brad192
11-06-2007, 03:15 PM
10/15/07 - Monday
Cast – Just Me, 48 Yr. old Disney Nut, engineer, singer, and thespian.
Dates – 10/9 thru 10/16
Accommodations – Pop Century, 50’s section, room 3434.
Arriving at MK around 4PM, I had about an hour to kill before dinner so I started my last day shopping. I always save most of my shopping for the last day, as then I’m forced to make decisions about what to buy, and realize that I will have to get it all in my bags before I leave the next day. This keeps the amount & $$ to a reasonable level. :blush: I checked with a CM about how late I could safely send stuff to package pickup, and was told 7PM would be the cutoff. Ok, good. Off to get the required items- coffee mug, snowglobe, hats, polos, sweatshirt. The Emporium & Sir Mickey’s got a lot of my money very quickly. All the aforementioned, plus a photo album, lots of Disney CD’s, and some trinkets, odds & ends. Whew! All in just under an hour! It certainly paid to recon earlier in the week for this stuff. Sent it all to package pickup, and headed for Tony’s.
I was a few minutes late, as I stopped for the flag retreat in Town Square. You just don’t walk past something like that if you’re a patriotic American. :flag: I checked in for dinner, and was seated in about 5 minutes. My server, Robert, was trying hard to affect an italian accent, but just wasn’t pulling it off too well. That’s OK, keep practicing Robert, it took me about 6 months to get my scottish accent sounding right! ( I played Stewart Dalrymple in Brigadoon.) Tony’s has always been my traditional “last meal” when visiting WDW, so I was fulfilling one more tradition before leaving. I ordered pumpkin soup for my appetizer, seafood diavolo for my entrée, and pistachio crème Brule for dessert with, again, an iced tea. The soup was exceptional, and the seafood was very good, but could’ve had less pasta & a few more mussels or clams. The pistachio crème brulee simply needed more pistachio. I could barely taste it, although it was still creamy & good. All in all a satisfying meal, but I probably wouldn’t eat here if it wasn’t for tradition’s sake, as I had much better food at other WDW establishments this trip.
Leaving Tony’s, I started up Main Street, I still had almost an hour until the 7PM package pickup cutoff, so I wanted to finish my shopping. I had spied a watch earlier in the week at the Contemporary gift shop that had the “Partners” statue on the face, and was hoping the shop on Main Street had it also. Yay! They had it! I bought it right away & had it sized then & there. The CM asked me if I’d like to wear it now, and I showed him my spiffy Mickey watch I had purchased there my last trip, and told him that “Partners” was going to be my dress watch, and to just send it to package pickup. I filled out the paperwork, breathed a sigh of relief that my shopping was done, and headed on up toward the Castle for a fun night.
Thinking I’d “close out” each land one by one, I turned right & entered Tomorrowland. Space had an hour wait, so that was a no go. Jumped on the TTA, then hit CoP for one more spin, then back to the TTA. I was exiting from my second ride when I noticed a CM with a PDA of some sort talking to a guest. He finished & I approached asking if he was doing guest surveys. He was, but he just completed all of them he needed. Aw nuts! I was hoping to let him know about all the love we have for the TTA, and beg the powers that be never to close it. Disappointed I couldn’t do the survey, I needed a pick me up, so I headed out of Tomorrowland & went to Mickey’s Philharmagic. Wonderful as always. I’d recommend this as a first experience for first timers, as the “wow factor” is really up there, and it completely immerses you in Disney from the beginning to the end. Just a great attraction. After the show, it was getting close to Spectro time, so I found a not-so-great spot to watch the parade, and then wormed, squirmed, and finagled my way to a choice spot for Wishes, right on the Hub, a big goal for me on my last night. The lights went down, the music started, pyrotechnics lit the sky above the castle, and I dissolved into a tear-stained, broadly smiling, blubbering fool for the next 20 minutes.:cry: Matter of fact, I’m getting misty eyed just writing this. What a sap.:rolleyes:
After the show, and a bit of composing after the cathartic experience that it always is for me, it was EMH time and I still had not secured my wristband. I remembered that there was a “banding station” in Adventureland, so I headed that way & after asking a couple of CM’s where it was, I was properly “banded” and legal for the evening. Hit PotC, and then JC. Our skipper tried hard, knew all the jokes, but needed to work on her comedic timing & inflection a bit. It was an OK cruise though. Finishing the cruise, I headed for Frontierland & saw CBJ. “Mama Don’t Whoop Little Buford” still cracks me up after all these years. Thought briefly about Splash, but decided I didn’t want to walk around feeling like a used tea bag the rest of the night, so I passed. It was on to Liberty Square, and a final ride on HM. The last two times I rode my doombuggy had audio problems, and I was hoping that this last ride would be perfect. No problems at all, it was the perfect ride, and my last of the evening. It was about 11:15 by now and unfortunately, it was time to leave.
Walking out of Liberty Square & into Fantasyland, I headed for the Castle, hoping I could go thru & not around. Yup, I could. Getting quite melancholy at this point, I slowly walked up Main Street, taking it all in - the lights, the crowds, the music, the smells – all of it. I arrived at the train station & climbed to the platform level to get my required last night at MK pictures. Snapping away, that’s when it really hit me hard that this was it, my last few minutes in MK for this trip. Keeping it together for decorum’s sake, I went over to package pickup & retrieved all my purchases for the day. Holy Hannah! :jaw: Did I really buy all this stuff? Some creative packing will have to be done. Lugging all my packages, I walked out into Town Square and just stood there, gazing down Main Street at Cinderella Castle for a good 5 minutes, wiping tears from my face. :cry::crying::sadwave: My final tradition fulfilled. I turned then, not looking back, and walked out of the MK to take that long, sad bus ride back to Pop for my final night’s stay. Back in my room just after midnight, I did most of my packing, took a hot shower, and was in the sack by 2, tired, sad, and quite satisfied with this trip. Next up, a disappointment on departure day, & final thoughts.
Cast – Just Me, 48 Yr. old Disney Nut, engineer, singer, and thespian.
Dates – 10/9 thru 10/16
Accommodations – Pop Century, 50’s section, room 3434.
Arriving at MK around 4PM, I had about an hour to kill before dinner so I started my last day shopping. I always save most of my shopping for the last day, as then I’m forced to make decisions about what to buy, and realize that I will have to get it all in my bags before I leave the next day. This keeps the amount & $$ to a reasonable level. :blush: I checked with a CM about how late I could safely send stuff to package pickup, and was told 7PM would be the cutoff. Ok, good. Off to get the required items- coffee mug, snowglobe, hats, polos, sweatshirt. The Emporium & Sir Mickey’s got a lot of my money very quickly. All the aforementioned, plus a photo album, lots of Disney CD’s, and some trinkets, odds & ends. Whew! All in just under an hour! It certainly paid to recon earlier in the week for this stuff. Sent it all to package pickup, and headed for Tony’s.
I was a few minutes late, as I stopped for the flag retreat in Town Square. You just don’t walk past something like that if you’re a patriotic American. :flag: I checked in for dinner, and was seated in about 5 minutes. My server, Robert, was trying hard to affect an italian accent, but just wasn’t pulling it off too well. That’s OK, keep practicing Robert, it took me about 6 months to get my scottish accent sounding right! ( I played Stewart Dalrymple in Brigadoon.) Tony’s has always been my traditional “last meal” when visiting WDW, so I was fulfilling one more tradition before leaving. I ordered pumpkin soup for my appetizer, seafood diavolo for my entrée, and pistachio crème Brule for dessert with, again, an iced tea. The soup was exceptional, and the seafood was very good, but could’ve had less pasta & a few more mussels or clams. The pistachio crème brulee simply needed more pistachio. I could barely taste it, although it was still creamy & good. All in all a satisfying meal, but I probably wouldn’t eat here if it wasn’t for tradition’s sake, as I had much better food at other WDW establishments this trip.
Leaving Tony’s, I started up Main Street, I still had almost an hour until the 7PM package pickup cutoff, so I wanted to finish my shopping. I had spied a watch earlier in the week at the Contemporary gift shop that had the “Partners” statue on the face, and was hoping the shop on Main Street had it also. Yay! They had it! I bought it right away & had it sized then & there. The CM asked me if I’d like to wear it now, and I showed him my spiffy Mickey watch I had purchased there my last trip, and told him that “Partners” was going to be my dress watch, and to just send it to package pickup. I filled out the paperwork, breathed a sigh of relief that my shopping was done, and headed on up toward the Castle for a fun night.
Thinking I’d “close out” each land one by one, I turned right & entered Tomorrowland. Space had an hour wait, so that was a no go. Jumped on the TTA, then hit CoP for one more spin, then back to the TTA. I was exiting from my second ride when I noticed a CM with a PDA of some sort talking to a guest. He finished & I approached asking if he was doing guest surveys. He was, but he just completed all of them he needed. Aw nuts! I was hoping to let him know about all the love we have for the TTA, and beg the powers that be never to close it. Disappointed I couldn’t do the survey, I needed a pick me up, so I headed out of Tomorrowland & went to Mickey’s Philharmagic. Wonderful as always. I’d recommend this as a first experience for first timers, as the “wow factor” is really up there, and it completely immerses you in Disney from the beginning to the end. Just a great attraction. After the show, it was getting close to Spectro time, so I found a not-so-great spot to watch the parade, and then wormed, squirmed, and finagled my way to a choice spot for Wishes, right on the Hub, a big goal for me on my last night. The lights went down, the music started, pyrotechnics lit the sky above the castle, and I dissolved into a tear-stained, broadly smiling, blubbering fool for the next 20 minutes.:cry: Matter of fact, I’m getting misty eyed just writing this. What a sap.:rolleyes:
After the show, and a bit of composing after the cathartic experience that it always is for me, it was EMH time and I still had not secured my wristband. I remembered that there was a “banding station” in Adventureland, so I headed that way & after asking a couple of CM’s where it was, I was properly “banded” and legal for the evening. Hit PotC, and then JC. Our skipper tried hard, knew all the jokes, but needed to work on her comedic timing & inflection a bit. It was an OK cruise though. Finishing the cruise, I headed for Frontierland & saw CBJ. “Mama Don’t Whoop Little Buford” still cracks me up after all these years. Thought briefly about Splash, but decided I didn’t want to walk around feeling like a used tea bag the rest of the night, so I passed. It was on to Liberty Square, and a final ride on HM. The last two times I rode my doombuggy had audio problems, and I was hoping that this last ride would be perfect. No problems at all, it was the perfect ride, and my last of the evening. It was about 11:15 by now and unfortunately, it was time to leave.
Walking out of Liberty Square & into Fantasyland, I headed for the Castle, hoping I could go thru & not around. Yup, I could. Getting quite melancholy at this point, I slowly walked up Main Street, taking it all in - the lights, the crowds, the music, the smells – all of it. I arrived at the train station & climbed to the platform level to get my required last night at MK pictures. Snapping away, that’s when it really hit me hard that this was it, my last few minutes in MK for this trip. Keeping it together for decorum’s sake, I went over to package pickup & retrieved all my purchases for the day. Holy Hannah! :jaw: Did I really buy all this stuff? Some creative packing will have to be done. Lugging all my packages, I walked out into Town Square and just stood there, gazing down Main Street at Cinderella Castle for a good 5 minutes, wiping tears from my face. :cry::crying::sadwave: My final tradition fulfilled. I turned then, not looking back, and walked out of the MK to take that long, sad bus ride back to Pop for my final night’s stay. Back in my room just after midnight, I did most of my packing, took a hot shower, and was in the sack by 2, tired, sad, and quite satisfied with this trip. Next up, a disappointment on departure day, & final thoughts.