December 2011 Trip, Part 4
D23's 2011 Magic and Merriment
Please see Part 1 for cast and plot summary...
Day 4, Thursday, Dec 8. The next time my inner self says,
"You're being stuuuupiiiid!", I will listen...
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We get to the parking booths, and there's a sign, DHS will be closed tomorrow. Can you say, "Pop Warner"? I knew you could. (When we get to the park, we find the Osborne Lights will not be on tonight, either.)
We park the car, and I text Jenny our parking row in Stage, and take the tram in. We are there past opening, so we walk straight to Star Tours.
Jenny and I finally saw the Wookie planet, Yoda transition, and the final Fett/ROTJ Death Star scene. We think we've seen all the segments now. Mathematically (oh no, the horror) there are 54 versions of the ride. In reality, it took about 10 rides to see all the different segments. But considering the start and finish of each individual segment is fixed, I can see constant updates.
Cathy did the ride twice, then Christmas shopped in the gift shop while Jenny and I help the rebellion once again. On our way on, I noticed WALL-E in one of the suitcases the robot in the second queue room scans. The infrared scans you see on the screens by the end of the queue are actually guests in the queue. I sometimes wonder if the second robot isn't being operated by a human once in a while, just like Potato Head in TSMM.
In the gift shop, they finally have the "My Finger, Pull" t-shirt in large, and Disney gets a few more dollars from me.
Then, the mistake. I somehow let Cathy and Jenny talk me onto Tower of Terror. An aptly named ride. Cathy used the same voice she probably uses to get her kid to eat the brussels sprouts.
"It's just like bouncing!", they said.
"You can't tell how high you are", they lied.
"Trust me, you'll like it!", they conspired.
How do I not like this ride? Let me count the ways.
Bouncing, is what you do when you meet Tigger in Pooh. It is not yanking you down like all the wings fell off the plane.
It was okay until they first opened the doors, and you (or at least I,) can tell *exactly* how high you are. For the same reasons I study the top of the mountain on ExE while climbing the lift hill, I can't here, and like the rodent about to be eaten by a snake, I have to stare because there's nothing else to stare at. And then the wings fall off the plane. Again. And again. And again.
Well, we won't do that again.
We exit the park and I take Cathy to the airport, then on a whim go to Downtown Disney and lunch at Raglan Road. We park right next to Hyperion Wharf (nee Pleasure Island) and we're 100 yards from the restaurant. While sitting at the table, my hand was still shaking. Great. I'm probably going to be one of those guys that die two hours after riding an attraction.
If I live, I'm *definitely* not doing that ride again...
We drive back to the resort, and the construction workers have taken all the parking. sigh. The adrenalin is wearing off, and crash for an hour.
The whole point of this is to pick a couple of things up (like a sweatshirt, we'll be in Magic Kingdom late tonight) and grab a bus. When we get to the bus stop, we have to wait about a minute. One of the guests (a dad) gets off the bus and asks if we're going to MK (yes, as a matter of fact we are) and he reaches into his pocket and produces 8 fastpasses for Peter Pan! A little pixie dust, and off we go! :-)
We are transported with undue haste and arrive at Magic Kingdom, and are deposited over on the far side of the bus depot in the value resort area. I find it's the value resort area because the queues are double the size of what they are on the island, not because they're the cheap seats and are forced to walk further. :-)
We gain entrance, and head directly for the Tomorrowland Noodle Terrace, which is a terrace, but only serves during special events like the Christmas Party where you can get cookies and drinks.
Laura and Lee and Jack and all sorts of people are already there. Bashful and Rocky eventually show up and Bashful has another clapboard. Take 16, Kitty? I brought Illinois scratch off Christmas/Winter lottery tickets. 15 pairs. There are 16 people here, so I'm going to stiff Jack when two people don't want them. Saved.
Jack tells me he signed off on a house nearby. Hi Jack! Remember what Ben Franklin said, "Fish and visitors stink in three days!"
John Hayes (I think it was John), brought Rutherford Hayes presidential golden dollars, because he's a distant relative of the guy. :-) I'm sure he's glad they produced Hayes before killing the unpopular coin series.
I also have a card we're all going to sign for Russo. I bought him a bottle...can of Bud Light at Port Orleans. I was going to bring a sharpie and have everyone sign the bottle, but the bottle is a dark blue. Didn't they used to be silver?
A good time is had by all, and we find that Rocky is a farm boy, and he and Jenny talk about...livestock. Coming from the city, it's just a bit odd. The meet breaks up and everyone is going to head for a dole whip (I think), and Lee, Laura, Kitty, Rocky, Jenny and I are the only ones left when Jenny remembers the Fastpasses, and we all go off to Peter Pan. Kitty and I talk on the way, while Rocky and Jenny discuss...livestock. Or farm life in general. So we have segregated into urban and rural groups.
None of us ever ride Peter Pan during the day, due to the lines this attraction has. But with fastpasses, it's tolerable. IIRC, we did use the fastpasses during their active time, which is why the family couldn't use them. Thanks to the guy that gave 'em to us!
Rocky and Kitty depart near the hub (Good seeing you two!), and we wait for the Street Party that's going on to end. When it does, we go to the hub to watch the lighting of the castle.
I admit, I think I have finally given up on taking both a camcorder and a camera into the parks. I know the limitations of using my G12 as a video camera, but it is 720p, a step away from what my 1080i HDV camcorder does. I'll have some video, you can judge for yourself. The biggest problem is the lack of a video stabilizer and an optical zoom...
Video of Cinderella's Holiday Wish
Fairy Godmother lights the castle with ice, ironic since that's what most of us are trying to escape by being here this time of year. After it's lit, we bid our goodbyes to Lee and Laura. We have things to do. Jenny wants to do Laura's chocolate scavenger hunt in Epcot on Sunday, so we'll see them then.
Jenny craves corn dogs. She disses her organic meat thing a couple of times during this trip. We go to Casey's, and it's packed. Lines going out the door. So we go through Adventureland instead, and get a couple of eggrolls, because the eggroll cart that usually sells corn dogs don't have none. sniff. So Jenny has a veggie eggroll, and I get a pork and a veggie. They're very good (it helps if you're hungry and want warm, more savory food on the go), but you can make better at home...
We finish our eggrolls as we park ourselves behind a railing (in front of the DVC soft-sell place) and wait for the Main Street Electrical Parade. One of the carts that has lighty stuff for sale goes by, a light saber type thing. They have all of them lit, and it looks like they could be part of the parade. Jenny sez something about migraines on a stick. I guess it's sorta like corn-dogs, but different. I don't offer to buy one. (Later on the way back to POR, some kid Jenny is sitting next to has one, and insists on lighting up the back of the bus in rainbow colors. I wondered if Jenny was restraining herself from doing harm to the child...)
"Ladies and Gentleman, Boy and Girls, the Magic Kingdom is proud to present..." Tink, not shivering pixie dust this year, goes motoring past and starts the parade, and we both enjoy the thousands of sparkling lights and electric-syntho-magnetic musical sounds.
The parade over, we head for Main Street. I want to see The Magic, The Memories and You. It starts just as we get there, and the mean CM's packs us in and makes me move, so the start of the video is pretty lousy. But it's a cool show. (I will learn later that the show is projected from dozens of places, you just don't know where all the places are.)
Insert Video Link - MMY
(Video not yet published on YouTube.)It's getting colder, and Jenny's asthma is bothering her so we decide to leave. We have a full day tomorrow. We watch Wishes from the Bus Stop, over the monorail track and trees. I applaud. The bus doesn't get to us in time before the masses spill out of the park, so the bus area becomes a sea of humanity. But I'll have a seat. That's all that counts.
End December 2011 Trip Report - Part 4.
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