some (more) pics from the trip are up...

and are thusly starting to inspire me to actually do the write-up (well that and the 3.0 of our product just went into code-freeze "it all seems to be working" mode).

Included (in reverse order of how they'll show on the page) are

• The trek through NYC including dinner at "The View" and a couple of shots of the Lion King's theater (not the internals - that would be telling...)
• Our first glance @ the Pop Century, including our on little private (rabbit) safari outside our door!
• Monday night @ MGM Studios
• Tuesday @ the Magic Kingdom, when we did the backstage tour (our tourguide) and by complete coincidence ran into two friends of faireraven she hadn't seen in years!
• A few shots of tuesday night @ downtown disney.  we didn't have time to disneyquest it that day, so we moved that to wednesday
• Wednesday @ the Animal Kingdom including a very interesting experiment in "Monkey See, Monkey Do" - the gorilla was imitating faireraven , not the other way 'round!
• Thursday's parasailing!
• Thursday's rather horrid (on my part) game of golf @ fantasia gardens - she beat me by, well, nevermind how much...
• Friday's breakfast @ the 1900 with Disney's best English characters - Mary Poppins, Mad Hatter, Alice, Pooh, and Tigger
• The various photopasses from the week.

Still to come

• Thursday morning in the Magic Kingdom, including a great street show by a fantastic Jack Sparrow.
• Friday all day @ epcot, including lots of Disney topiary
• Saturday's mix-n-match day of Studios, the Boardwalk, Epcot (seeing in the day what we saw @ night the night before), and Magic Kingdom's final parade and fireworks

A few notes just 'cause they're fresh in my head...

• When I first saw the brochures for the Swan and Dolphin, many years ago, I was rather psyched about them.  Today, I'm merely depressed.  They *really* do ruin the Epcot world skyline and, as some have noted, serve as nothing but the reminder of just how big Eisner's ego had gotten by the end.  Eisner may have saved Disney from every being bought out, at first, but his later decisions led the core foundation into neglect (lack of maintenance in the existing parks, the glut and then destruction of the animation department that provided the character life-blood, the abusive relationship with Pixar, amicably resolved once he was gone) - like a King aged too long, or a President in his 2nd term, he was there just a bit too long.
• I don't (unlike others) begrudge the resort mgmt the Disney Vacation Club hotels and suites and the amount of Imagineering resources it takes.  You can't build rides 24/7.  And while the Vacation Club may seem an excess, it really is a reasonable product that at the same time brings in a HUGE stockpile of investment capital (and a regular profit) from the people who really care about Disney rather than relying on corporations to kick in what amounts to them as solely advertising dollars.  Yes, the DVC people are "everywhere", but "you gotta do this" sales-scheisters they're not.
• It's an extremely interesting feeling knowing you're the tallest person in the entire "World", even if just for 5 minutes.  We got about 225 feet up or so, higher than anything on site except the Swan hotel itself.
  
• It's incredible just how much I remember from 1984, and was shaking up older castmembers memories as I talked about...
  
• when the Fulton Crab House steamboat (really just a facade on the pier) was actually a Disney theme restaurant with character dining as part of the ancient "Buena Vista Village" on then Lake Buena Vista, now dredged up.  Most of the "lake" is now land, housing the Saratoga Springs Resort (previously, it held the Disney Institute)
• the "just barely on-site" high-rise hotels which can be seen from Downtown Disney, many of which (though *not all*) are still standing.  I remember the HoJos that's now a Holiday Inn (by way of a Courtyard Mariott - go fig.  ironically enough, here in Fair Oaks, the Holiday Inn has just become a Mariott!)
• the old Wilderness Resort area, River Country, and Discovery Island (all if which you can still see from that 200 feet up perspective on life)
  
• the way in which external structures can be preserved while changing utterly their internal facade, sometimes even just partially...
• how *little* I remember about Tomorrowland, with my memories of California's version being FAR stronger, even though I'd been to Florida's far more often.  Yes, going back to California twice in the last 3 years (and getting the Disneyland related Disney Treasures DVDs) might be a factor, but it really did surprise me.
• speaking of external structures - I got to see, quickly through the trees while on the bus, the construction of the next phase of the Pop Century, the "Legacy Years" (1900s-1940s).  And it was fascinating: it was just a 5 story red brick hotel, nothing fancy at ALL about it.  Really let it sink in that the theme is really just a lightweight facade, one that can be swapped out at any time (with *some* expense - removing a 50 foot rubiks cube staircase isn't cheap).
• While Haunted Mansion is closed, they *really* should be doing something about handicap access.  And we told them so...and oddly, though we insisted it was a suggestion and not a "complaint" they gave us free "fast passes" which we used to get onto Space Mountain real quick before the parade.
• This then led into its own irony as while getting through the queue we got abusively passed by a bunch of teenage girls insisting they needed to be together without asking (we'd have let them pass without any complaint at all)...only to find that we, thanks to the walker, bypassed the final section of the line to get onto a car ahead of them anyways.  We didn't ask, we just let karma play itself out.  :)
• Yes, roller-coaster-hating me did Space Mountain twice, the Aerosmith coaster 3 times, did Big Thunder "no hands" (it's actually not nearly as rough as it's Californian counterpart)...of course, none of those have the "drop" I hate so much.   Everest does for a little bit, but in the main drop a certain little...monster...is distraction enough from it.
  
• Raglan Road is INCREDIBLE.  more later.  it may be a huge Irish Pub, but even with the loss of intimacy of, say, Nanny O'Briens, it's a GREAT Irish pub.
• Being Backstage Safari meant we actually got to see the 2 month old baby (baby?  he's 7 feet tall already) giraffe!
  

And finally, I realized, even before our "Keys to the Kingdom" tour guide suggested it...

• There is only one Mickey.

word.

more later as I recap each day...