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Larry Wilmot -- July/August 2003 -- Walt Disney World (ASMoR, Offsite)Larry has written six previous trip reports: July 1999 Larry Live and Loud.Tuesday 29th July 2003 Posse
Hi Mouseplanet readers, This is my Trip Report from my summer visit to WDW. The first of hopefully 3 during a 12 month period. I did write a very funny, wet your pants funny, kinda introduction before I went, but I’ve lost it so you will just have to take my word for it. Or search on Google, which of course I could do, but why spoil all the fun……. The main difference between this and the others on Mouseplanet is, this was was live. I hope you enjoy it. Cheers Larry. Well today started late last night, we had to go to bed early the plan being to enter the world of dreams at around 9pm,as we had to get up at 4:30am today. There is a problem with most of my plans however, they always seem great on paper, but in practice they are not that practical. For a start with this cunning plan, I don’t know how to go to sleep at 9pm. I know how to go to sleep at 1am in the morning and if absolutely pushed at midnight. And I certainly know how to go to sleep at 2 o’clock in the afternoon, but 9pm is when I am raring to go….. So actually I decided not to bother going to bed until around midnight. Then of course, I couldn’t get to sleep. Well I would have been able to go to sleep if Jill hadn’t been elected today’s president of the Wide Awake Club. There is an advert that ran during the winter where these two little kids are too excited to go to sleep because they are going to Walt Disney World. Then we see a shot of their parents and they are wide awake on their bed in the early hours of the morning dressed in all their finest park outfits clutching Mickey’s and Minnie’s. Well we were just like that, so I decided I needed some sleep so I kicked Jill out of the bedroom and she went to watch the Vicar of Dibley on TV, and I never saw her again until I got up at 4am……. Well we were packed and out of the house at 5am, and at Inverness Airport by 6am. We were flying British Airways, famous for being on strike last week. We were not a little concerned that talks between the management and the unions held yesterday might break down, but I type this at Gatwick Airport as you read, so you can see that we made it here. (Remember this is my first Live Report……. Somewhere deep in the underbrush of Gatwick Duty Free Land, I am striving to bring you all the up to date exciting news. If there isn’t any, I intend to make it up.) One of the things I did notice about Gatwick is that they have a clever system to make you think that the baggage retrieval system is really fast what they do is they signpost a route from the aircraft to the baggage carousal that is so long that it takes you twice as long as the luggage does. I’m sure that the queuing area at Dueling Dragons, at Islands of Adventure which must be the longest queue (line!!) in the western world, was designed by Gatwick Planners. Check in at North West Airlines was a bit nerve racking because she wasn’t sure that Greg could travel on Jill’s passport, but she came back after ten minutes to say that it was OK. The ten minutes we spent thinking that the next two days worth of this trip report might be typed in the Queue (Line!!) at Petty France Passport Office. Going through the Gatwick Security Jill was body searched even though she had not set the metal detector off, I thought that it was because she was looking like a dodgy character, but Jill reckoned that it was because the female security guard fancied her, being the gallant gentleman that you all know me to be, I replied “well I fancy you - so why shouldn’t she.” He who mocks, gets mocked right back, when we were checking into the next leg of the flight to Orlando, I get singled out for the most thorough search I have ever experienced. There were two problems one was the coins in my pocket which I forgot to take out and the other one was the metal buttons on my jeans. Jill was wetting herself laughing at my being told to let the guy peer down that part of my clothing. “Hey are you pleased to see me or is that a shotgun in your pants?” We were in a very slow line to get through immigration but that was because the guy was really nice and friendly and was chatting to everyone for ages. I am really impressed with Detroit Airport, it looks so classy, it even has a train to take you from departure gate to departure gate inside the airport. I have never seen such a posh clean place. It’s a cool airport shame it adds about 5 hours to our journey. And by the time we had flown to Orlando we were really regretting it, we found one of the cases had been severely dinted by North West baggage guys so we had to try to sort that out, then we managed to hire a car, we were too tired to be able to even choose a car in the intermediate line. Then driving to the All Stars was an ethereal experience, I’m not sure it was me actually driving it felt more like an out of body experience where I was watching some stranger drive the car in my body, mind you it didn’t stop me trying to change gear with my left hand on the door handle and try to depress the non existent clutch with my left leg. When we got to the Music check in desk it was almost 2am and the place was deserted. We were very disappointed to find that we were placed in just about the furthest place we could possibly be, that will teach me to boast about my great ability to ring up the room controller and always get a room that I want. My first failure. Do you think Disney will reimburse my transatlantic phone call. Well it is the home of dreams. Larry Almost Live and Loud Day Two. Wednesday 30th July 2003. Posse
After yesterday’s 26 hour marathon we didn’t half sleep well. We all woke up at around the same time 9am which is the latest that we have ever got up on the first day of a WDW trip. Before I went for my ablutions and whist the others were partaking of the excellent All Star Music’s plumbing facilities I tried to email yesterday’s trip report but with no joy. Kept getting a busy signal on the Kissemee numbers I had. I vowed to continue doing the TRs live even if I have to send them from Good Old Blighty. Those of you with more intact memories will recall that at the end of yesterday’s exciting account we were placed in the room closest to the outer Orlando Swamp, nowhere close to civilisation. I had hoped it was a dream but no we are still on the edge of the known world. So to make sure that we got what we needed to be done admin wise today, I decided to drive to Melody Hall. The rest of the gang decided to walk. I did wonder if it would constitute an opportunity to raise funds for a favourite charity in the form of a sponsored walk, it being at least several hundred miles from the far reaches of Country Fayre, to the Hotel Lobby, but in 2 shakes of Larry the Lambs tail we were there. We needed to get charging on our door keys and we needed to fill our re-fillable mugs. These now cost 12 bucks each, quite a rise in the past five years. Of course we bought four new ones to use for our current trip. (GRIN ? ) After a refreshing cup of Hot Chock we popped into to the shop to buy a Pal Mickey…. For me of course. He is mine, he is not the boys, though I think Ed is quite pleased I got one. At first I fastened him to my belt with a supplied clip, but I kept putting him to my ear in noisy places to hear him so I was worried I might loose him if he wasn’t fastened to me at all times, so then after discussing it with him. (Let’s get this quite clear, he is a real person. He must be treated as such at all times, when in shows he must be sat with a good view. He must also be apologised to when he has to be left in the boot (trunk) of my car. I always apologise to anyone I lock in the trunk of my car, I’m sure you do too! Anyway, I then decided to keep him attached to me, (And you do get attached to Pal Mickey.) by clipping him on to the end of my “Who Wants to be a Millionaire – Hot Seat Contestant” Lanyard. So now I can raise him to my ear when he wants a chat safe in the knowledge that he can look around and see everything and not be worried about getting left behind. After our little adoption visit, we drove over to the Yacht and Beach Club so that we could walk to the International Gateway, we gave a little fib to the guard saying we were off to Beaches and Cream for an ice-cream. We chose the IG to enter Epcot as we needed to buy four new Annual Passes and we didn’t want to wait in a big line. Having got them we went into Epcot, un-fortunately Pal Mickey was playing up, so a nice cast member plugged him into the computer for a complete lobotomy, but it didn’t fix the problem so a new Pal was taken out of his box and he replaced the old one, who went to the doctor for repairs, I hope he gets well soon. Must have been the dark trunk that did it!! New Pal Mickey chirruped his way all around World Showcase telling me lots of interesting snippets of information. He must have studied hard at geography at school Mind you his jokes are seriously naff. We wanted to go on Maelstrom in Norway, but it had quite a line. So we decided to skip that and we did the Rivers of Time in Mexico… Mickey knew tons of stuff about Mexico.. I decided that the ride was fun, and I enjoyed it more than usual. Then we walked over to Test Track but it had a 60 minute wait for the Singles Line……. Pal Mickey didn’t fancy that, and I didn’t fancy an hour of his jokes. So we decided to go for a nosey at the Mission Space building, but the ride was open so we got a fastpass for an hour hence. The boys decided to chill out in Innoventions, so Jill and I went and rode Spaceship Earth, with a 10 minute queue, though it said 30mins. I had forgotten how you can have a little gasp when you see the earth floating in space at the top of the sphere, I quite enjoyed that one too, but it might have been the air conditioning more than anything coz it was quite warm, you know, outside. So after picking up the chaps from Innoventions we went over to Space and rode the ride for the first time. What’s it like, well it didn’t make me sick or think that it was too intense. I like the building and the pre show isn’t tooo bad. The ride was a slight disappointment, but I thought that about Test Track and that is quite a favourite now. I think it will grow on me, it is impressive, but I was expecting, fantastically impressive given all the hype. Quite clever how you don’t notice the spinning though. And you do feel some “Gs”. It will grow on me I’m sure. Well after all that Space travel we were feeling a little peckish so we went back to Germany and went to the Beergarten, I had always fancied the buffet there. We had a very nice server who was very attentive not too far off the supreme standard set by the Italians last year. How I drank three pints of coke and was still thirsty an hour later beats me. The buffet is not a patch on say Chef Mickey in comparison. And it sure ain’t for Vegetarians. There is however meat in lots and lots of forms. If you are on the Atkins Diet it is the place for you big time. Well it’s time to go shopping obviously…. Greg has a system of clothing, he only buys it at the Vans shop. The nearest Vans shop to Inverness is in Orlando. So it is time for his Annual ”lets buy some clothes day”. We had a fairly lesuirely drive up International Drive to the Beltz Mall. I think that I am the slowest driver in Orlando. I don’t know if it is Jet Lag or me still trying to work a non existent clutch pedal, or driving on the wrong side of the road, but I just ain’t driving that fast -the only slower vehicle than me was a old timer in a Hyundai Accent…… nope he beat me from the lights outside the Exhibition Centre, I am the slowest driver in Orlando. We popped back to the All Starz for a cup of coffee in the Utilitarian Re-fillables, then we went to Downtown Disney, Jill and Ed on a bus, because Ed decided that a trip to Disney without a ride on the bus, wasn’t a trip at all. Greg and I went in the car. The car turns out to be a Mitybushy Gallant. Interesting car it seems to be made out of recycled toilet rolls. I don’t think I have driven a car that size which has such a thin boot (trunk) lid. There used to be a clothing shop in England called C and A, which everyone called “Cheap and Awful” That’s the Mitybushy Gallant. “C and A”. – Still thanks to Tesco’s Clubcard I got it for free and you don’t get cheaper than that. The evening was spend partly waiting for Jill’s bus to eventually arrive following it’s rather slow and convoluting route to Downtown Disney. We kept in touch using those rather clever family radio thingy’s “Roger”. We have three this year, they are bright yellow and they work a whole lot better than the ones we had two years ago. “10 – 10 good buddy!” We went to the Adventurer’s Club where I got to perform the role of Soundman in the Radio Broadcast. I wasn’t even trying to add to my list of acting roles I have done at the parks, Last one as stunt man in the Motors Action Show at DLP – Disney Studios, the new attraction that they are building on Residential Street at MGM, take my word for it is good, bad news if they decide to make anymore Golden Girls though. I think Pal Mickey whispered something to Miss Perkins and she picked me, she said “He is cute!” (Me not Pal Mickey) which of course goes to show how observant she is, she will certainly get my vote as Club President next year. She was also impressed that I knew all the words to the club song on stage, and said I was a terrific sound man. Pal Mickey is now sporting my Adventurer’s Club Badge which I earned for my audiotastic efforts. En We then went to the next two shows of the Comedy Warehouse, the boys skipped the second and did Disney Quest for an hour. The shows to be honest were not that great, but it might have been because we were getting a little bit tired and very Jet Laggy. There was a very funny part in the second show, where Jake and Phillip were singing a rock anthem called the Dark Depths of Gloom!! Well that’s Day two over, I hope you have enjoyed it as much as me. Kongaloosh. Larry Almost Live and Loud Day Three. Thursday 31st July 2003. Well we seemed to have a good sleep last night but we were all still a little jet lagged today. Travelling for 26 hours still takes its toll. I spent some time finishing off yesterday’s trip report. I have to adjust to this new fun activity into the trip. The good news is at least I can remember things that happened so I don’t actually have to make it all up. I think Jill would have preferred me to be in the shower rather than typing in bed as I was holding up proceedings, but as I explained to her the laptop is not waterproof so I couldn’t possibly do it in the shower. As is developing into a pattern Jill and the boys walked down to the food court and I drove the battle wagon down there. We had some breakfast - well they did - I resisted the temptation deciding that I am too big for breakfast and settled on just a hot chock. That is probably 7000 calories on its own so who needs sausages and scrambled eggs. ( Shucks - I always make the wrong choice.) Today was MGM day. So we drove over there, parking in Stage 46. See this almost live thingy is great, I mean I would never have remembered that doing it the old fashioned way. Oh you don’t need to know that!! There is just no pleasing some people. We took the tram over to the entrance and did the “Security” search. The park seemed quite busy so we popped over to The Tower of Terror, Pal Mickey told me he didn’t want to go on the ride. No I’m not making that up, he did tell me. I am hearing voices now, but it doesn’t mean I'm suffering from a serious illness. The guy chats to me all the time. He told me some interesting stuff about stuff, and told me a joke about time when we passed a big clock. He’s a hoot. ( Why did Goofy throw his clock out of the window? – Because he wanted time to fly. – That’s about as good as they get.) After getting the fastpass tickets we walked over to WWTBAM. Gosh were we rusty, not one of us even got onto the leader board. It was almost embarrassing. I did consol myself with the knowledge that I had been in the hot seat with both the floor manager and the presenter in the past and Jill had done it with the floor manager…(Hmmm maybe that needs a little re-phrasing.) The show was a fun one though, shame about Mary getting the chop with Regis, makes the question segment a bit longer though, which is a good thing. We went and did the Tower of Terror next. The changes are good, I like the spooks in the shaft and the other projections, I like the lap belts too. I put Pal Mickey in with me, and then took him out so that left a bit of slack for some air time. Jill was not feeling too clever, due to a jet laggy headache so she went back to the hotel on the omnibus, and had a little kip for four hours. She felt a lot better after that. I took the boys to see Muppetvision 3D or 4D depending on what they decide to call it this month. That is a fun show, just a once per trip show, but always worth a go, and Pal Mickey was very chatty in there. We went for some snap, in the Backlot Express, I had a rather nice Turkey Sandwich with red pepper, quite an interesting combination I thought but it worked well. The boys had boring old chicken fingers etc. But I still like it there, despite the criminal theft of one of the best fixing bars in the whole damb hemisphere. After that we went back to Rock and Roller Coaster but the fastpass line was of great length, I guess the ride must have been down or something, so we gave it a fast pass. ( Get it no………a FAST PASS……. Oh gee I’m working on the next load of jokes for Pal Mickey.) Edward said that they should have a Pal Minnie and they could interact together. (Hmm the boy has been paying too much attention at biology, I must get Jill to go and have a chat with him when we get back home.) Anyway, after lunch the boys headed down to Disney Quest, via Animal Kingdom, Old Key West and a boat ride – I think!) I went and did another show on WWTBAM, I got briefly onto the leader board in 10th place, seat number 129. But then got a question wrong, some tripe about a president. I am going to have to do better than this if I want to get into the hot seat again. Maybe I just don’t want it bad enough any more. I decided to go back to the Hotel to see how Jill was, I walked across to the car as there was no tram about, the car was so hot that my hands hurt steering the car. When I got back Jill was looking a little better so I joined her in having a kip for about 90 minutes. We went for a little drink at the food court and then drove over to Disney Quest to find the kids. We had quite a fun time there. Jill won the Mighty Ducks Pinball Slam and we both gave those butts a bit of a workout in the process. Jill has won that before so it is quite a skill she has. She should buy a Renault Megane “Shake that Ass”. We also did the Buzz Lightyear bumper cars, Jill is a much better hip wiggler than she is a bumper car driver, Our boys just kept hitting our car and making us spin. And Jill wasn’t exactly great at getting balls for ammo. She would say that I was a rubbish tank gun operator, but she was wrong there, I was brilliant. We joined forces with a nice chap and his son, and did the extra-terrestrial alien shootem up thingy. And we were quite good at that, Jill was on a roll and shot more bad guys than me. Afterwards we played a few arcade and pinball machines and I managed to cover the floor of the Cheesecake Factory with my chips. (New diet technique, throw your food on the floor!!) We went over to the Comedy Warehouse for a show. I told you Jill was on a roll tonight, well she was sat next to the phone and it rang. We were treated to a nice Cowboy Song, about Peanut The Hamster, based all about our fascinating life in Scotland. The show was a fun one, and not just because we were in it, -it does help -, but generally. By then Greg decided to have a Jet Laggy Headache, and we came home. Tomorrow we meet our friends Tom and Leanne, for the Mission Space Preview. I keep wanting to call it Missionary Position Space, but Somehow that doesn’t seem too wholesome when Pal Mickey is around. Have fun and sleep well. Larry Almost Live and Loud Day Four. Friday 1st July 2003. Well it’s August here at Walt Disney World and what a nice hot month it is going to prove to be. Still can’t spend all day talking to you about the weather, we have to go and meet Tom and Leanne. Well I think they must have rang us, because Greg went down to find them in the Lobby, just after Greg and I got back from our expedition to get the Morning Hot Chock, which was a failure due to the length of the line at the one and only Hot Chock Machine. So I got cold water instead. We walked back to meet our Floridian chums, and went off to Epcot, in order to take part in the Annual Pass holders Mission Space Preview. We got a fairly crowded bus down to Epcot, and went though a hot security area, hot in the sense of heat, rather than efficiency of security guarding. We walked past spaceship earth towards Mission Space. It was fantastic chatting to Tom. Few people know that in his Navy days he went through astronaut selection, for the Project Mercury Group. I don’t know if it is true or not but there was a bit of a rumour about a tussle for the affections of Leanne with John Glen, well I guess one of them got the girl and one the trip to space. Tom likes to keep quiet about those days, he is a modest man, but with a fair wind he could have been the first American in Space. Anyway we made into mission space having first negotiated our way through the trees put there as a barrier to keep the Non Annual Pass holders out of the attraction for the next three days. (The TTC People – I like to think of them.) This being my second trip into space, I noticed more things than the first time. The big wheel which is like the living quarters in Mission to Mars, and more things on the actual ride. I don’t want to spoil things too much for those dear readers who haven’t ridden yet, but the slingshot past the moon I especially like. You may also know that I fly gliders (sailplanes) and there is a landing to be done, and I found myself using the joystick as if I was actually flying the thing, to the point that I was annoyed that there was no rudder pedals. I was trying to correct some yaw!! After getting off, I left Pal Mickey in the stowage locker with my passes. I am a very very bad foster parent. Mind you I left Edward in a fish and chip shop in Bridlington once!! I was tucking into my fish and chips and about to give him a bit of fish, when I realised that neither him nor his pram was there…..whoops. Well the cast members looked in all of the centrifuges, but I couldn’t remember which one we had been in so that didn’t help, but it looked like some one had swiped Pal Mickey, but human nature being better than I gave it credit for, it had been handed into the gift shop at the end of the ride. (Thanks - Pal Mickey and I are very grateful to our unknown Pass Holding Benefactor.) Ed, Pal Mickey and I went on again, Pal asked to be on my lap for this trip. The only problem being that a second ride made me a bit off colour - of the green variety, so I decided that something more relaxing was in order. Journey into Your Imagination. The gang wandered over to the Imagination Pavilion. We entered an almost empty queue. You know I think Disney could do more to get more people on this ride, the entrance looks like a office block, there is very little their to say that there is an attraction in there. I think it is as if they are almost embarrassed about it. I like it and I want to see more people to ride it, so when you are next in Epcot give it a go We decided to go for lunch in the Land Pavilion. It is a shame there is no Annual Pass Holders Lounge there any longer. I was tempted to do the secret Masonic lift press to get to the third floor and wander in pretending ignorance, or attempting to pass as a Nestle employee. “Hi I’m Larry from Nescafe, it’s all in the bean!” However, I was distracted by Jill who found someone’s room key and so we went to the character buffet reception desk to hand it in. (It was a charging one!!) We all seemed to go for different lunch options, and so we used the walky talkies to get back together again. I had a Italian Sub, (I never knew they had a Navy) which was quite nice, I have never had salami before…… Hey it’s not a very cosmopolitan world in Tain. Tom had a Dairy and Fruit Special for lunch, “Apple Pie and Ice Cream”. It was fastpass time by then so we went and did Test Track. By popular vote amongst the gang members, though the jury is still out on Mission Space, Test Track is still king of the Epcot Rides. It seemed faster to me than previously, maybe I’m just getting old! Well one last thrill ride before Jill, Leanne and Greg go shopping. We did Maelstrom, which had a shorter queue today. Tom was pointing out some hidden Mickey’s in the Muriel on the wall. (Coronation Street reference there for the Brits.) Maelstrom was short and fun as usual and we even watched the movie!! Well it was split up time with Shopping for some and taking Ed to Disney Quest for me, only about 15 hours from International Gateway to DQ, via the Boardwalk on a Friendship, a bus to Downtown Disney and one back to the All Star Movies, it was like flying North West again, but at least Disney didn’t cream cracker my luggage. Tom then came over to the room and helped me log on to AOL so you can get the full live flavour of the trip once I catch up with my self. It was time then go back for Ed. We used the family radio to raise the guy, who was queuing up for Ride the Comics at the time, so we gave him 10 mins. to do that and we went off for a burger at Macdonald’s in the Market Place. On the way, we met Sue Holland, who we are meeting up with later in the week. She was carrying her evening meal back to meet up with her friend Lisa, and this consisted of a Yoghurt and a tub of Tomato ketchup. (Don’t ask!) No Banana Bread though! It was nice to see her but as she was balancing two tubs of the yoghurt not to mention copious amounts of the red stuff, we thought that we had better let her get on her way, so we said “See Yer Later” and we went off for our tea. We met up with Jill, Leanne and Greg, and went to the first show of the Comedy Warehouse, which was fun. Then we did the Adventures Club and Leanne was a very naughty girl, she wouldn’t join in the fun, so Emil Bleehall made her join in, with a little bit of help from Jill. So now she knows it is best to milk the cow the first time around!!!!!!!!!! Jill and I did another show at the Warehouse, and then it was say toodle pip to Sue and head back here to sit on the loo and write up the trip report for all you good people to read tomorrow. (Bloody clever machines these laptops.) Tomorrow, Magic Kingdom and a proper meet up with Sue. Larry Live and Loud Day Five. Saturday 2nd August 2003. Good morning folks, we got up a little bit early today, we were keen on having a bit of breakfast. I had set my heart on some scrambled eggs on toast, with pepper. So we drove half way there, coz we had some things to drop off at Tom and Leanne’s room which is half way to the food court. The scrambled egg was very nice, they do a creamy scrambled egg, do the chefs at the All Star Movies. I have always thought that the food was of a good quality here. It may be the place where the poor people have to have there holiday’s but there is absolutely no reason to go hungry. The food court was quite full even though it was just after eight. There was this guy sat at the end of a table for 8, I went to the other end and started to sit down. The guy says, hey, “I need all this table”, so I said, “I can see you are big, but I didn’t think you were that big” So I trots off to find another table. Then when getting a drink of the old hot chocolate variety, I noticed that he had disappeared, with no one else there, but he had left his big bag in the middle of the table. I wanted to tell the cast members that there was an unattended bag and for them to get security to blow it up. But spoilsport Jill wouldn’t let me!! (Shoot him Captain Mainwaring. Shoot him!) We decided to take the omnibus to Magic Kingdom with our chums Tom and Leanne. The bus was quite busy but we got into some interesting conversations about the Universal Front of the Line Pass for Universal “On Universe??” Guests. (We are spending 2 days at the Hard Rock Café at the end of the trip.) with some guys from some American State in the South, and one on Heat Stroke with a young gal from America who rather tastefully has an English Boyfriend. We sailed into the Magic Kingdom, with just one little problemo. None of our Annual Passes worked between the six of us. We managed to get in without photo id. This is a problem for us Brits coz we are not that big on photo id. It is becoming a bit of a pain in the botty though over here, so I had better get something. Do you think a Roy of the Rovers Fan Club Card will do? First item on the agenda is Splash Mountain this is a ride that the Burroughs and the Wilmotz both like. We of course couldn’t get fastpasses as we were not actually in the park, so a cast member helped us sort the problem out. So we did the walk on and used the fastpasses later on for a second go. We got wet, we got very wet. But we had a good time and at the end of the day that’s why we came. The Wilmotz also had a wee shottie at the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. It was fun, but it is soooooo much poorer in quality than it’s brother in Paris that it spoilt it for me. I spend all the time on it feeling grumpy…….. this is not as good as Paris, oh this bit is much worse than Paris, oh where is the tunnel that they have in Paris. Oh belt up you miserable moron and chill out and have a good time………. Jill was today’s foster parent for Pal Mickey and they were chatting away to each other. Occasionally Jill would pass on one of his excellent quality jokes, they are so funny, I can see him doing a 6 month sell out show in Vegas. We walked over in the direction of Fantasyland and I suggested we go for a nap at the Hall of Presidents but no one would take me up on the offer so we did the Haunted Mansion. Very Spooooky, but not as good as in Paris. (Sorry!) There was quite a line at It’s a Small World, 25 minutes, even Leanne who is the President of the Florida “It’s a Small World” Exchange Club, which organises trips for small people throughout the world, where they indulge in colourful dances with catchy tunes, thought that was too much, so we rather sensibly gave it a wide berth. We did do the other catchy little number, The Carousel of Progress. I always enjoy this and I made a point to notice something I haven’t noticed before in each scene. Being a bit of an old traditionalist we did the Tommorrowland Transit Authority too. And wait for it, wait for it, it had a little queue, you know it is busy when it and CoP have a line. After a couple of trips on Buzz and Space Mountain, we decided to split up the boys going to go to Disney Quest, Tom Leanne and Kim to Peter Pan, and Jill and myself to the hotel to do jobs. On the way out Pal Mickey told us that it was time for the 3 o’clock parade. We noticed that there were gaps on Main Street, which surprised me because it was busy in Tommorrowland and Fantasyland, so I thought that the park must be bursting at the seams, apparently not. Anyway we decided to stay to see the parade. It was coming from Fronteerland and so it wasn’t due until 3-20pm. (“Hey Mister what time is the three o’clock parade.” “Twenty past three.” “Thanks”. ) Anyway at exactly twenty past three it starts pouring down, they would have normally cancelled the parade, as it was bouncing off the pavement. However, it had started 20 minutes before in sunshine. The first few dancers come by with some characters and they make little jokes about the puddles, then nothing comes up the street for a while. But then, from the other direction, a tractor steams up Main Street, the Mickey Mouse float, is stuck in a puddle and has to be rescued by the tractor……. Then all the dancers between the floats disappear, I dunno where, down the drains to the Utilidoors I think. Then the four or so remaining floats whiz down Main Street as fast as they can with Minney Mouse hanging on for grim death. It was the best parade I have ever seen. I must see it on a sunny afternoon to see what it is supposed to be like. Jill and I dodge some raindrops and make it back to the Hotel. I spend some time writing bits of this epic report for the betterment of my readers. Then we go to Disney Quest to pick up the boys and meet up with Kim and later Sue. Unfortunately I realise that I have forgotten my pass. So I send Jill on ahead and drive back for the pass, I get to the hotel room, knowing that my pass is probably on the TV only to realise that I have no door key with me, it is on the TV with the passes, so I drive to Disney Quest for the second time to pick up a room key from Jill, drive back to the Hotel and get the passes and drive to Downtown Disney for the third time. I had missed the Sue Meet for the first CW show, so I decided to comfort eat, and I have a Steak Cheese Sub with Pepper and Onion………YUMMMMMMMY. Meeting up with Sue, Kim and Jill and the boyz, I watch the second CW show, See WDW1972 for details, but it wasn’t a classic. A trend is developing at CW I think I have seen about seven shows now this week and only 2 were good. I think the CW needs a bit of a re-formatting it is not firing on all cylinders at the moment. I think it has suffered from a lot of cast changes in the past 12 months and it needs a few fresh ideas to perk it up a bit. (Controversial, but as you know. Larry likes to say it as it is. – Well apart from the 70% I make up as I go along, but you get the drift.) We pop in for a show at the Adventurers Club, after my sound man appearance a couple of days ago, and being awarded a Member’s Badge, I regard myself as a fully paid up member of the club. We saw the Balderdash Cup and I refuse to vote for Emil, he can keep his pigeons. Well that’s all for tonight folks. Keep up the good work. Larry Live and Loud Day Six. Sunday 3rd August 2003. Hi, Sunday in Florida and it’s a bright blue sky with not a cloud in sight, so you just kinda know there is going to be a thunderstorm at 4pm. We decided to go to Animal Kingdom today, as it would be our first visit of the day, first of all we went for breakfast for the obligatory scrambled egg on toast. Greg is the toast chef, using the production line toasters that they have. I found a table, it was so far from the drinks isle that I had to use the family radio to give instructions on how to get there. They have done up the Music food court and I quite like the pink PVC seats, there kinda 50s in a Rock Chick sorta way. We waved to Kim who was a few tables away from us having their breaky too. Talking about PVC, they have taken away Crazy Larry and the sexy woman weathergirl from the loading bay at Space Mountain. I loved that woman and her Blue PVC suit. Swines. We all met up at the bus stop at the allocated time to ride to Animal Kingdom, for about the first time this trip I actually got a seat, behind Mr Trip Planner 2003. The guy had his map all worked out with Symbols, I memorised the key. A square around an attraction meant that it was a “Priority”, a triangle meant that it was “Scary” and a Circle meant that it an “Absolute Must do before leaving the Park”. I was seriously impressed, I don’t think he was impressed with me chuckling about it in his ear from behind We arrived at Animal Kingdom and did the mad rush to Killimanjaro Safari, this attraction is like a vacuum cleaner sucking guests in a fantasmical vortex towards it. When we got there the board said a 20 minutes wait. However we only walked a few feet down the line to find it stopped, we thought that it would have been much longer than 20 min, so we backtracked and got a Fastpass for the ride, and went off to the Gorilla Trail to pass the time. They may be saying that AK is Natazu, but they sure have “Zooed” up this attraction. My favourite exhibition is the Naked Mole Rats Colony, I was watching a couple of the little nude things fighting away, they looked like a couple of dried prunes in a “I was the sexiest Plumb” argument. Then I noticed two ducks have in a fight over nothing particularly important in the Avery, and the two incidents reminded me to stay cool next time Greg and Ed are having a scrap about absolutely nothing important, it seems to be a built in piece of software in all of us Mammals and we just gotta live with it. After this we did the Safari, and at first it was promising to be an animal free safari, there were very few “TOMMIES” about and not many of everything else, except for Hippos, good grief have you seen how many there are there these days, they must breed like mice. (Naked Mole Rats???) Anyway the second half, brought a sight to bring a tear to even the hardest most cynical amongst us, a little tiny wee, baby elephant. The cute thing was not how small it was but how hairy. Like it had been playing with a Van De Graf Generator, all static and sticky out hair. Cute with a capital Q. It was trying to photograph this little fellow, that made Jill realise that her camera was bust. (Shame, we will have to go and try and catch him again later in the trip.) After this we went and got fastpasses for Kali River Rapids and did the Maharaja Trek, similar but not as good as the Gorilla one, mind you I saw an awake Tiger for the first time ever. Watching it was so like watching my cat Haggis. The Cat Family is really cool, and amazing how they range from tiny little household cats to great big things, “Lions” and yet they are all just the same, just some have bigger claws and teeth. After this we did the rapids, and I got wet in just about every freaking way possible on the ride, and to add insult to injury it was suggested that it was because I am fat and I weight the boat down. The guy who suggested this was the one too chicken to actually ride the thing and who squirted water at me from the bridge. I shall keep the name a secret, if that is OK with you, TOM. We went for a damp, nay moist lunch at Pizzafarri, where Jill noticed that she had lost her room card (with charging), so she went to guest services to cancel it whist I tucked into my Italian Deli Butty. After lunch, the rest of the gang went off to ride Countdown to Extinction. (I’m still refusing to call it Dinosaur.) They also did the whirly thing at Chester and Hester’s Money Making Emporium. (No Game too Tacky for modern Disney!) We managed to sort out the room key, with no problems at Guest Services at the All Starz. So to celebrate we had a little Ice Cream Treat to share……..awww romantic! Then we went back in the jalopy to Epcot and did some more Mission Space Trips. I did two, with no ill effects. We also did the computer simulation and the Mission Control Simulation. Ed was an Astronaut. I quite like the exit area, it is better than most. Ed was excited that Buzz Aldrin’s first name was actually Edwin, he kept telling us that Buzz was the first “Ed in Space.” Of course by then it was 4pm and absolutely chucking it down. So we dashed to the car to take, the boyz to Disney Quest, except Greg stayed a little longer whist we purchased a small cheap digital camera from Crossroads Shopping Mall to replace the poorly one. Greg having supervised our purchases, which included a new bag to take stuff home in to Sunny Scotland next week, he joined his comrades at DQ. Whist Jill and I went for some gastronomic treats at Macdonald’s, a Big Mac if you please. It was then time to get a chock sample from the sweetie shop, with the hard to spell name, well it is if it is midnight and you are sat with a laptop on your knee in a place where electricity isn’t allowed. We went to Disney at Home, and got some egg shape thingies to cook eggs in the shape of the Big Cheese on our griddle. Then it was time to meet our chum Sue, for a couple of shows at the Comedy Warehouse. And two very funny shows they were too. I was starting to feel guilty about last nights TR where I was a weenie bit unkind to the sterling work that these purveyors of mirth do, but no, there have been some duff shows this week, but they were great tonight. I especially enjoyed the last sketch which was a song based on an unfortunate incident involving Sue Holland and the colour of her hair. Well after a nice late night hot chock, followed by an hour of trip report writing I will be in my bed. Thanks for reading this far. Cheers Larry your big pal, in swampy Florida. PS Pal Mickey had a day off today, coz no one could be bothered to lug him around. Larry Live and Loud Day Seven. Monday 4th August 2003. We got Mickey’s call on the phone at seven thirty five, we decided not to bother with breakfast in the food court, and it took ages for us to get our ablutions done and out of the house. I was posting yesterdays trip report and I guess that didn’t speed things up any. We did go down to the food court in the car of course for a little drink of the obligatory hot chock. We then drove out to the yacht and beach club as we were going to meet Sue Holland at Spaceship Earth at 10am. We didn’t have to tell the little porky pie about going to Beaches and Cream, because there was no guard on the gate. Or if there was he was in stealth mode. So we parked up and walked to Spaceship Earth in about 20 minutes, it was very hot but it is always nice to walk through Britain and Canada before world showcase opens up. We kinda had a loose arrangement with Tom and Leanne that we would meet them at either spaceship earth or later for our lunch at Le Cellier. So we kinda didn’t expect to see them, so a couple of minutes after 10am we rode spaceship. There was about a five minute wait. A wheelchair tried to go up the regular line but it was too thin and a cast member rescued them by dismantling part of the fence. We enjoyed the ride and we all kinda spontaneously said that the ride was now out of date because all the predictions for the future have already started to happen. Like video conferencing etc. I gather that there is due to be an update soon ish, but no one seems to know too much about it. After Spaceship we walked over to Ellen’s Energy Adventure. For some reason I found her humour and the little asides more amusing today than I have in the past and I really enjoyed the ride. I was thinking that the dino’s are so loud that this must be quite a thrill ride for some younger kids. The were not using the middle set of cars so by the way they were parked you could tell that there are just two sets of cars that are used in the ride. I have this thing in my head this trip that I must work out how the rides work, you know layout and number of ride vehicles and that kind of thing. I think that deep down in my psyche I am a serious nerd. Ellen’s ride is quite a long one, heading for an hour with the wait in the rather interesting wooden construction. They seem to be doing up the front of the attraction, it always seemed ok to me, so if anyone knows why? then send answers on a postcard to me. So it was about twenty to twelve by then so we mossied in a vermicular fashion over to the big old dependable country of Canada the spiritual home of the Wilmotz, (My Grandfather and Uncles are/were Canadian.) There we met up with the Burroughs and Patty, Mary from the Comedy Warehouse’s sister. She is a big chum of Sue, and very entertaining Company for Lunch. Jill and I split the chicken and steak sandwiches, and we all had the Cheddar Cheese mit bacon Soup. (Very tasty.) It is not the greatest themed restaurant in the world, but that is the beauty of it, it is like a normal restaurant where you go mainly to spend time with your friends, which is probably why we have it as a little tradition, when we all meet up at Disney. After lunch Patty and Sue went their separate ways, Sue to fix her broken laptop, so you might only have my version of events today if her mission was unsuccessful. The Burroughs and the Wilmotz went to MGM, by friendship. I like travelling on the friendships and today was the perfect way. You are not in a rush and you need a fix of air-conditioning. As a mode of transport they are under no stretch of the imagination – Fast. But as a hot August afternoon chill out they are great. Having said that I wouldn’t mind if they padded the seats a bit, I wonder if they have any of that sexy pink PVC left over from the All Star Music food court rehab in the back warehouse. I shall have to ask the manager tomorrow. When we got to MGM we decided to get fastpasses for the Tower of Terror, but the most terrifying thing was the five hours wait for them to kick in, so we decided to go and do Millionaire instead. We did two shows in the end, and we didn’t get in the hot seat, but Edward was second in the second game first part and Kim was first in the second game second part, of course they don’t pick for the hot seat at the end of the game, so Kim was cheated out of her rightful place in history. However, those of you who read my reports for the more salacious titbits will be please to know that to get to the $125k level as number one she needed to know all about men’s underpants. So well done to Ed and Kim for being today’s bright and intelligent people. On the way to Millionaire we had bought what purported to be frozen lemonade, but turned out to be flipping expensive, Lightly Chilled All Star Music Acid Swamp Drinks. I feel robbed, all four of the Wilmotz threw it away halfway through, we should have taken them back. After we came out of Millionaire it was the four o clock monsoon, so we hummed and we arrrrred and then we arrrrred some more, and decided to dash to One Man and his Dog…… ( Sorry One Man and his Dream.) A glowing tribute to all things Walt. ( I hadn’t realised that Michael Eisner speaks with a Mob like accent!!) I found it more interesting than I had remembered and it is certainly a comfy sit down to dodge raindrops. Shortly after we came out of the cinema portion of the attraction the rain lessened in intensity so we headed over to Star Tours, but the it was a 15minute wait. Rule Number One, I do Star Tours every trip. Rule Number two…. If it is a walk on. Anyway we waited for the Parade which is about to start. We found a spot just about 30 foot from the gates near Star Tours where the Starz and their Carz come out. All was fine, I was taking a few snaps of the cars. Hades threatened to cut my throat because I did a thumbs down sign to him. But then I hear an altercation next to me. Jill is arguing with an English woman, who had called her a “Bitch” for saying there wasn’t room for her child to stand at the front. To be fair to Jill she had just moved to let a wheelchair in. I don’t want to give the impression that Jill was being mean, I wouldn’t dare allow my self to give that impression. Of course I thought the whole thing was funny and I let the little girl sneak next to me. Then I said to Jill, are you sure she called you a bitch, perhaps she meant “Stitch”. And the woman got more mad then, and said “I don’t care what you think.” I said oh you are so “Disney”. I must write 100 lines, “I must not stir things up during a cat fight. “ Anyway after this little incident the sun came out so we went over to see “Beauty and the Beast”. Even Tom and I sat through it. You know I really don’t know how they manage to do the transition from man to beast and back again. I wonder if that Big Blanket they carry around has anything to do with it. Also do they have Angela Landsbury in every performance or is it a tape?? “Murder she Sang!” Well by then we were all parked out. So most of the gang headed back to the All Starz for tea, and Ed and I walked to the swan and dolphin which is quite a walk, for a old codger like me. We beat the boat by a large margin though, and we sang the Adventurers Club Song to spur us on. When we got to the Yacht Club we were knackered so I sat in an old chesterfield sofa for a bit to recover. Then we drove over to the Music and had tea in the food court. I had a very nice turkey dinner, coz Kim had got it and it looked nice. I thought that it was funny that they weighed the turkey as they put it on the plate. You can see Mobster Eisner, saying, “All the Chefs are giving at least an ounce and a half too much turkey to the poor people at the All Starz food courts, what do you think we are a charity. Get some scales or you’re fired.” Jill tried her new favourite drink a mix of coffee and hot chock, I’ve decided to call it “Mockery”. She nicked it from a bloke she saw making it this morning. See it pays to be observant. Well it’s an early night of washing clothes, Trip Report writing, and swimming for the boyz. So good night, sleep tight and I’ll write some more tomorrow. Larry Live and Loud Day Eight. Tuesday 5th August 2003. Good morning folks, it looks another hot one here at Walter’s E Disney’s Private lil Ol World. Well all good things must come to an end and we have to say goodbye to the Burroughs today, Jill waved Tom on his way, though Leanne, Kim and Chris could stay a little longer for a visit to MGM Studios. We had breakfast in the food court we me having my now obligatory “Strangled Eggs”. I remembered later in the day that that is what my now departed for the great “Celebration” Community in the sky, father used to jokingly call scrambled eggs, then I went and dreamt about him later that night…. Unfortunately we were playing at being silly tourists today, because MGM was the “Early Entry” “Surprise Morning” “Happy Hour”, whatever, Park today so when we arrived at around 9am it was already mobbed. There was an hour wait for Tower of Terrrrooorr, and even more terrorisingly, a 75 minute standby for Rock And Roller Coaster. (Good Job I’ve done it in Paris Recently, coz it may not happen this trip!) So we got fastpasses for TOT and went to do Millionaire, with a side trip to Star Tours for everyone but me, who did the Muppets rather than sit in the heat whilst I waited for what was posted as a 30 standby for Star Tours. Well, I’m just not going to make it into the “Hot Seat” this trip, but Kim came soooooo close again. With a creditable second on the board. I think that more and more people know the technique now, so it is not the aide it once was. Mind you it isn’t holding Kim Possible back any. After WWTBAM we went for our allotted appointment with Fear at the Tower of Terror. We were all in the back row, except for Leanne who prefers shopping to the Tower of Terror. (Actually I think she prefers shopping to breathing.) There was a spare seat on the back row, so I sat Pal Mickey in it with a seat belt and the ToT Bellhop, said that I should hold his hand or something. On the photo, you can just see Pal Mickey, peaking out, like a Hidden Mickey or something. Oh by the way, I had an email from someone who thought that Pal Mickey was a made up story just to spice up the TR, well I can assure them, and you dear reader that Pal Mickey is a real member of the Wilmot Clan, and I have the receipt to prove it. Anyway PM survived the trip, but he complained about it on the way out of the shop. “Let’s take the stairs next time!” Well by them it was time to say good bye to the rest of the Burroughs Clan, I guess it will be Easter at least before we see them again. We drove the boys to DQ where they were meeting up with Chris, Sue’s son who had driven over from Ft Myers, for some videonic cyber fun with our guys. Jill and I decided to go to Animal Kingdom, because Jill wanted to do Tarzan Rocks and the Lion King. We debated between Mara and Tusker House for out lunchtime vittles. In the end we decided that Mara would be good because the parking might be less hassle than AK big car lot in the hot summer sun. Bad Choice we had a decidedly poor lunch there and we had wished we had done Tusker House, Jill pointed out the conversation that we had had at Tower of Terror in the queue with Kim, that I should not argue with Jill because it wastes time and is upsetting for everyone around her. The theory being that If I had no opinions at all everything would go more smoothly and me arguing back just wastes time. (Hmmmmm, can I have time to think about this?) So we omnibussed it over to the AK, and I went for fastpasses for Countdown to Extinction, and Jill got seats (Right at the front) in Tarzan Rocks. The show was a good one, except the two female singers had very high voices, I could hear wine glasses shattering at the Rainforest Café. The only problem to mar a very enthusiastic show was the heat, it was so hot in there, despite a Frozen Strawberry Flavored Lemonade….(How the hell do you get a strawberry lemonade?) I was starting to feel the heat really bad. I think I might have got a touch of Heat Stroke in there, because I was not at all well for the next 24 hours. We went and rode CTX (Dinosaur) next and it was fun but shaky. Jill persuaded me to do the Lion King Show next, and I did enjoy it, especially the pre show, which had one of the singing cowboys from the now defunct Diamond Horseshoe Saloon, nice to see he wasn’t sacked when they closed what was one of my very favorite attractions and cafes. The show was ok, I’m not a big Lion King fan, but I do adore the little birdy woman, so I guess it was worth it for her and the Pre show. Jill and I had had a little wager on the time the rain would come. I bet on 4-10 and Jill 4-30 and it started at five to four, so 10 Disney Dollars to me then. We picked up the car in the rain from AKL and it got a free car wash on the way to DQ, where we joined the boys and Said Hi and Bye to Chris, then we went into DQ where we had tea at the Cheesecake Factory. Hot Dogs with Cheese Fries, nice and healthy food. Yummy. But then whilst paying for the food, I hit, The THEME PARK WALL. I was so tired I could hardly stand, so I ate my dog, and then laid down on the bench seat with my Rain Jacket as a pillow and slept for 45 minutes, This place is so noisy but it didn’t make a blind bit of difference I was asleep in seconds. When I woke up I still felt dreadful but at least I could walk again. I didn’t participate in any Games at DQ, we decided to go to the Market Place to get Ed some Quick Silver Clothes. When we are here we buy the kids lots of clothes, they seem to like what is on offer here more than what you can get in Inverness, mind you there is only so much you can do with Tartan. On the way out we bumped into Sue so she came with us to the Marketplace and we had a freebie Caramel Square at Gear ah Delly’s. Ed got some T shirts and then we headed back towards Pleasure Island and popped into the Adventures Club for 30 minutes of Air Conditioned Luxury whilst Ed did the Adventures Salute impressing a couple of Cast Members that he knew it, one of which started to teach him Japanese. We then went to the Comedy Warehouse for one show with Sue, it was a very funny show with a good cast and they used one of my suggestions for a sketch, based on the Moses 11th Commandment “Though Shalt Not Disobey your Wife”, Now I wonder how that popped into my head? Well that’s all for today folks, sorry it is a bit late. I wasn’t feeling too good last night, and it isn’t that funny today, but believe me, tomorrow we go to Celebration…….. That is one weird place. Till then have fun and if you want to work at Disney Remember only those guys who work hard at School get to ride the Segways. Larry Live and Loud Day Nine. Wednesday 6th August 2003. Today was officially designated recover from Theme Park Wall day, after eight days of totally tiring themeparking we decided to have a bit of a lie in, so we didn’t get up until 10am…..zzzzzzzzzzz After this we went down to the food court for some breakfast and a drink, part of our trouble has been the heat and dehydration, I have started to drink less coke and more iced water. In the sun I am wetting my hair in the water fountains too. If you are a pale Englishman you cannot afford to forget the effects that this kind of heat has on you. We decided to avoid theme parks until the evening so we went over to the Contempary so the boys could use the watermice. Ed has been looking forward to this for years as he is now 12 and can drive one on his own. However, he was very disappointed as they have a five foot height limit on the drivers. To say he was not a happy bunny was a would be a very big underestimation. He was a seriously unhappy bunny class one. Jill and I thought that the height restriction was to stop people lying about the age of there kids. We felt that it was unfair, because kids under five foot can ride in the mice. Hmmmmph. I would like to see them stop a 4ft 11inch 45 year old. Ed went out with Greg in the end, and I think he may have let him have a little shot with the steering wheel. Greg said that he had it on full throttle for the whole trip, so he didn’t miss out much there. After this we were going to go to Kissimmee, for some shopping but we got kinda lost and saw signs for Celebration. So we decided to go there for lunch. Now Celebration is the Disney Owned Gated Community, and boy is it weird. People always talk about the Stepford Wives or the Truman Show, but I think it is more like the British Sixties Show, the Prisoner……. I am not a Number I am a Free Man. The first thing that hits you is that it looks kinda normal, well Old Key West Normal. Then you notice the buggies. The place is crawling with GEMs. These are Global Electric Motorcars. (A Chrysler Daimler Company) They are overgrown Golf Carts. They have there own parking places and they are made of recycled Neon Dashboards. You also see kids with big smiles, dangerously whizzing around on electric scooters and Disney thought police on the obligatory Segways. We had lunch in the Market Place Café which is like a diner. There are plaques for Honoured Customers, who have eaten there over the nine years the “Community” has existed. We picked up the two newspapers of Celebration, the Celebration News and the Independent which looks identical to the News. One of them has the rules about gardening, if you don’t cut your grass you are up before the Community Council. I’m not sure if they have public beheadings on the side of the lake or not, but I wouldn’t be surprised. I’m certain that if you passed gas in the market place a Disney Suit would come up on his Segway and put a cork in your bottom. Anyway we had a nice lunch and a very nice server. Who told me where the nearest gas station is, and it isn’t in Celebration, who needs one, get a GEM. Here are some of the exciting articles in the two newspapers. (These are real I am not making them up. (Unusually))
You know and in a way so did we. I think we might just be weird enough to live there. Well we went for gas and of course I struggled to figure out how to use the pump. The gas was almost free. We then did a quickie visit to the Marketplace to swap some of Ed’s T-shirts. Then we came back for a while. Jill had a kip and I did yesterdays TR then had a kip and the guys went swimming in the Guitar Pool. For our Evening Entertainment we went to Epcot, parking at the Beach Club, I was going to give the Beaches and Cream Excuse but the guard wasn’t bothered and waved me through before my first sentence had made it out of my mouth. We parked by the Beach Club Villas and went for a nosey around there for a bit. Very nice, and at night they were well lit up, but I guess with all those expensive “Dues” they can afford to… It was a pleasant walk along the river on through International Gateway. We went to the UK and looked in some shops, where they sell the same kind of touristy stuff that the shops in Inverness sell to our American Cousins. We also listened to the British Invasion, who are OK but don’t sound much like the Beatles to moi. Then we went to the American Pavilion for a Hot Dog and some Apple Pie.. The boys hung out outside the Pavilion and went for a Kaki Gori in Japan, whilst Mom and Dad did the American Adventure. Jill watched this for the first time, the pervious two she had slept through it, and she said that she really enjoyed it. We have the soundtrack on CD so I like the American Dreams bit at the end. Mind you Ed contacting me on the walky talkies didn’t help. (I turned it off, when I realised.) We dashed out in time to get a good spot for Illuminations Reflections of Earth. It wasn’t quite as boring as I remembered and I enjoyed it, again probably again because of the CD. I’m still impressed with the co-ordination between the soundtrack and the fireworks. And the last two minutes are seriously impressive. We walked out of the park to the Promise and then to the Kayla Waila, from Tapestry of Nations.(Dreams) Which is kinda adding insult to injury as the cancelled the parade for good since our last visit. Well short day, not too taxing. Which is good because tomorrow is early entry at Magic Kingdom and a trip to NASA. If I can find it, I have no road map and no intention of buying one. So if anyone can post directions overnight, I will be grateful. Sleep Well and have pleasant dreams. If you live in Celebration it is probably compulsory. Larry Live and Loud Day Ten. Thursday 7th August 2003. Good Morning Folks on this bright morning, not too hot today, we set the alarm for six thirty to go do early entry at Magic Kingdom, but none of us got up until I did at Eight………. So the good burgers of the Magic Kingdom had to get by without us. But onward and upwards, to boldly go where no one has gone before, the Kennedy Space Centre. The drive over there was very pleasant partly because I found the map Alamo gave us when we picked up the hire jalopy. So up the I4 and across the 528, Jill was in charge of finding the tolls and she single-handedly managed to get rid of all the crud in the bottom of my bum bag. So that makes me 20 pounds lighter coz there were a lot of coins hanging out in there. The space centre seemed quite when we arrived. Those guys could teach Disney a thing or two about security. They used metal detectors and a thorough search of bags, including you show them that electrical items worked e.g. our digi camera. But One is a Military Airbase and one - well isn’t. First of all we paid up our dues, and it was more expensive than I remembered we opted for the Pauper Pack, i.e. basic entry and tour inc the IMAX. We went over to the tour busses first, they were very slow and disorganised with no sense of urgency whatsoever. But after a fairly lengthy wait, considering there were not that many people about, with tons of tour busses doing precisely nothing, we got on the bus to the Viewing Gantry for the two Launch Pads. This is not that interesting nor that close, but there is an engine that has flown 15 times there, so respect to that piece of machinery. I’m sure that the film they show there used to be on the monitors on the bus and the quality is poor when projected onto a big screen. There are a couple of marginally interesting models that show the sequence of a launch. We then had a very long wait for the busses to the Apollo Saturn Five Exhibition. This is very cool. You have to be inspired by the power of this machine, has there ever been a more powerful man made machine than this, (other than those designed to create mass death.) Most of us 40 somethings can remember what they were doing when the Apollo Missions were happening, my abiding memory was as a little chap in Huddersfield Yorkshire in the centre of town by the Church Rose Garden, having got off the bus from Bradford and looking up at the moon, and thinking, there are men walking on that tonight!! The launch sequence and the Lunar Landing are fun exhibits. I enjoyed those. But I enjoyed reading the boards about each mission the most. One other little high spot for me was walking outside and seeing the empty benches (Bleaches????) where the family watch the launches from and thinking of the emotions that must go through there minds, excitement, pride and fear. The opportunity to touch a piece of Moon Rock is seriously under whelming, but hey I’ve done it now. After we got the tour bus back, we went to “Astronaut Experience” this is where you get to ask questions of a real life Astronaut we got to meet Don Peterson, he had been back up crew for Apollo 16 and a member of the crew which flew the first Discovery Mission STS 6, he made the first Spacewalk from an Obiter. So quite a cool guy. He was interesting and Edward got to ask a question about how you get to sleep in space, apparently some guys just float but he liked to be strapped down, because he was worried that if he floated he might hit some switches or circuit breakers which might not be a terribly clever thing to do. Afterwards Ed got his photo taken with Don. I bought the STS 6 medallion and I will frame it with the Photo for Ed, it isn’t every day you get to chat to an Astronaut. I shook his hand and he was very gracious. I really enjoyed that 30 minutes. Afterwards we looked at couple of minor attractions which were no great shakes. Then we did another big highlight. The 45 minute IMAX 3D film about the International Space Station. This was really good, you were almost floating in space with these guys and there is a very funny joke by the cosmonauts and astronauts about bringing supplies to the space station. The film and the centre on the whole is very good at recognising the role of the Russians in the space programme. Let’s face it if it wasn’t for the competition with the Russians there would have been no American to walk on the moon. And there achievements have been equally as important. The first Satellite, First Man in Space and the First Woman is not a bad record. And don’t forget the First Pooch in Space, I hope it wasn’t a Poodle. This film is a MUST DO. After this the boys were spaced out so they went to the shop to buy things, Jill and I went to look around the mock up Obiter, and to see the Memorial. The memorial was closed, and one of the staff said they may be adding the names of the Columbia Crew, I don’t know if that was true, but it was a sad thought, we had seen the hanger that the remains of Columbia are kept on the tour. By then we had been there seven hours and it was time to head back to WDW. We had tea at the Movies and then the boys went swimming. Jill and I drove over to MGM to see Fantasmic, but it was chucking it down so we thought it would be cancelled and we didn’t fancy sitting for an hour in the rain, even if it was on. Though there were a lot of people queuing up by the secret entrance having had the meal deal. (I hope they get in.) Jill did Muppets, (I couldn’t face a third showing!) so I went and did the dreaded Star Tours, I enjoyed the queue the most, with the tale of the naughty droids in sector 2. We also did the Great Movie Ride, it has had a re-hab recently but you would be hard pushed to tell. It looks a bit more spruced up but they could have at least taken the opportunity to update the films at the end. Obviously the lame acting is up to its usual standard, so bad it’s great. Well with an early night to write Larry Live and Loud Day Eleven. Friday 8th August 2003. Good Morning, had a little bit of a lie in and didn’t set the Alarm Clock this morning. That’s because we were due to meet my old mate Kevin and his wife Joanne and there son Daniel at the Boardwalk. I’ve known Kevin since I was about 6, which makes him my oldest surviving friend I guess. He was a lot more cute in those days though. We went to two schools together, Longwood Primary, now a nursing home and Greenhead College which was a Girls Grammar School, quite a good school for a couple of teenage boys to go to. When we went it had just changed to a mixed sex school and there were 50 boys and 900 girls. We went down to the food court and just to be different I had Marmalade on Toast for breakfast, how terribly British of me, the Earl Grey Tea, didn’t taste anywhere nice enough in the plastic re-fillable mug, it should only be served in the best china available. Now the reason for this breakfast, is that I have to put on my finest cultural behaviour. This is despite there humble background Joanne and Kevin are, Gasp……… DVC Members. Who would have thought all those years ago, that the little lad with the hole in his knees would turn out to be able to join the elite of society. I’m just grateful that he can spare a few hours to spend with the All Star Movies Great Northern Swamp people. We are humbled in our enormous gratitude. So we perambulated over to the Boardwalk in the old Mitybushy. This was the first time we had gone to the Epcot Resorts with a genuine excuse to be there, meeting the cream of the DVC. So we pulls up with our All Star Id…….. “Hi, we are meeting some DVC friends this morning at 10” So I showed him a British Greeting, the one that Churchill was so fond of, but reversed. And I drove over to the Yacht Club. “Hi, We are going to Bea………………………..” Hmmmmmmmmp. We were 15 minutes late, having legged it around to the Boardwalk. I was tempted to go walk to the Boardwalk gate and say hi to the guard, but I was too hot. So we met with our mates and went swimming in the lovely pool at the Boardwalk, it’s great knowing the “Right” people. I had two goes on the clown slide that is roller coaster themed. We spent about two hours chatting with the Rushforth’s and terribly pleasant it was too. I had this theory that as your shoulders are under the water in the pool, I didn’t need suntan cream, of course I have terrible sun burn now. After our poolside frolicking Greg and I went over to the ESPN shop to see if we could get a baseball bat. No chance this is not a sports shop at all, just hats and T-shirts. Actually given the number of shops on Disney Property, it is a amazing how little there is for sale, well at least anything actually useful. We decided on the All Star Café at the World of Sports, so we drove over there. (You really don’t want to do that on Disney Transportation.) We had a nice lunch there and it is a nice sports café. Better than the NASCAR one at Citywalk. Not much in the way of memorabilia though. I had a steakwich with Onion Rings and I did swapsies with Jill and a Chicken Sandwich. We decided to go shopping after this, and drove to Pointe Orlando. Which is in between Wonderworks and FOA Swartz. Greg managed to get a baseball bat there and a glove. Ed got a keepy up ball, and we looked at half a dozen shops. The toy shop is quite good, but doesn’t compete with Hamley’s in London. I was very very very tempted to buy my self a Hovercraft and I would have done if it wasn’t for the batter charger being the weedy American Voltage our stronger British Stuff would have zapped it. Still I might check these out back in blighty, I fancy a hovercraft………Boys and there toys!! Jill decided she needed to go to the Beltz to visit Gap for this shirt she fancied but hadn’t bought on the last visit. So she did that, I hung out in the Book Shop whilst she did this and also at the Christian Book shop, I almost bought this tape but found my wallet firmly welded shut. Afterwards we went back to the Hotel for a quick drink in the lobby and then it was over to the Comedy Warehouse with the Rushforth’s. We did the first show and it wasn’t a great one, right from the off, a very monosyllabic guy answered the phone, he worked for IBM and was a very boring guy. The rest of the show followed this trend. We did a couple of shows in the Adventures Club and these were more fun. Daniel is quite a little star he was arguing with Emil Bleehall and later he pretended his arms had fallen off with Permelia the Club President. Jill and I had a chat with her about Cotton Towelling Shorts, “It’s a long story!” They often are. Then it was back home and my shoulders were very red and I had a very fitful nights sleep. Well thanks for reading, Larry Live and Loud Day Twelve. Saturday 9th August 2003. Morning folks it’s an early one today. We decided that as the holiday is rapidly running out and we have done what seems like very little in the theme parks we should make a bit of an effort. So we told our little helper Mickey to phone us at 6-30am so we could make to MGM for early entry at 8am sharp. We decided to postpone breakfast to make the task easier to accomplish. So we arrived for our first opening ceremony of the hols, then with the massed throng we marched down to the tower of terror and got a fastpass and then on to Rock n Roller Coaster. Now we have been on the French version, the Florida one has the best building and pre show, but the French have the best effects on the ride. Theirs is all spotlights and neon and looks in the parlance of the young, way cool. But they loose the Lisa Minnelli type Super Stretch lady. Greg and I waited for a front row seat, which is worthwhile in my opinion, coz it has a wow factor one. The harness was a bit of a test for the old sunburn, so after this leonine act of courage, we decided to go to the ABC Commissionary, so whilst I waited for the next fastpass zone to arrive time wise, Jill went for a nice Sausage, Scrambled Eggs and French Toast breakfast for me. I joined just as they got to the table and a veritable feast it was too. With a rather two full tummy we went for our two rides of the Tower of Terror, now we are debating the changes in the Wilmot household. We often discuss world peace or non global damaging transportation systems amongst ourselves, but today it was the turn of the TOT rehab. Basically we could write a thesis on this, but in a nutshell. (Wilmot Wisdom in a Minute) Jill likes the lap-belts and Greg and I think that the drops are too fussy these days, we prefer fewer big ones. The projections in the shaft are cool. Anyway of the two, we liked the second one more. Bigger drops, you see…. We then went to WWTBAM, and did two shows, the first was a dud. The second was good, there was this cool little chap who got into the hot seat by pressing the buttons, and he was OK but watching his family get so excited was great, then the next guy got to the half a million question, and ignored the “Complete Stranger” who was right and blew his chance of a cruise…. Still he beat me, {Mr I can’t get into the hot seat for toffee Wilmot.} I think we went back to the ranch after Millionaire, but still we spent four hours in the park and we kinda felt that we had now “done” MGM. Back at swamp central, I wrote up yesterdays TR and posted it on the internet. I got some replies to my TR and can I thank you all very much for your nice comments over the past few days. To the chap who told me I was very bad for parking at the Beach Club Villas to go to Epcot, can I say that you are so right, and that is why I allowed myself to get sunburnt it was as a punishment for my wrong doing, can I also offer the hand of friendship by saying that if you ever need to go to the Macdonald’s near the All Starz, you can use our car park no problem. Following my TR write up I had a little sleep, about thirty minutes or so, then it was time to go out, the boys went to Disney Quest, though they only stayed an hour or so and came back to the hotel to go swimming because DQ was so packed. Jill and I went to the Magic Kingdom, and I didn’t park sneaky beaky like I suffered the worst fate know to man, the TTC. Having said that it was nice to have a little ride on the monorail, no trip to WDW is complete without that small pleasure. We decided to go to adventureland, being adventurers – Kungaloosh, and so we did the Jungle Cruise, the jokes are as bad as ever, and in the light of Killy Safari it all seems very naff. Then we assuaged the anger of the Tiki Gods, (I’m a very big TR Star and all of RADP drops my name. Who cares about Stringer or Jafar -I’m the one with all the looks and fame!) - At the editing stage I spent ten minutes deciding if to delete that or not I decided to keep it in, but to say. Sorry Kevin – Great reports. Then we walked over to Toontown, via It’s a small world. Then we choo chooed it right around the park, trying to sneak as many backstage views as possible. Then we walked over to Tommorrowland and got ourselves some FPs for Buzz. The in a fit of total bravery, we did Alien Encounter, we were surprised given how many tichy ones were on the attraction that there wasn’t more screaming, I guess 7 year olds are getting tougher, must be all that Saturday morning TV. We then walked over to see Spectromagic in the mass of humanity at the hub. Boy do those people with video cameras with monitors open annoy you, and now we can add digital cameras too. I watched one woman take at least one hundred photos, and everyone was blurred. Just because you can afford an expensive camera it doesn’t mean you can ignore the rules of physics. Low light and moving target means long exposure and panning……..jeesh. I kept hoping her batteries would run out but no such luck. After the Parade we went back to Tommorrowland and did Buzz, Jill was brilliant scoring a whopping 519,000 which made her Space Ace, that probably qualifies her to be Governor of California. Well that’s all for today folks, Change Of Scenery tomorrow, Universal….whooo – Sorry Mickey. Larry Live and Loud Days Thirteen and Fourteen. Sunday and Monday 10th and 11th August 2003. Hi folks well everything good must come to an end and the Disney Portion of this trip is over. But the good news is the holiday continues, at Universal. We decided to take advantage of the “Front of the Line Pass” for the guests who stay in a Universal Hotel. So I joined the Lowes Programme and got a good rate at the Hard Rock Hotel. So on Sunday we drove over to the HRH. Being a rock hotel, I wonder if it is compulsory to trash your room. We are only on the second floor but we could try throwing the TV out of the window, but if we do that we won’t be able to use it to do the checkout! It is a very clever TV, like something from XS Technologies. Chairman Clench would be proud. The hotel is very nice it kind of reminds you of a modern day Hollywood Towers Hotel. The gardens are the nicest that I have ever had in a hotel I have stayed in. (Despite the Neon Guitar in the grounds.) Though the vinyl records in the flower arrangements in the lobby is possibly taking the theme a weenie bit too far. Though you get an Elvis Suit woooowhhooo, personally Cindy Laupers Dress did more for me. It looked a bit dull though, the true colours were not shining through! The pool is great, and the Rushforths are in it as I type. I decided to write to you my dear readers rather than swim. My terrible sun burn has nothing to do with it. We have enjoyed ourselves in the two parks. They are definitely on a par with Disney. The front of the line pass is fantastic. Can you imagine, you go to the front of every queue every time you want to ride, even though the parks are mobbed. If it is a show you get the best seats, it really is a great perk. I guess it would be impossible for Disney to do this, far too many hotel rooms, but they could do it for Concierge I suppose. That might tempt me into a couple of nights each trip. (As long as they don’t get the idea to do it for DVC!!!!) Jill has been very brave and done Dulling Dragons, including two front seat rides on fire and Ice. We are firmly of the opinion that Ice is the Man. She did Hulk as well but that was less popular with Jill coz it bashed her head a little bit. I find it quite smooth and don’t get those sorts of problems. The new stuff, Jimmy Neutron is a Kids Simulator and it is quite good fun, there is a very funny joke at the end to do with dancing that I wont spoil for you. Shrek 4D, boy those guys are taking the Mickey Mouse out of Disney, as in Donkbo and the Tic Room. But the best one is on a sign in the Dungeon…….. Dulock – The Happiest Totalitarian Dictatorship on Earth. The attraction is fun and follows the story from the end of the film. It is kinda of “Honey I Married the Ogre” with a lot of emphasis on the 4D elements. For those who don’t know about 4 D. First D – Height. There is nothing new of any note in the Islands of Adventure, we hadn’t done the Poseidon’s Temple, since the changes a couple of years ago, we had seen the version with the old wizened guy telling tales of the sea. And to be quite frank if a horse was as lame as the new story it would be shot. I think they spend serious millions on this and it is one big Turkey. I guess they will just have to live with it for a few years, but it does nothing for us, other than enjoying the water vortex thingy that is quite cool, but I wont bother going to see it for anther 10 years or so, if it is still there then. Well I don’t want to rattle on about Universal as this is a Disney Trip Report. So I’m going to say good bye to you guys, thanks for sticking with it if you have read the whole thing. We may go out to the Adventures Club tonight depending on when we finish eating with the Rushforths and tomorrow before the flight we are going to take the chaps to have a shottie on the Watermice. Apart from that we have a long journey to look forward to via Detroit again, we need to sort out our damaged luggage with those guys too. (North West Airlines, the luggage throwing champions!) And that will be that. OK the trip Good Points. Meeting Friends. Bad Points. People with Video Cameras with Monitors in your face on rides and shows. Have fun. See you next year. Larry Wilmot larrywilmot747@aol.com Mail a Comment to Larry Wilmot |
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