DAY TWO ~ MARINO's "TAKE ON" MK

[kimmar067]

Saturday, July 27 ~~

"Rise'n'shine. Time to start a new day!" was the greeting we woke to (not by Mickey, though ) for our 6:15AM wake-up call. But first, let me give you a little bit of background info on the events about to unfold:
As everyone was getting ready for a good night's sleep (BTW - part of the remodelling of CBR must have included the mattresses, because they were VERY comfortable! ) I hurried to the Customs House to Guest Services to double-check on the Character Breakfast buses (ie: when they begin running, how often do they run, do you need proof of PS's, etc.) Now, WDW really needs to "educate" some of their CM's, because this is the 2nd visit to the Customs House, and the 2nd rude CM! She not only insisted that the Character Breakfast buses do not begin running until 7:20AM, but since it could take AT LEAST (get this) and hour and 15 minutes to get to our breakfast, so we should see about getting a taxi to Chef Mickey's!! (yeah, 75 minutes to get from CBR to Contemporary, riiiight!! ) I relayed this distressing info to the rest of my family. We even pondered foregoing our "tradition" of officially beginning our Disney vacations with Chef Mickey's, followed by MK.

We decided to just try our luck and "wing it". If we made it on time to Chef Mickey's, then, we'd have breakfast. If not, we'd wait for the opening of MK and grab something there. We were at the bus stop by 6:55AM, keeping our fingers crossed that, hopefully, a bus would soon show up. Well, Mickey must have spread some Pixie Dust our way; right on schedule was the FIRST bus at 7AM SHARP!! It made its way around the "villages", and onward to the Contemporary!! We actually reached the Chef Mickey podium by 7:20 ~ a full 10 minutes ahead of time!!! After the obligatory hokey "stand-by-the-giant-plate-and-fork-and-knife" photo, we were seated all the way to the right (it's actually the section near the entrance) Breakfast didn't seem as, err, "tasty" , as previous visits, but part of the appeal of eating here was to get us "in a Disney mood"

A quick trip on the monorail and we were now heading for the entrance to MK! A family was picked from the crowd and there was an "opening ceremony" which included, Alice, the genie, the Mad Hatter, Cruella, and a few other characters. Security people had their checkpoints to do searches of all bags. Once inside the "Kingdom", we headed towards "Tomorrowland" to Space Mountain and the "rope drop"! We rode Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear, and Alien Encounter within 45 minutes! Now, we zipped directly to our other favorite place, "Frontierland", for a ride on BTM and SM, followed by a quick walk to HM. I can never get over that there is never a wait longer than 5 minutes at Haunted Mansion (at least, every time we visit it! ) We slowed our pace, occasionally stopping for a drink or snack or just doing a little bit of browsing/shopping. By 1PM we were headed back to CBR for an afternoon swim and a little bit of relaxing to "refuel" us for the evening. We had planned on returning to MK, but our desire to ride R'n'RC and TofT at MGM prevailed, so, after a quick bite at OPR food court, we headed to MGM. Apparently, we timed it perfectly, because most of the crowd was headed to Fantasmic!, which left us free to enjoy the rides.

Again, beating the Fantasmic! crowd, we left MGM by 9:15 for a quick 5-minute ride back to CBR (and another trip to the arcade!) I still couldn't get over how crowded OPR and the pool area gets at night ~ you'd think it was the middle of the afternoon! Tomorrow, I would be waking early, for a solo trip to DTD, a quick walk (or so I thought!) to Courtyard Marriott, to pick up our rental van.....


Day 1

Day 3

Day 4

 

[aring75]

Sounds like you had a GREAT day at MK, kimmar. You must have been there at just the right time!! Also doing the MGM rides during Fantasmic is always a good idea if you've seen the show!!

Looking forward to Day 3 . . .

 

[Ratpack]

Great report Kimmar, I see you too were surprised at how short the ride lines were. It is also funny that you start off your trip with Chef Mickey's and MK. Were at Chef Mickey's that same day but just a couple of hours behind you. I like your idea of MGM in the evening. I don't think I will ever do it in the morning if I do it at all. Looking forward to the next day's report.

Tim

 

[kimmar067]

...like to ride TofT at night; it is such a different experience that riding it during the day. Even waiting on the queue lines is a different feeling ~ when it's dark, the flora seems a bit more eerie, like something is gonna pop out at us!!

 

[swankybeth]

Sounds like a fantastic day! Don't you just love it when you time everything just right?

 

[kimmar067]

...how true!! And, we didn't really "plan" it that way, it sorta just fell into place!

For those of you who have already read "DAY ONE....": I just wanted to state that I don't dislike CBR ~ the rooms were VERY clean and comfortable. What I didn't care for, well, some of those things could have been changed, like the disposition of the rude CM's and the rooms location. However, unless major renovations to enlarge both the main pool and the food court take place, it isn't likely we will be visiting CBR again. However, to be fair, we have also stayed at other mods and it IS comparable to them (CSR and DxL). Since we have now experienced the WL, I am "spoiled", and don't want to return to WDW unless we stay at a deluxe. I also like the set-up of "inner" hallways and balconies for each room, as opposed to opening your door to an outside corridor.

 

[Krissalee]

Great day! I now want to make a point of trying ToT at night!

Krissy

 

[nativetxn]

I'm so glad that you were able to continue your tradition of breakfast at Chef Mickey's. Sounds like this was a fun day, thanks for telling us about it.

Katholyn

 

[yepod]

One of the few times I got good help from CBR guest services was when I asked them about the character breakfast bus!

We went to AK to see Donald for an 8AM PS & the driver was on time & did a great job in getting us there!

To repeat (as you had to also LOL) we didn't dislike CBR, just found it really sprawling for a wimpy family that "likes to save our walking stamina for the parks"!

Thanks again for the report!