Disney and other Theme Parks|
Friday May 25, 2001 Our plane landed around 11:20am. We got the rental car and headed straight for MGM. We walked to the Star Tours area and found a cast member sitting at a table marked Event Signup. We asked what events there were and she said the only event to sign up for is the Star Wars Trivia Contest. She also said that the contest for Friday filled up when the park opened. We asked about this weekend's stars and she said they were signing autographs around the corner. To get an autograph you needed a wristband. The wristbands were all gone as soon as the park opened! She recommended coming back Sunday because the attendance would be much less. We decided to try tomorrow, Saturday, and arrive about 7:30am. The park opens at 9. We headed over to Tatooine Traders to get the limited edition pins.
Randy Nobel was in the back corner of the shop. He designed the logo for the Star Wars Weekend and co-designed all of the pins for the event. He was autographing any of the event logo items, such as the poster, keychain, pin, etc.
This is the key chain
Errata 6/2002! We made a reservation here and discovered that this address is for the Ramada across the street. I think this is the correct one: Ramada Inn Resort Maingate - Kissimmee 2950 Reedy Creek Blvd. Kissimmee, FL, 34747 407-396-4466
It is just about the first hotel to the west of the Disney entrance on 192.
The benefits are
-there is a stop light on 192 for the parking lot entrance. This means you can easily turn east or west.
-There is a Bob Evans and a Perkins next door
-There is a 7-11 next door. Good for buying drinks and snacks.
-The rates appear to only be about $5 per night higher than the Knight's Inn.
We went to Disney Downtown to buy our souvenirs since we get 10% off there with either the Disney Club or American Express.
The stores there have most of what is found in the parks.
It started to rain very hard.
Back to MGM.
Saturday May 26, 2001 We arrived at MGM Studios at about 7:30am. They didn't have anyone in the parking booth yet to take money. The sign at the front of MGM.
Here are a couple of the Star Wars banners at the entrance of MGM.
By 8am there were a few hundred people waiting to get in.
At about 7:15am they started the Star Wars music and Storm Troopers came out and did a "pre-show". They went up on the roof of the entrance and pretended to be trying to keep us away.
Gates opened at 8:30 and we walked toward the Star Tours area. The park was still roped off by the 50's Prime Time Cafe. We could see another roped off area by the boat restaurant, Min and Bill's Dockside Diner. At 9am they removed the rope barriers and quickly walked us to the wristband lines. The cast members stayed in front keep people from running. There were two wristband lines, one for Uncle Owen and one for Nien Nunb. We got in line for Uncle Owen first and got a wristband number around 55. We heard that there are about 100 bands for each of the two hour-long autograph sessions for each actor. After getting the first wristband we ran over to Nien Nunb's line and just missed getting in to the first session. We got the first bands for the second session, but we later found out that the cast member must have handed us the LAST wristbands from the second session instead of the first one. We found this out when we returned for the second session and found that our numbers put us at the very back of the line! We rode on Star Tours and then had breakfast at the ABC Commissary at 10am.
The Legends of the Force: A Star War Celebrity Motorcade started at 11:15. They started at the main gates and came up Hollywood Boulevard. Phil Brown (Uncle Owen) and Mike Quinn (Nien Nunb) rode in cars. Lots of Star Wars characters walked along.
Our Phil Brown autograph session started at 12:15. We all lined up in the queue area in the order of our wristband numbers. There was also a stand-by line. Those people could get an autograph if Phil signed all of our autographs before the hour was up.
Next we saw the special film "Behind the Force: The Saga Continues". It was playing in a theater next to the Animation Tour. A cast member said that this theater was used only for special movie screenings for cast members. Starting in October it will be used for a new film for the 15-month celebrating 100 Years of Walt. The Star Wars film is a documentary by George Lucas. There were interviews with the two actors that will play the young Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru. They also showed what went into reconstructing the kitchen set that was shown briefly in A New Hope. I stood in a long line (in the blazing sun) for twist cones at Dinosaur Gertie's Ice Cream of Extinction.
Disney had set up a Star Wars arcade in a room of the Backlot Express, between Star Tours and Indy Jones. It had many old and new Star Wars themed video and pinball games. The new Episode I pinball game is really cool. It has a video screen near the back of the playing field that is incorporated into the pinball play. It was now time to head for Mike Quinn's autograph session. His was running behind because he never took a break. He just kept signing and posing for pictures as long as there were fans around. He really got into the Star Wars weekend, unlike an unnamed princess a couple of weeks before. While waiting in line we watched all of the Disney Star Wars characters walking around.
We also saw some non-Disney characters in costume
We got our autographs around 4:30. He signed our Nien Nunb action figures.
It was so hot that we went back to motel to cool off. At 7:30 we went back to the Sci-Fi World store for an autograph of Warwick Davis.
There was a huge traffic jam on International Drive and another on 192 west. It was after 10pm when we finally got back to the motel.
Sunday May 27, 2001
We intended to get to the parks before the crowds and the heat, but when we opened the motel door at 8:30 this is what we saw.
The burning smell was very strong so we shut the door and waited for the wind to blow the smoke away. By 10:15 enough smoke had blown away so we headed for the Magic Kingdom. Here is the smoke in the parking lot seen from our tram ride to the TTC.
Before entering the TTC we found the brick we bought for our last big family trip last November. I think it was one of the last bricks sold before discontinuing the "Walk Around The World" program. The brick is in a great location at the right edge of the entrance to the Ticket and Transportation Center. The brick we bought many years ago when they started the program is about half way between the Magic Kingdom main entrance and the Contemporary Hotel, under the monorail tracks. There was a very long line for the monorail so we took the ferryboat across the lake. Here is a shot of the train station and the castle from the boat. Here is a similar shot from lst year.
This is what the smoke looked like on Main Street USA.
Here is the construction on Main Street and a shot of the sign showing what the finished project will be.
I think it is a mistake to eliminate the west side street just to get a little more store. I hope they never get rid of the east side street. Those little streets added to the charm of Main Street. We only had about a 10 minute wait for Big Thunder Mountain. There was a short line at Pirates of the Caribbean. We ate lunch at Casey's Corner, great hot dogs and fries.
The piano player was playing outside of Casey's Corner.
Times are so tough at Disney, we actually saw pins trading themselves!
I wanted to see what new CD tracks would be offered at the Disneyworld Forever kiosks. They had discontinued this program! I hope it is still on at Disneyland.
Mickey balloons for sale.
We bought a few more pins at the Emporium and at the Pin Cart. Then we left due to the terrible heat and humidity. We rode the ferry back and then drove to the motel to nap. At 5pm we left for EPCOT. EPCOT was much cooler. I think it is because there is more open space for the wind to blow through. This is the new Spaceship Earth design.
We went to the Pin Trading area and traded for one of the Star Wars pins from an earlier weekend.
Here is an animated GIF of the new EPCOT Spinner Pin
There was also a Cast Member there with a large pin display. He was there to instruct and could not trade.
We had our picture taken for Leave A Legacy. Then we had a great dinner at the Nine Dragons in China. Over at Test Track all of the Fast Passes had been given out, so we got in the stand-by line. We probably waited about 30 minutes. Here is a picture of the new attraction next door, Space, under construction.
I took some time exposure shots of Spaceship Earth.
Back to the motel by 10pm.
Monday May 28, 2001
No hot and smokey theme parks today. At about 11 we checked out of the motel and drove to Celebration. We parked by the lake and bought pins at the Celebration Store.
We walked around to see the sights and decided to see Pearl Harbor at the Celebration Theater.
The movie was very good. I don't understand why the reviews are so bad. Swing dancers performed in front of the stage before the movie started. I found it irritating that the theater showed TV commercials in with the coming attractions. Another strange thing in the theater is that whenever someone opens the door to go out or come in it lets a lot of light in on the screen. Our theaters at home have light traps so this doesn't happen. Other than that it is a nice theater with a balcony. We walked around after the movie.
Our last stop was at the Belz Mall to visit the Character Wearhouse
We found some pins discounted at around $3. They had great prices on the embroidered Mickey shirts, but since these are the rejects that can't be sold at the park they didn't look very good. Time to head for the airport and for home. Our plane was an hour late, getting us home around 1am. We had work and school the next morning. ;-( |
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