Part 1 can be found HERE
I hoped that a friend of mine from the Lodgeboards days
(PixiePat…now known as Patricia) would be working at Kona, so I could catch up
with how she was doing, but she was off at that time. I knew that I was a bit later than my usual
dining time at Kona (I’m militaristic…7:35 ADR…done eating by 8:15…quick
bathroom break…on the monorail by 8:25, and at through the MK turnstiles for
the opening show by 8:35-8:40), so I put in my request of (what else) Tonga
Toast as soon as the server showed up. I
was absolutely parched from cheering, so I had around 4 glasses of water down
before the food even showed up. I was
afraid that they were going to pull a Whispering Canyon on me and drop off a
gallon-pitcher with a straw. The
breakfast was there in a flash, and I was stuffed in no time flat. Bill paid (with a tip that hopefully made the
server smile for being so awesome…I was a server at one point in my life, so I
tend to empty the wallet a bit more), bathroom run done, dash to the monorail,
and BAM…I was back on my MK schedule.
Actually, I was there earlier than expected. I checked in on FourSquare at 8:32.
I had some time to chill before the MK Welcome Show, so I
hopped on Facebook (and promptly got a growl from my wife for checking in on FourSquare and
posting it). I went to Twitter and
noticed that I had a couple of messages.
Apparently, Jay Griffith and co-host of the Be Our Guest podcast Rikki Niblett were about 200 yards away
cheering at the half. I kicked myself
for not seeing this message until it was too late, but they assured me that
they would look out for me during the full.
We all sang the Good Morning song, and I promptly made my
way up Main Street. I knew that my
friend, Judy, was off today, so I didn’t dart into the Emporium to look for
her. Instead, I bypassed all the
Photopass Dudes/Dudettes and went straight through the castle to try getting a
pic with Rapunzel.
Okay…I had better stop here for a minute, though I doubt
anyone will believe what I am going to say.
I have two nieces that are Disney-Princess obsessed (yes…more than
me). One of them is a bit shy around me,
so I decided that I was going to try getting some of the Princesses’ autographs
for them in the hopes that they might actually stay in the same room as me at
the next family get-together.
Honest…that’s why I was doing this.
HONEST!!!!
I made it to the rope and found that there was nobody
here. I assumed that most had probably
made a beeline for Tomorrowland to hit Space Mountain, but I thought there
would at least be a few from the Crystal Palace or Cinderella’s Royal Table
ahead of me. Nope…I was 1 deep at the
rope, and that was with no pushing/shoving at all. The cue music played, and I expected to get
trampled by screaming Pre-K girls and their parents as they rushed to see the
Princesses.
Nope.
2 people entered the line to see Cinderella, but nobody went
to see the haircut-averse princess.
Oooookay…this is a little weird. I’m a grown man…by myself…first in line to
see Rapunzel…
I expected her to have pepper spray in one hand as I walked
up. To make matters worse, there still
was nobody behind me as I entered the room.
We talked a bit about the race and my nieces (which, I am
guessing, she considered classic overcompensation).
Of course, Snow White was also in there…and still nobody
else!
After I left the room, I put the camera away and just
laughed at what had just happened.
I made my way toward Tomorrowland and gazed at the
construction of the Seven Dwarves Mine Train as I passed by. My personalized touring plan told me to head
over to Buzz next, but I chanced it and went straight to Space Mountain in
anticipation of a decent wait. The only
“problem” was that I felt like the only person in the entire park. The wait for Space Mountain was just about
AFAYCW (for those who have not read any of my previous trip reports, “AFAYCW”
stands for “As Fast As You Can Walk”…basically, there is no wait). There were maybe 15 people ahead of me, and I
skipped ahead of most of them thanks to them needing a single rider. I did a stupid sleeping pose for the on-ride
pic and actually missed hearing Sheri scream her lungs out during the ride.
I went to Buzz next and, since there are no witnesses to
confirm or deny it, I scored 999,999 points! (I don’t think I broke 50K…one of
my worst scores ever). I made my way
back towards Fantasyland and noticed that there still were no crowds at all in
the park…I walked by Alice near the Tea Cups, and there may have been 2-3
families in line to meet her. I was
about 12 minutes ahead of schedule, according to Lines, so I decided to see how
long the line was for Cinderella in case I wanted to grab a couple more
autographs for my nieces.
I walked in…just me…nobody else…more pepper spray was on the
ready as I walked in.
Cindy and Aurora were in the room.
I had a lot of explaining to do when Sheri saw the pics
uploaded from my camera. The first 14
pics from this day were of the Princesses and me.
The next stop was Philharmagic…this has always been one of
my favorite ones, mostly because I love watching people experiencing it for the
first time. This one was a little odd
because of the lack of people. I counted
around 22 people in the entire theater.
When I posted my requisite “Opera Glasses” pic, several friends
mentioned that I needed to prepare because the throngs were on their way to the
parks after running/cheering for the half.
I used my first FP+ for Peter Pan and then hopped over to sing along
with Mary Blair’s dolls. I made sure to
time my waits for Fred Hazelton and the rest of the TouringPlans.com stats
whizzes. I was still a good 15 minutes ahead
of schedule, so I toured the Tangled bathrooms and slowly walked around Liberty
Square, because my FP+ time for Haunted Mansion was still a good 15 minutes
away. I looked to see when Sleepy Hollow
opened up, because I had heard of nothing but amazing things with their
Fluffernutter waffles with fruit. They
weren’t open yet, so I decided to try getting a pack of cards from the
Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom game for my boys. While doing this, I noticed
that Tiana was out and that nobody (none…zero…nada) was in line to see her; she
was just carrying on a conversation with the Photopass dude. Another Princess autograph to get (and even
more consecutive pics of Princess pics on the camera). Since there was nobody else in line, I stuck
around and talked with Tiana for a bit (she was out there early for the half
and was going to be there bright and early for the full, too). We said our goodbyes, and I got a text from
Steve that said he was on his way to MK.
I hopped into the Haunted Mansion AFAYCW and positioned myself right in
front of the wall that opened up to the Doom Buggies. I’ll freely admit that I was singing most of
the attraction…I gave Thurl Ravenscroft a run for his money in the graveyard
scene.
After Phineas blew my head up and popped it like a balloon,
I headed out and made a beeline for Sleepy Hollow for my waffle sammich. I made the mistake of grabbing the chicken one
instead of the Fluffernutter one (I was worried that it would have
gout-inducing high-fructose corn syrup).
The chicken one was okay, but I’m not a fan of slaw. I called home to make sure the boys
remembered to wish their Mother a Happy Birthday (they forgot) and to have them
give her a present. After that, I cut
across over to Adventureland and hopped in line for the Tiki Birds. Steve texted and mentioned that he was at the
gate, so I hopped out of the pre-show and waited for him. About ten minutes later, he strolled up, and
we got in line for the Tiki Birds. We talked about how the half marathon went
and messed around/tested changing FP+ times on the mobile My Disney Experience
app – we were able to sync up FP+ times for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad later
on.
The birds eventually kicked us out of their lair (again),
and we hopped on Pirates. I think we set
a record for most people taking flash photography in one boat. We contemplated throwing one or two of the
cameras overboard during the small drop, but we restrained ourselves. After Pirates, we looked into possibly trying
the Pirate’s Adventure attraction but decided against it and went straight to
Big Thunder. I knew about the Goat Trick
on the Disneyland version, but I didn’t know if it worked on the east
coast. I told Steve about it, and, at
the top of the second hill, there wasn’t exactly a goat, but I did find
something to focus on as we entered the drop.
I think it worked, but I hope to test it at my next trip to Disneyland this summer.
I wanted to get off my feet for a while to rest for the
race. Steve had just arrived and wanted
to tour a bit more, so I headed back and prepped for the Team Meet at the
Swolphin.
(Continued)
