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Family, birthday parties, Star Wars rides & Fireworks
This morning it was difficult to get my wife out of bed. And, she was on the high side too. Rolling her down hill seemed mean.
So, I let her sleep and at the hotel breakfast buffet.
I also made sure everything was charged up for the day.
I did, eventually, get my wife out of bed.
Then, we set off for my cousin’s.
She lives way up in a building.
But, it is a great view.
Her neighbor is doing some extensive renovations, so we fled the sound of hammering and drilling and went outside and sat by the pool for a while.
There it became a game of moving the chairs to keep the sun off of us.
We also walked around and looked at the wildlife.
Apparently these ducks are not good for anything. Even the alligators won’t eat them as they taste so bad.
They’re non-native and invasive. And, they seem to scare other ducks out of the water.
They also have no fear of people and will walk right up to you as this one did to me.
I could have sworn these were some sort of palm tree. But, the sign on the bottom calls them something else.
They have a Holly as well.
The squirrels are also bold and use the wall as a highway.
In December, it is nice to see flowers.
For lunch we walked over to the sandwich shop near there were we ate last year as well.
Some interesting vehicles in the lot.
Some of the folks reading this might go to that mall for something other than the deli.
Then, we set off to see the place where my cousin volunteers her time a couple of days each week. This involved diving through Kissimmee.
To me, driving through Kissimmee is like this.
There are still a lot of places there for sale. And, I don’t mean houses. I mean castles and other tourist attractions.
Sometimes it is tempting to buy a castle and start a full time Phoenix show. Then, I say, it is tempting to win the lottery too. But, that doesn’t mean it would ever happen.
But, we got there.
It is a place that works with make a wish for kids and gives families a place to stay when at the parks and such.
Good stuff.
I’m not sure about the locust there.
Maybe that’s to plague people with if they don’t support such a good cause?
We had a tour of the place, and then set off for my other cousin’s birthday partying.
Once more through Kissimmee and its big oranges.
We got there and were happy to see it wasn’t too crowded for the week before Christmas.
We headed over to The Grand Floridian.
There I proved to be not smart enough to figure out parking. We drove in, were sent to a “self” parking area. But, I couldn’t figure out how to get in. So, we drove back and I paid for valet parking.
The hotel seems very nice.
There was a discussion of lying about where we were going and the lack of passes that was the result. But, over all it seemed like it was a good choice.
They have a very large ginger bread house there.
I do wonder about the people who have to work inside of it.
In many stories, the people who live inside of houses made of such things rarely live happily ever after. So, I wonder if it is a punishment detail.
We had the tea. It was very nice. They care a lot about how things look there. To the point where those of us who had dark clothing had our napkins switched to black so we didn’t get the wrong colored lint on them.
There was quite the selection of foods.
And, the deserts were quite something.
Discussion of what to do next raged on for some time.
I wanted to go on the updated Star Tours ride based on Star Wars. I was alone in this.
So, my wife, cousin and Hank who was there with my cousin, went off to the Boardwalk while I got in my car and drove over to the park with the Star Wars ride.
Once I got in the car I told Siri on my iPhone I wanted to listen to my Star Wars playlist. It started off with the Imperial theme. As it was the Darth Vader billboards that made me want to go to that, it seemed very appropriate.
I parked some distance away from the park and took the tram over.
I had been to the old ride more than 10 years ago, and didn’t remember where it was in the park. So, I asked someone. They had never heard of it. Billboards all along the highway. Signs at the entrance to Disney property. Top billing on the flyer they give you when you come in. He didn’t know they had it.
But, he did find it on my map (which was’t so useful as I had already done that) but did know where we were (which was useful as it was in the middle of some sort of parade and live performance and hard for me to figure out where I was.)
Of course, once I got close the Imperial Walker was a big clue.
The line was about an hour long and I spent a lot of time under that walker thinking “how do you tell if it is a male or female?”
It is nice to see some old friends.
Once I went on the first time, I got back in line again.
This time the Star Wars stage act was going on. They have kids do “same side opposite side” with Darth Vader.
I thought the funny bit was Stormtroupers harassing people who tried to go down the express line when they shouldn’t.
In the old days, the ride was always the same. You tried to go to Endor, ended up in a space battle and took a run at the Death Star.
I loved that ride.
This time there are different starts, first acts, messages then final acts.
The first time:
Darth Vader tried to stop us from taking off. We escaped to Hoth and had to fight our way through walkers, Princess Leia asked us for help, we were chased by Boba Fett and flew through the second Death Star to dock with the rebel fleet.
My second time:
A probe droid tried to stop us. We escaped to Tattooine and got mixed up in a pod race. Yoda asked us for help. We had to fight through the battle of Coruscant to deliver a rebel spy.
The third time:
Vader, Hoth, Yoda, Coruscant
Fourth:
Vader, Kashyyyk, Admiral Ackbar, Coruscant
The first time it took and hour. The second time 25 minutes. The third time about half way up the line they asked for anyone by themselves. So, I skipped to the front.
The fourth time was about as fast as I could walk to the front.
I feel a bit bad about how much it cost to get in. But, I really liked it.
Then, back on the tram and out to the car.
My cousin guided me by phone to where they were.
There we waited for the fireworks to start.
It was a pretty good show.
But, then we were tired and went back to the hotel.
It was a pretty good day. But, now I’m tired.
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Yeah, me too!!
..Although that means you wouldn't have been able to sneak past the Stormtroopers and gotten to the front of the line.
I had no idea those rides (unless it's the only one, doubtful) would have different scenarios and time lengths.
An hour vs 25 minutes seems really strange to me, I'd have thought Disney would be so meticulous that every ride be the exact same time
so that noone in the park felt jipped, or, that they would be able to hit as many rides in a day as they could.
But my memories are from nearly 25 (?) years ago :/
"male or female" AT-AT *spit/drink* HA!!
Oh, and the odd duck is a Muscovy duck, and were introduced into Mexico and Sudamerica...So that might explain why other ducks don't like them so much :o
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I think that was the wait time in line, not the ride time. Doncha know, theme parks are more about waiting in line than actually doing anything. ;-)
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The wait is highly variable.
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As far as the lines are concerned, those vary depending upon time and date and whether or not you have a fast pass.
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I've seen Muscovy ducks as far north as Cleveland, OH - and even there, they are aggressive and tend to keep the native ducks aways.
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