Day 5..........March 30th............First Day at WDW MGM ~ Part 1
<font color="purple">My alarm clock went off at about 6:30am. I got right to it since today was to be a big day. I mean there are not too many times in your life you can say you are getting up to go to Walt Disney World now (ok maybe for some this isn‘t true, but not for me although I am working on that)!
By 7 everyone else was up in various stages of dress. Without further ado we were saying our good byes to my grandparent’s for a couple days and out of there by 7:45. Not bad for a family of 5! The drive to Orlando was about the same as when we drove to Sea World, fine until we hit I-4. However, before we knew it we were driving through the welcoming arches of Walt Disney World and Teagan still had her stomach contents intact.
OK for clarification we did not drive directly under the arches since we were on our way to MGM, but 1 road over is close enough for me. We pulled up to park at MGM and had all our things pulled up to the tram wait by 9am, which was opening time. I’d like to say I know what character we parked at, but as this is my husband’s job I have no clue and wouldn’t you know the darn man cannot remember anymore either. Geesh I give him 1 detail to remember and he cannot remember what it is a month later.
LOL! We were parked and at Disney so it was ALL good no matter where the sam heck we were parked and that’s that!
Our 1st tram ride of the day was an experience as we learned our stroller doesn’t fold down nice and flat like some of the other ones out there. This thing is huge and takes up quite a bit of room. We found we had to fight to get on trams with this thing all week as people would cut us off each time as we were trying to board with it.
I am glad we did bring our stroller though since no one else seemed to have a similar style as ours and we always found it right off the bat. Also the very ample storage basket and other extras were a nice bonus. After the fight with the stroller, which as you can see I sing it’s praises while dear hubby only could see it’s negatives, we were at bag check. That only took us 5 minutes and another 5 to get through the turn styles in. This is where Mom stops to take a breath of fresh Disney air and commit this to memory. Coarse everyone else is ready to take off in 5 different directions right away and cuts my moment short. Mom’s luck.
Since there were several characters out and right in front of us, we decided to do that first. Chip and Dale were our 1st encounter and had the shortest line. Teagan went right in for the hug, which surprised us all as she does not like strangers. The oldest 2 received their 1st autographs. We went to Tigger’s line next and repeated the same process. We were the last allowed in this line and it looked like the other character lines were closing as well. Oh well, we got to see 3 characters so no complaining here.
From here we did what the rest of the masses were apparently doing….going down Sunset Boulevard after the quick snapshot by a photographer
(yes I got Jim to pose for 1 more besides Sea World)! Brianna was just hankering to get on Tower Of Terror. For being so shy and reserved she is a virtual wild woman when it comes to rides. She is fearless! Dustin is afraid of his own shadow
, God bless his little heart, and refused to go on it. So Jim and Brianna did a quick potty break and then went to go get in the line that was claiming a 20 minute wait. The rest of us did our potty break at this point . Once we were relieved we went to go see about fast passes to Rock’n’Roller Coaster. The line was 25 minutes long just for fast passes. I decided against it. In hind sight I wish I would have just gotten in the blasted line as we never got a chance to ride this ride later. I try to tell my husband, who was very bummed he didn’t get to go on it, that it gives us something to look forward to for the next time although being Disney what’s not to look forward too?!?!?! The other 2 were still on ToT, so I figured we’d get a snack to eat with the chickens among us. Got a chocolate croissant at Toluca Turkey Co. for $2.79 and boy was it good! We washed it down with some water we had in the stroller basket. By then the 2 had come off of ToT claiming they had just loved it. Note to myself here>>>must try this ride next trip.
At this point the masses crowding Sunset Blvd were just too much for me, so we headed out of the area. We headed right towards The Great Movie Ride. Coarse we stopped for a few pictures of the big hat 1st. There was only like a 5 minute wait for this ride, so you couldn’t beat that. This would be Dustin, Teagan, and my 1st ride at WDW and we were so ready. I remember this ride from our 2000 trip. The kids were too little to remember and Jim was not with us, so I was peppered with questions about what was in store. I thought it was best for them to experience it 1st hand without knowing a thing so I kept my mouth shut. At first they were thrown off by the movie playing while we were waiting for the next ride vehicle. Dustin was not happy about the Alien part of the ride at all once we were on. The toddler didn’t look happy either, but she never cried out nor moved. I think everyone enjoyed the Wizard of Oz part and the final movie sequence the most. They all said they liked it and they never knew it was going to be like that. From here we wandered and gazed until we fell upon Star Tours. I so wanted to ride this because the last time the kids had been too little to ride and I missed it. Jim said he would stay outside with Teagan and do this latter. The standby line had a 25 minute wait posted so we just went for it. The line moved rather quickly which surprised me. The themeing was a great touch as is typical for Disney. In no time we were aboard our flight simulator and blasted off into the galaxy far far away! I loved it! I giggled like a little kid
the whole time we were on. The 2 kids liked it too. When we got off we told Jim he had to do this ride before we left the park.
Off to Muppet Vision 3D. We are not a show type family, but mainly prefer rides. Well Disney seems to break this mind set for us because we just love the various shows around the parks and Muppets were no different. I have some old tapes of this show and remember it growing up as a prime time show on before Solid Gold….must sees back then. It was like reliving my favorite television night as a child. The Swedish Chef is my all time favorite. For some reason I couldn’t find the Jell-O net this time although I remember it from last time. Gives me something to look for next time around I guess. After laughing our booties off we all decided our bellies were not laughing anymore, but hungry. We went down Commissary Lane to eat at the ABC Commissary at 12:30. Teagan took this time to promptly fall asleep of coarse. Kids and I picked out a table and sat down while Jim got the food. Our receipt shows a Cuban w/chips, cheeseburger and fires, and 2 kids nugget meals for a total of $22.11. It was all pretty good, nothing to write home about but satisfying nonetheless. We woke Teagan up at the end to eat what we all had saved her. I also took this time to rub sun block on my hubby and kids as it was blaring sunshine outside.
Coming out of the ABC commissary we saw some more characters outside by the big hat. The lines were all terribly long. Still we got in Eeyore's line since it is my favorite and the kids wished to entertain me for once. I get up there for my shinning moment with my offspring in tow and wouldn’t you know it my husband takes the picture while I am pointing to the camera for Teagan to look!
Oh well I got to see him and that is all that counts I guess. Again we noticed all the character lines looked to be closing down when we got out of our line.
From here we went back to fast pass The Voyage of The Little Mermaid. To kill time we went around the Magic Of Disney Animation and to One Man’s Dream. I did not get to spend nearly enough time in these little gems, but it will give me more to look forward to in the future. Oh but don’t both of these places just give you goose bumps and make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside? My hats off to Walt Disney and the rest of the Disney family for all the magic they have given to us.
Well....we of coarse loved Ariel’s show even though we were all the way over to the left side of the theater and had a hard time seeing some of it. This family follows the directions when they say to move all the way down the rows.
Let’s see afterwards we did the Backlot tour and noticed the stunt show going on while we were on it. From here we did the I Shrunk the Kids playground for a bit (boy is it hard to keep tract of your own kids in this "zoo"), took in the scenery as we walked around, let Jim get on Star Tours, looked in Al’s Toy Barn, took pictures with Woody, and just looked like the tourists we are. We were also wilting. By 4 I had seen most of everything I wanted to see at MGM with a few exceptions. I really wanted to see Fantasmic, but thought we could come back later that night for that. We figured it was a good time to try to find our resort hotel and check in. So we back peddled out of MGM. I stopped in the Legends of Hollywood store to get some cute Pooh postcards and some Pooh pony holder’s for the girls and in Cover Story for our pictures taken when we entered. I left only about $30 lighter after those stops so I think I showed much reserve.
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About This Page: This is a discussion on Pete's Spring Break Shenanigans~Day 5 added within the Sharing the Adventure: Disney World Trip Reports, part of the PassPorter Community - Boards & Forums on Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel; Day 5..........March 30th............First Day at WDW
MGM ~ Part 1
<font color="purple">My alarm clock went off at about 6:30am. I ...
The kids couldn’t believe their eyes when they saw all the larger than life icons. Jim is a hard one to impress and even he thought what he was seeing was pretty neat. At Classic Hall there were only about 3 people in front of me. However, with only 2 cast members helping this seemed to make the line move rather slowly. Gave me time to look around while Jim and the kids parked the van. When they came in the kids went to the little waiting room with the cartoons. Finally, we got our turn and the cast member was so friendly. I was even given a surprise……a card with a picture of Mickey Mouse in it telling me happy birthday. 
Only Disney! We were assigned room # 8435 in building 8 floor 4. After that was complete I headed for the food court to get my mug and fill it up with some lemonade. We parked the van in the 90’s parking lot and started to tote stuff to our room. The large icons are just so neat. They really were not kidding when they said the resorts were attractions onto themselves. Wish we would have had the time just to enjoy the hotel room for a full day. Again, next time we will have to make this happen. So after we tossed down our stuff and I (let me stress I here) put some things away, we started to talk about what to do next. It really wasn’t much of a discussion actually as we all couldn’t wait to see the castle. So we loaded up again and headed out into the sun.
here for good measure! It is so neat how a simple sight invokes such wonderful and strong emotions in people. I can so appreciate that. 
As we came out of the ride we noticed it was now dark outside. We were also rumbly in our tumbles again. 
Off to Pecos Bills since I had heard about it from the boards as being a good counter service place. Was a busy one too! We gobbled up a BBQ sandwiches, chicken wrap, 2 kids hotdog meals, and some drinks for a total of $25.83. The time on our receipt shows it was about 7:20 at this point. I loved the chicken wrap and was so glad I listened to others. Teagan was the lucky one since she got a little bit of everyone’s as is her usual.
We only waited about 15 minutes until we were into the stretch room. While waiting I had my arm around him and could feel his wee heart beating wildly and he was actually shaking. I tried to reassure him and let him know it was just like the movie and nothing would harm him, but at this point he wasn’t believing me at all. 
I was afraid he would start to cry when we got up to the doors and that I would have to take him out of the line, but he hung in there like a trooper. I, on the other hand, was a mess wondering if I was going to ruin my child for life and have to pay therapy bills due to a ride at Disney.
Anyway, he survived the stretch room and we exited that to make our way to our doom buggies. Does anyone else think the mass exit could be better orchestrated? I mean it seemed like all the rooms filed out to pushing and shoving towards the point you form a line to get to your doombuggie. It was also hot right in this spot. After feeling like I was shoved this way and that I made my way with Dustin and Teagan in tow to our doombuggie to the here after. Jim and Brianna rode in the one following us. I was afraid I would have a hard time with a toddler and a child scared out of his whit’s. The ride even stopped in the hallway with all the doors and I thought Dustin was going to run screaming mad out of there. He hung on to my hand for dear life and we would comment on things from the movie when we passed them. Before we knew it we were picking up our hitch hiking ghost and all done. I turned to Dustin and asked him what he thought. The boy smiled at me and asked if he could go again! 
Even Teagan seem unfazed. This ride boosted his confidence for the remainder of our stay and he was more open to trying rides he was unsure of. Consensus was everyone loved this ride and was one of our top 10.
Loved the Pooh ride and Brianna even remembered it from our 2000 visit. Teagan was beside herself with pointing fingers. We even went through the shop afterwards and she was still so happy to have seen Pooh she didn’t even notice the Pooh merchandise around her.
at this time on the cell to let her know we were fine and had checked into our room earlier. I believe it was getting close to 10pm when I called. We waited about 30 minutes until our turn for the boat. The boat ride was slow. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I wasn’t pressed up against some stranger and was getting tired. We repeated our TTC to tram to van procedure from here . We got back to the hotel when I decided I had a sore throat. So when we got to the hotel the rest headed to the room while I took the mug I had left in the van to the food court for a refill. I also stopped in the gift shop to get some more postcards for my fairy godmailer activities and a pressed penny book for the kids. I would say I was in bed and asleep a couple minutes before midnight. What a great 1st day!
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