Jacquelyn11
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2000
- Messages
- 83
Continuation of our 13 day saga to the Worlds!
July 11 - Up early today! My first born turns 9 years old at 12:44pm. We head over to MK to catch the monorail over to Chef Mickey's. This turns out to be a bit of a mistake. My DS's love the Monorail (expecially riding in front) but the resort monorail makes extended stop times at the resorts. This put us 15min late for the 7:45am PS we had, but we had no problems in getting seated. We get autographs and pics from all the characters. Our server misses the 8:30 "napkin swirling" so we have to wait till about 10 till 9 to wish Ryan his first "Happy BD"! We ended up walking back to MK and missed the rope drop. I forgot my hat and DH went back to the car to get it (we did park in the first row today!). We went to City Hall, got Ryan the "Birthday" badge, Goofys message and the Tomorrow Land arcade token (hmmm... de je vu?) I inquired about the Grand Marshall selection but the CM would only say it's totally random. I realize my camera batteries are dead! Over to the photo store for a costly replacement. We take the horse drawn carriage to the castle. This was the only time I had to endure an Un-Disney moment. No, It wasn't from a horses rear in front of me but a horses rear sitting behind me. A loud mouth guy and his family was on board, berating everything from families who decide to bring young kids to the park to the CM's taking your pics on Main street. He did not quit yapping the entire ride! Needless to say we exited quickly and headed toward the inside of the castle. We head toward TL to do Buzz, SM, TTA (again!) all DS1's choices! We also did COP as a 'waiting' ride. This was interesting, but they request at the first for NO FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY and one group used flash at EVERY STOP! We also stopped by the Arcade so Ryan could use his BD token and contribute a few more quarters to the Mouse Retirement fund. My only insistance today is that we do the the Diamond Horseshoe review for lunch. We arrive just as the previous "show" is ending about 12:45pm. (Ryan's 'birth time'!!) We have a good lunch of sandwich and chips.
(Sorry, gotta stop for a bit. I JUST saw the WDW commerical for the 100 BD celebration for the first time! Rememinded DS1 we will be there for this in Dec!!! It's neat to feel the Disney Magic, even just sitting at home!!!)
They start the show and the singing cowboy is out first. They go to the middle and have fun with several of the guest. He walks by the front (where we are sitting) and notices Ryan's BD button. He asked "Is today your BD? What is your name?" Then he proceeded to have the ENTIRE PLACE sing "HAPPY BD" to RYAN!!! Talk about a whopping Disney moment!! We also got picked for the card tricks. The 'Big John' master of ceremonies gave both Ryan AND Jonathan a nice straw cowboy hat! He mentioned he "had a brother too" and knows how it is at BD's. This was a nice Disney touch!
We had gotten FP's for BTMR for DS2 and Splash MT for Ryan and did the Frontier arcade while we waited. We catch the MM parade coming thru this area. After this we head over to Fantasy Land for the "Sword in the Stone" ceremony. Merlin came by with his "choosing rod" and choose Ryan! The sword came up as he pulled and was decked out in his crown and cape. He had his temporary ruler time end at the sound of the alarm clock! Merlin removed the crown and cape and Ryan had the look on his face of "but you just gave me those!" Merlin also gave Ryan AND Jonathan a SITS medal and proclamation. From here we walk thru the Castle center again and admire the mosaic tile pictures.
Off to Epcot on the MR. This time we ALL get to ride up front. We Try to get a FP for TT but they are all gone for the day. We do Spaceship Earth. An intersting exibit and a cool respite. We walk over to the American Garden theater and see BLAST! This is one show that is NOT to be missed!! I'm an old band flutist and did 3 yrs of marching in HS. These kids are true athletes and show the SWEAT to prove it! I was left wanting more! It's very much like the Drum and Bugle Corps shows have have in the summer time but a stage production. DO NOT MISS THIS SHOW!!
We grab a quick burger dinner at the Liberty Inn. We got a FP for Malestrom, but it wasn't really necessary, very short line. We head over to the International Gateway to catch the boat over to the Yacht Club Marina for our Illuminations cruise. We arrive about 7:45pm and CarolineS and her family are already there. We also met up with LisaTX and her family. I check in with the marina staff and meet Daryll, our cruise driver. It turns out he is CruiseCaptain from the DIS boards! He is very gracious and accomadates all our request! We take a tour of the marina area and he tells us some tales of working at HM previously. We make it over to the bridge and Daryll gets everyone on the bridge and the other boats to join in singing 'HAPPY BD' to Ryan one more time!! Watching Illuminations for the first time from this location was Spectaular! My DS's stayed glued to the front of the boat watching all the festivities. After it was over Daryll let us off at the Epcot Dock so we wouldn't have to transport all the way back!! I got to walk thru the Rose Garden another time (Sniff! Ahhhhh!)
A magical end to a Magical day!
July 12 - A short night! Up at 2:30AM!! The Atlantis Space shuttle is due to go up at 5:04AM. We get out and drive about an hour to Titusville. My DH lived in Orlando for 8 yrs in the late 80's and caught several of the launches from there. We found a good spot by the water and the Launch went off w/o a hitch! The only CRASH was when we arrived back at the Hilton! We ended up sleeping till 11 am! We did about an hour at the pool and got ready to go to Fulton's Crab house for a late lunch and to see Downtown Disney. This is the place I promised DS2 we would have crab, but it was really expensive for what you got! I also could not eat the bread offerings, all coated with sesame seeds or rye. I did enjoy the clam chowder and DH had the lobster bisque and the Mahi Mahi. I'm glad we did get the 10% DC discount. We visited the Lego place and looked around around the disney store. We got some ice cream at Mc'D's and headed over to DQ. We watched the rain coming in while eating at Fulton's and several heavy downpours occured through out the afternoon, and our ponchos came in handy. We got to DQ about 6pm. I warned DH we would most likely be here till it closed at MN. We did the Astroblaster's first thing and it was fun but several of the cars were not functions correctly. This was a place for us! No chance of rain! Able to play the free games as much as we wanted! We did the virtual raft, Alien invasion and Cyberspace mt, and enjoyed them all. I did the Mighty Ducks Pinball and got 1st a couple of times. My only complaint was they did not have enought old fashion pin ball games! We did the Comix once, too intense and confining for me! We leave at, of course, 12mn!! Back to the Hilton to ready for a Fantasmic tomorrow!
Jacquelyn
July 11 - Up early today! My first born turns 9 years old at 12:44pm. We head over to MK to catch the monorail over to Chef Mickey's. This turns out to be a bit of a mistake. My DS's love the Monorail (expecially riding in front) but the resort monorail makes extended stop times at the resorts. This put us 15min late for the 7:45am PS we had, but we had no problems in getting seated. We get autographs and pics from all the characters. Our server misses the 8:30 "napkin swirling" so we have to wait till about 10 till 9 to wish Ryan his first "Happy BD"! We ended up walking back to MK and missed the rope drop. I forgot my hat and DH went back to the car to get it (we did park in the first row today!). We went to City Hall, got Ryan the "Birthday" badge, Goofys message and the Tomorrow Land arcade token (hmmm... de je vu?) I inquired about the Grand Marshall selection but the CM would only say it's totally random. I realize my camera batteries are dead! Over to the photo store for a costly replacement. We take the horse drawn carriage to the castle. This was the only time I had to endure an Un-Disney moment. No, It wasn't from a horses rear in front of me but a horses rear sitting behind me. A loud mouth guy and his family was on board, berating everything from families who decide to bring young kids to the park to the CM's taking your pics on Main street. He did not quit yapping the entire ride! Needless to say we exited quickly and headed toward the inside of the castle. We head toward TL to do Buzz, SM, TTA (again!) all DS1's choices! We also did COP as a 'waiting' ride. This was interesting, but they request at the first for NO FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY and one group used flash at EVERY STOP! We also stopped by the Arcade so Ryan could use his BD token and contribute a few more quarters to the Mouse Retirement fund. My only insistance today is that we do the the Diamond Horseshoe review for lunch. We arrive just as the previous "show" is ending about 12:45pm. (Ryan's 'birth time'!!) We have a good lunch of sandwich and chips.
(Sorry, gotta stop for a bit. I JUST saw the WDW commerical for the 100 BD celebration for the first time! Rememinded DS1 we will be there for this in Dec!!! It's neat to feel the Disney Magic, even just sitting at home!!!)
They start the show and the singing cowboy is out first. They go to the middle and have fun with several of the guest. He walks by the front (where we are sitting) and notices Ryan's BD button. He asked "Is today your BD? What is your name?" Then he proceeded to have the ENTIRE PLACE sing "HAPPY BD" to RYAN!!! Talk about a whopping Disney moment!! We also got picked for the card tricks. The 'Big John' master of ceremonies gave both Ryan AND Jonathan a nice straw cowboy hat! He mentioned he "had a brother too" and knows how it is at BD's. This was a nice Disney touch!
We had gotten FP's for BTMR for DS2 and Splash MT for Ryan and did the Frontier arcade while we waited. We catch the MM parade coming thru this area. After this we head over to Fantasy Land for the "Sword in the Stone" ceremony. Merlin came by with his "choosing rod" and choose Ryan! The sword came up as he pulled and was decked out in his crown and cape. He had his temporary ruler time end at the sound of the alarm clock! Merlin removed the crown and cape and Ryan had the look on his face of "but you just gave me those!" Merlin also gave Ryan AND Jonathan a SITS medal and proclamation. From here we walk thru the Castle center again and admire the mosaic tile pictures.
Off to Epcot on the MR. This time we ALL get to ride up front. We Try to get a FP for TT but they are all gone for the day. We do Spaceship Earth. An intersting exibit and a cool respite. We walk over to the American Garden theater and see BLAST! This is one show that is NOT to be missed!! I'm an old band flutist and did 3 yrs of marching in HS. These kids are true athletes and show the SWEAT to prove it! I was left wanting more! It's very much like the Drum and Bugle Corps shows have have in the summer time but a stage production. DO NOT MISS THIS SHOW!!
We grab a quick burger dinner at the Liberty Inn. We got a FP for Malestrom, but it wasn't really necessary, very short line. We head over to the International Gateway to catch the boat over to the Yacht Club Marina for our Illuminations cruise. We arrive about 7:45pm and CarolineS and her family are already there. We also met up with LisaTX and her family. I check in with the marina staff and meet Daryll, our cruise driver. It turns out he is CruiseCaptain from the DIS boards! He is very gracious and accomadates all our request! We take a tour of the marina area and he tells us some tales of working at HM previously. We make it over to the bridge and Daryll gets everyone on the bridge and the other boats to join in singing 'HAPPY BD' to Ryan one more time!! Watching Illuminations for the first time from this location was Spectaular! My DS's stayed glued to the front of the boat watching all the festivities. After it was over Daryll let us off at the Epcot Dock so we wouldn't have to transport all the way back!! I got to walk thru the Rose Garden another time (Sniff! Ahhhhh!)
A magical end to a Magical day!
July 12 - A short night! Up at 2:30AM!! The Atlantis Space shuttle is due to go up at 5:04AM. We get out and drive about an hour to Titusville. My DH lived in Orlando for 8 yrs in the late 80's and caught several of the launches from there. We found a good spot by the water and the Launch went off w/o a hitch! The only CRASH was when we arrived back at the Hilton! We ended up sleeping till 11 am! We did about an hour at the pool and got ready to go to Fulton's Crab house for a late lunch and to see Downtown Disney. This is the place I promised DS2 we would have crab, but it was really expensive for what you got! I also could not eat the bread offerings, all coated with sesame seeds or rye. I did enjoy the clam chowder and DH had the lobster bisque and the Mahi Mahi. I'm glad we did get the 10% DC discount. We visited the Lego place and looked around around the disney store. We got some ice cream at Mc'D's and headed over to DQ. We watched the rain coming in while eating at Fulton's and several heavy downpours occured through out the afternoon, and our ponchos came in handy. We got to DQ about 6pm. I warned DH we would most likely be here till it closed at MN. We did the Astroblaster's first thing and it was fun but several of the cars were not functions correctly. This was a place for us! No chance of rain! Able to play the free games as much as we wanted! We did the virtual raft, Alien invasion and Cyberspace mt, and enjoyed them all. I did the Mighty Ducks Pinball and got 1st a couple of times. My only complaint was they did not have enought old fashion pin ball games! We did the Comix once, too intense and confining for me! We leave at, of course, 12mn!! Back to the Hilton to ready for a Fantasmic tomorrow!
Jacquelyn
