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Ground / Goofy's HUGE!
/ Mary's Holiday Adventure, NYE at MK |
Mary
Cast Member
Posts: 465
Registered: Aug 2002
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Posted 01-03-03 04:02 AM
12/31 New Year's Eve
Cast: Mary, David & Dale
We get up shower and head to MK arriving a little after 9 am. It is crowded but not too bad yet. I can't remember all the details but will give the highlights. Picked up FP for Space first thing. Standby line went all the way back to Buzz. Must have been a 90 minute wait just to get to the point where the official standby time is listed at 40 minutes. Yeah, right! Return time is ? I don't remember but I DO remember that we can get another FP at 11:55 and our return time is after that. Knowing this would be a long day of long lines we took a stroll through Mickey's Toontown and caught the train. Rode around to Splash to get fast passes, using the DVC cards. Stand-by was 60 minutes or so. Big Thunder standby was 90 minutes. It was very crowded and I got confused and got one fast pass when I realized that I was in the BTM fast pass area. Ooops. Walked over to Splash fast pass and showed the nice CM that I made a mistake and could he switch the BTM for Splash for me. Not only did he do that, but he had the machine spit out 5 more for me. All without using the DVC cards. More DVC clout? So, I still have 5 FP uses on the cards. This is very helpful with these crowds. We make our way over to Pirates for a 20 minute wait. Both sides are open. We go right. I think all the sites say go left when both are open. I forgot. So I staked out one person on the left. He was boarding a boat before we even made the last turn of the bend on the right side. Shorter queu line on the left? So we ride. It stops while we are all calling 'We wants the redhead!' I think it was just to unload a previous boat that had 3 wheelchairs on it since we were off again. Came out into the gift shop. Usually go right through these but since this ride has special sentiments because of the Pirates here, I stop and look around. End up buying a $12 red & white pirate bandana with Mickey ears. Remember this. It will be important. I ask them to just cut off the tags and put it right on. Walk out to hear Dale waving us over. We jump in line to see our CG mentor, Captain Hook! Damn, I should have bought a sword too. It is my turn and Captain Hook is pointing to my hat and giving me the thumbs up. I greet him with my best 'Aaarrrrrrrgh!' He falls backward laughing! We are joined by Mr. Smee for the photo. If it was digital, you will see the photo in the next day or two. If not, it will have to wait until I get in scanned in at work (after catching up on my work). We then head over to eat at El Pirata Y el Perico (Pirate & the Parrot). We then stop for a smoke and leave to find a spot for the parade. It is just after 1, the parade is at 2 and I find 3 available rocking chairs outside Liberty Tree Tavern. I snatch them up. Pile things on them and send Dale and David off to see Hall of Presidents. There is a CM there keeping people from standing in front of us to maintain a walk way. She is having great difficulty and a supervisor comes over to join her. As soon as the preliminary marching bands go by they both leave. Before I can move the chairs up to the bushes, 30 people have jumped into the areas that are supposed to remain clear. Once there, there was no moving them. I hate this! I realize there is little we can do but that kind of rudeness is beyond me. So we enjoy the parade as best we can, at one point moving one of these late arrivals right out of the way so I can get a picture. Hey, I don't mind your kid being in front of me but you can keep an eye on them from behind me or next to me so I can benefit from my efforts to stake out my spot. I spent a lot of time moving kids in front of me at Illuminations and such. But when I am doing a favor for your kid, don't push me out of my spot! Rant over.
After the parade, we made our way over to Splash. Dale had said he didn't want to ride because he was afraid of getting wet. We convince him to ride. David and I take the front, Dale right behind us. As soon as we hit the first 'dip' I pull one of the ponchos out of the backpack and throw it over David and I. This was intentional to pick on him. David and I are cracking up as was the rest of the boat behind us. Dale is fuming. What fun. We used the fast passes the nice CM gave us, saving for one ride later that evening. From here we headed back to Tomorrowland to ride Space. Got more fast passes using our park tickets. Return time was 8:40 or so. Not too bad as it was almost 4pm and that standby line was still all the way back to the Lunching Pad. Didn't ANY of these people get a FP? What a waste. Came out and rounded the corner to pick up our hats and horns for the party. Went back down Main Street hoping that we could get Dale a haircut at the Harmony Barber Shop. The door was locked and they were finishing up their last customers. Went to Exposition Hall to check on pictures (we did stop in Toontown for some photos) and that line was very long. So we just headed over to watch the flag retreat. A group of teens was taking pictures of each other at the Roy/Minnie statue in front of the tree. They put one of the NYE tophats on Roy and left. I took the opportunity to take some photos and will let you know when I post them. Except for a couple that I will send to Ahnalira or Crank to post right here they will all be at Ofoto. I will put up the link when I upload them. We then went over for a smoke and called a few people back home to say 'Happy New Year' before everyone got busy for the night. They had been announcing some schedule changes, moving the 7pm Spectro parade to 6:45. Didn't know why. We made our way up toward the castle and went right at the walkway leading to Cosmic Ray's. Stopped at one of the bench areas and figured just to watch the parade from there. Caught the last castle show, it was cute. Decided to try to find a different spot for the parade but could not find one before it started. Decided just to see the 10pm parade. Went into Sir Mickey's to look around. Came out and realized why the parade had been moved up. It was raining. Did not seem very heavy so we pulled on our ponchos and headed out. It was deceiving because the rain was really coming down. We tried to do some of the Fantasyland rides as the park was clearing out in a hurry. The lines were still real long and since they were somewhat out of the rain, they stayed that way all night. Giving up we decided to just check in early for our 8pm PS. The 8:30 fireworks went off just before 7:30. After checking in, drying off, brushing my hair and putting my pirate Mickey ears back on I got in line to have a picture taken with Cinderella.
Pirates raid the Castle!Yes, I was having dinner at CRT. I asked her if I could call her Cindy, she said yes. I explained the hat had special significance to some online friends and that I was kidnapping her and bringing her to the Stickey Mickey. She sort of laughed and whispered to her handler to 'cut this line short' as she needed to get out of there. I still don't know if she was trying to get away from me or go with me. Hmm.
We were seated at 8:30. I immediately asked for the royal maid to come to massage my feet but was told she was unavailable. Hmmph! We all ordered the prime rib. Just OK. I realize that CRT dinner can be hit or miss. Ours was a miss. David rated it at a 6 out of 10. Probably about right. Skipped dessert as nothing really appealed to us and I would have preferred the Main Street Bakery. We leave the castle and it is really coming down. Head into Fantasyland to check on wait times. Snow White says 20 minutes but it does not look that long. We hop in line and are loaded in about 5 minutes. Silliness has now taken over our personalities and we are screaming at the witch, yelling for Snow to go the other way, 'Don't eat the apple' etc. I am beginning to get hoarse. We head over to Peter Pan and that line is STILL very long. We head back toward the castle not quite knowing what we want to do. We take shelter under the overhang outside Tinkerbell's Treasures. Dale lights a cigarette, I yell at him, he says this is the smoking area, I say no it's across the way. But it is pouring he says. I say tough and push him into the rain telling him that all these other people staying out of the rain should not have to deal with his smoke. We'll see how badly he wants to smoke if he has to stand unprotected in the pouring rain! We take the long way through Liberty Square to the Haunted Mansion. Wait a few minutes before we are admitted into Master Gracey's library. Exit to the ride. Seems the CM's here are enjoying the storm as our seat backs are being banged on, twisted when they are supposed to be still etc. In turn, we are all screaming at the 'screamers' and generally being rowdy. It was fun. Got off and went again. Same thing. Exit and walk right on again. Realize we are with the same group of people for the third time. All of a sudden, the entire library full of people is reciting the welcome speech in unison! David feels like he is in the Rocky Horror Picture Show. This was to be the wildest ride yet as riders really tried to outscream the ghosts and each other. CM' stopped the ride so we could just scream. It was a hoot! We finally decide to go elsewhere but stop to talk to a nice CM working the Haunted Mansion exit. She is sorry that she missed a roomful of people reciting the welcome speech and tries in vain to change places so she can join the fun. I don't know if she succeeded as we left. Went into a few shops to hang out. Bought some more towels for my Mickey bathroom figuring we may actually have to use them later. Head back to Fantasyland and Peter Pan is STILL a 40 minute wait. Scoot over to Space Mountain where FP cast member won't let us in because our FP time is over. I tell him they are good ANYTIME once the return time is reached. Lets us in but admonishes us that we should really try to stick to the time frame. Right. There was no way that was happening during the day. We went back to Fantasyland and finally rode Pooh. Just as we start to walk into the line a woman gets ahead of us. Others keep cutting in with her all the way through the line until there are finally 12 of them. All speaking English. At the one point I tried to stop one of them to say that they should stop cutting they reverted to another language, pretending not to understand English. Yeah, another of everyone's pet peeves. We finally ride and head right back to Space Mountain. Rode twice in a row via FP when the CM announces that it is now 11:40 and there is still no word on fireworks. We had heard varying stories but the common thought was that if the lightning continued, no fireworks. We hightailed it back to Main Street and joined the crowd in front of the castle. Seems there were many who waited 5 hours in the rain at Cosmic Rays, Plaza Pavilion, Casey's Corner, and the shops. They all poured into Main Street. While not the crowds I expected, there will still a LOT of people there. How many? About the same amount that showed up last May for the only Spectro showing of the week. Fireworks go off on schedule at 11:50, followed by the countdown. Horns tooting, people jumping up and down screaming, Auld Lang Syne plays over the speakers. The New Year's firworks start followed by the regular finale. I think the perimeter fireworks were shot off, at least the ones from the island were as we could see them behind us. We find a dry spot in the back of the Christmas store and wait a while for the crowds to disburse. Finally make our way to the front, climb up the stairs to the train platform for one last look up Main Street and off to the bus. The bus pulls up just as we get in line. Everyone gets a seat and we are off. Back at Riverside, I go right to bed. Don't know what the boys did. I hear it finally stopped raining shortly after 1 am. Even with all the rain, I had so much fun tonight! I would not wish for it but it really was great!
Happy New Year, Common Ground!
Highlights:
-Captain Hook
-Raiding the Castle!
-Haunted Mansion
[Edited by Mary]
Mary
First Mate, Good Ship Stickey Mickey and Keeper of the Ships Log
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Ahnalira
Cast Member
Posts: 433
Registered: Aug 2002
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Posted 01-03-03 05:40 PM
Proof!
Cindy is a very willing hostage, n'est-ce pas?
Ahnalira
Grace finds beauty everywhere. Grace is my best friend.
Meet The Our Laughing Place Travel Pixies
Everybody's got a Laughing Place... we'll help you find yours!
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Common
Ground / Goofy's HUGE!
/ Mary's Holiday Adventure, NYE at MK |
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