Pagan
5-27-03, 10:55 AM
Hey gang.....
Back from an all-too-short week in Florida, where I'm sure Sarg will agree it's F*CKING HOT!!! :lol:
We had a great time as usual, except for the last day, which I'll get to later in this post. The weather held out nicely....a thunderstorm every day at around 4pm, but nice and sunny the rest of the time. Up around 90 every day and in the 70's every night.
The entire week we were there, the parks were dead! We never had to use the fastpass for any rides, and it was comfortable to walk around without constantly having to bump into people!
At one exhibit in Epcot called "The Living Seas", there's a HUGE tank with the largest man-made coral reef in existance. Tons of fish and other marine life are in the tank. Well...there was one window to the tank off in the corner of one of the rooms, and no one was by the window. Laura and I walked up to the window and looked into the tank and realized that the reason no one was there was because it was far away from where the coral (and most of the animals) were. We were about to leave the window when a dolphin swam up to it out of nowhere. It stopped dead in front of us, suspending itself, with its tail down so it was looking us right in the eyes. It opened it's mouth and clapped its jaws together a few times, then just hovered there looking at us! A couple of people saw this and ran over, and the dolphin swam away. When they left, it came back to us! This time it actually put its forehead against the glass as if it wanted us to pet it! More people came over and it left again, and this time we left also. Let me tell you, it was an incredible experience to connect with this animal for me, seeing as the dolphin is one of my power animals. (It's a Wiccan thing. ;)) Because of this, Laura and I will be going to Discovery Cove when we go back down in October and we'll actually get to swim with them. I can't wait!
Another night in Epcot, we saw some ducks and stopped to look at them and they waddled over to us. I said to Laura that I wished I had something to give to them, and all of a sudden this hand with a chunk of bread comes from behind me. I looked back and there was this couple telling me they had fed them enough and they didn't need the bread anymore. We got to talking and it turns out that they were both police officers from England on their honeymoon. We chatted about a TON of things, from the war to the government to SARS to pretty much anything going on right now. We all went to get a beer at the Rose & Crown Pub in the UK section of Epcot, then watched the fireworks show and walked back to our cars. In three short hours we became friends, exchanging contact info, which was pretty cool.
These were a couple of the many good things about the trip. Now for the one bad thing.....:mad:
I said that the parks were dead for the time we were there.....except for the final night. We had saved the Magic Kingdom fireworks show for the Saturday night before we left, not realizing that it was the first night of the labor day weekend rush. Well....it was crowded as all hell, but it was WHO it was crowded with that sucked.
Now, I am not out to insult those of you who listen to rap, so don't take this as personal....but the truth is the truth. The "rap" contingency showed up at Disney for the first time in the 9 years I've been going down annually. And I do not mean anything about race. There were just as many white "rap" people as black. But they were all there, shorts down to the ankles, underwear hanging out, walking through the parks shirtless, tons of "bling-bling", hats on sideways....yelling, screaming, bullying people, cutting lines at rides, and worst of all - throwing trash all over the place. This was the first time I was ever at a Disney park and saw GARBAGE on the floors. I could have gone to Rye Beach Playland in NY and experienced the same thing. We were sitting there watching the fireworks watching a few rap wannabe's having a food fight 10 feet from us, throwing the wrappers and soda cups & bottles around. In some of the gardens and fountains throughout the park there were soda bottles bobbing. It was heartbreaking. Walt was rolling in his grave for sure. He created this park so families could have a good time together in a clean environment, not so some Snoop Dogg or Eminem wannabe could come and make everything stressful. This was the first time we actually wanted to leave Disney. :(
As the park was closing, one of the workers, a diminutive Asian girl, told a pack of these animals that she was sorry, but they couldn't get on the ride because it was closed. These assholes were actually trying to bully her into letting them on. :mad:
We know now not to book ANY vacation there near any kind of holiday weekend. Thankfully it didn't ruin the whole vacation, but it was a depressing last evening there.
Other than that.....how is everyone? :D
Back from an all-too-short week in Florida, where I'm sure Sarg will agree it's F*CKING HOT!!! :lol:
We had a great time as usual, except for the last day, which I'll get to later in this post. The weather held out nicely....a thunderstorm every day at around 4pm, but nice and sunny the rest of the time. Up around 90 every day and in the 70's every night.
The entire week we were there, the parks were dead! We never had to use the fastpass for any rides, and it was comfortable to walk around without constantly having to bump into people!
At one exhibit in Epcot called "The Living Seas", there's a HUGE tank with the largest man-made coral reef in existance. Tons of fish and other marine life are in the tank. Well...there was one window to the tank off in the corner of one of the rooms, and no one was by the window. Laura and I walked up to the window and looked into the tank and realized that the reason no one was there was because it was far away from where the coral (and most of the animals) were. We were about to leave the window when a dolphin swam up to it out of nowhere. It stopped dead in front of us, suspending itself, with its tail down so it was looking us right in the eyes. It opened it's mouth and clapped its jaws together a few times, then just hovered there looking at us! A couple of people saw this and ran over, and the dolphin swam away. When they left, it came back to us! This time it actually put its forehead against the glass as if it wanted us to pet it! More people came over and it left again, and this time we left also. Let me tell you, it was an incredible experience to connect with this animal for me, seeing as the dolphin is one of my power animals. (It's a Wiccan thing. ;)) Because of this, Laura and I will be going to Discovery Cove when we go back down in October and we'll actually get to swim with them. I can't wait!
Another night in Epcot, we saw some ducks and stopped to look at them and they waddled over to us. I said to Laura that I wished I had something to give to them, and all of a sudden this hand with a chunk of bread comes from behind me. I looked back and there was this couple telling me they had fed them enough and they didn't need the bread anymore. We got to talking and it turns out that they were both police officers from England on their honeymoon. We chatted about a TON of things, from the war to the government to SARS to pretty much anything going on right now. We all went to get a beer at the Rose & Crown Pub in the UK section of Epcot, then watched the fireworks show and walked back to our cars. In three short hours we became friends, exchanging contact info, which was pretty cool.
These were a couple of the many good things about the trip. Now for the one bad thing.....:mad:
I said that the parks were dead for the time we were there.....except for the final night. We had saved the Magic Kingdom fireworks show for the Saturday night before we left, not realizing that it was the first night of the labor day weekend rush. Well....it was crowded as all hell, but it was WHO it was crowded with that sucked.
Now, I am not out to insult those of you who listen to rap, so don't take this as personal....but the truth is the truth. The "rap" contingency showed up at Disney for the first time in the 9 years I've been going down annually. And I do not mean anything about race. There were just as many white "rap" people as black. But they were all there, shorts down to the ankles, underwear hanging out, walking through the parks shirtless, tons of "bling-bling", hats on sideways....yelling, screaming, bullying people, cutting lines at rides, and worst of all - throwing trash all over the place. This was the first time I was ever at a Disney park and saw GARBAGE on the floors. I could have gone to Rye Beach Playland in NY and experienced the same thing. We were sitting there watching the fireworks watching a few rap wannabe's having a food fight 10 feet from us, throwing the wrappers and soda cups & bottles around. In some of the gardens and fountains throughout the park there were soda bottles bobbing. It was heartbreaking. Walt was rolling in his grave for sure. He created this park so families could have a good time together in a clean environment, not so some Snoop Dogg or Eminem wannabe could come and make everything stressful. This was the first time we actually wanted to leave Disney. :(
As the park was closing, one of the workers, a diminutive Asian girl, told a pack of these animals that she was sorry, but they couldn't get on the ride because it was closed. These assholes were actually trying to bully her into letting them on. :mad:
We know now not to book ANY vacation there near any kind of holiday weekend. Thankfully it didn't ruin the whole vacation, but it was a depressing last evening there.
Other than that.....how is everyone? :D