Anyway, the info I had was that the buses would be leaving CSR at 6:30pm. I figured it would be a good idea to leave the room around 5:45pm so we had time to walk to El Centro and find out where we would be catching these buses.
We left a little later than I wanted and got to El Centro around 6pm.
I need to back up a little and talk about our shirts. I mentioned in an earlier post that we make tie-dye Mickey t-shirts for our trips. Well, I also make what I call "Paint Mickey" shirts. I have a foam cutout of a Mickey head and I get paint in a spray bottle from Michael's craft store. I spray the paint colors randomly over the template and tada! Paint Mickey.
Here's Bryan and the kids in their Paint Mickey shirts:
and the boys being goofy:
We got into El Centro and followed the sea of people that were going to this event. I heard from a couple of different sources that there were 5000-6000 people traveling with this incentive group. Now, I wonder if it was 5000-6000 people or 5000-6000 consultants plus their traveling parties. I never did find out.
We wandered down the same hallway that we took to go to our special Extra Magic Hours. And then we came to a stop. I guess everyone else thought to get there a little early, too.
Here's the sea of people in front of us:
And here's the sea of people behind us:
We slowly got to the place where they were handing out these cool light-up cakes with the company logo on it. It was on a string and meant to wear around your neck. Stefan decided he wanted to be a walking light bulb and put Bryan's and Cate's on with his at the same time.
We slowly moved outside to what seemed like a huge number of buses to take us all to MGM. Once we got on the bus, I'm like, "Come on! Let's go." As we waiting, I looked out the window and saw that my friend Laurie was on the bus right next to ours.
Finally, I could see some movement at the front of the line. The buses were moving. Wait a minute! Laurie's bus is moving! Mine isn't moving! Ack! Waiting on a bus is like waiting in line and Mary does not wait in lines!
Our bus finally made it out of CSR and was on it way the short distance to MGM. We crossed over the bridge and...wait a minute...we're going in the back way! The entrance that says, "Cast Members Only"...seriously, I just about died with excitement. Getting to see backstage at Disney is not something you get to do everyday.
Of course, I am on the wrong side of the bus to get the best pics, but here are some I snapped as we are driving backstage.
We're behind Tower of Terror. I don't even like that ride. But we're behind Tower of Terror! It's SO cool!
We finally come to a stop and as I look out my window, I can see where our entrance to the park will be. See all the Disney Security people?
Here we go!
It turns out we are entering right by Rockin' Rollercoaster! It was a really fun way to enter the park. Disney was handing out beverages and we had a choice of bottled water or cans of pop. We had a special map just for our event showing what was available to us. And since it had rained earlier in the day, Disney was also handing out ponchos for anyone who wanted them, just in case.
These cool banners were all over the parks. It's kind of hard to see in this picture, but the girl in the lime green shirt was part of a group of cast members dressed up as Aerosmith groupies. They were very funny.
And even though it seemed crowded as you walked into the park, you can see how quickly people dispersed to where it felt like there was practically nobody there.
Here's a shot looking down Hollywood Blvd. toward Mickey's Hat.
The cool part about this night is that while there were two specific sites for a dinner buffet, there were these dessert tables all over MGM with birthday cupcakes. I think I may have mentioned that this year is the 30th anniversary of this company and June 15th happens to be the founder's birthday, too.
Stefan and Cate had to grab one of those for quality control purposes as we were walking. Two thumbs up.
We're still meandering down Hollywood Blvd.
If you've ever been to MGM, you know that they have some serious "Streetmosphere" going on. Cast Members in character that probably came from the kitschy 50s and 60s. Well, we ran into a couple of ladies with some seriously cutting edge fashion costumes. They had some of the tools from our product line added in for effect. It was hilarious!
Well, we were hot to trot to get back to Toy Story Midway Mania. As we made the turn to go past the Mickey Hat, there was a stage and a funky sort of fairy godmother on it.
It's a little blurry. But I was walking a little fast.
Here she is on the big screen that was also right there.
She was there to welcome us and tell us about different special activities that were coming up.
As we headed to Toy Story, we discovered that there was another back entrance that people were being let off at...right there by Toy Story.
So it got to be a little crazy there. Thankfully, we were there early enough that we probably only waited 15 minutes to get on. We thought about getting on again, but the line was already long and we were hungry.
One of the dinner buffets was supposed to be near Playhouse Disney. We walked in that direction, but once there were told that location was totally full and we should head to Indiana Jones for the other buffet location.
So we headed over to Indy:
How cool is this? We get to eat on the set of the Indiana Jones show!
This was probably my least favorite part of the night. They really needed to have more locations for eating. It was packed. I got into a side buffet line with no people, but it was for salads and then there was some mashed potatoes and steamed tilapia. My kids had gotten into the main line which was huge. I fed them from my plate because I knew they were hungry.
I found out that the reason that line was so big was because it fed into the grill section. Disney was grilling steaks and shrimp skewers.
45 minutes later I got a plate of food. It tasted good, but the wait was just not cool. Then as I'm sitting there eating, they announce that all counter service eateries are open for eating. If only we knew that earlier, we wouldn't have wasted 1/4 of the time on eating.
Anyway, it is what it is.
Cate thought it was so cool to be eating on the Indiana Jones set and needed pictures.
Stefan headed off to Star Wars while I was finishing. After I was done, Cate, Bryan and I headed out to find him.
As we got close to Star Wars, all of a sudden this yellow truck comes out from backstage.
It turns out it's Mulch, Sweat and Shears. Now, here's another first for me! I had never seen these guys in all the times we'd been to WDW. I told Bryan I was following them to see what they were going to do. So he and Cate headed over to Star Wars.
Mulch, Sweat and Shears pulled over near the entrance to Indiana Jones. Turns out, they are a band. Check out the truck.
Bandscaping! I love it!
Anyway, the truck is pulling a trailer that looks like it's supposed to be full of landscaping tools but it's really a portable stage!
Pretty soon, they are playing all kinds of 70s and 80s type songs and those of us who gathered are dancing around and semi-head bangin'. I can't even tell you what all they played right now because I was just totally into it. I remember the last song they played for that set was "Come Sail Away."
Here's a pic:
They were super fun and I'm going to make a greater effort to see them on future visits.
Everyone else caught up with me after that and we decided to head toward the Great Movie Ride. As we walked in that direction, we say the birthday cake all lit up. Sorry it's a little blurry...again, it was me walking to fast while shooting.
The Great Move Ride was yet another first for us. We just hadn't made the time to see it before this. The kids really liked it, except they were a little nervous going through the Alien set.
At that point, Cate and I were ready to head back. The boys decided they wanted to ride Rockin' Rollercoaster.
She and I angled our way through the sidewalks because the parade was going on. She stopped to watch for a second, so I snapped this shot from one of the marquees:
There were lots and lots of these types of things all over the park.
We headed out of the park to the buses for CSR. We waited a little bit for the bus to fill up, but we were shortly on our way. The bus dropped us off at the convention center so we had a short walk to the room.
Cate and I were both a little sweaty so we took showers before climbing into PJs and waiting for the boys. They arrived not long after that. Turned out they got to ride RNR twice in a row because nobody was there.
All in all it was a very enjoyable party!
Next Post: Going Home and Summing Up
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