Mykelogan
Long time, no see!
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2005
- Messages
- 2,183
Stitch says no sleeping!!!!
The phone rang at 5:30am and that was my greeting! It was time to get up and get ready for a full day of Magic Kingdom goodness. I had an 8am PS at Crystal Palace, and being a good DIS board do-bee I was aware of the raging debates as to the existence of the AM buses to the Character Breakfasts. So I wanted to be out at the Bus stop by 7:15am as directed! I turned the TV on, again avoiding the weather accidentally and just watching the Top 7 Things to do at WDW, as I got showered and dressed. At 7am, I decided to open the door and curtains to see what greeted me. I had expected showers, maybe overcast skies what I saw was literally the most torrential downpour I had ever seen in my life! I admit I can be prone to exaggeration but I am not doing so now. There was at least an inch of water on the ground and sheets of rain poured from the sky. What to do!?! I quickly switched the TV over to the first station I could find reporting the weather. What did I hear Severe thunderstorms, tornado warnings stay inside if you do not need to go out!
What would I do? My first instinct was to go back to bed! Heck, I was sleep deprived as it was, why stress out? I am on vacation but wait! Thats right, I am on vacation. A vacation I paid for already and was going to enjoy. I could not waste even a morning! So I put the handy-dandy provided shower cap over the delicate controls of my ECV, and quickly made my way to Classic Hall. Already wet I plunked down my room card and said Poncho, please. They had stacks and stacks of them reaching to the sky behind both registers in Everything POP. I did my best to work with the flimsy plastic, finally found the head hole after making a nice big tear in it! I wrapped my body and as much of my ECV as possible and headed out to the bus stop just in time to see the Magic Kingdom bus pulling away! Ok, it will be fine, I will just try to take shelter under the bus stop roof and wait for the next one. As I sat there, the rain actually lessened, though the skies grew increasingly darker. So what do you think happened 10min later when the next Magic Kingdom bus pulled in the skies opened again and the rain was worse than before. There were only 5 of us waiting for the bus so it was not a problem for the driver to load the passengers as she assisted me with loading the ECV so no one had to stand in the rain. Oh! I must tell you about the little girl in the poncho at the Epcot bus stop! She was obviously waiting for the bus to the Princess Breakfast and she stood at the front of the stop regardless of the rains intensity. When her mom called to her under the shelter, asking her to join her family and be dry, the little girl whirled around and yelled Mom! The driver will not see us if I am not here, I do not mind getting wet! It was quite funny to watch her holding onto the railing yelling this as the winds and rain whipped her about! Back to my bus. The ride was not very encouraging. The water on the rode was making waves up over the sides of the bus! Small talk on the bus consisted of wishing each other well at staying dry and nothing else as everyone seemed to be focused on tapping our hidden psychic powers to manipulate the weather it wasnt working!
When we arrived at the Magic Kingdom, it was a dead zone. There was one entrance, the one closest to the busses open, no bags were being searched, no one was asking for PS #s. The CMs were focused on getting your card swiped and getting you to the next place you could hide from the rain! I must say, rain and clouds aside, I was ecstatic! The park was empty, the only person I saw as I made my way to Crystal Palace was the poor CM halfway down Main Street who was in charge of making sure you headed to the right breakfast. I arrived at Crystal Palace to find only CM outside checking people in. as I gave my name I asked how it was going this morning, the CM smiled and said Lets put it this way, over 150 people should have checked in by now, and you are number 15. You are going to have a very nice breakfast, trust me! This was my first time at Crystal Palace, and I was psyched! When I entered the main dining room the first thing I noticed was the well dressed CMs completely out numbered the patrons. My server showed me to my table and explained how things work, she will take care of my beverages, the characters will come around soon, and I could enjoy the buffet at my leisure. She added that because it was such a slow morning if I needed anything just ask and she would be glad to assist. I decided I should first try and dry my glasses enough so I could see the buffet! As I did so I noticed Tigger was already coming around. He got to my table just as I had replaced my glasses on my head and he mimed that I looked wet and that it was raining. I said yes, it is very wet out today, it will be hard to get dry! At that he picked up the spare cloth napkin folded at my table, and rubbed my head, gently at first. (To add to the picture I have a shaved head.) This made the young boy at the table, and myself, laugh. Encouraged by this Tigger then proceeded to shine my head like he was polishing a bowling ball! It was hilarious. Satisfied I was dry he shook my hand and moved on. The little boy near me said, Tigger was very helpful! hehe. I decided it was time for the buffet. Maybe it was because I was in the first seating and it was not crowded, but the food looked amazing. I had read mixed reviews so I was ready for a so-so meal. I was quite pleasantly surprised. The mini-croissants were some of the best I have ever tasted, especially with the strawberry preserves. The sausage and bacon were juicy and crisp. I had some cheesy hash browns, cubed cheese and fresh scrambled eggs. All soo good! When I returned to my table, the aforementioned little boy seemed ready to burst. As soon as I sat down he said, Winnie the Pooh has your juice over there!!! While I was up my server had apparently brought me more juice, which Winnie the Pooh decided to hide. I said, He does!? Where is he?? to which the boy said He is right there behind the pole! at which point Pooh came back over and we all laughed. Due to the low crowd, the characters seemed to really be getting into with everyone. The dining room was filled with laughter and I was having a blast even though I was initially hesitant about going to a character breakfast solo. The next visitor was Eeyore, who I must admit I love but I wanted to keep my composure. Well Eeyore seemed determine to hug me when I offered to shake his hand. He just shook his head no and spread his arms out, and would not move. I said Youre not leaving til I hug you are you? and he shook his head emphatically yes. Hehe. So I gave Eeyore a great big hug, it was nice! Hehe. I decided another pass at the buffet was in order as I wanted some of that delicious looking breakfast Lasagna I had read so much about! I was the first person to scoop into it that day and boy did it look good, I also snagged another of the croissants, some assorted fruit, and more cheesy potatoes (sooo good! Hehe! WISH board give me strength! Hehe) Tigger was now coming around again, this time we exchanged high-5s and with I decided it was time to head to the Castle to be there for rope-drop as it was approaching 9am. Satisfied with my experience, I thanked my server, paid and was on my way. I did not use the dining plan here as I was saving the TS credits for a more expensive meal.
I got to the castle a few minutes before rope drop, as the morning announcement began. I was one of 6 people again waiting to get into Fantasyland! The rain was still heavy but not near as bad as before. The park empty! So as the CM took down the golden rope I made my way quickly to Peter Pans Flight. The CM working said, You are todays first rider! Hop on board! What a ride! I love the initial take off, as you look down at London, then swerve your way through the story of Peter Pan. It is a relaxing yet exhilarating ride to me. It may be slow, but I love it! So when I was pulling back into the front I asked if I could stay on and the CM said, Seeing as there is no one else here, sure, go ahead! and around again I went. I then grabbed a Fast Pass for Philharmagic, not necessary I know, and went to Snow White. Again I was the first rider of the day! What fun! I felt like the Magic Kingdom was open just for me! After Snow White I went to Philharmagic, there were five of us in the theater! I had seen the show in Feb and enjoyed it, but this time I fell in love (sorry Risotto!). I knew I would do this attraction again several times this trip! I decided to head to Tomorrowland now, stopping off at Winnie The Pooh first.
Tomorrowland had a few more people than Fantasyland but still I could count no more that 20-30 people walking around, including CMs. I rode Buzz Lightyear twice, which was fun. One time I did pretty good score wise, the second time I focused more on spinning the vehicle! Hehe It was now a little after 10am, and the rain was lessening but still present. I decide a visit to Stitch was in order. So I got in line, yes a line, wow! There were about 20 of us waiting for the pre-show to start. I enjoyed the attraction for what it was, a re-costuming of ExtraTerrorestrial, and I will say many of the small children in the group were screaming when the lights went out and Stitch was free. All in all, it was cute, but not a must do in my mind. My next must do was coming up next, The Tomorrowland Transit Authority. Love it! What else can I say?! I rode it 3 times in a row. As I finished my third trip, the CM working said a fourth time? and I said Not at the moment, but I will be back!
It was just about 10:30 and I realized how much park I had actually covered! Wow, in 90 min I did a usual half day! I decided to go by Cinderellas castle again now to see if Cinderellabration might be happening soon as the rain was light, no show til the stage was dry. So in the light rain, I decided to head to Liberty Square. I did the Haunted Mansion, nice to see those grim grinning ghosts, and then visited with the Hall of Presidents. It may be getting old, and I may be a government buff, but I love the Hall. Maybe I just love an attraction that I know kids might be learning on? Hehe. I was wet already so I thought I would see if Splash Mountain was going, and it was! At this point the crowds that avoided the early morning due to rain were realizing that they would lose a whole day if they stayed away, so the park was filling in. I got on Splash with only a 10min wait and when I got off it was as if 10,000ppl had be airlifted into the Magic Kingdom. I made the decision at this time to head back to POP for a nap, lunch, and hopefully a swim! It was kind of sad as I made my way out of the park because all of these people had appeared in MY park on MY day! Hehe! Oh well, I guess there is enough magic to go around and I knew I would be back later anyway for my dinner PS at Tonys Town Square & hopefully Wishes!
To be continued
Mike
The phone rang at 5:30am and that was my greeting! It was time to get up and get ready for a full day of Magic Kingdom goodness. I had an 8am PS at Crystal Palace, and being a good DIS board do-bee I was aware of the raging debates as to the existence of the AM buses to the Character Breakfasts. So I wanted to be out at the Bus stop by 7:15am as directed! I turned the TV on, again avoiding the weather accidentally and just watching the Top 7 Things to do at WDW, as I got showered and dressed. At 7am, I decided to open the door and curtains to see what greeted me. I had expected showers, maybe overcast skies what I saw was literally the most torrential downpour I had ever seen in my life! I admit I can be prone to exaggeration but I am not doing so now. There was at least an inch of water on the ground and sheets of rain poured from the sky. What to do!?! I quickly switched the TV over to the first station I could find reporting the weather. What did I hear Severe thunderstorms, tornado warnings stay inside if you do not need to go out!
What would I do? My first instinct was to go back to bed! Heck, I was sleep deprived as it was, why stress out? I am on vacation but wait! Thats right, I am on vacation. A vacation I paid for already and was going to enjoy. I could not waste even a morning! So I put the handy-dandy provided shower cap over the delicate controls of my ECV, and quickly made my way to Classic Hall. Already wet I plunked down my room card and said Poncho, please. They had stacks and stacks of them reaching to the sky behind both registers in Everything POP. I did my best to work with the flimsy plastic, finally found the head hole after making a nice big tear in it! I wrapped my body and as much of my ECV as possible and headed out to the bus stop just in time to see the Magic Kingdom bus pulling away! Ok, it will be fine, I will just try to take shelter under the bus stop roof and wait for the next one. As I sat there, the rain actually lessened, though the skies grew increasingly darker. So what do you think happened 10min later when the next Magic Kingdom bus pulled in the skies opened again and the rain was worse than before. There were only 5 of us waiting for the bus so it was not a problem for the driver to load the passengers as she assisted me with loading the ECV so no one had to stand in the rain. Oh! I must tell you about the little girl in the poncho at the Epcot bus stop! She was obviously waiting for the bus to the Princess Breakfast and she stood at the front of the stop regardless of the rains intensity. When her mom called to her under the shelter, asking her to join her family and be dry, the little girl whirled around and yelled Mom! The driver will not see us if I am not here, I do not mind getting wet! It was quite funny to watch her holding onto the railing yelling this as the winds and rain whipped her about! Back to my bus. The ride was not very encouraging. The water on the rode was making waves up over the sides of the bus! Small talk on the bus consisted of wishing each other well at staying dry and nothing else as everyone seemed to be focused on tapping our hidden psychic powers to manipulate the weather it wasnt working!
When we arrived at the Magic Kingdom, it was a dead zone. There was one entrance, the one closest to the busses open, no bags were being searched, no one was asking for PS #s. The CMs were focused on getting your card swiped and getting you to the next place you could hide from the rain! I must say, rain and clouds aside, I was ecstatic! The park was empty, the only person I saw as I made my way to Crystal Palace was the poor CM halfway down Main Street who was in charge of making sure you headed to the right breakfast. I arrived at Crystal Palace to find only CM outside checking people in. as I gave my name I asked how it was going this morning, the CM smiled and said Lets put it this way, over 150 people should have checked in by now, and you are number 15. You are going to have a very nice breakfast, trust me! This was my first time at Crystal Palace, and I was psyched! When I entered the main dining room the first thing I noticed was the well dressed CMs completely out numbered the patrons. My server showed me to my table and explained how things work, she will take care of my beverages, the characters will come around soon, and I could enjoy the buffet at my leisure. She added that because it was such a slow morning if I needed anything just ask and she would be glad to assist. I decided I should first try and dry my glasses enough so I could see the buffet! As I did so I noticed Tigger was already coming around. He got to my table just as I had replaced my glasses on my head and he mimed that I looked wet and that it was raining. I said yes, it is very wet out today, it will be hard to get dry! At that he picked up the spare cloth napkin folded at my table, and rubbed my head, gently at first. (To add to the picture I have a shaved head.) This made the young boy at the table, and myself, laugh. Encouraged by this Tigger then proceeded to shine my head like he was polishing a bowling ball! It was hilarious. Satisfied I was dry he shook my hand and moved on. The little boy near me said, Tigger was very helpful! hehe. I decided it was time for the buffet. Maybe it was because I was in the first seating and it was not crowded, but the food looked amazing. I had read mixed reviews so I was ready for a so-so meal. I was quite pleasantly surprised. The mini-croissants were some of the best I have ever tasted, especially with the strawberry preserves. The sausage and bacon were juicy and crisp. I had some cheesy hash browns, cubed cheese and fresh scrambled eggs. All soo good! When I returned to my table, the aforementioned little boy seemed ready to burst. As soon as I sat down he said, Winnie the Pooh has your juice over there!!! While I was up my server had apparently brought me more juice, which Winnie the Pooh decided to hide. I said, He does!? Where is he?? to which the boy said He is right there behind the pole! at which point Pooh came back over and we all laughed. Due to the low crowd, the characters seemed to really be getting into with everyone. The dining room was filled with laughter and I was having a blast even though I was initially hesitant about going to a character breakfast solo. The next visitor was Eeyore, who I must admit I love but I wanted to keep my composure. Well Eeyore seemed determine to hug me when I offered to shake his hand. He just shook his head no and spread his arms out, and would not move. I said Youre not leaving til I hug you are you? and he shook his head emphatically yes. Hehe. So I gave Eeyore a great big hug, it was nice! Hehe. I decided another pass at the buffet was in order as I wanted some of that delicious looking breakfast Lasagna I had read so much about! I was the first person to scoop into it that day and boy did it look good, I also snagged another of the croissants, some assorted fruit, and more cheesy potatoes (sooo good! Hehe! WISH board give me strength! Hehe) Tigger was now coming around again, this time we exchanged high-5s and with I decided it was time to head to the Castle to be there for rope-drop as it was approaching 9am. Satisfied with my experience, I thanked my server, paid and was on my way. I did not use the dining plan here as I was saving the TS credits for a more expensive meal.
I got to the castle a few minutes before rope drop, as the morning announcement began. I was one of 6 people again waiting to get into Fantasyland! The rain was still heavy but not near as bad as before. The park empty! So as the CM took down the golden rope I made my way quickly to Peter Pans Flight. The CM working said, You are todays first rider! Hop on board! What a ride! I love the initial take off, as you look down at London, then swerve your way through the story of Peter Pan. It is a relaxing yet exhilarating ride to me. It may be slow, but I love it! So when I was pulling back into the front I asked if I could stay on and the CM said, Seeing as there is no one else here, sure, go ahead! and around again I went. I then grabbed a Fast Pass for Philharmagic, not necessary I know, and went to Snow White. Again I was the first rider of the day! What fun! I felt like the Magic Kingdom was open just for me! After Snow White I went to Philharmagic, there were five of us in the theater! I had seen the show in Feb and enjoyed it, but this time I fell in love (sorry Risotto!). I knew I would do this attraction again several times this trip! I decided to head to Tomorrowland now, stopping off at Winnie The Pooh first.
Tomorrowland had a few more people than Fantasyland but still I could count no more that 20-30 people walking around, including CMs. I rode Buzz Lightyear twice, which was fun. One time I did pretty good score wise, the second time I focused more on spinning the vehicle! Hehe It was now a little after 10am, and the rain was lessening but still present. I decide a visit to Stitch was in order. So I got in line, yes a line, wow! There were about 20 of us waiting for the pre-show to start. I enjoyed the attraction for what it was, a re-costuming of ExtraTerrorestrial, and I will say many of the small children in the group were screaming when the lights went out and Stitch was free. All in all, it was cute, but not a must do in my mind. My next must do was coming up next, The Tomorrowland Transit Authority. Love it! What else can I say?! I rode it 3 times in a row. As I finished my third trip, the CM working said a fourth time? and I said Not at the moment, but I will be back!
It was just about 10:30 and I realized how much park I had actually covered! Wow, in 90 min I did a usual half day! I decided to go by Cinderellas castle again now to see if Cinderellabration might be happening soon as the rain was light, no show til the stage was dry. So in the light rain, I decided to head to Liberty Square. I did the Haunted Mansion, nice to see those grim grinning ghosts, and then visited with the Hall of Presidents. It may be getting old, and I may be a government buff, but I love the Hall. Maybe I just love an attraction that I know kids might be learning on? Hehe. I was wet already so I thought I would see if Splash Mountain was going, and it was! At this point the crowds that avoided the early morning due to rain were realizing that they would lose a whole day if they stayed away, so the park was filling in. I got on Splash with only a 10min wait and when I got off it was as if 10,000ppl had be airlifted into the Magic Kingdom. I made the decision at this time to head back to POP for a nap, lunch, and hopefully a swim! It was kind of sad as I made my way out of the park because all of these people had appeared in MY park on MY day! Hehe! Oh well, I guess there is enough magic to go around and I knew I would be back later anyway for my dinner PS at Tonys Town Square & hopefully Wishes!
To be continued
Mike
