A bear of very little brain goes to Disney

[crashbb]

Chapter 1 - In which characters are introduced and the setting is set.

A few things to get out of the way first:

1) I do sciencey things, not englishy things. Ask me to write you a page full of equations, and I'd have no problems. Ask me to write you a report and, we may have some problems. So, I'll do my best but cannot hope to live up to the standards set by others.

2) This was a short trip (three nights) so it will be a short report (or it would be, if it weren't for the fact that I tend to ramble on and on, so my three nights might appear to be three months.

3) I've been away for 10 days, so work is rather busy, thus this will likely get updated in short chunks.

And back to the story...

I realised over the summer that my conference in St. Pete's Beach ended on a Friday afternoon and was only 90 minutes away from WDW. Like any reasonable person, I quickly planned a weekend trip to WDW and invited my cousin (and co-WDW lover) to join me. I would travel to WDW on the Friday afternoon and meet her there. She had to fly home Sunday night to get back to work on Monday, but I was taking Monday off and flying home Monday night. I was in charge of the planning.

The plan:
-three nights at YC
-park hopper passes
-Disney dinning plan with ADRs that noted my issues with gluten and dairy (I'll detail the joys of travelling in WDW with food issues in my report)

The trip was great, marred only slightly by such things as the need for electricity, no edible food in AK before 11am, broken keys, and a cousin who wouldn't let me walk quickly.

Cast of Characters:
Me
Schmu (cousin)

 

[beachwarmer]

Great start. I look forward to hearing more.

 

[crashbb]

My conference was scheduled to end at about 5pm, at which point I would pick up my rental car from down the street and head out to WDW. At about 3pm, I decided that I needed to get to WDW – NOW. Frankly, I wasn’t going to understand “Use of structural equation modeling to estimate pooled DNA frequencies” anyway.

So, by about 3:45pm, I was on my way. Unfortunately, my way involved a very long bridge (I think route 258) that seemed be having an identity crises and thought it was a parking lot. After I finally got off the bridge, and onto the I-4, I heard a traffic report saying that there had been an accident just after the bridge (I did see a couple of cars in the shoulder/ditch) that had caused a huge back up (and suggested avoiding the bridge – though since I haven’t yet patented those wings that I can stick to rental cars, I’d have sat on the bridge anyway). Once on the I-4 it was smooth sailing. Between the UG, allears.net, and Disboards, I had three different versions of how to get to the YC, which I found somewhat troubling, but getting there turned out to be very easy (and much closer to the I-4 than I had expected).

Even though I was by myself in the car, I did have to yell out “I see...” on my first site of something Disney. Sadly, it only got as far as “I see…” since I realized I had no idea what it was once I started my sentence (a few 100 metres later, I realized it was the Dolphin). Parking and check-in was painless and the very nice CM asked me where I wanted my room (high floor/low floor etc.) and suggested one looking over the quiet pool (I had standard view). It was one of the further ones from the lobby, but very nice. This was my second stay at YC, but the first was about 15 years ago (I think – has YC been there that long?). It is still a beautiful hotel (though the rooms might be in need of an update). I love the double sinks and the black-out curtains). The beds were also amazingly comfortable.

A quick call to my cousin (who would be flying out of NYC in a few hours) to let her know the room number and by 6pm I was ready for EPCOT (which was open until midnight as an EMH night).

Up next – chapter 3 (in which crash rides Soarin’ three times)

 

[tiggerbell]

Great report so far! I loved the line about the wings for the car... I tend to tell people that the time machine isn't done yet, but as soon as it is, I'll go back and solve their problem.

 

[rosiejo]

Great start - can't wait to read more

 

[crashbb]

Thanks for the comments, sorry it took so long for chapter 3.

I had to change the title, since I only actually got to the first ride on Soarin in this chapter

Chapter 3 – In which Crash rides Soarin and Nemo for the first time

Having dumped my suitcase in my room I was ready to go. I debated unpacking but the draw of EPCOT was too strong – kind of like the draw of a big mud puddle when you were wearing your Sunday best. I checked to see if I could get an ADR for an EPCOT restaurant and got one at 8:30pm for San Angel Inn. I added a day to my Park Hopper (it was about $10 and EPCOT was still open for 6 hours, so it seemed to be a good deal) and was on my way to EPCOT by 6pm.

I entered through the International Gateway (and managed to get the finger thing to work on the first try) and headed straight to Soarin (it and Nemo & Friends were new since my last visit). The standby line was about 50 minutes, so I grabbed an FP (return time after 7:15pm) and headed over to The Seas to ride Nemo & Friends. The seagulls out front made me giggle out loud – loudly! I discovered that giggling loudly when you are by yourself makes those around you look at you in alarm – not as much as, say, suddenly taking off all your clothes, but if the family beside me was anything to go by, it was pretty close. There was absolutely no line for the ride, which was okay, but didn’t blow me away. I found that my clamshell often arrived at the end of a scene, so things were a bit out of sequence (i.e., I’d hear the end then the beginning of the scene). Given that I’m dysgraphic, you’d think I’d be used to it. The ending was pretty neat!

After leaving The Seas, I wanted to go on Journey into the imagination with Figment, as I didn’t remember ever going on that ride. Again, no line (a theme for the evening, with the exception of Soarin). The ride was fun and enjoyable.

By this point, I was getting quite hungry and it was yet 7pm – I’d never make it to 8:30pm. I remembered reading on here that you could make/cancel ADRs at guest relations and I thought I could get my EMH wristband whilst there, so I treked to the front of the park. On my way there, I saw CMs giving out wrist bands so I got one and then asked a passing CM (she was riding by on a Seqway) about where I could cancel my ADR. She said that I didn’t have to cancel it as I would not be charged if I didn’t show up, but I thought that was rude. For future reference, you can reach Disney Dinning by dialing *88 from any payphone in the park.

That out of the way, I crossed to the other side of the park for Mission:Space. When I was here last, there was only one version of this ride, and it left me rather…shaky. I was happy to read about the Green (aka wimpy) side and walked right on. It was a lot of fun. I know that some people get nothing out of the ride without the spinning, but I thought it was great.

Next stop was Test Track. The single rider line was walk on. Actually, it was rather more than walk-on as they ushered me into the pre-show area just as the pre-show was ending. Time from entering the line to reaching the exit was less than 10 minutes. Test Track is one of my favourite rides and I knew that I’d be riding a bunch more times (it is my cousin’s favourite ride of all, so she’d want to go on at least a few times). The outside bit was very neat in the dark. I know that it says that you are only going 64.7 mph, but it feels much faster than that. I’m not sure why that is.

By now, it was time to use my Soarin FP. Wow! I love that ride. I know it isn’t a thrill ride and it isn’t ‘exciting’ but I found it great fun. By luck, I ended up in a front row (which I have read here is the best place to be). It almost seemed the reverse of simulator rides – in simulator rides you stay on/near the ground but feel that you are high in the air; in this ride, you rise high in the air, but until I looked down I didn’t realize how high we were. I somehow missed the scents other than oranges though – guess my nose needs a tune up.

I knew that Sunshine Seasons (the CS in The Land) would be a good place to find dinner, so that was the next stop. I asked to speak to a chef and one came right out to help me. After discussing my food issues, she got me a pork chop from the meat counter (I couldn’t have the sides there), some rice from the Asian area (I couldn’t have the other dishes there) and some plain steamed veggies from the back (most of the other veggies have butter on them). They also allowed me to take fruit for dessert, since I couldn’t eat any of the desserts. With a drink, the total would have been about $13.00 – my first use of the DP was a success.