Sept/Oct 2011 Trip, Part 4
"Now, For Something Completely Different"
Please see Part 1 for cast and plot summary...
Day 3. September 29. Magic Kingdom.
 |
| Click to go directly to the slideshow |
I get up and make some coffee, Mom comes out to join me. Jenny gets up about 8 and needs to run today. She goes to guest services to get a map of the jogging routes, and gets lost anyway. I should have taken the scooter out and paced her. It would have been fun! :-)
We take our time getting out, and it's a beautiful morning. Waste a little time taking some local pictures, and out bus finally arrives.
We get to MK and agree that I should lead. Worked out great yesterday. Jenny takes the bags, I get Mom into the park.
We stop at the bathrooms by City Hall, and the Main Street Marching Band (or is it the Main Street Philharmonic these days) is performing. On the ledge in front of me is a 5-day MYW pass. Nope, not Mom's, so I take it to a CM standing by the Band. He takes the pass into City Hall. I hope it made its way back to the owner.
Magic Kingdom, Main Street Philharmonic
We're ready to go, and take a walk up Main Street. We're going to go to Columbia Harbor House, where the Hummus sandwich has been taken off the menu, but fried shrimp has been added. Mmmm... Fried food... So we have a couple of fish, shrimp and chips, and Jenny has the chicken salad. Unlike Tusker House, ECV's are allowed in, and have their own handicap section in the back of the restaurant. Very convenient.
While we're eating, an infant left in a stroller next to us wakes up and starts to fidget, finally ending up crying. I have to track down the owner of said child. Let's face it. If you have a kid in a stroller, do you really park the stroller with the kid facing away from you while you text away on your phone? Out of sight, out of mind, I guess. Later I see said stupid guests leaving, and their table is a mess. Someone spilled a drink all over the table leaving it all for the CM's to clean up.
After lunch, Mom wants to ride the riverboat. I haven't been on The Liberty Belle since a Halloween Cruise several years ago. We leave the CHH via a side entrance, and I check with the CM's on how to load. We have to enter through the exits, which doubles as the handicap load. While regular guests all board from the second deck and exit on the first, we will load after all the regular guests get off. Sam Clemens conducts us around the Rivers of America, and I have to say, this attraction needs an update. (Oh, the blasphemy!) Not sure how, maybe better riverside sets.
Magic Kingdom, The Liberty Belle
We exit the Riverboat, and head toward The Country Bear Jamboree. Hey, it's on the way to the Tiki Room! Does the Tiki Room have their own movie? Scooters and wheelchairs have their own entrance. You're routed down the far left side of the theater, where Mom still isn't paying attention to the scooter's footprint and the left side of the scooter starts climbing up the wall. Ooops. Good thing no one's behind us. So we back her up, she goes forward again, and starts to climb the wall again. Ooops. We finally get her going straight again, and are in the front row. Mom falls asleep partway through the show. It's air conditioned, and at least she has a comfortable seat...
Magic Kingdom, The Country Bear Jamboree
From there, it's a short trip over to the Tiki Room, where we are the lone occupants of the first row in the preshow, and enter first. We wheel mom around, and she never even has to get out of the scooter. Another problem is her photo-sensitive glasses. When she's out in the sunlight, they darken, so when she enters a dark area, she has a hard time seeing until the glasses clear. So different from the last time I was here, when it rained. And rained.
Magic Kingdom, The Enchanted Tiki Room
We saunter over to Philharmagic. The switchback queues are mostly cut off these days, so entrance is pretty straight forward. Doesn't mean Mom didn't have problems getting through the queue, but there weren't any major incidents.
She falls asleep during Philharmagic, comfortable chair, air conditioning, and probably unfamiliarity with the material. Philharmagic depends heavily on the viewer's knowledge of the films used.
We're going to complete the circle around Magic Kingdom, and continue to Carousel of Progress. We enter the theater on the right instead of the left. We have her stop right next to the seats, and transfer, then I drive the scooter up against the wall. I like attractions where we can do this. Much easier on the furniture. Mom stays awake through the show, and from this angle, you can see the side stages rotating.
Magic Kingdom, Fantasyland and Tomorrowland
We go to MILF next, though I don't try to explain the joke. Don't think she�s seen Monster's, either, so the movie tie-in is probably lost. Roz still gets me to laugh, but I'll bet Mom had no idea why. Still Disney was smart enough to keep the show itself far enough removed from the movie that all you needed was the basic knowledge that Mike was the MC and Roz was a supervisor. One day I will text in a joke...
We get our own queue, and other than a sharp turn to the right at the entrance to the pre-show, she does pretty good. We enter the theater on the right, and are in the front row. Being in the front row is more like a tennis match, looking from the stage to Roz to Mike to the canister...
Magic Kingdom, Monsters Inc Laugh Floor
We're going to leave the park, but before we do, we decide we're going to eat again. It's been about 5 hours since lunch. We stop at the bathrooms next to the Tomorrowland Terrace, and while waiting for Jenny and Mom to reappear, notice they're working on Cindy's Castle during the day. Bad show, or emergency fix?
Where to eat? We're in Magic Kingdom. Lisa gave the thumbs up to the Plaza Restaurant when we ate dinner on Tuesday. I'm thinking about inquiring when Jenny suggests... Casey's! Meat in tube form wins.
Mom and Jenny order the Corn Dog Nuggets (Jenny sorta shreds her organic meat snobbery with corn dogs like bacon does to vegetarians) and I have the Chicago Hot Dog, which I can tell you right off the bat, is *NOT* a Chicago Hot Dog. If you want to see the ingredients to a real Chicago hot dog, go see the t-shirt in the American Adventure store. Not to say it was a bad hot dog, but a badly mislabeled one. It's also badly engineered, half of the toppings fall of the Dog before you can get to it.
Magic Kingdom, Tommorowland and Main Street USA
Mom wants to go through a store, so we start from Casey's and work our way though the store that is the West side of Main Street. Half way through the store, we abandon the scooter with Jenny, and I take Mom though the store using her cane on one side, and me on the other. She buys a t-shirt, and rather than have her walk back to the scooter (which is by now quite a distance away), I leave her by a display and go and get Jenny and the scooter. (It's difficult enough for me to judge when to turn the scooter in close quarters to merchandise displays, I'm glad I didn't have Mom do it.)
By the time I get back with the scooter (only a couple of minutes), a CM is already by Mom helping her stand, talking with her while her uncaring son has abandoned her in the store. By the time I have Mom on the scooter, helpful CM is gone, and was unable to get her name. Such actions shouldn't go unnoticed nor unmentioned. It was CM's like this that made the trip a total success in Mom's eyes.
We stop by City Hall, Jenny wants to see if someone she knows is working there, and I pick up some Disney Dollars. They're all series 2009.
We exit the park, and I note that Saratoga Springs is bus stop #9, and I am about to complain that we have to walk to the far side of the bus station, until I see (and remember...ha!) that the bus stops are numbered clockwise around the station and it's the second one on the right.
At the bus stop we're in the handicap pickup area for SSR and, there's a guy next to us going to Yacht/Beach Club. He remarks about the scooter, he was a witness at Mom's incident at Country Bears. Wow! Infamy already. I explain she's a newbie, and her first time here. He's here for a convention of some sort. He has no idea Food and Wine is going on at Epcot this weekend (he's at Beach Club!), so I give him the basic synopsis, and he also has some questions about the parks during Christmas. So maybe I'll be remembered as the guy with useful information, rather than the guy with the Mom who crashed into the wall in Country Bears. Twice. No, I don't think so either.
After we get back to the room, Mom retires for the night, and Jenny wants to go out to the Pool for a little while. We do, and take a walk around the Lobby and surrounding areas. It's a very cool sunset, and get some pretty good lightning video.
Insert Video Link - Lightning
(Video not yet published on YouTube.)It's not raining on us, and I hope a bolt doesn't jump our way... :-)
Once back in the room, I plug the PS/3 into the TV (no breakout box, but the back of the TV is accessible), and show Jenny Star Wars Episode 4 in high-def. We have another high-def convert, and she didn't even hear the audio in 5.1. We don't finish the movie...
End September 2011 Trip Report - Part 4.
| Jump to: | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Trip Reports |
|---|
- 10/21/2011 - Page Added
- 08/25/2012 - Updated to v3
- 12/30/2012 - Update to v3.1
- 09/01/2014 - Update to v3.2
- September 2022 - Upgrade to v5.0.
| Help! | About This Site | Contact Me |