Hoosier Girls Invade the World---Final Thoughts---COMPLETE 7/17
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RobDVC · 06-16-2006, 03:11 PM

So far, so good! I think we can all relate to the "I'm too excited to sleep" phenomenom.

statelady01 · 06-16-2006, 08:24 PM

Dawn and Tiff,

This wonderful report is bringing back terrific memories of the first trip to WDW I took with Lynn- a few years back. Wow- some of the similarities have blown me away!

Can't wait to hear more!

loobyoxlip · 06-16-2006, 09:55 PM

Ooh, this is fun to read, Dawn. Can't wait for more [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

travismom · 06-16-2006, 10:28 PM

I love the "I'm too excited to sleep" thing. Been there - done that!!!
Great start - anxiously waiting for more.....

buzzspal2 · 06-16-2006, 10:49 PM

Great start Dawn [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] Gabe, Lisa& I check into OKW late on the 27th. I'm too excited. More please.

gwugirl03 · 06-17-2006, 03:21 AM

Great update! More please!

lauren-roxy · 06-17-2006, 09:05 AM

Great start Dawn!!! I was wondering when you were going to start this!!!!! Can't wait for more!!!!!

ariel14 · 06-17-2006, 09:00 PM

I can't wait to read more!

KandJluvdisney · 06-18-2006, 05:12 PM

we can also agree with the I'm too excited to sleep commercial
great start so far
more please

simbarel · 06-19-2006, 07:54 PM

You guys are too cute. Can't wait to read about the first adult beverage. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/toast.gif[/img]

luvnwdwgal · 06-19-2006, 09:03 PM

Hurry back with more!!! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

DawnDenise · 06-20-2006, 02:24 PM

[b]Oohhhhhh Tifffffff...where are you?????? [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

A Chance Encounter [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/love.gif[/img] and Our First Adult Beverage

We made it through the bag check and entrance without any issue. Our first task was to find to a Photopass person so we could get that little card to preserve our memories. It didn’t take us long walking up Hollywood Boulevard to find one. Of course, you gotta love the squinty eyes as we were looking directly into the sun. (And yes, those are sunglasses on top of my head.)

We next headed down Sunset to get our Rock-n-Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror fix. We scoped out the standby wait times and chose to get a fastpass for Tower of Terror and go standby for RnRC. Of course, we had to get the standard pictures.

The wait was showing 45 minutes for RnRC but I do not think it was more than 30 minutes before we were in the pre-show. Even though I absolutely love this coaster, I always get butterflies before the initial ride. We are loaded into our limo and are launched into the streets of LA. I can hear Tiff screaming, and I’m just a singing at the top of my lungs. We head out and decide to get something cool to drink as it is already hot. I grab the 24-ounce water, and Tiff goes for the frozen lemonade. We had about 2 hours before our FP opened up, so we headed over to the Magic of Disney Animation.

I had so much fun learning to draw Donald in Disneyland that it was the first stop we made once inside. They usher us in immediately and we grab some stools about three rows back. We are learning to draw Goofy this time around. As a comparison to DL, they gave about 20 minutes per session in DL and they were only giving 10 minutes per session here in WDW. It seemed a little rushed but we still enjoyed it. And here are our final drawings.

Now we take a seat on a bench to get organized again and guess who walked through the doors for a greet and meet. Come on…Guess?? Ok…well, I’ll tell you. It was Mr. Incredible. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/thewave.gif[/img] Tiff and I are pulling out our autograph books and cameras and he walks over to us. We tell him we are almost ready, and he starts motioning like we are wasting his time with his hands on his hips. I was not about to miss this opportunity.

We first have to do the “Super Hero” pose. OK…we look dorky but we don’t care. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

As we set our books down and get ready for the “normal” shot, Frozone walks in, and we ask him to join us.

So…no groping this time around but at least I got to see him. We kind of had a “Supers” sandwich going. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/roflmao.gif[/img] (Thanks for the idea Eileen!!!) Once we finish our picture taking with the men, we head down the stairs and see Mrs. Incredible. Apparently, she didn’t see us with her man. We get our books stamped and have to the pose again.

Once we said good-bye to Mrs. Incredible, we head back out into the Florida heat. We see many characters doing greets around the hat, including Daisy. We decide to go into One Man’s Dream instead. I haven’t been to this attraction since my honeymoon in 2000 so this was a very enjoyable diversion. Tiff states that she has never seen the movie at the end so we decide to stick around for it. I take many, many pictures inside the attraction but most did not come out. We are let into the theater and tears just well up as the story unfolds. All I can say is “Thank you Walt!!”. We realized our time was openng for Tower of Terror and started to head back that direction. Now, we still have a little time, so we decide to stop and see Pooh and Eeyore as the line isn’t long. As we are standing there, they switch out characters and Tigger replaced them. I hand off the Photopass card, and Tiff is really excited to see her favorite character. She tries to see if he’ll bounce with her but with the heat the best he does is a little hip bump between the two of us.

We say good-bye and boogie down to Sunset again. Our time has been open for a bit so we just walk through the queue and into the pre-show right away. We go left once we get to the boiler room and are in our elevator with in 5 minutes. We had a great ride but the sequence threw Tiff and I for a loop. We think the ride is over because they start showing the swirling picture. We look at each other smiling and all of the sudden they send us all the way to the top again and back down. It was awesome but definitely not expected.

We decide not to get any more fastpasses and head back further into the park. Tiff hasn’t met up with Sorcerer Mickey yet in her travels, so we head straight to Mickey Avenue. We walk in, and the line isn’t bad at all. My opinion is that if people want to see Mickey, this is one of those places that isn’t real popular and the line is more than reasonable. We go grab hugs from the Main Mouse himself and get our pictures taken. It’s probably one of my favorites from the trip.

Unsure of what to do next, we decide just to walk around. We hit the Streets of America and see the “Singin’ in the Rain” umbrella. Unfortunately, it wasn’t working. Trust me, Tiff jumped up and down on the trigger praying that it would cool her off.

We make our way around and decide to stop in and See the Muppets. We didn’t have to step over anybody that didn’t listen to the go all the way across directions. Our seats are on the very end though. <shrug> After an always enjoyable (and air-conditioned) show, we go to Al’s Toy Barn. There are Green Army Men everywhere but only Woody is out. We go stand in line and as Tiff and I are chatting, they switch out characters and we now have Jessie. Turn a couple pages in the autograph book and we are good to go. After we spend some time with Jessie, we make our way over to the infamous cow cart. On every trip, I get a picture here and this trip was not going to be an exception. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

We head back over to the Magic of Disney Animation to see if there were any more characters to meet. We see that they are having more classes and decide to go and learn to draw Donald again. Now I am thinking I have an advantage here as that is who I drew in DL. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/082502no_prv.gif[/img] I failed miserably. My Donald had three eyes since I messed up and could not erase. Tiff’s turned out pretty darn good though. There are no characters out and about so we head back out. We grab some more refreshing cool beverages, and Tiff asks if I had seen Voyage of the Little Mermaid. I admit that I never have and we grab a fastpass for the next show. We find a shady place to sit and talk as I was really hot for some reason.

Time passes really quickly and we walk right into the pre-show waiting area. We watch this little girl crawling on the floor in front of us in and out between her parent’s legs. She does this for I know 5 minutes. The eventually let us into the theater, and Tiff and I are on the end again. I am so thankful Tiff insisted that we go see this show. It was really neat and great for the kids. I will be dragging my DH to this show in October because he has never seen it. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/082502yes_prv.gif[/img]

We are getting close to our ADR time at Prime Time 50’s Café so we do a little window shopping. Nothing jumps out at us as a must buy so we head on over to 50’s Prime Time. We check in a little early and while Tiff goes and finds a couple of seats, I get reprimanded by the check-in girl that I need to check in right at the scheduled time. Ooookaaayyy!!! She said we wouldn’t be seated until it reached our ADR time. I say okay and go fill Tiff in on the wait time. We decide to stay in the nice air-conidtioned lobby. More than once, we thought of getting a nice refreshing adult beverage as we kept looking over to the bar but we decide to wait until we get our table.

Well, the check-in girl was not kidding when she said we were gonna wait. We watch people come and go for about 30 minutes (we checked in maybe 10 minutes early). Eventually our “cousin” calls for the Erickson kids and proceeds to walk us to our table. Being that we are just a party of two, I figured we would get a corner table somewhere but we really luck out. We get one of the cool tables for four with the TV. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/waytogo.gif[/img]

Tiff and I both know what we want to drink as we checked out the menus before hand. Mom comes by and tells us to set the table, and she’ll be right back. We do so. When she returns, she tells us the rules and then asks what we would like to drink. We both order Dad’s Electric Lemonade and water. Mom feels she has to card us (actually just Tiff but she carded me to make me feel good [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/roflmao.gif[/img]) . She returns quickly with our beverages and ask what we would like for an appetizer. Tiff decides on the Onion rings, and I go with the Caesar salad.

Now we are sitting here chatting, and I am watching Tiff go to town on her drink. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] I am alternating between the good drink and the water. We do enjoy our light-up ice cubes. They are blue, and we are able to turn them off so we can add them to our collections. Our appetizers arrive and we go ahead and order our entrees. I decide on the Traditional Meatloaf, and Tiff goes with the Top Sirloin. I am unsure of what the “root vegetable hash” is so I let Tiff explore that one. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/roflmao.gif[/img] We finish up with our appetizers, and I notice Tiff’s drink is practically gone, and she is a gigglin’ fool. The lack of sleep, the hot weather, and the alcohol was getting the better of us. I catch up rather quickly and while our entrees were being delivered, our glasses became empty.

Our meals were excellent and dessert was phenomenal. Tiff goes for the ever popular Smores and I go with a Hot Fudge Sundae. We could not resist taking pictures of each other viewing the dessert menu.

Getting every single drop of Dad’s Electric Lemonade.

We had planned to make an effort of taking pictures of our meals but only came out with dessert.

We settle the bill and being on the DDP, we only had to pay for our drinks. Tiff whipped out her DDE card so we saved on those as well. We grab a couple of more pictures. We promise “mom” that we will send her the picture of her and Tiff for her scrapbook.

We leave the restaurant around 7:30-7:45pm, way too late to make the meet at AC. . We head to Guest Services to get our room assignment so we could just take the bus to the closest bus stop instead of stopping at the Hospitality House first. We grab EMH bracelets on our way out and catch the bus to OKW.

While we are making our way back to the resort, we take a look at the map and find out which stop is best for us. We were in building 45, room 4526. South Pointe was the deciding stop. We keep calling it South Port for some reason and did throughout our stay. We take the leisurely walk back to our studio. It took us more than one try at actually finding our room as the arrows were misleading. We finally make it up the right set of stairs and into our room. We notice that our suitcases have already arrived and we make a mad dash for the thermostat as it was very muggy in there.

As the place is cooling down, I decide to take some pictures of the room. We had a view of the river from our balcony, which was very nice.

I call bell services to have our backpacks delivered to us. Once all the duties were taken care of, we decide to relax for a bit. If only I could have recorded this, it would have been priceless. The beds are kind of high off the ground. Tiff could not easily hop up on the bed so she had to take a jogging start and leap every time. The first time I saw her do it, I almost peed in my pants from laughing so hard as I was not expecting it.

We turned on the TV and ended up dosing off. Bell Services arrives and I answered the door for that. We both decided that we were not going anywhere else for the evening (darn 5:55am flight). We get unpacked and both take showers. We were both asleep by 10:30pm on our first night. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

Coming up: So how late can you be for an ADR?

simbarel · 06-20-2006, 02:46 PM

Great day, HG's. Both your Goofies came out well, and could Frozone be any cooler? [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/082502no_prv.gif[/img] Shame on you for not groping from inside the Super Sandwich. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] The room looks beautiful, I hope you share more photos of it!

statelady01 · 06-20-2006, 02:59 PM

[ QUOTE ]
If only I could have recorded this, it would have been priceless. The beds are kind of high off the ground. Tiff could not easily hop up on the bed so she had to take a jogging start and leap every time. The first time I saw her do it, I almost peed in my pants from laughing so hard as I was not expecting it.

[/ QUOTE ]

This would have made good photos. Just your description of it had me in hysterics- because that exact thing happened to me once when I was staying at a friend's house in Utah.

Great report- I am definitely going to have to check out those drawing sessions at the Magic of Animation. More, please!

tigger22 · 06-20-2006, 03:09 PM

[b]I'm here, I'm here! I will add some to the report later tonight but I want everyone to look closely at Frozone's backside. I dare say I detect a hand (the railing is black and the backround is red but there is something there - maybe it is the lighting but I think Dawn has a thing for Frozone too)! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/rofl2.gif[/img]