Goodbye Mary Ellen, BUT – see ya real soon, in August 08!

Today started with calling the special reservations number we were given to book our “bounceback trip”. Everything worked out fine and within a few minutes we were booked for a 6 night stay in August/September 08 at Pop Century in a preferred room.

When we arrived at their resort they were just finishing their breakfast and YIPPIE, they had booked the “bounceback deal” as well. We wanted to spend our last day together at the Magic Kingdom, so we drove to the Ticket and Transportation Center, parked the car and got onto the next available tram to the Magic Kingdom.

Then it was off to the food court to have breakfast. As always it was packed and we decided on having the Western Omelette again. We didn’t want to waste to much time today, as it was Mary Ellen and Joe’s time to go back home in the afternoon. Tom had a clever idea! As noone had asked to ride in the front of the Monorail, HE asked if we could go. We could.

Tom offered to ride in the next compartment as there are only 4 people allowed in the front. This time it was Joe’s first time to ride there, but we all enjoyed the trip very much! What a view riding towards and through the Contemporary and then going towards the Magic Kingdom.

Needless to say, we enjoyed those last few hours we had together at the Magic Kingdom very much. We strolled through the shops and went on a few more rides together, before we went to have lunch at the Columbia Harbour House.

We decided on sharing our meals, Tom got the Fried Fish Basket - Served with French Fries and I got the Garden Galley Salad - mixed greens with chicken, pecans, pineapple and feta cheese. We both chose the Chocolate Cake for dessert. It was very nice and while we were having lunch it was starting to rain.We wanted to do the Jungle Cruise after lunch, but it was closed due to the rain, so we visited the Pirates of the Caribbean once again. While in line who other than Jack Sparrow would walk towards us!! And my Pal Mickey was even commented on by Captain Jack by asking me if I had killed the rat myself! Hey Captain – that’s your boss your talking to, LOL!

After the ride the rain had stopped and we went over to the Jungle Cruise to use  our Fastpasses. There was NO one in the Fastpass line, so we were on the very next boat. We had a really fun skipper, who made the boat ride so much fun. There was even time left to do the Hall of Presidents before it was time for all of us to think about leaving the park. Mary Ellen and her family needed to go back to the resort to catch the Magical Express to the airport and Tom and I had a reservation at Mama Melrose.

As we were walking towards the hub we saw the parade going by. It was such a magical sight at the end of our vacation to see the parade floats go past the castle which sparkled in the sunlight. We all said goodbye to the MK and we walked Mary Ellen and her family to the bus stop.

Tears were shed and hugs were exchanged when we had to say our good byes at the bus stop. We waved as long as we could see the bus and even though we knew we would meet again in a year’s time, these  a very sad moments at the Happiest Place on Earth. 

We had to hurry to get to MGM in less than half an hour. We walked over to the Contemporary and took the resort monorail back to the Ticket and Transportation Center. We were lucky enough to get onto the next tram, but it was sure we would be late for our reservation. We arrived at MGM 5 minutes after our reservation was supposed to be. We still had to cross the park to get to the restaurant and arrived there out of breath and about 15 minutes late. 

We had to wait for a little while and then were shown to our table. Our server was VERY nice and explained the Fantasmic Package in great detail and pointed out what we were entitled to on the dining plan. Instead of the flatbread and salad we were used to we were now allowed to chose any starter on the menu. Tom chose the Crispy Calamari - with peppers and onions and a side of spicy marinara sauce, while I went for the Mixed Greens - balsamic vinaigrette and gorgonzola cheese. Both were very good. As our main courses we chose the Charred Butcher Tender Steak over roasted red pepper polenta, grilled asparagus, with gorgonzola butter and red wine reduction for Tom, while I had the Grilled Pork Tenderloin on wild mushroom risotto and grilled asparagus. Soooooooo tasty! We both decided on having the Warm Chocolate Truffle Cake for dessert and were surprised to be told that we could have a speciality coffee with it. We both went for the Cappuccino and really enjoyed the last dinner at WDW to the fullest.

After dinner we had intended to go and see Fantasmic, but we both didn’t really feel like it and since there were no EMH this evening we decided to ride a few more rides before going back to the MK for the last fireworks of this holiday.

We checked Tower of Terror and since it was only a 20 minute wait we went for it. It was not even a 20 minutes wait and the ride was real good fun. We thought we could just make it over to Rock’n’Rollercoaster before they closed, but the lines were already closed about 15 minutes early. 

So we went back to the shop to look for a T-shirt for our catsitter Raimund. No luck they didn’t have his size, so we left and went back to our car.

We drove over to the MK and decided to try to park at the Contemporary to do a little last minute shopping. We made it to the MK just in time to spend a few of our snack credits on fudgle and lollies and to fit in a ride on Space Mountain and walk back to Main Street to find a good spot to view the fireworks. We picked our favourite spot – right were the ice-cream shop is, in the middle of the Main Street. The fireworks were magical and we really enjoyed them very much.

When they were over we knew that Mary Ellen’s plane was about to touch down in Buffalo again. Time had just flown by, but we had already made plans for meeting again. We said goodbye to the castle and went towards the Railway Station, where CM were standing waving and holding up signs.

What a nice way to say good-bye. It is only a short walk to the Contemporary and we picked up our car and went back to our hotel. There the next 2 ½ hours were filled with packing and weighing our luggage, so we would not exceed our limit. It was around 1am when we finally got into bed.