GarrettJD
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 5, 2003
- Messages
- 1,598
Cast of characters
Garrett, age 27- Your humble Narrator. Dedicated Disney nut who obsessively plans every single detail of his vacation, driving seemingly everyone else in the free world completely nuts with his constant talk about WDW. Is known for being the person you'd better not mention WDW too, as he'll never shut up... and heaven forbid if you say you're GOING to WDW... he'll try to plan your trip for you, too! He is in management at a major mall-based book chain and has singlehandedly sold enough copies of the Unofficial Guide and the Passporter to lay waste to a small forest. Has been to Disney only twice before (1984 and 2003), but is planning on making an annual trip if finances allow (fingers crossed...)
Nikkie, age 29- Music teacher extraordinaire who really needs the annual break from her students (what a great idea... going from a classroom full of screaming kids to a theme park full of screaming kids). Also a devoted Disney fan, especially of Winnie the Pooh. Not quite the rabid WDW aficionado I am, but she's getting there! Made her first trip last year with me after years of planning, and I think she was more sad to leave than I was... so we immediately planned the next trip!
Day 8- Tuesday, June 8
Plan: Epcot morning, Magic Kingdom evening , dinner at Crystal Palace, Spectro and Wishes
Actual:
OK. I apologize. I ended the report yesterday on a slightly pessimistic note-- either becuase of the Fantasmic thing, or maybe knowing that today is our last full day at WDW
. It's hard to enjoy yourself when you know you're headed back home the next day. However, for the time being we put that out of our heads-- we were going to make the most of this day! 
Anyway, we woke up at about 7:00 and strated getting ready. I made the mug run this time and we made it out the door and to the bus stop about 8:00. We got to the bus stop shortly after 8:00, and, once again, there were a million people in line for Disney-MGM, the EE park of the day. Come on, guys-- you've already missed the beginning of EE-- it'll be too crowded! Oh well. Too bad for them. We waited for a while at the bus stop, and arrived at Epcot about 8:40. Once again we got to watch the character bus opening ceremonies. At 9:00 they let us in and I almost went to Mission: Space, but I chickened out. Maybe next trip.
We were going to go and do Test Track again, but I thought, what the heck-- we've done it already. Let's go and meet the characters on the bus. This turned out to be a good decision, as the lines were very, VERY short. We got a picture with Mickey Mouse, and a professional photographer also took our picture and gave us a card so we could check it out later. I then took Nikkie's picture with Geppetto, then we both got our picture taken with Donald. I tried to get Donald's handler's attention so he could take our picture, but I couldn't. Donald threw a fit, stomped his foot, and went over and got his attention. We got a great picture with Donald. Around that time the characters were leaving. Boy, that was fun.
We decided to go on over to Test Track. The line, of course, was long already, so we picked up Fastpasses for 9:40 then headed over to the only Future World attraction we hadn't done on either trip-- Honey, I Shrunk the Audience. On the way over to Imgination, Nikkie started to get sad-- I think it really hit her then that this was our last full day. We discussed our uncertain financial future and made some tentative plans to get back to WDW as soon as possible-- hopefully in June of next year. I managed to cheer her up a little bit.
We made it over to Honey, I Shrunk the Audience right as the preshow started. We enjoyed the preshow-- it was cute, despite having nothing to do with the attraction itself. I really liked those monitors in the preshow room-- I could use one in our living room. I asked Nikkie if she thought it would be alright if I grabbed one of them and ran. She didn't seem to tink it was such a great idea.
Anyway, we both really enjoyed HISTA-- and yes, we did squirm when the mice got loose. This show does have some really neat effects. It's a fun show, but it's no Philharmagic. We left Imagination and walked towards Ice Station Cool-- I wanted one last hit of Smart Watermelon. As we walked over there, the Jammitors were just finishing a set, and we had just missed it. Something to see the next trip, I say. It turned out that Ice Station Cool didn't open until 10:00, so we browsed around Mousegear for awhile, deciding on souveniers (we hadn't bought many yet.) We decided to put off our shopping for the time being and go over to Test Track to use our Fastpasses.
We actually waited quite a while at Test Track even with Fastpass-- I'd say at leat 15 minutes. Once again, we really enjoyed the ride, and everything was working properly this time. We said goodbye to Test Track for this trip and made our way to the Electric Umbrella for an early lunch, as it was now about 10:25 and we were both hungry. I got the cheeseburger, and Nikkie got the cheesesteak-- both were good. We were done eating close to 11:00 and decided to try Universe of Energy again, so we got in line and waited for a few minutes, only to get hit with the dreaded "technical difficulties" once again. This ride just wasn't to be on this trip.
We were pretty much done with Epcot at this point, so we walked back to Mousegear and picked up all the stuff we meant to-- a stuffed Mickey and Minnie, some keychains, a Mickey Mouse clinger, and the new Magic Kingdom DVD. By the way, don't buy the new Magic Kingdom DVD... it sucks. Badly. The picture quality is terrible, the pacing is off, and it's an overpriced disappointment. The free WDW trip planning DVD is actually much better than this.
We grabbed our bags and stopped in the Photo Center on the way out of the park to check out our picture. The picture turned out great, so we had to buy it. This made me REALLY glad that we stopped to meet the characters. Our photo in hand, we made our way out of Epcot for the last time this trip. We headed over to the bus stop and got back to our room at Pop Century at about 12:15. We grabbed our mugs, and took some time taking some picturs and video around the resort and in the Classic Hall. While we were in Everything Pop, we checked to see if our Tower of Terror picture from yesterday had arrive. It had, so we picked it up and headed back to the room for a nap.
We awoke from our nap about 2:30 and got ready to go back to the Magic Kingdom. We left the room and got right on a bus, arriving at the Magic Kingdom at 3:20. Upon arriving, the Share a Dream Come True Parade was just finishing up, so we got to enjoy the end of that. As the parade ended, we walked up Main Street and had a look at the tip board. What we saw there almost made us glad we weren't just arriving, because the summer crowds had officially arrived. Long, long waits for just about everything. Instead of trying to do a ride, we just went over to the Crystal Palace to check in for our 4:00 seating. We waited around and were seated right at 4:00.
We were both glad to be back at the Crystal Palace, This is a beautiful restaurant, and Nikkie really loves the Pooh characters, so this is a must stop for us. Last year we did a breakfast, so dinner was new to us, but no surprise-- all the food was excellent. Disney has the best buffets I've seen, bar none. The character interaction was great, too, and we got plent of attention despite having no children with us. We took lots of pictures and video, and we really enjoyed the little "parade"around the restaurant. Anyway, while we wre in there it started POURING rain, similar to last night. We were so glad we were inside.
We took our time with dinner, trying to wait out the rain, but by 5:30 we had been there for an hour and a half and it was still pouring. So, we donned our ponchos and decided to make the best of it. Our first order of business-- to try to make it back to Liberty Square for the Haunted Mansion. Unfortunately the wait was 45 minutes, and the line wasn't moving-- they weren't letting anyone on because people were blocking the exit trying to stay out of the rain. We grabbed Fastpasses and tried to get through to Fantasyland, but there was a huge mass of people everywhere we turned, and we had to squeeze our way through the passage between Liberty Square and Fantasyland because everyone was under it. We kept going, saw the wait times in Fantasyland, and kept right on walking. Yes, the summer crowds are here. How did I know? Pooh was 80 minutes. Philharmagic was 60 minutes. Peter Pan was 140 minutes. That's right-- 2 hours and 20 minutes for a 3 minute ride. I'm glad we had just ridden twice in a row (with no wait) last night during E-ride. Even the relatively unpopular Snow White (which we still haven't done) had a 40 minute wait.
Tomorrowland was much the same situation, except for TTA and Carousel of Progress, of course. We did TTA again, which we enjoy every time-- nice and relaxing. We hopped in line for the Carousel of Progress, but noticed that our Fastpass time was nearing, so we skipped it and went back to Liberty Square, where, although it had stopped raining by now, the congestion still persisted , and the waits were still long. We actually waited over 20 minutes, even with our Fastpasses. The ride seemed to be having some technical difficulties-- it stopped a few times while we were in line, and twice while we were on it. Still, it's a great ride, and we were glad to finally see it on this trip.
After avoiding becoming ghosts numer 1000 and 1001, we saw that thw Liberty Belle was in dock, so we hopped right on and rode. I took some great video all the way around. This was a nice relaxing ride, plus I got some great shots of Big Thunder Mountain and the Haunted Mansion. By now, it was about 7:30, so we were going to ride the train around from Frontierland to Main Street. However, I remembered that we had one last order of business, so we skipped the train and walked to Adventureland. The mission: try one of those Dole Whips I keep hearing so much about. We went to Aloha Isle and grabbed a pineapple Dole Whip. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm. It gave me a severe case of brain freeze, but I didn't complain.
We walked to Main Street, which was rapidly filling in anticipation of Spectromagic. We managed to luck out with a great seated curbside spot about halfway between Casey's and the central hub. As we sat there we talked with a local family who was there for the last time before their seasonal blackout dates arrived. A CM came up to us and took my email to participate in a survey. I chatted with him for a bit, then we settled back in for the parade. There were two bands that went by before the parade. The first was Disney's All-Star College Band, and they were very good. Then we saw a high school band, and they were-- I'm trying to be nice-- not very good. Sorry to whoever the band was, and I'm sure they tried, but believe me, we've heard better. (Hey, we're crazy band nuts, having both done band in high school and college, and Nikkie TEACHES music, so believe me, she knows.) Of course, I'm the one who notices everything, like the fact that there is a clarinet that squeaks at about 9 minutes into the Spectromagic soundtrack. Yes, I'm picky.
Anyway, none of that mattered once the parade started. I LOVE this parade, and having the pleasure of seeing it right next to the castle was great. As we were seated curbside, we had a couple of the characters come up to us, specifically Peter Pan and one of the dwarves-- I don't remember which one. As the parade ended, we stayed in the same spot to watch Wishes for the third time. Once again, just a great display of pyrotechnic expertise. At this point, it really hit me-- it was our last night in the Magic Kingdom. I don't want to leave.
Well, we don't have to leave yet. It's only about 10:15, and the park doesn't close until 11:00, plus there's another run of Spectromagic. I thought about going for one last ride on Splash Mountain, but we instead walked to the train station and got a spot on the 2nd floor next to the railing. Nikkie held our spot while I went to buy sodas. We just wanted to wait and take in the atmosphere of the Magic Kingdom at night, Whie we waited, we talked to a family next to us who had just arrived that night. We told them it was our last night and that we didn't want to leave. They understood.
We watched the showing of Spectromagic at 11:00. This was a great spot, and we got a unique view of the parade as it passed right next to us. After it was over-- time to leave. We didn't want to prolong the inevitable, so we went ahead and left the park. We got on a bus back to Pop Century quickly, and arrived back at our room just before midnight. We packed up all our stuff to get ready to leave, I worked on the trip report, and we settled in for the night.
Best Moments: Meeting the characters at Epcot. Dinner at Crystal Palace. Spectromagic (twice) and Wishes.
Worst Moments: Leaving.
Garrett, age 27- Your humble Narrator. Dedicated Disney nut who obsessively plans every single detail of his vacation, driving seemingly everyone else in the free world completely nuts with his constant talk about WDW. Is known for being the person you'd better not mention WDW too, as he'll never shut up... and heaven forbid if you say you're GOING to WDW... he'll try to plan your trip for you, too! He is in management at a major mall-based book chain and has singlehandedly sold enough copies of the Unofficial Guide and the Passporter to lay waste to a small forest. Has been to Disney only twice before (1984 and 2003), but is planning on making an annual trip if finances allow (fingers crossed...)
Nikkie, age 29- Music teacher extraordinaire who really needs the annual break from her students (what a great idea... going from a classroom full of screaming kids to a theme park full of screaming kids). Also a devoted Disney fan, especially of Winnie the Pooh. Not quite the rabid WDW aficionado I am, but she's getting there! Made her first trip last year with me after years of planning, and I think she was more sad to leave than I was... so we immediately planned the next trip!
Day 8- Tuesday, June 8
Plan: Epcot morning, Magic Kingdom evening , dinner at Crystal Palace, Spectro and Wishes
Actual:
OK. I apologize. I ended the report yesterday on a slightly pessimistic note-- either becuase of the Fantasmic thing, or maybe knowing that today is our last full day at WDW
. It's hard to enjoy yourself when you know you're headed back home the next day. However, for the time being we put that out of our heads-- we were going to make the most of this day! Anyway, we woke up at about 7:00 and strated getting ready. I made the mug run this time and we made it out the door and to the bus stop about 8:00. We got to the bus stop shortly after 8:00, and, once again, there were a million people in line for Disney-MGM, the EE park of the day. Come on, guys-- you've already missed the beginning of EE-- it'll be too crowded! Oh well. Too bad for them. We waited for a while at the bus stop, and arrived at Epcot about 8:40. Once again we got to watch the character bus opening ceremonies. At 9:00 they let us in and I almost went to Mission: Space, but I chickened out. Maybe next trip.
We were going to go and do Test Track again, but I thought, what the heck-- we've done it already. Let's go and meet the characters on the bus. This turned out to be a good decision, as the lines were very, VERY short. We got a picture with Mickey Mouse, and a professional photographer also took our picture and gave us a card so we could check it out later. I then took Nikkie's picture with Geppetto, then we both got our picture taken with Donald. I tried to get Donald's handler's attention so he could take our picture, but I couldn't. Donald threw a fit, stomped his foot, and went over and got his attention.
We got a great picture with Donald. Around that time the characters were leaving. Boy, that was fun.We decided to go on over to Test Track. The line, of course, was long already, so we picked up Fastpasses for 9:40 then headed over to the only Future World attraction we hadn't done on either trip-- Honey, I Shrunk the Audience. On the way over to Imgination, Nikkie started to get sad-- I think it really hit her then that this was our last full day. We discussed our uncertain financial future and made some tentative plans to get back to WDW as soon as possible-- hopefully in June of next year. I managed to cheer her up a little bit.
We made it over to Honey, I Shrunk the Audience right as the preshow started. We enjoyed the preshow-- it was cute, despite having nothing to do with the attraction itself. I really liked those monitors in the preshow room-- I could use one in our living room. I asked Nikkie if she thought it would be alright if I grabbed one of them and ran. She didn't seem to tink it was such a great idea.
Anyway, we both really enjoyed HISTA-- and yes, we did squirm when the mice got loose. This show does have some really neat effects. It's a fun show, but it's no Philharmagic. We left Imagination and walked towards Ice Station Cool-- I wanted one last hit of Smart Watermelon. As we walked over there, the Jammitors were just finishing a set, and we had just missed it. Something to see the next trip, I say. It turned out that Ice Station Cool didn't open until 10:00, so we browsed around Mousegear for awhile, deciding on souveniers (we hadn't bought many yet.) We decided to put off our shopping for the time being and go over to Test Track to use our Fastpasses.
We actually waited quite a while at Test Track even with Fastpass-- I'd say at leat 15 minutes. Once again, we really enjoyed the ride, and everything was working properly this time. We said goodbye to Test Track for this trip and made our way to the Electric Umbrella for an early lunch, as it was now about 10:25 and we were both hungry. I got the cheeseburger, and Nikkie got the cheesesteak-- both were good. We were done eating close to 11:00 and decided to try Universe of Energy again, so we got in line and waited for a few minutes, only to get hit with the dreaded "technical difficulties" once again. This ride just wasn't to be on this trip.
We were pretty much done with Epcot at this point, so we walked back to Mousegear and picked up all the stuff we meant to-- a stuffed Mickey and Minnie, some keychains, a Mickey Mouse clinger, and the new Magic Kingdom DVD. By the way, don't buy the new Magic Kingdom DVD... it sucks. Badly. The picture quality is terrible, the pacing is off, and it's an overpriced disappointment. The free WDW trip planning DVD is actually much better than this.
We grabbed our bags and stopped in the Photo Center on the way out of the park to check out our picture. The picture turned out great, so we had to buy it. This made me REALLY glad that we stopped to meet the characters. Our photo in hand, we made our way out of Epcot for the last time this trip. We headed over to the bus stop and got back to our room at Pop Century at about 12:15. We grabbed our mugs, and took some time taking some picturs and video around the resort and in the Classic Hall. While we were in Everything Pop, we checked to see if our Tower of Terror picture from yesterday had arrive. It had, so we picked it up and headed back to the room for a nap.
We awoke from our nap about 2:30 and got ready to go back to the Magic Kingdom. We left the room and got right on a bus, arriving at the Magic Kingdom at 3:20. Upon arriving, the Share a Dream Come True Parade was just finishing up, so we got to enjoy the end of that. As the parade ended, we walked up Main Street and had a look at the tip board. What we saw there almost made us glad we weren't just arriving, because the summer crowds had officially arrived. Long, long waits for just about everything. Instead of trying to do a ride, we just went over to the Crystal Palace to check in for our 4:00 seating. We waited around and were seated right at 4:00.
We were both glad to be back at the Crystal Palace, This is a beautiful restaurant, and Nikkie really loves the Pooh characters, so this is a must stop for us. Last year we did a breakfast, so dinner was new to us, but no surprise-- all the food was excellent. Disney has the best buffets I've seen, bar none. The character interaction was great, too, and we got plent of attention despite having no children with us. We took lots of pictures and video, and we really enjoyed the little "parade"around the restaurant. Anyway, while we wre in there it started POURING rain, similar to last night. We were so glad we were inside.
We took our time with dinner, trying to wait out the rain, but by 5:30 we had been there for an hour and a half and it was still pouring. So, we donned our ponchos and decided to make the best of it. Our first order of business-- to try to make it back to Liberty Square for the Haunted Mansion. Unfortunately the wait was 45 minutes, and the line wasn't moving-- they weren't letting anyone on because people were blocking the exit trying to stay out of the rain. We grabbed Fastpasses and tried to get through to Fantasyland, but there was a huge mass of people everywhere we turned, and we had to squeeze our way through the passage between Liberty Square and Fantasyland because everyone was under it. We kept going, saw the wait times in Fantasyland, and kept right on walking. Yes, the summer crowds are here. How did I know? Pooh was 80 minutes. Philharmagic was 60 minutes. Peter Pan was 140 minutes. That's right-- 2 hours and 20 minutes for a 3 minute ride. I'm glad we had just ridden twice in a row (with no wait) last night during E-ride. Even the relatively unpopular Snow White (which we still haven't done) had a 40 minute wait.
Tomorrowland was much the same situation, except for TTA and Carousel of Progress, of course. We did TTA again, which we enjoy every time-- nice and relaxing. We hopped in line for the Carousel of Progress, but noticed that our Fastpass time was nearing, so we skipped it and went back to Liberty Square, where, although it had stopped raining by now, the congestion still persisted , and the waits were still long. We actually waited over 20 minutes, even with our Fastpasses. The ride seemed to be having some technical difficulties-- it stopped a few times while we were in line, and twice while we were on it. Still, it's a great ride, and we were glad to finally see it on this trip.
After avoiding becoming ghosts numer 1000 and 1001, we saw that thw Liberty Belle was in dock, so we hopped right on and rode. I took some great video all the way around. This was a nice relaxing ride, plus I got some great shots of Big Thunder Mountain and the Haunted Mansion. By now, it was about 7:30, so we were going to ride the train around from Frontierland to Main Street. However, I remembered that we had one last order of business, so we skipped the train and walked to Adventureland. The mission: try one of those Dole Whips I keep hearing so much about. We went to Aloha Isle and grabbed a pineapple Dole Whip. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm. It gave me a severe case of brain freeze, but I didn't complain.
We walked to Main Street, which was rapidly filling in anticipation of Spectromagic. We managed to luck out with a great seated curbside spot about halfway between Casey's and the central hub. As we sat there we talked with a local family who was there for the last time before their seasonal blackout dates arrived. A CM came up to us and took my email to participate in a survey. I chatted with him for a bit, then we settled back in for the parade. There were two bands that went by before the parade. The first was Disney's All-Star College Band, and they were very good. Then we saw a high school band, and they were-- I'm trying to be nice-- not very good. Sorry to whoever the band was, and I'm sure they tried, but believe me, we've heard better. (Hey, we're crazy band nuts, having both done band in high school and college, and Nikkie TEACHES music, so believe me, she knows.) Of course, I'm the one who notices everything, like the fact that there is a clarinet that squeaks at about 9 minutes into the Spectromagic soundtrack. Yes, I'm picky.
Anyway, none of that mattered once the parade started. I LOVE this parade, and having the pleasure of seeing it right next to the castle was great. As we were seated curbside, we had a couple of the characters come up to us, specifically Peter Pan and one of the dwarves-- I don't remember which one. As the parade ended, we stayed in the same spot to watch Wishes for the third time. Once again, just a great display of pyrotechnic expertise. At this point, it really hit me-- it was our last night in the Magic Kingdom. I don't want to leave.
Well, we don't have to leave yet. It's only about 10:15, and the park doesn't close until 11:00, plus there's another run of Spectromagic. I thought about going for one last ride on Splash Mountain, but we instead walked to the train station and got a spot on the 2nd floor next to the railing. Nikkie held our spot while I went to buy sodas. We just wanted to wait and take in the atmosphere of the Magic Kingdom at night, Whie we waited, we talked to a family next to us who had just arrived that night. We told them it was our last night and that we didn't want to leave. They understood.
We watched the showing of Spectromagic at 11:00. This was a great spot, and we got a unique view of the parade as it passed right next to us. After it was over-- time to leave. We didn't want to prolong the inevitable, so we went ahead and left the park. We got on a bus back to Pop Century quickly, and arrived back at our room just before midnight. We packed up all our stuff to get ready to leave, I worked on the trip report, and we settled in for the night.
Best Moments: Meeting the characters at Epcot. Dinner at Crystal Palace. Spectromagic (twice) and Wishes.
Worst Moments: Leaving.
