It's alright, I'm still alive! a TR -- Day 11: Aquatica-- Updated 27/4

All caught up now Laura :thumbsup2 .Thanks for the updates.
I can't stand Primeval Hurl(sorry Whirl :lmao: ),it made me sooooooo ill :sick: the first time i went on it-never again.I can just about tolerate Storm Force-as long as no-one spins it.I laugh to make it look like i am having fun-but really i want my Mummy :lmao: -what a wuss i am.I love your t-shirt+your pics are great :thumbsup2 .
Hope Curious George is still there when we go in April-Dd4 loves him+watches him on tv every afternoon.Have they any merchandise+can you remember what they have?.x.

You're like my dad, he hates anything that spins, but for some reason he loves PW... wierd!!
I'm sure Curious George will be, he's one of the main childrens characters they bring out as I saw him alot over the times we were there. As for merchandise I do remember there being some but the only thing I specifically remember was this back back of george where the arms were the straps and the tail was like a handle thing for the parents to hold on to if you get me, so like a harness for your child! A bit wierd but it looked pretty cool!!
 
You're like my dad, he hates anything that spins, but for some reason he loves PW... wierd!!
I'm sure Curious George will be, he's one of the main childrens characters they bring out as I saw him alot over the times we were there. As for merchandise I do remember there being some but the only thing I specifically remember was this back back of george where the arms were the straps and the tail was like a handle thing for the parents to hold on to if you get me, so like a harness for your child! A bit wierd but it looked pretty cool!!

Cheers Laura(i do kow what you mean)-she would really like a cuddly George,so she can cuddle him in bed-hopefully they will have one of those.Looking forward to your next instalment :thumbsup2 .x.
 
So today was both the day I had been dreading and looking forward to immensly. Today was July 4th. And today was the day we were going to hit MK.... I know what you're thinking, what an earth were 4 English people doing heading into a hub of American Patriotism surely we would be skinned alive?! Honestly I have idea, we were thinking of wearing England football strips into MK today, but soon figured that idea was both stupid and foolish! I can also see you're thinking why on earth go to MK, that's where everyone goes, it gets unbelievably crowded... well read along to find out!!

We knew the park opened at 8am today, but despite this we decided that this was far too early to be going into a park, especially as we weren't planning on leaving for fear of not getting back in and especially as we had planned to sit around and not do alot today as the queues would be unbelievable. We pulled up to MK at 8:30 and were parked by 8:45, surprisingly the park was pretty empty, 45 minutes after opening!! The forums we had read had it hyped up to be a hell of a lot busier at this time, we weren't holding on to this optimism yet though. It was still early.

We had formulated a plan in our mind to hit the big rides first and so headed straight for BTM, well I have never seen the queue, and indeed the park so empty in my life, it was literally as if we were the only people, it was magic. Withing 5 minutes we were seeing this:

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The train was almost empty too, this was a good start!!

After that we headed to Splash, now as we have already discussed I HATE log flumes with a passion, but they begged and begged and begged for me to come with them, I think it was the 5minute queue time which got me, less time to think, just walk straight through and get on. So on I got. Not without my poncho first though. Who did they think I was!!!

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I think it was safe to say I was scared out of my mind!! I hated but loved it all at the same time. I guess now is the part of the TR where I tell you all where my title "It's alright I'm still alive comes from", well it was from splash, my first ever ride! It all started when we first set off, you know the tiny little 'drop' right at the beginning when it drops you from conveyer belt into the water.... well as soon as that happened I felt it necessary to inform my parents that I had survived! It became a habit and from then on and after every drop and every single possibility of getting wet was out of the way for the time being I would dutifully inform my parents that I was indeed still alive. I think I had both my family and the couple in the back of the boat with us in stiches by the end. But I was genuinely petrified!!! Still I survived poncho and all and didn't get wet once, and suffice to say I loved it :thumbsup2!

Once my ordeal was over we headed into Future World with a vague possibilty of getting FP's for Space as we figured that with it being 9:20 they would be fairly late by now... they weren't, and neither was the standby queue, a grand total of 10 minutes. I wish you could have seen my face, my jaw literally hit the ground. Where on earth was everybody!? We of course took advantage of this right away and within 20 minutes we were off the ride wiplash and all! Now I don't think I have mentioned my general distaste for this ride.... now before you all get alarmed, I don't hate this ride, far fro it, I just prefer the DLP one wayyy better. WDW's Space is outdated and highly uncomfortable, it's just not, well just not fun. Ok so thats a bit of a lie it's fun to an extent, but when I don't feel safe on a ride, the safety harnessess' scare me, and it involved sharp turns that pretty much break my neck I'm not bound to have fun am I. The funniest part of the ride by far were my brothers comments going round, when we stopped he informed my parents not to expect grandchildren, I think the 'safety' mechanism got to him a bit!! :rotfl:

So recap... within the first hour of MK opening, on the 4th July, one of the busiest days of the calander we had successfully ridden all 3 mountains with a less than 10minute wait time each. We were gobsmacked. Amazed and seriously excited. This was going to be a good day, we could feel it!!

After Space we hopped into the queue for Monsters Inc and transported ourselves to Monstropolis.

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The show wasn't as good as the first time we saw it but we knew it would be hard pushed to beat it, we saw a different opening act this time so that was good, and we still laughed ALOT so all is right with the world!!

I saw an opportunity to hitch a ride on the TTA, which I love... "Paging a Mr Morrow, a Mr Tom Morrow your party from Saturn has arrived..." It's such a great ride and relaxing as well. I think my parents were grateful for the sit down, they had invisaged me as being a sort of Nazi dictator today, I had warned them about how busy the park was going to be, and had also warned them about the plan I had made and how we were going to stick to it. Well it's safe to say the plan went out the window!

You get some great views from the TTA, don't be fooled by those crowds on Main Street, Dream Along with Mickey had just started!:

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The crowds look normal don't they?!
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The CoP was next, another favourite of mine, I had heard that they had revamped it since we were last there so I definately wanted to check that out. I think a little part of me also wanted to hear the song again, there's something about that and IASM going round and round in your head for hours, normally it would drive you crazy but when you're in Disney it's some how all forgotten!!

It was getting to around an hour before parade time, (there were 2 showings today one in the morning and one at 3) so we wandered over through Fantasy land to stake out a spot by Liberty Tree Tavern. As we walked past Mickey's Philharmonic, my mum's absolute favourite despite not being able to see 3D, we double took at the wait time, 5 minutes, you seriously have to be joking?! We even asked the CM to be sure who confirmed that she was as surprised as we were but yes it was indeed 5 minutes. Well of course we went right in and enjoyed the show to its fullest :)

After being flown through every Disney movie possible with Donald to find Mickey's hat and smelling some of the most amazing food we headed round to watch the parade, I took so many pictures of this parade. I LOVE IT!! The parade music always always always makes me smile and dance. Photos are better than me gushing on so here we go... (I've pretty much documented the whole parade here!)

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(continued in next post)
 
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I'm slightly annoyed that the one princess who's picture didn't turn out ok is my favourite one... she still looks fabulous though :)
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Doesn't it just make your heart skip a beat? Mine does. I'm gutted I won't ever get to see it again. It was by far the best parade I've seen from both WDW and DLP.

From there we went to IASM, again minimal queue, what on earth was MK doing?! My dad muttered something about the credit crunch but I can't imagine it was that bad, surely? As a result of IASM I now, and indeed my family did too, had CoP and IASM's theme tunes singing nicely to themselves in my head, it's a strange combination to have, but I liked it, put me in one of those happy humming moods all day!!!

We went for food after we had said goodbye in as many different languages as you care to think. I have a funny feeling we went to Pinoccio's, and soon found the crowds. They were actually queing out the door to get food, so much so the CMs were coming down the line with print out menu's so you knew what you wanted before you got there and then when you had your food you had to wait for a CM to take you to a table which was free. It was like a CS meets TS restaraunt. Very very bazar. It was definately getting busy though, and fast.

We really wanted to ride the railway at some point and now was a perfect time to do this, we hopped on at Toon Town and were surprised even to see as we rode on past Main Street that the crowds weren't that big at all. Infact the security stands were empty. This was not the maximum capacity crush we had been lead to believe!!

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They also had Horrace and Clarabell out who I have never seen meeting and greeting, is it just me that finds them freaky?!

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I'm going to leave it there I think, just sit back and enjoy the train ride as we pull out of Main Street USA and head towards Fronteir Land.
 


Im really enjoying reading your TP. Can't believe how short the queue times were! Cant wait for the next installment. :)
 
I love the story behind your TR title Laura. :rotfl: My first SM ride was when there was no wait time as well so I know what you mean about walk straight through and no time to think.

TTA and COP ( are there too many abbreviations in this post :lmao: ) are two of my favourites as well.

I'm glad you got to do so much without the crowds and looking forward to seeing if it carried on that way. :thumbsup2
 
Im really enjoying reading your TP. Can't believe how short the queue times were! Cant wait for the next installment. :)

me either. It was amazing!!! Loved it though!!

I love the story behind your TR title Laura. :rotfl: My first SM ride was when there was no wait time as well so I know what you mean about walk straight through and no time to think.

TTA and COP ( are there too many abbreviations in this post :lmao: ) are two of my favourites as well.

I'm glad you got to do so much without the crowds and looking forward to seeing if it carried on that way. :thumbsup2

There are about as many abbreviations in yours as there are in mine! :rotfl: It's the way to go!

I'll update tomorrow I think but for now I'm out off to a roller disco dressed as a neon raver!! :lmao:
 


Just catching up Laura and wow where was everyone??? As you say we're always led to believe that MK is so busy it's ridiculous :confused: Glad you had it so quiet though :)
 
Great update Laura-hope you had fun at the roller disco.
Them characters freak me out too-especialy clarabelle-are they supposed to look like nostrils ;) :lmao: .
I can't believe how empty it was :confused3.
I love this paragraph from your trippie,it had me laughing out loud........

''''''''I think it was safe to say I was scared out of my mind!! I hated but loved it all at the same time. I guess now is the part of the TR where I tell you all where my title "It's alright I'm still alive comes from", well it was from splash, my first ever ride! It all started when we first set off, you know the tiny little 'drop' right at the beginning when it drops you from conveyer belt into the water.... well as soon as that happened I felt it necessary to inform my parents that I had survived! It became a habit and from then on and after every drop and every single possibility of getting wet was out of the way for the time being I would dutifully inform my parents that I was indeed still alive. I think I had both my family and the couple in the back of the boat with us in stiches by the end. But I was genuinely petrified!!! Still I survived poncho and all and didn't get wet once, and suffice to say I loved it !''''''''''''

:rotfl2: :lmao: .x.
 
Looking forward to hearing more :)

:) thanks!!

Now if that doesn't deserve to be a tag I don't know what does! :rotfl2:

:lmao: not that I'm hinting at all but yes yes it would!!! ;)

Just catching up Laura and wow where was everyone??? As you say we're always led to believe that MK is so busy it's ridiculous :confused: Glad you had it so quiet though :)

I know, I was so so surprised. Definately not complaining though!!

Great update Laura-hope you had fun at the roller disco.
Them characters freak me out too-especialy clarabelle-are they supposed to look like nostrils ;) :lmao: .
I can't believe how empty it was :confused3.
I love this paragraph from your trippie,it had me laughing out loud........

''''''''I think it was safe to say I was scared out of my mind!! I hated but loved it all at the same time. I guess now is the part of the TR where I tell you all where my title "It's alright I'm still alive comes from", well it was from splash, my first ever ride! It all started when we first set off, you know the tiny little 'drop' right at the beginning when it drops you from conveyer belt into the water.... well as soon as that happened I felt it necessary to inform my parents that I had survived! It became a habit and from then on and after every drop and every single possibility of getting wet was out of the way for the time being I would dutifully inform my parents that I was indeed still alive. I think I had both my family and the couple in the back of the boat with us in stiches by the end. But I was genuinely petrified!!! Still I survived poncho and all and didn't get wet once, and suffice to say I loved it !''''''''''''

:rotfl2: :lmao: .x.

I know, they're not nostrils!! I don't know what they are but I'm sure they could have made them look a lot better!!!

Just incase you guys were wondering what I looked like on monday (my apologies for taking ages to post another update by the way, I've been ill :( ) here's a picture of my in my roller gear, it's a bit small coz I'm not sure my friend wants to be posted on the internet!! I had luminous rave paint on my face too but you cant really see that from that photo!

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update coming up!!
 
The train chugged it's way round to Frontier Land and we decided to hop off there, now as many of you know the station is next door to the queing system for Splash, well my family used this to their advantage... I think it went something like "Look Laura, the queue is only 15 minutes long (I know right! Still no queue!) Let's go on it again... we've got your poncho right here." I think it was safe to say I had no choice in the matter, indeed by the time I had even thought about saying, "no one time is enough thankyou" we were already a good way up the queue. I gave up the fight pretty quickly! Well we got on the boat and the same 'hilarity' ensued, I needed to remind my parents that I was still here, so cue a chorus of "It's alright I'm still alive!"

This is the smallest picture ever (it was cut from a photo taken of the ride photo) but you get the idea hopefully!
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After Splash was over we headed to the JC to grab some fast passes, which were a long time away, we could tell by now the park was starting to get busy, it was about 3:30pm by now, so I guess everyone was chancing that the park would be open in the afternoon with the idea of staying for the fireworks. Once we'd picked up the FP's we walked into the Tikki Room, a show was just about to start and the CMs were calling for more people to fill it up, so off we went.

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We came out just in time to make it down to the bottom of Main Street for the flag ceremony, this was something we specifically wanted to see as not having had any experience of anything like this before we wanted to go nosey and see whether the patriotism of the Americans was anything like we'd seen in movies and what not (it is!!) There wasn't much of a crowd for it at all really, it was suprising because I thought that would be the one thing people would turn up for. It's not like they would have fogotten either WDW were announcing it on the tannoy a good 10 minutes before.

It was a really beautiful ceremony actually, kinda made you want to be American. They had a marine carrying the flag out who had just returned from Iraq, it's amazing how much they appreciate their armed forces in the USA, makes you sort of ashamed that we don't have as much respect or grattitude for ours.

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After that that Liberty Bell Singers came out with a band and sang a few songs including the good old Stars and Stripes, it was really lovely.

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It started to rain, and I mean properly rain part way through the 'performance', I felt so bad for the band, the singers and everyone else got umbrella's but the poor band just had to stand their getting wet playing their hearts out!

And of course once this was up

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the Pledge of Alligence was said and everyone got a bit tearful!

The rain was still going strong when it was all finished so we headed for an indoor ride, Monsters Inc was the first which came to mind so off we went.

When we emerged from Monstropolis (is it just me that thinks it's wierd how you go through a portal to get there but not to get out?!) it was bright sunshine again and the timing for our FP was nearly ready so we had a slow over to the JC.

The JC always makes me laugh and we struck lucky with our CM skipper, the boat infront of us broke down right at the beginning so we were stuck for about 15 minutes looking at the waterfall (I wish I remembered it's name!), but our CM kept us all highly entertained, she did a great job at ad-libbing and had us all in stiches by the end of the 15minutes!!

Once we got moving again (they had to send a boat all the way round backwards the other way to drag it to the dock!) I snapped these pictures

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'Dinner' beckoned after we had finished our extended version of JC so we wandered around a bit looking for something to eat. It was MUCH busier now, everywhere seemed to be packed, we eventually got a table and some cakes from the Main Street Bakery though, after about 10minutes of waiting. And boy were they worth it.

I don't think I took a picture of my mum's but here are the rest of them

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(Dad's, my brothers, mine)

When we came out Mainstreet had suddenly swelled with the number of people, everyone was already staking out their spot to see the fireworks, we had watched them arriving from about 7:30 onwards so we ate slowly!! We left at 8:30 and the fireworks were at 9:30 but there wasn't even room to more, we couldn't even get out of Main Street!! The CMs were so helpful though and were waving people through to the backstage area with their colourful waving sticks (the best way I can describe them). No one was telling me not to take pictures, so I took every available opportunity... if you don't want to see backstage then flick to the next post!!

We went through where the floats end up after the parade next to Toni's
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and ended up coming out by the (sadly no longer existent) Galaxy Palace Theatre... I know I took more photos but they aren't on my photo bucket for some reason so I apologise!!
 
YOU CAN LOOK BACK NOW!!

We were thrust into an overloaded Tomorrowland and squeezed our way through to the bridge between the top of Main Street and Tomorrowland. We could see the castle quite well from where we were so it made sense to just stay where we were, so we parked ourselves in a spot and got ourselves prepared for the long long wait (about 45minutes)

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My legs were aching alot so I sat down and this was my view!
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45 minutes actually went really quickly, and all of a sudden it was dark and time for the fireworks to start. They were DEFINATELY worth it, they were fantastic and judging by everyone's ooh's and aaah's they were well appreciated!

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They were honestly truly spectacular! It took a while to get out of the park but when we did and when we arrived back at our condel, we were completely shattered, this had been by far the longest day! We went straight to bed for a well deserved sleep and lie in!!

Stay tuned for more HS!
 
Thanks Laura, loved catching up with your report and seeing your photos. How fantastic MK was not as busy as you thought it was going to be and well done for trying Splash. What about River Adventure (Jurassic Park) next time you go?

Hope you are still enjoying your studies. My son may be off to Newcastle Uni in September.
 
Thanks Laura, loved catching up with your report and seeing your photos. How fantastic MK was not as busy as you thought it was going to be and well done for trying Splash. What about River Adventure (Jurassic Park) next time you go?

Hope you are still enjoying your studies. My son may be off to Newcastle Uni in September.

:rotfl: After seeing my dad and brother coming off this the last time we went I am most definately not going on the River Adventure, I think that is far too adventurous for my liking!!
What is your son planning to do at uni? I love Newcastle I'm definately 100% glad I chose here!!
 
He plans to do Computer Science there or may go down to Nottingham Uni. I am hoping he chooses Newcastle as it is so handy from home. This is his second time at Uni, the first time he spent two years at York Uni doing at Biology degree but failed by 1.5% to progress on to the third year. His particular department did not offer resits which I thought was unfair as other departments in the same uni did. It should be one rule for everyone and not be down to particular departments. Anyway he has taken a year out doing work now, I am hoping he will be more successful with this course which was always his strongest subject through school and college.

Back on topic the worse flume ride to get wet on is Dudley Do Rights, particularly after the drop when you go under the bridge and then are hit by people paying to squirt hoses at you. My lads love doing this.
 
Thanks for the update Laura,love the roller disco pic :thumbsup2 .
Shame you could'nt find the backstage pics,i would have loved to seen them.
You're fireworks pics are great.x.
 
just catching up on your reports, great fireworks pics

Oh i love the TR title explanation :rotfl2:
 
Thanks for the update Laura,love the roller disco pic :thumbsup2 .
Shame you could'nt find the backstage pics,i would have loved to seen them.
You're fireworks pics are great.x.

I'll have a look for the pictures when I'm next at home, which unfortunately is about a month away... maybe I'll get my brother to look them out for me and send them up!!

He plans to do Computer Science there or may go down to Nottingham Uni. I am hoping he chooses Newcastle as it is so handy from home. This is his second time at Uni, the first time he spent two years at York Uni doing at Biology degree but failed by 1.5% to progress on to the third year. His particular department did not offer resits which I thought was unfair as other departments in the same uni did. It should be one rule for everyone and not be down to particular departments. Anyway he has taken a year out doing work now, I am hoping he will be more successful with this course which was always his strongest subject through school and college.

Back on topic the worse flume ride to get wet on is Dudley Do Rights, particularly after the drop when you go under the bridge and then are hit by people paying to squirt hoses at you. My lads love doing this.

My Dad and brother went on the Popeye rapid thing (I've completely forgotten the name... Bluto's Barges or something?!) and they were so wet from that, I can't imagine a ride that gets you wetter, it must be horrendous!!
That's awful about your son, I can't believe they wouldn't allow him to do a resit, I thought it was standard!! If he does end up in Newcastle he'll really enjoy it! I do!

just catching up on your reports, great fireworks pics

Oh i love the TR title explanation :rotfl2:

Thanks :)
 

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