BONZO
<font color=660066>Has been known to go off topic!
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2001
- Messages
- 2,100
The Hopping Mad Easter Tour - 2004
Shaun - 40 something If its high fat, high sugar Ill eat it
Alison - 30 something 'If its not Atkins I wont eat it
Alexandra - 10 Can we play mini-golf? Can we? Can we? Can we? Can we?
Laura - 8 'If Im tall enough Ill ride it'
Friday 16th April 2004
Up at 8:30 and went to Golden Corral on the 192 this morning. This one doesn't meet the usually high standard and I couldn't recommend it. It wasnt particularly clean - pools of orange juice on the floor was a particular hazard!
Anyway, the food was still quite good, which is the main thing. Afterwards we drove to MGM and grabbed Fast Passes for Rock and Roller coaster and then did the Backlot Tour. It's funny that when this was constructed it was something else, now it's a bit tame in comparison to other attractions. Some of the items in the "boneyard" were falling apart like the Blue Thunder cockpit but I guess that this will mean very little to the new wave of tourists - oh well, going into "whisper mode" was something big in my day We managed to snatch a glimpse of the new Stunt Show stage being constructed which is along the same lines as the one at DLP. It looked enormous!
We came out and sat in the café area (now closed) by the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground while the girls played and took some snaps.
As we wandered past Who Wants To Be A Millionaire we noticed that the queue was short for the next show so we joined the line. It was only about 10 minutes until we were seated. Little did we know how exciting the show was to be - LOL!
A local man got the first fastest finger and played his way up to the 16,000 point question and by this time Alison had made it to No. 2 on the leader board. Woo hoo! Best ever for our family!
The $32,000 question was - Where are the Murchison Falls? (a) America (b) Uganda (c) Canada (d) Europe
He answered incorrectly and left the hot seat. the numbers flashed up on the screen and there it was - Alison was No.1 as she'd guessed right! - (b) Uganda!
Alison here : - I had a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach that it would be me as Id guessed at Uganda (and it really was a total guess!) and yes! The reveal showed that I was No.1 on the leader board. I couldn't believe it! I felt sick - I didnt want to go down onto the stage! I unclipped by bumbag and threw it at Alexandra and worked my way out of the aisle.
My legs were shaking as I went down the stairs and I thought I wouldn't make it! I was greeted by an official who asked my name and where I was from - he then relayed this information through to the Host of the show - whose name escapes me now - LOL!
I got through the initial questions which included questions like What colour is the suit hearts in a deck of cards? fairly easily, until I had the question "Brother can you spare a dime?" came from which period in US history?. I decided to use the "Ask the audience" option and the most popular answer was that it was from The Great Depression era. This meant that I won the 1000 point question and was guaranteed a baseball cap, lanyard and 5 pins! Woo Hoo! I was soooo relieved I got to this stage - it was more than I ever hoped for!
Carried on through the next questions until I reached "Who was General Halftracks secretary in the Beetle Bailey comic strip?" - (a) Mrs Mills (b) Miss Buxley and two other options that Ive forgotten now!
I had no idea so I thought that I'd use the "Phone a complete stranger" option. The lady on the phone was too young and didn't have a clue. I then decided to use the 50/50 option and then guessed the answer (b) Miss Buxley which was right! - Phew! (Shaun told me afterwards that this was a 1960s American cartoon strip).
The next question was "where was Delft pottery originally made? - (a) America (b) United Kingdom (c) Holland (d) Belgium
Luckily, some of Shaun's trivia from our trip to Europe last year paid off and I got it right! - (c) Holland! - I was now the proud owner of a Polo shirt and 10 pin collection.
The 64,000 point question was "Which of the following is lowest of the Earths atmospheres?" - (a) Thermosphere (b) Mesosphere (c) Troposphere (d) Stratosphere
I had no idea and guessed (a) Thermosphere but got the answer wrong - The right answer was (c), I'd never heard of it!
Anyway, who cares - I won anyway!
I went off to the back with one of the CMs to complete all of the waiver forms etc and collected my winnings.
Back to Shaun:
All the while we were willing Alison on and I must admit that I knew the Beetle Bailey and guessed the last question but ho hum. (Alison here again - hed have got some of the easy questions wrong though! LOL)
Myself and the girls were sOOOOO excited and we had HUGE grins over our faces! Alison kept pointing and waving to us in the audience, so we were on the overhead TV screens a lot! It really was a wonderful highpoint in the holiday - the girls were really made up about it and couldnt stop talking about it!
Over to RnRC to use our FPs which was great and even picked up our photo as we were all grinning our heads off in anticipation. We doubled back to "One Mans Dream" which we all loved and Alison was quite emotional during it. The girls queued up for some more Character autographs again!
Decided to call it a day for MGM at about 4:30 and went back to the Contemporary where the girls just headed straight for the beach area again. They just love the relaxed atmosphere and the beach here - worth every penny IMHO.
We are all in our element in this lovely resort!
We decided to let Alison choose the place for dinner tonight to celebrate so we went to The Outback. We tried to get in at the Formosa Gardens one but it was heaving so we went to the Premium Outlets Mall one and after about 30 mins wait we were in.
The food was excellent with a large variety of different cuts of steak which you can see here
We had a Bloomin Onion to share for starters, then for main course we had:
Alexandra: Ribs and fries
Alison and I : Steak with various accompaniments
Laura: Burger and fries
Soft drinks and salads and desserts for the kids
Total cost about $55
We then went back to the Contemporary to collect our fleece jackets and hopped on the monorail round to the Magic Kingdom to catch Wishes and the late Spectromagic parade - EXCELLENT! Wishes was stunning - truly the best fireworks weve ever seen - and the music was amazing!
As for Spectromagic - we love it! The music, the images, the characters - wonderful! It really works for us doing the later parade - we walked up to the edge of the pavement about 5 minutes before the parade started and the girls sat down at the front and we stood behind them.
As we stood there waiting, we bumped into another family from the girls school - the O'Brien's! Would you believe it - a park with several thousand people in and were standing next to people from the end of our road!
After Spectromagic we wandered back to the Contemporary, and bed.
Weather - Wonderful weather today - hot and sunny with low humidity.
Plan for tomorrow: A free day - well just play it by ear!
Shaun - 40 something If its high fat, high sugar Ill eat it
Alison - 30 something 'If its not Atkins I wont eat it
Alexandra - 10 Can we play mini-golf? Can we? Can we? Can we? Can we?
Laura - 8 'If Im tall enough Ill ride it'
Friday 16th April 2004
Up at 8:30 and went to Golden Corral on the 192 this morning. This one doesn't meet the usually high standard and I couldn't recommend it. It wasnt particularly clean - pools of orange juice on the floor was a particular hazard!
Anyway, the food was still quite good, which is the main thing. Afterwards we drove to MGM and grabbed Fast Passes for Rock and Roller coaster and then did the Backlot Tour. It's funny that when this was constructed it was something else, now it's a bit tame in comparison to other attractions. Some of the items in the "boneyard" were falling apart like the Blue Thunder cockpit but I guess that this will mean very little to the new wave of tourists - oh well, going into "whisper mode" was something big in my day We managed to snatch a glimpse of the new Stunt Show stage being constructed which is along the same lines as the one at DLP. It looked enormous!
We came out and sat in the café area (now closed) by the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground while the girls played and took some snaps.
As we wandered past Who Wants To Be A Millionaire we noticed that the queue was short for the next show so we joined the line. It was only about 10 minutes until we were seated. Little did we know how exciting the show was to be - LOL!
A local man got the first fastest finger and played his way up to the 16,000 point question and by this time Alison had made it to No. 2 on the leader board. Woo hoo! Best ever for our family!
The $32,000 question was - Where are the Murchison Falls? (a) America (b) Uganda (c) Canada (d) Europe
He answered incorrectly and left the hot seat. the numbers flashed up on the screen and there it was - Alison was No.1 as she'd guessed right! - (b) Uganda!
Alison here : - I had a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach that it would be me as Id guessed at Uganda (and it really was a total guess!) and yes! The reveal showed that I was No.1 on the leader board. I couldn't believe it! I felt sick - I didnt want to go down onto the stage! I unclipped by bumbag and threw it at Alexandra and worked my way out of the aisle.
My legs were shaking as I went down the stairs and I thought I wouldn't make it! I was greeted by an official who asked my name and where I was from - he then relayed this information through to the Host of the show - whose name escapes me now - LOL!
I got through the initial questions which included questions like What colour is the suit hearts in a deck of cards? fairly easily, until I had the question "Brother can you spare a dime?" came from which period in US history?. I decided to use the "Ask the audience" option and the most popular answer was that it was from The Great Depression era. This meant that I won the 1000 point question and was guaranteed a baseball cap, lanyard and 5 pins! Woo Hoo! I was soooo relieved I got to this stage - it was more than I ever hoped for!
Carried on through the next questions until I reached "Who was General Halftracks secretary in the Beetle Bailey comic strip?" - (a) Mrs Mills (b) Miss Buxley and two other options that Ive forgotten now!
I had no idea so I thought that I'd use the "Phone a complete stranger" option. The lady on the phone was too young and didn't have a clue. I then decided to use the 50/50 option and then guessed the answer (b) Miss Buxley which was right! - Phew! (Shaun told me afterwards that this was a 1960s American cartoon strip).
The next question was "where was Delft pottery originally made? - (a) America (b) United Kingdom (c) Holland (d) Belgium
Luckily, some of Shaun's trivia from our trip to Europe last year paid off and I got it right! - (c) Holland! - I was now the proud owner of a Polo shirt and 10 pin collection.
The 64,000 point question was "Which of the following is lowest of the Earths atmospheres?" - (a) Thermosphere (b) Mesosphere (c) Troposphere (d) Stratosphere
I had no idea and guessed (a) Thermosphere but got the answer wrong - The right answer was (c), I'd never heard of it!
Anyway, who cares - I won anyway!
I went off to the back with one of the CMs to complete all of the waiver forms etc and collected my winnings.
Back to Shaun:
All the while we were willing Alison on and I must admit that I knew the Beetle Bailey and guessed the last question but ho hum. (Alison here again - hed have got some of the easy questions wrong though! LOL)
Myself and the girls were sOOOOO excited and we had HUGE grins over our faces! Alison kept pointing and waving to us in the audience, so we were on the overhead TV screens a lot! It really was a wonderful highpoint in the holiday - the girls were really made up about it and couldnt stop talking about it!
Over to RnRC to use our FPs which was great and even picked up our photo as we were all grinning our heads off in anticipation. We doubled back to "One Mans Dream" which we all loved and Alison was quite emotional during it. The girls queued up for some more Character autographs again!
Decided to call it a day for MGM at about 4:30 and went back to the Contemporary where the girls just headed straight for the beach area again. They just love the relaxed atmosphere and the beach here - worth every penny IMHO.
We are all in our element in this lovely resort!
We decided to let Alison choose the place for dinner tonight to celebrate so we went to The Outback. We tried to get in at the Formosa Gardens one but it was heaving so we went to the Premium Outlets Mall one and after about 30 mins wait we were in.
The food was excellent with a large variety of different cuts of steak which you can see here
We had a Bloomin Onion to share for starters, then for main course we had:
Alexandra: Ribs and fries
Alison and I : Steak with various accompaniments
Laura: Burger and fries
Soft drinks and salads and desserts for the kids
Total cost about $55
We then went back to the Contemporary to collect our fleece jackets and hopped on the monorail round to the Magic Kingdom to catch Wishes and the late Spectromagic parade - EXCELLENT! Wishes was stunning - truly the best fireworks weve ever seen - and the music was amazing!
As for Spectromagic - we love it! The music, the images, the characters - wonderful! It really works for us doing the later parade - we walked up to the edge of the pavement about 5 minutes before the parade started and the girls sat down at the front and we stood behind them.
As we stood there waiting, we bumped into another family from the girls school - the O'Brien's! Would you believe it - a park with several thousand people in and were standing next to people from the end of our road!
After Spectromagic we wandered back to the Contemporary, and bed.
Weather - Wonderful weather today - hot and sunny with low humidity.
Plan for tomorrow: A free day - well just play it by ear!
