How I Spent My MouseFest – An Epic Tale

(Lisa clears her throat)

How I Spent My MouseFest by Lisa K. Berton

(Lisa looks around the room and sees Jack Marshall sticking out his tongue. She rolls her eyes and looks back down at her report.)

Wednesday

I packed up my car with my suitcase, a carry-on bag, and my camera bag and headed to work. For the next five hours, I became fidgety and kept looking at the clock so that I could break free and head to the airport on time. Finally, the clock struck 2:30 and I put on my coat, grabbed my bags, headed out the door and straight to Panera Bread which was less than a minute away. I got a grilled cheese sandwich to go, piled everything back into my car and headed down the highway while eating lunch.

I arrived at the airport with an excessive amount of time to spare so I played a few games of Ms. Pac Man and Gallaga in the airport arcade. Due to storms South and West of Rhode Island, our plane coming from Philly was delayed. Long story short, we left and landed more than an hour late in Orlando.

I’m going to skip ahead to the search for my Owner’s Locker.

(Lisa looks up at Erin Blackwell who is bouncing up and down in her seat with her hand in the air.)

Yes, Erin?

What resort did you stay at?

All-Star Movies.

Do you like dogs?

(A puzzled look comes over Lisa’s face)

Suuuuure. Anyhoo, as I was saying, I’m going to tell you about the search for my Owner’s Locker. Since my flight was delayed, by the time I checked in it was roughly 11pm and the luggage service was closed. The very kind people at the front desk tried to locate my purple container but after making several treks to the back and a few phone calls, they came up empty.

Thursday

In the early morning hours, I called for luggage services and was told they didn’t have it nor did Music or Sports and that I should call Owner’s Locker. I texted John who got back to me immediately, promising that he had not only delivered it but placed it on the shelf himself. I called the front desk, was placed on hold and many minutes later told it could not be located and a manager would call me. Thirty minutes went by and I called back down, talked to the manager in that department, Jennifer, who in a rather unprofessional manner, informed me that they had delivered my container Wednesday morning to the room my friend was originally assigned to prior to her checking in. Reservations changed the room assignment BEFORE she checked in. The box was delivered BEFORE she checked in. I’ve never had anything delivered to my room without calling down for it and having to be in the room upon delivery. Have you?

(She looks up and sees everyone shaking their heads “No.”)

In the end, my container was deIivered to me as we were leaving to check out. I spoke to Rodney at the front desk, who must be a manager or supervisor. He apologized several times, deducted one night’s stay at Music from my bill (I switched resorts in the morning) and gave each of us 2 special FastPasses. He’s a good employee; very professional, courteous, honest, and engaging.

With all of that behind me, my BFF Tracy, her son Zach, and I headed out into the pouring rain and drove to the Beach Club for our breakfast reservation at Cape May. The food was terrific, the character interaction was swell, and we were seated an entire minute after we checked in. Awesome!

With the weather being promiscuous, we decided to see if we could catch anyone at the Contemporary after the MF kickoff event. We found some of our friends, hugged them, then headed to the gift shop. Zach and my BFF Tracy went off on their own and I headed to the Magic Kingdom via monorail with Byron, Melanie, and Noah.

I’ll go through this quickly. I popped over to the Dole Whip meet where I located my Pop and more friends. Michelle Scribner-MacLean very kindly offered to carry my poncho and packet of pins & lanyards for me. I almost tossed in my car keys but held back. This would later prove to be a wise decision. Then it was off to enjoy Carousel of Progress, the People Mover or whatever you want to call it with some online pals. We split up into another group and ventured off to the Haunted Mansion, Big Thunder Mountain, and Pirates of the Caribbean. While they were railroading, I called Michelle. She was back at her hotel room and not returning to the Magic Kingdom for a little while. See, this is why it’s a good thing I didn’t toss my car keys in the bag. Phew!

I was invited to join the girls; Susan, Karen, BetsyAnn, Kristen, Pam, Lynne, Gloria, and my BFF Amy for dinner at Kona Cafe but before that we checked out the decorations and gingerbread house in the Grand Floridian. While we waited for the monorail, my pal Lynne and I talked to Jack Marshall, Laura Gilbreath, and Deb Koma who were tossing paper airplanes off the balcony or so I suspected.

Any questions?

(Mike Scopa stands up and places his hand over his heart)

Lisa, did you partake of the glory that is the Dole Whip?

No, I did not.

(Mike places his hands on his hips)

Why not?

I really wasn’t in the mood.

(Mike shakes his head in disbelief, sits down and begins to sob. Deb Wills comforts him by singing a lullabye about a pineapple plantation in Hawai’i owned by Belle)

Friday

Up early, my BFF Tracy, Zach, and I got ready and drove over to Animal Kingdom. They went to another meet while I joined my fellow AllEarsers for our event at Harambe Fort. The weather held off while people went in search of items to photograph in a scavenger hunt-like game.

My job was to stand on a chair and take photos of peoples’ heads. The place was filled with Disneyphiles who stood rather close together. If only I’d thought ahead, I could have played ring toss.

At one point Linda and I snuck off to have our picture taken with Baloo and King Louie. Ha! Ha! We didn’t even clock out.

(Deb Koma squints and gives Linda and then Lisa the evil eye. Linda just laughs at her.)

Time to head over to Hollywood Studios. My friend Mary and I had lunch at the Sci-Fi. We sat in the front of the car with a bunch of strangers behind us. When the parking ticket arrived I asked for a new license. I didn’t even know they handed out licenses! I overheard the server asking a kid if she wanted one. Now you know, too, and knowing is half the battle.

As soon as we left the drive-in, we ran into Mary’s hubby, Mike, and his sidekick, Len. Maybe we ran into Len and his sidekick, Mike. Well, no matter, I ran off to Toy Story Mania where about 60 of my closest friends were getting ready to take over the attraction. We could have been in line for 4 hours and I wouldn’t have noticed because we were having so much fun chatting and taking crazy photos of each other.

I rode with my BFF John but something went terribly wrong and we passed the first game all together. Then we stopped just short of the second game. The third game didn’t work at all so by the time we were back at the loading dock we’d missed most of the games. Some others had experienced the same problem so we all got to ride again. It worked perfectly this time except that my BFF John won again.

A little while later I went in search of Citizens of Hollywood. Rumor had it that some Adventurers might have moved. Although I didn’t “recognize” anyone, I was left laughing and with many thanks for being able to record such special and gifted Citizens.

My BFF Rental Car and I made our way to see what was left of Pleasure Island. While a few clubs like Soundstage, Comedy Warehouse and the holy grail – the Adventurer’s Club looked to be in tact from the outside, other structures seem to have been demolished or I’ve lost my mind. Signs were up regarding an International food court of some type being built. Very few people were wandering about. I talked to an employee at Harley Davidson who told me that sales have dropped drastically since Sept. 27th.

Then Erin Blackwell called to take me up on my offer to drive her to the AllEars Team party that night. She had good timing because my BFF Rental Car and I were just about to leave. We got Erin at Hollywood Studios and headed back to All-Star Music so I could change and wrap presents for another meet later that night.

Meanwhile, back at the ranchero*, I had a fashion emergency. My plum colored silk pants had been ruined. I don’t know what, who, how, when or why but they had stains and so they met their fate in the trash can. I wound up in all black except for some neon green socks. I simply can’t wear all black, I’m not Johnny Cash.

The party was very classy and set in a Spanish fort at Gaylord Palms. I wanted to be sure that plenty of photos were taken to capture all that went on so I grabbed Deb Koma’s camera and took some shots. Then I got ahold of Deb Wills’ camera but the batteries were kaput. I also took over another camera. My memory is foggy but it may have been Scott’s.

(Scott Thomas waves)

I have a Nikon.

I know, dear.

It’s a D-SLR.

That’s correct.

(Barrie Brewer jumps up)

Me, too! Me, too!

(Lisa slap her forehead and mumbles to herself about Nikon users being crazy)

I left the party as everyone headed to Ice. I had another meet to attend, a gift exchange. In order to not appear overdressed I threw on a hooded sweatshirt. Strangely enough, no one commented on the fact that I was wearing makeup, something I rarely do.

Saturday

I was up at 5:15am, 15 minutes before the alarm clock was set to explode. After getting showered and dressed, I gathered everything I needed for the day including but not limited to: a long sleeve shirt, Photowalk pins, 2 bags of candy, the door prizes from Scott, Barrie, and I, tape, scissors, gift wrap, bottled water, and other things I can no longer recall.

My BFF Rental Car and I parked at Beach Club and found other early risers attending the photowalk in the lobby. I was the first one to arrive at our gathering place, the wedding pavillion, Sea Breeze Point. Barrie, Scott, and I welcomed about 23 folks to our first ever Picture This! Photowalk.

Over the next 2 hours we slowly made our way all the way around Crescent Lake, ending at Boardwalk Bakery all the while stopping to take photos.

All I could think was, Dang! It is cold! But we had fun and I know I got a stellar photograph because Barrie told me, “You suck. That’s awesome!”

Next up was the Mega Mouse Meet. If you were there then you already know that lots of people stopped by, I bought a copy of Orlando Attractons magazine, Erin did an infomercial on first aid kits, Scott jumped into my shot of Dave Marx, and Jack Spence has the coolest nametag ever.

(Jack nods in agreement)

My BFF John, his wife Cathy, and I played a round of mini-golf at Winter Summerland. We opted for the Winter course. We had lots of fun at each other’s expense. If you ever play with me, wear a helmet and a wetsuit cuz the ball is either going to ricochet off something or land in a body of water.

I hadn’t eaten lunch yet, I was tired, and I needed something that I forgot then and forget again now. As luck would have it, my roomies arrived at the hotel room just a few minutes after me. I had called my BFF Tracy to find out where they were just a few minutes prior. Turned out that her son was sick. We left him in the room to sleep while we had a late lunch/early dinner in the food court. It was a much needed long break and meal for both of us.

He felt better so we headed to EPCOT for a private party. I’ve never partied so much in my life, wow. Two nights in a row, I just set a new record. The three of us rode Spaceship Earth and Gran Fiesta Tour before hooking up with the other party maniacs. I made an effort to teach Zach how to say “caballeros” because he’s taking Spanish in school and I’m good with pronunciations. The festivities ended after Illuminations and so we called it a night and went back to our room.

Sunday

My BFF Tracy and her son Zach left early that morning and took the bus to the airport. I tried to go back to sleep but didn’t. My first event for the day wasn’t until 1pm so since sleep wasn’t happening, I got a lot of packing done and put myself together and went to the Magic Kingdom.

Wandering through Fantasyland I kept looking to my right in hopes that the Matterhorn would suddenly appear.

(Laura gives Lisa the “I know how you feel” look)

I bravely took on Peter Pan’s Flight, Snow White’s Scary Adventures, Philharmagic, and it’s a small world by myself. Then I ran into more online friends: Margaret, Sheryl, Alicia, Tina, and Fran at Haunted Mansion.

At 1pm Team AllEars gathered in the Rose Garden to set on the most funnest, silly, timed adventure known to man, Capture the Magic. It’s a photographic scavenger hunt hosted by www.Tagrel.com. The Team consisted of Laura, Andrea, Linda, Gloria, Deb, and me. I was the photog and Linda was the clue reader.

(Gloria raises her hand)

They tried to drag me on Splash Mountain.

It was part of the game.

I know, deary. I was making a joke.

Oh. I knew that.

(Andrea stands up)

My Team shirt came with a stain on it.

(Everyone points and laughs except Linda who didn’t inspect shirts upon arrival)

Afterwards we all had lunch at the Plaza Restaurant not the Plaza Inn. Those are two very different eateries. It was nice to sit, talk, and especially fill up after all that running or in my case, walking around. We had a delightful time together even though Deb Wills kept trying to make me much older than I am.

I joined up with my BFF Karen later that night. We left MK after a few rides and headed to Celebration. As it turned out they were having a street party. That makes 3 parties in a row. We wandered about, bought chocolate covered pretzels, poked around gift shops, visited Celebration Hotel and then collapsed at Market Street Cafe. The service was extremely poor as my dinner and my BFF Karen’s dinner both arrived cold. Our server checked to see if I could have the turkey and veggies because I can’t have pepper. They were fine but the plate was covered in gravy that contained a large amount of black pepper. We were delighted to leave even though we were still hungry.

Monday

My bags were packed, I cleaned up the room, and headed to the front desk to check out. I met up with 7 friends at Kona Cafe for lunch. Erin, her hubby Johnny, Sid, Carol & her hubby Gary, my BFF John & his wife Cathy shared lots of laughs that afternoon.

I spent the rest of my day in EPCOT with my BFF Karen. We saw the new show, What’s Your Problem? at Innoventions, tested out cars at Test Track, and soared over Cali. The next few hours were spent wandering World Showcase. It was a nice leisurely stroll and just as we started walking we ran across Mike Scopa, Mike Newell, Fred Block, Jeanine, Beci, Michelle, and International superstar, Masayo in Mexico.

My trip came to an end after an early dinner at Yakitori House and some pin shopping. My BFF Rental Car and I stopped at the gas station and filled the tank before returning to the airport for an evening flight home.

The End.

*”Meanwhile, back at the ranchero” is a line I stole from my co-worker, Paul. He’s a ninja so I’d better give him credit.

Did you really read the whole blog? My goodness, you deserve a pat on the back.

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