So how ironic is it that Disney has been closed 3 times and we have been there 2 of the 3? We did the College Program 5 years ago now in the fall of 1999 (which is also how we met!) and for those of you who remember, Disney was closed then for Hurricane Floyd. So of course it would make sense for Charley to come right smack in the middle of our vacation! We got up early on Friday to make sure we got as much park time in as we could. We got to MGM a few minutes after the open and headed directly to Tower of Terror to get a fastpass for me. These are the 2 rides that JD refuses to go on in all of Disney, TOT and RRC. So we use his AP to get another FP for RRC. (Look at that last sentence, you know you’re a Disney loser when…) hehe Anyhow, when we were done with those we rode the Great Movie ride which we haven’t gone on in years. Is the fire in the cowboy scene new? Great added effects. Then Indiana Jones was playing, it all worked out really well this day. We got front row, the theater was packed which we were surprised at. Crowds were a little smaller than usual but not by much. Wait times for the big rides were still 55 minutes or so. After this we went to Muppets. I picked up the mat to find the key which was on that Travel Channel special, too cool! I love the attention to detail. Muppets cracks us up every time. We love Sam Eagle in the beginning show, dry humor is the best. And Beaker and the Swedish Chef! For some reason my eyes don’t focus right so I never really get the 3D effect on any of the shows but the shows themselves are still so great so it’s not a big deal. We rushed through the Muppets shop because we had a Millionaire show to go to. I wasn’t too upset because I thought hey we have more time and I’ll get there but we never did. This really still makes me sad because I wanted to get our new niece a souvenir from there! Mark that on my things to do next year sheet and at least then she’ll be able to play with whatever we get! Millionaire is awesome. I love the hosts but you know you’ve been a few too many times when there are no new faces hosting the show! I love the guy with the dark hair, really tan, with white teeth, anyone know who I’m talking about? He really looks like a game show host and he was sooo funny. If the person in the hot seat was sensitive they would have been really insulted by some of the jokes which we thought were hilarious. He introduced himself and said he was traveling with his 3 family members. One of the questions was really easy and he had to ask the audience. The guy looked at him and said okayyyy… the answer was like 98% C and he goes hey “that’s ok, 3 other people didn’t know the answer and they’re all traveling with you” hahaha Maybe it was a you had to be there type thing but still! Then, the second contestant up phoned a friend and the lady on the line was British. She couldn’t understand what anyone was saying, so after a couple tries he mocked her with a British accent and reread the question and answers. Funny part was, once he was speaking with the British accent, she understood him completely and she didn’t seem to pick up on the fact that he was pretending to have the accent which the audience really thought was funny! He kept saying “I’m going to lose my job!” which really made everyone laugh. After this we had lunch at Backlot Express. When they first gave me my lunch I was disappointed because there were only 3 chicken fingers, when did they start this? And they were really light on fries which I really hate because JD usually starts filching my fries not even ½ way into all meals but I didn’t even finish my meal it was so filling! The chicken fingers are very deceiving! After lunch we headed out because it was 1pm and parks were closing and it wasn’t even raining yet! It had been partly sunny/cloudy all morning and I was wondering if the weathermen were wrong and it wouldn’t really affect us. So we decided to check out the resorts. We hopped in our little Hyundai Accent and drove over to the Wilderness Lodge. I got a great picture here of me sitting at the bottom of the totem pole with Mickey, Donald & the Bear. So funny! I’ll have to post it as soon as I figure out my mom’s digital camera! I really love the Wilderness Lodge, we’d never wandered around this before. We have only been to the Hoop De Doo Revue and to the main lodge once. We walked out to the boat dock and fed the ducks… sort of! The poor ducks got hardly anything since the crazy fish came up right to the surface like piranha and filched every single snack we tossed! It was insane. I definitely recommend trying this, it was really neat! On our way back we were talking with a family who mentioned some people were coming up to Disney from Tampa since that is where the storm was to hit the hardest. Boy what a mistake that was since Charley decided to hit Orlando dead on! But their reasoning is great, I mean why sit out a storm when you could be at Disney World?? Wish I had that luxury! Then we went in the store and the line for snacks and food for rooms was about 60 people deep. People were even buying the $10 six packs of beer! It was a mad house. The food shelves were almost bare and it wasn’t yet 2pm. We left there and headed over to the Contemporary. Us stupid Boston natives never heed the warnings on the radio as the am station we were listening to said the storm had turned and it was coming our way, no no, we just kept driving to the Contemporary. Yes, begins with a C but it is not the Coronado Springs, please forgive us, we’re a bit slow. JD really wanted to check this resort out this year. So we went to the Concourse level and looked around. I wanted to check out the California Grill just to see what it looked like but I didn't know you can’t get up there to look, only to dine. We also wanted to see Chef Mickey’s but they only let us read the menu which I thought was most gracious of them 
:brick: I guess if you let everyone look you may get people sneaking stuff out so I understand. At this point the sky opened up and began pummeling Orlando, you couldn’t even see out the windows! Oh GOOD time to buy a poncho! So ponchos and m&m’s in hand, we left the Contemporary. Even with the Poncho on I got drenched, the rain was coming down so hard it was bouncing off the pavement about 2 feet. We got in the car and headed back to Coronado. I laid down on the bed and passed out. I had no idea I was that tired! When I woke up it was 6pm. We tried to call the front desk to see if the food court was even open but no answer, obviously they were bombarded with calls. So we figure now or never. It was only raining with a little stronger wind than normal, nothing big so we walked over to Pepper Market. COMPLETE MAYHEM! People everywhere! The line was backed all the way up to the check-in room. A guy came out with a pizza complaining of how it took him 3 hours to get a pizza. But we had to eat something so we were going to wait, wait here or sit in our room? No biggie! It was such a funny scene and I still feel bad for the chefs. Apparently all dinner places were closed (Chef Mickey’s was closing, no Ohana) Maya Grill was also closed. So this was the only option. About a ½ hour into our wait they came and told us they had put together a buffet in one of the convention rooms for $7 a person which I thought was great of them, it really made the line go down and our 3 hour wait was reduced to 1.5 hours I went to check out the buffet but it only had chicken, chicken fingers, salad and fettuccini alfredo which wasn’t exactly what I was in the mood for and a pizza (which is so much healthier but hey, it’s vacation! ) sounded much more appealing to me for roughly the same price. We took turns wandering around and waiting in line. A really great thing the resort did was have characters walking around! We had Belle, Mary Poppins, a Penguin from Mary Poppins and Goofy’s little boy or little brother. The penguin was a riot! There was a yellow wet floor warning sign in the lobby, the penguin in his gigantic head and penguin costume sees it and throws himself high in the air and lands on his rear which I can’t even believe he did but it was so funny! Belle and Mary Poppins just stared in disbelief, I think they were as shocked as I was that he could maneuver like that in his gigantic head and even they had a real belly laugh from it! Then, Goofy’s little brother was sitting with one family playing cards in the convention center hallway. The person who tells the characters when their time is up was trying to get him to take his break but he kept shooing her away, he was really into the game and apparently was winning and mocking the rest of the people playing pointing and laughing and being rude in a funny way. Waiting in line was long but didn’t feel like it because we started talking to the woman in front of us and her daughter who were from New Jersey. We found out her husband works for ABC so they get to go down a few times a year and had left to visit her mother in Tampa the day before but came back when they heard the storm was hitting Tampa just to find out Orlando was the place not to be! We swapped hidden mickey secrets. I only really have 5… the bobber hidden mickey near the frog on the crocodile on splash, the HM grim reaper, HM glowing heart of the bride, Splash in the clouds in the showboat scene, and the trumpet on the gold wall of Philharmagic. Love hidden mickeys and want the book! Finally got our pizzas and walked to go back to our room. Opened the door near the Pepper Market to get to our Casitas building 3, 3rd floor room… and bam! The door slams in our face! The wind really picked up while we were in there! So then John opened the door again and found out it was ok enough to walk under the walkways back to the room, it was a funny walk! Still with my poncho on I got wet! Back at the room we had a message. It said that Brother Bear, Monsters Inc. and one other movie I forget which are usually pay per views were FREE and continuous! So we opened up our pizzas and flicked on Monster’s Inc. It was a really great night and the lights flickered twice I think but didn’t go out. I actually enjoyed the hurricane although I know it was devastating to others and I do feel bad about that. But for us it was a good time and Disney couldn’t have done a better job making people feel safe and taken care of.
Next up… The Calm After the Storm at Blizzard Beach!
More wackiness on day 4
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/showthread.php?t=43529
:brick: I guess if you let everyone look you may get people sneaking stuff out so I understand. At this point the sky opened up and began pummeling Orlando, you couldn’t even see out the windows! Oh GOOD time to buy a poncho! So ponchos and m&m’s in hand, we left the Contemporary. Even with the Poncho on I got drenched, the rain was coming down so hard it was bouncing off the pavement about 2 feet. We got in the car and headed back to Coronado. I laid down on the bed and passed out. I had no idea I was that tired! When I woke up it was 6pm. We tried to call the front desk to see if the food court was even open but no answer, obviously they were bombarded with calls. So we figure now or never. It was only raining with a little stronger wind than normal, nothing big so we walked over to Pepper Market. COMPLETE MAYHEM! People everywhere! The line was backed all the way up to the check-in room. A guy came out with a pizza complaining of how it took him 3 hours to get a pizza. But we had to eat something so we were going to wait, wait here or sit in our room? No biggie! It was such a funny scene and I still feel bad for the chefs. Apparently all dinner places were closed (Chef Mickey’s was closing, no Ohana) Maya Grill was also closed. So this was the only option. About a ½ hour into our wait they came and told us they had put together a buffet in one of the convention rooms for $7 a person which I thought was great of them, it really made the line go down and our 3 hour wait was reduced to 1.5 hours I went to check out the buffet but it only had chicken, chicken fingers, salad and fettuccini alfredo which wasn’t exactly what I was in the mood for and a pizza (which is so much healthier but hey, it’s vacation! ) sounded much more appealing to me for roughly the same price. We took turns wandering around and waiting in line. A really great thing the resort did was have characters walking around! We had Belle, Mary Poppins, a Penguin from Mary Poppins and Goofy’s little boy or little brother. The penguin was a riot! There was a yellow wet floor warning sign in the lobby, the penguin in his gigantic head and penguin costume sees it and throws himself high in the air and lands on his rear which I can’t even believe he did but it was so funny! Belle and Mary Poppins just stared in disbelief, I think they were as shocked as I was that he could maneuver like that in his gigantic head and even they had a real belly laugh from it! Then, Goofy’s little brother was sitting with one family playing cards in the convention center hallway. The person who tells the characters when their time is up was trying to get him to take his break but he kept shooing her away, he was really into the game and apparently was winning and mocking the rest of the people playing pointing and laughing and being rude in a funny way. Waiting in line was long but didn’t feel like it because we started talking to the woman in front of us and her daughter who were from New Jersey. We found out her husband works for ABC so they get to go down a few times a year and had left to visit her mother in Tampa the day before but came back when they heard the storm was hitting Tampa just to find out Orlando was the place not to be! We swapped hidden mickey secrets. I only really have 5… the bobber hidden mickey near the frog on the crocodile on splash, the HM grim reaper, HM glowing heart of the bride, Splash in the clouds in the showboat scene, and the trumpet on the gold wall of Philharmagic. Love hidden mickeys and want the book! Finally got our pizzas and walked to go back to our room. Opened the door near the Pepper Market to get to our Casitas building 3, 3rd floor room… and bam! The door slams in our face! The wind really picked up while we were in there! So then John opened the door again and found out it was ok enough to walk under the walkways back to the room, it was a funny walk! Still with my poncho on I got wet! Back at the room we had a message. It said that Brother Bear, Monsters Inc. and one other movie I forget which are usually pay per views were FREE and continuous! So we opened up our pizzas and flicked on Monster’s Inc. It was a really great night and the lights flickered twice I think but didn’t go out. I actually enjoyed the hurricane although I know it was devastating to others and I do feel bad about that. But for us it was a good time and Disney couldn’t have done a better job making people feel safe and taken care of. Next up… The Calm After the Storm at Blizzard Beach!
More wackiness on day 4
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/showthread.php?t=43529
