We Did it...We toured Disney in 1 1/2 Days!!!(April 28-29)-DAY 2

[KatGat]

Myself-mother of 4-traveling w/o kids & husband (8th trip-first time in spring)
Cc-firend & mother of 3,grandmother of 1.5 (1st trip in 10 yrs.)
First stay at POP Century-70’s bldg (3rd room behind Mickey’s behind)
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Sunday, April 29, 2007:
Lights out at midnight on Sat., wake up call set for 7:30am Sun. No need. Housekeeping was banging on the door @ 7:00am! I must’ve looked pretty rough, I didn’t have to say a word. Got much apologies. Grabbed coffee from POP food court (Not my favorite. I’m a Starbucks gal.) & off we go.
Plan for today – MK, MGM, EP, MK….
{8:15am} Got to MK quickly to wait for 9:00 opening. First at rope. Saw pre-opening welcome show. Usually miss when I have the whole family to prod out the bed & into the parks. Family next to us chose to open was from our home state. Cool. Also first at rope leading to Tomorrowland. This is when the day kicks into high gear and stays…We rode Space, BTMRR, Splash in 45 minutes. Did Pirates (love the waterfall). Decided we’d hit Haunted Mansion instead of saving it for our evening MK jaunt. As we exited, a CM with a counter/clicker asked how many in our party. I squealed to CC, “We’re getting something form the dream team!”. She was clueless. As we round the corner, there were 2 more CMS with black satchel handing out dream fastpasses. Yeah!!. I’ve been hoping for one of these since I first heard about the Year of a Million Dreams. So, we jumped onto Pooh & Peter Pan, then Buzz as we made our way towards the exit. --*Here’s my “nicest CM award”* A young male CM stopped us near Pooh & asked if we had any questions about our dream FP since we were looking at it with a confused look. Actually, we were wondering if they had to be used before midnight since EMH was until 2am. He assured us this was ‘like gold’ and we would be taken care of with no problem & congratulated us. --We made a short picnic at the yellow umbrella tables outside of Plaza Restaurant. What a view! The color and lushness of the grounds in every park was just beautiful. After a losing battle for my chips with a duck that had been stalking us, we headed out with plenty of tabs left on our dream FP and 2 regular FPs for Space & BTMRR.
{11:45} Headed to MGM. Straight to RRC, rode, got a FP for later. Planned to do Tower next (I finally convinced myself to do it after 7 years.) Nixed that plan after exiting RRC with quite a headache. Opted for slow-moving Great Movie Ride. Continued around to Star Tours, then Indiana Jones. Indiana seemed different to me. I haven’t seen it in a few yrs, but it was on CC’s list of must-sees. The longest wait was for GMR (25 min.). After smelling popcorn but not seeing an open stand, my stomach was growling.We checked with Sci-Fi to see if we could move our ADR up an hour since we were in the area. No problem. There was only 2 others waiting as walk-ups. Split the burger and opted out of the milkshake. With the heat and the headache, I didn’t think milk was a good idea. We had a FP for Mermaid (which I really like), but chose not to use it. Hesitated near High School Musical, then continued to RRC to give away our FP. Hit 2 or 3 shops on our way out.
{3:45}Headed straight to EP to hit some things we didn’t get to do Sat. night. Comitted to waiting 70 min. for Soarin’. Boring queue. Part of it blocked with construction wall. Skipped the planned Honey/Audience show & started World Showcase from the right. I like the tea shop in UK. Browsed, carried on to Italy (again). Hit a couple of countries, then spent time in Mexico shopping. Rode new boat ride. I thought it was a bit more “commercial” instead of educational now, but kids will probably like it better. It reminded me of Roger Rabbit, mixing real footage with animation. Not my cup of tea, personally, but it was a nice diversion. Though we were on a tight schedule, we did “stop & smell the roses” literally. We took time today to look, touch, smell, & take pics of many of the gorgeous topiary wonders offered during garden fest. Just beautiful!
{8:00pm} Heading back to POP to soak feet & get a second wind. Check!
{9:20pm} Waited maybe 15 minutes for bus to MK. Glad we grabbed light jacket, though weather was warm and muggy most of the time. Got EMH wristbands right away. Hit BTMRR a couple times, got excellent spot in Frontierland for Spectomagic {10:00pm}. Weren’t many people vying for front-rope seats. I ended up scooting over so a todder in a stroller could pull next to me for a prime view. I usually skip parades to ride, so I’m glad I watched this front start to finish. We got Jungle Cruise (funniest captiain yet) & Small World. Watched Wishes {11:00pm}from bridge in front of Crystal Palace. Not a good view. Trees & poles. A young, non-English speaking mother put her behind on me for most of the show. I guess she was trying to make me move over, but there was no where for me to go. Sounded like her husband was telling her to give it up, but she was refused to budge. Touche’. It had to be uncomfortable for her, though. We then checked out Stitch for the first time. I kept comparing it to Alien, so I wasn’t impressed. CC hated it. We ended up not needing most of our tabs of the dream FP and had 2 regular FPs that we gave away. There were no big lines during EMH. Longest wait was 10 minutes.
{12:20} Sat in bakery & shared some flaky, chocolaty piece of heaven. Then, shopped every shop on Main St. Paused in the candy shop, then headed out {1:45am}.
{2:00am} Back at POP, feeling good about what we were able to do and ready to rest before flying out the next morning!
Misc. Notes: Bus transportation better than expected this trip. Weather warm but nice. Crowds not bad at all. It’s MUCH easier to navigate without stroller or 5 other family members. POP more fun than expected, but walls were very thin, as expected. I missed having fridge & coffee maker in room. But, mousekeeping DID leave use a washcloth elephant in the window! A few CM’s (even during the parade) congratulated us on the dream FP. We felt special. Overall, no regrets, we didn’t feel rushed and we had a great time! I may have to do this every year. Of course, CC says I have to find a new touring partner for the next couple of years, she’s still tending to her legs & feet…

[MOJoe]

WOW! I was skeptical that you would be able to pull this off. You really did much more than i thought possible. And Dream Fastpasses! How Lucky. Sounds like a Dream Weekend. Congrats!

[KatGat]

Thanks!! I think I did even more than I thought possible.... Very lucky indeed!The Disney moon & stars must've been aligned jsut right for me this trip. It's been an exremely difficult year so this was JUST what I needed to re-group & re-juvenate.

[mdricks]

Hats off from a fellow 4-park-a-day veteran. Welcome to the park commandos.

Now drop and give me 20!

[faline]

Wow! I'm ready to put my feet up after just reading your report!

Congrats on your fast passes! That must helped you cover some ground!

[indytraveler]

I thought I went hard and fast. I guess there are those who move much more swiftly. Sounds really fun and congrats on the Dream FP's!

[sleepingbooty]

Man, you are a true commando! I love it! Sounds like a great time

[January-2007]

Wow, I got tired just reading your report, what an absolutely jam packed day! Sounds like you really did have the time of your life though, so glad you enjoyed yourselves. Thanks for reporting!

[Lorraine444]

WOW!!!! LOL!!!!!
That is what my mind is telling me I'm gonna do in August, even though I'll have 8 full days to do it in. Where you on anything? Lots of Caffine maybe?
I couldn't stop laughing while reading your Adventure....
Great job!

[pdrlkr]

Thanks for the report!

[DizneyFreak2002]

Thanks for sharing your report.

[thejens]

You are my hero! I am worrying about not being able to squeeze it all in in 8 days!!!! I am so glad you had fun! It sounds like you went with a great attitude too.