Okay, I left you with past character experiences. In case you missed it, I'll catch you up:
Commandos have fun, but don't normally find magic. If you want to have really magical moments, stalk the characters. I don't mean in a white-van-parked-across-the-street kind of way. I mean more like the whenever you see them, GO SEE THEM, kind of way. Talk to them. Ask them questions. Even the fur characters. They can answer you. (Be prepared to play charades, though. Sometimes guessing IS required.) Pay attention to FACE characters. If you've seen them more than once, say, Oh, Princess Aurora, do you remember when we saw you in (name of month) at (name of place)? (Name of kid) told you (so and so). You get the idea. MAKE them remember you. But not in a creepy dee way. And also, make sure you have the right person. Because otherwise, they're gonna smile and nod and have their greeter call security on you. Alright, everyone caught up?
Let's move on! Got lots to get to today, including SNAP and a very, very MAGICAL MOMENT. And by "today", I don't necessarily mean TODAY, May 30. I mean "today", as in "the day that all of this actually happened".
So... Wesley got to sleep in. Til 9:30. Then I had to wake him up. I wasn't being a commando. BUT... We wanted to ride Soarin', and that meant getting to Epcot before FPs were gone. Boys are so easy. We were walking in the gates at 10am.
The plan is: Wesley and Kim go to Character Connection; I go retrieve Soarin' FPs. Which I do. But they are still in line at CC when I get back there. So I get in line with them. Captain Hook and Smee were in CC! But sadly, they had to go fire cannons at Peter and the Lost Boys before we got to see them. That old codfish. Wesley would've loved another duel. (Since he so smashingly LOST the one the day before... even though he refuses to believe that's how it happened.)
Well, finally all the characters have had their snacks and such and are back out to greet their public. Mickey, Pluto, Goofy, Chip/Dale, Donald, Baloo and Mary Poppins. Mary Poppins told him it was nice to see him AGAIN. Even though she is not one I'm normally fond of (not Mary Poppins, I love her... I mean this *particular* Mary Poppins...what does that say, when we've been enough to NOT like particular people??), she got extra points for that. Maybe she's not so bad.
By the time we were done there, we had just enough time for Figment, again. Yay. Isn't my enthusiasm underwhelming? Even so, I'll probably be sad when Wesley decides he's "too big" to ride Figment.
Time to head to Mexico, we're eating at San Angel Inn, baby! Trek to WS. It's about 11:15. There is a man standing at the check in desk. I try to check in. He says, No, 11:30, you come back. Okay, great. We go ride El Rio del Tiempo.
Alright. Here we go. El Rio del Tiempo. Pay attention, Mark.
I know most people don't like this ride. Although I still say, make it a FastPass, and see how many people "LOVE" it, then. I'm just kidding. I enjoy a ride with no wait. I guess it is because Wesley likes it so much that we've ridden it so many times. And by so many, I mean... A LOT. Our Feb 2005 trip, I think we rode it 8 times in a row one night (and no, those were not the only times we rode that trip). There was a cute (female) CM working the ride, and he flirted with her (and she with him) every time we came around. The best part is having your own boat..sitting in the front row and propping your feet up, and enjoying the AC. So what if it's cheesy? Name five things at Disney that AREN'T cheesy. (Don't, really, I'm just making a point here.) So what if the intention is to promote tourism in Mexico? Newsflash, folks, that's the intention of ALL the WS pavilions~to promote tourism in their country. The difference between Mexico and Norway is that in Mexico, you have to endure it during the ride. In Norway, you only have to endure it if you can't get through the movie room before they close the doors. In all the other countries, you don't HAVE to endure it at all. Just skip the movie. Or just look at what you want to look at. In Mexico, granted, you are FORCED to watch it, if you go on the ride.
But I don't care. I still like it. Add in the memories we have of the ride... like the aforementioned CM flirting with Wesley... at the end of the ride (i.e. when we finally DRAGGED him off the boat), she presented him with a Magical Moments certificate that proclaimed him "Capitan of the Boat Ride". Yes, she spelled it "Capitan". Or the time that Mark began singing "I've got to pee" to the tune of the song. Which, incidentally, is not as mind-numbing as Small World. Until he began to sing "I've got to pee" to the tune, we never could remember how it went. (We don't forget, now!!) Another time, Mark was really, really looking hard at the footage of the "traditional" ?? dances. He mentioned that he thought the women in the last one on the left, before you hit the Small World-esque sequence, were not wearing underwear. Which I'm sure meant we rode it again, right after, for me to attempt to verify. Which I couldn't. So now every time we ride, we have this discussion about whether or not the women are wearing underwear. Wesley thinks it's funny. Because, when you're a 4 year old boy, underwear IS funny. Very. Just last week for his preschool program, they sang the Peanut Butter song. And none of them sang the verse about liking it on (or is it in?) their underwear, because they were all laughing too hard. So this has been one of our Great Debates, for quite some time: Are they, or are they not, wearing underwear? Most of the time, it is quite simple to have this discussion. Because we are riding along, alone, in our own boat. But occasionally you do have to ride with other people. And then it is always embarrassing when Wesley starts giggling loudly and saying, "They're not wearing any UNDERWEAR!!!" But on this particular ride (11:17ish), we had a boat to ourselves.
And here is the big news, that I didn't even tell Mark. I am almost 100% certain that I confirmed that they are, indeed, NOT wearing underwear.
Great, Rhonda. Way to go. Next time I'm at Epcot, there'll be a line for El Rio del Tiempo. You watch and see.
Well, now it's 11:27, and I think it would be safe to make our way back to the check in desk. Except that I cannot SEE the check in desk, for all the people in line. Well, there goes my hope for a waterview table. We waited about 15 minutes to give them our name, and another 10 minutes or so to be seated. What? Did Mark say in his trip report how much we LOVE San Angel Inn or something?
We were finally seated and got our meal, and that was the important thing. I had the Plato Mexicano, I think, which was not quite as good as the Plato Nacional that I had the first time. Or was it the other way around? Anyway. I would still eat there again.
We were supposed to meet SNAP at 1, but we still had some time to kill, so we rode the ride again. Kim searched desperately for what I had previously seen (or NOT seen), but couldn't tell. So I'm thinking I must've finally seen the exact footage that Mark once saw.
After that, we browsed around in the plaza. I was freezing in there, so we went outside for me to get a little sun and warm up a bit. I saw a girl outside who kept looking at me, and I wondered if maybe it was one of SNAP's party. But then she went inside. Soon after, we did, too. And then someone yelled my name... and it was SNAP's cousin! (Hi, SNAP's cousin!!) So we chatted til her girls and SNAP found us. Turns out, it WAS one of her girls we'd seen outside! We finally all got together and had a nice little meet/visit. We discussed pros/cons of living so close, driving home after a long day in the parks, etc. We discussed pins (Wesley has quite a few), and SNAP gave Wesley her Maleficent pin! (Thanks, SNAP!) Wesley was quite taken with her after that, I think!
We discussed lots of other things, and just generally had a grand time. They were all sweet as pie, even if they don't sound as *southern* as we do. They sound like they live in central FL. I sound like I live in south GA. What can I say? One of the girls has a birthday very close to mine, and now I know that SNAP will never forget MY birthday, because it's the same as her sister's. Hey SNAP, I did mention that I like Disney Dollars, right?
They were off to do some other things, and we were off to ride Soarin', so we parted ways. Funny, I found myself humming Christopher Cross tunes as I walked away. And I also found myself feeling smug that I was a participant in both of the first-two-ever-Maelstrom-meets. (Hi GACat!) No other Maelstromer can say THAT!!
Stay tuned!
