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Rob Steere -- December 2002 -- Walt Disney World (PORR, ASMuR)Cast of Characters
Smaller roles:
Other roles that were cut before final release (All of these people at one time or another were to go on the trip, but bailed out for various reasons.):
Months leading up to the trip So, I thought to myself “Don’t panic”. It’s still summer, perhaps they’ll change their minds, or maybe I’ll find someone else. Well, that someone else came in the form of my co-worker Erin. Erin and I are the same age, we grew up together through grade and middle schools, but lost touch with each other when we went to different high schools. Last year, she just happened to interview for a job opening in my office, and got the job. After some prodding by myself and a few other co-workers, she decided to go. She’d never been to Disney World before. Heck, she’d barely ever been out of New England before, and had only ever been to a couple small amusement parks in the area. She also had never been on a plane before and was a bit scared about it, so it took some coaxing to get her to actually buy a plane ticket. So, it was now me and Erin, and still possibly Max. (Max had informed me that if he did go, it would be a last-minute decision due to his work situation). Then, disaster struck again, when in late October or so Erin informed me that she could not go due to financial reasons. So, it was back to just me. I then sent a message to my group of friend that e-mail each other back and forth. It was more of a “pity me” kind of message, but I jokingly asked if anyone wanted to go to Disney World. I knew I wouldn’t get anyone saying yes, because the group was made up of Erik and Brian who already had bailed out, someone I’d never met in person before, someone who doesn’t really like Disney all that much (except Eeyore), and a few others. Well, to my surprise, my friend Scott e-mailed back saying he was interested, and to give me the dates, prices and details. I did, and he agreed! He also said he’s friends with the Disney Regional Rep for New England, and that perhaps she’d be able to get us discounts or something. It was at this point that Max finally made up his mind and committed to going on the trip. But, he could only afford to go for half the trip, Friday through Tuesday. Lastly, after a few weeks, Scott informed me he couldn’t go, so now it was down to just me and Max, and Max would still only be there for half the trip. Armed with all this info, I called Central Reservations. I couldn’t afford the room at Riverside by myself for the last four days (well, I could have, but didn’t feel it necessary), so I shortened the stay at Riverside to four nights (the time Max would be there), and made a reservation at All-Star Music for four nights for just myself, both of these reservations with the AP discount. I had purchased two tickets to the 12/20 MVMCP, as it’s our tradition to do that on our last night there. But, because Max is only there for a limited time, our only options for attending the MVMCP was our arrival day 12/13, and Sunday 12/15. The 15th was out, because that was the day of the RADP Scavenger Hunt, and even if we DID have enough energy to go to the Party after the Hunt, we’d miss the first few hours of it. Although Brian and I had had a bad experience with doing the Party on our arrival night (we were dead tired), I reluctantly exchanged the tickets with Disney for the 13th. The tickets arrived with about 6 or 7 days to spare. Speaking of the Scavenger Hunt, I had a title to uphold this year... My team finished in first place two years ago, and tied for first place last year. So this year we’re gonna show those Pixie Chicks who’s boss. :-p I was able to get Kevin back, who was on my team last year, and I had Max to be on the team, but I had one more spot to fill. Luckily, Max was able to connect with his friend Jackie who he knows from the College Program, and currently works for the DVC at the Boardwalk. She was excited at the idea of the Hunt, and I e-mailed her the Boardwalk questions from the past two years so she could see the kind of questions they ask on the Hunt. I got lucky with my finances. A few months ago, I had to replace the emergency brake pedal on my Jeep. It kept releasing itself. Well, no more than 3 weeks had gone by after the repair, when I get a letter in the mail from Daimler-Chrysler announcing a recall on the emergency brake pedal on my Jeep. ? Though they still had to do the repair again with the new part, because I’d already paid for the work I was able to submit for a refund. That refund was a good-sized chunk of my food budget. So with that squared away, my portion of the hotel reservation paid off over the summer, plane ticket in hand along with MVMCP tickets, the only thing left is the park admission. I’ll be getting an AP when I arrive at WDW, using Max’s DC discount. (I’m sure that’ll come in handy for a lot of things this trip). Originally we were going to use Tiffany Towncar, but because we’re returning to the airport on different days, it’ll be cheaper and easier to use Mears. With that, I put all my paperwork in my desk drawer, and awaited the trip. The week before the trip: I was flying out of Manchester, NH and Max out of Logan Airport in Boston. Though I prefer Providence’s TF Green airport over Manchester, when I had originally bought my plane ticket Brian was going, too. Brian lives about 15 minutes away from Manchester airport, so even though he’s not going, he was going to drive me to the airport and pick me up so I can avoid the parking fee. The plan was to pack Wednesday night, go to work on Thursday, and then drive up to Brian’s right from work, where I’d sleep over and he would drive me to the airport on his way to work. Max planned to either take the T (subway) to the airport, or his girlfriend could drive him. Well, that was the PLAN. Yet another disaster struck... Monday the 9th was my 26th birthday. Not only did my friends and co-workers forget (my family didn’t), I started feeling a little sniffly and odd towards the end of the day. Great, not a cold now... Just before bed on Monday, on a whim I took my temperature. It’s 99.4... Less than a degree up, so I’m not terribly worried. I go to bed. Tuesday morning, I wake up with a tremendous headache, I’m all stuffed up, and I’m running a 102 temperature. NOOOOOO!!!!! I can’t get the flu NOW! I’ll be getting on a plane first thing Friday morning! Well, I called in sick to work, and fell back into bed. I call my doctor and make an appointment for later that afternoon. I was thinking maybe he could prescribe one of those medications that shortens the duration of the flu. Sure, they’re expensive because my health plan doesn’t cover it, but if it could save my vacation, I’d pay it. Take some Tylenol and the fever comes down a little, but it’s back up to 102 when I get to the doctor’s. Well, according to my doctor, it WASN’T the flu. He said it’s too early in the season for flu, and that I didn’t have any symptoms of the flu below my neck (body aches, coughing, etc). So, it’s just a viral or possibly bacterial infection. He gives me a couple prescriptions, and says that I’ll be 100% in a week, and that I should be fine to fly on Friday. Yay! One bright spot is that my longtime friend Pete, whom I have not seen in years, said that his schedule will allow him and I to get together for an evening. Pete and I went to high school together, and keep in touch online, but I haven’t seen him since he moved out to Los Angeles a few years ago. (He works in the movie industry) His parents retired a couple years back, and moved from here in Massachusetts down to a town about an hour north of Orlando. He will be flying home the morning of the day before I leave, so we can get together and do something for the evening. Probably Pleasure Island... Day 0: Thursday, December 12th, 2002 Well, the doctor was right. Friday I felt better. My temperature dropped below 100 a couple times, though over the days prior, it peaked at 103! (Ouch) I was put on two prescriptions plus Tylenol, each of which had a different dosage schedule of course. Hadn’t been to work at all since Monday. Also didn’t have time to finish my Christmas shopping. I was supposed to get all that done before I left, as I only had two days after I got back before having to fly out again to go home to Virginia for the holidays. Oh well. I decided I’d see what I could find at Disney World, and get anything left over when I get home. I laid all of my stuff out on the bed. I can never believe how much I deem necessary for a trip to Florida. Amazingly it all fit into my suitcase and backpack. The original plan was to drive up to Brian’s in Nashua, NH and leave my car there for the week. My friend (and Brian’s roommate) Anthony called me earlier in the week and asked if I could help him with a car situation. His car was being worked on here in Worcester and he was driving one of Brian’s cars. So, he drove to Worcester, picked me and my luggage up and picked up his car. We each drove a car up to Nashua, leaving my Jeep in Worcester. Got to sleep on Brian’s sofa “early”, around 11, with the alarm set for 6:45AM. But it took me quite a while to actually get to sleep. WAY too excited. Day 1: Friday, December 13th, 2002 Woke up with the alarm at 6:45AM. Hopped out of bed (well, off the sofa), made sure Brian was awake, and hopped in the shower. The drive to the airport was uneventful, and Brian dropped me off around 7:30. Check-in at Southwest was quick and efficient, only had to wait for one or two people in front of me. Had planned on getting breakfast in the airport, but didn’t have any cash, so I had to seek out an ATM. The upstairs one was being worked on, so it was downstairs to baggage claim to find out that the ATM there was also out of service. On my way back upstairs I remembered that although I didn’t have any cash in my wallet, I had some in an envelope in my backpack. So it was off to Dunkin’ Donuts. Security went quickly. The wait was really only because people in front of me didn’t know to take out their laptops or take off their coats and put them on the X-ray belt. After almost forgetting my bagel and donut with security, I went to wait at the gate. I had been assigned the “B” boarding group. When it came time to board, I stood up and was about the 5th person in the B group. I needn’t have worried, the flight was only about ¾ full, so there was plenty of room. I even got a window seat. Ride down was uneventful and smooth, but due to a headwind, we arrived 5-10 minutes late. Max was flying out of Boston, and was scheduled to arrive about 40 minutes before me. We’d planned to meet at my baggage claim. Took the shuttle over to the Main Terminal, and down to baggage claim. I was a little worried, because as I passed the display boards, Max’s flight wasn’t listed, and a later flight from Boston on Delta was listed as cancelled. But I needn’t have worried. Max was down in baggage claim waiting for me. My bag was one of the first ones out, but alas, it had a casualty. The metal logo on the front pocket had been ripped off. Looking at it, it had only been glued on, so no fabric was actually torn. And the baggage handlers either knew it had happened when it happened, or saw it laying there along the way, because the logo was nicely riding along the carousel right next to the suitcase. Over to the Mears desk to buy our tickets to Port Orleans Riverside, and then outside to wait. About 10 minutes later, the bus arrives and we’re off. The drive to the hotel was quick, and Riverside was the second stop. Upon arriving, we left our bags with Bell Services and headed inside to check in. No line at check-in, though we had to wait a couple minutes for a CM to become available. Check-in went smoothly. I had already pre-paid my part of the bill, so that just left Max to make up the balance. (It’s a really nice feeling to leave on a vacation knowing everything is already paid for in advance) The CM loaded us down with information and directed us to our room. Max and I had decided to request a room in Magnolia Terrace, as it appeared convenient to a bus stop, the main pool and the walk to the food court wasn’t that bad, just a quick stroll across Ol’ Man Island. We got our request, and were assigned to Room 8723. We went out to the Bell Stand and arranged for our luggage to be brought to the room, but said we didn’t need a ride. We wanted to walk over and get our first look at the resort. Back through the lobby and out the back. Wandered over the bridge to the island, and then over to the far side of the river. On the way noticed that the water wheel was not turning outside the food court. (Later went over and found that the trough that feeds it water was in the process of being re-built). Found our room in the Magnolia Terrace fairly easily. It was in a very good location. The Magnolia Terrace building is essentially an H-shaped building, with the legs of the “H” being two stories tall, and the cross piece being three stories. The numbering pattern was a little odd, but made sense after a while. Our room was on the outside side, facing the quiet pool between our building and the next. It was a bit away from the river, but not far. The stairways were convenient, and the East Depot bus stop was a very quick walk across the parking lot. The room itself was nice and spacious, plenty of room for the two of us. A couple minutes later, a CM came by with our bags. While we unpacked a little I turned on the TV to the Disney info channel. One way I truly know I’m in Disney World is when I hear the “It’s a Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah..... Tip for Today” ditty. ? After settling into the room, and packing some sweatshirts into our backpacks, we headed out to the bus stop and waited for a bus to the Magic Kingdom. We had tickets to tonight’s Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party which started at 7, so we just planned on going to the park, doing a few things while we waited for the party to start. Even if we hadn’t been doing the Party tonight, we still probably would have gone to the MK. Max was on the College Program a few years ago, and worked in Outdoor Foods in the Magic Kingdom, so it was kinda like going home for him. ? Bus came quickly, and we were off. (One thing that was nice about our room location was that the East Depot is the final stop on the loop, so once you get on the bus, it’s off to it’s destination.) Got to the MK around 3PM, went through security, and over to Guest Relations to buy my Annual Pass. (Max already had his from a previous trip). The CM wouldn’t allow us to use Max’s Disney Club discount for my Annual Pass, though. (Even though Max had no trouble doing so with his girlfriend’s when they bought theirs) Oh well, only about $20 or so difference. Into the park we went. Stopped to rent a locker for our backpacks, and then decided we needed lunch. We agreed on Columbia Harbor House, but because of the afternoon parade crowd, we had to get there by way of the castle and Fantasyland. I opted for the combo platter that comes with both fish and chicken strips. Ate outside in the courtyard. From here, we went over the Haunted Mansion for a brief wait. We then shopped our way through Fantasyland, Max looking for something for his girlfriend Jamie. As we passed Snow White there was no line so we hopped on for a quick ride. Into Tomorrowland and picked up FastPasses for Space Mountain. While we waited, went for a spin on the TTA, followed by a virtually no-wait Buzz. Time for our Space Mountain FastPass. At this point we decided to go get our wristbands for the party at the front gate. At the gate, a CM took our tickets, ran them through the turnstile for us and then gave us a wristband. They hadn’t put out the MVMCP guidemaps with show times yet, so we stopped into City Hall and grabbed a couple. Wandering through Liberty Square, we went to Splash Mountain with no wait. We got a good drenching from a passing log as we circled the pond out front, and the temperature was cooling off, too. We ended the normal operating day with a spin on Big Thunder. The fanfare for the fireworks was just starting as we went through the queue, and the fireworks made for a nice backdrop as we took our ride. The park was closed to the general public, and I knew the MVMCP guests were going to be herded into Tomorrowland until the park was clear. But it had cooled off and I was wearing shorts. Add in the light soaking I’d gotten on Splash Mountain, and I wanted to change into the jeans and sweatshirt I’d brought along in my backpack. So, it was back out to the front of the park with the exiting masses. Noticed that all the shops on the left-hand side of the street as we exited were closed and a rope put up along the curb to keep exiting guests from going into those shops, and entering Party guests moving up Main Street to Tomorrowland. (These shops re-opened a little later on). Quick change into jeans and sweatshirt, and we were off again. The lines for everything in Tomorrowland were long, of course. One interesting thing we did see was that they had the exit doors for Timekeeper open and were using the theater as a location to do the free souvenir photos. Thinking we’d get our photo done early, as well as see what they did with the theater, we went down in. They’d converted the “lean rails” into a back-and-forth queue with photo stations set up at the back of the theater. Timekeeper himself was standing motionless at the front of the theater, with one of the red-and-white holiday CM scarves around his neck. A few holiday-themed patterns were projected onto the screens around the room. I took a photo of Timekeeper, but it came out very dark. Also, the line was insanely long (half the theater), so we bypassed it. Decided we should grab a light dinner now rather than later, so Max had his favorite MK food: a turkey leg. (He sold them while on the College Program, so it’s in his blood). He got that, but I decided I wanted a sandwich from Cosmic Ray’s. I stood in line while Max went and sat down and worked on the turkey leg. Upon leaving Cosmic Ray’s, we saw that people were wandering into Fantasyland, so we joined them and walked onto Pooh with absolutely no wait. Crossed Fantasyland and did the same thing with Peter Pan. Stopped to get our photo done at the entrance to Small World before riding it. One of the Christmas shows we wanted to see was the one in the Diamond Horseshoe, so we headed that way. It had already started when we got there, and was very crowded. Went up to the balcony and stood to watch the show. When a couple near us left early, we grabbed their chairs and sat for the rest of the show. It was a really good show and full of corny jokes. I think the only thing that detracted from it was that they kept the front doors to the Saloon open, and there was a musical trio performing right outside, followed by a marching band passing by as a pre-show to the parade. So at times it got a little distracting. Left the Saloon and cut over to Adventureland. Picked up free cocoa and cookies at the Adventureland Verandah and ate them on our way to Pirates. Pirates had a very short wait. We then went back to the Jungle Cruise. Jungle Cruise had NO line. In fact, the boat we got on had apparently been waiting there for quite a few minutes waiting for people with just the skipper and one couple on it. After us, about a dozen more people came, we were off. We had a really good skipper who was really into the jokes. In fact, he threw in one that I was amazed he actually said (amazed Max-the-former-CM, too). There was one very young kid on our boat, so it probably went over his head... Max and I thought he was just gonna set up the joke and not follow through, let the adults put it together themselves. The set-up as we approached a camp was that the skipper was friends with the local tribal people called the Fugowee. (pronounced Fug-Ow-Wee) When we got to the abandoned camp he called out “Hey! Where’re the Fugowee?!?” (Groan) The free cocoa was calling us again, so we got another cup and another cookie, and headed into the Treehouse. It was the first time I’d ever been up here at night, and it was very cool. There’s a very nice view of the Castle from the top-most level. I took a picture, but it didn’t come out. It was getting time for the fireworks, but Max wanted to get a photo of Cinderella’s carriage that was set up behind the castle. So we circled around there and then down to the Tomorrowland bridge. This is my favorite site for the MK fireworks (apart from the California Grill), just before the bridge, in front of the Mickey and Minnie topiary. As the music started, I heard a mother next to us tell her son that Tinker Bell was going to fly right above us at the start of the fireworks. Of course, I knew this wasn’t going to happen with the special Christmas edition, and when the kid started getting upset that he didn’t see Tinker Bell, I leaned over and whispered to the Mom that Tink wasn’t flying, but to wait a minute because she sent a special friend of hers... ;-) Sure enough, at the start to the Holiday finale Rudolph flew right over us. ? After the fireworks it was time to catch the Mickey’s Twas the Night Before Christmas show in the Tomorrowland Theater. On the way we noticed that Alien Encounter was open despite it not being listed as operating during the Party on the guide map. We also saw a crowd in the waiting area of Carousel of Progress, so we thought extra bonus... They opened Carousel for the party! We’ll head over there after the show. It was a funny show, and we loved the ballet-dancing Country Bears. ? Of course, we’d set ourselves up for disappointment... When we walked towards Carousel of Progress we realized that they hadn’t opened it up... They were using the waiting platform as a photo location! (Shame on us, especially as when I thought back about it, I’d seen them setting up equipment on the platform earlier in the day...) But we DID go over to Alien Encounter and did that. It was approaching time for the second parade. Max’s favorite viewing spot is by Sleepy Hollow in Liberty Square, so we made our way over there by way of the bridge behind the Christmas shop. (They’d already closed the bridge to Liberty Square from the Hub) The parade was as good as I remembered, and it was a first for Max. Didn’t notice any new floats as some people had mentioned from the taping of the parade for the Christmas Day broadcast. (As an aside, at the end of the parade I noticed that they’ve gotten a new rescue tractor for when a float breaks down... The new one looks more like a mini-Zamboni, as opposed to the older ones that looked like a small vintage Ford Pickup.) Another spin on the Haunted Mansion (we beat most of the parade crowd). Poked through the Christmas shop and then the shops along Main Street. Got the stuff out of our locker, turned in the key, and left the MK. Out to the bus stop to wait about 5 minutes for a bus. It filled up quickly, and we were off. Got back to Riverside, up to the room, and were quickly asleep. Tomorrow: Epcot, RADP Meet, MK for Spectromagic. Day 2: Saturday, December 14th, 2002 We awoke around 9:30 and got ready. Over to the Food Court we went for breakfast (the only time we ever really made it to the Food Court for breakfast, actually). On the way we passed a couple in full wedding attire on the island, walking in the opposite direction. My guess is that they were headed to the gazebo outside Magnolia Terrace for photos. At the food court, the pancakes were good, but it took a minute to find the syrup... The condiment area in the food court isn’t really laid out very well. Too many things are in too many different places. Then it was off to the bus stop. Saw the wedding couple again outside the front entrance to the lobby. Caught the bus to Epcot. At Epcot the bus dropped us off and we trooped over to the entrance. This is the one small gripe I have with the Epcot bus stops... The value and Moderate bus stops are do darn far away from the park entrance. I noticed where they had put new stops out around the perimeter of the handicapped lot. Not sure which hotels stop out there. The line through security was fairly quick. The line for Spaceship Earth was too long, so we bypassed it for now. The first thing to come to our mind was the newly revamped Journey Into Imagination with Figment ride, so we walked over there. Through the queue and a brief wait for the next train and we were on. I will say that the ride is now much improved over the most recent version, but still is nowhere near what it was originally. Some nice things in it, but it still seems too short and too cheesy in some places (like the upside-down house). And there seems to be a lot of “filler” space, like the whole room full of arrows... I liked how they made it look like you were veering off course when Figment comes in and suggests bringing you to his house. The special finale scene is really cute, but with the lights coming up so quickly, it’s obvious how the room effect was done, whereas before you couldn’t see it all moving. Off the ride and we poked through the Image Works for a couple minutes. Max bought something and had it sent back to the room, but I forget what it was. The next thing that came to our minds was to go check out how the construction was going on Mission: Space, so we retraced our steps and walked to the other side of Future World. Outside construction is almost all done, with just a low construction wall across the front of the courtyard area. It looks like it’ll be pretty cool when it’s done. From here we walked into the Wonders of Life pavilion and did Body Wars with no wait. Though I wanted to see Cranium Command, it was now approaching 1:00, which was the time the RADP meet was supposed to happen outside the International Gateway. So, we left WoL and started our walk over there. Upon arriving at the International Gateway, we saw that the usual meeting area in the large covered area where the trams used to pick up and drop off was roped off, with crews setting up tables and such for some function. The group was instead gathering over along the canal between the boat dock and the entrance. The Meet was a fun time. Got to re-connect with friends I hadn’t seen (and in some cases hadn’t even talked to) since last year’s Meet. Got our requisite photo taken by Randy, filled out our index cards, and picked up our goody bags from Bruce (aka Zazu). Then it was time for the Loin Inspector Board’s (LIB) meeting... I was dragged over to stand in the crowd by my friend Julie, and was amazed when my name was called to be presented with the first level of loin registration... (For those of you who have NO idea what I’m talking about, it’s too long of a story to go into on here, but I’m sure there’s a website somewhere that’ll explain it for you. A semi-informative site is www.gotloins.com) Now it all made sense thinking back to Alison’s (aka Paragon) comment online a few days before the trip when in response to me saying I was sick with a fever, that I’d better be there. I also accepted my friend Brian’s certificate for him, because he was unable to go on the trip this year. (As I’d said, he had gone with me every December for the past four years, so many people knew or at least had met him) Then it was time for the Scavenger Hunt Team Captain meeting (though it was open to anyone in the Hunt, not just the Team Captains, and I think most people were there). Jeff and Jen and Peter went over the rules for newcomers, and clarified some rule changes from previous years. Let me step aside for a moment and talk about the Scavenger Hunt. This would be the third year for the Hunt. It’s not unlike Mouseplanet’s MouseAdventurers that are held at Disneyland. In the WDW version, teams of up to four people are given a 3-ring binder full of questions. They then scour the Disney property for answers to tough trivia questions, each worth a certain number of points. The harder an answer is to get, or the longer it takes to get it, the more points it is worth. The catch is that all teams must stay together, at least within a particular location on-property. A location being a single park, or a single hotel. Once at the park or hotel, the members can split up to look for answers, but they have to regroup before going on to the next location. Also, teams are limited to Disney transportation only. No private cars, no taxis, nothing like that. Most questions deal with tiny details that the average visitor wouldn’t notice, or have no need to think about. Like “How many payphones are in the breezeway of Innoventions West” or “How many lights hang above the guest services desk at All-Star Music”. Things like that. The first year they also had us bring back a ton of physical items, too. Park maps in various languages, a cup from Ice Station Cool, an Iago feather.... ;-) The teams then have to be at the finish line at a certain time. Last year they spiced things up with mini challenges throughout the day. At set times throughout the day at various parks and hotels, you could send one teammate to compete against other teams for bonus points. But, some people (myself included) that this kinda detracted from the rest of the Hunt. Yes, the challenges were fun, but it structured the day too much if you tried to get to ALL of the challenges, and you always seemed to be rushing to get trivia questions in between the challenge times. This year, they admitted that last year’s Hunt was too difficult (I think one team just gave up midway through the day and just dropped out), and eliminated most of the challenges. Lastly, I am proud to say that my team has won the previous two years of the Hunt. Well, that’s partly correct. The first year we won. Last year, we called it a tie. Technically we lost by 11 points (and looking at how many possible points there were, this was amazing in itself), but the other team who had more points than us was late getting to the finish line. The first year, the rules stated that late teams would be penalized a percentage for each minute late. Last year, the rules just said they’d be penalized, but it never spelled out what it would be. So, while the judges discussed it, I (as team captain) and the other team’s (the Pixie Chicks and Chicos) captain agreed to just call it a tie, and split the 1st and second place prizes. (Second place being free entry into this year’s Hunt, and first being dinner at the restaurant of your choice, Victoria & Albert’s excluded. So, we each got half-price entry, and all had lunch together at the Plaza Restaurant). Now, back to our regularly scheduled Trip Report: So, we had the Hunt meeting. Jeff explained that there were fewer hotels on the Hunt this year. Also, “sister resorts” such as Yacht and Beach club, and the two parts of Port Orleans are now considered one location, where in the past they were treated as separate hotels, and thus the team had to stay within one of them, and then move to the next as a group, even if it was right next door. He also said that there would be a challenge in the middle of the day that although it wasn’t mandatory, it’s worth so many bonus points that you’d be stupid to not make it. ? Also, an easy challenge at the end of the Hunt, and he also hinted at a surprise at the very beginning of the Hunt, but refused to elaborate on it further. This year, the Hunt starts at 8:30AM outside the Studios, and ends at 8:30PM in the Tambu Lounge in the Polynesian, with the mid-day challenge being at 1PM in Epcot. With that, Jeff passed out the Hunt T-shirts to the teams (cost of which is partially covered by the entry fee), and the meeting broke up. A number of people were planning on going to Beaches & Cream for lunch, so Max and I joined them. I’ve heard about how good their burgers are, so I wanted to try them. Before we left the RADP Meet area, Max was able to get his Passporter signed by authors Jennifer Watson and Dave Marx (two of my teammates from the first year of the Scavenger Hunt). So, we then formed a parade over to the Beach Club to go to Beach & Cream. When we got there, we found a 20-30 minute wait, especially as we were a group of 11, so we got a pager and played in the arcade next-door. This worked out well, because a few of the members of our group had to run back into Epcot first and were going to catch up to us. We spent the time playing air hockey, and putting WAY too many quarters into this prize machine called “Whistle Stop”. For a quarter, you watch this column of prizes rotate around, and watch the LEDs along the edge. When they’re in line with the button, you press it, and the column slows down to a stop. If the line in front of a prize stops in line with the arrow, you win that prize. I think part of the reason we got addicted was partly because of the annoying voice that called out “Plllaaaaay Whistle Stop!” every time you put in a quarter, and also because Julie won a small prize the very first time she played it. ? So, we all had to try and show her that WE could win, too. (Needless to say, no one else from our group won anything, though I came VERY close almost every try) Pretty soon our whole group was there, and the pager went off. We were seated with 6 people in a booth, and 5 people at a table right next to it. (Max and I were at the table) The burgers were good, and as a group we all decided to tackle a Kitchen Sink. (A monstrous sundae with a ton of ice cream, toppings, and an entire can of whipped cream, all in a dish shaped like a sink). With 11 people we pretty much polished it off; much better than the attempts a couple other tables made while we were there... The other two tables only finished about half of theirs each. Settled the bill, and went outside. Once outside, the group pretty much broke up. Some went back to Epcot. Kevin, who was to be on our Scavenger Hunt team was staying at the Boardwalk and needed to go back to his room. A couple other people tagged along to see what a Boardwalk room was like. Max and I were headed to the Boardwalk, too, to stop in to see Jackie, Max’s friend. Jackie was to be our fourth teammate on the Hunt, but I had never met her. Max met Jackie while he was on the College Program, and they’ve kept in touch every since. She currently works for the DVC at the Boardwalk. When we couldn’t find a fourth person, we asked her, and she jumped at the chance. So, she was working today, and we decided to stop in and say hi. My friend Kenny from RADP came along with us, as our next destination was the Magic Kingdom to see the only running of Spectromagic while Max was here, and he’d planned to go there, too. The entrance to the Welcome Center was a little hard to find, as they’re rehabbing the outside of the Boardwalk building right above where the office is, so you have to follow a path in under the scaffolding, and even then we walked in through the wrong door (two doors that looked exactly the same, neither of them actually marked). We met Jackie, and chatted with her and a couple of her fellow CMs for a few minutes. They were all intrigued with the idea of the Hunt and wished they could participate. So, after a little while we left to go catch the bus to the Magic Kingdom. Before leaving, we made arrangements with Jackie about the morning. With the Hunt beginning at the Studios, she COULD park her car in the CM lot at the Boardwalk and just walk there, or even at the Studios themselves, but with the Hunt ending at the Polynesian, it would have been pretty round-about to get back there. So, we decided to have her drive to Port Orleans Riverside and meet us in the lobby at 7:45. This would give us plenty of time to take the bus over to the Studios. (The first year, the Hunt started at Animal Kingdom, and we waited almost a half-hour to get a bus from the All-Star Music... We were a couple minutes late.) So, with those plans settled, the three of us (me, Max and Kenny) were off. Out and around the Boardwalk to the lobby, and through to the bus stop. The Magic Kingdom bus was there within a few minutes. A few weeks before the trip, Disney had extended the hours of the Magic Kingdom tonight, and added a second running of Spectromagic: one at 7:00, another at 9:00 with fireworks in between. So, we filled our time up riding a few attractions, planning on seeing the second running of the parade. I don’t quite recall what order we did things, but I believe we started with the Haunted Mansion (with a minimal line) followed by the Christmas version of the Country Bear Jamboree. This was a fun show that I’ve seen before, but it was the first time for Max seeing this version. He liked it. From here we went around and did Pirates of the Caribbean, and cut back across the parade route to Big Thunder. We rode Big Thunder, and then out to the train station. I was worried that we were going to run into trouble with the train because of the parade, but we didn’t experience any problems. (I’ve gotten stuck midway between Main Street and Fronteirland once for about 5-10 minutes waiting for the afternoon parade to cross the tracks ahead of us). Rode the train around the Toontown Fair where we disembarked. We strolled through Fantasyland in search of a place to have a light snack/dinner (seeing as how we’d had lunch PLUS that huge Kitchen Sink), and agreed on Pinocchio’s Village Haus. Got myself a hot dog, as did Max. I can’t seem to recall what Kenny had. We sat inside and just ate and chatted about various things. While we were there, the fireworks went off outside. You could kind of hear the music from where we were sitting, and the explosions from the fireworks were LOUD, even inside! When they were all done, we exited outside, and slowly made our way to Liberty Square to claim spots for the second running of Spectromagic. Again, we made our way to the spot by Sleepy Hollow, next to the bridge. But unlike last night’s Christmas Parade, there were far less people here, and we had no problem getting (and keeping) a front-row spot. I don’t envy the crowd-control CMs their job of trying to direct people away from the closed-off bridge to the Hub. It seemed like there was a constant stream of guests coming up to the CM asking to get through, or asking how to get to a particular place, even with a Cast member calling out “Adventureland and Main Street to the right, Fantasyland and Tomorrowland to the left!” I bet their job is significantly easier, though, since they built the bridge behind the Christmas Shop... Now it’s easier to get to the front of the park from Liberty Square with the bridge closed off. The parade went just fine, Max really liked it. It was interesting to hear the announcements being played on Main Street and in the Hub, and then see the lights go out over there from afar. Of course, apart from the fact that it’s too narrow for the parade AND guest traffic, the other reason the Liberty Square bridge is closed off is so that the parades have a mid-course spot to stop and make repairs or other things if necessary. We saw an example of this, where the float with the metronome on the front stopped on the bridge, and a manager came over and unlatched something, and the entire side of the float swung open. I’m assuming this was the door into the compartment where the driver sits. But it was only open for a few moments, because it was soon closed, and the float continued on. After the parade, we didn’t have any interest in doing anything else in the Magic Kingdom that night, so we headed for the front exit, along with a bunch of other people. At the exit, we parted ways with Kenny, who I believe hopped on a monorail to head back to Epcot to retrieve his car. Max and I headed to the Port Orleans bus stop. Though there were many chances to do things tonight, like a meet at the Adventurer’s Club, we didn’t want to have a late night tonight because of getting up for the Hunt tomorrow, and the long day that would ensue. Back in the room, Max planned on heading to the hot tub for a little while, while I decided I needed something sweet for dessert. So, I headed over to the food court. Before getting food, I went into the General Store and bought a few postcards. Then I grabbed a slice of chocolate cake, and sat down and ate it while I wrote out the cards. I wanted to make sure to get them done and out of the way early on in the trip so that friends and family actually GOT them before I returned home. I didn’t finish all of the cake. I had to get a bag to put the rest in. Now that we’d been here for more than a whole day, I wanted to take a look around the resort, even if it was late in the evening. I found the mailbox in the lobby to drop off the postcards and went outside. I walked around to the water wheel. (Which, as I mentioned earlier, wasn’t turning. This was where I saw that the trough that feeds it water was being rebuilt). Walking up the path along the river towards Alligator Bayou, it was very peaceful and quiet. I wandered up and along the main path until I came to Building 27. Here, I went off the main path onto one of the smaller paths leading up between the buildings. Needless to say, I really liked the look of the Alligator Bayou section. Very woody and rustic. Though the buildings here are generally laid out and shaped like the ones at Caribbean Beach, the outsides look nothing like them, and I like it. I wish I’d had a map, because I would have liked to have seen what the quiet pools in this area looked like. But, I just wandered up and around a large swampy area of trees (where I heard a bullfrog croaking away just off the path and saw one of those cute bunnies hop across the walkway), until I came back to the main path by Building 38. Then, it was back down the path towards the Mansions. Along the way, I passed two chaperones from the cheerleaders group yelling at two cheerleaders for being out beyond curfew in someone else’s room. I passed on by, and down past our Magnolia Terrace building to the other mansions. Walked up and through and got a feeling for what they looked like (very pretty), and the crossed the river again on the footbridge over to the main lobby building. Back up river past the marina, and across the bridge to the Island. I cut through the main pool area to see whether Max was still at the hot tub, but only found it full of loud teenagers. One of them had gotten out of the hot tub and jumped in the pool. I crossed over to the other side of the pool, and was about to leave when I saw two security CMs arrive and yell at the guy in the pool to get out, because the pool was closed. (I didn’t see any lifeguards on duty there) The teen, while getting out said that the front desk had told him that the pool was open until midnight. Security replied “Well, they were wrong” I left at that point, walking up around the top of the island. But to the teen’s defense, even the sign at the pool displaying the pool rules said the pool was open until midnight, and it was easily quarter-of... Back around to the bridge, and I went over to our building. On the way up to the room, I swung past the quiet pool, and dipped my hand in to see how warm it was. It was pretty warm. (Of course, as I always forget at least one thing when packing for a trip, I’d discovered that my omission THIS year was a bathing suit... Oops) Got back to the room, and found the Max had indeed gone into the hot tub. He said he endured sitting there with 7 or 8 teenage girls (heh heh) for about 10-15 minutes, and had gotten back to the room only a few minute before. (I must have just missed him at the hot tub). Got ready for bed, and was in bed by 12:15. Tomorrow: The big RADP Scavenger Hunt! Day 3: Sunday, December 15th, 2002 Well, here it was at last... Scavenger Hunt day! Yes, my team has won (or tied) the previous two Hunts... So on one hand I had to try and uphold my title... On the other hand, I knew I’d be up against some stiff competition, especially from the Pixie Chicks, who reunited their team from the first year and were determined to unseat my team. In discussions over the past few weeks prior to the trip, Max and Kevin and I had tried to come up with a funny, cool name for our team, but when we all drew blanks, we fell back on the “Star Tourists”, which was our team name last year. (I noticed that someone in Mouseplanet’s MouseAdventures used that name this past year, too. Maybe just a coincidence, or maybe they were hoping the luck of the name would rub off? ;-) So, with a whopping 7 or so hours of sleep, we woke up, showered and got ready. I was ready first. As it was almost time to meet Jackie over in the lobby, I was sent ahead to meet her while Max finished getting ready. (Turned out he was only about 3 minutes behind me). I walked over to the lobby, and found Jackie waiting there. We stood around and waited for Max. We needed SOME kind of sustenance, but because I knew Jeff and Jenn were bringing Krispy Kremes with them to the starting line at the Studios, I only wanted to grab a drink. So, off to the food court to buy the largest orange juice I could find. So, with juice in-hand (well, in backpack) we went out and waited for a Studios bus. Who should we run into, but Theo, the one-woman Scavenger Hunt team waiting for a bus. This was her first Hunt, and she was doing it alone BY CHOICE. She’s a really nice person, and really, really funny to talk with. At first I thought she was insane for wanting to tackle the Hunt by herself (especially by choice), but it turned out she gave us a run for the money by day’s end. The bus came after only a couple minutes, we all hopped on and were off to the Studios, bright and early. Arriving there a few minutes early of the 8:30 start time, we found the Hunt crowd milling around between the bus stops and the boat dock, along the water’s edge. Grabbed a couple Krispy Kremes (Mmmm.... Donuts....), and waited for the last few stragglers to arrive. Once they did, Jeff stood up on a bench and welcomed everyone to the Third Annual RADP Scavenger Hunt. He went back over a few of the rules, and mentioned the 1PM mini-challenge in Epcot again for those who hadn’t made it to the previous day’s meeting after the Big Meet. It’s not mandatory, but it’s worth so many bonus points, you’d be stupid not to go. With that, he turned it over to his lovely wife Jenn, who stood up on the bench. Now, remember how they said there’d be a twist first thing in the morning? And how they alluded to it involving running? Well, Jenn got up there and said “Hi there! Here are the question sheets for Downtown Disney! The rest of your question packets can be picked up at the McDonald’s over there. Good luck!” WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!? OK, now this WAS a true zinger for us... In years past, they’d handed out the entire set of questions and answer sheets in a 3-ring binder at the start of the Hunt. And this had always been at the entrance to a park (or close to one, in the case of the TTC last year). Knowing where the Hunt was starting and where it was finishing, we’d already mapped out a general route we were going to take, dropping off side trips to various hotels where we didn’t have time. Now, they’re saying we HAVE to go to Downtown Disney first thing? Ouch! And here’s the kicker! Although the Studios are the only major park to still have direct bus service to Downtown Disney (who knows why), it doesn’t start until 3PM! That means the teams have to find another “legal” way of getting to Downtown Disney. So, they handed out the parts of the packets they DID have, which consisted of a page of rules, a page explaining the challenge at 1PM and that there would be a trivia challenge at the end of the Hunt against other teams, and three or four pages containing the Downtown Disney questions and a couple pages of answer sheets. All answers had to go on the answers sheets. You could do whatever you wanted to the question sheets (and in some cases at DD and some of the hotels, we simply ripped them in half to split up, but the answer sheets had to remain intact, and only those would be scored. As soon as all teams had their pieces of packets, they yelled “Go!” and the teams scattered. Most teams immediately headed for the pathway to the Boardwalk. Some were really booking it down there, too. We took a moment and decided that perhaps the best way would be to grab a bus to Port Orleans (it being the closest Disney resort to DD), and then hop on a DD bus from there. Well, we ran over there, and apparently Theo, the one-woman team, also had the same idea. She was standing there. We briefly toyed with the idea of going to the TTC, but a bus driver who was running that route refreshed our memory that there is no longer a bus that goes to Downtown Disney from the TTC. So, we waited another couple minutes for a Port Orleans bus. During this time, we started getting antsy, and eventually decided to follow the other teams down the pathway to the Boardwalk and get a bus from there. As we passed the other bus stops, we flagged down a bus that had just dropped off at the Old Key West stop only to find he wasn’t returning to OKW, and then toyed with the idea of hopping on one of the Hotel Plaza Blvd. buses, but decided that it was probably against the rules as they are not actual Disney buses and are not driven by Disney CMs (which was part of the rules on transportation. Disney transportation was defined as any vehicle driven by an on-duty Disney Cast Member.) So, off we went, jogging down the walkway to the Boardwalk. At the first chance, we cut across the lawn, through the parking lot to the bus stop. There was one team sitting there waiting for a bus, too. But oddly, all the other teams weren’t there. Max went over and asked the CM working the Bus-on-Demand system about the Downtown Disney bus, and was told it didn’t start running until 9AM. So, we decided to wait it out (it being a little after 8:45 then), and thought that perhaps other teams had run to the Swan/Dolphin stop (it being the first stop on the hotel loop), or found out the bus didn’t start until 9 and perhaps came up with a different idea. Turns out, that CM was wrong, and for those who ran down the path right away, they were met by a Downtown Disney-bound bus within minutes of arriving, and bused as one big group to DD. This would prove to be (I think) our only real error in judgment today. We should have headed right for the path with the others. Oh, well, can’t do anything about that now. So, we sat down and started planning our strategy for when we got to DD. Unlike the questions for the theme parks, which we were told would be separated out by lands in the park, the DD were all together. In reading through, half the questions were for the Marketplace, half were for Pleasure Island and the West Side. (Pleasure Island is open for pedestrians during the day, though only a few shops are actually open, so there weren’t any club questions) Max and Jackie would do the PI and West Side questions, while Kevin and I got the Marketplace ones. Max produced a pair of clippers on his Swiss Army knife, and cut apart the questions for us. I held onto the answer sheets in my backpack. (It was about this point I remembered that I had that orange juice in my backpack, so I took that out to drink. And thanks to the running down the walkway from the Studios, there was no need to shake it, either.) Just after 9AM, a bus to Downtown Disney pulled up and we climbed on. Thinking that the other teams must have gone to other Epcot Resort area bus stops and that we were on the first bus of the day, we thought we’d end up on the same bus. We weren’t... As I mentioned, the other teams that ran had gotten a bus right away. Turned out, one team claims they even beat the Hunt Organizers to McDonald’s, and they were driving by car from the Studios! (Hmmm.... more fuel for the car vs. Disney Transportation debate....) We decided that for making us do all this running and disrupting our carefully thought-out route plan, we’d get Jeff and Jenn and the others back in the only way we could think of... They’d have to stay at McDonald’s until all teams had picked up their packets, and we knew most teams would go right there to get them, so we decided to make them wait. We’d do ALL of the DD questions first, make them sit in McDonald’s for a while, and then go get the other questions. Well, it seemed like an evil plan at the time. Turned out they didn’t seem all that put-out by it. ;-) So, arriving at DD, we got off the bus, agreed to meet at McDonald’s at 9:50 or so, and Max and Jackie took off for the other end of Downtown Disney. I pretty much had the questions from the end by Rainforest Café and some World of Disney questions, Kevin had Once Upon a Toy and some other stores in that area, and we had a few questions each that were in the same stores. It was here that we learned that DD stores don’t open until 9:30AM! Ack! So, I poked around and got the few questions I could find on the outsides of the buildings, and waited around until 9:30. I saw Amy from the Pixie Chicks wander through talking to her teammates on their FRS radios (I tried to borrow a set of four from a friend, but couldn’t, we had to rely on the three cell phones we had). The shops opened, and ZOOM! I was off. It was a whirlwind tour through the various stores, discovering that the candy store recommends that cookies be heated in the microwave for 10 seconds, that the name of the talking tree inside the Rainforest Café store is Tracy Tree, and that in the scrap booking store, it was Mickey that Lora wrote a postcard to... (According to the CM in the store, who saw me writing the answer down, I was the only person so far that hadn’t had to ask for help finding that one) On my way to the meeting point at McDonald’s I swung through World of Disney to get a couple answers, including the not-as-easy to find picture of the Fab Four riding around in Benny the Cab... And through the Lego store to discover that the lion statue had recently been removed... (This is always a common theme on the Hunts. Because Disney is such a dynamic place, things are always changing and getting moved and refurbed and changed... Last year, almost every single automobile that’s parked around property for decoration was taken away for refurb... So no one could get those answers.) And then I got to Mickey-D’s and found the Hunt coordinators sitting in the dining area relaxing. I chewed them out for a minute about making us do all that running, until Kevin showed up a couple minutes later. We got the rest of the question packet, and inserted the Downtown Disney sheets and the rules we already had into it to keep it all together. Peter (aka Fudgie), in looking at our sheets as we put them in the binder, was surprised to see that I’d gotten the Benny the Cab one... He said he thought that would be a difficult one for people. And true, it WAS worth 20 points, one of the highest in Downtown Disney. Looking through the question packet, we found that the All-Star Resorts were not to be found, neither was Coronado Springs, Caribbean Beach (obviously, as it hadn’t reopened from rehab yet), Old Key West or Disney Institute (again, obviously, as it’s closed for construction). All of those had been in previous years’ Hunts. Kevin called Max on his cell phone, and found that they were just starting for McDonald’s from the West Side. We told them to forget it, and to meet us at the Pleasure Island bus stops. So, with that, Kevin and I bid farewell to Jeff, Jen, Peter and Rob, and headed for the bus stop. Once at the bus stop, we couldn’t quite agree on where to go next. I wanted to go to Animal Kingdom Lodge and then Animal Kingdom so that we could get those two far-removed locations out of the way. Others wanted to just get on the first resort bus that came along, especially as it seemed so many other teams were so far ahead of us. Turned out we both got what we wanted when the first bus to pull up was an Animal Kingdom Lodge one. ? So, it was clear across the property to the AKL. At the Lodge, we passed another team that was just leaving the Lodge and heading back to the buses. I had a bad feeling, with another team well ahead of us. This was one of only a couple times that we saw another team today. I think that shake-up in the morning of not doing a park first thing made many people re-think their plans, and thus every team seemed to trace out a different path, whereas the last two years, most teams followed the same general path from one park to the next and through the hotels. Into the Lodge we went. This was the first time I’d ever been to the Animal Kingdom Lodge. I was impressed, but not sure I’d want to stay there. I think the Wilderness Lodge is a bit more majestic and along my tastes. Max and Jackie were given questions to hunt down (no pun intended) in the pool and playground area and down by Boma (or is it Jiko?), while Kevin and I poked around the lobby and Arusha Rock. But Kevin and I actually ended up going out by the pool to try and find a few high-point value questions (some of which we never found). But the highest point question at the Lodge was 20 points for how many square miles is Pennsylvania... We couldn’t find it, though we had the feeling it was on a map somewhere, though how it fits into the African theme, we didn’t know. (Turns out, it’s on a map just off of the lobby area, and Pennsylvania is used as a reference point to show the size of an African country on the map. I believe I even LOOKED at that map, but I guess I didn’t notice the state on it. Oh, well.) Re-group, and move back out to the bus stops, with Kevin stopping briefly at the Bell Stand to use their “Mears hotline” phone to make a reservation to be picked up at the Boardwalk the next day (he was leaving). So, out to the buses we went to catch a ride to Animal Kingdom. Upon entering the gates, Jackie was put in charge of the Oasis and Discovery Island while Max and Kevin took Africa and Asia, but I’m not sure who did what. I was sent to Dinoland USA, which included a number of high-point questions. Luckily Camp Minnie-Mickey was left off the Hunt, as was Conservation Station. We arranged a meeting time out by the in-park entrance to Rainforest Café, and split up. Entering Dinoland, I got a couple answers right off the bat, and then looked through all the fake bulletin boards they have posted around that area. Got a few more answers. Then I headed over to the new Dinorama... This was the first time I’d see the area. I refused to go near it last year when it was only partially open. It was a bit of a shock to the system for me... One of the first questions involved a license plate number... The question gave a number, and wanted to know what state it was from. So, as I walked through the area, I kept my eyes peeled for license plates. I was halfway through Dinorama, when I realized that many of the signs bolted to the fences were painted-over license plates... (little signs that say “exit” or “Stroller parking”) So, I started to peer at every single one I could find, trying to make out what it used to say before it was painted. (they had a similar question two years ago over at Chester and Hester’s store...) There were even old plates all over Chester & Hester’s store! Eventually I gave up and moved on through the store, getting a few answers along the way. (Remember, “Do not deposit coin if bottles are not visible” ;-) Then it was onto Dinosaur. There was a bit of a line, and I didn’t have a Fastpass, nor did I have time to get one and wait (I should have checked out those times when I first entered Dinoland), so I hopped in the standby queue. In through the pre-show I went, trying to get answers and write down the answers in the darkness of the pre-show room. When we exited into the hallway, I held back so I could finish writing answers from the pre-show and that hallway. One of the Cast Members stationed there in the hallway to direct Guest traffic flow was curious as to what I was writing down. I briefly explained the Hunt to her, and she loved the idea of it, thought it was really cool. This was the first of a number of Cast Members today who were EXTREMELY helpful who went above and beyond to help out. This has been the case all three years. I’ve had a Cast Member walk with me all through an empty queue helping me look for answers. They LOVE the idea of the Hunt. So, we looked at the questions I had left for Dinosaur, and I had a pretty good idea of where they were located. Most were on the Time Rovers themselves, or on the unload platform. So, she brought me through a door to where you view your photos after the ride, and then down the stairs to the unload platform. There, she and another CM helped me get all the answers from there, and helped me make an educated guess on the one question from ON the ride that I didn’t have time to ride (again, no pun intended). Lastly, the CM (I REALLY wish I’d gotten her name) walked with me back up to the queue to help me get one more answer I’d missed the first time around. Apparently she was really knowledgeable about all of Dinoland, so she took a look at the other questions I had left and had missed. She didn’t really know any from Restaurantosaurus, but gave me tips on where to go inside the Fossil Dig Site for answers, and upon seeing the pesky license plate questions, she directed me to the flower planter at the entrance to Dinorama... So, with a VERY big thank you to her, I was off again. Swung through Restaurantosaurus for a few answers, then into the Dig Site. There was an 18 point question for while I had to go ALL the way into the playground, up OVER Oldengate Bridge to the other side where you can uncover the buried bones, and then all the way around to the far side of that side to get a name off a bulletin board. Then all the way back over to the exit. I followed that CMs tip and checked out the planter at the entrance to Dinorama. Sure enough, the name “Dinorama” was spelled out in flowers, edged with old license plates. But they were all overlapping, and pushed down in the dirt on their short sides, so that meant there were hundreds of them! So, I just started looking at all the visible ones, starting at one end. I was worried that it would be one of the difficult ones on the side or something, but it was just about dead-center in the planter. But the top and bottom were covered up, so the only clue as to when state it was you had to be creative and notice the green outline of the state of Florida in the center. Of course, I probably could have just guessed Florida, as 90% of the plates were FROM Florida, but it would have been just my luck to choose that, and they’re chosen one of the other random plates just because of that fact. ? At this point I was running a little late, so I jogged back around Discovery Island and through the Oasis, and met up with the rest of the team at the appointed meeting place by the entrance. We’d done pretty well, but I was a little worried because it was approaching 12:30, and all we’d gotten done was one park, one hotel, and Downtown Disney... I had a feeling we were well behind other teams in the property coverage area. Also, we had to be at the old Pasta Piazza restaurant in Innoventions West in Epcot for 1PM for the challenge against the other teams. We were cutting it close. We went out and stood in line for an Epcot bus for what seemed like forever. In reality, it was probably about 15 minutes. But with the drive to Epcot, it was just about 1:00 when we pulled up to the bus stop at the park. We sent our fastest runner ahead (I think that was Max) to tell the Hunt organizers we were there, and gave Max’s backpack to Kevin to carry through security. We then ran as best as we could to the meeting place around behind the old serving area of Pasta Piazza. (Little did we know how much running would be involved in just a few minutes) All the teams had showed up, and we were the last to arrive. When we got the rules packet that morning, we’d kinda skimmed over the explanation of the 1:00 challenge, so we weren’t 100% prepared for what awaited us. The gist of it was, each team was to be given a list of 6 items (actually it was 7, but two were located right together) to bring back. Teams started the challenge with 600 bonus points. For each minute that passed before finishing, they’d lose 10 points, down to 300 points. 30 minutes was the maximum amount of time you could take to complete the challenge. After that, no bonus points at all. But here comes the twist. Team members were to be tied together with short pieces of rope. But, they could “break” up to all three of those bonds by doing something icky. We were provided with three food items. The three items were: 2 pieces of dried fish from Japan (icky, icky, icky), 10 wasabi peas, and an 8 oz cup of Beverly from Ice Station Cool (those of you who have tried it, you know how horrible it is). So, if we, as a team, ate all of those items, we could all split up to get the items. It was at this point that Theo, being the one-person team, was given a head-start. She didn’t have any bonds to break. ? Honestly, I TRIED to eat a piece of the fish... I really did try. But I just gagged on it. It was so fishy tasting! Yuck! Kevin was the one who really came through for us. He ate 8 of the wasabi peas, washing each of them down with a bit of Beverly. He ate one piece of fish, and Max at the other piece and the other two peas. But by that point Kevin had finished the Beverly, so there was nothing to wash them down with (poor Max!). Luckily he was able to stop at a water fountain soon afterward. So, with the bonds “broken”, they handed out the list of items to retrieve, and yelled “Go”. The items were: 1) A Test Track FastPass; 2) A Tiger card from Universe of Energy; 3) a packet of hot sauce from Cantina de San Angel in Mexico; 4) a child’s menu from Le Cellier; 5) a mask from a Kidcot Funstop; and 6) a red fork and a purple knife. Kevin, who had just drank all that Beverly said “There is no WAY I’m running after that. I’ll get the fork and knife, YOU guys go get the rest.” (It was easy for him, he just had to walk around the corner to the Fountainview Café) So, Jackie headed across Future World to get the FastPass and Tiger card (the little promo card from the exit of UoE that talks about the Save The Tiger campaign), Max was sent to run to Mexico for the hot sauce, and I ran to Canada for the menu and to get one of the Kidcot masks... So, I bolted out the back door to Innoventions, and cut across the new brick walkway they’ve put in back there. At one point the walkway curved away from the direction I needed to go, so I ran across the grass. (It was only two steps, don’t worry ? ) Then along the pathway past the roses, around past the McDonald’s stand, and down the pathway to Le Cellier. One of the other teams had a kid on their team, so he’d been sent down the path ahead of me to get the menu. When I jogged up behind him, I asked the CM at the desk “Can I get one of those too? Thanks”, and I ran out. I passed the kid and his Mom at the front of the pavilion, as they walked around the front. I cut behind the one stand, and ran up the wheelchair ramp. (With how fast I ran over to Canada, I wasn’t going to kill myself on the stairs). I think that other team didn’t quite know where the funstation was located, but I knew it was up around at the top. Up there, I found the table had been moved inside the store. So in I went, (breathlessly) asked the CM sitting at the table if I could make out, grabbed one, and sat down at the low table. The list didn’t say it HAD to be decorated, but I didn’t want to take a chance. I took about a minute to sit down, catch my breath, and scribble a face on my mask. I even wrote “R.A.D.P.” across the forehead. Then I got up, said thanks, and jogged out the door. (Later on, my teammates joked that I should have saved time by stealing a couple of the markers and drawing on the mask as I ran back ;-) Back down the ramps, and I retraced my path to Innoventions, back up over the grass, and down that path and inside I went. Sprinting over to the table where Jackie and Kevin were standing, I practically slammed my items down on the table. Time: just over 7 minutes. Not bad if I do say do myself. About 30 seconds later Max comes jogging in with the hot sauce packet, and we complete our quest with a total time of 8 minutes (first place in the challenge). So, this nets us 520 bonus points. Woo hoo! As soon as we finished, we were allowed to leave. We didn’t have to wait around for the other teams to finish. So, still panting, we collected our things (the Kidcot mask went into my backpack with the mask poking out the top as a mascot for the rest of the day) and headed out. I REALLY needed a drink, so we went around to the Fountainview and I ordered up the largest lemonade they had. Someone else got something, and we went outside. It was at this point that I thanked the three others for eating those icky things at the beginning of the challenge, and I promised them that win or lose, first round of drinks that night was on me. We started towards the front entrance when we realized we’d meant to leave through the international Gateway. Yes, we were already in Epcot and hadn’t done the Epcot questions, but we needed to get the Studios and Magic Kingdom out of the way first, because they closed much earlier than Epcot, which was open well past the time the Hunt ended. So, we planned to come back later after Magic Kingdom. Our plan now was to head to the Studios, hitting the Epcot Resorts along the way. As we passed the far end of Ice Station Cool, we saw Kim from the Pixie Chicks walking in the door on her return from Mexico, so with the time we’d spent getting my lemonade and figuring out where we were going, we knew our biggest competition was at least 50 points behind us on the challenge... Over through Canada and United Kingdom we went, getting a couple easy questions from those pavilions as we walked, then out through the International Gateway, and over to the Yacht & Beach Clubs. As explained earlier, this year “sister resorts” like the Yacht & Beach could be done simultaneously, where in the past two years, they had to be done separately, with teams not allowed to be in both at the same time. (Stormalong Bay, the large pool in between the two hotels, was technically part of both hotels, but for the previous Hunts, whichever hotel your other teammates were in is which hotel it “belonged” to at that time. The same went for the shops in the middle, like Beaches & Cream. But, all that didn’t matter now. So, while Kevin and I walked on ahead with the Yacht Club questions, Max and Jackie turned into the Beach Club to get those. We planned on meeting in 20 minutes by the boat rental booth. The Beach and Cream and fitness room area of the resort was included with the Yacht Club questions, so these came pretty quickly as Kevin and I walked along the resort. One in the arcade was a little tricky, because the plaque on the wall was partially hidden by a tree. After getting a few answers in the lobby, we walked down to the Convention Center, only to find the Center totally closed for renovation. There were workers inside ripping up carpet. So, that barred us from getting those answers (though none of the other teams would be able to get them either). We were able to get one answer by looking through the window, but that was it. After a quick stop at the front desk to see if they knew any answers, we headed down to the quiet pool. There were quite a few questions from down here, though we found a utility cover that SHOULD have had the answer to one of our questions, but didn’t. (The question wanted to know where a company was based that made the water sprinkler valves, and you could see where the name SHOULD be, but it wasn’t there.) Out and around to the boat dock to meet up with Max and Jackie, and we were off to the Boardwalk. Got a couple answers on the boardwalk, and then stopped into the office where Jackie worked for the DVC. Of course they didn’t know any of the answers (well, they gave us one, but I later found outside that it was wrong), but it made for a nice rest from walking for a minute or two. Back outside, we split up. I was sent to the pool area while the others headed up to the lobby and Belle Vue Room. Found that apparently the main changing rooms by the pool were under renovation, so that kept me from getting one answer, got my other answers and sat down to wait. Though it was fairly cool out, there was a family playing in the pool. The two kids loved the fact that they could run up to the top of the slide, go right down it and then go around for another turn without waiting. After about five minutes the others showed up, and it was off to the Studios. Down the walkway to the Studios we went (it was like déjà vu... Weren’t we just here recently?) This was actually the third time Kevin had walked the length of the path today, as he’d walked down first thing this morning from the Boardwalk. Along the way, I happened to look down and I spotted a valve cover in the ground with the company name we’d been looking for over at the Yacht Club. My teammates thought I was insane when all of a sudden I yelled out “Sheboygan, Wisconsin!” (Hey, it was a 16-pointer! I was happy!) Upon arriving at the Studios, we came up with a game plan. There were quite a lot of questions, so we each took a couple areas. Max took the animation tour, and immediately headed off to do that and only that. I was assigned to the Echo Lake area and to Mickey Avenue, which was essentially all One Man’s Dream questions. Kevin and Jackie split up the rest, which were New York Street (I know Kevin took this), Sunset (Jackie) and Hollywood Boulevard (I think Jackie took that one). We agreed on a time to meet back at Crossroads of the World. As we hadn’t really thought about lunch with all the Hunting going on (plus, I’m sure Kevin and Max didn’t feel like eating much of anything after the Beverly, wasabi peas and fish), we added on 15 minutes to the time and each person would get something on their own. My Echo Lake questions were mostly on Star Tours, so I headed over that way first. I decided to stop into the Backlot Express for lunch, but after getting in line and having it not move at all for three minutes, I bailed out and decided to get something else. On to Star Tours. At the entrance to Star Tours, I met Extremely Helpful Cast Member of the Day #2. She was working the podium at the door into the building, and saw me stop and look up at the big bulletin board on the wall (I was looking for the dimensions of the “soundstage” that Star Tours occupies) She asked what I was doing, and I explained the concept of the hunt to her. Apparently she’d heard of the Hunt before, because she said “Don’t you guys normally work in groups?”:-) She looked at the questions, but she didn’t know any of the answers off the top of her head because she had only transferred to Star Tours a few months ago. I started into the line, but as soon as I got around that first corner, I saw that the standby line was backed up all the way out to the video wall. So, I only got one answer that way. But, even though I didn’t have a Fast Pass, she said to walk up the FastPass queue lane and take as much time as I needed. So, I walked up there, getting answers as I went. When I got to where the CM takes the FastPass tickets, I turned around and went back. (Didn’t want to try an explain why I was in the FastPass queue without a time slip). But it was OK, because I got all but a 4-point question that was up near the front of the line. When I got back to the podium, the CM asked how I did. I said I’d gotten everything I could without going on the ride. I was all set to leave and maybe check back later to see if the line had gone down (or get a FastPass for later), when a group with a wheelchair came up and she let them up the handicap ramp. She then said to me “Here. Just head right up this way, and when you get to the front, just say ‘party of 1’ and you’ll get right on.” Awesome! So, even though I wasn’t in a wheelchair or anything, she let me go right up there. At the other end, I came up behind the group with the wheelchair, and the CM didn’t question me at all as to why I was in the handicap line. (I’m thinking maybe this is how they do front-of-the-line passes, or just that the only way up there is to have the CM intervene at the entrance). I was sat in the front row center, which was great for getting answers, but after getting the first couple inside the cabin before it started, I put away the pen and just kept my eyes open and repeatedly chanted the answers in my head during the ride. (“Code 1 Communication.... Code 1 Communication....”) I didn’t want to try and write them down bucking around like that. So, immediately outside, I pulled out a pen and wrote them down. Outside, I headed towards One Mans Dream, but stopped into the Commissary for a second attempt at getting lunch. No lines, so I quickly got a burger and soda, enjoyed the chance to sit and unwind for a couple, and was off again. Over at One Man’s Dream, I was assaulted with tons and tons of trivia (both answers to Hunt questions and just plain old trivial information). I must have walked back and forth inside from front to back to front again 5 times. When the theater was letting in for the film a couple minutes after I got there, I should have ducked in there to see it and come back out afterward. But, I decided to wait for the next showing. Big mistake, because I ended up missing the second showing, too. And by that time I didn’t have time to wait around for a third try. Though I did ask the CM at the theater entrance if he knew any of the questions I had left. He knew a few of them that were from the film, and directed me on where to find others in the displays. I thanked him and went to get them and leave. On my way out, I passed Julie from the Pixie Chicks. She had just seen the film, and was coming back around to finish up the trivia questions. It was just getting to be the time when I should have been meeting the group up front, but I wanted to take another swing past the Echo Lake area to look for a few more answers that I didn’t have time to look for earlier. Hey, I’m the Team Captain, I can make these kind of decisions. ? Besides, I got a few big-number answers, and it wasn’t NEARLY as bad as last year, when a bad choice by me on time management by me had me stuck in the Animation Tour and made me 25 minutes late meeting back up with my teammates with no way to contact them to explain. So, I hurried down Hollywood Boulevard and arrived only a few minutes late. We regrouped and headed out. On our way out past the security tables, who should we come across, but the Hunt organizers coming into the park. We stopped and chatted for a minute, and complained that the 100-point answer had recently been removed from the Muppets area. But, we were in a hurry, so we headed on. Amazingly a TTC bus was waiting there for us (in fact, I seem to remember running to stop it before it drove off), so we were immediately off for the Magic Kingdom. At the TTC, we switched to a monorail and rode that over. (Completely forgot about stopping to see my “Walk Around the World” brick at the TTC. We practically walked right over it in our rush.) We arrived at the Magic Kingdom shortly before 5:00. Of course, because this was a Very Merry Christmas Party night, that meant the park would be closing at 6PM. So, we had just about an hour to cover the entire park. Luckily there were very few Fantasyland questions (only three, I believe). So whoever took the Toontown questions covered those. I was assigned to Fronteirland only, especially as it looked like I’d have to ride both Splash and Big Thunder with who knows how long of a line on each of them. I think Max took Main Street and Adventureland (though there were a ton of questions on Main Street, and he had to ride Pirates), Kevin took Tomorrowland, and Jackie went to Toontown and Fantasyland. Oddly enough, no Liberty Square questions this year. So, off I went to Fronteirland. First up, I rode Splash Mountain. Luckily there was no line, so I was able to walk right through the queue. Of course, once on the ride, it looked like they’d just replaced ALL of the prop burlap sacks along the ride path, because they looked brand new, and none had any writing on them. (I had to find out which were bigger, Flour or Salt. In the end I just guessed at the 50/50 possibility.) Luckily we missed the majority of the water splashes, so I and the hunt paperwork stayed dry. On my way past the entrance to the train station, I asked the CM conductor stationed there if she knew any of the answers. She said someone else had been looking for a couple of them (specifically a “Wanted” poster that I never did find) and she couldn’t find them. I asked if I could just go up on the platform and take a look, but she said I couldn’t do that but she’d run up and double check. (Helpful Cast Member of the Day #3) So, she ran up there but came back without any answers. I knew that you could see the saloon on Big Thunder from the train tracks, and that was the only question I had for Big Thunder, but she didn’t know. But she said if I couldn’t get it, to come back and she’d see if she could walk up the tracks to get the answer for me. (Cool! She rocks!) Turned out I didn’t need her help, as there was barely a line for Big Thunder, either. Got my answer (Gold Dust Saloon) and stopped into the Briar Patch. There was a 16-point question that referred to it, and I looked and looked, but couldn’t find it (“How much is a wash and dry in the Briar Patch?”). Even asked a couple CMs in the store, they didn’t know. So, with a few minutes left before our 6PM meeting time at the Partners statue in the Hub, I ran back to the Splash bathroom and gift shop area to double check that there wasn’t anything I missed. Got waylaid by a CM who was trying to help, but ended up just keeping me there while he asked his manager if he knew any answers (which he didn’t). On my way out past the front of the Briar Shop, what should I find? A decorative window WAY around the front side of the store with the answer I’d been looking for. Sheesh! Of course as I’m hustling through Fronteirland, the fireworks start. Oh, crap. I’d forgotten there were fireworks at closing. The Hub will be insanely packed, and we’d agreed to meet at the center of it! The bridge to the Hub was like a giant can of sardines. I found someone pushing a stroller, and followed them through the crowd. Met up with the group, and found that all of a sudden we had a tag-along. Kevin had run into Kenny Cottrell while getting his answers, and with no other plans, Kenny decided to come along as an impartial observer. (To those of you reading this who might start to protest: No, Kenny did not help us in the Hunt in any way, shape or form. Well, other than a couple silly “C’mon! Run, run, run! You can do it!” motivation kind of things. And anyone who knows Kenny, he’s not the kind of person who would help people cheat like that.) So, out to the monorail we went. Our original plan was to stop off at the Contemporary on our way to the TTC, but as it was after 6:00 and we still had all of Epcot to cover, we decided to bypass it and perhaps catch it and the other monorail hotels on the way back if we had time. It was also here that I REALLY started to worry about how we were doing against the Pixie Chicks. Apparently they had followed close behind us to the Magic Kingdom. But, Kevin had learned from them that the Magic Kingdom was their last park. They’d already done the others. So, I was thinking we were done for, because it was now 6:00, and they had two and a half hours to cover all the monorail resorts, and we still had to get to Epcot and back again. We waited at the TTC for all of two minutes for a train, and were quickly in Epcot. On the way there we worked on our gameplan. Questions were split up between Future World and World Showcase. There were a LOT of questions, and a lot of ground to cover. Future World had 57 questions, while World Showcase had 55. Kevin and I took Future World, while Max and Jackie hoofed it for World Showcase. After they left, I realized that we didn’t know the schedule for the shows at the American Adventure, so I was hoping one of them would be able to hit the timing right. Kenny, the observer, went along with Kevin, I believe. I took Future World West and the Spaceship Earth questions, while Kevin did Innoventions and Future World East. Most of his questions were in Innoventions and Cranium Command with a few outside Test Track. Mine dealt with Spaceship Earth, Living Seas and Imagination. First, I skipped Spaceship Earth, because I knew a couple answers off the top of my head, and the remaining ones were worth skipping if needed. Also, I knew that many of the Future World pavilions closed at 7PM. While Imagination was open until 9:30, Living Seas was not. So that was my first stop. Over to Imagination I went, relieved to see that my memory hadn’t been wrong, and that the whole pavilion was still open past 7. No line for the ride, and I was able to get a front-car front-row seat. Luckily I’d already ridden the new version of the ride. Otherwise, I may have had more trouble than I did. I missed a few of the bigger point questions, but knew where the answers were. I just missed them as we went by, or it happened too quickly. So, I went around for another go at it. When I got up to the load area the second time, I asked the CMs there about the questions I’d missed. Two of them knew right off the top of their heads one of them... The question was what college does the jacket hanging in front of the computer room represent. I saw the jacket the first time through, but couldn’t read the name, other than the large “M” on the chest. The CMs knew it was from Medfield, and explained the whole connection to the Disney movie “The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes”, which also explained the sign that said tennis shoes are not allowed in the computer room. But, I stumped them on the “What does QED equal?” question, so I still had to ride. Got that one, held my breath again in the skunk part, and re-checked my answers through the rest of the ride. Then it was outside and over to the meeting place by the front entrance. I ran out of time and didn’t get the chance to ride Spaceship Earth, but like I said, we already knew some of those answers, so it wasn’t a big deal. But, it was getting to be 8:00, and we were worried about getting to the finish line at the Polynesian on time. Looks like doing the other monorail resorts was out. Oh, well. Luckily a monorail came within a couple minutes, and we transferred to one waiting at the TTC. Inside we went, and we reached the finish point at the Tambu Lounge with 15 minutes to spare. Most, if not all, of the teams were already there and there was an excited hubbub of activity. The rest of my team was dead on their feet, so while they collapsed into chairs, I wanted to get a few Polynesian answers while we had time. But they didn’t want to move after sitting down. So, I gave them the rest of the question packet and they started going through it, organizing the paperwork, making sure all the answers had been transferred to the answer sheets, and taking stabs at any questions we didn’t get that they thought they might know. I circled the upper level of the lobby, then went downstairs and made another circle. Then it was down the hallway to the area by Captain Cook’s. If I had time, I would have gone out to the pool and beach area for more answers, but I was up against the clock. So, I hurried back upstairs, put my papers in with the rest of them, and we handed in the packet with a couple minutes to spare. True to my word, I bought the first round of drinks for my team. They all ordered something exotic (and expensive, I’m sure) ;-) while I think I stuck with something simple. After a couple minutes, and everyone had a chance to sit down, Jeff and Peter gathered everyone together and while Jen and Rob (the other two Hunt Organizers) stayed upstairs with everyone’s stuff marking up the sheets with correct answers and tabulating points, they led us downstairs to a sitting area down there. It was time for the trivia contest challenge. They handed out four pieces of paper to each team with “A,B,C,D” on them. They read off thirty multiple choice questions, the teams discussed it amongst themselves, and on cue each team held up their answers. Ten bonus points for each correct answer, and I think it was fifty points if you were the only team that got a question correct. My team got just about all of them correct. (Of course, we won’t mention Peter’s mix-up in dates for the opening of Disney World) After this finished, the organizers headed back upstairs, as did some people. Others hung around downstairs for a couple minutes chatting. Others wandered outside to catch the MVMCP fireworks that were to be at 9:15. (We caught a little of them from inside). I was hungry, so I headed down to Captain Cook’s, intending on getting something to go and bringing it back upstairs. But about five or six others from a couple other teams wandered down with me, and decided to stay down there to eat. So, I joined them. Besides, it was only about 10 minutes. Then it was back upstairs to await the results of the Hunt. A few drinks later, and they were ready. First off, Theo the one-woman team kicked everyone’s butts. She had the highest per-person score of anyone. So, if you’d taken her score and multiplied times four, she was way ahead of everyone else. Well, once again, the Star Tourists were victorious. After all was added up, including the final trivia challenge and the mid-day challenge, our final score was 4,594. The second place team was the Pixie Chicks. That was pretty much the moment everyone was waiting for, so we got our bundle of papers back (I now have three years’ worth of Hunt questions), and started to leave. Before we left, there was the matter of our first place prize to discuss with Jeff and Jen. First place prize was dinner (or lunch) at your choice of WDW restaurants (with Victoria & Albert’s being the one exception). But, we had a few problems... The big one being that Kevin had a noon flight the next day, and Mears had given him a crack-of-dawn pickup time. One thought was to have Jackie and Max and I have dinner Monday night, and then when Kevin came back for New Year’s in a few weeks, he could have his dinner then. But, we didn’t want to break up the team like that, and also Jeff, Jen and Peter’s schedule wouldn’t work out that way... And Max was leaving Tuesday as well. So, after a bit of discussion, we ended up just putting it off until next year. Yes, it’s an entire year to wait before being able to partake of our first place prize, but it was the only way. Besides, we knew we would be back again next year. Who knows? Maybe we’ll all end up down there sometime during the year and we can get together for dinner then. A few people were making transportation arrangements on how to get back to where they were going. Luckily, as in the past, the Hunt was held on a day when there was the MVMCP at the Magic Kingdom. So, that was an easy transfer point for the Disney transportation system. A large group of us all trooped out to the monorail station. At the Magic Kingdom, Kevin headed for the Boardwalk bus as we said goodbye, and Max, Jackie and I trooped down to the Riverside bus. (Jackie’s car was parked at Riverside this morning, remember reading that way back when?) A bus came within a couple minutes, and we were on our way home. Max and Jackie got off the bus at the South Depot outside the lobby, which is where her car was, and I stayed on the bus until the East Depot. Got back to the room, and pretty much collapsed onto the bed. (Well, I changed and took my contacts out, but that was about it.) Max got back, and we both fell into bed at who knows what time. (We were too tired to look, but my guess would be midnight or later). With all that had happened today, we’d definitely be sleeping in tomorrow morning. Tomorrow: Studios, Epcot to see Jackie sing in Candlelight Processional, PI. Day 4: Monday, December 16th, 2002 Whew! After a long day yesterday with the Scavenger Hunt, we slept in! We both kind of woke up around 11AM. This was Max’s last full day at Disney, so he had a few things he wanted to do before he left. Among them was do some shopping in Downtown Disney. So, we arranged to meet at the Studios at 2PM, and I left. Headed over to the food court for “breakfast”, but as they had stopped serving breakfast foods, I got a meatball sub and had an early lunch. After this, I went out front and caught a bus to the Studios. Heading up Hollywood Boulevard, the Streetmosphere actors were out performing as a group. They were singing Christmas carols. And who should I run into watching them, but Kenny Cottrell. So, we stood there and watched them finish their act. They finished by pulling guests out of the audience to bring their number up to 12, and they sang the Twelve Days of Christmas, but each person said what they really wanted for Christmas. Some of the guests were really funny. After the set was done, Kenny and I headed down Sunset Boulevard to Tower of Terror to try out even more of the new random programs. It was getting towards 2:00, so Kenny and I strolled back up Sunset to the meeting location in front of the BAH (Big-Ass Hat). Max arrived a few minutes later. As I was waiting, I realized there was a RADP Group Meet for the Great Movie Ride at 2:00, so we walked around the back of the Hat and found the group forming outside the Chinese Theater. After a few minutes of chatting about things, and those of us who had done the Hunt the day before moaning about how sore our feet were, we took a group pic and went inside. They were only running the Gangster side, so we had to wait for a cycle or two, and we took up the last couple rows of the first car. The GMR was just as I’d seen it last year. I know it’s due for a month long rehab soon, so I’ll have to check it out in June when I go again. After leaving, Max wanted to go down to Tower of Terror and Rock n Roller Coaster. So, it was back down Sunset for us. At first we were going to get FastPasses for RnRC, but when we got there, the Standby line was very short, so we hopped in that, and were inside in less than 5 minutes. Through the pre-show and out into the alley (it’s always fun watching the reactions of first-time riders as they exit the studio into the alley and see the limos take off into the tunnel), and we got a back-seat ride. I prefer the front, but am not all that choosy when it comes to this. From here, we went next-door to the Tower. Again, the line was very short, so no FastPass needed. (I love going in the off-season). The program we got was different from all the others I’d had, and I believe at this point for each of the four times I rode Tower, I got a different program each time. So, I got to ride all the new variations. (Yes, I do have my favorites) I wanted to try my hand at Who Wants To Be A Millionaire: Play It, so we headed over there. We’d just missed the beginning of a show, so we went to the backup plan of Max’s request for the Indiana Jones Stunt Show. Unfortunately, our timing was once again off, because there was a show running and it was over half done. So, it was back over to Millionaire to get in the standby line for the next show. After about a 10 minute wait in line, they let the standbys in. We were seated well up towards the top, on the side up behind where the host sits. The show started with no one in the Hot Seat, so they did a fastest fingers question. None of us were in the Top 10. The girl who did was around 20, and was British. She admitted she’d just guessed on the fastest fingers question. She was doing OK for the first few questions, but quickly used up her lifelines... The last one she used was the “Phone A Complete Stranger”. They called outside to Mickey Ave, and the CM out there grabbed a guest and handed them the phone. As soon as he came on and said his name was Adrian, the woman in front of us burst out laughing. Her kids asked her why she was laughing, and she said “That’s Uncle Adrian!” Apparently he was waiting outside for them to get out of the show. I don’t recall what the question was about, but I don’t think Adrian got it right. The person in the Hot Seat went with him, and got it wrong. So, they said goodbye to her. They went to the Top 10 board to find the next player. Unfortunately, I’d made a mistake on the question prior to that one trying to get the answer in quickly, and thus I knew I had no chance at all. The next contestant was another Brit! This time a man in his 30’s. He played well, but in the mid-level questions, he got a question that would be pretty easy for most Americans: Which of these U.S. States is in the Corn Belt. The correct answer was Indiana, I believe, but the contestant being British didn’t have the faintest clue. So, he went for Phone A Stranger. The phone rang, the CM outside handed it to a Guest, and it was Adrian again! I guess he must have either been sitting right next to the phone waiting, or the street was so deserted at that moment that the CM had no choice. Of course, the woman in front of us was in hysterics again. Well, Adrian got the answer correct, but the guy in the Hot Seat went against him and chose “Maine”, which of course was wrong. At that point, the alarm went that the game was over. None of us made it onto the Top 10 that time, either. Kenny needed to go, so we bid him goodbye. Max hadn’t had a chance to see One Man’s Dream, and the Disney buff that he is, he HAD to see it. I’d seen about every iota of information there was in the attraction yesterday during the Hunt, but still wanted to see the film which I’d missed. So in we went. It’s still interesting to look at all the detail on the scale models. The film was good, too. From here we crossed over to MuppetVision3D. As we were entering the building, we could hear the lighting ceremony going on over at the Osborne Lights. That would be our next stop, and seeing MuppetVision now would allow at least some of the throng to thin out into the lights before we went. Entering the building, we’d timed it just right so that we entered the pre-show area just as it was starting. I miss the scrolling LED message board from the front of the pre-show room. It always had funny messages running past. Pre-show and main show were still funny. This is another show where you notice something new every time you see it. From here, we wandered around the back to the beginning of the Osborne Lights. I’d seen them before, but this was Max’s first time. He thought they were great. It was a bit more crowded than when I usually see them. Most times I catch Fantasmic, wait for the Fantasmic crowd to leave the theater, and then wander over to the Lights. By that time, most of the crowd has gone through, and you can wander in leisurely. But we didn’t have the chance to do that, because we had to get over to Epcot to catch the last Candlelight Processional of the night. Jackie was singing in it as part of the CM chorus. It had grown cold, and Max wanted to return to the room to get a jacket and long pants. I already had those with me in my backpack, so we split up. I headed for Epcot via the boat, and Max took a bus back to the room with arrangements to meet in front of the American Adventure at 7:50. (I believe the CP was at 8:15) Luckily, we made it out of the park ahead of the Fantasmic crowd. I didn’t want to wait forever for a boat, nor walk all the way to Epcot. I’d done enough walking the day before. (Including one round trip on that walkway to the Boardwalk) I waited less than 5 minutes, and was able to get on the first boat that came. Rather than get off at one of the earlier stops, I rode the boat all the way to Epcot. I was hungry, and although I hadn’t discussed dinner arrangements with Max, I stopped in Japan to get dinner at Yakitori House. This was one of the places I had on my list to try. I got the Shogun meal. It was OK. The chicken was good, but the beef was a little on the blah side. They also need to see about expanding the indoor seating here. It was quite cool out, and there were very few tables inside compared to other quick serve places in the park. I arrived at the meeting place in front of the American Adventure a little early, and sat down and waited for Max. He soon arrived, and we went over and got in the now short line for General Seating. We were seated all the way on the left side of the audience, a few rows from the back. We could hear just fine. Our view was blocked slightly by some branches, but we could see most of the stage. It was also pretty darn cold, and being on the edge of the audience, there was nothing to block the wind that was blowing on us. Us behind-the-scenes tech people were kept entertained by the Illuminations crew testing and aiming the lasers for their show. The Processional started and the chorus filed in. It was really good. I’m glad that I saw it, but not sure I’d make a huge effort to see it again. Maybe watch some of it in passing standing at the back, but not wait to see the entire thing. Halfway through the show, there was a slight commotion on-stage, and a couple people in the chorus robes came out to the corner of the stage and spoke with someone in the chorus. Then a couple paramedics came out and helped someone offstage. I’ve heard that members of the chorus passing out on-stage because of the lights wasn’t an uncommon occurrence. The girl involved was wheeled up the side aisle of the theater right past us a minute or two later. They didn’t seem in too big of a rush, so I’m sure it wasn’t a life-threatening problem. (I found out later that this is what happens when the high schoolers in the chorus don’t eat the free food and drinks backstage between shows) At the Hallelujah Chorus, as we all stood, Max spotted Jackie in the chorus. We hadn’t been trying to find her, because the chorus was so big. But there she was, second row, in the center section, two people from the end on our side. We confirmed it with Max’s pair of binoculars. As the chorus was filing out after the show, Jackie passed us. We called to her, and confirmed our arrangements on where to meet for Illuminations. She just had to go backstage and turn in her robe. So, Max and I headed for Norway to my favorite spot for Illuminations. On the way, Max wanted some bratwurst and a beer from Germany. We started waiting, but there was a hold-up of some sort. While Max waited, I went on ahead to the meeting spot in case Jackie beat us there. She arrived just after I did. Max, of course, didn’t get there until the last possible moment, just as the opening announcement for the show started. I can’t say how much I love Reflections of Earth. I could see that every day and still not get bored of it. I love the music, the fire, the fireworks.... Everything about it. I am sad that they’ve replaced the really high-shooting perimeter shots at the very end with lower sparkly ones. Oh well. Can’t have everything. From here, we wanted to go to Pleasure Island, as it was Max’s last night. Jackie was originally going to join us, but I don’t believe she did. (Honestly, I can’t remember if she was with us or not). We went out to the front of the park and caught a bus to Port Orleans. We got off at the French Quarter, and waited for a Downtown Disney bus to take us to Pleasure Island. In we went, and straight to the Adventurer’s Club. We stayed through the rest of the evening, and left after the last Library show. We got back to the room a little after 1AM, and fell into bed. Unfortunately, tomorrow is a sad day... Max has to leave for home leaving me all alone, and I have to switch over to the All-Star Music resort. Tomorrow: Max leaves, I switch resorts, Epcot, Studios and Pleasure Island (of course). Day 5: Tuesday, December 17th, 2002 We couldn’t sleep in TOO late this morning, as we had to check out at 11. As I mentioned before, this was the day that Max was leaving. Because it would now be just me, I was switching to the All-Star Music resort to save money. I really like Riverside, and definitely want to stay there again. Though it was a bit of a “downgrade” to go from Riverside to Music, I didn’t mind it at all. This would be my fourth stay at Music, and it’s just fine for me...especially with the $49 a night rate I got with my AP. ;-) Though Max had an evening flight and Mears wasn’t coming until mid-afternoon for him, he’d asked me if I wouldn’t mind doing stuff individually today. He was planning on meeting Jackie at the Magic Kingdom, and wanted to have some time with just her so that they could actually get caught up on things that wouldn’t have been of any interest to me. He also wanted to get that haircut at the Main Street Barber Shop that he missed out on the other day. He was out of the room first. It was easy for him, because he could just stuff all of his clothes into his bag without having to worry. I still had half a trip left, and needed to make sure to keep my clean clothes neat and un-wrinkled, and not to get the dirty mixed in with the clean. Add in the souvenirs I’d bought already, and figuring out what I did and didn’t want to lug around in my backpack all day, and it was quite a challenge. So it was just about 11:00 by the time I’d showered and fully packed. Max had already left and brought his suitcase to the lobby himself. They were going to store it until Mears came later in the afternoon. I called Bell Services and they sent someone up to get my suitcase. After ensuring that my suitcase was marked for transfer to Music, I sadly left the room for the last time. Over to the Food Court I went for another breakfast-that’s-really-lunch. Ate quickly, and headed out to the buses. The Epcot one came after about 10 minutes, probably just about the longest wait for a bus all trip. Entered the park easily, with the Security CM commenting on the Mickey-ear Santa hat in my backpack (“There’s someone who’s playing Santa tonight...”) Of course, only reason it was in the backpack was because there wasn’t room in my suitcase to keep it from getting crushed. Spaceship Earth was up first with no line. So in I went. Though it still clunks along the track, I’ve always liked Spaceship Earth. I hope they don’t kill it with this “Time Chasers” rumor that’s been going around. From here, I went over to Universe of Energy. I knew my friend Julie (from the rival Hunt team “The Pixie Chicks”) was working at UoE, and thought I’d drop in and see if I could say hi. She wasn’t outside, so I hoped she wasn’t working Theater 2, where you can’t see the CMs sitting at the control desk in the dark. I don’t know why, but I always seem to time it so that I see the entire pre-show at Energy. I’ve NEVER walked in on an already-started pre-show here. When we walked into Theater 1 I still didn’t see Julie. I took a seat towards the front right. The front center tram car was missing, and there were ropes stretched between the railings, blocking access to the big open area where the car should have been. Then Julie appeared and started coiling up the ropes. I said hi to her, but she didn’t have time to chat, as she had to finish what she was doing before the show started. She made a big show of carefully stepping over the bare metal parts of the floor where the tires of the cars roll, but admitted later on in the week that it was just for show for the guests... You can’t get electrocuted or anything by stepping on those metal sections. So it was then off for our jaunt back to the beginning of the universe with Ellen and Bill. Still a nice ride. From here I went over to Test Track and hopped in the Singles Line. I was on the ride in about 5 minutes including the pre-show. (Isn’t the Singles Line great?) I then went over to The Land, but wandered through Mouse Gear on the way over. Was tempted to buy a few things, but was able to resist the temptation. At the Land, I grabbed a snack in the food court, and sat while keeping an eye on the standby line for Living with the Land. When I got in it, it said 15 minutes, but I was on a boat in about 5. I’d finished everything I wanted to do in Future World, so I headed out the exit and caught a bus to the All-Star Music to go check-in. When I got there, there was NO line for check-in. I waited about a minute and a half for a CM to finish with a Guest and I was called. She checked me in very efficiently. Because of me getting sick before the trip, I hadn’t had the chance to fax in my room requests before I left. So, I asked her if there was the possibility of a non-smoking room in one of the Jazz buildings. I didn’t ask her where I had originally been assigned. I also didn’t bother asking for a first-floor room like I usually do. She said that non-smoking would be no problem, but that she’d check to see what was available. I told her that it didn’t HAVE to be Jazz. Pretty much any building other than the miles-away-from-everything Country and I’d be fine. But I needn’t have worried. She found me a third floor room in Jazz Building #9, Room 9648. So with some resort info and my room key, I was off. I stopped by the Bell Services desk, and the guy there said that the luggage hadn’t come from Port Orleans yet, but that they would bring it up when it did. So, out back I went to find my room. This was my fourth time staying at Music, so I knew the layout already, but it was the first time I had a room that wasn’t on the first floor. So down to Building 9, up to the third floor, I found Room 9648. It was a nice location. On the back side of the building away from the central walkway, only the fourth room down from the center where the elevators are. I was facing the parking lot, but there was a large grove of trees between the building and the lot, so I was fine. I got as settled in the room as I could with just the backpack (which consisted pretty much of me just unpacking all the stuff I’d been lugging around all day and didn’t want or need to any more). I hadn’t been there more than a few minutes when there was a knock at the door. It was a Bell Services CM with my suitcase. I guess the guy at the desk was wrong about the Port Orleans luggage not being there yet, or it just arrived after I left there. I gave her a nice tip for bringing it so quickly, unpacked a few things, and got ready to head back out. It was here that I realized I’d forgotten to bring any of my All-Star Music refillable mugs with me on the trip... And I have at least two! And I couldn’t justify buying another for only a couple days. Oh, well. I left the room and walked back to Melody Hall to catch a bus to the Studios. At the Studios, I thought I’d try my hand at Millionaire once again. I thought it would be funny if I made the Hot Seat and had absolutely NOONE in the audience I knew. Well, I was one of the last people from the Standby line let in, and I was in the last row of the small center section. I didn’t get the fastest fingers seat, but I WAS #3 on the board the first time they went to check the scores... But I got a question wrong around the 16,000 mark (the guy in the hotseat got the 32,000 question wrong), so I disappeared from the leaders board. Oh, well. Time for a few more thrills, so I went down Sunset, picked up a FastPass for RnRC and went to the Tower. While in line in the boiler room, three college-age guys were waiting for the same car. They seemed kind of exciting and one of them nervous as we stood there. I asked the guy next to me if he’d been on it before. He said yes. I asked if it was recently, and he replied they rode it a few months ago. I told him about the new random programs they’d just installed. As we entered the elevator, he asked the CM loading us if they’d changed the ride. All the CM did was smile devilishly and say “Perhaps....” Of course, it was just my luck that we got the program that was pretty much the same as the previous version of the drop sequence... As we got off, the guy next to me said “So what was different.” I sheepishly admitted that we’d randomly gotten the old program, but if they re-rode it, it would probably (hopefully) be different. I followed them out, but they went on out to Sunset Boulevard and didn’t go back in to ride it again. Oh well. I guess he just thought I was crazy, at least until he eventually DID ride it again (or read about the randomizer). I left the theater just as the Steamboat was rounding the island, in order to beat the crowd. On the way down the path, the CMs directed us to the side path that led down to the right to the gate by the Tower of Terror exit. Of course when we got there the big gate was still closed, so we had to go around the smaller exit around the side of the gate. I hoped that someone would open it before they directed the entire audience down that pathway, or else they’d have a major jam up... I could have ridden Tower again as it was still open, but I was hungry. I had hoped to get food inside the Fantasmic theater, but they stop selling when the show starts. So, I grabbed a burger and fries at Rosie’s and sat and watched the crowds go past exiting from Fantasmic. Most of them were probably on their way to the back of the park for the Lights. I really wanted to see IllumiNations again, so I wandered out through the shops, and got in the long line for the bus to Epcot. I first checked the line for the boat, but with a huge line at the boat dock with no boats in sight, I chose the bus. The first bus came, filled up and left. I was able to get onto the second one, but I still waited about 15 minutes. Entering Epcot from the front and wanting to go to World Showcase, I beelined it through Future World. But I stopped just past the fountain to watch the fountain and the Lights of Winter dance to the music. While I was sitting on a wall, I observed the only true example of a stupid Guest ignoring signs and doing what they wanted... This guy hopped over a locked gate marked “Cast Members Only” in the fence around the fountain, and climbed the stairs up to the stage that’s there. He then proceeded to walk to center stage just so he could take a few pictures of the Lights of Winter arches... Not a CM in sight. He then came back down and hopped over the fence again. Of course I would have LOVED to have seen him catch his foot on the fence as he jumped over and fall flat on his face. I would have been the first to go up to a CM and tell them what I saw if he tried to blame Disney for it... But alas, he made it over just fine, and they walked off. After about 10 minutes of watching the fountain from a few different places, I wandered into World Showcase and around on the Canada side. My mission was to go to the American Adventure and see if I could catch the last show of the night. When I got there, I had apparently just missed a previous show, and the next show wouldn’t allow me to get out in time to get to my favorite spot for IllumiNations. So, I bypassed it for the time being. I did notice though, that the main lobby of the pavilion had been closed off for some function, and Guests waiting for the next show were waiting on one half of the exit ramp from the AA theater. I’d passed the funnel cake stand on my way to AA, and now that I had time to spare, I couldn’t resist the temptation. I got one, and then wandered along the promenade. At first I tried to eat it while I walked, but I just made a mess. So I sat down in Germany and ate it while I people-watched. Around 9:00 I made my way over to my viewing spot between Norway and Mexico, and staked my space to wait. On my way I noticed that when they light the torches at 9:00, they go in sequence around the lagoon starting in Mexico. Just one of those little details that a theater tech geek like myself would notice. The show went off without a hitch, though a family near me was told to get down from on top of the drinks vending cart they were standing on. I then found a bench to sit on in Norway and waited out he crowd. My goal was to walk around World Showcase as slowly as I could, and hang out near the International Gateway and wait for the “blowoff” that has been mentioned online a few times. This is where the technicians vent all of the excess propane gas out of the pipes on the inferno barge and light it in one giant burst of flame. Of course the amount of flame depends on how much gas is left in the pipes each night. So, while I listened to them play the old version of Tapestry, I sat and people watched. Eventually I got up and slowly wandered my way along. The music ended and the torches went out, and then the area music came back softly. By the time I got to Italy there was just about no one else left. The occasional CM who was getting off of work and was walking back to Costuming through the park rather than backstage, or a custodial CM sweeping, but that was it. It was about 10:30 by the time I made it over to the bridges by France. There were a few CMs there finishing breaking down things from a dessert buffet on the island between the bridges, and I asked them about it. One of the ladies was able to confirm that yes, they do it most nights. So, I kinda hung out there on the bridge and watched the technicians out on the water removing the various fireworks barges. A CM on one of those Segways drove past us. Eventually a security CM came along and asked if he could help me. I explained what I was waiting for and made sure to mention that I would be exiting out to the Beach Club right afterward, and he said that was fine. He went over near the top of the path down to the International Gateway, and chatted with a few CMs that were there. About four other guests showed up, too, and stood there waiting for the same thing. Of course, we were waiting there quite a while. All of the Friendships came in from their routes on Crescent Lake servicing those hotels, and made their way around the perimeter of the lagoon, giving the technicians working in the center a wide berth. They then stopped on the other side in a line and waited. When all of the fireworks barges other than the Inferno barge had been put away, they pulled past the bridge by China and then one by one they backed down the canal. (At least that’s what it looked like from my side of the lagoon... It was dark, and the view was partially obstructed by an island.) When they were all gone, a lone boat sped out to the Inferno Barge and two people got off. Another small craft came over to the tall torch near us and docked to it. He radioed to someone, and a moment later just this torch by us flamed up. It may have had something to do with the whole “blowoff” thing, or it may not. I had noticed that it looked like one of the torches hadn’t re-lit during the finale of Reflections... Perhaps they were just testing it. Meanwhile, the two guys had left the Inferno barge and sped off across the lake. A minute later there was a loud hiss and an awesome “SHHHFWOOM!!!!” of flame from the barge, as big or bigger than any of the bursts during the show itself. You could definitely feel the heat, and without the music or the sound of the crowds, it was VERY loud. This was followed by a couple smaller puffs of flame, and then it w |