Operation Big Thunder: the Dole Whip Conspiracy COMPLETE

[afwdwfan]

That definitely happens to me at the grocery store, Wal-mart, etc. I always end up with the lady who doesn't really want to buy the stuff in her cart, or the guy who needs 8 price-checks, or...

the lady who apparently came in after a shift of dancing on a pole, because she is paying for about $200 worth of stuff at the self check out with a big wad of $1 bills.

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

Naked Gun

The Naked Gun 33 1/3

It's a running joke through the series (TV included). Barry gets this one.

+1

the lady who apparently came in after a shift of dancing on a pole, because she is paying for about $200 worth of stuff at the self check out with a big wad of $1 bills.

Exactly. I love the ones who aren't finished shopping yet and sent their husband/kid/whoever to go grab some other stuff while they stood in line.

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

So, we had a little trouble with the lie in this chapter. I had not intended to lie about Epcot being the largest park. Instead, it was a careless sentence. Epcot involves the largest amount of walking, but Animal Kingdom is indeed the largest in terms of total area. Most of you called me out on that, so I'm giving credit for that answer.

The actual lie in the chapter was probably too subtle to really have a good chance to suss it out. So it's probably a good thing that I was careless on Epcot. In this chapter, I simply lied about the songs the Voices of Liberty performed. They did a medley of folk tunes and then the national anthem instead.

Anyway, 10 extra points go to Rob, Andy, Barry, Glenn, MissLiz, and Cynthia!

Up-to-date standings...

GoofyIsAsGoofyDoes 111
glennbo123 85
afwdwfan 48
FreezinRafiki 42
eandesmom 22
FauntleroyFAN07 15
vamassey1 12
MEK 11
MissLiz 10
Cinderella's Fella 6
shan23877 5
Mrs. Knowitall 3
JediJill 3
marvali 2
Wherem I Now 2
Poolrat 2
vdub322 1
JESSketeer 1
TarzansKat 1
PrincePluto 1
chloe770 1
Bridora 1
Flossbolna 1
scott2997 1

 

[glennbo123]

The actual lie in the chapter was probably too subtle to really have a good chance to suss it out. So it's probably a good thing that I was careless on Epcot. In this chapter, I simply lied about the songs the Voices of Liberty performed. They did a medley of folk tunes and then the national anthem instead.

I did consider that as the lie. But I've heard them do "Shenandoah" and figured that "When Johnny comes marching home" was likely in their repertoire, so nixed it. You're tricky Captain.

 

[afwdwfan]

The actual lie in the chapter was probably too subtle to really have a good chance to suss it out. So it's probably a good thing that I was careless on Epcot. In this chapter, I simply lied about the songs the Voices of Liberty performed. They did a medley of folk tunes and then the national anthem instead.

Considered that one, then thought about it and thought, "nah, that's too easy." Now I'm being like Rob and overthinking things.

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

I did consider that as the lie. But I've heard them do "Shenandoah" and figured that "When Johnny comes marching home" was likely in their repertoire, so nixed it. You're tricky Captain.

Considered that one, then thought about it and thought, "nah, that's too easy." Now I'm being like Rob and overthinking things.

At first I thought When Johnny Comes Marching Home might be a good tip-off, since its ties to the Confederacy might be too un-PC for Disney. But then I read somewhere that they had performed it. Oh well.

 

[MissLiz]

Oh yeah, I'm on the board!!!


I never would have guessed about Voices of Liberty unless you said that they sang something like the a Disney Channel theme song. Of course, that would just be too obvious, so it wouldn't have been any fun.

 

[Cinderella's Fella]

Up-to-date standings...

GoofyIsAsGoofyDoes 111

Thanks for the laff. Mark!

I enjoy seeing Rob post over on the main DISDad thread how he's "So Busy" and Doesn't have time to Keep Up with that thread!!!

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

Oh yeah, I'm on the board!!!

I never would have guessed about Voices of Liberty unless you said that they sang something like the a Disney Channel theme song. Of course, that would just be too obvious, so it wouldn't have been any fun.

Sometimes it's hard to find that sweet spot between obscure and obvious. Hence the higher point value for finding the lies.

Thanks for the laff. Mark!

I enjoy seeing Rob post over on the main DISDad thread how he's "So Busy" and Doesn't have time to Keep Up with that thread!!!

Well, you have to have priorities.

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

It is with deepest pride and greatest pleasure that we welcome you tonight. And now, we invite to relax, let us pull up a chair, as the dining room proudly presents... your dinner.

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

If you've been wandering for miles in Florida summer heat, sweating up a storm, running to the edge of fatigue, and then letting your kids get drenched in a fountain, wheres the first place you're going to go next?

We're going to Disney World!

Ok, let's be a little more specific. We're going to eat a fancy sit-down meal, of course. I pity the fool who sits anywhere near our table.

We had a dinner ADR at Via Napoli. This was another new experience for us. Everything we'd heard about it had been outstanding, and we'd wanted to try it since it opened. The idea of wood-fired pizza was too good to pass up.

So, we began yet another walk all the way across Epcot. Who's the idiot who planned this itinerary, anyway? On this trek, we finally had the good sense to rest our weary feet and take the boat across the lagoon this time. I don't think it saves you any time over walking, but at least we could sit down. So we had that go--nope, sorry, I've over-used that quote enough.

I just let the boat do the work; that was my secret.

Our ship made port in Morocco and then we walked the rest of the way to Italy. And no, I don't get tired of writing sentences like that.

We made our ADR right on time and were seated within a few minutes. Julie and I thought the restaurant was beautiful inside, decorated in a whimsical Tuscan style. Actually, I have no idea what a whimsical Tuscan style is, but it sounded convincing, don't you think? The centerpiece of the restaurant is the open kitchen and the three wood-burning ovens, named appropriately after various Italian volcanoes. The server gave us a menu, but we all knew we wanted the pizza. We'd heard it was the best pizza in Walt Disney World. Which, granted, isn't saying much, but it still sounded good. And it made the meal affordable, too. So we had that--D'oh! Sorry, there I go again.

Apparently spending all day with me and the kids was getting to be a bit much for Julie, so she ordered a stiff drink. They said it was a new one they had just added to the menu and I can't find the name of it anywhere. But it basically was orange juice and some other fruits (including some pineapple juice, I believe) and a whole lot of vodka. That sucker was STRONG. Julie liked it, but only finished about half of it before she was getting a buzz and felt like she couldn't finish it.

In the meantime, we ordered one "mezzo metro" pizza for the family. It said it served 4-5 people, so we were a little worried that it might not be enough for everyone. It turned out that our fears were unfounded. It was practically the size of the table. They had to use a cart to bring it to us.

We were undeterred. All that walking had worked us up an appetite, so we dove in. So how's the Italian food in this restaurant? The pizza was absolutely fantastic. Definitely the best at WDW. And since that still isn't saying much, I'll go ahead and say that it's one of the best pizzas we've had anywhere. There's something about pizza from a wood-fired oven. We have a little place near Lewes, Delaware that we go to whenever we're in the area that also has a wood-burning oven and makes our favorite pizza. The little Italian guy there barely speaks a word of English, but he turns out great pizza. This one at Via Napoli tasted very similar.

We got through about ¾ of the pizza and started to slow down. But you can't let good pizza go to waste. So we issued the rallying cry: No Pizza Gets Left Behind! And piece by piece, we finished it off.

I cant believe we ate the whole thing. As sit-down meals go in Disney, splitting one pizza among the five of us made it...well, if not affordable, then relatively less painful on the wallet.

We set out once more. Julie split off and may or may not have gone to do some Christmas shopping that I'm not supposed to know about. In the meantime, I took the kids to do one more Agent P mission. They wanted to do the United Kingdom mission, since they have an affinity for finding golf balls in phone booths. Don't ask.

On the way, a U2 cover band with the highly original name 2U was performing. The band sounded good, but this guy was no Bono. If you know U2's music, you know there are some notes that only Bono can reach.

Evening was approaching, which meant so was Illuminations.

We figured as long as the world needed saving, we might as well save Japan too. So we did. If I remember correctly, we used the Crane Technique.

We also had time for a brief photo stop in France. For having surrendered to Dr. Doofenshmirtz earlier in the day, they seemed to be doing just fine.

On to England! The kids wasted no time getting started on their mission. I don't know if the phone was from Q branch, but they did have to stop in the tea shop to pass on a secret phrase and get a cup, shaken, not stirred. I followed along and took pictures while Julie caught up to us.

Eventually, the United Kingdom was saved from something terribly annoying, and our kids were heroes again. As we left, the Beatles band began to play and Scotty began to...well, be Scotty. The trouble with Scotland is that it's full of Scotts.

So, we were down to our final event: finding a spot to watch Illuminations. We still had just over an hour to go, but the fence around the lagoon was already full of people saving their places. We wandered past Canada and found a small area by the fence that was still open. There were a couple of pesky palm trees nearby in our field of view, but it looked like it would be a good place to watch the show.

We were determined to get some good fireworks pictures and had even brought the tripod this time. But we hadn't wanted to carry it around with us all day, so we'd left it in the van. Guess whose task it was to walk across Epcot (again) and fish it out of the van?

I began the march, moving as quickly as I could. Back out of World Showcase. All the way through Future World. Through the front gate and into the parking lot. I was so thankful for the second-row parking space we'd obtained in the morning. I grabbed the tripod and then turned around and did the walk again. By the time I reached the rest of the family, I was done. I needed to sit. Thankfully, I had plenty of time to do that.

We got the tripod set up as best as we could, while the crowd gathered. It kept growing and growing, and people kept edging closer and closer. We held onto our spot as best as we could. A British family making their first trip to Disney World was next to us, and we spent some time in conversation with them.

Finally, the show started. Julie began working her magic with the camera, and we soon discovered that when it came to our viewing spot...

We chose...poorly.

The trees were exactly in line with the main fireworks rafts. So we got some pictures that would have been terrific...if not for the trees blocking the view. Sigh.

Then it got worse. The kids were up against the railing, but with a little breathing room in between. About halfway through the show, we heard a man's voice in another language giving instructions while he gestured forward. Suddenly, two teenage kids muscled their way in front of Dave at the railing. Poor Dave said, "Hey!" and looked up at me. He couldn't see a thing.

"Are you kidding me?" I said out loud. The man and his kids made no effort to acknowledge us. I think they were playing the "No speak-a de English" game. Not wanting to start a fistfight in the Happiest Place on Earth, I lifted up Dave so he could actually see the show amongst the trees.

Even with the disappointing pictures, we enjoyed the fireworks as always. At the conclusion, it was time to head out. And finally, after going all day long with no problems, the Brazillions struck back. It wasn't just the group we'd seen throughout the day--there were five or six groups now, all gathered together, right at the main entrance to the World Showcase at the mouth of the bridge. We couldn't turn left to go down the smaller path by Canada because it was bucking a mass amount of traffic. So we were forced to go to the main bridge. Unfortunately, the tour groups weren't moving. Instead, they were all standing, en masse, and loudly chanting. There was maybe enough room for two people to squeeze by and get to the bridge, so it was causing a massive bottleneck. I have no idea what possessed them to just stand there and chant and block traffic. And there were too many of them for crop-dusting to be an effective dispersal technique.

In the end, we slowly, painfully, baby-stepped our way through the gap and past them. We made our way to the entrance, and spotted a PhotoPass photographer snapping shots in front of the Big Golf Ball. We decided to try and have her get a shot of us with our camera. And I have to say, this lady was wonderful. She was very patient, and willing to try multiple shots, unlike some of the others that want to move you along. And her work paid off. She got this shot:

I had to brighten it a good bit, but I want to point out that she took this completely handheld, with no flash. I was duly impressed. We decided to get the official Photopass picture as well, since the lighting was obviously better for that one.

With that, our Epcot day was over. From Rope Drop to closing, we hit just about everything we'd wanted to do. I'd say the only thing we missed that we usually love in this park was Turtle Talk. But we've done that a couple of times now and we were able to take in some new experiences instead. Overall, I'd say this first day had worked out really well. What do you think, Scotty?

Coming Up Next: Our first Disney Water Park experience! And one of my worst-ever moments as a father.

 

[glennbo123]

Pity the fool = The A Team

 

[glennbo123]

D'oh = The Simpsons Movie

 

[glennbo123]

So how's the Italian food in this restaurant = The Godfather

 

[afwdwfan]

We’re going to Disney World!

Post Super Bowl Disney commercial

 

[glennbo123]

"I can't believe I ate the whole thing" references old Alka-Seltzer commercials

 

[glennbo123]

The crane = Karate Kid

 

[afwdwfan]

Q branch

James Bond reference

 

[glennbo123]

"Shaken not stirred" References multiple James bond movies...such as Casino Royale.

 

[glennbo123]

The trouble with Scotland is that it's full of Scott's is from Braveheart.