This morning we double-checked with guest services about the room transfer, and told them about the stuff we had in the fridge, I’ve got some meds that require refrigeration so they just said to leave everything in the fridge and they’d transfer it along with our luggage. Cool.
After breakfast of Disney coffee-like substance (Sanka, blech) and a bagel and cream cheese from our grocery order, we headed to Hollywood Studios at the ungodly hour of 8:05 due to the fact that we were about as excited as a couple of kids on Christmas morning. We were 3rd in line, hanging with our original Disney Bear who travels everywhere with us.
And this is the reason you want to get to Hollywood Studios at least a half hour before the park opens, because you’d rather have all these people behind you in line, rather than in front:
Although rope drop was packed, Disney has recently started a new park opening procedure that does away with the “second rope” and the show, and allows people to filter in to the park and go to their selected attraction when the gates open about 15 minutes prior to the scheduled opening time. The new procedure makes it much easier to arrive at Toy Story Midway Mania without the prospect of being trampled to death, which could be a real vacation downer. Way to go Disney execs!
We did the usual “grab a Fast Pass, ride” for Toy Story, then decided to ride again because wait time showed 20 minutes. When we got in line I told Mike it looked closer to 30 – which it was. Not a big deal since we weren’t really in a rush to do anything else except shows. By the time we got out our Fast Pass window was open and we grabbed a second set, then wandered off towards Rock N’ Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror.
Mike’s got motion sickness, so I do the big stuff solo and he enjoys spending time as a homeless person sleeping on park benches. Tower of Terror was a walk-on. Rock n’ Roller Coaster showed a 20 minute wait, so I decided to play the odds and use the regular line instead of Single Rider. I always choose the wrong option! 15 minutes later, I’m finally at a point where I can see the single rider line – which is empty. Doh! Oh well, Mike got a nice nap out of the deal.
After another walk-on ride of ToT, we headed to the first Indy show – which was standing room only! Crazy how this show still packs ‘em in after all these years.
After this, we take in the Muppets 3-D mayhem (one of my favorites!), then The Great Movie Ride which was running the cowboy side that we’d never seen before. It was neat to see “Option 2″, but I liked the gangster storyline better. After this it’s off to our favorite show, Lights Motors Action. By this time it’s pretty stinkin’ hot and humid, and I’m starting to agree with lots of summer visitors, that this show needs seat backs and some better form of shade and air conditioning.
Hey, look, a hovercar!
Still, it’s internal combustion engines, nitros, and awesome drifting skills at DW, so I’m not really going to complain.
I REALLY like the removal of the stupid Herbie section and the addition of the much funnier Lightning McQueen skit.
Awesome stealth Gremlin action here.
After the show we head back to Toy Story Midway Mania to use our Fast Passes, we get through the first time, but the second time through are turned back just before loading as the ride breaks down (actually saw them letting people off and everyone walking the track back to the exit). On our way out they give us two “anytime” FP’s good until the 15th – score!
We headed back to Pop Century to see if our room switch had been done, Pop was supposed to take all our stuff from the double room and deposit it in our King room on Sunday, including the fridge which held my medication that requires refrigeration – we made sure bell services knew about it, and that the luggage pickup tags had that information on them. We arrived at our new room to find everything present and accounted for….except the refrigerator and my medicine. Ruh roh.
I called housekeeping and they told me that anything that had been left in the other room’s fridge would have been thrown out. Uh, yea, this is my cue to either pass out or start screaming. Being the kind and sweet soul I am, I do neither. I sic Mike on them and send him down to the front desk.
After a bunch of crazy communications with:
1. Lady from housekeeping who doesn’t have correct information, makes things up as she goes along, and doesn’t care.
2. Awesome dude from maintenance who brings us a fridge and goes on a search and destroy to find our original fridge.
3. Awesome dude at Luggage Hold who finds our stuff and brings it to us.
We are finally in possession of our refrigerator again, and after thanking everyone profusely (except the stupid housekeeping lady who couldn’t care less if I died from an asthma attack) we marvel at how many truly awesome people work for Disney. Sure, there’s always a few idiots in the bunch who are just bell tappers, but the greater majority really kick butt.
After dinner in the room, we head over to Downtown Disney and wander around a bit, Mike finds this gold-digger who seems to take a shine to him:
He’s finally able to break free and we make our escape to Disney Quest, where we spend the evening re-living our teen years on Pac Man (the group game they have is really fun) and Pinball.
Back to the room by 10pm, we’re in bed by 11 with the alarm clock set for 6am and an Epcot rope-drop. I know, late night then early morning – but we don’t have kids, so we can be stupid without involving youngsters in our disastrous planning decisions.
Oh, where did we eat you ask? Lunch was chez Peanut Butter and Jelly, dinner was a fine al-dente pasta with canned sauce cooked in our hot pot which we brought from home. Total out-of-pocket costs for food in the parks today, $0.
