[WDWTink]

March 9, Day 2-Magic Kingdom, or “Why aren’t your shoes wet?”

The Cast:
Me, Courtney, 20 year old college junior, 30+ trip veteran, haven’t been in about 5 years
My boyfriend Patrick, 21 year old college senior, first trip
My grandparents, more trips than I’ve made, grandmother just had knee surgery and is still using a cane, still having some difficulty with walking

We were up and at ‘em fairly early this morning, as three of us still needed to redeem our AP vouchers. We parked (tried to park in the AAA section, but lack of assistance in the parking lot prevented us from finding it), and got really lucky, because we traditionally have to go “all the way to the end of the row.” It’s been a joke with our family for the past 17 years because that’s how it always happens. Well, so granddaddy decides to let grandmother off at the end of the row so that she doesn’t have to walk so far that early in the morning, and the second a cast member sees that, they give us one of those reserved spaces at the top of the row! It was amazing! That has NEVER happened to us before, of course, we never needed it before. So off we go to the TTA. We stop to redeem our vouchers, but we can’t because the system is down. They tell us to go on in, that they’ll let us in on our vouchers due to the system being down. So, we head on through the gates and up the ramp, after being grilled by the people at the gate to the monorail about our vouchers, and it doesn’t seem too crowded, so I ask to sit in the front. YES! They let us. My boyfriend’s first trip on the monorail and he gets to sit in front, awesome! So that was cool, we got to the park, and grandmother and I both had to get searched. Not bad at all. I can deal with that. So we get to the turnstiles, and it is SO not cool. The cast members act like we’re insane trying to get in with the vouchers, a supervisor came over, lots of radioing going on, just generally felt like criminals for a few minutes. Anyway, they figured out that they needed to punch holes in our plastic vouchers (?) and let us go. The SAME THING happened the day before, and we still had to go through all that. Oh well, at least we’re in before it really opens. We watch the opening ceremony, which I do really really like. That is SO cool! The only thing I didn’t like was not getting to go down and wait for rope drop on Main Street. That seems like something you’re just supposed to do. Oh well, I deal, I grow up. Hehe So, Patrick and I arrange a time with my grandparents to meet for lunch, and he and I are OFF! Earlier that morning, my grandmother mentioned something about how she really should have gotten a handicapped parking pass (she was already starting to have some trouble), but due to her stubbornness to accept help, she hadn’t asked for one. When I heard that, I started thinking about the guest assistance cards. I casually mentioned them, and she actually seemed to like the idea! I did mention that I thought she had to have a note from her doctor, and she reminded me that she did: She has to carry around a card with her all the time now, because her knee can set off metal detectors in Wal-marts, airports, and we didn’t know if Disney had metal detectors set up or not, so she brought it. So when Patrick and I took off to start riding, they made a little stop at City Hall.

First stop: Frontierland! Let me just mention now that Patrick has never really ridden rollercoasters and has an extreme fear of heights. For the trip, however, he decided to be brave and try as much as possible. We headed to Splash Mountain (keep in mind, Patrick is the only one of our entire group that can get a fastpass, as the rest of us don’t have “real” tickets) and it’s closed because it’s currently down. So we go to Thunder Mountain and wait in a relatively short line to ride. I did feel bad though, because there was a family in front of us, parents and a daughter and son, the son clearly had some disabilities, and I kept thinking, they really need a guest assistance card. People like him just shouldn’t have to wait in line. You could tell it was hard on him, but I didn’t feel like it was my place to say anything. Anyway, I’ve always loved this one, and luckily Patrick likes it too! So, we leave there and Splash is now open. We head in, once again, line’s pretty short. Patrick was a little jumpy on it, but he seemed to like it, too. No panicking, just kinda looking around a lot and asking me when the drop is coming. So we finish those mountains and head to the third.

Space Mountain, once again we’re off to the standby line. I was surprised at the way they were doing things, with the standby going through the line that used to have no one go through, which is much narrower, and fast passes go through the wider lane. Needless to say, waiting in that line, I was getting kind of annoyed that we didn’t have the option of getting fastpasses, and there are all those other people running past us. GRRRR! Plus, we have to wait outside, because for some reason, they have no lanes open on the inside! How weird, so once you get in, there’s no line, but it made the rest of the line horrible! But the ride was well worth it, as always, and Patrick liked this one too. (Can you tell I was worried about him not liking a lot of these?) We did enjoy hanging out in the tunnel and looking around and talking in there. It was nice. So we left and headed to Buzz! I hadn’t ridden that before, and I ADORE IT! I did terribly the first time, I blame it on the gun being hard to fire (it did seem tougher than the others I had), but basically, I have no hand eye coordination. I just kinda looked around and enjoyed it. I do miss Dreamflight, but Buzz is an excellent replacement! By that time, we needed to head towards Cosmic Ray’s to meet my grandparents for lunch. They had been there for a while (this turned into a pattern throughout the week, they were ALWAYS early) and so we all went and ordered the second we walked in. I got cream of chicken soup (with lots of mushrooms from the bar) and a cup of ice water. That was a HUGE money saver for us college kids who budgeted for nearly a year before doing this trip. We got cups of water rather than bottles at every meal, saving us $5 per day, just for lunch. My soup was good, and my grandparents spend lunch telling us about the guest assistance card. They had 4 put down for the number in the party, in case we wanted to ride with them later.

We decided to stay with them for a while, since we were all about to go to Fantasyland, and it would save us a lot of time. They do SUCH a good job with that. The cast members were absolutely super with my grandmother, and helped her as much as they could. She couldn’t have ridden anything really, without it. The standing in line would’ve been more than she could handle. So we did Pooh (and yes, I think it’s ok, but they took out Mr. Toad for this? PLEASE! I loved Toad, but I digress), I can live with Pooh, but it won’t be something I feel like I need to do every trip. Then came Snow White (with a great CM who told my grandmother to stay away from the apples!), Small World, and Peter Pan. After that, we decided to try to make ressies for Tony’s, since it was the only non-character, sit-down restaurant open. Plaza Restaurant, where we usually eat, was closed for refurbishment. BUMMER!! We never got into the character meals, and I absolutely don’t feel like I eat my money’s worth at buffets, since I don’t eat that much in the first place. I still miss the cafeteria style Crystal Palace! Once again, I digress. Can you tell I hate change? Hehe So we made our reservations, and continued to Haunted Mansion. We used a “Servant’s Entrance” door to get in, and it was so well themed in the corridor we entered into! Awesome, I hate that everyone doesn’t go through here! We went into the stretching room, and after leaving there, Patrick and I were doing our best to guard grandmother, and keep the pushing, shoving crowds away from her. That was not cool. They need a way to get guests needing assistance from the stretching room into the doom buggies, because I was really afraid she was going to be hurt, as there were several school groups with young children (their shirts said kindergarten!) and it’s so hard to control that many children when they’re that excited. But we did ride it, and Patrick was able to see and appreciate all that was going on (did I mention he’s a future electrical engineer? He can get into that kinda stuff!)

At this point, I sort of lost track of the order we did things, so I’ll just hit the highlights of what I know we did. We headed from Haunted Mansion to Adventureland. Since I’d never been on Aladdin’s Carpets (and Patrick and my grandparents have never ridden Dumbo!!) we rode them. Too cute! I love the spitting camels! Nothing outstanding, but I thought it was fun. I loved the ground around the ride with all the “jewels” in it, made it feel very Aladdin-ish. My grandmother wasn’t sure about riding Jungle Cruise with its large step down into the boat, but she sent the rest of us on to ride it. Same corny jokes, but still pretty cute. Patrick had to sit away from us though, and that wasn’t good, but I still saw a few smiles creeping onto his face during the ride. We tried the new Tiki room. I’m ok with it, but I do miss the original. I like the Tiki god woman thing that comes up in the center, and I like that the beginning is the same, but I miss hearing the whole song. I don’t think Patrick “got” the Tiki room, if you know what I mean. We rode Pirates of the Caribbean, where they were SO cool to my grandmother. We asked one of the grounds people (who are still everywhere, despite cutbacks, it’s nice that having everything spotless is rating so high on the importance list) where she needed to go with her guest assistance card, and he walked us over to the wheelchairs that they supply for the walk down into the ride, which are then placed in the back seat of the boat to be retrieved when you get off. Then you ride the elevator out. So sweet though, that guy was awesome! We were able to see the parade as we left Pirates of the Caribbean, which was cool. I’d wanted to see it, but I knew Patrick would SO not be willing to sit there and watch it. We went to Tomorrowland again and didn’t have to wait for Buzz. This caused a little tiff between Patrick and me! Apparently, at some point during the ride I took control of the knob that turned us and gave myself an advantage. I wound up beating him by a lot on this round, and he was mad because I “cheated.” Hehe Pretty funny. He got over it.

We decided to go see Alien Encounter (which I have absolutely HATED the 2 previous times I’ve tried it). My grandparents waited for us outside, because they don’t really like it either. So, I’m ok with going though, because Patrick hasn’t seen it, and I figure I’ve grown out of my fears. WRONG! Ok, so I make it through the first preshow, no big deal. The second one-I’m starting to remember why I HATE this ride. So we go in, starting to panic. We go down an aisle in the back, and there’s only one seat left, so we head towards a different one. By this time, there are no seats left together, which would of course happen when I’m panicking. But we were able to sit sort of together…we were next to each other, but my seat was about two feet farther back (in the handicapped section). I was able to hold his hand, and I remembered that the worst part for me had something to do with the back of my neck, so I held my shoulders up with the harness came down, and when it was locked, I slid my shoulder into the center of the harness so I was far away from the back of the seat. Then I closed my eyes and practically broke Patrick’s hand, and FINALLY it’s over. At some point after that, Patrick and I split up with my grandparents again, and we went and rode the teacups (one of the few rides he had heard a lot about from people other than me) and that was fun. We were supposed to meet my grandparents for dinner in a while, but we were stopping to look through shops and stuff, just generally having fun, walking around, soaking it all in….Speaking of soaking….It starts POURING, we’re talking torrential downpour cypookus while we’re in Tinkerbell’s Toy Shop. We don’t want to put our ponchos on, because we figure it’ll lighten up because it usually does…Apparently not. We waited and waited, and when we eventually decided we had to go so that we weren’t late, it let up slightly. So we made a break for the shops on Mainstreet, keeping us a little dryer. When we got there, granddaddy told us they weren’t having the fireworks….and he told us that prices at Tony’s weren’t seeming so reasonable for the college kids. Twenty bucks for plain spaghetti, no salad, no drink? That’s crazy! I mean, I know it’s about the atmosphere, but it’d be nice to have some sit down restaurant we could afford. So we decided to leave anyway because it was almost closing time and there weren’t any fireworks.

So here’s where the wet shoes part of the story comes in. We left on the monorail, ponchos on (the cheap kind, not the good kind), and let me tell you, they didn’t help much. Thunder and lightning were everywhere and the ride was a little scary. We got off the monorail, and we walked down the covered sidewalk to where you have to cross the expanse of sidewalk to the TTA. So there’s no way it’s going to let up. Patrick takes off across the concrete. I went next, not so fast because I know how uncoordinated I am. Well, so I get to this (AT LEAST) 5 inch deep puddle, I see no clear way around it, so I tiptoe through it. I got under the covered area and tried to get some water out of my shoes. My grandparents came next, even slower, because of my grandmother. Well, I start noticing that none of them seem to have wet shoes. So, yeah, I’m dumb, and I’m the only person to walk STRAIGHT THROUGH THE CENTER of the “lake” and get soaked. Oh well, I lived, but with wet feet till we got home that night. We hopped the tram back to Pluto 11 where the car was located in the first spot in the row….but the Pluto stop turns out to be a million miles away from Pluto 11. We walked about 15 rows to get back, my poor grandmother taking it slow in that pouring rain with granddaddy beside her the whole time, holding her elbow. Pitiful. That just stunk. But anyway, time to eat. We wanted to have Darryl’s (based in NC I think, I tried to tell them all parts of the chain were closed except the one here at my school, but nobody listens) and sure enough, we got there and it was closed. Luckily, there was a Chili’s a few doors down with a short wait. We got in there and had some awesome food (our bill was $26, including tax, drinks, 2 entrees, and an appetizer). Cool! After that, it was back to the hotel. Patrick’s legs were tired, and after he had some Tylenol, he laid down for the rest of the evening. Baths and a little tv later, grandmother and I were sound asleep in our room, and Patrick and granddaddy I guess went to sleep at some point that night? I didn’t care, I was tired. hehe

Neck update: It didn’t bother me much during the day, except on Space Mountain a little, but it stopped as soon as I got off! It got pretty bad that night again though…

Weather today was: Bright and sunny, nice and warm….and then it POURED!!

Best thing today: Getting to have my picture made in front of the castle with my prince, being back in MK, seeing it all through Patrick’s eyes, Grandmother’s Guest Assistance Card

Worst thing today: Not being able to get fastpasses and watching everyone pass us in line, my neck still hurting, the tram taking us WAY far away from the car, Alien Encounter

Today we tried: Buzz Lightyear
Result: A+

Magical Moment of the Day: Getting Patrick on his first roller coasters!!

Next up: Epcot, or “Let’s go again!”