disnut8
07-12-2009, 08:54 AM
The Niklewskis - Sheri (47) and Rich (49) - very experienced Disney travelers
Dates - July 2-5, 2009 Fourth of July Weekend
Resort - Offsite with a king bed suite
Travel method - personal car
Introduction
This will be the first of the next three years of doing Disney World for Fourth of July weekend. Since the 4th is on a Saturday, we both get Friday off. Next year, the 4th will be on a Sunday so we'll get Monday off. And then for 2011, the holiday will be on a Monday. We know it'll be hot and we know it'll be crowded but we'll adapt.
I made our reservations as soon as we came back from the Memorial Day trip. I booked our normal Travelodge Suites East Gate Orange for Kissimmee. Nothing much to add to that except the price was higher than Memorial Day which kind of stank. But it was still around $50/night. For our overnight stop on the way down, our normal Days Inn wasn't available so I went searching in Valdosta and decided on a Knights Inn. But when I tried to book that, there were no king beds available. Then I looked back at exit 5 where the Days Inn is and the Super 8 there did have what I needed. However, I'm not thrilled with this place since I stayed there one night on a solo trip a few years ago. But, beggars can't be choosers and the trip was only six weeks away so I booked it. (I also made my Labor Day and Thanksgiving reservations but that's for different trip reports).
Rich and I have no desire to be in any Disney park for the July 4th fireworks. I know that sounds like were un-American but I'm definitely not. We really just are not into fireworks. They are pretty but neither one of us gets the giddy feeling other people seem to get. So our plan will be to go to the Studios when we get there on Friday afternoon and then spend all day Saturday in Epcot. Other than that, we'll have no plans whatsoever and no dining reservations or expectations. We need to be flexible to deal with the heat and the crowds.
I did question my sanity after reading a ton of posts about parks closing for crowds but in the end, I decided that even if we didn't do much of anything at Disney World, we would be away from the house for a weekend.
Day One - Thursday, July 2, 2009
Rich asked to take Monday off but his boss already had the day planned for her vacation so he took today instead. And was glad he did. The company president decided against letting everyone leave a few hours early (he's a grinch sometimes) so Rich would have been stuck at work until 4:30 and not home until 5:30. I only work until 3:00 so this way, we can be on the road before 4:00.
My work went fairly well except for my boss being involved in a conversion of the accounting system and forgetting about the day to day operations. Plus, my counterpart had her normal Thursday off so I was going to be pulling double duty for one important thing. I managed to remind my boss about that and I finally got everything done around 2:00 so I was gone by 2:45.
Rich had spent the day doing some last minute things and getting the car packed up. So when I arrived home, all I had to do was go to the bathroom and say goodbye to the cats. One good thing happened, though. In the past, I had always been home (since I was unemployed for over two years) to get everything ready for these Disney trips. Since Rich had to do everything, he realized just how much work goes into the preparation. He even did laundry (although he admitted later it was only because he didn't have enough underwear).
We were heading out on I85 south by 3:45 or so. As with Memorial Day weekend, we practically flew through Atlanta. There were only two slowdowns which are messy interchanges unless you are driving through in the middle of the night (and then don't even count on that). Rich pulled us into the parking lot of the Super 8 at exit 5 off I75 in Lake Park right after 8:00.
I had stayed at this particular hotel once before on a solo trip and did not like it at all. I only chose it this time because the other two places at this exit were both full and I couldn't find anything else with a king bed. I checked us in and we were given the same room as I had on my solo trip! What are the odds? (Unless there aren't very many king bed rooms in this place). I was sure I was not going to enjoy this night at all.
But I was wrong. Maybe the last time I had negative feelings because (1) I was alone, (2) I didn't arrive until about 10:30 PM, (3) the place was almost full. I found nothing wrong with the hotel this time and will look to book this more in the future. The Days Inn at this exit is more expensive and the Travelodge here did not have great customer service over Memorial Day weekend. I'm really glad I gave this place another chance.
Dinner tonight was McDonald's at the very convenient place across the street. I'm not a fan of this McDonald's as there never seems to be capable people working here. Tonight was no exception. The counter area was filled with people waiting for their food. It seemed like everyone was part of one big group but I could be wrong. We placed our order (a McDouble and fries for me while Rich opted for chicken McNuggets which was unusual) and then prepared to wait. The person getting the food together was horrible as she couldn't even read the overhead monitors to get the correct things into the right bags or trays. And the people waiting for food weren't that much help. Each time an order was announced as being ready, a person would come up and ask if that was their food. Weren't you listening? Was that your order they announced? After about five agonizing minutes of watching sheer ineptness at its best, we had our food. Then Rich had to ask for McNugget sauce (anyone ever eat these without sauce?) and ketchup. That took a while as it seems McDonald's employees don't like giving out more than one ketchup packet to a customer. Come on, Rich is like the ketchup king - he needs more. We finally escaped back to the room with our dinner.
Entertainment for the evening was the CBS lineup of shows - Flashpoint (discovered over Memorial Day weekend) and Numbers. Then lights out shortly after 11:00.
Day Two - Friday, July 3, 2009
The alarm went off right at 7:00 and I practically jumped out of bed. Not that I wanted to get up and get going but because it wasn’t a usual sound. Rather than even discuss the matter with Rich, I got ready first. This is usually a bane in our marriage on trips. Who gets up and in the shower when the alarm goes off. I wasn’t in the mood for any bantering this morning.
The bathrooms here are all inclusive so the sink is in the same room with the shower. Fortunately, there is an accessible outlet at the vanity so I was able to dry my hair while Rich was taking his shower. Yes, we’ve been married over 27 years but still like our bathroom time to be private.
We didn’t have that much to pack up so we had the car loaded back up shortly before 8:00. We walked through to the front desk to check out and get some of the free muffins and doughnuts available. Well, I took a muffin, Rich passed. While I’m glad he did that since he’s still trying to loose weight (I think that will be a lifelong thing for him), that also meant he’s be hitting a park on an empty stomach. I mentioned that I’d have to make sure he got something to eat when we got to Disney World. I knew it would be hot, I knew Rich would be having some beer and I wanted to make sure he had food in his stomach. The man can be stubborn that way. He thinks if he doesn’t eat, that will make the pounds go away. I’m slowly getting him to understand eating smarter is the way to go, not eating less.
Since gas prices are always higher in Florida, we fill up at this exit. The RaceWay is the best deal so we did that for $2.41/gallon. I guess it should have been an indication that travel is down this year as even with the lowest prices at the exit, we were one of the few cars at the pumps. Usually, this place is fairly crowded. Even though Rich didn’t go in for any Diet Cokes (he still had an ample supply in the cooler), I still pumped the gas. It’s a habit I’ve gotten into on trips.
Rich headed us south on I75 around 8:15. I remarked at this point that I was surprised Rich had said to get up at 7:00 since he usually wants to sleep until about 8:00. I know Rich will hit the big 5-0 next year and I am concerned about his memory because he had no idea what I was talking about. He thought it was normal for us to get up at 7:00 on this leg of the trip. Oh well, we were up and nothing he could do about it now.
The drive to the Ocala rest stop was uneventful except for a musing or two. It’s Friday morning so the radio airwaves were filled with very lame weekday morning DJs doing their normal shows. Man, this is exactly why I don’t listen to the radio anymore. Yap, yap, yap about nothing useful. Why do we care what some slob in Jacksonville thinks about current events? Just because he has his own morning radio show? Rich almost wore down the dial trying to get something in that wasn’t jabber, jabber, jabber. It’s much nicer when the holiday is on a Monday so this leg of the trip is made on a Saturday. These types of DJs are off then. (What’s kind of funny is Rich listens to a local morning radio show and loves those DJs but he couldn’t stand any of these “foreign” ones.)
The second musing is the trend radio stations have gotten into lately where they don’t tell you the artist of the song they just played. Instead, you are directed to the website where they have a list of it. Yeah, let’s see, I’m in my car, I have direct access to the internet. And even if I did have internet on my phone (neither of us do and neither of us wants it – we don’t even use the camera that’s on there), I’m certainly not going to be fooling around trying to find the website while I’m driving. Have we become so lazy that radio DJs can’t take a few extra seconds to say “that was Joe Blow doing that song”?
At the Ocala rest area, I did a very important thing. I affixed the Florida Mini-SunPass to our windshield. We had bought this on the Memorial Day trip but couldn’t use it until it was activated (kind of like a Disney Annual Pass) when we got back. This would be the first time we would be able to use the SunPass express lanes on Florida’s toll roads. We don’t get a discount on the tolls but now we don’t have to have cash and we don’t have to stop at the booths. With as many trips as we make to Disney World, this was a sound investment for us. The regular SunPass involves more cash outlay up front and doesn’t make sense unless you are a heavy Florida toll road user. The mini one is right up our alley.
The rest of the trip was flat out boring. Along the way, we picked up John Tesh’s morning show and I thought it would be bland (kind of like he is) but I ended up enjoying it a lot. Now, *this* is a morning radio show. Plenty of music and instead of inane bantering between twits of DJs, it was useful information. I didn’t take notice if he said the names of the artists, though. I’ll have to check to see if he’s available in the Atlanta area. If he is, I just might turn on my radio on the morning commute. (I checked when I got back - he's here but from 7:00 PM to midnight, drat it.)
Rich drove us to the hotel by going on Disney property for a short time. We come in on Western Way near Coronado Springs and exit on Osceola Parkway near Pop Century. It was cute in that Rich automatically started to go left on Buena Vista Drive as that would take us towards Epcot. But I directed him to the right to cut out most of the traffic in front of the Studios. He agreed it was much quicker to cut through Disney property this way. I have to give Rich some slack as in the past, we’ve not checked into the hotel first but rather went straight to the parks. After getting denied a reserved king bed room over Thanksgiving because we checked in so late, we’ve been going to the hotel first just to let them know we are here. At Memorial Day it was doubly sweet as we got our room early.
The Travelodge East Gate Orange is located on Irlo Bronson Highway (which is Highway 192 near Disney World and Vine Street in downtown Kissimmee) but we take Osceola Parkway to Seralago and then take that to Irlo Bronson Highway. This cuts out all but a small part of Highway 192 for us. The highway is a fine road. It’s the tourist driving on it that’s the problem. Way too many people who don’t know where they are going and make really dumb driving decisions like sudden lane switches or slowing down to a crawl to find an address or a building. With our route, we are on the highway for a short amount of time and only have to make one left turn to get into the hotel. Getting out is even easier as it’s a right turn directly onto the highway.
The Travelodge is very easy to spot as it’s next to the big Orange Gift Shop which is housed in, you guessed it, a big Orange. It’s a tacky tourist gift shop where you can get Florida oranges and other fruits as well as the obligatory $5 T-shirts and sunglasses. But it’s always doing some business and it’s been here for quite a while so some people must like it (or like to go home and tell people they bought oranges in an orange).
I was helped at the Travelodge by the same manager who I think is on duty 24/7 since he’s always the one to check me in. Think George Carlin in his late 40s. As Rich said “that guy was a hippie in the 70s”. But he’s nice and friendly. When I gave my name, he said “oh, you have several reservations”. My mind flashed to a big mistake as maybe I made a double booking. But then the manager said “one for this weekend, one for September and one for November”. Yes, I already have our reservations here for Labor Day and Thanksgiving. I used to move us around in hotels in the area but once I found this one and we both liked it, the drive is easy for us, and it’s not expensive at all so we're sticking to it. It gives us what we need without bells or whistles that we probably wouldn’t use anyway.
And, just like Memorial Day weekend, our room was ready. And it was the same room as Memorial Day weekend! I really liked that room so was extremely happy. To show that Rich pays absolutely no attention to travel details, he had to have the manager point out how to get to the room. I was already halfway out the door to the car since I knew exactly where it was. Halfway down the building, the second floor, view of the pool (you could jump from the second floor landing into the pool) and next to a breezeway so we only have one neighbor. Very nice room indeed.
It wasn’t even noon yet so we took our time unloading the car and unpacking in the room. Well, I unpacked my suitcase, Rich just plunked his down on the vanity. I immediately checked our TV availability and was dismayed to see no TNT! The Coke Zero 400 from Daytona was on that channel tomorrow night! (NASCAR race). I guess we’ll be either listening to it on the radio or “watching” it online. But as Rich was going through the channels on the TV (he has to have a TV on the minute he walks into a room), he found a Law & Order episode. That has to be TNT! It sure was. I guess the card in the room is a bit outdated. Whew – we can watch the race tomorrow night after all.
For the trip, we each had a day pack to carry on our backs. Usually we just have one and Rich takes it. But I knew we’d need more supplies this trip because of the heat so I’ll take one with my stuff and Rich can have one with the ponchos and his stuff. By “stuff”, I mean extra shirts for Rich since he sweats through his fairly rapidly and for me, a pair of plastic shoes in case it rains. We both carry our cell phones but only really for timepieces as neither one of us wear a watch.
Shortly after noon, we headed out for a park. We had agreed on the Studios since we hadn’t been there for a while. However after parking and starting to walk, the plan was changed to Epcot only. Rich said there wasn’t really anything at the Studios for us anymore. After Twilight Zone (where I only do the preshow since the ride itself thuds) and Rock and Roller Coaster (only for Rich since that one goes upside down and thuds), there’s not much left. We haven’t been on Toy Story Mania yet and we really don’t want to invest the time or energy to do it. We’re not the type of people to get up and run for a FastPass first thing in the morning. I guess we don’t want to put effort into our fun. If it happens, it happens. If it doesn’t, oh well, life is full of plenty of other things to make it interesting.
I'll mention the weather here in one word. Hot. In the words of Forrest Gump, "and that's all I'm going to say about that".
We were going to concentrate on Future World today since we anticipated the park being crowded tomorrow for the holiday. We could walk around World Showcase in the crowds if necessary. Rich stopped at the Promenade Refreshments for a pretzel and Bud Lite for the hot walk to Ellen's Energy Adventure. Along the way, we diverted into Mouse Gear for both the air conditioning and to kill some time while Rich drank his brew. I was equipped with a water bottle for the day. I made ample use of the water fountains all over Epcot both today and tomorrow.
We had perfect timing for Ellen as we entered the preshow area just minutes before it started. Of course, there were lots of people sitting on the floor who then had to stand up when the show started. It amazes me how some people think this is the world's worst thing to do - stand up and watch a short preshow. I sometimes fear the human race will become like those in Wall-E. Sitting for everything.
Once the preshow was over (Stupid Judy), we entered the theatre section by the left side and sat in the first row of the second of the left most car. Most people will flock to the first rows or to the center car. So it's easy for us to get a non-crowded row.
The attraction was good as always and we noted the Jar Jar Binks relatives in with the dinosaurs. And it's always to get a reminder that no matter how a person thinks we should get our energy for survival, we do have to combine sources to achieve ultimate efficiency. The attraction is also good for educating about energy without being boring (even though Bill Nye the Science Guy still gets on my nerves).
Next, we crossed over to The Land to see about those non-Soarin' attractions. We didn't think we'd be able to get a FastPass for Soarin' since it was already well after 1:00. But much to our surprise, FastPasses were available for 7:00 PM. And the standby line was only 55 minutes. Isn't this Fourth of July weekend? We've been here during regular times and witnessed 120 minutes wait with no FastPasses. Wow, this recession must be bad - I feel very fortunate to have found my current job after being out of work for 2-1/2 years. And Rich's job is safe and sound.
Even with Soarin' being reasonable for others, it was still unreasonable for us so we headed for Living with the Land. All we had to do was wend our way through the queue and we were on a boat. This is always enjoyable (especially now with the recorded narration) to see the different growing methods for food and the promise that the hungry will eventually go away worldwide. I just wish other nations would allow humane aide into their countries. It's frustrating when the technology is available but stubbornness is preventing progress for the citizens. OK - off the soap box (probably won't be the only time I'm up there this weekend).
At this point, Rich and I took stock in what we could accomplish tomorrow when the hoards would be here. We didn't really need to do Mission:Space or Test Track since we had just done those over Memorial Day weekend. The entire Imagination pavilion would be doable with crowds as would Spaceship Earth and The Living Seas. So we headed to World Showcase for a walk around.
I finally saw the Kim Possible area to pick up the communicators (Kimacators?). I was gung ho earlier in the year to do this adventure but didn't feel up to it this trip. And I need to add one more guest classification to the lists Steve Russo keeps. The Kim Im-Possibles. Those are the people who are in a country doing the adventure but are so intently concentrating on the narration coming from the communicator that they blindly walk into other people.
Rich stopped in Mexico for a green apple margarita (yeck!) for the walk. Since Rich had the pretzel earlier, it was time for my "lunch". I love the pot stickers and egg rolls at the Lotus Blossom Café in China so that's where we were headed. One order of pot stickers for me and one order of egg rolls for Rich and we were set for food. But the pot stickers were not enough so Rich gave me one of his egg rolls. Which I protested that I couldn't eat and then devoured the entire thing! The heat sure wasn't affecting my appetite this trip.
After our respite, we continued on to my favorite place (especially this weekend) - the American pavilion. I was hoping for additional patriotic things I could get for our house. I'm slowly getting our mantel and fireplace wall in our living room to be red, white, and blue. The Heritage Gift Shop has some very nice things but I'm going to have to wait just a bit longer to save up money for some of the items. For now, I concentrated on a $6 shotglass with the American pavilion etched into it. I didn't get it now as I knew we'd be back here at least one more time this trip.
We were getting really hot by now and even though it was earlier than I wanted, I went for my one beer of the day. I really just wanted something cold that didn't come out of a water fountain. The Fife and Drum Refreshments and their $5.50 Bud Lite handled my need quite nicely. Rich went for a melon Kaki-Gori next door in Japan. The heat was starting to affect us so we took some time out to enjoy our refreshments and then continued on to France for their nice air conditioned movie.
It's been quite a while since we've taken the time to watch any of the World Showcase movies. Rich showed this when we entered the theatre and he asked "we sit down for this one?" Um, yes and stop sounding like a tourist. We had timed it perfectly since I believe this show starts on the hour and it was just 4:00.
I really enjoyed the movie, especially the music since I've been listening to classical CDs on my commute. It's much more relaxing that the aforementioned DJ garbage on the radio. The only bad thing during the film was these two ladies two rows back who kept up a steady conversation throughout. Couldn't they have shut up for fifteen minutes? Was whatever they were talking about that important? Eventually I was able to block them out but it still was irritating.
One thing that always hits home with me when I watch these Epcot films is the age of the countries. America is turning 233 years old tomorrow. If you consider France's "birth" as 843 with the Treaty of Verdun (I didn't know that - I looked it up when I got home), that makes France 1,166 years old! My country is just a young whippersnapper with a lot more growing to do.
The movie really refreshed me and I’m glad since I was ready to pack it in earlier and head to the room. I live in Georgia and we get just about the same weather if about ten degrees cooler. That mid-90 degree temperature with humidity was taking a toll on both of us today. The next Off Kilter set was at 5:30 so we headed to Canada for our first viewing of the weekend. The guys were playing seven days a week so that meant a lot of substitutes as you can't expect the original five guys to practically live at Epcot. We figured on that for the weekend.
Rich went down to the Promenade Refreshments for another beer (his version of keeping hydrated) and then we backtracked to Canada from there. We had been discussing the NASCAR Champions of the 21st Century and couldn't come up with one (we thought from 2004). Once at the Off Kilter stage, I called the one person who I knew would have the quick answer. Our son, Chris. He was never into NASCAR before he met his wife but once he got into it, he quickly became an expert. Chris is like that - if he wants to learn about something, he will learn everything there is to know about the subject. Our question was quickly answered (turned out, it wasn't the 2004 champion we were missing, it was Jeff Gordon from an earlier year) but I noted the time on the cell phone was only 4:50. We still had well over a half hour until Off Kilter would be playing. There was no way we were sitting on the hot benches (even though we were in the shade) for that long. So we started walking again.
We ended up in Mexico and went into the pavilion for some air conditioning. Rich suggested the Grand Fiesta Tour with Donald and friends so we walked right onto that behind a large party who took up one entire boat. Thankfully, we were on the next one and weren't part of the celebration. But again, I had to listen to two women yak for the entire time. This time right in front of us. It would be one thing if these people would be talking about the attraction but the conversations had nothing to do with even Disney World. Sigh - I was able to focus on the ride after a while. I do think this is an improvement on the former attraction here. While neither boat ride wants to make me go on a vacation to Mexico, at least Donald, Panchito, and Jose make this one fun.
We did a little pyramid shopping (Mexico's version of window shopping) and I saw that pints of tequila are on sale here for $7.95. Rich mentioned that a bottle of that and a frozen lemonade would be a fine thing to walk around with on a day like today. I think someone would have to be hard pressed for alcohol to attempt something like that but there are people who do, I'm sure.
After our short trip south of the border, we returned to north of the border and Canada for Off Kilter, finally. And unfortunately, our thoughts about the guys performing seven days a week were proved true. Of the five men on stage, only two were original members. Sigh. While I'm glad Disney World guests are getting Off Kilter all the time, they really aren't getting Off Kilter, if you know what I mean. There's a limited play selection as sometimes a singer won't be there or even an instrument isn't even being played (today, the keyboards were replaced by an acoustical guitar). The music is still good but it's just not vintage Off Kilter.
With our musical cravings not quite satisfied, we decided to try out Slippery When Wet, the tribute band to Bon Jovi who was playing as part of the Sounds of Summer concert series. It would be our first viewing of a tribute band at Disney World (we had seen a Jimmy Buffet tribute band in Atlanta and weren't too impressed). The only problem was the concert started at 7:00 and it was only 6:00. We tried to walk as slowly as possible but it wasn't slow enough. We had passed Norway and were at China when we decided we were going to be way too early. So we backtracked to see about the wait time for Maelstrom. Yeck, 30 minutes. That wasn't going to help and we decided to call it a day.
But we continued to walk around World Showcase clockwise. I stopped in Germany for a bathroom break and to wash off. I carry a washcloth in a small zipper bag in my daypack. I wet that at the bathroom sinks and wash down my face and arms when I get really hot and sticky. Makes a really big difference in how I feel.
I’m going to interject this here because I just mentioned bathrooms. I made an observation this trip that I will have to see holds out in all bathrooms at Disney World. The ones I visited this trip had something unusual in them. The mirrors were not over the sinks. I hadn't noticed that before and wonder if that's a reason why Disney World bathrooms don't get that crowded. Especially in the women's room (Rich started taking notice that the mirrors not over the sink was also true in the few men's rooms he visited). That's one of the big reasons why women's bathrooms seem to be busier than Atlanta's downtown area during rush hour. Women tend to stand in front of the sinks to use the mirrors to tidy up thereby creating a clog in the flow of washing hands and leaving. By moving the mirrors to another area, the sinks remain open and are only used for their intended purpose. I really like this feature of Disney World bathrooms. Now back to the trip report.
By the time we arrived in America, the first show had ended and it was only about a half hour wait until the next one. We decided to stick it out so I got a frozen lemonade from the Fife and Drum Refreshments while Rich had another beer.
I have some favorite foods at Disney World - pot stickers and egg rolls as mentioned earlier today as well as the wonderful popcorn here - but now I have a favorite drink. For $3, that frozen lemonade was one of the best tasting things I have ever had. A great bargain too. It's not so sweet that you get sick of it after a while, it's not totally frozen like you can get at some places (more like Italian ices), but it's frozen enough that it doesn't melt in five minutes. Yummy.
I'm not sure if it was because of the heat but the ropes were dropped for us to enter into the American Gardens Theatre at 6:30, a half hour before the show. I think they had just enough time to clear out the earlier show before we went in. At least we had nice seats for the show and some cold drinks to pass the time.
We enjoyed the show. That's all I can say about it. The band was a very good imitation of Bon Jovi but I think in order to enjoy the performance more, we should have seen a real Bon Jovi concert in person. We didn't even recognize the first three songs that were played. Evidentially, most of the rest of the audience did, complete with the hand movements that I'm sure were part of the concert experience. The couple in front of us (about our age) sure were enjoying themselves and singing along with the band. It's like Rich and I just weren't quite part of the in-crowd for this concert. We did know the final three songs and I was waiting for Living on a Prayer which surely had to be the finale. It wasn't. Wanted Dead or Alive was and while that song is very good, I'm used to the last song being a kick-butt-get up on your feet-sing along-have a good time song. So I left feeling a bit disappointed. Don't get me wrong, the band was really good and the lead singer was part singer and part actor as he became Jon Bon Jovi (complete with hand gestures and hair cut). Even the lead guitarist looked and acted like Richie Sambora. But it wasn't as upbeat as I thought it would be.
It was time to end our day at Disney World. We were both smelly and grimy so going out for dinner was not an option until we at least went back to the room. On the walk back to the car, it was mutually decided that ordering a Flippers pizza to be delivered to the room was a fantastic idea. It was late, we were tired, and more importantly, we were grungy. Plus, we still had to do our fantasy NASCAR draft with our son.
Rich drove us back to the Travelodge without incident. He was going to head for the pool for a cool down but we could easily see (since it was right outside our door and one floor down) that a large family was enjoying themselves there. Instead, we both took a very brief cooling down shower (separately, of course). We felt so much better after.
Rich called for the pizza and got the most clueless person to ever answer a pizza delivery phone. The first thing Rich said was that he was calling from the Travelodge on Irlo Bronson Highway. The girl asked Rich if they delivered there! Like Rich is supposed to know. True, he did know this was the branch that delivered to the Travelodge since we've done this before. But if he was just a normal tourist, how in the world would he know? Then she asked for the address and there was nowhere in the room that actually had it. The phone number was on the phone but nothing in the room indicated the street address. Wonderful. She suggested an address and Rich said that sounded like it (he wouldn't know the street address of the hotel if it jumped up and bit him on the arm). Then Rich started to give our Visa card number to pay for it beforehand and she screwed that up too. At the end, we weren't sure if we would even get our extra large triple pepperoni or if we did, if it had been paid for. Good thing we both took a shower before all this or it wouldn't have been pretty.
A call to our son, Chris, was made to see about doing the NASCAR draft. But he was on the road with his family going to see fireworks. He'd call back when they got home. So we settled in to watch the NASCAR Nationwide race and wait for the pizza.
At least the pizza was delivered and payment had been taken care of. As usual, the pie didn't disappoint although we had three slices left over. I was prepared this time with crushed red peppers, paper plates, paper napkins and plastic utensils. Well, almost prepared. I had only spoons and knives for utensils. Forgot the forks. At least we were able to eat it without forks (I know, we are heathens for needing forks but it was an extra large pizza).
The race wasn’t that exciting and I found myself nodding off many times. It was almost 11:00 by the time it was finally over (to show how boring it was, I don't even remember who won) and we both were pretty wiped out from the day. However, we still needed to do the fantasy NASCAR draft and we hadn't heard from Chris yet. Rich called him only to find they were still at the fireworks which had ended a while ago. Seems our daughter-in-law was engaged in a conversation with someone. Rich had predicted that before he called. Chandra loves to talk and our grandson has inherited that from her. Mitchell certainly does not get it from Chris as Chris didn't really talk until he was three. Mitchell has probably said more words in his young life (he'll be three in September) than Chris has said in his whole life! Our phone call prompted Chris to hustle Chandra along back home. He'd call when they finally got back home.
In order to stay awake, I got out the five dice and the Yactzee scorepads I had brought along. Over Memorial Day weekend, we were stuck in the room while it poured down rain and we had nothing to do. So I decided to always carry these items and a deck of cards along with us. Really came in handy tonight.
It wasn't too long until Chris called back (thank goodness they live in a small town outside of Toledo) and we completed the draft. After that, it was lights out for us. An alarm was not set for tomorrow.
Day Three - Saturday, July 4, 2009 - Happy 233rd Birthday America!!!!!!!!!!!
As tired as I was last night, I was woke right at 8:00. I tried to go back to sleep but it didn't work. I finally got up at 8:30 and started working on the trip report. Rich slept/rested until after 9:00. Then it took him quite a while to get up and running. I had meanwhile taken a shower and was ready to go.
We really weren't in a hurry to go (well, Rich wasn't) since the crowd levels yesterday were much lower than I expected. I figured today would be worse and prepared myself at least mentally. Our plan was Epcot again with the thought that if the parks did close, there was more walking around room at this park. It actually was the default since you couldn't pay me to be near Magic Kingdom on a major holiday that involves fireworks, Animal Kingdom didn't have any nighttime things (out of respect for the animals), and we'd get bored very quickly at the Studios. We finally headed out around 10:00 or shortly after.
Rich's plan today was to get a FastPass for Soarin'. Now, think about it. We've only been on this attraction twice and the first time was the sneak preview for Annual Passholders (we just happened to be there that weekend). The other time was off season. This was July 4th and Rich wanted a FastPass for the most popular attraction at Epcot but we didn't get here at rope drop. I told him he was insane.
But I had to eat my words. We got to outside The Land around quarter after 11:00. Not only were Soarin' FastPasses available but they were for a decent time! Wow! (BTW, I love the wait board outside The Land - no need to go all the way down to the actual attraction to see the different times). We went down there and at 11:24 (time printed on the FastPass), we were set to come back between 3:42 and 4:42. Unbelievable.
Up to this point, I had been one of the "doom and gloomers". A Debbie Downer. The parks were going to be crowded, it was going to be a madhouse, etc. But it wasn't. I guess it's better to be prepared for the worst and when it doesn't happen you feel much better. I know I did.
Since we were already in The Land, we headed upstairs for The Circle of Life. I hadn't seen this film in a while although I really enjoy it. A good environmental message with Pumbaa and Timon thrown in for good measure. It is a bit heavy handed (humans really aren't that mean, we just don't know any better) but the message does have to get out to people. I think the preshow here is a bit depressing with all the statistics on how messy we have made the planet. But I guess if just one person starts to recycle or conserve energy, it's worth it.
Now that we were done saving the planet (I tend to get a bit heavy-handed myself when it comes to the environment), it was time to go swim with the fishies. The Living Seas with Nemo and Friends was next (or simply, The Living Seas). Rich said we should ride into the building so we hunted for Nemo for a while. This attraction always cracks me up with Marlon yelling "Nemo, no!" at the beginning. Especially today because we were stuck there as a handicapped person was loaded into a clamshell. See, we have this cat named Nemo. And we are always telling Nemo "no!" Sounded just like home to us.
Rich made the decision to avoid Turtle Talk with Crush because "it would be too crowded". I actually think he didn't want to do it because he secretly wants to sit up front with the little kids and ask Crush questions. So we wandered around the viewing areas and saw just about every fish in the tanks and display areas. We had a few highlights.
In the area where there is a clown fish in just about every tank (obviously trying to get kids to identify with Nemo and Marlon), there was a starfish stuck on the side of a tank looking just like Peach in the movie. Rich went over and asked if she had found her happy place yet.
I saw seahorses for the first time. They looked very regal in their movements. One was sleeping, I think. His tail was wrapped around one of the plants so he wouldn't float away.
One little boy, about five years old, was so excited to see a ray swimming around. This kid was yelling "it's a ray just like in Nemo!" at the top of his lungs. He was dancing around looking at not only the ray but all the other fish in the big tank. I honestly don't think the kid had ever seen live fish before. But he absolutely loved that ray. If there could have been little fish riding him around, that kid would have died and gone to heaven. Everyone was cracking up with the enthusiasm of one little boy.
After our fish fun, we exited and I announced I was hungry (go figure). Rich suggested China yet again and I wasn't going to complain. Maybe he was trying to make up for Memorial Day weekend when I didn't get any egg rolls or pot stickers. We walked back to China with Rich briefly stopping in Norway for a beer. At the Lotus Blossom Café, I ordered us a shrimp fried rice (for Rich) and pot stickers for me. Rich gave me his egg roll that was part of the meal so I was really happy.
My stomach was full for the time being so we headed to America for me to show Rich the shotglass I had looked at yesterday. The American Adventure was starting in just ten minutes so we diverted into there first. It was the Fourth of July, how could this patriotic gal pass up a chance to see this show again? When we entered the rotunda, everyone was already gathered over at the entrance to the upstairs part. But the show wasn't even going to start for another ten minutes so Rich and I found a bench right under the quote by Walt Disney and waited for the welcoming announcement. Once that was made, we slowly joined the back of the crowd to go upstairs. Upstairs, Rich asked where all those flags were the Cast Member mentioned in the opening. We had both been so intent on waking up the stairs, we never looked up! Drat it. Oh well, an excuse for going back again (like I really need an excuse).
The show did not disappoint once again. My eyes start to get misty during the montage when the Vietnam War Memorial (The Wall) is shown. It gets really bad when the aftermath of the World Trade Centers is shown. I don't recover until the very end. I don't think I've ever made it through this presentation without wiping away quite a few tears. We exited to hear the Voices of Liberty performing their special July 4th concert in the American Gardens Theatre. I had seen the show on the schedule but couldn't do that and the American Adventure. The song that was being performed when we left the American Adventure was our Star Spangled Banner. Perfect.
I came down to earth a bit and showed Rich the shotglass I wanted. He thought it was a good deal as the glass is pretty sturdy and was only $6. I really enjoy adding to my red, white and blue collection a little at a time.
It was approaching 2:30 which was the time for the first Off Kilter set of the day. We knew the substitutes would be back but decided to try them out again. There were still only two original members there but this time the keyboardist was there while the lead guitarist was gone. And we had a different bass player today. I think there's a revolving door at the Off Kilter backstage area.
After the show, we decided to finish up Future World and use our Soarin' FastPass. We had done Mission:Space and Test Track at Memorial Day so we didn't have to repeat those. On this trip, we had done Ellen's Energy Adventure, The Living Seas, and most of The Land. Since we still had some time before our Soarin' FastPass time (still amazed we got one and could use it before the sun set), we headed to the Imagination Pavilion and Honey I Shrunk the Audience.
The preshow was about five minutes from ending so we had to watch a bit of the Kodak slide show. I miss the True Colors preshow. I enjoyed that one although Rich thought it was boring. I count the song as one of my favorites.
The show was good as usual and I do wish the film was updated but it's still a classic. You can't beat having most of the audience still surprised when the mice come out. And the ending, of course. Always enjoyable to hear people yelling "gross!". After this, we still had some time so we paid a visit to Figment. Now, it might just be my imagination (oh, I crack myself up!) but I think I enjoy this more and more each time I ride. I think if you relax and listen to Figment's song, it makes sense and is fun.
Our window for the Soarin' FastPass was now entered so we walked over to The Land to do the final attraction in that pavilion. Here's my rant on FastPasses. I use them in the one hour time window that is printed on the FastPass. I feel that's the way Disney intended for me to use them so that's what I do. I know people say you can use the passes at any time after the window but I don’t think that's what I'm going to do. And here's the reason. This is a simple example but it's how I feel. Say Disney gives out 200 FastPasses for Soarin' at 9:00 in the morning that are good for 1:00-2:00 in the afternoon. None of those 200 people come back during that hour. So no one is going through the FastPass line. All of those 200 people decide to come back between 5:00 and 6:00 so they join the 200 people that have legitimate FastPasses for that hour. Now you have 400 people using the FastPass line when Disney only planned on 200. I know the arguments that if no one is using the FastPass line then people in the stand by line will go in faster. And when there's 400 people, then the stand by line will go slower. But I don't think that's the intent of FastPasses. It's supposed to smooth out the waiting process, not make it more complicated. I really would like to see Disney enforce the one hour time frame. I know I’m in the minority but call me a purist for now.
We went all the way through the Soarin' FastPass line (maybe because everyone else was waiting until later to use their FastPass?) but were stopped right at the podium before the loading area. As we entered the line at the beginning, a dad was in discussion with a Cast Member asking about having to go back through the line again. I thought he was asking about doing a child swap with his wife and their little girl. It turned out that the dad had to go to the bathroom. Not the little girl but the dad. I thought it was funny with all the controversy on the boards about "line jumping" and what happens when your child has to use the bathroom, that this time it was a full grown adult. And he did ask the Cast Member who told him it would not be a problem for him to rejoin his family in line later. Which he did when we were stopped near the podium. Although he told his wife that it's a long, long way to the bathrooms which are on the other side of the pavilion.
Our trip over California was in the second row which was fine with me. My first time riding this, I was a bit on the nervous side. OK - I was almost terrified. I do not like going up high and not being enclosed. Ferris wheels and I are not friends. The second time was better but still not that great. This time, I was fine until we went over that mountain with the skiers. Then I got a little tingly and grabbed onto the very little handles they have on the sides of the seats. And I don't know what it is about this ride but parents seem to always have to talk to their little ones throughout the entire ride. "Yeah, look at the skiers, oh, we're going down a river now, look, there's Tinkerbell!" Oy - it's like watching TV with the closed captioning feature turned on. And I still don't see why this attraction is still so popular. The film hasn't changed and that's the complaint on so many other attractions. I'm glad we did this but we only did it because it wasn't a huge deal for us. I can wait a few years to see it again.
Since I had survived my flying adventure, it was time for my beer. Back to the Promenade Refreshments for a Bud Light. Then we moved onto Mexico for Rich to get yet another green apple margarita. He's been enjoying these drinks in the summer months. We took what turned out to be our final walk around World Showcase for this trip. By 5:30, we were back in Canada for Off Kilter again with Rich grabbing a beer at the recently moved beer cart in Canada. The cart used to be right near the Off Kilter stage. Now it's back near the entrance to LeCellier. Rich thought it was gone for good until he spied it earlier this morning. He did a little digging when he got his beer and found out that the cart was moved to open the area where it used to be and the new location had more foot traffic. Makes sense and we're glad you can still get Moosehead in Canada. That would have been a blow if that was taken away.
After this show, Rich went up to talk to one of the band members and then was introduced to one of the substitutes. As much as we don't like not having the original five guys there, we do think the subs are very talented in their own right. So it was nice to be able to tell that to one of them in person. I know there will come a day (I hope far in the future) where Off Kilter will no longer exist in the current format. Or, heaven forbid, not exist at all. It is good to know that if a member or two decides to leave, there will be others to keep the a quality band going.
It was now after 6:00 and we had done just about everything in Epcot we wanted to. I was surprised when I reflected on just how much we did in the past two days. During a major American holiday weekend. We hadn't done Spaceship Earth but the main reason for not doing that is we entered from the International Gateway so it wasn't that convenient for us to go all the way up to the front for it. We attempted to do Maelstrom but it wasn't worth the wait. And we still need to do the other two films at some point. But we'll be back at Labor Day and Thanksgiving and I know we'll spend lots more time at Epcot. Still, we did a lot more than what I thought we would do.
The Coke Zero 400 at Daytona was being held tonight and it was fine for both of us to head back to the room and watch it. Before the Off Kilter show, we had discussed dinner options and decided that Checkers carryout on the way back was a great choice. Yes, our meals at Disney World are far from gourmet and that's the way we like it. We aren't foodies in the real world so why go to all the trouble at Disney World? Even if it wasn't so difficult to do the plan with an annual pass (you still have to get at least a one day pass), we wouldn't do the dining plan as we never would eat that much food and plan on that many table service meals. We're simple kind of folk.
Rich drove us to Checkers which is a fast food chain (called Rally's in some parts of the country) with a location at Old Town. We actually had to go onto Highway 192 for more than our quick jaunt but it wasn't that bad. I ordered a Big Buford and onion rings (love the rings here) while Rich went for two Baconzillas (so much for that diet). After we had our food bag, we found the traffic on Highway 192 to the hotel was really picking up. I knew Kissimmee was having a fireworks show on a lake somewhere closer to downtown and I'm sure that's where everyone was heading. Thankfully, we were able to make our left hand turn into the hotel parking lot without too much hassle.
Once in the room, I took a quick cool down shower and then we enjoyed Checkers. We have these places around Atlanta but none near us. Where we live is kind of a fast food dead zone. Mainly because every conceivable kind of fast food or table service chain restaurant is just down the interstate five miles at the Mall of Georgia. Which we don't go near since traffic is always bad. Sounds crazy but we do enjoy scarfing down fast food every once in a while because we just don't get it very often.
The race, now the race. Let's just say that sometimes it's not a good thing to have the outcome decided on the last lap. Especially when the two drivers involved are Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch. And even worse is when Mr. Stewart is "owned" by my son and Mr. Busch is "owned" by my husband in fantasy NASCAR. Mr. Stewart won while Mr. Busch ended up crashing with the finish line in sight. Incredible finish. Except my husband didn't like it at all. And when the phone rang seconds after the incredible finish for my son to talk to my husband, well, the Fourth of July fireworks were held inside our room tonight. I wasn't proud of Rich's behavior and neither was he as he called Chris the next day to apologize. Fantasy NASCAR should be fun, not a cause for hurt feelings among family members.
It was lights out in a very frosty room (mood-wish) shortly after 11:00.
Day Four - Sunday, July 5, 2009
I had set the phone alarm for 8:00 and we were up and ready to go shortly after 9:00. Rich drove us out of Disney property and I have to say that this was the quietest drive home ever. Rich knew I was mad at him for his stupidity of last night. Usually, we can both get over our moods in a short time but this wasn't one of those times. We stopped for lunch at Wendy's and I took over driving. We switched drivers again at Macon and were home around 5:00. That's when Rich called Chris to apologize. He admitted that his emotions got the best of him and he should have handed the phone to me instead of being a raving lunatic. Fortunately, Chris is a fantastic son and there were no hard feelings on his side. This is a reason our daughter-in-law dropped out of the league two years ago. The two males involved are too competitive.
During Rich's apologetic phone call to Chris, he informed us of the monorail crash that happened early that morning at Disney World. Any Disney fan knows of this tragedy. It made that silly squabble that Rich and Chris (mostly Rich) had seem like such an unimportant thing. What if the last words Rich had with Chris were the ones said in anger? Sad thing to think about.
And so ends another Niklewski Disney World trip. Not the best way to end it.
We will be back for Labor Day and then again for the "big trip" of Thanksgiving. We both will take the Monday after Thanksgiving off so we'll have three full days at the parks. I'm really looking forward to that trip as we haven't been able to experience Disney World like that together for quite a while.
Conclusion
I prepared myself for the crowds and the heat for the holiday weekend. The heat materialized, the crowds never did. It made for an enjoyable time but has me concerned about how Disney will manage through these tough times. I'm not worried that Disney will survive but I am troubled when people, who supposedly love Disney World, start getting all upset about cutbacks. If Disney doesn't cutback, how will they be able to continue in the future? Haven't we all cutback in our personal lives? Disney is a business just like any other business. They have to do what they need to and still make a profit. That's the nature of a business. That's why layoffs happen, that's why I was unemployed for over two years. I don't quite understand why people think Disney should be immune to the problems of this country and the world right now. I'd rather see cutbacks now and a flourishing Disney World in the future than to see no Disney World at all.
On this trip, we did Epcot to death. It was very nice to be able to take our time and experience the Future World attractions we usually pass by. And it was a very unexpected surprise to be able to go on Soarin' without any difficulties. In retrospect, we should have gone to the Studios first on July 4th and maybe gotten a Toy Story Mania FastPass for later that day. We still could have done Soarin' too. But hindsight is 20/20. Maybe next trip.
Dates - July 2-5, 2009 Fourth of July Weekend
Resort - Offsite with a king bed suite
Travel method - personal car
Introduction
This will be the first of the next three years of doing Disney World for Fourth of July weekend. Since the 4th is on a Saturday, we both get Friday off. Next year, the 4th will be on a Sunday so we'll get Monday off. And then for 2011, the holiday will be on a Monday. We know it'll be hot and we know it'll be crowded but we'll adapt.
I made our reservations as soon as we came back from the Memorial Day trip. I booked our normal Travelodge Suites East Gate Orange for Kissimmee. Nothing much to add to that except the price was higher than Memorial Day which kind of stank. But it was still around $50/night. For our overnight stop on the way down, our normal Days Inn wasn't available so I went searching in Valdosta and decided on a Knights Inn. But when I tried to book that, there were no king beds available. Then I looked back at exit 5 where the Days Inn is and the Super 8 there did have what I needed. However, I'm not thrilled with this place since I stayed there one night on a solo trip a few years ago. But, beggars can't be choosers and the trip was only six weeks away so I booked it. (I also made my Labor Day and Thanksgiving reservations but that's for different trip reports).
Rich and I have no desire to be in any Disney park for the July 4th fireworks. I know that sounds like were un-American but I'm definitely not. We really just are not into fireworks. They are pretty but neither one of us gets the giddy feeling other people seem to get. So our plan will be to go to the Studios when we get there on Friday afternoon and then spend all day Saturday in Epcot. Other than that, we'll have no plans whatsoever and no dining reservations or expectations. We need to be flexible to deal with the heat and the crowds.
I did question my sanity after reading a ton of posts about parks closing for crowds but in the end, I decided that even if we didn't do much of anything at Disney World, we would be away from the house for a weekend.
Day One - Thursday, July 2, 2009
Rich asked to take Monday off but his boss already had the day planned for her vacation so he took today instead. And was glad he did. The company president decided against letting everyone leave a few hours early (he's a grinch sometimes) so Rich would have been stuck at work until 4:30 and not home until 5:30. I only work until 3:00 so this way, we can be on the road before 4:00.
My work went fairly well except for my boss being involved in a conversion of the accounting system and forgetting about the day to day operations. Plus, my counterpart had her normal Thursday off so I was going to be pulling double duty for one important thing. I managed to remind my boss about that and I finally got everything done around 2:00 so I was gone by 2:45.
Rich had spent the day doing some last minute things and getting the car packed up. So when I arrived home, all I had to do was go to the bathroom and say goodbye to the cats. One good thing happened, though. In the past, I had always been home (since I was unemployed for over two years) to get everything ready for these Disney trips. Since Rich had to do everything, he realized just how much work goes into the preparation. He even did laundry (although he admitted later it was only because he didn't have enough underwear).
We were heading out on I85 south by 3:45 or so. As with Memorial Day weekend, we practically flew through Atlanta. There were only two slowdowns which are messy interchanges unless you are driving through in the middle of the night (and then don't even count on that). Rich pulled us into the parking lot of the Super 8 at exit 5 off I75 in Lake Park right after 8:00.
I had stayed at this particular hotel once before on a solo trip and did not like it at all. I only chose it this time because the other two places at this exit were both full and I couldn't find anything else with a king bed. I checked us in and we were given the same room as I had on my solo trip! What are the odds? (Unless there aren't very many king bed rooms in this place). I was sure I was not going to enjoy this night at all.
But I was wrong. Maybe the last time I had negative feelings because (1) I was alone, (2) I didn't arrive until about 10:30 PM, (3) the place was almost full. I found nothing wrong with the hotel this time and will look to book this more in the future. The Days Inn at this exit is more expensive and the Travelodge here did not have great customer service over Memorial Day weekend. I'm really glad I gave this place another chance.
Dinner tonight was McDonald's at the very convenient place across the street. I'm not a fan of this McDonald's as there never seems to be capable people working here. Tonight was no exception. The counter area was filled with people waiting for their food. It seemed like everyone was part of one big group but I could be wrong. We placed our order (a McDouble and fries for me while Rich opted for chicken McNuggets which was unusual) and then prepared to wait. The person getting the food together was horrible as she couldn't even read the overhead monitors to get the correct things into the right bags or trays. And the people waiting for food weren't that much help. Each time an order was announced as being ready, a person would come up and ask if that was their food. Weren't you listening? Was that your order they announced? After about five agonizing minutes of watching sheer ineptness at its best, we had our food. Then Rich had to ask for McNugget sauce (anyone ever eat these without sauce?) and ketchup. That took a while as it seems McDonald's employees don't like giving out more than one ketchup packet to a customer. Come on, Rich is like the ketchup king - he needs more. We finally escaped back to the room with our dinner.
Entertainment for the evening was the CBS lineup of shows - Flashpoint (discovered over Memorial Day weekend) and Numbers. Then lights out shortly after 11:00.
Day Two - Friday, July 3, 2009
The alarm went off right at 7:00 and I practically jumped out of bed. Not that I wanted to get up and get going but because it wasn’t a usual sound. Rather than even discuss the matter with Rich, I got ready first. This is usually a bane in our marriage on trips. Who gets up and in the shower when the alarm goes off. I wasn’t in the mood for any bantering this morning.
The bathrooms here are all inclusive so the sink is in the same room with the shower. Fortunately, there is an accessible outlet at the vanity so I was able to dry my hair while Rich was taking his shower. Yes, we’ve been married over 27 years but still like our bathroom time to be private.
We didn’t have that much to pack up so we had the car loaded back up shortly before 8:00. We walked through to the front desk to check out and get some of the free muffins and doughnuts available. Well, I took a muffin, Rich passed. While I’m glad he did that since he’s still trying to loose weight (I think that will be a lifelong thing for him), that also meant he’s be hitting a park on an empty stomach. I mentioned that I’d have to make sure he got something to eat when we got to Disney World. I knew it would be hot, I knew Rich would be having some beer and I wanted to make sure he had food in his stomach. The man can be stubborn that way. He thinks if he doesn’t eat, that will make the pounds go away. I’m slowly getting him to understand eating smarter is the way to go, not eating less.
Since gas prices are always higher in Florida, we fill up at this exit. The RaceWay is the best deal so we did that for $2.41/gallon. I guess it should have been an indication that travel is down this year as even with the lowest prices at the exit, we were one of the few cars at the pumps. Usually, this place is fairly crowded. Even though Rich didn’t go in for any Diet Cokes (he still had an ample supply in the cooler), I still pumped the gas. It’s a habit I’ve gotten into on trips.
Rich headed us south on I75 around 8:15. I remarked at this point that I was surprised Rich had said to get up at 7:00 since he usually wants to sleep until about 8:00. I know Rich will hit the big 5-0 next year and I am concerned about his memory because he had no idea what I was talking about. He thought it was normal for us to get up at 7:00 on this leg of the trip. Oh well, we were up and nothing he could do about it now.
The drive to the Ocala rest stop was uneventful except for a musing or two. It’s Friday morning so the radio airwaves were filled with very lame weekday morning DJs doing their normal shows. Man, this is exactly why I don’t listen to the radio anymore. Yap, yap, yap about nothing useful. Why do we care what some slob in Jacksonville thinks about current events? Just because he has his own morning radio show? Rich almost wore down the dial trying to get something in that wasn’t jabber, jabber, jabber. It’s much nicer when the holiday is on a Monday so this leg of the trip is made on a Saturday. These types of DJs are off then. (What’s kind of funny is Rich listens to a local morning radio show and loves those DJs but he couldn’t stand any of these “foreign” ones.)
The second musing is the trend radio stations have gotten into lately where they don’t tell you the artist of the song they just played. Instead, you are directed to the website where they have a list of it. Yeah, let’s see, I’m in my car, I have direct access to the internet. And even if I did have internet on my phone (neither of us do and neither of us wants it – we don’t even use the camera that’s on there), I’m certainly not going to be fooling around trying to find the website while I’m driving. Have we become so lazy that radio DJs can’t take a few extra seconds to say “that was Joe Blow doing that song”?
At the Ocala rest area, I did a very important thing. I affixed the Florida Mini-SunPass to our windshield. We had bought this on the Memorial Day trip but couldn’t use it until it was activated (kind of like a Disney Annual Pass) when we got back. This would be the first time we would be able to use the SunPass express lanes on Florida’s toll roads. We don’t get a discount on the tolls but now we don’t have to have cash and we don’t have to stop at the booths. With as many trips as we make to Disney World, this was a sound investment for us. The regular SunPass involves more cash outlay up front and doesn’t make sense unless you are a heavy Florida toll road user. The mini one is right up our alley.
The rest of the trip was flat out boring. Along the way, we picked up John Tesh’s morning show and I thought it would be bland (kind of like he is) but I ended up enjoying it a lot. Now, *this* is a morning radio show. Plenty of music and instead of inane bantering between twits of DJs, it was useful information. I didn’t take notice if he said the names of the artists, though. I’ll have to check to see if he’s available in the Atlanta area. If he is, I just might turn on my radio on the morning commute. (I checked when I got back - he's here but from 7:00 PM to midnight, drat it.)
Rich drove us to the hotel by going on Disney property for a short time. We come in on Western Way near Coronado Springs and exit on Osceola Parkway near Pop Century. It was cute in that Rich automatically started to go left on Buena Vista Drive as that would take us towards Epcot. But I directed him to the right to cut out most of the traffic in front of the Studios. He agreed it was much quicker to cut through Disney property this way. I have to give Rich some slack as in the past, we’ve not checked into the hotel first but rather went straight to the parks. After getting denied a reserved king bed room over Thanksgiving because we checked in so late, we’ve been going to the hotel first just to let them know we are here. At Memorial Day it was doubly sweet as we got our room early.
The Travelodge East Gate Orange is located on Irlo Bronson Highway (which is Highway 192 near Disney World and Vine Street in downtown Kissimmee) but we take Osceola Parkway to Seralago and then take that to Irlo Bronson Highway. This cuts out all but a small part of Highway 192 for us. The highway is a fine road. It’s the tourist driving on it that’s the problem. Way too many people who don’t know where they are going and make really dumb driving decisions like sudden lane switches or slowing down to a crawl to find an address or a building. With our route, we are on the highway for a short amount of time and only have to make one left turn to get into the hotel. Getting out is even easier as it’s a right turn directly onto the highway.
The Travelodge is very easy to spot as it’s next to the big Orange Gift Shop which is housed in, you guessed it, a big Orange. It’s a tacky tourist gift shop where you can get Florida oranges and other fruits as well as the obligatory $5 T-shirts and sunglasses. But it’s always doing some business and it’s been here for quite a while so some people must like it (or like to go home and tell people they bought oranges in an orange).
I was helped at the Travelodge by the same manager who I think is on duty 24/7 since he’s always the one to check me in. Think George Carlin in his late 40s. As Rich said “that guy was a hippie in the 70s”. But he’s nice and friendly. When I gave my name, he said “oh, you have several reservations”. My mind flashed to a big mistake as maybe I made a double booking. But then the manager said “one for this weekend, one for September and one for November”. Yes, I already have our reservations here for Labor Day and Thanksgiving. I used to move us around in hotels in the area but once I found this one and we both liked it, the drive is easy for us, and it’s not expensive at all so we're sticking to it. It gives us what we need without bells or whistles that we probably wouldn’t use anyway.
And, just like Memorial Day weekend, our room was ready. And it was the same room as Memorial Day weekend! I really liked that room so was extremely happy. To show that Rich pays absolutely no attention to travel details, he had to have the manager point out how to get to the room. I was already halfway out the door to the car since I knew exactly where it was. Halfway down the building, the second floor, view of the pool (you could jump from the second floor landing into the pool) and next to a breezeway so we only have one neighbor. Very nice room indeed.
It wasn’t even noon yet so we took our time unloading the car and unpacking in the room. Well, I unpacked my suitcase, Rich just plunked his down on the vanity. I immediately checked our TV availability and was dismayed to see no TNT! The Coke Zero 400 from Daytona was on that channel tomorrow night! (NASCAR race). I guess we’ll be either listening to it on the radio or “watching” it online. But as Rich was going through the channels on the TV (he has to have a TV on the minute he walks into a room), he found a Law & Order episode. That has to be TNT! It sure was. I guess the card in the room is a bit outdated. Whew – we can watch the race tomorrow night after all.
For the trip, we each had a day pack to carry on our backs. Usually we just have one and Rich takes it. But I knew we’d need more supplies this trip because of the heat so I’ll take one with my stuff and Rich can have one with the ponchos and his stuff. By “stuff”, I mean extra shirts for Rich since he sweats through his fairly rapidly and for me, a pair of plastic shoes in case it rains. We both carry our cell phones but only really for timepieces as neither one of us wear a watch.
Shortly after noon, we headed out for a park. We had agreed on the Studios since we hadn’t been there for a while. However after parking and starting to walk, the plan was changed to Epcot only. Rich said there wasn’t really anything at the Studios for us anymore. After Twilight Zone (where I only do the preshow since the ride itself thuds) and Rock and Roller Coaster (only for Rich since that one goes upside down and thuds), there’s not much left. We haven’t been on Toy Story Mania yet and we really don’t want to invest the time or energy to do it. We’re not the type of people to get up and run for a FastPass first thing in the morning. I guess we don’t want to put effort into our fun. If it happens, it happens. If it doesn’t, oh well, life is full of plenty of other things to make it interesting.
I'll mention the weather here in one word. Hot. In the words of Forrest Gump, "and that's all I'm going to say about that".
We were going to concentrate on Future World today since we anticipated the park being crowded tomorrow for the holiday. We could walk around World Showcase in the crowds if necessary. Rich stopped at the Promenade Refreshments for a pretzel and Bud Lite for the hot walk to Ellen's Energy Adventure. Along the way, we diverted into Mouse Gear for both the air conditioning and to kill some time while Rich drank his brew. I was equipped with a water bottle for the day. I made ample use of the water fountains all over Epcot both today and tomorrow.
We had perfect timing for Ellen as we entered the preshow area just minutes before it started. Of course, there were lots of people sitting on the floor who then had to stand up when the show started. It amazes me how some people think this is the world's worst thing to do - stand up and watch a short preshow. I sometimes fear the human race will become like those in Wall-E. Sitting for everything.
Once the preshow was over (Stupid Judy), we entered the theatre section by the left side and sat in the first row of the second of the left most car. Most people will flock to the first rows or to the center car. So it's easy for us to get a non-crowded row.
The attraction was good as always and we noted the Jar Jar Binks relatives in with the dinosaurs. And it's always to get a reminder that no matter how a person thinks we should get our energy for survival, we do have to combine sources to achieve ultimate efficiency. The attraction is also good for educating about energy without being boring (even though Bill Nye the Science Guy still gets on my nerves).
Next, we crossed over to The Land to see about those non-Soarin' attractions. We didn't think we'd be able to get a FastPass for Soarin' since it was already well after 1:00. But much to our surprise, FastPasses were available for 7:00 PM. And the standby line was only 55 minutes. Isn't this Fourth of July weekend? We've been here during regular times and witnessed 120 minutes wait with no FastPasses. Wow, this recession must be bad - I feel very fortunate to have found my current job after being out of work for 2-1/2 years. And Rich's job is safe and sound.
Even with Soarin' being reasonable for others, it was still unreasonable for us so we headed for Living with the Land. All we had to do was wend our way through the queue and we were on a boat. This is always enjoyable (especially now with the recorded narration) to see the different growing methods for food and the promise that the hungry will eventually go away worldwide. I just wish other nations would allow humane aide into their countries. It's frustrating when the technology is available but stubbornness is preventing progress for the citizens. OK - off the soap box (probably won't be the only time I'm up there this weekend).
At this point, Rich and I took stock in what we could accomplish tomorrow when the hoards would be here. We didn't really need to do Mission:Space or Test Track since we had just done those over Memorial Day weekend. The entire Imagination pavilion would be doable with crowds as would Spaceship Earth and The Living Seas. So we headed to World Showcase for a walk around.
I finally saw the Kim Possible area to pick up the communicators (Kimacators?). I was gung ho earlier in the year to do this adventure but didn't feel up to it this trip. And I need to add one more guest classification to the lists Steve Russo keeps. The Kim Im-Possibles. Those are the people who are in a country doing the adventure but are so intently concentrating on the narration coming from the communicator that they blindly walk into other people.
Rich stopped in Mexico for a green apple margarita (yeck!) for the walk. Since Rich had the pretzel earlier, it was time for my "lunch". I love the pot stickers and egg rolls at the Lotus Blossom Café in China so that's where we were headed. One order of pot stickers for me and one order of egg rolls for Rich and we were set for food. But the pot stickers were not enough so Rich gave me one of his egg rolls. Which I protested that I couldn't eat and then devoured the entire thing! The heat sure wasn't affecting my appetite this trip.
After our respite, we continued on to my favorite place (especially this weekend) - the American pavilion. I was hoping for additional patriotic things I could get for our house. I'm slowly getting our mantel and fireplace wall in our living room to be red, white, and blue. The Heritage Gift Shop has some very nice things but I'm going to have to wait just a bit longer to save up money for some of the items. For now, I concentrated on a $6 shotglass with the American pavilion etched into it. I didn't get it now as I knew we'd be back here at least one more time this trip.
We were getting really hot by now and even though it was earlier than I wanted, I went for my one beer of the day. I really just wanted something cold that didn't come out of a water fountain. The Fife and Drum Refreshments and their $5.50 Bud Lite handled my need quite nicely. Rich went for a melon Kaki-Gori next door in Japan. The heat was starting to affect us so we took some time out to enjoy our refreshments and then continued on to France for their nice air conditioned movie.
It's been quite a while since we've taken the time to watch any of the World Showcase movies. Rich showed this when we entered the theatre and he asked "we sit down for this one?" Um, yes and stop sounding like a tourist. We had timed it perfectly since I believe this show starts on the hour and it was just 4:00.
I really enjoyed the movie, especially the music since I've been listening to classical CDs on my commute. It's much more relaxing that the aforementioned DJ garbage on the radio. The only bad thing during the film was these two ladies two rows back who kept up a steady conversation throughout. Couldn't they have shut up for fifteen minutes? Was whatever they were talking about that important? Eventually I was able to block them out but it still was irritating.
One thing that always hits home with me when I watch these Epcot films is the age of the countries. America is turning 233 years old tomorrow. If you consider France's "birth" as 843 with the Treaty of Verdun (I didn't know that - I looked it up when I got home), that makes France 1,166 years old! My country is just a young whippersnapper with a lot more growing to do.
The movie really refreshed me and I’m glad since I was ready to pack it in earlier and head to the room. I live in Georgia and we get just about the same weather if about ten degrees cooler. That mid-90 degree temperature with humidity was taking a toll on both of us today. The next Off Kilter set was at 5:30 so we headed to Canada for our first viewing of the weekend. The guys were playing seven days a week so that meant a lot of substitutes as you can't expect the original five guys to practically live at Epcot. We figured on that for the weekend.
Rich went down to the Promenade Refreshments for another beer (his version of keeping hydrated) and then we backtracked to Canada from there. We had been discussing the NASCAR Champions of the 21st Century and couldn't come up with one (we thought from 2004). Once at the Off Kilter stage, I called the one person who I knew would have the quick answer. Our son, Chris. He was never into NASCAR before he met his wife but once he got into it, he quickly became an expert. Chris is like that - if he wants to learn about something, he will learn everything there is to know about the subject. Our question was quickly answered (turned out, it wasn't the 2004 champion we were missing, it was Jeff Gordon from an earlier year) but I noted the time on the cell phone was only 4:50. We still had well over a half hour until Off Kilter would be playing. There was no way we were sitting on the hot benches (even though we were in the shade) for that long. So we started walking again.
We ended up in Mexico and went into the pavilion for some air conditioning. Rich suggested the Grand Fiesta Tour with Donald and friends so we walked right onto that behind a large party who took up one entire boat. Thankfully, we were on the next one and weren't part of the celebration. But again, I had to listen to two women yak for the entire time. This time right in front of us. It would be one thing if these people would be talking about the attraction but the conversations had nothing to do with even Disney World. Sigh - I was able to focus on the ride after a while. I do think this is an improvement on the former attraction here. While neither boat ride wants to make me go on a vacation to Mexico, at least Donald, Panchito, and Jose make this one fun.
We did a little pyramid shopping (Mexico's version of window shopping) and I saw that pints of tequila are on sale here for $7.95. Rich mentioned that a bottle of that and a frozen lemonade would be a fine thing to walk around with on a day like today. I think someone would have to be hard pressed for alcohol to attempt something like that but there are people who do, I'm sure.
After our short trip south of the border, we returned to north of the border and Canada for Off Kilter, finally. And unfortunately, our thoughts about the guys performing seven days a week were proved true. Of the five men on stage, only two were original members. Sigh. While I'm glad Disney World guests are getting Off Kilter all the time, they really aren't getting Off Kilter, if you know what I mean. There's a limited play selection as sometimes a singer won't be there or even an instrument isn't even being played (today, the keyboards were replaced by an acoustical guitar). The music is still good but it's just not vintage Off Kilter.
With our musical cravings not quite satisfied, we decided to try out Slippery When Wet, the tribute band to Bon Jovi who was playing as part of the Sounds of Summer concert series. It would be our first viewing of a tribute band at Disney World (we had seen a Jimmy Buffet tribute band in Atlanta and weren't too impressed). The only problem was the concert started at 7:00 and it was only 6:00. We tried to walk as slowly as possible but it wasn't slow enough. We had passed Norway and were at China when we decided we were going to be way too early. So we backtracked to see about the wait time for Maelstrom. Yeck, 30 minutes. That wasn't going to help and we decided to call it a day.
But we continued to walk around World Showcase clockwise. I stopped in Germany for a bathroom break and to wash off. I carry a washcloth in a small zipper bag in my daypack. I wet that at the bathroom sinks and wash down my face and arms when I get really hot and sticky. Makes a really big difference in how I feel.
I’m going to interject this here because I just mentioned bathrooms. I made an observation this trip that I will have to see holds out in all bathrooms at Disney World. The ones I visited this trip had something unusual in them. The mirrors were not over the sinks. I hadn't noticed that before and wonder if that's a reason why Disney World bathrooms don't get that crowded. Especially in the women's room (Rich started taking notice that the mirrors not over the sink was also true in the few men's rooms he visited). That's one of the big reasons why women's bathrooms seem to be busier than Atlanta's downtown area during rush hour. Women tend to stand in front of the sinks to use the mirrors to tidy up thereby creating a clog in the flow of washing hands and leaving. By moving the mirrors to another area, the sinks remain open and are only used for their intended purpose. I really like this feature of Disney World bathrooms. Now back to the trip report.
By the time we arrived in America, the first show had ended and it was only about a half hour wait until the next one. We decided to stick it out so I got a frozen lemonade from the Fife and Drum Refreshments while Rich had another beer.
I have some favorite foods at Disney World - pot stickers and egg rolls as mentioned earlier today as well as the wonderful popcorn here - but now I have a favorite drink. For $3, that frozen lemonade was one of the best tasting things I have ever had. A great bargain too. It's not so sweet that you get sick of it after a while, it's not totally frozen like you can get at some places (more like Italian ices), but it's frozen enough that it doesn't melt in five minutes. Yummy.
I'm not sure if it was because of the heat but the ropes were dropped for us to enter into the American Gardens Theatre at 6:30, a half hour before the show. I think they had just enough time to clear out the earlier show before we went in. At least we had nice seats for the show and some cold drinks to pass the time.
We enjoyed the show. That's all I can say about it. The band was a very good imitation of Bon Jovi but I think in order to enjoy the performance more, we should have seen a real Bon Jovi concert in person. We didn't even recognize the first three songs that were played. Evidentially, most of the rest of the audience did, complete with the hand movements that I'm sure were part of the concert experience. The couple in front of us (about our age) sure were enjoying themselves and singing along with the band. It's like Rich and I just weren't quite part of the in-crowd for this concert. We did know the final three songs and I was waiting for Living on a Prayer which surely had to be the finale. It wasn't. Wanted Dead or Alive was and while that song is very good, I'm used to the last song being a kick-butt-get up on your feet-sing along-have a good time song. So I left feeling a bit disappointed. Don't get me wrong, the band was really good and the lead singer was part singer and part actor as he became Jon Bon Jovi (complete with hand gestures and hair cut). Even the lead guitarist looked and acted like Richie Sambora. But it wasn't as upbeat as I thought it would be.
It was time to end our day at Disney World. We were both smelly and grimy so going out for dinner was not an option until we at least went back to the room. On the walk back to the car, it was mutually decided that ordering a Flippers pizza to be delivered to the room was a fantastic idea. It was late, we were tired, and more importantly, we were grungy. Plus, we still had to do our fantasy NASCAR draft with our son.
Rich drove us back to the Travelodge without incident. He was going to head for the pool for a cool down but we could easily see (since it was right outside our door and one floor down) that a large family was enjoying themselves there. Instead, we both took a very brief cooling down shower (separately, of course). We felt so much better after.
Rich called for the pizza and got the most clueless person to ever answer a pizza delivery phone. The first thing Rich said was that he was calling from the Travelodge on Irlo Bronson Highway. The girl asked Rich if they delivered there! Like Rich is supposed to know. True, he did know this was the branch that delivered to the Travelodge since we've done this before. But if he was just a normal tourist, how in the world would he know? Then she asked for the address and there was nowhere in the room that actually had it. The phone number was on the phone but nothing in the room indicated the street address. Wonderful. She suggested an address and Rich said that sounded like it (he wouldn't know the street address of the hotel if it jumped up and bit him on the arm). Then Rich started to give our Visa card number to pay for it beforehand and she screwed that up too. At the end, we weren't sure if we would even get our extra large triple pepperoni or if we did, if it had been paid for. Good thing we both took a shower before all this or it wouldn't have been pretty.
A call to our son, Chris, was made to see about doing the NASCAR draft. But he was on the road with his family going to see fireworks. He'd call back when they got home. So we settled in to watch the NASCAR Nationwide race and wait for the pizza.
At least the pizza was delivered and payment had been taken care of. As usual, the pie didn't disappoint although we had three slices left over. I was prepared this time with crushed red peppers, paper plates, paper napkins and plastic utensils. Well, almost prepared. I had only spoons and knives for utensils. Forgot the forks. At least we were able to eat it without forks (I know, we are heathens for needing forks but it was an extra large pizza).
The race wasn’t that exciting and I found myself nodding off many times. It was almost 11:00 by the time it was finally over (to show how boring it was, I don't even remember who won) and we both were pretty wiped out from the day. However, we still needed to do the fantasy NASCAR draft and we hadn't heard from Chris yet. Rich called him only to find they were still at the fireworks which had ended a while ago. Seems our daughter-in-law was engaged in a conversation with someone. Rich had predicted that before he called. Chandra loves to talk and our grandson has inherited that from her. Mitchell certainly does not get it from Chris as Chris didn't really talk until he was three. Mitchell has probably said more words in his young life (he'll be three in September) than Chris has said in his whole life! Our phone call prompted Chris to hustle Chandra along back home. He'd call when they finally got back home.
In order to stay awake, I got out the five dice and the Yactzee scorepads I had brought along. Over Memorial Day weekend, we were stuck in the room while it poured down rain and we had nothing to do. So I decided to always carry these items and a deck of cards along with us. Really came in handy tonight.
It wasn't too long until Chris called back (thank goodness they live in a small town outside of Toledo) and we completed the draft. After that, it was lights out for us. An alarm was not set for tomorrow.
Day Three - Saturday, July 4, 2009 - Happy 233rd Birthday America!!!!!!!!!!!
As tired as I was last night, I was woke right at 8:00. I tried to go back to sleep but it didn't work. I finally got up at 8:30 and started working on the trip report. Rich slept/rested until after 9:00. Then it took him quite a while to get up and running. I had meanwhile taken a shower and was ready to go.
We really weren't in a hurry to go (well, Rich wasn't) since the crowd levels yesterday were much lower than I expected. I figured today would be worse and prepared myself at least mentally. Our plan was Epcot again with the thought that if the parks did close, there was more walking around room at this park. It actually was the default since you couldn't pay me to be near Magic Kingdom on a major holiday that involves fireworks, Animal Kingdom didn't have any nighttime things (out of respect for the animals), and we'd get bored very quickly at the Studios. We finally headed out around 10:00 or shortly after.
Rich's plan today was to get a FastPass for Soarin'. Now, think about it. We've only been on this attraction twice and the first time was the sneak preview for Annual Passholders (we just happened to be there that weekend). The other time was off season. This was July 4th and Rich wanted a FastPass for the most popular attraction at Epcot but we didn't get here at rope drop. I told him he was insane.
But I had to eat my words. We got to outside The Land around quarter after 11:00. Not only were Soarin' FastPasses available but they were for a decent time! Wow! (BTW, I love the wait board outside The Land - no need to go all the way down to the actual attraction to see the different times). We went down there and at 11:24 (time printed on the FastPass), we were set to come back between 3:42 and 4:42. Unbelievable.
Up to this point, I had been one of the "doom and gloomers". A Debbie Downer. The parks were going to be crowded, it was going to be a madhouse, etc. But it wasn't. I guess it's better to be prepared for the worst and when it doesn't happen you feel much better. I know I did.
Since we were already in The Land, we headed upstairs for The Circle of Life. I hadn't seen this film in a while although I really enjoy it. A good environmental message with Pumbaa and Timon thrown in for good measure. It is a bit heavy handed (humans really aren't that mean, we just don't know any better) but the message does have to get out to people. I think the preshow here is a bit depressing with all the statistics on how messy we have made the planet. But I guess if just one person starts to recycle or conserve energy, it's worth it.
Now that we were done saving the planet (I tend to get a bit heavy-handed myself when it comes to the environment), it was time to go swim with the fishies. The Living Seas with Nemo and Friends was next (or simply, The Living Seas). Rich said we should ride into the building so we hunted for Nemo for a while. This attraction always cracks me up with Marlon yelling "Nemo, no!" at the beginning. Especially today because we were stuck there as a handicapped person was loaded into a clamshell. See, we have this cat named Nemo. And we are always telling Nemo "no!" Sounded just like home to us.
Rich made the decision to avoid Turtle Talk with Crush because "it would be too crowded". I actually think he didn't want to do it because he secretly wants to sit up front with the little kids and ask Crush questions. So we wandered around the viewing areas and saw just about every fish in the tanks and display areas. We had a few highlights.
In the area where there is a clown fish in just about every tank (obviously trying to get kids to identify with Nemo and Marlon), there was a starfish stuck on the side of a tank looking just like Peach in the movie. Rich went over and asked if she had found her happy place yet.
I saw seahorses for the first time. They looked very regal in their movements. One was sleeping, I think. His tail was wrapped around one of the plants so he wouldn't float away.
One little boy, about five years old, was so excited to see a ray swimming around. This kid was yelling "it's a ray just like in Nemo!" at the top of his lungs. He was dancing around looking at not only the ray but all the other fish in the big tank. I honestly don't think the kid had ever seen live fish before. But he absolutely loved that ray. If there could have been little fish riding him around, that kid would have died and gone to heaven. Everyone was cracking up with the enthusiasm of one little boy.
After our fish fun, we exited and I announced I was hungry (go figure). Rich suggested China yet again and I wasn't going to complain. Maybe he was trying to make up for Memorial Day weekend when I didn't get any egg rolls or pot stickers. We walked back to China with Rich briefly stopping in Norway for a beer. At the Lotus Blossom Café, I ordered us a shrimp fried rice (for Rich) and pot stickers for me. Rich gave me his egg roll that was part of the meal so I was really happy.
My stomach was full for the time being so we headed to America for me to show Rich the shotglass I had looked at yesterday. The American Adventure was starting in just ten minutes so we diverted into there first. It was the Fourth of July, how could this patriotic gal pass up a chance to see this show again? When we entered the rotunda, everyone was already gathered over at the entrance to the upstairs part. But the show wasn't even going to start for another ten minutes so Rich and I found a bench right under the quote by Walt Disney and waited for the welcoming announcement. Once that was made, we slowly joined the back of the crowd to go upstairs. Upstairs, Rich asked where all those flags were the Cast Member mentioned in the opening. We had both been so intent on waking up the stairs, we never looked up! Drat it. Oh well, an excuse for going back again (like I really need an excuse).
The show did not disappoint once again. My eyes start to get misty during the montage when the Vietnam War Memorial (The Wall) is shown. It gets really bad when the aftermath of the World Trade Centers is shown. I don't recover until the very end. I don't think I've ever made it through this presentation without wiping away quite a few tears. We exited to hear the Voices of Liberty performing their special July 4th concert in the American Gardens Theatre. I had seen the show on the schedule but couldn't do that and the American Adventure. The song that was being performed when we left the American Adventure was our Star Spangled Banner. Perfect.
I came down to earth a bit and showed Rich the shotglass I wanted. He thought it was a good deal as the glass is pretty sturdy and was only $6. I really enjoy adding to my red, white and blue collection a little at a time.
It was approaching 2:30 which was the time for the first Off Kilter set of the day. We knew the substitutes would be back but decided to try them out again. There were still only two original members there but this time the keyboardist was there while the lead guitarist was gone. And we had a different bass player today. I think there's a revolving door at the Off Kilter backstage area.
After the show, we decided to finish up Future World and use our Soarin' FastPass. We had done Mission:Space and Test Track at Memorial Day so we didn't have to repeat those. On this trip, we had done Ellen's Energy Adventure, The Living Seas, and most of The Land. Since we still had some time before our Soarin' FastPass time (still amazed we got one and could use it before the sun set), we headed to the Imagination Pavilion and Honey I Shrunk the Audience.
The preshow was about five minutes from ending so we had to watch a bit of the Kodak slide show. I miss the True Colors preshow. I enjoyed that one although Rich thought it was boring. I count the song as one of my favorites.
The show was good as usual and I do wish the film was updated but it's still a classic. You can't beat having most of the audience still surprised when the mice come out. And the ending, of course. Always enjoyable to hear people yelling "gross!". After this, we still had some time so we paid a visit to Figment. Now, it might just be my imagination (oh, I crack myself up!) but I think I enjoy this more and more each time I ride. I think if you relax and listen to Figment's song, it makes sense and is fun.
Our window for the Soarin' FastPass was now entered so we walked over to The Land to do the final attraction in that pavilion. Here's my rant on FastPasses. I use them in the one hour time window that is printed on the FastPass. I feel that's the way Disney intended for me to use them so that's what I do. I know people say you can use the passes at any time after the window but I don’t think that's what I'm going to do. And here's the reason. This is a simple example but it's how I feel. Say Disney gives out 200 FastPasses for Soarin' at 9:00 in the morning that are good for 1:00-2:00 in the afternoon. None of those 200 people come back during that hour. So no one is going through the FastPass line. All of those 200 people decide to come back between 5:00 and 6:00 so they join the 200 people that have legitimate FastPasses for that hour. Now you have 400 people using the FastPass line when Disney only planned on 200. I know the arguments that if no one is using the FastPass line then people in the stand by line will go in faster. And when there's 400 people, then the stand by line will go slower. But I don't think that's the intent of FastPasses. It's supposed to smooth out the waiting process, not make it more complicated. I really would like to see Disney enforce the one hour time frame. I know I’m in the minority but call me a purist for now.
We went all the way through the Soarin' FastPass line (maybe because everyone else was waiting until later to use their FastPass?) but were stopped right at the podium before the loading area. As we entered the line at the beginning, a dad was in discussion with a Cast Member asking about having to go back through the line again. I thought he was asking about doing a child swap with his wife and their little girl. It turned out that the dad had to go to the bathroom. Not the little girl but the dad. I thought it was funny with all the controversy on the boards about "line jumping" and what happens when your child has to use the bathroom, that this time it was a full grown adult. And he did ask the Cast Member who told him it would not be a problem for him to rejoin his family in line later. Which he did when we were stopped near the podium. Although he told his wife that it's a long, long way to the bathrooms which are on the other side of the pavilion.
Our trip over California was in the second row which was fine with me. My first time riding this, I was a bit on the nervous side. OK - I was almost terrified. I do not like going up high and not being enclosed. Ferris wheels and I are not friends. The second time was better but still not that great. This time, I was fine until we went over that mountain with the skiers. Then I got a little tingly and grabbed onto the very little handles they have on the sides of the seats. And I don't know what it is about this ride but parents seem to always have to talk to their little ones throughout the entire ride. "Yeah, look at the skiers, oh, we're going down a river now, look, there's Tinkerbell!" Oy - it's like watching TV with the closed captioning feature turned on. And I still don't see why this attraction is still so popular. The film hasn't changed and that's the complaint on so many other attractions. I'm glad we did this but we only did it because it wasn't a huge deal for us. I can wait a few years to see it again.
Since I had survived my flying adventure, it was time for my beer. Back to the Promenade Refreshments for a Bud Light. Then we moved onto Mexico for Rich to get yet another green apple margarita. He's been enjoying these drinks in the summer months. We took what turned out to be our final walk around World Showcase for this trip. By 5:30, we were back in Canada for Off Kilter again with Rich grabbing a beer at the recently moved beer cart in Canada. The cart used to be right near the Off Kilter stage. Now it's back near the entrance to LeCellier. Rich thought it was gone for good until he spied it earlier this morning. He did a little digging when he got his beer and found out that the cart was moved to open the area where it used to be and the new location had more foot traffic. Makes sense and we're glad you can still get Moosehead in Canada. That would have been a blow if that was taken away.
After this show, Rich went up to talk to one of the band members and then was introduced to one of the substitutes. As much as we don't like not having the original five guys there, we do think the subs are very talented in their own right. So it was nice to be able to tell that to one of them in person. I know there will come a day (I hope far in the future) where Off Kilter will no longer exist in the current format. Or, heaven forbid, not exist at all. It is good to know that if a member or two decides to leave, there will be others to keep the a quality band going.
It was now after 6:00 and we had done just about everything in Epcot we wanted to. I was surprised when I reflected on just how much we did in the past two days. During a major American holiday weekend. We hadn't done Spaceship Earth but the main reason for not doing that is we entered from the International Gateway so it wasn't that convenient for us to go all the way up to the front for it. We attempted to do Maelstrom but it wasn't worth the wait. And we still need to do the other two films at some point. But we'll be back at Labor Day and Thanksgiving and I know we'll spend lots more time at Epcot. Still, we did a lot more than what I thought we would do.
The Coke Zero 400 at Daytona was being held tonight and it was fine for both of us to head back to the room and watch it. Before the Off Kilter show, we had discussed dinner options and decided that Checkers carryout on the way back was a great choice. Yes, our meals at Disney World are far from gourmet and that's the way we like it. We aren't foodies in the real world so why go to all the trouble at Disney World? Even if it wasn't so difficult to do the plan with an annual pass (you still have to get at least a one day pass), we wouldn't do the dining plan as we never would eat that much food and plan on that many table service meals. We're simple kind of folk.
Rich drove us to Checkers which is a fast food chain (called Rally's in some parts of the country) with a location at Old Town. We actually had to go onto Highway 192 for more than our quick jaunt but it wasn't that bad. I ordered a Big Buford and onion rings (love the rings here) while Rich went for two Baconzillas (so much for that diet). After we had our food bag, we found the traffic on Highway 192 to the hotel was really picking up. I knew Kissimmee was having a fireworks show on a lake somewhere closer to downtown and I'm sure that's where everyone was heading. Thankfully, we were able to make our left hand turn into the hotel parking lot without too much hassle.
Once in the room, I took a quick cool down shower and then we enjoyed Checkers. We have these places around Atlanta but none near us. Where we live is kind of a fast food dead zone. Mainly because every conceivable kind of fast food or table service chain restaurant is just down the interstate five miles at the Mall of Georgia. Which we don't go near since traffic is always bad. Sounds crazy but we do enjoy scarfing down fast food every once in a while because we just don't get it very often.
The race, now the race. Let's just say that sometimes it's not a good thing to have the outcome decided on the last lap. Especially when the two drivers involved are Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch. And even worse is when Mr. Stewart is "owned" by my son and Mr. Busch is "owned" by my husband in fantasy NASCAR. Mr. Stewart won while Mr. Busch ended up crashing with the finish line in sight. Incredible finish. Except my husband didn't like it at all. And when the phone rang seconds after the incredible finish for my son to talk to my husband, well, the Fourth of July fireworks were held inside our room tonight. I wasn't proud of Rich's behavior and neither was he as he called Chris the next day to apologize. Fantasy NASCAR should be fun, not a cause for hurt feelings among family members.
It was lights out in a very frosty room (mood-wish) shortly after 11:00.
Day Four - Sunday, July 5, 2009
I had set the phone alarm for 8:00 and we were up and ready to go shortly after 9:00. Rich drove us out of Disney property and I have to say that this was the quietest drive home ever. Rich knew I was mad at him for his stupidity of last night. Usually, we can both get over our moods in a short time but this wasn't one of those times. We stopped for lunch at Wendy's and I took over driving. We switched drivers again at Macon and were home around 5:00. That's when Rich called Chris to apologize. He admitted that his emotions got the best of him and he should have handed the phone to me instead of being a raving lunatic. Fortunately, Chris is a fantastic son and there were no hard feelings on his side. This is a reason our daughter-in-law dropped out of the league two years ago. The two males involved are too competitive.
During Rich's apologetic phone call to Chris, he informed us of the monorail crash that happened early that morning at Disney World. Any Disney fan knows of this tragedy. It made that silly squabble that Rich and Chris (mostly Rich) had seem like such an unimportant thing. What if the last words Rich had with Chris were the ones said in anger? Sad thing to think about.
And so ends another Niklewski Disney World trip. Not the best way to end it.
We will be back for Labor Day and then again for the "big trip" of Thanksgiving. We both will take the Monday after Thanksgiving off so we'll have three full days at the parks. I'm really looking forward to that trip as we haven't been able to experience Disney World like that together for quite a while.
Conclusion
I prepared myself for the crowds and the heat for the holiday weekend. The heat materialized, the crowds never did. It made for an enjoyable time but has me concerned about how Disney will manage through these tough times. I'm not worried that Disney will survive but I am troubled when people, who supposedly love Disney World, start getting all upset about cutbacks. If Disney doesn't cutback, how will they be able to continue in the future? Haven't we all cutback in our personal lives? Disney is a business just like any other business. They have to do what they need to and still make a profit. That's the nature of a business. That's why layoffs happen, that's why I was unemployed for over two years. I don't quite understand why people think Disney should be immune to the problems of this country and the world right now. I'd rather see cutbacks now and a flourishing Disney World in the future than to see no Disney World at all.
On this trip, we did Epcot to death. It was very nice to be able to take our time and experience the Future World attractions we usually pass by. And it was a very unexpected surprise to be able to go on Soarin' without any difficulties. In retrospect, we should have gone to the Studios first on July 4th and maybe gotten a Toy Story Mania FastPass for later that day. We still could have done Soarin' too. But hindsight is 20/20. Maybe next trip.