DAY 3 – Four Parks/One Great Day

[PrincessTToo]

PRESHOW - This is my 3rd solo trip. The other two were in January (’02 and ’03). All other trips to WDW over the last 8 years have also been in the winter. When I asked my DH if he wanted to come along on this trip, he said “Florida.. in MAY? Are you nuts?”.

SHOW – Friday, May 9th.
I got up on time and put my annual pass, a credit card, a $20 bill and my driver’s license in a ziplock bag and then into one of my pockets. I was preparing to ride water rides today.

I had breakfast in the Swan concierge lounge where I overheard that Mama T was on vacation that week. I guess I’ll have to trust that she’s as wonderful as everyone says but I can’t imagine how she could be as nice as the young lady that took her place. I wish I had gotten her name.

I got to the bus stop just after a MK bus had left. Shortly after I got there a family with a small child arrived. The mother asked me if the MK bus had come yet. I told her we had just missed it. She seemed a little unhappy. I could feel myself morphing into Tour Guide Barbie again and I asked if she had breakfast reservations at MK. She said yes. And when I asked if it was at Cinderella’s Castle or the Crystal Palace she said she didn’t know. I finished morphing and Tour Guide Barbie asked her if she was going to go eat with Pooh or Cinderella. She said Pooh and then I told her that Pooh was at the Crystal Palace and he was a little more lenient with reservation times than Cinderella. I proceeded to explain which characters were there, which ones roam around, how Pooh stands in the middle and you have to get in line to see him, how good the buffet is, where the Crystal Palace was in relation to everything else, and on and on and on. I’m sure she regretted ever asking Tour Guide Barbie one simple question.

We got to MK well before the rope drop. I enjoyed watching the kids getting all pumped up waiting. Finally the Main Street Mayor came out on the train station platform and started the festivities. I couldn’t believe how elaborate the whole thing was. It was so much fun to hear the train coming and see Mickey and his pals arrive. And to see the chosen family throw the pixie dust to open the park. I am so glad I got up early to see this.

I went straight to AdventureLand where there was a second rope drop. Not as elaborate as the one at the main entrance. I stopped for a short restroom break after the second rope drop and then proceeded to PotC. There was nobody in line. And when I got to the boats there was no one there except the CM who said “where is everybody?” She told me to sit anywhere I wanted and of course I took the front row (the best seat in boat). I had the whole boat to myself. There was no one in any of the boats ahead of me nor in any of the boats behind me. I had the place to myself! I was in absolute heaven. I was singing yo-ho at the top of my lungs and talking to all the audio-animatronic figures. “How many tales can a dead man tell?” This was the second best moment in all of my many WDW adventures. I hope they got it all on the hidden cameras. (The only topper to this moment was being in the gondola with my DH high above FantasyLand while the fireworks were going off on Valentine’s Day.)

After PotC I went to Splash Mountain. I hadn’t ridden it in years (it involves a very long story about non-waterproof mascara and a restroom full of cheerleaders). I ended up in a log by myself but I couldn’t be as rambunctious as I was in PotC because there were people in the log ahead of me. I still had a blast and hardly get wet at all. I took a seat in the middle of the log and was able to slide out of the way of the squirting water gun.

Then I went to BTMR where there was a small line which only took a couple of minutes. I got the first row right behind the engine. I really enjoy sitting further back than that especially if there are little kids in front of me. I enjoy watching their reactions.

After BTMR I went to HM where I was able to slide in just before they closed the doors on the group. This is my favorite attraction in MK. We went to DisneyLand last October and now whenever I’m riding through the hallway with all the doors I start singing the “La-la-la-la-la-la-la” song from Nightmare Before Christmas. I wish they’d convert the WDW HM at Halloween like they do at DisneyLand.

I strolled over to FantasyLand where I found that the line for Peter Pan was really long (as usual). I was going to get a fastpass but decided I’d probably need one for Space Mountain. I was right. By the time I got to SM the standby line was 45 minutes. So I got a fastpass and rode Tommowland Transit Authority. I love TTA and I got to hear the Tom Morrow announcement. I didn’t hear that when I rode it in January.

Then I got into a relatively short line for Buzz Lightyear. There was a very anxious child behind me and he finally decided he’d get there quicker if he got in front of me. But at least he asked me first. I let him go ahead and then I got talking with him and his grandfather. I’m not around children very often so I enjoy talking to them at WDW. The boy told me he was going to get the highest score ever. At the end of the ride he had 10,000 and I had 150,000. Boy oh boy, was he impressed with me.

By the way, as I was walking into Tomorrowland I saw a big line of people in front of Timekeeper. My heart skipped a beat. If Timekeeper is open then maybe COP is open. Unfortunately the line was just for Buzz Lightyear autographs. I guess they figured they had to do something with that space. And they turned the area in front of COP into a performance area for a high school band.

SM was a blast as usual. After SM I stood in the middle of Tomorrowland and said to myself “you can’t get any better than this, but I’m going to see if the other parks can beat this morning at MK”. So I made it a personal mission to see all 4 parks that day.

I took the bus back to the Swan and decided to go to the Garden Grove Café for lunch. On the way in I saw a young girl who had heat exhaustion. One of the Swan staff was making a fuss over her and asking her how she was doing now. She sure didn’t look very good.

Once inside the Café, I ordered the veggie burger and a beer. The beer was bottled. I was surprised when the waiter brought me hummus and toast points. I was going to tell him it was a mistake but he was being yelled at by another table (convention people) about screwing up their order. I figured he’d had enough problems and decided I’d just pay for it. It was very good anyway and it turns out it comes with the burger. The burger was very good and so huge that I could only eat half of it. But I ate all the fries, of course. I decided in the end that I liked the ESPN veggie burger best. I think it was the flame grilled flavor. Or maybe it was the draft beer.

I went to my room and I must have been getting used to beer in the afternoon because I just cleaned myself up a little, changed from sneakers to sandals and then hopped the bus to AK. No nap for me today. I was on a mission.

As I was going through security at AK I held my hands up to signal that I didn’t have a purse or anything. The security guard said “what are you doing? Flying?” Then he imitated me and made plane engine noises. I laughed and was glad they had a sense of humor in this heat.

I’m not sure I’m going to be able to describe accurately what happened next. As I was going through the turnstile the young CM who was stationed there kind-a zigged when he should have zagged and I zagged when I should have zigged. We collided and I reached down to grab something to keep from falling down and realized I had grabbed his rear end. I immediately let go and we both said “sorry”. Then I walked on very quickly. I thought for a second that I should stop and explain what happened and that I wasn’t a pervert but I figured it would be better to pretend I didn’t know what I had grabbed. Then I started to worry that I was going to get kicked out of the park. Fortunately that didn’t happen. But I’m sure they have me on tape! They’ll probably put it on the next “Middle-age Women Gone Wild” video! Maybe they’ll add it to the video of me in PoTC.

I got to the Kali River Rapids and they didn’t have the fastpass open and it said it was a 25 minute wait. I went into the restroom to collect myself and decided that I might as well get in line for KRR because I’d probably never be able to come back to AK once they saw the tape of me at the turnstile and this was my last chance to ride the rapids.

The line was indeed very long but the set decorations were fascinating. And there were lots of ceiling fans to keep things cool. As you get closer to the ride you start to see some people coming out who are soaking wet. Everyone laughs thinking that it will never happen to them. Ha!

I finally got to the front of the line and got on a boat with some really nice people. I noticed I was the only one who didn’t put their feet up. But then I was the only one wearing sandals. The cold water inside the boat felt great on my feet.

On the first drop the girls across from me got soaked. On the second drop it was me and the girl next to me. I turned out to be one of those people everyone laughed at. The water felt great and I was glad I had worn the sandals. They dried out very quickly as did my shirt. Unfortunately I found out that khaki becomes fairly see-through when it’s wet.

I tried to hide in the Maharajah Jungle Trek, keeping my back to the animals and hoping that my khaki skort would dry out. Unfortunately the humidity was too high and the khaki too wet. I was standing in front of one of the fans hoping it would help when one of the CMs joked with me “we charge 25 cents for using our fans”. I held my head up high and moved on. I got to see the bats for the first time (it’s too cold in the winter for them to come out of their caves). I love bats and they didn’t seem to mind my sodden condition. I guess when you’re a bat you tend not to pass judgment on anyone.

I was still soaking wet at the end of the Trek. I stopped in a store and bought a Mickey beach towel. I held the bag behind me the rest of the way out of AK knowing that I could never come back. At least not until those tapes of me were burned!

It seemed like forever before the bus to the Swan finally arrived. I sat on the bag to keep the seat from getting wet. Fortunately the Swan was very empty and I got back to my room with a small amount of my dignity still remaining.

I hung up my clothes on the convenient pull-out cord in the shower. The khaki skort never did dry out. But I packed my clothes in packing bags so I didn’t get my other stuff wet on the trip home.

I cleaned up and changed and then took the boat to Disney-MGM. On the boat I talked to a woman who was the lone chaperone for 25 8th graders from Indiana. But her kids were being very well behaved so she was doing a great job.

Once inside I headed straight for ToT. The woman in the group behind me in line asked me and the Dad/Daughter duo in front of me if we’d ever ridden ToT before. The duo said no. I morphed into Tour Guide Barbie again and went into a big long spiel about how wonderful ToT is and about all the wonderful special effects. I went into detail about the difference between the lap bars and the seat belts. I even showed them the letters that had fallen on the sign after we got inside. I don’t think they got the lap bars/seat belts discussion because they went to the right in the boiler room. Or maybe they were just trying to get away from me. I got to sit in the old jump seat spot with the Dad /Daughter duo next to me. The daughter was so proud because she didn’t scream at all on the ride. I think the screaming is the best part of the ride!

After a ride on RnRC where the teenagers behind me kept “accidentally” hitting me while we were in line (I got away from them by skipping the preshow and sliding through the open doors with the group ahead of us), I got an “Island Chiller” and some mini-turtles at the Beverly Sunset store. I slowly left MGM and took the boat back to the Swan where I cleaned up again and stopped for some evening snacks in the concierge lounge.

I figured I better get to Epcot to do the usual before my DH wondered why he hadn’t gotten his daily Email yet. On the boat to Epcot I overheard someone talking about Paul Revere and the Raiders. Oh my gosh, I had totally forgotten about them. And I had told everyone at work that’s why I was going to WDW. (They all think I’m nuts for going to WDW more than once in a year. They accused me of going to WDW so often because I’m having an affair with Mickey!)

By the time I had finished the usual (SE, photo Email at Innoventions and ginger ale at Ice Station Cool), it was time for the last show of Paul Revere and the Raiders. I will never be able to find the words to say how much I enjoyed this show. I felt like a teenager again. Paul said he was 65 years old but he had more energy than people half his age. He has such a wonderful sense of humor. My favorite joke was when he was talking about the heat. He said it’s not real heat, it’s just Disney testing a new attraction called “Hell”.

The lead singer was marvelous. They played all the old favorite songs and not just Paul Revere and the Raiders songs. But since I’m ¼ Cherokee, you know which one was my favorite song. I was grinning from ear to ear when the show was over. It was absolutely wonderful.

Illuminations started shortly after that and was wonderful as usual. What a great way to end my vacation!

Can’t wait for my next trip in October!

 

[Alice28]

Wow----you are awesome!! Four parks in one day! Sounds like a fabulous day---esp singing along with Pirates.

 

[Annie&Hallie'sMom]

WOW! 4 parks...one day! WTG!

 

[Muffy]

Another great trip report! I'm glad you got to see Paul Revere and the Riders! You had a very busy last day!

 

[Connieh]

That is too funny about the booty grab, I can't stop laughing,

Poor guy is probably still wondering what hit him!

Glad you had such a great trip.

 

[cpl100]

That was very enjoyable to read. Another trip reporter commented about seeing older bands during their recent visit. Is it the norm to have bands at Epcot now? And how does one learn who is playing (prior to arriving there that day if possible)?

Also, who on earth would send 25 eighth graders with only one chaperone? I would never let my children on a trip with such a lack of supervision. Maybe that's just me, but I have chaperoned enough school trips to know for sure that ratio is not safe.

 

[Minniespal]

OMG four parks in one day!!!!