The Cast:
Alex (that's me): Male, 29, the compulsive planner in the family. First Disney trip since 1987!
Crystal (DW): Female, 30, deprived of her childhood dreams, making her first visit ever.
Thursday, October 4: Disney/MGM Studios
Weather: continuing the trend of each day getting warmer, sunny, 87 degrees
Well, this is it. After months of planning, reading books, discussions in the DIS, we have reached the end of the road. We're already feeling post-vacation blues and we haven't even left yet! How pathetic.
We survived the last day of early wake-ups, arriving at MGM by 8:20, I immediately made a 5:20 PS for the Brown Derby and the Fantasmic Dinner Package. At 8:30 they let us in the park and held us behind the rope at Hollywood & Sunset. Upon rope drop we walked briskly to Rock N Roller Coaster in time to ride the very first car of the day! We ate a very light breakfast of toast and Dramamine back at the hotel in anticipation of this ride. Roller Coasters scare the pants off me, which is why we normally don't go to theme parks to begin with. Well, whadduya know? That ride is an incredible rush! We both loved it. For me the scariest part is the initial blast-off from 0 to 60 in three seconds. After that it all goes by so fast you don't even realize you've been upside down twice. So there we were, two people who normally avoid the thrill rides, completely digging RNR and ready for the plunge at the Tower of Terror! The wait at TOT was minimal so we barely had time to recover from the coaster before we were free falling down the elevator shaft. TOT was much less intense than we were expecting. The drops are very quick and were over with before they got too scary. Not bad at all for a weenie like me
We had finished both by 9:30am.
Things moved very quickly throughout the morning, as we hit attraction after attraction without waiting. Who Wants to Be A Millionaire was lots of fun even though we got thoroughly whipped on the questions. I had them all right but my finger was way too slow. The studio was only 2/3 full. MuppetVision 3D was a hoot for us Gen X'ers who grew up watching the Muppet Show.
Throughout the week we were following the Unofficial Guide touring plans. For those of you unfamiliar with the plans, they mainly consist of seeing all the major rides in quick succession before lunch, then watching the stage shows later in the day. I recommend the plans for anybody looking to pack as much as possible into short periods of time. Without them we would have wasted a lot of time looking at maps wondering where to go next. As with the other parks we had visited, things slowed to a crawl when it came time to see the shows. Perhaps it is unique to the off-season when the parks close early, but time starts to run out very quickly when watching the shows. We experienced the first eight attractions in four hours, but then it took two hours to see two shows. We thought the Indiana Jones stunt show was much better than Universal's stunt show, though both were good.
We saw (rather, we heard) Sounds Dangerous at 4:00, and just like the Hall of Presidents at MK, it dropped us off in a perfect parade viewing spot. We liked Disney Stars and Motor Cars better than Tapestry of Dreams, but not as much as the MK parade.
After the parade it was time for our PS at the Brown Derby. The Cobb Salad was phenomenal, and our dinners were pretty darn good as well. We loved the finishing touches such as the Mickey water tower swizzle sticks and the chocolate sorcerer's hat with dessert.
In retrospect we were glad we did the Fantasmic Dinner Package because we had a full hour after dinner to do the backlot tour and wander around the street sets before lining up for the show at 7:30. The Backstage Pass tour was already done for the day, and we ran out of time before we could see One Man's Dream. It's tough to see all of MGM on days the park closes early. Oldsmobile was holding a convention that night and we found out that after the park's official closing, the rides were staying open for the exclusive use of convention guests. Must have been fun for them!
Saving Fantasmic for the last thing on our vacation was a great move on our part. Even though the park appeared empty much of the day, Fantasmic was filled to capacity. The show was completely mind-blowing! Who would have thought to project video on walls of water? The show truly lived up to its theme of Imagination. DW and I both left the theater with our mouths wide open. Wow!
Post-Disney depression is really setting in now. We lost our rental car in the parking lot. We had a general idea of where it was, but the devil was in the details. The problem with driving rental cars around WDW is that there are 30 other cars in the lot that look just like yours. It took us about a half hour to find it. Maybe it was just a subconcious effort to extend our vacation a little bit longer.
We got back to Buena Vista Suites, packed up and got ready for Friday morning's drive to Fort Lauderdale for a weekend with relatives. Later I will post some final thoughts, observations, regrets, etc.
Alex (that's me): Male, 29, the compulsive planner in the family. First Disney trip since 1987!
Crystal (DW): Female, 30, deprived of her childhood dreams, making her first visit ever.
Thursday, October 4: Disney/MGM Studios
Weather: continuing the trend of each day getting warmer, sunny, 87 degrees
Well, this is it. After months of planning, reading books, discussions in the DIS, we have reached the end of the road. We're already feeling post-vacation blues and we haven't even left yet! How pathetic.
We survived the last day of early wake-ups, arriving at MGM by 8:20, I immediately made a 5:20 PS for the Brown Derby and the Fantasmic Dinner Package. At 8:30 they let us in the park and held us behind the rope at Hollywood & Sunset. Upon rope drop we walked briskly to Rock N Roller Coaster in time to ride the very first car of the day! We ate a very light breakfast of toast and Dramamine back at the hotel in anticipation of this ride. Roller Coasters scare the pants off me, which is why we normally don't go to theme parks to begin with. Well, whadduya know? That ride is an incredible rush! We both loved it. For me the scariest part is the initial blast-off from 0 to 60 in three seconds. After that it all goes by so fast you don't even realize you've been upside down twice. So there we were, two people who normally avoid the thrill rides, completely digging RNR and ready for the plunge at the Tower of Terror! The wait at TOT was minimal so we barely had time to recover from the coaster before we were free falling down the elevator shaft. TOT was much less intense than we were expecting. The drops are very quick and were over with before they got too scary. Not bad at all for a weenie like me
We had finished both by 9:30am.Things moved very quickly throughout the morning, as we hit attraction after attraction without waiting. Who Wants to Be A Millionaire was lots of fun even though we got thoroughly whipped on the questions. I had them all right but my finger was way too slow. The studio was only 2/3 full. MuppetVision 3D was a hoot for us Gen X'ers who grew up watching the Muppet Show.
Throughout the week we were following the Unofficial Guide touring plans. For those of you unfamiliar with the plans, they mainly consist of seeing all the major rides in quick succession before lunch, then watching the stage shows later in the day. I recommend the plans for anybody looking to pack as much as possible into short periods of time. Without them we would have wasted a lot of time looking at maps wondering where to go next. As with the other parks we had visited, things slowed to a crawl when it came time to see the shows. Perhaps it is unique to the off-season when the parks close early, but time starts to run out very quickly when watching the shows. We experienced the first eight attractions in four hours, but then it took two hours to see two shows. We thought the Indiana Jones stunt show was much better than Universal's stunt show, though both were good.
We saw (rather, we heard) Sounds Dangerous at 4:00, and just like the Hall of Presidents at MK, it dropped us off in a perfect parade viewing spot. We liked Disney Stars and Motor Cars better than Tapestry of Dreams, but not as much as the MK parade.
After the parade it was time for our PS at the Brown Derby. The Cobb Salad was phenomenal, and our dinners were pretty darn good as well. We loved the finishing touches such as the Mickey water tower swizzle sticks and the chocolate sorcerer's hat with dessert.
In retrospect we were glad we did the Fantasmic Dinner Package because we had a full hour after dinner to do the backlot tour and wander around the street sets before lining up for the show at 7:30. The Backstage Pass tour was already done for the day, and we ran out of time before we could see One Man's Dream. It's tough to see all of MGM on days the park closes early. Oldsmobile was holding a convention that night and we found out that after the park's official closing, the rides were staying open for the exclusive use of convention guests. Must have been fun for them!
Saving Fantasmic for the last thing on our vacation was a great move on our part. Even though the park appeared empty much of the day, Fantasmic was filled to capacity. The show was completely mind-blowing! Who would have thought to project video on walls of water? The show truly lived up to its theme of Imagination. DW and I both left the theater with our mouths wide open. Wow!
Post-Disney depression is really setting in now. We lost our rental car in the parking lot. We had a general idea of where it was, but the devil was in the details. The problem with driving rental cars around WDW is that there are 30 other cars in the lot that look just like yours. It took us about a half hour to find it. Maybe it was just a subconcious effort to extend our vacation a little bit longer.
We got back to Buena Vista Suites, packed up and got ready for Friday morning's drive to Fort Lauderdale for a weekend with relatives. Later I will post some final thoughts, observations, regrets, etc.
