Day 1- October 27, 2007
Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting
.
Have you ever woken up to the sound of a large group of martial artists practicing right outside your room? No? You must not have been staying at All Star Sports during the Martial Arts festival!
Apparently, the downside of staying in a room facing the giant football field is that people use it to do very loud things! There were teams outside practicing, and that seemed to involve yelling words to accompany each move. No sleep for me!
I snapped a pic of my window decorations- not very impressive!
On my way out to get breakfast, I noticed a group of Chinese men settling down at a table outside the main building. I wished my Chinese was better so I could eavesdrop and figure out what their spirited conversation was about, but since none of them seemed to be saying Hello! or I understand English, I was out of luck for understanding!
Down at the food court, I searched for breakfast, but nothing sounded good today. They were out of chocolate croissants! And almost everything offered was a big breakfast plate, and I just cant eat that much in the morning. I ended up grabbing a Mickey-shaped Rice Krispy treat
thats almost like having cereal, right? Right?
After devouring Mickeys head, I went out to catch a bus to MGM. You may remember from my January report that despite being there 9 days, I somehow totally missed getting to MGM! So this trip, I wanted to go first thing, to avoid doing just that.
Truth be told, Im not a huge MGM fan. I love Tower of Terror, the Muppet movie, Star Tours, wandering the Streets of America, and the Streetmosphere characters, but thats it. Somehow the park as a whole doesnt do it for me, which is really weird since I love movies, and the whole Hollywood theme. Ive read some peoples reports where they say they just dont like Animal Kingdom, no matter what they try, and I guess its like that for me with MGM. I try to like it, but we just never seem to click!
That said, you wont be too surprised to find out that I was there less than two hours. I think I was still a little tired from traveling, a little hungry from a non-satisfying breakfast, and I still hadnt dropped the bad attitude that had been hovering around my head at home lately. Poor MGM, someday youll get a fair chance with me, I promise!
But back to the time I WAS there! My first stop (after swinging through guest relations to grab a new AP) was Sids- a shop right inside the gates that sells movie memorabilia. Its mostly autographed photos, but if you poke around a little, you can find some nifty stuff. I stopped outside to read the trivia board, and knew 8/10. The CM told me the answers to the other two, and offered to give me the certificate anyway, but I said that felt like cheating, so I passed. I want to earn my movie trivia, darnit!
The front yard of Sids shop
In the back of his truck
Outside, I was nearly run over by the start of the High School Musical show (eeep!), and then did some browsing through the stores on my way towards the Star Tours area. I have to lament the old days of Disney shopping- I may be crazy, but it seems like the stores used to be much more specific than they are now. You would find treasures at certain stores that you wouldnt find anywhere else in WDW. Now everything has been generalized, and the more unique things seem to have gone the way of the dinosaurs. Sadness!
The line for Star Tours was way longer than I cared to stand around, so instead I poked around in Tattooine Traders for a while.
The Jedi Training academy was going on- I like that they made this a year-round thing!
Nerd Heaven
I love this shirt! Should have bought it.
I really want an Artoo Potatoo!
I managed not to buy *everything* at Tattooine Traders, but I did walk out with a new SW t-shirt. (It comes into play later today!)
Since the Star Tours line was still WAY long, I wandered over to the Muppets area:
I meant to get a photo of the key under the mat, but Im always moving so quickly through the queue that I forget! Next time!
I did, however, get a video of Sam Eagle, for your enjoyment!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSDJua7PKbE
(shot on my camera phone, so it sucks, but still makes me laugh!)
I got a lot of weird looks for taking photos in the pre-show area, but those people can bite me!
I wonder how many times THESE guys have seen the show?
And of course the theme continues to the shops after the show
I had to take this pic for Katie. Everytime were in Norway at Epcot, I try to do the You are not the first to pass this way
, but my Norwegian accent always comes out sounding like the Swedish Chef. So now I just embrace it. You are not the first to pass this way
bork bork bork!
I'm about to hit my photo limit for the post, so more later!
I kept waiting to see you over on the TR board... now I have to go back and catch up... 
