Disney 2013, Day 9

We had a short day today after the madness of being out until midnight at Mickey's Christmas Party the night before. (These are going out a little out of order; there's not that much to talk about for today, and I'm still trying to remember everything that happened last night. Just blame it on a wily time traveler.) 

Today we went back to Disney's Hollywood Studios, because going on Star Tours four times just isn't enough.

As soon as we arrived we headed over to Hollywood & Vine. This is a buffet style restaurant with characters roaming around. I shook hands with a pirate Katie says is from some Neverland show and got a creepy shoulder massage from a lady in a purple dress with a huge head. Also, there was a bear.

Foodwise, I'm leaning a lot about myself on this trip, as I apparently really like buffets. In fact, I think I was stuffed before I'd even seen half the line of food to take. I ended up eating a bunch of Asian fried chicken (no idea from where in Asia, but it came with little baby corn), garlic mashed potatoes, buttered corn, and some of Katie's shells from the make your own pasta section. The desert section had chocolate-covered apples and little key lime pie bites that weren't bad, but the real star was the banana cream puffs, which I ate like six of. 

After six banana cream puffs, we had no choice but to go on the Indiana Jones stunt show, which I'd never seen before and was very entertaining. Like the movies it's a mix of action and comedy, in this case the comedy taking up time while the sets are moved around and prepared. 

Next up was Voyage of the Little Mermaid, which is a very short live show. The entire thing is only 15 minutes long, and it's very strangely paced. First they do "Under The Sea" with big puppets, which is neat, then an actress comes out with a mermaid tail and does "Part Of Your World," which is nice, and then it gets weird as Ursula comes out, does a super quick version of "Poor Unfortunate Souls", then we super fast forward and it's over and everyone lived happily ever after please exit to your right thank you. It feels like someone designed the first act of a great show and then got bored, and Katie described it as "lame", thus making me OFFICIALLY a bigger Little Mermaid fan. What up!

Studio Backlot Tour

This is a weird ride. You start out by seeing some effects in a water tank (water cannons, fake gunshots, propane going off, etc.), then you ride past two P-51 Mustang props from "Pearl Harbor" (this ride keeps talking about "Pearl Harbor"). The planes had been painted to look like planes from, um, Planes, the movie, with big goofy eyes and smiles, but the voiceover hadn't been updated, so the guy's like "These spectacular props look ready to fly directly into battle!!!". Then you go into a canyon where they set off a huge propane fire and like 70,000 gallons of water, then you drive through the prop department and you're done. We did see Jabba's Sail Barge just sittin' out on the grass, which I think Katie got a picture of. 

Note from Katie: Actually, it was not the sail barge, it was the ship that Luke, Han, and Chewie were put on to be thrown into the Sarlacc. MMHMM.

After this we had a fast pass for one of the most difficult rides to get on in all of Disney. It was time to see what all the fuss was about on

Toy Story Midway Mania!

This is kind of like a super version of Buzz Lightyear's Ranger Spin, where you sit in a vehicle and shoot targets. Instead of having a lever that lets you spin, the car spins around for you, and you just focus on shooting. What makes this so amazing is that you have 3D glasses on and are shooting at huge video screens that show every shot you take and anything you hit getting broken, popped, splattered with pies, etc. (The first section, where you learn to shoot, had the dinosaur from Toy Story hiding behind a target as I blasted it with dozens of pies). I can see why this ride is so popular; it's incredibly satisfying to shoot stuff and watch it go flying in 3D. Katie got a slightly higher score, probably because I had to keep switching arms - unlike the Ranger Spin, you can't hold down the shoot button, you have to keep pulling back on the pop gun. Katie's rough upbringing as a lumberjack in the Canadian Pacific Northwest served her well here.

Next we debated going on "Rock 'n' Roller Coaster(r) Starring Aerosmith Presented by Hanes(r)", but nothing about "Blast off in a stretch limousine through the freeways of Los Angeles to the rockin' tunes of Aerosmith" sounded appealing. So what did we go on?

STAR TOURS

Oh, don't look surprised. This time we got Naboo as the first planet, which I'd never seen before, and made 3P0 very happy as we ended up in a pod race ("I've always wanted to do this!"). For the second planet we got Naboo. That kind of sounds like a disease when you put it that way. "You've got a case of Naboo." (shocked gasps)

Well, I'm getting a little punchy, so I guess I better wrap up here. Tomorrow we're doing Epcot again, and after that (sign) coming home to (big sigh) Albany. 

Disney 2013 Day Eight

Today we did Mickey's Magical Christmas Party. The way this works is that you buy a ticket (about $55), and in return you get to stay in the Magic Kingdom as everyone else is kicked out from 7 PM to 1 AM. And you also get free cookies, hot chocolate, apples, and apple juice. At first, I'll admit that I scoffed at the price, but at what ended up being less than $10 an hour, the atmosphere really is special. It's not just the thinner crowd (although that's part of it); Some combination of less people, how surprisingly dark the Magic Kingdom gets at night, and the atmosphere of a brightly lit up distant castle and dark walkways punctuated by giant glowing candy canes where you can get free food and drinks really does something to you. I'll return to this theme a little bit at the end, but it's something to keep in mind as we strolled from ride to ride actually feeling cold for once in Florida.

But before all that we hopped the monorail and went to the Polynesian resort, where we stayed last time, for a nostalgic dinner at the Kona Cafe. We both got the pan-asian noodles, which is basically a heap of onions, peas, peppers, noodles, and chicken (me) or tofu (katie). After that was the famous banana creme brulee, which was just as good as I remembered, but I had too many pan-asian noodles to finish it all. 

One monorail trip later and we were at the Magic Kingdom, where we got our plastic wristbands that marked us out was one of the 1% allowed to stay while the rest of the plebes returned to their hovels and makeshift mud huts. We arrived at around 6:30, and to get out of the crowd we ducked into Pirates of the Caribbean. In a Christmas miracle, there was nobody taking flash photographs (!!!!). Also, in the bathroom there was a loop of steel drum covers of Christmas songs going. 

We both got jackets - I got a black Pirates one while Katie got a truly impressive light pink Pirates jacket emblazoned with pictures of the Black Pearl from the first movie and fake I (heart) JACK tattoos. 

And guess what was fixed and running???

IT'S A SMALL WORLD

it's a world of laughter, a world or tears
it's a world of hopes, it's a world of fears
there's so much that we share
that it's time we're aware
it's a small world after all!

it's a small world after all!!
it's a small world after all!!!
it's a small world after all!!!!
it's a small, small world!!!!!!!

In all seriousness, I shouldn't have eaten those magic mushrooms before going on this ride. Also, there was someone behind us lustily cursing on It's a Small World. I don't even know how that happens.

Peter Pan's Flight

This is one of the rides that's normally just about impossible to get on; during the day it's usually never below 90 minutes. I can see why the wait time is long as it's pretty unusual - you get in pirate boats and fly over scenes from Peter Pan. The ride is all in the dark and there's a lot of day-glo paint that makes for a very neat effect. I'm not the biggest Peter Pan man myself, but it's hard not to feel at least a little exhilarated at the beginning of the ride as you fly through Wendy's window (also a good name for an art supply store) over a dark London rendered in such detail that there are moving cars over the bridges. 

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

This is a cute ride where I couldn't understand anything that was happening. I think Winnie the Pooh wanted honey and got stuck in a tree and Tigger bounced around being manic. You know, that one.

Mickey's PhilharMagic

We tried to see this on our second day and the "magic piano" broke. With the Christmas party in full swing, there was no line (the theater was maybe 1/15th full and one of the employees dryly noted that "we're not expecting a full house"). This is a 3D movie where Donald steals Mickey's magical hat (apparently Mickey being a sorcerer is canon now) and ends up on a montage through songs from the 90's classic Disney movies (Beauty and the Beast, Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Lion King). It's cute, and at the end Donald gets blown out of a tuba, and if you look at the back of the theater you can see his big duck butt sticking out of a broken section of wall. My only issue here is that Donald is huge at this point; his butt is as big as a car, and he could do some real damage if he got loose. I think this is where I make my apparently trademark "concern" face.

Under the Sea ~ Journey of the Little Mermaid

Why yes, I am typing the names of these rides directly from the park map. I don't have much to say about this; this is the fourth time we went on the ride this vacation, and it still looks great. It was very strange seeing a row of empty clamshells behind us. Mickey's Christmas Party, y'all.

Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover

On our way to this ride fireworks started going off. It was kind of scary since the first firework sounded like a gunshot, and they didn't get any quieter as we wandered over to Tomorrowland and got on the PeopleMover. (No, I'm not going to keep typing it like that.) I'm afraid Disney has spoiled me for fireworks; the sheer amount of them they send up is truly impressive, and watching them from the People Mover was quite relaxing.

Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin

I forgot to mention that we went on this with the Webers way back on Day 3. Seems like so long ago. This is another one of those rides that normally has a massive wait time we were able to get right on thanks to the smaller crowd. In this ride, you sit in a little car with two laser blasters and shoot at targets. You can use a little joystick to spin yourself around, usually to the amusement of the people in the car behind you, and as we found out, you apparently get points for shooting the space rangers in the car ahead of you in the back, as I definitely got at least 100 points by keeping the trigger held down and strafing the Webers. Weather that means you get points just for shooting or that the Webers are agents of the evil Emperor Zurg I'll leave up to the reader, but it probably doesn't pay to take any chances.

Oh, I almost forgot - this is also one of those rides where your picture is taken and you can see it up afterwards. Both times I looked "concerned," although the Webers looked great on the first go-round, and at the Christmas Party the hands down winner were two teen girls taking a selfie where one had her tongue sticking out. (I think I got 100 points for shooting her earlier; her tongue may be working for Zurg.)

Stitch's Great Escape!

This is a cute theater show where you're a guard at your first day of training and Stitch is captured and (checks title) he escapes and then he teleports away and the head guy is like "Good job," even though you didn't do anything and the space slug police officer played by Kevin McDonald is like "If you come back tomorrow turn off your cell phone!" (because nobody ever turns their cell phone off. Stop texting during the ride!). The end.

After that we wandered back over and did Haunted Mansion and Pirates again. By this time it was midnight and the park was emptying out as the park closed at 1 AM. As we ambled down main street under Christmas carols and Disney-generated snow, I have to admit that this was money well spent; Mickey's Magical Christmas Party isn't really a "party," but it does live up to the rest of its name.

Tomorrow: EPCOT one more time!!!!