Here's a picture, circa the mid 1970's, of the Christmas tree that was set up in the lobby of the Contempory. My mother said that they went to bed one night and there were no decorations and when they woke up the next morning, there was the tree. She also said that they never heard a thing and their room opened up to the lobby. Another piece of Disney Magic!

Judging from this picture, the early days at WDW must have all been like E-Ticket days!



Looking across the lake towards the Contempory (circa mid 1970's)



Inside the Contempory(1970's)

Trip #6...Day 3

Woo Hoo! Happy Birthday to me! And what a wonderful place to spend it. I was up at 6:15 a.m. and out the door by 8:15 to go to the MK. Arrived about 8:45 and went to the camera shop on Main Street. What a time for my camera to act up. I had the battery changed by a really nice CM and decided to get rid of the film that was in the camera, not knowing if I'd double exposed it or not. She gave me a new roll of film. That's gave, as in no charge. Nice CM #1 I got to the Adventureland entrance where an older CM was begging the crowd not to run over her when she dropped the rope. She was really funny. At 9 it was off to the Splash/Thunder Mountains quick step. I was #7 in line at Splash Mountain and we were escorted to the ride by a CM I guess you'd call the pace setter. Evidently the mad dash had gotten out of hand. It was fun being in the first boat although the ride made several stops which I found rather unnerving first thing in the morning. Then it was off to Thunder Mountain which was also a walk on.

After that, I wandered over to Peter Pan's ride, then I forced myself on It's a Small World which wasn't as obnoxious as I remembered it. There was a 5 minute wait at Mr. Toad's and I vowed I'd find that naked lady this time. Sure enough, I did! Ha Ha, she's a real beauty.

The heat of the day was starting to take it's toll on me so I decided to do inside rides as much as possible. I went to the Carousel of Progress which I rode when it was at the New York Worlds fair in 1964 when I was a mere child. Also went on Take Flight, the Wedway (TTA) and ended up taking the skyway cars. My daughter had asked for something related to Alice in Wonderland but found nothing really relevant to it at the MK. As a MKC member, I decided to try the Disney Store for the discount. Caught the monorail to the T&TC and went to the DTD. There I bought a great book of the older Disney Classic cartoons, including Alice in Wonderland. It's called The Treasury of Children's Classics and even contains short blurbs about the production of each of the movies. Then it was back to OKW for some rest and to get ready for dinner at the Prime Time 50's Café. I took the boat from DTD back to OKW. The boat had just left the dock when I got there and the CM nicely turned it around and came back and got me Nice CM's 2…Real Life Work people 0

After a short but much needed nap, I was off with Chris and Jen to MGM. We had a "brother" serve us and he was fun. Although both Jen and I cleaned our plates, my son just couldn't do it. Well, when the bill came, it was all wrong and come to find out we had a check belonging to another group of people and they had ours which was substantially more. We decided to boo him when he came back in the room. He had no idea what was wrong so after an explanation I said to him, don't you think because Chris was so honest with the checks that he deserves a clean plate club sticker? He agreed he did and everyone applauded!

We still had a little bit of time at MGM and were able to do the back lot tour and Muppet Vision 3D. Originally I had planned to go back to EPCOT but we decided to play miniature golf at Fantasia Gardens . I can't imagine doing this during the day, it's shadeless but it was fun at night. Chris won the game handily. When we were done I had to retrieve my video camera from one of their lockers. I could not open the thing so I asked one of the CMs for help. He managed to get it open and I said thank you and he just looked at me and walked off. I said to him you're welcome. But I was upset. I always thank the people here or anywhere I go for their help. The people I work for don't appreciate anything you do and treat us like so much furniture - moving us around with no thought to what we might like or want. I have no intention of treating others like that. So I went up to him and said I've been to WDW 6 times and you're the first CM whose ever had an attitude problem. At first he just looked at me and then tried to say something in the way of an apology but I just walked away. Oh well…Nice CM's 2, Real life workers 1. We walked over to the Dolphin (or what ever the heck that thing is) caught the fireworks off in the distance at EPCOT and had ice cream. Then it was back to OKW where, as every night you're at WDW, you pass out.

Trip #6...Day 4

Another beautiful day, but noticeably hotter and more humid. Chris, Jen and I left at 8:30 am to go to the MK before the RADP meet. We did the "wash and dry" (new name for the Splash/Thunder Mountain combo). Then it was off to 1900 Park Faire to meet up with fellow RADPers for breakfast. Many thanks to Michelle and Gardenia for organizing this event. After eating and several "cinematic events", (Ha Ha all of you short people who were there, are you still standing on chairs?) we went over to the CS for a Gardenia guided tour. It's lovely and HUGE. There's a great self serve restaurant there called The Pepper Market which I hope to get back to before I leave. As it was, I did have a piece of strawberry whipped cream cake that definitely belongs in my list of top 10 best ever desserts.

By now the heat and humidity had really started to bother me so I went back to OKW and slept for an extended period of time. #!&* sinuses! Woke up hours late feeling worse and finally took some sinus medication which blessedly worked so I went off to EPCOT.

EPCOT was much more crowded this night then it was on Tuesday. Saw the French movie, O Canada! and wandered through all the shops in the countries to the right of the USA. Wanted to buy one of those $24,000 Hummel Figurines but didn't think that Visa would understand the purchase. I left ½ way through ill-25. I can't help whining about this. The original was my favorite thing about WDW and now it's gone. It's so disappointing.

Got back to OKW, called home and then went to sleep, hoping my sinuses would be better behaved tomorrow.





More On Trip #6...Days 5 and 6.