Day 6- MGM
This day found us again waking just about the time the front gates opened at the park. *Yes, this was a very lazy trip!* We rolled out of bed, showered (a nod to having two rooms, having two showers/sink areas helped out a LOT in the mornings) and once again made our way up to the lounge where we thanked them for sending up a cake for "Goofy" and ate a light breakfast. Light not because of their lack of offerings but because once again, we had a lunch reservation in short time that we didn't want to fill up before.
Once again I braved the WDW buses (and was again pleasantly surprised). A bus pulled up within about 10 minutes and we hopped on to the empty bus with about 5 other families. Everyone had room to sit. We did make a quick pit stop to drop off 4 of the other families at Blizzard Beach (the bus route runs to Blizzard Beach and MGM). Even with that stop we were still arriving faster then we could have if we had driven our own vehicle (to the front gates at least, we might have beat the bus to the parking lot). I must admit that I was still carrying cab fare with me. Should my bus fears prove true, I didn't want to be stuck taking one back at night.
We quickly scanned our tickets and fingers and made our way in. Once in we were on a shopping mission. "Aladdin" had it in his mind he was going to find a shirt that Corbin Bleu wears in HSM2. It says "I majored in vacation". So off we went. After checking three stores we finally found one with that shirt in his size. You see, lots of older kids must have wanted one so they were out of the bigger kid sizes for the most part (I even had them check in back). We were lucky to find the last children's large in all of MGM (unless they were hiding some they didn't want to share with us
). The store we found it in was being looked after by a really funny CM. When he went in back to check for a larger size of the shirt, he asked "Stitch" to watch the store for him. "Stitch" thought that was so funny. He was eating up the attention. When the CM came back out he asked "Stitch" how much he had sold
. When "Stitch" admitted that nothing had been sold, the CM told him thanks, but maybe I had better do this job! But he did 'pay' "Stitch" for his time. He gave him a pin off of his lanyard. That made our little "Stitch" one happy little guy! While we were walking out of the store after buying the shirt we had been looking for, we spied one of my favorite purchases of the trip. A little HSM Wildcats basketball jersey. It was the perfect size for "Stitch" so back up to the register we went and soon we were proud owners of two really cool shirts.
I was so excited about the little jersey that I had "Stitch" change into it right away. **WARNING, MOM MOMENT** I think he looks just adorable in this jersey. With his brown floppy hair, I think he looks like a mini Troy! I just love how adorable he looked in it! **MOM MOMENT OVER...for now**
After shopping (and the quick change), it was time to head to the 50's Prime Time Cafe for lunch. This was to be our first experience here. I was excited (and a wee bit nervous, I didn't want to have to stand in the corner).
Upon checking in, we were lead to our kitchen area. We were sitting in the back part of the restaurant at a corner booth (I mean kitchen table) with a tv playing old shows right in front of us. The 50's stuff all over really made the atmosphere! I wish I had thought to snap some pictures during this meal, but instead, I was really getting into having fun.
Our server (whose name escapes me right now) was great. The first thing she did was come over and throw napkins down on our table. About 20 to 30 of them. They fluttered all over. My boys were stunned. She then asked them why they hadn't called her, "our cousin" to tell her that we were in town. She went on and on about how their aunt was going to be furious if we didn't stop by and see her after our dinner and how our uncle was just talking about our family the other night. My boys quickly caught on and played into the act. Before she left, she spilled silverware and big dinner napkins on to the table and asked "Stitch" to set the table. He looked at her like she was NUTS. Totally nuts. She tried to stay in character, but I think his stare was too much for her and she started laughing so hard that she had to pull up one of the chairs at our table and bury her head laughing. She finally pulled herself together and left with a warning that somebody better set this table before she got back with our drinks...cause what was she, our long lost cousin or was she just like some waitress or something to us?
Upon her return with our drinks, she did find the table set. "Aladdin" had pitched in and done "Stitch's" chore for him. When she got back she thanked "Stitch". Once again, he stared her down...until she stuck her tongue out at him and made a face that had him laughing so hard he had to drop his head on to the table. When he came up for air, he made a face back at her. She told him he had better not do that, because his face could freeze with that look on it. Which made all of us laugh pretty hard. After putting our order in, she came back and pulled up a seat and took a load off. She visited with us for a good five minutes (we ate at the start of the lunch period, maybe she didn't have any other tables?). She ended up inviting herself to spend that night with us at AKL. The boys were loving this interaction. She asked "Goofy" if he thought she could wear what she was wearing now for dinner at AKL. "Goofy" told her she might wanna change cause she looked like a worker.
He told her that might want her to serve the food if she wore that. She once again lost it laughing so hard. She was a really funny, fun and energetic person.
For appetizers the two little ones had chicken noodle soup. "Aladdin" had the fried herb cheese. Dh had the onion rings. I had the shrimp cocktail. Of all them were good. Not great, but really good. Once again, while we ate she sat and visited with us. She also warned us that we had better keep our elbows off of the table, finish what we ordered and not tattle on each other.
We had no problem packing away our appetizers. They were really good. When our main course came out...I knew we were in trouble. There was so much food on that table! Dh and myself both went with the golden fried chicken. It was served with mashed potatoes and southern greens. All three kids had hot dogs. "Aladdin" had an adult portion, which meant he got two.
It was right about the time we got our food that another family was seated in our section. They had another waitress, but our waitress made sure to introduce us to our cousins. We found out they were from England and she pointed out that was probably why we found it hard to remember them, since they didn't come to visit us state side very often.
When they got their appetizers, she asked us to pass them our bottle of ketchup.
As we started to finish up our main courses, she took note of dh's plate and that he had not eaten his greens. So she made sure she had the boys' attention and then she fork fed dh two bites.
I was laughing so hard that it was my turn to bury my head in my arms. Dh tried to tattle on me not eating all of my chicken, but she looked at him with a stern look and told him not to *******..then she went on to say that mommy-to-be didn't have to eat a thing that didn't appeal to her (BONUS POINTS FOR HER).
The dessert menus here are on a Viewmaster reel. It was so much fun to click and pick. I ended up with the angel food cake with fresh berries and whipped cream. Dh chose the brownie sundae. "Stitch and Goofy" chose the decorate your own sundae. "Aladdin" chose an adult size sundae with nothing on it. None of us even came close to finishing dessert...but we sure did have a yummy time trying! The berries on my angel food cake were so fresh and sweet!
About the the time we were finishing up, the family from England was ready to order dessert. Both our waitress and their waitress were right there and asked "Aladdin" if he would take the dessert menu over and show them how to work it (being from the UK they might not remember how...HA HA). "Aladdin" had fun doing that. And then, sadly, it was time for us to pay our bill and leave. This was the one time all vacation that we added to the tip that Disney included in the dining plan. Our server had made our meal so much fun that we doubled her tip...and trust me, it was money very well spent!
After our very fun meal, we walked over took a ride on the Great Movie Ride. Yes, we have done this before, but it's still fun for us. We ended up in the very back row (where they would have put a wheelchair if one was waiting). Let me say this, WHAT A BAD SEAT!! The tram is so long that you are still seeing one area of the set while the front of the tram (and thus your guide) is in the next area and already talking about it. This is not always true, sometimes you do catch up...but it is not the most fun way to ride to even have a few times where the "act" is off. It was no big deal to us (we were able to walk around right away and ride again in different seats), however, I felt badly for those who would never have that choice and always have to ride in the wheelchair accessible tram. I think Disney needs to rethink the placement of the wheelchair accessible car and/or the length of the tram so that no guest has that experience (especially repeatedly).
All of that said, I really do love this ride. Dh really enjoys it. And the boys think it's great. So, we will be back to do this one again, last tram or not!
Next up we headed over and saw the High School Musical Pep Rally. It was a really cute little show...but also a really hot one. Standing on black pavement in the hot afternoon sun...NOT a cool combination! But the pep rally was very worth seeing!!
Here are a few pictures:
If you have a HSM fan in the house, this is a must see stop! The huge float rolls up with music blaring. Then it pulls into place and the performers hop down and start in on their musical numbers. It's a lot of fun to watch and if you already know the music, I bet you won't be able to help yourself from singing along!
Another fun part of the rally was when they brought out big blow up basketballs and hoops and brought them over to crowd. Each of the boys was able to shoot a few baskets. This is not the best picture, but you can see a boy in the background getting ready to shoot one of the balls and you can see our very own little "Troy" standing there in his jersey. He doesn't look into it in this picture, but he really was!
Like I said, it was hard to stop from singing...not to mention stopping yourself from dancing! Which works out, since they have a part of the rally where people are invited to join in the dancing. I loved watching the boys join in! They were far from the liveliest dancers out there...but they really enjoyed themselves. It was a special time for "Stitch". One of the cheerleaders grabbed his hand and kept calling him Troy and walking him to other dancers/cheerleaders and saying "Look he goes to school with us". It was so cute!! I was so glad he had that little Wildcats jersey!
All too soon the fun was over and the dancers had to move back behind the safety lines taped on the ground so that the float could roll off (music still blaring). The pep rally was a ton of fun, but it was also very HOT.
After the pep rally we made our way toward Beauty and the Beast (my one request of the day). We got there with about 15 minutes to spare, so dh and "Aladdin" went out to pick us up some frozen lemonades from the stand outside the theater and the younger boys and I sat down and took a much needed rest (at least for me it was
, the boys could have kept going with no problem). The show was amazing. The costumes were beautiful, the songs wonderful and the story, well, it's my favorite Disney story so I bet you can guess, I really enjoyed that too! A surprising thing that we enjoyed was the singing group that preformed before the show. They were GREAT! I *almost* bought their CD. But, I got distracted after the show and never made my way over to the shop.
Next up for us was the parade...but before that we needed to grab a bench. We followed the good advice we had gotten from a CM last year and made our way over to the Sounds Dangerous area. While dh and "Aladdin" went off to do that, the two younger boys and I grabbed a bench in the shade (WOO HOO
). We made good use of the spray bottle fan they had purchased at MK the day before. In fact, the boys were more then a bit moist by the time they ran out of water.
**Warning, ugly guest story**
As the three of us sat there waiting for dh and "Aladdin", we had spread out on the four person bench. Up to us walked a couple (who appeared to be young and healthy) with a little boy around six years old (the same age as "Stitch") who asked us if we would mind MOVING to one of the benches in the sun as they were really hot and would like to be able to watch the parade in the shade. UMMM...HELLO PEOPLE...we are really hot too! We would like to watch the parade from the shade as well...AND...we got here first!! Now, I am usually one of the nicest people you will meet (at least I try) but ask me to move my kids into the broiling sun so that your "precious son" can be in the shade? Well, somewhere very far under would have to freeze over before that is gonna happen. Now, had they had some sort of medical reason, I am sure that a CM could have found them shaded seating if it was really needed...but I promise, they were all tan (so they must have spent time in the sun) and there son was running circles around them (so he couldn't have been too overheated to be doing that).
I answered that I was sorry, but my kids were hot too and while I totally understood and we had picked this bench for the same reason they were interested in it we were planning on staying on the bench until the parade ended.
The dad looked at me and said, are you seriously not gonna let my wife (who had been the one to ask) sit here?! We asked politely and we have been sitting in the sun for the past 10 minutes watching you guys enjoy the shade...I think it's only fair that we get our turn on the shady bench. UMMM...HELLO AGAIN...DING DONG DADDY...I am PREGNANT (and showing btw), my baby toting self is not moving into the hot sun to fry so your family can stay cool. That's what I thought...but what I answered was that yes, I was not going to move. That benches at WDW are first come, first serve and then I smiled sweetly and wished him luck in finding another shaded area to watch the parade from.
Then the mom chimes back in (YES after I answered them twice already) tell her you are hot sweetie (to her son). Tell this nice woman you would like to be in the shade to watch the parade. Tell her you don't have one of those fancy squirter fans to keep you cool. AND HE DID!! That poor child, I don't know if he was old enough to be mortified by his parents behavior, but one day he will be. That poor, poor kid. I told him as kindly as I could (and I was starting to become a not so nice person at this point) that he could help his parents find another shaded spot (there were ones available without bench seating a few feet down) and if he liked the fans, they were available to buy from almost any store/cart and I was sure his mom and dad would love to buy him one. YES, that was mean to tell him his parents would buy him one, but come on....how low were they to have their son ask me!?
Finally the dad says "SO you won't move, you think your family is entitled to the shady area and you are not gonna budge? Not even for a hot child and woman?" UMMM...HELLO..IS ANYBODY HOME? I had hot children and am a woman myself? I so don't get this argument. Finally, I got fed up and told him that NO, he was not going to badger me, coax me, scare me, guilt me or otherwise convince me to move and that if he asked me one more time I was going to motion for a CM to come over and I am sure that they would be happy to help him find seating but that this bench was occupied and was going to continue to be that way until after the parade was over.
I don't know where they ended up watching the parade, because they sulked off. Let me just interject, even had I not been pregnant or I been a man (ha ha ha) I would not have moved in that situation. How rude of them to even ask. How terrible of them to persist. And most of all, how sad for their son. What a great role model he has in his parents.
BUT...back to the Disney magic we all know and love. My boys had fun pin trading with every CM that walked by while we were waiting. "Goofy" struck up a conversation with one of the CMs that was too funny. He wanted to know if you had to finish 1st grade before you were allowed to work at WDW cause his brother had worked at a shop this morning (HA HA HA remember the cast member had told "Stitch" he was in charge of the shop while he went to check on the shirt?). The poor CM played right along, but I could tell they were lost.
When dh and "Aladdin" got back, dh and I had a good laugh over how near sighted some people really were in seeing the world as owing them everything (including the shaded bench) while we waited the last few minutes for the parade to start. For the rest of the trip if we saw someone doing something we would like to do, one of us would say "Should I go and ask them to give us their ice cream cone, bench, seats, place in line, etc". It became our new inside joke of choice. Just the other day at the grocery store a lady had a purse I liked. I asked dh to go and tell her his wife wanted it and to ask her if I could have it.
It was the not so pleasant moment that turned out to be a load of fun in disguise!
We have had many good laughs over it!!
Up next the MGM parade (from our shaded bench viewing spot).
To be continued...
You are my hero! The Chinatown type area that I get it from isn't that close to where I live and the traffic over there is a nightmare, so it's been awhile. I've been craving it and I think I'm just going to make DH go with me one day!
What a mess! I had a dog once that got ahold of some raw round steak that I had left on the counter to thaw - he ate the whole thing
We also want to take a picture of our newest little guy each time we go to WDW in the same place to show just how he grows over the years. We never really got our acts together and picked a spot and shot the same photo year after year with the others. This time I will be sure to do that! I am thinking about using the Goofy bench at MK. 
Because the next day would find us at another park. 
that you'd just gotten. That is so cool You guys surely had a dream-filled vacation
Good for you holding your ground!
