The Magic Behind the Steam Trains Tour...Continued
At this point in the morning while everyone was taking their obligatory visit to the engineer's cab, I found myself fighting an urge that sometimes comes over me at the worst of times. I always lose this battle...always...and then I end up doubled over laughing at something that almost no one else finds remotely funny.
In this instance I decided to try to come up with as many songs as possible that have the word "train" in the title or that have trains as the subject.
I could feel the giggles fighting to break free.
Jay whispered in my ear. "What's the matter."
"Jethro Tull."
All I received in return was a blank look. To be fair, I guess my response was a little cryptic since he didn't know what game I was playing.
"I want to call our tour guide
Locomotive Breath."
Jay rolled his eyes and tried not to snicker.
"Since the country is currently at war, do you think Disney has the
Peace Train locked away somewhere?"
Jay folded his arms and looked at me with one raised eyebrow. "That was weak."
I composed myself for a moment and then, in a burst of inspiration said triumphantly, "We could re-name this The Grand Funk Railroad and require that everyone sing
The Loco-Motion before boarding!"
By this point I was laughing so hard I was squeaking, an unfortunate condition whereby I am unable to breathe properly and make high-pitched
"heeeeeee" sounds while tears stream from my eyes. These fits of hysterical laughter have been known to last for upwards of ten minutes because I'm usually still cracking myself up mentally but am unable to verbalize the comic joy for others.
Luckily for everyone in the tour group I was able to pull myself together fairly quickly without proving too much of a disruption. They were all busy taking pictures of train stuff anyway, and probably didn't notice my giggle-fit.
Speaking of trains...at this point the engineer came out and explained some stuff about how the engines work and I'm not even going to try to include that here because I'm the most technically challenged person I know. But I'll share some more pictures, OK?
This guy was great and he spent a lot of time explaining the training (hee hee) someone has to go through in order to drive the WDW trains. He also told us about all the safety provisions that WDW has in place - just like the monorail is forced to stop if the driver exceeds a certain speed, so are the Walt Disney World stream trains. If I remember correctly there is some kind of sensor in the tracks.
On the way to the train station in Toon Town we stopped to let off a bunch of steam. There was a reason for this...really there was, but I don't remember it. The picture is cool, though, dont you think?
When the train stopped at Toon Town we were all allowed to get off the train and wander around for about 10 minutes taking pictures.
From this point we re-boarded the train and finished the circuit by pulling in to the Main Street Station where the tour ended. But not so quickly...there was still a little more storytelling to get through. Jack took us all inside the station and sat us down and talked to us about...something train related.
Honestly by this time I was hungry and had pretty much had trains up to
here and I wasn't really paying attention any longer.
But at the end you do get a really cool little keepsake of your tour:
Who doesn't love a Disney pin that can only be obtained by taking a tour or paying an outrageous price on Ebay?
In conclusion, this was a very informative and interesting tour even for someone like me who isn't all that cheesed about trains. For the price I think it's actually a pretty good deal and if you are lucky enough to have Jack as your tour guide, you've struck gold.
Be sure to take your camera with you, even if someone tells you that they're not allowed. There were certain areas and things we were not allowed to photograph, but for the most part we could snap pictures as much as we wanted. So don't leave your camera behind!
Now, before I leave you for the next week or so, I wanted to thank all of you who have been reading along and / or posting during this ridiculously long trippie. I really have enjoyed sharing this with everyone and your comments and thoughts have made it even more fun. You're all fabulous!
So have a safe and wonderful holiday weekend and let me just share one last picture with you...just to to remind you that there's plenty more fun to come when Jay and I get back from WDW next week.
i already miss Brenda and her awesome reporting!!! 
You'll have your own trip to look forward to so you won't even notice I'm gone. Have a great time when you visit WDW and be sure to come back and let us know how everything goes. I can't wait to hear what you and your boyfriend think of the steam train tour.
Actually I was concerned that you wouldn't like this part as much since Grimace doesn't make an appearance, but never fear...she'll be back!
