Day Thirteen: In Which We Are High Tech

[Miffy2003]

Monday 20th December

Today it is extremely cold so we decide to go to Disney Quest as we really enjoy it here and can stay out of the cold! We head to Perkins at the Crossroads for a nice (and extremely filling) breakfast. It still amazes me that for $40 (which includes tax and tip) six people can eat enough to keep them going till teatime. Plus I love Perkins muffins, so I never need much persuasion to come here.

Off to Disney Quest, we find a parking space nice and close and head round the corner. It is absolutely freezing!! We are pleased to see we’ve timed our arrival for exactly when they are letting people in. The Genie gives us his usual greeting and we decide to ride Aladdin first. Well, this is really good fun but a little disorienting. We want to go on Pirates of the Caribbean next but Amber is having none of it so we settle for the virtual Jungle Cruise. Now this is really good fun! You sit in a large inflatable boat with a large screen in front and the sensation is very much as if you were actually rowing a real boat. It’s quite hard work on the arms, but when there are dinosaurs to escape from, you just have to do it

We have a good look in the “free” arcade and a go on Mighty Ducks which I enjoy but am totally rubbish at! This is also quite hard work! We have a few goes on various basketball throwing games, dance games and so on. Then, I can wait no longer. I must go to Midway on the Moon! Midway is filled with arcade games that you play and then win tickets. I don’t care about the tickets personally, but I love the games. The girls enjoy collecting the tickets and the games so they are happy. Even Julie & Derek buy a $5 card and play! Hundreds of tickets later we exchange them for a plastic lizard and a Minnie Mouse purse.

Now my cunning plan is to grab an Internet terminal and try and log onto the Dis to say hello and Happy Christmas to everyone; I also needed to send a couple of emails to people. The plan was so cunning, it seemed the rest of Orlando had already beaten me to it. We bought drinks and some cheesecake with the mistaken idea that you were supposed to do this if you wanted to use a terminal. Well, we waited an hour for one and I’m afraid I saw some examples of very poor manners. People with food couldn’t get a seat as others were hogging the booths (who weren’t eating and didn’t look like they had been eating here at all). There was a man asleep in one of the booths! People were being literally pushed out of the way in the rush to get a seat. I wonder why they don’t enforce something to try and leave the seats free for Cheesecake Factory patrons. It wouldn’t need to be difficult to do. OK, I’m off my soapbox now!

We did the Animator’s Class and produced a picture of Donald Duck (well, that’s what it was meant to be!). This was good fun but quite hard to get the hang of the electronic pen & sketchpad. You don’t want to know how difficult this was for Julie & Derek. Remember they are the people who can’t change the time on their video! Having spent five happy hours in Disney Quest, we decided it was probably time to make a move (I find it impossible to keep track of the time in here!). Now I thought DQ was looking a little tired. Nothing major, and I may not even have noticed had I not been before. Some areas were very un-Disney (empty cardboard boxes stacked up at the side of the room, ripped carpet) and lots of machines were out of order. I wonder if Disney plans to run it down like the one in Chicago, but having said that it’s always very busy when we’ve gone so it must be popular. I suppose popular and profitable don’t necessarily have much in common though, except for starting with the same letter.

The sun’s out now and while it is still very cold it’s not quite as bad as earlier. We go to the World of Disney and I have extreme fun in getting a lot of money off with my Annual Pass discount (I’m overlooking how much I spent to get all this off though ) and we head out with two huge shopping bags. We've spent so long in World of Disney it's now dark!

I suggest Jon takes everyone back to the car via some more shops, as I need to head off for twenty minutes to do some Christmas shopping. I do a whirlwind tour of the Marketplace and my legs get nearly as my exercise as my credit card does I must admit I do find shopping quite an exciting pastime and I thoroughly enjoyed myself!



We went to Bennigan’s for tea tonight on the 192 which we’d never done before. After that we had a cocktail, the girls played in the arcade and then it was bedtime. They had actually closed the main pool today due to the cold, and all the shrubs were wrapped up ready for another cold night. This doesn’t feel like Florida!

 

[gilld]

When we went in for Christmas in 1997 there was regularly frost in the mornings. I agree with you, this isn't what I want from Florida so we wouldn't go again in the winter - just in case.

Shopping is my thing too! Thank goodness there's no limit on the CC!!!!

 

[florida sun]

Now then Karen, my favorite topic after Disney, Shopping, I just love it. Sounds like you had a great day. Know what you mean about getting on the computers in DQ, it's nearly impossible, we also noticed people who had set up camp in one of the booths, they were there when we arrived and still there 3 hours later when we left, very selfish I think.
I dont understand why they dont put a time limit on it, so at least most people who want to use them can.

Keep up the grand trip writing, love your reports


Sue

 

[SusanEllen]

Karen,
I believe you have mastered the art of Making the Best of It. Spending the day at Disney Quest and shopping at DTD was no doubt more fun than shivering in the parks.
I know that the business plan to open DQs across the country was abandoned years ago and the only other built has closed (because it was determined that the high cost of building and maintaining them meant they weren't going to be profitable), but it would be good to keep up the one in Orlando for just such days of "uncooperative" weather. Sorry to hear it's starting to look a little un-Disney like. Somebody's falling down on the job.
Again, I applaud your stiff upper lip attitude and willingness to switch over from park-hopping to shopping mode. Well done.

 

[MsPennieLane]

Oooh shopping, I love it Sounds like you all had a great day at DisneyQuest - I've never been in there! Mmmm, cheesecake factory *drools*! And ending the day with shopping - I don't think it gets much better than that

Anz

 

[KayleeUK]

Show me your pictures of Donald please.

 

[Miffy2003]

I wish I could Kaylee but we didn't get a copy!! It was that bad, honestly

 

[allie5]

Ahhh, SHOPPING, now thats what I call a good day's entertainment!!

We still havent done DQ. Our kids are still a bit small, but I like the sound of it! Maybe this year!!

Fantastic report!

 

[MazdaUK]

Perkins and shopping - what could be better

Christian was wearing his "famous grumpy face" when we sat down and our waitress said "If that lip sticks out any further Sugar, there's gonna be a bird land on that" -its become quite a catchphrase if he's got the hump She was also the ONLY person in the whole of Orlando able to make a proper cup of tea!

 

[wicket2005]

Thank you for your report. We are going to try Disneyquest this year. Do they limit the numbers?

 

[Miffy2003]

Yes I think so Wicket, but in all honestly I think if they got to that stage it would be so busy you might not want to be there anyway (does that make sense?). It does get quite claustrophobic when it's busy!

 

[wicket2005]

Thanks Miffy. We will give it a blast if we are in the Downtown area.