Miffy2003
<font color=orange>I've got Saratoga Springs - mak
- Joined
- Aug 13, 2003
- Messages
- 12,175
Friday December 10th
This is officially the best part of the holiday as it is our first day at WDW. For me, until I have walked up Main Street USA I am not properly here so I have been looking forward to this moment for months.
In fact, I was so excited about this I woke up at 5 oclock and was absolutely unable to go back to sleep. This is most unlike me, as normally it takes me at least 2 hours and several large cups of coffee before I am ready to face the day from waking up. Perhaps the answer to this is to get a job in Main Street, then I would leap out of bed every morning ready to face the world without caffeine!
Everyone else was sound asleep and because I knew I could not contain myself I went and sat in the bathroom for two hours, reading. For those of you that have heard that the bathrooms at the value resorts are small, I can assure you that this is definitely the case. They are big enough though to fulfil all the usual things in a bathroom! Two hours passed quite quickly then it was time to return to the main room and wait for the phone to go off and to hear about Mickeys Big Doins. However that naughty alien, Experiment 626 who is better known as Stitch appears to have highjacked Mickeys job and it was Stitch who woke everyone up this morning. Of course I put the speakerphone on so everyone could share this!
We were all too excited for breakfast so headed instead for the car to make our way to MK. I was cruelly forcing Jon to drive today as the Govier holiday is not complete unless the first journey is made via the TTC as it is a family tradition to catch the ferryboat on the first day.
We bought our Premium Annual Passes and exchanged the Fun in the Sun vouchers for Julie and Derek. This was quite a quick process but the CM gave me a full rundown on how PAPs work and I was thinking Yes, I know this! Stop talking and let me get to MK! Not that I was keen to get there, you understand. There was a bit of dithering from members of the party and we missed a ferryboat but soon enough another arrived.
(Note that Jon managed to position himself perfectly so none of Cinderellas castle could be seen) and thank you to the lady who took this shot.
The park had just opened so it did seem busy but this proved to not be the case. The tree was magnificent but somehow (call me a humbug) made the view up Main Street less magical than usual. And I was surprised at how much I missed the usual music; I find the MK music really adds to the immersive feeling you get and it wasnt quite the same with the Christmas music.
We headed straight for Fantasyland (another tradition; the girls need at least three hours here before we are allowed to go to the rest of the park!) and rode most of the rides here including Winnie the Pooh, Dumbo, Peter Pan (twice) with no waiting.
We had held off long enough and it was time to experience the newest 3D show, Mickeys Philharmagic. We were slightly concerned about Amber who doesnt like 3D shows (this is due to the first time she saw Muppet 3D Vision and was traumatized by the hoover. I put this down to the fact that she probably hasnt seen one in action that often in my house. Like the good parents we are, we sympathized with her and told her to shut her eyes if she didnt like it 
)
Well, I cannot describe Philarmagic except to say, do not miss this attraction. Absolutely fantastic; quite the best I have ever seen. The theatre, the stirring music, the animation, storyline involving some best loved characters and the way all your senses were brought into play made this show unsurpassable. It was so realistic Erin was reaching out for the 3D objects and even Amber (mostly) kept her eyes open. Im not sure the 3D glasses stayed on the whole time, though!
We were pretty hungry by now sd headed to the Main Street Bakery for a spot of breakfast. Julie was going to have muesli but then saw the cakes and suddenly muesli was so much less appealing. We had a selection of: cupcake (love the Mickey heads), cinnamon roll (messy but wonderful) and various Danishes. Because I would not lie to you, dear Readers, I feel obliged to point out that the reason there are one more cakes than there are people is because Jon had two. And he ate them both!
We headed up to Liberty Square for a go on the Haunted Mansion and under duress went into the Festive Country Bear Jamboree. Now, unfortunately for me my children love this attraction which I find far scarier than the Rock N Roller Coaster. But I must say that the Christmas theme worked well and made it possibly less offensive than usual!
We picked up 6 Fast Passes for BTMR (how convenient that we have six in our party but only three that will go on the fast rides. This means two goes each!) and then wandered over to Adventureland. Really the day was not about doing the rides, but more about soaking up the atmosphere and simply enjoying finally being back in the Magic Kingdom. It had started to pour down with rain so we went into Pirates of the Carribbean and were severely scolded by Amber and Erin for not telling them about the drop. Well, its hardly a drop is it? But I remember it being shorter than it is, which I put down to Disneyland Paris where the drop is quite a lot bigger and we had sworn to the girls that the drop in Florida was very small. Oooops.
Onto the Tiki Birds. Now, I know popular opinion hates this attraction but I love it. There, Ive said it. I first admired it for the ability to rest my feet on a hot and humid August day, but since theyve introduced Iago & Jafar I actually enjoy the show. The girls like this one a lot.
Time for our BTMR Fast Passes, so Julie, Jon and I go back to Frontierland (it has stopped raining by now) and leave Derek to take the girls onto the Magic Carpets of Aladdin. What an incredibly long walk the Fastpass route takes you on this one! I thought we would never get there but that someone had re-routed us to walk round in circles all day. We had a fantastic ride our first go for twelve years. This is just a really good fun ride, and the detail was just as good as Id remembered. Unfortunately it started to pelt down with rain as soon as our train left the station; it was similar to an August downpour except rather more cold! After the ride we huddled by the exit waiting for a break in the rain but as we were already quite wet and there seemed to be no let up we rain back to Adventureland. Derek and the girls had gone on Aladdin three times in the pouring rain and the CM thought they were clearly barmy.
We debated getting ponchos but as we were all very wet it seemed like a horse and the door of the stable moment so we didnt.
A CM was in one of the shops in Adventureland with Kaa from the Jungle Book a hand puppet / cuddly toy.
Amber fell in love with him; she has a collection of stuffed snakes and the fact that he interacted was an extra selling point. We spent a while here with Kaa playing with the girls. One of the little things about WDW that would never be in a guide book but that gives so much entertainment! I did sneak back later in the holiday to buy one for Amber for Christmas!
It wasnt very warm today but in true British fashion I refused to accept this and had a Coke Float while everyone else had hot chocolate at Aloha Isle. We were all still pretty wet but decided to nip over to Tomorrowland as wed not yet been there. We got FPs for Buzz and then rode the Tomorrowland Transit Authority. Amber had the usual moment of panic when it goes into Space Mountain that we were about to be launched on the ride but as usual we enjoyed this relaxing ride and the wonderful view you get of Tomorrowland. Seeing Carousel of Progress was open we went on this next; in a bizarre way I really enjoy this attraction. I know its a bit naff and really dated but my view is that the message it conveys is as interesting and relevant as it was when Walt devised this, and I also think its great to experience one of Walts creations. I had heard that it was looking rather tatty with ripped curtains etc and although I did look for this I saw no evidence of it; yes the attraction is rather dated and a little worn looking but that was as far as it went. Quite what went wrong I dont know but when we got to the final scene (the one with the burning turkey) when the music plays at the end, the Carousel did not rotate! We sat and watched it again, hoping that we would not be condemned to watching John and family burning the turkey for the rest of our holiday. Happily when Its a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow struck up again, we moved round again. Phew!
Our FPs had opened up for Buzz so we went on that, and I was (as always) beaten by Jon. The greatest miracle of the holiday though was that Derek managed to score any points at all! We had thought that the technical knowhow required to fire the gun would be far beyond him (!) but he managed to knock up 21,000. If you think I am joking I will just expand by telling you that even now, eleven years after leaving home, Jon still has to go round to his parents house to do tasks like recording things on the video, changing clock times when the clocks go forward and back etc. Its a miracle they manage to use the microwave to be honest!
Its now 4 oclock and as we havent dried out we decide to head back to ASMo, and take a scenic detour via the 192. Ahem!
We chill out (no pun intended, its not as cold yet as it gets!) at the hotel for a while and go to Dennys for tea. Our first day over, and there was magic everywhere.
This is officially the best part of the holiday as it is our first day at WDW. For me, until I have walked up Main Street USA I am not properly here so I have been looking forward to this moment for months.
In fact, I was so excited about this I woke up at 5 oclock and was absolutely unable to go back to sleep. This is most unlike me, as normally it takes me at least 2 hours and several large cups of coffee before I am ready to face the day from waking up. Perhaps the answer to this is to get a job in Main Street, then I would leap out of bed every morning ready to face the world without caffeine!
Everyone else was sound asleep and because I knew I could not contain myself I went and sat in the bathroom for two hours, reading. For those of you that have heard that the bathrooms at the value resorts are small, I can assure you that this is definitely the case. They are big enough though to fulfil all the usual things in a bathroom! Two hours passed quite quickly then it was time to return to the main room and wait for the phone to go off and to hear about Mickeys Big Doins. However that naughty alien, Experiment 626 who is better known as Stitch appears to have highjacked Mickeys job and it was Stitch who woke everyone up this morning. Of course I put the speakerphone on so everyone could share this!
We were all too excited for breakfast so headed instead for the car to make our way to MK. I was cruelly forcing Jon to drive today as the Govier holiday is not complete unless the first journey is made via the TTC as it is a family tradition to catch the ferryboat on the first day.
We bought our Premium Annual Passes and exchanged the Fun in the Sun vouchers for Julie and Derek. This was quite a quick process but the CM gave me a full rundown on how PAPs work and I was thinking Yes, I know this! Stop talking and let me get to MK! Not that I was keen to get there, you understand. There was a bit of dithering from members of the party and we missed a ferryboat but soon enough another arrived.
The park had just opened so it did seem busy but this proved to not be the case. The tree was magnificent but somehow (call me a humbug) made the view up Main Street less magical than usual. And I was surprised at how much I missed the usual music; I find the MK music really adds to the immersive feeling you get and it wasnt quite the same with the Christmas music.
We headed straight for Fantasyland (another tradition; the girls need at least three hours here before we are allowed to go to the rest of the park!) and rode most of the rides here including Winnie the Pooh, Dumbo, Peter Pan (twice) with no waiting.
)Well, I cannot describe Philarmagic except to say, do not miss this attraction. Absolutely fantastic; quite the best I have ever seen. The theatre, the stirring music, the animation, storyline involving some best loved characters and the way all your senses were brought into play made this show unsurpassable. It was so realistic Erin was reaching out for the 3D objects and even Amber (mostly) kept her eyes open. Im not sure the 3D glasses stayed on the whole time, though!
We were pretty hungry by now sd headed to the Main Street Bakery for a spot of breakfast. Julie was going to have muesli but then saw the cakes and suddenly muesli was so much less appealing. We had a selection of: cupcake (love the Mickey heads), cinnamon roll (messy but wonderful) and various Danishes. Because I would not lie to you, dear Readers, I feel obliged to point out that the reason there are one more cakes than there are people is because Jon had two. And he ate them both!
We headed up to Liberty Square for a go on the Haunted Mansion and under duress went into the Festive Country Bear Jamboree. Now, unfortunately for me my children love this attraction which I find far scarier than the Rock N Roller Coaster. But I must say that the Christmas theme worked well and made it possibly less offensive than usual!
We picked up 6 Fast Passes for BTMR (how convenient that we have six in our party but only three that will go on the fast rides. This means two goes each!) and then wandered over to Adventureland. Really the day was not about doing the rides, but more about soaking up the atmosphere and simply enjoying finally being back in the Magic Kingdom. It had started to pour down with rain so we went into Pirates of the Carribbean and were severely scolded by Amber and Erin for not telling them about the drop. Well, its hardly a drop is it? But I remember it being shorter than it is, which I put down to Disneyland Paris where the drop is quite a lot bigger and we had sworn to the girls that the drop in Florida was very small. Oooops.
Onto the Tiki Birds. Now, I know popular opinion hates this attraction but I love it. There, Ive said it. I first admired it for the ability to rest my feet on a hot and humid August day, but since theyve introduced Iago & Jafar I actually enjoy the show. The girls like this one a lot.
Time for our BTMR Fast Passes, so Julie, Jon and I go back to Frontierland (it has stopped raining by now) and leave Derek to take the girls onto the Magic Carpets of Aladdin. What an incredibly long walk the Fastpass route takes you on this one! I thought we would never get there but that someone had re-routed us to walk round in circles all day. We had a fantastic ride our first go for twelve years. This is just a really good fun ride, and the detail was just as good as Id remembered. Unfortunately it started to pelt down with rain as soon as our train left the station; it was similar to an August downpour except rather more cold! After the ride we huddled by the exit waiting for a break in the rain but as we were already quite wet and there seemed to be no let up we rain back to Adventureland. Derek and the girls had gone on Aladdin three times in the pouring rain and the CM thought they were clearly barmy.
A CM was in one of the shops in Adventureland with Kaa from the Jungle Book a hand puppet / cuddly toy.
It wasnt very warm today but in true British fashion I refused to accept this and had a Coke Float while everyone else had hot chocolate at Aloha Isle. We were all still pretty wet but decided to nip over to Tomorrowland as wed not yet been there. We got FPs for Buzz and then rode the Tomorrowland Transit Authority. Amber had the usual moment of panic when it goes into Space Mountain that we were about to be launched on the ride but as usual we enjoyed this relaxing ride and the wonderful view you get of Tomorrowland. Seeing Carousel of Progress was open we went on this next; in a bizarre way I really enjoy this attraction. I know its a bit naff and really dated but my view is that the message it conveys is as interesting and relevant as it was when Walt devised this, and I also think its great to experience one of Walts creations. I had heard that it was looking rather tatty with ripped curtains etc and although I did look for this I saw no evidence of it; yes the attraction is rather dated and a little worn looking but that was as far as it went. Quite what went wrong I dont know but when we got to the final scene (the one with the burning turkey) when the music plays at the end, the Carousel did not rotate! We sat and watched it again, hoping that we would not be condemned to watching John and family burning the turkey for the rest of our holiday. Happily when Its a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow struck up again, we moved round again. Phew!
Our FPs had opened up for Buzz so we went on that, and I was (as always) beaten by Jon. The greatest miracle of the holiday though was that Derek managed to score any points at all! We had thought that the technical knowhow required to fire the gun would be far beyond him (!) but he managed to knock up 21,000. If you think I am joking I will just expand by telling you that even now, eleven years after leaving home, Jon still has to go round to his parents house to do tasks like recording things on the video, changing clock times when the clocks go forward and back etc. Its a miracle they manage to use the microwave to be honest!
Its now 4 oclock and as we havent dried out we decide to head back to ASMo, and take a scenic detour via the 192. Ahem!
We chill out (no pun intended, its not as cold yet as it gets!) at the hotel for a while and go to Dennys for tea. Our first day over, and there was magic everywhere.
that song is just soooooo catchy.
Philharmagic was our favourite 3D show 
