Queenie
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 4, 2005
- Messages
- 3,144
The hurricane was over but the debris was still everywhere so we doubted that wed be able to do much today. Graham went down to the clubhouse to ask at reception and, well we should have guessed, of course Disney was open! We decided to go to MGM Studios and, as we drove up to the park I saw the signs for Tower of Terror and started to wonder if Id be able to ride it.
On arrival in the park we headed straight for the aforementioned Tower only to find it was closed due to a technical fault. The CMs expected it to be up and running within a few hours so we headed over to Rock N Roller Coaster instead. I do NOT do roller coasters at the best of times, especially not when they blast you off at high speed and tip you upside down so I decided to wait this one out in the gift shop! When the others appeared we left rather quickly as Linda cannot stand the sight of Steven Tyler from Aerosmith. Tower of Terror still wasnt open so we headed out into the park. Ill be honest here and say I cannot remember for the life of me the order that we did things. As we headed towards Muppet Vision 3D Graham spotted his golf buddy with his family. They were supposed to have flown out on Saturday but were still in Florida because of Jeanne closing down all the airports over the weekend, needless to say they werent complaining! Muppet Vision 3D was easily one of my favourite attractions as Ive been a fan of Kermit and Co since childhood, The Muppet Christmas Carol is my favourite Christmas movie. We hit the back lot tour and I rather naively believed the spiel about the closed off set and freaked out royally when the wall of water came cascading down the mountainside! Luckily Scott and co had seated me away from that side of the train as Im not keen on water. We also did Indiana Jones and Sounds Dangerous. Whilst I loved the former (it would have been far better if Disney had persuaded Harrison Ford to do it though!) I found the latter boring and doubt Ill bother with it that often in the future. Star Tours was another favourite. Id been dying to ride it since I was small as there was an advert for WDW on the Cinderella video I watched every day as a child which featured it.
We got lunch near Tower of Terror, the screams indicating that it was now open again. After eating we headed on and joined the 30 minute queue. This was one of the longest queues all holiday, probably because the ride had been down all morning. Now I never ever do thrill rides, Big Thunder is a massive thing for me so I have no idea what possessed me to get on board this thing but I did! I had fully intended to go out of the chicken exit but instead I joined the others on the back row of the ride in-between Scott and Roger. Those 5 minutes were easily some of the scariest of my life. Luckily Scott and co are seasoned experts when it comes to the TOT (Scott alone has ridden it more that 30 times) so he knew exactly when the drop was coming and promised to give me plenty of warning, this way I could relax (yeah, right) and actually take in what was going on around me. I dont really remember the drops as I spent them screaming with my head permanently buried in Scotts shoulder, I just remember darkness then bright light, then lots more darkness then bright light. I honestly dont know if Ill ever do it again so Im annoyed at myself for not buying the photo which proves that yes, I did it once! I came off the ride shaking like a leaf and didnt actually stop shaking for 45 minutes!!! In the gift shop I bought a TOT postcard to send back to mum as its one of her favourite rides and she didnt think Id be able to do it. The CM asked me what Id thought and laughed when I demonstrated how much I was shaking by way of response! He said well done for actually doing it, I wish Id caught his name as he was brilliant and made me feel much better about being such a wuss!
Linda and Graham decided they wanted to go and play Who Wants to be a Millionaire so we separated off into groups again. I wanted to do some calmer rides as I was still feeling slightly unnerved by the whole lift shaft incident so we headed to The Great Movie Ride. This was fantastic even though I did get spooked by the Wicked Witch of the West; I think I was traumatised by her as a child! We also had a look around Walt Disney One Mans Dream. Although its not the most thrilling thing around, looking at the scale models of the castles, HTH and areas from other parks was fascinating.
After meeting up with Linda and Graham there was just enough time for them to do Rock N Roller Coaster once more before Fantasmic. This time Linda wasnt feeling up to being spun around at high speed so she opted to wait it out in the gift shop with me. Once wed reconvened with the boys we headed up to Fantasmic and got great seats even though it was only about 15 minutes before the show was due to start. I was awestruck by the show, especially the lake of fire and the trick of projecting images onto screens of water something Id never seen done before. Hopefully next time Ill be able to appreciate it even more as Ive wised up on my Disney villains. The queues to exit the park were enormous so we hung back, deciding where to eat on the way out.
On arrival in the park we headed straight for the aforementioned Tower only to find it was closed due to a technical fault. The CMs expected it to be up and running within a few hours so we headed over to Rock N Roller Coaster instead. I do NOT do roller coasters at the best of times, especially not when they blast you off at high speed and tip you upside down so I decided to wait this one out in the gift shop! When the others appeared we left rather quickly as Linda cannot stand the sight of Steven Tyler from Aerosmith. Tower of Terror still wasnt open so we headed out into the park. Ill be honest here and say I cannot remember for the life of me the order that we did things. As we headed towards Muppet Vision 3D Graham spotted his golf buddy with his family. They were supposed to have flown out on Saturday but were still in Florida because of Jeanne closing down all the airports over the weekend, needless to say they werent complaining! Muppet Vision 3D was easily one of my favourite attractions as Ive been a fan of Kermit and Co since childhood, The Muppet Christmas Carol is my favourite Christmas movie. We hit the back lot tour and I rather naively believed the spiel about the closed off set and freaked out royally when the wall of water came cascading down the mountainside! Luckily Scott and co had seated me away from that side of the train as Im not keen on water. We also did Indiana Jones and Sounds Dangerous. Whilst I loved the former (it would have been far better if Disney had persuaded Harrison Ford to do it though!) I found the latter boring and doubt Ill bother with it that often in the future. Star Tours was another favourite. Id been dying to ride it since I was small as there was an advert for WDW on the Cinderella video I watched every day as a child which featured it.
We got lunch near Tower of Terror, the screams indicating that it was now open again. After eating we headed on and joined the 30 minute queue. This was one of the longest queues all holiday, probably because the ride had been down all morning. Now I never ever do thrill rides, Big Thunder is a massive thing for me so I have no idea what possessed me to get on board this thing but I did! I had fully intended to go out of the chicken exit but instead I joined the others on the back row of the ride in-between Scott and Roger. Those 5 minutes were easily some of the scariest of my life. Luckily Scott and co are seasoned experts when it comes to the TOT (Scott alone has ridden it more that 30 times) so he knew exactly when the drop was coming and promised to give me plenty of warning, this way I could relax (yeah, right) and actually take in what was going on around me. I dont really remember the drops as I spent them screaming with my head permanently buried in Scotts shoulder, I just remember darkness then bright light, then lots more darkness then bright light. I honestly dont know if Ill ever do it again so Im annoyed at myself for not buying the photo which proves that yes, I did it once! I came off the ride shaking like a leaf and didnt actually stop shaking for 45 minutes!!! In the gift shop I bought a TOT postcard to send back to mum as its one of her favourite rides and she didnt think Id be able to do it. The CM asked me what Id thought and laughed when I demonstrated how much I was shaking by way of response! He said well done for actually doing it, I wish Id caught his name as he was brilliant and made me feel much better about being such a wuss!
Linda and Graham decided they wanted to go and play Who Wants to be a Millionaire so we separated off into groups again. I wanted to do some calmer rides as I was still feeling slightly unnerved by the whole lift shaft incident so we headed to The Great Movie Ride. This was fantastic even though I did get spooked by the Wicked Witch of the West; I think I was traumatised by her as a child! We also had a look around Walt Disney One Mans Dream. Although its not the most thrilling thing around, looking at the scale models of the castles, HTH and areas from other parks was fascinating.
After meeting up with Linda and Graham there was just enough time for them to do Rock N Roller Coaster once more before Fantasmic. This time Linda wasnt feeling up to being spun around at high speed so she opted to wait it out in the gift shop with me. Once wed reconvened with the boys we headed up to Fantasmic and got great seats even though it was only about 15 minutes before the show was due to start. I was awestruck by the show, especially the lake of fire and the trick of projecting images onto screens of water something Id never seen done before. Hopefully next time Ill be able to appreciate it even more as Ive wised up on my Disney villains. The queues to exit the park were enormous so we hung back, deciding where to eat on the way out.
