Rajah
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 17, 1999
WDW Trip Report -- December 14th through the 19th
Cast:
Tammi, "Rajah", primary trip planner and trip report writer. 4th trip to the World
Michael, "VonDrake", once again seriously in need of a vacation. Finals are rough on the instructors too
3rd trip to the World
Supporting Cast:
Becky, long time friend of Tammi and Michael, CM at outdoor foods at MGM
Art, new friend (this year), CM at Innoventions
Trip dates:
Thursday December 14, 2000 through Tuesday December 19th, 2000
Stayed at:
Caribbean Beach Resort Thursday through Sunday, transferring to Wilderness Lodge on Sunday
The wake up call woke us up at 9, and this time I heard Mickey start up right away so I quickly handed the phone to Michael co he could *finally* hear the Mouse's greeting. I don't know if he *really* heard it or just essentially slept through it, but he nodded when Mickey was done and handed the phone back to me.
Neither of us was ready to get up yet, so I tried to figure out how to reset the wake-up call for 9:30. No luck, either the system isn't programmed to allow a 30 minute break, or it was down at that time, or I in my daze didn't enter in the right time. Whatever the case, I gave up quickly and decided to just snooze and set a mental alarm clock. For once it worked and I was up by 9:30, but I couldn't get Michael moving until almost 10 -- after I was completely ready to go for the day. I found out later he wasn't feeling well and either had picked up a stomach flu or his tuna from last night didn't like him. But of course the silly thing didn't tell me this until well into the day or I would have let him sleep a little longer.
While Michael was grudgingly getting ready to go, I finished packing my stuff then sorted through the digital images, hoping to clean out enough space to last the rest of the day while he packed his things.
We were ready to go by 10:30 and I called bell services to see if someone could come pick up the bags and ready them for transport to the Wilderness Lodge for later that day. I was told this time that if we didn't want to wait for the bellman to arrive, we could just pack our bags and leave them by the air conditioner with any tip on the bags, then we could leave the room and bell services would pick up the bags later this morning. This was contrary to what I'd found out yesterday, so I asked about a claim slip and was told we just needed to tell them our name and that the bags were transferred from Caribbean Beach when we asked for them at Wilderness Lodge. I'm not really sure I like not needing the claim slip, but at the same time I was happy we didn't have to sit around for however long it would take bell services to arrive.
So after one last check of the room and me selecting one of the refillable mugs from the room, we were out the door and on our way to the food court. I wanted to get a good look at the resort during the daytime -- something we hadn't done up to this point -- and I wanted to visit our beach. So I put on my beach shoes and grabbed the camera then hurried down to the beach. Only it was still early enough that the sand was all wet from the morning's dew, and it was *very* windy so the hammocks (still wet inside and in the middle) were flapping all over the place.
I tried getting in one anyway, avoiding the wet area, but promptly fell off on my first attempt
Second attempt succeeded and I would have spent a lot more time there had it not been so windy or the hammock wet. As it was, we only stayed on the beach a moment before tromping up to the local pool area where I washed all the sand off my feet and then put my *normal* shoes on and transferred the beach shoes (after much stomping and a little washing to get the sand off) to the backpack.
Then we continued on to Old Port Royale for breakfast since we weren't planning to visit any actual parks until mid-day. I, of course, had to stop several times for pictures and to admire the view. The scenery is wonderful here, despite the wind, and we saw a couple of families riding those surreys. They look like fun, and one of these days I think I'd like to try them either here or at Dixie Landings.
We also stopped by the pool area, which I thought was really neat. I especially liked the cannons and think the slide looks like fun, but I have yet in the past three trips had the chance to actually get in the pool. I keep telling myself "this time", but it never comes about
On into the food court where we hurried up into the first line we found that was still serving breakfast. We figured, with it being almost 11am, we'd be almost too late so just took the first we could find. Only after we got our food did we find that at least two other counters were open for breakfast *after* 11 -- at least on Sunday. It may just be that way on Sunday for "Sunday brunch".
We really liked the layout of the food court here, and I thought the atmosphere was much better than the one at Port Orleans, much as I enjoyed that court as well. Old Port Royale's Marketplace just reminded me of Disneyland for some reason...I guess the scale.
And our breakfast was really good, too -- not quite the scale of the buffets we've gotten used to at Disney, but very good food, more than either of us could eat, for half the price. The single plate that we each ordered came with bacon, sausage (though I was allowed to substitute more bacon for the sausage), scrambled eggs, hash browns, a biscuit (with gravy if requested), and french toast! That was one fuuuull plate!
After we finished eating, we browsed around the shop but ended up not getting anything, so on it was to Downtown Disney! We'd planned to do a lot of shopping here, we each had stores we wanted to hit, but as it turns out we ended up not buying anything but pins (though I did get a lot of pins). The stores were very crowded and, while before the trip I'd really wanted some Christmas ornaments, I just couldn't get interested with the store as packed as it was. I think also the fact that we couldn't have anything shipped to our room since we were between resorts deterred quite a bit of shopping as well.
We also walked through Pleasure Island, where I found a magnet with the Disney*land* castle on it as requested by my dad for a hint to my mom of our upcoming surprise Disneyland trip, and we stopped by Adventurer's Club to have a look around the outside. As it turns out, this was our only stop at Pleasure Island though we'd planned another one for later that trip.
From Pleasure Island we went to the West Side where Michael wanted to see the guitar shop and then we planned to go spend some time in Disney Quest. Michael ended up spending a lot of time at the guitar store, with me chomping at the bit to go to DisneyQuest the entire time. After all, as far as I was concerned a guitar store is a guitar store and we had one of those at home. Michael disagreed, though, so wanted to spend a lot of time in there. There were a few neat things in the store, I must admit. Michael was fascinated by the replica guitar of one of the members of the band KISS, and I thought the transparent electric guitar was kinda neat. The neatest thing, though, was the small amp that wasn't much larger than a walkman and performed quite well. But that took a whole five minutes for me to see while Michael wanted much more time. We ended up having me go grab the tickets to Disneyquest then come back and retrieve him.
I tried to leave him with his ticket while I went ahead and entered DQ so he could spend as long as he wanted in the guitar store, but he wouldn't have that so insisted on coming along. On to DisneyQuest with me starting to get a little edgy because by now it was lunch time and I needed food, but taking the time to eat would mean we'd just paid $45 for only one hour in Disneyquest, and I was determined to get our money's worth. Michael, however, insisted he have a piece of cheesecake, so it was up to the top floor where I snagged a computer while Michael got his food.
I tried going on the DIS while at DQ, but apparently their external-net connection was down because *none* of the non-Disney links worked at all, even those programmed into the machine. So grumbling because this had been to me a wasted pause, Michael finished his cheesecake and we rushed down to see the main thing that brought us here: Pirates.
We ended up being selected to join a pair of young girls so we'd have a full boat on our first ride out. I was captain and Michael and the girls were gunners. Or perhaps I should say Michael was gunner while the two girls were occasional assistants -- they barely participated at all. And, we'd had no instruction from anyone but the ghost pirate, so we didn't do too well. Ended up with about 2500 in treasure and came out a bit disappointed. Also disappointed because I'd expected the game to be much more like the attraction than it was. Really, the only thing the Pirates game has in common with the ride is the music, you're on a boat, and you're involved with pirates. Other than that, they're completely different.
After our adventure on the high seas, we hiked up to Cyberspace Mountain where we built what we expected to be a wild coaster. Turned out to only be a 2, though. It was fun, but the wilder ones are much more exciting! We wanted to do a 5, but one look at the time verses the line and we decided we'd better try something else instead. Also, Michael finally told me he wasn't really feeling well so we needed to do something not so wild.
I'd heard about the interactive create-your-own CD from some trip reports, so we hunted that down to see what it was about. The wait was horrible and we were able to watch a good portion of the animation class going on next to us and I jumped out of line a time or so to play with the living easels, but we finally had our turn. We ended up doing a female "fun" voice singing to the "alternative" music selection (which really is just a heavier rock than rock) with the "I don't want to grow up" theme. We thought it was cute enough that we purchased it, though the price is a bit high for a single song.
After that, it was time to leave if we had any hope of hitting MGM in time for Fantasmic and Rock 'N Roller. But I wanted one last look in the gift shop, and I'm glad I did
There we found a "create a Tee" with all sorts of pre-set backgrounds and characters you could choose from. And one of those characters was RAJAH!! Seeing that, the first shirt that I'd seen that could have Rajah as one of if not the primary character (Abu's on his back), I *had* to make one. So I did, and put across the top "DIS Rajah". That'll be my DIS-meet T-shirt now
Then we were already running late for our schedule and though Michael wanted to return to the guitar store, I insisted we go straight to MGM so we could get a seat in Fantasmic. We were a little nervous since it was really windy at that time, but there were still close to 3 hours before showtime so we hoped they wouldn't cancel the show and wanted to be in place in case it did run. That evening, we had half a dozen people tell us the show would run even in high wind, but we know from experience that high wind can occasionally call the show off -- it was done with that excuse back in January, anyway.
We waited for a bit for an MGM bus, but one didn't come right away so when we saw a Swan/Dolphin bus (the first of the Epcot/MGM resorts to come by) we decided to catch that instead. This gave us our second look at the Swan on this trip, and I think I'd like to stay there one of these days.
We considered taking the boat down to MGM, but when we thought about it we realized the boat would still have to stop by the Yacht and Beach club, then by the Boardwalk, then by Epcot, and only *then* would it reach MGM and since we were running so late we decided to give the walkway a try.
From the Swan/Dolphin side, the walkway was easy to find. It's just on the Boardwalk side of the bridge that goes over the waterway between the Boardwalk and the Swan/Dolphin, and it's a nice stroll along the waterway.
One strange thing we encountered on our way to MGM... a good 99% of the people we saw wore shirts for the "Pampered Chef". They kept coming and coming and coming! And all were coming *out* of the park... in fact, we seemed to be the *only* ones using the walkway to go *to* MGM at that time. We're still not entirely sure what this "Pampered Chef" thing is other than possibly a band performing in Pleasure Island, but it was kinda funny to see the sea of red shirts coming our way.
When we finally reached MGM, we walked up past where some of the busses drop guests off -- specifically, I think the park-to-park busses. I'd expected the path to connect to the boat dock, but it's not there. A little farther down.
Then we entered MGM and BAM! The park was PACKED. C.R.O.W.D.E.D. I'd expected to hit a few crowds because Sunday was early entry day, but this was insane. We fought to the Fantasmic area, forgetting in our haste to get a locker, then looked at the wind and crowds and time and grumbled. Well, okay, I more than grumbled. I mentioned earlier that I really should have gotten food back before we entered DisneyQuest? Well, 3 hours at least had passed since that time, and my general dislike of MGM plus the crowds plus being tired plus being off schedule... obligatory meltdown time.
We talked to a CM at the entrance to Fantasmic because I really wanted one of us to go in and find a seat while the other got our fastpasses and food, but that was strongly discouraged and we were assured the stadium was far from filling up. Well, sure, that I expected. But I wanted to be dead center and not on some far-off side. So I grumblingly got into line for a turkey leg while Michael wisely fled the scene to go check on fastpasses for Rock 'n Roller.
I knew before he returned what the answer would be -- all out... 3 hours ago, and now an 80 minute wait. Since I expected that, I didn't complain about that...just the general state of the park and how much I didn't like it. Now don't get me wrong... MGM has some wonderful things. It's just 3/4 of the time I'm in MGM, I'm either in a bad mood or have a bad day or get sick, so I've come to really dislike that park even though I *love* some of the attractions and shows.
I finally got my turkey leg and a coke to fortify me, and a hot dog for Michael, then we hurried to the Fantasmic stadium where we were still barely able to find seats in the section we wanted, right on the end. We had a pole in our way for part of the stage, which I didn't like, but until Maleficent came out the pole didn't really get in the way too much. And I couldn't see John Smith or Pocahontas' entrances, either, but oh well.
Anyway, returning from that jump ahead... we got our seats in the Scar section near the top right on the right edge and ate our food. As expected, once I got food down me I was feeling quite a bit better. Oh, one other aside... as we were walking into the stadium, a couple of CMs were heading up to the front. One of them saw me with my hat and not bouncing (it's a Tigger hat, remember) so stopped us and insisted he wouldn't let us by until I did at least one bounce, and my grumblings about "I'm tired and it's been 3 long days and I don't have much bounce left" didn't deter him. So, I gave a bounce, and oddly that did help me feel better - so thanks CM, whoever you were. You knew just the thing to do to remind me I was at Disney and needed to smile.
Back to the present now... we had quite a wait until the show, and I'm sorry but the supposed pre-show just didn't do it for me. I wanted the bellmen from the Tower of Terror or that "hey" guy (whatever his name is) or some of the other shows they used to do. This pep-rally "preshow" just didn't work. They had kids telling jokes and a trivia game which were all that was worthwhile IMHO for the show. Other than that, all it did was get the teenagers of the audience riled up.
Also going around were cups of nice hot chocolate, and naturally as it was getting dark, it got colder and colder until they couldn't get the hot chocolate off the back area to carry it around. Michael went up to get us a couple of mugs (they ran out of the Christmas ones
) and said it was a complete MADHOUSE up there with people slamming into everyone, no hint of a line despite the attempts of the CMs, and people were even trying to follow the CMs into the back area to get some hot chocolate because they kept running out.
He finally came back down, though, hot chocolate in hand and collapsed to recover until the show. That and the rowdiness of the crowds during the pep-rally should have given me a hint as to what was to come, but it didn't.
While we waited and grumbled about the preshow -- no show would have been better in our opinions than what we had, but we're also really not "pep-rally" people -- I did some more clearing of the camera. And here's where I really was ready to kick myself...I got going too fast trying to clear out images that didn't have anything really in them, and so I deleted the pictures of Rudolph flying from earlier in the trip I'm still mad I lost those. <IMG WIDTH="15" HEIGHT="15" SRC="/infopop/emoticons/icon_razz.gif" alt="razz"> Though just means we'll have to go back next/this year and try again
Finally, Fantasmic started and I settled down into the show. This is such a wonderful show and is still one of my favorites, and this time I tried the digital camera on the thing and ended up with pictures that actually came out! I was so excited and really enjoying things....
....then the boat appeared.
Two people got up.
Six people got up.
Next thing I know, nearly a third of the section next to us was getting up and leaving -- keep in mind, the boat hasn't even finished getting around to the front yet!
Then *our* section started doing the same thing.
People were pushing their way out, and those staying had to stand to have any hope of seeing *anything* of what was left of the show.
Then Michael got knocked down.
Rajah roared. I was FURIOUS with everyone and started screaming about how people are going to get hurt, it's dark out, there's still five minutes left to the show, and you're ruining it for everyone SIT BACK DOWN.
Other than one person who looked at me and shrugged apologetically, no one listened of course.
Thankfully, Michael wasn't hurt, because if he had been, Rajah would have done more than just roar. All that had happened was someone knocked into the back of his knee with just barely enough force to knock it out from under him.
Unfortunately, that incident had me so angry I was seeing red and just went through the motions of seeing the rest of the show. Then every CM we passed probably heard me ranting and raving about how rude people are (only those who left early) and how people could have gotten hurt and so on and so forth. There was nothing more I could do in that park PERIOD until I got that incident off my chest. I was so angry and hated MGM so much at that moment that I ALMOST said let's leave and forget the Osborne lights.
Thankfully, though, Michael talked a little sense into me and we headed for the front where I went to guest services to give them a piece of my mind. No, it's not Disney's fault that so many inconsiderate idiots and morons check their brains and courtesy (if they ever had any to begin with) at the front gate, don't think and don't care if anyone else gets hurt. However, there are many things Disney could do that could help the crowd problem. I'd seen Fantasmic several times before and NEVER had I seen such a fiasco at the end!!
Off the soapbox now...
I ended up talking to a CM for a few minutes who actually seemed surprised at how many people got up to leave. I don't know if he ever did anything about the report, but telling someone who actually had the authority to pass the complaint on to those who could maybe do something about it helped immensely so we returned to the inner part of the park. Also knowing that I'd take more action once I got home helped me calm down as well.
I SWEAR that EVERYONE in the park must have been packed in either Sunset Blvd, at Tower of Terror or Rock 'N Roller, or getting ready for the next Fantasmic because the rest of the park was deserted! *MUCH* better. Since I still wasn't fully in a good mindset for seeing the Osborne lights, we decided to go by Star Tours. Normally I avoid this one, but it's one of Michael's favorites, it was right there, it only had about a 5 minute wait, and it seemed like just what I needed to finish snapping out of my spell.
Sure enough, a ride on Star Tours put me back in the proper mood to enjoy the Osborne Lights, so on we went.
Wow.
I'm so glad Michael wouldn't let me leave without seeing these.
I'd expected lights....but not that many!!
What a WONDERFUL display!!!!!
We picked up the glasses they were handing out which turned all pinpoints of light into snowflakes, then picked up a second mug of hot chocolate each (this time in those Christmas mugs I'd wanted ) We were entering the Lights just as the second Fantasmic was scheduled to begin, and the streets were almost empty. Very relaxing, and a very nice contrast to the mob scene earlier. A definite must see.
We found a few hidden Mickeys, but stopped counting around 6 or 7. Of all the Christmas things we did and saw, this would be at the top of the list for things I'd recommend to other people.
When we exited the Osborne Lights, there was snow on NYC Street -- actually, there was on our way in, too, but we didn't stop to see it and went around the long way. I enjoyed the snow more here than on Main Street because I still had my snowflake glasses on so didn't have to worry about the snow getting into my eyes.
After that, we took a leisurely stroll back to the front where we briefly got lost looking for the busses but ended up finding Becky. She had our intended itinerary and knew we'd be heading back to the Wilderness Lodge, so had been looking for us around the bus stop area all evening. We decided to meet up back at the Lodge then hopped in our bus and started for the room.
Check in was quick and easy, and we were even given the option of a smoking or non-smoking room this time (non-smoking was what we wanted). We were given a room on the 3rd floor facing the courtyard, which was just what we wanted. We hurried up to our room to dump our stuff, then decided to call bell services after dinner so rushed back downstairs to look for Becky.
No sign of her, so we checked in at Artist Point and were told we had a message -- from Becky. Sure enough, just as we were trying to decide whether to have 2 or 3 in our party, here came Becky. We'd apparently kept missing her. She decided to join us for dinner, and I was actually somewhat surprised that the Lodge gave us no problem at all in expanding our reservation from 2 to 3.
We were seated and looked over the menu, made our choices, then found out they were out of salmon -- what Becky and Michael both wanted Apparently their latest shipment of fresh salmon was snowed in back at its home port and they'd already cleared out all the nearby grocery stores' supply. One problem with being among the last to be seated, you end up with the bottom of the day's barrel.
While eating, we saw someone go by who reminded me an awful lot of someone from the DIS that I knew would be in the World at that time, but a second look made us decide that wasn't her so we said nothing. If you were wearing a green dress and had a little girl with you and were eating at Artist Point around 9:45 that night and saw people staring at you, that was us
Michael and Becky each ordered the trout dish and I had the steak -- none of us was really happy with any of it. It wasn't *bad*, just not anything close to the food quality we'd expected from all the reviews. But, that's on par with what we had for breakfast there in January -- great reviews, but we didn't like it. We may be back once more to give it another try earlier in the evening, but it won't be for a while.
After dinner we returned to the room and had our bags sent up. As promised from Caribbean Beach, we had no problem getting our bags and all arrived in good shape. The bellman who brought our bags was very helpful as well and told us (when asked) that they did have coffee makers available upon request at no extra charge. So our next order of duty was to call housekeeping and request a coffee maker.
While we were waiting for Michael's coffee maker, we continued visiting with Becky and she told us about a sale over on property control in the CM-only areas to which she could bring a guest or two. We made arrangements to meet up with her tomorrow morning at 8:30, then parted ways and headed for bed. Alarm was set for 7:15 with a wake-up call for 7:45.
On to day 4 of 5
-Rajah
cdrtrisal@aol.com
Rajah and VonDrake's Honeymoon
Rajah's Disneyland Crossword Puzzle
Cast:
Tammi, "Rajah", primary trip planner and trip report writer. 4th trip to the World
Michael, "VonDrake", once again seriously in need of a vacation. Finals are rough on the instructors too
3rd trip to the WorldSupporting Cast:
Becky, long time friend of Tammi and Michael, CM at outdoor foods at MGM
Art, new friend (this year), CM at Innoventions
Trip dates:
Thursday December 14, 2000 through Tuesday December 19th, 2000
Stayed at:
Caribbean Beach Resort Thursday through Sunday, transferring to Wilderness Lodge on Sunday
The wake up call woke us up at 9, and this time I heard Mickey start up right away so I quickly handed the phone to Michael co he could *finally* hear the Mouse's greeting. I don't know if he *really* heard it or just essentially slept through it, but he nodded when Mickey was done and handed the phone back to me.
Neither of us was ready to get up yet, so I tried to figure out how to reset the wake-up call for 9:30. No luck, either the system isn't programmed to allow a 30 minute break, or it was down at that time, or I in my daze didn't enter in the right time. Whatever the case, I gave up quickly and decided to just snooze and set a mental alarm clock. For once it worked and I was up by 9:30, but I couldn't get Michael moving until almost 10 -- after I was completely ready to go for the day. I found out later he wasn't feeling well and either had picked up a stomach flu or his tuna from last night didn't like him. But of course the silly thing didn't tell me this until well into the day or I would have let him sleep a little longer.
While Michael was grudgingly getting ready to go, I finished packing my stuff then sorted through the digital images, hoping to clean out enough space to last the rest of the day while he packed his things.
We were ready to go by 10:30 and I called bell services to see if someone could come pick up the bags and ready them for transport to the Wilderness Lodge for later that day. I was told this time that if we didn't want to wait for the bellman to arrive, we could just pack our bags and leave them by the air conditioner with any tip on the bags, then we could leave the room and bell services would pick up the bags later this morning. This was contrary to what I'd found out yesterday, so I asked about a claim slip and was told we just needed to tell them our name and that the bags were transferred from Caribbean Beach when we asked for them at Wilderness Lodge. I'm not really sure I like not needing the claim slip, but at the same time I was happy we didn't have to sit around for however long it would take bell services to arrive.
So after one last check of the room and me selecting one of the refillable mugs from the room, we were out the door and on our way to the food court. I wanted to get a good look at the resort during the daytime -- something we hadn't done up to this point -- and I wanted to visit our beach. So I put on my beach shoes and grabbed the camera then hurried down to the beach. Only it was still early enough that the sand was all wet from the morning's dew, and it was *very* windy so the hammocks (still wet inside and in the middle) were flapping all over the place.
I tried getting in one anyway, avoiding the wet area, but promptly fell off on my first attempt
Second attempt succeeded and I would have spent a lot more time there had it not been so windy or the hammock wet. As it was, we only stayed on the beach a moment before tromping up to the local pool area where I washed all the sand off my feet and then put my *normal* shoes on and transferred the beach shoes (after much stomping and a little washing to get the sand off) to the backpack.Then we continued on to Old Port Royale for breakfast since we weren't planning to visit any actual parks until mid-day. I, of course, had to stop several times for pictures and to admire the view. The scenery is wonderful here, despite the wind, and we saw a couple of families riding those surreys. They look like fun, and one of these days I think I'd like to try them either here or at Dixie Landings.
We also stopped by the pool area, which I thought was really neat. I especially liked the cannons and think the slide looks like fun, but I have yet in the past three trips had the chance to actually get in the pool. I keep telling myself "this time", but it never comes about
On into the food court where we hurried up into the first line we found that was still serving breakfast. We figured, with it being almost 11am, we'd be almost too late so just took the first we could find. Only after we got our food did we find that at least two other counters were open for breakfast *after* 11 -- at least on Sunday. It may just be that way on Sunday for "Sunday brunch".
We really liked the layout of the food court here, and I thought the atmosphere was much better than the one at Port Orleans, much as I enjoyed that court as well. Old Port Royale's Marketplace just reminded me of Disneyland for some reason...I guess the scale.
And our breakfast was really good, too -- not quite the scale of the buffets we've gotten used to at Disney, but very good food, more than either of us could eat, for half the price. The single plate that we each ordered came with bacon, sausage (though I was allowed to substitute more bacon for the sausage), scrambled eggs, hash browns, a biscuit (with gravy if requested), and french toast! That was one fuuuull plate!
After we finished eating, we browsed around the shop but ended up not getting anything, so on it was to Downtown Disney! We'd planned to do a lot of shopping here, we each had stores we wanted to hit, but as it turns out we ended up not buying anything but pins (though I did get a lot of pins). The stores were very crowded and, while before the trip I'd really wanted some Christmas ornaments, I just couldn't get interested with the store as packed as it was. I think also the fact that we couldn't have anything shipped to our room since we were between resorts deterred quite a bit of shopping as well.
We also walked through Pleasure Island, where I found a magnet with the Disney*land* castle on it as requested by my dad for a hint to my mom of our upcoming surprise Disneyland trip, and we stopped by Adventurer's Club to have a look around the outside. As it turns out, this was our only stop at Pleasure Island though we'd planned another one for later that trip.
From Pleasure Island we went to the West Side where Michael wanted to see the guitar shop and then we planned to go spend some time in Disney Quest. Michael ended up spending a lot of time at the guitar store, with me chomping at the bit to go to DisneyQuest the entire time. After all, as far as I was concerned a guitar store is a guitar store and we had one of those at home. Michael disagreed, though, so wanted to spend a lot of time in there. There were a few neat things in the store, I must admit. Michael was fascinated by the replica guitar of one of the members of the band KISS, and I thought the transparent electric guitar was kinda neat. The neatest thing, though, was the small amp that wasn't much larger than a walkman and performed quite well. But that took a whole five minutes for me to see while Michael wanted much more time. We ended up having me go grab the tickets to Disneyquest then come back and retrieve him.
I tried to leave him with his ticket while I went ahead and entered DQ so he could spend as long as he wanted in the guitar store, but he wouldn't have that so insisted on coming along. On to DisneyQuest with me starting to get a little edgy because by now it was lunch time and I needed food, but taking the time to eat would mean we'd just paid $45 for only one hour in Disneyquest, and I was determined to get our money's worth. Michael, however, insisted he have a piece of cheesecake, so it was up to the top floor where I snagged a computer while Michael got his food.
I tried going on the DIS while at DQ, but apparently their external-net connection was down because *none* of the non-Disney links worked at all, even those programmed into the machine. So grumbling because this had been to me a wasted pause, Michael finished his cheesecake and we rushed down to see the main thing that brought us here: Pirates.
We ended up being selected to join a pair of young girls so we'd have a full boat on our first ride out. I was captain and Michael and the girls were gunners. Or perhaps I should say Michael was gunner while the two girls were occasional assistants -- they barely participated at all. And, we'd had no instruction from anyone but the ghost pirate, so we didn't do too well. Ended up with about 2500 in treasure and came out a bit disappointed. Also disappointed because I'd expected the game to be much more like the attraction than it was. Really, the only thing the Pirates game has in common with the ride is the music, you're on a boat, and you're involved with pirates. Other than that, they're completely different.
After our adventure on the high seas, we hiked up to Cyberspace Mountain where we built what we expected to be a wild coaster. Turned out to only be a 2, though. It was fun, but the wilder ones are much more exciting! We wanted to do a 5, but one look at the time verses the line and we decided we'd better try something else instead. Also, Michael finally told me he wasn't really feeling well so we needed to do something not so wild.
I'd heard about the interactive create-your-own CD from some trip reports, so we hunted that down to see what it was about. The wait was horrible and we were able to watch a good portion of the animation class going on next to us and I jumped out of line a time or so to play with the living easels, but we finally had our turn. We ended up doing a female "fun" voice singing to the "alternative" music selection (which really is just a heavier rock than rock) with the "I don't want to grow up" theme. We thought it was cute enough that we purchased it, though the price is a bit high for a single song.
After that, it was time to leave if we had any hope of hitting MGM in time for Fantasmic and Rock 'N Roller. But I wanted one last look in the gift shop, and I'm glad I did
There we found a "create a Tee" with all sorts of pre-set backgrounds and characters you could choose from. And one of those characters was RAJAH!! Seeing that, the first shirt that I'd seen that could have Rajah as one of if not the primary character (Abu's on his back), I *had* to make one. So I did, and put across the top "DIS Rajah". That'll be my DIS-meet T-shirt now Then we were already running late for our schedule and though Michael wanted to return to the guitar store, I insisted we go straight to MGM so we could get a seat in Fantasmic. We were a little nervous since it was really windy at that time, but there were still close to 3 hours before showtime so we hoped they wouldn't cancel the show and wanted to be in place in case it did run. That evening, we had half a dozen people tell us the show would run even in high wind, but we know from experience that high wind can occasionally call the show off -- it was done with that excuse back in January, anyway.
We waited for a bit for an MGM bus, but one didn't come right away so when we saw a Swan/Dolphin bus (the first of the Epcot/MGM resorts to come by) we decided to catch that instead. This gave us our second look at the Swan on this trip, and I think I'd like to stay there one of these days.
We considered taking the boat down to MGM, but when we thought about it we realized the boat would still have to stop by the Yacht and Beach club, then by the Boardwalk, then by Epcot, and only *then* would it reach MGM and since we were running so late we decided to give the walkway a try.
From the Swan/Dolphin side, the walkway was easy to find. It's just on the Boardwalk side of the bridge that goes over the waterway between the Boardwalk and the Swan/Dolphin, and it's a nice stroll along the waterway.
One strange thing we encountered on our way to MGM... a good 99% of the people we saw wore shirts for the "Pampered Chef". They kept coming and coming and coming! And all were coming *out* of the park... in fact, we seemed to be the *only* ones using the walkway to go *to* MGM at that time. We're still not entirely sure what this "Pampered Chef" thing is other than possibly a band performing in Pleasure Island, but it was kinda funny to see the sea of red shirts coming our way.
When we finally reached MGM, we walked up past where some of the busses drop guests off -- specifically, I think the park-to-park busses. I'd expected the path to connect to the boat dock, but it's not there. A little farther down.
Then we entered MGM and BAM! The park was PACKED. C.R.O.W.D.E.D. I'd expected to hit a few crowds because Sunday was early entry day, but this was insane. We fought to the Fantasmic area, forgetting in our haste to get a locker, then looked at the wind and crowds and time and grumbled. Well, okay, I more than grumbled. I mentioned earlier that I really should have gotten food back before we entered DisneyQuest? Well, 3 hours at least had passed since that time, and my general dislike of MGM plus the crowds plus being tired plus being off schedule... obligatory meltdown time.
We talked to a CM at the entrance to Fantasmic because I really wanted one of us to go in and find a seat while the other got our fastpasses and food, but that was strongly discouraged and we were assured the stadium was far from filling up. Well, sure, that I expected. But I wanted to be dead center and not on some far-off side. So I grumblingly got into line for a turkey leg while Michael wisely fled the scene to go check on fastpasses for Rock 'n Roller.
I knew before he returned what the answer would be -- all out... 3 hours ago, and now an 80 minute wait. Since I expected that, I didn't complain about that...just the general state of the park and how much I didn't like it. Now don't get me wrong... MGM has some wonderful things. It's just 3/4 of the time I'm in MGM, I'm either in a bad mood or have a bad day or get sick, so I've come to really dislike that park even though I *love* some of the attractions and shows.
I finally got my turkey leg and a coke to fortify me, and a hot dog for Michael, then we hurried to the Fantasmic stadium where we were still barely able to find seats in the section we wanted, right on the end. We had a pole in our way for part of the stage, which I didn't like, but until Maleficent came out the pole didn't really get in the way too much. And I couldn't see John Smith or Pocahontas' entrances, either, but oh well.
Anyway, returning from that jump ahead... we got our seats in the Scar section near the top right on the right edge and ate our food. As expected, once I got food down me I was feeling quite a bit better. Oh, one other aside... as we were walking into the stadium, a couple of CMs were heading up to the front. One of them saw me with my hat and not bouncing (it's a Tigger hat, remember) so stopped us and insisted he wouldn't let us by until I did at least one bounce, and my grumblings about "I'm tired and it's been 3 long days and I don't have much bounce left" didn't deter him. So, I gave a bounce, and oddly that did help me feel better - so thanks CM, whoever you were. You knew just the thing to do to remind me I was at Disney and needed to smile.
Back to the present now... we had quite a wait until the show, and I'm sorry but the supposed pre-show just didn't do it for me. I wanted the bellmen from the Tower of Terror or that "hey" guy (whatever his name is) or some of the other shows they used to do. This pep-rally "preshow" just didn't work. They had kids telling jokes and a trivia game which were all that was worthwhile IMHO for the show. Other than that, all it did was get the teenagers of the audience riled up.
Also going around were cups of nice hot chocolate, and naturally as it was getting dark, it got colder and colder until they couldn't get the hot chocolate off the back area to carry it around. Michael went up to get us a couple of mugs (they ran out of the Christmas ones
) and said it was a complete MADHOUSE up there with people slamming into everyone, no hint of a line despite the attempts of the CMs, and people were even trying to follow the CMs into the back area to get some hot chocolate because they kept running out.He finally came back down, though, hot chocolate in hand and collapsed to recover until the show. That and the rowdiness of the crowds during the pep-rally should have given me a hint as to what was to come, but it didn't.
While we waited and grumbled about the preshow -- no show would have been better in our opinions than what we had, but we're also really not "pep-rally" people -- I did some more clearing of the camera. And here's where I really was ready to kick myself...I got going too fast trying to clear out images that didn't have anything really in them, and so I deleted the pictures of Rudolph flying from earlier in the trip
I'm still mad I lost those. <IMG WIDTH="15" HEIGHT="15" SRC="/infopop/emoticons/icon_razz.gif" alt="razz"> Though just means we'll have to go back next/this year and try again Finally, Fantasmic started and I settled down into the show. This is such a wonderful show and is still one of my favorites, and this time I tried the digital camera on the thing and ended up with pictures that actually came out! I was so excited and really enjoying things....
....then the boat appeared.
Two people got up.
Six people got up.
Next thing I know, nearly a third of the section next to us was getting up and leaving -- keep in mind, the boat hasn't even finished getting around to the front yet!
Then *our* section started doing the same thing.
People were pushing their way out, and those staying had to stand to have any hope of seeing *anything* of what was left of the show.
Then Michael got knocked down.
Rajah roared. I was FURIOUS with everyone and started screaming about how people are going to get hurt, it's dark out, there's still five minutes left to the show, and you're ruining it for everyone SIT BACK DOWN.
Other than one person who looked at me and shrugged apologetically, no one listened of course.
Thankfully, Michael wasn't hurt, because if he had been, Rajah would have done more than just roar. All that had happened was someone knocked into the back of his knee with just barely enough force to knock it out from under him.
Unfortunately, that incident had me so angry I was seeing red and just went through the motions of seeing the rest of the show. Then every CM we passed probably heard me ranting and raving about how rude people are (only those who left early) and how people could have gotten hurt and so on and so forth. There was nothing more I could do in that park PERIOD until I got that incident off my chest. I was so angry and hated MGM so much at that moment that I ALMOST said let's leave and forget the Osborne lights.
Thankfully, though, Michael talked a little sense into me and we headed for the front where I went to guest services to give them a piece of my mind. No, it's not Disney's fault that so many inconsiderate idiots and morons check their brains and courtesy (if they ever had any to begin with) at the front gate, don't think and don't care if anyone else gets hurt. However, there are many things Disney could do that could help the crowd problem. I'd seen Fantasmic several times before and NEVER had I seen such a fiasco at the end!!
Off the soapbox now...
I ended up talking to a CM for a few minutes who actually seemed surprised at how many people got up to leave. I don't know if he ever did anything about the report, but telling someone who actually had the authority to pass the complaint on to those who could maybe do something about it helped immensely so we returned to the inner part of the park. Also knowing that I'd take more action once I got home helped me calm down as well.
I SWEAR that EVERYONE in the park must have been packed in either Sunset Blvd, at Tower of Terror or Rock 'N Roller, or getting ready for the next Fantasmic because the rest of the park was deserted! *MUCH* better. Since I still wasn't fully in a good mindset for seeing the Osborne lights, we decided to go by Star Tours. Normally I avoid this one, but it's one of Michael's favorites, it was right there, it only had about a 5 minute wait, and it seemed like just what I needed to finish snapping out of my spell.
Sure enough, a ride on Star Tours put me back in the proper mood to enjoy the Osborne Lights, so on we went.
Wow.
I'm so glad Michael wouldn't let me leave without seeing these.
I'd expected lights....but not that many!!
What a WONDERFUL display!!!!!
We picked up the glasses they were handing out which turned all pinpoints of light into snowflakes, then picked up a second mug of hot chocolate each (this time in those Christmas mugs I'd wanted
) We were entering the Lights just as the second Fantasmic was scheduled to begin, and the streets were almost empty. Very relaxing, and a very nice contrast to the mob scene earlier. A definite must see.We found a few hidden Mickeys, but stopped counting around 6 or 7. Of all the Christmas things we did and saw, this would be at the top of the list for things I'd recommend to other people.
When we exited the Osborne Lights, there was snow on NYC Street -- actually, there was on our way in, too, but we didn't stop to see it and went around the long way. I enjoyed the snow more here than on Main Street because I still had my snowflake glasses on so didn't have to worry about the snow getting into my eyes.
After that, we took a leisurely stroll back to the front where we briefly got lost looking for the busses but ended up finding Becky. She had our intended itinerary and knew we'd be heading back to the Wilderness Lodge, so had been looking for us around the bus stop area all evening. We decided to meet up back at the Lodge then hopped in our bus and started for the room.
Check in was quick and easy, and we were even given the option of a smoking or non-smoking room this time (non-smoking was what we wanted). We were given a room on the 3rd floor facing the courtyard, which was just what we wanted. We hurried up to our room to dump our stuff, then decided to call bell services after dinner so rushed back downstairs to look for Becky.
No sign of her, so we checked in at Artist Point and were told we had a message -- from Becky. Sure enough, just as we were trying to decide whether to have 2 or 3 in our party, here came Becky. We'd apparently kept missing her. She decided to join us for dinner, and I was actually somewhat surprised that the Lodge gave us no problem at all in expanding our reservation from 2 to 3.
We were seated and looked over the menu, made our choices, then found out they were out of salmon -- what Becky and Michael both wanted
Apparently their latest shipment of fresh salmon was snowed in back at its home port and they'd already cleared out all the nearby grocery stores' supply. One problem with being among the last to be seated, you end up with the bottom of the day's barrel.While eating, we saw someone go by who reminded me an awful lot of someone from the DIS that I knew would be in the World at that time, but a second look made us decide that wasn't her so we said nothing. If you were wearing a green dress and had a little girl with you and were eating at Artist Point around 9:45 that night and saw people staring at you, that was us
Michael and Becky each ordered the trout dish and I had the steak -- none of us was really happy with any of it. It wasn't *bad*, just not anything close to the food quality we'd expected from all the reviews. But, that's on par with what we had for breakfast there in January -- great reviews, but we didn't like it. We may be back once more to give it another try earlier in the evening, but it won't be for a while.
After dinner we returned to the room and had our bags sent up. As promised from Caribbean Beach, we had no problem getting our bags and all arrived in good shape. The bellman who brought our bags was very helpful as well and told us (when asked) that they did have coffee makers available upon request at no extra charge. So our next order of duty was to call housekeeping and request a coffee maker.
While we were waiting for Michael's coffee maker, we continued visiting with Becky and she told us about a sale over on property control in the CM-only areas to which she could bring a guest or two. We made arrangements to meet up with her tomorrow morning at 8:30, then parted ways and headed for bed. Alarm was set for 7:15 with a wake-up call for 7:45.
On to day 4 of 5
-Rajah
cdrtrisal@aol.com
Rajah and VonDrake's Honeymoon
Rajah's Disneyland Crossword Puzzle
