cstephens
08-05-2007, 04:13 PM
Since the Disney Gallery is closing on Tuesday, we decided to make a last visit today. We stopped at Stage Door to pick up some food, which we brought with us up to the Gallery, and we enjoyed our lunch in the courtyard. There was one other table of people up there, with lots of people wandering around the Gallery, some browsing or shopping, and many of whom were taking pictures. You could tell that a lot of people were there to see the Gallery one last time. It was nice to sit up there and be able to hear the water from the fountain - until the pirate show from Tom Sawyer's Island could be heard from up there. Gosh, they're awfully loud.
The husband says we would occasionally bring food to eat up there. I don't recall that and only remember eating up there the two times we've taken the Walk in Walt's Footsteps Tour, which included lunch in the courtyard of the Gallery. The Tour now apparently holds lunch at the Tour Gardens, which doesn't seem nearly as appealing to me.
After we had the regular food portion of our lunch, we took our dessert portion and went out on the balcony so we could have dessert on the balcony one more time. I've only done the Fantasmic Dessert Balcony seating once, but I quite enjoyed it. We sat and enjoyed our dessert and looked out on the river and all the people in New Orleans Square. It's a great place from which to people watch. The river was quite busy this day, with both the Mark Twain and the Columbia running, with canoes going past, with rafts crossing to and from the island and then other rafts further in the back ferreting cast members to and from the island as well. I'll miss this view of the park as there's really no where else to go to get it. OK, you can get a similar view from the Club 33 balcony, but it's more obstructed, and I don't have unfettered access to Club 33.
We then went around to the different rooms, looking one more time at things, and taking pictures of everything. I never noticed before how different the chandeliers are in each room. I've always loved looking at the pictures in the one alcove off the main room that show the concept for how the living room was going to look as part of Walt and Lillian's apartment. We spent a bit of time talking to one of the CMs that we knew and what she was going to be doing next.
In years previous, we used to spend quite a bit of time at the Gallery, and I was wondering why we hadn't been doing that in the past couple of years. There are some inconveniences to the Gallery - if you have someone in a wheelchair or using a stroller, it's a bit more work to get up there. There's no restroom up there or anywhere to get refreshments, not even a drinking fountain. But that never seemed to stop us before - so why had we been spending so little time in the Gallery in the last year or two? And then I figured it out. We rarely went up to the Gallery just to hang out. We usually went up there to see the exhibits, and then afterward, we would hang out in the courtyard or the balcony for a while. In the past year or two, we haven't been that interested in the exhibits that they've had, so subsequently, we didn't go there much. And it wasn't about changing the exhibits often. There were exhibits up there previously that were there for a long time - but we enjoyed looking at them over and over again. When the Space Mountain model which currently resides Opera-House-adjacent used to be in what was supposed to be Walt and Lillian's bedroom, we would go up there often to marvel at it, to look at the structure, to follow the track as we walked around and around the model. We'd look at the little model of the Adventures in Inner Space ride vehicle. We'd enjoy listening to the soundtrack of various defunct attractions. We'd get thrown out for spending too much time there and enjoying it too much...
But the recent exhibits didn't hold any repeat value for us. So when a new exhibit went in, we'd go up and see it, but we didn't make that many return visits, so consequently, we didn't spend as much time as before just enjoying the ambience up there.
I'm sorry to see the Disney Gallery go, but I really hope they turn it into something guests can enjoy, in one form or another, rather than turn it into just more office space. That would be a shame.
The husband says we would occasionally bring food to eat up there. I don't recall that and only remember eating up there the two times we've taken the Walk in Walt's Footsteps Tour, which included lunch in the courtyard of the Gallery. The Tour now apparently holds lunch at the Tour Gardens, which doesn't seem nearly as appealing to me.
After we had the regular food portion of our lunch, we took our dessert portion and went out on the balcony so we could have dessert on the balcony one more time. I've only done the Fantasmic Dessert Balcony seating once, but I quite enjoyed it. We sat and enjoyed our dessert and looked out on the river and all the people in New Orleans Square. It's a great place from which to people watch. The river was quite busy this day, with both the Mark Twain and the Columbia running, with canoes going past, with rafts crossing to and from the island and then other rafts further in the back ferreting cast members to and from the island as well. I'll miss this view of the park as there's really no where else to go to get it. OK, you can get a similar view from the Club 33 balcony, but it's more obstructed, and I don't have unfettered access to Club 33.
We then went around to the different rooms, looking one more time at things, and taking pictures of everything. I never noticed before how different the chandeliers are in each room. I've always loved looking at the pictures in the one alcove off the main room that show the concept for how the living room was going to look as part of Walt and Lillian's apartment. We spent a bit of time talking to one of the CMs that we knew and what she was going to be doing next.
In years previous, we used to spend quite a bit of time at the Gallery, and I was wondering why we hadn't been doing that in the past couple of years. There are some inconveniences to the Gallery - if you have someone in a wheelchair or using a stroller, it's a bit more work to get up there. There's no restroom up there or anywhere to get refreshments, not even a drinking fountain. But that never seemed to stop us before - so why had we been spending so little time in the Gallery in the last year or two? And then I figured it out. We rarely went up to the Gallery just to hang out. We usually went up there to see the exhibits, and then afterward, we would hang out in the courtyard or the balcony for a while. In the past year or two, we haven't been that interested in the exhibits that they've had, so subsequently, we didn't go there much. And it wasn't about changing the exhibits often. There were exhibits up there previously that were there for a long time - but we enjoyed looking at them over and over again. When the Space Mountain model which currently resides Opera-House-adjacent used to be in what was supposed to be Walt and Lillian's bedroom, we would go up there often to marvel at it, to look at the structure, to follow the track as we walked around and around the model. We'd look at the little model of the Adventures in Inner Space ride vehicle. We'd enjoy listening to the soundtrack of various defunct attractions. We'd get thrown out for spending too much time there and enjoying it too much...
But the recent exhibits didn't hold any repeat value for us. So when a new exhibit went in, we'd go up and see it, but we didn't make that many return visits, so consequently, we didn't spend as much time as before just enjoying the ambience up there.
I'm sorry to see the Disney Gallery go, but I really hope they turn it into something guests can enjoy, in one form or another, rather than turn it into just more office space. That would be a shame.