Thursday, August 13 - Day 5

Today was our MGM day. I got up early with intent of getting to MGM for the opening. I went ahead and Judy was going to meet me there. I didn't get there until 9, and the park was already open. I went straight to the TOT and the wait was already 45 minutes. Some of these wait times are so deceiving. It took me 50 minutes from the time I got on line until the time I got out. It was only 30 minutes before I got to the preshow. The line moves quickly, so it isn't a bad wait at all. There was one short drop and two long ones.

After getting off, I went to The Great Movie ride to meet Judy. She was there already, so we got on line. The wait was only 10 minutes and we got the gangster scene.

I wanted to get into Indiana Jones early, in case Donna (Helen, from the Backstage Magic Tour) did the preshow, so we queued up at 11, 45 minutes before show time. They seated us in 15 minutes. We got the first row, right next to the control booth. There was no preshow this time. The only bad thing was that the plane had taken a lightening hit a few days earlier and the didn't get the replacement part yet, so there was no plane scene. Btw, for you Beanie Baby fans, I got into a discussion with one of the CMs working in the control booth. He's a collector and said that the gift shop outside Splash Mountain has four Brer beanies and that's the only place to get them. There are also beanies at Countdown to Extinction, but I forgot which ones he said they were. Either way, I wish I had learned this sooner, since we never made it back into the parks. Hey, anyone from the greater NY area going in the next couple of weeks?

From there we went to MuppetVision 3-D, just at the end of the preshow. Too bad, because this is one of the best preshows in the park and I really love it. We were hungry, so we ducked into Mama Melrose. It was already 1:00 and we were supposed to meet Carol and Kathy at Beaches and Cream, but since we had to stay in the room that night to wait for a call from our youngest daughter, Elana, we decided to stay in MGM. I tried calling Beaches and Cream, but the CM must have thought I was crazy when I said I didn't know Kathy's last name or what anyone looked like. I ended up leaving a message in their phone mail (cute message, Carol.) Judy had a salad and I had the Oak Grilled Vegetable Pizza. Next was Superstar Television. No sooner did we get there, than the director starting casting and picked me first to be Al in the Tool Time sketch. I have yet to see Superstar from the audience. One sad note, one of the stage managers told me that it's closing on Oct. 1st and reopening in December with a theme based on the TV Show, Doug. He couldn't give me any other details, though.

Next, we walked onto Star Tours. I couldn't help riding this while thinking of what we saw on the tour, and thinking of the lone guy sitting in the pod. We finished up with Backstage Tour, before heading back to the BW for a 10 min. dip and dinner.

Dinner was at the Flying Fish. We got a table by the window. Judy had her usual salad and the Oak Grilled w/ sweet corn spoon bread. I had the heirloom tomato and Bufalo Mozzarella and The Toasted Orzo w/ Maine Lobster, sweet peas, chantarelles, and a drizzle of truffle oil. Elana called at 7:15, so once we finished, we went to EPCOT to see The
Circle of Life and finish up at The Living Seas. I got to play CM at The Circle of Life, while the CM letting people in had to excuse herself. We left EPCOT and headed to Downtown Disney. I never realized that there is no direct bus from EPCOT, so we hopped on a bus to the Disney Institute and walked from there. This is the only knock I had on Disney Transportation, that there is no direct transportation to Downtown Disney.

Something I've never seen before, when we left Downtown Disney, we rode a Mears bus. Apparently, Disney uses Mears to supplement their own busses, when the need arises. Our driver told me that about 20 Mears busses were being used that night.