poeticeclipse
05-11-2008, 03:38 PM
Wake up call was at 6:45 a.m. although due to some mistake the call came through at 6:40 and when DH answered it, he heard nothing. No Stitch!! What happened? Who knows?! Getting a full nights rest was SO NICE. I didn’t wake up once. That’s unusual for me. But only get 30 minutes of sleep the previous night probably had something to do with it.
We had a big morning ahead of us. We got to be in the promo videos for DHS’s new attraction, Toy Story Mania. I have a whole separate review for this experience since I rode the ride 5 times and got have a lot to talk about regarding the backstage area, new Pixar area, and the new attraction itself! Link to review: http://intercot.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=132397&page=3
I forgot to mention something in my review that is kind of cool. In a big warehouse room leading up to our "break room," I saw a large pile posters and signs that had "MGM-Studios" still on them. Around them were a lot of other props and such that were "outdated." Pretty funny!
It was quite an experience… I’ll say that much. We were supposed to wrap at 12:00 p.m. but that did not happen. Some people got really upset and wanted to leave pronto. We just had to make it out by 1:15 because we had reservations at Sci-Fi.
We made our reservations just in time and only had to wait about 5 minutes to be seated as hitchhikers in a regular car. The food was actually better than normal. DH and I both got a soy burger with fries. For drinks DH wanted a chocolate shake and I was happy to be able to order vanilla coke made with syrup. Mmmmm….. Our waitress was a sweetheart and very attentive. Something we are not used to at Sci-fi. When we got our check I realized something very interesting and took a picture of it. (http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x284/mrandmrslantz/2008/April%2030th/DSC02967.jpg) If the picture is too dark on your monitor, this is what it says. "We are often asked about gratuities. No gratuity has been added to your bill. Quality service is customarily acknowledged by a gratuity of 18% to 20%. Thank you."
Not only do they "help" you with your tip on the check itself by putting what 18% and 20% would be, but they even explain it all in a little card to the right. Tacky tacky tacky...
Stopped for a potty break and then decided to hit up some attractions. On our way to check out what wait times were looking like we realized that Block Party Bash was going to start in 15 minutes! Even though it was getting pretty hot in the sun I really wanted to see it and Matt was pretty clueless as to what was going on. After waiting for the first set of “party” to go by it was finally our turn. As the floats went by us I told Matt that I wanted Boo to stop by us. That’s the whole reason for me to watch the parade! I love Boo! Well, as she walked by us she ended up stopping with the Monsters Inc. float down from us quite a ways and she was on the other side so I couldn’t even get a good picture of her Boo The parade was really energetic and I kept telling Matt how much I could see myself dancing in those fun outfits! Someday…. Someday….
It started to get pretty warm at that point so we checked out The Great Movie Ride which we only had to wait about 5 minutes to get on. We got the cowboy scene this time! Hooray! We always get the gangster and Matt hadn’t seen the cowboy part yet. He loved it…. As did I. Sadly, we were still warm and needed to cool down so we got ourselves a nice frozen lemonade and made our way to the front of the park and sat on a bench and enjoyed it together before heading back to Pop for a swim.
After our dip in the pool, which, was very warm by the way… we changed and freshened up back in the room. Everything Pop was NUTS. It’s not that it was all THAT busy, we’ve seen it worse. But, it seemed as though everyone wanted a cheeseburger and fries at the exact same time. I just wanted salmon so I got that in about 2 seconds while Matt waited almost 15 minutes to get a soy burger. We understand that it’s an unpopular order but we do think that the wait time for these should not be so ridiculous. Matt noticed that the lettuce, tomato, and pickles are no longer on a plate. They are in a little to-go cup with a lid to keep things fresh. I thought it was a great idea until Matt pointed out how everything was piled and if you just wanted the shredded lettuce, you’d have to pick all of the other veggies off, taking some of the lettuce with it. It wouldn’t have bothered me a whole lot but Matt sure didn’t care for it. We decided on a resort mug because saying no to unlimited refills of frozen Coke is just obscured.
We wanted to head back to the Studios and check a few more things off of our to-do list. Star Tours was first up and it was a virtual walk-on. Then we headed for Muppet Vision 3-D! We got to sit wherever we wanted so we chose a seat in the middle and no one was even in our row! How nice! We both came out of the show feeling a little cold but didn’t bring sweatshirts. Ugh, we were those silly unprepared people. Now I can see how Disney sells so many sweatshirts after the sun goes down. It’s people like us that they can dupe. But, we were not duped! We sucked it up and headed for Tower of Terror since it was 10 minutes until Fantasmic and we knew we would see the show later in the week. Tower of Terror was also a walk on! It was very fun!!! We got lots of full drops and saw the top three times! The shops were still open until 9:30 so we browsed through those. After coming out of the memorabilia shop, we noticed a huge mass of people racing towards us….. it was the aftermath of Fantasmic. RUN!!!!!! That’s what we did…. Right to the Pop Century bus stop.
Great day full of new experiences. Tomorrow will be just as fun I’m sure. It’s Disney! Where else can you say that you walked on a life size keyboard, waved at a green army man toy, and dropped faster than gravity in a haunted elevator? No where!!
Link to Day Two Pictures
http://s183.photobucket.com/albums/x284/mrandmrslantz/2008/April%2030th/
We had a big morning ahead of us. We got to be in the promo videos for DHS’s new attraction, Toy Story Mania. I have a whole separate review for this experience since I rode the ride 5 times and got have a lot to talk about regarding the backstage area, new Pixar area, and the new attraction itself! Link to review: http://intercot.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=132397&page=3
I forgot to mention something in my review that is kind of cool. In a big warehouse room leading up to our "break room," I saw a large pile posters and signs that had "MGM-Studios" still on them. Around them were a lot of other props and such that were "outdated." Pretty funny!
It was quite an experience… I’ll say that much. We were supposed to wrap at 12:00 p.m. but that did not happen. Some people got really upset and wanted to leave pronto. We just had to make it out by 1:15 because we had reservations at Sci-Fi.
We made our reservations just in time and only had to wait about 5 minutes to be seated as hitchhikers in a regular car. The food was actually better than normal. DH and I both got a soy burger with fries. For drinks DH wanted a chocolate shake and I was happy to be able to order vanilla coke made with syrup. Mmmmm….. Our waitress was a sweetheart and very attentive. Something we are not used to at Sci-fi. When we got our check I realized something very interesting and took a picture of it. (http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x284/mrandmrslantz/2008/April%2030th/DSC02967.jpg) If the picture is too dark on your monitor, this is what it says. "We are often asked about gratuities. No gratuity has been added to your bill. Quality service is customarily acknowledged by a gratuity of 18% to 20%. Thank you."
Not only do they "help" you with your tip on the check itself by putting what 18% and 20% would be, but they even explain it all in a little card to the right. Tacky tacky tacky...
Stopped for a potty break and then decided to hit up some attractions. On our way to check out what wait times were looking like we realized that Block Party Bash was going to start in 15 minutes! Even though it was getting pretty hot in the sun I really wanted to see it and Matt was pretty clueless as to what was going on. After waiting for the first set of “party” to go by it was finally our turn. As the floats went by us I told Matt that I wanted Boo to stop by us. That’s the whole reason for me to watch the parade! I love Boo! Well, as she walked by us she ended up stopping with the Monsters Inc. float down from us quite a ways and she was on the other side so I couldn’t even get a good picture of her Boo The parade was really energetic and I kept telling Matt how much I could see myself dancing in those fun outfits! Someday…. Someday….
It started to get pretty warm at that point so we checked out The Great Movie Ride which we only had to wait about 5 minutes to get on. We got the cowboy scene this time! Hooray! We always get the gangster and Matt hadn’t seen the cowboy part yet. He loved it…. As did I. Sadly, we were still warm and needed to cool down so we got ourselves a nice frozen lemonade and made our way to the front of the park and sat on a bench and enjoyed it together before heading back to Pop for a swim.
After our dip in the pool, which, was very warm by the way… we changed and freshened up back in the room. Everything Pop was NUTS. It’s not that it was all THAT busy, we’ve seen it worse. But, it seemed as though everyone wanted a cheeseburger and fries at the exact same time. I just wanted salmon so I got that in about 2 seconds while Matt waited almost 15 minutes to get a soy burger. We understand that it’s an unpopular order but we do think that the wait time for these should not be so ridiculous. Matt noticed that the lettuce, tomato, and pickles are no longer on a plate. They are in a little to-go cup with a lid to keep things fresh. I thought it was a great idea until Matt pointed out how everything was piled and if you just wanted the shredded lettuce, you’d have to pick all of the other veggies off, taking some of the lettuce with it. It wouldn’t have bothered me a whole lot but Matt sure didn’t care for it. We decided on a resort mug because saying no to unlimited refills of frozen Coke is just obscured.
We wanted to head back to the Studios and check a few more things off of our to-do list. Star Tours was first up and it was a virtual walk-on. Then we headed for Muppet Vision 3-D! We got to sit wherever we wanted so we chose a seat in the middle and no one was even in our row! How nice! We both came out of the show feeling a little cold but didn’t bring sweatshirts. Ugh, we were those silly unprepared people. Now I can see how Disney sells so many sweatshirts after the sun goes down. It’s people like us that they can dupe. But, we were not duped! We sucked it up and headed for Tower of Terror since it was 10 minutes until Fantasmic and we knew we would see the show later in the week. Tower of Terror was also a walk on! It was very fun!!! We got lots of full drops and saw the top three times! The shops were still open until 9:30 so we browsed through those. After coming out of the memorabilia shop, we noticed a huge mass of people racing towards us….. it was the aftermath of Fantasmic. RUN!!!!!! That’s what we did…. Right to the Pop Century bus stop.
Great day full of new experiences. Tomorrow will be just as fun I’m sure. It’s Disney! Where else can you say that you walked on a life size keyboard, waved at a green army man toy, and dropped faster than gravity in a haunted elevator? No where!!
Link to Day Two Pictures
http://s183.photobucket.com/albums/x284/mrandmrslantz/2008/April%2030th/