MouseFest Monday, December 10, 2007

Monday, December 10th

I always try to give myself one day before Mousefest and one day after before going home. It gives me a chance to do some things I cannot do during the actual land portion of MF.

On this day I was out looking for Disney ornaments for our tree back home. This was the year that we were going pure Disney with our Christmas tree. Despite having enough ornaments for the tree I felt we needed about another two dozen or so to really give it a full look.

So I headed for the outlets but halfway there I changed my mind and instead went to Downtown Disney.

I looked around and found plenty of ornaments but they were all made of glass and I was not willing to take a chance and bring them on the flight home.

The visit was not in vain however as I did pick up a few gifts for Carol for Christmas.

I headed over to EPCOT to have lunch with Brian Bennett. As I walked past Spaceship Earth. I noticed they were having sneak previews.

Having heard from CMs and Imaginers regarding the unpopular decision to open Spaceship Earth “before it was time” I decided to forego the sneak preview and wait until the attraction is finished and officially open to the public.

I don’t know if I would have done that five or ten years ago but I do realize these days how much pride imaginers have regarding their creations and it just doesn’t seem fair to me to see partially completed work and pass judgment on this work.

So no Spaceship Earth for me.

Have I mentioned how sparse the decorations seemed this year?

I was to meet Brian at the Biergarten and when I got there I ran into Dave Marx. Dave and I exchanged more observations regarding this year’s Mousefest. There’s a lot to discuss.

Brian showed up and I tried to check in online with Southwest through my cell phone. I was a few minutes away. We got into the restaurant and I tried to check in online”¦no luck.

The meal was good and afterwards Brian and I strolled through WS noting some interesting aspects of each pavilion.

We ran into “crash” a.k.a. Linda Eckwerth who had planned to stay for a few days due to her father’s impending operation. We chatted for a few minutes and then we said our goodbyes again. I had a meeting and Brian had to leave as well.

My meeting was with Beci Manhken but she was running late and on top of that had no ride to the airport. I offered to drive her to the airport and you would have thought I had offered her the world.

I have noticed that those people in this world with huge hearts and who always do their darndest to bring smiles and happiness to others are in turn the most appreciative of the tiniest gesture of help towards them. Beci is one of those people. She has one of the biggest hearts of all my friends and is forever thankful of the tiniest favor you can do for her.

I picked Beci up at the Beach Club and we sped off to the airport and we chatted about Mousefest and of course how exhausted we were.

At the airport we hugged goodbye and I returned to the Beach Club to have one last meeting with Mark Goldhaber. Mark and I were coordinating our Mousefest reviews and other things and wanted to get everything straight before he left for the airport.

See everyone was leaving Sunday or Monday. Not me.

I walked along Stormalong Bay and entered though the International Gateway.

Heck all my friends were gone”¦but that’s what cell phones are for”¦to connect from across the miles.

I decided to call a friend of mine who could not make it to Mousefest and chat for awhile. I asked her what she would do if she were me. Now she knows I like Wishes but since I was already in EPCOT she said just walking around WS at night and taking in the atmosphere is something she would do.

I was hungry and wondered where I could eat without too much of a crowd or noise. My friend suggested the Tangierine Café in Morocco. I told her I’d give it a try. She was right. The Tangierine Café was not crowded, not noisy, and very reasonable. I had some sort of chicken dish. It was good.

I walked around World Showcase and Future World and just took it all in. I thought about staying for Illuminations but after the previous night’s experience it would not be the same.

I captured one last image of the Lights of Winter.

Most people think of the Lights of Winter as the shimmering lights on the trellis that spans the bridge between Future World and World Showcase..

I recall however that the Original Lights of Winter was the display in front of this trellis.

Argue amongst yourselves.

What was funny was that not only were the batteries in my digital camera, cell phone, and video camera low”¦so was my own physical battery.

I walked back to the Beach Club, took my next to last picture of the trip…

..and then took my very last picture of the trip as I observed the gingerbread Carrousel in the lobby…

and then headed back to my car.

It was a somewhat melancholy return back to the resort and my room.

I thought about packing but since my flight was at mid-day I decided what was more in order for me to take a walk and relax and reflect at Generation Gap Bridge at Pop Century.

Mousefest was over and next on the horizon was Marathon weekend.

Oh…one more thing…I left sunny Orlando and arrived home in quite a different type of weather.

Here is my “chariot” to take me home…brrr

Mousefest 2007 was history.