RVGal
Whaaa?
- Joined
- Dec 24, 2005
- Messages
- 3,806
If you want to catch up on the saga so far...
Day 1 is here: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1473969
Day 2 is here: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1474912
Day 3 is here: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1475341
They are spread out between the WDW and Universal boards because, well, we spread our trip out between Universal and WDW.
I'm afraid this day's report will be short and sweet.
Star Tours... Star Tours... Star Tours.
Okay, I'm done!
Alright, maybe I'll go into a *little* more detail.
Day 4 was our timeshare presentation morning. Ugh. We hauled ourselves over to Marriott's impressive, just-for-timeshare-presentation building and girded ourselves for battle.
Our rep introduced himself, made sure we helped ourselves to the continental breakfast (truly continental breakfast... just muffins, juice, and coffee... but it's free and we've already eaten, so I'm not complaining), then showed us the supervised kid's room where our DS5 could stay and play. We asked him what he wanted to do and he looks around the room. "Gamecube!" Okay, decision made. He's staying. DS2 is clinging like a vine, so he'll come with us. We follow along with our rep while he does his spiel about how Marriott was founded and grew... what Marriott's view on timeshare is... blah, blah, blah. We take the golf car ride to view two extremely over-decorated units (yeah, we often see china place settings on the tables of our hotel rooms) and we come back to timeshare central. He takes us in, sits us down, pulls out the dreaded paperwork, and says, "Now, Marriott's view... and mine too... is that if this is not a good fit or doesn't make sense to you, we won't waste any more of each others time. Nobody's going to haul out the shackles and make you sit here if you don't have any intention buying."
Okay, let's not waste any time at all. We picked up DS5 out of the kid's room and away we went. All in all it was a pain-free 90 mins.
Now that that's over, today is our Disney-MGM Studios day. We have one goal in mind. DS5 is currently a Star Wars fanatic, so we want him to get his fill. Yeah, yeah... I know we missed Star Wars Weekend by two days... NOW.
We booked our trip months ago. I had no idea we'd be so close to SWW! I don't know that we could have shifted our days, but we sure would have tried. Maybe next year, if the fascination continues for the boys. 
We parked, caught a Tram, and made it through the bag search and ticket gates in record time. I must say, there was not nearly the crowds that I had feared. A bunch of people, sure... but not the what-were-we-thinking masses that we have encountered from time to time. I know we were arriving well past the morning rush, but still. It was nice.
DS5 screams, "There's a Star Wars MICKEY!!!" I'm looking all around for an actual character, but no...
You mean, he'll be happy with just the extra pictures and things? Whew!
Just don't let anyone ask him if he'll be back this weekend. PLEASE don't let anyone ask him if he'll be back this weekend... and make him aware of what he's missing out on... 
Our goal again? Oh, yeah. Star Wars... and, therefore, Star Tours. We head down Hollywood Blvd and I can't believe the characters that are out for photos. Tons of them! Well, more than I've ever seen grouped together anyway. I start pointing them out to DS5. Nope. Not interested. We are on a mission. Sigh.
We arrive at Star Tours and one cool thing about the upcoming SWW (I guess) is that they have the AT-AT out in front of the ride working! Making the cool shooting sounds and firing water jets. I haven't seen that in a LONG time. We grabbed FPs and then DH and DS5 got in the Standby Line while I and DS2 went to find some shade and wait. They make it through the ride and are back out in less than 20 mins, but DS2 managed to fall asleep anyway. So, DH offers to wait with DS2 while I take DS5 through again (the Standby Line time is still listed at 15 mins), so off we go for ST ride number 2.
When we got out, DS5 had to wander through the store until he found the perfect souvenir. He picked out a Jedi Mickey. I think he did well. He also wanted a picture on the Speeder, so we waited our turn and up he climbed.
I don't know if you can see the bag on the back of the bike, but he insisted on putting his new Jedi Mickey (still in the bag) on the back "for a ride".
DH and I both needed a break from sitting on the benches and entertaining DS2, so we decided to head for a different section of the park... at least for a little while.
As we passed back around the Sorcerer Mickey hat, I noticed some characters were again out and people were lined up for pictures. I spotted Marie and pointed her out to DS5. There was almost no line for her, so off we went. I felt kinda bad because the people in front of us kept prodding their little girl along with, "Don't you want to get your picture taken with the kitty?" and the little girl kept pointing to Genie and Aladdin. I guess the grownups wanted the short line and the little girl wanted the characters that she recognized.
Anyway, I made a point of saying to my boys as we walked up to her, "Now be careful guys. Remember, she is a lady..." and Marie just preened and posed like crazy. 
We eventually wound up heading back to do the Muppet Vision 3-D movie and DS5 insisted that he HAD to have a pizza for lunch from Pizza Planet. Does it matter that it looks nothing like the Pizza Planet restaurant in Toy Story? Nooooo. Does it matter that it is peak lunch hour and the place is swamped? Noooooo. Only pizza from Pizza Planet will do. Alright. You guys go play while I dive in to the mass of humanity waiting for overpriced mediocre pizza. It took over 45 mins, our longest wait for anything, to get a couple of pizzas and a salad. At least DS5 got to get his video gaming fix again.
After pizza, we went to the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground. That didn't last long. There were too many people and too many places that we couldn't see our kids. Even with one of us on top of one kid and one of us on top of the other, there were too many places where they could go in one entrance and then had various and widespread choices of where they might come out. That's lots of fun for the kids, but not so much for me. When they are older and I can turn them loose, fine... but for now, at this age, it was just a constant headache. We grabbed them up after only a couple of minutes and moved on.
Next, we headed over to catch Playhouse Disney Live. DS5 hasn't outgrown it yet and DS2 is just getting to the age where he really loves the shows. It was perfect. Here's a shot of the fascinated faces...
It was finally time to go back and use our FPs, so we made the trip back to Start Tours AGAIN.
Thank goodness for our FPs because the Standby Line was now listed as a 50 min wait. So, we rode Star Tours AGAIN, but this time there were a bunch of newbies with us. It is so much fun to watch somebody else see and feel what you saw and felt years ago when you first experienced it. It brings it all back.
After round 3 with Star Tours, DS5 announced that he was ready to go back and swim at the hotel. I guess we can say... "fill of Star Wars" mission accomplished!
Tomorrow we're heading back to Universal for breakfast with Spider-Man!
The store concludes with Day 5 here: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1477519
Day 1 is here: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1473969
Day 2 is here: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1474912
Day 3 is here: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1475341
They are spread out between the WDW and Universal boards because, well, we spread our trip out between Universal and WDW.
I'm afraid this day's report will be short and sweet.
Star Tours... Star Tours... Star Tours.
Okay, I'm done!
Alright, maybe I'll go into a *little* more detail.
Day 4 was our timeshare presentation morning. Ugh. We hauled ourselves over to Marriott's impressive, just-for-timeshare-presentation building and girded ourselves for battle.
Our rep introduced himself, made sure we helped ourselves to the continental breakfast (truly continental breakfast... just muffins, juice, and coffee... but it's free and we've already eaten, so I'm not complaining), then showed us the supervised kid's room where our DS5 could stay and play. We asked him what he wanted to do and he looks around the room. "Gamecube!" Okay, decision made. He's staying. DS2 is clinging like a vine, so he'll come with us. We follow along with our rep while he does his spiel about how Marriott was founded and grew... what Marriott's view on timeshare is... blah, blah, blah. We take the golf car ride to view two extremely over-decorated units (yeah, we often see china place settings on the tables of our hotel rooms) and we come back to timeshare central. He takes us in, sits us down, pulls out the dreaded paperwork, and says, "Now, Marriott's view... and mine too... is that if this is not a good fit or doesn't make sense to you, we won't waste any more of each others time. Nobody's going to haul out the shackles and make you sit here if you don't have any intention buying."Okay, let's not waste any time at all. We picked up DS5 out of the kid's room and away we went. All in all it was a pain-free 90 mins.
Now that that's over, today is our Disney-MGM Studios day. We have one goal in mind. DS5 is currently a Star Wars fanatic, so we want him to get his fill. Yeah, yeah... I know we missed Star Wars Weekend by two days... NOW.
We booked our trip months ago. I had no idea we'd be so close to SWW! I don't know that we could have shifted our days, but we sure would have tried. Maybe next year, if the fascination continues for the boys. We parked, caught a Tram, and made it through the bag search and ticket gates in record time. I must say, there was not nearly the crowds that I had feared. A bunch of people, sure... but not the what-were-we-thinking masses that we have encountered from time to time. I know we were arriving well past the morning rush, but still. It was nice.
DS5 screams, "There's a Star Wars MICKEY!!!" I'm looking all around for an actual character, but no...
You mean, he'll be happy with just the extra pictures and things? Whew!
Just don't let anyone ask him if he'll be back this weekend. PLEASE don't let anyone ask him if he'll be back this weekend... and make him aware of what he's missing out on... Our goal again? Oh, yeah. Star Wars... and, therefore, Star Tours. We head down Hollywood Blvd and I can't believe the characters that are out for photos. Tons of them! Well, more than I've ever seen grouped together anyway. I start pointing them out to DS5. Nope. Not interested. We are on a mission. Sigh.
We arrive at Star Tours and one cool thing about the upcoming SWW (I guess) is that they have the AT-AT out in front of the ride working! Making the cool shooting sounds and firing water jets. I haven't seen that in a LONG time. We grabbed FPs and then DH and DS5 got in the Standby Line while I and DS2 went to find some shade and wait. They make it through the ride and are back out in less than 20 mins, but DS2 managed to fall asleep anyway. So, DH offers to wait with DS2 while I take DS5 through again (the Standby Line time is still listed at 15 mins), so off we go for ST ride number 2.
When we got out, DS5 had to wander through the store until he found the perfect souvenir. He picked out a Jedi Mickey. I think he did well. He also wanted a picture on the Speeder, so we waited our turn and up he climbed.
I don't know if you can see the bag on the back of the bike, but he insisted on putting his new Jedi Mickey (still in the bag) on the back "for a ride".
DH and I both needed a break from sitting on the benches and entertaining DS2, so we decided to head for a different section of the park... at least for a little while.
As we passed back around the Sorcerer Mickey hat, I noticed some characters were again out and people were lined up for pictures. I spotted Marie and pointed her out to DS5. There was almost no line for her, so off we went. I felt kinda bad because the people in front of us kept prodding their little girl along with, "Don't you want to get your picture taken with the kitty?" and the little girl kept pointing to Genie and Aladdin. I guess the grownups wanted the short line and the little girl wanted the characters that she recognized.
Anyway, I made a point of saying to my boys as we walked up to her, "Now be careful guys. Remember, she is a lady..." and Marie just preened and posed like crazy.
We eventually wound up heading back to do the Muppet Vision 3-D movie and DS5 insisted that he HAD to have a pizza for lunch from Pizza Planet. Does it matter that it looks nothing like the Pizza Planet restaurant in Toy Story? Nooooo. Does it matter that it is peak lunch hour and the place is swamped? Noooooo. Only pizza from Pizza Planet will do. Alright. You guys go play while I dive in to the mass of humanity waiting for overpriced mediocre pizza. It took over 45 mins, our longest wait for anything, to get a couple of pizzas and a salad. At least DS5 got to get his video gaming fix again.
After pizza, we went to the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground. That didn't last long. There were too many people and too many places that we couldn't see our kids. Even with one of us on top of one kid and one of us on top of the other, there were too many places where they could go in one entrance and then had various and widespread choices of where they might come out. That's lots of fun for the kids, but not so much for me. When they are older and I can turn them loose, fine... but for now, at this age, it was just a constant headache. We grabbed them up after only a couple of minutes and moved on.
Next, we headed over to catch Playhouse Disney Live. DS5 hasn't outgrown it yet and DS2 is just getting to the age where he really loves the shows. It was perfect. Here's a shot of the fascinated faces...
It was finally time to go back and use our FPs, so we made the trip back to Start Tours AGAIN.
Thank goodness for our FPs because the Standby Line was now listed as a 50 min wait. So, we rode Star Tours AGAIN, but this time there were a bunch of newbies with us. It is so much fun to watch somebody else see and feel what you saw and felt years ago when you first experienced it. It brings it all back.
After round 3 with Star Tours, DS5 announced that he was ready to go back and swim at the hotel. I guess we can say... "fill of Star Wars" mission accomplished!
Tomorrow we're heading back to Universal for breakfast with Spider-Man!
The store concludes with Day 5 here: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1477519
