Titled RUNTIME, it’s a pretty neat setup by IBM that first takes videos of you doing a couple of simple actions, then inserts those videos into an old-school, side-scrolling video game (like Super Mario Bros) that you can then play.  You can even e-mail a link to where other people can play your game, too – which is what we did here.  I’m not sure exactly how long the link stays active after your visit – probably something like 30 or 60 days – but until then, feel free to click on the image below to play a round as us, so to speak…

Just try not to kill us, eh?  Those pitfalls hurt!

So needless to say, it was a quick trip, as we’d found a small bit of time between semesters where the stars somehow managed to align, and ultimately it was just nice to get away, even if things didn’t go exactly the way we had planned!

A Second Chance for Caribbean Beach
Due to limited availability on what pretty much were day before reservations, we ended up staying at Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort again and just between you and me and my wife, I’m really glad that we did. You see, the last time we stayed here was when we got engaged back in May 2007 and the entire experience just lacked a certain panache – compared to the other resorts we’d visited, it just didn’t seem all that special.  It probably didn’t help that the food court was mediocre at best, our room was out in the middle of nowhere, and some kid pooped in the pool just before we went down to unwind, but nonetheless, it just really wasn’t a vacation for the books, if you know what I’m saying!

That said, this latest trip was much better – our room was very clean and seemed more spacious (king bed instead of two doubles), the food court was still only adequate, but ok for the quick meals we ate there, and the atmosphere between the pool area and the beaches and the hammocks just felt all the more relaxing this time around!  The single complaint I would still make is that the hot tub at the pool is ridiculously small, which was all the more annoying because it was filled with bored, little kids because their parents wanted a break and wouldn’t take them swimming, but eventually we retreated back to one of the hammocks and thankfully found that much-needed quiet time…

No Room at the T-Rex Cafe
Simply put – our big meal that we wanted to try for this trip was the new T-Rex Cafe at Downtown Disney, however when we showed up the wait was almost two hours and the line itself looked like it would take half an hour just to get up to the podium, so we ended up passing on that … will need to see if they do reservations next time, I guess, although I’m not sure if they do because the Rainforest Cafe at Downtown Disney doesn’t and they’re both operated by the same company.

Either way, dining at Downtown Disney in general sucked that night, as we weren’t able to get into Rainforest, either, even though the group ahead of us got a table at their back patio “no problem” … apparently they didn’t want to waste any tables of 4 on a lowly couple of 2 like us.  We ended up finally just eating over at Wolfgang Puck Express instead, which wasn’t much better because I decided to try something new by way of their spicy chicken pizza and it backfired horribly by way of entirely too much cilantro, but you live and you learn, I suppose.

Experiencing the American Idol Experience
So we finally got around to trying this after missing the passholder previews in February and despite how I can’t really stand the show anymore, I must admit that the attraction was actually pretty good. The presence of the stage itself is spot-on and the show seemed to flow quite well … I guess the only thing that I really didn’t care for was the judges. And I don’t mean that in an “I didn’t like their opinions of the contestants” or an “I thought Simon was too mean”-kind of way, but more so all three of them just seemed very fake and out of place.  It was very clear that each character was based on Randy, Paula, and Simon from the show, but it was just over-the-top, bad acting to the point where it actually distracted from the show. And I don’t understand the dilema because the host was just fine – he wasn’t trying to be Ryan Seacrest … he was just being the host of a talent competition, and that worked.

Aside from the judges, however, the show was neat, and although I can’t say that it’ll be something we frequent when we visit the studios, I would like to return sometime to check out the finale show at the end of the day to see how that all flows – it seems like it would have to be different, what with three times as many contestants performing and all.  That said, I still don’t think this show will be around more than a couple of years just because I think Idol is past its peak anyways, but for a half hour out of the hot, mid-day sun … it’s not bad.

Tipsy Segway Fun
Another one of the cool things we got to do during this trip that we’ve never done before is take a ride on the Segways in Innoventions at Epcot, which was at the same time both fun and a sad realization of yours truly’s sincere lack of balance! Let me tell you, for anybody who would think, “Well, it looks easy enough – all you have to do is stand on it!” allow me to remind you that what you’re standing on also happens to have wheels, and although the Segway itself does the job of remaining upright while you’re on it, let’s just say that it’s certainly sensitive enough to respond with movement to any shakiness one may have while on-board!  Sara was more of a natural, though, and either way it was pretty cool because it’s something that otherwise neither of us would ever buy on our own.

The only addition I think that would’ve been ideal – especially for Innoventions, of all places – would be maybe a short video for those waiting in line that explains how Segways work to remain upright, move with your direction, and so forth.  There’s a lot of really cool science under the hood that I think perfectly fits into the theme of what Epcot’s all about!

Flower & Garden … Just Phoning It In?
And finally, an observation that Sara made during day two of our journey and one that I think I tend to agree with – is it just us or does it seem like Epcot is just kinda “phoning it in” this year for the Flower & Garden Festival?  I guess I’d need to refer back to old pictures to get a better idea of the scope, but it just seems like this year’s topiary displays feature a lot less natural flowers and plants and a lot more of what appears to be just painted moss for the various colors in the sculptures.  Frankly, I didn’t even take pictures of several of the sculptures because they just looked cheaply done, but for some reason I just want to think (and I could be wrong!) that in years past, we saw a lot more actual flowers making up the colors of these pieces.  The fairies in the new Tinker Bell display were all done like this, a good portion of the Lion King displays at the entrance to World Showcase were like this … who knows – maybe it’s easier to maintain these or something with the climate, but they just didn’t seem as appealing to us because of all the paint…

Good times, good memories, and although I can’t say in the slightest when our next trip over will be, you know that we’re still already planning it out in our heads just the same!

Quaint and tropical surroundings

A hammock’s eye view from the beach!

Characters in Flight at Downtown Disney almost ready to fly!

A pizza from Wolfgang Puck Express that sounded a lot better than it tasted

Neat looking chandeliers at Downtown Disney’s latest shop, Tren-D

Mr. Potato Head dropped his ear again at Toy Story Mania
(second time I’ve seen him do this…)

The Disney princesses welcome you to the 16th Annual Epcot Flower & Garden Festival!

Mrs. Potts & Co. from Beauty and the Beast

An amazing sand sculpture promoting the upcoming Disneynature film, Earth (debuts Earth Day 2009)

Some “water fairy” or something … one of Tink’s new “friends,” I guess?

Monorail passes overhead – cool floating planters in the distance

Captain Hook’s other nemesis…

Donald and Goofy take to sports

Fountain of Nations on our way back to the main entrance

photo courtesy Orlando Vista Hotel

A Night at the Pineapple Inn…
So unfortunately due to Disney’s insane prices during the peak season, we ended up staying off-site for this trip, which had its pros and cons.  Our choice – the Orlando Vista Hotel – but of course, you may know it better as the hotel with the giant pineapple out front…

Ultimately I guess we’d probably go back if we didn’t have any other off-site options, but at the same time, we certainly missed the perks of being right in the middle of the action, despite only being a couple of blocks away from Downtown Disney anyways.  The pros – the price was right and the room size was decent, so we ended up with the equivalent of a moderate resort at Disney for about $85 … similar rooms on-property were over $200 because it fell both within peak season and just outside any passholder discounts.  Even the value resorts were well over $100 / night, which I simply refuse to pay for that class of room, and at least the Orlando Vista had a hot tub, which the values do not.  Albeit, it was very crowded when we partook in its bubbly warmth Friday evening, but it was still better than no hot tub.

As for the negatives, well … only a couple of things.  First of all, it was really noisy between the drag racing competition outside and the AC inside! Apparently some folks opted to have a drag racing competition out on the road that runs in front of the hotel, which carried great into our room.  And I’d say that true, the hotel really has no control over that kind of stuff, but for what it’s worth, at least on-property the guest rooms are so far away from any roads that you really don’t experience the same issue.  On the other hand, they’ve got complete and total control over the air conditioner, which was so loud that I actually just got up and turned the thing off at one point in the night – luckily it being February, it was still cool enough without the thing.  And then come morning, let’s just say that the bathroom experience certainly left something to be desired with the sub-adequate pressure in the shower that made the drip coffee maker in the lobby look inviting … call me spoiled, but at least in Disney’s hotels the showers have some ummph! to them!

Then again, if it hadn’t been for their preposterous prices, that’s where we would’ve loved to stay in the first place…

Ever Get Hit in the Face By a Bird?! I Have!
So we’re moseying along the walkway that connects Adventureland to Main Street USA – coming up on The Crystal Palace – when out of nowhere, a freaking duck flies by and smacks yours truly right in the side of the face!  I really wish we’d have somehow gotten pictures of it to make it more believable, but it all just happened so fast our friends in front of my wife and I didn’t even know what hit me…literally!  Basically the dive-bomber came in from behind us, but didn’t judge his distances quite right or something because he ran smack dab into me, then sort of bounced off of Sara’s shoulder before landing on a grassy patch on the other side of the fence and wabbling into the river.  True story!

Memories of Randy…
I noticed this when we were walking past the Tea Cups and it really caught me off guard – for those who might not be familiar with the name, Randy Pausch was an incredibly motivating man who got everyone’s attention in the fall of 2007 after he gave a presentation at Carnegie Mellon called The Last Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer the year before.  The man lead an amazing life – he was a computer science professor at CMU, he put in some time working with – of all folks – Disney Imagineering, and he eventually came to found the Alice project, a type of software designed to help teach students computer programming.  If you’re looking for a good bout of inspiration (and tears), his now famous lecture is still available on YouTube, and last year Disney also published a book of his stories that’s a great read as well.

New Feature Brainstorming – Where in the World???
And lastly, I don’t want to make too big of a deal about it here just yet, but in the course of my brainstorming for new columns and whatnot for this site that naturally seems to happen when I’m in Orlando, I think I came up with a new feature idea that I might try to play around with this fall.  It centers around the concept of a guessing game for the various details that you might find around Walt Disney World – I’m not entirely sure on how to pull off exactly what I’m picturing just yet, but for now let’s just say that it should definitely add a fun bit of interactivity to the site!

In the meantime, see if you can identify where these can be found around the World:

IllumiNations one night

Long-awaited two day trip for Valentine’s Day coming up … so far this is the must-do list that Sara and I have put together.  Very doable in my opinion, indeed!

Any other recommendations?

That said, the conundrum that I’m facing today is this – dining has become a big part of our trips as of recent because we’ve started partaking in some of the more expensive dining options around the Resort.  The trouble is, as of January 1, 2009, yours truly officially went on yet another diet of sorts and as such, we’ve come to the conclusion that we’re going to have to take it easy when it comes to eating out for a while.  Now mind you, this doesn’t necessarily mean that we’ll be packing sandwiches and steering clear of Goofy’s Candy Co. altogether next weekend, but it does mean that we’re going to attempt to cut back while we’re there and with regards to table service dining, that means one meal during our two-day visit…

And that, my friends, is my current dilema – which table service restaurant should we make reservations at for our Valentine’s Day trip??? I should probably note that it most certainly does not have to be a romantic-type restaurant for the occasion – really, we’re just looking for something new and different to try.  At the moment, here are some ideas that I’ve been entertaining:

• T-Rex @ Downtown Disney
• Kona Cafe @ Disney’s Polynesian Resort
• Teppan Edo (Japan Pavilion, World Showcase) @ Epcot
• The Wave @ Disney’s Contemporary Resort

I would say that right now I’m leaning towards either T-Rex or Kona just because I’ve wanted to try both for a while, but at this point it’s any restaurants’ game!  We’ll see what the ADR availability comes back for…

I only think it would’ve been neater if you could actually send the entire video – that may have been a bit more entertaining than this horribly timed still – but nothing’s perfect. Not even the future…

]]> http://www.mytimewiththemouse.com/trip-reports/2008/08/greetings-from-the-future/feed/ 1 http://www.mytimewiththemouse.com/trip-reports/2008/08/four-parks-four-pins-one-exhausting-day/ http://www.mytimewiththemouse.com/trip-reports/2008/08/four-parks-four-pins-one-exhausting-day/#comments Thu, 28 Aug 2008 03:45:51 +0000 Scott Sevener http://www.mytimewiththemouse.com/?p=143 Yesterday was a good day!

This has been a particularly busy year for us, with my fiancée up to her ears in nursing school, so we haven’t really been over to Disney World nearly as much as we have in years past. Between unbelievable amounts of stress from school, wedding planning, and everything in between, yesterday ended up being a really good time for us to take a break and enjoy some much-needed relaxation…

The plan was simple – show up “early” (well, for me, anyways!), run around like crazy all day long, and leave happy at the end of the day. We had decided to try our luck on the Find-a-Pin scavenger hunt that Disney has been running this year after picking up April’s pin during our last visit earlier this spring, which meant that we basically had to pay a visit to each of the four parks in hopes that we could still catch some of the older pins that came out in months past. And even though after doing the whole four parks in one day deal last summer for my birthday with less than preferred results, it seemed ok for another go around this time with just Sara and I in the traveling party and pins being the main item on the day’s agenda.

Taking a hint from our last experience, we opted to only set our sights on a few select attractions for the entire day – Sara really wanted to ride Toy Story Mania again at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, while I wanted to have lunch at the new Yak & Yeti restaurant in Disney’s Animal Kingdom again. Of course, we also wanted to hit up some of our favorites like Rockin’ Rollercoaster, Expedition Everest, Soarin’ and Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, but we decided to leave that up to chance – if the lines were tolerable when we got to that point, we’d ride, otherwise we’d move on…

Ultimately it was probably a good thing that we kept our expectations as we did because while we did manage to hit our whopping two must-sees, the trip reminded us once again that four parks in one day just doesn’t leave a lot of wiggle room, especially if you’re pre-occupied with a pin hunt! Here’s how we ended up faring:

Disney’s Hollywood Studios
- Toy Story Mania
- zero pins from the list (didn’t realize until later in the day that we went to the wrong location)

Disney’s Animal Kingdom
- Expedition Everest
- lunch at Yak & Yeti
- one pin from the list

Magic Kingdom
- Pirates of the Caribbean
- Hall of Presidents (see an air conditioning theme here?!)
- Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin
- another pin from the list

Epcot
- Spaceship Earth
- Gran Fiesta Tour starring The Three Caballeros (Mexico Pavilion)
- one more pin from the list

Downtown Disney
- one final pin from the list, among others
- dessert at Ghirardelli Soda Fountain
- some more sweets to take home from Goofy’s Candy Company

Believe it or not, we ended up walking through the gates at the Studios right around 10:00am, which is crazy for me because usually that’s pushing it even when we’re staying on-site! One of things we hadn’t considered, though, was just how unbelievably hot it gets during the summer – we did go right around this time last year, but I swear it wasn’t nearly as hot! Hence all of the indoor attractions come afternoon, mind you. Also, in being a Tuesday, we really didn’t expect crowds to be as busy as they were – we passed on both Rockin’ Rollercoaster and Soarin’ at different times of the day because they both boasted 100-minute wait times when we went by, and even at 10:30am when we did Toy Story Mania, the fast pass return time was already at the 5:00 – 6:00pm range! I’m still not entirely sure if that was an error or just crazy crowd levels, but overall we sort of assumed that at least part of the crowds was due to being the week before Labor Day and families getting in that last-minute trip before school starts.

Needless to say, I think four parks in one day is officially out of our system for a while now – we might be inclined to do two parks in one day when we go over for our honeymoon in October, but even then, that’ll most likely be broken up by a visit to Stormalong Bay back at the resort! We still had a good time, though … didn’t get to see fireworks because we retreated to Downtown Disney for dessert when it started to look like rain, although rumor has it that the globe for IllumiNations was being refurbished anyways and we weren’t sure how the show would be without it.

At the end of the day, we came home extremely tired, a little sunburned, and definitely hopped up on more sugar than either of us ingest in about a week, but we got our relaxation in and that was the whole point of the trip.

Well, relaxation, and also these…