mkingdon
Obsessed...and admits it!!
- Joined
- Jul 30, 2002
- Messages
- 408
Previously on this tour...
Introduction
Day One
Day Two
Day Three Wednesday 22nd Aug 2007
When you’ve been to WDW let’s say at least fifteen times, as I have, you may suspect that the attraction, and novelty may have worn off, and by now our trips could be spent relaxing, and just taking in the absolute highlights, and not killing ourselves to undertake a commando style raid one each theme park.
All that makes sense when I write down like that, so why does the thought of a day of “rest” drive me more crazy than Britney Spears in a hairdressers?
There is something engrained deep inside of me that wants to be at the gates of a theme park at 8.30 each morning, wrestling other tourists to the ground to be the first on Splash Mountain. It can’t be explained, it is just who I am I guess, and there is no sign of it changing either now or when I grow up.
These thoughts briefly enter my head at around 4.30 when I turn over to look at the clock next to me. Wow, if we got up now, we could be at the park gates for six…well let’s say seven as the women folk need to get ready first….
The thought vanishes as I return to my slumber, my tiredness being stronger than my desire to beat the CMs to the parks.
I am vaguely aware of the girls being awake and noisy at around 5.00am, but I don’t really wake up properly until 6.30ish. I remind myself that today has been designated a non park day, as previous trips have taught us that the second day is when the journey etc really catches up with you. We’ve spent some second days in Epcot, and had to have a special envoy from ACAS and the United Nations with us to stop the bickering, and the kids were narky too
I make the breakfast. I’m not going to point out that I did yesterday, as by the time I say for the fourteenth time, later in this report, “I made the breakfast” I think you will have got the point.
It was toast again..good toast though, made with that American bread that is 85% sugar.
I care not one jot how quickly everyone is ready, so I lie and watch Hannah Montana for a bit, failing to notice that the girls are getting ready and not watching the TV. By the time I realise I could watch some adult TV, the women are ready, and it is only 8.45. Bet they can’t repeat that tomorrow!!
Today we are heading out for the main pool for some serious doing of nothing. We strike out across the bridge towards where my natural sense of direction (and a quick look at the resort map tell me it is). It is a five minute walk, and we are surprised to see the pool more or less deserted. Mind you it was one of the better episodes of Hannah Montana, so they’ll be along when that finishes no doubt.
We secure beds…well Louise chooses them, as she has to study the trajectory of the sun, the probability of shade encroaching on her, and the moon’s orbit before she is happy to lay down a towel and start to bake.
The girls of course are straight in the pool.
I do some wandering about trying to get my bearings, and take some snaps while it is quiet.
The girls have the pool to themselves for half an hour. I wander into the food court, and get refillable mugs, and then fill the mugs with coffee, diet coke and lemonade, which tasted as bad as it sounds!!
Then I joined the girls in the pool…best to do it now whilst it is quiet to avoid ugly scenes and crowd trouble later…no-one wants a repeat of those scenes again. Women can be so excitable!
For the next few hours, not much changes. The girls never leave the pool, and once the lifeguards arrive, and the slide opens, there is even less chance of them leaving.
Louise only moves to change sides and to interrupt my reading to apply one of the seventeen different types of sun cream to her back.
I read in the shade, generally potter around and sweat. It was a tad warm.
We make it all the way until 11.00am today before we have to have some lunch. Impressive.
Louise and I go to the Artist’s Palette, and look at the menu whilst we queue. Being really healthy, and not wanting the breakfast menu they are still serving, we opt for sandwiches. Ten minutes later when I get to the front and order them, the kind CM tells they are pre-made in the fridge to the left.
Nice that…I was missing a bit of queuing today, so that had done the trick nicely.
We all shared two huge Tuna sandwiches, some fruit cups and some chips (crisps), and as the last morsels were swallowed, Louise went back to her griddle and the girls back to the pool.
At 1pm, I’d, sorry, we’d had enough and we leave to get ready to go to MGM. We have an ADR for the Brown Derby and a Fantasmic Dinner Package later.
I take some piccies of the scenery as we walk back to our room.
It is a very pretty resort.
At 2pm we’re all ready to go, and we make the short journey by car (none of this bus nonsense) to MGM.
We park in Music 50, naturally right at the bottom of the row, and catch the tram to the main entrance.
By jingo it looks busy today. The queue for the tram was posted at 90 minutes, but I got a fastpass!
Something we learned today from several CMs….Wednesday is MGM’s busiest day. Good choice fat boy!!
First job as ever is to get a FP for the Rock n Rollercoaster, so I go and do that and the women walk up to the hat, which is currently boarded off undergoing some work. Rebecca wanted to do the Great Movie Ride first so I said I’d meet them there.
When we did meet, a wait of 45 minutes means that we won’t be doing that first, and we wander off to see if Ariel’s shells had grown. Again, a wait beyond my tolerance makes that a no go.
I take a photo, as this is clearly the only thing we can do without a 45 minute wait.
We can’t walk down past where WWTBAM was as this is all blocked off. So we walk back in front of the hat and we notice that the parade is due very shortly so we decide to hang around for that.
We find a bench and sit there with a drink for about two minutes, but when my sweat has reached crevasses I don’t know I have, we all decide it is just too hot to sit in. So, we get up and walk down past the ABC Commisary in search of the Muppets or Star Tours.
We leave Louise outside to catch a bit of sun (again?) as we go for Star Tours…frankly anything with a temperature lower than the surface of the sun would be fine with me.
Continued....
Introduction
Day One
Day Two
Day Three Wednesday 22nd Aug 2007
When you’ve been to WDW let’s say at least fifteen times, as I have, you may suspect that the attraction, and novelty may have worn off, and by now our trips could be spent relaxing, and just taking in the absolute highlights, and not killing ourselves to undertake a commando style raid one each theme park.
All that makes sense when I write down like that, so why does the thought of a day of “rest” drive me more crazy than Britney Spears in a hairdressers?
There is something engrained deep inside of me that wants to be at the gates of a theme park at 8.30 each morning, wrestling other tourists to the ground to be the first on Splash Mountain. It can’t be explained, it is just who I am I guess, and there is no sign of it changing either now or when I grow up.
These thoughts briefly enter my head at around 4.30 when I turn over to look at the clock next to me. Wow, if we got up now, we could be at the park gates for six…well let’s say seven as the women folk need to get ready first….
The thought vanishes as I return to my slumber, my tiredness being stronger than my desire to beat the CMs to the parks.
I am vaguely aware of the girls being awake and noisy at around 5.00am, but I don’t really wake up properly until 6.30ish. I remind myself that today has been designated a non park day, as previous trips have taught us that the second day is when the journey etc really catches up with you. We’ve spent some second days in Epcot, and had to have a special envoy from ACAS and the United Nations with us to stop the bickering, and the kids were narky too
I make the breakfast. I’m not going to point out that I did yesterday, as by the time I say for the fourteenth time, later in this report, “I made the breakfast” I think you will have got the point.
It was toast again..good toast though, made with that American bread that is 85% sugar.
I care not one jot how quickly everyone is ready, so I lie and watch Hannah Montana for a bit, failing to notice that the girls are getting ready and not watching the TV. By the time I realise I could watch some adult TV, the women are ready, and it is only 8.45. Bet they can’t repeat that tomorrow!!
Today we are heading out for the main pool for some serious doing of nothing. We strike out across the bridge towards where my natural sense of direction (and a quick look at the resort map tell me it is). It is a five minute walk, and we are surprised to see the pool more or less deserted. Mind you it was one of the better episodes of Hannah Montana, so they’ll be along when that finishes no doubt.
We secure beds…well Louise chooses them, as she has to study the trajectory of the sun, the probability of shade encroaching on her, and the moon’s orbit before she is happy to lay down a towel and start to bake.
The girls of course are straight in the pool.



I do some wandering about trying to get my bearings, and take some snaps while it is quiet.

The girls have the pool to themselves for half an hour. I wander into the food court, and get refillable mugs, and then fill the mugs with coffee, diet coke and lemonade, which tasted as bad as it sounds!!
Then I joined the girls in the pool…best to do it now whilst it is quiet to avoid ugly scenes and crowd trouble later…no-one wants a repeat of those scenes again. Women can be so excitable!

For the next few hours, not much changes. The girls never leave the pool, and once the lifeguards arrive, and the slide opens, there is even less chance of them leaving.
Louise only moves to change sides and to interrupt my reading to apply one of the seventeen different types of sun cream to her back.
I read in the shade, generally potter around and sweat. It was a tad warm.
We make it all the way until 11.00am today before we have to have some lunch. Impressive.
Louise and I go to the Artist’s Palette, and look at the menu whilst we queue. Being really healthy, and not wanting the breakfast menu they are still serving, we opt for sandwiches. Ten minutes later when I get to the front and order them, the kind CM tells they are pre-made in the fridge to the left.
Nice that…I was missing a bit of queuing today, so that had done the trick nicely.
We all shared two huge Tuna sandwiches, some fruit cups and some chips (crisps), and as the last morsels were swallowed, Louise went back to her griddle and the girls back to the pool.
At 1pm, I’d, sorry, we’d had enough and we leave to get ready to go to MGM. We have an ADR for the Brown Derby and a Fantasmic Dinner Package later.
I take some piccies of the scenery as we walk back to our room.



It is a very pretty resort.
At 2pm we’re all ready to go, and we make the short journey by car (none of this bus nonsense) to MGM.
We park in Music 50, naturally right at the bottom of the row, and catch the tram to the main entrance.
By jingo it looks busy today. The queue for the tram was posted at 90 minutes, but I got a fastpass!
Something we learned today from several CMs….Wednesday is MGM’s busiest day. Good choice fat boy!!
First job as ever is to get a FP for the Rock n Rollercoaster, so I go and do that and the women walk up to the hat, which is currently boarded off undergoing some work. Rebecca wanted to do the Great Movie Ride first so I said I’d meet them there.
When we did meet, a wait of 45 minutes means that we won’t be doing that first, and we wander off to see if Ariel’s shells had grown. Again, a wait beyond my tolerance makes that a no go.
I take a photo, as this is clearly the only thing we can do without a 45 minute wait.

We can’t walk down past where WWTBAM was as this is all blocked off. So we walk back in front of the hat and we notice that the parade is due very shortly so we decide to hang around for that.
We find a bench and sit there with a drink for about two minutes, but when my sweat has reached crevasses I don’t know I have, we all decide it is just too hot to sit in. So, we get up and walk down past the ABC Commisary in search of the Muppets or Star Tours.
We leave Louise outside to catch a bit of sun (again?) as we go for Star Tours…frankly anything with a temperature lower than the surface of the sun would be fine with me.
Continued....