WDW - Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated. – My August 2011 Trip Report

WDW - Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated. – An August 2011 Trip Report

Welcome to my trip report! First, about the title. Reading the WDW boards lately one would think that Disney World was coming apart at the seams; Overrun by vicious gangs of Brazilian tour groups, Pop Warner boys and cheerleaders. Filled with broken down, outdated rides run by snarly cast members. The resorts infested by bedbugs, nasty housekeepers, and moldy shower curtains. The Restaurants serving up Dogfood burgers and steaks served with the leather hides still attached. The fireworks shows reduced to open fire pits and a few boxes of sparklers.

To be totally honest and sarcasm aside (kinda), I was really getting concerned about this trip. I had gone to great lengths and compromise ( see my Pre-trip report) to make this trip a reality. Now I was worried that once my family would see first hand the crumbling vestige that was once our favorite place on earth; this would seal this trip’s fate as our last one to the World. Well, I’m happy to say, with photos as proof – the rumors of Walt Disney World’s demise have been greatly exaggerated.

First Day and intro to our family;

Our countdown was over. The paper chain in Toni’s room that started at day 178 was now down to day zero. It was 4 in the morning on August 6th and I woke up Toni and we tore up that last chain and started to get ready for our trip. By 4:30, Toni and her brother Sterg, were ready and waiting.

I have a good friend that happens to own a limo business, so we hired him to drive us to Philadelphia International. The limo came at 5:00am. This is my wife Val and my oldest child, Alexandra, getting spoiled in the limo.

Sterg and I on the other seat…

While Toni caught a few z’s.

Everything was going fine. We were making great time on the Turnpike until we were detoured off of it an exit too soon. Unfortunately, this was only the first of our several delays that morning.

 

[fractal]

Dinner was at 50's Prime Time. We took the boat to DHS and checked in just in time. My brother-in-law and his family ate here a few years ago and they loved it. They had a great time with their server and compared it to ________'s Last Resort set in a typical kitchen from the 50's. He was spot on with that.

You check in at a desk to your right as you enter, then are told to hang out in the "living room" until your table is ready. The living room is to the left as you enter and is decorated like a 50's living room - with it's overuse of plastics and polyesters. There is a black and white TV playing. Toni wanted to know why it was so "thick".

After a small wait we were seated in a corner combination table/booth.

The decor is funny in a way because it looks so tacky but many of the items you see decorating the walls, the tables and chairs, the plates and silverware are things you have seen before. At least for me in my 40's I have. Then you try to remember where you saw them. The collection of copper baking tins decorating that wall - was that at my Aunt Vasou's or my Grandparents house? I took some time to take some pictures.

Our server was a Cast Member named Tim. He arrived and promptly sat next to Alex with a heavy sign.

"So you finally decided to visit Uncle Tim" he asked Alex.

She had no idea what to say.

"Did you get all the cards I sent?" He added

"I wouldn't know since I never got a reply"

He really played the part. Laying on the guilt trip pretty thick.

"Your poor Dad over there having to deal with teenagers"

Now that's my kind of guy!

"Don't even try to get the keys to the liquor cabinet"

"Dad, what will you have to drink?" he asked me first.

I ordered the alcoholic "Dad's Electric Lemonade".

"I don't blame you."

Val order a fruity tootie drink and the kids ordered milkshakes. They counted as the beverage for their meal which was nice. Otherwise they are $4.99.

Sterg and I with our drinks.

and without the goofy face.

 

[fractal]

Toni wanted to get in on the action.

This ended up being her favorite restaurant of the trip. She liked the food and loved "Uncle Tim".

Uncle Tim called Val "My Sweetie", as in "how are you doing My Sweetie?". "My Sweetie, what are you having to drink?". I found it hilarious, as did the kids. I can see how some people may be put off by all of this, especially if they don't know the shtick coming in, but we ate it up. After we got our drinks Uncle Tim came back and made us all get up and go wash our hands in the restroom. "What, you don't wash your hands before dinner? C'mon, get up!".

Uncle Tim with Val

We came back to see another "Uncle" making a kid in the next table sweep up the floor with a broom and dust pan because he didn't finish his plate.
It was funny to watch it all unfold.

I ordered the sampler platter which included fried chicken, meatloaf and pot roast and served with greens. Everything was tasty. I especially enjoyed the meatloaf, to my surprise,and I did clean my plate. Sterg, however, did not and Uncle Tim got on him good. He sat next to Sterg, pulled out a kazoo, put some food on a fork and made an airplane sound as he hand fed him. It was a great performance!

 

[Matt and Kelly]

We were lucky enough to get Uncle Tim during our visit to 50's a few years backs. Like you guys, we loved him! He made the meal one of the most memorable experiences we had during the whole trip.

We have another dinner at 50's booked next week...needless to say I am really looking forward to it!

 

[Southern_Tink]

We went to 50's for the first time in 2008 and had a waiter named Mikey. He was fantastic and referred to me as his sister. I drew him a picture and he put it on the refrigerator, he force fed my dad his greens...he was hilarious and paid attention to our needs (refills, etc.). It turned out to be one of our favorite restaurants and we went back in 2009. This time our experience was the complete opposite. Our server was not in character at all and got all of our orders wrong. It still leaves a bitter taste in our mouth because the experience didn't sit well with us. We haven't been back since. One of these days, I'm sure we will go back, but we kind of need a break from it. I think the way we feel about it is similar to how you feel about the Yeti! I'm glad you guys had a good experience there, your family seemed to enjoy it!

 

[HouCuseChickie]

Your windmill pic reminds me of a few of mine. You work to get that one thing, but then you look at everything else and just shake your head.

Love the iphone confiscation threat...pics are of my fave part of the safari. Also love the comparison's of Everest and an ex.

It's been ages since I've been to 50s pt, but it looks like you guys had a blast. We really need to make a point to get there next time. Can't wait to read more. :wave:

 

[fractal]

Uncle Tim continued his show. He spotted a boy in the table to our right texting on his cell phone. Not allowed. He had him stand with his nose touching a wall.

He spotted Toni's Bday pin and wondered why we never sent him cards on his Birthday. Don't worry though, "Mom's" slaving away back in the kitchen for some special dessert" Uncle Tim came back with Toni's birthday cupcake and started to sing happy birthday with us.

He also felt compelled to stick some straws in his ears. :ROFLOL:

We all ordered Ice Cream sundaes for dessert. The meal and dessert were tasty and enjoyable. We thought the decor put you in the appropriate frame of mind and we all loved Uncle Tim ( even though I kept calling him Uncle "Jim" by mistake ). My rating for 50's Prime Time was an 8 - the family rating was a 9, helped by Toni's rating of a 10.

Some unfinished business - I rated Teppon Edo as a 7, with the family giving it a 7.5. No complaints about it, but we have a very good hibachi near our home and Teppon Edo didn't break any new ground for us.

We waddled out of "Mom's kitchen". The rain was gone and the setting sun made it very comfortable. I snapped some pictures around the lake.

I messed up the focus here a bit.

We made our way up to Indy. Unfortunately we didn't get a chance to see the show this trip. It's one of my favorites.

Sterg pulled the rope a few times. We got some chuckles out of the calls from below.

 

[fractal]

As Val and I were still giggling at Uncle Tim's thorough embarrassment of Alex and Sterg, we slowly made our way to Star Tours.

As I've said before, I am a Star Wars geek. In fact, I'm watching it again right now on Spike as I type this. Despite wanting to kill George Lucas because of the ridiculous stuff he added to the original, I'm enjoying Luke and Han's adventures. Val on the other hand is not. Between the two of us we've watched Star Wars 305 times. That's like saying between Babe Ruth and I, we have 714 career Major League home runs.

She wasn't excited to go on, but was game. The night before the kids and I rode ST 2.0 five times. The queue itself is very entertaining. The idea is that you are going on a space "tourist" trip and this was the spaceport. There is a video showing different destinations and then a view of the vehicle itself - complete with C3PO and R2D2 bickering with each other.

You also go through a luggage storage and check area. This droid is scanning luggage through some kinda of x-ray machine.

Then you go through a StarWars version of TSA - A screen is shown with silhouettes of passengers, some human some not, passing through. Up a ramp and past the most amusing part of the queue. A very funny droid that makes some great quips. I wish I could remember them but I do recall laughing quite a bit. Definitely worth hanging out a few minutes to hear the whole routine.

We moved to our designated row awaiting our trip. A young couple from NewYork asked me to take a picture of them with their 3-D glasses on. I did and asked them to return the favor...

 

[fractal]

3PO accidentally becomes your pilot. The ride is broken into 5 scenes. There are different versions of each scene that are interchangeable. The first scene is an escape/liftoff from somewhere - ours was always the stormtrooper escape from the death star - it's great, but would have like to see the other one with Vader. A rebel spy is also revealed in the first scene - this is somebody actually in your ship - Sterg was the rebel spy for one of our rides. Nice touch IMO.

The second scene has you lightspeeding to another planet - we got the Wookie planet and Hoth - I think there is another.

After that there is a message regarding your mission. Ours was from Yoda or General Ackbar. We didn't get Leia. You are then sent to another world - the fourth scene.

We got Naboo (which was my favorite) and a dogfight with BobaFett in an asteroid field. The final scene is the victory one. The one after Naboo was the best with the 3d effect taking "front" stage. The 3D effect were good without being overwhelming. The picture looked sharp, crisp and lifelike despite being CGI.

The simulator was the same as ST 1.0 but I thought worked well with the visuals. All in all it was a great upgrade to the old ST. I was impressed enough to ride it 6 times in two nights. The randomness of the the ride made it much more appealing. 2 thumbs up from the "Fractal" clan.

After ST we sent Sterg and Toni ( again ) to get fastpasses for Tower of Terror. Val, Alex and I decided to ride the Great Movie Ride. For the first time ever that I've ridden this - it was a walk on. We requested the Cowboy scene but it was no longer "running" although the CM confessed it was her favorite. Before long we were on our trip through the movies...

Mugsy getting ready for a shoot-out...

The "Duke"

And from the movie Val hates more than any other...

I do enjoy this ride. I'm a big fan of cinema and I was happy to see some new movies added to the last part of the show. I remember seeing a clip from UP and other recent films.

We departed out trip through Hollywood and made our way down Sunset Blvd.
to meet up with Sterg and Toni.

 

[lbrad]

By the way - World Showcase looked awesome! Nothing on the ground, the buildings great and the landscaping impeccable. These are the things that I really appreciate about WDW. I've been to Busch Gardens Williamsburg and it is a beautiful park, but it cannot compare to the grandeur that is Epcot, WS and the World. I took this picture while walking out of Japan. Everything is right in the World.

We started walking toward America. I was enduring the heat while battling the questions and whining.

"Why is it sooo hot?" - Well, it's August and we are in the subtropics.

"When is our room going to be ready" - Check in is not till 3pm but they will text me if its ready earlier.

"Can we go back to the pool?" - Let's just go up here to America - there is an air conditioned ride we've never done that I would like to try.

"C'mon Big Pops! We want to go to the pool!" (Big Pops is the nickname given to me by the annoying teenagers).

"Yeah Big Pops, we want to go to the pool!" (Great, now the 9 year old is calling me Big Pops ).

Just then we spotted the Fife and Drum Corps. "C'mon" I said. "The Fife and Drum guys"

So we went over, watched the ending of their performance and got in line for pictures with them. Toni was the only one who jumped at the chance for a picture. The teenagers were "too cool" for that. So I got a nice picture of the one remaining human child I have with the Epcot Fife and Drum Corps.

I then found out to my excitement that The Voices of Liberty's next performance was in 10 minutes. This was something on my to do list. It was also something the rest of the family had no idea about so I had to sell it hard.

In the end, we walked into a practically empty rotunda and were directed to sit on the floor in the middle of the room. It was the best place for the acoustics - the air conditioned room and the cold marble floor was another strong selling point. The kids and I sat on the floor, while Val opted to watch from a bench despite our beckoning.

What can I say? They were great! They sang for about 15 minutes or so and we were all impressed. Even Alex and Sterg!

We love The Voices of Liberty!!!! American Adventure is our favorite spot in WS.

Just starting to read your trip report ... AWESOME !!!
I am always a late comer:lol: I'll keep reading :wave:

 

[lbrad]

After our trip to the Forbidden Mountain, we received word that Alex and Sterg awoke from their slumber and were entering the park. We met them at It's Tough to Be a Bug. Then we all went back to EE, rode that, rode Dinosaur, hit Restaurantosaurus again for the big kids. By then it was mid afternoon and Sterg and Toni wanted to go back to the resort. Alex and I wanted to go on Kilimanjaro Safari. I let Sterg take Toni back on the bus. - Again, this is not something I think I could have done anywhere else but Disney World.

The Safari was great! We walked right up to the loading area and were on our truck in no time. Our driver did a wonderful job. He was playing the part very serious. Trying to convince us we were really on a two-week safari. There was a light but steady rain coming down which must have been to the animals liking because they were all out (except for the lion). It was also on the Safari that I had my biggest regret. The elephants were putting on quite a show and I had no camera - Alex took some pics on her phone but now can't find them. :brick:

This also was a great opportunity to spend some time just with Alex. She is now a senior in high school and it seemed just like yesterday when we first brought her here at the age of 6. She grew up a "Tom-Boy" and I coached her in basketball through grade school. She now plays lacrosse and field hockey for her High School. She plans to go to college and study Biology, so the Safari was right up her alley. She had a great time. Alex enjoys thrill rides but her favorite rides are SEE, PoTC and Living with the Land. She has an appreciation for the details in the rides and the educational aspects. It was nice to have that 20 minutes with her without all the distractions of home.

We helped "Wilson" capture the poachers, then Simba One returned back to the reserve. As it started to rain some more, we considered Pangani Trail but Alex wanted time for her run on the treadmill before dinner. The two of us jumped poodles in the rain as we walked out of a near empty AK. We were very grateful for the ponchos.

I regretted not bringing my camera that morning because of all the pictures I missed, but not having the camera also allowed me to go with the flow more and in a way brought me closer to my children's level. I wasn't "Big Pops" with the camera, urging them to stop and pose every 10 minutes. I valued the time with Alex. Before I know it she will be off to college. Trips to Disney World with your parents may become harder over the next few years.

Coming up - Return of the Pictures, Dinner at Prime Time!

Tis true what you said about trips getting harder as the kids go off to college!!!

This summer our family was fortunate to have a WDW vacation (minus our older son who was in the midst of his summer internship with the Lancaster Barnstormers... couldn't take off to go along with us BUT is now in his senior year of college). :sohappy:

The trip to WDW was our DD's high school graduation present. We had a great time (minus the Brazilians ) and truly made memories of a lifetime!!!
She is our youngest and is quite the "princess" ... She went off to college this fall ... hoping & praying we will return to The World as a "family"
... maybe with grandchildren Did I just say that???

Your TR is wonderful ... You have a beautiful family ...
CHERISH the memories:wave:

 

[fractal]

Thanks for reading mine. Feels like I wrote it years ago, and it was actually March of this year! May of '12 can't get here fast enough for our family! Great to hear the restaurant is only one credit, I thought for sure it was a signature restaurant! There is no doubt it will be one of the first ADRs we make! Ready to read more from you!

I'm jealous that you have a countdown and I don't. Thanks for following along!

Glad you got to spend time with Alex, and no worries you can still have trips with your daughter when she goes to college! I just graduated from college this past May and for the four years I was there me and my mom have gone to WDW every January break!

That gives me hope, Thanks!

We were lucky enough to get Uncle Tim during our visit to 50's a few years backs. Like you guys, we loved him! He made the meal one of the most memorable experiences we had during the whole trip.

We have another dinner at 50's booked next week...needless to say I am really looking forward to it!

He made it a memorable experience. Have fun next week!

We went to 50's for the first time in 2008 and had a waiter named Mikey. He was fantastic and referred to me as his sister. I drew him a picture and he put it on the refrigerator, he force fed my dad his greens...he was hilarious and paid attention to our needs (refills, etc.). It turned out to be one of our favorite restaurants and we went back in 2009. This time our experience was the complete opposite. Our server was not in character at all and got all of our orders wrong. It still leaves a bitter taste in our mouth because the experience didn't sit well with us. We haven't been back since. One of these days, I'm sure we will go back, but we kind of need a break from it. I think the way we feel about it is similar to how you feel about the Yeti! I'm glad you guys had a good experience there, your family seemed to enjoy it!

Sorry to hear about your follow up visit to 50's PT. I know what you mean. There are places I've never gone back to because of bad service.

Your windmill pic reminds me of a few of mine. You work to get that one thing, but then you look at everything else and just shake your head.

Love the iphone confiscation threat...pics are of my fave part of the safari. Also love the comparison's of Everest and an ex.

It's been ages since I've been to 50s pt, but it looks like you guys had a blast. We really need to make a point to get there next time. Can't wait to read more. :wave:

I have a long way to go with the photography stuff. :shrug:

Taking the I-Phone threat has been a great tool in modifying behavior.

Thanks for reading along!

 

[fractal]

We love The Voices of Liberty!!!! American Adventure is our favorite spot in WS.

Just starting to read your trip report ... AWESOME !!!
I am always a late comer:lol: I'll keep reading :wave:

I'm so glad we spent the time to experience it this trip.
Thanks! and thanks for reading!

Tis true what you said about trips getting harder as the kids go off to college!!!

This summer our family was fortunate to have a WDW vacation (minus our older son who was in the midst of his summer internship with the Lancaster Barnstormers... couldn't take off to go along with us BUT is now in his senior year of college). :sohappy:

The trip to WDW was our DD's high school graduation present. We had a great time (minus the Brazilians ) and truly made memories of a lifetime!!!
She is our youngest and is quite the "princess" ... She went off to college this fall ... hoping & praying we will return to The World as a "family"
... maybe with grandchildren Did I just say that???

Your TR is wonderful ... You have a beautiful family ...
CHERISH the memories:wave:

Have wanted to go so a Barnstormers game. We get to a few Reading Phillies games a year.

It will definitely be harder to plan for everybody to go to WDW with all the moving parts.

I'm glad you had a great trip. I've already thought of the future "with grandchildren" trip myself. :lol:

Thank you and thanks for following along!

 

[kdrose]

Thank you!

I just found this great website today and have thoroughly enjoyed your trip report. You have inspired me to write my own!

Now I just gotta get my 500+ pictures to finish downloading and figure out how to post them (scratching head.....)

 

[Raven66]

OMG Val hates Wizard of Oz? That is my obsolute favorite movie. The Great Movie Ride is one of my favorites.

We had a really great time at 50's too. We didn't get the guy you had but we had a lady that was our cousin. She was pretty good.

Still loving the trip report!!

 

[Mikester71]

LOVING the trip report and pictures so far fractal!!! Hadn't been on the site for a LONG while, so when I came across your post yesterday in the wee hours of the morning and saw that it was 13 pages, I had to decide if I should start reading it before bed or not. You see, once I get caught up reading something that interests me, I tend to want to read it right from start to finish all in one sitting. Well, I spent a good hour to two hours last night reading it right from the start while listening to some music on the computer. Let me tell you, I lost ALL track of time! LOVED all the gorgeous pictures of the family and the food and parks! Brought back many great memories of our recent WDW family vacations. Only have two kids myself (15 year old son and 20 year old daughter), but had to laugh at some of your stories pertaining to your son and your youngest daughter during the trip. Have been there many a time, only with my daughter referring to her younger brother as "the golden boy" or "our precious boy" who gets what he wants all the time and gets all of our attention while on vacation!!! Kids...what can you do!? :shrug: :ROFLOL:

Like I said at the beginning of my post, haven't really been on this site for some time. I used to visit it on a daily basis too, usually more than once a day. But since returning from our last trip in March of this year, I found myself not coming to this site as often. It went from once a day, to maybe once a week, to maybe once a month, if even that lately. I know why I stopped visiting though - the prospect of another WDW trip in the near future was looking bleak at best, so I figured I should try and ween myself off of my WDW obsession a bit.

Well....so much for that!!! After reading your trip report yesterday, I feel like I owe you a big THANK YOU for giving me that WDW bug again! Heck, this is my third time on the site today! And earlier today, I called my wife down to share some of the highlights from your report and I think it caused my wife to get bitten by that same magnificent bug! We started talking while looking at some of your wonderful pictures about how much we missed it and how much fun we always have and now it looks like we are going to try and shoot for another WDW vacation in 2-3 years time! Hey...two to three years may seem like an eternity to some, but it is definitely better than NEVER!!!! :ROFLOL:

Anyways, just wanted to compliment you on a job well done and say thanks again for helping this Disney nerd get his ears back! The report and pics were truly top notch...bravo! :sohappy:

 

[Ariel484]

Your 50s dinner sounds hilarious! Love the picture of Uncle Tim using the airplane method. :lol:

That's great that you got to spend some one-on-one time with the kiddos. Yay!

 

[fractal]

Sterg didn't have fastpasses for Tot because he said it was basically a walk on. While we were on GMR they did Tot twice. Now they were begging to go on RRRC which was posted as a 30minute wait. Meanwhile I saw a line forming down Sunset Blvd to get into the Hollywood Hills Amphitheater.

"Wait? What time is it?" I said. "That's right, there is a late show for Fanstasmic!"

I was pretty excited. We hadn't watched Fantasmic since 2000 and Toni never saw it.

"C'mon, Let's get in line for Fastasmic!" I urged, as I was having images of the 15 Chinese from the Philadelphia airport appearing out of nowhere to jump in front of us.

Everyone was game except for Toni. She wanted no parts of some long line to go watch a "show" when Rock and Roll Roller Coaster beckoned. I had created a monster. I watched as a beer vendor passed by, thinking that was a bit strange to see a beer vendor at Disney.

"I'm not standing in no stupid line to watch some stupid show!" She said emphatically. "I want to go on Rock&Roll Roller coaster!!"

"Get in line Bones." Sterg let out. Bones is the name her loving brother and sister gave her because of her thin build. It's a name Val and I despise. I fear some kind of psychological damage that will lead her to grow up wanted to weigh 800lbs or something. Val hates it because, well it's just mean.

So there we are sorta in line. Val is yelling at Sterg as he is dodging around us trying to avoid me getting that little clump of hair behind his right ear that I like to pull when he ticks me off. Cobra Clutch was out since we were in too public of a place.

Toni is standing about 10 feet away from us in the middle of Sunset Blvd with her arms crossed. "I'm not standing in no stupid line! Look how long this line is! We won't even get a stupid seat!"

At this point I waved down the beer vendor and ordered two. I was beginning to understand the brilliance of having a beer vendor at this particular spot.

Meanwhile Alex is obliviously texting somebody on her phone. Finally, Val threatened Toni that if she didn't get in line she would spend the entire next day in the room. Toni didn't call her bluff and fell in place.

We started to move in and after suffering through some more complaining, we were told to start a new row - we ended up front row right in the middle.
So much for not getting a seat. Toni started to settle down and then grew more intrigued with the scene unfolding before her.

Some bad pics of the kids - there's a lot to be said for "Auto" setting.

Alex still texting...

 

[fractal]

I was struggling badly with the camera during the whole show. There were several problems.

1) - I was trying to watch the show while adjusting the camera manually. Not a great idea. I thought I had the shutter speed correct, then I adjusted the aperture to get the exposure to "zero", pressed the "fire" button to discover the shutter speed was way too slow. This resulted in a big blur. Then I figured out I needed to change the ISO settings which was ok until something brightly lit came around, like this.

Way over exposured and very frustrating.

2) My video display was deceiving me. Often I would look at the shot in the display first, it would look good, then take the picture. I would look at the shot again and think it still looked good, then when I downloaded the picture it would be off. I was really excited about this picture until I saw it on a bigger screen...

3) Things were moving quickly in the show and since I hadn't seen it in over 10 years I really didn't have a game plan. I was reacting to what I was seeing vs. setting things up before hand. This was a shot that would have been much better if I set off the shutter about a second sooner.

I said at the beginning of my report that I shot about 80% of my pictures in manual mode. Looking back at it, I should have shot 20-30% in manual. Most of the shots I took were "on the run" shots or simple shots of the family that really didn't call for any special adjustments. I certainly learned much about photography and how a camera works during this exercise but at the cost of some good pictures. For shots that I have time to compose and set up, manual is fine - but I learned my lesson on the more "common" shots. "Auto" is your friend.

Back to the report.

We all loved the show! Especially Toni ( figures ). I tried not to do too many "I told you so's" but she just laughed them off anyway.

Alex is our resident Lion King fanatic ( she grew up with it ) and loved this part...

Sterg thought the snake and dragon were "cool".

 

[fractal]

Toni loved the entire show but really got a kick out of the steamboat. She was thrilled to see her favorite, Pluto, on the boat.

I almost missed the shots completely because I was fiddling around again - I finally just put it in "Auto" to take these. I don't remember seeing Ariel in mermaid mode the last time. That was neat.

Not a bad end to the night! We left the theater with the rest of the "cattle" and made our way out to the front of the park. Val and Toni went to the potty so I got a picture of the other two.

We hopped on the Friendship boat back to the BC. There wasn't much room on the boat. We ended up standing in the back corner next to a family from the Bronx. I stood next to the father, he was sporting a thick mustache and spoke loudly with a heavy New York accent. "How long is 'dis boat ride bak?" He was friendly enough to make room for us and engage me in some small "tawk".

Our conversation was interrupted by none other than our friend Codie, the Co-Captain. If I didn't say it before I will now. Codie had a bit of a "feminine voice". Nothing wrong with that, but that's how it was.

"Hello, I'm Codie your Co-Captain. Did everybody have a great time tonight at Disney's Hollywood Studios?" He released over the PA system.

"I'm sure you're all sad that the park has closed for the day. Everybody say AWWW, I'm sad".

At his time the "Bronx" father looked at me and said "Who da heck is dis guy?"

Codie continued on " I have some Disney trivia to pass the time while on our trip back". "Who is the singing voice for Hercules? Hercules had two voices in the movie. One for speaking and one for singing. Who did the singing voice? Anybody know?"

I waited.

"Anybody? Anybody know the singing voice for Hercules?" Codie continued to ask.

I couldn't hold it in. I replied "MICHAEL BOLTON!" from the back of the very crowded boat. Codie didn't hear me.

 

[fractal]

"Anybody know who the singing voice is for Hercules?" "Anyone?" "I have a little gift for the person that gets it right" Codie repeated several times.

I yelled "MICHAEL BOLTON!" again.

Nothing from Codie.

"MICHAEL BOLTON!" One more time.

"Doesn't anybody know?" Codie pleaded. He appeared to be the only person on the boat not hearing me.

Finally the Bronx father had enough. "HEY, I GOT A FELLA HERE THAT HAS AN ANSWER!" he bellowed.

Everybody turned around and looked at us. Codie heard him. "OK, what's the answer fellow in the back?"

"MICHAEL BOLTON" I said. "THE ANSWER IS MICHAEL BOLTON!"

At this point Val was elbowing me and Alex and Sterg were distancing themselves from me. Toni was clutching my arm all excited.

"YESSS! That's right! Michael Bolton is the singing voice for Hercules! Everybody say YEAHHH! Sir, come up to me when you get off the boat for your gift. Everybody say YEAHH!

Toni immediately asked if she could have the prize. Alex and Sterg were doing "Fractal" cat calls and the Bronx Father was laughing hysterically while the rest of the boat was applauding.

It didn't end there. Codie asked another question. "Anybody know who did the voice of Pocahontas? Anybody?"

After a few minutes of no response, Bronx father yelled out "MICHAEL BOLTON!" At which point the entire boat burst into laughter.

It went on like this for every question Codie asked to the point I was starting to feel bad for him. "MICHAEL BOLTON" MICHAEL BOLTON" But it was all in good fun and everyone on the boat was in on it. It ended up being a hilarious trip back. Bronx family got off at the Swan & Dolphin and Bronx Father gave me a hug and said I made his day. As he exited the boat he couldn't resist another loud "MICHAEL BOLTON!"

Only at Disney.

By the way, the "prize" was a Mickey sticker which Toni wore proudly.

AND - As somebody (PeoplemoverTTA) replied earlier in my thread, Michael Bolton isn't even the right answer. Which to me makes the entire thing even funnier.