Day 7 - Part 3
After successfully venturing to the grid and back, we wandered around Innoventions West a little bit more. I had read about the Velcro show, Whats your problem? on the internet and had decided that we probably didnt need to catch that one, but as we walked by they had a cast member trying to wrangle people inside, saying that the show was about to start, so we figured we might as well check it out.
Before we went into the actual theater, this guy came out and talked about Velcro. He told us a little about the origin of the idea for Velcro, and in the picture you can see photographs on the wall of a dog and a thistle, or what we used to call a stick-tight.
Youve probably heard the story (I had), that the inventor returned from a walk in the woods with his dog and became curious about the burrs that stuck to his pooch. He thought, if I can use this idea to invent a replacement to the zipper, thistle make me a millionaire! Okay, I made up that last part, but you get the idea.
Then we went into the little theater for the game show called, Whats your problem?, which presents problems that can be solved by, you guessed it, Velcro!
They needed some kid-volunteers and James was eager to participate. They spun a wheel to see what game theyd play.
The big wheel of fate stopped on a stacking game and James was teamed-up with these young ladies.
And theyre underway. I love the look on the face of the host-lady in this one.
It looks like James teams stack just might be a little taller.
As long as he keeps steadying it. Once he lets go, its Tim-berrrrrrr!
Next up was a game for dads, and despite my kids enthusiastic efforts to volunteer me, I did not get picked. Which was fine by me. Instead, these two guys would be racing each other in a baby diapering game.
They had to take a baby off of the conveyor belt, diaper it, give it a bottle, and then stick it to their Velcro apron. Whoever diapered the most within some time limit, maybe a minute, would be the winner.
I couldnt help but think how it was becoming oh-so-clear how Velcro could solve so many of our everyday problems
.when I think of all the times I failed the babies on the conveyor belts of my life.
Anyway, the game got underway.
Im not sure which dad diapered more, but really, it was the babies who won. Am I right people?
My assessment of Whats your problem? It was cute, it was light-hearted, and I didnt hate it
but my pre-trip assumption was correct we could skip it. So, if youre nearby and a show is about to start, you might like it, but I wouldnt waste too much time waiting around for the next showing.
After that, we headed over to Innoventions East. We had already been in there earlier in the trip, but on that occasion we had bee-lined to Sum of All Thrills, and this time we wanted to see what else they had to offer. We walked through Storm Struck for a little while, checking out the exhibits on storm damage and taking the interactive computer quizzes. Yeah, not a lot to report on there. I guess it didnt hold our interest for too long.
Judy wanted to play the game at the Waste Management exhibit, Dont Waste It!, and hey, whats better than a game about recycling and incineration and....detritus?
We noticed that the line wasnt very long, so we headed over there. I remember that we had to pull James away from one of the quizzes at Storm Struck so that we could move on, but thats pretty much standard operating procedure.
The game could only handle 4 people on a team, so I opted to sit it out, which would give me a chance to document it with photos for this trip report.
For the game, you get a shopping cart-sized garbage truck that you take around to different stations. Here, a cast member delivers the garbage truck that my crew will be using. Judging by the reactions on my familys faces, he must have been a typical, friendly, pixie-dust spreading Disney cast member.
First, they went over to a garbage sorting game. You can see Marlene docking our garbage truck.
Hmmm, theyre figuring out what theyre supposed to do.
Now arms are flying as theyre sorting it all out.
For someone who doesnt like videogames, Judy looks like shes having fun.
I moved to get some shots from the other direction. Look at the determination on those faces.
Time to move to the next station. I've heard of "wearing your heart on your sleeve", but it looks like James is wearing his Velcro frog on his shorts.
This next game was played at a big pillar, where 2 players were up on top and 2 were down at ground level. I guess they were driving machinery around an incinerator in the game. James and Lauren were on top.
Marlene and Judy were driving vehicles down below.
Heres what the top of our trash truck looked like. Our team name is quasi-Spanish for Dragons of death. Oooooo.
The last game involved making a landfill. First you dig a hole
and then you fill it in.
And our certificate of accomplishment. Drat, we were one piece of sorted garbage short of perfection! The story of my life.
They had a lot of fun with this game. Obviously, its not a must do for a trip to Epcot, but Judy and the kids all ranked it over Whats your problem?.
Overall, wed had a very enjoyable morning exploring Innoventions and Im really glad we took the time to see what it had to offer. But what was on track to test us next?
Up next: Our third casualty
Link to next chapter