I need to write down a few details about my Disney vacation before they all escape me. So here's the first draft. Later I'll put up some pictures and elaborate on some of the details. For a little trip into way-too-much-information-land, take a look at
Sarah's blog where she bares all, including how many Bre'r Bear Butts are included in the Splash Mountain ride.
Here's what I've got:
Day 1: We arrived on Sunday evening. Dean picked us up at the airport in his mother's brand new car. We enjoyed the new-car smell as he drove us past the neighborhood where he grew up. It's on the way. It's also on the "wrong side of the tracks" as they say, so we didn't linger.
We met up with his mom at the hotel - The Boardwalk. It's a nice 1900's style resort complete with big, gold hypocampus in the lobby. (Not portions of brain - horses with the hindquarters of a fish. The guy at the front desk looked up what they're called for us because it was killing Sarah and me that we couldn't remember their name. But I digress.)
I had met Dean's mother once before, but it was nice to get to know her better. We took a boat ride across a lake to dinner where they were serving southern specialties. Then we stopped at the Wilderness Lodge (I think is the name) to admire on our way back to our hotel. The Wilderness Lodge is "done in the style" of the old lodges in US National Parks. Kind of a combination of Old Faithful Inn and the hotels at Yosemite and Glacier. It was fun to see an interpretation of the theme.
Then it was back across the lake and a long bus ride to get back to our hotel. We all agreed that it would be easier to drive next time. But I'm glad I had the Disney Transportation Experience.
The beds were cozy with great feather pillows.
Day 2: In the morning we went over to MGM. We encountered our first rollercoaster and our first rainstorm. We waited in line something like 50 minutes to go on the Aerosmith-themed coaster. It was pretty fun, but not enough to wait in line to do it again. Immediately after the ride ended it started to rain - a little thunder and lightening, too. We ducked into a shop and didn't get too wet. We did see the first wave of Mickey ponchos come out, though. Everyone ended up looking like cartoon ghosts. We just waited for the rain to let up, then we headed for the Tower of Terror. This is fun. We did it twice. It's a freefall ride with the storyline that lightening hit an old hotel and messed up the elevators. It's especially fun when there's real rain and lightening outside.
After that we headed for the muppets, the Star Wars themed simulator (I like the Star Trek one in Vegas a little better, but this one was fun), lunch in a drive-in-themed restaurant that showed clips from 50's scifi films and a little "behind the scenes" reenactment thing about stunts in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Interestingly enough, all swasticas on the bad guys uniforms etc. had been replaced with a siimple black cross. What's up with that?
From MGM we went over to the Magic Kingdom.... I think. Already, it's getting a little fuzzy. But I think we even rode the monorail just for the view. Once there, we did the Buzz Lightyear ride - which is one of my favorites, I've decided. It involves target practice. Also some rollercoasters which sort of blur together in my mind. Not Space Mountain, though. That was another day. The park stayed open late that night, so we watched fireworks then rode the Peter Pan ride at midnight or so. No line. I think we did the Haunted Mansion also. I remembered it from my long-ago trip to Disneyland and it's still the standard to which I hold all haunted houses. It stands up to the test of time pretty well. I think we also did the Philharmagic this day. It's fun.
We left the park about 1 and took Sarah back to the hotel so she could get to work on a project due the next day. (We may be in our 30's, but that doesn't automatically make us responsible.) Then Dean and I went in search of food. The helpful guy at the front desk who had looked up the mythical creatures for us earlier said that the only thing open that late was a McDonalds we would have to drive a few minutes to get to. Weird. So we had our first late-night run to McDonalds, which all three of us usually avoid eating at.
Day 3: We slept in a while on Tuesday. Then Dean's mom joined us as we went over to Epcot. We ate at France, then walked through the various countries to the futuristic side where we enjoyed a little demonstration about energy by Ellen and a pretentious video about "the seas." However, we also did possibly the funnest ride in the park - Space. You get to pull some serious g's while you try to remember when it's your turn to push the right buttons to get your shuttle to land safely.
Also on this day I realized I needed to make a list of people I wanted to buy souvenires for. My memory just isn't what it used to be.
Another fun thing at Epcot we did - a conversation with Crush, the sea turtle from Finding Nemo. They seem to use motion-capture to make live, very interactive animation that has conversations and answers questions from kids in the audience. Also in "the living seas" area - manatees. They're much more graceful in person than they seem to be in documentaries.
After a brief rest... wait, is that right? In my head we just magically jumped from Epcot over to the rainforest. That can't be right. I suppose we drove there, parked etc. We did break down and buy our very own Mickey ponchos. The rain was just not letting up. The Animal Kingdom was open for resort-guests only that evening. Awesome. No lines, no waiting. We did a "river rafting adventure," saw the Bug's Life community theater and Sarah and Dean went on a roller-coaster I knew would make me ill. I skipped it. Oh - we also went on another fun not-quite-roller-coaster ride involving dinosaurs.
Dinner was at the best restaurant in all of DisneyWorld over in the hotel at Animal Kingdom. Again, the name of it is escaping me, but it's african-themed and had great salmon and deserts. We all ate way too much.
Then it was back to the hotel and time for sleep. Dean had to do some work that evening, but we didn't stay up and heckle him like we did Sarah.
Day 4: This was the day reserved for catching up on all the rides we hadn't been able to do yet - and redoing the ones we had really enjoyed. It was another "morning" at Epcot and then the evening (late, late evening) over at the Magic Kingdom - again open late for resort guests only. And again with the constant rain. At Epcot we did "Honey I Shrunk The Audience," made another trip to the Finding Nemo gift shop to pick up some things Sarah and I had neglected to get the day before, and another rollercoaster the details of which are escaping me right now. At Magic Kingdom it was Space Mountain twice, the Buzz Lightyear target practice again, Splash Mountain several times and... that other one. Heh, I warned you about my memory.
Before we left Epcot we stopped for dinner in Norway. Good food. Good food. Venison stew, meatballs, meatloaf, roasted veggies. Yummy. Amazing goat cheese. Also - six different varieties of raw herring. The japanese aren't the only ones who eat raw fish. I'd heard about this before, so of course I had to try every one of them. They tasted quite good, but I couldn't quite get over the texture. Too many lines from Gollum about how much he likes raw fish. The pickled herring, though, had an almost-not-raw texture and tasted quite good.
Anyway, it was another late night, which meant another run to McDonalds. I've never eaten there so often.
Day 5: The entire day was spent in airports trying to get home. The national weather map made me laugh. There were only three places with precipitation of any kind - Florida/Georgia, Chicago and Utah/Wyoming/Montana. Only those areas I was trying to fly into. We made it out of Florida on time, but the rest of it was a mess. The plane to take me to Salt Lake was delayed in Atlanta. By the time we left Chicago there was no chance of making my connection. The last flight from Salt Lake to Bozeman was delayed until almost midnight, and I was only on standby for that one. As it turned out, there were four of us on standby and only one seat came available at the last minute. So the other three of us got delux accomodations at the Super 8 thanks to Delta. Yay.
So what's the moral of the story? Well, I guess it's this. Please move into the room as far as possible, expanding to fill all available space. Make sure your seatbelt is fastened tight, and please no flash photography. Also, wait until the car has come to a complete stop before standing up. Thank you.
Books: I was going to do a bunch of writing today, but instead I pretty much just crocheted and watched PBS. My feet thank me for it - they were tired of all the walking at Disney. Perhaps in my book I need to work in some newbs complaining about their blistered feet.
