Before i start just to clarify why i am making an issue of what DH is buying. This is the guy who will drive 22 miles to our nearest town, park up, go to the only shop where he wants to get whatever he has gone for, get back into car and come home. But come Orlando i sometimes think i have the wrong husband with me.....
I continue our adventure, as mentioned a huge planning mistake made here.
SATURDAY 9TH NOVEMBER 2002
Planned MGM and Fantasmic reservation.
Now when i made the ps for fantasmic i did not realise what weekend it was going to be until we actually arrived at the park. That will teach me to do a bit more research.
I managed to sleep and extra 15mins this morning before getting up to read the paper and have a cup of tea. Once DH surfaced we got ready and were out by about 8.30 one of our earlier times this holiday. We went back to the Golden Corall again as we loved the food etc here.
We got to MGM at 9.45 parked miles away from the park, this should of been our first sign of warning, because after arriving at the entrance we could see HUGE queues waiting to go through security, still didnt click on to something happening. We had to change our vouchers for tickets, so i joined the long snaking line and got chatting to a really nice american couple and she was enthuising about meeting all the "stars" so i said what stars. She then went on to inform me that its soap weekend and probably one of the busies times in MGM, at this point some funny groaning sounds escaped from me. It took 40mins to get to guest services to change the vouchers this was the easy part. We thought as we were here we might as well have a look in the park so off through the turnstiles we went., walked about 50meters promptly turned around and headed for the bus terminal, it was jampacked and heaving putting it mildly. So we caught the bus to Epcot instead. On arrival this park was like a morgue, so much so CM were trying to usher people into seeing the shows. First stop as ever spaceship Earth, love this ride and it was a walkon with only a handful of people in sight. Went and had a fiddle around in inovations then moved onto HISTA the auditorium was about a quater full, why do we always jump at the mice when we know what is going to happen, and i always close my eyes at the snake, a bit to realistic for me. We then went of to the new figment, i dont know if it is just us but the new revamped figgy is not a patch on the old one, on the old ride we could have sat there all day, but we were both quite disappointed with the new version. In the shop DH brought guess what, yep another Tshirt and a figment baseball cap complete with horns etc, which gets its on moment of fame later on today. He wore the hat for most of the day much to my embarrassment lol. Then onto the living seas, and just to show what a small world it really is we bumped into two close friends of ours whilst in the queue for the living land. Again almost no wait here either.. We then went and spent a considerable amount of time looking in mousegear, watching the musical water fountain. We then went and had a look at the underground tanks of fish, etc and DH brought yet another Tshirt. We then deceided to get the bus back to MGM as we had a PS for 18.00 for the Hollywood and Vine for fantasmic package. Got through gates no problem and the park seemed to be a bit quieter but as we walked deeper into the park we were caught up in very large volumes of people running from one autograph signing point to the next and not giving a damn who or what was in there way, so at this point we ducked in to WWTBAM, this is where figment hat got its moment of glory. Whilst waiting for the show to begin they were showing people up on the big screen, up came my DH and the commentator shouted, just where did you get that hat!!! well that made DHs day. Two guys got into the chair, first went really quick and the second did okay, i must admit that i found the questions really difficult as they were aimed more at the american audience than anything else, but a very slick and entertaining show. We then went round to the muppets show. although this never seems to change we think it is very well done and very entertaining each time, and the pre show is very good as well. After leaving the muppets it was getting near out PS time so we fought our way back through the masses, and i not joking here and checked in at the desk, where there were a lot of people moaning about how long the wait was if the didnt have a PS, at least that worked out well. We were 20 mins early but only had to wait 10 mins for our table. Our server was a chap named Cody who was brilliant. Several people had birthdays and got given balloons and sang to by the cast and public alike, a brilliant atmosphere and the food was plentiful and hot and fresh. Suitably fed and watered we paid the bill and got our passes to fantasmic, the next few moments after stepping out the the H and V were probably the most frightended i have ever felt at Disney. Literally as we exited the H and V we could see what could only be described as a mini riot going on just down on the main street, with masses of shoving, swearing and possibly some fisticuffs between huge crowds of people and some very distraught children, what was going on.....???? well the "stars" were doing a parade down the main street in open top cars and the crowds were going completely bonkers, it was very scarey from where we were now sitting just outside the restaurant. These people were unbelievable, crying shouting and running after these people, never seen anything like it in my life nor do i want to again. We let the crowd disperse and made our way over to the special entrance for fantasmic. This was a brilliant show and i would strongly recommend no one to miss it. The crowd got into a really good mood before the show we some mexican waves which created a very good atmosphere. After the show finnished at 8.35 we made a good exit the way we had come so came out by the entrance, a tram was waiting so it was straight back to the car. For some unknown reason this was the the one and only time this 3 week stay that we got the correct road straight back to the 192 and we were back in hotel room at 9.00pm as you will see from further reports we took some very long detours home. After hot bath and a bit of TV we agreed to a repeat visit to finnish of MGM another day. Lights out exhausted.
Thoughts.
David shopping, yet another 4 tshirts to the collection.
Alison. DIdnt buy anything today.
The weather was a very hot 84 degrees with a very light breeze and it was rather humid and sticky when watching fantasmic.
A word of warning NEVER EVER go the MGM on soap weekend, its murder. More to come
in part six.
I continue our adventure, as mentioned a huge planning mistake made here.
SATURDAY 9TH NOVEMBER 2002
Planned MGM and Fantasmic reservation.
Now when i made the ps for fantasmic i did not realise what weekend it was going to be until we actually arrived at the park. That will teach me to do a bit more research.
I managed to sleep and extra 15mins this morning before getting up to read the paper and have a cup of tea. Once DH surfaced we got ready and were out by about 8.30 one of our earlier times this holiday. We went back to the Golden Corall again as we loved the food etc here.
We got to MGM at 9.45 parked miles away from the park, this should of been our first sign of warning, because after arriving at the entrance we could see HUGE queues waiting to go through security, still didnt click on to something happening. We had to change our vouchers for tickets, so i joined the long snaking line and got chatting to a really nice american couple and she was enthuising about meeting all the "stars" so i said what stars. She then went on to inform me that its soap weekend and probably one of the busies times in MGM, at this point some funny groaning sounds escaped from me. It took 40mins to get to guest services to change the vouchers this was the easy part. We thought as we were here we might as well have a look in the park so off through the turnstiles we went., walked about 50meters promptly turned around and headed for the bus terminal, it was jampacked and heaving putting it mildly. So we caught the bus to Epcot instead. On arrival this park was like a morgue, so much so CM were trying to usher people into seeing the shows. First stop as ever spaceship Earth, love this ride and it was a walkon with only a handful of people in sight. Went and had a fiddle around in inovations then moved onto HISTA the auditorium was about a quater full, why do we always jump at the mice when we know what is going to happen, and i always close my eyes at the snake, a bit to realistic for me. We then went of to the new figment, i dont know if it is just us but the new revamped figgy is not a patch on the old one, on the old ride we could have sat there all day, but we were both quite disappointed with the new version. In the shop DH brought guess what, yep another Tshirt and a figment baseball cap complete with horns etc, which gets its on moment of fame later on today. He wore the hat for most of the day much to my embarrassment lol. Then onto the living seas, and just to show what a small world it really is we bumped into two close friends of ours whilst in the queue for the living land. Again almost no wait here either.. We then went and spent a considerable amount of time looking in mousegear, watching the musical water fountain. We then went and had a look at the underground tanks of fish, etc and DH brought yet another Tshirt. We then deceided to get the bus back to MGM as we had a PS for 18.00 for the Hollywood and Vine for fantasmic package. Got through gates no problem and the park seemed to be a bit quieter but as we walked deeper into the park we were caught up in very large volumes of people running from one autograph signing point to the next and not giving a damn who or what was in there way, so at this point we ducked in to WWTBAM, this is where figment hat got its moment of glory. Whilst waiting for the show to begin they were showing people up on the big screen, up came my DH and the commentator shouted, just where did you get that hat!!! well that made DHs day. Two guys got into the chair, first went really quick and the second did okay, i must admit that i found the questions really difficult as they were aimed more at the american audience than anything else, but a very slick and entertaining show. We then went round to the muppets show. although this never seems to change we think it is very well done and very entertaining each time, and the pre show is very good as well. After leaving the muppets it was getting near out PS time so we fought our way back through the masses, and i not joking here and checked in at the desk, where there were a lot of people moaning about how long the wait was if the didnt have a PS, at least that worked out well. We were 20 mins early but only had to wait 10 mins for our table. Our server was a chap named Cody who was brilliant. Several people had birthdays and got given balloons and sang to by the cast and public alike, a brilliant atmosphere and the food was plentiful and hot and fresh. Suitably fed and watered we paid the bill and got our passes to fantasmic, the next few moments after stepping out the the H and V were probably the most frightended i have ever felt at Disney. Literally as we exited the H and V we could see what could only be described as a mini riot going on just down on the main street, with masses of shoving, swearing and possibly some fisticuffs between huge crowds of people and some very distraught children, what was going on.....???? well the "stars" were doing a parade down the main street in open top cars and the crowds were going completely bonkers, it was very scarey from where we were now sitting just outside the restaurant. These people were unbelievable, crying shouting and running after these people, never seen anything like it in my life nor do i want to again. We let the crowd disperse and made our way over to the special entrance for fantasmic. This was a brilliant show and i would strongly recommend no one to miss it. The crowd got into a really good mood before the show we some mexican waves which created a very good atmosphere. After the show finnished at 8.35 we made a good exit the way we had come so came out by the entrance, a tram was waiting so it was straight back to the car. For some unknown reason this was the the one and only time this 3 week stay that we got the correct road straight back to the 192 and we were back in hotel room at 9.00pm as you will see from further reports we took some very long detours home. After hot bath and a bit of TV we agreed to a repeat visit to finnish of MGM another day. Lights out exhausted.
Thoughts.
David shopping, yet another 4 tshirts to the collection.
Alison. DIdnt buy anything today.
The weather was a very hot 84 degrees with a very light breeze and it was rather humid and sticky when watching fantasmic.
A word of warning NEVER EVER go the MGM on soap weekend, its murder. More to come
in part six.
! I don't know whether to praise him for really getting into the Disney thing or you for putting up with the hat with horns 
