Manntra, thanks for chiming in! I totally understand why you love the AKL -- now we do too -- and I'm glad the TR is bringing back happy memories of your trip. It's starting to seem like a long time ago to me -- I'd better get busy working on new installments! Here's a short one, for now
Day Two (Thursday, Sept. 24): OMG STILL
The alarm rings at 6:30, just like it usually does at home. Of course, I usually ignore it at home, but were not at home today, are we? Nope were in DISNEY WORLD. Time to get up and get out there!
On our planning spreadsheet, today was to be spent at either Typhoon Lagoon or the Studios. Wed made ADRs at the Studios for today, thinking wed cancel them if we decided to hit the Lagoon instead, but it looks like well be using them were meeting Circusgirl at rope drop!
First, a peek out the window at the vultures in the trees:
("Don't mind us, we're just out here, waiting for something to die so we can eat it."
)
Then its downstairs through the lobby, past Jiko and Boma, outdoors and around the bend to the Mara, for a grab-and-go breakfast of yogurt, fruit, and granola, with a muffin for Bill, which we eat at a very pleasant outdoor table. The sparrows and magpies at the AKL are some pushy little birdies, all hopping around and cocking their heads at us like, You gonna give us some crumbs? Snow White would totally give us some crumbs. We dont feed them any of our sugary human foods, so they hop over to another table, looking hopefully at the diners there. Its delightful to be here in the warm morning air, enjoying the peaceful vibe of the place.
Theres no bus to the Studios at the bus stop (and its only 7:45, when the park doesnt open until 9, so why would we expect one?), so we grab a cab, and make it to the Studios lot by 8:10. The guy at bag check greets me as Princess how did he know? He must have seen us disembark from the cab. All he forgot was the Jewish American part.
We are first in line at our turnstile:
Oh, the very first-ness of it all! Maybe being first at the turnstile is overkill, but in general, I would rather wait 45 minutes in the morning for rope drop than wait hours later in the day for rides.
Of course, some families are getting early entry to the park for their breakfasts at Hollywood and Vine, and I ask the CM at that turnstile if they have any walk-up tables available, which they do. But my question is purely academic, for curiositys sake we just ate, and we have a date with Circusgirl!
She arrives shortly after we do, and we greet each other with great joy. Hooray for the DIS boards; hooray for making friends online and then getting to see them in person!
Speaking of meeting famous online folks in person, Chuck and Lynn (nts4wdw) are also here for rope drop, and I walk over to their line to say hello. Theyre lovely people with big, friendly smiles, and we look forward to hanging out with them some more tonight at the Adventurers Club.
As soon as the turnstiles open, Circusgirl and Bill and I hustle to the rope and watch the opening ceremonies Hollywood, here we come! We walk quickly with the rest of the very eager crowd over to Toy Story, where we grab some FPs and then enter the standby line.
Happy people in line for Toy Story:
Its wonderful to catch up with Circusgirl in person as we walk through the short line; we talk about life in general, and she also gives us some tips for high scores on the ride. We follow them as best we can, and at the end of the ride, both Bill and Circusgirl are awarded places on the honor roll of high scores for the day! Of course, the day has just begun
We decide to get back in line for another ride, even though the standby line is now all the way out the door. But wait times are posted at 20 minutes, so maybe this long line will move faster than advertised. While were waiting, a cute little desk lamp comes out of a nearby window and hops around:
Almost diverts us from the fact that the line is not moving at all.
We start to strategize. Its 9:30, and almost time for us to get another Fast Pass to go with the 9:45 FPs were already holding. Should we stay on this long, unmoving line, or should we do something else nearby, and get the FPs as soon as they become available to us? As were waiting, still outside the ride building, we see the posted wait time jump from 20 to 50 minutes. That makes our decision for us were leaving the line and going to One Mans Dream.
Though Bill and Circusgirl and I are all well-versed in Walt Disney history, its still a must-do to walk through One Mans Dream. Were as interested in talking with each other as we are in looking at the exhibits, but we definitely give Walt his due, in between our chatty chat. At exactly 9:44, I grab everyones park passes, and hit the Toy Story FP machines for another set (I think they were for 1 p.m.); then I meet them back at One Mans Dream in time for a showing of the film.
I hope we never lose sight of the fact that it was all started by a mouse. How many times have I heard this famous saying of Walts? And yet it strikes me anew today what did he mean by this? Was he talking about himself? A man of humble beginnings, without any great advantages besides talent and determination is he the mouse hes referring to here? To me, this saying has always meant that big achievements start with small ideas; its not like he said, at the beginning of his career, I know Ill create the worlds largest tourist destination, based on the principles of imagination, family fun, and education. Itll cover 30,000 acres in Orlando, Florida, itll have 22 resorts and four parks and two water parks and a shopping and entertainment area, and monorails, and giant stuffed animals that hug you. Also, well make films, acquire a TV network, expand the parks to other continents, and put our brands icons on everything from t-shirts to ice cube trays. (Note: Bill and I own a set of Mickey-head ice cube trays. They make every drink happier.)
No what he said was, Heres a drawing of a mouse. Ill tell stories about this mouse using the medium of animation. People will enjoy that, and so will I. Everything else came out of this first idea: to use animation to tell a story about a likeable character.
But its also true that everything came from this one man his personality, his spirit, his imagination. In reality,
Walt was the mouse who started it all, not Mickey. Is that what he meant, in that famous quote? I wonder
With new food for thought, and with two Toy Story FPs in our pocket, we make a unanimous decision to hop over to the Tower of Terror to see what wait times are like. The sign says 30 minutes, but its more like a 10 minute wait before were in the boiler room, loading into a creaky, dingy, old elevator. We rise, the doors open, and we witness a spooky scene, a deserted hotel hallway which turns into a pitch black field with bright pinpoint stars; then its up a few more floors, where our elevator mysteriously moves forward (are elevators supposed to do that?) through dreamlike images of dolls, eyes, and equations. A sparkling cluster of blue-white lights resolves itself into two bright, thin lines, which part, and then were really in for it
AAAAAAHHHHHH!
The elevator plunges without warning! Fortunately, some mechanism seems to catch it before were dashed to the ground at a terrifying speed, and the car rises again
AAAAAAHHHHHH!
Only to fall once more! And then rise! And a window opens, and we can see how high above the park we are, but only briefly, because its time for another
AAAAAAHHHHHH!
Plummet, rise, plummet, rise you cant tell what this elevator will do next, you just have to hope and pray that it will eventually return you safely to the ground floor, where youll hear a warning before youre released; something about stepping into an elevator, and winding up in the Twilight Zone.
Yeah. Heather and Bill and I, we dont really pay any attention to the warning. We skip right around to the front of the building, and we get on the barely existent line again. And what do you know we load into an elevator, and it does the same crazy thing as last time!
After a quick pit stop at the nearby Toilet of Terror, we head to the Rock N Roller Coaster Starring Whats Their Faces for some single rider action (All the single riders, all the single riders, all the single riders, all the single riders
now put your hands up
). Bill and Heather are quickly dispatched into other lines; I am paired with a girl of about eight whose dad and brother are in the seat behind her. And I feel a little badly for this girl, because when we take off from the limo garage at a very sudden 60 miles per hour? I screeeeeeeeeam! And when that loop is over and Ive almost stopped screaming, we hit that corkscrew, and I screeeeeeam some more! And then we pull into the VIP entrance to the club, and we disembark. All that fun is hard on the throat.
So I dont know if Bill or Circusgirl is sacrificing any of their wants or desires in order to make the whole group happy, or if were all just in perfect accord today, but it seems pretty easy for all of us to decide what we want to do and when, and it seems that everyones as happy about the resulting plan as I am. Our merry band heads back to Toy Story to use our first FP, bypassing a 50 minute standby line, and once again I am fixated on getting a high score. Bill clobbers me in the scoring, though Im making sure to aim at high-value targets, and Im firing as fast as I can I think, in future rides, Im going to have to calm down and try not to be so competitive, as it distracts me from the sights, sounds, smells, and feelings of the overall experience. All I want to do is ride it again and again until I get the score I feel I deserve!
Bill and I have about a half hour before our noon ADR at the 50s Prime Time Café, and Circusgirl suggests we take a ride on Star Tours before we split up for the day (sniffle). Weve heard that this iteration of the ride is due to change soon George Lucas is already filming the new Star Tours movie. So we enjoy an old favorite while we can.
Unfortunately, theres no time to browse the gift shop on the way out (one of our favorite places to browse), or to watch a few minutes of the Jedi Academy taking place nearby (Bill notes that they seem to have done away with the stage, which is odd), as its time to make our way over to the 50s Prime Time. We say a warm goodbye for now to Circusgirl, who well be seeing in a few hours at tonights Adventurers Club event. But first, time for lunch!
(More soon, I hope -- thanks for reading!
)
it. I had the pistachio creme brulee too 
At first I thought like I was cheating on Boma but that quickly passed, after all I did have breakfast there earlier in the week! 
I really love HS...well I love any park that I am in at that moment but HS is always fun with the street performers and my favorite TOT (not toilet of terror!!) We had one of the last rides of the night on our last night there and I swear it went up/down so many more times! I like when your first drop is actually going up instead because you aren't expecting it. 
, so weve had more than our share lately, and this one is above average fluffy and sweet and cakey. The smores are worth the calories, too, with the marshmallows slightly caramelized. 
I will get to Disney when there is a big group again, I just will make it work. 
I've heard rumblings about sometime next fall, later in October so I've get that penciled in. 
cloud9
) will be supremely fun and who needs a stinkin' Castle tour anyway 
He was cute but I had to let him down and tell him I knew better 
