DAY 4 24/2/03 MGM
Awake half the night!! A bunch of teenagers were having a party by the pool, which subsequently moved into the apartment below ours, or more to the point, on their balcony. Despite our best efforts to sleep, DW finally called security at 4am when one of the other neighbours started shouting obscenities at the partying teenagers yes, there was a balcony war going on!! About 20 mins later the noise subsided.
The overnight disturbances did not stop DS proclaiming himself fully awake at 6am. The process of showering and breakfasting took longer this morning as everyone was slow to get going. Nonetheless, we were heading for MGM by 8.30. It was the closest park to our resort so we were in the car park by 8.50 a short trolley ride and we were at the turnstiles. A brief pause for concern as my ticket was refused and I was dispatched to Guest services. No problem though as my ticket was swiped successfully here.
We headed straight for ToT via the 15 min standby queue this was my favourite ride last time out and it is still right up there with the best. The new sequencing was good in the sense that you did not know exactly when the ride would end, but otherwise it made little difference. One note, some of the seats have a bar which you pull down to keep you in place other seats have individual seatbelts. IMO, the bar made for a better ride experience, whereas the belt held you more firmly in place. An excellent ride all round, and I left with a huge grin on my face. 8/10.
We walked over to RnRC, but the standby was 20 mins and we wanted to head to the 10.15 showing at Playhouse Disney, so we got fastpasses and wandered off to the theatre. We got inside (no queue) and were seated just left of centre. The look on DS face when Bear appeared on stage was priceless this was one of the moments that you know that bringing a 2 year old to Disney is worth every penny. He was also grinning from ear-to-ear when Rolie Polie Olie and Pooh & Friends appeared. We thought the show was very well done, particularly in the way the changed the characters every five minutes or so which help retain the attention of even the most inattentive child. DS rates this 9/10. IT would have scored the maximum 10 if there had been the opportunity to meet Bear after the show. Then, 2Sis and myself headed back to RnRC to use our fastpasses, while the others set off towards MuppetVision.
RnRC is new since my last visit, and I had purposely avoided reading about it on the boards, as I wanted to retain the element of surprise. The beginning of the ride was excellent, and somewhat unexpected thereafter it was just another coaster, but good fun nonetheless and definitely the best coaster Disney has to offer. From the mild grin on my face at the end of this ride, it must be worth 7/10. As we left, RnRC, we decided to go on ToT again as the standby was only 10 mins would have been rude not too. This time was quite surprised, that mid-ride, when the doors open and you can look out over the park, there was a bunch of photographers stood there taking pictures. Still, thoroughly enjoyed ToT once again.
It was getting close to lunch time, so having established the location of the rest of our group using the two-way radios, I quickly grabbed some fastpasses at Millionaire, then met up with them to formulate a lunch plan. We happened to be close to the Sci-fi diner, and a quick enquiry told us we could be seated in 5 mins. Eating here was a novelty, but at close to $20 per person, it isnt one I would repeat in a hurry. The food was OK, but I am quite happy to just grab something on the run for lunch so I didnt really derive much extra pleasure from the table service experience. The upside was that there were menu choices available here.
As we left the restaurant, there was a photo opportunity with Sulley. 2Sis and DS waited in line before heading off to Honey I shrunk the kids playground, meanwhile DW, DM and myself went off to Millionaire. We were quite impressed by the set, and thought the whole thing was professionally done. The gamepads in the audience were a real pain to use though. We had to laugh as DM, who is a real quiz show addict, stated that she didnt want to answer the questions too quickly as she didnt want to go in the hotseat. Yeah, right!!! The Phone a complete stranger feature was a good giggle, particularly as the guy who answered seemed to have a few screws loose. No big winners, I think baseball caps were won by both hotseat contestants in our session. Still, it was good fun and worthy of a 7/10.
We hooked up with 2Sis and DS, who was becoming tired and irritable, but refusing point blank to sit in the pushchair. As we would be returning at some point next week, DW and myself decided to take DS out of the park in the hope he would take a nap. He fell asleep as soon as we got back to the Vistana. We spent mid-afternoon relaxing by the pool, then headed over to Old Town at about 5.30pm. We had heard some good things about Old Town, but we were left uninspired. Maybe we were too early, but there was not much going on, many of the shops were closed, and those that were open seemed to be selling mainly junk. The funfair at the front seemed to be stirring into life as we left, but I hadnt spend hundreds of pounds on Disney passes to waste cash at this fair. I dropped DW and DS back at the Vistana, and then headed back to MGM to pick up the others.
Courtesy of our radios, we located each other easily outside the entrance. They were raving about Fantasmic, and I knew that I had to see this show next week. They had also seen the parade, and Beauty and the Beast so they had a busy afternoon. We got back to the Vistana, played Travel Cluedo, and crashed out for the night about 10.30pm.
Awake half the night!! A bunch of teenagers were having a party by the pool, which subsequently moved into the apartment below ours, or more to the point, on their balcony. Despite our best efforts to sleep, DW finally called security at 4am when one of the other neighbours started shouting obscenities at the partying teenagers yes, there was a balcony war going on!! About 20 mins later the noise subsided.
The overnight disturbances did not stop DS proclaiming himself fully awake at 6am. The process of showering and breakfasting took longer this morning as everyone was slow to get going. Nonetheless, we were heading for MGM by 8.30. It was the closest park to our resort so we were in the car park by 8.50 a short trolley ride and we were at the turnstiles. A brief pause for concern as my ticket was refused and I was dispatched to Guest services. No problem though as my ticket was swiped successfully here.
We headed straight for ToT via the 15 min standby queue this was my favourite ride last time out and it is still right up there with the best. The new sequencing was good in the sense that you did not know exactly when the ride would end, but otherwise it made little difference. One note, some of the seats have a bar which you pull down to keep you in place other seats have individual seatbelts. IMO, the bar made for a better ride experience, whereas the belt held you more firmly in place. An excellent ride all round, and I left with a huge grin on my face. 8/10.
We walked over to RnRC, but the standby was 20 mins and we wanted to head to the 10.15 showing at Playhouse Disney, so we got fastpasses and wandered off to the theatre. We got inside (no queue) and were seated just left of centre. The look on DS face when Bear appeared on stage was priceless this was one of the moments that you know that bringing a 2 year old to Disney is worth every penny. He was also grinning from ear-to-ear when Rolie Polie Olie and Pooh & Friends appeared. We thought the show was very well done, particularly in the way the changed the characters every five minutes or so which help retain the attention of even the most inattentive child. DS rates this 9/10. IT would have scored the maximum 10 if there had been the opportunity to meet Bear after the show. Then, 2Sis and myself headed back to RnRC to use our fastpasses, while the others set off towards MuppetVision.
RnRC is new since my last visit, and I had purposely avoided reading about it on the boards, as I wanted to retain the element of surprise. The beginning of the ride was excellent, and somewhat unexpected thereafter it was just another coaster, but good fun nonetheless and definitely the best coaster Disney has to offer. From the mild grin on my face at the end of this ride, it must be worth 7/10. As we left, RnRC, we decided to go on ToT again as the standby was only 10 mins would have been rude not too. This time was quite surprised, that mid-ride, when the doors open and you can look out over the park, there was a bunch of photographers stood there taking pictures. Still, thoroughly enjoyed ToT once again.
It was getting close to lunch time, so having established the location of the rest of our group using the two-way radios, I quickly grabbed some fastpasses at Millionaire, then met up with them to formulate a lunch plan. We happened to be close to the Sci-fi diner, and a quick enquiry told us we could be seated in 5 mins. Eating here was a novelty, but at close to $20 per person, it isnt one I would repeat in a hurry. The food was OK, but I am quite happy to just grab something on the run for lunch so I didnt really derive much extra pleasure from the table service experience. The upside was that there were menu choices available here.
As we left the restaurant, there was a photo opportunity with Sulley. 2Sis and DS waited in line before heading off to Honey I shrunk the kids playground, meanwhile DW, DM and myself went off to Millionaire. We were quite impressed by the set, and thought the whole thing was professionally done. The gamepads in the audience were a real pain to use though. We had to laugh as DM, who is a real quiz show addict, stated that she didnt want to answer the questions too quickly as she didnt want to go in the hotseat. Yeah, right!!! The Phone a complete stranger feature was a good giggle, particularly as the guy who answered seemed to have a few screws loose. No big winners, I think baseball caps were won by both hotseat contestants in our session. Still, it was good fun and worthy of a 7/10.
We hooked up with 2Sis and DS, who was becoming tired and irritable, but refusing point blank to sit in the pushchair. As we would be returning at some point next week, DW and myself decided to take DS out of the park in the hope he would take a nap. He fell asleep as soon as we got back to the Vistana. We spent mid-afternoon relaxing by the pool, then headed over to Old Town at about 5.30pm. We had heard some good things about Old Town, but we were left uninspired. Maybe we were too early, but there was not much going on, many of the shops were closed, and those that were open seemed to be selling mainly junk. The funfair at the front seemed to be stirring into life as we left, but I hadnt spend hundreds of pounds on Disney passes to waste cash at this fair. I dropped DW and DS back at the Vistana, and then headed back to MGM to pick up the others.
Courtesy of our radios, we located each other easily outside the entrance. They were raving about Fantasmic, and I knew that I had to see this show next week. They had also seen the parade, and Beauty and the Beast so they had a busy afternoon. We got back to the Vistana, played Travel Cluedo, and crashed out for the night about 10.30pm.
