Disney and other Theme ParksThursday May 16, 2002
We used the ATA E-Ticket check in at the airport.
This allowed us to bypass the long line at the regular check-in.
There are two ATM style machines where you can enter your ticket number to get your boarding pass.
The line through security was long but didn't take too long.
Our ATA plane landed at 11:05am. It was a brand new 757-300. It had leather seats and cool pop-down LCD monitors that they use for the safety presentation and to show movies and TV shows during the flight.
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We stopped at the grocery for snacks since our room has a mini refrigerator. When we got to the Ramada hotel they couldn't find our reservation. It turns out that there is another Ramada almost directly across the street. I had picked this one because of its location at a stop light and being right at the Disney interchange. The one across the street is not at a stop light, but the traffic was light and the U-turns were easy. We checked into the correct Ramada.
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From the street the Ramada looks like a large tower hotel. I think most of the rooms are in the back in the regular two-story, outside-door motel. The room was okay, not great. It had a refrigerator, ironing board, iron, coffee pot and a hair dryer. The hotel has a restaurant and a nice deli with breakfast stuff. There is a small safe in the room, but you have to pay a little extra to use it. The room was a bit run down, but it was cheap. About $49 per night for the AAA Internet rate.
We finished our Jedi Knights card game that we had started on the plane. Then we drove over to the Magic Kingdom at 3:40pm.
We were on the tram from the Pluto section by 4pm. We rode the Monorail around the lake. This is the Ticket and Transportation Center (TTC) the monorail arriving.
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They now have security tents at the entrance to all of the parks. If you don't have any bags you can go right through. If you have bags they go through them very thoroughly.
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Here is the Train Station and the entrance decorated for the 100 Years of Magic celebration.
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This was a GREAT time to be at the Magic Kingdom! The weather was not too hot. The crowds were small. It was just like it was 20 years ago.
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We rode on Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion and Big Thunder Mountain with practically no lines.
There is a new tombstone in the outdoor queue area at the Haunted Mansion. It is "looks" good.
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We had our Magic Moments pins on. They went off in Pirates and in the Haunted Mansion. Each ride sets off a different pattern of the lights.
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In Tomorrowland we rode Buzz Lightyear. It didn't break down this time! At Star Traders we got new pressed quarters at the Quarter Press.
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The Magic Kingdom closed at 6pm tonight. We drove over to MGM and were on the tram at 6:45 leaving the Stage parking lot.
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The ride wait board showed a short line at the Tower of Terror so we went there first. I think they have added some more drops to it since last year. It is a great ride.
We went over to Tatooine Traders to see what was going on tomorrow for the Star Wars Mini Weekend. We knew that there would be no movie stars here this year due to them all being at the Star Wars Celebration II in Indianapolis two weeks earlier. They said they would be selling 3 limited edition pins and a bunch of other non-limited edition Star Wars pins starting at 9am on Friday.
We rode on Star Tours and then over to the Sci-Fi Dine-In for dinner. We did not have reservations, but only had to wait for about 10 minutes. I was surprised to see the dinner menu. It was all expensive dinners like shrimp pasta and steaks and bottles of wine. I was expecting sandwiches. Anyway, it was pretty good. The Ceasar Salad was great. They had changed the movie clips since we were here last year.
Now MGM was closing so we headed back to the motel. Here is a night shot of the Sorcerer's Hat shop in front of the Great Movie Ride (which was closed for renovation).
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As we passed the steps down to the Backlot area our Magic Moments pins went off.
Friday May 17, 2002
Up early today (for us) and left the hotel at 8:30am.
We were in the MGM line at 8:45.
There were long lines at entrance when we arrived.
By the time we rushed over to Tatooine Traders there was a line for the limited edition pins. There were about 40 people in front of us. Some of the people we were standing in line with also had gone to the Star Wars Celebration II earlier in the month. They agreed that the Disney lines looked pretty short after standing in those convention lines.
You can read about them by clicking here to see my convention report page.
The line moved slowly, but we got our Star Wars pins by 9:50am.
We had a good breakfast at the ABC Commissary. There are live palm trees inside. It is a nice, cool, quiet place to eat.
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The crowds were starting to pick up and the heat was growing, so we left.
We went to Wal-Mart to buy a good street map of Orlando. I also found lots of new Star Wars PEZ from Episode II there. They have a McDonald's in the Wal-Mart. We just got drinks but it was quite expensive.
Then on to Sci-Fi World. It is near the Wet N Wild and the Skydiving Simulator at the top of International Blvd. We always try to stop here. They have lots of action figures from Star Wars, Star Trek, comic book characters, movie characters, etc. We also got more Jedi Knights cards for our games.
At 3pm we drove to Disney's West Side AMC24 to see Star Wars Episode II. It opened yesterday. We had ordered our tickets on the phone for the Digital Projection Theater before we left home.
The number to call is (407) 298-4488 or (407)827-1308. One of them is the movie line and the other is to order tickets. I can't remember which is which. They have a GREAT ticket pick up. There is a small outdoor booth with ATM-like machines where you put in your credit card and your tickets pop out. No more waiting in long lines at the ticket booth.
At 3:30pm there were already about 40 people in line for the 4:30pm showing. We got in line so we could get a good seat. I got a seat in the front row of the second section so I could easily get out. During the movie I wanted to walk up to the first rows to see what the digital projection looked like from the front. It looked great from half-way back. From the front I could see the pixels.
There are 1280 of them across the screen. I estimate the screen width at about 50 feet, so the pixels are about 1/2 inch each. They must be anticipating some problems. They had a theater employee describe the digital projection and at the end he said that if anyone experiences any problems to please let them know. There was also a slide at the end of the film stating the same thing and giving an 800 number and a web site address. I asked one of the employees if anyone has complained yet and he said no one has.
The movie was out by 7:30pm. It was good. Not as good as the first three, but better that Episode I.
We drove to EPCOT. There was no one at the parking booths. We found our Leave A Legacy that we did last May. There is a plaque at the front of the Leave A Legacy area that shows the numbering scheme. Here are some shots of our section.
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After making a reservation for Nine Dragons Restaurant at Guest Services we rode Spaceship Earth. It is one of the few rides that is open later than the rest of Future World. Test Track is another one that is open later (when it isn't broken down).
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After dinner we tried to ride Test Track but it was broken down. We went back to the motel.
Saturday May 18, 2002
Today we left the motel at 9am to try to beat the heat. At MGM we got FastPasses for Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and then had another good breakfast at the ABC Commissary.
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After breakfast we went through the special exhibit for the 100 Years Of Magic celebration "One Man's Dream". There are lots of neat models used to design the theme parks. I have pictures of just a few of the items on display.
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This is a model of the Jungle Cruise and the Disneyland Castle. They have Walt's California office set up behind glass.
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This is a prototype of an animatronic figure. There are large cams that make the figure dance. Also, a picture of the model for the Tower of Terror.
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They have a working Audio-Animatronic figure on display with three control panels for guests to play with. You can control the mouth, eyes and make the figure sway from side to side. Also in this section of the exhibit is an original control panel used for programming the early figures like Lincoln.
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There is a TV studio mock up with Walt telling the world about the plans for Walt Disney World. Here is Roy at the opening of WDW.
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At the end of the exhibit is a theater. This is the theater where they showed the special Star Wars film at last year's Star Wars Weekends. It used to be a theater for Cast Members. The film here is the story of Walt's life. It is very good and not too long.
After the film we went next door to Who Want's To Be A Millionaire. This time at the 1000 point level I made it on the top ten score list. I think I was number 6. The audience answers every question that the person in the hot seat gets. They assign a score based on the correct answer and how long it takes to push the button. The points are accumulated and when they need another person for the hot seat the person in the audience with the highest score gets in.
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We stopped at the Sorcerer's Hat shop to buy more Magic Moments pins. We brought our certificates from the web site for our free "Internet Pins". With the certificate you can get one free pin with each Magic Moment pin. Click here to get a certificate. Here are all of the Magic Moments pins and the special Internet pin.
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We decided to take the boat to EPCOT this time. The dock is just outside the gates near the Fantasmic area. The boat stopped at Boardwalk, Dolphin/Swan and Yacht & Beach Club on the eay to EPCOT. There is another security bag search at this entrance to EPCOT
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The Flower and Garden Festival was going on. Lots of flowers and topiary.
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We tried Test Track again. The standby line now goes through the indoor queue. This is a big improvement. Maybe it was only the Single Rider ride that used to skip the queue. Hmmmm. Anyway, the CM announced that they were having some problems with the ride. She had us answering trivia questions and doing the wave trying to pass the time. Eventually they closed the ride and sent us all away.
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Over at Innoventions we got to see IT / Ginger / Segway in action. It is Dean Kamen's scooter. It is very fast and manuverable.
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At 3:30pm we took the boat back to MGM, got our car and drove back to the hotel.
We slept for a few hours. At 6:30pm I visited the hotel gift shop. They had lots of souvenirs. I could smell the smoke from the fires burning nearby.
Back to the Magic Kingdom. We were back on the tram from the Pluto parking lot at 7pm.
at 7:45pm we got in line at Big Thunder Mountain. The sign said the wait was 45 minutes, but we were on the train in 15 minutes. We wanted to see the new George Bush figure at the Hall of Presidents, but it closes at 6pm!
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Dinner at Casey's Corner, one of our favorite places to eat, then at 8:45pm we got in line for the Jungle Cruise. This time the sign said the wait was 35 minutes, but it was actually 7 minutes. There was no line for the Pirates of the Caribbean.
We did some shopping on Main Street and then got a FastPass for Space Mountain. We returned at our scheduled time and walked through the entire FastPass queue. The Stand-By line was long and hardly moving.
We had to stop at Gravity Gerties for Twist Cones and then a ride on the People Mover (Tomorrowland Transit Authority). We left the park 10:20pm. The line for the Express Monorail was very long. We took the Resort Monorail instead since the line was very short. It only makes one stop on the way at the Contemporary Hotel. We were back in the motel by 11:15pm.
Sunday May 19, 2002
Today I went to the deli at the Ramada and brought breakfast back to the room. They have milk, OJ, bagels, muffins, etc. We checked out at 10:30am in the rain.
We drove over to Disney West Side for the 1:30pm Star Wars on Film. On Friday we saw the digital version. Today we decided to try the film version for comparison.
We were early so we went through the Virgin Mega Store, Magnetron and other shops. We Walked over to the Lego store and World of Disney at Downtown Disney. I found this light up, flashing Mickey thing at the pin cart on the Westside. Pretty cool.
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The Star War Episode II went from 1:30 - 4:40pm. The difference between film and digital projection was astounding! The first reel of the film was COVERED in big dirt particles. This film has only been out for four days!
On the way to the airport we stopped at several stores. At Wal-Mart we bought some new Star Wars figures that were about half price from those at Disney. At Border's I found these neat, but very outdated, Pop-Up Maps of Disney.
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We got gas in the car and returned it to Alamo. At the airport we played Jedi Knights again, went to the Disney Store and Nathans/Pizza Hut for dinner. We got home 45 minutes early at 10:45pm.
We had a good time. Next time I will go when the weather is cooler.