City, Sand, and Savanna - Finishing up MK with the younger crowd (pg 152)

[norybell]

Originally Posted by englishrose47

Congrats on the baby !!!

Originally Posted by KatMark

Congratulations on your son.

Good to see you back.

Thanks!

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

[YukiPhnx]

All caught up! Even though I can't see your pictures (blocked at work), I still enjoy your TRs! I love your witty writing. You always crack me up.

Oh, did you get my Christmas Card?

I love Gram's attitude! That's kind of the way Andrew's dad saw HKDL when he decided to go on Space Mountain with us. At 66 yrs old, he was a bit shook up but still had fun!

Oh...I wonder if most TS's are doing that with their menus. Seems kind of odd. Did you have to pay dinner prices?

I really need to see Yeehaw Bob on my Disneymoon.

[glennbo123]

Originally Posted by norybell

Thanks! And you're telling me the day will come when I can again sleep through the night??

It'll seem like it takes forever, but it'll come. (Just remember to enjoy every moment, even the 3am ones. )

Originally Posted by vamassey1

Whew! I'm finally caught back up.

Yay, good to see you Vanessa.

Originally Posted by vamassey1

I've enjoyed it all but my favorite picture is the one of your parents in the wedding mouse ears. And I love your Mom's attitude. We go to Disney to do stuff!

A lot of people liked that picture. I might have to do something with it...frame it for them or something.

Yeah, when she said that, it helped because I was being tentative on what we should do. I still was looking for sit-down rides, but at least knew that they intended to do things and not just watch the crowds.

Originally Posted by vamassey1

You have made me very hungry for PT. I haven't been there since 2009 when I had the Pot Roast.

I think that's the best thing on the menu. 'Course I love a pot roast, so I'm biased.

[glennbo123]

Originally Posted by Aurora1972

I've been lurking. I thought it was time to say Hi! .

Hi and Aurora1972!!! Thanks for saying Hi. Now that you're no longer a lurker, feel free to chime-in anytime.

Originally Posted by Aurora1972

I love your moms line about " here to do stuff". That's the best! Anywhoo, I'm enjoying the report.

Yeah, that kind of set the tone, didn't it?!

Thanks for reading!

Originally Posted by englishrose47

Congrats on the baby !!!

Glenn, if you saw Judy this morning how come you didn't post a pix ????? By the way I was not congratulating you on the baby Glenn

I first saw your comment on my phone on the DIS-application. And with that, before you go into the thread it shows you the first few words of the newest post....so I just saw "Congrats on the baby !!!" I knew it was directed to Nory, but I thought "Oh gee, people are going to think I announced that we're expecting!"

[glennbo123]

Originally Posted by norybell

Thanks!

People, go over to Nory's thread and you can see some pictures of the little guy!

Originally Posted by YukiPhnx

All caught up! Even though I can't see your pictures (blocked at work),

Aw man, what're they thinking? Don't they know that you need to see Disney pictures in order to be your most effective at work???

Originally Posted by YukiPhnx

I still enjoy your TRs! I love your witty writing. You always crack me up.

Thanks Yuki! Hmmm, seems like I need to come up with something witty now in response. Oh no, epic fail!

Originally Posted by YukiPhnx

Oh, did you get my Christmas Card?

Yes, thank you Yuki and Andrew! You're the best! I meant to send you a pm that I got it, but you can see how far that thought went towards actual execution of said thought.

Originally Posted by YukiPhnx

I love Gram's attitude! That's kind of the way Andrew's dad saw HKDL when he decided to go on Space Mountain with us. At 66 yrs old, he was a bit shook up but still had fun!

I'm glad he was a trooper.

Originally Posted by YukiPhnx

Oh...I wonder if most TS's are doing that with their menus. Seems kind of odd. Did you have to pay dinner prices?

It seems like they are. I think the prices were still less than dinnertime.

Originally Posted by YukiPhnx

I really need to see Yeehaw Bob on my Disneymoon.

You should. Get there early so that you can talk to him, and he'll throw your name out during almost every song.

[norybell]

Originally Posted by glennbo123

People, go over to Nory's thread and you can see some pictures of the little guy!

Thanks for sending people my way, Glenn...now I can stop hijacking your thread!

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

[glennbo123]

Originally Posted by norybell

Thanks for sending people my way, Glenn...now I can stop hijacking your thread!

My pleasure. Not a problem.

[glennbo123]

When we last left off I said that it was time to get back into our ponchos and see what else we could do in the Debby-drenched park. Well I wasnt kidding, as Gram and Poppy can attest:



You cant beat the hat-over-the-poncho-hood look.

Our first stop would be Toy Story Midway Mania to use our fastpasses. As we were about to enter the queue I realized that Id never taken a picture of the fastpasses since Lauren had gotten them when we first entered the park&and a trip report without pictures of the fastpasses is a major no-no, so I had to quickly get a picture while trying to keep the camera dry.



Is it my imagination or are my fingers starting to look pruney from all of the rain?

We went partway through the fastpass queue and then were ushered in a different direction than Id been before. Then I realized: we were being taken to the handicapped entrance! Even though my parents werent using wheelchairs or an ECV, the cast members realized that theyd need some extra time loading. Judy and I whispered to each other excitedly, Were going on the handicapped entrance! Poppy and Gram never realized it.

I rode with James and shame of all shames&he beat me. I had some trouble early-on; I cant remember what exactly, but I got way behind at the first game. I made up a lot of ground later, but couldnt quite catch him.





Afterward, we hit the bathrooms near the ride, and while I was waiting for others I decided to look at the pictures on my camera. When I started looking at them, my camera died. I worried that it had gotten wet because the battery indicator wasnt showing that it was low before this had happened. I wont keep you in suspense though -- it was fine once I recharged it overnight. It still holds a charge for a decent amount of time, but I cant rely on the level indicator anymore. Anyway, the camera was done for the day so the rest of the pictures, which arent many, will be from my iPhone.

From there, the kids wanted to go off on their own, while the adults were going to retry the Backlot Tour. We went via the Streets of America.



I hadnt been on the Backlot Tour in a long, long time. I definitely remember being in catastrophe canyon probably even a couple of times, but the rest of the tour seemed more familiar from all of the trip reports Ive read.

After the Backlot Tour I needed to think of another sit-down attraction and Muppets 3D seemed like a good choice. It turned out that it was -- after the show, Poppy said, that was really good! Good going Statler and Waldorf. I wish my kids were more familiar with the old Muppet Show episodes. There are lots of times that Id like to reference Veterinarians Hospital or Piiiiigs in Spaaaaaaace, but they have no idea what Im talking about.

After the Muppets, my parents were pretty much done. Theyd had enough walking, and in the rain no less, so we texted the kids to meet us at the 5&10 on Hollywood Boulevard. My mom shopped a little bit in there and got some souvenirs&"his & her" towels and a throw pillow, I think. Judy was ready to go back to the resort too, but the kids wanted to keep going of course, so I volunteered to stay at the park and you know, make sure they stayed out of trouble with their faster pace of touring than Id experienced so far that day. Judy went with Gram and Poppy to the buses.

Lauren had gotten us some Rock n Roller Coaster fastpasses before she met us at the 5&10 and I took this picture just before we left, at around 3:30.



It still looks pretty miserable out on Hollywood Boulevard, doesnt it? I remember that you had to be very careful in the 5&10, because the tile floor was wet and really slippery. The cast members were trying to dry the floor, but despite their efforts, it was a lawsuit waiting to happen. Anyway, enough of that.

Our fastpass time was still a ways off, so Rock n Roller Coaster wasnt our first stop. No, instead, we headed in the other direction for another ride on Star Tours!

In the queue, James suggested that I take a picture of these Admiral Akbar-looking characters in Star Tours.



If youre not familiar with Admiral Akbar, hes only one of the most-loved minor characters from Star Wars. Hes famous for his pointing-out-the-obvious line, Its a trap!



And James found this hilarious (in my opinion) 15-second video on Youtube. Admiral Akbar on $50,000 Pyramid

He was even in the running when the university, Ole Miss, was looking to replace its mascot. Admiral Akbar as Ole Miss mascot? It couldve been great, but alas, they went in a different direction.

James also suggested that I take a picture of the Departures and Arrivals board. I guess because Bespin (Cloud City) is one of our favorite battle scenarios when we play the Star Wars Battlefront videogame.



I tried to get a picture of Star Tours flight attendant when we were waiting to board, but it was hard to keep it from being blurry.



The ride was awesome, yet again, and Lauren was the rebel spy, again. (She had been the spy earlier in the day when the kids were on their own.) The ride was so awesome in fact, (and the lines were short) that we immediately went on it 2 more times! We made a beeline out the dump shop and went right back into the queue.

They take the picture of the rebel spy sometime after youre seated on the ride, but before it starts. Consequently, I was making dumb-looking faces , trying to get chosen as the rebel spy. It didnt work, but it was worth a shot. It wouldve been hilarious if one of those looks would have been used. Lauren speculated that maybe her birthday button, and Poppys anniversary button, was what got them selected.

From there, we ventured down Sunset Boulevard, to Tower of Terror. Marlene had already taken her first-ever ride on it earlier in the day and was ready to go again. She said that its not nearly as scary as the hype, and liked it. (Kind of like, the only thing we have to fear, is fear itself. I guess.) James however, wasnt buying it, apparently thinking that fear is a pretty reasonable thing to be afraid of, and would be waiting for us in the dump shop.

After the Twilight Zone pre-show, as we were walking to the loading area in that awesome boiler-room of the Hollywood Tower Hotel, we were a little miffed at some teenagers who wormed their way past us. But we had the last laugh when we got to the elevator and the cast member was calling out, party of 3? and we got to go past them and board immediately. He he he.

We enjoyed our crazy elevator ride and even though I was without my good camera, I still tried to get a redneck shot of our ride picture with my phone.



Were in the back row, along the right side of the picture.

Now it was finally time for us to use our Rock n Roller Coaster fastpasses. I dont remember anything interesting to tell you about this particular ride versus my umpteen other rides on it, other than its still my favorite Disney coaster.

I think this redneck picture turned out better than the Tower of Terror one. James always makes the best expressions on this ride.



We left the park right after that, at about 5:30, and were back home at Kidani around 6. Oh, on the way out of the park I tried to give away our extra fastpasses and the person asked me, are you trying to give them away?, trying to be sure I wasnt scalping them or something. Why do I always have such a hard time giving fastpasses away?

Back at the suite, I was able to reschedule the ladies Grand Floridian Tea for the next day, since the weather forecast still looked bad -- Id switch our non-park day from Wednesday to Monday. The only bad thing was, that meant that Id miss the DVC Welcome Home Wednesday thing, which I was planning to do since it coincided with our day off. Drat, Ill get to that someday -- I want a free hat!

For dinner, we ate in the suite (sorry, no pictures) and as an homage to Peter Brady's Humphrey Bogart impression we had pork chopsh and appleshaush.



After dinner, James went to his favorite place, Community Hall, while the rest of us rested and watched some TV. After a little bit I went down to check on him there. I think I took this picture of the savanna from the balcony at Community Hall. Its hard to believe that there was still this much daylight at 8 oclock in the evening, now that were in the middle of winter with the sun setting around 5.



We finished up by splitting a pair of foosball games and deciding to leave it at a draw.


Up next: A day off, while on vacation
Link to next chapter

[englishrose47]

3 Judys !!!!!!

[englishrose47]

Actually 2 for definate but the third on ToT is blurry and I am not at all sure Judy is 1 of the blurs so I will go with 2

[natebenma]

I'll go with 1 Judy (Streets of America, carrying bag)

Wow, very impressive job enjoying HS despite the rain. Your parents were especially troopers. Nice choice of indoor attractions-

TSM rocks, of course! Where do you go for the handicapped entrance? Do you make it through the regular queue line past Mr. P and then skip the stairs?

Backlot Tours and Muppets are decent attractions that tend to get overlooked in pursuit of some of the thrill rides in the park, glad you had a chance to share them with your parents.

Sorry to hear about the scare with your camera. I use underwater-rated point & shoots pretty exclusively for my pictures, and they are very prone to leaks, so I am all too familiar with cameras dying at inopportune times. I'm so glad to hear it wasn't a fatal issue!

Nice finish of the visit to the park with rides on ToT and RNR

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

Sounds like a great day at DHS, despite the rain!

Your PIIIIIGGGGSS in SPAAAAACEEEE!! references go unrecognized??? You need to get the DVDs of the Muppet Show, stat!!! We have seasons 1-3, and watch them on a regular basis!! (I know, that's shocking... )

[MEK]

Gram and Poppy look so cute in their ponchos. Glad they had a great day despite the rain!

Go James for his high score on TSM. Despite your technical malfunctions you ended up with a pretty good score too Mister.

Sorry your camera battery bit the dust and you had to use your cell on a crappy weather day. No matter - your pictures did the trick - especially James face on RnR. Awesome!

I totally remember that Brady episode. So funny that you posted it!

Sounds like, despite the rain, it was a fun day and I'm sure it helped keep the crowds down.

Yes - its hard to believe how light it is in June at 8pm. I miss it. sniff sniff!

[ddluvsdisney]

-
Enjoying your trip so far. That's great that Judy was willing to go back with your parents so everyone could enjoy the day.

[ddluvsdisney]

For some strange reason the beginning of my post didn't show up??????

I had said that I had been lurking for a while and looking forward to your WWoHP day.