CleveRocks -- Day 3, "The Bestest Ride Ever"

[CleveRocks]

DAY 3 – Tuesday, May 10 – Epcot (“The Bestest Ride Ever”)

Lisa could see pretty well this morning, and Ben offered only a minor fit when we tried to leave, so all in all not a terrible start to the day. That is, until our bus dropped us off at Epcot and we had a LONG walk to the front gate; let’s just say MIL is not a fan of long walks, and much like the guy from the new DVD planning video she became familiar with every bench along the way.

Before anyone asks what’s missing from this Trip Report, we decided to skip World Showcase. With everything else to do in WDW and our limited time, energy, and pain threshold, we decided months ago to skip that part of Epcot. Rightly or wrongly, we figured that out of everything the four parks had to offer, our 5-year-old and 2½-year-old would get less out of World Showcase than any other area.

Where was I ...?

I faced a tough choice about whether to go left or right upon entering Future World; I’d had enough of my in-laws and just decided I was making the decisions and if they didn’t like it they could do their own thing. For example, MIL thought it was obvious to do Spaceship Earth first, and I could not convince her of the straight-forward logic against that. She eventually decided she wanted to stick with the kids and roll her eyes at my ideas. Anyway, to the left was Test Track and Mission: Space, and right was Soarin’. I was leaning left, figuring two was better than one.

I know, I know, Soarin’ is BRAND NEW, what was I thinking???!!! What was I thinking? I was thinking I was last in Epcot in 1990, so Test Track and Mission:Space were brand new as far as I was concerned.

My FIL for the first time expressed an opinion that wasn’t negative, so we followed his preference and went left. In his words, he wanted to ride “Fast Track” and “Mission to Mars.” I got us FastPasses for Test Track, and then guided us to Universe of Energy. They really improved it in the last 15 years. My wife and I are huge Ellen DeGeneres fans, so that made Ellen’s Energy Adventure that much more fun for us. As expected, my son loved it because of the dinosaurs. I swear he’s part dinosaur. When he was three, he used to quite correctly correct my pronunciation of dinosaurs I’d never even heard of before, such as struthiomimus. My daughter cowered during some parts of the ride, but she enjoyed some of it, too.

We got Mission:Space FastPasses, and then were off to Test Track. It was FIL, Lisa, Ben and me. Ben really wanted to ride with his zayda, and once I realized you sit three across I definitely wanted him to be in the middle; he chose Lisa to sit on the other side of him, and I sat behind them. Fil had trouble getting his seat belt on and began to panic, trying and flailing but being more ineffective with each passing second. Then the car started moving forward and he got even worse. I put my hands on his shoulders and assured him there had to be a seat belt check sometime before the ride started, but this didn’t get him to calm down. Even after we got to the seat belt checking CM and the car stopped, FIL was still bright red and flailing about trying to click his seat belt, and Ben was laughing at him pretty hard. The ride was great, but if I’d realized part of it was outdoors I would have kept my sunglasses on – I felt bugs and/or airborne debris hitting me in the face as we zoomed around the bend. When we got off the ride, Ben told me it was “the bestest ride ever.”

Lisa, MIL, and the kids went across the park towards Imagination to find a shady spot for a bag lunch while FIL and I went to use our Mission:Space FastPasses to bypass the 45 minute stand-by line. Everywhere leading up to the ride, and inside the antechamber, there are signs and announcements warning certain people away from the ride. There were four conditions, three of which were prone to motion sickness, dislike enclosed dark spaces, and dislike spinning. Yes, yes, and YES. I still really wanted to ride, anyway. My Dad rode it last year, and I’d also read it helps to focus on an object on the monitor and NOT close your eyes, and if I didn’t already know it, Gary Sinese told it to me in pre-flight. All I can say is thank God for the cool air they blow across your face during the ride, because I’m sure that was the biggest factor in my not needing one of the ample supply of barf bags. I loved the ride, as did FIL. However, I felt slightly dizzy for about the next hour, and even several hours later I felt a sort-of flashback when, of all things, I rode one of the elevators in The Living Seas. FIL had a great time making fun of me all day, and since I deserved it I let him have his fun. He was clueless as usual, however. When I told him how the spinning messed with my inner ears, he insisted we were never spinning and said the warnings about it must have been some sort of misdirection. I asked him how he thought they produced the g-forces we felt, especially during lift off. He said it must have been some kind of special effect. Since he’s a pharmacist and I have a lot of chemistry classes under my belt, I tried explaining to him that in the ride we were in a giant centrifuge and that our backs were being pressed against the bottom of the test tube, but he didn’t buy it. I told him, in his own language, he should get another SpeedPass for Mission to Mars and check it out again. We had two extra FastPasses (which I originally got in case we loved it so much we wanted to run back and do it again), so in one of those great-feeling Disney moments I found a couple near the Mission:Space entrance and gave them my two extra FastPasses.

We joined up with our wives and the kids and ate part of a bagged sandwich outside Imagination. We then walked right onto the Journey Into Imagination ride where I finished my lunch and saw my kids enjoy themselves. They also loved the big play area after the ride; each made funny-looking pictures of themselves that we e-mailed home for free. My kids had just gotten into the idea of pin collecting and trading last night (we originally got some free ones as part of our Dream Maker package and from DME), so we got them each Figment pins.

Everyone was wilting from heat and fatigue at this point, but again we felt the need to press on. They all went towards The Living Seas, but I had to run into The Land to check out the Soarin’ scene. I saw the biggest crowd I’d seen in Florida thus far. Between Soarin’ and the food court, that pavilion was more crowded than the men’s room at a bar on nickel beer night. What made it worse was the most important ride wasn’t running: the escalators! I ran down to Soarin’ and saw 70 minute stand-by waits and FastPass return times that I’m sure were actually for a different time zone, so I rejoined the family outside The Living Seas.

Once we sat through the movie (which the kids loved), my son was completely in heaven with all of the sea life around him. We lined up for Turtle Talk with Crush just in time to be the first family not admitted. It was worth the wait, though. I’m absolutely flabbergasted by the technology they use. I can understand a talented improv actor voicing Crush, but I couldn’t fathom how they made him move with the improvised vocals. Pure Disney magic, and after my week in The World NOTHING impressed me more than this attraction. Oh yeh, and the kids had a good time too, I guess.

Spaceship Earth was next, followed by our exit from Epcot. We had only about a 45 minute rest in our rooms at CBR and then it was off to the Magic Kingdom for our character dinner PS at Crystal Palace. Finally, I did something right. My in-laws enjoyed the food my kids mostly liked the characters. Mollie was frightened of them but Ben and the rest of us enjoyed Pooh, Eeyore, Piglet, and of course Tigger.

It was 8:30 when we got out. We found a great bench in front of the restaurant from which to watch Wishes (say THAT three times fast). We then realized the park was open ‘til 10:00 p.m. not 9:00 p.m., and that Spectromagic started at 9:00 p.m. Since we wanted to take Ben to the Haunted Mansion anyway, we led the in-laws to Liberty Square, where again they couldn’t understand the concept that the kids aren’t as tall as them and thus can’t see the parade route through four rows of people like they can. In front of the Hall of Presidents, we somehow found some wall space for MIL and FIL to sit on that had unobstructed street space in front of it so the kids could sit. It was about 8:45 p.m., just enough time for Lisa and me to run with Ben to Haunted Mansion and walk right on. He said it scared him but that he loved it, as did I – it’s one of the few attractions I have memories of from my MK visit when I was five years old. We got back just in time for the parade, which of course was sooo magical for the kids. We then found a half-way decent spot for Wishes between Crystal Palace and Adventureland. Poor Mollie was so tuckered out she fell asleep about 10 minutes into it, and not even the finale woke her up.

Great MIL moment to end the day. Wishes is over, all of America is heading for Main Street and the park exit. We’re on the path from Crystal Palace to Main Street, and Mil decided the crowd was just too thick to mess with, and she decided we should stop (and she should sit) until the crowd subsided. I totally agreed with her. HOWEVER, about 10 minutes later she said, “I’ve had enough of this, let’s go,” even though the crowd was just as big as it was 10 minutes earlier. In other words, we succeeded in letting about 20,000 people get in line ahead of us for the bus and STILL had to deal with the huge crowd going down Main Street. Unbelievable. To cap off the night, a man in a wheelchair apparently went out of control, rolled down off the sidewalk and bashed right into Lisa’s right leg, causing her to fall to the ground. My guess is he had a stroke or some sort of brain injury, because when I asked him why he did that half of his face silently contorted while the other half remain motionless, and the same thing happened when I told him the very least he could do was apologize to her. I then saw a family member or helper retrieve him from the street and pull his chair back onto the sidewalk, which led me to put all the pieces together and give the diagnosis of negligent caretakers. Lisa was shocked but fine. After a 30 minute wait for a bus, Ben mercifully fell asleep on the bus back to CBR, and we successfully transferred both kids to bed.

We made the heretical decision to let the kids sleep in tomorrow morning and to spend the day at the resort so they’d be spry and awake for our 5:00 p.m. Hoop Dee Doo Revue reservation.

I was still awake and began reading The DaVinci Code. I’m up on all the hot new trends, I hear there’s a new show called Survivor that’s supposed to be really good, too! Anyway, I realized I screwed up and forgot to pack a flashlight to read by. Lisa to the rescue – I read by the light of her otoscope, the thing doctors use to look in your ears, nose and mouth. Unorthodox, sure, but it pinpointed the light better than any flashlight could.

 

[OhMari]

Just had to comment on the new show that was suppose to be like "Survivor", wasn't it Hidden Treasurer? It was the only thing I watched this summer. I basically had a no tv summer, besides that show and a few movies. I did go on-line and try to figure out the clues, that was fun.