April 1999-Old Key West
Day 2- Sunday
We awoke Sunday morning casually without setting the alarm clock. I guess we needed some sleep as we didn’t awaken until 9:30am. Having been to all of the parks numerous times before, we tend to take our time and visit only certain attractions. This vacation would be no different. After a leisurely breakfast on the balcony, we started out for MGM. We had wanted to walk the BoardWalk first so parked there. After a short walk we jumped onto the Friendship boat to MGM. We had a real interesting ride. After passing under the bridge to Swan and Dolphin we watched as a pontoon boat with a large family come drifting towards us. Our "captain" slowed our boat and kept watching. The people in the other boat just sat there and kept coming closer. Finally when we were about 2 feet away they started waving theirs arms to signal that their engine had died. Not enough time to react and with a big jolt, we bumped! Not often seen at Disney. Actually sort of humorous as there was not any damage. The "captain" even joked about it.
At MGM we visited only those things we really wanted to see. After looking at the "Guest Information Board at Hollywood Junction" I noticed that Tower of Terror had only a 5-minute wait. So there we went. With a history of lower back injuries, Karen is hesitant to ride the ‘Tower’. That is what she keeps telling me but I think she is just plain chicken. I enjoy it and never miss a chance to ride! I don’t mind going alone as I can usual skip to the front of the line when they need only one person. This trip was no different. They called for a party of two and a party of one. A couple went ahead of me and then they directed me to the last spot on row number 5. I looked up to the display on how they would be boarding me and where we would all be sitting. WOW! I would be sitting in the DIRECT center of the back row. Not only would I have center seat, it turns out that there is only a seat belt holding me in place that doesn’t seem to lock completely when the elevator drops. This trip, it seemed that we had dropped/risen a total of 5 times. Each time, the seat belt allowed me to rise from the seat and feet from the floor! That had to be my best ride ever! Afterwards we had our PB&J sandwiches after buying drinks at Catalina Eddie’s just opposite the entrance to Beauty and the Beast. What a savings as it only cost about $5 for the sodas as opposed to the $16 it would have to buy a full lunch. Not only that, it was much more healthy that chomping down burgers and fries.
After lunch we walked back up Sunset Blvd towards Grumman’s Chinese theater. We hadn’t seen the "Great Movie Ride" in some time so decided to visit. I am a video-fanatic and drag the camcorder on all of our vacations. I hadn’t captured GMR yet so this was my opportunity. Afterwards, we headed down Commissary Lane towards New York Street and ventured to "Pizza Planet". Karen played the "grab-it" game and won a stuffed tiger. It never fails. She always wins. On our last trip, she won a stuffed pig at Space Mountain. We bought some items at the Xmas store around the corner and sent our new "pet" back to the room. We walked the rest of the way around New York Street, past the Backlot Theater and then over to the "BackStage Pass" with 101 Dalmatians. Besides the usual props and ‘blue-screen’ presentation, they showed the sets on "Sound Stages 1,2 and 3" for "Petsburgh, USA" and the Mortal Kombat series. At the end, several of the props and backdrops for Dalmatians were on display.
Just about the only thing left for MGM that we wanted to see was the "Making of Armageddon as well as Fantasmic. After leaving Backstage Pass we walked towards Armageddon. The line was quite long so we skipped it. At this point in time we had enough of MGM so made our way back to Old Key West. We had never been over to the Turtle Shack pool and found it to be quite nice. Not only was the pool only moderately crowded, there was the snack bar with all kinds of good things to eat. The highlight of the pool trip was watching three crows make lunch for themselves from food at the next table. The family had purchased their dinner before entering the pool (snack bar was closing shortly). While swimming three crows came over and started to help themselves to the hot dogs. I tried to "shush" them numerous times and finally gave up. The family came over a short time later and the dad asked the younger son "Did you take a bite from this hot dog"? The kid denied having done it. Dad then turned to the older son and asked the same thing. Another "no"!. Dad then turned back to the younger son and asked again, this time getting no for the third time. Judging by the look on dad’s face, he didn’t believe young son and still thought he had taken a bite. We had to look away so as not to burst out laughing.
After our leisurely swim we sauntered back to the room and fixed a quick dinner of spaghetti and sauce. While preparing dinner a knock came at the door and a Champagne basket was delivered. When we had checked in, we had mentioned to the Cast Member that we would be staying in the same Vacation Home that we had stayed in during our Honeymoon. Well, she had a bottle of champagne with strawberries sent to our room with a 25th Anniversary (which was taking place during the honeymoon) card. Inside she had written: "Happy ‘Honeymoon’, Welcome Home". When it first arrived, we started to scratch our heads as to who would have sent this. Friends had known where we would be but we couldn’t figure who would have sent it. Finally ,after looking at the 25th Anniversary card and the word Honeymoon in quotes, we had figured it had been the Cast Member. How awesome it was of her to send this. She really showed true DVC spirit. That is what makes DVC so special. Later in the trip we called the Front Desk to get both the Front Desk as well as the Resort Managers’ names. We will be writing a letter to recognize that Cast Member. We had ‘rented’ "City of Angels" from Hank’s and called it an early night afterwards.