crazyj4488
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 24, 2005
- Messages
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WDW Trip Report April 24-30, 2005
Day 4 Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Link Backs to Previous Reports:
Day 1 http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=811849
Day 2 http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=812682
Day 3 http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=814464
Fastpasses Falling From my Pockets While Riding a Segway
Cast:
Me Jeff - 29 yr old male 9th time to WDW
My GF Sally 27 yr old Female 1st time to WDW
I began my morning by fumbling around for the snooze button on the alarm clock. I did this twice and that extra 20 minutes of sleep was just what the doctor ordered that morning. EPCOT was on our morning itinerary and you could see Spaceship Earth looming over the trees just down the road from our resort. I knew we didnt need much time to get to the park and had no problem grabbing some extra Zs. Even with the 20 minutes of extra sleep, Sally didnt seem too enthusiastic about rising. I felt bad for dragging us out of bed each morning so, while she was showering, I made the trek over to the main building to get us some breakfast.
The morning walk to the food court was a pleasant one. It was a bit overcast from the rain we had the night before and the grounds of the resort were well watered down. As I made my way through Ole Man Island, I noticed a duck floating around in the pool. This just about made me laugh out loud. There were waterways everywhere around our resort and this crazy duck choose to take a dip in the pool. I dont think I had ever seen a duck traversing a chlorine treated lake before.
The food court looked like the inside of an old sawmill or something along those lines. The working waterwheel outside of the main building was turning some large gears in the dining area. I grabbed two egg and bacon breakfast croissants and a cinnamon roll and toted them back to the room.
Sally was brewing some coffee when I returned to the room. Since I was still a bit groggy, I decided to pour myself a cup. Its rare for me to drink coffee as I prefer my caffeine to be cold and carbonated in the morning. Sally looked quite appreciative that I had gone out of my way to get us breakfast. She knew how long the walk to the main building was and gave me a kiss on the cheek before we sat down to eat our breakfast. I smiled and patted myself on the back for being such a good boyfriend.
The news was reporting clear skies with highs in the lower 80s. I knew the rain would bring in some increased levels of humidity and I wasnt looking forward to the rising temperatures expected through the remainder of our trip.
We quickly arrived at EPCOT around 8:30 AM and parked our car near the front. There were, maybe, 100 other people waiting at the front gate. Shortly thereafter, they started letting people through the turnstiles. Yet again, Sally got into a nasty fight with the ticketing system. I chuckled and pointed at her while she rolled her eyes. I thought of getting her a genuine Disney World ticket system for Christmas as she seemed to be having so much fun with them during our trip.
They only let us walk as far as the rope barrier which was situated near the entrance of Spaceship Earth. This was right under the foot of the structure that helped support the giant golf ball. It was quite windy in this area and I explained to Sally that, in architectural terms, the structure surrounding the entrance of Spaceship Earth was called a ventana. The downward sloping tunnels of decreasing width channeled and accelerated the natural flow of air into the area. This is why it was always so cool and windy underneath Spaceship Earth. If you every find yourself overwhelmed by the Florida heat while at EPCOT, take a break with a cool drink near the foot of Spaceship Earth. The climate is always pleasant there.
Right around 9:00 AM a red double-decker bus full of Disney characters and a test track ride vehicle pulled up near the rope barrier. We experienced another grand opening ceremony and anxiously made our way towards the Test Track ride with most of the other people which were waiting at the rope in tow.
I quickly grabbed a set of Fastpasses for Test Track before getting in the standby line for the attraction. Securing a second ride without waiting in line for this one was on the top of my to-do list and one of the reasons I was at EPCOT for the grand opening on this morning. I loved the ride and I knew Sally would too.
In just under 10 minutes, we had made our way through the pre-show area and boarded our vehicles which were, essentially, convertible sports cars. After checking our safety belts, we were off to the testing grounds.
Skidding through the turns and blasting our way outdoors onto the speed track was great. Sally yelled as we hit the banked turns at 65 miles per hour. This was only my second visit to Test Track since it had been opened and I was enjoying every minute of it along with Sally. Neither of us could wait to take one more ride but moved on with our plans knowing we had secured Fastpasses for a return time that was not too far away.
The research I had done before my trip had told me that, during this month, EPCOT was testing their Fastpass system by letting guests gather a second pass for a different attraction immediately after the first one was issued. They, typically, only let you get a second Fastpass after the return window on your existing pass has rolled around. I looked at my Test Track ticket and, sure enough, it said I was free to get another Fastpass at any time. This was great! I could get a small stack of Fastpasses for every attraction we wanted to see without having to wait.
Sally didnt want to ride Mission Space again but I just couldnt pass it up. She said she didnt want to stop me from doing anything and told me to have fun. I headed for the attraction entrance while she headed for a smoke break.
I grabbed a couple of Fastpasses for Mission Space just in case Sally felt like riding it later. Again, I was able to grab this set of Fastpasses shortly after I had already grabbed a pair at Test Track. I was pretty excited about now holding two sets of Fastpasses and quickly entered the ride queue. There was a 5 minute standby time posted.
I had only two other guys on my team this time around. I took the navigator position and boarded the spaceship. I felt like a kid in there and started hitting all the buttons and flipping the switches. It was great! Throughout the entire space flight, I did this. I felt somewhat silly at first, but I didnt care. It was nice feeling free to let my mind wander a bit while experiencing this ride. I had a smile on my face after exiting the building and that was all that mattered.
I met back up with Sally near Test Track and decided to see if I could grab, yet another, set of Fastpasses. I pulled out Sallys park ticket, stuck it into the machine, and out came another pass. I couldnt believe it. My excitement quickly died down when I went to get my annual pass out for one more Fastpass. It was nowhere to be found in my ticket holder or pockets. I panicked for a minute before realizing that the pass was tied to my name and that I should be able to get my old pass cancelled while being re-issued a new one. I told Sally about what had happened and she told me to calm down. Shes used to me getting worked up about little things and re-assured me that we could work through the issue with no problems. Just for the heck of it, we walked back over to Mission Space to see if I could find my ticket. I just knew I had left it in the Fastpass machine after getting a bit excited over getting issued multiple passes. I wasnt thinking or paying close enough attention given that I was acting like a kid in a candy store.
I asked one of the cast members at Mission Space if they had found any tickets left in the pass dispensers. She checked a small lock box next to the front doors and came up with nothing. She directed me towards the gift shop and said they had a lost and found there. Again, I had no luck locating it there either. Therefore, off to guest relations Sally and I went.
The cast member at guest relations was helpful in locating my name in the computer using my license and quickly came up with another annual pass for me. The pass cost me $420; Losing this and not being able to get it replaced would have been a pretty lousy experience. Sally and the cast member had a good time making a big deal over me being scatter brained. Upon exiting guest relations with my new ticket tucked securely away in my pocket, we discovered that the whole fiasco had happened for a reason. A cast member on a Segway rode up to us and asked us if we would like to ride one. We were like, heck yeah! They were testing a new Segway program called, Simply Segway in which people could take a class that taught them how to ride one of these machines and then go for a brief excursion around Future World. They needed volunteers to test the program before offering it to the public. Typically, you had to pay an $80 fee to take the 2 hour Segway tour each morning at EPCOT so we walked back into guest relations and reserved the free class for 1:45 PM that day. It was just after 10:15 AM.
Next, we hoofed it over to The Land pavilion in hopes of catching a preview of Soarin. The ride wasnt set to open until May 5th but I had read online that they were letting select groups of people ride it all month long before the official opening. To our surprise, the attraction seemed to be operating normally even though they had a 100 minute standby time posted. I first grabbed some Fastpasses for it since the machines were up and running. I thought it was odd that the standby wait time was posted as 100 minutes when it was quite early in the morning and there were few people in the area. I asked a cast member if the time was accurate and he winked at me while saying, no. I figured they were keeping the standby times posted as unreasonably long in order to keep the number of people trying to preview the ride to a minimum.
Sally and I excitedly entered the brand new attractions queue area and thought it was beautiful. There were huge backlit pictures of different biomes posted on the walls, blue neon lights playfully flowing down the hallways, and light fixtures overhead that looked like clouds. The theming for this ride was very well done.
We quickly got to the loading area and were being sorted into rows in no time. Several plasma screens hung overhead and showed different city names flying through the clouds. In about 5 minutes, the pre-show started to play on the same screens. Sally pointed out that the guy in the training video was an old character from the Seinfeld T.V. series. After seeing that, we walked into the auditorium and strapped ourselves into our hang gliders. It was pretty dark in the room and all we could see in front of us was a huge semi-circular movie screen softly lit in a deep blue color.
The cast members thanked us for previewing the new attraction, gave the go signal, and our hang gliders slowly started to rise up into the air until we were positioned in right front of the huge Imax type screen. As the images of trees and mountains moved past us, the ride vehicles gently swayed in perfect synch with what was happening on the screen. Our entire field of view was taken up by the screen and it created a wonderful sensation of gliding through the air. This was something anyone could enjoy. As we passed over pine trees, we could smell the scent of pine. As we flew over orange groves, a breeze moved over us and we could smell the scent of oranges. In no time at all, we were flying above Disneyland park in California at night while the fireworks were being sent up over Sleeping Beautys castle. Sally and I were telling each other how cool the experience was throughout the entire ride.
After the fireworks finale, the hang gliders slowly descended back towards the floor and our feet were touching the ground in no time so we could make our exit. This was an amazing experience that we promised to repeat at least one more time before ending our vacation. I already had a pair of Fastpasses in my pocket so this was a certainty.
On our way out of the building, I went ahead and picked up a pair of Fastpasses to the Living with the Land boat ride just in case we felt like riding it later in the day. I was now holding about 8 Fastpasses. We were just about guaranteed to not wait for any attractions on this day. I was so happy everything was fitting perfectly into my plan of not standing in line for anything while on our vacation despite the crowds of Northeastern Spring breakers.
Our Test Track return time was well upon us so we headed over to the opposite side of Future World. Sally pulled me into the Mousegear gift shop so we could look for a ticket holder hanging from a lanyard. She figured hanging our tickets around my neck would keep them from walking off. Not caring too much about my looks while on this vacation, I thought it was a good idea. We didnt find anything quite suitable but picked up two t-shirts instead. I picked out an old school styled Mickey Mouse shirt while sally grabbed a long sleeve shirt with a small EPCOT logo on it. We had the cashier deliver them to the merchandise pickup so the goods would be waiting for us at the front of the park when we exited for the day. This would prevent us from having to carry around a bag while we were touring the park.
After donating some money to the Disney souvenir fund, we quickly walked over to and boarded Test Track for another great ride. This time, I managed to get some pictures of us roaring down the speed track outside. I snapped a pic of the sign posting our speed and it read 61.54 miles per hour. It would hit 65 by the time we hit the last banked turn to return back to base.
By this time, the sun was doing a good job of wearing us out and our feet were a bit sore. We didnt want to leave the park before getting to experience our Segway class so we took a brief rest on a bench situated in the Innovation East breezeway. We surmised that we had just enough time to sneak in one more ride at Soarin before having to get to our class.
The second ride of Soarin was a bit frustrating for Sally. We split up as single riders so we could board immediately. We only had 20 minutes until our Segway class started and we had to keep moving. Sally got seated off to the side, could see feet dangling in her field of view, and upon exiting the ride, found that someones water bottle had let go all over her bag while it was stowed in the storage nets below her seat. She was a bit frustrated over this but I told her to calm down a bit as we made our way over to guest relations to report in for our class.
The Segway class was held in a hidden room within the Innoventions West building. The cast members teaching the class were quite friendly and clear with their instructions. After two safety videos and a full explanation of how the vehicle worked, everyone was able to board their own unit.
Both Sally and I wobbled around on the Segway when we first powered it up and stepped on it. It was an odd sensation and many others around us were wildly swaying back and forth on the machine before gaining their balance. It was a bit like riding a bicycle for the first time. I quickly got the hang of balancing myself in the standing position as the machine itself was doing most of the work to keep me steady. I immediately felt the need to buy one but couldnt really think of anywhere to easily ride it around where I lived. Houston is one of the most foot or small vehicle unfriendly towns in the country. If you dont have a car in Houston, you might as well retire and vow to never leave the house again.
After a slew of exercises involving maneuvering the Segway around traffic cone courses and slopes, we pretty much had a good grasp of getting around on one of these futuristic vehicles. At one point, an older gentleman had a fairly large accident when he panicked and went flying into the seating area. He knocked over 5 plastic chairs and a younger woman who was seated in the area. 3 cast members rushed over to alleviate the situation and check on the girl. She had a couple of bruises on her arm but seemed understanding of the situation and didnt put up too much of a fuss. Before we knew it, we were allowed to ride the odd machines out into a roped off area of Future World. Handfuls of small crowds gathered to watch our processional of goofy looking vehicles. We all felt sort of special getting to have this experience.
After riding around a sculpture garden near the Imagination pavilion several times, we returned to the classroom to wrap things up. We told the cast members what we thought of the class and the comments were mostly positive other than having to pay $45 for just an hour class. I would have paid to experience it but Sally wasnt as enthusiastic and thought they should offer some sort of concession to make the whole deal more attractive. Of course, she suggested they serve ice cream as she has some sort of odd obsession with the dairy treat. Thats Sally for ya. She could sell ice cubes to an Eskimo.
We were both quite exhausted by this time. It was nearing 2:30 PM and we really needed a break. I didnt feel bad about skipping out on the World Showcase or any other attractions in lieu of the Segway class. It was a worthy experience but the time had come to get off our feet and out of the sun for a bit.
On the way to the EPCOT parking lot, I stopped at the merchandise pickup counter to grab our t-shirts. This was a great service and they would have delivered directly to our room but you have to give them 24 hours.
We returned to the hotel room and I immediately jumped into the shower. We both napped and then got ready for our 6:30 PM Fantasmic dinner show package at The Disney Studios. A good dinner was just what we needed after expending so much energy throughout the morning.
We arrived at the park just in time for our dinner reservations. The parking attendant was waving me over to some spots towards the rear of the first parking section. I ignored him and drove right up to the front as I knew there would be many spots open from the guests that had left the park earlier in the afternoon. While getting out of the car, I saw a security vehicle pull up to the attendant to block other cars from doing the same thing. I laughed at this and thanked the internet forums for suggesting this deviant behavior. There were tons of spaces up front so I dont understand why the parking attendants felt the need to stack everyone in the back of the lot. Maybe they were afraid that people would start playing bumper cars while trying to park in between two cars versus having a football field full of spots to park in. Anyways, we got into the park quicker this way and knew we would be able to quickly get back to our car while walking on tired feet. Again, my touring plans for this vacation were all about staying one step ahead of the crowds.
We walked down Hollywood Boulevard and arrived at the Hollywood & Vine restaurant for our 6:30 PM seating. They handed us our Fantasmic VIP cards and told us to wait for our names to be called. While we waited to be seated, a clunker of a van pulled up playing some loud music. Three stooges of sorts exited the vehicle and started up some antics amongst the people walking around the park. While watching all of this go down, Sally started to feel nauseous. Our names were called just in time for Sally to get a cold drink and excuse herself to the restroom. She was a bit run down from our busy morning and badly needed to eat. After taking a break and enjoying a great buffet meal, she seemed a lot happier and ready for our VIP Fantasmic show seats. The dinner package included priority seating for Fantasmic in order to prevent having to wait an hour or more in advanced to be guaranteed a decent seat in the outdoor amphitheater. We walked right to our roped off seats only 20 minutes before show time and had a great time watching the show. The projected images on the walls of water, fireworks, lasers, and lake of fire were a treat and I took a lot of beautiful pictures. The unique thing about the Fantasmic show was the integration of the live action characters into the story. We watched in delight as boat after boat rode by all lit up with colorful lights and characters dancing on-board to the music. It truly has, consistently, been one of Disneys most well produced shows.
We exited the park, got to our car before most guests, and headed towards Walgreens on 535 in order to grab some breakfast items for the next morning. Returning to our room for the evening felt great. Sally showered, poured some drinks, and we both layed down in bed to watch Jay Leno and Conan O Brian. We had made it through another busy day without standing in lines or dealing with crowds. The only thing left to do was to fall asleep with a smile and dreams of more adventures to come dancing in our heads.
Day 4 Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Link Backs to Previous Reports:
Day 1 http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=811849
Day 2 http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=812682
Day 3 http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=814464
Fastpasses Falling From my Pockets While Riding a Segway
Cast:
Me Jeff - 29 yr old male 9th time to WDW
My GF Sally 27 yr old Female 1st time to WDW
I began my morning by fumbling around for the snooze button on the alarm clock. I did this twice and that extra 20 minutes of sleep was just what the doctor ordered that morning. EPCOT was on our morning itinerary and you could see Spaceship Earth looming over the trees just down the road from our resort. I knew we didnt need much time to get to the park and had no problem grabbing some extra Zs. Even with the 20 minutes of extra sleep, Sally didnt seem too enthusiastic about rising. I felt bad for dragging us out of bed each morning so, while she was showering, I made the trek over to the main building to get us some breakfast.
The morning walk to the food court was a pleasant one. It was a bit overcast from the rain we had the night before and the grounds of the resort were well watered down. As I made my way through Ole Man Island, I noticed a duck floating around in the pool. This just about made me laugh out loud. There were waterways everywhere around our resort and this crazy duck choose to take a dip in the pool. I dont think I had ever seen a duck traversing a chlorine treated lake before.
The food court looked like the inside of an old sawmill or something along those lines. The working waterwheel outside of the main building was turning some large gears in the dining area. I grabbed two egg and bacon breakfast croissants and a cinnamon roll and toted them back to the room.
Sally was brewing some coffee when I returned to the room. Since I was still a bit groggy, I decided to pour myself a cup. Its rare for me to drink coffee as I prefer my caffeine to be cold and carbonated in the morning. Sally looked quite appreciative that I had gone out of my way to get us breakfast. She knew how long the walk to the main building was and gave me a kiss on the cheek before we sat down to eat our breakfast. I smiled and patted myself on the back for being such a good boyfriend.
The news was reporting clear skies with highs in the lower 80s. I knew the rain would bring in some increased levels of humidity and I wasnt looking forward to the rising temperatures expected through the remainder of our trip.
We quickly arrived at EPCOT around 8:30 AM and parked our car near the front. There were, maybe, 100 other people waiting at the front gate. Shortly thereafter, they started letting people through the turnstiles. Yet again, Sally got into a nasty fight with the ticketing system. I chuckled and pointed at her while she rolled her eyes. I thought of getting her a genuine Disney World ticket system for Christmas as she seemed to be having so much fun with them during our trip.
They only let us walk as far as the rope barrier which was situated near the entrance of Spaceship Earth. This was right under the foot of the structure that helped support the giant golf ball. It was quite windy in this area and I explained to Sally that, in architectural terms, the structure surrounding the entrance of Spaceship Earth was called a ventana. The downward sloping tunnels of decreasing width channeled and accelerated the natural flow of air into the area. This is why it was always so cool and windy underneath Spaceship Earth. If you every find yourself overwhelmed by the Florida heat while at EPCOT, take a break with a cool drink near the foot of Spaceship Earth. The climate is always pleasant there.
Right around 9:00 AM a red double-decker bus full of Disney characters and a test track ride vehicle pulled up near the rope barrier. We experienced another grand opening ceremony and anxiously made our way towards the Test Track ride with most of the other people which were waiting at the rope in tow.
I quickly grabbed a set of Fastpasses for Test Track before getting in the standby line for the attraction. Securing a second ride without waiting in line for this one was on the top of my to-do list and one of the reasons I was at EPCOT for the grand opening on this morning. I loved the ride and I knew Sally would too.
In just under 10 minutes, we had made our way through the pre-show area and boarded our vehicles which were, essentially, convertible sports cars. After checking our safety belts, we were off to the testing grounds.
Skidding through the turns and blasting our way outdoors onto the speed track was great. Sally yelled as we hit the banked turns at 65 miles per hour. This was only my second visit to Test Track since it had been opened and I was enjoying every minute of it along with Sally. Neither of us could wait to take one more ride but moved on with our plans knowing we had secured Fastpasses for a return time that was not too far away.
The research I had done before my trip had told me that, during this month, EPCOT was testing their Fastpass system by letting guests gather a second pass for a different attraction immediately after the first one was issued. They, typically, only let you get a second Fastpass after the return window on your existing pass has rolled around. I looked at my Test Track ticket and, sure enough, it said I was free to get another Fastpass at any time. This was great! I could get a small stack of Fastpasses for every attraction we wanted to see without having to wait.
Sally didnt want to ride Mission Space again but I just couldnt pass it up. She said she didnt want to stop me from doing anything and told me to have fun. I headed for the attraction entrance while she headed for a smoke break.
I grabbed a couple of Fastpasses for Mission Space just in case Sally felt like riding it later. Again, I was able to grab this set of Fastpasses shortly after I had already grabbed a pair at Test Track. I was pretty excited about now holding two sets of Fastpasses and quickly entered the ride queue. There was a 5 minute standby time posted.
I had only two other guys on my team this time around. I took the navigator position and boarded the spaceship. I felt like a kid in there and started hitting all the buttons and flipping the switches. It was great! Throughout the entire space flight, I did this. I felt somewhat silly at first, but I didnt care. It was nice feeling free to let my mind wander a bit while experiencing this ride. I had a smile on my face after exiting the building and that was all that mattered.
I met back up with Sally near Test Track and decided to see if I could grab, yet another, set of Fastpasses. I pulled out Sallys park ticket, stuck it into the machine, and out came another pass. I couldnt believe it. My excitement quickly died down when I went to get my annual pass out for one more Fastpass. It was nowhere to be found in my ticket holder or pockets. I panicked for a minute before realizing that the pass was tied to my name and that I should be able to get my old pass cancelled while being re-issued a new one. I told Sally about what had happened and she told me to calm down. Shes used to me getting worked up about little things and re-assured me that we could work through the issue with no problems. Just for the heck of it, we walked back over to Mission Space to see if I could find my ticket. I just knew I had left it in the Fastpass machine after getting a bit excited over getting issued multiple passes. I wasnt thinking or paying close enough attention given that I was acting like a kid in a candy store.
I asked one of the cast members at Mission Space if they had found any tickets left in the pass dispensers. She checked a small lock box next to the front doors and came up with nothing. She directed me towards the gift shop and said they had a lost and found there. Again, I had no luck locating it there either. Therefore, off to guest relations Sally and I went.
The cast member at guest relations was helpful in locating my name in the computer using my license and quickly came up with another annual pass for me. The pass cost me $420; Losing this and not being able to get it replaced would have been a pretty lousy experience. Sally and the cast member had a good time making a big deal over me being scatter brained. Upon exiting guest relations with my new ticket tucked securely away in my pocket, we discovered that the whole fiasco had happened for a reason. A cast member on a Segway rode up to us and asked us if we would like to ride one. We were like, heck yeah! They were testing a new Segway program called, Simply Segway in which people could take a class that taught them how to ride one of these machines and then go for a brief excursion around Future World. They needed volunteers to test the program before offering it to the public. Typically, you had to pay an $80 fee to take the 2 hour Segway tour each morning at EPCOT so we walked back into guest relations and reserved the free class for 1:45 PM that day. It was just after 10:15 AM.
Next, we hoofed it over to The Land pavilion in hopes of catching a preview of Soarin. The ride wasnt set to open until May 5th but I had read online that they were letting select groups of people ride it all month long before the official opening. To our surprise, the attraction seemed to be operating normally even though they had a 100 minute standby time posted. I first grabbed some Fastpasses for it since the machines were up and running. I thought it was odd that the standby wait time was posted as 100 minutes when it was quite early in the morning and there were few people in the area. I asked a cast member if the time was accurate and he winked at me while saying, no. I figured they were keeping the standby times posted as unreasonably long in order to keep the number of people trying to preview the ride to a minimum.
Sally and I excitedly entered the brand new attractions queue area and thought it was beautiful. There were huge backlit pictures of different biomes posted on the walls, blue neon lights playfully flowing down the hallways, and light fixtures overhead that looked like clouds. The theming for this ride was very well done.
We quickly got to the loading area and were being sorted into rows in no time. Several plasma screens hung overhead and showed different city names flying through the clouds. In about 5 minutes, the pre-show started to play on the same screens. Sally pointed out that the guy in the training video was an old character from the Seinfeld T.V. series. After seeing that, we walked into the auditorium and strapped ourselves into our hang gliders. It was pretty dark in the room and all we could see in front of us was a huge semi-circular movie screen softly lit in a deep blue color.
The cast members thanked us for previewing the new attraction, gave the go signal, and our hang gliders slowly started to rise up into the air until we were positioned in right front of the huge Imax type screen. As the images of trees and mountains moved past us, the ride vehicles gently swayed in perfect synch with what was happening on the screen. Our entire field of view was taken up by the screen and it created a wonderful sensation of gliding through the air. This was something anyone could enjoy. As we passed over pine trees, we could smell the scent of pine. As we flew over orange groves, a breeze moved over us and we could smell the scent of oranges. In no time at all, we were flying above Disneyland park in California at night while the fireworks were being sent up over Sleeping Beautys castle. Sally and I were telling each other how cool the experience was throughout the entire ride.
After the fireworks finale, the hang gliders slowly descended back towards the floor and our feet were touching the ground in no time so we could make our exit. This was an amazing experience that we promised to repeat at least one more time before ending our vacation. I already had a pair of Fastpasses in my pocket so this was a certainty.
On our way out of the building, I went ahead and picked up a pair of Fastpasses to the Living with the Land boat ride just in case we felt like riding it later in the day. I was now holding about 8 Fastpasses. We were just about guaranteed to not wait for any attractions on this day. I was so happy everything was fitting perfectly into my plan of not standing in line for anything while on our vacation despite the crowds of Northeastern Spring breakers.
Our Test Track return time was well upon us so we headed over to the opposite side of Future World. Sally pulled me into the Mousegear gift shop so we could look for a ticket holder hanging from a lanyard. She figured hanging our tickets around my neck would keep them from walking off. Not caring too much about my looks while on this vacation, I thought it was a good idea. We didnt find anything quite suitable but picked up two t-shirts instead. I picked out an old school styled Mickey Mouse shirt while sally grabbed a long sleeve shirt with a small EPCOT logo on it. We had the cashier deliver them to the merchandise pickup so the goods would be waiting for us at the front of the park when we exited for the day. This would prevent us from having to carry around a bag while we were touring the park.
After donating some money to the Disney souvenir fund, we quickly walked over to and boarded Test Track for another great ride. This time, I managed to get some pictures of us roaring down the speed track outside. I snapped a pic of the sign posting our speed and it read 61.54 miles per hour. It would hit 65 by the time we hit the last banked turn to return back to base.
By this time, the sun was doing a good job of wearing us out and our feet were a bit sore. We didnt want to leave the park before getting to experience our Segway class so we took a brief rest on a bench situated in the Innovation East breezeway. We surmised that we had just enough time to sneak in one more ride at Soarin before having to get to our class.
The second ride of Soarin was a bit frustrating for Sally. We split up as single riders so we could board immediately. We only had 20 minutes until our Segway class started and we had to keep moving. Sally got seated off to the side, could see feet dangling in her field of view, and upon exiting the ride, found that someones water bottle had let go all over her bag while it was stowed in the storage nets below her seat. She was a bit frustrated over this but I told her to calm down a bit as we made our way over to guest relations to report in for our class.
The Segway class was held in a hidden room within the Innoventions West building. The cast members teaching the class were quite friendly and clear with their instructions. After two safety videos and a full explanation of how the vehicle worked, everyone was able to board their own unit.
Both Sally and I wobbled around on the Segway when we first powered it up and stepped on it. It was an odd sensation and many others around us were wildly swaying back and forth on the machine before gaining their balance. It was a bit like riding a bicycle for the first time. I quickly got the hang of balancing myself in the standing position as the machine itself was doing most of the work to keep me steady. I immediately felt the need to buy one but couldnt really think of anywhere to easily ride it around where I lived. Houston is one of the most foot or small vehicle unfriendly towns in the country. If you dont have a car in Houston, you might as well retire and vow to never leave the house again.
After a slew of exercises involving maneuvering the Segway around traffic cone courses and slopes, we pretty much had a good grasp of getting around on one of these futuristic vehicles. At one point, an older gentleman had a fairly large accident when he panicked and went flying into the seating area. He knocked over 5 plastic chairs and a younger woman who was seated in the area. 3 cast members rushed over to alleviate the situation and check on the girl. She had a couple of bruises on her arm but seemed understanding of the situation and didnt put up too much of a fuss. Before we knew it, we were allowed to ride the odd machines out into a roped off area of Future World. Handfuls of small crowds gathered to watch our processional of goofy looking vehicles. We all felt sort of special getting to have this experience.
After riding around a sculpture garden near the Imagination pavilion several times, we returned to the classroom to wrap things up. We told the cast members what we thought of the class and the comments were mostly positive other than having to pay $45 for just an hour class. I would have paid to experience it but Sally wasnt as enthusiastic and thought they should offer some sort of concession to make the whole deal more attractive. Of course, she suggested they serve ice cream as she has some sort of odd obsession with the dairy treat. Thats Sally for ya. She could sell ice cubes to an Eskimo.
We were both quite exhausted by this time. It was nearing 2:30 PM and we really needed a break. I didnt feel bad about skipping out on the World Showcase or any other attractions in lieu of the Segway class. It was a worthy experience but the time had come to get off our feet and out of the sun for a bit.
On the way to the EPCOT parking lot, I stopped at the merchandise pickup counter to grab our t-shirts. This was a great service and they would have delivered directly to our room but you have to give them 24 hours.
We returned to the hotel room and I immediately jumped into the shower. We both napped and then got ready for our 6:30 PM Fantasmic dinner show package at The Disney Studios. A good dinner was just what we needed after expending so much energy throughout the morning.
We arrived at the park just in time for our dinner reservations. The parking attendant was waving me over to some spots towards the rear of the first parking section. I ignored him and drove right up to the front as I knew there would be many spots open from the guests that had left the park earlier in the afternoon. While getting out of the car, I saw a security vehicle pull up to the attendant to block other cars from doing the same thing. I laughed at this and thanked the internet forums for suggesting this deviant behavior. There were tons of spaces up front so I dont understand why the parking attendants felt the need to stack everyone in the back of the lot. Maybe they were afraid that people would start playing bumper cars while trying to park in between two cars versus having a football field full of spots to park in. Anyways, we got into the park quicker this way and knew we would be able to quickly get back to our car while walking on tired feet. Again, my touring plans for this vacation were all about staying one step ahead of the crowds.
We walked down Hollywood Boulevard and arrived at the Hollywood & Vine restaurant for our 6:30 PM seating. They handed us our Fantasmic VIP cards and told us to wait for our names to be called. While we waited to be seated, a clunker of a van pulled up playing some loud music. Three stooges of sorts exited the vehicle and started up some antics amongst the people walking around the park. While watching all of this go down, Sally started to feel nauseous. Our names were called just in time for Sally to get a cold drink and excuse herself to the restroom. She was a bit run down from our busy morning and badly needed to eat. After taking a break and enjoying a great buffet meal, she seemed a lot happier and ready for our VIP Fantasmic show seats. The dinner package included priority seating for Fantasmic in order to prevent having to wait an hour or more in advanced to be guaranteed a decent seat in the outdoor amphitheater. We walked right to our roped off seats only 20 minutes before show time and had a great time watching the show. The projected images on the walls of water, fireworks, lasers, and lake of fire were a treat and I took a lot of beautiful pictures. The unique thing about the Fantasmic show was the integration of the live action characters into the story. We watched in delight as boat after boat rode by all lit up with colorful lights and characters dancing on-board to the music. It truly has, consistently, been one of Disneys most well produced shows.
We exited the park, got to our car before most guests, and headed towards Walgreens on 535 in order to grab some breakfast items for the next morning. Returning to our room for the evening felt great. Sally showered, poured some drinks, and we both layed down in bed to watch Jay Leno and Conan O Brian. We had made it through another busy day without standing in lines or dealing with crowds. The only thing left to do was to fall asleep with a smile and dreams of more adventures to come dancing in our heads.
