Before I get started with this chapter, I'm proud to announce that this Trip Report is now sponsored by:
Beverly will be distributing free samples to all readers as a way of saying Thank You for your loyalty. I'm excited about this deal. Once word gets out, it won't be long before the real dough comes rolling in and I'll be sitting on a beach, earning 20%.
When we last left our intrepid heroes, we'd finished our second ride on Soarin' while my boys were freaking out over Living With the Land. At this point, my parents said they needed to go back and rest at the hotel. My dad had come down with some sort of cold/sinus infection, and was losing steam fast.
So, they planned to meet us for dinner later and headed off. Julie and I decided to try out The Big Golf Ball. We got in line just as they were opening more of the maze for us to have to walk through
mad
, but it still was only a 10-minute wait. As we got up to the loading area, Scotty went into his patented "I don't wanna ride this" routine. Julie's patience was running a little thin at this point, and she picked him up by the scruff of his neck and threw him headlong into the ride car. Ok, that might be slightly exaggerated, but she basically plopped him into the seat between her and Dave, while Sarah and I followed behind them.
Scotty proceeded to cry for the first couple of minutes. Very loudly. At one point, Julie actually put her hand over his mouth so she could hear the narration. Can you feel the love?
He calmed down and the kids actually did fine with the ride. They loved the "choose your own future" part where their faces were inserted into the cartoon at the end. Scotty immediately perked up when he saw that, and suddenly they were giggling their way to the post-show. We found our pictures up on the big globe. Sarah and I took pride as we saw our pictures fly over to Delaware, figuring they didn't get too many visitors from the First State. Then we watched in surprise as Julie and David's pictures flew to someplace in Michigan. Julie explained that they had hit the wrong part of the map when entering in their home state.
From there, we went to Ellen's Energy Adventure. I don't remember if I mentioned our 3-tiered Disney Ride Rating System before, but rides basically fall into 3 categories for us: Rides We Love (i.e. Soarin'), Rides we Like (i.e. Peter Pan), and Rides That Are Air-Conditioned (i.e. It's A Small World). Ellen's Energy Adventure falls into the Rides We Like Category, although leaning towards the Air-Conditioned side of the ranking. I think the theory of a "moving theater" probably was better than the actual practice. It is cool to have your theater seat move out of the theater and into the dinosaur area, but it just takes so long--the ride is 45 minutes total. That being said, it makes for a nice long seated break (with air conditioning!
), and I do think Ellen is pretty funny. The kids did ok--some holding hands over their ears, but the overall humorous tone won them over. Plus, Sarah loves her dinosaurs.
On our next stop, Sarah and I went to Mars.
Julie wasn't about to try this one after having trouble with the motion simulation on Soarin', and we figured the boys weren't going to have any part of it. The boys, even after 45 minutes of air conditioning, wanted some water to drink. I told them water is for cowards. Water makes you weak. Water is for washing blood off your uniform, and you don't get no blood on my uniform. Julie thought that was a little over-the-top
confused3) and offered to take them and get them something cold while Sarah and I rode Mission: Space.
There was no line whatsoever, which was--what's the word I'm looking for?--awesome. Since I am at heart a lame-o/cautious individual, we chose the Green Team. If you ever have trouble remembering whether the Orange Team or the Green Team is the more intense version of the ride, remember: Orange is the color of vomit. You're welcome.
Sarah was nervous, this being her first try at the ride. But she was handling it well. We got paired up with a couple of women who had never ridden it, either. I was the Commander and Sarah was the Navigator. The lady who was the pilot was nervous about doing her job. "You mean you've never flown before? Just my luck," I said. In case you haven't noticed, I like to give people grief, strangers or not. This continued when we hit the meteor shower part of the ride and I asked what kind of crappy pilot would fly us directly into a meteor shower. I didn't hear a response. She must have been too stressed out to laugh.
Anyway, Sarah did a great job pressing her buttons, and loved the ride. Once again, I had cause to be proud of my daughter. She's a trooper.
Meanwhile, Julie had taken care of the boys:
Having taken care of most of Future World, it was time to stroll through MouseGears and then everyone's favorite spot: Club Cool! None of us had ever tried the drinks in there, so we had to cross it off our list. And you know what that means...
It's time for...
Wait for it...
BEVERLY FACES!!!
I was the guinea pig. I took one sip and didn't really get much of a taste, but the second sip was where it hit me:
Sarah was up next. Now take a good look at my picture followed by hers, and tell me she's not my daughter:
Scotty took one sip and then tried to give the rest of the cup back to us:
Then Dave took his turn:
And finally, my lovely bride:
In case you're curious, our favorite flavor was Mezzo Mix, from Germany, which was like a mix of Coke and orange juice.
We had a little time to kill before heading to dinner. None of us wanted to ride Journey Into Imagination, which although air-conditioned is oddly one of the less-imaginative rides in all of Disney World. And our desire to see Captain EO was even less than our desire to have Figment's song rolling around in our brains. But, we still needed to do the jumping fountains, which our kids discovered on our last visit. It was love at first sight.
Sarah is our water bug, and loves getting soaked. The boys kind of follow her lead when it comes to water. We like to sit back and just snap pictures, and for some reason, our pictures just seem to hit the sweet spot here. It's probably the looks of unmitigated joy on the kids' faces at the simple pleasure of watching water jump around (and onto) them.
If you'll allow me, let me power up 1.21 gigawatts and set the flux capacitor for 2006. Here's Sarah from that trip, when she was 4 years old:
That was one of our favorites of that year. Speeding ahead 4 years in time, here are the highlights of 2010:
This last picture here might be our favorite picture we've ever taken. Hey, when you shoot 1,256 pictures, one or two are bound to be good, right? Julie was the photographer for all of these, by the way.
After spending some time getting soaked, which didn't feel all that bad in the Florida heat, we rounded up the troops and headed for the bus to the Wilderness Lodge.
Coming Up Next: My favorite resort on property. And does anyone need any ketchup? But first, see the next post for a chance for Bonus Points!
My 4 year has recently followed suit. 
