Orlando, Florida-2010
October, 2010
This vacation is designed with a couple of goals. First, I want to knock #5, See the Space Shuttle launch, off of my Bucket List. And, second take Margo to see the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I had originally planned to see a shuttle launch about May of this year. We were basing that on word that Harry Potter would open in Spring 2010. Well, when they finally announced the opening date it was something like Jun 20th. That being just days before spring became summer. In looking at the shuttle scheduled STS-133, the final launch of Discovery was scheduled for Sept 16th. Perfect, the kids would be in school, the worst summer weather would be past, this would not be the last shuttle flight, and maybe Happy Potter would have calmed down by then.
Not being the last space shuttle flight was important to me. First, there would be so much more attention on the final one. That would make the difficulty of obtaining the good viewing tickets much harder. Second, if something went wrong, I could potentially see have another shot at it. Word came down in early summer that the launch of STS-133 was being pushed back to November 1st. At first I was worried. Then I checked the weather history for Orlando in early Nov. It is usually in the mid to upper 70s. Hell, this was working in my favor. Nice weather and more distance between our arrival date and the Harry Potter opening. Crowds should be even better.
So Margo and I both changed our vacation times, and about three weeks before the launch, and $240 later, I had my viewing tickets. I tried to get them from NASA, but they used a lottery system, and my number did not come up. I went through a private tour company and paid about 3 times the NASA rate, but I would get a ride there and back. Oh, well. At least I got the prime viewing tickets. The very next day I made my other travel arrangements, through Southwest Airlines. They had a good price of about $1200 for airfare for two, six nights at a La Quinta, and a rental car. I sent another $850 on admission tickets to Epcot & Universal Studios, plus dinner show tickets at Titanic, and for a Segway tour of Epcot. This was shaping up to be a very interesting and expensive vacation.
October 31, 2010—Halloween
Almost in defiance of logic and expected outcome, the Space Shuttle is still scheduled to lift off tomorrow afternoon. That was my biggest concern every since I bought my plane tickets. But as of right now, as we sit in the concourse at DIA, everything is on schedule. Our flight is scheduled to leave Denver at 8:05 AM, and is a direct flight into Orlando. From there we pick up our rental car, and then we head over to our La Quinta hotel, directly across from Universal Studios. I wonder if it is close enough to walk over and save trying to ride on the hotel shuttle or pay for parking. We shall see.
Continued………
The flight went off without a hitch. It wasn’t even a full flight so not only did Margo and I get to sit with each other, we had a seat empty between us. That was the good news. The bad news is that the first thing I did when I got to the hotel was to sign on to Facebook, and see if Gray Line Tours had any news. They did and the news wasn’t good. The launch had been delayed, not once, but twice since last night. Both delays were due to a leak in the orbital maneuvering system. So now instead of Monday afternoon, it was going off on Wednesday afternoon. That was the bad news. The good news is that I foresaw this possibility and had built as much flexibility into my itinerary as I could. Everything that I planned to do on Tues, Weds, or Thurs, could swap with the other days, or Monday. Our last full day, Friday, was the only one with no flexibility. I figure the odds on it coming down to that day or not at all were slim. It might be delayed, but if it got pushed out that far, it would likely be pushed completely off my vacation window. So I mentally adjusted the plans and informed Margo that not only would she not have to be up at 4:30 the next morning, but we would be going to see Harry Potter in the morning. Not surprisingly, she was OK with that.
Once we were checking in, we decided to get a late lunch. Well, late for Orlando, as it was not past 2:30 PM. But our stomachs were still on Mountain Time, which meant 12:30. So as is my custom, we headed to the nearest Hooters. I have been to 25 different Hooters restaurants, and I try to visit one when ever we are in a new city. Orlando has several, so I hoped to add at least a couple to my list. The nearest one, on Kirkman Rd was only about a mile away, so it made perfect sense to go there. Plus, it was Halloween and the girls dress up in costume. That sounded like it would be worth seeing. I was not wrong. The first thing we saw was a very scantily dressed Indian, serving beer to the patrons on the outside deck. As small as the piece of cloth covering her bottom was, her head dress was as large. We found a seat and soon a harem girl named Jackie was helping us out. She was the most modest dressed Hooters girl. I wasn’t thrilled about that, but the girls flitted by as well, so no biggie.
Jackie turned out to be a very good waitress. She got our order and when my beer took forever, she kept me informed. She was always smiling and very positive and receptive about getting a picture taken. She even got a couple of other girls to be in the picture. As things had not gotten super busy yet, she even got a couple of the nearby cooks, to take a picture with Margo. They were dressed as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. When the manager came by I called him over and told her Jackie was doing a great job. I had hoped to do that in private, but Jackie was so attentive that she was close enough to overhear me call him over and mention her name. So I had to tell her that I told him she was doing a great job. It was a great visit and when it was over the bill was about $28. I left her a $20 tip. My normal would have been 20% plus $5 for a picture. Even though the picture is free, I always leave extra for it.
c
We decided to at least run to Wal-Mart to scout out buying collapsible chairs to take to the launch. The viewing area on the causeway has no place, except the ground to sit. We found the cheap ones already sold out, and we ended up just buying some supplies to put in our frig at the hotel.
After accomplishing that and returning to the hotel, it was only about 6:30. So I thought it would be a good idea to scout out Universal Studios to have a good idea of where to be, where to park, and to experience CityWalk. CityWalk is a large collection of restaurants and shops that has the feel and energy of Times Square or the Vegas Strip. I had two questions I wanted answered. Was it close enough to walk from our hotel, which is across from Universal and would our hotel shuttle to Universal run at times to get the job done. Both answers turned out to be “No”. It was at least a mile of walking just to get to the parking garage, and then another ¾ mile, most with moving walkways, to City Walk. Then another quarter mile of so, to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. That would be half an hour of walking. Not really a good idea when the whole day would be spent on our feet. The shuttle ran once in the AM, 15 minutes before the park opened. And then once at 6:30 PM. That sounded potentially too late and then too early. So we would be driving and paying $15 each day to park. On top of paying over $325 for two days for two people, that sounded like stealing. But, you either pay it and go, or don’t pay it, and find other arrangements.
We parked, and took Universal’s people moving system of moving walkways to CityWalk. Margo and I made a beeline towards the Islands of Adventure entrance. I didn’t think we would be able to get in, but I hoped we would be able to figure out how to get from there to the entrance to Wizarding World quickly. We did find a very nice young lady at the front gate who gave us directions. I now had my two concerns addressed.
We turned around and were soon taking in the sights of CityWalk. While there was plenty to see, and numerous places to eat, if we were hungry, we were really only interested in seeing the shops. We knew we would have to buy more than a few souvenirs. Plus, Margo wanted to add to our charm collection. Since our Amarillo/Grand Canyon trip see tries to collect charms to commemorate each of our trips. They aren’t always easy to find. But, we did find a shop that had a very nice selection and made a mental note to come back, if nothing better could be found.
We had probably only been here for about an hour, but we were both tired, and decided that bed sounded better than anything else. That anything else did include Halloween evening at CityWalk. That is supposed to be something to see, with all of the costumes and music. That should give you an idea of how tired we were.
We went back to the hotel and decided against any thing special for dinner and had a snack from our Wal-mart stash. We watched a little TV, surfed the internet, and went to bed with visions of broomsticks dancing in our heads. Tomorrow we would be visiting Harry Potter’s world.
After accomplishing that and returning to the hotel, it was only about 6:30. So I thought it would be a good idea to scout out Universal Studios to have a good idea of where to be, where to park, and to experience CityWalk. CityWalk is a large collection of restaurants and shops that has the feel and energy of Times Square or the Vegas Strip. I had two questions I wanted answered. Was it close enough to walk from our hotel, which is across from Universal and would our hotel shuttle to Universal run at times to get the job done. Both answers turned out to be “No”. It was at least a mile of walking just to get to the parking garage, and then another ¾ mile, most with moving walkways, to City Walk. Then another quarter mile of so, to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. That would be half an hour of walking. Not really a good idea when the whole day would be spent on our feet. The shuttle ran once in the AM, 15 minutes before the park opened. And then once at 6:30 PM. That sounded potentially too late and then too early. So we would be driving and paying $15 each day to park. On top of paying over $325 for two days for two people, that sounded like stealing. But, you either pay it and go, or don’t pay it, and find other arrangements.
We parked, and took Universal’s people moving system of moving walkways to CityWalk. Margo and I made a beeline towards the Islands of Adventure entrance. I didn’t think we would be able to get in, but I hoped we would be able to figure out how to get from there to the entrance to Wizarding World quickly. We did find a very nice young lady at the front gate who gave us directions. I now had my two concerns addressed.
We turned around and were soon taking in the sights of CityWalk. While there was plenty to see, and numerous places to eat, if we were hungry, we were really only interested in seeing the shops. We knew we would have to buy more than a few souvenirs. Plus, Margo wanted to add to our charm collection. Since our Amarillo/Grand Canyon trip see tries to collect charms to commemorate each of our trips. They aren’t always easy to find. But, we did find a shop that had a very nice selection and made a mental note to come back, if nothing better could be found.
We had probably only been here for about an hour, but we were both tired, and decided that bed sounded better than anything else. That anything else did include Halloween evening at CityWalk. That is supposed to be something to see, with all of the costumes and music. That should give you an idea of how tired we were.
We went back to the hotel and decided against any thing special for dinner and had a snack from our Wal-mart stash. We watched a little TV, surfed the internet, and went to bed with visions of broomsticks dancing in our heads. Tomorrow we would be visiting Harry Potter’s world.
|
|
|
|
Monday, November 1, 2010
Hogwarts Castle; Home of Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey
We were up showered, dressed, and got something from the continental breakfast by 7:40 AM. I checked Facebook for anything new on the Shuttle Launch and there wasn’t anything about the electrical issue, but there was some chatter about a front moving in that had implications for the launch. Nothing I could do about that, so Margo and I hopped in the car and headed the few blocks to Universal Studios. It was just shy of 8 AM when we got there. The park didn’t open until 9 AM, but we wanted to be near the front. Even though this was definitely the off season we still expected to fight crowds. Being near the front would be some what of an advantage.
We waited for almost an hour. The park opened a few minutes later and we, and a few hundred others, headed straight for The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. We would be riding the most popular attraction in the park first; Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. I had researched this fairly well and knew what to expect. The ride is housed in the replica of Hogwarts Castle and is state of the art with respect to motion simulation rides. All of the reviews said that the queue itself was an essential part of the experience and adds a lot of back story to the ride. I don’t know about the back-story park, but it was very well done.
Hogwarts Castle had the animated portraits described in the books, and the castle itself was realistic. Everywhere you turned there was some little something. Professor Dumbledoor, Harry, Ron, and Hermione all make appearances to explain things and to help make the wait more enjoyable. We kind of found that out later, as we ended up walking up to almost the very front of the line. I think we waited 5 minutes before it was our turn. The ride itself was something. Your are strapped down, with a roller coaster multi-point torso bar. This lets you know that this won’t be your standard motion simulator ride.
The premise is that you are sitting on an enchanted bench and will be flying with Harry Potter on a tour around Hogwarts grounds. And you are off through a series of hard ups, downs, twists, turns, dives, and all manner of machinations. You go through the Forbidden Forest, a Quiddich Match, and are chased by a dragon, which belches fire at you at one point. It was as thrilling as any roller coaster I have been on. I even felt my stomach getting a bit queasy at one point. When it was over we knew that we would be riding it again before the day was out.
We had a plan for the order we would do the various attractions. Forbidden Journey was the most popular, so we hit it first. The roller coaster, Dueling Dragons was second in popularity so we went there next. Again, we walked up to near the front of the line and had wait maybe 10 minutes. I’m not a big fan of roller coasters anymore. When I was in my teens, maybe. Now, I just don’t get them. They are thrilling enough and definitely spike the blood pressure. But, at this point in my life that is not appealing. With Forbidden Journey at lot of the appeal was the story that they tried to tell, and the special effects used to tell it. But, we were here and this was Harry Potter themed, so we did it.
|
|
Next, we decided to relax a bit and take a tour through Olivander’s, the magic wand shop. The wait for to get in this shop was about 30-35 minutes, the longest we would have the whole day. I figured most of the reason for the wait was the show. A group of 20 people is led into the shop, and one person, and in our case it was an 8 year old girl, was selected to have the wand shop scene from Sorcerers’ Stone reenacted. It took about 5 minutes of so for the wand to choose the pint-size wizard. Of course the first two wands were wrong and minor havoc was spilled upon the shop. But, with a light and puff of air the third wand proved to be the one to extract $30 from her parent’s wallet. It was fun to watch. Then we were directed into the real gift shop where could get our own wand. |
But, the price was bit more than we thought it was worth, and the crowds there were literally wall to wall. They had to be violating fire regulations.
After this, even though we weren’t exactly famished we decided we would beat the lunch crowd and go have lunch at The Three Broomsticks. Part of the reason for this is that we wanted to try a Butterbeer. The line to get one at the outside kiosk was stifling. So in we went. I was disappointed in the menu. The only thing that appealed to me was the BBQ Chicken and Rib combo. Margo was the food adventurer in our couple and had a traditional Shepherd Pie. Mine was edible, but definitely not worth waiting in line for. Margo barely touched hers, and I didn’t try it. The butterbeer was good. I was kind of like cream soda, but sweeter, and heavier. I ordered larges for us, but the smaller ones would have been perfect. We did not finish them. They were just a bit much.
After The Three Broomsticks we decided to walk over to this covered area and sit. It was starting to get warm and it looked inviting. Plus there was a shop, Dervish and Banges. But, there was a huge line to get in! No show, just to get in. This was really starting to blow my mind. The lines were literally longer, wait-wise, to get into the shops, than to get on the rides. Luckily they had a little kiosk where you could buy postcards and stamps. So we send cards back home, including one to work.
We made a quick trip back to Forbidden Journey to see how the lines were. We decided if the wait was reasonable we would ride again. We got there and the sign said the wait was about ½ hour. That sounded OK to us. It turned out to be more like 20 minutes. But, we did get to see a lot more of the castle this go around. We also noticed that you could take a non-riding tour of castle. If we had time we just might have to do that. The ride this time was less stomach churning, but just as thrilling. It is the best ride I have ever been on.
After this, even though we weren’t exactly famished we decided we would beat the lunch crowd and go have lunch at The Three Broomsticks. Part of the reason for this is that we wanted to try a Butterbeer. The line to get one at the outside kiosk was stifling. So in we went. I was disappointed in the menu. The only thing that appealed to me was the BBQ Chicken and Rib combo. Margo was the food adventurer in our couple and had a traditional Shepherd Pie. Mine was edible, but definitely not worth waiting in line for. Margo barely touched hers, and I didn’t try it. The butterbeer was good. I was kind of like cream soda, but sweeter, and heavier. I ordered larges for us, but the smaller ones would have been perfect. We did not finish them. They were just a bit much.
After The Three Broomsticks we decided to walk over to this covered area and sit. It was starting to get warm and it looked inviting. Plus there was a shop, Dervish and Banges. But, there was a huge line to get in! No show, just to get in. This was really starting to blow my mind. The lines were literally longer, wait-wise, to get into the shops, than to get on the rides. Luckily they had a little kiosk where you could buy postcards and stamps. So we send cards back home, including one to work.
We made a quick trip back to Forbidden Journey to see how the lines were. We decided if the wait was reasonable we would ride again. We got there and the sign said the wait was about ½ hour. That sounded OK to us. It turned out to be more like 20 minutes. But, we did get to see a lot more of the castle this go around. We also noticed that you could take a non-riding tour of castle. If we had time we just might have to do that. The ride this time was less stomach churning, but just as thrilling. It is the best ride I have ever been on.
We had taken pictures of Wizarding World, and since we had hit the two major rides, really had no interest in the Hippogriff ride, and couldn’t get into the shops we decided to move to one of the other Islands to ride other rides. We made our way over to Jurassic Park and got Margo a Coke and a poncho. We decided to ride Jurassic Park River Adventure. You get on a raft and it takes you through Jurassic Park, where a Velocoraptor has escaped and is going to eat you. At the end a T-Rex looms in front of you, and right before he gets to have you for lunch the bottom falls out and you drop down a flume. It was fun. I decided to ride it again. Margo decided to get another Coke and check out the shops. I enjoyed the second ride, but then we decided to move on to another island, as the Pteranodon Flyer ride, the only other one in the park, was for kids. It required a kid to accompany an adult. We were fresh out of kids.
|
|
|
|
We continued our counterclockwise tour of IOA and went over to Toon Lagoon. There Margo and I posed for a few gag pictures with the “thought balloons” around the main street. We checked out the shops, but didn’t really linger long. We were actually getting a little hungry. I suggested we go through Marvel SuperHero Island, past the main entrance and over to Dr. Suess Landing. We walked right to front of the line of If I Ran The Zoo, and train-like ride that took you all over half of the Landing. It was fun and we were the only childless adults on it. We kind of felt out of place, but neither of us cared. We were on vacation and having fun. In that spirit we went over to Cirkus McGurkus and combination eatery and side show. We got our meal and watched the various little antics and shows. Then a few Dr. Suess characters came out for pictures. I got one with me and the Grinch together. Margo got one with The Cat in the Hat.
|
|
By now it was 3 PM and I figured we had a shot at short lines back at Marvel. I was most interested in The Amazing Adventures of Spiderman. This is a 3-D motion simulator ride. Before Forbidden Journey opened it was the state of the art ride at Universal Studios, maybe in all of Orlando. We had a short wait and were soon sitting in a motion car that took us along with Peter Parker, the Hobgoblin, Dr. Octopus, and the hero of the day, Spiderman, for an adventure around New York City. It was pretty good. I enjoyed it, but after Forbidden Journey it was a half step down. We wandered around the shops here for a little bit and I almost made Margo wait in line to meet Captain America, but I decided against it. Chicken.
I did decide I wanted to ride Ripsaw Falls, a water ride that has to potential to get you soaked. Margo thought that was great idea, for me. So we went back into Toon Lagoon. Margo decided that she would be happy to watch and try to shoot me with one of the water cannons that were positioned near the beginning of the ride. The wait was about 20 minutes and by the time I passed by her, I was in a bad position to be blasted. She did get the last dry picture of me for the day. You will get wet on this ride, it’s only a matter of how much. I ended up being in the right place at the wrong time at several points during this ride and I got drenched. Margo just shook her head and took another picture. We wandered over towards Popeye’s ship to a kiosk selling t-shirts and I got one. I’m sure it was just coincidence that particular vendor is positioned there. After a quick tour of Popeye’s ship we left and made our way back to Wizarding World.
I did decide I wanted to ride Ripsaw Falls, a water ride that has to potential to get you soaked. Margo thought that was great idea, for me. So we went back into Toon Lagoon. Margo decided that she would be happy to watch and try to shoot me with one of the water cannons that were positioned near the beginning of the ride. The wait was about 20 minutes and by the time I passed by her, I was in a bad position to be blasted. She did get the last dry picture of me for the day. You will get wet on this ride, it’s only a matter of how much. I ended up being in the right place at the wrong time at several points during this ride and I got drenched. Margo just shook her head and took another picture. We wandered over towards Popeye’s ship to a kiosk selling t-shirts and I got one. I’m sure it was just coincidence that particular vendor is positioned there. After a quick tour of Popeye’s ship we left and made our way back to Wizarding World.
Ripsaw Falls-Before
|
Ripsaw Falls-After
|
c
Look close, Dumbledoor is in the balcony above the destk
Margo decided she wanted on more crack at the Forbidden Journey, and when we got there our luck held and there was almost no line. After our third trip around Hogwarts was complete we decide to take the tour. The guy manning the gate showed us the right direction and off we went. We had seen pretty much everything, but this time we got to see it all in order and start to finish. They really did do a great job with the moving portraits. They had several of them banter back and forth. We saw Dumbledoor make his appearance and talk to the crowd and the same for Harry, Ron, and Hermione.
Once we finished with that we figured we had had enough for one day. It was about 6:00 or so. We were tired. We headed back to CityWalk and did some looking and a little shopping. We ended up buying about $90 worth of Harry Potter candy and souvenirs. Things like Chocolate Frogs, Peppermint Toads, and Bertie Botts Every Flavor Bean.
With that completed we left the park for the day and started the drive back to the hotel. We were hungry and contemplating what to do, when one us remembered that there was a Cracker Barrel about two blocks from the hotel. We had driven past it twice since we had been here. So that is what we did. I had the Chicken and Dumplings and Margo had the Veggie Plate. We always enjoy their food and atmosphere.
With that we were done for the day and went back to the hotel to unwind and prepare for Day Two at Universal Studios.
Once we finished with that we figured we had had enough for one day. It was about 6:00 or so. We were tired. We headed back to CityWalk and did some looking and a little shopping. We ended up buying about $90 worth of Harry Potter candy and souvenirs. Things like Chocolate Frogs, Peppermint Toads, and Bertie Botts Every Flavor Bean.
With that completed we left the park for the day and started the drive back to the hotel. We were hungry and contemplating what to do, when one us remembered that there was a Cracker Barrel about two blocks from the hotel. We had driven past it twice since we had been here. So that is what we did. I had the Chicken and Dumplings and Margo had the Veggie Plate. We always enjoy their food and atmosphere.
With that we were done for the day and went back to the hotel to unwind and prepare for Day Two at Universal Studios.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
We got a good night’s sleep and we were up and ready to go by 8:00 AM. We had an hour until the park opened so we stopped at McDonald’s and had breakfast. We were parking the car by 8:30 AM and about the time the park opened at 9 AM, Margo and I were right there.
We had a basic touring plan in mind and first up was going to be Shrek 4-D. This is a 3-D animated movie, with special effects thrown in as the fourth dimension. What I mean by the special effects is similar to what Disney does with Bugs Life at Animal Kingdom. For instance, when Shrek and Donkey are riding a wagon at break-neck speed, your seat, the one with your butt in it, is bouncing up and down giving the impression you are right there with them. When you would splash through water with your wagon, you got a spritz of water from the seat in front of you. It was a lot of fun and we enjoyed it. Plus we only waited about 5-10 minutes, tops.
We were right there so we rode Jimmy Neutron’s Blast and then Twister. Twister isn’t really a ride. A group of you are lead into a covered section that overlooks a drive in movie. It is the scene directly from the movie when the tornado hits that drive-in. Universal simulates a tornado and the destruction that occurs. Things fly, a truck explodes, the movie screen is torn down, and they create a tornado right in front of your eyes. Then at the last minute, the platform you are standing on drops about six inches and the roof above you appears to nearly collapse. We had taken the girls on this same ride way back in 1999. It hadn’t changed much, but we still enjoyed it.
Our plan was to hit the popular stuff first, so next up was going to be the Men in Black. This ride is interactive, in which you get to zap Aliens, under the guise that you are a Men in Black trainee. If your car gets high score at the end of the ride you are told you saved the world. We didn’t, but we had fun trying. Some of the best part of this ride was walking though the queue, which simulates Men in Black headquarters. They do a good job of keeping you entertained. This was actually our longest wait of the day at about 25 minutes. Still nothing, when you think of Orlando.
We had a basic touring plan in mind and first up was going to be Shrek 4-D. This is a 3-D animated movie, with special effects thrown in as the fourth dimension. What I mean by the special effects is similar to what Disney does with Bugs Life at Animal Kingdom. For instance, when Shrek and Donkey are riding a wagon at break-neck speed, your seat, the one with your butt in it, is bouncing up and down giving the impression you are right there with them. When you would splash through water with your wagon, you got a spritz of water from the seat in front of you. It was a lot of fun and we enjoyed it. Plus we only waited about 5-10 minutes, tops.
We were right there so we rode Jimmy Neutron’s Blast and then Twister. Twister isn’t really a ride. A group of you are lead into a covered section that overlooks a drive in movie. It is the scene directly from the movie when the tornado hits that drive-in. Universal simulates a tornado and the destruction that occurs. Things fly, a truck explodes, the movie screen is torn down, and they create a tornado right in front of your eyes. Then at the last minute, the platform you are standing on drops about six inches and the roof above you appears to nearly collapse. We had taken the girls on this same ride way back in 1999. It hadn’t changed much, but we still enjoyed it.
Our plan was to hit the popular stuff first, so next up was going to be the Men in Black. This ride is interactive, in which you get to zap Aliens, under the guise that you are a Men in Black trainee. If your car gets high score at the end of the ride you are told you saved the world. We didn’t, but we had fun trying. Some of the best part of this ride was walking though the queue, which simulates Men in Black headquarters. They do a good job of keeping you entertained. This was actually our longest wait of the day at about 25 minutes. Still nothing, when you think of Orlando.
|
|
We decided to skip Fear Factor Live, as being grossed out by people eating cockroaches or whatever did not appeal to either one of us. But, there was one old friend we did want to revisit; ET. We first rode ET back in California when Jessi was 2 ½. She cried most of the time. We rode it again back in 1999 in Florida, with much better results. It hasn’t changed. They put you on a transport that is supposed to be like a bike, when ET and the kids all elude the police and fly. You do that in the ride, plus fly back to ETs home planet to save it. Quite a trip for a five minute ride. It was a nice trip back in time
|
We started to wander a little bit. Universal brought out some characters for the kids to have their pictures taken with. Well us big kids got in the act, too. I got my picture taken with Shaggy, of Scooby-Do fame, and Margo hit up Curious George. One other thing that we remembered from our last visit was the Lucy Tribute. This was a museum dedicated to Lucille Ball. Margo is a big fan. Universal has two actors dressed to impersonate Lucy and Desi, near the tribute and Margo got her picture with them. She was thrilled with that. Desi liked my Chuck Norris T-shirt. I think the appeal is universal.
|
|
After a tour of the museum and the purchase of a cookbook, we decided we were hungry. So we went to Mel’s Drive-In which was near by. We both had Bacon Cheeseburger Platters and Cokes. The food was decent, if still standard theme park expensive. But, it wasn’t like we were expecting bargains.
The weather had been good all day, but now it was starting to cloud up. It looked like we would be getting one of those famous Orlando storms. We headed over to the other side of the park and saw the Terminator show. It was the same as we remembered, but still entertaining. We got out and decided that there was nothing more we really wanted to do. We though about going back to the Shrek show for another round, but decided not to.
So we headed back towards the main entrance. It started to sprinkle a little and that was enough to keep us from lingering at CityWalk. We would have other chances to shop, and we had already eaten, so getting back to the hotel sounded like a better alternative. We made it back in about 15 minutes, and not long after the skies opened up. I am positive that all outdoor rides just came to a halt, and that anything indoors had suddenly become very popular. It was only 3:45 PM, but the park would close in a little more than an hour, anyway. We decided we had made the right call.
It was still early in the day, so I didn’t necessarily think we should be done for the day. We went back to the hotel and got something to drink. Then I suggested to Margo that we go to the Florida Mall. This is a very large shopping center a few miles up the road. I programmed the GPS and we were their by 5 PM. We wandered and window shopped for a couple of hours. We did buy Jolene a Christmas present. There was a kiosk selling these reflective, metal, wind ornaments. They spin with the wind and they change hues as they spin. They were quite pretty.
We ate at Sbarro’s, at the food court. Afterwards we went to the Apple store. Margo fell in love with the new iPad. She wanted one. I didn’t buy it for her, but I figured she would get one anyway. While I was test driving one of the units, I checked on the up coming Shuttle Launch. I already knew weather was going to be a problem on Wednesday, so I wanted to see if there was any news. There was, and it wasn’t good. They had found another mechanical issue, and had pushed the launch out for 24 more hours. Now it was scheduled for Thursday. I was worried now. We were at the limit of the flexibility I had built into our schedule. If it was pushed off one more day, we would not be going. It was just that simple. I was both proud of myself for having plans resilient enough to stand up to these delays, and irritated that I had committed so much time and money to something that now looked iffy.
With that we decided that we were done for the day and drove back to the hotel. It was still raining and would rain off and on most of the night.
The weather had been good all day, but now it was starting to cloud up. It looked like we would be getting one of those famous Orlando storms. We headed over to the other side of the park and saw the Terminator show. It was the same as we remembered, but still entertaining. We got out and decided that there was nothing more we really wanted to do. We though about going back to the Shrek show for another round, but decided not to.
So we headed back towards the main entrance. It started to sprinkle a little and that was enough to keep us from lingering at CityWalk. We would have other chances to shop, and we had already eaten, so getting back to the hotel sounded like a better alternative. We made it back in about 15 minutes, and not long after the skies opened up. I am positive that all outdoor rides just came to a halt, and that anything indoors had suddenly become very popular. It was only 3:45 PM, but the park would close in a little more than an hour, anyway. We decided we had made the right call.
It was still early in the day, so I didn’t necessarily think we should be done for the day. We went back to the hotel and got something to drink. Then I suggested to Margo that we go to the Florida Mall. This is a very large shopping center a few miles up the road. I programmed the GPS and we were their by 5 PM. We wandered and window shopped for a couple of hours. We did buy Jolene a Christmas present. There was a kiosk selling these reflective, metal, wind ornaments. They spin with the wind and they change hues as they spin. They were quite pretty.
We ate at Sbarro’s, at the food court. Afterwards we went to the Apple store. Margo fell in love with the new iPad. She wanted one. I didn’t buy it for her, but I figured she would get one anyway. While I was test driving one of the units, I checked on the up coming Shuttle Launch. I already knew weather was going to be a problem on Wednesday, so I wanted to see if there was any news. There was, and it wasn’t good. They had found another mechanical issue, and had pushed the launch out for 24 more hours. Now it was scheduled for Thursday. I was worried now. We were at the limit of the flexibility I had built into our schedule. If it was pushed off one more day, we would not be going. It was just that simple. I was both proud of myself for having plans resilient enough to stand up to these delays, and irritated that I had committed so much time and money to something that now looked iffy.
With that we decided that we were done for the day and drove back to the hotel. It was still raining and would rain off and on most of the night.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
The new delay added a new problem. I now had an extra day to fill. Originally, part of my plan was to build a wasted day at Kennedy Space Center. My thought was that it was possible, even likely, that we would be transported down to the Cape, and the launch would not go off. That day would have been pretty much wasted, and with that planned for, we could go back to see the real launch. Well, if the launch did not go off tomorrow, there was no going back. We had made other plans for Friday, so today was the wasted day.
Before we had left Denver I had decided that if we had to fill and extra day, we would pick one of the other Disney parks and spend the day there. I had checked on-line and determined that Hollywood Studios would be probably the least crowded. Plus, we had all had a great time there when we visited back in 1999. Margo and I were both looking forward to riding the Tower of Terror again.
We got an early start and skipped breakfast to get their early. I needed to upgrade our already purchased ticket (that we would be using on Friday, at Epcot) from a 1-Day pass to a 2-day pass. I didn’t want to waste valuable ride time, purchasing that ticket. $170 later and we were ready to go. The park opened and we made a bee line for Tower of Terror. As expected there was little line. We didn’t get to jump right on and ride, but we only had about a 10 minute wait. I was very happy with my planning at this point in our trip. We had not wasted much time in lines, and even though the shuttle launch had been delayed three days, we still had a shot at seeing it.
|
|
The Tower of Terror was a blast. The holographics and story in general still looked fresh to me. We had ridden TT three times back in 1999. And of course the elevator drop was a rush. I’m not crazy about those freefall drops, but it was still fun. Especially since you couldn’t predict exactly when it would be over. They have the ride programmed so there are multiple drops, from multiple heights, as you bounce up and down like a yo-yo.
After the ride, I knew Margo would be wanting to eat soon. She doesn’t do well on an empty stomach. While this was prime riding time, I figured we could spare 15-20 minutes, especially since we would be stopping anyway in the foreseeable future. We found a place nearby that was open for breakfast, and grabbed a quick bite. Margo got a cinnamon roll and I tried a bacon and egg sandwich. They were both good. |
There are two really popular attractions in Hollywood Studios; Tower of Terror and Toy Story Midway Mania. This was probably the most unique ride I have ever been on. You are put, by pairs, into a car. The car is equipped with two guns and your job, as the car goes from one place to another is to shoot like you are at a carnival midway at the various targets and objects to earn points. The ride is in 3-D, so that added a bit of realism to it. I was expecting something like “Bugs Life’ or Sherk 4-D. So it took me a while to get in the spirit of things. As such it seemed to get over in a hurry. .
We weren’t far, so we decided to take the Great Movie Ride and follow that up with the Back Lot tour next. Hollywood Studios is not just an amusement park, they do make movies here. So once we reached the front of line (20 minutes or less) we were put in a car and tracked around to see the animatronics movie icons like John Wayne and Gene Kelly. Outside, for the Back Lot Tour we got to see the water tower with Mickey ears on top. Plus, they pretended to drive you onto an active set, where they were filming an explosion/flood scene. They did the explosion and flood, but it was just park of the tour. It wasn’t part of any movie. Still fun, though. It is amazing how they have it set up to repeat every 10-20 minutes or so, all day, everyday.
Next up was the Muppet 3-D show. I have to confess; I was really looking forward to this, and was praying it would be the show I remember from a decade ago; including the pre-show in the lobby. I was not disappointed. During the pre-show the Muppets entertain you by talking with each other about the upcoming show or interacting with the audience. There is one scene where Sam the Eagle is led to believe that Mickey Mouse himself would be making an appearance. He gives this flowery introduction and out appears Rizzo the Rat, wearing Mickey Ears. When Sam objects to the subterfuge, Rizzo says “They don’t know. They’re tourists” referring to us waiting. The show itself was like being in the middle of the old Muppet Show, complete with the two curmudgeonly guys making wise-cracks. This is still my favorite.
We ate lunch after the Muppets. We went to Tune-In Lounge, where we sat at the bar. I had meatloaf and Margo had Pot Roast. The food was good, but I thought the portions a bit small. The bartender did keep our drinks filled, and didn’t banter too much.
|
|
It was nearly 1 PM, by now, so we decided to catch the Indiana Jones stunt show. I wanted an ice cream and Margo wanted a Coke. I had already gotten one. So after we got our seats, I dashed back out to get the refreshments. I got to the front of the line, got my order, and was back just in time. But, not ten minutes into the show, so teenage girl kicked my drink over, as she was screwing around. I was pissed. I tried not to let it ruin the show, and Margo shared her Coke. It was a hot day, in the 80s, so I was thankful for that. The show itself was fun. Lots of stunts and fights, with special effects and humor mixed it.
We still wanted to see the other big stunt show, with the cars and such, but the next show wasn’t for a few hours yet. We killed that time by doing Drew Carey’s Sounds Dangerous show. Sounds Dangerous is done in the dark, mostly, with you wearing head phones. They go through a skit where Drew is some sort of Private Investigator and you are listening in. It was worth the air conditioned rest you got sitting down, but not a must see.
It was pretty close to show time for “Lights, Motors, Action” Extreme Stunt Show to start, so we got our seating in the coliseum. This was a stunt show with automobiles, motorcycles, and a cast of stuntmen. They did high falls, got shot, avoided vehicular assaults, all the while the cycles and cars were involved in a choreographed show involving skids, jumps, and multiple near miss driving. They had one car that spent the whole time driving backwards. They later showed us that the car was actually being driven forward, but the car shell was backwards. Movie magic. It was a cool show and we were glad that we had made time to see it. We had shopping we wanted to get done so we found a shop that sold Mickey ears. We wanted a pair for Jaeden and Devyn. We got them, got them monogrammed, and shipped them home, because they wouldn’t be ready until the next day. Those ears ended up costing about $25 a piece with all of that. But they looked nice when they finally arrived, a week later. It was nearly 6 PM by now, and we were spent. So we found our car, which we actually walked to. We had gotten their early enough to park fairly close.
From there it was time to decide what to do for dinner. I wanted to try the Tilted Kilt, a Hooters like restaurant, based on a Scottish pub theme. The waitresses still wear very skimpy attire. But, it was a let down. Our waitress was black. I don’t think most black women are attractive, so that was a downer. Her service was good and she got a 20% tip. But, what really bummed me out was their no picture policy. Oh, well.
We decided to go back to the Florida Mall. I decided to spend some of my inheritance and buy Margo the iPad. It only took us about 20 minutes to make that purchase. As we walked out we got some snacks and drinks, so tide us over the rest of the night. We ended up killing an extra hour looking for the “Camera Kit” that would allow Margo to import pictures into the iPad. We didn’t find one. So we gave up, and spent the next couple of hours getting it figured out. But, by the time we went to bed Margo was navigating and having a little fun with it. The night ended with bad news, the Shuttle launch had been pushed off until Friday. Before the weather could do them in on Thursday (rain and cloud cover were expected) some sort of electrical problem had been discovered. It was now official; I would not be seeing the shuttle launch. It had tried, but no joy. This goal will probably just not happen. But, maybe we could see it from Epcot while we were there on Friday.
We still wanted to see the other big stunt show, with the cars and such, but the next show wasn’t for a few hours yet. We killed that time by doing Drew Carey’s Sounds Dangerous show. Sounds Dangerous is done in the dark, mostly, with you wearing head phones. They go through a skit where Drew is some sort of Private Investigator and you are listening in. It was worth the air conditioned rest you got sitting down, but not a must see.
It was pretty close to show time for “Lights, Motors, Action” Extreme Stunt Show to start, so we got our seating in the coliseum. This was a stunt show with automobiles, motorcycles, and a cast of stuntmen. They did high falls, got shot, avoided vehicular assaults, all the while the cycles and cars were involved in a choreographed show involving skids, jumps, and multiple near miss driving. They had one car that spent the whole time driving backwards. They later showed us that the car was actually being driven forward, but the car shell was backwards. Movie magic. It was a cool show and we were glad that we had made time to see it. We had shopping we wanted to get done so we found a shop that sold Mickey ears. We wanted a pair for Jaeden and Devyn. We got them, got them monogrammed, and shipped them home, because they wouldn’t be ready until the next day. Those ears ended up costing about $25 a piece with all of that. But they looked nice when they finally arrived, a week later. It was nearly 6 PM by now, and we were spent. So we found our car, which we actually walked to. We had gotten their early enough to park fairly close.
From there it was time to decide what to do for dinner. I wanted to try the Tilted Kilt, a Hooters like restaurant, based on a Scottish pub theme. The waitresses still wear very skimpy attire. But, it was a let down. Our waitress was black. I don’t think most black women are attractive, so that was a downer. Her service was good and she got a 20% tip. But, what really bummed me out was their no picture policy. Oh, well.
We decided to go back to the Florida Mall. I decided to spend some of my inheritance and buy Margo the iPad. It only took us about 20 minutes to make that purchase. As we walked out we got some snacks and drinks, so tide us over the rest of the night. We ended up killing an extra hour looking for the “Camera Kit” that would allow Margo to import pictures into the iPad. We didn’t find one. So we gave up, and spent the next couple of hours getting it figured out. But, by the time we went to bed Margo was navigating and having a little fun with it. The night ended with bad news, the Shuttle launch had been pushed off until Friday. Before the weather could do them in on Thursday (rain and cloud cover were expected) some sort of electrical problem had been discovered. It was now official; I would not be seeing the shuttle launch. It had tried, but no joy. This goal will probably just not happen. But, maybe we could see it from Epcot while we were there on Friday.
Thursday, November 4, 2011
Well, with no shuttle launch we now had another day to fill. I had thought of this contingency and I was prepared. We had already strained the budget pretty thoroughly with yesterday’s actions. Whatever we did today, it had to be thriftier. So, completely out of character for me, I had settled on doing something we could have done back home, shopping and a movie.
The day was rainy and cool, so we had no trouble at all sleeping in. We drove down to a different mall, Pointe Orlando, and had our lunch and then saw Easy A. We had lunch at a different Hooters. Same food and another picture with a pretty girl. I can’t say the idea of a picture with a pretty girl is getting old, but the same old food is.
The movie was about a high school girl that pretends to sleep with a gay male friend, so the other guys won’t keep beating him up, because they think he is gay. It works for him, but she gets a reputation. When the gay friend tells a few others they begin to pay her to pretend to sleep with them too. That way they are more popular. It was actually pretty good. But, counting Margo and I there were only three people in the whole theater. That was kind of weird.
After the movie, it was only 3:30, so we continued our quest to find that computer accessory for Margo. I wasn’t going to drive all over Orlando, so we called around and found one at another Apple store, at yet a third mall. This was high end mall, catering to people with a lot more money than Margo or I. We didn’t stick around very long. Now that Margo had all her toys, we decided on an early dinner, and then go back to the hotel to just relax for the rest of the night.
I had it into my head to eat at a 3rd Hooters. I dialed up the GPS and it took us to the closest one. This turned out to be the same one we ate at on Halloween. I didn’t recognize the building, although Margo insisted that it was one we had been to already. I did recognize one of the waitresses, though and I knew Margo was right. I hate it when that happens. Oh, well.
Tomorrow would be our last day, in Orlando, and it was going to be a full one.
Friday, November 5, 2011
Today we had three things planned. First, we would be taking a Segway tour of Epcot. Next we would tour Epcot and have fun at the various rides and attractions. Finally, we were attending a dinner play at the Titanic museum on International Ave. And, we would be wearing period costumes.
Epcot opens at 10 AM, but our tour was to start 8:30 AM. It was a sunny day, but in the 50s this AM. This was the coldest day we would spend in Florida. But, I didn’t care, I was wearing shorts anyway. It would warm up. We were early for our tour, and we got checked in. We ended up having about 12-14 in our little tour group, which they said was pretty large. At 8:30 AM we were all lead to a section of the building for our training. You don’t get to just jump on one of those and start tooling about. They spend the first hour of the tour, showing you how to operate the equipment. It was fun. The first time you get on, it is a little intimidating because the controls are so sensitive. You lean and it goes. So you have to just commit, and get on. Once one you try to hold still and get in sync with the machine. That nirvana came pretty quick. Margo was a touch more apprehensive than I was; saying “I don’t know” when I asked if she was OK. But, she got the hang of it really fast, too.
We spent an hour learning all the basics; get on/get off, going forward (No backwards. Going backwards is bad. You run into things. I did anyway), turning, going up hill and down hill, learning to “hover” on a hill, and finally how to walk the Segway over an obstacle, like a hose. Quickly we were all old hands and we were led out single file to first ride down a hall, and then outside. They had just started letting people into the front half of the park. The World Showcase did not open for another hour, and that is where we were headed.
As our group was large we had a total of three guides. One in the front, one in the back, and one that floated around the middle. We normally would have ridden single file, but with our group we got to go two by two, just like Noah. The Segway is a kick to ride. They had it dialed down to turtle mode, so about 6 MPH was top speed. They took us in and out of area after area, explaining the park, the architecture, and the history. I can’t remember a damn thing. I was having too much fun. At the half way point they let us freelance a bit. There was a wide open area that overlooked the water, so we got to put the Segway through it’s paces. That was fun, too. It was also at this point that we got our pictures taken, so Margo would have something to put on our Christmas card this year.
But, all too quick it was time to head back. We continued our clockwise tour of the World Showcase. When we exited into the regular park, our guide turned into those motorcycle cops at funerals, buzzing up a head to stop pedestrian traffic for us. It was easy to take a perverse pleasure in the looks of the other patrons, as they wondered why we were so special as to both ride the Segways and to have a special path cleared for us.
|
|
Upon our arrival back to the building, we were done with our Segway tour, and it was time to tour Epcot. Epcot has three headliners with respect to rides; Soarin’, TestTrack, and Mission:Space. It was my goal to make sure we rode all three, and as much of the other rides as we could, before we had to leave. The first order of business was to get a FastPass for Soarin’. A FastPass is a ticket that lets you get in a special line that takes you to the front, bypassing the regular line. The catch is there are a limited amount of these tickets, so you have to get them quickly. You also can’t hold more than one at a time. So went straight to Soarin’ and got our FastPass. It had a time stamp of when we could return, and that was a couple of hours from now.
As we were right in “The Land” our pre-determined plan (from a website that specializes in this) we rode the “Living with the Land” attraction. This ride put you on a boat and you learned about farming methods, land and water use, and conservation. It was a little heavy handed on the conservation theme, but it was still interesting.
Next we headed over to TestTrack to stand in line to ride this. In 1999 when we were here before I think we waited 45 minutes or a little more, which was pretty good back then. This time we had to wait about half an hour, and that included about 10 minutes in which the ride was down. It was fun to experience, but 30 minutes is about the limit I would wait to ride it again. It wasn’t that good.
Now our plan was to several of the less popular attractions. There were several we were just not interested in doing, so we skipped them and went to “The Seas with Nemo and Friends” I did enjoy Nemo. There were actually two parts to this one. The first you rode around in a clam-mobile through their impressive aquarium. Then through Disney magic, the animated stars of Nemo would be in the same tank with the real fish. There was a story, but I can’t remember it. It was cool to see the animation layered into real life.
As we were right in “The Land” our pre-determined plan (from a website that specializes in this) we rode the “Living with the Land” attraction. This ride put you on a boat and you learned about farming methods, land and water use, and conservation. It was a little heavy handed on the conservation theme, but it was still interesting.
Next we headed over to TestTrack to stand in line to ride this. In 1999 when we were here before I think we waited 45 minutes or a little more, which was pretty good back then. This time we had to wait about half an hour, and that included about 10 minutes in which the ride was down. It was fun to experience, but 30 minutes is about the limit I would wait to ride it again. It wasn’t that good.
Now our plan was to several of the less popular attractions. There were several we were just not interested in doing, so we skipped them and went to “The Seas with Nemo and Friends” I did enjoy Nemo. There were actually two parts to this one. The first you rode around in a clam-mobile through their impressive aquarium. Then through Disney magic, the animated stars of Nemo would be in the same tank with the real fish. There was a story, but I can’t remember it. It was cool to see the animation layered into real life.
|
|
But, the most impressive part was the other show in the building “Turtle talk with Crush” Crush, the surfer-sea turtle from Nemo, interacts in real time with the kids in the audience. They sit up front, and an animated Crush appears on the screen. Who knows how they do it, but Crush will call out for questions by gesturing and describing a kid in the audience. Then he will creatively answer the question. It goes on for about 20 minutes and was really fun to watch.
It was time for our Soarin’ FastPass so we headed back to “The Land” and got in the FastPass lane. True to their word in 10-15 minutes we were being buckled in to this hang glider simulator. It is more like a ski lift with your feet dangling and the whole nine yards. Directly in front of you is an IMAX type screen that wraps around you and pretty much fills in your field of vision. I remember a screen like in Huntsville, AL at the Space and Rocket Center. They showed their IMAX movie on it. It was very impressive so my hopes were pretty high.
The story is that you will be taking a hang glider tour of California, from San Diego to the Redwoods north of San Francisco. Each scene was augmented with smells to add to the realism. You would smell pine when over a forest and oranges when flying over a grove. There was sea spray at Big Sur. You got plenty of twists, turns, and dives, to keep you a little off balanced. I liked it, but I thought it was a little short.
It was time for our Soarin’ FastPass so we headed back to “The Land” and got in the FastPass lane. True to their word in 10-15 minutes we were being buckled in to this hang glider simulator. It is more like a ski lift with your feet dangling and the whole nine yards. Directly in front of you is an IMAX type screen that wraps around you and pretty much fills in your field of vision. I remember a screen like in Huntsville, AL at the Space and Rocket Center. They showed their IMAX movie on it. It was very impressive so my hopes were pretty high.
The story is that you will be taking a hang glider tour of California, from San Diego to the Redwoods north of San Francisco. Each scene was augmented with smells to add to the realism. You would smell pine when over a forest and oranges when flying over a grove. There was sea spray at Big Sur. You got plenty of twists, turns, and dives, to keep you a little off balanced. I liked it, but I thought it was a little short.
c
Now it was approaching noon and we were plenty hungry. The Land has a restaurant so that seemed like a great place to eat. The menu was a little “healthy”, but we made do and had a nice relaxing lunch. I had Margo use her Smart Phone to figure out when, or more accurately if, the shuttle was still going to go off. I had plans to watch it over the Mission: Space attraction. It took some doing, but she eventually discovered that it had been postponed. We had no shot of seeing anything now. I later found out that they had found some problems with the heat shielding tiles, and that the launch would not go off until February. That was likely it for that goal. I doubted I would try to go back. It was just too expensive with no guarantee of success.
But, we headed over to Mission: Space anyway. We still wanted to ride. I was a little apprehensive about this ride. It was supposed to simulate the g-forces of a rocket launch. And in the early days a couple of people with heart problems died after riding it. This has a tendency to give you pause. The only ride that has ever made me actually vomit was the Round-up, at Elitchs, when I was a kid. That ride spins you round and round and the centrifugal force holds you against the wall. This ride works on the same principle.
We got in line, and I took the opportunity to explain what I knew about the ride. She said “Oh, Great.” when I mentioned people dying. Disney gives you the choice to take one of two versions of the ride. One is less intense. I decided not to chicken out and we took the orange version. Margo questioned my wisdom immediately, but went along. I guess she figured she could tell me “I told you so” as I was clutching my chest.
They put you four per, into this capsule thing. Each of the four astronauts has an assignment. This amounts to pushing the yellow button in front of you when a certain thing happens. You are prompted and the button lights up, so it’s not to difficult. It does give you the tiniest bit of satisfaction when you do it right. It’s like you really have “The Right Stuff”. The ride was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. You could feel the increased g-forces and things did get a little heavy. But, there was no sensation of spinning, so I never even felt nauseous. Margo was the same. They did provide air sick bags just in case. When the ride ended we both thought that it was fun, but we could not figure out what all the fuss was about. I mean with all of the warning signs everywhere we were expecting to be shot out of a cannon or something.
It was about 2:30 PM now, so we decided to wander over to the World Showcase. There were no rides we were interested in so we kind of wandered from country to country. We stopped and had our picture taken, by another tourist, in Norway by the waterfall. The picture turned out half decent. Our lunch had not taken and we were still hungry. There was a little kiosk past China so we managed to snag a seat at a table and had a hot dog and a coke. By now it was after 3:30 PM. We had basically made up our mind that we had done everything that we wanted to and saw everything we wanted to see. We did continue our clockwise tour of the World Showcase and then made our way to the exit. We were going back to the hotel to get ready for our dinner show. We were both pretty excited.
But, we headed over to Mission: Space anyway. We still wanted to ride. I was a little apprehensive about this ride. It was supposed to simulate the g-forces of a rocket launch. And in the early days a couple of people with heart problems died after riding it. This has a tendency to give you pause. The only ride that has ever made me actually vomit was the Round-up, at Elitchs, when I was a kid. That ride spins you round and round and the centrifugal force holds you against the wall. This ride works on the same principle.
We got in line, and I took the opportunity to explain what I knew about the ride. She said “Oh, Great.” when I mentioned people dying. Disney gives you the choice to take one of two versions of the ride. One is less intense. I decided not to chicken out and we took the orange version. Margo questioned my wisdom immediately, but went along. I guess she figured she could tell me “I told you so” as I was clutching my chest.
They put you four per, into this capsule thing. Each of the four astronauts has an assignment. This amounts to pushing the yellow button in front of you when a certain thing happens. You are prompted and the button lights up, so it’s not to difficult. It does give you the tiniest bit of satisfaction when you do it right. It’s like you really have “The Right Stuff”. The ride was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. You could feel the increased g-forces and things did get a little heavy. But, there was no sensation of spinning, so I never even felt nauseous. Margo was the same. They did provide air sick bags just in case. When the ride ended we both thought that it was fun, but we could not figure out what all the fuss was about. I mean with all of the warning signs everywhere we were expecting to be shot out of a cannon or something.
It was about 2:30 PM now, so we decided to wander over to the World Showcase. There were no rides we were interested in so we kind of wandered from country to country. We stopped and had our picture taken, by another tourist, in Norway by the waterfall. The picture turned out half decent. Our lunch had not taken and we were still hungry. There was a little kiosk past China so we managed to snag a seat at a table and had a hot dog and a coke. By now it was after 3:30 PM. We had basically made up our mind that we had done everything that we wanted to and saw everything we wanted to see. We did continue our clockwise tour of the World Showcase and then made our way to the exit. We were going back to the hotel to get ready for our dinner show. We were both pretty excited.
We got back to the hotel and we relaxed for awhile. Our show was at 8 PM, but when I talked to the guy when I bought the tickets he said that there would be a tour of the museum before hand, so I wanted to be there by 7 PM. We got ready. Margo hand rented a dress that looked like it was straight out of the move Titanic. We added a couple of accessories, like a large blue stoned necklace. She was going to wear a wig, but decided against it at the last moment. She looked good without it. I rented an Edwardian suit, complete with hat and ascot tie. We bought a diamond stickpin to go with it, and a walking stick.
We got to the museum with time to spare, and very quickly discovered that I had misunderstood. There was no tour before the show. So we now had an hour to kill. We wandered around the little gift shop. As the other patrons arrived we talked with a few of them. They all thought our costumes were great, and as it turned out we were the only ones who dressed up. We were even asked to pose for a couple of pictures. We were being treated like celebrities. It was kind of cool.
The premise of our dinner show was that we were all here, on the Titanic, the night that it hit the iceberg. We were all attending the retirement dinner for Capt Smith. He had already announced that this was his last voyage. The dinner was hosted by George and Eleanor Widener, who were real, very rich, passengers on the Titanic. Molly Brown was there, as were a cast of about a dozen. They would reenact their interpretation of the last night of the Titanic, starting with this dinner. We had a nice meal and Mrs. Widener and Molly Brown spend time at our tables, gossiping and asking about us. We kind of spooked Molly, when she found out we were from Denver. She figured we would know more about her character than she did. I was going to test her, a bit, but part of the play intervened and she had to go. Mrs. Widener gossiped about John Jacob Astor’s new, very young wife, being pregnant. And we, at the tables ease dropped on conversations, by the actors, about ice being spotted, and how it was calm moonless night.
We got to the museum with time to spare, and very quickly discovered that I had misunderstood. There was no tour before the show. So we now had an hour to kill. We wandered around the little gift shop. As the other patrons arrived we talked with a few of them. They all thought our costumes were great, and as it turned out we were the only ones who dressed up. We were even asked to pose for a couple of pictures. We were being treated like celebrities. It was kind of cool.
The premise of our dinner show was that we were all here, on the Titanic, the night that it hit the iceberg. We were all attending the retirement dinner for Capt Smith. He had already announced that this was his last voyage. The dinner was hosted by George and Eleanor Widener, who were real, very rich, passengers on the Titanic. Molly Brown was there, as were a cast of about a dozen. They would reenact their interpretation of the last night of the Titanic, starting with this dinner. We had a nice meal and Mrs. Widener and Molly Brown spend time at our tables, gossiping and asking about us. We kind of spooked Molly, when she found out we were from Denver. She figured we would know more about her character than she did. I was going to test her, a bit, but part of the play intervened and she had to go. Mrs. Widener gossiped about John Jacob Astor’s new, very young wife, being pregnant. And we, at the tables ease dropped on conversations, by the actors, about ice being spotted, and how it was calm moonless night.
|
|
After dessert we all went on a tour of the ship, led by various members of the cast. They stayed in character and told us all about the ship. We were up on the bridge of the ship and they acted out the events when we struck the ice berg. Afterwards we were directed to the lifeboat area, (there were no boats) and separated in Men and Women and Children. The Men were going to stay back and die. It was very dramatic. Afterwards we all met in the lobby for pictures. Margo talked the whole cast into gathering for a group shot with us. Then afterwards several of the other dinner guests got their pictures, and asked us to stay in their pictures because we blended in so well.Margo and I got many compliments on our costumes, including one from a cast member who said we looked better than half the cast. I was a great time
That was it for our vacation. We of course had to fly back home, on Saturday. That is rarely worth commenting on, and this was no exception. Margo had to be back to work on Monday, because their annual audit was going on. I was off for another week, and had plenty of chores to deal with. Next year, God willing, Margo and I will have three trips to go on. New Orleans and Mardi Gras, in March. To Wyoming to visit her Aunt Helen, something in the summer, and Kentucky, the last week in August to visit Aunt Ellen. She is turning 85, and I wonder how much time she has left.