Fighting the Dark Side makes you work up an appetite, and luckily it was time for our ADR. Yet another new experience for us: the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater. But before we went in, the kids had to try their hand at cruising with the top down.
Sarah will be eligible for her license in 6 years. Pardon me while I go overdose on Xanax.
I feel good. I feel great. I feel wonderful. I feel good. I feel great. I feel wonderful.
So, I’m sure most of you know the drill with this restaurant. It’s set up to look like a drive-in theater, and the tables are made to look like cars parked in the lot. You’re seated in your “car” and able to watch clips of cheesy 1950’s sci-fi movies and advertisements while you eat. We were guided into the large dining room and shown to our car, and the kids were offered the chance to “drive” by sitting up front. For some reason, they all refused. I’m not sure if they thought they were actually going to have to drive or what. Maybe they were trying to stay as far away from the Creature From The Black Lagoon as possible. Anyway, Julie and I ended up in the front seat, with the kids behind us.
Right away, we noticed that the whole room was very hushed. You could hear the sound from the movie screen, and it felt like there was no conversation at all in the room. Between the hushed room and our kids eating behind us, it was a very weird vibe. We got some onion rings as an appetizer, which were very good, and then Julie got the smoked turkey sandwich while I went with…
Do you really need me to tell you? The burger. Oh, there's a big surprise! That's an incredible - I think I'm going to have a heart attack and die of not surprise! And then, just to totally blow your mind, I also got a cookies-and-cream milkshake.
The movie clips were amusing, but Julie and I had a hard time checking on the kids, passing ketchup back and forth, etc. We felt like we had to keep our voices down in conversation. And we both felt like the food was ok, but nothing special. I liked the onion rings and milkshake best. The whole meal just felt awkward to us, and we decided on a final rating of “meh”. Out of all the Hollywood Studios restaurants, we still like the 50’s Prime Time Café best.
With lunch over, we asked the kids if there was anything they still wanted to do in the park. I know, you all wanted them to say the Tower of Terror. Well, nobody wanted to go near that wretched hive of scum and villainy. Instead, they wanted to go watch the Lights! Motors! Action! Stunt Show. Hard to blame them there. Along with the Pantheon of Foods that Make Everything Better, there is also a Pantheon of Life's True Joys. This Pantheon includes (in no particular order): Bacon, Football, Dole Whips, Disney World, Julie's Key Lime Pie of Awesomeness, and (as fits the show) Car Chases and Explosions. I'm sure you could come up with some additions to the list as well.
This was the first show of the day, and we could tell just walking into the stadium that it was going to be packed. It looked like the stands were almost full by the time we even got to the entrance. We even saw our chanting friends with the light-blue t-shirts. But the CM’s kept dutifully piling people in, and they actually did a pretty good job of directing traffic to open seats. Still, we got packed in like one of those vacuum-sealed t-shirts, which felt wonderful in mid-July heat.
They announced that the show was delayed, and we assumed that was to give the crowds time to be seated. So we waited.
They announced the delay again. We waited some more.
And we waited.
Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
Finally, they brought the “director” of the show out. He told us that they had some communications equipment blow some fuses in the heat, and as a result they wouldn’t be able to run the whole show. So they just did the first scene. No pyrotechnics for us. Major bummer.
We all piled out of the bleachers and headed for the exit…pausing in the gift shops, of course. The sky was getting darker, so we wrapped things up and made a beeline for the tram. We made it just as the heavens were opening up, enabling us to laugh and poke fun at the people suddenly getting soaked as they ran for their cars.
Of course, eventually we had to get off the tram and run for our van.
What was the next stop? I’m sure it’s obvious. When we were planning this trip, I talked things over with Julie. I explained how we probably had 2 days for the theme parks, and we needed to save some budget for the water park, and went over the logistics including the necessity of riding the new Star Tours ride and being there for the Jedi Training Academy, and then had a simple question for her: was it possible to go to Disney World with theme park tickets and NOT go to the Magic Kingdom?
Julie’s response, and I quote: “What you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.”
So, um…we were headed to the Magic Kingdom. Hence the park hopper tickets.
By the time we arrived at the
The rain had let up. We considered taking the ferry over (that would have been another new experience), but decided to try for the Avengers monorail instead. But the odds were not ever in our favor, and we missed it on the rotation. It’s hard to complain, though, because we still ended up here:
We wandered through the gates and headed for the Fire Hall. The kids wanted to try out the new Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom game, so we got them signed up and trained to be apprentice magicians. The CM was nice enough to give Julie and me some of the trading cards so the kids would have extra spells to use on the game. Would you believe that I got the Pumbaa fart spell in my pack?
They were getting set up for the 3:00 parade (what time does that start again?), so we made our way through the shops towards Adventureland. We stopped for our first family castle shot.
Not too shabby. Although I wish they’d tilted the camera slightly up and to the left to pick up the entire castle in the frame.
See? That’s not so hard.
So, at this point we’re deep into our final day at Disney. We’ve just arrived at the Magic Kingdom and have limited time to enjoy as much as we can. The kids have brand-new spell cards and are anxious to try a brand-new attraction. And yet, where was the first place we went? What was our highest priority?
Manna from heaven. Sweet nectar of life!
Nothing better on a hot July day than a Dole Whip. Unfortunately, mine didn’t last long.
But, Scotty decided he couldn’t finish his! A little pixie dust for me.
Nearby, the kids found their first station for the Sorcerers game. If you haven’t tried this yet, it’s pretty fun. The screens are cleverly hidden throughout the park. You activate them with your cards, and then a villain is selected for you to face in a series of battles through whatever section of the you’re in (for example, we had to battle Scar in a series of locations across Adventureland). You use your spell cards to fight his evil with your magic. It’s pretty simple, and our kids had a great time with it.
Julie took the kids up into the Swiss Family Treehouse (another first) while I went on a FastPass run for Big Thunder Mountain. She got this picture while she was up there.
We met at the bottom, and let the kids go to the various Sorcerers stations to finish their game. One was cleverly hidden in the Tortuga Tavern.
The final showdown was at the tower next to Pirates of the Caribbean.
The kids fought hard, and finally conquered Scar with—what else?—the fart spell.
We decided to jump in line for Pirates. The wait was listed at 30 minutes, but we knew it typically loaded fast. We stayed to the left, and the strategy worked as we were stepping onto a boat about 20 minutes later. Sarah had done this ride before, but whenever we had tried to get the boys to go on it, they were disinclined to acquiesce to our request. This time, we had finally convinced them to try it. They’d actually watched the movie and enjoyed it (shockingly, no problems with the undead pirates), so I’m sure that factored into the decision.
I held Dave’s hand through the first part all the way through the drop. Have they added water spouts at the bottom? There was a big splash, and we got soaked. That had never happened to me before on that ride.
From that point on, Dave did great. For once, we were able to talk both boys through a dark ride, and they ended up loving it.
I will leave you with this fun t-shirt we found in the gift shop. It’s hard to read what each “element” stands for but, for example, Ar is “Arrr”, "Eek" is Bilge Rat, and so on. The only thing better than a pirate is a nerdy pirate.
Coming Up Next: In 2010, Scotty screamed bloody murder throughout Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and said he hated it and never wanted to ride it again. Surely loving parents wouldn’t force him to do it again, right?*
*Who said we were loving? And stop calling me Shirley.
