Tragedy & Triumph: Beth’s Trip Report – Day9: The Morning After About This Page:

[bfth]

Wednesday, September 12th

Up at 6:45. Pretending like it’s just another day at WDW. After all the weather is just like it has been for the past 9 days, some sunshine, but with showers on the way (and tropical storm Gabrielle scheduled to make an appearance later in the week).

We decide to go to Epcot this morning. Steve had plans to meet his friend Brian for lunch this afternoon at Epcot. And Brian is still up for it.

We had heard that the parks would be opened as usual at 8 AM. So we catch a bus to Epcot a little after 7. When we walk in, we are the only ones there. Or at least the only guests there. There is a woman who is handing out little slips of paper to people as they come in (don’t know how one woman was supposed to do all that).

The paper reads: “For your safety we have heightened our security efforts at the Walt Disney World Resort. All packages, parcels, backpacks, etc. will be inspected prior to entering our parks. Our thanks for your cooperation.”

It’s overcast, but we manage to find a semi-dry bench by the turnstyles. Slowly people start to arrive. For a good 10 minutes or so, it’s only us. Then another couple comes in. Then some more people. I’d say by the time the Jamitors (the drummers that play “garbage cans” at the entrance to the park before it opens) started their “show” there were maybe 50 people there. Not a lot, but there were people.

How can you not get in the mood for Epcot when the Jamintors are playing? I love these guys. Just wish they didn’t keep moving around – none of my three photos came out! (now you know why I am considering digital). We got in front of one of the turnstyles to see them, which meant we were first in line (or at least in that line)

Right before the park opened, security was preparing to check in bags. My bag was checked before the park opened. I have to be honest, she really didn’t look very well. My bag had 2 compartments. One big one (which she looked in) and a little pocket on the outside (which she didn’t), And while the pocket on the outside is small, it is still large enough to hold most of my stuff (wallet, film, medications, sunglasses, etc.). It could have held more.

Park opens and Steve & I head to Test Track. Here it was day 9 and we hadn’t done this yet! (Because of the rain we hadn’t used our front of the line passes that we had been given on Saturday). We go right up. There is no one there. A few people line up behind us and we are taken right into the “briefing room.” Believe it or not, this is the first time that Steve and I have ridden together (side by side that is). We don’t believe in unnecessary waiting, so we have always ridden single. But this time we don’t have to. We climb into the back seat of a car (bummer --- didn’t get the front) and off we go. We are literally the first manned car out that morning! Woo Hoo! For just a few minutes you can forget your troubles while your zooming around the outside of the building at 60 mph! J We have so much fun that when we pull in and the CM asks us if we want to go again, we (and the people in front) say yes. Around we go again. Woo Hoo. We can go around again if we want, but we’re a bit wind blown, so we get out (3 times in a room on a non-early entry day in Epcot – now how often would you get that offer? If it weren’t for such a terrible tragedy it would have been the coolest thing).

We head out and over to the Universe of Energy (now we’ve seen the secret behind the scene bit, we need to see it “regular&#8221 [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]. But before we do, we stop off in Mouse Gears. No one in there. I maybe saw 10 other customers.

I spy some Epcot shirts on MAJOR SALE! Long sleeve t-shirt with Epcot logo on it reduced to $10! The short sleeve version I had bought Steve back in May at full price! Steve & I both pick one up and Steve finds a really cute Tink shirt that he insists on getting me.

We had some problems making our purchases. Another sign that things are as sunny as I would like to be. The woman has to dial in to get clearance on Steve’s Amex card. All goes through after a few minutes, but it took much longer than usual.

Now it’s on to Ellen’s Energy Adventure and a journey through dinosaurs and Jeopardy (Stupid Judy, Stupid Judy).

After that it’s over to Wonders of Life where we do all 3 major attractions. Body Wars still makes me queasy and I’m looking at my feet for much of the time (apparently there is a major edit in the film, which is visible. Apparently the ride was even rougher, so this “missing bit” was edited out. Steve spots it and asks me if I caught it. I’m too busy looking at my shoe and convincing myself that I can make it). My favorite attraction is Cranium Command. (Where do you think you are Disney World?!?). Even if it screams 1980s, it’s still very funny and good for all ages. And finally, the Making of Me. A sweet film, if nothing else.

By then it’s about 11:45 and we’re supposed to meet Brian by SE around 12ish. So we head out and wait. We stand right under SE, which is good because it starts to pour! Epcot in the rain, this is beginning to be an all too familiar situation.
Because of the bad weather and the heightened security, Brian doesn’t arrive until nearly 12:30. But arrive he does, with a giant Universal umbrella!

We are thinking of having lunch at Le Cellier, but first Steve wants to ride SE. Actually he wants me to ride SE with Brian. You see Brian used to be a CM at SE. And he has lots of stories about the attraction. So Steve and I get into a car and Brian gets in the one behind us. Of course, the CMs working the attraction know Brian so there is all sorts of bruhaha before we “take off”.

I love this ride and it’s one of Steve’s favorites too. Brian tells us that in the scene where the American boy is talking via video phone to the Asian girl used to just be a boy’s room set up. And that hidden under the bed used to be a Playboy (to make it more realistic as a boy’s room! ) And that the space used to be a popular place for people to hop out of their cars at. Brian didn’t know why, but for some reason people liked to get out of their cars and get on the bed. It was a frequent area where they would have to stop the ride and pull people out. There are also a few horror stories as well. Just remember there are reasons why you need to stay inside your vehicle with your arms (or forward facing tentacles) inside. No matter what the attraction is, pay attention to the safety rules. Horrible things do happen and Brian told me about some of them. But as I recall, all of the awful injuries happened because guests were NOT paying attention to the rules. So PLEASE, hands inside, no getting out in the middle of the ride, no dipping your fingers in the water, etc. It really is for your own safety.

After riding SE, we had to wait for Brian (who was accosted by SE CMs who had to talk to him). Then the three of us headed to Le Cellier for lunch. Even though we had no PS, we had no problem getting right in. I spoke with the chef and was able to have a salad with beef it in (don’t remember exactly what it was called). It was similar to the Beef Teriyaki salad I had back in December at the Kona Café. It was delicious. We had a very enjoyable lunch. I felt as if the three of us had been friends for a long time (even though this was my first time meeting Brian).

After lunch Brian had to head back to work and Steve and I did O Canada. I really like this film, but rumor has it, that some Canadians don’t and that the film will be redone soon.

By now the rain had stopped. So Steve & I headed over to see Journey Into Your Imagination (boy do you get a blast of air when the “train” goes by. It really takes my breath away some times – and not in a good way). And then over to HiStA.

We had spent a good 7 hours in the park by now and Steve wanted to head back to the room and see what was going on in the world. So we catch the bus back to the hotel (which took a while, even though there weren’t many people).

The news was that airlines were grounded indefinitely. There was no real time frame given. We were starting to get a bit apprehensive about getting home. My brother had volunteered to drive down (in my new Ford Escape) and bring us home. I didn’t think that was a good idea. We thought about possibly renting a car. But the idea of driving all that way wasn’t thrilling me (Steve, being a NYC kid has no license). Plus I had been hearing that rental cars were at a premium. Rumor had it that cars were hard to come by. So Steve decided to try calling Amtrak. We figured that would be a mess too, but luckily, he was only on hold for about 10-15 minutes. Now normally that would have been a long wait, but things being as they were…

Steve told the Amtrak representative that we were looking for a train from Orlando to Penn Station in Newark, NJ. The rep asked when. Steve said whenever we could go. He was told the first available train we could get on would be Sunday. There was a Sunday morning train that would get into Penn station on Monday morning (during rush hour) or there was a Sunday afternoon train that would get us into Penn Station in the middle of the afternoon on Monday (before rush hour). So Steve made a reservation for 2 seats on Sunday afternoon’s train. (A sleeper car would have been nice, but at over $500 that wasn’t happening). We figured this way we had a back up plan up plan. We could cancel the train tickets if need be for a small fee.

Now we needed to go down to the front desk and extend our stay. We told them that we were supposed to fly on Friday, but we might need to stay till Sunday. They said it was no problem. They gave us new room keys that would keep us in the room until Sunday morning. And we would pay the same rate as we were currently paying (I know some people got to stay free in the resorts, but we didn’t. L It wasn’t offered to us and we just wanted to keep a roof over our head).

Then I decided to call my office (via 800 #) to tell them that I probably wouldn’t be in on Monday as planned. It wasn’t going to be any problem, but I did just want to make them aware. I also called my brother and him of our plans and Steve talked to his mother. Now all the family knew of our plans and wouldn’t be worrying about us.

For once it was looking like it wasn’t going to rain that night (after raining hard for a couple of hours in the early afternoon). So we decided to head over to MGM to see Fantasmic.

We got to MGM around 7 and headed straight for the theatre (after my bag was checked. This check was much more thorough I thought). There were quite a few people there, but we managed to get a seat on the left hand side. Not all the way on the end, but maybe the 2nd or 3rd section in from the left and pretty much in the middle of the row.

I’m really glad we got to see this before we left. I really like Fantasmic and after yesterday’s events I really needed to see Mickey “win”. It’s sappy or silly (or maybe both), but I was really emotional. And seeing Mickey Mouse really made me happy and sad at the same time. Especially at the end when Mickey makes his really big appearance. It was just great. I guess it was a real stress reliever for me.

We waited for the stadium to clear out a bit (it was pretty crowded). Then we made our way out (by going down and then going back up the steps).

Somewhere within all of this, we did eat something from the Roaring Folks (I ate a lot of pizza while I was there). I just can’t remember when (before or after MGM)..

The news when we get back is still no word on when the airports will be back. With only a day and a half to go till our scheduled flight home, the train is looking more and more like it.

Go off to bed with plans of doing EE into MK tomorrow.

[maggy_1]

Beth13, great report and I told you why Canadian like me don't love the 360° film. In 1967 in Montreal we have an exposition during 1 year and the Expo represents lots of country like World Showcase but bigger and we saw the same film you saw this year and I hope for 2002 they rehab the film. After the year from Expo the Canadian pavillon still open and my parents took me there to much time I think that's the reason for me [img]images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/img]
Hope they change for my trip in august

Chantal [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]