Who Says You Can't Have Fun Going Solo??? TR Completed

[Dolce27]

A little backgound...

My love for Disney began when I was two years old. It was 1981 and the Magic Kingdom was the only built theme park at Walt Disney World. My parents left my baby sister (less than a year old) with my grandparents and we drove from Texas to Florida for my very first vacation. I believe we stayed at the Polynesian Resort for that trip, there weren’t many resorts to choose from at that year, and the entire trip down my parents went on and on about how we were going to see Mickey Mouse and proceeded to tell me all about Mickey. Now, I do not have any memory of this trip at all – I’ve had to rely on my mother’s story telling abilities and pictures.

Apparently my two year old self didn’t take well to the Disney characters. I’ve seen pictures of me with Pluto, crying and screaming; pictures with Donald, crying and screaming – you get the picture. Apparently, life sized furry creatures were not to my liking. However, there was one story that I grew up hearing: My mother and I were veering off towards Adventure Land from the Main Street area and she was letting me walk. I suddenly let go of her hand and take off running. Surprised, she looks up and there in front of us is Mickey Mouse, without anyone else around him, bending down on one knee, arms open wide, and I run straight into his arms.

I’d heard this story for years and suddenly one day, about 4 months ago, I thought to ask one question I’ve never asked before: “Mom, where was Dad during this?” I guess I’d always assumed that he was off doing his own thing. Her answer: “He was right behind you taking the picture.”

“There’s a picture?!?”

I didn’t recall having ever seen a picture of this. But yup, a picture does exist:

I believe that moment was when I became a true Disney fan, although I doubt my two year old self realized it.

We only had two more family trips to Walt Disney World while growing up. We went again (this time with my sister) when I was seven and stayed at the Contemporary Resort. Both Magic Kingdom and EPCOT existed at that time. I do have many memories from that trip.

The last family trip took place when I was fifteen. (Actually, I believe this was my family’s last family trip period. I do not recall another family trip after this and my parents split – and then divorced – when I was eighteen) By this time MGM Studios had been added, along with the Moderate Resorts, and we stayed at the Port Orleans French Quarter. My then thirteen year old sister declared that she hated Disney and now at twenty six years old she still maintains that disposition. She swears that no child of hers (she hasn’t yet begun a family) will ever go to Disney World. I think she still has a hang-up from being left behind on my first trip – my sister tends to hold grudges over things such as that.

 

[Dolce27]

Despite my love for all things Disney, at that point in my life I aspired to be a Disney Animator (kind of glad now that I didn’t make that my profession due to the massive lay-off a couple of years ago), I don’t think that I ever thought that much about going to Walt Disney World.

That changed during my sophomore year of college. I sat in the councilor’s office one day, discussing my degree plan, and I made an off-hand comment that I wanted to either work at Walt Disney World or on a cruise line that summer. I have no idea where that came from. It just sort of popped out of my mouth – I hadn’t thought about it much before. The councilor informed me that Disney has a college program (Really?!?) and recruiters came to the campus every spring (this was fall 1998). She told me where on campus to get more information on the program but upon arriving there I discovered that Disney had stopped visiting our campus for reasons unknown.

I was determined that would not keep me from going to WDW so I went to a campus computer lab and decided that I was going to find out where Disney was going to be that next semester. Now, I know the internet had already been around before 1998 but I wasn’t really introduced to it until 1997 and everything was on dial-up and I really didn’t know how to do proper searches on it. Now, I couldn’t imagine life without it but then I had no idea how to find the information for what I wanted, or even if that information was available on the internet. But alas! I probably spent 30 minutes to an hour before I stumbled on what I needed – a Disney recruiting schedule. There wasn’t a website or anything like they have now for College Program information – just a page of text listing the University’s and dates. That was all I needed. They were going to be at UT Austin (I lived five hours away in the Dallas area). So, I took off work, drove to Austin for the interview and spent the summer of 1999 working at Walt Disney World in Florida.

It was at that point that actually going to Walt Disney World became important to me. That summer had been a blast and spending seven days a week at the parks for three months was a dream come true. In July/August 2001 I decided that I really wanted to go back (I was still in college but I couldn’t afford to take off any more time from school to go back on the college program). I asked a college friend if she wanted to go and we discussed it for a couple of weeks and decided that we would go that next May for a vacation. I booked the reservation at the end of August, calling my friend before I booked it to see if she wanted any special requests, and then I called her back the next day to confirm that everything was booked and I had paid the deposit.

Then, a week after Sept. 11, I came home to a message on my answering machine from my friend asking me to call her. The tone was not good. I was worried that she was scared to go to a high profile location such as Disney after what had just happened in New York. Nope, that wasn’t it. She just ‘discovered’ that she had misbalanced her check book by several hundreds of dollars and couldn’t go. (?!?) Oh yeah, and she asked me ‘Did you book the trip yet?’ Uh, you know darn well I did.

I wasn’t about to give up my Disney trip because of this so I told her (even though I was a college student living off campus working two jobs and financially responsible for myself – she was living on campus with her parents paying for everything) that I’d pay ½ of her part of the trip costs if she could get her parent’s to pay for the other half. She hadn’t been doing well in school previously but that that semester she’d made significant improvements and I thought her parent’s might help her out as a reward.

She calls back later that evening and informed me that her parents would pay for her entire half but she hated Disney and really didn’t want to go. And you couldn’t tell me this before we made plans and I booked the trip – why? Upset, I called my best friend from high school. She asked me why I hadn’t invited her – she’d always wanted to go to Disney. I told her that because she was married I figured she wouldn’t want to go with me and leave her husband at home. She told me she’d call back – and she did call back later to inform me that her husband was a big boy and to put her down for the trip. Yea!

I called WDW reservations and I think they were happy to get me just changing the names in the reservation as I got the impression many were cancelling their trips due to the Sept. 11 attacks.

Time moves on and I pay my half of the trip – my best friend still hadn’t paid her half. Two weeks before final payment I attempt to call her. I can’t reach her and she’s not returning my calls. Not good. One week before final payment I come home to a message on my answering machine from her asking me to call. Déjà vu anyone?? Yup, my best-friend doesn’t have the money for her half of the trip and has to bail.

 

[Dolce27]

All right…. I was not going to let my vacation that I’d now been planning for months become ruined. I called Disney reservations and changed it into a reservation of one. I paid the remainder and was set to go to Walt Disney World: Solo. Now, had I not worked there I’m not certain that I would have gone for a seven day trip solo. But I had worked there for three months and I felt comfortable with the parks and all. I went in May 2002, staying at the All Star Movies and I had a blast! I found that I enjoyed going where I wanted to when I wanted to. I only rode the rides that I wanted and I didn’t have to argue with anyone over restaurants to eat at. It was kind of nice.

After the 2002 trip, I wasn’t certain when I’d get to go back. At that point in my life I couldn’t make plans for expensive vacations. I’d finished college and due to a poor job market, I was having trouble finding a job. I was working hourly jobs that barley made ends meet and going on a vacation of any kind was out of the question. March 2005 I finally landed in a job that paid a decent salary and allowed paid vacation time. Later that year (2005), my sister began planning a wedding in England (my brother in-law is English) for June 2006 and I knew that my very first paid vacation time would be spent in England for the wedding.

Then the reason for this trip occurred on March 15, 2006. That was the day that my fifty-seven year old father un-expectantly passed away. I don’t think anyone is ever ready for a parent to pass away, but at twenty-seven years old I definitely wasn’t. I expected my dad to be there for all the ‘dad’ stuff like walk me down the aisle whenever I finally meet my ‘Mr. Right’. My sister’s wedding was already postponed (thank-goodness – I don’t think she would have been ready to walk herself down the aisle just a couple of month’s after my dad’s death) because she and my brother-in-law decided they wanted to move the U.S. and would have the wedding here at a later date.

It was during my depression the month following my father’s death that I began to ask myself ‘What makes me the happiest?’ and Disney World was the first thing that popped into my head. To me, Disney is escapism. It is a chance to get away from everyday problems, be a kid, and just enjoy life. So, I decided in that moment that I was going to Walt Disney World. And I decided to go alone. If I hadn’t gone solo in May 2002 and enjoyed it so much I might not have planned a solo trip for this one – but I knew that I enjoyed myself at Disney (with or without anyone else) and I wanted to get away from everyone and everything. Besides the stress of loosing my father, the job I was currently working was a nightmare and physically making me sick. I needed an opportunity to re-coup.

I was fortunate to discover the DIS Boards and I began spending all of my time on here. I ate my lunches at my desk everyday at work so that I could read the boards during my lunch hour and I went straight home from work to get back on this website. In reflection, focusing on my planned Disney trip was how I got through my grief. It gave me a positive to focus on so I wouldn’t spend all of my time thinking about my father.

After much research I decided that I would plan my trip for the week of September 10 – 15, 2006. The dates avoided the Saturday and Sunday crowds for the most part and I understood September to have one of the lowest crowd levels of the year. I worked at Disney during a summer, I was well aware of what crowd levels could be like and I wanted to avoid them at all cost. Originally, I was going to book the All Star Movies again. I was trying to save on money and I thought the Herby the Love bug section that I stayed at on my 2002 trip was cute. What I really wanted to do was stay at the Boardwalk Inn – but that was a bit out my budget. On a lark I looked up the cost to stay at the Port Orleans French Quarter as I had such fond memories of it. The price difference between a Value and a Mod (at least during off-season) was reasonable and I decided to go with the POFQ.

All right, I had a date and a resort now what in the world is an Advanced Dining Reservation??? In 2002 it was Priority Seating with a 90 day window. Now, (thanks to the information I obtained from the DIS boards) I have to make ADR’s and there’s a 180 day window? Oh… wait!!! I’m already in the 180 day window! Everything’s going to book up!! I’m not going to be able to eat in any of the restaurants!!!!!

Yeah……. it’s April. Nobody was around to give me that bottle of chill pills. I spent hours on a Sunday afternoon going over every single restaurant menu debating if I really wanted to eat there and going over every scenario to figure out if the Disney Dining Plan was worth my money. In the end I decided that there was enough sit-down restaurants that I would like to try and having the Dining Plan would make that affordable. So, I booked the dining plan and made all of my reservations. It’s April 1 and I’ve just made food reservations for September – I hope that is what I want to eat in September.

So, Date (check) Hotel (check) Food (check) Wait! What do you mean there is now free dining plans??? I just booked and paid for the dining plan! O.K. So, I decided – my loss. If I’d just had waited a little bit longer to book then the Dining Plan could have been free. I read through posts and posts of people talking about the free dining plan and the codes and I just grumbled… and grumbled… and grumbled about it. Finally one day during my lunch break a thought popped into my head : ‘It wouldn’t hurt to ask if I could be switched to the free dining plan – the only bad thing that could happen would be for them to say no.’ (What a novel idea!) So, I called and what do you know- not a problem! Woo-hoo! I have free food!!! Knowing me, I’m still going to spend money on food on top of that (and I did - I know, you are probably wondering how anyone could eat more on top of the amount of food given on the Dining Plan. Well, I will tell you now: It didn’t have anything to do with being hungry. It was all about how much time I spent in the Disney Restaurant Forum. I read posts and posts thinking ...’ I want that… and I want that… and that…) and that food picture thread should be illegal! In fact – that whole Forum board should have a warning message on it before you can enter. So, it had more to do with all the foods I wanted to try rather than being hungry).

OK. It’s only May and everything is planned. What am I going to do for the next four months?? I began making detailed daily itineraries, I ordered the vacation planning video, and I become a permanent lurker (occasional poster) on these boards. I snuck park maps into boring work meetings and while it looked like I was studying my planner I was really figuring out the fastest route from one attraction to the next.

On thing about my father’s sudden death that impacted me was this: My father was only fifty-seven – which is still pretty young. He’d taken early retirement (thank goodness) and had been retired for almost two years at the time of his death. It seemed that he was waiting for retirement before he really began ‘living’ his life. Once he retired he began learning Spanish, bought a bass guitar to teach himself to play (shocked me – I couldn’t picture my dad with any type of electrical instrument before that!), things such as that. He only had 1 ½ years to enjoy those things that he’d put off until ‘retirement’.

I decided that I couldn’t do that with my life and have since put together a list of ‘must do’s’ before I die and I’m working on them now as I don’t know if there will be a tomorrow. So, one thing I’ve always wanted to do was swim with dolphins. While Disney doesn’t have a program that allows you to ‘swim’ with dolphins, they do have the Dolphin in Depth program that allows you to interact with dolphins. So – who cares about money – sign me up! So, I signed up for that and then had to re-tweak my itinerary to fit around the tour at EPOCT.


So, now I wait and wait. September couldn’t come fast enough.

...Day One Next...

 

[kristinanderic]

Don't stop now, i'm enjoying the report.

 

[newholidayx2]

keep the report coming -
youre right - never too early to start enjoying your life

 

[Dolce27]

Sunday September 10, 2006

The day has finally arrived! I woke up at 4:30 in the morning to be at the Airport by 6:00 am. My very sweet mother drove for 1 ½ hours to stay with me the night before so she could drop me off at the airport.
I live fifteen minutes away from DFW airport.
Isn’t she a sweet mom to drive 1 ½ hours - get up at 4:30am - drive me to the airport fifteen minutes away (since I couldn’t bother calling a cab) only to drive 1 ½ hours back home? Don’t worry – she’s getting a really good Mother’s Day gift this year.

I flew Air Tran and I was very nervous about this. I always use Air Tran when I fly to Disney (OK... so, I’ve been on Air Tran four times before (counting return trips) – that’s enough to like or dislike an airline and I hadn’t been impressed with them thus far.)

I usually have to have a lay-over in Atlanta. The last trip (2002 trip) my flight left DFW 30 minutes late for some stupid reason (there always seemed to be stupid reasons for their flight delays) and we pulled up to the Atlanta gate just as my connecting flight was pulling out. Great. So, I found out that there’s another flight leaving within the next ten minutes – but it’s at the other end of the terminal. So, I take off running to the other gate hoping to catch that flight. Mind you, this was only eight months after 9/11 and I’m running through an airport. Upon reflection I’m shocked that I wasn’t detained by airport security. I did make that flight but my luggage didn’t make it with me. After a night of calling and yelling at people until they stopped answering the phones I finally got my luggage at 5:00am. (Not one of my finest moments I must admit). I did not want a repeat of this event.

For this trip, I liked the flight prices they offered and what swayed me was that they were offering a direct flight; which they’d never done before when I needed to fly them. All right. My main issue with them was flight delays. I think every time I had been on them previously – going to Orlando or returning from Orlando my flights had always been delayed because the coffee pot wasn’t working – or some reason such as that. Well, if there was a direct flight, I wouldn’t have to worry about missing a lay-over. I might arrive up to an hour late in Orlando based on past experience. Not a big deal. So I booked it.
Of course that was April when I booked. Within a couple of months they’d canceled the direct flight and put me on a lay-over in Atlanta that didn’t give me any time at all to make a connecting flight even if they were on schedule. And they didn’t notify me of the change – I just happened to check on the flight. So, I called and managed to get them to put me on a connecting flight leaving later so I *hopefully* wouldn’t have to worry about missing a connecting flight should we leave DFW late. A couple of months later I get on to check the flight and notice three things 1) They bumped me back to the original connecting flight that didn’t give me anytime to get to during my lay-over (?!?!) 2) they put the direct flight back on the schedule. Yea! 3) They still hadn’t notified me that they were switching my flights around.

So, I called again and managed to be put back on the direct flight and the flight was still listed as I arrived at DFW. Yea! I had been having nightmares that I would get to DFW and find that the flight was canceled and I should have been on the earlier flight that morning to Atlanta. Fortunately, all was well. My flight left on time and we actually arrived early in Orlando. It wasn’t a full flight so I had a row to myself. Keep this up Air Tran and I will continue to use your service. The only problem I encountered was that something became loose in cargo during the flight and fell – causing the plane to jerk. It scared me badly for a moment as I’m petrified of flying. But other than that, it was a smooth trip.

Upon arriving in Orlando there was around a fifteen to twenty minute wait for the Magical Express. Not bad, but still, when your that close and so eager to be there it seems to take forever. There was one stop before POFQ, which was Old Key West, and then we arrived at POFQ.

I think this resort is very nicely themed. Here are some photos I took later in the week after returning from a park one night:

Check-in was a breeze – no line, I was able to walk right up and it was nice to not have to lug my luggage with me as it was being taken care of by the Magical Express people. I was put in Building 1 (I think it’s one of the furthest buildings out but I didn’t care – I love to walk. I’d rather they put me out there then someone that would have trouble walking at the end of the day coming in from the parks. I didn’t care much about the room location or the view so I wasn’t concerned as to what type of room I was given – which was a good thing as my view was the parking lot.) In fact, I barley glanced at the room upon entering; I’d save that for later. I tossed my carry-on down and took out anything in my backpack that I didn’t need for the parks and then made my way down to the bus stop.

During my planning I had trouble deciding which park to start with for my first afternoon at Disney. Disney MGM is my favorite – but I’m biased as that was the park I worked in during the College Program. I finally decided that I should start my trip at the Magic Kingdom. I made it to the MK by 1:00. Honestly, it was like I couldn’t breathe until I stepped through that turnstile. I needed this vacation so badly. Between my dad and my horror of a job – I was to a breaking point stress wise. Suddenly stepping through that turn style and looking down Main Street I could breathe again. I felt as if I had taken my first gulp of air after holding my breath for months. Disney was already working its magic on me.

I decided to try out the ‘new’ Pirates of the Caribbean first. Thanks to the many discreet study periods of park maps during work meetings, I knew exactly which direction to go. MGM was the only park that I could walk around blindfolded since I spent three months of my life in that park. The other parks, I still get a bit turned around in.

First, before Pirates, I had to stop by and grab a Dole Whip. I didn’t know these things existed – I learned a lot about food (well, Disney in general) from these boards. Seriously, I know more about Disney World now after reading the DIS boards than I did while working there. Back to the Dole Whip: I like pineapple but I don’t love pineapple so I got a pineapple/vanilla swirl. I was turning away from the stand and almost lost my Dole Whip as the top was falling over. Quickly sticking it into my mouth to save it – I ended up with a serious brain freeze. But it was a good Dole Whip. It is now on my food list for future Disney trips.

I found Pirates to be cute. Honestly, it had been three years since I was last on it so I knew about some of the changes for sure (The mist screen, adding Capt. Jack Sparrow) but some of it I didn’t know if it was new or if it was original. I did enjoy it and didn’t have any complaints about the changes they made.

After Pirates I grabbed a Fast Pass for Splash Mountain and went over to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. I think I’ve only been on this twice in my life- once in 1999 and once in 2002. I don’t know why I never rode it more times than that. I had so much fun this time around. There were two things that made it so much fun: First was the man in front of me that I will refer to as the ‘chug-a chug-a’ man. He was riding solo and was in the first row to the train while I was in the second row. Every time we’d go up a hill he’d be making a ‘chug-a chug-a’ steam train sound while rotating his arms. As we reached the top he’d lean over the ‘steam engine’ at the front and give it a little tap series and then throw his arms up as we went down the hill. He was so into it that I couldn’t help but laugh. I think watching him made the ride experience so much greater.

The second thing I found is that if you are going on that ride solo – it really doesn’t matter which side of the train you sit on. I began the ride on the left side, then I was on the right, then the left, then the right again. Apparently the train couldn’t decide which side I should be on so I got to experience both. I kept hearing the lady behind me laugh and at first I thought she was laughing at me (Hey, I was laughing at me) but then half-way through I decided she wasn’t. Right at the end as we were coming back into the dock she leaned forward and said something to me (I don’t remember what) and I realized that she had been laughing at me. Every time I went flying/sliding into the other side cracked her up.

So, the guy in front of me made me laugh and I made the woman behind me laugh. All was good.

 

[Dolce27]

I still had some time before my Fast Pass return for Splash so I took the ferry over to Tom Sawyer’s Island. I’d never been over there before. You are going to find that for me being a former cast member – there are lots at Disney that I haven’t done. The summer I worked there I tended to do the same things over and over. Stupid of me, I know. But now I have lots of new things to experience.

I explored the island for awhile and then went over to Adventure Land to go on the Jungle Cruise. I hadn’t done the Jungle Cruise since I was 15 and at Disney with my family. (I know, I know. At least I wasn’t tired of the jokes). Actually, since it had been so long since I last heard the jokes I found them to be rather funny. The ‘jungle guide’ I had made one last joke that I didn’t think was scripted as we pulled back into dock. While advising us to not leave anything behind he warned parents that included all small children. Any small children left behind would be taken over to It’s A Small World, bolted to the floor and forced to sing ‘It’s a Small World’ over and over for the next four years. They would then sent back home to the parents.

Others may use that line also and it may be scripted but I went on the Jungle Cruise again later that week and the guide I had that time didn’t warn parents of that.

After Jungle Cruise I made my way back over to Frontier Land to go on Splash Mountain. I got in the back (yeah – I didn’t want to get wet. I have issues with getting wet on rides) and I made it off just in time for the new 3:00 parade. It had already started by the time I approached so I had to stand behind people. Being September there wasn’t much of a crowd. I stood behind one person and had a good view. There was another person behind me- but they were sitting on the stone wall so I don’t think I blocked their view in any way. I tried to be careful about not standing in anyone’s way that had already been there. I got a few pictures but what I found funny was the guy in front of me. I would see a float approaching that I wanted a picture of so I’d raise my camera to get ready and then at the last second the guy in front of me would raise his camera (as if he just decided he want that picture also) and would block my view. I wasn’t upset in any way – he was there first- I just found it funny because that seemed to happen only on pictures that I wanted. When I didn’t want a picture it didn’t seem that he did either. I don’t even think that he realized I was standing behind him since I walked up late. But none the less, I got several nice pictures of the parade. I thought the parade was o.k. I liked the snow globes better.

After the parade passed I fought my way over to the Haunted Mansion. Since I was walking in the same direction the parade was moving – that proved to be quite a feat. The pathways were packed in several areas with parade watchers and it was sometimes hard to maneuver around the people. On my way I noticed the sky was darkening but I wasn’t worried.

(I do enjoy reading the tombstones while waiting. I wished they would change them up every now and then - or keep adding new ones.)

It wasn't even 3:30 as I made my way to the Haunted Mansion and I didn’t think the rain would start until closer to 4:00. I’d stop off at a store to buy a poncho after the ride.

Yeah, that proved to be a stupid mistake. After riding the Haunted Mansion, which I love and is such a classic, I came out to pouring rain. Hard rain. Sheets of rain. No, the cast members were not going to let me stand under the awning at the Haunted Mansion until it stopped. The problem is – The Haunted Mansion is in Liberty Square. I didn’t know where the gift store in Liberty Square was located as I’d never been to it. I knew that it existed; one of my roommates on the college program had worked at it. But where was it? That was the question de jour.

Making a run for it I ran to the nearest awning that I could find. I had no idea what I was standing next to. I think that I was close by The Liberty Tavern – not certain. As I was standing there, pondering what to do, I was looking in the direction of the ground when I happened to notice that the guy in front of me (avoiding the rain) had the weirdest pair of pants on. Oh – wait a minute! Cast member! So, I walk around to stand in front of him. He’s listening to the park radio and smiling at something being said – I wasn’t paying attention. I asked him where the merchandise shop was. He just stared blankly at me – as if he couldn’t understand me. Maybe he didn’t speak English? But, he had understood whatever was being said in English on the park radio. Hmm…Oh well. I wasn’t going to get an answer from him. Time to keep running.
I dogged from awning to awning (I did end up at the Liberty Tavern at one point – I was hoping it was the merchandise shop upon my approach. Darn it!) Finally, I reached the merchandise shop. Woo-hoo! The only problem was – I looked as if I just climbed out of a swimming pool. I was completely drenched. Not a dry spot on my body. As I walked into the store people just stopped what they were doing and stared at me. I walked up to the cast member behind the counter and she just stared at me, stunned.

I looked at her and said: “I know it’s kind of pointless now but can I buy a poncho?” She just smiled at me and I then became the proud owner of an over priced Mickey Mouse rain poncho. I walked out the other side of the store, facing Fantasy Land, and the rain was letting up. Figures.

 

[Dolce27]

I went over to Mickey’s PhilharMagic. I had read so much about it that I couldn’t wait to see it. Oh-my-gosh! I loved it! It was so good. I debated and debated if I was going to buy that Donald Duck t-shirt in the gift shop after. I’m writing this trip report in February but I went in September, so I can’t recall what the t-shirt said but I thought it was so cute. I didn’t buy it and I’m now kind of regretting it.

After Philhar I walked over to the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. All right. I do remember vividly Mr. Toads Wild Ride from when I was seven. I loved it. My sister hated it. She (being five years old at the time) went on the side that took you to jail. She honestly thought she was going to jail. It traumatized her. (It’s a good thing that my sister, hating all things Disney, will never read this trip report. )

They put in Winnie the Pooh the summer I worked at Disney and I thought it was cute then and I think it is cute now. I didn’t have a problem with them replacing Mr. Toad. I have fond memories of Mr. Toad from when I was a child and I like to keep them that way. As an adult I think I would have found the ride so outdated that I wouldn’t be able to maintain the childhood memories. Besides, how many children today know of Mr. Toad? They know and love Winnie the Poo and this will be their ‘Mr. Toad’. – That’s just my two cents.

After Winnie the Poo, I did a quick tour of Mickey and Minnie’s house. Yep, the houses are cute and cheesy and I had fun taking lots of pictures of them

I then headed over to the carousel. I love carousels and I especially love the one in Fantasy Land.
My view while on the carousel:

I had an ADR at Cinderella’s Royal Table that night. It was going to be my first time to eat at the Castle and I was looking forward to it despite the less than stellar reviews given on the DIS boards for the new menu. With a little time to spare, I stopped over at the castle shop and looked at the $1,000.00 artwork and the $85.00 replicas of the statues in front of the castle. I really wanted either the Dumbo or the Chip and Dale statues. Dumbo has special memories for me from when I was a child.
When I worked at Disney my mom came and spent a few days for a vacation. One night, while I was sitting on the curb on Main Street waiting for the parade (It was the Main Street Electrical Parade that summer) my mom disappeared into a shop for a few minutes and came back out with a small silver sculpted Dumbo clock. Apparently she had fond memories of me riding Dumbo when I was a child also.
As for Chip and Dale, Dale is my favorite Disney character. I love him. Back in college I had hoped to come back on the College Program the next summer and be ‘friends’ with Dale. Alas, it was not meant to be.

But, standing there in the shop looking at the sculptures, I couldn’t justify spending $85.00 for something I’d have to lug home with me so I went on to my ADR at CRT.

 

[Dolce27]

Since having your picture taken with Cinderella is part of the package, I had to do that. I was nervous about being a single adult having my picture taken with a face character. On my 2002 trip I had one character picture taken with Dale at Chef Mickey’s but other then that, I hadn’t had a character picture taken since I was a child. Fortunately she didn’t make me feel awkward taking a picture with her. However, the picture turned out horrible so it’s now buried in the back of something – I don’t currently know its location.

For my meal I choose the BLT salad. I really liked it and the pretzel bread was yummy. Then again, it’s hard to do bread wrong in my eyes as I’m a bread addict. I had the lamb with the vegetable root mash for my main entrée. I. Loved. It. I was a little worried about picking this and was going back and forth with something else for my selection (remember, I even had my food planned out months in advance before arriving ). I’d never had lamb before and I couldn’t figure out exactly what vegetable root mash was but it was so good. I still get cravings for it. CRT is a must on my next trip just so I can have that again. I only ate half of my lamb to save room for desert. (I tried doing that at every meal – eat only half of everything so that I’d had room to try everything.) For dessert I had the chocolate moose cake. It was yummy but truthfully, I wanted them to take the cake away and bring me back the rest of my lamb.

There was a family there that I think may be a DIS board family, they looked so familiar to me – I’m betting the mom is a DIS board member that post trip reports. I noticed them before being called into dinner and we were called in around the same time and I was seated close to them. I kept glancing over at them all through the meal, well for two reasons. 1) When you eat alone you have nothing to do but people watch 2) I was still trying to determine if I had seen a picture of them on the boards and that is why they looked so familiar. One time when I happened to glance over, one of the daughters began to choke on her food. It scared me to death. The mom was sitting across the table and stuck in between some other family members. She was desperately trying to get out from behind the table when the grandmother (or I assume the grandmother) sitting next to the girl managed to whack the girl on the back and loosen the food. I don’t want to know what the mom was feeling, seeing her daughter choking and not being able to get over there fast enough when it scared me, a stranger, pretty badly.

Also, before I left, I saw commotion across the restaurant from where I was sitting and noticed a Photo Pass photographer standing over there. I was confused at first but I then realized that a guy just proposed to his girlfriend. Very sweet.

Coming Up: End of Day 1 with EMH and Day 2

 

[Dolce27]

Kristinanderic and newholidayx2: thanks for reading you guys! I'll try to post more later.

 

[newholidayx2]

thanks again for your report

 

[Bee]

Okay.. here I am and waiting.

Disney lets me escape also.. So sorry to hear about your dad.

Write on, write on!

Thanks, Bee

 

[Dolce27]

I plan to post more later tonight when I get home from work.

 

[Dolce27]

After CRT I headed over to Tomorrow Land. I grabbed a fast pass for Space Mountain and went over to Carousel of Progress. I’d never been on it. I attempted to go on it in 2002 but they didn’t have it open when I was there. Finally, I was getting to see this – after so many posts about it I was curious. I enjoyed it (as a once per trip enjoyed) and I got the stupid song stuck in my head. Darn it. ‘It’s a great big beautiful tomorrow…’ played itself over and over in my head for the rest of the night.

After that I went over to Astro Orbiter, another one I hadn’t been on before. It was fun. I like things that fly up in the air in circles or anything that swings. On to Space Mountain with my fast pass that really wasn’t needed. I didn’t know which track was better, the right or the left as you were approaching the split. I normally went to my right so this time I decided to go to my left and basically walked on to it. (I think the most I had to wait the entire week was 20 minutes – lots of stuff was either 5 minutes or walk-ons). Space Mountain went down after I was in my ‘space capsule’ just past check point before you go into the tunnel. It didn’t bother me. I’m only 5’3 and I was in the last seat. There was plenty of room to be comfortable for the wait. The poor guy behind me wasn’t so lucky. He apparently was much, much taller than 5’3 and was crammed into the front seat of the 2nd car. He wasn’t very comfortable and the CM advised us to wait it out. He told us that since we were past check he couldn’t let us out of the ride without having to reset it. The ride was down for maybe 5 – 10 minutes. It wasn’t bad and the CM chatted with all of us. Too bad I hadn't already made it inside so I could see the track with the lights on.

I walked out of Space Mountain to rain (Yea! I was going to have an opportunity to wear my overpriced poncho) and the announcement that Spectromagic was being cancelled due to the rain. (Oh well, I’d seen it before). It was an EMH night so I went over and received my wristband and then made my way over to Stitch’s Great Escape. I’d read so many negative reviews about it that I wasn’t expecting much. I did think it was cute actually. The chili dog… that was just... gross.

I love Stitch so I was a little disappointed. Before the attraction opened I had high hopes for it.

After that it was about time for Wishes. I hung out in the shops on Main Street browsing and I then took a position in front of the ice cream shop to watch. Wishes was another first for me and it’s just amazing. Disney tries to go all out for most everything they do and it’s so worth it.

Extra Magic Hours began and I just had to see Mickey’s PhilharMagic again. I’m defiantly putting this as one of my ‘must do’s’. It is such an amazing show. Peter Pan was next and then I then hopped on the once carousal again.

As I was getting off I noticed Chip and Dale lining up for pictures. All right, if I could get my picture taken with Cinderella then I could get it done with my favorite character, Dale. I’ve read about how mischievous those chipmunks can be. Apparently Mickey had them on their best behavior that night – there was nothing at all mischievous about them. Dale did kiss my hand as I was leaving. Chip just ignored me. I think Dale’s cuter anyways so I ignored Chip right back.

 

[Dolce27]

I then went back to Frontier Land and rode Big Thunder Mountain (I think this is becoming another favorite) and then back over to Tomorrow Land for another turn on Space Mountain and Astro Orbiter. On Space Mountain I took the right side this time but it had been too long since I was on the left side earlier that night for me to make a decision if one side was better than the other.

I then decided that my night was over. I’d been up since 4:30 that morning and had been at Magic Kingdom since 1:00 that afternoon. I caught the bus back to POFQ and was in bed sometime after 1:00am.

I did get pictures of the statues in front of the Castle – I love those little statues. They are so cute. No wonder I want to buy one. The bumps you see are rain drops – I took these pictures just before Wishes and it was still raining some.

Here's the lot of them: They're just too cute not to post.

One thing I noticed that day was the CM’s didn’t seem very friendly. I smiled at them – they glared back. Fortunately as week went on they seemed to be getting happier.

I believe that the highlight of the day was the chug-a chug-a guy. To this day I still smile thinking about how into that ride he was.

 

[Dolce27]

Monday September 11, 2006

I had a wake-up call set for 6:30 am. That’s right. I was up at 4:30 am the morning before, didn’t go to bed until after 1:00 am and willingly set a 6:30 am wake-up call. No, I’m not insane. Almost – but not quite there yet.

I wanted my Stitch/Mickey wake-up call. When the phone rang, I picked it up to silence. Great, no wake up call for me – only a wake up ring. Just as I was about to put the phone down I heard Stitch and got my wake-up call after all!

I quickly showered and dressed and hit the Sassagoula food court at POFQ for Beignets. That was another food item I’d read about on the DIS boards and decided that I ‘must try’. It was yummy – actually everything I ate that week was yummy – but it was messy. I had powdered sugar everywhere. Sorry people who had to clean up after me. I cleaned up as best as I could.

I then hopped the bus to Disney MGM Studios – my favorite. I know that it’s the smallest park but I just love that park. I had a great bus driver and we chatted the entire way over. Of course, being September 11, 2006, our conversation ended up on September 11, 2001. She was working on 9/11 and told me about how Disney cleared the parks and everything that happened that day from a CM point of view.

Quick Trivia: That is the only Mickey Mouse you should find at Walt Disney World that has his head tilted and is not looking at you straight on. The reason for this is because his ear is a lightening rod.

We arrived at MGM studios and the opening ceremony was done by a couple of the streetmosphere characters. When I worked there you didn’t see those guys until at least noon but I thought it was great that they have them opening the park now – it’s all about the movies you know.

I headed directly to Rock n’ Rollercoaster.

This is another attraction that opened the summer I worked there. On rides they have a period called ‘cast preview’ where it’s not open to the public and the cast members get to try out that ride first. It usually lasts about a week – or based on my experience, a week. The Thursday before when I picked up my paycheck I was given a specially designed Rock n’ Rollercoaster ticket for cast preview. The ticket gave me a time frame for when I was allowed to ride the attraction. I assumed I was only allowed to ride the attraction once and had to use that ticket to get on. Not so. That next week during the preview another CM came up and told me that they’d allow you on if you were in costume or had your cast member ID on you – you didn’t need the ticket. So, I still actually still have that ticket and I went on Coaster many times the week of cast preview – and many times the remainder of that summer. I love it.

So, I chose that to be my first ride at MGM that day. I like to sit in the back on a rollercoaster. It whips you around faster as the front has to slow down for turns and such. I am not one to be scared of a rollercoaster. I grew up going to Six Flags Over Texas and I’m sorry to admit it – Disney’s rollercoaster’s are rather tame in comparison to Six Flags – but Disney’s theme for the attractions are much better than Six Flags could ever dream of. I decided at the last minute to actually check out my ride photo. I never do that as I hate pictures of me. Surprisingly, I thought the picture was good enough to buy – so, here’s my first ride photo. Ever.

(Not that you can see much of it on here! )

I’m not making a habit of purchasing ride photos – way too expensive but I thought buying at least one in a lifetime was acceptable. I then went on to Tower of Tower. I love the entire concept of this and the theme is wonderful. I went down into the boiler room and it was a walk on. I walked up to the CM to request to be put in the back as I have to sit in the back. I will not say exactly why I will not ride in front of people on TOT, but lets say it’s a fear that stems from the summer I worked there when I was working an after hours party that involved alcohol. Lots of alcohol. Combined with a ‘thrill’ attraction. Let’s just say it was not good so I always request to sit in the back but this time everyone began laughing at me. That had never happened before but I soon understood why: There were only enough people to fill the first two rows. The third row was empty and then there’s me, all by myself, sitting up in the corner of the forth row. I didn’t buy the ride photo for this but I looked rather sad sitting up there all by myself. Oops

 

[Dolce27]

I then went over to the Great Movie Ride. They only had one tram going and thank goodness it stopped in the gangster scene rather than the cowboy scene. I prefer the gangster for some reason. If you don’t know the trick for which scene you get – it’s all about which side of the queue you go into when entering the main part of the building. The queue divides everyone into two lines upon entering the main room where the movie clips are shown. If you stay to the left – you are in show ‘B’ and get the gangster scene. Staying right puts you in show ‘A’ and you get the cowboy scene.

After the Great Movie Ride I attempted to take a flight to Endor on Star Tours but that didn’t work out so well. Silly droid, he didn’t know where he was going. I then decided that a snack was in order and wanted to try the apple cinnamon pretzel at Min and Bill’s Dockside Dinner. All right, I loved this (much better than the beignets and I liked the beignets) but then again, I love anything with cinnamon in it.

I went over to do the Disney Animation Tour. Obviously I haven’t done this since Michael Eisner fired (eh...laid-off… whatever) the animators and I didn’t know what to expect. I really, really enjoyed it. The interaction with Mushu was so cute and I stuck around for the drawing class (Animation Academy) where I learned how to draw Goofy. I played around with the kiosks at the end and discovered that I am most like Cinderella.

I went and looked around at One Man’s Dream and stayed for the movie on Walt’s life. I admire Walt Disney – he is an inspiration to me and I think that’s why I love Disney so much. He was one of those people that wouldn’t accept no for a answer and figured out how to succeed with his dreams. I took a stroll down Mickey’s Ave. after leaving the movie. I had planned to see the Narnia exhibit while there, but I didn’t and I now do not recall why.

The Power Rangers were out in full force and no one was waiting to get Kim Possible’s autograph. Poor Kim, I almost went over to ask for a picture – almost. I was over by the stunt show and decided to not see it. I had originally planned to watch it but I decided that I didn’t mind skipping it. ... Might have been a mistake - but I'm leaving something new for next time.

I love the little things you find at Disney such as the Singing in the Rain umbrella – which was turned on while I was there.

I went to Muppets – while outdated I love this 3-D show. However, I do wish they’d make a new Muppets 3-D to put in it’s place. While standing in line to be let into the pre-show I showed a family the key under the door

and I noticed this custodian broom pan:

I love the pre-show to Muppets almost as much as I love the actual show.

The auditorium wasn’t completely full. I had been the first in my row so I moved all the way down like you were supposed to but since it wasn’t full and everyone else in my row stopped half way down, I moved back toward the center of the row as the show began.

I went over to Rolling Stars bakery for a lunch of salmon with cream cheese on a bagel and a huge chocolate chip cookie for dessert. I went to sit down outside when I heard the streetmosphere in the middle of a skit on Sunset Blvd. so I moved over there and watched them while I ate. I love to watch the streetmosphere. They are so entertaining and I think they are ignored by a lot of people at the park that don’t take the time to stop and observe their surroundings – too intent to getting to an attraction or show.

They were playing the Dating Game. They picked a woman out (a guest in the park that day) and then brought out three "contestants" and made her sit with her back to them so she couldn't see them beforehand as she asked questions. These were her choices:

... of course, the lovely bachelor that was chosen:

After they left I went back over towards Hollywood Blvd to discover that I had missed seeing my favorite group of the streetmosphere actors – the Hollywood Public Works. These guys are a bit more slapstick then the rest of them. I took a couple of pictures of them and they told me they’d be out again before the parade.

 

[Dolce27]

I looked around at all of the gift shops and then made my way back over to Hollywood Blvd. so that I could grab a bench to sit on and wait for the parade. True to their word, the streetmosphere actors came back out and entertained those of us already waiting for the parade.

Frederick, who is scared of most everything, had issues with the balloons:

So, he chose to conquer his fear and attack the balloons:

With a spade.

Do pay attention to these guys if you are ever at MGM. They are hilarious.

I had seen this parade back in 2002, with the exception of the Cars addition. (I still have not seen this movie).

After the parade I went back over to Tower of Terror and grabbed a fast pass and went on Rock n’ Rollercoaster while I waited. I then went on Coaster a second time while I continued to wait for the time to be able to use the FP. For some reason I was bored with Tower this trip – it just wasn’t thrilling to me. I must be becoming jaded on thrill rides. All the ride photos show me with an ‘is this all?’ expression on my face while everyone else is screaming and smiling.

 

[Dolce27]

I then make my way back over to Hollywood Blvd and catch another Streetmosphere set and find that I just missed Chip and Dale at the character meet and greet by ‘the hat’.

Don’t get me started on ‘the hat.’ I like ‘the hat’; really I do, just not in its current location. It completely ruins the 1930’s – 1940’s Hollywood feel for me.

I went over to the Honey I Shrunk the Kids Playground. I do realize that I am an adult but climbing that spider web is just fun – especially when it’s at 12 am with your manager and no one else is around to laugh at you. I was in the process of climbing the web with a bunch of kids, all other adults standing off and shaking their heads at me, when a boy – oh, maybe about six or seven – strikes up a conversation with me. He began by asking where I was staying and he was a cute kid so I chatted with him as we climbed but after awhile I began to feel a bit uncomfortable as I was an adult stranger and him being a kid. I didn’t know where his parents were. I think it was the kind of questions he kept asking – he wanted to know all about me. After we got off the spider web another boy around his age (a brother, cousin?) approached him requesting that he go on the slide with him. The boy refused and became clingy towards me. This is when I began to really feel uncomfortable. I looked around for an adult that would claim this kid – but I didn’t notice one. Why did this kid blow off someone he obviously knew to stay with me – a stranger? I finally told the boy that I had to leave and he began to get really upset. I finally walked off and he suddenly ran up to me and gave me a big hug before running off again. I found his clingy behavior a bit odd and I hope the parents were somewhere watching him, deciding that I looked all right enough for their kid to be hanging with. He was a really sweet kid though.

After Honey I sat down on some steps on New York Street and called my best friend back home (the same one that bailed on me in 2002). We chatted for awhile and then I went over to Hollywood and Vine for my ADR. I had read many negative reviews of this place but I was willing to try. I did the Fantasmic package and when I booked everything in April I decided that I wouldn’t want something heavy (such as Italian) in the heat of September and I ate at the Hollywood Brown Derby in 2002. So, Hollywood and Vine it was. I actually liked it all right – but I’m not a very picky eater. At all. I had flank steak, green beans, mashed potato, a roll, creaser salad and chocolate mouse, carrot cake, and a brownie for dessert. I love desserts – just in case you didn’t pick up on that there. I went and got an EMH bracelet for that night and went over to Oscars to go up the back way to get into the amphitheater for Fantasmic. I knew that the reserved seats for the package were on the far right and that didn’t bother me as I worked Fanstasmic many nights back in 1999 and I often stood up right behind the dinner package guests so I was accustomed to seeing the show from that far over. When I entered the amphitheater it wasn’t very full so I scooted on over to a middle section towards the front. I’d never been that close to the show before. I could feel the heat from the fire and would get sprayed by the water.

I did learn something that evening that I should have known before then: Off! Goes with Florida evenings as umbrellas go with London weather. Unfortunately I didn’t have any Off! with me that night but I did have an overpriced Mickey Mouse poncho that I didn’t need as it didn’t even sprinkle that day. I also was learning that while wait time for rides were short and it was one of the least populate times of the year to be at Disney, there were still way too many people. I was expecting it to me much less populated than it was. But, it still wasn’t bad. Here is a picture of the amphitheater while everyone is waiting for Fantasmic to begin:

I don't know about you but that does fit my description of crowded. It's packed!

After Fantasmic, (I never tire of that show and if you haven’t seen it – you must!) I intended to go on Coaster for a 5th time and go through the queue of Tower for night time pictures. Yeah, that was before I left the amphitheater. I stepped out onto Sunset Blvd and seriously, the line for Coaster and the line for Tower were almost to the merging point to form a single line down Sunset Blvd.

I took pictures of things around the park for nighttime pictures instead of attempting to get on a couple of rides I’d already done several times that day. My picture ‘theme’ I found myself taking many times that week was store front windows. And signs. I found that I liked the window displays they had.

It was so nice wondering around MGM at night. The music was great. It made me wish that I had someone to dance with in the middle of the street. The atmosphere was great. I love the background music at that park.

I did some quick shopping to buy a few souvenirs and then went to the bus stop. The POFQ bus seemed to take forever. I waited much longer for that bus than I had for any ride the entire trip.

I had intended to check out Scat’s Lounge when I returned to POFQ but it was dead and I didn’t have anyone to sit and listen to the performer with so I decided to take a walk along the river instead. I wasn’t quite ready for bed at that point. The river was so nice and peaceful at night. I love to walk – I can walk for hours upon hours. I don’t recall how many times I walked up and down the river – several that night. I went up to my building (Bld #1) and all the way down to the bridge going into PO Riverside. Finally at midnight I decided to call it a day and go to sleep.

Day 3 Next...

 

[Bee]

You are doing an awesome job!