SpecJoe Magic
07-03-2008, 05:30 PM
Day 1 (http://www.intercot.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=134895)
Day 2 (http://www.intercot.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=135553)
Day 3 (http://www.intercot.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=136171)
Day 4:
It’s Awfully Hot for Skiing -
It just so happened that the top three things that I was looking forward to on this trip occurred in order on the first 3 park days. Meeting Jared in person was definitely what I was most excited about, followed by riding Toy Story Midway Mania for the first time, and visiting Blizzard Beach. It had been several years since my last visit to Blizzard Beach. Only four of us, Brooke (my wife), Laura (my sister), Seth (my brother-in-law), and myself, went to the park. All of the others relaxed at the resort during the day and went to Downtown Disney in the evening. Laura and I had been to Blizzard Beach on two other occasions, but Brooke and Seth were about to experience it for the first time.
We arrived at the park at opening. I advised them to do Summit Plummet first if they intended to do it because the wait time for it tends to increase significantly as the day gets closer to noon. Laura and Seth had already decided to do it before we got there. Brooke had said that she wasn’t planning on doing it, and I had said that I definitely wasn’t doing it because I had done it a total of three times in the past and didn’t find it enjoyable enough to work up the courage to do it again. So, we decided to ride the ski lift up to Mount Gushmore. We had a good view of people sliding down Summit Plummet as the ski lift was ascending. It was then that Brooke decided that it didn’t look as bad as she had thought (I‘m not sure how she reached that conclusion, as it looks just as scary from that view as it does from any other in my opinion), and she wanted to give it a try. I, on the other hand, was still determined not to do it again. I realized my mistake after we unloaded at the top. See, there are 4 ways down from Mount Gushmore: Summit Plummet, Slush Gusher (I hate that slide), Teamboat Springs, or taking the stairs. Therefore, I only had two choices. I could either take Teamboat Springs or walk down a bunch of stairs. I initially thought about taking Teamboat Springs, but I didn’t want to ride with strangers (it’s a four person minimum), and I wanted to wait on the others so we could all ride it together for the first time. Alas, I started walking down the stairs. There was a thread about dumb things that we (Intercot members) have done at WDW. This was definitely a moment that belongs in that thread. I still had plenty of time before it was their turns to come down Summit Plummet after I reached the bottom of the stairs. I was perfectly fine with that because it was quite enjoyable watching people come down the slide and seeing their reactions to it. I was watching the speeds as people were coming down, and I recall that most were in the 50-55 mph range, but a few were closer to 60 mph. After Brooke, Laura, and Seth were finished, they decided to do it again immediately. Having gotten Summit Plummet out of the way, it was now time to make our rounds to all of the other slides. We did Downhill Double Dipper next because it also tends to have a long wait during the afternoon. 3-D, as it’s sometimes called, doesn’t last long, but it is a great deal of fun. There is a pool at the bottom of the slide that extends out to quite a long distance. It’s rare that anyone ever makes it all of the way across the pool, but just in case that does happen, they have a large, rubber cushion to keep a runaway guest on an inner tube from crashing into the concrete wall that’s behind the cushion. On my previous visit to Blizzard Beach, I must have hit the pool just right because I went flying across it on my inner tube like a rock skipping on a lake. I crashed feet first into the cushion and was knocked off of my inner tube. I remember receiving applause from people that were standing around watching. I wish that someone had been filming that day. Mom told me that it looked like I was shot out of a rocket launcher. I had told Brooke that story prior to this visit, and she was shocked to see how far the cushion is from the bottom of the slide. I was thinking about it as we were approaching 3-D and wondering if I would ever be able to do it again. Unfortunately, I didn’t come close on either of the two times that we rode it on this trip, but it’s a nice memory even if it never happens again. As an aside, there was a Cast Member at the top of the slide that told us that each regular inner tube costs Disney $76, so they just replace one whenever it becomes damaged, but the large rafts that accommodate about 4 people over at Teamboat Springs costs Disney $1700 apiece, so they patch them up in order to keep them as long as possible. Now comes our interesting experiences with Runoff Rapids. For those of you that don’t know, there are two open air slides that accommodate two-person inner tubes and one enclosed slide that accommodates one-person inner tubes. We decided to do an open air slide first. Laura and Seth said that they fell off of their two-person inner tube about a quarter of the way down the slide. Seth managed to get back on but Laura didn’t. I suppose that should have been a warning to me, but I didn’t think much about it at the time. We decided to do the enclosed slide next. Seth went down the slide before me. Keep in mind that one cannot see anything while on the slide due to the enclosure. As I was sliding, I felt something hit me. It took me a second to realize what had happened. As you may have guessed by now, Seth had fallen off of his inner tube again, and it was left on the slide as he continued down without it. I carried his inner tube in front of me and flung it out of the opening at the bottom just prior to hitting the pool of water myself. It was startling at first, but I got a kick out of it. Apparently Runoff Rapids didn’t want Seth to stay on his inner tube. We made our way over to Teamboat Springs. I had remembered it as being one of my favorite slides at the park, but it seemed that the raft was moving slower than I had remembered. I had an idea for when we revisited it later in the day. I realized that Seth and I had been sitting next to each other on our first trip down the slide. We are both considerably heavier than Brooke and Laura, so I suggested that Seth and I sit across from each other this time, which put Laura and Brooke across from each other. That arrangement worked far better, and we traveled down the slide at a much faster speed. Our second time was much more fun than our first. So, my tip is that the heaviest two people should definitely sit across from each other on Teamboat Springs. Once we became hungry, we headed over to Lottawatta Lodge. None of us had eaten there before. I was pleasantly surprised. It had decent variety, and the food I ate was good. The others seemed to enjoy their food as well. I guess I wasn’t expecting much out of a restaurant at a water park, though I don’t know exactly why. Laura and Seth ended up doing Slush Gusher while Brooke and I waited for them at the bottom. While we were waiting, I was watching numerous others come down the slide. I noticed that many of the people panicked on the second hump because it tends to cause people to be thrown up in the air slightly. They reacted by uncrossing their ankles and arms, which was probably a bad idea but they didn’t have much time to think about that during the moment. One of the last things that we did was Toboggan Racers. It’s the one where there are eight lanes that travel over humps in a straight line to the bottom, and everyone starts at the same time in order to race. We had been on it once already, and I hadn’t been able to get a good push off to start down the slide quickly. So, I was determined to do better this time. Unfortunately, in my overzealous attempt to get a good start, I accidentally cut open a portion of the top of my right foot. I examined it immediately after we walked away from the slide and noticed that it wasn’t bleeding but it began to bleed slowly a few moments later. We decided to go back to our locker to retrieve a Band-Aid for my foot. We left shortly after that because we were all tired, and I didn’t want to risk further injury to my foot. We had walked up hundreds of stairs throughout the day because we had done every major slide multiple times with the exception of Slush Gusher. Our plan was to head back to the resort for a change of clothes and a rest before heading to Downtown Disney via a boat ride down the Sassagoula River.
Brooke and I ate at Wolfgang Puck Express for dinner, and it ended up being one of my favorite meals of the entire trip. We met up with the rest of the family a little later. Some of us, including me, sat around and relaxed for the remainder of the evening while the others were shopping. Most of us made a visit to Ghirardelli’s just prior to boarding the boat back to French Quarter. I realize that a lot of people are big fans of Ghirardelli’s, and I enjoyed what I ate, but my opinion is that the quality and quantity of the food isn’t worth the price.
The four of us that went to Blizzard Beach had a wonderful time, and I suspect that we’ll want to schedule another water park day on a future trip.
Day 2 (http://www.intercot.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=135553)
Day 3 (http://www.intercot.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=136171)
Day 4:
It’s Awfully Hot for Skiing -
It just so happened that the top three things that I was looking forward to on this trip occurred in order on the first 3 park days. Meeting Jared in person was definitely what I was most excited about, followed by riding Toy Story Midway Mania for the first time, and visiting Blizzard Beach. It had been several years since my last visit to Blizzard Beach. Only four of us, Brooke (my wife), Laura (my sister), Seth (my brother-in-law), and myself, went to the park. All of the others relaxed at the resort during the day and went to Downtown Disney in the evening. Laura and I had been to Blizzard Beach on two other occasions, but Brooke and Seth were about to experience it for the first time.
We arrived at the park at opening. I advised them to do Summit Plummet first if they intended to do it because the wait time for it tends to increase significantly as the day gets closer to noon. Laura and Seth had already decided to do it before we got there. Brooke had said that she wasn’t planning on doing it, and I had said that I definitely wasn’t doing it because I had done it a total of three times in the past and didn’t find it enjoyable enough to work up the courage to do it again. So, we decided to ride the ski lift up to Mount Gushmore. We had a good view of people sliding down Summit Plummet as the ski lift was ascending. It was then that Brooke decided that it didn’t look as bad as she had thought (I‘m not sure how she reached that conclusion, as it looks just as scary from that view as it does from any other in my opinion), and she wanted to give it a try. I, on the other hand, was still determined not to do it again. I realized my mistake after we unloaded at the top. See, there are 4 ways down from Mount Gushmore: Summit Plummet, Slush Gusher (I hate that slide), Teamboat Springs, or taking the stairs. Therefore, I only had two choices. I could either take Teamboat Springs or walk down a bunch of stairs. I initially thought about taking Teamboat Springs, but I didn’t want to ride with strangers (it’s a four person minimum), and I wanted to wait on the others so we could all ride it together for the first time. Alas, I started walking down the stairs. There was a thread about dumb things that we (Intercot members) have done at WDW. This was definitely a moment that belongs in that thread. I still had plenty of time before it was their turns to come down Summit Plummet after I reached the bottom of the stairs. I was perfectly fine with that because it was quite enjoyable watching people come down the slide and seeing their reactions to it. I was watching the speeds as people were coming down, and I recall that most were in the 50-55 mph range, but a few were closer to 60 mph. After Brooke, Laura, and Seth were finished, they decided to do it again immediately. Having gotten Summit Plummet out of the way, it was now time to make our rounds to all of the other slides. We did Downhill Double Dipper next because it also tends to have a long wait during the afternoon. 3-D, as it’s sometimes called, doesn’t last long, but it is a great deal of fun. There is a pool at the bottom of the slide that extends out to quite a long distance. It’s rare that anyone ever makes it all of the way across the pool, but just in case that does happen, they have a large, rubber cushion to keep a runaway guest on an inner tube from crashing into the concrete wall that’s behind the cushion. On my previous visit to Blizzard Beach, I must have hit the pool just right because I went flying across it on my inner tube like a rock skipping on a lake. I crashed feet first into the cushion and was knocked off of my inner tube. I remember receiving applause from people that were standing around watching. I wish that someone had been filming that day. Mom told me that it looked like I was shot out of a rocket launcher. I had told Brooke that story prior to this visit, and she was shocked to see how far the cushion is from the bottom of the slide. I was thinking about it as we were approaching 3-D and wondering if I would ever be able to do it again. Unfortunately, I didn’t come close on either of the two times that we rode it on this trip, but it’s a nice memory even if it never happens again. As an aside, there was a Cast Member at the top of the slide that told us that each regular inner tube costs Disney $76, so they just replace one whenever it becomes damaged, but the large rafts that accommodate about 4 people over at Teamboat Springs costs Disney $1700 apiece, so they patch them up in order to keep them as long as possible. Now comes our interesting experiences with Runoff Rapids. For those of you that don’t know, there are two open air slides that accommodate two-person inner tubes and one enclosed slide that accommodates one-person inner tubes. We decided to do an open air slide first. Laura and Seth said that they fell off of their two-person inner tube about a quarter of the way down the slide. Seth managed to get back on but Laura didn’t. I suppose that should have been a warning to me, but I didn’t think much about it at the time. We decided to do the enclosed slide next. Seth went down the slide before me. Keep in mind that one cannot see anything while on the slide due to the enclosure. As I was sliding, I felt something hit me. It took me a second to realize what had happened. As you may have guessed by now, Seth had fallen off of his inner tube again, and it was left on the slide as he continued down without it. I carried his inner tube in front of me and flung it out of the opening at the bottom just prior to hitting the pool of water myself. It was startling at first, but I got a kick out of it. Apparently Runoff Rapids didn’t want Seth to stay on his inner tube. We made our way over to Teamboat Springs. I had remembered it as being one of my favorite slides at the park, but it seemed that the raft was moving slower than I had remembered. I had an idea for when we revisited it later in the day. I realized that Seth and I had been sitting next to each other on our first trip down the slide. We are both considerably heavier than Brooke and Laura, so I suggested that Seth and I sit across from each other this time, which put Laura and Brooke across from each other. That arrangement worked far better, and we traveled down the slide at a much faster speed. Our second time was much more fun than our first. So, my tip is that the heaviest two people should definitely sit across from each other on Teamboat Springs. Once we became hungry, we headed over to Lottawatta Lodge. None of us had eaten there before. I was pleasantly surprised. It had decent variety, and the food I ate was good. The others seemed to enjoy their food as well. I guess I wasn’t expecting much out of a restaurant at a water park, though I don’t know exactly why. Laura and Seth ended up doing Slush Gusher while Brooke and I waited for them at the bottom. While we were waiting, I was watching numerous others come down the slide. I noticed that many of the people panicked on the second hump because it tends to cause people to be thrown up in the air slightly. They reacted by uncrossing their ankles and arms, which was probably a bad idea but they didn’t have much time to think about that during the moment. One of the last things that we did was Toboggan Racers. It’s the one where there are eight lanes that travel over humps in a straight line to the bottom, and everyone starts at the same time in order to race. We had been on it once already, and I hadn’t been able to get a good push off to start down the slide quickly. So, I was determined to do better this time. Unfortunately, in my overzealous attempt to get a good start, I accidentally cut open a portion of the top of my right foot. I examined it immediately after we walked away from the slide and noticed that it wasn’t bleeding but it began to bleed slowly a few moments later. We decided to go back to our locker to retrieve a Band-Aid for my foot. We left shortly after that because we were all tired, and I didn’t want to risk further injury to my foot. We had walked up hundreds of stairs throughout the day because we had done every major slide multiple times with the exception of Slush Gusher. Our plan was to head back to the resort for a change of clothes and a rest before heading to Downtown Disney via a boat ride down the Sassagoula River.
Brooke and I ate at Wolfgang Puck Express for dinner, and it ended up being one of my favorite meals of the entire trip. We met up with the rest of the family a little later. Some of us, including me, sat around and relaxed for the remainder of the evening while the others were shopping. Most of us made a visit to Ghirardelli’s just prior to boarding the boat back to French Quarter. I realize that a lot of people are big fans of Ghirardelli’s, and I enjoyed what I ate, but my opinion is that the quality and quantity of the food isn’t worth the price.
The four of us that went to Blizzard Beach had a wonderful time, and I suspect that we’ll want to schedule another water park day on a future trip.