Back to Where It Began - 10th Anniversary Trip Report-Dec 2007 - Pics Added 4/7

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

But remember it takes like an extra week or so for everything to finally get to Canada ... I think because it's like a 3rd world country or sumpin.

My tv must be magically connected to the US then because my shows always start at the same time as yours.

 

[Disneyolic]

My tv must be magically connected to the US then because my shows always start at the same time as yours.

That's because you're close to the border and you hack into our countrie's sophisticated TV programming! Blue is in the Canadian hicks somewhere ...

 

[Montana Disney Fan]

But remember it takes like an extra week or so for everything to finally get to Canada ... I think because it's like a 3rd world country or sumpin.

I forgot. Canada is still analog.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

I forgot. Canada is still analog.

 

[Disneyolic]

I forgot. Canada is still analog.

Especially them Canucks living in the deep woods next to rivers!

 

[Montana Disney Fan]

Especially them Canucks living in the deep woods next to rivers!

 

[Disneyolic]

So are you busy building your next update?

 

[ncsjodi]

So are you busy building your next update?

I wish I could blame it on that, but I can't. I've got the update written and just need to upload the pictures, but life has been hectic. DD6 didn't have school yesterday or today (built-in snow day), so I've been playing referee for two days. We had two birthday parties and a black tie event over the weekend, so I'm still trying to dig out from that.

That being said, I am planning to work on getting the pics edited and uploaded tonight. I won't make any promises, but I'll try to get the update posted before I head to bed.

Thanks for reading along!

 

[Disneyolic]

Whatever. If it's late tonight I may not get to it until Thursday. Are you okay with that? I am a popular person you know and I'd hate to let you down ...

 

[ncsjodi]

Whatever. If it's late tonight I may not get to it until Thursday. Are you okay with that? I am a popular person you know and I'd hate to let you down ...

I know how popular you are...

BUT I think I can handle it if you're a few days late in responding to my trippie, DM.

Have fun watching reality tv tonight. I know I will. Can't wait to hear all the new Idol candidates sing for the first time. Plus, I'm tivo-ing Biggest Loser. Am I the only one who wants to eat while watching that show??

 

[scottny]

Am I the only one who wants to eat while watching that show??

no your not.

 

[ncsjodi]

Finally, we arrived at MGM and were greeted with this.

After briefly admiring the tree, we walked quickly up to the ticket counter, presented our DVC cards and said “we need two annual passes, please!” It was so great saying that, because it assures me that we’ll be headed to WDW again before 12 months has passed! We’ve got to get our money’s worth out of those things. The CM was very friendly and efficient and we were on our way into the park in no time.

Now am I the only one who thinks that annual passes should look somewhat different than a normal park ticket? I mean, since they’re supposed to last a year, shouldn’t they be, I don’t know, durable? Made of something more than paper?? I just figured they’d at least be plastic, or have our pictures on them or something. I think we were both disappointed that they looked just like the parkhoppers we bought last January through Ticketmania!

By the time we got to MGM, I believe it was around 4:00 or 4:30pm. Fantasmic was at 8:00 pm, so we had a few hours to kill. Honestly, this isn’t in my top two Disney parks. In fact, I don’t know if we could actually find enough to do to spend an entire day at MGM, so the three hour time crunch didn’t really faze us at all.

We decided to head to the Great Movie Ride, since we hadn’t ridden it since our honeymoon ten years before. With two young children in tow for the past few trips, we had skipped this ride due to the gunfire, etc. As you can tell from the line we encountered…

…everyone else was skipping this ride too.

When we got into the auditorium, the one thing I was surprised at was how many small children were being taken on this ride. I’m not sure if the parents didn’t realize how scary it could be or if they just didn’t care if they submitted their children to gunfire and violence, but I’m pretty sure our girls wouldn’t like this ride, even at 4 and 6 years old.

Anyway, we found this ride to be a bit dated and a lot cheesy. Eric could really tell that the animatronic figures were first generation and not nearly as smooth as Captain Jack in Pirates at MK. And we both noticed how shiny their faces were. It was very strange to be able to see your reflection in a munchkin’s face! After riding it, we decided that it would probably be another ten years before we’d need to ride it again. And that would only be if Disney decides to update it.

We had heard many a wonderful thing about the One Man’s Dream exhibit, so we decided to take a quick tour through. It was interesting to read all about Walt Disney’s life and achievements and definitely something we would never attempt to do with the kids in tow. So, I’m glad we took the quick detour. We both thought we remembered something about a movie at the end? But, when we got to the end of the concourse, there was a guy standing there cleaning the glass cases containing the models of all the parks, and he didn’t say anything about a movie. So, we walked all the way back through the exhibit again to go out the same way we came in.

After looking at the menus online, we had decided to eat dinner at the Studio Catering Company/Flathead Grill and the quickest way there was through the Streets of America. So, we headed that way, where we encountered a huge mass of humanity (as my mother would say). Of course, it was getting dark and the Osbourne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights was getting ready to start. We made our way down the street, looking at the lights, thinking, “wow, this is pretty cool.” Well, we failed to realize that the show hadn’t even started yet! Just seeing the sheer number of lights strung onto the buildings was amazing. Of course, when the announcer came on saying that the show would be starting soon, we looked at each other and thought, “there’s more?”

Let me tell you, there is definitely “more!” The way the lights “dance” to the music during the show is amazing. Once I figure out how to post a video, I’ll do so, but trust me, it’s definitely something to see if you’re ever at Disney during the holidays.

After watching the show, we ducked into the restaurant to order our first counter service meal using our Disney Dining Plan credits! Here’s what we ordered:

Eric - BBQ Pork Sandwich with chips, large diet Coke and chocolate fudge cake
Jodi – BBQ Pork sandwich with apple slices, large diet Coke and chocolate fudge cake

Total: $28.91
Used 2 CS credits

Review: The sandwiches were a decent size, but not overly flavorful. They were a little dry and could have used more BBQ sauce. The chips were chips and the apples were apples. Nothing spectacular about them. The diet Coke was much better than the ones we got from Target though! And the cake was so rich that we could only eat one of them. We put the second one in my lime green baggalini to save for later.

We’ve read many times about the lack of counter service options at MGM and I’d have to agree. There are burgers and pizza and that’s about it. Oh well, it was decent food and we did have the entire restaurant to ourselves.

After dinner, we stopped to take in the Muppet-Vision 3D experience. Eric is a huge Muppets fan, so we always make a point to watch this one. This time, however, it seemed that the movie was out of focus. Even with the 3D glasses on, nothing seemed clear. It was enjoyable, as always, but the lack of clarity seemed to bother both of us.

Next up was a leisurely stroll down Sunset Boulevard to our first ever Fantasmic show! I couldn’t wait! I had heard so many wonderful things about this show. We weren’t sure how the girls would do with the villains last year, so we decided to wait and preview it before taking them.

We got in line at about 7:20 pm for the 8:00 show (gotta love off season) and at about 7:30 pm an announcement came over the loudspeaker that they were experiencing some technical difficulties and weren’t sure if Fantasmic would happen or not!!!!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Oh no! I sure hope Fantasmic goes on!

 

[camelotcats]

Jodi, I am popping in to say, I hope you guys are OK. I saw the pile up on the news here.

 

[ncsjodi]

Jodi, I am popping in to say, I hope you guys are OK. I saw the pile up on the news here.

What pile up?? I've been watching Playhouse Disney with DD4 all morning. We had a two hour school delay, so I just put DD6 on the bus an hour ago. Guess I'd better check the news websites and see what's going on....

OK, just checked the local TV station's website. The big pile up was in Northern Indiana. Actually very close to where my in-laws used to live before they moved down here. It's about 3 or so hours north of us. You had me scared for a bit. We got about three inches or so of snow overnight, but not even enough to close schools. The roads aren't great, but I don't have anywhere to be anyway. I should be cleaning my house, but instead, I'm on the DIS (of course).

 

[scottny]

great update and love the cliffhanger. I used to hate them but now I find them entertaining.

The pics looked great. The GMR queue should always be like that, what a bore.

 

[DisneyJo]

Can't believe the queue. or lack of it, at GMR it's always huge when we see it!

I'd love to see the lights they sound amazing!

Hope you get to see Fantasmic

 

[Mrs. Bee]

Finally, we arrived at MGM and were greeted with this.

After briefly admiring the tree, we walked quickly up to the ticket counter, presented our DVC cards and said “we need two annual passes, please!” It was so great saying that, because it assures me that we’ll be headed to WDW again before 12 months has passed! We’ve got to get our money’s worth out of those things. The CM was very friendly and efficient and we were on our way into the park in no time.

Now am I the only one who thinks that annual passes should look somewhat different than a normal park ticket? I mean, since they’re supposed to last a year, shouldn’t they be, I don’t know, durable? Made of something more than paper?? I just figured they’d at least be plastic, or have our pictures on them or something. I think we were both disappointed that they looked just like the parkhoppers we bought last January through Ticketmania!

By the time we got to MGM, I believe it was around 4:00 or 4:30pm. Fantasmic was at 8:00 pm, so we had a few hours to kill. Honestly, this isn’t in my top two Disney parks. In fact, I don’t know if we could actually find enough to do to spend an entire day at MGM, so the three hour time crunch didn’t really faze us at all.

We decided to head to the Great Movie Ride, since we hadn’t ridden it since our honeymoon ten years before. With two young children in tow for the past few trips, we had skipped this ride due to the gunfire, etc. As you can tell from the line we encountered…

…everyone else was skipping this ride too.

When we got into the auditorium, the one thing I was surprised at was how many small children were being taken on this ride. I’m not sure if the parents didn’t realize how scary it could be or if they just didn’t care if they submitted their children to gunfire and violence, but I’m pretty sure our girls wouldn’t like this ride, even at 4 and 6 years old.

Anyway, we found this ride to be a bit dated and a lot cheesy. Eric could really tell that the animatronic figures were first generation and not nearly as smooth as Captain Jack in Pirates at MK. And we both noticed how shiny their faces were. It was very strange to be able to see your reflection in a munchkin’s face! After riding it, we decided that it would probably be another ten years before we’d need to ride it again. And that would only be if Disney decides to update it.

We had heard many a wonderful thing about the One Man’s Dream exhibit, so we decided to take a quick tour through. It was interesting to read all about Walt Disney’s life and achievements and definitely something we would never attempt to do with the kids in tow. So, I’m glad we took the quick detour. We both thought we remembered something about a movie at the end? But, when we got to the end of the concourse, there was a guy standing there cleaning the glass cases containing the models of all the parks, and he didn’t say anything about a movie. So, we walked all the way back through the exhibit again to go out the same way we came in.

After looking at the menus online, we had decided to eat dinner at the Studio Catering Company/Flathead Grill and the quickest way there was through the Streets of America. So, we headed that way, where we encountered a huge mass of humanity (as my mother would say). Of course, it was getting dark and the Osbourne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights was getting ready to start. We made our way down the street, looking at the lights, thinking, “wow, this is pretty cool.” Well, we failed to realize that the show hadn’t even started yet! Just seeing the sheer number of lights strung onto the buildings was amazing. Of course, when the announcer came on saying that the show would be starting soon, we looked at each other and thought, “there’s more?”

Let me tell you, there is definitely “more!” The way the lights “dance” to the music during the show is amazing. Once I figure out how to post a video, I’ll do so, but trust me, it’s definitely something to see if you’re ever at Disney during the holidays.

After watching the show, we ducked into the restaurant to order our first counter service meal using our Disney Dining Plan credits! Here’s what we ordered:

Eric - BBQ Pork Sandwich with chips, large diet Coke and chocolate fudge cake
Jodi – BBQ Pork sandwich with apple slices, large diet Coke and chocolate fudge cake

Total: $28.91
Used 2 CS credits

Review: The sandwiches were a decent size, but not overly flavorful. They were a little dry and could have used more BBQ sauce. The chips were chips and the apples were apples. Nothing spectacular about them. The diet Coke was much better than the ones we got from Target though! And the cake was so rich that we could only eat one of them. We put the second one in my lime green baggalini to save for later.

We’ve read many times about the lack of counter service options at MGM and I’d have to agree. There are burgers and pizza and that’s about it. Oh well, it was decent food and we did have the entire restaurant to ourselves.

After dinner, we stopped to take in the Muppet-Vision 3D experience. Eric is a huge Muppets fan, so we always make a point to watch this one. This time, however, it seemed that the movie was out of focus. Even with the 3D glasses on, nothing seemed clear. It was enjoyable, as always, but the lack of clarity seemed to bother both of us.

Next up was a leisurely stroll down Sunset Boulevard to our first ever Fantasmic show! I couldn’t wait! I had heard so many wonderful things about this show. We weren’t sure how the girls would do with the villains last year, so we decided to wait and preview it before taking them.

We got in line at about 7:20 pm for the 8:00 show (gotta love off season) and at about 7:30 pm an announcement came over the loudspeaker that they were experiencing some technical difficulties and weren’t sure if Fantasmic would happen or not!!!!

What restaurant did you get the bbq sandwiches at??

 

[ncsjodi]

What restaurant did you get the bbq sandwiches at??

It was at the Studio Catering Company/Flatbread Grill. The sandwiches were okay, but they definitely needed to have packets of bbq sauce on the condiment table. If I remember right, I ended up putting some mustard on mine because it had no flavor. That and it was mighty dry.

 

[Disneyolic]

Pretty tree at MGM. Yup, still MGM.

I was one of those parents that subjected my small children on The Great Movie Ride when they were only 2 and 4. It was no big deal for them. Seriously, the gun fight is cheesy and the alien? The kids didn't even know there was an alien. So whatever. My boys are brave, 'cept on Dinosaur.