MargaretJ
12-11-2003, 07:33 PM
Cast – MargaretJ
Matt 14years
When – December 5th – 8th, 2003
Resort – All Star Sports
Day One - Part Two
We ended up taking the boat from Wilderness Lodge to Fort Wilderness for the 1st Official Tagrel Meet. The Lake is so beautiful & much larger than I thought. We passed what used to be Discovery Island & saw River Country over to the far right. I am not a camper by any stretch of the imagination but could tell Fort Wilderness was a top-notch campground. First we stopped at the Settlement Trading Post just to look around. It was much like other gift shops although it seemed to have more food & of course items you might need for camping. We then headed across the path to Trails End & could see quite a few people out front. Yes the meet has begun!
It was so much fun to see so many of my Disney friends & to finally put a face to a name for many. The food was very good but it was so hard to eat because you just had to keep jumping up to meet someone else. Most people were huggers but if you were not it was not a big deal. I was so glad Tagrel had those name tags as it made it so much easier to know who was who. Thanks so much to Cheri & Will for planning this meet – it was great. There was a drawing for a T-shirt that I think Villain Girl won, MikeS had key chains & buttons that said MouseFest 2003 on them that he passed out, Cinderella (Clare) made the cutest little bags with either your picture on the outside or Tagrel’s Christmas Logo with goodies inside & WillCAD outdid himself. He made large aerial color maps of Disney Property for us. They are awesome. I hope to get mine framed soon.
Attendees at the meet were (sorry if I forgot someone as this is from memory) Cheri, husband Ken & daughter Naomi, BetsyAnn & her mom Elaine, Stinkerbelle, PammyK, Figgy & her husband Dick, Claire & her husband Ronnie, FLSharon & her husband, DisKid, VillainGirl & her son Jack, WillCAD, AliciaG, MikeS & his wife, SusanL, Jimbolini, Ronski, MissBianca & her husband Bernard & myself & my son Matt. Hope I did not leave anyone out. After a wonderful inexpensive lunch we headed out to the front porch for picture time. As we are gathering in place who walks up but Dave (Tagrel). We all starting cheering & yelling DAVE! Of course we embarrassed him but I think he might have loved it too. A big thanks to the 2 unsuspecting ladies that walked up about the same time as Dave as we drafted them to take pictures. Hopefully someone will post their pictures of this meet soon.
Matt & I leave for our resort to rest for about an hour before we head to MVMCP. An almost 15 year old can only take so much of these meets you know. I wanted to see the infamous Christmas Tree at the Grand Floridian so we drove there instead of taking the bus to Magic Kingdom for the party. Yes WillCAD I valet parked at GF, I know you think we’re nuts but it sure was nice. While the tree was still beautiful I did miss the one from prior years. The yellow lights were my biggest complaint, they really need to go back to the white lights. The white lights just seemed to go better with the rest of the decorations. The tree any way you look at it though is gorgeous.
For those of you who wonder yes you can get into Magic Kingdom early with just a MVMCP ticket. We got there about 545p & had no problem getting in. They put the wristband on you as you went through the turnstiles. It was amazing to me how many people were leaving, Main Street was crowded. There were lots of CM’s directing people out & keeping them to one side of Main Street so those entering could have the other side. Thanks to AliciaG we discovered we could get the MVMCP pins in Tomorrowland so we did not have to wait in line at Exposition Hall. On the way over to pick up our pins who do we see but our very own Dave (Tagrel) waiting outside the ladies room. We soon met Kristin, Dave’s very lovely wife. They headed to shows while Matt & I headed to rides.
I was very surprised at the lack of lines as this party was sold out & last year when we attended it was so very crowded. We hit most of the rides in Tomorrowland before heading over to ride Splash Mountain. There was no wait at all. We ended up in a log with 2 wimpy teens. They were in the 1st seat & we were in the last seat as I was hoping not to get wet. Each little drop had them covering their heads with their hoodies & ducking down. Well when the big drop finally came they really ducked & all of that water came over them and got us! Since there was not a line they let us ride around again without having to get out. Very nice.
Haunted Mansion is calling our names so off we go. On the way over I see this very tall guy at a water fountain & who does it turn out to be but WillCAD. I was really glad Will was gracious enough to hang out with us the rest of the evening as it made my son very happy. You remember how I said he was dragging me away from the Ft Wilderness meet? Well when we got to Magic Kingdom he asked when are we going to meet your friends? I told him I did not make plans with anyone because he acted like he was tired of meeting people. He then said to me, “you mean I have to ride the rides with just you”. I don’t know why but HM just seems better at night.
Hunger has taken hold of us so we ended up eating at Pecos Bill’s. Well at least Will & I did. Matt was just not hungry. Can’t imagine why, the Ft Wilderness meet at 2p was his 4th meal of the day. After dinner we rode a few rides & then headed to Main Street to watch Wishes. Matt went to ride Space Mountain but Will & I got great spots on Main Street. We were just above the end of Main Street but what was so weird was that there was a huge empty space directly in front of us & then the big crowd again as you got farther up. Wishes was by far the best Fire Works show I have ever seen. Will took lots of pictures so hopefully he will be posting them when he returns from Disney.
We also ended up riding the WEDway People Mover (I know that is not the official name) & had a section pretty much to ourselves. Well except for the young screaming teenage girls that kept trying to get Matt’s attention. I found this out from Will the next day. The TimeKeeper was open so we had to see that & I wanted to see Carrousel of Progress but my son vetoed that one. It was getting late & we all had very long days but I really wanted to see the last Parade. Matt & Will ended up having a quick snack at the Main Street Bakery & we then hoped to get a half way decent space for the Parade. We really lucked out & got front row right at the bend of Main Street. I really loved the Parade with the snow falling down & all of the lights. It was beautiful.
1130p we decide to call it a night & we all head to the boat launches, Will to Fort Wilderness to pick up his car & Matt & I to Grand Floridian to pick up our car. While waiting at the Valet Stand we started talking to the night Manager. She asked how we liked the party & what we thought of the decorations at GF. I told her I loved the resort & then asked her about the tree. She said the tree was specially made & that yes they had lots of comments about the difference in the size. She agreed that the yellow lights just did not do the tree justice & that they had had even more comments about them. Even so this is a gorgeous resort & should please anyone.
Back to All Star Sports & into bed by about 1230pm. Wow what a lot we did in just one day.
Tomorrow…Mission: Space Meet
Matt 14years
When – December 5th – 8th, 2003
Resort – All Star Sports
Day One - Part Two
We ended up taking the boat from Wilderness Lodge to Fort Wilderness for the 1st Official Tagrel Meet. The Lake is so beautiful & much larger than I thought. We passed what used to be Discovery Island & saw River Country over to the far right. I am not a camper by any stretch of the imagination but could tell Fort Wilderness was a top-notch campground. First we stopped at the Settlement Trading Post just to look around. It was much like other gift shops although it seemed to have more food & of course items you might need for camping. We then headed across the path to Trails End & could see quite a few people out front. Yes the meet has begun!
It was so much fun to see so many of my Disney friends & to finally put a face to a name for many. The food was very good but it was so hard to eat because you just had to keep jumping up to meet someone else. Most people were huggers but if you were not it was not a big deal. I was so glad Tagrel had those name tags as it made it so much easier to know who was who. Thanks so much to Cheri & Will for planning this meet – it was great. There was a drawing for a T-shirt that I think Villain Girl won, MikeS had key chains & buttons that said MouseFest 2003 on them that he passed out, Cinderella (Clare) made the cutest little bags with either your picture on the outside or Tagrel’s Christmas Logo with goodies inside & WillCAD outdid himself. He made large aerial color maps of Disney Property for us. They are awesome. I hope to get mine framed soon.
Attendees at the meet were (sorry if I forgot someone as this is from memory) Cheri, husband Ken & daughter Naomi, BetsyAnn & her mom Elaine, Stinkerbelle, PammyK, Figgy & her husband Dick, Claire & her husband Ronnie, FLSharon & her husband, DisKid, VillainGirl & her son Jack, WillCAD, AliciaG, MikeS & his wife, SusanL, Jimbolini, Ronski, MissBianca & her husband Bernard & myself & my son Matt. Hope I did not leave anyone out. After a wonderful inexpensive lunch we headed out to the front porch for picture time. As we are gathering in place who walks up but Dave (Tagrel). We all starting cheering & yelling DAVE! Of course we embarrassed him but I think he might have loved it too. A big thanks to the 2 unsuspecting ladies that walked up about the same time as Dave as we drafted them to take pictures. Hopefully someone will post their pictures of this meet soon.
Matt & I leave for our resort to rest for about an hour before we head to MVMCP. An almost 15 year old can only take so much of these meets you know. I wanted to see the infamous Christmas Tree at the Grand Floridian so we drove there instead of taking the bus to Magic Kingdom for the party. Yes WillCAD I valet parked at GF, I know you think we’re nuts but it sure was nice. While the tree was still beautiful I did miss the one from prior years. The yellow lights were my biggest complaint, they really need to go back to the white lights. The white lights just seemed to go better with the rest of the decorations. The tree any way you look at it though is gorgeous.
For those of you who wonder yes you can get into Magic Kingdom early with just a MVMCP ticket. We got there about 545p & had no problem getting in. They put the wristband on you as you went through the turnstiles. It was amazing to me how many people were leaving, Main Street was crowded. There were lots of CM’s directing people out & keeping them to one side of Main Street so those entering could have the other side. Thanks to AliciaG we discovered we could get the MVMCP pins in Tomorrowland so we did not have to wait in line at Exposition Hall. On the way over to pick up our pins who do we see but our very own Dave (Tagrel) waiting outside the ladies room. We soon met Kristin, Dave’s very lovely wife. They headed to shows while Matt & I headed to rides.
I was very surprised at the lack of lines as this party was sold out & last year when we attended it was so very crowded. We hit most of the rides in Tomorrowland before heading over to ride Splash Mountain. There was no wait at all. We ended up in a log with 2 wimpy teens. They were in the 1st seat & we were in the last seat as I was hoping not to get wet. Each little drop had them covering their heads with their hoodies & ducking down. Well when the big drop finally came they really ducked & all of that water came over them and got us! Since there was not a line they let us ride around again without having to get out. Very nice.
Haunted Mansion is calling our names so off we go. On the way over I see this very tall guy at a water fountain & who does it turn out to be but WillCAD. I was really glad Will was gracious enough to hang out with us the rest of the evening as it made my son very happy. You remember how I said he was dragging me away from the Ft Wilderness meet? Well when we got to Magic Kingdom he asked when are we going to meet your friends? I told him I did not make plans with anyone because he acted like he was tired of meeting people. He then said to me, “you mean I have to ride the rides with just you”. I don’t know why but HM just seems better at night.
Hunger has taken hold of us so we ended up eating at Pecos Bill’s. Well at least Will & I did. Matt was just not hungry. Can’t imagine why, the Ft Wilderness meet at 2p was his 4th meal of the day. After dinner we rode a few rides & then headed to Main Street to watch Wishes. Matt went to ride Space Mountain but Will & I got great spots on Main Street. We were just above the end of Main Street but what was so weird was that there was a huge empty space directly in front of us & then the big crowd again as you got farther up. Wishes was by far the best Fire Works show I have ever seen. Will took lots of pictures so hopefully he will be posting them when he returns from Disney.
We also ended up riding the WEDway People Mover (I know that is not the official name) & had a section pretty much to ourselves. Well except for the young screaming teenage girls that kept trying to get Matt’s attention. I found this out from Will the next day. The TimeKeeper was open so we had to see that & I wanted to see Carrousel of Progress but my son vetoed that one. It was getting late & we all had very long days but I really wanted to see the last Parade. Matt & Will ended up having a quick snack at the Main Street Bakery & we then hoped to get a half way decent space for the Parade. We really lucked out & got front row right at the bend of Main Street. I really loved the Parade with the snow falling down & all of the lights. It was beautiful.
1130p we decide to call it a night & we all head to the boat launches, Will to Fort Wilderness to pick up his car & Matt & I to Grand Floridian to pick up our car. While waiting at the Valet Stand we started talking to the night Manager. She asked how we liked the party & what we thought of the decorations at GF. I told her I loved the resort & then asked her about the tree. She said the tree was specially made & that yes they had lots of comments about the difference in the size. She agreed that the yellow lights just did not do the tree justice & that they had had even more comments about them. Even so this is a gorgeous resort & should please anyone.
Back to All Star Sports & into bed by about 1230pm. Wow what a lot we did in just one day.
Tomorrow…Mission: Space Meet