The only downside to the spy mission was that it was difficult to take a break. I had closed the Kimmunicator-inator during lunch, but it kept buzzing every few minutes to ask if we wanted to continue the game. Since Le Cellier is, well, a cellar, there was no cell phone reception in there. So I kept having to get up and run outside to send the signal to HQ confirming that, yes, we really were going to keep going.
I also forgot to mention that while we had been waiting for our table, the CM's at the front desk had engaged us in a round of Canadian trivia. I was able to correctly answer that Sidney Crosby had scored the gold-medal-winning goal for the Canadian hockey team in the Olympics this year, and became the proud owner of a Mickey Mouse sticker. And you thought I just wasted my brain cells on movie trivia.
Having successfully acquired the top-secret recipe for Le Cellier's cheddar cheese soup, HQ assigned us to the United Kingdom for our next mission.
For this mission, we were informed that an evil Scotsman was planning to turn the entire world in to a huge golf course. I told the kids that we should let him win, but I was overruled. A cute bit of narration told us that in a past scheme, this villain had constructed the world's largest golf ball--and that you could still see it, just across the lagoon.
Part of our mission took us to the beautiful flower garden, where we had to gather some crucial intel before some crusty old guy came out and yelled, "
Get off my lawn!"
Then we had to find a dead-drop in a phone booth. I'm not really sure what I'm doing in this picture, but I'm sure you guys will have plenty of ideas on your own:
This is actually a highly sensitive secret operation, and not a typical college prank.
HQ has authorized me to show the villainous equipment we recovered, just to demonstrate the diabolical nature of these dastardly folks. This was a Slazenger Number 1.
This was one of our favorite missions. It was a lot of fun, and of course we succeeded in saving yet another country. Here, Sarah poses with two of the MI-6 agents who assisted us. Their identities have been obscured to protect them in the field.
From here, it was on to France.
I don't recall the mission here as vividly, but we still enjoyed it. I may have been distracted by the smells emanating from the restaurants and bakery here, as well as the beautiful women I ran into who couldn't seem to resist the roguish charms of a ruggedly handsome secret agent.
And yes, I'm talking about Scotty.
David was able to help the mission by donning a clever disguise. Either that, or it's another Stupid Hat Picture ©.
Some of the best theming in Disney World is found in the World Showcase. Part of me wishes we could have spent even more time just savoring the details in the architecture. Once again, the gizmos and surprises having to do with the missions were extremely well-integrated, and a joy to discover.
After saving France, we moved on to Morocco. This was the 6th pit stop in our race around the world. No mission here, but we did have a nice conversation with the woman stamping our passports. The kids got to see how Arabic was written right-to-left, which was a good cultural teaching moment. Naturally, I promptly tried to destroy any intellectual gains on this trip by putting Scotty in a fez for another Stupid Hat Picture ©.
More beautiful Disney theming, giving a strong sense of place:
We had no time to waste, because we had to save Japan from an invasion of killer robots. They became self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th. In a panic, the government had tried to pull the plug.
We delayed our mission a bit because the Taiko drummers were out at the pagoda. We were a good distance away, but it appeared to be an all-female drum corps. Those ladies were good, let me tell ya. Just amazing rhythm. Not that I really know much about rhythm--after all, I'm a nerdy white guy. We did another mission (which included a pretty neat trick with fiber-optic lights), and soon we were saying hasta la vista, baby to Japan. Nobody there understood what we were talking about for some reason.
We did absolutely nothing in the U.S. pavilion.
Well, that's not entirely true. We got our passports stamped. We felt the show would still be over the boys' heads, and they just wanted to keep doing missions anyway. Add that to our growing list of "Stuff To Do Next Time." I did miss hearing the Voices of Liberty, though.
Italy has no missions, so it was a passport stop. I was sorely tempted to try the new pizzeria, Via Napoli, but we didn't have reservations or room on our dining plan. Honey, write that one down on the Next Time list, too. We wandered around the pavilion and took in the architecture and art, at least for the few seconds our kids allowed us to wander. Some of the fountains and sculptures looked incredibly authentic. Honey, call the Vatican. See if anything is missing.
Germany's mission was very, very fun. We had some nice conversations with the CM's there, and one mission task (I won't give it away, but it involved some beer steins) had us all giggling for several minutes. The CM in that store said she had been working there for a couple of months, had seen that part of the mission several thousand times, and still never got tired of watching people's reactions to it. This was one of the best missions, along with China and the U.K.
While we were in the store, Julie got nostalgic over her cultural heritage (she is of Pennsylvania Dutch descent, which of course is German
) and decided she needed an authentic German cowbell. I mean, doesn't everybody? Sometimes you have a disease, and the only cure is more cowbell. I will say this: she rings it every day at dinnertime, and the kids are invariably at the table within 15 seconds. Works better than yelling ever did.
Our final mission was in Mexico, and at this point our Kimmunicator-inator gave up the ghost. We'd been running the poor thing for hours. I hustled back to HQ to get a new one so we could save the rest of the world.
During one task in Mexico, we had a figurine in a display doing a dance for us. As we left, we looked back and saw a mother and her teen running their hands over the display, waving in front of it, and trying everything they could think of to get it to dance. Sorry, guys. Trade secrets.
After a fitting conclusion to our work in Mexico, we congratulated ourselves on a job well done. We returned our phone to the secret dead-drop location.
Evening was now approaching. We asked the kids what they had liked about the day. Sarah said the spy missions were awesome! Dave said he liked finding the golf ball in the U.K. And Scotty said he needed to go poopies.
Coming Up Next: Can we get Dave back for another ride on Test Track? And will he conquer any other rides? Plus: Disney magic strikes again.
frozen monkey.
