Re: Trip Report Sep. 2 through Sep. 12 2007 Day 10

Me, 40
Daughter Chris, 17
Son Alex, 11
Stepson Derek, 23 (first-timer)

Day 10 -- Tuesday, Sep. 11, 2007

Blizzard Beach. Again, the water parks open late, so we got to sleep in. That was a good thing. We got to the park around 10:15 and the crowd was never enormous. Even so, the chairlift to the top of Mount Gushmore filled up quickly. We caught the chairlift early and stood on queue for about 20 minutes to get to the Plummet Summit. We hadn't ridden this one before and we never could get Christian on it. She waited at the bottom near the speed indicator as we slid down this monster. Being the heaviest in the group, I set our speed record at about 62 MPH. It was a blast. Then we did some of the smaller slides and finally wound up on Teamboat Springs. We all got really wet and enjoyed the ride a great deal. After a long morning we cleared out our locker and left around 2:00.

At the resort, we cleaned up, dressed and headed out to the Magic Kingdom to tie up some loose ends. The bus from CBR to MK was packed. The park seemed to be pretty packed as well. At the park I noticed that they already had the fall decorations up for Halloween. We breezed up Main Street and caught part of the show in front of Cindy's. I'm not sure what the show was, but I'm pretty sure Cinderellabration closed when Year of a Million Dreams opened. At any rate, we got some pictures and headed into Adventureland with no real plans.

We knew we were hungry though and we wandered into the Liberty Tree Tavern with no reservation. I asked the cast member at the desk how long it would take for them to work us in. She looked at me with a kind of rue smile and I mentally set a limit of 40 minutes. She yelled to somebody behind her who yelled back that it would be about 5 minutes(!). We said that we'd wait and gave her our information. Sure enough in about 5 minutes a hostess called, "Adams party, New Mexico" and we were seated.

Come to find out, we stumbled in about 15 minutes after the start of a character dining event. We missed Mickey, but we got pics with everybody else. It was a great experience, especially for our first-timer. And the food and family-style dining were great. I haven't eaten at Liberty Tree before, but I would definitely do it again -- characters or no characters.

Next, we hit the Hall of Presidents. Generally, let's just say the kids were less impressed with this one. I saw the Hall of Pres's about 25 years ago at Disneyland and felt the same way. Yes, the audio-animatronic presidents are impressive, at least for a little while. Yes, Lincoln's speech is stirring, but let's face it, there's just not a whole lot going on here.

The one thing that did rouse a level of interest was the presentation by our current chief executive. Initially, I found hilarious the words I was hearing juxtposed against the actual state of affairs. But as the real seriousness of it all sank in, I found it sort of depressing and sickening. Enough.

From there we eased into the gift shop across the road and Christian bought a White House cookbook. We were all tired and not very interested in rides. As the steamboat “Liberty Belle” pulled out of the harbor, we decided to split up. Derek wanted to go back to the resort and crash and Alex wanted to go back to Downtown Disney's Westside to hang at Disney Quest. I wanted to take a look at the Adventurer's Club and Chris agreed to hang out with Alex.

Prior to our leaving the Magic Kingdom, Alex and I ran into a Japanese couple in kimono. The man was wearing a pin set and Alex immediately stepped up and asked to look at his pins. The fellow was very happy to talk in broken English about trading. Alex offered a cast member pin (not for purchase) that he picked up early in EPCOT for a Disneyland Tokyo pin. I thanked the man (in my broken Japanese -- "Domo arigato"), and he thanked me very much (in perfect Japanese "Domo arigato gozaimasu"). I bowed to them and wished them "Kombanwa". and we collected the rest of our party. We caught our buses and headed to our respective destinations. I suspect the Japanese couple thinks that Americans are either thoroughly crazy, or not as bad as some believe.

At DTD Christian hung out in one of the numerous snack bars in Disney Quest while Alex did whatever he does in the uber-arcade. I sauntered down to the Adventurer's Club and was pressed for my ticket by the ladies working the door. I pulled out my wallet and then asked if my Key to the World with Park Hopper, Water Parks, Dining Plan, and Everything Else option would do me any good. The women working the door smiled and one of them produced a bright wristband which the other carefully applied to my left wrist. I looked around and saw that I had stumbled into the Club on yet another of its Annual Membership Drive and Open House nights.

I wandered downstairs and saw that an aviator-looking guy ("Hathaway Brown") was sitting at the bar answering questions from a "boy scout" ("Emil Bleehall") while other patrons and a blond woman in leopard-print safari garb looked on. I ordered a Kongaloosh from the bartender and enjoyed the drink while I watched the scene. When the blond woman occasionally spoke, I noticed something familiar about her. In short order, I placed her as the same woman who played "Guano Jane" the tour guide at Flights of Wonder. Pretty quickly this scene broke up and the blond woman introduced herself as "Samantha Stearling - Jungle Adventuress" and invited us into the mask room. I won't try to relate what goes on in the mask room when the wisecracking masks start talking, but I will say that our performance involved an unplanned bit of improvisation when a cockroach skittered out of the corner and across the talking mask.

Samantha saw this and riffed off it pretty well, as did the mask. Then I learned that cockroaches in Florida can fly! The thing zoomed of the wall and circled the artifact ("statue") in front of the bar, then headed for the bathrooms. Samantha excused herself and was eventually seen carrying the vermin in a clear plastic cup covered with a cocktail napkin on her way to release it into the wild. Hey, what did you expect? This is Disney.

From the mask room we were led to the library where the French maid, “Sugar Snap”, conjured the ghost that lives as a head in a box in the Adventurer's Club. That was quite entertaining. This maid was cute and funny.

From there we were all gathered into the area in front of the bar for a ceremony in which we were all inducted into the Adventurer's Club under the watchful eye of the Major General (a puppet in the wall above the fireplace), Sugar Snap and “Grieves” the butler. We were taught the Adventurer's Club Pledge, sang the Adventurer's Club song, and learned the Adventurer's Club salute -- Kongaloosh!

During that ceremony Professor Otis T. Wren, world renowned ichthyologist ("fisherman") and Adventurer's Club Treasurer bursts out of the library and explains that a busload of cheerleaders in Kisimee wass in peril and needed assistance. Hathaway Brown quickly volunteered to fire up his plane, the Gypsy Moth, and offer his services immediately. After he left the room, Wren explained that the cheerleaders were octogenarian retirees and it became apparent that it was all a ruse to get Brown out of the Club. We were then invited into the library for the annual competition of the Balderdash Cup to honor the Club's Adventurer of the Year!

A word about the library. The first thing I noticed was the pipe organ that had evidently just crashed through the floor of the library's loft and down to the first floor. Otis Wren explained that this was a result of some unfortunate water damage, but noted that the organ still played and he called upon a ghost who lives in the organ who demonstrated it for us.

Now in his introduction of the competition, Wren explains that he has gone to great lengths to win the title “Adventurer of the Year”. Mostly what he has done has involved seeing to it that he is the ONLY contestant. As he explains this, Emil Bleehall keeps popping up out of the woodwork and pestering Wren for the opportunity to compete for the Cup. Wren keeps putting him off and sending him on wild goose chases to get rid of him, but he just won't go away. Before Wren can put Bleehall to rest, Brown shows up again, crashing the Gypsy Moth on the roof of the Club. Before you know it the competition begins with these guys telling the biggest, boldest, most entertaining lies you've ever heard.

I won't spoil the rest of it for you. No doubt, under the rules of the Club, I have already said too much. If you ever get the chance, go check this place out. It's a real hoot!

I soon gathered everybody up and we went back to the resort. Once again it was past our bedtime.

--
Mark E. Adams, 2004 -- drop the "dot" to email me.
http://adamslan.shyper.com -*- Mandriva User# 263042

CONSIDER: ===========---------,,,,,,,,,............. . . . . .
You got to be very careful if you don't know where you're going,
because you might not get there.
-- Yogi Berra
.

Quantcast