Pierce Vacation 2012 - Day 8

It was a few minutes before our alarm went off.  The room was quiet.  It had the slight frigid feeling of an ice box.  The children were still sleeping well.  Elisa had started the game of playing on her iPhone.  And I started thinking about traditions.  We seemed to be picking them up in droves.  You see, we're Disney fans.  We like to go to Disney Parks.  Maybe it is the theming, or the cleanliness.  Don't laugh...when people want to engage in a conversation about Disney, I challenge them to litter in the park.  Just see how long it takes for someone to pick it up.  Disney Parks are impeccable.  That's a nice comparison to Lagoon, where if a building doesn't have a build up of chewing gum, that's the idea of wasted space.

But I digress.  I could write another blog on the wonders of Lagoon.   No, I was talking about traditions.  We have built on traditions of a grand dinner to start the trip.  We get our Mickey hats.  We get our family photos.  But Day 6's experience made me realize that we've started another tradition in the Pierce family.  The Disney vomit.  I won't go into details about the Chef Mickey debacle (or as I would say, great catch!), but it took me back to our first trip to Disneyland with Lukas.  Lukas was one.  Just starting to really experience adult food.  And we were in a theme park, where food flows like porn on the internet - it's everywhere, it's hot, and it's accessible.  I wouldn't know.  I've just heard the rumors.  Anyway, it was a wonderful day in the park.  On that visit, they had just opened the Finding Nemo Submarine attraction, and we had avoided the line for most of the trip.  It was anywhere from 45-90 minutes.  But we caught a break after standing in the Dole Whip line for 2 hours.  By the way, a Dole Whip is another Disney tradition (or at least it was).  It's pineapple goodness in a cup.  I think it costs $6.95.  

With Dole Whip in hand, we got into what felt like a manageable 30 minute line.  And I passed around the Dole Whip cup as though it was going out of style.  Lukas enjoyed it immensely.  Back then, he didn't say much, so he'd just open his mouth like a trap and wait for the straw to be inserted.  He "might" have ingested about half of the cup by himself.  But he could handle it.  By this point, I was convinced that he had a stomach made of steel, just like his father.  Another thing about Lukas - one that makes him very different from Miles is the warning system when throw up is on the way.  With Miles, you can see it coming from a mile away.  The tears, pulling at his stomach, the potential wretching.  You usually have time to get out of the way, properly prepare a bowl, and tell him to "let me have it!".  Or in my case, just position the napkin.  Lukas is a different beast.  He's like the "silent but deadly"vomiter.  Quiet, cute smile.  a slight hesitation in his eyes, and lock down your valuables.  Because vittles are coming at you.  Don't believe me?   The first time Lukas really threw up (beyond traditional throw up), Elisa and I were in the car.  I was riding shotgun (I called it...Lukas couldn't talk, so it was an easy victory) and we had just pulled up to the local Costa Vida.  Lukas coughed.  Well, Elisa thought Lukas coughed.  I knew different when something forceful in the back of my head.   Mmmmmmm...  Needless to say, we didn't eat at Costa Vida that night.

Back to Nemo.  We had waited about 25 of the 35 minutes.  We were getting close to the entrance.  And out of nowhere, Lukas became the possessed child we know he can be.  Dole Whip from all sides.  Dole Whip on my shoes.  Dole Whip on the stroller.  Lukas started the tradition...Miles just continued it on Day 7 of our journey.  By the way, remember the Dole Whip tradition?  I've had as many of those as I had meals at Costa Vida.  Yep, zero.  

I'm disappointed in myself again.  We're down to two full days of Disney fun and I spend the first three hours of this blog comparing the vomiting practices of my two children.  The lens you view the world once you have kids is quite startling, I must say.  As the alarm clock went off and we got out of bed, though, vomit was on my mind.  I wanted to make sure that Miles was okay.  We took it easy in Concierge and gave the kids bagels.  No Mickey's breakfast pizza today!  And we were off to Animal Kingdom.  At this point of the blog, I'm going to mostly skip the fact that for the first time on my vacation, I got a call from work.  One of those "oh Good God, they burned down the building and left me only a red stapler" kind of calls.  It bummed me out.  But Animal Kingdom was going to help me recover, and I'd start by trying to game the Disney system.  Nothing like a little rule breaking to get the idea of work out of my system!  

To start the day, Lukas wanted to head back to Dinosaur.  As we neared the entrance, my parents were wonderful and said they wanted to take Miles on Triceratop Spin, which is a dinosaur version of Dumbo.  They headed off with the stroller, knocking two teens out of the way.  I turned back to Dinosaur.  We wanted to make sure the parents had a ride, so I inquired about the rider switch pass.  This time, Disney cast member looked around as if I was hiding my other riders in my back pocket.  Honestly, that would have been more believable, Mrs. Cast Member if I still had the stroller with me.  You won't believe what you can hold in that thing!  I told her that the other riders were just down the street.  She slowly handed me the slip and I felt like I would be breaking the unseen Disney rules if I just put it in my back pocket.  So I did what any self respecting person would do.  I ran down the street until I was out of eyesight and...put the the slip in my back pocket.  When I ran back up, Elisa asked if I found them.  I lied.  Bad Brad.  We enjoyed the ride and met up with my parents.  They had gone on the Dumbo clone not once, but twice.  They were then off to ride Dinosaur and we went into the Dinosaur store.  

It took me a few minutes to get all of the rocks that Miles went and grabbed (I already bought one!), and then Elisa played the game of "where's Mater?"  While we were at Disney Studios the day before, Elisa had purchased a set of Lightning McQueen and Mater, donned with Mickey ears and a Goofy hat.  Miles hadn't let them out of his sight since that purchase, so when we were waiting for the others to get off of Dinosaur, we realized that Mater was missing.  Elisa started looking through the front of the stroller.  I climbed into the back pocket of the stroller and looked around as well.  It's one of those moments where you know the car is nowhere to be found, but you keep searching the same places over and over again.  It's an interesting study on human behavior.  Missing your keys?  Keep checking your pockets...sure, there might be a chance that the keys just melded into your leg and are playing a great game of hide and seek!  

By the time the group met back up, Elisa and I were convinced that we would be purchasing another Lightning McQueen and Mater set.  My Dad stopped us in our tracks when he said it was back in the car.  The car!  Why didn't we think of that?  You mean it is in the car that we didn't look in, as opposed to my pockets, the stroller, the ground, or my belt?  Weird.  We headed from one thrill ride to another.  Expedition Everest had to be experienced again.  Lukas, my parents, and I rode the extremely fun roller coaster, and then it was decision time.  For most of the morning, you could tell Elisa was considering riding Everest.  We all had talked about how wonderful it was.  She didn't want to get sick on it, but I tried to ease her mind.  In reality, I knew that I was playing a very dangerous game here.  I wanted her to ride because I want her to love thrill rides so much.  But if she hated it, got a headache, or worse, sick, I would be in the doghouse for the last few days.  It was vacation, I reasoned.  I won her over.  She nervously joined me on the ride.  There's a great shot of us on the ride...you can see my hand on her lap.  I will continue to maintain that this was absolutely a sign that I was trying to be there for her.  There's no possible way that I was thinking "if I hold onto her, maybe she'll be more mad at me hurting her leg than she was at hating the ride!"

When the ride slowed down, I looked over.  Her first comment was that she had a headache.  Uh oh.  I promised her a coffee immediately.  She said she didn't like going backward.  I told her I would not ever ask her to go on the ride again.  She said it wasn't bad until her motion sickness kicked in halfway through the ride.  I wanted to crawl under a rock.  Apparently, this wasn't going to turn out well.  I knew I might be in greater trouble when I again offered her a coffee and she said that her stomach was upset.  Dog house?  Where are you?  We walked over to try the line of a ride we hadn't yet experienced  Kali River Rapids.  The point of this one?  To get wet.  Very wet.  Elisa had no interest, and Miles just wasn't tall enough.  However, when we got there, the wait was 20 minutes.  I decided to get us some fastpasses and we could shop a little.  Apparently, the water ride didn't command a 20 minute wait.  Nearby was a shop where we looked at some gifts that you could probably buy at the local "Asian Gifts" store in the mall.  My parents were on the verge of buying a set of dragons for Lukas (he would have waited the 20 minutes!) and I was going to approach a coffee cart to see if I could get a bit out of the doghouse with Elisa.  When we emerged from the store, I looked back at Kali River Rapids.  Magically, the wait time had reduced from 20 minutes to 10.  This was now acceptable.  Dragons were put back, Lukas and crew were loaded up with our ponchos (it STILL hadn't rained since we bought them...oh, the irony), and we went on the ride.  

A few fun tidbits from this 4 minute journey.  The first was the middle console.  In each large raft, there is a place to put your bags or purses so that they don't end up soaked.  Half of it was intact.  The other had a massive rip in it.  Yeah, that'll save your possessions.  I'm so lucky I didn't bring my man purse to the parks today!  Also in the raft were two other families.  There was a couple in their 30's, clearly sure they wouldn't be getting wet.  And there was a family with a young 3-4 year old on the ride.  For the early part, he was the entertainment.  Every single time a drop of water got on him, he'd cry.  Wail.  Make animal noises.  Things would settle a bit as would he, and then another drop of water would hit him and the entire crying/animal noise thing started up again.  The other couple seemed to be avoiding all the water.  We got hit a couple times, but the ponchos were generally doing their jobs.  I was even brave enough to not wear the hood.  We then came across the large hill of the ride.  As we started to go down, the couple avoiding everything started cheering...literally, cheering.  The way thing were going, they were going to avoid every major water spray.  But these rides have a funny way of throwing those thoughts out the window.  As we continued to head down the hill, the raft continued to spin.  And just as we hit the water, who was perfectly positioned to be deluged by the wave?  The cocky couple, of course.  And they got soaked.  From head to toe.  I didn't fare well - I was an idiot for not having my hood on, so the poncho ended up just covering up the wet shirt, and the little 3-4 year old was crying hysterically.  A good ride was had by all.  And no man purse was harmed in the actual ride.  

After a few thrill rides, we took it easy as we headed back to Dinoland USA.  Lukas had wanted to go on Triceratop spin, which we did.  Then my parents and I jumped on Primeval Whirl, which is a wild mouse kind of ride.  Everything seemed normal until we were ready to get off the ride.  Usually, Disney has a script that it follows.  When you get on, you're supposed to keep your hands, arms, legs, eyes, and fingernails in the ride at all times.  Usually, when you get done you're told to watch your step.  Not on this one.  Literally, as you pull up, the ride recording says "please stand up before exiting the ride vehicle."  Ummm...what?  You mean, I can't fulfill my greatest desire on Earth to army crawl out of a moving ride vehicle?  I actually have to stand up before I get out?  I could only imagine the "event" that caused this recording to be made.  Sir, you just got run over by a ride vehicle!  What were you doing?  Oh, I'm sorry.  I forgot that I had to stand up.  I was doing the sit down exit and my leg got caught.  And I'm going to sue!  

I bet I was close.  So after careful consideration, I did decided to stand up before exiting the vehicle.  And before we knew it, we were saying our goodbyes to Animal Kingdom.  We could have stayed, but we all had Beaches and Cream on our minds.  It was a strike out at dinner, but I felt more confident we could get good seats at lunch.  I was right.  We only had to wait for about 15 minutes.  We sat down and started looking over the goods.  Beaches and Cream is famous for a lot of things in Disney World, but only one menu item is considered the "signature" item.  It's called the kitchen sink.  Literally, they bring out a bowl that has a faucet attached.  It is filled with every single ice cream the restaurant has, along with every topping.  To date, I had never seen the kitchen sink.  We considered it at our table for about 3 seconds.  Before I could state my intentions to give it a try, my parents had ordered milkshakes.  Oh well, maybe next time.  We had some good burgers and I held out for my ice cream until after lunch.  I quickly ordered a banana split.  

While I started devouring it, Elisa asked one of those simple yet stumping questions.  "Why a banana split?  What's so great about a banana with ice cream?"  I couldn't answer.  How do you put that into words without sounding like you're staring in a porno (wow, second porn reference...I need help) or you just sound like your blubbering.  I decided against talking about how the long yellow banana blends with the milky wonder of the ice cream.  I just kept eating.  Oh, and yes, that last line actually happened.  Deal with it.  

While I was plowing through the banana split, the table next to us ordered the Kitchen Sink.  I was excited to see it.  As I had personally almost polished off the entire banana split, Elisa made her well timed comment about the damage I was inflicting on the dessert.  I promptly stopped slurping hot fudge into my mouth.  I proudly left about a scoop of ice cream in the bowl.  Go me.  Or poor Brad and his peer pressure issues once again!  As we were getting ready to leave, the Kitchen Sink indeed arrived.  And good hell.  I will NEVER order that.  It had to be two feet tall.  And was just filled.  It wasn't even the ice cream that made me nauseous.  It was the toppings.  I counted 4 large cookies and 4 full brownies on top.  They used an entire can of whipping cream and an entire jar of cherries.  I knew we had made the right decision when one of the people grabbed a spoon, stuck it in, and pulled back an entire spoonful of whipped cream.  10 minutes too late, I had the perfect answer to Elisa's banana split question - "hey, it's no kitchen sink!"  

We got the kids naps and I was looking forward to the afternoon.  No theme parks.  A return to Downtown Disney when there wouldn't be crowds coming out of all orifices.  This was going to be a good experience, I was sure of it.  We headed over to Downtown Disney and the skies were starting to turn a bit gray.  Rain was possible, and just to get a bit more ironic for this trip, we had left the ponchos back at the hotel.  I was now sure it was going to rain.  But this wasn't about rain, it was about shopping.  We headed into World of Disney and went a bit crazy.  Gifts for the kids, gifts for us, gifts for strangers.  Okay, maybe not strangers, but we did okay.  Lukas got some replicas of all of the thrill rides he had conquered and Miles was going home with a remote control train.  Elisa and I poured over coffee cups to add to our collection, and emerged with some new good ones.  In all, it was a good shopping trip.  As we were at the register, I told Elisa to just walk away.  She tends to have major cases of buyer's remorse, and it doesn't help when she starts hyperventilating in public.  She headed off to the next store and I took care of the charges.  It wasn't as bad as I had expected.  When I headed out, I was struck by two things in front of me.  First, the skies were REALLY dark and gray.  It was going to rain.  Second, I saw a little mini train for kids to ride.  At first, I thought it was really cool.  And then I saw the sign.  

$2 per ride.  You have to be kidding me.  Considering just how much we spend for theme park tickets, you have to pay to go on a throwaway version of a train?  To add to my angst, Lukas and Miles wanted to ride.  I put my foot down and said no.  My parents picked my foot up and pulled out dollar bills.  So we let the kids go off with Grandma and Grandpa to enjoy the non-free ride, while Elisa and I went into a cooking store.  And the Disney cast members started in on me.  This actually happened a couple of times on the trip.  When the kids would be off with the grandparents, I would find myself pushing that dastardly stroller all over the place.  And people would usually comment that I was pushing an empty stroller.  My initial attempts at humor was saying that this is how I carried all of my wife's shopping.  The eye roll from her kind of took the fun out of that statement.  This time, I tried a different tactic.  

CAST MEMBER: "You seem to have misplaced your child!"

ME: "Believe it or not, I actually misplaced both of them.  You'd think I'd be more upset but this is one of the last days of our vacation..."  

You'd think I personally walked up and tickled her.  She started laughing hysterically.  I mean, belly laughing.  Awkward!  I tried to entertain myself by looking through the Disney cookbooks.  She was still giggling.  I picked up a kid's cookbook and randomly opened it.  I landed on the recipe for "Mickey's Breakfast Pizza".  I set the book down.  Somehow I knew that a recipe for a Dole Whip was in there too...and I wasn't about to buy the Disney throw up cookbook.  No way.  After more shopping in a Disney Christmas store, we were starting to get hungry (and we had reservations).  As we walked out of the last store, the rain started coming down.  It was manageable, at first.  We had enough time to get back to the car and get in before the rain really started pelting down.  Tonight's plan was to head over to Saratoga Springs resort, which was out of the way for a dinner at "Turf Club Bar and Grill".  By the time we arrived, a typical Florida storm had hit.  It was just coming down in buckets.  I parked in front of the doors and let everyone get out while I parked.  In the time it took to run from the car to the front door, I was soaked from head to toe.  

So it was comforting that the hotel had the air conditioning on at full blast.  I slowly started to become a Bradsicle.  We put in our name (only 5 minutes late!) and my parents and I ordered drinks.  After that spending and rainstorm, a Long Island Iced Tea was on the menu.  The hostess walked up to us and (with a straight face) asked if we wanted to sit inside or outside.  I thought she was kidding.  I actually laughed out loud.  I think she was a bit taken aback...she explained that they had covered seating.  I'm not sure what possessed me, but I said we wanted to sit outside.  And this might have been the best decision I made on the entire trip.  This was our favorite meal, in food, service, and ambience.  As the rain continued to fall like crazy, we sat under covered seating and just enjoyed it.  It was beautiful.  Max ended up being the best server we could have hoped for.  He complimented us over and over on Lukas.  He said that he sees a lot of kids at Disney World and very few engage and make eye contact like he does.  Lukas saw his opening and proceeded to break down every single ride at Disney World.  only Max didn't brush him off.  He engaged.  He chatted with him.  And at the end of the meal, he gave Lukas a special light-up Lightning McQueen (he gave Miles one too, commenting that he seemed to be operating my iPhone better than he could).  He was simply a wonderful server and the reservation I had the least hope for at the start of the trip ended up being our favorite.  What a night and what a setting!

We headed back to the hotel for a change of pace.  Instead of rushing out in the afternoon to get some swimming in, we decided that it would be more fun to do it at night.  It ended up being very fun indeed.  However, two not so fun moments had to show their ugly faces.  First was the waterslide.  Now this had been closed most of the trip...I think they were working on it.  But tonight, it was open.  I took Lukas up and while he was scared, he was brave enough to still take the plunge.  I got on and headed right down.  By the end of the ride, I was thinking they needed to do more work.  You could literally feel every single ridge between slide pieces.  Instead of wheeeeee, it was more like "Ow!  Ooh!  Yeow!  Ugh!"  Lukas made me go again.  After ride two, I was done.  My back and arse couldn't take it any more.  It was like in a porno when.....gotcha!  

While Elisa watched from the side of the pool, the kids, grandparents, and I had a ball.  I started playing the role of shark, diving underwater and sneaking up on both kids.  To put the cherry on top of a great evening, though, my shark playing activity almost ended the day where I began...thinking about vomit. Apparently, I was too good at scaring Lukas because he swallowed a good deal of water.  And then he started hacking.  And I swear, nothing is worse than the "I just swallowed pool water" hack.  It sounds like a toad.  You're half expecting vomit at any second and considering Lukas' ability to throw up on cue, I was worried.  I got him out of the pool and positioned the towel at his mouth.  Any minute now...

...

...

...

As it turns out, Lukas wouldn't be adding to the Disney tradition.  He didn't throw up.  But with that, we were all quite done for the day.  And what a Day 8 it was.  As we all jumped into bed, I smiled.  What a trip this had been.  And then the smile vanished.  We only had one more full day to go.  Where did the vacation go?

Join me tomorrow for Day 9, where my wait time expertise ends up falling flat on it's face, Miles thinks I'm his own personal chauffeur, I take the teacups slowly (NOT!), Splash Mountain breaks, we melt via train, experience true hell on Earth when crowds come for food, go to Space for reals yo, see adult Minnie and wonder why, and provide our final offering to the Disney souvenir Gods.  Now where'd I put those ponchos?

Pierce Vacation 2012 - Day 7

I have a very specific idea of what I'd like when I stay at a hotel.  I wouldn't say that I'm OCD in this way (no, I don't need the toilet paper folded with the little triangle).  I just take a common sense approach.  Is it too much to ask that the housekeeper or previous resident actually flushes the toilet, after all?  Don't worry - this isn't a blog post about Mousekeeping leaving us a special surprise.  That was Day 1.  No, this is about something altogether more important.  You see, I have an expectation or hope that "Mousekeeping" is the quiet partner in the vacation.  The sheets get cleaned, the toilets get scrubbed, the towels replaced.  And all the better if we can do this in complete anonymity.  After all, I'm sure the mousekeeper is making judgments about us as they see our junk spread across the room.  And I don't want to sick my wife on them...she is the Queen of Clean, after all.

My concern and complaint with Mousekeeping wasn't that we didn't get towels.  It was timing.  When we checked in, I was impressed that Disney took the extra step of asking us when we would like our room cleaned.  I immediately went with the 10-12 option, knowing we would almost always be in the theme parks.  Up to this point, though, our mousekeeping came calling right around the time we were trying to get the kids down for naps.  Now, I'm not unrealistic.  If they knocked and could see we were there, it wouldn't be a big deal.  No, this particular day would just lead to some awkward moments.  I'm jumping a bit ahead in the day, as another experience trying to take out Mousekeeping wagons was the start of Day 7.

When we got back for the kids naps, Mousekeeping arrived soon after.  They knocked on the door and we didn't answer.  After they knocked for the fifth time (apparently, she REALLY wanted to talk to us), she informed us that she needed to clean our room.  The kids were hanging in there today, so we volunteered to go down and get some snacks at Concierge while she cleaned.  I was slightly annoyed at the insistence...after all, it was 2:30 in the afternoon.  But we went and I did what I do best.  I plowed through three chocolate chip cookies and a Sprite.  Long live vacations!  30 minutes or so later, we moseyed back to our room.  When we walked in, I was surprised that our room hadn't been touched at all.  No, she was still working on the room next to ours.  So I got the kids into bed and was trying to settle them down.  Knock, knock, knock.  She was back.  Captain Obvious stated that she hadn't cleaned our room yet.  You don't say!  She said that she just had a couple things to do...namely, the bathroom.  I assumed that this would mean she would return later.  Nope.  A moment later, she was doing her bathroom thing.  Nothing is more awkward that the Mousekeeper being in your room while you hang out on the bed.  And true to the experience, she stayed for 20 minutes.  I guess I should be grateful.  It's like an extra souvenir.  New towels with a pound of awkwardness.  Let's just hope none of us used the bathroom right before.  Then awkward would have been a welcome feeling!

But Mousekeeping was really the least of our worries on Day 7.  The only reason it popped into my head was because we were actually in the room from 10-12.  And Mousekeeping didn't arrive.  But why on Earth would we be there in mid-morning?  It's all Mickey's fault.  Him and his breakfast pizza.  As I stated in yesterdays blog, I made the trip planning mistake of having a late night followed by an early morning character breakfast.  Indeed, this would be the last character breakfast that we had.  Today, we were heading back to the Contemporary Resort to eat at Chef Mickey's.  Lukas was really excited - this was Mickey's breakfast event!  And the morning seemed to start easy enough.  Miles and Lukas were in good spirits.  We were a bit tired, but Contemporary Resort offered Mickey pictures.  We headed off and arrive right on time.  Okay, not really.  We were ten minutes late but by Day 7, who is really counting?

We checked in and headed for our wonderful pictures with...a statue of Mickey!  Really?  We get to stand with a 4 foot version of Mickey holding a bowl of salad?  Okay then.  Smile for the camera, crew!  And true to Disney character breakfast traditions, we moved from pictures right into another waiting area.  We hung around for quite awhile.  Miles seemed a little sleepier than I thought he would be, but was still in good spirits.  We finally did get seated and Elisa and I went and got the kids their food.  Strange on the menu would be Mickey's breakfast pizza.  Gravy, eggs, bacon, sausage, all on pizza dough.  I couldn't not have the kids try it!  I got the kids situated and then I made the trek to get food for myself.  As I was leaving, I realized the danger of letting Grandpa take the lead on Lukas' plate.  Sure, he got him a pancake...it was the fact that it was drenched with chocolate sauce that might have led to a bit of questioning.  At least I went with syrup on Miles' plate.  His stomach wouldn't get upset.

When I arrived back at the table, Miles was teary.  He came over and I asked him what was wrong.  I asked him if his stomach was upset and he said yes.  He said this as Lukas was ingesting a pancake covered with pure chocolate.  Mr. Maple Syrup had an upset stomach.  So I left my steaming plate of food and headed with Miles to the bathroom.  We played the very exciting game of "Are you going to throw up?!"  Miles would say no.  Start to cry, and I would jump out of the way just in case.  I think I scared away a couple patrons as my nails scraped against the walls trying to flee from possible throw up.  Yet, nothing came.  Miles started smiling again.  I started wondering whether or not he just wanted to check out the facilities.  After all, Lukas went through that phase.  Maybe he was comparing soap dispensers.

Back we went to the table and I started trying to enjoy my now warm food.  The joys of parenting.  Miles went back to eating.  Crisis averted.  That is, until Miles got teary again.  He came right back over and said his stomach hurt again.  This time, instincts greater than trying to climb bathroom walls kicked in.  I grabbed my napkin, positioned it like a cup (I know you're excited about the details), and Miles proceeded to vomit into the napkin.  Whee!  In a weird moment where I was both proud and ashamed of being proud, I kind of smiled.  Not a drop hit the floor.  Yep, when you become a parent your ideas of what constitutes "winning" slightly changed.  When the kids were babies, it was a victory when they didn't pee directly into my face.  Now, it's catching vomit in an open napkin without spilling.

Thus, I left my barely eaten breakfast and returned to the bathroom.  Miles, it appeared, had gotten it out of his system.  No more complaints about throwing up.  He was hungry.  He wanted chocolate.  I should have let my Dad get him another plate.  When we got back up to the table, Disney did come through in a way only they could.  When we arrived, Mickey had already come to visit.  Miles was going to be crushed.  So Elisa calmly asked the server if we could get him back.  I could tell he was getting ready to go on break (you can tell when a non-character cast member starts hovering like the Secret Service).  But they whispered something into Mickey's eye (which was a slightly amusing sight) and Mickey U-Turned.  Back he came for hugs and autographs with a wide eyed and excited Miles.  I probably should have mentioned that Miles had thrown up, but it might have ruined the moment.  I just kept that secret to myself.

With Miles throwing up adventures, though, we needed to make sure this was a singular instance and not impending flu or worse.  So we headed back to the hotel (hence being there from 10-12) and got Miles laying down.  For now he was willing to lay down which told us he wasn't feeling great.  Lukas, on the other hand, was fine and probably so amped up on pure chocolate that it felt unfair to leave him in the room as well.  So Grandma, Grandpa, and Lukas grabbed a boat to Disney's Hollywood Studios while we hunkered down in the hotel room.  I wasn't sure what to do with myself, so I turned on the TV and we watched "Must Do" Disney for the 30th time.  How bad was it?  I had memorized every cheesy line, every silly expression.  So had Lukas.  When he watched it, he mumbled the lines under his breath.  The memory on this child is frightening.  Perhaps I should get him more constructive things to memorize!

2 hours later, Mousekeeping hadn't come a knocking.  So we kept rocking the laying on the bed thing.  but Miles had gotten bored.  He was back to crawling all over the place, smiling, and generally not wanting to relax.  Elisa and I decided he was probably going to be fine.  Something clearly didn't agree with his stomach (Mickey's Breakfast Pizza, anyone?) but he was bouncing back.  So I texted my Dad to find that they were eagerly awaiting another ride on Tower of Terror.  We loaded up the stroller, caught a boat, and were in Hollywood Studios about 30 minutes later.  We met up with Lukas and my parents as we arrived.  I was very excited to hear about all the rides they had gone on.  The grand count was...1!  Lukas had wanted to go on Tower of Terror, and the line said "50 minutes".  They chanced it.  An hour and a half later, they had experienced the ride.  And not done much else.  We, on the other hand, had arrived just in time to eat lunch.  That's right.  Let's see how Miles can stomach italian!

This reservation was a bit unique.  We would be eating at Mama Melrose's as part of Disney's Fantasmic! dinner package.  Fantasmic! is a night-time show and it is generally tough to get good seats. So we decided to do the lunch package which ensures us of good seats and gets us a good meal.  So when we sat down to order, the full weight of this decision was realized.  You see, we specifically didn't do the Disney dining package because when you do, you get an appetizer, entree, and dessert.  That's a lot of food.  To get the package, we all got to order an appetizer, entree, and dessert.  We got calamari, salads, mussels, chicken noodle soup, and bread.  And that was just for appetizers.  By the end of the meal, I was near explosion.  Miles was still happy.  It was time to walk off the food.  We headed out of the restaurant to be greeted by life size models of Mater and Lightning McQueen.  Miles was very excited about this, so we waited in line and I saw something needless.  A man had been waiting outside of line for his kid to get pictures with the two cars.  When it came his son's turn, he put down his beer and took some pictures.  Another stranger walked up and clearly wasn't paying attention.  He kicked the beer over, looked down, and was clearly embarrassed.  If that was me, I would have apologized and bought the person another beer.  This guy looked around and saw that I had witnessed the beer kicking.  So he hightailed it away.  And to put a cherry on top of the situation, this was a 50 year old man.  Yeah, especially awkward to see him running away from the scene.  When the beer drinker came back and saw the empty beer, he said a few choice swear words right in front of his son.  I decided I would side with the 50 year old runner.  Tut tut.  Someone needed timeout, or a good trip through Haunted Mansion.  They're really interchangeable.

I hadn't been on a ride yet, and Lukas was excited about Star Tours, so after lunch and after Lightning and Mater (which ended up scaring Miles when the car revved...good one, Disney!), we headed on.  The ride was quite fun, but it was the person in front of me in line that made the experience worthwhile.  I love to see how strange people can get in theme parks.  This guy took the cake.  As we slowly walked through the Star Tours queue, he took pictures of the most random things.  Boxes in the corner.  a droid that sat unmoving.  A poster on the wall.  I can only imagine the excitement of a slide show at his house.  No pictures of the kids.  Just pictures of gray walls, and a great guessing game of "which ride were we on?!"  I entertained my Mom by taking iPhone photos of my feet, a gray wall, and the photographer taking a photograph of a picture of "Endor".  Good memories all around.  Due to the excitement of projectile vomit, however, we were deep into the day and headed back to the hotel.

[Plug Mousekeeping awkwardness here...]

It was around 5:30PM when we headed back out for dinner.  There is one restaurant (literally one) that doesn't accept dining reservations in Disney World.  It is a burger and malt shop in Beach Club Resort called Beaches and Cream.  I had been a bit nervous about this because without a reservation, I wasn't sure what to expect.  When I arrived to put our name in, I knew that my lack of planning ability was on full display.  And hour and a half wait?  Blech.  No burger was worth that, right?  Apparently that thought would come back to haunt me.  So we bagged the idea of Beaches and Cream, considering that we would come back for lunch the next day if time permitted.  We instead decided to head back to Disney Studios for a quick dinner at counter service.  After all, we needed to be there to see Fantasmic! and I was sure that we could find some good grub.

We walked mindlessly through the park trying to find something to eat.  The first two places we came across were closed (ummm....you don't serve dinner in a theme park open until 9?).  Finally, we arrived at Pizza Planet.  I wasn't really craving pizza, so I jumped back on the iPhone to find other options.  By the time I found an alternative with burgers and sandwiches, Lukas had somehow made another friend with the cashier and was the proud owner of a cookie.  Good grief.  He could bat his eyes and get free food without even trying.  We headed down to ABC Commissary and ordered food.  I was entranced by the most unique burger item I'd ever seen.  You could get the #1 combo, which was a burger and fries.  Or you could go all in and get the #2, which was a burger with three fried shrimp skewered on top.  Surf and turf on the cheap.  I had to order it.  We got our food and I sat down to my burger.  Sure enough, it had three fried shrimp right on top.  The picture looked better than reality.  The shrimp did more to detract from the burger than add to it.  I was suddenly wishing we were eating at Beaches and Cream.  And I was considering writing a suggestion note to Disney that traditional surf and turf was a better option.  Shrimp attached to top of burger might seem like a good idea, but really felt a bit forced.  But heck, I ordered it.  This is also coming from the guy that ordered nachos with beans and hates beans.  I don't think I'm the poster child for stopping himself from dumb ordering.

A quick bit later, I convinced Elisa to let us ride Star Tours again.  I spent the majority of time in line telling Elisa that we wouldn't have to run across the park and that we wouldn't be late for Fantasmic!  By the time we got off the ride, it was 7:24PM.  Fantasmic! was across the park.  We'd have to book it. I used the stroller battering ram to get us there, and we got checked in.  To be fair, Fantasmic! didn't start until 8:00PM, but I wanted great seats since we had gone with the package.  We eventually got seated with very good seats (albeit a little more to the right than I had hoped), and hunkered in.  We still had 20 minutes to spare.  How would we be entertained?

And then two people came out with microphones.  They had pre-show activities, to be sure.  They split the audience of 5,000 into two sections.  Our section was manned by an idiot male.  The other was led by a sly woman who clearly knew how to entertain a crowd better.  The first game we played was to finish the lyrics of popular Disney songs.  It started easily enough.  "Just a spoon full of sugar..." and the crowd would sing back "helps the medicine go down!"  It was slightly fun to hear all the crowd sing that part, half the crowd keep going, and by the time we were 4-5 lines in, only a couple passionate Mary Poppins fans were still belting out words.  And this is where things got weird.  For all of her team's songs, there was plenty to sing.  For us, we go "Yo Ho Yo Ho..."and could only really finish with "a pirate's life for me!"  I mean, not even Johnny Depp knows the words to that song.  How are we supposed to?

They moved onto picking two random people to sing solos.  And to get the crowd involved, each team inherited a cheer.  Again, the woman put our leader to shame.  She had the crowd wave their arms back in unison.  The effect was quite nice.  He said our would be making monkey noises.  "ooh ooh ahh".  Can I please switch teams?  He also picked quite possible the worst singer on Earth for our side.  Literally, glass broke, children started crying, and a crazy grandma started screeching "make it stop!!!!" Okay, not really.  But it could have happened.  He was bad.  The final game before Fantasmic! was a trivia competition.  They brought two families up to compete.  All of the questions were ridiculously easy.  But the last one?  They asked how tall Expedition Everest was in the form of a multiple choice question.  The choices?  50 feet, 199.5 feet, or 5,000 feet.  And true to form, the family guessed 5,000 feet.  Good hell.  Yep, the mountain is 5,000 feet tall.  Give or take about 4,800 feet.  For shame.

Finally, I was just aggravated and the start of Fantasmic! ended my suffering.  Plus, as a reward to the families they gave them popcorn.  Way to pay it forward, Disney!  Fantasmic! was, as always, fantastic.  The kids were very into it.  I asked Miles after it was over what he thought.  His first and only comment? It was fun, but no blue fireworks!  And we're back to Day 6, ladies and gentlemen!  Miles would proceed to complain loudly about no blue fireworks all the way back to the hotel.  I didn't see any more fireworks on the agenda.  As our boat stopped at our hotel, though, the Disney God came through.  Epcot was a bit late in starting their Illuminations fireworks.  When we got off the boat, we looked North.  Blue fireworks were everywhere.  It was as if Walt Disney himself had ordered them.

Okay, not really.  But it was good timing.  Miles got his fill of blue fireworks all over the place.  And instead of complaining, he then couldn't stop saying "I see blue ones!"  So cute.  And the perfect end to what was the most imperfect day of our trip so far.  Except, of course, for my ability to catch vomit in my hand.  I really have grown since being a brand new father with Lukas and letting him spew spaghetti all over my chest.  Now, I'm like a Major League catcher.  Vomit and other bodily fluids, beware!

The trip is starting to wind down.  Only 3 more days to go, one of which is a travel day.  But the long slog home continues....Day 8 has many hidden treasures.  Read tomorrow to see how I game the Disney system, Elisa faces the Yeti and no amount of coffee can help, we get soaked but not as soaked as those that thought they had escaped, Disney provides the strangest directions for exciting a ride ever heard, we see the kitchen sink, we get wet again, we shop til we drop, have to pay more for rides, have a dinner for the ages, and Lukas shows proper form in coughing up pool water (I was waiting with towel in hand, of course...).

Pierce Vacation 2012 - Day 6 (Part 2)

I'm convinced that something happens when I write about a Day divided by 3.  I'm also convinced that on the days that I head into a blog thinking there is not as much material is a day that I find a bunch of memories and funny moments and I end up having to split the experience into two.  I'm sure you are all sitting on pins and needles since Day 6 has been left unresolved for you over the last 2 days.  I'll end your suffering.  Let's get back into Day 6.  Now, where did I leave things?

All I had to do was remember the heartburn and I'm back to sitting in front of those nachos.  Which just gets me mad at myself, anyway.  We've already covered that the toxic cheese slime wasn't Disney's best choice of ingredient, but I myself am questioning how I gave into peer pressure.  And can you really call it peer pressure?  When I was standing in line, the person in front of me was a stranger.  What did he care what I ordered, and what did I care what he thought?  Apparently, I cared.  Either that, or I just wasn't getting excited about anything on the "Mexico" menu in World Showcase.

But ordering nachos went against one of my most sacred food rules - no beans.  I detest them in a way that only Elisa would understand (when it comes to mushrooms).  Beans have no earthly place on...Earth.  Yeah, that's the ticket.  And it really doesn't matter the type.  Refried, pinto, black, green, string.  Beans and I are disagreeable with each other.  And yet, these nachos had beans.  So I wasn't wild about the cheese.  I was definitely not a fan of the beans.  That left beef, tortilla chips, and jalepenos.  And we all know that a little of that goes a very long way.  By the time I was done, I had cleared every non-covered tortilla chip.  Left was a mass of beans, cheese slime, and jalepeno.  I'm sure glad I ate something authentic!  Whew!  Cross that one off my bucket list.

After lunch, I was hopeful that the very little and insignificant rides in World Showcase would keep Lukas entertained.  I was still manning the dumb Phineas and Ferb cell phone game (Norway came after Mexico, so I was still stuck with it.  We headed into the main building (fashioned after an Aztec temple) and went on a little boat ride starring Donald Duck.  The start of it was almost scary in how it compares to the Disneyland Pirates...you float past a restaurant and have fleeting wonders about who is people watching whom?  The riders or the eaters?  The ride was pretty bland beyond that.  After getting back to dry land, we shopped around some of the authentic Mexican shops.  Elisa zeroed in on the pure vanilla.  She had bought some in 2004 and loved it in her baking, so this was a sure purchase.  My Mom was all about the vanilla too, so they both got into line and waited.  As the person at the counter finished, another customer cute right in front of Elisa and my Mom and threw her stuff on the counter.  Apparently she either didn't get the idea of lines (slightly impossible at anything Disney!) or she was just tired of lines altogether.  No acknowledgement that she had line jumped.  And even worse, she engaged the cast member in every sort of conversation possible.  About something important?  No, of course not.  They talked about the size of the sombrero she was going to buy for her child.  Poor kid...his parents go to Disney World and bring him back a sombrero the size of an UFO.  That's just wrong.

10 minutes later, they were still talking.  I had reverted to not so subtle comments under (or slightly over) my breath.  Elisa moved to another place to check out.  By the time we arrived there, two other people in front of Elisa got checked out, as did Elisa and my Mom.  I looked back and the conversation of the sombrero was still taking place.  Lady, it's a sombrero.  If you're having that much buyer's remorse, it's probably time to move onto Norway and purchase a Viking helmet with blong pig tails.  It's more of a sure thing.  I promise.  And much more diverse.  And useful.  And stylish.

We headed for Norway, with me finally finding a stroke of brilliance.  Somehow, I convinced my father that doing the cell phone game for Lukas in Norway would be an extra piece of bonding time.  He bought it.  I'm salesman of the century.  So I started trying to enjoy Norwegian culture.  My Dad quickly solved the clue and he and Lukas went and saw a little mini-show in the window of one of the Norwegian shops.  I could see in his face that he wasn't going to continue the adventure into China.  No, he'd be looking for a cell phone kiosk with as much focus and energy as I had.  Norway had the only other real ride to enjoy in World Showcase.  It's called Maelstrom, and is another boat ride.  As we sat in what was one of our longest lines on the trip (go figure), I stared at the mural on the wall.  This ride was celebrating the history and culture of Norway.  Now, I'm sure anyone outside the USA would look at a mural to describe us and think it weird, but this mural was a combination of vikings, a kayaker, a blond woman running a race (and winning), and oil rigs.  Welcome to Norway!  And I was totally right about the viking helmet with blond pigtails built in.  The souvenir of oil rigs everywhere.

Lukas enjoyed the ride, as Disney did prove it had some pretty compelling technology in an old hidden ride - they found a way to turn the boat backwards and forwards just by redirecting the water.  Pretty nifty.  And yes, I'm that kind of theme park nerd.  When I see something cool (which no one else noticed, and would think idiotic to notice), I talk about it once I get off of the ride.  How did they do it? What's the secret?  How could that technology still be unmatched after 40+ years?  Elisa just starts walking a bit behind me.  I think that way I'll get the comments out of my system but she doesn't have to hear it in detail.  It works.  I end up finishing my 12-point breakdown of the technology before I realize I'm making the comments to a 45-year old Disney fanatic with Mickey ears, an "I'm With Grumpy" t-shirt, and more trading pins than a normal Disney store actually holds.  I suddenly get quiet about my fascination with Disney technology.

Past Norway, we hit China, and then Germany.  Now this was a country I was excited about.  I had fond memories of some wine tasting in 2004.  I was eager to get back to business.  We found the wine tasting arena, and my parents and I started picking out wines.  The cast member was from Germany, blond hair, pig tails, and husky accent.  We got little glasses of about 6 wines.  As we walked over to a table to stand at and enjoy, I looked outside.  Elisa was in the midst of dealing with two children in mini meltdowns.  I was stuck between a rock and a hard place.  My Dad had just bought about $15 worth of wine for me.  Elisa was putting Miles in time out.  I made my decision.  I went through a mini tasting of each wine and tried to say something intelligent.  "Fruity!"  "Nutty!" and "Sweet!" were all I could muster.  Elisa was now trying to get Lukas to settle in the stroller from hell.  My parents were barely touching their wines as my Dad was breaking down the good and bad of his first taste.

I started chugging.  6 mini glasses in about 2 minutes.  I think my Mom started wondering if I had a "problem" that I hadn't owned up to.  A couple lessons were learned here.  First, I'm not a fan of Germany wine.  Maybe it's too fruity, nutty, or sweet.  Or maybe when you put all of that together in 2 minutes, no wine would be very good.  Second lesson?  Don't chug dessert wine.  Good grief, it feels like you're giving yourself a cavity.  Wow.  I'm still shuddering.  Honestly, I think my right cheek started puckering.  It didn't help my cause with Elisa that she looked into the shop while I had a face that looked like a pure smile of delight or a drunkard rage...one or the other.  I left my parents to their wine drinking while I helped Elisa with the kids.  They were done.  So was Elisa.  It was nap time.  We trudged through the rest of World Showcase, not stopping to look at anything.  I let my parents stay in the park, and was very pleased with myself when I presented my Dad with a gift from the heart - a helpful pointing out of the cell phone kiosk.  The Phineas and Ferb phone could finally be offloaded.

Naps were the order of the day for the kids, as we had a very tired kids and both Elisa and I were looking forward to downtime.  Unfortunately, the Beach Club pool party was back for another day.  Yea!  Today, it was the most annoying game to listen to possible.  Three families had been chosen.  The host would read an item and see how many of the families had that item at the pool.  It started simple enough...towels, goggles, suncreen.  But then the items just became obscure.  Refillable Disney mugs.  Disney pin trading lanyards.  And most rare of all...an actual non-Kindle book.  Yeah, the one printed on real paper!  By the end of the competition, one family killed the rest.  Either they cheated, or they are the nerdiest pool visitors on Earth.  I mean, who ACTUALLY brings their Disney stuffed animals to the pool?  Weirdos.  The short version of this (you're all wishing this whole vacation blog provided the short version option 8 blogs ago, I know)?  I didn't nap.  I relived the pool party.

The kids woke up and everyone got ready for the evening.  We had experienced some fun ones so far, but this was the grand one.  Tonight was "Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party".  Lukas and Miles were so excited for it.  A special parade, fireworks, and rides.  And Lukas got to wear is "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" headgear.  We left the hotel and headed over to The Contemporary Resort.  This is the closest hotel to Magic Kingdom, and has a cool little feature of having a monorail stop in its lobby.  We, however, headed up to the top floor for dinner at one of the best restaurants in Walt Disney World - California Grill.  We sat down and I knew I would be in trouble.  The tables had white table cloths.

You see, I tend to be a bit messy and clumsy while I eat.  Usually, it isn't a big deal.  The table cloths are dark colored or non-existent.  But white table cloths just go out of their way to make sure that every single little crumb, spill, or mistake I make during a meal is on full display.  Then I start playing "cover it up".  A conveniently placed napkin, drink glass, small child.  Whatever it takes.  Tonight, we started our meal with some goat cheese ravioli.  You know you're at a high end restaurant when they bring out the appetizer and there are literally 2 ravioli on the plate.  This isn't Olive Garden with an overflowing of baked ravioli.  This is the good stuff.  I had two bites.  By the time I was done, I had two red stains on the white table cloth.  Maybe I should have pulled the plate right under my mouth.  Good grief.  As I sat and we waited, I had a great view of the kitchen.  This restaurant has the kitchen open right in the middle of the restaurant.  I could see the chef guy that prepares the plates before they head to the table.  I'm not an expert.  Chef guy that prepares the plates is the best you're going to get out of me.  He was a maniac.  Sprigs of something on this plate, green things on this one.  He was even garnishing the kid's cheese pizzas.

Dinner slowly wrapped up right around the time that Mickey's party was about to get underway.  We paid and headed back downstairs to walk over to Magic Kingdom.  I noticed that this hotel had a full espresso bar right at the entrance.  Suddenly, I knew where we would stay on our next visit to Disney World.  This would make the kids happy to be so close to the monorail and Magic Kingdom.  Elisa would get her espresso bar.  It was like the hotel was built for our family!  We headed out of the hotel and took the 10 minute walk over to Magic Kingdom.  On the way, I started noticing.  I already knew this Halloween party was designed for the kids.  They were encouraged to show up in costumes.  But the number of people heading to the party that were adults and fully costumed was slightly concerning. Two Tinker Bells passed us.  A couple others in gowns were a ways up (I judged them and thought to myself that it must be Cinderella's step sisters...I'm not very nice).  We saw Tigger, Jack Sparrow, Jack Skellington, Mickey, Dumbo, Goofy, and the Mad Hatter.  And none of them were under the age of 25.  Apparently the levels of "Disney fan" are quite diverse.  I'm near the bottom compared to these fans.  They get into it!  I just wonder how they get so into it.

The lines were pretty long for the event, so it took awhile to get through.  When finally we reconvened on Main Street, it was about 50 minutes until the "Boo To You" parade.  We decided that the kids would want good seats, so we plopped down.  It was now time to provide Disney with our well earned money.  A cart nearby sold all matter of light-up "things".  The kids were ready, so we went and got them their gear.  Lukas went with a green sword and Miles wanted a spinning strobe light.  I even tried to get some bonus point and bought Elisa a Mickey pumpkin light up for Elisa.  We sat back down and realized that we still had about 40 minutes to go...that didn't take nearly as long as I had hoped.

I left the family waiting on Main Street and headed into a candy store.  There, I entertained myself by finding a Rice Krispie treat the size of Mickey mouse, as well as some Mickey suckers that I just had to buy the kids.  By the time I got back, we still had 30 minutes to go.  I regretted getting seats so quickly. We could have gone and had a few rides and probably still found good seats.  Now we were stuck because everything probably filled up by now and had nothing to do.  Miles drilled his chin into my head for awhile, but even I had been there and done that by now.  That could only be worthwhile for 2 minutes.  And then the Disney Halloween rap crew came around.  This is what we needed.  And Lukas caught the fever again.

As quickly as a Disney cast member had waved the kids on, Lukas was on Main Street dancing his butt off.  He was very into it, and was doing Frankenstein impressions all over the place.  I love a lot of things about this kid, but I'm insanely jealous of his lack of fear at such a young age.  He will be a trouble maker when he grows up.  His outgoing personality will cause us pain and him a lot of fun.  He danced along better than most other kids on Main Street.  While they were happy to be dancing at Magic Kingdom, Lukas was focused on doing the moves the right way at the right time.  10 minutes later, Lukas was exhausted and the parade was underway.  It was a great show - both Lukas and Miles enjoyed it immensely.  Sadly, Miles wanted to be held so I focused more on not dropping him after 25 minutes of carrying him.  I made the early mistake of bouncing to the music.  Miles spent the rest of the parade saying "do that again!"  By the time the parade was over, my arms were jelly.

We headed over to Splash Mountain and took a late night ride on what is one of my favorites.  As we got off the ride, I looked at my watch.  Fireworks would be starting in about 2 minutes.  I sent Elisa and Lukas off to find my Mom and Miles while I got the Splash Mountain ride photo for our collection.  I heard the booms.  I felt the booms.  And when I walked over to get a view, I saw my Mom and Miles (but no Elisa and no Lukas).  Miles was freaking out.  Apparently, things went from bad to worse for my Mom, who had stayed off the ride to let us go.  They had been standing in front of Splash Mountain when a wave of water had covered them.  That made Miles upset.  My Mom worked to calm him down and just as she had, the booms of the fireworks frightened him.  I took him in my arms and threatened to put him in time out.

Okay, how many of you ACTUALLY really thought that last line was true?  Tut tut.  I've made an impression, to be sure.  No, I calmed him down with loving and nurturing words, of course.  Father of the year!  We met back up with Elisa, and Miles wanted her to hold him while they watched the show.  The fireworks were pretty good.  When they ended, however, Miles the critic turned up.  He wasn't upset about the noise.  No, he was pissed that he didn't see any blue fireworks.  Really?  Now we want to start making requests for firework colors?  More impressively, though, he was right.  I didn't remember seeing a blue firework either.  From that point on, we'd be looking for blue fireworks.  Because Miles said, no less than 10 times as we walked back to the car, that there weren't blue fireworks.  That, my friends, is not a souvenir that you can buy for $6.95.

We made it back to the hotel after a very long day.  In the one stupid part of my trip planning, I had scheduled an early character breakfast for the next day and we were up very late.  That would make the next day quite interesting.  And I kind of felt like I was putting the kids through a military training camp.  We crawled into bed with my final hope being that we'd have some down time somewhere so I could start earning bonus points again, as opposed to getting dagger looks.  Oh, how right and wrong I was.

Day 7 hits tomorrow...where Mickey cooks and Miles revolts - literally, Lukas stands in line, we have a forced three course meal, feel the power of the Force, I feel vindicated by my reservation insistence, I experience the new and horrific Disney version of a surf and turf, we run across the park, sing in large groups, watch Mickey fight his imagination, and might just see one or two blue fireworks...free of charge.  Until next time!

Pierce Vacation 2012 - Day 6 (Part 1)

Sometimes, I worry that my boys watch a little too much television.  No, I'm not going to start this blog with a diatribe against Disney Junior.  I've gotten used to all of the shows that the kids put us through.  I hear Mickey saying "Oh Toodles!" in my dreams when things get difficult.  Although, when I think about it, my nightmares aren't nearly as bad when I have a Mousketool to get me out a jam when monsters are hiding in the closet!  Likewise, I've learned all about music and art from the Little Einsteins, I know 3 more Spanish words than I previously did because of Handy Manny.  And even the more obscure shows like Higglytown Heroes have taught me that Weebles (you know, the ones that wobble but they don't fall down?) still have a place in this world.

No, I'm not worried about that.  It's the normal television that Lukas seems to be able to follow.  No doubt he knows who Rachel Ray is.  Thankfully, he hasn't started saying "Yumm-O!" after trying my cooking.  He is very aware of Matt Lauer, although I didn't see an extra set of tantrums when Ann Curry got the boot from the show.  No, Lukas truly scares me with his love of Ellen Degeneres.  He adores the Ellen show.  He loves the two little English girls that come on and sing clean versions of inappropriate Nikki Minaj songs.  He liked to dance with her, and his interests have even rubbed off on Miles, who says "it's time for the marshmallow game!" 

So when I turned my attention to the agenda for Day 6, who knew that Ellen would be my trump card. You see, we were going to Epcot today.  And in the grand scheme of theme parks, Epcot isn't all that.  Don't get me wrong, it is a near paradise for adults.  Half of the park is called "World Showcase", which has 12 authentic countries set up. You can get authentic food, drink, and shopping.  When we came in 2004, we kept coming back to Epcot.  For kids, though, the options are limited.  Who wants to go to a theme park to learn?  Typically, you're looking for thrills, not timely educational diatribes on the power of farming.  But this was our schedule.  I was interested to see if the adults could get some enjoyment in while the kids whined about the lack of rides.  

The day, however, started well enough.  Mr. USA Today was nowhere to be seen as we had breakfast.  Although I did lose the battle with the cold cereal dispenser.  You see, at the end of the club lounge is a table with three contraptions that dispense cold cereal.  At first, it wasn't a big deal.  I could handle it.  By the end of the breakfast, I was ready for my cereal box.  The way the contraption works is simple.  There is a large cylinder of cereal with a kind of knob at the base.  You're supposed to turn the knob, which drops a small pile of cereal into your plate.  My first attempt for some Frosted Flakes took awhile.  Luckily, no one was near me.  I twisted and turned the knob, and had kind of mangled the Frosted Flakes.  I think Frosted sand would be a better description.  I sat down and enjoyed my small bowl.  

I was still hungry, so I returned in hopes that other people had defeated the cereal dispenser.  They hadn't.  I kept turning the knob.  I was barely getting any cereal.  To add insult to injury, a 10 year old girl walked up to me and said "you're turning it the wrong way!"  I immediately thought of the Concierge employee.  Was I about to get schooled by a 10 year old?  After a mini struggle over the handle (I'm ashamed, I admit it), she started turning the knob the other way.  Now, I'm not a smart man but I do know how the contraption works.  That was simply put cereal back in the cylinder!  I shook my head knowingly and waited for her to stop.  When she didn't, I sat back down.  I was immediately upset that this wasn't cherry danish day.  I could have polished three or four of those in one sitting and I would have been a happy and fed man.  Instead, I ate more Frosted Sand and waited for round 3.  In the interim, I had a muffin, some oatmeal, and some fruit.  

Just to prove that I was stronger and smarter than a cereal dispenser, I returned for one more try.  I took a deep breath, and decided to lightly tap the handle this time.  And then I turned the knob.  Oopsie.  I think I made up for my barely full two bowls. The Frosted Flakes were flowing...a bit out of control.  By the time I employed the 10 year old's approach and turned the handle backwards, it was too late.  I had the mound of Frosted Flakes that Tony The Tiger would have proclaimed as "grrrrrreat!"  So what did I do?  I already had a bunch of breakfast.  Did I throw them away?  Have a few bites and wait for the table to be cleared?  Nah.  I did what any self respecting person on vacation would do.  I downed it.  And drank the milk.  Elisa gave me that look...the one that clearly states that she wouldn't be surprised if I had put on 20 pounds from this vacation alone.  

Besides, today was a walking day.  We didn't have to take the car as Epcot is a short walk from Beach Club Resort.  As we started the trek, I realized that it took the first 10 minutes just to have my calves and shins loosen.  Yep, the David Beckham project was still reaping benefits for me.  Yet, we arrived at Epcot and I saw something a bit unexpected.  In the calendar year, Epcot has two major events - the Flower & Garden Festival in May and the Food & Wine Festival in October.  We had almost booked our trip in October just for this, but in the end thought it would be better to avoid more crowds than have a little more wine on the trip.  But the signs around the theme park told me that the Food & Wine Festival officially kicked off on September 28th, our last full day of the trip.  My mood brightened considerably when I noticed an "Ireland" stand for the festival.  Two pints of Guiness on this trip?  Sign me up.  

Yet that was a few days away.  Today, we were doing the learning thing in the first half of Epcot (which is dubbed "Future World").  One of the star attractions of the park is Soarin!, which simulates a hang gliding over scenes from California.  Knowing it was one of the slowest loading rides, I ran over to get fastpasses for the family.  Indeed, I actually did run.  I didn't want to have to maneuver the stroller for one thing.  Plus, Miles seemed like he was just a bit bored this morning (ah, how bored he was I would soon find out).  I ran to get the fastpasses and noticed that the line for those without fastpasses was already up to 30 minutes.  I was thankful we wouldn't have to wait that long when we came back to ride.

Back in the sun, we decided to give Miles a little time in the "sun", so to speak.  As I noted in an earlier blog, Miles loves Finding Nemo.  And wouldn't you know it?  There is a Finding Nemo ride at Epcot!  Sold!  I parked the stroller and we headed in. The ride was simple enough.  You sit in a seashell and watch while all of the famous Nemo characters look around for Nemo (who is hiding for fun this time). As the ride was starting to wind down, though, I heard a familiar tune.  It was someone singing about finding Nemo.  And then I realized where I had heard it.  Disney had committed a sin.  They had actually used a song from the Finding Nemo musical in this ride.  Like Dory remembering all of her journey at the end of the movie, suddenly, singing Fish, tripped out turtles, bubbles, and a tantrum flooded back.  Blech.  I didn't want to find Nemo anymore.  

Off the ride, we looked around at some of the merchandise and I saw that a group of visitors were gathering for a show...this was called Turtle Talk with Crush.  I had actually heard good things about this (although I secretely wondered if the "good reviews" online were similar to those I had read about the dumb Ollivander's thing at Harry Potter World).  The idea (and I still don't know how Disney does it) is that a group of people are able to have conversations with Crush.  We had to see it.  5 minutes later, Lukas was sitting in the front row of the kids' section while we took the front row of the parents' section.  And the show began.  I was immediately taken aback at the fact that Crush addressed the otherwise unmemorable Cast Member shepherding us into seats.  And then he started taking questions...only, he actually directed the cast member to the child.  Red hat, next to the little girl with blond hair."  And when the kids asked questions, Crush answered them directly.  Sure, someone in the back was probably just talking like Crush.  But how did they get the animation to be so spot on?

My favorite part of the show (which had the adults, in particular, laughing out loud) was when Crush started talking about the differences between male turtles and female turtles.  He was Aristotle in animation when he mentioned that females always remember where they were born (they return to the same beach to give birth to their own offspring).  He then callously mentioned that his wife also remembered everything he had done wrong in the last 75 years).  I did more than giggle.  Elisa laughed too, but I think she was a bit perturbed that I found it so funny.  Something tells me, however, that this won't be a a winning argument when this comes up in a future fight.  It might make her laugh, but I doubt I'll win the argument when I say "Crush the Turtle's on my side!"

After the show, I was still giggling and Elisa was starting to roll her eyes.  So we decided to head back to Soarin!  To be a nice person, I decided to let Lukas and my parents go first.  Elisa and I would ride when they got back.  The standby line was now 50 minutes.  Thank goodness we had fastpasses!  Unfortunately, we still had to pass some time so Elisa and I took Miles over to the little food court nearby.  We were on the hunt for a snack, but didn't think it would be a good idea to give him a Rice Krispie treat and let the sugar rush commence.  So we went with a banana.  You can only imagine my shock when the final price was under $6.95 (it was still like $3, but to make me feel better I made Miles make yummy sounds 4 times while eating it).  The banana eating experience lasted a grand total of 3 minutes.  So we moved over to the exit of Soarin! and tried to entertain Miles.  First, it was "hold Miles and tickle him".  Elisa got made at me for make Miles laugh so hard that passerbys wondered if he was having a seizure.  I moved onto "Miles on Shoulders". This worked for a couple of minutes, until Miles discovered that his chin was an excellent drill - I suddenly wondered if he was trying to give me brain surgery.  Ouch.  

We moved onto "Let Miles walk".  It lasted as long as him taking off back towards the food court.  Sorry, kid.  Daddy's out of bucks for another $3 banana!  And finally, I just gave him my iPhone.  Before I knew it, Miles was surfing for YouTube videos.  I was wondering if Lukas and my parents had physically hang glided (why do I feel like the plural of which should really be hang glidden?) to California.  Finally, just as I was reconsidering whether my head could handle another round of "Miles on Shoulders", they walked out.  Ironically, they had been gone for about 30 minutes, or just as long as the line when we originally got fastpasses.  Elisa and I headed on in and 30 minutes later, we emerged. Elisa asked how they kept Miles entertained and she stated that they just "bought him a thing of cotton candy and he was fine!"  Elisa was mortified.  My Mom was giggling.  Score one for my Mom.  If my Mom had actually done that, "sticky fingers" would have been the least of her worries.  

After 2 rides and about 3 hours (man, were we inefficient or what?!), Lukas was starting to realize that Epcot was not a thrill seeker's paradise.  And if he wasn't enjoying Future World, there was no way he was going to be enjoying World Showcase.  So I pulled out the trump card and said that "Ellen's Energy Adventure" was our next stop.  Lukas was immediately interested.  I was relieved.  When we arrived, the doors were closed.  They would open in about 7 minutes, so we got the kids lathered with sunscreen.  I asked Miles if he needed to go to the bathroom and he said "nah!".  After all, he had gone just an hour before.  We were covered.  The doors opened and we headed into a large theater for the preshow.  The lights dimmed, Ellen appeared on screen (in a very 90's hairdo), Jamie Lee Curtis was apparently co-starring, and Miles said "I need to go potty!"  Of course he did.  As I walked out of the building, the cast member said "doors are closing again in 3 minutes!"  I asked him where the nearest bathroom was and he slyly pointed about halfway across the park.  

I started running with Miles.  He didn't help me because I started laughing.  Miles kept just going "uh uh uh uh uh" for every step I took. I knew I wouldn't make it there and back in 3 minutes, especially considering I now had to remove his pants from one leg and strategically hold his pants around the other leg off of the floor.  We skidded into the restroom and I nearly fell.  I got him on the toilet and he peed enough to fill a thimble.  I demanded more.  I probably frightened those in the other stalls.  Don't worry, I didn't go there.  There was no threatened time out.  I'm not that bad of a father.  Bad, yes.  But even I have my limits.  It turns out, however, that Miles really didn't have to go to the bathroom.  So I got his hands washed and I started running back.  3 minutes had come and gone.  I knew this was a long ride...I'd be entertaining Miles with bananas and shoulder drilling again, this time by myself.  Out of breath, sweating, and barely holding Miles up, I arrived back.  A new cast member said "slow down, sir.  It's just the preshow.  Ummm...what?  I walked back in the building and wanted to go step on the original cast member's foot.  Running, demanding extra urine, and sweating in the Florida humidity for nothing.  Joy.  We sat back down and I saw the last of the preshow.  I was ready for a nap.  

After Ellen's Energy Adventure, we headed over to Mission: Space, which is designed to let you feel what a shuttle launch would feel like.  When Disney launched the ride, however, they had some complaints of those prone to motion sickness.  So they now had two versions of the ride - green and orange.  Lukas was a little nervous about this one, so we went with green.  This time, Gary Sinise introduced us to the ride.  We were going to Mars, but doing so on an easier training mission.  Lukas survived.  I was bored.  I think I played with the nausea bag more than I paid attention to the ride.  I was a thrill seeker, after all.  I needed the intense version.  Even Lukas was talking about wanting to try Mission Space: Orange upon our return later in the week.  

For now, though, we were all just hungry for lunch.  On the way to World Showcase (my idea was that everyone would have a choice of authentic food in any of the 12 countries they chose!), we saw a kiosk for a cell phone game based on Phineas and Ferb.  I thought this would be great.  It could entertain Lukas while the adults enjoyed World Showcase.  We got him his own secret spy cell phone, and started watching the Phineas and Ferb text messages coming in.  I knew this was a mistake when the first message was to "move away from the starting point".  I took a few steps and tried again.  I was still too close.  So I walked about 20 paces.  Still too close.  After walking for 2 miles (or maybe 20 more paces...give or take), I was still too close.  Worse still, Lukas wasn't interested at all.  He wanted to know if World Showcase had rides.  I was the one trying to decipher Phineas and Ferb clues.  I was still toying with the phone when we entered World Showcase.  The first country was visited was Mexico, and were all so hungry, it was quickly determined that tacos would be on the menu.  So much for us all choosing our favorite cuisine.  

As we were standing in line, waiting to order, the person in front of me randomly recommended that I get the nachos.  Apparently, they were phenomenal.  Oh hell, I was on vacation.  Nachos for lunch!  I eagerly ordered and couldn't wait to get this amazing creation!  We sat down and I looked at my plate of yummy nachos...or, tortilla chips covered in nacho cheese sauce.  Yep, this was the same sauce you find at Triple A baseball games...the ones where you can actually feel yourself losing the lining of your esophagus as it travels down.  Nacho cheese sauce from a plastic bag is phenomenal?  That guy needs to get out more!

And I now realize that I've done it again.  I've just reached my blog rundown of up to lunch time and still have WAY more to talk about.  For the second time in my vacation blogging diatribe, I must split a day into 2.  After all, I wouldn't want to shortchange you the experience.  There's drinking involved!

Next time, we'll wrap up Day 6.  Join me as the cell phone game tries to give us a big payoff and fails immensely, I wonder how much I'd get charged if I threw it into the lake, I consider how much interest the oil industry garners while in Norway, we still get drunk (in very short order) in Germany, I meet my match in the form of a white tablecloth, and we realize just how far adults will go to relive their Halloween childhoods.  See you next time!

Pierce Vacation 2012 - Day 5

Ah, the midway point of the trip.  So many memories, so little blogging...well, probably not little blogging.  When I'm done with this journey, I'll have to do a quick word count.  Something tells me that I'm going to be overwhelmed with just how much I've written about this trip.  Something tells me, you already are.  So in celebration of feeling exhausted, let's talk about some exhaustion.

I'm not talking about the kind of tired you get when you have been in a theme park all day.  No, this is workout tired.  Because Elisa and I are devoted.  And we still (well, for the most part) fit in our exercise routines.  Our first foray into the vacation exercise actually took place on Day 2.  Miles was down for his nap and Lukas was hanging out with the grandparents.  We threw on our clothes and headed down to the Solarium.  The exercise room wasn't bad.  Except for the fact that I felt like we could and would be baked alive.  Man, was it hot.  Elisa and I went our separate ways.  She punished herself on the treadmill, and I tried to recreate the weightlifting workouts I had grown accustomed to at home.  And then something strange happened.  I started to grunt and point like a caveman.  Only, that's what I can assume.  Because I noticed another man in the room doing a weight lifting routine.  Suddenly, I was moving up in my weight selections.  I was perfecting my form.  And I was doing more than he was.  I scoffed at his poor form.  I laughed (hopefully one of those inside laughs, right?) at his feeble attempts to not commit to actually exercises to get results.

Wait, when did I become that guy?  I'm not the next Arnold Schwarzeneggar.  I never will be.  But I kind of lost myself.  I was going to outdo the 40 year old fellow exerciser.  That's the difference between men and women.  Elisa probably looked at the other females in the room and wanted to fist bump them.  I wanted to arm wrestle.  I was Tony Horton, baby.  I was "this" close to giving him tips.  For the good of my marriage, I resisted.  The next day, we decided to go walking.  Just outside Beach Club is a walkway called the Boardwalk.  It's a pretty little themed area designed to resemble an Atlantic Beach coast.  We made two trips around the Boardwalk without much incident.

So when Day 5 came around, it was time to push ourselves again.  We weren't heading back to the workout room.  I might hurt tourists.  I'd certainly start throwing the dumbbells around the room and perfect my caveman grunt.  We also enjoyed the walk but realized it wasn't a good enough workout.  So we decided to head back outside...and run.  Now I must first state that Elisa and I hate to run.  We are aligned in the belief that running is the Devil's exercise routine.  But our options were limited.  And while Elisa was prepared with running shoes, I was wearing David Beckham shoes...and no, no soccer cleats.  That would have probably been more comfortable.  I learned in lap one that running shoes are made for a reason.  Oh well.  We were making a good pace around the Boardwalk, but I noticed something else slightly annoying.  We were the only people running in a clockwise direction.  There were countless others walking or running, but they were going counterclockwise.  Which meant we kept seeing the same people.  Oh sure, you start out with the obligatory "Good morning!"  This coincides with the fact that it's your first lap and you can still breathe.  On Round 2, you do the manly nod.  It was good enough that you acknowledged their existence, let alone took enough time away from the pain in your side to act normal.  By Round 3, you've lost all desire and worry about being nice.  You secretly rate your status (are you more upright, less close to collapsing?) against theirs.  If you're lucky enough to make it to Round 4, you almost sneer.  Because you're just trying to get back to the entrance of your hotel.  And they are clearly training for a marathon.

Yep, we worked out.  Yep, my shins would hurt for the rest of the trip.  David Beckham didn't design running shoes.  Brad Pierce was stupid enough to test the theory that he might have made the most utilitarian shoes on Earth.  Something tells me he took a little more time with his underwear ads.  By the time we got back, the kids were already down at the Concierge lounge eating.  I was in a slightly bad mood (refreshed from the run, yes, but my legs weren't "feeling it").  It wasn't improved when Mr. USA Today was already eating.  Now, please hold while I pull the soapbox out of storage for a minute.  I promise this will be the only one for the entire vacation blog.

Mr. USA Today had a Down's Syndrome child.  For anyone that knows me, they know what this means.  I feel a sense of connection with these people.  I love to watch the kids - they are beautiful, pure, and magical.  So I was conflicted here.  I had lost a table (petty, I know) the day before, and when I saw him with his little angel, I kind of softened.  That lasted for about as long as it took to get a bowl of Raisin Bran.  The Down's girl had to be about 4 years old.  Maybe 3 (don't get me started on my profiling skills again).  Mr. USA Today also had a 8-9 year old daughter.  So while he sat and read his....USA Today, it was his daughter that got the little angel breakfast.  And it was the daughter that was spoon feeding her.  Unfortunately, I think she got a little overzealous because it was the daughter that caused the younger girl to choke.  And Mr. USA Today barely looked up.  I think he noticed that she was choking, and then spitting out the oatmeal.  But he didn't move a muscle.  I was disgusted.  It took everything in me to not say anything.  But, really?  You go on vacation with a special needs girl and leave the heavy lifting to your other daughter?  You made her feed her?  And then you can't look away from your Notre Dame football article to make sure she's okay?  I was committed to offer him a cup of coffee that I had peed in.

Soapbox safely stored back in the garage.  Onto happier things.  When Elisa and I finished eating, Lukas was ready to go.  So we packed up the stroller (sadly, it hadn't gotten smaller overnight), and headed for the elevator.  We were greeted by the very nice Concierge employee that had gotten schooled by Lukas the day before.  She immediately engaged with him, asking him the obvious "what park are you going to today?!"  She said it was the widest smile possible.  Lukas blurted out "Harry Potter World!"  For those of you blissfully unaware, Harry Potter World is at Universal Studios, a direct competitor of Disney.  The employee's smile vanished as quickly as it had appeared.  She just said "Oh!" as if Lukas had vomited on her shoe.  Something told me that it didn't matter if Lukas knew the height requirements of every ride at every theme park on Earth.  He wasn't getting a cookie today.  And I was damned to let him give her a hug.

Indeed, we were leaving the comfort of Disney and would be exploring Universal Studios.  I had, after all, heard good things about Harry Potter World.  Many sites had said that the experience at Ollivander's was THE moment that couldn't be missed.  I was excited.  I had visited every Disney World park before.  Today would be all new.  As we got into the rental car, my Dad was prepared.  If you'll remember, on Day 1 the GPS was at the bottom of the suitcase.  He had everything set today.  He passed me the bag with GPS and we got it attached to the window.  I entered the address (the only one I could find online), and we exited the parking lot.  Ironically, I was able to get quite far from the hotel before the GPS decided to connect with satellites.  I knew I needed to get on Interstate 4, so I headed there, following the signs.  As I got on the roundabout, GPS kicked in.  And before I knew it, I had gone through two full roundabouts and was passing the road that went to our hotel.  Really?  I wanted to explore Disney World, but this isn't what I had in mind.

Speaking of dealing with unmet intentions, Elisa was dealing with her own experience.  Before the trip, Elisa had introduced Lukas to the Slug Bug game.  Everytime you see a VW Bug, you scream "slug bug *insert color*, no hit backs!"  Of course, Lukas is 5 years old so Elisa would have to set the game up.  Let him see a few, get a lead, and then she could compete.  You see, Elisa is insanely competitive.  I am convinced she didn't do this so that she could make sure Lukas won.  It was so she could get behind, let the competitive juices flow, and then she'd catch up.  The problem was that Lukas was starting to get better.  More often than not, when Lukas would see a slug bug, Elisa had missed it.  They decided to play for the entire trip.  Up to our drive to Universal, Lukas and Elisa were tied at 4.  By the time we were 5 minutes away, Lukas had built a 7-4 lead.  And Elisa was bothered.  How do I know?  She was staring around for slug bugs as if her life depended on it.  She saw one, screamed "Slug Bug black, no hit backs!" and almost scared me enough to drive off the road.  Indeed, by the time we arrived at Universal, They were tied at 7.  And I was praying that there were no slug bugs in Harry Potter World.

Out of the car, we started the 50 miles walk to the entrance of Islands of Adventure.  Honestly, it felt like an eternity.  We purchased our tickets, got through the gates, and I got the stroller ready for what it is built for...mowing crowds over in large quantities.  Elisa was by my side, and Miles was happily riding "shotgun" in the human ramming device.  But where were my parents, and where was Lukas?  I glanced back.  My Mom had been stopped by a Universal employee.  She had been asked to take a survey, and had obliged.  At first, I thought nothing of it.  Disney has surveys - they last about 2 questions and usually Disney just wants a zip code so they know where to advertise.  Universal Studios however, is interested in every minute detail.  I call this survey "Disney World Envy".  It lasted 10 minutes.  I had to jump in because the technology (a touch screen) was kind of throwing my Mom off and I knew if I didn't help her, the survey might last 30 minutes.  Universal wanted to know all about our trip.  They wanted to know what Disney parks we had visited, how long we were staying, why we had stayed at Disney and not Universal.  Back away, kids.  It's just a theme park.  Be glad we came at all.  Midway through the survey, I started wondering if our time was going to be rewarded with special passes.  Yes, the survey was that long.  I started to get hopeful.

As we hit our last question, I anxiously turned to the Universal employee.  Surely, we'd get "head to the front of the line!" passes for free.  He smiled, said "Thank you!" and went to find a new person to complete another survey.  I instantly missed Disney asking me for my zip code.  This was just wasn't going well so far.  But it was bound to get better, right?  We headed deep into Islands of Adventure and made our way back to Harry Potter World.  My first impression was positive.  It was like a scene right out of the movies.  We walked through and I thought Universal had to be nearing Disney levels of theming.  To the right, we saw a long line for the Ollivander's experience.  I had done my research, so I forced everyone into line.  And we waited...for nearly 45 minutes.  By the time we walked in, I was expecting to learn magic...only that would be enough to meet my expectations.  What we got was less impressive.  They re-enacted the scene from the movies when Harry Potter gets his wand.  Lukas and Miles were the only kids in the room, so I thought for sure they would pick Lukas.  He was front and center.  No, they picked a 25-40 (yep, there I got again) woman to participate.  She picked up various wands, and made silly things happen (ringing bells, thunder, etc.).  At the end, she picked up a wand and the movie music played.  Apparently this was signifying that the wand chose the wizard.  With that, we were all ushered into a wand shop.

Really?  45 minutes for that?  Were all the reviews online written by Universal employees or Harry Potter fanboys?  Blech.  After getting a couple wands for the kids (the real point of the whole thing from Universal's perspective), we were back into Harry Potter World.  We rode on a kid's roller coaster, and then my parents and I went on Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey.  It wasn't bad.  It was pretty good, actually.  It just felt a little...not Disney.  We also quickly realized that Harry Potter World was stretching the truth a bit.  Maybe they should have called it Harry Potter Street.  It wasn't a large theme park.  It was three rides.  Moreover, the storefronts were mostly just empty storefronts.  Only two stores existed (a joke shop and a candy store).  And even those were underwhelming.  By this point, I was simply searching for something to be excited about.  I found it in Butterbeer.

Before we got this magnificent drink, however, I played a game with the cashier.  I walked up and ordered two Butterbeers.  She asked if I wanted the drink or the frozen version.  I asked a simple "which is better?"  Her answer?  "What kind of drink do you prefer?"  Ummm...if I knew that, I wouldn't be asking the question.  Just give me butterbeer!  I went with the frozen, to which she responded "great choice...it's much better."  Um, what?  I asked for that piece of information before I ordered!  What if I would have just gone with the drink?  Would she have said "horrible choice.  You just wasted $6.95!"  The drink was, in fact, the highlight of Harry Potter World.  It was a sort of frozen cream soda thing with butterscotch topping.  Yum.  We were all fans.  And we were done with the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  We headed for Dr. Seuss land.

It was here that my overall impression of Universal just got more concrete.  This was an amusement park.  It wasn't quite a Disney level theme park.  The Dr. Seuss rides were plain.  The theming was just okay.  We hit a bunch of rides, and I was just underwhelmed.  Maybe I had too high of expectations for the place.  We were starting to get a bit hungry, and Lukas did want to ride the Spider Man ride, so we headed into Super Hero land.  There, we saw The Hulk. Now THIS is not your run of the mill roller coaster.  It is intense.  So intense that this single ride (back in 2000) took all of the thrill seeking out of Elisa.  Peer pressure forced her on and she nearly lost her lunch.  To this day, she is very hesitant to ride anything intense.  I, on the other hand, like a challenge.  My parents and I got in line.  And yowza.  The ride is has a launch start, but it does so up a hill and into a barrel roll.  You then go upside down 7...yes 7 times on the ride.  By the end of it, my hair was plastered back into the wind swept pose and I was clearly seeing why Elisa hated it.  I liked it, to be sure, but there was a point in the last inversion where I thought "aren't we just getting a bit indulgent now?

It was lunch time, so we headed to a Super Hero themed counter service restaurant.  After a rather plain meal of burgers and chicken sandwiches (honestly, the most ironic and exciting part was the 70 year old man taking our orders), we all headed on Spider Man.  Again, it was a good ride.  It just seemed to be missing something.  Maybe I'm just old fashioned, but I'll take Haunted Mansion (with timeout!) over this ride any day of the week.  I am and apparently will always be a Disney Theme Park kid.  Sue me.  And Universal, don't survey me...you might not like my answers!

Finally, we headed back to go on a wet ride or two.  We considered Dudley Do Right's Ripsaw Falls until we saw what terror awaits after the final hill.  It's not that you get wet.  This ride actually has nozzles that spray water right into your face.  Gee, that sounds like fun!  Not.  So we went back to Jurassic Park River Adventure.  Lukas and my parents rode first, and my Mom decided that she and Lukas needed to wear their ponchos (hey, we spent $60 and it hadn't rained a drop since!).  It was good they did.  My Mom's hair was still soaked, even with the poncho and my Dad (who went without) was soaked.  When Lukas, Elisa, and I rode it, we all had ponchos.  And we all still got a bit wet.  By this point, I could feel the energy of the family starting to fade.  We headed out of Islands of Adventure and went to Universal Studios.  We rode on a couple of kids rides and then hit The Simpson's ride.  My parents didn't appreciate any of the Simpsons humor.  Even Lukas wasn't wrapping his head around Itchy and Scratchy.  Plus, that ride had a line to get in, a line for the pre show, a line after the preshow, and a line to get off.  By the time the family came back together, we were all done.  It was time to go back to the peace and comfort of Disney World.

Elisa had been a trooper.  Most of the rides, she didn't go on as Universal focused a bit too heavily on thrill rides.  So as we started our long walk back to the car, Elisa got her treat.  Perched on the upper level of City Walk was a Starbucks.  You could see the joy in her eyes as she went and got her happiness in a cup.  I joined her for one of their lime refreshers.  She had earned it.  Plus, she needed the shot of energy if she was going to try and win the slug bug game!  When we left Universal, everyone in the car agreed that it was just missing some magic today.  We had fun, to be sure, but the potential of what it could have been was just lacking a bit.  10 minutes after leaving, the GPS finally decided to give me directions.  We returned to the hotel, got the kids naps, and got showered for the evening.

After so much excitement and fun for the first 4 nights, though, we were going to take it a bit easier.  We were headed to Wilderness Lodge.  This is a hotel themed like a large lodge in Yellowstone.  For Disneyland fans, it is very similar to the Grand Californian Hotel.  We were eating at Artist Point, and showed up 5 minutes late (this shocked you, I know...).  I checked us in as Elisa and the kids went to explore a gift shop.  As I sat down, the vibrating disk they gave me (to alert you when your table is ready" beeped at me.  Then it did one small, single vibration.  I wondered if it was malfunctioning.  A few minutes later, it did it again.  I returned to the podium and asked if it might be broken.  The hostess swore it was fine.  She stated that our table wasn't ready (wait, did she think I was just trying to be an annoying guests getting my name moved up?) but she would buzz me when it was.  I sat back down.  2 minutes passed.  5 minutes passed.  10 minutes were gone.  And then I felt a tap on my shoulder.  It was the hostess.  She stated that she had buzzed me 5 minutes ago.  "I think that might be broken!" she said with a straight face.  You don't say!

I rounded up the crew and we enjoyed a quite, peaceful meal.  At the end of the meal, I took Miles to go to the bathroom.  Today has been a weird day when it came to potty training.  I actually had started thinking that we were taking Miles too much.  After all, every time I held him so that he was nearly inside the toilet itself, he did a little pee and said he was done.  I was starting to wonder if I needed to put a timer on my phone.  I got the answer when we got back to the hotel.  Miles had wet his pants...not a ton, but enough.  And I realized that I had been schooled by my 2 year old.  Sure, I knew he hadn't been overly fond of the "Daddy will hold you...just aim down!" method, but I didn't realize that his mini squirt of pee was merely a way to stop the process and appease me.  I knew, at that point, that I'd have to stop being lazy.  The pants would have to come off so Miles could do his infamous toilet seat straddle.  Now, I'd just have to come up with a way to make the process easier.

Back at the hotel, I crawled onto the bed, my shins and calves crying out in pain.  What a day...one that was shaped by a silly decision to run in non running shoes.  If we did run again, I actually considered going barefoot.   It had to be better than this.  I already felt like I had bruises on the bottoms of my feet. Stick to underwear ads, David Beckham.

And we reach the official midpoint of the vacation blog.  Join me tomorrow for Day 6...where we realize a banana will only take you so far, a turtle makes gender based jokes (that ring too true!), I mad dash to the bathroom with Miles, we play the world's most annoying cell phone game, spend 3 hours buying vanilla, get drunk in Germany, see grown adults make costumed fools of themselves, and say a little "Boo To You" with Mickey Mouse.