Saturday, June 25th. Our last full day, and last park day. We’d spend the morning hitting some favorite rides at the Magic Kingdom, relax at our resort a little in the afternoon, and then join all of the other PChef’ers for the exclusive par-tay at MGM in the evening.
I don’t remember too much regarding what rides and activities we did at the Magic Kingdom that particular morning, except Buzz Lightyear, courtesy of the pictures coming up shortly.
The other thing I remember was Stitch’s Great Escape. Lauren wanted to try it out, so I went with her on that while Judy waited with the other kids. Lauren didn’t really like it, I think she was freaked out by the shoulder restraints, and especially didn’t like the foul smell at the end.
Now Buzz Lightyear on the other hand, the kids really liked, and James absolutely loved. Aside from his Jedi training, this ride was his favorite thing from the trip. Over the course of our couple of visits to the Magic Kingdom on this trip, I think we went on Buzz probably about three times, at James’ urging.
Here’s Buzz as we went through the queue.
After the ride, James and Marlene joined Zurg behind bars. Looking at this picture, I see it is yet another example of how Marlene has always had a flair for the dramatic.
In the afternoon we went back to the resort. I took the kids to the pool while Judy took a nap in the room for a bit. She joined us at the pool after a little while.
Here’s Port Orleans Riverside’s “Ol’ Man Island” pool.
I know I said it in my trip report last year, but I really like this pool. We had a lot of fun here last year, and on this trip back in 2005. There are lots of places to get splashed and dripped on and the slide is pretty decent. Lots of other PChef families had the same idea as we did, and were at the pool on this afternoon, taking it easy before the festivities planned for the evening at MGM.
Back in the room, getting ready for our night at MGM, the kids wanted me to take a picture of some Star Wars figures they had acquired.
Then we went to get lined-up to catch one of the PChef buses to MGM. I’ve been on a couple of these incentive trips and it doesn’t matter how early you think you’re lining up, you’re not lining up soon enough. We went to the lobby of the resort and walked out the front doors and couldn’t even see the end of the line of people waiting to board the buses. We started walking and eventually found it over near Bell Services, although in true Disney fashion, someone had organized the line to double-back once or twice. There were so many people! And this was just one of the two or three resorts that had PChef’ers. Eventually we got on a bus and were driven over to MGM.
Now, there’s one thing that PChef is very good at on these trips -- they go out of their way to make the consultants who earn them feel very special. At MGM, they played-up the Hollywood feel of the place and had a red carpet out for the consultants and families to walk on as they approached the park entrance. There were velvet ropes on each side of it, and on the outside of the ropes were some Disney characters (I don’t remember who exactly), some streetmosphere-type of actors pretending to be paparazzi, flashing lightbulbs at the consultants, and company muckety-mucks such as the founder, Doris Christopher, waving at and gushing over the consultants on the carpet. A fairly large line had formed to walk the red carpet, and since we’d gotten this kind of greeting on a previous incentive trip, we opted to skip it and go around in order to enter the park quicker. But I think it’s great that they do stuff like that.
Music was playing in the hub, and “PChef” was projected onto Mickey’s hand.
The marquee of this theater near the hub had been changed for the evening.
Buffet tables (of free food!) were set up along Sunset Blvd., and you could also get food from the vendors down around Anaheim Produce. Sorry, no pictures! We got some food and found a table there to sit down and eat.
Now before I tell the next story, (which will reveal why there are chapters titled “Fantasmic! Take one” and a “Fantasmic! Take two”), I need to tell you about what my wife and I have learned about our communication styles, over our years together. I think it’s really a male/female style thing, but I’d better not generalize. Anyway, here it is. Sometimes she prefers to
suggest something rather than to just outright ask for it to be done, which I guess is too forward, too blunt. Here’s an example. It’s an obvious one, and even I would be able to pick up on the meaning, but it’s just an example to show what I mean. My wife may say, “the laundry basket is full”. Now, to me, that sentence is
information. The laundry basket (the item being discussed) is full (descriptive term describing the current status of the item being discussed). That is useful information, thank you very much, and rest assured, I’ve filed it away. But to my wife (and most women?), that sentence is
a request. I should be able to read between the lines and understand that it means “Please take the dirty laundry down to the washing machine before we’ve got dirty clothes lying all over the place, for crying out loud! And it wouldn’t kill you to actually start the washer either.” So over the years we’ve worked on communicating -- trying to identify when this type of talk is occurring and just making sure we understand each other.
So with that as a background, on with our story. At some point Judy said, “I heard that the company founder and the company president will be appearing in Fantasmic!”. Being the highly-attentive, sensitive, and communicative guy I am (or have become), I knew that this sentence, disguised as mere information, really meant that Judy wanted to see Fantasmic! again tonight, so we spurred the kids on to finish their food and we got in line.
While we waited for the show to start, I wondered how they would work these ladies into the show. Would they appear on top of the mountain with victorious Mickey? It turned out that nope, they just came out and introduced the show. And somebody in front of me stuck their hand up to make sure I didn’t even get a good picture of it.
I quickly fired-off another shot, but it wasn’t much better, even without the hand.
The show got underway and was exactly the same as we had seen the night before. (I can hear you saying “well duh”.) Oh well. We came out and looked at the line for Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, but it was huge. We started walking toward the hub, lamenting that it looked like we weren’t going to accomplish a whole lot on this night and Judy said, “well I don’t know why we had to see Fantasmic! again?”
So guys, here’s a lesson for you. Sometimes what your wife is saying, really is
just information. Good luck in your quest to figure it out.
From there we went over to the other side of the park and got in another ride on Star Tours, which is another ride that the kids really loved.
Then we started walking back towards Echo Lake and Judy complained that her back was really hurting. She was almost in tears. It wasn’t from the Star Tours ride, we think it was from another issue she was dealing with, but she had never had back pain like that before and hasn’t since (thank goodness). So we needed to leave the park right away. Just then, the fireworks started (which are pretty rare at MGM, I understand). We had to make our way down Hollywood Boulevard, against everyone who was facing the other way, watching the fireworks, and our kids kept turning back to get a glimpse, obviously. It wasn’t the way we wanted to end our visit to the parks, but Judy was in too much pain to stay a minute longer.
Link to next chapter
Just try to remember you got the most important ones, right???
That's the best laugh I've had in days!
GB inspired me to try doing that last fall - I didn't get very far with it. Maybe I need to try it again with my new camera.
jillianml!!!
whenever my wife went to one of those home parties with stuff being sold. So, imagine my reaction when she came home from one and told me she wanted to become a consultant. 
I sure hate we won't be there at the same time again, one, because it would be good to see you guys again, and two, because our trip is still WAYYYYY too far out in the future for my liking.
words I could find.
And a bonus: I was SPOT ON with the crust for a change. 
