Mushfam Disney Family Vacation, June 2010; Day 3, Part 2: Every Silver Lining’s Got a Touch of Grey

Part 1 of this day is HERE

Okay…next up is another first for the Mushfam – we’re going to try doing the Kim Possible Experience for the first time.  We head over to the bridge and wait for only one person to get our Kimmunicator…seriously, it’s not busy at all:

Secretly, I’m hoping that we get Norway for our country, for three reasons: 1) I’ve heard that the Norway one was pretty cool; 2) It’s fairly close to the front, so we won’t have to walk too much; and 3) it’s Norway, which means gorgeous female cast members.  I think about the timing, with our Fastpasses for Soarin and lunch to shoehorn in, and they let me change the time to 1:00 for…you guessed it…NORWAY!!!   Oh, and no, I didn’t specifically request that one – it was fate!

With Kim Possible Fastpasses in hand, we now have a dilemma: our Soarin FP return time is coming up soon, but we’re also hungry and need to grab a bite to eat, but we want to avoid the crowds.  We weren’t quite hungry yet, and it was just around 11.  After a knock-down, drag-out argument, we decide to head over to Canada to look around for a bit and check out O Canada.

I figured the boys wouldn’t like the movie, but they did fairly well.

After that, we had another argument on what to do next.   Several minutes of arguing, coupled with a bathroom break, ensue.  Finally we agree to go next door to the U.K. to grab some fish and chips (it was a bit early, but the crowds hadn’t made it to WS yet).  I remember how amazing the fish was when we met up with a friend of ours during our anniversary trip back in 2007, so I was really looking forward to it.  What I wasn’t looking forward to was the table of moronic teen-aged boys who were teasing the birds with food.  Of course, they were seated right next to us, which meant that we were nearly under attack for much of the meal.  A CM came over and, in the way only Disney CMs can do, chastised them with a smile in the nicest way possible.  The boys said they would stop doing it, and they did…until the CM was out of eyeshot.  Sure enough, the same CM saw them a few minutes later – how he controlled himself and maintained the Disney aura, I’ll never know, because I was about to throw the two boys into the lagoon.  Of course, Aaron and Eric wanted to try it out; one well-timed set of looks from Sheri and me was enough to know that they would have to find their own way back to Illinois if they tried to feed the birds.

Drama aside, the food was really good, as expected.  A surprise hit was the stack of shortbread cookies that came as the dessert.  Everyone except Eric loved them, and Aaron successfully lobbied to have most of Eric’s.  Unfortunately, that was a LOT of sugar, which, coupled with the heat and the grease from the 7.4 pieces of fish he ate, didn’t sit well in Aaron’s stomach. 

He entered whining mode before we even got out of the U.K.   We had to revisit the bathroom from the last argument again – Aaron felt much better afterward (no, he didn’t barf – I’ll just stop there).  After that stop, we sneak through the gardens and make our way up back up to the Land.  We intentionally didn’t tell Eric where we were going, because we knew he’d resist because he’s not a fan of that ride.  As expected, he’s not thrilled when we pass the sign for the Land.  We got there about 4 minutes after our FP return window closed, but, as expected, we were okay.  We flew by the standby line and had daggers stared at us the entire way – I’m almost glad there’s that wall that separates the FP return from the standby line for much of the walk.  We’re in the queuing area within 10 minutes, and we find ourselves in the EXACT same row and numbers (bottom row, center).  Kronk clears us to fly, and all the worries are temporarily forgotten for that short duration. 

We start to make our way back to the World Showcase and nearly combust spontaneously.  As we make the turn left towards the land of porcelain goddesses (AKA Norway in case you haven’t figured it out yet), we make an executive decision to grab something to drink.  The boys get Sprite and water while Sheri gets a strawberry margarita and I get a draft Dos Equis.

Yep…about time to head back after this.

We make it to the staging area, and I’m bummed to find that it’s not anywhere near Akershus or Kringola, where the porcelain goddesses tend to reside in the land of Beauty.  We get the Verizon phone...



...which looks almost exactly like the ones we use, and I have a passing thought of terror as I fully expect to hand in the wrong phone.  I won’t go into the full detail of the experience…I’ll just let the videos show a couple of items.

All in all, we all give it a thumbs-up for this episode of the game.  Being in Norway, we had to have a little bit more fun...

All in all, we all give it a thumbs-up for this episode of the game.  The heat is really starting to take its toll, however, and Sheri and I both look at each other at the same time and nod in agreement to start making our way back to Kidani.  Before we make it out of WS, Eric decides that his legs no longer work and begs to be carried.  Being the kind, caring, and compassionate father, I tell him to suck it up and march on!  We detour into MouseGears for a brief respite from the sun.  Somehow, Eric’s legs started working again (it’s a Christmas Miracle!).  None of us wanted to leave the building, and we started plotting the next building to go to in order to stay cool…Hey…the Disney Visa Meet-n-greet is over in Innoventions West.  Let’s head over there!  Everyone else had the same idea, apparently, because the line was HUGE!  Nope…the marginal benefit of remaining in the A/C in a long line was outweighed by the marginal cost of time and comfort (I drew a graph).  We head out, and Eric’s legs nearly fall off near the gravestones.   We wait only a few minutes before we’re on the bus (MORE A/C!!!).  Back to Kidani, over the Himalayas, and into our studio.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz (all 4 of us).

About 2 hours later, we all simultaneously start stirring.  We freshen up, wave to the zebras grazing outside our balcony, and are back on the bus to Epcot by around 4:15. After we get on, Miss June 2010 gets on after us, and Sheri makes sure to stare at me staring at her.  We get to Epcot soon after and start to make our way over towards World Showcase.  We’re a bit early when we get to Germany, so we relax a bit out in the promenade before our buzzer goes off.

It’s our first time at Biergarten, so we don’t quite know what to expect, though we’ve read and heard reports about it.  A few minutes later, we get buzzed, and we’re seated with a family from Monroe, Wisconsin.  They had a girl that was about Eric’s age, so we discuss the dowry with them as we order our drinks.  Sheri and I both go with the German beer flight.

We then head up to get our plates full of German grub.  I’m a bit worried as I’m not a big fan of sauerkraut.  I start off with a plate of salad as I help Aaron load his plate up with mac-n-cheese and bratwurst.

I sit down and grab a drink before realizing I should have grabbed a pic for AJ (sorry!). 

Beck's Regular, Franziskaner Weisse, Beck's Marzen Oktoberfest and Spaten Optimator Dark

The band starts up within a few minutes of our sitting down with our meals, and we get to enjoy the entertainment.  The kids (including Eric’s future bride) head down to the floor to dance, and we move so Eric can head down and show the world his moves (he’s definitely the dancer of the two boys).  He heads out and…

Well……..that didn’t go the way we expected it to go.  This is the kid who would go out on the dance floor of a wedding reception not knowing anyone out there and just go slam dancing for an hour.  He comes back, throws back a shot of milk for courage, and heads back out.

Sigh

Unwilling to wait any longer, Eric’s wife-to-be dumps him for another one…one who’s not afraid to strut on the dance floor.  I demand my dowry back from her father, and he returns the piece of pocket lint I gave him earlier.  Then, the most unexpected thing happened.

Aaron - the one that’s too cool to go out on the dance floor - heads out to do the chicken dance.

(GASP)

Eric follows him, and awaaaay theeeey go!

I think they were shooting for a world record for number of revolutions on the swinging part (poor Eric went flying the first time around!).

Seeing the carnage of the chicken dance, the band calls it a set and heads off-stage for their short break before the next time out.  The boys run back up and, famished from that intense 4-minute workout, we all head up for dessert.

While we eat the most-important course, we gab with the Wisconsin family about all sorts of things.  Our sever drops off the checks, and both families got pics:

Continued HERE