Lorana
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2001
- Messages
- 3,307
DAY 11: AUGUST 28, 2001
- Blizzard Beach, Taking the Plummet, E-Ride Night, Congratulations on Space Mountain
What a wonderful morning this was, to sleep till the oh-so-decadent hour of 10:00am! And even though we awoke at that hour, we took our sweet time getting out of bed. It was the first morning since we arrived in Walt Disney World that we didn't truly need to be up for anything, and we had no plans to be anywhere specific until dinner and the Magic Kingdom E-Ride Night this evening.
We headed over to the Pepper Market for breakfast once we finally got up, and had another delicious breakfast here. I've heard some people complain about Coronado Springs and the Pepper Market, but all-in-all, John and I really liked it. And the homemade waffles with fresh bananas... mmm mmm!
Afterwards, we head back to our room, still taking a leisurely pace throughout the day. It is another hot, muggy day, but this day we do not mind. Today, we are going to Blizzard Beach for some fun in the sun... though naturally what we are most looking forward to is lounging in the lazy river for endless hours!
I take my full body bathing suit, as I intended on "taking the plunge" down Summit Plummit and had heard that wearing a bikini was not a good idea (something about losing your top). John of course gave me a playful frown when he saw that. I just laughed. We put our bathing suits on underneath so we could hit the water immediately, though we brought a change of clothes so we could go straight to the Magic Kingdom afterwards.
We stopped in the Gift Shop before heading towards the buses to see if they had any pens in. John collects Pens from every place he has ever been (provided we can find one). Disney had just released a new collection of Resort Pens - really nice executive pens in a velvet holder. He had bought one at each of the three resorts we had already stayed at, and now was looking for one here at Coronado Springs. Sadly, they didn't have any in yesterday... and sadly still, we discovered none had come in today.
We headed over to the bus stop, and our luck with the buses held true. The bus to Blizzard Beach/Animal Kingdom soon arrived, and we were heading off to the water park.
Blizzard Beach was fairly crowded when we arrived. We weren't all that surprised at that fact, though, given that it was just after noon in August and it was a hot, muggy day. We rented a locker and shoved our backpack inside, and then headed towards the water.
For those who have never been to Blizzard Beach, you are missing a very fun waterpark. Though we love the wave pool and snorkeling reef at Typhoon Lagoon, overall our favorite Disney water park is Blizzard Beach. The theming here is incredible, and Disney carries it off well. The story behind Blizzard Beach is that Florida was hit with a freak snow storm. An entrepreneur jumped on the opportunity and built Florida's first Ski Resort. But then the Florida sun came out again and the snow began to melt, and the entrepreneur thought all was lost... until he saw the Ice Gator (the alligator who is the "mascot" of Blizzard Beach) slipping and sliding down the ski slope and he got a great idea - a water park! And so Blizzard Beach was born. The entire waterpark is made to look as if it is covered in snow and melting snow, with all the slides and the lazy river "melt-off" from the snow. Disney does an amazing job creating this theme, and it is one of the reasons why we love this water park so much.
We headed first for the family slides. The lines were long and by the time we made it to the top, we were hot and ready to get wet. We splashed and spun our way down, and then ran back up to head down another slide. After the third slide, we decided that the lines were just too long and we really just wanted to relax. So we headed over to the lazy river.
After waiting ten minutes for a float with no luck, we decided to just plunge in and swim around. The water was refreshingly cool and though somewhat crowded, the lazy river was still empty enough to allow us to swim around and have fun. After a short bit, we found two empty floats, and then began our many lazy trips around the river.
The cave is one of our favorites, mainly because we spend all our time in it trying to push the other under the waterfalls while avoiding it ourselves. Why, you may ask? Because Disney carries the theming here all the way... the water flowing down both entrances to the cave, and dripping down inside in gushes, is suppose to be snow-melted water. Which means cold. And BOY IS IT COLD! The first time we went to Blizzard Beach years ago, we were half-asleep when we floated under the waterfall.... Trust me, we weren't asleep afterwards! It is shockingly cold and wakes you right up. It's just the right temperature to make you really wonder why you are putting yourself underneath it, and yet when you emerge into the sun, you are grateful for being a little cooler.
We spent a couple of hours just enjoying the river and floating together in wet wedded bliss, before I took note of the time and realized we needed to leave soon. And I wanted to take the Plummit before I left.
I left my water camera with John on the lazy river, and we agreed to meet up in a half-hour. Then I took off and joined the line for Summit Plummit. This is the slide you see in all the pictures - the one that goes down the ski jump slope. I'm not necessarily found of heights, truth to be told, but I love thrill rides, and I just had to do this.
By the time I actually got to the top, I was quite dry. The view from up there was amazing, and I wish I had my water camera with me. I could see the Tree of Life off one side, and MGM and Epcot in the distance on another. It was a great view.
Finally it was my time to go down... and straight down it was! I felt that little thrill of fear as I lay down and pushed myself down the slide.... And then I was plummeting down, barely touching the slide, my heart in my throat and loving every minute of it. Woo-hoo!! The only downer to the slide was when I actually reached the bottom, and the slide evened out... I hit the water at the bottom of the slide and it felt as if was hitting something hard and unyielding. And talk about wedgie! It actually hurt to come sliding into the water, and the pain of impact took some of the fun out of it. Otherwise, it would have been a great ride.
I made my way back to the point John and I had agreed to meet, and waited. And waited. Naturally, he was late. Finally he comes strolling up, and we get our clothes and get ready to leave. It's almost time for dinner at Tony's Town Square in the Magic Kingdom.
We head over to the buses and catch the first bus heading back to a Magic Kingdom resort. We end up at the Grand Floridian, and then take the monorail over.
When we enter the Magic Kingdom it is close to 6pm. The lines at Guest Services are very long, and so we opt to get our wrist brace for E-Ride after we eat. We head over to Tony's Town Square for dinner, and are promptly seated. The décor of the restaurant was very nice and very reminiscent of Lady & the Tramp - though I personally would have preferred to be seated in an area that looked like the back of the restaurant! LOL.
While we are eating, John occasionally pops outside to see if AJ and Mike have arrived yet. As we are finishing, they show up and join us at the table while we wolf down our meals. It is now just after 7pm, and E-Ride has begun. When our waiter comes with our check, he brings a little cake and has the whole restaurant cheer for us in celebration of our recent marriage. We both start laughing, blow out the candles, and eat our dessert.
We are then racing outside to get our wristbands, and then are dashing off towards Liberty Square. We decide to start the night with the Haunted Mansion and go from there. The Haunted Mansion was a lot of fun, though it was stopped twice during the ride due to technical difficulties, and there were no ghosts dancing in air in the ballroom. Sad! We then dash off towards Splash Mountain and get ourselves quite wet. Yay!! Big Thunder Mountain Railroad follows, and John and I realize we love the ride so much more at night, when you cannot see what is coming.
We make our way to Aladdin's Magic Carpet next. While I know many have complained that there is "nothing new" about this ride, we certainly enjoyed it. All I have to say is, watch out for the camels! They spit!
We are then racing over to Tomorrowland, trying to make the most of our three hours, and jumping into the line for Buzz Lightyear. What a fun ride this was!! My only complaint was that it was really difficult to tell what exactly you were shooting at. And we couldn't figure out the scoring system, either. It was obvious that some targets were worth more points than others. It didn't help that John and I kept shooting at separate targets, and he was constantly turning our little "ship" around so that my shots went wild. But we had a lot of fun! It's a great new ride, and I wish we had time to go on it again.
Space Mountain was next. This has always been one of my favorite Disney rides, ever since I first came to Disney when I was nine years old. It's a little different now - it's not as dark or as fast, and the cars are much different - but I love it all the same. The line was very short, and we didn't have long to wait. As we were getting into our "space shuttle" one of the CMs asked us about our wedding ears. We proudly told her we were newlyweds, and that we had just gotten married here at Disney. And then we were all strapped in, and heading off.
As the shuttle climbed up through the 'Space Station' towards the actual ride, we heard announced throughout Space Mountain, "The crew of Space Mountain would like to congratulate Michelle and John Mangio on their recent Disney wedding! Best of luck to you, and enjoy the ride!" John and I start beaming when we hear this, and AJ and Mike laugh. We are then up the ramp, and begin zipping around "outerspace." Whee! What fun!
When we get out of Space Mountain, we realize it is approaching 10pm, and we only have time left for one ride. As John has not been on ExtraTERRORestial Encounter yet, we head over to the Alien ride. AJ and Mike are better prepared this time, and enjoy the show as much as we do. There was a little child on the ride, though, and she was screaming and crying in terror the entire time. While I love Alien, I do not understand why a parent would bring their three year-old child on it. I know I couldn't have handled this ride at three years of age.
When we exit the ride, the CMs are beginning to herd people towards the exit. We take a leisurely stroll back towards the Castle, and then spend a few moments taking pictures and watching the Goodnight Kiss. Finally, we make our way to the exit.
AJ and Mike drive us back to Coronado Springs, before heading off to Downtown Disney. Our original plan had been to join them, but we wanted some time alone. We made our goodbyes and exchanged hugs, as we wouldn't see them again - they were flying home tomorrow. Had so much time passed already?
John and I went to our room and dropped off our stuff. We grabbed our certificate for our free champagne, and made our way to the lounge, where the bar gave us a full bottle of champagne to celebrate our wedding. We spent the remainder of evening together, alone, sharing a toast and a moonlit walk. It was quiet and romantic, and absolutely perfect.
- Blizzard Beach, Taking the Plummet, E-Ride Night, Congratulations on Space Mountain
What a wonderful morning this was, to sleep till the oh-so-decadent hour of 10:00am! And even though we awoke at that hour, we took our sweet time getting out of bed. It was the first morning since we arrived in Walt Disney World that we didn't truly need to be up for anything, and we had no plans to be anywhere specific until dinner and the Magic Kingdom E-Ride Night this evening.
We headed over to the Pepper Market for breakfast once we finally got up, and had another delicious breakfast here. I've heard some people complain about Coronado Springs and the Pepper Market, but all-in-all, John and I really liked it. And the homemade waffles with fresh bananas... mmm mmm!
Afterwards, we head back to our room, still taking a leisurely pace throughout the day. It is another hot, muggy day, but this day we do not mind. Today, we are going to Blizzard Beach for some fun in the sun... though naturally what we are most looking forward to is lounging in the lazy river for endless hours!
I take my full body bathing suit, as I intended on "taking the plunge" down Summit Plummit and had heard that wearing a bikini was not a good idea (something about losing your top). John of course gave me a playful frown when he saw that. I just laughed. We put our bathing suits on underneath so we could hit the water immediately, though we brought a change of clothes so we could go straight to the Magic Kingdom afterwards.
We stopped in the Gift Shop before heading towards the buses to see if they had any pens in. John collects Pens from every place he has ever been (provided we can find one). Disney had just released a new collection of Resort Pens - really nice executive pens in a velvet holder. He had bought one at each of the three resorts we had already stayed at, and now was looking for one here at Coronado Springs. Sadly, they didn't have any in yesterday... and sadly still, we discovered none had come in today.
We headed over to the bus stop, and our luck with the buses held true. The bus to Blizzard Beach/Animal Kingdom soon arrived, and we were heading off to the water park.
Blizzard Beach was fairly crowded when we arrived. We weren't all that surprised at that fact, though, given that it was just after noon in August and it was a hot, muggy day. We rented a locker and shoved our backpack inside, and then headed towards the water.
For those who have never been to Blizzard Beach, you are missing a very fun waterpark. Though we love the wave pool and snorkeling reef at Typhoon Lagoon, overall our favorite Disney water park is Blizzard Beach. The theming here is incredible, and Disney carries it off well. The story behind Blizzard Beach is that Florida was hit with a freak snow storm. An entrepreneur jumped on the opportunity and built Florida's first Ski Resort. But then the Florida sun came out again and the snow began to melt, and the entrepreneur thought all was lost... until he saw the Ice Gator (the alligator who is the "mascot" of Blizzard Beach) slipping and sliding down the ski slope and he got a great idea - a water park! And so Blizzard Beach was born. The entire waterpark is made to look as if it is covered in snow and melting snow, with all the slides and the lazy river "melt-off" from the snow. Disney does an amazing job creating this theme, and it is one of the reasons why we love this water park so much.
We headed first for the family slides. The lines were long and by the time we made it to the top, we were hot and ready to get wet. We splashed and spun our way down, and then ran back up to head down another slide. After the third slide, we decided that the lines were just too long and we really just wanted to relax. So we headed over to the lazy river.
After waiting ten minutes for a float with no luck, we decided to just plunge in and swim around. The water was refreshingly cool and though somewhat crowded, the lazy river was still empty enough to allow us to swim around and have fun. After a short bit, we found two empty floats, and then began our many lazy trips around the river.
The cave is one of our favorites, mainly because we spend all our time in it trying to push the other under the waterfalls while avoiding it ourselves. Why, you may ask? Because Disney carries the theming here all the way... the water flowing down both entrances to the cave, and dripping down inside in gushes, is suppose to be snow-melted water. Which means cold. And BOY IS IT COLD! The first time we went to Blizzard Beach years ago, we were half-asleep when we floated under the waterfall.... Trust me, we weren't asleep afterwards! It is shockingly cold and wakes you right up. It's just the right temperature to make you really wonder why you are putting yourself underneath it, and yet when you emerge into the sun, you are grateful for being a little cooler.
We spent a couple of hours just enjoying the river and floating together in wet wedded bliss, before I took note of the time and realized we needed to leave soon. And I wanted to take the Plummit before I left.
I left my water camera with John on the lazy river, and we agreed to meet up in a half-hour. Then I took off and joined the line for Summit Plummit. This is the slide you see in all the pictures - the one that goes down the ski jump slope. I'm not necessarily found of heights, truth to be told, but I love thrill rides, and I just had to do this.
By the time I actually got to the top, I was quite dry. The view from up there was amazing, and I wish I had my water camera with me. I could see the Tree of Life off one side, and MGM and Epcot in the distance on another. It was a great view.
Finally it was my time to go down... and straight down it was! I felt that little thrill of fear as I lay down and pushed myself down the slide.... And then I was plummeting down, barely touching the slide, my heart in my throat and loving every minute of it. Woo-hoo!! The only downer to the slide was when I actually reached the bottom, and the slide evened out... I hit the water at the bottom of the slide and it felt as if was hitting something hard and unyielding. And talk about wedgie! It actually hurt to come sliding into the water, and the pain of impact took some of the fun out of it. Otherwise, it would have been a great ride.
I made my way back to the point John and I had agreed to meet, and waited. And waited. Naturally, he was late. Finally he comes strolling up, and we get our clothes and get ready to leave. It's almost time for dinner at Tony's Town Square in the Magic Kingdom.
We head over to the buses and catch the first bus heading back to a Magic Kingdom resort. We end up at the Grand Floridian, and then take the monorail over.
When we enter the Magic Kingdom it is close to 6pm. The lines at Guest Services are very long, and so we opt to get our wrist brace for E-Ride after we eat. We head over to Tony's Town Square for dinner, and are promptly seated. The décor of the restaurant was very nice and very reminiscent of Lady & the Tramp - though I personally would have preferred to be seated in an area that looked like the back of the restaurant! LOL.
While we are eating, John occasionally pops outside to see if AJ and Mike have arrived yet. As we are finishing, they show up and join us at the table while we wolf down our meals. It is now just after 7pm, and E-Ride has begun. When our waiter comes with our check, he brings a little cake and has the whole restaurant cheer for us in celebration of our recent marriage. We both start laughing, blow out the candles, and eat our dessert.
We are then racing outside to get our wristbands, and then are dashing off towards Liberty Square. We decide to start the night with the Haunted Mansion and go from there. The Haunted Mansion was a lot of fun, though it was stopped twice during the ride due to technical difficulties, and there were no ghosts dancing in air in the ballroom. Sad! We then dash off towards Splash Mountain and get ourselves quite wet. Yay!! Big Thunder Mountain Railroad follows, and John and I realize we love the ride so much more at night, when you cannot see what is coming.
We make our way to Aladdin's Magic Carpet next. While I know many have complained that there is "nothing new" about this ride, we certainly enjoyed it. All I have to say is, watch out for the camels! They spit!
We are then racing over to Tomorrowland, trying to make the most of our three hours, and jumping into the line for Buzz Lightyear. What a fun ride this was!! My only complaint was that it was really difficult to tell what exactly you were shooting at. And we couldn't figure out the scoring system, either. It was obvious that some targets were worth more points than others. It didn't help that John and I kept shooting at separate targets, and he was constantly turning our little "ship" around so that my shots went wild. But we had a lot of fun! It's a great new ride, and I wish we had time to go on it again.
Space Mountain was next. This has always been one of my favorite Disney rides, ever since I first came to Disney when I was nine years old. It's a little different now - it's not as dark or as fast, and the cars are much different - but I love it all the same. The line was very short, and we didn't have long to wait. As we were getting into our "space shuttle" one of the CMs asked us about our wedding ears. We proudly told her we were newlyweds, and that we had just gotten married here at Disney. And then we were all strapped in, and heading off.
As the shuttle climbed up through the 'Space Station' towards the actual ride, we heard announced throughout Space Mountain, "The crew of Space Mountain would like to congratulate Michelle and John Mangio on their recent Disney wedding! Best of luck to you, and enjoy the ride!" John and I start beaming when we hear this, and AJ and Mike laugh. We are then up the ramp, and begin zipping around "outerspace." Whee! What fun!
When we get out of Space Mountain, we realize it is approaching 10pm, and we only have time left for one ride. As John has not been on ExtraTERRORestial Encounter yet, we head over to the Alien ride. AJ and Mike are better prepared this time, and enjoy the show as much as we do. There was a little child on the ride, though, and she was screaming and crying in terror the entire time. While I love Alien, I do not understand why a parent would bring their three year-old child on it. I know I couldn't have handled this ride at three years of age.
When we exit the ride, the CMs are beginning to herd people towards the exit. We take a leisurely stroll back towards the Castle, and then spend a few moments taking pictures and watching the Goodnight Kiss. Finally, we make our way to the exit.
AJ and Mike drive us back to Coronado Springs, before heading off to Downtown Disney. Our original plan had been to join them, but we wanted some time alone. We made our goodbyes and exchanged hugs, as we wouldn't see them again - they were flying home tomorrow. Had so much time passed already?
John and I went to our room and dropped off our stuff. We grabbed our certificate for our free champagne, and made our way to the lounge, where the bar gave us a full bottle of champagne to celebrate our wedding. We spent the remainder of evening together, alone, sharing a toast and a moonlit walk. It was quiet and romantic, and absolutely perfect.
Glad to see a morning without an alarm clock!
