October 6th, Disney Hollywood Studios
I wanted to have another early morning at the DHS, so we could go back on TSMM another time or two, since the other day was so crazy. We still have to go back Friday for Mama Melrose’s lunch, but there is still a bit of shopping and the Muppets 3D for then.
Instead of driving to DHS we took the bus. We also planned to go to Epcot afterwards, so having the car was not necessary today. We had a quick breakfast of Corn Flakes and walked down to the bus stop at the Contemporary around 8:20 AM. A few minutes later the bus arrived and it made a stop at the Polynesian and soon we were on our way to DHS.
Arriving well before rope drop, the lines were log jammed once again at the entry gates. There were noticeably less people here today, which would make it a bit more enjoyable for everyone, if you know what I mean. We made our way to TSMM and grabbed fast passes that would be good in an hour. The standby line was much longer than the previous day at DHS surprisingly, but maybe everyone had the same idea about coming back on a non EMH day.
After being crowded a kitty, we made way for the Rock n’ Roller Coaster, which my father and I missed the other day. We used the standby lane twice because the wait was only about 15 minutes! That was a bonus. The wait for ToT was a little longer at 30 minutes, again it looked as though only one side was rolling.
To beat the time till we could ride TSMM, we grabbed a pastry at Starring Rolls. This place is why I cannot stand small counter service places. People are trying to cram in at each door and dragging their strollers into the alley sized nook. Disney really needs to expand them like the ones at the resorts or find a better way to have people flow through these establishments in my opinion. I realize space is limited in the parks, but the time it takes to grab what you want and check out takes too long= cranky guests=yikes!
When we were finished riding TSMM, we came back down to Hollywood Boulevard and browsed the shops. We took the Friendship 3 over to Epcot, which seemed like it was waiting there at the dock for us, how did they know I was coming right? It was a lovely 25 minute journey to Crescent Lake onto Epcot.
We traveled through the United Kingdom stopping to get a Harp Lager and Stella on draft, yummy. I am not much of a drinker, but that Harp is great stuff. My dad and I bought a cheddar cheese soup and chicken chipotle sausage with creamy corn polenta for a quick bite. Then we made it just in time to watch O’Canada starring Martin Short. We only live about an hour and a half from Niagara Falls and about 4 hours from Toronto, so there are many familiar sights on the film.
We decided to head back to base camp then and after traveling from Epcot to the TTC, we hopped on the resort monorail and went to the Grand Floridian Café for a more substantial lunch. It was back to the room for a little R & R. F.Y.I., my mother’s feet have really been hurting, hence all of the R & R.
Around 5:30 PM, we decided it was time to get over to Epcot once again for dinner at Teppan Edo. I thought we were doing well on time till the Epcot monorail broke down at the TTC! Eeeek, we have to get to dinner by 7:00 PM. It did not appear like things were going to be resolved any time soon, so we had to come up with another plan. We really did not want to drive, especially since it meant getting back in the resort monorail and going all around back to the Contemporary.
Since there are no buses running from the TTC or Polynesian to Epcot, they may have to get the guests back over that night, we were not going to be stuck in the rush, we hoofed it over to the Polynesian and had bell services hail us a cab. It only cost about 12 dollars to get over to Epcot, but just a minor inconvenience. I do not know what they did for the other unlucky guests, but I just wanted to be sure we made it to our ressie on time. We had another great, entertaining meal that evening!
I grabbed a little treat for myself after dinner in the form of a funnel cake, nom nom! We went back to BLT for another night’s rest. I decided we could sleep in a bit, since we did not need to make it for rope drop Thursday morning because we have to stay up for Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party tomorrow night!
Thursday October 7th
We took the opportunity to sleep in a bit this morning, so we could stay up for the party tonight. We stopped and had breakfast at the Grand Floridian Café. It was great except for the fact that my dad ordered a ham and cheese omelet and received scrambled eggs basically because there was no ham or cheese in the omelet. I had to do a little switch a-roo on the lunch adrs for Friday and Sunday. I was able to cancel and rebook a reservation at Mama Melrose for Saturday rather than Friday. Earlier in the week I had to switch my Plaza adr from Tuesday to Saturday. We originally planned to visit the Magic Kingdom on Tuesday during our transition from the Polynesian to BLT, but we decided to go to the Animal Kingdom that day instead if you recall. I found the Grand Floridian concierge staff to be very helpful and courteous.
We headed over to the Magic Kingdom. I stopped by the Arribas Brothers shop to get a personalized mug. I picked out a design with Mickey, which was about $20 with my name engraved on the back. After a couple of hours, we walked back to BLT to nap for a while.
By 4:00 PM, we walked back over to the Magic Kingdom to get our bracelets. We had 45 minutes till our reservation at Tony’s Town Square for dinner, so we hopped on the Walt Disney World Railroad and took the circle tour. I went and check us in at Tony’s and a few minutes later we were seated outside, in the sun, in Florida! You can catch my review of Tony’s this week in my dining review. Let’s just say we probably won’t go back for now.
Dinner only took 45 minutes since it came out lighting fast, so we were on our way to enjoy the park. By a few minutes after 7 PM, there were only a few people without bands roaming in the park. We decided not to trick or treat this year because for one I do not need to candy and two-like I am going to save room in my suitcase for candy-ha! We walked on pretty much every ride, it was great, except for Dumbo-we waited 20 minutes. The parades were crowded as usual, but we were able to skip onto the Haunted Mansion avoiding the beginning and end on the first parade. The trick or treat lines were long, but they moved quickly.
I am a little on the fence on whether or not I am going to buy tickets for the
MNSSHP next year. Even with our DVC discount the tickets are $46. I really love the atmosphere and fact that you can walk on the rides, but we go at a really good week for crowds anyhow. We are not huge on catching the parade and we usually catch the fireworks from the porch at the Polynesian a few nights also. Kind of something for me to think about next year I suppose.
We walked back to BLT around 10:30 PM.
Friday October 8th
We had breakfast at the Wave this morning. The atmosphere is a little odd in here, but breakfast was quick and tasty. The plan was to drive to Epcot and then head over to Downtown Disney for some lunch and shopping in the afternoon.
We drove over to Epcot, knowing that it would start getting busy this afternoon, but none the less-we just love the place. We managed to score fast passes for Test Track and Soarin’ in the meantime riding The Universe of Energy and Mission Space. After browsing through the shops and visiting Club Cool, we pack it in and headed for the car.
At DTD, we went to Wolfgang Puck Café for a lovely lunch. We prefer to eat lunch here, the service is better during the day for some reason in our experience. After that we wandered down the West Side stopping at Magnetron, D-Street Store and browsed the window at the Candy Cauldron, so mom could pick herself out a caramel apple. The crowds were not too bad for the middle of the day, but it definitely was not dead by all means.
We bought a few things from the World of Disney, Once Upon a Toy and the Christmas store, which turned into a fiasco. We were trying to ship a few things home and the cashier was trying to tell us the freight was going to cost $50 for ground shipping and I said “No Way-that is wrong, try again!” Then it was going to cost $24, but that was still a little high even with a charge for wrapping. It was normally around $15 for the last 3 years. I would expect a little increase because our costs for shipping have increased at work, but that was ridiculous. Finally she went to retrieve a manager and after about 15 minutes we were done with the transaction. I really do not think the cashier had any clue on what she was doing. A similar trend we found was that my dad was buying two cups of coffee from a few places each morning and the cost was always different. The same two cups of coffee would add up to different amounts depending on where you were. It was more expensive to buy at Contemporary Grounds, but at the Contempo Café and Captain Cook’s the cost should be the same every day. A weird inconsistency we found.
We hauled back over to the car and headed back to the villa to rest and get ready for dinner at Jiko.
We arrived at the Animal Kingdom Lodge around 6:15 PM and did a bit of exploring. My dad went to take some pictures outside the back of the lobby and I looked around the floor at Boma. We were seated right on time at Jiko seated near the flatbread oven and appetizer station. This was fun to watch all night. The service was great and my dad and I’s food was wonderful, but my mother’s filet was less than spectacular. Check out my full review on our experience here. After the meal, we stopped at Gooding’s for a few sundries, then back home.
Saturday, October 9th
We switched up the schedule to come back to Disney Hollywood Studios. It was extra magic morning hours, so big dividends to those who wake up early right! There were not many attractions that we missed than we wanted to see, but Rock n’ Roller Coaster and Muppets were high on the priority list. Also riding TSMM again was not too bad either! After some Cornflakes at the villa, we drove over to DHS for rope drop and made our way right for the TSMM fast pass lane. Today was even worse than last Sunday! After we received our fast passes, which were good in about an hour, the line was stretching past One Man’s Dream and the standby line was nearly at the same area till the cast members were able to get it under control.
We walked back to Rock n’ Roller Coaster and went through the stand by line twice in about 20 minutes, score. We noticed that the Tower of Terror was again only running on one side, so we grabbed fast passes instead of riding stand by. We caught the first show of Muppet Vision 3D till it was time to use our fp for TSMM. We walked down towards TSMM and it was now about 9:30 AM, the line was still stretched out to One Man’s Dream with the fast pass times for 5-6 PM. The stand by line was quoting 60 minutes. I was crowned a kitty once again, but that darn alien game with the rings is my nemisis-I do terrible that round!
We did the Backlot Tour after riding TSMM, which we have not done for several years. It was pretty fun and a big time killer. I enjoyed going through the set up back stage areas and seeing a few new things that they have added. You used to go through the neighborhood with the mock houses, but they cleared that way for the stunt show years ago during the Happiest Celebration on Earth era. Then we walked on the Great Movie Ride and used our fast passes for the Tower of Terror. We stopped for a coffee at the Writer’s Stop and watched the 11:30 AM showing of the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular, which was totally packed, standing room only at like 11:15 PM.
When the show ended, it was time for lunch at Mama Melrose. Talk about great timing! We had a great meal of appetizers and flatbread pizzas and Buddy provided us with great service. After that we drove back home to BLT. Later that afternoon, we hopped on the monorail and went to Epcot. We did a little shopping and went to dinner at the Yachtsman Steakhouse, which turned out to be another snoozer!
It was back to the room for a good night’s rest for our last full day in paradise, which also happens to be my birthday!
Sunday, October 10th
We made our way from breakfast at the Grand Floridian Café to the Magic Kingdom for rope drop. The crowd for rope drop was bigger and with all of the Columbus Day weekend crowds, it seemed about right. Everyone seemed to be headed for Fantasyland, so we went for Big Thunder Mountain. BTMRR was down, so we rode Splash Mountain, but we didn’t get too wet! Next we backtracked to POC, Magic Carpets of Aladdin and then off to Tomorrowland. The Haunted Mansion was a bit crazed for the moment, so we skipped it for the time being. We never did go back for to ride it, but after riding Space Mountain, Buzz and the Peoplemover and having lunch at the Plaza, we were ready for Epcot.
We stopped at the room for a few minutes and to unload some souvenirs from the Magic Kingdom and we were off to the monorail. I knew Epcot would be totally packed with it being the weekend in the midst of a holiday weekend, but we still had to take one last tour around the World Showcase. By this time, my mom’s feet were really hurting bad from her plantar fasciitis so we rented her a wheel chair to push her around. We walked around the entire showcase buying those last few items we could not live without.
We dropped off the wheelchair and came back to BLT. I managed to catch the last half of the NASCAR race to see my boy Jimmie cruise to a 3rd place finish! The monorail was quicker than we expected and we arrived at the Grand Floridian Café early enough to take a few pictures of the grounds. We check in at Narcoossee’s and it was a few minutes till we would be seated. After dinner, it was time to head back for a good night’s sleep because we have to pack the next morning.
Sunday, October 11th
We rode the monorail one last time en route to breakfast at Kona Café. We came back and packed up, had to leave the popcorn bucket. There was just no room for the fellow, we were packed literally. The suitcases weighed in at 49.5 lbs! We did buy a lot of souvenirs this year because I always kick myself for not buying everything I wanted after we left. So I bought everything basically-haha. We had a bellman help pack up the car and off we were to the airport. So that my friends was the end of Mousetober 2010.
