DISNEY: Mk(SwaDol)Cot

I had stayed in Melbourne on Saturday thinking that I'd get caught up on blog entries... that didn't happen. I did get some things accomplished but mostly spent the day playing Little Big Planet at Chuck's. So given the extra hour from Daylight Saving Time, I woke up "early" and put in a run, and as a reward, decided to head to Disney even though it was cloudy with a strong chance of rain.

I left the house after rope drop and made it to the TTC around 10:30am. It was still cloudy but not raining when I got to MK. I headed down Main Street USA to Dream Along With Mickey which was just starting. My favorite dancer wasn't performing today, so I continued on to Frontierland, to the Country Bear Jamboree. The last time I went to see CBJ was GD07. Anyways, I got there with a 12-minute wait but those minutes went quickly. There was an impressive number of people who used the penny-pressing machine, and it seemed to bring a lot of joy to little children.

It was CBJ's 2nd day up after its refurb; no Christmas show, just supposedly clearer audio -- I say 'supposedly' because I was sitting in the back and they could've turned up the audio a little more. The show had a good fill, but I felt like I could've taken a nap (horizontally) on their cool, smooth benches if I really needed to. The show also seemed shorter than I remember. It was still a good visit.

Afterwards, I considered seeing Tiki Birds, but I took a shortcut to Adventureland and went the wrong direction, so I headed over to Tomorrowland. On the way, I saw the house-drawn Disney trolley and took my favorite picture of the trip (the trip pic above). Then there was a light light rain. I headed into Monsters Inc Laugh Floor, and while in the queue, submitted the a joke

Q: What do you call a ghost that haunts a hen house?
A: A poultry-geist

Then I got a txt back:

"That was so funny milk would have shot out my noseif I had a nose. Well try to use it if we can! Mike Wazowski"

So Cool!

Anyways, the showing was really funny this time. Sam and Ella's story had great great casting, and the lady volunteer for Buddy's mind-reading act was a good sport. During Buddy's bit, the camera briefly panned to my Mike Wazowski shirt and Buddy screamed (Ha!) -- this was even funnier because it was only a split second, and he didn't miss a beat with the mind-reading!

After the show, I was a great mood decided to jump onto the TTA before seeing CoP. The TTA was smooth, peaceful, and seemed quicker/shorter than before. Anyways, I managed to get in CoP with a good crowd (good fill, and no disruptors). This show seemed to go by really quickly too, and I'm still feeling more and more familiar with it, though this time I did notice a few new things, such as the cat in the last scene and the fact that in the wife (Sarah) wasn't wearing her wedding ring. The father's hands still kinda creep me out.

After CoP, that was basically it for me at MK. It was lunchtime, and I was getting hungry (I planned to eat at Epcot). Anyways, the rain was coming down hard, and the crowds all too cover in the stores of main street (asides from a few weirdos). I was prepared with my $1 green poncho (yay me!) and so I snapped a few pictures.

I was going to small-boat to the Wilderness Lodge, but having just missed it, I decided to bus over to the Swan & Dolphin instead. The rain quickly stopped, and it was sunny again as I rode over.

I departed the bus at the Swan hotel and was struck by its beauty. It was small but had beautiful features, especially looking up. Then I walked over to the Dolphin, which was much much bigger (3x-ish) and had the huge fountain in front, multiple high-end restaurants inside, and a large circus-lofty lobby area.

The weather was very pretty outside, and I waited for the small ferry headed to Epcot. I disembarked at the Yacht & Beach stop so I could get a couple pics of Stitch with the Boardwalk in the background, then we then kinda back-tracked over to the BW. There wasn't so much more there asides from shopping -- made a quick stop by the arcade but *shrug*. It was cool that a professional film crew was at the small pavilion on the water there.

Anyways, I entered Epcot at its Int'l Gateway and started ccw. I had to resist the F&W festival booths, because I suddenly got money-conscious. I went to Japan and ordered my usual, though this time there were a couple things different: 1] instead of a vegetable-shrimp cake medley tempura, I got a single whole shrimp tempura, and 2] the price went up $1.50... The meal was still nice, and I had figured that the economy would've hit Japan sooner-or-later. I stopped by the store there and picked up some snow pea snacks for later.

Afterwards, I actually made it to AA with perfect timing for the show (missed VoL though). I slipped my cup of iced green tea into my shopping bags and sat in the 2nd freakin' row. I could see more detail -- e.g., cigar smoke -- and the show was more engaging (I was still kinda sleepy at parts). And like the other shows that day, this one also seemed to be shorter than I remembered -- maybe I'm becoming senile. Speaking of which, the Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) animatronic sounded like McCain. When they played the "Golden Dream" montage, I felt myself possibly tearing up (but I didn't) -- the swelling music was incredibly effective/affective. Anyways, it was a good visit to AA, and I continued on.

It was an hour before the first Eat to the Beat show of the night, but there was already a considerable line formed for the Atlanta Rhythm Section (*shrug*). I walked over to Norway and, seeing Maelstrom at 25 mins, decided to stay to watch the movie (but forego the ride) -- this is my favorite film of all WS.

After that, I went over to FW. On the way to UoE, I said that if TT was 10-min or less for SR, I'd ride it. It was, and I did -- didn't even have to watch the pre-show. There was an unoccupied middle-backseat, so Stitch jumped in and buckled up. There was a light rain by the time our car made it outside -- not as bad as front-seat Dueling Dragons with heavy rain, but still very fun. The cars were backing up at the loading dock, so there were some *sigh* "Cedric driving" moments in getting backed up. The ride pic with Stitch way down in his seat would've been SO CUTE, but unfortunately it didn't make it past the editor for some reason. Oh well.

Anyways, I get to Universe of Energy, and we are told that there's been a medical emergency in the theatre and that they're waiting on an ambulance (heart-attack?). I guess that it wasn't meant to be today. So instead, I went over to Cool Club for three quick shots then over to either LWTL or SSE... SSE, so I could get some ride media. And this time, I managed to get a small chuck of Stich's face embedded in mine. Anywho, then it was time to go home. As I waited for the monorail back to the TTC, I remembered that the teahouse isn't open late on Sunday. So I decided to skip DT Orl and just head back to Melb.

I thought that today's trip to disney was very successful. I was good (i.e., patient) and felt ambassador-ish. I saw the country bears and really enjoyed MILF. Also, I was prepared for the on-and-off rain. The resorts were beautiful, and I may have to treat the parents to one the next time they visit. And although Epcot wasn't as planned, I did have some great timing. It'll be 2 or 3 weeks until I'm back to the World, but I think I'll be fine until then. Woo!

Lots of pictures from the visit after the busy travel log.
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Here's what I did this visit:

10:30am TTC (GRUMPY 123)
Yellow Monorail to MAGIC KINGDOM

- Dream Along With Mickey
- Country Bear Jamboree
- Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor
- Tomorrowland Transit Authority
- Carousel of Progress

Bus to SWAN RESORT

Walked to DOLPHIN RESORT

Small Ferry to YACHT&BEACH RESORT

Walked to BOARDWALK

Walked to EPCOT
- Japan (Tonosama Combination)
- United States (American Adventure, film only)
- Norway (Maelstrom, film only)
- Test Track (ride only, no pre-show)
- (Universe of Energy (Medical Emergency))
- Cool Club
- Spaceship Earth

Green Monorail to TTC

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