Sunday, January 9, 2011

Our Dream Disney Vacation - Day Two

The whole gang woke up bright and bushy-tailed at an early 5:30 a.m. Diane woke up a bit earlier than that but I didn't rise out of bed until the alarm. Speaking of the alarm... Don't you just love the iPod alarm clocks? I don't have one at home so of course it's exciting to me. In case you're interested I woke up to Finding Nemo: The Musical on this particular day. :) Anyway... We were all out the door by 7:45 a.m. and on an empty bus to Disney's Hollywood Studios within ten minutes of arriving at the bus stop. This day was "Matt's" day since he absolutely loves DHS!


The park's opening show is always one of my favorite. I LOVE Melvin Macheesmo. He's my favorite Streetmosphere character for sure. Mom and I kept up with the front of the pack and actually ended up being in the very first ride vehicle of the day. Matt and Diane weren't too far behind us. After comparing scores (I had 178,000), we all headed off to Sunset Boulevard.


Going against the crowd is always a challenge but one we were brave enough to tackle. Matt and I left our moms who shopped while we waited under ten minutes to get on Tower Of Terror. After telling Matt that the front row is the scariest, we end up, of course, in the front row. We went up up up in the elevator and watched the "window" break. Then up up up some more. You could hear the whimpering of little girls... first time riders. And then the worst happened... the ride stopped completely. The full elevator sat there in the dark for what seemed liked forever. Someone joked about singing "Koombaya" and I turned around to look at the little girls behind us. They both had their heads hidden in their parents arms. Out of no where the lights turned on and we were told our elevator had been temporarily stopped. After a few minutes of that the lights turned back off and we had to sit in the dark for a few more minutes. We finally heard an announcement telling us to stay put because we would begin moving shortly. Thankfully, we did. We all loosened back up and enjoyed our ride. After, I turned to one of the particularly scared young girls and she looked at me and clapped her hands while smiling huge. I told her, "That's what I wanted to see!" She made my day! :)



After finding our moms we went to Rockin' Roller Coaster but the wait time was 50 minutes so I grabbed Matt and I FOUR FastPasses using all of our tickets. Tricky trick, huh? :) We high-tailed it to Muppet Vision 3-D but that was closed for whatever reason so we sadly decided to experience Backlot Tour. I felt it was necessary to take Diane on it since it's a DHS staple but I could have personally skipped it. Same 'ol thing and I hate the new pre-recorded tour dialogue. Ugh. Next up great Great Movie Ride in which we got a female driver (hate) with no spunk. By that time we were all pretty hungry so Matt requested Pizza Planet and off we went. I like Pizza Planet because I know what to expect every time. Basic and good.





As we were finishing up our pizza I looked out the window and noticed people walking into Muppet Vision 3-D. Yay! The Muppets made us giggle 'till we almost peed and then we walked back to Rockin' Roller Coaster. The first time on Matt requested the front row for us. Aerosmith sure knows how to get us to a show on time. :) Our second time through the FastPass line we met a guy who once rode the super stretch limo 30 times in 7 hours! He said he felt so crappy after that he stayed in bed the entire next day.


Even though I was still full from Pizza Planet, I really wanted to make sure I tried a cupcake from Starring Rolls. Originially I was going to get the Butterfinger Cupcake. But once I saw the Red Velvet Cheesecake Cupcake I couldn't help but change my mind. SO glad that I did because it was delicious!

All four of us were ready to go back to the Polynesian and relax but before that we hit up a showing of Beauty and the Beast. It was the first time I'd ever sat towards the back of the theater. Not sure I'd wanna sit there again.


Back at the Poly, Diane sat on the balcony and iced her knee while Matt, my mom, and I walked to the Grand Flordian Health Club. We took lots of pictures on the way. The grounds at the Polynesian are so beautiful and during the day when everyone is in the parks, it's quiet and romantic. We passed the Wedding Pavillion where a wedding was just wrapping up. We saw the horse drawn carriage and everything!







The Health Club looked nice from what we saw. We pretty much just went to check it out. On the way back to the Polynesian I wrote my name in the sand and tried to get a cool picture. Tried being the key word. Oh, and of course I saw a dead frog and took a picture.



That evening the whole gang headed over to Magic Kingdom just to walk around. We didn't ride anything but the train to Toon Town where we visited Mickey's house. We were just passing time until our 'Ohana reservation.


Back at the Polynesian we changed our clothes and checked into dinner at 8... 50 minutes before our actual reservation time. The moms went to look in shops while Matt and I hit the bar. At first Matt didn't want anything but after looking at the drink menu he decided on a Black Cherry Currant (don't ask me what was in it) and I got a Lapu Lapu. The bartender was so great and after seeing we were from Michigan asked us who we rooted for in the Michigan vs. State game. We said State. :) As he handed me my Lapu Lapu he said that the pineapple he grabbed wasn't hallowed out enough so he basically put all rum in my drink. I could tell. Holy cow was it strong! I think I was feeling a little too good during dinner. I'd always read people reference the Lapu Lapu and say "one and done" but I didn't feel that way last year after drinking one. This drink was totally different.

Anyways, dinner was really fun! A few of the items were kind of cold in my opinion. But, I was kinda loopy so I really wasn't the best judge of anything at that point. We were all totally stuffed and pretty miserable walking back to the room. I showered that night while everyone else climbed into bed. With our first full day under our belts we were gearing up for a great day to come at Epcot!

1 comment:

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