Impatient Disney Fan
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Sep 22, 1999
- Messages
- 11
Cast of Characters:
Faith - Me! Celebrating my 29th bday this trip 3rd trip to the world!
Alex - 8 yr old DS. 2nd trip to the world!
Room companions/occasional park touring companions
Cathy - Fellow Hoosier , 3rd trip Stephanie - her 13 yr old daughter, 3rd trip
Spending 8 wonderful nights at CSR!
Day Two: Animal Kingdom and MGM Studios
Filled with excitement, we all awoke early! We brought cereal and milk so we could have breakfast in our room. This is such a time saver and so easy to do! We actually bought milk at WalMart, but there was milk for sale in the gift shop at El Centro too!
Anyhoo...we headed to Animal Kingdom and got there about 15 minutes after it had opened. The morning was a bit chilly...which was perfect for a 2 week Safari
.
We walked leisurely through the Oasis and back to the Safari. There were TONS of people here! I was beginning to worry that Saturday at AK was NOT a good idea! This was Cathy and Stephanie's first time Animal Kingdom! They thought the tree was pretty cool.
We made it to the Safari and the stand-by line was at 20 minutes. I think we actually were on the ride in 10 (I noticed that the line time was usually shorter than the posted time...with exception of the "thrill" rides). The chilly weather made this the best Safari!! All the animals seemed to be out!! We caught a mother hippo "kissing" and baby hippo in the water, we got close up to some Gazelle, the Lioness walked out to her rock and as we were passing her and laid down to watch us pass. We saw some monkeys or babboons or something like that (I didn't even know they were there!). Only down side was no "broken" bridge
. I think they should do something different for the story line...the poacher thing is fun the first time, but after that...pretty lame! Plus the CM's don't seem to get in to it at all...I could barely hear anything our guide said!
We ended our safari (the weeks just FLEW by!) and headed down the Pangani Exploration Trail. I was not overly impressed with this. But it's not a long trail, so I wasn't upset about spending the time walking down it. The thing is...we have a local zoo (small, but ok), we are about 2 hours from Brookefield Zoo in Chicago, and we usually go to a WONDERFUL zoo in Fort Wayne, IN every year...so I'm not going to drive 18 hours to go to a zoo LOL! I did appreciate how they displayed the animals though.
We headed over to Kali River Rapids (a first for us all). It was still a little breezy, but we were comfortable in shorts. I was concerned about getting wet, but the sun was starting to peak out promising a warm late morning/early afternoon. We got in line...well... actually there WAS NO line! All the signs before you get on say "YOU WILL GET SOAKED" LOL. They are not kidding!!! We got on a boat and started up the incline...it's nice a foggy so you can't see anything in front of you...so you never know what will happen once you get to the top until you are there
. The whole logging thing gets pretty lost on this FUN FUN FUN ride! Although, the heat from the fires were kind of nice! I can't imagine waiting in a really long line for such short ride...but it is REALLY FUN!!! So fun, in fact, that we got right back in line to go again! We didn't even have to completely exit to do this...we just jumped the rope at the fast pass entrance and the lady let us back in. I asked if we could just stay in the boat, but the lady said "no" others were waiting. Oh well...we were back on soon anyway. After two rides, we were all pretty wet. Cathy and I were done...but Alex and Stephanie were ready to go again...so they did. And then THEY got to stay on for a FOURTH ride!! I think they would have kept riding too but Cathy wanted to go see Festival of the Lion King. So we ended our adventure with the River Rapids!
We said "cya" to Cathy and Stephanie and headed to the Jungle Trek. Again, this is a nice walking area...but not something I personally would take a lot of time doing. Alex enjoyed the areas that looked like ancient ruins. But he was ready to continue on to something else when we ended our "trek".
We grabbed some ice cream and headed towards the Boneyard. This was one of Alex's "must-do" items. He really enjoyed it last time we came. We passed by the Fast pass machines for It's Tough to Be a Bug, and so I grabbed a couple passes for an hour later and we were on our way. I sat and relaxed while Alex ran off some energy. This is a nice area...Epcot needs an area like this. MGM has the Honey I Shrunk the Audience play area, MK has ToonTown Fair...but Epcot really doesn't have a good play area. Anyway, after climbing, sliding, running, and digging up a dinosaur...Alex and I headed to the Bugs Life show.
Sometimes I get really irritated with people when going in to shows like this. Everyone is so worried about getting a "good" seat, they don't think about the other people just trying to get A SEAT! So when they say choose a row and move ALL THE WAY DOWN! Please do it!!
ALex and I both like this show! It's so cute!! Of course he is 8 years old...There were children all around us younger than Alex, and some of them were crying, screaming, etc. This show can be a bit intense! I think if you do have a child under 5...this would be a show where you should make sure you are seated near an exit "just in case".
We turned in our bug eyes, and ran over to Festival of the Lion King. Again, people were doing a bit of pushing, afraid they wouldn't get a seat
. We sat between Simba and the Elephant about 5 rows up...great seats! This show is so incredible!! Number 2 show at Disney for me! I will say that I thought the "princesses" voice was a bit nasally this time around. But she still did a good job.
We tried to run over to Tarzan Rocks for the 1pm show...unfortunately we got there about 2 minutes too late. So we decided to head back to the resort. We were hungry and I was still wet.
We didn't have to wait more than 5 minutes for our bus...which seemed to be typical for us all week (also...the ONLY time we were on a bus with people standing was on the way to AK this morning). I believe the "bus on demand" system was in place this week. The buses all had papers in them with "ZONE" and then a number. BUT the only place I saw a CM with a radio was at CSR Bus stop 1. The nice thing about that was he would tell us how long before our bus came.
We got back to our resort, and Alex wanted to swim. I convinced him that he should wait. Instead he decided he wanted to run out to the car to get his journal and another Gameboy Game. I was making sandwiches for lunch, and told him to run on out. I felt ok with him walking out to the car, since he just had to walk down one hall and it was right there. He took my room key (he likes to unlock the door) and was off. I finished making the sandwiches and he was not back, so I walked out to the car and he was not there. I was irritated thinking that he took a long way back. Went back to the room and started to eat my sandwich...he still wasn't back...so i walked out again. Now remember, he had my key, I couldn't lock our room when I left. I walked around the building...no sign of him. I was getting freaked...one more trip to our room...and then I found two CSR employees and told them my son was missing. They were on the radio to Security and getting his description. One of the ladies and I started walking back to my room when I heard him! He was back at the room now..so they called off security (I thanked them). Apparently Alex got mixed up coming back and asked another employee how to get to a room number (not ours...he told them the wrong one). So he ended up going to the next building. He kept trying to use the key and it wouldnt' work...then he realized it was the wrong room...found another employee and asked for the RIGHT room. Needless to say, that was his LAST trip out of the room alone!
After we ate and changed clothes, we started out to MGM. Of course it was starting to rain (and I had just changed out of wet clothes! UGH!) By the time our bus came...it was POURING DOWN RAIN! We got to MGM and saw lots of people leaving, but most did what we did...bought ponchos. Of course 10 minutes after we put on our ponchos, the rain stopped
We first headed for The Great Movie Ride (which we had missed in June). Suposedly the line was only 10 minutes...but for some reason it was going slow and it took almost 20 minutes to get on. Alex enjoyed this, with exception of the Alien section. We headed over to Star Tours and the wait posted was 15 minutes, so we got in line. This is a fun simulator ride...I know some think it needs to be updated...but I think it's fun like it is.
We walked arount Tantooine Traders for a bit (Alex wanted to spend the rest of his money, but I talked him in to waiting). We walked back to Muppets 3D and had about a 10 minute wait until the next show. This show is just so cute! I loved the Muppets when I was younger, so I really enjoy watching this. I was surprised that Alex specifically asked to see this again! After Muppets, we walked leisurely back to Drew Carey Sounds Dangerous. We had missed this last time. I was not sure what to expect, but was nervous about the 7 minutes in the dark with Alex. He gets a bit skitish sometimes. We put on our headphones and enjoyed this little show. It's not something I wait in a long line for...but if you walk by and no ones in line...go in, it's interesting. I will say that the sound effects are incredible and at one point (the bees), I had chills and the incredible urge to pull off the headphones! I would not take a child under 5 or 6 to this.
It was getting close to dinner time. We had not made a single PS for the entire week...but I did want to try 50's Prime Time Cafe...so we took a chance! It was about 5:30pm, so i wasn't sure if we'd have good luck or not! I was quite surprised when we were told the wait was only 10 minutes! We were seated in less time and had a great meal! Alex got either a cheeseburger or a hot dog (can't remember) off the kids menu, and I got the pot roast. The pot roast was YUMMY!!! We also got chocolate shakes with our dinner and had the Smores for dessert! (hey, we're on vacation!). I thought I had eated all my green beans, but our waitor found ONE hidden on my plate! I was "shamed" LOL. At the table next to us..the waitor played "airplane" with another guy and his green beans. And there were several rounds of applause for those who became members of the "clean plate club." Most people there seemed to know how the restaurant was before getting there...however, I couldnt' help laughing at a dad at another table who seemed to be having a really bad day and didn't have a clue as to how this restaurant was. After about 10-15 minutes he loosened up though, and I think they had a good time. If you go to this restaurant...you MUST get the Smores dessert! It was HUGE...but oh so good! We ate about half of it before giving up 
We still had a little time before the 8:30pm Fantasmic! show, unfortunately, not much was open. We raced back to the Backlot Tour and did that. It was not that great at night...they need to put up more lights or something for this.
We leisurely walked to the entrance to Fantasmic! and saw Cathy and Stephanie eating ice cream (we were suposed to meet them in 30 minutes). We just sat with them and chatted about our days. The CM's started opening the gates a bit, just to move people in a ways. We waited awhile before we got in line (where we then got to WAIT some more before they opened another gate). We were surrounded by teenagers (high school bands) that were having tons of fun! They did some spirit calls and such...they were really good kids though. Finally at about 8:10 they let us in to be seated. NOw is when things got a bit nuts. Everyone was (again) so worried about getting seats that way too much pushing and shoving was going on. I was very irritated and decided that I was breaking out of the crowd (they were not seating in the next section yet). So the four of us shoved our way out (and ticked some people off)...I know we probably shoudl have stayed with the crowd...but I knew I was going to go off on someone if I did! Well we got through and a CM yells at us..."we are seating in this section only now" I looked at him and said "that's nice! But I'm NOT going back in to THAT crowd again! We will just stand right here until you decide you can seat the next section. I know the guy was annoyed...but the crowd was absolutly ridiculous! I think it was maybe 30 seconds later when another CM directed for the next section to be seated...so we walked down and got a seat! (very good seats too!)I really think they need to do something different for this...Once the bottleneck started in one section, the next should have been opened. People were really getting mad...kids were getting pushed and shoved...people were acting like idiots! In the end...two sections were completely empty and two others were only 1/2 full. The show (number one in my book) was spectacular! It capped off a perfect day!
I *think* we skipped the swim this night due to falling temperatures...but I'm not 100% about that. Some things just run together in my mind LOL
Coming up next: MSEP GLOWS AWAY
Faith
May 1992 FW Home
June 2000 CBR
April 2001 CSR
DisneyLand Summer 2002
Faith - Me! Celebrating my 29th bday this trip 3rd trip to the world!
Alex - 8 yr old DS. 2nd trip to the world!
Room companions/occasional park touring companions
Cathy - Fellow Hoosier , 3rd trip Stephanie - her 13 yr old daughter, 3rd trip
Spending 8 wonderful nights at CSR!
Day Two: Animal Kingdom and MGM Studios
Filled with excitement, we all awoke early! We brought cereal and milk so we could have breakfast in our room. This is such a time saver and so easy to do! We actually bought milk at WalMart, but there was milk for sale in the gift shop at El Centro too!
Anyhoo...we headed to Animal Kingdom and got there about 15 minutes after it had opened. The morning was a bit chilly...which was perfect for a 2 week Safari
. We walked leisurely through the Oasis and back to the Safari. There were TONS of people here! I was beginning to worry that Saturday at AK was NOT a good idea! This was Cathy and Stephanie's first time Animal Kingdom! They thought the tree was pretty cool
. We made it to the Safari and the stand-by line was at 20 minutes. I think we actually were on the ride in 10 (I noticed that the line time was usually shorter than the posted time...with exception of the "thrill" rides). The chilly weather made this the best Safari!! All the animals seemed to be out!! We caught a mother hippo "kissing" and baby hippo in the water, we got close up to some Gazelle, the Lioness walked out to her rock and as we were passing her and laid down to watch us pass. We saw some monkeys or babboons or something like that (I didn't even know they were there!). Only down side was no "broken" bridge
. I think they should do something different for the story line...the poacher thing is fun the first time, but after that...pretty lame! Plus the CM's don't seem to get in to it at all...I could barely hear anything our guide said! We ended our safari (the weeks just FLEW by!) and headed down the Pangani Exploration Trail. I was not overly impressed with this. But it's not a long trail, so I wasn't upset about spending the time walking down it. The thing is...we have a local zoo (small, but ok), we are about 2 hours from Brookefield Zoo in Chicago, and we usually go to a WONDERFUL zoo in Fort Wayne, IN every year...so I'm not going to drive 18 hours to go to a zoo LOL! I did appreciate how they displayed the animals though.
We headed over to Kali River Rapids (a first for us all). It was still a little breezy, but we were comfortable in shorts. I was concerned about getting wet, but the sun was starting to peak out promising a warm late morning/early afternoon. We got in line...well... actually there WAS NO line! All the signs before you get on say "YOU WILL GET SOAKED" LOL. They are not kidding!!! We got on a boat and started up the incline...it's nice a foggy so you can't see anything in front of you...so you never know what will happen once you get to the top until you are there
. The whole logging thing gets pretty lost on this FUN FUN FUN ride! Although, the heat from the fires were kind of nice! I can't imagine waiting in a really long line for such short ride...but it is REALLY FUN!!! So fun, in fact, that we got right back in line to go again! We didn't even have to completely exit to do this...we just jumped the rope at the fast pass entrance and the lady let us back in. I asked if we could just stay in the boat, but the lady said "no" others were waiting. Oh well...we were back on soon anyway. After two rides, we were all pretty wet. Cathy and I were done...but Alex and Stephanie were ready to go again...so they did. And then THEY got to stay on for a FOURTH ride!! I think they would have kept riding too but Cathy wanted to go see Festival of the Lion King. So we ended our adventure with the River Rapids!We said "cya" to Cathy and Stephanie and headed to the Jungle Trek. Again, this is a nice walking area...but not something I personally would take a lot of time doing. Alex enjoyed the areas that looked like ancient ruins. But he was ready to continue on to something else when we ended our "trek".
We grabbed some ice cream and headed towards the Boneyard. This was one of Alex's "must-do" items. He really enjoyed it last time we came. We passed by the Fast pass machines for It's Tough to Be a Bug, and so I grabbed a couple passes for an hour later and we were on our way. I sat and relaxed while Alex ran off some energy. This is a nice area...Epcot needs an area like this. MGM has the Honey I Shrunk the Audience play area, MK has ToonTown Fair...but Epcot really doesn't have a good play area. Anyway, after climbing, sliding, running, and digging up a dinosaur...Alex and I headed to the Bugs Life show.
Sometimes I get really irritated with people when going in to shows like this. Everyone is so worried about getting a "good" seat, they don't think about the other people just trying to get A SEAT! So when they say choose a row and move ALL THE WAY DOWN! Please do it!!
ALex and I both like this show! It's so cute!! Of course he is 8 years old...There were children all around us younger than Alex, and some of them were crying, screaming, etc. This show can be a bit intense! I think if you do have a child under 5...this would be a show where you should make sure you are seated near an exit "just in case".
We turned in our bug eyes, and ran over to Festival of the Lion King. Again, people were doing a bit of pushing, afraid they wouldn't get a seat
. We sat between Simba and the Elephant about 5 rows up...great seats! This show is so incredible!! Number 2 show at Disney for me! I will say that I thought the "princesses" voice was a bit nasally this time around. But she still did a good job. We tried to run over to Tarzan Rocks for the 1pm show...unfortunately we got there about 2 minutes too late. So we decided to head back to the resort. We were hungry and I was still wet
. We didn't have to wait more than 5 minutes for our bus...which seemed to be typical for us all week (also...the ONLY time we were on a bus with people standing was on the way to AK this morning). I believe the "bus on demand" system was in place this week. The buses all had papers in them with "ZONE" and then a number. BUT the only place I saw a CM with a radio was at CSR Bus stop 1. The nice thing about that was he would tell us how long before our bus came.
We got back to our resort, and Alex wanted to swim. I convinced him that he should wait. Instead he decided he wanted to run out to the car to get his journal and another Gameboy Game. I was making sandwiches for lunch, and told him to run on out. I felt ok with him walking out to the car, since he just had to walk down one hall and it was right there. He took my room key (he likes to unlock the door) and was off. I finished making the sandwiches and he was not back, so I walked out to the car and he was not there. I was irritated thinking that he took a long way back. Went back to the room and started to eat my sandwich...he still wasn't back...so i walked out again. Now remember, he had my key, I couldn't lock our room when I left. I walked around the building...no sign of him. I was getting freaked...one more trip to our room...and then I found two CSR employees and told them my son was missing. They were on the radio to Security and getting his description. One of the ladies and I started walking back to my room when I heard him! He was back at the room now..so they called off security (I thanked them). Apparently Alex got mixed up coming back and asked another employee how to get to a room number (not ours...he told them the wrong one). So he ended up going to the next building. He kept trying to use the key and it wouldnt' work...then he realized it was the wrong room...found another employee and asked for the RIGHT room. Needless to say, that was his LAST trip out of the room alone!
After we ate and changed clothes, we started out to MGM. Of course it was starting to rain (and I had just changed out of wet clothes! UGH!) By the time our bus came...it was POURING DOWN RAIN! We got to MGM and saw lots of people leaving, but most did what we did...bought ponchos
. Of course 10 minutes after we put on our ponchos, the rain stopped We first headed for The Great Movie Ride (which we had missed in June). Suposedly the line was only 10 minutes...but for some reason it was going slow and it took almost 20 minutes to get on. Alex enjoyed this, with exception of the Alien section. We headed over to Star Tours and the wait posted was 15 minutes, so we got in line. This is a fun simulator ride...I know some think it needs to be updated...but I think it's fun like it is.
We walked arount Tantooine Traders for a bit (Alex wanted to spend the rest of his money, but I talked him in to waiting). We walked back to Muppets 3D and had about a 10 minute wait until the next show. This show is just so cute! I loved the Muppets when I was younger, so I really enjoy watching this. I was surprised that Alex specifically asked to see this again! After Muppets, we walked leisurely back to Drew Carey Sounds Dangerous. We had missed this last time. I was not sure what to expect, but was nervous about the 7 minutes in the dark with Alex. He gets a bit skitish sometimes. We put on our headphones and enjoyed this little show. It's not something I wait in a long line for...but if you walk by and no ones in line...go in, it's interesting
. I will say that the sound effects are incredible and at one point (the bees), I had chills and the incredible urge to pull off the headphones! I would not take a child under 5 or 6 to this. It was getting close to dinner time. We had not made a single PS for the entire week...but I did want to try 50's Prime Time Cafe...so we took a chance! It was about 5:30pm, so i wasn't sure if we'd have good luck or not! I was quite surprised when we were told the wait was only 10 minutes! We were seated in less time and had a great meal! Alex got either a cheeseburger or a hot dog (can't remember) off the kids menu, and I got the pot roast. The pot roast was YUMMY!!! We also got chocolate shakes with our dinner and had the Smores for dessert! (hey, we're on vacation!). I thought I had eated all my green beans, but our waitor found ONE hidden on my plate! I was "shamed" LOL. At the table next to us..the waitor played "airplane" with another guy and his green beans. And there were several rounds of applause for those who became members of the "clean plate club." Most people there seemed to know how the restaurant was before getting there...however, I couldnt' help laughing at a dad at another table who seemed to be having a really bad day and didn't have a clue as to how this restaurant was. After about 10-15 minutes he loosened up though, and I think they had a good time
. If you go to this restaurant...you MUST get the Smores dessert! It was HUGE...but oh so good! We ate about half of it before giving up We still had a little time before the 8:30pm Fantasmic! show, unfortunately, not much was open. We raced back to the Backlot Tour and did that. It was not that great at night...they need to put up more lights or something for this.
We leisurely walked to the entrance to Fantasmic! and saw Cathy and Stephanie eating ice cream (we were suposed to meet them in 30 minutes). We just sat with them and chatted about our days. The CM's started opening the gates a bit, just to move people in a ways. We waited awhile before we got in line (where we then got to WAIT some more before they opened another gate). We were surrounded by teenagers (high school bands) that were having tons of fun! They did some spirit calls and such...they were really good kids though. Finally at about 8:10 they let us in to be seated. NOw is when things got a bit nuts. Everyone was (again) so worried about getting seats that way too much pushing and shoving was going on. I was very irritated and decided that I was breaking out of the crowd (they were not seating in the next section yet). So the four of us shoved our way out (and ticked some people off)...I know we probably shoudl have stayed with the crowd...but I knew I was going to go off on someone if I did! Well we got through and a CM yells at us..."we are seating in this section only now" I looked at him and said "that's nice! But I'm NOT going back in to THAT crowd again! We will just stand right here until you decide you can seat the next section. I know the guy was annoyed...but the crowd was absolutly ridiculous! I think it was maybe 30 seconds later when another CM directed for the next section to be seated...so we walked down and got a seat! (very good seats too!)I really think they need to do something different for this...Once the bottleneck started in one section, the next should have been opened. People were really getting mad...kids were getting pushed and shoved...people were acting like idiots! In the end...two sections were completely empty and two others were only 1/2 full. The show (number one in my book) was spectacular! It capped off a perfect day!
I *think* we skipped the swim this night due to falling temperatures...but I'm not 100% about that. Some things just run together in my mind LOL
Coming up next: MSEP GLOWS AWAY
Faith
May 1992 FW Home
June 2000 CBR
April 2001 CSR
DisneyLand Summer 2002
!
