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Day 3, Part 2 - February 8, 2002: When Can We Eat Again?

Having been to only two parks so far today, we decided to move on to a third. Now, I have no doubt that there are folks out there who deplore this approach, mainly because of the travel time eating into the limited hours that the theme parks are open these days. But the attitude Bob and I have taken is that the travel between the parks can be an attraction in and of itself. To that end, we exited the International Gateway from Epcot and caught the Friendship V boat to Disney-MGM Studios. It's a surprisingly short ride--about 20-25 minutes--with stops at Disney's Boardwalk, The Yacht and Beach Club, and The Swan and Dolphin before proceeding to D/MGM. It's a nice sit-down with plenty of sights, and if you have never done it, it's a nice tour of what's in-between Epcot and D/MGM. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img] On a previous trip we took the boat from (then) Dixie Landings to Downtown Disney, and had an opportunity to talk to the CM who was "driving". He had retired from the Bath Iron Works and spent his summers in Maine working for L. L. Bean and his winters in Florida working for Disney! [img]images/icons/cool.gif[/img] Bob asked him what qualifications were needed to drive the boat and he pointed to the ignition switch and said, "Can you turn that key?"

But I digress. Once we docked, we cleared security, submitted our Annual Passes and biometric data for entrance, and then made our way down Sunset Blvd. to find that all FP's for RnRC and ToT had been dispersed. [img]images/icons/frown.gif[/img] But not to worry, the advertised wait for ToT was 13 minutes, so we decided to go for it! Then it was on to Star Tours, where we found the wait to also be reasonably short. After a "pause for the cause", we went to Muppetvision 3D, walking into the theater--what timing! (Of course, the preshow is so clever it was almost a shame.)

After dutifully dropping our 3-D glasses in the purple bin, we powerwalked back to, yes, ToT, and were on the next-to-last drop for the night. It was a particularly fun crowd, and there were 2 young girls behind us who said--in unison--right before the drop, " We are the weakest link! " I laughed very hard, and decided not to disabuse them of their opinion. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Enough parks for one day! The bus back to the WL was not full, and the ride was very efficient. There was a cute little girl with a multicolored lollypop who had smeared it all over her face. She was adorable, especially since I would not have to clean her up! Once back at the WL, Bob suggested we stroll the grounds a bit (Oh, sure, not enough walking for one day?), which we did, checking out the WLV pool and spa. Then back to the room to journalize and crash before our PS at Artist Point at 8:45 PM.

I haven't said much about our room, and should. The location was very good--on the top floor (#6) at the end of the wing closet to the Villas. We had a balcony that we did not have to share with another room, and it was also pretty quiet as it was not in the main traffic area and of course had no room above or on one side. It's Bob's opinion that this room may be a bit shorter than the ones on the lower floors (it's under the roof), but we failed to toss the tapemeasure in the car as we were bolting Alabama in the snowstorm, so we cannot prove it! [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

Next: A Magical Moment at Artist Point!