Night-train
<font color=006666>Doomed<br><font color=660066>Kn
- Joined
- May 12, 2004
- Messages
- 1,815
Todays trip report is very different for me in that no photos were taken whatsoever. We figured that since it was highly unlikely we would be allowed to take cameras into the arena for tonights Green Day gig, and we already had plenty of pics of us lying in, on or around the pool, it would be nice to go camera-free for one day. We dont even bother with the alarm, but even so, I think we were all awake by 8am. We just take our time getting ready and stroll over to the food court some time around 9am, where we pick up some toast, drinks and condiments and head back to our room. Most folk appear to have left the complex already, judging by how quiet it was in the dining area. Its another beautiful morning so we decide to start off with a couple of hours at the Fantasia pool. Again its very quiet here, and we have no problem getting loungers and picking a decent spot to set up camp. As usual DW spends the entire time sunning herself whilst DD and I are hardly out of the water. I think it was at this point that DD finally dispensed with the body-float shed been using since she was 2 and gathered up enough confidence to just go with the armbands. She was jumping in from the pools edge and going under for a second or two. Hard to believe this was the same girl who was screaming blue murder a few days ago when she got a little bit wet on Popeye and Blutos Bilgerat Barges and the Kali River Rapids!!
We stay here until some time around noon. A spot of shopping is called for now so we decide on Belz Mall as its handily placed for getting onto I-4 later for the drive up to the TD Waterhouse Center. We have lunch and dinner here but my notes are so sparse I dont recall exactly what we had. One of them was definitely Lucy Hos, but lunch or dinner?? Who knows? We spend a lot of time (and dollars!) in the Skechers store, OshKosh BGosh, Character Warehouse, Levis and many others. We set sail Northwards towards Orlando proper about 6pm. Apart from the day we came up to get our tickets this was uncharted waters for us, and especially now at the height of the rush hour! More often than not we were at a standstill and I couldnt tell how much of the delay was purely down to concert-goers. However, we finally made it to our exit and promptly ran into another tailback.. My original plan was to park in the same parking lot we had previously but the road past the front of the arena had been cordoned off by the police! Where now I wondered . . . . Aha! Secure parking off to the left! I follow the signs and we are directed into a small parking lot which turned out to be ideally situated for getting to the on-ramp for the journey home afterwards! And all for the princely sum of $5! We were only about 300-400 yards from the arena too so we were happy enough with this arrangement.
We get our sweatshirts from the boot, check we have our tickets and set off to get in line. Our door is at the centre of the side of the hall and quite high up, so we follow a ramp-like path up the side of the building. It all seems weird. At the door two security men are searching everyone and there is a plastic bin half-full of confiscated cameras and bottles of beer and other alcoholic drinks. Beer is allowed in the hall, but not in glass containers apparently. I can see their point. We finally get inside and can now hear the support band, My Chemical Romance, booming out of the speakers. Our tickets are checked and we head to the merchandise stall to see what is on offer. There are loads of nice Green Day t-shirts but the place is heaving with punters so we decide to leave it until after the show when, hopefully, things will have calmed down a bit. Ok, lets find our seats. Block 209, L13, 14 and 15. We find the right door and get a shock when we realise just high up we are! This is before we realise we have to go higher still to get to our row! Once we are seated and get ourselves acclimatised to our surroundings things dont seem so bad. We are at the opposite end to the stage which meant we were looking directly at it, and the fact that the seats were stepped quite steeply meant that anyone sitting in front wouldnt obscure our view, unless they were about 7 feet tall that is! We caught the last couple of numbers by MCR before the intermission and then we just sat and people-watched for a while. When I looked up at the huge ceiling I was reminded that this was actually the home of the Orlando Magic basketball team and one-time haunt of one legendary Shaquille ONeal, now leading the Miami Heat towards the NBA finals (GO HEAT!!!!). Division, Conference and Championship flags hung from various points and a huge electronic scoreboard dominated the entire arena. Some day Ill be back here to experience a game!
Green Day exploded onto the stage just before 9 oclock, opening with a very powerful version of American Idiot. From this point on they had us all eating out of their hands, so to speak. They could have played a bunch of nursery rhymes and no-one would have cared. Down below us the floor was a seething mass of people, all trying to get closer to the stage. By the fourth song DD wanted up on my knee. I thought this was so she could see better but no; she promptly fell asleep! Now how many people can hold up their hand and say I slept through a Green Day concert? I never thought Id say it but I now know one! Whenever I tried to put her in her own seat she just climbed back on top of me so I resigned myself to watching the entire show whilst sitting down, something Ive NEVER done at any gig! About halfway through came one of the shows high-points. They were playing Holiday and in the middle of it Billy Joe Armstrong (singer/guitarist) came to the front of the stage and asked for volunteers to help play the rest of the song. Well, the place went daft! We need a bass player! he shouted, and hands went up all over the place. He picked out a guy near the front and had him brought on stage. BJ asked how long hed been playing bass and the guy said about 3 years, so he was led over to Mike Dirnt, who gave him his bass guitar and showed him the riff he needed to play. This done, Mike left the stage. Next BJ asked if there were any drummers in the crowd. Again, another forest of hands. He selected another guy and the same routine was played out, ending with the guy taking Tre Cools place behind the drum kit and hammering out the beat with the guy on the bass. BJ now went on the hunt for a guitarist. This time he set his sights on a young girl who was in the seats to the left of the stage. She was literally carried over the crowd to the stage where BJ gave her his guitar and showed her the riff. With those three in place he carried on singing the song to the end, not surprisingly with his new band members hitting a few bum notes on the way (mostly from the bass player!). They were given a standing ovation nonetheless and as each one prepared to go back into the crowd BJ gave them his own seal of approval by firstly letting the drummer keep the sticks, the girl got to keep Billy Joes own guitar and the guy on bass was advised to keep practising after he admitted hed only been playing for about 3 months! It was funny to the rest of us but something Im sure he wont forget for a long, long time. I think he was given some of Mikes guitar picks as well.
After playing the whole of the American Idiot album and most of their previous hits as well, it was show over just before 11pm. DD was still asleep but I had to waken her so I could negotiate the steep steps back down again. I didnt want to risk her waking up halfway down and panicking when she realised where she was! We made our way back to the merchandise desk where I eventually managed to get t-shirts for DW and myself. They had nothing left in DDs size but I dont think she cared too much anyway! So back to the car, and onto I-4 in about 15 minutes and from there it was an uneventful run back to All Star Movies. Wed had a great time, not just because wed seen Green Day but because wed experienced it from the American fans point of view, and boy do they do it so much better!!
Time for bed everyone,
Goodnight!
We stay here until some time around noon. A spot of shopping is called for now so we decide on Belz Mall as its handily placed for getting onto I-4 later for the drive up to the TD Waterhouse Center. We have lunch and dinner here but my notes are so sparse I dont recall exactly what we had. One of them was definitely Lucy Hos, but lunch or dinner?? Who knows? We spend a lot of time (and dollars!) in the Skechers store, OshKosh BGosh, Character Warehouse, Levis and many others. We set sail Northwards towards Orlando proper about 6pm. Apart from the day we came up to get our tickets this was uncharted waters for us, and especially now at the height of the rush hour! More often than not we were at a standstill and I couldnt tell how much of the delay was purely down to concert-goers. However, we finally made it to our exit and promptly ran into another tailback.. My original plan was to park in the same parking lot we had previously but the road past the front of the arena had been cordoned off by the police! Where now I wondered . . . . Aha! Secure parking off to the left! I follow the signs and we are directed into a small parking lot which turned out to be ideally situated for getting to the on-ramp for the journey home afterwards! And all for the princely sum of $5! We were only about 300-400 yards from the arena too so we were happy enough with this arrangement.
We get our sweatshirts from the boot, check we have our tickets and set off to get in line. Our door is at the centre of the side of the hall and quite high up, so we follow a ramp-like path up the side of the building. It all seems weird. At the door two security men are searching everyone and there is a plastic bin half-full of confiscated cameras and bottles of beer and other alcoholic drinks. Beer is allowed in the hall, but not in glass containers apparently. I can see their point. We finally get inside and can now hear the support band, My Chemical Romance, booming out of the speakers. Our tickets are checked and we head to the merchandise stall to see what is on offer. There are loads of nice Green Day t-shirts but the place is heaving with punters so we decide to leave it until after the show when, hopefully, things will have calmed down a bit. Ok, lets find our seats. Block 209, L13, 14 and 15. We find the right door and get a shock when we realise just high up we are! This is before we realise we have to go higher still to get to our row! Once we are seated and get ourselves acclimatised to our surroundings things dont seem so bad. We are at the opposite end to the stage which meant we were looking directly at it, and the fact that the seats were stepped quite steeply meant that anyone sitting in front wouldnt obscure our view, unless they were about 7 feet tall that is! We caught the last couple of numbers by MCR before the intermission and then we just sat and people-watched for a while. When I looked up at the huge ceiling I was reminded that this was actually the home of the Orlando Magic basketball team and one-time haunt of one legendary Shaquille ONeal, now leading the Miami Heat towards the NBA finals (GO HEAT!!!!). Division, Conference and Championship flags hung from various points and a huge electronic scoreboard dominated the entire arena. Some day Ill be back here to experience a game!
Green Day exploded onto the stage just before 9 oclock, opening with a very powerful version of American Idiot. From this point on they had us all eating out of their hands, so to speak. They could have played a bunch of nursery rhymes and no-one would have cared. Down below us the floor was a seething mass of people, all trying to get closer to the stage. By the fourth song DD wanted up on my knee. I thought this was so she could see better but no; she promptly fell asleep! Now how many people can hold up their hand and say I slept through a Green Day concert? I never thought Id say it but I now know one! Whenever I tried to put her in her own seat she just climbed back on top of me so I resigned myself to watching the entire show whilst sitting down, something Ive NEVER done at any gig! About halfway through came one of the shows high-points. They were playing Holiday and in the middle of it Billy Joe Armstrong (singer/guitarist) came to the front of the stage and asked for volunteers to help play the rest of the song. Well, the place went daft! We need a bass player! he shouted, and hands went up all over the place. He picked out a guy near the front and had him brought on stage. BJ asked how long hed been playing bass and the guy said about 3 years, so he was led over to Mike Dirnt, who gave him his bass guitar and showed him the riff he needed to play. This done, Mike left the stage. Next BJ asked if there were any drummers in the crowd. Again, another forest of hands. He selected another guy and the same routine was played out, ending with the guy taking Tre Cools place behind the drum kit and hammering out the beat with the guy on the bass. BJ now went on the hunt for a guitarist. This time he set his sights on a young girl who was in the seats to the left of the stage. She was literally carried over the crowd to the stage where BJ gave her his guitar and showed her the riff. With those three in place he carried on singing the song to the end, not surprisingly with his new band members hitting a few bum notes on the way (mostly from the bass player!). They were given a standing ovation nonetheless and as each one prepared to go back into the crowd BJ gave them his own seal of approval by firstly letting the drummer keep the sticks, the girl got to keep Billy Joes own guitar and the guy on bass was advised to keep practising after he admitted hed only been playing for about 3 months! It was funny to the rest of us but something Im sure he wont forget for a long, long time. I think he was given some of Mikes guitar picks as well.
After playing the whole of the American Idiot album and most of their previous hits as well, it was show over just before 11pm. DD was still asleep but I had to waken her so I could negotiate the steep steps back down again. I didnt want to risk her waking up halfway down and panicking when she realised where she was! We made our way back to the merchandise desk where I eventually managed to get t-shirts for DW and myself. They had nothing left in DDs size but I dont think she cared too much anyway! So back to the car, and onto I-4 in about 15 minutes and from there it was an uneventful run back to All Star Movies. Wed had a great time, not just because wed seen Green Day but because wed experienced it from the American fans point of view, and boy do they do it so much better!!
Time for bed everyone,
Goodnight!
