{"id":412,"date":"2004-01-06T23:59:02","date_gmt":"2004-01-07T04:59:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/k\/blog\/2004\/01\/06\/\/"},"modified":"2005-10-19T20:40:30","modified_gmt":"2005-10-20T00:40:30","slug":"trip-day-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/k\/blog\/2004\/01\/06\/trip-day-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Trip: Day 4"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Tuesday was an early day. MGM was our destination, and it opened an hour early for people staying at a Disney hotel. We dragged ourselves out of bed and bussed over, arriving just a few minutes after 8. Headed directly for Tower of Terror and the Rockin Roller Coaster, as those were the rides we wanted to ride and the ones most likely to acquire long lines.<\/p>\n

The Roller Coaster was not yet open when we got there, though a short line had formed. Then a park employee arrived and said that the ride was closed because of technical issues and would probably reopen in an hour or so. So Bob and I got a fastpass and dashed on over to the Tower of Terror. The line here was long, a result of the roller coaster’s non-opening, but, of course, by no means long<\/b>.<\/p>\n

I hadn’t been on Tower of Terror before, though I have been on rides of similar type, and I wasn’t sure what to expect. It was good. I heard someone saying on the bus on the way to the park that effort made at creating atmosphere and buildup could almost make the ride itself a let-down — and I can see what he meant. But it was also very effective in making it more enjoyable. Instead of a straight up and down, there was actual attempt at plot; at making it a theme park ride and not a thrill ride. Two thumbs up.<\/p>\n

When we got off, it was not quite time for our Fastpass to the roller coaster, so Bob and I headed down the street toward the Movie Ride. It was here that we made our first discovery of the day: much as the times posted in front of the lines at Magic Kingdom had all been lies, the times posted at MGM were also. Except, to our consistent dismay throughout the day, they were always underestimates. However, not knowing this, we saw the 30 minute time outside of this ride and thought that it would probably only be 20 or so.<\/p>\n

How stupid we were. 45 minutes later, we finally got onto the ride, and when we finally exited, our Fastpass time for the roller coaster was expired. Annoyed, we trudged back over to see if we might still sneak on or at least to get a new Fastpass. However, luck was with us, though it might not have seemed so at first: we arrived to find employees standing around, warning people that the ride was still closed. Saved! Since our passes were for while the ride was down, they could be used at any time during the day, so long as the coaster finally did open.<\/p>\n

Happy, Bob and I headed off toward the other side of the park after grabbing a Tower of Terror fast pass for later. The headache that had been plaguing me all morning had grown in to full throbbing blossom by then (a combination of cigarette smoke exposure, too little sleep, and continual jarring of my neck by the way my feet land when I walk) so we detoured passed the first aid station.<\/p>\n

I <3 the first aid station. They gave me free tylenol. Praise the lord.<\/p>\n

Walked right in to Star Tours, then off to Muppets 3D. And then time to cross the park again. MGM’s layout is much more annoying than the Magic Kingdom’s — MK is more like a wheel, with a circle around and spokes all coming to the center. But MGM is like a shamrock, with 3 areas that are self contained. The roller coaster was still closed, so we rode Tower again and then hiked back over for lunch.<\/p>\n

We ate at Pizza Planet, which was the most astoundingly slow food stand I’ve ever seen at Disney. Somehow I got served ahead of the people in front of me, much to their annoyance, but I was beyond caring — I’d already been waiting a ridiculous length of time for an individual pizza and a soda.<\/p>\n

Indiana Jones came after lunch, then the animation studio tour. It was in the animation studio gift shop that we bought a few images and I discovered the Small World figurines. I want them. I so do. But they were expensive, and I resisted, much as I resisted the lure of the Chicken Gods.<\/p>\n

But I’m still second guessing myself on that one. So I may get them anyway. ^^;<\/p>\n

Stopped through the Beauty and the Beast show next, which seemed different from before. It felt like they’d incorporated some ideas from the Broadway show, getting rid of some of the less important bulky costumes (though they kept the main 4). After that was done, we checked the roller coaster again — success! It was open. We went right in through the fast pass, behind a pair of little girls who just barely passed the height requirement. They were nervous about going on the ride by themselves; the youngest one felt odd being in the fast pass line and kept thinking that she was in the wrong spot and trying to leave. But they (and we) rode without incident and it was good. Short. Like Mission Space was. But definitely the best coaster at Disney.<\/p>\n

When we began to walk back to the other side of the park, we found that MGM was in the throes of the daily parade, and the streets were clogged with people. So we got ourselves a pretzel and sat down to eat it in the nice empty space that wasn’t along the edge of the parade route. By the time it was over, it was very close to our Fastpass opening to the Little Mermaid show, so we decided to putter around in the nearby gift shops until it was time. It was there that we discovered several disturbing items for sale. Not quite as disturbing as the dwarfslash ornament, but right up there.<\/p>\n

Little Mermaid = good, theatre was better than last time, show was pretty much the same. Then we went to look at the Walt Disney museum and watch the movie there. That was interesting; there’s really not much attempt at history of the park actually in<\/i> the park. Rides vanish or are renamed without any sort of acknowledgement. Next door to it was something called “the making of the Haunted Mansion”, which we assumed would be some kind of a featurette. But no, we were all walked into part of the movie set which had been reassembled here, and the guy gave us a wee bit of info, which essentially boiled down to “look, this is part of the real set! It’s so cool!”. <\/p>\n

Yawn. After that waste of 15 minutes, we drifted back to the other side of the park to hit the only other thing we hadn’t seen yet — the Sound Effects demonstration. This was considerably revamped since last time I was there. I seem to recall it being, you know, an actual demonstration. Nowadays, everyone puts headphones on, the lights go out, and you listen to Drew Carey bumble his way through a short scene. I’m not sure what we were supposed to actually take away from it, other than you can do drama and comedy without a picture — which I think radio proved a long time ago…<\/p>\n

It was growing dark, and Bob wanted to stay for the park closing show, Fantasmic. So, in spite of the fact that it was growing somewhat cold and seemed to be threatening rain, we headed to the amphitheatre and found ourselves seats for the show. Unfortunately they were right behind a pole. :P<\/p>\n

We’d arrived some 45 minutes prior to the show’s scheduled start, as had all of the people around us. We were easy prey for the vendors of popcorn, fleece blankets and various glowing things who were wandering up and down the steps. The people next to us bought a pretzel, something which so impressed the teenager behind us that he continued to talk about it, debating the merits of purchasing one for quite a length of time before he finally left to get one for himself. When he returned, the guy next to us turned back to him and said ‘Thank god you finally got one, I was going to buy you one myself!’.<\/p>\n

Across the row from us was a family with children pre-teen and younger; they fell to the man with the glowing things. Specifically to the man with the whirling message stick. (If you haven’t seen these, they’re pretty nifty — it’s a stick with a skinny LED studded arm attached to it, which you whirl around like a noisemaker, and it shows pre-programmed messages in the air as it turns.) The man demonstrated the various messages he had in his, which, as he assured the 12 year old girl attempting to convince her parents to give her $20 for one, could be changed to be far more interesting as soon as you left Disney.<\/p>\n

The show was pretty good — it was different from Epcot’s, featuring lots of different Disney characters and villains, which is part of why we’d wanted to see it. It was windy though, and there were also lots of shooting walls of water — which kept blowing into the audience and getting us wet. Brr.<\/p>\n

After stopping back at the hotel, we headed off to Downtown Disney to get ourselves some dinner. We ended up going to the Wolfgang Puck express, which was good and not too expensive, as his restaurant surely would have been. While we were there, there was a cloudburst and we very nearly got drenched. But it had stopped by the time we were done eating, so instead of heading right back, we wandered through the shops. The weather and the lack of people in general meant the shops were pretty deserted, and the employees were clearly bored: in the toy store, I was accosted by a worker who very firmly insisted that I WOULD sing karaoke and would not take no for an answer.<\/p>\n

We fled.<\/p>\n

We fled to the Ghiradelli ice cream fountain, where we both got some dessert. Being stuffed yet from dinner, I resisted the urge to order more ice cream than I could actually comfortably eat; a simple hot fudge sundae was all I got, and it was enough. Yum.<\/p>\n

We then, after a few minor purchases, went back to find the bus, thinking our adventures for the day were over. How stupid we were.<\/p>\n

I knew we were in trouble when our bus driver cheerfully introduced himself to everyone individually as we boarded. He was either high or slightly retarded; I wasn’t able to tell for certain either way. What I do know is that he kept up a running commentary during our entire trip back to the hotel, at times funny, at times sad, and always just a little disturbing.<\/p>\n

But we didn’t die and eventually we arrived safe back at the hotel.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tuesday was an early day. MGM was our destination, and it opened an hour early for people staying at a Disney hotel. We dragged ourselves out of bed and bussed over, arriving just a few minutes after 8. Headed directly for Tower of Terror and the Rockin Roller Coaster, as those were the rides we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/k\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/k\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/k\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/k\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/k\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/k\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/k\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/k\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/k\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}