Pluto0809
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 25, 2012
I Know What Rock Stars Feel Like Part 1
Originally I had this day scheduled as Animal Kingdom for ¾ of the day with lunch at Tiffin’s and then Hollywood Studios that evening for the Star Wars Dessert Party. Jackie had the Backstage Magic tour booked for the day and then was going to meet me at HS for the Dessert Party.
But a few weeks before our trip, that all changed. As many of you may already know since several others have already written about it, we were gifted a VIP tour for the day by a DISer who asked to remain anonymous. This was an amazing gift and a once in a life time experience for me so I gladly changed my plans for the day. I don’t think there is enough words in the English language to thank our host for this day.
We needed to be at Epcot by 8 am to meet up with our tour guides for the day so Jackie and I were up early and out the door by 7 am. Well at least I was up very early since I am a lot higher maintenance than she is. I really liked the new sliding door between the bedroom and bathroom area. I was able to close it and allow Jackie to sleep a bit longer while I got ready.
While we were getting ready, I got a text from Billie saying that Sarah did have an extra phone cord and that I could borrow it for the week if I needed it. I was very grateful that someone I just met the day before was offering to loan me their phone cord for the week but since I bought one the night before, I didn’t need it.
Jackie is not a big breakfast eater but I need to have something in my stomach to help combat my motion sickness so our routine became for me to run into the food court and grab a bagel to munch on while we waited for the bus to come.
Disclaimer before I continue…. A lot of the photos in this post are not mine and at this point I’m not sure who’s photos they actually are. I borrowed quite a few off of Facebook for this day as I was just too in the moment to take many myself. If you would like to claim one feel free! I do know that this next picture was taken by Kelly @buzzrelly.
She and Liesa @Steppesister were behind Jackie and me in that crazy bag check line. They managed to pick a better line than we did and eventually caught up with us before we made it to the tables. We also found Jenny @Jenny Sanders and her husband Joe in that crowd so the six of us ended up entering Epcot together.
We were meeting at Guest Relations to the left of Spaceship Earth.
There were 19 of us total in the group, me, Jackie (@missjackiemcg), Fallon (@fallonkendra) and her husband Luke, Molly (@Mollydolly334 ), Kara (@paradesintherain ), Su-Lynn (@chunkymonkey ), her husband Steve and sister Su-Queen, Caroline (@disneyAndi14), Billie (@Elevationist), Sarah (@IowaTater), Kelly (@buzzrelly), Liesa (@Steppesister), Lesley (@Lesley Wake), Jenny (@Jenny Sanders) and her husband Joe, Karilynn (@Malia78) and our anonymous host. We had two guides, Jon and Amanda. While Amanda was very nice, she kind of faded into the background compared to Jon. He was an awesome guide who know a ton of Disney trivia. I will say he had a hard time stumping our group of Disney nerds.
With the VIP Tour, we got front of the line access, mostly through the Fast Pass lines, to any rides we wanted so we started off with Test Track that morning. I know I rode with Jackie because she designed our car. I can’t remember who the third member of our group was and I have no ride photo in order to figure it out. I did get a photo in my account but it had other members of our group, not us. I do have a picture of the cute car that Jackie designed. It kind of makes me think of a big pink beetle.
Once we finished up with Test Track, it was time for another once in a lifetime experience at Epcot so we made our way towards the walkway to World Showcase and found a spot facing Spaceship Earth. It happened to be Military Appreciation Month and to celebrate, the Blue Angels were flying over SE that morning.
I decided to video them and on the first pass over SE, I almost missed them. I guess I thought we would hear them before the made it to Epcot but it was so quick I barely had a change to get my phone up.
For their second fly-over, I started recording early so the actual flyover doesn’t start till the last few seconds of this video.
This was a very cool experience and I’m glad we got to take a minute out of our day to witness it live.
Once the Blue Angels were done, we all headed back to WS and over to Norway to ride Frozen Ever After. Once again we were on quickly and ended up taking two boats. I rode with Lesley and Billie on this one.
Our final ride at Epcot was Soarin’. We had almost two full rows on the ride. One of our group in my row (who will remain anonymous unless she wants to chime in) had never ridden the new version of Soarin’ and she was a bit nervous about it. Well if you’ve enjoyed the new version, you will remember that the transitions between scenes can be a bit startling. One of those transitions is a bird that swoops suddenly in front of the scene. A very loud “Jesus Christ” came out of her mouth at that moment which had our whole row laughing hysterically for the rest of the ride.
After Soarin’ it was time to leave Epcot and head to Hollywood Studios but first we took a quick bathroom break and then had a group picture done.
Then we exited through the backstage doors near the bathrooms. It was raining a bit at this point so we all hurried to the two vans they had waiting for us and headed off to HS. I think the backstage part was the best part of the tour for many of us huge Disney fans. We got to see a lot of the backstage area of Epcot. I was excited to see the construction for Ratatouille, the new Space Restaurant and the Guardians coaster. We also saw some of the Food and Wine booths as we drove around.
By the time we made it to the backstage area of HS near RnRC, the rain was done. As we exited the vans, there were CMs waiting for us with a selection of snacks and bottles of water. I was a little disappointed that there were no chocolate options among the snacks (I know, first world problems, beggars can’t be choosers, etc., etc.) but I guess they would have melted in the heat. I did take a bag of plain Lays potato chips even though they are not my favorite because I was getting pretty hungry at that point. For some reason, I do better with my motion sickness if I have food in my stomach.
Our first destination in HS was Slinky Dog Dash. I realized at this point that I hadn’t taken many pictures so I got out my picture and took this lovely one of Sunset Blvd. You are very welcome.
As we rounded the corner near Starbucks, Jon stopped us for a second to point out something I had never noticed before in HS. In the space between Starbucks and the first store on Sunset, there is a small area with tables. Right above those tables is a billboard that’s somewhat hidden by tree branches. That billboard is actually an advertisement for the Hollywood Tower Hotel (aka Tower of Terror)! Of course I get a crappy picture coming up Sunset but failed to get one of the cool billboard I had never noticed before.
I did take another fabulous picture as we rounded the corner into Toy Story Land.
As we walked through the FP queue, Jon told us some facts about the line that were interesting. I’ve forgotten most of them at this point but I did actually take a picture of the price tag on Rex’s box.
11/22/95, the release date of the first Toy Story movie! Boy that makes me feel old.
We all fit into one Slinky dog vehicle except for one person. Poor Sarah got left behind but then she got to ride in front seat of the next train with our guide Jon. So maybe she wasn’t so unlucky after all. Once again I only have ride pictures from others in our group so I have no idea who I rode with.
Our next stop was going to be Tower of Terror but Jon asked how many in our group were not going to ride and it turned out to be about 4 or 5. I’m not sure how it was brought up but someone suggested SDD a second time. Quite a few in our group had never ridden SDD before and even those of us who had were definitely game for a second ride. So we hopped back in line for another ride through Andy’s back yard. I finally got the ride photo this time but ended up “Mike Wazowski’ing” myself.
After our second ride, we got another group photo and this is were the famous Liesa “Chunky Dump” was born. She’s the one in the front row with the tie-dyed shirt.
We headed back down Sunset Blvd and back to our vans where we loaded up and traveled to Animal Kingdom. While we were in route to AK, Jon had us all log on to MDE and set up an order for Satu’li Canteen. We didn’t actually order at this time, just set it up. He told us as soon as we finished up with Flights of Passage, we should complete the order and then head to the restaurant.
We arrived behind Pandora and I was very surprised to hear how loud the Pandora animal sounds were backstage. The sounds are much more subdued in the park itself but were very loud back where they originated.
Our first stop after entering was for our park #3 group shot. I had sent the first two photos to my Mom and she told me I needed to get out front so she could see me better. Well, I’m tall and don’t want to block people so I stood on the very end to make my Mom happy.
There were a few in our group that did not want to ride FOP so they headed off with Amanda to ride Navi River Journey while the rest of us got in line for FOP. I was slightly nervous because I was pretty hungry at that point and was worried about motion sickness. But I ended up having no issues. We took up an entire room so we had a good time joking around during the boring pre-show.
As soon as we exited the ride which was awesome as always, we all tried to log on to MDE and finish our lunch orders but of course the wi-fi was spotty and some were able to order while others weren’t. I had some issues but as soon as we got out of the building, I was able to complete it.
We had a private section in Satu’li for our group. The previous time I had eaten at Satu’li, I had ordered the beef and chicken bowl with the potato base. I didn’t care so much for the potatoes (too many peppers) or the chicken (kind of slimy) so this time I got beef with the rice base.
And for dessert, I got the chocolate cake.
Once again I wasn’t too thrilled with the base, I was expecting a white rice like my brother got back in October, but the beef was delicious. I think I’ll give the noodles a try next time. I mean, you can’t go wrong with noodles, right? And the cake was amazing as always. I finally got someone to try the red things on top and they turned out to be cherries. Still wouldn’t eat them but at least they are not hot peppers like I thought at first.
While we were sitting there, Zach (@AMusicLifeForMe) joined us for a little bit. I’ve read and commented on a few of his TRs but I got shy for some reason and didn’t go up and say hi.
After lunch, we headed back to the Safari to take a trek through Africa. When we got there, the FP line was backed all the way up to the entrance so Jon talked to the CM there (I swear he knew every single CM we ran into during the day) and got us in through the stroller area. It still took some time but I know it was much faster than waiting through the massive FP line.
We all got on the same car along with one other family who had no idea what they were in store for. I do know there were some shenanigans, some of it involving the Baobab tree and which side of the vehicle was better to sit on. But honestly, I was focused on the animals and missed most of it. I did pause in my animal watching to pose for a group selfie.
And for once on this day, I took out my camera and used it! There weren’t a whole lot of animals out during the first part of the safari, I think I have about 4 shots of this bird just because it was the only thing around.
Oh, there was also a Rhino and Bongo hanging around.
There was a bit more activity around the Hippo area including baby Augustus. You can see him to the right in the second picture.
Another one of the Hippos was hanging out on the shore.
Some crocodiles. They are always so easy to photograph since they rarely move.
Continued in Next Post
Originally I had this day scheduled as Animal Kingdom for ¾ of the day with lunch at Tiffin’s and then Hollywood Studios that evening for the Star Wars Dessert Party. Jackie had the Backstage Magic tour booked for the day and then was going to meet me at HS for the Dessert Party.
But a few weeks before our trip, that all changed. As many of you may already know since several others have already written about it, we were gifted a VIP tour for the day by a DISer who asked to remain anonymous. This was an amazing gift and a once in a life time experience for me so I gladly changed my plans for the day. I don’t think there is enough words in the English language to thank our host for this day.
We needed to be at Epcot by 8 am to meet up with our tour guides for the day so Jackie and I were up early and out the door by 7 am. Well at least I was up very early since I am a lot higher maintenance than she is. I really liked the new sliding door between the bedroom and bathroom area. I was able to close it and allow Jackie to sleep a bit longer while I got ready.
While we were getting ready, I got a text from Billie saying that Sarah did have an extra phone cord and that I could borrow it for the week if I needed it. I was very grateful that someone I just met the day before was offering to loan me their phone cord for the week but since I bought one the night before, I didn’t need it.
Jackie is not a big breakfast eater but I need to have something in my stomach to help combat my motion sickness so our routine became for me to run into the food court and grab a bagel to munch on while we waited for the bus to come.
Disclaimer before I continue…. A lot of the photos in this post are not mine and at this point I’m not sure who’s photos they actually are. I borrowed quite a few off of Facebook for this day as I was just too in the moment to take many myself. If you would like to claim one feel free! I do know that this next picture was taken by Kelly @buzzrelly.
She and Liesa @Steppesister were behind Jackie and me in that crazy bag check line. They managed to pick a better line than we did and eventually caught up with us before we made it to the tables. We also found Jenny @Jenny Sanders and her husband Joe in that crowd so the six of us ended up entering Epcot together.
We were meeting at Guest Relations to the left of Spaceship Earth.
There were 19 of us total in the group, me, Jackie (@missjackiemcg), Fallon (@fallonkendra) and her husband Luke, Molly (@Mollydolly334 ), Kara (@paradesintherain ), Su-Lynn (@chunkymonkey ), her husband Steve and sister Su-Queen, Caroline (@disneyAndi14), Billie (@Elevationist), Sarah (@IowaTater), Kelly (@buzzrelly), Liesa (@Steppesister), Lesley (@Lesley Wake), Jenny (@Jenny Sanders) and her husband Joe, Karilynn (@Malia78) and our anonymous host. We had two guides, Jon and Amanda. While Amanda was very nice, she kind of faded into the background compared to Jon. He was an awesome guide who know a ton of Disney trivia. I will say he had a hard time stumping our group of Disney nerds.
With the VIP Tour, we got front of the line access, mostly through the Fast Pass lines, to any rides we wanted so we started off with Test Track that morning. I know I rode with Jackie because she designed our car. I can’t remember who the third member of our group was and I have no ride photo in order to figure it out. I did get a photo in my account but it had other members of our group, not us. I do have a picture of the cute car that Jackie designed. It kind of makes me think of a big pink beetle.
Once we finished up with Test Track, it was time for another once in a lifetime experience at Epcot so we made our way towards the walkway to World Showcase and found a spot facing Spaceship Earth. It happened to be Military Appreciation Month and to celebrate, the Blue Angels were flying over SE that morning.
I decided to video them and on the first pass over SE, I almost missed them. I guess I thought we would hear them before the made it to Epcot but it was so quick I barely had a change to get my phone up.
For their second fly-over, I started recording early so the actual flyover doesn’t start till the last few seconds of this video.
This was a very cool experience and I’m glad we got to take a minute out of our day to witness it live.
Once the Blue Angels were done, we all headed back to WS and over to Norway to ride Frozen Ever After. Once again we were on quickly and ended up taking two boats. I rode with Lesley and Billie on this one.
Our final ride at Epcot was Soarin’. We had almost two full rows on the ride. One of our group in my row (who will remain anonymous unless she wants to chime in) had never ridden the new version of Soarin’ and she was a bit nervous about it. Well if you’ve enjoyed the new version, you will remember that the transitions between scenes can be a bit startling. One of those transitions is a bird that swoops suddenly in front of the scene. A very loud “Jesus Christ” came out of her mouth at that moment which had our whole row laughing hysterically for the rest of the ride.
After Soarin’ it was time to leave Epcot and head to Hollywood Studios but first we took a quick bathroom break and then had a group picture done.
Then we exited through the backstage doors near the bathrooms. It was raining a bit at this point so we all hurried to the two vans they had waiting for us and headed off to HS. I think the backstage part was the best part of the tour for many of us huge Disney fans. We got to see a lot of the backstage area of Epcot. I was excited to see the construction for Ratatouille, the new Space Restaurant and the Guardians coaster. We also saw some of the Food and Wine booths as we drove around.
By the time we made it to the backstage area of HS near RnRC, the rain was done. As we exited the vans, there were CMs waiting for us with a selection of snacks and bottles of water. I was a little disappointed that there were no chocolate options among the snacks (I know, first world problems, beggars can’t be choosers, etc., etc.) but I guess they would have melted in the heat. I did take a bag of plain Lays potato chips even though they are not my favorite because I was getting pretty hungry at that point. For some reason, I do better with my motion sickness if I have food in my stomach.
Our first destination in HS was Slinky Dog Dash. I realized at this point that I hadn’t taken many pictures so I got out my picture and took this lovely one of Sunset Blvd. You are very welcome.
As we rounded the corner near Starbucks, Jon stopped us for a second to point out something I had never noticed before in HS. In the space between Starbucks and the first store on Sunset, there is a small area with tables. Right above those tables is a billboard that’s somewhat hidden by tree branches. That billboard is actually an advertisement for the Hollywood Tower Hotel (aka Tower of Terror)! Of course I get a crappy picture coming up Sunset but failed to get one of the cool billboard I had never noticed before.
I did take another fabulous picture as we rounded the corner into Toy Story Land.
As we walked through the FP queue, Jon told us some facts about the line that were interesting. I’ve forgotten most of them at this point but I did actually take a picture of the price tag on Rex’s box.
11/22/95, the release date of the first Toy Story movie! Boy that makes me feel old.
We all fit into one Slinky dog vehicle except for one person. Poor Sarah got left behind but then she got to ride in front seat of the next train with our guide Jon. So maybe she wasn’t so unlucky after all. Once again I only have ride pictures from others in our group so I have no idea who I rode with.
Our next stop was going to be Tower of Terror but Jon asked how many in our group were not going to ride and it turned out to be about 4 or 5. I’m not sure how it was brought up but someone suggested SDD a second time. Quite a few in our group had never ridden SDD before and even those of us who had were definitely game for a second ride. So we hopped back in line for another ride through Andy’s back yard. I finally got the ride photo this time but ended up “Mike Wazowski’ing” myself.
After our second ride, we got another group photo and this is were the famous Liesa “Chunky Dump” was born. She’s the one in the front row with the tie-dyed shirt.
We headed back down Sunset Blvd and back to our vans where we loaded up and traveled to Animal Kingdom. While we were in route to AK, Jon had us all log on to MDE and set up an order for Satu’li Canteen. We didn’t actually order at this time, just set it up. He told us as soon as we finished up with Flights of Passage, we should complete the order and then head to the restaurant.
We arrived behind Pandora and I was very surprised to hear how loud the Pandora animal sounds were backstage. The sounds are much more subdued in the park itself but were very loud back where they originated.
Our first stop after entering was for our park #3 group shot. I had sent the first two photos to my Mom and she told me I needed to get out front so she could see me better. Well, I’m tall and don’t want to block people so I stood on the very end to make my Mom happy.
There were a few in our group that did not want to ride FOP so they headed off with Amanda to ride Navi River Journey while the rest of us got in line for FOP. I was slightly nervous because I was pretty hungry at that point and was worried about motion sickness. But I ended up having no issues. We took up an entire room so we had a good time joking around during the boring pre-show.
As soon as we exited the ride which was awesome as always, we all tried to log on to MDE and finish our lunch orders but of course the wi-fi was spotty and some were able to order while others weren’t. I had some issues but as soon as we got out of the building, I was able to complete it.
We had a private section in Satu’li for our group. The previous time I had eaten at Satu’li, I had ordered the beef and chicken bowl with the potato base. I didn’t care so much for the potatoes (too many peppers) or the chicken (kind of slimy) so this time I got beef with the rice base.
And for dessert, I got the chocolate cake.
Once again I wasn’t too thrilled with the base, I was expecting a white rice like my brother got back in October, but the beef was delicious. I think I’ll give the noodles a try next time. I mean, you can’t go wrong with noodles, right? And the cake was amazing as always. I finally got someone to try the red things on top and they turned out to be cherries. Still wouldn’t eat them but at least they are not hot peppers like I thought at first.
While we were sitting there, Zach (@AMusicLifeForMe) joined us for a little bit. I’ve read and commented on a few of his TRs but I got shy for some reason and didn’t go up and say hi.
After lunch, we headed back to the Safari to take a trek through Africa. When we got there, the FP line was backed all the way up to the entrance so Jon talked to the CM there (I swear he knew every single CM we ran into during the day) and got us in through the stroller area. It still took some time but I know it was much faster than waiting through the massive FP line.
We all got on the same car along with one other family who had no idea what they were in store for. I do know there were some shenanigans, some of it involving the Baobab tree and which side of the vehicle was better to sit on. But honestly, I was focused on the animals and missed most of it. I did pause in my animal watching to pose for a group selfie.
And for once on this day, I took out my camera and used it! There weren’t a whole lot of animals out during the first part of the safari, I think I have about 4 shots of this bird just because it was the only thing around.
Oh, there was also a Rhino and Bongo hanging around.
There was a bit more activity around the Hippo area including baby Augustus. You can see him to the right in the second picture.
Another one of the Hippos was hanging out on the shore.
Some crocodiles. They are always so easy to photograph since they rarely move.
Continued in Next Post