Episode 4: Ride, Princess, Ride, On Your Produce Ship (Original Air Date: Sunday, January 23, 2011)
"This place holds more magic for me than any palace in the world." -- Princess Lili
It took some coersion, but we finally were able to drag DD out of the Seas. After all, Daddy Turkey didn't come all this way to watch a giant fish tank all day. Unless it was an actual tank driven by a fish. That would be cool. WHO CAN STOP THE ONSLAUGHT OF THE SHARK SHERMAN?!?!? Hey SyFy, there's your next horrible movie! If you call now, you could probably get William Katt or Susanna Hoff to star in it!
ANYway, we moved on to the surefire, most safest, most tame ride in all of the World...Living With the Land. Surely, this attraction would get DD into the mood of trying new rides and experiences. Right? RIGHT???
We headed towards the land. Oh, didn't realize that's where Soarin' was too. ME: "Oy, you wanna do Soarin'?" DW: "Not really, you?" ME: "Nah." So we didn't. And it's probably a good thing, as the crowds finally started picking up and sure as shooting, Soarin' was where everyone was heading...leaving poor widdle Wiving with the Wand all awone...ahem, alone. We hopped into the queue, walked to the front of the line, and with very little wait, we boarded and were off.
And then I remembered. It's not all brightly lit greenhouses. There was a dark element to it with dioramas. Dark. Thunder. Lightning. Oh beverly, what have I done?
DD loved it. She was having a blast pointing out all the critters in the scenes, and was absolutely enthralled by the rainforest. By the time we got into the greenhouse, she was having a grand old time. DW and I smiled at each other. Finally, she understands. As we disembarked, DD excitedly exclaimed, "Again daddy, I wanna do it again!"
"Well honey, there are other rides we need to do."
"Okay! Let's go!" SUCCESS!
We moved on to the next pavillion and one of my favorite rides, Journey into Imagination. We toyed briefly with going to see Captain Eo. I saw it the first go round in the 80's, had the stuffed doll of that butterfly gerbil thing to prove it, and my nostalgia wasn't gnawing at me enough to bother with it again, and DW was not much of a fan of the King of Pop to begin with, so we gave that a pass and headed to the main event.
DD took one look at Figment and said, "I have him!" It took me a minute to figure out what she meant, but then I remembered, when I got Eo's flying Richard Gere joke, I also got a stuffed Figment. I had collected him along with a number of other dolls from my mother's house while cleaning it out and gave them to DD. This was a good sign. LWtL was one thing, but the Figment ride plays with your senses, including going dark. If she was familiar with Figment, that might distract her enough from being scared (though you'd figure that's what should have happened on Nemo too...but she was still a noob at that time. Now she's experienced. Right?)
Well she went through that like a trooper as well. Loved the wackiness of the whole thing. "Daddy, he's in the bath on the ceiling, that's silly!" All too soon, it was over and we made our way into the labs, and DD went nuts with those magical floor instruments (so did DW, but don't tell her I told you that). I had to drag them both outside, where I got a nice shot of them by the fountain.
That pyramid makes me want to play Tempest for some reason.
We either headed to Spaceship Earth or Universe of Energy at this time. Not sure which was first. Spaceship Earth makes more sense, but I seem to think we did that later in the day. In any case, we came back through Innovations West building and ran face to face into Rafiki and his handler. "Uh oh," I thought, "this might be bad." You see, DD has this thing with large apes, specifically gorilla costumes (I know Rafiki is not a gorilla, but she's 3, she just knows he's a giant monkey). We think it all stems from a Spongebob episode where Spongebob and Patrick were attacked by a "real" guy in a gorilla suit. Freaked her out. Ever since then, she's been afeared of gorillas, both real and fake. And she's not really familiar with "Lion King", so I wasn't sure how she'd react.
I'd say she reacted okay.
She grabbed the autograph book from me and ran up to him. No prompting at all. Rafiki dropped to one knee, she ran up, gave him a big hug, and handed him the book. Full disclosure here, joy swelled up in my DisDad heart, and I teared up a little. Heck, I'm getting a might choked up thinking about it now. "I'm sorry Rafiki, we have to keep going," said his CM handler. Rafiki waved goodbye, blew DD a kiss, and they were on there way. I'm not sure where they were headed, but it was a little moment of magic that happened just for us. No line, no one else around. Just us, Rafiki, and a little patented Disney pixie dust.
I'm pretty certain we did Spaceship Earth next. It probably was the longest wait of the day, as about three full Brazillian tour groups got in line right before us. Oh well, as it was, the wait was only about 20 minutes, and it's always a fun ride. I like the addition of the video at the end. Nice little bit of interactivity. After SE, we sent the videos to ourselves and headed to Club Cool as we were a bit parched and, hey, free pop! We tried the usual suspects, until only one was left. I stood there, cup in hand, staring at the Beverly dispenser. DW looked at me funny, "You're not gonna try that again? That one was AWFUL." (Of course, when we got there, she asked me, "Which one was the gross one from last time?" I was a nice guy and identified it for her). But surely, it can't be as bad as I remember, right?
Yes. I'm an idiot.
I had just enough time to wash my pallette out with another 5 cups of Lychee Mellow before the place was filled with Brazillians, and we made our way to Universe of Energy.
Purty flowers, purty girls.
Another Wild Card, as we were not sure how DD would react to all the dinosaurs, but it was getting close to naptime (no lunch for us, we were all still full from Breakfast), and we thought, hey, maybe she'll sleep through it, because hey, 3 years old and a boring movie about energy. Well, DD must be a bigger Ellen fan than I thought, because she was enthralled by the whole ride, didn't even bat an eye at the dinosaurs.
Next two pavillions were, of course, Mission: Space and Test Track. Well, I would not even look at the Mission to Mars pavillion. I got SO sick the last time we were there (before they added the less intensive mode). So sick we passed on Test Track last time. The wait was only 20 minutes, but it was so warm in there, and I just couldn't handle it. I told DW she could go on it while I recovered, but she wanted to stick with me. What a gal! In any case, we both missed out on Test Track last time, and were eager to try it out this time.
Well, it was not to be. The wait time was 60 minutes, no way were we gonna stand in line with a 3 year old that long. No problem, Fast Pass, right. Yeah no, all gone. Peanut Butter! Looks like Test Track would elude us for another trip.
But we had no time to pout, the World Showcase beckoned!
Next time on A Very Turkey Trip Report: The World Showcase!
TL
<===They don't have a "back ache" smiley, so this one will have to do. 
I can't wait to see how that worked out overall
esp. if a fellow Wisconsinite says it is good enough to try to take with.
Now, where is the bubbler? 
So very very true!
