*Marty_Mouse_House*
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2004
- Messages
- 60
Vacationers:
Husband - early 40s
Self - early 40s (college sweethearts - married 20 years)
Son - 15
Beagle - 9
Active Cat - 3
Tuesday, June 8, 2004
7:15 a.m. The phone rang right on time. It was Mickey again with "big doin's today." We decided to drive to Animal Kingdom. We used AAA parking and parked in the first row. First ride - Primieval Whirl ("it seemed faster to me this time"), 2nd ride - Tricertops Spin (no line). Next - Dinosaur with a 10 minute wait. I knew this had been closed for awhile and it had just re-opened. We were trying to figure out what was different about it. It seemed that while you were waiting in the lobby, they had some new dialogue from Bill Nye the Science Guy, with some new lights in the ceiling. Maybe this had always been there but we had never heard it before. Everything else seemed pretty much the same. Then we did the Tarzan Rocks show. Were there less rollerbladders around the audience than previously? Also it seemed that Tarzan didn't come flying from the back of the audience anymore. Next we walked on the new bridge past Mt. Everest opening in 2006. I took a picture of the roller coaster with what they had built so far. Hopefully, it won't have any huge drops! Next we used our fast passes for the Safari Ride. You won't believe me, but this ride actually seemed Slower Than Usual! There was the cutest little baby elephant with his mother in one of the pools. The mother elephant was submerged and the little baby was standing on top of her and blowing water through his trunk - So Cute!! The driver actually stopped so that we could all get a picture.
The next order of business was lunch and my husband had "Tusker House" on his schedule. This was a place I would highly recommend. While I was standing in line to pick up our order, I could see many lunches on the counter and they all looked absolutely fabulous. There were huge salads with big pieces of bread, wonderful sandwiches, and it seemed like you got a lot more for your money here with a different selection of things, such as salmon. When I got to the cashier, they had the meal ticket on the menu so I bought 1 meal ticket and then placed our lunch order: 2 salmon plates with rice and green bean vegetable side - $7.99/each , drink (included with meal ticket ) - $2.29, and later in the day ice cream ($2.50) and extra bottled drink were all included with the meal ticket. It stated on the meal ticket that you did have to use it up all on the same day. The Tusker House had little indoor rooms to sit down and eat. We had a little trouble finding a spot. There was some entertainment going around the rooms also (African instrumentals).
The park was getting hot and busy so we decided to head out to the car. We drove past Saratoga Springs still under construction. From what we could see from the road, it looked nice. We went past Pop Century. It looked kind of ordinary to us but we've never stayed there. We went back to the hotel to dress in our Hawaiian finery for our P.S. for Ohana in the Polynesian. We drove to the Polynesian and parked. We still had an hour before our P.S. so we decided to take the monrail over to the Magic Kingdom to get a few rides in. As soon as we entered the gate, the rides started closing down for more bad weather on the horizon. That was a first - walking in the Magic Kingdom and then walking right back out without doing any attractions! A boat was parked and ready to go to the Polynesian so we jumped on it. The boat captain was on his walkie talkie and they were trying to decide whether to run the boat or not. A decision was made to run the boat and we arrived at the Polynesian. As we were still early for our P.S. we were seated in the bar waiting for our table and my husband ordered a beer just to be polite - $4.00 plus $1.00 tip. We enjoyed our meal immensely as always (price: $24.99/each) although we didn't have a view near the window as we had on previous trips. This was when the monsoon started. We were watching it pour down rain and the wind was blowing - it was quite a sight. When we finished with dinner (and couldn't order dessert because we were so stuffed) we were walking through the Polynesian gift shops and watched all of the soaking wet people coming in the from the Luau. Somebody was asking the people if they were getting a refund or not and I heard them say, "We're not getting a refund." I didn't hear how Disney was going to make it up to them. I guess they ate, but I'm not sure. I would appreciate knowing what Disney did in a circumstance like this -
The rain was slowing down a little so we grabbed the car and drove back to the Contemporary. We decided to take the walkway over to the the Magic Kingdom again. We used an earlier Buzz Lightyear fast pass and got on no problem. Then we did the Carousel of Progress. Does anybody miss the old song, "Now is the time, now is the best time, now is the best time of your life..."? Now they sing, "It's a great big beautiful tomorrow..." We looked for hidden Mickey's. There were a few non-hidden ones - the Mickey nutcracker on the mantel, a Mickey under the Christmas tree and was that some kind of Mickey in the dishrack? We couldn't tell.
We did the TTA/Peoplemover again, then the Barnstormer and Philharmagic. DS and I tried Cinderella's Carousel and to me it felt a little like Dumbo. We looked around and DH had sneaked on too and was sitting behind us! We checked on the Liberty Belle Riverboat but it only ran from 10-8 so we missed it. We got a spot among the crowd on Main Street for the 10:00 fireworks Wishes show. It was good. It was extremely crowded as we made our way to the walkway to the Contemporary. It was very foggy here because of the fireworks and the way the wind was blowing. Only 1 more day left in the World.
--------------------------------
Previous Trips: 30 plus trips in 32 years
Since being married we have stayed at: Fort Wildnerness Campground, Fort Wilderness Cabins, Yacht Club, Caribbean Beach, Polynesian, Beach Club, Swan and Dolphin, All-Star Sports, All-Star Music, Port Orleans Riverside, Contemporary Resort
Husband - early 40s
Self - early 40s (college sweethearts - married 20 years)
Son - 15
Beagle - 9
Active Cat - 3
Tuesday, June 8, 2004
7:15 a.m. The phone rang right on time. It was Mickey again with "big doin's today." We decided to drive to Animal Kingdom. We used AAA parking and parked in the first row. First ride - Primieval Whirl ("it seemed faster to me this time"), 2nd ride - Tricertops Spin (no line). Next - Dinosaur with a 10 minute wait. I knew this had been closed for awhile and it had just re-opened. We were trying to figure out what was different about it. It seemed that while you were waiting in the lobby, they had some new dialogue from Bill Nye the Science Guy, with some new lights in the ceiling. Maybe this had always been there but we had never heard it before. Everything else seemed pretty much the same. Then we did the Tarzan Rocks show. Were there less rollerbladders around the audience than previously? Also it seemed that Tarzan didn't come flying from the back of the audience anymore. Next we walked on the new bridge past Mt. Everest opening in 2006. I took a picture of the roller coaster with what they had built so far. Hopefully, it won't have any huge drops! Next we used our fast passes for the Safari Ride. You won't believe me, but this ride actually seemed Slower Than Usual! There was the cutest little baby elephant with his mother in one of the pools. The mother elephant was submerged and the little baby was standing on top of her and blowing water through his trunk - So Cute!! The driver actually stopped so that we could all get a picture.
The next order of business was lunch and my husband had "Tusker House" on his schedule. This was a place I would highly recommend. While I was standing in line to pick up our order, I could see many lunches on the counter and they all looked absolutely fabulous. There were huge salads with big pieces of bread, wonderful sandwiches, and it seemed like you got a lot more for your money here with a different selection of things, such as salmon. When I got to the cashier, they had the meal ticket on the menu so I bought 1 meal ticket and then placed our lunch order: 2 salmon plates with rice and green bean vegetable side - $7.99/each , drink (included with meal ticket ) - $2.29, and later in the day ice cream ($2.50) and extra bottled drink were all included with the meal ticket. It stated on the meal ticket that you did have to use it up all on the same day. The Tusker House had little indoor rooms to sit down and eat. We had a little trouble finding a spot. There was some entertainment going around the rooms also (African instrumentals).
The park was getting hot and busy so we decided to head out to the car. We drove past Saratoga Springs still under construction. From what we could see from the road, it looked nice. We went past Pop Century. It looked kind of ordinary to us but we've never stayed there. We went back to the hotel to dress in our Hawaiian finery for our P.S. for Ohana in the Polynesian. We drove to the Polynesian and parked. We still had an hour before our P.S. so we decided to take the monrail over to the Magic Kingdom to get a few rides in. As soon as we entered the gate, the rides started closing down for more bad weather on the horizon. That was a first - walking in the Magic Kingdom and then walking right back out without doing any attractions! A boat was parked and ready to go to the Polynesian so we jumped on it. The boat captain was on his walkie talkie and they were trying to decide whether to run the boat or not. A decision was made to run the boat and we arrived at the Polynesian. As we were still early for our P.S. we were seated in the bar waiting for our table and my husband ordered a beer just to be polite - $4.00 plus $1.00 tip. We enjoyed our meal immensely as always (price: $24.99/each) although we didn't have a view near the window as we had on previous trips. This was when the monsoon started. We were watching it pour down rain and the wind was blowing - it was quite a sight. When we finished with dinner (and couldn't order dessert because we were so stuffed) we were walking through the Polynesian gift shops and watched all of the soaking wet people coming in the from the Luau. Somebody was asking the people if they were getting a refund or not and I heard them say, "We're not getting a refund." I didn't hear how Disney was going to make it up to them. I guess they ate, but I'm not sure. I would appreciate knowing what Disney did in a circumstance like this -
The rain was slowing down a little so we grabbed the car and drove back to the Contemporary. We decided to take the walkway over to the the Magic Kingdom again. We used an earlier Buzz Lightyear fast pass and got on no problem. Then we did the Carousel of Progress. Does anybody miss the old song, "Now is the time, now is the best time, now is the best time of your life..."? Now they sing, "It's a great big beautiful tomorrow..." We looked for hidden Mickey's. There were a few non-hidden ones - the Mickey nutcracker on the mantel, a Mickey under the Christmas tree and was that some kind of Mickey in the dishrack? We couldn't tell.
We did the TTA/Peoplemover again, then the Barnstormer and Philharmagic. DS and I tried Cinderella's Carousel and to me it felt a little like Dumbo. We looked around and DH had sneaked on too and was sitting behind us! We checked on the Liberty Belle Riverboat but it only ran from 10-8 so we missed it. We got a spot among the crowd on Main Street for the 10:00 fireworks Wishes show. It was good. It was extremely crowded as we made our way to the walkway to the Contemporary. It was very foggy here because of the fireworks and the way the wind was blowing. Only 1 more day left in the World.
--------------------------------
Previous Trips: 30 plus trips in 32 years
Since being married we have stayed at: Fort Wildnerness Campground, Fort Wilderness Cabins, Yacht Club, Caribbean Beach, Polynesian, Beach Club, Swan and Dolphin, All-Star Sports, All-Star Music, Port Orleans Riverside, Contemporary Resort
