LarryFmScotland
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- May 6, 2003
- Messages
- 357
Larrys Summer Trip Report.
101 Illuminations.
Cast Members,
Larry Wilmot 45 Social Work Manager
Jill Wilmot 44 Nursing Home Inspector
Greg Wilmot 16
Ed Wilmot 13.
Friends - Sue, Leanne, Tom, Kim, Sheri and Rich.
1. Well welcome to Larrys 101 Illuminations. For those of you who have read one of my Trip Reports before hello, and to those of you who are new, remember this, You dont actually have to read this, you can stop now, no one will laugh at you for not bothering. For those of you still here, a little explanation or re-cap for the regulars. We are the Wilmots, and we have been assimilated into the Disney World. Resistance was futile. I no longer get paid by my employers, my salary goes directly to Team Disney and they send me Annual Passes and Re-fillable Mugs in the post occasionally just enough for us to be able to go to WDW two or three times a year with a smattering of off season trips to Disneyland Paris. If you are desperate for cheap entertainment you can pick up some of my old Trip Reports on www.mouseplanet.com just use the search button and search for disneyhollic recovery programme and you should find a link to them. (The first step by the way is to say to your self every morning in front of the mirror. I am a disneyhollic and I will visit Universal today.)
2. Our past trips started in 1998 and I think we have been nine times to WDW, since then. We have spent (at the time of writing - Sat in MCO Airport waiting for a flight to Chicago, on the sad route (or should that be Rowt) home), six weeks on our most recent Annual Pass at WDW. We were last sat at this airport in April having had our Easter Holiday in the World. Our next trip to Disney will be in October to Disneyland Paris to meet our friends from Florida Tom and Leanne. (Leanne is so desperate to ride Its a Small World, that she is flying to another continent just to ride it, - It is in a 12 month Re-hab in Florida.- at least she isnt going to Japan.) Then we are not planning to go to WDW at all in 2005, but to strike out to California to do the Original at Disneyland. In my opinion it is time they did a Global Disney Annual Pass, I think I could make good use of one of those.
3. Normally I write a Daily Trip Report and post them live, but after 15 days of that at Spring Break I decided that I would have a rest from the tyranny of a daily trip report, and so I havent even thought of a word that I wanted to put in it until just now. So that means a return to the time when I used to make up all of the stuff in my Trip Reports. So I will use my maxim, of never let the truth get in the way of entertaining my readership. or Accuracy is for wimps
4.So this report is going to be in the categorisation of Mouse planet a summery report. This report in the spirit of the great Disney Movie How to get your coat and eat it will have 101 paragraphs, (Thank Heavens I didnt choose 2000 Leagues under the Sea.) Though any resemblance with the plot of any movie alive or dead -(And lets face it many of the recent ones have been dead) is purely co-incidental. (Whilst we are on the Politics, I heard that the Incredibles is going to have Samuel L Jackson and Holly Hunter doing the voices. I will be the first one in the queue to see that film. - Oh Michael why oh why have you let Pixar Dump you?, that is soooooo sooooo silly.)
5. Well enough of using up my valuable paragraphs with all this controversial stuff, I can hear you saying, Get on with it Wilmot. The Journey beckons . Sat in this airport as I am, it is easy to let my mind wander back to just fourteen days ago, bleary eyed and all tired we got up at five am, in the Airport Hotel in Aberdeen Scotland, a northern town, on the edge of civilisation, hewn from the Granite stone found thereabouts, a town almost carved by the blood and tears of the noble Scots who inhabit it.
6. Well there was not time to enjoy the fruits of their endeavours, we were swiftly through the complex three flight check in, and sat on a British Midland Commuter Plane, the photos I took of boarding make it look like we are almost getting on board our private jet, to go and take the sun. Sadly it was just to Manchester. We had a choppy little flight but I consoled myself with the Egg and Bacon Sandwich and in just two flaps of the little birds wing, we were on the tarmac looking at the parked Concorde. A beautiful bird as likely to fly as one of the Tiki Room Birds.
7.. Not much time to enjoy the delights of Manchester Airport, which was fine because there are no delights at Manchester Airport, and we were on A Airbus 330 - winging our winding way to Chicago. Now to be fair to British Midland, whilst Chicago is not exactly en route to Orlando they have a nice service and I almost enjoyed the flight. And they serve quite nice food, and I even managed two hours sleep almost unheard of for me and saw a quaint little film (Welcome to Mooseport or something of that Ilk. (pun intended)) We landed at Chicago some seven or eight hours later and got the train to terminal one, though the Space Mountain/Spaceship Earth Corridor to wait for our flight, in my favourite time zone of the trip. Doing three different ones in the same day and not even in the right order is very confusing.
8. The last leg is just a bit of a blur, I chatted to a guy who seemed to know a lot about aircraft, he pointed out it was an Airbus 320, when I thought it was a seven five seven, then when I admired his knowledge, (Im a bit of a retired plane spotter,) he told me his job was re-fuelling aircraft at Edinburgh Airport. But before you know it there we were sat on the hot tarmac at Orlando MCO.
9. Having already done Immigration and Customs at Chicago, we were free to pick up our car courtesy of Tesco Clubcard Vouchers, ( I would tell all the new readers all about it but, my regulars will probably start to skip bits of the report and I would hate to be skipped, they may go too far and miss the really good bits. - Yes, Im planning on writing some good bits just hang on in there for a while.)
10. So anyway, we picked up our car which was a Pontiac Grand Am, - Nice looking car from the outside, but boy what cheap plastics you Americans are prepared to put up with inside. My car has polished cherry wood - The boot (Trunk) wont actually hold all our luggage and the rear seats are cramped but at least the radio has nice knobs, and you know that practicality is for boring people so next time you buy a car go for one with style that is totally useless for your needs just like I did. Tell em Larry Sent you and that should put a smile on the little salesmans lips.
11. We arrived at our hotel, the much derided (In some Trip Reports - No names mentioned - Eh Sue??) Pop Century Resort, a funky little place, Where there may not be much in the way of Sports Facilities, but you can do the Twist by Chubby (Bloody) Checker every morning at 8am at mega high ear splitting decibels in the lobby. For those of you who have not been before, it is themed in five areas by decades from the 50s to the 90s. From Chantilly Lace to Garage, From Ice Cream Floats to Slush Puppies, Ok I made that up but you get the drift. The 70s where our room was located, is populated by a Mickey Telephone and a Big Trike with smatterings of a Table Football Machine and 8 Track Cartridges. The room was on the ground floor (1st Floor in American) And was just like all the other ones, small compact and OK for people who have little intention of doing anything in their room other than sleeping.
12. Now as I dont actually remember what we did on our holiday, and certainly not on each day as I didnt make any notes other than mental ones, here the report will spring into summery style. Disorganised summery style of course. I hope to take you on a little trip around the kind of things that we got up to on our trip, we visited every park a couple of times, Busch Gardens the Beltz Mall, De Leon Springs State Park, Daytona Beach, Celebration, Pleasure Island, Downtown Disney (Ed Lived at Disney Quest this trip.) And last and certainly not least the Shark Infested Typhoon Lagoon. (Oh no, he is going to rattle on about his fish phobia again!!!)
13. Lets start with the Sub Theme of the Trip Report which is Hero and Zero. Many of you chaps and chapesses will be familiar with the Holland, Burroughs and Wilmot Who Wants to be a Millionaire Gang, this is where we turn up in vast numbers and try our best to get in the hot seat, with if you dont mind a little boasting with some considerable success, there is a little rivalry between Chris, Kims son and myself as we are the leaders in the hot seat competition. Chris having prior to the start of this trip report three sittings in the famous chair, I was leading slightly with four. We were having some fun together about this, with me accusing him of cheating by visiting WDW more often than I do (Yes it is possible). Greg has been in the seat once before, Famously when Greg and I were both in the hot seat during the same show.
14. Anyway early on in the trip, Chris got into the hot seat, equalling my four times. (Drat) However Greg was the particular star of this trip, because not only did he get into the hot seat with his first game. He did it in front of our friends Sheri and Rich, this was really important because Sheri is a great Trip Report Writer, catch her T.Rs on Mouseplanet, and I didnt want the world thinking that we Wilmots couldnt come up with the goods when it mattered. So well done Greg, the boy has immaculate timing. To make things even better he did really well, getting a 32,000 points win, having got to the 125K question
15. Greg intends to put the 32K package on sale on E-bay when we get back, giving you chance to own part of this very trip report. (The boy has no sentimentality what so ever!!) Then to add just a little icing to the cake he was top of the leader board twice in the next two days, having to decline his third and fourth potential appearances, due to the 30 day blackout period that hot seat winners have to endure. The host was the same for all three of these games and when he declined the second time, the Host said These guys are from Scotland and they have been causing havoc all week!
16. Well I was a restless soul for the whole trip, I kept going back and forth, more and more games, up and down the street I would pace, waiting for the next show. I would press every conceivable fastest finger combination, more and more depressed I found my self, Jill, started to mock me, ha - you think your good at WWTBAM, you are getting old you have lost your touch. A demented soul I became, I could hardly bare to go to any other park. You want me to go to Blizzard Beach, how can I, when I have not gotten into the Hot Seat yet? I would cry out in my deranged and fitful sleep. During the games, I would cry foul if I got a question wrong, blaming a sticky button or the question being too American or a trick question. Boy was I sad, a faded star on the last legs of his life. I thought that things were really bad, but little did I know, a Cruel twist was to befall me.
17. On the last morning of the trip, mere hours before our flight home, after giving up all hope of getting into the hot seat, I decided to persuade everyone that we should go and try just one last time. So with little enthusiasm from the rest of the family, we all trailed to MGM, and got a fastpass ticket for the first show, (Not that you needed it - it was half empty, thankfully as it turned out.) So we went through the usual pre show announcements about the cruise I will never win, and the fastest finger question was read out, I struck in the combination I had a feeling in my bones was due. I knew it was a good one I had a strange feeling of success, and rightly so because up came 120 my seat number, Yes oh joy, I am ahead again, Chris, eat my dust!!
18. I walked down calm and assured, another hat at least for sale on e-bay, and probably a polo shirt too, by tomorrow morning. First two questions a breeze, the third question. Adding up some dimes and quarters - easy peezy, I made a little joke about the great exchange rate, but then there was an uneasy hush, a sort of group pity, then the naked horrible truth of the situation hit me, I had got the question wrong. Then I had the eyeballs of the nation on me, I had to walk to the back room to collect the losers button Many had been there before and when it had happened to my friends I had always tried to be kind, and now I know why, there is nowhere to hide.
19. The woman in the backroom was kind, Oh I see you have been in the hot seat before, that is really good Oh no, it is not the Losers Button Well Im sure with your record we will see you again in this room But I could not be consoled, and the Host noticing me going back and teasing me, didnt help at all. Later we were on Tower of Terror when a nice lady came up to me to commiserate, believe me, if you are going to fluff up question number three, do it on your last morning, coz you are going to want to go home. (Do you think there will be a market for a losers button on e-bay??)
20. . Whilst we are on the subject of WWTBAM lets talk about meeting friends as the attraction is always best served with a plateful of friends. (Though I am mightily glad they were not there when I fluffed up. One of the great joys of WDW is meeting up with your chums. Most of my friends have come because of Trip Reports, Sue Holland is one of the great TR writers, and certainly the most prolific, the woman practically lives there, well at Comedy Warehouse anyway. We did lots of things with Sue this trip, not just going to CW with her, though we saw some great shows this time, Sue is friends with some of the cast, and it is nice to have a chance to go and say hi to them after the show. Mary has always been nice to us, particularly Edward who really enjoys watching her. (Though Jake is starting to rival her.)
21. We also did three meals with Sue, and two of those with Tom and Leanne and Kim and Chris too. The third meal was at the Italian Restaurant, Portobello Wotsit, next to the Fulton Crab house, we had a very nice lunch there, it gets quite busy during the evening I noticed - but it was very quiet at lunch time and we had a very attentive server and it was nice food, and they even throw in a free bowl of soup or salad with your entrée. I had the pizza with spinach and mushrooms and sausage. It was a very hot day too, so getting exclusive use of the air conditioning was really cool too.
22. There is a bit of a tradition amongst our group that we always have a meal at Le Cellier, this is a steakhouse situated in nice gardens in Canada, just the entrance belies a large restaurant, all the areas of the seating area are themed to the different provinces of Canada, though they all look exactly the same to the un-trained eye. (Maybe they should have more obvious themeing, perhaps Water Running down the walls to represent Niagara Falls in Ontario, and snowfalls and glacial ice walls in Alberta to represent the Banff National Park. And for Nova Scotia they could serve you on tables shaped like Ski-doos. (similar to the Sci-Fi Café) And it is about time that the waiters dressed as Mounties, then they could bring your drinks on the edge of their stiff brimmed hats, speeding up the service in the process. (If there are any people in Canada offended, please accept my humble apologies, but I am almost Canadian myself being an offspring of a Canadian family, who just happened to find themselves trapped in England at some point in our history.)
23. The other meal that we had together as a big gang was at the 50s Prime Time Café, for any readers who have not had the pleasure, the 50s PTC is a dinner themed in the (wait for it, wait for it,) 50s style. You sit at tables like kitchen tables made out of Formica and with PVC seats and chairs, most alcoves have a Black and White TV and 50s TV is piped in, of particular interest is a short film showing our man Walt opening Disneyland, but you also see older Americans telling their grandkids about the shows that are on, which is fun to see. One of the other things is that the waiters waitresses, play the role of your cousins and tell you off for not eating your greens and putting your elbows on the table, they give you names, Im Biff and Tom is Spanky, poor chap, we tease him a little (lot) and he takes it with very good grace. Anyway the PTC is great fun, and if you dont mind a little ribbing and teasing by the staff, then you can have a great time.
24. One of my internet friends is Sheri, we occasionally send each other emails and keep in touch. She is a big off kilter fan, and very patriotic, so she can think of no better way to spend American Independence Day (Or Goodbye Troublesome Colonists Day, as we British like to think of it. - Nah only kidding we are your best friends again these days) watching all the Off Kilter Shows on the 4th July. So knowing that Sheri and her Husband Rich would be in the WDW for Independence Weekend, was too good an opportunity to miss, so we had to get together. We arranged to meet on the third of the month at the WWTBAM fastpass machines. We almost didnt meet, because I look a little different to when we last met a couple of years ago, having shaved off my beard, (It went too white making me look like the guys who do the tales at Poseidons Temple in Islands of Adventure, Im 45 not 95 so it had to go.) So I was sat on one side of the street and they were on the other, I kinda thought it was them, but I wasnt sure, and they didnt recognise me at all, but Jill came along and we all figured it out, so it was nice to meet up again. We did 2 WWTBAM shows, and Greg did his stuff to help out in the Hot Seat Department, and it was great fun.
25.. On July the 4th, Jill put on her tie died Red White and Blue top, and I put on my Harley Davidson T-shirt, which was a birthday present from Robin another great TR writer, who we will be meeting in NYC in January, - Im looking forward to New York In January, I hear that it is quite a warm place, so it will be nice to get away from the snow of Scotland. Anyway, Im a biker and it was an honour to wear the emblem of a classic (If slow and un-sophisticated) American bike maker on this festive day.
26. We went over to Epcot that afternoon and it wasnt that hard finding Rich and Sheri, they were on the front row of the Off Kilter stage, Ed decided that the prospect of watching OK was a bit too much excitement for him, so he went over to Mission Space to play the Astronaut Game there. We stayed for one show, one of Sheris friends told the guys that we lived in Scotland (though we are English) and they played Scotland the Brave (Off Kilter style) for us, which was cool. Anyway if you are going to watch OK, there can be no finer company for the task. Though you are not going to get too much attention from Sheri when Jamies Knees are on show!!
27. We tried to be very patriotic as temporary Americans for the Weekend, so we went to see the American Adventure, Jill says that it is the first time that she has stayed awake for the whole show, so you see we were taking it seriously. I actually quite enjoy the show now. One of the great way to enjoy WDW (and to make our friends the Disney Stockholders money) is to buy the park CDs where you get parade and attraction soundtracks, so then you can go into the attractions and sing along to the words, making even the more mundane attractions (not that AA is mundane) more fun. And if you have a singing voice as dreadful as mine you can annoy the hell out of lots of people for a full two weeks at a time. For this trip we bought the new parade CD, with the MK Parade Music - I dont know if you can hear the snow falling in the snow globes, but it will be great trying to find out. It also has the Jungle Jamming Parade Music from AK, which is a bit of a favourite of Jills because of the design of the floats being reminiscent of the old Tapestry of Dreams Parade, which I think had the same designer.
28. One of the nicest things that happened was that a cast member who I have spoken to on the internet arranged for us to see the Magic Kingdom Parade from the VIP viewing area, which is a great spot to see it from in a little alcove on the Liberty Square Bridge. , it is a really nice parade, and the music is cool, less frantic than some of the previous parades. Anyway it was a really nice thing for them to do for us, and I want to thank them for making that little piece of Magic happen. Cheers.
29.. We spent a lot of time at the beginning of the trip at the Magic Kingdom, our first morning was spent there. We started off the trip doing Early Entry, or Extra Magic Hour is the name that it is currently known as, you may know it as Surprise Mornings, it disappeared for a while to be replaced by Character Caravans, but they were not that great, so it was wonderful to have Early Entry back, no matter what they call it. This year I noticed that it was being enforced more than it had been previously, and almost every time we went in we had to show the room key, as well as our annual pass to get in. Anyway there have also been experiments between Spring Break and the Summer Rush where they had a evening Extra Magic (3) Hours, which was kinda like a free E-night. Sadly this was not happening during our stay.
30. However, if you visit in a busy time, you should seriously give some consideration to getting up early and getting in the parks and using the Early Entry Privilege (for Disney Hotel Guests only - sorry to all you guys who just love to hang out on 192 or International Drive, you can stay in bed, it doesnt affect you. - Though a good tip is to find out which is the EE park, and keep away on the those days.) EE gives you the march on everyone else, so the plan is, use EE get the tricky to see attractions done and move on to the quieter stuff or another park, (or the pool or lunch) when the park starts to fill up, then you are almost guaranteed a good time. Believe me, if you dont have some kind of strategy you could have a very frustrating trip to WDW.
31. The other tip worth having is - use Fastpass, this is a virtual queue system where you put your ticket in a Fastpass Machine and it issues you with a ticket to ride the ride at a time in the future, usually about an hour away, then you can go and do other stuff, ride quieter attractions, or preferably for the stock holders, buy coffee, soda and parade C.Ds like I do. Then you get to go and ride your roller coaster etc with a minimal wait in line. I think they like to get Fastpass people on the attraction within about 10 minutes of returning to the ride, well it seems like that to me when I use it.
32. Fastpass is also getting more sophisticated, occasionally they give you a lanyard with a big red and white tag on it, you get it when you start to queue, (join the line, for all my USA readers) and then they scan it just as you are boarding, I think I got asked to carry one about three times this trip, and I guess, they use the system to monitor how long the lines are taking to get people on. I suppose that they have to get the information for the tip boards from somewhere, though for a long time I thought they guessed. Once we were given a lanyard as we went on to Killimanjaro Safari. However, we spent about 10 minutes photographing some birds that were refusing to play ball with the posing for the camera thing, so if you were put off joining the line because it was too long that night, Im sorry it was actually a walk on.
33. We had some great Trips on KS this time, The late night visit when it was a walk on, as mentioned above, was the best. Not just because the animals were out in force but because we had a guy who was the driver guide who sounded just like Elvis. (I wonder if any of you remember the great British One Hit Wonder, which had the immortal line Theres a guy down our chip shop swears Hes Elvis?) I kept expecting our driver to show me a hound dog or tell me that the warthog was where they got the leather for Blue Suede Shoes and quite frankly I spent the whole ride s******ing. (Dont be cruel and Love me tender)
34. Well I s******ed until, we came to the White Rhino. This was at the side of the road, literally 10 inches away from where I was on the right of the truck, I could have if I wanted actually stroked the big guy. Now I am quite fond of breaking the odd, little WDW rule, (not that I am going to encourage you by telling you what they are) but that was one time, when I thought the keep your arms and legs and forward facing tentacles inside the ride vehicle rule was a pretty smart idea, particularly when something startled the hair horned chap, and he turned to look at me and his back legs did a little leap into the air, I of course looked as innocent as I could, and tried to think in my best Rhino language that the guy in front of me would be a much better opponent to have a horn locking and head butting competition with, or what ever White Rhinos do to impress the chicks during mating season.
35. On one of the previous trips earlier in the holiday we had seen that the lioness, had climbed to the very top of the rocks. And she looked really queen of the castle up there. I think we did about four or five times around the circuit and nearly every time we saw the real (not the phoney Little Red) one year old elephant, who still looks really cute, though not as cute as he did when we first saw him last august when he was about five weeks old and he has his little baby elephant bum fluff hair, (a bit like that on my upper lip as I have been growing a moustache whilst we were away, just to annoy Ed, who hates it. - Thats what fathers are designed for embarrassing and annoying their teenage offspring.)
36. Animal Kingdom is probably the park that I have been into the least over the years, though it is not my least favourite park, I guess there is a lot less of it than the other parks, though that is changing all the time, compared with the opening season you have Asia, the New (and tacky) bits of Dinoland, and now you can walk on the new path from Dino to Asia, and you cant fail to notice the progress that is being made on Everest, the structure of the mountain is in place and you can see bits of the roller coaster track actually already in place, it looks a mighty fine coaster, with a lot of banked curves on show.
37.. Towards the end of the trip, we did the Tarzan Rocks show, (Jill would have liked to do the Legend of the Lion King Show, but I held out against it, and she wouldnt go on her own, the reason being that we are going to go and see the Lion King on Broadway in January and I didnt want to spoil myself for it.) anyway, back to Tarzan, this is a good show, but it has been there for five years now, (The first season was a Jungle Book show- It was Ok, but it only covered the Bare Necessities.) and I am starting to think, hmmmm maybe the Theatre should get a new show now, Tarzan wasnt exactly a classic amongst Disneys output. It is however a great show, as is the Legend of the Lion King.
38. Whilst we are on the subject of Phil Collins (Tarzan) and Elton Jon (Lion King) last time we were in Florida we noticed that on our favourite radio station. (Magic 107.7) they seemed to play these guys a lot. And so I did some research, and during our trip they played, Phil Collins 11 times, The Twain Lady 10 times, and Elton John 9. With noticeable contributions by Sting as well. So with the three gents, the Brits are certainly making a splash in America. Just a shame that they are all old wrinkly men, you should listen to some of the new British Talent too. Have I told you about my beautiful singing voice???
39. Anyway, back to the musical entertainment, It is that just deep inside me somewhere I have the feeling that all the shows at WDW have been there for a long time, (Apart from the variety of performances at the American Gardens Theatre which change all the time.) and maybe we deserve something new. I guess a show is relatively cheap to change, (OK, it probably costs a Million Bucks, but compared with a new coaster or something that is small change, so they can have an impact without breaking the bank.
40. Gosh, what have I just typed, we also went to Busch Gardens and we saw the show Katanga, which was full of high production values and a very talented and hardworking cast, the problem was it was soooooo dull. And the reason was in a 30 min show, you just cant organise story lines quickly enough so that the characters mean anything to the audience, the reason why Disney are so successful with there 25/30 min shows is that we all already know the characters, they dont have to tell us who they are, so we can get right down to the fun as soon as the curtain opens, so maybe Disney shouldnt listen to a word I say, actually few people do, so no change there then.
41. Whilst we are on a side trip to Busch Gardens, I had probably better mention that this park is quite good, but it isnt in the same league as the four Disney parks, and it seems to not be in the best part of Tampa either, almost industrial. Regular readers will know about poor old Edward and his tummy problems during our trip to Busch during Spring Break fortunately nothing of that magnitude happened again, The custodial staff are pleased too. Anyway we did a little coaster riding, the Leg Dangler is a good coaster, the Wooden one is very very rough, and not a patch on my favourite Zeus at Parc Astrix in Gay Paris, Le Belle France. And Edward managed to cope well with the ups and downs of modern park touring.
42.. Worthy of mention is Rhino Rally, which is very similar to Killimanjaro Safari but much shorter and less varied, There is a nice little twist that KS doesnt have, which is quite impressive, but the bit that tickled my fancy is the guide was talking about THE Rhino, like they only have one, which for some reason is amusing to me, but perhaps a little lonely for Eric the Batchelor Rhino. - I guess it is possible that there are others but I didnt see them, I hope so, if not, I may start a campaign to get another Rhino, the poor chap doesnt deserve to be in Solitary Confinement, Disney have loads, perhaps they can loan them one. Mind you imagine if they only had one Love Bird, or a Lone Wolf, (Oh a lone Wolf would be OK, sorry.)
43.. The two other things about Busch Gardens that stick out in my mind, were eating pizza and drinking free beer, from the hospitality centre. (Limit Two per person per day) - I being the almost teetotal person that I am only had one Bud Lite. - Can I point out that I have received no fee from the Anahiser Corporation, and this is therefore not product placement. However, if they wish to send me a free crate of something, I will promise to Highlight and Italic, all there trade marks in this trip report in subsequent editions.
44. The second memorable thingy I wanted to say, is that they still have a nice cable car, so when you are cream crackered, which is quite easy at Busch, it is a big park, you can scoot back to the centre on a cable car. I miss that at Disney, Though the one at Disney was more for fun, it didnt actually go anywhere very far - only from Tommorrowland to Fantasyland. The best bit was looking at the roof of the buildings with Peter Pan etc in them, because you could see that actually they are big sheds, and not European Gothic Design at all. (Oh sorry Walt, Im giving the trade secrets away again!!)
45.. The last thing I want to say about Busch - This is a Disney Report after all, is they had some cool turtles or terrapins that I saw on a rock with their little webbed paws sticking up in the air, Imagine a skydiver, with legs and arms flailing above their torsos and you kinda get the image, anyway, for some obscure reason it is one of the things that sticks in my little sad mind. And you know that is the pleasure of Theme Park touring, you shouldnt think of it as oh Space Mountain, and Tower of Terror or Die, no sit back and enjoy the little details, it keeps you happy, less tired and the lines shorter for everyone else.
46. Back to Disney. Something new that we did, Yes there are new things for me to do, I havent done everything. Ive done almost everything, let me think . Hmmmmm Bear in the Big Blue House, or whatever they call that, I Havent done that, see there is something. Anyway the something new that we did this trip was E- Night. Yes, I know, it has taken nine trips to the parks for me to get around to doing E-Night. There is a reason for this, which is basically I am mean, and I didnt see why I should pay good money, ($38 - as it turned out) to go on rides I had already paid for. Like I dumped $2000 on four annual passes last year, and I have to pay extra to be in the parks .. Anyway I changed my mind. (And why not, one of the great pleasures of life is changing your mind.)
47. However, I am writing a book about Walt Disney World with my friend Robin Goble, and I needed to do some research, and one of the things that I needed to find out about was E-Night, obviously. I was supposed to do Playhouse Disney - Bear in the Big Blue House as well, but I can always send Robin to research that for us, as she is nearer the ride demographic than I am. Anyway, you dont want me to plug a book we havent even finished writing yet so I will get back to the story, (Mind you if you work for a publishers .. OK Sorry, I know, no harm in trying though is there??? )
48. E-night. For those of you un-initiated in the delights of E-Night, here is an overview. Disney being the clever people that they are, know that for most of the year the parks are so busy that it is hard to do everything, and for those who want to do everything, it can be quite frustrating, so they invented a system where their most important guests, (I.E. those staying in a Disney Hotel) can stay in the park when it is very quite and ride the best rides and attractions for three hours. So you pay $12 plus tax, and you get three hours in the Magic Kingdom with a small number of guests and with eight rides open, characters around the hub in front of the Castle with short lines, and some shops and eating spots open.
49. We did the E-night and it was very very nice to have the rides almost to ourselves, some were walk ons - Splash Mountain, some were Stay Ons - Big Thunder Mountain, and some had small but easily manageable queues (lines.) - Space Mountain.
50. The biggest thrill was riding Big Thunder Mountain for two rides consecutively with the Wishes Fireworks exploding all around the mountains as we rode. This was in the parlance of some of the young people of the day Way Cool. It was also very nice to be able to sit in Mickeys Philarmagic and see the new show. Also available were Buzz, The Haunted Mansion, Snow White, and Tigger and Poos Bouncy Bouncy ride. We managed to do them all with a couple of or favourites twice, easily within the three hour timeframe. And I think that they sold quite a few tickets as it seemed reasonably busy. It wasnt as quite as it is if you hang around the park for a while after closing. Once I spent almost an hour photographing the Magic Kingdom after closure and wasnt molested by the cast members at all. - That was quiet.
51. I think that the piece de la resistance however was letting the boys go off and do Space Mountain without me and going for a Hot Dog at Caseys where I was the only customer sat down and four custodial staff were waiting to clean my table. It made me feel so important that I was being waited on hand and foot, actually it made me wonder if they were a little overstaffed that evening.
52. We went to E-night not in the car, which was probably a good idea because I didnt fancy having to go to the dreaded TTC to pick up the automobile at one oclock in the morning. The thing about e-night during the peak summer months is it starts at ten pm, so it by the nature of the thing means a late night, and as you know we well behaved British Folk like to have our milk and cookies and to be dreaming about England Winning the World Cup again, by one am every night, not gallivanting around in a 300 acre car park. Would I do it again, probably but not every trip.
Well that is Part One over, and part two will be along shortly, honest, no it's true - would I lie?
Cheers Larry.
Your Pal in Scotland.
101 Illuminations.
Cast Members,
Larry Wilmot 45 Social Work Manager
Jill Wilmot 44 Nursing Home Inspector
Greg Wilmot 16
Ed Wilmot 13.
Friends - Sue, Leanne, Tom, Kim, Sheri and Rich.
1. Well welcome to Larrys 101 Illuminations. For those of you who have read one of my Trip Reports before hello, and to those of you who are new, remember this, You dont actually have to read this, you can stop now, no one will laugh at you for not bothering. For those of you still here, a little explanation or re-cap for the regulars. We are the Wilmots, and we have been assimilated into the Disney World. Resistance was futile. I no longer get paid by my employers, my salary goes directly to Team Disney and they send me Annual Passes and Re-fillable Mugs in the post occasionally just enough for us to be able to go to WDW two or three times a year with a smattering of off season trips to Disneyland Paris. If you are desperate for cheap entertainment you can pick up some of my old Trip Reports on www.mouseplanet.com just use the search button and search for disneyhollic recovery programme and you should find a link to them. (The first step by the way is to say to your self every morning in front of the mirror. I am a disneyhollic and I will visit Universal today.)
2. Our past trips started in 1998 and I think we have been nine times to WDW, since then. We have spent (at the time of writing - Sat in MCO Airport waiting for a flight to Chicago, on the sad route (or should that be Rowt) home), six weeks on our most recent Annual Pass at WDW. We were last sat at this airport in April having had our Easter Holiday in the World. Our next trip to Disney will be in October to Disneyland Paris to meet our friends from Florida Tom and Leanne. (Leanne is so desperate to ride Its a Small World, that she is flying to another continent just to ride it, - It is in a 12 month Re-hab in Florida.- at least she isnt going to Japan.) Then we are not planning to go to WDW at all in 2005, but to strike out to California to do the Original at Disneyland. In my opinion it is time they did a Global Disney Annual Pass, I think I could make good use of one of those.
3. Normally I write a Daily Trip Report and post them live, but after 15 days of that at Spring Break I decided that I would have a rest from the tyranny of a daily trip report, and so I havent even thought of a word that I wanted to put in it until just now. So that means a return to the time when I used to make up all of the stuff in my Trip Reports. So I will use my maxim, of never let the truth get in the way of entertaining my readership. or Accuracy is for wimps
4.So this report is going to be in the categorisation of Mouse planet a summery report. This report in the spirit of the great Disney Movie How to get your coat and eat it will have 101 paragraphs, (Thank Heavens I didnt choose 2000 Leagues under the Sea.) Though any resemblance with the plot of any movie alive or dead -(And lets face it many of the recent ones have been dead) is purely co-incidental. (Whilst we are on the Politics, I heard that the Incredibles is going to have Samuel L Jackson and Holly Hunter doing the voices. I will be the first one in the queue to see that film. - Oh Michael why oh why have you let Pixar Dump you?, that is soooooo sooooo silly.)
5. Well enough of using up my valuable paragraphs with all this controversial stuff, I can hear you saying, Get on with it Wilmot. The Journey beckons . Sat in this airport as I am, it is easy to let my mind wander back to just fourteen days ago, bleary eyed and all tired we got up at five am, in the Airport Hotel in Aberdeen Scotland, a northern town, on the edge of civilisation, hewn from the Granite stone found thereabouts, a town almost carved by the blood and tears of the noble Scots who inhabit it.
6. Well there was not time to enjoy the fruits of their endeavours, we were swiftly through the complex three flight check in, and sat on a British Midland Commuter Plane, the photos I took of boarding make it look like we are almost getting on board our private jet, to go and take the sun. Sadly it was just to Manchester. We had a choppy little flight but I consoled myself with the Egg and Bacon Sandwich and in just two flaps of the little birds wing, we were on the tarmac looking at the parked Concorde. A beautiful bird as likely to fly as one of the Tiki Room Birds.
7.. Not much time to enjoy the delights of Manchester Airport, which was fine because there are no delights at Manchester Airport, and we were on A Airbus 330 - winging our winding way to Chicago. Now to be fair to British Midland, whilst Chicago is not exactly en route to Orlando they have a nice service and I almost enjoyed the flight. And they serve quite nice food, and I even managed two hours sleep almost unheard of for me and saw a quaint little film (Welcome to Mooseport or something of that Ilk. (pun intended)) We landed at Chicago some seven or eight hours later and got the train to terminal one, though the Space Mountain/Spaceship Earth Corridor to wait for our flight, in my favourite time zone of the trip. Doing three different ones in the same day and not even in the right order is very confusing.
8. The last leg is just a bit of a blur, I chatted to a guy who seemed to know a lot about aircraft, he pointed out it was an Airbus 320, when I thought it was a seven five seven, then when I admired his knowledge, (Im a bit of a retired plane spotter,) he told me his job was re-fuelling aircraft at Edinburgh Airport. But before you know it there we were sat on the hot tarmac at Orlando MCO.
9. Having already done Immigration and Customs at Chicago, we were free to pick up our car courtesy of Tesco Clubcard Vouchers, ( I would tell all the new readers all about it but, my regulars will probably start to skip bits of the report and I would hate to be skipped, they may go too far and miss the really good bits. - Yes, Im planning on writing some good bits just hang on in there for a while.)
10. So anyway, we picked up our car which was a Pontiac Grand Am, - Nice looking car from the outside, but boy what cheap plastics you Americans are prepared to put up with inside. My car has polished cherry wood - The boot (Trunk) wont actually hold all our luggage and the rear seats are cramped but at least the radio has nice knobs, and you know that practicality is for boring people so next time you buy a car go for one with style that is totally useless for your needs just like I did. Tell em Larry Sent you and that should put a smile on the little salesmans lips.
11. We arrived at our hotel, the much derided (In some Trip Reports - No names mentioned - Eh Sue??) Pop Century Resort, a funky little place, Where there may not be much in the way of Sports Facilities, but you can do the Twist by Chubby (Bloody) Checker every morning at 8am at mega high ear splitting decibels in the lobby. For those of you who have not been before, it is themed in five areas by decades from the 50s to the 90s. From Chantilly Lace to Garage, From Ice Cream Floats to Slush Puppies, Ok I made that up but you get the drift. The 70s where our room was located, is populated by a Mickey Telephone and a Big Trike with smatterings of a Table Football Machine and 8 Track Cartridges. The room was on the ground floor (1st Floor in American) And was just like all the other ones, small compact and OK for people who have little intention of doing anything in their room other than sleeping.
12. Now as I dont actually remember what we did on our holiday, and certainly not on each day as I didnt make any notes other than mental ones, here the report will spring into summery style. Disorganised summery style of course. I hope to take you on a little trip around the kind of things that we got up to on our trip, we visited every park a couple of times, Busch Gardens the Beltz Mall, De Leon Springs State Park, Daytona Beach, Celebration, Pleasure Island, Downtown Disney (Ed Lived at Disney Quest this trip.) And last and certainly not least the Shark Infested Typhoon Lagoon. (Oh no, he is going to rattle on about his fish phobia again!!!)
13. Lets start with the Sub Theme of the Trip Report which is Hero and Zero. Many of you chaps and chapesses will be familiar with the Holland, Burroughs and Wilmot Who Wants to be a Millionaire Gang, this is where we turn up in vast numbers and try our best to get in the hot seat, with if you dont mind a little boasting with some considerable success, there is a little rivalry between Chris, Kims son and myself as we are the leaders in the hot seat competition. Chris having prior to the start of this trip report three sittings in the famous chair, I was leading slightly with four. We were having some fun together about this, with me accusing him of cheating by visiting WDW more often than I do (Yes it is possible). Greg has been in the seat once before, Famously when Greg and I were both in the hot seat during the same show.
14. Anyway early on in the trip, Chris got into the hot seat, equalling my four times. (Drat) However Greg was the particular star of this trip, because not only did he get into the hot seat with his first game. He did it in front of our friends Sheri and Rich, this was really important because Sheri is a great Trip Report Writer, catch her T.Rs on Mouseplanet, and I didnt want the world thinking that we Wilmots couldnt come up with the goods when it mattered. So well done Greg, the boy has immaculate timing. To make things even better he did really well, getting a 32,000 points win, having got to the 125K question
15. Greg intends to put the 32K package on sale on E-bay when we get back, giving you chance to own part of this very trip report. (The boy has no sentimentality what so ever!!) Then to add just a little icing to the cake he was top of the leader board twice in the next two days, having to decline his third and fourth potential appearances, due to the 30 day blackout period that hot seat winners have to endure. The host was the same for all three of these games and when he declined the second time, the Host said These guys are from Scotland and they have been causing havoc all week!
16. Well I was a restless soul for the whole trip, I kept going back and forth, more and more games, up and down the street I would pace, waiting for the next show. I would press every conceivable fastest finger combination, more and more depressed I found my self, Jill, started to mock me, ha - you think your good at WWTBAM, you are getting old you have lost your touch. A demented soul I became, I could hardly bare to go to any other park. You want me to go to Blizzard Beach, how can I, when I have not gotten into the Hot Seat yet? I would cry out in my deranged and fitful sleep. During the games, I would cry foul if I got a question wrong, blaming a sticky button or the question being too American or a trick question. Boy was I sad, a faded star on the last legs of his life. I thought that things were really bad, but little did I know, a Cruel twist was to befall me.
17. On the last morning of the trip, mere hours before our flight home, after giving up all hope of getting into the hot seat, I decided to persuade everyone that we should go and try just one last time. So with little enthusiasm from the rest of the family, we all trailed to MGM, and got a fastpass ticket for the first show, (Not that you needed it - it was half empty, thankfully as it turned out.) So we went through the usual pre show announcements about the cruise I will never win, and the fastest finger question was read out, I struck in the combination I had a feeling in my bones was due. I knew it was a good one I had a strange feeling of success, and rightly so because up came 120 my seat number, Yes oh joy, I am ahead again, Chris, eat my dust!!
18. I walked down calm and assured, another hat at least for sale on e-bay, and probably a polo shirt too, by tomorrow morning. First two questions a breeze, the third question. Adding up some dimes and quarters - easy peezy, I made a little joke about the great exchange rate, but then there was an uneasy hush, a sort of group pity, then the naked horrible truth of the situation hit me, I had got the question wrong. Then I had the eyeballs of the nation on me, I had to walk to the back room to collect the losers button Many had been there before and when it had happened to my friends I had always tried to be kind, and now I know why, there is nowhere to hide.
19. The woman in the backroom was kind, Oh I see you have been in the hot seat before, that is really good Oh no, it is not the Losers Button Well Im sure with your record we will see you again in this room But I could not be consoled, and the Host noticing me going back and teasing me, didnt help at all. Later we were on Tower of Terror when a nice lady came up to me to commiserate, believe me, if you are going to fluff up question number three, do it on your last morning, coz you are going to want to go home. (Do you think there will be a market for a losers button on e-bay??)
20. . Whilst we are on the subject of WWTBAM lets talk about meeting friends as the attraction is always best served with a plateful of friends. (Though I am mightily glad they were not there when I fluffed up. One of the great joys of WDW is meeting up with your chums. Most of my friends have come because of Trip Reports, Sue Holland is one of the great TR writers, and certainly the most prolific, the woman practically lives there, well at Comedy Warehouse anyway. We did lots of things with Sue this trip, not just going to CW with her, though we saw some great shows this time, Sue is friends with some of the cast, and it is nice to have a chance to go and say hi to them after the show. Mary has always been nice to us, particularly Edward who really enjoys watching her. (Though Jake is starting to rival her.)
21. We also did three meals with Sue, and two of those with Tom and Leanne and Kim and Chris too. The third meal was at the Italian Restaurant, Portobello Wotsit, next to the Fulton Crab house, we had a very nice lunch there, it gets quite busy during the evening I noticed - but it was very quiet at lunch time and we had a very attentive server and it was nice food, and they even throw in a free bowl of soup or salad with your entrée. I had the pizza with spinach and mushrooms and sausage. It was a very hot day too, so getting exclusive use of the air conditioning was really cool too.
22. There is a bit of a tradition amongst our group that we always have a meal at Le Cellier, this is a steakhouse situated in nice gardens in Canada, just the entrance belies a large restaurant, all the areas of the seating area are themed to the different provinces of Canada, though they all look exactly the same to the un-trained eye. (Maybe they should have more obvious themeing, perhaps Water Running down the walls to represent Niagara Falls in Ontario, and snowfalls and glacial ice walls in Alberta to represent the Banff National Park. And for Nova Scotia they could serve you on tables shaped like Ski-doos. (similar to the Sci-Fi Café) And it is about time that the waiters dressed as Mounties, then they could bring your drinks on the edge of their stiff brimmed hats, speeding up the service in the process. (If there are any people in Canada offended, please accept my humble apologies, but I am almost Canadian myself being an offspring of a Canadian family, who just happened to find themselves trapped in England at some point in our history.)
23. The other meal that we had together as a big gang was at the 50s Prime Time Café, for any readers who have not had the pleasure, the 50s PTC is a dinner themed in the (wait for it, wait for it,) 50s style. You sit at tables like kitchen tables made out of Formica and with PVC seats and chairs, most alcoves have a Black and White TV and 50s TV is piped in, of particular interest is a short film showing our man Walt opening Disneyland, but you also see older Americans telling their grandkids about the shows that are on, which is fun to see. One of the other things is that the waiters waitresses, play the role of your cousins and tell you off for not eating your greens and putting your elbows on the table, they give you names, Im Biff and Tom is Spanky, poor chap, we tease him a little (lot) and he takes it with very good grace. Anyway the PTC is great fun, and if you dont mind a little ribbing and teasing by the staff, then you can have a great time.
24. One of my internet friends is Sheri, we occasionally send each other emails and keep in touch. She is a big off kilter fan, and very patriotic, so she can think of no better way to spend American Independence Day (Or Goodbye Troublesome Colonists Day, as we British like to think of it. - Nah only kidding we are your best friends again these days) watching all the Off Kilter Shows on the 4th July. So knowing that Sheri and her Husband Rich would be in the WDW for Independence Weekend, was too good an opportunity to miss, so we had to get together. We arranged to meet on the third of the month at the WWTBAM fastpass machines. We almost didnt meet, because I look a little different to when we last met a couple of years ago, having shaved off my beard, (It went too white making me look like the guys who do the tales at Poseidons Temple in Islands of Adventure, Im 45 not 95 so it had to go.) So I was sat on one side of the street and they were on the other, I kinda thought it was them, but I wasnt sure, and they didnt recognise me at all, but Jill came along and we all figured it out, so it was nice to meet up again. We did 2 WWTBAM shows, and Greg did his stuff to help out in the Hot Seat Department, and it was great fun.
25.. On July the 4th, Jill put on her tie died Red White and Blue top, and I put on my Harley Davidson T-shirt, which was a birthday present from Robin another great TR writer, who we will be meeting in NYC in January, - Im looking forward to New York In January, I hear that it is quite a warm place, so it will be nice to get away from the snow of Scotland. Anyway, Im a biker and it was an honour to wear the emblem of a classic (If slow and un-sophisticated) American bike maker on this festive day.
26. We went over to Epcot that afternoon and it wasnt that hard finding Rich and Sheri, they were on the front row of the Off Kilter stage, Ed decided that the prospect of watching OK was a bit too much excitement for him, so he went over to Mission Space to play the Astronaut Game there. We stayed for one show, one of Sheris friends told the guys that we lived in Scotland (though we are English) and they played Scotland the Brave (Off Kilter style) for us, which was cool. Anyway if you are going to watch OK, there can be no finer company for the task. Though you are not going to get too much attention from Sheri when Jamies Knees are on show!!
27. We tried to be very patriotic as temporary Americans for the Weekend, so we went to see the American Adventure, Jill says that it is the first time that she has stayed awake for the whole show, so you see we were taking it seriously. I actually quite enjoy the show now. One of the great way to enjoy WDW (and to make our friends the Disney Stockholders money) is to buy the park CDs where you get parade and attraction soundtracks, so then you can go into the attractions and sing along to the words, making even the more mundane attractions (not that AA is mundane) more fun. And if you have a singing voice as dreadful as mine you can annoy the hell out of lots of people for a full two weeks at a time. For this trip we bought the new parade CD, with the MK Parade Music - I dont know if you can hear the snow falling in the snow globes, but it will be great trying to find out. It also has the Jungle Jamming Parade Music from AK, which is a bit of a favourite of Jills because of the design of the floats being reminiscent of the old Tapestry of Dreams Parade, which I think had the same designer.
28. One of the nicest things that happened was that a cast member who I have spoken to on the internet arranged for us to see the Magic Kingdom Parade from the VIP viewing area, which is a great spot to see it from in a little alcove on the Liberty Square Bridge. , it is a really nice parade, and the music is cool, less frantic than some of the previous parades. Anyway it was a really nice thing for them to do for us, and I want to thank them for making that little piece of Magic happen. Cheers.
29.. We spent a lot of time at the beginning of the trip at the Magic Kingdom, our first morning was spent there. We started off the trip doing Early Entry, or Extra Magic Hour is the name that it is currently known as, you may know it as Surprise Mornings, it disappeared for a while to be replaced by Character Caravans, but they were not that great, so it was wonderful to have Early Entry back, no matter what they call it. This year I noticed that it was being enforced more than it had been previously, and almost every time we went in we had to show the room key, as well as our annual pass to get in. Anyway there have also been experiments between Spring Break and the Summer Rush where they had a evening Extra Magic (3) Hours, which was kinda like a free E-night. Sadly this was not happening during our stay.
30. However, if you visit in a busy time, you should seriously give some consideration to getting up early and getting in the parks and using the Early Entry Privilege (for Disney Hotel Guests only - sorry to all you guys who just love to hang out on 192 or International Drive, you can stay in bed, it doesnt affect you. - Though a good tip is to find out which is the EE park, and keep away on the those days.) EE gives you the march on everyone else, so the plan is, use EE get the tricky to see attractions done and move on to the quieter stuff or another park, (or the pool or lunch) when the park starts to fill up, then you are almost guaranteed a good time. Believe me, if you dont have some kind of strategy you could have a very frustrating trip to WDW.
31. The other tip worth having is - use Fastpass, this is a virtual queue system where you put your ticket in a Fastpass Machine and it issues you with a ticket to ride the ride at a time in the future, usually about an hour away, then you can go and do other stuff, ride quieter attractions, or preferably for the stock holders, buy coffee, soda and parade C.Ds like I do. Then you get to go and ride your roller coaster etc with a minimal wait in line. I think they like to get Fastpass people on the attraction within about 10 minutes of returning to the ride, well it seems like that to me when I use it.
32. Fastpass is also getting more sophisticated, occasionally they give you a lanyard with a big red and white tag on it, you get it when you start to queue, (join the line, for all my USA readers) and then they scan it just as you are boarding, I think I got asked to carry one about three times this trip, and I guess, they use the system to monitor how long the lines are taking to get people on. I suppose that they have to get the information for the tip boards from somewhere, though for a long time I thought they guessed. Once we were given a lanyard as we went on to Killimanjaro Safari. However, we spent about 10 minutes photographing some birds that were refusing to play ball with the posing for the camera thing, so if you were put off joining the line because it was too long that night, Im sorry it was actually a walk on.
33. We had some great Trips on KS this time, The late night visit when it was a walk on, as mentioned above, was the best. Not just because the animals were out in force but because we had a guy who was the driver guide who sounded just like Elvis. (I wonder if any of you remember the great British One Hit Wonder, which had the immortal line Theres a guy down our chip shop swears Hes Elvis?) I kept expecting our driver to show me a hound dog or tell me that the warthog was where they got the leather for Blue Suede Shoes and quite frankly I spent the whole ride s******ing. (Dont be cruel and Love me tender)
34. Well I s******ed until, we came to the White Rhino. This was at the side of the road, literally 10 inches away from where I was on the right of the truck, I could have if I wanted actually stroked the big guy. Now I am quite fond of breaking the odd, little WDW rule, (not that I am going to encourage you by telling you what they are) but that was one time, when I thought the keep your arms and legs and forward facing tentacles inside the ride vehicle rule was a pretty smart idea, particularly when something startled the hair horned chap, and he turned to look at me and his back legs did a little leap into the air, I of course looked as innocent as I could, and tried to think in my best Rhino language that the guy in front of me would be a much better opponent to have a horn locking and head butting competition with, or what ever White Rhinos do to impress the chicks during mating season.
35. On one of the previous trips earlier in the holiday we had seen that the lioness, had climbed to the very top of the rocks. And she looked really queen of the castle up there. I think we did about four or five times around the circuit and nearly every time we saw the real (not the phoney Little Red) one year old elephant, who still looks really cute, though not as cute as he did when we first saw him last august when he was about five weeks old and he has his little baby elephant bum fluff hair, (a bit like that on my upper lip as I have been growing a moustache whilst we were away, just to annoy Ed, who hates it. - Thats what fathers are designed for embarrassing and annoying their teenage offspring.)
36. Animal Kingdom is probably the park that I have been into the least over the years, though it is not my least favourite park, I guess there is a lot less of it than the other parks, though that is changing all the time, compared with the opening season you have Asia, the New (and tacky) bits of Dinoland, and now you can walk on the new path from Dino to Asia, and you cant fail to notice the progress that is being made on Everest, the structure of the mountain is in place and you can see bits of the roller coaster track actually already in place, it looks a mighty fine coaster, with a lot of banked curves on show.
37.. Towards the end of the trip, we did the Tarzan Rocks show, (Jill would have liked to do the Legend of the Lion King Show, but I held out against it, and she wouldnt go on her own, the reason being that we are going to go and see the Lion King on Broadway in January and I didnt want to spoil myself for it.) anyway, back to Tarzan, this is a good show, but it has been there for five years now, (The first season was a Jungle Book show- It was Ok, but it only covered the Bare Necessities.) and I am starting to think, hmmmm maybe the Theatre should get a new show now, Tarzan wasnt exactly a classic amongst Disneys output. It is however a great show, as is the Legend of the Lion King.
38. Whilst we are on the subject of Phil Collins (Tarzan) and Elton Jon (Lion King) last time we were in Florida we noticed that on our favourite radio station. (Magic 107.7) they seemed to play these guys a lot. And so I did some research, and during our trip they played, Phil Collins 11 times, The Twain Lady 10 times, and Elton John 9. With noticeable contributions by Sting as well. So with the three gents, the Brits are certainly making a splash in America. Just a shame that they are all old wrinkly men, you should listen to some of the new British Talent too. Have I told you about my beautiful singing voice???
39. Anyway, back to the musical entertainment, It is that just deep inside me somewhere I have the feeling that all the shows at WDW have been there for a long time, (Apart from the variety of performances at the American Gardens Theatre which change all the time.) and maybe we deserve something new. I guess a show is relatively cheap to change, (OK, it probably costs a Million Bucks, but compared with a new coaster or something that is small change, so they can have an impact without breaking the bank.
40. Gosh, what have I just typed, we also went to Busch Gardens and we saw the show Katanga, which was full of high production values and a very talented and hardworking cast, the problem was it was soooooo dull. And the reason was in a 30 min show, you just cant organise story lines quickly enough so that the characters mean anything to the audience, the reason why Disney are so successful with there 25/30 min shows is that we all already know the characters, they dont have to tell us who they are, so we can get right down to the fun as soon as the curtain opens, so maybe Disney shouldnt listen to a word I say, actually few people do, so no change there then.
41. Whilst we are on a side trip to Busch Gardens, I had probably better mention that this park is quite good, but it isnt in the same league as the four Disney parks, and it seems to not be in the best part of Tampa either, almost industrial. Regular readers will know about poor old Edward and his tummy problems during our trip to Busch during Spring Break fortunately nothing of that magnitude happened again, The custodial staff are pleased too. Anyway we did a little coaster riding, the Leg Dangler is a good coaster, the Wooden one is very very rough, and not a patch on my favourite Zeus at Parc Astrix in Gay Paris, Le Belle France. And Edward managed to cope well with the ups and downs of modern park touring.
42.. Worthy of mention is Rhino Rally, which is very similar to Killimanjaro Safari but much shorter and less varied, There is a nice little twist that KS doesnt have, which is quite impressive, but the bit that tickled my fancy is the guide was talking about THE Rhino, like they only have one, which for some reason is amusing to me, but perhaps a little lonely for Eric the Batchelor Rhino. - I guess it is possible that there are others but I didnt see them, I hope so, if not, I may start a campaign to get another Rhino, the poor chap doesnt deserve to be in Solitary Confinement, Disney have loads, perhaps they can loan them one. Mind you imagine if they only had one Love Bird, or a Lone Wolf, (Oh a lone Wolf would be OK, sorry.)
43.. The two other things about Busch Gardens that stick out in my mind, were eating pizza and drinking free beer, from the hospitality centre. (Limit Two per person per day) - I being the almost teetotal person that I am only had one Bud Lite. - Can I point out that I have received no fee from the Anahiser Corporation, and this is therefore not product placement. However, if they wish to send me a free crate of something, I will promise to Highlight and Italic, all there trade marks in this trip report in subsequent editions.
44. The second memorable thingy I wanted to say, is that they still have a nice cable car, so when you are cream crackered, which is quite easy at Busch, it is a big park, you can scoot back to the centre on a cable car. I miss that at Disney, Though the one at Disney was more for fun, it didnt actually go anywhere very far - only from Tommorrowland to Fantasyland. The best bit was looking at the roof of the buildings with Peter Pan etc in them, because you could see that actually they are big sheds, and not European Gothic Design at all. (Oh sorry Walt, Im giving the trade secrets away again!!)
45.. The last thing I want to say about Busch - This is a Disney Report after all, is they had some cool turtles or terrapins that I saw on a rock with their little webbed paws sticking up in the air, Imagine a skydiver, with legs and arms flailing above their torsos and you kinda get the image, anyway, for some obscure reason it is one of the things that sticks in my little sad mind. And you know that is the pleasure of Theme Park touring, you shouldnt think of it as oh Space Mountain, and Tower of Terror or Die, no sit back and enjoy the little details, it keeps you happy, less tired and the lines shorter for everyone else.
46. Back to Disney. Something new that we did, Yes there are new things for me to do, I havent done everything. Ive done almost everything, let me think . Hmmmmm Bear in the Big Blue House, or whatever they call that, I Havent done that, see there is something. Anyway the something new that we did this trip was E- Night. Yes, I know, it has taken nine trips to the parks for me to get around to doing E-Night. There is a reason for this, which is basically I am mean, and I didnt see why I should pay good money, ($38 - as it turned out) to go on rides I had already paid for. Like I dumped $2000 on four annual passes last year, and I have to pay extra to be in the parks .. Anyway I changed my mind. (And why not, one of the great pleasures of life is changing your mind.)
47. However, I am writing a book about Walt Disney World with my friend Robin Goble, and I needed to do some research, and one of the things that I needed to find out about was E-Night, obviously. I was supposed to do Playhouse Disney - Bear in the Big Blue House as well, but I can always send Robin to research that for us, as she is nearer the ride demographic than I am. Anyway, you dont want me to plug a book we havent even finished writing yet so I will get back to the story, (Mind you if you work for a publishers .. OK Sorry, I know, no harm in trying though is there??? )
48. E-night. For those of you un-initiated in the delights of E-Night, here is an overview. Disney being the clever people that they are, know that for most of the year the parks are so busy that it is hard to do everything, and for those who want to do everything, it can be quite frustrating, so they invented a system where their most important guests, (I.E. those staying in a Disney Hotel) can stay in the park when it is very quite and ride the best rides and attractions for three hours. So you pay $12 plus tax, and you get three hours in the Magic Kingdom with a small number of guests and with eight rides open, characters around the hub in front of the Castle with short lines, and some shops and eating spots open.
49. We did the E-night and it was very very nice to have the rides almost to ourselves, some were walk ons - Splash Mountain, some were Stay Ons - Big Thunder Mountain, and some had small but easily manageable queues (lines.) - Space Mountain.
50. The biggest thrill was riding Big Thunder Mountain for two rides consecutively with the Wishes Fireworks exploding all around the mountains as we rode. This was in the parlance of some of the young people of the day Way Cool. It was also very nice to be able to sit in Mickeys Philarmagic and see the new show. Also available were Buzz, The Haunted Mansion, Snow White, and Tigger and Poos Bouncy Bouncy ride. We managed to do them all with a couple of or favourites twice, easily within the three hour timeframe. And I think that they sold quite a few tickets as it seemed reasonably busy. It wasnt as quite as it is if you hang around the park for a while after closing. Once I spent almost an hour photographing the Magic Kingdom after closure and wasnt molested by the cast members at all. - That was quiet.
51. I think that the piece de la resistance however was letting the boys go off and do Space Mountain without me and going for a Hot Dog at Caseys where I was the only customer sat down and four custodial staff were waiting to clean my table. It made me feel so important that I was being waited on hand and foot, actually it made me wonder if they were a little overstaffed that evening.
52. We went to E-night not in the car, which was probably a good idea because I didnt fancy having to go to the dreaded TTC to pick up the automobile at one oclock in the morning. The thing about e-night during the peak summer months is it starts at ten pm, so it by the nature of the thing means a late night, and as you know we well behaved British Folk like to have our milk and cookies and to be dreaming about England Winning the World Cup again, by one am every night, not gallivanting around in a 300 acre car park. Would I do it again, probably but not every trip.
Well that is Part One over, and part two will be along shortly, honest, no it's true - would I lie?
Cheers Larry.
Your Pal in Scotland.
