oybolshoi
DIS Legend
- Joined
- Aug 16, 2004
- Messages
- 11,879
Sunday, October 22nd - And Whatever You Do, Don't Look Back!
Before parting ways, Jay and I made sure that the parental unit knew how to get to Downtown Disney using WDW's ultra-modern, environmentally friendly transportation system known in these parts as the coal-burning bus.
We walked them to the Beach Club bus stop, which is under a long, shady portico that has a sufficiency of nice benches for guests to better enjoy their protracted wait times, and bade them a fond yet shamelessly exuberant farewell. I felt a little guilty about leaving them to their own devices a mere 24-hours after their arrival but I am my mother's daughter and too much togetherness has never been a good thing.
In my family the prevailing attitude has always been something like this: I love you and I'd do anything for you, but I don't want to be around you all the time. We don't call each other every day; we don't see each other on a regular basis; and, there is no obligatory family dinner on weekends. We love each other, but we love our personal space and independence just a little bit more.
So perhaps some of you can understand why my heart was so much lighter as Jay and I skipped hand-in-hand to the MGM boat dock on Crescent Lake.
Wanna see some happy pictures?
Here's the Yacht Club Resort and the marina where you can rent boats and other fun water-related things...like bigger boats. This is also the area that you will depart from if you're ever lucky enough to snag an Illuminations Cruise. Just for reference, Jason and I have not been that lucky - yet.
Look, it's the Beach Club! Isn't it pretty? And look at the lovely white sand beach...so peaceful, so uncrowded. One of these days we should try lounging there...just for a change of perspective.
Check it out - the Shipwreck Waterslide for Stormalong Bay! One of these days, if I ever conquer my fear of waterslides, I'm going to try it.
J&B waiting on the Friendship to give us a ride over to MGM. Behind us you can see SeaBreeze Point - a nice shady gazebo area that a lot of people use for small weddings and other private functions. When it's not in use people are free to pull up a seat and relax here to their hearts' content. You can also see a part of the Boardwalk behind us.
Ahhh, success! Not only did the Friendship arrive but we were able to nab those highly coveted outside seats on the back of the boat!
We love the boat ride over to MGM - it's relaxing and the scenery is great. You get to see the Swan and Dolphin (Swolphin) up close, and you get a nice, slow drive-by of the Boardwalk Villas.
MGM is not our favorite park at WDW by any stretch of the imagination, but there are certain aspects of it that we really enjoy and some of our favortie rides do happen to be housed there. Jay and I are not big "show" people - some of you may be horrified to know that we've never seen a live performance of anything at Walt Disney World, unless you count accidental exposure, like the Japanese drummers who happened to be doing their thing one afternoon while we were Kaki-Gori-ing. We don't even do parades, except in very rare circumstances.
Based on all of that heretical information I just supplied you with, this next picture may seem odd. But I thought it was really cute with the Mickey topiary and I asked Jay to get a shot of it.
He's painting the sign...isn't that just too cute? I'm a sucker for this kind of stuff.
Once inside the park, Jay and I always make an immediate bee-line for Tower of Terror and Rock 'n' Roller Coaster. The wait time for ToT was about five minutes and I'm not sure we even waited that long before the pre-show in the library started.
Oooooohhhhhh, scary!
This is my favorite ride at MGM, and it's tied for first overall at WDW with Expedition Everest. I love the winding walkway through the garden up to the lobby of the hotel and I could spend hours gawking at all the details in the lobby and the library. And the walk through the boiler room to the service elevators, where it's so dark you can barely see, is very creepy indeed. Talk about atmosphere!
Jason and I love to buy the overpriced novelty pictures of us and our fellow thrill seekers looking really stupid on these rides.
After this ride Jay and I found out that you have to purchase two 5x7 photos or one 8x10 or some other even more silly combination...like 8 wallet-sized photos. Who the heck wants those? This isn't high school; we're not going to hand these out to our co-workers when we return to reality next week.
We were discussing this with each other the way some people discuss their investment strategies.
"I like the picture but we don't need two."
"Yeah, I know. And an 8x10 seems kind of excessive, even though we are having fun. Besides, my under-arm flab is noticeable enough as it is, we don't need an 8x10 drawing everyone's attention to it."
"There's nothing wrong with your arms that a little resistance band work wouldn't clear up. Too bad your mom's not normal, we could give her the extra picture as a souvenir of how much fun we were having without her and Jon."
At this point the CM behind the counter told us a secret.
If you want 5x7s but don't want to purchase two 5x7s of the same shot, you can ride again and buy two different 5x7s. Even better, when you choose this option, you don't have to wait in line again to ride. We've never heard of this wonderful, miraculous, magical money-making scheme. But we're interested - very interested. Oh yes, if you have swampland for sale and it comes with a commemorative photo sign us up.
She said this is an option at every WDW theme park ride that provides photo service, but I'm here to tell you that it was never offered to us again during the length of our visit.
Coincidence or the Grimace Factor? You decide.
We received a personal escort to a hidden door, where a bellhop CM walked us through a back hallway - guess where we came out... go on, guess!! Right at the service elevator! They had just filled up an elevator and told us we were first in line for the next one, and hey, would you like to be on the left or the right side, the front or the back?
By this time there was quite a line in the boiler room for the ride and I actually felt kind of conspicuous jumping ahead of all those other guests, who were definitely giving us the giant eyeball once-over. But I have to tell you guys, it was so much fun and we felt so special, and look, we even got this cool picture:
And then we rode a second time and this picture made it twice as good:
I don't know what cracks me up most...Jason and me; the crazy-corkscrew-hair lady seated next to me; or, the guys in the back row performing YMCA. All I know is that we still laugh ourselves silly every time we look at this picture.
And that's what we call good times...without the Grimace.
Before parting ways, Jay and I made sure that the parental unit knew how to get to Downtown Disney using WDW's ultra-modern, environmentally friendly transportation system known in these parts as the coal-burning bus.
We walked them to the Beach Club bus stop, which is under a long, shady portico that has a sufficiency of nice benches for guests to better enjoy their protracted wait times, and bade them a fond yet shamelessly exuberant farewell. I felt a little guilty about leaving them to their own devices a mere 24-hours after their arrival but I am my mother's daughter and too much togetherness has never been a good thing.
In my family the prevailing attitude has always been something like this: I love you and I'd do anything for you, but I don't want to be around you all the time. We don't call each other every day; we don't see each other on a regular basis; and, there is no obligatory family dinner on weekends. We love each other, but we love our personal space and independence just a little bit more.
So perhaps some of you can understand why my heart was so much lighter as Jay and I skipped hand-in-hand to the MGM boat dock on Crescent Lake.
Wanna see some happy pictures?
Here's the Yacht Club Resort and the marina where you can rent boats and other fun water-related things...like bigger boats. This is also the area that you will depart from if you're ever lucky enough to snag an Illuminations Cruise. Just for reference, Jason and I have not been that lucky - yet.
Look, it's the Beach Club! Isn't it pretty? And look at the lovely white sand beach...so peaceful, so uncrowded. One of these days we should try lounging there...just for a change of perspective.
Check it out - the Shipwreck Waterslide for Stormalong Bay! One of these days, if I ever conquer my fear of waterslides, I'm going to try it.
J&B waiting on the Friendship to give us a ride over to MGM. Behind us you can see SeaBreeze Point - a nice shady gazebo area that a lot of people use for small weddings and other private functions. When it's not in use people are free to pull up a seat and relax here to their hearts' content. You can also see a part of the Boardwalk behind us.
Ahhh, success! Not only did the Friendship arrive but we were able to nab those highly coveted outside seats on the back of the boat!
We love the boat ride over to MGM - it's relaxing and the scenery is great. You get to see the Swan and Dolphin (Swolphin) up close, and you get a nice, slow drive-by of the Boardwalk Villas.
MGM is not our favorite park at WDW by any stretch of the imagination, but there are certain aspects of it that we really enjoy and some of our favortie rides do happen to be housed there. Jay and I are not big "show" people - some of you may be horrified to know that we've never seen a live performance of anything at Walt Disney World, unless you count accidental exposure, like the Japanese drummers who happened to be doing their thing one afternoon while we were Kaki-Gori-ing. We don't even do parades, except in very rare circumstances.
Based on all of that heretical information I just supplied you with, this next picture may seem odd. But I thought it was really cute with the Mickey topiary and I asked Jay to get a shot of it.
He's painting the sign...isn't that just too cute? I'm a sucker for this kind of stuff.
Once inside the park, Jay and I always make an immediate bee-line for Tower of Terror and Rock 'n' Roller Coaster. The wait time for ToT was about five minutes and I'm not sure we even waited that long before the pre-show in the library started.
Oooooohhhhhh, scary!
This is my favorite ride at MGM, and it's tied for first overall at WDW with Expedition Everest. I love the winding walkway through the garden up to the lobby of the hotel and I could spend hours gawking at all the details in the lobby and the library. And the walk through the boiler room to the service elevators, where it's so dark you can barely see, is very creepy indeed. Talk about atmosphere!
Jason and I love to buy the overpriced novelty pictures of us and our fellow thrill seekers looking really stupid on these rides.
After this ride Jay and I found out that you have to purchase two 5x7 photos or one 8x10 or some other even more silly combination...like 8 wallet-sized photos. Who the heck wants those? This isn't high school; we're not going to hand these out to our co-workers when we return to reality next week.
We were discussing this with each other the way some people discuss their investment strategies.
"I like the picture but we don't need two."
"Yeah, I know. And an 8x10 seems kind of excessive, even though we are having fun. Besides, my under-arm flab is noticeable enough as it is, we don't need an 8x10 drawing everyone's attention to it."
"There's nothing wrong with your arms that a little resistance band work wouldn't clear up. Too bad your mom's not normal, we could give her the extra picture as a souvenir of how much fun we were having without her and Jon."
At this point the CM behind the counter told us a secret.
If you want 5x7s but don't want to purchase two 5x7s of the same shot, you can ride again and buy two different 5x7s. Even better, when you choose this option, you don't have to wait in line again to ride. We've never heard of this wonderful, miraculous, magical money-making scheme. But we're interested - very interested. Oh yes, if you have swampland for sale and it comes with a commemorative photo sign us up.
She said this is an option at every WDW theme park ride that provides photo service, but I'm here to tell you that it was never offered to us again during the length of our visit.
Coincidence or the Grimace Factor? You decide.
We received a personal escort to a hidden door, where a bellhop CM walked us through a back hallway - guess where we came out... go on, guess!! Right at the service elevator! They had just filled up an elevator and told us we were first in line for the next one, and hey, would you like to be on the left or the right side, the front or the back?
By this time there was quite a line in the boiler room for the ride and I actually felt kind of conspicuous jumping ahead of all those other guests, who were definitely giving us the giant eyeball once-over. But I have to tell you guys, it was so much fun and we felt so special, and look, we even got this cool picture:
And then we rode a second time and this picture made it twice as good:
I don't know what cracks me up most...Jason and me; the crazy-corkscrew-hair lady seated next to me; or, the guys in the back row performing YMCA. All I know is that we still laugh ourselves silly every time we look at this picture.
And that's what we call good times...without the Grimace.
That is CLASSIC!!!! I love the guys doing YMCA!! 
(always wanted to use that smilie). 
- or the parades
Really? Wow. I can't believe you've never caught Off Kilter 
