MouseFest 2007 (Day 03): Enchanted Rose's Lucky Day

When we woke up this morning, we got to log a few more hours of sleep than previous days.  Today we really didn't have anywhere to be for MouseFest before noon when the Mega Mouse Meet began.

We had made plans to meet up with Tim's friend will and his girlfriend.  Since Tim was tied up with a webmaster's breakfast, we needed to do something to keep us busy while we waited.  So, we were going to go to EPCOT Center and hang out until it was time to go to the Mega Meet.  Since that park was close to The Dolphin it made most sense.

Before we headed out, we all grabbed some breakfast snacks down at the Dolphin's lounge. 

At some point during the eating conversation switched to shopping.  So, we altered course and went shopping.

By the time we got done shopping and standing in line for 30 minutes to pay, it was an hour before the start of the Mega Meet.

So, it was decided that we wanted to go to Beaches & Cream to get a burger.  It was nice that we are DVC members because it allowed the person who was driving the ability to park there since it was a DVC Resort.

On our way to Beaches & Cream, we stopped to take a look at the giant gingerbread carousel in the lobby of the Beach Club Resort.

When we got to Beaches & Cream, we discovered that Jonathan Dichter's Kitchen Sink Meet was going on.   Fortunately, we were able to get some seats at the bar.  Jonathan had quite a turnout for his meet.  A good 20+ people were there.  They were enthusiastic but not obnoxiously loud which is easy to have happen in such a small place.  You could definitely tell these people love Disney.

We got done with our food and paid about 10 minutes before the  start of the Mega Meet but we didn't rush back.  The Mega Meet lasted a long time.

We got back to the Dolphin and headed to the location of the Mega Meet.  Once my wife and I knew where it was, we decided to go up to our room first and drop stuff off and change into something a bit more comfortable.  Well, actually, I wanted to show off my Yoda T-Shirt I bought at Tatoonie Traders in September.

The Mega Meet was something else.  The room was huge and it wasn't too hard to meet all the people that you wanted to. 

As can be expected, there were tables that were constantly packed with people and you had to be patient to get to meet them.  Some of those people were Lou Mongello and Jeff Pepper at the Disneyworld Trivia/WDW Radio Show table, Paul Barrie and Patrick Hurd's table for Window to the Magic, the WDW Today table, Passporter's Table, the table selling the books, Nathan Rose and Tim Devine at The Magic in Pixels/Magical Definition Podcast table, and any table near the raffle location.

I really spent too much time catching up with George and Andy and  not as much time snagging swag off tables as  I should've.  That I regret now.  But, I did somehow step outside my comfort zone a bit and get to talk to some of the community personalities.  This is something I normally would've been incapable of doing without the assistance of my lovely wife as my wingman. 

I got to thank Mike Scopa for his great keynote speech at the last Magic Meets (I heard it on the WDW Today podcast).  I got to say hi to Lou and Jeff several times and even asked Lou to sign my books (I got to buy the first volume of his book which now completes my set).  I asked Steve Barrett for his John Hancock inside his Hidden Mickeys book which he graciously obliged.

I also got to spend a little more time chatting with Jessica from If we can Dream It.  She brought her mother and her grandmother to the event.  It was a 3 generation representation.

The exciting part was the raffle.  Unfortunately, the facility wasn't equipped with an overhead speaker setup so the microphone they were using wasn't powerful enough to really do anything.  So Dave Marx and his entourage had to yell out the numbers. 

My lovely wife, Enchanted Rose, actually won something.  Her number came up on the XM Satellite Radio that Fred Block contributed.  This allowed me and my wife to get to meet Fred who is the founder of the Magic Meets event in Pennsylvania every year.  We are hoping that we'll get to go to Magic Meets next year.

It was at the Mega Meet that Jeff Pepper finally divulged to George that I had been inducted into the Crate Appreciation Society.  But, much to his chagrin his application was still being rejected and we was relegated to the role of groupie.  This was sealed when Jessica gave him his Crate Appreciation Society card with the title of "Groupie" under his name [ed note:  These cards were grumptastically awesome].  Sadly, my induction occurred too late to go to press.

Lou came through with is promise to play Santa and I was gifted a copy of his Audio Tour CD and I am excited to be able to mainline some "Vitamin M" into my earbuds.

I only got to speak to Tim a little bit because he was constantly swarmed with people who were interested in looking at his album of pictures.  I hope all his hard work is finally paying off and his name is getting out there.  His work is phenomenal and the 4x6 prints he had on display at his table really didn't do his talent justice.  To really appreciate his work you need to see them at a minimum of 8x10.

I didn't even come close to meeting every attendee at the Mega Meet nor did I meet everyone who was working   the tables.  But I have to say that from what I've observed these first 3 days, Lou has the coolest wife who is stuck as a Disney Widow.  I constantly saw her working the room.  She is vivacious and energetic and always had a smile on her face.  You'd think she had gone through Disney's Traditions Class.  When we made it to Lou and Jeff's table she very warmly congratulated my wife on her win of the XM Satellite Radio.  Good news seemed to have traveled fast. 

If I ever get to the point where I have a table at an event such as this, I know my wife is the same type of person that will be doing the same thing.  My wife is my biggest cheerleader and supports all that I take on inside and outside of my paying job, I know how lucky it is to have a spouse like that.  You rock Deanna!  You and my wife should be the founding members of the Men of Shorter Stature Appreciation Society (MOSSAS).

By the time the meet was over my feet were sore, but there was still time to kill before we could call the day done.

So, we went to grab some food at a restaurant in the hotel before heading to EPCOT Center.  I got a hot dog and it was one of the best dogs I've gotten outside a ballpark.

When we got to EPCOT Center we were able to get onto Space Ship Earth for the "Sneak Peek" Opening that has been going on the whole time we were here [ed note:  I have done a separate post in more detail in regards to this part of my trip].

After riding Space Ship Earth twice, we had to move on because Tim had a meet to get to about night time photography. 

I must say, that I just wasn't that much into the meet.  I don't know if it was because my feet were sore or because I have gotten a lot of this same information directly from Tim over the past 6 months. 

So, during Tim's meet, I sat on a nearby wall talking to my wife and some of Tim's non-participating friends.  At some point, my wife decided to go to Mouse Gear and do some more shopping.  This was a short lived endeavor but I'm sure it helped kill some of the monotony for her.  After awhile, it was decided that we were going to ride some attractions before we left the park that night.

Tim did his thing for about an hour.  The one thing that forgot to mention was that Tim hurt his toe sometime before MouseFest.  He was fine until after all that time he spent in dress shoes during the Mega Mouse Meet.  Now he was walking around like I was after my blisters set in during our September trip.

So, Tim was in no mood to walk around the park taking pictures either.  It was decided that we were going to go do Soarin'.  There really wasn't that big of a wait to get on.  We got to get on the vehicle that we wanted (you want to be on the front row of the vehicle so that you don't have anyone obstructing your view).

Both Tim and I tried to take pictures inside this attraction which is difficult because you are shooting pictures of a movie that is on a curved screen.

After Soarin' we decided to hit up Test Track.  There was absolutely no one on this ride.  We just walked right on.  It was decided that we were going to ham it up for the photo.  Since we had the whole car to ourselves, we were all going to pretend to be dead for the camera.  It turned out pretty hilarious when we saw the final product.

When we got back to the disembarking point, we asked the Cast  Member if we could ride again.  There was absolutely no one in line so we thought for sure that he'd say that it was alright.  Every time we asked, we were just told, "Please exit to your left".  We begrudgingly got out of the ride vehicle and headed for the exit.  Tim muttered to us, "The word you were looking for was....No".  This got a rousing round of laughter out of us.  The way he said it was just hilarious.

At this point, it was time for Illuminations! which meant that if we were going to get out of the park easily now was the time to go.  We got to see a few of the fireworks as they shot over Space Ship Earth as we were leaving the park.  I was a bit disappointed that I didn't get to see much of the usual stuff but I'm having a blast hanging out with friends.

We went from EPCOT Center to Downtown Disney.  The ever so lovely Enchanted Rose has a checklist of stores she needed to mark off in order to feel like she properly shopped.

We hit up the 25 Days of Christmas and we were able to add a few more ornaments to the rather extensive Disney Ornament Collection we have at Casa De Grumpwurst.

It was at the 25 Days of Christmas that the Taylor Boys caught up to us again.  We had planned on going to the Adventurer's Club again, but after much review it was discovered that Tim was really the only one up to doing a back to back showing.  So shopping was chosen as the new past time.

After the 25 Days of Christmas we temporarily parted with the Taylor Boys and headed to the Earl of Sandwich to get some Cannonballs! (toasted meatball sub).  All I have to say is YUM YUM YUM.

While I was noshing, my wife was shopping.  She acquired some more scrapbooking supplies and did some looking at that Art of Disney.   Apparently, there is a new Beauty and the Beast painting that has been added to her wish list.  She also acquired a cute magnet that goes on your dishwasher that lets you indicate if the contents are clean or dirty.  That is something we desperately needed since we often ended up dirtying the entire contents when it wasn't known that they were already clean and then dirty stuff was introduced.

After getting her shopping done, she then darted off to Ghiridelli to get a fudge brownie sundae after which she re-joined us at the Earl of Sandwich to enjoy the spoils of her journey.

The whole time Tim was entertaining us with stories from his days playing baseball in college.  He had us busting up the entire time because he really knows how to tell stories.

After they kicked us out of the restaurant (by kick I mean politely influenced us to leave by putting up all the chairs onto the table around us), we stood outside and talked for awhile.

Then, once we realized it was 12:30AM, we all headed back to our respective rooms to go to bed.

Well, not all of us. Yours truly had some SD Flash Cards to dump and a blog post to write.

If you want to view all 306 pictures taken on the 3rd day of MouseFest go here:

MouseFest 2007 (Day 03)

Technorati Tags: Trip Report, MouseFest, Mega Mouse Meet, EPCOT, Beaches and Cream, Downtown Disney