DisneyJedi
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2001
- Messages
- 39
Ok, now that my wife and I have relocated our accomidations to Buena Vista Suites, which is about 2 miles from Epcot, we got settled in there and had a good night's sleep for our second day at Walt Disney World. We had the option to use the free transportation from the hotel, but we opted not to and drove our car. May 8th was MGM day for us, so that's where we headed around 8am or so.
When we arrived at MGM, the memories of the enormous parking lot invaded my mind. I quickly remembered what a tram was for and we just barely caught one just leaving.
At the park entrance we saw Baloo greeting the kiddies, but did not stop to say hello. I always seem to pick the wrong line no matter where I go, so of course I picked the line taking the longest to admit guests into the park. It is like people never put a paper card in a machine before.
A quick walk past the gas station and the street shops, we immediately stopped at the reservation booth and booked dinner at Hollywood and Vine for 6:30pm for the Fantasmic dinner package. We noticed Mickey's magic cap was underway on construction. The first section of blue hat was on top of the ring. By the end of our trip, the hat had another 2 sections added to it and it was almost completely closed at the top. After making our reservation we went right to tower of terror. I'd been to MGM in 1996, but ToT was still under construction and this was my first chance to try it out. My wife and I had a small wait on the first line and a slightly longer wait after. The scariest woman hotel worker was our host. Her voice was creepy and she kept staring at one little boy with the oddest expression. I'm sure they little boy had nightmares. This woman totally had a moustache and was frightening. If that was her job, she should get an A+. So anyway, we boarded our elevator and weren't prepared for its operation. I am very prone to motion sickness and this ride whipped some sense into me. I could not differentiate when the elevator was moving up, only down. It was the weirdest thing. The attraction did push breakfast around in my gut, but I never got sick. I did enjoy the experience though because it was so different. My wife loved the ride.
Next we jumped on rock and roller coaster with a short line. I had no problems with this one. It was fast and smooth. The cars took off very fast, but I'd been on roller coasters that do this before. The theming was great! If we had more time, I'd of liked to go on this one again.
After a good walk to clear our heads from being whipped around so much at the beginning of the day, we made our way to the Great Movie Ride. I like this one alot. I hope Disney does not replace it. My wife liked it also, especially the part with the Wizard of Oz.
A nice experience at the Great Movie Ride lended itself to grabbing a fast pass to Star Tours. In the meantime we went over to Muppetvision 4D and had a good old time with the 'ol muppets and stuff popping out at ya. The 3D amazes me. I wish all movies were in 3D. We mingled in this area of the park for awhile before entouring Star Wars.
I had forgotten how motion sick Star Tours had made me in years past, but I was wonderfully reminded. My wife had no problem with this one and liked it alot. I was a Star Wars fanatic a few years ago, collecting everything Star Wars under the sun. I just have a problem when it comes to moving around while in front of a screen. I wish someone would invent the cure to motion sickness. Otherwise I liked the theming and wish I could stomach the ride better.
It was around noontime, so we figured we should grab some lunch. We ate at some All American Burger place close to ToT and got the most disgusting cheeseburgers you could ever imagine with soggy, unsalted fries.
These burgers were nasty -- mayonaise mixed with old lettuce and burger meat falling apart with cheese filling in the cracks. The buns were totally soggy. My wife and I both had a terrible experience. We had to take it easy after that food. We didn't like paying $14 for a couple burgers and fries and a communal sprite to drink. My wife and I always completely share our drinks.. we order the largest drink and pass it back and forth. It is a small way to save money and works great for us. Anyway, stay away from the All American place by ToT. Gross!
The next objective was to see the Little Mermaid Show. I knew nothing about it. We didn't know it was a show.. thinking it was an animatronic ride under the sea. We were surprised by the stage and totally enjoyed the show. We had grabbed fastpasses to the show before lunch, but I positioned us in the wrong line because people were blocking the cue and I didn;t know which was which. When it was time to enter, I watched like a hundred people that came in after us, walk right by and when I wanted to hop the rope to the fastpass line, the castmember said I was fine where I was out. Alot of good a fastpass does on this attraction anyway because when we finally got in, we got the most awesome seats close to the front and off to the left. The fastpass people that rushed in before us were all way at the top. That's no good. So anyway, we expected a ride and instead saw a thoughtful, really cool show. It was worth standing in the wrong line for.
I can't remember the exact order, but later in the day we went on the animation tour and enjoyed that. Too many people were blocking the glass right away, so we didn't see what everyone was looking at when the animator drew us the main character from Disney's new Atlantis movie coming out soon. When I finally got to the window to look out, the cm flipped the switch and the glass hazed up. I don't know what we missed, but we saw everything else here. We were impressed.
Afterward, we experienced the backlot tour which was pretty boring since I had seen it before. My wife wasn't all impressed with catastrophe canyon. She'd rather see some Disney-themed animatronic characters. I would have preferred that also.
We had grabbed a fastpass to see Millionaire, but before that we got hungry for some orange soda by the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground. I think I had also gotten us popcorn. We sat there for quite awhile munching away before we went to play Millionaire. We're both not really fans of the show and have never seen it, but there were some fantatics there. I was getting the answers dead-on and immediately when the answer panel lights went orange, so I don't know why my seat number never listed with the audience ranks. I was disappointed by that. Maybe my buttons were broken from fanatics mashing them from the hundreds of other games before ours. The woman behind us immediately made it in the hot seat. Later, I heard her admit to her husband that she just pushed buttons in any order at the beginning. She was starled she won. The question was something like ordering the restaurants in when they were first built: McDonalds, Wendy's Burger and KFC or something (I don;t remember exactly). The game was pretty fun, but again I was disappointed that I didn't rank anywhere. All you WWTBAM fanatics must be super quick!
On the way from Millionaire we saw Pooh and Tigger signing autographs for kids in the backlot. This was nice because we had hardly seen any characters at Magic Kingdom the day before. We saw Jafarr while on the tram for the backlot tour. No one was was getting any autographs from him. Minnie was there also and she had kids all over her. The theme of Jafarr with no one wanting his autograph can be extended throughout our entire honeymoon. We saw Jafarr everywhere and the same held through.. he looked lonely! Poor Jafarr! On the way out of the backlot, we stopped in NY and marvelled at the matte painting and how the perspective was really neat. I sat down and my wife snapped a pic of me. The entire time we were at Disney I was snapping pictures left and right with my Olympus D460Z digital camera. Perhaps I will post some pictures if anyone is interested.
I don't remember exactly what we did next, but we made our way to the Hollywood and Vine Restaurant. The food was sorta bland and we were unimpressed. What's up with the food at MGM? It was a buffet style meal, but the food was missing taste on everything. We ate enough to feel full and enjoyed the soft serve icecream very much. Yumm.. strawberry syrup. We were given our passes for the Fantasmic show later in the evening! To kill some time, we did a little window shopping over to the gas station at the front of the park.
We were admitted very early to the Fantasmic show. The cast members said we could sit where they had it partitioned off for us or go over to Pocahontus and get a prime seat right smack dab in the middle of the theater. Screw the fantasmic dinner pass! We moved over to Pocahontus for the most perfect seat in the house. When the show started we were absolutely entertained the entire way through. I was snapping pictures left and right (as usual) as we got lots of misty water sprayed on us from the water projection screens. That was really cool! By far, this was our favorite live show in all of Walt Disney World. It is worth it to give up your reserved seating, it it means a direct view in the Pocahontus section! My wife loved this show. She developed a high favoring for anything Sorcerer Mickey (looking at all the Sorcerer Mickey souvenirs)
After a great Fantasmic! show, a quick drive back to Buena Vista Suites, some TV and then off to bed ready for Epcot tomorrow.
When we arrived at MGM, the memories of the enormous parking lot invaded my mind. I quickly remembered what a tram was for and we just barely caught one just leaving.
At the park entrance we saw Baloo greeting the kiddies, but did not stop to say hello. I always seem to pick the wrong line no matter where I go, so of course I picked the line taking the longest to admit guests into the park. It is like people never put a paper card in a machine before.
A quick walk past the gas station and the street shops, we immediately stopped at the reservation booth and booked dinner at Hollywood and Vine for 6:30pm for the Fantasmic dinner package. We noticed Mickey's magic cap was underway on construction. The first section of blue hat was on top of the ring. By the end of our trip, the hat had another 2 sections added to it and it was almost completely closed at the top. After making our reservation we went right to tower of terror. I'd been to MGM in 1996, but ToT was still under construction and this was my first chance to try it out. My wife and I had a small wait on the first line and a slightly longer wait after. The scariest woman hotel worker was our host. Her voice was creepy and she kept staring at one little boy with the oddest expression. I'm sure they little boy had nightmares. This woman totally had a moustache and was frightening. If that was her job, she should get an A+. So anyway, we boarded our elevator and weren't prepared for its operation. I am very prone to motion sickness and this ride whipped some sense into me. I could not differentiate when the elevator was moving up, only down. It was the weirdest thing. The attraction did push breakfast around in my gut, but I never got sick. I did enjoy the experience though because it was so different. My wife loved the ride.
Next we jumped on rock and roller coaster with a short line. I had no problems with this one. It was fast and smooth. The cars took off very fast, but I'd been on roller coasters that do this before. The theming was great! If we had more time, I'd of liked to go on this one again.
After a good walk to clear our heads from being whipped around so much at the beginning of the day, we made our way to the Great Movie Ride. I like this one alot. I hope Disney does not replace it. My wife liked it also, especially the part with the Wizard of Oz.
A nice experience at the Great Movie Ride lended itself to grabbing a fast pass to Star Tours. In the meantime we went over to Muppetvision 4D and had a good old time with the 'ol muppets and stuff popping out at ya. The 3D amazes me. I wish all movies were in 3D. We mingled in this area of the park for awhile before entouring Star Wars.
I had forgotten how motion sick Star Tours had made me in years past, but I was wonderfully reminded. My wife had no problem with this one and liked it alot. I was a Star Wars fanatic a few years ago, collecting everything Star Wars under the sun. I just have a problem when it comes to moving around while in front of a screen. I wish someone would invent the cure to motion sickness. Otherwise I liked the theming and wish I could stomach the ride better.
It was around noontime, so we figured we should grab some lunch. We ate at some All American Burger place close to ToT and got the most disgusting cheeseburgers you could ever imagine with soggy, unsalted fries.
These burgers were nasty -- mayonaise mixed with old lettuce and burger meat falling apart with cheese filling in the cracks. The buns were totally soggy. My wife and I both had a terrible experience. We had to take it easy after that food. We didn't like paying $14 for a couple burgers and fries and a communal sprite to drink. My wife and I always completely share our drinks.. we order the largest drink and pass it back and forth. It is a small way to save money and works great for us. Anyway, stay away from the All American place by ToT. Gross!
The next objective was to see the Little Mermaid Show. I knew nothing about it. We didn't know it was a show.. thinking it was an animatronic ride under the sea. We were surprised by the stage and totally enjoyed the show. We had grabbed fastpasses to the show before lunch, but I positioned us in the wrong line because people were blocking the cue and I didn;t know which was which. When it was time to enter, I watched like a hundred people that came in after us, walk right by and when I wanted to hop the rope to the fastpass line, the castmember said I was fine where I was out. Alot of good a fastpass does on this attraction anyway because when we finally got in, we got the most awesome seats close to the front and off to the left. The fastpass people that rushed in before us were all way at the top. That's no good. So anyway, we expected a ride and instead saw a thoughtful, really cool show. It was worth standing in the wrong line for.
I can't remember the exact order, but later in the day we went on the animation tour and enjoyed that. Too many people were blocking the glass right away, so we didn't see what everyone was looking at when the animator drew us the main character from Disney's new Atlantis movie coming out soon. When I finally got to the window to look out, the cm flipped the switch and the glass hazed up. I don't know what we missed, but we saw everything else here. We were impressed.
Afterward, we experienced the backlot tour which was pretty boring since I had seen it before. My wife wasn't all impressed with catastrophe canyon. She'd rather see some Disney-themed animatronic characters. I would have preferred that also.
We had grabbed a fastpass to see Millionaire, but before that we got hungry for some orange soda by the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground. I think I had also gotten us popcorn. We sat there for quite awhile munching away before we went to play Millionaire. We're both not really fans of the show and have never seen it, but there were some fantatics there. I was getting the answers dead-on and immediately when the answer panel lights went orange, so I don't know why my seat number never listed with the audience ranks. I was disappointed by that. Maybe my buttons were broken from fanatics mashing them from the hundreds of other games before ours. The woman behind us immediately made it in the hot seat. Later, I heard her admit to her husband that she just pushed buttons in any order at the beginning. She was starled she won. The question was something like ordering the restaurants in when they were first built: McDonalds, Wendy's Burger and KFC or something (I don;t remember exactly). The game was pretty fun, but again I was disappointed that I didn't rank anywhere. All you WWTBAM fanatics must be super quick!
On the way from Millionaire we saw Pooh and Tigger signing autographs for kids in the backlot. This was nice because we had hardly seen any characters at Magic Kingdom the day before. We saw Jafarr while on the tram for the backlot tour. No one was was getting any autographs from him. Minnie was there also and she had kids all over her. The theme of Jafarr with no one wanting his autograph can be extended throughout our entire honeymoon. We saw Jafarr everywhere and the same held through.. he looked lonely! Poor Jafarr! On the way out of the backlot, we stopped in NY and marvelled at the matte painting and how the perspective was really neat. I sat down and my wife snapped a pic of me. The entire time we were at Disney I was snapping pictures left and right with my Olympus D460Z digital camera. Perhaps I will post some pictures if anyone is interested.
I don't remember exactly what we did next, but we made our way to the Hollywood and Vine Restaurant. The food was sorta bland and we were unimpressed. What's up with the food at MGM? It was a buffet style meal, but the food was missing taste on everything. We ate enough to feel full and enjoyed the soft serve icecream very much. Yumm.. strawberry syrup. We were given our passes for the Fantasmic show later in the evening! To kill some time, we did a little window shopping over to the gas station at the front of the park.
We were admitted very early to the Fantasmic show. The cast members said we could sit where they had it partitioned off for us or go over to Pocahontus and get a prime seat right smack dab in the middle of the theater. Screw the fantasmic dinner pass! We moved over to Pocahontus for the most perfect seat in the house. When the show started we were absolutely entertained the entire way through. I was snapping pictures left and right (as usual) as we got lots of misty water sprayed on us from the water projection screens. That was really cool! By far, this was our favorite live show in all of Walt Disney World. It is worth it to give up your reserved seating, it it means a direct view in the Pocahontus section! My wife loved this show. She developed a high favoring for anything Sorcerer Mickey (looking at all the Sorcerer Mickey souvenirs)
After a great Fantasmic! show, a quick drive back to Buena Vista Suites, some TV and then off to bed ready for Epcot tomorrow.
Seems like a better day than the last two. Hope that the motion sickness got better quickly!
