Frank_Bullitt
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2008
Welp, it took long enough, but here’s my Trip report. For those of you who’ve just joined us, check out the pre-trip report to find out the gory particulars of how I ended up going on a last minute trip to May.
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3270797
So without further ado, on with the show!
Prelude and Day One: Arrival, Early Mornings and Why American Runs on Dunkin’…and Sam Adams
Sis and I had an early morning connecting flight to DFW from our little backwater regional Airport/Gas Station and Hair Salon (sorry for stealing your act, Ron White), so I had to get up at 4am to make the connecting flight. To those of you who get up early for a living you’re like, ‘Right, so what?’
You know that feeling you get the day before your WDW trip and you’re sooooo excited because you’ve been planning and packing for a week before, and you can’t sleep because you’re soooo excited? Well, I couldn’t sleep but it was for a different reason…
To explain we’re going to rewind a week so you see how the week before played out:
Monday, May 5th (Me): Eh, I’ve got time, I’ll do laundry and pack on Wednesday evening.
Wednesday, May 7th (Me): Ugh, just got back from an overnight trip to Omaha, I’m sacked out, I’ll pack on the weekend.
Saturday, May 10th I received an email from Sis early Saturday morning reminding me that this weekend is Mother’s Day and we promised them to drive out and see them. So en route to the folk’s house I stop by a DQ and pick up an Ice Cream Cake and have them put ‘Mom’ on it. Sis at least had the foreknowledge to get cards and a gift for her and even forged my signature.
And the cake melted. In an air-conditioned car, no less. Sis said at least the 90 degree weather we were experiencing would be good training for going to Orlando. I should also point out by this point she had made ressies, fast passes for some of the rides, and was bouncing off the walls with excitement. For me it was just so surreal it hadn’t sunk in.
Come Sunday evening when I finally got home I was exhausted and said ‘Screw it, I’m going to pack tomorrow evening.
Tuesday, May 13th (evening before we depart), I get home with this nagging feeling I should be doing something. I finished my TPS reports, I balanced my checkbook, but I felt like I was missing something.
Then at about 7pm I get a reminder on my phone (seriously I use the dickens out of my Outlook reminders for work and personal stuff, even for small things like paying bills and setting out the trash) that says “Disney Trip in 12 hours.”
It’s safe to say that panic, if that’s the proper word, didn’t creep up our intrepid traveler’s spine, it was a high-speed bullet train that raced up his vertebrae and collided at full tilt with his lower cerebral cortex. Not only had I not packed, but I hadn’t even done laundry. Now, in fairness since I was planning on checking a bag in, I didn’t need any of those dratted 3 oz liquids crap to put in your carryon, so at least I was safe there. So for the next few hours I’m running around pulling clothes to be laundered and packed and stuffed and so forth. At Zero Dark Thirty (12:30am to the civvies) I’m done packing but now I’m so keyed up I couldn’t sleep. So I poured meself a dram of my favorite Highland scotch and watched The Little Mermaid until I fell asleep in my chair.
Fast forward to the Travel Day: Our flight was at 6am, so my alarm (which, thank God, was my phone) woke me up at 4am, and I felt like I had been sleeping in a chair. Which, as it turned out, I had. I felt like an extra from the Walking Dead and so I moaned and shuffled up to the kitchen and put on a pot of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee, extra strong. I then shuffled into the shower, turned the knob all the way to Cold and opened up the throttle.
After peeling myself off the ceiling and hopping back into my skin I showered and did all the usual morning toiletries that a man does in the morning. I had the foreknowledge to pack my toiletries in the check-in after the shower, and by that point the coffee was ready. I poured myself a ginormous cup of straight up coffee and tossed it down, and felt the molten caffeine course through my system.
I was human, now.
Or at least lucid enough to put the suitcases in the car, lock the house and make the drive to pick up sis. Sis was ready and waiting when I arrived at her place, and we made the 20-odd minute trip to our Airport/Hair Salon and Tire center.
Seriously it was so small we arrived 30 minutes before our flight and still had enough time to check in luggage and walk through the TSA line, then walk out a door and up a flight of stairs into an aircraft that resembled a Pringles can with wings. I kept expecting the ground crew to wind up the front propeller of our plane or for there to be some giant slingshot to propel us into the air.
The short flight to DFW was boring, so rather than give you a minute by minute update I’ll go off on a little tangent about proper traveling attire. For those of you who’ve read my Character thread, I’m a bit of a clothes horse and I also travel a lot for work. When I’m on the clock I wear a suit to travel in. This isn’t just a fashion statement, it’s a necessity that helps you get through the TSA lines all the quicker and don’t set off the metal detector and get sent to the dreaded groping pen. Seriously why is it that the only TSA agents that do the groping are gnarly old people?
Of course there was that brunette cutie at the W.A. Mozart airport in Salzburg, but I suspect she had a hidden agenda…
GET ON WITH IT!
*Ahem*
So a suit is a necessity because of all the pockets it has, you can put your wallet, keys, boarding pass, change, watch, ring and any other metal objects in your jacket pocket, then all you have to do is take your jacket off and put it in the tray.
Now, if you’re traveling to Orlando in the summer then a suit jacket is out of the question. But what’s a fashionable fellow going wear? The answer, gentle readers, is a bush jacket, courtesy of Travelsmith. Basically it’s a khaki safari shirt with deep bellows pockets and the sleeves can even be rolled up. And inside pockets that zipper up.
Oh, and the TSA agent was amused by my pink stripper socks
Dawn had broken over the Dallas metro area when we landed, and we made our way to our necessary gate courtesy of the airport monorail (foreshadowing of things to come), and when we were at our gate Sis wanted to grab herself some breakfast. She ordered some sort of brekkie wrap at Au Bon Pain, and offered me some.
At this point I was coming off my caffeine buzz and my stomach was churning. I declined and made my way through the food court to see if anything seemed appetizing. Whilst on the way, the internal plumbing woke up so a detour to the men’s room was necessary. Afterwards, I stopped at a TGI Fridays and had a tall Sam Adams from the draft.
(Hey, at the time it was after noon in Dublin, so what?)
Anyways, after a bracer I felt right enough to have a Thai chicken wrap from some kiosk, and after an hour’s wait we were on our 737 bound for MCO!
When the plane touched down I started to get into the ‘mood’. Sis was all excited, and she hadn’t remembered that the monorails at Orlando had the same ‘please stand clear of the doors’ that the Disney resorts had.
We made our way to the Magic Express busses, and it began to rain. Now, in fairness, ‘tis the season, and the chances for rain were only for two of our days, and then only in the afternoon/evening.
After a brief 40-odd minute bus ride they deposited us at the Pop Century resort. Now, I’ve heard lots of things about the Pop Century Resort, good and bad, so I had a sense of dread and foreboding when I arrived. In previous trips I had always stayed at the luxury resorts; the Contemporary or the Poly. So I felt that I might get a bit of a culture shock going from a deluxe resort to a value resort.
Well, the lobby was clean and very nicely themed, the desk clerks were as friendly and attentive as any CMs at the deluxe resorts, so I was happy with that. Our room was one on the 4th floor of the 60’s building, next to the giant 8-Track tape and within view of the large Mickey Phone.
Our Room
My first impressions were nice, so far so good. And it reminded me of something, and it took me a while to get it. Pop Century, the resort and the rooms are modeled after those old-school motor inns and motels that still crop up in the real world. Unlike their real world counterparts, the rooms are clean, mickey-themed and don’t have the dreaded paper-thin walls or the usual human flotsam and jetsam that inhabit such places. I wanted to hit the food court, but Sis reminded me that she had a ressie for us at Sanaa.
Now, getting to the AKL Villas was a bit of a jaunt. This also demonstrates why it’s good to do research on transportation before embarking on the journey. In this instance, since I always rode the monorail, any time I had to get to a restaurant that wasn’t on the monorail line I took the bus from the TTC. So I told sis, eh, let’s take a bus to the MK, then we can hop on the monorail to the TTC.
Well, it was a nice jaunt to the MK, and riding the monorail was nice. Then we get to the TTC, and it says ‘Buses to Animal Kingdom leave from the Magic Kingdom’.
I believe the phrase rhymes with ‘clucking bell.’
So we hopped back on the monorail for the MK, and grabbed a bus to the AKL. Thankfully we had a 5:15 ressie and we left around 3ish out of boredom. We arrived at the villas around 4:45 and were able to take in some of the sights of the animals and varmits.
Another tidbit to tuck away: whilst we were waiting for our table, some gal came up with a party of like 15 and was upset because their ADR wasn’t showing up. Well, the problem was that she made the ADR like an hour ago, it was a last minute deal. And the CM’s were patiently trying to tell the lady that since the ADR system charges you a fee for making a ressie and not canceling on time, there’s less opportunity for walk-ups.
Anways, at or around 5pm our buzzer went off and we were seated. I ordered a Kingfisher Beer (an Indian lager) and Sis ordered a Coke. Now Sis had been raving about the bread service, so we ordered that as an appetizer.
We ordered the Traditional Naan, and the Garlic Ginger Naan. For accompaniment we ordered the Red Chile Sambal, the Garlic Pickle and Tamarind Chutney.
Wow.
That’s all I can say. I can see what the hype is. To quote Billy the Bard, if food be the music of love, then this was a symphony of flavor. It was Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, from the opening salvo to the last steps of the march. As I said, I totally get the hype. Problem was, it was so good that we filled up on the Bread Service, and neither Sis nor I had room for a main course. So I ordered a Samosa from the appetizer menu and the salad sampler, I think I had the Watermelon Cucumber salad, the Bhel Puri, and the the Chickpea, Tomato and Chickpea.
It rained several times whilst we were noshing, but by the time we were finished, it stopped completely.
After our early dinner we made our way to the Magic Kingdom, and over to Futureland. There we rode Space Mountain, and it was fun, if a bit unnerving.
The only worse thing than being in a claustrophobic indoor ride with many jerky turns, twists, and drops…is doing a ride like that in the dark.
After that Sis had FP’s for The Little Mermaid ride, which we did, and it was fun. I thought the interactive queue was cool, and having Scuttle there was a nice touch. Disney, in all it’s profound understanding of the human psyche and its advancements in social engineering, seems to understand that keeping the kiddos occupied is important. The only complaint, or remark that Sis made was that if they lowered the lighting a bit more in the ‘Under the Sea’ bit, but other than that it was pretty cool. It was also a bit interesting in that it shared a lot of common themes with the Magic Kingdom’s historical dark rides like Peter Pan and the late Snow White’s Scary Adventure.
Next up was Mickey’s Philharmagic, which I’ve seen before but always enjoyed being a fan of the Duck. They’ve had a refurb since my last trip in 2009 as there was more lights/sounds/smells than the last time. Whilst in the gift shop afterwards I picked up a cute tee for one of my nephews, it has the Donald having a meltdown and says “The Original Angry Bird”.
The other two FP’s that Sis had was for Peter Pan and It’s a Small World. As it turned out we didn’t need one for the latter, as it was basically a walk-on. Peter Pan was enjoyable, and I forgot that they added the easter egg of putting Ariel in the Lagoon scene with the other mermaids. Nice touch.
As for It’s a Small World? Well, I distinctively recall skipping it on my last trip, but I couldn’t remember why. Welp, in riding it with Sis, I remembered why.
First the positive aspects: for you history buffs IASW (at least the one in Disneyland) was constructed for the 1964 World’s Fair. So for a ride that is a carbon copy of a ride that is 50 years old, it’s held up very well; the styling, the different country’s theming all has panache, and it’s clear someone (thank you, Mary Blair) spent a lot of effort on it.
Now the downside. Do you want to know what the downside is? I’ll give you a hint:
MUWAHAHAHAHAHAH!
Good luck getting that out of your head. Okay, all joking and sadistic Pavlovian conditioning aside, the ride’s themesong is a nicely constructed, bouncy tune that is a fine tribute to the Sherman Brother’s mad skills at writing music and lyrics. That still doesn’t stop the fact that it’s an annoying earworm that gets stuck in your head forever…ever…ever…ever…
Anyways, by this point it was getting late, and for myself who was operating on 4 hours of sleep and much caffeine and booze, by this point my fun meter’s pegged. So we made our way back to the entrance, using the Train as a means to bypass the crowded Main Street.
Some folks have been dissing the bus system, and I can tell you that for the most part on our trip we rarely spent more than 10 minutes waiting for a bus. Interestingly enough our bus driver was this older fella who was a real hoot, and I remembered him from my last trip (his spiel about ‘If you’re happy with my driving, my name is (insert name), and I’ve been a bus driver for Disney World for over 10 years. If you’re not happy with my driving, my name is Bill, I hate that guy.’)
Made it back to Pop Century, where I stopped by Everything Pop for a snack and a couple of tallboys of Sam Adams, and we hobbled back to the room and crashed.
Hope you enjoyed this mad little rambling post, there'll be more to come, work, life and coffee permitting.
For those who want a sneak preview of the next post (and fair warning, the sneaks ain't gonna like it!), it will be Day Two; with The Walt Disney Pentecostal Experience, aka the Magic Kingdom Opening Ceremony (Casey Jr., Testify!), Wherein I ask one of the Maids at the Haunted Mansion ‘Why So Serious?’ and also where I find that I Don’t Like the Ducks, but The Ducks Like Me, as well as and the Simple Joy of a Casey’s Dog.
Until then, have a Magical Day!
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3270797
So without further ado, on with the show!
Prelude and Day One: Arrival, Early Mornings and Why American Runs on Dunkin’…and Sam Adams
Sis and I had an early morning connecting flight to DFW from our little backwater regional Airport/Gas Station and Hair Salon (sorry for stealing your act, Ron White), so I had to get up at 4am to make the connecting flight. To those of you who get up early for a living you’re like, ‘Right, so what?’
You know that feeling you get the day before your WDW trip and you’re sooooo excited because you’ve been planning and packing for a week before, and you can’t sleep because you’re soooo excited? Well, I couldn’t sleep but it was for a different reason…
To explain we’re going to rewind a week so you see how the week before played out:
Monday, May 5th (Me): Eh, I’ve got time, I’ll do laundry and pack on Wednesday evening.
Wednesday, May 7th (Me): Ugh, just got back from an overnight trip to Omaha, I’m sacked out, I’ll pack on the weekend.
Saturday, May 10th I received an email from Sis early Saturday morning reminding me that this weekend is Mother’s Day and we promised them to drive out and see them. So en route to the folk’s house I stop by a DQ and pick up an Ice Cream Cake and have them put ‘Mom’ on it. Sis at least had the foreknowledge to get cards and a gift for her and even forged my signature.
And the cake melted. In an air-conditioned car, no less. Sis said at least the 90 degree weather we were experiencing would be good training for going to Orlando. I should also point out by this point she had made ressies, fast passes for some of the rides, and was bouncing off the walls with excitement. For me it was just so surreal it hadn’t sunk in.
Come Sunday evening when I finally got home I was exhausted and said ‘Screw it, I’m going to pack tomorrow evening.
Tuesday, May 13th (evening before we depart), I get home with this nagging feeling I should be doing something. I finished my TPS reports, I balanced my checkbook, but I felt like I was missing something.
Then at about 7pm I get a reminder on my phone (seriously I use the dickens out of my Outlook reminders for work and personal stuff, even for small things like paying bills and setting out the trash) that says “Disney Trip in 12 hours.”
It’s safe to say that panic, if that’s the proper word, didn’t creep up our intrepid traveler’s spine, it was a high-speed bullet train that raced up his vertebrae and collided at full tilt with his lower cerebral cortex. Not only had I not packed, but I hadn’t even done laundry. Now, in fairness since I was planning on checking a bag in, I didn’t need any of those dratted 3 oz liquids crap to put in your carryon, so at least I was safe there. So for the next few hours I’m running around pulling clothes to be laundered and packed and stuffed and so forth. At Zero Dark Thirty (12:30am to the civvies) I’m done packing but now I’m so keyed up I couldn’t sleep. So I poured meself a dram of my favorite Highland scotch and watched The Little Mermaid until I fell asleep in my chair.
Fast forward to the Travel Day: Our flight was at 6am, so my alarm (which, thank God, was my phone) woke me up at 4am, and I felt like I had been sleeping in a chair. Which, as it turned out, I had. I felt like an extra from the Walking Dead and so I moaned and shuffled up to the kitchen and put on a pot of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee, extra strong. I then shuffled into the shower, turned the knob all the way to Cold and opened up the throttle.
After peeling myself off the ceiling and hopping back into my skin I showered and did all the usual morning toiletries that a man does in the morning. I had the foreknowledge to pack my toiletries in the check-in after the shower, and by that point the coffee was ready. I poured myself a ginormous cup of straight up coffee and tossed it down, and felt the molten caffeine course through my system.
I was human, now.
Or at least lucid enough to put the suitcases in the car, lock the house and make the drive to pick up sis. Sis was ready and waiting when I arrived at her place, and we made the 20-odd minute trip to our Airport/Hair Salon and Tire center.
Seriously it was so small we arrived 30 minutes before our flight and still had enough time to check in luggage and walk through the TSA line, then walk out a door and up a flight of stairs into an aircraft that resembled a Pringles can with wings. I kept expecting the ground crew to wind up the front propeller of our plane or for there to be some giant slingshot to propel us into the air.
The short flight to DFW was boring, so rather than give you a minute by minute update I’ll go off on a little tangent about proper traveling attire. For those of you who’ve read my Character thread, I’m a bit of a clothes horse and I also travel a lot for work. When I’m on the clock I wear a suit to travel in. This isn’t just a fashion statement, it’s a necessity that helps you get through the TSA lines all the quicker and don’t set off the metal detector and get sent to the dreaded groping pen. Seriously why is it that the only TSA agents that do the groping are gnarly old people?
Of course there was that brunette cutie at the W.A. Mozart airport in Salzburg, but I suspect she had a hidden agenda…
GET ON WITH IT!
*Ahem*
So a suit is a necessity because of all the pockets it has, you can put your wallet, keys, boarding pass, change, watch, ring and any other metal objects in your jacket pocket, then all you have to do is take your jacket off and put it in the tray.
Now, if you’re traveling to Orlando in the summer then a suit jacket is out of the question. But what’s a fashionable fellow going wear? The answer, gentle readers, is a bush jacket, courtesy of Travelsmith. Basically it’s a khaki safari shirt with deep bellows pockets and the sleeves can even be rolled up. And inside pockets that zipper up.
Oh, and the TSA agent was amused by my pink stripper socks
Dawn had broken over the Dallas metro area when we landed, and we made our way to our necessary gate courtesy of the airport monorail (foreshadowing of things to come), and when we were at our gate Sis wanted to grab herself some breakfast. She ordered some sort of brekkie wrap at Au Bon Pain, and offered me some.
At this point I was coming off my caffeine buzz and my stomach was churning. I declined and made my way through the food court to see if anything seemed appetizing. Whilst on the way, the internal plumbing woke up so a detour to the men’s room was necessary. Afterwards, I stopped at a TGI Fridays and had a tall Sam Adams from the draft.
(Hey, at the time it was after noon in Dublin, so what?)
Anyways, after a bracer I felt right enough to have a Thai chicken wrap from some kiosk, and after an hour’s wait we were on our 737 bound for MCO!
When the plane touched down I started to get into the ‘mood’. Sis was all excited, and she hadn’t remembered that the monorails at Orlando had the same ‘please stand clear of the doors’ that the Disney resorts had.
We made our way to the Magic Express busses, and it began to rain. Now, in fairness, ‘tis the season, and the chances for rain were only for two of our days, and then only in the afternoon/evening.
After a brief 40-odd minute bus ride they deposited us at the Pop Century resort. Now, I’ve heard lots of things about the Pop Century Resort, good and bad, so I had a sense of dread and foreboding when I arrived. In previous trips I had always stayed at the luxury resorts; the Contemporary or the Poly. So I felt that I might get a bit of a culture shock going from a deluxe resort to a value resort.
Well, the lobby was clean and very nicely themed, the desk clerks were as friendly and attentive as any CMs at the deluxe resorts, so I was happy with that. Our room was one on the 4th floor of the 60’s building, next to the giant 8-Track tape and within view of the large Mickey Phone.
Our Room
My first impressions were nice, so far so good. And it reminded me of something, and it took me a while to get it. Pop Century, the resort and the rooms are modeled after those old-school motor inns and motels that still crop up in the real world. Unlike their real world counterparts, the rooms are clean, mickey-themed and don’t have the dreaded paper-thin walls or the usual human flotsam and jetsam that inhabit such places. I wanted to hit the food court, but Sis reminded me that she had a ressie for us at Sanaa.
Now, getting to the AKL Villas was a bit of a jaunt. This also demonstrates why it’s good to do research on transportation before embarking on the journey. In this instance, since I always rode the monorail, any time I had to get to a restaurant that wasn’t on the monorail line I took the bus from the TTC. So I told sis, eh, let’s take a bus to the MK, then we can hop on the monorail to the TTC.
Well, it was a nice jaunt to the MK, and riding the monorail was nice. Then we get to the TTC, and it says ‘Buses to Animal Kingdom leave from the Magic Kingdom’.
I believe the phrase rhymes with ‘clucking bell.’
So we hopped back on the monorail for the MK, and grabbed a bus to the AKL. Thankfully we had a 5:15 ressie and we left around 3ish out of boredom. We arrived at the villas around 4:45 and were able to take in some of the sights of the animals and varmits.
Another tidbit to tuck away: whilst we were waiting for our table, some gal came up with a party of like 15 and was upset because their ADR wasn’t showing up. Well, the problem was that she made the ADR like an hour ago, it was a last minute deal. And the CM’s were patiently trying to tell the lady that since the ADR system charges you a fee for making a ressie and not canceling on time, there’s less opportunity for walk-ups.
Anways, at or around 5pm our buzzer went off and we were seated. I ordered a Kingfisher Beer (an Indian lager) and Sis ordered a Coke. Now Sis had been raving about the bread service, so we ordered that as an appetizer.
We ordered the Traditional Naan, and the Garlic Ginger Naan. For accompaniment we ordered the Red Chile Sambal, the Garlic Pickle and Tamarind Chutney.
Wow.
That’s all I can say. I can see what the hype is. To quote Billy the Bard, if food be the music of love, then this was a symphony of flavor. It was Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, from the opening salvo to the last steps of the march. As I said, I totally get the hype. Problem was, it was so good that we filled up on the Bread Service, and neither Sis nor I had room for a main course. So I ordered a Samosa from the appetizer menu and the salad sampler, I think I had the Watermelon Cucumber salad, the Bhel Puri, and the the Chickpea, Tomato and Chickpea.
It rained several times whilst we were noshing, but by the time we were finished, it stopped completely.
After our early dinner we made our way to the Magic Kingdom, and over to Futureland. There we rode Space Mountain, and it was fun, if a bit unnerving.
The only worse thing than being in a claustrophobic indoor ride with many jerky turns, twists, and drops…is doing a ride like that in the dark.
After that Sis had FP’s for The Little Mermaid ride, which we did, and it was fun. I thought the interactive queue was cool, and having Scuttle there was a nice touch. Disney, in all it’s profound understanding of the human psyche and its advancements in social engineering, seems to understand that keeping the kiddos occupied is important. The only complaint, or remark that Sis made was that if they lowered the lighting a bit more in the ‘Under the Sea’ bit, but other than that it was pretty cool. It was also a bit interesting in that it shared a lot of common themes with the Magic Kingdom’s historical dark rides like Peter Pan and the late Snow White’s Scary Adventure.
Next up was Mickey’s Philharmagic, which I’ve seen before but always enjoyed being a fan of the Duck. They’ve had a refurb since my last trip in 2009 as there was more lights/sounds/smells than the last time. Whilst in the gift shop afterwards I picked up a cute tee for one of my nephews, it has the Donald having a meltdown and says “The Original Angry Bird”.
The other two FP’s that Sis had was for Peter Pan and It’s a Small World. As it turned out we didn’t need one for the latter, as it was basically a walk-on. Peter Pan was enjoyable, and I forgot that they added the easter egg of putting Ariel in the Lagoon scene with the other mermaids. Nice touch.
As for It’s a Small World? Well, I distinctively recall skipping it on my last trip, but I couldn’t remember why. Welp, in riding it with Sis, I remembered why.
First the positive aspects: for you history buffs IASW (at least the one in Disneyland) was constructed for the 1964 World’s Fair. So for a ride that is a carbon copy of a ride that is 50 years old, it’s held up very well; the styling, the different country’s theming all has panache, and it’s clear someone (thank you, Mary Blair) spent a lot of effort on it.
Now the downside. Do you want to know what the downside is? I’ll give you a hint:
“There is just one moon and one golden sun
And a smile means friendship to everyone.
Though the mountains divide
And the oceans are wide
It's a small small world”
And a smile means friendship to everyone.
Though the mountains divide
And the oceans are wide
It's a small small world”
MUWAHAHAHAHAHAH!
Good luck getting that out of your head. Okay, all joking and sadistic Pavlovian conditioning aside, the ride’s themesong is a nicely constructed, bouncy tune that is a fine tribute to the Sherman Brother’s mad skills at writing music and lyrics. That still doesn’t stop the fact that it’s an annoying earworm that gets stuck in your head forever…ever…ever…ever…
Anyways, by this point it was getting late, and for myself who was operating on 4 hours of sleep and much caffeine and booze, by this point my fun meter’s pegged. So we made our way back to the entrance, using the Train as a means to bypass the crowded Main Street.
Some folks have been dissing the bus system, and I can tell you that for the most part on our trip we rarely spent more than 10 minutes waiting for a bus. Interestingly enough our bus driver was this older fella who was a real hoot, and I remembered him from my last trip (his spiel about ‘If you’re happy with my driving, my name is (insert name), and I’ve been a bus driver for Disney World for over 10 years. If you’re not happy with my driving, my name is Bill, I hate that guy.’)
Made it back to Pop Century, where I stopped by Everything Pop for a snack and a couple of tallboys of Sam Adams, and we hobbled back to the room and crashed.
Hope you enjoyed this mad little rambling post, there'll be more to come, work, life and coffee permitting.
For those who want a sneak preview of the next post (and fair warning, the sneaks ain't gonna like it!), it will be Day Two; with The Walt Disney Pentecostal Experience, aka the Magic Kingdom Opening Ceremony (Casey Jr., Testify!), Wherein I ask one of the Maids at the Haunted Mansion ‘Why So Serious?’ and also where I find that I Don’t Like the Ducks, but The Ducks Like Me, as well as and the Simple Joy of a Casey’s Dog.
Until then, have a Magical Day!
