December 7, 2001 - Mopping Up

Today is the kids' last day with us at Disney World.  Alex and Peter are slow getting up, having been out until past midnight at the Magic Kingdom the night before.  Irene and I leave early to go to Epcot Center.  We head for the GM Test Track, a ride we have missed before.  Since the wait sign says only 30 minutes, we get in line and wander through the cattle chute, a display of various safety testing devices.  We arrive at the pre-ride orientation and move into a small room where the setup takes place.  A film runs showing a test track director and his assistant setting up the various hurdles we will have to clear on our test drive.  We step into a racecar and go out on the track.  The car goes through bumps, heat, cold, evasive action and heads for a crash barrier, which opens to put us out on the track where we accelerate to 64.8 MPH around a banked track before coming to a halt. Altogether a satisfactory ride.  We then ride through Spaceship Earth, a sort of world's fair type ride sponsored by AT&T, which, of course, details the history of communication from the beginning of time using audioanimatronic figures.

Next we jump on a bus and head back to Disney - MGM studios to mob up another couple of events.  Arriving at 2:00 PM, we walk into the "Beauty and the Beast" live show.  Done Broadway-style using live actors, some in character costume, the show manages to telescope into 30 minutes an entire story and touch the heart.  I, of course, came out with tear tracks on my face.  We then went over to the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Sponsored by Aerosmith.  I had passed on this ride several days ago, but decide I need to prove my manhood.  Irene goes with me, even though she isn't worried about hers.  After waiting in line for about twenty minutes, we shuffle through the pre-pre-show, which shows us some old and famous guitars and recording equipment and into a studio where a film of the group Aerosmith does the setup.  They are late for their concert as their limousine arrives.  They instruct their manager to make sure we get to come to the concert.  She agrees and we move into the loading area and are seated in Cadillac limousines.  We are moved into position and literally catapulted to sixty miles an hour in less than three seconds.  The rest of the ride features backward loops, corkscrews and other strange moves through downtown Manhattan to finally deliver us at the Concert Hall.  Wow!  This is clearly the best ride at WDW.  We both come out happy and a little wobbly-legged.

We head back to Fort Wilderness by taking a bus to the Wilderness Lodge and a launch to the campground.  Our park hopping is done and we still have two days left on our tickets.  These are good forever, Disney tells us, so we'll save them.  We go to Planet Hollywood for another overpriced dinner that the grandchildren have asked for.  They like the Macaroni and Cheese there.  A brilliant balloon artist is working the room.  He makes Alex and truck and Peter a bat without blinking an eye.  For one table he makes a hat that fits on three people's heads at once with a balloon hanging in the middle for the wearers to play tether ball.  Irene and I drive the truck back to the campground, unable to find a parking place near the Disney store in Downtown Disney Marketplace.  The children want to do some final gift shopping.  I gather they get back about 9:30 P.M., but we are long since sawing wood.

December 8, 2001

Everybody is out of bed early this morning.  The kids want to play with the new toys they bought last night.  Suzie has to try to put everything they brought down with them and all they bought back into the luggage they carried.  After watching for a while, I volunteer my L.L. Bean duffle bag, and it still doesn't all fit.  We pile into our truck and drive out to the airport where we drop the family off and drive away, glad to have some quiet after their nine-day visit.  We've enjoyed hosting Rick and Suzie and their kids, but nine days is a long visit.  We learned, towards the end of the time, that it is a good idea to separate for parts of each day.  The FRS radios proved to be moderately useful for getting back together and doing some communicating.  While more expensive, calling on cell phones would have been more effective.  I snooze off and on all day and we fall into bed at eight.  We're bushed.