IMBE's Day 6 - MK, Family Magic Tour (spoiler on tour!)

[imbe@aol.com]

We had 9:05 a.m. PS for CRT this morning, so at least it wasn't a 6 am wakeup call! LOL I did have trouble pretty much every day waking Alec up - I know kids tend to sleep later when they're teens, but he's not even quite 11 yet! LOL Ev gets up with no problems .. he's like his mama!!

For the first time that I can ever remember, there was a considerable wait before being seated at CRT -- the place was PACKED full of people! It must be the allure of dining in the castle, and being addressed as "m'lord" or "m'lady' .. because the food's not that drop dead fabulous! LOL

Once we WERE finally seated, I was able to extract some revenge on the boys for some of their more wild behavior thus far <g> I made them pose for pictures with ALL of the princesses who came around! LOL ) Again .. as the waitress told them, they may hate it now, but in a few years they sure won't! One 'new' thing, at least to me, was Prince Charming was there. I've not seen him before at this meal. The other characters were Jasmine, Snow White, Cinderella, Belle, and Mary Poppins downstairs -- no Fairy Godmother today.

After breakfast, I walked downstairs with the boys while Dave made a "pit stop". By this time, the lobby was virtually empty and Belle & Mary Poppins were sitting together on the big throne talking. The boys walked down just ahead of me, and .. Mary & Belle beckoned them over! LOLOL!! LOVED IT!! I had my trusty camera of course, and got several pics! THEN Belle 'made' them sit & talk! LOL Too funny, because they were both blushing furiously!!

We had some time before the 11:30 Family Magic Tour, so we got FP's for Pooh (and that was the ONLY time I passed it the whole trip when there wasn't a ridiculously long FP time) and in the meanwhile, did Snow White, the boys rode the Carousel (I don't like them .. can't stand that spinning! LOL) and then did Pooh.

After the rides, it was about time to head to City Hall for the tour. There were two other families this time - one with a Mom & Dad, & girls about 11 & 14, and another Mom, Dad and a darling little boy of about 3. We have done this before, and had great guides, but THIS guide was the BEST yet!! A slightly older lady, who was the most fun, spunky little thing!! We loved her!! The premise hasn't changed, that being that we all must "help" Peter & our guide find the Cap'n's hook. I won't get into TOO much detail, because really, it's a lot more fun if there are some surprises along the way. I will tell you one funny thing - the family with the cute little boy .. well, apparently that Dad had NO clue what was going to be required of him on this tour .. because about 1/2 way through, when we took a break .. the Dad didn't come back! LOL The guide asked where he was, and the Mom just said he didn't feel well and had gone back to the hotel. Wellll,
the boy spoke up (as only kids will do!) and said "No Mommy .. he didn't go back to the hotel, he's waiting at the restaurant for lunch - he's not sick, he didn't like this!" LOLOLOL!!!!

At the end of the tour, one thing was slightly different, and that's that it was Belle waiting, not Peter. And when it was time to take pics of her .. it turned out to be the same Belle from breakfast! LOL As it was Ev & Alec's turn to get their picture made with her, SHE recognized THEM!! Afterwards (and here's the spoiler so DON'T read on if you don't want to know) ...

.. when you get to do the 'go to the front of the line' thing at the Peter Pan ride, guess who Belle rode with in the ride? That's right .. Evan & Alec! ... AND .. the ride broke down for a good 20 minutes! LOLOL so those boys were "stuck" on there with Belle! LOL Too cute, and I was again snapping those pictures like crazy as they 'rode off' in the boat with her!

We did a little shopping once off the ride, as we made our way down Main St. We were headed to our lunch ressies at Tony's anyway, at 2.

Things were timed perfectly, and up that end, the crowds weren't too bad for the 3 o'clock parade, so everyone plopped themselves on a prime piece of curb and sat for the show. I was SO GLAD to see that it was still the "Remember the Magic" song for this -- for some reason, I thought that had changed.

It was beginning to get searingly hot again, and frankly, we ALL were just feeling lazy ... so since we were right near it anyway, we hopped on the train for a leisurely trip around the park! When we got back to the entrance, we'd decided by that time that we would call it a day in the MK. We caught the launch back to the hotel.

Being right near the docks anyway, we also decided another spin on the water mice would be good, so that's what we did. Evan is just DYING to be old enough to drive one on his own though! LOL but he's still got a year to go before that happens.

Everyone trooped back to the room when the rides were all done, and the boys wanted to go swimming, so it was back downstairs after changing. I left a bit before everyone else did, and came back, got showered & ready, and just grabbed a glass of wine & some snacks from the concierge area -- it was WELL worth that 'alone' time to leave the pool early!! While being on any vacation is usually nice, being with everyone around virtually 24/7 CAN be nerve wracking, for sure!!! LOL

Dinner was at Narcoossee's this evening..... and just as we were finishing up there, I took the boys out onto the deck, and got a good view of the fireworks from the MK! I could watch these every night and never, ever get tired of them!!

Day 7 up in just a bit!

Judi

 

[tammy]

Judi,

I am loving reading your reports. Your boys sound like typical boys. Just wait until they are in their teens, they will cherish those pictures.

Will you post any pictures? I would love to see them.

Thanks again for sharing your very entertaining reports!

 

[lookingforward]

I am enjoying your trip reports! I am going the GF on the GP in December. Did you arrange all of you PS and recreation through the Grand Plan desk at the GF? How does that work? Also, do you get Fantasmic seating with the GP?

 

[Disneyfriend]

Judi,

Thanks so much for your trip reports! I was excited to read that your family had gone on the Family Magic Tour at 11:30, because that's when we're going in a few weeks (late August). I was worried that it might be too hot then - did it bother you? I know there's some jumping/hopping/etc. plus lots of walking on the tour.

Thanks!

Disneyfriend

 

[imbe@aol.com]

Originally posted by tammy
Judi,

I am loving reading your reports. Your boys sound like typical boys. Just wait until they are in their teens, they will cherish those pictures.

Will you post any pictures? I would love to see them.

Thanks again for sharing your very entertaining reports!

I will post pictures when I get them scanned in - bad thing is that right now, my scanner is broken, so I'll have to go .. somewhere! LOL a friend or family members house, to do that. I have SOME pictures in that I took digital photos ... if you go to photopoint www.photopoint.com and put in IMBE@aol.com you can see them -- they're under the sections of "AKL" "July 2001 ...." and a few new ones under GF as well. I'll be adding more as soon as I get them done.

 

[imbe@aol.com]

Originally posted by lookingforward
I am enjoying your trip reports! I am going the GF on the GP in December. Did you arrange all of you PS and recreation through the Grand Plan desk at the GF? How does that work? Also, do you get Fantasmic seating with the GP?

Yes, I did arrange all the PS & activities through the GP desk - you'll either be speaking with Rebecca or Jamie - Jamie just started this week! moved up from concierge while we were there. They will call you prior to your arrival .. exactly when they call seems to vary from person to person, as I've read different accounts of when here. I had everything figured out that I wanted them to arrange beforehand, so all I had to do was read off my list & they made the phone calls for me.

Yes, you do get Fantasmic seating .. I forgot to mention the whole Fantasmic night in my reports! LOL (see Janet, even though I keep a journal I still forget things! <g>)

 

[imbe@aol.com]

Originally posted by Disneyfriend
Judi,

Thanks so much for your trip reports! I was excited to read that your family had gone on the Family Magic Tour at 11:30, because that's when we're going in a few weeks (late August). I was worried that it might be too hot then - did it bother you? I know there's some jumping/hopping/etc. plus lots of walking on the tour.

Thanks!

Disneyfriend

No, it really wasn't unbearably hot THAT day .. but there's definitely potential for it to be hot especially in August. If you're really concerned about the heat, maybe you want to switch to the earlier tour....