The Wacky Hijinks of the Crazy Lady Trio at Mousefest **Updated 3/10** - Page 28 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
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There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
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To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
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So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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The CLT has had me in stitches for half the day as I was catching up--at least on this TR.
WHAT A HOOT!
I told Bob at lunch today that we really must contrive to be at WDW sometime when the CLT is in residence. I also said I wasn't sure I would be able to keep up with you especially drink for drink.
Anyway, thanks and keep up the snarky... I mean the GOOD work!
I have finally felt sufficiently non-guilty to read other trip reports, when really I should be updating my own, and I discovered that I actually took up a whole two paragraphs of a Princess Sharon trip report, several updates ago. I am suitably honoured. And humbled.
Lovin' the trip report. I especially loved the Eileen / Karen 'separated at birth' photo.
First I'd like to say to Eileen, that your drowned rat picture is the best drowned rat picture I've ever seen. Seriously, when I come off that ride, I AM a drowned rat.
Great update Sharon! Thanks for filling us in on all the details. Glad you suckered Eileen into the very front seat. Your pictures of the Osbourne lights and Fantasmic are fabulous, as always. And don't worry about not waiting up for Karen - I went to bed early one night in Las Vegas (early in Vegas = 3:00 am). I woke up at 9:30 the next morning, and my friends were gone. I assumed they had already headed down to the pool. Nope! They had not gotten in yet. I found them glassy-eyed at the slot machines. Oh well, I ain't your mama.
Day Four – Saturday, December 8 A Chance to Ride My Tower (Finally!)
It was EMH at the Studios, and since I’d yet to ride my beloved Tower, we were headed there bright and early. Of course our first stop once we arrived was TOT. The standby was listed as 13 minutes, which means of course a walk on.
Over at RNRC, the standby time was only 5 minutes, so we queued up, but not before grabbing FPs for later. My notes say I rode with Eileen, but I don’t remember where we were in the train.
Eileen had some shopping or something she needed to do, so while she took care of that, Karen and I hit the Tower. I made a few purchases in the gift shop and had them sent back to the room. I got a keychain for the Illuminations Key Chain meet, and the TOT version of Clue.
Karen grabbed 3 more FPs for TOT while I shopped some more. I needed to pick up the 4 For a Dollar a/k/a Return to Zero CD for my DN Erica as a Christmas gift. Every stinkin’ time we go to DHS, she thinks about buying the CD, and every stinkin’ time, she gets cheap and decides not to get it. So I got it for her. The CM at the kiosk asked me if this was my first visit. I get that question a lot. And then I’m like, no this is my 27th visit, and then the CM looks at me like I’m insane.
This CM actually encouraged me to get a job with Disney. He told me that after an initial period (I forget how long, but I want to say a month), I can work only 2 days a year as a seasonal CM, and still get all the CM benefits. It’s certainly something to consider!
The CLT reunited and decided it was time to find food. I suggested Starring Rolls, but it was mobbed in there so we went with Plan B – The Writer’s Stop. On the way, we saw Minnie was up to her old tricks i.e. hanging out with Goofy. They both had on holiday themed outfits, but different than what we’d seen them in before. We got in line for a photo, but they went on a break, so we decided to come back later.
The Writer’s Stop was quiet and we got our breakfast. I wanted OJ, but they didn’t have any, so I had to get some at the ABC Commissary. Eileen mentioned that she’d never done Sounds Dangerous and even though she wasn’t missing much, I decided that she should at least try it once. I don’t actually remember what she thought of it. Eileen, how’d you like it?
We got back to the Hat in time to catch the tail end of HSM. Once that cleared out, the characters were due back. We lined up and were able to get our photo.
Maybe this is why Mickey won’t commit.
We had FPs for RNRC and TOT, but Eileen opted out, so we agreed to meet up with her after our rides. Karen and I used the first two RNRC together and then Karen wanted to try the single riders line, so she did that while I used the other FP. And can you believe we ended up being placed together! I think they could tell Karen was from California, and thus, a weirdo, and saw me, the weirdo magnet and that’s why they put us together. No offense to anyone from California – weirdo or otherwise.
We also had 3 TOT FPs to use between the two of us. Karen and I went together, then she graciously allowed me to use the remaining FP. Graciously allowed, wasn’t given a choice. Same difference!
We picked up Eileen, then walked over to catch Voyage of the Little Mermaid. For some reason, I got pretty wet this time. Here are a few of the photos that turned out OK.
This actually reminds me that I really want to see The Little Mermaid on Broadway. Who wants to come with?
It was time to head over to the Mega Mouse Meet, so we caught the boat to the Swolphin. There were other Mousefesters heading to the MMM, so we followed them into the Dolphin. I personally don’t care for the look of the Swan or the Dolphin from the outside, but inside, the Dolphin is nice (well, except for the circus tent ceiling – what’s up with that? ) They had a gorgeous poinsettia tree in the lobby.
You can see the circus tent ceiling
We made our rounds at the MMM and said hello to all the PassPorters who were either manning the PP booth or checking out the other tables. I don’t have any photos – come to think of it, I didn’t take very many photos that morning at all. Once we were done at the MMM, we grabbed a taxi back to the WL. It was actually a towncar, and it cost us $20 plus tip.
Back at the WL, we discovered that the CM knew that Eileen was a Minnie fan.
Eileen thought it was more likely that the Mousekeeper had seen my princess pillowcases and thought there were little girls in the room. Little girls at heart, definitely! We took a break while Eileen did her laundry.
It was nearing the time for our Mystery Adventure, but Eileen’s clothes were still drying, so Karen and I headed to Epcot to meet the rest of our cast while Eileen stayed behind to finish her laundry.
It took forever for a bus to come, only because we were in a hurry. In fact, as we were pulling out of the WL, another bus to Epcot was arriving. Karen talked to Scarlett (Disney Scarlett) and told her to meet us at Mexico, but not to get a margarita. I’m thinking when Scarlett was in elementary school, she always got a “Needs Improvement” in the Follows Directions category, because when we met up with her, she had a margarita!
This was our first time meeting Scarlett, but it felt like we were old friends. She’s fun and funny and charming and lovely, with the most awesome accent! And despite my crack about not following directions, she seems like she’s really smart!
Karen also talked to Dawn and Tiff and told them to meet us by the International Gateway. While we waited for Eileen, we learned about the Secret Quest. Eileen, being the PhotoShop Queen, has all the cards and the rules of the Quest, so I’ll leave that to her to post. The long and short of it was this:
We had $55 to spend, and we had to buy a food or beverage item in every WS country. The beverage had to be alcoholic, and we weren’t able to get more than 3 food items. If we ran out of cash, well, someone had to ask a CM for a kiss (which cheek was not specified ). To help with potential language barriers, Karen had provided cards in all the languages of the WS countries, courtesy of her colleagues at Stanford.
Scarlett already told the tale with much more wit and savvy than I can in her long-neglected Holiday Hootennanies TR, so go ahead and read it now if you haven’t already. Dawn also chimed in with her humorous account of the festivites, so you need to read that one, too. We’ll wait.
OK, now that you know what happened, I’ll post my pictures. I don’t have any pictures of Tiff to post, because for some reason, all the pics I took of her came out – not good. Trust me, Tiff, it’s better this way!
So we started out in Canada, figuring we wanted to end with the margaritas in Mexico (and Dawn & Tiff had an ADR there, while the CLT had one in Germany). We got a beer, and Scarlett eagerly accepted the “beer girl” position.
“This is gonna be easy!”
Eileen was a total baby about it.
“Beer is yucky!”
Dawn was a lot more mature.
“Tastes like beer”
We ended up with some chocolates in France. I scarfed one of them down (hey – I needed to do my part since I also think beer is yucky). Eileen had the other.
We got baklava in Morocco, and I think we all had some of it. Including Tiff, who isn’t in any of my photos. Tiff, if you want, I can post the best shot of you I took. I can PM it to you for pre-approval.
In Japan, we got the plum wine. The CM was so tiny she could barely see over the counter. Because of this, she thought I looked young. She asked for my ID, which caused quite a stir among our little group. When the CM saw my actual age, she apologized profusely to me. Kinda takes the fun out of it when after asking for ID, the asker goes “Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry! You’re an old bat, but you look so young!” And how old am I actually? Never you mind!
As we were running out of cash, we needed to plan out where we might find the best looking CMs to hand the kiss cards. It was decided that Italy and Norway would be good cruising grounds.
Scarlett found a cute CM in Italy and handed him the card.
“Six crazy women are smiling at me expectantly. I’ll just smile back politely.”
When he realized what the card Scarlett handed him said,
“Sweet! I get to kiss her!”
Someone else has the actual kiss picture. After the kiss, I got a photo of Scarlett with the kiss card.
“I’m totally bringing this with me every time I come to Epcot!!”
In all the confusion, we still ended up spending some of our dough and got the fabulous Italian margarita, which I kind of (totally) bogarted.
This was the only taste Dawn had until her next trip!
We discovered a new Epcot lush club favorite that day. I still think of that limoncello masterpiece and sigh. How many days before I get another one? {{checks countdown clock}} 28. And not soon enough!
Back to the drinking.
“This beer doesn’t taste all that bad! Hic!”
In China, we got our final food item, an egg roll. Someone who may or may not have recently been hiccupping may or may not have done something inappropriate at the time and there may or may not be photographic evidence of it, but we have to have some secrets!
In Norway, we scoped out someone to get the kiss card, but he wasn’t at all a good sport and declined to participate. Here’s a picture of him. (The likeness wasn’t as accurate as I wanted, so I edited it a bit. Forgive me, but I’m not the PhotoShop genius Eileen is).
“I hope my pointed tail isn’t showing. And where did I leave my trident?”
We did find a CM in Norway who was willing to play along, but again, I don’t have that photo. When we got to Mexico, we got our margaritas, and our fabulous prizes. Here’s a photo I recently took of it.
It’s practically a travesty that I filled it with cranberry juice instead of an actual margarita, but that’s the darkest beverage I had on hand at the time, and I wanted the etching to show in the photo.
Karen, you are all kinds of awesome for coming up with this fantastic adventure (and paying for both the drinks and the fabulous prizes). You rock my socks right off my feet! And to the other participants – Scarlett, Dawn, Tiff, and Eileen – it wouldn’t have been the same without ya!
Up Next: Meeting PassPorters Wherever We Go
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Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
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