The Cast:
Me: 30 y/o Male, compulsive planner
DW: 31 y/o Female, likes to sleep in
Joe: My best buddy from high school. A theme park commando whose motto is "It's not a vacation, it's a competition!"
Lisa: Joe's wife and Queen of the Timeshares. She owns or co-owns 5 weeks at various Central Florida resorts.
Day 4 - Magic Kingdom
Weather: Another day of near-record heat, low 90s.
We knew well in advance that Tuesday, May 13 would be MK day because Spectro was showing that night. What we were not sure of was how we would tackle it. Would we go in the morning, spend a few hours and then return later for the parade? Perhaps we should sleep in and hit MK late in the afternoon and spend the rest of the evening there. We picked the AM option, which turned out to be the right move. MK was particularly busy because it was the only SpectroMagic showing of the week.
We strolled in around 11 and headed straight for Tomorrowland. The posted wait for Space Mountain was 20 minutes, so we decided to get in line. After several minutes without moving, word began to spread that the ride was temporarily down. No problem! FastPass to the rescue! We grabbed FPs and scooted over to Alien Encounter, which was just about to begin. The theater was full, so the CMs insisted that everyone move all the way to the end of the row. The people next to me refused to move because the seats were wet
I explained to them that the seats are SUPPOSED to be wet, which made them even more confused. Eventually they figured it out that it was part of the show and moved all the way across the row. After getting the creeps, we hit Buzz Lightyear.
Let me explain something here before I go on. I had been waiting two years for this moment. In 2001, my wife absolutely creamed me on Buzz Lightyear. For two years I had plotted my revenge. This time I would emerge victorious. Or so I thought. It happened again! DW blew me out of the sky. It was a royal embarassment of the highest order. I was winning in the early going, then all of a sudden she had like 100,000 points! I have no clue how it happened, but she must have hit a primo target. At the end of the ride when it tells you what your score means, mine said "Piece of Crap."
After the Buzz Lightyear debacle it was time for our Space Mountain FastPass. Every time I ride it I think about how much fun I missed when I was scared of that ride as a child. We tried to stop for lunch at Cosmic Ray's, but the place was packed and people were standing around waiting for tables. We decided to move on.
From Tomorrowland it was off to Fantasyland where the lines suddenly got much longer. A 50 minute wait for Peter Pan and a FP time of 4:15pm meant that we were skipping that ride. Snow White also had a long wait and Pooh was closed for rehab, leaving us with no choice but to ride It's a Small World. The crowds in Fantasyland were too much for us, so we jumped over to the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Carribean. I'll never get over the fact that they changed the ride for politcal correctness, but it's still a must-see in my book. From there it was a late lunch at Pecos Bill's, where there were plenty of tables available. They have an awesome fixin's bar with sauted onions and mushrooms for the burgers. Yum!
Before we left for an afternoon break we absolutely had to do Frontierland. Waits were 40 minutes for both Splash Mountain and BTMRR. With the afternoon parade about to begin we figured it would be a good idea to do those rides at that point. We Fastpassed Big Thunder and waited the 40 minutes for Splash Mountain. The timing was perfect, as our ride window for BTMRR opened just as we exited Splash. By the time we were done the parade was over and Fronteirland was totally mobbed. We left MK and returned to the Vistana for an afternoon swim.
We drove back to MK around 7:45 for the 8:45 showing of SpectroMagic. Main Street was wall to wall people, but thanks to Bob Sehlinger's Unofficial Guide we found a perfect viewing spot in Liberty Square. It was my first time seeing Spectro. While it was a good parade, I expected more out of it. It wasn't the awe-inspiring artistry of light that I had imagined. At least one of the floats was malfunctioning. As the crowd dispersed after the parade, we walked to Fantasyland to watch the fireworks in an uncrowded setting. WAIT! LOOK! No wait for Peter Pan! We literally sprinted onto the ride to catch it before Fantasy In the Sky started. We were so excited about our little discovery that I'm pretty sure we weren't even paying attention to the ride. The thrill of the chase had us laughing hysterically! It was as if we had beaten the system. I pity da fool who waited 50 minutes to ride that thing in the afternoon! We enjoyed FITS from the relative calm of Fantasyland before slowly making our way back to the monorail.
The nice thing about the slow walk down Main Street was the chance to pick up on lots of little details that we wouldn't normally notice in the rush to do all the rides. In all my previous trips I had never noticed the cool murals in Cinderella's Castle. We stopped for several minutes to admire them. Even though we took our sweet time leaving the park, the monorail entrance was jammed! We considered the possibility that the ferrry might be faster, but we were trapped in a sea of people and didn't want to chance it.
It was there that we encountered the rudest people I had ever witnessed at WDW. A group of teenagers, possibly Brazilian but I'm not sure, were forcing their way towards the front of the line. They were claiming to have lost a member of their party who was allegedly way up front. They were really getting on our nerves. When we finally made it back to the TTC after a 40 minute wait for the monorail we saw those kids again. This time they tried to push past us on their way down the ramp. At this point we were all hot, tired and cranky. I had seen enough and confronted them. I refused to let them get past me and told them how obnoxious they were. This is totally out of character for me, but they were ticking me off! The kids backed off and we peacefully made it back to our car after a long hot night.
Next up - Day 5 - "Dis-Pleasure Island"
Me: 30 y/o Male, compulsive planner
DW: 31 y/o Female, likes to sleep in
Joe: My best buddy from high school. A theme park commando whose motto is "It's not a vacation, it's a competition!"
Lisa: Joe's wife and Queen of the Timeshares. She owns or co-owns 5 weeks at various Central Florida resorts.
Day 4 - Magic Kingdom
Weather: Another day of near-record heat, low 90s.
We knew well in advance that Tuesday, May 13 would be MK day because Spectro was showing that night. What we were not sure of was how we would tackle it. Would we go in the morning, spend a few hours and then return later for the parade? Perhaps we should sleep in and hit MK late in the afternoon and spend the rest of the evening there. We picked the AM option, which turned out to be the right move. MK was particularly busy because it was the only SpectroMagic showing of the week.
We strolled in around 11 and headed straight for Tomorrowland. The posted wait for Space Mountain was 20 minutes, so we decided to get in line. After several minutes without moving, word began to spread that the ride was temporarily down. No problem! FastPass to the rescue! We grabbed FPs and scooted over to Alien Encounter, which was just about to begin. The theater was full, so the CMs insisted that everyone move all the way to the end of the row. The people next to me refused to move because the seats were wet
I explained to them that the seats are SUPPOSED to be wet, which made them even more confused. Eventually they figured it out that it was part of the show and moved all the way across the row. After getting the creeps, we hit Buzz Lightyear.Let me explain something here before I go on. I had been waiting two years for this moment. In 2001, my wife absolutely creamed me on Buzz Lightyear. For two years I had plotted my revenge. This time I would emerge victorious. Or so I thought. It happened again! DW blew me out of the sky. It was a royal embarassment of the highest order. I was winning in the early going, then all of a sudden she had like 100,000 points! I have no clue how it happened, but she must have hit a primo target. At the end of the ride when it tells you what your score means, mine said "Piece of Crap."
After the Buzz Lightyear debacle it was time for our Space Mountain FastPass. Every time I ride it I think about how much fun I missed when I was scared of that ride as a child. We tried to stop for lunch at Cosmic Ray's, but the place was packed and people were standing around waiting for tables. We decided to move on.
From Tomorrowland it was off to Fantasyland where the lines suddenly got much longer. A 50 minute wait for Peter Pan and a FP time of 4:15pm meant that we were skipping that ride. Snow White also had a long wait and Pooh was closed for rehab, leaving us with no choice but to ride It's a Small World. The crowds in Fantasyland were too much for us, so we jumped over to the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Carribean. I'll never get over the fact that they changed the ride for politcal correctness, but it's still a must-see in my book. From there it was a late lunch at Pecos Bill's, where there were plenty of tables available. They have an awesome fixin's bar with sauted onions and mushrooms for the burgers. Yum!
Before we left for an afternoon break we absolutely had to do Frontierland. Waits were 40 minutes for both Splash Mountain and BTMRR. With the afternoon parade about to begin we figured it would be a good idea to do those rides at that point. We Fastpassed Big Thunder and waited the 40 minutes for Splash Mountain. The timing was perfect, as our ride window for BTMRR opened just as we exited Splash. By the time we were done the parade was over and Fronteirland was totally mobbed. We left MK and returned to the Vistana for an afternoon swim.
We drove back to MK around 7:45 for the 8:45 showing of SpectroMagic. Main Street was wall to wall people, but thanks to Bob Sehlinger's Unofficial Guide we found a perfect viewing spot in Liberty Square. It was my first time seeing Spectro. While it was a good parade, I expected more out of it. It wasn't the awe-inspiring artistry of light that I had imagined. At least one of the floats was malfunctioning. As the crowd dispersed after the parade, we walked to Fantasyland to watch the fireworks in an uncrowded setting. WAIT! LOOK! No wait for Peter Pan! We literally sprinted onto the ride to catch it before Fantasy In the Sky started. We were so excited about our little discovery that I'm pretty sure we weren't even paying attention to the ride. The thrill of the chase had us laughing hysterically! It was as if we had beaten the system. I pity da fool who waited 50 minutes to ride that thing in the afternoon! We enjoyed FITS from the relative calm of Fantasyland before slowly making our way back to the monorail.
The nice thing about the slow walk down Main Street was the chance to pick up on lots of little details that we wouldn't normally notice in the rush to do all the rides. In all my previous trips I had never noticed the cool murals in Cinderella's Castle. We stopped for several minutes to admire them. Even though we took our sweet time leaving the park, the monorail entrance was jammed! We considered the possibility that the ferrry might be faster, but we were trapped in a sea of people and didn't want to chance it.
It was there that we encountered the rudest people I had ever witnessed at WDW. A group of teenagers, possibly Brazilian but I'm not sure, were forcing their way towards the front of the line. They were claiming to have lost a member of their party who was allegedly way up front. They were really getting on our nerves. When we finally made it back to the TTC after a 40 minute wait for the monorail we saw those kids again. This time they tried to push past us on their way down the ramp. At this point we were all hot, tired and cranky. I had seen enough and confronted them. I refused to let them get past me and told them how obnoxious they were. This is totally out of character for me, but they were ticking me off! The kids backed off and we peacefully made it back to our car after a long hot night.
Next up - Day 5 - "Dis-Pleasure Island"
