A Tale of Survival

Well, it’s been awhile since I’ve been around. Seems the place isn’t any worse for wear, thankfully. Little more dusty than I remember and who decided on these colors? Geez, I gotta change that soon, but onto another topic. What a vacation! I can’t tell you how awesome of a time we had at Disney World. Can’t believe it took almost 40 years for me to get there. Won’t be another 40 until I get back, that’s for sure! The weather was awesome except for one night and the following morning. In the mid 70’s most days and the 50’s most nights. The one exception being the day it was only 60-ish for a high temp and it got down to 39 the night before and it was raining and very windy. The wind chill that night was 31. Of course I was in shorts and a Hawaiian type shirt (you just know I was gonna wear one of those down there eventually), which didn‘t help matters. Needless to say I froze my cheekies off. Even though my lovely Princess offered me her sweatshirt which I, of course, refused. What kind of Prince Valium would I have been if I had taken her up on her offer? Well, a warmer one for one thing but regardless, it was my own fault. I had many opportunities to get a sweatshirt for myself but didn’t because I wanted to get the perfect sweatshirt and that day I just didn’t see it. I did, however, find it the next day, so waiting it out paid off even if I was a little frost bitten.

The totem pole in the lobby of the Wilderness Lodge the legend states that you have to touch the bears nose for good luck

The parks were a lot less crowded than I thought they were going to be. The longest wait we experienced was about a 35 minute wait for Star Tours which is a Star Wars ride. It was well worth the wait. Cannot believe how detailed they are in all the parks as well as the resorts. Our resort, the Wilderness Lodge was perfect! Designed like a lodge from the 50’s in Yellowstone, it was a secluded and scenic paradise. I can’t say enough about all the parks, the resorts, and the people that work there. Sure there were some things we were disappointed with, if I thought otherwise I would say I was fooling myself. Some of the food was less than I had expected (although they give you plenty of it no matter where you eat), MGM wasn’t as fun as I had anticipated. Also we had the opportunity to walk through the Grand Floridian Resort and proceeded to make a hasty retreat. Wholly crap was I out of place. How can I put it, ah, perfect, here try this; picture Larry the cable guy dines at the Ritz Carlton. Yeah, just like that.

The Pirates of the Cribbean ride at night during the Pirates and Princess Party. Notice the cool lights and the fog. Great atmosphere!

The hot tub at the resort was awesome, we managed to enjoy that two of the nights we were there. What a great way to relax after hoofing it all over Orlando for fifteen hours every day. No Splash Mountain, that was closed but we didn’t really miss it. The day in Animal Kingdom was too cool for Kali River Rapids so we didn’t go on that either. It’s a water ride where you get soaked, enough said. After seven days and seven nights, we still didn’t see everything, but that’s okay, we gotta leave something to do for next time. Next time you may ask is going to be October, for Halloween. Yeah, two Disney trips in one year. Only difference is we are planning to drive down this time. The plane rides were pretty harrowing and we want to skip those this time. Not saying we won’t ever fly again, just not next time.

I was a little skeptical about the trip in the beginning. I hoped we weren’t wasting a lot of money. Yes, you spend a lot of money going to Disney and we spent more than we needed to, but we wanted to do it right the first time. Which we did, we also learned how we can do it a whole lot cheaper next time. Comparing our two trips (yeah we’ve already been looking into prices and packages) the one in October will end up costing us about half of what it cost us to go in January. Same park tickets, same hotel, same amount of nights. Half the cost. We just have to watch how we schedule the meal plans and we will be able to spend a lot less on souvenirs as well.

Tink on top of the treasure chest in the P & P parade

The Pirate and Princess party was beyond belief. After the sun went down and the lights came on, they quickly empty the park and let those with special tickets and nifty little purple wrist bands back into the park for four hours of Pirate and Princess wonderment. This is also something I thought was going to be more “kiddie” oriented and we wouldn’t enjoy it as much. Wrong again. You go in the park and there are different lights throughout the park. We had been in the Magic Kingdom at night before, but for the Pirate and Princess Party, they use different lights, as well as put on a different night time parade and a totally different fireworks display than the usual Wishes performance. Wishes is great, the Pirate and Princess show is that much better. Also did I mention smoke machines? Lots of them making the park a foggy wonderland and a little bit on the creepy side. The parade? All I can say is 40 foot pirate ship and the only time you see Tinkerbelle in the park (except for her nightly Wishes fly across the sky above the park) and not just walking down the street, she’s on top of the Pirates treasure chest! We went on a treasure hunt and got our gems and jewels (think Mardi Gras beads and you get the idea, and you don’t want to know what we had to do to get some of those beads!). We also got a tutorial on how to be a good pirate from Captain Jack Sparrow himself. Not Johnny Depp, but a damn good impersonation none the less.

Captain Jack Sparrow shows us all how to be good pirates

Let’s see, some of the other highlights were drinking around the world at World Showcase in Epcot! Good times. Biggest surprise that day? I like Sake. Second biggest surprise? My Princess is a very loud drunk! Yes, that was the most inebriated I have ever seen her. Another nice surprise was we both like hard cider (Strongbow and Woodpecker respectfully) as well as Moosehead beer. Who woulda thunk it? Eleven alcoholic beverages and nine hours later we were ready to call it a day. Not as hard to do as we had expected actually, in fact that was the first night we took a dip in the hot tub. It was also the night of the bitterly cold winds. Wonder how cold I would have been if I didn’t have alcohol in me? Animal Kingdom, a park I really didn’t have a lot of hope for, turned out being a better park in our opinion than MGM (or Disney Studios, whatever you want to call it), which I said was mildly disappointing. It looks like a big confusing city, enough said. Or maybe not, I got lost twice walking around that park with the park map open and in front of me. Even with all that said, MGM is still a must see for us when we go back in October.

Fireworks display for the P & P Party. All I can say is WOW!

We did just about every show, every ride, and every attraction we put on our “must see” list, some of the rides twice (like Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean) like I said Splash Mountain was closed as well as Spaceship Earth (the big golf ball thingy in Epcot) so we hope to catch those in October. We also hope to be able to spend some time in Downtown Disney next time. Downtown Disney is more adult oriented with night clubs and restaurants geared towards the mature crowd (he he, yeah mature, who me?). So until October, you’re stuck with me back here. Speaking of which, some good Lost stuff coming soon.