Sunday, June 22, 2008

Walt Disney World Day 02…Welcome to the Doghouse

I wouldn’t say that we hit the hay early the previous evening, but it wasn’t my usual 3AM that comes with trips to “The World”.  Enchanted Rose made it clear there wouldn’t be any burning the midnight oil to produce trip reports or process pictures this trip.

We had talked to Tim Devine and few of our other friends the previous evening and were told that we were to meet up at 9:30AM at the Magic Kingdom so we got up at 7AM to make sure we were not late.

I cooked up a big bowl of oatmeal (1 cup uncooked) and downed 2 scoops of whey protein and a banana.  Despite being on vacation, I’m still going to try and stick to as much of my “off-season” bodybuilding diet as I can.  Let’s see how long this lasts.

We hopped on the bus from Old Key West to the Magic Kingdom.  We got there at 9AM and decided to try and hit a couple attractions before meeting up with Tim and his family and our other friends. 

Main Street Trolley Performer As we were walking in, we ran into the Main Street Trolley performance that happens every morning on none other than Main Street.  We stopped to enjoy this a bit while I attempted to take a couple pictures.  If I didn’t know any better, I could’ve sworn one of those dapper gentlemen were flirting with my wife…haha.

After we got our fill of this song and dance number, we high tailed it to Welcome to Adventureland Adventureland to take a spin on Pirates of the Caribbean.  Unfortunately, Pirates was 101 when we walked by and decided to go to Haunted Mansion instead. 

An empty Adventureland On our way over to the Haunted Mansion, I was observing how dead it was for being June and all.

When we got to the Haunted Mansion there was no wait and we walked right onto our Doom Buggy.

While on Haunted Mansion, Tim attempted to call me.  In order to avoid being Haunted Mansion from a Distance rude, I didn’t answer, but I texted him back to inform him that I was on the Haunted Mansion.  I’m starting to see the usefulness of texting.  I have a feeling my cell phone bill is going to be outrageous this month since we don’t have texting on our cellphone plan.

After Haunted Mansion, I gave Tim a call and found out that they were getting close.  I told him to call me when he got to the parking lot.

WDW_Day2_20080622_0017 At this point we decided to head to Splash Mountain.  Once we got there, we decided to have a Photo Pass photographer snap a couple of pics of Enchanted and myself in front of this very wet attraction.  I had them take pictures with my camera…of course.

It was at this point, that I turned to my wife and told her I was in no mood to get Enchanted Rose and myself in front of Splash Mountain wet at 9AM.  It was way to humid and hot to walk around in the parks with wet underwear all day.  So, we kept on walking (sorry George and Andy).

We decided to ride Big Thunder Mountain instead.  I didn’t get any pictures of Big Thunder because I was going to try out my video camera instead.  But, as I was warned, the sensor in the camera that is meant to detect it being dropped falsely was triggered and shut the camera down.

After getting off Big Thunder Mountain, both my wife and I were getting a bit hungry.  Enchanted Rose whipped out a couple breakfast bars, while I decided to make another protein shake.  Unbeknownst to me, as I was shaking up my drink, it was splattering all over my shirt, shorts and camera.  I was wearing my white The Magic in Pixels shirt and a pair of khaki shorts so having a bunch of chocolate flavored protein shake all over it wouldn’t blend in too well.  For some reason, me and chocolate stuff always seems to get on my clothes at Disney.

Needless to say, this upset me and I said we needed to find a bathroom.  So I ducked into the restroom at Splash Mountain and tried to clean myself up the best I could.  I must say, this is not the best bathroom in the park to do a “Clean up”.  Everywhere in the bathroom is wet.  The floor, the counters, the sinks, and even the baby changing tables.  There is nowhere to put your stuff and keep it dry. 

I managed to at least get my camera cleaned up a bit before rejoining my wife outside.  This event should've been taken as an omen for the days events but it wasn’t.

After downing what was left of my protein shake we headed back toward Pirates to see if it was up and running. 

Sure enough, Pirates was no longer 101 and we got into line.  We decided to take the line the veers to the right and we weren’t standing around for long before we were on our boat and coasting through the various scenes of doomed pirates who pillage and destroy while looking for that elusive Captain Jack Sparrow.

While on Pirates, I once again got a call from Tim and once again I texted him back while on the attraction.

As soon as we were off the attraction, I called Tim and was told to wait for him near the Roy and Minnie statue on Main Street. 

Enchanted Rose and myself in front of the castle We immediately made our way to Main Street crossing in front of the Crystal Palace on our way.  Ducks inside the Store We stopped briefly in front of the Crystal Palace to get another Photo Pass photographer to take a couple quick pics with my camera.

We decided to cut through the stores to get to the flag pole so we ducked into first shop near Casey’s Hot Dog Stand.  It was in there that we saw some ducks wandering inside the store.  I guess they were looking for Donald.

While waiting in front of the flag pole we heard some commotion over at the Emporium.  We decided to check it out and found that The Dream Squad just awarded a family a 30 minute shopping spree.  We were so close but so far away.

Enchanted Rose having some fun with Roy and Minnie At this point, my phone rings and Tim is asking where we were.  I told him and apparently they were in front of the train station.  It was so crowded at this point, that it was impossible to find him, but fortunately for me, he was wearing a bright orange Donald T-shirt and much like myself a wonderfully floppy full-brim hat.

In addition to getting to see my friend Tim again, I was able to see his wife, Karen, and son, Billy.  It had been almost exactly 1 year to the day that I last say Billy and Karen.  Billy definitely had grown up a lot in 12 months.  In addition to Tim and his family we also go to meet up with our mutual friend Skippy.  We also had the great privilege of finally meeting Skippy’s girlfriend, “M”. 

As is tradition with the Devine Family, we immediately headed to Tomorrowland to take a spin on the TTA The Devines on Buzz Lightyear(Tomorrowland Transit Authority).  Some still call it the WEDWay People Mover, but we just call it “Woo”.  That is Billy’s name for it.  Apparently, to help him not get scared when he was younger, everyone would go “Woo” during the parts where the car would veer one way or another to make the ride seem more fun to such a small child.

After disembarking off of the TTA, we another one of Billy’s favorite attractions, Buzz Lightyear.  Once again, Tim scored a perfect 999,999.  I have no idea how he does it so consistently.

Billy with Stitch On our way out of the attraction, Billy needed to say hello to Zurg and then it was out into Tomorrowland we went.  Billy spotted Stitch and we went over there to get his picture taken with the much maligned character of Tomorrowland.

At this point, Enchanted Rose was pretty hungry and fortunately so were a few other people.  So, it was decided that Cosmic Ray’s was where we were stopping next.

To say that Cosmic Ray’s was crowded would be an understatement.  It was decided that the ladies would hold down the tables we found while the rest of us went and got the food.  Since I had two hamburgers the day before, I wasn’t to eager to get another one.  So my wife and I got a couple grilled chicken sandwiches.  I must say that I enjoyed these much more than the slightly overcooked (aka well-done) burgers you get at the QSRs (Quick Service Restaurants).  I noticed that Skippy and “M” were sporting a couple wraps and went and asked where they had gotten them.  Apparently, in addition to Burger and Chicken section, there is a Wraps section of the restaurant.  I was embarrassed to not know that considering we eat at Cosmic Ray's a few times each trip.

At this point, I have realized that any hopes of sticking to my bodybuilding diet is going to be near impossible.  So, I decided to eat smart but eat well.

After finishing up at Cosmic Ray’s someone suggested we should check and see if our room was ready at Old Key West.  Fortunately, Tim is always prepared and had the phone number for Old Key West in his iPhone and quickly called and found out that our room is ready.

So, it was decided that we’ll take the room key for Enchanted Rose’s Mom’s room and head back to the resort so that we could move our stuff from one room to the next. 

It was decided that my wife would go with Tim and his family in their rental car while I would go in Skippy’s car with him and “M”.

As luck would have it, the sky opened up on our way back to our vehicles.  By the time we got to our car and got to Old Key West, Tim and crew made it to Old Key West and got us checked in.  Apparently, there was some difficulties since the person at the DVC told us to not pool our points, but to do back-to-back reservations and they’d be linked in their system.

As soon as Tim got the room unlocked, Karen put Billy down for a nap.  That meant that we had to be very, very quiet as we moved stuff from Tim’s car and from the other room we were staying in. 

It didn’t take long to get all the stuff in the room and “M” managed to have all the groceries put away as the last bag was getting hauled in.

I should probably mention that today is Enchanted Rose’s birthday.  As is tradition, we do a character meal whenTim doing what Tim does we are in the parks during one of our birthdays.  It was decided that we’d do a dinner character meal this time and give Liberty Tree Tavern a go.

We didn’t get much time to rest before we realized that it was getting close to our ADR time of 4:15PM for Liberty Tree.  Tim attempted to call Disney Dining to see if we could get the ADR bumped a few minutes since we had a strong chance of getting their late.  That proved fruitless since it was in the high season.

Next, Enchanted Rose called her mom and told her that we were running a bit late and asked if she’d let them know at the restaurant that we were on our way.

Goofy is the BestAs luck would have it, the bus to the Magic Kingdom took at least 30 minutes to show up then once we got there we had to go through the “bag check” which is always a fun exercise of Grumpy and Goofy Flexing their Musclesunzipping many pockets of my camera bag.

We made it to Liberty Tree Tavern at 4:25PM and found out that our reservation was actually for  4:30PM all along.  We also found out that they wouldn’t seat a party unless everyone was there.  So, Enchanted Rose’s mom and her husband were sitting patiently in the foyer.

While Enchanted Rose was distracted talking to her mom, I spoke to the people at the podium about getting a cake brought to the table for my wife’s birthday.

Would you care for some lemons The Liberty Tree Tavern was unable to sit our entire part of 9 at one table.  So, we were at 2 separate tables on opposite sides of the room from each other.  We were close enough to be able to talk to each other though.

The food was phenomenal.  I must say I filled up a bit too much on the bread, but Happy Birthday Enchanted Rose I couldn’t resist since I love me some homemade biscuits.

We got our fill of the food, took some pictures with the characters and had a few laughs.  Then at the end of the meal, they brought the cake which was a nice surprise for my wife.

After the meal, we decided to pop on over to It’s a Small World for Billy.  After getting off that ride, it was on over to Dumbo.  None of us were really in the mood It's A Small World to be spun around after such a filling meal, but Billy really likes this attraction.  So Skippy and “M” decided to hop on with him. 

Tim took this opportunity to whip out the new large zoom lens he purchased Skippy, "M", and Billy on Dumbo before the trip to see how well it worked.  I should probably point out that at this point, it was slightly drizzling out and was making things a bit humid.

After Dumbo we took a spin around the Seven Acre Woods with Winnie the Pooh and after that, it was a trip on Peter Pan.  We’ve pretty much gotten Billy’s circuit taken care of at this point.

WDW_Day2_20080622_0103 Billy was needing to go back to the room so we decided to split up and join back in time for Wishes!  Tim and his family along with Skippy and “M” were going back to the room.   Nancy’s mom and her husband split off awhile back and we were going to attempt to locate a shirt and tie for me since I forgot mine at home.

The first place we looked was along the shops lining Main Street U.S.A. and quickly discovered that was a bust.  So, it was decided that we’ll go to Downtown Disney.  We still had some time but I was really worried if we’d make it back in time for Wishes!

This is when I made my first big mistake of the evening.  I told my wife that she should go back to the Magic Kingdom and watch Wishes! while I go look for a shirt and tie.  Since it was my mistake she shouldn’t miss Wishes! on her birthday.

Even though that sounded like a great idea in my head it was not well received and it got me in hot water for suggesting that she watch Wishes! alone on her birthday. 

We quickly found out that you cannot get to Downtown Disney from the Magic Kingdom bus station.  So, we decided to hop the monorail to the Ticket and Transportation Center.  Well, as luck would have it, you cannot grab a bus to Downtown Disney from their either.  At this point, our only option to get to Downtown Disney was to hop a ride to a resort and then bus from the resort to Downtown Disney.

With all this complaining about there not being enough shopping, Disney sure makes it cumbersome for you to get to Downtown Disney.

Since we needed to go to a resort in order to get to Downtown Disney, I suggested we hop the monorail to the Grand Floridian.  That resort is so fancy and I remember they had a couple high-end stores catering to women, so they MUST have a store selling dress shirts and ties.  If they didn’t we could go out and catch a bus to Downtown Disney.

As luck would have it, there is indeed a small store selling men’s fancier attire on the second floor of the Grand Floridian.  So, we were able to pick out a shirt, tie and socks (she wasn’t going to let me wear my white socks).  I can tell you one thing, if you need to purchase such clothing on property be prepared for the sticker shock.  I cannot wait until the final nail is put in the coffin of neckties.  That sucker was heinously expensive.

Now that this expedition was over we had plenty of time to get to the Magic Kingdom for Wishes!

On the monorail back to the Magic Kingdom, I called Tim to find out where was the best place to stand to take pictures and if I was to expect him back.

As it turns out, when they got back to the room, the room key was not working.  So this entire time they have been waiting outside the room waiting for someone from maintenance to come with new keys.  I told Tim to just go to the front desk and be done with it, but he was worried that as soon as he left, the guy would show up.  Plus, they had Billy with them and needed to keep him comfortable.

Well, I was told to stake out some space near the flagpole on Main Street to get a good shot of the fireworks.

We entered the park near the time that SpectroMagic was supposed to start and we made our way to the area WDW_Day2_20080622_0109 around the flagpole, but it was roped off and we couldn’t find out how to get in there.

A cast member approached us and Enchanted Rose just flat out asked her how we got into that roped off area and we were told to just duck under the rope.  I thought that was a rather funny response, but, oh well, we did it anyway.

We decided to stand next to the Minnie and Roy statue and that is where I put up my tripod.  While we were waiting, Enchanted Rose decided to run to the Main Street Confectionary to pick up some sweets.

Wishes! #1 She came back armed with a cinnamon bun for herself and a Rocky Road Brownie for me.  The brownie was quite tasty and hit the spot as we waited for the evening’s activities to start.

I called Tim again and found out that they were STILL waiting for the guy to show up.  I once again insisted that he go to the front desk and personally deal with someone.  I was told that at this point, he will not be joining me for Wishes!

Standing near us was a fellow from New York (I think) who had a Nikon D60 and started asking me a bunch of questions about taking pictures of the fireworks.  Fortunately for him, he had the 18-200mm zoom with Vibration Reduction because he was not armed with a tripod.  Since staying perfectly still while shooting in low light is highly important, he was going to need as much help as he could get.

SpectroMagic started and I spent most of the time trying to get my settings right for the fireworks.  I didn’t get Wishes! #2 many pictures of the parade.  I must admit I wasn’t close to the street and when the tripod is fully extended it places the camera about a foot above my head so I can not even look through the view finder and barely can make out the images on the LCD screen.

Once the fireworks started, I really started to get myself into hot water.  There were some kids standing near my tripod and they kept kicking the legs out from under my tripod and that was frustrating me.  After my dropping my camera off my tripod last year because I didn’t have it properly affixed, I have been paranoid about it happening again.

On top of that, I couldn’t get my shots lined up properly and my wireless remote for the shutter wasn’t firing properly.  So, I kept mumbling and grumbling and griping.  To top it off, my wife gave me the evil eye and I shot back, “I can get frustrated if I want to”.  And that as they say is all she wrote.  The door slammed on the doghouse and I was there for the night.

WDW_Day2_20080622_0124 I knew I was in trouble when the fireworks were over and my wife wanted to leave and we still had the Extra Magic Hours that could’ve kept us there until 2AM.

It was on the bus back to the room that I found out what I had done wrong.  Well, after 6 years of marriage, I guess I was way overdue to do something stupid on her birthday.  I just wish I hadn’t done it on her birthday.

When we got back to the room, Tim was still awake and surfing the Internet. 

We found out that Tim and his family had been stuck outside for almost 2 hours.  They finally drove up to the Guest Relations building and spoke to someone to try and get the problem resolved.  The person at the desk never looked up nor acknowledged their existence.  He communicated with them, but never looked at them.  The problem eventually got resolved but needless to say they were very upset after waiting that long to get back into the room.  We never found out why we were locked out.

As my wife and I do when things go wrong between the two of us, we talked it out before going to sleep and everything was good between us before the lids slammed shut.  That is definitely one thing I can say about our relationship, we have excellent communication and don’t let things fester before we talk about them.

To see the entire collection of pictures taken on Day 01, click the link below:

WDW 2008 – Day 02

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Saturday, June 21, 2008

Walt Disney World Day 01….And it begins

Well, the beginning of our vacation didn’t begin the way that we would’ve preferred.  Enchanted Rose didn’t get off work until 3:00AM and we had to leave for the airport at 5:30AM.  So, she pretty much had to finish packing when she got home and leave.  I was up most of the night, as well, because I was trying to get work done to keep my clients warm and cozy with work product while I was gone.  Then I needed to get my stuff ready to go.  I’m not the best person when it comes to packing or getting organized.

The trip to the airport was without incident and we were excited to see that there was still come covered parking in the parking garage.

We are flying out Southwest Airlines this time.  I’m an old pro with them for business travel, but this is the first time we are using them for pleasure travel (aka checked luggage)

Enchanted Rose tried her best to capture some Z’s on the plane, but we had stops in Houston and New Orleans before Orlando.  So that meant she had about an hour between take offs and landings.  Not much time to spend in REM.

Upon landing and wandering our way to baggage claim (you know you are almost at Disney when you hear the familiar voice on the tram to baggage claim) where our driver from Quicksilver was awaiting for us.

I think our bags were the last to come off the plane, but they all did arrive and we were off.

We took full advantage of the 30 minute grocery stop.  This time we were doing a dual family trip with Tim Devine and his family.  So, we decided to eat in the room as much as possible.  That meant lots of food.  After 30 minutes and $208 later we were back in the car heading to Old Key West.

This first day we didn’t have a room.  We decided to tack on an extra day since Enchanted Rose’s mother and her husband were here at the same time.  They graciously offered up there couch for us to crash on this evening.

I probably should’ve mentioned that it was pouring outside now.  So, when we pulled up to her mom’s room (Turtle Pond, Building 35 at Old Key West) we had to unload everything and get it into the room in the rain.

My first impression of her mom’s 1 bedroom at Old Key West was pretty good considering it was built in the early 90’s.  The room was very spacious.

WDW Vacation - Day 01

After getting settled, we decided we were going to go to Downtown Disney to try and find a shirt and tie for Victoria and Alberts.  Yeah, I forgot to bring my shirt and tie.

We decided we were going to boat it over, but the distance from our room to the Guest Services Building (where the boat dock is) was a bit too much to handle in the rain.  So, we decided to hop on the first bus that came along and get off at the Guest Services Building. 

Disney's Hollywood Studio That bus happened to be one going to Disney’s Hollywood Studios.  By the time

Toy Story Mania

the bus got to the Guest Services Building, we had decided to just stay on and go to Hollywood Studios.  We were excited to see what was going on for Star Wars Weekend, but more importantly hopefully take a turn on the new Toy Story Mania attraction.

We decided to head straight to Pixar Place to see what the wait was to get on Toy Story.  It turned out to be 120 minutes. 

Toy Story Mania Wait Time

Much more than we were willing to wait.  But as luck would have it, a magical moment occurred and we got into the Fast Pass line and were able to experience the attraction.

I must say that this ride is GRUMPTASTIC!  I can tell you one thing, you will get Inside Toy Story Mania an arm workout on this thing.  I kept having to switch shooting arms because my forearms were on fire.  There is definitely a technique for scoring big, but I haven’t figured it out yet.

To top it off, a nice cast member saw the Birthday Button Enchanted Rose was wearing and let us go through a second time.

I have my new High Definition camcorder and wanted to see if I could get any good video of the ride but a cast member squashed it…LOL.  The cast member was only pulling my leg, but the captured video wasn’t worth viewing anyway.

Enchanted Rose Enjoying her Burger After getting off of Toy Story Mania, we decided it was time for some food.  Enchanted Rose wanted to take her mom and her husband to the 50’s Prime Time Cafe.  I told her that our luck getting in would probably be slim since we didn’t have an ADR, but we were going to try anyway.  Sure enough, the soonest they could seat us was 9:50PM (it was 5:00PM at this time).  We had them check the situation at Mama Melrose and it was not any better.  So, I suggested we go to our usual fallback quick service at The Studios.  I’m not sure of the name, but it’s the one on the way to Tower of Terror.

The food was so-so (which is to be expected from Quick Service).  I don’t think Enchanted Rose’s mom and her husband were too impressed.

Hollywood Tower HotelAfter scarfing down some of Disney’s finest counter service cuisine, we fast passed our way onto Tower of Mutal Behind Picture Counter Terror.  Enchanted Rose’s mom and husband are seasoned veterans of Disneyland and are quite familiar with the West Coast version of this attraction.  We told them that the Florida version is totally different.  I don’t think they knew how different until they saw that the “elevator” car moves on a track outside the original elevator shaft.  That doesn’t happen on the Disneyland version.

As usual, Tower of Terror was entertaining.  I love to ride without holding onto anything.  The sensation of having your butt hover over the seat as the car plummets to the ground is kind of fun.Jedi Training Academy

Crowds at Star Tours After many random and fabulous drops, we decided to head toward the Star Wars  region of the park to see what was happening on the Star Wars Weekend front.  It was much more crowded around the Star Tours attraction than anywhere else in the park (and that was taking into account the crowd for Toy Story Mania).  But, the wait time for Star Tours was 5 minutes so we decided to hop on even though it isn’t one of my favorite attractions (sorry George, I just get a wicked case of whiplash on that thing).

Naturally, after getting off at the Moon of Endor, we needed to peruse the wares at Tatoonie Traders.  The place was jam packed.  It was especially busy at the build-your-own-lightsaber section of the store.

Enchanted Rose fooling around at Star Wars WeekendsWe noticed they were still selling the “Judge me by my size” shirts and were looking for a youth X-Small for my nephew, Collin.  Enchanted Rose needed to ask a cast member to look in the back for her which was a good idea because they did have one back there.

After completing our transactions and getting some mandatory shots on the speeder bike outside the Ewok Village, we decided to track down Wicket’s Warehouse.Anyone home?

A cast member told us it was between The Great Movie Ride and Toy Story Mania, but by the time we got to The Great Movie Ride we found that it was indeed where the cast member told us, but there was a giant wall between Toy Story Mania and Wicket’s Warehouse. 

Great Movie RideOn our way to doubleback and find Wicket’s Warehouse we decided to take a tour through the movies.  This is another attraction that doesn’t rate high on my list, but it’s a nice diversion when “The Studios” are crowded, hot and everything else has lengthy lines.  Nothing like a slow ride with great air conditioning to help you recharge your batteries.

After the Great Movie Ride, we continued onto Wicket’s Warehouse which Enchated Rose Hamming it up on the Streets of America involved a detour through the Streets of America.

Wicket’s Warehouse was pretty awesome.  There were many things that I’d love to purchase, but I’d put a serious hurting on my AMEX if I did.  Enchanted Rose ended up buying a “You are kind of short to be a Stormtrooper” t-shirt and I picked up a limited edition Star Wars Weekend pin.

At this point we were pretty hungry again.  I suggested Beaches & Cream.

Enchanted Rose on the Water Taxi to the Beach Club Resort We boated it over to The Beach Club from “The Studios”

It was about a 30 minute wait to get a seat at Beaches & Cream.  Enchanted Rose and I waited outside while her mom and husband went into the arcade and played several rounds of pinball.

Once inside Beaches and Cream, we ordered some burgers and ultimately some fabulous ice cream.  My wife and I shared the Brownie Sundae.Beaches & Cream

After getting fully stuffed and watching 5 or 6 tables get “Kitchen Sinks” [edit note:  “A WHOLE CAN!!!!!!”], we decided it was time for bed.  We  hopped on the bus to Downtown Disney from The Beach Club and then switched to the Old Key West bus from there.

After about an hour or two of bus riding, we got back to Old Key West and went to bed.  We were crashing on her mom’s couch since we couldn’t check into our room until the next day. 

To see the entire collection of pictures taken on Day 01, click the link below:

WDW 2008 - Day 01

 

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