3 Days Til Christmas

So Wednesday Selina and I headed over to Magic Kingdom to have lunch at Tony's Town Square Restaurant. Entrees were really good, service was passable (not exactly the most personable server ever), but the dessert was fantastic! We both ordered the chef's cheesecake, which was mint flavoured. That intrigued me, because I'd never had mint cheesecake before. It wasn't a heavy cheesecake at all, and the crust was a chocolate cookie crumb crust, so that just made it more fantastic. Mom, seriously, you have to try this stuff. We ran around like small children and did a bunch of rides after that, including Space Mountain. It probably would have been more fun if Selina hadn't been threatening my death. ...She doesn't like roller coasters. We did Buzz Lightyear and I got 999,999 (max. score!). So take that, Mom! You can't beat me with your eyes closed anymore! And we rode Astro Orbiter, both of us for the first time ever. Let me say right now: for two grown people sharing one rocket, this is THE MOST AWKWARD RIDE EVER. Make sure you know your partner really well. I think we're over the awkward factor now. It was hilarious when we were up there, though. I got my picture taken with Peter Pan, who complimented my purse. ... Not touching that one. We stayed for Wishes, since Selina'd never seen it before, and then headed out with the massive hordes. The massive hordes all headed for the ferry and the express monorail, so we were smart people and hopped the much less crowded resort monorail, which stops at the Ticket & Transportation Center anyway. Except by this point we were already thinking of going to Downtown Disney, because I wanted to pick up The Princess and the Frog soundtrack and she wanted to see New Moon (to clarify: she was going alone. I wasn't going with her to that. Nasty, terrible thing that it is). So we got off at the Polynesian, because it's fantastic and I love it, plus I knew how to get to the bus depot. Well, it took at least a half hour for the bus to show up. When it did, it was full. The bus driver assured us another bus was coming right behind him, so we could hop that one, and off he went. There were actually quite a few people heading to Downtown Disney. So we waited. And we waited. It is now between 9:30 and 10 PM. Finally, after a half hour, that second bus shows up. Guess what he tells us? ...Yeah. We decided to say screw it and cram on the already full bus. We were NOT taking our chances. Still, by the time we got there, the Marketplace was pretty much closed down and she'd missed the last showing of her movie. So we turned right around and hopped the bus home.

Fast forward a few days because nothing interesting happened on them. I assigned my first Candlelight, and I lived to tell the tale, but there wasn't much of a tale to tell. No guests killed me, no servers killed me, life goes on. Anyways, we're fast forwarding to Saturday night, after I get off work. I'd been extended for a bit, because people called in sick, so as soon as I could I went backstage to change, went out the front gate (that bus appeared before the one that goes around World Showcase, which I could've just hopped to the UK, went out at International Gateway, and walked to the Yacht & Beach Club bus depot), and hopped a bus to Port Orleans so that I could transfer and get on a Downtown Disney bus. I was going to get that CD I'd missed out on the other night. Funny thing was, though, that World of Disney was sold out of them. So was Once Upon A Toy. Those are pretty much the only places to get stuff like that at Downtown Disney. Okay, fine. I get off work early yesterday and decide to head over to Magic Kingdom, because they'll totally have some at the Emporium (gargantuan shop on Main Street). Plus, the Once Upon a Christmastime parade has become the afternoon parade for the next week, so I can get some better pictures of that (I shot, like, the whole parade frame by frame, I swear. I have enough pictures to almost make a flip book of the parade). I get a spot on Main Street right outside the Emporium so that I can duck in as soon as it's done and avoid the hordes of people that inevitably come at the end of a parade. No dice. They don't have it either. PhilharMagic has a lot of CDs, though; I've bought some there in the past. Let's check there! The castle entrance to Fantasyland is closed at this point for the castle forecourt stage show, so I have to fight the masses through Liberty Square. All in vain, though, because PhilharMagic doesn't have it either. FINE. I'll go to Hollywood Studios. I know I saw it there before, in the Animation Courtyard. So I hop the resort monorail (again, express line was ridiculous), and decide to get off at the Contemporary on the off chance that they have it there. They don't. They did have a shirt that I'd been looking for, so that was awesome, but beside the point. I head down to their bus depot, and board the bus to the Studios. Briefly stop in Villains Vogue, mostly because I love that store, and then move on. Over to Voyage of the Little Mermaid, because that's where all the Princess and the Frog stuff had been before (don't question these things). Well, they were carrying it at one point, but they're all out. I should try Mickey's of Hollywood. Zilch. The nice people there direct me to Guest Services, because apparently they can call this central merchandise place or something and find out all the places that still have some. Awesome. So after standing in the Guest Services lobby like a moron for a while, during which time the GS dude had to clarify with the woman on the phone which CD I wanted, because there's also one that was released that's Princess Tiana and other princesses and is totally not what I'm looking for, Dude comes back. Emporium in Magic Kingdom has a couple (that's a lie). Contemporary has some, too (also a lie). But where they have the most is the Mercantile at Fort Wilderness. I clarify with Dude that it is Fort Wilderness, NOT Wilderness Lodge. He says yeah, it'll be to the right of where you go for the Hoop De Doo Revue. Okay, SO. I board the bus that goes to Wilderness Lodge and Fort Wilderness. The bus stops at Wilderness Lodge, I stay on. The bus stops at Fort Wilderness, I get off. But see, the thing about Fort Wilderness is that it's a campground, so it's mega huge and really confusing and a gargantuan pain in the butt to navigate. They have three buses that run different routes to the main areas of this place, so I ask the guy driving one if he'll take me to the Mercantile. He's not sure what I'm talking about, but he's going up to the Settlement, where the dining and Hoop De Doo and stuff are. So I get on that bus, and away we go, through deepest darkest Africa. I get off, walk past the hall with the dinner show, and on my right is a Trading Post merchandise shop. This has got to be it. I go in, and ask the nice lady at the counter. The nice lady at the counter doesn't know what I'm talking about, because they've never carried that CD. Joy. She gets her manager involved, and then calls the lovely people over at Wilderness Lodge, who say that they have some, and are kind enough to put one aside for me. Wish I'd known that before, because then I wouldn't have had to walk through the cold to get to the furthest point in the campground (and yes, it was cold; for Florida, anyway). But there's a boat launch there, and there's a boat that goes to Wilderness Lodge. I'm gonna freeze to death on the water, but it's better than waiting for the bus, taking the bus back to the main Fort Wilderness depot, and then taking a bus to a park and transferring back to Wilderness Lodge. That would just be silly. So I go freeze. We pull up at Wilderness Lodge, I get a little lost, but eventually I make it to their merchandise shop which, funnily enough, is called the Mercantile. Huh. Imagine that. I go in, ask for Jenny as I've been instructed to do, and she presents to me the Tiana and her Princess Friends CD. Greeeeeeat. Thankfully, a guy happens to be walking by with a stack of the soundtrack just as I'm saying that's the wrong CD. So FINALLY I have my CD. YAY!!! ...And that is actually the end of the story. Like, it works and everything. And I didn't get stranded on the way home. (Though I did have to board the boat to the Magic Kingdom, and then take the ferry back to the TTC so that I could get on my bus.)

Tonight was our Gift Exchange at Games Night. In fact, the exchange WAS our game. It was Santa Steal or whatever it's called, where people go in a predetermined order and can either unwrap a present from the pile or steal what someone else has unwrapped. We had to wait for servers who got sat late, though, so we all crowded into Craig's apartment and sang Christmas carols and were generally rowdy in a holiday-ish way. So much fun! I went home with a really nice leather-cover photo album, which is good for me since I still believe in printing off pictures every now and again.

That should be it for now. Next update will probably come just after Christmas!