Well friends, I'm going to post another installment here but I'm not sure who is left on these boards to read it. To the friends who are no longer posting here, Faith misses you.
The group has completed four full days at WDW. They have toured every park, sampled every churro stand and tried on every hat. Faith, in a gesture of false generosity, told Vik and Mike that the fifth day was a free, unscheduled day and that the group would do whatever they picked.
Everyone rolls out of bed Friday morning at a fairly decent time for old people. Even Mike is up; he's been struggling all week to keep up the pace. So what does that mean if Mike is up and ready before everyone else?
A little backstory here. Remember in the very first installment, I told you that Mike likes presidential libraries and all that kind of fun (er yeah, right) stuff? Well, long before the group left the smoggy shores of California, Mike had told Vik that he really wanted to see a space shuttle on the launch pad. Vik had passed this on to Faith so that the two of them could use their combined prayer power to pray that the shuttle launched before their vacation. It was scheduled to go off on Jan 10th. At the time they had left on their vacation on the 13th, it had not launched. Vik had made a point of not giving Mike a chance to read a paper or watch the news so the group had no idea if it had launched that week.
Now Mike and Vik had been to Kennedy Space Center before, on a prior trip to Florida. Faith and Mo had no interest whatsoever in visiting there. To them, Florida consists of MCO and WDW.
Soooooooooo, Mike tells them on this Friday morning that he has checked, the shuttle has not launched, he has called for a rental car, everything is arranged and they are going to Kennedy Space Center.
I have to give Faith some credit here. She'd rather spend the day riding Its A Small World over and over but she manages to keep her face from falling off of her neck. Mike is all excited.
So off they go. They walk from Beach Club over to the Dolphin where the rental car is. Vik tells Faith that she refused to help Mike make any of these arrangements, figuring he'd give up since he always has her take care of everything, but he's managed to do it.
Faith immediately asks how long this is going to take. Mike says, no worries, all he wants to do is see the shuttle. 30 minutes to get there, see the shuttle, drive back, be back at WDW by noon. So Faith feels a little better.
They get the car, Mike is going to drive and Mo is going to navigate. Vik whispers to Faith that Mike is a terrible driver and Faith whispers back that Mo can't read a map and is always lost. So I hop in the back with the girls and watch the stupidity unfold. It takes these 2 guys at least 20 minutes just to find their way out of the Dolphin parking lot.
Mike drives at least 25 miles over the speed limit (retired law enforcement) and the group struggles with the tolls as nobody thought to bring money for toll booths. The 30 minute ride takes an hour, even with the excessive driving speed. But we finally make it:
Mike offers to purchase all of the tickets so everyone else waits on him. He rejoins the group and then tells them that the earliest tour they can get on to see the shuttle is at 1:10. I duck into my lanyard because Faith is now pretty peeved.
They enter Kennedy and Mike has to take his pic in front of the sign; it's the first pic all week that he asks to have taken:
So what is the group going to do for several hours? Oh and did I mention that it's very cold and drizzling rain? They go to the cafeteria; Mike offers to buy them an early lunch. They get 4 hot dogs, 4 sodas and 2 bags of M&M's. The bill came to over $50. So you people who complain about Disney costs, look out, don't come here.
After they eat, they wander through the various buildings. Mike is enthralled; the other 3 are bored. Here's the only fun photo they take:
The hours roll by and finally it's time to board their bus to go out to the launch pad. Mike is talking so fast, he's so excited. They get a tour guide named Bill. He treats his charges like morons. He tells them a fact and then asks the question back to see if they were paying attention. Faith is getting very irritated.
Faith also discovers at this time that this tour is over 2 hours long and has other stops besides the launch pad. The first stop is to look at a concrete pad on the ground that some rocket is launched from. Faith doesn't even bother getting off the bus.
Finally they get to the shuttle launch viewing area. They all tromp off the bus to take a picture. Now, this photo was taken zoomed in on Faith's camera:
Now, it cost a rental car, over $400 in admissions and tour costs, $50 for a terrible lunch and an entire day missed at WDW and this is as close as they get to the shuttle. I'm sure Faith will be complaining about this for the rest of her life.
They return from their 2 hour tour and I found my own photo op to remember this day:
It is a much better picture of the shuttle than Faith got.
Oh and did I mention that this place was packed with school groups, many junior high age children who were incredibly noisy and misbehaved? All in all, just a fun fun day.
Mike wants to look through more of the buildings but the rest of the group begs him to leave. They did ride the ridiculous shuttle launch simulator. Faith was expecting Mission Space, not even close. Don't get her started on it.
So they head back to WDW as the sun is setting. An entire park day lost. A Disney day Faith will never get back. How will she make up for this injustice.
They return the car at the Dolphin, hurry back to the Beach Club, because they only have enough time to clean up for dinner and grab a taxi. Faith tells everyone that her boss is picking up the tab for their dinner that night. And I say what?????? I work for this company too; I've been there 23 years. Do you want to know how many dinners I've gotten? ZERO. So I can't wait to see what Faith has planned. After this very long day, I know there will be alcohol involved.
Sorry guys, that this installment has not been fun. But in reality, it was not fun. No way to sugarcoat this day.
I wonder what happens the next day. I don't think I would be able to go to Disney and not be in control for one day, good for her.
What does he know anyway?
I can't remember the last time I read anything that made me laugh out loud to the point of snorting!
