Day 3 part 1
Just a little FYI before I begin, this update is going to be short and sweet with no pics! Sorry! But it involves Keys to the Kingdom and you cant take a camera on the tour and are sworn to secrecy about the info given and all the stuff you see!
So, I woke up that morning feel perfectly fine! Yipppeee! I would have been completely bummed if I had missed The Keys to the Kingdom, again!
I quickly showered and got myself ready while DH meandered out of bed and got himself ready!
Im going to stop for a second and add a note about the bathroom at Poly! One of the things I liked about the room at Poly was the size. Weve stayed at AKL, WL and GF and the room at Poly was much, much bigger and much better suited to our family of 5. Not only was the room itself huge but the bathroom was gigantic!!! I swear the bathroom must have been 20 feet long by 15 feet wide! I could be really over estimating that but it was huge!!! There was more than enough room for DH and me to get ready at the same time. In fact the kids, if they had been there, could have come in too and we still would have been comfortable! I also kinda liked that it was a big bathroom and not the toilet and shower bathroom with the dressing area with the sinks outside. That way I could close the door when I had the blow dryer on and not wake DH!
Anyway, once we were ready we headed for Capt Cooks for breakfast! I got a croissant and DH got a bagel and we each got a bowl of fruit. We also filled our mugs! DH got Tea and I coffee, yucky yucky coffee!
We ate and read the paper that had been left for us at our room and soon it was time to head to MK. But, not before stopping at the Kona Coffee bar to get real coffee! Real, yummy, strong coffee!! I realllllllly enjoyed that cup of coffee! It was sooooo good! I really wish I had had more during our stay and that I didnt think better of buying a lbs to bring home. $40 for a lbs is crazy but that coffee is crazy good and I would enjoy every single last drop of it!
Anyway, soon we were off to MK and found ourselves at the gates in no time! It was still before opening because we got there around 8:30. But we were allowed in to check in for KTTK!
We soon checked in, got our name tags and ear pieces. We had a little time to wait but enjoyed sitting on a bench on an empty Main Street!
Soon our tour guide, Claire, round up all the people who were on our tour that day. There was, I believe, 18 of us and soon we were on our way!
Im not going share too much of the tour as I said before. But will tell you a few things
We learned A LOT of stuff. A lot of stuff I didnt know! Claire was a wealth of Disney knowledge! DH, who took KTTK in March 09 said Claire knew a ton more than the tour guide he and FIL had then. As much info as Claire gave she also asked a lot of questions give those of us on the tour the opportunity to answer and get a reward for a correct answer!
Ive read many different books about Walt Disney himself and Disney World and the building of it etc. So of course I had lots and lots of answers and at one point during the tour Claire declared me a Disney scholar! LOL!! I told her I would shut up! She told me Dont you dare! Like I said, she gave a reward when someone answered a question correctly she gave us a reward, Mickey stickers!! I came home with 48 strips of 2 Mickey stickers that Claire gave me! LOL!! My kiddos where super happy and very impressed when I came home!
We learned about everything from windows on Main Street, to sensory tickles, to garbage cans, to hidden Mickeys etc, etc! It was incredible!
Of course the coolest part of the tour was the behind the scenes stuff! We didnt see anything that I found disillusioning at all. We did see characters without their heads, which I know a lot people think is off putting. We went behind scenes in Frontierland and the little street show they have in frontierland was going on. When it was over they came back and we saw the Country Bears take their heads off!
We saw the floats for Spectro, which is when we learned why Spectro was running the wrong way Monday night. Claire told us they were running it backwards as a test to see if crowd flow would be better that way. We also learned that at
Disneyland the parade run back and forth. Meaning one day they go down and the next they go up because there is no way to get the floats back to the other side behind the scenes.
We did, of course, get to go down into the utilidors. That was very, very cool! It wasnt much different then I expected except I thought they would be wider! We kept having to move so service vehicles could get by.
At the end of the tour Claire declared Congratulations, youve just completed a 3 mile walking tour! LOL! I didnt really like I had walked 3 miles. I really only felt even more in owe of WDW and Walt Disney himself!
I truly enjoyed this tour! Claire was AWESOME! She knew sooooo much, like I said DH said she knew more than his last guide. She also seemed to know everyone working in all of MK! She walked fast and really kept us on our toes and moving! I really recommend doing this tour!!
Claire also recommended a DVD documentary on Walt Disney to us. Of course, one of the first things I did when we got home was order it! Its Walt Disney, The Man Behind the Myth and it is great!!! I got it for $8 on
amazon! Totally worth it!
After the tour was finished we thought about going up Main Street to get some ice cream but decided to skip it and head back to Poly for some rest before a fun night!