We began with Pirates of the Caribbean.
Oh, Pirates. Wow. Pirates. With apologies to Reader Cathy, there's just not a lot to say about Pirates, probably because the ride is so incredibly SHORT. Really?
The queue is very long. Like any good Disneyland Annual Passholders, we chose the line on the left and sure enough, it was much shorter than the line on the ride. We loaded our boat and the ride began.
Where was the bayou? There was no serene bayou. Here in the south, they do have bayous, right? And the fireflies? Where were the fireflies? As we pulled around the corner, we saw... Davy Jones. Davy Jones? Really? We haven't even gone down a hill. Or another hill. Where's the treasure? Where are the pirate caves? Eventually we went... downward. I'm not sure it qualified as a hill, though. The pirates and women chasing each other were very slow. When passed through the jail and then, not only was there not an uphill climb back to the non-existant bayou, but there was no gun-fight scene. Really?
Mr. Genius declared WDW's Pirates ride "Lame-O" and Sweet But Sneaky called it "Super Lame." No one could have based an entire movie, much less a series of movies, on that little thing.
Really, Cathy, we just have to call it like it is.
Next we rode Thunder Mountain. This ride was a tad longer than our version and we all enjoyed it. Well, most of us enjoyed it. Captain Stubborn sat out this ride. He said it was his choice, but had it been his choice, we would have taken him on the ride anyway. CS is at the age where he doth protest too much. If we know he can tolerate and even enjoy a ride, we no longer tolerate his refusals to ride. He knows enough to not throw tantrums. Tantrums will lead to more negative consequences than they are worth in CS's world. We are not abusive to our children and we do not use corporal punishment, we simply have been consistent enough in consequences that CS knows what will happen should he push us too far. In fact, that is why CS did not ride Thunder Mountain. Last night at bedtime he did not get quiet when we told the boys to get quiet. I told him the consequence of continuing that behavior. Hence, CS lost Thunder Mountain. He did get quiet after that. And he did miss Thunder Mountain today.
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This gave us the opportunity to use the Walt Disney World Rider Switch program. It worked almost the same as the Anaheim program. The Cast Member at the entrance gave us a pass and CS and I waited near the exit while the first group rode Thunder. When Doc and the boys returned, I used the pass to enter the Fast Pass line. There were two minor differences from the Anaheim program: (1) The Rider Switch Passes were printed on Fast Past coupons - much cuter and more efficient than the Disneyland passes! They are even dated! (2) The WDW version allowed 3 riders on the pass, not just two. Both MG and SBS rode the second ride with me!
We headed towards Haunted Mansion next, which was closed for mechanical issues. I often wonder why Disney was so stingy with the real estate it gave to many of these rides! Here in Florida, they have so much space, but then there are rides that just do not have it. The Haunted Mansion facade is so much smaller here. After passing the closed Mansion, we headed to the strangest ride yet at Walt Disney World: it's a small world.
I need to go back and take pictures. It is SO ODD.
In fact. I'm going to not even describe it until I have more pictures.
It is too strange.
Beyond Strange.
Really weird.
Really?
Cheesy. That's another good word for it. Cheesy!
WTF? (Why the face? As in the tiny iasw face that you can't even see outside the ride!)
Moving on.
We left Magic Kingdom to head towards our lunch date. I did find the barber shop on our way out of the park. My children do not necessarily need haircuts yet (I keep their hair rather short. I just do not like how their hair looks long. It works for some kids but not necessarily mine.) But I remember seeing somewhere that they can get their hair spiked with colors if they wanted and that sounds like fun. I will offer to let them get their hair cut if they want to.
We drove from MK to the Boardwalk to meet the swanies for our long planned special lunch date at Beaches and Cream. WDW vets are reading that correctly: We drove to the Boardwalk because I did not realize that Beaches and Cream is at the Beach Club resort.
Fortunately, one can easily walk from the Boardwalk to the Beach Club. Unfortunately, Beaches and Cream had a one to one and one-half hour wait for lunch! At 1:00 pm! When the swanies arrived, Doc and Mr. Swanie went to a near-by walk-up counter to bring lunch to us and we waited for a table at Beaches and Cream for our very special dessert plan. Here's what the menu says about the Kitchen Sink:
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That sucker has an entire can of whipped cream, and we suspect that there is an entire jar of cherries. There are brownies, angel food cake, peanut butter, butterscotch chips, oreos, snickers bars, strawberries, bananas, chocolate fudge - I don't know what all was in that bowl but it was everything in a kitchen sink. And the 10 of us shared it among ourselves. And there was still some left over when we were finished. Really, sundaes that fed 10 people? You can't buy 10 sundaes at Baskin Robbins for under $24!
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We returned to Epcot with dreams of working on the children's masks at various pavillions. We started in the UK. CS had a meltdown. We could not be too surprised but I think CS may have been surprised at how quickly I responded! CS refused to speak to the UK Cast Member. He needed to tell her what color tag he wanted but he refused. Of course, he also refused to say "please" or "thank you" which I am very particular about with all my children and always have been. When the tag was on the mask, I turned to CS and he began his meltdown before I even spoke. I took him immediately out of the store and put him in his stroller while his brothers met Pooh, Tigger, Mary Poppins and Alice.
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As we left the building from meeting the characters, a thunder storm with several cells changed the rest of our plans. We unpacked our ponchos and windbreakers from our backpacks and tried to give the storm a chance to let up. It did not. The rest of our crew left to go to the Canada pavillion and I purchased one poncho to cover the stroller and catch up with them. Of course, once I purchased the poncho and headed out, the cell let up. But more were coming and so we spent the day at Innoventions instead. Doc and I both rode Segways. Here's Doc:
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This is just about the end of the photos because after this, we went to the other Innoventions building and I found a chair in a lounge area... and fell asleep.
Uhm. Oops? We've just had so much to see and do - and so much to eat! - that I have not nearly had as much sleep as I need! Doc was glad I took the nap when we (eventually) hooked up again later! The big boys did get a chance to design their own roller coasters and then ride them on simulators in the building. Doc took video from the outside of the simulators.
We closed the evening with dinner at Nine Gardens in the China pavillion. The service was incredible. Tak Shing was one of the nicest and most attentive servers we have ever had at any restaurant. Doc, Mr. Genius and I ordered a from a fixed-meal menu but either the portions were huge or Tak Shing added extra appetizers so that we could share with SBS and CS. We had seven egg rolls and seven pot stickers in our appetizer portions! The food was not spectacular but we were pleased with our meal. The little boys chose caramel ginger ice cream for their dessert. The ginger flavor was strong but both boys seemed to enjoy it with little complaints, except that they were too full to eat it all!
Tomorrow: Disney's Hollywood Studios!
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4 comments:
I'm giving you a pass only because you're a nice person.
Have you ridden Snow White yet?
And I can NOT believe they let Doc get on the Segway without a helmet!
Did the boys have fun with their rollercoaster design? How long was the line? There's a thread (you know where) asking about it - if they feel so inclined to provide a quick review.
But did you like the 'flooded' show elements in Small World? I TOLD you the outside was 'forgettable' --- and they REALLY plussed it up a couple of years ago. Didn't even used to have the clock!
I do like some of the small world elements & I'll totally give them their due when I report, including, yes, the flooding. But OMG there's some stuff there that is SRSLY messed up. ;)
Regarding IASW:
When Walt Disney was preparing to bring the attraction back from the New York World's Fair to Disneyland, Imagineer Rolly Crump approached Walt and asked him about getting rid of the "trough". Rolly hated the trough and wanted to redo the attraction with water all the way to the sets (like they have at WDW). Walt vetoed the idea and said that he paid for the trough and was going to re-use it for Disneyland.
After Walt passed, Crump was working on the WDW version of IASW and was finally able to get water all the way to the sets like he wanted. However, there are some (including myself) who think that this created some inadvertent scaling and perspective problems inside the attraction. It just doesn't "look" right. So, perhaps Walt was right all along?
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