KristaTX
♥DIS Veteran♥
- Joined
- Feb 18, 2002
- Messages
- 8,548
All the internet and book "celebrities" that we met were very down-to-earth and gracious. We met Deb Wills (allearsnet.com) and Bob Sehlinger (Unofficial Guide author) 3 times (at a Animal Kingdom, the big Mouse Fest meet at the Dolphin, and at the Illuminations cruise we won from her very fun and very cold). They were both incredibly generous and did a question and answer time at Pizzafari with about 50 or so of us in attendance. I won an autographed copy of the 2003 Unofficial Guide to Disneyland and Bob told me to e-mail him and he'd send me the 2004 edition. I've already done that and he e-mailed me back within a couple of hours. At the big meet at the Dolphin we also met some MouseEarVacations people, Dave and Jennifer from PassPorter (which I got as a door prize), and many people from other websites/books/travel agencies. I think I read that about 450 people attended this event. Mary from Mousesavers was supposed to be there but hurt her knee before she left San Diego. We did meet Marjorie (I think) from Mousesavers.
We also met Steven Barrett (disboards) who has written a book about a hassle-free Disney vacation and also a book about Hidden Mickeys. He conducted a hidden Mickey tour through each park on different days. They were about an hour long and we went to each one of them. He is an ER doctor, but moved from the Tex./Okla. area to Florida because Walt Disney World and hidden Mickeys are his favorite hobby. He was very nice, and we also met his wife (Vickie) at the MK. He gave us a list of clues and hints at each park. He looked like a proud teacher watching his students learn as we all searched for the Hidden Mickeys. There are some really cool ones that I dont know how anyone would ever spot without knowing to look for them (especially the ones in the murals at the Wonders of Life and Garden Grille). I took pictures of a bunch of the hidden Mickeys and think I'll make a little photo album of them.
We also met some very nice people (now new friends!) from the DISboards (e.g. Towncrier, Ray Sharpton, Alex, Dan Murphy, ASFCurly, Carl, Princess Michelle, KathyTX, figment vi, James D and his wife - I apologize to all of you that Ive left out). We met a big group of 20 or 30 on our first night at the Crystal Palace to eat and go to MVMCP with. Most of the rides were open and they did lots of Christmas shows, the parade, and the new Wishes fireworks (which are awesome - much more spectacular than Fantasy in the Sky). Mickey's Philharmagic was also really good. Those were the 2 new things at MK we did. We were also glad to be able to do COP a few times.
They were filming the ABC Christmas day parade on some of the days we were there. We are hoping to be on TV even though we didn't get interviewed or anything. We saw Clay Aiken, Regis and Kelly, Jump 5, and the little boy (Jeremy Suarez?) who does the voice of Koda in Brother Bear. It was funny - they filmed just parts of the parade at a time and had to do things over and over and over - the crowd had to act all excited over and over again as well. They just piece it together from all the days they film on. It was worth spending a little time doing this and then going to another park. It was really cold, but they kept telling us to try to not look like we were cold.
On Monday we went to a big Great Movie Ride meet with about 40 other people. It was really fun and I think the driver of our vehicle (moving pews?), Michael, enjoyed having such and enthusiastic bunch! But the most fun thing that day was the Millionaire meet. There were 6 or 7 of us in the polo shirts we had won before and a bunch of other people, too. None of us made it into the hot seat, but most of us who had on the shirts went back in for a second show. I made it into the hot seat on the fastest finger round! It was so fun to have my mom and that big group in shirts rooting for me. I had on my 32,000 point shirt while I was in the hotseat! I actually made it all the way to the 500,000 point question, and then blew it. I missed the question that wanted to know Lloyd Bridges name on Seahunt (Mike Nelson was the right answer). I know, I know you all probably knew that one. Oh well - I can always try next time. The host that day was one of the guys who is in one of the Mission Space commercials I cant remember his name. We also saw him wandering around Main Street with a microphone talking to the crowd on Saturday during the parade filming. While I was in the hotseat he asked me what Mouse Fest was so I got to do a little impromptu advertisement for the Disboards I also had on my disboards button for everyone to see.
On our last night there we hung out with Towncrier and Ray Sharpton. We watched Wishes again and then went to eat together over at the Boardwalk. They are both so nice and fun to be around - I hope to meet up with them again in person someday.
We stayed at All-Star Music, which was crowded with little cheerleaders and such. We stayed there in Feb., but the bus service was not very good this time around. We'll definitely try Pop Century in the future, but avoid the All-Stars anymore if we can get a good enough deal at PO Riverside or AKL or WL. The quietness, double sinks, food court, bus service, and overall atmosphere is worth a few extra dollars at POR - especially if we are splitting the cost of the room.
The other brand new things we did were Mission Space (good I guess if you like simulator rides, which we don't) and the new China movie (nice but didn't seem very different from the old one).
Hi to everyone that I met! Krista
We also met Steven Barrett (disboards) who has written a book about a hassle-free Disney vacation and also a book about Hidden Mickeys. He conducted a hidden Mickey tour through each park on different days. They were about an hour long and we went to each one of them. He is an ER doctor, but moved from the Tex./Okla. area to Florida because Walt Disney World and hidden Mickeys are his favorite hobby. He was very nice, and we also met his wife (Vickie) at the MK. He gave us a list of clues and hints at each park. He looked like a proud teacher watching his students learn as we all searched for the Hidden Mickeys. There are some really cool ones that I dont know how anyone would ever spot without knowing to look for them (especially the ones in the murals at the Wonders of Life and Garden Grille). I took pictures of a bunch of the hidden Mickeys and think I'll make a little photo album of them.
We also met some very nice people (now new friends!) from the DISboards (e.g. Towncrier, Ray Sharpton, Alex, Dan Murphy, ASFCurly, Carl, Princess Michelle, KathyTX, figment vi, James D and his wife - I apologize to all of you that Ive left out). We met a big group of 20 or 30 on our first night at the Crystal Palace to eat and go to MVMCP with. Most of the rides were open and they did lots of Christmas shows, the parade, and the new Wishes fireworks (which are awesome - much more spectacular than Fantasy in the Sky). Mickey's Philharmagic was also really good. Those were the 2 new things at MK we did. We were also glad to be able to do COP a few times.
They were filming the ABC Christmas day parade on some of the days we were there. We are hoping to be on TV even though we didn't get interviewed or anything. We saw Clay Aiken, Regis and Kelly, Jump 5, and the little boy (Jeremy Suarez?) who does the voice of Koda in Brother Bear. It was funny - they filmed just parts of the parade at a time and had to do things over and over and over - the crowd had to act all excited over and over again as well. They just piece it together from all the days they film on. It was worth spending a little time doing this and then going to another park. It was really cold, but they kept telling us to try to not look like we were cold.
On Monday we went to a big Great Movie Ride meet with about 40 other people. It was really fun and I think the driver of our vehicle (moving pews?), Michael, enjoyed having such and enthusiastic bunch! But the most fun thing that day was the Millionaire meet. There were 6 or 7 of us in the polo shirts we had won before and a bunch of other people, too. None of us made it into the hot seat, but most of us who had on the shirts went back in for a second show. I made it into the hot seat on the fastest finger round! It was so fun to have my mom and that big group in shirts rooting for me. I had on my 32,000 point shirt while I was in the hotseat! I actually made it all the way to the 500,000 point question, and then blew it. I missed the question that wanted to know Lloyd Bridges name on Seahunt (Mike Nelson was the right answer). I know, I know you all probably knew that one. Oh well - I can always try next time. The host that day was one of the guys who is in one of the Mission Space commercials I cant remember his name. We also saw him wandering around Main Street with a microphone talking to the crowd on Saturday during the parade filming. While I was in the hotseat he asked me what Mouse Fest was so I got to do a little impromptu advertisement for the Disboards I also had on my disboards button for everyone to see.
On our last night there we hung out with Towncrier and Ray Sharpton. We watched Wishes again and then went to eat together over at the Boardwalk. They are both so nice and fun to be around - I hope to meet up with them again in person someday.
We stayed at All-Star Music, which was crowded with little cheerleaders and such. We stayed there in Feb., but the bus service was not very good this time around. We'll definitely try Pop Century in the future, but avoid the All-Stars anymore if we can get a good enough deal at PO Riverside or AKL or WL. The quietness, double sinks, food court, bus service, and overall atmosphere is worth a few extra dollars at POR - especially if we are splitting the cost of the room.
The other brand new things we did were Mission Space (good I guess if you like simulator rides, which we don't) and the new China movie (nice but didn't seem very different from the old one).
Hi to everyone that I met! Krista
The fact that I didn't know this one but simply heard the answer from someone in the audience made me not feel so bad about missing out on the cruise. I also heard someone say "C" (the correct answer) on the question about Seahunt, but by that time the audience had made so much noise I didn't know what to think. Plus I was out of time and just had to guess something.
