Today, as our last full day in the parks, was to sort of be a "what did we miss/best of the best" day. Unfortunately it looked like we would not be able to return to Animal Kingdom, but we were finally going to be able to see the Indy Stunt Show...right?
Again, we made our way to the Studios and, again, upon arrival discovered that we needed to eat. Starring Rolls had worked for us the day before, and it looked like it was going to work for us again! Unfortunately this being a Sunday during the football playoffs, as my Chargers were playing the New England Cheat Squad, the whole place was filled with lousy New England-ers. Gross.
Anyway, I think I got a cookie and Lauren had a turnover that she had quite the adventure eating. Most of it did eventually make its way into her mouth, so hooray for that!
Upon arriving at the park, we grabbed a show guide and checked for the timing of the first Indy show of the day. The paper said noon. We said, great, and went about our business getting the other attractions we wanted to do, out of the way.
We started at the "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" playset. This was something that I had seen in ads for Disney World since I was young, I remembered having seen the movies in the theaters, and it really did not disappoint. Sure it was designed for people decades younger and feet shorter than I was, but we were certainly not going to let that ruin our fun!
The slides and actual play area were a bit too small for us, but we had fun anyway.
Since the play area is very near the entrance to the Backlot Tour, and since we had missed it on the previous night, we hopped on over to the waiting area and our tour began a few minutes later. What to say about the tour? Ummm. Well. We...uhhh...liked the part where they showed about how to set water on fire and make it seem like a fighter plane was strafing us. That was cool. We liked the Catastrophe Canyon segment, where the very very briefly explain how some of these more elaborate disaster effects are done in the movies. As for the rest? Well, they took away the Residential Street Segment where several exteriors of "famous" TV residences were located. We saw Herbie, the Love Bug but he was the new Herbie from the Lindsay Lohan movie. Seeing the "Earful Tower," was pretty neat,
until I dropped my lens cap never to be seen again. Yeah...this tour just plain kinda sucked.
until I dropped my lens cap never to be seen again. Yeah...this tour just plain kinda sucked.
There was also a neat exhibit at the end of the tour which featured props and effects from "AFI's Top 100 Villains." That was a neat exhibit with things such as the White Witch's sledge from "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" and Darth Vader's costume from "Star Wars." That was about it.
I don't know. Again, maybe we are just movie snobs and having done real backlot tours we were not exactly the audience that the tour was targeting, but a lot of the information seemed very patronizing and overly simplified. It just sort of left a bad taste in our mouths, which is too bad. This actually used to be a signature attraction in the park, but now seems like just an afterthought. I hope they can fix this up in the next few years and bring it back to it's former glory.
We still had some time to kill until the first Indy show, so we headed down to guest relations to report my lens cap or possibly purchase a new one. Obviously it hadn't been turned in, nor would it be during the trip, but they also weren't selling any sort of lens cap in the camera center. So, I wrapped the extra lens in one of the merchandise bags and we went up to the Indy theater. Turns out that we had underestimated the popularity of the show and did not know quite how to work the system. Essentially it seems that the way to do it is to grab a show Fastpass (which we do not have in California), queue up at the designated time, go in and get seats. Do not try the stand-by line. It will not work.
Unfortunately, this was the only show that we could really do today due to dinner plans and the desire to get other things done on our last full day. Sooooo, it was to be another morning in the Studios tomorrow, to ensure that we see this darned show before we leave!
We exited the park and decided to take the bus over to Epcot. Why? I'm not entirely sure, but we did, and got to wait with a bunch of obnoxious self-centered jerks, who berated the bus driver for taking a few minutes in order to assist a guest with a wheelchair. It grossed me out to be on the same bus as people like that.
I made some remarks as we left to head into Epcot, I don't think they were heard, but it made me feel better about the whole incident. Sometimes I just wonder if these people realize what jerks they are being or if they are just oblivious to the world around them. Either way, it's sad.
One of the reasons we took the bus over was to enter Epcot proper and get our pictures right in front of Spaceship Earth. Photopass to the rescue and we got some nice photos there.
We stopped in to grab another quick "pick-me-up" at Club Cool, where Lauren declined the Beverly (go figure!) and continued into World Showcase.
The main reason that we were here was to get any last minute shopping for family out of the way. Namely, we wanted to go and explore Norway, Japan and Morocco a little more for a few things that we had seen briefly earlier in our trip. I actually like shopping for things for other people and we had fun picking between the assorted gifts for people and just seeing more in depth the amount of different things that these three varied countries had to offer. Having tapped out my personal budget for the most part, I certainly came across several items that will be coming home with me in the next few trips.
We made those few purchases, had to sleep on one or two absolutely last minute things (giving us an excuse to hit Epcot one last time before we left) and had to run back to the Boardwalk really quickly.
We decided to re-enter through the International Gateway to get to the monorail, in order to head to the Magic Kingdom for our dinner reservations at Liberty Tree Tavern. I love the fact that in Florida, the monorails are used as legitimate sources of transportation, as opposed to Disneyland, where they are mostly a novelty at best.
After turns on monorails purple/gold, we were dropped off outside of the Magic Kingdom, where decorations for the Pirate and Princess Party were in place.
Unfortunately, they were to begin after we had departed, so there was another excuse to head back!
Unfortunately, they were to begin after we had departed, so there was another excuse to head back!
We made it in and after several photo breaks, found ourselves in front of Cinderella's Castle with a Photopass photographer. He was a very nice guy who had been a portrait photographer in his "real life" and helped us get some really nice photos.
He tried directing us to another photographer over in the rose gardens next to the castle claiming that we would get some amazing shots from over there. Unfortunately, we could not find him in a timely manner, and needed to get over to Liberty Tree, so, again, something to do on a future trip. Plus I'm no slouch with a camera myself and got some nice shots off on our way over.
We made it to Liberty Tree right on time and sat down, waiting for the Petersen party from the great territory of California to be called. There was some incident with people who were late/had left trying to be seated, which added on a bit of time for our wait, but it was at least an entertaining boisterous location to keep our attention.
We were finally called and were led up to our dining area, which I believe was the "Washington Dining Room." Almost immediately, the rolls and the incredibly flavored butter were right on the table for us. Our drink orders were taken and the main course was on the table in almost no time at all.
There were no less than 3 different types of meat: ham, turkey and flank steak, mac and cheese (a collective personal favorite of ours), potatoes and gravy, green beans and a delicious apple cobbler for dessert. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it! We ate a ton of food, but took a few breaks throughout, when some colonially-dressed characters were to stop by!
These were by far some of my favorite interactions that I have ever had the pleasure to experience.
There were lots of hugs exchanged, including at least one of the chipmunks trying to steal Lauren from me. Seriously, what is the deal with all of these characters trying to take her? Do I really look like that much of a pushover? DON'T answer that!
Goofy happened to notice that I was wearing my Chargers cap and went all out trying to give me an update on the score. I am not so good with the sign language, but was eventually able to figure it out.
Unfortunately, we were not winning at this point so it was somewhat bittersweet. Also, in this same vein, Minnie was evidently a Patriot fan and was pleased to see the Chargers losing. I now hate Minnie Mouse.
The character interaction here was great, and not just because of our unique experience. In fact, I feel that we ate fairly quickly, but were still able to have the characters stop by our table twice. Much more efficient than the Crystal Palace, which we also enjoyed a great deal.
On their second visits, I tried to get some video of each character including a great one of Pluto hamming it up for my camera,
and some unfortunate footage after I had informed Goofy that our Chargers had lost. He wept. I almost did too. There is nothing like weeping in the arms of a large cartoon dog. It is cathartic.
and some unfortunate footage after I had informed Goofy that our Chargers had lost. He wept. I almost did too. There is nothing like weeping in the arms of a large cartoon dog. It is cathartic.
We left our new friends and decided that a great spot to go after a colonial American meal, was the Hall of Presidents to re-enforce our patriotic spirits. I always enjoy the show, again, being a sap for the schmaltzy type of sentimental shows that Disney is oh-so-good at creating. Time-wise we realized that we really probably would not be able to see Spectro-Magic, but again, gives us something to look forward to. So, after seeing the leaders of this great country, what was the logical next step?
Why, the Country Bears, of course! I really do love and miss this show. Is it hokey? Sure. But is it an entertaining show that has proven to last the test of time? Absolutely. I recorded the whole thing, just in case Disney ever decides to make a mistake and evict the bears in Florida, like they did in Disneyland, I will always have them!
We finished the show and decided to try and get a spot to watch Wishes, figuring that we would only be able to get a really crummy view. Not quite. We were basically right in front of the castle about 200-300 yards back. Essentially a perfect viewing spot.
We happened to be between two families and kind of started chatting with them a little bit, only to discover that the fathers of both families were "watching" the two games, via PDA's. We all were standing there, waiting for the fireworks in front of Cinderella's Castle, people from different corners of the country, bonding over football games, occurring hundreds of miles away from us. What a time that we live in!
The fireworks began and it was a nice show. I think our "Remember" fireworks beat them hands down, but we did enjoy them and we did take a ton of pictures. Let me tell you, processing hundreds of pictures of the fireworks was a wee bit tedious to say the least, but at least we got some nice shots of them.
As the fireworks ended, our football buddies went their separate ways and we went ours, never to see eachother again. Well, we will always have football and fireworks.
We decided to take our time on the way out of the park and take a long, meandering walk around. We waited until they opened up the castle and walked through into Fantasyland.
I made a point of stopping by the Cinderella water fountain to show Lauren the trick of kneeling by the children's water fountain and looking at the statue to make the crown appear on her head.
We poked around the shops and headed down into Liberty Square, en route to Adventureland and our trip aboard the World Famous Jungle Cruise.
It had gotten a bit chilly and I let Lauren wear my Jungle Cruise 50th anniversary jacket, which has a huge pile of skulls and "Jungle Cruise" in a large font on the back.
As we entered the queue, there was a pair of skippers greeting guests, who of course noticed the jacket and commented on it. We chatted with them a bit and they actually knew one of my friends who had been down there several months prior and referenced a greeting card that I had contributed to. It was a nice talk, and I always love the camaraderie between cast members, regardless of what park we work in.
The jungle was good, personally I like ours better. I really like the pygmy beach,
the giant temple and the crashed airplane by the hippo pool,
but in general, Disneyland's version wins. Hands down.
the giant temple and the crashed airplane by the hippo pool,
but in general, Disneyland's version wins. Hands down.
We were pretty beat by the time we were done avoiding Chief Namee(Trader Sam is better), we were ready to head back to the hotel and our nice hot tub. The bus ride back seemed to take awhile, but not long enough at the same time, as we knew that we were heading back to pack up all of our junk and go to sleep for the last time in Disney World. At least for now.
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