The Crew:
Paul (31), loves his gadgets, aka young man (!)
Louise (39), planner extraordinaire, aka old girl
Tuesday, April 23rd
We thought we would wake up really early this morning, but because we forced ourselves to stay awake last night, we got up at about 7.15am. We peeked out of the window and saw it was another lovely day just like yesterday when we arrived, so got showered and dressed in shorts and T-shirts. We had coffee, muffins and cinnamon buns on the balcony and were ready to go about an hour later.
I had pre-ordered our 5 day hopper passes online via Florida Orlando Tickets and went further up the 192 to pick them up from their welcome centre. We also picked up a very useful map, as we couldnt see any in Wal-Mart the previous evening, and the one we had didnt have all the roads marked on it. Made our way to MGM, which we found very easily, paid our $6 for parking and proceeded to the Film car park. We boarded the tram and were at the gates by about 9.10am. Went through the security check with only a small queue and straight into the park.
Picked up a guide map and times guide and proceeded up Hollywood Boulevard, stopping to take photos of Sorcerer Mickeys hat. I had wanted to see Beauty and the Beast, but it wasnt showing that day. As the crowd didnt seem quite as large as we had expected, we decided to do the park in a logical clockwise order, so went straight onto the Great Movie Ride with virtually no wait. Quite a nice gentle ride to start with, although I do seem to remember screaming at one point, but this was to become par for the course, along with getting wet, which will come later!
We then went straight onto Star Tours which we enjoyed, albeit a little tame and then went to watch Muppet Vision 3D, which was also very good, and of course I screamed at the appropriate moments! After the obligatory stops in the smoking area for Paul, it was now time to queue up for the first showing of Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular. Paul gave his new gadget a good airing on this show and we both found it quite amusing and enjoyable.
We were feeling a bit hungry by this time, so went to the Backlot Express, which was very handily situated just by Indiana Jones. I liked the theming in here, it did seem like it could have been part of an old backstage film set. Paul had a hotdog and coke and I had a cheeseburger and minute maid, cost $15.76. Paul then remembered that he didnt like American hotdogs, so I dont know why he ordered one, but he ate it all anyway, and my cheeseburger was quite nice too!
We then carried on our clockwise tour and did the Backlot Tour, another entertaining show, and as we were standing on the front row, I managed to get fairly wet, and miraculously Paul managed to escape with hardly a drop on him! He found it very amusing, of course, and had to take a photo. I thought I was quite wet at this point, but that was a mere drop compared to what was to follow in the days ahead. Anyway, it was all good fun and it was really hot, so I dried out quite quickly.
Pauls cousin Faye is getting married in July and wanted to get married in Disney, but they have just found a house, so have had to reschedule their finances and have a quiet wedding back home. However, Faye wanted a Mickey and Minnie in wedding outfits to go on top of her wedding cake and she had been unable to get one in England, so unbeknown to her, Pauls mum asked us if we would get it for her. We saw one shop which we thought looked like it might have them, but didnt, so we asked the assistant and she suggested another one to us. We decided to try to get it today, so that we didnt have to keep looking out for it for the rest of the holiday. One of Pauls work associates, had asked him for a couple of MGM shot glasses too, so we felt that some shopping time was in order.
Whilst on our way round the shops, we passed Cruella DeVil coming in the opposite direction, and she marched by saying get out of my way. This gave us a good laugh and I thought it would be good to get a photo of Paul with her, but she was going too quickly.
We found a Minnie and Mickey in wedding outfits, and it was called a cake topper, but was about 4 tall and 2 wide, which we thought was quite big, so I suggested that Paul phoned home (much like ET) to check that this was the right one, as the last thing we wanted to do was spend $20 on it and get it wrong! Paul spoke to his sister and mum and we all agreed that if it was called a cake topper, then it must be right, so we decided to get it and the shot glasses later on before we left, as a smashed Mickey and Minnie wouldnt look too good!
On our wanders, when we passed Who Wants to be a Millionaire, it was showing a 30 minute wait time, but on our way back, it was down to 5 minutes, so we walked straight in. We were really impressed, even if Kevin, the presenter, looked like a walking advertisement for the all-american white toothed brigade! I didnt have a clue about the fastest finger questions, something about putting American Presidents in order, so I just pressed any buttons, and surprisingly, got it wrong. But a kid got it right, he was only about 12! He was doing quite well until he got to one question, which was something like what colour flag is associated with the socialist or communist political parties. Well, the poor kid didnt know, so elected to phone a complete stranger oh dear, bad move! Some bloke called Wes was handed the phone in the street outside, and sounded like Jethro from the Beverley Hillbillies, in fact I can imagine him wearing dungarees and carrying a pitchfork too! He thought the answer was yellow!!! I think the gasp through the audience, gave it away to the poor kid in the chair that it was not the correct answer, and as he had used his other lifelines he guessed at green. He went away with 1000 points. There was a woman in the chair after the kid who was obviously instantly forgettable because I have!
We decided we were ready for some thrills by this time, so after eating an ice cream and and getting a good view and a few photos of Tower of Terror, it was soon our turn! Only about a 20 minute wait time was posted, and that was fine by us. In fact, we were virtually straight in, and we were fast discovering that the wait times posted were usually over estimated. I really liked the theming inside the hotel, it was very well done. I must say that I was a bit nervous about this one, but it was really very good. There was a lovely view across the park when the doors opened and although I screamed rather a lot, when it finished, I said is that it!
Ok then, I am obviously a bit of a thrill seeker, so on to Rock n Roller Coaster. Another fairly short wait, and Paul was beginning to look a bit nervous especially when we got to the part of the queue where we could see the cars shoot off at breakneck speed. We sat in our car, and he was saying oh no oh no. Then whoosh, off we went. I screamed of course, and Paul was shouting oh yes oh yes woohoo. I found this hilarious and spent most of my time, apart from when I was screaming, laughing at him. We enjoyed this ride, but it finished just as I was getting really into it! By this time, I had a sore throat!
We then went and did Sounds Dangerous, as we had missed it at the beginning, which we again enjoyed, then bought the cake topper and MGM shot glasses and headed back to the car at about 5pm. Unfortunately, we missed the Stars and Cars Parade, but we werent too worried about that, as we had done the whole park as far as we were concerned.
Went back to the condo and rested our eyes for a short time, before deciding to go to Jungle Jims at Crossroads that evening. I had told Paul it was like a poor mans Rainforest Café. I havent been to a Rainforest Cafe but he has been to the one at Euro Disney, and said it was nothing like it, so we decided that we would try to go to the Rainforest Café later on. Paul had a béarnaise burger and coke, and I had a burger with honey and barbeque sauce and a chocolate mocha milkshake. Unfortunately, we had no room for any pudding and the bill was $21.46 plus tip. Very reasonable and the food was good too! Had a quick wander around some of the shops, but didnt see anything very exciting, so headed back, had a coffee on the balcony and reviewed what Paul had videoed, then turned in for the night at about 10pm.
A great first day, we thoroughly enjoyed MGM, and tomorrow its Magic Kingdom!
Paul (31), loves his gadgets, aka young man (!)
Louise (39), planner extraordinaire, aka old girl
Tuesday, April 23rd
We thought we would wake up really early this morning, but because we forced ourselves to stay awake last night, we got up at about 7.15am. We peeked out of the window and saw it was another lovely day just like yesterday when we arrived, so got showered and dressed in shorts and T-shirts. We had coffee, muffins and cinnamon buns on the balcony and were ready to go about an hour later.
I had pre-ordered our 5 day hopper passes online via Florida Orlando Tickets and went further up the 192 to pick them up from their welcome centre. We also picked up a very useful map, as we couldnt see any in Wal-Mart the previous evening, and the one we had didnt have all the roads marked on it. Made our way to MGM, which we found very easily, paid our $6 for parking and proceeded to the Film car park. We boarded the tram and were at the gates by about 9.10am. Went through the security check with only a small queue and straight into the park.
Picked up a guide map and times guide and proceeded up Hollywood Boulevard, stopping to take photos of Sorcerer Mickeys hat. I had wanted to see Beauty and the Beast, but it wasnt showing that day. As the crowd didnt seem quite as large as we had expected, we decided to do the park in a logical clockwise order, so went straight onto the Great Movie Ride with virtually no wait. Quite a nice gentle ride to start with, although I do seem to remember screaming at one point, but this was to become par for the course, along with getting wet, which will come later!
We then went straight onto Star Tours which we enjoyed, albeit a little tame and then went to watch Muppet Vision 3D, which was also very good, and of course I screamed at the appropriate moments! After the obligatory stops in the smoking area for Paul, it was now time to queue up for the first showing of Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular. Paul gave his new gadget a good airing on this show and we both found it quite amusing and enjoyable.
We were feeling a bit hungry by this time, so went to the Backlot Express, which was very handily situated just by Indiana Jones. I liked the theming in here, it did seem like it could have been part of an old backstage film set. Paul had a hotdog and coke and I had a cheeseburger and minute maid, cost $15.76. Paul then remembered that he didnt like American hotdogs, so I dont know why he ordered one, but he ate it all anyway, and my cheeseburger was quite nice too!
We then carried on our clockwise tour and did the Backlot Tour, another entertaining show, and as we were standing on the front row, I managed to get fairly wet, and miraculously Paul managed to escape with hardly a drop on him! He found it very amusing, of course, and had to take a photo. I thought I was quite wet at this point, but that was a mere drop compared to what was to follow in the days ahead. Anyway, it was all good fun and it was really hot, so I dried out quite quickly.
Pauls cousin Faye is getting married in July and wanted to get married in Disney, but they have just found a house, so have had to reschedule their finances and have a quiet wedding back home. However, Faye wanted a Mickey and Minnie in wedding outfits to go on top of her wedding cake and she had been unable to get one in England, so unbeknown to her, Pauls mum asked us if we would get it for her. We saw one shop which we thought looked like it might have them, but didnt, so we asked the assistant and she suggested another one to us. We decided to try to get it today, so that we didnt have to keep looking out for it for the rest of the holiday. One of Pauls work associates, had asked him for a couple of MGM shot glasses too, so we felt that some shopping time was in order.
Whilst on our way round the shops, we passed Cruella DeVil coming in the opposite direction, and she marched by saying get out of my way. This gave us a good laugh and I thought it would be good to get a photo of Paul with her, but she was going too quickly.
We found a Minnie and Mickey in wedding outfits, and it was called a cake topper, but was about 4 tall and 2 wide, which we thought was quite big, so I suggested that Paul phoned home (much like ET) to check that this was the right one, as the last thing we wanted to do was spend $20 on it and get it wrong! Paul spoke to his sister and mum and we all agreed that if it was called a cake topper, then it must be right, so we decided to get it and the shot glasses later on before we left, as a smashed Mickey and Minnie wouldnt look too good!
On our wanders, when we passed Who Wants to be a Millionaire, it was showing a 30 minute wait time, but on our way back, it was down to 5 minutes, so we walked straight in. We were really impressed, even if Kevin, the presenter, looked like a walking advertisement for the all-american white toothed brigade! I didnt have a clue about the fastest finger questions, something about putting American Presidents in order, so I just pressed any buttons, and surprisingly, got it wrong. But a kid got it right, he was only about 12! He was doing quite well until he got to one question, which was something like what colour flag is associated with the socialist or communist political parties. Well, the poor kid didnt know, so elected to phone a complete stranger oh dear, bad move! Some bloke called Wes was handed the phone in the street outside, and sounded like Jethro from the Beverley Hillbillies, in fact I can imagine him wearing dungarees and carrying a pitchfork too! He thought the answer was yellow!!! I think the gasp through the audience, gave it away to the poor kid in the chair that it was not the correct answer, and as he had used his other lifelines he guessed at green. He went away with 1000 points. There was a woman in the chair after the kid who was obviously instantly forgettable because I have!
We decided we were ready for some thrills by this time, so after eating an ice cream and and getting a good view and a few photos of Tower of Terror, it was soon our turn! Only about a 20 minute wait time was posted, and that was fine by us. In fact, we were virtually straight in, and we were fast discovering that the wait times posted were usually over estimated. I really liked the theming inside the hotel, it was very well done. I must say that I was a bit nervous about this one, but it was really very good. There was a lovely view across the park when the doors opened and although I screamed rather a lot, when it finished, I said is that it!
Ok then, I am obviously a bit of a thrill seeker, so on to Rock n Roller Coaster. Another fairly short wait, and Paul was beginning to look a bit nervous especially when we got to the part of the queue where we could see the cars shoot off at breakneck speed. We sat in our car, and he was saying oh no oh no. Then whoosh, off we went. I screamed of course, and Paul was shouting oh yes oh yes woohoo. I found this hilarious and spent most of my time, apart from when I was screaming, laughing at him. We enjoyed this ride, but it finished just as I was getting really into it! By this time, I had a sore throat!
We then went and did Sounds Dangerous, as we had missed it at the beginning, which we again enjoyed, then bought the cake topper and MGM shot glasses and headed back to the car at about 5pm. Unfortunately, we missed the Stars and Cars Parade, but we werent too worried about that, as we had done the whole park as far as we were concerned.
Went back to the condo and rested our eyes for a short time, before deciding to go to Jungle Jims at Crossroads that evening. I had told Paul it was like a poor mans Rainforest Café. I havent been to a Rainforest Cafe but he has been to the one at Euro Disney, and said it was nothing like it, so we decided that we would try to go to the Rainforest Café later on. Paul had a béarnaise burger and coke, and I had a burger with honey and barbeque sauce and a chocolate mocha milkshake. Unfortunately, we had no room for any pudding and the bill was $21.46 plus tip. Very reasonable and the food was good too! Had a quick wander around some of the shops, but didnt see anything very exciting, so headed back, had a coffee on the balcony and reviewed what Paul had videoed, then turned in for the night at about 10pm.
A great first day, we thoroughly enjoyed MGM, and tomorrow its Magic Kingdom!
