LarryFmScotland
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- May 6, 2003
- Messages
- 357
Larrys Wonderful World Trip Report 13.
Dear Friend.
Good Morning, had a bit of a lie in today and only got up at seven, still managed a relaxing twenty five minutes having fun though, before everyone else got up.
Today was Tom, Leanne, Kim and Chriss final morning at Walt Disney World, but as they live so close I refuse to get too upset for them. Especially as Chris and I are fighting to be the Gangs WWTBAM Hot Seat Champ, 4-3 to me at the moment, but yesterday, my sources tell me he had to decline a fourth time in the chair because he is banned for 30 days like Greg and Myself. (He gets to go in May, so I fully expect him to catch up before I get back in July.)
We decided upon the Animal Kingdom as a venue for the final gathering of the clan. And a very pleasant morning it turned out to be, nice and sunny and not too hot, still not Kali River Rapids Hot, but I did notice a 50 minute wait on the tip board later in the day, so some people are not put off by the thought of wandering around in wet clothing all day, or maybe those lockers at the entrance are stuffed full of extra clothing ready for action, in the highly likely event that there owners get drenched. Anyway I was in wimp mode so no heroics for me today.
We went first to get fastpasses for Killy Safari Ride, I had vowed to kill anyone who mentioned Little Red to me today, but I tried to put my homicidal thoughts to one side. And we got fastpasses, actually we got two each, due to a computer glitch that Gregory spotted on his machine, he is rapidly becoming the fastpass guy these days taking over from me, as the king of the fastpass scams, which sadly are few and far between these days.
Whilst we were waiting for the fastpasses to kick in we did the Gorilla Trail, this was quite crowded, well at least in the small rooms, Kim spent some time telling me about Rufus the Naked Mole Rat in Kim Possible, information that may come in useful later on no doubt. And we had a nice chat to a guy called Jeffery, who was one of the gorilla cast members, he was telling us lots of stuff about poaching especially of gorillas and tigers in the wild. We chatted to him for about five minutes and he was so keen on chatting to us, he didnt even bother to answer the radio when he was called on it. Nice bloke, say hi when you go there next trip for me.
So we went on the ride together and sadly got a very bored cast member who rushed through things. Maybe he had read my thoughts about Little Red and didnt want to emphasise the story too much. But the bad bit, is when you have been on the ride 20 times, the bits you still enjoy are the animals, and most of the cast members point out animals and tell you things about them, I suspect it makes it less boring for them as well, but this guy wasnt particularly good at that either. One of the other things I have noticed over the years is that the original cast for this ride was mainly African, and it gave it an authentic feel, but now you get people with Jersey and Oklahoma accents doing the driving and it isnt quite as good, no offence to any of your friends in those fine areas. They just aint African.
Well there was absolutely no way I was riding with the second fast passes, so I decided it was time for some Larry time, so I went and volunteered to get some fastpasses something in Dinoland. We had a choice between Countdown to Extinction, (Dinosaur pah!) or what a mutual friend of ours recently called Primeval Hurl! Anyway, we had a vote and decided on Primeval. So I slowly wandered over to the dig site. It was very crowded and getting quite hot in there, so I got the fastpasses for PW (H) and spent about thirty-five minutes wandering around, something that I am particularly good at. (As any of my colleagues could vouch for!) I spent some time looking at the tacky stands, and making sure I didnt say anything to cast members about Walt spinning in his grave. I was very interested from a sociologists point of view about the test your strength thing, where you hit a big mallet and the puck thingy whizzes up the pole and you try to hit the bell and win a prize. Some guys spend a lot of money trying to impress their girl, by desparately trying to hit that bell, and they cant quite do it, and the keep going, and they get more tired and the thing falls backwards each time. Then occasionally one of them manages to find some inner strength and hits the bell, and there is pride and joy to share around, not to mention a prize which cost Disney 75 cents to buy, and he has spent twelve dollars to win. Personally I would rather admit Im a wimp and buy something instead. (Thats me no romance!)
Well by the time the others arrived from the African safari, I was able to get another fastpass, so I nipped over to Countdown to Extinction and got some there, as well.
So Everyone except Tom and Leanne, rode Hurl, and I have to admit it is a fun little coaster, or wild mouse to be more accurate. But the last little flourish of it, always seems to get my spine, and it did today. But I do like the darn thing, especially with a fastpass Im not sure that I would queue for 30 minutes for it. (I probably wouldnt queue 30 minutes for Mission Space these days, Im to spoilt.)
Having said that we did have to wait almost thirty minutes for CTX (D-pah!) as the ride broke down whilst we were in the waiting area, but we spoke briefly to a cast member from Little Rock, Arken-saur. Who was nice to say hi to but not as informative as Jeffery. Anyway we finally got into the pre-show and saw Dr Marsh and Seeker. And I remembered that the joke I once made about flash photography in a previous TR had gone down well with at least one person. We did the ride, and it was fun too, there seemed slightly more light in there so I tried to work out the track layout with little joy, as I was being tossed all over the place at the time. I was sat in the back left seat, so I had a little chat with one of the big nasty dinosaurs, and I told him, that eating people wasnt nice so he should stop it. (No sorry it is true, I did!)
In between Hurl and CTX we went for lunch, at Pizzafari, and the most noticeable thing was that Tom took 20 minutes longer to get his food, than we had, we thought he had fallen out with us and gone to eat elsewhere or something, any way it turned out that he had ordered a Italian Deli Sandwich, without salad in it. Apparently this cause some difficulty in the kitchen, Tom thought that Disney had not taught the chefs how to make a sandwich so complicated and that they had to send one of the chefs to catering college for a refresher course to figure out how to do it and that is why it took so long.
The second noticeable thing was that Greg got an Apple Pizza for desert so I pinched a small bit, as my thing I am not allowed to eat, treat, and it was very nice indeed.
Well it was now time to say good bye to the rest of the gang, we will be seeing them for the July 4th Holiday, which isnt too far away. Jill and Ed stayed in AK for a while to see Flights of Wonder, but Greg and I decided to go back to the room, for a rest. I think I may have had a little nap, if my memory serves me correctly.
Eventually Greg and Ed went off on the bus to Disney Quest, Jill and I went for a Turkey Dinner to Disneys most fabulous Restaurant. No not Victoria and Alberts, everyone goes there it is so Clichéd. No I mean the All Star Movies Food Court, and a fine turkey dinner they do too.
We then met up with the boys at Pleasure Island, and we did two shows. And they were both good shows, Ed was a bit unhappy that Mary was only in one of them, but they were a good cast and some of the bits were funny. I got the cowboy song in my head, and I sang it in the car on the way home, but it didnt compare to me singing Play that Funky Music White Boy, along with the band outside on the West End Stage, whist pinching Eds Hat in the queue for the CW much to the amusement of some people in the line, and the embarrassment of the rest of my family.
Well that was about it for Tuesday.
Wednesday a change of pace I shall tell you all about it.
Thanks for reading.
Cheers Larry.
Your Pal in Scotland.
Dear Friend.
Good Morning, had a bit of a lie in today and only got up at seven, still managed a relaxing twenty five minutes having fun though, before everyone else got up.
Today was Tom, Leanne, Kim and Chriss final morning at Walt Disney World, but as they live so close I refuse to get too upset for them. Especially as Chris and I are fighting to be the Gangs WWTBAM Hot Seat Champ, 4-3 to me at the moment, but yesterday, my sources tell me he had to decline a fourth time in the chair because he is banned for 30 days like Greg and Myself. (He gets to go in May, so I fully expect him to catch up before I get back in July.)
We decided upon the Animal Kingdom as a venue for the final gathering of the clan. And a very pleasant morning it turned out to be, nice and sunny and not too hot, still not Kali River Rapids Hot, but I did notice a 50 minute wait on the tip board later in the day, so some people are not put off by the thought of wandering around in wet clothing all day, or maybe those lockers at the entrance are stuffed full of extra clothing ready for action, in the highly likely event that there owners get drenched. Anyway I was in wimp mode so no heroics for me today.
We went first to get fastpasses for Killy Safari Ride, I had vowed to kill anyone who mentioned Little Red to me today, but I tried to put my homicidal thoughts to one side. And we got fastpasses, actually we got two each, due to a computer glitch that Gregory spotted on his machine, he is rapidly becoming the fastpass guy these days taking over from me, as the king of the fastpass scams, which sadly are few and far between these days.
Whilst we were waiting for the fastpasses to kick in we did the Gorilla Trail, this was quite crowded, well at least in the small rooms, Kim spent some time telling me about Rufus the Naked Mole Rat in Kim Possible, information that may come in useful later on no doubt. And we had a nice chat to a guy called Jeffery, who was one of the gorilla cast members, he was telling us lots of stuff about poaching especially of gorillas and tigers in the wild. We chatted to him for about five minutes and he was so keen on chatting to us, he didnt even bother to answer the radio when he was called on it. Nice bloke, say hi when you go there next trip for me.
So we went on the ride together and sadly got a very bored cast member who rushed through things. Maybe he had read my thoughts about Little Red and didnt want to emphasise the story too much. But the bad bit, is when you have been on the ride 20 times, the bits you still enjoy are the animals, and most of the cast members point out animals and tell you things about them, I suspect it makes it less boring for them as well, but this guy wasnt particularly good at that either. One of the other things I have noticed over the years is that the original cast for this ride was mainly African, and it gave it an authentic feel, but now you get people with Jersey and Oklahoma accents doing the driving and it isnt quite as good, no offence to any of your friends in those fine areas. They just aint African.
Well there was absolutely no way I was riding with the second fast passes, so I decided it was time for some Larry time, so I went and volunteered to get some fastpasses something in Dinoland. We had a choice between Countdown to Extinction, (Dinosaur pah!) or what a mutual friend of ours recently called Primeval Hurl! Anyway, we had a vote and decided on Primeval. So I slowly wandered over to the dig site. It was very crowded and getting quite hot in there, so I got the fastpasses for PW (H) and spent about thirty-five minutes wandering around, something that I am particularly good at. (As any of my colleagues could vouch for!) I spent some time looking at the tacky stands, and making sure I didnt say anything to cast members about Walt spinning in his grave. I was very interested from a sociologists point of view about the test your strength thing, where you hit a big mallet and the puck thingy whizzes up the pole and you try to hit the bell and win a prize. Some guys spend a lot of money trying to impress their girl, by desparately trying to hit that bell, and they cant quite do it, and the keep going, and they get more tired and the thing falls backwards each time. Then occasionally one of them manages to find some inner strength and hits the bell, and there is pride and joy to share around, not to mention a prize which cost Disney 75 cents to buy, and he has spent twelve dollars to win. Personally I would rather admit Im a wimp and buy something instead. (Thats me no romance!)
Well by the time the others arrived from the African safari, I was able to get another fastpass, so I nipped over to Countdown to Extinction and got some there, as well.
So Everyone except Tom and Leanne, rode Hurl, and I have to admit it is a fun little coaster, or wild mouse to be more accurate. But the last little flourish of it, always seems to get my spine, and it did today. But I do like the darn thing, especially with a fastpass Im not sure that I would queue for 30 minutes for it. (I probably wouldnt queue 30 minutes for Mission Space these days, Im to spoilt.)
Having said that we did have to wait almost thirty minutes for CTX (D-pah!) as the ride broke down whilst we were in the waiting area, but we spoke briefly to a cast member from Little Rock, Arken-saur. Who was nice to say hi to but not as informative as Jeffery. Anyway we finally got into the pre-show and saw Dr Marsh and Seeker. And I remembered that the joke I once made about flash photography in a previous TR had gone down well with at least one person. We did the ride, and it was fun too, there seemed slightly more light in there so I tried to work out the track layout with little joy, as I was being tossed all over the place at the time. I was sat in the back left seat, so I had a little chat with one of the big nasty dinosaurs, and I told him, that eating people wasnt nice so he should stop it. (No sorry it is true, I did!)
In between Hurl and CTX we went for lunch, at Pizzafari, and the most noticeable thing was that Tom took 20 minutes longer to get his food, than we had, we thought he had fallen out with us and gone to eat elsewhere or something, any way it turned out that he had ordered a Italian Deli Sandwich, without salad in it. Apparently this cause some difficulty in the kitchen, Tom thought that Disney had not taught the chefs how to make a sandwich so complicated and that they had to send one of the chefs to catering college for a refresher course to figure out how to do it and that is why it took so long.
The second noticeable thing was that Greg got an Apple Pizza for desert so I pinched a small bit, as my thing I am not allowed to eat, treat, and it was very nice indeed.
Well it was now time to say good bye to the rest of the gang, we will be seeing them for the July 4th Holiday, which isnt too far away. Jill and Ed stayed in AK for a while to see Flights of Wonder, but Greg and I decided to go back to the room, for a rest. I think I may have had a little nap, if my memory serves me correctly.
Eventually Greg and Ed went off on the bus to Disney Quest, Jill and I went for a Turkey Dinner to Disneys most fabulous Restaurant. No not Victoria and Alberts, everyone goes there it is so Clichéd. No I mean the All Star Movies Food Court, and a fine turkey dinner they do too.
We then met up with the boys at Pleasure Island, and we did two shows. And they were both good shows, Ed was a bit unhappy that Mary was only in one of them, but they were a good cast and some of the bits were funny. I got the cowboy song in my head, and I sang it in the car on the way home, but it didnt compare to me singing Play that Funky Music White Boy, along with the band outside on the West End Stage, whist pinching Eds Hat in the queue for the CW much to the amusement of some people in the line, and the embarrassment of the rest of my family.
Well that was about it for Tuesday.
Wednesday a change of pace I shall tell you all about it.
Thanks for reading.
Cheers Larry.
Your Pal in Scotland.
