7 AM Extra Magic Hours? We're in!...NEW 12/27 p. 31

[jwwi]

Such interesting information from your KTTK tour. Looking forward to hearing more about it.
You will love BLT, we had a 14th floor studio with a lake view, overlooking CR pool, boat launch. We really loved to watch the sunrise from our balcony and the boats heading out in the early morning hours.
I definitely think your dad should come with you on the April trip. He already has the room reserved and an annual pass, the plane ticket will be worth the money for sure.

 

[wdwgirl03]

I love hearing about the tour, it'd be so great to do it one day. More please!

Working on the next update...stay tuned! I can't believe it's taking me so long to do this TR.

Such interesting information from your KTTK tour. Looking forward to hearing more about it.
You will love BLT, we had a 14th floor studio with a lake view, overlooking CR pool, boat launch. We really loved to watch the sunrise from our balcony and the boats heading out in the early morning hours.
I definitely think your dad should come with you on the April trip. He already has the room reserved and an annual pass, the plane ticket will be worth the money for sure.

A lake view would be neat too but I am glad that Dad ended up booking the theme park view.

Dad's plans are changing a little bit now because my sister had a conflict with being able to get off of work so now instead of going a couple weeks apart he's going to be going for a week and a half or so...the first part of the trip will be with me at BLT and then after I leave, my mom and sister are coming down and they'll be at the Boardwalk.

 

[Nermel9]

The KTTK tour sounds like so much fun! I love Disney knowledge and trivia, so I know I'd love that tour! I can't believe your guide got to work in so many amazing places, apparently the Haunted Mansion is one of the hardest attractions to get into, because everyone wants to work there! If I could work in any attraction, it would definitely be the Tower of Terror!

 

[wdwgirl03]

The KTTK tour sounds like so much fun! I love Disney knowledge and trivia, so I know I'd love that tour! I can't believe your guide got to work in so many amazing places, apparently the Haunted Mansion is one of the hardest attractions to get into, because everyone wants to work there! If I could work in any attraction, it would definitely be the Tower of Terror!

Oh, I know, it is so interesting learning about all the trivia. You should DEFINITELY do the tour sometime. It is well worth the time and money.

I could not believe how many awesome attractions Robert got to work at. So jealous!

------------------------

OK guys, I had a whole update ready to go but then I accidentally opened a different website and lost it all! So now I'll have to type it again (this time I'll do it in Word so I don't lose it again!). But I promise, the next update is coming up!

 

[wdwgirl03]

Hi everyone! So sorry it has taken me so long to get another update done. Now that school has started I’ve been a little bit busier…I’ve been keeping up with everyone else’s reports, but haven’t done anything on mine. It’s time to change that. But before I get to the update, I have a couple other Disney-related things to share:

1. My sister is one step closer to getting back into the College Program. They finally posted the applications last week so she applied right away and took the Web-based interview. Thankfully she passed that and was able to move forward with the phone interview. She had a little trouble scheduling it (I guess there was some problem with the website) but was able to get that straightened out. She interviewed on Monday, and she said it went well. So hopefully in a couple of weeks she’ll have some good news. I just hope I’m not a jinx by posting something on here…so fingers are crossed!

2. A while ago I was browsing Amazon and came across this really cool book about the attraction posters. Since I love the attraction posters (we have the Jungle Cruise and Splash Mountain ones in our basement!), I knew I had to get it. Well, I finally got it in the mail the other day!

All I can say is I LOVE THIS BOOK! It has some great images of attraction posters from all the Disney theme parks and a few stories too. I haven’t read any of the stories yet but have already paged through the images quite a few times. This was definitely a great purchase and I HIGHLY recommend this book! PLUS it came with a tear-out poster of the Disneyland Railroad and Pirates of the Caribbean.


OK, who’s ready for more Keys to the Kingdom?!

Thursday, April 12, 2012 cont’d (part 3)...Keys to the Kingdom: Adventureland

After learning all about Main Street, Robert guided us toward Adventureland. There was a high school band performing on Main Street so while we waited for them to pass I took the opportunity to take another picture of Cinderella Castle.

Once the marching band and all their “groupies” passed, we continued on our way. Robert took us to that spot with the trees and seating area before the Adventureland bridge, kind of in between the hub and across from what we learned is the transition point from Main Street USA to Adventureland. Any guesses as to what that spot might be? Here’s a hint: it’s a popular dining location where you can meet Pooh and his friends. That’s right, it’s the Crystal Palace! I really thought that this whole explanation was so interesting. We learned that you see the first palm trees in the park near the CP to segway into Adventureland. Robert also told us how the design of the building helps with that transition too: one side fits into Main Street because it’s like a patio where you might enjoy an afternoon tea, while the other side fits Adventureland, with the awnings serving as protection from sunlight (and possible wild animals ).

I didn’t take a picture of the CP so instead I found one from Google Images to share.

Do you notice the difference between the two sides (and the palm trees?)? It’s one of those things that you would probably never pay attention to/notice if someone didn’t tell you.

While we were near Adventureland Robert also told us a little history about Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. I won’t go into too much detail but the gist of it is that when Disney decided to do a full-length animated film, a lot of people thought it would be a complete disaster, and it was even referred to as “Disney’s Folly.” Well, obviously we know that wasn’t the case and it turned out to be a success!

From there we entered Adventureland, took a quick five-minute break, and headed to our first attraction. We were going to ride the Jungle Cruise! We rode it without the regular ride commentary and Robert shared several interesting tidbits about the ride. Some of those fascinating facts included:

They have heaters installed for some of the tropical plants.

In the rhino/totem pole scene, the man at the bottom of the totem pole (the one who will “get the point in the end “) has the same face as another MK audio-animatronic. But you’ll have to wait to find out where exactly you’d see that face again. Feel free to post your guesses!

The water is dyed on purpose…if it wasn’t you’d probably be able to see the bottom of the river because it’s only a few feet deep.

On the bottom of the boats there are poles that have a wheel attached to them to allow for more realistic movement.

Walt originally wanted to use real animals for the attraction. We know that didn’t happen but atleast now we can see live animals (and part of Walt’s dream) at Kilimanjaro Safaris!

After our ride on the Jungle Cruise it was time to get our first look backstage! Robert guided us toward Frontierland, and we entered backstage right near Splash Mountain (where the parade starts in Frontierland). There were a couple of interesting things right away:

There are mirrors backstage for the Cast Members to use to make sure they are “show ready.”

There’s a thick yellow line on the pavement that serves as a guide for the parade dancers. Depending on if it’s the beginning or end of the parade, they use that as a reference for when to start/stop dancing. That reminded me of the time our family rode in the Jingle Jungle Parade at DAK…I remember how the dancers started their routines way before we were even technically on stage.

Backstage, we also got to see several of the parade floats. We saw some of the Main Street Electrical Parade floats, and there was even a guy testing the lights on one of them. An interesting tidbit about the MSEP floats is that there are several light strands tied together to make one strand. The reason for that is because if one bulb goes out, it would only be every few bulbs (the lights are basically the same as Christmas lights).

Then we saw a couple floats from the Celebrate a Dream Come True parade, including the big princess float, which Robert said has been reused in many of the MK parades (I first remember seeing it in the Remember the Magic Parade for the 25th Anniversary Celebration. It sure seems like it’s been in every MK parade since then!). We also saw the Pinocchio float. We couldn’t take pictures backstage, but here’s one from Google again.

There’s a couple fun little secrets about this float:

Secret #1: Take a look at the clock at the top. Just a clever little reference to the 3:00 parade!

Secret #2: There is a mini Partners statue on the float. It's sort of hard to see (I actually didn't think you could see it at first!) but look to the right of the fishbowl.

The last interesting thing to note is that we saw a couple of the show buildings for attractions. Remember we entered right near Splash Mountain, so we could see that building. To me, it was sort of funny because when you’re riding, you sort of think you’re in the mountain when in reality most of the attraction is in this huge building. We noticed that there was one corner of the building that was plastered to look like the mountain. That’s because that portion is visible from the ride (I guess if you are really looking for it), so they had to make it look like the mountain. The rest of it is just a big boring white building (if you’ve been to Islands of Adventure/WWOHP, you may have noticed the huge building near Hogwarts…it was basically like that, only Disney does a better job of hiding it). The other show building we saw was for Pirates of the Caribbean! Crazy that it gets so close to where the Splash Mountain building is! I think Robert also said that when you go down the drop on POTC, it takes you under the railroad tracks.

Up next: Transitioning to Liberty Square

 

[dawnbu40]

Great update I love hearing about all the attention to detail that went into planning the parks!

 

[Caretames1]

Awesome information! I saw a TV special once on the travel channel and it show like a blueprint of MK. You never see how close some of the rides almost interact with each other.

It would be sooo hard for me to not take any photos.

 

[wdwgirl03]

Great update I love hearing about all the attention to detail that went into planning the parks!

Glad you enjoyed the update. I still think you guys should do the tour sometime!

Awesome information! I saw a TV special once on the travel channel and it show like a blueprint of MK. You never see how close some of the rides almost interact with each other.

It would be sooo hard for me to not take any photos.

Yeah, I can't remember if it was when we were on the Jungle Cruise or later on when we were backstage but we did talk about how close the Jungle Cruise actually is to Main Street.

 

[Bridora]

I'm so glad you guys were able to book a Magic Kingdom View at Bay Lake Tower! You're going to love it!!!!

I'm ready to read more about your tour! I can't wait until our kids are old enough to take the Keys to the Kingdom Tour! Until then, I've got your experience to read about! I don't think of it as too much of a spoiler because I'm sure I'll forget most of it by then!

 

[MHTeacher]

Love reading about your KTTK tour! I think I'd book it just for that cute little name tag!

 

[wdwgirl03]

I'm so glad you guys were able to book a Magic Kingdom View at Bay Lake Tower! You're going to love it!!!!

I'm ready to read more about your tour! I can't wait until our kids are old enough to take the Keys to the Kingdom Tour! Until then, I've got your experience to read about! I don't think of it as too much of a spoiler because I'm sure I'll forget most of it by then!

I can't wait until spring break! Whenever I think about it I'm still sort of in shock that I'll finally be staying at the Contemporary/Bay Lake Tower.

The tour was so much fun-you definitely should do it when your kids are old enough. I wonder if they ever update/change the tours at all to make them a little different.

Love reading about your KTTK tour! I think I'd book it just for that cute little name tag!

haha yes, the name tag is cute. And that wasn't the only surprise we got!

 

[IheartDDuck]

That book you got looks so cool! I love stuff like that. I can page through them for hours.

I have always wanted to do Keys to the Kingdom, but I just never sign up for it. I should one of these days.

That's really interesting about Crystal Palace being a transition point. I'm going to have to pay some more attention when I go next time.

What time is the 3 o'clock parade? LOL

 

[marDgreen88]

Okay, that book looks so awesome. I might have to request that for my birthday!

So funny, I was totally going to guess Crystal Palace as the transition point! I didn't think I'd be right though, since I didn't think too much into the actual explanation, but it seemed to make the most sense geographically. But I LOVE the explanation. That's just awesome. AH DISNEY.

Oh my goodness, I seriously need to take this tour! This stuff is just fascinating to me!

 

[Angies1274]

Oohhh....I really want that book!

Love reading about your KTTK tour! So many interesting facts!

So cool about the mini partners statue on the float with Pinocchio.

 

[MickeyisBeast]

Love the facts from the KTTK Tour! It sounds really awesome, I can't wait to read more!

 

[wdwgirl03]

That book you got looks so cool! I love stuff like that. I can page through them for hours.

I have always wanted to do Keys to the Kingdom, but I just never sign up for it. I should one of these days.

That's really interesting about Crystal Palace being a transition point. I'm going to have to pay some more attention when I go next time.

What time is the 3 o'clock parade? LOL

Me too. I love all my Disney books/magazines.

You definitely need to sign up for the tour. When you go so often it's fun to try something new and the behind the scenes stuff is so interesting.

Okay, that book looks so awesome. I might have to request that for my birthday!

So funny, I was totally going to guess Crystal Palace as the transition point! I didn't think I'd be right though, since I didn't think too much into the actual explanation, but it seemed to make the most sense geographically. But I LOVE the explanation. That's just awesome. AH DISNEY.

Oh my goodness, I seriously need to take this tour! This stuff is just fascinating to me!

haha, yes you should request the book. It is AWESOME.

Ohh, nice guess! You should have posted. And yes you should also do the tour. That's exactly why it was so fun-there were so many interesting stories.

Oohhh....I really want that book!

Love reading about your KTTK tour! So many interesting facts!

So cool about the mini partners statue on the float with Pinocchio.

I love the book. So glad I decided to get it, and by ordering it from Amazon I was able to save almost $20!

Yeah, I thought that was pretty neat.

Love the facts from the KTTK Tour! It sounds really awesome, I can't wait to read more!

The tour was great-we learned so many interesting things!

 

[wdwgirl03]

Hi everyone! Just wanted to share some exciting news about my trip in April! (if you're friends with me on facebook you probably already know what the news is!).

As I mentioned, Emma applied for the College Program again a couple weeks ago. She was getting a little anxious (actually, I think we all were...) since she hadn't heard anything from Disney. They say it can take up to 2 weeks to find out, but a lot of other people had been accepted already. Well, she texted me this morning to say she got accepted for the Spring Advantage program! WOO HOO! She'll be going back to Florida in January, so now when April rolls around I'll also be able to visit her. Just thought I'd share! I am already curious as to where she'll be working. haha

 

[WDWaddictt]

Awesome...congrats Emma!

Now it will be a great vacation to be able to visit you sister and spend time with your dad.

 

[IheartDDuck]

I did see that on FB, that's totally awesome!!!!!

 

[Mickey_Mom]

Woo hoo Woo hoo !!!! Awesome news!!!