The TCD gang Pops over to WDW

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

CINNAMON buns, you pervs!!

You left the door open... they just walked thru it :rofl2:

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

I have seen push in action while waiting in line for the orbiti(waste of time). I did not spot any suspicious looking guys in Tennessee hats though.

Glad to see you stopped a robotnapping.

I wouldn't have expected you to see a guy in a Tennessee hat. This robot is a state-of-the-art, completely independent piece of technology. The guy in the Tennessee hat was clearly some kind of techno-spy trying to steal Disney's technology. Lucky for them, I foiled his plans.

OMG look at that CM snearing at your surveillance! It's a conspiracy! Sure looks like an inside job to me. Glad TCD was on the scene...

Conspiracy? Of course, why didn't I think of that? That explains why no body else seemed to be concerned about this weirdo walking around with his hand shoved in his bag and sneakily talking into a concealed microphone. Maybe some of those "castmembers" were also techno-spies working with this guy?

Let me try to comment on what I missed.

I don't mind if Yuri has multiple wives, as I plan to keep Trevor so I too would be a parallelogram!

(or is that a Polygamist)

Your buns look delicious.

I can't believe you'd never seen PUSH?!

No comment on those first two items.

But, as to my not seeing PUSH before, it's true. I've never seen that robot before.

I am really late to this party but

a TCD trip report always makes me :)

Thank you for that.

I appreciate it.

We love to sneak back in that little alley and use those tables to eat stuff from the bakery.

Great detective work! My wife swears she saw the guy that controlled the sword in the stone. She pointed him out to me and I think she was right. We were waiting for the Magic Portal by Sir Mickey's when she spotted him. Rookie mistake on my part again failing to get a picture. I love how many things there are to keep us entertained.

The way our Volunteer team has played the last couple of years the guy probably figured no one would pay attention to the Power T any longer and he could just blend in and not be noticed.

Great job by Yuri, loved his work at RC.

I never noticed those tables back there, but I think those would be an excellent place to enjoy a snack from the bakery.

So that "T" on the Tennessee hat is called the Power T? I never knew that. Are you a Tennessee fan? I haven't met anyone who would admit to that lately.

I'll let Yuri know that he has another fan.

CINNAMON buns, you pervs!!

Of course!

I knew that.

And, for the record, those were the twins' buns anyway. I had the croissant.

I don't know what everyone else was thinking.

It would appear that since Disney has relaxed their facial hair regulations, there is an epidemic of beard growth. I don't like. Nope, not a bit. Pretty soon the Geico cavemen will be operating the Dumbo ride. Imagine how it would look at lunchtime with these guys chowing down on some turkey legs. I'm gonna have a little chat with Bobby tonight.

Thank you.

I am glad to hear that there is a chance that this beard growing experiment will be stopped.

Walt got this right. I don't want to see castmembers who look like George Michael, a Geico Caveman, or one of the guys from ZZ Top.

The people making these bone-headed decisions are really going to be sorry whenever they get around to unthawing Walt's head and putting it on one of those robots they know how to make. But, personally, I hope that they wait just a bit longer. Walt's head would look funny rolling around on top of a trashcan.

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Moving right along . . .

It is still Saturday morning.

I had just saved PUSH from being stolen by a bad spy.

And now it was time for us to ride Space Mountain again.

With our Fastpasses.

As you may have heard, WDW recently announced that they were going to strictly enforce Fastpass return times. Despite the spin that came with this announcement, this was a major change over how things had been handled in the past. In the past, they would let you use a Fastpass any time of the day after the original return time with no questions asked. That was a great loophole, because it meant that you didn't have to rush from one end of the park to the other, just to make your ride. Or, it could mean that you could spend a morning at a park collecting Fastpasses, and then return to use them in the evening. Those days are now gone.

When we exited Space Mountain earlier that morning, the line was closed, and there were castmembers preventing folks from entering the queue, saying that the ride was temporarily out of service. As always, they would not say why or for how long. We had just been on it, so that was odd. But, that is what we saw.

When we returned, the line was back open. That was good. But I kind of wanted to see what would happen if the ride was down when we returned with our Fastpasses. In the past, in such instances, the castmembers would just tell guests that they could return any time of the day. There were no additonal steps taken, and there didn't need to be any taken, because that was the policy at all of the attractions anyway. But how would they handle this now that they are strictly enforcing return times? Would a replacement Fastpass be issued? Or would a castmember somehow mark the Fastpass you are holding to validate it for a later time? Or, would you just be out of luck? I don't know. The line was re-opened when we returned. I will have to answer that question another time.

So, we zipped right in to Space Mountain.

The standby line was long. I hate to admit it, but I enjoy walking past all of the suckers guests standing in the standby line. Why don't these knuckleheads use Fastpass too?

We walked right up to the boarding area, and only had to wait for a couple of minutes for our rocket.

While we waited, I saw something interesting. So I took a photo. It was a group that came in through the back entrance with one of those VIP guides dressed in plaid. I'm sure you have seen these guides before. Do you know much about them? The official Disney website suggests that anyone with more money than brains is free to hire one. The cost ranges from $175 to $315 an hour, with a six hour minimum. Don't miss the six hour minimum thing. That means people pay somewhere around a thousand or two thousand bucks to use one of these guides. That is on top of paying for park admission. You can see the details for yourself here:

http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/tours-and-experiences/vip-services/

Here's the photo I snapped of this group:

Whenever I see one of those tour guides, I always size up the group. Who are they? Are the celebrities? Political figures? Just rich people? Who hires these VIP guides? In the photo above, the VIP guide is standing behind the young lady in the middle of the photo, and the regular Space Mountain Castmember is bending over backwards to speak to the group.

I once watched a segment on these VIP tour guides on one of the Disney shows on the Travel Channel a few years ago. They specifically said on the show that these VIP guides help guests to maximize their park enjoyment, but they do not have the ability to skip lines. They specifically said that guests still had to wait on line. That made me feel better, because I wouldn't like to know that rich people could pay extra money to make me wait longer for a ride.

Well, it turns out that what they said on that show was a big fat lie.

I have personally seen these guides sneak guests in through the back entrances of attractions many times. And, if I was paying $2000 to have one of these guides help me in a park, I would expect that. But, they lied on that show. I have never seen one of those guides in plaid in a regular stand by line.

These people did not wait on line. They came in the back entrance.

I didn't recognize any celebrities in the group.

The lady on the left of the photo in the blue pants was definitely the VIP though. She was the one the guide spoke to the most, and the Castmember really gave her a lot of attention. She wasn't Oprah. Other than that, I don't have a clue.

I have more photos from this part of our visit, but I'm going to make this a separate post.

Because I wanted to ask if anyone recognizes anyone in that group.

Or any plaid VIP guide stories to share.

TCD

[doodlebug....Cherie 461]

No clue. So I guess I will just wait for the next update.

[ftwildernessguy 778]

Hey, this is America, where money talks. If something doesn't make sense, just follow the money and it all becomes clear.

[WannaBeImagineer 98]

Great report as always TCD!

I don't have any great VIP stories but we have seen them a lot. A couple years ago, we saw a big family that had two VIP guides at the Hoop-de-doo, then we kept running into them at different places through-out our trip, I know that had to cost a ton for the amount of days they had two VIP guides.

Also do you really need two guides to take you to the Hoop-de-do? Come on?

WBI

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

No clue. So I guess I will just wait for the next update.

Yeah. I don't have a clue either.

So, let's just move along.

Hey, this is America, where money talks. If something doesn't make sense, just follow the money and it all becomes clear.

Absolutely true.

There obviously are enough people who can and are willing to pay for the VIP guides to justify having this program. They are very discrete about how they cut in line and make us regular slobs wait longer, so nobody really cares. Except for me, that is.

Great report as always TCD!

I don't have any great VIP stories but we have seen them a lot. A couple years ago, we saw a big family that had two VIP guides at the Hoop-de-doo, then we kept running into them at different places through-out our trip, I know that had to cost a ton for the amount of days they had two VIP guides.

Also do you really need two guides to take you to the Hoop-de-do? Come on?

WBI

Well come on now, Nick.

If I was rich enough to pay for two guides, I would. That way, I would be able to one-up the less wealthy who only have one. But, sure enough someone would come along with three guides, right?

TCD

[DaveInTN 3,247]

On my last trip to Disney I had a VIP guide one morning and it didn't cost me anything. He showed me how to shimmy up Poles, how to access secret backstage Moose-hiding rooms, and at the end of it all left me with a souvenier spike.

And by the way, I think the VIP in your picture is that chick from The View.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Back to the report . . .

Our ride in to space went fine. Except for that unexpected flash where they take your photo. Catches us by surprise every time:

As you may be aware, part of the new Fantasyland expansion opened last month. Included in what has re-opened is the walkway from Space Mountain over toward the Train Station.

We haven't been able to walk along that walkway for a while, so we decided to today. Plus, I wondered if there was anything new to see along here.

There wasn't.

But it seems like the building they use to store the Goofy coasters is more visible than in used to be. I don't think it was moved, but I don't remember it being as obvious as it now is:

Even though the Goofy coaster has re-opened, there is some kind of work still going on around it, as there is still a construction wall up:

I never noticed that there was some kind of a small pond on the other side of the tracks here, but you can see it through the trees in this photo:

All of the props around the train station have been changed back here, including the water tank that you see in this photo:

The area that you see in this photo has all been redone. They have made it look like a set of railroad tracks was broken off here:

I'm not sure what the story will be about this. I thought this area was themed to look like it was a train station where a circus train would drop off the animals and performers for a circus. I'm not sure why there would be a broken track here.

This is a shot of the tracks that lead up to where they break off in that last photo above:

The area that is open here is very small compared to the area that is still walled off. Just on the other side of the wall, work continues on all of the new improvements. Here we can see that the top layer is being added to one of the buildings that resembles a circus tent:

We can see the work on the Little Mermaid ride on the other side of the wall in this photo. We can also see some of the posters that are posted on the construction walls. These posters make reference to the attractions which will ultimately be located in this part of the park. I don't understand the reference to the Reckless Rocketeer, as the attraction related to Goofy back here is the Goofy themed rollercoaster which is called the Barnstormer. The poster on the left refers to the Barnstormer:

There are cranes galore on the other side of that wall:

I know that what is going on over there on the other side of the wall isn't as impressive as a robot trash can, but, I still think it will be pretty cool when all of this finally opens.

Here is another one of those posters on the construction wall:

Apparently, there will be Bear Wrasslin' in the new Fantasyland.

Cool!

I'm not sure if I like bear wrasslin'. I've never personally seen bears wrestle before. It kind of surprises me that they are going to offer this. They had better hope those PETA people don't catch wind of this.

One more comment on that last photo- I like the trash cans. As far as I know, they don't move on their own or talk. But, they are pretty nice trash cans, I must say.

Here's the very important stroller parking area, and the Little Mermaid ride on the other side of the wall:

I noticed a pretty good gap in the wall over here by the stroller parking. It looked big enough for me to fit my camera lens in. If I could pull this off, I would then be able to show you exactly what is happening on the other side of that wall. And, that would be cool. So, I gave it a try:

That is what we refer to as a fail.

Well, I tried.

It was rather congested here in the new area of Fantasyland.

We didn't bother trying to ride Goofy or Dumbo. The lines were too long.

Instead, we kept on walking.

All the way to the Haunted Mansion.

The lines move fast on that ride.

Here is a photo taken on the way in.

There is a big construction project going on over here too. Nobody really seems to have much information about it. All that I keep hearing about it is that it is a new walkway. Walkway? Why do they need a walkway here? Nobody can tell me that.

Anyway, you can see that they are building a retaining wall here to keep the pet cemetary from collapsing on to the new walkway, or whatever it is they are actually working on back there:

I wish there was some way we could get a better look at what is going on back there, but the walls are high, and there are no gaps. They have this one locked down tight. There is no way anyone can get photos of what is going on back there. (ahem- please make note of this statement, as I am employing the use of the literary device known as foreshadowing here).

Anyhow, we rode the Haunted Mansion, and then made our way over to Liberty Square and Frontierland so the girls could play that stupid SOTMK game.

While we were in the area, I popped in to the Diamond Horseshoe. They are serving lunch in here now, and I had snapped some photos of the menu and seating area when we were here last month. When I posted those photos, there was discussion about the big bar they have in there and the show that used to be performed. I hadn't noticed the bar, so I returned to take a look.

I found the bar. I didn't notice it before because it's now a food service line:

So this bar, where guys and gals used to dance with fake giant mugs of beer, is now just a place for castmembers to pass sandwiches to guests. Sad. If Walt was in a grave, he would roll over in it if he knew about this.

One of these days, I'm going to write a detailed report about the Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom game, but for now, here's a photo that shows what one of the portals looks like in action. In this instance, the girls were playing a game which involved a Princess and the Frog story line:

As we continued on with the game, we were led to a portal near the gift shop by the magic carpet ride. Here, we saw these Orange Bird shirts:

Here's another one of the SOTMK portals. The girls were still working on the Princess and the Frog game:

What I didn't realize until watching the girls a little closer is that the animation varies at these portals from player to player. So one player may get a Princess and the Frog story line, but the next one might get a Lion King or some other story line at the same portal. And, if you look carefully, you will see that there are camera lenses hidden in the decorations at the portals. This allows the game to see what card a player holds up, and the interaction of each player in the story is different based on what card the player chooses to hold up. There is some cool technology being used here, and it is great that the experience varies each time the game is played. I guess this is not as stupid as I originally thought. Again, not as cool as a robot trash can, but it's still a neat addition to the MK.

Since the game brought us in to Adventureland, we decided to take a ride on Pirates, and we also discussed plans for the rest of the day. It was approaching noon, and those big storms that were supposed to be hitting in the morning had yet to materialize. Based on all the warnings, I fully expected that we would be leaving the MK because of the weather, but that had not happened. So, we needed to make some more plans. I'll share those with you in the next post.

TCD

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

Nice adventurous morning!!!

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

On my last trip to Disney I had a VIP guide one morning and it didn't cost me anything. He showed me how to shimmy up Poles, how to access secret backstage Moose-hiding rooms, and at the end of it all left me with a souvenier spike.

And by the way, I think the VIP in your picture is that chick from The View.

Really?

Based on your description, that sounds like it would be one of those guides on the $315/hour end of the pay scale. That guide ought to start charging for his services!

Isn't "that chick from the View" Whoppi Goldberg?

That wasn't Whoppi.

This lady looked more like Geraldine from the Flip Wilson show. But, I'm pretty sure it wasn't her.

TCD

[Lou... 3,118]

This lady looked more like Geraldine from the Flip Wilson show.

Your best line of the week, cracked me up.

[doodlebug....Cherie 461]

Great update!! Glad you weren't chased out by storms!

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Your best line of the week, cracked me up.

The devil made me do it!

TCD

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

What about Sherry from the view, who also did DWTS?

You have given me proof that I have missed many a thing in the main street area in this report. I really need more than one day a park to explore WDW.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

What about Sherry from the view, who also did DWTS?

You have given me proof that I have missed many a thing in the main street area in this report. I really need more than one day a park to explore WDW.

You are asking the wrong person. I do not watch either one of those shows. The more I think about it, maybe it was Geraldine. But, I don't remember her ever wearing pants. And then there's the small detail that Flip Wilson died in 1998.

And yes, there is no way you can see all there is to see in any of the parks even if you spent a whole day there. I have not seen all there is to see in any of the parks. And that is a good thing.

TCD

[ftwildernessguy 778]

Barbara Walters!

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Barbara Walters!

Nope.

This lady was much younger.

And much tanner.

TCD

[DaveInTN 3,247]

No, not Whoopi. I'm thinking about a larger woman...Starr something or other. Maybe I have the wrong show. But I do know I'm not talking about a dead crossdressing comedian from the 70's.

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

No, not Whoopi. I'm thinking about a larger woman...Starr something or other. Maybe I have the wrong show. But I do know I'm not talking about a dead crossdressing comedian from the 70's.

star jones isn't on the view anymore

sherri someone is

[DaveInTN 3,247]

star jones isn't on the view anymore

sherri someone is

Yes, it must be Star Jones. If the person had an unusual last name like Someone I'd definitely remember that.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Does anyone remember that foreshadowing that happened in one of the posts above?

Well, this is where we come back to that issue.

Remember, I was lamenting that there was no way to see what was going on on the other side of the construction wall near the Haunted Mansion.

We will get to that in this post.

But first, we were on Pirates.

We never seem to be able to make it out of that gift shop without taking the risk of being infested by head lice. Here we go again:

How do you like that?

It's a bandana with built in hair.

And that is not just some random head of hair.

It's from Jake.

You know, Jake?

The Neverland Pirate?

It's apparently a show on the Disney Channel.

I've never seen it.

It came out after my kids were past the age to watch that show.

I think Jake is friends with Peter Pan.

Or enemies.

I don't really know.

But, he has a sweet hairdo.

And now you can have one too.

So, after Pirates, it was time to eat.

We narrowed the choices to the Diamond Horseshoe or Columbia Harbour House.

We went with CHH.

I don't know why, but we always take our food upstairs to eat here.

It is usually not crowded.

And it wasn't bad today.

Again, I don't know why, but I like the restrooms up here.

They are so retro.

Here they are:

When is the last time you saw so much wood paneling?

It's probably been a while.

So, that's what the outside looks like.

The insides are pretty retro too.

But, who would take photos inside of a restroom?

Well, me for one.

Here's the little lobby on the way in to the business center of the men's room:

And this is where your business is to be conducted:

I love how out of date these restrooms are.

I hope they never update them.

We usually sit in the area of the upstairs over the walkway below. But, the girls picked a different place to sit. Over by a window. And the window was covered by a cheap-o looking piece of fabric. Like temporary drapes. I asked the girls why they picked this table. Twin #1 said lift up that fabric and take a look outside old man. So I did. And this is what I saw:

Do you remember that photo of the pet cemetary that showed the retaining wall being built?

Well, that wall you see in the back of this photo is that retaining wall. And the dug up area is what is going on behind those walls. You can see the fence with the fake plants on it there in the foreground of the photo. We could see everything that was going on from here!

Good job, twin #1!

That big building in the back of this photo is the ride building for the Haunted Mansion, and the castle looking building on the right is the Small World building:

You can do some great people watching from up here:

The windows on the left of this photo are the windows that overlook the walkway. You can see that they are covered up in this photo:

After we ate, I moved over to the area of the room that is built over the walkway, and I was able to peek out the windows here, too. I could see even more from here. Here we can see that it looks like there will be a little pond here. Or at least a big drain:

Here's the walkway. All those people are walking by wondering what is on the other side of that fence:

Here are a few more shots, just in case you haven't seen enough:

None of this makes sense to me. There is no reason to go to all this trouble for just a walkway. Something else must be going in here. I still say a gift shop for the Haunted Mansion. But we will have to wait and see.

After lunch, we headed over to Fantasyland, and played the SOTMK game on some of the portals over there. There are several right behind the castle, and I enjoyed taking in the majesty of the castle from this view:

After a while of this, we decided it was time to make a move. Those storms never came, and we had not planned to be around the MK for this long. We debated going to either Hollywood Studios or Animal Kingdom. I wanted to go to AK, but I got outvoted.

We decided to walk by the Rapunzel meet and greet area to see how things were going with the renovation there.

I have never paid much attention to this wishing well. Look at all of the detail on it:

The old Rapunzel area was walled off, but you could still see the lanterns and flags used for Rapunzel. This area is going to be re-themed to use as a meet and greet for the new Pixar movie, Brave, which comes out in June. I say that they had better get going on this:

We headed out toward the hub from here.

I noticed something looked different about the Walt and Mickey statue:

Sure enough, something was different.

There was a flying rat on Walt's head:

As we headed out through the train station, I noticed two men trying to take photos of something.

This guy was taking a long time to get just the right shot.

So I decided to take a photo of him taking a photo:

What a weirdo!

This guy stopped to take a picture of a poster with Orange Bird on it.

Who would do that?

Weird!

On the way out, we spotted this movie poster on one of the kiosks in the entry area:

It's advertising a movie called The Odd Life of Timothy Green.

Never heard of it.

I have since checked on it.

It comes out this August.

it's about a couple who want to have a baby, but can't. They write down the characteristics of the child that they wish some day to have, and put their notes in a box, which they then bury in the backyard. Perfectly normal behavior so far. Then one day, something happens, and a boy shows up covered with dirt. He is the son they wished for. I would say that nobody will be able to argue that the title of this movie is misleading.

On the other side of that kiosk was an ad for Brave, which comes out in June:

I think that Brave will be good. I am looking forward to it.

I mentioned we were heading to Hollywood Studios, right?

How do you think we got there?

Go ahead and guess.

I'll let you know in the next post.

In the meantime, as we headed out, the Avengers rail came by:

Yesterday, the Avengers rail was on the resort loop.

Today it was on the express loop.

I guess it looks cool.

Next up, we head to Hollywood Studios.

Will those storms get us there?

TCD

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

As far as the walkway, I think I read on one of the many info blasts that MO puts out, that there may also be restrooms going to be put in that area, so that they can get rid of the restrooms near Peter Pan and expand that queue to interactive.

[WannaBeImagineer 98]

Here is a photo taken on the way in.

There is a big construction project going on over here too. Nobody really seems to have much information about it. All that I keep hearing about it is that it is a new walkway. Walkway? Why do they need a walkway here? Nobody can tell me that.

Anyway, you can see that they are building a retaining wall here to keep the pet cemetary from collapsing on to the new walkway, or whatever it is they are actually working on back there:

I wish there was some way we could get a better look at what is going on back there, but the walls are high, and there are no gaps. They have this one locked down tight. There is no way anyone can get photos of what is going on back there. (ahem- please make note of this statement, as I am employing the use of the literary device known as foreshadowing here).

TCD

TCD

I don't want to mess with your foreshadowing, but these might help you see what's going on back there and may help tell your story:

I don't think I posted these before.

WBI

Edit: I wasn't fast enough!

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

No, not Whoopi. I'm thinking about a larger woman...Starr something or other. Maybe I have the wrong show. But I do know I'm not talking about a dead crossdressing comedian from the 70's.

star jones isn't on the view anymore

sherri someone is

Yes, it must be Star Jones. If the person had an unusual last name like Someone I'd definitely remember that.

Interesting discussion.

I know Star Jones- I remember her from the Celebrity Apprentice. I don't think that was who this was.

So maybe it was Sherry Someone?

As far as the walkway, I think I read on one of the many info blasts that MO puts out, that there may also be restrooms going to be put in that area, so that they can get rid of the restrooms near Peter Pan and expand that queue to interactive.

Restrooms would be a good idea. That would take up a bit of space. Especially restrooms with an interactive queue. That might be it.

Plus a gift shop.

TCD