faline
05-24-2010, 06:44 PM
Monday, May 17, 2010
Plan for the Day:
Mickey’s Magical Milestones Tour
Lunch at Kona Café
Dinner at Fulton’s
How the Day Really Went:
Gosh! I’m tired! Yesterday certainly was a long and rather busy day!
I woke up around 5:30 this morning knowing we needed to be up early. I did manage to doze off again a bit before the wake-up call came in at 6:30 a.m. Out of bed – okay!
The weather calls for a 60% chance of rain today with a line of showers moving through this morning. When I check outside shortly before we leave the room, it is overcast and the walks are wet but it’s not raining. When we leave the room it is raining and we need the umbrellas.
We’re at the bus stop a little earlier than I had planned as our needed time. We have more than an hour before we need to check in for our tour. The Magic Kingdom bus arrives 15 minutes or so later. We arrive well before park opening and with more than 30 minutes before our scheduled 8:45 a.m. check in for Mickey’s Magical Milestones tour. Still, we allowed in the park immediately. It is no longer raining. We wander up and down a mostly empty Main Street though there is a full cadre of Photo pass photographers already in place. A few pictures later, we check in at City Hall for our tour.
While waiting, we stop in City Hall to see if we can get alternate dinner reservations. We no longer want to go to Downtown Disney for dinner this evening. Nothing available but we’re invited to check back in again later.
Other tours (Keys to the Kingdom) are getting organized as well. We get our name badges and are offered coffee and bottles of water.
We’re told we’ll be starting around 5 minutes til 9. In the interim, we can see the masses of folks waiting to enter the park. We hear the opening ceremony.
Folks begin streaming into the park. Several cast members come running out of the tour office behind us and stand along the route of the folks entering the park. They are smiling broadly and waving to everyone who is entering. We’re asked to wave “enthusiastically” at the entering hordes. When someone complains that their arm is getting tired, a cast member suggests changing arms. When she notices that the waving has begun to slack off, she tells us not to stop, to continue waving until the music crescendos. When that occurs, the waving stops.
Our tour guide gathers us together and brings us out front of the train station where we start the tour off discussing the big Mickey Mouse out front as well as Walt’s window above the train station. We re-enter Main Street and stop by Tony’s where our guide gives us a bio of Walt and the creation of Mickey Mouse. There’s not really any information here that anyone would not have learned from reading a biography of Walt Disney. She points out Roy Disney’s window and Frank Eisner’s window and talks about their roles in Disney history. We make our way down to the Main Street Theater where she talks about the creation of Steamboat Willie as well as the progression of films that led to the making of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. From here, we head down the street to the ice cream parlor. Here, she points out a window that is temporarily not there while construction is occurring. We head towards Toon Town and take a brief break. Here, we are asked to draw Mickey Mouse and our efforts are each rewarded with a couple of Mickey stickers. We enter Toon Town to visit Mickey’s House. Here, our guide speaks to the coming closing of Toon Town and the changes that will occur as Fantasyland expands. She says she believes Toon Town will close around the end of July as much of her tour incorporates Toon Town and they have stopped taking bookings for it as of the end of July. She says the new, larger Dumbo will be right across from where Mickey’s house is currently located, that the Barnstormer will remain but will be rethemed, and a new Ariel ride will be introduced as well as new restaurants. There really isn’t much that she says that has not recently been reported in news announcements. We enter Mickey’s house where she points out various elements. From there, we’re led in a side entrance and we each have the opportunity to have our pictures taken with Mickey and Minnie. We return to Fantasyland where our guide talks a bit about the creation of Fantasia and how all of the elements (plus 3D) that Walt planned for that movie are incorporated into Philharmagic. We enter Philharmagic as a group, bypassing the standby line. When we emerge, she tells us the tour is now concluded but that someone was supposed to meet her at the end of the tour so that we could each receive the Mickey ears we had earned. She is unable to locate the person with the ears so tells us she will make sure they are in the tour office and we should stop in there in about an hour to gather our ears. The tour and our guide were good but this is not the best Disney tour we have taken and, were it to continue, we would not be in rush to retake it.
The Magic Kingdom is very crowded. Folks must be making up for yesterday’s early closing. We get fast passes for Peter Pan and then head across the street to It’s A Small World. This is listed as a 20 minute wait with the line stretching out to the plaza. A grandmother had gotten on line before the other 5-6 members of her family. Two other parties (including Gene and I) get on line before the rest of her family. Grandmother is signaling all of them to pass by our parties to catch up with her. They do and I comment that they’ll get on a boat about 2 minutes faster than we will. One member of the party comments how it would have been easier had the grandmother dropped back and joined them. As we get to the next corner (where the down ramp begins), there is the choice of a right lane and a left lane. No-one is selecting the right lane while the left lane is totally backed up. Gene and I go into the right lane. We walk right on by grandmother and all of her relatives. One family, about half way down in the left lane, has figured out they could have selected the right lane so do jump over the railing and end up in line behind us. He asks us whether we’ve used fast pass and if it’s worth it. We tell him we use fast pass all the time and then he inquires about the cost. We tell him it’s included with his park passes and he need not pay anything extra for it. As our tour of the dolls ends, we provide him and his family with a quick primer on how fast pass works.
We’re hungry. We have a 1 p.m. reservation at Kona Café but decide to see if we can be seated early. We arrive at the restaurant just before 12 and are told we can be seated promptly at noon! For lunch, we share an order of the pot stickers. Gene has a steak. I have chicken with sticky rice. Quite yummy though it takes quite a long time to get our meal and they initially try to serve us meals we have not ordered. It’s 1:30 before we leave Kona Café.
Plan for the Day:
Mickey’s Magical Milestones Tour
Lunch at Kona Café
Dinner at Fulton’s
How the Day Really Went:
Gosh! I’m tired! Yesterday certainly was a long and rather busy day!
I woke up around 5:30 this morning knowing we needed to be up early. I did manage to doze off again a bit before the wake-up call came in at 6:30 a.m. Out of bed – okay!
The weather calls for a 60% chance of rain today with a line of showers moving through this morning. When I check outside shortly before we leave the room, it is overcast and the walks are wet but it’s not raining. When we leave the room it is raining and we need the umbrellas.
We’re at the bus stop a little earlier than I had planned as our needed time. We have more than an hour before we need to check in for our tour. The Magic Kingdom bus arrives 15 minutes or so later. We arrive well before park opening and with more than 30 minutes before our scheduled 8:45 a.m. check in for Mickey’s Magical Milestones tour. Still, we allowed in the park immediately. It is no longer raining. We wander up and down a mostly empty Main Street though there is a full cadre of Photo pass photographers already in place. A few pictures later, we check in at City Hall for our tour.
While waiting, we stop in City Hall to see if we can get alternate dinner reservations. We no longer want to go to Downtown Disney for dinner this evening. Nothing available but we’re invited to check back in again later.
Other tours (Keys to the Kingdom) are getting organized as well. We get our name badges and are offered coffee and bottles of water.
We’re told we’ll be starting around 5 minutes til 9. In the interim, we can see the masses of folks waiting to enter the park. We hear the opening ceremony.
Folks begin streaming into the park. Several cast members come running out of the tour office behind us and stand along the route of the folks entering the park. They are smiling broadly and waving to everyone who is entering. We’re asked to wave “enthusiastically” at the entering hordes. When someone complains that their arm is getting tired, a cast member suggests changing arms. When she notices that the waving has begun to slack off, she tells us not to stop, to continue waving until the music crescendos. When that occurs, the waving stops.
Our tour guide gathers us together and brings us out front of the train station where we start the tour off discussing the big Mickey Mouse out front as well as Walt’s window above the train station. We re-enter Main Street and stop by Tony’s where our guide gives us a bio of Walt and the creation of Mickey Mouse. There’s not really any information here that anyone would not have learned from reading a biography of Walt Disney. She points out Roy Disney’s window and Frank Eisner’s window and talks about their roles in Disney history. We make our way down to the Main Street Theater where she talks about the creation of Steamboat Willie as well as the progression of films that led to the making of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. From here, we head down the street to the ice cream parlor. Here, she points out a window that is temporarily not there while construction is occurring. We head towards Toon Town and take a brief break. Here, we are asked to draw Mickey Mouse and our efforts are each rewarded with a couple of Mickey stickers. We enter Toon Town to visit Mickey’s House. Here, our guide speaks to the coming closing of Toon Town and the changes that will occur as Fantasyland expands. She says she believes Toon Town will close around the end of July as much of her tour incorporates Toon Town and they have stopped taking bookings for it as of the end of July. She says the new, larger Dumbo will be right across from where Mickey’s house is currently located, that the Barnstormer will remain but will be rethemed, and a new Ariel ride will be introduced as well as new restaurants. There really isn’t much that she says that has not recently been reported in news announcements. We enter Mickey’s house where she points out various elements. From there, we’re led in a side entrance and we each have the opportunity to have our pictures taken with Mickey and Minnie. We return to Fantasyland where our guide talks a bit about the creation of Fantasia and how all of the elements (plus 3D) that Walt planned for that movie are incorporated into Philharmagic. We enter Philharmagic as a group, bypassing the standby line. When we emerge, she tells us the tour is now concluded but that someone was supposed to meet her at the end of the tour so that we could each receive the Mickey ears we had earned. She is unable to locate the person with the ears so tells us she will make sure they are in the tour office and we should stop in there in about an hour to gather our ears. The tour and our guide were good but this is not the best Disney tour we have taken and, were it to continue, we would not be in rush to retake it.
The Magic Kingdom is very crowded. Folks must be making up for yesterday’s early closing. We get fast passes for Peter Pan and then head across the street to It’s A Small World. This is listed as a 20 minute wait with the line stretching out to the plaza. A grandmother had gotten on line before the other 5-6 members of her family. Two other parties (including Gene and I) get on line before the rest of her family. Grandmother is signaling all of them to pass by our parties to catch up with her. They do and I comment that they’ll get on a boat about 2 minutes faster than we will. One member of the party comments how it would have been easier had the grandmother dropped back and joined them. As we get to the next corner (where the down ramp begins), there is the choice of a right lane and a left lane. No-one is selecting the right lane while the left lane is totally backed up. Gene and I go into the right lane. We walk right on by grandmother and all of her relatives. One family, about half way down in the left lane, has figured out they could have selected the right lane so do jump over the railing and end up in line behind us. He asks us whether we’ve used fast pass and if it’s worth it. We tell him we use fast pass all the time and then he inquires about the cost. We tell him it’s included with his park passes and he need not pay anything extra for it. As our tour of the dolls ends, we provide him and his family with a quick primer on how fast pass works.
We’re hungry. We have a 1 p.m. reservation at Kona Café but decide to see if we can be seated early. We arrive at the restaurant just before 12 and are told we can be seated promptly at noon! For lunch, we share an order of the pot stickers. Gene has a steak. I have chicken with sticky rice. Quite yummy though it takes quite a long time to get our meal and they initially try to serve us meals we have not ordered. It’s 1:30 before we leave Kona Café.