The 4F Trip Report - Day 12

[alan]

Trip Report Index is here

The 4F Trip Report

Day 12 - 08-Jul-2009 - Blizzard Beach, Caribbean Beach Resort and EPCOT

We got up quite early this morning and Marie, the kids and I went to Blizzard Beach.

I knew that I wanted to try Summit Plummet; nobody else was interested. So we agreed that the kids would play with Marie in the kids' area, and I would do Summit Plummet. That would get the kids relaxed about being in the water park (which still slightly intimidated them) and then we would meet up again and go to other parts of the park.

This, as it turned out, was a mistake.

Anyway, off I went to the cable car that took you up to the Summit Plummet queue. I joined the "fast moving" single rider queue, but it wasn't fast. Come to think of it, it wasn't even moving! After around fifteen minutes, the cast members came round saying that bad weather was on its way and so the cable car was closed. But we were still okay to walk up to the summit.

Walk? If only I'd known we could walk, I wouldn't have been waiting in this queue for all this time! Aargghh.

I walked to the top and got into the Summit Plummet queue. It was a long queue. A very long queue. And that queue was just to the base of the stairs - there was another queue there that took you to the actual start of the ride. While I was on those stairs, the rain came on and it was remarkably chilly rain. I joked with the Scottish family standing in front of me that it was so cold and wet it felt just like being at home!

However I eventually got to the top. Summit Plummet is a waterslide. But not just any waterslide... it's a big waterslide, and fast too. People come hurtling down it at over fifty miles per hour, which is faster than the human body is really supposed to go unaided!

I was wearing running shorts at the park and if asked I would have said that there was no "stretch" in them at all. Yet when I was hurtling down that water slide I am sure that the back of them managed to stretch all the way to my ears :-) I can certainly understand why the cast member at the top made sure I had my ankles crossed before starting... a young man could come to a lot of harm if he forgot that!

Anyway, here's a video of someone else on the water slide - it's a pretty impressive rate of descent
[youtube]JWpIVU_ydKY[/youtube]

How steep is it? It's this steep:


I got off the slide and went to find everyone else, aware that I'd been away for a while. I hadn't realised that it was over two hours, and that Jenni wasn't allowed to swim in the kiddies' pool (she's a couple of inches too tall, and unlike Typhoon Lagoon the staff weren't willing to cut her any slack). After a previous experience of getting separated in a water park, Marie wasn't wanting to go to a different part of the park from where we'd agreed to meet... the summary was that "we" decided that if I want to do any fancy rides by myself in future then I'll do them after everybody else has done what they want!

We played for a while in the pre-teens area, with the kids particularly enjoying some "Total Wipeout" themed challenges. No pictures from here, though.

Time was creeping on, so we went home and got changed. The Parents-In-Law were wanting to take the kids to Downtown Disney and spoil them there; the idea held no appeal to me. So we agreed that they would go, and I would take the opportunity to have a serious photo session of the fireworks at EPCOT.

Firstly, I had to make sure that everyone was left comfortably at home



And then, since it was still way too early for the fireworks, I went for a wander round the hotel and its grounds




Watch out for that pizza delivery van!


Where do they find the energy?


One of the "village" pools


At the entrance to the hotel, a mother leads her brood across the road


This is the main reception area of the hotel, Custom House. This is where you check in


These next two show the boat yard, where you can rent a boat

[alan]

The poolside bar where, for just $6, you could have about 2/3 of a pint of lager


And the entrance to the main commercial area of the hotel. As you can see, it had been raining recently and it looked as if it might do so again


This is the crossing from one side of the hotel to the other, across an island in the middle of the lake


And these fellows graced one the beach at one of the Trinidad villages


I got some food from Old Port Royale, and went back to our room. Then I made a stupid mistake of sitting on the bed, with a glass of beer in one hand and a decent novel in the other... wow, I came very close to just staying put in the room for the entire evening.

But hey, I'd paid a [del]small[/del] fortune on getting here, so I was going to use every penny's worth. So I was going to EPCOT!

[alan]

I sorted out the camera, checked the lens, cards, batteries, then got the tripod out of the suitcase. As I did so, I noticed a strange piece of black plastic fall out of the case, but gave it no mind. I certainly couldn't see where it had come from (you can just tell that that's an ominous comment, can't you?). I walked to the bus stop and after a short wait boarded the bus to EPCOT.

The bus arrived about 2045, and with the fireworks at 2100 I knew that I had to run. I dashed through Futureworld, and was then horrified by the number of people standing at every conceivable vantage point around the lagoon. Where was I going to take my pictures? Desperately I dashed clockwise round the lagoon until I found one of those handy little "lay-bys" just beyond China. Great - I could see the lake, and there was some space at the wall.

So I opened the legs of the tripod, then winced in pain as something heacy landed on my (sandal-clad) foot. It wa bloomin' sore, but what was it.

Ah.

Well, two of the legs of the tripod were functioning properly. The third was lying beside my poor, tender foot. That was where the piece of plastic had come from. The leg was grinning malevolently at me, sneering and laughing at how much it had hurt my poor tootsies. But I got the last laugh - I picked it up and ran to the bin, where I imprisoned it, along with its treacherous tripod buddy, for ever. You'll never get out, you hear me? Mwahahahah...

Erm. Oops.

So then IllumiNations ran, the firworks played and I took lots of photographs. And I was very impressed inded - they were beautiful.

If you look carefully into the gloom you can see there were lots of people watching. And they were all laughing at what had happened to my tripod!

[alan]

And that was about it, really. I snapped off a couple of extra pictures on the way back to the bus, which carried me back to my hotel. Everyone else appeared about half an hour later, as I supped my second tiny little can of beer and enjoyed my book :-)

[wickesy]

More great photos. Shame about the tripod.

[jjk]

great pictures of illuminations

[irongirlof12]

tri-pods can be pernickety and best placed in a bin!

great photo's of illuminations

[Luv]

After going on the Summit Plummit we re-christened it the Super Wedgie!

[Pinky166]

Lovely pics.

[suzycute]

I'm really impressed that you actually went on Summit Plummit - this is one ride that I never intend to do!
Your pictures of Illuminations are amazing - but I am biased - it's one of my favourite things in WDW

[UKDEB]

Great impromptu opportunity to get some lovely shots around CBR. Epcot is my favourite park, and IllumiNations my favourite of the evening entertainment options, so I never tire of seeing photographs of that. Darn that pesky tripod, though!

[Cyrano]

Impressed that the Illuminations photos are san-tripod

[tennisfan]

Fab photos

[cap'njack.]

Amazing pictures!