The One With the Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow

  Orlando, Florida, United States
Friday, August 17, 2007

Cinderella's Castle from the monorail

I was up at 11:00 this morning and I was exhausted. For some reason I was just really tired every morning. We'd been doing so much each day, definitely more than we do in a day at home, and I always have trouble sleeping in beds that aren't my own so I guess that all added to it. Anyway, mom and dad had gotten bagels from Publix and some mini powdered donuts so the three of us ate breakfast in the kitchen. When we were done I read some of "The Devil Wears Prada" in my room and then I went online.

The Magic Kingdom from the monorail

I went on AOL and spoke to some of my friends and then I went on Facebook to check my messages on there and was surprised to see a friend request from an old friend who I hadn't seen in years. My Aunt Debbie's best friend from High School, Tommy, and his wife Cathy were always around when we were younger. Their daughter Ashley is Michael's age and Mike, my cousins Cari and Ryan, Ashley and I were always together. Every day we'd either hang out in Cari and Ryan's backyard, watch a movie, eat at McDonalds, or go to one museum or another around the city. She was always so much fun and like another cousin to me, but Tommy works for an airline company and was transferred to Florida around ten years ago. He's since been transferred to Georgia and they're now living about an hour outside of Atlanta. I had looked Ashley up on Facebook before but couldn't find her so I was psyched to see a friend request from her. We chatted back and forth for a while and caught up on each others lives, and we made plans to hang out when they come back to Brooklyn for the holidays in December.

Mike on the monorail

Then I did something that I had wanted to do for a while... or at least for the past week and a half. We checked online and saw that the refund check from Loyalty Homes had cleared so I wrote Sue a long, long e-mail. I told her exactly what had been wrong with the home and how we had been made out to look like liars instead of getting the help we needed and expected from a professional company. I then told her how disgusted I was by the fact that she had accused my mother of having no brain and that she had hung up on us when we were asking for help or some sort of explanation, knowing that she was overseas and we wouldn't be able to get in touch with her again. I let her know that my father works for NBC and that the media would be hearing about hers and Loyalty Home's unprofessional and childish services, and how I'd make sure to write an honest review on every site on which her home was listed. Then I stated how she was a poor excuse for a businesswoman. Yes, the last line may have been over the top but this woman had stolen half of our money and expected to get away with it. I don't think so! UGH, I was still so mad!

Stuck on the monorail

I finally got ready at 12:00 and was done by 1:00, right around the time that Michael woke up. He had breakfast and then we all played cards at 2:00. We love our California Rummy tournaments! It's funny because we sometimes play with family on the holidays and stuff, but we only play with the four of us on vacation so it's always a fun yearly tradition. And better yet, I won! We lounged around for a while and at 3:30 we finally left for the Magic Kingdom. Yes, we get to the parks late. We were parking in the Pluto section of the Ticket and Transportation Center by 3:45 and hopped on a waiting tram to take us over to the monorail. We had to wait around for a monorail to come but one finally picked us up at 4:00 and we were on our way. At least we thought we were. Mom, dad and I got seats but Michael chose to stand and let other people sit. It wouldn't have been a problem except for the fact that they kept cramming people onto the monorail! Our little car was packed and it was pretty uncomfortable but I wasn't complaining... we were on our way to the Magic Kingdom! Well, not quite yet.

The Magic Kingdom railroad

We made our way over to the Contemporary and stopped right before we entered. There was an announcement made that we were stopping in order to wait for further traffic to clear. No big deal, that happens all the time. So we waited and waited and waited, and when ten minutes went by we all started to get a little annoyed. Finally we started moving again, only to be stopped inside the Contemporary. We waited another five minutes for "traffic to clear" before making our way out of the Contemporary only to stop AGAIN right before the Magic Kingdom. This time we were stopped for a good fifteen minutes, and an announcement was made that another monorail was being added to the tracks ahead of us, and that our monorail was going to be put through a few routine safety tests. What?! I love the monorail but it makes me nervous enough as it is. Now we were just sitting up there for fifteen minutes with the monorail slowly rocking back and forth, and they made an announcement that when the monorail starts back up they were going to go really fast and then stop short to check the breaks. Oy.

The Town Square Exposition Hall

Fifteen minutes later we finally started moving again and went through our short break test. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be but it was still pretty nerve-wrecking. And mom was just trying to breathe and stay calm because she's claustrophobic and the last thing she wanted was to be stuck in a small monorail car hundreds of feet off the ground! We finally made it to the Magic Kingdom at 4:30, a full half-hour after we had boarded the monorail. What a ride! At least we had a good view out over Bay Lake.

Me in front of Cinderella's Castle

We got right into the park and were about to walk down Main Street when I saw the Town Square Exposition Hall. I had read about it time and time again and had always wanted to check it out to take some cute pictures with the cut-outs. We headed inside and looked for the cut-outs but couldn't find them. I thought they were in the back of the store but the back was closed off and dark so I have no idea what happened. Either they no longer let you take pictures with the cut-outs or we were just in the completely wrong spot, but we didn't feeling like bothering to ask anyone so we just left. We made our way down Main Street USA and were excited about how gorgeous the weather was! It was warm with almost no humidity... there was actually a breeze. It was great, and the perfect summer weather for a stroll around the Magic Kingdom. We took some pictures along Main Street and stopped to watch some of the Dream Along With Mickey show. We'd seen it being performed a few times during both of our days at the Magic Kingdom but we never stopped to watch the whole thing. What we did see of it looked cute though.

The Astro Orbiter

Today was our Tomorrowland day, and the day to redo our favorite shows and attractions. So we walked down to the Main Street hub and then made a right into Tomorrowland. I love the topiary of Mickey and Minnie right in the hub; it's a really cute one. I took a picture before mom and I ran into a nearby bathroom and dad and Mike went to get us four fastpasses for Space Mountain. The return time wound up being between 7:20 and 8:20. We were right near Buzz Lightyear and that's one of our favorite rides so we decided to check out the wait time. It was listed at only twenty-minutes, but the line extended out past the front door so we didn't think that was too accurate. We decided to take our chances, though, and got on line. The line wound up being closer to forty-minutes long but we really didn't mind. We've always fastpassed Buzz and never got to see the actual line and there's so much fun stuff to look at.

Mom and Mike on the ride

This ride is always so much fun! Mom and Mike always go together and then Dad and I. I think it's because Mike and dad are the two big video game aficionados and they want to have complete control over the steering of the little cars. Well I was having none of it! It's always funny because year after year you see mom and Mike smiling and laughing, and then all you hear is dad and I screaming at each other over spinning the car! Someone's always just about to hit a huge target when the other person spins the car and ruins it. It's hysterical! And even more hysterical, and amazing, was that I almost won! I was winning throughout the entire ride with 72,000 points until Michael shot at a last-minute target and ended up with 74,000. Damn! But I beat dad... I actually beat dad! Now I know that 72,000 isn't even that high of a score but let me tell you... dad and Mike know their video games. They have every system and console ever created and every game in existence and they play them ALL THE TIME. And I finally beat dad at a video game! Well, sort of a video game. Buzz Lightyear counts as a video game, right?

Mine and dad's on-ride photo

After Buzz Lightyear we were going to go for an early dinner at Cosmic Ray's but we saw that the Carousel of Progress was loading so we headed inside. The cast member loading the ride was around 25 and ridiculously cute. Leave it to me to notice all the hot cast members, haha! He was a cutie, and I looked for him on our way out but he wasn't there. Sadness. Anyway, back to the Carousel of Progress. We were some of the last ones let in and sat on the left of the fourth row. I love this show; we all do and it's always a must-do for us. I love how the theater rotates, the animatronics are incredible, and the songs are so much fun. Mom and dad always sing "There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow" as we rotate from one room to the next! The only thing I noticed was that the ride skips from the 40's to the 90's which cuts out a huge chunk of history, and the 90's section could definitely use an update. It's supposed to be modern and futuristic but they're still talking about their new laserdiscs! Haha! That being said, I love the 90's house. While their electronics may be outdated, the house itself is modern and there's just something I really love about it.

There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow!

After the Carousel of Progress we were ready to get something to eat, but we saw that Stitch's Great Escape only had a five-minute wait. Mom's claustrophobia issues kept her away from the attraction and Mike just didn't want to do it, so they went to get a table at Cosmic Ray's while dad and I got on line. I have to admit that I've heard bad review after bad review of Stitch, but I wanted to try it out for myself. I had absolutely loved Alien Encounter when I did it with my friends in 2001 and I knew that a cute, cuddly Stitch attraction couldn't live up to it, but dad and I had been talking about trying it ever since our trip in 2005 and we figured that this was our chance.

The 90's scene... I love that house!

We waited outside with a big group of people for two minutes before we were let into the pre-show. I had forgotten that the pre-show here was in two parts and dad and I both found each part to be boring and too long. When we finally got to the main show we took our seats in the front row and got ready for some action. Only we didn't find any here. What a waste of time! When the lights went out in Alien Encounter it was actually scary... this was just kind of annoying. Stitch himself was cute but everything else was stupid. Believe it or not, I actually thought that the chili dog smelled pretty good! Haha! Now I know you all think I'm insane, but it didn't smell as bad as everyone always says. Anyway, dad and I were both glad that we got to do this once but we wouldn't bother doing it again. Ever.

Mike during dinner at Cosmic Ray's

At 6:30 we met mom and Mike in Cosmic Ray's. They were at the same table we had sat at the last time and this time the entire restaurant was a whole lot less crowded. Mike saved the table while mom, dad and I went up to get food. This time we only had to wait at one line since we all wanted sandwiches. Mom and Mike shared the vegetable wrap and the turkey wrap, while dad and I both got the pulled pork sandwiches. The sandwiches and wraps here are so good! Everyone loved their food. I've had pulled pork at a whole lot of fancy-schmancy restaurants, and who would have thought that the best pulled pork would come from a counter service restaurant at a theme park?! I've become a vegetarian since the trip so no more pulled pork for me, but if you're into pulled pork - definitely try it here!

it's a small world

After eating we headed into Fantasyland since there was still a lot we hadn't done there. I really wanted to see Mickey's Philharmagic again since that's one of my favorite things at the Magic Kingdom. It feels the most "Disney" since it incorporates so many of my favorite Disney movies, and it was those movies that got me into Disney in the first place. Mom, dad and Mike didn't want to see the show again, and they were completely set against seeing Wishes that night but I had really, really wanted to see the fireworks. So I made them a deal - we'll skip the fireworks if we can see Mickey's PhilharMagic. There was no way we were staying for Wishes anyway, so I figured I might as well try to get something out of the deal! When we made our way over to Fantasyland, though, the line for Mickey's PhilharMagic was a half-hour long so we continued on with plans of coming back later.

Mom, dad and I on it's a small world

I wanted to go on Peter Pan's Flight since that's another one of my favorites but the line was over an hour long, just as it had been every time we past it on our two days at the Magic Kingdom. Why is the line always so damn long?! I don't get it. So we continued on to It's a Small World, a ride that we hadn't planned on going on. It had a half-hour wait but the line seemed a lot shorter so we got on. I really didn't want to wait because I figured if we were going to wait a half-hour for something it should be Mickey's PhilharMagic! We decided to wait, though, and we were in the front row of our boat in fifteen-minutes. Right as we were pulling out of the loading station we looked up and saw that a family was waving to everyone from the tower. That must be a fun little perk to win!

it's a small world

The ride was cute and a lot longer than I had remembered. For some reason I also liked it a lot better this time that I had in 2005. In 2005 I had hated it and it seemed never-ending and it just wasn't fun. This time I really liked it! I spent the time taking in all the different scenes and taking a few pictures. We wound up getting stuck in the last room but it was only for a few minutes. And best of all, the song didn't get stuck in my head! For some reason it never gets stuck in my head as much as other people complain about, so that's always a plus! After It's a Small World we backtracked to Mickey's PhilharMagic and there was only a ten-minute wait. Score! No one was too keen on seeing the show again regardless of the wait time, but I dragged them all onto the line. We walked through the line all the way up to the doors that lead to the pre-show room, and were let in within two minutes.

Mickey's PhilharMagic

When we were let into the pre-show room we were one of the first few in and had to go all the way to the left-hand side of the room. We were fine with that until the cast members kept pushing and pushing and pushing us. Holy crap, we were so annoyed. I know that a lot of people had to fit in the pre-show room, but there was no need to be pushed all the way down to the wall. We didn't need to literally be on top of other people, thanks. And it made no sense to tell some people to stand behind the door so that when it opened they'd be behind the open door and have to make their way past people to get into the theater. They definitely need to work out a better system; it was all very chaotic, crazy and annoying. UGH. We were finally let into the theater five minutes later, and I tried not the let the whole pre-show experience ruin the movie. And it didn't. I didn't cry this time but I did smile throughout the entire thing. This show's the best! The Aladdin part's still definitely my favorite. We were out of there by 8:00 and we headed back into Tomorrowland. Dad and Mike took a seat on the little ledge near Cosmic Ray's while mom and I ran into a nearby bathroom.

Mom and I in front of Space Mountain

Then it was time for Space Mountain! I love this ride like I can't even tell you. Our fastpasses were good so we showed them to the cast member at the front entrance and he let us right in, and we made our way through the entire empty fastpass line. If you're going to fastpass a ride, Space Mountain's the one to fastpass. The regular line is always so long and the fastpass line is always empty. We've yet to see the fastpass line backed up. That being said, the Space Mountain line is definitely one of the most fun ones to wait on. Not only is it indoors and air conditioned, but it's really dark and futuristic. I love all the holograms of the different planets!

The begining of Space Mountain's so much fun!

When we got to the loading area we had a five-minute wait when the fastpass line met with the regular line. We went to the left side since I always remember the tip that most people go to the right so the left-hand line is usually shorter, and we were on the ride in no time. We'd watched at least five or six cars leave before ours with only three or four people, so we were confused when the cast member sat us with mom, Mike and I in the front of our car and dad in the back with two strangers. We told him that mom and dad wanted to sit together and he rolled his eyes and told us to just sit down. What?! If I hadn't just seen car after car leave with two people in the front and two in the back then I wouldn't have said anything, but was this guy serious? So before the other two people could get in the car with us mom got out and went and sat with dad. If the cast member wanted to seat two single-riders with us than that would have been fine, but we wanted to at least ride together!

The end of Space Mountain

I love Space Mountain! I always go through the whole ride with my head ducked down since it always feels like I'm gonna hit it on a low part of the track or something, haha! I was in the front seat so I could kind of see the tracks in front of me but it didn't matter. It was fun anyway. I love hearing everyone in the other cars screaming but not knowing where they are, and I LOVE the stars streaking across the "sky" as you fly by. That's pure fun! I also love the unloading area of Space Mountain. I've been on the ride twice before but I really didn't remember much of it. I loved when they showed us on the little screens as we went by on the big people mover. That's a really long post-show and I loved every minute of it. After making our way through the entire space station, we made our way back out into Tomorrowland.

Mom and dad waiting for the parade

It was 8:30 by the time we got out of Space Mountain and it was time to get a spot for SpectroMagic. Everyone else could have done without the parade, but there was no way I was missing it. I love that parade! We have a lot of it on tape from our first trip in 1992 that I grew up watching over and over, and I bought the soundtrack in 2005 and I listen to it all the time. "On this magic night, a million stars will play beside us. Cast a spell of light - glimmering, shimmering, carouseling round the world tonight. A symphony in spectromagic; pure enchantment lights our way...!" I love it!

SpectroMagic

I wanted to watch the parade from Fantasyland since that's where we watched it from in 2005 and we'd had a great view, but mom and dad wanted to get out of there ASAP after the parade to try to beat some of the crowds on the monorail so we headed over to Main Street. All the spots on the curb were taken but I didn't mind. As nice as it is to have a seat during the wait for the parade, I don't like watching parades from the curb since they make you sit the whole time. I love to take pictures of everything and they come out so much better when you're standing than when you're sitting, so it all worked out. We got a spot right behind a few people sitting on the curb, in front of the Main Street Bakery.

SpectroMagic

Mike and I saved our spots while mom and dad went into the bakery to get an ice cream sandwich. Before we left I had looked online at all the good snacks to get at Disney, and the ice cream sandwiches at the Main Street Bakery really stood out. I love ice cream sandwiches and these are fresh. They bake two huge cookies of your choice and then put a few scoops of your choice of ice cream in the middle. Since the cookies are hot the ice cream starts to melt and what could be better than that?! Mom and dad came out a few minutes later and said that the cookies were huge and looked delicious but that it was be a pain to eat it standing up so we decided against it. I knew that mom really wanted one and I felt bad. I told her that she, dad and Mike should get one and eat it at a table inside while I watched the parade but they said no. We'll definitely have to get one next time.

SpectroMagic

We all waited with a nice older couple from Texas. They were both American Indians and were so interesting to talk to! I also loved their accents. We talked about our hometowns and Disney, and it made the twenty-minute wait we had until show time go by a lot faster. About ten-minutes before the show our little area was pretty crowded, and an older woman and her granddaughter just pushed their way in and stood directly in front of the Texas couple. Not cool. I hate when people think they own the sidewalk and just push in front of everyone ten-minutes before a parade or show is about to start. So I moved all the way over and just stood in front of them to make room for the people from Texas. I don't let people get away with being rude! Then the girl started crying hysterically and complaining about not getting to see Belle. She was literally crying. She was around twelve and just seemed too old to be crying over a character. The whole situation was just sad and weird... and a HUGE pain! A guy on the curb got up and let the girl sit as he commented that "Disney's the happiest place on earth at 10:00 AM and the saddest place on earth by 4:00" It was hysterical and so true.

SpectroMagic

We spent the last five minutes of the wait talking to the people around us and taking in the sights on Main Street. The guy who had gotten up for the girl to sit down wound up being from Virginia but he was in the military and his family had been transferred to Hawaii. That must be nice! He said that he used to go to Disney World all the time but it's a lot harder coming from Hawaii. Well living in Hawaii must be a nice compensation! Rude grandma and granddaughter wound up being from Jersey. What a shocker. Haha, kidding! We love Jersey. Anyway, we also watched the photopass photographers take pictures of people along Main Street up until the very minute the parade started. It was fun watching all the different families pose and come up with cute photo ops.

SpectroMagic

The parade finally started at 9:00, just as a family with a young daughter showed up. They were standing behind mom and dad and weren't complaining, but the little girl (who was around ten) clearly couldn't see anything. Mom and dad really didn't care about seeing the parade so they moved back towards the bakery and let the family stand in front of them. They were so grateful and really cute! The parade itself was amazing, as always. I was surprised to see that the clowns at the beginning weren't wearing masks anymore. I was always a fan of the masks but it was cool to see the parade without them. I was psyched that the Chernabog float was finally working! Whenever we've seen the parade it hasn't worked so it was fun to see, and all of the characters were as cute and interactive as always, and the music was great! The one thing I noticed this time was that there was a lot of time and space between all the different sections of the parade. The main characters went by, and then it was a good three of four minutes before the group of Under the Sea floats went by. Then there was another three to four minutes before the princess floats made their way over to us. It made the parade seem a lot longer than normal, but it was still great and of course I took a ton of pictures.

SpectroMagic

After the parade we decided to head out. That wasn't before the cute family that mom and dad let stand in front of them said to Mike and I, "Thank your parents for us, you're very nice people." Aw! We also caught one last whiff of the deliciousness that is the Main Street Bakery, and mom again mentioned how good and fresh the ice cream sandwiches looked. I told her that we should get one and eat it in the bakery but everyone was more concerned with beating the crowds out to the monorail.

SpectroMagic

By now Main Street was packed. Just absolutely mobbed! At least it was cool out because if it was as hot as it had been the week before we would have been miserable having so many people on top of us. We decided to walk through the stores to get away from some of the crowds and it helped; the stores weren't nearly as crowded as Main Street was. When we got to the Main Street Gallery I saw really cute porcelain sculptures of the princes and princesses. They had Ariel and Eric, Cinderella and Prince Charming, Sleeping Beauty and Prince Phillip... and Aladdin and Jasmine! Yes! It was stuff like this and the glass sculpture I bought that I had really been looking for. Cute, gorgeous collectibles that would look good, and not too babyish, in my room. The store wasn't too crowded so I grabbed one and brought it up to the counter and dad offered to buy it for me. It was $20 and one of my favorite souvenirs of the trip. Thanks so much, dad!!!

SpectroMagic

Then we finally made our way out of the Magic Kingdom and up the monorail ramp. A monorail showed up right away and the cast member loading everyone on saw dad's shirt and said, "Go Yankees!" There are lots of Yankee fans down in Florida! It was a sad ride to the TTC. It was our last day at the Magic Kingdom for the trip and I was pretty upset. I hadn't loved the Magic Kingdom back in 2005 but I had fallen in love with it this trip. I hadn't fallen in love with it as much as I had Epcot, but it was still amazing. We all liked it so much more this trip than we had in the past. We loved the rides, attractions, shows, cast members, food, atmosphere... everything.

SpectroMagic

When we got to the TTC I had to run into the bathroom over there quick. I didn't even know that there were bathrooms there but thank God there were! We then got on a waiting tram and were at the car by 9:45. I hadn't noticed that mom, dad and Mike had gotten off the tram on one side and I got off on the other side and everyone screamed at me to hurry up and get to the other side. So I hopped back on the tram and ran across our row to the other side. Because if the tram had pulled away without my having done so, it would have been really hard for me to cross the street to the other side. (Sarcasm). Yes, they all overreacted pretty badly and we all had a good laugh over it afterward.

On our way back to the house we were able to see the castle and Wishes from 192, which was really cool. I would have liked to stay to see them from in the park but it wasn't a big deal. We were back at the house by 10:15 where we hung out and watched TV. I was so upset that I had forgotten to set the DVD recorder to tape High School Musical 2! Yes, I'll admit that I had loved the first one. I called my little cousin Alison to see if she and her cousins had liked it. She and her cousins from the other side of the family, Christine and Melissa, had a big High School Musical party that night at my Aunt Stacy and Uncle Alan's house and they all loved it. I made a note to tape it at home when it was repeated.

Afterward I went online for a little while and I had gotten a reply from Sue. This is the exact reply (I just put stars where our last name was)...

"Please refrain from sending any correspondence to me, by email or any other means, as there is not a word of truth in this email, just as there was no truth in your accusations whilst you were in our home, we obtained an independent report on the A C, which states it was working fine, i will also remind YOU, that defamation of character is a CRIME in any country, and will not be tolerated by me, or Loyalty, the name ******** is one i would prefer to forget, you and your family's treatment of both me and Loyalty was appalling, we are very proud of our home and ALL our guests are satisfied, and we have wonderful guest comments, so what does that tell YOU?????"

This e-mail single-handedly proved just how unprofessional Sue and everyone at Loyalty Homes were. Instead of apologizing for the state of her home, or at least just apologizing for the inconvenience we had to deal with while across the country from our own home, we got this. We had told her time and time again that yes, the air-conditioner was working properly but it was only working to the BEST OF ITS ABILITY. It was working but it was still too small and too old to cool off the home, which she seemed incapable of actually comprehending. Not only is the e-mail insulting and senseless, but it's barely in English. When you're supposed to be a professional company, wouldn't you at least speak proper English and use some sort of punctuations when corresponding with clients?! Her e-mail fully mimicked her business sense - there was a complete lack of professionalism and quality in both. Go figure.

We laughed off the e-mail and vowed to include it in all of the reviews I was going to write once we got home, just to prove how rude and unprofessional they were. Take THAT, Loyalty Homes! We were all pretty tired by now so mom and dad went to bed while I changed into my pajamas and Mike took a shower and then played a game in his room. I fell asleep at 12:00 but was up on and off all night. I was just having a really bad night. At 2:00 I couldn't fall back asleep so I watched a Room Raiders marathon on MTV until 4:00. I finally fell back asleep soon after, just to be woken up again by helicopters outside my window. I looked out and there were two helicopters with search lights shining down a few miles behind the house, and I watched them until around 6:00, when I was finally able to fall asleep for the night.