bert425

I want that giant wagon that's also a slide. dammit, I'll FIND a place to put it

I would say no way April. Probably looking at mid-late May

Exactly 1 month since I started back on plan (2/18), and as of this morning, 3/18, I'm down ~16 1/2 lbs. 2/18: 218 lbs 2/28: 209.4 lbs 3/11: 205.2 lbs 3/18: 201.6 lbs so yay me.

day 3 part II we were in the Arabian Coast area, so no way was I leaving without getting my Carousel fix for the day. Bottom level this spin, and some interesting architecture down here I hadn't noticed yesterday. this time William rode Genie. (with Chandu puppet of course) I rode a Camel. ooo.. a purple Genie? (and a Griffon?) cute little bench, with some wonderful artwork on the sides. I'd TOTALLY put this in my house. I really wanted to try the Garlic Shrimp Popcorn, but William really wanted to do the Leonardo Challenge (which I didn't really care about), so I headed to the American Waterfront for my Popcorn and he split off to go do that. it was yummy. and of course, I can't leave this area without a ride on ToT. Standby took me about 20 minutes, not bad, considering how crowded it was! so incredibly detailed. headed towards the fortress to meet up with William. ooo. .got a water taxi, and an Italian Gondola in one pic. William was in the middle of the challenge still, but I wandered into some of the (now open) rooms that are part of it. very cool, and I had a fantastic time, even tho I didn't have the paperwork or map to figure out the challenge. Still worth it just to wander in the Fortress. what the room looks like thru the viewer lens at the front of the room. my favorite room here. . you spun levers that moved the planets. it was like being in Augura's home from "the Dark Crystal" walking back to the American Waterfront to see how long the line was for ToT, since my prior ride had been fairly short. the line was really long now. .but not a wasted trip, as Scrooge McDuck was back out - with a short line this time. so . . . yes, please. we watched part of the Street entertainment show -where they pulled folks from the crowd to sing along with them. and then I did another thing I've never done at a Disney Park - took a ride on one of the "main street" vehicles (tho they aren't called that here, since no Main Street). But we noticed the waiting stand, and no one in line, so we quickly got into a car, and got a ride around the American Waterfront area. our driver got to hold Chandu. ready to be enthralled by being driven around it actually was quite fun, even with the two Cast members who walked along in front of the car to make sure the crowd moved out of the way. . . we had to stop to allow cast members for "Festival of the Mystique" to get in place for the Afternoon show. so got to admire the costuming from our spot in the car. headed back to the stand, against foot traffic who are all heading towards the Harbor for the show that's about to start. darn. . too bad we didn't get to ride in the paddy wagon. we were gonna head towards Soaring, as our Fast Passes were coming up fairly shortly, and we had to deal with the crowd around the lagoon. . but wait.. . . the Aristocats were out! ALL THREE OF THEM!! here's Berloiz ! Toulouse ! yes, I'm a nerd. and they all liked Chandu. Marie! we made it over to Soaring just before the "Festival of Mystique" ended, and still had ~10 minutes until our Soaring Fast Passes, so we sat in a "side street" to wait for the timing. turned out this is where the performers head to in order to go backstage. .so we picked the perfect spot to get some really nice views of the costuming/cast members. William had the Chandu puppet on his hand and was sitting to my right, waving to the performers as they passed. Many of them waved back. .resulting in me getting a whole lot of pictures of raised hands right in front of faces. . .grrrrrr Oh well, the costumes are gorgeous, so sharing those pics anyways. and then it was time for our Soaring Fast Pass (thank goodness. . the standby line had a 2+ hour wait posted!). we waited about 5 minutes, before going into the 1st preshow room. i put away my camera after they asked for no pictures please. the projection mapping in the 2nd preshow, was super impressive. the ride itself? if you've ridden it at EPCOT? you've ridden it here - yes, I know there are some different scenes, but I didn't notice them much (granted I rode the EPCOT version over 10 years ago). but the queue was worth it due to the wonderful immersive theming. soon, it was time to head to Ikspiari, for our 3pm TPR Farewell dinner - at Toraji (Conveyor Belt meat!). on the way out of TDS tho, we passed Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket out and about. . so snapped a pic as we walked by. there was also this Street Entertainment band coming out as we passed by. one last look back at Mount Prometheus - FIRE - before heading thru the hotel and out to the Monorail station to get to Ikspiari. LOL. . for some reason, this is the ONLY pic I took at Ikspiari for the TPR dinner. Guess I was too enthralled by the plates of meat that were coming out on the Conveyor Belt to our tables (and you then cooked at the flame in the center of the table). the meal was great, and the company was fantastic. this pic is of the outside of a store (restaurant?) that I passed on my way back to Toraji from the restrooms in Ikspiari. I took it because I was confused why some of the heads have nosebleeds. I still don't understand. . . LOL Ikspiari is only walking distance to Tokyo Disneyland, so no need to take the monorail. after our meal, and saying our "farewells for now" some of us headed via this walkway to Tokyo Disneyland to close out the evening. I believe it was still only ~5pm, so we had a good 5 hours in the park. tho as you can see, it had gotten very overcast, and started to drizzle off and on. down the escalator, and into paradise. we headed right upon entering and headed towards Tomorrowland. . . catching a ride on Star Tours as we passed. won't name names, but someone got excited seeing "Stitch Encounter" as an attraction, and talked us into it - thinking it was similar to the dear, departed, Alien Encounter turns out, it's not. it's basically Turtle Talk - but with Stitch. And it was all in Japanese. We realized this once the doors closed behind us, so we basically sat there, in the way back row, praying that the Cast Member wouldn't come talk to us - since we wouldn't understand a word they (or Stitch) would be saying. the decor is really nice tho we made it thru without being called upon. .and as penance, I dragged them along with me to do one of the Classic Disney rides I hadn't made it on the other day: Jungle Cruise. heh, our boat was "Nile Nellie" our captain was brave, and funny, and even speaking Japanese, it was a fun trip. Not very well lit at night, so I was hoping to take another ride in the daytime tomorrow tho. we came out just as the evening Dream Lights (the Rain version, without the dancers between floats) was starting. . . they were rushing it too, as it was sprinkling again. but our placement at the exit of Jungle Cruise was almost perfect in Frontierland to be at a good viewing point. so we stayed to watch most of it. Cheshire Cat (again) it was starting to rain a little harder now. . and Dumbo line cleared out because of that - oh, there was still a line, but I hadn't ridden it yet, and the line was still long. But the shortest I'd seen yet. so got in line. and got to watch fireworks from the Dumbo queue. I believe I also grabbed rides on Pinocchio and Peter Pan while here, but we bypassed Haunted Mansion and headed back to FrontierLand for Big Thunder Mountain (which had gone down earlier, and we hadn't been able to use our Fast Passes). It was running again, so we headed that way to use them to bypass the long line. some great Halloween stuff out here, which I hadn't noticed the other day. and it looks fantastic at night. the flash lets you see me. . but washes out the spooky color. better. and with that? I think we headed back to hop in line just before close for Pooh's Hunny Hunt, and then headed back to the hotel to crash. tomorrow was final day for many of us. . and it had been a long, and wonderful day today. . .but I needed to sleep!

Day 3 part 1 this was an exiting, and somewhat sad day, as it was the last day of the Official TPR tour (tho many of us were staying a day extra to have another day at TDL/TDS). So we had the "farewell" lunch/dinner planned for this afternoon. After getting up fairly early (tho not as early as yesterday), I met up with William/Jon/Luke, and I think Trent too) and we headed down to breakfast before heading out to the parks. we headed to TDS to start the day, and were a bit further back at the gates than we had been the day before. we headed here, with intention of going directly to Soaring to grab Fast Passes, and we'd stay in TDS until headed out to Ikspiari for TPR meal later in the afternoon, then heading to TDL to close out the day after eating. Success in grabbing Soaring: Fantastic Flight fast passes (I believe they were for around 1:30 pm . so had a few hours). on this side of the harbor, we just continued around into the Fortress to look around. Nobody really in this area of the park yet (as they had either gone to Soaring to line up, or headed the other direction to hit Toystory/Tower of Terror). . .so it was perfect for some pics. this seems to be a working drawbridge in the fortress. William wanted to do the Leonardo Challenge. . but it wasn't open until Noon. . so we made a note, and planned to come back around then. the ship docked behind the Fortress in the Harbor. again, didn't make it down to wander around on it. next trip! lovely framing of ToT between the masts tho. the water taxis don't have many customers this early, but you can see across the harbor the crowds streaming towards the American Waterfront / Toyville areas we cut thru Mysterious Island - I think stopping to ride 20,000 again (I love that ride), and headed towards Port Discovery for a spin on Aquatopia. (this is Nemo's show building tho, I think) we continued around the walkway back towards the Cape Cod area and decided to take a trip around the park on the Water Taxis (called the "Transit Steamer Line") there was a pretty decent line next door - but turned out they were lined up for a Duffy Meet and Greet - which was hidden behind walls to avoid snapshots from those who didn't wait in line. here comes our boat. the "unsinkable" Molly Brown Lovely views of the area from the loading dock over here. Luke, Jon, me, William, and that Chandu puppet he had bought the prior day. (he carried that thing with him all day, making it interact with delighted cast members, and characters) oh wow. . didn't realize that the steamer boat actually went into the waters that were behind many of the things I had seen from the paths the prior day. Here's the Colombia (restaurant, lounge, turtle talk) Cape Cod & Mt. Prometheus Aquatopia the "crack" in the dam we had seen from the dock yesterday. . .theming! the trolley, and yes, that's the line for Nemo ! what's that thru the trees there? Indiana Jones. . LOL. . a crashed C-3PO plane, on the shores near Indy. Arabian Coast really love the architecture here. coming up on the Mermaid Lagoon area. . . again, tons of detail that you don't really notice, unless you on the water level in a boat! and I hadn't realized at all, that the Water Taxis went thru the middle of Mysterious Island! and back out into the main Harbor, headed back to our station. Unlike the train, these boats do a full circle, and don't stop at any of the other dock ports (at least ours didn't). Something to keep an eye out if I ever make it back, to take a ride from another dock, as we seemed to pass a couple of others) once back, we walked over to the Lost River Delta area, for Single Rider Line on Indy. A pic I took while waiting to be paired up in a vehicle (which as yesterday, was relatively quickly. . maybe 3 minutes for all of us to get into almost back to back vehicles. . single rider is way to go!). and stopping to take some pics next door at Raging Spirits. Didn't want to ride it, but *did* want to take pics of it. the Festival of Mystique was starting fairly soon. . and we wanted to see the whole show from the front area of the park, so we headed back towards the front, passing thru the Arabian Coast. hey, Jafar is out! really well done character. (he had a long line, so didn't stop, but it was really cool to see a character out I'd never seen in my visits to a Disney Park). Mermaid Lagoon from across the water at the Arabian Coast. that's "Scuttle's Scooters" in the front there. we cut thru Mysterious Island, and tho we were going to be having Meat-a-pa-looza later with TPR, we were hungry - and intrigued - by the Halloween offering at the Volcania restaurant. namely, this Mickey Mummy bun. it was really good - tho not my favorite bun I'd have at the parks. . but it was filled with, I think, ground pork with a bit of spice. LOTS of dancers, in really elaborate costumes, came out on all sides of the harbor. The main stage is in the very front, but the storyline has something to do about 3 sisters (witches?) who decide to be evil to get ahead. . or something. so tho the main action is at the front stage, where they all congregate? there is one sister on either side of the harbor interacting with the cast of performers too. We made it around to the side of the Harbor, and decided this was a great spot to watch "Festival of Mystique" - a show that involved lots of dancers, and the floats in the harbor of course. We ended up next to a roped off section that was the "standing area" for children - which is why the adults behind them sat for the show. Really neat that Tokyo Disney has this. . very impressed. here come the floats! in this pic, notice the crowd is mimicking the movements of the performers. we saw that a lot thruout this show. it was a lot of fun, and a really great show. and look! FIRE!!! we were near the steps up to Soaring, so we easily beat the crowd as the show ended, and we headed towards the Fortress to see if Leonardo Challenge had opened yet. as we headed that way, we passed over the area where the floats disappear to at the end of the show - after making a round of the harbor. so got a nice view of the main float with the Sisters on it as they closed it out. I see you looking at me Sister! Too early still for Leonardo Challenge (they were running a little late). . but William and I took the time to climb around the fortress and explore the areas that were open. can get some nice shots in this area. yep. . Tower of Terror one of the other "dock" stations for the water taxis I mentioned a bit ago. (from the Fortress) up here, you can really see the scaffolding they have in place for the work being done on Mount Prometheus. One of Leonardo's inventions on the roof since we still had some time before the Soaring Fast Passes, and Leonardo Challenge wasn't open yet, we headed to the Lost River Delta area, to try to get into the "Song of Mirage" show - that advertised impressive Projection Mapping. unfortunately, it was way "sold out". . standby was already lining up for the NEXT show (2 hours from now), and since we hadn't lucked out with lottery tickets? it wasn't worth it to lose 2 hours at TDS in line for a show. So instead we headed further in this direction for another ride on Sindbad! there's Sindbad and Chandu. really impressive animatronics, that look deceivingly simple, but they move so amazingly lifelike, even if they appear a bit cartoony. LOVED this ride.

Austin just joined several other cities, as our Mayor just announced (effective immediately) the closure of all bars/clubs, and Restaurant dining rooms. thru May 1st. so yeah, think all the parks hoping to open in April are gonna be postponing further.

sooo?. . that candy store is staying open? edit: LOL.. sorry, was thinking this was the NJ one.

^ expect Kemah & Galveston Pleasure pier to not be open much longer. . . Gov. Abbot declared a "state of disaster" in Texas on Friday. I fully expect that at some point tomorrow (Monday), Guidance will come out, and that which would likely force those closures.

fantastic trip report. . . I dunno about that 5:30 am wake up time, but I hope by the time I eventually make it to either Disney Park, they will simply have the standby lines open, and I won't have to mess with boarding groups. meantime, I would head to Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railways There's SO much new at Orlando Disney Parks. . I haven't been since before 7 Dwarves opened. . so when I eventually make it back (hopefully in 2021), gonna need at least a full week.

yay, and all hail, "Bench: the Ride" I always love seeing pics of that. as usual, fantastic pics, and it looks like y'all had absolutely perfect weather on this day. thanks for sharing.

Please shut up unless you can provide sources for these false claims. Spreading misinformation is one of the worst things you can do and judging by your post history you're not exactly qualified to be making such claims.

^^ Yeah, that's a Hurricane evac (the give away is that both sides of freeway are being used for one direction). it doesn't look like Texas tho, so I'd guess Louisiana? or maybe Florida?

glad you caught it on such a slow day, thanks for sharing. nice pics too. . .I had to giggle a little bit, as you're like me in that you don't always like to wait for a coaster train to be in the pics

Both Six Flags Texas parks just shut down effective immediately, thru the end of March. https://www.sixflags.com/fiestatexas/plan-your-visit/coronavirus-update feel really bad for TeacherKim, who was coming to Texas tomorrow for the parks (and to meet up with me at the parks), but understood.

if you trust someone on the TPR Facebook group, who claims to be staff at Seaworld Orlando park. . . sounds as if Mgmt is discussing today, and will have an announcement (one way or the other) by end of day if they will be shutting down some of the chain's parks. and why wouldn't I trust someone on FB? but yeah, I'm giving benefit of the doubt, and will see what news comes out today.

agreed

Austin's is still going on as scheduled (those were the pearl clutchers. . they weren't worried about the Houston Rodeo, as that started last week. . but yes, they cancelled it effective 4pm today, before most of the "big" musical headliners were set to perform in the upcoming week). I expect the Austin Rodeo *will* be cancelled, since Houston cancelled, but as of right now? it's still on starting Saturday. https://rodeoaustin.com/ took less than 1 day.. but Austin Rodeo just got cancelled https://rodeoaustin.com/covid19/

^ "a bunch of 80 year olds will die" seriously? how about showing some goddamn empathy, these are PEOPLE you're talking about.

More specifically, our President (whom MANY of us did not vote for), referred to the Coronavirus in his speech as the "Foreign Virus" shameful, and xenophobic.

Austin's is still going on as scheduled (those were the pearl clutchers. . they weren't worried about the Houston Rodeo, as that started last week. . but yes, they cancelled it effective 4pm today, before most of the "big" musical headliners were set to perform in the upcoming week). I expect the Austin Rodeo *will* be cancelled, since Houston cancelled, but as of right now? it's still on starting Saturday. https://rodeoaustin.com/

Keeping myself accountable: Despite a couple of over-eating slips, I've managed to stay on my diet/exercise program since 2/18, and as of this morning, 3/11 (so just over 3 weeks), I'm down ~13lbs. 2/18: 218 lbs 2/28: 209.4 lbs 3/11: 205.2 lbs so yay me.

SFFT on Sunday

SFFT on Sunday

I just got offered a trip to Orlando with a friend because flights are so cheap. . LOL

you get early entry with Hotel Breakers. and yes, worth every penny to be steps away from your hotel room. (I'd recommend Melt! for lunch, pop back to the room to put leftovers in the fridge (you WILL have leftovers), then back to the park)