faline
09-26-2008, 02:14 PM
Date: Friday, September 5, 2008
Plan for the Day:
Disney Studios
Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party
Backlot Express for Lunch
Goofy’s Liberate Your Appetite Dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern
Mileage: 7.99 miles
What Actually Happened:
In my original planning, we had made reservations to dine at Bistro de Paris this evening. When they announced the schedule for Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party and realized we would be present for the first party, we rearranged our schedule, purchased party tickets and made reservations for Liberty Tree Tavern.
I’m still a little stuffy from my cold. I got up a couple of times during the night to take an antihistamine. Overall, though, I don’t feel too badly. I’ll have a cold whether I stay in bed or get up so up I get.
The day is very grey and overcast. It’s raining off and on as Hanna throws bands of clouds and water our way. Hanna is slated to hit the Carolinas today and make her way into New England by Monday. In the interim, Ike is still headed towards Florida though he has reduced in intensity a bit and is now a Category 3 instead of a 4.
We head back to the Old Faithful Club for breakfast. The offerings today are somewhat slim. The fruit selections do not include the watermelon and pineapple selections which have been present every other morning. There’s no urn of decaf coffee though decaf selections are available from the custom coffee/latte machine. Only small carafes of juice are available this morning. With the reduced selections of fruit, I opt instead for a bagel and cream cheese. Gene has fruit and a bowl of cereal.
The blister on my toe is quite painful to the touch. I’m not sure why it formed to begin with as I’ve been wearing these shoes constantly for quite some time and had been averaging three miles of walking per day prior to our arrival. I wrap two toes – the one with the blister and the one next to it in bandaids as I didn’t think to bring the moleskin and didn’t anticipate needing it.
We make our way to the bus stop by 9:30 a.m. An Epcot bus pulls up. While that bus is loading, another Epcot bus pulls up. What’s up with that?
Still, we’re on the bus we want within 10 minutes. While we are waiting for our bus, it begins to rain so we head under shelter until our bus arrives. It’s not raining when we emerge from the bus at Hollywood Studios.
The studios are slated to close at 6 this evening as Night of Joy will take place in this park this evening. That, and the weather, seems to have kept the crowds down this day.
Once at Disney Studios, we head for Toy Story Mania and pick up fast passes for 12:45 – 1:45. Not bad. The standby line listed as 30 minutes so we go for it. When we emerge, the standby time has crept up to 50 minutes and extends into the road outside the ride!
We walk right into Star Tours – no waiting whatsoever. Even the Jedi Training Session is sparsely attended. Next up is Voyage of the Little Mermaid. We walk right in and the theater is not full.
Our dinner reservations for this evening are rather early so we don’t want to eat lunch too late. We head to the Backlot Express where I have a hot dog and fries and Gene has a cheeseburger and fries.
After lunch, we walk right into the water tank portion of the Studios Backlot Tour. For some reason, they have not selected any volunteers and do not do the normal show but only briefly demonstrate the various special effects and send us on our way. They do have us snake through the entire props building which I’ve only seen done before during very busy attendance days rather than slow attendance days like today. Still, the line moves steadily and we are quickly aboard our tram. After the earthquake, we can now use our fast passes for Toy Story Mania.
In an odd coincidence, the couple who was directly in front of us in this morning’s standby line are now directly behind us in the fast pass line! This time, I ALMOST hit 100,000 – my best score yet and the best degree of accuracy I’ve yet been able to achieve. Still, my prize is yet another bunny rabbit!
When we emerge, it’s pouring rain! The umbrellas go up and we tromp through the puddles towards Beauty and the Beast. The show is still one-half hour away and Tower of Terror is listed as a 10 minutes standby.
We walk right in. With the weather outside, the statement about it being a night just like this one is very true! We are seated in a less than full elevator by Fred, our bellhop. We are in the front row and the woman beside us, who is on her honeymoon, has never been on the ride before. It’s an excellent ride but just before your elevator turns to face the doors and let you out, it dies! At first, the newlywed thought we were kidding when we said we were stuck but it quickly becomes clear to all on board that we are, indeed, stuck. One man behind us starts yelling “SIR” to try to get the attention of the cast members outside the ride. We’re sure they already realize there is an issue so wait patiently. Maintenance men show up, play around a bit, and finally get the ride to complete its progress to the exit area.
We are offered the option to ride again which everyone on board accepts. Fred leads us to a real elevator which we take to the entry point for the ride. We are led over to another cast member. We all get back on board for another very excellent ride. At the end of the ride, it once again shuts down! This time our shut-down is very brief and we were finally able to escape the Twilight Zone!
As we’re leaving the Tower of Terror, in the hallway between where you see your picture and the store, three individuals dressed like folks in the elevator (the skit you watch before you board) were standing as still as statues. One man is holding a bag (the bellhop I guess) and has his hand extended as if waiting for someone to shake it. Gene suggests I shake his hand and I suggest he be the one to make that move. A young boy, walking by touches the extended hand. WHAM! That’s the sound of the posed individual dropping his bag on the cement floor! That poor little boy was scared half to death!
By now, we had missed the start of the Beauty and the Beast show – we never did get back to see it this trip – so make our way, instead to the bus stop. Our wait for a bus was, again, around 10 minutes and we were quickly back in our room at Wilderness Lodge.
(To be continued)
Plan for the Day:
Disney Studios
Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party
Backlot Express for Lunch
Goofy’s Liberate Your Appetite Dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern
Mileage: 7.99 miles
What Actually Happened:
In my original planning, we had made reservations to dine at Bistro de Paris this evening. When they announced the schedule for Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party and realized we would be present for the first party, we rearranged our schedule, purchased party tickets and made reservations for Liberty Tree Tavern.
I’m still a little stuffy from my cold. I got up a couple of times during the night to take an antihistamine. Overall, though, I don’t feel too badly. I’ll have a cold whether I stay in bed or get up so up I get.
The day is very grey and overcast. It’s raining off and on as Hanna throws bands of clouds and water our way. Hanna is slated to hit the Carolinas today and make her way into New England by Monday. In the interim, Ike is still headed towards Florida though he has reduced in intensity a bit and is now a Category 3 instead of a 4.
We head back to the Old Faithful Club for breakfast. The offerings today are somewhat slim. The fruit selections do not include the watermelon and pineapple selections which have been present every other morning. There’s no urn of decaf coffee though decaf selections are available from the custom coffee/latte machine. Only small carafes of juice are available this morning. With the reduced selections of fruit, I opt instead for a bagel and cream cheese. Gene has fruit and a bowl of cereal.
The blister on my toe is quite painful to the touch. I’m not sure why it formed to begin with as I’ve been wearing these shoes constantly for quite some time and had been averaging three miles of walking per day prior to our arrival. I wrap two toes – the one with the blister and the one next to it in bandaids as I didn’t think to bring the moleskin and didn’t anticipate needing it.
We make our way to the bus stop by 9:30 a.m. An Epcot bus pulls up. While that bus is loading, another Epcot bus pulls up. What’s up with that?
Still, we’re on the bus we want within 10 minutes. While we are waiting for our bus, it begins to rain so we head under shelter until our bus arrives. It’s not raining when we emerge from the bus at Hollywood Studios.
The studios are slated to close at 6 this evening as Night of Joy will take place in this park this evening. That, and the weather, seems to have kept the crowds down this day.
Once at Disney Studios, we head for Toy Story Mania and pick up fast passes for 12:45 – 1:45. Not bad. The standby line listed as 30 minutes so we go for it. When we emerge, the standby time has crept up to 50 minutes and extends into the road outside the ride!
We walk right into Star Tours – no waiting whatsoever. Even the Jedi Training Session is sparsely attended. Next up is Voyage of the Little Mermaid. We walk right in and the theater is not full.
Our dinner reservations for this evening are rather early so we don’t want to eat lunch too late. We head to the Backlot Express where I have a hot dog and fries and Gene has a cheeseburger and fries.
After lunch, we walk right into the water tank portion of the Studios Backlot Tour. For some reason, they have not selected any volunteers and do not do the normal show but only briefly demonstrate the various special effects and send us on our way. They do have us snake through the entire props building which I’ve only seen done before during very busy attendance days rather than slow attendance days like today. Still, the line moves steadily and we are quickly aboard our tram. After the earthquake, we can now use our fast passes for Toy Story Mania.
In an odd coincidence, the couple who was directly in front of us in this morning’s standby line are now directly behind us in the fast pass line! This time, I ALMOST hit 100,000 – my best score yet and the best degree of accuracy I’ve yet been able to achieve. Still, my prize is yet another bunny rabbit!
When we emerge, it’s pouring rain! The umbrellas go up and we tromp through the puddles towards Beauty and the Beast. The show is still one-half hour away and Tower of Terror is listed as a 10 minutes standby.
We walk right in. With the weather outside, the statement about it being a night just like this one is very true! We are seated in a less than full elevator by Fred, our bellhop. We are in the front row and the woman beside us, who is on her honeymoon, has never been on the ride before. It’s an excellent ride but just before your elevator turns to face the doors and let you out, it dies! At first, the newlywed thought we were kidding when we said we were stuck but it quickly becomes clear to all on board that we are, indeed, stuck. One man behind us starts yelling “SIR” to try to get the attention of the cast members outside the ride. We’re sure they already realize there is an issue so wait patiently. Maintenance men show up, play around a bit, and finally get the ride to complete its progress to the exit area.
We are offered the option to ride again which everyone on board accepts. Fred leads us to a real elevator which we take to the entry point for the ride. We are led over to another cast member. We all get back on board for another very excellent ride. At the end of the ride, it once again shuts down! This time our shut-down is very brief and we were finally able to escape the Twilight Zone!
As we’re leaving the Tower of Terror, in the hallway between where you see your picture and the store, three individuals dressed like folks in the elevator (the skit you watch before you board) were standing as still as statues. One man is holding a bag (the bellhop I guess) and has his hand extended as if waiting for someone to shake it. Gene suggests I shake his hand and I suggest he be the one to make that move. A young boy, walking by touches the extended hand. WHAM! That’s the sound of the posed individual dropping his bag on the cement floor! That poor little boy was scared half to death!
By now, we had missed the start of the Beauty and the Beast show – we never did get back to see it this trip – so make our way, instead to the bus stop. Our wait for a bus was, again, around 10 minutes and we were quickly back in our room at Wilderness Lodge.
(To be continued)