Day 5—Thursday, June 20, 2012
We got up around 7:45 and went straight down to breakfast in our comfiest clothes again (very attractive for all the young men in the food court, I’m sure). When we came back to our room, we noticed a horrible smell in our room that none of us had noticed upon waking. I hate to get into detail, but it was the most distinct, dead-animal smell. As quickly as we could, we all got dressed and ready, then called down to the front desk right before leaving the room to go to the parks for the day. When we returned later, Disney had left nothing behind with any information on what they’d found, but the room smelled fresh and the smell never returned on our trip. Maybe it was something from a neighboring room, but I’m just grateful they found whatever they found and got rid of the smell.
We took the bus to Hollywood Studios. Because we’d missed it last time, we went straight to the Great Movie Ride, this time getting right on without waiting. We got the gangster scene (luckily—it was a very hot day, and the fire from the cowboy scene would have pushed many of us over the edge I think)! I had a great time looking for some Hidden Mickeys I’d never known about before in here.
Next we did Voyage of the Little Mermaid. We got kind of wet, sitting near the edge of the theater, but it wasn’t bad. I enjoyed the show a lot! Then we went inside the Animation Building right next door to Ariel’s, because we really enjoy doing the drawing class there. It’s kind of like a “free” souvenir in our minds—the drawing you create!
We drew Mickey Mouse after taking a vote between him, Donald Duck, and Stitch. My Mickey didn’t turn out great, but he’s not too bad, either! It was time for another go on Rock n’ Roller Coaster for Mom and I, but the weather was looking iffy, so my grandparents opted to wait by the Brown Derby, since we had a lunch reservation there.
We met them as soon as our ride was over (seated near the back again!). When we got off the ride, it was pouring . . . still, we were happy and excited about lunch, which was absolutely phenomenal. We split a Cobb salad and then a berry cobbler for dessert, which was excellent! You should definitely try the Cobb salad, it’s delicious!!
Grandparents decided they needed a break, but Mom and I wanted to go back to Magic Kingdom. We walked over from DHS to the Boardwalk, figuring we’d take the monorail from Epcot to MK. It stopped raining by now, and we had a good time walking, except that the Boardwalk had soaked up the rain and made it fifteen degrees hotter than the parks! As quickly as we could, we made our way to the International Gateway and into Epcot. We stopped into a couple of stores on our way, and also got free sample drinks in Club Cool, but we didn’t stop to ride anything before heading, via monorail, to MK. Waiting for that monorail at Epcot took FOREVER. I’m used to waiting a long time for the buses, but getting on monorails really quickly. That didn’t happen this time! I don’t know if something went wrong, but we waited more than half an hour for the monorail that time.
When we got to MK, we went to City Hall to ask about the College Program (I wasn’t sure if they’d have any literature or anything on it). They didn’t, but we did happen to get a young guy Cast Member who had started out in the College Program, then came to work full-time at Disney. Another young lady came over, also a full-time, non-student employee who had started out in the college program. Both were extremely enthusiastic about it, and gave great advice about getting in. I can’t wait to start applying next year!
We went and saw the Tiki Room, since it no longer includes Iago and Zazu. I don’t miss the new management guys (sorry!). I like the original version of this classic show! Afterwards, we rode Splash Mountain, which turned out to be a mistake.
The ride went along as usual for me until we finished the big drop. There were many splashes as usual, but I was not expecting one of them to be bird droppings on my arm, shirt, and the log. Yuck!!!! When we got off the ride, the regular Cast Member pointed us toward his manager, who very kindly wrote me a gift card of some sort for $25 for a new shirt. That was really what made it all okay. Otherwise I would have flipped out and started crying for sure. My mom called my grandparents who were now back at MK to meet up with us. They were furious about the incident, because it’s happened to my grandfather twice before, but I was just embarrassed and grossed out. I picked out a new shirt that was $24.95. When they told my mom the total was $1.60 or something for the tax, my grandfather freaked out and said we shouldn’t have to pay anything since the item was under $25 before tax and it was Disney’s “responsibility” to make it right anyway. I just wanted to pay the dollar and get on my way to a clean shirt, but a manager was called over who cleared it up and gave us the shirt (finally). I also went to first aid and got sterile wipes, since bird stuff can have bad germs in it. Feeling much better, we headed out for the rest of our day. On the plus side, I got a free shirt from Disney! My mom of course, has a new slogan for a t-shirt (“A bird *@#$ on me at Disney World and all I got was this t-shirt”).
We watched the “Dream Along with Mickey” show on the castle stage, which was fun. Just at the end when the fireworks and streamers go off, confetti shot over my head and surprised me. I thought Disney had added confetti machines or something, but it was just my mom making magic!
We checked out the beautiful rose garden near Tomorrowland, off the Hub. Then the Move It, Shake It, Celebrate it Parade came down Main Street, and we stopped for a few minutes. Woody from Toy Story motioned to my “Just Graduated” pin and tipped his hat to me! And eventually it turned into a street party, and we danced a little bit with Donald Duck before heading over to Tomorrowland, where we got drinks from a kiosk before getting on the Peoplemover again. I believe it started raining again, and Buzz Lightyear didn’t have a line so we rode it! Mom beat me big time! It was really fun; we made silly faces for the camera.
Then we did Carousel of Progress, which is great! I just wish they’d take the line about “we’ve got a whole new century waiting for us out there” out, because it dates the attraction more than anything else! Especially a show that’s all about progress! For dinner, we ate at Columbia Harbour House. We always sit at the same tables on the second floor overlooking Fantasyland (in the bridge that separates Liberty Square and Fantasyland). For some reason, there were curtains up in the windows. When we pulled them back to see what Disney was hiding, we discovered that you could see a little bit of the construction (hardly more than you can already see from just being in Fantasyland. That was irritating, because it’s my favorite view, but we found a table that looked out at Haunted Mansion where I could people-watch! We rode Haunted Mansion again because it was right there and wouldn’t jolt our full tummies around after our dinner!
Then we did PhilharMagic, which is a great favorite of mine, especially when I have my raincoat. I always hate getting wet on the 3D movies, to me it kind of feels like being sneezed on We headed to the Main Street Bakery next, where I got a muffin. But it was time for the electrical parade, so we took our pastries outside to watch the parade go by while we enjoyed our treats.
My grandparents left, and then Mom and I got on Space Mountain using FPs from earlier in the day. Here we had a very unpleasant situation with more people from out of the country. After showing our FPs and going inside, a girl runs up behind me, smashes my body into the wall, and runs down the star tunnel. Frustrated but not all-out angry, I say “Excuse me, there’s a line here!” after her, not bothering to make any attempt to stop her, knowing she probably doesn’t know what I’m saying anyway. What got my mom was that another girl, following the first, tried to do the exact same thing. Mom is a kind, sweet lady, so you know that when she intervenes, it’s got to be something pretty bad. She told the girl there was a line, and that she wasn’t going to just cut us. The girl knocked us both aside and took off after her friend (they were all wearing matching t-shirts, and the two girls were part of a very large Hispanic group getting on the ride).
I understand wanting to stay together in your group, but since the group was much larger than just one or two ride vehicles, there was no way they were all going to stay totally together anyway, so the shoving and bruising of others was really uncalled for. I had about had my fill of people acting that way on this trip, and it happened other times throughout, too. Sorry to vent, and I’m positive that American, English-speaking people do rude things at Disney World too.
Anyway, we caught Wishes and then rode Winnie the Pooh, which was excellent. I bought a stuffed Eeyore when we got off (to take to college with me). He’s a real cutie! Then we watched Magic, Memories, & You from a cool angle (right under the castle, from one of the two walkways on either side). Then we took the bus back to the hotel and hit the sack.
P.S. Please don’t misconstrue my venting and think I’m super-negative or that we had a bad trip! I think we had just had our fill of line-cutting and random people shoving us for the day. Sorry to sound angry!
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