Well, it actually started out with some quite literal Disney saturation. I set the alarm in the room and the older boy and I got up early and went to Typhoon Lagoon again, for the extra morning hour. Now, this was actually pretty nice!!! We got to go on several slides with relatively short lines.
The coolest, something I've not seen the likes of before, was a set of slides called "The Crushin' Gusher", which instead of being fully dependant on gravity and downward flowing water, has several places where it has high volume water jets that propel you upwards for a portion of the slide. We went on it three times. Many of the other slides were practically walk ons. Cool.
They also have a shark encounter attraction there that we went on. We had gone through the wrecked submarine that has port holes through which you can view the inside of this tank. One of the props in the line was an anti-shark cage, which prompted me to recite the dialogue from Jaws about the shark cage to the boy:
Quint: What you got here? A portable shower or a monkey cage?
Hooper: Anti-shark cage.
Quint: Anti-shark cage... You go inside the cage? [Hooper nods] Cage goes in the water? [Hooper nods] You go in the water? [Hooper nods] Shark's in the water? [Hooper nods] Our shark. [Hooper nods]
Quint: [he sarcastically sings] Farewell and adieu to you fair Spanish ladies. Farewell and adieu you ladies of Spain. For we've received orders for to sail back to Boston. And so nevermore shall we see you again....
We did that several times the rest of the trip (because, what else is there to do while you're standing in line, anyway???) and now he's pretty much got it memorized. He'll have to see that movie someday.
We had to leave fairly early from there, though, because Enterprise was coming to pick me up for a car rental!!! I had purchased tickets to see the launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour's STS-118 mission. This is one of those things that worked out very cool, I'd requested the time off at the end of last year, and it just so happened to be when there was going to be a launch, I found out many months later. The fact that we were planning to vacation in Hawaii kept me from even thinking of this, and even after we'd changed to Florida it was weeks before I even thought of the Kennedy Space Center being there. For the launch day the visitor center is closed, but the tickets include a day pass for another day within seven days, so we went to the visitor center this very day.
Having a rental, we were able to buy a few meals away from Disney parks or resorts, so the cost of the rental was near offset by the savings of being able to do that!!! However, there was another new experience awaiting. They have these things they call "toll roads" in Florida. They actually stop the cars and you have to pay to drive on their roads!!! Strange and stranger.
They had many cool displays and attractions. The boys got to have their picture taken with Artoo Detoo, and they had a stage presentation, "Mad Mission to Mars", which was nice, geared to kids, and the older got to play the part of the astronaut. There was an IMAX theatre there with a Tom Hanks movie about space (I think it was called "Space") playing. Very well done.
We left from there that evening and stopped at a Waffle House franchise we had seen on the way in. Good eating, and they had a juke box with more songs than I would have imagined about waffles and waffle houses on it. After that we stopped at a Wal Mart to pick up some sodas and snacks, as well as another bag to bring back all the extra swag we were acquiring on our trip. After that we did quite a bit of searching for a place to buy some rum to mix in with all the soda we'd bought.
It was well into night by the time we got back to our room, but the boys wanted to go swimming. OK, some drinks for mom and dad, and some swimming for the boys!!! A good time was had by all.
The next morning we went to the other Disney water park, Blizzard Beach, which does interesting things with the themeing. It is a winter wonderland water park, where you can hear the music of The Beach Boys and Jimmy Buffett segue into Frosty the Snowman.
We didn't stay there very late, either. The launch was on this day, and Marge from the Waffle House (I don't know if her name was Marge or not, but it would be a perfect fit if it were) had warned us that the traffic can get pretty bad on launch days. She was right. The drive out and back that day were hellish. There was quite a lot of waiting for something to launch while we were there, too. We had to be there by 3 at the latest, and the launch was at 6:25. Fortunately, there was an elaborate play apparatus and a run-through-me type water fountain there, as well as a big screen carrying the launch, as well as having Alfred M. Worden, who was one of the crew on the Apollo 15 talking about the differences in space travel in the 36 years (nearly to the day) between these flights.
However, the launch itself more than made up for all the traffic and waiting!!!
We had to leave fairly early from there, though, because Enterprise was coming to pick me up for a car rental!!! I had purchased tickets to see the launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour's STS-118 mission. This is one of those things that worked out very cool, I'd requested the time off at the end of last year, and it just so happened to be when there was going to be a launch, I found out many months later. The fact that we were planning to vacation in Hawaii kept me from even thinking of this, and even after we'd changed to Florida it was weeks before I even thought of the Kennedy Space Center being there. For the launch day the visitor center is closed, but the tickets include a day pass for another day within seven days, so we went to the visitor center this very day.
Having a rental, we were able to buy a few meals away from Disney parks or resorts, so the cost of the rental was near offset by the savings of being able to do that!!! However, there was another new experience awaiting. They have these things they call "toll roads" in Florida. They actually stop the cars and you have to pay to drive on their roads!!! Strange and stranger.
They had many cool displays and attractions. The boys got to have their picture taken with Artoo Detoo, and they had a stage presentation, "Mad Mission to Mars", which was nice, geared to kids, and the older got to play the part of the astronaut. There was an IMAX theatre there with a Tom Hanks movie about space (I think it was called "Space") playing. Very well done.
We left from there that evening and stopped at a Waffle House franchise we had seen on the way in. Good eating, and they had a juke box with more songs than I would have imagined about waffles and waffle houses on it. After that we stopped at a Wal Mart to pick up some sodas and snacks, as well as another bag to bring back all the extra swag we were acquiring on our trip. After that we did quite a bit of searching for a place to buy some rum to mix in with all the soda we'd bought.
It was well into night by the time we got back to our room, but the boys wanted to go swimming. OK, some drinks for mom and dad, and some swimming for the boys!!! A good time was had by all.
The next morning we went to the other Disney water park, Blizzard Beach, which does interesting things with the themeing. It is a winter wonderland water park, where you can hear the music of The Beach Boys and Jimmy Buffett segue into Frosty the Snowman.
We didn't stay there very late, either. The launch was on this day, and Marge from the Waffle House (I don't know if her name was Marge or not, but it would be a perfect fit if it were) had warned us that the traffic can get pretty bad on launch days. She was right. The drive out and back that day were hellish. There was quite a lot of waiting for something to launch while we were there, too. We had to be there by 3 at the latest, and the launch was at 6:25. Fortunately, there was an elaborate play apparatus and a run-through-me type water fountain there, as well as a big screen carrying the launch, as well as having Alfred M. Worden, who was one of the crew on the Apollo 15 talking about the differences in space travel in the 36 years (nearly to the day) between these flights.
However, the launch itself more than made up for all the traffic and waiting!!!
3 comments:
I LOVE love the pic of the boys in the water! Too cute! They are having so much fun!
Forever
pink
doilmro: wow!
Oh yea
Yidlrof
sometimes, I make sense only to my self
haha
Thats why YOU are the word verb king and I'm just wordy
This sounds like a great vacation! My dad would have killed to go to a space launch, my mother would have been bored out of her mind.
I love the dialogue, now I feel like I need to watch that movie (whoops is my age showing?)
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