Oh the Sea of Humanity: Disney at New years Pt. 6

We hit dinner in Tomorrowland, and if you want Chinese in Disney, it’s pretty lousy. I am sorry I didn’t get a turkey leg when I had a chance.

Thn we went shopping. Which was I really wanted to do there. (I'm watching my masculinity points lower--there were low after I admitted in the newsroom I was a Gilmore Girls fan.) They had some good stuff there, and I got got a new cap for my collection. It didn't have Mickey, but it was a cool, comtemporary design. I was tempted to buy one of the "New Years 2007 Mickey mouse ears" that everyone had on. The reason was that the ears were silver, and it you added some antennae, they would look like little satillite dishes. I could always put a sign on them saying "controlled by Disney." But I didn't. I also got a beltpack for my camcorder as well.

We headed back to Libertytown to see the electric light parade. We took up a spot in front of the prisoner stocks in front of the boat dock. People were of course taking pictures of family members inside them. I wonder what prisoners back then would think about us mocking this form of punishment? I had thoughts of getting a picture of me in them flipping people off, but with so many kids around, I thought twice about it.

The parade itself was not a disappointment. It was still magical and very well done. There were some people complaining to others about standing in front of their view. Not a please, just “we have kids who want to watch, so sit down in front.” The lack of courtesy is something I noticed a few times in the part. More on that later…

After the parade, we set out more towards the middle of the park to see the fireworks, which a lot of people had the same idea. We pushed our way through the streets to get more towards the middle, and the Disney employees are basically directing traffic. Some were nice, others, discourteous. You would figure Disney would figure out a better way to get enough people to see the fireworks. But then again, you had a good 75,000 people wanting to see it.

We finally nudged into a side of the road. They had roped off parts of the street, which had a lot of people already sitting. We found an un-roped portion and squished in. Fireworks started at 11:50 that evening, which was cool. We had little warning when 11:59 came around, just a silence from the fireworks, somebody saying something over the speakers, and then the fireworks going off again at midnight. No count down from anyone, no indication of midnight. Just several horns going off and a huge fireworks display. But the fireworks were spectacular. They went all around the park. Very beautiful.

Then came the exit. It was organized chaos again. We were told the monorails, then the guards told us the ferries. Half way into the ferry lines, some stupid guard said “the ferry is this way” and we head out, then realize he was pointing us to the buses. We tried to get back in, and he said “take the buses or get to the back in the line.” My mom tried to reason with the guy, but he was being, well a d**k. My mom sneaks by him and my dad and myself try to follow her, but the guard wasn’t allowing us in. Finally, he just gave up and let us though. My mom commented he was the rudest person we have encountered in the park. I had to agree. It reminded me of the Cape Coral cops, who never show courtesy to people as far as I see. Tangent time…

I have seen several instances with the Cape cops have been rude. One experience involved me coming home one night after dj-ing Mona’s. I had a good tips that night, and had a wallet full of ones. I had run a stop sign and never noticed the cop behind me. I parked at the store right near the stop to shop, took off my seatbelt, when I noticed the lights. The cop came up, ask for license and registration. I oblige, and he immediate looked at my wallet, which was lying out on my dash full of money, and accused me of being a drug dealer. You have to be kidding me!!! He demanded to do a search. I had nothing to hide, and I got out of my car. Another cop came up, who was one of the few I encountered that was nice to me, did some small talk while the other cop searched. The search found nothing. The first cop, sited me for my seat belt and forgave the stop sign running, but was still was rude to me about it.

The other incident happened a few weeks ago. A plane had landed in a vacant lot in the middle of the city, and we were covering it. The Cape P.D. was basically yelling at cars to move along, and nothing to see here. A Cape P.D. volunteer stopped to ask if they needed help with traffic, and the Cape cop chewed him out for parking at the side of the road. We heard this about half a block away and we all thought he was rude. Maybe there was a day when cops actually were courteous to citizens—I remember those days in Montana. But you wonder why people don’t like cops.

Okay, welcome back to the near present. So we hit the ferry dock. The guard at the dock was cool, and knew that the last thing we needed was a grumpy security guard giving us grief. He was friendly and, and yes, courteous to us. He even made some small talk with the crowd. We board the ferry and we left the Magic Kingdom. I saw the Magic Kingdom get smaller and smaller in the distance, which after this day was a great site. It still had its charm and for a moment, that childhood magic still lingered. Will I come back? Maybe someday with my kids. When that magic in their eyes, and the technology has gotten better.

Oh Mickey you're so Broadway: Disney at New Years Pt. 5

We finally hit a Mickey event—“Mickey’s a Night before Christmas”. It was done like a short Broadway play, with Disney characters and such. It was well coordinated and a lot of fancy dancers and singers. My thoughts were of all this saccharine made me think there is probably backstage drama behind the scenes. Nice idea for a script. It was fun finally seeing Mickey. The show worked like a well oiled machine. The kids were happy, which were the most important part.

We made it over to the “Haunted Mansion” ride in Libertytown just in time to avoid the sudden rain storm that had come over the park. There was an awning over the lines going in, but you could see people scatter on the street to shops and doorways. It lasted a few minutes, stopped, and then it rained a few more minutes. After finally getting into the place, we were sent into a room, which had a “scary voice” saying cliché punny phrases. Just as corny as The Crypt keep from “Tales from the Crypt”. It was obviously an elevator to the actual ride. It wasn’t scary at all, just special effects and cheesy high-end Halloween decorations. The projections were pretty good though. But I remember when I thought haunted houses were actually scary. They had one in Disneyland which you heard people screaming and yelling. Has Disney become too timid?

The Youth of Tomorrowland: Disney at New Years Pt. 4

We hit the big mountain train ride, and I was scared at first because I have been prone to motion sickness at times. I however had a good time on the ride, and my motion sickness that I had when I was younger had somewhat disappeared. It was fun. Another tip to consider--when using fast pass, you can use it only one ride at a time. So, no splash mountain for us.

It was kind of funny to see all the little girls in the Princess dresses. It seems to be the thing nowadays. There was a time where that wasn’t the case, and now you see the new royalty, the Paris and the Britney’s of the world. Not to say that it’s wrong to have some diva in you, but it will be interesting when they become teenagers. More on the later on…

We took the train the transport train to Tomrrowland, where we found Space Mountain booked up for at least an hour and a half. So we went to the Carousel of Progress, which again needs to have an animatronics update. What I found funny was that they had the father narrate over the centuries of the modern convinces of the time, and the final one, set in the present, had the mother narrating, and the father burning the turkey in their automatic oven. It goes to show you how times have changed in terms of parental roles and they way fathers are looked at. This also extends to tv shows as well. It used to be fathers were the rock that held the family together and kids screwed up—and mothers basically supported their husbands and gave advice on occasion. Now, it is the dads that are clueless, moms are the foundation of the family, and the kids still screw up—this time with bigger and more overdramatic problems. But personally, I see that mothers and fathers both have flaws and knowledge that keep the family together. As for the kids, they have more to worry about nowadays. But still can be a little overdramatic.

While I was there, I did get to some time for shopping. I wound up buying a Star Wars light saber; specifically Mace Windu’s light saber. Here’s why…

The story goes, as was told by Warwick Davis at Star Wars III Convention, that Samuel L. Jackson, who was Mace Windu in the first three episodes, wanted a purple light saber. George Lucas, having scripted every little detail in the films, had already set good guys like Mace to have red light sabers, while the bad guys had green. After a few minutes of arguing, Lucas finally said, “Hold you light saber really, really tight and maybe it’ll turn purple.” Ultimately Lucas relented and everyone got their own color for their light sabers.

Also, purple is my favorite color so it just made it the perfect one to buy.

There was this pep rally in Tomorrowland to promote this hit tv movie on the Disney Channel called “High School Musical.” To think of the drama and new teen angst these movies have verses back in the ‘80’s. Plus character roles have scattered—cheerleaders get straight A’s, while we have football players sticking up for the little guy. Again, things have changed. Plus to think that teenage girls, no matter what their personality, dress more attractively now than when I was younger. I’m jealous of teenage boys now. Geez. If I only knew now when I was younger. Or been born in 1988.

Adventure Excite, Pirates do Crave these Things: Disney at New Years Pt. 3

Day 2:

As you see the spires as you walk into the gate, and the people coming from over a few dozen countries entering in mass to see an icon known the world over, you can’t feel anything but excited, as a kid, to see Disney World for the first time. But as an adult, I was somewhat excited. It looks like that magic may have worn off a bit since I was younger.

We get onto the monorail and I recall seeing a similar scene when seeing Japanese people get on the subway on tv—basically us cramming in to a small railcar. Then you see the people, a couple hundred at a time enter the gate. A quick check of bags coming in and you are on the busiest main street on earth. You see the happy and excited children head down the street with parents who have a whole arrange of emotions to excitement to impatience because of their jumping, wound up children.

We hit Adventureland first, as you can tell the newer Disney movies had taken over. We had a adequate selection of eats, but we ended up eating at Frontierland and Pecos Bill’s hamburger place. Each stand and restaurant had a limited, but different fair. It would be nice to have a bigger selection.

While we were eating, I took a look at the map and helped plan out our day, just like an invading army. We hit Frontier first and get some fast passes to the train ride and the water ride, then double back to Adventureland to stand in line for Pirates, and head back to Frontierland to catch our fast pass rides.

We hit Pirates and it was a pretty long wait. We were outside for a good half an hour, then went inside and the line just went on and on. Several rides we had actually had some video screens with some trivia. And some rides had sponsors. So why not have video screens along the lines of popular rides? Publicize your new movies, or the ride’s movie that is now out on DVD. Plus advertising. Trivia maybe? It will make the line seem shorter. Also consider some animatronic scenes.

We finally get into the ride and hit the standard, dated animatronic scenes. Like I said earlier, they really need to update their system. They incorporated Capt. Jack Sparrow into the ride, which again made me a little disillusioned. The old ride was just of various scenes. On a lighter note, we get stuck in one portion for ten to fifteen minutes, and of course, they are singing the same song over and over again. “Yo ho. Yo ho, a sailor’s life for me.” After the hundredth time, I started yelling for some Jimmy Buffet’s “A Pirate at 40.” They finally got the ride going again. The ride was shorter than I remember in Disneyland. That’s minus the fifteen minutes we heard “Yo ho, Yo ho, a sailor’s light for me.” Crap, I have that song in my head again…

One Soraing Processional: New Years at Disney Pt. 2

We finally hit “Soarin” which was the best ride in the park. They had a “pre-flight” video with “Cuddy” from “Seinfeld”. It was interesting that Disney got all these stars to be involved in the park. You wonder how much he got to do that. The ride itself was cool, although the transition between scenes really needed to be worked on. Besides that, it was a fun ride. The leaning was accurate and a few surprises made it exciting.

We went to the big golf ball for its ride, which was a look into communications. It needed more content on the way down and maybe a viewing area at the top, but it was cool none the less. They seriously need to look into more lifelike animatronics. Like the Norway ride.

We hit our restaurant, Alfredo’s, for dinner in the Italian portion of the park. It was packed and you serious need to get reservations for any of Disney’s restaurants two weeks before you even get down there. We were lucky to have gotten them. It was known for being the Italian restaurant of the stars. Our waiter was from Italy, which was a reoccurring theme throughout the country portion of the park. I figure it was an original concept to bring people from other countries to work in the U.S. He was the most well mannered waiter I’ve seen in a while. He was always there to please and was very talkative. I tried their world famous fettuccini alfredo. It really needed some kind of herb or spice, but it was good otherwise.

I stopped by the racetrack portion of the park, but the race cars were booked up for the night. I went and bought a remote control racecar in stead. I figured since I can’t drive the big ones once, I can drive the little one multiple times.

Then we hit the Christmas Processional. Oscar winner Martley Matlin was the guest star, signing the Nativity story. Many actors had read it in weeks past. I kind of wished I was there a few weeks ago when Neil Patrick Harris did it. Seeing The Doog” doing it after watching him in “Harold and Kumar go to White Castle” would have been hilarious. Then again, seeing Kurt Cameron do it would have been fun. After seeing his religious show where he called regular people sinners, he would have been vehemently religious during his performance.

The show itself went well, and I was able to take some video as well. The choir had a lot of local choir members from all over Florida, which would have been cool if I went to school here. The choir was great, and Martley was great too. It was an all around great show; although it had a religious right wing tinge to it. It balanced out the left wing environmental vision of the Lion King video.

I kicked out before the fireworks to watch the UFC Lidell vs. Ortiz fight later that night and it gave my parents a little time to themselves. There is nothing like the fights, a bunch of screaming fans, and the girls at Hooters. And that was the first day there.

One Big Golf ball of Controversy: Disney at New Years Pt. 1

They say that Disney World has a certain way of sparking dreams and imaginations. As you will see, it sparked something in me, as I have to set up several postings for my weekend there. Mainly a lot of observations that I have as an adult. I had gone to Disneyland twice, so I had some experience with the Magic Kingdom. But to see it about twenty years later says something. But two days didn’t really do it justice. I only caught two of the five parks, but they were the major ones.

I saw Epcot that Saturday. At first seeing the big golf ball, as I affectingly call it, my first thought was like a comment made on prom night—I thought it would be bigger. We got there about an hour after opening, and the lines had started to form immediately. The exhibits were like several I’ve seen before in other science interactive experiences. Although, I did enjoy the doing the conducting exhibit in the Disney Innovations area. The five senses ride lacked taste, literally. But it flowed well and it was educational to the kids.

We went to “The Land” portion of the park next, which had several rides, which included “Soarin”, which was already filling up. We decided to get a fast pass for the ride, (basically a way for you to wait in line without waiting in line) and went on to “The Seas” portion of the park, where they had a cute little ride featuring Nemo. It’s funny to see they recycled stuff from the movie. You notice this more as an adult, as you seen the movie and remember the same lines. It just goes to show, the spectacle makes you forget as a child.

We headed towards the country portions of the park, which quickly reminded me of the 1986 World’s Fair in Vancouver, Canada. Although there were sixty or seventy countries represented then, and there were a lot more exhibits and food. There were a dozen or so countries here. Not many rides—just restaurants and shops. So you can buy stuff and say you were there when you actually weren’t. Mexico and Norway did have rides which were mainly like “It’s a Small World” only more historical and bigger, with more human looking animatronics. I did try a few sombreros while I was there, and I’ve come to find that my head has grown bigger these past few years. Not my ego, however.

After a trip around the world, we hit “The Land” again, which we are early for our fast pass. So we hit a showing of “An Environmental Fable with the cast of the Lion King.” This is where I began to wonder about the motives of the creators of the cartoon. It started with two characters wanting to build a bunch of condos with an artificial lake. Zimba then goes on this tangent about environmental issues. I am wondering how the local developers are feeling about this cartoon? And I wonder if Al Gore had anything to do with it?

To be continued.....