Finding Monorail Red

It's really cool :)

I love the monorails. They help define Disney for me, and quite a few other people I'm sure. We love riding them around and do so whether we have a good reason or not. This trip I was looking forward to seeing the monorail that was wrapped to advertise the Avengers movie. I wasn't sure I liked that break with the traditional colored stripe, but after seeing it, I now am in favor. It's just way cool.

I kind of stalked the Averger-rail as we took to calling it, trying to get the perfect picture. I did ok, I got one from across Bay Lake and one of it entering the Contemporary. I finally got some up-close pics the last day of our trip when we actually rode the Avenger-rail from breakfast at Chef Mickey's to the Magic Kingdom. It was that kind of trip.

John was happy to see and ride the Avenger-rail, but wanted to see the Monorail Red, red being his favorite color. We looked and looked and the closest we found was Monorail Black, which has a little red as an outline. I knew I remembered there being a Monorail Red, but where could it have been? Finally, on our last day trip to the Magic Kingdom on the Avenger-rail, our question was answered. The monorail had to stop at one point to re-boot it's computer and in announcing this, the driver (pilot?) announced "Welcome to Monorail Red, we need to make a brief stop."

Monorail Red/Avenger-Rail wasn't very crowded

Mystery solved, that's where it went. What a great end to our monorail hunting.

I've put more monorail pics and lots of other cool stuff on Pooh Sticks new Facebook page. Go check us out!
http://www.facebook.com/poohsticksjeff

And for an added bonus, I've added video of the Avenger-Rail on my Youtube channel. Check this out!

Relaxing At Disney

Is it possible? The conventional wisdom is that you need a vacation to recover after a Disney vacation. With four theme parks, two water parks and everything else there is to see and do, it's easy to run yourselves ragged trying to see and do it all. Even just touring one park can be hectic, trying to fit in all the rides, stressing over wait times and trying to maximize your use of Fast Passes. It can easily turn into a disaster, or at least wear you and your family completely out.

I will admit to being a Disney planner, but I'm in all other aspects of my life a very go with the flow, smell the roses, take the road less traveled by kind of guy. With eight days to spend in the parks, I was able to merge those two sides into what turned out to be the most relaxing Disney vacation ever. Our first full day at Disney is a perfect example of how this all worked out so well.

We arrived on a Saturday afternoon, well almost exactly at noon, truth be told. We ate at Downtown Disney, checked in our resort, rode the monorail around and went to the Magic Kingdom with the goal of riding the Tomorrowland Speedway and seeing the Main Street Electrical Parade and fireworks. We accomplished all this and turned in ready to rise early for a very full, very long day of experiencing the Magic Kingdom. With two ADRs, at Crystal Palace a half hour before park opening for breakfast and 'Ohana for dinner during the 9:00 fireworks, and then planning to return to the park to enjoy Extra Magic Hours, this could have been the most exhausting day of our trip. That's why I planned it for the beginning, when we'd all be fresh and excited. It turned out to be about the most relaxed.

We got an early start. A very early start. I made reservations for before the Magic Kingdom opened so we could get to walk around and take pictures before the crowds arrived. I was very excited about this, more excited than about anything else we planned to do. I was a bit nervous about getting to the park early enough to get the most out of this experience, my people not being known for their early morning vigor. So, I told them to be ready about 15 minutes before I really expected to leave to catch our bus. I was also nervous about catching a bus that early, almost two hours before the park opened. We asked the concierge the night before and she assured us buses ran just for the purpose of taking people like us to our early breakfast. I believed her (mostly), but wasn't sure they'd run very often, so I figured on a long wait at the bus stop. I turned out to be totally wrong on both counts.

Yep, I tried out the hammock :)

I woke up way too early, my normal Monday morning 4:15, so instead of lying there wishing I could sleep, I got up and dressed and walked all over the resort in the pre-dawn darkness. It was splendid. I highly recommend it to insomniacs. Having any part of Disney entirely to yourself is a rare and wonderful experience. When I got back to the room, I was shocked to find Lisa and John up and at 'em! We rolled out of the room at just a bit past seven, walked into the bus station and sat down only to have a bus for the Magic Kingdom roll right up. We rode the bus with one other family and got to the Magic Kingdom entrance by about 7:30. There were a few people milling about and some cast members stocking supplies on the turnstiles, but it was very quiet. I had read somewhere that the breakfast entrance was on the far left side, so we headed that way and saw an "Event" sign over the turnstiles and figured that looked like a likely place. A line immediately formed behind us. We laughed hoping we had guessed right, and it turned out we had. Lisa was the first ticket scanned that morning and she, John and I were the first three thru the turnstiles. We were let into a roped off area next to the little shop out there just before you enter the tunnels under the Main Street train depot. Again, the three of us were first in line. My family forgave me for lying to them about how early they needed to get up. Being the first people of the day walking down Main Street is worth losing a few minutes of shut eye. So far the plan was coming together splendidly.

It's good to be first

Our experience walking around an almost empty Main Street USA and Cinderella Castle was incredible, so incredible it deserves its own blog post. We ate the most wonderful breakfast with Winnie the Pooh and Tigger and Eeyore and Piglet at the Crystal Palace. I'll probably get around to reviewing this experience in a post later on as well, but I can tell you that this is one great time. The food is unbelievable and not just your usual Disney breakfast buffet fare. They have a puffed french toast that is out of this world and something they call breakfast lasagna that was a life-altering experience for me. The characters are really fun, too, and it was nice seeing everyone get into the act, adults and children alike. Disney is that kind of place. After breakfast, it was time to hit the Magic Kingdom.

We left the Crystal Palace about a half hour after the park opened. The throngs headed up Main Street were thinned out some and everyone was headed to their favorite rides. We had hit John's favorite, the Tomorrowland Speedway, the night before so we were taking a more unusual approach. We wanted to make sure we hit all the things we'd missed the last couple of visits, times when we were with the crowds headed to Space Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain and Pirates and Space Ranger Spin. We sought the path less traveled. We headed for the Swiss Family Treehouse, the Hall of Presidents, Tom Sawyer Island, the Liberty Belle steamboat, and the Carousel of Progress. We experienced no lines, no crowds and no stress. We hit other rides along the way as we saw them with little wait. We rode the railroad around the park for a lap and a half, just to see the whole thing. We got fast passes for the "mountains" and Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. We ate when we were hungry. We stopped to take pictures everywhere. We wandered. We didn't stand in any line more than 15 minutes long. We knew we'd be there for the next seven days, and that knowledge allowed us to slow down and take it easy and enjoy the park without a hint of rush.

Behold! The Lapu Lapu!!

Our dinner reservations were for 8:00 at the Polynesian. There was no rush fit anything in before dinner because the Magic Kingdom had Extra Magic Hours that night and would remain open for resort guests until midnight. We had plenty of time to eat and come back, which is exactly what we did. We left the park and monorailed it over to the Poly in plenty of time to make our reservation. We put in our name, requesting a window seat,  and sat at the bar to order a couple of hollowed out pineapples full of rum (the Lapu Lapu, another life-altering experience). Before our drinks were ready our table was, and we were taken to a window seat overlooking the Cinderella Castle, just as we'd hoped. As we sat down, we noticed a man behind us playing the ukulele while a few couples danced. Lisa and I realized at the same time that he was playing Elvis' "Can't Help Falling In Love," so we got up and joined in the dancing. When he was through, the ukulele player asked us our names and where we were from and got all kinds of excited when we told him we were celebrating our anniversary and he had just played our wedding song. He gave us leis. Food started to arrive, lots of food. 'Ohana is a "family style" restaurant where you share a huge salad and three different appetizers before being presented with grilled meat on skewers. We sat and ate and talked and laughed and waited for 9:00 and the Magic Kingdom fireworks to roll around. As we finished off the last of our Lapu Lapus and fit in the last few bites of bread pudding we could manage, the fireworks began. The music that accompanies the show in the park is pumped into the dining room so we sat and enjoyed the show just like we would have on Main Street, but without crowds or stress of any kind. Another plan perfectly come together. (BIG thank you to our pals the Iapaluccis for the heads up on this one, and for many other pieces of advice. Let me just say that while the wings at 'Ohana are very good, they don't measure up to Jen's home made version enjoyed in the company of great friends).

We also rode the WEDway Peoplemover. A lot :)

After dinner, we hopped a monorail back to the Magic Kingdom and rode a couple favorites (including the Carousel of Progress because it broke down on us earlier in the day, which is a story in itself) then decided to leave about a half hour before park closing so we could beat the crowds out the door. It turned out to be a very long day, we left the room about 7 am and got back after midnight, but none of us were the least bit stressed or worn out or frazzled. We'd done Disney our way, the Stites way, and it was perfect.

Feeling The Magic....Lisa's Guest Blog :)

I am doing this guest blog because I just couldn’t let Jeffrey’s excellent tour guide skills go by without notice. We talked about our Disney trip for a long time. It had been five years since we’d gone for a whole week, and we spent a lot of enjoyable moments talking about all the things we wanted to do, where to stay and what to see so that we had the perfect trip.

I tend to be a control freak, and I have to be in charge of lots. Except vacations. Jeff does a lot of our vacation planning, and he is really good at it. By the time we leave to go to Disney, I get to not be in charge of anything. That’s a vacation in itself, but it also speaks to my trust for Jeffrey. I know that he will have everything taken care of so that while we are there, I can completely relax and know that we will have a fabulous time. Judging by how he geeked out over making a schedule and how many ways he could view and access our schedule, I think he enjoys that part of it.

When it came time to book the vacation, we had settled on a place to stay and even made our dinner plans. Jeff handled all of it, calling the resort and making all the arrangements. What I didn’t know is that he told them that we’d be celebrating our anniversary while we were there. We checked in on a Saturday afternoon and the cast member we dealt with gave us Happy Anniversary buttons to wear all week.

I almost cried. Here I am, married to a man who looks forward to going to a place that in my mind is home to all things Princess. He looks forward to spending a week with his family in the most magical place on Earth. And he told them it was our anniversary.

The week started off just right. Lots of cast members and guests gave us anniversary wishes. We had complimentary champagne at one restaurant and cupcakes with candles at another. We had a congratulatory call from Mickey and Minnie in Epcot. We even got a window seat at Ohana so we could see the Magic Kingdom fireworks over the castle. All of that was planned and perfectly carried out by Disney cast members, thanks to Jeffrey letting them know we were celebrating. It was all part of the Disney magic we expect.

But it was something else that happened at Ohana that really touched my heart. While we were walking to our table, we noticed that the man playing the ukulele happened to be singing our wedding song – Can’t Help Falling in Love by Elvis. We danced, not knowing we were actually joining other couples celebrating a new marriage or their own anniversaries. The ukulele player was very happy to learn that was our wedding song. He gave us leis and we went back to our table to enjoy dinner. It was of those moments I hope I’ll never forget.    

Thanks Disney, and thanks Jeffrey. You’ve both shown me yet again that sometimes the magic happens naturally, and sometimes special people make the magic happen.

Imagineering Oversight....or is it?

Before our trip to Disney, I bought an Imagineering Field Guide for each of the four Florida parks. I love these books, they are small, but packed with really interesting information about the thought processes that went into building the Disney theme parks. The books are written by Walt Disney Imagineering (it gives author credit to "The Imagineers" right on the cover) and are full of drawings and photos and inside info on the little details they work into everything they do. For a Disney Geek, these things are Nirvana.

One of the central themes of these books is the continuity they try to keep in place within and even between the parks. They work hard to make sure you aren't jarred by something "out of place." They went so far as to make the top of the Tower of Terror ride's architecture look vaguely Middle Eastern because it was visible from Morroco in Epcot's World Showcase. They even do things that I'm convinced are for their own amusement, such as locating all the bathrooms in Columbia Harbour House, which straddles Fantasyland and Liberty Square, in the Fantasyland half because there was no indoor plumbing in the time period represented by Liberty Square. Their efforts aren't always so grand or so obscure, mostly they just use architecture and landscaping to obscure views of things that don't fit in with the story they are trying to tell in a particular place.

I think I found a pretty good example of where they failed to hide the bleed-over from over stories with this picture.

This is a view of Space Mountain and the entrance to Tomorrowland as seen from the Swiss Family Treehouse, complete with old-timey gas light. I thought at first I had "caught" the Imagineers falling down on the job, how hard would it be to have a wall here and face the opening a different direction? But after thinking about it, I think I've underestimated the Disney crew.

Walt Disney's spirit is alive and well among the Imagineers; just look at the whole of Walt DisneyWorld, built entirely after Walt's death, for proof. Walt Disney was a man of seeming contradiction, but in actuality he was very wise. He was nostalgic to an amazing degree, recreating the world as it was in his time and before in his theme parks. He loved the past and studied history and longed to see the world hold onto the best parts of our heritage. He was also one of the world's greatest all-time Futurists. Walt believed in that "Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow" and he worked hard to see mankind progress as far and as fast as possible. He was the best kind of idealist, the kind of man who sees a wonderful future as possible and tries to make it so. He had one foot in the past and one in the future, but he lived in the now, taking the best of history to inform his attempts to build a great tomorrow. In order to think and act like this, Walt Disney needed to be always ready to act today, to "carpe diem," to make the most of the moment no matter what the naysayers said or what was generally assumed to be possible. But he also had to have an appreciation of the fact that the future would always be there, that what we do today never stays as it is, but changes over time. He understood that he needed to not only prepare for this fact, but take advantage of it. When Walt built Disneyland, he commented that the park would never be the same, that it would grow and change and become more beautiful as the trees he planted before opening day grew over time.

It's this spirit that I think the Imagineers understood and I at first did not when they built the Swiss Family Treehouse with a view of Tomorrowland. To face the view away from the park would give guests a sight "behind the scenes" and into an area of concrete and parking lots and warehouses and sheds. Not very magical. To face the room towards the park in another direction would guarantee that some sort of "intrusion" into the story would always be there. Look again at that picture and I think you'll see the Imagineers took the best possible route. The view of Space Mountain is partially hidden by trees. I bet that when this treehouse was first constructed, much more of the park was visible. I also bet that within about ten years, as those trees grow even taller, that view of Tomorrowland will no longer exist. I think that was the idea all along. It took me a while, but I finally did step outside the box and look with eyes to the past, present and future. That's what Walt did all the time, as a matter of course. I want to get to the point where I do that as well.

Memory Overload

We're home and re-entering the real world. I was looking forward even before we left to coming on here and writing all about my experiences, but now that it's time I'm in a sort of vapor lock. I've downloaded all the pictures from our cameras, yes we took two. Not including what is on our phones, we have over 1800 pictures. That's a lot to sort through, but it doesn't begin to touch on the real problem.

My brain is full.

I started lying awake sorting through my mental collection of Disney thoughts while we were still at the Caribbean Beach Resort. I didn't sleep really well because I spent half the night awake processing what had happened the day before. I'm not complaining, it was a good thing lying there in the quiet grinning away and remembering all we'd done and filing it away. I enjoyed our trip on so many levels this time around that it's left me with Disney Magic overload. There was the escape aspect, the nostalgia, the week-long anniversary celebration, the new appreciation for the work of the Imagineers, the understanding of Walt's dream come to life and all the simple fun of simply enjoying the parks as theme parks. The best part, though, and I think the first thing I'll write about, was watching my son take it all in as a child and a young man at the same time. I think that's the single most unique thing about this journey, the one thing I'll never recapture.

So for now, let me just say that Walt Disney World worked its magic once again. We had an amazing time. I'm refreshed and renewed and happy. And I'll begin telling you all about it as soon as I can :)

Eating Through The World

Ok, I love this mobile blogging thing. We are now staked out on a bridge between France and Great Britain in Epcot waiting for the Illuminations show to start. We are saving spots for sure, but we are also too stuffed to move. We have been eating our way through the parks.
We are using the dining plan, free with room and ticket combo. We love it. The plan no longer includes appetizers with dinner, but it still is almost more food than we can eat, and we can eat a lot!
We sometimes buy stuff to eat as well, like those delicious shrimp chips (blech!), but it's always just novelty stuff John sees and asks for. He asks for very little so I almost always agree to the freeze dried ice cream or weird fruit chewies.
I love the variety here. Today I had lamb for lunch in Morroco, shrimp chips and a frozen sake cocktail in Japan, beer and a pretzel in Germany and onion soup, duck and strawberry cake in France. Can't beat it. And I am already looking forward to my cinnamon bun at Starring Rolls in the Studios tomorrow morning :)

Live from the Disney bus

I love Disney's internal transport. I love it so much that sometimes we use it just to use it. On arrival day, John wanted to ride the monorail, so instead of going straight to the Magic Kingdom from Caribbean Beach, we took a resort bus to Epcot then transferred to the monorail to the Transportation and Ticket Center. We wanted to eat at the Polynesian (Captain Cook's where I got the pork bbq I made for our last Disney Dinner), so we hopped the resort loop monorail, rode past the Poly the first time so we could see all the resorts, and then stopped for dinner. After eating, we took s boat to the Magic Kingdom, just to be different.
Today, right now as I type actually, we are bussing to Hollywood Studios so we can take the boat to the World Showcase entrance to Epcot. It involves extra stops and extra time, but we are journey people and to.us its more than worth it!