Part II of Day 3 HERE
We are going to the 5 pm showing of the Hoop Dee Doo Musical Revue. We've never been there, and I'm not sure how long it's going to take, especially with the internal bus that we have to take at Ft. Wilderness. We head out around 3:45 (got a text from Mare just as we left…Renee was starting to run a fever) and figure we'd let fate determine how we'll get there. As we get to the bus queue, sure enough, a Studios bus pulls up. We hop on and head over to Studios. We get off and walk all the way around from the Movies stop to the Ft. Wilderness stop. I seriously am not making this up…the second we get to the Ft. Wilderness/Wilderness Lodge stop, the bus pulls up. We get to Ft. Wilderness and hop off…Within a minute a purple internal bus pulls up. The timing of the busses was nothing short of amazing. We have plenty of time to get to Pioneer Hall, so we look around the camping areas (and saw several deer on the ride there). Sure, we could have gone to MK and taken the boat over, but where's the adventure in that?!
We check in with plenty of time to spare, so we look around a little. A CM working the DVC kiosk gives the boys a ton of stickers. We get a picture taken, and then wander around. We try to get a picture by the decorated tree, but it didn't work out. Around 4:45, I check my bathroom passport and decide to hit this one next. The boys find something to play with while waiting:
I get out at 4:50, take a breath of fresh air, and head back into the bathroom at 4:50:35.
sigh
4:57 rolls around, and they open up the doors. We are a Cat II seating but find ourselves off to the side really close to the stage (by the piano). I was really looking forward to this meal for a long time…relaxing…no theme park…drinking a couple of free beers…(initially, we were going to meet up with Kelly (daycare provider) and her crew, but they couldn't get ressies for that many people (there were originally 9 in their crew but her in-laws dropped out of the picture)). I get water to drink. The cornbread tasted fairly good (the boys loved it!) Sheri gets a glass of wine as we watch a couple nearby who are on vacation to celebrate what I think was their 50th anniversary. Normally, Sheri would be all over it telling everyone there that it was my birthday and that I should be embarrassed at every possible chance. She told a few, but she kindly left out the embarrassing me part.
The main course comes, and I simply couldn't eat much. I try to sample a little of everything when Fred decides he needs to go for a walk. I visit the bathroom again. As I walk back, I hear them calling out people who are celebrating anniversaries and birthdays. I sit down, and you could see that Sheri felt bad that I missed it. I could not have cared less. Then she says that Eric needs to go to the bathroom. Well, I had to go again immediately, so I went for trip #4 in that bathroom.
It really was pretty in there:
One of the performers came by just as I snapped this pic and honked his horn. I thought I was going to have to peel off all three of the others from the ceiling!!!
Despite Fred's best efforts, I did enjoy the show. We'll have to try this one again some other trip and not invite Fred to get the full experience. As they have another seating in something like 10-15 minutes, they shoo us out. I contemplate one final viewing of the commode here but decide that I might have a chance of making it. We again try to get a pic by the tree with all the lights on. I switch the camera to a night setting and get the usual ghost pic as I must have moved my hand when I snapped the pic (my guess is that my gut gurgled at that moment). It's right at 7:00…we planned on this being a fairly early night as the previous night was slated to be a later one. We decide that now might not be a bad time to check out the monorail resorts as the Christmas party is in full swing. We head out to the dock, and I stupidly try to reason which boat to get on: the one going to MK or the one going to the Contemp. I reason that, with the party starting, a lot of people would be trying to leave MK and using the monorails to get to the TTC. The MK line was REALLY long, and the Contemp line only had around 20 or so. If we go to the Contemp, maybe some folks will get off the monorail there, and we can have a seat. Yeah, everything is telling me to go to the Contemp.
We hop out of the MK line and over to the Contemp line. As we do that, we see the light of a boat…it's our boat. It's jammed, however, likely with people coming in for the next Hoop Dee Doo show, or so I thought. It came from Wilderness Lodge…the boat docks, and only 10 or 12 people hop off. The MK boat arrives a minute later, as people start boarding the Contemp boat. Only about 15 people could get on that boat (we weren't close). Nearly everybody gets off of the MK boat, which, of course, means that almost the entire line waiting for that boat gets on (yeah, we would have gotten on).
So much for my reasoning.
Both boats leave.
Silence.
…Of course, the next boat that arrives is going to MK. Nice, empty line over on the other side of the dock.
Insert sound of crickets chirping
The group in front of us was a rambunctious family that was having fun. They get the dock in a chorus of Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, with a family behind us doing the improv ("…the red-nosed reindeer (reindeer)"). My parents text me, and I carry on a conversation with them. I almost feel like a Millennial.
Wait….is that a spot in the distance?
Could it be…?
Maybe please???
IT IS!!!!! A BOAT TO THE CONTEMP!!!!!
As it approaches, the driver is quizzing the patrons on the boat with Disney Trivia. As it prepares to dock, he asks what Mickey's name originally was. A bunch of folks shout out incorrect answers. He calls out to us on the dock, "Anyone up there know it?"
Trivia? Oh yeah! "Mortimer!" I yell out.
"And that would be correct! It was Walt's wife who came up with the name Mickey…"
I got a fist-bump by the family in front.
It docks, and, once again, only a handful gets off the boat. The big family hops on, and we anxiously await to see if there's room. THERE IS! We hop on, and, within a couple of minutes, we're on our way. The captain continues on with his quizzing, and I have to bow down to a couple of folks on the boat who made me look like a chump when it comes to Disney trivia. One of them knew Donald Duck's middle name. Another one failed to fall into the trap of naming the first cartoon showing Mickey Mouse. Most, including me, shouted out "Steamboat Willie" as the answer, but this one guy near the front calmly said "Plane Crazy", which was correct.
Part IV HERE
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