jmskinner
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 15, 2006
- Messages
- 4,267
We walked out of the castle to the back to ride Dumbo, But what did we see
These shots did not give a good idea as to what was going on. Yes, it was raining, but there was also thunder and lightning. Anyone have an idea about what happens when there is lightning at WDW? Yup, no outdoor rides. The CM's standing at the rope with us told us which rides were closed. Jonas and I made the decision to ride something else difficult to get on, you know, a ride that always has long lines. Ones the CM's announced park opening, we were on our way:
You can see we were first, but then noticed a Mom and Daughter right on our heels, so we let them by which gave me a rewarding experience when I heard the mother telling her daughter excitedly, "We're the first ones!!!"
So we were second! That's still kinda cool.
Now, our Keys to the Kingdom Tour wasn't until 9:30. I only had one poncho, but Jonas had told me when we were packing he wanted a rain coat. Which he forgot to pack, so we went looking for a rain coat, but not until after I drug him through the Christmas Shop. I can look at Christmas decorations all year.
We headed to Main Street and could not find a single rain coat. I even asked. I remember not to long ago they had them as one of those special purchase deals, but not today. I even remember the family that opened Epcot had on the ones I was thinking of.
I headed to the restroom and Jonas went to check on the tour to see if they were still having it because it was pouring at this point.
Not only were they having the tour, but they were waiting on us. We checked in, got our special badges, name tags and told them what we wanted for lunch. They gave us free bottles of water and we were on our way.
Our tour guide, David (we kept running into Dave's this trip, remember our horse.), said he would start us out at the train station since it was covered. Someone asked if David had done the tour in this kind of rain, it really looked like a Hurricane was hitting, and David said he had never even given a tour in the rain, so this was going to be interesting. While we were there, another member of the group asked if they could stop somewhere to get rain ponchos. David said to go downstairs, which he did, so did another lady, and then Jonas went also. A poncho was going to have to do. When Jonas came back, he said he had to purchase the lady a poncho because she didn't have an ID to use with her credit card. I didn't mind, she was older and no way would I allow her to be in that tour without protection. Some quick pics of what it looked like:
David
David started taking our questions and we had one guy that kept asking that stuff you shouldn't ask, "What is the attendance number that they start shutting the gates?" "How much do you make?" Seriously. And he would rephrase the question later to try to slip him up. David was good though and would either avoid the question or flat out say he wasn't going to answer that.
We headed down and stopped by the store with all the jewelry. I was amazed how many people kept walking through us. Several even made us move out of their way. I could understand wheelchairs, ecv's etc., but come on folks.
From there we moved down past the ice cream shot. Poor David was having an issue with calling the Confectionary the Ice Cream shop. And then when we got down to the Ice Cream Shop, he called it the Confectionary.
Jonas and I were cracking up, but didn't correct him.
Now, we were asked not tell about this tour. But, as I think of stuff, I'll try to tell you, if I don't think it is a secret that is. A lot of what he told us could be found in most books and I had heard a lot of it before. But there were some surprises.
All the repainting on Main Street is to return Main Street to the original colors it was when the park first opened for the 40th Anniversary. I hadn't heard that. I didn't even know they had changed.
After the stop in front of the Confectionary, I mean Ice Cream Shop, we headed towards the Jungle Cruise. We made a restroom stop, where I heard two ladies complaining that they should just show us the Utilidor and let us go. I didn't agree with that. While we were in the restroom, David had radio'd to see if the Cruise was running and it was. But before we left our dry spot, those same two ladies asked if they could leave the tour and wait at the CHH where we were having lunch. David said that was fine with him, so that was two lost to the weather.
We headed to the exit at the JC and hopped on a boat, skipping all of those in line. When we floated by, David told us to look away from the people who are now wondering who we are that we get to jump ahead of them in line. "If you look over here you will see....." Even though the weather was miserable, he was keeping our spirits up.
He pointed out a few MH's, but I never did see them. Which was funny because Jonas always did, but David would eventually say, "I don't see it either."
So it wasn't just me.
He did point out Mickey, Donald, and Goofy
Sorry, with the darkness I couldn't get good shots.
From there we headed over to PoTC. It showed a 10 minute wait, and David said he normally skips it if there is any wait, but with the weather, let's go ahead and stay dry.
He asked the CM on duty there which side to go on and we were told to go right. When we saw there was no line whatsoever, David said "They lie!"
Don't worry, he wasn't talking during the ride, he would always tell us to turn our radios off. Now, I hated the earpieces on this tour. They went over the ear and just annoyed me. Just proved why I don't have a bluetooth headpiece.
Now, we did ask about the hat guy on PoTC. Jonas and I get a kick now to see if he has a large numbers of hats on his head or not. This time he didn't and so Jonas asked. David had no idea.
In case you were wondering, this is how dark the sky was after PoTC
At this point, I put my camera in my backpack, which ended up being very smart. We got down to the train tracks and here we were going behind the scenes. There were people standing there smoking and David said not to look at them because again, they would be wondering why we were so special to go back there.
As we did this though, the rain really started coming dow. This is where my pants and shoes got soaked. Was not fun at all. But where did we go...backstage, to see the floats. We didn't get to walk around the float barn, but we stood inside and while there, a guy was checking the lights on the EMP, so we got to see some of the hatches where the drivers get in.
David also told us the light up floats have several strings put together so if just like our lights, one bulb goes out, the whole string goes out, but there are 3 more strings of lights, so you shouldn't notice.
We also discussed how CM's are a certain size and put into a category number and those numbers correspond to what characters they can be. He said they are able to go try on costumes that they fall under. Can't remember what he said his characters were.
He did say the lady that plays the Fairy Godmother is also Mrs. Kringle and can't remember what she started out as, but has been there a very long time. That may have been one of those little secrets. Oops.
The big glass float in the 3pm parade is the oldest float. And they do try to recycle the floats. We also saw a frame of one, which gave us an idea as to how many battery's the things have. It was sort of like seeing the firework barges at Epcot.
Eventually we had to run back out in the rain and stopped at an area just before going back in the park. There we discussed....garbage. It seems that garbage is picked up and delivered to three areas where it is sorted and then goes through underground pipes to one area. We were standing next to that building. Who knew garbage could be so exciting.
After this we headed to HM. We headed to the exit, so I thought we would be getting into the dunebuggy's and riding through, which is the GAC entrance. Which I have gotten to do and it is fun to ride past everyone wondering why you are already in a buggy. But, instead went through a CM door and down a hallway, that was themed to match the HM. This was a nice surprise. A door opened and it was a CM break room, but there were curtains to try to block out the view, but you could still tell it was just a room.
Now, David had us do the whole HM attraction, including the stretching room. He wanted us to stay put and listen to what happens after the doors opened. I didn't hear anything, everyone started chatting.
Finally it was lunch time, so we headed to CHH. Once there we learned we had lost two people, the guestion guy gave up. Something about they were afraid they would miss their flight or something. The two ladies never showed up for lunch either. So, we had four plates of food that no one was going to eat, so we all shared.
The food was all set up with our drinks, just waiting for us with these:
Attached was this
But this disappointed me
Was wasn't a normal park pin. But, it was still special.
We didn't get to choose who to sit with and ended up with a couple that didn't want to chat much. Jonas and I both had caesar salads since we had been eating so much. Honestly though, I wish I had gone with my usual fish here. There were two additional CM's there to help take care of us, but they couldn't have their lunch until we left and David kept telling them he would take care of everything. After about 15 minutes, they did decide to leave.
Jonas decided coffee would be good, so he headed downstairs. No coffee but they had hot chocolate, which I was glad to have, I was freezing. We had 12 snacks to use on our plan and that was the first two we had used.
I will continue with the Utilidor soon.
These shots did not give a good idea as to what was going on. Yes, it was raining, but there was also thunder and lightning. Anyone have an idea about what happens when there is lightning at WDW? Yup, no outdoor rides. The CM's standing at the rope with us told us which rides were closed. Jonas and I made the decision to ride something else difficult to get on, you know, a ride that always has long lines. Ones the CM's announced park opening, we were on our way:
You can see we were first, but then noticed a Mom and Daughter right on our heels, so we let them by which gave me a rewarding experience when I heard the mother telling her daughter excitedly, "We're the first ones!!!"
So we were second! That's still kinda cool.
Now, our Keys to the Kingdom Tour wasn't until 9:30. I only had one poncho, but Jonas had told me when we were packing he wanted a rain coat. Which he forgot to pack, so we went looking for a rain coat, but not until after I drug him through the Christmas Shop. I can look at Christmas decorations all year.
We headed to Main Street and could not find a single rain coat. I even asked. I remember not to long ago they had them as one of those special purchase deals, but not today. I even remember the family that opened Epcot had on the ones I was thinking of.
I headed to the restroom and Jonas went to check on the tour to see if they were still having it because it was pouring at this point.
Not only were they having the tour, but they were waiting on us. We checked in, got our special badges, name tags and told them what we wanted for lunch. They gave us free bottles of water and we were on our way.
Our tour guide, David (we kept running into Dave's this trip, remember our horse.), said he would start us out at the train station since it was covered. Someone asked if David had done the tour in this kind of rain, it really looked like a Hurricane was hitting, and David said he had never even given a tour in the rain, so this was going to be interesting. While we were there, another member of the group asked if they could stop somewhere to get rain ponchos. David said to go downstairs, which he did, so did another lady, and then Jonas went also. A poncho was going to have to do. When Jonas came back, he said he had to purchase the lady a poncho because she didn't have an ID to use with her credit card. I didn't mind, she was older and no way would I allow her to be in that tour without protection. Some quick pics of what it looked like:
David
David started taking our questions and we had one guy that kept asking that stuff you shouldn't ask, "What is the attendance number that they start shutting the gates?" "How much do you make?" Seriously. And he would rephrase the question later to try to slip him up. David was good though and would either avoid the question or flat out say he wasn't going to answer that.
We headed down and stopped by the store with all the jewelry. I was amazed how many people kept walking through us. Several even made us move out of their way. I could understand wheelchairs, ecv's etc., but come on folks.
From there we moved down past the ice cream shot. Poor David was having an issue with calling the Confectionary the Ice Cream shop. And then when we got down to the Ice Cream Shop, he called it the Confectionary.
Jonas and I were cracking up, but didn't correct him.Now, we were asked not tell about this tour. But, as I think of stuff, I'll try to tell you, if I don't think it is a secret that is. A lot of what he told us could be found in most books and I had heard a lot of it before. But there were some surprises.
All the repainting on Main Street is to return Main Street to the original colors it was when the park first opened for the 40th Anniversary. I hadn't heard that. I didn't even know they had changed.
After the stop in front of the Confectionary, I mean Ice Cream Shop, we headed towards the Jungle Cruise. We made a restroom stop, where I heard two ladies complaining that they should just show us the Utilidor and let us go. I didn't agree with that. While we were in the restroom, David had radio'd to see if the Cruise was running and it was. But before we left our dry spot, those same two ladies asked if they could leave the tour and wait at the CHH where we were having lunch. David said that was fine with him, so that was two lost to the weather.
We headed to the exit at the JC and hopped on a boat, skipping all of those in line. When we floated by, David told us to look away from the people who are now wondering who we are that we get to jump ahead of them in line.
"If you look over here you will see....." Even though the weather was miserable, he was keeping our spirits up.He pointed out a few MH's, but I never did see them. Which was funny because Jonas always did, but David would eventually say, "I don't see it either."
So it wasn't just me.He did point out Mickey, Donald, and Goofy
Sorry, with the darkness I couldn't get good shots.
From there we headed over to PoTC. It showed a 10 minute wait, and David said he normally skips it if there is any wait, but with the weather, let's go ahead and stay dry.
He asked the CM on duty there which side to go on and we were told to go right. When we saw there was no line whatsoever, David said "They lie!"
Don't worry, he wasn't talking during the ride, he would always tell us to turn our radios off. Now, I hated the earpieces on this tour. They went over the ear and just annoyed me. Just proved why I don't have a bluetooth headpiece.
Now, we did ask about the hat guy on PoTC. Jonas and I get a kick now to see if he has a large numbers of hats on his head or not. This time he didn't and so Jonas asked. David had no idea.
In case you were wondering, this is how dark the sky was after PoTC
At this point, I put my camera in my backpack, which ended up being very smart. We got down to the train tracks and here we were going behind the scenes. There were people standing there smoking and David said not to look at them because again, they would be wondering why we were so special to go back there.
As we did this though, the rain really started coming dow. This is where my pants and shoes got soaked. Was not fun at all. But where did we go...backstage, to see the floats. We didn't get to walk around the float barn, but we stood inside and while there, a guy was checking the lights on the EMP, so we got to see some of the hatches where the drivers get in.
David also told us the light up floats have several strings put together so if just like our lights, one bulb goes out, the whole string goes out, but there are 3 more strings of lights, so you shouldn't notice.
We also discussed how CM's are a certain size and put into a category number and those numbers correspond to what characters they can be. He said they are able to go try on costumes that they fall under. Can't remember what he said his characters were.
He did say the lady that plays the Fairy Godmother is also Mrs. Kringle and can't remember what she started out as, but has been there a very long time. That may have been one of those little secrets. Oops.
The big glass float in the 3pm parade is the oldest float. And they do try to recycle the floats. We also saw a frame of one, which gave us an idea as to how many battery's the things have. It was sort of like seeing the firework barges at Epcot.
Eventually we had to run back out in the rain and stopped at an area just before going back in the park. There we discussed....garbage.
It seems that garbage is picked up and delivered to three areas where it is sorted and then goes through underground pipes to one area. We were standing next to that building. Who knew garbage could be so exciting.After this we headed to HM. We headed to the exit, so I thought we would be getting into the dunebuggy's and riding through, which is the GAC entrance. Which I have gotten to do and it is fun to ride past everyone wondering why you are already in a buggy. But, instead went through a CM door and down a hallway, that was themed to match the HM. This was a nice surprise. A door opened and it was a CM break room, but there were curtains to try to block out the view, but you could still tell it was just a room.
Now, David had us do the whole HM attraction, including the stretching room. He wanted us to stay put and listen to what happens after the doors opened. I didn't hear anything, everyone started chatting.
Finally it was lunch time, so we headed to CHH. Once there we learned we had lost two people, the guestion guy gave up. Something about they were afraid they would miss their flight or something. The two ladies never showed up for lunch either. So, we had four plates of food that no one was going to eat, so we all shared.
The food was all set up with our drinks, just waiting for us with these:
Attached was this
But this disappointed me
Was wasn't a normal park pin. But, it was still special.
We didn't get to choose who to sit with and ended up with a couple that didn't want to chat much. Jonas and I both had caesar salads since we had been eating so much. Honestly though, I wish I had gone with my usual fish here. There were two additional CM's there to help take care of us, but they couldn't have their lunch until we left and David kept telling them he would take care of everything. After about 15 minutes, they did decide to leave.
Jonas decided coffee would be good, so he headed downstairs. No coffee but they had hot chocolate, which I was glad to have, I was freezing. We had 12 snacks to use on our plan and that was the first two we had used.
I will continue with the Utilidor soon.
Melissa's looks like a blurred Mickey eyes, or something, and the larger one doesn't look like it has eyes, but one circle in the middle.
And my house looks as though a bomb went off, so will be working on that,
, and need to do yardwork. Just never ends does it?
