wildeoscar
03-31-2008, 10:48 PM
To start at the very beginning... I have suffered some personal setbacks over the past couple years... and the sense of community that I get from wondering the DISboards has been a big help. I have always had a great sense of adventure, friends and family always love to hear the tales. And since May 9th 2009 (very close to the date of the cruise) will be the last time I “celebrate” my birthday, I should at least do something fun. Starting 2010 I will no longer “celebrate” birthdays as that many candles is a fire hazard.
When the podcast came out that Pete had hinted at giving away a cruise at a concert, I received a few private messages on the boards saying “you should go, you should find him, he was talking about the Heart concert”. I kinda blew off the idea ‘cause, it was weeks off, didn’t know what would be going on, etc. But as things grew closer, the more and more I figured, this would be fun, a good weekend of adventure, and even coming up empty handed would make a great story to tell at cocktail parties (yeah, like I goto cocktail parties).
So after I talked bunch of smack on the boards... I was rapidly painting myself into a corner. At the beginning of the week I asked a buddy of mine if he wanted to ride with so the drive would be less boring, come Thursday he had to back out, so I was at that place were I figured, eh I’ll take the ribbing for talking smack and not going. Or so I thought. I listened to the email show in bits and spurts that day (Thursday). For some reason, stuff kept coming up and I had to keep pausing the show. Friday morning, I got to the end of the show and of course my name had to come up. So I threw stuff in a bag, grabbed my laptop, put my iPod, chargers, some books on CD, and a bunch of mt. dew in a laundry basket (yeah, high class I know... but at this point is was getting late in the morning, and the finer points of packing when staring down a 16 hour drive go right out the window).
It was 2pm exactly when I got on the highway.
The first 400 miles I kept thinking, this is nuts.
But I talked myself into keeping on, keeping on.
At 2am I was just about to Valdosta... did anyone have any idea this is a spring break vacation destination? I have never noticed MTV at spring break in Valdosta. I pulled off and stopped at the Super 8 as it was closest. When I asked the guy at the counter about rooms, he chuckled, “you know it is spring break, right. if you go about 40 more miles up toward Tifton, you can find a place, everything here is booked I already called around.” I told him I was heading south, he suggested that I look once I get past the border and into Florida
This was not the kinda news you wanna hear at 2am. So I asked what is so big about spring break here? There is some amusement park called Wild Adventures (A very fitting name, ya think?), and it seems it is a big spring break destination. I would have never guessed. So I pressed on to... I have no clue what city, it was south of the I-10 interchange and the motel was 5th off the highway. They had rooms and free Wifi. As far as I was concerned, if the room had a working toilet, this was a palace.
I was planning on sleeping in, as from this point I was only a couple hours out. I figured that since the concert starts at 9:30p Pete would not get to the park till 7 or so at the earliest. While I was planning on sleeping in, no one else was... at about 7am the thunk, thunk, thunk out side, the slamming of car doors, the intermittent screams of, “when we get home I am putting you up for adoption” made it difficult to sleep in.
I’ll skip ahead to getting to Universal... now I had never been to Universal before, I’m a WDW boy though and though... so I had little clue where I was going. I got park, and made it to City Walk, to see a giant crowd. I was wondering, why does everyone look like a lesbian? Then I heard the Ellen theme music. Ah, that’s why they all look like lesbians.
So I wondered around some, it was about 2pm, I waited in line for my after 5 Mardi Gras ticket. I watched Ellen for a while. I walked around the grounds. Nice landscaping. I hung around the entrance to the park, nice people watching. When Ellen was ending, they announced that everyone in the audience was getting tickets to Mardi Gras. Oh good the crowd is getting larger.
At 5pm I entered and started walking about to get a feel for where things are in the park. There are two entrances, and the way they sit, and things are laid out, there is no way to be able to watch both from one spot. So I would hang out at one entrance, then the other, then the bathroom (I was returning the deposit on the Mt. Dew), and the stage, and where the food booths were. Since there was no one central place to observe, I just kept moving, knowing at that point, this would not be easy, and some luck would be involved. This went on for a while. I stopped checkin the boards, in an effort to save my battery. I was slowly getting less eager as the crowd got thicker and thicker.
Heading back from the bathroom toward the side gate, I got a glimpse of Kawrt Cam.. but he was heading away from the stage, and I was actually second guessing if I had seen Bawb because there was a guy in the park, that had a crutch clipped onto the back of his cart, that stuck up like Kawrt Cam that gave my heart a start a few times.
So I headed to the stage area, and started looking more as it was getting dusk, it was getting difficult. After probably a 1/2 hour or more of walking back and forth between the Annual Pass Viewing area and the stage area and around the block, and in the beer lines... I was getting discouraged.
And let me add this... by no means am I stereotyping, but I figured it would be easy to spot two guys in their mid 30’s (ack, cough) that are over 6’3... it wasn’t till I meet up with Bawb, and checked posts much later that I found out Kevin and John were not in the park. I had been searching for two tall guys, which is the strategy that got me in trouble.
So I spotted Bawb across the park from where the stage sits... he was at the turn of the parade, by the ropes all set up to take video. While we were talking, a guy walked up and asked Bawb which way the parade runs. Bawb told him. The guy asked about all the video stuff. Bawb told him, “my boss pays me to video tape stuff in the parks... I work for a website that provides information about the parks.” When Bawb told him this, the look on this guys face was as if you just asked your cat to do calculus. He just looked completely puzzled, didn’t say anything and walked away.
So while talking to Bawb, he knew Pete was in the park (this was the only clue he gave me) he was not sure if Kevin and John where there, he was pretty sure Julie and Corey were there, he knew the parade started at 9:30p. He asked where I was staying, and I told him I came down with pretty much no plan, and would play it by ear. He made two calls and there were rooms available at the Radisson out at Celebration. Later I got lucky just a few miles up the road from Universal doing a walk in and asking for a room.
So after I left Bawb, I changed search strategies, I was checking every beer line for Corey and every bathroom line for Julie. The lines for the ladies rooms were ridiculous. And one of the back podcasts I listened to on the drive down was about the Wishes cruise... so I figured finding Julie in a bathroom line would be a good bet. I got some really nasty looks trying to get a good look at the ladies in the restroom lines. I abandoned that strategy, I don't need an angry, beer drinking BF introducing me to the concrete.
Once the parade started, there was no looking, there was no moving around, it was a crush of people everywhere jumping and screaming for beads. I watched from outside the shop where Twister exits. The parade was followed by everyone in the park. This is not hyperbole. The entire street and every space was people shoulder to shoulder. It was only a couple min. after the parade passed that the concert started, and at this point... I gave up. I went in to “ride” Twister.
As I had never been to Universal before, and never really read up on any of the attractions there at all, I figured Twister would be a sit down 3-d thing. It is not. And this is not a good ride for someone that just drove 16 hours to try to win a prize whom had just given up. Not only do you not get to sit down, but Bill Paxton talks, a lot. After I got out of Twister I went right over to Revenge of the Mummy. That is a pretty cool coaster ride vehicle thing. I’d ride that a few more times, but not at the at point, the park was closed. So I walked around the long way away from the stage... then up the alley that goes past the food booths to work though the crowds to the gate to leave. This is when I think I walked past Corey and Julie at Monster something or other Cafe... but i was following people that were making their way though the crowd pretty well, so i didn’t stop to ask cause it was dark and I was probably wrong.
So I make it up to the front gate, I figured I would check the board one last time if there were clues. So I open the safari page on my phone, and I was on page 6, I hit refresh... and the pages controls showed 22 pages. I was shocked. I was gobsmacked. I did one of those stupid things where someone stops walking in the middle of a crowd. After getting bumped once I moved to the side... and was zooming in to try to read, and get it to refresh to the last page. It refreshed part way, and all I made out was a post from Kevin, and all I made out was Pete valet parked. Then the battery died. I tried it again, I didn’t even get the the white apple for the start up screen.
So I turn around standing there for a min. Kinda walk over to the middle of the crowd walking past out the exit. So I am facing the crowd checking everyone walking by. It takes about a minute for me to process and realize, “goto valet parking”. At this point the concert was over and the whole park is flooding out. I ask someone that works there where valet is, he has no clue but walks me over to a young lady at a desk who explains where valet is, I repeat it at least twice, escalator down in the parking rotunda.
So I move like a crazy fat man possessed (a role I was born to play)... I shuck and dodge though the crowd pretty quick to get over to where the parking structure is and see the signs for valet with the down arrow. I get to the bottom of the stairs, there are still people everywhere, I make several laps around the people in line, and the people sitting all over the place. No t-shirt, no Pete. I figured I was too late. I was standing at the bottom of the escalator, trying to get my phone to turn back on with no luck. I felt half possessed to yell out, “does anyone have a phone with internet, I have a chance to win a cruise if I can find someone, and their location might be on the internet” but I thought better of looking more crazy than I already was for coming all this way. So I was standing there pretty much resigned that it wasn’t gonna happen, about to start climbing stairs... and there he is, Pete and Walter both in DisUnplugged T-Shirts. I am smiling my creepy stalker smile of satisfaction, relief mixed with elation. Pete gets to the bottom of the escalator and sez, “are you Oscar” shakes my hand and gives me a big hug.
Talk about a Disney happy ending, and in Universal Studios of all places.
When the podcast came out that Pete had hinted at giving away a cruise at a concert, I received a few private messages on the boards saying “you should go, you should find him, he was talking about the Heart concert”. I kinda blew off the idea ‘cause, it was weeks off, didn’t know what would be going on, etc. But as things grew closer, the more and more I figured, this would be fun, a good weekend of adventure, and even coming up empty handed would make a great story to tell at cocktail parties (yeah, like I goto cocktail parties).
So after I talked bunch of smack on the boards... I was rapidly painting myself into a corner. At the beginning of the week I asked a buddy of mine if he wanted to ride with so the drive would be less boring, come Thursday he had to back out, so I was at that place were I figured, eh I’ll take the ribbing for talking smack and not going. Or so I thought. I listened to the email show in bits and spurts that day (Thursday). For some reason, stuff kept coming up and I had to keep pausing the show. Friday morning, I got to the end of the show and of course my name had to come up. So I threw stuff in a bag, grabbed my laptop, put my iPod, chargers, some books on CD, and a bunch of mt. dew in a laundry basket (yeah, high class I know... but at this point is was getting late in the morning, and the finer points of packing when staring down a 16 hour drive go right out the window).
It was 2pm exactly when I got on the highway.
The first 400 miles I kept thinking, this is nuts.
But I talked myself into keeping on, keeping on.
At 2am I was just about to Valdosta... did anyone have any idea this is a spring break vacation destination? I have never noticed MTV at spring break in Valdosta. I pulled off and stopped at the Super 8 as it was closest. When I asked the guy at the counter about rooms, he chuckled, “you know it is spring break, right. if you go about 40 more miles up toward Tifton, you can find a place, everything here is booked I already called around.” I told him I was heading south, he suggested that I look once I get past the border and into Florida
This was not the kinda news you wanna hear at 2am. So I asked what is so big about spring break here? There is some amusement park called Wild Adventures (A very fitting name, ya think?), and it seems it is a big spring break destination. I would have never guessed. So I pressed on to... I have no clue what city, it was south of the I-10 interchange and the motel was 5th off the highway. They had rooms and free Wifi. As far as I was concerned, if the room had a working toilet, this was a palace.
I was planning on sleeping in, as from this point I was only a couple hours out. I figured that since the concert starts at 9:30p Pete would not get to the park till 7 or so at the earliest. While I was planning on sleeping in, no one else was... at about 7am the thunk, thunk, thunk out side, the slamming of car doors, the intermittent screams of, “when we get home I am putting you up for adoption” made it difficult to sleep in.
I’ll skip ahead to getting to Universal... now I had never been to Universal before, I’m a WDW boy though and though... so I had little clue where I was going. I got park, and made it to City Walk, to see a giant crowd. I was wondering, why does everyone look like a lesbian? Then I heard the Ellen theme music. Ah, that’s why they all look like lesbians.
So I wondered around some, it was about 2pm, I waited in line for my after 5 Mardi Gras ticket. I watched Ellen for a while. I walked around the grounds. Nice landscaping. I hung around the entrance to the park, nice people watching. When Ellen was ending, they announced that everyone in the audience was getting tickets to Mardi Gras. Oh good the crowd is getting larger.
At 5pm I entered and started walking about to get a feel for where things are in the park. There are two entrances, and the way they sit, and things are laid out, there is no way to be able to watch both from one spot. So I would hang out at one entrance, then the other, then the bathroom (I was returning the deposit on the Mt. Dew), and the stage, and where the food booths were. Since there was no one central place to observe, I just kept moving, knowing at that point, this would not be easy, and some luck would be involved. This went on for a while. I stopped checkin the boards, in an effort to save my battery. I was slowly getting less eager as the crowd got thicker and thicker.
Heading back from the bathroom toward the side gate, I got a glimpse of Kawrt Cam.. but he was heading away from the stage, and I was actually second guessing if I had seen Bawb because there was a guy in the park, that had a crutch clipped onto the back of his cart, that stuck up like Kawrt Cam that gave my heart a start a few times.
So I headed to the stage area, and started looking more as it was getting dusk, it was getting difficult. After probably a 1/2 hour or more of walking back and forth between the Annual Pass Viewing area and the stage area and around the block, and in the beer lines... I was getting discouraged.
And let me add this... by no means am I stereotyping, but I figured it would be easy to spot two guys in their mid 30’s (ack, cough) that are over 6’3... it wasn’t till I meet up with Bawb, and checked posts much later that I found out Kevin and John were not in the park. I had been searching for two tall guys, which is the strategy that got me in trouble.
So I spotted Bawb across the park from where the stage sits... he was at the turn of the parade, by the ropes all set up to take video. While we were talking, a guy walked up and asked Bawb which way the parade runs. Bawb told him. The guy asked about all the video stuff. Bawb told him, “my boss pays me to video tape stuff in the parks... I work for a website that provides information about the parks.” When Bawb told him this, the look on this guys face was as if you just asked your cat to do calculus. He just looked completely puzzled, didn’t say anything and walked away.
So while talking to Bawb, he knew Pete was in the park (this was the only clue he gave me) he was not sure if Kevin and John where there, he was pretty sure Julie and Corey were there, he knew the parade started at 9:30p. He asked where I was staying, and I told him I came down with pretty much no plan, and would play it by ear. He made two calls and there were rooms available at the Radisson out at Celebration. Later I got lucky just a few miles up the road from Universal doing a walk in and asking for a room.
So after I left Bawb, I changed search strategies, I was checking every beer line for Corey and every bathroom line for Julie. The lines for the ladies rooms were ridiculous. And one of the back podcasts I listened to on the drive down was about the Wishes cruise... so I figured finding Julie in a bathroom line would be a good bet. I got some really nasty looks trying to get a good look at the ladies in the restroom lines. I abandoned that strategy, I don't need an angry, beer drinking BF introducing me to the concrete.
Once the parade started, there was no looking, there was no moving around, it was a crush of people everywhere jumping and screaming for beads. I watched from outside the shop where Twister exits. The parade was followed by everyone in the park. This is not hyperbole. The entire street and every space was people shoulder to shoulder. It was only a couple min. after the parade passed that the concert started, and at this point... I gave up. I went in to “ride” Twister.
As I had never been to Universal before, and never really read up on any of the attractions there at all, I figured Twister would be a sit down 3-d thing. It is not. And this is not a good ride for someone that just drove 16 hours to try to win a prize whom had just given up. Not only do you not get to sit down, but Bill Paxton talks, a lot. After I got out of Twister I went right over to Revenge of the Mummy. That is a pretty cool coaster ride vehicle thing. I’d ride that a few more times, but not at the at point, the park was closed. So I walked around the long way away from the stage... then up the alley that goes past the food booths to work though the crowds to the gate to leave. This is when I think I walked past Corey and Julie at Monster something or other Cafe... but i was following people that were making their way though the crowd pretty well, so i didn’t stop to ask cause it was dark and I was probably wrong.
So I make it up to the front gate, I figured I would check the board one last time if there were clues. So I open the safari page on my phone, and I was on page 6, I hit refresh... and the pages controls showed 22 pages. I was shocked. I was gobsmacked. I did one of those stupid things where someone stops walking in the middle of a crowd. After getting bumped once I moved to the side... and was zooming in to try to read, and get it to refresh to the last page. It refreshed part way, and all I made out was a post from Kevin, and all I made out was Pete valet parked. Then the battery died. I tried it again, I didn’t even get the the white apple for the start up screen.
So I turn around standing there for a min. Kinda walk over to the middle of the crowd walking past out the exit. So I am facing the crowd checking everyone walking by. It takes about a minute for me to process and realize, “goto valet parking”. At this point the concert was over and the whole park is flooding out. I ask someone that works there where valet is, he has no clue but walks me over to a young lady at a desk who explains where valet is, I repeat it at least twice, escalator down in the parking rotunda.
So I move like a crazy fat man possessed (a role I was born to play)... I shuck and dodge though the crowd pretty quick to get over to where the parking structure is and see the signs for valet with the down arrow. I get to the bottom of the stairs, there are still people everywhere, I make several laps around the people in line, and the people sitting all over the place. No t-shirt, no Pete. I figured I was too late. I was standing at the bottom of the escalator, trying to get my phone to turn back on with no luck. I felt half possessed to yell out, “does anyone have a phone with internet, I have a chance to win a cruise if I can find someone, and their location might be on the internet” but I thought better of looking more crazy than I already was for coming all this way. So I was standing there pretty much resigned that it wasn’t gonna happen, about to start climbing stairs... and there he is, Pete and Walter both in DisUnplugged T-Shirts. I am smiling my creepy stalker smile of satisfaction, relief mixed with elation. Pete gets to the bottom of the escalator and sez, “are you Oscar” shakes my hand and gives me a big hug.
Talk about a Disney happy ending, and in Universal Studios of all places.