Trip Report Been Back for 10 Months, what better time to write the TR...

Hey oh! I'm back on the boards! There was a long time when I was just too exhausted from working 14 hour days/not being at a computer at work for said 14 hours where I wasn't on these boards much, if at all. The combination of the work hours + not knowing when we'll be back in WDW meant I had to keep away or else I'd find myself longing for the lost World... Disney World (lost because I won't be there for a while). Well, I'm back at a desk job since February and slowly started reintegrating myself into the boards since. After much reading, and much more reading, and some talking with my gf about how "I should really write that trip report" it's finally time that I really DO write THIS trip report.

For those of you who don't know (or remember since it's been so long), I'm AJ and my travel partner/gf is Alex (Lexi on the boards). Here I am bothering her before we enter Animal Kingdom:

Nice necklace she has there right? Yeah, I found that on the street outside a restaurant after we had dinner one night. BOOM!

Our dates down in the World were October 9, 2013 (yikes) to October 16, 2013. A nice eight down jaunt during the Food and Wine Fest (a triumphant return, we'd been during 2010, but skipped it our next trip).

Any way, her and I teamed up to work on the PTR for this trip about, oh... 16 months ago. For all the things I don't remember being written by the two of us you can click this link. I hope you enjoy gratuitous food photos and a lot of digression because it is now time for what you actually came for, a Trip Report!

Day 1, October 9:

After a disappointing night of staying up late to watch the Rangers get dismantled by the by the SJ Sharks in San Jose (of course the game started at 10 PM) it was an early wake up call to catch the first flight out of JFK on JetBlue down to MCO (who on these boards really doesn't know what MCO is? We're all obsessed, we all know the airport code). We always end up getting the cheapest flight down there from JFK, it helps that Alex's parents live a 15 minute drive from the airport and that JetBlue gives the "one free checked bag per person" since our trips to WDW are the only time I'll travel with a suitcase.

We landed at MCO a little before 10 AM and were on our way to the DME bus. I won't get over how great DME is, I just throw a pair of shorts and a few other essentials in my carry-on in case our bags take longer to get to the hotel than expected. By 11 AM we were at our resort and in our room. We were thrilled that our room was ready when we got there (we've yet to have an issue with this, fingers crossed, knock on wood, whatever you want to say about that). We were staying at Pop Century and we're pretty impressed with the room to be honest. We had stayed at All-Star Movies back in 2010 and weren't too sure what to expect from Pop. All told, we were happy with it. Growing up in the 90's I wasn't too pumped when I found out our room number:

I was hoping for the 50's, 60's or 80's (even though I was born in the 80's, maybe that's why I have an affinity for the decade). Any who, here's a shot of our room:

Not too shabby eh? We prefer the two beds because we like to live as if we're in an episode of I Love Lucy. That's actually not true, the second bed always end up being something or a souvenir/park maps space.

I don't remember where I spotted this (there might be more of this in this TR considering it was 10 months since we were there), but I'm glad I got a shot of it:

Is it me or is 1986 the easiest year on this to spot? Maybe because it's the best year ever, without it, you wouldn't be so lucky to have this awesome TR to read. Also, without it, there'd be some serious funny business going on in the space time continuum.

Enough of this resort business, we didn't come here to spend time in the room (which is why we booked a value). We were in WDW and it was time to hit the parks! What better way to get yourself in the Disney spirit on your first day in the World than by making your first stop Magic Kingdom? Is there a better way? There really isn't.

Hello beautiful, you big lush green bush you. Oh, wait, I mean you back there! Isn't she a sight for sore eyes? (That's a phrase I've never understood, if my eyes are sore I don't want to be seeing any sights, I want to close my eyes. Depending on how sore maybe with a bag of ice on them.) Anyway! We wasted no time heading over to Tomorrowland (because it's the best) and hit up Space Mountain (because it's the best). You can't tell it's us in this photo, but I know it is. We're like shadow people (except much less horrifying):

Having gotten the momentous "First Ride" taken care of it was time for the (to me, in this case) less momentous "First Meal." For this we went over to Cosmic Ray's. It's something of a habit for us to get some QS meal when it comes to the first meal of the trip, something about being up since 5 AM and being on a plane for a few hours doesn't lend itself kindly to an elaborate sit down meal the first time I eat while I'm in WDW. (One or both of us would probably fall asleep at the table.) So what did this delicious first meal consist of? Alex decided on the kid's chicken nugget meal (because WDW has some awesome chicken nuggets, and lets not even get into the fries, they're the best) and I went with a plain old hot dog. Plain. Old. Hot Dog. Except when I hit up that sweet fixins' bar! Plain old hot dog? NAY! More like AMAZING CHEESE DOG WITH DICED ONIONS!

This is not really the type of meal that lends itself to a review in this space, it gets the job done. It's very good (I like hot dogs more than any normal person should, and WDW has some good dogs) and after being up rather early and on a plane it's good enough to supplement the adrenaline we work on on our first day in the World. After lunch we decided to grab a pair of Fast Passes to Buzz because, well because we could still. We knew that this would most likely be our last chance to get legit paper Fast Passes, so we got as many as we could. Look at these beauties:

Don't get me wrong, I think the Magic Band is pretty awesome. We only had one or two little hiccups while using ours on this trip when it came to Fast Pass usage, getting in the room the only reason it wouldn't work at the end of long days would probably be user error/laziness/exhaustion. There is something about those little paper tickets getting spit out of those Fast Pass machines though that I will miss. Oh well, onward and upward, or whatever they say.

To be honest, from what I remember there wasn't much of a line for a lot of the rides we got paper Fast Passes for. We did it more for a little collection of our own, when we did need to use the we would, but for the most part, we still have them. Back to Buzz, basically every on ride photo we have from Buzz throughout our three trips Alex and I have the same general look on our faces. That look is something like this:

I get very, very into this ride. Very into it. After such an intense spin on Buzz we decided to relax a bit on the PeopleMover.

 

[ArtieJim]

Great pictures of the Food and Wine event, I must ask if Pleepleus is old enough for all the alcohol he seems to be drinking? Is there a law against getting a monkey wasted? Just playing around, love the that Pleepleus adds to your trip report. Reading all this about the food and know I'm craving the Lobster Roll, hard to find in California. Following along.

Thanks so much for following along. Pleepleus is our sage drinking adviser, and like many regents had in the days of yore, our drink taster. I won't stand for poisoned booze in WDW!

 

[ArtieJim]

Just reading the amount of alcohol the two of you got down is intimidating. Holy iron stomachs! Great report!

It's all about pacing ourselves, which, until the dessert party, we did very well. All bets were off once we stepped through those doors and it was all you could eat/drink (or as Disney likes to say these days, "All You Care to Enjoy").

 

[Mom@disney]

Thanks for reading so far. I'm extremely jealous of your Haunted Mansion Game of Life. Are there Doom Buggies instead of cars? I really wish I'd just bought it.

It was so worth buying. And yes, the cars are Doom Buggies. I just love the little sayings they have that tie it into Haunted Mansion.

 

[ArtieJim]

Day 4 - Part 5:

And just like that we were back in Magic Kingdom for a night of whatever we wanted (so long as it was open)! I was on a mission to find that coffin popcorn bucket tonight, I'll just let you know right now that it didn't pan out. I was hoping that these would be a holiday item, but it seems that they were only available during the Not So Scary Halloween Party (so if you go to MNSSHP, and see one of these AND WANT ONE, make sure you buy one!) When we first got into MK we saw the photopass photographer standing by the flag pole (THE spot) and there was hardly any line! We knew exactly what to do, get some photos! This guy definitely knew how to have some fun:

Once we were on our way it was time for us to get some pictures of our own:

I love the decorations MK puts up for Halloween, if you ask me, I'd take these over the Christmas decorations any day. But decorations or not, how can you not love this sight:

Nothing beats the Castle at night in my opinion. Since we'd yet to really experience the new Fantasyland (are we at the point of just calling it Fantasyland yet? That's what I'm going to do) and we had set our FastPass+ up for Little Mermaid tonight, we knew exactly where we were headed. And in a short time, we had arrived:

Everything about this ride was incredible:

And Alex was also pretty impressed with these as well:

I think I'm just going to post a few ride photos now, we couldn't get over how realistic these things looked (so much so that we were kind of creeped out by the Arielle and Prince Eric). We had no problem with Scuttle though:

 

[ArtieJim]

Day 4 - Part 6:

When I was younger and this movie had just come out Flounder was my favorite, I had a little Flounder squirt toy that I would always take in the bath with me. Those were the days:

These guys are swimming the wrong way if you ask me:

We couldn't get over how awesome this was:

Although the way Arielle's eyes kept moving was a little weird for us. But, there were fireworks at the end of this ride, which we enjoyed:

I don't know why I like the fake fireworks so much, between this ride and Three Caballeros, I think they're awesome. Once of this ride we had to check out Gaston's Tavern, how could we not? I can tell you one thing, I don't want to ever be caught in a game of darts with Gaston:

How can I get this painting in our apartment?

Or, better yet, the sweet chair?

That's really the only way to sit in the chair. This is how I plan to model my living room some day:

With fake animals though, or no kind of animals. Gaston's Tavern has what is now Alex's and my favorite light fixture in all of WDW:

How cool is that? And what's even cooler? The view from directly underneath!

If you get the chance, put your camera in the middle of the table directly below this and click.

 

[ArtieJim]

Day 4 - Part 7:

And if any one is looking for some plantes et fleurs, you don't need to look very far outside of Gaston's:

I wonder where that little door leads? And, I also wish those little kegs had beer in them. Wouldn't mind carrying one of those around with me. We had hoped to get a better shot of the tribute to Gaston, but we did what we could since it was so dark:

We were actually surprised at how dimly lit all of this part of Fantasyland was. It was almost like if the kids that were running around screaming were quiet, we'd have walked right into them! Don't act so surprised, you know how it is if you give ten feet of open space in WDW. Anyway...

I'd love to get a great fountain as a tribute to me... from me. That'll be the day. I wonder who lives way up there, away from this little town we were in:

Nice, but still has nothing on THE Castle:

I've always wanted to take that staircase and see where it would lead me. Since that wasn't happening on this night, we decided to just head over to Adventureland and take it from there. You don't need to see the full sign to know that it's awesome:

Our first (and only) stop was the only stop there should be when you're passing through:

Unfortunately the girl with the birthday Mickey ears walked in front just as the flash went off, so her hat absorbed the majority of the light that should have been projected onto Pirates. Oh well, you've all been there plenty of times, you all know what it looks like.

Eh, I don't think it's really for me. I do love the ride though (minus Jack Sparrow).

 

[ArtieJim]

Day 4 - Part 8:

For some reason we can never really think to look up when walking around during the day:

Probably because it's so much more crowded than when we're in MK at 11 PM. Next up for us was Splash Mountain (thanks, FastPass+!). I can't say we really needed the fastpass for this ride, but Alex did enjoy the fact that we could stop a get a picture of this at night:

We ended up getting the front row and every row behind us was filled with a group of, I think 14 year old, boys. They were so worried about getting soaked the entire ride, they didn't know when to not be nervous. As soon as they realized that THE drop was about to happen one yelled, "EVERY ONE PUT YOUR HEAD DOWN!" and this is the wonderful result of what happened next:

Look at Pleeplus go! This ended up being our favorite PhotoPass picture of the trip. This was also the point I realized, since we get all these ride photos included in our PhotoPass+, I was going to take advantage of this big time, and by doing so, make some ridiculous faces on the rides from now on. We were fading after our long day and being up so early (for us, we're usually not up before 10:30-11 while in WDW) so we decided that we should hit up Space Mountain before we took off for the night (it was also our last FastPass, so we were going any way). Unfortunately on our way over there our camera died. We always carry around two batteries, but both of them were spent for the day (like I said, it was long day, even for the camera). So I leave you with one last photo of our night in MK:

That is the first of many goofy faces to be had on the rides.

Thanks again for reading!

 

[jjbrooks567]

I can't wait to read more. This is a great trip report!

 

[mrdrift]

Keeping up with the great trip report. You got some really good pictures from the MNSSHP and of course ride pictures. Loving the goofy face pictures. Following along.

 

[ArtieJim]

And I'm back! No better way to end a three-day holiday weekend than by posting some more to this TR. So here we go!

Day 5 - Part 1:

We had another lunch ADR today, but it was a late afternoon lunch (3 PMish), so we had plenty of time beforehand to do what we wanted. We decided to start our day at Epcot (of course) so that we could pick up some "breakfast" and to just take a nice stroll before the crowds really packed it in. I had mentioned in an earlier post about how Alex and I usually start out the World Showcase by taking a right, well today we took that left. (Aside from SSE, we really had spent no time in Future World as of yet, and that would not change today!) Now for the fun part of, pictures! Alex and I went to the first booth we could both agree on for today:

It's tough to say no to a beef empenada at eleven in the morning, especially when this is what you turn around and see:

Only thing missing from that photo is the monorail. Any way, here's that delicious empanada:

This thing was amazing, the pastry was cooked great and the beef had a great flavor with a nice subtly spice to it. Highly recommended if they're there this year and any one reading this is going. As for Alex's choice from this cart, well that was simple:

The Pascual Toso Sparkling Brut. And at a very economical $2.50, how could she not? You know what they say, "You can't drink all day, if you don't start in the morning." She was a big fan of this one, which is a plus. We enjoyed the look of this booth because it looked like a little house, at least we thought so:

As good as that was, Alex decided to get some real food, so we stopped at the very next booth so she could grab something:

She decided she was going to go with the Grilled Lamb Chop and I was going to have to try those Garlic Shrimp:

Alex isn't a big fan of pesto, let alone mint, so she brushed that right off, but she did enjoy the lamp chop. She liked it even more because of those "potato crunchies." They were just potato chips, which is just fine with us. I liked the shrimp, but honestly, for me, they were just shrimp cooked in garlic. The other stuff it came with I just brushed to the side, I wasn't going to eat it, so I didn't bother tasting it. The shrimp was good, but not something I would run to order again. We wanted to take a stop in Norway after finishing our food here, so we did just that! We had to say hello to our buddy over there:

He had something up there so I was giving him a hand... well, a finger at least. He's a good guy that one. Tell him I say hello next time you're there and that I hope to see him soon. (Is there any credibility to the rumors of Disney changing the Norway pavilion into a Frozen pavilion?) All that nose picking made me hungry so made our move over to China for round 2...

 

[ArtieJim]

Day 5 - Part 2:

I mentioned "round 2" because we decided to get those pot stickers again (despite that price, ugh, don't mention it) and also give the Mongolian Beef in a Steamed Bun a chance. I also decided to cool down with an ice cold Tsingtao:

They really know how to do it over at the China booth, let me tell you. That Mongolian beef was incredible, and I'd never had a steamed bun before (I can't say I've ever had any kind of yeasted product that's been steamed) but it as definitely worth it. I have to show you the close up of that beef/bun combo:

Please order this if you get a chance. On our stroll over to the International Gateway we realized we still had plenty of time and the heat was rising, so we decided to stop in the Chase Lounge to check that out, since we could. On our way over there we couldn't help but stop and get this shot:

Perfect view of SSE (with a couple there, oh well). We had to wait in line for about five minutes before they let us up to the Chase Lounge, but once we got up there we took a quick look around and... well, that was about it. We got a few tiny cups of soda from the Coke Freestyle machines they had, but at one point one of them ran out of soda and the line for the other was about fifteen minutes long. Something that really bothered us was that they only supplied tiny little cocktail cups (those cheap clear plastic six ounce cups) and they wouldn't let us fill up our resort mugs. Not quite sure why, since we were just told we weren't allowed, but that's the way it was. Kind of odd, considering the soda machines were complimentary. I could have gotten 50 cups of soda, but not one mug. I don't get it. We did get this, to prove we were there:

There. Proof. A nice reprieve from the heat, but eh. Moving along, it was time for another small bite. I had to stop in Belgium today and get myself a waffle, it was still early enough that I was willing for some breakfast:

It was time for the Belgian Waffle with Berry Compote and Whipped Cream. I have to admit, I'm not a fan of whipped cream, but Alex likes it, so she ate that part and I had the rest.

Oh, and I also got the Leffe Brune. I can't say this is a good combination, but on their own, they were great. That berry compote is exactly what I had been hoping for when I ordered the Pop waffle a few mornings before at the resort. The brune was a nice brown ale, slightly nutty and nothing too overpowering. Much better than the Leffe Blonde, which I don't care much at all for, but that's just me. I know I said above that we were heading toward the International Gateway, but I wanted to make ONE more stop for ONE more bite before we left the park for the day. That stop was to get a taste of my ancestry:

That's right folks. I couldn't go without a Guinness on this day. Also, as the temperature was rising today I decided, against my better judgment, to also get the Lobster and Seafood Fisherman's Pie. I have to apologize because we didn't get a picture of either. I thought the fisherman's pie was great though, nice chunks of lobster meat mixed with a few other pieces of seafood and veggies, very filling, but also very hot. The Guinness was the perfect thing to cool me down there. That was it for our short couple hours in Epcot today. Unfortunately, that's going to be it for the posts today. Come back tomorrow for too many posts for a specific park and a nice Italian lunch! Thanks for reading!

 

[dancingtodisney]

I’ve just caught up on your trip report now! Really enjoying it especially because we’re heading over late October and it’ll be our first time going to MNSSHP and the Food and Wine Festival too! I’m Irish though so of course I’m going to love your TR! Not so impressed with the food selection at Ireland though although you did say the fish pie was nice. A good beef and Guinness stew or pie would have gone well in there!

Looking forward to the rest!

 

[ArtieJim]

Day 5 - Part 3:

After our walk around the boardwalk we had made it to MGM. With our 3 PM ADR we had a FastPass+ planned for 2 PM (from 2-3) over at TSMM, so we made our way over that way once we got there. Almost as soon as we got in the park we had to make way for these gentlemen:

Unfortunately we chopped the top of their heads off. I want one of these mini cars. In no time we made it to Pixar Place and had our eye wear ready to go for some Mania! It was time to get serious!

This time around we were excited that we had the one and only:

SLINK! I think it was through the power of Slink that I was able to muster up the strength to attain the winning score:

Thanks, Slink! And what's this?

Take that people in the ride vehicle with us! And just as soon as we started moving after we got this shot, the ride stopped! But we got this shot, which is a nice one:

How do I go about getting a print of this?

How cool would it be to own one of those? We decided we should head on over to check in for our ADR, and on our way got a glimpse of this:

Gotta be honest, saw Splash once when I was about eight years old, don't remember much of it except for Tom Hanks and a mermaid (I know plenty about the movie, but from my viewing, that's all I remember). Finally, we'd arrived to our lunch spot. Have I even mentioned where Alex and I decided to book our lunch ADR? Before I do, here's a couple of fun pictures we got waiting for our buzzer to go off after we checked in:

Someone should clean up that paint...

I mean come on there's paint all over the place there! Those sloppy Muppets. Any one able to put a finger on where we decided to eat? (I think if you read the PTR you've known for over a year). Before I let you know, here's a quick story about why we booked here. Our past two trips we had booked an ADR here, only to cancel right before leaving only to book elsewhere. We've even canceled and rebooked a few times for a single trip. We finally decided to stick with it this time around. It was about time we had a meal at...

 

[ArtieJim]

Day 5 - Part 4:

Oh, sorry, did I get you excited? Whatever for? Oh, right. We were about to have lunch at...

This place was PACKED. We had to fight through a crowd of people just to check in for our ADR. Tons of people trying to get a walk-in table, but I guess none of them could read the sign on the check-in counter that said "We're Sorry: No Walk-Ins Available Today." We really wanted to get a picture of this sign, but as I said, it was too crowded. There was one group that decided it was best to just camp out AT the check-in table until the hostess told them that there was magically a table available for their group of nine. Yeah, not gonna happen, quit being a group of NINE JERKS at get out of our way! We had had enough of waiting outside and decided to just elbow our way into the lobby area so we could wait it out in the AC (Slater). I think because of the heat from waiting outside and the crowd from waiting inside our wait felt a lot longer than it actually was, but in reality it was only ten minutes (well, nine minutes and forty-two seconds). We liked their open kitchen area (not as much as 'Ohana's, but it gave us a good opportunity to check out the food they had up in the window waiting to go out), Alex especially liked the lights (go figure):

We were walked past this little dining room area they have:

To a different little area. You can't really tell from the photo above, but that room had two parties in it. It looked like the room had seating enough for 30-40 people. TWO PARTIES! I have two brothers, a sister, both my parents, and two nieces (as well as a sister-in-law and Alex), I'd love to be able to go to WDW and stroll into a restaurant and find out we're splitting ONE ROOM in a restaurant with only ONE OTHER group. How cool would that be? Probably be a lot cooler to get the room all to yourself. The room we were seated in was larger, but still had that cozy old-style Italian restaurant feel.

(So many little lights!)

I was half expecting a guy in his mid-40's with a red shirt and black slicked back hair, wearing a gold crucifix necklace to come out and be our server. I was hoping to hear, "Eey, my name's Vinnie, call me Vin, I'll be-a your wait-uh today," and then his old Italian mother to yell at him to button the top button on his shirt. Coming from generations of family living in Brooklyn, that's what Alex and I are used to seeing. Unfortunately, this didn't happen, but we still enjoyed ourselves. We were given a nice little table next to a couple with two younger kids. A quick (mmmmmmaybe not so quick) glance at their table and we noticed that between the four of them, the two dishes that Alex and I knew we were going to order as entrees were order by them as well. We looked the way the things looked so far. We were given our menus:

Sadly, no good close up the food menu, just a nice look at the front of the drink menu. Nice leather bound drink menu, but it was just the typical WDW drink menu. We needed a ton of water to replenish from the heat (and from the earlier F&W drinks). This was also placed with on our table, we'd never seen one of these at a WDW restaurant before (on our table any way):

And that's how I knew exactly how long we'd waited to be seated. Once we put in our orders, we couldn't wait for our meals. All that walking (and Toy Story Midway Mania-ing) really got our appetites going again. While waiting for our food, we were happy to tear into (literally) these great bread rolls:

I'm not a big fan of dipping bread into olive oil, but I tried it (because, y'know, when in Rome... or Disney) and this olive oil was great. I've been to olive oil tasting (who does that?!) and this was one of the best. For an appetizer we order the Fresh Mozzarella and Vine-ripped Tomatoes:

And when I saw "we" I, of course, mean Alex. I was allowed to have a half of one of those pieces of mozzarella, other than that I could have all I wanted that was on that plate. Gee, thanks a lot. Luckily, I had that bread. The bread saved the day (I was allowed to have as much of that as I wanted). Luckily, we weren't waiting all that long once the mozzarella was gone for our entrees to come. Alex decided to go with the Oven-Baked Chicken alla Parmigiana:

She wasn't too impressed, which was unfortunate. She said there wasn't enough sauce (read: any) on the pasta, and the chicken itself was over-cooked. It seemed like they had it cooked and ready to go, but it was brought to the table for a little while so it may have been under a heat lamp or under the broiler for a minute or two too long. It was a bummer since the table next to us had order this dish as well and it looked like it was cooked perfectly. As for me, I was debating for a bit about whether to go with the Seafood Arrabiatta (because if there's one way I like my seafood, it's ANGRY!) and the Carne d'Italia Flatbread. I decided that it was a pizza day (especially since we didn't have an ADR for Via Napoli this trip).

This was the first time I'd seen a round flatbread. All the others I've ever seen are more of a rectangle than a circle. To be this is just a regular pizza. Or maybe regular pizzas are flatbreads. Mind = Blown if that's the case. I thought the pizza was pretty great, my only issue was that they used too much of flour on the bottom of the pie so it didn't all cook. One thing that kills me with pizza, when I pick up the slice and feel like I have sand on my fingers because of it (I know it's not sand, but that's the best way to describe it). The sauce on this is (according to the menu, anyway) spicy (to me, just a zesty sauce). All-in-all though, I recommend this dish. Would I order it again? Yes, I would. That was it for our meal at Mama Melrose. After eating most of that bread and an entire (albeit small) pizza, there was no room for dessert. Alex barely ever eats dessert, so we knew she wasn't getting any.

Once we departed the restaurant we still had a full day ahead of us! That full day, or at least a portion of it, will be written about further tomorrow. This day is going to take me longer to finish than expected and I apologize. Alex and I got caught up in The Unauthorized Saved by the Bell Story that we had DVR'd the other night. Yeah, sometimes those things happen. Thanks again for reading! Hope you're all still enjoying yourselves. Tomorrow, I hope to at least wrap up our time spent at MGM on this day (we were there for quite a while and have a number of pictures to share with you all).

 

[MotherofaPrincessLover]

Alex and I got caught up in The Unauthorized Saved by the Bell Story that we had DVR'd the other night. Yeah, sometimes those things happen. Thanks again for reading! Hope you're all still enjoying yourselves. Tomorrow, I hope to at least wrap up our time spent at MGM on this day (we were there for quite a while and have a number of pictures to share with you all).

I was watching that last night, too! When I read the AC (Slater) part, I had wondered if maybe you had been watching it.

 

[ArtieJim]

I was watching that last night, too! When I read the AC (Slater) part, I had wondered if maybe you had been watching it.

Haha, that's exactly why I wrote that. Nice catch.

 

[ArtieJim]

Day 5 - Part 5:

After our meal I had to take a spin on Star Tours, Alex on the other hand, she has a very sensitive stomach so this wasn't happening for her. Oh well, wasn't going to stop me! We met in Tatooine Traders (when are they going to make the Mos Eisley Cantina into a thing at MGM? It would be so awesome, especially now that Disney owns Star Wars), and I was happy as a clam with this helmet:

I didn't get it though, last thing I could do was wear that helmet around all day in the hot sun (black plastic helmet, baking hot sun). I gotta find one of these shirts at a non-Disney price (we all know how high those can be):

See ya soon!

Moving on, we had a FastPass+ reservation at ToT, so we got our stroll going, but, if the sign says so...

I think someone was down there, I wasn't about to check for myself. We had enough time to kill that we weren't rushing, but not enough time to go see the Indiana Jones show, we did however, stop into the shop at the exit of it since the show was going on and we had the area all to ourselves. I've never taken my time over here, always felt like I was being rushed, or rushing to get away from the throngs of people. Check this stuff out!

And this is where we were headed:

Is that Dr. Jones' office up there?

And look who made a friend in here:

This could turn out to be trouble.

 

[ArtieJim]

Day 5 - Part 6:

Luckily, they just gave each other a high five and were on their way:

That was a close one. I don't know if I could handle TWO drunk monkeys. We were closing in on our destination:

And then, just like that, we were there:

There's a Pleepleus in my shirt!

Those little girls in the back look like their having the time of their lives. The one in the second row, not so much. We didn't waste much time moving along after we got our photo, we moved right along to what was naturally our next option:

I can't be the only one that thinks there should be something else over here. I understand it's a very big building that this ride encompasses, but once you walk under this gate it feels like so much more will be waiting for you. But, there isn't. I have to be honest, I hate Aerosmith, the only song by them I like is "Dream On" (and it was their first single real for crying out loud) but I am a fun of this ride. Who doesn't live a good roller coaster? And who doesn't love a humongous guitar?

Good one!

We were gifted with this beautiful photo, compliments of PhotoPass+:

Ah man, I love knowing where the cameras are on the rides. On our way out we were lucky enough to have couple ask us if we wanted a shot of the two of us, always the best to have people ask, especially when there were no PhotoPass photographers around (this actually was a huge issue for us today, we hit three parks and four pictures, not from rides and not for lack of looking for them)!

I'm not so sure why they had those ropes set up, the stand-by wasn't very long at all while we were over here (maybe forty-five minutes).

 

[ArtieJim]

Day 5 - Part 7:

Since our next FastPass+ res. was for Fantasmic and there was no taking liberties with the time for that, we decided we had time for one more thing. That one thing, was the one thing we ended up missing on our last trip and I was bummed about. That ride being the Studio Backlot Tour! I love this ride, when I was on a music department trip my junior year of HS a couple of my friends were picked to act out the scene at the beginning when Michael Bay is talking about Pearl Harbor (seriously, of all the Michael Bay movies this is the one they're still talking about?). I'm also a little surprised they still group this ride in with Streets of America (on the map, at least), with High Octane Refreshments and Studio Catering Company right there and the canopy overhead (where they destroyed the Roger Rabbit thing they had going on!) it feels like this is well separated from the actual Streets area (not to mention the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids playground, could they hide that any better?). Back to the Tour! Here are pictures that you've probably seen hundreds of times on various TRs, most likely my older TRs even. Enjoy!

Haven't seen Planes, but glad to see they're doing something with those old props from Pearl Harbor. Has anyone seen Pearl Harbor? I saw it twelve years ago and not by choice. Was it worth it? Kate Beckinsale was in it, so it was bearable, but 2+ hours of Ben Affleck (eary acting years Ben Affleck) AND Josh Hartnett, it's a tough one.

Sure it's a little dark, but it's still a great site. Does any one remember when THIS was THE landmark for MGM? Before Tower of Terror took that title and well before that stupid hat was crowned the landmark? Bonus points for those of you that remember when the Orlando Magic had Hoarce Grant on their team so Disney put huge goggles on the Earful Tower. (Good luck finding a picture of that).

I understand they were pushing Planes (and I can't believe a sequel was pushed out so quick), but to put those eyes on that plane of all the planes on this Backlot Tour, I cry foul.

Adios, Backlot Tour. If you're thinking that there'd be more pictures of the Backlot Tour after how I said I love it so much feel free to take a look at my previous TR, because there are tons of them. We did want to grab a couple more shots of Pixar Place, so we did just that:

This was the first time we were over here when the line for this photo spot was not out the door. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to go inside and get our pictures taken. Oh well, maybe next time.

Those monkeys are trouble, I tell you. Oh, and did I say that we only had time for one more ride before Fantasmic? Well, that was before we got back over to Sunset Blvd. and found out that the stand-by for Tower of Terror was only ten minutes. We had no problem cutting it close if it meant riding ToT just one more time. And of course, one more ride on ToT meant just a few more pictures:

This next one is from one of my favorite episodes ("Nick of Time") if only because William Shatner is such a ridiculous actor:

After the ride we were really in a crunch for time, just enough time to get a turn around shot of this before checking in for our FastPass:

We really can't get enough of ToT at night.

 

[ArtieJim]

Day 5 - Part 8:

OK, one more for good measure:

Now, it was time for the main attraction of our night:

We were super excited for this, as it would be the first time we were seeing this show. We couldn't believe how far of a walk it is to the amphitheater from where you "enter," but in Disney walking distance, in the long run, it's nothing. I'll just leave you with some photos of the show:

This giant snake was kind of creepy (really creepy):

He got the sword out of the stone! Something I'm unable to do behind the Castle in MK:

I need to be on this boat!

Steamboat Willie is one of my favorites! I wish there were a meet and greet with him somewhere ever:

Fantasmic was awesome! We're definitely going to make sure we get to it at least once on every trip from now on. We couldn't believe that we'd yet to do it before this trip, what a couple of fools we were. I can't really say that the FastPass+ is a must for this, our seats weren't bad, but they weren't the best either. I guess if you're willing to take your chances with the regular walk up then go for it, especially if you want to use your three FastPass options on just rides.