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Katie Gladwell -- May 2003 -- Walt Disney World (Dolphin)Cast of characters:
Overview: As for a background on us, I have been friends with Maria since high school and we took our first trip to WDW together as our high school senior trip in 1998. Celeste and Rosie are Spanky’s sisters. I have gone to WDW with them twice and have another trip planned for August. Our friend Pea Head comes with us on these trips and we have a special guest star every year. Those are always much longer trips and also include Universal. Okay, on with the show…. Thursday 5/15/03 After no further delays, we finally got into MCO 2 hours later than our previous time. The kicker for me was that I lost my nice cushy emergency exit row seat that had unlimited legroom to have to sit in the middle of the plane, with absolutely no leg room whatsoever. That was bad. I am a tall girl and have long legs and was very very uncomfortable on that plane ride. Since it was now after midnight, we were all exhausted and just wanted to sleep. It was a wonderful sight to see Ali with our sign waiting for us. After collecting our luggage, we headed off to the Dolphin to get some sleep. One note on the towncar: instead of getting a towncar, I reserved a van to pick us up. There were only 4 of us, but I would rather not be cramped in the van. I like my space. The extra space was quite nice and we were very comfortable on both ways of the trip. We actually had more than enough room for our luggage and carryon and our extra bags. We all come down with 2 bags and leave with 3. Really good shoppers, that's all I can say about that. There was no one in line so check-in was a breeze. I also want to note that I had gotten a phone call earlier in the week to confirm my reservation and had a very nice half hour chat with the woman over the phone. Extremely friendly people. Well, we got room 6083 in the East Tower, so our room looked out at the Boardwalk all lit up at night. Quite pretty. We didn't have a balcony, but we would not have used it so that is okay. Let someone who spends more time at the hotel have one. After dropping our stuff and making the usual calls to housekeeping for towels and sheets, we finally made it to sleep at 2 AM. Highs of the day: Our hotel, the view we had from our window Lows of the day: Stupid people who know that others have planes to catch getting in everyone’s way, missing our flight to MCO, Buffalo weather Tip of the day: Don’t fly on the same plane as me. I have never made a trip without being delayed or missing a flight or having to sit on the runway for an extended period of time. Friday 5/16/03 The alarm woke us up at 6:45 AM. That is such a bad hour. I had set both the radio and the buzzer so we had quite a loud jolt to wake us up. No wake up calls for us. I don't trust those much since we got those calls back in the day and no one was there. Yeah, I got crank called by Mickey! After showering and eating breakfast at Tubbi's where Rosie and I bought the very useful $10 refillable mugs, we were on our way to MGM by 8:15. After waiting for the boat from the Dolphin (where we stayed), we made it to the park by 8:25. We had to activate our annual passes since it was our first time with our new passes, we made it over the Guest Services. 10 short minutes later, we were ready to wait to be let into the park. Instead of waiting in the extremely long lines that formed behind the middle turnstiles, we just waited to the side in front of other turnstiles that were not covered and had no one in front of. There was a little skit going on on top of the gates with 2 stormtroopers, but since we were underneath it, we could only hear what they were saying. It was pretty cute and funny, but I am sure that those people not there for Star Wars were not too amused being called aliens and having these two men threaten to shoot them! Finally, at 8:45, they started letting people into the parks, only to stop us at the rope on Hollywood Ave. There, the group was split. Everyone going to ToT and RnRC went to the right. On the left, we were told to split again there, with the Anthony Daniels people going to the right around the pond and the Billy Dee Williams (BDW) people going to the left. We decided to get our BDW autographs first. We promptly got in line and noticed that none of the CM knew what was going on. There were no wristbands, nothing. They were threatening to make us stand in line for 3 hours in the sun to get the autographs! Mind you, I waited in line for twice that amount to see Episode 1. Yeah, it was 6 hours, but that was inside, in air conditioning. I took an exam in the morning, and then took the bus to the mall and waited in line. The people in line were fun, especially those who were dressed up. I enjoy the people who are that into it. I would never do that, but I respect those who spent the entire day in the hot 85 sun in their full Jedi garb. Luckily, I was under the one and only umbrella that was up to provide shade in line. After a half hour, they finally announced that yes, they would be handing out wristbands and it would be about 15 minutes until they were ready. I pity the poor person who had to write out all those bands! They had a nice little color-coded system but still had to write on every single band. Not a very fun job for that poor CM. So, finally at 9:45, they started handing out the bands. We got numbers 13 - 16 for the 12:00 session with Billy Dee Williams. We went over to get in Anthony Daniels (AD) line right away after that. After waiting for another half hour or so, I managed to get the last band for the 3:00 session for AD. Yea for #60! My friends got 1-3 of the standby line. I would also like to point out that the entire time we were in line, Celeste was reading a Star Wars trivia book and quizzing us the whole time. Got a little annoying. I am okay at the trivia. I know Attack of the Clones inside and out (can repeat most lines word for word) but the weapons and ships I am shaky on. Now if it was Buffy trivia, I would have kicked butt. I am really good at that! After this, we went to sign up for the adult's trivia and since there were only 2 spots left in standby at this time of the day, I let Maria and Celeste take the last 2 spots. After getting their numbers, we headed off to Star Tours. The line was non-existent so the wait should have been marked "how fast can you walk?" instead of the 5 minutes that was posted. This is just one of the suggestions that I have for Disney. Instead of the 5 minute or 0 minute wait times, they should have it labeled as “you can get on this ride as soon as you walk through the queue” or “how fast can you walk?” We stopped into Tatooine Traders to get our stuff so that we could send it back to the hotel and be finished with the store. An hour and a half and almost $250 later, I was finished, but not done by a long shot. It was now time to get back in line for our first autograph. Apparently, they are only signing the Disney provided pics so the photos that I brought were a waste. We got a little piece of paper to write our name on so that BDW did not have to actually interact with anyone. After about 15 minutes and a gruff "Hi" from BDW, we all were set with our first autograph. Just a note for everyone: BDW was wearing socks and sandals at this event. They were not just regular socks, no. They had polka dots on them! Oh and his picture, is he actually dressed like Lando Calrissian? Oh, no that would be nice and I may actually like that. Instead, I got his prom picture, bow tie and all. Come on, a tux with a bowtie? You think that he could have picked a better picture! We had earlier sent Rosie off to get us fast passes for WWtBaM earlier, we now could go to the 1:00 edition of the show. It was not a Star Wars edition, but I still did really good, getting up on the leader board at #2 in the end. Oh well, at least I wasn't #1 and then have them end the show! Since it was now almost 1:30, we decided to go for lunch at the Backstage Express. After a nice relaxing lunch, it was time to stop at the pin cart in front of the restaurant and spend another $100 on pins. Please note that this is not all for myself and I am getting paid back by others for this! This would be the start of something very dangerous. We had avoided the pin carts for 2 years now. Unfortunately, Disney finally sucked us in. I do not trade my pins. I collect them. Only Celeste gets teased for the first pin trade. I believe the phrase "dirty dirty pin trader" was used. Please do not kill me pin traders! It really is just a joke. I would hate to see the news on that one: "girl found dead, stabbed millions of times with small pin-like objects." We really have no qualms against trading, but it always fun to make fun of your friends so hey, calling someone a pin trader is not that bad. All in all, I think I bought about 30 pins, most of them being the Star Wars ones that are to be displayed at home as soon as I figure out how to do that. Maybe if I can find some cheap pins, I will become a pin trader too. It would just be much too hard for me to part with my Star Wars pins. Those are definitely staying home in my Star Wars shrine that is my bookshelf. After lunch, we went to the 2:00 celebrity talk show. Again, BDW was rather gruff and was not very personable with anyone. All he talked about was his art and really did not say anything about Star Wars. I know that is has been 20 years since he did anything for the franchise, but he was there for Star Wars and I would have appreciated more on that. AD on the other hand is too cute! He definitely made the day for us. After this was over, it was about 2:45, so we decided that we had time to go on RnRC before getting the autographs. We had sent Spanky over before lunch to get us Fastpasses for this, so we walked right on. It was now about 3:15, we walked back and got in line. Gee, I'm at the end. Not too tough to figure out where I should go. Apparently they had not taken ANY standby people for the first session, so my friends were forced to stand outside the line until they could judge how many people they would be able to get through in the hour. It was set up with the wristbands that after the 60 people were taken, if there was any time left in the hour, the lowest stand by people would be taken first. My friends has purposely skipped the first session so that others may have a chance at getting the autographs, but since they did not take any extra people in the first session, this did not work out. Luckily, several people had not shown up, so my friends could no longer torment me with the ice cream that they had bought while I was standing in line! Yeah, my nice friends who were not allowed to join me inside the ropes bought ice cream for themselves and stood there eating it in front of me. Finally, it was my turn to meet AD! Okay, we did not get our notecards this time, so I had to spell my name for him. Mind you, my name is not very hard, but he kept wanting to put other spellings to it. My name is Katie, but AD wanted to first spell it with a C and then a Y. Basically it was me repeating my name over and over again. So, after having him practice my name on a separate sheet of paper, I got my autograph. My friends were right behind me in line, so they went up next. Apparently there is some tool or musical instrument called a Celeste so he started talking about that. All in all, he is an extremely personable person and would be worth twice the wait to see him. We hurried out of this so that as many people as possible could get their autographs. See people, we really are nice! Since it was now 4:00, we decided that it was time to catch the Muppets. We just cannot go to MGM without seeing that show. After stalking a couple of characters....Boba Fett, the stormtroopers, the Jawas, the Eworks, the Cantina band, Greedo, Mace Windu (this was just me, since I started running when I saw him). Yeah, I'm a really big Mace Windu fan. I will admit to jumping out of line for Luke and Leia to get my picture taken with him. I annoyed Maria almost every single time we saw Episode 2 in the theaters (a whopping 9 times together, 10 times total) by singing every time he was on the screen. Ah, Mace Windu and Obi Wan were my biggest weaknesses in that movie. But I disgress. We also got in line for Luke and Leia and when we were at the front, Han Solo came over, leaving a line of people to spend some time with us. Not quite sure why this was, but I think it was the fact that Luke and Leia had a girl who was in her 20s in front of us in line and then the rest of us (all in our early 20s) and all he had were little kids. That's my theory. The characters really do prefer people their own age, especially if they are of the opposite sex. I think he was supposed to be playing the jealousy angle of Luke being with Leia, but Han was not trying so hard and really did not play that card very well. So we got a very hard to come by Han, Luke, and Leia pic and some dirty autographs for our friend Pea Head who was still at home but sent her autograph book to get signed. I believe that all autographs that you are not present for are dirty so yeah, we got quite a few dirty autographs for her on this trip. After we left the line, Han went back to his own line and signed autographs again. After a little bit of window shopping at a couple of various stores, we staked out seats for the 5:30 Stars in Motorcars Parade that we have missed every year due to rain and other various reasons. We got seats in the shade directly in front of the stage next to Star Tours, so we were in a really good position for pictures. We also had some pretty good interaction with the Jawas who were extremely interested in our empty pop bottles. It was rather funny. After the parade, it was time for Celeste and Spanky to report for the trivia. Both got into the show and Rosie and I watched from the sidelines. Why is it that you know the questions then but you can't answer them when you actually play? Oh well, they both got out in the first round on the question of "How many engines does a Y (or maybe it was X) wing have?" There were 3 answers given and each took a different one and they were both wrong. I would have guessed the right answer, but I digress. After this, we waited around, watching the rest of the contest, just to get a hang of what kind of questions are asked. After this, there was the Hoopla with some of the least funniest jokes in the world. I swear, they only had like 10 jokes and I heard them over and over and over again during the entire weekend. Hey, what happens when Luke's speeder breaks down on Endor? He Walks! (ewoks). Yeah, bad, but hey after no sleep, they are rather funny so we determined that you can say any bad joke you want as long as you wait for the laughter or ask people to laugh at you. After the Hoopla became out of hand with people shoving their little kids at the characters and getting into other people's pictures, we decided to head on over to get some dinner. We ate at Rosie's Cafe, which is over by the Beauty and the Beast Show. After this, it was getting near the time for Fantasmic so we knew that the waits for ToT and RnRC would be short. We ended up doing TOT 3 times in a row, ruining quite a few other people's pictures by being in the front row with our hands up, blocking everyone else in the car behind us. Oops. Well, they should put their hands up too. If you cover in your seats, you really are not having any fun. If you can lift your feet as well, you can get some pretty good hangtime in the air. That ride is SO much more fun now that you can get some really good air time with the seatbelts. I love the random effects. Never the same ride twice! My only complaint with this ride that day was the lack of spooky CMs. Usually they are really creepy and scary, but tonight everyone was really friendly. I ended up chatting with one guy who suggested that I just quit my job and come work for Disney so I could go to the parks every day after I told him that the bank would not appreciate me not showing up for work for a month or so due to SWW. Nice CMs are good to see, but they really were not in character. Oh well. Still had fun. After this, we did RnRC 3 times in a row as well. On our second last time through, I was in the front car and looked up, losing my visor! Now, if you know how I wear my visors, they have never so much as budged on these rides before. I wear it on everything, including the Hulk and the Superman at my local 6 Flags, which is faster than RnRC and outside. I must not have had it tight enough or something. Luckily, it hit Celeste in the face (well, lucky for me; not really lucky for Celeste) and she caught it! I owed her after that one! Rosie had lost her visor last year on Splash Mountain and never saw that one again. After our third ride, it was after 9:00 so we could not get back into line. We shopped at the villains store a little bit and went to catch the boat before Fantasmic let out. We got back to the hotel room around 10 and showered and got ready for bed and a really long day on Saturday. So we didn't do too much today since we waited in a lot of lines, but we did what would take a good chunk out of the day so we would have time to do everything else on the other days. Highs of the day: meeting Anthony Daniels, being emersed in the Star Wars aura for an entire day Lows of the day: Billy Dee Williams, waiting in lots of lines, the unorganization of management for the first hour of the day Tip of the day: Get to the parks early and wait behind a turnstile that does not have a cover on it. They open more than one turnstile in the morning! Saturday, May 17 - The Marathon Day This is the day that never ends....Well, it actually DOES end, but it is pretty long. Well, today is Early Entry Day at MGM so we again get up at 6:45, shower and eat and head out around 7:45. We didn't feel like waiting for the boat, so we walked to the park. It only took like 15 minutes, so that was not too bad. We went in through the side entrances again around 8:15 after waiting in line so we had our tasks of the day already set out from the previous day. Our first task was to sign up for trivia again and we got numbers 9-11. Rosie didn't play because she really was not too up on her trivia. I do believe that she would answer all questions with either Yoda or Tatooine. She may get lucky once, but she really preferred to be the spectator on this one. After this, we went over to Tatooine Traders and I got the villains box set of pins (extremely awesome I must say and only a mere $55) and Maria got the coin. No wait, whatsoever. Stupid us waited in line for an hour the day before because we didn't think that hey, we could go when there are no lines. No, that would be smart. Lines were the task of the day yesterday. Today's task is to do as much as humanly possible in the shortest amount of time. We then headed over to get our Fastpasses for WWtBaM. Since it was still before 9, this was not open. We sat outside the rope for this to open (it was only like a 10 minute wait). Finally at 9, we went and got our FPs for the 11:30 show. Strangely, they were not checking passes, so we went back 5 minutes later and got FPs for the 12:30 show as well. Well, it was their fault for doing it this way. We would have been able to see both shows, but as it was, we just ran from one right into the line for the next one. It was just easier to do it this way. We then went to see One Man's Dream, walking through it and then watching the movie. Ahh, air-conditioning. After this, we headed to watch the short movie on Episode 2 at 10:00. That was okay. It had its funny moments, but most of it I had seen before. If you have ever seen the R2D2 Behind the Dome, this does not even come close to that hilarity. I love that short mocumentary. This has some good outtakes, but really, I was there for the AC and to see if they had anything for Episode 3. No dice on the new information for Episode 3. After the movie, we decided to get seats for the 11:00 parade, which started like 15 minutes late. We posted ourselves at the end of the parade route by the stage next to Star Tours. The 501st was marching in this parade and was about 30 strong. It looked rather impressive to see more troopers in the gear. I wish I could have been there when they had over 100 troopers. That must have been sweet looking. I took quite a few pics, and then it was time to book it over to WWtBaM. We ran across the park and through the HISTK playground to get there as fast as possible. We got there at 11:20 and were seated in the very last row. Whoops. Should have gotten there earlier. Darn them for starting the parade late. So after a good 5 minutes of them wasting time with the Jawas, although it was cute, we watched a 12 year old girl get into the hotseat. I think she randomly pressed the buttons. Despite some help from the audience and the host, she got out on the 1,000 point question. The host kept asking her if she was sure, since she had the wrong answer, but she was rather insistent and would not change her answer to the right one. Spanky got on the board at #8, but a 17 y/o boy got into the hotseat next. Did he win the 1,000,000 with 2 lifelines left? Yeah. He was good. It was funny since they were giving extra prizes on top of the pins, like a year's membership to the Fan Club and a magazine subscription, but every time they did this, he was like, um, I already have that. It was funny, believe me. Celeste managed to get herself on the board at #9 in this game. I got a question wrong so I was just playing for the heck of it at this point. After the show, we ran around and got back into line for the 12:30 show. Both people did okay in this show, around the 125,000 question or so. I managed to get on the board at #9 at one point, so I deemed myself the biggest trivia dork of our group since I had both specified Star Wars trivia AND general trivia as well. After this, it was time for lunch, so we headed over to Pizza Planet . Since Spanky needed her Centipede fix, I took one of the 2-way radios and gave her the other one. Rosie went in search of a smoking place, Celeste was playing games. I had the goal of watching the entire pre-show of the Muppets from beginning to end. It really is funny. I just sat in the corner by the luggage, took a seat and watched the show. There is actaully quite a bit that I miss every time I go to this show. After that, we decided it was time to stalk some more characters so we got Zam Wessel and Jango Fett pics and also ones with Kit Fitsko and Mace Windu, who was the same guy I stalked the day before. We then headed over to try and get Darth Maul and Queen Amidala. Due to the impending rain, they were not coming out. Apparently, they are not allowed outside in ANY type of rain. We went to Sounds Dangerous then and looked out for the characters: still not there. We decided that it was time to get a little riding of some rides in. Crazy idea, I know. We walked on to ToT twice and after the third time, finally got a good picture. While Rosie was buying the picture, Spanky decided that she would not make it to the end of the day if she did not take a nap. We unloaded some of the stuff that we would not need later in the day on her, gave her a 2 way radio and sent her on her way. Wuss. Deciding that all we needed was ice cream, we stopped and got a some and headed off to stalk Amidala and Darth Maul some more. Still not out. Apparently there is a "system" in the area. We went over to the AD Stars of the Saga presentation. I had to tape the entire thing since Spanky was not there and it was SO funny. He is so cute. We were thoroughly entertained by AD all weekend. Basically, he told us all about being C3PO and the other characters that he played through the years. There was some really cute interaction with R2D2 at the end. Anthony Daniels is such a nice, genuine man. After this, we went and got in line for Amidala since it had yet to rain and got our autographs and pictures. Yeah, I'm 23 and I was getting autographs of the characters. I think it will look cute when I actually get around to doing my scrapbook. After her, we got in line for Darth Maul. He was scaring my friends, but not me. For some reason, he decided that he would intimidate me by staring me down. We have a pic of that somewhere, not sure where that one ended up. He was rather cool, down to the colored contacts that he had in: yellow with red specks. Nice attention to detail. The only costume that I complained about the whole weekend was Greedo. Come on, at least TRY to hide the zipper, man! After this, we went over to RnRC, but apparently someone got sick on the ride before we got in line, so the 5 minute posted wait turned into 20, so we did the unthinkable: bailed on the line. Never had we done this before, but time was limited so we had to jet. We ran through the ABC area only to see the parade in process. We stood at the back of the crowds, waiting for the 5:30 parade to finish. After this, Celeste and I signed in for trivia. Spanky had not shown up yet, so we kept in contact with her through the 2-ways. If anyone had one, we were the girls singing Brick House into them for a little while, just in case she could actually hear us. Apparently you can pick up the signal from on the boat that was being sent from the Prime Time Cafe. Well, trivia went bad for me. Celeste and I got out on the same question. It was the number of the trash compactor that Han, Luke and Leia were stuck in. I knew it, but in the last moment, I changed my answer and chose it as Leia's cell number. Why did I question myself? Oh well. Celeste was trying not to have someone copy off her and mistakenly put up the wrong answer. She was actually quite shocked that she did that. Oh well, we were both out now. Rosie and I ran over and got Chewbacca's autograph and picture. Just when we got the pictures with the emperor, Spanky showed up. Apparently some people need to nap and shower and eat in the middle of the day. Craziness I tell you. Simply madness. Since it was now 6:45, it was time for dinner, so we decided to leave MGM and head over to Magic Kingdom. We had tickets for the e-ride night, so we jumped onto the MK bus and rode to the TTC. After jamming ourselves on a quite crowded monorail and refraining myself from singing the monorail song from the Simpsons, we rode off to the MK. In the distance, there was some really nasty lightning bolts, so maybe we would get some rain after all. (Note: it never actually did anything that night). We all knew what our destination was to be, so after getting through security, we made a beeline to Tomorrowland. People were already staking out seats for Spectro an hour and a half before it started. We had seen this the previous July and would be seeing it again in August so we skipped the parade and rode rides during that time instead. We stopped at Space Mountain, went to the arcade and got our wristbands. They are a nice sassy green with sparkles on them. Since we were all set there, it was finally time for some cheese, I mean dinner. We had to go to Cosmic Rays because of the free cheese and ensure that yes, it really was a Disney trip. We cannot go to Disney and not eat the cheese. That would be unthinkable! un-American even! So, after eating our fill of the cheese (and some chicken and fries), we headed off to fantasyland. We hit Snow White where we waited for about 5 minutes in line. After telling some bad jokes to each other to entertain ourselves, we made it through the ride. Thank goodness that boulder didn't fall on us! We skipped the carousel and Dumbo, not quite sure why. We headed over to Pan and waited for about 15 minutes in line. I would like to say that this was the longest line, but Tatooine Traders won that. I will say that this was the longest line for a ride that we waited in. Well, after flying apparently through the alternate dimensions (to Neverland), we managed to get ourselves back on Earth and to MK none the less. Wow. Good job on that ride. This is where I have had another new idea for Disney: the parental tap. See, if there is a child who is obviously tired, cranky, or hungry, the parent should get a tap on the shoulder and be sent back to the hotel room for a nap or for lunch or maybe even some discipline. Crazy idea on that one. If it is before 5:00 PM, the parents will be let back into the park if the child is behaving. If it is after 7, sorry, you will not be let back in for the night. Get the kid some sleep and try again tomorrow. I’m sorry if this offends anyone, but I saw quite a few children being yelled at by their parents but for stupid reasons. These children were obviously hungry and tired. So let’s yell and them and see if they will behave. Nope, don’t think so. Hey, this will work for anyone, not just children. If your husband or wife is especially grumpy, they will get sent back to the hotel room for a nap as well. I think the tap program would help out many a person at the parks and give them an excuse for having to take a nap. Some people can function on little or no sleep, but many people cannot. This is just a stupid idea on how to make the happiest place on earth a little happier. Okay, enough of that, back to the report. We headed over to Small World with no wait. There were maybe 10 people on our boat. The guy in the high booth started to squirt us with his water bottle so I yelled "the Small World is NOT a water ride." His compatriot then came around the side of the booth and scared us. Always a good start to the Small World. After traveling through the world to the utopia place, we headed over to Haunted Mansion. There was no one in line so we walked up to the door. We had to wait like 3 minutes, so I took the time to show everyone Leota's tombstone. People really did not believe me until I made them stare at it. Funny times. Well, we got through the stretching room and headed out to the doombuggies. The 2 CM's there were funny. They were randomly just slapping their hands down on the rail in front of people who were walking through the queue, scaring them. Rosie decided to do the same to them. Rosie and Spanky got the first car and Celeste and I got the second. As revenge, the CM crossed in front of our car, and peeked around the back of Rosie's, scaring her. Of course we tried to scare each other during the ride. Rosie got me by reaching out and grabbing me during part of it and I got Spanky by doing the same. This was not as good as the poking of Celeste during the exact moment of the glass breaking on ToT, but fun just the same. We have a history of doing this to one another. The best was last summer when Rosie and I were sitting in the backseat of the car on the way back from Universal decided to simultaneously give Pea Head who was in the front seat Wet Willys. Well, she screamed, causing Celeste to scream and stop the car. Good thing noone was on the road. That cracked Rosie and me up but Celeste did not find much humor in it. Celeste is rather jumpy, so she is quite easy to scare. A good task to have, definitely. After this, we headed off to find a bathroom and then headed over to Frontierland. We sat outside of the Country Bears and walked the fireworks from there. That is where I determined that all male CMs in Frontierland should be named Hoss and the girls should be Becky Sue. I think that would be a nice touch. I am quite tired at this point in time and when I am tired, I get a little silly, so yeah, we had a riot during that e-ride. After the fireworks, which is a nice display but nothing compared to the fireworks that a local trailer park put on for a Country Music festival which are rumored to cost 1.5 million, they were pretty. This festival puts every other fireworks display I have ever seen to shame. It is about 20 minutes of straight fireworks with no pauses, nothing. It is awesome to say the least. We went to the Bears and were thoroughly entertained. We always miss that during the day due to the abundance of strollers in front. (Side note: strollers should never be used as weapons. I have, in the past, seen them used as such. If that is the case, I am so putting a cowcatcher the day comes that I have to push one around the parks. At least go all the way if I have to, you know?). After this, the e-ride had started so we went over to BTMR and rode in the front car there. We went over to Splash Mountain and got thoroughly soaked. It isn't the drop that got us but those geysers at the end. Hate them at night. Last year, we rode this over and over but this year we decided that once was enough. It was warm, but not overly hot. We took another spin on BTMR to hopefully start to dry off and then headed over to Tomorrowland. to ride on SM. We managed to do SM 3 times in a row before they closed off the one side and were running one side only. We went over to Buzz and did that 3 times in a row, all of our scored being rather low. We then decided to take a break and get a drink. After a quick pitstop, we went on TTA, which was a nice change of pace that my friends had never gone on before. After this, we did another 2 rides at SM and another 2 at Buzz. Since it was now 12:45, we started to head out. We made it as far as the castle where we saw Mickey and Minnie dancing. It was too cute. We started to dance with Pluto and Goofy and got some good pictures. Mine did not come out because I did not put the nightvision on my camera but the others did. Finally, after Mickey come on the loud speakers, we started to head out. Yeah, we left the characters there. Usually the characters leave us, but tonight, we turned the tables. (evil laughter here). So we took the trip down to the busses, found the one for the Swan/Dolphin/Yacht Club/Beach Club/Boardwalk. Yeah, lots of people there. After taking the tour, we got back to the hotel around 1:30. After stopping for some more pop in my trusty mug, it was time to head up to the room. We finally got to bed around 2:30 or so. So if you are doing your math correctly folks, that was a 17 hour park day, beating our previous record of 15 by 2 whole hours. I originally had a plan to stop at Epcot too, but we decided that since we had done all the events for the SWW, we would go to Epcot on Sunday. Whew. Highs of the day: e-ride night, the characters at the castle, lots of characters, FREE CHEESE!!! Lows of the day: tired children all over the place, losing on an obviously easy question in the trivia contest, the eventual heat rash I got from wearing sneakers for that long Tip of the day: Seventeen straight hours in the parks is fun. Only if you are prepared to do so can one person stand that much walking. Day 4 – Sunday May 18th So after our e-ride night, we decided to sleep in this morning and set the alarm for 8:30. Luckily, we made it out of the room and ate breakfast by 9:30. We then set off to take the boat to Epcot. The wait was not long, but it does take a while to load people at the other stops. We ended up getting to Epcot around 10:15 or so. After going through the closed pavilions in UK, we headed into Canada. We all lamented that hey, if we want to see Canada, we would take the 15 minute drive and go there. Well, it is 15 minutes to Niagara Falls and we can walk over the bridge from there, so yeah, we can see Canada any day we want to. That pavilion has always been skipped by us. We have nothing against Canada, but we would rather see the real thing, which could be done any time we want. We headed off to TT and got FPs for later. Since the single rider line is always short, we have the motto of "if you can go single riders, forget your friends, you can meet up with them afterwards." It took about 10 minutes total, including the video to get in. We then headed over to Cranium Command, stopping along the way to stare at Mission:Space and vow to ride this ride when we go in August. We got lucky and it opens 2 days before we leave. I think this is Disney's way for apologizing for closing the Maelstrom the day before we got to Epcot last year. We were thoroughly entertained by the Command, as usual. We then went over to the Making of Me, which is disturbing if you think of what the attraction really is. We all vow to bring our children here to teach them about this instead of having to give them the talk. Why do it ourselves when we can have Martin Short do it? So, now our FP window is open for TT so we take a spin. Everyone claims that this ride is really good, but maybe it is the way that I drive that makes the outside part not that new to me. I watched the speedometer and could tell you that if it was me controlling the car in my new car, I would be going at least 10 - 15 mph faster. 65 is the slowest that I go on the Thruway. If I open all the windows and the sunroof of my car, it is almost the same as the convertible and I go much faster. Granted there are no curves like that, but I think I would flip my SUV if there were. But it is fun and we did try to all pose for the picture. We all had some really good horrified faces, but Rosie missed the camera so she was not posing. We vow that we will get a good pic here in Aug. Plus, we will have more people, so we will take up the entire car. No strangers in our pictures here! After the ride, Celeste wanted to do the GM Dream commercial or whatever that is called and could not talk her out of it. Oh joy, GM is great, look at all the things it is doing. Wow. They also showed my car in it so basically I get to see a commercial for my car. Yippee. I like some of them, but it really is not worth any sort of wait. After this, we determined that it was time for lunch, so we headed over to the Land, with a stop at Ice Station Cool that we just breezed through for the shortcut in the AC. We got our FP for the Land and then ate our lunch at a variety of places. Always nice to be able to choose from many different places. After lunch, we went to see Food Rocks, which we had never seen before. That is too cute. Definitely on the list for August. It was time for our trip on the Land so we rode through the greenhouses. What was really weird was the fact that they use all the fish there in the restaurants. So basically you could point to a fish and say "I'll see YOU later for dinner?" Mental note, no fish at Disney, not that I would eat any anyway, mind you. They were doing free tours of the greenhouse, but we could not see any point in doing this, so we passed on that. We went over to JIYI, where we got to see figment. I have seen 3 versions of this ride and personally this ranks #2. The original was so much better. Oh well, can't do anything about that. We had a choice next. It was character caravan or HISTA. Obviously, the characters won. Good thing too! We saw Jiminy! That made the entire trip. After stalking him to get him to stop for autographs and a picture, we called our friend Pea Head at home and of course had to brag. (note: we are rather obsessed with JC and implemented a program of WWJD What would Jiminy Do? Such as turn off your lights, and other ways to live to be 103) We also saw Gideon, who was a new catch for us. We had everyone else, including Mickey and Minnie. We did miss out on Pluto since we got practically a photo shoot with him last year. We had 4 different cameras and 4 different poses with him last year. So it was time for the countries! We always for some reason go in the same order, so it is off to Mexico. After a nice cool boat ride, we spend some time in the shops where the one CM asks Celeste if she has graduated HS. Of course, being 26, she says yes. Then he asks what college she goes to and her major. She answered that she went to Canisius and majored in biology and got her masters in education. She goes on to say that this was 2 years ago that she finished. I really think that he was hitting on her and really could not tell how old she was, but to be mistaken for a teenager was quite nice for her. On to Norway. We waited with baited breath to see what they did in the renovations. This is a major favorite with my friends and we were quite worried that they would change either the ride or the movie. Luckily, they just did some touchups to the ride and really only changed the queue. That was okay for us. {getting up on soapbox} Actually, I liked the fact that wheelchairs would go through the line with everyone else. It is only fair that they wait in line with everyone else. I think that all rides should be set up this way. That way, everyone gets to experience all of the queues and themeing and there are no people who get mad at them for skipping in line. I have seen people who need this system and use it justly and I do not mind this in the least. The problem is that I have seen others who abuse it. Since the FP has been implemented, this has eliminated a lot of the abuse, but there are still some people out there that try to take advantage of others' disabilities and the generosity of Disney. By changing the queues, this can be avoided. The entire family can wait in line together. Good job Disney, I commend you on this! This is much much better than the way the system was in the past. {sorry about that} Loved the movie. Tried to tape it, but I was not getting a good resolution on the screen since it was alternately dark and light. Camera did not like that much. We stopped in China and Celeste wanted to watch the acrobats. I had seen them before and since there were no spots in any shade, we gave her a 2-way and kept on going. We stopped at the outpost to buy a new Tribal Goofy for Pea Head. I was tempted to buy her another Safari Goofy, but she already has three of those so we got her the new one instead. We breezed through the countries, looking in the shops, but not finding anything to buy. Either it was too expensive or we really didn't need it. We ended up in America and watched the Voices of Liberty before going into American Adventure. That is okay. Nice to nap in the next time I go in there. We met up with Celeste and headed over to France. On the way, we stopped in Morocco to see if the Genie was there. Aladdin was there but there was no one in line so they asked if we wanted a picture. We didn't really need one, but said yes instead so that he would not feel bad. After leaving, there was another family that when asked if they would like to see Aladdin, they flat out said no. That's just mean. Take the picture, even if you don't care about it. We shopped in France for a little while when it started to rain. Rosie and I decided to head back to the hotel and took the boat. Celeste wanted to check out the shop at the gate, so she and Spanky went there and then walked back. They beat us by a good 5 minutes! We went back to the room, showered and changed and went downstairs for dinner. We had stuff from Tubbi's and the ice cream place and were really stuffed! We headed out to catch the bus to DTD. It was done drizzling now. It really only rained for like 5 minutes. Enough for Spanky to buy a poncho, put it on, and then take it off and leave in the hotel. We split up at DTD, agreeing to meet at World of Disney in an hour and a half. I went on my missions. First up was the scrapbook store, where I bought a few sets, but really was unimpressed. There is so much they could do here. I personally found some better stuff at the local craft stores for a lot cheaper. I went into Disney at Home, did not see anything that I liked. I was in the middle of redoing my bedroom. I bought one poster and framed it, but other than that, the theme is Mickey and friends, so I will look more in August. I went into Once Upon a Toy, debated over Haunted Mansion Clue and decided to get it in August and ship it home. Not too much extra room this trip. I went into the pin store and picked up a couple of limited edition pins for a friend at work. It was time for the biggie: World of Disney. It started to pour at this moment in time, so I, and just about every other person in DTD headed inside as fast as possible. Despite being wet, I could still shop. Its a skill of mine. I got 2 picture frames, figuring that I would use one for this trip and one for August. The princess one is saved for later. We already have PS for the Norway breakfast and are hoping to get CRT. We should get a good pic there, hopefully. I also go a couple of other things, 2 cds, a few pens, among other stuff. I was ready to check out so, I went for it, got my AP discount and brought the total down under 200. Always a fun time. I went outside after finding Rosie, Spanky, and Celeste, where I waited for everyone else to finish up. It was around 10 by the time everyone was done and we got back to the bus. By 10:30, we were back in the hotel and went to pick up all our packages that we had sent to the resort over the days. Now came the fun part. It was the fit everything I bought into my suitcase game. In August, I am planning on 2 suitcases, but now I only brought an extra bag to use as a carryon so I could check my backpack. I actually got everything to fit, including my sneakers, which is an accomplishment in and of itself. We watched a little TV after we all finished and got ready for our last day. We all were asleep by 1 AM. Highs of the day: Maelstrom, Food Rocks (one attraction I had never seen before), shopping Lows of the day: rain at DTD, having to wait until August to ride Mission:Space Tip of the day: Walking is a lot faster than the boat. Plus, you do not have a boat captain staring at you and your friend for no apparent reason Day 5 – Monday, May 19th Our last day. I'm sad just thinking about it. The only thing that is saving me right now is the knowledge that we would be back in less than 4 months. We didn't want to waste the entire day so we set the alarm for 7:30 and got out of the hotel by 8:30 after checking our luggage. 4 girls, 16 bags. We would have to get that down to 12 later, but we had changes of clothes and everything all set to get ready for the flight home. Off to MK. We got there around 9:30 after getting through security and all that. Wow. Lots of characters right in Main Street. We see Princess Aurora, so we get her autograph and a picture. We made it over to Wendy where she was quizzing us on the names of the Lost Boys. I forgot about Cubby. I called him Tubby since I was thinking that Cubby was the name of a Mouseketeer, which he was. Apparently, he is both. She was a very nice girl. We were going to get in line for Donald, but the line was long and there was no one waiting for Fr. Tuck and the Sheriff of Nottingham, so we went to them instead. After this, the characters had to go for Cinderella's surprise Celebration. We started shopping on MS here and wasted about an hour in the shop, picking out what we would buy later. Okay, on to Adventureland, the only part that we missed on Saturday. Everyone else had to go to the bathroom, so I went to get FPs for the JC and guess who I see? The Genie! Well, I just had to get his autograph since he was leaving soon, so I pulled out everyone's books and got him to sign for me. He wanted a picture too, but I had packed my camera so I was cameraless. Shame on me, I know. Well, I was the last one in line, so after me the Genie got to take a break. I think this angered some people behind me, but I was chatting with the CM and she determined me as the last person. After this, I got the FPs and met up with everyone else. From here, we went to the Tiki Room and then to PoC. We saw Hook and Smee and needed Hook's autograph, so we got in line. Again, the CM cut the line after us. There was a cute little 4 y/o boy in line behind us who looked like he would have a fit if he did not see Hook and Smee, so we let him come up with us, everyone else being cut off. Mind you, they would be back in less than 15 minutes. Well, a couple of parents started yelling at us and called us "disgusting pigs" and selfish because we had taken up time in the line and doubly that we let this boy come up with us. Its not like they were waiting in line, since they had just walked up, but they were determined to yell at us because we were "too old" to get autographs from the characters. Whatever. So after this, it was time for our FP on JC, so we got a very good skipper, Mason, who had some pretty good jokes. My favorite was "Look, there's a downed plane. You know what that means, Yes, hippos. And if hippos can do that to a plane, imagine what else they can do!" Gotta love that! After this, Celeste and Spanky decided that they needed to send some coconuts off to friends, so Rosie and I went to stalk Peter Pan, who we found in front of PoC. That was it for our characters on this trip. We did pretty good. We added about 20 characters to the others that we had collected. The books are almost full. It was now time for our favorite attraction, the Hall of Presidents. Love that ride and the AC for it too. That is a trip must! So, now it was about 12:30 and time for lunch. We sent Spanky for FP for SM and went back to Cosmic Rays for some food. Yea cheese! After lunch, we wanted to shop for a little while, so we wandered in and around the shops by the castle. We went to see if any of the villains were out, but instead found out that due to the heat, they were doing 20 minutes on, 40 minutes off. Bummer. So now it was time for our FP so we went and got FP for Buzz and then rode SM. It was unusually dark in the queue for some reason. Curious. After this, we waited around for a while and shopped for a little bit. Finally it was time for our Buzz FP so we rode again and got some horrible scores. I stink at this. I am really good at MIB, but this one, I lose it when I have to steer myself. Well, it was now 3:45 so we went back to MS at the tail end of the parade and shopped some more. We made our final purchases and headed back to the hotel. We got back at about 4:15, giving us enough time to change and get a drink before Cartier picked us up at 4:30 on the dot. We got everyone together and headed out by 4:45. We made it to the airport by 5:15, checked in curbside, which is totally worth not having to wait in line. We shopped at the Earport and made it through security. We then went to find our gate and did not like the food. Lesson I learned last year: do not depend on your layover to eat dinner. You will not be able to. Eat when you can, even if you are not hungry. It will help you later. We went to the other concourse and got some McDonalds and headed back to the gate. Now what was the lesson I told you on the first day? That's right, don't fly on the same day as Katie. Surprised that my flight was delayed 20 minutes in Orlando? Well, we finally boarded and then make it to the runway. Okay, so now our hour layover is now 40 minutes. Hey, I know, let's stop the plane on the runway and wait for a half hour. yeah, that sounds like fun. Okay, layover is now 10 minutes. Smart that I put us at the front of the plane? Yes, yes I am. Finally, we land in ATL and get to run from Terminal A to C. We CANNOT miss this flight. It is the last one out. Well, we get to the gate and get to run out on the tarmac again. The plane is only half-full. Wait a minute, it is supposed to be completely full! Well, we waited for a half hour for other planes to come in and had a few stragglers. Finally, we get to take off! Well, we landed in BUF a little after 12 so I made it home by 12:30. Since there was nothing wet in my luggage, I just let it be. I made it to bed by 1 and was at work at 7 the next morning. Always a fun time! Highs of the day: seeing lots of characters, more FREE CHEESE Lows of the day: flight home! Tip of the day: Don’t you remember? Don't fly on the same plane as me! Thanks for reading! Look again in August where the main cast is joined by the infamous Pea Head and quiet Amy G as we take on the world for 10 days and get to play musical resorts! Beware all those in the world from August 8th to the 17th! Email comments and questions to me at ktglads@hotmail.com with a subject line of “trip report” Katie Gladwell ktglads@hotmail.com Mail a Comment to Katie Gladwell |
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