Cast of characters: Sandy (45), Judy (45), Seth (17), Sara (15), Elana (11), Sandy's parents Ike and Beverly. All Disney veterans.

Why two-way radios are such a good idea and why I wish I had them.

    Ever since we left New York, Elana couldn’t wait to ride Test Track. This from the girl that had to be talked into riding it for the first time this past June. She had an idea for this morning, that since she and I were the early risers, we would get up, go to EPCOT, ride Test Track and be back to the room before the rest of the family were ready to go out. So, we woke up at 7:00 and without eating breakfast, got to Test Track at 8:30. We got our fastpass tickets, which told us to return between 9:05 and 10:05. With time to kill, we went over to Wonders of Life to grab a quick bite. Elana had hot chocolate and a bagel with cream cheese, while I had a bagel sandwich and coffee. Back to Test Track. We got on the Fast pass line and no sooner did we get on line than they announced a delay. Oddly enough, this delay was not due to mechanical problems, but audio problems. After about a fifteen-minute delay, the ride started up again and we got on. I took my camcorder with me and videotaped the whole ride. Oh, we did stop once or twice while on the ride also. Once on the hairpin turns and once in the erosion test. It was weird coming out into the open on the last part. I remember back during the summer how the afternoon heat hit as us we got outside and whipped around the track. This time, it was quite the opposite, as the day was cool and overcast.

    Since we were nor running late, I figured I’d better call Judy and let her know. Stupid me, I realized that I didn’t have the phone number to the Boardwalk with me. I asked one of the CMs in the Test Track gift shop and they were able to look it up for me. I waited until I got outside and called, but got some company instead. Either they gave me the wrong number, or they gave me an internal number. Then I noticed that a voice mail message was waiting for me. Sure enough, Judy had tried to call me and left a message. She didn’t leave me the number either, so off I went to look for a phone that I could call for information. I asked one CM by the Odyssey restaurant where a phone was and he pointed me toward an ATM in the World Showcase. When I got there, I couldn’t find a phone and asked another CM, who pointed me back toward the Odyssey. At this point, I was getting frustrated. It was the first time I ever experienced not being able to get correct or any information from a CM. I finally called information from my cell phone and got the correct number. All the while we were walking toward the International Gateway. Since we were planning on going to MGM Studios, I told them to meet us at the dock.

    We actually got to the dock before everyone else, but Judy, Seth, Sara and my folks arrived shortly after we got there. First thing we did was go to Rock n’ Roller Coaster for the fastpass. The line we got on seemed to be having problems, but the CMs working on it used us to test it out and we got our tickets for a 1:20 to 2:20 return. We went over to the Great Movie Ride. As I’m writing this, I’ve just read the rumors that they might close it. I really hope these are nothing more than rumors, since The Great Movie Ride is one of our favorites. The wait was only about 20 minutes, the line just starting at the door. We got the gangster scene. When we got out, we just missed the 12:45 showing of the Doug Show. Everyone wanted to go to the Drew Carey Sound Show. Since I wasn’t really crazy about it the first time around, and I was getting a little bit of a headache, I found a bench to sit on while they went in. I closed my eyes for a while, waiting for them to come out.

    When they all came out, we went over to the Rock n’ Roller Coaster and with our fastpass, we walked right on. I got daring and tried to video tape the whole thing, while riding. It is hard holding the camera steady as you go into those loops! All I got in the end was a lot of blackness, with signs popping out every once in a while and a lot of screaming.

    We were getting hungry, and although our priority seating to Hollywood and Vine wasn’t until 3:00, we decided to go a little early and see if we could get seated. We got there at 2:30 and were seated within five minutes. This is the first time we tried Hollywood and Vine and everyone liked it. I’ll have to definitely give it another try, as my headache was kicking into high-gear and I wasn’t very hungry.

    With my headache bothering me and my dad was getting tired, we decided to go back to the room and rest for a while. So, we left everyone with plans to meet in time for Fantasmic. On the way to the room, I saw an executive type CM (when you work in the corporate world as long as I have, you know an executive when you see one) wearing a lanyard. I stopped him to check it out, but not seeing anything I liked, dismissed him with a thank you. He made a funny comment about being brushed off.

    We had arranged to meet Judy, my mom and the kids at the entrance to Fantasmic at 6:30, so we woke up at 5:00 and headed out. On the way to the Boardwalk, I ran into a man wearing many pins and talked to him for a while. He was wearing a DVC pin I had not seen before, the DVC pin with a 2000 in large numerals, that was given to DVC members on the first day of the millennium celebration. He told me that the DVC rep on the Boardwalk had some in his pocket, so we went over to see if I could trade for one. I traded one of my Steamboat Willies for one of his pins.

    It was getting late, so we walked to the dock to grab the boat to MGM. There was a boat already at the MGM side of the dock, but it wasn’t a Friendship. It was a party boat, that was covered in plastic to protect it from the cold and you could clearly see a well-stocked bar inside. There were suits all over the place and I knew this was for someone important. I saw the CM I brushed off earlier come down the gangplank and said hello, apologizing for my abruptness earlier. It turns out he was the operations manager for the Boardwalk and the boat was sitting there for a private party for Michael Eisner. He was due to arrive within 10 minutes, but we couldn’t wait around as the MGM boat pulled up shortly after.

    We got to MGM a little after 6:30 and hustled to Fantasmic. As we got to the corner of Hollywood and Sunset, my dad realized he had dropped one of his gloves. He wanted to forget about it, but since he was sure he had it when we entered the park, we backtracked to look for it. As we were walking up Hollywood Blvd toward the entrance, a man asked us if we had dropped a glove, and sure enough, it was my father’s. Talk about luck..

    We got to Fantasmic and not seeing anyone from my family, we started to walk in. They weren’t letting anyone else in and announced that there was standing room only and if anyone was meeting people inside, not to worry, we would all get in. We stood on the left by the rope and I heard Judy shouting to me. She was with Seth, who spotted us. As soon as they let us in, we followed Judy to our seats. They had found great seats in the third row of Mickey section. They didn’t have the pre-show this time, so we didn’t miss anything. The show started shortly after we got in.