shatzjsl
<font color=teal>No wonder I love DIS boards so mu
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2004
- Messages
- 2,500
Day 2 June 16, 2004
Cast:
Susie - 38
Lauren 10
I had made an 11th hour decision to not take advantage of EMH because of some of the posts I had read saying that they were really crowded. Today was EMH at Epcot so we headed to AK. We got on the very uncrowded bus around 8:15 after a short 5 minute wait and were on our way. Went quickly through bag check and headed for the turnstiles. I noticed that two of them had no line and the others had long lines. Lauren said we should go to those but I thought maybe they wouldnt be working. I asked a CM and she just smiled and said Have a magical day. I stood at one and Lauren stood at the other. It was a good 10 minutes before anybody got in line behind either of us. We just laughed at the herd mentality of the others. Lauren saw a CM in a suit and tie across the way and noticed that he had pins so she wanted to see them so she could feed her Tink addiction. I told her that he looked busy but at that moment his head turned in our direction and he walked over to her. Mickey bumps! This was one of those magical moments. He walked up to her and asked her if she wanted to trade pins. You should have seen the look on her face! Im sure I looked the same way. He didnt have any Tink pins so she wasnt interested. He told us to Have a magical day and disappeared up the trail. I still dont know what caught his attention or why he came over to us. There was no way he could have heard us talking. As I said, magical.
Since I had figured out the whole ticket machine process the day before I felt pretty sure of myself. I was playing around with the machine by putting my ticket in the blocked slot when the red X changed to green. It sucked my ticket right in. I got in trouble. The CM said it wasnt time yet and I just started stammering while Lauren rolled her eyes again. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, my daughter has reached the age where I am just one embarrassment after another to her. I told her it was my job as her mother to embarrass her so leave me alone. Anyway, after a few more minutes they let us in and we headed left not really sure where we were going but my DIS friends told me to always go left.
We came out of the forest and saw the Tree of Life. Mickey Bumps. We stopped to get our picture taken and headed for the rope. We were right against the rope so I got some good shots of the tree. We waited about 10 minutes and here comes Minnie, Mickey, and Pluto to help us open the park. This was my first glimpse of my favorite rodent and I got teary eyed which rated another eye roll. I was so excited I was bouncing like Tigger and waving like a fool! Lauren tried to get me to stop but I just pushed her away. The trio did their checklist and we followed them to the Safari. We were on the first truck and headed into the wilds of Africa. We saw tons of animals. Had to stop and wait for a couple of giraffes to get out of the way and moved on. The baby elephant saw us and started running from us. However, his path actually brought him closer to us when we came around a corner and I got some great photos of him.
A funny thing happened while we were chasing poachers. We were rounding the corner right before the airplane and I dont know if she misjudged the turn or if the road was too wet but we ended up not making the turn and started climbing the hill. Luckily the engine of the truck died and she was able to restart it and back up. She was pretty flustered so I figured that wasnt part of the tour. After the tour we headed to Camp Minnie and Mickey to see the Mouse. On the way we say Rafiki standing off to the side with no one around so we went over and did the meet and greet with him. At Camp we met Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, and Goofy with pretty much no lines. I told Mickey that I had waited a long time to meet him and got a big ahhhh from everyone else and a huge hug and kiss from my favorite mouse. Minnie is one of Laurens favorites. In March and May I had postcards sent to her from Minnie saying how excited she was that Lauren was coming. Lauren told Minnie that she got both her post cards and was so excited to meet her. Minnie was all over her hugging and kissing her. Mickey bumps and tears! It is so nice to see that my 10-year-old going on 16 still has a little girl hidden somewhere inside of her.
Pluto and goofy were a lot of fun also. Goofy got hold of a ladies water/fan bottle and started chasing and spraying Pluto and the handler. It was a lot of fun to watch. We probably spent a good 45 minutes playing around with the characters in Camp because hardly anyone else came down there to meet them. Alas, it was time to go because I didnt know how much time it would take to get to the Contemporary. . Leaving the camp we looked to see when the next Lion King show was but didnt have enough time before our PS at Chef Mickeys. On the way out we saw a very long line for Lilo and Stitch. I told the family at the end of the line about the characters at Camp and that there were no lines so the headed that way with a look of relief on their faces. Just doing my job to spread some magic. We stopped to pick up our picture and headed out of the park.
We went to the bus stops and I asked a man standing there which stop was for the Contemporary. He pointed me the right way and then told me to follow him. He took us over to a Wilderness Lodge bus and told the driver to drop us off at CR on his way back and told us to have a magical day. I love WDW!!
We had the bus to ourselves and had a great time visiting with the driver. He pointed out a lot of things to us and which road goes where (like I could remember). He dropped us off and we headed to Chef Mickeys. We were about 30 minutes early but they seated us in about 5 minutes. The food was okay and we had a lot of fun. My only complaint is that it took us 45 minutes to see all of the characters. But when they did show up we had good interaction with them. They werent rushed and had fun playing with Laurens leopard print mouse ears that she bought at AK.
After breakfast we had planned on going back to AK but on the bus we caught sight of the castle and quickly changed our plans. So we went up one floor for our first trip on the famous Disney Monorail. I asked the CM if we could ride in front and she said that someone already was. Oh, well. We hopped on and made the resort loop. At the Grand Floridian (wow, what a beautiful hotel) I saw the front riders get off so I asked the driver if we could get up front. She checked and made sure nobody at the stop had asked and told us to come on in! What fun! It was awesome to see the castle getting closer and closer from the front of the monorail. The driver wasnt very talkative so we just enjoyed the short ride.
We got off at MK after the driver told us to have a magical day and made our way through bag check and the turnstile. Hey! No problems with the ticket machine! Woohoo! We went under the bridge and when we came up there were characters everywhere. We didnt wait in line so I cant tell you who all it was but they were all over the place. Then it happened. I turned the corner and saw the castle. It has been a dream since I was a child to go to WDW and there it was. Cinderellas castle. I could have dropped to my knees and started crying. But even I have a limit to how much I want to be embarrassed. Instead I just stopped dead in my tracks and let the tears roll down my cheeks. I looked over at Lauren and she was doing the same thing. We just hugged each other. A mom and her daughter, standing in the middle of Main Street hugging and crying tears of joy because we knew that we were finally here. It was the most magical moment of our trip and one that I will remember when I am old and gray. It was the most incredible feeling. I just hope when I go back that the feeling will be the same. It was picture time so we found us a picture taker. He took a picture with the castle in the background and one with us looking like we were holding something in our hands. I knew what would be in our hands but didnt let on that I did.
We walked up Main Street and Cinderellas Surprise Celebration was going on. We watched the end of it starting from Peter and Captain Hook fighting and went left into Frontierland. Lauren wanted to do the tree house first so up we went with no wait. If they wont let me live in the castle I have no problem living in the tree house and told a CM so. She said she would let Mickey know. Next stop was Pirates of the Caribbean. We had about at 5-minute wait and were on our way. We were having a great time until we got to the part where they were auctioning off brides. The ride stopped for about 15 minutes. Just about the time I didnt think I could here We wants the red head one more time they shut off the music and turned on the lights. Lauren is still saying it every time she sees a red head.
After PoC we decided to just walk around and ride whatever caught our eye. We ended up in Tomorrowland and hopped on TTA with no wait. I enjoyed this ride but Lauren thought it was boring. After TTA we go FP for Buzz and headed to the Carousal of Progress. Again, no wait. This was a fun ride and it was air-conditioned. We sang Its a great big beautiful tomorrow the rest of the trip. After CoP we headed over to check out Minnie and Mickeys house. Minnie wasnt home but the door was unlocked so we went on in. It wasnt at all crowded and we moved around pretty freely. As a quilter myself I had to check out her sewing machine and the quilt she was working on. Good job, Minnie. We popped popcorn, made pots dance and helped Minnie with her work in progress on her pottery wheel and head over to Mickeys House. Mickey wasnt home either but the door was open so we walked right in. We wandered around the rooms and then checked out his garden. I might actually eat my veggies if they came shaped as Mickey heads. Since we were in the neighborhood we decided to head over to Goofys Barnstormer. 10 minute wait. This was a fun ride but too short. Time for a Mickey Bar!
After our treat it was time for our Buzz FPs. I didnt even look at the people that we walked past. Aparently a lot of others with 3:05 4:05 FP decided to show up at 3:20 because there were a lot of FP people behind us and the lady who we were getting in front of was one unhappy camper. Buzz was so much fun. Neither of us scored very well. We were both in the 10K-15K range. On the way out we looked at the pictures and it was funny to see everyone so serious in their pictures instead of smiling. We walked around for a couple of hours just looking at things and in stores and decided to head back to the resort for a swim. When we got back housekeeping had arranged Laurens stuffed animals on the bed watching TV. She got a kick out of that. Before swimming we had Laurens hair wrapped. Those guy and gals must have strong wrists. Lauren has shoulder length hair and it took about 25 minutes and cost around $30. Trivia! Did you know that the hair wrappers dont work for WDW? They are actually contractors but they have to obey all of the CM rules. Anyway, we swam for about an hour and grabbed dinner from the food court and relaxed. About 7:30 we talked about going back to MGM but decided another swim was in order instead so thats what we did for about an hour. After grabbing a snack we headed back to the room and asleep by 10:00.
Cast:
Susie - 38
Lauren 10
I had made an 11th hour decision to not take advantage of EMH because of some of the posts I had read saying that they were really crowded. Today was EMH at Epcot so we headed to AK. We got on the very uncrowded bus around 8:15 after a short 5 minute wait and were on our way. Went quickly through bag check and headed for the turnstiles. I noticed that two of them had no line and the others had long lines. Lauren said we should go to those but I thought maybe they wouldnt be working. I asked a CM and she just smiled and said Have a magical day. I stood at one and Lauren stood at the other. It was a good 10 minutes before anybody got in line behind either of us. We just laughed at the herd mentality of the others. Lauren saw a CM in a suit and tie across the way and noticed that he had pins so she wanted to see them so she could feed her Tink addiction. I told her that he looked busy but at that moment his head turned in our direction and he walked over to her. Mickey bumps! This was one of those magical moments. He walked up to her and asked her if she wanted to trade pins. You should have seen the look on her face! Im sure I looked the same way. He didnt have any Tink pins so she wasnt interested. He told us to Have a magical day and disappeared up the trail. I still dont know what caught his attention or why he came over to us. There was no way he could have heard us talking. As I said, magical.
Since I had figured out the whole ticket machine process the day before I felt pretty sure of myself. I was playing around with the machine by putting my ticket in the blocked slot when the red X changed to green. It sucked my ticket right in. I got in trouble. The CM said it wasnt time yet and I just started stammering while Lauren rolled her eyes again. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, my daughter has reached the age where I am just one embarrassment after another to her. I told her it was my job as her mother to embarrass her so leave me alone. Anyway, after a few more minutes they let us in and we headed left not really sure where we were going but my DIS friends told me to always go left.
We came out of the forest and saw the Tree of Life. Mickey Bumps. We stopped to get our picture taken and headed for the rope. We were right against the rope so I got some good shots of the tree. We waited about 10 minutes and here comes Minnie, Mickey, and Pluto to help us open the park. This was my first glimpse of my favorite rodent and I got teary eyed which rated another eye roll. I was so excited I was bouncing like Tigger and waving like a fool! Lauren tried to get me to stop but I just pushed her away. The trio did their checklist and we followed them to the Safari. We were on the first truck and headed into the wilds of Africa. We saw tons of animals. Had to stop and wait for a couple of giraffes to get out of the way and moved on. The baby elephant saw us and started running from us. However, his path actually brought him closer to us when we came around a corner and I got some great photos of him.
A funny thing happened while we were chasing poachers. We were rounding the corner right before the airplane and I dont know if she misjudged the turn or if the road was too wet but we ended up not making the turn and started climbing the hill. Luckily the engine of the truck died and she was able to restart it and back up. She was pretty flustered so I figured that wasnt part of the tour. After the tour we headed to Camp Minnie and Mickey to see the Mouse. On the way we say Rafiki standing off to the side with no one around so we went over and did the meet and greet with him. At Camp we met Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, and Goofy with pretty much no lines. I told Mickey that I had waited a long time to meet him and got a big ahhhh from everyone else and a huge hug and kiss from my favorite mouse. Minnie is one of Laurens favorites. In March and May I had postcards sent to her from Minnie saying how excited she was that Lauren was coming. Lauren told Minnie that she got both her post cards and was so excited to meet her. Minnie was all over her hugging and kissing her. Mickey bumps and tears! It is so nice to see that my 10-year-old going on 16 still has a little girl hidden somewhere inside of her.
Pluto and goofy were a lot of fun also. Goofy got hold of a ladies water/fan bottle and started chasing and spraying Pluto and the handler. It was a lot of fun to watch. We probably spent a good 45 minutes playing around with the characters in Camp because hardly anyone else came down there to meet them. Alas, it was time to go because I didnt know how much time it would take to get to the Contemporary. . Leaving the camp we looked to see when the next Lion King show was but didnt have enough time before our PS at Chef Mickeys. On the way out we saw a very long line for Lilo and Stitch. I told the family at the end of the line about the characters at Camp and that there were no lines so the headed that way with a look of relief on their faces. Just doing my job to spread some magic. We stopped to pick up our picture and headed out of the park.
We went to the bus stops and I asked a man standing there which stop was for the Contemporary. He pointed me the right way and then told me to follow him. He took us over to a Wilderness Lodge bus and told the driver to drop us off at CR on his way back and told us to have a magical day. I love WDW!!
We had the bus to ourselves and had a great time visiting with the driver. He pointed out a lot of things to us and which road goes where (like I could remember). He dropped us off and we headed to Chef Mickeys. We were about 30 minutes early but they seated us in about 5 minutes. The food was okay and we had a lot of fun. My only complaint is that it took us 45 minutes to see all of the characters. But when they did show up we had good interaction with them. They werent rushed and had fun playing with Laurens leopard print mouse ears that she bought at AK.
After breakfast we had planned on going back to AK but on the bus we caught sight of the castle and quickly changed our plans. So we went up one floor for our first trip on the famous Disney Monorail. I asked the CM if we could ride in front and she said that someone already was. Oh, well. We hopped on and made the resort loop. At the Grand Floridian (wow, what a beautiful hotel) I saw the front riders get off so I asked the driver if we could get up front. She checked and made sure nobody at the stop had asked and told us to come on in! What fun! It was awesome to see the castle getting closer and closer from the front of the monorail. The driver wasnt very talkative so we just enjoyed the short ride.
We got off at MK after the driver told us to have a magical day and made our way through bag check and the turnstile. Hey! No problems with the ticket machine! Woohoo! We went under the bridge and when we came up there were characters everywhere. We didnt wait in line so I cant tell you who all it was but they were all over the place. Then it happened. I turned the corner and saw the castle. It has been a dream since I was a child to go to WDW and there it was. Cinderellas castle. I could have dropped to my knees and started crying. But even I have a limit to how much I want to be embarrassed. Instead I just stopped dead in my tracks and let the tears roll down my cheeks. I looked over at Lauren and she was doing the same thing. We just hugged each other. A mom and her daughter, standing in the middle of Main Street hugging and crying tears of joy because we knew that we were finally here. It was the most magical moment of our trip and one that I will remember when I am old and gray. It was the most incredible feeling. I just hope when I go back that the feeling will be the same. It was picture time so we found us a picture taker. He took a picture with the castle in the background and one with us looking like we were holding something in our hands. I knew what would be in our hands but didnt let on that I did.
We walked up Main Street and Cinderellas Surprise Celebration was going on. We watched the end of it starting from Peter and Captain Hook fighting and went left into Frontierland. Lauren wanted to do the tree house first so up we went with no wait. If they wont let me live in the castle I have no problem living in the tree house and told a CM so. She said she would let Mickey know. Next stop was Pirates of the Caribbean. We had about at 5-minute wait and were on our way. We were having a great time until we got to the part where they were auctioning off brides. The ride stopped for about 15 minutes. Just about the time I didnt think I could here We wants the red head one more time they shut off the music and turned on the lights. Lauren is still saying it every time she sees a red head.
After PoC we decided to just walk around and ride whatever caught our eye. We ended up in Tomorrowland and hopped on TTA with no wait. I enjoyed this ride but Lauren thought it was boring. After TTA we go FP for Buzz and headed to the Carousal of Progress. Again, no wait. This was a fun ride and it was air-conditioned. We sang Its a great big beautiful tomorrow the rest of the trip. After CoP we headed over to check out Minnie and Mickeys house. Minnie wasnt home but the door was unlocked so we went on in. It wasnt at all crowded and we moved around pretty freely. As a quilter myself I had to check out her sewing machine and the quilt she was working on. Good job, Minnie. We popped popcorn, made pots dance and helped Minnie with her work in progress on her pottery wheel and head over to Mickeys House. Mickey wasnt home either but the door was open so we walked right in. We wandered around the rooms and then checked out his garden. I might actually eat my veggies if they came shaped as Mickey heads. Since we were in the neighborhood we decided to head over to Goofys Barnstormer. 10 minute wait. This was a fun ride but too short. Time for a Mickey Bar!
After our treat it was time for our Buzz FPs. I didnt even look at the people that we walked past. Aparently a lot of others with 3:05 4:05 FP decided to show up at 3:20 because there were a lot of FP people behind us and the lady who we were getting in front of was one unhappy camper. Buzz was so much fun. Neither of us scored very well. We were both in the 10K-15K range. On the way out we looked at the pictures and it was funny to see everyone so serious in their pictures instead of smiling. We walked around for a couple of hours just looking at things and in stores and decided to head back to the resort for a swim. When we got back housekeeping had arranged Laurens stuffed animals on the bed watching TV. She got a kick out of that. Before swimming we had Laurens hair wrapped. Those guy and gals must have strong wrists. Lauren has shoulder length hair and it took about 25 minutes and cost around $30. Trivia! Did you know that the hair wrappers dont work for WDW? They are actually contractors but they have to obey all of the CM rules. Anyway, we swam for about an hour and grabbed dinner from the food court and relaxed. About 7:30 we talked about going back to MGM but decided another swim was in order instead so thats what we did for about an hour. After grabbing a snack we headed back to the room and asleep by 10:00.
