B'rer Karen
<font color=purple>DIS Veteran<br><font color=deep
- Joined
- Jan 27, 2001
- Messages
- 1,813
3/7/03
7:30 came very early on Friday morning, but if we wanted to get to the park at opening, thats when I had to get up. By 8:30 David and I were out the door to catch a bus to the Magic Kingdom. It looked like it might rain and/or be a little chilly that evening, so we brought windbreakers with us. Once we got in the Magic Kingdom, we rented a locker and stored our jackets away. I like to carry very little with me in the parks. And as it was going to be in the mid-80s during the day, I really didnt need that jacket until later.
We packed a lot in during the morning. We started off in Adventureland hitting Jungle Cruise and Pirates of the Caribbean. Then we headed back to Frontierland to do Splash Mountain, but it was having some technical difficulties and wasnt running. So we walked over to Liberty Square and rode the Haunted Mansion. When you exit the Haunted Mansion, youre right at the crossover to Fantasyland, so we headed over there and rode Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, and the Tea Cups. We wanted to head back to see if Splash Mountain was running, and we decided to take the train. So we walked into Mickeys Toontown Fair to catch the train there. This was my first time in Toontown. Since I dont have children and everything here is geared towards little ones, Ive never had a reason to go. So this was another first for me. We got on the train and stayed on through the Main Street station. The next stop is in Frontierland, right at the entrance to Splash Mountain (in fact the train actually goes through Splash Mountain). Once off the train, we grabbed a Fast Pass for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and then rode Splash. We still had some time before our Fast Pass time, and we were getting hungry, so we walked back over to Liberty Square to the Columbia Harbor House. As this was a Friday in Lent, and Im Catholic, I needed to find a place to eat that I could get something non-meat. When I was at Disney in September I did the Keys to the Kingdom tour and we had eaten at the Harbor House. I remembered they had an awesome tuna salad sandwich, so thats what I decided to have for lunch. A neat thing about the Harbor House is that not many people realize they have a whole upstairs eating area. Because no one seems to know about it, its usually pretty quiet and there arent a lot of people around. So we headed up there to eat. It was a nice mid-day break. Very quiet and relaxing. Oh, and we also met a very nice and cute CM who we talked to for a little bit.
After lunch we headed back to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad using our Fast Pass. We were planning on spending the evening in MK for e-night, so we wanted to go over to MGM for a few hours in the afternoon. So we headed out of the park, going through Adventureland. Right before you leave Adventureland you pass Aloha Isle, which sells the most wonderful treat in all of WDW, dole whip. Even though I had just eaten, I HAD to get a dole whip. They are frozen treats. There are a couple of different choices, but I always get the vanilla and pineapple twist. (One of these times Im going to try the pineapple float) I have to have one each trip and I didnt want to miss an opportunity. So I bought my dole whip and ate it while we continued into the hub and down Main Street. We did some window-shopping and on Main Street, and I ended up buying a new baseball cap. Its navy blue and has a red crest on it with a silhouette of Mickey, and on the bill there is a small 71 also in red. Its very cute. While I was at the counter, the CM who was ringing me up asked me if my dole whip was good. I told her it was awesome and started talking to her and found out she had never had a dole whip. The other CM who was standing there and I were like how can you never have had one? You work here! So she asked me where she could get one and promised shed buy one after work.
Once we made it out of MK, we took the monorail over to the Transportation and Ticket Center, where we caught the bus to MGM. While we were making the trip over, we called my best friend Jodi back in Ohio, not to gloat, merely to see how her day was going. We didnt rub in that we were in Disney at all! J (Jodi and her aunt Gina taught me everything I know about Disney and started me on my obsession.) When we got to MGM we took the Animation Tour. For the first time I actually took this tour during normal working hours so there were actual animators working. I was starting to think it was all fake! Then we headed over Mickey Avenue to play Who Wants to Be a MillionairePlay It! The last time I was here I made it into the hot seat. I was really expecting to just get right back in but it did not happen! I did make it as high as third, but that just wasnt close enough.
Next up was Muppetvision 3D. I love the Muppets. They always make me laugh, especially the two old guys in the balcony. Since David didnt have a dole whip, he was ready for a snack, so he grabbed one and I grabbed a bottle of water (I go through a ton of water at Disney). We strolled out of MGM and caught a bus back to the TTC, and then hopped on the monorail back to MK. The first thing we did was go over to City Hall and exchange our E-night tickets for wristbands. E-nights are a few special nights for resort guests where you can pay $12 and get to stay in the park an extra three hours and ride some of the best rides. Its worth every penny and I never miss an opportunity to do them. The park was scheduled to close at 7, so that would give us to 10 pm. At this point in the day it was about 4:30 so we still had a lot of fun ahead of us. We walked down Main Street to Tomorrowland and got a fast pass for Space Mountain. As we walked over to get in line for Buzz Lightyear, we noticed that it all of a sudden got really cold. It was like someone suddenly turned on air conditioning. We figured that meant some bad weather was coming. So we got in line for Buzz Lightyear. We both had extremely crappy scores. David had a good excuse, he had never ridden/played before. But I had no excuse. I was not a good space ranger. Before riding Space Mountain, we took a quick trip around Tomorrowland on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority. Then we headed to Space Mountain to use our Fast Pass. When we got off of Space Mountain it had started to rain, so we made our way through Tomorrowland and up Main Street to the locker to get our jackets (we did a pretty good job of staying under cover and staying dry). Once we had our jackets, we made our way back down Main Street, doing a little window-shopping as we went. It was only drizzling at this point. We headed to Adventureland to the Enchanted Tiki Room. By this time it was around 6:00. The fireworks were scheduled for 7, and my original plan was that wed grab dinner and sit in this great spot on a pathway near Tomorrowland where you get a great view of Tinkerbell and the fireworks. But since everything was wet, I wasnt too up on the idea of sitting on the ground. So we headed over to the Plaza Pavilion on the edge of Tomorrowland. They have this seating area that seemed like it would be an equally good place to watch, and they had tables and chairs. The other bonus was I had planned on eating dinner there since they had cheese pizza (the no meat thing again). Well we grabbed a table and David went to order first and they were closed! I could not believe that at 6 oclock it was closed, but it was. So David headed through Tomorrowland towards Fantasyland to a place we knew was open. I told him to call me if they had anything non-meat. Unfortunately I never heard from him. He eventually came back with his dinner and broke the news that they only sold meat. So I went over to Caseys and got some cheese fries and a brownie. I love eating on vacation J
The rain had stopped but there was still lightning in the sky. They still did the fireworks, but Tinkerbelle didnt fly. Cant say I blame her! Now I thought this spot we had was really good. And from a viewing standpoint it was. It was fantastic. But what we hadnt anticipated was that all the other people who were sitting there would have ants in the pants and would keep moving their chairs, scraping the metal chairs across the cement. This went on the whole 10 minutes or so of the show. Made it very hard to hear the music. I will not sit there again!
Now it was time for e-night. One of the best parts of e-night is that they limit the amount of tickets sold so there are virtually no lines and you just ride and ride and ride. First up was Alien Encounter. This is one of my least favorite Disney attractions, but David wanted to try it at least once, and Im a good friend, so we did it. The storyline behind this attraction is that you are sitting in on this scientific experiment and it goes wrong. Instead of this friendly alien being transported from his planet to Earth, a monster gets sent instead. And then it breaks loose and youre trapped in the room with it. They do a lot of sensory stuff to make you feel like the alien is breathing on your neck and other creepy stuff. Youre also strapped in to your seat so you cant get out. At one point you hear the alien eat someone and you feel what is supposed to be blood dripping on you. This is not your typical Disney ride. Just because your child meets the height restriction does not mean it is okay to take them on this, at least not in my opinion. You really have to know your childs tolerance for things like this. Well there was one family who did not make a good judgment call. I dont know how old the kid was, but you could just hear him screaming throughout the whole thing. When we were walking out of the ride we heard another guest say Well that kids going to need therapy for life. Thats probably true!
With AE out of the way, we could start the really good rides. We rode Space Mountain twice in a row. When we came out the second time, we had a nasty surprise. We were in the middle of a torrential downpour. We put our cameras underneath our jackets and ran over to Buzz Lightyear. We rode Buzz twice in a row (and did better with our scores. Did I mention I beat David every time? <g>). The rain had let up a bit so we decided this was the best time to walk over to the other side of the park. When we were crossing the hub we were going to stop to have our picture taken with some characters (who were inside the breezeway of the castle) but there was a long line. So we continued on to Haunted Mansion. I love the Haunted Mansion at night. It just adds so much more to the ride. One bummer, the howling dog wasnt there. I love hearing the howling dog at night!
The rain had ended (yay). So we walked over to ride Splash Mountain, then Big Thunder, then Splash again. We got one more ride in on the Haunted Mansion and then tried to run over to Buzz Lightyear for one last ride, but alas we were about 30 seconds too late. It was 10 oclock and e-night was over. I always like to end my e-night with ice cream from the Plaza Ice Cream Parlor and this time was no exception. I got a mint chocolate chip ice cream cone. Yum! As we were walking out of the ice cream parlor we got to see and hear the kiss goodnight. We made our way down Main Street and caught a bus back to the resort.
But wait, theres more. We couldnt just go back to our resort at 10:30 at night and stay there. We changed into dryer clothes, freshened up, and caught a bus to Pleasure Island. We were both pretty exhausted, so we just headed right to the Adventurers Club where we relaxed with a few drinks and just enjoyed the shows. We made it back to our room around 1:15. We had already done so much, but we still had three more days to go.
7:30 came very early on Friday morning, but if we wanted to get to the park at opening, thats when I had to get up. By 8:30 David and I were out the door to catch a bus to the Magic Kingdom. It looked like it might rain and/or be a little chilly that evening, so we brought windbreakers with us. Once we got in the Magic Kingdom, we rented a locker and stored our jackets away. I like to carry very little with me in the parks. And as it was going to be in the mid-80s during the day, I really didnt need that jacket until later.
We packed a lot in during the morning. We started off in Adventureland hitting Jungle Cruise and Pirates of the Caribbean. Then we headed back to Frontierland to do Splash Mountain, but it was having some technical difficulties and wasnt running. So we walked over to Liberty Square and rode the Haunted Mansion. When you exit the Haunted Mansion, youre right at the crossover to Fantasyland, so we headed over there and rode Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, and the Tea Cups. We wanted to head back to see if Splash Mountain was running, and we decided to take the train. So we walked into Mickeys Toontown Fair to catch the train there. This was my first time in Toontown. Since I dont have children and everything here is geared towards little ones, Ive never had a reason to go. So this was another first for me. We got on the train and stayed on through the Main Street station. The next stop is in Frontierland, right at the entrance to Splash Mountain (in fact the train actually goes through Splash Mountain). Once off the train, we grabbed a Fast Pass for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and then rode Splash. We still had some time before our Fast Pass time, and we were getting hungry, so we walked back over to Liberty Square to the Columbia Harbor House. As this was a Friday in Lent, and Im Catholic, I needed to find a place to eat that I could get something non-meat. When I was at Disney in September I did the Keys to the Kingdom tour and we had eaten at the Harbor House. I remembered they had an awesome tuna salad sandwich, so thats what I decided to have for lunch. A neat thing about the Harbor House is that not many people realize they have a whole upstairs eating area. Because no one seems to know about it, its usually pretty quiet and there arent a lot of people around. So we headed up there to eat. It was a nice mid-day break. Very quiet and relaxing. Oh, and we also met a very nice and cute CM who we talked to for a little bit.
After lunch we headed back to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad using our Fast Pass. We were planning on spending the evening in MK for e-night, so we wanted to go over to MGM for a few hours in the afternoon. So we headed out of the park, going through Adventureland. Right before you leave Adventureland you pass Aloha Isle, which sells the most wonderful treat in all of WDW, dole whip. Even though I had just eaten, I HAD to get a dole whip. They are frozen treats. There are a couple of different choices, but I always get the vanilla and pineapple twist. (One of these times Im going to try the pineapple float) I have to have one each trip and I didnt want to miss an opportunity. So I bought my dole whip and ate it while we continued into the hub and down Main Street. We did some window-shopping and on Main Street, and I ended up buying a new baseball cap. Its navy blue and has a red crest on it with a silhouette of Mickey, and on the bill there is a small 71 also in red. Its very cute. While I was at the counter, the CM who was ringing me up asked me if my dole whip was good. I told her it was awesome and started talking to her and found out she had never had a dole whip. The other CM who was standing there and I were like how can you never have had one? You work here! So she asked me where she could get one and promised shed buy one after work.
Once we made it out of MK, we took the monorail over to the Transportation and Ticket Center, where we caught the bus to MGM. While we were making the trip over, we called my best friend Jodi back in Ohio, not to gloat, merely to see how her day was going. We didnt rub in that we were in Disney at all! J (Jodi and her aunt Gina taught me everything I know about Disney and started me on my obsession.) When we got to MGM we took the Animation Tour. For the first time I actually took this tour during normal working hours so there were actual animators working. I was starting to think it was all fake! Then we headed over Mickey Avenue to play Who Wants to Be a MillionairePlay It! The last time I was here I made it into the hot seat. I was really expecting to just get right back in but it did not happen! I did make it as high as third, but that just wasnt close enough.
Next up was Muppetvision 3D. I love the Muppets. They always make me laugh, especially the two old guys in the balcony. Since David didnt have a dole whip, he was ready for a snack, so he grabbed one and I grabbed a bottle of water (I go through a ton of water at Disney). We strolled out of MGM and caught a bus back to the TTC, and then hopped on the monorail back to MK. The first thing we did was go over to City Hall and exchange our E-night tickets for wristbands. E-nights are a few special nights for resort guests where you can pay $12 and get to stay in the park an extra three hours and ride some of the best rides. Its worth every penny and I never miss an opportunity to do them. The park was scheduled to close at 7, so that would give us to 10 pm. At this point in the day it was about 4:30 so we still had a lot of fun ahead of us. We walked down Main Street to Tomorrowland and got a fast pass for Space Mountain. As we walked over to get in line for Buzz Lightyear, we noticed that it all of a sudden got really cold. It was like someone suddenly turned on air conditioning. We figured that meant some bad weather was coming. So we got in line for Buzz Lightyear. We both had extremely crappy scores. David had a good excuse, he had never ridden/played before. But I had no excuse. I was not a good space ranger. Before riding Space Mountain, we took a quick trip around Tomorrowland on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority. Then we headed to Space Mountain to use our Fast Pass. When we got off of Space Mountain it had started to rain, so we made our way through Tomorrowland and up Main Street to the locker to get our jackets (we did a pretty good job of staying under cover and staying dry). Once we had our jackets, we made our way back down Main Street, doing a little window-shopping as we went. It was only drizzling at this point. We headed to Adventureland to the Enchanted Tiki Room. By this time it was around 6:00. The fireworks were scheduled for 7, and my original plan was that wed grab dinner and sit in this great spot on a pathway near Tomorrowland where you get a great view of Tinkerbell and the fireworks. But since everything was wet, I wasnt too up on the idea of sitting on the ground. So we headed over to the Plaza Pavilion on the edge of Tomorrowland. They have this seating area that seemed like it would be an equally good place to watch, and they had tables and chairs. The other bonus was I had planned on eating dinner there since they had cheese pizza (the no meat thing again). Well we grabbed a table and David went to order first and they were closed! I could not believe that at 6 oclock it was closed, but it was. So David headed through Tomorrowland towards Fantasyland to a place we knew was open. I told him to call me if they had anything non-meat. Unfortunately I never heard from him. He eventually came back with his dinner and broke the news that they only sold meat. So I went over to Caseys and got some cheese fries and a brownie. I love eating on vacation J
The rain had stopped but there was still lightning in the sky. They still did the fireworks, but Tinkerbelle didnt fly. Cant say I blame her! Now I thought this spot we had was really good. And from a viewing standpoint it was. It was fantastic. But what we hadnt anticipated was that all the other people who were sitting there would have ants in the pants and would keep moving their chairs, scraping the metal chairs across the cement. This went on the whole 10 minutes or so of the show. Made it very hard to hear the music. I will not sit there again!
Now it was time for e-night. One of the best parts of e-night is that they limit the amount of tickets sold so there are virtually no lines and you just ride and ride and ride. First up was Alien Encounter. This is one of my least favorite Disney attractions, but David wanted to try it at least once, and Im a good friend, so we did it. The storyline behind this attraction is that you are sitting in on this scientific experiment and it goes wrong. Instead of this friendly alien being transported from his planet to Earth, a monster gets sent instead. And then it breaks loose and youre trapped in the room with it. They do a lot of sensory stuff to make you feel like the alien is breathing on your neck and other creepy stuff. Youre also strapped in to your seat so you cant get out. At one point you hear the alien eat someone and you feel what is supposed to be blood dripping on you. This is not your typical Disney ride. Just because your child meets the height restriction does not mean it is okay to take them on this, at least not in my opinion. You really have to know your childs tolerance for things like this. Well there was one family who did not make a good judgment call. I dont know how old the kid was, but you could just hear him screaming throughout the whole thing. When we were walking out of the ride we heard another guest say Well that kids going to need therapy for life. Thats probably true!
With AE out of the way, we could start the really good rides. We rode Space Mountain twice in a row. When we came out the second time, we had a nasty surprise. We were in the middle of a torrential downpour. We put our cameras underneath our jackets and ran over to Buzz Lightyear. We rode Buzz twice in a row (and did better with our scores. Did I mention I beat David every time? <g>). The rain had let up a bit so we decided this was the best time to walk over to the other side of the park. When we were crossing the hub we were going to stop to have our picture taken with some characters (who were inside the breezeway of the castle) but there was a long line. So we continued on to Haunted Mansion. I love the Haunted Mansion at night. It just adds so much more to the ride. One bummer, the howling dog wasnt there. I love hearing the howling dog at night!
The rain had ended (yay). So we walked over to ride Splash Mountain, then Big Thunder, then Splash again. We got one more ride in on the Haunted Mansion and then tried to run over to Buzz Lightyear for one last ride, but alas we were about 30 seconds too late. It was 10 oclock and e-night was over. I always like to end my e-night with ice cream from the Plaza Ice Cream Parlor and this time was no exception. I got a mint chocolate chip ice cream cone. Yum! As we were walking out of the ice cream parlor we got to see and hear the kiss goodnight. We made our way down Main Street and caught a bus back to the resort.
But wait, theres more. We couldnt just go back to our resort at 10:30 at night and stay there. We changed into dryer clothes, freshened up, and caught a bus to Pleasure Island. We were both pretty exhausted, so we just headed right to the Adventurers Club where we relaxed with a few drinks and just enjoyed the shows. We made it back to our room around 1:15. We had already done so much, but we still had three more days to go.
