8 Nites Of Practically Perfect Pop!!! NEW PICTURES, PAGE 13!!!

[Figment's friends]

OOOOOOOOOOhhhhhh! I am soooo excited! How was the tour? This thread has made my week! (and possibly caused me to spend more money on our trip!)

 

[pjlla]

Okay.... keep it coming. I am enjoying your report!........P

 

[burly]

Subscribing. Loving your TR so far.

 

[a*lil*bit*goofy]

this is an amazing trip report~! i love your writing style, i love that your trip was so recent, and i love the pictures! keep em coming!

 

[Figment's friends]

Donna ; we hereby give you permission to not go to work at all until you are finished with your trip report!

 

[DonnaW]

Now I hear the announcer's voice over the loudspeaker..."Welcome to the Magic Kingdom!" and *the* Disney song begins to play. You know the one..."ZippeeDeeDoooDaaahhh, zippeeedeeaaaayyy".. And, then the crowds begin to enter!!

Private party over, we go back to the check in area & our "tour guide" came & handed us all these funny looking contraptions that she explained were microphones that we could put around our ear so that we could hear her. I felt like one of those "on the scene" t.v. reporters..."Yep it's another gorgeous day here in the Magic Kingdom; folks are getting organized to start the Keys to the Kingdom tour shortly."

Our tour guide was named Rae, and that made me quite happy, as I had heard that she was one of the best Keys tour guides! Insert big Disney smile. She's kinda short, so she had this tall stick with like a flag on the end of it that she kept twirling around whenever she was leading on us on to a new adventure. There were around 12 or 13 people in our group and we headed off to Main Street USA, following the twirly thingie! We heard a lot of stories about the various buildings on Main Street, were given some info on "forced perspective", were told we were being given a mini-Traditions orientation...we were even given some "prizes" if we knew the answer to some of her questions....(low and behold I knew that the most ask questioned at Town Hall is....ready for this one..."what time is the 3 o'clock parade?" and I got a Mickey Mouse sticker as a prize! ) We followed Rae's twirly thingie around the Magic Kingdom and had our own private ride on the Jungle Cruise, how cool was that? Then we had to be sworn (honestly) to utter and complete secrecy and she took us to our first backstage area. Since we WERE sworn to utter and complete secrecy, I won't be able to share any of those secrets, but it was pretty cool to access parts of the MK most people don't have a chance to see. We also learned some of the "haunted secrets" of the mansion and had a chance to ride it! Lunch at the Columbia Harbor House was a new experience for us. There is a second floor seating area and that is where our group had a private room for lunch (everything was set up for us before we got there!) There was also another very friendly CM that talked to us during the lunch and shared some more stories. Everyone received a really, really cool "Keys to the Kingdom" pin that we got to keep (it is shaped like a Key with Mickey ears on one end; the very friendly lunch CM (can you tell I forgot this guy's name? sorry!) told us he helped to design it!) We also found out during lunch that there were some other DIS people on the tour....for the life of me, I can't remember their screen names,but they were quite friendly...hi, other DIS people! We had to be sworn to secrecy again before we followed the twirly thingie to yet another backstage area, and we got to go in the tunnels under the Magic Kingdom.

Before I took the tour, I was a tad concerned that doing so might in some way "ruin" the magic of the Magic Kingdom for me...I'm glad to say that didn't happen and I still LOVE the Magic Kingdom, and I'm glad we did the tour. I think the tour guide you get plays a very important part in your experience, and I think Rae with her twirly thingie did an *excellent* job!

 

[DonnaW]

At the end of the tour (which lasted around 5 hours or thereabouts) we thanked Rae and turned in our "guest" lanyards (I know, at Disney World, "everyone" is a guest, but these things made us even more "special" and it was hard to part with 'em!)

Since it was parade time by then, we decided to try and go on some of the rides we enjoy in Fantasyland. We did all the Disney "cute" rides I like...we flew with Peter Pan , went with Snow White on her Scary Adventures , went on Pooh's ride (I know, poor, poor Mr. Toad!), and Mark even went on It's a Small World with me again (is that true love or what?? ) We got to see the PhilHarMagic show, the 3-D show in the MK, which I think is great! (There is now a 3-D show in each of the four theme parks, since they added this one!) After taking a much deserved popcorn break(hey, riding all this stuff is hard work, after all. Well, not really, but I thought I'd put in an excuse! ), we thought we would see how many points we could rack up on Buzz Lightyear. Since I really couldn't figure out exactly what to do to get ANY points, much less a LOT of points , Mark did like 250 million three hundred thirty thousand five hundred times(at least something like that) better than me!

Right across from Buzz Lightyear is the new (at least for us) Stitch's Great Escape attraction. Now if you read the beginning of this day, you know that Stitch isn't exactly my all time favorite Disney dude, but I figured, what the heck, we should give this a try. I shoulda had a clue when we got *right* in, no wait at all, but I gotta tell you all, this was probably the WORST Disney attraction ever. Again, I know there are people out there who LOVE Stitch and all, and I apologize in advance, but IMHO (and Mark agreed with me), Disney could do so much better!!! 'Nuff said.

 

[DonnaW]

After " Stitch's Great Escape" (ummm..*we* were the ones who needed to escape! ), we wandered into Tinkerbell's Treasures shop in Fantasyland. My niece Jessica's favorite character is Tinkerbell, so I wanted to check this place out...what a fun store if you have a little girl, or ever *were* a little girl!!! Then, we headed up Main Street towards the exit (of course, I had to make a few unscheduled detours into various shops along the way!)

We headed back to POP Century...again, no real wait for the trusty bus...I LOVE POP Century! When we got back to our room, we found an Anniversary balloon bouquet and a "Happy Anniversary Donna & Mark" card autographed by Mickey and Minnie Mouse. (Mark was very surprised, but I had actually asked at the desk earlier in the week if we could have some sort of balloons sent to the room; I explained our trip was a "late" anniversary celebration and asked how much it would cost to get something sent, and the nice CM said, "oh, there's no charge, we can do that!" Again, I LOVE POP Century!!! )

We decided we would just sort of "chill" for the rest of the evening. We had dinner in the Everything POP food court, and of course, I had to make my routine detour to browse in the gift shop. I also found a "Space Invaders" game over in the Classic Concoctions area!!!! Once upon a time and many, many moons ago, I used to work for the company that manufactured "Space Invaders" and we used to be able to play it on our breaks and lunch hours, but I hadn't seen one for years, so I was beyond thrilled to see that at Disney! Alas, I wasn't as good at it as I once was, but I had a blast! Even if you're thinkin' I'm a broken record, I gotta tell you again, I LOVE POP Century!!!!!

Again, thx for reading...stay tuned for more...will we EVER go to Universal Studios???

 

[DonnaW]

We're gonna try to add a few more pix! Hope they work!

 

[DonnaW]

The practically empty Magic Kingdom!

 

[DonnaW]

Here is the "mayor" of the Magic Kingdom (he joined us for a bit on our tour) and our ever so perky tour guide, Rae (she's holding that twirly thingie!)

 

[DonnaW]

Here is our "gift" from POP...awwwww, how sweet was that!!!

 

[DonnaW]

Here's the entrance from the lobby area to the gift shop & then ya walk further to get to the food court....

 

[DonnaW]

Here is one of the many shadow box displays in the POP lobby

 

[cindercopper]

What a wonderful trip report. Thanks for sharing!

 

[DonnaW]

Here is the POP check in/concierge area in the lobby

 

[DonnaW]

And here is me thanking Mark once again for posting the pix for me!!! (nope, there's not a picture...just a great big thank you!!!)

 

[DisneyFan09]

OMG we had Rae as our guide when we did the Keys to the Kingdom tour 2 years ago. I loved her!! You're right she is very perky and so loaded with Disney knowledge!!

 

[burly]

Once again really loving your trip report. And might I also say I love your tag! I will use that quote on my kids.

 

[DisneyMommyMichelle]

The Beach Club is another beautiful Disney hotel, but again, it reminds me too much of some of the hotels I have been to in Downtown Chicago. The lobby is all creams and pastels, but I also saw quite a few people in business clothes and realized there was some sort of convention going on there (I think it was the McDonald's convention??)

YUPPERS it was the Mcdonald's convention!! my mommy was there!!!!

i'm lovin the TR!!!