Poohshoney
<font color=6666CC>Ya-ya sister!<br><font color=gr
- Joined
- Dec 12, 2001
The players
Carol (41, British) dangerously Disney obsessed.
Roland (36, German) puts up with me somehow.
I wrote a WDW trip report called Mickey & US if you missed it you might have trouble with some of the references!
27 August 2002
Part three
There was a big crowd blocking the entrance to Switzerland. They were watching some clowns Disney should try and get on their books very funny! They were French-speaking Swiss, in Germany and the girl they pulled out of the audience was Austrian so they spoke to her in English beat that for multi-culture! The head clown played a song with cowbells there were about 30 of them. The idea was that the girl would watch him carefully and then repeat the performance. Using 30 bells . I promise you, it was hilarious and the best thing was she managed to get the first few right and the crowd cheered and clapped, led by the head clown. Lovely!
And then there it was, the ride Roland was looking forward to most of all the Swiss Bobsleigh. I'd been on one before in Blackpool but it was years ago, when I still liked coasters, so I wasnt sure if I wanted to go on it. But my honey had that `please dont let her say no´ expression and I knew I'd go on, whatever. The plaque at the front said it was a 45-min wait and Roland looked worried that I'd try and back out but I didnt weve waited longer for rides in the past (as it turned out this and every other wait was ten minutes less than posted something else EP shared with Disney). We moved down between the ropes of the queuing area unlike the family who decided theyd cut in front of us and all the people behind us by ducking under the ropes! I told my blood pressure to stay down, it was my birthday. And it did because I just tapped the woman on the shoulder and when she turned round, said `excuse me´ and walked right past them. When I realised Roland wasnt with me I tapped again and he walked past them to join me, no problem so the family must have known why we were doing it! They were now pushing in front of the people behind us but that was up to them to deal with.
The bobsleigh was the first ride we did that had height restrictions. There were signs and measuring rods at every major turn and some families did use them and then leave. However and this will shock any parents reading NOBODY checked at the rides! EP had very few CMs most rides had one at the top, some had two, none had more and not one single CM checked heights. And of course there were enough parents who thought the restrictions were only there to spoil their little darlings fun, nothing remotely to do with safety. We saw several littlies on all the rides who never should have been there. We saw the CMs see them but we never saw a CM stop one. An accident waiting to happen
Slowly but surely we wound our way up. There was a plastic cow at the top, covered in (very) minor celebrities signatures. Apparently EP paid a fortune for it in an auction I'm glad the proceeds went to charity. We made fun of the cow and then it was our turn to ride! The bobsleighs each seated two, one behind the other, practically lying down on top of each other. There were A LOT of teenage couples looking ecstatic at the thought of the next few minutes, if you know what I mean!
There was no time to hang about getting in EP CMs dont mess about. I was still trying to push my bag down by my feet when we were off! And do you know what I loved it. It was absolutely brilliant, my favourite ride/attraction of the day. If youve never seen a bobsleigh ride, it doesnt move on tracks. It hoists you up to the top of some white plastic tubing and then drops you down it and the momentum carries you round. All around us, girls were screaming but not yours truly I giggled myself silly the whole time. It was so exhilarating! Roland couldnt believe how much I'd enjoyed it and beamed and hugged me all the way down the stairs.
These came out in the Walliser village, a very pretty collection of chalets. Some of them were picnic areas overlooking the bobsleigh (great photo ops) and some housed a little museum with dolls and old clothing. One of the dolls would have given me nightmares if I'd been given it. I make no wonder it was in such pristine condition you just knew cuddling it wasnt an option!
We were lulled into a false sense of security by all the fun and prettiness of the chalets theyd saved the worst till last! Just as you were leaving your eye was caught by a cute little raclette shop. And then your nose was assaulted by it. Never have I smelt anything that bad that people were actually expected to eat. I hope the women working there were on danger money.
Switzerlands other big ride was the Matterhorn Blitz a Wild Mouse. Roland hates those so I didnt have to even think about being brave. Hooray!
It also had a couple of Dumbo-type rides there are lots of those in EP, each one cleverly disguised as something else. The Swiss ones were planes and hot-air balloons. WDW gets criticised for having too many of those but now weve seen EP I cant agree. Littlies loved them, their little faces aglow, steering whatever vehicle they were in. Lets face it, most littlies dont have much power over their lives so being in charge of a plane, making it go up an down when you want it to, its just pure bliss. More power to the Dumbo-rides!
There was one other thing we didnt do in Switzerland but oh, we enjoyed watching it. People actually paid good money to throw water balloons at each other! We love watching other people get wet and the EP really likes showing you people getting wet!
We were getting really hungry by now. Wed hoped for ethnic cooking but had been disappointed so far. Never mind, Greece was next!
To be continued
Carol (41, British) dangerously Disney obsessed.
Roland (36, German) puts up with me somehow.
I wrote a WDW trip report called Mickey & US if you missed it you might have trouble with some of the references!
27 August 2002
Part three
There was a big crowd blocking the entrance to Switzerland. They were watching some clowns Disney should try and get on their books very funny! They were French-speaking Swiss, in Germany and the girl they pulled out of the audience was Austrian so they spoke to her in English beat that for multi-culture! The head clown played a song with cowbells there were about 30 of them. The idea was that the girl would watch him carefully and then repeat the performance. Using 30 bells . I promise you, it was hilarious and the best thing was she managed to get the first few right and the crowd cheered and clapped, led by the head clown. Lovely!
And then there it was, the ride Roland was looking forward to most of all the Swiss Bobsleigh. I'd been on one before in Blackpool but it was years ago, when I still liked coasters, so I wasnt sure if I wanted to go on it. But my honey had that `please dont let her say no´ expression and I knew I'd go on, whatever. The plaque at the front said it was a 45-min wait and Roland looked worried that I'd try and back out but I didnt weve waited longer for rides in the past (as it turned out this and every other wait was ten minutes less than posted something else EP shared with Disney). We moved down between the ropes of the queuing area unlike the family who decided theyd cut in front of us and all the people behind us by ducking under the ropes! I told my blood pressure to stay down, it was my birthday. And it did because I just tapped the woman on the shoulder and when she turned round, said `excuse me´ and walked right past them. When I realised Roland wasnt with me I tapped again and he walked past them to join me, no problem so the family must have known why we were doing it! They were now pushing in front of the people behind us but that was up to them to deal with.
The bobsleigh was the first ride we did that had height restrictions. There were signs and measuring rods at every major turn and some families did use them and then leave. However and this will shock any parents reading NOBODY checked at the rides! EP had very few CMs most rides had one at the top, some had two, none had more and not one single CM checked heights. And of course there were enough parents who thought the restrictions were only there to spoil their little darlings fun, nothing remotely to do with safety. We saw several littlies on all the rides who never should have been there. We saw the CMs see them but we never saw a CM stop one. An accident waiting to happen
Slowly but surely we wound our way up. There was a plastic cow at the top, covered in (very) minor celebrities signatures. Apparently EP paid a fortune for it in an auction I'm glad the proceeds went to charity. We made fun of the cow and then it was our turn to ride! The bobsleighs each seated two, one behind the other, practically lying down on top of each other. There were A LOT of teenage couples looking ecstatic at the thought of the next few minutes, if you know what I mean!
There was no time to hang about getting in EP CMs dont mess about. I was still trying to push my bag down by my feet when we were off! And do you know what I loved it. It was absolutely brilliant, my favourite ride/attraction of the day. If youve never seen a bobsleigh ride, it doesnt move on tracks. It hoists you up to the top of some white plastic tubing and then drops you down it and the momentum carries you round. All around us, girls were screaming but not yours truly I giggled myself silly the whole time. It was so exhilarating! Roland couldnt believe how much I'd enjoyed it and beamed and hugged me all the way down the stairs.
These came out in the Walliser village, a very pretty collection of chalets. Some of them were picnic areas overlooking the bobsleigh (great photo ops) and some housed a little museum with dolls and old clothing. One of the dolls would have given me nightmares if I'd been given it. I make no wonder it was in such pristine condition you just knew cuddling it wasnt an option!
We were lulled into a false sense of security by all the fun and prettiness of the chalets theyd saved the worst till last! Just as you were leaving your eye was caught by a cute little raclette shop. And then your nose was assaulted by it. Never have I smelt anything that bad that people were actually expected to eat. I hope the women working there were on danger money.
Switzerlands other big ride was the Matterhorn Blitz a Wild Mouse. Roland hates those so I didnt have to even think about being brave. Hooray!
It also had a couple of Dumbo-type rides there are lots of those in EP, each one cleverly disguised as something else. The Swiss ones were planes and hot-air balloons. WDW gets criticised for having too many of those but now weve seen EP I cant agree. Littlies loved them, their little faces aglow, steering whatever vehicle they were in. Lets face it, most littlies dont have much power over their lives so being in charge of a plane, making it go up an down when you want it to, its just pure bliss. More power to the Dumbo-rides!
There was one other thing we didnt do in Switzerland but oh, we enjoyed watching it. People actually paid good money to throw water balloons at each other! We love watching other people get wet and the EP really likes showing you people getting wet!
We were getting really hungry by now. Wed hoped for ethnic cooking but had been disappointed so far. Never mind, Greece was next!
To be continued