MichelleTO
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Oct 13, 1999
Today was the day we were doing Keys To the kingdom. We were to be at City Hall on Main St. by 8:15 am for our 8:30 tour. So the night before I called about the bus to see what time was the 1st to mK. The Cm I got on the phone who was to be answering all information questions was not very knowledgeable, to put it nicely. He told me we wouldn't likely see a bus to MK till at least 8:45 and that it would likely take 45 minutes to get there. OK, lets just think about this. #1 we have caught buses this week before that and at most in the morning , even if we stopped at all the all stars it took maybe 20 minutes to get there. I explained about our tour and the time we had to ge there etc. and I knew there were supposed to start buses at least 1 hour before. I just wanted to see if there were any earlier just to be safe. Oh no you better take a cab. I don't think he knew much about the bus schedule, so we actually walked out to the bus stop and asked the CM outside who quickly looked at a sheet on the podium and said not a problem there will be one at 7:30 and then frequently after that, "people often need to get ther eearly for the character bfast." Thank you, thats what I wanted to hear. I should have asked here in the first place.
So to the bus stop around 7:30am and guess what, buses arrive! Seems that all the buses to all the parks were starting to run at this time. With lots of people going to the parks at this time. Got to MK just before 8am. Nobody was being let in, all people with PS or tours were huddled over to the left side. They were waiting for the go ahead to open the gates. The CM's were trying to entertain people and assure them it was OK if they were a few minutes late for their 8am PS. Finally at 8:05 we were let in. we checked in for the tour, got our name badges and were offered comp. coffee. they took our lunch orders ahead of time, got to pick off a menu from Columbia Harbour House. Now on with the tour. We had Robin, she was fantastic, walked backwards almost the entire 5 hours, no kidding! I won't tell you all the secrets of the tour but will say take the time to do this!. Its adults only and if you are a Disney nut you will love it. We found out interesting facts about Walt, the company and the MK. Did some backstage and utilidor tours and 1 attraction(Jungle Cruise since Haunted Mansion was closed). Lunch was already on the table for us at the restaurant, we ate upstairs. I had never been to CHH but will go back a huge relaxing, quiet seating area upstairs. After the tour we got a special pin the shape of a gold key that says keys to the Kingdom. Very Nice.
We then went on to finish our trivia questions. I drove Dh nuts doind this as we were crisscrossing the park. We did however fit in a few rides on Space mountain and Buzz as well as Splash Mountain, Peter Pan and Pooh! They put up barriers aoubnd the fp machines at Space mountain to do some rehab? this wasn't there on sunday. Also did some shopping and pressed penny collecting. We handed in our quiz, which he checkedq uestion by question and then stamped each page. I knew I had one wrong because I guessed because I couldn't find the answer so I don't hink it matters that you have all of them correct. In fact I pointed out to him that you couldn't possbily get them all since 2 of the items in the park that you were being questioned on had been removed! I only got the answers from old photos we had of the area! We then were given our big prize! LOL. It was a photo of us put onto a background of our choice. It is a great picture of us. We didn't do it for the prize but for the fun of doing the quiz. It made me really look at the detail everywhere! We then went to take the Train to Toontown, I wanted to do Goofy barnstormer, DS requested I do this for him and honestly I wanted to for the fun of it. Well the skies opened up early this day and we had a huge thunder storm. It poured solid for 2 hours. We did manage to do a few more indoor rides but then finally just made a dash back to the bus. Oh, yes the ponchos we lugged from home and yes the ones we bought at Epcot were all safely back in the hotel room. When will we learn?! lots of fun getting wet who cares its hot and we just had a great day in the MK. Back to dry off and decide on dinner.
Decided on Artist point. Haven't been since 1996. Took a bus to Epcot to switch buses to WL. I love the lobby at this place! But did notice how noisy and busy it was at this time of the evening. We were seated at a great table, I asked for one this time! Ordered a bottle of wine and had a wonderful meal. I had the salmon DH had the mixed grill. We started with the Portebello Mushroom Soup. If anyone has the recipe or a link to it let me know. DH had the salad with goat cheese. We split the Chai tea cheesecake, everything about the meal was great. This was the most money we had spent on a meal all week, but it was our last night so what the heck. I kept justifying it by saying Victoria and Alberts would have been more. Well a quick tour around the lodge and back to the never ending bus ride back to the AllStar. Can't remember where we switched busses this time, I think likely Downtown Disney. Boy my memory is already fading. Well tomorrow is our last day, I hate that feeling!
So to the bus stop around 7:30am and guess what, buses arrive! Seems that all the buses to all the parks were starting to run at this time. With lots of people going to the parks at this time. Got to MK just before 8am. Nobody was being let in, all people with PS or tours were huddled over to the left side. They were waiting for the go ahead to open the gates. The CM's were trying to entertain people and assure them it was OK if they were a few minutes late for their 8am PS. Finally at 8:05 we were let in. we checked in for the tour, got our name badges and were offered comp. coffee. they took our lunch orders ahead of time, got to pick off a menu from Columbia Harbour House. Now on with the tour. We had Robin, she was fantastic, walked backwards almost the entire 5 hours, no kidding! I won't tell you all the secrets of the tour but will say take the time to do this!. Its adults only and if you are a Disney nut you will love it. We found out interesting facts about Walt, the company and the MK. Did some backstage and utilidor tours and 1 attraction(Jungle Cruise since Haunted Mansion was closed). Lunch was already on the table for us at the restaurant, we ate upstairs. I had never been to CHH but will go back a huge relaxing, quiet seating area upstairs. After the tour we got a special pin the shape of a gold key that says keys to the Kingdom. Very Nice.
We then went on to finish our trivia questions. I drove Dh nuts doind this as we were crisscrossing the park. We did however fit in a few rides on Space mountain and Buzz as well as Splash Mountain, Peter Pan and Pooh! They put up barriers aoubnd the fp machines at Space mountain to do some rehab? this wasn't there on sunday. Also did some shopping and pressed penny collecting. We handed in our quiz, which he checkedq uestion by question and then stamped each page. I knew I had one wrong because I guessed because I couldn't find the answer so I don't hink it matters that you have all of them correct. In fact I pointed out to him that you couldn't possbily get them all since 2 of the items in the park that you were being questioned on had been removed! I only got the answers from old photos we had of the area! We then were given our big prize! LOL. It was a photo of us put onto a background of our choice. It is a great picture of us. We didn't do it for the prize but for the fun of doing the quiz. It made me really look at the detail everywhere! We then went to take the Train to Toontown, I wanted to do Goofy barnstormer, DS requested I do this for him and honestly I wanted to for the fun of it. Well the skies opened up early this day and we had a huge thunder storm. It poured solid for 2 hours. We did manage to do a few more indoor rides but then finally just made a dash back to the bus. Oh, yes the ponchos we lugged from home and yes the ones we bought at Epcot were all safely back in the hotel room. When will we learn?! lots of fun getting wet who cares its hot and we just had a great day in the MK. Back to dry off and decide on dinner.
Decided on Artist point. Haven't been since 1996. Took a bus to Epcot to switch buses to WL. I love the lobby at this place! But did notice how noisy and busy it was at this time of the evening. We were seated at a great table, I asked for one this time! Ordered a bottle of wine and had a wonderful meal. I had the salmon DH had the mixed grill. We started with the Portebello Mushroom Soup. If anyone has the recipe or a link to it let me know. DH had the salad with goat cheese. We split the Chai tea cheesecake, everything about the meal was great. This was the most money we had spent on a meal all week, but it was our last night so what the heck. I kept justifying it by saying Victoria and Alberts would have been more. Well a quick tour around the lodge and back to the never ending bus ride back to the AllStar. Can't remember where we switched busses this time, I think likely Downtown Disney. Boy my memory is already fading. Well tomorrow is our last day, I hate that feeling!
