It's hard to believe that merely one month ago, less 3 days or so, that I was thrilled about my trip to Walt Disney World. Thrilled to the point of making plans for 2010, heck, to infinity and beyond. I'm really glad we didn't make any cash deposits.
The trip had amazing potential. Lauren and my cohorts were a couple who we had worked with in Anaheim, and had on many occasions gone out for dinner and other social events with. They were big Disney geeks, we are big Disney geeks. The timing worked out right, so that as I was experiencing the kind of withdrawal that happens when you want so much to return to a place, but have no plans to do so.
Therefore, when I got a call inviting Lauren and I to join J+C on a random, spur of the moment trip back to Disney World, we were sold. Well, I think I was sold first, but Lauren tends to worry more about "Can we afford rent/food/real lifey type things." I was able to run the numbers and with the Cast Discount on the room and using frequent flier miles from my parents as an early Christmas present (We love you, Mom and Dad!) and various other sordid money grubbing, we somehow managed to make it work financially.
So here we were. Despite it being a "free dining" promotion, equating to significantly higher numbers of people dining at restaurants within the resorts and the fact that the trip was quite literally put together in less than a month, I was able to arrange one sit-down meal for us per day, including a Saturday breakfast at Chef Mickey's. During the trip, Epcot was also holding the annual Food and Wine Festival, offering 25 different booths, dedicated to 25 different countries, offering small samplings of several of the local flavors from each nation. Lauren and I were thrilled about this concept and knew that our culinary needs would be very well taken care of.
Seriously. We were going to see the Indiana Jones Stunt Show. For real this time. We, AGAIN went over to open the Studios and headed straight for the Indiana Jones theater. We didn't care that it wasn't going to open for another hour at least. We wanted Fastpasses and we needed them for the first show.
We decided to camp out next to "Min and Bill's Dockside Diner," where we could keep an eye on the theater, without being too intrusive. Since we were sitting there, we needed to get something to eat of couse. I don't remember what Lauren had, something legitimate, no doubt, but I had the breakfast of champions! Hooray for vanilla milkshakes first thing in the morning!
As soon as it looked like the Fastpass was opening up, we bolted over and got the first tickets to the first show, occurring in about an hour and a half. The host told us that if we were there about one half hour or so before show time, we would be in great shape.
We took his word for it, and hustled over to the Rock'n'Roller Coaster one last time. It was as good as always, though I did, again, get yelled at for having my video camera out. Whatever.
We made it through in a surprisingly brisk manner and realized we had time to do Star Tours. Again, normally this wouldn't be a huge priority for us, but since we did have time to kill, we might as well enjoy the cool queue that the Studios has. As opposed to walking through what is essentially an intergalactic flight terminal, here, we walked through an Ewok village, complete with AT-AT which evidently shoots water during the warmer times of the year.
The ride itself was identical, with Rex getting us lost and almost killed by the Death Star and all that jazz. I don't know why the keep reprogramming that guy! Just break him down for parts and get us a decent pilot! I needed to be on the Moon of Endor. Sigh!
When we were done checking our Tattooine Traders, again an upgrade on our boring Star Traders, we decided that it was a good time to return to the Indy theater.
We wound up being darned close to the front of the line and getting some great seats, right behind the soundboard. I tried my best when they were looking for volunteers, but unfortunately was not selected. I still am making it my goal to be chosen to be in another show at Disney World. When I was seventeen I was selected to participate in a performance of "Doug Live!" as the drummer for the band, The Beets, and I've always wanted to do something like that again. Alas, this was not the time.
The stunt show is always fun, and this time it seemed like there was a lot more explanation into how the stunts were actually performed. A bit hammy, of course, but it was all in fun and some of the stunts were truly impressive.
FINALLY we were able to check that off of our list and feel a bit accomplished.
After catching a bit of the performance of "High School Musical 2" (OUCH!) while buying some popcorn, we went out and caught the "Friend Ship" over to the International Gateway to actually make those last few purchases that we had picked out the day prior. We were also able to sneak in one laaast ride on "Maelstrom" and had the trolls force us "back, back! Over the falls!" one more time.
It was sad leaving Epcot one last time. If we had a home park during the trip, this was it, and it was nice to be able to have our first park of the vacation also be our last.
Knowing how I was feeling personally, and looking at Lauren's face too, I knew that we would be back soon. I love Disney World, and though she may be hesitant to admit it, for fear of cheating on Disneyland, I know Lauren did too.
We made the sad trudge across the Boardwalk, and into the lobby, where we had stashed our bags and headed out to meet the Magical Express for our trip to the airport.
At the airport, we decided to check one bag so that the carry-on situation would be much easier on us, and I think that might have been the smartest decision we made all trip. It really was no hassle at all.
We got through security with no problems, a pleasant surprise since I am always the one "randomly" selected for further search. I wonder if my pseudo-"being wanted by the FBI thing" has anything to do with it. Hmmm....
Anyway, we were there in plenty of time for the flight. The Southwest virtual check-in makes it all so easy with boarding groups. We didn't NEED to camp out in the line to try and be first on the plane, our seats were already essentially set for us. We grabbed a nice "delicious" McDonald's lunch and just kind of sat quietly and looked back on the trip.
The flight was non-eventful. We flew over New Orleans, which was neat and had a layover in Phoenix, which was not so neat. That is, it was here that we realized that Lauren had left her credit card at Disney World, on a counter in the Japan shop, which made for a lot of stress at the very tail end of the trip.
Needless to say, the card was recovered by Disney, but since they can't send it through the mail, it was destroyed. Not to worry, another was ordered right away and at least we didn't worry about credit card fraud or identity theft.
We were the last plane into John Wayne airport that night and it was virtually deserted. We barely caught the last shuttle back to the parking lot, which could have made things very difficult had we missed it. The car was there and so was our apartment. Just the way we left it.
I can't wait to go back.
FINAL REFLECTIONS:
I can't wait to go back to Disney World. There is so much stuff there that we were barely able to touch the tip of the iceberg.
As soon as I can save up enough money, I am going to buy into the vacation club.
Seeing things through the eyes of someone who has never been there before is amazing, be it a child or an adult.
There was really not too much that I would have changed about this trip. I'm glad that at least this trip was just the two of us, it made things really special for me and hopefully her.
There is nothing wrong with carrying a cane for the heck of it! You never know what's going to happen.
Finally, go into vacations with the mindset that the trip and the time being spent is going to be good and amazing. Will things go wrong? Undoubtedly. But if you go into anything in life, especially a great trip or some wonderful time together with someone special to you, with a good mindset, even the 'bad' things have a way of being fun. Did I love walking back to the resort with wet heavy jeans? Nope. But I had fun, because I said that I was going to. Especially working at Disneyland, I see a lot of people who seem to try and find anything to complain about, and they generally have a miserable time. I also see the opposite side of the coin. The family who says "Oh? Ride's broken down? OK, well we will try back later." Guess which of the two seems a lot happier to be there?
Anyway, several several months in the creation, that was our trip to Disney World. I hope anyone out there enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed experiencing and then writing about and sharing it.
The stupid cheerleaders had screwed us up with all of our careful careful planning for this vacation by taking up the stage at the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular and having the shows cancelled for the entire day that we had designated as "Studio Day" thus forcing us to return in order to see Indy. It was a high priority for us in our initial planning, thus requiring us to return to the Studios again.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
"Food, glorious food! Eat right through the menu. Just loosen your belt Two inches and then you Work up a new appetite. In this interlude -- The food,"
Yes, dear readers, it was now time for our pub luncheon. The Rose and Crown beckoned and we heeded the call. After approaching the podium and being handed one of those pagers familiar to any denizen of a chain restaurant we sat and tried to read the menu posted outside. However, we were unable to, due to.... CONDENSATION. It was OK, we weren't stuck outside for too long before we were led inside the pub.
Upon entering the restaurant, the diner is first met by (what I can only assume is...) a standard English pub. Bar counter, booths and things of that nature. We were taken right past the pub portion and into the area that I would assume is more like a British dining room. Once seated we were asked for our drink orders. Lauren ordered Darjeeling tea, which was delivered in a classy wooden tea service box and after seriously debating a straight Guinness or a black and tan, I wound up with a Sprite. As the drinks were served, we were also treated to a big basket of cheese bread, served atop a facsimile of the Daily Mail. It was delicious, but we only lightly snacked upon it, not wanting to ruin our appetites for the North Sea lunch in which we were about to indulge.
Not too long after the drinks came our meals. Lauren ordered a cottage pie, which was essentially a shepherd's pie. She loved it even though it did contain lamb, which she has formerly claimed to dislike. Matter of fact, I believe she ate nearly the whole thing, a trend which, rare in our real life, became the rule for most of our Disney World meals.
I had an order of bangers and mash, which was amazing as well. The bangers popped when bitten and the mashed potatoes were creamy and delicious. I quite literally cleaned my plate. After the main courses, we decided that we owed it to ourselves to order dessert. After perusing the menu to eliminate desserts which contained elements that we (read: me) would not eat, we decided on a sticky toffee pudding.
It was, like the rest of the meal, amazing! Much to my confusion, it was not a pudding, as we Americans know pudding. It was more of a cake-y substance with some sort of sauce (I suspected rum) on top. Needless to say, the pudding was completely devoured.
The interesting thing about British food is that it was designed to just sort of sit in ones stomach, to provide sustenance for those long cold nights aboard the ship, and darn it if they didn't get that part right! However, when going to try and traverse a theme park after such hearty food... well, let's just say easier said then done!
We managed to remove ourselves somehow and waddled out, to continue our whirlwind journey of the world.
