7 Days at WDW: The Chair, The Child & The Ceaselessly Neurotic

[beaniejawa]

We sleep late (ah! Nice!) and hit Epcot around 11:00AM. Oddly enough, we get almost the exact same parking spot we had last time at Epcot. Oddly enough, the Thing 1, 2 and 3 shirts still abound on the surrounding tourists. It’s surreal.

Now, my last experience at Epcot was not the best in the world. It was the start of the whole meltdown mess. But this time I feel much better. We all got to bed early and spent so much time relaxing the day before. Hey! My feet don’t hurt anymore! Wow, pools are great.

And Epcot is pretty. I think this is the Journey to Imagination pavillion:

The first thing I do is FastPass Soarin. THIS time I leave Shawn and his chair at the base of the big hill and just walk up with the passes and walk back down. Because it’ll be a few hours before our FastPass window, we decide to enjoy World Showcase again.

First we hit Mexico (we’re going left to right this time, instead of the reverse). We go inside the temple at Mexico. Hat time!

I’ll bet every single tourist does this. O.K. Now on to the new ride, themed after The Three Caballeros. It’s delightful! We also visit the glass shop and ogle the gorgeous sculptures. If only I went blowing my budget on pins. Gosh, there’s so much here I could buy. I could get the paper flowers. Oh, and I could get some maracas! Look, a fountain:

A few seconds after this picture was taken, a little girl had her hand in it.
Well, I choose not to bankrupt myself and buy everything. Must move on. Because we’ve already visited a lot of these places, we skim through a few. We don’t spend much time in Norway the second time around. But we do take a break in China to sit in the shade and take some pictures.

In between Germany and Italy, we stumble across some traveling actors. We follow. We sit. We get ready to watch. It’s the tragic story of “Romeo and Edna.” They need a Romeo. They need an Edna.

They need a community mime. Hey, that’s no mime. That’s… that’s…

Why that’s my husband, Shawn. He reacts when they tell him to. He cries:

He's surprised:

He's attentive:

And at the end, he is given the last two words. “And the community mime uttered these two immortals words: (pause)”

Shawn: GO HOME!

APPLAUSE

Shawn gets a special button. They tell him the button entitles him to be in Epcot right now. Very VIP.

Tatyana and I have refreshing blue lemon ice drinks outside The American Adventure. My vote for best chilled treat at the parks!! So tasty and not too sweet.

Some pictures of Japan (love the garden ponds) but oddly, almost nothing of Morocco. I just wasn’t feeling Morocco this trip. Or maybe it was just that I was hungry and eager to get to…

FRANCE!

One ham and cheese croissant sandwich, please! Oh, and the cake of the day. Chocolate, huh. How do you say “You guys totally rock” in French? Shawn shows me what I missed before: Boulangerie Patisserie has seating in an area behind the store. There’s also shopping back there. I’m tempted by a Monet painting cutting board, but I pass. Even though I look over the tiny Eiffel towers, I pass on those as well. We’re amused by a little bird that keeps flying into the eating area, picking up floor scraps, and flying back out. Does he work for Disney, perhaps? Is he on the clock?

We stroll down to the UK, home of some interesting topiaries and gardens:

Hey, it’s Mary Poppins and Alice! Tatyana lines up for Alice. Remember what Aladdin told her to say about Alice’s cat? Well, she says it. “Aladdin says your cat needs a bath!” I think we might have actually offended Alice! “That’s not a very nice thing for him to say about Dinah, is it?” Tatyana lowers her eyes. “No, it’s not,” she admits. Alice poses with her:

Oh, well. Tatyana and her seem to be just fine. On to Canada (no Off Kilter this time)...

... and back to the edge of World Showcase. We shop. We buy a coffee mug and an ornament for a couple of our best friends. I buy an Epcot pin that shows all the different world flags.

Time for Soarin. We line up, FastPasses on hand. Soarin still has about a 75 minute standby wait (what is UP with this ride? Do they all your vacation money back at the end of it?) but the FastPass wait is only about 20. We line up. We get in. And here’s my first impression:

I’ve waited a long, long time for this ride now, but I’ve read up on it so I kind of think of I know what to expect. It’s just a big film, right? Kind of like IMAX? And you hang suspended in front of the big film.
Well, the first thing I notice stepping into the room is that the room and the equipment inside is HUGE. I mean, this device that’s going to scoop you up and send you ‘soarin’ towers over you. I’ve never seen such a big indoor ride. My jaw just hit the floor. And the movie screen – well it’s huge too. And… odd looking. It’s curved.
Everyone is asked to quickly move into a seat and store their valuables in the bin below. Following a tip I read somewhere, I took off my shoes and socks and put them in the bin along with my other stuff. I heard it was neat to feel the wind under your feet. Tatyana is a little nervous but I assure her nothing is going to pop out at her in this ride. So in we go. We’re all strapped in. Once in, the machine lifts and suddenly we’re right in front of the screen. I can’t see the rows above me or below me. The movie comes on.

It’s like we’re really there. You can’t see the edges of the screen unless you turn your head. It’s like we’re flying. Tatyana grabs my arm when something whizzes past but then she’s O.K. She’s smiling. So am I. So is Shawn. We’re all just… flying. And it feels really, really great.

There’s a wind to increase the effect, but it’s not a very strong wind. I’m honestly not sure it mattered that I kicked off my shoes. There’s LOTS of pretty scenery. Here’s a tip: keep your eyes focuses on only one point on the screen. You will really, really feel like you’re moving if you do that. Otherwise, the ride doesn’t move a whole lot. Tatyana relaxed fairly quickly though her eyes stayed as big as saucers. When Tinkerbell showed up, she giggled and grabbed my arm and pointed “It’s Tink! Hi Tink!”

If I have any complaint at all (and it’s a small one) it’s that the film cuts from scene to scene to scene. It’s a little jarring and in my opinion takes you out of the moment. If you want everybody to fly over a lot of different scenes then please rush some clouds over them or something, as if we were lifting into the clouds and coming back down through them again. Quick cuts remind people it’s a movie and that you’re not really flying.

Otherwise, Soarin is breathtaking. We left it feeling, I don’t know, kind of rejuvenated. Shawn said Disney needed to step up and have this technology in ALL the parks. I agree with him. How cool with an Aladdin carpet ride be like this? Or a journey through the jungle? The possibilities…

As we’re about to leave the park (it’s Sunday – time to see if we can watch a complete Fantasmic! show) Tatyana reminds us we have yet to go in the great big ‘golf ball.’ Right! We queue up for Spaceship Earth. We’re in in a matter of no time. It’s the same ride I’m used to, but coming out of it we see a lot of computer games that weren’t there before. Kind of cool… but we’re on a deadline. Got to get to MGM. It’s starting to mist a little. We hurry to the car.

By the time we get to MGM it is pouring down rain. We hide under a covered area at the park entrance with throngs of other disappointed park-goers. We run (Shawn wheels himself) to a pin trading kiosk. We are already soaked! Fortunately it’s warm so we’re not cold. We run to a store to wait out the rain. Tatyana buys a really cute Minnie Mouse doll. We wait and wait. Still pouring down outside. Shawn needs to take his meds and we don’t have any water. A very nice cast member gets us some water from a back room and he’d able to take his pain pill. I’m starting to get grumpy (mainly because I’m afraid Fantasmic! will get rained out) but Shawn is having a blast. His mood is infectious – I start enjoying myself again. We run from store to store in the pouring down rain. I buy a really cool purse. We reach an art gallery.

There’s lot of great paintings here! We both spot a great-looking Tinkerbell painting. Even though it’s pricey, we seriously consider buying it. We figure we’ll come back later.

I buy a Sleeping Beauty pin that spins (blue dress, pink dress) in honor of Tatyana’s favorite princess. I buy an Ariel pin in honor of my favorite princess and the knowledge that Voyage of the Little Mermaid probably won’t be around in my next visit. We head back to the gallery. We buy the Tink painting. Because it’s raining and it would take two days for them to send it to our room at the Pop, we arrange instead for them to ship it to our home in Houston.

We head back to the park entrance. There’s an interesting looking little shop sporting movie memorabilia. Inside are outfits worn by actors in the movies! I look at a jean jacket and skirt. The sign says Priscilla Presley wore it in one of the Naked Gun movies. I recognize it! I remember she wore it for a parody of the movie “Thelma and Louise!” How cool to be touching something you remember seeing in a film. It’s $800. Well, I’m not much of a collector and I don’t think it’s pretty (or my size) so I move on. Incidentally, this store also has the pink and white pin-striped jacket worn by Dick Van **** in Mary Poppins. Check out this place – it’s to the left right at the park entrance. You might find yourself handling an outfit you remember from a movie.

We line up at 8:30PM again at the special dinner package entrance for Fantasmic! (we don’t have a card to get in there tonight, but we’ve seen where they seat everyone in a wheelchair and it’s going to be the back row of the stadium regardless. We figure if they stop us from sitting in the dinner package seating area, we’ll apologize and cross to the other side. Since our last show was cut off in the middle, we figure it’s at least worth trying). There’s already a long line but the rain has cleared up. A cast member starts walking back and forth along the line, saying loudly: “Tonight’s Fantasmic will likely be cancelled due to rain. Please consider that before staying!” Oh, no! But the rain quit a couple of hours ago… should we stay? Well, why not. We’re already here.

They open the gate. Will they ask for a card? This guy doesn’t. Up the hill we go (me pushing Shawn). A lady is calling out for cards. She looks right at us. We just keep moving. She just checks the next family’s card and ignores us completely.

So we actually got into the dinner package seating area without having a special card. Would we have done this if we hadn’t already paid for dinner package and had our show cancelled the night before? Absolutely not. But it’s interesting to note that Disney doesn’t seem to have a good system in place for checking who has a pass for special seating at Fantasmic! and who doesn’t. Again, we get placed in the disabled guest section at the back. Again there are two empty rows in front of us and throngs of people stuck in ‘standing only’ behind us. Again a few people sneak into the empty rows after the lights go down. When a cast member sees it happen, they make them move back to ‘standing.’ A few get in while the cast members aren’t looking. They get to keep their seats. Again we say nothing.

Fantasmic! is a free show. From what I could tell, people on either side of the stadium were still getting seats within 15 minutes of the show starting. Granted, I couldn’t tell how long the line was on the opposite side before getting in but my recommendation is that you show up at least 30 minutes in advance and just wait: you’ll probably get a seat. Every seat seems to be good. Why show up late and take ‘standing only?’ It’s the end of a park day and you’re going to be tired. There’s also the chance you’ll be stuck behind rows of empty seats that are inexplicably taped off and never used. You might find that a little irritating. I know I would. Show up early and sit!

Well, tonight’s Fantasmic! at least isn’t cancelled because of rain. The show starts. We get to the villainous part. The queen calls for her magic mirror… Hey! This time the magic mirror actually showed up. We get to see the whole show this time! Very cool! I’m so glad we stuck around. Shawn’s favorite part was the lake of fire…

Mine was the explosion…

Tatyana’s was the evil queen. She kept walking around afterwards repeating the line: “Now you’ll have to deal with ME!” Tatyana says she loves the evil queen and would be her friend so long as the evil queen behaved herself. I don’t think my daughter has a good grasp of what ‘evil’ means.

We take off for the car and our resort. We are happy. We are relaxed. It has been (despite the rain) an absolutely wonderful, relaxing day.

 

[beaniejawa]

Right about now we’re wishing we’d booked a longer vacation. We’re already on a waiting list to extend our trip at the Pop but, sorry, they’re all booked up and nobody cancelled. We’ll know better for next time: it’s tough to extend your stay at the resort of your choice during the summer.

We don’t have a plane to catch so we can pretty much leave whenever we want (another benefit of driving) we just don’t have a place to sleep tonight! So we check out of Pop and fill up our mugs for the last time (sigh!) and shop there for the last time (another sigh). I buy a Pop resort pin (the last for my hat) and also a Pop coffee mug (I’m a coffee fiend). Now we can leave for our last park day: AK.

I’ve said before that Animal Kingdom is my favorite park. Part of the reason is it is a park that you enjoy slowly. Trust me, anything designed to be enjoyed slowly at WDW is a priceless, priceless thing! Also, most of the walkways are covered by foliage and are cool. Those walkways that aren’t often contain ‘misty fans’ (fans blowing water over guests). Shawn couldn’t get enough of the misty fans.

We enter the park around 11AM. I brought the map so we don’t get lost. I’m disappointed not to see ‘Wes Palm’ or ‘push’ the talking trash can at the park entrance. I actually do see ‘Wes.’ He’s parked off to the side and very quiet. If you didn’t know him, you’d think he was just part of the décor.

Speaking of décor, I’m really hoping to spot ‘Devine.’ She wasn’t there on my first visit. Today a cast member tells me she’s scheduled to be out and about at noon and at 1pm. We head to Kali River Rapids and secure our FastPasses. Yes, Tatyana, you’re going to get wet on this ride. But we’ll put you in a swimsuit, o.k.? She’s o.k. with it as long as the swimsuit is on. Onto the Maharaja Jungle Trek (and the tigers!)

and bats!

I hear a lot of people in line getting squeamish about the bats, but I think they're super-cool and beautiful! Besides, these guys only eat fruit. I think.

It takes about 20 minutes to stroll through the animal treks. I could have happily spent an hour on each of them, taking long breaks just sitting on benches. It’s so peaceful and beautiful. We take an especially long time in the aviary. We ask a cast member about the birds. She is very knowledgeable. Then we ask her about a certain red bird that keeps flying in and out of the trees. Uh, oh! She doesn’t recognize that one. She tells us it’s probably a native that snuck in. We keep walking. Here’s some fish, by the way:

Tatyana can’t reach it to stick her hand in this water. We tell her it’s off limits anyway.

We meet another cast member. We tell her about the ‘native’ red bird that snuck in. She turns a little red herself. “Who told you that?” Uh. Another cast member. “Well, native birds can’t sneak in here! This is an aviary! It’s all netted off!” Oh, I hope we didn’t just get somebody into trouble.

It’s noon. Time to find Devine! We head to the trail between Africa and Asia. As we’re walking down it, peering at all the foliage and trying to find her, a cast member comes out and starts calling: “Flights of Wonder about to start! Seating is now!” Oh, gosh. I really, really wanted to catch that show but I figured I wouldn’t have the time. I want to see Devine, more. Shawn doesn’t care and leaves the choice to me. Devine it is. I’ll just have to catch “Flights” on our next WDW trip.

I’m almost to the end of the trail connecting Africa to Asia when I see the crowd. Then, I see who they’re admiring:

She’s so amazing! I’m so glad I got to finally see her. Shawn is more impressed than he thought he’d be. “If she were still I’d never see her,” he says. “You’d really have to look hard.” He’s right. It’s a little bit of a shame that she’s become so popular because now it’s easy to spot where she is. The crowd is a dead giveaway Devine is about. Plus, there’s a cast member shadowing her at all times. I guess Devine needs a little protection. Price of fame.

Occasionally Devine tries to conceal herself. Like I said, it’s pretty tough for her because of all the attention. If I were Disney, I’d design a way for her to slip in and out of the foliage instead of having to walk through the cast member’s entrance. I might even have two Devines out at once to split up the crowds.

Back across to Asia for Kali River Rapids.

Tatyana and I both wore our swimsuits under our clothes so we quickly shed. I put everything in a bag and wrap it with a poncho. Somebody in line sees what I’m doing and mutters, “that looks like a good idea.” I exchange my sneakers for flip flops and off we go. We take a moment in the queue to push buttons that spray water onto rafts going under the bridge. We figure we’ll get our comeuppance on the ride.

Kali’s standby is pretty long but the FastPass wait is only about 10 minutes. We get onto the raft. There’s a small section in he middle of your raft in which you can put your bag and then draw a tarp over it. That’s where our bag goes. Kali River rapids is a brief but lovely excursion. There’s only one big drop (and it’s not really that steep). You get wet. You also feel the heat from a forest fire. You pass through a curtain of water on the way out. As we passed under the bridge, I yelled up at the tourists “Spray us! Spray us!” They just looked confused. A few took our pictures. Ah, well. I was really hoping they’d blast us.

(the rest of the report is in the next posting)

 

[beaniejawa]

(part 2 of final trip report)

We leave Kali cool and refreshed. While leaving Asia, we see an odd-looking trail. We ask a cast member about it. She smiles. "That's the best kept secret at Animal Kingdom," she says. "You'll get to see the Tree of Life up close. But almost nobody knows this trail exists." Really? Obviously, we take it. This was amazing! You really do get right up against the tree. There's also a cave and a waterfall. Check it out:

Here's the cave:

And a great new attraction: AK's tourist exhibit!

Ah, the tourists in their native habitat. Truly a prize attraction.

I don't know why more people don't frequent this trail. We spent about 40 minutes on it and met only three people. In the middle of the day. In June. This is a great secluded place in AK. Ask about it. You won't regret it.

After hitting a couple more misty fans on the way back, we hit Dinoland. Tatyana wants to ride Triceratop Spin again with her Papa. I decide to try Primeval Whirl. This ride was never on my ‘must-do’ list but I admit it looked interesting. And it turns out it is fun. It’s kind of a combination Tilt-a-whirl and coaster. The drops are o.k. The roughness comes from how much it slings you about on the turns. Really, this ride is more rough than it is exciting. I say, ride it if you don’t have anything better to do. You’ll probably like it. But not immediately after lunch.

Shawn shops at a nearby store. I think it was named “Dinosaur Treasures.” He admires a Tinkerbell doll in the window. He’s told it’s only for display. He wants to know where he can buy one. The girl sighs and shakes her head. They don’t sell them in the parks, not this kind, anyway. Then she goes over to the window, takes it down, and just gives it to him. How nice! Shawn is truly touched.

We’re really thirsty. Time for a frozen lemonade. Shawn gets the frozen fruit punch. We sit and sip and watch a couple of large birds (are they cranes?) come really close to us, eating scraps.

So here it is: it’s all over. Nothing to do but leave the park and head for the car. We walk so very slowly through the Oasis. I don’t want to leave. We take the tram to our car, looking over our shoulder a lot. Goodbye Animal Kingdom. Too bad you can’t come with us.

So there you have it: my trip report. And what did we learn from this trip? What would we do differently the next time? Well…

I learned you can’t expect to hit all the parks, sun up to sun down, every day for 7 straight days and not feel the effects. Everybody needs a break. Next time I’ll book a longer stay and include a couple of non-park days. Shawn agrees we would have benefited from a day of rest at the Pop or maybe a break to visit other resorts or play miniature golf or shop at Downtown Disney.

I learned I should go ahead and make a few full service restaurant reservations in advance of the trip.

I learned that value resorts are a whole lot of fun. Shawn and I were thinking of hitting a deluxe resort the next trip. Now we just want to go back to the Pop, preferably to the same great room.

And there you have it. We’re back at home, wiser and more Dis-ni-fied. The painting of Tinkerbell made it here safely:

Here’s my pin hat:

And here’s the much-beloved yet oft wrongfully ignored Unofficial Guide:

And that’s about it. Best wishes to anyone heading out to Disney. It’s still the happiest place on Earth, even if every moment isn’t 100% perfect.