Tuesday afternoon, August 13th..
at about 4:30 PM we headed for DHS (keep in mind that at this point we had been awake for about 41 hours except for a bit of cat napping on the 12 hour trans-atlantic flight)...
i had forgotten our handicapped sign in the hotel, so i just asked the CM if we could park at the beginning of a row (since i saw that otherwise, we would have ended up very close to the end)....he said no problem (with a big smile) and we parked in the first reserved space.
just as we got out of the car, the tram drove up and we hopped on board.
after passing through security, we headed for the ticket booth.
We had a really lovely CM, about my age (50's).....
i handed over the 3 vouchers for 14 day ultimate tickets and was surprised that she knew exactly what they were and quickly churned out the 3 plastic card tickets.
Next i handed her my AP, which she switched to one of the new plastic card APs.
And then i remembered that i needed to upgrade it to a PAP, which she did just as efficiently.
After what seemed like no time at all, we were walking through the cool new turnstiles, which seem to work much better than the old ones.
next stop, guest services.
i gave the CM our old guest assistance card (GAC), and she immediately went to the back to get us a new one - entered our dates for the entire trip (including after the cruise), and we were on our way.
normally our first stop would be toy story, but by this point we were STARVING. Our last meal had been on the trans-atlantic plane at about 4 in the morning. it was now 15 hours later.
we were about to start chewing off our arms.
So we headed for the Sci-fi Dine inn restaurant - one of DD's favorite.
Why? she loves the vegetarian pasta there (it's not on the menu - but they make it for you if you know to ask for it) and she also loves the veggie burgers there.
it was now past 5 and our ADR had been for 1:45.....
the place was packed as it always is at meal time, but the CMs were really really really really really really nice (we told them we'd been stuck on the runway in new york for 2 hours and then further delayed by DD's lost luggage).....
they said they would try to get us in as fast as possible, though it might take a bit longer since they would have to work us back into the system.
DD and DSIL went into the bookstore next door to wait, while DH and I waited by the podium.
I had a lovely chat with a woman sitting next to me, so i can't say how much time passed. Maybe about 10 or 15 minutes had passed when the CM called us. I ran into the bookstore (the backdoor to it is right there in the waiting area) and called for DD and DSIL.
We were seated by one of the nicest CMs in all of WDW - Barry. A super nice guy!!!
within two seconds of being seated, the CM took our orders (DD- veggie pasta, DSIL - a burger, DH and me - veggie burgers and we all ordered diet coke). For dessert, DD, DH and i had chocolate milk shakes, while DSIL had some sort of cheese cake.
lunch was yummy and then we were on our way to Toy Story.
Because of the GAC, we headed straight into the fastpass line.
Regarding the GAC, rumor has it that the GAC is going to be changed from a card to being on the magic band of the person needing it, allowing it to be programmed to limit the number of times you can use it so that the experience is closer to a regular guest.
There are people complaining about the possible change, but i think it will make it much more fair. I assume that once the FP+ is completely implemented, the new GAC will go into effect.
Toy Story was fun (DD and DSIL LOVE toy story - DH and i enjoy it, but it's not at all a must do for me. It's fun, but i wouldn't be crushed if i couldn't ride it).
As we left Toy Story, we noticed a very long line right next door.
It was for some sort of pirate thing (the legend of captain jack sparrow).
We all figured it was one of those 'how the movie was made' attractions and we just continued on our way.
Besides the line was way too long for us to find out. (don't worry - we did eventually get to experience it a few days later - and it turns out it's well worth the wait in line!!! )
on the way to ToT, we passed the sorcerer's hat area where there was a big dance concert going on - during the summer they had a monster themed music/disco/dance show for many hours each day. The band playing was called "Scare Supply", but it was really the "Mulch, Sweat and Shears" guys dressed in monsterish outfits - very cute...
we're big fans of mulch, sweat and shears so of course we stopped to listen.
DD and DSIL know several of the performers (DD's a singer/songwriter and DSIL is a drummer and they have a band) so we always stop to watch them whenever they play
this show was particularly fun, with lots of dancing and shouting along!
the crowd was pretty large and everyone was having a great time - both children and adults!!
after a bit of rocking and rolling, we continued to ToT - our second favorite ride in all of WDW (Splash Mountain being our absolute favorite)....
the theming at ToT is beyond perfect and the CMs here really enjoy playing it up, which definitely adds to the experience!!
i forgot to mention that i had pre-ordered the photopass plus - so all of our attraction pictures were included.......this is a great deal - the amount we saved on our various attraction pictures (which we almost always buy), paid for the photopass!! so for us, the photopass plus is a no brainer - absolutely worthwhile!!
there were two fantasmics that day, so we had decided to go for the second one so we could enjoy a few more attractions.....this turned out to be a mistake (one we didn't repeat later in the trip)...
we headed back to toy story, again seeing that very long line at the Legend of captain jack sparrow.....
after toy story it was time to head for the second showing of Fantasmic.
As we figured would happen, we were able to get a pretty good seat, almost in the middle...
but things did not bode well.....
it wasn't raining yet, but it looked like it might and we could see what seemed to be lightening way off in the distance...
they kept announcing that fantasmic was on unless there was a change in weather...
we knew we were in trouble when the people next to us said that they had never succeeded in seeing fantasmic as they always had bad weather - oh oh - people with bad fantasmic karma
.....not a good thing....
we started to worry....
and then - CRACK......a super loud crack of lightening! and it came together with the flash...no delay at all.....meaning that baby was right overhead...
the announcer got on the PA and said- "the show is cancelled TAKE IMMEDIATE COVER".....that's what he said - "TAKE IMMEDIATE COVER".....in a very loud, get the hell out of danger voice. He repeated it multiple times.
And everyone RAN for cover....
i have never seen thousands of people move that fast without trampling each other....
Having grown up in Tornado Alley, where there also are very impressive and dangerous sound and light shows, my heart was beating FAST!!
by this point, in addition to the cracking overhead lightening, the sky had opened with a wall of water....
we moved quickly, making it to the stores and waited for the worst of it to pass.....it took a few minutes for the real danger to pass, and then we headed for the tram and the car, and then back to pop century and the very comfortable beds for a long overdue sleep.
and would definately book it again.
