Master Gracie
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Feb 18, 2004
- Messages
- 455
For those of you that have written a trip report, or any report for that matter, before, I think you will agree with me that the start of the thing is the roughest. Now I realize that this is not, officially, the start of the report, but it is the start of the chapter. That's close enough in my book. Add to this, the fact that this trip occurred two months ago, and you have what I am passing off here as an intro. It's a sad excuse, I know, but for our immediate purposes, it will have to do. Oh, I could have come up with a masterful story, weaved to perfection about how we had a horrible time with breakfast on this particular day. How I ordered something and the order was messed up. How I argued with the food service staff and how neither one of us would admit that it was our problem. How a kind stranger came up and informed the rude CM that they distinctly heard me and my version of the story was correct. How the CM very rudely redid my order correctly and how I took the high road by not expressing the smugness I was feeling at that particular moment. How my feelings of euphoria were dashed as I turned abruptly from the rude CM and ran, smack dab, into the kind stranger that had taken my side in the argument in the first place. How my tray and her tray both combined to change the overall effect of her ensemble in a very startling and not at all flattering way. How Roy Disney happened to be walking through the food court at that particular moment and witnessed the whole thing. How he listened to our story, apologized profusely for the conduct of the CM and gave us lifetime passes to the parks. But as you all know perfectly well, not one bit of the previous story happened. I think I had pop-tarts for breakfast
or was it toaster strudel?
Either way, this little foray into the dark depths of my mind, has served its purpose. This chapter is now officially started and I can move on with what actually did happen on this eventful day.
Day 5
Animal Kingdom Day
This is the day to which Deston had been looking forward since we let them know we were going on the trip. He is a big animal lover. Particularly dinosaurs, but other, less exotic animals will do in a pinch. We arrived, picked up the obligatory stroller, and were on our way.
Our first stop of the day was going to be at the Festival of the Lion King show. I graciously agreed to go get fastpasses for the safari whilst the rest of the herd was heading into Camp Minnie-Mickey. I made the quick trek to grab the passes and headed back to see the show. It was wonderful as always. Chase, who happened to be sitting on the end of the row, sort of he was sitting in Carl's lap and Carl was on the end of the row, was a bit unsure when one of the Tumble Monkeys popped up and ruffled his hair. Chase's, not Carl's. But we all laughed and so I suppose he figured it was alright. I did also notice that a particularly fetching umm lion or cheetah hard to tell was smiling a little bit wider at me than at the rest of the crowd. This did not earn me a smack. I suppose my lovely wife has no fear of losing me to someone of the opposite species.
We left the Lion King show and headed to the Pocahontas show. Jen and I had never seen this show before and we thought it was cute. Nowhere near as impressive as the Lion King show, but ok in its own right.
After this, we had to make a pit stop and purchase 3 very large drink bottles with animal toppers on them. Once the boys had their mandatory souvenirs for the day, we made our way to the safari. The funniest thing happened to us on the way around the preserve. We saw a baby elephant that had been the victim of an attempted poaching. It seems as if I vaguely remember this happening on one, or more, of our previous trips to this particular reserve. It would seem to me, that if they were to just let the poachers have this one baby elephant, the whole preserve would run a bit smoother. But that's just my opinion.
We made our way to the Tusker House and had lunch. While we were there, there was a demonstration of African music outside. The performers played on authentic African drums and pulled members of the audience up to do an authentic African dance that involved much hip wiggling. Oddly enough, the band members were all male and the audience members that were pulled up to perform were all female, young, and very attractive. Isn't it odd, the coincidences that we experience in a normal day? Hmm.
Moving right along, once we pulled our ladies away from staring at all that embarrassing dancing, we headed to see Flik in It's Tough to be a Bug. The show was delightful as ever and the roaches were particularly careful not to be too obnoxious as they scurried out of the theatre under my butt. To be perfectly honest, I think them to be very rude. I mean think about it, day in and day out they make their way out of that theatre first. I've never even seen a fastpass for exiting a theatre. Not to mention that they unceremoniously touch each of our butts on their way out without even offering to buy us dinner. I haven't ever even gotten a courtesy call. The nerve.
After waiting just inside the covered exit for a brief moment to let the sudden torrential downpour pass, we headed to DinoLand USA. This had Deston dancing in the street and he didn't even have to go to the bathroom. We got there and spent the next hour riding the Triceratops Spin. Once. An hour to ride the thing one time. Now you are all thinking, "WOW, I have never seen the line that long before." Well you would be wrong. The line consisted of roughly 10 people. The ride was shutdown for a few minutes so the CMs could load a young boy in a wheel chair type device into the ride. Now, before I lose your good graces, let me explain. I am not complaining. I had nothing against the boy, his parents, or the CMs. They were, however, taking an inordinately long time to get him on the ride. They were having trouble with his chair. After about the 6th attempt, roughly half an hour or so, they got him on the ride and started it up. The ride was over in 2 minutes. They then had to close the ride for another half hour or so due to technical difficulties. They finally got it resolved and we rode the ride. Actually, I felt sorry for the boy. He seemed to have some condition where he was suffering from some type of mental retardation. As I sit here and type this, however, I look back on the situation and think. I realize I am in no position to feel sorry for him. I am sorry that he has to live his life with the disability, he appeared not to be able to speak, have full use of his arms or legs, or even the ability to hold his head upright, but his parents, or grandparents as they could well have been, appeared to love him very much. They had brought him to Walt Disney World when it would have been infinitely easier to have just stayed home. They smiled when they rode the ride with him and he smiled the whole time I saw him. Many children live perfectly healthy lives, but their parents are not there for them, or worse, they blame their children for the social or financial situation in which they find themselves. Some, upon finding their child would live its life with such a deficiency, would choose abortion. I have never been in that situation, and God willing, I will never be, but I can speak to this. That family loved each other. And in a world so full of hate and self-centeredness, maybe he had it better than a lot of other people. Please, if you agree or disagree with me and feel compelled to post your feelings, feel free, but do not turn my post into a debate board. Post your feelings and move on, and I promise not to get so philosophical in the future.
When we departed from the Spin, we split up. Carl and Louise took Chase and Trent and caught the parade while Deston, Bryan, Kristie, Jennifer, and I headed to Dinosaur. We weren't sure how Deston would react, but we explained it to him and let him make his own choice. He wanted to try it, so we headed back in time. He was ok for the majority of the ride, but at the end he had his eyes closed. I find it interesting to point out, that as opposed to the white knuckle, light blocking eye clench that Chase had on Star Tours, Deston merely had his eyes gently closed and his head down. If I hadn't known better, I would have said he was either praying or asleep. Now that I think about it, maybe he was praying.
When we got back to the present, we met back up with the other party and headed toward the busses. When we got back to our particular bus stop, we had a bit of a wait for a bus. While we were there waiting, quite a line amassed behind us. With the exception of one couple, we were the first in the line. When the bus pulled up, another couple was rushing up to catch it. That's fine we have done that ourselves on occasion, even if it is obvious that there are too many people for you to make that particular bus. I think this compulsion is controlled by the same part of your brain that causes you to step on the brake of your car whenever you see a cop, regardless of the fact that you know you are traveling under the speed limit. Anyway, this newly arrived couple did not go to the back of the line. They merely eased their way up to the side of the line, so as to have a good shot of "merging" with the rest of us poor souls who are afflicted with tact and courtesy. Jennifer says she even heard the husband say, "I think the line ends over there." To which the wife replied, "That's ok, just stand right here." To the betterment of all involved, I did not hear this particular comment. When the doors opened on the bus, I positioned myself in front of the offending party and allowed our herd to board the bus. Upon reflection, what I should have done was simply stand there and let everyone else on until the bus was full and they could have caught the next one, but alas I did not. I'm not generally concerned about angering other people. I don't, by any means, go out of my way to do it, but at 6'5", 270 lbs, and a menacing glare, people usually withhold their comments.
We got back to the room and freshened up. Carl, Bryan, Kristie, Jennifer, and I were going to head to Disney Quest for the remainder of the evening. Now, to allow you, gentle reader, the ability to live the following tale as I did, I will attempt to tell it as it occurred. So close your eyes and picture yourself in my position whilst you read the following. Wait ummm .Ok, I guess you'll have to open your eyes to read, but you'd better be imagining.
Me: Ok, are you ready?
Jennifer: Yeah, do you have the tickets? (I - Paul- kept them so as to get fastpasses)
Me: Yeah. Here is mine, yours, Kristie's, Bryan's, don't need Louise's, or the boy's, ummm.
Jennifer: What?
Me: Nothing. Mine, yours, Kristie's, Bryans, Louise, the kids ummm.
Jennifer: WHAT?
Me: I don't see your daddy's ticket.
Jennifer: Where is it?
Me: Well, I thought it was here with the rest of them.
After much searching in the room
Jennifer: Have you lost daddy's ticket?
Me: I guess so I must have left it in the fastpass machine at the safari.
Jennifer: What are we going to do?
Me: I guess we'll have to buy him another one.
We go out to break the news to Carl.
Me: Carl, I need to talk to you.
Carl: Ok.
Me: Well it seems that when I got the fastpasses for the safari, I left your ticket in the machine. We'll have to buy you a new one for tomorrow.
Carl: NO I don't want you to have to do that. I'll just stay in the room.
Me: No you won't Carl, tomorrow is the Halloween Party, and you are not going to miss it just because I was too stupid to get your ticket out of the machine.
Carl: Paul, that's too much money for you to spend, I wasn't really excited about dressing up anyway, I'll just miss it.
Me: It doesn't matter if you were excited about it or not Carl, your grandsons are excited about it and they are not going to the party without their grandfather because of me. You're taking the ticket.
Carl: No Paul.
Me: Well I'm going to buy it; you can take it if you want to.
Now you have to know Carl. He puts himself in other people's shoes very easily. Meaning, of course, that he empathizes well, not that he's a shoe thief. When he heard that I had left the ticket, I'm sure he thought about how badly he would feel if he had done the same to someone else and how spending that extra money would have eaten at him, so he didn't want to put me in the same situation. Carl is really a great guy, but as I told him, his grandsons weren't going to the party without him. I was pretty hot by this point myself. Emotionally, not physically, but thank you soo much for misconstruing the two. You know how it is when you do something stupid. You don't? Well lucky you liar. We decided to head to the front desk to see if they could do something for us. I didn't think they would be able to issue another ticket, but it was worth at try.
Me: Excuse me, but we have a little problem. (I understate things.)
CM at the counter: Yes?
Me: I seem to have left my father-in-laws park ticket in a fastpass machine in the Animal Kingdom. Is there anyway you can reissue that ticket or point me to someone who might be able to help me?
CM: Sure, I can do that; it's no problem at all.
Me: Great! (I was thinking to myself this is going way too easily. I hope the next shoe to drop isn't on my toe.)
CM: What room did you say you were in?
Carl: Room number XXX (I forget which room he was in.)
CM: (After a minute or two) there you go.
She handed my father-in-law another room key. I looked at the key, at my father-in-law, and at the CM.
Me: No I left his park ticket at the Animal Kingdom.
CM: *Blank look*
Me: His PARK ticket.
CM: *Blank look*
Me: *sigh* the ticket he gets into the park with
CM: Oh .I don't think I can do anything about that.
Me: ..
Now I had specifically told her that it was the park ticket we needed in the first place, but this apparently was simply too much for her to handle. I kept waiting for her to say, "What is this park ticket of which you speak?" After consulting with her supervisor, she returned and told me to try the guest relations center at Downtown Disney.
We got there and while Carl and I went to see about the ticket, the rest of the crew went to Ghirardelli's. After about 5 minutes in the guest services center, Carl and I emerged with a fresh new gleaming ticket in hand. I did not have to pay for it. This CM knew what a park ticket was, I'm still amazed by this, and after verifying Carl's identity, reissued it. I was happy to say the least as was Carl.
We met back up with the others, made our way to Disney Quest and bought our tickets. We had a great time there, but it closed an hour earlier than I remembered, so we only got to spend about an hour and a half there.
That was probably for the best anyway, as we were going to a Halloween party the next day. We were all dressing up, too. Don't worry my friends, if you have made it this far, you are either a glutton for punishment, or a bit deranged. You deserve a reward for this. As a reward for braving my horrible writing, I will assure you, at the end of my report 2 more report days I will post pictures including Halloween Party pictures. You lucky dogs you.
Either way, this little foray into the dark depths of my mind, has served its purpose. This chapter is now officially started and I can move on with what actually did happen on this eventful day.
Day 5
Animal Kingdom Day
This is the day to which Deston had been looking forward since we let them know we were going on the trip. He is a big animal lover. Particularly dinosaurs, but other, less exotic animals will do in a pinch. We arrived, picked up the obligatory stroller, and were on our way.
Our first stop of the day was going to be at the Festival of the Lion King show. I graciously agreed to go get fastpasses for the safari whilst the rest of the herd was heading into Camp Minnie-Mickey. I made the quick trek to grab the passes and headed back to see the show. It was wonderful as always. Chase, who happened to be sitting on the end of the row, sort of he was sitting in Carl's lap and Carl was on the end of the row, was a bit unsure when one of the Tumble Monkeys popped up and ruffled his hair. Chase's, not Carl's. But we all laughed and so I suppose he figured it was alright. I did also notice that a particularly fetching umm lion or cheetah hard to tell was smiling a little bit wider at me than at the rest of the crowd. This did not earn me a smack. I suppose my lovely wife has no fear of losing me to someone of the opposite species.
We left the Lion King show and headed to the Pocahontas show. Jen and I had never seen this show before and we thought it was cute. Nowhere near as impressive as the Lion King show, but ok in its own right.
After this, we had to make a pit stop and purchase 3 very large drink bottles with animal toppers on them. Once the boys had their mandatory souvenirs for the day, we made our way to the safari. The funniest thing happened to us on the way around the preserve. We saw a baby elephant that had been the victim of an attempted poaching. It seems as if I vaguely remember this happening on one, or more, of our previous trips to this particular reserve. It would seem to me, that if they were to just let the poachers have this one baby elephant, the whole preserve would run a bit smoother. But that's just my opinion.
We made our way to the Tusker House and had lunch. While we were there, there was a demonstration of African music outside. The performers played on authentic African drums and pulled members of the audience up to do an authentic African dance that involved much hip wiggling. Oddly enough, the band members were all male and the audience members that were pulled up to perform were all female, young, and very attractive. Isn't it odd, the coincidences that we experience in a normal day? Hmm.
Moving right along, once we pulled our ladies away from staring at all that embarrassing dancing, we headed to see Flik in It's Tough to be a Bug. The show was delightful as ever and the roaches were particularly careful not to be too obnoxious as they scurried out of the theatre under my butt. To be perfectly honest, I think them to be very rude. I mean think about it, day in and day out they make their way out of that theatre first. I've never even seen a fastpass for exiting a theatre. Not to mention that they unceremoniously touch each of our butts on their way out without even offering to buy us dinner. I haven't ever even gotten a courtesy call. The nerve.
After waiting just inside the covered exit for a brief moment to let the sudden torrential downpour pass, we headed to DinoLand USA. This had Deston dancing in the street and he didn't even have to go to the bathroom. We got there and spent the next hour riding the Triceratops Spin. Once. An hour to ride the thing one time. Now you are all thinking, "WOW, I have never seen the line that long before." Well you would be wrong. The line consisted of roughly 10 people. The ride was shutdown for a few minutes so the CMs could load a young boy in a wheel chair type device into the ride. Now, before I lose your good graces, let me explain. I am not complaining. I had nothing against the boy, his parents, or the CMs. They were, however, taking an inordinately long time to get him on the ride. They were having trouble with his chair. After about the 6th attempt, roughly half an hour or so, they got him on the ride and started it up. The ride was over in 2 minutes. They then had to close the ride for another half hour or so due to technical difficulties. They finally got it resolved and we rode the ride. Actually, I felt sorry for the boy. He seemed to have some condition where he was suffering from some type of mental retardation. As I sit here and type this, however, I look back on the situation and think. I realize I am in no position to feel sorry for him. I am sorry that he has to live his life with the disability, he appeared not to be able to speak, have full use of his arms or legs, or even the ability to hold his head upright, but his parents, or grandparents as they could well have been, appeared to love him very much. They had brought him to Walt Disney World when it would have been infinitely easier to have just stayed home. They smiled when they rode the ride with him and he smiled the whole time I saw him. Many children live perfectly healthy lives, but their parents are not there for them, or worse, they blame their children for the social or financial situation in which they find themselves. Some, upon finding their child would live its life with such a deficiency, would choose abortion. I have never been in that situation, and God willing, I will never be, but I can speak to this. That family loved each other. And in a world so full of hate and self-centeredness, maybe he had it better than a lot of other people. Please, if you agree or disagree with me and feel compelled to post your feelings, feel free, but do not turn my post into a debate board. Post your feelings and move on, and I promise not to get so philosophical in the future.
When we departed from the Spin, we split up. Carl and Louise took Chase and Trent and caught the parade while Deston, Bryan, Kristie, Jennifer, and I headed to Dinosaur. We weren't sure how Deston would react, but we explained it to him and let him make his own choice. He wanted to try it, so we headed back in time. He was ok for the majority of the ride, but at the end he had his eyes closed. I find it interesting to point out, that as opposed to the white knuckle, light blocking eye clench that Chase had on Star Tours, Deston merely had his eyes gently closed and his head down. If I hadn't known better, I would have said he was either praying or asleep. Now that I think about it, maybe he was praying.
When we got back to the present, we met back up with the other party and headed toward the busses. When we got back to our particular bus stop, we had a bit of a wait for a bus. While we were there waiting, quite a line amassed behind us. With the exception of one couple, we were the first in the line. When the bus pulled up, another couple was rushing up to catch it. That's fine we have done that ourselves on occasion, even if it is obvious that there are too many people for you to make that particular bus. I think this compulsion is controlled by the same part of your brain that causes you to step on the brake of your car whenever you see a cop, regardless of the fact that you know you are traveling under the speed limit. Anyway, this newly arrived couple did not go to the back of the line. They merely eased their way up to the side of the line, so as to have a good shot of "merging" with the rest of us poor souls who are afflicted with tact and courtesy. Jennifer says she even heard the husband say, "I think the line ends over there." To which the wife replied, "That's ok, just stand right here." To the betterment of all involved, I did not hear this particular comment. When the doors opened on the bus, I positioned myself in front of the offending party and allowed our herd to board the bus. Upon reflection, what I should have done was simply stand there and let everyone else on until the bus was full and they could have caught the next one, but alas I did not. I'm not generally concerned about angering other people. I don't, by any means, go out of my way to do it, but at 6'5", 270 lbs, and a menacing glare, people usually withhold their comments.
We got back to the room and freshened up. Carl, Bryan, Kristie, Jennifer, and I were going to head to Disney Quest for the remainder of the evening. Now, to allow you, gentle reader, the ability to live the following tale as I did, I will attempt to tell it as it occurred. So close your eyes and picture yourself in my position whilst you read the following. Wait ummm .Ok, I guess you'll have to open your eyes to read, but you'd better be imagining.
Me: Ok, are you ready?
Jennifer: Yeah, do you have the tickets? (I - Paul- kept them so as to get fastpasses)
Me: Yeah. Here is mine, yours, Kristie's, Bryan's, don't need Louise's, or the boy's, ummm.
Jennifer: What?
Me: Nothing. Mine, yours, Kristie's, Bryans, Louise, the kids ummm.
Jennifer: WHAT?
Me: I don't see your daddy's ticket.
Jennifer: Where is it?
Me: Well, I thought it was here with the rest of them.
After much searching in the room
Jennifer: Have you lost daddy's ticket?
Me: I guess so I must have left it in the fastpass machine at the safari.
Jennifer: What are we going to do?
Me: I guess we'll have to buy him another one.
We go out to break the news to Carl.
Me: Carl, I need to talk to you.
Carl: Ok.
Me: Well it seems that when I got the fastpasses for the safari, I left your ticket in the machine. We'll have to buy you a new one for tomorrow.
Carl: NO I don't want you to have to do that. I'll just stay in the room.
Me: No you won't Carl, tomorrow is the Halloween Party, and you are not going to miss it just because I was too stupid to get your ticket out of the machine.
Carl: Paul, that's too much money for you to spend, I wasn't really excited about dressing up anyway, I'll just miss it.
Me: It doesn't matter if you were excited about it or not Carl, your grandsons are excited about it and they are not going to the party without their grandfather because of me. You're taking the ticket.
Carl: No Paul.
Me: Well I'm going to buy it; you can take it if you want to.
Now you have to know Carl. He puts himself in other people's shoes very easily. Meaning, of course, that he empathizes well, not that he's a shoe thief. When he heard that I had left the ticket, I'm sure he thought about how badly he would feel if he had done the same to someone else and how spending that extra money would have eaten at him, so he didn't want to put me in the same situation. Carl is really a great guy, but as I told him, his grandsons weren't going to the party without him. I was pretty hot by this point myself. Emotionally, not physically, but thank you soo much for misconstruing the two. You know how it is when you do something stupid. You don't? Well lucky you liar. We decided to head to the front desk to see if they could do something for us. I didn't think they would be able to issue another ticket, but it was worth at try.
Me: Excuse me, but we have a little problem. (I understate things.)
CM at the counter: Yes?
Me: I seem to have left my father-in-laws park ticket in a fastpass machine in the Animal Kingdom. Is there anyway you can reissue that ticket or point me to someone who might be able to help me?
CM: Sure, I can do that; it's no problem at all.
Me: Great! (I was thinking to myself this is going way too easily. I hope the next shoe to drop isn't on my toe.)
CM: What room did you say you were in?
Carl: Room number XXX (I forget which room he was in.)
CM: (After a minute or two) there you go.
She handed my father-in-law another room key. I looked at the key, at my father-in-law, and at the CM.
Me: No I left his park ticket at the Animal Kingdom.
CM: *Blank look*
Me: His PARK ticket.
CM: *Blank look*
Me: *sigh* the ticket he gets into the park with
CM: Oh .I don't think I can do anything about that.
Me: ..
Now I had specifically told her that it was the park ticket we needed in the first place, but this apparently was simply too much for her to handle. I kept waiting for her to say, "What is this park ticket of which you speak?" After consulting with her supervisor, she returned and told me to try the guest relations center at Downtown Disney.
We got there and while Carl and I went to see about the ticket, the rest of the crew went to Ghirardelli's. After about 5 minutes in the guest services center, Carl and I emerged with a fresh new gleaming ticket in hand. I did not have to pay for it. This CM knew what a park ticket was, I'm still amazed by this, and after verifying Carl's identity, reissued it. I was happy to say the least as was Carl.
We met back up with the others, made our way to Disney Quest and bought our tickets. We had a great time there, but it closed an hour earlier than I remembered, so we only got to spend about an hour and a half there.
That was probably for the best anyway, as we were going to a Halloween party the next day. We were all dressing up, too. Don't worry my friends, if you have made it this far, you are either a glutton for punishment, or a bit deranged. You deserve a reward for this. As a reward for braving my horrible writing, I will assure you, at the end of my report 2 more report days I will post pictures including Halloween Party pictures. You lucky dogs you.
at work. I actually had to get up and close my door. Can't wait to read more.
