Our Adventures in Florida - Part 1

The New Jersey State Bar Association had its Mid-Year convention at Disney World this year. I like bars, so we went. The convention hotel was the Boardwalk which is within an easy stroll of Epcot, but pretty inconvenient for everything else. There is a boat that takes you to Hollywood Studios and for everything else you take a bus, which is not an express. It stops at several other hotels along the way. A continental breakfast was included this year. The last time the Bar stayed at Disney it was at the Grand Floridian, which was more convenient for getting around, but the food there cost a small fortune.

Our first park was the Magic Kingdom. We visited "it's a small world," the Haunted Mansion, Tiki Room, Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean, Tom Sawyer Island, Mickey's PhilharMagic, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Tomorrowland Transit Authority, Carousel of Progress and Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor. Whew! For some reason the Disney engineers must think that kids like a lot of noise because there was plenty of it. Some of the rides would be scary for small children.

The next day we boarded the bus for the Animal Kingdom. There we saw It's tough to be a Bug 3D movie. It sounds innocent enough, but, again, small children may find it frightening. We also went on the Kilimanjaro Safari which takes you into an area where there are real live african animals in a natural habitat. We saw Flights of Wonder where real exotic birds fly around and do some tricks and we took a train ride to Rafiti's Planet Watch which is an educational experience in which you can learn about animals and even watch an animal being examined or an operation, if one is taking place. Anne want on Dinosaur which is a jouncy ride that gave dire warnings about people with high blood pressure not going on. She said I probably wouldn't have enjoyed it.

It is interesting that they have some 1,500 or so animals at Disney World and they bring every single one of them inside at night for care, feeding and a safe place to sleep. Each species of animal responds to a certain pitch of sound, the elephants to rattling chains, and when they hear the noise, they know it is time to come in. there are massive barns where the animals are housed at night. Each one is examined, cleaned and fed.

After a shortened day at the Animal Kingdom we took a bus ride back to our hotel and then another bus ride to Blizzard Beach, a water park made to look like a ski slope and winter playground. We floated around a river on tubes, tried a wave pool and Anne went on a water slide.

On our third day we decided to forego the pleasure of the endless bus rides and we took a short walk to Epcot. There we experienced Soarin, a sort of IMax movie in which you are in a moving seat and really feel like you are soaring. We took a boat ride through Living with the Land, which is an experimental agricultural exhibit where you witness innovative techniques for growing everything from bananas to tomatoes. We also saw, Journey into Imagination with Figment, Honey, I Shrunk the Audience, Spaceship Earth, Ellen's Energy Adventure in which the whole audience moves through dinosaur territory. We then boarded a clam shell for The Seas with Nemo and Friends. 

We then had lunch at the Tangierine Cafe at the Morocco pavilion. It was then time to return to the Norway exhibit for the Maelstrom ride. We had gotten Fast Passes which assign you a certain time to return if you don't want to stand in a long line. I guess we were about half way through when the darn thing stopped dead in the water (it was a boat ride). An automated voice came out of load speakers saying the there was an unexpected interruption and that a cast member would be with us shortly. We heard that an annoying number of time over perhaps a time span of 10 minutes when, what to our wondering eyes should appear, but two cast members who put a platform between our boat and the catwalk so that we could be rescued. I took a picture of folks from another boat being saved. We were given a fast pass for three rides in Epcot that we would have to use before the end of the year.

Saturday night, Peter, Anthony and Alex joined us at the hotel for dinner. We watched some magicians and fire works from Epcot.

On Sunday Peter and the boys met us at the hotel and we all took the boat to Hollywood Studios and made straight for Toy Story Midway Mania which had a long line early on. We got fast passes, but they were to return between two and three in the afternoon. Peter was hoping to get on the road before that because it is a three hour drive back to Pembroke Pines. We stood in line for perhaps one half hour for the show. We went to the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular where are very own Anthony wound up on stage. We saw the Muppet Vision 3D Movie, the kids played in the Honey I shrunk the Kids Movie Set Adventure and Anne and I took The Great Movie Ride  through classic film scenes. Everyone but me went on Star Tours, some sort of flight simulator that gave more dire warnings about people with high blood pressure. Anne said it wouldn't have bothered me. Oh well. A little after 2:00 p.m., the boys were getting tired and so were we. We knew we had to take the boat back to the hotel and then walk to the car, so we decided to head out. First, Anne had the idea to give our four Fast Passes to someone at the end of the Toy Story line. I had forgotten all about them. We made one family very happy. Anne and I decided that, this being our fifth trip to Disney World, we probably had enough to last us at least fifty years. Maybe we'll go back to celebrate my 110th birthday.