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Craig Peck -- February 2001 -- Walt Disney World (Offsite)February 16-22 Here I am on the longest trip of my life, but it's all worth it. I just left my mom, dad and sister at the school, and we're on our way to Florida. I am one of the lucky ones because I get 2 seats on the bus to lay down. This happiness quickly faded with the realization that I am under a broken air conditioner that is dripping water in a small steady motion. No matter how I tried, I got no sleep. I wasn't sure if it was because of the AC or my excitement of the trip. Saturday afternoon, we finally arrived at the Four Points Hotel. It was extremely warm, which I am of course not used to. I live in New York City. We rested for a few hours, well at least I tried. I was going to Disney Quest for the first time ever. Once I got there, I found out dreadful news. O Town, the huge teen group was at the House of Blues, 20 feet away from Disney Quest, and my sister wasn't there. I snuck out of DQ for a bit, and went to the DD shops, and of course found some nifty items, all overpriced. When we were waiting for the bus, my friends and laid down on the floor and looked at the spotlights crashing into each other in the sky, while my friend borrowed my laser pointer and had his friend chase around the laser on the floor for a while. Sunday, we went to MGM. I caught a few pictures of the new hat, nothing fantastic. I made my way to the Disney Animation building, which was nothing with nothing compared to the view I got of it the next day, which Ill talk about in a minute. I got the best seat in the house at GMR, and laughed a few times at how pathetic the tricks were, but realized how much I loved them as a kid. I ate at Pizza Planet, which was surprisingly good. Now, I was by myself most of the day, which is a huge No-no according to the band leader, so most of the day I was hiding myself. Rosie O'Donnell was filming her show the next day so the set was all set up, and I would have liked to seen it but we had to run over to Epcot for the rest of the day. And of course, I was alone there also. I waited online an hour and a half at Pasta Piazza for my food which was soaked, and made my way to Journey into your Imagination, which is just awful, of course, but Honey I shrunk the audience is still great, and I have the glasses from that also. I went backstage Spaceship Earth for a ton of construction pictures without getting caught. The Living Seas was as interesting as ever, and the Universe of Energy was well........long. We got back to the hotel, and I knew that tomorrow was going to be one of the greatest days of my life. Well this story starts a couple of weeks ago. I have always been a fan of Andreas Deja, since I was a little kid. For those of you who are not aware of this genius, he created Scar, Jafar, Hercules, King Triton, Roger Rabbit, Gaston, did some work on Yzma, and animated Mickey in Prince and the Pauper, Runaway Brain and Fantasia 2000, just to name a few of his masterpieces. I found out that he was working in Orlando on a film called "Lilo and Stitch". I also found out his email address. So I sent him an email, and he responded inviting me to the studios to meet him. After many complications and many obstacles, I finally got to meet him. I met very nice people along the way including a Security driver who drove me to the backlot with my chaperone to the studios. Once I got there, I was in awe. Andreas was showing me color keys and paintings and tons of backgrounds. He even showed me the first 10 minutes of the movie and some animation he was doing. He then drove us back to Magic Kingdom to meet up with our group. I watched the Jazz Band perform at Starlight Ray's in Tomorrowland which was a thrill, and then we had to meet at Pirates of the Caribbean at 5 PM to get ready to perform in the MSEP. I was late. I saw a gate saying Cast Members only and figured, what do I have to lose. After 20 minutes, I actually found my group, along with the dwarves with their heads off...That's a nightmare I wont forget. The parade was great, except for my mallet (I play bass drum) flying off my stick into the audience and hitting someone in the head. The last parade I did was for the Yankees and my pants fell down in the middle of Times Square. The zippers broke, I believe. That night I discovered I had an ingrown toe nail and it was badly infected. I was forced to be in a wheelchair the next day, but I refused to be wheeled around when we performed at CitiWalk. I spent the rest of the day wheeling myself around in Universal, which is surprisingly all uphill! The next day was Sea World, which was really fun to do. I suggest it to everyone, although most of the day I spent waiting next to exit signs at the thrill rides. Overall, I had a great trip. I hardly felt the splatter of water on my head on the trip back! And to finish the story, I came home into a huge snowstorm, and the next morning I had the minor surgery and now everything is better, except I just realized I put a lot of epsom salts on my open wound, which is starting to burn. Farewell to all, Craig Peck Britnys4me@aol.com Mail a Comment to Craig Peck |
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