The Finished at Last Trip Report - Day 4 – Jaw-dropping at the Prime Time Café!

[Poohshoney]

Thursday, 4 December. Day 4 – Jaw-dropping at the Prime Time Café!

I thought maybe if I joined in the fun with the stuffies, it might encourage the Mousekeeper to as well. I had to get creative. Sooo, whilst Roland was in the shower, I dragged everyone onto the spare bed and arranged them myself. I had the boys playing tug-of-war with the remote control (not easy for Moosey, his arms don’t bend) and Little Twinnie and Ghostie reading a visa application form. I didn’t give them a pen, just in case.

Today was the day I'd REALLY been looking forward to – Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party! There’d been a dodgy moment when I told Roland about it - “How much?!!!!” He’d thought it more reasonable when we’d been going to get park hoppers but with an AP, he wasn’t convinced it was such a worthy idea. “What exactly is it?” I only got as far as saying there were shows and a parade you wouldn’t see otherwise and, thankfully, he was sold on the idea. And I have to tell you, dear reader, neither of us regretted a single cent! But I digress… One of the things I'm rather good at is that, digressing…

If we were going to MVMCP, what were we going to do till then? When I'd made my hopper-itinerary, I'd had us touring the MK resorts, followed by a late lunch at Trail’s End and then MK for the party. Only we had APs now, and no itinerary. Neither of us fancied that idea any more. So what to do? Well, how about our least favourite park? Neither of us had taken to MGM last time, so maybe half a day there might be the best way to pass the time.

We got there fairly early but even so, we were surprised at how empty it was. The sun was gorgeous that morning and the whole park looked wonderful in it – and yep, we changed our minds about MGM. This time we loved it! I can’t think why it didn’t work for us last time, we thoroughly enjoyed it this time.

We veered off towards the Tower of Terror first, as you do if you’re interested in it. Last time, we’d had a lap bar but there were two rather portly gentleman under it with us, so I'd flown. Wowww… I knew they’d changed it to seat belts for everyone so I was busy telling Roland how much he’d enjoy flying! He wasn’t convinced, I was torn between malicious glee and fear that I'd overdo it and he’d back out. I know, I'm a rotten wifey. When we got there the wait time was only 5 mins so we were in and boarding before Roland really had time for second thoughts. And yep, he loved the seat belts too! We both enjoy this ride so much. Roland isn’t keen on heights but he manages fine with this. I think it’s the Mickey-mantra - `Mickey wouldn’t hurt me´. We came out laughing our heads off.

Don’t you just love the way you exit in the shop? Very clever is that. We resisted all the T-shirts, etc, but I weakened at a postcard for the album. $2 for a postcard!!! It was my knees that went weak then. I think that’s daylight robbery. Actually, postcards were a pet peeve with me for the whole holiday. How come there are so few? I send a fair few postcards. Those and Christmas cards are the only time some friends and realatives (those without computers!) hear from me. And I know a few old ladies who can’t get out much – and they all have to have different pictures so that they can compare. Works fine everywhere we go, only Disney has such a meagre selection. Why??? I'm muttering away here, can you tell? I'd have thought postcards would be a nice little earner for them.

I did almost buy a keyring in the TofT shop. The Fab Four looking terrorised, it was lovely and I needed a new one. (Ok, I won’t mutter about SEVEN dollars for a keyring!) I showed it to Roland and he was extremely non-committal about it. And being such a poor shopper, I'm easily put off something. So I didn’t buy it. Course, I wished the whole time after that I had done. But I didn’t. Little did I know that it was all part of a cunning plan. Guess who’d already bought me a keyring at Fulton’s. Yep, I got it on Christmas Day. So I ended up not minding after all!

Roland stunned me into speechlessness next. It doesn’t happen very often, I can tell you! But when we passed Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, he enthusiastically suggested we went on it. I was gobsmacked. He’snever wanted to in the past. Bless him, he was only saying it because he knew I wanted to. Unfortunately, I hadn’t mentioned that I'd never be able to do two thrill rides back-to-back AND hold on to breakfast. Once we’d sorted that out, we continued down the road to my favourite shop. The villain’s shop! I just adore that shop. I found a T-shirt I loved and dropped huge hints about and a T-shirt I loved but would never wear because it was bright pink. Just not me isn’t bright pink. As I knew I wouldn’t wear one and wasn’t convinced Roland would remember the hint, I decided to take photos of both. I knew my friend Gail would love them too and that way I made sure she’d see them.

The pink one was a group of villainesses and said underneath – `It’s better to look good than to be good´. Excellent! The other one was various Disney cats, entitled `Coming to an alley near you…´ It included my faves, the Siamese kitties. I think they’re just priceless.

I'd just finished my snapping when a voice behind me said, “Have you just taken a photograph of that T-shirt?”
Visions of being ejected from MGM and never being allowed to darken Disney’s door again flashed through my mind. Gulp.
“Yes.”
“Why?” He was sooo stern. I could feel the colour draining from my face.
“It’s for my friend in the UK, she likes cats.”
“Does she like villains too?”
I felt a little happier at this – Gail’s got the most twisted sense of humour I know. If there’s anyone who’d like a villain, it’s Gail. “Oh yes, definitely.”
“Then we like her too. You tell her to come over and see us real soon.”
Once I'd realised I wasn’t going to be arrested, I was out of there as fast as my little legs would take me! Now I ask if anyone minds before I snap away.

The park still looked ghost townish. We took some photos up towards the entrance and one of the hat – we still don’t like it. And we still hate where it is. So I don't know why we did, but we did. Then we sauntered over towards the Great Movie Ride. We did the unspoken communication bit, and turned to go in when a CM appeared out of nowhere. “Can I help?” I think we must have looked lost. Neither of us said a word, we just pointed towards GMR. He laughed at us – but it was a nice laugh! So we laughed back.

We got the same side as last time, the cowboy side. We could tell it had been spruced up a bit but there wasn’t as noticeable a difference as we’d expected. I remembered to look for the alien. (I was trying to work out why Sigourney Weaver looked wrong last time and completely missed it). This time, it scared the beejabbers out of me and I couldn’t think how on earth I'd missed it last time! Another of my natural talents is looking the wrong way. The one and only football match I've seen live had 6 goals and an awful lot of fouls. I missed every single one. Like I said, natural talent…

We dithered about going in the Little Mermaid next. Roland had said thumbs down to this at home but changed his mind, I was pleased to say. Our timing was off a bit so we wandered down the lane. I'd fancied Millionaire, Roland hadn’t and now I'd gone off the idea. We’re doing well, aren’t we?! But at least we were harminising and both happy. That ended then though, or so I thought. We went over to watch Indiana Jones. Now I hadn't really wanted to do this but Roland had, so I'd agreed. I was trying to act as if I didn’t mind but inside I was sighing. I couldn’t see how it would be different than the last time and so I was sure I'd be bored. I'd forgotten to take my advancing senility (I swear I'm getting worse) into account. I'd remembered the bit about the volunteer completely wrong. And in so doing, managed to watch the whole show through newbie eyes, waiting for something to happen that wouldn’t and killing myself laughing at the antics on stage. I cried all my mascara off, I laughed so hard. So I'm glad Roland wanted to go in – I should always trust my hubby!

This is when I started to worry about having no PS. I really wanted to eat at the Prime Time Café and I was worried we wouldn’t be able to. I wanted to eat there sooo much. Roland was a little worried about the antics (I was good, I warned him) but agreed after seeing some photos of it. When we went over, there was such a crowd and people were being fobbed off. But the Disney Gods were with us (maybe as a reward for revising our MGM opinion?). It didn’t look like it at first though. We could eat at the bar now, the lady told us. One crestfallen Carol. No, I said, we want to eat inside. Well, she could get us in at one of the other restaurants straight away, she was sure. No, we want to eat here, please. She did a lot of paper shuffling, umming and aaahing and then said the words I'd hoped for. Could we come back in an hour and ten minutes? You bet we could! I think that was about 1:20, very reasonable. It does help, being a party of two. That’s snuck us in to lots of places.

When we came out, we wandered up past Hollywood and Vine, which Roland wanted to know more about. I told him how it didn’t open for lunch any more and people were very annoyed about it. Then he wanted me to tell him about the other restaurants. Cue moment of panic – please don’t change your mind! But it was ok, he didn’t. Phew.

We couldn’t decide what to do with ourselves. We wandered round the lake and then into a couple of shops. I'd seen a Lady and the Tramp magnet last year that I'd wanted to buy for my Aunty and then hadn’t. I'd thought I'd get it later and then hadn’t seen it again, natch. Good lesson to be learned there. If you see something you like, buy it there and then. You might not see it again. Luckily, I found it this time and bought it immediately! And I was, of course, still on the great hat hunt! I'd almost decided on a simple santa hat with Mickey ears but that didn’t mean I was going to stop looking now, did it?!

It didn’t seem worth going anywhere else after that. We knew we’d just end up getting somewhere, only to have to turn back immediately. So we didn't. We went and sat by the lake. Roland lapped up the sunshine and I wrote postcards. Well, I had to start sometime. I'm as good at writing postcards as I am at trip reports. Always put off till tomorrow, everything you can get away with…

The queue at the desk was even worse when we got back. The ladies looked rushed off their feet. Guests were looking unhappy. I checked in and was asked to wait over there. Then the CM gave me the biggest most beautiful smile. It came from nowhere and I have no idea what I did to deserve it but it made my day!

I was beginning to get nervous now. Please don't let anyone make Roland try to sing I'm a Little Teapot, he’s never heard of it. And if they made me sing it, would I have the guts to sing the little known second verse, I'm a Tube of Toothpaste? Oooh, please let them not pick on us!

I needn’t have worried. Our server, Jamie (which is a man’s name over here but she definitely wasn't) obviously recognised that we were the shy retiring types. She gave us a semi-stern lecture about the need to mind your manners but that was all. We were seated at a table for two, against a partition wall, not in a booth as I'd hoped. But we had a good view of things, so it was ok.

Roland decided this would be the meal where we really pushed the boat out. He talked me into a starter! I really wanted to try the onion rings, having read so much about them. But he fancied a country club salad – so we had both! It felt so special, ordering all that food. Far more than we’d normally eat. But we were on holiday and that made it feel so real! We both thoroughly enjoyed both starters, though I wish mine had been smaller. My eyes were bigger than my belly, I ate the lot!

Roland ordered the chicken sandwich for his main course. He was really surprised that it came on a kaiser roll – that’s German! I went for the meatloaf. I have the recipe and have tried it a couple of times. Theirs was better, though I wasn’t sure exactly why. In case you’re wondering, we both enjoyed our meals. It is definitely a restaurant we’d go back to – even with the threat of having to be silly!

Which brings me to the jaw-dropping. You will not believe this. I still don’t. We were seated at the same time as an extended family. They were to my right, at three tables that had been pushed together. Grandparents, parents, assorted children. Jamie said, “Here again?” And the dad said, “Yup, we just can't keep away.”

About halfway through our meal, I glanced over at them – and couldn’t believe my eyes. They had THE worst table manners I have ever seen. Not only were the children throwing their food at each other, they were throwing their crayons as well. And swinging about in the chairs. And hitting each other. Not an adult said a thing. They knocked several drinks over. They refused to eat. They whined. And these weren’t little children, they were all well into school age/heading for teendom. The adults just chatted, laughing at their own converstaions, never taking a bit of notice. Whilst all this was happening, Jamie came and checked if we were alright. We assured her we were. And bless her, she gave a really big sigh and said, “I like you. You’re polite.”

When that family stood up, it looked like a bomb had hit. Three people appeared to clean the mess up. And still nobody said a thing. With the Prime Time’s reputation, I can only assume they were big tippers. Not right though, money shouldn’t enable that sort of behaviour.

I find it difficult to believe in retrospect, but we decided on afters! I SO wanted to know what s'mores were like. I tried hard to persuade Roland to share and so did Jamie. No go. Not his cup of tea. He wanted a chocolate milk shake, please! So we went the whole hog, we ordered both. Jamie was proved right, the s’mores were too much for one person. Especialy when that one person only really likes the Graham crackers – I wish we had those here, I love them! The whole thing was a wee bit too sickly for my tastes. Roland fared better. He’d thought $4.99 was a bit much for a milk shake but that was because he’d never had an American one. Wow… talk about thick, gooey and delicious – and BIG! Much to his intense disappointment, he couldn’t finish it. I think it was his biggest regret of the trip.

We waddled out then and headed for the exit. We wanted to go back to our room before hitting MVMCP. Well, I needed to pack masses of clothes, didn’t I! Then I had a brilliant idea. It was such a lovely day, why didn’t we catch the boat from MGM to Epcot and catch a bus from there back to Riverside. Yes, I was surprised that a boat idea came from me, too. But I knew Roland would like it and I was right, he loved it.

My favourite bit was the bird hitchhiker we picked up along the way. The captain had it tamed and was feeding it and cooing to it – I want one! My least favourite bit was me panicking that if we didn’t get off now, we’d have to go all the way back to MGM. Yep, I panicked a stop too early. Oh well, after that meal, any exercise was good!

Epcot was just as beautiful as MGM had been. We strolled up from the International Gateway through the rose walks to the entrance. The roses smelt divine. I made a point of walking past them as often as I could after that. I harbour fond hopes of a country cottage with a rose garden one day. One day…

Back at the ranch, mousekeeping had been inspired enough to put all our stuffies in the window. Yes!!! Moosey and Little Twinnie were sitting on towels, watching the world go by. Mickey and Ghostie were sitting in the blinds. They looked surprisingly comfy! One very happy Carol took lots of photos. Unfortunately, I had to dismantle the display as we’d decided to take the boys with us to MVMCP. A first for us all! I tied them onto my bag strap with lime green ribbon.

And a very big bag it was. What with the water, the fleece, the gloves and – just in case – the rain ponchos. I reckon I was nearly as wide as I was tall. Lots of people obviously thought the same as we did though as this time the security guard was making lots of jokes about where did people think they were? They did realise this was Florida, the sunshine state, didn’t they?! Everyone was taking it in very good spirits. I think everyone there was buzzing with the same excitement about the party ahead!

I was near to bursting when we got in. I was soooo excited! We got our wristbands (that I could take on and off again quite easily. A party trick that kept me amused on the bus going back) and our goodies. I knew all about getting your piccy done early, before you’re too tired. As they didn’t start taking them till later, my plan to do them immediately was scuppered somewhat. Never mind, I was sure we'd find something else to do!

We went in the shops first. I wanted to be certain that there weren’t any special edition MVMCP hats that you couldn’t get any other time. I knew I'd kick myself if I saw them later! But there weren’t any new ones and decision time had arrived. Convinced as I was that I was going to freeze to death later on, I wanted my hat! I did settle for the Mickey Mouse ears santa hat. We bought it from a stand in Tomorrowland. I thought it was funny that having scoured every shop there was, I bought it from a stand! The CM wanted me to get the Minnie one but I wanted Mickey in deference to my little friend. I explained this by shaking my head and pointing at him. By the look on her face, she thought I was mad. I can’t disagree…

We were determined to see everything there was so we went to watch `Mickey’s ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas Show´ first. We were surprised at just how vigilant the CMs were at looking for wristbands. We were all barked at to hold up our wrists. But they were very polite to those who hadn’t got them. Incredibly so, considering some of the muttering the guests who hadn’t got them were doing. I do like Disney CMs.

We enjoyed the show. The atmosphere was great and the performers were full of the joy of Christmas. I watched the crowds as well as the show and it was sooo cute to see some of the littlies’ mouths hanging open or to see a granny watching her littlie and then wiping a tear from her eye. Magical!

By the time the show was over, the crowds had thinned considerably. We worked out that if we hared over to the castle we might be in time to watch the Celebrate the Season Show. Nah… No rushing tonight! So we sauntered up to Fantasyland for the most amazing sight we’d ever seen – it was empty. It made Monday’s empty look like Piccadilly Circus. We went completely loopy. We rode everything we fancied. We rode Dumbo!!! No wait AT ALL! Roland was a little uncertain at first as I mean, Dumbo, it’s not exactly the most macho of rides, but with NO wait, who could resist?! We literally didn’t stop laughing the whole time we were on it.

Next up was the Carrousel. We’ve never ridden it before and I'd read so many times how pretty it was at night. And the posters were right, it’s wonderful! You get to see everything all lit up, through the bright lights of the carrousel. The castle looks just perfect from the horses.

Then we did Peter Pan and Pooh, both walk-ons. And it was still empty! Ok, so I might have not done any planning and not made any PSs and had no itinerary, but Roland was VERY impressed by my ability to pick a good party and the idea to do it on a weekday as it would be quieter. I done good!!!

We tried for a photo now, it being only 5 mins till they opened. Our plan was to stand quietly and wait. Only a seemingly very harrassed CM (but there was no reason we could see to be harrassed) wouldn't let us. She very firmly told us we couldn’t and to go and do Small World till they opened. Even though SW was a walk-on, by the time we got back, there was quite a queue waiting. I told myself there was no way I'd let that annoy me and I didn’t. But I'm scowling a bit whilst I type. It wouldn’t have hurt to let us wait, surely.

As it was, it was chaotic. It wasn’t that things weren’t under control, it was more that the CMs were just like the first lady. They emenated the feeling that things were going to be not under control very soon. It made you worry, just looking at them. A man gave us a clipboard to fill in and ordered us over to the right. There was a long queue over to the right and a short one to the left. So I went left. Momentary panic with the CMs but a real sweetie of an old man called, “It’s ok, she’s with me!” And I was. We got through so much quicker that way.

The photographer told me to put my rucksack down but I refused, even though he looked at me like I was mad. I mean, it was the boys first party, I wanted them in there. So they are and very cute they look too! If there’s one place I can ignore `you’re mad´ looks, it’s Disney!

Right, we’d got the photos over with and we’d done most of Fantasyland, where to now? How about sample some cookies and cocoa? The hot chocolate at Riverside is completely disgusting. It’s such sweet goo, I can’t drink it. So I wasn't very optimistic that FREE cocoa was going to be palataable. It was delicious! It was sooo nice, I couldn't believe my luck. I don't know how many cups I drank that evening but there could well be a cocoa shortage in Florida.

Even the cookies were better than I thought they’d be. I had the odd one or two of those as well. Just to make sure they were all nice, you understand. I liked my first one best, it was an angel, which made me squeal with delight. “Hey, “ said the CM. “You’re right, I hadn’t noticed. Pretty!” My faith in CMs coping with my madness restored, we trooped out again.

The cocoa and cookies turned out to be all we ate that night. Stufing ourselves stupid at Prime Time paid off in the end.

We’d never been on the Riverboat. Roland’s wanted to a couple of times but things have always got in the way. Boy, did we make up for it today! There was a grandma and a little boy on there – and NOBODY else. They took the lower deck, we took the top one. It was just brilliant! Once I'd finished my cocoa, I decided I ought to do a Titanic at the front. We’ve not seen the film, which is why Roland says he wandered off instead of playing Leonardo to my Kate. Yeah, course it was!

When we came off, we thought we’d double back to the Mansion. I've read that it’s better to do at night but we couldn't feel any difference. Maybe if we’d had to queue up through the graveyard, we might have done but we just whizzed through it. Another walk-on. And another very enjoyable ride!

By the time we came out, the first parade was due to start. I'd read that the second parade was usually quieter and suggested we skip the first one but Roland didn’t want to. His suggestion was to see what we could now – we didn’t think we’d get much of a view as it was so late – and then catch the second one from Main St so that we could see the snow. Excelent idea it was too! And we were sooo lucky again. We got to a walk-through just as a CM was closing it and got to stand right at the front again. Brilliant! And to all our delights, Peter Pan came over to play with Mickey and Moose. A wonderful moment! We loved all the parade, we thought they’d done an excellent job with it.

Once the parade had passed, we wondered up through Frontierland. Oooh look, Splash Mountain’s open, shall we go on it? What do you think! Pirates sounded a likelier bet. We warned Moosey about the dark and the drop and we all had a lovely time. In our very own boat. I love it when you get your own boat for Pirates!

By the time we’d moseyed around a little more and taken some photos of me, the boys and a very beautiful castle in the background, as well as me with Balloo, (Jungle Book’s my favourite Disney film and he is tooo cuddly!), it was time to grab a spot for Wishes. We ended up in almost exactly the same place as the night before and were just as overjoyed with it. We cuddled up, just the four of us in our own little beautiful world. Can you tell that this evening was my favourite part of a wonderful holiday? I don't think even Disney can get more magical than that evening. It was perfect. And I wasn’t even cold!

Well, isn’t that handy. Just when you’ve finished watching Wishes from in front of the castle, they put a show on for you! Strangely enough, the `Celebrate the Season Show´ was very similar to the other show. Which meant we enjoyed it just as much! Lucky that.

As Wishes had started late, so did the show. Which meant there wasn’t all that much of the evening left, sigh. I thought it would be nice to do Buzz Lightyear again. I only lost narrowly this time! And the animatronic was wearing a Santa’s hat with Mickey ears this time. With the same expression of grim determination, natch.

The Transit Authority in the dark was another thing I'd really wanted to do, so we did. Another very pretty experience I'm glad we didn’t miss. I would have liked to have done CofP again but we were worried about getting good spots for the parade so we headed over to Main St. It was heaving. I tried my new trick of hovering around a walk-through, hoping to move in when they closed it. No dice. The CMs were VERY vigilant. I asked why we couldn't hover in the background, as we had before and the CM explained that that particular walk-through was the first-aid one, so they had to keep it well and truly free. Fair enough, that’s a very good reason!

There was a Brit family at the edge of the walk-through. They’d spread their ponchos out and sat on them. I cunningly moved in behind them, tucking my toes under the back of the poncho. It meant I was just on the right side of the line. Roland moved to the back of the crowd. He’s too tall for crafty toe-tucking. I got chatting to the mum, reassuring her that I wouldn't be hovering over her family forever. As soon as they closed the walk-through, I'd move over. Nice woman, she offered to squash up on the ponchos so that I could sit down. But I'd a feeling that if I sat down, I'd never get up again!

My plan worked. As soon as they closed things up, I moved one step to the right, panicking in case Roland couldn’t make his way through to me. He did! And we watched the beautiful parade, arm-in-arm with the `snow´ softly drifting down on us. It was the perfect ending to the perfect evening. Pure bliss.

Getting back to Riverside was extremely efficient. The buses were practicaly continuous. No sooner had one pulled out than another seemed to be taking it’s place. Excellent service.

We weren’t long in going to bed. It was by far our latest night that holiday. I briefly watched the weather channel again and went to sleep savouring my new favourite word. Pre-ci-pi-ta-tion! We only get rain over here.

 

[KayleeUK]

MVMCP sounds lovely I must try it one day

 

[Miffy2003]

What a great review of MVMCP!

 

[WDWfan uk]

I thought MVMCP was worth it just to see Main Street with the 'snow' and tree etc. It is always so pretty at night but at Christmas time, it is delightful!

I think I read '5' before '4' but I'm glad I didn't miss this