"How to Lose a Morning's Activities without Really Trying" or "MAN, I HATE that boat from the WL to the MK!"
Thursday, 16 November 2000
My intentions were good. I can say that for a fact! We intended to get to Magic Kingdom for early entry. Since I have a five-year-old, early entry at MK is crucial--must ride those Fantasyland attractions!
We walked from our villa down to the boat dock around 7:30ish--just as a boat was pulling away. Everyone on board smiled at us; in turn, I wished plagues upon their happy little houses.
Then, we waited. And we waited. And we waited some more. FINALLY, a boat arrived, but we didn't get to MK until about 8:15, thus defeating the purpose of early entry. Curses!
We rode Snow White's Scary Adventures, the Pooh ride, and It's a Small World. The line for Dumbo was LOO-OOO-OONG already, so we used an avoidance tactic to distract our child. I was quite distressed to see that Peter Pan's Flight (quite possibly my favorite ride at MK) was closed. Curses again!
When the rest of the park opened at 9:00, we headed over to Haunted Mansion, my daughter's all-time, hands-down favorite ride. (Sidenote: It is interesting that "Chicken Girl" loves the Haunted Mansion, is it not? She WILL NOT ride a roller coaster. She even hates Goofy's Barnstormer, but the ghosts bother her not at all.)
We had priority seating at Cinderella's Royal Table at 9:35, so we headed for the castle. Chicken Girl is NOT a princess-kind-of-kid, but she had requested breakfast in the castle. Of course, she had an ulterior motive: She hoped to shake down the fairy godmother and get some pixie dust. She remains convinced to this day that she could fly if only I had not lost the pixie dust the godmother gave her last December. (Yep, she's bitter about it.)
The castle breakfast was behind schedule, and we weren't seated until 10:00ish. Jasmine and the godmother were greeting guests in the lobby. (No luck on the pixie dust!) When we finally made our way upstairs, we saw the following characters: Cinderella, Belle, Snow White, and Aladdin. It took quite a while for the characters to get to our table, but, when they did arrive, they were great. I'm not sure if the breakfast was particularly good, or if we were simply ravenous because it was after 10:00 A. M. and we hadn't eaten since dinner at 5:00 P. M. the day before, but we CLEANED our plates.
I wore a shirt that I had bought at the Disney Store; it commemorates the 50th anniversary of the movie Cinderella. The shirt was a HUGE hit at the castle.
After breakfast, we rode the trolley from the castle to the train station. Then, we rode the train around MK (another family ritual). We then headed back to the Villas at the Wilderness Lodge for a break.
At this point in the journey, I phoned DISer "SwanDolphin" -- who informed me that a mega-post ("SD, have you seen Chelley?") was in the making on the Resorts Board. Yikes! I warned him that I was en route with a little surprise.
Transportation at Disney is not bad, I suppose, if one is trying to get from a resort to a park (except for that dang boat to MK), but getting from resort to resort is a nightmare. We caught the bus to MGM. Then, we took the boat to the Swan and Dolphin Resorts. All told, it took me about an hour and a half to get there!
I presented "SwanDolphin" with a Wilderness Lodge refillable mug, and--since I am such a thoughtful person--I even supplied a beverage with which to fill it. He had printed out some interesting topics from the DIS for my reading enjoyment. (I MUST get a laptop soon! Not being able to connect while on vacation drives me nuts!) He is such a nice person that he did not point out that I was wearing a dorky Cinderella shirt.
We headed back to MGM and rode the Great Movie Ride. My husband and my daughter staked out seats for the Beauty and the Beast show while I rode Tower of Terror (no waiting!) and got fast passes for Rockin' Roller Coaster.
After seeing the B & B show, my husband and I took turns riding RRC. Chicken Girl opted not to participate. (What a surprise there! ) My husband announced, after riding RRC, that he had ridden it for the last time: "You may enjoy flirting with death. I do not." He's ridden it in the past, but he spends entirely too much time thinking about what COULD go wrong.
We did a bit of shopping, then ate burgers from Rosie's All American before heading into the ampitheatre just after 5:00 to secure places for Fantasmic! We got great seats in the center (Mickey) section about ten rows from the water. I had worried about entertaining Chicken Girl for a couple of hours, but she fell asleep and napped for the first hour. Hooray!
I used the spare time to read the printouts of the DIS posts. Funny stuff!
I was amazed by the family in front of us. The mother used her spare time wisely; she quizzed her children on far-ranging topics such as anatomy, aquaculture, space exploration, mathematics, and geography. Wow! My family? Heck, slobs that we are, we just ate pretzels and cotton candy and slurped sodas while I considered my utter failure as a parent. (My daughter's response to cotton candy: "Tastes like chicken!")
We really enjoyed the preshow (Delmon? Is that his name?). My favorite parts were these two comments that he made: "Do not try this at home. Do it at Grandma's house. If you're gonna do a handstand in a chair, do it at Grandma's house. You don't want to be bustin' up stuff at your own house." He also said, "Do not walk on the metal bleachers after the show. You'll fall down and break your arm. I know it looks like a shortcut. It's not. It's only a shortcut if you're lookin' for a shortcut to the hospital."
Fantasmic! was wonderful and worth the wait. We really enjoyed it. (Of course, we were hopped up on cotton candy and soda.)
We returned to the Villas at the Wilderness Lodge and discovered that the housekeeper had arranged my daughter's stuffed animals on the table. Mickey and Minnie were holding hands! Then, we went to the lobby for the special event of the evening, a Native American "Awakening" (music, dancing, storytelling). My daughter enjoyed visiting with some of the participants.
After a quick run to Roaring Forks for even more soda and snacks (AAAAACCCCCKKKKKK!), we headed to the room. It had been a long day!
[This message was edited by Chelley on 02-11-01 at 03:13 PM.]
Thursday, 16 November 2000
My intentions were good. I can say that for a fact! We intended to get to Magic Kingdom for early entry. Since I have a five-year-old, early entry at MK is crucial--must ride those Fantasyland attractions!
We walked from our villa down to the boat dock around 7:30ish--just as a boat was pulling away. Everyone on board smiled at us; in turn, I wished plagues upon their happy little houses.
Then, we waited. And we waited. And we waited some more. FINALLY, a boat arrived, but we didn't get to MK until about 8:15, thus defeating the purpose of early entry. Curses!
We rode Snow White's Scary Adventures, the Pooh ride, and It's a Small World. The line for Dumbo was LOO-OOO-OONG already, so we used an avoidance tactic to distract our child. I was quite distressed to see that Peter Pan's Flight (quite possibly my favorite ride at MK) was closed. Curses again!
When the rest of the park opened at 9:00, we headed over to Haunted Mansion, my daughter's all-time, hands-down favorite ride. (Sidenote: It is interesting that "Chicken Girl" loves the Haunted Mansion, is it not? She WILL NOT ride a roller coaster. She even hates Goofy's Barnstormer, but the ghosts bother her not at all.)
We had priority seating at Cinderella's Royal Table at 9:35, so we headed for the castle. Chicken Girl is NOT a princess-kind-of-kid, but she had requested breakfast in the castle. Of course, she had an ulterior motive: She hoped to shake down the fairy godmother and get some pixie dust. She remains convinced to this day that she could fly if only I had not lost the pixie dust the godmother gave her last December. (Yep, she's bitter about it.)
The castle breakfast was behind schedule, and we weren't seated until 10:00ish. Jasmine and the godmother were greeting guests in the lobby. (No luck on the pixie dust!) When we finally made our way upstairs, we saw the following characters: Cinderella, Belle, Snow White, and Aladdin. It took quite a while for the characters to get to our table, but, when they did arrive, they were great. I'm not sure if the breakfast was particularly good, or if we were simply ravenous because it was after 10:00 A. M. and we hadn't eaten since dinner at 5:00 P. M. the day before, but we CLEANED our plates.
I wore a shirt that I had bought at the Disney Store; it commemorates the 50th anniversary of the movie Cinderella. The shirt was a HUGE hit at the castle.
After breakfast, we rode the trolley from the castle to the train station. Then, we rode the train around MK (another family ritual). We then headed back to the Villas at the Wilderness Lodge for a break.
At this point in the journey, I phoned DISer "SwanDolphin" -- who informed me that a mega-post ("SD, have you seen Chelley?") was in the making on the Resorts Board. Yikes! I warned him that I was en route with a little surprise.
Transportation at Disney is not bad, I suppose, if one is trying to get from a resort to a park (except for that dang boat to MK), but getting from resort to resort is a nightmare. We caught the bus to MGM. Then, we took the boat to the Swan and Dolphin Resorts. All told, it took me about an hour and a half to get there!
I presented "SwanDolphin" with a Wilderness Lodge refillable mug, and--since I am such a thoughtful person--I even supplied a beverage with which to fill it. He had printed out some interesting topics from the DIS for my reading enjoyment. (I MUST get a laptop soon! Not being able to connect while on vacation drives me nuts!) He is such a nice person that he did not point out that I was wearing a dorky Cinderella shirt.
We headed back to MGM and rode the Great Movie Ride. My husband and my daughter staked out seats for the Beauty and the Beast show while I rode Tower of Terror (no waiting!) and got fast passes for Rockin' Roller Coaster.
After seeing the B & B show, my husband and I took turns riding RRC. Chicken Girl opted not to participate. (What a surprise there!
) My husband announced, after riding RRC, that he had ridden it for the last time: "You may enjoy flirting with death. I do not." He's ridden it in the past, but he spends entirely too much time thinking about what COULD go wrong.We did a bit of shopping, then ate burgers from Rosie's All American before heading into the ampitheatre just after 5:00 to secure places for Fantasmic! We got great seats in the center (Mickey) section about ten rows from the water. I had worried about entertaining Chicken Girl for a couple of hours, but she fell asleep and napped for the first hour. Hooray!
I used the spare time to read the printouts of the DIS posts. Funny stuff!
I was amazed by the family in front of us. The mother used her spare time wisely; she quizzed her children on far-ranging topics such as anatomy, aquaculture, space exploration, mathematics, and geography. Wow! My family? Heck, slobs that we are, we just ate pretzels and cotton candy and slurped sodas while I considered my utter failure as a parent. (My daughter's response to cotton candy: "Tastes like chicken!")
We really enjoyed the preshow (Delmon? Is that his name?). My favorite parts were these two comments that he made: "Do not try this at home. Do it at Grandma's house. If you're gonna do a handstand in a chair, do it at Grandma's house. You don't want to be bustin' up stuff at your own house." He also said, "Do not walk on the metal bleachers after the show. You'll fall down and break your arm. I know it looks like a shortcut. It's not. It's only a shortcut if you're lookin' for a shortcut to the hospital."
Fantasmic! was wonderful and worth the wait. We really enjoyed it. (Of course, we were hopped up on cotton candy and soda.)
We returned to the Villas at the Wilderness Lodge and discovered that the housekeeper had arranged my daughter's stuffed animals on the table. Mickey and Minnie were holding hands! Then, we went to the lobby for the special event of the evening, a Native American "Awakening" (music, dancing, storytelling). My daughter enjoyed visiting with some of the participants.
After a quick run to Roaring Forks for even more soda and snacks (AAAAACCCCCKKKKKK!), we headed to the room. It had been a long day!
[This message was edited by Chelley on 02-11-01 at 03:13 PM.]
