we were there 6/27-7/5.
As a car activity to help pass the 398 miles to wdw I pulled out a bag of assorted arts and crafts stuff in a vast and amazing array of lime greens, starting with do it yourself buttons, complete with color coordinated background paper, mickey heads from the home depot, disney scrapbooking stickers from Michaels and curling ribbons in assorted greens as well. We worked for hours on our individualized pins which we agreed would decorate or "park backpack".
Now these were NOT little buttons. 2 were at least 3 inches across, and three were 2 1/2 inches.
On day 1, I was hopeful of meeting a Dis'er Family. Every person we ran into wearing "Dis Green" we would smile and ask "dis-board member?" Boy, the looks we got from people- like we were kooky!
Day 2, I was thinking maybe people were just being shy- maybe our pins were TOO cool and were intimidating people. I wore dis green and kept asking other limeey people if they were dissers too.
Day 3, I am getting paranoid now. Okay, maybe people hate my posts, therefore hate my guts and don't want to meet me. Kind of like EEWWWWW who would want to meet her?!
Day 4, my littlest DD's pin was discovered to be missing as we stood in line at the MK waiting to go on the jungle cruise. She was devastated and commenced crying. My DH suggested I give up and " just put them all away so we don't lose any more".
Sadly, I did. Except for mine which I was willing to sacrifice even though I liked it a bunch, to meet just one Dis'er.
*Happy note, just before we came round one of the last bends in the queue I spot a very little girl ( maybe 3) with my daughter's pin in her hand!!! I practically snatched it out of her tiny hand while thanking her and praising her for "finding it for us". I rewarded her with a bottle of bubbles. Thank goodness, my DD stopped crying just in time to board the boat! The day was saved!
Day 5, DH went on his surprise segway tour at Epcot and had a fantastic time. HE was NOT wearing any goofy Dis board stuff but still managed to meet Linda from here on these boards and none other than the wonderful master of words, Zamgwar and his lovely wife from All Ears in one fellswoop!
Me, the one with pins and ribbons- nobody- all day, every day.
On the last night that we were in the MK after hours of rain and certain family members a little too tired and cranky to be meeting friends for the first time, we decide against the 13 yo DS's requests otherwise to try to get on the Pooh ride which had been lined out every other time we had been to the park that week. My two youngest go tearing into the que and I am not quite quick enough to stay with them. A family has gotten in between our party. So now if I join my children I look like a line cutter. I sweetly ask my six year old to drop back to stay with mommy and daddy. she flatly refuses. In her mind that would make the family behind her the dreaded cutters!
I am so embarrased at this point. I have to meekly say excuse me and move past the family and joing my child who I then give a little quiet talking to. Thankfully there is virtually no line and we are all about to board.
It is then that the lady behind me taps me and announces that she too is a Dis-board member and asks what boards I frequent and introduces her DH a disser too (RobMary may be the name). IA two-fer I guess. I was so embarrassed I coulod scarcely reply. I don't really have a "favorite" board yet.
So that was my 4th of July week with capacity crowds and 1 (ONE) person saying HI to me.
As far as trash behind bushes and such, I am hoping that it was because of the crowds that the staff had a tiny bit of trouble keeping up with things. I admit though that a few ladies rooms I went into with my girls needed, er... attention. Some people ARE just slobs. My son (13) got a kick out of picking up trash that he saw people throw on the ground and run after them to "return it to them" He would say so politely "I wanted to return this to you. I saw you drop it back there and I was sure you didn't REALLY mean to drop it. I mean my mom's got a bad back too and she gets us to pick stuff up for her ALL THE TIME." ( Big, sweet kid smile)
Every time, people were too embarassed to even reply.
I hugged two CM in two different restrooms for doing a great job. Both were college program kids and I took the time to tell them how much I appreciated the yucky job they had to do.
Even with a few faults- It's still my favorite place on Earth! I can't wait to go back.