The buzz started when rumors of a sneak preview were circulating around the MouseFesters. Lines starting forming around the wooden barriers surrounding the base of SE and remained all day. The rumors became fact when Jessica from If We Can Dream It told us that they had removed a small section of the barrier and had let people preview the ride for an hour on Thursday night, even though it was not yet finished. A new mission was created: ride the new (and incomplete) Spaceship Earth or I would be forced to nail my feet to the floor in Small World for one year.
"George, It’s Ray. He says the barriers are down around Spaceship Earth and they are letting people on! They saw it from the monorail. What do you want to do?”Instinctively, like a Cheetah after prey, George sprang up from his chair and shouted “LET'S RUN!” I gave it a millisecond thought and then followed orders, thinking that if I un-ate on the run to SE, I could blame it on George as a stupid idea to eat and sprint. Unfortunately, the springing from the chair is where the cheetah metaphor dies. Imagine two grown men with recently filled bellies running through the park, hurdling strollers and shedding any remaining dignity they had. Remember the scene from National Lampoon’s Vacation where Chase and Hall race across the parking lot towards the entrance of Wally World? I even think Epcot was piping in Chariot’s of Fire over the park loudspeakers.
From the middle of the U.K. Pavilion, we heard someone shout “George!”. It was Mike Newell from MouseWorld Radio and the WDW Today podcast. We had been talking to him earlier outside the closed gates and he was in the same predicament as us. He had waited days with no success. We slowed down just long enough to see a look on his face that said “WOW!” and he shot us two thumbs up. He knew from our frenetic pace exactly where we were going and the two thumbs up was the proverbial banana and Gatorade you always see marathon runners take from people on the side of the race course. The last half mile was a breeze after the abbreviated but enthusiastic review.We made it just in time to take five deep breaths, then we were on the ride. A young couple got in the same vehicle as us. We all made jokes about the smell wafting back from the front seat where George and I sat drenched from the mad dash. We all sat in somewhat stunned silence at the improvements WDI made to the story. A more linear story and updated scenes made the ride feel much more complete than version 1.0, even though the new version was only about 85% complete.
The young couple behind us was quiet and the cast member assumed they were with us, so we all rode again. This time was interesting because the ride was mostly empty and we all talked about the improvements and the weaknesses. Although they were not fellow MouseFesters, it was clear they knew their Disney. We all agreed the new animitronics were a significant improvement and felt the new garage scene was deeply cool. And George finally got his library--it was encouraging to know that instant community spontaneously develops all over the place at Disney.
Ray and
8 comments:
Awesome post/story... I could almost smell the sweat...
(Well, the smell part wasn't awesome)
Glen,
If you look closely you'll see that they were still sweating when I snapped that shot of them coming off the ride.
I may not have gotten to spend much time with my taller, better looking "brothers", but at least my wife was able to give them the gift of SSE
What an absolutely ridiculous, totally awesome story! I love these sorts of "all hope was lost but then at the last second everything wonderful in the world happened" Disney park stories! ^_^
The vision of you 2 running through the park is cracking me up. No wonder you 2 stunk later.
Great story! Glad you were able to enjoy SSE; 2 times.
It was a great end to a great trip.
Seeing Illuminations with Ray, Nancy and Jeff after was perfect. We spent about an hour walking from Japan to Canada, just soaking in the details while World Showcase was empty.
Andy wasn't kidding, either. He was drowning his sorrows in a large adult beverage...
That was too funny! Just imagi(nerd)ing you two running and jumping strollers in slow-mo is enough to make milk shoot outta my nose! That is, of course, if I was drinking milk right now.
Thanks for stopping by, Jake!
We realized that we were not in the same shape we were in 10 years ago right before we made it to the Fountain of Nations. Andy stoppped to take a breather, but I knew that if I stopped, I wouldn't start again.
Post a Comment