It's a 5:20am wake up call. From Stacey. She wanted to be up then, and she set her alarm. She was to wake me at 5:40am. I guess she was too tired to get up, and woke me to let me know it's time to get up. I let her know, it wasn't my time yet, and she felt bad. Lol I got up anyway. Stuff to do. Showered and shaved, dressed and packed up. Returned the extension cord I had borrowed. Took a look outside and we were already docked. We weren't expected to be docked until 6:30am, but it looked like it happened around 4:45am, ahead of schedule. We meet up with Amy at our prearranged time of 6:20 to be first in line when the breakfast buffet opened. We wanted to try to use the express walk off option, taking our own bags off so we could get as close to a full day at DisneyWorld as possible. This wasn't a unique idea. There were at least 20 other people doing the same and more arriving every minute.

We finish breakfast quickly and go to grab our bags. I take Stacey's luggage. She kind of looked at me funny when I did, but I knew that she would be struggling with them. They are both close to or over 70 pounds each. She takes my large bag and a small carryon. We both are wearing backpacks as well. After waiting for 2 or 3 elevators that we can't use because they are already full of people and luggage going down, I leave Stacey and Amy to play the waiting game and I carry the big bags, carefully, down a floor and roll them forward to midship. I only have to wait for 1 elevator before I get one that's empty for me to go down to deck 3 where the gangway is. No Stacey or Amy. I wait a few minutes before asking if they've been scanned off the ship yet. No, not yet. I guess they are waiting for me. By the time I go to check, they are coming to see if I made it forward and am waiting for them. Oh well. We're here now. The main crowd of early risers has already gotten off, so we're quickly off and through customs. Walking out to the buses, Amy is first there, and we are given the choice of taking the main bus, or getting a shuttle van direct. Sound's good to us. They fill the van with 6 other passengers and are off, first vehicle to leave the port I think, around 7:30am. Smooth so far.

We arrive at the Pop Century resort a little over an hour later. We're the first stop, I don't know where the other passengers are staying. After a bit of checking in and rechecking in to get Amy and us rooms near each other that are ready to go, we walk our luggage to our building. The resort is large. Several buildings of just rooms, a central building with gift shop, food courts, arcardes, and large pool. The rooms are clean and cool. Too cold for Stacey, so I have to turn the temperature up for her. =( We decide to unpack a bit and get organised before setting out to the buses that shuttle you around the park.

The buses come about every 20 minutes or sooner and go on set routes. We take the bus to the Magic Kingdom, their version of DisneyLand. It takes about 20 minutes to get there on the bus. This place is huge. Wouldn't you know it. Just after we get dropped off and are walking towards the main gates, it starts to rain. Slowly at first, but it starts to pick up. Amy has an umbrella, and I pull out my wide brimmed hat, while Stacey puts on a hoody. We get to the security bag check, and realize there, that this isn't going to cut it. I pull out the rain poncho that I got on the cruise ship for free one day. They were giving them out on a rainy excursion day. Stacey has an umbrella, but doesn't want to pull it out. Don't ask me why. Once we get in the parks, I can't believe how busy it is here. Lots of people, lots of kids, lots of ponchos. We go to the nearest shop where Amy buys a poncho exactly like mine….for $9 USD. Stacey refuses to pay that price. I offer to pay it for her, but she still refuses. She'd rather be soaked by rain than hosed by Disney. I eventually convince her to use the umbrella and she puts on the rain cover that protects her camera backpack. Amy and I go straight for Space Mountain and Stacey got into a gift shop to wait for us out of the rain. She is not a ride person.

The layout to the Magic Kingdom is similar to Disneyland, but not an exact copy. There are more and different rides here and some are missing altogether. Where are you Indiana Jones?? After Space Mountain, it's off to Ariel's ride. Stacey is up for that one. It's similar to the Disneyland ride, maybe a bit more stuff, but pretty close, from my memory. Then it's off to Pirates of the Caribbean, where I get Stacey to come, on the promise that it's both not scary, and underground out of the rain. The ride was good, but disappointing. It's a much shorter ride than the one in Disneyland. Next is Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Another favorite of ours. Stacey sits this one out too.

The rain lets up for a bit, and we decide that we have time for one more ride before we should go. Amy and I get on Splash Mountain, and luck out, get on the back of a log. Good, less chance of getting wet. We almost made it too, but for the last drop, we got a kickback splash that got us a bit, not too bad, but more than we wanted. We pick up Stacey, who points out the very dark clouds coming towards us. Yep, time to go. But we're trapped. They've roped off the main streets for a parade, from Adventureland, where we are, all the way back to Main Street, where the exit is. It's a struggle to find the way through the masses. Why are all these kids not in school? I thought it'd be a lot emptier here. Especially on a rainy midweek school day.

We fight our way through and out of the park and to the bus back to our resort. Our timing is good. Not 5 minutes after getting on the bus, those dark clouds catch us and it's raining hard. We hear that it's been raining for the last week here in Florida. Stacey goes ahead. She doesn't want to change only to get wet again and wants to start shopping. A quick change to drier clothes and Amy and I catch the bus to the Downtown Disney area, about a 15-20 minute ride opposite to the Magic Kingdom. Amy wants to shop too, but first priority is food. She's hungry, and I'm guessing Stacey will be too. We go to Earl of Sandwich and eat, and I pick up a chicken berry salad for Stacey and we go to find her. Just in time. She's grumpy cause she's hungry, and she knows it. She feels much better after that.

The girls want to shop more, but we've very little time for that. It's after 5:15 now, and we have a ways to go to walk through the construction walls of the expanding Downtown Disney area to get to the far side to the Cirque du Soleil theatre for the 6pm showing of La Nouba. I pick up our reserved tickets at the box office and we go in and sit. It's nice to be off of our feet. The show is only half full, so I'm guessing you could wait for deals on tickets rather than booking in advance like it did, but how do you know how full it will be on any given day or show? The show is very good, with good stuff from the bicycle riders and assorted acrobats.

After the show, the girls get some shopping time in, while I wander off ahead, we the agreement that we meet outside of Fulton's Crabhouse for dinner at our 9pm reservation time. I'm somewhere between the large Disney Store and the Lego store, walking through hordes of people, when someone pinches my butt! They say that people either have a fight or flight instinct. I'm thinking I'm a fighter, because immediately my fist clenched and I turned with my arm cocked to find Stacey laughing her head off at seeing me get startled and getting a reaction from me. I guess it's hard to startle me and she's very pleased with herself that she did it to me and got to see it. Hmmmph!

It's dark and after 8:30pm, but it's still very warm and muggy, and my dogs are barking. In fact, I'm itchy. My back is itchy, my ankles are itchy and my wrist is killing me. Either my wrist watch or something got under it and irritated the skin and the skin is starting to bubble and weep a clear fluid. Yuck. I later find my ankles are blotchy. I don't know what it is and neither does Stacey. I think I'm allergic to heat and humidity. We find a bench to sit on while listening to a guy play electric guitar and the diggery-doo. (spelling?) Interesting combo, he's selling his CD. Amy shows up at 9 o'clock and our table is ready a few minutes later.

The restaurant is built into what looks like an old steam Paddleboat, and seems quite nice….and pricey. Good thing we bought the Disney Dining plan. Bad news is, eating here cost you 2 meal credits per person to make up for the pricey-ness. Our server Michael, is a very friendly guy. We tell him we're on the Dining Plan and he explains what's available and what he recommends. The girls are hungry and go for it. Calamari for Stacey, Crab Ceviche for Amy, and Lobster Corn Dogs for me. (a lobster tail cut up and deep fried on skewers with spicy dip…yummy). Stacey gets a 16 ounce NY Strip steak a la Oscar, Alaskan King crab legs for Amy (and they are large legs) and a small filet mignon for me, I wasn't that hungry, more thirsty. We get dessert with the Dining plan too, crème brule and key lime pie we order, but can't finish them. We are stuffed. The bill is quite steep, but the Dining plan looks after much of that, we just paying for extra drinks ordered, and of course, tipping on the unreduced bill. Still, expensive dinner, but not as bad as it could have been, and the food was amazing. Stacey's baked potato was massive and she loved it. By the time we waddled out of the restaurant it was getting close to 11:30pm, and we had to walk back to the busses and take the 20 minute ride back to the hotel.

I decided to bath and shower in hopes of halting whatever the heat was doing to my skin, and by the time I got to bed, it was after 1am. Ugh. We have an early wake up call tomorrow (today now) for character breakfast at 8am in the park at Epcot. Must sleep.

WYWH

Kim =) and Stacey :)