I love these!

Well, I’m very dissapointed, to say the least, to learn today that Warner has announced that they’ll be leaving the HD-DVD format for Blu-ray exclusivity in May. Ouch. Unfortunately, this is an almost certainly fatal blow, long term, to the HD-DVD format.

Which means, unfortunately, that a less capable, more restrictive, more expensive format will win this time around. Remember, Beta(max) was/is Sony’s format. And while Beta was superior to VHS, it was VHS that got home video off the ground. That was achieved by breaking the perceived pricing limits that the consumer will endure. HD-DVD players were on the market this Christmas at sub $100 levels (I saw some as low as $84 at one point). Blu-ray is struggling to break $400 consistently. Their spec isn’t completely fleshed out and implemented, their product line-up is confusing (all players can’t play all content, and some can’t be upgraded to do so in the future). HD-DVD, on the other hand, is a single solid spec and all players have all features of the spec, meaning one HD-DVD disc will play in all HD-DVD players, something consumers will assume (incorrectly) with Blu-ray.

The numbers of titles released have been roughly the same (458 BR to 429 HD as of this writing). While more Blu-ray players have been sold in the form of the PlayStation 3, more computer-based drives for HD-DVD have been sold, and the stand-alone dedicated players are selling 3:1 in favor of HD-DVD, driving almost certainly by price point. Yet, current statistics show a flip from an almost 60%/40% HD-DVD advantage in software units sold to a 60%/40% Blu-ray titles sold between 2006 and 2007. So why are so many more units (titles) selling on the Blu-ray side of the fence? My guess, in a word: Disney.

Here’s the deal. On average (we’re not talking about the strange ones like me), the average consumer will RENT titles that are PG-13 or R-type fare, but they BUY titles for the kids. The concept is pretty simple: the average adult doesn’t watch the same movie over and over. But kids do. The fact that Disney landed exclusively in the Blu-ray camp a while back was what turned the tide. Many of the top 10 titles are the same on either side of the fence, thanks to studios that have produced content in both formats to this point (Warner, being the biggest). However, now that Warner has chosen a side, things are looking pretty grim for the HD-DVD camp. So much so, that in the wake of this announcement from Warner, the HD-DVD Promotional Group has cancelled its press conference scheduled for THIS SUNDAY at CES in Vegas. Ouch indeed.

I have an already significant investment in HD-DVD at this point (40+ titles so far). While the news has a certain degree of initial sting to it, in the long run it doesn’t bother me too much. I knew anyway at some point I’d get a Blu-ray player and hook it up as another device in my system.

It’s a bit disappointing, though, especially from a consumer’s point of view. The Blu-ray feature list has some serious problems. There have been production issues in both the media and the players. The price is too high. I’m sure Blu-ray will get over these problems eventually. But will the player I buy today be able to be upgraded to the format of tomorrow? I say that bet’s 50:50.

So, what’s the other shoe to drop? Look for that at Mac World at the end of the month. I have a sneaking suspicion that Apple’s going to announce not only a shipping Blu-ray burner in their machines, but an upgrade to DVD Studio Pro that will enable Blu-ray authoring. Do you think Disney going Blu-ray was coincidence? Who sits on Disney’s board and is their largest single shareholder? That’s right, Steve Jobs.

Now I just want an Apple TV that fixes all the problems I wrote about a few months ago, and has a Blu-ray drive in it. Is that so much to ask for?

Happy Halloween!

We took a second trip to Walt Disney World in December, this time taking along my parents. We had an absolutely wonderful time. I managed to take just over 1,500 pictures (and about 12 hours of video). Click on the castle to see a sample.

There was lots we did this time around that we didn’t do back in February, and lots we did again. The main thing was that the entire resort and parks were dressed for the holidays, which really made things magical.

While we stayed at the Grand Floridian again this time around, we were on the lagoon side with a spectacular view. We also celebrated mom’s birthday while there, with a cake delivered right to her room.

I won’t go into all the detail as I did the last time around (that took way too long to write up), but I will paste in the highlights from the quick journal I kept while on the trip. Interesting point, I wore a pedometer all week and kept track of just how much we walked:

Day 1: (14,738 steps; 6.28 mi)
Woke up at 4:00
Left for airport at 5:10
parked in Remote North (C-40)
took shuttle to gate (C28)
Checked in – mom/dad were 2 minutes late checking in, so their bags went on the next plane
Took off 6:50
Landed at 10:00 local time
ate a light breakfast at airport
went down to bag claim B and checked in with DME
rode bus to Grand Floridian (stops at Wilderness Lodge and Contemporary first)
checked in (rooms not ready)
- we were upgraded to first floor, connecting rooms with lagoon view. In boca chica (8101/8103)
- i upgraded our park tickets to a 9th day
checked bags with bell services
rode monorail to Contemporary
ate lunch at Food & Fun _____
Went shopping at BVG and the other gift shop.
- Matthew / Madison got mickey/minnie santa hats
- all three got autograph books/pens
- Matthew found 9 cars he didn’t have from the movie Cars
- Michael bought a Jedi Mickey
- Cynthia bought Tori a necklace
- Mom bought a car decal
Rode monorail back to hotel
hotel called on the way to say our rooms were ready
checked in with front desk to get our room assignments
went to our rooms and rested
- luggage, bags, and package delivered
- unpacked and took a nap
rode boat to Magic Kingdom
walked down Main Street (very crowded) and had our picture taken twice with castle backdrop
went to tomorrowland
ate dinner at Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe
- listened to Sonny Eclipse while eating
got a fastpass for Space Mountain (never used it)
rode TTA
walked to fantasyland
rode teacups
rode dumbo
- fireworks show started while on the ride
watched the rest of Wishes
walked to front of park (very very crowded)
rode monorail back to hotel
once back
- matthew/cynthia tried to find a swimsuit for matthew, no luck
- mom / dad stopped and got milk from the sundries store
- i carried madison back to room with michael
showers and bedtime

Day 2: (17,208 steps; 7.33 mi)
Breakfast in bedroom
Rode bus to Animal Kingdom
Bought hats at entrance
Got a stroller
Got a fast pass to Expedition Everest
Saw Flights of Wonder
Saw Finding Nemo show
Ate lunch at Tusker House
Got fast pass to Kilamanjaro safari
Rode Expedition Everest while Mama De sat with Madison
Rode Kilamanjaro Safari
Walked to exit
took bus to Fort Wilderness
Saw Hoop-De-Do revue and ate dinner
Rode boat to Contemporary resort
Rode Monorail to GF
Bought Matthew a new swimsuit / flipflops
Went swimming

Day 3: (23,215 steps; 9.89 mi)
Got breakfast to go at Gasparallias- ate in room/on veranda
Took monorail to TTC
switched monorails to Epcot
Went thru bag check, turnstiles
I went off to The Land to get fast passes for Soarin’
Cynthia/everyone else got a stroller, restrooms, waited at spaceship earth
I met back up with crew
Rode Spaceship Earth
Went to Imagination Pavilion
rode Journey into your Imagination
played with the Kodak Camera stuff
Went to Seas pavilion
Rode Seas with Nemo and Friends
saw Turtle Talk w/Crush
Went to the Land
Rode Living with the Land
Rode Soarin’
went to Electric Umbrella, ate chicken strips
went to Mouse Gear, bought lots of candy
Left Epcot, rode monorail back to TTC, switched and rode to GF
went back to rooms
Birthday cake had been delivered to mom’s room
sang Happy Birthday and ate cake
took naps
Rode monorail to Magic Kingdom for MVMCP
got stroller
Went to see Mickey’s twas the night….full
rode Buzz Lightyear
rode Space Mountain
went back to hub and waited on corner for show in front of castle
watched “Spirit of the Season” show in front of castle
saw Parade
went to Cosmic Ray’s to eat (burgers and chicken strips)
CD and kids and I went back to bridge to tomorrow land to watch Wishes fireworks
met mom/dad back in tomorrow land and went to see Mickey’s ’twas the night before christmas show
walked down mainstreet to exit
rode monorail back to GF
bed (11:50p)

Day 4: (20,307 steps; 8.65 mi)
slept in
rode monorail to epcot, got there around noon
got stroller, I went to get fastpasses to TestTrack
Met group back at mousegear – cynthia bought a new fannypack
went to Canada, poked around
went to UK, ate fish&chips
went to France, looked around
saw Impressions de France
went to Morocco, poked around
went to Japan
-saw Tycho drums
-saw Japanese storyteller, told story of new years in Japan
rode boat back to futureworld
rode test track
Michael got a remote-controlled test track car, had it sent to front
rode test track again (matthew & I)
walked back to boats
rode boat to Germany
saw trains
walked to American Adventure
listened to choir
poked around in the shops
got roasted pecans/almonds
went to japan
saw Miyuki (candy lady)
-matthew got dragon
-michael got eagle
-madison got horse
went back to American adventure
-got hot chocolate
-listened to choir
went to Teppanyaki for dinner
watched Illuminations from 2nd story in Japan
walked to front
picked up Michael’s car
tried to take a bus, no bus to GF from Epcot
got on Monorail
got back to hotel, bed at 11:45p

Day 5: (17,004 steps; 7.24 mi)
woke up early
monorail to polynesian
had breakfast at Ohana’s (mickey, pluto, lilo & stitch)
caught bus to MGM
got stroller
saw chip & dale
saw Ariel show
saw Beauty & the beast show
saw Indiana Jones show
saw Lightning McQueen and Mater
saw Sully and Mike from Monsters, Inc.
walked to back of park
saw Lights, Motors, Action stunt show
rode backlot tour
shopped, got pictures taken
ate dinner @ 50’s prime time cafe
rode great movie ride
got seats for fantasmic
Matthew and I went and bought tape, fudge
saw fantasmic
caught bus back to GF
saw water parade
bed

Day 6: (16,088 steps; 6.85 mi)
slept in, got up late
got breakfast from gasparillas
rode monorail to MK
tried to get ECV for mom, sold out
adventureland
-got fast pass for jungle cruise
-went to see pirates, ride closed down
walked around to frontierland
saw country bear jamboree
I went and got fastpasses for Big Thunder
saw hall of presidents
-mom,cynthia,madison went in before we caught up with them
-boys and I had churros while waiting
-saw HOP again
rode small world
got a seat for afternoon parade
Papa, michael, matthew, cynthia and I rode BTM
got hot dogs for parade
watched parade
went around to fantasyland
rode Haunted Mansion
saw Philharmagic
walked back around to liberty square
shopped in christmas store, bought stuff (sent back to hotel)
went to adventureland
rode jungle cruise
found spot for fireworks
saw mickey’s dream show in front of castle
saw wishes (fireworks)
rode monorail to GF
got a table at GF Cafe, had dinner (mom and I waited for table while everyone else went back to room for a little bit)
went back to room
saw water parade
saw MVMCP Holiday Wishes fireworks show from our back porches
bed

Day 7: (8,584 steps (partial – epcot only); 3.65 mi)
Mom, Mama De and Madison went to BBB
Matthew, Michael, Papa and I went to MK
got autographs from Fox and Cat from Pinnochio
Got fast pass for space mountain
got autograph from Buzz Lightyear
rode Astro Orbiters
rode Buzz Lightyear SRS
rode Space Mountain
went to Adventureland
rode Pirates of the Caribbean
took bus to Saratoga Springs
walked to Downtown Disney, met up with girls
went to Christmas store
went to Team Disney
went to Once upon a Toy
Ate lunch at McD’s
went to Lego store
went to World of Disney – bought a lot of stuff
rode bus to GF
dropped stuff off in room, repacked, rode monorail to TTC
rode monorail to Epcot (got stroller)
went to Norway
ate dinner at Akerhaus, princess storybook dinner
-saw Ariel, Belle, Princess Aurora, Cinderella, Jasmine
rode Maelstrom
shopped in Norway gift shop
went to Mexico
shopped around
rode El Rio De Tiempo
found spot outside mexican resturaunt for fireworks
got hot chocolate and churros
watched Illuminations
rode monorail to TTC
rode monorail to GF
washed a load of clothes

Day 8: (17,225 steps; 7.34 mi)
Commando day
got up early, breakfast in room from gasparallas
caught bus to AK
got mom a ECV, got stroller
saw festival of the lion king show
saw tough to be a bug
caught bus to Epcot
no ECVs available
went to Land pavilion
ate at Garden Grill
went to mousegear, shopped
caught bus to MGM-DS
got ECV, stroller
walked around
saw Muppets 3D
rode Star Tours
saw Osbourne Spectacle of Lights
caught bus to GF
went swimming/hot tub
packed, packed, packed
bed

Day 9: (15,508 steps; 6.60 mi)
got up early
finalized packing
called bell services to retrieve bags
checked bags with airline, got boarding passes
stored remaining bags with bell services
rode monorail to MK
got funnelcakes and milk in liberty square
went to adventureland
rode aladdin’s carpets
saw tiki room
went to liberty square, fantasyland
got fast pass for peter pan
saw philharmagic
got mom a coke,water
rode snow white
got fast pass for pooh ride
rode peter pan
rode haunted mansion
rode pooh ride
saw donald duck
went to toontown
rode barnstormer
walked thru minnie’s house
walked thru mickey’s house
rode train back to front
met up with mom
rode monorail back to GF
met up with mama de/papa
ate lunch at Gasparalla’s
took pictures in lobby
went to gift shops
got photopass cd
caught bus to airport
went thru security (snow globe incident)
sat at gate for 2 hours
boarded plane
flew back to dallas
wrangled bags to truck
drove home
arrived 9:30p
unload
bed

You may note that I’m actually posting this on April 2nd, 2007, 120 some-odd days after our trip (what can I say, I’m very slow about getting some of this stuff done). I’m backdating the posting, though, so it appears in the right calendar month in the archives.

Day 9 of our trip was upon us, and it was a bittersweet morning. Relaxing, but a little sad because our trip was coming to a close. We had had such a wonderful time, we didn’t want to go home. Ah, well.

We started the morning off with a takeout breakfast from Gasparilla’s Grill back in the room. After bacon, eggs, sausage, fruit and more, we started the process of packing. We packed. And we packed. I have no idea how we had brought that much stuff in the first place, but somehow it all had to go back on the plane.

After getting our things in order, I phoned down to the front desk to request a late checkout time, which they granted. Our plane wasn’t schedule to depart until 5:30, so we had some time to kill. We would catch the Magical Express bus back to the airport around 2:30, so we decided to go over to Downtown Disney to do a little last minute souvenir shopping.

After calling bell service to come get our bags and store them, we caught a bus to Downtown Disney. One of the primary goals was to visit the Lego store, which we located fairly quickly. They had remodeled it since we had been there last, it was larger and had some new features. One new feature was an area were they had just about every different basic lego piece you could think of individually categorized in little bins. The way things worked is you chose either a small cup for $7.99 or a large cup for $12.99 and filled it up with as many pieces as you could. Pretty cool.

The kids each picked out a Lego set and we made our purchases. Right outside of the store was a McDonald’s, so we took a break and got some fries and drinks. After that we spent a considerable amount of time wandering around in the largest Disney Store there is. Of course, we located a few souvenirs.

It was time to catch the bus back to the hotel, so we did, and made it back just in time to retrieve our bags from bell services and catch our Magical Express bus to the airport. We did have a few minutes to snap a few pictures in the garden area in front of the hotel lobby, and by the horse-drawn carriage and ‘38 cadillac they had parked out front. Our bus arrived and we loaded up and made the trip to the airport.

Once there, we checked in with the airline, went through security and hunted around to find something to eat. Turns out we didn’t need to rush, though… Our plane ended up being delayed just over 3 hours. During the long wait, the kids played with their new lego sets, and made some new friends with some other kids waiting for the same plane.

Finally we were allowed to board, and the flight back was uneventful. Once we had landed (around 10:30 Central time), we retrieved our bags and rode the shuttle to the parking lot, where we located the truck and headed home. We finally arrived, very sleepily, around midnight.

In retrospect, we had a tremendously enjoyable time. The kids loved the trip, and collectively we made some memories we will have for years to come. One of the neat things about WDW is you can go back at regular intervals, and still have a great balance of classic memorable things from the past and plenty of new things to experience. And while it is expensive as far as things go, I can’t think of many places where you get quite the bang for your buck, on the whole.

So all I have now is to edit some video together…

Day 8 was designed to be a “make-up” day, allowing us time to go back and catch any attractions we hadn’t visited yet that we wanted to hit, or to revisit attractions that we enjoyed and wanted a second (or third) go-round on.

The boys and I decided to get a jump on the day, and try to catch a ride on the sneak-preview of Expedition Everest, so we were up early and off to Animal Kingdom. We caught a bus from the hotel directly to the park and arrived about 20 minutes before park opening. The wait wasn’t log before the gates opened and we streamed in with the smallish crowd. Once over the bridge after the turnstiles and biometric readers, the crowd began to thin out as people went various directions, but we headed directly towards Asia. By the time we came around the corner to Everest, we were practically alone, which didn’t seem right since we were headed for a headliner attraction.

As we came upon the entrance for the attraction, I noticed A) no guests and B) several cast members manning ropes across the queue entrance. Not a good sign, seeing as there were approximately 1,000 people in line for the ride just a few days ago. Upon conferring with a cast member, it turns out that the ride was closed for the day for additional tweaking and tuning. ARGH!

Needless to say, the boys and I were a bit disappointed — we weren’t going to get to try out the newest attraction on this trip. Ah well, we got over it pretty quickly, and decided to head over to the dinosaur area and catch a few rides there before leaving the park.

The nice thing about being in Animal Kingdom on a Tuesday during value season is the crowd is practically non-existant. The dino area had maybe 50 people in it, so there were no lines for anything. We quickly located Primeval Whirl, a runaway mouse-type coaster with a twist (literally) — the cars spin around! We walked right on and took a spin, and had a blast. So much so, as soon as we got off, the boys wanted to go again, so we ran around to the entrance again and walked right on.

After our second ride, we wandered around a bit, trying to find the Dinosaur ride. We ended up finding it, and as expected, there was no line. The attraction is essentially a dark ride on a free roaming motion simulator. While the story line is interesting and all (go back in time to capture a baby dinosaur before the meteor hits and wipes everything out), we found the ride to be way too rough and way too loud.

After our ears stopped ringing, we had a short conference and decided that we’d make our way back to the Magic Kingdom and hit the big rides there. We headed towards the exit, stopping by a breakfast cart on the way out for pastries and juice. Afterwards, we walked out of the park and over to the bus stop. After waiting for several minutes, we determined that the bus directly to the Magic Kingdom would take entirely too long, and opted to take a bus to the Transportation and Ticket Center instead. From there, we took the Ferry across the lagoon to the Magic Kingdom.

After entering the park, we trucked it over to Tomorrowland and picked up a fastpass for Space Mountain. Then we headed across the park to Liberty Square and got in line for the Haunted Mansion. The boys were a little nervous that it would be too scary, but ended up loving it, especially the end where the ghost “hitchhikes” in your doom-buggy.

Next we took a run on Big Thunder Mountain, and then on to Splash Mountain. I got soaked. By then, it was time to cash in our fastpass on Space Mountain, so we did. All three mountains in 30 minutes. Cool.

Around the time we were coming out of Space Mountain, we heard on the radio from Cynthia that she and Madison were in the park, so we headed to Fantasyland to hook up with them. We found them on the teacups, taking another spin. After they finished their ride, we all walked over to Toon Town and toured Mickey Mouse’s house. Then we caught the train around the park to Frontierland for lunch. We had burgers at Pecos Bill’s.

After lunch, we went for a ride on the Jungle Cruise, a classic. Then a tour through the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse. We decided to head back to the hotel at that point, to relax and go swimming. We took a boat back to the hotel.
Swimming was nice, we spent some time in the big pool, and finished up with 15 minutes in the “little hot pool”, as Madison called it (the hot tub).

We planned that evening to head over to the Boardwalk and see what was up. It took a series of transportation maneuvers (monorail to the TTC, bus from the TTC to MGM Studios, ferryboat from MGM studios down the canal to the Boardwalk), but we finally arrived at the Boardwalk around sundown.

We walked up and down the Boardwalk, looking at the shops and looking for a place to eat, but everything was pretty busy. Turns out the Boardwalk at night is more geared towards adults, so we decided to hitch a bus over to Downtown Disney.

The first objective was dinner, so we found a little sub shop called the Earl of Sandwich. Afterwards, we walked by several of the shops, and then decided to visit DisneyQuest. Turns out our tickets for the theme parks included admission for DQ, which is essentially a five-story virtual theme park.

The neat thing is the admission to the building gets you into all the games and rides, just like at one of the regular theme parks. We took a ride on virtual Aladdin’s Carpets, where you wear helmets and ride around with 8 other people through a virtual Agrabah. Next, the boys and I did more traditional video games, while Madison tried her hand at a virtual paint game.

Next, Michael and I tried out Virtual Space Mountain, where you build your own roller coaster in the computer and then ride it in a simulator. We built a killer coaster, but it turns out I was too big to fit in the simulator so we didn’t get to ride it!

After that, we all strolled down a level or two and found a virtual Jungle Raft game. Cynthia and the kids did that one, where they all got on a raft and simulated rowing with a big screen showing them going down a river. It was a hoot!

We played several more traditional video games, and then took a turn at the Buzz Lightyear Astroblaster game. In this one, you get in what are essentially bumper cars and shoot dodgeballs at one another. I remembered that one being slightly more fun than it turned out to be, but maybe that’s because our dodgeball gun had problems shooting.

Everyone was getting a little tired by that point, so we went ahead and caught a bus back to the hotel and called it a night.

It’s a good thing we hit the hay early the previous night, because morning comes early when you’ve got a breakfast date with a Mouse. We had an 8:10 reservation at Chef Mickey’s at the Contemporary resort, which was not too hard to make being on the monorail line only two stops away from our hotel. We got dressed for the day and caught the purple train around the lagoon just in time.

Chef Mickey’s is on the lower level of the main concourse in the huge A-frame that is the Contemporary hotel. The Contemporary was one of the first hotels constructed back in 1971 when the Magic Kingdom originally opened. One of the most interesting features of the architecture is the fact that the monorail passed directly thru the main concourse inside the hotel, allowing boarding without leaving the main concourse.

On your way into the main seating area is a photo station where they take your picture in front of a Mickey Mouse plate, and then they come by your table later to sell you the prints. It’s a typical scam, but it’s still hard to resist. The breakfast is standard Disney buffet fare, all sorts of pastries, fruit, Mickey Mouse waffles, eggs and breakfast meats, juices, milk, cereal, etc. Way too much to eat. Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Chip and Dale, and Pluto wander around the tables for photo ops and autographs. Every 20 minutes or so they play the theme song and all the kids get up and dance and twirl their napkins around over their heads. On the way out you can get your picture taken with Goofy–I guess he’s too tall to walk around the restaurant.

After our breakfast, we wondered around the main concourse of the hotel looking at the various souvenir shops, and then headed back upstairs to catch a monorail. We rode the monorail one stop to the TTC, where we switched monorail lines for the trip out to Epcot. The plan for the day was to make our way around the World Showcase at Epcot and see all the countries.

The way things are set up in Epcot, Future World opens at 9:00 and World Showcase doesn’t open until 11:00. We had arrived around 9:30, so we were a bit early to begin our tour of the world. Instead, we decided to catch a few of the attractions in Future World and then hit WS around lunch. First stop: get Madison a stroller.

After taking care of that, we headed across the front of the park to The Land Pavilion. We decided about halfway there that I should go grab a fast pass for Soarin’ while Cynthia and the kids looked at the shirt shop. I ran and did that and then came back to the shop where I found a Mickey Mouse hockey shirt and hat, the boys bought black shirts that look like Mickey had exploded on their chest, and Cynthia, being the chilly one, got a Tinkerbell jacket.

AIt was already time for our spin on Soarin’, so we walked over to the Land to ride. We all agreed that Soarin’ was one of our favorite attractions at Epcot. After that we snagged fast passes to the Living with the Land boat ride and walked over to the other side of Future World and went to the Universe of Energy attraction.

I’m not sure if I like the update this attraction has received over the years. Basically, in its current incarnation, you watch a 15 minute video starring Ellen Degeneres, Alex Trebek and Jamie Lee Curtis, along with Bill Nye the Science Guy talking about energy and fossil fuels. The presentation is pretty interesting, in that it’s actually six separate films show simultaneously, synchronized into one very wide movie screen.

After the film you’re scuttled off to a second room where six very large people movers await. Each car can hold about 60 people, and they are free moving, guided by embedded sensors and antennas in the floor. This portion of the ride moves the audience through several scenes, from the dinosaur age up to modern times, with audio-animitronics and movies all along. The entire attraction takes about 45 minutes and is informative and enjoyable, but a little dated.

Once we left the Energy pavilion, we continued on around Future World clockwise, passing the currently closed Wonders of Life pavilion (which is too bad, it had some very interesting interactive exhibits, plus Body Wars, a motion simulator like Star Tours), and then came to Mission:Space.

This is in the space previously occupied by the Horizons pavilion, and I’m not sure the replacement is a good thing. While Mission:Space is a fun attraction in and of itself, I miss some of the original pavilions of Epcot: Horizons, World of Motion, the original Journey into Imagination. When Epcot was EPCOT, it seemed much more like a permanent world’s fair, with exhibits and pavilions that showcased where we came from and where our imagination might take us in the future. Over the past several years, however, it seems to be moving more towards thrill rides and such. These are fine, but I’d rather have them in another theme park (MGM studios, for example) instead of replacing the magic that was EPCOT. We still have Spaceship Earth, but for how long?

At any rate, we hadn’t been to WDW since Mission:Space had opened, so we opted to get a fast pass and come back in 30 minutes to ride it. We then back-tracked over to The Land to use our fast pass for the Living with the Land boat ride. It’s a short ride with a cast member pointing out various ways to grow things such as rotational crops and hydroponics. We got to see how they were growing pumpkins in the shape of Mickey Mouse heads using a plastic mold that the pumpkin grew in.

After riding the boat ride, we watched the 15 minute “Living with the Land” movie, which turned out to be a conservation speech with characters from the Lion King movies as the narrators. Ah, well.

Mission:Space turned out to be pretty intense. Madison rode with me, and the boys rode with Cynthia.Basically, you ride in a claustrophobic little “capsule”, and are spun at various speeds simulating lift-off and landing on mars while watching a movie on a small screen in front of you. The lift-off pulls about 3 Gs, but unlike a roller coaster, the force on the body is constant over a minute or so. Michael and I thought it was pretty fun, but the rest of the crew thought one ride was enough.

After our little trip to Mars, Madison decided she was cold so we went back to the shirt shop to find her some sweatpants. Unfortunately, Test Track (formerly World of Motion) was closed for rennovation, so we moved on to lunch. We decided to start our trek around the World Showcase, starting in the UK. We wanted to try the authentic fish and chips, so we found the Yorkshire County Fish and Chips and loaded up, eating on the patio near the lagoon.

Continuing around counter-clockwise was France, where Cynthia wanted to get a cup of coffee and a pastry while the kids and I looked around in a shop and saw a street mime.

We didn’t find anything especially appealing to Morocco, and looking at the show schedule, we had noticed a few things happening in Japan that we were interested in, so on we went.

We were very interested in seeing Miyuki, the “Candy Lady”, and fortunately we made it to her stand just a few minutes before her scheduled appearance time. The kids were able to be on the front row. This turned out to be one of those rare treats you happen across at WDW. Miyuki spins small candy animals on a stick from sugar and food-coloring paint, by request. Michael had her make a scorpion, and Madison asked for a dolphin. She fashioned each in under a minute, with colorful banter as a part of the act. Art in action, it was very entertaining to watch.

After the candy show, we wondered through the menagerie that is souvenir shopping in Japan — most interesting items, a collision of traditional Japanese art items and ultra modern commercialism, manga and Nintendo and 50’s tin-toy robots, all at once. A few minutes later we noticed that Matsuriza, the Taiko drummers were about to begin under the giant Pagoda tower. Matthew was particularly mesmerized by the drummers.

Continuing on around the world, we walked through the American Adventure, but seeing as the Hall of Presidents the day before had gone over a bit like a lead balloon, we decided not to subject the kiddos to an hour of revolutionary history. Maybe next time, but instead we moved on to Italy. As we were admiring the tower in the simulated city square, a street mime and juggler set up “shop” and began his act, which included magic tricks, juggling and audience participation. It was entertaining and fun.

On around the corner was Germany, where we encountered a very intricate model train set, with multiple tracks and trains set up in a outside garden setting, complete with buildings and countryside. Michael found it particularly interesting.

Next country up: China. We had timed things such that we had fifteen minutes or so to explore the calm gardens and take a rest, and then enter the palace in time to see the Dragon Legend Acrobats. This troupe of Chinese acrobats, ranging in age from around 8 to late teens, were simply amazing in their flexibility, balance and agility. After their show we were ushered into the theatre for the “Reflections of China” show, exhibited in 360-vision, whereby nine separate projectors screen a film that completely surrounds the audience. Although the film is almost 20 years old, it’s still an interesting and engaging look at China and its people.

After the film and the obligatory walk through the accompanying Chinese-themed gift-shop, we were starting to get a little hungry. The next country was Norway, which we had already visited a few days earlier, so we decided to move on to Mexico and have nachos and churros with hot chocolate for dinner.

As it had been a particularly long day and we were a little tired, we decided to skip the fireworks and beat the crowd out to the monorail for the trip back to the hotel. This plan worked out great, and we were able to ride up front with the driver for the long trip back to the TTC. We switched monorails and two stops later were walking into our hotel.

About 30 minutes after we returned to our room, the Wishes fireworks show began at the Magic Kingdom, and we walked out onto the shore of the Seven Seas Lagoon, just outside the building where our hotel room was, to watch the show. Following the fireworks was the electric water parade, where several floats decorated like the Spectromagic parade made their way across the Lagoon. It was a pleasant way to cap off the evening.

Day six was a Sunday, and after the full day the day before, we decided to sleep in a little. Cynthia left us sleeping and went to retrieve breakfast from the counter-service restaurant at the hotel. We ate in the room and watched our daily allotment of Disney cartoons.

After getting dressed and meandering over to the main building around mid-morning, we caught the next monorail over to the Magic Kingdom. Michael and I were lucky enough to score a ride up front with the driver.

Once we arrived and checked in through security and the biometric turnstiles, and obtained a stroller for Madison, we began to wander down Main Street. We noticed that it was getting steadily colder, and decided that today we’d need some additional “coverage.” So Cynthia and the kids found the main souvenir store, The Magic Kingdom Emporium, and bought a couple of blankets and a beanie for Matthew. I went across the street in search of a watch shop.

The evening before, after arriving back at our hotel, Madison accidentally knocked my wristwatch off of the table and one of the pins holding the band popped out, bent. I located the Mickey Mouse Watch store and found a jeweler there who was more than happy to have a look. He tried several different pins, but couldn’t find a match for the apparently specialized pin in my watch. I thanked him for his time and met the family back out on Main Street.

We wandered towards the castle, making a right and heading into Tomorrowland, with the goal of obtaining a fast pass for Space Mountain. Next, we worked our way around to Fantasyland and took a ride on Cinderella’s Carousel. Next, we went to see Mickey’s Philharmagic. Like the Muppetvision 3D show at the Studios, this is a 3D presentation with additional effects elements in the theatre (smells, wind, Donald Duck flying through the back of the theatre). It was well done and entertaining, and like most other attractions at Disney, exited into a large souvenir shop. Ah well.
After leaving the shop, we found ourselves on the West side of the castle, near Liberty Square. We found a funnel cake stand and decided to partake. We made a complete mess, but that’s sort of the point with funnel cakes. We paused after our messy snack for a snapshot with the castle as our backdrop, on the bridge over the moat back to the center of the park.

The time for our fastpass to Space Mountain was approaching, so we hightailed it over to Tomorrowland and did the kid-swap approach: Cynthia and Michael rode while Matthew and I waited with Madison, then Matthew and I took a turn. Fast and twisty as always, Space Mountain was a blast.

Although it constituted backtracking, a practice I generally try to avoid, we headed directly back to Frontierland to locate a suitable spot to watch the afternoon “Share a Dream Come True” parade. Seeing as we were about 45 minutes out, we were able to secure a front row seat just as the ropes were being deployed. The temperature seemed to be dropping (or the wind was picking up), so Cynthia and Madison bundled up, and the boys and I went looking for hot chocolate. We returned with about five minutes to spare before the parade started.

This is my favorite afternoon parade of all in the WDW parks. Floats with giant snowglobes with every Disney character you can think of. We had a great spot and enjoyed to sights and music.

Once the parade wrapped up, and the ropes were rolled up, we decided to grab a showing in the Hall of Presidents before our late lunch appointment at the Crystal Palace. A very patriotic show, inspirational and fascinating from a technical standpoint, I always enjoy the Hall of Presidents, even if it’s a little “boring” for the younger kids.
After our seating with the Presidents, it was time to make our way back towards Main Street and our appointment with the crew from the Hundred Acre Wood: Pooh and company at the Crystal Palace. We’ve done this character meal before, and really had fun with it.

The Crystal Palace is a buffet style meal, with more food than you can possibly eat, of all varieties. Pooh, Tigger, Piglet and Eeyore wander around amongst the tables for pictures and autographs, and there’s even a “conga line” of sorts every half-hour or so where the kids can dance in a line behind Tigger around the restaurant. It’s one of the better character meals in the parks.

We got a cast member to snap a picture of the entire family on the way out, in front of topiaries of the characters.

After our late lunch, we walked over the bridge into Adventureland, where we found Rafiki and Timon (from The Lion King) hanging out across from the Swiss Family Treehouse.

Autographs and pictures, of course, then we took a spin on Aladdin’s Magic Carpets, which is essentially a remake of the Dumbo Ride but with giant camels that randomly “spit” on you as you fly by. I sat out and took pictures and video while Cynthia rode with the kids.

Next we did the Enchanted Tiki Room, which is running a new show that mixes in Iago, the annoying parrot voiced by Gilbert Gottfried from Aladdin. It’s a fun show, with tons of audio-animatronic characters, flowers, birds, tiki heads on the wall, etc. By the end it seems everything in the room is moving and singing along with the show.

Next was Pirates of the Caribbean. This is one of the Disney Classic dark rides, a masterpiece, especially considering that the original is over 40 years old. It still is amazing to experience, even after the release of the major motion picture based on the ride.

After our tour on PoC, and the requisite stroll through the gift shop (where we acquired some gloves for Cynthia and the kids), we moved on into Frontierland and caught one of the last showings of The Country Bear Jamboree. Again, like the Tiki room, it’s a fully audio animatronic extravaganza, but it seems a little more dated than most other attractions in the park. It’s still charming in it’s own way, but a little creaky by today’s standards.

After our visit with the Country Bears, we scoped out a spot for the Spectromagic parade, ending up at almost the exact same parade spot we had for the afternoon parade. I again went for hot chocolate and this time managed to scare up a few pretzels as well.

While a little more slick and a little less charming than the original Main Street Electrical Parade, Spectromagic is still a favorite of mine. The whole way they carry off the lit parade floats, synchronized music, staging, etc. of this Parade make it a fun way to end the day at the Magic Kingdom.
We chose to not wait around for the fireworks this evening, but instead headed out Main Street and under the train station to catch a monorail back to our hotel. Madison fell asleep on the way out and I ended up carrying her all the way back to the hotel.

As our monorail rounded the Contemporary resort on the way towards the TTC and the Polynesian, Wishes began over the Magic Kingdom. Watching the fireworks across the Seven Seas Lagoon was a fun new perspective.

The kids (and Cynthia and I) were practically walking zombies by the time we got to our room, so it wasn’t hard to get everyone in bed for the night. Tomorrow was going to be an early day, so the lights were out early.