Mendelson
01-29-2009, 10:33 AM
Me - 34
Wifey - 39
Daughter - 15
First trip in about five years!
Monday we went to the Studios and this was to be the big TSM day. I had the gang all prepared for an early bus trip and the stampede to ensue. First of all, as has been discussed, the design of the FP distribution area is awful! Anyway, I grabbed our FPs and we got in line. By 9:15 the sign already said 45 minutes. ?? It was more like 20. Then we VIP FP’d it and THEN we used our regular FPs, so we got to ride it three times in a row. Considering the popularity of this thing I was extremely happy with that. And I was also happy that my score increased every time (all of ours did, in fact) and I topped out around 180,000. When we walked away at around 10:15 the FP return time was already after 5pm. Wow. Oh, and great ride, by the way.
We did ToT and RnR and then the Muppet Movie, which is still fun, and then Mermaid. And here’s we experienced another of those things for which you just have to remind yourself that a bad day at WDW is better than a good day in the real world. For both Muppets and Mermaid we saw people clamber to get to the front of the line and then stop in the middle of the row. I’m beyond this bothering me now and just expect it. But if you plop down there you better make it darn easy for me to get past, because odds are pretty good I’m stepping on your feet. Don’t get me wrong, I am very, very apologetic when I do it. They get the biggest, most sincere-sounding “Oh, I’m sorry,” that I can muster, and I am sorry that the situation turned out the way it did, but their feet better be tucked far away. There was some justice the second time: there were two families staking their claim in the middle and the one on the far side from the entrance was bouncing around, taking up a variety of seats and it was hard for me to tell if there were two open seats past them or three. So we passed them (“Oh, I’m sorry!”) and I realized that there were really only two seats open but their family members were still shifting around and so we grabbed the two open seats and as soon as I had a chance I took the one they kept vacating, leaving them with one family member the loser in their own game of musical chairs. This is in large part why they tell you, after all, to move all the way down, right? One girl with them had to go sit in another row.
We were done here by about 2pm and had dinner at Narcoossee's at 9:30 so we decided to spend a little time at AK, as we were only planning to spend the next morning there. We took the train back to Rafiki’s Planet Watch and spent a bit of time there. Then we watched Bug and it’s been about six years since we’ve done this and I had remembered something happening with the seat but totally forgot about the wasp…which really shocked me!
(I understand this park in part is about conservation, but I find the enviro preachiness a little heavy handed…it’s just tough to swallow when it’s coming from Disney, a company responsible for HUGE amounts of [essentially unnecessary, as it is for entertainment purposes] energy use and carbon emissions. Disney, I love you, but environmental steward you are not.)
And we didn’t spend much time here. Oh, and my wife noticed the “hidden gorilla” near the entrance of the park, if you take the path to the right when you come in the door. I assume most people know what I’m talking about?
That evening we entered the Grand Floridian for the first time and were really in awe. What a beautiful, beautiful place. Even the photopass area was quite nice, with real lighting, and a nice place to sit. It almost looks like a professional portrait in a studio.
Narcoossee's was absolutely fantastic. Our server was Debby who we just loved…she really knows how to take care of guests in a setting like this and I will absolutely find out when she is working the next time we go and schedule our ressie around that. My wife and daughter got the surf and turf and the steak was as good as anything I’ve had at some great steakhouses. I had some tuna that was just touched on the outside long enough to get the Asian seasoning into it and overall it was rich and buttery…it was almost sashimi-grade tuna. Fabulous. And the wasabi roe on the risotto was just the right mix. Desserts were excellent as well…can’t say enough good about this!
Wifey - 39
Daughter - 15
First trip in about five years!
Monday we went to the Studios and this was to be the big TSM day. I had the gang all prepared for an early bus trip and the stampede to ensue. First of all, as has been discussed, the design of the FP distribution area is awful! Anyway, I grabbed our FPs and we got in line. By 9:15 the sign already said 45 minutes. ?? It was more like 20. Then we VIP FP’d it and THEN we used our regular FPs, so we got to ride it three times in a row. Considering the popularity of this thing I was extremely happy with that. And I was also happy that my score increased every time (all of ours did, in fact) and I topped out around 180,000. When we walked away at around 10:15 the FP return time was already after 5pm. Wow. Oh, and great ride, by the way.
We did ToT and RnR and then the Muppet Movie, which is still fun, and then Mermaid. And here’s we experienced another of those things for which you just have to remind yourself that a bad day at WDW is better than a good day in the real world. For both Muppets and Mermaid we saw people clamber to get to the front of the line and then stop in the middle of the row. I’m beyond this bothering me now and just expect it. But if you plop down there you better make it darn easy for me to get past, because odds are pretty good I’m stepping on your feet. Don’t get me wrong, I am very, very apologetic when I do it. They get the biggest, most sincere-sounding “Oh, I’m sorry,” that I can muster, and I am sorry that the situation turned out the way it did, but their feet better be tucked far away. There was some justice the second time: there were two families staking their claim in the middle and the one on the far side from the entrance was bouncing around, taking up a variety of seats and it was hard for me to tell if there were two open seats past them or three. So we passed them (“Oh, I’m sorry!”) and I realized that there were really only two seats open but their family members were still shifting around and so we grabbed the two open seats and as soon as I had a chance I took the one they kept vacating, leaving them with one family member the loser in their own game of musical chairs. This is in large part why they tell you, after all, to move all the way down, right? One girl with them had to go sit in another row.
We were done here by about 2pm and had dinner at Narcoossee's at 9:30 so we decided to spend a little time at AK, as we were only planning to spend the next morning there. We took the train back to Rafiki’s Planet Watch and spent a bit of time there. Then we watched Bug and it’s been about six years since we’ve done this and I had remembered something happening with the seat but totally forgot about the wasp…which really shocked me!
(I understand this park in part is about conservation, but I find the enviro preachiness a little heavy handed…it’s just tough to swallow when it’s coming from Disney, a company responsible for HUGE amounts of [essentially unnecessary, as it is for entertainment purposes] energy use and carbon emissions. Disney, I love you, but environmental steward you are not.)
And we didn’t spend much time here. Oh, and my wife noticed the “hidden gorilla” near the entrance of the park, if you take the path to the right when you come in the door. I assume most people know what I’m talking about?
That evening we entered the Grand Floridian for the first time and were really in awe. What a beautiful, beautiful place. Even the photopass area was quite nice, with real lighting, and a nice place to sit. It almost looks like a professional portrait in a studio.
Narcoossee's was absolutely fantastic. Our server was Debby who we just loved…she really knows how to take care of guests in a setting like this and I will absolutely find out when she is working the next time we go and schedule our ressie around that. My wife and daughter got the surf and turf and the steak was as good as anything I’ve had at some great steakhouses. I had some tuna that was just touched on the outside long enough to get the Asian seasoning into it and overall it was rich and buttery…it was almost sashimi-grade tuna. Fabulous. And the wasabi roe on the risotto was just the right mix. Desserts were excellent as well…can’t say enough good about this!