DisneyWorld June 2, 2007

Hey there, hi there, ho there, you're as welcome as can be!  M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E!  Welcome to our yearly (or nearly) trek to Orlando to frolic with "family" from around the state, the nation, and the world!  This year, we were invited up by our good friend, Markus, and his boyfriend (well, I hate to put labels on other peoples' relationships), Eugene.  Eugene was a peach to get us discounts for the park, hotel, and meals.  It always pays to know someone in the hospitality industry.  We stayed just outside of Disney World at a very nice Best Western off 192.  The only problem we had with the hotel was OTHER PEOPLE!  2am is no time to start blaring your radio and having a party in the parking lot (thank you, upstairs neighbors).  Oh, well... 10 minutes later, the party was suddenly broken up by security.  I wonder who called them?  hehehe

Below are pictures of our weekend.  We hope you enjoy them!

left:  Markus leans into Eugene    right:  Michael appears somewhat pensive, Jeffrey's just silly!

Apparently, the men weren't the only things putting on a show!

Space Mountain as seen while taking the Ferry across to the main entrance

In the words of Winnie the Pooh, it was a very blustery Winds-day.  We had major rain on our way up, and it rained most of Friday.  We even bought red ponchos to wear Saturday.  Fortunately, the overcast skies kept park attendance (of the typical visitor) down, so it was a mostly gay day!

At least one of every four men was goodlooking...

Eugene arranged reservations at the Crystal Palace for lunch.  Now, here, I was thrilled he got discounts, because frankly, I would never pay $20+ for a buffet, even when you have the chance to visit with the Disney characters.  I spent more time worrying about how those poor character actors held up under those heavy costumes, and I wanted to make sure I watched where Tigger put his hands... certain actors in certain costumes have been in the news a bit too much!  But we had a great lunch, and our waiter, John from New York, was extremely attentive.  Not once did I make it to the bottom of my soda glass before another was there.  He is a lot cuter than this pic shows...and he had a nice butt (and yes, I told him so).  Also below is a pic of the very nice cook who was cutting a very delicious barbecue pork roast for me.

And here we are with the characters!

(L to R:  Jeffrey and Eeyore, Michael and Tigger, and three little pigs?)

Of course, the biggest "characters" we know, our next door neighbors, Billy and Terry, happened to be at the park!

The biggest (and I use the word lightly) thing about GayDays at Disney World is meeting up with the bears for Country Bear Jamboree.  Okay, this is hard to picture, but every year, meeting up at the Jamboree at a certain time and getting into the show is THE event.  It's high camp.  I mean, picture a room full of big fat hairy guys, all hooting and hollering, all singing along with the Country Bears.  We got into the anteroom for the show and the Disney announcer says, "Are you all ready for the show?"  To which I yell, "Honey, we ARE the show!"  That set the crowd off laughing and screaming.  Here are pics both of the vast lines outside (see if you can find Michael) and the crowd watching the show!

Disney World had a few new rides/shows I hadn't done before.  I recommend the "Phil-Harmonic", a 3-D show that was very well done.  The parade was fun to watch, too.  I mean, the characters really got into the crowd, and I seemed to connect with some of them--judge for yourself!

The neatest thing was that the very last thing in the parade was a sea of red:  the street was lined with gay men and women as part of the parade (not officially, mind you, but they followed the last float and waved to the crowd).  We had a great time on the rides, but probably had the most fun on the teacups.  Michael and I have a thing about spinning as fast as we can in one way and then spinning the other as fast as possible.  The first pic is us waiting in line to get on.

I was amazed that we ran into other people we knew while at the park.  Here's a pic of some of our friends from the Flamingo Freedom Band, queued up for Splash Mountain.

We then took the monorail and buses to the Animal Kingdom.  We had a great time on the Hatari Safari, and Jeffrey got some decent animal pics (he's an avid photographer--don't forget to visit his artpics page).  He also spent the time cracking up the women a seat ahead in the safari van.

Jeffrey doesn't have the best inner ear (motion sickness), but he was daring enough to go on the new Mount Everest ride (watch out for the Yeti!).  It was a great rollercoaster--better than space mountain.  You go way, way up, and then pitch down, and speed along until you're stopped at the end of a "broken track".  Then, suddenly, without warning, the coaster goes BACKWARD!  Jeffrey was NOT ready for that.  He had to sit afterward for a few minutes.  One of the pics below is Michael, Markus and Eugene taking a smoke break while Jeffrey gets his head back on.  Now, keep in mind, this was about 6:30, and we'd been at Disney since a little after 10am.

From Animal Kingdom, we finished up with Epcot.  We simply didn't have time for Disney/MGM. Epcot was more a matter of SLOW walking around because we were all so sore. They had just finished the annual flower show a week or two before, so the gardens were beautiful.

Our goal at Epcot was simply to see the firework display.  However, we got halfway around the park and were stunned to see that Herman's Hermits, starring Peter Noone, was having a "Flower Power" concert.  We got there 15 minutes before the show, and had a great time.  Jeffrey got some great shots of the show.  Best song?  What else:  "I'm Henry the Eighth"!

The fireworks were great...judge for yourself!

    

We attended a character breakfast the next morning.  Again, a great meal.  I was really impressed by how friendly the servers and workers were in general.  Here's Lisa, our wonderful waitress, and Jeffrey, being treated like a princess....tiara included!

   

And again, more character pics.  They really teach them specific ways to stand, move, etc...  Notice Ms. Poppins's feet!

   

 

The day gave me a chance to delve into my photography hobby, snapping a few pics of the "pretty people" (most of whom were unaware they were being photographed)

   

   

YOW!

Hope you enjoyed our pics!