kirkharrod
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2004
- Messages
- 292
Day Four, Sat, Feb 14: Extra Magic Hour MGM Studios, Starring Rolls Bakery breakfast, Blizzard Beach, Epcot, Magic Kingdom- pedometer- 9.2 miles, not counting Blizzard Beach where we climbed at least 900 steps.
We got to the Extra Magic Hour at MGM-Studios (2 out of 5 stars) and it was already crowded. The Presidents Day weekend crowd had arrived. In the area around the Sorcerers Hat all the Princesses were with their Princes, signing autographs for Valentines Day. It was foggy and drizzling, but the fog surrounded the top of the Hollywood Hotel so it was pretty neat. I was hungry so I stopped immediately at the Starring Rolls Bakery (5 stars) and loaded up on 3 or 4 of their incredible selections. My favorite was a huge apple cinnamon tart. The tart crust was wonderful, like a shortbread cookie in texture and sweetness but tender. We got fast passes for the Rock n Rollercoaster. Our kids really enjoyed the Honey I Shrunk the Kids Playground (3 out of 5) while we waited for the R n R. The Rock n Roller Coaster (4 out of 5) has an interesting pre ride walkthrough of a recording studio, with hologram images of Aerosmith talking about being late for the gig and taking you with them. The ride blasts of very quickly, and it took my breath away. There are several corkscrew inversions and the ride is in the dark, with neon traffic signs lit up. I enjoyed it , but it was over in about 90 seconds. Great fun, but too short. My wife is a big Star Wars fan so Star Tours (5 out of 5) was next. This is the only ride we rode twice at MGM. We also rode Muppetvision 3d (4 out of 5). A highlight for my kids was getting pictures with Mike and Sully, Miss Piggy (dressed in a red Valentines outfit) and with Jessie, Buzz and Woody. Lunch was at Pizza Planet (3 out of 5). They have good personal pizzas. My veggie pizza had fresh garlic, which made it better. After lunch, we used our Tower of Terror (5 stars!) fast passes. This was my favorite ride of the trip. I deliberately left my lap belt as loose as I could (for more airtime) and kept my arms raised! The elevator dropped at least 5 times. When the doors opened up to give us the view, I could see Blizzard Beach from the Tower of Terror! This view gave me an idea. Since MGM was so crowded, I was not enjoying myself. MGM is a small park, without many rides. My advice is to avoid the Extra Magic Hour here, because EVERYONE else staying at the Resorts is there. The weather was rainy but warm, around 82 degrees. Our children had enjoyed the Coronado Springs Resort pool as much as anything we did, so I wanted to go to Blizzard Beach. My wife was not excited about going to the water park at all, but I said, Its raining, we are going to get wet anyway at a water park and no one else will be there!, so she relented. We took the bus to Coronado Springs, changed into our swim suits and drove our own car for the two minute drive to Blizzard Beach from Coronado Springs resort. We could have easily walked, but because it was already 2:00 pm and BB closed at 5:00 pm, we drove to save minutes.
Blizzard Beach (5 stars) was nearly empty. The park looks like it is covered in snow, and has a ski lift to the top of the slide complex. The water is heated to a very comfortable temperature. The key is to get in the water, then get out. Then when you get back in, it feels bath water warm. We rode the family raft slide Teamboat Springs (5 out of 5) first. It has a large raft that the whole family can ride in. There are many slides, and a lazy river raft float around the perimeter of the park that is wonderful. We got on all the slides with no wait. The kids area is wonderful. The wave pool had maybe 25 people in it. We rode slides until the park closed, and we had hot dogs for a snack at the snack bar at BB, which were good. We ordered one hot dog value meal, and got another hot dog without the meal. This is an important point about eating at the WDW. Anyone can get the kids meal at the counter service restaurants. You can get any item separate from the meal deal if you ask. You can get free cups of ice. We often got a large coke, no ice and asked for 4 cups of ice.
After going back to the room to change, we went back to Epcot, where we persuaded our 8 yr old son, who rides nothing, to ride Test Track. It was crowded and the Fast Passes were for 4 hours in the future. We waited 40 minutes in the stand by line to ride. We went into the Electric Umbrella to get the kids dinner. They had chicken nuggets and a burger and they liked it. It was still raining so we walked around the world showcase in the rain, and decided to go to the Magic Kingdom in hopes of getting to ride Dumbo without huge lines.
Back at the MK, the kids rode the Fantasyland rides with no lines in the rain. We had excellent rain gear from Campmor.com, which made it comfortable. My wife and I had nice gore tex suits, while we got the kids medium quality PVC rain suits. The kids suits packed into 2 small pockets for easy packing. The word on the (Main) street was that the MK was going to stay open until 11:30 pm that night, later than it was officially scheduled. They were staying open to accommodate the heavy crowds. We went to Mickeys Country Fair to see the assembled characters. As usual, there is no one there at 9:00 pm except us and the characters. It was Cinderella, Chip and Dale, the Pooh characters, Mickey Mouse and more all cavorting with my kids. This is the only time to go to see the characters!
Around 10:30, we took the bus back to CSR. We had made the mistake of not making it to our scheduled PS at Kona Café. Our rule is one sit down meal per day. That ensures we get some fruits and vegetables, salads, etc. We blew it this day. By the time we got to CSR, we were starving, and all the food joints at CSR were closed. I went to bed hungry.
This day also made me realize that I will never go to WDW during a high volume time again. Our first three days had been very relaxing, with little crowds. Today it was packed everywhere we went because of the Presidents Day holiday. Oh well, we got a little of both worlds. Tomorrow was to be the last day.
We got to the Extra Magic Hour at MGM-Studios (2 out of 5 stars) and it was already crowded. The Presidents Day weekend crowd had arrived. In the area around the Sorcerers Hat all the Princesses were with their Princes, signing autographs for Valentines Day. It was foggy and drizzling, but the fog surrounded the top of the Hollywood Hotel so it was pretty neat. I was hungry so I stopped immediately at the Starring Rolls Bakery (5 stars) and loaded up on 3 or 4 of their incredible selections. My favorite was a huge apple cinnamon tart. The tart crust was wonderful, like a shortbread cookie in texture and sweetness but tender. We got fast passes for the Rock n Rollercoaster. Our kids really enjoyed the Honey I Shrunk the Kids Playground (3 out of 5) while we waited for the R n R. The Rock n Roller Coaster (4 out of 5) has an interesting pre ride walkthrough of a recording studio, with hologram images of Aerosmith talking about being late for the gig and taking you with them. The ride blasts of very quickly, and it took my breath away. There are several corkscrew inversions and the ride is in the dark, with neon traffic signs lit up. I enjoyed it , but it was over in about 90 seconds. Great fun, but too short. My wife is a big Star Wars fan so Star Tours (5 out of 5) was next. This is the only ride we rode twice at MGM. We also rode Muppetvision 3d (4 out of 5). A highlight for my kids was getting pictures with Mike and Sully, Miss Piggy (dressed in a red Valentines outfit) and with Jessie, Buzz and Woody. Lunch was at Pizza Planet (3 out of 5). They have good personal pizzas. My veggie pizza had fresh garlic, which made it better. After lunch, we used our Tower of Terror (5 stars!) fast passes. This was my favorite ride of the trip. I deliberately left my lap belt as loose as I could (for more airtime) and kept my arms raised! The elevator dropped at least 5 times. When the doors opened up to give us the view, I could see Blizzard Beach from the Tower of Terror! This view gave me an idea. Since MGM was so crowded, I was not enjoying myself. MGM is a small park, without many rides. My advice is to avoid the Extra Magic Hour here, because EVERYONE else staying at the Resorts is there. The weather was rainy but warm, around 82 degrees. Our children had enjoyed the Coronado Springs Resort pool as much as anything we did, so I wanted to go to Blizzard Beach. My wife was not excited about going to the water park at all, but I said, Its raining, we are going to get wet anyway at a water park and no one else will be there!, so she relented. We took the bus to Coronado Springs, changed into our swim suits and drove our own car for the two minute drive to Blizzard Beach from Coronado Springs resort. We could have easily walked, but because it was already 2:00 pm and BB closed at 5:00 pm, we drove to save minutes.
Blizzard Beach (5 stars) was nearly empty. The park looks like it is covered in snow, and has a ski lift to the top of the slide complex. The water is heated to a very comfortable temperature. The key is to get in the water, then get out. Then when you get back in, it feels bath water warm. We rode the family raft slide Teamboat Springs (5 out of 5) first. It has a large raft that the whole family can ride in. There are many slides, and a lazy river raft float around the perimeter of the park that is wonderful. We got on all the slides with no wait. The kids area is wonderful. The wave pool had maybe 25 people in it. We rode slides until the park closed, and we had hot dogs for a snack at the snack bar at BB, which were good. We ordered one hot dog value meal, and got another hot dog without the meal. This is an important point about eating at the WDW. Anyone can get the kids meal at the counter service restaurants. You can get any item separate from the meal deal if you ask. You can get free cups of ice. We often got a large coke, no ice and asked for 4 cups of ice.
After going back to the room to change, we went back to Epcot, where we persuaded our 8 yr old son, who rides nothing, to ride Test Track. It was crowded and the Fast Passes were for 4 hours in the future. We waited 40 minutes in the stand by line to ride. We went into the Electric Umbrella to get the kids dinner. They had chicken nuggets and a burger and they liked it. It was still raining so we walked around the world showcase in the rain, and decided to go to the Magic Kingdom in hopes of getting to ride Dumbo without huge lines.
Back at the MK, the kids rode the Fantasyland rides with no lines in the rain. We had excellent rain gear from Campmor.com, which made it comfortable. My wife and I had nice gore tex suits, while we got the kids medium quality PVC rain suits. The kids suits packed into 2 small pockets for easy packing. The word on the (Main) street was that the MK was going to stay open until 11:30 pm that night, later than it was officially scheduled. They were staying open to accommodate the heavy crowds. We went to Mickeys Country Fair to see the assembled characters. As usual, there is no one there at 9:00 pm except us and the characters. It was Cinderella, Chip and Dale, the Pooh characters, Mickey Mouse and more all cavorting with my kids. This is the only time to go to see the characters!
Around 10:30, we took the bus back to CSR. We had made the mistake of not making it to our scheduled PS at Kona Café. Our rule is one sit down meal per day. That ensures we get some fruits and vegetables, salads, etc. We blew it this day. By the time we got to CSR, we were starving, and all the food joints at CSR were closed. I went to bed hungry.
This day also made me realize that I will never go to WDW during a high volume time again. Our first three days had been very relaxing, with little crowds. Today it was packed everywhere we went because of the Presidents Day holiday. Oh well, we got a little of both worlds. Tomorrow was to be the last day.
