We Stuffed our Faces and Searched for the Tronorail, It's Trip Report Time! *11/3


Sunday, May 30, 2010


We had the whole, glorious day ahead of us!


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Just looking at that picture brings back such great memories! If only I could start every day with a bagel out on a balcony overlooking Magic Kingdom while Monorails glide by mere feet away.


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I was still itching to get to MK Rope Drop.


I did the best I could.


On a side note:

Every night the kids switched beds. The couch and chair each folded out to make a bed and the kids were happy to not have to share! Each morning we would fold the beds back up, trying to keep it neat around there. For some reason we had taken to calling the smaller bed in the chair the “bad kid bed”. I don’t know how exactly that got started, but it stuck.

So that morning I woke everyone up, fixed coffee and breakfast, and tried to have everyone ready and out the door in enough time to walk over to Magic Kingdom for the 9:00am opening.


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Gosh, I wish I could walk to Magic Kingdom every day.



Excitement was in the air.


We were out the door in time!


I felt like a little kid on Christmas. Seriously. I know that’s an overused phrase, but I’m using it. Every Christmas Eve, my Mom’s side of the family would gather at my Grandma’s house. There would be a Christmas play and lots of food. Grandma’s giant Christmas tree was in the corner, surrounded by gifts. We had a large family with 8 little cousins running around and Santa made an early visit to Grandma’s house. He would stop by to give each kid one gift and a giant hug. Excitement, I’m telling ya!

As we began to get closer I head a noise out in the bushes. (reminds me of some rap song my brother used to loooove--anyone know what I’m talking about? Would have been from the mid 90’s maybe…) I turned my head to the right to see what it was. Oh. My. Goodness! It was the train!


My heart began to beat faster. Were we late? I checked my watch again, but it was not 9:00 yet. I pointed the train out to the kids who were skipping along, probably talking about the people whose names are on the walkway blocks. Luke’s question being if they were all dead. What if the show started without us?!?!? I was putting on quite the show of being relaxed and not scared to death that the characters were going to hijack the train and choo-choo it on into the station before I got there.

(Right, Max? You didn’t know all that was going on inside my head, did you?)


As we herded ourselves around that corner and through the bag check area Max made another one of those great executive decisions to stay outside the turnstiles for the show.


And then it was time.


I was armed with the video camera, so these next shots are courtesy of Max’s phone camera:


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Oh, if only I was a citizen of Main St., USA…

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And there’s that stealthy train!


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Welcome, Welcome, Welcome! We have this CD, which we bought several years ago now. It’s a 2 Disc Set and there are many songs on there that I wasn’t familiar with…the “Welcome Medley” being one. I am so glad to finally know where this song is used and to have experienced it myself. Definitely a “Must Do”, to quote the abridged Stacy show. I don’t know how else to say it, so I’ll quit talking about that show, but I loved it!


When it was over, we scanned our cards and fingers and walked through the gates. The kids had decided the first ride of the day would be Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. We hadn’t ridden it yet and the line for it can get pretty long, so we agreed that it was a good choice. Except something happened to Max along the way and he had to take a detour while we continued on toward Frontierland.


(Max took this next series of photos on his way to meet us at the exit of BTMRR)


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In front of Max:


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Behind Max:


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Gotta love that emptiness!


Back to me & the kids, here’s what was in front of us:


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The kids picked up some confetti after the Opening Show and were pretending it was our dog, Margot. I think she hopped in Allison's bag when we got on BTMRR.


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We did get her a Mini-Hipster for her birthday. She loved it! It was perfect for her to carry around the parks.


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We walked right through that long BTMRR queue. The kids love going through the empty ones! We soon boarded our train for the wildest ride in the wilderness! Hands in the air, screaming and laughing, we rode through just about the whole thing. We slowed for what I though was the final turn before going back inside, when we just stopped. Pretty soon we heard the “please remain seated” spiel. We looked around a bit, wondered what was going on. A couple of times a CM came on over the intercom to tell us to remain seated. I quickly got out the camera (I’m pretty sure I had been filming our ride on the video camera) to take some “broke down” photos!


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I sent a text to Max telling him we were sitting on BMTRR broken down. If I hadn’t been such a dummy last night and deleted the whole text thread, I could have told you how long we sat there, but alas, I’m a dummy. He sent a text back to say that they told him it was broken down. I told him we were pretty close to the end, but he couldn’t see us from where he was. After about maybe 10 - 15 minutes, blind guess, a CM came over the intercom to tell us to stay put and that some CMs would be coming along to escort us out of our cars and off the track. Fun! That’s never happened to me before. We were all safe and I thought, "how exciting to be able to walk the track to leave the ride". If only we had been a bit further back… Anyway, pretty soon here came two Cast Members to release our lap bars one car at a time. They stressed that part. No problems there, so when everyone was standing alongside the train we headed out of the ride, one CM in front and one CM in back. I really wanted to take pictures the whole way, but at the risk of being reprimanded, I put my camera away. I don’t like getting in trouble!


As we exited the ride, a CM was handing out Fast Passes good for any one attraction all day long!


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Where did we go next? Here's a clue: This ride has one of our favorite supporting animatronics in it. Whenever one of the kids has really dirty feet we call them by our nickname for him, 'the muddy foot'!

 
Loving your report and looking forward to more! Gee...wonder where you ended up going next...:confused3 :laughing:

As for Boma, I looooooved the couscous! It was probably my favorite! And I, too, made a sampler plate of hummus. Delish!

What great pics of the empty MK! We went for rope drop last year and managed to ride Splash Mountain, Thunder Mt and Pirates, wander around, then leave for our 11:00 ADR @ Chef Mickey's and arrive with plenty of time to spare. At what other time of day could that be managed??
 
Wow...I am literally blown away that you have been posting so much so fast! I'm sorry I've been away!!

I loved reading about Blizzard Beach! I can't wait to go there! And Winter Summerland! :lovestruc So fun!!

I'm dying to stay in BLT. I love how you describe just relaxing and watching the monorails go by! How magical!!

That's crazy that you got stuck on BTMRR! The only ride I got stuck on was PotC and that might be because I said "I don't believe in George" 3 times. (I'll text that out this next time!)

I laughed out loud about your adr's changing in your phone!! How silly! Good thing you caught that!!

Can't wait for more!! You're a pro poster this time, there's no way I'll beat you!
 
Is it wrong to say that I think I would like being stuck?:confused3 (Assuming noone was in danger!) Now I am sure that I have to make the Opening show at MK next year. Getting the teenagers up and going is difficult and we always seem to miss it by a few minutes!:mad:
 

What a great start to your day (coffee on the balcony, leisurely walk to the MK and seeing the opening show)! Even with BTMR breaking down, it didn't dampen your spirits :goodvibes A surprise fastpass is always a treat :thumbsup2
 
Congrats on making it in time to see the opening show. We haven't seen it in several years even though I've tried.

Wow! The park looked virtually empty in your pictures. Ya'll were really lucky on the crowd front.

Call me crazy but I think it's cool that you got stuck on Big Thunder Mountain and walked off. That's a neat experience.
 
WOW--What a great morning--I can't believe how empty MK was, but I think everyone was over at DHS for rope drop with me that morning!
 
Loving your report and looking forward to more! Gee...wonder where you ended up going next...:confused3 :laughing:

As for Boma, I looooooved the couscous! It was probably my favorite! And I, too, made a sampler plate of hummus. Delish!

What great pics of the empty MK! We went for rope drop last year and managed to ride Splash Mountain, Thunder Mt and Pirates, wander around, then leave for our 11:00 ADR @ Chef Mickey's and arrive with plenty of time to spare. At what other time of day could that be managed??

Thanks!

I could probably live on couscous and hummus! :goodvibes

I'm thinking rope drop is something we'll have to do again for sure!

Wow...I am literally blown away that you have been posting so much so fast! I'm sorry I've been away!!

I loved reading about Blizzard Beach! I can't wait to go there! And Winter Summerland! :lovestruc So fun!!

I'm dying to stay in BLT. I love how you describe just relaxing and watching the monorails go by! How magical!!

That's crazy that you got stuck on BTMRR! The only ride I got stuck on was PotC and that might be because I said "I don't believe in George" 3 times. (I'll text that out this next time!)

I laughed out loud about your adr's changing in your phone!! How silly! Good thing you caught that!!

Can't wait for more!! You're a pro poster this time, there's no way I'll beat you!

Thanks, Kimmy! I'm trying! :laughing:

Blizzard Beach was so much fun! I only wish we'd been able to stay a bit longer.

Let me know how that goes when you text out "I don't believe in George"!

Is it wrong to say that I think I would like being stuck?:confused3 (Assuming noone was in danger!) Now I am sure that I have to make the Opening show at MK next year. Getting the teenagers up and going is difficult and we always seem to miss it by a few minutes!:mad:

No, I felt that way, too! :lmao: It was pretty cool!

What a great start to your day (coffee on the balcony, leisurely walk to the MK and seeing the opening show)! Even with BTMR breaking down, it didn't dampen your spirits :goodvibes A surprise fastpass is always a treat :thumbsup2

It was sooo nice! I thought breaking down was quite the adventure! And the fastpass was awesome! :thumbsup2

Congrats on making it in time to see the opening show. We haven't seen it in several years even though I've tried.

Wow! The park looked virtually empty in your pictures. Ya'll were really lucky on the crowd front.

Call me crazy but I think it's cool that you got stuck on Big Thunder Mountain and walked off. That's a neat experience.

Thank you, thank you! It's something I've been trying to do for a while now!

We were pretty lucky that morning, for sure!

It was a fun experience getting out of our train cars on the side of the track and walking the rest of the way out! I wish I had gotten more pictures of it! I haven't watched the video yet, I'll have to do that soon & see what all I got on there!

WOW--What a great morning--I can't believe how empty MK was, but I think everyone was over at DHS for rope drop with me that morning!

:laughing: You are probably right about that!
 

We had just walked off BTMRR after being broken down, taken a picture of the Fast Pass they handed out, and decided to go here next:


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Oh yeah!


I can’t tell you enough how much I love that place. I love the atmosphere from the time you walk in the queue until you walk out into the gift shop. It’s amazing to me how they can transform a building into another world.


After Pirates, Allison spotted an empty hair wrap station. That girl loves to get a hair wrap! Somehow, we never did do it last year. We’d been promising her we’d get it done this time, so when she saw that one with no wait, we went!


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I took some pictures while waiting:


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The boys went back inside the gift shop to look around. Luke was on the lookout for these:


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Which he found, and took pictures of himself!

We also decided at some point that we’d use the Fast Passes we’d gotten from BTMRR to ride Splash Mountain later in the day. Max isn’t keen on getting wet, and since I didn’t think to ask for a Fast Pass for him, it seemed like the perfect plan.


Hair-wrapped and ready, we journeyed on toward the Jungle Cruise. Luke had to stop to take this picture along the way:


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When we got there it was around 10:15, the wait was 25 minutes, so we didn’t ride.


What? We didn’t ride then? Crazies!


Looks like we hiked over to Fantasyland for a Peter Pan Fast Pass.


At least we got a bonus one for Mickey’s Philharmagic! We’d have seen it anyway.


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We really felt like going on a cruise then, so what better choice than the happiest one to ever sail?


At 10:25 our wait was only 10 minutes, and that was mainly our walk down the ramp and waiting just a bit to board a ship. Sadly, there were no kiddos of any age eating in the window of Pinocchio’s Village Haus to wave as we departed. We love to sit in the window and wave, by the way. You should try it sometime! It just makes you happy!


As we were waiting to disembark, the clock put on a show:


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With a few minutes until our Philharmagic Fast Passes were good, we took a spin on Cinderella’s Golden Carousel, which may or may not have been called that by then. Then it was time for a great 4-D show! And after that we flew on to Neverland with the help of some pixie dust!


We then returned to the Jungle Cruise for our daily dose of humor.


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We were sure we had enough time before our 1:00 ADR for Cinderella’s Royal Table, but I remember getting very nervous while in line. I don’t know what the wait time was by then, but the line went to the left first, then around back to the right and into some back room that I’ve NEVER.EVEN.SEEN. Wow, I felt like if we were to all hold hands and be stretched out in a straight line we’d have easily compassed the World Showcase. Luke enjoyed having the extra time it took to get this shot just right, though:


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Finally, finally, safely aboard our vessel, we were off!


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And once we had all returned with our own heads, much to the dismay of the Head Salesman, we booked it over to Cinderella’s Royal Table. We had an invite from Cinderella herself, you know.


We checked in and joined a lot of other people who were waiting to meet Cinderella. Luke wasn’t really excited about having to meet a Princess.


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Gus & Jack Jack were there!


After being seated pretty much right in the middle of the room (darn no window seat!) we took turns going down to wash our hands. When I came back our server had delivered our ‘Chef’s Tasting Plate’ He actually brought out two of these for us:


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It was then that I realized (or Max pointed out) that there was to be no pretzel bread.




Please click here for my feelings on this, best expressed by Darth Vader



Dude, that was my favorite thing about the place.


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Inside the Castle


Max’s favorite thing, the ‘Major Domo’s Favorite Pie’ was still on the menu, though, so he was happy!



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From allearsnet.com: shredded beef simmered in rich cabernet sauce, served with mashed potatoes and sautéed vegetables, crowning a light pastry


I had the ‘Pan-Seared Salmon’:


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Saffron crab risotto, grilled asparagus and lemon beurre blanc


Allison had the ‘Herb-Crusted Pork Tenderloin’:


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mustard cheese grits, cabernet sauce and crispy onions

…continued in next post…

 

And Luke chose this:


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With green beans and strawberry yogurt.


It looks very good, but I can’t remember what it was nor can I find it on the menu over at allearnet.com. Hmmmm?


We were all very happy with our meals.


Luke even consented to meeting just a few Princesses, beginning with Jasmine, because we begged him to because of that kiss she gave him long ago. I don’t seem to have my pictures on Photobucket, though. We met Cinderella, Jasmine, Belle, and Snow White if I remember correctly. When Jasmine came around she asked if we’d help her with a game she and Belle had been playing. Of course, we said yes! She told us that when Belle came to our table to ask her why she wasn’t wearing any jewelry. I think we had to coax the kids to ask or ask ourselves, but when Belle came by, we did ask. She laughed and knew that Jasmine had told us to ask. Belle told us that if she did wear jewelry she’d be losing it all the time just like Jasmine did. I guess Jasmine had been losing earrings that day?


I almost forgot the dessert! What?

And I’m so fuzzy on them that I don’t know who had this or what it was!

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I’m thinking I was the one who had this cake-like dessert.
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The kids probably had ice cream and didn’t want me to take a picture of it!


It was a good meal, but an expensive one. The only reason we went was because we were on the Dining Plan, but seeing that close to $200.00 ticket (for lunch!) only reinforced the fact that it’s way too expensive. I do miss the ‘olden days’ when you could have a nice little affordable meal inside the castle. It was a neat place to go.


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Going downstairs


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We headed out of Magic Kingdom after our meal, arms and legs intact thanks to the Dining Plan. We took the Monorail to the Contemporary and went straight to our car in the BLT parking lot.


We were headed to Star Wars Weekends at Hollywood Studios!
 
I knew I should have eaten in the castle years ago! Now, Hunter is too old to want to eat in the castle with the princesses. Maybe, just maybe, he'll want to go next year just so he can see the princesses. He is a teenager now, you know.:laughing:
 
Caught up now. Great updates! I love those pictures in the first MK update from your balcony. So cool. What a great sight to wake up to every morning. :goodvibes

Bummer BTMRR broke down but kind of cool about the emergency exit. We had a similar experience in Disneyland on small world...that was quite interesting :lmao: but neat because we got to see some backstage Disneyland!
 
hey b, luke had the kids fish at the castle and the dessert with the toffee thing in it was mine, it was ok.

Thought i would try and help you out, bye.
 
I'd love to be a citizen of Main Street with ya! I can't help but always think that it was a simpler time then, and I'd love to be able to visit with people in those shops, get some ice cream (um, without lactose), and have some good ol' fashioned fun!

Haha, I found it entertaining when you wrote about how your kids pretending the confetti was your dog!

It really would've been fun to get stuck on Thunder Mountain farther in the ride. Well, as long as it wasn't stuck on one of the inclines! I like how orderly they perform those "evacuations." I know it's to make sure no one gets hurt, but I just like how those things are all planned out in advance.

It's nice that you guys got the FP after having been able to ride most of the ride already! That was the good part about being almost at the end.

Is that the spider that moves in the Jungle Cruise line? I read somewhere that there's a spider that moves once in a while and surprises people, but I couldn't find it. I saw that, but nothing happened. We weren't there long since I used the GAC. I think it'd be fun to check out JC earlier in the morning when it's not crowded and I can explore the regular line!

Mmm, I'd like some of that bruschetta!

AAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAH, I cracked up when I clicked on the link for Darth Vader.

Wow, a $200 bill? The worst part about high prices for the food at Disney is that you're not ALWAYS guaranteed that it'll all be good or the experience will be what you expect. I think it'd be such a disappointment to pay such a high price and not have a good meal.
 
Wow--$200. I think we will probably do the castle for breakfast next summer. I was thinking of paying out of pocket, but that is a hefty price tag.
 
I knew I should have eaten in the castle years ago! Now, Hunter is too old to want to eat in the castle with the princesses. Maybe, just maybe, he'll want to go next year just so he can see the princesses. He is a teenager now, you know.:laughing:

Hey, maybe he will want to go next year. He can say he's going because you want to go, and then he can have his picture made with the Princesses without having just tons of people staring at him! :laughing:

:offtopic: I don't have my new ticker up yet, because I'm afraid it will torture me to stare at such a long wait, but my DH (Jundland) does have his up and I noticed that we're one day behind you on our dates! :goodvibes

Caught up now. Great updates! I love those pictures in the first MK update from your balcony. So cool. What a great sight to wake up to every morning. :goodvibes

Bummer BTMRR broke down but kind of cool about the emergency exit. We had a similar experience in Disneyland on small world...that was quite interesting :lmao: but neat because we got to see some backstage Disneyland!

It was wonderful. I've always wondered if living near Disney World would make it less special, but waking up that close and seeing those sights everyday never got old!

Ha ha! I bet it was interesting being broken down on Small World--probably a little creepy, too!

Thank goodness for the dining plan. That castle meal is expensive!

:scared1: I know! But, that price did include a picture of us with Cinderella and the tip for the meal. Even so, though...

hey b, luke had the kids fish at the castle and the dessert with the toffee thing in it was mine, it was ok.

Thought i would try and help you out, bye.

Thanks! I thought it was fish, but then I didn't see it listed on the menu I looked at. The menu on allears was from sometime in 2009, so I guess they have changed up it up a bit. That's funny that you had the chocolate thing and I had the fruit thing! :laughing:

I'd love to be a citizen of Main Street with ya! I can't help but always think that it was a simpler time then, and I'd love to be able to visit with people in those shops, get some ice cream (um, without lactose), and have some good ol' fashioned fun!

Haha, I found it entertaining when you wrote about how your kids pretending the confetti was your dog!

It really would've been fun to get stuck on Thunder Mountain farther in the ride. Well, as long as it wasn't stuck on one of the inclines! I like how orderly they perform those "evacuations." I know it's to make sure no one gets hurt, but I just like how those things are all planned out in advance.

It's nice that you guys got the FP after having been able to ride most of the ride already! That was the good part about being almost at the end.

Is that the spider that moves in the Jungle Cruise line? I read somewhere that there's a spider that moves once in a while and surprises people, but I couldn't find it. I saw that, but nothing happened. We weren't there long since I used the GAC. I think it'd be fun to check out JC earlier in the morning when it's not crowded and I can explore the regular line!

Mmm, I'd like some of that bruschetta!

AAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAH, I cracked up when I clicked on the link for Darth Vader.

Wow, a $200 bill? The worst part about high prices for the food at Disney is that you're not ALWAYS guaranteed that it'll all be good or the experience will be what you expect. I think it'd be such a disappointment to pay such a high price and not have a good meal.

How much fun would it be to wake up every morning and ride a horse drawn trolley out to sing & dance with your friends in the street? :)

I was glad we stopped where we stopped because we weren't on a hill or anything, just flat ground, so there was no scariness, but it would have been fun to walk out of more of the ride! And they were so very orderly about the whole business, which made you feel like they were serious about their guests' safety.

I don't know about that spider...I don't think I even saw him move, but he'd be a good one to do that! I love listening to the overhead announcements while waiting in line at the JC! :thumbsup2 Did you have enough time to hear many of them?

At least I know there are other places to get pretzel bread now, but we didn't visit any of them this trip. Cinderella's Royal Table was the first place I'd ever had it though, and that's what I was most looking forward to getting!

Wow--$200. I think we will probably do the castle for breakfast next summer. I was thinking of paying out of pocket, but that is a hefty price tag.

It is expensive! It took 2 Table Service dining credits. But that's the good part about the dining plan, getting to go places and order things you might not have otherwise. It's a really fun experience, though...going inside the castle and meeting a lot of the Princesses without having to wait in a super long line. :goodvibes

Great update :thumbsup2:thumbsup2.

Thanks Dana! :goodvibes
 
That food looked delicious. We have done breakfast there before but I felt really rushed through it. Did they allow you to eat at your own pace?
 
Fun MK day. Wow, that lunch was expensive. Im with you on only doing it cause we have the dining plan!
 












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