The View from Scopa Towers

How does that song go?

Oh yeah….”It’s that most wonderful time of the year.”

No, no! Not Christmas time silly….MOUSEFEST BABY!

Yes sir.

It all started for me on Wednesday.

I won’t tell you what time I woke up to prepare to leave….uhhh….many of you were probably still doing the R.E.M. (Rapid Eye Movement) part of your evening.

Anyway, I got to the airport early because I still wasn’t sure how this new Southwest boarding policy was going to work

It was even a bit more confusing when I came across this…

While waiting to board the plane I was joined by my neighbor and fellow AEN colleague Michelle Scribner-MacLean.

This made the flight all more enjoyable and FAST because we talked Disney and Mousefest all the way down…not to mention educational and training philosophy…two areas which we are both immersed in.

We made plans to have lunch once we were checked in…unfortunately one of the drawbacks of flying down early is that there is a good chance your room wasn’t going to be ready. This was the case with the both of us.

We had lunch at the Big River Gille and Brewing Works…..we both ate light because of the impending Begin and the end trail’s end dinner later in the day.

We then walked over to EPCOT and made the rounds through world Showcase and saw a few story tellers...France...

Japan…

We noticed something we hadn’t noticed last year….a little village and train set up around the Christmas traded outside the American Adventure Pavilion.

We went into AA and listened to the story of Chanukah and checked out the Kwanzaa exhibit.

The Voices of Liberty performed in their Victorian Christmas Garb. Some of the arrangements for the songs they did were “different” and I didn’t think it was one of their best performances….it could have been that some of my favorite “voices” weren’t there either.

Up to the American Adventure attraction…my favorite and most appreciated attraction in all of Walt Disney World.

Hmm…next time you enjoy the attraction during the scene with Teddy Roosevelt and john Muir…check out the mountains on the left….is that a hidden Mickey on the slope?

Saw the Monkey King storyteller in China.

Tried to do the Maelstrom…queue was too long for our taste.

Went into Mexico…sent a few cliff diver video postcards and continued walking around World Showcase.

We checked out the Christmas ornaments in one of the World Showcase Plaza stores…I need to bring some home.

We continued walking around World Showcase….saw Off Kilter and British Invasion.

I ran into my cousin Patty and her two traveling companions, Peg and Richard. They were on their way to the monorail to the Grand Floridian for dinner at 1900 Park Fare.

Since I was going to Fort Wilderness I offered them a ride.

I dropped them off and Michelle and I went to FW.

We got to Trail’s End and met up with 60 friends and wed all enjoyed our traditional pre-Mousefest meal…where we Begin at the End. Get it?

My friend Masayo and her husband Mamaru were there and Masayo always so generous…brought me some wasabi beans from Japan.

After dinner we went to Epcot…took in the Lights of Winter

We saw Oh Canada, and then settled in to see Illuminations…one of my favorite things to do at Mousefest.

Then it was time for me to call it a day. .I was in hour 21 of my day and the energy level was dropping fast.

I returned to Pop Century and dropped off Patty, Peg, and Richard…called the front desk to find my room number…and then made good use of my time to unpack and settled down for a long winter’s nap.

It’s Mousefest Baby!

Time to recharge because once Thursday morning hit I knew it would be time for someone to say,

“Mousefesters…start yer engines!”

Thursday morning was of course the official first day of the land portion of Mousefest. For me it was to be a busy day.

I made it over to the Magic Kingdom early and when I arrived at the Tommorrowland Terrace I had a surprise waiting for me. There were a number of people setup at the patio area that spans a bit over the water and faces the castle. Hmmmm, this was the area I had planned to use for Mousefest 101. There were all kinds of equipment setup and quite a few people there.

I approached whom I later found out was a radio personality and I asked what was going on. He was part of an Ottawa radio station that was broadcasting from the Magic Kingdom on this day.

I asked how long they would be there and he said they would be there only until 2 P.M. Well, that’s good but Mousefest 101 was scheduled to begin at 1 P.M.

No problem. I moved everything to the upper level just across from the registers. Thank goodness Noodle Station was closed.

Mousefest 101 was received rather well. Crowd estimates ranged from 280 to 320 people, most of whom were first time Mousefesters..

I presented Scopa Tower sweatshirts to two special people. The first was Masayo Kano who came all the way from Japan for Mousefest 2007.

The second sweatshirt was presented to Michelle Scribner-MacLean who first presented the idea of a Mousefest Primer.

The meet served everyone well.

One of the highlights was the raising of over $500 for the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer Fund in support of Deb Wills and for Lou Mongello's DisneyWorldTrivia.com Dream Team Project” to benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation of America. The amazing outpouring of generosity was moving and special kudos go to Matt Hochberg of WDWTODAY for agreeing to accept the challenge and ride the bane of his existence the dinosaur ride in Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

Following Mousefest 101 was the Chairman’s Kickoff and Dave Marx made several announcements and wished everyone a most enjoyable Mousefest.

The next stop was Aloha Isle for the annual Dole Whip Meet. I’m not sure how many people attended this event but I do know that I ran out of 100 “Dr. Scopa’s Magical Elixir” buttons.

This year Fred Block, Founder of MagicMeets, made sure that this year I did not miss out on the delicious treat. Thanks Fred.

From there we all went to Steve Barrett’s Hidden Mickey’s meet at Pirates of the Caribbean. The meet was extremely popular and Steve had quite the challenge to make sure everyone noticed the HM’s in the attraction.

During the meet the attraction stalled and we all got quite an earful of the attraction’s song. You see this fellow? On his hat is a skull and the left eye of the skull is a Hidden Mickey.

After the meet I stole away be myself to do a bit of research for some future projects.

I also made it a point to grab my Extra Magic Hour wristband before having dinner with some friends at the Plaza Restaurant.

After dinner I stole away again and checked out the “Twas the Night Before Christmas” show at the Tomorrowland Galaxy Theater. Even though it was the first performance of the night there was standing room only.

I checked out a few things in Tomorrowland before heading to the Rose Garden to meet everyone for the annual MouseFest Fireworks meet. Along the way I was struck by the beauty of the frosted castle lights.

During the fireworks however I along with fellow AEN staffer Michelle Scribner-MacLean watched the fireworks from Main Street USA because I wanted to videotape the show.

We then returned to the Rose Garden to see the folks who were still there.

The next stop was Frontierland and the Frontierland Shootin' Gallery for the mix and Mingle Passporter Parade meet.

The energy level was certainly starting to wane but some of us had enough energy left to watch the show in front of the castle before calling it a day.

While watching the show we all noticed that Mickey and friends seemed a little more animated than usual. The performing fab five as well as Chip and Dale seemed to be mouthing the words to the songs rather well and were also blinking their eyes. It made them seem so much more animated.

Day one was over.

As we all headed out the park we all wondered if a good night’s rest will recharge us enough for Mousefest Day 2.

I’ll tell you the answer in my next entry.

MouseFest Friday, December 7th.

It seemed that no sooner did my head hit the pillow the night that the alarm went off proclaiming “Day 2 Mike! Time to get up!”

First stop was Disney’s Animal Kingdom for the annual Kilimanjaro Safari Meet.

It was quite a challenge gathering everyone for this annual event. Deb welcomed everyone as the Mousefesters gathered to the left of the attraction. This meet was huge as in a total of 257 people for this meet.

Nothing beats riding Kilimanjaro Safaris with Fred Block, founder of MagicMeets.

Nothing.

I had a tough time trying to take photos as Fred had me laughing so much I almost dropped my camera.

Out of about 20 shots only this one of some Rhinos came out decent. All the other photos can be used in a course called, “How not to take photos!”

From there it was on to Dinosaur to witness Matt Hochberg meeting the challenge made on the previous day. Matt gutted it out and has lived to tell the tale. However next time he needs to keep his eyes open.

The next stop on this day was the AllEarsNet team luncheon at Pizzafari. This was one of two times on this day where I treasured the opportunity to just relax between the time blocks of meets.

It reinforced the notion that during Mousefest everyone needs to make time to stop, relax, eat, and hydrate. Even if you follow this rule you will most likely be exhausted come Mousefest end so it is best to do whatever you can to keep this eventual exhaustiveness to a minimum.

After lunch it was on to Disney MGM/Studios for two specific meets.

The first of these was the second annual Studios Central Star Tours meet which is growing in popularity every year. There was a good showing for this meet as my estimate was in the range of 80 people.

Next came the second annual Podfest hosted by Lou Mongello. This meet is the annual gathering of all those who do Disney related podcasts. I don’t know how many podcasts were represented but there were a LOT. It took almost 30 minutes to introduce each podcast and hear from the principles.

It was after Podfest that I wish I could have cloned myself to be in two places at once. Although I wanted very much to attend the MuppetVision3D meet I had to leave to host a dinner at Ohana at the Polynesian Resort.

Again I was glad this dinner was on my schedule. Once more I was offered time to just sit back and relax in between the running around I was doing. Funny though, I did not find myself eating as much as I normally would during a Walt Disney World trip. On the contrary, that morning I had to cinch my belt one more notch because my usual notch was just a bit too loose.

Oh wait; this is Mousefest…the ultimate diet program…how silly of me to forget.

I have to mention that the “entertainment” at Ohana left a lot to be desired. I would go so far as to say that the entertainment would not have been even good enough to make those early American Idol shows…if you catch my drift.

After dinner I realized I had the luxury of having nothing on my schedule for that evening so I wandered back to EPCOT with some friends in search of my cousin Patty who that evening was attending the Candlelight Processional.

We took in the Lights of Winter, and then walked around World Showcase before stopping to watch Illuminations (my second time this trip).

I never found Patty at EPCOT but did talk to her later that evening. She enjoyed CP.

I enjoyed Illuminations

I began to notice a little fatigue settling in so it was off to Pop Century for a long winter’s nap for tomorrow would be Saturday, the big day…MegaMouse Meet Day.

This day is best described as the day where everyone attends the crown Jewel of Mousefest; the MegaMouse Meet.

I got up early this day and gathered the essentials for this day, the banner for the table, trinkets in the forms of buttons I was bringing, 300 to be exact; would that be enough? I could not forget business cards.

I drove over to Boardwalk and from there walked to the Dolphin hotel. I made my way to the Atlantic C ballroom and when I first walked into the ballroom my immediate reaction was comparing the size of the room to the Copabanana lounge where the first MegaMouse Meet was held back in 2003.

It was quite a difference.

As much as I feel I am always prepared for the MegaMouse Meet I am constantly surprised by the number of people who come and meet and greet everyone.

This day was no different.

It is so gratifying to hear people say how much they enjoy reading our websites or listening to our podcasts that it gives many of us the satisfaction that we are bringing valuable information to our audience out there.

It always amazes me how even though there are some faces I see only once or twice a year, somehow, some way a name pops into my head and most of the time I am fortunate to have the right name pop into my head.

This year I met more people for the first time than any other Mousefest and that includes the very first Mousefest. Mousefest 2007 just literally exploded. I spent over three hours saying hi to folks aa they walked by the tables.

I was totally exhausted after the MegaMouse Meet. I went back to my resort room, checked my email, and then headed out to Disney/MGM Studios.

I had never seen the parking lot so crowded. It took me 30 minutes to get from the guard shack to my eventual parking space. It was easy to understand the crowd. It was a weekend night in December. Add that to the Osborne dancing lights and you can understand why it was so crowded.

I hadn’t eaten all day. I grabbed a bite to eat at the Backlot Express. This was a good choice as not too many people were there.

I then found my cousin Patty and we joined up with everyone to attend the Fantasmic Saturday at the Studios dessert party.

This took place at the far rear of the theater, next to the projection room. There are pros and cons to doing this party.

Of course a big plus is the ability to walk around and enjoy the company of friends while munching on some very tasty desserts.

That plus the comfortable table seating really makes for an enjoyable evening.

However, in order to watch Fantasmic you need to either sit up front or go to the back and stand up.

After Fantasmic the park was closing but we were able to go and see the last performance of the night from the Dancing Osborne lights. The best part of this was that there were no more than maybe 100 guests watching this finale. It sure beats fighting the huge crowds.

Here's how the lights looked just before the finale ended.

...and when it REALLY ended,,,

So Saturday came to a shimmering end and tomorrow would be yet another day in the Mousefest 2007 Adventure.

Sunday, December 9th.

This was an early start again as the first meet of the day was the Tonga toast Breakfast at the Kona Café at the Polynesian Resort.
There were a lot of people waiting for breakfast.

A good time was had by all especially when Annette, Deb, and Beci began the raffling off of goodies for all.

After breakfast Matt Hochberg handed over the funds raised at Mousefest 101 for Lou Mongello’s make a Wish Foundation efforts and for Deb Wills’ Avon Walk for Breast Cancer.

Your hosts for the Kona CafeTonga Toast Breakfast meet.

After the breakfast I wanted to grab a little “me” time so I sort of faded away from everyone and sauntered over to the Grand Floridian to check out the decorations.

In years passed the lobby tree basically had a beige/white color scheme going but this year the tree had that natural look.

The gingerbread house was looking good and even more detailed than in past years. I noticed a few not so hidden Mickeys.

From there I went to the Magic Kingdom to meet up with Lou Mongello and Jeff Pepper as they ran their first Disney Scene Investigation meet through the area of Frontierland.

Lou and Jeff had about 120 people at one point.

I need to let everyone know that it may not be a good idea to plant yourself under any trees in Frontierland.

It seems that the bird population, namely those miniature cranes that frequent the area, like to perch on the trees and if you do the math, if some 30 or 40 birds are perched on a tree above your head then chances are that they may deliver an unwanted present.

Thanks to Deanna Mongello for warning me.

Well the crowd following Jeff and Lou was pretty big and I had a hankering for a Dole Whip.

Once the Dole Whip hankerin’ was fed I headed out to Tomorrowland to check the Tomorrowland speedway. I have a friend who is working there and wanted to check to see if he was working on this day.

He wasn’t. I guess if I had to choose the absolute last CM job in TMK that deals with an attraction my guess is that the Speedway attraction would be it…especially in the summertime…don’t think I could deal with the smell, heat, and noise all day long.

I met up with Dave and Jennifer Marx, Mark Goldhaber, and Deb Wills for lunch at the Plaza restaurant. We chatted a bit regarding what we observed for Mousefest 2007 and tossed around ideas for Mousefest 2008.

Yep, you might say the planning has already begun.

From there we went over to watch Lou Mongello do his Triviafest meet, always a popular meet.

It was during that meet that folks start to say goodbye and head home. I said goodbye to a few friends and then convinced a few friends that we needed to visit Aloha Isle for, you guessed it, another Dole Whip. I figured this was my last day in Magic Kingdom so I had to make the best of it.

From there I headed to Boardwalk to check out the Patriots-Steelers football game at the ESPN Club.

I then joined the All Ears team for dinner at Spoodles.

Spoodles has come a long way since the mid 90’s. I have eaten there several times over the last few years and have enjoyed every meal.

After Spoodles it was on to the International Gateway and the Illuminations Dessert Party. Ahh yes more desserts…I guess I shouldn’t tell you that I lost about 12 pounds on this trip…despite the dessert parties.

Watching Illuminations with friends on the last full day of the land portion of Mousefest has to be the only way to properly finish Mousefest.

But there was more.

After Illuminations we were taken backstage through the gates to where the Millennium Village had been set up and down towards a portion of the park.

There was no indication as to where we were going until Deb Wills whispered something into Fred Block’s ear and Fred’s eyes exploded as he yelled out, “Hey Everyone! We’re going Soarin’.

Yep, Beci Manhken and Mouse Fan Travel had raised the bar yet again with this little bonus to the Illuminations dessert party.

Imagine riding Soarin’ with a slew of your friends.

It doesn’t get any better than this.

Of course it gets worse because at the end of this day comes all the rest of the goodbyes.

All the planning and execution regarding everything Mousefest finally comes to an end and the hugs and handshakes are for a job well done and an emotional “See you next year.”

I headed back to my resort room and along the way flashes of memorable Mousefest moments danced around my head.

I was tired, but I was a happy tired.

Monday, December 10th

I always try to give myself one day before Mousefest and one day after before going home. It gives me a chance to do some things I cannot do during the actual land portion of MF.

On this day I was out looking for Disney ornaments for our tree back home. This was the year that we were going pure Disney with our Christmas tree. Despite having enough ornaments for the tree I felt we needed about another two dozen or so to really give it a full look.

So I headed for the outlets but halfway there I changed my mind and instead went to Downtown Disney.

I looked around and found plenty of ornaments but they were all made of glass and I was not willing to take a chance and bring them on the flight home.

The visit was not in vain however as I did pick up a few gifts for Carol for Christmas.

I headed over to EPCOT to have lunch with Brian Bennett. As I walked past Spaceship Earth. I noticed they were having sneak previews.

Having heard from CMs and Imaginers regarding the unpopular decision to open Spaceship Earth “before it was time” I decided to forego the sneak preview and wait until the attraction is finished and officially open to the public.

I don’t know if I would have done that five or ten years ago but I do realize these days how much pride imaginers have regarding their creations and it just doesn’t seem fair to me to see partially completed work and pass judgment on this work.

So no Spaceship Earth for me.

Have I mentioned how sparse the decorations seemed this year?

I was to meet Brian at the Biergarten and when I got there I ran into Dave Marx. Dave and I exchanged more observations regarding this year’s Mousefest. There’s a lot to discuss.

Brian showed up and I tried to check in online with Southwest through my cell phone. I was a few minutes away. We got into the restaurant and I tried to check in online…no luck.

The meal was good and afterwards Brian and I strolled through WS noting some interesting aspects of each pavilion.

We ran into “crash” a.k.a. Linda Eckwerth who had planned to stay for a few days due to her father’s impending operation. We chatted for a few minutes and then we said our goodbyes again. I had a meeting and Brian had to leave as well.

My meeting was with Beci Manhken but she was running late and on top of that had no ride to the airport. I offered to drive her to the airport and you would have thought I had offered her the world.

I have noticed that those people in this world with huge hearts and who always do their darndest to bring smiles and happiness to others are in turn the most appreciative of the tiniest gesture of help towards them. Beci is one of those people. She has one of the biggest hearts of all my friends and is forever thankful of the tiniest favor you can do for her.

I picked Beci up at the Beach Club and we sped off to the airport and we chatted about Mousefest and of course how exhausted we were.

At the airport we hugged goodbye and I returned to the Beach Club to have one last meeting with Mark Goldhaber. Mark and I were coordinating our Mousefest reviews and other things and wanted to get everything straight before he left for the airport.

See everyone was leaving Sunday or Monday. Not me.

I walked along Stormalong Bay and entered though the International Gateway.

Heck all my friends were gone…but that’s what cell phones are for…to connect from across the miles.

I decided to call a friend of mine who could not make it to Mousefest and chat for awhile. I asked her what she would do if she were me. Now she knows I like Wishes but since I was already in EPCOT she said just walking around WS at night and taking in the atmosphere is something she would do.

I was hungry and wondered where I could eat without too much of a crowd or noise. My friend suggested the Tangierine Café in Morocco. I told her I’d give it a try. She was right. The Tangierine Café was not crowded, not noisy, and very reasonable. I had some sort of chicken dish. It was good.

I walked around World Showcase and Future World and just took it all in. I thought about staying for Illuminations but after the previous night’s experience it would not be the same.

I captured one last image of the Lights of Winter.

Most people think of the Lights of Winter as the shimmering lights on the trellis that spans the bridge between Future World and World Showcase..

I recall however that the Original Lights of Winter was the display in front of this trellis.

Argue amongst yourselves.

What was funny was that not only were the batteries in my digital camera, cell phone, and video camera low…so was my own physical battery.

I walked back to the Beach Club, took my next to last picture of the trip...

..and then took my very last picture of the trip as I observed the gingerbread Carrousel in the lobby...

and then headed back to my car.

It was a somewhat melancholy return back to the resort and my room.

I thought about packing but since my flight was at mid-day I decided what was more in order for me to take a walk and relax and reflect at Generation Gap Bridge at Pop Century.

Mousefest was over and next on the horizon was Marathon weekend.

Oh...one more thing...I left sunny Orlando and arrived home in quite a different type of weather.

Here is my "chariot" to take me home...brrr

Mousefest 2007 was history.