Aylmer Express "MoHo" Extravaganza 2006

I’ll start off today’s entry with a little exchange that took place during the day. Chantal and I were talking about something and while I was replying to Chantal I said,” You make it sound like I’m not very social.” As Chantal was deciding how to respond, all of a sudden Morgan jumps in and says to me, “It’s true, you’re anti-social.” Well, on the bright side, it certainly sounded like my kids and I were starting to communicate on a more intimate level than before.
Ok, back to DisneyWorld. Today’s weather was looking less promising but we were hopeful that we could avoid any serious rain. We decided that we would return to MGM to start with. We sampled a little last night and we liked what we saw. Our main target was the Tower of Terror which we had not been able to check out yet. We arrived at MGM, got our FastPass tickets, and then we just needed to come back at our designated FastPass time. Did I mention that I LOVE the FastPass? In the meantime we checked out some other less crowded locations. One was a walk through some of the old classic movies such as The Wizard of Oz, Mary Poppins, and Casablanca. It was fun to see some of the old footage again. We then split up for a while. Chantal, for some unknown reason, decided that she would rather take in a live Beauty and the Beast show rather than experience the Tower of Terror. There was still a little time left before our FastPass tickets would be valid so the kids and I toured a History of Disney exhibit. Now, given that we are Motor home schooling, would that count as history class? I’d say yes. Anyway, our next stop was the Hollywood Hotel for the ride we had been waiting for. The claim to fame for the Tower of Terror is that you are in an elevator at some point and you apparently experience a 13-story free fall. Yes, you read that correctly. Sounds like fun, eh? Well, we strapped ourselves in and off we went. Let me tell you, this ride did not disappoint. It was basically an elevator gone berserk. It would lurch up and down at random for multiple floors at a time. In between you would have a few seconds of stillness and then another jolt up or down. You could not help but scream as the entire car your are riding in just drops out from under you. It was a riot! The ride is set inside what looks like an old abandoned hotel and on some of the higher floors it has elevator doors that open to the outside as well. These doors open just as you are about to drop so you get a commanding view of the park shortly before your stomach jumps into your throat and the shreiking begins again. From the outside every now and then you see the doors open up near the top of the building and then you hear the screaming raining down from 13 floors above. This ride was awesome and is definitely another must do attraction. Which we ended up riding the Tower of Terror again right away as the line-up was almost non-existent. “Why would that be?” You might ask. Well, that brings us back to the weather. It had started to rain a little and that seemed to be keeping people away. We ignored it as we exited the ride for the second time. We linked up with Chantal and headed over to the Star Wars area. Here we had another short line and experienced a simulation of a galactic ride in and around the death star. It was like you were in the X-Wing fighter with Luke Skywalker as he navigates his way into the Death Star to blow it up. It was fun, but it was no Tower of Terror. Then we made our way past the Muppets, and the Toy Story gang, through New York and San Fran and over to the stunt car driving spectacle. There was a bit of a line-up here but since it was the last show of the day, we took our place in line and waited anyway. Once seated we found ourselves in a covered, outdoor stadium of sorts with a movie set sitting where you might expect a sports field to be. While we waited for the show to begin they had a big screen showing questions and multiple choice answers about movies and cars. I must say that this is a great way to make time go by quickly when you are waiting. Good idea. The rain had started to pick up at this time but they said that as long as there was no lightening, the show would go on. And since we were covered, the rain was not a problem for us. The show was actually very impressive with stunt drivers showing you, live and in person, how they do many of the amazing car-based stunts you see in movies. You can check the video I took to see what I mean. It was a great show but as it ended the rain really started coming down. We ended up getting totally soaked, cap-a-pie, as we left and made our way back. We finally broke down and bought some plastic Disney ponchos which we obviously should have done a few hours earlier. Live and learn. We then swung over to the Dolphin Hotel for dinner. The Dolphin is the hotel where we stayed the last time we were here. We wanted to go back to this restaurant that was like a 50’s fountain shop which we had gone to when we were staying at the hotel years ago. However we found out that the restaurant had gone a little up-scale since then. We had a nice dinner but it just wasn’t as fun as the old place. After dinner we decided to check out Epcot before finally heading back to the MoHo. I believe I forgot to mention that we are staying at the Disney campground which is on Disney property with access to all the Disney transportation. It is a great way to do the Disney thing and it is much less expensive. Anyway, back to Epcot. It was fun being back at Epcot which has a section which wraps all the way around a lake where they have many different countries represented. Each country’s section is made to look like that country and/or display some of the iconic landmarks from that country. For instance, France had little patio cafes as well as a mini Eiffel Tour. We made our way past England and into Mexico where Morgan demonstrated how a sombrero could possibly be used in place of an umbrella. At the end of the evening we stuck around to watch the fireworks they have every night. They were nice but not nearly as impressive as those we saw at Butchart Gardens. One problem was that we were down wind and had all the smoke from the earlier fireworks blocking the view of the later fireworks. After that we took two tired boys, and two VERY tired adults, home for some sleep.

Today’s word:

cap-a-pie \cap-uh-PEE\, adverb:
From head to foot; at all points.