PlunderFest2005Day8

logo by annie

Walt Disney World

"PlunderFest 3"

Orlando, Florida

October 16-24, 2005

I think this was the first full night’s sleep I’d had in at least a week. I awoke naturally at around 7:00 am and surfed for hurricane news over my morning in-room jolt.

Winds will come N-NE all day, increasing slowly to 23 MPH with heavy rains by 8PM

Dang. This was the day of a couple of Moose Meets, including Illuminations Party that evening at Epcot. The Mooses (yeah, I know that isn’t the plural for “moose”, but it’s funny) are from another Disney-related internet board, which has a hunting lodge theme (actually, I think it was supposed to be themed after Disney’s Wilderness Lodge resort, since that is the board owner’s home resort under the Disney Vacation Club). While 23 MPH is not exactly hurricane force, combining it with heavy rains would make for an unlikely Illuminations party.

I spent the morning in the room, not in any particular hurry, since the final PlunderFestivity that I would be attending wasn’t scheduled to begin until 1:00 PM. That would be the Pirates of the Caribbean Meet. I would then hang out with the Pirates until it was time for my first Moose Meet – Delswife (she is famous in the online Disney community for her trip reports – check out Delswife.net, when you get a moment) was hosting a Scream Like A Girl Meet at Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. After that, I would knock around some more in the Magic Kingdom, then go over to Epcot for the other Moose Meet I was attending, the Illuminations party.

I packed up my shells and my Christmas presents into two boxes that I’d gotten from the POR gift shop’s back room, then hauled them both down to the lobby to get them shipped home. While I was at the desk, I asked the CM about what would happen should the hurricane be in full force during checkout time. She consulted the computer, and told me I could have a late checkout of 1:00 PM. I wasn’t really satisfied with that, because I didn’t think we could count on the hurricane to stop precisely by 1:00 PM, but I took it.

After shipping my stuff, I grabbed some breakfast and took it outside in the sunshine to partake of it. Went back to the room to transfer all the pics I’d taken to my backup drive, which I then locked in the safe, and headed out to the Magic Kingdom.

It was WICKED hot and humid! Now, I love the humidity, but it was too much even for me, and I was desperate to get the hair off my neck. I stopped at that bench where Roy and Minnie are sitting, and began to pull my Minnie Mouse fold up hair brush through my hair, so I could put it up and under a baseball cap, when the brush snagged on something and snapped. WTF? I thought I’d caught my necklace, or else the chain for my sunglasses, but no – I had gum in my hair! How the hell did I get gum in my hair? The only thing I could think of was that the bus had been very crowded, and perhaps some very un-Disney-like behavior had occurred, whereby a guest had stuck their gum to something which had then stuck to my hair. It was in a spot where I could feel it, but could not exactly see it, so I determined that I needed some help, and proceeded to Pirates of the Caribbean to find me some piratical assistance.

I found Trixy and Kevin in front of the attraction, and Trixy fished out her illegal mini-scissors (she uses them to cut up pieces of moleskin, in the event that blisters occur – and they’re illegal cause she carried them on the plane!). In no time, she had the gum out of my hair with minimal damage, the hair was in a pony tail and off my neck, and we proceeded ‘round the corner to join the rest of the pirates congregating there.

A round dozen of us scalawags gathered, including a new inductee, Collette. We made ourselves all pirately pretty with eye patches, earrings, do-rags, etc., and then proceeded to the queue for Pirates of the Caribbean. We all knew the words to the song, of course –

The CMs loved us – all done up in our pirate garb, la la la-ing our hearts out. In fact, everywhere we went in the park that day, the CMs seemed to really enjoy that we were all dressed up and having a ball, and they treated us very well. Well, that, and the fact that Chance was our tour guide for the day – he’s got a way with the CMs too, and was, by his own admission, “the only grownup here” (he’s all of 16 years old, I believe). Chance did a really great job of keeping the doo-rag-tag bunch of us all together in a group, and egging us on to the next attraction. Since he was so willing to take charge and make the decisions… we let him! And we were all very happy to do so, and happy that he was with us and having so much fun with a bunch of old fart pirate wannabes.

After the ride, we gathered outside by the Il Pirato Y El Perico (The Pirate and the Parrot) for massive photo taking. We flagged down a CM and laid our cameras before him, then posed by the sign. I think he was feeling a little overwhelmed by all the cameras, because he flagged down a second CM to help him out. Whichever one grabbed my camera cut off three of us – looks like Collette, Georgia, and Ms e are MIA in my particular photo of the group.

The Splash Mountain standby line was only ten minutes, so we hopped aboard. From Splash, we naturally had to proceed to Big Thunder Mountain, and from there we wanted to get Dole Whips – but the parade had trapped us, so we had to go the other way and do the Haunted Mansion. From there, we proceeded into Fantasyland for ice cream and pretzels, and then wandered into Tomorrowland, where Georgia danced with the talking trash can. This was the first time I was able to spot the CM who was controlling and speaking for the talking trash can, and it was funny. The trash can liked our piratical attire, and made us all chase him on the count of three, while he screamed, “Help, help, I’m being chased by a band of pirates!”. The crowd was delighted with us.

What PlunderFest would be complete without a go-round on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority? We went twice, never failing to raise our arms and cry, “Wheeeeeee!” every time this very tame attraction took a curve. What fun!

At this point, it was coming up on time to take my leave of the Pirates, and trade in the do-rag and eye patch for a set of antlers. The only pirates I would encounter again for sure after this were Kevin and Trixy, with whom I was catching a ride to the airport for the trip back home the next day (Wilma permitting). I said my goodbyes to the rest of them, and went searching for passholder pins on the way out, coming up empty. I also stopped at Casey’s on the way out for a big iced tea and a smoke break. I then boarded the monorail to get to Epcot.

My very first stop was to the pin trading station near Spaceship Earth, to get my F&WF Annual Passholder’s pin. Alas, the CM informed me that everything loose was being packed up and stored elsewhere in anticipation of Wilma blowing through, and the first load that went from her station had the passholder pins – they were all gone into hiding! I was exceedingly bummed out, and regretting that I’d neglected to stop by earlier in the week. As much as I’d been in Epcot all week, I’d forgotten every time. My bad, shame on me. Oh, well.

[NOTE: This situation was rectified later on. Dan, the Main Moose himself, scored me a F&WF Passholder Pin later in the week, and mailed it to me upon his arrival home. Bless that man!]

I’d received a voice mail from Carol, the Moose who was organizing the Illuminations Party. The party was supposed to have been held on the lower terrace in France, which is a great viewing spot for Illuminations. However, it was almost dead certain that the rains would be pounding by then, and rather than partake in soggy crudités and other cocktail foods, the eating part of the party was being transferred indoors – to a party room inside Spaceship Earth that looks out over the plaza where the fountain show happens. From the outside, this room has all mirrored windows that you can’t see into, and I’d never been in there before, so this would be an adventure, regardless of where it was to happen. Anyway, the voice mail said to meet outside the Art of Disney store instead of at the terrace in France. I didn’t know what anyone looked like, so I figured I’d just cruise inside the store for a while (you don’t really have to twist my arm to go into the Art of Disney – see previous trip reports!), and come out later when I was sure there would be a crowd of people to join.

While inside, I noted that the Mulan bronze was still there, and I salivated over it for a while, but resisted temptation yet again. Had it been reduced in price, I would be owning it now, but it was still over three hundred dollars, so I slapped myself, which caused the salivation to cease, and moved on from that particular display. I really want that thing, but I have to be good. I need my pennies toward moving expenses, and this is no time to be self-indulgent on that grand a scale.

When I came out, there were three people standing around in a little knot, and in the diminishing light, I was not sure it was them. Then, a CM with a light-wand thingie and a clip board came along, and not long after that, a woman whose voice I recognized from the voice mail – yep it was Carol. I went to introduce myself, and then to the little knot, who turned out to be Dan, Jen, and Jody. Before long, others began to arrive, including my sista from Long Island (soon, we will BOTH be Florida residents transplanted from LI), DaisyDebbie. It was starting to rain when the CM finally began to troop us all up to the party room via elevator.

There was a nice spread up there of all sorts of cocktail food, fresh fruits and vegetables, and desserts. A couple of CMs stood at the bar, dispensing bottles of water and sodas. I met and became chatty with Donna, and soon we were consumed in conversation, until Debbie told us to stop being anti-social and invited us to join the crowd gathering at one of the tables. Lots more people trooped in and took up residence at the rest of the tables. Soon everyone was talking, laughing, and taking photos of the stuffed Moose, who was to begin a journey around the country, visiting other Mooses and getting his picture taken all over the place. Jen and Dan and I chatted up a storm about my upcoming relocation to Florida.

At some point, someone mentioned Delswife, aka Wobin, and I slapped my forehead because I’d forgotten about the Scream Like A Girl Meet! I think I was in the Haunted Mansion with the pirates at the time it was taking place. I was feeling really bad about standing them up, until Dan confessed that he and Jen, too, had forgotten! Whew, I’m still a slug, but at least I’m not alone in being a slug. Thanks, Dan and Jen, for forgetting too. Sorry, Wobin – I’m a slug!

There came a point where Carol got up and got everyone’s attention (she had one of those yard-long ales from the UK in her hand, how could she NOT get our attention!). It was raining, and there was wind, but the park had decided to go ahead with the fireworks. So, did we want to stay and continue to eat and laugh etc., or did we want to venture out into the storm, and see Illuminations as planned from our reserved lower terrace in France? “Let’s go!”, I shouted out, and others agreed. So, we were each issued a Mickey poncho at the door (now I have two, woo hoo!), and away we all marched in the pouring rain, up to France.

On the march, I fell in with Donna and someone else, I believe it was Eric. We noted that everything that wasn’t nailed down was being closed up and carted away with a vengeance – this meant all of the Food & Wine Festival kiosks were being emptied out and shut down. Aside from the CMs performing these tasks, there were very few people in the parks, mostly clad in ponchos against the wind-driven rain. I found it helpful to have the baseball cap under the poncho, as the brim tended to redirect the rain away from my face, but still used the umbrella because I wanted to take some pictures without the camera getting drenched. My feet became pretty much soaked, and I could tell that my sneakers and socks would be spending the night draped over the air conditioning unit in an effort to get them dried for the journey home the next evening.

The rain and the smoke from the fireworks, drifting this way and that way in the wind, made for an interesting show, to say the least! The initial cloud of smoke made straight for us – I guess the rain would not let it rise and float away, and the wind was just right to engulf the lower terrace of France in gunpowder smoke. After that, the wind shifted a little, and although we didn’t quite get it in the face again, it made for some very distorted viewing of the fireworks and laser action. We still had a good time, though – all the photos I have of that evening show people who are smiling and laughing at the ridiculousness of it all, with a few grimaces thrown in here and there.

After the show was over, the rains seemed to be letting up a bit. I fell to walking with Debbie toward the International Gateway. I turned around to look for Donna, but she’d disappeared into the crowds going the other way. Debbie and I decided to head for the Boardwalk, where she was staying, and hang out at the Bellvue for a while. We ordered drinks called Memory Lane, which were delicious, and eventually ended up outside on the porch, where we witnessed a quasi-fireworks show occurring right outside the Dance Hall, on the water. It was very brief, and we thought it strange. Still don’t know what that was all about.

When it was time for the second round of drinks, Debbie stood up and all of a sudden got hit by her first drink. Me too! An hour later, the second round was done, and we were quite giggly, weaving our way toward the front of the Boardwalk so I could find a way to get back to Port Orleans. Debbie had the presence of mind to press me into taking a cab, rather than do the bus to DTD-transfer to POR thing. I’m glad she did. I don’t remember much else about the evening from the point of arriving at the Bellvue onward – they should call those drinks Impaired Memory Lane!

A few days before, I had procured some extra water and some generic breakfast type stuff to keep in the room, in the event that the hurricane went on longer than anticipated. I didn’t want to be trapped in there with only tap water and Altoids gum for sustenance. I’m glad I did that, because there was no way in hell I would have had the presence of mind to do so upon returning from my trip with Debbie down Memory Lane.