To save on time we were eating breakfast in our room, simply cereal and milk from our bar fridge but it meant that we didn't have to spend heaps of time waiting in line and we could get into our day ASAP. Frankly the kids were outstanding, we had them up early every day, racing them through a shower and breakfast and then at night they had to share a room with us and go to sleep with the lights on as we watched some TV or read a book. They did a great job, I'm sure I would have been whinging my butt off.
There were two days that were already pretty much arranged, at least in terms of the park destination. Sunday had to be Disney-MGM Studios because I had booked dinner at the restaurant in the park to take advantage of a special deal that included reserved seats for the evening light show called Fantasmic. 'The Book' advises waiting in line up to 2 hours before hand to ensure good seats at Fantasmic but by booking dinner we got a special pass that allowed us to skip the line and walk in just before the show started. Reality was that it probably wouldn't have mattered where we sat, the view would have been good from almost anywhere, oh well dinner was great. Anyway I'm getting ahead of myself, I should start at the beginning of the day not the end... We arrived at Disney-MGM before it opened and once inside walked to the Rock'n'Roller coaster, where nearly everyone else who had turned up early went as well. Cam couldn't ride as he was too short so Jo took the girls and I took a FastPass/RiderSwitch so I could skip the line as soon as Jo finished and could look after Cam, Disney really look after families especially if you have one or more kids who don't meet the ride requirements. Sadly while the girls waited in line Abbie heard the voiceover talking about the ride going upside-down in the dark and was scared off, Jo ended up coming out of the ride, dropping the girls with me and then going back in. By the time she was done Cam was pretty upset that he hadn't gone on a ride yet so I had to skip the coaster so we could go to the Hollywood Tower of Terror which he could ride.
My only real regret from our Disney trip was not getting ride Rock'n'Roller as we never made it back to that ride. The main attraction, apart from the fact that it's a looping, corkscrewing coaster in near darkness, is the launch which goes from stand-still to 100kph in 2.3 seconds, just like a carrier catapult [sigh]. Oh well, can't win em all.
Abbie, by now a little freaked out I think, refused to go on the Tower of Terror. This ride is based around a Twilight Zone theme and has a 'Drop Zone' style free-fall ride located inside hotel lifts. You go into the hotel, walk through the spooky surroundings as the Disney effects and actors set the scene and then take the lift to the top floor. Of course the lift doesn't get there, some weird Twilight Zoney stuff happens and your lift ends up yo-yo'ing through 14 stories as you switch between accelerating up and then free-falling down, the launches and plummets randomised each time apparently. Anyway, Cam and Jazz were game so we went in and Jo stayed with Abs. I was pretty impressed with Cam, he rode it like a trooper and enjoyed himself, I think he was less freaked out than some of the adults, maybe he was just too young to think he was in danger. After the ride we met up with Jo and Jazz was game to go again, she used her RiderSwitch pass and they both went straight back in. Cam, Abs and I looked through the T-shirts... each ride has a shop at it's exit, you have to walk through the shop to exit the ride. So once you've finished your ride you can check the photo they took of you (usually looking stupid, well I did although I'm sure that's just normal for me) then by all the ride-themed merchandise. Mostly we didn't buy anything, which on reflection maybe was a bad idea cos there's a few things I wanted to get but we assumed would be available at our resort shop (and they weren't), might be able to get them online, I'll have to check that out.Now everyone had ridden except Abs so in trying to keep the action up, but not too high, we though that Star Tours might work out. This is a Star Wars themed ride where you sit in a simulator and it bucks and rolls in time with the projected movie on the large screen in front the idea being that it tricks your mind into thinking that your spinning and turning when in reality you're not. Honestly it was awesome! Not just cos I'm a Star Wars nerd either, the effect of the bucking simulator combined with the visuals really had you thinking you were diving at Mach 2 down into the DeathStar trench, really cool. Next up was the Lights, Motors, Action Stunts show which was very cool, some of the backwards driving was unbelievable, until they showed us that they had two stunt cars, one built forwards and the other built with the driver facing the other way, it only looked like he was driving backwards, nice trick. They swapped between the cars almost seamlessly. Ya just gotta keep moving at these parks! The Indiana Jones stunt show was okay, but we had to sit behind a stupid false rock and so the kids missed a good view, in any case it wasn't too special, they did three main screens from the first movie, some crowd participation and a few gags and we kept out of the sun for 30 minutes or so which was a good thing. Time to break for lunch and catch our breath. There were lots of other things to see and do including the back-lot tour (a disappointment), Muppets 3D, in a similar vein to the Bug show at Animal Kingdom, the Great Movie ride where we were carried through animatronic scenes from classic movies like Fistfull of Dollars, Mary Poppins, Alien and Wizard of Oz. The Voyage of the Little Mermaid was just silly, a 15 minute lip-sync'ed semi-live show with 3 scenes from the movie just acted/sung out, but the dumbest attraction was the Narnia/Lion/Witch/Wardrobe setup which was simply a blatant marketing drive to sell the DVD (just out! and only $24.95 plus tax), that's 15 minutes of my life that Disney owes me, there might have been air-con but I hate paying for the pleasure of watching ads (oh wait, that's how PayTV works... darn).
But although not all the attractions were good Disney-MGM then served up a real highlight, perhaps the best experience at Disney for the whole trip.... The Jedi Academy. We waited around for 20 or so minutes and then a Jedi Knight came out, all kitted up and did some nice light sabre moves. He then asked for volunteers from the audience to come train with him and Jazz and Cam got picked. Abs was a real trooper though and didn't get upset. After putting on their robes and getting a retractable light sabre each they were given a run down on basic combat moves. Then the good stuff, with a bit of evil fanfare Darth Vader and two Storm Troopers arrived on stage in full kit, nice! Each kids had to fight Vadar using the moves from the training, you've probably seen the look on Cam's face as he ducked under Vaders slashing sabre, he was really into it, Jazz too! The people running the show really had it together and worked with the kids really well. If a kid did a good job and nearly hit Vader the two Storm Troopers would walk menacingly towards the kid with their blasters drawn, at which point the Jedi Master directed the kids to 'use the Force' and push the troopers back with their hand, really classic and all us parents were laughing and having a ball too. I got some good video I think so it'll definitely make the highlight reel once I get it done (done? started I mean...).
So that brings us to the end of the day, dinner at Hollywood And Vine was really good, a very nice buffet, the prime rib was outstanding! and then just enough time to make it to Fantasmic which was hyped up by the 'Book' as 'worth the cost of admission to Disney-MGM on it's own', seriously the author needs to stop doing crack. Either that or he/she has pretty low expectations, it was an okay fireworks and laser show which mostly featured clips from Disney movies projected onto water sprayed fountain-like into the air. Mickey made some Fantasia type moves and there was a witch, a big mechanical dragon and finally mini-paddle boat complete with costumed Disney characters. The kids enjoyed it, I was disappointed but I guess I deserved it, I'll never read a guide book again, unless the author gets some help from Addicts Anonymous anyway. Sure enough we weren't in bed until after 10pm, I'm not sure exactly what the time was... and we had another full day planned for tomorrow, Epcot! At least the start wasn't too early, only had to be at the gate around 9am, nice.
