- Joined
- Aug 7, 2000
The Cast
Myself - Self proclaimed Disney Freak...I like everything Disney and all rides
DH- Closet Disney Freak (he blames it on me, but loves it just as much), also will ride anything
Cam 8- Not very daring, likes the simple rides
Colt 5- Our wildman daredevil, who unfortuantely is too short for some rides
To start off our last day we had a Priority Seating booked for Goofys Kitchen at 8:00am. I had planned to get up, get ready, then throw in a load of laundry or 2. I know, I know, who does laundry on vacation? I dont usually, but because we were going on a cruise the next day, I really had to get some done. This was a longer than usual trip for us. I knew the laundry room was right near Goofys Kitchen so I figured this was a good time to do it.
I got up and started getting ready when DH got up and asked if it would be better for him to run over and throw a load in a little earlier. I dont know why he did, but it worked out great. We found they only have 2 washers and 3 dryers and there were other people there!!! UGH! Somehow DH & I managed to trade off, waiting there and getting ready in the room with the kids. In the end, by about 7:58 we had 1 load done and 1 with about 25 more minutes to dry. We left it, but DH did leave breakfast briefly to empty a dryer for someone else to use. Another woman we met there wasnt so lucky and she ended up missing her character breakfast in the park while the rest of her family went. IMO, the DLH really needs a bigger laundry room (again, a very minor complaint).
On to Goofys Kitchen. We checked in and had to wait about 10 minutes before being seated. We enjoyed it here. The food was wonderful and there was a great variety, even many lunch items. Unfortunately at 8:00am, I just couldnt eat anything but breakfast food. The service was great and the kids enjoyed the dancing and picking up the plates with Goofy. The only thing they lacked was character interaction. Only Goofy, Chip, and Mary Poppins came to our table. We did see Pluto at another table as we left but we hadnt seen him near us throughout our meal. There could be a very good reason for this though. Oprah was in the room next to us with her classroom of 3rd graders that she brought to DL. I have a feeling the characters may have been making unusual visit over there, leaving Goofys a bit shorthanded this day. Overall we did enjoy this meal very much and if even 1 or 2 more characters made it to our table I would have rated it excellent.
We then stopped at the laundry room and grabbed our bags before returning to our room. We dropped off the laundry and headed to DL. Again we took the monorail and when arriving in Tomorrowland the Monorail Driver made the announcement that Fantasyland was going to be closed from 11:00-12:00. This was for Oprah.
So our first stop was to get our FPs for Space Mt. It was probably about 9:45 and the FP return time was around 2:00pm. We didnt think we would still be there then so we sucked it up and went to wait in the 70 minute line. Colt had never ridden this, but he wanted to...Cam didnt want to.
We waited outside for about 45 minutes, got right up to the door to enter the building when .you guessed it the ride shut down. UGH! Oh I should mention here we had gotten FPs for Buzz before we got in line here.
So now we were worrying how long it would be. Would we miss out on Buzz? Would we be waiting hours??? After a few minutes the CM was able to tell us what happened is each car is alotted a certain amount of time to unload. If it takes too long the cars can back up and then they have to stop the ride to clear out all the cars that are waiting to unload. So they did that, it took about 20 more minutes and then the CM was letting the first group of people, including us, into the building. We still had a bit more of a wait inside, so it probably was a total of 70 minutes. Had the ride not shut down it would have been quicker. But during that time DH & I were able to convince Cam to go on with us too. Of course we had to bribe him with a pin, the picture at the end of the ride, we even promised that we would take him to a Red Sox game if he went on. Yep, after the ride we let the surprise out we are going to the Red Sox/Angels game the day we get off the ship!
Ironically Cam loved Space Mt and Colt, our little dare devil, wasnt too sure about it. He said he didnt like it, but he says that about all the thrill rides he likes. This one he seemed more serious about though.
So after buying the picture and telling the kids we really were taking them to a Red Sox game, it was our FP time so we headed over to Buzz. Apparently Oprah was now filming in Buzz so they wouldnt let us on. UGH! Ok, we still hadnt gotten to ride Peter Pan so we head towards Fantasyland...oh wait that was still closed for Oprah too. UGH UGH!
Now we were getting frustrated between rides breaking down, not being able to use our FPs, Oprah, things werent going well. I then realized we hadnt seen the Snow White show yet and it was just about 11:45, showtime. Luckily this part of Fantasyland was still up and running and we made it in just in time. The show was really cute. Its probably more exciting if you have a big Snow White fan in the family, but even without I'd say it's worth seeing at least once.
By the time we got out of the show, took a potty break, got a drink of water, called home (I made periodic calls to family at home from all different spots in the parks they loved it!) It was about 12:40. We started walking and saw people lined up for the Parade. The 3:15 parade was at 1:00 today For Oprah. Where we stumbled upon a viewing area we happened to see cameras, microphones, a lot of security, etc so we stuck around a few minutes. Before we knew it, Ms Winfrey herself was bopping down the street, joining her kids on the sidewalk. She then removed her visor and put on her Golden Mickey Ears for the show. Since we had seen the parade already and had had a bit of a frustrating morning we decided to take a break to recharge.
Heres where we messed up, but it was actually a funny story. Before the trip, I had read here on the Dis that a good place to pick up bottled water is at the convenience stores at the Good Neighbor hotels, right outside the Main Gate. Since we were going on the cruise tomorrow and I drink a lot of water I wanted to pick some up to bring with us. I thought now would be a good time to take a walk over there and get some, and check out the area.
We went to the first store we saw at the Ramada Inn and while picking up the waters, I happened to see in the case in front of me, Sam Adams beer. This is DHs drink of choice and he had been complaining that they dont have it on the ship (we later found out they do in fact have it now at a couple of the bars). I suggested he pick up a 6 pack of that to bring along so we did. We paid for all this, got it bagged up and started walking. This was no easy task as we had a lot of water to lug and it was hot out. Once we started our walk it hit me WE HAVE TO GO THROUGH SECURITY!
To get from the Good Neighbor Hotels back to the DL hotels you need to walk through the main gate of the parks, then DTD. I figured they would never let us through with all that water, nevermind the beer. UGH! This had been the day of UGHs! So we decided to go to security and just explain what we had done, not realizing where we had to walk. The CM was very nice about it and she said its fine. We just needed to be escorted through and the man who does that just left to escort someone else. I guess this is a common thing after all. We were happy to sit and take a break after lugging all that, but even happier they didnt confiscate it. After a few minutes the CM seemed to feel bad (she didnt need to, she was doing us a favor) and she offered to walk us through since she didnt know when the man would be back. We went and she was very pleasant. During our walk we ran into the man who was supposed to escort us so he continued from there. He was another very pleasant CM. We finally made it back to our room and by now we needed some of that water to drink, LOL!
We finished putting away the laundry from earlier and tried getting the kids to rest a bit, but this is Disney! The kids cant rest here!
We debated going in the pool, but by the time I realized getting the kids to rest was hopeless it was getting late and we decided we should go back to the park. We were off again.
When we arrived we went straight to Buzz. Earlier when we couldnt get on Buzz the CMs told us we could come back at any time today with the FPs. We had no problem and walked right on Buzz with our FPs from earlier. We then saw that the FP time for Autopia wasnt too far away (Im sorry, I think by now I had lost all concept of time so I cant say exactly what time it was). We got FPs for that and then went to see Honey I shrunk the Audience. This is one that I havent seen in Epcot in a few years so it was good to see it again. Its always a cute show with a lot of laughs.
We then watched some street performers before riding Autopia. *Heres a hint when you get the lisence at Autopia be sure to read it. It seems DH just stuck his in his pocket and we didnt come across it again until we got home. It says on it he won a pin and had to go pick it up somewhere. The kids were not happy that they missed out on that one!
By now we were looking for some dinner. Wednesday when we stopped for a drink at the Hungry Bear, DH had noticed they had a Roast Beef Sandwich there that he thought looked good. I was fine having a burger (I couldnt believe I made it this far through a Disney vacation without having 1), and the kids were looking for hotdogs We decided to venture to Hungry Bear and if there was nothing for the kids there, we would look somewhere else. They had corn dogs which was ok with Cam, but we had to promise Colt we would remove the corn and then its just a hot dog. He went for it so we didnt have to search too far. The kids loved getting the lunch boxes there and made us lug them around for the rest of the night.
After dinner we decided to go back to Tomorrowland as we wanted to check out Innoventions. We happened to be near the train station in NO Sq when we decided this, so we took that route. Upon waiting at the station I got a phone call from the Diss own Mary Jo. Her and her kids were swinging by to renew her AP and they were going to stop into say hi. Now, we all know Mary Jo is the resident DL expert here and she has an answer to every question, but this is just how amazing she really is. Our conversation went something like this...
Hello
Hi Katie, its Mary Jo
Hey Mary Jo how are you?
We are at Disneyland now, where are you?
Im waiting in line to get on the train.
Ok, youre in New Orleans Square.
...Big pause by me thinking how the heck does she know what stop I'm at???
She spoke up again I can hear the clicking in the background
Does she not know every detail of Disneyland or what???
So we planned to meet at the Tomorrowland Stop. Shortly we were on the train making our way over there when the train had to make a sudden stop. The conductor was near us and we heard him say This is what happens when kids open up gates". UGH! I guess a kid had opened a gate at one of the stops. Luckily I dont think they made it into the track area or got hurt or anything, but it makes you want to keep an extra eye on your kids.
We finally made it to Tomorrowland and had the pleasure of meeting Mary Jo and her kids, Kelley & Nick. What sweethearts they all are. Unfortunately they couldnt stay long, but it was nice to chat for a while.
When they left we checked out Innoventions. There is so much in here you could probably spend the better part of a day checking everything out. In the first room we entered, DH got picked to ride a stationary bike and race against a kid. The kids were thrilled that Dad got picked to do this....and DH had to try really hard to beat the kid.
By the time we left it was probably about 8:00 and it was getting dark. I knew if we wanted a good spot for Remember Dreams Come True we would need to stake out our spot soon. It was probably about 8:20 when we claimed our spot. We just plopped ourselves down where we saw some room, on the top right side of Main St(when facing the castle), sort of near the Plaza Inn, but out more toward Main St. This turned out to be perfect except we did have a tree obstructing our view a bit.
Since we had quite a wait, we decided to send DH to get us icecream. Apparently everyone else in the park had the same idea as the line was huge and this took quite some time. This was difficult for me as my kids didnt get the concept of defending your personal space, and kept squirming, getting closer and closer, losing our space. UGH! I hate to be a space hog, but if Im going to be sitting there for an hour, I dont want to lose our area. Finally DH returned, squished in with us, and I could relax again.
By the time we finished our treats it was just a little before show time of 9:25. Of course we all stood up when the fireworks started so that actually gave us all some more room.
All I can say about Remember Dreams Come True is WOW!!! I knew this was a good show, but WOW!!!! Im a big fan of Wishes in the MK, but I have to say I liked this even better. They included some of Wishes, had special effects, more music I felt, and I thought having Julie Andrews narrate was a very nice touch! This display was well worth the wait!
The fireworks ended and it was time to end our DL visit.
But first we couldnt resist stopping at the hat shop at the end of Main St and buying the boys Golden Mickey Ears. How could you not? While we were sad to leave, we couldnt be too sad. Tomorrow we would be boarding the Disney Magic for a 7 night cruise to the Mexican Riviera, then back to Anaheim for a day(trip reports coming soon, hopefully)!!!!
*link to pictures
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=899613
Myself - Self proclaimed Disney Freak...I like everything Disney and all rides
DH- Closet Disney Freak (he blames it on me, but loves it just as much), also will ride anything
Cam 8- Not very daring, likes the simple rides
Colt 5- Our wildman daredevil, who unfortuantely is too short for some rides
To start off our last day we had a Priority Seating booked for Goofys Kitchen at 8:00am. I had planned to get up, get ready, then throw in a load of laundry or 2. I know, I know, who does laundry on vacation? I dont usually, but because we were going on a cruise the next day, I really had to get some done. This was a longer than usual trip for us. I knew the laundry room was right near Goofys Kitchen so I figured this was a good time to do it.
I got up and started getting ready when DH got up and asked if it would be better for him to run over and throw a load in a little earlier. I dont know why he did, but it worked out great. We found they only have 2 washers and 3 dryers and there were other people there!!! UGH! Somehow DH & I managed to trade off, waiting there and getting ready in the room with the kids. In the end, by about 7:58 we had 1 load done and 1 with about 25 more minutes to dry. We left it, but DH did leave breakfast briefly to empty a dryer for someone else to use. Another woman we met there wasnt so lucky and she ended up missing her character breakfast in the park while the rest of her family went. IMO, the DLH really needs a bigger laundry room (again, a very minor complaint).
On to Goofys Kitchen. We checked in and had to wait about 10 minutes before being seated. We enjoyed it here. The food was wonderful and there was a great variety, even many lunch items. Unfortunately at 8:00am, I just couldnt eat anything but breakfast food. The service was great and the kids enjoyed the dancing and picking up the plates with Goofy. The only thing they lacked was character interaction. Only Goofy, Chip, and Mary Poppins came to our table. We did see Pluto at another table as we left but we hadnt seen him near us throughout our meal. There could be a very good reason for this though. Oprah was in the room next to us with her classroom of 3rd graders that she brought to DL. I have a feeling the characters may have been making unusual visit over there, leaving Goofys a bit shorthanded this day. Overall we did enjoy this meal very much and if even 1 or 2 more characters made it to our table I would have rated it excellent.
We then stopped at the laundry room and grabbed our bags before returning to our room. We dropped off the laundry and headed to DL. Again we took the monorail and when arriving in Tomorrowland the Monorail Driver made the announcement that Fantasyland was going to be closed from 11:00-12:00. This was for Oprah.
So our first stop was to get our FPs for Space Mt. It was probably about 9:45 and the FP return time was around 2:00pm. We didnt think we would still be there then so we sucked it up and went to wait in the 70 minute line. Colt had never ridden this, but he wanted to...Cam didnt want to.
We waited outside for about 45 minutes, got right up to the door to enter the building when .you guessed it the ride shut down. UGH! Oh I should mention here we had gotten FPs for Buzz before we got in line here.
So now we were worrying how long it would be. Would we miss out on Buzz? Would we be waiting hours??? After a few minutes the CM was able to tell us what happened is each car is alotted a certain amount of time to unload. If it takes too long the cars can back up and then they have to stop the ride to clear out all the cars that are waiting to unload. So they did that, it took about 20 more minutes and then the CM was letting the first group of people, including us, into the building. We still had a bit more of a wait inside, so it probably was a total of 70 minutes. Had the ride not shut down it would have been quicker. But during that time DH & I were able to convince Cam to go on with us too. Of course we had to bribe him with a pin, the picture at the end of the ride, we even promised that we would take him to a Red Sox game if he went on. Yep, after the ride we let the surprise out we are going to the Red Sox/Angels game the day we get off the ship!
Ironically Cam loved Space Mt and Colt, our little dare devil, wasnt too sure about it. He said he didnt like it, but he says that about all the thrill rides he likes. This one he seemed more serious about though.
So after buying the picture and telling the kids we really were taking them to a Red Sox game, it was our FP time so we headed over to Buzz. Apparently Oprah was now filming in Buzz so they wouldnt let us on. UGH! Ok, we still hadnt gotten to ride Peter Pan so we head towards Fantasyland...oh wait that was still closed for Oprah too. UGH UGH!
Now we were getting frustrated between rides breaking down, not being able to use our FPs, Oprah, things werent going well. I then realized we hadnt seen the Snow White show yet and it was just about 11:45, showtime. Luckily this part of Fantasyland was still up and running and we made it in just in time. The show was really cute. Its probably more exciting if you have a big Snow White fan in the family, but even without I'd say it's worth seeing at least once.
By the time we got out of the show, took a potty break, got a drink of water, called home (I made periodic calls to family at home from all different spots in the parks they loved it!) It was about 12:40. We started walking and saw people lined up for the Parade. The 3:15 parade was at 1:00 today For Oprah. Where we stumbled upon a viewing area we happened to see cameras, microphones, a lot of security, etc so we stuck around a few minutes. Before we knew it, Ms Winfrey herself was bopping down the street, joining her kids on the sidewalk. She then removed her visor and put on her Golden Mickey Ears for the show. Since we had seen the parade already and had had a bit of a frustrating morning we decided to take a break to recharge.
Heres where we messed up, but it was actually a funny story. Before the trip, I had read here on the Dis that a good place to pick up bottled water is at the convenience stores at the Good Neighbor hotels, right outside the Main Gate. Since we were going on the cruise tomorrow and I drink a lot of water I wanted to pick some up to bring with us. I thought now would be a good time to take a walk over there and get some, and check out the area.
We went to the first store we saw at the Ramada Inn and while picking up the waters, I happened to see in the case in front of me, Sam Adams beer. This is DHs drink of choice and he had been complaining that they dont have it on the ship (we later found out they do in fact have it now at a couple of the bars). I suggested he pick up a 6 pack of that to bring along so we did. We paid for all this, got it bagged up and started walking. This was no easy task as we had a lot of water to lug and it was hot out. Once we started our walk it hit me WE HAVE TO GO THROUGH SECURITY!
To get from the Good Neighbor Hotels back to the DL hotels you need to walk through the main gate of the parks, then DTD. I figured they would never let us through with all that water, nevermind the beer. UGH! This had been the day of UGHs! So we decided to go to security and just explain what we had done, not realizing where we had to walk. The CM was very nice about it and she said its fine. We just needed to be escorted through and the man who does that just left to escort someone else. I guess this is a common thing after all. We were happy to sit and take a break after lugging all that, but even happier they didnt confiscate it. After a few minutes the CM seemed to feel bad (she didnt need to, she was doing us a favor) and she offered to walk us through since she didnt know when the man would be back. We went and she was very pleasant. During our walk we ran into the man who was supposed to escort us so he continued from there. He was another very pleasant CM. We finally made it back to our room and by now we needed some of that water to drink, LOL! We finished putting away the laundry from earlier and tried getting the kids to rest a bit, but this is Disney! The kids cant rest here!
We debated going in the pool, but by the time I realized getting the kids to rest was hopeless it was getting late and we decided we should go back to the park. We were off again. When we arrived we went straight to Buzz. Earlier when we couldnt get on Buzz the CMs told us we could come back at any time today with the FPs. We had no problem and walked right on Buzz with our FPs from earlier. We then saw that the FP time for Autopia wasnt too far away (Im sorry, I think by now I had lost all concept of time so I cant say exactly what time it was). We got FPs for that and then went to see Honey I shrunk the Audience. This is one that I havent seen in Epcot in a few years so it was good to see it again. Its always a cute show with a lot of laughs.
We then watched some street performers before riding Autopia. *Heres a hint when you get the lisence at Autopia be sure to read it. It seems DH just stuck his in his pocket and we didnt come across it again until we got home. It says on it he won a pin and had to go pick it up somewhere. The kids were not happy that they missed out on that one!
By now we were looking for some dinner. Wednesday when we stopped for a drink at the Hungry Bear, DH had noticed they had a Roast Beef Sandwich there that he thought looked good. I was fine having a burger (I couldnt believe I made it this far through a Disney vacation without having 1), and the kids were looking for hotdogs We decided to venture to Hungry Bear and if there was nothing for the kids there, we would look somewhere else. They had corn dogs which was ok with Cam, but we had to promise Colt we would remove the corn and then its just a hot dog. He went for it so we didnt have to search too far. The kids loved getting the lunch boxes there and made us lug them around for the rest of the night.
After dinner we decided to go back to Tomorrowland as we wanted to check out Innoventions. We happened to be near the train station in NO Sq when we decided this, so we took that route. Upon waiting at the station I got a phone call from the Diss own Mary Jo. Her and her kids were swinging by to renew her AP and they were going to stop into say hi. Now, we all know Mary Jo is the resident DL expert here and she has an answer to every question, but this is just how amazing she really is. Our conversation went something like this...
Hello
Hi Katie, its Mary Jo
Hey Mary Jo how are you?
We are at Disneyland now, where are you?
Im waiting in line to get on the train.
Ok, youre in New Orleans Square.
...Big pause by me thinking how the heck does she know what stop I'm at???
She spoke up again I can hear the clicking in the background
Does she not know every detail of Disneyland or what???
So we planned to meet at the Tomorrowland Stop. Shortly we were on the train making our way over there when the train had to make a sudden stop. The conductor was near us and we heard him say This is what happens when kids open up gates". UGH! I guess a kid had opened a gate at one of the stops. Luckily I dont think they made it into the track area or got hurt or anything, but it makes you want to keep an extra eye on your kids.
We finally made it to Tomorrowland and had the pleasure of meeting Mary Jo and her kids, Kelley & Nick. What sweethearts they all are. Unfortunately they couldnt stay long, but it was nice to chat for a while.
When they left we checked out Innoventions. There is so much in here you could probably spend the better part of a day checking everything out. In the first room we entered, DH got picked to ride a stationary bike and race against a kid. The kids were thrilled that Dad got picked to do this....and DH had to try really hard to beat the kid.
By the time we left it was probably about 8:00 and it was getting dark. I knew if we wanted a good spot for Remember Dreams Come True we would need to stake out our spot soon. It was probably about 8:20 when we claimed our spot. We just plopped ourselves down where we saw some room, on the top right side of Main St(when facing the castle), sort of near the Plaza Inn, but out more toward Main St. This turned out to be perfect except we did have a tree obstructing our view a bit.
Since we had quite a wait, we decided to send DH to get us icecream. Apparently everyone else in the park had the same idea as the line was huge and this took quite some time. This was difficult for me as my kids didnt get the concept of defending your personal space, and kept squirming, getting closer and closer, losing our space. UGH! I hate to be a space hog, but if Im going to be sitting there for an hour, I dont want to lose our area. Finally DH returned, squished in with us, and I could relax again.
By the time we finished our treats it was just a little before show time of 9:25. Of course we all stood up when the fireworks started so that actually gave us all some more room.
All I can say about Remember Dreams Come True is WOW!!! I knew this was a good show, but WOW!!!! Im a big fan of Wishes in the MK, but I have to say I liked this even better. They included some of Wishes, had special effects, more music I felt, and I thought having Julie Andrews narrate was a very nice touch! This display was well worth the wait!
The fireworks ended and it was time to end our DL visit.
But first we couldnt resist stopping at the hat shop at the end of Main St and buying the boys Golden Mickey Ears. How could you not? While we were sad to leave, we couldnt be too sad. Tomorrow we would be boarding the Disney Magic for a 7 night cruise to the Mexican Riviera, then back to Anaheim for a day(trip reports coming soon, hopefully)!!!! *link to pictures
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=899613
