gometros
<font color=teal>WDWWDS Chief Weapons Inspector an
- Joined
- May 4, 2001
Disney Magic - Day 2 November 25, 2001
I woke up at 7:30 and went up to Topsiders to get a cup of coffee and to let Judy sleep a little. I returned to the room at 8:30 to wake her up. We ordered room service, which arrived at 9:30 and ate it on the veranda. What a pleasure. After finishing, I went up to deck 9 to read, but it was too windy. Also, we sailed into some rain.
I went back to the room and got Judy, then we went to the Promenade Lounge to meet the DISers. We met Scott H and his wife, Fran (treloarf), cheekygrrl and her husband, Dawn Haan, Becca and bunnymkc I know I'm leaving out a few people.
A bunch of us went to the Buena Vista Theater for the first Behind the Scenes program, The Making of Disney's Animal Kingdom with Joe Rohde. Joe is a lead Disney Imagineer who I remembered from a televised special on the Animal Kingdom. He went into detail about the planning behind Disneyworld's fourth park, including the development process that takes place. It was quite fascinating.
Afterwards, we went to lunch, then on to the second Behind the Scenes program, Stage Works Tour of the Walt Disney Theater. This program gave us an insight into what it takes to produce the shows on the ship, from formation of the company to final production. We were especially fortunate, since the next cast was already on board, in final preparation for their taking over in two weeks. Each cast works a rotation of six months and are known by their number. Magic 7 was the cast that was performing and Magic 8, were to be the replacements. We learned this from Corinne, the stage manager, who was one of three speakers. The technical director (Whose name escapes me) and Samantha, the costume manager spoke. As Corinne explained it, when the cast is formed, they rehearse in Toronto for three months in gymnasium space owned by Disney. While the floor is marked out, their is no props or scenery to work with. The cast then come on board two weeks prior to their performance and rehearse on stage early in the morning. Corinne explained how the additional cast members do pose an interesting problem in the logistics of having extra crew on board. The program ended with us being allowed on stage to look around and talk with the various members of the stage crew.
When the program was finished, we went back to the room. I closed my eyes for a while, while Judy sat on the veranda and read. At 4:45, we went to Rockin' Bar D for the DVC Members gathering. There were two DVC guides who hosted their own version of Jeopardy - all questions having to do with DVC (of course). I won a DVC watch for answering correctly the name of the restaurant at Old Key West with the pictures on the wall of DVC members. There were free drinks, including rum punch.
We had decided to go to the DVC gathering in normal clothes, so we had to go back to the room to change into our formal attire for dinner in Animator's Palette. Judy looked ravishing, while I found out that a tux can make even a shlump like me look good. We stopped by Preludes to get a picture with the captain and then went on to dinner. Judy had the butternut squash soup and the mahi mahi. I had the shrimp and lobster roll, the garden salad and the rack of lamb. A few of us at the table had the shrimp and lobster roll, which is served cold, and none of us cared for it. I think it is the only thing I had all week that I didn't like. If I had remembered that rack of lamb was one of the choices at Palos, I would have waited to have it then, but it was very good.
After dinner, we stood on line by the atrium for formal pictures. We ended up standing with bunnymkc's family. Then we went to see Hercules the Muse-ical. This is still one of my favorite shows, especially when Hades does his little one-on-one with the audience. The one thing I noticed about the show, that I really liked, was that it was obvious that the script was updated to stay current, slipping in sly references to current events and media pop icons.
During the show, we could feel the ship rocking. Judy had skipped taking her Bonine today, beucase she thought she was feeling better, but the effects of the motion caught up with her and she was not feeling well. In fact, the ship has been rocking a lot since we boarded, more than I remember it last year. I found out later that this was caused by the effect of a tropical storm, Olga that was headed towards Bermuda. So, Judy went back to the room and I went down to the Internet cafe to check my mail. I learned very quickly not to underestimate how much time you can spend online. I didn't take the $89.95 special for the week, thinking I was only going to check my mail for messages from the kids and get off. However, once I finished reading, I received a printed out status report that said I was connected for thirty-three minutes! Fortunately, I was able to convince the manager that I made a mistake and she allowed me to switch. I had started out writing a note to my children and then checked my mail. Much to my surprise, there were about thirteen messages from my youngest daughter, Elana. She took me literally when I said we would write and had been sitting by the computer from the time we boarded, waiting for email from us. It's amazing how quickly 13-year olds can learn the power of guilt. When I was finished, I looked in on Judy and then went to Lumiere's for the dessert buffet. There was a line out the door, extending into the lobby. The theme was Egyptian and there were sculptures made of chocolate. I was trying to be good, so I just took little slivers of the cakes I wanted to taste, and some ice cream, and went back to the room for the night.
<p><center><A href="http://imagehost.auctionwatch.com/bin/viewimage.x/00000000/samsarmy/TowelAnimal2.JPG"><img src="http://imagehost.auctionwatch.com/bin/imageserver.x/00000000/samsarmy/.mids/TowelAnimal2.JPG" ALT="Image Hosting by auctionwatch.com" ><font size=1><br>Click image to view larger version</font></A></center>
I woke up at 7:30 and went up to Topsiders to get a cup of coffee and to let Judy sleep a little. I returned to the room at 8:30 to wake her up. We ordered room service, which arrived at 9:30 and ate it on the veranda. What a pleasure. After finishing, I went up to deck 9 to read, but it was too windy. Also, we sailed into some rain.
I went back to the room and got Judy, then we went to the Promenade Lounge to meet the DISers. We met Scott H and his wife, Fran (treloarf), cheekygrrl and her husband, Dawn Haan, Becca and bunnymkc I know I'm leaving out a few people.
A bunch of us went to the Buena Vista Theater for the first Behind the Scenes program, The Making of Disney's Animal Kingdom with Joe Rohde. Joe is a lead Disney Imagineer who I remembered from a televised special on the Animal Kingdom. He went into detail about the planning behind Disneyworld's fourth park, including the development process that takes place. It was quite fascinating.
Afterwards, we went to lunch, then on to the second Behind the Scenes program, Stage Works Tour of the Walt Disney Theater. This program gave us an insight into what it takes to produce the shows on the ship, from formation of the company to final production. We were especially fortunate, since the next cast was already on board, in final preparation for their taking over in two weeks. Each cast works a rotation of six months and are known by their number. Magic 7 was the cast that was performing and Magic 8, were to be the replacements. We learned this from Corinne, the stage manager, who was one of three speakers. The technical director (Whose name escapes me) and Samantha, the costume manager spoke. As Corinne explained it, when the cast is formed, they rehearse in Toronto for three months in gymnasium space owned by Disney. While the floor is marked out, their is no props or scenery to work with. The cast then come on board two weeks prior to their performance and rehearse on stage early in the morning. Corinne explained how the additional cast members do pose an interesting problem in the logistics of having extra crew on board. The program ended with us being allowed on stage to look around and talk with the various members of the stage crew.
When the program was finished, we went back to the room. I closed my eyes for a while, while Judy sat on the veranda and read. At 4:45, we went to Rockin' Bar D for the DVC Members gathering. There were two DVC guides who hosted their own version of Jeopardy - all questions having to do with DVC (of course). I won a DVC watch for answering correctly the name of the restaurant at Old Key West with the pictures on the wall of DVC members. There were free drinks, including rum punch.
We had decided to go to the DVC gathering in normal clothes, so we had to go back to the room to change into our formal attire for dinner in Animator's Palette. Judy looked ravishing, while I found out that a tux can make even a shlump like me look good. We stopped by Preludes to get a picture with the captain and then went on to dinner. Judy had the butternut squash soup and the mahi mahi. I had the shrimp and lobster roll, the garden salad and the rack of lamb. A few of us at the table had the shrimp and lobster roll, which is served cold, and none of us cared for it. I think it is the only thing I had all week that I didn't like. If I had remembered that rack of lamb was one of the choices at Palos, I would have waited to have it then, but it was very good.
After dinner, we stood on line by the atrium for formal pictures. We ended up standing with bunnymkc's family. Then we went to see Hercules the Muse-ical. This is still one of my favorite shows, especially when Hades does his little one-on-one with the audience. The one thing I noticed about the show, that I really liked, was that it was obvious that the script was updated to stay current, slipping in sly references to current events and media pop icons.
During the show, we could feel the ship rocking. Judy had skipped taking her Bonine today, beucase she thought she was feeling better, but the effects of the motion caught up with her and she was not feeling well. In fact, the ship has been rocking a lot since we boarded, more than I remember it last year. I found out later that this was caused by the effect of a tropical storm, Olga that was headed towards Bermuda. So, Judy went back to the room and I went down to the Internet cafe to check my mail. I learned very quickly not to underestimate how much time you can spend online. I didn't take the $89.95 special for the week, thinking I was only going to check my mail for messages from the kids and get off. However, once I finished reading, I received a printed out status report that said I was connected for thirty-three minutes! Fortunately, I was able to convince the manager that I made a mistake and she allowed me to switch. I had started out writing a note to my children and then checked my mail. Much to my surprise, there were about thirteen messages from my youngest daughter, Elana. She took me literally when I said we would write and had been sitting by the computer from the time we boarded, waiting for email from us. It's amazing how quickly 13-year olds can learn the power of guilt. When I was finished, I looked in on Judy and then went to Lumiere's for the dessert buffet. There was a line out the door, extending into the lobby. The theme was Egyptian and there were sculptures made of chocolate. I was trying to be good, so I just took little slivers of the cakes I wanted to taste, and some ice cream, and went back to the room for the night.
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