Sheep Guarding Llama

We wanted to get an early start this morning which was probably pretty foolish after having stayed up doing the podcast last night until around two in the morning. We had ordered breakfast to be delivered at six thirty in the morning. That was a big mistake. My alarm went off at six thirty and at the exact same moment room service was knocking on the door. I was so tired that I could not even figure out what was going on.

The room service breakfast was very good – omelette’s, potatoes, biscuits, juice and coffee. But it was too early in the morning and eating it didn’t make me feel very good and I felt really rushed and couldn’t really enjoy it. Lesson learned.

Because we had been so aggressive at getting up early this morning we ended up being too tired and dragged so much that we didn’t manage to leave the resort until much later than we had intended. Today our plan is to hit the Magic Kingdom since yesterday was EPCOT. Today is really for Dominica as I am only so excited about going to the Magic Kingdom. It is fun but not exactly loaded with stuff that I want to do. But our plan is to take it easy and to be super-selective about what we do.

We got to the Magic Kingdom around ten in the morning and went straight for Adventureland which is the traditional place to start your Magic Kingdom explorations but these days Dominica tells me that the bulk of the people are going in the opposite direction to start in Tomorrowland which I think is really weird. So Adventureland it is for us.

We went straight onto Pirates of the Caribbean which we were sure was going to be totally packed both because of the movies and because it was recently updated but there was no line at all. We just walked straight in. Since there was no line we decided to do it twice in a row. No line the second time either. We were sure that this weekend was going to be completely packed so that we could get in anywhere.

Pirates has been updated recently so that they could add in new audio-animatronics of Johnny Depp and Geoffery Rush’s characters from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. The new characters are amazingly well done but are definitely done in a different style than the original characters and both Dominica and I noticed that they really stood out as being different. So the integration wasn’t all that it could have been. They also added a movie projector showing Davy Jones projected onto some mist at the beginning of the ride but I thought that that was really cheap and didn’t fit with the ride. Dominica liked it though. It wasn’t bad I just didn’t think that it added anything. Towards the end of the ride they have changed the ride to have Tortuga be on fire which happens in the movie but not on the original ride. This is the biggest mistake I think as the fire looks awful and the scene wasn’t designed for it so it is completely out of place and weird. I also don’t like that they added in Captain Jack Sparrow all through the ride because the ride used to be a ride through Tortuga but now it is attempting to tell a story but does it very poorly. The updates are okay but I preferred the original ride as it was better integrated and thought out.

After our double trip to Tortuga we skipped the Jungle Cruise (which is great but doesn’t have a lot of “replay” value even when you have been away for years) and went on to Frontierland. We are avoiding all “thrill” rides so we ended up just walking through Frontierland as there is pretty much nothing there except Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Splash Mountain – both of which are very good but neither was something that we were interested in trying this year. So we kept right on going to Liberty Square.

Dominica was eager to The Haunted Mansion as it is still the original ride and the whole thing is being closed soon for renovations. I really liked this ride when I was young but it has aged much worse than most of the other rides of its era and it definitely needs to be updated. So I am hoping that they do anything as long as they don’t put in projectors and just show movies as you ride through the new version. But my faith in Disney’s ability to make any ride without showing a movie has dropped to near nill.

We timed the Haunted Mansion just perfect so that we could get right on to the Mississippi Riverboat ride which we did not get to do in 2005 and is one of my favourite things in the Magic Kingdom. That is very pleasant to do on a hot day which is was being above ninety degrees today.

Having made it over halfway through the park (Main Street USA, Adventureland, Frontierland and Liberty Square down with only Fantasyland and Tomorrowland left to go) we decided to stop and eat an early lunch before the lunch crowd really got started. It was still quite early for lunch. But I have always wanted to eat at the Columbia Harbor House in Liberty Square so we decided to go there. The Liberty Tree Tavern is the sit down full service restaurant that services Liberty Square but we are planning on a big dinner and wanted to do something faster. The Columbia Harbor House is a really nice counter service venue that is attractive and has an interesting menu and is right in the middle of the Magic Kingdom action. So we got their hummus and broccoli slaw sandwiches and went to the upper level which goes over the walkway connecting Liberty Square to Fantasyland which allowed us to relax in a very quiet setting next to the windows with a really cool view down onto Liberty Square. That was a lot of fun and we really recommend it to people looking to get away and relax a little in the Magic Kingdom.

After our early lunch we continued on to Fantasyland and did Mickey’s Philharmagic which is by far the best three dimensional movie in Walt Disney World and the only one in the Magic Kingdom. There was a little bit of a line for this ride simply because it is a movie and not a continuously moving line. I forgot how enjoyable the movie was. It really is good. Also in Fantasyland are the Winnie the Pooh and Peter Pan rides which are fun even if targeted towards the younger set but we didn’t want to wade through a sea of children to be able to ride them. So off we went to Tomorrowland.

In Tomorrowland we rode the Wedway People Mover which is just fun and relaxing. I have always enjoyed that even though it is just a slow ride through Tomorrowland. It is very comfortable and good for a hot day to cool you off. After that we went in and rode the highlight of Tomorrowland: The Carousel of Progress. You just can’t do the Magic Kingdom without riding the Carousel. It is just so good. It is so hard to believe that all of the best parts of that ride were built in 1964 and really haven’t changed since then! What an amazing idea that entire ride was. The ride was originally sponsored by General Electric for the 1964 New York’s World Fair where It’s A Small World also made its debut.

After the Carousel the only thing that we really wanted to do was to ride the Magic Kingdom train that circles the park. Just a nice way to relax. So we walked back to the head of Main Street USA and hopped on the train and rode it the entire way around the park. Then it was time to head back to the Animal Kingdom Lodge as I had a bit of work that I needed to catch up on.

It was not even two o’clock in the afternoon when we arrived back at the lodge. Our entire morning of hitting all of the highlights of the Magic Kingdom took just a few hours even on a very hot, bright and crowded morning! We have really gotten good at this. And we took a long, leisurely lunch at the Columbia Harbor House too.

After we got back to the hotel we decided that we were pretty warm so we popped down to The Mara which is the counter service restaurant in the resort and grabbed some ice cream and some drinks. That cooled us down a bit before we settled into the afternoon in our hotel room.

Dominica went out and enjoyed the balcony for a little bit but then took a nap for several hours while I worked on some consulting work that needed to be done today, some miscellaneous paperwork that I needed to do and the homework that I need to do for my class at RIT. It was a busy afternoon for me and took about four hours for me to complete.

While I was working I would occasionally pop outside and check out the savanna which was awesome. I managed to get a lot of video footage of the animals which I hope to be able to share with you very soon.

At ten after six Dominica and I had reservations at Jiko: The Eating Place which is the AAA Four Diamond rated restaurant in the Animal Kingdom Lodge. It is located directly next to Boma but is a rather different dining experience. We had decided that we didn’t want to limit our weekend to only eating at Boma when there is just so much good food to explore while we are here. Jiko was awesome. Everything that we had was really good. Dominica got scallops and I went for the all vegetarian grain dish which was really amazing. We were very glad that we decided to give Jiko a try. We definitely recommend it although if you only get to have one meal at the Animal Kingdom Lodge I would probably lean towards Boma.

It was after eight by the time that we were done with dinner so we decided that there was no need to return to the parks today.  We were both tired and thought that it would be better to spend the evening in the hotel.  Most of the evening was spent either enjoying the balcony or with me editing the podcast so that we could get it published.  At ten thirty we took a break and went down to Zawadi which is the shop in the Animal Kingdom Lodge and did some shopping.  We didn’t get to bed until after midnight.  Tomorrow we are on to the Animal Kingdom.

We slept in until nine this morning. We didn’t get to bed until almost three last night and were pretty wired when we finally got to bed so we didn’t get very good sleep. We got up and ordered our luggage so that we could get dressed. We had to pack up the room right away before leaving for the day so that the bell service could hold it for us until our new room is ready this afternoon.

We went down to Boma for breakfast. It was good but just the usual American breakfast buffet fare. Nothing non-traditional or fancy. The vegetarian selection was actually a little lean but they did offer very tasty quinoa which I really like and hope to find back in New Jersey. For meat eaters there was a large selection of meats that would make the buffet a good value.

After breakfast we did some quick shopping at the Animal Kingdom Lodge store and then we headed off to EPCOT where we are going to spend the day. Right as we arrived at EPCOT we realized that our video camera was missing. I had had it with me while shopping at Zawadi at the Animal Kingdom Lodge so we knew that it could not have been missing for long.

I ran back to the bus that had not left yet and confirmed that it was not on the bus. So we quickly caught the first bus back to the Animal Kingdom Lodge and went back to Zawadi to see if the camera had been left there. No one there had seen it though and they directed us to the resort’s front desk. They too had not seen it or had anyone turn in a camcorder. But they did suggest checking with the valet and bell services to see if anyone had come to them.

While we were at the concierge desk we went ahead and made five thirty reservations for Boma for this evening. Then we checked with bell services and luckily they had the camcorder sitting right there on the shelf. It had been found at the bus stop by a guest who had brought it in just a little bit before. 🙂 The concierge said that this happens all of the time.

After our lost camera incident we got back on the bus and returned to EPCOT. We went right to The Sea and did the new “Nemo” themed ride which is actually the entrance to the exhibit. The new “ride” turned out to be nothing more than a really short replay of the movie using actual or similar movie footage. Nothing special at all. But to be fair the “Seabase Alpha” garbage that it replaced was really awful so this is definitely an improvement but still not good by any stretch. We were quite disappointed.

Then it was on to The Land – my favourite part of EPCOT. We went right in and rode the Living with the Land boat ride. We had learned online that there was no longer a guide doing the boat tour but instead just an automated voice which is good and bad. But on our boat ride there was no narration at all and there were a number of people on the ride who had never done it before and thought that the entire attraction was nothing more than a boat ride through some sand and plants. That was disappointing and we felt bad for all of the people who thought that that was all that there was. It was very confusing. We spoke to one of the guys working at the ride and he said that they were having a lot of technical difficulties with the new audio system and that the system that detects if a boat is there or not is failing and sometimes doesn’t turn on the audio. So he put us directly onto the next boat that was leaving without waiting in line for a second and this time the audio worked fine so we were very happy. But unfortunately only us, who have done the trip close to a dozen times, got to do it again the way that it was meant to be and a lot of people got away without getting to know what it was all about.

After The Land we ran over and did Dominica’s favourite Disney attraction – Spaceship Earth which is scheduled to be overhauled soon. Siemens has taken over the sponsorship from AT&T and is looking to get the thing into better shape as it is really showing its age over all of the other EPCOT attractions although it is still one of the best. We are really hoping that they do not remove any of the awesome audio animatronics that still exist in there but instead work on replacing a lot of the cheap parts that were added to “update” the ride over the last fifteen years or so. Those sections really stand out as cheap and out of place on such a classic, quality ride.

We were in the hottest part of the day and felt that we should get back to the Animal Kingdom Lodge and take care of our check-in stuff before dinner. So back to the resort we went. We got back and got moved to our “real” room which is a king room with a bottom floor (the best) view directly on the main Savannah. Up until now we had been pretty unimpressed with the Animal Kingdom Lodge and could not figure out how this was qualifying as a top tier Disney resort hotel but this room convinced us that it should be. The room was much nicer than the other two but the view was really spectacular. The center savannah is really cool and full of awesome animal action. We got some great pics and videos of the animals in the savanna from our balcony. We really love being able to just go out and sit on the balcony and watch the animals eating, resting, running and playing out in their natural habitat. It is a lot of fun and really unique.

We didn’t have much time in our room before we needed to head downstairs to Boma for dinner. Our reservations got messed up as the reservations (we found out later) had been made for Scitt Nukker. That didn’t make it easy for the restaurant to find us especially when (we found out later) they thought that they were trying to look up Scott Mellows!! Wow. But they worked around it and got us in within a few minutes.

The food was awesome, just like we remembered. A few things have changed but not much. The menu appears to be very stable. We ate ourselves sick of course. Our waitress was from Wyoming County with her family living in Bliss of all places!! We really enjoyed ourselves and I got myself a special “Disney anniversary” martini that came with a blue LED lit “ice cube” that I got to keep. That was pretty cool. A nice thing to remember our weekend with.

After dinner we returned to our room, which is super easy because we are staying in the same hotel as the restaurant, and relaxed for about an hour to give us some time to digest all of that food that we had shoved into ourselves. We decided that that was a lot more enjoyable than rushing back to the parks. We just relaxed and watched the animals on the savanna. It was great. Videos to come soon too.

We returned to EPCOT this evening after it had cooled off a little and the sun had gone down and did some more rides. We did Spaceship Earth again – it IS Dominica’s favourite after all. Then we decided to check out Mission: Space. We did the “Green Pass” which is the wussie way to do it without going through the centrifuge. I am sure that with the “Orange Pass” that you actually get a little action but the two things are basically the same but with the one making you dizzy. Our verdict was that this attraction was cheap and lame. It was short and definitely not a quality ride at all. It was very boring and not traditional Disney at all. In fact it felt like a really bad video game that you would never want to pay for. Blah blah blah. It is not worth riding even if there is no line. Just another Disney blunder in the ever spiraling demise of the park. All of the best rides (in this case GE’s Horizons) get ripped out and replaced with something cheap, boring and pathetic.

We tried to go to the Universe of Energy but that was closed so we did Spaceship Earth for a third time as it was close and there was no line. Then it was time to head up to the World Showcase so that we could ride the new Mexico – Gran Fiesta Tour. We got right onto the tour. It is definitely an improvement over the old El Rio del Tiempo ride but in general is really just the same ride with some of the worst bits (that were old, worn on television sets playing videos of things in Mexico) which nice digital projects showing mostly the same clips but now with some Disney characters superimposed over the original film. It is really obvious that they cheaped out and didn’t make new underlying footage because the digital projects show the gorgeous new computer generated footage as crisp, clear, vibrant and bright over old, nasty analogue film. A few of the worst parts were totally replaced but in general it is just the same ride but slightly better. Not impressive at all though.

After that we decided that we were tired of the park for the day so we went to Norway and visited the Stave Church Museum which was closed the last time that we were here so Dominica has never gotten to see it (her family wouldn’t let her go there when they visited in 1992.) That was quite nice. Then we got our almond covered pretzels and headed back to the lodge for a nice, quiet evening.

Today is the big day. We are off to Florida. But not until late tonight. Susan is driving us to the airport so that is going to make the evening handy.

Our pains at 1180 continue this morning. I came out of the building to discover that the mess that kept us from parking in front of the building yesterday turned out to be the city discovering that 1180 had created an illegal valet zone and had taken over the city’s parking spaces! So now the area where our valet is supposed to be (“supposed to be” is a relative term since no permits were filed with the city – according to the city – so the space are REALLY “supposed to have been” parking spaces all this time) is just regular, everyday parking spaces. Who knows what we are going to do now. Up until now the parking situation has been horrendous but now it is beyond out of control. Every day is an exercise is trying to get down our road which is completely blocked because of our building’s parking and then trying to figure out where to stop and get out of the car so that the valet can take it. Generally we end up blocking a side road illegally or blocking the bus stop or just stopping in the middle of the road adding to the chaos. It is a disaster and they just have been refusing to address it or do anything about it. And the situation is this bad with the building less than half full. There is no way that 1180 can handle having more people move in – they haven’t figured out who to handle the people that they have yet!

I got up at a quarter after five this morning and ended up having to respond to queries from work almost immediately. I got ready for work and did some work from home around six. Once everything was stable I ran into the office and got in around a quarter till seven. I am in early today so that I can leave early this afternoon.

I still have a ton of work that needs to be done before we leave for Florida. The biggest thing is work that I am doing for Brainbench. That work is fun but there is a lot of it and I would rather not be doing it while on vacation. That and there is homework that I have due Sunday night as well so that should be done before I leave today. Eeek!

Dominica bought celebratory bagels and took them into work with her today. She is so much happier now that she is CompTIA certified. Certified, a weekend without any homework and getting paid a comp day to go to Disney World. Does it get any better? She has been stressing a bit at work recently but I bet that she will be far less stressed now that the A+ is out of the way.

Our original plans got changed when Newark airport started postponing flights all day.  Fortunately we are flying on AirTran and they were nice enough to call me at work and to let me know that the flights were going to be delayed so much (Newark claimed bad weather although the entire day was clear and pleasant) that we were going to miss our connecting flight in Atlanta.  So AirTran moved us up to an early flight that had been delayed enough that we could make it.  I called Min at work and we both took off as quickly as we could so that we could make our flight.  It was about two o’clock when we both left our offices to rush to 1180 to do our final packing and get out to the airport.

We had to grab a taxi since Susan couldn’t leave work to drive us over to the airport (that darn “job” thing.)  We got to the airport in plenty of time and left on the 4:34 flight at around 5:30.  We got to Atlanta and had about an hour to kill before leaving there at 9:20.

We arrived in Orlando around a quarter to eleven at night.  We took Mickey’s Magical Express to our hotel.  Unfortunately they put six hotels onto our bus (ours being the only top tier hotel) and then dropped off all of the people going to the less expensive resorts (almost all of them being the All Stars) first.  So our trip that was supposed to not top forty-five minutes took closer to two hours!

It was one o’clock in the morning when we got into our room.  We opened the door to a pungent odor.  It took a little while before we discovered (Min did the discovering – in just her socks) that there was some sort of leak and that the carpeting was all wet and moldy causing the odor.  We also discovered a dirty tissue on the arm of a chair when Dominica went to sit down.  Eww.  So we had our room changed.  The only thing that was available for tonight was a since queen bed with bunk bed option non-Savannah view room but at least it didn’t smell.  We will be moved to another room tomorrow.

Our luggage did not arrive until long after we had gone to bed.  It is supposed to take up to three hours after you check in before it arrives and ours just made it arrives just a few minutes before four in the morning.  So we had to go to bed worrying that it might have been lost because these things do happen.

I was able to get up nice and early again this morning. I was out of bed by five thirty. Not too shabby. I got right down to the gym and did my morning workout. I am liking this routine. Now if I can just keep it up. I didn’t do a really long workout today – I am just trying to get ready for our trip tomorrow.

I did a little around the house after getting back from my workout while waiting for Dominica to get ready. Once she left I got ready for work and headed out. I got to the office just in time for SUN to come in and give us a technology presentation so that worked out perfectly. I managed to win a t-shirt for Dominica at the show (she loves her technology t-shirts) but the big prize was a copy of Solaris Internals which is going to be autographed by one of the authors, Jim Mauro. So that made for a good morning.

Dominica had her CompTIA A+ exam this afternoon at one thirty.  She called me at almost exactly two thirty to tell me that she had passed it!  What a huge relief.  That is going to make this vacation so much more enjoyable.  Now she doesn’t have to worry about that anymore.  That has been weighing her down for three years!  Boy am I ever happy.

I had a busy afternoon that passed pretty quickly.  I left the office right at half past five and headed back to Newark as quickly as possible.  Dominica and I are meeting Susan for dinner at Food for Life just a little after six this evening.  We haven’t seen Susan in quite a while even though she is the only person that we really know in the area.  Our schedules just never give us any time to see each other.

Dominica and I got home at almost exactly the same time.  We had just enough time to run up to the apartment, drop off Oreo and our belongings and head over to FFL to meet Susan.  We had a nice dinner but couldn’t linger long as Susan had an NJSO concert to get to and I have just a ton of work to do tonight so that we are able to go on our trip tomorrow.  And I need to get to bed early as I am on the early shift tomorrow so that I can get home and get ready to catch the flight.

I was pretty productive this evening.  If I can just keep up the pace tomorrow I will be in pretty decent shape.  Just to make sure that my day wasn’t to good though the fire alarm at 1180 Raymond went off a little after nine thirty at night.  This is after having done a fire drill earlier today (which I went to work to avoid instead of staying home like usual.)  I need to point out that I was correct.  They have completely desensitived the building to the alarms and not one single person, other than me, went into the hallway to see what was going on.  Not one.  And this was a real alarm with the fire department responding and everything.  They even went on to play two additional alarms that we had never heard before.  Unfortunately because we have done so many drills introducing the new alarm was just confusing.  Dominica thought that the sound was coming from outside the building rather than inside.  I only knew what was going on because I was in the hallway trying to figure out if they would ever make their promised PA announcement telling us what was going on.  It took quite some time before they finally announced that it was a false alarm and that people should ignore the alarm.  Not that there was anyone to tell since everyone was just hiding in their apartments trying to stay away from the noise.  In between alarms I could hear dogs barking from other floors.  🙁  Maybe tomorrow I will find out what happened tonight.  These fire alarm issues are just never going to end.  I can’t believe that anyone can make a claim that any of this is for “our safety.”  How obvious does a lie like that have to be before this false under criminal negligence or even malicious conduct?  At some point either the city or the builders or both need to be culpable if someone dies because they had no way to know if an alarm is real or not.