Friday follow up

OK, on time today! So the theory goes that locals only go to Magic Kingdom and Studios on the weekend because Animal Kingdom is quick and EPCOT is boring. We've proven this wrong, time and time again. None the less its Friday morning and we are here in plenty of time. Enough time we beat the mouse out of bed and to the opening gates. We strategically line up at the rope drop to briskly walk (fight for survival) to Soarin'.



Robe drop, GO, GO, GO! As the old Space Mountain right up from the then, much thinner unofficial guide said, "this pits mother against father, sister against brother, wife against husband, priest against Rabi..." you get the idea. Hell hath no fury like a man not moving fast enough for Soarin'. You think you get honked at in traffic at a red light? Just try and push a stroller in the no stroller area and dare walk up the left side of the entrance. It's over, oh no you didn't, you best move out-da-way! It's worse than the "Bristol Walk (the previous 2 mile after race, lets beat 160,00 people to the car walk that we used to unwillingly participate in)", worse than any beany baby sale of the late 90's and/or probably rivals most Hanna Montana concert ticket rushes. Thankfully the last 2 I have never experienced first hand. So pardon the blur but I wasn't about to be thrown over the side for stopping to take a picture. Now you know why in the previous right up way down there it says we got our 1 Soarin' ride in.



OK, off Soarin, run like hell to test track and get a fast pass. I didn't post it but Mandy actually managed to time split the fast pass. They were 5 mins apart. Odd, never happened to us before. Ran back and rode Living with the Land, hit the favorite ride (rest room), Mandy took pic, go use fast passes on test track.



Test Track. I made my face for this trip. The "mean Scott" with gritting teeth and rock and roll fingers in the air.



We ate lunch outside of Mexico and it was so so at best. Not quite El Dorado in Cary, NC but it was food. Lets have us a rainbow Margarita! We like Margarita's, how bad could it be? Terrible. Be damned if I'm tossing it at $9 but it was terrible. Not quite the Lady and the Tramp moment here everybody was hoping for but it was the best I could do.

That pretty much did it for EPCOT for us. If I'm remember all this right we left and went back to the room and took a nap. I was whooped. Everything hurt which is pretty normally for EPCOT (Every Person Come Out Tired). Some where I mentioned it was the Flower and Garden Festival so they had tapestries all over the place. I won't bore you with all of them but here is Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs. The one in the pink in the front if not a dwarf, btw.

All napped up (does that sound right?) and just thrilled to death to be at Disney I outstretched the arm and got a pic waiting to go back to the Magic Kingdom tonight to try and ride Peter Pan.

Remember what I said about the castle, can't pass it without taking a pic. I could have gotten better a little to the left to eliminate the tree's but I've got 100's of these so I compromised for other family's doing the same.



Back to EPCOT where we met a kid named Andy and his girlfriend on spring break I suppose. They were a riot. We talked with them trying to run from one monorail to the other then we got separated from them. We did end up seeing them again leaving the monorail and got a quick pic of them. I was going to catch him to get his e-mail to send him the shot but couldn't find them again. Hopefully he'll stumble across this and send me a message so I can shoot it to him. No loss if not I guess.

A pic from within the new Space Ship Earth. Kinda cool interactive fun.


Finally a longer exposure shot with no blur. I found a lamp post, set the camera to remote and fired off a few clicks. Not quite postcard worthy but I like it.


This was a "what were we thinking" night. We went all the way back to EPCOT to ride 3 things, walked all the way around world showcase so Mandy could get another pearl and finally back to the room. It was so late the cafeteria was only serving pizza. Yum, pizza at 11:20 pm, how healthy. Oh, we have to checkout tomorrow before we go to the parks and check our bags. What could go wrong here?

Thursday's follow up

Okie dokie, lots of pictures this time. Today was wide open. We were late as I had in a previous post. By late I mean 15 minutes after the park opened. So new plan, back to the "unofficial guide" plan. We got a fast pass for the Tower of Terror, dare I say, no time for a picture! Then ran to stand in line for Rockin Roller Coaster. Then we both rode our favorite ride of all the parks, I am of course referring to the restroom. So I stopped to take a pic.



On to the newest area in the Pixar Studio area and we went for Toy Story Mania which honestly is worth the price of admission to the park. It is so much fun. Mandy was in the fast pass line for this for like 20 mins. I actually go in the regular line, then back out to wait on her. We sucked it up and stood there and planned to come back later as well. Good thing, Saturday this wait was 90 minutes. Ours was only about 15-20.



As you can see below, I won. Mandy of course is a graceful loser and then blamed everything on her gun, the cart, her glasses, etc. You get the idea. I will add we had a war wound and I swear I pulled something in my back.....but I won and thats what counts. Because 2nd is the first loser.




I love the Muppet's. Mandy and/or Mom got me the Muppet's season 1 and 2 for Christmas. I was glued to the TV for hours. Poor Beaker. "mi mi mi mi mi"


The top hat from Fantasia. Not the chick on American Idol either.



So we left the park to head to EPCOT because Mandy wanted to see the candy lady in Japan that did the Candy art. She saw it on the Travel Channel when Samantha Brown was talking to her. Which was Jan last year, when we saw Samantha, but no candy lady.


Well we were like an hour or better early to EPCOT. We took the boat from the Studios to EPCOT which take like 45 mins with 3 stops in between but it was a really nice day and seeing The Swan and Dolphin, Beach Club and The Boardwalk is always fun from the boat. Since we did manage to get there early we took a quick walk to England and stumbled across King Arther and the search for the Holy Grail (Grail, Grail, Hugh!) These guys were a riot. I don't know how we ever missed them before. What did we see? "Rubbish!" and the King, "Gitchy, Gitchy, ya ya baby!". You really just have to see it and participate to understand it all. It was my kind of humor.


Finally this candy art lady. This stuff is like 200 degrees and she's tossing it around with her bare hands. She just asks people in the crowd what you want and she just starts shaping. She does this in like 2 minutes, I swear. It's pretty unique little present and you can't buy them, you just have to stand and hope she asks you. After 4 animals, I was done.


After this we made our way back to the Studios to use our fast passes and play Toy Story Mania one more time. Which we didn't know but would be our last this trip. As you can see below, I won again. Mandy was even ahead and I was injured (see above post). I still made an triumphant comeback and won by 700 points and to quote Ricky Bobby - "If you ain't first, you're last. You know, you know what I'm talking about? That there is trademarked, not to be used without written permission of Ricky Bobby, Inc."



Then she felt bad and she cried because I surprised her with flowers. Tee Hee. You can sorta see me in the background of the mirror. Notice our towel animals. We got a duck and a rabbit this time.

Some follow up good photos

I figured I'd add some much better pictures instead of the junky ones my phone takes and some more descriptions about our trip. It's a lot easier to type with all fingers instead of just your thumbs.

I'll try and keep these in order. First and foremost we knew we needed a monorail ride from EPCOT to the Magic Kingdom. So we left the hotel, went to EPCOT, caught the monorail to the ticketing and transportation center then decided on a boat ride to the kingdom since we can't recall ever doing that.

Here you'll see a CAT C-Series MTL hard at work on the beaches of the Polynesian hotel. Ah, does the heart good to see Disney spending money buying this, me making the money to design it, then giving it right back to Disney to come here. I'm sure I probably worked on this machine at some time or another. At bare minimum I was probably standing in our cab sub assembly area when it got tested. Just a safe bet. Pretty sure I can expense this trip now.



The obligatory first shot in the park always has to be the Cinderella's castle. Note the large amount of other people that made their way to FL the same time we did.



Space Mountain: 45 min wait, fast pass ticket line for Space Mountain, 5 mins. The routine is Mandy gets the tickets, Scott takes the picture, it works out well.

The Tic-Toc-Croc from Peter Pan Flight. I love the croc.

Donald coming out of Micky's Philharmagic.

All in all a very good day considering the we woke at 4 something, showered, shaved, flew down, check in to a bus, rode a bus, checked in to the hotel, rode another bus, rode a monorail, rode a boat (thank goodness it wasn't rowed!) Then only had 7 hours or so in there. The best part is using the fast passes and walking by everybody standing in line just so I can say, "Look dear, peasant." I normally get an elbow to the ribs about then.

absolutely last shot

ok so this is our real last shot from the world. we are sitting on the magical express loading other guests so we can all go back to our respective homes. our flight leaves at 7:05 and hopefully we won't be flying through a storm. with any luck we should be home around 10.

last pic

here is our last shot from walt disney world. we are heading to get our bags then catch the bus back to raleigh. it will be nice to do absolutely nothing tomorrow.

Expedition Everest

we made it finally. on and off in 30 minutes and got a fast pass to boot. on to the safari.

AK opening

well we thought we had plenty of time but it seems half of FL got a jump on us. None the less, we made it

how to wash

what would we do without brawny to give us instructions to wash our hands. this entire time i had no clue it was this simple.

spaceship earth

we are heading back for a swim or a nap. one way or the other we are leaving to take a break. we'll be back tonight since the park doesn't close until midnight. hopefully it won't be wall to wall people. as you can see its the flower and garden festival too.

10:30 the line for sorin

10:30 the line for sorin is 60 min and the fast pass line looks to be a 30 min wait. looks like we got our 1 sorin ride in

sorin'

standing in line for sorin' first ride of the day

opening at EPCOT

wishes

we didn't take the camera this evening so we could lighten the load. i did however have the phone. so here is an opening shot of wishes. enjoy.

Wishes fireworks

minutes before wishes in MK.

Flowers for Mandy; Bonus points for Scott

As you can see here I got Mandy flowers delivered to the room completely surprising her. Of all the things I've learned through the years its the surprises that count the most. Any stooge can order flowers on valentines day or her birthday. It takes a lot of thought and planning to make flowers show up in a hotel at Disney World. Bonus points for Scott!

shots from epcot

japan pagoda with spaceship earth in the background.

beach club

storm along bay water slide

Disney's Boardwalk

our favorite place to just hang out. its based on an old jersey boardwalk

the dolphin resort.

Life on the high seas...

leaving the studios

the hat

Disney's Hollywood Studio Backlot

day 2

made disney #1 mistake this morning for high crowd levels. we got a late start. it's 9:15 and there is a 50 minute wait for RR coaster. we already have a fast pass for the towere. hopefully tomorrow won't be a complete bust. this might be an early back to the room day. the park is opened until 10 so we've got some time yet.

Last day recap

Allin all we had a great day. The only ride we didn't make it on was Peter Pan. When the wait is longer than the movie, this is a good sign to skip it. We headed in around 8 which was nice instead off the mad dash at 9. Made it back to the room and eventually made it to the pool to swim in a nice heated pool while watching Bolt projected on a big screen. What more could you want? Well dinner would have been nice. So we made our way down to the all night cafateria and got a good dinner to sleep on. Ah, vacation.

a wise quote from an imagineer

quote from a good book

Big Thunder M.ountain RR

Lunch

mandy favorite meal at pinocchio village.

First Ride!

on the way to the magic kingdom via monorail

Awesome room!

well the room is freakin sweet. its like a family deluxe type with a living room and kitchen. we got a deal on it let me tell you. we even have 2 bathrooms!

off and up out

7:15 and we are on the plane ready to head to MCO and it appears we are surronded by the 7 dwarfs. There are kids everywhere on this flights babies too. The thought, kids going to Orlando. Didn't take long for a Brittton family vote to move back a few rows. Hopefully all will be well.

After

As you can see 52" of high def entertainment pleasure showed up today. If ever there was an excuse to come visit us, this is it.

Now if I can just find the channel up button.... :-)

Before

Well Bristol weekend proved to be full of surprises. Mandy's grandma that is in the nursing home had a bad spell so we rushed in to WV on Friday instead of Saturday. Thank goodness she ended up being OK. I felt like I was in the way and started thinking about my grandmother that passed away in '97. So I elected to go to the race just to be away, not so much to go to the race.

Here is a pic of me hanging out by the fire after everthing is packed up and we are burning the remaining firewood.

A wedding weekend

We went back to good ol' WV this weekend to a friend's wedding. The wedding was very nice. No major issues or even minor ones for that matter. The reception was just down the hall and we had prearranged seating which put me and Mandy with some of my high school friends. Personally I had a blast. I hadn't sat and talked with this group in 2 years or better since our reunion so I had a ton of fun. That was pretty much where the fun ended.

First let me set this up by referring you to some of my other posts. Please feel free to read the weekend at Darlington and how that went and then just any other story I may tell you in passing on any given day. This is where I come to this conclusion. I'm an asshole magnet. I honestly feel like Lord Helmet in Space Balls, "How many assholes we got on this ship anyway? I knew, I'm surrounded by assholes!" We stayed at a hotel for the weekend to save trying to drive all over creation and catch up with everybody. Just in and out of town, short and sweet. No feelings hurt and we could be back before it got dark. So Friday night the noise started above us with what sounded like an Olympic runner doing laps in the room above us. I gave them 30 mins, trying to be a sport, then called the front desk. Security came to my door to confirm I called. Yea, thanks Barny, make me scramble to put some pants on and do the squinty thing while I answer to the door to confirm your phone lines aren't magically crossed and I really did call from this room. None the less he checked then went upstairs and asked them to quieten down. They did, after another 30 mins.

So we woke up, all is well, we went on about our day, came back to the hotel after the wedding at midnight and tried to settle in. The new neighbors beside us were wide open. First I thought, well, maybe they are with the wedding party since a lot of them stayed there too but I had enough evidence to know they weren't. So again, being the good sport I gave them 30 more minutes. This was around 1:30. Called security and reminded them, don't knock on my door. Waited 7 minutes, called the front desk again and asked them what about this don't you understand. Shortly there after with a watchful eye on the peephole they were there. Much like Earnest T. Bass on Andy Griffith at Mrs. Wiley's dance mixer, "didn't take". So I gave them another 15 or 20 minutes and called the front desk again and told them post the guys by the door, call the cops, something. It's 2:30 by now. I also explained they'd better be ready to cough up some cash the next morning because the hotel was built like a piece of Swiss cheese. You could hear everything. So finally I fell out around 3 am and all was quite. We got $25 back at checkout so for their efforts I have them a 'B'.

Any more, before I get into any kind of fit of mild rage I ask myself, is it just me? Am I really this easy to set off? Am I just looking for something to be pissed off about all the time? Sometimes it is just me and I bite my tongue and just gripe about it to somebody else later on for a good story. But dag gone, what gives. Who wants to party at a hotel in Beckley at 2am in March. I lived in WV for 22 years and don't remember any crazy stories of Beckley hotel parties. So this goes back to my first statement. I'm an asshole magnet. I attract the rudest, stupidest, brainless, $hitless, worthless people you can find. I just don't know what it is. It's not that red headed people are mad all the time, it's just we seem to draw out the morons of the world. I'm debating on just staying home from now on. But we can't let them win.


So, "keep firing assholes!".

Macado's

ah, eating at our favorite restaurant, macado's. good old college days food. the best rolling rock around.