"The Calm Before The Storm" Tour (Part 12)

[2BoysMum&Dad]

In my hand-written notes I made at the end of Friday 23rd July, I spookily gave the day’s report the heading “The Calm Before The Storm”, only because it was the day before we flew out to Florida and didn’t think at the time it was really a very good or apt title. I have decided to name all the parts of my trip report “The Calm Before The Storm Tour”, in honour of the climax of our trip - Hurricane Charley which gave us an extra day in Florida.

Tuesday 3rd August

THE CAST

Sergeant Major Zoe “You WILL enjoy yourselves”
DH Trevor “I am NOT going to like this”
Birthday Boy Michael (aged 10 to 11)
“Why” to everything Piers (aged 8 and a bit)

Another change to the itinerary today. I had assumed we’d be totally exhausted (or even hungover) from last night so I had originally planned a “day off” today. Although we were tired because of a very late night last night, we were feeling fairly fit and ready for whatever today decided to fling at us. So we decided to use up another day on our Disney 10-day passes. This would free up more time next week to visit SeaWorld more than twice. We decided on Disney Quest, so after a fairly late rise and breakfast in the room, we headed towards DTD.

When we arrived, we were surprised to discover a stationary queue outside the building. It seems that DQ doesn’t open until 11.30am, that’s great, there won’t be huge queues for anything inside . We headed straight for the video games arcade area where there’s various things the boys love doing involving throwing balls into numbered holes and we liked the neon light table game thing in the middle. I popped off to the internet area, desperate for a spot of DIBBing. Unfortunately, I had the usual problems of the screen refreshing itself after a few seconds back to the list of boards. If I clicked on the back button, I would get only half of what I’d typed, so eventually (with a lot of patience ) I could eventually get messages posted.

Time to try that virtual reality game. Quite fun I suppose. You really have to have that head thing strapped on quite tightly otherwise the virtual reality helmet they put on your head slips and slides around too much. We also had a go in one of those “pods” where four people can sit (back to back) all facing screens and one person acts as a pilot flying our ship and rescuing colleagues from some planet while the others are shooting the enemy ships.

Time for something else. We got back into the car and drove as far as we could up the other end of the car park. The car park in front of DTD is split into segments and they don’t ‘arf make it difficult to get into a different parking area! It’s quite difficult working out how to get to where you want because of blocked off entrances and exits! Finally parked and we walked back into DTD, finding a wonderful ice cream place – Ghiradelli mmmmmmmmmmmmmm They seemed good value for money and very scrummy!

It’s mine, all mine, keep your hands to yourself!

We then discovered the Lego shop and this kept the kids happy for a while. They’ve got an outside area where you can play and build stuff from Lego. Piers always has a tower fixation with Lego and Michael tends to be more imaginative and ends up with something totally unidentifiable (except by him of course!). We let them buy a couple of things too from in the shop.

I left Trevor and the boys at the Lego shop while I had a look in the big toy shop further back toward the RFC. Very nice

Here’s two monsters and the Rainforest Cafe in the far background (behind the jetty). I called this the “Lego-Ness Monster”

We now head back to our room at CBR, had a few nibbles, a swim and sort out another load of washing. I tried out my new swimming costume for the first time (purchased from Wal-mart) and am pleased with it. Michael and Piers make a new friend while in the pool, says he is in room 5219. Trevor left the pool before us so he could sort the washing, put it in the tumble dryer and take it back to the room. He complained about the rest of us taking too long in the pool and we decided we didn’t have enough time to go to a nice steakhouse before going to MGM to see the fireworks display at 9pm.

So, after eating in the room, we headed for Disney MGM Studios. We were surprised to discover there were no fireworks at 9pm! When we saw Fantasmic on Sunday, there was a fireworks display going easily seen from the Fantasmic arena and obviously going on back in the main part of the park. So, we assumed this was a regular nightly fireworks display. We decided that, in fact, it was probably connected to the ESPN weekend. Never mind. We will just have to do a few things and then scarper before the mass crowds emerge from Fantasmic trying to exit the park simultaneously. Trevor and Piers decided to do Towerrrrrrrrrr of Terrorrrrrrrrrr Fourrrrrrrrrr while Michael and me did the Great Movie Ride (which we also did last Sunday). I really enjoyed this and it was interesting to note they changed some small details. If people cotton on to the fact that some of the attractions will frequently change small details, it’ll keep them coming back and certainly makes it far more entertaining. On this occasion our “regular” tour guy was replaced by a Bugsy Malone actor instead of a cowboy. Trevor and Piers said that the Towerrrrrrrrrr of Terrorrrrrrrrrr Fourrrrrrrrrr was not scary and I would have liked it. There’s enough room for 21 people in an elevator and about three or four actual elevators in the building. Sounds like it was actually an enjoyable ride – BUT you still won’t get me on it!!!! :confused2: We decided it was time to run before the crowds emerge from Fantasmic. We return to our room and bed. ZzZzZzZzZzZzZz.

Catch up with us tomorrow for another visit to Disney Quest and our first visit to Typhoon Lagoon.

 

[Grumpy John]

9 p.m. fireworks would have been those at Epcot. The two parks are not that far apart, in fact you can walk from MGM to Epcot via Boardwalk, takes about 25 minutes and is a very pleasant stroll.