Aylmer Express "MoHo" Extravaganza 2006

The weather report for our stay at Disney was not looking so good. The good news was that today started out pretty sunny, so no complaints so far. Step one, we had to buy our Disney passes. Have I mentioned how much I dislike having to multiply by four every time we calculate the amount we owe when we go someplace? Anyway, after almost mortally injuring my credit card while paying for our passes I started to seriously question if we were indeed at the “happiest place on earth”. Our passes allowed us to go to four different amusement areas, Magic Kingdom, MGM, Animal Kingdom, and Epcot. To kick things off we decided to head to Magic Kingdom. We had been here as a family almost exactly seven years before so we wanted to go back to see what might bring back memories for the kids. They were only 3 and 5 back then. We checked out the Buzz Lightyear ride that they both seemed to remember fondly. It was still a lot of fun. It is a ride where you have a laser gun attached to your little car as well as a joystick which allows you to swivel your seats. You are supposed to shoot at Zurg targets (remember Toy Story?) all around you as your car progresses through and you rack up points as you go. I really liked it because I kicked butt when it came to who had the highest score. Morgan had about 3,200 points, André-Paul and Chantal both had about 27,000 each and somehow I had 135,000 !!! My theory is that, in the car Morgan and I were driving, there was some kind of malfunction in the software counting hits, but I just pretended I was a star because that was more fun. Anyway, we made our way around some of the more fun rides, including, of course, Space Mountain. This also marked our second application of the FastPass option that they offer at Disney and was it ever satisfying walking past the very long line of people waiting for their Space Mountain ride and just jumping to the front. I LOVE the FastPass! We ended up spending the whole day there but we decided that we would head over to MGM this evening to check things out after a quick stop at our campsite along the way to pick up some jackets. We found ourselves at MGM just in time for the FastPass system to crash. Oh no! … not our beloved FastPass! That meant that we would not get a chance to go on the Tower of Terror tonight. Luckily we did manage to get a handwritten FastPass to the Rock and RollerCoaster. This ride sounded kind of goofy (pun intended) as it had some kind of tie-in with the rock band Aerosmith. Turns out the ride is based on the premise that the riders have back stage passes to an Aerosmith concert but the riders are late so a special limo ride is being provided to get them to the concert on time. It ends up being a roller coaster that is dressed up like a 1959 Cadillac convertible. As we looked through the door into the area where they have the ride, I could see the caddy limo coaster thing waiting, and then, suddenly, nothing! I thought, at first, that it was some kind of illusion to get you psyched up for the ride. But after I walked through the door into that area, I realized that it was actually the ride itself. (check the video)Because we are supposedly late for the concert, this limo is going to get us there quickly. That is an understatement. Once we got strapped into the Caddy limo ride we found out firsthand just how absolutely incredible that initial acceleration is. Even when you think you are prepared for it, the first time you experience it you almost can’t catch you breathe enough to scream. In describing his reaction to this event, André-Paul told me that he thought his heart stopped. And after exiting the Rock and RollerCoaster Morgan said, “I feel a little unbalanced.” Those two comments pretty much sum it up. If you look at the photo to the right you can see our hair being blown back by the wind creted when we take off! It is a rush of the first order and I would whole-heartedly recommend it to anyone who likes thrill rides. The rest of the roller coaster ride is good too, but that initial thrust is intoxicating. Yes, we had the proclivity to want to ride it again right away, and, due to the generosity of one of the people working the ride who slipped us a special FastPass, we were able to. Sweet!

Today’s word:

proclivity \pro-KLIV-uh-tee\, noun:
A natural inclination; predisposition.