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Day Three: Disney's MGM Studios and Magic Kingdom
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
After a delicious breakfast buffet at the Maya Grill,
we took the short ride (I love staying at a
Disney resort!) to the Disney MGM Studios park. I hadn't been to this one
is quite awhile.
Our first stop at this park was the Aerosmith Rockin' Roller Coaster. I
don't do roller coasters and Kelly's description of this one wasn't changing my
mind so I waited outside for Dad and Kelly to enjoy this ride. While I
waited, a truck pulled up towing what looked like landscapers. The band on
the truck was called "Mulch, Sweat and Shears".
They were really funny and drew quite a crowd. They played covers of lots
of songs, some of which I recognized but wouldn't know the names or the bands
who recorded them. They did do an Aerosmith song, naturally, Walk This
Way. They were actually pretty good and it made the time go faster
watching them.
Next stop? The Tower of Terror! I don't know why I swear off roller coasters and then go on this ride. Go figure. Whoa. Apparently, the ride is never the same twice now. That's the new thing. The first huge drop is the same but after that, the sequence of stops and drops is different each time. I wasn't going on again to test this out, however! Once was enough for me. Here we are in the last row on the Tower of Terror.
and the close-up...
Kelly looks quite unconcerned on this one,
while Dad and I are appropriately terrorized.
Lunch time next. We stopped at the 50's Prime Time Cafe, which is a pretty cool place to look at.
Of course there's a wait. The waiting area looks like living rooms and
when they call your name, they say, "The 'Bill' kids, time for dinner!"
The restaurant is a series of rooms that look like a 50's kitchen. Here's
our table:
This place
was an experience. The food was really good. I had meatloaf, mashed
potatoes and green beans. The dish looks like what you'd see on your
dinner table. The waiter was definitely playing the part and trying to be
funny. Part of the shtick, I guess. Anyway, he started off when he
arrived at the table and Kelly was text-messaging her friend, Jess. "Put
the phone away, Missy, no phones at the table." It went on like this, with
this guy (I think his name was Rich?) giving Kelly a hard time. He brought
Dad's chocolate shake and told Kelly she couldn't have any! Kelly, not one
to be one-upped, came right back at him. It was ok until he harassed Dad
about not finishing his dinner, "Too much chocolate shake, tsk, tsk." Nah,
he didn't appreciate that much. I was the only one not harassed, for
whatever reason. I did, however, make sure I finished all the green beans.
Yes, it says on the menu, "elbows off the table and finish your vegetables".
I didn't want to be nagged! They were good, though! So, a weird
lunch, indeed.
After lunch, we went to the Indiana Jones Stunt Show. It's been awhile since I'd seen this and it really is cool. It's a good, long show, too.
A very spectacular ending. I love that picture!
Back to Coronado Springs and after another delicious meal at the Pepper Market,
we were off to the Magic Kingdom! We
had chosen Wednesday evening for the Magic Kingdom because that's when we had
our extra hours for staying at a Disney resort. We knew we'd be able to
ride some of the rides after the park closed.
The lights on the Cinderella Castle change color at night. It was so pretty.
I especially liked the purple lights.
We did our usual favorites here, Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted Mansion and the Tiki Room. In fact, we arrived just in time to see the last show of the night at the Tiki Room, which was really cool. It would have been disappointing to have missed it. Other rides we enjoyed here were the Peter Pan and Winnie the Pooh rides. Probably the best thing we saw here was the 3-D show, Mickey's Philarmagic. The premise is that Donald Duck has swiped Mickey's magic baton, which he uses to lead the orchestra of instruments, and then loses it. The whole story involves Donald's attempts to retrieve the baton, through scenes from many of our favorite Disney movies. The 3-D effects are amazing and when you're in the Be Our Guest scene in Beauty and the Beast, you can actually smell the food. I don't know how they did that. They've taken those 3-D effects, which I thought were spectacular in A Bug's Life and the Muppets 3-D show, to greater heights. It's a must-see if you're going to the Magic Kingdom.
There were so many characters out during the resort magic hours. I'd never seen that many around the park before.
Do not adjust your eyesight. Yes, this
picture is blurry. Sorry!
And so, we said goodnight to the Magic Kingdom. See you real soon!
