Day 11: Thursday, May 6: MGM
Weather: Beautiful all day. Low to mid 80s all day. Mid 70s at night.
We slept in today (8:15). We were going to eat breakfast at Ohana. But we decided to just hit the concierge lounge instead. Great selection as usual. After breakfast, I took DS for a spin on the water mouse boats
(or what ever they are called now). Then we hit the Volcano Pool for a couple of hours. We grabbed a snack for lunch in the concierge lounge and then grabbed a bus over to MGM around 1:00.
MGM was not very crowded, which surprised me since it was such a beautiful day. While DW lotioned up the kids, I went to grab FPs for Star Tours. It was around 1:30 and the return window was 2:45 to 3:45. I met up with DW and the kids and we went to the Sorcerers Hat to see characters. There were some great characters including Pinocchio, Hercules, Mulan and Pocahontas. My kids truly love the characters. They have no idea that they are not the real deal. After we had met enough characters (at least as far as Mom and Dad were concerned), we went to pick up FPs for Voyage of the Little Mermaid since we were in our Star Tours FP return window. Then we shot over to Echo Lake and rode Star Tours. We are all big Star Wars fans, so we all love this ride, though a new version would be nice. After dropping a small fortune on Star Wars toys, we got in line to see Chewbacca, who was coming back at 3:00. When I had gotten the Star Tours FPs, Chewy was wrapping up for a break. His handler said he'd be back at 3:00. So we knew when and where to get in line. We were his first fans when he came out. Wookies rock! At this point, it was time to see the Little Mermaid, a first for all of us. We loved it (Grade: "A-").
We have 5:45 PS for Sci-Fi. Its not even 4:00 and the only thing we want to do before dinner is see the parade, which starts at 5:00. So we have some time to kill. We decide to take a stroll over to Tower of Terror. DS has not stopped talking about it since he saw the Tower. He insists hes going on, which I know he's not because, while he loves roller coasters, he is not a big fan of the dark. Also, DS must have gotten his love of roller coasters from DW and she hates free fall rides. So I think it's a safe assumption DS wouldn't like it either.
Now, I would rather be audited than repeatedly dropped over a 100 feet, so there is no way that I will be going on this ride. But we are coming back to MGM on Saturday with my Sister and BIL, both of whom love this attraction. I'm ok with DS going with them. I just want to make sure he really wants to go and is not going to freak out in the queue and make them turn around. So we decide to take him up to the tower and as far into the queue as possible.
When we get there, the wait time is the standard 13 minutes, and when we approach the Tower, we can see there is no line in site. The CM tells us that that there is a chicken-out door in the boiler room, so I decide to take DS in. I wouldn't ordinarily take a kid in a ride knowing that we really do not intend to go on it. But the CM said it was no problem and that people back out all the time, so it wouldn't look out of the ordinary.
[Warning !!! - - - TOT spoiler in the next 3 paragraphs.]
So, I take DS in and I can tell he is intimidated by the queue, which is really pretty cool. And DS is completely silent after the Twilight Zone movie is played (it didnt help that some high school kid screamed at the end like a 6 year old little girl). We walk through the queue and into the boiler room and I quickly spot the exit. A cold sweat hits my brow as I realized that I have lost the boy and I turn to go back into the preshow room to collect him. As I turn, I see him in line for the next elevator about 10 feet away from me.
I walk over and whisper in his ear that that is not the way out (at least not the way I am taking). DS responds that he wants to get dropped in the elevator. He's not whispering. I then whisper to him that we are coming back in two days and he can go on it then. To which he says, plenty loud enough for everyone to hear, dont worry Dad, there are other kids here and they are going to be scared too. I look up at everyones face and realize that they are well aware that he is talking about me being a scared kid, not him.
Before I can collect him and dash through the door, my pride has overridden my brain and I actually hear my mouth saying, no problem, we can go now and then do it a second time on Saturday. No kidding, it was like an out of body experience. I could not believe what I was saying. Not only are we going now, but I just committed myself to a second time on Saturday. This is a kid who still remembers that I forgot his M&Ms when we saw Star Wars Episode II in 2002. So theres no way hes forgetting. I am loaded into the death chamber and up we go. My heart is pounding as we lift the first five or six floors. Now, I have to say, the special effects are incredible - almost worth the torture of the drop. It's at this point, as we are going up further, that I remember that we are about to be dropped multiple times. The door opens and I freeze. The boy is also pretty quiet, so know I have to worry about him being OK too. Rather than drop, the elevator moves forward and now I am really concerned because to me that means we are unhooked from whatever just pulled us up and now we have to reconnect with something that is going to drop us multiple times. As far as Im concerned, thats just one more thing to break, not connect right or whatever.
Then the doors fly open . . . and, for a second, I see my Mom cursing me with "five kids just like me" . . . . . and then she is gone. That's when I realize that we have just begun the drop.
We get to the bottom and I feel my stomach get off at the first floor (smart organ) and then the rest of my innards accompany me back up to the top. I see park as we pass the open door at the top and down we go again. Then back up at a rate of speed that has me convinced that we are going straight through the roof. Then back down. . . . . 
. . . . DS tells me it was four big drops and a small one. Based on our photo, he was in a much better condition to keep track than I was.
Despite the terror, the special effects are really worth seeing. I did not feel sick at all when I got off and I know that my knees will eventurally stop shaking. Would I do it again? Only if the boy remembers I said I would.
After my torture, we go get a spot in Echo Lake to watch the 5:00 parade. We got a great spot not too far from Sounds Dangerous. We got some great pictures and really loved Disney Stars and Motor Car Parade, another first for us. After the parade, we checked in at the Sci-Fi for our 5:45 PS. I never understand why people knock this place. I wouldnt go there for seafood or pasta. But we have never been dissatisfied with our food. Our burgers were delicious, the fries we great, and I love the old fashion red ketchup and yellow mustard squirt bottles. The potato corn soup was very good too. Plus, the milk shakes are the best I have ever had on property (have not been to Beaches & Cream or the Plaza's yet). Our server was Cory and he was one of the best all trip. He remembered our kids names, which went a long way with them and us. Grade: Solid "A". Sci-Fi would be an A+ if they would just update the movie clips.
After dinner, we hit Toy Story Arcade for a little while. Then it was off to Fantasmic, hitting some shops along the way. DW picked up crayons and coloring books for the wait. We got in Fantasmic around 7:45 for an 8:30 show. I was surprised how full it already was. We were lucky. We still got great seats in one of the middle sections. Fantasmic was incredible. After the long trek out of the park, we took the bus, which was surprisingly not that crowded, back to the Poly.
Weather: Beautiful all day. Low to mid 80s all day. Mid 70s at night.
We slept in today (8:15). We were going to eat breakfast at Ohana. But we decided to just hit the concierge lounge instead. Great selection as usual. After breakfast, I took DS for a spin on the water mouse boats
(or what ever they are called now). Then we hit the Volcano Pool for a couple of hours. We grabbed a snack for lunch in the concierge lounge and then grabbed a bus over to MGM around 1:00. MGM was not very crowded, which surprised me since it was such a beautiful day. While DW lotioned up the kids, I went to grab FPs for Star Tours. It was around 1:30 and the return window was 2:45 to 3:45. I met up with DW and the kids and we went to the Sorcerers Hat to see characters. There were some great characters including Pinocchio, Hercules, Mulan and Pocahontas. My kids truly love the characters. They have no idea that they are not the real deal. After we had met enough characters (at least as far as Mom and Dad were concerned), we went to pick up FPs for Voyage of the Little Mermaid since we were in our Star Tours FP return window. Then we shot over to Echo Lake and rode Star Tours. We are all big Star Wars fans, so we all love this ride, though a new version would be nice. After dropping a small fortune on Star Wars toys, we got in line to see Chewbacca, who was coming back at 3:00. When I had gotten the Star Tours FPs, Chewy was wrapping up for a break. His handler said he'd be back at 3:00. So we knew when and where to get in line. We were his first fans when he came out. Wookies rock!
At this point, it was time to see the Little Mermaid, a first for all of us. We loved it (Grade: "A-"). We have 5:45 PS for Sci-Fi. Its not even 4:00 and the only thing we want to do before dinner is see the parade, which starts at 5:00. So we have some time to kill. We decide to take a stroll over to Tower of Terror. DS has not stopped talking about it since he saw the Tower. He insists hes going on, which I know he's not because, while he loves roller coasters, he is not a big fan of the dark. Also, DS must have gotten his love of roller coasters from DW and she hates free fall rides. So I think it's a safe assumption DS wouldn't like it either.
Now, I would rather be audited than repeatedly dropped over a 100 feet, so there is no way that I will be going on this ride. But we are coming back to MGM on Saturday with my Sister and BIL, both of whom love this attraction. I'm ok with DS going with them. I just want to make sure he really wants to go and is not going to freak out in the queue and make them turn around. So we decide to take him up to the tower and as far into the queue as possible.
When we get there, the wait time is the standard 13 minutes, and when we approach the Tower, we can see there is no line in site. The CM tells us that that there is a chicken-out door in the boiler room, so I decide to take DS in. I wouldn't ordinarily take a kid in a ride knowing that we really do not intend to go on it. But the CM said it was no problem and that people back out all the time, so it wouldn't look out of the ordinary.
[Warning !!! - - - TOT spoiler in the next 3 paragraphs.]
So, I take DS in and I can tell he is intimidated by the queue, which is really pretty cool. And DS is completely silent after the Twilight Zone movie is played (it didnt help that some high school kid screamed at the end like a 6 year old little girl). We walk through the queue and into the boiler room and I quickly spot the exit. A cold sweat hits my brow as I realized that I have lost the boy and I turn to go back into the preshow room to collect him. As I turn, I see him in line for the next elevator about 10 feet away from me.
I walk over and whisper in his ear that that is not the way out (at least not the way I am taking). DS responds that he wants to get dropped in the elevator. He's not whispering. I then whisper to him that we are coming back in two days and he can go on it then. To which he says, plenty loud enough for everyone to hear, dont worry Dad, there are other kids here and they are going to be scared too. I look up at everyones face and realize that they are well aware that he is talking about me being a scared kid, not him. Before I can collect him and dash through the door, my pride has overridden my brain and I actually hear my mouth saying, no problem, we can go now and then do it a second time on Saturday.
No kidding, it was like an out of body experience. I could not believe what I was saying. Not only are we going now, but I just committed myself to a second time on Saturday. This is a kid who still remembers that I forgot his M&Ms when we saw Star Wars Episode II in 2002. So theres no way hes forgetting. I am loaded into the death chamber and up we go. My heart is pounding as we lift the first five or six floors. Now, I have to say, the special effects are incredible - almost worth the torture of the drop. It's at this point, as we are going up further, that I remember that we are about to be dropped multiple times. The door opens and I freeze. The boy is also pretty quiet, so know I have to worry about him being OK too. Rather than drop, the elevator moves forward and now I am really concerned because to me that means we are unhooked from whatever just pulled us up and now we have to reconnect with something that is going to drop us multiple times. As far as Im concerned, thats just one more thing to break, not connect right or whatever. Then the doors fly open . . . and, for a second, I see my Mom cursing me with "five kids just like me" . . . . . and then she is gone. That's when I realize that we have just begun the drop.
We get to the bottom and I feel my stomach get off at the first floor (smart organ) and then the rest of my innards accompany me back up to the top. I see park as we pass the open door at the top and down we go again. Then back up at a rate of speed that has me convinced that we are going straight through the roof. Then back down. . . . . . . . . DS tells me it was four big drops and a small one. Based on our photo, he was in a much better condition to keep track than I was. Despite the terror, the special effects are really worth seeing. I did not feel sick at all when I got off and I know that my knees will eventurally stop shaking. Would I do it again? Only if the boy remembers I said I would.
After my torture, we go get a spot in Echo Lake to watch the 5:00 parade. We got a great spot not too far from Sounds Dangerous. We got some great pictures and really loved Disney Stars and Motor Car Parade, another first for us. After the parade, we checked in at the Sci-Fi for our 5:45 PS. I never understand why people knock this place. I wouldnt go there for seafood or pasta. But we have never been dissatisfied with our food. Our burgers were delicious, the fries we great, and I love the old fashion red ketchup and yellow mustard squirt bottles. The potato corn soup was very good too. Plus, the milk shakes are the best I have ever had on property (have not been to Beaches & Cream or the Plaza's yet). Our server was Cory and he was one of the best all trip. He remembered our kids names, which went a long way with them and us. Grade: Solid "A". Sci-Fi would be an A+ if they would just update the movie clips.
After dinner, we hit Toy Story Arcade for a little while. Then it was off to Fantasmic, hitting some shops along the way. DW picked up crayons and coloring books for the wait. We got in Fantasmic around 7:45 for an 8:30 show. I was surprised how full it already was. We were lucky. We still got great seats in one of the middle sections. Fantasmic was incredible. After the long trek out of the park, we took the bus, which was surprisingly not that crowded, back to the Poly.
