Cast of Characters:
Melissa (Me): 30, prosecuting attorney, longtime Disney nut, lost count of how many trips after about 20, Annual Passholder usually, except for this trip (note to self: MUST renew ASAP!) Lives in Atlanta suburbs
Marie: early 20’s, probation officer, hasn’t been to WDW since she was 16; lives in Atlanta suburbs
Heather: early 20’s, accountant, hasn’t been to WDW since 8th grade; drove over from Tampa.
My goal: Show the semi-newbies as much as is possible in 2 short days, and get them hooked, so I’ll have future travel partners.
Sunday, May 9- Mother's Day!
The next morning, I was awake at about 7am… just can’t change my clock. I let the others sleep in while I read the paper, and got showered and dressed. We were all ready to go at about 8:45am, and we headed to MGM via the Boat at the Swan. I love taking the Boat to Epcot and MGM… it’s so relaxing. Turns out that’s all the transportation we used Sunday was the boat! MGM was practically empty when we got there, so we checked out the newly remodeled Starring Rolls bakery where each of us had a banana, a croissant, and apple juice. Marie went crazy and had the chocolate croissant and chocolate milk instead, but it was substantially the same… she said she needed the sugar shock. After breakfast, we went straight to the Tower of Terror, wandered through the misty queue, and walked on with about a 5 minute wait. Both Marie and Heather loved it. From there, we hit Rock ’n Rollercoaster with about a 5 minute wait, and, again, they loved it. This morning had me in a little bit of a pickle, as I normally am a contact wearer. My eyes have decided they like the look of blood red, so I’ve been wearing my glasses. BUT, on both Tower and RRC, I had to remove my glasses and hold them… which means I can’t see where I’m going or what’s going on. So, the blurriness, especially on RRC, made me get a little queasy. So, we followed those up with the old stand by, The Great Movie Ride. I liked this ride so much better before they reworked the dialogue… we had this incredibly chipper, pigtailed 20-something guide, and she was a bit over the top for my laid back taste. The whole “I see dead people” line was almost cheerful… very bizarre.
That’s all we did at MGM, so we hit the boat, and landed at Epcot at about 11:15. I had forgotten that it was the Flower and Garden Festival, but everything was decked out and the topiaries were great. We walked through the rose walk and saw Journey into Imagination. Now, I love this ride. I loved the old version, and I love the new one. So what if it’s not high tech, so what if it’s a little kitschy, I just love that little purple Figment!! And I love to “follow the bouncing Figment”! I’m dying to know how they do the butterfly trick. From there, I took the pair to Honey I Shrunk the Audience. As we’re standing in line, I hear these parents telling their 3ish year old, “Honey, it’s fine, it’s not scary… be a big girl…” So, here we go. The announcer comes on: Parents, please use discretion as there are loud noises and things that WILL (not may) frighten young children. And this was the first time I’ve ever heard a host say this: Please be considerate of those guests around you if you think your child may be frightened. It was a gentle reminder, and a good one. The show was great, but it’s amazing to me how much better the technology is in Philharmagic—in Honey, I always end up seeing double images. Maybe it was my blood red eyes.
After Honey, we went to check out the Land but the line for the boatride was 35 minutes, and fastpasses were for 2 hours out. This is my favorite slow ride (well, tied with SE) at Epcot, but I am NOT waiting 35 minutes to see gourds. So, we skipped the rest of that side of Future World. We traveled through time in Spaceship Earth (I nodded off a couple times—not due to boredom but b/c that music is so soothing, and I was oh so tired) and then we hit the Single Rider’s line at Test Track. I offered to stand in line with them at Mission:Space (as I cannot ride this—did it once, was green for 3 hours) but they weren’t interested. We went back to the Swan for a MUCH needed nap.
We took about an hour and half solid, good, no TV on, A/C at 62 degrees nap. I got up, showered and we all freshened up for our evening at Epcot. Hit the World Showcase just in time to grab a pint of Boddington’s by the makeshift outdoor British Pub and find a seat for the last set of Off Kilter. A great show, as usual, and se stayed after so I could talk to my friend Jamie, and introduce him to Marie and Heather. While we were talking, this little old British woman was walking away from the show, and Jamie shouted to her, “You better behave, I saw you blowing kisses at me during the show!” And she came right over to him, leaned in, and said, “Why should I behave? Who says I have to ? I’m on holiday… I don’t have to behave!” in that cute little British accent. He said, “Ok, then, you’re right… don’t behave!” It was very cute. After we said good-bye to Jamie, we went to Mexico and hit the fiesta margarita booth, where Marie and Heather were carded but I was not… I was depressed. I guess I LOOK 30 now. We went into Mexico, and hopped on the boatride. Again, one of my kitschy favorites… I hope they never change it. We wandered through the new Mexican household exhibit, which is pretty neat, with a bunch of interactive kiosks. There was a very friendly CM there who made a lot of nice small talk with us. Leaving Mexico behind, we walked through the Stave Church in Norway. This is one of my all time favorite places in the world. The music in there is so soothing. By now, we were feeling a small bit of the margaritas and decided a ride with trolls and Vikings would be just the thing for us. We waited about 10 minutes in line, with this cute little round-headed baby who feel fast asleep after about 5 minutes of flirting with me. Babies are so darn cute!
I always intend on staying for the movie, and to my credit, I have watched it more than once. But it’s like a peer pressure thing—all these people walking to the other side…the pull is just too great. Besides, we were hungry. Norway it was!! I love this place, although the shrimp salad tasted a little off Sunday. I haven’t felt any ill effects from it as of yet, but we’ll see. (There was a ‘protein spill’ in the Troll shop”, maybe that was the reason…) I love the green herb salad dressing, and was amused to find out it has pickle juice in it. By the time we were finished with dinner, it was almost 9pm. As much as I wanted to be there on the inaugural evening extra magic hour (Epcot—open til midnite! How exciting!), we had to get up at 4am to catch a 5:50 flight back to Atlanta, so we walked the rest of World Showcase in the dark and watched Illuminations as we walked. I could watch that show every night and not get tired of it. We putzed around the shop at the International Gateway for a while and let a lot of the crowd clear out. We made it to the boat and got a seat at the back of the boat outside (which I’d been trying to do all day!) and watched all the lights of the Epcot resorts. I love the Boardwalk at night…
So, back to the Swan, and we packed it all up, and Marie and Heather decided they wanted dessert. They ordered cheesecake and some sort of layer cake, and the room service guy was so precious, he rolled the little table right up in between the 2 Heavenly Beds, and Marie and Heather just laid right there and chowed down. I took a very cute picture of them toasting with their water glasses…
The wake up call came oh too quickly, but I was up and out of the shower in no time. Heather, always the accountant (god bless her!) tallied up each of our totals for the room, and we checked out. Heather left for Tampa so she could avoid morning rush hour. We returned the rental car without a hitch, and even managed to get coffee and breakfast before the flight. (Why is it that the McDonald’s at MCO only has bagels and English muffins? What do they have against the good old fashioned southern biscuit?) The flight was uneventful, and once again, we returned to the real world, still picking the pixie dust out of our hair. It was a great trip, and I think I may be well on my way to recruiting 2 new Disneyphiles…
Melissa (Me): 30, prosecuting attorney, longtime Disney nut, lost count of how many trips after about 20, Annual Passholder usually, except for this trip (note to self: MUST renew ASAP!) Lives in Atlanta suburbs
Marie: early 20’s, probation officer, hasn’t been to WDW since she was 16; lives in Atlanta suburbs
Heather: early 20’s, accountant, hasn’t been to WDW since 8th grade; drove over from Tampa.
My goal: Show the semi-newbies as much as is possible in 2 short days, and get them hooked, so I’ll have future travel partners.
Sunday, May 9- Mother's Day!
The next morning, I was awake at about 7am… just can’t change my clock. I let the others sleep in while I read the paper, and got showered and dressed. We were all ready to go at about 8:45am, and we headed to MGM via the Boat at the Swan. I love taking the Boat to Epcot and MGM… it’s so relaxing. Turns out that’s all the transportation we used Sunday was the boat! MGM was practically empty when we got there, so we checked out the newly remodeled Starring Rolls bakery where each of us had a banana, a croissant, and apple juice. Marie went crazy and had the chocolate croissant and chocolate milk instead, but it was substantially the same… she said she needed the sugar shock. After breakfast, we went straight to the Tower of Terror, wandered through the misty queue, and walked on with about a 5 minute wait. Both Marie and Heather loved it. From there, we hit Rock ’n Rollercoaster with about a 5 minute wait, and, again, they loved it. This morning had me in a little bit of a pickle, as I normally am a contact wearer. My eyes have decided they like the look of blood red, so I’ve been wearing my glasses. BUT, on both Tower and RRC, I had to remove my glasses and hold them… which means I can’t see where I’m going or what’s going on. So, the blurriness, especially on RRC, made me get a little queasy. So, we followed those up with the old stand by, The Great Movie Ride. I liked this ride so much better before they reworked the dialogue… we had this incredibly chipper, pigtailed 20-something guide, and she was a bit over the top for my laid back taste. The whole “I see dead people” line was almost cheerful… very bizarre.
That’s all we did at MGM, so we hit the boat, and landed at Epcot at about 11:15. I had forgotten that it was the Flower and Garden Festival, but everything was decked out and the topiaries were great. We walked through the rose walk and saw Journey into Imagination. Now, I love this ride. I loved the old version, and I love the new one. So what if it’s not high tech, so what if it’s a little kitschy, I just love that little purple Figment!! And I love to “follow the bouncing Figment”! I’m dying to know how they do the butterfly trick. From there, I took the pair to Honey I Shrunk the Audience. As we’re standing in line, I hear these parents telling their 3ish year old, “Honey, it’s fine, it’s not scary… be a big girl…” So, here we go. The announcer comes on: Parents, please use discretion as there are loud noises and things that WILL (not may) frighten young children. And this was the first time I’ve ever heard a host say this: Please be considerate of those guests around you if you think your child may be frightened. It was a gentle reminder, and a good one. The show was great, but it’s amazing to me how much better the technology is in Philharmagic—in Honey, I always end up seeing double images. Maybe it was my blood red eyes.
After Honey, we went to check out the Land but the line for the boatride was 35 minutes, and fastpasses were for 2 hours out. This is my favorite slow ride (well, tied with SE) at Epcot, but I am NOT waiting 35 minutes to see gourds. So, we skipped the rest of that side of Future World. We traveled through time in Spaceship Earth (I nodded off a couple times—not due to boredom but b/c that music is so soothing, and I was oh so tired) and then we hit the Single Rider’s line at Test Track. I offered to stand in line with them at Mission:Space (as I cannot ride this—did it once, was green for 3 hours) but they weren’t interested. We went back to the Swan for a MUCH needed nap.
We took about an hour and half solid, good, no TV on, A/C at 62 degrees nap. I got up, showered and we all freshened up for our evening at Epcot. Hit the World Showcase just in time to grab a pint of Boddington’s by the makeshift outdoor British Pub and find a seat for the last set of Off Kilter. A great show, as usual, and se stayed after so I could talk to my friend Jamie, and introduce him to Marie and Heather. While we were talking, this little old British woman was walking away from the show, and Jamie shouted to her, “You better behave, I saw you blowing kisses at me during the show!” And she came right over to him, leaned in, and said, “Why should I behave? Who says I have to ? I’m on holiday… I don’t have to behave!” in that cute little British accent. He said, “Ok, then, you’re right… don’t behave!” It was very cute. After we said good-bye to Jamie, we went to Mexico and hit the fiesta margarita booth, where Marie and Heather were carded but I was not… I was depressed. I guess I LOOK 30 now. We went into Mexico, and hopped on the boatride. Again, one of my kitschy favorites… I hope they never change it. We wandered through the new Mexican household exhibit, which is pretty neat, with a bunch of interactive kiosks. There was a very friendly CM there who made a lot of nice small talk with us. Leaving Mexico behind, we walked through the Stave Church in Norway. This is one of my all time favorite places in the world. The music in there is so soothing. By now, we were feeling a small bit of the margaritas and decided a ride with trolls and Vikings would be just the thing for us. We waited about 10 minutes in line, with this cute little round-headed baby who feel fast asleep after about 5 minutes of flirting with me. Babies are so darn cute!
I always intend on staying for the movie, and to my credit, I have watched it more than once. But it’s like a peer pressure thing—all these people walking to the other side…the pull is just too great. Besides, we were hungry. Norway it was!! I love this place, although the shrimp salad tasted a little off Sunday. I haven’t felt any ill effects from it as of yet, but we’ll see. (There was a ‘protein spill’ in the Troll shop”, maybe that was the reason…) I love the green herb salad dressing, and was amused to find out it has pickle juice in it. By the time we were finished with dinner, it was almost 9pm. As much as I wanted to be there on the inaugural evening extra magic hour (Epcot—open til midnite! How exciting!), we had to get up at 4am to catch a 5:50 flight back to Atlanta, so we walked the rest of World Showcase in the dark and watched Illuminations as we walked. I could watch that show every night and not get tired of it. We putzed around the shop at the International Gateway for a while and let a lot of the crowd clear out. We made it to the boat and got a seat at the back of the boat outside (which I’d been trying to do all day!) and watched all the lights of the Epcot resorts. I love the Boardwalk at night…
So, back to the Swan, and we packed it all up, and Marie and Heather decided they wanted dessert. They ordered cheesecake and some sort of layer cake, and the room service guy was so precious, he rolled the little table right up in between the 2 Heavenly Beds, and Marie and Heather just laid right there and chowed down. I took a very cute picture of them toasting with their water glasses…
The wake up call came oh too quickly, but I was up and out of the shower in no time. Heather, always the accountant (god bless her!) tallied up each of our totals for the room, and we checked out. Heather left for Tampa so she could avoid morning rush hour. We returned the rental car without a hitch, and even managed to get coffee and breakfast before the flight. (Why is it that the McDonald’s at MCO only has bagels and English muffins? What do they have against the good old fashioned southern biscuit?) The flight was uneventful, and once again, we returned to the real world, still picking the pixie dust out of our hair. It was a great trip, and I think I may be well on my way to recruiting 2 new Disneyphiles…
