We took a shuttle to the Disney Beach Club Resort, which is one of three (Beach Club, Yacht Club, and Boardwalk) resorts situated on this circular lake end of a river. Very nice hotel and quite costly. LOL But, they do provide free transportation to and from the Disney theme parks. Plus, you get certain privileges (get into park earlier, purchase tickets to the parks at the front desk) that non-Disney resorts cannot provide. The mouse takes care of his own. And nobody said the mouse couldn’t market, which was evident by the copious amounts of candy, soft drinks, and snacks openly placed on the dresser and available for consumption at the usual hotel markup. No servi-bar for Disney, no key needed. Kids must have a field day.

Anyway, Friday night we all (8 of us: PADMW, RARWH, and sister, LovesEternl, LnAdmaniac, HookdOnAMC, ReginaL402, GaerielSky) went to eat at the ESPN sports bar (think Hard Rock Cafe, for sports) for dinner and kinky sounding drinks (Right, Regina and Hookd? LOL We met up with Cubsfan there too.). Walking back to our hotel along the lake we passed by Marcy Walker and her very handsome fiancée holding hands and going for a moonlit stroll. Awww. I spotted the hair from a mile away. She was dressed very nicely in black. It seemed to me that she wanted to be alone (Gee, what clued me in to that? LOL) and so we all went about our business and walked up the entrance to our hotel as the other 4 of our group continued to the parking lot. However, one intrepid member of our 4 decided to go back and see if she could ask Marcy a question… and yelped because she nearly took a tumble through the bushes on her way back out. Promptly, I did what any other friend would do when faced with this situation… I shut the exit door on her while LMAO. A few attempts to locate our missing friend by yelling her name turned out to be unsuccessful, so the rest of us abandoned her and proceeded on to our room. ROFL And then there were 3, but not for long. Our brave friend finally returned and told us that she tried to go find the other 4 before giving up and going back to where Marcy was. By the time she got there, Marcy had been found out and there were several fans asking questions and asking for autographs. Marcy courteously stopped, and spoke with them. Our friend decided to leave her in peace.

Saturday morning we had to be up early because the TV Talk Show with Vincent Irizarry, Marcy Walker, Michael Knight and hosted by Catherine Hickland was at 9:30. We barely made it and I missed getting to Soap Central to get first dibs on the props the sell there. Luckily, one of the group bought the T&D photo (stained glass window?) of them in robes for me. :::drool::: (Thanks Katie!!) We proceeded to the Talk Show set. Once inside, they showed a quick ABC promo (Catherine singing “It’s In His Kiss” as I recall) with our favorite couples. Cat introduced Vincent who came out and they discussed how David is evil and twisted, his relationship with Vanessa, and how delicious it is. LOL. Clips of him seducing Gillian, kissing Erica, and taunting Adam with the revelation were played. Marcy was brought out; she’s good friends with Cat. Marcy said she’s so sick of hearing the word “sperm sample.” Which was a riot since she then refused to say it… “I don’t want to discuss THAT anymore… I won’t say THAT." LOL They asked her the poll question that was put on ABC.com a few weeks ago. What was Liza’s most memorable kiss. Two women in the first row screamed “Tad.” Marcy replied “This is his wife! I can’t say that!” Then, to Cat… “I do enjoy kissing your husband… (laughter) he’s very professional and courteous.” She finally answers “Tad. I guess that’s what you guys think, right?” So Cat informs her that in a WWW poll more than 28,000 people voted. Marcy was agog. The poll chose Adam’s “I’m you” kiss from 1997, as Liza’s most memorable. Then MEK is brought out, did a little dance to La Vida Loca… Cat said “Doesn’t he look great in that jacket? I picked it out. You should have seen the hideous thing he wanted to wear.” MEK replies, “Yes, that’s right. My wife dresses me. How pathetic is that? Evidently, when I try to dress myself I wear Garanimal pants.” He’s got no hang-ups about saying “sperm” and began to sing it. LMAO. “sperm, sperm, sperm, sperm… sperm, sperm, sperm, sperm. Come on everybody... let's sing the sperm song!” He hasn’t had to say that in years, sometimes he misses being the cad. Now all Tad talks about is soccer camp cuz he’s the Dad now. LOL They play an early clip of Tad talking to Erica about modeling. MEK says… “Susan Lucci looks exactly the same!!! That is so unfair… I keep looking for my chin and the rest of my hair.” They discuss Tad and Dixie, and play a clip of the last wedding. MEK jokes about how not much was scripted and how Dixie cracked up when Tad said his vows. “Tad: I love you, I promise to always be honest… Dixie: BAHAHAAHAHAHA!! Hey, come to think of it, that’s what my wife said too.” They did a VERY SHORT Q&A (2 questions): Will David play the piano again…? (Hope so)… What is MEK’s favorite Holiday? (MW said “Saturday” for him, LOL, and MEK answered “Christmas” CH asked "Not my anniversary?"). Then VI did a scene with a fan playing Erica. And they all waved bye.

Next we corralled over to the autograph signings. John Callahan came out in jeans and a shirt and started signing for this huge line up of fans. He looked really good. Someone gave him a T-shirt that said “Sorry, I do NOT know when Eva/Maria will be coming back!!” and they got a big hug for that one. LOL… he put it up on the desk where he was signing for all to see. JC looked and acted much better than he did at the Luncheon 2 weeks ago. I finally got JC’s autograph because they were handing them out after he left. You know, at SSW they digitally print the autograph on some of the head shots so that those can be handed out to the fans who don't want to wait for a real autograph. It was about 95(+) and sunny at this point… the whole line was fanning themselves and friends were recruited to play “Gunga Din” for the moment (Thank you!) and sent for water, sodas, and ice. One woman had to leave she was about to pass out. If Disney gets any more bright ideas about having SSW in September, I’m not going. Too hot, and hurricane season… sounds like a great time to hold an outdoor event. ::: rolling eyes :::

Here Michael Knight went way above and beyond. I’m still amazed. I kept wondering if I was going to get a chance to get an autograph for Ttfn2u2 (who flew to the NYC Luncheon from OREGON, only to have MEK go to Vegas on her. LOL You all know her as "Tad's Scratchy Earlobe.") because the line was sooooo long. And he was scheduled to be there at 11:30 and again at 1:30. I was supposed to meet up with a few other T&D fans on this line up… but cell phones DO NOT WORK very well at Disney. No signal. I met up with Luv1life in the crowd and three members of the T&D mailing list. TeddyB1999 phoned me, but we just missed each other. It was all very surreal LOL. MEK arrived and really gave his all to the audience. I’m still floored. Chatted everyone up; posed for pics (he looked delicious, btw… black slacks, white polo shirt. Le Rowl.), and kept everyone laughing the entire time. God bless him. The line just kept getting longer! There were these non-linear (LOL) fans who just hung out on the sides begging him to come over to them. He did, and handed out autographs! “If I give these to you, will you leave? These people over here have been in line for over 2 hours. Ok… take it and go.” LMAO Very nice, very diplomatic, very smart. Regina, fresh from seeing Walt Willey joined me on the line and we spoke with other fans too. This thing is great for meeting other fans. ABC had put in a “marker” at the cut off point… when time came, MEK looked up and said “Who’s supposed to be here now?” When they said there was no one but that it was his lunch break… he said, “Keep them coming.” He worked straight through lunch in order to let everyone get an autograph who wanted it. Probably ended up signing for 4 hours straight. My God, everyone was extremely grateful, including me. MEK dipped and kissed Luv1life and gave her his water (he did this periodically, he was SOOOOOO NICE). Just about at this time… the skies opened up. LOL drizzle, which made everyone happy and cooled us off a bit. Then it rained for a few minutes. He kept signing. Standing the entire time. Every woman who got an autograph forgot to retrieve her camera from the Disney employee who snapped a photo for her. It was pretty funny! Women with wobbly knees were all over the place. LOL. He picked up Vengagrl19 and held her! He was amazing! When I got up to him, I decided to do something for him… so I had a fan that was borrowed from Regina… and I fanned him. J Poor guy stood there the whole day, perspiring and exhausted! He looked up. “Ooh, thank you.” Then he took the fan and said, “Let’s play Love Slave” so, somewhere in my film is a photo of him fanning me but I'm not posting it! HA! LOL! Of course, I was intending to tell him that he looked fantastic and that I thought he did some excellent work this year… (miscarriage stuff) but I drew a complete blank. I think I managed a “Hi Michael.” And a “Thank you” as I left. What a dork I am. Oh, I did manage to muck things up too. “What’s your name?” so I told him and he started to make out the autograph as I yelped “NO! It’s not for me, can you make it out to Nancy?” Off I went in a cloud and when Regina returned she too had a water bottle from MEK! LOL. Three grown women standing there with trembling hands. What a sight. I’m never going to forget how hard this man worked during SSW. Knowing how much he does not like his picture taken… and knowing HOW MANY pics were taken… it’s inconceivable. I am very impressed by him… again.

After lunch, we went to Soap Central and spoke with ABCTim, who told me that WynGator was just there and looking for me. I tried to call Laurie, but there was NO SERVICE on my phone. L I found a bottle of Orsini Champagnoise, and had to buy it. It’s a must for the Wiggle Room. They wouldn’t ship it to the hotel because they told me it was alcohol. I kept telling them it was a PROP, but whatever. I ended up carrying this thing around all day in the rain. Of course, now I was going to have to get that signed too! Couldn’t I have gone there BEFORE I went on his line? Aggg! Luv1life purchased the Orsini Merlot (I think)… so we made plans to go off to MEK’s line again on Sunday. ABCTim said that he remembered Hookd’s letter that she sent a few weeks ago…and he also remembered my “thank you” to him for the write up on Dixie’s miscarriage. He said that T&D have no story planned… either together or apart. Now I’m ticked because it just confirmed what I already suspected: Jean Burke out and out lied to TVGuide, Reiner about the miscarriage. There are no other “better” stories planned. What a load of hooey. He thinks that Hookd (AdamLuva extraordinaire) will be happy with the outcome of Liza’s reaction to the revelation. It’s going to be explosive, and Liza’s going to torture him…so will Marian, but it will be good. Janet’s going to be visited by MirrorJanet too.

I get another message from WynGator saying she and Turk913 are at the motorcade, so we head off for the MEK, MW, VI motorcade and Q&A. During the Q&A it starts to rain, but VI says… “I don’t mind staying, do you guys?” so they all stick around. Someone asks a question about nicknames, and both VI and MW look at MEK. “I can’t repeat most of them in this theme park.” LOL. MW says she calls MEK “Mickey” as in mouse. MEK says he’s also called “The Brat.” This launches into a session on VI’s last name, Iri-zah-rE. They jokingly call him (phonetically) I-riz-ir-E because Joan Rivers once introduced him as “A man who is definitely not gay… Vincent I-riz-ir-E” LMAO. The next person has a question for VICTOR. Bahahaa… MEK says “Victor I-riz-ir-E?” Someone wants to know who knows their lines the best. MEK replies “David Canary” and the others nod in agreement. Now it’s dripping under MEK’s side of the umbrellas they’re under…. So he holds out his hand and catches the drips. LOL. They say that Michael Nader, who they miss a lot, had the WORST memory. He was always calling out “Line!!” even when all he had to remember was “Erica” looking straight at Susan Lucci. (Funny sidebar: The night before I had told this same story to everyone else, so I was having tremendous Déjà vu.) Someone asked MEK about the T&D baby. He said it was supposed to be a girl. When asked if Dixie would be pregnant again, he replied “If I’ve got anything to do with it, yes.” LOL Will they have a baby? “Yes. I’m sure we will.” What does MW the woman, think of Adam Chandler the man. “I’d never get involved with him. He’s evil. Can’t trust him.” The oddest thing to me, there were a lot of Jake fans. I cannot explain it. Someone asks the actors if they could be any character on AMC who would it be? MEK says Adam Chandler, VI says Stuart Chandler cuz he’s the complete opposite of David, MW says she’d want to be the Exec Producer, because that’s who’s responsible for everything you’ve been seeing (I make a mental note to thank MW for pointing out the guilty parties LOL). When asked about Liza’s reaction to the switch, MW says, “She’s going to lose it. She’s going to torture Adam. And it’s not just going to be her. It’s going to be Marian too doing the torturing. But, the thing is, Liza’s no saint either. So, who knows what will happen.” She likes Liza with an edge better than what she’s been lately. Then the steady downpour of rain turns into a thunderstorm and since they can’t keep the electrical equipment on in the rain, the Q&A is over. MEK exits holding an umbrella… VI too, and when VI notices MW doesn’t have one, he shares his… we take refuge on the slow boat to China that takes us back to our hotel.

Saturday night we ended up going to the Brewery near the Boardwalk for dinner, accidentally insulted a few waiters, and had a good time playing with glow-in-the-dark “Ballmerangs”… don’t ask. LOL. I’m lucky I didn’t lose an eye with my demonstrations of my lack of hand/eye coordination. Everyone then piled into our room to watch some old AMC tapes. Had a blast nit picking the tapes, making up dialog… it was like Mystery Science Theater 3000 does AMC.

Sunday we had to get packed and out of the room. Regina was up at the crack of dawn and outta there to get SL’s autograph. We took our time to get to the Super Star TV thing again… this time in the front. We ended up catching Susan Lucci and Walt Willey(I'll let Regina tell you about that on the Posse site www.JacksonPosse.com) on the TV monitors as they did their TV thing. Boy those two were having fun together. They really have exquisite chemistry. SL kept saying “You’re so bad!” teasing Walt who at one point was looking at her (to quote Tad) “like she was two dinners on one plate.” Then she sat in his lap and they spoke of Paris… and how they just had to pretend… “Ahhh…” They were great together. Wish I were inside. SL announced that yes, she is going to fill in for Bernadette Peters during her vacation from Annie Get Your Gun at the end of December. I may have to go see this… SL actually started signing autographs from the stage… she wasn’t supposed to but she was so gracious with the fans. Kudos to her. The Dimitri fans were out in full force. Handing out stickers and black ribbons. I must commend you guys on making your presence known. I actually cracked up when I was handed a list of addresses to write to… looked familiar. LOL. Even the actors noticed the MN support.

Once we got inside for the VI, MEK, MW thing again we made sure we were in the fourth row and center. We all cheered for our couples. There were slight variations on Saturday’s show. I think it was VI who commended MEK on hanging from the parachute harness for 9 hours! MEK then lost it… evidently it was painful… he said he had 2 metal buckles from this WWII parachute embedded where it hurt the most. During the breaks, this little old man would wheel out a ladder/platform for MEK to stand on to… um… alleviate the pressure. LMAO. Poor MEK! I can’t do this story justice since MEK was making these faces and body motions that I couldn’t possibly relate in words. Sorry, but you had to be there. Again, he reminded me of John Ritter on Three’s Company with the expressions LOL. Said that when he went home that night he said to Cat… “don’t even think about it… for at least a week!” When they discussed the clip of T&D’s wedding that lead into Cat telling a story of how MEK first told her he loved her. “As I recall, you said it to me as I was getting out of a car. Sort of mumbled it… I lmm oo. Made some weird noise that made me wonder if you had a hair ball or something.” At this point, I nearly PIMP because MEK pretended to get on all fours and cough up a hairball like a cat. “Hack” This time when Cat asked MW who was her most memorable kiss, she didn’t answer… but instead asked the audience who we thought. I heard mostly “ADAM!!!” Oddly enough, and I think it was scripted, Cat says “You chose Tad, the audience chose Tad…(same as she did the day before), let’s see what an www poll said… Adam.” and I’m sitting there scratching my head. LMAO. After the interview they did a Q&A too… this time the actors (who must have a blast working together) all played musical chairs getting to the directors chairs provided. LOL MEK was asked if he and Cady had any idea of how great their chemistry was when they started working together. He said no. Said that their first scene, which he said was at Myrtle’s Boutique (yet, I recall him saying it was at a picnic a few years ago… ), they had no clue but got called over by the producer. They were just supposed to be friends, but the producer saw much more. LOL God bless that producer, I say! Wonder who it was (FMB!!!)? Asked about their hobbies, VI said he plays piano, MW said she does too, but not often but she really likes to fold clothes. MEK never got to answer. I’m blanking on the other questions… but then VI did his David and Erica scene with a fan. This time when the stage spun around to reveal the car… MEK and MW were standing behind there pretending not to know that the stage was going to turn. It was a hoot. LOL. Then when the came out to say good-bye… they all gave The Dating Game good-bye kiss. ROFL.

Luv1life and I ran over to the MEK autograph thing again to get the bottles of Orsini signed. But we were late. Today, they decided to give out vouchers for his autograph. It was raining cats and dogs too. I was sopping wet and still melting from the heat (and now have laryngitis and a cold). We needed these things signed so we waited… it was 1pm and his next session was at 4. I had to be on a bus to the airport by 5:30. Eeek. Luckily, after being rained on for about an hour, they let a few of us on MEK’s 1pm line. I got a kick out of all the Maniacs I knew running around in yellow rain parkas… called them all Martin Family Reunion wannabes. They didn’t like me much after that. LOL. Luv1life got the signature ahead of me… he remembered the Mogambo Matchbook scene too (she bought that for him to sign as well). Impressed again! He left for a second to see a woman in a wheelchair and when he returned they moved the line ahead by about 20 ft from where it was. Yes, I was standing back where I started like an idiot. LOL. I made an “L” with my finger and thumb on my forehead. He laughed. I finally got to tell him that I thought he’d done excellent work this past year and am keeping my fingers crossed at Emmy time. He thanked me as he signed the Orsini.

After this Luv1life and I got a little tipsy at the Brown Derby for lunch while Hookd tracked down her missing AMEX. Did you know that if you lose something in MGM they send it to the Magic Kingdom lost and found… makes sense to me! NOT. I picked up the T&D dancing in white terrycloth robes transparent photo at the gate… it’s gorgeous. I love it. Luv1life ended up back at the MEK autograph line. The woman who is in charge of squiring him around MGM couldn't say enough good things about him! LOL. I think she's in love. Hookd and I met up again at the hotel and took the shuttle to the airport. Huge backup of guests leaving and missing their shuttles.

On the plane home to NYC, we had Finola Hughes dressed in black with the pink shawl and a cowboy hat. She packs very neatly. LOL She had to go through her carry on for some reason while checking in. Lost something. She’s very thin! Kept her head down. Then Star Jones came in. She walked with authority and when people in the check-in line whispered “That’s Star Jones.” She walked right up to them and said “Of course it’s Star Jones, who else did you think it was!?” Had a great time… and a Rolls Royce picked up Finola at LaGuardia. Whew… finally done.