Week off, day 1 - Old Key West and MGM

[mktiggerman]

Today I had a PS for the character breakfast at OKW at Olivias for 10:15am.. however thanks to the lovely staff at Florida Power, it was more like 11am. Once there we were received by Pooh, Tigger, and Eeyore. I love this place- great food, cheap ($12 a plate!!!), some of the BEST (and I mean BEST) character interaction I've ever had, and the place.. well, it was a ghost town! It was EMPTY!! When I arrived there were less than 18 people in that restaurant. It was great.

Once seated we were served w/ the usual disney breakfast plate: Eggs, Potatoes, Pancakes, Bacon, and Sausage (actually, very reminiscent of the old Artists' Point Breakfast at Wilderness Lodge). Then came the characters.. they were nuts. Eeyore tried stealing my girlfriend... then Tigger did too.. the Pooh broke them up and tried stealing her too.

I managed to get 4 decent pics of them since they wouldn't stand still for a minute (they can be viewed @: http://greenarmyman.tripod.com/specials/old_key_west/ )

The food was great, our server (I wished I remembered her name) was great, the atmosphere rocked.. they did a bang up job of recreating Key West (minus the psycho w/ dreadlocks shark fishing w/ his bare hands... but thats another story altogether).

From there we were off to Epcot since we wanted flan in Mexico. One we arrived I made a stop backstage at the Epcot entertainment building to look for hours.. I SCORED!!! They needed someone for a special event on thursday and I got it! Then it was back to Mexico. I went to the cantina (?) to get the flan, when much to my dismay... they don't sell Flan anymore.. it's been replaced by Churro's (they're good.. but I prefer flan). As we sat and ate our Churros we saw the character bus and decided to be cute.

We had snacks on us (miniature boxes of: Honey Grams, Nutter Butters, and Cheez-its) and decided that it'd be cute to give them to the appropriate characters. So off we were to the meet and greet line factory.

First it was off to Pooh bear (gosh he made it back quickly from OKW). He had no line, so we gave him the Honey Grams.. he was bouncing like tigger once he saw them. Then it was off to the mile long line for Mickey to give him his cookies... he sure was happy, he gave me and my girlfriend lots of hugs after receiving his Cheez-its. Finally we had the nutter-butters for chip and dale, but we couldn't find them- so it was off to Meeko who was strangely there (the first word out of my mouth was: RANDOM!) and I gave him the nutter butters.. he ran away and fought w/ the box to no avail.. he finally gave up and gave them to his greeter. I got ready to take pics when I realized!!! I'm missing my digital camera!!!!!!! So off to the nearest shop I went and bought 2 disposable cameras.

Finally, off to MGM. My GF hadn't seen the MGM parade so that was our first priority (after rides!). We walked on ToT and MV:3D thanx to a few friends of mine- we then went on One Man's Dream.. it touched me.

Finally, Stars and Cars. It was cool..several things were missing (6 dwarves, Vinny, Mole, and Little Bo Peep are all I can think of right now), but still cool. I got 27(?) pics of it.

From there, I called Epcot to see if my digital cam had been found.. IT HAD!!! YAY!!! HOORAY FOR HONESTY!!! I floored it over there and got the camera back.

The me and my girlfriend said goodbye and I went home.

I'mm go tomorrow to get the pics developed and I'll post them ASAP!

 

[Marla Hellwig]

Yum, Olivias sounds good - I will have to put that on my list of places to try on upcoming trips. Glad to hear the camera was found. Thanks for posting!

 

[Debi]

Thanks for posting! It sounds like you had a great time. I love your story of giving characters crackers! I can't wait to see the pictures.

 

[mktiggerman]

Just an update: the rest of the pics are up, they can be viewed here:
http://greenarmyman.tripod.com/epcot
here:
http://greenarmyman.tripod.com/mgm
and here:
http://greenarmyman.tripod.com/mgm/stars_motorcars_parade/

since there are other files located there, look at the dates and any file whose date is 1-Oct-2001 is one of them

 

[meeko_33785]

Meeko random at Pooh's breakfast? How ironic. I remember when the Pooh characters were random at the Pocahontas breakfast at Arist's Point. What a shame you lost your camera.

 

[mktiggerman]

Originally posted by meeko_33785
Meeko random at Pooh's breakfast? How ironic. I remember when the Pooh characters were random at the Pocahontas breakfast at Arist's Point. What a shame you lost your camera.

no.. meeko random on the character bus, he was never at Pooh's breakfast.

 

[meeko_33785]

Originally posted by mktiggerman


no.. meeko random on the character bus, he was never at Pooh's breakfast.

Oh. I must have missed that. I must have missed EPCOT. I didn't see it in the title, so I figured you were still talking about Old Key West. Meeko on the Holioday bus isn't that big a deal, then.

 

[mktiggerman]

Originally posted by meeko_33785
Meeko on the Holioday bus isn't that big a deal, then.

actually it is.. everyone I spoke to said this was the first time since last winter that they've seen Meeko on the bus... King Louie was random too.. this was the first time ever for most CM's I spoke to... a few said they'd seen him once or twice though.

 

[one_cat]

Great idea to give food to the characters. Wish I'd thought of that...

 

[josierac]

mktiggerman

Can you tell me more about the (quote)

"backstage at the Epcot entertainment building to look for hours.. I SCORED!!! They needed someone for a special event on thursday and I got it! "

Thanks

 

[josierac]

mtiggerman,

WOW, great pictures. Where did you see all of those characters at MGM? Where they all over or at designated spots? I have never seen that many at MGM.

Thanks

 

[mktiggerman]

Originally posted by josierac
mktiggerman

Can you tell me more about the (quote)

"backstage at the Epcot entertainment building to look for hours.. I SCORED!!! They needed someone for a special event on thursday and I got it! "

Thanks

I was looking for some extra hours at work, since disney is cutting back on hours right now. I work in Global Entertainment, so I can work/get hours anywhere on property that has an entertainment department. It just happened that epcot had a special event (filming I think) and they needed a coordinator to go along. So I asked about it and got it

 

[mktiggerman]

Originally posted by josierac
mtiggerman,

WOW, great pictures. Where did you see all of those characters at MGM? Where they all over or at designated spots? I have never seen that many at MGM.

Thanks

some of them have designated spots (see my character location guide for more information) but for the most part, most of them are random characters that I was lucky to see. I am also luck to work in entertainment, and to have connections across property.. that's how I found out the bear was doing meets for 3 weeks.

 

[meeko_33785]

Originally posted by mktiggerman


actually it is.. everyone I spoke to said this was the first time since last winter that they've seen Meeko on the bus...

No, I mean it's not quite as random, I supose you'd say. You may expect to see Meeko more on the bus than at Old Key West.