Epilogue (Part One)
ep-i-logue \ n: a concluding section that rounds out the design of a literary work.
Well, my friends, I think it’s definitely about time we
round out this little trippie! After all, it has been going on for almost two years now! It’s hard for me to believe, but it’s true….I began writing this (in PTR form) back in April of 2007!
Yikes! Time sure flies…
Thanks to all you readers who stuck with me, despite my eight- or nine-month sabbatical from the
DIS-boards while my house was being renovated. You all know how addicting the boards can be… and I hope you understood why I had to go cold turkey for a while! I’m so glad that I was able to pick up where I left off; I’ve had lots of fun reliving the memories and sharing them with you.
Since taking this trip, our family made yet another one, back in April of 2008….that one was a road trip and also lots of fun. I plan to begin that report shortly. We also have a
Halloween trip planned for 2009; the link to that PTR is in my siggie, below, if you care to follow along!
One of the reasons it has taken a few days for me to get this final post together is that I wound up doing a little research for it. First, it’s been so long that I had to go back to the beginning and re-read so that I could familiarize myself with my own report!!
Then, I went back and read my report from 2006. I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t mistaken about Aunt Rae and how she had changed so much, both physically and mentally, in just a year. Turns out, my memory was fairly good… there had been quite a change.
So now, I will share with you my
final thoughts on our 2007 WDW trip: which should be called the "Roller-Coaster Trip" because of all the ups and downs! I'll point out the
new stuff we did... the
highs, the
lows... what we did right and what we would do differently next time. Because around here, there’s
always a next time!
Pre-trip:
Lows:
Ed had to have his
tooth pulled the day before our trip, so he had stitches in his mouth and was taking Advil around the clock.
Aunt Rae had been in the hospital
ER the past week for an attack of gout in her ankles and had been so nervous leading up to the trip that she asked her doctor for a prescription for anti-anxiety medication.
This would be
in addition to her regular sleeping pills.
And of course, since we were going away for a week, something in the house had to go haywire! This time, our
main sewer line clogged and I had to bring in the plumber just before we left.
Highs:
Thank goodness, the kids and I were well... no colds or tummy viruses! I had been ultra-paranoid, spraying everything in the house with Lysol for a week before out trip!
We were so happy to have procured a reservation at the resort we had dreamed about: the
Villas at the Wilderness Lodge! We love staying at new resorts and were looking forward to the WL.
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Saturday, 11/3/07:
Travel / Check-in / Epcot World Showcase
Lows:
Aunt Rae had not slept the night before we left, despite the sleeping pill. She also showed shortness of breath when walking for the first time.
Not exactly a “low” but, uggh! It was hard getting everyone up at 3:30 am for our flight! Next time I would pick a later flight, but sometimes there isn’t much of a choice when it comes to departure times.
This was the last Saturday night at the
Food & Wine Festival at Epcot and boy, was it crowded!!
The walkways were very congested... and I'm so glad we had that ADR for dinner! Unfortunately, the long lines at the food kiosks prevented us from enjoying the festival.
Highs:
An uneventful flight is always good! Oh, the
Wilderness Lodge was just gorgeous! I was so happy to meet
Ranger Stan as soon as we arrived:
Our two-bedroom villa was clean and in good condition. We were given a quiet location on the first floor.
We started our park touring with a fabulous ride on Soarin’ …what a great way to begin!!
And it was
wonderful to turn that clock back one hour just before going to bed! Ahhh!
New Things We Tried:
I was happy to have caught some of the live entertainment in Epcot’s World Showcase that we had never seen before:
Serveur Amusant (France) and
the Fife & Drum Corps (America).
We tried
Restaurant Marrakesh in Morocco for the first time!
Food: (B) The couscous was good, but the lamb was greasy. Dessert was great!
Service: (A) Our server was very helpful.
Atmosphere: (A) Beautiful tile work. Music and belly dancing for entertainment.
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Sunday, 11/4/07:
Animal Kingdom / Disney Studios
Lows:
Our day-by-day ressies at VWL were messing up our
Dining Plan credits and Aunt Rae is taking forever to eat each meal!
Billy got upset when he realized that we weren’t doing any rides at the Studios, just dinner and Fantasmic!
We missed out on front-of-the-line access to ToT, because we had to get to our dinner ADR. Our first encounter with the
Dream Team and we couldn’t use the dream!
Ed and I had that little fight at 50's PTC
Highs:
We had a
great morning touring the AK; we got to ride EE twice and AR stayed awake for Nemo this time!
We had time for a little break at the Lodge before dinner and had a chance to explore that fabulous Lobby.
We saw
Fantasmic for the first time in a long while and it was great.
We had fun passing out glow necklaces and bracelets to kids in the crowd!
Back at the Lodge, the kids had fun with a hot-tub bubble bath before bedtime:
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Monday, 11/5/07:
Epcot Future World
Lows:
Aunt Rae getting very
slow and very
anxious and
forgetful... I don’t think those meds were helping her much! She refused to get a wheelchair. Ed got held up with a lot of cell phone calls from work and it delayed us a bit in the morning. He was also still hurting from his dental issues and dealing with antibiotics and Advil.
We had a
40-minute wait for our 5:50 dinner ADR at
Whispering Canyon Café… 
That's a long time to wait with hungry kids, especially if they aren’t interested in playing with the Lincoln Logs! Not sure why the wait was so long; I thought this ADR was fairly early, but the restaurant was packed!
Highs:
We had low crowds again and a
great day touring FW!
Spaceship Earth was still closed for refurb, but we saw the
Seas,
Turtle Talk,
Figment,
Imageworks,
Soarin',
Mission Space (green),
Ellen, and the kids got to play in
Innoventions.
Good food and fun at
WCC.
We need ketchup! 
(It was so nice to just head up to our villa right there at the resort and get to bed early.)
New for Us:
Eating at the
Garden Grill (The Land)
Food: (B)
Service: (B)
Atmosphere: (B-) (Next time, I would request a lower tier table) I felt cramped at our table and the lighting was not good for pictures.
Characters: Farmer Mickey and Pals: cute, but not very playful. Took quick picture and off they went.
So far, the weather had been just perfect!
Sunny and warm, but not too hot and
zero humidity. I love early November at WDW!!
To Be Continued…
Kathy
BTW...You dropped your ticker for "the other place"... are you still going, or just tired of the flames?
Awesome!
. It is fantastic to have you back!
And later that day, she was very upset that her key card would not open her door. We would later discover that she had been using her key card from the previous year! (At least that trip the only thing she kept forgetting was to put on her shoes before we left the room!!)
Fortunately, he resisted the urge to knock the guys block off when he sneered at him. Ah, testosterone!
Tricia had her Magical Moment at Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe
.she was asked to decorate one of the Christmas trees!
Billy seemed to like this version better, especially the Little Einsteins!
The atmosphere, food, and service were all fabulous
Im sorry that I have no pictures to share. Ed and I will definitely have to eat here again!
I don't want to give anything away just yet, but we actually ran into her again in April (but she did not remember Ed!) Oh, he remembered her, though!!
