Spectacular.

At Conneaut Lake, we get this kind of sunset all the time.

Click for a larger view. Really.

Disney Recap: Day Seven (The end!)

Friday, April 3, was our last full day at Disney.

It was very rainy Friday morning, so we took our time getting up, eating breakfast and getting ready. I did a couple loads of laundry in the hotel’s laundry room, to avoid being inundated with dirty clothes the minute we arrived home from vacation.

We decided to go back to Animal Kingdom first, since it was the only one of the main parks that we had not been to at least twice. Rain stopped in the late morning and we got to the park around noon.

We went to get passes to ride Expedition Everest again, and then headed over toward the Jungle Trek. On the way we bumped into my cousin Jim and his girls again. It is a small world, after all

The Jungle Trek is a walking tour where we saw several animals and exotic birds. Probably the most memorable sight was that of the giant fruit bats — these creatures were big and ugly like you might see in a cartoon! They really did resemble the classic “bats in the belfry” type bats you would see flying around castle turrets…

We next went to check out “Planet Watch” which involved riding a train over to a sort of nature center where you can see and learn about some wildlife. The boys enjoyed the snakes, lizards, and insects on display… there was also an area like a petting zoo where people could get up close and personal with some animals, but those animals turned out to be just a bunch of goats, really. Whatever!

After we returned to the main part of the park, Aaron realized he had left his camera behind somewhere. We back-tracked and figured that he must have left it somewhere in Planet Watch. The staff was very helpful in trying to locate the lost item for us. Luckily, someone had found the camera and turned into the office at Planet Watch, so we were able to recover it without too much trouble.

Finally, our time to ride the roller coaster came around, so we hopped on and enjoyed one final ride there. Aaron chose a tee shirt from the Expedition Everest gift shop that says “Scream Like a Girl.” Then we headed on our way out of the park.

We decided to go to the Downtown Disney area to eat at Planet Hollywood (we had a voucher for some free food there) and do a little souvenir shopping. We had a bit of trouble getting there because there was no direct bus from the park — so after some confusion and a bus ride to the main transportation center, we took the monorail to Epcot and then a bus to one of the resort hotels close by, and finally caught a bus to the shopping district.

[Planet Hollywood was fun, but it was very loud and the food was nothing to write home about.]

We found some souvenirs in a couple places in the Marketplace area, then headed back to the lodge. I really had in mind to see the Magic Kingdom “Wishes” fireworks from the proper vantage point in front of the castle, since I hadn’t seen the whole show yet. Glenn and I left the boys in the room (they were not interested in going back out) and took one last boat ride over to the Magic Kingdom. The timing was perfect for us to get off the boat, get onto Main Street and work our way up near the castle in time for the fireworks to begin. It was impressive! Glenn especially liked the fact that someone dressed as Tinkerbell flew down on a long zip line from the top of the castle. I thought the show was a splendid way to top off the week at Disney. The weather was very pleasant and the music and fireworks were all, of course, Disney-perfect.

After the fireworks, we made our way to the ice cream parlor for a treat, and then did some final shopping at one of the big gift shops on Main Street (The Emporium). Later, we said goodbye to the Magic Kingdom as we took the boat back to the Wilderness Lodge one final time.

A word to my parents… we cannot thank you enough for the wonderful week we had at Disney World! It was a very special trip that I do not know if we would have ever gotten around to taking otherwise. We are still sorting through some pictures, and will be sending some goodies in the mail to you very soon!

Disney Recap: Day Six

Thursday turned out to be my favorite day of the vacation.

We started the day with breakfast down at the hotel café, and the headed to Typhoon Lagoon water park, arriving around 10:15am.  We rode the “Crush’n Gusher” right off the bat – it’s an actual water roller coaster where you ride a tube on an up-and-down path. That was a good ride, and one we hadn’t seen at other water parks before. We also rode a few other water slides – some with inner tubes and some without. The “Humunga Cowabunga” was the steepest and most intense ride (although I don’t think anything could compare to Blizzard Beach’s “Summit Plummet” that Glenn and Aaron rode).

The Lagoon also has a huge wave pool, which generates a 6-foot wave every 90 seconds. That wave really was impressive… there would be a sound like a canon every time the wave was sent out, and everyone in the pool would just start screaming as the wave barreled through and cleared everyone  and everything out of its path.

The final attraction at the park was the Shark Reef, which was a neat chance to snorkel over a live coral reef full of fish and small sharks. Over all, I’d say the Lagoon is a very good water park, but not enough to spend an entire day there. We left around 1 or 1:30.

After we had the chance to get  cleaned up and into dry clothes back at the lodge, we headed over to Magic Kingdom. Our main goal was to see about riding the famous Space Mountain, since we hadn’t been able to ride it up to that point. We got fast passes, but they weren’t good until about 10 p.m., so we had lots of time to kill. We headed across the park to see about riding Big Thunder Mountain Railroad again, but we were slowed down considerably – for the third or fourth time since we’d been to Disney World – by a parade!

A word or two about the parades at Disney World: Enough already!

And now back to our program.

When we did finally make it to the other side of the park, we found the lines very long for any of the rides we wanted. We decided to take the park train around to the front of the park and catch the monorail over to Epcot Center for a while… however, just as we were leaving the front gates of Magic Kingdom, we remembered that Glenn had wanted to see the Enchanted Tiki Room (he had seen it in CA at Disneyland as a child). So, we turned back into the park and as we headed toward Main Street USA I pulled out my cell phone to take a quick snapshot. It was then that I noticed that I had just missed a call from my cousin Jim Robertson — he was also in the Magic Kingdom that day with his three girls! SO I was able to find him coming off of another attraction and we caught up for a bit. It was great, because we hadn’t seen each other in decades! He even got to meet Glenn and the boys as they were coming out of the Enchanted Tiki Room (which, much to Glenn’s chagrin, was “under new management” and not much like the show he rememebered from long ago).

Me and my home-boy, chillin' near the lake at Epcot. Word.

At this point we did leave the Kingdom and head for Epcot. The monorail is a nice, quick and easy ride between the two parks. We went right in and rode one of our favorite rides of the week – Test Track – and only waited about 20 minutes by using the single rider line. After that we went over to the World Showcase area in hopes of finding supper. We ate in “Japan” and enjoyed some sights along the way. Glenn especially liked all the bonsai that were on display as part of the huge Garden Festival that was underway at the time.

Glenn and I (sporting light-up mickey ears) waiting for IllumiNations to begin.

After supper we turned the boys loose (walkie talkies in hand) to go back and ride some more rides while Glenn and I continued through World Showcase and planned to catch the nightly “IllumiNations” show on the lake. Our timing was perfect as we made our way around, and we ended up arriving at the prime viewing location just in time to get some great seats (“seats” meaning that we found some great spots to sit on the ground). The show was incredible! A combination of flames, fireworks, electric lights and lasers… we could actually feel tiny bits of ash falling on us at certain times, from the giant fires that they ignited on the water. I’m sure the boys would have loved it, but we couldn’t convince them to leave Mission: Space which they were riding again. The show finished up around 9:15 pm and we met the boys and headed back on the monorail to return to Magic Kingdom.

We arrived just in time to use our fast passes, so we walked right on in to the ride. On our way, a man offered us three additional fast passes that he wasn’t going to use. This was a great gift, because we LOVED Space Mountain! The boys and I rode it right away a second time using the additional fast passes.

Ride Review: Space Mountain: Space Mountain, Space Mountain, Spa-a-a-a-a-ce Mounta-a-a-a-a-in!!!  Hey, what a great ride! I had really no idea what to expect. All I knew was that Space Mountain was the ride that everyone has talked about at Disney World for a long, long time. I didn’t know what kind of ride it was, or anything. And really, could it be all that great considering how old it is compared to so many of the newer, fancier attractions these days? Well… Space Mountain is basically an indoor roller coaster. And, it is quite retro. Think Star Trek, the original version with Captain Kirk. When you go inside and you finally (it did seem like a really long way, and we weren’t even fighting with lines since we used fast passes) get to the center of the “mountain” where the ride actually starts, you look up and see the sun, planets, stars, moons, asteroids etc being projected all over the inside of the massive domed roof. And then you see the little cars come around to be loaded up, and they reminded me a bit of the cars on the old Wild Mouse ride at Conneaut Lake Park. So I got in thinking, gee, I hope this doesn’t turn out to be a big disappointment. But from the first turn where your car goes down a long “tube” full of laser-looking lights, you realize that it’s going to be a great ride. It’s pretty fast, with lots of turns and dips and ups and downs…a nice long ride and one that is thrilling enough that most people are dying to ride it, but also “tame” enough for younger children to ride with no problem. I give it four stars!

The park was getting ready to close at 11 p.m., and we had about half an hour left to try to ride something. We trekked across once again to Big Thunder Mountain and practically walked right on since the crowds were thinning out. Then, we were even able to squeeze one last ride in — Brent had been begging to ride Splash Mountain, so we did. I think we were just about the very last group to ride it for the day. It was long, mildly exciting (the last hill was great) and we did get splashed pretty good.

As we finally left the park, it was a very pleasant night. We caught our boat back to the Wilderness Lodge and we all got ice cream at the snack bar before heading up to bed. It was a long, wonderful day!

Disney Recap: Day Five

We returned to Hollywood Studios not long after it opened on Wednesday morning. The first thing we did was head straight to the Aerosmith roller coaster to get a fast pass… the park was already getting busy and the wait time for that ride was already more than an hour! We got our passes that were slotted for a few hours later and then headed next door to the “Tower of Terror.”

Ride Review: Tower of Terror. The Hollywood Tower of Terror is set up as though it is an old hotel from the 30s or 40s. When you go through the line they first give you some backstory about some celebrity who was there and went on the elevator one night, then the elevator was struck by lightning and ever since then it has been haunted or possessed or something. I was a little fuzzy on the details, but the atmosphere of the hotel leading up to the actual ride was excellent. The ride itself involves loading people into a large elevator (seated and buckled in) and then the elevator goes up and enters the Twilight Zone at some point, and starts moving through the halls of the hotel. We passed various ghostly figures and visions (really, the effects are pretty good!) and then the elevator reaches a point of total darkness. At that point, “lightning” strikes your car and suddenly the elevator plummets in a free fall! I screamed as loudly as I ever have! Of course it stops before it hits the ground… what I wasn’t prepared for was the second time the elevator shot upward, and then dropped again. This was repeated at least one more time, or possibly twice. It was honestly very difficult for me to tell sometimes whether we were going up or down! By the time it was over, the man in front of me was probably deaf from my screaming. I thought it was an excellent ride all around…. from the details leading up to it and the special effects, to the actual ride. This was the first time I had ever been on a ride that takes you up and drops you. It was terrifying, and I wanted to ride it again!

After the Tower, we headed to the other side of the park to check on some other rides that interested us. We rode  simulator-type of ride called “Star Tours” that was OK but not great. We checked show times for a couple stunt shows we wanted to see, and then ate an early lunch at “Pizza Planet.”

The timing of some of the things we wanted to do was a little tricky to work with our fast pass time slot… but we were able to do the Studio Backlot tour where we saw some neat movie special effects and how they are filmed. After the tour we headed over to the Rock’n'Roller Coaster, which we thoroughly enjoyed again.

Next it was time to catch the Indiana Jones stunt show, which was a lot of fun. We got to see how stunt men perform all kinds of dramatic stunts as they recreated three different action scenes from the original “Raiders of the Lost Ark” movie.

We went to see “Journey to Narnia: Prince Caspian” thinking it would be some sort of cool interactive experience, but it turned out to be nothing more than  a10-minute synopsis of the movie (which we have seen already). So, that was one disappointment today. To feel better, we all got a snack afterward. They sell some delicious root beer floats at the snack stand back over by the roller coaster!

As we made our way to the final big stunt show we have wanted to see, it started to rain again. It rained enough that we were concerned that the show might be canceled, but it stopped in time for everything to proceed as planned. This feature, called “Lights, Motors, Action!” involved some excellent stunt driving feats. Lots of car chases, motorcycles, even a jet ski… and of course, plenty of fire and explosions. I took several pictures of the show as it was really quite impressive.

After the show, we were ready to head back to the lodge, but took a small detour when we happened to run into some friends from church on one of the park streets. We stopped a chatted a bit before finally heading out to the bus stop.

Once back at the lodge, we decided to let the boys eat supper themselves in the café, and then spend some time in the hotel arcade. Glenn and I checked on the possibility of eating at the nicer table service restaurant, but with no reservations we were out of luck. We ate at the café and then sat at the pool while the boys had a late swim. We did catch a little bit of the Magic Kingdom fireworks show from the hotel beach… they are partly visible from across the lake… and we heard the quirky music from the nightly “Electric Boat parade.”

There are lots of ducks that live around the lodge, and some of them get right into the pool along with the hotel guests! Earlier in the evening we had seen an entire family, including several ducklings, swimming in the deep end. It is also common to see lots of bunny rabbits milling around in the landscaped areas around the lodge. They seem to be very accustomed to people.

I think this day was the only day that we ended up visiting just one park. It was nice to be able to go through this whole week at a leisurely pace. More details to come in the next installment!

Disney Recap: Day Four

Making the daily walk from the lodge down to the bus pickup area.

Tuesday morning. We moved a little more quickly this morning and headed out to Blizzard Beach, arriving shortly after it opened at 10 a.m.  The boys had been very anxious to visit one of the water parks since we started the vacation, and this seemed like a good day to try one…

There are a lot of great water slides at Blizzard Beach… we rode some together and some separately. The boys enjoyed the large wave pool and the “Cross Country Creek” that encircled the entire park. Aaron ended our time at the park by taking the “Summit Plummet” which is a 120-foot, nearly vertical drop… no tubes, no toboggan, nothing but you and the slide!  He said he loved it, but the trip down gave him quite a wedgie J  Glenn also rode that slide and said it was very intense.

By about 3pm we were ready to go back to the lodge to get dried off and then go to Hollywood Studios. As we left the water park, we had our first real disappointment with the free Disney transportation… the bus to take us to Wilderness Lodge was very late in picking us up. I think this was an exception to the general rule, because we had had very good experiences using the buses, boats, and monorail so far.

Wow, that's one big giant hat.

Rock'n'Roll!

We finally did get back to the lodge around 4:30 p.m. and got cleaned up and headed out to the Studios. My plan had been to spend the evening there as I mistakenly thought the park was open until 10 p.m…. but I had misread the information and we soon learned that the park would close at 7 p.m. We had about an hour to spend, so we headed straight to the Aerosmith Rock’n’Roller Coaster that we had heard so much about. To save some time, we went through the single rider line (it was too late to get fast passes). We still waited in line about half an hour or so. The ride did not disappoint! It is an indoor roller coaster that operates in (mostly) darkness and takes its riders through loops and corkscrew turns, all after a bullet-like start taking the train from 0 to 60 in less than 3 seconds. We loved it!

Aaron and I ready for Toy Story in 3D

Just as the park was closing, we managed to squeak in to the brand new Toy Story ride that is being heavily pushed this year. It involves 3D animation and a lot of target shooting for different point values.  The 3D effects were very good, and we all enjoyed competing with each other for the most points.

After the Studios closed, we went back to the lodge and just hung out for a while. We had supper at the Roaring Fork Café (their grilled chicken salad was my favorite!) and then we lounged a while. The boys and Glenn took a night swim in the hotel pool while I made a call to my Mom and Dad to get them caught up on all our vacation antics.

Stay tuned till next time!