The View from Scopa Towers

Today I am continuing with my countdown list of things in and around Walt Disney World which I feel need attention and has been needing this attention for a number of years.

Let's start with:

#7 Carousel of Progress - Diorama Dilemma

Anyone who knows me realizes how important the Carousel of Progress is to me. Having said that, let me add that the importance of the Carousel of Progress is why I feel so strongly that it is in need of some attention. Presently there are several dioramas within this attraction with each diorama showing progress made in the world of electricity and science to that point in time. Each diorama has a timespan of approximately 20 years...well, except for the last two. The difference between the last two dioramas jumps from about 20 years to about 70 years, going from the 1940's to present time. That's quite a jump and we all know that a lot of "stuff" happened between the 40's and the turn of the century.
So I ask myself why hasn't anyone done anything about this? Why has the CoP had next to nothing happen to it for so many years? Well, one reoccurring thought is that this attraction, although so very near and dear to Disney purists, may never be a candidate for a refurbishing because it would need the refurbishment from time to time. Well, yes! Perhaps every 20 years remove a diorama and replace that with a present time display of progress. That should have been something that could have started in the 1980's. Of course this would mean that the original version of the attraction would eventually be retired and never seen again. For me, I think that is what keeps those first dioramas firmly in place.
There is one other theory, there is a fascinating with the story of the Carousel of Progress and how it eventually came to be at the 1964 World's Fair. That and it's tie to Walt himself makes it very hard for anyone to want to change it....or at least the first few dioramas.

Still, I see the attraction confusing many first time visitors as they realize the inconsistency as they come across the final diorama and sooner or later this will have to be addressed. Sooner or later instead of staying pat with the attraction, they will have to give in to...well...progress.

#6 Peter Pan’s Bump…erh Flight

Guests continue to love and flock to Peter Pan’s Flight in Magic Kingdom’s Fantasyland. So do I. When you think of it, of all the attractions that have resided in The Magic Kingdom, Peter Pan's Flight may be one of the few attractions that has never changed over theyears from opening day. Can you name the others? So why do I have this attraction on my fixit list?
I'm not looking for Walt Disney Imagineering to upgrade it, enhance it, or change anything. There is really nothing wrong with the ride except for one little bitty thing that has been bothering me for maybe as long as eight years.

Imagine yourself getting on this attraction and as you go through each scene you find yourself enjoying yourself so much that the attraction calms you down; relaxes you; makes you happy for where you are.

This is how i feel too. Then it happens. As my ship, as have many over these many years, slowly makes it's way pass Captain Hook calling for Smee my ship gets ready for the final turn and BUMP. That's right! Bump. It's as if someone has slammed on the brakes or there is a misalignment in the rail that the ride vehicle is sliding on but it happens every time. Is it too much to make that a bit smoother? I brace myself every time before that happens…do the small fry riding for the first time know it’s coming? I don’t think so.

#5 Spaceship Earth’s Rude Paperboy

Between the summer of 2007 and February of 2008 Spaceship Earth went through some significant changes. When it reopened there were mixed reviews. Some guests liked the new look while others were puzzled. Of all the comments made regarding the renovations to the attraction the best I heard was that the new look Spaceship Earth was , "...an E ticket on the way up and an A ticket on the way down."

But there was something else that struck me about the attraction beyond the fact that the latest generation of audioanimatronics were added and that the entire ride down from the top would be dominated by a small video screen in the ride vehicles. It seemed minor at the time but over the last three years every time I ride this attraction I shake my head.

As guests ascend the huge geosphere and are told of the story of communication through the years eventually their ride vehicle passes by a section that has a very interesting audioanimatronic figure on the left side of the vehicle. The figure is that of a paperboy who is hawking his latest edition...hot off the presses...read all about it.

My problem? He's not just facing away from the vehicle. He is about as far away from the vehicle as he possibly can and who knows what he's saying.

Now I’ve been told that the boy is supposed to be facing that way…that he is really facing the street. That’s all well and good but he’s the only audioanimatronic that I know of who is completely facing away from the guests. Before the refurb wasn’t he facing? Please give this machine some manners!

For the last three years I keep waiting to someday ride Spaceship Earth and discover that some imagineer has finally realized that they have created a very rude paperboy and they need to fix this issue.

We're only halfway there. We have five more to go.

Stay tuned.

We all have our lists. I have one I'm about to share with you. It's my Walt Disney World Fixit list. This list is comprised of things I'd like "fixed." Now in some cases I may not be mentioning something that is broken per se but let's say, it needs attention. Bear with me as I start my countdown:

#10 Wonders of Life Pavilion - What's up?

For those of us who remember when this pavilion was in its hey day, we found it to be very entertaining. Whether it was that film, "The Making of Me", or Body Wars, my favorite "Cranium Command" or learning about health, this pavilion could easily hold onto guests for an hour or so on every visit. Some people felt that Body Wars was a bit too rough at times but other than that, this pavilion had something for everyone. Since losing its

sponsorship in 2001 (MetLife was the sponsor), the pavilion's fate was pretty much set to eventually close down. Starting in 2004 the pavilion opened only during the peak times of the year which was usually late spring through summer and then around the Christmas holidays. If memory serves me correct the pavilion closed for good in 2007. Now it has been relegated to being the hosting center for both the International Flower and Garden Show every spring and the International Food & Wine Festival every fall.

That's all well and good but it is sad that a part of EPCOT and Future World that brought science, education, and entertainment together, was brought to a close. but I would love to see some health organization or insurance company pick up on the sponsorship and revive this pavilion and make it serve the purpose for which it was originally built, to provide Epcot guests with everything they need to know about living healthy lives. So this pavilion is not broke but it's been on my mind a lot these past few years and every time I see a shooting star I wish that the Wonders of Life would be revived...for the health of it.

#9 Imagination Pavilion - It's Time!

Imagine if we had left it alone. I’m really not picking on EPCOT. This pavilion was fine in it’s original state. In 1998, after some 15 years in operation, the pavilion closed; reopened in 1999 and for two years, had a rough time with guests who found they preferred the original version.

Closure came again and what we have today has been around since 2002. The original ImageWorks was outstanding and there were so many interesting things to do....not so anymore. Bringing back Captain EO last year gave a little boost to the pavilion but surely not enough to interest the masses. It's all too painful to see that this piece of EPCOT has two options in its future. One option is a complete "wipe and load" of the pavilion and the possibility of bringing back Journey to Your Imagination V1.0 which would make many a guest happy. There's something about having a lot of hands on exhibits that make museums real popular. Perhaps that's a formula worth looking at. The other option is tied to the very strong rumor, just a rumor mind you, that there have been plans in the works for over a year to do a complete demolition of this pavilion to make way for a new and exciting addition to Future World. Is there any way to tell if and when this will happen? I don't know. I can tell you this, the next time I'm in MouseGear I will be checking to see just how many pieces of Figment merchandise is on sale. If there is next to none then my imagination will go wild.

#8 Magic Kingdom’s Noodle Station Enigma

To Noodle or Not to Noodle...that's what seems to be the question these days. What many of us still refer to as the Tomorrowland Terrace in Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom, has been going by the moniker of Noodle Station for about six years now. It's been a rocky six years.
I’ve had the opportunity to eat there maybe twice since then and it’s not because I rarely go to Walt Disney World…I’m there quite often....please check my references. It's just that as much as I have spent some 210 days in Walt Disney World between 2005 and July 2011 I can count on one hand the number of days The Noodle Station has been open for business in those 210 days. Could it be coincidence? Could it be bad luck? Maybe I was not there during the peak crowd times? Is that what you are thinking? Hmmm. Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall. I've been all those seasons. So why is it rarely open? I've asked questions and have gotten back several answers...or what I think are more like theories. One thought is that there is not enough interest in the food offerings to justify keeping the counter open. Well, there is a lot of traffic that flows through there so traffic is would not an issue. Plus if guests KNOW the eatery is going to be open than perhaps they will visit more often. Again, just a theory. The second theory is that that it's hard to keep quick-service staff. Not buying that one because there are many, many counter-service locations around Walt Disney World and doing very well thank you. That leaves us with the third theory that says that preparation of the different offerings at this location is kind of tricky and preparing the food becomes a challenge to offer the guests good quality...hence closure comes because after a while the food preparation runs into problems. I'm still not clear about this last one because aren't there Asian counter service locations in EPCOT's World Showcase? Well, whatever the reason it would be nice to see The Noodle Station either remain open all the time or at least give the guests an idea of what operating schedule the counter will be following. That's what needs fixing. Now should I say the same for Tortuga Tavern or save it for another time?

Well, that's numbers 10, 9, and 8. The countdown continues in a few days.

Earlier this week there were all these reports about Tropical Storm Fay and how it had potential to develop into a huricane. All of Florida was bracing itself for a day of two of heavy rain, damaging winds, and who knows what else Mother Nature had up her sleeve.

For those who are visiting Walt Disney World during times of bad weather, the uncertainty can surely impact their vacation plans.

For instance, in a case whereby a tropical storm or huricane is to hit some folks may cancel plans to visit the theme parks that day, possiby cancel plans to also dine at a theme park restaurants, and even just decide to hunker down in their room and ride out the storm....

...and then there's me.

When it comes to bad weather I have a tendency to be more curious than safe. I remember one February day we were in the midst of a blizzard and I went outside to check on how the trees were holding up around the house. A 20 foot tree limb missed me by about 10 feet as it came crashing down behind me.

There are other stories I can tell but I don't want to tell you how careless I REALLY am in bad weather.

Anyway, I've been in WDW for such storms as Hurricane Charley and Hurricane Dennis and for a while it looked like TS Fay would be added to my list.

But Fay pretty much fizzled out....so far.

Our morning started off with a drive to Fort Wilderness and breakfast at Trail's End. I expected the restarant to be filled. Not so. Only about 25 patrons there while we ate.

We then went to Disney's Animal Kingdom and did a few things there. At 11 A.M. we walked onto Kilimanjaro Safaris as there were hardly any guests in the park. There seemed to me more animals on the Savannah than guests in the park.

BTW, I had never seen so many animals out...could it have been the weather?

Thanks to Fay we enjoyed a morning at DAK that had fewer than the normal number of guests.

Every attracton had a wait time of 10 minutes or less and at Finding Nemo: The Musical I'd say only about 120 or so guests watched the show with us.

Around Noon we decided to go to the Magic Kingdom because there was still the feeling that the storm would hit between 2 and 4 P.M. and I wanted to see what measures would be taken to secure the park.

Here are the umbrellas tied down at Casey's...

Take a look as to how dark it was around the castle...

Rumors were floating around all day that the parks would close in the late afternoon.
Signs were being tied down to protect from potentially dangerous wind conditions...like at Columbia Harbor House...

Cinderella's Round Table sign under the castle was secured...

Guests were notified that the resort was monitoring the storm and telling us that there was a possibility of a change in the operaring hours.

More signs tied down....Sir Mickey's...

...and the Yankee Trader.

We made our way to the Magic Kingdom and sometimes it rained and sometimes it didn't. It was breezy all day with temps in the 70's.

At Magic Kingdom we did about eight or so attractions...all were either walk-ons or ten minute waits.

At around 5 P.M. the winds DID pick up a bit but the rains still held off...steady rains that is.

It wasn't until around 7 or so that the sky began to transition into a hazy, grey chunk and the rain and wind picked up.

That's when we decided to leave the park.

But all in all thanks to Fay we were able to get a lot done.

Look at Haunted Mansion....10 minutes to get on...

I think this is a comment that when the weather is not so perfect during your stay at WDW that you should make the best of it.

Of course in any weather you need to be aware of potential conditions. ALWAYS BE SAFE!!.

I always see rainy days as the best days to go to EPCOT and Animal Kingdom. Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom offer more hiding places from the rain and thus guests tend to go to those parks on rainy days...not to mention Disney Quest.

So thanks Fay for an interesting day. ...and it may continue to be an interesting week as Fay seems to want to hang around.

Well I'm back in Orlando for 10 days of willfull suspension of disbelief and along the way we all know that I'll be sharing some observations with all of you and hopefully also provide some insight and some tips to help you on your next visit to Walt Disney World.

And of course it would not be any fun unless from time to time I place a photo in this blog and ask you to guess as to from where I snapped this photo.

Here's one...and a hint...it's from an attraction.

Any guesses?

Now on to other things.

One observation that I need to share with you is best shown in the following picture. I had just enjoyed a performance of the Festival of the Lion King and when Carol and I exited the theater she pointed out this group of strollers.

Notice anything?

It sure seems that there is a larger percentage of personal strollers in the theme parks than in the past..at least on this particular morning.

Here's something new for all of you who are planning to visit Walt Disney World in the next few months and are on one of the Disney Dining Plans.

Le Cellier in Epcot is currently running a "pilot" as it was described to me, which offers guests a special menu.

This menu has a yellow box at the top and in this yellow box are appetizers, entrees, and desserts.

Here's the deal. If for instance you are on the basic Disney Dining Plan you know that appetizers are outside the plan.

However, if you choose your appetizer, entree, and dessert from those offerrings in this yellow box then Le Cellier will honor all three, yes that includes the appetizer, on the Dining Plan.

Is there a catch? Well, I will tell you that the entrees offerred in the yellow box are certainly not their signature entrees so that's something to consider.

For the record, I did order an appetizer and paid for it and then ordered a signature entree and dessert.

The entrees and desserts in that yellow box just did not appeal to me.

Anyway, if you are lucky enough to have an Advanced Dining Reservation at Le Cellier be aware of the yellow box pilot.

Here's another observation and that is if you are using Disney transportation while in Orlando be sure to always, always, always double-check the bus routes whenever possible.

Some of them are very specific.

For instance, as of the date of this blog entry if you are staying in Pop Century and want to go to Blizzard Beach you would take the bus that goes to Disney's Animal Kingdom from Pop Century. From DAK that bus will continue to BB.

However to get from Pop Century to Typhoon Lagoon you would take a bus that goes to Downtown Disney which will then continue to TL.

Those two routes may change without notice so just be sure you ask before assuming that a particular bus will be going to a particular destination.

That's it for now....

....except for one more photo for you to ry and figure out just where it came from.

Are you ready?

Here it is...and a hint....this cannot be found in a theme park.

Any ideas?

Watch for more from me as I make more Orlando Observations in the days to come.

When we last left I was retelling the Sip and Snack Around the world challenge that was taken on by Annette Owens, Len Testa, Mike Newell, and myself.

We had just finished Germany and were now on our way to China.

China: Joy of Tea Stand

Ah the Joy of Tea Stand was finally opened. At this point everyone was thinking about something to drink. This stand offered some interesting choices and the day before Annette had convinced me to try the Peach Oolong Tea Schnapps Slush. It was good the day before, but then again I wasn’t eating my way around World Showcase.

Everyone had tea except me. I opted for the green tea ice cream simply because it was one fourth the size of any drink offered at the cart.

Poor Len, he DID NOT like his tea and ended up nursing it for a considerable long time…you’ll see.

Italy: Arcata D’Ariga

Remember, we had a deadline of 2:30 so we had to keep moving. We were just about a third through the pavilions and we needed to maintain a pace of eating every 15 to 20 minutes.

Now obviously Tutto Italia was out…unless of course a stomach pump came with the Pasta e Fagioli (pronounced “Pasta Fa-ZOO”). Len and I had the same idea. We walked into Arcata D’Ariga, the store that has wine and candy and pastries.

Len, Annette, and Mike opted for biscotti which is an Italian cookie, often made with almonds. I wasn’t too sure about that so I went to the area in the middle of the store where they had candy. I was able to find a small package that had one kind of jelly bean candy…and it was only thirty cents. SOLD!

Oh yeah…with the help of the biscotti Len was able to get a bit more of his tea down…as they say, he would have given all the tea in China to not have to drink that stuff.

At this point we started to seriously wonder about the insane task we had charted ourselves to do.

However, once again…we were in EPCOT…with friends…and having a good time…and that pretty much cancelled out any second thoughts of quitting…heck, we were having too much fun and laughing too much to stop now.

We could almost feel the spirit of Walt Disney putting his arm around our shoulders and saying, “Hey gang, I love this idea.”

American Adventure: Liberty Inn

This could have been a challenge. Remember we were limited to only those items unique to that pavilion and the Liberty Inn did not have many choices.

Two of us, Len and Annette opted for the Kids chicken nuggets meal. However they had to take two sides with the meal AND a small bottle of water.

Len opted for grapes and carrot sticks and Annette went with carrots sticks and the fruit punch gelatin. Yes when they each sat down they both had a “What was I thinking?” look on their faces.

Mike and I scanned the menu and decided to have a Sam Adams beer. As much as I thought this was the right choice it did take an effort on my part to finish it.

At one point Len had excused himself to visit the rest room. Upon his return he announced to everyone that he was a failure. He was trying to convince his stomach to, let’s say, “return” what he had eaten to that point so he would have an empty stomach to finish this challenge.

Alas…he just couldn’t get his stomach to comply…oh yeah…he still had the tea.

I challenged Len to guzzle the tea and I would guzzle my bear. He held his nose and tried to guzzle his drink…we let him stop once he got to the virtual 75% mark.

Annette could not eat the gelatin…so she took it with her…to finish off somewhere along the way.

We all started laughing…at ourselves…it was great.

Japan: Mitsukoshi Department Store

From here on out we were all on the same page. Our objective from this point on was to find the smallest item in each pavilion and also one that would go down easy. We checked the menu for the Yakitori House. Most of us had the same idea…Miso soup.

However, the thought of consuming green onions and seaweed at this point convinced us otherwise. Everything else looked to either have large portions, including the Kirin Beer, Hot Sake, and Plum Wine.

Oh if only Masayo was here to help us.

The Mitsukoshi Department Store sort of wraps around the pavilion and in the back is an area with food and most importantly, small packages of food.

Of course someone found a package of dried fish….no thanks…although Annette still had her Jell-O so at least she could dunk the fish….sorry…that the mind plays tricks on you and I had this image.

Actually Annette made a great choice. She purchased what looked to be a package of three chocolate lollipops. Each “pop” was the size of a dime…good choice.

Mike Newell chose this small package of grape cotton candy with pop rocks, and Len grabbed something best described as Japanese Gummi Bears.

I had a small candy bar in my hand and was in line to pay when I spotted a much better choice. It was a small energy drink. The bottle could not have held more than 6 oz. It tasted like flat Diet Sprite. It went down smooth and no after taste. This was my best choice of the day as it really had no impact on me.

Morocco: Tangierine Café

We sauntered in to the Tangierine Café and checked out the menu. I had eaten here in December and I recalled that the portions were somewhat HUGE and I cautioned everyone to “choose wisely.”

We all agreed that it was too risky to order even something like a kid’s meal. We had three countries left after this one and we were running out of time on the clock and space in our tummies.

Then almost at the same time we all said “Baklava” and we went to the pastry counter.

At this point Annette looked at the cast member behind the counter and quipped, “I never thought I’d hear myself say this but please give me the smallest piece you have.”

She was speaking for all of us.

I’m not sure how to explain how we all enjoyed the Baklava. Mike Newell felt there was too much filling in his and I felt mine did not have enough and was dry.

Annette seemed to have a challenge getting hers down…and at this point she could have
washed it down with her melting Jell-O.

Len, still reeling from his cursed tea after taste, welcomed anything that would mask that lingering flavor in his palate.

Tick-Tock, time was marching…I looked at my watch…we had just about an hour left to do France, the United Kingdom, and Canada.

France: Boulangerie Patisserie

Imagine you are standing in front of a French pastry and there are many, many, too many wonderful combinations of sugar, flour, and fillings waiting for you…and you are stuffed.

What to do.

When we started this little adventure I had thought all along that I would look forward to France and enjoy a nice Napoleon.

No…not this little guy…

…this guy.....

...believe me...he looked much bigger in the display.

However, as we made our way around World Showcase the issue of size and portion very much influenced our choices and the Napoleons were sort of outside my portion range at this point.

I opted for a lemon tart…less pastry and more gel and I washed that down with light lemonade.

Mike Newell could not resist the cream puff. When he picked it up the weight kind of made him nervous. It was made with heavy cream. We let Mike knock off about 75% of that baby and call it a done deal.

Call it “portion pity.”

The best choice in France was made by Annette and Len who both opted for a Croissant. Also, Annette was able to consume 75% of her Jell-O while at the same time getting down the Croissant.

But I have to tell you…by now we’re all thinking we’re not going to eat for at least a decade or two…but before then what lies ahead was the United Kingdom and Canada.

United Kingdom: The Tea Caddy

Ahh… the Tea Caddy.

Annette and I wandered in to check out the offerring in there. It was, what we felt, our only option.

We all steered clear of the fish and Chips counter service area.

Len and Mike made a “pit stop” and returned to find Annette and myself munching on something I remember being called a “Flakey” or something like that. It was recommended to us by the CMs in the shop because it was “flaky and light”

Well...sort of…it was flaky alright but when you put layers of flakes together and fused them together with chocolate…the word “light” does not come to mind.

Len opted to try one too…but Mike Newell’s dry throat drew him to the Rose and Crown and Bass Ale…which did not go down as smoothly as he had hoped.

Okay, here we were, we had about 25 minutes before our deadline and we had just Canada left in our sights.

We were all praying the same thing…”Please let there be small bear claws” as we all assumed those pastries would probably be our choice.

Canada: Northwest Mercantile

There was good news and bad news waiting for us in Canada.

The good news was that there were no bear claws to be found.

The bad news was that there were no bear claws to be found.

On the one hand we were relieved. It was going to be a challenge to get those babies down…but then again…NOW WHAT?

We went into the Northwest Mercantile and checked it out.

Lots of stuff but hoo boy…not easy to make a choice. There were packages of Maple candy and cookies and biscuits and stuff like that.

We looked for a LONG time before finally succumbing to yet another candy bar.

Len, of course, always thinking, came up to me and said, “I need a ruling”

“What?” I said.

“Is this legal?” and he held up…

wait for it….

wait for it…

a small bottle of maple syrup.

“You’re kidding!” I said.

“Hey it’s small…should go down easy…and I’m done”

I chuckled and said, “Go for it.” Thinking that I was about to witness a sugar high that would be unequaled in history.

So while Mike, Annette, and I forced down the last of our World Showcase buffet, Len guzzled, yes guzzled, his bottle of maple syrup.

Well, we all looked at each other and said, “Okay, that was crazy!”

We looked at our watches…2:20 P.M.

We had come within 10 minutes of our target time.

On average, each of us had spent about $35 as we weaved our way around World Showcase.

As we were walking out of World Showcase we were joking and remarked. “Well, that’s been done.”

A curious smile came over my face and Mike Newell looked over at me and he said, “Oh no! He’s thinking again.”

He was right!

When the next opportunity arises I’ve got some new wrinkles to throw into this little challenge…and it’s going to be different, challenging, and most of all…fun.

So next time everyone may be a bit more prepared.

It was a spur of the moment idea…an idea that probably has been in the back of a lot of WDW guest minds but unfortunately never surfaced to the point where they can try it.

What am I talking about?

Well on my recent trip to Walt Disney World while walking around World Showcase with Annette Owens of MEI and Mouse Fan Travel we found ourselves discussing interesting things to do in Walt Disney World that the usual guest would probably either never think of nor have the time to do.

We had just finished the third leg or our four Parks in One Day Adventure and before heading off to dinner we were obviously thinking of this challenge and what other interesting challenges we could come up with that would make for an interesting day at one of the parks.

Of course what is World Showcase known for but its diversified cuisines and the offerings of food from around the world?

So we began to wonder out loud what it would be like to try and get a little taste of what World Showcase pavilions have to offer…all 11 of them.

Now unless you are either Takeru Kobayashi (world famous Japanese competitive eater) or a 350 lb. National Football League interior lineman you probably don’t have the intestinal fortitude to sit down in every pavilion and eat a meal in one day.

So the problem was to throw in enough wrinkles so that the average person could in fact stand a chance at doing this.

That night over dinner I threw out some ideas to some friends and after some discussion we came up with the following challenge that we were going to attempt the very next day.
We called it….”Sip and Snack Around the World.”

Rules of the Game

Here they are:

• The goal is to consume either food or drink from every pavilion in World Showcase.
  
• Since this was a bit of a competition we said that it was every man (and woman) for him/herself. That meant no sharing.
  
• Each participant was responsible for purchasing his or her own “stuff.”
  
• Whatever is consumed had to be unique to that pavilion and not available anywhere else.
  
• Whatever the choice, be it food or drink, at least 75% had to be consumed for that pavilion’s offering to count.
  

There were four of us who took up this challenge, the aforementioned Annette Owens, Len Testa Co-Author of the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World and one of the co-hosts of the WDWTODAY podcast, his fellow WDWTODAY co-host Mike Newell, also of MouseWorldRadio, and yours truly.

We decided to do it the next day.

Now keep in mind that this is an unusual way to spend your day at Walt Disney World. On a normal vacation day in Orlando you would not find yourself spending an entire day doing this…well after reading this you might.

Good Morning

When I got up the next morning I made sure I had nothing for breakfast…well maybe some juice…but no food.

We all arrived at EPCOT just about opening time and knew that World Showcase would not open until 11 so we strolled around and checked out Future World before our “Feast.”

We visited The EPCOT Legacy Museum...

and Mission Space and Test Track...

...and Club Cool before heading over to World Showcase.

I was a little hungry but held off eating anything but a small granola bar.

I cannot say the same for Len. About 10:30 or so Len decided he needed something so he decided to grab a cherry Danish and coffee at the pastry cart in Canada.

Hmmmm….would this impair his gastronomical ability for the day?

We decided to help Len out so we walked from Canada to Mexico where our challenge would begin. This would give him some time to walk off the Danish and prepare for the challenge.

Just before we got started Len dropped a bomb…”Uh guys I have to be somewhere by mid afternoon so we need to do this by 2:30.”

“What?!?!?!

Hoo boy!

I had expected that we would be looking at an eight to nine hour ordeal. Not now.

Len’s schedule meant we had to covering 11 pavilions in 3 ½ hours…do the math…that means we had to consume something every…drum roll please…20 minutes. Yikes.

Now I was REALLY glad I had not eaten breakfast.

Mexico: La Cantina de San Angel

First stop was Mexico. Now think of the strategy one could go with on such a challenge. You could go one of several ways. We all had our own ideas as to how best to approach this challenge.

My plan was sort of a two plans in one kind of an approach. My primary objective was to think small. I was going to look for the smallest item in every pavilion.

I was also thinking that I would also need to space out any liquids I would have. I knew that during the challenge I would need to wash down any food I consumed so I needed to constantly monitor myself for dry throat.

Well for Mexico at La Cantina de San Angel three of us decided to start off light. Len, Annette, and yours truly opted for the child’s meal…a few nachos and a small beef burrito…and a small bottle of water.

Then there was Mike Newell. Mike has also not eaten breakfast so he assumed that having a regular sized meal to start off the challenge would be fine.

Well, take a look at the following picture and you will see how much of a difference the child’s meal was from a regular meal. It would be a choice Mike would regret.

Remember, we all had to eat 75% of whatever we chose at each pavilion so size was a consideration.

Norway: Kringla Bakeri og Cafe

I can tell you that one of the reasons I was excited about this challenge was that I knew that it would be a fun day. After all, I was in Walt Disney World with some friends and I knew…I just knew that we would laugh during this whole ordeal.

Well, you can imagine how much we laughed when Mike Newell, after eating his Mexican dish, turned around and decided to get the chocolate mousse. Now ordinarily, I’m sure many of you would leap at the opportunity of enjoying a chocolate mousse. However, would you really want one after eating a huge plate of nachos? I guess we all knew, especially Mike that his choice was let’s say questionable when he took his first swallow.

The rest of us were on this small food kick and opted for the smallest thing we could get…like the Lefse or the cloudberry horn.

We were two pavilions in and already we knew we were in for quite a day.

We skipped past China because our target, the Tea Wagon, was not open for business just yet.

Germany: Sussigkeiten (Sweets and Treats)

In Germany we thought that Sommerfest would have some good options. Right off the bat we all agreed that a German beer is definitely the wrong shoice so we looked at other options.

We were thinking Strudel. Sure, a little treat and some sugar to give us energy.

Well the problem was that the apple strudel offered at Sommerfest was more like dessert for three and none of us was brave enough to attack it. In fact all the desserts offered…including the Black Forest Cake and Cheesecake, although delicious, was looking just a bit too much to have on this day.

What about the pretzel? Well, that too looked huge, and in Len’s words by then his stomach had convinced him that the pretzel was about the size of a piece of fence.

So we went into the store called Sussigkeiten. It did not get any easier.

Think of it this way. If any of us bought a small package of cookies we’d have to eat 75% of the package. That WASN’T going to happen.

This pavilion was about to be the first pavilion in which we were looking at candy bars. Most of us looked around for a candy bar that appealed to us and that meant not just ingredients but size.

I was adventurous and tried this one candy bar that looked innocent.

Of course when we all got different items we would ask one another how they tasted.

So when Annette said, “Hey Mike, how is it?” I went into my Rod Serling impression and said calmly, “Imagine if you will…chocolate covered Play-Doh!”

Well you can imagine that we knew right then and there that we were risking getting sick from either eating too much food that day or laughing with each other. It was great.

Next Time: Part II: Tea, Nuggets, and Dried Fish, Oh My!

This is the second of two parts in which I describe how a number of friends and I did the four Walt Disney World theme parks in one day.

Park #3: Epcot

Everyone knew this park would be a challenge. It was early afternoon and we figured the crowds were peaking. We arrived at 2:00 P.M. and decided to do Spaceship Earth first. This was a toss-up… we had been thinking all along to do Spaceship Earth either first or last but decided to get it over with as soon as we got into the park.

The line was fairly long but we managed to exit that attraction by 2:30.

We then needed to make a decision regarding which attraction to do next. It came down to either Soarin’ or Test Track. The time board near the fountain told us that Soarin’s wait was 10 minutes less than Test Track. We had to do Standby… as FastPass distribution times were looking like early evening, 6 P.M. and later.

We entered the Soarin’ queue at 2:40…

…and waited for 75 minutes before getting on our glider.

It was to that point the longest wait of any attraction.

We left Soarin’ and The Land about 4:10 and headed over to Mexico to ride the Gran Fiesta Tour.

Unfortunately even though there was a short queue we had some problems. The CM overloaded our boat and we got stuck for a few moments.

Eventually we got the boat moving again…

We had finished our third park and it was only 4:35 P.M. It had taken us two hours to do DAK, two hours to do the Studios, and two and a half hours to do Epcot.

We had one park to go… Magic Kingdom… and that had EMH evening hours so we were looking pretty good… we had seven-and-a-half hours to do three attractions.

A number of us wanted to rest while others stayed at Epcot… staying at Epcot was dangerous because we came up with another challenge… I’ll tell you about that later.

While walking around World Showcase we stopped and enjoyed Jamie and the boys from Off Kilter.

We all met up at Saratoga Springs for dinner at 6:30 and took our time and talked about our day and our prospects for MK.

Park #4: The Magic Kingdom

Now up to that point we all had some challenges to meet. My colleagues on the WDWTODAY podcast and I were challenged to do attractions we are not too crazy about.

Matt Hochberg was dragged onto Dinosaur, an attraction he really has no love for and actually dislikes; Mike Newell sucked it up and went on the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, and Mike is not a big fan of what the Tower does… but he went on; and Len Testa who gets dizzy on Star Tours gutted it out and just closed his eyes and covered his ears.

So everyone then turned their attention to me and I opened my big mouth and mentioned the dreaded Tea Cups.

“We’re doing that first!” shouted my “friends.”

That was followed by, “Whose favorite ride is the Tea Cups?”

Annette Owens of MEI-Travel and Mouse Fan Travel shouted, “I love it and love to spin!”

So it was decided that Annette would accompany yours truly on the Tea Cups.

We all got in line and I was thinking, “Me and my big mouth!” But I had a plan… and hoped it would work.

When we got into the Tea Cups Annette let out a sinister chuckle.

Just as the attraction started I said to Annette, “I guess we’ll see who the stronger of the two of us is!” She started to spin the tea cup and I countered her actions by spinning the cup the other way. Basically it was a standstill until my hands started to slip and Annette put everything into it.

I then noticed something… I did not get dizzy or sick… for some reason this ride did not find me light-headed and nauseous. It had been at least 14 years since I had been on this attraction.

Guess I had finally grown out of getting sick from spinning.

Not sure if everyone was happy for me or not... I know I was.

We then headed off to do either Splash Mountain or Big Thunder Mountain.

Those who did not want to get wet went to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and those who were still reeling from the mid-90 temps of that day went to Splash Mountain.

There was an approximate wait time of 15-20 minutes for all the attractions that evening.

Our 12th and last attraction of the day was Pirates of the Caribbean. There was an interesting queue going on for Pirates. All the guests were going to the left queue and Mike Newell and I decided to go to the right queue and we had a boat all to ourselves.

To celebrate our accomplishment Len treated everyone to a Dole Whip.

We finished just before 11 P.M. and we were tired.

I think we lucked out in Hollywood Studios. Had we not been able to do that park so quickly we would not have had the luxury of waiting a few hours between Epcot and MK.

It was also proven that you need either an Extra Magic Hour morning or evening to help with extending the operating hours of your first or last park of the day.

Another important factor is the time of year you try this challenge. Early May seems a lot more accommodating than Easter Week, the 4th of July, and Christmas Day.

When we started the day there were at least a dozen of us… throughout the day some dropped off and others came on.

The four of us Len, Matt, Mike, and yours truly made it through the entire day.

Only two others were with us for the entire day so a tip of the Mickey Ears goes out to Danielle DeCerbo and Marissa Daurio for putting up with our shenanigans and keeping us company for all four parks. Special kudos go out to everyone else who at one time or another joined us and energized us along the way.

Hmmm, I wonder if this could be done if the challenge was four attractions per park.

Oh, I almost forgot. Remember when I said Annette Owens and I walked around Epcot and thought of another challenge? Well, we proposed this idea to the gang and a few days later we all tried it and we ended up more wiped out from that challenge than doing the four parks in one day.

Curious?

I’ll have to tell you about it sometime... like maybe next time.

I think it was just over a month ago that the idea of doing four parks in one day came up. It started out as an episode on the WDWTODAY podcast with me, Matt Hochberg, Len Testa, and Mike Newell tossing around ideas as to how we envisioned doing that kind of a challenge.

Then I decided to toss the challenge your way and give you some rules and regulations and guidelines as to how to make each park visit viable on that day.

Many of you, including Anita Answer, wrote to me and said you are accepting the challenge and even some of you told me of your escapades trying to do so.

Then I gave you my thoughts on how I would do this little challenge and some of you pointed out a mistake in my plans. I did not check to see if Kali River Rapids was open during Extra Magic Morning Hours at the Animal Kingdom and it is not so you would not be able to do that attraction until later in the morning… some have said it doesn’t open until 9:30.

The solution is to switch and do Kali River Rapids as your third attraction.

Anyway, all this talk about doing four parks in one day got us to thinking about doing it and just over a week ago about 14 of us started out to do just that… visit all four parks and do at least three attractions in each park.

This is how it went:

Park #1: Disney’s Animal Kingdom

We got to DAK 15 minutes before the gates opened. When the turnstiles opened we immediately headed to just in front of Discovery Island and waited for the rope to drop.

We immediately headed to Expedition Everest and got FastPasses for that attraction. We then went to Dinosaur to open that ride.

Oh no… problems. While waiting in the queue we noticed the attraction seemed to be having troubles starting up… tick tock.

We finally boarded our Time Rover sometime around 9:25. Our trek had started. There was one point during the attraction in which the ride slowed down for about a minute... but it quickly started up again.

Here we are.

From there we went to Kilimanjaro Safaris…no FastPass but it didn’t really matter as the crowd level was not too bad.

We loaded onto our vehicle about 10:00. Then everything seemed to slow down. This attraction seemed to take forever to finish. We did not get off our vehicle until 10:30 and it was off to Everest.

Our FastPasses came in handy here and there was a little excitement too. As we waited to board we noticed several members of the Dream Squad mulling around the dock where guests get off the train. Was someone about to win a dream? Was it someone from our train? Was it to be one of us?

Uhhhhh.....no!

We got off our train at 10:30 and saw that the Dream Squad had awarded some dreams (FastPasses) to a family on the train ahead of us. Well, if one of us HAD received a dream in the form of DAK FastPasses for that day we couldn’t use them because we were done with that park and headed off to park number two -- Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

It was 11:00 A.M.

Park #2: Disney’s Hollywood Studios

We headed straight for Sunset Blvd. and noticed that the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror was virtually empty. The wait time said “13 minutes” but that really means no wait at all.
We managed to all get on the same elevator. It was 11:30.

We needed to do the Tower before considering lunch.

Lunch was quick… a bite to eat on Sunset Blvd. and then it was off to either the Great Movie Ride or Star Tours. We took a chance and did The Great Movie Ride first.

We were on our vehicle at around 12:30 P.M. This park had been kind to us to this point. We think that the reason for the short lines was that a lot of people, at least Annual Passholders and Disney Vacation Club Members, were at the Toy Story Mania preview.

After TGMR we rushed over to Star Tours… again we walked right on. The time was 1:00 P.M.
After that attraction we headed for the exit and jumped on the tram to the parking lot. I got into my rental car around 1:30 P.M.

We had completed half of the challenge in about 4 ½ hours and things were looking good.

Part II will talk about the second half of this challenge.

Do me a favor. Don’t tell anyone what I’m about to tell you. Just keep it between you and me okay?

Promise?

Okay…(Mike looks over both shoulders.)

I’m in Walt Disney World.

Yep.

I flew in on Thursday afternoon.

I decided to surprise my partners in crime on the WDWTODAY podcast. They decided to come down for the Annual Passholder’s Preview for Toy Story Mania.
For a long time I really wasn’t sure if I could come down…for many reasons.

Then for many more reasons I decided ON MONDAY to fly down.

So on Thursday afternoon I found myself lining up ate gate 15 to fly to Orlando

On Friday I surprised everyone and we all went over to Toy Story Mania for the Annual Passholder’s Preview.

When you first enter this renovated area of Mickey Avenue you immediately see the huge Pixar sign.

There was also the sign announcing the sneak preview.

The FastPass machines looked like something right out of the film.

The Green Soldiers were working hard across the street.

The queue for many people will be a stroll down Memory Lane with images of Candy Land…

…Viewmaster…

…Chutes and Ladders on the ceiling…

…Barrelfull of monkeys…

…and Tinkertoys.

There are some other old time favorites but I'll let you discover them for yourself.

The star of the show was Mr. Potato Head. This audioanimatron was amazing and via the use of soundboard technology, interacted with the guests.

He can produce many expressions.

However, this is what is truly amazing...I asked him to remove his ear...AND HE DID!

Mr. Potato Head was illuminated by the Pixar Lamp.

I found a Hidden Mickey

I also found the 3-D glasses needed for the attraction.

Here’s a glimpse of the ride vehicles.

That’s about as far as I could go with the photos. Once in the ride vehicle guests must put on their 3-D glasses and secure the lap bar.

The vehicles begin to spin and from time to time stop in front of a video wall and guests will try their luck at some arcade games.

I won’t spoil it for you but suffice to say this attraction goes by faster than any attraction I have ever seen at Walt Disney World.

Each guest has this cannon and on the back of the cannon is a cord with a knob on the end of it. For each arcade game guests must pull on the cord to go after some targets presented to them.

It is very fast paced and the music and action is non-stop.

You will find yourself a bit tired after riding this attraction.

The Annual Passholder’s Preview saw many people go through this attraction and I noticed that as each day came and gone the scores improved.

On Saturday the highest score was around 160,000…then on Sunday 300,000 was reached and on Monday the highest score I saw was around 560,000 so everyone is learning how to play this game.

There is a single rider line but I really do not recommend using this line as I know of people who waited almost an hour in that line. Besides if you use that line you'll miss all the neat stuff in the queue.

Toy Story Mania is a lot of fun and I would say pretty contagious. Some may argue this point but I think it’s the first real video game like attraction ever to show up in Walt Disney World

I feel badly for Buzz Lightyear in Tomorrowland in the Magic Kingdom…he just won’t feel the same after riding this.

Next Time

Remember the four parks in one day challenge? Oh yes, I know all about Kali River Rapids…no big deal…you can adjust that to attraction number three for that park.

Anyway, a dozen of my friends attempted four parks in one day this past Sunday.

How did we go about attempting g this challenge?

Were we successful?

I’ll tell you next time.

Alright! You’ve been given some time to think it over. Just how would you be able to navigate through the four Walt Disney World theme parks under the parameters set by yours truly?

It takes some thought; some planning; and probably a little luck.

I’ve put some thought into this and I’m ready to share my thoughts with you.

Here is what I came up with:

• First, if possible, I would try and pull this stunt off on a day that offers both an Extra Magic Hour Evening Hour Morning in one park and an Extra Magic Hour Evening in another park. If both occur on the same day then potentially I am looking at an extra four hours of touring time to complete my park touring requirements. Every minute counts so the strategy here is to look for a way to get more time.
• If there are no days with this combination of both an EMH Morning and EMH Evening then I would look for a day in which either EPCOT or Magic Kingdom has an Extra Magic Hour Evening and focus on that day. The preference here would be the Magic Kingdom because Spectromagic and Wishes would play a big part of my plan but either park will work.
• My thoughts are that it would be wise to use a combination of both a rental car and Disney Transportation to go from one park to another…you’ll understand how when you read my plan later on.
• The more in your travel party the slower you move so my plan says try this with no more than three other friends. If I go beyond four in my travel party then there is a greater chance that there may be times when the party will need to wait to get on certain attractions…not to mention getting around in a car. So to maximize my potential for success, I’m doing this solo or with just one other person.
• I plan to stretch out my eating plans. I’m thinking that I will eat at my resort before going to my first park. This breakfast has to hold me for a long time. I want a lot behind me before I stop to eat lunch. Preferably I want to eat lunch towards the end of my time in park number two but realize that due to attraction queues lunch may happen in park number three and dinner in park number four.

My Attraction Strategy

Before I go into my detailed plan let me discuss my thoughts on how to attack the attraction touring portion of this plan:

• For the attractions I will focus on will be those which I feel move guests in and out of the attraction as quickly as possible. So, I will be looking to ride any attraction that is a constant loading attraction, that is, one with continuous moving ride vehicles thatnever stop.
• The proximity of certain attractions to each other will also play a key role in making the most of my time in the parks. Travel time between parks is important but so is travel time between attractions.
• Now here’s an interesting thought. FastPass may be more of an enemy in this challenge than an ally. Sure early in the morning it may help but come afternoon the FP distribution times usually run from four to as many as six hours out. So it may be better to wait 40 minutes in stand-by as opposed to waiting four hours to make use of a FastPass.
• Diversions. I will make good use of diversions. By diversions I mean parades or fireworks, or anything that draws crowds away from attractions. You’d be surprised as to how much you can do in a theme park during a diversion.

The Plan

I'm not sure if there is any type of barometer that can be used to determine what is the best way to do this little challenge. We all have our favorite parks and favorite attractions so we all have different takes on what would work well for an approach to accomplish this feat.

For me, my thought is to try not to necessarily do this as fast as I can and do so in some commando mode but to try and do it without running from park to park and attraction to attraction.

So after much thought, here is what I came up with for doing four parks in one day:

• The day I've chosen to do this challenge is Thursday, July 3, 2008 because on that day Disney's Animal Kingdom, my first park of the day, will be offerring Extra Magic Morning Hours and that evening The Magic Kingdom will be hosting Extra Magic Evening Hours. So this means that the turnstiles at Disney's Animal Kingdom will be open for me at 8:00 A.M. and later that night Magic Kingdom will be open to me until 1:00 A.M. Sure it may be hot and may be crowded but this 17 hour window offers me the best chance to do this challenge.
• I will get up as early as possible so I can be at the Animal Kingdom turnstiles around 7:30 or so. This means either eating an early and quick meal at one of my resort's eateries or having something in my room. My preference is to have a little breakfast snack in the room...either way I'm pulling into the DAK parking lot no later than 7:00 A.M.

Park #1 - Disney's Animal Kingdom

Here's how I will attack my first park of the day:

1. It's 7:30 and I am already at the turnstiles. When I get into the park I walk over to Expedition Everest and grab a FastPass. I then go to Kali River Rapids. Why? Well everyone else is doing the Safari or Everest so I can get my first attraction (KRR) out of the way real fast. My guess is that I can be out of Kali River Rapids by 8:30. One attraction down.
2. Time to use my Expedition Everest FastPass. Most likely my FastPass distribution time is probably for sometime between 9:00 and 10:00. No problem. If I go on Everest somewhere between 9:00 and 9:30 I will be off the attraction no later than 9:45. Two attractions down.
3. At this point my guess is that my best choice would be Dinosaur. It is one of those attractions which some people do not like because it's loud, rough, and downright scary. That translates into a short queue. It's also not that long of a walk from Everest to Dinosaur.If I can get into Dinosaur somewhere in the vicinity of 10:00 to 10:15 then I could very well find myself leaving Disney's Animal Kingdom around 11:00, if not sooner. One park down.
4. Since I got to the park early I may not need to wait for the traim to take me to the parking lot and my rental car. I may be parked close enough to the park entrance to walk to the car...another reason why I arrived to the park so early.

My next park in this challenge is Disney's Hollywood Studios.

Park #2 - Disney's Hollywood Studios

I chose as my second park of the day because this park is really suited only for being park number two. It cannot serve as my first park because the attractions aren't open until mid morning. It cannot be my third park because that would mean I would be in the smallest of the four theme parks in mid to late afternoon, and of course it cannot replace Magic Kingdom on this day because Magic Kingdom offers Extra Magic Hours in the evening and two diversions which will lower the queues for my targeted attractions.

Here we go:

1. Let's assume that worse case scenario, I am going through the Studios turnstiles at 11 A.M. My first stop is the SuperGreeter Board at the the corner of Hollywood Bvd. and Sunset Blvd. to check out the waiting times. The first bit of information is to determine which of the two attractions, Twilight Zone Tower of Terror or Rock 'N' Roller Coaster, have less than an hour wait. The second important piece of information is to find out what the FastPass distribution times are for both of them.
2. I will grab a FastPass for the attraction with the longest queue and get in line for the other attraction. My guess is that the Fast Pass Distribution time will be somwhere between two and three hours out. So that tells me that in that time I should focus on doing two other attractions and try to eat lunch. The one flaw in this plan is that I really cannot risk eating lunch too soon before doing either the Tower or RnRC.
3. Let's assume RnRC has the longer line. I will then grab a FastPass for that attraction and get in line for the Tower. Now I'm guessing that if it's around 11:30 or so that my FastPass will have a distribution time of somewhere between 1:30 and 2:30. Let's say it's a 45 minute wait for the Tower. I emerge from that attraction somewhere around 12:30-12:45. I should be able to squeeze in attraction #2 before my RnRC FastPass time arrives.
4. I check the board again...what has shorter lines...Toy Story Mania, Star Tours, or The Great Movie Ride? My guess is that it's Star Tours...Toy Story Mania is new and will be crowded...TGMR is always packed in the afternoon during the summer...and compared to TGMR and TSM, Star Tours will almost always have the shorter queue line.
5. The assumption is that I arrive at Star Tours around 1:00 and get on the attraction no less than 45 minutes later. I thus emerge from the attraction around 2:00 and head over to use my RnRC FP. To be fair I must assume that it will still be at least a 15-20 minute wait even with my FP. I thus assume I'm walking out of the attraction sometime around 3 P.M.
6. I need to eat lunch so I stop off at Cantina Eddie's for some pizza and a drink to fulfill the lunch requirement before heading out the turnstiles sometime around 3:45 or so.

Park #2 is complete. I drive to EPCOT.

Park #3 - EPCOT

With luck I'm walking through the EPCOT turnstiles no later than 4:30.

I'm glad I stopped for a quick linch at the Studios. It's all attractions for this park.

For EPCOT there are some options I have to consider. To save time I will do eithe the tandem of Test Track and the Gran Fiesta Tour or Oh Canada and Soarin' as ther first two and the last two are relatively close in distance. The other attraction I will focus on is Spaceship Earth because it is a constnat loading attraction.

1. Once again, first stop is the Supergreeter Board to get information on wait times.. Now here is where it gets tricky. It's late afternoon and probably not a good idea to look at FastPasses as they may have distribution times that go into early evening. I will still check but remember it's summer time with lots of crowds. The question that I know I must answer is whether I do Soarin' or Test Track. That decision will determine my World Showcase attraction.
2. I will assume Test Track will have the shorter wait...plus there's always the possibility of getting on quickly via the single passenger line. before getting in line I check the FP distribution times. If it's less than two hours I may go for it, head to Mexico, and possibly try to squeeze in Spaceship Earth too, although I prefer not to backtrack.
3. Let's assume I get into the Test Track standby queue and am out of there by 6 P.M.
4. I head over to Mexico and party with the three Caballeros and step off that attraction by 6:45.
5. With luck I'm entering my Spaceship Earth ride vehicle sometime around 7 P.M.,
6. I should be walking out of the EPCOT turnstiles around 7:30.
7. I need to save time so I head to the monorail and go to the Ticket and Transportation Center and switch to the Magic Kingdom Express Monorail.

Next and final stop is The Magic Kingdom.

Park #4 - The Magic Kingdom

If I can get to the Magic Kingdom before 8 P.M. I'll be estatic but realistically I will probably go through the turnstiles around 8:30.

1. The first thing I do is get my wristband for Extra Magic hours.
2. Time to eat. Where. Columbia Harbor House because it's centrally located in the park.
3. My guess is that everyone is lining up for Spectromagic, one of the diversions I had mentioned earlier. So after I emerge from a quick supper I head over to Haunted Mansion. Hopefully I'm out of the Haunted Mansion no later than 10 P.M.
4. Wishes may be just about to start so while everyone heads to the front of the park to watch Wishes I make my way over to Splash Mountain.
5. I should be able to gauge which of the two, Splash Mountain, or Big Thunder Mountain has the shorter queue. Whoever does have the shorter line will have me as a guest that night.
6. My guess is that it's now about 10:30 to 10:45 and I have one more attraction to do...and it's Prirates of the Caribbean.

And I'm done.

Reader's Comments

The response to this challenge has been overwhleming and I thank everyone for sending me their comments and their experiences. I am trying to read and respond to all the email I have received. Please be patient as I will get to your email. I plan to post a "Mike's Mailbag" edition with my favorite emails.

Please…please don’t even think about denying that you have never thought about what I’m about to propose. I won’t believe you.

You know you’ve thought of it.

You know you’ve dreamed about it.

You know you would love to try it….it’s out there just screaming at you…can you hear the words?

“Try me…c’mon…try me.”

What am I talking about?

I’m talking about the idea of visiting all four Walt Disney World theme parks (Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Hollywood Studios, and Disney’s Animal Kingdom) in just one day.

Oh if you are saying, “Yo Mike it’s a piece of cake!” then belly up to the table and put on your napkin because I welcome you to bite into this challenge…but under my conditions.

Before we put on our walking shoes and head for the parks let‘s talk a bit as to the required parameters you should follow in order to, at least in my own mind, “officially” claim this accomplishment.

Let’s first define this challenge and be crystal clear as to all the requirements.

Four Parks in less than a Day

Let’s all agree as to what we will define as a “day” in regards to this particular challenge. Sometimes the definition of “day” is quite different from person to person. Before we start looking at anything else we need to all be on the same page with a definition of a day for this challenge. So here is the deal.

Required Number of Attractions

It would be pretty simple and easy to do this challenge by just running into a theme park, visiting the least crowded attractions and then move on to the next theme park… but that’s way too easy and boring.

Well…we here at AllEars Challenge Central are not in the boring business so let’s go over the exciting requirements regarding attraction touring for this most interesting challenge.

I recently had an opportunity to talk with Thomas Tryon who serves as a Show Producer for Special Events and Projects at Walt Disney World.

Tryon was given the task of bringing the Block Party Bash Parade from Disneyland’s California Adventure Theme Park to Walt Disney World’s Hollywood Studios Theme Park.

The parade debuted in California on April 5th, 2005 and just three years later it is ready to take the East Coast by storm.

Of course moving a parade of this magnitude from California to Florida involved looking into the logistics of such a move.

The first order of business was to decide where the parade should land.

Right from the start there was no question that the Block Party Bash Parade’s new address would be the Hollywood Studios. After all it is a Pixar-based parade and don’t we find most Disney/Pixar characters in the studios theme park? I don’t expect that Disney’s Animal Kingdom or EPCOT or The Magic Kingdom had a shot at hosting this parade.

From a parade organizer’s viewpoint however, there’s much more to consider.

Once the Studios was deemed the appropriate new home for the parade, the next order of business involved the parade route itself.

Actually a complete assessment of the theme park’s parade readiness for the parade was necessary.

When you think of a Disney themed parade you think of the floats, the characters, the music, the dancing, the fanfare, and everything else that you see and hear during the course of the parade.

Keep in mind that when the Disney creative forces designed this parade they did so with Disney’s California Adventure theme park in mind, Walt Disney World’s Hollywood Studios theme park was not on their radar.

We’re talking two completely different animals here.

Everyone involved realized that they just couldn’t say, “Okay let’s just pack up everything and move to Orlando.”

There were so many things to consider.

The primary concern was the parade route.

The parade route for the Block Party Bash Parade had to have two important features. The first is that the parade route had to be able to accommodate the parade floats. Size and width was a consideration and with that comes the importance of maneuverability. The Hollywood Studios was far from being ready for this particular parade’s floats.

Some adjustments in the area of concrete had to be made along the parade route.

For those of you who have been visiting Hollywood Studios over the last year and a half you may have noticed some changes along Hollywood Blvd. and other portions of the Studios parade route. Changes have been somewhat subtle but importantly they have been parade-friendly.

It was important to alter the route so that the sides of the route would allow the floats to move through the route with ease with special considerations for turning corners.

The next time you are in the Studios stroll along the parade route and see if you notice where these changes were made, especially in front of Mickey’s Sorcerer’s Hat.

Now this is just for the parade route. There were other issues that had to be resolved.

Are there adequate spots along such a route in which the floats could stop and entertain guests?

Because of the nature and personality of this parade, specifically the highly specialized floats and their interactivity with the guests, the parade route had to offer some very convenient parade stops in which both the parade performers and the guests would be able to safely enjoy the “party” portion of the parade.

Stop points had to be focused on for safety concerns as well and adjustments in the concrete topography had to be made along the route where these stops would best take place.

So are you with me so far?

There are two more major concerns that had to be addressed.

The first concern was in regards to the garaging of the parade floats. Was there ample space to house these huge floats?

In a word, no!

Tryon noted that expansion of the current parade building was needed so that there was a proper storage facility for the parade vehicles. So that piece of business was added into the overall project for moving the parade east.

There was yet another consideration that I had not thought of.

Think of this, a parade is made up of floats and performers.

A storage facility for the floats was needed and how many of us would ever think that along with the floats there is the matter of parade costumes?

Parade performers wear parade costumes specifically designed for that parade and it appeared that the Studios did not have an adequate or as Tryon put it “proper” costuming facility to handle the additional costumes that came with this parade.

A decision was made to build a new costuming facility that would be able to handle all the anticipated costuming needs once the parade arrived.

Now think about all this stuff….changes in the parade route…expansion of the parade building…construction of a new costuming facility…all these issues had to be addressed just because a parade was moving from one theme park to another.

Because of these issues the actual original planned move was delayed one year.

So the obvious question that came to mind was “Why?”

I asked Thomas if there was ever any consideration to just altering the parade instead of going through all the trouble and expense of altering the route, expanding current buildings, and putting up a new building.

It was his answer that reminded me as to why Disney is Disney.

In so many words Thomas said that we all have to remember that what sets a Disney theme park aside from all the rest is that Disney has cornered the market on storytelling.

Be it attractions, fireworks, or parades, the important thing is the storytelling and most noteworthy, the creative process.

He mentioned how Disney values the creative process and once the creative process has generated something worthy of Disney quality it’s basically “hands off.”

When he mentioned this to me I was reminded as to why the name Disney always seems to be synonymous with quality.

Why change something that has already been proven as being something loved by the guests?

Why tamper with success?

It says quite a lot when a company is more concerned with the quality of its products than the bottom line. And when you think of it, aren’t the returns greater when you put a premium on quality?

It also makes sense to make the venue fit the product rather than the product fit the venue.
Thus the original creative content for the parade was meticulously maintained.

Oh, and about the actual physical move from the west coast to the east coast….

…it took 15 semi-tractor trailers to haul the parade from California to Florida.

So the next time you are in Hollywood Studios and you get a chance to enjoy this parade with the other guests you can relish in the fact that now you know…

…the rest of the story.

For more Block Party Bash Photos, check out our Photo Gallery!

MouseFest Friday, December 7th.

It seemed that no sooner did my head hit the pillow the night that the alarm went off proclaiming “Day 2 Mike! Time to get up!”

First stop was Disney’s Animal Kingdom for the annual Kilimanjaro Safari Meet.

It was quite a challenge gathering everyone for this annual event. Deb welcomed everyone as the Mousefesters gathered to the left of the attraction. This meet was huge as in a total of 257 people for this meet.

Nothing beats riding Kilimanjaro Safaris with Fred Block, founder of MagicMeets.

Nothing.

I had a tough time trying to take photos as Fred had me laughing so much I almost dropped my camera.

Out of about 20 shots only this one of some Rhinos came out decent. All the other photos can be used in a course called, “How not to take photos!”

From there it was on to Dinosaur to witness Matt Hochberg meeting the challenge made on the previous day. Matt gutted it out and has lived to tell the tale. However next time he needs to keep his eyes open.

The next stop on this day was the AllEarsNet team luncheon at Pizzafari. This was one of two times on this day where I treasured the opportunity to just relax between the time blocks of meets.

It reinforced the notion that during Mousefest everyone needs to make time to stop, relax, eat, and hydrate. Even if you follow this rule you will most likely be exhausted come Mousefest end so it is best to do whatever you can to keep this eventual exhaustiveness to a minimum.

After lunch it was on to Disney MGM/Studios for two specific meets.

The first of these was the second annual Studios Central Star Tours meet which is growing in popularity every year. There was a good showing for this meet as my estimate was in the range of 80 people.

Next came the second annual Podfest hosted by Lou Mongello. This meet is the annual gathering of all those who do Disney related podcasts. I don’t know how many podcasts were represented but there were a LOT. It took almost 30 minutes to introduce each podcast and hear from the principles.

It was after Podfest that I wish I could have cloned myself to be in two places at once. Although I wanted very much to attend the MuppetVision3D meet I had to leave to host a dinner at Ohana at the Polynesian Resort.

Again I was glad this dinner was on my schedule. Once more I was offered time to just sit back and relax in between the running around I was doing. Funny though, I did not find myself eating as much as I normally would during a Walt Disney World trip. On the contrary, that morning I had to cinch my belt one more notch because my usual notch was just a bit too loose.

Oh wait; this is Mousefest…the ultimate diet program…how silly of me to forget.

I have to mention that the “entertainment” at Ohana left a lot to be desired. I would go so far as to say that the entertainment would not have been even good enough to make those early American Idol shows…if you catch my drift.

After dinner I realized I had the luxury of having nothing on my schedule for that evening so I wandered back to EPCOT with some friends in search of my cousin Patty who that evening was attending the Candlelight Processional.

We took in the Lights of Winter, and then walked around World Showcase before stopping to watch Illuminations (my second time this trip).

I never found Patty at EPCOT but did talk to her later that evening. She enjoyed CP.

I enjoyed Illuminations

I began to notice a little fatigue settling in so it was off to Pop Century for a long winter’s nap for tomorrow would be Saturday, the big day…MegaMouse Meet Day.

Finally the day came when Carol could “legally” wear her “Happy Birthday” button.

We decided to try something different today so we went to the dock to take the Riverboat Cruise to Downtown Disney, as mentioned on the WDW Today channel in our hotel room.

The CM who was driving the boat asked us where we wanted to go. We actually wanted to go to Downtown Disney. He said, “Well obviously you didn’t read the schedule because the next boat that goes to Downtown Disney leaves in an hour. I’m going to Riverside.”

I almost said, “Well obviously you didn’t read the fine print in your Disney Employee’s Guide as to how to address guests but I’ll make sure that your supervisor won’t forget to remind you to refresh your memory on your customer skills.”

Of course I didn’t say that but would it have hurt him too much to say, “Well folks the next boat to Downtown Disney won’t be here for about an hour but I’d be happy to take you to Riverside.”

Not only that, you think with Carol wearing her birthday button he would have been a bit more dare I say, “cast memberlike?”

We decided to take the boat to Riverside and checked out the General Store.

We decided to walk back to POFQ and drive to Downtown Disney.

We were spending the morning doing our “official shopping” to get a few gifts for friends, and use our 10% discount from our Annual Passes.

We found a few things but not as much as we have in the past.

By the way, I’m amazed at the success of the Bibbidy Bobbidy Boutique.

Next month a second one will open in Cinderella Castle.

We finished our shopping and came back to POFQ to drop off our stuff and grab a little bite to eat. It was that time in the trip when all guests begin to say, “Y’know, I’m not that hungry, but I need a little something.”

After our quickie lunch we headed off to the Magic Kingdom.

We had not really hit Fantasyland yet on this trip so we headed straight for Peter Pan and walked right on thanks to some special Attraction Re-entry passes given to us by a friend.

It was another warm day so we were looking for any relief…and it came in the Carrousel of Progress.
Look for that abstract painting of Mickey as the Sorcerer’s apprentice in the last scene.

We rode the Tomorrowland Transit Authority a few times and then checked out a few shops for some Disney Halloween pins. Carol likes to be the Disney pin teacher at her school and likes to wear a different Disney Halloween pin every year.

We were meeting friends…I’ll keep it a secret for now…at the Contemporary for dinner.

We took the monorail over to the resort and walked around.

Wow, things were happening.

Take a look at the activity we saw just beginning on the fourth floor.

Some new shops are going in and you may have seen the artist renditions in Jack Spence's report earlier this week.

We met up with our dear friends Steve and Vickie Barrett and had a wonderful dinner at the California Grill.

How’s this for a view of the sunset?

The California Grill folks came over and took our photo because of Carol's birthday.

The folks at CG also gave Carol a special birthday dessert.

We had some very high quality time with Steve and Vickie. We had hoped they could stay to watch Wishes with us both both had an early morning and they also had a fairly long drive home. See you at Mousefest guys, if not sooner.

Another view from the CG

We went out on the observation deck to watch Wishes.

The photos I took do not do Wishes justice simply because of the angle from which we watched the nighttime spectacular. Remember that during Wishes there are several sets of fireworks being fired….those around the castle and those from a barge well in the rear of Magic Kingdom. The best angle to watch Wishes is from directly in front of the castle on Main Street USA.

So Carol had a nice birthday.

Put your hands together because I actually got out of bed on this morning at around 5:30, put on my running gear and went out at 5:45 to run around the resort.

It had been at least a week since my last workout and I had no idea what to expect. My whole body was screaming at me until I hit Alligator Bayou over at Port Orleans Riverside.

I ended up running a bit over 40 minutes and felt great at the end of the run. However I am definitely behind schedule for the Tower of Terror 13K and when I return home I will be working hard to train for that race.

I had finished my run, showered, and got dressed in time for us to shoot over to EPCOT for Extra Magic Hour Morning

Here’s the latest on the deconstruction of Mickey’s arm/wand from Spaceship Earth.

There were two lines to get into EPCOT. We got into the line on the right side…it went almost to the bus depot….want to see?

The lines moved fairly fast.

Once we got in we went over to Soarin’ and grabbed a FastPass and then went in line. For the third time in a row Carol got us top row center. I may have to start renting her out to folks who want that top row center experience.

After Soarin’ we had a light breakfast and then rode “Living with the Land” to kill some time before using our Soarin’ FPs.

This time our luck ran out and we ended up center but second row instead of top row.

By the way, the next time you experience Soarin’ I suggest you watch the screen very carefully. If you count only 8 hot air balloons then you are not watching close enough.

If you do not see six fighter jets then you are not watching closely enough.

We walked over to see Nemo and Crush. Does anyone else out there just love that Starfish?

From there we went over to visit Figment. We took in “Honey I Shrunk the Audience" since it was the Imagination Institute’s annual....

We then walked back to the Land for lunch at the Garden Grill. We were early so we watch “Circle of Life” first.

Then we had lunch with farmer Mickey…

After lunch we visited Innoventions. We checked out the Rockin’ Robots…

…we played that IBM game and that pizza game (think goodness it was virtual pizza) and a few other things before checking out Mouse Gear. You never know when a neat new WDW shirt will show up.

Now since this was a surprise birthday trip for Carol I tried to get ADRs for all of her favorite restaurants. In order to do so I had to sometimes book meals a bit close together….like a late lunch and early dinner.

This was one of those days. We tried to eat light for lunch because we were going to the Kona Café for dinner.

We got into the car to drive over and when I started the car up look what I saw on my rear view mirror…

That explains the two glasses of ice tea and two glasses of water I had at lunch.

We drove over to the Polynesian Resort. My three favorite resorts are Pop Century, Port Orleans, and the Polynesian Resort.

Here’s a cute picture.

Look again, the tiki on the left is outside and the tiki on the right is inside.

Did I mention why the Polynesian Resort is one of my favorite resorts? A picture is worth a thousand words.

Let me take this opportunity to put in a good word for the Kona Café. It is one of the better restaurants in all of WDW and especially when it comes to teriyaki ANYTHING.

It is one of the few sit-down restaurants in WDW I love so much I will actually dine there alone when I do solo research trips. The bread is very decadent.

So Carol and I are eating and we are thinking about where to go and what to do next. The heat of the day (remember what the mirror said) had really taken some energy out of us so we decided to return to POFQ and do some laundry and check up on email and try to recoup some of that energy that the sun was draining from us.

Besides tomorrow was Carol’s birthday. You always want to be well refreshed when waking up in WDW on your birthday.

Looks like no running for me at Pop Century on this trip. Missed it again this morning and tomorrow we move to Port Orleans French Quarter.

Today we got a late start (wrote my blog until 1 A.M.) and went to EPCOT.

We decided to visit Figment first and then we stroled into World Showcase and rode the Gran Fiesta Tour in Mexico.

When you next experience this attraction look for the Donald Duck pinata.

From there we walked around World Showcase and walked right onto The Maelstrom.

We saw drawbridge up to allow the Illuminations barges into the lagoon.

And from another angle...

And of course one of the aforementioned barges.

We made our way to Canada and had lunch at Le Cellier.

We overheard one of the castmembers say that the restaurant was fully booked up to January.

BTW, new Canada film in late September.

After lunch we took in Off Kilter....sans lead singer Jamie Holton who is on vacation.

Hey look...it's Lou Mongello of WDWRadio on the fiddle.

From there we enjoyed Brisith Invasion at the United Kingdom pavilion.

Looks like Food & Wine is already being celebrated at Japan.

We just had to see American Adventure one more time...I almost made it through "Golden Dream" without shedding a tear.

Homework assignment. Where can you find this in World Showcase?

We had dinner at Alfredo's. It would be our last dinner there as the restaurant will be closing at the end of the month.

After dinner we took in Ellen's Universe of Energy and decided to call it an early night for a change.

We got back to Pop Century and I finally visited my favorite spot at the resort, Generation Gap Bridge.

More tomorrow.

Arrgghhh....slept until 6:36 and since we had an early ADR at Donald's Breakfastosaurus another morning went by the boards without me running. Not good.

Anyway, we headed out to Disney's Animal Kingdom and made our way to Donald's.

Here's me...awake for only an hour, with Mr. Goofy.

We left breakfast and went to see Festival of the Lion King. It's always a joy to see this show and a great first attraction of the day.

We then went to see "Nemo - The Musical."

I've heard that people who have seen this show either love it or hate it. Those who dislike the show complain that they don't like to see the puppeteers. However, I think that's the charm of the show.

The larger puppets were amazing to see, especially Crush.

When you see this attraction my advice would be to sit in the rear portion of the theater, behind that main aisle. Otherwise you will miss some very entertaining parts of the show.

Again, the main charm is seeing the performers do their thing.

We then decided to leave DAK and head over to the Studios to catch a few attractions there.

The first order of the day in MGM was Beauty & The Beast. I know. I know. You're thinking, "Okay Mike, where's the gazillion pictures of Belle in her blue dress?" Well, I don't know. I just watched the show.

I've noticed over the last two years that the performing Belle for this attraction is always short, perhaps to emphasize the size difference between her and the Beast!.

From there we went over to the ABC theater steps to watch the "Stars and MotorCars" parade.

The middle sections of those steps are reserved for those who are hearing challenged and there are two people who "sign" the sounds of Stone Granite, Gabriel Huffington (I think that's her name) and other parade sounds to these special guests.

We saw Remy in the parade.

Oh yeah, these guys too.

We then saw the High School Musical Pep Rally, that is before the rain cut it short.

A word about this show, if you are a High School Musical purist you may not particularly enjoy the show as the performers put their own personalities into the songs which I noticed bothered some of the guests.

However there are those who loved the show and these guests, mostly the pre-teens, seem to be quite fanatical towards this show.

Before I forget, here is a homework assignment. Now where can you find this in MGM?

Also, this...

We then had dinner at H&V. Somehow they had us down for two ADRS with one of them being part of the Fantasmic Dinner Package, who knows.

After dinner we got our Extra Magic Hour wristbands.

We then took in the Backlot Tour.

I discovered something. If you sit in the back half of car #5 you will get soaked at Catastrophe Canyon...trust me.

At the AFI Villains portion of the tour...

...I checked on a special Hidden Mickey that Steve Barrett pointed out to me last year.

Consider this another homework assignment and look for this Hidden Mickey on your next trip.

We next did Muppetvision 3-D.

Here's another homework assignment. The next time you visit Muppetvision 3D watch the film very closely ans see if you can find the 3D glasses on the bust of Mozart.

We finished the night taking in Voyage of the Little Mermaid.

We thought about doing The Great Movie Ride and Indy but we were beginning to run out of gas.

Plus I had to write this blog entry.

Boy I hope Deb is using her sunscreen out West.

Help, I’m beginning to panic. I woke up at 4:30 Tuesday morning. Hmmm, too early to run. I’ll just close my eyes and then wake up at 5:30 and then go out and run.

Big mistake.

It’s been almost five days since my last run and I need to run Wednesday morning…but we have an 8:10 ADR at Donald’s Breakfastsaurus…..yes I’m panicking but anyway….

…we headed to EPCOT this morning and here’s an up to date picture on the state of Spaceship Earth…at least regarding Mickey’s Arm and wand…

…yep…practically gone.

A Soarin'

We headed over to Soarin’ and as always, I head over to the leftmost FastPass distribution box and that box is never crowded.

I noticed the huge pictures in the queue area had changed quite a lot. See for yourself.

After we got the FastPasses We got into line and hen we got to the loading area we ASKED to sit in the top row…we were guided to the next area and we were top center row…cool

After our first ride we needed to burn 30 minutes so we did “Living with the Land” and that attraction no longer has a Cast member riding with you.

Get a load of this…

We returned to Soarin'; and Carol AGAIN asked for the top row. This time not only did we get top row center but I was sitting in seat #6. That is the best seat in the house folks.

So there’s your second tip of the day…if it looks like you can get into the top row then ask.

We then did the Nemo attraction at the Living Seas. We got a kick out of this t-shirt

A Sailing

After Nemo I called my buddy Matthew from Reedy Creek emergency Services. Carol and I had plans to spend some time with Matthew and his fiancée Kristen today.

We planned to meet at DTD and take a pontoon ride to Old Key West.

As Carol and I left EPCOT we cut through Innoventions.

Now here’s a Segway I’d like to try.

We met Matthew and Kristen at the Marina at DTD and we took off for Old Key West. On a pontoon boat like this one which was docked at the Old key West Marina.

Along the way we past Saratoga Springs and Port Orleans

It was a nice comfortable quiet boat ride. It was refreshing too because the high for the day in Orlando set a new record…98 degrees.

We helped, or I should say Matt and Kristen (they both work for Reedy Creek Emergency services) helped a woman whose small boat kind of conked out on her.

Kristen edged the pontoon boat close to the woman’s boat and Matt got her boat working again.

We returned and had lunch at the Rainforest Café before heading our separate ways.

We made arrangements to get together again next week

Carol and I checked the stores.

Here’s a homework assignment. Where in DTD can you find a bee’s nest with bees?

We then headed back to EPCOT and took in American Adventure. I was very curious about the new “Golden Dream” and I was not disappointed. As much as I would like to say they just tweaked it I’d have to say it was more than a tweak and it will move you even more than its predecessor.

Also, look for a slight change to the ending of the AA attraction after ‘Golden Dream”

AA is my favorite WDW attraction.

I’m always the last one to leave the theater.

A Soaking

As we made our way around World Showcase everyone jumped as without notice a huge crack of thunder came out of nowhere. We were surprised because half the sky was sunny…we didn’t notice what was behind us.

Then the rains came ans we got soaked.

Here’s proof that half the sky was rainy and the other half sunny.

We watched Illuminations and it looks as though the video globe has been given some enhancements.

I took some pictures but they don’t do the globe justice so here’s a token torch picture.

We checked out Mouse Gear before leaving the park.

Hmmmm, I kept seeing the following logo on a lot of merchandise…

…could this be the new EPCOT logo?

We’ll see.

That was it for Tuesday.

Thirteen years later it was all coming back to me, the anticipation, the excitement, and the thrill of the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. As I read through my trip report of 13 years back what struck me as most interesting was my observations as my daughter, son, and I came to the bottom of that crazy elevator shaft and how the rest of that day went for all of us.

So allow me to wrap up this trip down memory lane with the final installment of The Day the Tower Opened with my own words from my trip report of July, 1994.

Carol was there waiting for us....along with a dozen cast members and several EMTs standing by to assist any visitors having problems. Needless to say, what other Disney attraction needs EMTs standing by? That says it right there that this attraction is major league.

It was a very satisfying day.

That was thirteen years ago. It was a very satisfying day and I’m looking forward to a very satisfying night…race night that is.

It's always exciting to do a soft opening of a Walt Disney World attraction. such was the case back in 1994 when my family and I were among the first to experience the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.

When we left off in Part 1 we were sitting in the elevator. My son, daughter and I were about to experience the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.

Let’s get back to my trip report and see what my observations were as we sat down, buckled up, and wondered what would happen next.

Back we go...back to 1994.....back...back...

(Cue the dream sequence fog)

I checked my watch. It took but 20 minutes to get to this point. I couldn't help but notice how many cast members were staffing this attraction. They were all over the place. Just before we got on a small boy (barely made the 42" requirement) asked about the drop. "What drop?" asked the CAST MEMBER, "We have good elevators here at the Hollywood Hotel." Good job.

Thank goodness the drop is in darkness. I would think that if we could see outside as we dropped we'd be in serious trouble at the bottom. I know there are coaster people out there who are saying, "C'mon Mike! It sounds like a coaster!" Nope. Coasters are always moving. This vehicle TOOK OFF FROM A STANDING POSITION. I wish I had looked up as we plummeted.

So what happened next? That's called Part III: The Ride Aftermath!

When I had read about how the upcoming Twilight Zone Tower of Terror 13K is to commemorate the 13th year anniversary of the opening of this attraction, I could not help but think about my first encounter with the Tower 13 years ago.

I remember that July trip back in 1994 and wondering when I took off for Orlando if I'd get chance to experience this much heralded new attraction during my visit.

The following excerpt comes from my trip report that recollects that vacation and especially my first visit to the old Hollywood Hotel.

On that particular day while we were in MGM-Studios we noticed that the Tower was....

...wait a minute...let me share with you the exact written words from my trip report.

Come with me…back to July 1994 on a trip with my wife Carol, daughter Holly, and son Mike Jr.…back…back….

(Insert clouds and wavy dream sequence effects)

We were sitting on a bench along Hollywood Blvd. and I couldn't help but notice how empty the park was on this day. Little did I know how we would benefit from the lack of guests.

You can exit just before the elevators if you chicken....erh prefer to bypass the actual ride. We get up to the elevator and we are directed to stand on certain spots just outside the elevator. This is done for loading purposes. The elevator comes and we file in. The elevator contains benches. We sit in the front row and a lap bar is pulled down. Note that the middle seat in the rear row does not have a bar but a seat belt (lap...not shoulder).

Next time it's Part II: The Ultimate Elevator Ride.