darthmacho
08-29-2010, 12:52 PM
Date: August 16, 2010
Location: The Magic Kingdom/POR Riverside
The Cast:
DM: Me, Darth Macho, Celebrating Our 12th Anniversary. (Belatedly)
DW: Dear Wife, The Queen, Celebrating Our 12th Anniversary. (Belatedly)
DD1: Princess, 9yo, Celebrating 1st Visit (That she'll remember. She was just 2yo on her actual first visit.)
DD2: Princess, 6yo, Celebrating 1st Visit (She was born mysteriously 9 months after our last visit…)
Lunch with Entertainment
Hungry, still a little tired, and the clouds still spitting some raindrops, we decided to head over to Tomorrowland to have lunch at an old favorite, Cosmic Ray's Starlight Café. It was mid-afternoon, but it was still very crowded inside, but we managed to get our order quickly and get a seat near the front row to watch Sonny Eclipse. He has always been one of our favorites, and back in 2003, DD1, just 2 at the time, had the greatest time dancing to his music. This time, however, having absorbed so many amazing things that morning, and having been used to animatronic dining thanks to our local rainforest café, my daughters weren't all that excited about Sonny. I asked them if they liked him, and they said yes, but I could tell that sort of thing was not a "wow" moment for them any more. DD1 even went so far as to say Sonny was a little "creepy looking." Could be that they were also tired and hungry. Again, they didn't hate it, they just were a bit jaded. Anyway, I had ribs, DW had chicken, DD2 had chicken nuggets, and DD1 surprised me by getting a turkey wrap. This was our first free quick-serve on our dining plan, the food was quality, and of course, the entertainment was out of this world.
A Great Big Beautiful Tomorrowland
Once lunch was done, we checked on Space Mountain, which was showing a 60 minute wait, and the fastpasses were all gone. I was disappointed, as was DD1, but DW didn't care, because she doesn't seem to like the ride for some reason. Instead, we got FP for Buzz, which was showing a 40 minute wait, so we went to see Stitch's Great Escape for the first time for all of us.
Now this attraction has taken a lot of criticism, and I was a huge fan of Alien Encounter, but I decided to enter with an open mind. I think the attraction has a good amount of humor and thrills, and although I'm partial to the old version, I think Stitch is a good attraction. In fact, it turned out to be DD2's favorite attraction, and she asked to do it again at some point. The kids loved it when Stitch burped and spit, and they thought his little visit to Cinderella's castle was a riot. Personally, I think Gantu is hilarious. I was also happy to see that Skippy wasn't cut from the pre-show.
Next up was also something new for us, Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor. We all loved this attraction too, and the kids asked to see this again sometime too. We didn't get in the show, and we messed up the text, so they didn't say our joke, but we still liked it. The kids thought Mike's nephew was so cute, and the jokes were pretty funny. DD2 actually does a pretty good imitation of Roz that cracks us all up!
After Stitch and Monsters, we hopped on Buzz with our FPs. This has traditionally been one of our favorite, multi-return rides, but for some reason this was the one and only time we made it to this attraction. It may have had something to do with the fact that none of us scored very well at all. I don't even recall what we got, but the kids had really low scores, and ours weren't much better. Nonetheless, I still think it's a great ride, but we just weren't hitting our targets.
After Buzz, we decided to go "old school" and jump on the TTA, er, I mean the Peoplemover. Anyway, we looped twice, just to relax, and though I specifically hear the "Tom Morrow" page, little else was familiar about the spiel. I know they have to change it when they put in new attractions, but I really like the old voices and funny lines much better. I even prefer TTA to Peoplemover, even though the latter is actually more of a throwback. This is still a great ride though, despite the minor downgrade I'd give it.
After the two loops, I checked on Space Mountain because while we were riding TTA, I could have sworn the stand-by for it was down to 30 minutes! Alas, however, it was not to be, because the wait was actually 50, so either I had misread, or it bumped up again. DD1 was also disappointed, but I promised them we'd return to MK later in the week and make SM our priority!
I had one more thing I wanted to get to in Tomorrowland, and again it was time to go "old school" and see Carousel of Progress. I hadn't seen this since 1998, and I was dying to show the kids the song that I had sung to them so often when they were babies. It was great to see that show again, and I remembered it like it was just yesterday. Amazing how something will stick in your head after 12 years. The whole thing just seemed so familiar, like an old friend.
One More Thing…
We were all but set to go, but we had one more very important errand to run before we left MK after such a fulfilling day - a visit to the Chapeau to get the girls their mouse ears! We wandered down Main Street, soaking in the late afternoon atmosphere since the hat store is all the way by the entrance. I was amazed (and a little disappointed) to see all the different varieties they had for the hats and all the different accessories. I thought for sure my kids would get the pink, fluffy ones with multiple patches, but I was super-proud when they opted for the old fashioned black Mickey Mouse ears with gold lettering! We went back to the candy store while we waited, and we were still so full from all of the free dining that we didn't even buy any candy, which for us is normally a standard on any vacation. Anyway, when the hats were ready, they looked so cute that we took a whole bunch of pictures of them around Main Street, including my favorite shot, which was a picture of them in the train station, looking up Main Street towards the castle, with their hats and matching dresses. It makes me want to cry big burly man-tears when I look at it…
And One More Thing…
As you might have guessed, we were up in the train station because we decided to take a loop around the park on the WDWRR before leaving, since it was such a relaxing and scenic tour, lol. We did that, and enjoyed it very much. Still a great and traditional attraction, despite being almost an afterthought on most of our trips. Gotta love Walt's trains…
Wrapping Up a Long Day
We took the bus back to POR, and the girls went swimming at Ol' Man Island for a while, since we didn't get to it the day before. With all of the awesome stuff they experienced that day, they had been asking all day when they were going to get to "swim in the pool." Despite getting new swimsuit for the trip, I never did get to try it, as I opted to hit Muddy Rivers (the pool bar) and lounge in a chair with my book while my wife and kids swam and played on the big slide.
Afterwards, we had dinner at Riverside Mill again, and we paid cash in order to conserve our quick serves on the plan. The adults got the make-your own pasta, and the kids got burgers. The pasta was a great thing, and mixing and matching the ingredients was awesome. I wish we had gotten to have it again, but I never got to. I wish I could have one right now! I had ziti, with pesto, sun dried tomato, and a couple of other amazing ingredients that I can't recall right now, but I assure you it was delicious!
After that, we hit the room, and the kids, who were saying they were soooo tired were bouncing off the walls and playing with the curtain again. We finally got them to wind down and we all dozed off. There was going to be a later wake-up call for the next day (9am) so that we could rest a bit and rejuvenate after the shock of two early rises in a row.
I'll save that for next time…Day 3, Parts 1 + 2: The Day Without a Plan
Location: The Magic Kingdom/POR Riverside
The Cast:
DM: Me, Darth Macho, Celebrating Our 12th Anniversary. (Belatedly)
DW: Dear Wife, The Queen, Celebrating Our 12th Anniversary. (Belatedly)
DD1: Princess, 9yo, Celebrating 1st Visit (That she'll remember. She was just 2yo on her actual first visit.)
DD2: Princess, 6yo, Celebrating 1st Visit (She was born mysteriously 9 months after our last visit…)
Lunch with Entertainment
Hungry, still a little tired, and the clouds still spitting some raindrops, we decided to head over to Tomorrowland to have lunch at an old favorite, Cosmic Ray's Starlight Café. It was mid-afternoon, but it was still very crowded inside, but we managed to get our order quickly and get a seat near the front row to watch Sonny Eclipse. He has always been one of our favorites, and back in 2003, DD1, just 2 at the time, had the greatest time dancing to his music. This time, however, having absorbed so many amazing things that morning, and having been used to animatronic dining thanks to our local rainforest café, my daughters weren't all that excited about Sonny. I asked them if they liked him, and they said yes, but I could tell that sort of thing was not a "wow" moment for them any more. DD1 even went so far as to say Sonny was a little "creepy looking." Could be that they were also tired and hungry. Again, they didn't hate it, they just were a bit jaded. Anyway, I had ribs, DW had chicken, DD2 had chicken nuggets, and DD1 surprised me by getting a turkey wrap. This was our first free quick-serve on our dining plan, the food was quality, and of course, the entertainment was out of this world.
A Great Big Beautiful Tomorrowland
Once lunch was done, we checked on Space Mountain, which was showing a 60 minute wait, and the fastpasses were all gone. I was disappointed, as was DD1, but DW didn't care, because she doesn't seem to like the ride for some reason. Instead, we got FP for Buzz, which was showing a 40 minute wait, so we went to see Stitch's Great Escape for the first time for all of us.
Now this attraction has taken a lot of criticism, and I was a huge fan of Alien Encounter, but I decided to enter with an open mind. I think the attraction has a good amount of humor and thrills, and although I'm partial to the old version, I think Stitch is a good attraction. In fact, it turned out to be DD2's favorite attraction, and she asked to do it again at some point. The kids loved it when Stitch burped and spit, and they thought his little visit to Cinderella's castle was a riot. Personally, I think Gantu is hilarious. I was also happy to see that Skippy wasn't cut from the pre-show.
Next up was also something new for us, Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor. We all loved this attraction too, and the kids asked to see this again sometime too. We didn't get in the show, and we messed up the text, so they didn't say our joke, but we still liked it. The kids thought Mike's nephew was so cute, and the jokes were pretty funny. DD2 actually does a pretty good imitation of Roz that cracks us all up!
After Stitch and Monsters, we hopped on Buzz with our FPs. This has traditionally been one of our favorite, multi-return rides, but for some reason this was the one and only time we made it to this attraction. It may have had something to do with the fact that none of us scored very well at all. I don't even recall what we got, but the kids had really low scores, and ours weren't much better. Nonetheless, I still think it's a great ride, but we just weren't hitting our targets.
After Buzz, we decided to go "old school" and jump on the TTA, er, I mean the Peoplemover. Anyway, we looped twice, just to relax, and though I specifically hear the "Tom Morrow" page, little else was familiar about the spiel. I know they have to change it when they put in new attractions, but I really like the old voices and funny lines much better. I even prefer TTA to Peoplemover, even though the latter is actually more of a throwback. This is still a great ride though, despite the minor downgrade I'd give it.
After the two loops, I checked on Space Mountain because while we were riding TTA, I could have sworn the stand-by for it was down to 30 minutes! Alas, however, it was not to be, because the wait was actually 50, so either I had misread, or it bumped up again. DD1 was also disappointed, but I promised them we'd return to MK later in the week and make SM our priority!
I had one more thing I wanted to get to in Tomorrowland, and again it was time to go "old school" and see Carousel of Progress. I hadn't seen this since 1998, and I was dying to show the kids the song that I had sung to them so often when they were babies. It was great to see that show again, and I remembered it like it was just yesterday. Amazing how something will stick in your head after 12 years. The whole thing just seemed so familiar, like an old friend.
One More Thing…
We were all but set to go, but we had one more very important errand to run before we left MK after such a fulfilling day - a visit to the Chapeau to get the girls their mouse ears! We wandered down Main Street, soaking in the late afternoon atmosphere since the hat store is all the way by the entrance. I was amazed (and a little disappointed) to see all the different varieties they had for the hats and all the different accessories. I thought for sure my kids would get the pink, fluffy ones with multiple patches, but I was super-proud when they opted for the old fashioned black Mickey Mouse ears with gold lettering! We went back to the candy store while we waited, and we were still so full from all of the free dining that we didn't even buy any candy, which for us is normally a standard on any vacation. Anyway, when the hats were ready, they looked so cute that we took a whole bunch of pictures of them around Main Street, including my favorite shot, which was a picture of them in the train station, looking up Main Street towards the castle, with their hats and matching dresses. It makes me want to cry big burly man-tears when I look at it…
And One More Thing…
As you might have guessed, we were up in the train station because we decided to take a loop around the park on the WDWRR before leaving, since it was such a relaxing and scenic tour, lol. We did that, and enjoyed it very much. Still a great and traditional attraction, despite being almost an afterthought on most of our trips. Gotta love Walt's trains…
Wrapping Up a Long Day
We took the bus back to POR, and the girls went swimming at Ol' Man Island for a while, since we didn't get to it the day before. With all of the awesome stuff they experienced that day, they had been asking all day when they were going to get to "swim in the pool." Despite getting new swimsuit for the trip, I never did get to try it, as I opted to hit Muddy Rivers (the pool bar) and lounge in a chair with my book while my wife and kids swam and played on the big slide.
Afterwards, we had dinner at Riverside Mill again, and we paid cash in order to conserve our quick serves on the plan. The adults got the make-your own pasta, and the kids got burgers. The pasta was a great thing, and mixing and matching the ingredients was awesome. I wish we had gotten to have it again, but I never got to. I wish I could have one right now! I had ziti, with pesto, sun dried tomato, and a couple of other amazing ingredients that I can't recall right now, but I assure you it was delicious!
After that, we hit the room, and the kids, who were saying they were soooo tired were bouncing off the walls and playing with the curtain again. We finally got them to wind down and we all dozed off. There was going to be a later wake-up call for the next day (9am) so that we could rest a bit and rejuvenate after the shock of two early rises in a row.
I'll save that for next time…Day 3, Parts 1 + 2: The Day Without a Plan