elgerber
DIS Legend
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2000
- Messages
- 24,404
Cast of Characters
Erika, me, 32, Disney fanatic for as long as I can remember. Would really love to live in WDW.
Steve, dh, 33, not as fanatic as I, but really enjoys WDW.
Matthew, ds, 8, also not as fanatic, but loves WDW
Alexa 5, huge fanatic, just like me. Also would like to live in WDW.
Day 7, Friday August 31st
This was the only other day I dragged everyone out of bed early. I wanted one more good morning at the MK. We got to the bus stop as quickly as we could, but ended up going through the front gates, just as they announced park opening. On the bus, my son decided he would try Big Thunder Mountain this time. I had been bugging him, since our last trip, telling him he'd love it. I told them to head on in, while I opened up and organized the stroller when we got off the bus. Dd and I headed for Fantasyland. We decided to skip Dumbo this time and head straight for Pooh. Well, it was a nice thought, but Pooh wasn't working for some reason. This was the second time Pooh was down while we were there. We went for Peter Pan instead. We walked right into a ship, and when we were done we walked right back on again. At this point dh radios and says, he and ds had already done Thunder twice and were heading to Splash (my sons first time on this as well), and if I wanted to ride Thunder too, I should head over, since there was still no line. So off dd and I went to wait for them to get off Splash. On our way, we passed Mickey Mouse, who was strolling down the street in Frontierland. I just cannot get enough of running into the Mouse like that, makes me giddy every time. We arrived at the Bridge by the drop for Splash and dh radioed that they were on their log and making their way around. I told him to let me know when they were going down the big drop so I could get a picture. It worked out great, I got a great shot of them coming down. It was so empty still, that they had sent down 4 empty logs in a row before theirs. Now we had to wait a few minutes while they got off and then they wanted to buy their picture. I was getting antsy since I wanted to get to Toontown at 10, and there seemed to be loads of people entering the line for Big Thunder. They finally came out, and I grabbed my son and we ran over to get in line for Big Thunder. My fears were unfounded however, we walked straight down the ramp and into the gates for the next train. I radioed dh and told him I thought we should hop the train to Toontown when we were done, so he should pack up the stroller and be ready to go. Off we went for our ride on Big Thunder, and my son is now a veteran, actually raising his hands a little on the hills LOL. I told him he'd love it! After we were done, we waited for our train to Toontown. This was a thrill in itself for my son, he is a huge train fanatic, and was just fascinated to get to ride a real steam engine. We ended up arriving in Toontown about 10:15 or so, and I wanted to get the characters out of the way quickly, I had heard the lines can get just awful. My dd wanted to go to Minnies house, so we went there first. It was not crowded, and we got some darling pics. She pushed the microwave button, thinking it did nothing, and nearly jumped out of her skin when popcorn started popping! She then burst out laughing, she thought that was so great. My gripe with Minnie's house is no AC. It was sooooooooooooo hot in there, and it was only morning. All the other buildings have AC, why not Minnies??? We headed to Mickey's after that, much cooler in his house. The house is just darling, I love it, and we got more great pictures. When we got to the tent with the line, much to my surprise, there was no line. We waited about a minute, then we were in with Mickey. Have I mentioned how much I love that mouse?? LOL. We then headed for the other characters, again expecting lines. We chose the line with Minnie and Goofy and Max first, the middle line, and when we walked through, found only a couple of people waiting in front of us. Again, only about a minute wait, and we were in with the characters. The same went for each of the 3 lines. Next was Cinderella and Suzy mouse. This time we had a few more people, but still only had to wait a couple minutes. Everyone went to Cindy first, so my kids saw Suzy first. It was so cute. When they were done, no one else was seeing Suzy, so she started dancing by herself, then she grabbed my kids and they danced in circles with her. It was just precious!!! I have a picture, and my dd has the biggest smile on her face! Then it was our turn for Cinderella, and this was the best one we have ever seen. She spent so much time talking to them, and asking them about their favorite things, and telling them they were special. She almost had me in tears, she was truly a princess! Our next line was Pooh, which had been the longest line when we went through the other lines. Not this time. We saw Pooh, Tigger and Eeyore, with only one other family. It was like our own private time. We got to play with the Characters, and got a picture with the kids with all 3 Characters together, as well as individually. I forgot to push the button on the pen so Tigger could sign, so he spent the next minute or so, trying to make sure he kept my brains in my head, but putting his hands over my ears LOL. I couldn't believe we had been able to see all 3 groups of characters, in less than 40 minutes. Then we got sucked into the gift shop they are in, what a great store! We probably spent another 20 in there LOL. Next we checked out the barnstormer, and this time it was truly a walk on. No line whatsoever! We rode, and dd says "I want to go again", no line, so she did! She just loved that. Now we were getting hungry so we had lunch at Cosmic Rays again. Given a choice, I always choose the air-conditioned eatery LOL. On the way to lunch, we got 2 fastpasses for Pooh for dd and me, and 2 for Buzz, for dh and ds. We found this to be a great plan at every park, get fastpasses, eat lunch, and then walk on when were done eating. This time, it was not quite so efficient. Before we used our passes we took a ride on the People Mover (I know, not the proper name anymore). Then we went to use our passes. The fast pass line for Pooh was horrible! We were at least 20 feet out into the sun in this line. We hadn't even got into the shade yet, when dh called and said they were done already on Buzz. I told him we were going to be awhile, they should go ahead to Pirates. I meant they should ride Pirates, but he misunderstood and thought they should wait for us to ride. Dd was not going on Pirates for anything, even though I told her she'd love it. They did the treehouse on their way, so they didn't waste too much time. Meanwhile, it took us forever to get on Pooh. That was probably our biggest wait of the whole trip, and the only time I've ever had a bad fast pass experience. We headed to meet dh and found out halfway there, they were waiting for us for Pirates. We cleared that up, and dd and I browsed the shopping areas by Aladdin while we waited. When they were done on Pirates, we did another walk on on Aladdin. This time the camels missed us completely. I was so hot, I was looking forward to those camels, and they let me down LOL. We let the kids drive the radio controlled boats by the Jungle Cruise and headed back to Main St. We were going to do the Jungle Cruise, it said 10 minutes, but the line was backed way out of the gates, and I know how long that line can wind inside, so we skipped it. On our way out, I made another first aid stop,and got some more lotion for my hand. It got much worse out in the heat. Then we made our way to the front gates, by way of the gift shops LOL. Of course, this meant I had to buy some more pins before we could leave. Ds rode two big rides today he hadn't ridden, so he just had to have those ride pins for his lanyard right??? LOL. We went back to the hotel for another afternoon at Stormalong Bay, before our rainchecks for Fantasmic. After a couple hours in the pool, they sky got kinda dark. Uh oh, next thing we know it's pouring on us in the pool. Now that's an interesting experience, being in the pool and getting poured on. Most people didn't bat an eyelash, and just kept on swimming. This was one of those brief showers I had heard about, but had yet to see on our trip. About 15 minutes later however, the skies lit up and the pool was closed down for lightening. Oh no, not tonight, this is our last chance for Fantasmic, and our 3rd attempt. Please stop storming!! We crossed our fingers and went for dinner at Beaches and Cream. We had the same waitress, Dolores, that we had when we were there back in December. She was great again. This time I decided to try a hot dog, since I remember their chicken being plain.. The hot dog was HUGE and I thought there was no way I could eat it all. Wrong again! It was so good, I polished off the whole thing, and in a hurry. The kids wanted to play a few games in the arcade, so they did that, while I took our mugs back to the room. We met at the dock, and headed to MGM. The lightening had stopped, but it was still rather cloudy. We took our seats and hoped we'd get to see it this time. Someone must have been looking out for us, because this time we saw it!!!!! We were so happy. Dd is awestruck by this show, she doesn't look away for a second. This is a sharp contrast from her first time, when she buried her head and wouldn't even look until it was over LOL. I love this show too, give me goosebumps at the end, just like Illuminations. Finally a good night at MGM.
Erika, me, 32, Disney fanatic for as long as I can remember. Would really love to live in WDW.
Steve, dh, 33, not as fanatic as I, but really enjoys WDW.
Matthew, ds, 8, also not as fanatic, but loves WDW
Alexa 5, huge fanatic, just like me. Also would like to live in WDW.
Day 7, Friday August 31st
This was the only other day I dragged everyone out of bed early. I wanted one more good morning at the MK. We got to the bus stop as quickly as we could, but ended up going through the front gates, just as they announced park opening. On the bus, my son decided he would try Big Thunder Mountain this time. I had been bugging him, since our last trip, telling him he'd love it. I told them to head on in, while I opened up and organized the stroller when we got off the bus. Dd and I headed for Fantasyland. We decided to skip Dumbo this time and head straight for Pooh. Well, it was a nice thought, but Pooh wasn't working for some reason. This was the second time Pooh was down while we were there. We went for Peter Pan instead. We walked right into a ship, and when we were done we walked right back on again. At this point dh radios and says, he and ds had already done Thunder twice and were heading to Splash (my sons first time on this as well), and if I wanted to ride Thunder too, I should head over, since there was still no line. So off dd and I went to wait for them to get off Splash. On our way, we passed Mickey Mouse, who was strolling down the street in Frontierland. I just cannot get enough of running into the Mouse like that, makes me giddy every time. We arrived at the Bridge by the drop for Splash and dh radioed that they were on their log and making their way around. I told him to let me know when they were going down the big drop so I could get a picture. It worked out great, I got a great shot of them coming down. It was so empty still, that they had sent down 4 empty logs in a row before theirs. Now we had to wait a few minutes while they got off and then they wanted to buy their picture. I was getting antsy since I wanted to get to Toontown at 10, and there seemed to be loads of people entering the line for Big Thunder. They finally came out, and I grabbed my son and we ran over to get in line for Big Thunder. My fears were unfounded however, we walked straight down the ramp and into the gates for the next train. I radioed dh and told him I thought we should hop the train to Toontown when we were done, so he should pack up the stroller and be ready to go. Off we went for our ride on Big Thunder, and my son is now a veteran, actually raising his hands a little on the hills LOL. I told him he'd love it! After we were done, we waited for our train to Toontown. This was a thrill in itself for my son, he is a huge train fanatic, and was just fascinated to get to ride a real steam engine. We ended up arriving in Toontown about 10:15 or so, and I wanted to get the characters out of the way quickly, I had heard the lines can get just awful. My dd wanted to go to Minnies house, so we went there first. It was not crowded, and we got some darling pics. She pushed the microwave button, thinking it did nothing, and nearly jumped out of her skin when popcorn started popping! She then burst out laughing, she thought that was so great. My gripe with Minnie's house is no AC. It was sooooooooooooo hot in there, and it was only morning. All the other buildings have AC, why not Minnies??? We headed to Mickey's after that, much cooler in his house. The house is just darling, I love it, and we got more great pictures. When we got to the tent with the line, much to my surprise, there was no line. We waited about a minute, then we were in with Mickey. Have I mentioned how much I love that mouse?? LOL. We then headed for the other characters, again expecting lines. We chose the line with Minnie and Goofy and Max first, the middle line, and when we walked through, found only a couple of people waiting in front of us. Again, only about a minute wait, and we were in with the characters. The same went for each of the 3 lines. Next was Cinderella and Suzy mouse. This time we had a few more people, but still only had to wait a couple minutes. Everyone went to Cindy first, so my kids saw Suzy first. It was so cute. When they were done, no one else was seeing Suzy, so she started dancing by herself, then she grabbed my kids and they danced in circles with her. It was just precious!!! I have a picture, and my dd has the biggest smile on her face! Then it was our turn for Cinderella, and this was the best one we have ever seen. She spent so much time talking to them, and asking them about their favorite things, and telling them they were special. She almost had me in tears, she was truly a princess! Our next line was Pooh, which had been the longest line when we went through the other lines. Not this time. We saw Pooh, Tigger and Eeyore, with only one other family. It was like our own private time. We got to play with the Characters, and got a picture with the kids with all 3 Characters together, as well as individually. I forgot to push the button on the pen so Tigger could sign, so he spent the next minute or so, trying to make sure he kept my brains in my head, but putting his hands over my ears LOL. I couldn't believe we had been able to see all 3 groups of characters, in less than 40 minutes. Then we got sucked into the gift shop they are in, what a great store! We probably spent another 20 in there LOL. Next we checked out the barnstormer, and this time it was truly a walk on. No line whatsoever! We rode, and dd says "I want to go again", no line, so she did! She just loved that. Now we were getting hungry so we had lunch at Cosmic Rays again. Given a choice, I always choose the air-conditioned eatery LOL. On the way to lunch, we got 2 fastpasses for Pooh for dd and me, and 2 for Buzz, for dh and ds. We found this to be a great plan at every park, get fastpasses, eat lunch, and then walk on when were done eating. This time, it was not quite so efficient. Before we used our passes we took a ride on the People Mover (I know, not the proper name anymore). Then we went to use our passes. The fast pass line for Pooh was horrible! We were at least 20 feet out into the sun in this line. We hadn't even got into the shade yet, when dh called and said they were done already on Buzz. I told him we were going to be awhile, they should go ahead to Pirates. I meant they should ride Pirates, but he misunderstood and thought they should wait for us to ride. Dd was not going on Pirates for anything, even though I told her she'd love it. They did the treehouse on their way, so they didn't waste too much time. Meanwhile, it took us forever to get on Pooh. That was probably our biggest wait of the whole trip, and the only time I've ever had a bad fast pass experience. We headed to meet dh and found out halfway there, they were waiting for us for Pirates. We cleared that up, and dd and I browsed the shopping areas by Aladdin while we waited. When they were done on Pirates, we did another walk on on Aladdin. This time the camels missed us completely. I was so hot, I was looking forward to those camels, and they let me down LOL. We let the kids drive the radio controlled boats by the Jungle Cruise and headed back to Main St. We were going to do the Jungle Cruise, it said 10 minutes, but the line was backed way out of the gates, and I know how long that line can wind inside, so we skipped it. On our way out, I made another first aid stop,and got some more lotion for my hand. It got much worse out in the heat. Then we made our way to the front gates, by way of the gift shops LOL. Of course, this meant I had to buy some more pins before we could leave. Ds rode two big rides today he hadn't ridden, so he just had to have those ride pins for his lanyard right??? LOL. We went back to the hotel for another afternoon at Stormalong Bay, before our rainchecks for Fantasmic. After a couple hours in the pool, they sky got kinda dark. Uh oh, next thing we know it's pouring on us in the pool. Now that's an interesting experience, being in the pool and getting poured on. Most people didn't bat an eyelash, and just kept on swimming. This was one of those brief showers I had heard about, but had yet to see on our trip. About 15 minutes later however, the skies lit up and the pool was closed down for lightening. Oh no, not tonight, this is our last chance for Fantasmic, and our 3rd attempt. Please stop storming!! We crossed our fingers and went for dinner at Beaches and Cream. We had the same waitress, Dolores, that we had when we were there back in December. She was great again. This time I decided to try a hot dog, since I remember their chicken being plain.. The hot dog was HUGE and I thought there was no way I could eat it all. Wrong again! It was so good, I polished off the whole thing, and in a hurry. The kids wanted to play a few games in the arcade, so they did that, while I took our mugs back to the room. We met at the dock, and headed to MGM. The lightening had stopped, but it was still rather cloudy. We took our seats and hoped we'd get to see it this time. Someone must have been looking out for us, because this time we saw it!!!!! We were so happy. Dd is awestruck by this show, she doesn't look away for a second. This is a sharp contrast from her first time, when she buried her head and wouldn't even look until it was over LOL. I love this show too, give me goosebumps at the end, just like Illuminations. Finally a good night at MGM.
thanks for posting these.
