Coast-to-Coast Disney 2011 Trip Report: Mme. & M. Bricker's Zany Holiday

WDWFigment · Aug 2, 2011

In spite of our plan to develop a strategy, we didn’t end up with much of a plan. We began identifying the likely locations for some of the questions, grouping them together, and heading to the appropriate pavilions.

The Hunt at EPCOT was 4 hours long, and because of the fast-paced nature, I didn’t have any time to stop and take photos. It was probably the first 4 consecutive hours in a Disney park since 2006 during which I hadn’t taken a photo! (The photos you see among the text describing the Hunt were all taken earlier in the morning--I just held them off so there would be something to break up the text a bit.)

There were three categories of questions: one point questions that could be readily ascertained from details in the parks, 5 point questions that required answering one question, with subsequent questions dependent on the previous answers, and 10 point questions along the lines of the 5 point questions, except longer and more difficult.

We decided to start with some of the bigger point questions, and our very first question was a fairly involved question on the pavement just outside of Innoventions on the way towards The Land, where you can find the different inventions and the years each thing was invented. It involved letter counting and assembling a word based on a letter from each invention, then determining in which year the “assembled” word was invented. All of this took place right in the scorching sun, and definitely set the tone for the rest of the Hunt.

We started with the Future World pavilions, first visiting the Seas, then the Land, then Imagination. Our strategy up front was to try to avoid riding attractions. However, when we saw around 6 one point questions for Living with the Land, we decided to ride it. Even though it had a 10 minute wait. We spent this 10 minutes in line organizing our plans, but given the length of the line, plus the length of the attraction, we definitely wasted too much time.

One type of question that we encountered early on just outside of the Land (on the bronze Symbiosis plaque) involved counting words on a plaque, and extracting letters for those words, then unscrambling the letters to form a word related to the original question. For example, take the following sentence: “This type of question sucked a lot!” Starting with the word, “This” identify the following letters of the following words: 1st letter of the 2nd word. (T) 4th letter of the 4th word. (S) 2nd letter of the 4th word. (U) 4th letter of the 5th word. (K) 8th letter of the 4th word. (N) From that, you have TSUKN. Unscramble those words to reveal what Tom thought of these questions: STUNK. Pretty clear what I thought of these questions?

It’s mostly a personal thing, really. While it may seem easy enough here, try doing this on a plaque with over one hundred words. You will lose your place, and all of the sudden, find yourself counting from 1 to 114 all over again. Then, you’ll discover that someone along the way you skipped a line, so your letters don’t unscramble into anything! After struggling for far too long with the Symbiosis plaque, we determined that the call of the question required that the answer be “Captain EO” even if we didn’t have an “O” in our scrambled letter list. About that time, our team very wisely determined that it was not in the best interests of anyone’s mental well being if I continued to try answering this type of question.

After Future World, it was off to the World Showcase. We made our way around the Showcase, starting in Canada. I am probably going to sound like a broken record, especially once we get to Animal Kingdom, but there really is so much in Walt Disney World that we’ve never experienced. In the World Showcase, there are countless little displays and details we’ve glossed over, and it would likely take a week to fully appreciate everything in the World Showcase. It’s amazing what we miss as we bounce from attraction to attraction. Sarah and I aren’t even the type, at least we don’t think so, who are pre-disposed to missing these details. We endeavor to experience all attractions at least once, regardless of the public consensus concerning their quality, and I stop to take so many photos of the Disney Details that it seems like I’d see more details than most. Yet we still miss plenty!

Once we answered all that we could answer in World Showcase, we headed back to Future World to hit Test Track, Mission: Space, Innoventions, and Spaceship Earth. We had to fly through these attractions, as we were extremely low on time, and even answered the Spaceship Earth questions without riding the attraction. It turned out that we ended up guessing several of these questions correctly! Well, perhaps guessing is the wrong word, as we invariably ride Spaceship Earth 5 or so times per trip, so it’s not so unreasonable to think some aspects of it are ingrained into our memories.

Time went by during the Hunt about as quickly as I’ve described the Hunt here. Time always passes quickly at WDW, but it seemed to go especially quickly here. With these Spaceship Earth questions answered, our 4 hours were up, and break time had begun. Lunch would be, of course, at Sunshine Seasons!

One nice thing about the Hunt was that the start times were not strict. D23 gave about 4 hours of flex time the first day, and about 2 hours the second day. So you could start the Hunt the first day 2 hours after the start time, then start the next park 2 hours after finishing the first, and still finish before the “latest any book may be returned by” deadline. Obviously, you only had the allotted time (3 hours for all parks besides EPCOT, which was 4 hours) to finish your book once you started the Hunt, though. I mention this now because we availed ourselves of this little break by having lunch at Sunshine Seasons.

WDWFigment · Aug 2, 2011

Perhaps it was because I was so hungry from moving around so briskly and not eating until 2:30 pm, perhaps it was because the place is just that good, but I had one of the best meals there. The chicken and mashed potatoes. Wow, words cannot describe the explosion of taste in that dish. It was beyond words. No wonder people call Sunshine Seasons the “Napa Rose of Counter Service.” (No one besides me, as best I know, actually calls it this, but I’m starting the trend!)

The one fatal flaw I made in my excitement to eat was that I neglected to get a dessert. How do you go to Sunshine Seasons and not get a dessert!? Actually, I made two “flaws,” the second being that I accidentally sat at a table apart from the rest of our team. I swear I sat down first and they just decided to ditch me again, but I’m really not sure who sat down first. I was the one who ended up moving, though.

Anyway, this grave error of not having a dessert could not stand uncorrected, so Sarah and I agreed to split a Strawberry Shortcake. When I got up to the dessert case, I knew we couldn’t split a dessert. We were on vacation, eating in one of our favorite restaurants, and relaxing in our favorite pavilion. So, I decided that getting a Tiramisu in addition to the Strawberry Shortcake was the only course of action.

The Strawberry Shortcake was delicious, as always. The Tiramisu tasted interesting at first, and I thought it was going to be a dud. It was almost tart in flavor, but ultimately tasted very good. Sarah concurred, and it’s definitely on the “thumbs up” list for further sampling in the future.

We couldn’t stay too long to soak in the Sunshine (Seasons), as the Magic Kingdom was the next park on our agenda for the Hunt! D23 had assigned us to EPCOT to begin, but after that, we were free to choose. We opted to go with what we predicted would be the easiest park for us here, as we already were pretty tired from the extra-long EPCOT day. That left Animal Kingdom and the Studios for Day 2, and clearly AK would be our morning park given how hot it gets there later in the day, and because we didn’t want to be tired for what we knew would be a grueling marathon there.

Before Magic Kingdom, there was one little matter of business we had to address: photos in front of Journey into Imagination. Earlier, I mentioned getting dressed carefully that morning, and now you’re about to see why. Brace yourself, as, quite frankly, this is the epitome of awesome.

This is just WEIRD, right?!

Figment themed clothing. That’s right. Those who read the comments to our December trip report on WDWMagic may recall that I was looking to acquire one of three Figment hats. My good friend and fellow photographer Matt Pasant, of all people, sent me an email shortly after I posted that informing me that he had one of the hats in question. A few days later the hat was in my hands, which meant I had to complete the rest of the outfit. Some, less committed or details oriented Figment fans might stop with the Figment hat, thinking the outfit begins and ends with that. After all, it is the focal point! However, I learned long ago from my exploration of Walt Disney World that it’s the details that make all of the difference.

So I set out with the goal of assembling the finest Figment outfit known to man, that perfectly captured the essence of Figment, without letting the hat make me look like a crazy fanboy (likely the case if I sported my circa 1982 Figment with rainbow point t-shirt) or allowing the hat to look like a tourist gift shop afterthought (likely the case if I wore the hat with any old clothes). It was a tough line to walk, but I knew just what to do. Figment’s main colors are, purple, of course, along with yellow and some orange. If I could incorporate these colors into my outfit, it would be brilliant! When preparing the outfit, I thought it would make the most sense for the polo to be purple and the shorts to be yellow, since those two colors matched. Further, I knew Ralph Lauren made “choose your own horse color” shirts, so I could get a purple polo with an orange logo to complete the outfit. Brilliant! I purchased the yellow shirts first, but unfortunately, I delayed too long before purchasing the shirt, and they were temporarily sold out online in my size when it came time to order the polo in question. Rats! I thus settled for a purple polo with a yellow logo.

I, on the one hand, was incredibly pleased with my ensemble and excited to wear it to the parks. Sarah, on the other hand, thought my outfit looked outlandish, to put it mildly. Ultimately, she conceded that the incredibly number of compliments I received probably proved me right, while I conceded that for every compliment, there were probably 5 people staring at me in disbelief, wondering what that idiot in the dinosaur hat is doing.

My only regret is the day I chose to adorn myself in the wonderful attire. (I’m really going out of my way to make this sound much cooler than it actually is, in case you can’t tell. Sorry that I’m subjecting you to 4 paragraphs of discussion concerning my Figment outfit. Mark this as the moment my trip reports jumped the shark, if you want!) We barely had the chance to take any photos, and I really liked it. I am considering wearing a modified version of the outfit in October, but we’ll see. Oh, and if anyone out there has either of the other two (or are there more?!) Figment hats and is willing to sell them, PLEASE! email me at tom@disneytouristblog.com!

WDWFigment · Aug 2, 2011

Okay, that's it for Part XI. Part XII is up on our website and will be posted here in the next couple of days.

http://www.disneytouristblog.com/disney-trip-report-may-2011-12/

I'll respond to comments here tomorrow.

sweetpee_1993 · Aug 2, 2011

Okay! Another installment!

Your pics of ASM are so cheery & fun. The only thing I miss about Pop is the over-the-top pop culture icons everywhere. I love the big, bold stuff everywhere. And if I was to stay at an All-Star I do think movies would be the one for me. I, too, can't wait to see AoA. Now that will be fun!

I love the bits of everyday life that gets infused into the trip reports. Is it TMI sometimes? Maybe. But I like it that way. It allows readers to get to know the adventurers a little which is not a bad thing. Keep slippin' the useless home details in. It's not a bad thing.

That scavenger hunt....Wow. You're better than me by a long shot. Especially with it hot outside I know it wouldn't have taken long for me to ditch the thing. Lol!

And the Figment ensemble. Wow. Talk about revealing all. I like that Sarah opted to coordinate in an understated "I'm with him but I'm not that with him" way. :lol: Hhmmmm.... Yes..... I think this is an outfit that fits my niece's recent brilliant statement: "It doesn't match but it goes." Yes. The colors don't match but they go. You did much better than my brother (obrienIII - I hope he sees this so he'll call me!) did with his purple polo with the brick red horse back in college. He paired that color with brick red shorts. His argument? The shorts matched the horse. Yeah, but not the shirt. And it didn't "go" either. :lol: I do love your Figgy hat, tho. You totally did the hat justice with the ensemble. :wave:

WDWFigment · Aug 3, 2011

HollyBelle said:
Ahh, Tuvalu! I'm obsessed with that place. And this shot of it is fabulous! Seriously, your night shots at the Poly have me ready to pack my bags and show up unannounced asking for a room. Great stuff!

Thanks. Although be careful--I tried that showing up unannounced and asking for a room trick that night, and they kept talking about "money" and "paying." Aborted that plan quite quickly!

minnielaw said:
WDWFigment said:

Thanks - although I do resent being mentioned in the same sentence as that fool, blackthidot. His trip reports SUCK!

Tee hee:lol: I figured that would bug you! Antagonizing people and sarcasm are unfortunate side effects of my occupation...divorce lawyer.

I agree that there are very few trip reports that I can read past the first page...you either grab me at the outset or I am gone. Your trip reports blend a perfect amount of photography and narration....seriously, your photos are beyond gorgeous and I am constantly yelling to my husband "You have to come see this!!" Of course when reading Blackthidot's trip reports I am yelling to my husband "Oh my gosh, you won't believe this picture!! Look at that toenail!" or "Have you ever seen a girl with a hairy back???"

Based upon your BEYOND GORGEOUS photos of the Polynesian, my husband and I have cemented that resort as our choice for our first adults only trip when our children leave for college...only 8 more years to go. But, on the bright side...maybe by then we will have saved enough money to actually be able to afford a stay at the Polynesian.

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Divorce lawyer? You have thicker skin than me. I stay away from that and any type of family law.

Glad you liked the Poly photos; enjoy your stay there--in 8 years!

popsicletrees said:

The rooms do not disappoint! They are beautiful and so spacious. Beautiful photos of a beautiful resort. I'm looking forward to this leg of the report!

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We contemplated a couple of nights at the Poly for the 40th, but it just didn't work out. Oh well, perhaps at Christmas!

Hannah Montana said:

Hey Tom! I always enjoy reading your trip reports - DL and WDW. They're such a great escape! My husband and I made our first Disneyland trip last year and completely fell in love with it. We're now debating what our next trip should be - DL at Christmas or WDW at fall for the Halloween party and Wine and Food Festival. We've done WDW at Christmas 3 times and want to try something new. Opinions?

Your Poly pictures are amazing; that is one of our favorite hotels. A few years ago we took a trip with another couple and stayed a night later than them. We decided to switch hotels and stay at the Poly for that one night (b/c that was about all we could afford). We had a great time and look forward to spending a whole trip there! Can't wait to read the rest of your report!

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I'm not really sure I'm qualified to give my opinion on that, as we've never been to DLR at Christmas. Our first Christmas trip there is this year. Food & Wine is great, but I'm a huge Christmas fan, so I'd probably give that the edge.

sweetpee_1993 said:

Catching up! I try to save your updates to take in in larger portions all at the same time. I think I like to immerse and focus. LOL!

I think you nailed it on Duffy with this paragraph. Yes, I'm a sucker for anything related to dollies and Teddy bears. Aside from that, I don't get expending energy or even thought disliking something so minute. Seriously. What does Duffy hurt? If he brings enjoyment to some people why not just go on with with your day and let it be? And I still would really love to sit down with these people who have such a strong distaste for a Teddy bear and find out what happened to them that they can hate on a classic child's plaything in any form. :lol:

Um, is this the queue for Soarin'??? There's stuff! To look at!!! From what I see in your pics I will venture to say that my old man will be in hog-heaven in this area. He's a huuuuge aviation buff and knows entirely too much about aircraft. He'll have a hey-day jabbering on about each picture, history, examples, specs, etc. He will love this! The film is free of hairs and particles??? More to look forward to in California! Yay!

Oh! Oh! I can answer this question for you just from looking at your picture!!! The only thing that can be better for breakfast than a delicious parfait is a delicious parfait with a chocolate Mickey on top!!!! :slurp:

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Yeah, I'm pretty indifferent to Duffy, and I know I do get worked up about some things (although I try to keep a level head).

That, indeed, is the queue for Soarin'. It sounds like 'your old man' will really enjoy Condor Flats in general, which is the aviation area of DCA. It's pretty cool and rife with details if you know where to look.

sweetpee_1993 said:

I know, right? I haven't been on a swing in ages and on a swing attraction like Silly Symphony Swings in even longer but those photos make me crave that feeling. Its not something that ever goes away. Or it hasn't for me. The fact that Tom can capture the emotion, that feeling, it's just beyond-words-amazing to me.

I didn't realize you make money from people reading your blog. Dang. I'll just go over there to read then come back here to comment. LOL! Why not help out a fellow-adventurer?!

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Yeah, the blog makes money. A lot of other Disney sites like to keep this fact shrouded for some reason, but I have no problem stating that. I didn't expect it to make money, I just wanted a place to 'put stuff' where I knew it wouldn't disappear. I've been absolutely shocked by the growth in traffic we've experienced. I put a lot of effort into it, so I'm not embarrassed to admit that it makes some money.

sweetpee_1993 said:

Love the description of the Big Mac. Back in my college days (however brief they were) I remember McD's in that sad, pathetic little town had the Big Macs priced 2 for $2 for a while. They did the Quarter Pounders for a time at the same price. If I was hungry I'd splurge and get 4. Of course those were the days when I could eat my weight in anything without causing an instant ballooning of my thighs.... **sigh**

Although I agree that a great deal of the TRs over on Disboards are just too much and waaaaaay overly drug-out (if it takes more than 6 months to complete a TR I think maybe you shouldn't bother to begin posting until you have your text at minimum 90% complete), I fear perhaps I get caught up in the useless details in my TRs. Then again, if I write (type?) it you can rest assured it's something that caught my attention which eliminates the falseness of enthusiasm. I do write (type?) too much which I should probably try to be better about. I talk too much and think too much. I'll just shut up now.

I've read ahead on your blog. Get that stuff posted here. There's something I wanted to say. Oh wait. Back to talk too much.

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The times I've seen the poor "Disboards-style" trip reports here are very few and far between. The ironic thing is that I complain about those trip reports and people are probably rolling their eyes reading mine as I include useless details about our personal lives and the reports are laden with my personal commentary on different aspects of TWDC. I think the critical difference is that I'm expressing my thoughts with a genuine enthusiasm, whereas ones I've read over there are mostly half-baked. Others may not agree with that assessment, but oh well.

Kev1417 said:

Tom, you convinced me to seriously think about making a trip to CA in Feb. We have a wedding in Phoenix and i think i can convince the wife we should to go CA first then hit the wedding on the way back to Chicago. I'll have her check out your pictures to do some more persuading. Think 4 days is enough for CA parks? Need to justify increasing the WDW annual pass to the premier pass though too. :

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You definitely should take a trip to Disneyland, and February is one of the slower seasons, but I might look into direct airfare versus airfare to/from Phoenix and see if it might just be worth it to do Disneyland as a stand alone trip later. Cars Land is expected to open in late May, so a Summer/Fall trip would be a lot better, *if* you only plan on going to Disneyland once. If you think you might be going back, just go in February and worry about seeing Cars Land later.

sweetpee_1993 said:

Okay! Another installment!

Your pics of ASM are so cheery & fun. The only thing I miss about Pop is the over-the-top pop culture icons everywhere. I love the big, bold stuff everywhere. And if I was to stay at an All-Star I do think movies would be the one for me. I, too, can't wait to see AoA. Now that will be fun!

I love the bits of everyday life that gets infused into the trip reports. Is it TMI sometimes? Maybe. But I like it that way. It allows readers to get to know the adventurers a little which is not a bad thing. Keep slippin' the useless home details in. It's not a bad thing.

That scavenger hunt....Wow. You're better than me by a long shot. Especially with it hot outside I know it wouldn't have taken long for me to ditch the thing. Lol!

And the Figment ensemble. Wow. Talk about revealing all. I like that Sarah opted to coordinate in an understated "I'm with him but I'm not that with him" way. :lol: Hhmmmm.... Yes..... I think this is an outfit that fits my niece's recent brilliant statement: "It doesn't match but it goes." Yes. The colors don't match but they go. You did much better than my brother (obrienIII - I hope he sees this so he'll call me!) did with his purple polo with the brick red horse back in college. He paired that color with brick red shorts. His argument? The shorts matched the horse. Yeah, but not the shirt. And it didn't "go" either. :lol: I do love your Figgy hat, tho. You totally did the hat justice with the ensemble. :wave:

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The Scavenger Hunt was a lot of fun, but as you'll read later, I was irritated that the whole Destination D weekend wasn't in October (you know, when the 40th actually HAPPENS). Of course, the rationale for not having it in October, I'm sure, is that other events are already going on then, so why not have it earlier and get us Disney-crazies to pay for two trips down? It's just frustrating because the weather would have been much more bearable in October.

You said a lot of things in that last paragraph regarding the Figment outfit, but I'm just going to paraphrase it for you: "Tom, that Figment outfit is HARDCORE AWESOME!!!" Would that be an accurate statement to express your thoughts?

switts · Aug 3, 2011

uh oh really starting to slack off over here :ROFLOL:

sweetpee_1993 · Aug 3, 2011

WDWFigment said:
You said a lot of things in that last paragraph regarding the Figment outfit, but I'm just going to paraphrase it for you: "Tom, that Figment outfit is HARDCORE AWESOME!!!" Would that be an accurate statement to express your thoughts?

What was I thinking??? A man will not understand the sentence, "It doesn't match but it goes." Yes, hardcore and awesome. Awesomely hardcore. You're a dedicated Figment man thru & thru which is where the heart of the entire thing lies. How can a Disney fan not respect that level of dedication? :animwink:

blackthidot · Aug 3, 2011

Tom circa 2007 Mickey's VERY SCARY Halloween Party...

blackthidot · Aug 3, 2011

Well I just saw pictures of the Figment outfit and needless to say I did not even need to use the picture above to make a joke. Wow.

lebeau · Aug 3, 2011

WDWFigment said:
That's fine by me, and is actually the reason I post over there first. I'd rather have more people read it there, as my site does make a small amount of money that way. It may not be much, but if it even pays for one meal at a Disney restaurant per year, that's better than nothing. I'd be writing the trip reports regardless and I have fun with the site, so anything above nothing is a nice bonus!

Great TR as always. I've switched over to reading on your blog so you can have an extra meal to take pictures of on your next trip.

WDWFigment · Aug 4, 2011

sweetpee_1993 said:
What was I thinking??? A man will not understand the sentence, "It doesn't match but it goes." Yes, hardcore and awesome. Awesomely hardcore. You're a dedicated Figment man thru & thru which is where the heart of the entire thing lies. How can a Disney fan not respect that level of dedication? :animwink:

Yep, awesome and hardcore. Just as I suspected.

blackthidot said:
Well I just saw pictures of the Figment outfit and needless to say I did not even need to use the picture above to make a joke. Wow.

Jealousy is not a color you wear well, my nemesis.

lebeau said:
Great TR as always. I've switched over to reading on your blog so you can have an extra meal to take pictures of on your next trip.

We'll make sure to cheers to you!

Another update coming shortly on here.

WDWFigment · Aug 4, 2011

I neglected to introduce our team previously, mostly because I didn’t want to reveal the photo of my brilliant Figment costume prematurely. Our team consisted of myself and Sarah, plus our friend Nick, and JL Knopp of http://TheDisneyDrivenLife.com. As we stood in line earlier that morning at Epcot, we were struggling for a team name. Suddenly, as if my horns picked up on the “signal” of Imagination floating through the air at EPCOT, the team name came to me. It was thought-provoking, deep, meaningful, and brilliant all at the same time. The TouringPlans Tourminators. Get it? Brilliant, right?! Now you know our team and our story.

After finishing the little photo shoot at EPCOT, we took the monorail to the Magic Kingdom. Upon receipt of our book at the Magic Kingdom, we spent about 10 minutes organizing questions, and giving a hard look to the 5 and 10 point questions. We identified a lot of questions that called for answers for Main Street (or started there). This was actually one disappointing aspect of the Hunt: way too many of the questions pertained to the windows on Main Street. These windows are interesting, don’t get me wrong, but far too many people know far too much about these windows, giving those participants an advantage there. Disney touted the Hunt as putting everyone on a level playing field (and for the most part, they did a great job with this), but this is one area I’m sure some had a decided advantage. On top of that, 10 questions about windows becomes a bit monotonous. I don’t know if this was done out of necessity because the Magic Kingdom is somewhat devoid of little details as compared to the other parks (I highly doubt this), or because the windows just really interested those writing the questions.

After spending a long time on Main Street, we headed off to the other areas of the park. Frontierland had some difficult questions, as did Liberty Square. By contrast, the Tomorrowland and Adventureland ones were pretty easy. We even managed to guess correctly at a 10 point question in Adventureland, which was a huge moral victory for us. However, given time constraints, we decided not to answer the questions (16 points worth) over on Tom Sawyer Island. This worried us at first, as we had answered every question at EPCOT, but after the Hunt, we talked with a few other teams that said they also skipped TSI. We were doing the Hunt for fun, anyway. With all of the obsessive Disney historians out there, we highly doubted we’d place in the top 50% of the teams.

We turned in our Magic Kingdom book with 10 seconds to spare (we weren’t really this ‘down to the wire’ we approached the desk, guessed at answers we couldn’t find, and checked other answers all while watching the clock) and collapsed on benches near the table afterwards. Given my brief discussion of the Hunt here in the trip report, it actually did take more than a “couple paragraphs” worth of time. This Hunt was seven hours of our day! By contrast, I’ve fixated on the toppings bar at Cosmic Ray’s for more text in previous trip reports despite it only taking up a few minutes of delicious time. Unfortunately, since I don’t have any photos from the Hunt, and since the questions are impossible to remember, it would get quite monotonous (for both you as the reader and me as the writer) if I wrote, “we went to X attraction/shop/postshow/detailed area in Y land/pavilion/area of the park and answered a 1/5/10 point question. We think we got the question right/wrong/undecided.” The Hunt was very interesting and fun, but reading 400 sentences following that model would be mind-numbing.

Finally, it was time to enjoy some attractions! Or so we thought.

Sarah had to use the restroom, and the line for this looked fairly long, so while she was doing that, I made my way up Main Street to capture some photos. I needed to compensate for the photos I “missed” during the day, after all! As I was taking photos on Main Street, I noticed some beautiful sun rays peeking out from behind clouds up by Crystal Palace. So I ventured that way. From there, I saw the rays at the edge of Adventureland. To make a long story short, I found myself outside of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad when I received a call from Sarah, asking where the heck I was. I had just wandered to the opposite end of the park without giving it a second thought. It’s really a wonder I never got (permanently) lost as a child.

WDWFigment · Aug 4, 2011

One thing you may notice throughout this report is that I have a lot of weird photos of random buildings or more shots with guests than I have had in previous trip reports. The reasons for this are two-fold. First, in looking through some of my favorite shots from past trips, there have been a surprising number of shots that I would categorize as shots that “take me back” to that moment. They can be as simple as a photo of a tray of food at the water park to a wide capture of Hollywood Boulevard at sunset. These shots are typically far less unique or artistic than my other shots, but I think they’re still pretty interesting (and well-captured), and more importantly, they capture that feeling of being in the parks so well. Maybe I’m alone in this sentiment, but I figured if that type of shot gives me that euphoric (okay, maybe that’s going too far...or is it?!) feeling of being at Disney, it would give others the same feeling.

The second reason I’m including more shots like these is because I took fewer shots on this trip than I otherwise would. During the Scavenger Hunt I didn’t take any photos, and during the Destination D seminars, I took very few photos (and the ones I did take look pretty similar to one another). So I tried to compensate be going nuts when we finally got out into the parks.

I knew they probably didn’t want to wait around while I wandered back to the front of the park, so I told Sarah that she, JL, and Nick could do TTA without me. Not a big loss as far as I was concerned, because it was still too early for the ideal TTA riding conditions. I took some more photos, then met them at the exit of the TTA. From there, we headed to Space Mountain.

When in Tomorrowland, as they say, do what the Tomorrowlandians do. This meant stops at Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin and Space Mountain, both of which were pretty lousy experiences. Sarah beat me at Space Ranger Spin, and anytime this happens, it’s clearly the result of my laser blaster malfunctioning. No other explanation is reasonable. Then, when riding Space Mountain, the work lights on the TTA were illuminated! I love Space Mountain as a coaster, but its appeal is largely in the darkness of the attraction. There is a new thrilling wrinkle when the track is brighter, though: the ride track is so close to your head in certain sections that you fear decapitation! This coming from someone who isn’t exactly tall, either. Pretty interesting, but probably not the best way for an attraction to be labeled a white-knuckled thriller. I prefer not to fear for my bodily safety when on board any attraction, but that’s just me.

The Tomorrowland Speedway is an attraction we rarely do. I’m still not quite sure how I feel about it. From a personal perspective judging the substance of the attraction, I’m not that wild about it. However, it seems like one of those Magic Kingdom rite-of-passage attractions, and kids do seem to like it a lot. In that regard, it’s a lot like Dumbo, and I can’t imagine people advocating the removal of that classic attraction.

WDWFigment · Aug 4, 2011

Perhaps, like Dumbo, the Tomorrowland Speedway should receive some plussing indicative of its status as an important attraction for children (if Disney perceives it as such). In any case, it’s an attraction we’ll do once every few trips just to relive those childhood moments and let loose as kids again.

By this point, Tomorrowland was beginning to come alive in all its nighttime, neon-y glory. When the lights come on in Tomorrowland, you know the party has started. I think there’s is a Ke$ha song to this effect on one of her albums. It was far enough beyond the dinner hour that things wouldn’t be too hectic at Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe, so we headed there for dinner. The two best Walt Disney World counter service restaurants in one day. We were living the life!

Since we were with others, I restrained myself in the toppings department. Although in fairness, I think it should be poor manners to not load one’s burger with an obscene (well, I guess it wouldn’t be obscene if it were appropriate manners-wise) amount of toppings. Still, I placed a copious amount of mushrooms on the burger, along with plenty of other toppings. My secret to keeping the burger relatively small: condensing the toppings using the bun. The jury is still out on how well that worked, as you can probably tell from the photos.

Halfway through our meal, Sonny Eclipse went silent. I don’t know if Cosmic Ray had gone from paying him weakly to not-at-all or what, but for whatever reason, the music died. This was a bit disappointing, especially given that he’s the reason Cosmic Ray’s scores so highly on the dining “Brick-O-Meter,” but we knew we’d be back again before the trip concluded, so it wasn’t too big of a deal.

Crowds were really low that evening in the Magic Kingdom, so we figured we’d get some of the longer line attractions out of the way. We had a FastPass for Peter Pan, but we figured we’d hit Winnie the Pooh on the way there, as it’s quickly becoming a favorite of Sarah’s. The line was supposedly only 10 minutes, but based upon the look of the queue, it appeared much longer. We quickly got out of line and headed for Pan.

Next up, it was time for the Haunted Mansion. Since this was our first time experiencing the attraction in earnest and really exploring the queue, I decided to save my thoughts of the new experience for here. The new queue...where to begin? This has become quite the divisive issue in the fan community, and frankly, I don’t quite see why. I will say that I’m not quite sure why Disney chooses the Haunted Mansion for these constant plussings. While I am a firm believer that things should constantly be updated, I am also a realist, and I think there are so many things in Walt Disney World that are more pressing. Since resources are finite, I would rather see other, more glaring, problems addressed first.

That said, I have no problem with these changes from the perspective that changes to the queue draw from funds that could be allocated towards additional attractions. To be sure, 8-10 of these “NextGen” queues might add up to the same cost as the construction of a new attraction (maybe, I’m just throwing that number out there). Like many others, I’d rather have a new attraction than 8-10 interactive queues. However, the construction of a new attraction is not the only cost of a new attraction, which is what others fail to consider when they make the argument that Disney should be building new attractions with the money.

This is because attractions also need Cast Members to operate, and the operational maintenance of an attraction is much higher than the maintenance of a queue. For example, even if 10 queues cost a total of $75 million to build, and a new attraction costs $75 million to build, the actual costs of the two aren’t the same. This is because a new attraction will also require Cast Members to operate. I don’t work in operations, but I’m guessing there are 20 or so Cast Members working each attraction at a given time. By contrast, at most, an interactive queue adds one Cast Member to the fray. This doesn’t even begin to consider maintenance costs. To be fair, attractions do increase the capacity of the parks, and thereby either decrease the amount of time people wait in line (allowing them to spend more in gift shops or at restaurants when they’re not in line) or increase the number of people at the parks (assuming the attraction pulls from other busy attractions or the park is approaching capacity). However, interactive queues also make the time in line more bearable, and thereby might increase guest satisfaction, which might increase their likelihood of returning.

The point being, as you can see with all of the different above factors and the rampant theorizing, is that this is not a cut and dry matter. It’s not as simple as saying, “spend the $X on new attractions instead of spending the $X on queues for better return on investment!” Things aren’t that simple. The (Disney) World’s problems can’t be solved with a little debate on an internet message board. We simply aren’t privy to all of the variables associated with making such a decision. I fear Disney is tailoring its research to validate conclusions it has already made prior to the research, as seems likely to be the case based on the past, but I hope the company is performing its due diligence and making the decisions based on actual cost/benefit research.

And that’s why the spending on the interactive queues doesn’t bother me. I simply don’t have the information necessary to make an informed decision as to whether they are a good investment. Anyway, now that we you’ve read “The Gospel of Interactive Queues According to Tom,” here’s my take on the substance of the queue itself.

WDWFigment · Aug 4, 2011

The queue is a distraction while waiting for the main attraction. I am not so diluted (as some) to think it “kills the suspense” as some have claimed, as I really don’t think there’s much suspense to kill for most guests. If anything, for those guests who would feel suspense when in line, the new attraction adds a new layer of foreshadowing. I think most of the aspects of the queue are interesting and skillfully executed. In addition, I think they add nice interactivity to the experience. My only complaints would be that the headstone plots are too small for a body to be buried below, and that some of the queue is a bit cartoonish. Specifically, the busts at the beginning of the queue are a bit overly exaggerated, and just don’t seem to fit with the rest of the Haunted Mansion. Aside from these small quibbles, I think it’s extremely well done. The interactivity is short enough that it doesn’t impede the flow of the queue, and, like I said above, its elements are a nice distraction from waiting in line.

As for the other changes to Haunted Mansion, well, I don’t know how anyone could disparage those. These upgrades, which are to the AA hitchhiking ghosts and the ghost “following you home” projections immediately after, are wonderfully executed, and give the attraction a real cutting edge feel. The AA ghosts are brighter, more acentuated, and their surrounding area has more details. The big upgrade, however, is to the ghosts that follow you home. No longer do they just haphazardly float in the car over one of the passengers, they now actually interact with the passengers in a realistic way. The manner of interaction varies, and is really cool. Definitely a great upgrade!

Next up was the Magic, Memories, and You Castle show. I was shocked at how many people were staked out for the show. Since Wishes! starting shortly after, I figured a lot (most) were just getting spots a little early for that.

The Magic, Memories, and You is definitely a lot better on Cinderella Castle than it is on it’s a small world, and I enjoyed it pretty well on it’s a small world. It really doesn’t bother me that it’s displayed on the Castle, since it’s only like 10 minutes long. Plus, I actually liked the Castle Cake, and that was on the Castle for a full uninterrupted year. As long as there are permanent changes to the Castle that cartoonize it, I don’t really mind.

The scale of Cinderella Castle makes the show much better. The show is very well done, from the projections that are crisp and vibrant, to the transitions between the scenes in the displays. I only thing I don’t really care for about the show is the vacation photos of other guests that aren’t really that discernible, anyway. I know this is sort of the crux of the show, but I still don’t like it. I really hope they use the technology for the show in some capacity for future fireworks and/or Castle shows.

I was shocked when, after the Magic, Memories, and You show, guests began leaving en masse. My best guess is that they thought the couple of fireworks bursts at the end of the show were the fireworks for the night? I’ll bet those people think the fireworks show is really lame!

Wishes was...Wishes. After Remember...Dreams Come True, no Magic Kingdom fireworks show can compare. Wishes was enjoyable, but with Remember so fresh in my memory, Wishes was a bit of a disappointment.

Still, it was nice to see the fireworks show in our “home” part in front of Cinderella Castle. It could be the lamest fireworks show in the world, but by virtue of being set in front of that Castle, it’d be special.

WDWFigment · Aug 4, 2011

After Wishes, we dredged through the crowds and (slowly) made our way back to Big Thunder Mountain. The crowds at Walt Disney World always baffle and aggravate me. I don’t know how many people could walk around with their heads up their...well, this is a family topic, so I won’t use that language. It just is annoying that so many people don’t know where they’re going, stand in the middle of walk-ways, walk as slow as humanly possible with their entire party in taking up an entire pathway as they walk in a line of slow-ness, and so on. Half of this is my own fauly because I like to walk at a very brisk pace, but I swear, some people need to learn how to walk around in a heavily trafficked public place!

After Big Thunder Mountain, it was on to Splash Mountain. Splash was closed at Disneyland, and we had only done it one time in December at WDW due to the weather (and that one time we got stuck on the ride for 45 minutes because someone got off the ride), so we were really excited to ride again. After all, it is one of our top attractions in WDW. (Probably #2 for me after Tower of Terror!) The attraction was nothing short of excellent, as usual. This is one attraction that I really wish I could have that “first time” experience on again. Luckily, the attraction is so different at Disneyland, and I was so pre-occupied with staying dry the one time we rode it, that it’s basically new for us out there. I cannot wait to ride it again out there!

From here, we began taking pictures in Frontierland and Adventureland. In WDW, Tomorrowland is our usual photo location of choice at night, so it was nice to change things up a little. I had never used my 8-16mm lens at WDW at night, so this was a great opportunity. After a couple of shots in Frontierland of Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn and Cafe, we headed to Adventureland to the new Tortuga Tavern. Two places you don’t normally see photographed, so I thought it would be a nice change of pace. While photographing Tortuga Tavern, Sarah remarked on the excellent Pirates of the Caribbean background music. We had noticed the music in the past in passing, but we were here for a little longer this time, so we heard more of the loop. It was good stuff.

WDWFigment · Aug 4, 2011

After exiting Adventureland, we found ourselves on a barren Main Street, USA. We spent some time here, taking a few more photos as we shuffled up Main Street.

It was still relatively early (I loath pre-midnight park closings), but we were exhausted, so we meandered on out slowly, soaking in the atmosphere of Main Street. With all of its lights, and music that is finally audible at night, Main Street is a great place to be when the park clears out. If you exclude Cinderella Castle, which I don’t really think qualifies as being in any land, even Fantasyland, it’s my third favorite land at night, significantly far behind Tomorrowland and in close third to Frontierland.

echovictor · Aug 4, 2011

WDWFigment said:

I love this photo and how it captures the sun rays behind the mountain. It is as if the higher being (insert your choice of higher beings here) is saying, "This is my favorite ride at Disney."

echovictor · Aug 4, 2011

I also love how discrete Sarah is in the pictures in front of POTC, trying not to flash the camera!

SleepingMonk · Aug 4, 2011

blackthidot said:
Well I just saw pictures of the Figment outfit and needless to say I did not even need to use the picture above to make a joke. Wow.

It does sorta kinda explain why they ditched him at lunch, rode The Land without him, etc...

Coast-to-Coast Disney 2011 Trip Report: Mme. & M. Bricker's Zany Holiday

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