To Infinity and The Contemporary!
- Thread starter njprincess
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njprincess
I thought I should give you warning. We're taking
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Wow, I'm glad the kids are reading too!
I'm loving the Meerkats too Kathy! Aren't they cuties??
Great update, keep 'em coming.
Thanks, Nancy! I just love the picture that Heather posted of the 'gang' against the wall!
njprincess
I thought I should give you warning. We're taking
- Joined
- Jun 26, 2008
- Messages
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Hiya Everybody! 
We last we met, we were heading back to the Contemporary, from the Animal Kingdom, for a little R&R (vacation is such HARD work!). Here's what was waiting in the lounge for us when we got back:
Here's what was waiting in our room:
Frank headed for the gym and I did some DISing and took a little nap. Our reservation at The Wave was for 6 PM and we only had to ride the elevator to get there. Somewhere around 5 PM, I headed into the shower, at least that was the plan. I started to run the water and after about 5 minutes, I realized it wasn't getting very warm, much less hot. I finally gave up and hopped in figuring it would only get warmer (hey - I'm the daughter of 2 US Marines!) - big mistake. It turned out to be one of the fastest showers I've ever taken (this includes the shower I took in a partially bombed-out building in Sarjevo, but that's ANOTHER trip report!
). After I jumped back out of the shower, I headed to the telephone to call engineering. They informed me that I was the only person that had called. Hmmm, I predicted that they might get several more calls, since I didn't think they had an individual water heater for each room. I also figured that there might be a few other people taking showers before dinner. Turns out, I was right. But more on that later.
The Wave is located on the 1st floor, off the lobby, of the Contemporary:
Here is the somewhat eerie cocktail lounge (one of my friends says it looks like it's under water) It looked even spookier, since it was empty:
Our table was located in the back of the restaurant, in an area that could be closed off for private functions. As we passed through the larger restaurant area, it seemed somewhat noisy. We liked our location much better (notice - my teeth had stopped chattering by now):
Frank ordered one of those 'specialty' cocktails, a Strawberry Lychee Margarita (Herradura Reposado tequila, strawberry puree, lychee, pear nectar, and freshly squeezed lime juice. Yes, I was getting hives just looking at it!) Also, check out the fresh butter with Hawaiian Sea Salt:
We ordered the Lump Crab Cake appetizer (Pan-seared with crispy papaya slaw and balsamic glaze) but it was so yummy, I forgot to take a picture until we were already munching:
Oops. I forgot to mention that we had a lovely, efficient German waitress. Unfortunately, I can't remember her name. Maybe Frank will. She served us some very delicious multi-grain bread (you can see it a little in the upper left corner).
For the main course, Frank had the Grilled Beef Tenderloin - Served with oven-dried tomatoes, roasted Fingerling potatoes, cabernet sauce and local greens:
Very scrumptious! But why do the greens look orange and aren't the potatoes mashed, not fingerling? Someone needs to update the menus on All Ears!
I had the Grilled Pork Tenderloin - unlike the descriptions on the other menus I've seen from The Wave, my pork came with a lovely cinnamon sauce (down Mikey) and fingerling potatoes, not pineapple rice:
The dessert approach is very interesting: they serve different pairings of small desserts, grouped in threes. Frank ordered the Creamy Indulgence - Cheesecake with raspberry coulis, Coconut panna cotta with passion fruit drizzle, or Chocolate-passion fruit mousse with pecan-olive brittle. I ordered the Decadent Flavors - Blueberry compote with yogurt gelato, Lemon cornbread with vanilla panna cotta, or Chocolate mousse with salted caramel sauce (OMG yummy!!!). Then I swapped my blueberry compote for his chocolate-passion fruit mousse (a little Indulgence for a little Decadence) - now everything was perfect!!!
From top left:Cheesecake with raspberry coulis, Coconut panna cotta with passion fruit drizzle, Blueberry compote with yogurt gelato. From bottom left: Chocolate-passion fruit mousse with pecan-olive brittle, Lemon cornbread with vanilla panna cotta, Chocolate mousse with salted caramel sauce.
Overall, we were very pleased with The Wave. We thought the menu choices were excellent, the portions were generous, the food was well prepared, beautifully presented and very tasty and the service was outstanding.
We waddled out of the restaurant and headed back up to the good old 12th Floor. When we arrived, we noticed our favorite concierge, Sharon, was seated at the desk. I asked her if the hot water problem had been corrected and she sort of rolled her eyes. She told me when she heard that 7-8 rooms had no hot water, she figured one of the HAD to be ours, based on our track record, so far that week. She immediately hopped on the phone to see what was going on and engineering said they expected to have the problem corrected within the next 30 minutes. We headed back to the room because this was our night to watch the Wishes fireworks from our MK view balcony (la di da!). The soundtrack is broadcasted on channel 20. The view was spectacular! Unfortunately, I was unable to get any really good pictures, probably because I don't know how my camera works and I was too busy going WOW, WOW, OMG, WOW! B/T/W, for concierge guests who are unable to score an MK view on the 12th floor, the fireworks can been seen from the large balcony of the Atrium Club Lounge.
After the fireworks, I checked and there was still no hot water. I headed down to the lounge to get a caffeine free drink and stopped by to ask Sharon if she had any news. Just as she went to the telephone again, one of the maintenance men popped out of the elevator, on cue. Juan told us that the problem was fixed, however, he asked if he could come down to our room to check. Turns out, there was a bad valve somewhere and he had to run the water for a good 15 minutes before it started to come out hot. He apologized profusely and then told me he needed to go repeat this procedure in the other 7 affected rooms. (Hmm 7 X 15 minutes, Juan had a busy night of watching water run ahead of him!) Yippy - Hot Water!!! Who would have thought that would be such a luxury in one of the Deluxe Properties at Disney! However, all's well that ends well and Frank and I drifted off to sleep in our massively comfortable Disney beds.
On to the Hollywood Studios in the morning!
We last we met, we were heading back to the Contemporary, from the Animal Kingdom, for a little R&R (vacation is such HARD work!). Here's what was waiting in the lounge for us when we got back:
Here's what was waiting in our room:
Frank headed for the gym and I did some DISing and took a little nap. Our reservation at The Wave was for 6 PM and we only had to ride the elevator to get there. Somewhere around 5 PM, I headed into the shower, at least that was the plan. I started to run the water and after about 5 minutes, I realized it wasn't getting very warm, much less hot. I finally gave up and hopped in figuring it would only get warmer (hey - I'm the daughter of 2 US Marines!) - big mistake. It turned out to be one of the fastest showers I've ever taken (this includes the shower I took in a partially bombed-out building in Sarjevo, but that's ANOTHER trip report!
). After I jumped back out of the shower, I headed to the telephone to call engineering. They informed me that I was the only person that had called. Hmmm, I predicted that they might get several more calls, since I didn't think they had an individual water heater for each room. I also figured that there might be a few other people taking showers before dinner. Turns out, I was right. But more on that later.The Wave is located on the 1st floor, off the lobby, of the Contemporary:
Here is the somewhat eerie cocktail lounge (one of my friends says it looks like it's under water) It looked even spookier, since it was empty:
Our table was located in the back of the restaurant, in an area that could be closed off for private functions. As we passed through the larger restaurant area, it seemed somewhat noisy. We liked our location much better (notice - my teeth had stopped chattering by now):
Frank ordered one of those 'specialty' cocktails, a Strawberry Lychee Margarita (Herradura Reposado tequila, strawberry puree, lychee, pear nectar, and freshly squeezed lime juice. Yes, I was getting hives just looking at it!) Also, check out the fresh butter with Hawaiian Sea Salt:
We ordered the Lump Crab Cake appetizer (Pan-seared with crispy papaya slaw and balsamic glaze) but it was so yummy, I forgot to take a picture until we were already munching:
Oops. I forgot to mention that we had a lovely, efficient German waitress. Unfortunately, I can't remember her name. Maybe Frank will. She served us some very delicious multi-grain bread (you can see it a little in the upper left corner).
For the main course, Frank had the Grilled Beef Tenderloin - Served with oven-dried tomatoes, roasted Fingerling potatoes, cabernet sauce and local greens:
Very scrumptious! But why do the greens look orange and aren't the potatoes mashed, not fingerling? Someone needs to update the menus on All Ears!
I had the Grilled Pork Tenderloin - unlike the descriptions on the other menus I've seen from The Wave, my pork came with a lovely cinnamon sauce (down Mikey) and fingerling potatoes, not pineapple rice:
The dessert approach is very interesting: they serve different pairings of small desserts, grouped in threes. Frank ordered the Creamy Indulgence - Cheesecake with raspberry coulis, Coconut panna cotta with passion fruit drizzle, or Chocolate-passion fruit mousse with pecan-olive brittle. I ordered the Decadent Flavors - Blueberry compote with yogurt gelato, Lemon cornbread with vanilla panna cotta, or Chocolate mousse with salted caramel sauce (OMG yummy!!!). Then I swapped my blueberry compote for his chocolate-passion fruit mousse (a little Indulgence for a little Decadence) - now everything was perfect!!!
From top left:Cheesecake with raspberry coulis, Coconut panna cotta with passion fruit drizzle, Blueberry compote with yogurt gelato. From bottom left: Chocolate-passion fruit mousse with pecan-olive brittle, Lemon cornbread with vanilla panna cotta, Chocolate mousse with salted caramel sauce.
Overall, we were very pleased with The Wave. We thought the menu choices were excellent, the portions were generous, the food was well prepared, beautifully presented and very tasty and the service was outstanding.
We waddled out of the restaurant and headed back up to the good old 12th Floor. When we arrived, we noticed our favorite concierge, Sharon, was seated at the desk. I asked her if the hot water problem had been corrected and she sort of rolled her eyes. She told me when she heard that 7-8 rooms had no hot water, she figured one of the HAD to be ours, based on our track record, so far that week.
She immediately hopped on the phone to see what was going on and engineering said they expected to have the problem corrected within the next 30 minutes. We headed back to the room because this was our night to watch the Wishes fireworks from our MK view balcony (la di da!). The soundtrack is broadcasted on channel 20. The view was spectacular! Unfortunately, I was unable to get any really good pictures, probably because I don't know how my camera works and I was too busy going WOW, WOW, OMG, WOW! B/T/W, for concierge guests who are unable to score an MK view on the 12th floor, the fireworks can been seen from the large balcony of the Atrium Club Lounge.After the fireworks, I checked and there was still no hot water. I headed down to the lounge to get a caffeine free drink and stopped by to ask Sharon if she had any news. Just as she went to the telephone again, one of the maintenance men popped out of the elevator, on cue. Juan told us that the problem was fixed, however, he asked if he could come down to our room to check. Turns out, there was a bad valve somewhere and he had to run the water for a good 15 minutes before it started to come out hot. He apologized profusely and then told me he needed to go repeat this procedure in the other 7 affected rooms. (Hmm 7 X 15 minutes, Juan had a busy night of watching water run ahead of him!) Yippy - Hot Water!!! Who would have thought that would be such a luxury in one of the Deluxe Properties at Disney! However, all's well that ends well and Frank and I drifted off to sleep in our massively comfortable Disney beds.
On to the Hollywood Studios in the morning!
Hiya Everybody!
We last we met, we were heading back to the Contemporary, from the Animal Kingdom, for a little R&R (vacation is such HARD work!). Here's what was waiting in the lounge for us when we got back:
Here's what was waiting in our room:
Frank headed for the gym and I did some DISing and took a little nap. Our reservation at The Wave was for 6 PM and we only had to ride the elevator to get there. Somewhere around 5 PM, I headed into the shower, at least that was the plan. I started to run the water and after about 5 minutes, I realized it wasn't getting very warm, much less hot. I finally gave up and hopped in figuring it would only get warmer (hey - I'm the daughter of 2 US Marines!) - big mistake. It turned out to be one of the fastest showers I've ever taken (this includes the shower I took in a partially bombed-out building in Sarjevo, but that's ANOTHER trip report!
The Wave is located on the 1st floor, off the lobby, of the Contemporary:
Here is the somewhat eerie cocktail lounge (one of my friends says it looks like it's under water) It looked even spookier, since it was empty:
Our table was located in the back of the restaurant, in an area that could be closed off for private functions. As we passed through the larger restaurant area, it seemed somewhat noisy. We liked our location much better (notice - my teeth had stopped chattering by now):
Frank ordered one of those 'specialty' cocktails, a Strawberry Lychee Margarita (Herradura Reposado tequila, strawberry puree, lychee, pear nectar, and freshly squeezed lime juice. Yes, I was getting hives just looking at it!) Also, check out the fresh butter with Hawaiian Sea Salt:
We ordered the Lump Crab Cake appetizer (Pan-seared with crispy papaya slaw and balsamic glaze) but it was so yummy, I forgot to take a picture until we were already munching:
Oops. I forgot to mention that we had a lovely, efficient German waitress. Unfortunately, I can't remember her name. Maybe Frank will. She served us some very delicious multi-grain bread (you can see it a little in the upper left corner).
For the main course, Frank had the Grilled Beef Tenderloin - Served with oven-dried tomatoes, roasted Fingerling potatoes, cabernet sauce and local greens:
Very scrumptious! But why do the greens look orange and aren't the potatoes mashed, not fingerling? Someone needs to update the menus on All Ears!
I had the Grilled Pork Tenderloin - unlike the descriptions on the other menus I've seen from The Wave, my pork came with a lovely cinnamon sauce (down Mikey) and fingerling potatoes, not pineapple rice:
The dessert approach is very interesting: they serve different pairings of small desserts, grouped in threes. Frank ordered the Creamy Indulgence - Cheesecake with raspberry coulis, Coconut panna cotta with passion fruit drizzle, or Chocolate-passion fruit mousse with pecan-olive brittle. I ordered the Decadent Flavors - Blueberry compote with yogurt gelato, Lemon cornbread with vanilla panna cotta, or Chocolate mousse with salted caramel sauce (OMG yummy!!!). Then I swapped my blueberry compote for his chocolate-passion fruit mousse (a little Indulgence for a little Decadence) - now everything was perfect!!!
From top left:Cheesecake with raspberry coulis, Coconut panna cotta with passion fruit drizzle, Blueberry compote with yogurt gelato. From bottom left: Chocolate-passion fruit mousse with pecan-olive brittle, Lemon cornbread with vanilla panna cotta, Chocolate mousse with salted caramel sauce.
Overall, we were very pleased with The Wave. We thought the menu choices were excellent, the portions were generous, the food was well prepared, beautifully presented and very tasty and the service was outstanding.
We waddled out of the restaurant and headed back up to the good old 12th Floor. When we arrived, we noticed our favorite concierge, Sharon, was seated at the desk. I asked her if the hot water problem had been corrected and she sort of rolled her eyes. She told me when she heard that 7-8 rooms had no hot water, she figured one of the HAD to be ours, based on our track record, so far that week.
After the fireworks, I checked and there was still no hot water. I headed down to the lounge to get a caffeine free drink and stopped by to ask Sharon if she had any news. Just as she went to the telephone again, one of the maintenance men popped out of the elevator, on cue. Juan told us that the problem was fixed, however, he asked if he could come down to our room to check. Turns out, there was a bad valve somewhere and he had to run the water for a good 15 minutes before it started to come out hot. He apologized profusely and then told me he needed to go repeat this procedure in the other 7 affected rooms. (Hmm 7 X 15 minutes, Juan had a busy night of watching water run ahead of him!) Yippy - Hot Water!!! Who would have thought that would be such a luxury in one of the Deluxe Properties at Disney! However, all's well that ends well and Frank and I drifted off to sleep in our massively comfortable Disney beds.
On to the Hollywood Studios in the morning!
The Wave looked great. Maybe someday Walt and I will visit. The desserts looked absolutely yummy. I love any kind of sweet. I am a junk food junkie. I am glad they fixed your hot water. Keep up your great trip report. Very enjoyable. Di
GOS
Livin' for Disney holidays with great friends
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Is Frank doing "The Wave"?
Those desserts look heavenly. I've never met a dessert I didn't like.
Glad the cold shower thing was remedied quickly.
My exact thoughts Nancy. What was the towel thingy supposed to represent Kathy? Or is it obvious.
njprincess
I thought I should give you warning. We're taking
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Is Frank doing "The Wave"?
Those desserts look heavenly. I've never met a dessert I didn't like.
Glad the cold shower thing was remedied quickly.
Yes, Frank was doing a one person wave!
The desserts WERE heavenly! The little portions were fun too - gave you a chance to try a few things without having too much.
Who would have thought that hot water would be a problem in a place like The Contemporary!
Thanks, Di! We thought it might be better if they let you pick your own 3 desserts from a list, but you know how fussy those chefs can be! I'm sure they figure they know what goes with what better than we do.
We THINK it was a towel boat (maybe arc?) with little animals inside???
goslingl
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Ok, I have to comment on the fact that you seem to get the funniest looking potatoes this trip! I can see your fingerlings in the bowl behind your big plate and they reminded me of your "pickle" potatoes from the Hyatt
Sorry about the hot water issues, geez you seem to be having a good run of bad luck
I can see your fingerlings in the bowl behind your big plate and they reminded me of your "pickle" potatoes from the Hyatt Sorry about the hot water issues, geez you seem to be having a good run of bad luck
njprincess
I thought I should give you warning. We're taking
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Ok, I have to comment on the fact that you seem to get the funniest looking potatoes this trip!
Sorry about the hot water issues, geez you seem to be having a good run of bad luck
These potatoes could possibly be the only disappointment - they were very bland not to mention funny-looking. The fingerling must be some kind of native-Florida potato!
Oh well, there was plenty of other food!We did have some bad luck and some bad service, some of which I'll get to later. It will all be documented in the form of a letter to the General Manager of The Contemporary. With all of the trouble we had, I believe they owe us at least one free night on the 12th floor, no kidding!
Fortunately, we are seasoned enough travellers to not let this kind of stuff keep us from having a good time. The annoying part is that most of the problems we encountered were service related (not counting the hot water) and those kind of problems are inexcusible in a hotel at the level of the Contemporary. End of mini-rant!
goslingl
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These potatoes could possibly be the only disappointment - they were very bland not to mention funny-looking. The fingerling must be some kind of native-Florida potato!
We did have some bad luck and some bad service, some of which I'll get to later. It will all be documented in the form of a letter to the General Manager of The Contemporary. With all of the trouble we had, I believe they owe us at least one free night on the 12th floor, no kidding!
Fortunately, we are seasoned enough travellers to not let this kind of stuff keep us from having a good time. The annoying part is that most of the problems we encountered were service related (not counting the hot water) and those kind of problems are inexcusible in a hotel at the level of the Contemporary. End of mini-rant!
I agree they owe you that much.
njprincess
I thought I should give you warning. We're taking
- Joined
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- Messages
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Hiya Everybody!
It's Wednesday morning and today is going to be our busiest day! Today's plans include MGM (Disney may call it Hollywood Studios, but it will always be MGM to us), Disney Quest (a little later in the day) followed by La Nouba and ending up with dinner at Raglan Road. Whew!
This morning, we looked out from our balcony and got a BIG surprise:
Yes, there was a giant Space Ship Earth balloon right out in front of the hotel! The balloon was tethered and it appeared that they were giving people rides by taking them up a bit and then bringing them down. It didn't look like the balloon was going that far, but since we were on the 12th floor looking down, it was probably further than it looked. Thank you Disney for arranging this early morning entertainment for us!
We decided to eat in the concierge lounge (Frank was getting really good at the espresso/cappuccino machine by now - he was even teaching other people how to use it
) This strategy would enable us to get over to MGM early and make a beeline for Toy Story Mania, right after the rope drop.
We arrived at the MGM turnstiles and it looked pretty crowded, but somehow we managed to find a line that everyone else had missed and scooted into the park in a flash. We headed down Hollywood Blvd. to await the rope drop. I started to look around and I noticed some really pleasant things:
1) Everyone seemed to be in a really good mood and people weren't shoving and/or jockeying for position.
2) I realized that we had somehow managed to get fairly close to the front of the crowd without using our elbows (sorry Karen
).
3) We only had a short wait until the pre-show would begin.
Boy oh boy, in no time we'd be saying hello to Mr. Potato Head, at least if he was working that day. This first time Frank & I went to TSM, back in September, Mr. Potato Head was covered by a tarp and apparently had the day off. Bummer. We were hoping for better luck today.
You can see from these pictures how close we were to the front of the crowd:
The rope dropped and the race was on - everybody was doing their best walk-run over to TSM. Cast members were herding us down the blvd. like little sheep. We kept our pace and managed to pass some of the slow movers, edging closer to the front. TSM was in sight!
From our last visit, we knew better than to be distracted by the Fast Path queue, which actually comes before the ride (Disney should really do a better job of separating these queues when the park opens). Onward! The next thing we knew we were headed into the building! We were running through the queue! Lo and Behold - Mr. Potato Head WAS working today!!!
Mr. Potato Head! Mr. Potato Head! we screamed, as we were running past him! But alas Mr. P.H. did not hear us and we and to continue through the queue lest we be trampled by the mob behind us. We bolted up the stairs, down and around the hallway and headed back down the other side where arcade nirvana awaited!!! What Joy! 
We jumped into our waiting car and Frank looked at his watch: 9:09 AM! We had set a new personal best record for ourselves!!! We could hardly wait to start shooting defenseless little creatures with our cannons.
Oh boy, do I love this ride!!! I wish I could remember our final scores, but I pretty sure Frank wiped up the floor with me (hey, I had unexpectedly emerged as the victor from Buzz Lightyear 2 days before) but I wasn't too disappointed because I had so much fun! But I just can't figure out that ring toss part - I always aim too high or too low
. One thing I did notice this time is that there are some very high scoring targets down low - I guess everyone has a tendency to look up and not down.
We headed out to the street and went over to look at some of the TSM merchandise. Frank and I have always been big fans of the little space aliens (ooooooooooo, the claw is our master!). When we originally saw Toy Story, we were practically falling out of our seats we were laughing so hard at these little guys! Well the newest toy available is a blowup, remote controlled space alien that even talks (OK, so it says ooooooooooo). A CM told Frank he could play with it and I thought we were going to spend the rest of the day there! He finally handed off the remote a little kid and we headed over to The Great Movie Ride.
GMR has always been a favorite of mine. I especially like the part at the end when they show all the movie clips. As we entered the ride, we wondered if we were going to get the cowboy or the gangster to highjack our car. The girl who was our tour guide wasn't very good - I like the ones that really get into it but this one sounded like she was reading the script! Turns out that we actually got a FEMALE gangster, a first for us, and she was TERRIBLE!!! She sounded like she was channeling Barbra Streisand, however, I don't ever remember Barbra playing a gangster. Maybe we were overly critical because we are from NY and we know what REAL NY accents sound like - this was not it! We were really glad when she got caught stealing the jewel!!! Of course, I sang along with the Munchkins, especially on Follow the Yellowbrick Road! (I can sing just like a munchkin, I know all the words, but I usually have to have a few cocktails before I will serenade other people
) I was happy to see that the movie montage has been updated to include a lot of newer movies (including Disney movies, what a coinky dinky )
Back into the sunlight, we headed for Star Tours, an oldie but goodie. On our way into the ride, Frank ran into a few Imperial Storm Troopers:
Aren't you a little short for a storm trooper?
They were getting ready to head into the Jedi Training Academy:
We had a short wait once we hit the front of the queue. I've been on this ride many, many times but we've never actually made it to the forest moon of Endor - we always end up at the Death Star!
No visit would be complete without a trip to the Muppet Labs:
We just love the Muppets and sometimes I think the pre-show is even better than the movie, which is pretty fun too! If you find yourself in this place, make it a point to read the writing on the prop crates - they are hysterical. You'll also see things like 'a net full of jello' (ok, sound it out Mouseketeers!) Funny thing happened here - since it wasn't too crowded, the CM told us to take a seat anywhere in the theater. We entered a row and the family ahead of us sat down in the middle of the theater. Frank and I tried to excuse ourselves, to get past them, so we would be closer to the door, when the movie was over. As I passed them, the woman said very snottily 'they SAID we could sit anywhere we WANTED!' and I responded 'yes, and we WANT to sit OVER THERE!'. Then her husband poked her and told her to be quiet!
After the movie, we strolled around the streets of NY, trying to decide what to do for lunch. B/T/W some of the Osborne Family Lights were still up! Once again, since we were trying to do things we hadn't done for awhile, I suggested we try to see if we could get a walk-in reservation at the 50's Prime Time Cafe, since it was early. Turns out, they could accommodate us. Here's Frank waiting in Mom's living room:
We got a GREAT table, actually more like a kitchen counter (it had the same pattern of Formica that my aunt & uncle had in the 60's!):
We had a very amusing waiter that was constantly fighting with his brother. If you've been here before, you know that the amount of fun you have is directly proportional to the nuttiness of you server. We both ordered (real!) cherry cokes and some onion rings (excellent) for an appetizer. I ordered the fried chicken, which was a 1/2 a chicken (yummy but too much) and Frank had the chicken caesar salad (I think?). Of course, I didn't eat all my veggies and our server tried to do the choo-choo train to get me to eat them. Fortunately, he got distracted and I got away with it! We ordered the S'mores to split for dessert and they were yummy as always. If you've never had them here, they take a Fiestawear plate, cover it with graham crackers, then chocolate, cover it with marshmallows and stick it under the broiler - yum yum. Can you believe I forgot to take a picture! AUGHHHHH!
With our tummies full, we headed back to Hollywood Boulevard to do some shopping. We stumbled upon some street performers: 2 ladies were trying to give each other the perfect present. Unfortunately, most of the 'presents' were made up of property they had 'borrowed' from the audience, including a camera and a cell phone. The woman in the middle is actually a 'personal assistant' that one gave to the other:
We decided to hit the road and head back to our luxurious hotel (luxurious, now that the hot water was back!) since we still had many stops to make this day.
The next stop would be Disney Quest!
It's Wednesday morning and today is going to be our busiest day! Today's plans include MGM (Disney may call it Hollywood Studios, but it will always be MGM to us), Disney Quest (a little later in the day) followed by La Nouba and ending up with dinner at Raglan Road. Whew!
This morning, we looked out from our balcony and got a BIG surprise:
Yes, there was a giant Space Ship Earth balloon right out in front of the hotel! The balloon was tethered and it appeared that they were giving people rides by taking them up a bit and then bringing them down. It didn't look like the balloon was going that far, but since we were on the 12th floor looking down, it was probably further than it looked. Thank you Disney for arranging this early morning entertainment for us!
We decided to eat in the concierge lounge (Frank was getting really good at the espresso/cappuccino machine by now - he was even teaching other people how to use it
) This strategy would enable us to get over to MGM early and make a beeline for Toy Story Mania, right after the rope drop. We arrived at the MGM turnstiles and it looked pretty crowded, but somehow we managed to find a line that everyone else had missed and scooted into the park in a flash. We headed down Hollywood Blvd. to await the rope drop. I started to look around and I noticed some really pleasant things:
1) Everyone seemed to be in a really good mood and people weren't shoving and/or jockeying for position.
2) I realized that we had somehow managed to get fairly close to the front of the crowd without using our elbows (sorry Karen
).3) We only had a short wait until the pre-show would begin.
Boy oh boy, in no time we'd be saying hello to Mr. Potato Head, at least if he was working that day. This first time Frank & I went to TSM, back in September, Mr. Potato Head was covered by a tarp and apparently had the day off. Bummer. We were hoping for better luck today.
You can see from these pictures how close we were to the front of the crowd:
The rope dropped and the race was on - everybody was doing their best walk-run over to TSM. Cast members were herding us down the blvd. like little sheep. We kept our pace and managed to pass some of the slow movers, edging closer to the front. TSM was in sight!
From our last visit, we knew better than to be distracted by the Fast Path queue, which actually comes before the ride (Disney should really do a better job of separating these queues when the park opens). Onward! The next thing we knew we were headed into the building! We were running through the queue! Lo and Behold - Mr. Potato Head WAS working today!!!
Mr. Potato Head! Mr. Potato Head! we screamed, as we were running past him! But alas Mr. P.H. did not hear us and we and to continue through the queue lest we be trampled by the mob behind us. We bolted up the stairs, down and around the hallway and headed back down the other side where arcade nirvana awaited!!! What Joy! We jumped into our waiting car and Frank looked at his watch: 9:09 AM! We had set a new personal best record for ourselves!!! We could hardly wait to start shooting defenseless little creatures with our cannons.Oh boy, do I love this ride!!! I wish I could remember our final scores, but I pretty sure Frank wiped up the floor with me (hey, I had unexpectedly emerged as the victor from Buzz Lightyear 2 days before) but I wasn't too disappointed because I had so much fun! But I just can't figure out that ring toss part - I always aim too high or too low
. One thing I did notice this time is that there are some very high scoring targets down low - I guess everyone has a tendency to look up and not down. We headed out to the street and went over to look at some of the TSM merchandise. Frank and I have always been big fans of the little space aliens (ooooooooooo, the claw is our master!). When we originally saw Toy Story, we were practically falling out of our seats we were laughing so hard at these little guys! Well the newest toy available is a blowup, remote controlled space alien that even talks (OK, so it says ooooooooooo). A CM told Frank he could play with it and I thought we were going to spend the rest of the day there! He finally handed off the remote a little kid and we headed over to The Great Movie Ride.
GMR has always been a favorite of mine. I especially like the part at the end when they show all the movie clips. As we entered the ride, we wondered if we were going to get the cowboy or the gangster to highjack our car. The girl who was our tour guide wasn't very good - I like the ones that really get into it but this one sounded like she was reading the script! Turns out that we actually got a FEMALE gangster, a first for us, and she was TERRIBLE!!! She sounded like she was channeling Barbra Streisand, however, I don't ever remember Barbra playing a gangster. Maybe we were overly critical because we are from NY and we know what REAL NY accents sound like - this was not it! We were really glad when she got caught stealing the jewel!!! Of course, I sang along with the Munchkins, especially on Follow the Yellowbrick Road! (I can sing just like a munchkin, I know all the words, but I usually have to have a few cocktails before I will serenade other people
) I was happy to see that the movie montage has been updated to include a lot of newer movies (including Disney movies, what a coinky dinky )Back into the sunlight, we headed for Star Tours, an oldie but goodie. On our way into the ride, Frank ran into a few Imperial Storm Troopers:
Aren't you a little short for a storm trooper?
They were getting ready to head into the Jedi Training Academy:
We had a short wait once we hit the front of the queue. I've been on this ride many, many times but we've never actually made it to the forest moon of Endor - we always end up at the Death Star!
No visit would be complete without a trip to the Muppet Labs:
We just love the Muppets and sometimes I think the pre-show is even better than the movie, which is pretty fun too! If you find yourself in this place, make it a point to read the writing on the prop crates - they are hysterical. You'll also see things like 'a net full of jello' (ok, sound it out Mouseketeers!) Funny thing happened here - since it wasn't too crowded, the CM told us to take a seat anywhere in the theater. We entered a row and the family ahead of us sat down in the middle of the theater. Frank and I tried to excuse ourselves, to get past them, so we would be closer to the door, when the movie was over. As I passed them, the woman said very snottily 'they SAID we could sit anywhere we WANTED!' and I responded 'yes, and we WANT to sit OVER THERE!'. Then her husband poked her and told her to be quiet!
After the movie, we strolled around the streets of NY, trying to decide what to do for lunch. B/T/W some of the Osborne Family Lights were still up! Once again, since we were trying to do things we hadn't done for awhile, I suggested we try to see if we could get a walk-in reservation at the 50's Prime Time Cafe, since it was early. Turns out, they could accommodate us. Here's Frank waiting in Mom's living room:
We got a GREAT table, actually more like a kitchen counter (it had the same pattern of Formica that my aunt & uncle had in the 60's!):
We had a very amusing waiter that was constantly fighting with his brother. If you've been here before, you know that the amount of fun you have is directly proportional to the nuttiness of you server. We both ordered (real!) cherry cokes and some onion rings (excellent) for an appetizer. I ordered the fried chicken, which was a 1/2 a chicken (yummy but too much) and Frank had the chicken caesar salad (I think?). Of course, I didn't eat all my veggies and our server tried to do the choo-choo train to get me to eat them. Fortunately, he got distracted and I got away with it! We ordered the S'mores to split for dessert and they were yummy as always. If you've never had them here, they take a Fiestawear plate, cover it with graham crackers, then chocolate, cover it with marshmallows and stick it under the broiler - yum yum. Can you believe I forgot to take a picture! AUGHHHHH!
With our tummies full, we headed back to Hollywood Boulevard to do some shopping. We stumbled upon some street performers: 2 ladies were trying to give each other the perfect present. Unfortunately, most of the 'presents' were made up of property they had 'borrowed' from the audience, including a camera and a cell phone. The woman in the middle is actually a 'personal assistant' that one gave to the other:
We decided to hit the road and head back to our luxurious hotel (luxurious, now that the hot water was back!) since we still had many stops to make this day.
The next stop would be Disney Quest!
njprincess
I thought I should give you warning. We're taking
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- Jun 26, 2008
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- 4,284
GOS
Livin' for Disney holidays with great friends
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- Aug 23, 2006
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- 12,107
Little Green Men
njprincess
I thought I should give you warning. We're taking
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Karen Mouse
resiurK deknoK
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Just caught up
Stooopid bad back made me miss a couple of days
Way to go getting on Mr P ride by 9am!
Its fab isnt it! - I wish they'd bring out something similar for the wii!
Stooopid bad back made me miss a couple of days
Way to go getting on Mr P ride by 9am!
Its fab isnt it! - I wish they'd bring out something similar for the wii!
cntkg1
<b><font color=blue>Runs with Scissors!!<br><font
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2005
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- 10,349
So, all we really have to do is get you all liquored up on the cruise and you'll sing to us?? Careful Kathy, you could be the new picture on the Dumbotron with sound this time! Won't the Dawg be pleased it isn't him again?
I don't believe you ran into snotty people at Disney. That isn't allowed!! Maybe her name was "a net full a jelly".
I don't believe you ran into snotty people at Disney.
That isn't allowed!! Maybe her name was "a net full a jelly". -
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