Star Wars Weekends 2011 Trip Part I

Well we just got back from our quick summer trip to WDW. Unlike the previous trip in January whose trip report was pre-empted by Microbiology I am bound and determine to finish this one. I am also bound and determined that it will not be 20 pages long. It started several months ago, when Jeff and I considered doing a trip to both Disney's Flower and Garden Festival and Disney's Hollywood Studios Star Wars Weekends. When April came around F&G festival was out but Star Wars Weekends looked like it was a go. I won't bore you with the details of planning, but eventually plans were set to fly down Thursday night and come back Tuesday Morning on Southwest Airlines and that we were going to be staying at Pop Century. As a side note, since the original trip was going to be over Memorial Day weekend (it was changed to the week prior for a variety of reasons), we also made plans to celebrate Jeffs birthday, since his birthday is May 28th.

The flight down was completely uneventful, as was the rental car pick up. That was a breath of fresh air compared to January when we had left my bookbag in the rental car! I didn't see it again for about a month. We had rented a mid-size this trip, because of said book bag issue, and ended up with a Jeep Patriot, not bad for $62 for five days including tax! Our problems didn't really begin until we checked into Pop Century or tried to. As in the past we decided on online check in. There was a massive line for normal check in, but no line at all (as in no sign, or separate queue), for online check-in. After checking with guest services, we got checked in, to make my point brief though it wasn't the warm and fuzzy experience I was hoping for. We were assigned a double bed room, which was another minor irritation, but set up to change to a king bed the next day. Next order of business was getting something to eat. We ended up splitting a pizza and two orders of breadsticks, the food was good. The food court... not so much. It was a little bit more disorganized then I would have expected, and they had closed all the soda refill stations except one. A lot like Worlds of Fun, not at all like Disney. After a sour 1st day, I was hoping the rest of the trip would get better...

For our first day, we had debated on what to do... Star Tours, the reboot, was due to have its grand re-opening ceremony today (Friday), but with the lack of a 12PM Star Wars parade, and the fact that everyone was expecting massive crowds (as in so crowded they were expecting park closures), we decided in the end to skip it. It made it an even harder decision when I heard George Lucas was to be in attendance... Overall though it probably wasn't to bad of a decision since everyone I spoke with said that no one except the press could see anything anyway. So we decided on Magic Kingdom for that day..

In the past we have seen a few of the MK Main Street USA "Citizens", but this was our first time meeting up with the Mayor of Main Street USA. Walt's original plan was Main Street USA was to be a re-creation of a real working turn of the century main street. In January we stopped at the Barber shop there (yes a REAL working barber shop) Here is a photo since again we lacked a trip report...

Believe it or not the haircut was only about $14 or so, and they did a really good job!

Since it was about 11AM by the time we got there (issues with getting Annual Passes processed slowed us down), so our first stop was something to eat, and we decided on a new tradition for us, Casey's. While eating hot dogs and corn dog nuggets (with cups of saurkraut on the side), we had a visitor...


After eating we strolled over to Adventureland and checked out the brand new entry way into this extremely well-themed Magic Kingdom land...


We rode Pirates, and then headed over to Big Thunder were we grabbed a fast pass for only an hour later.... We rode the WDW Railroad for a full loop, and then it was time for the wildest ride in the wilderness!

I love Disney, I wouldn't say that they don't care about safety, but they arn't like Six Flags or Cedar Fair with are so liability oriented... its nutty. Disney still allows riders to take their cameras with them on the ride!

Taking the time to smell... the cactus blooms on they way down the Big Thunder Mountain exit.

Of course our next stop was my favorite, Haunted Mansion, which had just received another major update, this time to queue line, becoming a Next Generation Queue Line, or interactive queue line pretty cool.

A "play" organ, those waiting in line can touch the keys and the organ then plays part of the Haunted Mansion soundtrack.

An interactive "bath tub", every one in awhile it squirts water at those waiting in line... That felt pretty good actually as it was about 93 degrees!


After Haunted Mansion we headed over to Fantasyland, and after I rode the carousel there (of course), we rode a ride that I don't think we have ridden in probably 10 years... Dumbo the Flying Elephant.


Dumbo had a 45 minute wait, for what as you can see is basically a carnival ride. So why did we ride it? For this view...

The New Fantasyland under construction! After the ride on Dumbo we ambled over to Tommorowland, and rode TTA, before heading out. It had been a HOT day, and we were both pretty exhausted...


After a stop at the Ticket and Transportation center, we stopped for our annual visit to our brick... 11 years old and still looks good!

We ended up back at Pop, and after doing a quick room change, (see previous nights issues), we settled down for a break from the days heat (it was REALLY hot). About 6PM Jeff was checking the WDWLines App on his Iphone and for the sake of argument checked the wait time for Star Tours... it posted a 45 minute wait... WHAT?! only 45 minutes? What are we waiting for lets head to MGM. err Hollywood Studios.

So breaking our original plans (which was to hit Hollywood Studios at opening the next day), we took the bus to the park, and headed immediatly for Star Tours. It was about a 45 minute wait... the queue line was amazing, the ride which basically now had 56 different ride possibilities (the beginning, middle and end, had about 20 different possibilities). For our 2 rides that night we visited the Death Star, Hoth, Coruscant, and Tantooine. if you have no idea what I am talking about... Shame on you. Go watch a few Star Wars Movies.

After riding we decided to check out Jabba's Hutt, the obligatory Star Wars gift shop for Star Wars Weekends. Since it included several one of a kind collectibles (from what I had heard atleast), it was supposed to have a massive line just to get into it. Our luck we found was holding, the place was pretty much dead. We exhibited significant self control, compared to previous experiences. We walked out with one collectible pin, a book on lightsabers, and a "I was There" 2011 Star Tours Opening Weekend t-shirt. Later on that night I did succumb and buy a build your own lightsaber. What can I say... I am weak minded.

Since there were no plans for the evening, we basically stumbled into the nightly showing of Hyperspace Hoopla, about 15 minutes before showtime. Our view wasn't that great, but even with our lousy view it was enough to make sure we came back later in the weekend for a close up spot. Amazing!

After taking a bus to the park we were worried about how long it would take to get back... Amazingly, and I DO MEAN AMAZINGLY, there were 3 buses in immediate sequence that showed up and hauled the long queue of people waiting back to the resort within just a few minutes of us lining up. It was a relatively quick trip back to Pop, and we went straight to bed... We had a date again with MGM and Star Wars Weekends early the next morning...

Saturday Morning, 6AM... yes we were up and getting ready for another fun filled and sweat filled day at Star Wars Weekends. Originally the plan was to be at the gate an hour before park open to catch the Storm Trooper mini-show, and to get to the front of the (supposably) extrodinarly long line for Star Tours. Since we had ridden Star Tours the night before the importance of early entry wasn't as important. Still we were there at about 7:45, a few minutes before park opening. I found out though they actually opened the gates at 7AM so I missed the Storm Trooper show... but did get a photo with one of the many storm troopers milling around the gate area...



I was trying to look angry.. you know to match the "theme"... didn't work so well. I kind of just look irritated.

Even though the lines never appeared, MGM was prepared for said lines... here is a look at the extended queue lines prepped... I give them credit, they were PREPARED.

With Star Tours not being top priority we moved onto our (who am I kidding MY) #2 priority, Darth Vader. We headed for his queue line, and after standing there, with already 5 people ahead of us, we were advised he wouldn't be out until around 9AM. Keep it mind this was an hour away... So we decided to bail and come back closer to 9AM, and instead headed to Toy Story Mania. A ride that usually (almost always) has a 60+ min wait, had a queue line that looked like this.

EMPTY! Though you have to love the queue line. Its themed to all those old games and toys those of us of the pre-computers generations grew up with. Candyland on the floor, view finder reels, gigantic tinker toys, building blocks and dominos.

After a quick no wait line, and ride, we checked out our favorite exhibit at MGM, One Man's Story (a tribute to the life of Walt Disney), and then headed back to Darth's queue line. It was now about 8:45, and the 5 people in line had turned into about 40 or so. So we got in line... and waited, and waited, Vader then came out... and begin his photo shoots. For being a bad guy he is pretty popular! I am not suprised for a bad guy, he is pretty dang cool. After all he was #1 on my character meet list. Our wait was about an hour, not bad considering.

Next Stop was the queue line for the Disney characters dressed up Star Wars style, Jedi Mickey, Minnie Leia, Darth Goofy and Stormtrooper Donald. They all swamp out, 20 mins on/off. So we had Darth Goofy and Donald. Jeff was excited Goofy is his favorite character! This worst part of this was the 30 minute wait in the direct sunlight... Even at 10AM it was already exceptionally hot!

Our last character greeting was a quick one, I had discovered while waiting in line for Goofy and Donald that there was an Anakin Skywalker, character. Anakin, is my absolute FAVORITE character in the Star Wars universe, so the moment I heard this my antenna went up and I was bound to find him. Found out he was in a grouping with other Jedi Masters, so he didn't have his own line. Like the Disney characters you didnt' really know who you were going to get when you got in line. When we got to their meeting location we decided it was worth the chance, it was only about a 10 minute line. We were the last people to meet Anakin... We also meet with Mace Windu, the Jedi Master played by Samuel Jackson. (notice this was NOT Samuel Jackson, if it was it wouldn't have been a 10 minute wait!)

Playing it up with Jeff, who was wearing his Birthday Button... Jeff was told with 44 years of training he would be a Jedi Master soon. :)

A more straight on view... did I mention before Anakin Skywalker is my favorite character?



We were both pretty hot at this point, (I can't even imagine the people in the character costumes YIKES!), so we decided an airconditioned ride would be the ticket. So we stopped next door and rode the Great Movie Ride, which was only really a So-So Movie Ride. It seriously needs an update.

The Star Wars Weekends parade was one of the major attractions that I knew I wanted a good view (at 5'3" good view means front row), of, so I knew we had to stake out our spot about an hour before. Well we did, in the 95 degree heat, direct sun, hot pavement... we waited the 60 minutes to parade time... You ask was it worth it... 100% absolutly! Here are some photos...

Leading off the parade is this X-Wing/Pilot float, with Jedi Mickey on board!


The 501st, a group of Star Wars fans that actually own their own Storm Trooper/Empire uniforms, and volunteer for these types of special events.
The 501st is also known as Vader's Fist, as it is commanded by Darth Vader.

Emperor Palpatine (Palpatine with a "T"), flanked by the Imperial Guards.

I was sweating buckets in shorts and a t-shirt, I can't even imagine these guys... BTW these are Stormtrooper Tie Fighter Pilots.

Regular Stormtroopers.

R2-D2!

One of the "stars" at the 1st weekend of Star Wars Weekends, Anthony Daniels. He played C3PO in all 6 Star Wars films.

Chewie... with Wickett in front of him (Ewok). Behind them is Jedi Master Mace Windu.

Quite easily the coolest character to come out of the prequels, Darth Maul. To bad they killed him off in the 1st movie.


Boba Fett, I have found it absolutly amazing that characters with such brief screen time, and even shorter lines can become so popular. Boba Fett I think had three total lines, his famous being "He's No Good to me Dead" From The Empire Strikes Back.

The Lord of Darkness Himself.

Even though the heat was worth it for the parade, I was still pretty worn out by the end of the parade, and was SO GLAD I had followed everyone's advice on the Star Wars Weekends websites I had visited prior to the trip, to make a lunch ADR. We had to change the time the night before since the parade was at 12:45PM instead of the previous years 11:45. So we headed towards 50's Prime Time Cafe for our lunch reservation.

The theme to this restaurant is basically you are in mom's kitchen, so no elbows on the table, and eat all your vegetables, or terrible things can and DO happen. I won't say anymore... I plead the 5th :)

Food was good though, and was filling, even though it wasn't exactly a quiet meal, it wasn't obnoxiously loud, and was a good time, in an air-conditioned environment. It hit the spot!

Refreshed, full, and cooled down we were ready to hit the park for an hour or two longer now, and we finished up with a few of the characters we still wanted to meet.


Padme Amidala (Anakin's wife, Leia/Luke's mother), was next... Perfect that she was right there on the front of my shirt too. Amazingly right before the trip I had found a lady that designed Star Wars shirts for girls and women! To think it took only 33 years for someone to realize women liked Star Wars too.


Jeff's one pick, Darth Maul, from Star Wars I (or the 4th one depending on your view), Phantom Menace. Jeff borrowed Maul's famous stare, for his portrayal of a deranged doctor in our own Worlds of Fun's Asylum Island. So of course he had to repeat his portrayal... I think its a great photo.


Me with a Tusken Raider... (Sand People), from Tantooine. They were doing a pretty good acting job, my expression shows I was a bit intimidated! (For those who need a reference, refer to Star Wars: A new Hope, were Obi-Wan refers to the Sand People stating "The Sand People are easily startled, but they will return soon, and in greater numbers")


Last I really wanted a photo with C3PO and R2D2, so we headed back over to Jabba's Hut (also the gift shop) were they were situated. Again this was a rotating character situation, and Leia was taking photos when we arrived. I was hoping that she would switch out by the time we got up there, as Leia... well for some reason she is just not my favorite character. Luke, (or a stand in for Luke, as obviously this is NOT Mark Hamill) was who we meet. I was happy, and by this time (it was about 5PM) I was dead tired and really didn't want to wait anymore.

After meeting Luke we headed out and back to Pop Century. I took a nap when we got back (I was EXHAUSTED). We stayed in the rest of the evening, I did jog a bit while there, for some reason all the walking and sweating wasn't enough exercise...
That let me check out not only the timeline of events Disney has set up at Pop Century along Hourglass Lake, but also check out the construction of the new value resort, Art of Animation. We chilled out the rest of the evening.

To be Continued...

2011 Disney Trip! Pre-trip report I

For the last 3 months I have been concentrating on things like the extensor digitorium longus (muscle of the lower leg), the basilar artery (in the head) and my favorite Corpora Quadrigema (in the brain). Yes folks I have been studying and living Anatomy class for my quest for a nursing degree. I still have 3 weeks left, but as I have a solid A I feel pretty good taking a few minues to think about one of my favorite things... Disney.

Ahhh Happy Place. nothing like a disney inspired zen moment to forget about the hours, and hours, and hours and even MORE hours of studying. That's a week. *cring*

So where are we? Oh yes. So on Jan 14th for the 9th time in a row (almost) Jeff and are will be heading from cold Kansas City, to wonderful, warm and fuzzy Orlando, FL. We will be there for 9 days until Jan 23rd. Now usually we go down there the last week of January and this year we are moving it back a week to MLK day/week. Why? Well the answer would be school. Yes next semester the "fun" continues with Microbiology. *double cring* just the name is scary.

Four years ago in 2007 Jeff and I bought into DVC or Disney Vacation Club, Disney's version of a timeshare. At disney its all point based (instead of week based) and we started out a little atypical, we started out with on 25 points. Last year we finally made it up to 100 points with a 50 point add on at BLT, that's Bay Lake Tower at the Contemporary, not the sandwich.

Yeah I know you where thinking about it.

Prettttyyyyy... but you know this is only concept art....

I guess one of those times concept art really does live up to the real thing...

So 11 months out, this last February I went to work early to make sure I could call Disney at exactly 11 months out at 9:00:00 mins to reserve a coveted reservation. BLT studio MK view.

Yes a room with a view. Supposedly.

See this wouldn't be a Jennifer Lovesee trip report, or trip in general without something for me to stress about. REALLY! Five min walk to Magic Kingdom, Monorail stop on my doorstep, no money that I have to pay when I check in, seriously I would have to find something to stress about. Otherwise it just wouldn't be me.

So what is it? Well see Disney in their infinite "wisdom" had categorized MK views as 3rd floor and above. 3rd floor rooms are more like parking lot views with a castle in the background. I am checking in on Sunday of MLK weekend, yes I am worried about getting the worst view possible. Could it happen? Yes. I am trying to make myself not worry about it. Its not working.

So to keep my mind off of that I am thinking about other aspects of the trip. First item on my agenda that we finally crossed off just a few days ago was the flights. Two months ago I booked the return flight from Orlando to KC on Jan 23rd using free tickets that we had on Southwest. The outbound flight I had been watching, and watching and watching. Southwest and I have a love/hate relationship you see. I love their policies, their refund/rebook policies, free baggage, etc. I don't like the fact that the seem to love to play with your mind with flight prices. $133, YIKES, $119 a little bit better but still high. Then last tuesday it FINALLY dropped under $100, to $90 I grabbed it. $90 per person for a round trip flight to Orlando. Pretty decent. Especially when one considers it is on a holiday weekend.

I will still be watching though. Should it go down in price again. If it does I will happily take a credit back... southwest are you listening?

So my standard practice after I book the flight is to book a car. Now some people go to Disney and depend on their transportation. I have considered it, I even almost did it, but I J U S T C A N T G I V E U P M Y C A R. Ugh got that out. Seriously I know the minute a try to rely on Disney transportation only I will be stuck at a park waiting an hour for the bus like we did at Port Orleans This summer. I Know This, I will not tempt fate, plus $160 isn't bad for a car for 9 days right? I also expect that to go down to. Right Alamo?

Now in the past I would have also been considering hotel options. Well I still have to consider hotel options but only for 2 days. See BLT is a 7 night reservation. The first 2 days we are going to Universal. I will admit it. Not only am I am a overstresser must rent a car fanatic, but I am also a Harry Potter fan. My name is Jennifer and I am a Harry Potter fan. Ok not nutty enough to show up in costume on premier day. But I might still be there on premier day... Yeah I have a problem.

So right now Jeff and I are considering options. We are considering Royal Pacific a Universal Onsite hotel, $219 a night though, UGH. Yeah it is only 2 nights but still with tax that's like $500. Still it does give you front of the line access to all the major attractions at Universal and early entry so I have been trying to look at different options. One of those has been getting Jeff a Universal Annual Pass.

$299, but that brings the room down to $139, and then Jeff can use it instead of buying 2 different tickets (he is going down on a business trip in a week and can use it then too), so its not a big difference in overall ticket price... That's what we are thinking about now. Check back later to see what happens!

Jan 2010 Trip Report Post IV (THE END!)

Saturday 01/30/2010

Saturday morning rolled in, and it started out as a rather warm morning, but it was muggy and cloudy so it was pretty clear it would rain later that day. We had an ADR at 1900 Park Fare this morning with friends of ours who had flown in the night before. They were just starting their magical vacation, while we were finishing ours :(

One nice aspect of Polynesian as I mentioned was location, it was amazingly nice to know that Grand Floridian was only just a quick monorail ride or walk away! Now being bad Polynesian guests we had mentioned to our friend Matt, to park at Polynesian that morning and then we could all ride to the Grand Floridian together. Well it worked out perfectly as we ended up meeting up in the Great Ceremonial Hall, and all four of us headed for the monorail. Matt had brought his girlfriend Casey and this was her first trip to WDW in many years, so it was exciting seeing how a Disney virgin experienced the world. For that reason we had all picked 1900 park fare because it featured Mary Poppins, one of Casey’s favorite characters.






When we arrived for our 10:05AM ADR I was shocked at the massive line to check in, it was massively crowded! I had thought 10AM was a late breakfast time and possibly it wouldn’t be as busy… yeah right. We were given our beeper, and it went off maybe just a minute or two later. We were seated right inside the doorway so we didn’t get to see much of the restaurant. Overall I wasn’t to terribly impressed with park fare, the food was ok, don't get me wrong the food was decent (and imporantly.. hot!), and there were quite a few options but I prefer Boma and Kona overall for breakfast. We sat down with our food, and then Tigger came around for photos, we saw him a total of three times, and he was the only character we saw for a long, long LOOONNNGG time. In fact we had finished eating and had to wait around a while before finally Alice, Mary Poppins and The Mad Hatter came around. We had photos with all, and they all stayed right in character, I can’t believe how short Alice was! I know she was a little girl in the movie, but I was shocked to have a character that was actually shorter then me! It was kind of nice. :) Mad Hatter was my overall favorite though, he spent a few minutes at our table overall, while the rest stopped for a quick photo and headed off. I have to agree with other’s comments, he’s pretty funny!

After eating, all four of us headed back to the Polynesian, but decided to walk. We stopped at the wedding pavilion, where Jeff and I had been married eight years prior, we took a few photos there, and then finished our walk at the Polynesian. We stopped at our room, to hand the rest of my coke zero off to Matt (as there were a few cans left) and we spent some time just talking, it was a good time.

Soon after Matt and Casey left, they had tickets for NASA for that day, and wanted to get started on their way. Jeff and I were left with a quandary, what to do with the rest of the day? After discussing different options we decided to head first to Contemporary to finish out our resort monorail hopping. We had some fun finding the five legged goat, which came back to visit us in EPCOT later on in the day! We looked around the resort, and checked out a few of the shops, it was probably a good idea as the next January that was where we were planning on staying.

So after wandering around a bit at the Contemporary we had yet decided what to do with the rest of our day. Now originally I had wanted to rent one of the sea racyers but at $42 a piece for 30 minutes, especially after we had just spent $400 on a tour the day before, didn’t make much financial sense. So instead we decided to head to EPCOT as I also wanted to see the American Adventure, especially now that we both knew how it all worked! So that’s where we headed. Of course, it was still threatening rain, and both of us, in our infinite wisdom didn’t think of stopping back at Polynesian for our rain coats….

Yeah smart move.



As we arrived via monorail at EPCOT it began to rain… So we decided to basically stick with the indoor attractions and first headed for Ellen’s Energy Adventure, as it had been closed back in August for “renovations”. First off, not one bit of it appeared renovated (I am thinking cost saving measure), but we both really enjoy this ride so it was a fun stop. As we exited it was still drizzling, but not to bad, so we headed towards World Showcase via mouse gears, and finally, realizing that I was going to have to pay for my decision to forget the rain coat, I stopped and spent $7 for a poncho. While I was doing so Jeff had gotten back into his pin trading frenzy and surprised me with a pin of the five-legged goat at the Contemporary mural. COOL!






The rain was coming down harder at this point, so we hurried into the Mexican Pavilion, and rode Rio Del Tempo, or whatever its called now with the Three Caballeros. I
Like the fact that it has NO line! We both wandered around the Mexican pavilion and soon headed out to stop at the next pavilion with an indoor attraction, China. We hadn’t seen the Circle vision 360 movie there in some time, and we had meant to stop and see it a few days ago, however there was a large special event being held there, so we had to put it off, until now. It was about 15 minutes before the next show so we admired the art displays, and Terra Cotta figures. I wish more of the pavilions would do something like this. The movie was fun, and as we headed out we noticed it had stopped raining for the most part, but it had become windy and pretty chilly. Our reason for visiting was up next, The American Pavilion, and we arrived about 15 minutes before The Voices of Liberty so we waited around the pavilion for the performance, which was great as always! We stayed for the performance of the American Adventure. I will say I had an new appreciation and understanding of how everything worked, now knowing where all the animatronics were, how they worked, and realizing that all the scene/animatronic switches are done in complete silence. That’s a lasting tribute to the fact of when it was designed (early 80’s) and its designers.






We stopped at the shop attached and bought a shirt (Don’t Tread on Me) for my mom, and then headed next door for some food. As it was closing in on about 5-6PM we both were getting quite hungry, and I was craving a hamburger after eating everything but for the last week. As an added plus the American restaurant is completely indoors! It appeared everyone else had the same idea as the place was packed, and not only with families, but also with a quite rowdy group of young adults that were completely wasted.

They were all wearing “Drinking Around the World” shirts, and as they were only about half way I was doubting that they would make it all the way. We did see a smaller contingent of their group (probably several had dropped out at that point!) at the France pavilion later on purchasing wine at the small kiosk, they were all still standing at that point which considering was a pretty major achievement.

The food itself wasn’t too bad, and as we were preparing to leave the Fife and Drum corp can out, played one tune and left! I think the brevity of their performance was due to the previous mentioned rowdy drinkers were “dancing” along with the small band. I would have hurried away too!

After eating, I was pretty set on returning back to the resort, I wanted some last minute resort relaxing time before winding up our trip (and I was depressed as it neared the end), Jeff and I had a minor disagreement as he wanted to try the Kim Possible missions at EPCOT. In the end we headed back to the Poly instead. We got back to the resort close to 7PM, relaxed a bit (we had both bought books at the Art of Disney so we took some time to flip through them). I had been craving a swim all week, and as it was in the low 70’s and close to Wishes time we headed for the main Volcano pool. Jeff took his book as he does not like to go swimming AT ALL. I was really shocked that by 8PM the slide had already closed! The water was a comfortable temperature, but without the jets, and slide it wasn’t really any different the the value resort pools. We watched the tail end of the fireworks, and stayed out for the Electric water pageant parade.

A side story, we used the Main Street Electrical Light Parade music as our recessional for our wedding 8 years prior, this was before I had even SEEN the parade but I loved the techno-retro music. I finally saw the parade a few years later at Disney’s California Adventure (and I am thrilled to hear it is heading back to Florida temporarily). The water pageant makes me think of the Electrical Parade. It is old and a little kookey, but I love it. I also found out something new on our trip about the Water pageant as part of the Backstage Magic Tour (another cudo to Wayne), in that The Water Pagaent was created as a back drop for the Polynesian Luau, before there was a Luau Cove. People liked it so much that it stayed and it has become a fixture at Bay Lake/Seven Seas Lagoon resorts ever since. It also, except for minor technological updates, has not changed. I personally love those small things that while seemingly obsolete, are enjoyable for the simple fact that they are fun, and are the same as they were 10, 20, 30 years ago.

After the water pageant we headed back to our room. Now I had mentioned earlier I was a bit depressed about the trip winding down, but it was awkward in that I was not as depressed as I had been on previous trips. Now that has nothing to do with the Disney magic wearing off, I love it as much as I always have, and the Cast Members we encountered (except for one, you will meet him soon) all lived up to the Disney experience we expected. I THINK the reason I may not have been as depressed was for two reasons. Number one, we now have DVC, we are guaranteed a trip every year now, otherwise we lose our points. Number two, the trip we took this year was 9 days, I think this is the perfect length for us, we could take things slowly, go to the parks for a couple hours, and relax. If we missed something, we knew we could come back later, or see it next trip. It's comforting.

So, here we are back in our room, we didn’t have much to pack up as we had done most of that back at Boardwalk. I made the suggestion that the next day we try for opening at Magic Kingdom. Jeff, who is a steam train engineer here at Worlds of Fun (and now so am I!), had been trying to get photos of all four Magic Kingdom Steam Trains, so far we had the Roy E Disney, The Walter E Disney, the Roger Broggie, but we're missing the Lillie Belle. The reasoning for this that we found out only this year, is that Lillie Belle only runs for the opening show. Its pretty amazing that they fire up an engine (no short or easy task) for just a few moments, but hey that’s the Disney way I guess. 

So to get photos of the Lillie Belle we would not only have to be present for opening, but would then have to high tail it to the Tommorowland/Toontown walkway, which is were the Engines stop and back into the maintenance/storage area. So we knew that as long as Lillie Belle didn’t just back up from where it came from, and took the whole circuit, that we could get photos of it at the Toon Town station. So that was the plan as we hit the hay.

Sunday 01/31/2010

Our last day… *sigh*

We woke up with the alarm clock, I think around 7:30 or so. I had requested and been able to get a late check out for 1PM, so there was no need to pack up anything as of yet, and we were able to head directly for the park. Thank goodness for the monorails! Love them! We arrived at the park about 8:45AM, and only waited a few minutes for the opening ceremony. We have a CD with the opening ceremony music, and I personally love the song, so this was a lot of fun, we try to do Magic Kingdom opening at least once a trip for this reason only.



So as the park opened we headed quickly through the turnstiles, and walked quickly down Main Street USA, every second or so I turned around to see if Lillie Belle would back up, or head straight for the circle tour. As we passed the Main Street Bakery we saw it pull forward finally, and I breathed a contented sigh, we would make it. We slowed down a bit at this point, and I took in all the happy Cast Members with their big white Disney gloves waiving as guests entered the park. The cast members smiling, made me smile. Its infectious, and a smile is free. Can’t beat that. Amazing that other parks can’t understand that.

So we headed into the Tommorowland via the noodle station, and headed next to Space Mountain for the Tommorowland/Toontown walkway. Now at this point we had NO IDEA Toontown didn’t open with the park, we very rarely visit Toon Town, and there were no ropes, signs, or anything. We were alone, but as it was right at opening that wasn’t terribly odd. We stood by the Toontown station for a bit, first the Roger Broggie came out to head for Main Street Station to pick up the park’s first trainload of visitors. A few minutes later, all our patience came to fruition, the Lillie Belle! It stopped right by the water tower, allowing Jeff to get a few desired photos. Then the switch was thrown and Lillie Belle vanished heading backwards for its round house home.

Soon after it pulled out, we walked directly into Toontown, again no ropes, no barriers of any kind. I did find it unusual that there was absolutely no one there, but again I didn’t dwell on it, the park was open right? Well as we casually were standing standing next to the train station, talking about our next plan of attack and enjoying the quiet early morning, a cast member called out to us. At first he thought we were cast members ourselves (Do we really look like we work at a park? I didn’t realize it hung around my neck like that). After realizing we weren’t he callously starting yelling at us that we weren’t supposed to be there, that Toon Town didn’t open until later (he mentioned a time I just don’t remember). Now we are never one’s to break a park rule, and I felt terrible. However, there are kinder ways to advise customers that they shouldn’t be there. We did hurry out though, and soon as we looked back a rope was put up blocking the Toon Town entrance from Tommorowland.

From Tommorowland we headed for Fantasyland. One of the advantages of arriving at the park at opening is the short lines. Even with the crowd calendar coming in at a 7 or 8 for that day many rides had no wait. Our first ride did though, Peter Pan. Of course in all fairness Peter Pan ALWAYS has a line. In this case it was only 10 minutes, and Peter Pan is a fun ride. Next we stopped at Small World which had no line (I wonder why....). I DO like Small World, but Jeff can only handle it once every other trip or so.



We hit Haunted Mansion next (my favorite), and then Pirates of Carribbean, Jeff picked up a hat there which we both thought was funny “The Beatings will continue, until Morale Improves” He wears it to work every once in awhile!


After riding we were getting fairly hungry and it was about 11 or so, so we started checking out places in the area. At first we were going to stop at Pecos Bills but in the way to Pirates of Carribbean I had seen a small snack stand, the Golden Outpost, and I had noticed on the menu something I thought I would never see again, the Fried Chicken Sandwich.

This is pretty important as we have an ongoing theory that Disney has a “attraction rotation program” similar to something Six Flags used to do back in the 1980’s. However instead of moving rides, they move smaller things. parades, roaming characters and mainly… food. (think Main street Electrical Parade). One of these things we have noticed they like to move is the Fried Chicken Sandwich. If you haven’t tried it yet, its wonderful! However it has moved around, and unlike the parades and other attractions Disney doesn’t tell us when they are moving it, and where they are moving it too.

Eight years ago the Fried Chicken sandwich started at Cosmic Rays, a few years later we noticed it was no longer on the menu there. We didn’t search it out directly we had figured it was just gone. Nope, it had been moved, as a year or so later we were at Animal Kingdom’s Tusker House and guess what was on the menu? The Fried Chicken sandwich, and it was the same sandwich! A few years ago, Tusker House changed from a counter service location (depressed) to a table service, buffet restaurant. So the Fried Chicken sandwich vanished again.

However, AGAIN it didn’t really vanish. Last year while heading to Pirates of Caribbean I had noticed the Golden Outpost, it had replaced the McDonalds fry cart (another depressed) and I thought I saw the Fried Chicken sandwich, but didn’t think much of it at the time. Well this year, I remembered that, checked out the menu, and behold! The Fried Chicken sandwich. (que the angels singing!) So was it the same? Yep it was. So it leaves us wondering… where will it go next? Maybe it can go to MGM and be the park’s first decent counter service offering? Nah.

It was getting chillier by the moment so instead of eating the sandwich outside, we headed into Pecos Bills and enjoyed it there. I also checked out the toppings bar. Yep that’s my next stop next year. Wow. Grilled mushrooms on a toppings bar? How cool is that!

Anywho. So after eating, it was close to Noon, and if you remember our check out was for 1PM, so we headed back to the front of the park to exit. As we walked out the crowds were streaming in, so it looks like we had picked the perfect time to visit! We hopped on the monorail and were soon back at Poly, where we loaded up our bags and hauled them to our rental car (which we hadn’t seen since Friday!).

We headed back into the resort, as our flight wasn’t until 4:55 and it was only about 1PM so we didn’t really need to leave until 2:30. I watched the hula dancers for a bit (pretty neat small detail for the resort theming), we checked out the gift shops for a bit, and I purchased a few small items for the folks back at work and then we both sat down to relax one last time in the lobby. It was a chilly day, I think the temps were in the 40’s about this time, so it was like the weather gods were trying to reactlimate ourselves back to Kansas City temps.

Overall looking back at the entire trip was very enjoyable. I am glad I decided on the Annual Pass, and am still thankful for Sean at Guest Relations at Downtown Disney for giving us the viability of that option, it allowed for us to head in and out of the parks without thinking about burning a day. We didn’t get to the water parks or Stormalong Bay at Beach Club (the Boardwalk pool was down for refurb) like I wanted to, but it was never really warm enough on any of the days we had free time, and the one or two days we did we already had plans (like the Backstage Magic tour).

A couple of new things we did this trip were very enjoyable, of course the Backstage Magic Tour, which we found was worth the money and time. Then of course there was our first two character meals, I liked Akershus, but wasn’t too fond of 1900 Park Fare. Last, looking back I am mostly thankful for the ability to simply relax. No need to have a plan of attack, hitting as many rides as possible (many of our park trips are like that, no rest for the wicked), but more the ability to feel “at home”, which is all thanks to DVC. Today, as I finish this trip report it is only three days until I get to book next years trip at Bay Lake Tower at the Contemporary, so look forwarding to next years trip!


*update I was successfully able to book our 7 nights in a BLT Magic Kingdom view studio for next year! YEAHHH!!!*