Friday, June 24 MGM
The Cast:
Me, the Disney-fanatic
DH, Craig, who puts up with my Disney obsession
DD, Jessica, age 10, part fish, goes with the flow for just about anything
DS, Ryan, age 6, also part fish, would prefer to always have his way
BIL and SIL, Craig's brother and his wife, joining us for the weekend
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
After too many early mornings, we slept in this morning, at least by Disney standards. We still got to MGM at 9. We walked over this morning. Its really a nice walk along the canal. Craigs brother and his wife would be joining us mid-day today.
This was the last of the extended Star Wars weekends, so the Stormtroopers (I think thats what those white guys are called? Someone will correct me if Im wrong, Im sure!) were all over the place.
While getting fast passes for Rock n Rollercoaster, we ran into Mike Check doing a juggling show. Ryan got pulled into the show to pick up the cups that he had dropped all over the ground. Once he had them all stacked up, Mike dropped another one and made Ryan come back and get it. Every time Ryan would put a cup on the top, Mike would let the bottom one fall. It had Ryan giggling.
We grabbed four fastpasses to Rock n Rollercoaster, figuring we would sort out who was riding later since Ryan is still about an inch and a half too short. Then we went on the Great Movie Ride. It was starting to drizzle a bit, and we hadnt had breakfast, so we figured it was a good time for an early lunch.
We wandered through the Star Wars area and ended up at the Backlot Express, simply because it was the first thing we came to and we wanted to try to stay dry today. It was a typical Disney fast food lunch of chicken fingers and hot dogs. At least it was something besides pizza.
We had been keeping tabs on BIL and SILs progress by cell phone, and they were now on the bus to the hotel. Jessica and I figured we would go do our Rock n Rollercoaster ride, so we left the boys with instructions to meet us in front of the Animation tour, and to send BIL and SIL there as well. While we were taking two spins with our four fastpasses on the coaster, Ryan got hooked on a Star Wars light saber video game they were demonstrating in the Backlot Express, but they were all sold out (but I found one later at Once Upon a Toy and it is now in my closet waiting for his birthday). The boys also had time for Playhouse Disney something I thought the kids were too old for as even Ryan is more into Power Rangers and Spongebob than Bear in the Big Blue House, but apparently Ryan enjoyed it.
We all found each other in front of the animation studio. The first showing of Millionaire that was NOT all Star Wars questions was starting soon, so we headed there first. The kids like this show. Im not sure why Ryan likes it since he cant read yet and just presses whatever button Im pressing, but he enjoys himself.
The winner of the first question was a teacher. At the 1000 point level, they showed the leader board and I was in third. The woman missed the next question, and I knew I had gotten it right, and pretty quickly. Sure enough, up comes the leader board and my seat is at the top! Woo hoo! Free cruise, here I come!
It was a long walk from the top row to the floor, let me tell you. Especially when you are concentration on not tripping and trying not to look at yourself on the monitor. And it is much harder to answer questions when you are watching that timer tick away and there is a spotlight in your face. I rolled through the first five questions to get to the 1000 point level easily. The next question was a Disney question. No chance Im missing a Disney question. I was positive Grandmother Willow couldnt fly.
Then came the 4000 point question: What is the name for the background noise made by extras in a movie? I dont remember what all the choices were, but I had no clue. So I did the ask the audience.
They had no clue either.
Thanks a lot. When the first contestant did ask the audience on one of her questions it was a 98% majority. While it may be embarrassing to know you are in the 2% of the people that DONT know the answer to a question, at least you know youve got the right answer.
I was sure it wasnt the first choice (gaffer I knew that was the electrician), but I wasnt sure of the other three. The timer was ticking away and I panicked and went with the one the audience chose by 35%. Wrong answer. Bummer. No free cruise for me. I should have used a 50/50 and hoped to get lucky that one of the choices left was gaffer.
Apparently the term is walla. I have yet to meet anyone that was able to pull that term out of their hats.
But I still got a free hat and lanyard and pins, so it was pretty cool. Craig has been following me around going walla walla ever since. He, of course, insists he knew that was the answer. After I got my prizes and signed off on some form, I got to get a quick picture in the hot seat.
Since we were right next door to the Backlot Tour, we decided to do that next. Ryan was now in I dont want to do this mode. We bribed him with promises of Power Rangers afterwards. SIL and Craig were lucky enough to be on the wet side of the tram part of the ride. It was hot, and I was jealous.
We had promised Power Rangers (which I personally cant stand, but I cant seem to avoid them with a 6 year old boy in the house), so we killed some time in the Honey I Shrunk the Kids Playground while we waited for them to appear. How do people keep from losing their kids in here? Its crazy. I was posted by the door while Craig went to hunt them down, and someone Jessica still managed to slip out past me when Craig found her and sent her to me. Mental note to avoid this place in the future.
We found out what corner the Red Ranger (hes the best, you know) would be on, and got into a sort of line, sort of mob scene over there. The Rangers came out and took their corners. We waited our turn with the Red Ranger. After making me take a million pictures in various karate poses in the first 4 days of this trip, when Ryan gets up to the Red Ranger he just stands there. What a goofball.
We head over to the White Ranger next, but its clear the line is too long. They really dont stay out very long, these guys. Im not sure how much longer I could stand the music blasting from their car either.
We were having an early dinner with the Fantasmic package at Mama Melrose. We stopped to see the Muppet movie on the way, even though Ryan didnt want to. He really was having a good time, he just wanted to be the one to pick everything. I think we may gone wrong here somewhere. Jessica certainly isnt like that. Craig says he was the same way as a kid, so Im going to pass on his grandmothers blessing and hope that Ryan has a kid JUST LIKE HIM. I feel much better now.
Despite mixed reviews of Mama Melrose, I have to say we really liked to food. The salad was good, and the two flatbreads we had to share were very good as well. And everyone liked their entrees. The dessert choices could have been better there were too many coffee flavored choices for this non-coffee drinking group, so we ended up with gelatis from the kids menu. But we were too full for real desserts anyway. The package comes with a lot of food. I think if we had booked the dining package for this trip we would never have been able to eat all the food.
We had fast passes for the 6:40 stunt show. Jessica was disappointed that we werent going to have time to do Animation Tour between doing the stunt show and doing Fantasmic, so her aunt and uncle came to the rescue. They had already seen the stunt show on a previous trip, so they took Jessica to the animation tour. They came back with a rather good drawing of Stitch.
Meanwhile, we saw the stunt show. We liked this a lot. Ryan had been looking forward to the guy catching on fire for months after seeing it on the web site, and he wasnt disappointed. The show drags out a bit in between stunts, but definitely an attraction worth repeating.
We meandered our way to the front of the park, stopping to shop and pick up our packages from earlier on the way to the back entrance to Fantasmic. We arrived around 8:30 for the 9pm show, and the theatre wasnt full. We could have walked into the section on the far right without having the package. Good thing the food in the package was good. We munched on some popcorn while we waited. This is my favorite night time show and was the perfect way end our last night in a Disney park.
BIL and SIL walked back to the Beach Club with us, and drove our car over to Pop Century so that they would have it to come over for breakfast in the morning.
Tomorrow we would move on to Universal and then to Sanibel Island, so if you are only interested in Disney stuff, thanks for reading you can stop here!
The Cast:
Me, the Disney-fanatic
DH, Craig, who puts up with my Disney obsession
DD, Jessica, age 10, part fish, goes with the flow for just about anything
DS, Ryan, age 6, also part fish, would prefer to always have his way
BIL and SIL, Craig's brother and his wife, joining us for the weekend
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
After too many early mornings, we slept in this morning, at least by Disney standards. We still got to MGM at 9. We walked over this morning. Its really a nice walk along the canal. Craigs brother and his wife would be joining us mid-day today.
This was the last of the extended Star Wars weekends, so the Stormtroopers (I think thats what those white guys are called? Someone will correct me if Im wrong, Im sure!) were all over the place.
While getting fast passes for Rock n Rollercoaster, we ran into Mike Check doing a juggling show. Ryan got pulled into the show to pick up the cups that he had dropped all over the ground. Once he had them all stacked up, Mike dropped another one and made Ryan come back and get it. Every time Ryan would put a cup on the top, Mike would let the bottom one fall. It had Ryan giggling.
We grabbed four fastpasses to Rock n Rollercoaster, figuring we would sort out who was riding later since Ryan is still about an inch and a half too short. Then we went on the Great Movie Ride. It was starting to drizzle a bit, and we hadnt had breakfast, so we figured it was a good time for an early lunch.
We wandered through the Star Wars area and ended up at the Backlot Express, simply because it was the first thing we came to and we wanted to try to stay dry today. It was a typical Disney fast food lunch of chicken fingers and hot dogs. At least it was something besides pizza.
We had been keeping tabs on BIL and SILs progress by cell phone, and they were now on the bus to the hotel. Jessica and I figured we would go do our Rock n Rollercoaster ride, so we left the boys with instructions to meet us in front of the Animation tour, and to send BIL and SIL there as well. While we were taking two spins with our four fastpasses on the coaster, Ryan got hooked on a Star Wars light saber video game they were demonstrating in the Backlot Express, but they were all sold out (but I found one later at Once Upon a Toy and it is now in my closet waiting for his birthday). The boys also had time for Playhouse Disney something I thought the kids were too old for as even Ryan is more into Power Rangers and Spongebob than Bear in the Big Blue House, but apparently Ryan enjoyed it.
We all found each other in front of the animation studio. The first showing of Millionaire that was NOT all Star Wars questions was starting soon, so we headed there first. The kids like this show. Im not sure why Ryan likes it since he cant read yet and just presses whatever button Im pressing, but he enjoys himself.
The winner of the first question was a teacher. At the 1000 point level, they showed the leader board and I was in third. The woman missed the next question, and I knew I had gotten it right, and pretty quickly. Sure enough, up comes the leader board and my seat is at the top! Woo hoo! Free cruise, here I come!
It was a long walk from the top row to the floor, let me tell you. Especially when you are concentration on not tripping and trying not to look at yourself on the monitor. And it is much harder to answer questions when you are watching that timer tick away and there is a spotlight in your face. I rolled through the first five questions to get to the 1000 point level easily. The next question was a Disney question. No chance Im missing a Disney question. I was positive Grandmother Willow couldnt fly.
Then came the 4000 point question: What is the name for the background noise made by extras in a movie? I dont remember what all the choices were, but I had no clue. So I did the ask the audience.
They had no clue either.
Thanks a lot. When the first contestant did ask the audience on one of her questions it was a 98% majority. While it may be embarrassing to know you are in the 2% of the people that DONT know the answer to a question, at least you know youve got the right answer.
I was sure it wasnt the first choice (gaffer I knew that was the electrician), but I wasnt sure of the other three. The timer was ticking away and I panicked and went with the one the audience chose by 35%. Wrong answer. Bummer. No free cruise for me. I should have used a 50/50 and hoped to get lucky that one of the choices left was gaffer.
Apparently the term is walla. I have yet to meet anyone that was able to pull that term out of their hats.
But I still got a free hat and lanyard and pins, so it was pretty cool. Craig has been following me around going walla walla ever since. He, of course, insists he knew that was the answer. After I got my prizes and signed off on some form, I got to get a quick picture in the hot seat.
Since we were right next door to the Backlot Tour, we decided to do that next. Ryan was now in I dont want to do this mode. We bribed him with promises of Power Rangers afterwards. SIL and Craig were lucky enough to be on the wet side of the tram part of the ride. It was hot, and I was jealous.
We had promised Power Rangers (which I personally cant stand, but I cant seem to avoid them with a 6 year old boy in the house), so we killed some time in the Honey I Shrunk the Kids Playground while we waited for them to appear. How do people keep from losing their kids in here? Its crazy. I was posted by the door while Craig went to hunt them down, and someone Jessica still managed to slip out past me when Craig found her and sent her to me. Mental note to avoid this place in the future.
We found out what corner the Red Ranger (hes the best, you know) would be on, and got into a sort of line, sort of mob scene over there. The Rangers came out and took their corners. We waited our turn with the Red Ranger. After making me take a million pictures in various karate poses in the first 4 days of this trip, when Ryan gets up to the Red Ranger he just stands there. What a goofball.
We head over to the White Ranger next, but its clear the line is too long. They really dont stay out very long, these guys. Im not sure how much longer I could stand the music blasting from their car either.
We were having an early dinner with the Fantasmic package at Mama Melrose. We stopped to see the Muppet movie on the way, even though Ryan didnt want to. He really was having a good time, he just wanted to be the one to pick everything. I think we may gone wrong here somewhere. Jessica certainly isnt like that. Craig says he was the same way as a kid, so Im going to pass on his grandmothers blessing and hope that Ryan has a kid JUST LIKE HIM. I feel much better now.
Despite mixed reviews of Mama Melrose, I have to say we really liked to food. The salad was good, and the two flatbreads we had to share were very good as well. And everyone liked their entrees. The dessert choices could have been better there were too many coffee flavored choices for this non-coffee drinking group, so we ended up with gelatis from the kids menu. But we were too full for real desserts anyway. The package comes with a lot of food. I think if we had booked the dining package for this trip we would never have been able to eat all the food.
We had fast passes for the 6:40 stunt show. Jessica was disappointed that we werent going to have time to do Animation Tour between doing the stunt show and doing Fantasmic, so her aunt and uncle came to the rescue. They had already seen the stunt show on a previous trip, so they took Jessica to the animation tour. They came back with a rather good drawing of Stitch.
Meanwhile, we saw the stunt show. We liked this a lot. Ryan had been looking forward to the guy catching on fire for months after seeing it on the web site, and he wasnt disappointed. The show drags out a bit in between stunts, but definitely an attraction worth repeating.
We meandered our way to the front of the park, stopping to shop and pick up our packages from earlier on the way to the back entrance to Fantasmic. We arrived around 8:30 for the 9pm show, and the theatre wasnt full. We could have walked into the section on the far right without having the package. Good thing the food in the package was good. We munched on some popcorn while we waited. This is my favorite night time show and was the perfect way end our last night in a Disney park.
BIL and SIL walked back to the Beach Club with us, and drove our car over to Pop Century so that they would have it to come over for breakfast in the morning.
Tomorrow we would move on to Universal and then to Sanibel Island, so if you are only interested in Disney stuff, thanks for reading you can stop here!
