The Chronicles of Team Manic: A Trip Report 12 Years in the Making! PHOTOS ADDED 6-15
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Jrabbit910
Keep Calm and get your Sparkle on!!
- Joined
- Apr 14, 2006
- Messages
- 3,377
LOVIN IT!!! TWO THUMBS WAY UP
!! your tr is great!! cant wait to read more!
!! your tr is great!! cant wait to read more!After you finish this TR (hint hint) you'll have the pleasure of planning your next trip.My next one (after my April trip) won't be for about 4 years.
Patience, DL, it'll be completed in due time! I thought about quitting my job so as to commit myself to this full time, but was talked out of it by, you know, that part of me that values eating.......
Hey, though, make that April trip count! My parents are actually going at the end of April, perhaps you'll run into them there. My mother will be the one buying floor space beside Art.
Maybe tomorrow for day #3, the plan is to try!
LOVIN IT!!! TWO THUMBS WAY UP
Thanks, Jrabbit! I hope you enjoy the future installments as well!
Okay, here's the disclaimer that assures you of an entertaining story to come (though frankly most of it isn't about Disney World at all). I love my family. My father is a hard-working, honest man and my mother is often generous to a fault. I can't complain about my lot in life in this regard, and I want to make it clear that everything about them from here on in is not meant to embaress or denigrate them, but rather to enjoy the humour of being associated with their eccentricities. Sometimes this association creates discomfort, but I'm not complaining.
Okay, here it comes.
My girlfriend woke up earlier than me on Thanksgiving, and headed to the gym for a workout. When she returned, I was still in bed, choosing a few extra winks to a morning swim. Knowing that we had a full day of wonderful bonding with my family in front of us, Jen got back in bed with me and we decided not to join my family for breakfast, instead staying behind as my brother headed off to the Galley.
Eventually we made our way to the Concierge floor for breakfast. It was okay up there.... bagels and cereal and coffee (which I hate) and a limited selection of fruit, plus Krispy Kreme doughnuts.... nothing spectacular, but it's fast and it's free.
Now part of the idea of having the Concierge breakfast was to allow us time to have a swim in Stormalong Bay before we left for my sister's. Originally we were thinking about going to the morning hours at the Magic Kingdom, but ultimately decided against it because of the logistics involved, and it was going to be hard enough to make it out with just a swim. The night before, we had asked my mother when we were leaving the next day, and had been told noon. The choice of noon was mostly due to my mother's neurotic conception of time and appointments..... really with anything but massive traffic, it only takes an hour and a half on the high side to make it to Palm Bay, which would still leave us an hour until dinner. Regardless, it wasn't as if there would be major repurcussions for being late.... but this is just how my mother is. When I was younger (and still whenever I'm home and need to get up in the morning for an appointment), she NEVER let my alarm go off, instead calling me at least 30 minutes before the time I said I needed to be up by. It's a wonder how I've managed, living alone and working all these years.
Well, before hitting the pool, we decided to stop by the Galley to check in with the family. Big mistake. Suddenly we were leaving at 11.00! I should have known, and I also should have known better than to show my disappointment at not being able to fit in a swim. "Sure, you and Jen can go swimming first, you have plenty of time!" This at 10.30.
Here's where my own personality really got me in trouble. Given the go-ahead, I was now determined to have my fun despite my very acute calculations that told me of the sheer impossibility of swimming, showering, a dressing before 11.00. Off to the pool!
I'll save a full review of Stormalong Bay until the day #4 installment, because we got more of the full experience late in the afternoon of that day. But for this particular morning, we took two fun-filled rides down the slide, which was both faster and bigger than I remembered it, and took a quick tour of the rest of the features of this amazing pool. It was to be the best part of our day.
Honestly, if Jen hadn't leveled her head enough to convince me that it was imperative that we get out, we might have spent a long time in there. And it was already close to 11.15. As we were drying off, we spotted the family on the Beach Club's veranda, anger in my mother's eyes. Here, once more, my personality got in the way. "We're just getting in!" I called out to them, "We'll come by when we finish!" This did not amuse my mother, who came back with a definite "stop having fun!" moment. We were told to get a move on..... "stop having fun, we're heading to Thanksgiving dinner!" No time to shower in our own room, we were told. I was instructed to shower in my parents' room while Jen showered in ours in order to save time.
To our credit, we really motored through our showers, and actually were ready to go a little after 11.30. We headed down to the lobby, ready to be at fault for our late arrival at my sister's, which would now only be well before dinner instead of hours before it. Was my family ready to go?
Of course not! My mother was caught up in a conversation with Art that she had no intention of curtailing. My father had disappeared somewhere, as is his wont to do. A friend of my father's (a work associate in town for the same show as he was) who was joining us retired shortly after our arrival to the tables outside the Marketplace to conduct a conference call (yes, on Thanksgiving). Jen and I ended up actually WAITING for my family, and when did we leave? That's right! A little after 12.00.
Here's where the GPS fun began.
To preface, my father is an experienced navigator. When I was younger, he and I drove all over the country together. And sure, he got lost at times and refused to admit is because he fits the exact stereotype of a man in this regard, but for the most part we did okay. That is, until GPS units arrived on the scene. If my father is anything to the core, it is a techno-crat (though not with computers, an irony that we still find fascinating.... in fact, my mother actually has to PRINT out my father's e-mails before he'll read them). So the opportunity to stick the newest gadget into his car is irresistable. When my family came to Buffalo to celebrate the conferral of my doctorate, we had dinner at a restaurant 1 block down and 1 block over from my apartment (if my grandmother wasn't there, I'd have walked it), and still, after dinner we sat in the parking lot as he programmed in my address for the ride back. When my mother insisted that we follow my directions, the GPS chirped in with error messages at each turn we ignored in exchange of a more efficient route. It's one of my favorite anecdotes.
Well this morning, we once again sat in the entranceway to the Beach Club, trying to enter my sister's address into the unit. It refused to accept it, insisting that no such address existed. Later I would discover that it was because it was a house in a development (albeit only relatively new). Did we step back, call my sister and get directions? Of course not! My father had been there before, and he knew the way. I set odds on the truth of this assertion, and they were not in his favor.
My father's friend, in a moment of well-anticipated inappropriate commentary, called the GPS a *****-in-a-box. I note this because I do find it pretty funny, and also because it serves as a mild example of some of the other comments that he made during the rest of the day.
There was a modicum of traffic, but all in all it was a pretty smooth ride to Palm Bay. But then the real fun began. The GPS system was completely useless in locating the house, and my nephew was only slightly more helpful than it was, in large part because my father refused to take anything beyond the "turn at the 7-11" instruction. He knew the way from there! Curiously, though, we began to drive for an extended period of time on the road we were meant to spend 1/2 a mile on. And when I noted that yes, we were now crossing the road that we had turned off of at the 7-11, was my voice heeded? Yes it was..... but only 5 miles down the road, when we finally met a dead end. At dinner, while everyone prayed to God for food and family, I thanked him for that dead end, because otherwise we'd be having dinner in Jacksonville.
Well after finally giving in and allowing himself to be guided in by my sister, we found the development. We again struggled to find the right house, but that's not my father's fault. No offense intended to those who like developments, but for me a place like this was a destination in hell. All the houses looked exactly the same, and I felt as though we were being sucked into a maelstrom of sameness that could only be escaped by some knowledge of a secret sequence, like the forest in the original Legend of Zelda game. Later in the day I would be further justified in this feeling. For now, I cracked that we should just choose a house, any house.... they all looked the same, and surely we'd be invited for dinner. Or perhaps they WERE all the same, and by some contrivance of mirrors and optical effects we were actually watching dozens of my sister's house pass by, each inhabited by the very family we were aiming to join.
Anyway, by some miracle we finally found it, upon which time my father began the first of several explanations as to just why he had gotten lost.... excuses that would extend into the following day. But hey, were were there, and in time for dinner.... who knew?!?! And in all truth, my sister's house is pretty nice inside. I was impressed for all my disdain for developments.... for a decade, my sister's bathroom on Long Island had no walls because they had neither the money to fix it (all their spare cash being siphoned into multiple trips to Disney World each year) nor the inclination to actually work on it, so this was a change. The backyard was ridiculous, with a pool and a batting cage, but hey, that's what they're into.
In any case, because I have the best knife skills in the family (I'm actually a pretty good chef), I was chosen to carve the turkey once more. Unfortunately, my sister's knives were too dull to cut three day old butter, so I was forced to use the electric knife, which, to any of you foodies out there, is a travesty. It distresses the meat and removes much of the flavor. But hey, we have to eat, so I took my time and did the best job I could.
Dinner was okay. The turkey was dry, but my mother made the gravy, which made all the difference. But the annoyances with my family began there. While taking my portion of stuffing, the other end of the table decided that things were moving too slowly, so my brother-in-law walked over to me and took the stuffing from my hand. He meant it as a joke, but it was really rude, and I was upset because I had just spent a long time carving the turkey and now was going to be the last one able to eat. It set a sour tone.
And then the drinking began. Now I'm no prude, but I don't see the attraction of getting hammered on Thanksgiving, and certainly not by drinking daquiris (I HATE fruity drinks), and besides, I know that my family turns into different people when they're drunk. Add a flighty neighbor geeked about getting tickets to a Rascal Flats concert (read: the exact opposite of myself) and as anxious to get her 15 year old daughter drunk as she was interested in drinking herself, and you have the makings of a situation that is, well, unsuited to my particular tastes. That's about as delicate as I can put it. So I retired to watch the football games on my own, staying out of the way of the idiocy.
When I actually got hungry again, I asked my mother when we were having dessert. An honest question, and of no harm until she asked me "what, you want to leave?" Now this is a loaded question, because no matter what I'm going to answer truthfully.... I don't like family gatherings.... they're not my thing..... I was in Florida..... Disney World was where I woke up that morning..... Disney World was where we're be returning to that evening.... of course I'm going to say yes. Well that was a mistake.... my mother got angry at me, my family took to ripping on me for not drinking and not having fun. It was aggravating but nothing new.... there was no place to hide, and eventually, sometime during any family gathering, someone will take issue with me minding my own business and set upon me.
Anyway, enough of that, let's get back to more GPS fun. Finally, after all the Thanksgiving festivities were over, we all piled back into the car for the return trip. My father programmed in the Beach Club, gave the reigns to my brother, and we were off. In 1/4 mile, turn left. In 1/4 mile, turn left. In 1/4 mile, turn left. And on, and on, and on! We were being swallowed up by the depthless development, it was a postmodern nightmare realized! But at the moment, for me is was hilarious. We passed my sister's house a few times, then the phone rang and my sister was on the other end, asking what the hell we were doing, and finally, having been given the secret code for escape, we were on the way out.
On the way home, we could see both Wishes and Illuminations. It was pretty, but also disappointing, as we could easily have been there to enjoy them!
Well we had also considered the option of going to the Magic Kingdom when we returned, but it was late and it figured to be mobbed, so we instead chose to head over to Downtown Disney. Jen wanted to go to Raglan Road. When we got there, however, she was tired of drinking, and we just popped in to see what it was like. The notion of going to Raglan Road but not ultimately going was to become a theme for the rest of the trip, and ultimately, it is going to have to be something on the agenda for a future trip.
Instead, we poked around some of the shops, then checked out Pleasure Island. I can imagine a time when that place is a lot of fun, but on this particular night, it was, frankly, FULL of trash, much of it acting in ways that gave Jen and I a lot to shake our heads at. I'll refrain from a full description, and instead say simply that this criticism is justified, and comes from one not prone to idle assessments of the like. It was a source of amusement for a time, but ultimately it just made us realize that we were not going to have any extended fun amidst it.
After a while, then, we headed home. The next day we were going to EPCOT, and it was best to get some rest!
Okay, here it comes.
My girlfriend woke up earlier than me on Thanksgiving, and headed to the gym for a workout. When she returned, I was still in bed, choosing a few extra winks to a morning swim. Knowing that we had a full day of wonderful bonding with my family in front of us, Jen got back in bed with me and we decided not to join my family for breakfast, instead staying behind as my brother headed off to the Galley.
Eventually we made our way to the Concierge floor for breakfast. It was okay up there.... bagels and cereal and coffee (which I hate) and a limited selection of fruit, plus Krispy Kreme doughnuts.... nothing spectacular, but it's fast and it's free.
Now part of the idea of having the Concierge breakfast was to allow us time to have a swim in Stormalong Bay before we left for my sister's. Originally we were thinking about going to the morning hours at the Magic Kingdom, but ultimately decided against it because of the logistics involved, and it was going to be hard enough to make it out with just a swim. The night before, we had asked my mother when we were leaving the next day, and had been told noon. The choice of noon was mostly due to my mother's neurotic conception of time and appointments..... really with anything but massive traffic, it only takes an hour and a half on the high side to make it to Palm Bay, which would still leave us an hour until dinner. Regardless, it wasn't as if there would be major repurcussions for being late.... but this is just how my mother is. When I was younger (and still whenever I'm home and need to get up in the morning for an appointment), she NEVER let my alarm go off, instead calling me at least 30 minutes before the time I said I needed to be up by. It's a wonder how I've managed, living alone and working all these years.
Well, before hitting the pool, we decided to stop by the Galley to check in with the family. Big mistake. Suddenly we were leaving at 11.00! I should have known, and I also should have known better than to show my disappointment at not being able to fit in a swim. "Sure, you and Jen can go swimming first, you have plenty of time!" This at 10.30.
Here's where my own personality really got me in trouble. Given the go-ahead, I was now determined to have my fun despite my very acute calculations that told me of the sheer impossibility of swimming, showering, a dressing before 11.00. Off to the pool!
I'll save a full review of Stormalong Bay until the day #4 installment, because we got more of the full experience late in the afternoon of that day. But for this particular morning, we took two fun-filled rides down the slide, which was both faster and bigger than I remembered it, and took a quick tour of the rest of the features of this amazing pool. It was to be the best part of our day.
Honestly, if Jen hadn't leveled her head enough to convince me that it was imperative that we get out, we might have spent a long time in there. And it was already close to 11.15. As we were drying off, we spotted the family on the Beach Club's veranda, anger in my mother's eyes. Here, once more, my personality got in the way. "We're just getting in!" I called out to them, "We'll come by when we finish!" This did not amuse my mother, who came back with a definite "stop having fun!" moment. We were told to get a move on..... "stop having fun, we're heading to Thanksgiving dinner!" No time to shower in our own room, we were told. I was instructed to shower in my parents' room while Jen showered in ours in order to save time.
To our credit, we really motored through our showers, and actually were ready to go a little after 11.30. We headed down to the lobby, ready to be at fault for our late arrival at my sister's, which would now only be well before dinner instead of hours before it. Was my family ready to go?
Of course not! My mother was caught up in a conversation with Art that she had no intention of curtailing. My father had disappeared somewhere, as is his wont to do. A friend of my father's (a work associate in town for the same show as he was) who was joining us retired shortly after our arrival to the tables outside the Marketplace to conduct a conference call (yes, on Thanksgiving). Jen and I ended up actually WAITING for my family, and when did we leave? That's right! A little after 12.00.
Here's where the GPS fun began.
To preface, my father is an experienced navigator. When I was younger, he and I drove all over the country together. And sure, he got lost at times and refused to admit is because he fits the exact stereotype of a man in this regard, but for the most part we did okay. That is, until GPS units arrived on the scene. If my father is anything to the core, it is a techno-crat (though not with computers, an irony that we still find fascinating.... in fact, my mother actually has to PRINT out my father's e-mails before he'll read them). So the opportunity to stick the newest gadget into his car is irresistable. When my family came to Buffalo to celebrate the conferral of my doctorate, we had dinner at a restaurant 1 block down and 1 block over from my apartment (if my grandmother wasn't there, I'd have walked it), and still, after dinner we sat in the parking lot as he programmed in my address for the ride back. When my mother insisted that we follow my directions, the GPS chirped in with error messages at each turn we ignored in exchange of a more efficient route. It's one of my favorite anecdotes.
Well this morning, we once again sat in the entranceway to the Beach Club, trying to enter my sister's address into the unit. It refused to accept it, insisting that no such address existed. Later I would discover that it was because it was a house in a development (albeit only relatively new). Did we step back, call my sister and get directions? Of course not! My father had been there before, and he knew the way. I set odds on the truth of this assertion, and they were not in his favor.
My father's friend, in a moment of well-anticipated inappropriate commentary, called the GPS a *****-in-a-box. I note this because I do find it pretty funny, and also because it serves as a mild example of some of the other comments that he made during the rest of the day.
There was a modicum of traffic, but all in all it was a pretty smooth ride to Palm Bay. But then the real fun began. The GPS system was completely useless in locating the house, and my nephew was only slightly more helpful than it was, in large part because my father refused to take anything beyond the "turn at the 7-11" instruction. He knew the way from there! Curiously, though, we began to drive for an extended period of time on the road we were meant to spend 1/2 a mile on. And when I noted that yes, we were now crossing the road that we had turned off of at the 7-11, was my voice heeded? Yes it was..... but only 5 miles down the road, when we finally met a dead end. At dinner, while everyone prayed to God for food and family, I thanked him for that dead end, because otherwise we'd be having dinner in Jacksonville.
Well after finally giving in and allowing himself to be guided in by my sister, we found the development. We again struggled to find the right house, but that's not my father's fault. No offense intended to those who like developments, but for me a place like this was a destination in hell. All the houses looked exactly the same, and I felt as though we were being sucked into a maelstrom of sameness that could only be escaped by some knowledge of a secret sequence, like the forest in the original Legend of Zelda game. Later in the day I would be further justified in this feeling. For now, I cracked that we should just choose a house, any house.... they all looked the same, and surely we'd be invited for dinner. Or perhaps they WERE all the same, and by some contrivance of mirrors and optical effects we were actually watching dozens of my sister's house pass by, each inhabited by the very family we were aiming to join.
Anyway, by some miracle we finally found it, upon which time my father began the first of several explanations as to just why he had gotten lost.... excuses that would extend into the following day. But hey, were were there, and in time for dinner.... who knew?!?! And in all truth, my sister's house is pretty nice inside. I was impressed for all my disdain for developments.... for a decade, my sister's bathroom on Long Island had no walls because they had neither the money to fix it (all their spare cash being siphoned into multiple trips to Disney World each year) nor the inclination to actually work on it, so this was a change. The backyard was ridiculous, with a pool and a batting cage, but hey, that's what they're into.
In any case, because I have the best knife skills in the family (I'm actually a pretty good chef), I was chosen to carve the turkey once more. Unfortunately, my sister's knives were too dull to cut three day old butter, so I was forced to use the electric knife, which, to any of you foodies out there, is a travesty. It distresses the meat and removes much of the flavor. But hey, we have to eat, so I took my time and did the best job I could.
Dinner was okay. The turkey was dry, but my mother made the gravy, which made all the difference. But the annoyances with my family began there. While taking my portion of stuffing, the other end of the table decided that things were moving too slowly, so my brother-in-law walked over to me and took the stuffing from my hand. He meant it as a joke, but it was really rude, and I was upset because I had just spent a long time carving the turkey and now was going to be the last one able to eat. It set a sour tone.
And then the drinking began. Now I'm no prude, but I don't see the attraction of getting hammered on Thanksgiving, and certainly not by drinking daquiris (I HATE fruity drinks), and besides, I know that my family turns into different people when they're drunk. Add a flighty neighbor geeked about getting tickets to a Rascal Flats concert (read: the exact opposite of myself) and as anxious to get her 15 year old daughter drunk as she was interested in drinking herself, and you have the makings of a situation that is, well, unsuited to my particular tastes. That's about as delicate as I can put it. So I retired to watch the football games on my own, staying out of the way of the idiocy.
When I actually got hungry again, I asked my mother when we were having dessert. An honest question, and of no harm until she asked me "what, you want to leave?" Now this is a loaded question, because no matter what I'm going to answer truthfully.... I don't like family gatherings.... they're not my thing..... I was in Florida..... Disney World was where I woke up that morning..... Disney World was where we're be returning to that evening.... of course I'm going to say yes. Well that was a mistake.... my mother got angry at me, my family took to ripping on me for not drinking and not having fun. It was aggravating but nothing new.... there was no place to hide, and eventually, sometime during any family gathering, someone will take issue with me minding my own business and set upon me.
Anyway, enough of that, let's get back to more GPS fun. Finally, after all the Thanksgiving festivities were over, we all piled back into the car for the return trip. My father programmed in the Beach Club, gave the reigns to my brother, and we were off. In 1/4 mile, turn left. In 1/4 mile, turn left. In 1/4 mile, turn left. And on, and on, and on! We were being swallowed up by the depthless development, it was a postmodern nightmare realized! But at the moment, for me is was hilarious. We passed my sister's house a few times, then the phone rang and my sister was on the other end, asking what the hell we were doing, and finally, having been given the secret code for escape, we were on the way out.
On the way home, we could see both Wishes and Illuminations. It was pretty, but also disappointing, as we could easily have been there to enjoy them!
Well we had also considered the option of going to the Magic Kingdom when we returned, but it was late and it figured to be mobbed, so we instead chose to head over to Downtown Disney. Jen wanted to go to Raglan Road. When we got there, however, she was tired of drinking, and we just popped in to see what it was like. The notion of going to Raglan Road but not ultimately going was to become a theme for the rest of the trip, and ultimately, it is going to have to be something on the agenda for a future trip.
Instead, we poked around some of the shops, then checked out Pleasure Island. I can imagine a time when that place is a lot of fun, but on this particular night, it was, frankly, FULL of trash, much of it acting in ways that gave Jen and I a lot to shake our heads at. I'll refrain from a full description, and instead say simply that this criticism is justified, and comes from one not prone to idle assessments of the like. It was a source of amusement for a time, but ultimately it just made us realize that we were not going to have any extended fun amidst it.
After a while, then, we headed home. The next day we were going to EPCOT, and it was best to get some rest!
DL55
More time than money
- Joined
- Oct 12, 2007
- Messages
- 2,397
Ah.. the family together for Thanksgiving 
If it makes you feel better, I think a lot of T-day gatherings are like yours.
I've never understood the fun of getting very drunk after the age of 21.
I can't believe that woman wanted her 15 yr old drunk?! 
I enjoyed the driving adventure, glad you found the dead end.
If it makes you feel better, I think a lot of T-day gatherings are like yours.
I've never understood the fun of getting very drunk after the age of 21.
I can't believe that woman wanted her 15 yr old drunk?! I enjoyed the driving adventure, glad you found the dead end.
Ah.. the family together for Thanksgiving
If it makes you feel better, I think a lot of T-day gatherings are like yours.
I've never understood the fun of getting very drunk after the age of 21.
I enjoyed the driving adventure, glad you found the dead end.
So I take it you have similar Thanksgiving stories, DL? I suspect that the encouragment of underage binge drinking is somewhat less prevalent..... or at least I hope so.
Incidentally, my brother-in-law is a former NYC cop. Gotta love irony.
(Actually, perhaps his former profession precludes any irony here. I'll have to parse through that one.)
Happiness in a GPS enabled world is a dead end, after all. That or a warm gun, pointed at your own tonsils......
DL55
More time than money
- Joined
- Oct 12, 2007
- Messages
- 2,397
The liquor cabinet was locked on the holidays when I was young. I must have missed some interesting parties.
Your encounter with GPS isn't the first I've heard where people end up nowhere near their destination. I think I'll stay with maps and human directions (depends on the human).
Your encounter with GPS isn't the first I've heard where people end up nowhere near their destination. I think I'll stay with maps and human directions (depends on the human).
Off another thread, wanted to include it here!
Ha ha thanks for the compliment on my trip report.... the funny stuff doesn't end there, I hope you'll come back for future installments!
But hey, how do you know I didn't hide the ring in her bathing suit this time? She'd never know I was proposing if I put it in one she has, because she'd forget it at home.
And she'd never know I was proposing if I put it in a new one, because she'd freak out about how she'd never look good in the one I chose. I already have developed enough neuroses from trying to navigate which colors she likes to wear ("well, I like this lavender, it's just other lavenders that I dislike") so that I can find her Christmas presents..... I think I'd choose not to be berated at the moment of proposal!
N10CJT~ I started reading your TR. So funny! I think if you ever get married to your GF, you should hide the ring in a new Bathing suit.
Ha ha thanks for the compliment on my trip report.... the funny stuff doesn't end there, I hope you'll come back for future installments!
But hey, how do you know I didn't hide the ring in her bathing suit this time? She'd never know I was proposing if I put it in one she has, because she'd forget it at home.
And she'd never know I was proposing if I put it in a new one, because she'd freak out about how she'd never look good in the one I chose. I already have developed enough neuroses from trying to navigate which colors she likes to wear ("well, I like this lavender, it's just other lavenders that I dislike") so that I can find her Christmas presents..... I think I'd choose not to be berated at the moment of proposal!
The liquor cabinet was locked on the holidays when I was young. I must have missed some interesting parties.
Your encounter with GPS isn't the first I've heard where people end up nowhere near their destination. I think I'll stay with maps and human directions (depends on the human).
Good choice. I support this perspective.
Get ready for a long recap of day #4: EPCOT!!!!! I don't think it's quite as funny as the preceding days, but then, there has to be a lull before the storm............
(Speaking of storms, bracing for one here.....
)
Comments and interjections are, as always, welcome and encouraged!
Without further ado.......
(Speaking of storms, bracing for one here.....
)Comments and interjections are, as always, welcome and encouraged!
Without further ado.......
The madness of Thanksgiving behind us, Jen and I committed to a great vacation. The days that would define Team Fun were still before us, and we had no reason to expect anything but a normal day in the park.
And we were reasonably assured of this potentiality. My brother had to leave at 7.00 to meet my father and head over to the convention hall for the first day of set-up, which meant that Jen and I were certain to have a few hours of non-snore-filled sleep followed by a morning alone. I took this as a particular blessing as the morning actually arrived, because the sound emanating from the other bed had in fact amplified from that of Tuesday night. (Fun aside, I wasn’t joking about the snoring!)
When we did decide that the day was upon us, I called my mother to see if she wanted to go to breakfast with us. She did, and we headed over to the Galley. It was a pleasant breakfast.... past the busiest hours and as such uncrowded, with good food. My girlfriend ordered the Very Berry French Toast, which she loved, and I had the Eggs Benedict, which was pretty good, if not of the quality of Brennan’s (but then, whose Eggs Benedict really is?).
After breakfast, I tricked my girlfriend into going back to the room without my mother and I. I had a plan! The night before, she had fallen in love with an incredibly soft Eeyore plush in World of Disney, and I now planned to get it for her without her knowledge. So I asked the concierge if they could call over to the store and have them deliver one for me.... turns out they couldn't. I then asked the girl at the delivery booth in the Marketplace if she could do the job, and she said that she could probably send a runner for it, though she couldn't guarantee it could be done anytime soon. Fortunately, my mother-- who definitely has her moments-- offered to take a trip over there and pick it up for me while she did some shopping of her own. And thus, the plan was in place! It would pay off later that day.....
Even though we had moved casually this morning in part because we knew that the Friday after Thanksgiving was sure to be madness in any of the parks, I was very anxious to get into EPCOT. It was my favorite park during the last of my visits, and of the three that were operating during that time, it was by far the park that I felt assured of having a wonderful time in regardless of crowd levels. We had no illusions about our chances in Future World, but I knew that the World Showcase could be a lot of fun as long as we didn’t allow the number of people joining us to be a hindrance.
My mother, on the other hand, disagreed. She chose not to accept our invitation to join us, instead preferring to return to the room to rest. At this point in the trip, we thought nothing of it..... the following day, however, was to prove different.
But for this day, it was something of a relief. I was looking forward to a day along with my girlfriend, to be able to enjoy the trip as a couple. And we were immediately rewarded in something as simple as the walk to the International Gateway. I have to say that I really love this short stretch of walkway. It determines a finite amount of anticipation, pairing it with a lovely environment of trees, scenery and music. When we made it to the gate, both of us were really in the mood, and prepared for a wonderful day.
We decided to walk over to Norway first, thinking that because it was shortly after 11.00 and as such the Showcase had just opened, the Maelstrom was certain to be uncrowded. Later during the trip, it seemed to me that the ride was not as popular as I once remembered it, as it seemed to be fairly uncrowded at most times, but as we arrived that Friday, I was thrilled at the genius of my plan! Just a 10 minute wait! How fortunate for Jen that she had me as a travel companion!
All humility aside, it was a fun ride, and the queue area contained two surprises for us. The first was a Small-Bany moment 1,200 miles from Albany (I should note that the size of our fair city, when reduced by the number of politicians and their staff members who are part-time residents, makes it highly likely at any moment that one will bump into someone familiar, or that upon meeting someone new, one will inevitably discover that the new person is known to at least half a dozen of one’s closest associates). In this instance, it turned out that one of my girlfriend’s co-workers, whom we previously knew to be on vacation with her family and staying at the Coronado Springs, was little more than four families ahead of us in line! Curiously enough, this was not the first time that such a meeting had occurred..... during my last trip, I bumped into a fellow player from my college soccer team, that time directly in front of my father and I in line for Space Mountain. (As a sidenote, amazingly enough I bumped into him again that New Year’s Eve in Manhattan in a deli that my party popped into only to escape the coldest New Year’s Eve on record to that point.). Surreal.
The second surprise was the discovery of my second hidden Mickey, and this one far more difficult to spot than the one on the Backlot Tour. I’m sure that this is common knowledge to most hidden Mickey devotees, but one of the Vikings on the Viking ship in the mural of the ride is wearing Mickey ears! It was surprisingly energizing to spot such a detail, and in all frankness led me to find hidden Mickeys in any number of places where they certainly weren’t intended (such as stains on the ground, and cracks in the walls, and the like). I feel fortunate to have staved off madness, as I am sure this was the likely consequence if I had found just one or two more Mickeys than I actually managed to over the duration of our trip.
In any case, we enjoyed ourselved, even if Maelstrom wasn't as fun as I remembered it. For some reason, I recalled more speed on the backwards section. Still, we enjoyed it, and the film was, of course, filled with beautiful images, so all in all it was a fine start to our time in the park.
Upon exiting Norway, I had the brilliant idea of heading over to Future World to see if we could pick up some FastPasses for one of the popular rides. It was a doomed expedition. Future World was packed, with sections where people were literally moving shoulder to shoulder. In the central square, it was nearly chaotic, with flows of people intersecting at all possible angles. I should have known it would have been like this, but optimism is blinding, after all. Test Track and Soarin’ were no longer distributing FastPasses, with 80 minute and 150 minute waits respectively, and Mission: Space only had FastPasses for 5.45 and after, dangerously close to our 6.00 dinner reservations at Le Cellier. Even Living with the Land had a wait! I’m still stunned at the amount of time people are willing to wait in line for certain rides. I suppose that I can see that if you were there for just that day and had your heart set on a favorite ride, you might be inclined to spend half the afternoon waiting to experience it, but I just can’t subscribe to this perspective. But hey, no accounting, I suppose, and certainly none of my concern.
After miserably failing, we poked around Innoventions for a bit. It was completely different than I remembered it, and frankly I found it somewhat difficult to understand the design of the attraction. I recalled all sorts of simple but entertaining interactive games, and they had been replaced with plastic stalks of grass and fake roadsigns, teenagers wasting their trip to Disney World playing on video game units they likely waste all their time playing on at home, and a centralized marketing display for Segways, those nasty little contraptions that New Yorkers not so fondly remember as a recent bane upon our beloved city. I think that had I known more about what we could do at the pavilions, and had there not been long lines for those things that I didn’t really know about, I might have formed a different opinion, so for the next trip I plan to investigate the opportunities there and give the attractions another try. But for this trip, it was just strange, and it failed to capture my attention.
So we headed back to the World Showcase, and poked around some of the pavilions there. First was the United Kingdom, which I found pleasant enough, though difficult to navigate because of a street performance of Shakespeare. I also reiterated to my girlfriend my dismay about the Rose and Crown’s all too casual nod to imperialism in their selections of food and beverage, notably draughts of Guinness, which so many enjoy as part of the British pub experience...... how wonderfully British, to drink an Irish beer. Don’t get me started on James Joyce.....
Next up was France, where there was a line out extending around the corner for the Patisserie, a delightful exhibition of chair-stacking (in all seriousness, it’s pretty cool), and a thousand bottles of what must be France’s new corporate sponsor, Georges DeBeuf wines (they’re sort of the equivalent of Sutter Home, or more precisely if you can extend the analogy beyond wine, Budweiser). I really love the layout of the pavilion, but I was really bothered by all the signs for the wine and the horribly unvaried selection in the wine store, which seemed to me to detract from the feeling of intimacy from gnarled Parisian backstreets that I thought they were trying to recreate.
Then we headed over to Morocco, which is, for my money, the best of the pavilions. I love the attention to detail in the alleyways and the shops, and the tile-work on the fountain in the rear of the pavilion is wonderful. We felt as dismembered from the main madness of a Black Friday in EPCOT as we possibly could, enjoying a lazy time browsing the shops’ wares. Very pleasant.
Finally, we looked around Japan, mostly browsing its fantastic Mitsukoshi store. I really like the sake sets that they have there, and considered picking one up, refraining only because I can’t remember the last time I actually had sake at home, and because ever since the closure of the best sushi place in Buffalo, where patrons left their sake glasses in a display over the bar, I have no place to leave any glasses where I might have occasion to actually use them. Jen, however, made a big mistake in not purchasing a ceramic tea set that she liked a great deal, leaving it for another day..... of course, when we came back on that future day, the one she had her eye on was gone, and none of the other sets were the right price, the right design, or had the right matching bowls. A lesson in consumership, the way I see it!
Well, we had had our fill of EPCOT for the time being, given that we were coming back for extra magic hours and that even the World Showcase was now engulfed with visitors. So we headed back to the Beach Club to enjoy a swim in Stormalong Bay!
Now, those of you who know of Stormalong Bay know that it is AMAZING. We got our bracelets, dropped our towels, and began our swim with another trip down the slide, and proceeded with our tour of the pool itself. Neither of us could quite get the full experience of the sinking sands, but we found much amusement in the waterfalls, and loved the section with the currents (though I seem to remember that you were once able to swim under the bridge between the sections, which you no longer can because of a barrier constructed there). The hot tubs are really well located, surrounded by false rock formations, with a third, less-crowded hot tub between the sections of the pool. We didn’t spend any time in the sand-dune section, but it’s such a great idea and kids seem to love it. And one more thing the kids seemed to love was the entertainment provided for them..... hula hoop and dance contests conducted by the lifeguards. And they were entertaining for us, as well, particularly when a 60-something woman in the pool joined in the festivities, dancing along to YMCA and all songs succeeding it. All in all, it is a remarkably fun place to spend an afternoon.
After we finished there, we returned to the hotel for a shower. As I left my girlfriend to shower, I shot down to my parents' room and picked up the Eeyore that I had conspired to purchase for her earlier that day. I took it back up to the room, and placed it on the bed, ready for Jen to discover. Which of course she did..... and she loved it, to be sure! I was glad to have done something like that for her, and it worked out perfectly in order for her to be surprised.
And can you believe it, as I write about this, she's telling me about how I'm not nice because I brought up an incident where her habit of exxagerated speech-accompanying gesticulations resulted in a spilled drink on Firday night! This is my plight in life, to never be appreciated for the things I do!
Anyway, after we had finished cleaning up and dressed for dinner, my brother returned from the convention hall, and shortly thereafter we headed down to my parents’ room so that we could head off to dinner. Well, my father wasn’t feeling well, and after some equivocation on his part, he chose not to join us. More on this later.... my father is, well, a big whiner whenever he’s not feeling 100%, and as he felt progressively worse over the next several days, he became increasingly intolerable.... for one, increasingly hypochondrial. Stories for future installments.
Well, as most Disney veterans are well aware, reservation times are not really reservation times, and so we had to wait for a relatively short time at Le Cellier. Jen and I found it tolerable enough, though, as we sat down on the bridge, enjoying the scenery and the beautiful night, and taking in the entertainment, which came in the form of people without reservations trying to get tables for what is possibly the most popular restaurant on Disney property. It was really amusing. One group must have had 8 or 9 people in it, and walked away muttering and cursing.... I mean, really people, think that one over the next time you decide not to make reservations for one of the busiest days of the year! The mother of another family got really upset when they were turned away, and she began to yell at her son for delaying them. Apparently, at 5.30 they felt they would have been fine walking up, but at 6.00 it was too late and it was all his fault! I felt bad for the kid, he was basically being told that if he wasn't so committed to having fun that day, they could have made it to dinner, which of course is both antithetical to the spirit of Disney and from what I witnessed, completely untrue.
Anyway, our dinner was really good, though I do wish that instead of merely being told about a certain section of Canada, we were offered specials that are reflective of that section’s culture. But as it was, our wine was tasty, the cheese soup was heavy but really solid comfort food, particularly when the breads were dipped into it, and the salmon, which both Jen and I had, was well prepared, if farm-raised and generally unspectacular. Our desserts were good, if superfluous.... I thought the creme brulee was fantastic, but at the same time I was already full and could have finished my meal without it and been content.
Besides, extra magic hours awaited! My mother headed back to the room, ostensibly to care for my father but really just to avoid fun, which was just as well for the three of us. We headed back to Future World and procured our bracelets, then headed over to see if Soarin’ was a possibility.... no it wasn’t, with a line still exceeding 70 minutes. Test Track too still had a long line, and Mission: Space didn’t seem like a good idea so close to a general stuffing-of-our-faces, for we were not so eager for a general un-stuffing-of-our-stomachs.
So I suggested the Living Seas. My brother was, well, not exactly thrilled, but the energies of the other two carried the motion, and we were off. Well, the Nemo ride was, in my estimation, the worst ride in Disney World. The digital imposition of cartoon fish within the tanks of real fish was very cool, but the rest of the ride seemed carelessly put together and short of what we had to come to expect from Disney. I thought that at times the details hadn’t been sufficiently attended to, and at one point, we passed within a few feet of giant visible speakers blaring out the ride’s sountrack. To make matters worse, the ride broke down as we were right in the middle of the room with the motion screen. Ugh.
The tank section, on the other hand, was amazing. The manatees were remarkable, the tropical fish were beautiful, the fish were enormous and the sharks impressive. And best of all, one of the dolphins took to Jen and I for some reason, and continually came to the glass to play with us. It was an amazing experience, and it drew a crowd, who thereupon asked us what we had done to elicit such a response. Truly one of those moments from our trip that I remember most vividly. Even my brother had a great time.... kicking and screaming into fun, he loved talking about the fish, which are, it turns out, a hobby of his back home. Who'd have thought a collector of fish would enjoy a visit to an aquarium? Smarter people than Jen and I, to be sure, it makes no sense to me.....
After the Living Seas, we headed back to see if Test Track was a possibility. The crowds had thinned some, and we were optimistic. When we arrived, the wait was listed as 40 minutes, which concerned Jen a bit. I convinced her, however, that because this was the one ride that my brother really wanted to go on, it was a worthy investment of time. Well, it turned out that the wait was well short of 40 minutes, and before we knew it, we were right outside the briefing rooms.
Unfortunately, we were fated to be outside those rooms for quite some time. The ride had broken down. So we sat, and sat, and sat, as dozens of people eventually gave up and left. And worst, a little boy at the very front of the line had the most pathetic look of disappointment on his face, crushed that he might not get to ride. Eventually, matters got worse. They concluded that the ride needed serious repair, and they evacuated it, beginning with those still in the line, who were forced to walk out the door, right past the cast member with the stack of FastPasses that were earmarked for those of us outside the briefing rooms. Of course, the boy broke down, now beyond crushed. I would have gladly offered his family our FastPasses, if they hadn’t left before we received them. The manner in which they handled the situation was disappointing, if only because they refused to fill in the spots of those who left with people still in the queue, even though one of the groups had whittled down to fewer than a dozen people.
Anyway, after the disappointment and giant waste of time of Test Track, we tried Mission: Space again, to no avail, then shot over to see if Soarin’ was any better.... it probably was 10 minutes earlier, but now it was being swarmed by people from the now shut down Test Track.
Which didn't stop a drunk from accosting us, hoping to leave with our extra magic hour bracelets. At first he asked us how we got our bracelets, and I told him that the first thing he needed to do was stay on the property. Well he didn't take too well to that suggestion, and he began offering us money for the ones we were wearing. Regardless of my suspicion that he had no intentions of actually producing the money even if we were willing, I had no compulsion to deal with a drunk idiot when we could be having fun, and I certainly had no desire to be part of what certainly is a problem for Disney. Jen and I accordingly walked away. My brother, on the other hand, not quite as city-savvy as myself (in New York, you find yourself ignoring lunacy several times a day), has a problem separating himself from situations such as these, and so he absorbed the advances of his new drunken acquaintance for several minutes, ultimately joining us with his bracelet intact, and his wallet no fatter than it was before.
So anyway, we settled on Imagination, and enjoyed a stupid but still enjoyable ride with Figment and Eric Idle. I think the ride is under-rated, honestly. Afterwards Jen and I annoyed my brother by messing around in the What If? Labs, making our musical Figments fight each other and sending a ridiculous, particularly unflattering photograph into cyberspace so that several people could witness out dorkiness. Alas......
Well, my brother was getting antsy after a while, so we headed back across the square, after a stop to peruse Mouse Gear, and walked into Mission: Space after discovering Test Track to still be closed.
The green variety, that is. I was hoping to see what the hub-ub about the orange side was, if only to get sick and know that it made me sick, but both my girlfriend and my brother refused. So I told the cast member at the head of the queue rope that our party had three.... wuss, wuss, and wuss by association.
Still, I found the ride to be pretty enjoyable and even mildly thrilling without the spinning. I was amazed at how confining the seating area was.... people who are claustrophobic definitely need to avoid this ride. Still, I found time for wisecracks. I had been ribbing my brother about his snoring, so when Gary Sinese told us that we would be put into cryo-sleep during our voyage to Mars, I told my brother that he better not snore during cryo-sleep. My girlfriend found this very amusing.....
After the ride, we joined in on the fun, backboning the Omega team’s march to eternal glory by fixing spaceships. It was a blast, actually, because we allowed it to be.... we even offered up some mild trash talk to the other team, who were weak, unskilled charlatans. I don’t know why they even showed up, that pen was ours from the word go. And after the contest, Jen and I made a ridiculous postcard from space, more idiocy to be circulated to our family and friends back home!
By the time we left Mission: Space, it was near the closing of the park. Test Track was open once more, but perhaps in a last ditch effort to ride their favorite ride before the end of their trip, it was swamped with people. It was remarkable to me how many people were in an hour long line that extended well into the plaza after midnight had sounded.... a wonderment that was only amplified by the sight of a FastPass line that also stretched into the plaza. We would have other opportunities. We were going home.
Well, Jeff decided to take the fast track home, while Jen and I wandered home slowly, spending some time underneath the arches with the dancing lights (which were wonderful, by the way) before taking the long way back to the Beach Club, via a leisurely stroll around the full circumference of the World Showcase. It was nearly deserted, with but a few cast members here and there, and there were unobstructed, spectacular views back across the lagoon to the illuminated ball, Christmas tree, and the rest of Future World. It was a lovely way to end a long, wonderful day.
One the way out, we did have one more noteworthy encounter. It was past 12.30, and the park was officially closed. At the International Gate, we saw a family of four. The mother was taking the daughter to the bathroom, I think, but in any case, it was the father and the son that we remember. The poor boy, he couldn't have been more than 5 years old (my girlfriend recalls him as more likely 4), and he was thoroughly exhausted. He was moving around, almost delirious, and he accidentally bumped into my leg. He was so tired that this completely disoriented him, and he stumbled about for a second or two before falling onto my leg and holding onto it for dear life! He was disinclined to move from this position, and my guess is that he almost fell asleep right there. His father pretty much had to peel him off of my leg! Poor guy, I think he probably should have been in bed 3 or 4 hours earlier! Considering that I, a night-owl, was exhausted and wanted to go to bed, I can only imagine how much a boy that young needed it! Disney Wolrd overdose.....
But you know, now that I think of it, I envy that kid a little. After all, I bet he slept better than we did that night. Unless he too lay across the room from a freight train.....
And we were reasonably assured of this potentiality. My brother had to leave at 7.00 to meet my father and head over to the convention hall for the first day of set-up, which meant that Jen and I were certain to have a few hours of non-snore-filled sleep followed by a morning alone. I took this as a particular blessing as the morning actually arrived, because the sound emanating from the other bed had in fact amplified from that of Tuesday night. (Fun aside, I wasn’t joking about the snoring!)
When we did decide that the day was upon us, I called my mother to see if she wanted to go to breakfast with us. She did, and we headed over to the Galley. It was a pleasant breakfast.... past the busiest hours and as such uncrowded, with good food. My girlfriend ordered the Very Berry French Toast, which she loved, and I had the Eggs Benedict, which was pretty good, if not of the quality of Brennan’s (but then, whose Eggs Benedict really is?).
After breakfast, I tricked my girlfriend into going back to the room without my mother and I. I had a plan! The night before, she had fallen in love with an incredibly soft Eeyore plush in World of Disney, and I now planned to get it for her without her knowledge. So I asked the concierge if they could call over to the store and have them deliver one for me.... turns out they couldn't. I then asked the girl at the delivery booth in the Marketplace if she could do the job, and she said that she could probably send a runner for it, though she couldn't guarantee it could be done anytime soon. Fortunately, my mother-- who definitely has her moments-- offered to take a trip over there and pick it up for me while she did some shopping of her own. And thus, the plan was in place! It would pay off later that day.....
Even though we had moved casually this morning in part because we knew that the Friday after Thanksgiving was sure to be madness in any of the parks, I was very anxious to get into EPCOT. It was my favorite park during the last of my visits, and of the three that were operating during that time, it was by far the park that I felt assured of having a wonderful time in regardless of crowd levels. We had no illusions about our chances in Future World, but I knew that the World Showcase could be a lot of fun as long as we didn’t allow the number of people joining us to be a hindrance.
My mother, on the other hand, disagreed. She chose not to accept our invitation to join us, instead preferring to return to the room to rest. At this point in the trip, we thought nothing of it..... the following day, however, was to prove different.
But for this day, it was something of a relief. I was looking forward to a day along with my girlfriend, to be able to enjoy the trip as a couple. And we were immediately rewarded in something as simple as the walk to the International Gateway. I have to say that I really love this short stretch of walkway. It determines a finite amount of anticipation, pairing it with a lovely environment of trees, scenery and music. When we made it to the gate, both of us were really in the mood, and prepared for a wonderful day.
We decided to walk over to Norway first, thinking that because it was shortly after 11.00 and as such the Showcase had just opened, the Maelstrom was certain to be uncrowded. Later during the trip, it seemed to me that the ride was not as popular as I once remembered it, as it seemed to be fairly uncrowded at most times, but as we arrived that Friday, I was thrilled at the genius of my plan! Just a 10 minute wait! How fortunate for Jen that she had me as a travel companion!
All humility aside, it was a fun ride, and the queue area contained two surprises for us. The first was a Small-Bany moment 1,200 miles from Albany (I should note that the size of our fair city, when reduced by the number of politicians and their staff members who are part-time residents, makes it highly likely at any moment that one will bump into someone familiar, or that upon meeting someone new, one will inevitably discover that the new person is known to at least half a dozen of one’s closest associates). In this instance, it turned out that one of my girlfriend’s co-workers, whom we previously knew to be on vacation with her family and staying at the Coronado Springs, was little more than four families ahead of us in line! Curiously enough, this was not the first time that such a meeting had occurred..... during my last trip, I bumped into a fellow player from my college soccer team, that time directly in front of my father and I in line for Space Mountain. (As a sidenote, amazingly enough I bumped into him again that New Year’s Eve in Manhattan in a deli that my party popped into only to escape the coldest New Year’s Eve on record to that point.). Surreal.
The second surprise was the discovery of my second hidden Mickey, and this one far more difficult to spot than the one on the Backlot Tour. I’m sure that this is common knowledge to most hidden Mickey devotees, but one of the Vikings on the Viking ship in the mural of the ride is wearing Mickey ears! It was surprisingly energizing to spot such a detail, and in all frankness led me to find hidden Mickeys in any number of places where they certainly weren’t intended (such as stains on the ground, and cracks in the walls, and the like). I feel fortunate to have staved off madness, as I am sure this was the likely consequence if I had found just one or two more Mickeys than I actually managed to over the duration of our trip.
In any case, we enjoyed ourselved, even if Maelstrom wasn't as fun as I remembered it. For some reason, I recalled more speed on the backwards section. Still, we enjoyed it, and the film was, of course, filled with beautiful images, so all in all it was a fine start to our time in the park.
Upon exiting Norway, I had the brilliant idea of heading over to Future World to see if we could pick up some FastPasses for one of the popular rides. It was a doomed expedition. Future World was packed, with sections where people were literally moving shoulder to shoulder. In the central square, it was nearly chaotic, with flows of people intersecting at all possible angles. I should have known it would have been like this, but optimism is blinding, after all. Test Track and Soarin’ were no longer distributing FastPasses, with 80 minute and 150 minute waits respectively, and Mission: Space only had FastPasses for 5.45 and after, dangerously close to our 6.00 dinner reservations at Le Cellier. Even Living with the Land had a wait! I’m still stunned at the amount of time people are willing to wait in line for certain rides. I suppose that I can see that if you were there for just that day and had your heart set on a favorite ride, you might be inclined to spend half the afternoon waiting to experience it, but I just can’t subscribe to this perspective. But hey, no accounting, I suppose, and certainly none of my concern.
After miserably failing, we poked around Innoventions for a bit. It was completely different than I remembered it, and frankly I found it somewhat difficult to understand the design of the attraction. I recalled all sorts of simple but entertaining interactive games, and they had been replaced with plastic stalks of grass and fake roadsigns, teenagers wasting their trip to Disney World playing on video game units they likely waste all their time playing on at home, and a centralized marketing display for Segways, those nasty little contraptions that New Yorkers not so fondly remember as a recent bane upon our beloved city. I think that had I known more about what we could do at the pavilions, and had there not been long lines for those things that I didn’t really know about, I might have formed a different opinion, so for the next trip I plan to investigate the opportunities there and give the attractions another try. But for this trip, it was just strange, and it failed to capture my attention.
So we headed back to the World Showcase, and poked around some of the pavilions there. First was the United Kingdom, which I found pleasant enough, though difficult to navigate because of a street performance of Shakespeare. I also reiterated to my girlfriend my dismay about the Rose and Crown’s all too casual nod to imperialism in their selections of food and beverage, notably draughts of Guinness, which so many enjoy as part of the British pub experience...... how wonderfully British, to drink an Irish beer. Don’t get me started on James Joyce.....
Next up was France, where there was a line out extending around the corner for the Patisserie, a delightful exhibition of chair-stacking (in all seriousness, it’s pretty cool), and a thousand bottles of what must be France’s new corporate sponsor, Georges DeBeuf wines (they’re sort of the equivalent of Sutter Home, or more precisely if you can extend the analogy beyond wine, Budweiser). I really love the layout of the pavilion, but I was really bothered by all the signs for the wine and the horribly unvaried selection in the wine store, which seemed to me to detract from the feeling of intimacy from gnarled Parisian backstreets that I thought they were trying to recreate.
Then we headed over to Morocco, which is, for my money, the best of the pavilions. I love the attention to detail in the alleyways and the shops, and the tile-work on the fountain in the rear of the pavilion is wonderful. We felt as dismembered from the main madness of a Black Friday in EPCOT as we possibly could, enjoying a lazy time browsing the shops’ wares. Very pleasant.
Finally, we looked around Japan, mostly browsing its fantastic Mitsukoshi store. I really like the sake sets that they have there, and considered picking one up, refraining only because I can’t remember the last time I actually had sake at home, and because ever since the closure of the best sushi place in Buffalo, where patrons left their sake glasses in a display over the bar, I have no place to leave any glasses where I might have occasion to actually use them. Jen, however, made a big mistake in not purchasing a ceramic tea set that she liked a great deal, leaving it for another day..... of course, when we came back on that future day, the one she had her eye on was gone, and none of the other sets were the right price, the right design, or had the right matching bowls. A lesson in consumership, the way I see it!
Well, we had had our fill of EPCOT for the time being, given that we were coming back for extra magic hours and that even the World Showcase was now engulfed with visitors. So we headed back to the Beach Club to enjoy a swim in Stormalong Bay!
Now, those of you who know of Stormalong Bay know that it is AMAZING. We got our bracelets, dropped our towels, and began our swim with another trip down the slide, and proceeded with our tour of the pool itself. Neither of us could quite get the full experience of the sinking sands, but we found much amusement in the waterfalls, and loved the section with the currents (though I seem to remember that you were once able to swim under the bridge between the sections, which you no longer can because of a barrier constructed there). The hot tubs are really well located, surrounded by false rock formations, with a third, less-crowded hot tub between the sections of the pool. We didn’t spend any time in the sand-dune section, but it’s such a great idea and kids seem to love it. And one more thing the kids seemed to love was the entertainment provided for them..... hula hoop and dance contests conducted by the lifeguards. And they were entertaining for us, as well, particularly when a 60-something woman in the pool joined in the festivities, dancing along to YMCA and all songs succeeding it. All in all, it is a remarkably fun place to spend an afternoon.
After we finished there, we returned to the hotel for a shower. As I left my girlfriend to shower, I shot down to my parents' room and picked up the Eeyore that I had conspired to purchase for her earlier that day. I took it back up to the room, and placed it on the bed, ready for Jen to discover. Which of course she did..... and she loved it, to be sure! I was glad to have done something like that for her, and it worked out perfectly in order for her to be surprised.
And can you believe it, as I write about this, she's telling me about how I'm not nice because I brought up an incident where her habit of exxagerated speech-accompanying gesticulations resulted in a spilled drink on Firday night! This is my plight in life, to never be appreciated for the things I do!
Anyway, after we had finished cleaning up and dressed for dinner, my brother returned from the convention hall, and shortly thereafter we headed down to my parents’ room so that we could head off to dinner. Well, my father wasn’t feeling well, and after some equivocation on his part, he chose not to join us. More on this later.... my father is, well, a big whiner whenever he’s not feeling 100%, and as he felt progressively worse over the next several days, he became increasingly intolerable.... for one, increasingly hypochondrial. Stories for future installments.
Well, as most Disney veterans are well aware, reservation times are not really reservation times, and so we had to wait for a relatively short time at Le Cellier. Jen and I found it tolerable enough, though, as we sat down on the bridge, enjoying the scenery and the beautiful night, and taking in the entertainment, which came in the form of people without reservations trying to get tables for what is possibly the most popular restaurant on Disney property. It was really amusing. One group must have had 8 or 9 people in it, and walked away muttering and cursing.... I mean, really people, think that one over the next time you decide not to make reservations for one of the busiest days of the year! The mother of another family got really upset when they were turned away, and she began to yell at her son for delaying them. Apparently, at 5.30 they felt they would have been fine walking up, but at 6.00 it was too late and it was all his fault! I felt bad for the kid, he was basically being told that if he wasn't so committed to having fun that day, they could have made it to dinner, which of course is both antithetical to the spirit of Disney and from what I witnessed, completely untrue.
Anyway, our dinner was really good, though I do wish that instead of merely being told about a certain section of Canada, we were offered specials that are reflective of that section’s culture. But as it was, our wine was tasty, the cheese soup was heavy but really solid comfort food, particularly when the breads were dipped into it, and the salmon, which both Jen and I had, was well prepared, if farm-raised and generally unspectacular. Our desserts were good, if superfluous.... I thought the creme brulee was fantastic, but at the same time I was already full and could have finished my meal without it and been content.
Besides, extra magic hours awaited! My mother headed back to the room, ostensibly to care for my father but really just to avoid fun, which was just as well for the three of us. We headed back to Future World and procured our bracelets, then headed over to see if Soarin’ was a possibility.... no it wasn’t, with a line still exceeding 70 minutes. Test Track too still had a long line, and Mission: Space didn’t seem like a good idea so close to a general stuffing-of-our-faces, for we were not so eager for a general un-stuffing-of-our-stomachs.
So I suggested the Living Seas. My brother was, well, not exactly thrilled, but the energies of the other two carried the motion, and we were off. Well, the Nemo ride was, in my estimation, the worst ride in Disney World. The digital imposition of cartoon fish within the tanks of real fish was very cool, but the rest of the ride seemed carelessly put together and short of what we had to come to expect from Disney. I thought that at times the details hadn’t been sufficiently attended to, and at one point, we passed within a few feet of giant visible speakers blaring out the ride’s sountrack. To make matters worse, the ride broke down as we were right in the middle of the room with the motion screen. Ugh.
The tank section, on the other hand, was amazing. The manatees were remarkable, the tropical fish were beautiful, the fish were enormous and the sharks impressive. And best of all, one of the dolphins took to Jen and I for some reason, and continually came to the glass to play with us. It was an amazing experience, and it drew a crowd, who thereupon asked us what we had done to elicit such a response. Truly one of those moments from our trip that I remember most vividly. Even my brother had a great time.... kicking and screaming into fun, he loved talking about the fish, which are, it turns out, a hobby of his back home. Who'd have thought a collector of fish would enjoy a visit to an aquarium? Smarter people than Jen and I, to be sure, it makes no sense to me.....
After the Living Seas, we headed back to see if Test Track was a possibility. The crowds had thinned some, and we were optimistic. When we arrived, the wait was listed as 40 minutes, which concerned Jen a bit. I convinced her, however, that because this was the one ride that my brother really wanted to go on, it was a worthy investment of time. Well, it turned out that the wait was well short of 40 minutes, and before we knew it, we were right outside the briefing rooms.
Unfortunately, we were fated to be outside those rooms for quite some time. The ride had broken down. So we sat, and sat, and sat, as dozens of people eventually gave up and left. And worst, a little boy at the very front of the line had the most pathetic look of disappointment on his face, crushed that he might not get to ride. Eventually, matters got worse. They concluded that the ride needed serious repair, and they evacuated it, beginning with those still in the line, who were forced to walk out the door, right past the cast member with the stack of FastPasses that were earmarked for those of us outside the briefing rooms. Of course, the boy broke down, now beyond crushed. I would have gladly offered his family our FastPasses, if they hadn’t left before we received them. The manner in which they handled the situation was disappointing, if only because they refused to fill in the spots of those who left with people still in the queue, even though one of the groups had whittled down to fewer than a dozen people.
Anyway, after the disappointment and giant waste of time of Test Track, we tried Mission: Space again, to no avail, then shot over to see if Soarin’ was any better.... it probably was 10 minutes earlier, but now it was being swarmed by people from the now shut down Test Track.
Which didn't stop a drunk from accosting us, hoping to leave with our extra magic hour bracelets. At first he asked us how we got our bracelets, and I told him that the first thing he needed to do was stay on the property. Well he didn't take too well to that suggestion, and he began offering us money for the ones we were wearing. Regardless of my suspicion that he had no intentions of actually producing the money even if we were willing, I had no compulsion to deal with a drunk idiot when we could be having fun, and I certainly had no desire to be part of what certainly is a problem for Disney. Jen and I accordingly walked away. My brother, on the other hand, not quite as city-savvy as myself (in New York, you find yourself ignoring lunacy several times a day), has a problem separating himself from situations such as these, and so he absorbed the advances of his new drunken acquaintance for several minutes, ultimately joining us with his bracelet intact, and his wallet no fatter than it was before.
So anyway, we settled on Imagination, and enjoyed a stupid but still enjoyable ride with Figment and Eric Idle. I think the ride is under-rated, honestly. Afterwards Jen and I annoyed my brother by messing around in the What If? Labs, making our musical Figments fight each other and sending a ridiculous, particularly unflattering photograph into cyberspace so that several people could witness out dorkiness. Alas......
Well, my brother was getting antsy after a while, so we headed back across the square, after a stop to peruse Mouse Gear, and walked into Mission: Space after discovering Test Track to still be closed.
The green variety, that is. I was hoping to see what the hub-ub about the orange side was, if only to get sick and know that it made me sick, but both my girlfriend and my brother refused. So I told the cast member at the head of the queue rope that our party had three.... wuss, wuss, and wuss by association.
Still, I found the ride to be pretty enjoyable and even mildly thrilling without the spinning. I was amazed at how confining the seating area was.... people who are claustrophobic definitely need to avoid this ride. Still, I found time for wisecracks. I had been ribbing my brother about his snoring, so when Gary Sinese told us that we would be put into cryo-sleep during our voyage to Mars, I told my brother that he better not snore during cryo-sleep. My girlfriend found this very amusing.....
After the ride, we joined in on the fun, backboning the Omega team’s march to eternal glory by fixing spaceships. It was a blast, actually, because we allowed it to be.... we even offered up some mild trash talk to the other team, who were weak, unskilled charlatans. I don’t know why they even showed up, that pen was ours from the word go. And after the contest, Jen and I made a ridiculous postcard from space, more idiocy to be circulated to our family and friends back home!
By the time we left Mission: Space, it was near the closing of the park. Test Track was open once more, but perhaps in a last ditch effort to ride their favorite ride before the end of their trip, it was swamped with people. It was remarkable to me how many people were in an hour long line that extended well into the plaza after midnight had sounded.... a wonderment that was only amplified by the sight of a FastPass line that also stretched into the plaza. We would have other opportunities. We were going home.
Well, Jeff decided to take the fast track home, while Jen and I wandered home slowly, spending some time underneath the arches with the dancing lights (which were wonderful, by the way) before taking the long way back to the Beach Club, via a leisurely stroll around the full circumference of the World Showcase. It was nearly deserted, with but a few cast members here and there, and there were unobstructed, spectacular views back across the lagoon to the illuminated ball, Christmas tree, and the rest of Future World. It was a lovely way to end a long, wonderful day.
One the way out, we did have one more noteworthy encounter. It was past 12.30, and the park was officially closed. At the International Gate, we saw a family of four. The mother was taking the daughter to the bathroom, I think, but in any case, it was the father and the son that we remember. The poor boy, he couldn't have been more than 5 years old (my girlfriend recalls him as more likely 4), and he was thoroughly exhausted. He was moving around, almost delirious, and he accidentally bumped into my leg. He was so tired that this completely disoriented him, and he stumbled about for a second or two before falling onto my leg and holding onto it for dear life! He was disinclined to move from this position, and my guess is that he almost fell asleep right there. His father pretty much had to peel him off of my leg! Poor guy, I think he probably should have been in bed 3 or 4 hours earlier! Considering that I, a night-owl, was exhausted and wanted to go to bed, I can only imagine how much a boy that young needed it! Disney Wolrd overdose.....
But you know, now that I think of it, I envy that kid a little. After all, I bet he slept better than we did that night. Unless he too lay across the room from a freight train.....
I can't believe it, but I completely forgot to include an encounter with a drunk who wanted our extra magic hours bracelet! One of the funniest parts of the evening, what was I thinking?
Well, it's now included, immediately preceding our trip to the Imagination pavilion.
I've also included a bit about my brother's fun at the Living Seas.... kicking and screaming to fun, that is.....
Well, it's now included, immediately preceding our trip to the Imagination pavilion.
I've also included a bit about my brother's fun at the Living Seas.... kicking and screaming to fun, that is.....
Man, where is my head this weekend (probably lost in a snowbank somewhere, actually)? I also completely forgot about a clandestine operation to surprise my girlfriend with an Eeyore plush! So once more, I've made the appropriate adjustments.....
I bet you really enjoyed some alone time with your girlfriend.
I remember swimming under a bridge at Stormalong Bay also.
I knew I wasn't crazy. Thanks for backing me up, DL! There's still one bridge that you swim under in both the main section and the current section, though, so perhaps we are both remembering those? On second thought perhaps I am crazy.
And yes, we did enjoy the alone time we were able to find during the trip.... the tradeoff for dealing with my family was worth it, but sometimes it was hard to imagine ourselves on a romantic vacation, and we generally took advantage of the opportunities that were afforded us......
DL55
More time than money
- Joined
- Oct 12, 2007
- Messages
- 2,397
Yes, how could you forget that.
I don't know, my brain is dead, I think. I forgot about half the night!
In fact, I left out still another anecdote from the day, this one involving a half-comotose child who literally ran into me at the end of the night. I've added it to the end of the day's report....
Just an update.... working through grading term papers and dealing with winter storms (note the plural)..... and I have a lot to say about our first day in Animal Kingdom! So I'm piecing the next installment together... it'll be along shortly!
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