BethC
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 18, 1999
Day 3 - Monday October 30, 2000
Weather - 80's, clear, beautiful!
Guests of Honor:
Supporting Cast:
Click here to read Day 2
We jump out of bed early this morning since my dad was bringing the kids over to the Magic Kingdom to meet us for early entry this morning. We spent plenty of time last night stressing the importance o being there when the gates open, so the last thing WE want to do is be late!
We easily find the bus stop and lucky us, a M agic Kingdom bus pulls up right away. We arrive in due time and head over to the boat dock to meet the kids. Did I mention it was foggy this morning? Really foggy, and I'm not seeing any boats! Hmmm.......
We wait and listen to the opening speech and still no kids. Chris enters the park so he can go buy some pins and when he comes back, still no kids. I finally see a b at coming through the fog and watch as the people file off. Still no kids. I ask the driver where he had just come from and he says Fort Wilderness. The driver explains that most of the boats don't run when it's this foggy out, but since he wa s a smaller boat, he could maneuver okay. I can't imagine why my dad and the kids were not on this boat!
We try to call my mom on her cell phone but she doesn't have it turned on yet this morning. At 8:00am, we finally see them coming down from the monorail platform. It seems they waited forever for a boat to come when they were finally told that the boats weren't running. They had to take a bus to the TTC and catch the monorail there. Melanie helped my dad by showing him where to go! The kids were worrying the whole way that they would miss all of early entry. LOL!!
We say good-bye to my dad and rush off down Main Street. Of course we have to stop for just a moment and admire the castle. Ah, that's better, now we're home The lines in Fantasyland are still quite light so we grab a flight off to Neverland with Peter Pan, drive Jake crazy with the repetitive singing in It's A Small World, and take the ride of our lives in Winnie the Pooh's honey pot. Jake is dying to do Buzz Lightyear so we walk over to Tomorrowland, grab some fastpasses and then jump in the stand by line. Soon we are saving the world from the Evil Emperor Zurg. I don't know what we were hitting, but Melanie and I come out of there with some killer scores!
Minnie and I rush over to ride Space Mountain, while Chris and Jake take another turn on Buzz. The line isn't too bad, maybe 15 minutes, before we are traveling through space in our rockets. We have a great r ide and exit excitedly. We meet up with Chris and Jake and take a spin on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority. We always have to ride this at least once every trip. We like to talk along with the narrator, Paging Dr. Morrow, Dr. Tom Morrow. Your party has arrived from Saturn. Please give them a ring!
After a relaxing ride on the People Mover, we have just enough time to battle the forces of evil before our breakfast PS. Luckily, we manage to save the Universe like good little space rangers! Good thing, since it's time to say good-bye to Buzz Lightyear and head over to the Contemporary.
A quick monorail ride later, we arrive on the concourse, keeping an eye out for Mom and Dad. We look through a few shops and soon they arrive. We walk over to Chef Mickey's and check in at the podium, which is swarming with people. Chris tries to check us in, but they apparently can't find our PS. Chris starts to pull the itinerary out of his fanny pack, but they say it's okay, and to have a seat. We wait for quite a while and in the meantime, I take a look at the schedule. I quickly discover that the reason they couldn't find our PS, is that we are over a half an hour late! Oops!! For some reason I had it in m y head that our breakfast was at 10:30am, and it was supposed to be for 10:00am!! Note to self, look at the itinerary once and a while after you have created it!
We are finally seated, not in the main room but off to the side directly across from the buffet. No problem and we're all starving so we get busy filling up those plates. Our waitress brings out coffee and carafes of orange juice. I also order a diet coke for myself, chocolate milk for Jake, and apple juice for Minnie. This is one of our favorite buffets and the food, again, did not disappoint. We loaded up our plates with bacon, sausage, pancakes, cinnamon french toast, biscuits, croissants, danish, several different egg and potato dishes, fresh cut-up fruit, muffins and even oat meal. Everything was just delicious.
In between mouthfuls of food we are visited by Chip and Dale, who were a little playful, and Minnie Mouse, who is wonderfully sweet with the children. Minnie is a big favorite with our family and she always gives us lots of loving. Stuffed to the gills, but not about to skip dessert, we check out the sweets and treats section of the buffet. Here we find all manner of donuts, rice krispie treats, crepes, fudge brownies, and apple strudel, not to mention several different cereals and m&m's, chocolate chips and sprinkles. I'm not sure exactly what the sprinkles are for, but both Melanie and Jake add a spoonful to their bowls! We finish our dessert just as Mickey stops by and we spend some time talking to him. Soon after the C elebrate song begins to play and we all frantically wave our napkins in the air. Of course, I keep twirling mine into Chris' face, and I think Jake's ends up in his orange juice on more than one occasion. LOL!
We settle up the bill as the restaurant is starting to empty out. Up front we run into Mickey and Minnie and snap a great picture of Melanie and Jake with the two of them. The kids are so excited to see both of them at once! We've seen them so many times, but there was something special about them being together this morning! We also run into Goofy and say good-bye to him on our way out.
The plan was to head back to the resort for some pool time. I thought a nice monorail ride would be in order so we all pile into the monorail that had just arrived. Another family was being shown to the front, so we just missed out on that one!! We began our journey around the lagoon, stopping at the TTC, and the Polynesian, where Chris again asks if we can ride up front. The CM waits until everyone has loaded and then motions to Chris to come on. Chris grabs Dad and the kids and they all get treated to a ride in the front cab. We finish the loop at the Grand Floridian and arrive back at the Magic Kingdom. Mom and I meet up with the others and they proudly show us their monorail co-pilot licenses. Jake is convinced that this means he is now capable of driving the monorail!
We walk over to the bus stop and Mom stops and looks around. What is it, Mom? She's looking from the Contemporary to the Polynesian to the Grand Floridian and says, we're practically back where we started! Yup, that's right, Mom, we took the long way around. She's still puzzled as she sees a monorail coming towards the Magic Kingdom from the Contemporary. I have to take a minute to explain about the express monorail and the resort monorail and how we could have walked over here if we wanted to, but I thought it would be more fun to ride the monorail.
During this whole exchange, the Boardwalk bus pulls up, so we hurry over to get seats. The bus stops at the Yacht Club first, and we decide it will be quicker to walk back to our room. We exit here and take some time to admire the resort and then it's a nice stroll along the boardwalk back to our room. We show Mom and Dad around a bit and then head out to the pool.
We quickly discover that you can get life jackets at the Community Hall for the length of your stay so Chris takes Jake over to pick one up. Melanie heads straight for the slide and is soon twisting round and round the roller coaster slide and being thrown through the clown face into the pool. It's a gorgeous day once again and we soak up the sun while the kids slide again and again. The pool looks so inviting, I decide to give it a try. The water is heated and it feels just wonderful! The kids and I float around for a good long time before I pull myself out to dry off. Lounging in my chair, I admire the beauty of this area. The pool is surrounded on 3 sides by the buildings of the Boardwalk Villas and all their beautiful colors of reds and yellows, with striped canopies on the balconies, the 4th side is bordered by the ri ver leading to Disney MGM Studios. The atmosphere is pure theme park/carnival, with the rollercoaster slides, squirting elephants, carousel pool bar and fun-filled playground.
Reluctantly, we finally head back to the room to get ready for this evenings activities. We say good-bye to Mom and Dad, and they head back to Fort Wilderness. The rest of us take showers and get cleaned up. We have a PS scheduled for Sci Fi Dine In for 4:30pm but this has become a bit of a joke to us. You see, the last several times we've come to Disney World, we have planned on eating here, but for one reason or another, we always end up cancelling.
Determined to make it this time, I rush everybody out the door and we hurry over to the Swan and Dolphin boat dock for a quicker ride. We wait a few minutes and the friendship boat arrives. Ten minutes later we are walking through the gates of Disney MGM Studios. The crowds are terrible, but we quickly learn why. Everyone is lining up for the Mulan Parade, which is just now making it's way down Hollywood Blvd. We work our way through all the people and find ourselves over by Indiana Jones. The parade finishes and we are able to cross. We arrive at the restaurant a little early and check-in at the podium. There is a movie playing in the book store so Melanie and Jake sit down to watch. Chris and I roam around and after what seems like an eternity, but was probably only 10-15 minutes, we are called in.
As you enter the restaurant from the park, it's not very exciting. It looks like a bunch of boards and a high fence. But as you are shown inside you realize that what you were seeing before was the back of the movie screen. Inside there are rows and rows of cars with attached speakers, and a big screen showing trailers of old "B" movies. It is somewhat dark inside, but there are lights on the dashboards of the cars. We were shown to our car, and Minnie and Jake got the driver's seat, while Chris and I slid into the back seat (just like the old days! LOL). Behind us, we could see the snack stand. The whole effect is quite neat, and you really get the feeling that you were at the drive-in movie theater.
In our rush to actually make it to this restaurant this time, we never stopped to think that we weren't really hungry. Our waiter came to take our orders and after a little bit of stalling we decide on a hot dog for Minnie, bowls of chili for Chris and I, an order of fries for us to split and some kind of crazy ice cream concoction fo r Jake. Yay, ice cream for dinner, am I the best mom or what? Our server brings out the food and everything is delicious. We have a great time eating in the car and watching the old movie clips on the screen. Upon leaving the restaurant, we all decide we are glad we finally got the chance to eat here.
It's getting late in the day, but we decide we have time for one ride. Jake wants to ride Star Tours but the standby line is 20 minutes so we opt to do Muppetvision 3D instead. We discover that this has fastpass now, and I can't for the life of me figure out why they need it on this attraction. We were able to walk right into the preshow and the theater was nowhere near filled to capacity. I can't remember the last time I went to this show that the theater was full! Oh well, we enjoy the show as always, and since we are sitting closer to the front this time, the kids get a good look at the Swedish Chef in the back, which they enjoy. We all sing along with the Miss Piggy, catch som e bubbles, watch the building get blown up, and exit the theater humming the Muppets theme song. Great show, as always!!
We follow the crowds over to the Hollywood Hills Ampitheater, where people are flowing in to see Fantasmic. It's about an hour to showtime but we end up all the way over to the left, the second section from the end. The theater is definitely going to be packed tonight! The time goes by quickly and we are treated to some preshow entertai nm ent by Dellman, the Tower of Terror bel lhop. He is pretty funny and he keeps our attention all the way up until showtime.
The show starts, and what can I say? It's fabulous as always! I especially love the music, it's so wonderful. I love the danci ng water, the water screens, the princess floats, the evil villains, everything! And of course I love Mickey most of all since he is the one who always saves the day! We cheer loudly for the performance and begin the tedious task of trying to exi t with 8,000 of our closest friends. It naturally takes forever, but we finally break away from the crowd and exit out onto Sunset Blvd.
At the boat dock, we discover an incredibly long line. We see some families taking the walkway so we decide to gi ve i t a try. Guess what? It's s till not open!! LOL!! We have to walk up the hill, cross the busy street, and walk back down the hill on the other side. How ridiculous is this? The walkway is completed, they've put up railings, added lighting, and there's a nice sidewalk the whole w ay, but they've got to have this locked gate under the bridge! Just what is t he purpose of this anyway? I can't wait until they officially open this walkway!
As we approach the Community Center we decide to stop and pick up a video. Everyone plays a few video games and a couple games of foosball, and we pick out the video Hocus Pocus in honor of Halloween tomorrow. We spend the rest of the evening watching the video and taking it easy.
Soon we are all zonked dreaming of our Fantasmi c day.
Next Post:
Will Chris be able to get the Halloween pins? Does Jake have the courage to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad? Will we make it to the Halloween party on time? and Who's the leader of the club that's made for you and me?
Tun e in next time to hear all about the Czada's Halloween adventures!
Click here to read Day 4
Beth C
Co-Moderator - Transportation Board - Getting you from here to there
Co-Moderator - Rewards Board - Getting you there cheaper!
[This message was edited by BethC on 11-27-00 at 09:23 PM.]
Weather - 80's, clear, beautiful!
Guests of Honor:
- * Chris - 34, Disney fanatic, early arriver
* Beth - 34, DIS addict, impatient worrier
* Melanie - 7, aka Minnie, transportation director
* J acob - 5, aka Jake, upset passenger
Supporting Cast:
- * Jim - 55, Beth's dad, bus, boat and monorail traveller
* Cheryl - 55, Beth's mom, cell phone avoider
Click here to read Day 2
We jump out of bed early this morning since my dad was bringing the kids over to the Magic Kingdom to meet us for early entry this morning. We spent plenty of time last night stressing the importance o being there when the gates open, so the last thing WE want to do is be late!
We easily find the bus stop and lucky us, a M agic Kingdom bus pulls up right away. We arrive in due time and head over to the boat dock to meet the kids. Did I mention it was foggy this morning? Really foggy, and I'm not seeing any boats! Hmmm.......
We wait and listen to the opening speech and still no kids. Chris enters the park so he can go buy some pins and when he comes back, still no kids. I finally see a b at coming through the fog and watch as the people file off. Still no kids. I ask the driver where he had just come from and he says Fort Wilderness. The driver explains that most of the boats don't run when it's this foggy out, but since he wa s a smaller boat, he could maneuver okay. I can't imagine why my dad and the kids were not on this boat!
We try to call my mom on her cell phone but she doesn't have it turned on yet this morning. At 8:00am, we finally see them coming down from the monorail platform. It seems they waited forever for a boat to come when they were finally told that the boats weren't running. They had to take a bus to the TTC and catch the monorail there. Melanie helped my dad by showing him where to go! The kids were worrying the whole way that they would miss all of early entry. LOL!!
We say good-bye to my dad and rush off down Main Street. Of course we have to stop for just a moment and admire the castle. Ah, that's better, now we're home The lines in Fantasyland are still quite light so we grab a flight off to Neverland with Peter Pan, drive Jake crazy with the repetitive singing in It's A Small World, and take the ride of our lives in Winnie the Pooh's honey pot. Jake is dying to do Buzz Lightyear so we walk over to Tomorrowland, grab some fastpasses and then jump in the stand by line. Soon we are saving the world from the Evil Emperor Zurg. I don't know what we were hitting, but Melanie and I come out of there with some killer scores!
Minnie and I rush over to ride Space Mountain, while Chris and Jake take another turn on Buzz. The line isn't too bad, maybe 15 minutes, before we are traveling through space in our rockets. We have a great r ide and exit excitedly. We meet up with Chris and Jake and take a spin on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority. We always have to ride this at least once every trip. We like to talk along with the narrator, Paging Dr. Morrow, Dr. Tom Morrow. Your party has arrived from Saturn. Please give them a ring!
After a relaxing ride on the People Mover, we have just enough time to battle the forces of evil before our breakfast PS. Luckily, we manage to save the Universe like good little space rangers! Good thing, since it's time to say good-bye to Buzz Lightyear and head over to the Contemporary.
A quick monorail ride later, we arrive on the concourse, keeping an eye out for Mom and Dad. We look through a few shops and soon they arrive. We walk over to Chef Mickey's and check in at the podium, which is swarming with people. Chris tries to check us in, but they apparently can't find our PS. Chris starts to pull the itinerary out of his fanny pack, but they say it's okay, and to have a seat. We wait for quite a while and in the meantime, I take a look at the schedule. I quickly discover that the reason they couldn't find our PS, is that we are over a half an hour late! Oops!! For some reason I had it in m y head that our breakfast was at 10:30am, and it was supposed to be for 10:00am!! Note to self, look at the itinerary once and a while after you have created it!
We are finally seated, not in the main room but off to the side directly across from the buffet. No problem and we're all starving so we get busy filling up those plates. Our waitress brings out coffee and carafes of orange juice. I also order a diet coke for myself, chocolate milk for Jake, and apple juice for Minnie. This is one of our favorite buffets and the food, again, did not disappoint. We loaded up our plates with bacon, sausage, pancakes, cinnamon french toast, biscuits, croissants, danish, several different egg and potato dishes, fresh cut-up fruit, muffins and even oat meal. Everything was just delicious.
In between mouthfuls of food we are visited by Chip and Dale, who were a little playful, and Minnie Mouse, who is wonderfully sweet with the children. Minnie is a big favorite with our family and she always gives us lots of loving. Stuffed to the gills, but not about to skip dessert, we check out the sweets and treats section of the buffet. Here we find all manner of donuts, rice krispie treats, crepes, fudge brownies, and apple strudel, not to mention several different cereals and m&m's, chocolate chips and sprinkles. I'm not sure exactly what the sprinkles are for, but both Melanie and Jake add a spoonful to their bowls! We finish our dessert just as Mickey stops by and we spend some time talking to him. Soon after the C elebrate song begins to play and we all frantically wave our napkins in the air. Of course, I keep twirling mine into Chris' face, and I think Jake's ends up in his orange juice on more than one occasion. LOL!
We settle up the bill as the restaurant is starting to empty out. Up front we run into Mickey and Minnie and snap a great picture of Melanie and Jake with the two of them. The kids are so excited to see both of them at once! We've seen them so many times, but there was something special about them being together this morning! We also run into Goofy and say good-bye to him on our way out.
The plan was to head back to the resort for some pool time. I thought a nice monorail ride would be in order so we all pile into the monorail that had just arrived. Another family was being shown to the front, so we just missed out on that one!! We began our journey around the lagoon, stopping at the TTC, and the Polynesian, where Chris again asks if we can ride up front. The CM waits until everyone has loaded and then motions to Chris to come on. Chris grabs Dad and the kids and they all get treated to a ride in the front cab. We finish the loop at the Grand Floridian and arrive back at the Magic Kingdom. Mom and I meet up with the others and they proudly show us their monorail co-pilot licenses. Jake is convinced that this means he is now capable of driving the monorail!
We walk over to the bus stop and Mom stops and looks around. What is it, Mom? She's looking from the Contemporary to the Polynesian to the Grand Floridian and says, we're practically back where we started! Yup, that's right, Mom, we took the long way around. She's still puzzled as she sees a monorail coming towards the Magic Kingdom from the Contemporary. I have to take a minute to explain about the express monorail and the resort monorail and how we could have walked over here if we wanted to, but I thought it would be more fun to ride the monorail.
During this whole exchange, the Boardwalk bus pulls up, so we hurry over to get seats. The bus stops at the Yacht Club first, and we decide it will be quicker to walk back to our room. We exit here and take some time to admire the resort and then it's a nice stroll along the boardwalk back to our room. We show Mom and Dad around a bit and then head out to the pool.
We quickly discover that you can get life jackets at the Community Hall for the length of your stay so Chris takes Jake over to pick one up. Melanie heads straight for the slide and is soon twisting round and round the roller coaster slide and being thrown through the clown face into the pool. It's a gorgeous day once again and we soak up the sun while the kids slide again and again. The pool looks so inviting, I decide to give it a try. The water is heated and it feels just wonderful! The kids and I float around for a good long time before I pull myself out to dry off. Lounging in my chair, I admire the beauty of this area. The pool is surrounded on 3 sides by the buildings of the Boardwalk Villas and all their beautiful colors of reds and yellows, with striped canopies on the balconies, the 4th side is bordered by the ri ver leading to Disney MGM Studios. The atmosphere is pure theme park/carnival, with the rollercoaster slides, squirting elephants, carousel pool bar and fun-filled playground.
Reluctantly, we finally head back to the room to get ready for this evenings activities. We say good-bye to Mom and Dad, and they head back to Fort Wilderness. The rest of us take showers and get cleaned up. We have a PS scheduled for Sci Fi Dine In for 4:30pm but this has become a bit of a joke to us. You see, the last several times we've come to Disney World, we have planned on eating here, but for one reason or another, we always end up cancelling.
Determined to make it this time, I rush everybody out the door and we hurry over to the Swan and Dolphin boat dock for a quicker ride. We wait a few minutes and the friendship boat arrives. Ten minutes later we are walking through the gates of Disney MGM Studios. The crowds are terrible, but we quickly learn why. Everyone is lining up for the Mulan Parade, which is just now making it's way down Hollywood Blvd. We work our way through all the people and find ourselves over by Indiana Jones. The parade finishes and we are able to cross. We arrive at the restaurant a little early and check-in at the podium. There is a movie playing in the book store so Melanie and Jake sit down to watch. Chris and I roam around and after what seems like an eternity, but was probably only 10-15 minutes, we are called in.
As you enter the restaurant from the park, it's not very exciting. It looks like a bunch of boards and a high fence. But as you are shown inside you realize that what you were seeing before was the back of the movie screen. Inside there are rows and rows of cars with attached speakers, and a big screen showing trailers of old "B" movies. It is somewhat dark inside, but there are lights on the dashboards of the cars. We were shown to our car, and Minnie and Jake got the driver's seat, while Chris and I slid into the back seat (just like the old days! LOL). Behind us, we could see the snack stand. The whole effect is quite neat, and you really get the feeling that you were at the drive-in movie theater.
In our rush to actually make it to this restaurant this time, we never stopped to think that we weren't really hungry. Our waiter came to take our orders and after a little bit of stalling we decide on a hot dog for Minnie, bowls of chili for Chris and I, an order of fries for us to split and some kind of crazy ice cream concoction fo r Jake. Yay, ice cream for dinner, am I the best mom or what? Our server brings out the food and everything is delicious. We have a great time eating in the car and watching the old movie clips on the screen. Upon leaving the restaurant, we all decide we are glad we finally got the chance to eat here.
It's getting late in the day, but we decide we have time for one ride. Jake wants to ride Star Tours but the standby line is 20 minutes so we opt to do Muppetvision 3D instead. We discover that this has fastpass now, and I can't for the life of me figure out why they need it on this attraction. We were able to walk right into the preshow and the theater was nowhere near filled to capacity. I can't remember the last time I went to this show that the theater was full! Oh well, we enjoy the show as always, and since we are sitting closer to the front this time, the kids get a good look at the Swedish Chef in the back, which they enjoy. We all sing along with the Miss Piggy, catch som e bubbles, watch the building get blown up, and exit the theater humming the Muppets theme song. Great show, as always!!
We follow the crowds over to the Hollywood Hills Ampitheater, where people are flowing in to see Fantasmic. It's about an hour to showtime but we end up all the way over to the left, the second section from the end. The theater is definitely going to be packed tonight! The time goes by quickly and we are treated to some preshow entertai nm ent by Dellman, the Tower of Terror bel lhop. He is pretty funny and he keeps our attention all the way up until showtime.
The show starts, and what can I say? It's fabulous as always! I especially love the music, it's so wonderful. I love the danci ng water, the water screens, the princess floats, the evil villains, everything! And of course I love Mickey most of all since he is the one who always saves the day! We cheer loudly for the performance and begin the tedious task of trying to exi t with 8,000 of our closest friends. It naturally takes forever, but we finally break away from the crowd and exit out onto Sunset Blvd.
At the boat dock, we discover an incredibly long line. We see some families taking the walkway so we decide to gi ve i t a try. Guess what? It's s till not open!! LOL!! We have to walk up the hill, cross the busy street, and walk back down the hill on the other side. How ridiculous is this? The walkway is completed, they've put up railings, added lighting, and there's a nice sidewalk the whole w ay, but they've got to have this locked gate under the bridge! Just what is t he purpose of this anyway? I can't wait until they officially open this walkway!
As we approach the Community Center we decide to stop and pick up a video. Everyone plays a few video games and a couple games of foosball, and we pick out the video Hocus Pocus in honor of Halloween tomorrow. We spend the rest of the evening watching the video and taking it easy.
Soon we are all zonked dreaming of our Fantasmi c day.
Next Post:
Will Chris be able to get the Halloween pins? Does Jake have the courage to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad? Will we make it to the Halloween party on time? and Who's the leader of the club that's made for you and me?
Tun e in next time to hear all about the Czada's Halloween adventures!
Click here to read Day 4
Beth C
Co-Moderator - Transportation Board - Getting you from here to there
Co-Moderator - Rewards Board - Getting you there cheaper!
[This message was edited by BethC on 11-27-00 at 09:23 PM.]
