GarrettJD
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 5, 2003
Cast of characters
Garrett, age 27- Your humble Narrator. Dedicated Disney nut who obsessively plans every single detail of his vacation, driving seemingly everyone else in the free world completely nuts with his constant talk about WDW. Is known for being the person you'd better not mention WDW too, as he'll never shut up... and heaven forbid if you say you're GOING to WDW... he'll try to plan your trip for you, too! He is in management at a major mall-based book chain and has singlehandedly sold enough copies of the Unofficial Guide and the Passporter to lay waste to a small forest. Has been to Disney only twice before (1984 and 2003), but is planning on making an annual trip if finances allow (fingers crossed...)
Nikkie, age 29- Music teacher extraordinaire who really needs the annual break from her students (what a great idea... going from a classroom full of screaming kids to a theme park full of screaming kids). Also a devoted Disney fan, especially of Winnie the Pooh. Not quite the rabid WDW aficionado I am, but she's getting there! Made her first trip last year with me after years of planning, and I think she was more sad to leave than I was... so we immediately planned the next trip!
Day 6- Sunday, June 6
Plan: Disney-MGM morning, Epcot evening, dinner at Rose & Crown, Illuminations
Actual:
We awoke at 7:00, refreshed and ready to go hit the parks, especially after our "off-day" yesterday. As usual, we got ready quickly, made a mug run to Everything Pop for drinks to accompany our Pop Tarts, got everything organized, and left the room shortly after 8:00. We quickly caught a bus to Disney-MGM and were there by 8:25. I was excited to be there because this was the last day for Star Wars Weekeds. I really enjoy Star Wars, but I'm not a mega-obsessive fan like many people are, so I didn't specifically plan this day around it. However, I was looking forward to seeing some of the Star-Wars related festivities around the park.
About 8:30, some Imperial Stormtroopers showed up, and they did a great routine on the roof of the entrance. I took lots of pictures and video. At 8:45 they let us in the gate, and led us up Sunset Boulevard. We headed for-- you guessed it-- Rock 'n Roller Coaster, walked right through the queue, and straight into the preshow. After enjoying the ride once again,we briefly considered heading to the Tower of Terror, but decided once again to postpone our trip to the Twilight Zone.
Instead, we headed over to Star Tours, and rode with about a 10 minute wait. As we got in line, the attendant gave us a lanyard with a red card to measure the wait time. We enjoyed the ride again, landed on Endor, and literally ran over to catch the 10:00 showing of Indiana Jones. We made it there right on time and got pretty good seats-- the show was only about 2/3 full. It was nice to see the whole show this time since last trip we saw an abbreviated show due to rain, and after seeing the full show this time I can understand why-- some of those stunts would be too dangerous in the rain.. We really enjoyed the show, but I don't think it's a must-do every time for repeat visitors. If it closes when the Motor Stunt Show opens and is replaced by a new version of the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland, I won't shed any tears.
We walked over to Muppetvision 3D and walked right in and saw it again. We enjoy this every time we see it. It was now shortly after 11:00, so we walked over to grab Fastpasses for Voyage of the Little Mermaid since we hadn't done that this trip. We got over there, and the next show was letting in, so we hopped right in line and got right in! Boy, was that lucky. We enjoy this show also-- it's cute and fun, with some nice visual effects. It'll have no meaning if you haven't seen the movie, but if you have, you'll enjoy it. This is a must do for us once every trip.
We left Little Mermaid and walked all the way across the park to the Backlot Express and had lunch. Nothing special, just burgers, but it was satisfying all the same. We left there about 12:30 and walked over to Sounds Dangerous, which we had skipped the last trip. The next show started in 5 minutes so we waited it out, then saw the show. This isn't a great show, but I'm glad we saw it-- it was entertaining, and pretty unique among Disney attractions.
We left the theater, played around in Soundworks for a few minutes, then went back to Sunset Boulevard. We immediately walked over to Rock 'n Roller Coaster to grab some Fastpasses. We got one OK, but on the other, the machine screwed up and spit out half of a Fastpass. A Disney CM came over, saw our trouble, and came over and did something inside the machine, causing it to spit out 3 more Fastpasses, giving us 4 total! Score! 2 rides back to back WITH Fastpass!
My spirits appropriately lifted, we walked over to the Theater of the Stars, where they were just letting in at 1:00 for the 1:30 showing of Beauty and the Beast:Live on Stage. We went on in early to sit and rest and get a good seat. I was also hoping to see Four for a Dollar perform before the show, but unfortunately they didn't today. As for the show, I videotaped most of it-- we really enjoy it, and I think it's the 2nd best stage show at WDW. Sure, it's not up to Broadway-level standards, but it's unparalelled among theme park shows. On the way out of the show, I asked one of the CMs when Four for a Dollar would be performing, and she told me they would be there tomorrow. We'll have to come back-- I love listening to them.
It was now shortly after 2:00-- time to use our Rock n' Roller Coaster Fastpasses. We used our first set, were done riding by 2:20, and after a quick restroom break, we were right back on the ride again with set number 2 of our Fastpasses. Yes, I do love this ride more than is normal. Plus, we rode it 3 times in one day with no wait. I'd call it a success.
It was now nearing 3:00 so we decided it was time for a break. We left the park and bussed it back to Pop Century, arriving back at our room about 3:30. Right as we got there, Mousekeeping showed up, so we grabbed our muges and headed to the food court. I was unusually hungry (OK, so maybe it's not THAT unusual) so I grabbed some chicken strips and a cookie for Nikkie. We chilled out at a table in Everything Pop, then went back to the room about 4:00. Mousekeeping had arranged all our plush toys in the window-- it was really cute, and I had to take a few pictures.
We took a brief nap until 5:00, then got up and headed out for our evening at Epcot. We arrived at the gates of Epcot about 5:30, and walked straight back to the United Kingdom pavilion in World Showcase for our 6:00 seating at the Rose & Crown. We were seated immediatey, and with only a brief glance at the menu we both ordered the fish & chips. Excellent food-- the piece of fish they give you is huge. Service here was excellent, too. We enjoyed our meal until the family sitting next to us decided that they didn't need to discipline their children in any way for running around the table, screaming, yelling, and banging their glasses on the table. I doubt too many pubs in England have screaming kids running around. Anyway, their kids just wouldn't shut up. This caused us to finish the meal and leave quicker than we probably would have. Again, the food was good, but we left with a headache.
We left the Rose & Crown at 6:45 and walked over to France to see Impressions de France. This is by far our favorite World Showcase movie. I love the fact that you can actually sit down, and the cinematography is absolutely astounding. I can't imagine anyone disliking this one.
At 7:20 we hiked around the back of World Showcase. I wanted to try to catch The American Adventure, but we missed the last show of the day. We kept walking and reached Norway, where we considered doing Maelstrom again, but the wait was 25 minutes so we passed. We considered seeing Wonders of China next door, but we decided that we didn't have enough time, so we decided to do some browsing until it was time to find a spot for Illuminations.
We browsed briefly in China, then walked around to Italy and saw that our former great spot for Italy was now roped off for a VIP group. Darn it. We kept walking around to china, and browsed to quite a while in the Mitsukoshi Department Store for quite a while. It was now only about 30 minutes until Illuminations and it had begun raining lightly while we were inside, so we went to the second floor and grabbed a spot by the rail. While we were waiting for the show, I called my mom on Nikkie's phone to check in and make sure everything was OK back at our apartment-- fortunately, everything was fine. Then, at 9:00, Illuminations started, and the magic began. You know how I feel about this show, so I won't reiterate it again. (Oh, what the heck. This is the best thing at WDW, bar none. I love it and could watch it every night.) This spot wasn't as good as before, but it was still pretty nice, plus we were out of the rain. This was a nice night at Epcot, and we enjoyed it even though we only did one actual attraction. See, we're WDW veterans already.
We walked around the west side of World Showcase ater the show was over. We took our time leaving, and I took some video of Epcot at night, including the monorail and Spaceship Earth. We said goodbye to the CMs wearing their huge Mickey hands and walked over to the bus stop. The first bus that arrived filled to bursting, but 5 minutes later a second bus came and we were back to Pop Century in relativlely short order. Nikkie immediately went to sleep. I still had some energy, so I went to Classic Hall. I bought our E-ride tickets for tomorrow night, played around in the arcade for a while, then went back to the room at 11:00 with Nikkie sound asleep. I went to bed myself shortly afterwards. Another great day at WDW.
Best Moments: Riding Rock n' Roller Coaster 3 times with no wait. Seeing Illuminations again. Seeing Impressions de France.
Worst Moments: The loud annoying family next to us at the Rose & Crown.
Garrett, age 27- Your humble Narrator. Dedicated Disney nut who obsessively plans every single detail of his vacation, driving seemingly everyone else in the free world completely nuts with his constant talk about WDW. Is known for being the person you'd better not mention WDW too, as he'll never shut up... and heaven forbid if you say you're GOING to WDW... he'll try to plan your trip for you, too! He is in management at a major mall-based book chain and has singlehandedly sold enough copies of the Unofficial Guide and the Passporter to lay waste to a small forest. Has been to Disney only twice before (1984 and 2003), but is planning on making an annual trip if finances allow (fingers crossed...)
Nikkie, age 29- Music teacher extraordinaire who really needs the annual break from her students (what a great idea... going from a classroom full of screaming kids to a theme park full of screaming kids). Also a devoted Disney fan, especially of Winnie the Pooh. Not quite the rabid WDW aficionado I am, but she's getting there! Made her first trip last year with me after years of planning, and I think she was more sad to leave than I was... so we immediately planned the next trip!
Day 6- Sunday, June 6
Plan: Disney-MGM morning, Epcot evening, dinner at Rose & Crown, Illuminations
Actual:
We awoke at 7:00, refreshed and ready to go hit the parks, especially after our "off-day" yesterday. As usual, we got ready quickly, made a mug run to Everything Pop for drinks to accompany our Pop Tarts, got everything organized, and left the room shortly after 8:00. We quickly caught a bus to Disney-MGM and were there by 8:25. I was excited to be there because this was the last day for Star Wars Weekeds. I really enjoy Star Wars, but I'm not a mega-obsessive fan like many people are, so I didn't specifically plan this day around it. However, I was looking forward to seeing some of the Star-Wars related festivities around the park.
About 8:30, some Imperial Stormtroopers showed up, and they did a great routine on the roof of the entrance. I took lots of pictures and video. At 8:45 they let us in the gate, and led us up Sunset Boulevard. We headed for-- you guessed it-- Rock 'n Roller Coaster, walked right through the queue, and straight into the preshow. After enjoying the ride once again,we briefly considered heading to the Tower of Terror, but decided once again to postpone our trip to the Twilight Zone.
Instead, we headed over to Star Tours, and rode with about a 10 minute wait. As we got in line, the attendant gave us a lanyard with a red card to measure the wait time. We enjoyed the ride again, landed on Endor, and literally ran over to catch the 10:00 showing of Indiana Jones. We made it there right on time and got pretty good seats-- the show was only about 2/3 full. It was nice to see the whole show this time since last trip we saw an abbreviated show due to rain, and after seeing the full show this time I can understand why-- some of those stunts would be too dangerous in the rain.. We really enjoyed the show, but I don't think it's a must-do every time for repeat visitors. If it closes when the Motor Stunt Show opens and is replaced by a new version of the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland, I won't shed any tears.
We walked over to Muppetvision 3D and walked right in and saw it again. We enjoy this every time we see it. It was now shortly after 11:00, so we walked over to grab Fastpasses for Voyage of the Little Mermaid since we hadn't done that this trip. We got over there, and the next show was letting in, so we hopped right in line and got right in! Boy, was that lucky. We enjoy this show also-- it's cute and fun, with some nice visual effects. It'll have no meaning if you haven't seen the movie, but if you have, you'll enjoy it. This is a must do for us once every trip.
We left Little Mermaid and walked all the way across the park to the Backlot Express and had lunch. Nothing special, just burgers, but it was satisfying all the same. We left there about 12:30 and walked over to Sounds Dangerous, which we had skipped the last trip. The next show started in 5 minutes so we waited it out, then saw the show. This isn't a great show, but I'm glad we saw it-- it was entertaining, and pretty unique among Disney attractions.
We left the theater, played around in Soundworks for a few minutes, then went back to Sunset Boulevard. We immediately walked over to Rock 'n Roller Coaster to grab some Fastpasses. We got one OK, but on the other, the machine screwed up and spit out half of a Fastpass. A Disney CM came over, saw our trouble, and came over and did something inside the machine, causing it to spit out 3 more Fastpasses, giving us 4 total! Score! 2 rides back to back WITH Fastpass!
My spirits appropriately lifted, we walked over to the Theater of the Stars, where they were just letting in at 1:00 for the 1:30 showing of Beauty and the Beast:Live on Stage. We went on in early to sit and rest and get a good seat. I was also hoping to see Four for a Dollar perform before the show, but unfortunately they didn't today. As for the show, I videotaped most of it-- we really enjoy it, and I think it's the 2nd best stage show at WDW. Sure, it's not up to Broadway-level standards, but it's unparalelled among theme park shows. On the way out of the show, I asked one of the CMs when Four for a Dollar would be performing, and she told me they would be there tomorrow. We'll have to come back-- I love listening to them.
It was now shortly after 2:00-- time to use our Rock n' Roller Coaster Fastpasses. We used our first set, were done riding by 2:20, and after a quick restroom break, we were right back on the ride again with set number 2 of our Fastpasses. Yes, I do love this ride more than is normal. Plus, we rode it 3 times in one day with no wait. I'd call it a success.
It was now nearing 3:00 so we decided it was time for a break. We left the park and bussed it back to Pop Century, arriving back at our room about 3:30. Right as we got there, Mousekeeping showed up, so we grabbed our muges and headed to the food court. I was unusually hungry (OK, so maybe it's not THAT unusual) so I grabbed some chicken strips and a cookie for Nikkie. We chilled out at a table in Everything Pop, then went back to the room about 4:00. Mousekeeping had arranged all our plush toys in the window-- it was really cute, and I had to take a few pictures.
We took a brief nap until 5:00, then got up and headed out for our evening at Epcot. We arrived at the gates of Epcot about 5:30, and walked straight back to the United Kingdom pavilion in World Showcase for our 6:00 seating at the Rose & Crown. We were seated immediatey, and with only a brief glance at the menu we both ordered the fish & chips. Excellent food-- the piece of fish they give you is huge. Service here was excellent, too. We enjoyed our meal until the family sitting next to us decided that they didn't need to discipline their children in any way for running around the table, screaming, yelling, and banging their glasses on the table. I doubt too many pubs in England have screaming kids running around. Anyway, their kids just wouldn't shut up. This caused us to finish the meal and leave quicker than we probably would have. Again, the food was good, but we left with a headache.
We left the Rose & Crown at 6:45 and walked over to France to see Impressions de France. This is by far our favorite World Showcase movie. I love the fact that you can actually sit down, and the cinematography is absolutely astounding. I can't imagine anyone disliking this one.
At 7:20 we hiked around the back of World Showcase. I wanted to try to catch The American Adventure, but we missed the last show of the day. We kept walking and reached Norway, where we considered doing Maelstrom again, but the wait was 25 minutes so we passed. We considered seeing Wonders of China next door, but we decided that we didn't have enough time, so we decided to do some browsing until it was time to find a spot for Illuminations.
We browsed briefly in China, then walked around to Italy and saw that our former great spot for Italy was now roped off for a VIP group. Darn it. We kept walking around to china, and browsed to quite a while in the Mitsukoshi Department Store for quite a while. It was now only about 30 minutes until Illuminations and it had begun raining lightly while we were inside, so we went to the second floor and grabbed a spot by the rail. While we were waiting for the show, I called my mom on Nikkie's phone to check in and make sure everything was OK back at our apartment-- fortunately, everything was fine. Then, at 9:00, Illuminations started, and the magic began. You know how I feel about this show, so I won't reiterate it again. (Oh, what the heck. This is the best thing at WDW, bar none. I love it and could watch it every night.) This spot wasn't as good as before, but it was still pretty nice, plus we were out of the rain. This was a nice night at Epcot, and we enjoyed it even though we only did one actual attraction. See, we're WDW veterans already.
We walked around the west side of World Showcase ater the show was over. We took our time leaving, and I took some video of Epcot at night, including the monorail and Spaceship Earth. We said goodbye to the CMs wearing their huge Mickey hands and walked over to the bus stop. The first bus that arrived filled to bursting, but 5 minutes later a second bus came and we were back to Pop Century in relativlely short order. Nikkie immediately went to sleep. I still had some energy, so I went to Classic Hall. I bought our E-ride tickets for tomorrow night, played around in the arcade for a while, then went back to the room at 11:00 with Nikkie sound asleep. I went to bed myself shortly afterwards. Another great day at WDW.
Best Moments: Riding Rock n' Roller Coaster 3 times with no wait. Seeing Illuminations again. Seeing Impressions de France.
Worst Moments: The loud annoying family next to us at the Rose & Crown.
