P.O.T.C. On Stranger Rides! The Missing Chapter,,Final Thoughts,, Preview Thoughts.

[jakeybake]

Thanks to all for the well wishes! I'm happy to say that I am much better now.

Since Steve gave me the podium/floor I will explain what happened.

About 6 months ago I was promoted to a new position at work as "Director of Finance". Amazing given that I'm not a numbers person at all, but my boss left and recommended me for the position. Needless to say there is quite the learning curve for the position and from that day forward I have been experiencing a fair amount of stress on a daily basis, along with being too busy to exercise like I should.

Fast forward to last week and after taking my dog for a brisk walk I started to develop chest tightness, strong jaw pain and some weakness in my left arm. Given that I have two young ones at home (DS 13 and DD 10) I didn't mess around and had my wife call an ambulance, since I remember reading that chest pain, combined with jaw pain could be the sign of a heart attack. Ironically, I work at the same hospital they brought me to, so it would have been better if it happened a few hours earlier and saved me the trip!

I got a total workup while I was there. Bloodwork markers, EKG's, Chest X-Ray etc and they decided to keep me overnight for observation, additional blood tests and a stress test in the am. Fast forward again to the next day and I have the stress test and they said my EKG looked "funky" when I was at my peak heart rate level. That led to the need for a second stress test with contrast (injection) so they could take a CT of my heart at peak heart rate level. 3 hours, and two times on the treadmill later, they told me that it looked like there "might" be a small part of the wall in my heart that wasn't getting enough blood flow and that I needed a cardiac cath test, though it very well could be a "false positive" meaning everything was fine. They put me on two meds, Plavix and Zocor, along with a baby aspirin daily and scheduled me for the cath.

Fast forward again to a few days later and I am lying there waiting for the cardiac cath and it all kinds of hits me at once and my eyes well up and I start to get very, very nervous. For those of you who don't know a Cardiac cath consists of them putting a line into your major artery, which is located in your groin area, and putting a camera in there and looking at every inch, vessel and artery in your heart. They say its "routine" (not in my head!) and that if they find anything wrong they can put in a stent or even do a bypass right there and then! Thankfully my very loving wife was there to hug me through it and shortly after that they wheeled me in, gave me some sweet drugs (no Vikes, even harder than that!) and luckily I slept through the test, as I am without a doubt a medication light weight, and asked the nurse to give me enough to sleep, even though most stay awake.

The end of the looooooong story is that my arteries are totally clear of any blockages and my heart is completely healthy. I know this is going to sound weird but as great as it is to get a clean bill of health back, you almost want them to find something so you have an answer to what is going on. I was told that my condition is most likely stress related and that I need to do everything I can to de-stress my life to avoid this happening again. They told me exercise and stress coping tactics (yoga, medication etc.) were a must.

I'm someone who doesn't like to take medication so I am going back to the gym as soon as my leg feels better (it's still hurting a bit from the test and I'm not supposed to lift anything heavy or do anything strenuous, which my wife is taking full advantage of if you know what I mean ) so next week I should be good to go.

Sorry for the loooooong response but I agree with Steve that this could be important for others to know so I wanted to lay it out exactly as it happened.

And thanks again for the concern and nice remarks. Though we are all relative strangers for the most part I do feel like I know most of you personally and we are all part of our wonderful DIS family!

And now back to your reguarly scheduled Trip Report

Jay

 

[mmeb144]

Jay, thanks for sharing your hospital trip story. It was very informative, especially the part about the stress. I am very stressed out at work, too, so maybe I will get that doctor appt. scheduled soonish rather than later to find out if it's something to be concerned about.

Glad it worked out pretty good for you. Unless you don't like working out...

 

[yellowtink]

mmeb144(aka. Mom), maybe you should start meditating, or listening to soothing music .

 

[nebo]

Found your trip report the other day and have spent lots of hours reading through the whole thing. Sooooo much fun. The responses from your followers are just as much fun. This is me reading your report

Well hi there Nurse Ratched, great to have you with us. You are correct, for some reason most of the wittiest people on the Dis come over to this thread to do there posting.

OMG that is so

Thanks Jay - 7-Up just sprayed out my nose.

I'm still stringing along a few hundred pages back. Working hard on catching up.

Not Mike... (I'll 'splain someday)

Hey Marty, great to see you again, I see it took Jay's post to get a comment out of you.

Here now! Weather is glorious but the place is loaded with these people all hobbling around with big gold medals around their necks. I had to take refuge in Raglan Rd and drink until they all went home!

Don't mean to hijack your thread, just wanted to say hi from the World!!

I've been foloowing your weather every day and it seems like it's been almost perfect for you. Check in often.

Happy belated New Year to all!!! I've been here all along, but you know I hate to post...

My husband plays trivia every Tuesday night with a bunch of friends. They play the old fashioned way...no Google (that's cheating!!!) and no calls! We were a good team BC (before children), I know all the entertainment and history and he knows all the Science/Math and sports. He used to always tell me that he wished there were a job for all the "crap" I knew because we'd be rich!!! Can't remember what I'm supposed to do today, but ask me about some obscure movie fact!

That said I did not get your quote this time. I really hate it when that happens!

And you didn't google it? But wait for me to answer it?

If we are talking about the same thing,,,,"Rules, in a knife fight? That's in the first 15 minutes of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

By the way, did you notice my siggy...for New Years/Christmas I got the green light to plan our next trip!!! Not sure who's more excited me or the kids (okay, it's me!!). Anyway we're going for a moderate this trip and trying to decide between CBR and CSR. I know you & Smidgy love CBR, but would that be your choice with kids too. The kids really liked the pictures of the pool at CSR and surprisingly the room decor (they are a little afraid of Pirates). But after reading your report I was leaning towards CBR. Any advice from you or your followers???

Yes, here's my advice: we love them both.
Whichever one we were last at we want to go to the other one the next trip, throw Riverside in there as well, but the pol isn't in the other's league over at Riverside,,,,,,,, and ESPECIALLY at French Quarter.
If you are going by pictures, make sure you show the kids pictures of the NEW CBR pool, it's pretty darn impressive too.

mmeb144(aka. Mom), maybe you should start meditating, or listening to soothing music .

Hey, Yellowtink, I saw that journal you made up and great job on that. But I don't think it would be a cool thing to post because my public image takes enough of a beating here, mainly from me but I try to hold the damage down. ( I can only pretend I drink and do some drugs to a small extent, you know?)

 

[nebo]

Thanks to all for the well wishes! I'm happy to say that I am much better now.

Since Steve gave me the podium/floor I will explain what happened.

About 6 months ago I was promoted to a new position at work as "Director of Finance". Amazing given that I'm not a numbers person at all, but my boss left and recommended me for the position. Needless to say there is quite the learning curve for the position and from that day forward I have been experiencing a fair amount of stress on a daily basis, along with being too busy to exercise like I should.

Fast forward to last week and after taking my dog for a brisk walk I started to develop chest tightness, strong jaw pain and some weakness in my left arm. Given that I have two young ones at home (DS 13 and DD 10) I didn't mess around and had my wife call an ambulance, since I remember reading that chest pain, combined with jaw pain could be the sign of a heart attack. Ironically, I work at the same hospital they brought me to, so it would have been better if it happened a few hours earlier and saved me the trip!

I got a total workup while I was there. Bloodwork markers, EKG's, Chest X-Ray etc and they decided to keep me overnight for observation, additional blood tests and a stress test in the am. Fast forward again to the next day and I have the stress test and they said my EKG looked "funky" when I was at my peak heart rate level. That led to the need for a second stress test with contrast (injection) so they could take a CT of my heart at peak heart rate level. 3 hours, and two times on the treadmill later, they told me that it looked like there "might" be a small part of the wall in my heart that wasn't getting enough blood flow and that I needed a cardiac cath test, though it very well could be a "false positive" meaning everything was fine. They put me on two meds, Plavix and Zocor, along with a baby aspirin daily and scheduled me for the cath.

Fast forward again to a few days later and I am lying there waiting for the cardiac cath and it all kinds of hits me at once and my eyes well up and I start to get very, very nervous. For those of you who don't know a Cardiac cath consists of them putting a line into your major artery, which is located in your groin area, and putting a camera in there and looking at every inch, vessel and artery in your heart. They say its "routine" (not in my head!) and that if they find anything wrong they can put in a stent or even do a bypass right there and then! Thankfully my very loving wife was there to hug me through it and shortly after that they wheeled me in, gave me some sweet drugs (no Vikes, even harder than that!) and luckily I slept through the test, as I am without a doubt a medication light weight, and asked the nurse to give me enough to sleep, even though most stay awake.

The end of the looooooong story is that my arteries are totally clear of any blockages and my heart is completely healthy. I know this is going to sound weird but as great as it is to get a clean bill of health back, you almost want them to find something so you have an answer to what is going on. I was told that my condition is most likely stress related and that I need to do everything I can to de-stress my life to avoid this happening again. They told me exercise and stress coping tactics (yoga, medication etc.) were a must.

I'm someone who doesn't like to take medication so I am going back to the gym as soon as my leg feels better (it's still hurting a bit from the test and I'm not supposed to lift anything heavy or do anything strenuous, which my wife is taking full advantage of if you know what I mean ) so next week I should be good to go.

Sorry for the loooooong response but I agree with Steve that this could be important for others to know so I wanted to lay it out exactly as it happened.

And thanks again for the concern and nice remarks. Though we are all relative strangers for the most part I do feel like I know most of you personally and we are all part of our wonderful DIS family!

And now back to your reguarly scheduled Trip Report

Jay

Hey, how about a big hand for Jay for coming out of the closet and sharing that with us.
Ponzi, want to help him back to his seat,,,, no, just a hand helping him,,,,NO, you are supposed to help him, not hm giving you piggy back rides. Geesh.

Short story with a thought after it:

In '94 I went through something similar,, thought it was a heart attack and at the hospital, they kicked me off the treadmill during the stress test, my pulse was up to 175 in less than 4 minutes. Then they slapped a Nitro patch on my chest cuz my "angiogram" had to wait for 4 days over Memorial Day. The next week we were leaving with the kids on our 2nd all time trip to Disney.

Went into hospital at midnight, an hour later they had the camera up the artery next to my groin and I saw all the 4 uadrants of my heart pumping, as they mostly shoujld be doing. When the procedural was over, the doctor came into my room and ripped that nitro patch off of me saying my heart doesn't look clogged or bad at all.

It turned out to be PANIC attacks.
Not anxiety attacks which are absolutely nothing in comparison.

With an anxiety attack you get all nervous, the whole world is pressing on you, you can't stop worrying and your heart starts beating faster and you break out in a cold sweat.

With a panic attack you know unfailingly, you are about to die, and it's not going to be a pleasant, in your sleep death.

There, thought I'd just put a smiley face on the end of this post,

Yeah Jay, watch out for the stress, it builds and adds up, about the only thing now adays earning interest besides credit cards. Oh, and Lorazeapm, (Ativan) helps a lot too.

I should be working on a chapter, hey?
Who's the guest writer this week?

 

[Mom&RN]

Well hi there Nurse Ratched, great to have you with us. You are correct, for some reason most of the wittiest people on the Dis come over to this thread to do there posting.

)[/COLOR][/B]

So, I was waiting to see what kind of nickname you'd give me!! I shoulda guessed it. If you'd like to call me by name it's Barb but Nurse Ratched is fine too

 

[yellowtink]

Hey, Yellowtink, I saw that journal you made up and great job on that. But I don't think it would be a cool thing to post because my public image takes enough of a beating here, mainly from me but I try to hold the damage down. ( I can only pretend I drink and do some drugs to a small extent, you know?)

Okey dokey then. Glad you enjoyed it.

 

[smidgy]

NRod: boy, that's a tough call CBR or CSR?

your kids are 6 and 7... let me say first that at CBR, not all the room are priate rooms, only the ones in Trinidad SOuth, which are in dif. county, I think, then the rest of the resort.. AND they cost more.

the pool there is great, they have both a woosy slide, and an enclosed tube slide... they have an area where you can walk inot the pool.. there is a sep. water spalsh area for little kids.. not sure if your's would be too old or not... go to allearsnet and look at the pics.. the slide there might be too little for your kids, but the splash area, with the big bucket filing up and pouring out on them might be fun.. and there is 2 hot tubs.

If you dont' want to pay for preferred, request Jamica or aruba.. those "islands" are across the bridge from the main pool and food court.. and on the island there are paths to explore, with a playgroun, and hammocks.

the food court is not as good as at the values or POFQ or POR, but it is good.
if you are in barbados, or trinidad south, be prepared to walk a lot.

they have movies at night by the main pool, and you can see illuminations from that area (not really good, but not bad, either.\


now, at CSR, this is also a big resort. ltos of walking.. the MAYA pool is really big! cool looking, and a great slide.. one hot tub, but really big! the palyground and arcade are right by the main pool, and there is a bar (well, one at CBR, too), but the main pool is NO WHERE near the food court.. but you can refill your mugs till about 7 pm? and get a burger, hot dog, chicken fingers,e tc. by the main pool.
the peppermarket is weird.. now they habe a bkfst and lunch buffet for like $16? and CS for dinner. but there are some quick service stuff at cafe rix.. we always thought you needed to be at least on the quick service plan to stay here.. not a lot of cheap options for eating later in the evening... 3 sections, very different.. check out allears net. cabanas is the most convenient,(but the most boring theme) casitats the prettiest (walk THROUGH them, see the rotunda, fountains, etc)..closest to pepepr market). ranchos is the clsoest to the main pool, dessert theme, far from the food court.. never stayed in the ranchos.

so,k did I confuse you all the more??? glad I could be of service. how long is your trip? for longer trips, we have done split stays!!! and purchased the DDP for the first part, with enough park tickets for the whole trip. and stretched out the DDP to the first day at the 2nd resort.

good idea if you want to expereince 2 dif. resorts, and want the dining plan, but nopt for the whole stay.. bac idea if you like to "nest" and don't relish the thought of moving in the middle of your stay.

I am so happy I could be here to churn up any undecisiveness you may have had!!!

 

[cp'ersmom]

Glad you are alright!! Atavan and quick trips to Disney help with stress. It's amazing what stress can do to the body. I won't get into it but I have been going through some stuff lately and in the middle of it I had some kind of panic attack that had my whole body tingling like when your foot falls asleep. Head to toe, it was bizarre. I was told I wasn't breathing normally and that through my body out of wack. I thought I was breathing normally! Anyway, Atavan and a night in the hospital to the rescue, Panic Attack!!

Well here I am on my balcony over looking the Boardwalk, seagulls cawing, boats humming, the sound of happy people strolling along with their morning coffee. NO BODY TINGILING!!

BTW spent my first night here at CSR, the breakfast buffet is 14.99, no al la carte choices and the choices in Cafe Rix are really limited. I don't think I would stay there again because of that.

Did you think about maybe making up a 3rd week to keep the TR going?

 

[mmeb144]

Well here I am on my balcony over looking the Boardwalk, seagulls cawing, boats humming, the sound of happy people strolling along with their morning coffee.

Sounds nice, just imagining it makes me feel better. Thanks!

 

[nrod]

First, Jake I'm glad you are okay. Nothing like that kind of wake up call to start the new year. Hope things get better for you at work.

Thanks for the detailed answer Smidgy! I was surprised to see my boys liked the themeing at CSR over CBR, because I thought CBR was much prettier. We are going for 8 days and I don't think my husband would put up with a Spit Stay. I would love to do that, but think it would be a little too much with the kids (since I still have to do most of the work to get them ready). When they are able to successfully pack for themselves, I will do it! I really like the idea of being able to see Illuminations from the hotel and that may sell the Hooligans a bit. I found the gallery on Allears.net yesterday (I hadn't been to that site since we first took the kids in '08). So I'll be sure to have them look that over.

The boys have only stayed at a Value, so they are really looking forward to having a water slide (I swear we could save a whole lot of money and just take them to Coco Key here). They both are looking forward to swimming a lot this trip.

I kind of like the idea that the pool and food court are not together at CSR. Does it eliminate some of the hustle and bustle at El Centro? Having everything at the same place always seemed a bit chaotic at the Values. And I'm trying to find something a little more relaxing for us. Oh but then I like that there are movies at CBR. Argghhhh, there are too many things to consider!! I'm glad I have some opinionated people coming with me (and by that I mean the two little people! ).

It may not sound like it but you did help. So thanks!! I will no longer hijack your trip report. Thanks for the opinions!!!

 

[pkondz]

With a panic attack you know unfailingly, you are about to die, and it's not going to be a pleasant, in your sleep death.

Reminds me of that joke (I'm sure everyone's heard a variation of it):

My uncle was a great man. He was an airline pilot. When I die I'd like to go quietly in my sleep, like my uncle. Not screaming and terrified like his passengers.

 

[mmeb144]

Reminds me of that joke (I'm sure everyone's heard a variation of it):

My uncle was a great man. He was an airline pilot. When I die I'd like to go quietly in my sleep, like my uncle. Not screaming and terrified like his passengers.

Nope, hadn't heard that one before.

 

[jcc0621]

Thought of you guys today becasue we decided on CBR for our August trip. I know you said you loved it. Best spot?

 

[nebo]

Reminds me of that joke (I'm sure everyone's heard a variation of it):

My uncle was a great man. He was an airline pilot. When I die I'd like to go quietly in my sleep, like my uncle. Not screaming and terrified like his passengers.

Yeah, only in my version he's driving on the highway.

I kind of like the idea that the pool and food court are not together at CSR. Does it eliminate some of the hustle and bustle at El Centro? Having everything at the same place always seemed a bit chaotic at the Values. And I'm trying to find something a little more relaxing for us. Oh but then I like that there are movies at CBR. Argghhhh, there are too many things to consider!! I'm glad I have some opinionated people coming with me (and by that I mean the two little people! ).

It may not sound like it but you did help. So thanks!! I will no longer hijack your trip report. Thanks for the opinions!!!

You hit something on hte head,, With the main pool at opposited ends of the CSR, it makes for a much more secluded feel at the pool, a great place to be early in the morning.

Glad you are alright!! Atavan and quick trips to Disney help with stress. It's amazing what stress can do to the body. I won't get into it but I have been going through some stuff lately and in the middle of it I had some kind of panic attack that had my whole body tingling like when your foot falls asleep. Head to toe, it was bizarre. I was told I wasn't breathing normally and that through my body out of wack. I thought I was breathing normally! Anyway, Atavan and a night in the hospital to the rescue, Panic Attack!!

Well here I am on my balcony over looking the Boardwalk, seagulls cawing, boats humming, the sound of happy people strolling along with their morning coffee. NO BODY TINGILING!!


Did you think about maybe making up a 3rd week to keep the TR going?

I can't make stuff up like that! I'm just slowing down the chapters a bit, and also still working on the dining reviews, that has been fun too.

So, I was waiting to see what kind of nickname you'd give me!! I shoulda guessed it. If you'd like to call me by name it's Barb but Nurse Ratched is fine too

Welcome Barb, you know, as time goes by I'm surprised anybody evne knows who Nurse Ratched is anymore.

Thought of you guys today becasue we decided on CBR for our August trip. I know you said you loved it. Best spot?

Aruba or Jamaica, close to the bridge as possible. Pick your
favorite color, Aruba is pink, Jamaica yellow.
Other nice choice is Martinique, non preferred buildings,
Marty is light blue.

 

[cp'ersmom]

Mmeb....HAPPY to help!!

 

[nebo]

Sunday, mid-day, just arriving at Hollywood Sudios:

And baby is it pouring outside!
We had about a 15 minute wait for a bus, this is long fore what we are normally used to, but middle of the day transportaion is almost always the slowest. I think there was only 5 of us on the whole bus.

Then, the closer we got, the harder it came down.

The driver left us off at a place we weren't really familiar with, and even with our umbrellas up it wasn't readily obvious which way to proceed, so we just followed the 3 others who didn't have any brellas or even ponchos.

Let me tell you, they were hard to keep up with for that verry reason, it wasn't long before they broke out in a run, with us almost running after them.

What is taking place here right now is a lot funnier than you realize, for these folks have left the bus and are now running pell mell into the parking lot looking for their car, with us in hot pursuit!

They must have driven to the Studios and then hopped a bus over to either check out AKL or have lunch or just to get a zebral dome or to lead us on a high speed chase through the DHS stunt racing and special effects parking lot.

Yeah, that Smidgy can make us look pretty silly sometimes when she's wrong. We reversed course and
headed into the park.

By the time we hit the turnstyle is was down to a drizzle,
within 15 minutes after that the sun was back out, just to show who's boss.

The main thing we want to see in the near future is the Car stunt show, Light's, Motors, Action.
No, it's not on our "don't miss" lists, but it's been a few years now since wi've seen it so why not? It's still better
then the Backstage Tour.

But the question now is, will they do the stunt show with all the rain? I was guessing they still will, heck, it rains here all the time, besides, we still have almost an hour to go to show time.

For a complete change of pace, we headed over to something Diane has been wanting to do for a while now, in
the Animation Couryard,,,,, and that is the "mummlblell somethningg with anmationnk, Attraction!"

No, not sure what the name is, and we only got to see and partake in half of it.


It starts in a small classroom type ,,, um,,, room, with a host and his mascot, the dragon from Mulan,,, which is maybe one of the very few Disney Movies I have not seen.

We thiought this was going to lead into an actual hands on experience
with drawing, and yes, with me as a possible artist, you better believe I had the camera ready, but it was not to be.

That part of the class didn't start for another 45 minutes or so, not sure why and I am easily confused, so we just wandered around for a while looking at pictures and whatnots and then left to start heading over to the Stunt show.

We passed the main board and of course it showed all fastp passes gone for Toy Story, which we expected, but we didn't expect to see a stand-by time of 100 minutes!
In September? That's Nuts.

And the new and improved Star Tours? In heart stopping 3'D?
15 minutes.

We haven't tried the new ride yet so we headed on over there.

"Second verse, same as the first."

I'm sorry, it didn't do much for me, yes, it was better
than before, but I really didn't notice too much of a 3'D
effect in it.

That's a problem now with me,, critics get down on all the new movies that
come out in 3 -D, saying they are gimmicky, so now all the producers and directors tone them all way down, so it's an "ambience" thing, rather than, a "jumping out, in your face" type of 3'D.

Well, I like the Jumping out, in your face type, that's what makes the DisneyWorld 3'D movies so much fun!
Otherwise it's not worth how dark the newer movies with 3'D are now.

I guess there is also a part that went right past me, where someone on your 'ship is a spy and a camera picks out one of you, but I totally missed that. The only way '
I even found out about it was on I think Pirate Kate's report.
But no, I don't think this will be a long term fix either, but hey, we're still dealing with "Sounds Dangerous" across the street so I wouldn't sweat the Star Tours.

On the way over to the Stunt show we were told it was all systems go for that, I had to pause and take a really boring picture.

You know what you're missing?

Here, this is the same picture if I had taken it less than two months later;

Pretty sure it's the same spot, I think I prefer the September version better in all it's simplicity.

This is also when we made an important observation.
It's not the first time we noticed it, but I do believe it's the first time we voiced it on this whole trip so far.

We had mentioned at home, that for once we won't be slaves to the smoking areas, and have to worry about getting smokes in at certain times, now we can go and sit down whenever, and wherever, we want to.

But Hollywood Studios is very show time oriented, and so many times we kept finding ourselves with just "Ten Minutes" to kill, time for a smoke, looking us in the face.

And the "go sit anywhere and relax" just didn't work with us,,,, nooooo, if we are going to waste time, might as well be having a smoke!
No park made us think more about the fact we quit smoking than the Studios, and that's no exaggeration.

We then landed a desent, decent, descent,,,nice spot in the bleachers for the stunt show, these then filled up more than 3 quarters full. One thing I could not help but notice though, was just to the left of us and one row higher, sat a young couple, her with more makeup than Svengoolie and him with more earings, tattoos, piercings, than the Bride of Frankenstein.He's also got the shirt open and I'm not sure but darned if he doesn't seem to have little "braids" in his chest hair.
That's all bad enough, but that's not what go my attention, it was him, sticking his legs out onto the row in front of him, then taking off his flip flops and keeping people from sitting there by that row as his personal hassock as I was taught to say. I think others call it an ottoman.

I hate feet, and his feet were DIS Gust ING! and now on display. But I guess either his feet, his muscles or his tattoos did the job, because even though these would have also been prime seatage, nobody ventured down that row once they saw those seats were defended by the Toes of Navarone!

I did hear the people directly behind us complain about the same thing, and they just kept it up, even though it did'n't have anything to do with them. I knew he had to hear them and wondered if trouble might break out, but no, he played a deaf ear to it, all his body parts piercings and the rest of the holes in his head and body were just there to impress, I guess.

You know, I can almost hear George Carlin talking in my head about this right now:

I guess, I was impressed, with this mess.

And not to sound blessed, I was truly impressed with this mess,
so I confess.

I wanted to see, much less of this pest.

When he's half undressed, showing off his chest that he's so obsessed you wish he'd head west.

Or it could be a test.
If this is a test then I'll just say in jest that let's use his breast to make a nice nest.
I know, I know, hopefully we can both give it a rest.

Have I mentioned that some people have a tendency to annoy me n occasion? Oh well, they're everywhere.

Not much has changed here, they have now added Lightning McQueen into it in a cameo, but I'm still not exactly sure why. And did they sow Herbie back up into a solid car again?

Well, here I am, once again messing with the camera, but with the sunlight it was really hard to see the stupid little screen so I couldn' t tell if I was filming or not, and especially what I was or was not filming.
This LCD screen is useless in the sunlight.

I am now totally absorbed in the stupid camera, and I thought that the part where the car fliiiiiiiiies through the air from truck to truck was coming up and I was trying to see if the video was working on the camera.

My timing was a tad off;

If you look at the top of the screen right near the end, I think, you'll see the red car go flying past for the briefest of seconds, while I was looking down.

Ten minutes later I asked Smidgy if she saw the car fly by and she was of a " Of course, how could you miss it?"

It wasn't until 3 weeks after we got home that I saw the darn car on this brief video that I was about to erase.



But the finale was the best part.
I just love to watch a performer with a complete look of helplesness on his face.

Let me help here:
The end is a madcap everything happening at once scene.
You have the good guy in the red car, "hero" car.

He is being chased by 4 bad guy black cars, along with a guy or two on a motorcycle all with guns.

Somewhere along the line, one of the guys lost his ride, as scripted.

He then runs over to this channel that runs around the marketplace and jumps onto a Jet Ski, as scripted.

He then fires up the Jet Ski and gives chase this way, also as scripted.

One problemo though;

Jet Ski won't fire up.

Poor performer makes a fool out of himself desperately trying to get the Jet Ski to start, to no avail. I was
laughing my kiester off, only watching him at the end, he finally gives up, I think he demurlely gave the darn thing the finger as he climbed off and just kind of went and played the part of the actor who doesn't know what he should do now. You could almost hear a Director yelling, "And,,,,,, Action,,,,, I said,,,,, Action",,, ok, what part of Action don't you understand?"


I wish I could re do the narrative during this, and no, as I am typing this Diane is on the phone so I don't want to crank up the speakers to find out if, and, or what I might have said, and I still, I mean STILL have not listened to the video cuz my camera doesn't play back sound, but I'm pretty sure I was laughing and commenting aloud to Diane on what the guy was trying to do as it was taking place.

Right now I am not going to risk playing it, for fear of losing all I've written so far, so I think this will get posted in the chapter "sight and sound" unchecked out. My guess is that my voice will be drowned out anyway from all the whiny engines and whiny folks sitting all around me.
But anyways, here goes:



Oh wait, I'm part of the whiny folk contingent too.

We had no place pressing to be at for a while, our next stop was going to be the last show today of Beauty and the Beast, when we came across the lamplight and a firmly mounted umbrella from Singin' in the Rain.

I took a picture of diane:

It's time for me to come clean about myself.

I am NOT an outgoing type of people.
I'm not exactly ingoing either, in fact, in real life, I'm pretty shy.

The reason I like karaoke is because it's my version of skydiving. Really, by the time I am done singing a song,
my heart is going 150 beats a minute due to fear and adrenaline.
I don't know what is more frightening:

standing on a stage or even just a small spot on the floor with a microphone waiting for the song to begin,,,, or,,

Sitting in my Challenger at the start line at the drag strip, waiting for the 'Christmas Tree" lights to start coming down
getting closer to "GREEN".

I know I probably don't come across this way, but it's the truth, and some days can be either much different than others, depending on that day's confidence level and mood.

So sometimes when I get a dumb, "silly, outgoing type of idear", it has to be done either right smack dead away now,,,,, or it ain't a gonna happen. Yes, if I have too much time to think
about something,, the "ain't a gonna happen" ending is what usually is going to play.

Thankfully, that's what Diane did,,,, she gave me too much time.

I had this sudden kinda idea, since the umbrella is permanently mounted to the lamp post there, thay "Hey, I don't need it, I have my own", and use my own umbrella and dance around the lamppost doing the Gene Kelly routine.

I put the camera setting on video and handed it to Diane, then told her when I say start, to press the button down like you're taking a picture to start it in video mode.

The main problem with all of this is that, um, really,,, I can't dance, certainly not to something like that, and also that I only know a few of the words, but for a brief instant I was going to improvise, as embarrassing as it was going to be, I thought it might be good fodder for the report.

There was a brief opening with few people around, if it's going to happen it has to be now, but Diane didn't know how the camera worked, and called me over and by the time I explained it all to her,,, the mood was gone and the people were plentifull.

Again, thank goodness or they'd still be talking about how many hits the Nebo and the Umbrella are getting on U-Tube, and not in a good way.

We then went and saw Beauty and the Beast, then walked all the way back to the other side of the park and saw Muppetvision, then it was a trip on the Ok Movie Ride.

This sufficienty killed off enough time so that after we got a bottle of Sprite with two cups of ice and mixed in the little bottles, we were ready to go on in to see Fantasmic.

We are 40 minutes early and the place is half full already,
although with a castmember's help we still got pretty decent, desent, descent,,,, nice, seats.

I hate just waiting here till it starts, not long after my second little bottle went into the cup. So did Diane's.

Right before it started, I looked around and I could not believe my eyes! The entire theatre was packed, it was in SRO mode now.

I took a picture just of the people.

That's almost frightening isn't it?
Provided everybody keeps there cool and no fights or soccer
games break out, even if well behaved all these folks will
indeed be heading for the exit at the same exact moment.

And you probably know what I think of the exit down the hill here that is only there for the castmember's amusement.

Ok, now, I'm going to post a bunch of pictures from the show, no, I am not going to talk about what is happening for each shot, because I don't care.

I'm sorry, Wishes brings tears to my eyes, Illuminations sends chills '
up my spine.

Does being bored to tears fall into that category?
That's where Fantasmic falls in.

Oh yes, the pictures.

Please keep in mind I am trying to take the most impressive pictures I can to lie back at home to people that haven't seen this show.

Oooh, hot water, how they make water burn?

Boy, in the little P-bucket picture that almost looks like Michael Jackson in the mist screen.

Then, right at the end, the lights all dim, a spotlight starts searching up the mountain,,,,
And there on the top,,,,,,
Mickey appears! Right in the center of the spotlight waving his wand.

What a Target!

By the way, in a situation like this, never yell out
"what a target" when surrounded by crazed mousketeers.

We were on the move before the Mickster even took his hiddne elevator back down on the backside.

But even with us fudging the ending a bit and leaving early, by the time we got to the downhill slalom, for the first time I've seen it this way, it too was all backed up, no,
never seen the hill backed up on the way out before.
Usually it's a freefall run for your life survival act, now
it looked more like the Eloi being led by the Morlocks.

The line and the wait for a bus back wasn't too bad
and soon we were back in the room, making something for
a late night dinner.

But what feels really stupid now to me, is we are going right back to the studios in the morning, and this time for dope rop, I mean rope drop, still got a lot to do tomorrow, plus we have a lunch at Prime Time, gonna do a split stay, want to get over to the Swan maybe later for karaoke,,Oh, still haven't used the Kidani pool...... yeps, it's gonna be a busy day tomorrow, but I'll be up for the task. Because I am a new man when it
comes to taking care of myself and not letting myself get hurt.

Only little more than two days left, if I can make it this long I can certainly make it two more days.

g'night

 

[mmeb144]

Only little more than two days left, if I can make it this long I can certainly make it two more days.

So, are you gonna make it a whole WDW vacation without an injury?

 

[dwheatl]

I have to say that I LOVE Fantasmic at DL, but at WDW, not so much. My DS reminded me the other day that the last time we were at WDW (going on 6 years) I made a crazy comment at Fantasmic. As all the action was going on, I said to him, "What would aliens think if they landed here and thought this was our church?" Mickey as high priest? Princesses as temple virgins? Oh, the things that pop into my head. And that's without Vikes or little bottles.
Anyway, glad you made it through the hilly Fantasmic terrain without mishap.

 

[jcc0621]

your kids are 6 and 7... let me say first that at CBR, not all the room are priate rooms, only the ones in Trinidad SOuth, which are in dif. county, I think, then the rest of the resort.. AND they cost more.

the pool there is great, they have both a woosy slide, and an enclosed tube slide... they have an area where you can walk inot the pool.. there is a sep. water spalsh area for little kids.. not sure if your's would be too old or not... go to allearsnet and look at the pics.. the slide there might be too little for your kids, but the splash area, with the big bucket filing up and pouring out on them might be fun.. and there is 2 hot tubs.[/QUOTE[

See, I should have read before I posted We have decided CBR because jimmy liked the pool, but decided NOT to pay extra for the pirate room. So we should request Aruba or Jamaica. That's what I was thinking when I looked at the map, but it's good to have confirmation