then I took a pic of Jill and Sharon, who sat in front of me in the BTMRR seat (I was in the back row).



Yipes – my cell reception was not great at the mo’ and the upload was taking freakin' forever... so, after feeling the train start to pull out of the station, I (of course) stuck out my tongue and put my phone in the air. As always, it worked and the pic finished uploading just as the train was climbing the first hill.

Man, oh man! Was the water mist running EXTREMELY moist! I heard Jill yelp a moment before I felt the full force of the water myself. I was totally soaked for a few seconds!

We wanted to hold off on Splash for a bit, so ran off towards Liberty Square with our FPs safely stored away.

We made a quick stop at the “Fun Jail”



There was no line at Haunted Mansion, so we were in our doombuggies in next to no time. (I seem to remember getting to ride this with Jill.)

We passed into Fantasyland by the Columbia Harbour House and I, of course, needed to visit one of my fav rest rooms. For Karen/Sharon’s sake, we set up this one…

<-- I just love how wonderfully-framed this whole thing is. Like it “tells the story” to perfection!

We checked out the line for Peter Pan’s Flight and it wasn’t too bad – maybe about 12 minutes. The whole way through the line, Sharon and Jill were discussing the merits of people-watching the loading zone to see how many guests banged their heads on the sail at the back of each “boat.”



Sharon and I sat together and I peeped underneath the sail behind me to make a snarky comment to Jill about not banging her head. Which gave me the PERFECT view ... [wait for it] ...of Jill banging her head on the sail.

Oh, the irony!!

Around this time, I got texts from Larry and Lesley and Joan. I texted like mad and we determined that we’d hook up with Bob & Larry at Mickey’s Philharmagic. A few minutes later, we were in the venue and waiting for Minnie to direct us inside.



Love that show – totally LOVE THAT SHOW!

As we rounded the corner towards Cosmic Ray’s, Sharon wanted to stop for a drink and Larry (my wonderful “bladder buddy,” Larry ) wanted a bio break. I took advantage of the stop, even though I took crud from Sharon for doing so. Hey, when given the opportunity, I’m “going.”

There was a bit of a text flurry going on and I think we met up with Christine and Aimee at this point. (They had done the Mini-Mouse Adventure and realized that 1) it was incredibly hard and 2) they were on vacation and didn’t need the aggravation. I took one look at the questions being asked for this trivia game and felt my brain crack.)

We grabbed FPs for Space Mountain and headed over to Buzz. We ran into Don (duckaddict) and he joined in on our fun.

I think I ended up sitting with either Bob or Aimee… but… well… I can’t remember. At least it wasn’t Karen so I was safe from possible injury. (Ya know I wrote that for her benefit – her comments on the blog about this same ol', tired tease were very, very funny to me.)

<-- I took that to document where we were.

We didn’t have any major stops, but I still managed to do fairly well, score-wise. Sharon, however, blew us all out of the water and had a wicked awesome score.

<-- It’s hard to see, but she had 692,000!

Then we headed into the Laugh Floor and met up with Terri and Sarah (and Evan.) I tried to send a joke to Buddy Boyle, but I can never think of one at that exact moment, so I keep sending the same lame one. (I’m sure the CMs backstage see my “What school did Sherlock Holmes go to?” joke and roll their eyes. “Crud, that weirdo 'Eileen' is back with her lame joke.”

Whatevs.

[the answer is “elementary school, my dear.”]

I had a rough idea of where they tend to pick “That Guy” from for the show, so I made sure that Larry and Bob were in the seats in front of the lights in one of the front rows in "house right." Shoot... it didn’t work to get one of them selected for “That Guy” (he was selected from two rows behind them), but Bob got to be Sully and made some fierce faces (with flashes of his inherently sweet smile mixed in. )

But… guess who got to interact with Buddy Boyle? Lil’ ol’ me… me, ME, ME!!

Lordy Lou, but was that funny.

If you don’t know how this goes down, I’ll fill you in. The person picked to “psyopathetically” send a random number to Buddy has to pick the number and then, while Buddy closes his eyes (so he “can’t hear the number”), send him intense thoughts of the number.

I picked 147. Except… well… my voice was shot from talking and laughing and screaming the past few days. So, when I went to say “One Hundred Forty Seven” into the mic, nothing came out the first time I tried to speak. To be clear and to make sure the sound came out, I carefully said “one-four-seven” as separate words so the audience would understand me.

Then Buddy had me put my fingertips to the sides of my temple and think of the number harder. (You need to realize that, at this point, my face was being projected up onto the screen in front of the stage – me with my croaky voice and my fingers up against my temples while a CM held a microphone up to my face. Oy!)

Buddy had me move my fingers up higher onto my head “to get better reception.” A little higher... a little higher....

Can you see where this is going?

Yep, I grabbed my cell phone, stuck out my tongue and held it over my head. The entire row of PassPorters shouted with laughter. Out of the corner of my eye, I suddenly saw my friends drop to their knees on the floor in front of me, cameras out and clicking away, making sure to capture this moment for posterity.

Buddy found it kind of funny and told me to put the cell phone on top of my head and then to extend my index fingers on either side of it – yep… the number was coming in clearer now!



Finally, he announced “147” and then gave me a hard time for choosing three different numbers rather than one single number between 1 and 6 million – as he’d told me to.

Fun times… fun times!

Even Evan got into the act when they pointed him out on screen for being so cute!

The only sad moment for me was when Roz did her long stare at the audience – I always hear Karen’s almost continuous, nervous giggling at this point. Sigh… I missed my friend so much.



Sharon needed to meet up with her Mom and Dad (who had just arrived in Orlando) so she headed out. (or... was she with us thru lunch and *then* left. <<shrug>> Oh well, I'm sure she'll correct me if I'm wrong. )

A bunch of us headed off to Cosmic Ray’s for lunch -- Bob and Larry, Aimee, Christine, me, Jill and Don – and had good food and good conversation, sitting out on the porch facing the castle.

Up next: some tiara envy with JoanW and the gang!