OK we’re home now.  I’ll whine about that later… I added some pictures to the first post, and got the first batch of photos in the Media/Photo album.  You’ll just have to buy the DVD to see the video   ONLY $99.95!  (Of course that’s Orlando/Disney pricing…)

Day 2 - Magic Kingdom (Ctd)

So after Adventureland we cut through Frontierland on the way to Liberty Square, discussing some corporatism - Disney partnering with other businesses like the McDonald’s french fries cart in Frontierland.  The next stop was my favorite attraction, the Haunted Mansion.  We got the briefing outside the gates because it’s 2 to a Doom Buggy and Rae would have to turn her mic off or the ride audio would overlap and drown her out.  We took the VIP attraction entrance.  In the foyer there’s a portrait over the fireplace that has Mickey heads on the frame.  Apparently there’s three types of Hidden Mickeys.  Intentional, Unintentional and Cast Member-placed.  The intentional ones are the ones the Imagineers who developed the ride place as their “signature” on their “artwork”.  Now, the Hidden Mickey I already knew of was the ballroom scene, a place and two saucers placed in Mickey formation.  What we didn’t know was that this is actually a CM-placed Hidden Mickey and the Imagineers don’t look too kindly on others signing their art!  So whenever one of the Haunted Mansion Imagineers rides it and notices the plates, they usually put them back where they belong on the table.  Then day after day you’ll notice the saucers have been moved closer and closer back to the Mickey location by CMs.  Rae tells us the Imagineers got so frustrated they even took pictures of how the table is supposed to be set and put them under the plates.  Both times we rode (Day 1 and Day 2 during the tour) the Hidden Mickey was there.  The actual Imagineer Mickey is in the graveyard in a tomb, you have to kind of lean out of the Doom Buggy on the right-hand side and look backwards - it’s a ghoul that looks like he has his hand in the air but it’s not a hand at all… it’s the Hidden Mickey!  And a clear sign of the time period the attraction was built - look for a peace sign on one of the spiders, too…

We left the Haunted Mansion and headed to Columbia Harbour House for lunch.  Great place to eat.  We were given our “Keys to the Kingdom” pins at this point too.  Very cool and you can’t buy them, the only way to get them is to take the tour.  After lunch we went backstage again, into the utilidor this time - the UTILity-corrIDOR built beneath the Magic Kingdom.  We really didn’t do an awful lot down here.  Talked about some Disney history, the purpose of the Utilidor - which is actually not a “tunnel system” at all - it’s ground level.  The rest of the park is built on the “first floor” so to speak, which is why Main Street is a slight incline coming in towards Cinderella Castle.  When we came back up we were back close by to City Hall where we started, and that was pretty much the tour.  A lot of the stuff we already knew, but there was plenty we learned and wandering around backstage was really cool.

We watched “Wishes”, the MK fireworks show (right), that night and then hopped over to Disney MGM to close it down.  Around here whenever I hear “Fireworks set to music” I know it’s not actually synced, other than the lighting of the fireworks.  Another little nugget I learned somewhere is that Disney’s fireworks system actually has two commands for each unit shot off.  One controls the “launch” of the firework and the other controls the “detonation”.  So Disney fireworks are truly SYNCED to the music.  Now you know why they’re so good.     MGM is doing the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights (left) and if you don’t know what to expect going in, you’ll be amazed… it’s just wild.  At least a whole street was covered - 3 level buildings - every square inch with Christmas lights synced to music.  I can’t keep 16 par cans on all at once without tripping a breaker!  So the lighting guy in me immediately thought:  OMG how much juice is this drawing???, and Can you imagine how long it took those guys to program these sequences!?!  Not only did they turn the lights on and off, oh no!  they dimmed and TWINKLED!!!!  We just caught the tail end of it, but even that little piece was amazing.

Day 3 - EPCOT

Now I have to admit that EPCOT clearly isn’t my favorite park.  In fact, on our honeymoon three years ago we didn’t even GO to EPCOT.  I just remember it as being WAY too educational for a vacation.  For the most part I remembered right, but they have added some new attractions that were fun, like Test Track.  Shortly after we got into the park Amanda noticed the Jammitors starting to play, so we stuck around and caught their show.  We did the quintessential attractions like Journey Into Imagination With Figment, Disney’s “oops” recovery after kicking Figment out of the original Journey into Imagination attraction and getting tons of complaints.

Turtle Talk with Crush (Finding Nemo) was really the only other interesting attraction we did that day, which is a VERY interactive show - if you go make sure you catch it.  It’s another one of those “How on earth do they do THAT!?” attractions.  Basically we cruised the World Showcase catching some of the little mini-shows each country puts on throughout the day and Amanda got her face painted at one of the kiosks between countries.  Unofficially they called themselves The Border Guards.  LOL  Italy did a little play, a big pun on Romeo and Juliet, a drum & fife band was playing at the American Adventure and a Beatles knockoff band played at the UK.

Day 3 - MGM

My favorite live show at WDW is Fantasmic! at Disney MGM Studios park.  So we hopped from EPCOT to MGM just in time to catch it.  This is the show that uses water mists as projector screens for video, which is very cool.  I think this is the third time we’ve seen it (twice on our honeymoon) - it’s that good.  The stage is a large mountain surrounded by water and takes place in Mickey’s dream.  The Disney villains try to take over Mickey’s dream but (ah good ol’ Disney) Mickey wins in the end.  My favorite part is the end when sorcerer Mickey appears on the mountain    Day 4 was our first Animal Kingdom day, and our first ever visit to that park actually.  They welcomed us with style… but I’m waiting for some pictures to be developed so I’ll continue that story later!

Quite possibly the best vacation ever.  And people wonder why we’d ever want to work at WDW!  Here’s a bit of a recap, since I had planned on doing this daily but didn’t get around to it until now…

Day 1 - Arrival & Magic Kingdom

There’s nothing like stepping out of the airport in sunny Orlando Florida.  NOTHING.  As we headed out the doors towards our bus to Disney, the group of folks we were flying with out of St. Louis all started peeling off layers LOL… and boarded the Magical Express bus.  No chasing down our luggage, no getting lost trying to find the resort and having a huge argument halfway to the most magical place on earth… This is the only way to go.   We checked in at the resort and headed right off to play in the Magic Kingdom.  Some of the park is already decorated for the holiday season, but I think they’ve got quite a ways to go yet even… Anyway, through security, enter the turnstiles and there’s ALREADY a parade going on.  Some flag-wavin’ salute to America.  It looks as if they’ve roped some guests into participating…  A quick detour to the chapeau to buy some goofy touristy hats (I insist, I mean Disney is really the only place in the world you can get away with it).  So my dorky look for the week is a big Sorcerer Mickey hat and Amanda picked a Princess-locked-in-a-tower type pink Minnie hat - covered in sequins of course.  We walk from there up Main Street towards Cinderella Castle after watching the little parade.  We didn’t get any further than that.  A cast member approached us and asked if we wanted to be IN the parade!  Woo hoo!  The Family Fun Parade, which I think they ran every 30 minutes almost all day long.  It takes a little humility to admit, as a woodwind, that I have now had the experience of being a flaggit (color guard or flag corps, for the non-band-geek).  Yep, Amanda and I waved American flags with the rest of our little group after being taught our “routine” — 8 counts wave to the left, 8 counts front, 8 counts right, 8 counts front, repeat.  So yeah, I still have plenty of band geek in me I guess, because the heel-toe roll step came right back.  Lead with the left, stayed in step the whole way.  How’s THAT for pathetic!  This wasn’t a “full” parade, it only went from the Partners Statue area in the Castle Forecourt back to the Esplanade/Entrance area.  Good Times!!!

The rest of Day 1 we spent riding some attractions, starting some of our VMK Quests, watched the 3:00 Parade, ate our $8 cheeseburgers and spent way too much money on Disney stuff.  Back to the Pop Century Resort to crash and get ready to go again 

Day 2 - Magic Kingdom (Again)

Ok, ok.  This is my favorite park.  I’m a big kid.  Day 2 we started at MK, starting with the Keys to the Kingdom tour.  This is well worth the $60 per person or whatever we spent on it.  I’d recommend you take it if you’re interested.  They don’t advertise the behind-the-scenes tours too much, but all you have to do is ask anybody.  Book it with your package though, don’t wait til you get here, they’ll probably be all booked full.  Lunch was included. While waiting to get started we got our picture taken with Santa right outside City Hall (the PhotoPass people).  The start of the tour I’d heard or read about online, a walk up Main Street talking about the use of forced perspective on the buildings, what the names in the windows over Main Street are for (they’re the Opening Credits to “The Show” of course!).  (I may get out of order here…) We strolled to Adventureland for a ride on Walt’s favorite attraction, the Jungle Cruise, where our Tour Guide Rae took over the Skipper duties, told some of the old corny script jokes, made up a few of her own, pointed out a hidden mickey, etc.  We took a quick jog backstage and saw the floats for the afternoon parade and learned about the different levels of float drivers, how they train for that and so on, some Jungle Cruise hippos waiting for a repaint, etc.  Frontierland was next, and I’ll finish the story later.  It’s bedtime here at the Most Magical Place on Earth and we’ve gotta get rested to go see Mickey Mouse again tomorrow!