When we last left off, I had shamed myself by exposing my foot stankiness to the entire Soarin' flight. If anyone commented, however, I have thankfully blocked that from my memory.
Our
Unofficial Guide touring plan next directed us to experience Journey Into Imagination, and since the three of us like to please (even if its an inanimate object that has no understanding of whether we do what it tells us to or not), we obeyed.
I'd been looking forward to Journey Into Imagination because I like Figment. I like Figment because he's a cute little purple dragon. Honestly, my reasoning behind liking Figment rivals that of a three-year-old's. But I like Figment.
Or at least, I liked him before the ride. The ride showed me how annoying Figment is. He's much better as a silent plush toy sitting on my bookcase than as an irritating animatronic with a high-pitched voice supposedly emulating the power of the imagination.
And I should also qualify the "plush toy sitting on my bookcase bit." Because I don't have a stuffed Figment. I think I did at one point, but he trundled off to Yard Sale Land or Dog Toy Land or Lost in a Grocery Store Land; I don't know. So I had planned to rectify my lack of a plushie Figment by purchasing a Figment to sit, silent and cute-like, on my already over-crowded bookcase.
After the ride, and seeing how annoying Figment is, I elected not to get one.
As for Melneth and Nevi's reactions to the ride, I believe they were just as underwhelmed as I. At least, I don't recall any skipping and shouts of, "Coolest ride
ever! I
so have to get a Figment plushie now!"
And does it say anything that I didn't even remember the skunk-smell until reading about Journey online?
We did, however, take a few moments to play in the ImageWorks. A nice CM outfitted in a lab coat took our picture with the large novelty camera and gave us a copy.
I see your ears perking up!
A photo! Jiri, didn't you say you hadn't taken any other photos during Epcot, Day 1?
Well. I didn't. The CM took that picture. Which I would have been delighted to post for you if I hadn't lost the copy. Or if Nevi or Melneth had happened to have a scanner so they could scan in their copies (which we had made later) to e-mail to me so I could then post it. But they don't, alas.
You're not missing much, anyway. I
don't have a scanner, so if I'd retained the pic I would have had to resort to the dreaded picture-of-a-picture. But now I'm feeling guilty. So here's a purloined image of my no-longer-liked-cute-purple-dragon:
After ImageWorks, we watched
Honey, I Shrunk the Audience! Which was funny, but I felt somewhat ineffective since it had blatant uses of Early '90's Hair: Like 80's Hair Only Scarier. And since the vast majority of the populace does not use Early '90s Style, it kinda detracted from the fantasy that we were at an awards show that was
happening right then!
But the three of us laughed, so I can't complain too much. And the little puffs of air simulating the mice was a nice touch, as was Quark's sneeze.
Once we were returned to our proper size, it was time to begin the Day One World Showcase tour with
O Canada! The circle-vision made Nevi feel kinda sick, so she didn't enjoy it much, but Melneth and I liked it. And despite my increasing sleepiness (remember that foreshadowing from the last post?) I stayed awake during the entire thing.
We spared a moment to stroll around the Canada shopping area, and as I perused the maple candies, I had a brainstorm as to what to get my picky, "I don't really like souvenirs" brother: Overpriced candy with the Disney World logo and perhaps characters plastered all over it! Genius.
But it was not a shopping day, so we moseyed over to Great Britain, where we wanted to watch the World Showcase Players. After concluding with a CM that yes, we'd have to sit outside to watch, we picked a place in relative shade and sat.
The World Showcase Players appeared not too long after we'd staked our spot on the curb. We started out with the three of us and maybe four other people who clearly had the intent of watching the WSPs (not to be confused with WASPs; the lack of an A is an important distinction), and so the WSPs coached us in laughing uproariously to attract more viewers. Once we succeeded, the WSPs explained that they would be performing King Arthur and would need some audience volunteers.
The man they selected as King Arthur had it easy. He got to sit on a throne, and his one job was to shout "Yee haw, I'm the king!" when the WSPs mentioned King Arthur.
The man, who was in his late 50's to early 60's, had several iterations of this line.
1) [immediately after his coaching session] Yee haw, I'm the king!
2) [after Lancelot had been selected] I'm the king!
3) [after the good witch who was to fight the evil witch {I think, anyway; the plot was fuzzy to begin with and is fuzzier yet six weeks later} had been selected] I'm the king, baby!
It was this last that confused us the most, because it was said in a very Austin Powers-ish manner, which the WSPs commented on. Reminding him again that he had his line wrong. Only this rather cemented the King's misinterpretation rather than fixing it.
So there you have it. Austin Powers was the king of Great Britain.
Anyway, we the audience (or at least I, 1/12 of the audience) had great fun yelling "Rubbish!" at every corny joke. And there were many.
Aside from King Austin Powers, the anecdote I remember best was when Lancelot attempted to ride the same "horse" as the evil witch--or was the evil witch at that time another knight? Meh. In any case, we soon established that Lancelot was indeed man enough to master his own horse without riding pillion behind the witch/knight.
We had a 2:00 ADR for Restaurant Marrakesh, which left us with enough time to head over to France to look at the
Beauty and the Beast windows. Which were very pretty. And for which it did not occur to me to pull my camera out of its case and snap a picture. I blame my tiredness.
We headed for
Impressions de France. Our French CM, who introduced the film, was cute. Again, I didn't think to take a picture.
Did I mention that I was tired?
Well, if not,
Impressions de France had actual seats, unlike the Canada film. And unlike the concrete we'd sat on for the WSPs, there were cushions. And air conditioning. And unlike
Honey I Shrunk the Audience, which of course
did have cushions and A/C,
Impressions had soothing music and pretty pictures.
Nap time.
I think I woke up long enough to drool over the French pastries and reminisce briefly over my time in France when I was doing study abroad in Oxford in college and we got to take a trip.
Mmm. French pastries. Which we did not have in the WDW-France. But we should have.
Nevi dozed a little too, but I think she caught more of the film than I did. Our Francophile, Melneth, stayed awake and told us later that she likes "things like that--nice music and pretty scenery."
Well, I like it too. Just in a different way, evidently. Perhaps it reawakens infant memories of staring at my mobile in my crib.
Hey, now. A spinning mobile can be pretty scenery when you're less than a year old and enjoy being swaddled.
And with that rumination, I leave you until next time. "Leave" being a loose term, of course, since I always pop back to comment on people's comments. Since I like commenting.
Cough.
Up Next: Belly dancing and velcro, but not at the same time.
)
But I'm artsy like that.
I've used it and the companion site for years and years - never have they let me down! 
for the ensuing foot stankage.
!
less annoying. Disney does so well with other things at making things appealing for kids and adults; I know they can do it!
