Stitchfan626
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Jun 23, 2004
- Messages
- 18
Thursday July 29th
Cast: Me, 32 year old Disney fanatic
DW, 29 year old Disney convert
Well, here it was day 5 of our trip and we were finally going to see MK in the daylight! Last time we were here we practically lived in this park (being on the monorail contributed to that) but this was only the second time in 5 days that we were getting in. Shame on us.
Anyway, we did the usual EE routine and got up at 6:30 to make sure we were over at the park well before opening. As usual, we made sure we went to the far left side to get in, as the lines on the far right and left tend to be shorter (especially at MK where the parking lot ferry lets off on the right). After the rope drop we did something I never thought I would do at MK we walked. That's right, we walked up main-street and into the watch shop. Why the heck did we do this when there were rides to be ridden?!? Well, it's like this. If you recall from our day 2 report DW and I had both purchased new watches. Well we prefer metal watchbands to plastic or leather since they have a tendency to break over time. Well, the bands on our watches were much too big for us, so we stopped in and had links taken out so we could finally wear them. With that accomplished we finally finished our stroll up Main Street and hooked a right into Tomorrowland.
As we entered Tomorrowland I noticed that TimeKeeper was open. Since it was scheduled to start in just a few minutes we walked in, enjoyed Nine-eye's pre-show spiel and managed to get front row leaning positions. DW was annoyed that I had chosen this at first, but after seeing it again she was glad we did. You never know when they are going to close it down again, possibly forever, so I wanted to see it again. Plus, we both like Robin Williams, so she was actually glad we had gone in. Then we went over to the TTA and took a spin around Tomorrowland. TTA is one of our favorite rides, and a perfect way to relax and cool off on a hot day. Leaving the TTA we went in to Buzz Lightyear where I ended up beating my lovely, wonderful DW by almost twice the score (she reads these reports) so we went around and tried again. Despite an early lead, I managed to beat her again, but this time by a very small margin. We were considering going for a third time, but the lines were beginning to build, so instead we picked up FastPasses and wandered into Fantasyland instead.
Time for another quick rant. What is it with Peter Pan's Flight? EVERY time we went by it the lines were a mile long. This INCLUDES e-ride nights. It's a good ride and all, but seriously. It was like they were giving away real pixie dust at the end or something! Ok, I'll come down from my soap box now.
Having bypassed most of Fantasyland (the lines were too long, or we just weren't interested) we zipped into Mickey's Philharmagic and enjoyed the show again. I made it a point to take a few pictures of the concert posters because they are just so cool. I wish Disney would make actual versions of them. Having done what we wanted in Fantasyland we decided that we should go and do our best impressions of Jack Sparrow over at Pirates of the Caribbean. Avoiding the spitting camel at Alladin I noticed that there were next to no lines for the Jungle Cruise. Well, the last time I was on this ride was way WAY back when I was around 10, so I dragged my DW over to ride it. Turns out the reason there were no lines was because it was just starting, and we did end up waiting a good 10-15 minutes. We had a really good tour guide. At one point she made a "Just ask me .." statement (can't remember what it was about) so I rose to the bait and asked. "Thank you married man" was quickly followed by her answer (yes, we were wearing our ears). After a really good ride on the Jungle Cruise we finally wandered back and jumped aboard PotC. It might just be me, but it seems like the beginning of this ride is a LOT darker than it used to be. I mean, the drop used to be dark, but this time it was PITCH BLACK! Anyway, I still love this ride, so when we were done we went back to ride it again. Now, there are two lines that feed into the ride, and since they were both open we went to the one on the right. Well, we walked down and we didnt' encounter a single person. When we got to the loading station there was a CM on the phone with someone, but nobody else. On the other side, there was a big group of folks waiting to get on. At first we thought we had entered a closed line and that we'd have to go back up and switch over, but the CM gestured us to enter a boat and off we went just the two of us on our own private cruise through PotC! While we were riding this time we did notice towards the end there is a little branch off where I guess they take boats out of rotation. We only noticed it because the curtain or whatever normally covers it was pulled back and there was a CM standing there. She saw us looking at her and she smiled and waved and mouthed "congratulations" to us, officially making this the coolest ride of the day (so far).
After deciding that a third trip just wouldn't match the one was has just been on we decided to head towards Liberty Square. I noticed the Liberty Belle was in the dock, and since we had never been on it I thought this would be a good time to try. Unfortunately they had just stopped taking on passengers when we arrived, so we just shrugged it off and decided to hit the Haunted Mansion instead. We really lucked out on this trip through the mansion because we ended up stopping right at the middle of the ballroom. This is one of my favorite scenes on the ride and we were really able to notice all the cool little details that we might otherwise have missed. Leaving the mansion we decided to head back over to Tomorrowland since the time of our FastPasses was coming up. As we neared the edge of Liberty Square we noticed a cart selling silhouettes. DW decided we should get one done of us, again since I had done this exact same thing when I was in WDW as a child. It's amazing how they are able to be so accurate just working freehanded with a pair of scissors. The silhouettes done we continued over towards Tomorrowland, passing in front of the castle. As we passed I noticed a small crowd forming and being the lemming that I am I stopped to see what was going on. Turned out that Cinderellas Surprise Celebration was starting so we decided to stop and watch that show. After the show they announced that the characters would be out to sign autographs and take pictures, well, I was going to pass on it but then I saw Lilo and Stitch! Well I'm a huge Stitch fan so we quickly got in line to get pictures with them. Stitch was fantastic. He immediately noticed the Stitch shirt I was wearing and gave me a big hug. He hammed it up with us a bit, pushing me away so he could stand next to my wife. Lilo just shook her head in disbelief. We then speed walked over to Buzz to use our FastPasses since it was almost past the window that they were good for. Well, when we arrived the FastPass line was nearly as long as the stand-by line, so we decided to skip it, and went over to do some shopping in Merchant of Venus instead. It was there that we made the purchase that would make us every parent's nightmare, the 25" Stitch plush. We took our new "baby" and decided to take some pictures over by the statue of Pleekly that they have set up near the speedway. It was at this point that we started hearing things like "Look, it's Stitch!" and "Hey Mom it's Stitch". Oh yes, we got more looks and comments carrying around the big Stitch than we did from our bride and groom ears!
Well, with "Junior" in tow we headed over to the Liberty Tree Tavern, a favorite of ours, for lunch. The staff was quite amused by Stitch as we sat waiting for our table to be ready. When we were led to our table I saw why we had to wait: they had covered it with Mickey confetti and streamers for us! An additional special touch was when our server pulled up an extra chair so Stitch could sit with us. She even asked Stitch if he wanted the kids menu! We had a wonderful lunch, and were suitably embarrassed when our server (Patty) rang a large hand bell and announced to the world that we had just gotten married! Before leaving Liberty Tree Patty decided to bestow some Buzz Lightyear wisdom to my DW after hearing how I beat her in the game. She whispered a tidbit in DWs ear, knowing grins appeared on both their faces, and DW had the look of Im gonna kick your butt the next time we play. I was VERY curious as to what she was told but I figured I might as well wait the day was still young.
After a wonderful lunch we decided to take "Junior" back to the room and rest up a bit before our early dinner at California Grill. We walked back out towards Main Street and what did we find but the end of another showing of Cinderella's Surprise Celebration. Well, even though they had already set out the balloons marking the ends of the lines for the characters we walked over and stood to one side as we watched Stitch and his antics, just to see if he'd notice OUR Stitch. Well, ask and you shall receive. At one point Stitch looked right at us paused, and then stretched out his arms and wiggled his fingers while walking over to us! We let him take "Junior" and hug him and ham around a bit before leaving and letting everyone else have fun. I know it may have been rude to "cut" line like that, but honestly, we were just watching, we didn't expect Stitch to come over until maybe the very end. It was very funny to watch and if any readers out there happened to see this and took pictures PLEASE let me know. I was too busy enjoying the moment to snap any pictures!
As we walked down Main Street towards the entrance we got one more honeymoon surprise. Earlier in the day as we were walking up Main Street we were passed by the horse drawn trolley which had the barbershop quartet standing in the back. As they passed they noticed our wedding ears and congratulated us. As we were walking towards the entrance we passed them again, but they had just finished their performance and were going on break. Well, they called us over, asked about the wedding and everything and sang one more song just for us! We thanked them and DW had the starting of tears in her eyes. It was so nice of them to take the extra time to make our day extra special.
Continuing down Main Street we decided to stop in the Confectioners. On the Disney Unwrapped special on the Food Network they had show a HUGE Rice Krispy treat in the shape of Mickey's head. Well, being a fan of these I just HAD to get one. It was yummy, and before you ask, yes I (and my DW) ate it over the course of 4 to 5 days. Once again, the CM's noticed our ears and congratulated us and we had a fun time chatting with them while I got my Rice Krispy Mickey. We were going to leave the park at this time, but we noticed that the steam train had just pulled in, so we decided to take a ride around the park. We had a nice relaxing trip. It was neat to see some of the backstage areas that you don't usually see. I didn't know until this trip that there are actually train-crossing lights on one of the backstage roads (in what I'm guessing is Adventureland). When we made it back to the entrance of the park we finally headed out and took the bus back to CBR for some rest.
Back at CBR we relaxed around the room a bit before deciding to head over to OPR for awhile. We had some time to kill before our PS that night and since we wanted to be a bit dressier than normally be in the parks we decided to stick around the resort area before leaving. So we sidled up to the Banana Cabana and had a few drinks in their souvenir coconuts. We watched a bit of the World Series of Poker and then went back to the room to shower and change for the evening. Well, for a change we didn't get to our PS too far in advance. Thanks to info on here I knew to go to the second floor to check in and then got taken up to the 15th floor for dinner. We had a lovely view of MK and the rest of the lagoon, but the food and service weren't all that wonderful. The food was good, don't get me wrong, but I guess from everything I'd heard and read I was expecting something more magical. Our server was so-so. He got us our food and everything but never made any additional conversation, which seemed to be going on with all the other tables around us. After diner we went out on the observation deck and took some pictures and enjoyed the lovely breeze. Having taken all the pictures we wanted, and knowing we were WAY too early to wait for Wishes we decided to head down to the bus stop and go to Downtown Disney to get our tickets for La Nouba the following night.
As we waited we chatted with another couple from Texas (we seemed to see a LOT of Texans while we were down there) and joked about the Downtown Disney bus "curse" we suffered from on Monday at the AKL. Well, it almost looked like we'd be the butt of the "curse" again, but the bus finally showed up and we were off to DTD. Well, we wandered down to the La Nouba box office and picked up our tickets. Then we stopped in the Virgin Megastore and got Hellboy on DVD. We loved this movie and since it had just come out we decided to grab it so we could watch something else besides Lilo and Stitch on our portable DVD player. We looked around a few of the other shops before deciding to take a look at Pleasure Island. I have to say, I really like the huge Jessica Rabbit sign they have at the entrance. Looks like she's become the unofficial spokesperson for PI. When we entered I saw that we were right near the Adventurer's Club. DW didn't know what the heck it was, but I had read about it on the boards and dragged her inside. We were there fairly early so nothing much was going on at first, just people wandering around. As we were taking it all in Samantha Sterling (if you havent been to the AC you may be confused at this part, feel free to skip ahead) came over and chatted with us. Turns out the person playing her role that night had lived up near our home, and was familiar with the area. We chatted a bit, and then she excused herself to mingle a bit more. As the night went on we saw a performance in the Mask Room, with Beezle and the Maid, the Balderdash Cup competition in the Library (where DW batted her eyes and sighed at Hathaway Brown, what a ham) before finally settling down in the Main Salon for awhile. Overall, it was a great time, but we were getting a bit tired, so after enjoying Colonel Critchlow's speech informing us to buy a drink in their new souvenir container (The Monkey Nut, the same thing we had bought earlier that day at the Banana Cabana) we headed out. We walked through the rest of PI and were unimpressed for the most part. Neither of us are into the dance club scene so we just sort of sped walked until we hit the shops. By this time most shops were closing so we headed to the bus stop and finally got back to the CBR after a very full and rewarding day.
Next: Day 6, Wandering the resorts and La Nouba (sorry, couldn't think of a clever title)
Cast: Me, 32 year old Disney fanatic
DW, 29 year old Disney convert
Well, here it was day 5 of our trip and we were finally going to see MK in the daylight! Last time we were here we practically lived in this park (being on the monorail contributed to that) but this was only the second time in 5 days that we were getting in. Shame on us.
Anyway, we did the usual EE routine and got up at 6:30 to make sure we were over at the park well before opening. As usual, we made sure we went to the far left side to get in, as the lines on the far right and left tend to be shorter (especially at MK where the parking lot ferry lets off on the right). After the rope drop we did something I never thought I would do at MK we walked. That's right, we walked up main-street and into the watch shop. Why the heck did we do this when there were rides to be ridden?!? Well, it's like this. If you recall from our day 2 report DW and I had both purchased new watches. Well we prefer metal watchbands to plastic or leather since they have a tendency to break over time. Well, the bands on our watches were much too big for us, so we stopped in and had links taken out so we could finally wear them. With that accomplished we finally finished our stroll up Main Street and hooked a right into Tomorrowland.
As we entered Tomorrowland I noticed that TimeKeeper was open. Since it was scheduled to start in just a few minutes we walked in, enjoyed Nine-eye's pre-show spiel and managed to get front row leaning positions. DW was annoyed that I had chosen this at first, but after seeing it again she was glad we did. You never know when they are going to close it down again, possibly forever, so I wanted to see it again. Plus, we both like Robin Williams, so she was actually glad we had gone in. Then we went over to the TTA and took a spin around Tomorrowland. TTA is one of our favorite rides, and a perfect way to relax and cool off on a hot day. Leaving the TTA we went in to Buzz Lightyear where I ended up beating my lovely, wonderful DW by almost twice the score (she reads these reports) so we went around and tried again. Despite an early lead, I managed to beat her again, but this time by a very small margin. We were considering going for a third time, but the lines were beginning to build, so instead we picked up FastPasses and wandered into Fantasyland instead.
Time for another quick rant. What is it with Peter Pan's Flight? EVERY time we went by it the lines were a mile long. This INCLUDES e-ride nights. It's a good ride and all, but seriously. It was like they were giving away real pixie dust at the end or something! Ok, I'll come down from my soap box now.
Having bypassed most of Fantasyland (the lines were too long, or we just weren't interested) we zipped into Mickey's Philharmagic and enjoyed the show again. I made it a point to take a few pictures of the concert posters because they are just so cool. I wish Disney would make actual versions of them. Having done what we wanted in Fantasyland we decided that we should go and do our best impressions of Jack Sparrow over at Pirates of the Caribbean. Avoiding the spitting camel at Alladin I noticed that there were next to no lines for the Jungle Cruise. Well, the last time I was on this ride was way WAY back when I was around 10, so I dragged my DW over to ride it. Turns out the reason there were no lines was because it was just starting, and we did end up waiting a good 10-15 minutes. We had a really good tour guide. At one point she made a "Just ask me .." statement (can't remember what it was about) so I rose to the bait and asked. "Thank you married man" was quickly followed by her answer (yes, we were wearing our ears). After a really good ride on the Jungle Cruise we finally wandered back and jumped aboard PotC. It might just be me, but it seems like the beginning of this ride is a LOT darker than it used to be. I mean, the drop used to be dark, but this time it was PITCH BLACK! Anyway, I still love this ride, so when we were done we went back to ride it again. Now, there are two lines that feed into the ride, and since they were both open we went to the one on the right. Well, we walked down and we didnt' encounter a single person. When we got to the loading station there was a CM on the phone with someone, but nobody else. On the other side, there was a big group of folks waiting to get on. At first we thought we had entered a closed line and that we'd have to go back up and switch over, but the CM gestured us to enter a boat and off we went just the two of us on our own private cruise through PotC! While we were riding this time we did notice towards the end there is a little branch off where I guess they take boats out of rotation. We only noticed it because the curtain or whatever normally covers it was pulled back and there was a CM standing there. She saw us looking at her and she smiled and waved and mouthed "congratulations" to us, officially making this the coolest ride of the day (so far).
After deciding that a third trip just wouldn't match the one was has just been on we decided to head towards Liberty Square. I noticed the Liberty Belle was in the dock, and since we had never been on it I thought this would be a good time to try. Unfortunately they had just stopped taking on passengers when we arrived, so we just shrugged it off and decided to hit the Haunted Mansion instead. We really lucked out on this trip through the mansion because we ended up stopping right at the middle of the ballroom. This is one of my favorite scenes on the ride and we were really able to notice all the cool little details that we might otherwise have missed. Leaving the mansion we decided to head back over to Tomorrowland since the time of our FastPasses was coming up. As we neared the edge of Liberty Square we noticed a cart selling silhouettes. DW decided we should get one done of us, again since I had done this exact same thing when I was in WDW as a child. It's amazing how they are able to be so accurate just working freehanded with a pair of scissors. The silhouettes done we continued over towards Tomorrowland, passing in front of the castle. As we passed I noticed a small crowd forming and being the lemming that I am I stopped to see what was going on. Turned out that Cinderellas Surprise Celebration was starting so we decided to stop and watch that show. After the show they announced that the characters would be out to sign autographs and take pictures, well, I was going to pass on it but then I saw Lilo and Stitch! Well I'm a huge Stitch fan so we quickly got in line to get pictures with them. Stitch was fantastic. He immediately noticed the Stitch shirt I was wearing and gave me a big hug. He hammed it up with us a bit, pushing me away so he could stand next to my wife. Lilo just shook her head in disbelief. We then speed walked over to Buzz to use our FastPasses since it was almost past the window that they were good for. Well, when we arrived the FastPass line was nearly as long as the stand-by line, so we decided to skip it, and went over to do some shopping in Merchant of Venus instead. It was there that we made the purchase that would make us every parent's nightmare, the 25" Stitch plush. We took our new "baby" and decided to take some pictures over by the statue of Pleekly that they have set up near the speedway. It was at this point that we started hearing things like "Look, it's Stitch!" and "Hey Mom it's Stitch". Oh yes, we got more looks and comments carrying around the big Stitch than we did from our bride and groom ears!
Well, with "Junior" in tow we headed over to the Liberty Tree Tavern, a favorite of ours, for lunch. The staff was quite amused by Stitch as we sat waiting for our table to be ready. When we were led to our table I saw why we had to wait: they had covered it with Mickey confetti and streamers for us! An additional special touch was when our server pulled up an extra chair so Stitch could sit with us. She even asked Stitch if he wanted the kids menu! We had a wonderful lunch, and were suitably embarrassed when our server (Patty) rang a large hand bell and announced to the world that we had just gotten married! Before leaving Liberty Tree Patty decided to bestow some Buzz Lightyear wisdom to my DW after hearing how I beat her in the game. She whispered a tidbit in DWs ear, knowing grins appeared on both their faces, and DW had the look of Im gonna kick your butt the next time we play. I was VERY curious as to what she was told but I figured I might as well wait the day was still young.
After a wonderful lunch we decided to take "Junior" back to the room and rest up a bit before our early dinner at California Grill. We walked back out towards Main Street and what did we find but the end of another showing of Cinderella's Surprise Celebration. Well, even though they had already set out the balloons marking the ends of the lines for the characters we walked over and stood to one side as we watched Stitch and his antics, just to see if he'd notice OUR Stitch. Well, ask and you shall receive. At one point Stitch looked right at us paused, and then stretched out his arms and wiggled his fingers while walking over to us! We let him take "Junior" and hug him and ham around a bit before leaving and letting everyone else have fun. I know it may have been rude to "cut" line like that, but honestly, we were just watching, we didn't expect Stitch to come over until maybe the very end. It was very funny to watch and if any readers out there happened to see this and took pictures PLEASE let me know. I was too busy enjoying the moment to snap any pictures!
As we walked down Main Street towards the entrance we got one more honeymoon surprise. Earlier in the day as we were walking up Main Street we were passed by the horse drawn trolley which had the barbershop quartet standing in the back. As they passed they noticed our wedding ears and congratulated us. As we were walking towards the entrance we passed them again, but they had just finished their performance and were going on break. Well, they called us over, asked about the wedding and everything and sang one more song just for us! We thanked them and DW had the starting of tears in her eyes. It was so nice of them to take the extra time to make our day extra special.
Continuing down Main Street we decided to stop in the Confectioners. On the Disney Unwrapped special on the Food Network they had show a HUGE Rice Krispy treat in the shape of Mickey's head. Well, being a fan of these I just HAD to get one. It was yummy, and before you ask, yes I (and my DW) ate it over the course of 4 to 5 days. Once again, the CM's noticed our ears and congratulated us and we had a fun time chatting with them while I got my Rice Krispy Mickey. We were going to leave the park at this time, but we noticed that the steam train had just pulled in, so we decided to take a ride around the park. We had a nice relaxing trip. It was neat to see some of the backstage areas that you don't usually see. I didn't know until this trip that there are actually train-crossing lights on one of the backstage roads (in what I'm guessing is Adventureland). When we made it back to the entrance of the park we finally headed out and took the bus back to CBR for some rest.
Back at CBR we relaxed around the room a bit before deciding to head over to OPR for awhile. We had some time to kill before our PS that night and since we wanted to be a bit dressier than normally be in the parks we decided to stick around the resort area before leaving. So we sidled up to the Banana Cabana and had a few drinks in their souvenir coconuts. We watched a bit of the World Series of Poker and then went back to the room to shower and change for the evening. Well, for a change we didn't get to our PS too far in advance. Thanks to info on here I knew to go to the second floor to check in and then got taken up to the 15th floor for dinner. We had a lovely view of MK and the rest of the lagoon, but the food and service weren't all that wonderful. The food was good, don't get me wrong, but I guess from everything I'd heard and read I was expecting something more magical. Our server was so-so. He got us our food and everything but never made any additional conversation, which seemed to be going on with all the other tables around us. After diner we went out on the observation deck and took some pictures and enjoyed the lovely breeze. Having taken all the pictures we wanted, and knowing we were WAY too early to wait for Wishes we decided to head down to the bus stop and go to Downtown Disney to get our tickets for La Nouba the following night.
As we waited we chatted with another couple from Texas (we seemed to see a LOT of Texans while we were down there) and joked about the Downtown Disney bus "curse" we suffered from on Monday at the AKL. Well, it almost looked like we'd be the butt of the "curse" again, but the bus finally showed up and we were off to DTD. Well, we wandered down to the La Nouba box office and picked up our tickets. Then we stopped in the Virgin Megastore and got Hellboy on DVD. We loved this movie and since it had just come out we decided to grab it so we could watch something else besides Lilo and Stitch on our portable DVD player. We looked around a few of the other shops before deciding to take a look at Pleasure Island. I have to say, I really like the huge Jessica Rabbit sign they have at the entrance. Looks like she's become the unofficial spokesperson for PI. When we entered I saw that we were right near the Adventurer's Club. DW didn't know what the heck it was, but I had read about it on the boards and dragged her inside. We were there fairly early so nothing much was going on at first, just people wandering around. As we were taking it all in Samantha Sterling (if you havent been to the AC you may be confused at this part, feel free to skip ahead) came over and chatted with us. Turns out the person playing her role that night had lived up near our home, and was familiar with the area. We chatted a bit, and then she excused herself to mingle a bit more. As the night went on we saw a performance in the Mask Room, with Beezle and the Maid, the Balderdash Cup competition in the Library (where DW batted her eyes and sighed at Hathaway Brown, what a ham) before finally settling down in the Main Salon for awhile. Overall, it was a great time, but we were getting a bit tired, so after enjoying Colonel Critchlow's speech informing us to buy a drink in their new souvenir container (The Monkey Nut, the same thing we had bought earlier that day at the Banana Cabana) we headed out. We walked through the rest of PI and were unimpressed for the most part. Neither of us are into the dance club scene so we just sort of sped walked until we hit the shops. By this time most shops were closing so we headed to the bus stop and finally got back to the CBR after a very full and rewarding day.
Next: Day 6, Wandering the resorts and La Nouba (sorry, couldn't think of a clever title)
