Well, I left the story at our arrival at POFQ and we were about to catch the bus to MGM but I must backtrack a bit to the drive down.
At one point, Hannah, the little sweatheart, took a little nap in the front seat
while she was chewing gum (a
bright purple variety). She was all snug as a bug in a rug with her pillow and all stretched out on the seat. Well, somehow, that little glob of
bright purple gum managed to fall out of her mouth and got between the pillow (nice
bright white pillow case) and the seatback (
black leather). This little event went unnoticed for some time. It wasn't until we stopped for gas at one point that Hannah discovered that there was now an area about the size of the palm of my hand that had
bright purple gum smeared all over the nice
black leather seat. Oh, and we can't forget the huge patch of smeared and sticky
bright purple gum all over the nice
bright white pillow case. Dad's first thought was to go ballistic but then the mediator gene kicked in in a hurry and thought, "Well, that gum might stay malleable enough in the scorching FL heat to be able to clean it easily once you get home". I lowered the blood pressure quickly and told Hannah, "Oh, it was an accident. We'll clean it up when we get home." And, to keep the damage of the
bright purple gum from spreading further, we took the pillow case off the pillow and kept it up against the seat so Hannah's clothes wouldn't pick up any of the
bright purple gum.
Ok, just had to get that little bit of the trip in there. So, let's get back to where we'd left off, heading to the bus stop at MGM.
I strap on my Airwalks and think these are going to be great walking around the park in. They're so light and your feet really get to breath in them and if they get wet, big deal! We arrive at the POFQ bus stop and note the 2nd stop is where we need to sit and wait (or, rather, stand and wait as there were a few other families waiting to hop aboard). The bus stop was for MGM and one of the water parks, too, apparently. I check our belongings and make sure we have water bottles, mister fans are clipped on, tickets in wallet, digicam, etc. Check. Great! And here comes the bus. Since we're standing we get on first and grab a seat toward the back near the rear exit of the bus. The bus takes off and we soon find ourselves on a nice leisurely tour of the *FOUR* POR bus stops. And, not only having sit through all of that, a couple of the stops have these nice little rumble strips that this bus drivers slows down to near-stop for. Come on! MGM's a waitin' for us!
But, then our first encounter (and probably 2nd biggest) with pixie dust hits. A family heading back to POR asks us if we're heading to MGM. I respond, "Yeah, we just checked in and are anxious to hit the park." The mom pulls out *three* sets of FPs for RnRC and asks if we'd be interested in them! "Oh, sure! Thanks a lot! Great start to the trip! Thank you so much!" And these aren't just your regular FPs. These are Rider Switch FPs and they don't expire until 8/5 (a week from now)! WOO HOO!
They get off at one of the POR stops and off we head to the water park and then finally MGM ("Oh look, there's the Tower of Terror!") comes into view. The bus driver tells us the bus stop for returning is stop #x (can't remember the #) and off we go to the entrance turnstiles. No line waiting to get in (well, it's about 5:00pm so no surprise there). We grab a park map and show schedule and head inside the park. I immediately see huge crowds around main path and think, "Oh great, now what?" and then I realize it's the Stars and Motorcars parade. We get up on a sidewalk and Hannah sneaks into a little gap to catch the last few cars (we get to see Snow White and Mickey and Minnie). I snap a couple of pics knowing they won't be that great but what the heck, the memory card holds a few hundred pics. The parade ends and we both realize we're hungry which is perfect because we have a 5:40ADR at 50s Prime Time Cafe. We get there a little before and give our name and sit in the waiting area/bar which is all decorated like my parents' living room in the first house they owned.
Hannah wants a soft drink and gets one of those flashing plastic ice cubes, too. They call our name and we head to our table and order. The food is pretty good but the chocolate malt is just too thick and chocolatey. Doesn't have much malt taste that I can detect. Tasty, though, just not what I was looking for in a malt. Hannah can't even start the 3rd piece of chicken so we put it in a Ziploc and I put it in an inner compartment of my bag. Figure it'll be fine for a few hrs there and will make a nice late-night snack.
We finish up our meal and we're pretty full so the coaster and ToT is right out but Star Tours is just around the corner (oh boy). We get in line and it's practically a walk-on as the post-parade crowd is still pretty much gone from this area. It's a cool ride but I wasn't all that impressed with it. I liked the walk through the pre-ride area more than the ride itself
Hannah likes it, though, and that's what really matters. We head out through the post-ride gift shop and we head to the Muppet 3D Movie. It's been 14yrs since I was last here in MGM and this one of the few things I remember and it hasn't really changed much. It's still a good attraction and I'll go to my grave loving the Muppets (esp. Gonzo and Rizzo, Beaker, and the two old guys in the balcony). I'd forgotten about the "1st person" things like the water and the breeze and we plan on seeing this again on our full day at MGM on Tue.
(A little note here: I just called Hannah to refresh my memory on the timeline of our tour thru MGM. I'd forgotten we ate before we rode anything. 
)
Well, the food has settled by now so it's time to head for RnRC! We get another set of FPs and cash in the 1st set we got from the family on the bus. I wasn't sure they'd take the Rider Switch ones but barely a glance at the slips of paper and off we go. Once you get past the end of the line in that covered area it's a quick walk inside the waiting area that's decorated with musical equipment from days gone by ("Wow! Check out that McIntosh tube amp!" Oh, cool, I had a cassette recorder just like that one!"). Then we wait through the pre-ride show with the video of Aerosmith "in the studio" and their "manager" trying to get us a "super-stretch limo" which will be parked in the alley. (I can tell we'll quickly get bored of that pre-show - like all others after riding this a few times but, hey, beats waiting in a line in the hot and humid FL afternoon.) We enter the "alley" and see one set of the cars about to take off and boy does it take off! Something like 0-60 in 2.8 secs. Whoosh!! "Oh, this is gonna be a blast!". Hannah's all excited, too. We finally get in a car and now it's our turn. Put your head back and listen to the Bill St. James introduction and then Stephen Tyler yells out the countdown from 5 and then YOU'RE OFF! Oh wow, hit that loop right off the bat and then zooming through the Hollywood sign and then into a corkscrew while Aerosmith tunes rock out from the speakers around your head. One last hill and then we pull up "backstage" and Hannah gets a kick out of her bright white socks and stripes on her shoes from the blacklights overhead. Off the coaster and to the screens to check out the looks on our faces and then through the ubiquitous end-of-ride gift shop and back outside. We're so pumped
and we want to ride it again right away so we cash in the FP we got when we first got to the park. (I check the ToT FP distribution and they were all out...bummer). Back to the "super-stretch" again!
We get off RnRC and head to ToT. The stand-by line says 20 min. so I figure, what the heck. We work our way through the line and have time to check out the hotel lobby and the decorations (Disney does a theme VERY well. All of the areas leading up to rides are very well done.) We enter the waiting room and watch the Twilight Zone intro and then the doors open and it's off through the inner workings of the hotel. Now, we have a ride here at home called Hellevator that has one drop and you feel weightless for a couple of seconds. Hannah's not a big fan of it so she really wants to opt out of ToT and despite some half-hearted pleadings from me, I let her get out of line and a nice hotel staff member, er, CM, takes her down to the post-ride area. I get in line and stand on my "number" and the bellman comes to give us instructions on operating the elevator. He takes particular note of a hotel guest with a stuffed Mickey in his arms before he has us enter the elevator. After we're in, he yells out "Oh, one more thing. It's very important..." just as the elevator doors close! I love this! The elevator moves a bit and the doors open and we're greeted w/a hallway and we see the characters from the intro before and then the hallway goes dark and all you see are stars and the doors close again. Up further and we enter a hallway with scenes from old Twilight Zone episodes and even a screen with images of us in our elevator! We roll forward slowly and suddenly it's very warm (the elevator shaft is outside the front of the hotel). Up we shoot and then drop just as fast. Screams from the occupants and we rise and fall quickly a few more times and then the elevator comes to a stop but our stomachs are left somewhere up on the 5th floor or somewhere. Wow! That was AWESOME!! Probably the best ride at all of Disney! I meet Hannah at the post-ride area by the screens and see my picture (I didn't know where the cameras were at first and my face isn't really worth the money to get the pic). We run off to RnRC again and cash in yet another set of FPs. Now we're hip to where to stand in the pre-ride area to get the "alley" quicker. We're starting to feel like RnRC experts now. We try out the front seat this time but the ride doesn't seem to have the same thrill as the middle or the back. Oh well, it was still fun!
Since Hannah didn't want to ride ToT again I didn't want to drag her through that line again so we wander back up to the gift shops near the big Sorcerer's hat. We check the time and Fantasmic is about to start so I figure no way are we going to get a decent spot this late, besides, there's a 10:30 showing we can catch. We grab an ice cream and just walk around enjoying the atmosphere for a bit. 9:30 starts to roll around and I'm thinking, "Hey, we never got to swim in the pool yet. Wanna skip Fantasmic tonight and go back and swim?" Hannah answers with an enthusiastic "YES!"
. The first of the crowds from Fantasmic are starting to come out so we make a beeline for the exit and to the buses.
We catch our bus and luckily are the 1st stop on the way back (no rumble strips and eleventy stops to go thru at POR) and get to our room and change into our swimsuits and head off to the pool (which takes a few min. to get to since we're way out in Bldg 7). The pool is cool and all lit up and themed with a dragon slide (which was closed at this late hour) and jesters all around
. We swim a bit and the water feels great! Hannah soon starts in with the "I'm hungry" bit and I think, hmm...it's late (almost 11) and I'm thinking, I don't know if anything's open. We head up to the food court area and it's more than open. There's even a guy playing acoustic guitar and singing familiar tunes like Jimmy Buffet and the little crowd around him is joining in all the fun rather enthusiastically! We got some food and drink and wolfed it down and find a table in the bar area to listen to the guy and I order my one and only beer in Disney (
$5 for a Bud Light?). The guy soon ends his set and Hannah complains it's cold so we head off to walk around the courtyards and head back to the room. After all, we do have to check out and get the luggage ready and be at AK for the rope drop! Even with the longer bus rides, I begin to wish we were staying here longer. There's a good vibe here at POFQ.
And that's where Day 1 ends. 'til the next episode.....
