Day 4 (part 2) - Sunday, November 14, 2004:
CAST OF CHARACTERS:
MOM - 57 year old somewhat disney nut.
ME - 34 year old DISNEY NUT who has had to wait one full year for her Disney fix.
TODAY'S AGENDA:
1. Magic Kingdom -ah what fun
2. Lunch at Beaches and Creams and break in room -really needed this after the dessert
3. Magic Kingdom with dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern
We both woke up about 3ish right as it had just stopped raining. After freshening up we headed out once again to Disney. This time we decided to take the Friendship boat to the International Gateway, walked through Epcot, of course stopping to ride SSE once, and then walked on to the monorail heading to MK.
We entered MK about 4:20 or so, stopped by the locker we rented this morning so mom could take her jacket out (it was a bit windy and would go down to 60 at night). I had changed after waking up from shorts to pants and had a longer sleeve top on so I was ready. We heard the train a comin so we took it to Frontierland then waited for BTMRR. Last year this ride was refurbished during this time (and I was bummed out over it) so I had to ride it now. Then we walked over to HM and had just enough time to ride it before dinner.
We walked in Liberty Tree Tavern at 5:10 and was exactly 5 minutes early for our ps. We were instucted to sit down until our name was called and we were called about 10 minutes later. We were seated by a window that overlooks Ye Old Merry x-mas shop and it was a wonderful quiet place to sit. Several families were seated around us and Chip was just coming into this area doing a handstand.
As we waited for Chip to come over, our waitress took our drink order and then Chip arrived. Oh we just love Chip, he loved us to, took pictures and waved goodbye.
Sidenote: as mentioned in a previous post, families stood out this trip. Upon re-entering MK, my mom decided to blow it after witnessing for the 4th or 5th time a parent asking a child which ride they wanted to do first. This was not an option I was ever asked when I was little, I was told to do. My parents were firm believers in not giving children options, they do what they are told. She stated as we were walking past this scene that it was ridiculous to give a child an option and something about who is running the show.
Now back to dinner. We had a couple with 2 girls at the table next to us that Chip walked to as well. The mom was asking the older daughter (maybe 5) if she could take her picture with Chip and the lovely daughter stated loud and clear "No". My mother would've given that kid something to remember but their mother just went on to the other daughter. At this point the server returned with our drinks. Dale now enters the picture, mom and I lie to him saying he's our favorite and Chip is the irratating one. He laughs, strawberry kisses us and off to the next table where the 5 year refused to take another picture. Mom couldn't hold it in anymore and stated that children shouldn't be given options, of course she is stating this loudly to me (her back is to the family) and they proceed to give me the dirty look so I just rolled my eyes at them. Isn't this a wonderful friendly dinner.
Finally food arrives, warm rolls with delicious honey butter and a large ceasar salad with strawberry vinagrette dressing. YUMMY!!!! Can't say just how delicious this was but it was DELICIOUS. Minnie wondered in at some point and pictures were taken and mom was enjoying her food so much that the family wasn't even interesting anymore. During the serving of the main courses (mashed pot. with gravy, mac and cheese, glazed carrots and stuffing with pork, ham and flank steak strips - Goofy came on by to say hi. So we said hi took some pictures and really began to pig out on the food. Pluto came on by during this as well and tried to eat our food but he would have to battle with mom if he was going to get anything at all.
Anyway, Pluto heads over to the next table, the daughter somehow fell off her chair, hits her head on the window sill and begins to cry. Well the mom finally got the kids picture with Pluto, guess it knocked some sense into her, Ha. The kid was fine.
Afterward we had dessert again (2 times in one day) which was an apple cobbler (it looked more like apple crisp to me but what do I know). Got the bill and the total cost was I think $56 with tax/tip. Great meal and a lot of fun with the characters (please note, we do return here again before end of week and had a totally different character experience that my mother brought on).
The character manager came over to inquire how we felt about the character interaction (she is a lady in her 30's and probably played Mickey/Minnie Mouse in the past as she was maybe about 5' tall). We told her we had a great time and saw all the characters.
We left there about 6:20 and had to ride HM again. Once again on BTMRR and just made SM shortly before Wishes was to begin. We caught Wishes and Tinkerbell in the central hub area for the entire show. We of course walked out with the crowds after lagging around to shop for about 20 minutes.
I asked mom if she could handle sticking around for another 30 minutes as its been years since we last saw the Electrical Water Pageant. We got our bag out the locker and intended to go to the Poly so that I could film it but there was a crowd waiting for the Monorail so we decided to boat over as the line wasn't too long there. While waiting in line a whole bunch of people started making comments about the boats. You see GF and Poly share the same boats and there are no really big boats (mainly because they can use the monorails). But a few of these people noted that the boats taking people to FT. Wilderness and WL were the larger covered Friendship boats. One person even named the open boats for the GF and Poly the African Queen because that is what the boats looked like (we were cracking up laughing at that thought). These people pay a ton of money for a larger room, to wait in line for a Monorail when the parks close or to ride the African Queen back to their resort, these are your choices for $300 per night. Well we were able to get on the second African Queen that came along. In the meantime, it was about 8:50 and we could see the electrical water floats being towed over to the Poly. We decided to get off at GF and wait for it at the boat dock as by the time we landed at the Poly, the show would've already began. By 9:15 the water pagent made its way to GF and I managed to film it. We then took the monorail back to MK and the buses were all lined up there and one bus driver stated she would take us back to our resort. Thank you to the very GREAT CM bus drivers (we met plenty). Best ride as we had the bus to ourselves.
We had a female driver and we asked her how she fared through the various hurricanes and stated that the her trailer was fine throught the first one but eventually received damage and the were still recovering. We then got to talking about how Disney was and she stated that many CM's come and wait out the storms in tunnels at MK. They have to bring 3 days provisions and aren't allowed back outside until the winds die down to around 30/35mph then they all get working to get the World back in order. She stated that they begin untying things and cleaning up everything and a crew head out in a backhoe down the streets with two guys and chainsaws sitting in the bucket and when a tree is in the way they cut it into a few pieces, the backhoe pulls it to the side and they head off to the next tree in the roadway. Then a large dump truck comes and picks up the pieces. It was very interesting to hear these stories and the fact that Disney does help there employees when they can.
Before we knew it, we were back at the BW and another day had ended. We went back to the room, made some hot chocolate and ended our night on the balcony watching the entertainment on the Boardwalk.
RECAP:
MK at night -
Dinner at LTT -
Wishes -
Electrical Water Pageant -
Bus ride back to BW -
Tomorrow we hit AK.
CAST OF CHARACTERS:
MOM - 57 year old somewhat disney nut.
ME - 34 year old DISNEY NUT who has had to wait one full year for her Disney fix.
TODAY'S AGENDA:
1. Magic Kingdom -ah what fun
2. Lunch at Beaches and Creams and break in room -really needed this after the dessert
3. Magic Kingdom with dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern
We both woke up about 3ish right as it had just stopped raining. After freshening up we headed out once again to Disney. This time we decided to take the Friendship boat to the International Gateway, walked through Epcot, of course stopping to ride SSE once, and then walked on to the monorail heading to MK.
We entered MK about 4:20 or so, stopped by the locker we rented this morning so mom could take her jacket out (it was a bit windy and would go down to 60 at night). I had changed after waking up from shorts to pants and had a longer sleeve top on so I was ready. We heard the train a comin so we took it to Frontierland then waited for BTMRR. Last year this ride was refurbished during this time (and I was bummed out over it) so I had to ride it now. Then we walked over to HM and had just enough time to ride it before dinner.
We walked in Liberty Tree Tavern at 5:10 and was exactly 5 minutes early for our ps. We were instucted to sit down until our name was called and we were called about 10 minutes later. We were seated by a window that overlooks Ye Old Merry x-mas shop and it was a wonderful quiet place to sit. Several families were seated around us and Chip was just coming into this area doing a handstand.
As we waited for Chip to come over, our waitress took our drink order and then Chip arrived. Oh we just love Chip, he loved us to, took pictures and waved goodbye.
Sidenote: as mentioned in a previous post, families stood out this trip. Upon re-entering MK, my mom decided to blow it after witnessing for the 4th or 5th time a parent asking a child which ride they wanted to do first. This was not an option I was ever asked when I was little, I was told to do. My parents were firm believers in not giving children options, they do what they are told. She stated as we were walking past this scene that it was ridiculous to give a child an option and something about who is running the show.
Now back to dinner. We had a couple with 2 girls at the table next to us that Chip walked to as well. The mom was asking the older daughter (maybe 5) if she could take her picture with Chip and the lovely daughter stated loud and clear "No". My mother would've given that kid something to remember but their mother just went on to the other daughter. At this point the server returned with our drinks. Dale now enters the picture, mom and I lie to him saying he's our favorite and Chip is the irratating one. He laughs, strawberry kisses us and off to the next table where the 5 year refused to take another picture. Mom couldn't hold it in anymore and stated that children shouldn't be given options, of course she is stating this loudly to me (her back is to the family) and they proceed to give me the dirty look so I just rolled my eyes at them. Isn't this a wonderful friendly dinner.
Finally food arrives, warm rolls with delicious honey butter and a large ceasar salad with strawberry vinagrette dressing. YUMMY!!!! Can't say just how delicious this was but it was DELICIOUS. Minnie wondered in at some point and pictures were taken and mom was enjoying her food so much that the family wasn't even interesting anymore. During the serving of the main courses (mashed pot. with gravy, mac and cheese, glazed carrots and stuffing with pork, ham and flank steak strips - Goofy came on by to say hi. So we said hi took some pictures and really began to pig out on the food. Pluto came on by during this as well and tried to eat our food but he would have to battle with mom if he was going to get anything at all.
Anyway, Pluto heads over to the next table, the daughter somehow fell off her chair, hits her head on the window sill and begins to cry. Well the mom finally got the kids picture with Pluto, guess it knocked some sense into her, Ha. The kid was fine.
Afterward we had dessert again (2 times in one day) which was an apple cobbler (it looked more like apple crisp to me but what do I know). Got the bill and the total cost was I think $56 with tax/tip. Great meal and a lot of fun with the characters (please note, we do return here again before end of week and had a totally different character experience that my mother brought on).
The character manager came over to inquire how we felt about the character interaction (she is a lady in her 30's and probably played Mickey/Minnie Mouse in the past as she was maybe about 5' tall). We told her we had a great time and saw all the characters.
We left there about 6:20 and had to ride HM again. Once again on BTMRR and just made SM shortly before Wishes was to begin. We caught Wishes and Tinkerbell in the central hub area for the entire show. We of course walked out with the crowds after lagging around to shop for about 20 minutes.
I asked mom if she could handle sticking around for another 30 minutes as its been years since we last saw the Electrical Water Pageant. We got our bag out the locker and intended to go to the Poly so that I could film it but there was a crowd waiting for the Monorail so we decided to boat over as the line wasn't too long there. While waiting in line a whole bunch of people started making comments about the boats. You see GF and Poly share the same boats and there are no really big boats (mainly because they can use the monorails). But a few of these people noted that the boats taking people to FT. Wilderness and WL were the larger covered Friendship boats. One person even named the open boats for the GF and Poly the African Queen because that is what the boats looked like (we were cracking up laughing at that thought). These people pay a ton of money for a larger room, to wait in line for a Monorail when the parks close or to ride the African Queen back to their resort, these are your choices for $300 per night. Well we were able to get on the second African Queen that came along. In the meantime, it was about 8:50 and we could see the electrical water floats being towed over to the Poly. We decided to get off at GF and wait for it at the boat dock as by the time we landed at the Poly, the show would've already began. By 9:15 the water pagent made its way to GF and I managed to film it. We then took the monorail back to MK and the buses were all lined up there and one bus driver stated she would take us back to our resort. Thank you to the very GREAT CM bus drivers (we met plenty). Best ride as we had the bus to ourselves.
We had a female driver and we asked her how she fared through the various hurricanes and stated that the her trailer was fine throught the first one but eventually received damage and the were still recovering. We then got to talking about how Disney was and she stated that many CM's come and wait out the storms in tunnels at MK. They have to bring 3 days provisions and aren't allowed back outside until the winds die down to around 30/35mph then they all get working to get the World back in order. She stated that they begin untying things and cleaning up everything and a crew head out in a backhoe down the streets with two guys and chainsaws sitting in the bucket and when a tree is in the way they cut it into a few pieces, the backhoe pulls it to the side and they head off to the next tree in the roadway. Then a large dump truck comes and picks up the pieces. It was very interesting to hear these stories and the fact that Disney does help there employees when they can.
Before we knew it, we were back at the BW and another day had ended. We went back to the room, made some hot chocolate and ended our night on the balcony watching the entertainment on the Boardwalk.
RECAP:
MK at night -
Dinner at LTT -
Wishes -
Electrical Water Pageant -
Bus ride back to BW -
Tomorrow we hit AK.
