Day Three of WDW

Its late Monday night and I am supposed to be asleep but as often happens I can't sleep. I have lain awake for over two hours - resting!!! But not sleeping. So I will get up and turn on the trusty computer and update my blog. I figure while we are on our cruise we won't have internet but I will write daily anyway and save it all to add when I get home.

Kecia said I left off prices of breakfast and lunch...do you know we could have eaten for more than two weeks on what we spent on those three meals!! Breakfast buffet was only :-) ...$17.95 per person (plus tip and tax!) We are used to staying at a Hampton Inn where we have wonderful continental breakfasts for free!! Lunch at the Biergarten was $19.95 per plate - Thank Heavens MTC is paying for it all!! I feel sorry for those attending that are on a per diem basis - I don't know where they will find breakfast for only $9 each!!

Okay - Monday morning Edward got up and dressed and left for his 8 am meeting - I slept!! My alarm got me up at 9:15 ...rough life eh? I was almost ready to head downstairs and across the way to the Swan for our 'partners' breakfast when I got a call from Ed saying bring your camera and when I got there Ed was waiting for me so we could take a picture with our famous guest. It turned out blurry - but here's the proof - we are in Walt Disney World! Kecia - you won't find your dad nor I in mickey or minnie ears - this is as close as we get. Funny though - I never realized that Mickey was so short!! The directors all left us to our breakfast (they had gotten fed at 8 am). We had an interesting slide show telling us all about the job corps program in the very beginning. It was totally learn as you go - and they did learn. We also learned that our 2009 Directors meeting will be at the Maui Westin - where it was held in 2001(actually january of 2002, as it was originally scheduled for the Saturday after 911!) That is a marvelous resort - gorgeous - you don't know whether to swim in one of its fantastic swimming pools or lay in the sand and let the ocean lap at your feet. And they said that it will have been completely remodeled just prior to our arrival!! We are excited as Maui is our favorite spot in Hawaii!!

I casually mentioned to the ladies I was sitting with that it was too bad we didn't have a way to go see the shuttle lift off Tuesday and they all turned to me and said - we're going - come with us!! So I am getting up at 4:30 am and meeting a bunch of ladies down at the fountain in the entrance to go see the shuttle launch. I am sooo excited. I never thought I would be anywhere near something like this. You need to realize that 4:30 am is 2:30 am Utah time! It should only take us about an hour to get there but evidently with all the traffic you have to get there early!!

Now - On to MGM Studios

Ed got out of his meetings at 2 today - they had fed then box lunches so I grabbed a zone bar for my lunch and out the door we went. Again - we got to ride the boat over to MGM - it was a much better day...not nearly so much walking - it is a small park!! I know that I recognized several things there that were there in 1995 but yet they were saying that MGM Park was not created until about 1997. Finally talking to a disney worker we learned that this was just a small extra section of Epcot until 1997. Until then it was the working studios for Disney. When Universal Studios started building their competetion, then Disney got busy and turned their backlot into a separate park. As soon as we got in the park today we could tell that people were massing for a parade so we sat down on Hollywood Boulevard and waited for it to happen. My camera was back at the hotel because my battery recharger hadn't recharged them like they needed to be so Ed was the one behind the camera. I will have to wait for his pictures to see what he took. It was a fun fun parade - all the gorgeous Disney stars in fantastic old automobiles. It was so fun watching the children sitting by us get all big eyed when chip and dale walked by and shook their hand or Pluto gave them a hi five. It brought back memories of taking Kecia and Kelly to WDW in 1995 when they were 14 - even at that age they got a blast out of hugging Goofy!! Of course now adays there are a lot more disney characters ...the parade started with a big rat...from Ratatouile!

From there we headed to The Great Movie Ride - there was only about a half an hour wait and then we got to travel through classic film scenes and Hollywood moments - it was a 22 minute tour and really well done.

From there we headed back past Mickey's giant magicians hat to The Muppet Vision 3D program. We picked up 3 D glasses on our way into the theatre and thoroughly enjoyed the humor of those wonderful muppets but with a 3d twist. So much of the action WAS right in your face (plus an added spray of water at one point to add to the effect!)

After that we walked back over to the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular which was a 30 minute live show featuring edge of your seat stunts and adventure. That was especially fun as they picked a friend from MTC to be one of the extras and Ed got some goooooood pictures of him that he is going to slip to the corporate photographer for future blurbs!! They should have fun with them. There are so many many people here and you don't ever see anyone you actually know so that will make it a real surprise for James!!

After that was over we found the bathrooms and headed over to see what kind of lines there were for the Rock n Roller Coaster - over an hour wait so we said - no thanks - we stopped for a couple of soda's and a bag of chips - $7 but it filled the hole in our bellies. and then we walked on over to the Fantasmic Theatre - They suggested getting there 90 minutes early but fi9ured with the smaller park attendance 60 minutes would be sufficient time to get good seats and it was. We got there in plenty of time to pick out great seats and we drank our drinks and ate our chips and watched the whole place fill up. of course they were hawking all sorts of princess ears and sparkly ears and sparkly wands - we bought a couple of fun things to share with the grandkids - the first thing is called :STRING THING" and the grandkids will love it . It is a battery operated hand held 'wand' that shoots a plastic string around and around in a circle with a black light glowing to illuminate the string. You will have to wait to see it - its fun!!

The other thing that I just had to have was the wicked meanies beach towel. I just gave my three granddaughters (Adrie, Mickey and ...ahem....Emma) three Disney Princess towels. But this one is going on the wall downstairs for all the kids to enjoy in grandma's toy room. It has all the Walt Disney meanies on it!!! Made for Halloween!! FUN!! I will need the help of my grandkids to let me know who all of them are....but I will probably use it on our cruise first!!

The show was awesome - With fireworks and waterworks - fountains and sprays of water they used to show scenes on!! They had kabooms and the whole lagoon filled with fire...they had the Sleeping Beauty dragon and he was gorgeous, they had boats full of dancing princesses and canoes filled with indians. Between the fireworks and the music it got intense and stayed that way but of course good (Mickey Mouse) won out over evil (all the meanies) in the end.

By the time the show was over the park was closing and so we walked quickly back to catch the boat back to the swan and the dolphin. Then Ed and I walked back over to Broadway and found a wonderful pub with great food - I had a cheeseburger to die for and Ed had mahi mahi - I think that bill came to about $60.


WOW !!! What a fun day. I hope you are having as much fun at home!