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Monday – November 1, 2004 - Mars, Bratwurst and the
Jets
Up at 5:30 which is more of a decent hour. I brewed a pot of coffee
and we had the muffins I bought at the Bakery last night for breakfast.
We had planned to meet Sue and Wayne at 8:30 for the walk to MGM
but, as usual, we were all ready early.
At MGM, there was a small to moderate crowd waiting at the turnstiles.
They opened a bit early but held everyone at the rope just prior
to Sunset Blvd. We used this time to stroll the shops on the left
side – looking at everything but buying nothing.
At rope drop, we headed to Tower of Terror (ToT) (my favorite thing)
where Wayne waited outside. I think he’s only ridden this
once or twice and refuses to go again. It was basically a walk on.
I’ve ridden this a bunch of times but it still makes me a
bit apprehensive as you enter the shaft and the wall illuminates
in front of you. Still a great ride though and, in my opinion, one
of the best themed attractions there is.
As we exited, we walked past the area of tables and benches on the
right and spied Wayne sitting on a bench talking to a blond woman.
He joined us and told us that he learned, through conversation,
that she was Paul McCartney’s niece. Of course, Wayne may
have told her he was Elvis Presley’s nephew first.
I’m the only one that has ridden Rock n Roller coaster (actually
Barb rode once but swears she would never go again) so we bypassed
it and headed across the park to Star Tours (my favorite thing).
Is it weird that MGM is the only park without named areas? MK has
its ‘Lands’, Epcot its ‘worlds’, and AK
its continents, camps and oasis. MGM just has streets and boulevards.
Star Tours was a walk on. There was a family in front of us (I
believe they were speaking French) with two children. The older
of the 2 was a girl of about 10-11. She was giving the parents fits
because she didn’t want to ride. A kindly CM noticed this
and brought her over to the console where she could see inside the
vehicle that was now mid-ride. The CM explained that there would
only be motion, no inversions, etc. The girl finally conceded and
rode. I learned a bit later that her parents had taken her on M:S
and she had a horrible time and thought Star Tours might be similar.
I boarded after them and was seated on the left of the Mom, with
the little girl on her right. I glanced over several times during
the ride and they were both smiling and laughing – a lot.
In fact, Mom had basically taken over our shared armrest and was
now gripping my wrist. Every so often she would look at me, say
something in French (I think) and laugh some more.
Next stop was the Muppets (my favorite thing). In the pre-show,
I noticed the ‘net full of jello’ that, for some reason,
I couldn’t find in December. We then rode the Great Movie
Ride (GMR) and had a female gangster for the 3rd or 4th time in
a row. I still ride this but it needs to changed and updated. I
enjoy the film clips at the end but the rest of the ride has become
a place to get off my feet for a while - a shame.
Next up is Who Wants to Be a Millionaire – Play It! (WWTBAM).
Over our last couple of trips, I’ve made it as high as #2
on the leader board so this was going to be my time in the hot seat.
I made a decision that I would pick a sequence for the fastest finger
and go with it as fast as possible. I chose C-A-D-B. Our stage manager
was Kevin who I’ve now seen as Jim in the Hoop-Dee-Doo-Revue
and as the host in WWTBAM. He introduced our host and he read the
fastest finger question that had us putting 4 presidents in chronological
order. I tapped in CADB as quickly as I could and then, seconds
later, realized that the answer is ACDB. So close. Not to worry,
I’ll catch up with the questions.
For the next 8-9 questions, I know every answer before they’re
revealed (I’m guessing most of the audience does) and I’m
tapping buttons like a woodpecker on amphetamines. When they reveal
the leader board, I’m nowhere in sight. Ditto the next time.
The person in the hot seat misses a question and they bring up the
board. The lady in seat #13 is on top. She declines, having been
in the hot seat within 30 days. The next person comes in and promptly
blows the 4th question. We’re out of time but they give you
a last look at the leader board. Who’s on top? The lady in
#13 again.
By the way, I did miss one question during the show. And it’s
one I shall never live down. I’ve worked in IT my entire career
and the question was “On a computer keyboard, which number
is below the %”. No fair looking. Did you get it? For some
reason, I thought it was ‘6’ so I watched as the choices
popped up – 1 (no), 3 (no), 5 (no) and… I was hitting
D as they revealed ‘7’ and I said “Whoops”.
I probably spend 4-6 hours a day at a keyboard too.
I was suggesting the 50s Prime Time Café for lunch but
the response was under whelming so we hit the Commissary. Barb and
Sue had Fish and Chips, Wayne a burger (what else?) and I tried
a Cuban sandwich. It looked good in the picture. It wasn’t.
It was some type of mystery meat (I’m guessing ham and turkey
but it could have been emus and yak) on a grilled flat bread (foccacio?).
Trust your Uncle Stevie on this one – don’t get it.
I didn’t finish it. It is not (my favorite thing).
We walked back to the BW and hit the quiet pool. Barb and I were
looking for something to carry some ice and a couple cans of beer
to the pool. We ended up using the orange plastic Trick-or-Treat
bag from MNSSHP. When we got to the pool, we found Sue and Wayne
had done the same thing. Hopefully, the other folks thought we were
just bringing our M&Ms with us.
It was 88 degrees and sunny and the pool felt great. We swam and
relaxed by the pool for about an hour then hit the rooms for a quick
nap, shower and a change. (Author’s Note – I find that,
as I age ever so gracefully, I really look forward to a good nap.
I’m now amused when children give their parents a hard time
about going to bed or taking a nap because I can no longer remember
a time when I didn’t enjoy sleeping.)
At 4:30, we headed for Epcot through the IG (my favorite thing).
We gave Test Track (TT) a look but the standby time was 40 minutes
so we picked up Fastpasses (FP) for 6:40. Barb and I wanted to try
M:S but Sue and Wayne did not. Sue is afraid to try it based upon
a blood pressure issue and a slight problem with enclosed spaces.
Wayne has ridden it once and that’s his lifetime quota for
thrill rides. They said they’d wait for us so Barb and I walked
in, thinking if the wait was 10 minutes or less, we’d ride.
The wait was posted at 5 minutes and, actually, was more of a walk
on.
We took our places, same as our first ride in December, as Commander
(me) and Navigator (Barb). We were with an older couple (older than
us, anyway) and the women used a cane and asked if we had ridden
before. I sensed she was a bit apprehensive so I gave the usual
advice of paying attention to Gary Sinise, don’t close your
eyes, etc.
We rode. Barb was a little shaky on our first ride but she was
fine this time. She said knowing what to expect made it easier.
I, on the other hand, had a bit of trouble this time. Here’s
my assessment: on my first ride, there were several (2-3) brief
moments of slight disorientation. Nothing major and they quickly
passed. I did, however, let myself be taken in by the ride and had
myself, at least mentally, on a ship to Mars. This time, I found
myself concerned and looking for those moments of disorientation
instead of letting my mind get into the ride. The result is I was
much more conscious of the G-forces at lift off and in the slingshot
around the moon. There were also several more occurrences of that
brief disorientation. End result? I did fine but I was a little
wobbly for about 20 minutes after riding. I will ride again in January
and I will force myself to get into the moment rather than looking
for the discomfort.
After M:S, we bought a couple bottles of water from a vendor (about
$100) and walked across to ride Journey Into Your Imagination (JIYI).
That is the newest name, right? Not only was there no line, the
boarding CMs were standing around waiting for someone to ride. They
basically told everyone (and there were about 8 of us) to sit wherever
you’d like. Apparently, no one is riding this anymore. Probably
for good reason – the ride is just a bit lamer each time.
We lost audio several times and it’s absolutely weird to see
Figment with his mouth moving but no sound at all.
We walked, fairly quickly, through ImageWorks and into the pre-show
for Honey, I Shrunk the Audience (HISTA). As we walked in, the pre-show
was in its final stages. Thank you. I find this version just a bit
too saccharin. I loved the True Colors pre-show here. HISTA was,
as always, a fun attraction.
We left FW to head through the gardens to WS. We were discussing
where to have dinner when a voice behind us started shouting “Watch
out, coming through, get out of my way”. Wayne and I had just
prepared ourselves to deliver the fatal forearm shiver when Kristin
came hopping through. Very funny. Little did she know how close
she was to getting thrown into the lagoon. We chatted for a bit
and they went back to FW. We continued left into WS having decided
on the Biergarten in Germany for dinner.
We checked at the podium, received a pager and were told it would
be a 15-minute wait. We wandered out to the courtyard for a beer
(Lowenbrau is now the beer of choice here, replacing Becks) so we
got 3 Oktoberfests for Wayne, Barb and I. Naturally, as we took
our first sip, the pager went off and in we went.
We were seated at a table for 8, taking the outermost 4 chairs.
As we began to sit, the woman on Barb’s left jumped up and,
quite nastily, said “That’s my chair”. The hostess
jumped in and quickly offered to bring over another chair for Barb.
I didn’t really understand the whole thing because this group
of 4 people seemed to have 4 chairs and a highchair for a child.
This woman was sitting to the left of the highchair but, apparently,
wanted Barb’s chair. It was a little annoying that she was
so nasty about it. Getting another chair was no big deal.
Sue and Wayne had eaten here before but it was new for Barb and
I. It’s a meat lover’s paradise and I proceeded to load
up plates with sauerbraten, bratwurst, schnitzel and sausages of
several varieties. I also sampled my share of the dessert offerings
(the strudel was very good). They offer a 1-liter draft beer and
there were several in front of the guys at the table next to us.
At the end of the meal, however, I watched these guys poor the remnants
into plastic cups so they could take them into the park. I’m
guessing that beer was also pretty warm by then.
We joined in with several ‘Ziggy, zaggy, ziggy, zaggy, hoy,
hoy, hoy’ (that’s got to be spelled incorrectly) and
had some fun watching the ‘Oompah’ band entertain. It
took forever to get our check (about $100) as our waitress had a
lot of trouble with checks at adjacent tables.
We left Germany and walked to the UK where we caught the last
half of a British Invasion show. They were, as always, very good
and did a particularly good rendition of ‘Eleanor Rigby’
– although they shortened their version of ‘Twist and
Shout’.
We re-traced our steps back to France and snagged a couple of Cabernet
Sauvignons for Wayne and me and a something-something (white wine)
for the girls (about $100). I ordered “2 Cabernets and 2…”
and started to pronounce the French name I was reading. The young,
female CM immediately finished my sentence for me – in rapid
fire and fluent French – and smiled. I gave her an “Easy
for you to say” and thanked her for saving me. We took our
glasses (plastics, actually) back to a bench and sat, chatted and
sipped. Epcot at its best (my favorite thing): dim lights, music,
and wine.
While sitting there, we must have directed 50 people from New
Jersey to the IG. Many were in Jets jerseys (my favorite team and
they were playing on Monday Night Football). I figure most of them
were from NJ (I really think ¾ of the park was from NJ) and
they all thought they could get to the IG through France which,
if you really look at it, is an honest mistake. You can see the
IG and its nearby shop from France. It looks like a short walk but,
unfortunately, that walk would be across water.
At about 8:50 we walked over to the bridge and secured a spot at
a railing for IROE (my favorite thing). I absolutely love this show.
I know a lot of folks think the original Illuminations is better
– and it might very well be. I prefer not comparing it to
past versions and just enjoy it for what it is – a very good
show. It’s the one WDW CD I have that gets a lot of play.
After IROE, we strolled back via the IG (my favorite thing) and
were at the BW in 5 minutes. Sue and Wayne shopped for a bit on
the BW while Barb and I hustled back to the room. I hustled because
I needed to watch my Jets jump all over the Dolphins, 41-14. A great
ending to a great day.
Things I Think I Think
I think I have been aware of this for some time but never really
thought about it. Did you ever notice that the Men’s rooms
in WDW parks have no mirrors over the sinks? I’m sure Disney
has a study that says that men who linger in a rest room combing
their hair spend less in the shops.
I think Star Tours and the GMR need an update. Soon. MGM is running
out of things that will attract me.
Repeat after me: I will never, ever order the Cuban sandwich at
the Commissary. It’s an evil Castro trick.
I think when I get back to work, I’m going to need a swim
and a nap every afternoon at 2:00.
I think that nothing, but nothing, beats Epcot in the evening. It’s
beautiful.
I think I really miss the Tapestry of Nations (Dreams). Epcot needs
a parade like that. And bring back the same music.
I think the Jets are now 6-1 but I’m still not optimistic.
I’ve been burned too often by them.
Day 4...
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