When we got back to our room there was a bellboy dropping off my parents bags at our room. I was pretty impressed with how quickly the bags had arrived from the airport. I think we were all ready for a good nights sleep to get ourselves ready for our first Disney day.
My parents didn't have the hopper option for this trip, so with the delays we only had one full day per park. We had no real touring strategy for any of our trip other than this one morning, because of Toy Story Mania. It's probably a good thing that we did, because it was one of the busier mornings we had. Besides being a Fantasmic day, it was also the last day of ESPN the Weekend. Rope drop was crawling with tons of men with bagfulls of stuff to be autographed. I think all the wives, girlfriends and mothers were heading to TSM.
Our last family trip my mother was the one in the wheelchair with a pinched sciatic nerve. This trip it was my father. Last year on our trip to the Flume in New Hampshire he tore the minsicus in his left knee. He's been going back and forth to doctors ever since, only to find out that it's a non-repairable injury. Years of physical stress from his job have done too much damage, and the tear on vacation was the final straw for it. It's not quite bad enough yet to warrant a knee replacement, but it's still pretty painful for him especially when walking up and down hills, steps and when getting up and down from a seated position. We got him the wheelchair the entire vacation, but he was pretty stubborn and refused to sit in it most of the time.
He did at least say that it helped him to walk with it, using it as a walker.
Since I was the fastest walker of the three of us, the plan was for me to take all the tickets and get fastpasses, while my parents headed over to the regular line. Before heading to the rope drop area I still found time to have my mom take a picture of me and Bo.
I was able to work my way through the crowd pretty easily, and was faced with the decision on whether to stay on the main road, or on the part where it splits off in front of the Brown Derby. I chose to head over to the Brown Derby and it ended up being a pretty good decision. I was right in back of the rope. Sweet!
Rope drop went super easily. The two cast members in charge of our rope, as well as the ones on the main street walked us all the way to where the two roads met before letting the rope drop altogether. The crowd wasn't too crazy heading over to the ride and fastpass machines. The machine I got in line for was actually not working, so a cast member handed me three passes as I approached. I almost beat my parents to the main line. The sweet thing about riding TSM first thing in the morning is that the line moves pretty quickly. I love the line before the fastpass return opens and slows the line down to a crawl. For once I beat someone on this ride!
I'll enjoy it while I can. When I go with my BFF this October, I know she'll beat me. She's just way more competitive than me.
Since we had been handed our Fastpasses, we stopped by the machines and picked one up in the regular way on the way out.
One of best things about being there during ESPN the weekend was that there was a lot ot neat sports related streetmosphere going on. Some of the streetmosphere fans where scarily almost indistinguishable from the real fans.
When new athletes arrived to be on the show they'd parade them down Hollywood Boulevard in a cavalcade. We managed to be there when Scottie Pippen was arriving with Minnie.
The rest of the day we spent wandering where ever struck our fancy. My last 4-5 trips have been commando style trips, so I really enjoyed taking it slow for a change. I was however a bit disappointed that the Singing in the Rain umbrella wasn't raining. In the words of LL, Pffftttt!
At some point, my father pitched a bit of a little diva fit and stomped off for awhile. I don't even remember now what it was over, but for him this is a fairly regular occurance. My mom and I actually get a good laugh out of them, so we just enjoyed having a few minutes to ourselves and stopped to have our picture taken in front of the hat. I think the photographer was trying to block out the ESPN stage set up in front of the hat, because he got way too close.
Eventually dad rejoined us, and we went to catch one of my mother's favorite attractions, the Beauty and the Beast show.
When I had booked our ADR for the Brown Derby I was a bit worried about how early it was (3:30pm). It turned out to be a good thing. I don't think I had properly planned for how long it would take my parents to finish a meal. While I don't mind taking my time enjoying a good meal, there is a point where I start to get antsy sitting at the table for too long. We hit that point several times during this trip. How in the world have I reached the age I am without knowing my parents eat so slowly and like to linger so long?
Our meal at the Brown Derby was fantastic at any rate. I toyed with the idea of trying something new, but in the end I went with what I love - the crabcake appetizer and the Cobb salad for my entrée. So good! I couldn't even finish the salad they gave em so much. I had to leave room for desert, right? While I tend to stick with the same tried and true options for my meals, I will try new things for deserts. Even though I love the white chocolate toffee tower, I had to try the cheesecake that LL is always raving about. It was to die for! Utter creamy, cheesecakey goodness. Sorry no food porn from this trip!
After dinner we headed over to the American Idol Experience. I have never actually ever seen an episode, but my mother is a huge fan and wanted to see this. I actually ended up being really pleasantly surprised. The three girls who sang where great, and the one who won was phenomenol. I hadn't been in that theater since they used to do the Superstar Television show in there, so it was kind of neat being in there again.
We had a nice leisurely walk over to the Fantasmic theater after the American Idol show. My family are all ardent NY Yankees fans, so we were pretty excited that Bernie Williams was performing on the ESPN stage as we passed by. We stopped for awhile to hear him playing.
Fantasmic actually wasn't all that crowded that night. The theater never filled up. Since we had my father in the wheelchair, so were seated in the last row, maybe a section off from dead center. Great seats! My mother and I tend to be big kids when it comes to silly toys at Disney, my mother maybe a bit moreso than me. On a trip I took with them back in 1997, she drove us nuts the entire trip until she found a light up snowglobe Sorcerer Mickey wand she had seen a little girl with.
This trip the two of us had spotted someone with a glow in the dark Tinkerbell pin and we had been on the hunt for them all day long. We spotted them at a cart just as we entered the theater and in a matter of minutes the two of us "kids" were sporting our new glowear. My father was a bit entertained.
One of the nice things about touring the parks in the off-season is how early they shut down. I know that sounds pretty crazy, but for a compulsive commando like me, it's almost nice to be forced out of the park and sent home before it's really late. Fantasmic was over by 7:30 and we were back in our room before it was too late. I ran back to the room to get our cups and we hung out for awhile munching on some more beignets. (Again, like dinner, really slowly!)
Back in our room we turned up the heat (I can't tell you how odd it felt to be turning on the heat while in Florida) and got to bed fairly early. Next day would be a bit more taxing at the Magic Kingdom.
for Building 5 - we were in Building 5 the last two trips there! Perfect location IMHO. Last trip there (the one where we met on the bus) we had a 1st floor room that was literally 25 feet from the food court and 50 feet from the pool. Just awesome! But the time before that we were on the opposite side of the pool, third floor as far away from the main building as possible, and I STILL loved the room location.
I need the change of scenery too. I actually don't think I could ever move from NE.
OMG that is my biggest fear of flying out in the winter. DH always wants to go to Disney for Feb vacation but I am always afraid of flying in Feb and Mar since the weather is unpredicatable. So glad you made it though.
