Walt Disney World Day 05.....Ghosts, Pins, and Blisters, Oh My!

After successfully escaping the clutches of 999 Grim Grinning Ghosts, my wife and I started on our quest to locate and purchase the limited edition trading pins that dropped today. There is a box set of 4 pins representing the new portraits and two regular limited edition pins. One of Mickey and another with Madame Leota. I just happened to see someone showing off his box set to his friends while we were walking out of the Haunted Mansion.

I asked him where he got it and he told me that they were selling them in the Yankee Trader which was a few feet away. We rounded the corner and saw that the line coming out of the store was huge. My wife and I got into line and started looking around at people. It just so happened a cast member was coming by making sure everyone in line was there to purchase the pins. I asked him if this was the only location and he told me that the Pin store on Main Street, USA and the Trading Post in Frontierland was also selling them.

It was decided that I would go to Frontierland while my wife held my place in line at the Yankee Trader. I ran over to Frontierland and found that there were only about 5 people in line. I called my wife and told her the situation and she said she's going to stay put until I call and say I got the pins. I just so happened that she ended up calling me back as I was talking to the people at the counter. She decided that we should pick up a second set since these were going to sell out by lunch and we couldn't change our mind later to get more.

It just so happens that if you spend $30 or more you get a limited edition Magic Kingdom themed Pin Trading pin. I picked up a couple of those too.

At this point, my wife decided that she'll join me at the store I was at. We regrouped and decided to take in the Hall of Presidents. Unfortunately, it was quite a while till the next showing, so we decided to go to Mickey's PhilharMagic instead. But, on the way there we took a few pictures of me and my wife in the stocks in the center of Liberty Square.

I must say that I personally think Mickey's PhilharMagic is the BEST 3D movie in the Disney Theme Parks. I have trouble seeing the 3D effects. It has something to do with my eyes. But, with PhilharMagic, I can see most of the 3-D effects. Plus, I love how Donald Duck is introduced into many of the Disney animated movies of the New Golden Age. Sadly, I was very tired from staying up writing these blog post into the wee hours of the morning and I think I nodded off for a second in the nice, cool dark room.

After leaving the comforts of the well air conditioned space of PhilharMagic, my wife asked if I'd like to take some pictures of Ariel's Grotto. We walked over there and I was able to get a couple pictures of the Ariel statue, but I didn't want to take a picture of anything else because I was afraid some leery parents would think I was shooting pictures of their kids.

At this point it was decided it was time to burn up a snack credit. My wife didn't want to do ice cream again because she ended up having an upset stomach last night after several helpings of ice cream through the day. Unfortunately, a combination of hunger and not knowing where we could get snacks we'd like, we ended up getting ice cream anyway at Mrs. Potts Ice Cream stand next to Winnie the Pooh.

After getting our ice cream fix, we decided to mark Snow White's Scary Adventure off our mental list of rides. This is a cute, classic Disney dark ride, but it is almost guaranteed to spook little kids. But, it's very quick and the ride is over almost as quickly as it begins.

After escaping the Wicked Witch we saw that it was close to the time for the next showing of the Hall of Presidents. We sped on back to Liberty Square and dove into the hall. They were almost done loading the theater so I wasn't able to get any pictures of the pre-show area. Maybe I can get some pictures when we come back for Mickey's Not-so-scary Halloween Party on Friday.

This is another room that is well air conditioned and they provide us with comfortable seats. So, just as with Mickey's PhilharMagic, I nodded off briefly. As a show, this is heavy in United States Patriotic Propaganda. To use a term from the Disney web community, it's a very "Pollyanna" show. I often wonder what runs through the minds of our foreign visitors when they watch this show.

After being forced to leave another great air conditioned space, we decided if we hopped on the Liberty Belle we would be able to check off all the items in Liberty Square that we wanted to get accomplished. Man, it was hot on that paddle steamboat. We were on the top deck in the back and there was no one there so I could go back and forth to take pictures. This meant that I was standing in direct sun and the sweat was quite pronounced. It was at times like this that I wondered why I was subjecting myself to this kind of weather when I could've come in February and experienced even smaller crowds.

From the vantage point of the Liberty Belle I was able to get good views of the lines that were still jutting out of The Haunted Mansion.

After disembarking we decided to head to Disney's MGM-Studios (soon to be named Disney's Hollywood Studios). On the way out of the Magic Kingdom we got a Photopass photographer to take some pictures of my wife and I in front of the castle. I also took some pictures of the castle myself and of the Partner Statue.

Also, on the way out of the park, my wife decided that she'd like to look in the watch store on Main Street, USA. Why my wife needs another watch I don't know but we look at every location that has Disney watches. Fortunately for my wallet, she hasn't found one that she likes yet.

After seeing that there wasn't a bus to go from the Magic Kingdom to the Studios, I asked a cast member. We were told to take the Express Monorail to the TTC (Ticketing and Transportation Center) and then hop on a bus from there. Well, we accidentally got on the regular monorail. We didn't see the other ramp to get on the Express. It wasn't until we pulled out of the station that we saw that the ramp for the Express is on the other side of the security checkpoint. So we would've had to go through the bag check again if we wanted to get on the Express Monorail.

Well, to continue our huge streak of being on broken down rides, the monorail came to a complete stop somewhere after pulling out of the Contemporary Resort. This made it really hard to stay away. We were in a comfy seat in an air conditioned space and we weren't moving. After about 15-20 minutes the Monorail started again and we got to the TTC. We walked to the bus area and waited for our bus to the Studios.

The bus eventually showed up and we were on our way to the Studios. Once we got to the park we decided get a times guide and map. We saw that the Beauty and the Beast stage show was going to start soon, so we booked it to the amphitheater but it had already started when we got there.

Since we were standing right next to the Tower of Terror, we decided to get that one accomplished. We literally just walked right into the pre-show area and then walked right onto our "elevator of doom".

This is one of my favorite rides. You never know how many times you are going to drop, when or how far. I like to not hold onto anything while doing this ride because your butt will come of the seat and you feel like you are free falling. This go around, I had an added handicap factor since I was trying to hold onto my hat, my sunglasses and my bag of camera equipment. Plus, I was on the end of the row near the aisle which meant that there wasn't anything to keep my stuff from spilling out of the row.

We ended up surviving the multiple free falls and decided that after a good scream we needed a good meal. So we consulted our handy dandy guide map and decided that the place we wanted to eat was right near by. We ended up deciding it was time to get some chicken strips. Up to this point we've been avoiding them because they have been known to be addictive. At this time, we also discovered that you can get the large drink with your quick service meal plan ticket.

After getting a full belly we decided a good laugh was in order. And when I think of a good laugh in the Studios I think of MuppetVision 3D.

I was excited because I kept hearing how different the queue was from Disneyland. But, it seemed exactly the same to me. Maybe there was more queue that I didn't see because they didn't have a crowd large enough to route us through it. For example, I didn't see where the key was under the mat.

Despite my disappointment, I still love this ride. There are tons of sight gags around you. Plus, who could turn down another nice cool room when it is blazing hot outside.

After surviving the finale of the Swedish Chef with a cannon attacking a living 3D effect, we needed to get back to the Beauty and the Beast show. The theater was packed and it was hot, hot, hot, hot (did I say it was hot).

I was challenged because there were heads blocking almost everywhere I wanted to take a picture. I did my best and at this point I haven't had a chance to see how my pictures turned out. My wife loves this stage show and she was singing throughout despite the fact that sweat was running down her face.

We were disappointed though because the a cappella group didn't perform. Last year, that was as good as the main event.

After the show was over, it was decided that we were done. It was nap time for my wife and I needed to get my shoes off. I think my blisters are now developing blisters. The moleskin did it's job most of the day but in the past couple hours my feet have started hurting again.

Plus, I must have slightly altered my gait because my calves and the sides of my calves were really starting to burn like they were getting a workout.

We hopped on a bus and headed back to Saratoga Springs Resort. It's times like this that I'm glad that I'm staying in the Grandstand section of SSR. We didn't have far to walk from the bus stop. I must look real funny walking at this point. But we decided to take a slight detour at the Artiste Point and check on some Saratoga Springs related merchandise. My wife has started collecting Disney beach towels so we picked up one for the DVC. We also bought a 15 Year pin for DVC members and a Saratoga Springs Resort collectors pin.

While my wife napped, I put out my Haunted Mansion mini-post. Then we all showered and headed to the Yacht & Beach club for dinner at the Yachtman's Steakhouse.

Just as has been the trend on this trip. We didn't get out of the room until 7PM for a 7:30 reservation. It was decided that we would take a bus to Epcot and then a bus from Epcot to the Yacht and Beach Club resort. Well, after waiting a good while and no Epcot bus, we decided we'd take the first bus that came. Well, that bus was one back to MGM-Studios.

Once we got to the Studios I ran ahead to find out which bus stop we needed to be at. It turns out that the only way to get from the Studios to the Yacht & Beach Club Resort was to take the water taxi. We got to the water taxi as they were getting ready to push off.

We happened to be standing next to the coolest Disney cast member. He happened to be what the hourly jockies call "a suit". We had a nice chat about life, the universe, and everything that has to do with Disney technology. Some of the latest rumors were discussed but I'm a gentleman and don't kiss and tell....haha

We got off the water taxi at the Yacht club stop and made our way to Yachtman's Steakhouse. We were 30 minutes late for our reservation, but apparently they were severely understaffed and way behind on their seatings.

What is my opinion of Yachtmans?

First, it should be noted that this restauarant is a signature dining location which means it cost me 2 table service credits per person. As far as the food is concerned it was awesome as usual and the service was great considering all the staff was spread out really, really thin.

But you should also note that this restaurant is named a steakhouse, so I always order red meat. I cannot speak on anything that falls into some other kind of food group.

Somehow my wife's and my steak orders got mixed up. She ordered a filet cooked medium and I got the 24 oz Porterhouse cooked medium rare. We got the right cuts of meat, but the wrong temps, so we had to send them back. I could stomach a 6oz filet overcooked but not 24oz. The manager brought our food back out and informed me that the chef himself cooked my steak. It was juicy and delicious.

Because of the staffing nightmare it was a really long meal. We didn't get out of there until around 10:30PM. So, I was unable to participate in a radio program installment that Michael from Explore the Magic was trying to get off the ground since I was in town. He probably thinks I blew him off, but I was stuck in the restaurant the whole time.

Well, we went quickly to the boat dock and I took a quick set of pictures of the panorama of the Boardwalk on the other side of the lake. Then we headed to the Yacht Club bus stop to catch a bus to Downtown Disney. That is the only way to get home after Epcot is closed.

Apparently, the bus only dropped off at Pleasure Island, so we got off there and waited for our bus back to Saratoga Springs. It was a bit chaotic at the bus stop. There were tons of people everywhere and busses were flooding in dropping people off which prevented the busses arriving to pick people up to get into their proper berths. We started walking to where we saw the Saratoga Springs resort bus, but he made us turn around and head back to our "proper place" before he'd pick us up.

That is where I am now. We got home, my wife climbed into bed after watching Leno and I'm writing another blog post as I'm dumping pictures off my SD flash cards.....I just cannot let you guys down, my readers. What would you do with your morning coffee and Danish if you didn't have my little daily novels to read...haha

Tomorrow seems to be a sleep-in-day and we are going to go back to The Studios to see Lights, Motor, Action and wander around taking pictures. There are a lot of little nuances to be seen. And later tomorrow night is Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween party. So, it's going to be a late night and hopefully a lot of fun stuff to report.

Remember folks, to keep it Grumptastic! A day lacking the grump is not a day worth remembering. Grumpy signing out! zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Technorati Tags: Trip Report, Walt Disney World

Walt Disney World Day 05 Special Report.....Grim Grinning Ghosts Come out to Socialize

We interrupt our regularly scheduled trip report to go live in Walt Disney World for a report of the re-opening of the Haunted Mansion in Liberty Square.........

This morning's entire mission was to get onto the new reopened Haunted Mansion.  For, you see, the Haunted Mansion has pretty much been closed for the entire summer so the Disney Imagineers could give it a much needed refurbishment.  While they had her "opened up" for surgery they decided to add a few enhancements.

My wife and I decided that there was no point to get to the Magic Kingdom at 8AM for the Early Magic Hours since that would mean that we would be standing at the rope to Liberty Square for an hour waiting for it to drop at 9AM.

So, we got up and got to the park at around 8:30AM and got into the  very huge crowd at the Liberty Square rope near the center hub.  We didn't think we could get to the one in Fantasyland in time and figured it would be much more crowded than the one we were in.

As we figured, as soon as the rope dropped people started sprinting like they were at the big bridal gown sale that occurs in most towns every year.  It was funny to see.  We just swiftly walked.  I think we could've powered through the pain of our blisters (we put moleskin on them to help protect them this morning) if we had to, but what was the point to run to just get into a log jam anyway.

The crowd that awaited us was a bit more than I was expecting.   There was no order to the madness it was just chaos as a giant crowd of people were being merged into a line that was only 2-3 people wide.  Plus, the line did it's usual Disney thing and snaked around and around giving you a false sense of progress.

I have to admit that the line moved very fast.  I don't think it ever stood still very long.  It was for this reason that I really didn't get to take many pictures on the outside of the queue such as the gravestones.  I can tell you that a nice touch was that real cut red roses were placed at the headstones for both Master Gracey and Madame Leota. 

Once we got into the stretching room I was quickly looking for things that had changed.  Everything seemed cleaner and you could tell the audio was different.  The voice of the "Ghost Host" moved around the room as advertised but it was more like a surround sound like demo you'd see at the beginning of a movie than anything really cool.  It didn't really feel like it was right behind you or anything.  But any improvement is a good one in my book.

Once you get out the stretching room, you are quickly herded onto your Doom Buggy.  The doom buggies went down a corridor with plain, non-enhanced spooky portraits on one side, then you move into another corridor that had the portraits that were advertised.  They are the ones like you see at the Disneyland Haunted Mansion that you experience in their queue from the stretching room to the doom buggy.

As soon as we got into the library we broke down.  At the time we thought the ride stopped to load some wheelchair bound passengers because we knew there were a few behind us.  It was later that we found out that it truly broke down (my wife overheard cast members talking about it).

The new staircase effect is very, very cool.  It really doesn't have a Harry Potter feel like everyone was trying to describe.  It got the 100% Disney dark ride treatment.  There were floating candelabras and ghostly footprints all illuminated in glorious black light.  Unfortunately for us, there was something wrong with the audio at this point.  What I think was supposed to be thunder sounded more like a jack hammer.

You travel through the same other scenes as before but the attic scene and the Leota room have gotten the Disneyland treatment with the murderous bride ghost and the floating Leota crystal ball.  

Except, and I may be mistaken, I didn't see the beating heart in the ghost bride that you could see in Disneyland's version.  Everything else is pretty much the same.  I think the hidden Mickey in the graveyard scene is gone now, but it was a quick attempt to look and I may have missed it or my view may have been obscured.

In the ballroom scene, I think the Imagineers have put out new plates on the dinner table.  I think they used to be metal and now they are china.

In regards to all the scenes that stayed the same, my wife and I both feel that the colors are now more vibrant and the ghosts are much crisper, clearer and colorful than before.  It very much has a brand new feel.  You'd never know that this was a ride that opened with the park in the 70's.

We found out that the Annual Passholder preview will not begin until September 14th.  At that point, there will be a separate line for Annual Passholders between opening and noon.  My wife and I will be definitely riding this at least one or two more times.  Now that I know that I lack any skill at taking pictures on this ride, I'll be just sitting back and admiring the skill, creativity and talent of Disney's fine Imagineering staff.

On my grumpy 5 harrumph scale, I give this attraction a solid 6!

Technorati Tags: Haunted Mansion, Trip Report, Walt Disney World

Walt Disney World Day 04.....That there Mountain Does Splash

Well, we didn't get to the Magic Kingdom at rope drop, but we got there by 9:45AM. After getting through the annoying bag check we made our way to Guest Relations.

You see, Walt Disney World has gotten rid of the Birthday Buttons that were unique for each location. They have gone the way of Disneyland where they write your name on the button. Well, it is so freakin' humid here and I kept rubbing the name off the button. My wife had replaced my name a few times and we just got tired of it. So,we went to Guest Relations to see if they could reapply my name and then put some clear tape over it.

Not only were they willing to rewrite my name on the button, but they gave me a brand new button because they noticed the pin on the back was all bent to heck.

Now that I'm freshly armed with my birthday button, we were off to tackle the parks.

We immediately headed toward Tomorrowland and Space Mountain. The board had a 10 minute wait posted. I guess they consider it a 10 minute walk to your ride vehicle because we didn't stop at all during the entire queue. Enchanted isn't as thrilled with this version of the ride as she is with Disneyland's. I think she made the comment after the ride that there was no soundtrack like at Disneyland. In fact, it was so quiet that you almost felt obligated to make some noise (aka screaming) just so you aren't sitting there in silence.

After Space Mountain, it was time to battle the forces of the evil Emperor Zurg on Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. Once again, we just walked onto the ride vehicle. We both equally hate this ride when we are forced to compare it to the same attraction at Disneyland. The Buzz Lightyear at Disneyland has a "ray gun" that can be detached fro the ride vehicle. This make it a lot easier to aim and rack up big points. But if the ride is rated based on itself alone and not compared to any of it's other versions, it is a pretty fun ride. One could easily be entertained if they rode it a few times. It's always nice to see your score get better with each round. I did try to take some pictures, but I didn't change lenses before hand so everything was blurry like my vision after one too many shots of Beverly at Ice Station Cool in Epcot.

After battling the forces of Emperor Zurg, we headed over to Monstropolis to help Mike Wazowski fill fuel cells to power the city with our human laughter in the Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor. The person that was picked as "that guy" didn't seem to enthused for being picked to play "that guy". I have to admit a few of the people who were randomly picked from the audience were good at coming up with funny things to say on the spot. Overall, I thought the technology (which is the same as Turtle Talk with Crush at Epcot's Living Seas) is cool and makes me wondering how they do it. But, from an entertainment standpoint, it falls flat. I can easily see how the humor is really geared toward the little ones. But as an adult with no kids, it was just kind of lame. But, as with a few of the attractions in Tommorrowland, it's a good respite from the heat.

After getting out of Monstropolis, we decided it was time to go to Adventureland. The heat and humidity were going strong at this point and we were sweating bullets as we power walked from Tomorrowland to Adventureland. The first thing we came upon was the Swiss Family Robinson Tree House. This is something both my wife and I wanted to do and was missed last year. So we trekked through the tree house. I was able to pop off a couple shots from good vantage points in the tree.

After we climbed down from the Tree House, it suddenly dawned on us that we were a bit hungry. I wasn't ready to do lunch quite yet, so it was decided that it was Snack Credit Time! You know what that means? Ice Cream!

I remembered that there was a place selling Edy's Ice Cream on Main Street so we basically turned around and went back the way we came after just getting to Adventureland.

My wife, got 2 scoops of Ice Cream (Mint Chocolate Chip & Chocolate Chip Swirl), while I got a Root Beer Float. Both qualified as snack credit expenditures. I quickly regretted getting the float because as soon as I stuck my straw into it, the sucker started foaming over the edges of the cup. A mess was everywhere. For those of you who have been reading this trip report from day 1 know that this is the second ice cream snack explosion I have had. I think I may just need to take after my wife and get scoops of ice cream.

We decided to sit at the tables outside. Well, actually, there were no tables to sit at inside so we had no choice. The funniest thing happened while we were sitting there enjoying our snacks (well I was slurping mine down so that it didn't foam all it's contents onto the table). Three ducks came up to us and started begging. They just kept looking at us in the same way our two little Chihuahuas, Belle & Coco. I was totally taken aback when one of the ducks tapped me on the leg and when I looked down I got the "Please Sir, drop some ice cream. I'm hungry" look. It was very humorous because the ducks at both Disneyland and Disneyworld are not afraid of humans. I swear if some animal activist tried to release these ducks into the wild, they'd just sit there waiting for french fries to fall from heaven or they'd just fly to the closest McDonald's. They have no idea how to get food for themselves. I guess that is one of the perks of being the "cute animal" family.

After getting our sweet tooth satisfied and filling in some of the cracks in our stomachs, we headed back to Adventureland.

We originally tried to go on the Jungle Cruise. The sign out front said that it was a 10 minute wait, but the line was huge so we didn't trust the sign and moved on. The next place we went was Pirates of the Carribbean. We faced the same problem as with the Jungle Cruise. The sign said it was a 10 minute wait, but the line of people reached out to the "street" and it was 4 or 5 people wide. I was starting to detect a trend of not being able to trust the signs.

So we decided that maybe we were just too close to the front of the park and headed to the back of Adventureland. As we passed some of the construction near Pirates, I noticed a bunch of what appeared to be "Imagineers" looking over blue-prints and chatting. I stood up on a bench and snapped a quick shot just in case a big shot was there. I'm pretty sure George from The Disney Geeks, would recognize someone if they were there. I only got one picture and it wasn't the best because as soon as I took it, all the guys just looked at me from the other side of the wall with a not-so-happy look on their face. I jumped down from the little wall I was standing on and hightailed it out of there in case I was being followed by the Imagineer Enforcement Squad.

We decided that it was too early in the day to get soaked so we just kept on walking by Splash Mountain. It was decided that Big Thunder Mountain was the ride of choice. I tried to take some pictures as were in the queue. The sign had said 10 minutes, but it also turned out to be more. But we found out much later it was because they were only running one train at the time. We were near the end of the queue when we found this out because they opened the second train and sent us down that queue line. Things moved quicker now. This was a fun ride. But, it really does a number on a full bladder since it only has a lap bar and very, very hard seats. Despite all the jerkiness, this ride has great scenery and is fun. This isn't a kiddie ride.

After getting off the runaway mine train on Big Thunder, we decided to try and get the Winnie the Pooh ride out of the way. We cut through Liberty Square to get to Fantasyland. While doing this we noticed that all the tarps and scaffolding was removed from the Haunted Mansion.

Winnie the Pooh was almost exactly the same as the one at Disneyland. But, it's still a nice ride and is a real throwback to the old dark rides that are still the staple of Fantasyland.

After getting out of the Thousand Acre Woods, we decided we needed to get Toontown Fair tackled. We completely missed this somehow last year and didn't even realize it until after we were on the plane home. By now, my little pinky toes were starting to scream a little bit. I think I'm wearing blisters into them.

Toontown Fair IS NOT the place to be if you get claustrophobic in crowds. We tried to go into Mickey and Minnie's houses to take pictures but there were people everywhere. Every time we tried to take a picture, some kid just got in between the camera and the subject and prevented us from taking a picture. I know kids of this age aren't deliberately being rude but it can still be annoying.

My wife can not walk by a store without walking in so we popped into the store in Toontown. I did find that there were a lot of things worthy of having their picture taken. There was also the nice statue of Cornelius Coot that needed to be documented in pixels. Jeff Pepper did a good blog post about this statue on his 2719 Hyperion blog.

After getting done with shopping we decided to take a tour of Mickey's house. The visual eye candy in these attractions are awesome. Outside his house on your way to the Judge's tent there were some great items growing in the vegetable garden. I took some great shots for posterity sake.

After this my wife asked me if I wanted to ride Goofy's Barnstormer. At first, I thought I'd pass since it's a kids coaster. But, since we really didn't have anything else pressing to do we hopped in line. What a treasure trove of picture possibilities inside this ride queue. There are sight gags everywhere. The queue alone makes it worth getting in line. The ride itself is very short but my wife spotted some great gags inside the barn when your ride vehicle zooms through. I don't know how I missed it but I was looking elsewhere at the time and you move through quick.

After Goofy's Barnstormer, we decided we were done with Toontown and took the footpath back to Tomorrowland. We have concluded that we have been sweating enough for now and it was time for some good contiguous minutes of air conditioning. That meant we were going to take a spin in the Carousel of Progress.

My wife and I both enjoy this attraction. Not only did Walt actively participate in it's creation but it has a great message. Plus, the talking about the next century as if it hasn't gotten here yet always gives me a chuckle. We also like to sing along with the theme song each time we move between scenes. This go around, we decided it was time to look for Hidden Mickeys. We even had Steve Barrett's guidebook with us this time to try and help us. We actually spotted every one of them that was in his book for this attraction. Unfortunately, I couldn't get my camera to photograph them all. So, you have to take my word for it that we saw them.

After taking a spin backwards and forwards in time to hear about progress, we decided it was time to take a trip on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority. I haven't ridden on this attraction since 1985 and my wife had never ridden on it. So, this was another great way to rest one's feet and to get out of the direct sunlight. If you need a rest and can crawl your way back to Tomorrowland, this attraction never seems to have a wait. You could probably just sit in your car for a few laps and not get any grief from a cast member. One lap was good enough for us.

After our feet got some much needed rest and the sweat had a chance to dry a bit, we decided it was time for lunch. We sat down and looked at a guide map and determined that Pecos Bills was the place for us. We headed quickly to Frontierland. On our way to Pecos Bills we passed the Country Bear Jamboree. The sign said 2 minutes till the next show so we decided to hop in and take a viewing.

I really don't remember much about this attraction from my childhood. The only memory I had engrained was that of the talking heads on the wall. This ride is a classic and very cute. Once again, this ride is good if you need a rest. What annoyed me was those people who thought they were being funny by hooting and hollering like they were rednecks during the performance. I can say, at least to me, I don't find it funny. Rather, I find it annoying and I'm sure there are a few people from the South who will find it belittling.

The Country Bears pretty much dumps into Pecos Bills. We got in line to order when a kid jumped in front of us. Then her dad jumped in front of her and we realized that he was ordering for like 10 people. At this point, I told my wife that we were going to try the automated kiosk.

For those of you who are a bit leery of using these machines, they are very intuitive and easy. I'm sure you can get your order in faster than the human you normally use.

Now when it comes to the quality of the food I have to say that I definitely have had better and I have definitely had worse. The burgers were really lacking taste, but they give you a very nice toppings bar to put things on your food.

After we were satisfied that our hunger pains were responded to, we decided it was once again time to try and tackle Pirates of the Caribbean. Hopefully, the third time will be the charm. Sure enough, there was no line and we just walked onto the ride vehicle. Unfortunately, the older couple behind us decided they didn't like the Disney provided soundtrack and provided their own. It was very annoying and loud and took the enjoyment out of the ride for us. So, after getting disembarking we decided to loop back around and ride again. This time, we were in the back of the boat and no annoying passengers distracted us. This is another ride that Disneyland has seemed to have done better. But, I have to give the Imagineers some credit since this version of Pirates was built as an after thought. They did really good with the limited amount of space they were provided. Also, any Pirates of the Caribbean is better than no Pirates of the Caribbean.

After dodging pillaging pirates...twice, we decided a Jungle Cruise was in order. We were ecstatic to see that this had no wait as well. We just walked right onto our waiting boat. This trip was a bit unusual for me. It was the first time I had a Jungle Cruise Skipper where English was not their first language. I must commend our Skipper because I know from experience that the kind of cheesy humor that this ride is famous for isn't easily understood by those who aren't born speaking English. Out Skipper got a lot of blank stares at their dead-pan delivery of the jokes.

This ride annoys me a lot because it's hard to take pictures of anything while in the ride vehicle. Unless the boat is sparsely populated, you are just crammed in there and it's hard to turn around to get a lens pointed behind you where all the action is.

After surviving the most dangerous part of the journey, docking the boat, we moved on to check out the new management in the Tiki Room. Despite being under new management, I must say that they really didn't do anything to bring more appeal to this classic Disney attraction. We found ourselves rather disappointment on leaving. Despite the original having very dated songs that lacked any pep, they were classics and most loyal Disneyland/Disneyworld fan knew the lyrics and liked to sing along.

At this point, it was decided that the time has come to try and tackle Splash Mountain again. Will the mountain once again beat us?

There was really no wait and we got right onto our log boat. I had my camera safely stowed in it's water-resistant bag and I used my feet to keep it from resting on the floor of the boat. Just as happened the first time we tried to ride it, we pretty much got soaked right after the ride started. But, this time I can say that being soaked while the sun was out made it a bit easier to tolerate. The mountain didn't beat us this time and we got to take the 50' foot plunge into Brer Rabbit's briar patch. Who knows, we may try to tackle this one again. Especially if on subsequent trips to the Magic Kingdom results in us being overly heated again.

This brought us to the end of our journey at the Magic Kingdom today. My wife wanted to do some last minute shopping on the way out, but the skies were looking very ominous so I persuasively convinced her that we needed to get to the bus before the rains started coming down. Also, by this time, my little pinky toes were really screaming at me. The pain was a bit too much to take and I was ready to get my socks and shoes off.

It's a good ting we left when we did because by the time we got about 10 feet away from our bus stop, it started raining. We didn't have to wait long for our bus and then we were off back to Saratoga Springs.

We had a 7:30PM ADR at Fulton's Crab House and at this time we really only have enough time to shower and get ready to go. No naps would be had today. It also meant that I didn't really get to give my feet a break before showering, changing socks and underwear and heading out again.

We were going to take the water taxi because both of us were working blisters, but, once again, they weren't running due to the impressive lightening storm that was going on. So, that meant we were hoofing it again.

We got to Fulton's with no time to spare, but they sat us as soon as we checked in.

My wife and I decided that we were going to share our meal tonight. The prices were high but more importantly, the portions were huge. We got the Lobster Narragansett for our entree. It is a New England original. Whole two-pound Maine lobster, oven roasted, shrimp, scallops stuffed, with red skin potatoes and baby vegetables. IT can be yours for only $49.95. We also shared a shrimp cocktail for our appetizer and a piece of chocolate cake for dessert. We both got sodas to drink (no alcoholic beverages tonight). All told, we got out of there for around $103 (including tip). It turns out they gave us the 10% DVC discount. I was pretty sure we were only supposed to get that for lunch, but I wasn't going to complain. I tipped on the pre-discount price.

Mind you my feet are really hurting and so were my wife's but she is dead set on getting to the Christmas store in Downtown Disney. I feel real bad because normally this is a store my wife and I both love to shop in. But considering that I'm a bit uncomfortable and we are in a financial situation where we are about to close on a new house, I just couldn't get into the idea of dropping another $300 on Christmas ornaments (that's our average expense in this store). Well, it turned out my wife really only found 4 ornaments that she wanted so I got out of there for about $40. I was more than thrilled.

We also spent some money in the Pin Trading Station. I was able to pick up one of the new Haunted Mansion pins that displays one of the rumored changes (the new staircases). My wife picked out some others that interested her. We aren't pin traders. We just buy pins that have some kind of relation to our trips. We make memory boards with our pins.

We took a quick spin through the scrapbook store on our way to the bus stop. With our feet feeling the way they do, we were not walking back. It didn't take long for the bus to show up, but the bus seemed to run into some technical difficulties when trying to get the gate to open when we got back to Saratoga Springs. So, we ended up sitting outside the resort for a bit until the gate decided to cooperate.

As soon as I got into the room, I ripped off my shoes and socks and found that I had two nice blisters. One on each pinky toe. It looks like I'll be wearing some moleskin and nuskin tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow. The rumor is that the Haunted Mansion will be opening tomorrow. This came from the cast member standing out front of the Haunted Mansion today. We are planning on making a valiant attempt to get to the Magic Kingdom for Early Magic Hours and heading straight to the Haunted Mansion. If Haunted isn't really open or once we get it done, we'll most likely head to another park.

Keep it Grumptastic folks! Grumpy signing out!

Technorati Tags: Trip Report, Walt Disney World

Walt Disney World Day 03.....I'll Tell My Ma When I get Home

Well, this day didn't start bright and early like the previous days. After going to bed late because I was finishing my blog entry and getting my pictures converted and uploaded to my Flickr account, I was having a bit of difficulty getting up this morning.

After eating a bowl of cereal in the room, we finally got out around 10:30AM. We decided that today was the day to go to Animal Kingdom. So we parked our butts at the Grandstand bus stop and waited for the bus to Animal Kingdom. As Murphy would have it, all the other parks came by the bus stop first.

I took a few pictures of my wife on the outside of the Animal Kingdom park. I was really expecting more security since today marks the anniversary of the terrorist attacks, but it was the same old bag check at the gate.

We grabbed a times guide and it was decided that my wife's desire to see the Festival of the Lion King was going to win the contest of "what are we doing first".

We made our way over to Camp Minnie Mickey. At this point, I'd like to comment on how good the signs are in The Animal Kingdom. You can almost get anywhere without consulting a map, if you know what land it's in.

Both my wife and I enjoy the Festival of the Lion King. Those tumble monkeys are just amazing to watch, but I think the thing I like the most is the flying birds of paradise (I think that's what they are). The work the female does on the rope she is hoisted up with is just amazing. I am terrified of heights and could never imaging doing such a feats of gymnastics.

Of course, I attempted to take some pictures of the festival and burned through a good 80+ pictures. I'm sure very few of them came out because the lens I was using wasn't the easiest to manage in low light conditions. I switched to a lens better suited for low light half-way through the show but the downside to the lens was that it was fixed at a 50mm zoom which meant everything I was going to take pictures of was going to have a close-up feel.

After the Festival of the Lion King, Enchanted informed me that she was a bit hungry. Since we had a 9:00PM ADR for Raglan Road we couldn't eat a full meal or we'd be starving before it was time for dinner.

It just so happened that there was a soft serve ice cream station outside the Festival of the Lion King location and I got a root beer float while Enchanted picked up a soft serve in a waffle cone.

It turns out the young lady taking our order was at Disney World on the College Student Program and she attends the community college down the road from where we used to live in Houston. This is the second person we have met on this trip that is from our old neck of the woods.

After the ice cream, my wife said we needed to head to see Finding Nemo: The Musical. I wasn't too enthused since the idea of converting Finding Nemo into a musical didn't appeal to me.

I must say that the amphitheater is huge and Disney crams the spectators into the space. Some people even have to stand. This time, I started out with the "faster" lens and took a lot of test shots to get my settings right. I think I may have gotten a few good pictures but they'll need a little cropping so people will see the details.

What is my opinion of the show? Well.......it was OK. They really zoomed through the story just like they do for the Little Mermaid show they do at Disney's Hollywood Studios. The songs were very seamless with the story and they didn't really stand out as not belonging with the story. Plus, you really don't focus on the fact that the puppeteers are very visible and even do some acting themselves. You seem to instinctively just merge them into their giant puppets and view them as one object. Their body language and facial expressions help enhance your perception of the puppet they are operating.

After Finding Nemo: The Musical, we decided to jet on over to The Dino Institute and travel back into time with Dr. Grant Seeker as our guide and try to find and retrieve a dinosaur he has tagged before an asteroid crashed into the planet and kills us all. I really have never been a fan of this ride. It is the same ride vehicle and track as the Indiana Jones ride in Disneyland and, to me, far inferior to the Indiana Jones ride. First of all, it's way too dark. You have long periods of time where it's just pitch black and then they strobe some lights and let you catch glimpses of dinosaurs and jerk you all over the place. I found myself trying to visualize were we would've been on the Indiana Jones ride. Enchanted found that she liked the ride better after riding the attraction again. That means that I'll end up having to ride this again in the future.

After my eyes stopped rattling around in their sockets from getting bounced around Dinosaur, we headed very hastily over to Asia to take a train ride through the Himalayas and hopefully avoid the wrath of the Yeti. We were amazed to see that there was a 10 minute wait to ride Expedition Everest. In fact, the line was so short and moving so fast, I just held onto my camera and ran through the line like everyone else.

Once we got onto the train, I had to sit on my hat to keep it from flying away. I had my camera pressed tightly against my chest and was barely holding onto my sunglasses with my pinky finger. I was so afraid that I was going to bang my camera into something and break my lens again, that I was tensed up the whole time. This resulted in my getting captured by the ride camera in a humorous state. So much so, that Enchanted decided that we need to buy an 8x10. We don't normally purchase the ride photos but this was, in her opinion, worthy of the overpriced cost. Despite my uncomfortable position on the ride, I still had a blast. This is my favorite attraction at Animal Kingdom.

After exiting the sand trap of loose tourist dollars known as the post-show area, we decided to ride again. This time the plan was to take our time and take some pictures.

Unfortunately, that plan quickly scrapped because even if I stopped, people kept streaming by me and kept screwing up my composition. So, I just put the camera back in the bag and made my way to the train. This time I got to enjoy the ride the way I normally do. I got to scream like mad and keep my arms raised the whole time.

After escaping the reach of the Yeti for the second time, we decided it was time go on a safari in Africa. On our way to Africa, Enchanted saw a kiosk selling a towel she liked and decided she must have it. While she spent some more of our hard earned cash (that's said with a smile), I finished filling up the memory card (I was only a few shots away from filling it up).

We made our way to the deepest, darkest part of Africa and found that the wait time was 30 minutes. After our debacle with Soarin' at Epcot, we decided to enact our new rule of nothing over 20 minutes and turned around.

At this point we decided it was time to wander around looking for food ideas.

We stopped and watched the show with the African gymnasts. This is always an enjoyable experience for my wife. I tried to pop off a few pictures, but it was hard to get good pictures that didn't have members of the audience in them.

After a bit of more aimless wandering we stumbled across Pizzafari. The menu seemed palatable and the prices were such that I felt we'd get a good value from our counter-service credits on the meal plan. We both got the chicken Parmesan sandwiches with chips. But I got the chocolate cake for dessert and my wife got the apple pie. While sitting there, I think I found a couple hidden Mickeys in the mural on the wall. I took a couple pictures for validation purposes.

When trying to leave Pizzafari, we were blocked from leaving by Mickey's Jammin' Jungle Expedition Parade. I was in a really bad place, but I think I got some good pictures. Needless to say, it gave me something to do while I waited for the Parade to complete so we could move on.

As we were standing there we decided it was time to go home and maybe head to Downtown Disney. But before we were to leave, we needed to locate and purchase a new hat for me. The baseball cap has always been a nuisance to me because the brim of the hat always gets in the way of the camera. This would force me to need to turn it around backwards. This process of turning my hat around and around was getting annoying.

We had seen the hat I wanted in one of the stores earlier that day, but I couldn't remember which store. So we thought it was best to start in the back of the park and work our way forward until we found the hat again. As we were walking back we ran into the Parade again. This time, I was in a good position to take some pictures. I really think I got some good ones.

After the parade made it's way by, we continued onward. Where we had planned on stopping was the Kilimanjaro Safari because that's the farthest back we had gotten earlier.

When we finally got to where we were going, we found that the parade caused the safari lines to get down to next to nothing. So we changed our plans and decided to get in a Safari. So, we hopped onto Simba 1 and with the help of Wilson in the sky, we went looking for some animal wildlife. This ride is very jerky and starts and stops quickly so it's a challenge to get pictures. I may have gotten one or two good ones amongst many blurry ones.

After returning from our Safari we continued on our mission to find my hat. As we worked our way toward the park exit, I continued to take pictures as I saw compositions that caught my eye.

We eventually found my hat and also picked up a nice matted print for the Disney beach themed area of our new house my wife is working on (which space that is going to be is still up in the air).

Now that our mission has been completed, it was just a matter of getting out of the park. But, we kept finding good picture stuff. We ducked into one of the little side trails and I was able to get a lot of close-up shots of the carvings in the Tree of Life. This was nice.

Eventually, we found our way out of the park. As we were standing there thinking if we wanted pictures of anything, I spotted the guy from the NASA Q&A session who my wife was talking to while I snapped pictures.

We went over to say hi and got into a conversation about what we were up to for the rest of the day. We told them that we were going to Raglan Road which he wasn't too familiar with. He told us that he was with his daughter and he's almost confident she has an opinion on the restaurant. Sure enough she said that she loved it. Somehow the conversation got onto the astronauts again and she mentioned that she was getting to go to Cape Canaveral with her husband who got permission somehow through his blog. I asked her if her husband wrote a NASA blog. She informed me that it was a Disney blog. I asked her which one because I read a lot of Disney blogs. She said, "The Disney Blog". I asked, "As in John Frost's blog?" She just laughed. Sure enough I was talking to John Frost's wife and yesterday, my wife had unknowingly been talking to his father-in-law. We chatted for a bit and then went our separate ways.

We found our bus back to Saratoga Springs was just waiting there when we got to the bus stop and hopped right onboard.

We came back to the room where my wife took her much needed nap. Animal Kingdom is exhausting. I needed a nap too, but for some reason I avoid them like the plague.

After accidentally letting my wife sleep 30 minutes longer than she wanted, we got showered and headed out for dinner in Pleasure Island.

Unfortunately, it was slightly raining. We decided to take the boat since it was much closer to our room than walking to Downtown Disney. Unfortunately for us, the boats stopped running when the lightening started to fly and we didn't know that. So after sitting there for 30 minutes we started walking. Fortunately, the rain had stopped at this point so it was a nice dry walk.

We got to Downtown Disney with just enough time to spare for a quick spin through The Art of Disney and the Scrapbooking store.

We got to Raglan Road in time for our 9PM ADR and were sat relatively quickly. We didn't really have a good position to see the musical group that was playing but we could definitely enjoy the music.

What is my opinion of Raglan Road? Well, you must really, really like traditional Irish fare to like dining at Raglan Road. Granted you can get a steak and I decided to forgo that in order to try some traditional bangers and mash while my wife enjoyed the shepherd's pie. But no trip to an Irish Pub and Grill would be complete without a pint of some fine Guinness Stout. It was especially nice since this Guinness is imported from Ireland. None of that pale weak US version of the stuff.

I forgot how much I hated drinking Guinness while eating. I must either eat or drink but I cannot do both at the same time. My poor taste buds just don't know what to do.

But, if anything I would have to say that if you like Irish music, go to Raglan Road around 9PM for the music alone. This is what made the joint. We had a ball. The music was AWESOME and it brought back many a memory from my days of playing Rugby in Colorado and our having the post match get together at the local Irish Pub. Guinness was always, always the drink of choice. I am a sucker for a good Irish Pub with good Irish music.

If you like this kind of music you cannot help but stomp your feet and clap your hands and maybe even sing along if you know the tune. Plus, they periodically brought out a talented young lady to do traditional Irish dances while they played.

Well, we actually paid out of pocket for this meal since we are burning through table service credits with our meals at Signature Restaurants. I think we ended up spending something around $72 for a Guinness, a Chocolate-tini, 2 entrees and a dessert.

We hauled butt out of there to try and get to the World of Disney before they closed. My wife had some money burning a hole in her pocket that she needed to get rid of. But all kidding aside, we've been trying to find the fast pass holders that are on a zip line. All we could find was lanyards and we hate them. We did finally find them at The World of Disney. After snagging those, my wife found some stuff for her kitchen and some more much needed scrapbooking supplies.

Our total was enough that we were able to snatch up a framed coin set they were selling for $15 if you spent more than $50. I like the collector's coins so this was a nice addition for my Disneyana collection.

At this point, it was almost midnight and the shops were either closed or fiercely kicking everyone out. So, we slowly worked our way back to Saratoga Springs. I took pictures on our way out (of course).

That is how our day ended. I must say that the two highlights had to be riding Expedition Everest twice and the Irish music at Raglan Road with the music coming very close to topping the list.

Today, I came to the conclusion that despite George and Andy's (The Disney Geeks) opinion that the first step to becoming a Disney Geek is books, I find that if you have a good camera and an eye for detail you can start on the same path to geekdom.

Stay tuned for more adventures of The Grump and his Enchanted Rose. It looks like we may be going to the Magic Kingdom tomorrow but it may change.

As usual folks, keep it Grumptastic! Grumpy signing out.

Technorati Tags: Trip Report, Walt Disney World