IvyandLace
Certified pixie dust user
- Joined
- Jul 27, 2000
September 22, 2001
Schedule for the day: Cindy's breakfast PS at 7:50am; Keys to the Kingdom tour from 9:15am to ~2:30pm; MGM; California Grill PS at 8pm for viewing fireworks at 9pm
Up and at 'em, ladies! There are big do-ins ahead...
For some reason, I woke up at 5:15am! Yikes! I took my time getting ready, and, after a quick call home, it was time to head to the MK for our 7:50am Cindy's PS! Today was a much-planned day with a whole bunch of "new" things for us to enjoy-needless to say, we were all very excited. We arrived just as the park was opening for early entry and headed to the castle to check in. Today was my "birthday" celebration and so I had my "Today is my birthday" pin proudly on display. Got right in for our PS time and immediately enjoyed the benefits of "the birthday pin". We were seated at a table decorated with pixie dust and streamers for my celebration how cool is that! Pun'kin and I were in our glory with the princesses-Belle was my favorite and Cinderella so beautiful-of course, we had our pics taken plenty of times. Amazingly, we saw plenty of kids that were crying at the princesses!! (Be forewarned if you have little ones.) At the end of our meal, I received a birthday cupcake and a birthday certificate that all the princesses had signed-was Pun'kin ever jealous! But, as MM reminded her, I was the "birthday princess" and Sis was pacified (even though she tried to talk me into lending her the pin for her to wear tomorrow!!)
We then rode Peter Pan (my fav!) and Snow White before it was time to check in for our Keys to the Kingdom (KTTK) tour. We were told to meet at City Hall on Main Street for check in at 9:15am. We got bottles of water and met our tour guide, Tatiana who was from Brazil. What a great tour! We started out talking about the four "keys" to WDW: courtesy, safety, efficiency, and show. Everything that was planned by Walt himself included one or more of those keys, and so the keys are used today to continue Walt's dream of excellence at the parks. We rode TTA first after a brief discussion of how Walt came to be known (which, by the way, fit in perfectly with the 100 year celebration kiosk that we later found at MGM!) Tatiana rode in our car, and so we drill her on becoming a tour guide, her home, and how to find Hidden Mickeys. (Priorities, priorities.) We then headed to Fantasyland where we went underground! So neat! So much different than you expect. (Alas, I cannot tell you anything about this part as Tatiana made us swear upon death to release no information to anyone! Honestly. So, don't even try.) We then had a lunch break at Columbia Harbor House-what a great place!! We had never eaten here before, but it's definitely worth it. Lunch was included in the tour price and I picked out a ham and cheese sub with broccoli slaw and chips to eat-so good! Along the way, everyone seemed to be noticing my BD pin and giving me "Happy Birthday!"s. At CHH, Pun'kin and I were getting a little "punch drunk" from the air conditioning, I think, cuz at one point I began threatening to spit some soda at her through a straw. We, of course, had the giggles at this point. I then put my mom's coffee stirrer in the straw and blew it in Pun'kin's direction. Indignantly, she tattled on me to MM, who was trying to enjoy the peace and quiet by ignoring our foolishness, and said, "Mom, look what she did! That could have gone up my nose!" Of course, that was it for us. We died laughing.
We still probably would be there to this day, laughing away, if Tatiana hadn't collected us for the second part of our tour. We were standing in CHH, waiting for our group to reform after lunch, when this well-meaning exuberant CM saw my pin upon passing me and said "Happy Bert-day!" It's one of those you-have-to-be-there moments, but I think it was his accent or something that made it come out the way it did. Anyway, Pun'kin had to do again right in my face and that got us laughing again. MM finally made us behave or, at least, act our age, which in WDW is pretty hard to do.
On to the Haunted Mansion. We learned the "story" behind the ride, and Tatiana actually told us two places to look for Hidden Mickeys. We also found the wedding ring which we looked and looked for last tour but could never find. Pun'kin, ever the scaredy cat, said that she enjoyed the ride better with the story behind it. That, my friends, was worth the price of the tour itself. **grin**
Not only was it very crowded (EE, Saturday in MK, only day of the week they were showing fireworks and Spectro) but it was also very humid with temps in the 90's. We got to go behind the scenes again to see the new parade floats for the 100-year celebration parade that had debuted yesterday. We were excited to see the parade and made an instant decision after seeing the floats to stay for the parade at 3pm. It was at this time that rain clouds were building. And, once we made it to Pirates of the Caribbean with our tour group, the clouds opened up for a downpour. We waited the longest here (probably about 20 minutes or so) and even got to spot a very hard to see Hidden Mickey with Tatiana's help, of course. That was the end of our tour, and we all clapped and cheered for Tatiana. It was a wonderful tour, we all agreed.
Now it was off with our ponchos on to find a place for the parade. Since it was still in "soft opening" status, not many people knew about it going on until about 15 minutes before the parade began. We, of course, had already been comfortably seated on Main Street and even had ventured to gain some ice cream (for us kids) and coffee (for MM) before the show began. Warning: the Main Street Bakery is packed with a very long wait for checkout before the parade. Once seated, my sis coerced the Barbershop Quartet that was going around entertaining people to serenade me with "Happy Birthday!" Everyone joined in and I was properly embarrassed. The family next to us had big plastic pins on that I recognized as the new 100 yr. celebration pins that were supposed to interact with the floats. I didn't like the look of them myself and they didn't seem to work well with the floats either. The floats were beautifully made as snow globes with certain characters (Mickey, Aladdin, princesses) inside. Every so often, they would blow up confetti to look like a real snow globe. We thought that the theming was great but the story line was hard to hear. We also thought that the parade was too short. Maybe this will be better once they have all the kinks out of the system.
Then it was time to head to MGM via the TTC. (Again the flaw how come you can't get to other parks by bus from MK??) We, of course, headed for Tower of Terror and had to ride. I was freaking out but managed to calm down after the first big drop. TOT is a classic ride that we all love. Then it was on to Who Wants to Be a Millionaire-liked it, but didn't love it (surprisingly!) I think my buttons were stuck because I never made it in the top ten. We then jogged to Hunchback-another show we didn't get to see the last tour-and loved it. It's a great show for all ages. It was getting late, and we decided to head back to ASMu for a shower and change before our PS at California Grill.
The bus line to MK was, of course, swamped at 7pm since everyone wanted to go see the parade and fireworks. We wished them well on getting seats for the parade since it was an hour away and we had seen the crowds there earlier. We were all excited to go have an adult dinner away from the crowds and heat. We checked in to find that there were no table available for firework viewing-I even flashed my BD pin-but were given a beeper for the next available table. As I was getting the beeper, I said, "Well, let's go look out from the observation deck and see if we can spot Spectromagic!" After 20 minutes of waiting out there, I turned the beeper over to see if it was working and there was a note that said "This beeper will not work out of the restaurant". Oh, no! We rushed back in to have the staff tell us disgustedly, "We've been paging you for over 15 minutes and just gave your table away." Oh, boy! I was upset. I knew that the girl who handed me the beeper had heard our plans to be out on the deck, but no warning was given about it not working out there. We were seated at a pretty good table anyway about ten minutes later, but the point remains. And, to boot, this was my BD dinner.
Anyway, Pun'kin and I decided to split the ravioli appetizer and beef tenderloin entrée (~$40.00) after we all enjoyed a three cheese flatbread that was very good. The ravioli was okay, but the tenderloin was perfect. Very very good. We decided to stand up from our table to see the fireworks and then Pun'kin and I headed outside to view them better.
What a wonderful way to see them! It was great not having to push and shove with the crowds-and we got a better view! Viewed from the observation deck, however, you can really tell how far away Toon Town is cuz that's where the fireworks are set off from and they don't appear to be any where near the castle from the observation deck. Very nice.
We even got a little view of the Electrical Water Parade but couldn't hear the music.
After dinner, we went to MK and were blown away how many people were waiting for the buses still! We decided to head to the TTC-to DD-to ASMu. I hate that you have to do this, but it worked out better than waiting, I do believe. We had fun eavesdropping on other people as we traveled. To bed gratefully at ~11:00pm.
Tip(s) for the day: Do Cindy's breakfast! It's so much better than dinner! Be forewarned that some little ones may not find it too much fun, however! Be ready for big crowds at MK on the Saturdays they do fireworks and Spectro. Take a tour!!! Be warned, however, that there is a lot of walking and standing around on the tour. My only complaint. Get to Main Street about 30 minutes before parade starts (at least) to find a great spot. Don't try to buy coffee or bakery items any time before the parade at the Main Street Bakery. If you get PS at California Grill, try to be there at least 15 minutes ahead of time and don't expect the beeper to work on the observation deck. Last but not least, don't be afraid of wearing the BD pin. It works!
Next time, join us for The Pixie Chicks' World Tour-Day Four: "Look! It's a baby oh."
Schedule for the day: Cindy's breakfast PS at 7:50am; Keys to the Kingdom tour from 9:15am to ~2:30pm; MGM; California Grill PS at 8pm for viewing fireworks at 9pm
Up and at 'em, ladies! There are big do-ins ahead...
For some reason, I woke up at 5:15am! Yikes! I took my time getting ready, and, after a quick call home, it was time to head to the MK for our 7:50am Cindy's PS! Today was a much-planned day with a whole bunch of "new" things for us to enjoy-needless to say, we were all very excited. We arrived just as the park was opening for early entry and headed to the castle to check in. Today was my "birthday" celebration and so I had my "Today is my birthday" pin proudly on display. Got right in for our PS time and immediately enjoyed the benefits of "the birthday pin". We were seated at a table decorated with pixie dust and streamers for my celebration how cool is that! Pun'kin and I were in our glory with the princesses-Belle was my favorite and Cinderella so beautiful-of course, we had our pics taken plenty of times. Amazingly, we saw plenty of kids that were crying at the princesses!! (Be forewarned if you have little ones.) At the end of our meal, I received a birthday cupcake and a birthday certificate that all the princesses had signed-was Pun'kin ever jealous! But, as MM reminded her, I was the "birthday princess" and Sis was pacified (even though she tried to talk me into lending her the pin for her to wear tomorrow!!)
We then rode Peter Pan (my fav!) and Snow White before it was time to check in for our Keys to the Kingdom (KTTK) tour. We were told to meet at City Hall on Main Street for check in at 9:15am. We got bottles of water and met our tour guide, Tatiana who was from Brazil. What a great tour! We started out talking about the four "keys" to WDW: courtesy, safety, efficiency, and show. Everything that was planned by Walt himself included one or more of those keys, and so the keys are used today to continue Walt's dream of excellence at the parks. We rode TTA first after a brief discussion of how Walt came to be known (which, by the way, fit in perfectly with the 100 year celebration kiosk that we later found at MGM!) Tatiana rode in our car, and so we drill her on becoming a tour guide, her home, and how to find Hidden Mickeys. (Priorities, priorities.) We then headed to Fantasyland where we went underground! So neat! So much different than you expect. (Alas, I cannot tell you anything about this part as Tatiana made us swear upon death to release no information to anyone! Honestly. So, don't even try.) We then had a lunch break at Columbia Harbor House-what a great place!! We had never eaten here before, but it's definitely worth it. Lunch was included in the tour price and I picked out a ham and cheese sub with broccoli slaw and chips to eat-so good! Along the way, everyone seemed to be noticing my BD pin and giving me "Happy Birthday!"s. At CHH, Pun'kin and I were getting a little "punch drunk" from the air conditioning, I think, cuz at one point I began threatening to spit some soda at her through a straw. We, of course, had the giggles at this point. I then put my mom's coffee stirrer in the straw and blew it in Pun'kin's direction. Indignantly, she tattled on me to MM, who was trying to enjoy the peace and quiet by ignoring our foolishness, and said, "Mom, look what she did! That could have gone up my nose!" Of course, that was it for us. We died laughing.
We still probably would be there to this day, laughing away, if Tatiana hadn't collected us for the second part of our tour. We were standing in CHH, waiting for our group to reform after lunch, when this well-meaning exuberant CM saw my pin upon passing me and said "Happy Bert-day!" It's one of those you-have-to-be-there moments, but I think it was his accent or something that made it come out the way it did. Anyway, Pun'kin had to do again right in my face and that got us laughing again. MM finally made us behave or, at least, act our age, which in WDW is pretty hard to do.
On to the Haunted Mansion. We learned the "story" behind the ride, and Tatiana actually told us two places to look for Hidden Mickeys. We also found the wedding ring which we looked and looked for last tour but could never find. Pun'kin, ever the scaredy cat, said that she enjoyed the ride better with the story behind it. That, my friends, was worth the price of the tour itself. **grin**
Not only was it very crowded (EE, Saturday in MK, only day of the week they were showing fireworks and Spectro) but it was also very humid with temps in the 90's. We got to go behind the scenes again to see the new parade floats for the 100-year celebration parade that had debuted yesterday. We were excited to see the parade and made an instant decision after seeing the floats to stay for the parade at 3pm. It was at this time that rain clouds were building. And, once we made it to Pirates of the Caribbean with our tour group, the clouds opened up for a downpour. We waited the longest here (probably about 20 minutes or so) and even got to spot a very hard to see Hidden Mickey with Tatiana's help, of course. That was the end of our tour, and we all clapped and cheered for Tatiana. It was a wonderful tour, we all agreed.
Now it was off with our ponchos on to find a place for the parade. Since it was still in "soft opening" status, not many people knew about it going on until about 15 minutes before the parade began. We, of course, had already been comfortably seated on Main Street and even had ventured to gain some ice cream (for us kids) and coffee (for MM) before the show began. Warning: the Main Street Bakery is packed with a very long wait for checkout before the parade. Once seated, my sis coerced the Barbershop Quartet that was going around entertaining people to serenade me with "Happy Birthday!" Everyone joined in and I was properly embarrassed. The family next to us had big plastic pins on that I recognized as the new 100 yr. celebration pins that were supposed to interact with the floats. I didn't like the look of them myself and they didn't seem to work well with the floats either. The floats were beautifully made as snow globes with certain characters (Mickey, Aladdin, princesses) inside. Every so often, they would blow up confetti to look like a real snow globe. We thought that the theming was great but the story line was hard to hear. We also thought that the parade was too short. Maybe this will be better once they have all the kinks out of the system.
Then it was time to head to MGM via the TTC. (Again the flaw how come you can't get to other parks by bus from MK??) We, of course, headed for Tower of Terror and had to ride. I was freaking out but managed to calm down after the first big drop. TOT is a classic ride that we all love. Then it was on to Who Wants to Be a Millionaire-liked it, but didn't love it (surprisingly!) I think my buttons were stuck because I never made it in the top ten. We then jogged to Hunchback-another show we didn't get to see the last tour-and loved it. It's a great show for all ages. It was getting late, and we decided to head back to ASMu for a shower and change before our PS at California Grill.
The bus line to MK was, of course, swamped at 7pm since everyone wanted to go see the parade and fireworks. We wished them well on getting seats for the parade since it was an hour away and we had seen the crowds there earlier. We were all excited to go have an adult dinner away from the crowds and heat. We checked in to find that there were no table available for firework viewing-I even flashed my BD pin-but were given a beeper for the next available table. As I was getting the beeper, I said, "Well, let's go look out from the observation deck and see if we can spot Spectromagic!" After 20 minutes of waiting out there, I turned the beeper over to see if it was working and there was a note that said "This beeper will not work out of the restaurant". Oh, no! We rushed back in to have the staff tell us disgustedly, "We've been paging you for over 15 minutes and just gave your table away." Oh, boy! I was upset. I knew that the girl who handed me the beeper had heard our plans to be out on the deck, but no warning was given about it not working out there. We were seated at a pretty good table anyway about ten minutes later, but the point remains. And, to boot, this was my BD dinner.
Anyway, Pun'kin and I decided to split the ravioli appetizer and beef tenderloin entrée (~$40.00) after we all enjoyed a three cheese flatbread that was very good. The ravioli was okay, but the tenderloin was perfect. Very very good. We decided to stand up from our table to see the fireworks and then Pun'kin and I headed outside to view them better.
What a wonderful way to see them! It was great not having to push and shove with the crowds-and we got a better view! Viewed from the observation deck, however, you can really tell how far away Toon Town is cuz that's where the fireworks are set off from and they don't appear to be any where near the castle from the observation deck. Very nice.
We even got a little view of the Electrical Water Parade but couldn't hear the music.
After dinner, we went to MK and were blown away how many people were waiting for the buses still! We decided to head to the TTC-to DD-to ASMu. I hate that you have to do this, but it worked out better than waiting, I do believe. We had fun eavesdropping on other people as we traveled. To bed gratefully at ~11:00pm.
Tip(s) for the day: Do Cindy's breakfast! It's so much better than dinner! Be forewarned that some little ones may not find it too much fun, however! Be ready for big crowds at MK on the Saturdays they do fireworks and Spectro. Take a tour!!! Be warned, however, that there is a lot of walking and standing around on the tour. My only complaint. Get to Main Street about 30 minutes before parade starts (at least) to find a great spot. Don't try to buy coffee or bakery items any time before the parade at the Main Street Bakery. If you get PS at California Grill, try to be there at least 15 minutes ahead of time and don't expect the beeper to work on the observation deck. Last but not least, don't be afraid of wearing the BD pin. It works!
Next time, join us for The Pixie Chicks' World Tour-Day Four: "Look! It's a baby oh."
We did the Keys to the Kingdom Tour last trip and it was exactly like you described, just that we had a different tour guide. We totally loved it, and plan to do an Epcot tour next trip....It seems so hard to get a window table at California Grill...You probably have to get there when they open or something and wait 3 or 4 hours until the fireworks begin! 
Okay, maybe I'm just bitter because we've never gotten a window table...LOL...Anyway, looking forward to #4.
Thanks for posting this.
