Chapter 13
Blizzard Beach!
Weeeee! Today was Blizzard Beach day!!
The day DF had been looking forward to our whole trip! He loves waterparks apparently something I didnt know until we started planning for our trip to America!
Today was also two other things. It was our last day at Disney World! Boooo!
We were leaving the next morning, so we had one last day to enjoy at Blizzard Beach. Of course we were sad that our Disney days were almost over but on the other hand, wed had a fantastic time, and we still had so many other exciting cities to explore after Disney! Weee!
The other thing about that day was that it was September 11 - the five year anniversary. We werent too sure how people would react to the day. In Australia, theres always a homage to it in some way in the media, but most people go about their daily business as normal. But 5 years was a big anniversary, and we were in America. We just werent quite sure what the day would bring we were ready to be quiet and head back to the hotel if thats what everybody else was doing. We didnt want to be the nutty Australians with no respect!
So we arose from our separate bed slumber at around 8.30 that day, and got ready to head to Blizzard Beach. Now, I dont know if we were noticing it on purpose, but Pop Century was quiet that morning. Normally there are kids running around the balconies screaming, people in the pool laughing, and just general busy noise. But that morning, there was silence. Hmmm. Maybe it was going to be a quiet day after all?
To add more eeriness to the day, CNN (or one of the big news channels) was playing a re-run of the footage they played 5 years ago, at exactly the same time. We watched a little bit of it, but not too much.
We headed to the bus area at around 9.30, and hopped on the bus to
Blizzard Beach!
We had a lovely bus driver that day, who decided to have a sing-a-long our first singing session at Disney! I think a lot of people that day were feeling the same as us not sure how to act, so they were quiet instead. But the bus driver got us all singing along to Its a small world over and over again! Hee! Cute! It seemed to lighten the mood a lot, and everybody seemed to relax straight away including us! Nice!
We arrived at Blizzard Beach right on opening time, at 10am. From the on in, it was action stations! We rented a locker, hired a towel, and got ready to hit the slides!! Oh-oh, but it was steaming hot, and wed forgotten our sunscreen! So we went back into the Blizzard Beach main store, and bought some really overpriced sunscreen. Spray-on! Weee! We dont have spray-on sunscreen in Australia! Excitedly, we sprayed it on all over ourselves, and
AAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!
Spray-on sunscreen stings!!! I dont know if it was that particular brand, or just that were not used to it, but we both started jumping around like fools as soon as we sprayed it on our faces. (And yes, we both closed our eyes, dont worry!) It seriously felt like my face was burning off. Yowza!!
We both ran to the nearest tap and scrubbed our faces with water to at least get some of the sunscreen off. It worked a little bit, but for the rest of the day, my face felt puffy and sore! Bad sunscreen, bad!!
This was also the day that the lovebugs arrived at Disney World. They were everywhere! At first I didnt know what they were, and I screamed and ran every time I saw one. Which was every second minute. It wasnt until a nice CM told us they were harmless that I relaxed a bit. And I giggled, because their bottoms were stuck together and they were in love. But ew! Bugs everywhere! And theyd all arrived overnight, it seemed!!
I dont have heaps of photos of Blizzard Beach, since we put our digital camera in the locker. We did buy a throwaway underwater camera, but we dont have a scanner to scan those photos in, sorry! Plus, you really dont want to see photos of us with red, puffy, sore faces surrounded by love bugs, and wearing our bathers. Trust me.
Anyway, onto the slides!! We walked all the way up to the Downhill Double Dipper. Man, thats a long way! I dont know why, but I sort of thought Blizzard Beach would be little. I guess in comparison to other parks its smaller, but its still big! And any way is a long way to walk when youre in bathers and bare feet!
So we finally made it to Double Dipper, grabbed a tube, and battled the stairs up to the start of the slide. I think this is the one day in my life that I was pleased to have strong little muscley legs. I get them from my Dad, unfortunately. Double Dipper is basically the slide that you slide down on a tube. Seems easy enough! So off we went! Weeeeeeee!
Actually, DF went, Weeeeeeeee! and I went, AUUGHHHHHHHH! I was scared! I felt unsturdy and like I was going to tip right over in my tube, and land on my head! Hehee! It was fun, but I was beginning to realize that I dont love water slides after all! Which surprised me, because generally, I love water. Ive swam since before I can remember, and have always loved playing the water. But its not that I think its that I like feeling secure in rides, but on water slides, I could very well imagine myself flying right off. Because believe me, if it was going to happen to anyone, it would happen to me!
Nevertheless, we trouped on, and headed to Toboggan Racers. I think this one is on little thin mats, and its pretty much a straight down speed-slide with some bumps. The CM up the top of the slide tells you when to go, so when we were lying on our tummies on the mats, she said, Ready, set, GO! Off DF went, speeding down the slide. And there I lay, on my tummy, flailing around like a little penguin who couldnt move. I just couldnt push myself off! So embarrassing!
Eventually the CM came over to me and pushed my mat for me, and off I went! I yelled out, THANKS! on my way down. Still dont know if she heard me!
When I got to the bottom, DF laughed at me and said, What took you so long?! Did you get stuck?! Grrrr! By this stage, I was feeling like a water-park fool! It was still fun though, so we surged onto Snow Stormers!
Snow Stormers was a bit similar to Toboggan Racers, except that its curvy instead of straight. So we each grabbed a mat and climbed the 62,000 steps to the top. This time when we lay down on our mats, I was going to be ready to take off at the same time! So when it was our turn, DF lay down on his mat on one slide, and I lay down on my mat on the other side. We were both ready. The CM was ready. She said, Dont go yet. Dont go yet. Dont go y
. And thats all I heard, because I was GONE!! I was so ready, that I accidentally went when I wasnt meant to!! Haaa! This time, instead of screaming, I had the giggles all the way down. Last time I couldnt get going, and this time I went too early! Talk about a water-park fool!!
Next we decided to chill out for a bit, and jumped on the Cross-Country Creek, which is basically the lazy river which goes right around the park. Ahhh, yes! This was more my kind of thing! I think it took about 30 minutes to go right round the park, and it was lovely! We just lay back in our tubes and took it all in! Nice!
After our little relax, we were ready for another slide the Teamboat Springs! Yayyy! I loved Teamboat Springs! Its the family ride, except it was just DF and me in the boat! You jump in a giant tube, and ride down a long, bendy slide. It wasnt too fast, and it was much more fun riding with someone else! Definitely my favourite slide so far!
Run-off Rapids was next, which was on the other side of the park. More walking around half-naked! Eek! One thing which totally amused us though, was the little water sprinklers which watered the concrete, or peoples feet as you walked past. Because in Australia, we cant even water our gardens. Farmers are about to run out of water completely, and were about to have no fresh fruit or veggies, because therell be none, because theres no water! Its bad. Really bad. But here in Orlando, theres sprinkers to water the concrete, to cool it down so people can walk on it! Ahhh! If only we could have bottled all that wasted water and sent it home!
We eventually made it to Run-Off Rapids, which was a fun ride with both of us in one tube. I thought it was fun anyway, except DF decided he wanted to wanted to do it a second time, by himself, so he could go faster! So he did that, while I sat and had a little relax with the lovebugs.
Next up was Slush Gusher and Summit Plummet. You know, the really big tall fast slides!? Heres Summit Plummet
Yeah, youre right, I didnt do them. DF did them, and I happily sat and waited! There was no way I was going right up there and sliding straight down at 50 miles an hour. No way, hosay! I could see myself tumbling down in somersaults and falling right off the edge. So instead, I went for a little walk around the park, collected the camera, and came back again. I was happy to be the photographer while DF did the slides!
And heres DF, sliding down Summit Plummet! It really is him! I took photos of every guy who came down that slide, and deleted them when I realised it wasnt DF. But this actually IS DF! Yay! And guess what he went 65 miles an hour! It records your speed as you go down. He LOVED it!
After that, we had a little play in Meltaway Bay, the wave pool. But seriously, I dont think anybody will be melting in that pool for a while. Those waves are huge!! It had been a HUGE morning, and wed had no food at all, so those waves certainly knocked us about!
At first we were laughing hysterically, but after a while, and after swallowing 16 buckets of water, wed had enough. We only lasted about 5 minutes before we decided to get out and go for some lunch instead!
We changed into our regular clothes first ahh, so much better! It was actually really hot that day, but we were still cool from being in the water, so it was quite nice really. Lunch was at Lottawotta Lodge cheeseburger, hot dog, and ice-cream. Yum!! It actually wasnt that great, but we were starving, so it seemed great at the time.
We had a great morning at Blizzard Beach! Even though the slides scared me, I still had lots of fun, and DF just loved everything! Originally, wed thought we might do Typhoon Lagoon in the afternoon, but there was no chance. It was only about 2pm, but we were exhausted! Water parks really do take it out of you!! And we'd done pretty much everything in the park, except for the kiddie stuff.
So we walked to the bus stop and caught the bus back to Pop, still damp and happy from our very busy, fun morning!
Next up
Our final night! Back to MGM for a play, then 50s Prime Time and Fantasmic!
I can't wait to read more... so I will end this now and... READ MORE!
But yay for the update!
