The Bottomless Pit conquers the world....one bite at a time

[Chellymouse]

It's Friday and I can honestly say, we were a little tired. We had pulled FP for RNR, TOT an ST starting at 10:55am, but we didn't set the alarm. The pit was growling so I was up just a little before 10, however, the squatch was sawing logs. I'm surprised our neighbors didn't complain about the noise! I grabbed my electronic leash and found we could reschedule all of our FP for today, tomorrow so I made the FP for Saturday and cancelled ours for this morning. Left the squatch a note in case he woke up and walked up to AP for my waffle and bacon and brought back a bagel and Danish for the my squatch. I ate my breakfast on the balcony and finally at 11am, I decided the squatch needed to come out of his cave. After a few growls, he did arise and get ready for the day. We decided to head to BB (rain make up) where the weather was perfect and the slides were excellent! I was cheated out my Summit Plummet last December so I was pleased to see it up and running. the squatch, as always, said, "I'll watch" and soon I was rushing down the slope to meet him. We played in the water for a couple of hours. We were getting hungry and I had not had the Earl all week! We dried off, grabbed our stuff and our doughnuts and walked out just as the bus was pulling up. We went home, showered and cleaned up and walked over to the Earl for lunch. The Squatch was not pleased the cannonballs were no longer on the menu so he tried a buffalo chicken sandwich while I chowed down on a holiday sandwich. Finally full, we made our way to the bus stop and grabbed a bus to the Beach Club so we could walk to Epcot for the evening.

Up next, a crazy and wild Friday night!

 

[nrexxma44]

Love your trip report...it sounds like you had a fabulous time!!! Can't wait for the next installment
What kind of camera do you have the pics are great, my favorite one is the one by Rapunzel

 

[Tomstogs]

Fantastic

 

[Chellymouse]

Love your trip report...it sounds like you had a fabulous time!!! Can't wait for the next installment
What kind of camera do you have the pics are great, my favorite one is the one by Rapunzel

Hello! thanks for following along! We have a Nikon D5100 that is now 2 years old and just before this trip, invested in a new Tamron multi-purpose 18mm-270mm lens. I am shocked at how much our pictures have improved with the new lens. We did have a great time, minus a few hiccups with that dreaded FP+, but overall, definitely a great trip!

 

[Chellymouse]

Fantastic

Thank you

 

[SSRmonkey]

Your excellent adventures are making me homesick. Sounds like round two of MNSSHP was a success! Did you set a trap for Cruella outside? Here, let me lure you outside to see the puppies...I think there may have been a devious plan there. At least there would have been if I was with you!

Beautiful pictures of 7LPMT. I think we will give it a go during the daytime sometime. Maybe it wil be more worth the wait.

Great fireworks shots!

I almost bought you a Mickey waffle maker yesterday...they are selling them at Wal Mart. Then you could make your own at home! Probably wouldn't be the same though.

Glad the Squatch patrol didn't catch him sawing logs. And I'm glad you got your holiday from Earl!

Staying tuned...

 

[Chellymouse]

Your excellent adventures are making me homesick. Sounds like round two of MNSSHP was a success! Did you set a trap for Cruella outside? Here, let me lure you outside to see the puppies...I think there may have been a devious plan there. At least there would have been if I was with you!

Beautiful pictures of 7LPMT. I think we will give it a go during the daytime sometime. Maybe it wil be more worth the wait.

Great fireworks shots!

I almost bought you a Mickey waffle maker yesterday...they are selling them at Wal Mart. Then you could make your own at home! Probably wouldn't be the same though.

Glad the Squatch patrol didn't catch him sawing logs. And I'm glad you got your holiday from Earl!

Staying tuned...

Thought about a trap until she was ready to take Ralph out for barging in! She wasn't very pleased I tricked her into a picture! I'm now wondering if we could have kidnapped her???

Honestly, 7LPMR is just that, a cute little ride. I highly doubt daylight would make much difference, unfortunately. Definitely not worth over an hour wait.

Thanks! We definitely put the camera through it's paces this time around.

We actually have a Mickey waffle iron and it's the second one because I wore the first one out. I have the recipe for the batter served at the parks, but I also do a banana-pecan waffle. I'm thinking of trying the savory waffle from F&W festival in it. You should get one!

Speaking of staying tuned......anxiously waiting for your statute of limitations to run out!

 

[Chellymouse]

Friday night continued.....we hopped a bus to the Beach Club and went to the back door of Epcot and headed straight to France.

We keep having the debate about trying the escargot one of these years....suffice it to say, the debate will continue. Beef Bourguignon, crème brulee and slushy! The crème brulee was a little rich, almost like melted caramels, would much rather have the chocolate. The beef was very good, almost as good as mine and oh heaven! That slushy was heaven in a glass! Next stop was Japan. We tried the steamed bun with chicken, at least, we think it was chicken not good. So, usually, we try something with sake and we made the mistake of asking about the peach sake gel. The CM said, oh it's like a jello shot. Ok, jello shots do not come in a can that one has to shake vigorously before pouring. I can honestly say, that is one of the grossest things the pit has ever ingested. It was like slurping curdled jelly. I can hardly describe the sheer grossness of it. The Squatch, after trying it and also declaring it's grossness, put his finger in it and it was the consistency of snot. Yuck-o. No thank you! Off to Hops and Barely with us!
Beef slider was dry as a bone, but the carrot cake was really tasty. I'm usually not one to turn down a lobster dish, but the baked lobster alfredo looked very scary. Scarier than me first thing in the morning and after having just tried something very gross in Japan, decided to pass on the lobster. The Squatch had a sampler of Sam Adams. I helped! After we finished our treats, it was time to head toward the finish line. Next stop is Italy, where we pretty much needed a team of servers to help! The ravioli, the chicken, the cannoli, a prosecco and pinot grigio for the pit and the moretti lager and lo rossa for the squatch. Thankfully, we found a spot on the stairs which lead to nowhere and while two fisting my drinks while enjoying my feast, rocked out to some Sister Christian by Nightranger. We couldn't see them, but we could hear them. So, there's a group of what we assume are college kids, who cannot figure out "who the heck is this band?" on one side of the stairs as our side of the stairs is singing "motorin'....what's your price for flight" ok, ok, no more singing, I promise. Good times, now I feel very old. We had fun with those who knew who Night Ranger was and the college kids who are now thinking us "old people" probably need naps and some water! One stand to go, New Zealand. Tried both the lamb meatball and the vension sausage, the squatch liked the food better. Too gamey for my tastes. The Kim Crawford pinot noir was also a little disappointing. Finally, having completed our passport, we made our way up to the festival center for our coveted completion stamp, stopping along the way for our post-feast/beverage fest pic!

The squatch now has a stroke of brilliance, let's go see F! again! Um...ok! I find we are able to have FP, so I snag 2 FP and we continue to make our way to the festival center. We received our done stamps then the Squatch says, let's see if the wine you've wanted is back in stock. It is! Now here's the dilemma, buying wine now means a quick run back to SSR and do we have enough time. Yup! wine was purchased and out the bus stop we go! for us, SSR bus is pulling up as we are scurrying to the stop. hop on the bus, off at CP, up to the room, quick break and drop off of stuff we don't need and back to the bus stop in under 20 minutes. Just as we were arriving at the bus stop, the DHS bus was coming from the Paddock stop! We make our way over to the studios, visit a few shops on the way in and head over to F! Thankfully, we were able to sit in our "regular seats", section Sorcerer Mickey, row N on the end. Ahhh....all is right in the world. Had just enough time to grab a popcorn for us to share and a couple of drinks. After F! We stopped back in the couture shop so I can buy a skirt. it's cute and I can wear it to work. We also took, as we know now, our final pictures at night in front of the hat!

We decided we were kind of hungry and not ready to go in, so we, hopped a bus home, dropped off park bag in the villa then went over to DTD in search of the food trucks. Well guess what, no food trucks! We were so excited and the whole area was blocked off with "coming this fall" boo! We thought about stopping at Splitsville, however, so did many other people and there was a bit of a wait. We wandered through the construction maze and just couldn't find anything we really wanted to eat, so finally in the Marketplace...score! the food trucks....NOT! They had just closed for the night.....rats! We settled on sundaes from Ghiradelli and then walked home for the night!

Up next, our last full day

 

[Chellymouse]

Cue the waterworks, whining and begging to stay another week, it's our last full day. We were up at a reasonable hour and the bargaining begins. Ok, if we pack some now, we don't have to come in later and we can stay out later. After getting ready for the day, we did pack a good bit up. Off to AP for my waffle and bacon, make that 2 because the squatch was hungry this morning. After breakfast, it was off the studios.

We took off for ST and had planned to go twice, but again, by the time we were off, the wait was up to 40 minutes. We stopped for a daylight photo in front of the hat.

We wandered around a few shops and headed over to RNR where we find RNR is down. WHAT???????????? NOOOOOOO! This is why I hate FP+. We have been here for 9 days and this is the first time we can finally get on RNR. We needed a snack, so we had some ice cream, hopeful RNR would reopen. By the time we had finished our ice cream and cleaned up, RNR was back open! Whew! While in line, I noticed the single rider line wasn't too bad and the squatch didn't mind if I rode twice, however, we could tell something was off, so I decided not to chance it. It was time for TOT so after we rode, we decided to head over to MK as I had been wanting to see the new 3 o'clock parade.
I'm definitely enjoying not having to transfer at the TTC and soon, we were pulling into MK. We had planned on getting some lunch, which wound up consisting of Dole Whips, popcorn and a Mickey pretzel. We stopped at a kiosk and grabbed a FP for POTC for after dinner. It was difficult trying to get the CM to understand, we do not want one for now, we want it for later. Finally, we made our way over to where we watched the Halloween parade. Definitely a good spot. I enjoyed the new parade, the squatch did not. Here are some parade pics

After the parade, we had about an hour to enjoy the park before we had to leave for dinner and all I can say is holy crowded MK, Batman! Not a single ride had a wait time under 50 minutes. We walked past the country bear jamboree, this is one of the few things we have never done at MK, we decided not to break that tradition, despite a short wait. We were also roasting as it was quite a bit warmer than we'd expected so we wound up enjoying the Philharmagic for a second time. By now, it was late enough to start making our way toward the monorail, we visited the shops on Main St and headed up to the monorail and over to the Poly for an early dinner at Kona. My word the Poly is a mess! Can't wait for that to be done. We had a great meal at Kona and soon headed back to MK.
Up next, our last night "home" and closing down MK, or so we thought!

 

[Chellymouse]

Our last MK evening. We hopped on the monorail for our last ride of this trip....please stand clear of the door, por favor mantangenase alejedo des las puertas. (apologies to any friends following who are fluent in espanol for my butchering of the proper spelling) We arrive back at MK and boy is it busy. Had to play with the camera on the way back in.

The park was busy and ride lines remained rather unpleasant. We made our way over to Tomorrowland for our complimentary Stitch chili dog burp and his tormenting Cinderella. Yes, I know this attraction is awful, but I love Stitch, so I overlook it's awfulness. We then took a ride around tomorrowland on the TTA. Lines for Buzz and Space were both over an hour and we could not get a FP (like the old days) because we still had to use our current one. It was getting near time for our FP so we made our way across the park, lines for everything were still pretty brutal (40 minutes for IASW at 8pm on a Sat night???) We said farewell to POTC (final ride) and stopped for a Dole Whip. After my first snack, we went to Emporium (I really needed a sweatshirt, it was a bit chilly) and then we decided to go to purchase our take home snacks. Sweet mother of monkey milk was the confectionary packed. I bought my gingerbread cookies, Mickey crispy treats and a couple of the Malificent crispy treats and wouldn't you know, when we finally got out of there, here comes the parade. It was sheer madness trying to get to the locker. We finally made it through the mess (felt bad for the CM who really were trying to keep a walkway clear) and cleared out the locker and turned in our key for the last time this trip. We made our way up Main St to grab a spot for Celebrate the Magic and Wishes. We found a spot and the squatch was hungry so he went to Casey's for his final hot dog and grabbed a popcorn for the pit. Snacks in hand, we enjoyed the show and I shot this off before Wishes.

Tried to get some pics during Wishes, but Main St was really crowded and for some reason, quite a few people thought it was acceptable to push and shove and just have bad manners, so I didn't get any fireworks pics. For a brief moment after Wishes we thought about trying to head back in the park, but the lines were still pretty long so it was time to bid farewell to MK. Grabbed this on the way out the bus.

We arrived home to SSR and packed up a bit more, cleaned up, set the alarm, cursed at the rotten door hanger (the tragic express packet) and went off to sleep.

Next up, the great luggage caper, our last meal and the tragic express arrives along with some final thoughts

 

[Chellymouse]

So, we get up in the morning, and much to my dismay, I am not able to convince the squatch to stay a few more days. So, since Southwest has taken over AT, we can travel with luggage. We brought 4 bags only to have a zipper break on our arrival leaving us with 3 bags. We called Bell services, and called and called and called the front desk and well, it's getting late so the squatch walked up the street and good thing because someone had not hung up the phone properly. Shortly after he came back, our bellman and golf cart arrived. We packed up, said goodbye to our villa and headed up to airline check in. We were very thankful we were the only ones up there. After some serious shuffling and repacking, we had exactly 50 pounds in each bag. Good thing my 15 pounds of trick or treats were in a carry on and I was wearing a shirt and a hoodie. Whew! We went over to AP for our final breakfast of Mickey waffles and bacon and all too soon, the tragic (not so magical) express arrived to whisk us away to the airport. We arrived, bummed around a bit, had a snack and all too soon, we were taxiing down the runway on the way home.
2 hours later, we arrived at our real home airport to my DMIL who was waiting to take us to our real home.

All in all, it was a great trip as always. The pit was well fed and well watered, we had a great time at our other house and it was too short. However, we absolutely detest the new FP system. While we were lucky, we were able to snag a couple of hard to get FP, but overall, we generally rode less than we normally would have. I did send a note to guest services and did receive both a call and an email back and hopefully, the system will continue to improve before our next trip home, which likely won't be for a good long while. As you can see, no ticker yet. Our 15th anniversary is in 2015 and we are hopeful of snagging Aulani and a few days at the VGC on the way to Aulani for our anniversary next year at the 7 month mark. If we don't, it will be back to SSR if we decide not to just go to Cali for the 60th anniversary. Keeping our fingers, toes and legs crossed we are able to get both at 7 months. So far, we have been able to get off the time off (we are going to be gone for 2 weeks) and the trip fund is in place and filling up as we had hoped.

Thank you all for reading and especially those who dropped by to say hello! It's always nice to share with my fellow DVC'ers......you know, those of us who "get it"