stitchthealmighty
You're at 3/4 of a mile, call the ball.
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2004
- Messages
- 78
The Characters(yes, we are all real characters. Just ask the rest of the family)
Tausha (GrowinupDisney) my DSD, will be known as TGB or Tour Guide Barbie. This is an inside joke.
Chris, my DSIL will continue to be Panda.
Julie, my DW, will be known as Nala, because according to her, she is most like Nala.
Me. I will always be me. What else could I be but what I am? A Dude.
The Dream
The Day is here. I am going to be a NASCAR driver for a ½ day. Too cool. Panda and I are out of bed and ready to go. Come on girls, were burning daylight!! Its a whopping 6:00 AM. We head upstairs to the concierge and have a bite to eat. Is anyone feeling the nervous energy in the air?? Come on lets drive!! We were told to be at the track at 7:30. Do you know how cold it is outside at that time of the morning??? I say again, I thought we were in Florida! Man, it wasnt this cold in CA when we left. As we head outside to the valet to get the car and be on the way to the track, I look for icicles on the eaves of the buildings. BRRRRR!!
We get to the track with a few minutes to spare and take a look around. Not much in the way of grandstands or anything. We find out later that the track was used only a few times for real races and was afterward relegated to RPDE. Too bad, it might have been cool to see a race there while visiting WDW.
Well we get checked in and go through the safety briefing and some of the rules governing the track. At this point, one of the instructors asks if everyone can drive a stick. Isnt it a little late for that?? What if someone couldnt?? Do they have a automatic for those folks?? Now that just would not do because everyone knows a racecar has to be a standard transmission. We prepare to go out and get into a van for a quick run around the track so we can see all of the parts of the track and where we need to be at certain times while we are driving. Not bad, the van did about 80 on the track and we went probably 3 laps .
Panda got to get his laps in fairly early in the rotation. Good for him. He got around the track like he was born in the car. Good job. Once again I say all of those hours playing Gran Turismo paid off. I was in a group towards the end of the list so I had to wait around for a while. I picked up a lot just by watching the other drivers. For those of you who are considering RPDE on your next trip to WDW, I highly recommend that you get a later group in the rotation so you can watch how the cars perform and what the track is like so you are not surprised when you get out there.
Finally, my turn came up. This is it. The one we have all been waiting for. I go over and get in the car. The crew chief gets me strapped in and puts the steering wheel in. A thumbs up and the car roars to life. So this is what its like! You are strapped in so tight that it is a little hard to breathe at first. Thats OK, breathing is overrated and you probably wont need to breathe for the next 8 laps. Were off!! I get on to the track with no problems and I start to accelerate. 1 lap down and Im still accelerating. 2 laps. Man I cant believe this. This is the life!! 3 laps and we are going faster than I have ever driven on the freeways at home. 4 laps. I have no idea how fast the car is going. There are gauges on the dash but I dont remember even looking at them. Was there a speedometer? 5 laps and we are floating around the track. Im coming down the straightaway towards turn 1 on the start of lap 6 and life is good. We make the turn and suddenly the instructor in front suddenly slows and gives me a wave off. What happened? I was doing everything by the book. As we came around the track on a caution, I could see some thing on the track in front of us. Was that a muffler?? We entered pit row on the next lap and was told that I had lost the muffler on my car. Too cool. I drove muffler off. Well, this meant that I had to wait around until the end of the rotation for another car. Bummer for me. Nothing like waiting around for a new car and letting all of that good adrenaline go to waste. All was not lost. Soon I had another car and get this, 8 MORE laps!! They didnt have to tell me twice. I got back out there with a vengeance and pushed the car a little closer to the envelope. This made for an even more exciting ride this time around because I knew what to expect.
I finished the race to much applause from my family and proceeded inside to receive my time sheet and certificate (not to mention buying the photos and plaques). This was a very exciting experience and I highly recommend it to anyone who has even remotely thought about doing it. Two thumbs up.
We left RPDE and head over to GF for some lunch. We get seated and find out lunch isnt served fro another 30 mins. Oh well, late breakfast then. We eat and then the girls are off to get facials at the spa and have afternoon tea afterwards. Panda and I head back to The Poly for some downtime and peace and quiet.
The girls returned later that afternoon and after some downtime for them, we head out to Epcot. Tonight will be last chance to see Illuminations. We exit the monorail and head over to WS. DEAD!! Yes, WS was dead. Hardly anyone was out. The weather was cold and gray. Everyone inside keeping warm?? We head over to Le Cellier and are told we needed PSs to get in. Bummer. We head around WS toward England. The Beatles cover band was good, but where to eat? We go as far as Italy and decide to try Alfredos. It was good but I have been in better Italian restaurants in North Beach in San Francisco.
We finish dinner and continue around WS since we have a while before Illuminations. As we rounded Mexico, the hordes of people had materialized out of thin air. Where did they all come from?? An hour ago, the place had zero people and now they were 10 deep to see the fireworks. Strange. TGB had been telling us about these deserts called BeaverTails. Never one to pass up a new desert, we headed over to Canada again. As luck would have it Trapper Bob had closed up shop for the night. Who in their right mind would close up a munchie shop right before a fireworks display that has the area in front of the shop packed with people?? Well, Illuminations was a very good show even without BeaverTails. Oh well, maybe next time. We head back to the monorail for the ride back to The Poly. Tomorrow Panda and TGB are off to Universal and Nala and I are off to KSC.
Next Post: KSC
Tausha (GrowinupDisney) my DSD, will be known as TGB or Tour Guide Barbie. This is an inside joke.
Chris, my DSIL will continue to be Panda.
Julie, my DW, will be known as Nala, because according to her, she is most like Nala.
Me. I will always be me. What else could I be but what I am? A Dude.
The Dream
The Day is here. I am going to be a NASCAR driver for a ½ day. Too cool. Panda and I are out of bed and ready to go. Come on girls, were burning daylight!! Its a whopping 6:00 AM. We head upstairs to the concierge and have a bite to eat. Is anyone feeling the nervous energy in the air?? Come on lets drive!! We were told to be at the track at 7:30. Do you know how cold it is outside at that time of the morning??? I say again, I thought we were in Florida! Man, it wasnt this cold in CA when we left. As we head outside to the valet to get the car and be on the way to the track, I look for icicles on the eaves of the buildings. BRRRRR!!
We get to the track with a few minutes to spare and take a look around. Not much in the way of grandstands or anything. We find out later that the track was used only a few times for real races and was afterward relegated to RPDE. Too bad, it might have been cool to see a race there while visiting WDW.
Well we get checked in and go through the safety briefing and some of the rules governing the track. At this point, one of the instructors asks if everyone can drive a stick. Isnt it a little late for that?? What if someone couldnt?? Do they have a automatic for those folks?? Now that just would not do because everyone knows a racecar has to be a standard transmission. We prepare to go out and get into a van for a quick run around the track so we can see all of the parts of the track and where we need to be at certain times while we are driving. Not bad, the van did about 80 on the track and we went probably 3 laps .
Panda got to get his laps in fairly early in the rotation. Good for him. He got around the track like he was born in the car. Good job. Once again I say all of those hours playing Gran Turismo paid off. I was in a group towards the end of the list so I had to wait around for a while. I picked up a lot just by watching the other drivers. For those of you who are considering RPDE on your next trip to WDW, I highly recommend that you get a later group in the rotation so you can watch how the cars perform and what the track is like so you are not surprised when you get out there.
Finally, my turn came up. This is it. The one we have all been waiting for. I go over and get in the car. The crew chief gets me strapped in and puts the steering wheel in. A thumbs up and the car roars to life. So this is what its like! You are strapped in so tight that it is a little hard to breathe at first. Thats OK, breathing is overrated and you probably wont need to breathe for the next 8 laps. Were off!! I get on to the track with no problems and I start to accelerate. 1 lap down and Im still accelerating. 2 laps. Man I cant believe this. This is the life!! 3 laps and we are going faster than I have ever driven on the freeways at home. 4 laps. I have no idea how fast the car is going. There are gauges on the dash but I dont remember even looking at them. Was there a speedometer? 5 laps and we are floating around the track. Im coming down the straightaway towards turn 1 on the start of lap 6 and life is good. We make the turn and suddenly the instructor in front suddenly slows and gives me a wave off. What happened? I was doing everything by the book. As we came around the track on a caution, I could see some thing on the track in front of us. Was that a muffler?? We entered pit row on the next lap and was told that I had lost the muffler on my car. Too cool. I drove muffler off. Well, this meant that I had to wait around until the end of the rotation for another car. Bummer for me. Nothing like waiting around for a new car and letting all of that good adrenaline go to waste. All was not lost. Soon I had another car and get this, 8 MORE laps!! They didnt have to tell me twice. I got back out there with a vengeance and pushed the car a little closer to the envelope. This made for an even more exciting ride this time around because I knew what to expect.
I finished the race to much applause from my family and proceeded inside to receive my time sheet and certificate (not to mention buying the photos and plaques). This was a very exciting experience and I highly recommend it to anyone who has even remotely thought about doing it. Two thumbs up.
We left RPDE and head over to GF for some lunch. We get seated and find out lunch isnt served fro another 30 mins. Oh well, late breakfast then. We eat and then the girls are off to get facials at the spa and have afternoon tea afterwards. Panda and I head back to The Poly for some downtime and peace and quiet.
The girls returned later that afternoon and after some downtime for them, we head out to Epcot. Tonight will be last chance to see Illuminations. We exit the monorail and head over to WS. DEAD!! Yes, WS was dead. Hardly anyone was out. The weather was cold and gray. Everyone inside keeping warm?? We head over to Le Cellier and are told we needed PSs to get in. Bummer. We head around WS toward England. The Beatles cover band was good, but where to eat? We go as far as Italy and decide to try Alfredos. It was good but I have been in better Italian restaurants in North Beach in San Francisco.
We finish dinner and continue around WS since we have a while before Illuminations. As we rounded Mexico, the hordes of people had materialized out of thin air. Where did they all come from?? An hour ago, the place had zero people and now they were 10 deep to see the fireworks. Strange. TGB had been telling us about these deserts called BeaverTails. Never one to pass up a new desert, we headed over to Canada again. As luck would have it Trapper Bob had closed up shop for the night. Who in their right mind would close up a munchie shop right before a fireworks display that has the area in front of the shop packed with people?? Well, Illuminations was a very good show even without BeaverTails. Oh well, maybe next time. We head back to the monorail for the ride back to The Poly. Tomorrow Panda and TGB are off to Universal and Nala and I are off to KSC.
Next Post: KSC
) Glad you had such a fun time!
