#love how toys from games n stuff are never accurate in the designs

[irene-dimension]

saw a toy of vanny slime today it was quite exciting

[thedaveandkimmershow]

Our Tuesday wound up being one…

Loooooooooong…

Day.

Don't know what to tell you, it felt like using the Disney buses to get around was a pretty efficient strategy.

So.

After our Blizzard Beach experience was over yesterday afternoon, the girls took to Disney Hollywood Studios whilst we returned happily to the Animal Kingdom where we spent our morning.

We started with the It's Tough To Be A Bug experience because we're still kinda sore they took it away from California Disney.

It's still the blast we remember in interactive 3D complete with water and fog, crawling insects and dangling black widow spiders all making appearances inside the auditorium, not simply on screen.

Once the bug show was over, we headed over to Pandora for the Na'vi River Journey and then Avatar Flight of Passage.

Now the Na'vi River Journey's basically Pirates of the Caribbean without the shooting or the pirates. Just a peaceful floating on an alien river, immersed in an alien jungle environment complete with plant life, living organisms, and animals.

The Avatar Flight of Passage, though?

That was a crazy, breathtaking, original, headrush of an experience. They put you on that planet, plunging from high cliff tops to low valleys and oceans through jungle foliage, above villages, and away from flying predators… all on the back of a banshee.

It.

Was.

Amazing.

Incredible.

Unimaginable.

As in unimaginable that the experience we were having was actually possible. The imagery completely filled our visual fields and then some. The detail was incredible. And we travelled such distance both horizontally and vertically.

All.

While going.

Nowhere.

Not even off the ground.

Crazy. And wow.

Wow.

Wow.

And wow.

We finished that ride around 545, shortly before it was time for the park to close. And so, we followed through on an earlier plan we conjured and grabbed a bus for Epcot.

Cute thing about that bus ride: there was a tiny kid on that bus who was so fascinated by buses that he pointed them out, each one, every time, to his dad.

Or as he said, Daa-dee.

He'd exclaim in genuine excitement each time,

"Daa-dee, bus!"

"Daa-dee, bus!"

"Daa-dee, bus!"

Until he spotted Epcot at which point he exclaimed

"Daa-dee, ball!"

It was seriously cute.

Having been dropped off at Epcot, we made a beeline for the pork sliders 'n drinks, after which we ran into Linzy nearby who took us over to Mexico where Rachel was grieving a hugely disappointing margarita.

Now it's time to end our day and maybe score some easy rides over at the Magic Kingdom as every family lines up for the evening's parade as well as a well-earned trip back to the hotel.

On the monorail connecting Epcot and the Magic Kingdom, we're in a car with a family of five who're having a really.

Loooooooo9ng.

Day.

When we pulled into the station in front of the Magic Kingdom, we gotta announcement that the Magic Kingdom monorail was out of commision so we'd all be taken by ferry.

A lovely. Beautiful. Painterly experience.

See what I mean?

Once inside the park, we hustled straight for the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad that continued to be the blast we always remember. The second section of the track, especially, it was funny to watch Linzy throw her hands and arms in the air and be flipped to the side like a rag doll as the train went into a high-G bank. After that, we crossed the street to Splash Mountain where, after a bit of delay, we joined a young, newly wed couple for a huge drop from which they absolutely took a ton of displaced water head-on.

Call it the "splash" of "Splash Mountain".

It was a blast even with the delays before and after.

😁😁😁

Once again, by the time we exited that ride... the park was closed except for everyone who was there for the Boo Bash, a celebration of Halloween on a full-on summer's eve when, presumably, Covid would be less a threat.

Once we were out the front gates, it was clear how much of a mess everything was with everyone previously in the park now lined up for the monorails and ferries.

After a quick assessing and reassessing, Kimmer 'n Linzy decided our best course was to catch a nearby shuttle to the Polynesian Resort and, from there, call for a Lyft.

It was an effective way to beat most of the throng to the other side of the lake as well as avoid competition with all those who'd be calling in their own ride shares that would make for an inevitably longer wait.

The plan worked perfectly, by the way. And our feet were super thankful.

It would be around 10:40PM by the time we arrived at our home base pretty exhausted.

Still, the next morning, this morning, we did the 530AM thing again. And again, not as bad as it sounds. It's a slow moving ritual that eventually, eventually brings us full consciousness and into a state of readiness for the day.

So eight this morning? We're on the road with our Lyft driver, Gregorio, a Venezuelan gentleman with a deep knowledge of classical music leaning hard toward the Russians: Shostakovitch, Prokofiev, Stravinsky, and their contemporaries.

Our destination this morning is Disney's Hollywood Studios where we've got all things Star Wars on the agenda.

That proved an unfortunate aspiration as we'd made no moves to join the virtual queue for Rise of the Resistance and we had no actual design on Smugglers Run… so we took full advantage of the five minute, basically walk on, "wait" time over at Toy Story Midway Mania and had a literal blast.

This was a first for Rachel so she scored newbie scores. Between Kimmer 'n I, Kimmer was the most accurate between us, maintaining a significant lead most of the game. It's only in the bomus speed round at the end where I caught up to her and bested her by one smashed plate.

120,600 to 120,100.

Of course Linzy clocked in at 154,000.

Beat us all.

Now one thing I wanna mention is that on our way to Star Wars Land there was a group of young adults wearing bright neon t-shirts and walking alongside us. Some of them were walking pretty brusquely which prompted the following:

"Guys, there's no crowd. We can slow down."

Of course they don't slow down... they speed up.

At which point she says

"Well, thanks for taking my feelings into account."

☹️☹️☹️

Another thing I wanna point out is when we were just getting in line at Midway Mania, a kid runs up and starts walking along… which prompts his mother to say

"Sweetie. You're with the wrong family."

And then last thing I wanna mention is this young girl who was in line behind is for Aerosmith's Rockin' Rollercoaster. She was with her parents but obviously anxious about the ride. I don't blame her either. When that thing takes off from an absolute standstill… it looks like someone just hit the fast forward button.

Crazy stuff. And plenty to be anxious about.

Anyway, Rachel talked to her a little to encourage her 'cause she'd felt that same anxiety the day before.

So then we do the ride… and then the little girl and her parents do the ride. And I'll never forget when her aunt who was standing next to us just then asked her how it went… and all the little girl could do was to twice shake her head quickly from side to side. Whereupon her parents immediately got to work figuring out how many hugs to give and things to buy in order to pull her from her state of stunned silence.

Afterward we hit a light breakfast nearby then headed off for Star Tours. Rachel indulged some time Star Wars gift shopping afterward… then she 'n Rachel headed off for more rides while we mosied over to the Brown Derby patio for a pair of cool grapefruit drinks under an umbrella 'cause the SciFi Diner was booked as was the main seating area of the Brown Derby.

By the way, while we're sitting there enjoying ourselves, I happened to catch a family of four whose t-shirt uniform was Iron Maiden.

Dang.

That's all for now. We're heading back to home base for some peace and rest.

We'll see how long that lasts and then I'll fill you in on the rest of the night...