Trip Reports

[RockinDisney]

Hope you are feeling better!! I really like the pic of the castle at night. And WOW I guess the EMH is worth staying for!!!!

 

[TuckandStuiesMom]

1.) Hope you're feeling better
2.) This continues to be a GREAT TR -- Luv the pics!
3.) Even the faux Captain Jack is cute -- Ay Carumba!!!!!

 

[ss9498]

Great report. I hope you feel better soon.

 

[NHdisneylover]

Enjoying your latest installment and sending some virtual chicken soup your way.

 

[BarleyJack]

Thanks for the well wishes everyone. I'm starting to feel some better finally, just in time to go back to work tomorrow...blah

Day 4, MLK Day, Jan 21 I think this was the day that killed by feet. Despite staying out for EMH the night before, for some reason we still got upl early and went to MGM, errr DHS for rope drop. Needless to say I was a bit cranky this am. Just aske the lady who cut be off at the security bag check. She felt she needed to enter the park 3 seconds before I did and thusly plopped her bag down on the table in front of mine. I said to her, "Oh, I didn't realized you were a VIP, by all means please go ahead!" She gave me kind of a nasty look but the security guard chuckled. Like I said, I was cranky.
Here's a pic:

Anyway......we enter the park and I"m thinking, Good Lord its crowded. Then I realized it was a rope drop opening ceremony. We'd never seen one before. It was pretty cool actually, helped lighten my mood, despite the mean lady, early morning, and this crowd:

This was our first time to this park, and all we really knew about it was that it was about movies, and we had to ride ToT and RnR as priorities. Having never been here, I knew we had to go to the right after rope drop, beyond that there was no plan LOL.

Lights! Camera! Action! Hollywood here we come! And they're off. It was like a 75% off sale at a toy store the day after thanksgiving. Everyone booked it.....booked it to the right of course lol. Still, we found where we going without problems. We got fastpasses first for ToT and then got in line for it. I was thinking we'd ride it more than once. The wait was about 15 minutes. I snapped a few pics on the way:

As far as the ride itself goes, holy crap! I knew it would be amazing, but I totally didn't expect to be so shaken by it! I'm a thrill ride junkie after all, right? Well, I screamed like a girl (no offense the girls of course). Generally on rollercoasters etc, I will scream and yell, but out of fun. This ride genuinely scared me and I didn't expect it to. When we got off we had to sit. I was shaking. Gosh what a rush.

Needless to say we opted to not use our FPs for a second ride this day and gave them to a couple in line at the FP machines. They were so grateful, little did they know. Anyway.

After a brief break to recover we went on:

This is a great roller coaster! No, its not the fastest or has the most inversions of any ride we've been on, but it is way fun!

After the roller coaster we just wandered really, trying to figure out how this park was laid out. Its completely different from the other parks and took some getting use to really. We went on the great movie ride (cute) and sounds dangerous (yawn). I think lack of sleep was really affecting us, neither of use really wanted to be at this park. We decided to eat and head back to MK. In retrospect we should have headed back to MK and THEN eaten. Hindsight is 20/20.

We ate at the ABC Commissary. Daniel took our order, he was a riot. Steve had the Lost fish and chips, and I had the Ugly Betty burger. Does abc know they have named crappy food after their best 2 shows? Yikes! This is what they looked like:

Steve said the fish was actually OK.

That's what was left of my burger. It wasn't really very good. No worries tho, we here having dinner at Hoop Dee Doo later tonight, and that was bound to be fantastic, right? (actually it was great).

So on this happy note we leave DHS and head back to MK. I wasn't really paying too much attention to the time but we arrived on Main Street just before 3! Lo and behold that's parade time! We find a spot just on the entrance side of Casey's to watch without an obstructed view! Whoohooo! At least, until this girl showed up:

The poor man sitting on the curb in front of me kept getting smacked in the head by her bag as she reached her arms out in front of me as I tried to take pics. Finally I said to her, "Excuse Me!" and she backed off for a bit. Then she leaned in one more time and kneed the man in the back and he looked at her and said "No! Move back!" she apologized and muttered something in what sounded like Portuguese and left. Whew!

We got some cool parade pics tho!

Am I the only one who thinks Peter Pan looks like Clay Aiken? But I digress...

So after the parade we head into the Adventureland/Frontierland area. We had done everything that was a must do at EMH so we were in no hurry. I took a couple of pics the work being done at Splash, here's one:

I wished it was open, but there's always next time!

So we head to the exit and ride the boat to the Wilderness Lodge. We were early for our HDDR but had always wanted to this resort so we thought we'd stop on the way. It is gorgeous. Someday maybe we'll get to stay there. From there we take a bus to Fort Wilderness for the dinner show. I hop on one of the foot massager barrels, but it just ate my money. Oh well. Dogs will have to keep barkin' I guess!

Standing in line to get in there was a family behind us who sounded like they did little to no planning for this trip. They sounded like the Sopranos: Him: "Why did youse choose this? Like I want some friggin cornbread and ice tea!" Her: "I thought the kids might like it, they'll be too old to appreciate it soon". Him: "The kids? What about me? This is one of them country ho down things, right? Her: "They have chicken and ribs, you like ribs". Him "They have ribs? Why did you order me the chicken, you said you ordered the chicken dish" Her: "I didn't order you chicken. You don't listen, just shut up". I was trying not to laugh. We ran into a similar situation of poor planning at AK, but we'll get to that later.

If you haven't seen the HDDR, you have to go! It was a wonderful time. We were on the DDP and so were in Category 2 seating, but we had an awesome seat! We were on the second floor right in front of the sound/light booth. The view was perfect. Yeah we were as far from the stage as you can get but its a small theatre so that didn't matter. Our server was a bit odd, very over the top and kind of plastic-y if that makes any sense, but he was attentive.

Here are some pics:

If you haven't seen the HDDR I highly suggest it! We had so much fun and the food was pretty good actually. As far as cost goes, just remember that you are paying more for the show than the food, and the show is worth it (not to mention the included alcohol, we had a pitcher of sangria !)

Back to POR via bus (they were waiting as we exited Pioneer Hall) for a good night's sleep. We had to sleep in tomorrow, and sleep in we did!

Thanks for reading, seey'all next time....

 

[OrlandoMike]

All the servers at the HDDR are a bit odd.....

CopncK, care to explain......

Great TR!

 

[ConcKahuna]

All the servers at the HDDR are a bit odd.....

CopncK, care to explain......

Great TR!

Like the person who introduces themselves with their name forward and backwards drives a car that looks like it is being held together with UFO society bumper stickers...

 

[BarleyJack]

Like the person who introduces themselves with their name forward and backwards drives a car that looks like it is being held together with UFO society bumper stickers...

I think our server's name was Richard if memory serves me correctly. I don't remember him referring to himself as Drahcir, but honestly it wouldn't have surprised me

 

[ConcKahuna]

I think our server's name was Richard if memory serves me correctly. I don't remember him referring to himself as Drahcir, but honestly it wouldn't have surprised me

Nope, the one I have in mind has a three-letter name, and backwards it sounds like someone who isn't interesting, or one of Pumbaa's cousins...

 

[OrlandoMike]

Lets just put it this way.....

Roy Disney hired most of them!

 

[CanadianGuy]

I bet at least one of them is convinced he/she was hired by Walt!

Ahem.

Knox

 

[BarleyJack]

Well alrighty then. They did seem to be a bit more ummm, aged than the other servers we ran into. I hear someone has to die for a new server to get a job there. I've also heard they are the highest paid waitstaff of any restaurant at WDW. Not sure I understand why. Seems that its easier to carry a bunch of buckets of pre determined/timed food than it would be to serve at a place like V&A. But what do I know......

 

[ConcKahuna]

Well alrighty then. They did seem to be a bit more ummm, aged than the other servers we ran into. I hear someone has to die for a new server to get a job there. I've also heard they are the highest paid waitstaff of any restaurant at WDW. Not sure I understand why. Seems that its easier to carry a bunch of buckets of pre determined/timed food than it would be to serve at a place like V&A. But what do I know......

I've seen the pay sheets, most of them bring home about $4k a week. There are 2 reasons for this. 1) 3 shows a night, 7 nights a week, and except in the slowest seasons all 3 shows are booked solid. 2) Garunteed 18% tip off of each and every table.

So let's say a server has 6 tables per show, and all of their tables are in category 2 seating (lots of folks on the DDP, and dinner shows still include tips). The gratuity for a part of 4 adults in tier 2 is just a few cents under $30. So we'll say the average is 4 people per table (each "section" will normally have a few larger and a few smaller tables). When you have 6 tables (and I'm pretty sure they actually have 10 or 12) that's $180 a show in tips. With three shows a night that's $540 if their section is full for all 3 shows, and $2700 for the week. That's not including aditional gratuity that people may leave.

So really, would you give that up for anything short of death, especially when you're just dropping off buckets?

 

[BarleyJack]

I've seen the pay sheets, most of them bring home about $4k a week. There are 2 reasons for this. 1) 3 shows a night, 7 nights a week, and except in the slowest seasons all 3 shows are booked solid. 2) Garunteed 18% tip off of each and every table.

So let's say a server has 6 tables per show, and all of their tables are in category 2 seating (lots of folks on the DDP, and dinner shows still include tips). The gratuity for a part of 4 adults in tier 2 is just a few cents under $30. So we'll say the average is 4 people per table (each "section" will normally have a few larger and a few smaller tables). When you have 6 tables (and I'm pretty sure they actually have 10 or 12) that's $180 a show in tips. With three shows a night that's $540 if their section is full for all 3 shows, and $2700 for the week. That's not including aditional gratuity that people may leave.

So really, would you give that up for anything short of death, especially when you're just dropping off buckets?

No, I wouldn't give it up either. Makes me wonder why I ever went to nursing school. Oh well.

 

[scottny]

just found your report. u should pimp yourself out so people know. great report and pics so far.

wasn't Riverside just great. I loved it. I had the french toast stuffed with bananas and I thought it was really good.

looking forward to more.

 

[I<3EvilQueen]

I am so jealous at how great your pictures are.
And the pics of the half eaten food are just funny

 

[OrlandoMike]

I am so jealous at how great your pictures are.
And the pics of the half eaten food are just funny

I<3EvilQueen

We are all looking forward to your TR in three weeks! How many days till you leave?

Who's excited now?

 

[I<3EvilQueen]

I<3EvilQueen

We are all looking forward to your TR in three weeks! How many days till you leave?

Who's excited now?

I leave on Sunday. And yes I am excited, but it will be a long week as everyone around me is sick and I am trying to fight them off with out getting sick myself. Woke up this morning with the sniffles so I am going to try fixing that.

 

[ConcKahuna]

Are ya gonna come visit me? I get bored at work!

 

[TuckandStuiesMom]

I leave on Sunday. And yes I am excited, but it will be a long week as everyone around me is sick and I am trying to fight them off with out getting sick myself. Woke up this morning with the sniffles so I am going to try fixing that.

Lots of hot tea, vitamin C, and Zinc. And think positive thoughts