Having moved into a new apartment the weekend before, I was now obliged to drive myself to Baltimore-Washington International Airport, as I now lived much farther away from my family and friends than before. Because of this, I set my alarm for 5:30am, got up and grabbed my luggage, and hit the road at 6am. I pulled into BWI's Blue Lot at about 6:50 and got a good parking space, not too far from the bus stop. The bus, of course, took 20 minutes to arrive and take me into the terminal, and when it did it was so full I had to stand up for the whole ten-minute trip. Because it was so crowded, I got off at the first stop, which, as luck would have it, was the absolute farthest stop from the AirTran counter. But as there was no line at the AirTran counter, and no line at the security checkpoint, I got to my gate quickly. But I forgot to take my bag-o-film out of my camera bag for hand inspection, thus ruining the high-speed film that was in there among the 400-speed. D'oh!
My plane was only about half-full, so I had an entire row of three seats to myself, although I was stuck way in the back in the emergency exit row, which has more leg room; at 6'-4" in height, I need all the room I can get! The flight was quiet and smooth, and we put down in Orlando at 10:40am, right on schedule. It was 82 degrees and partly cloudy when I left the plane; similar to the conditions I had left behind in Baltimore. I recovered my checked bag, rolled it across the terminal to the Dollar counter, and signed out my rental car (picking up the keys at the Dollar booth in the parking garage). My rental on this trip was a Hyundai Accent, a tiny and cheap car built mostly for midgets. It ran smoothly and handled well, however, and I was soon on the Central Florida Greenway put-putting my way toward Walt Disney World.
Now done with lunch, I walked into the Tree of Life theater and enjoyed It's Tough To Be A Bug. I love that show, with it's combination of animatronics, 3d movie footage, and physical special effects designed to make you feel like bugs are really making war on you.
After about 20 minutes, I had had enough of waiting, so I took off in the direction of Adventureland, ducking under cover whenever I could, but I didn't get very far. I stopped at a gift shop between Fantasyland and Adventureland and bought a poncho, figuring that my $5 purchase would be enough to make the rain stop, but it didn't. I headed toward Haunted Mansion, hoping to do a couple of indoor attractions; but alas, Haunted Mansion was closed for rehab! I finally made it to Pirates of the Caribbean, and found no line to ride. In fact, I had a boat almost to myself. The rain finally slacked off to a light mist about 5pm, just as I was getting out of Pirates. I found a dry bench outside some restrooms on the way from Adventureland into the hub, sat down, and wrote out some trip notes. Then I headed back toward the hub; I had an idea.
I noticed a bunch of characters had come out when the rain stopped, just on the Adventureland side of the bridge from the hub. I saw Pinnochio and Gepetto, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, Chip & Dale, and Friar Tuck. Who knows, there may have been more, but I didn't stop to look.
I left MK and walked quickly to the bus stops. After a ten-minute wait, I caught a bus to MGM, which then took 20 more minutes to get me there. But once inside MGM, I found it practically empty. I walked right onto Star Tours (I was tempted to do it twice), and then walked right into the pre-show area of Muppetvision 3d. Both attractions together took less than 30 minutes.
Now I was in the home stretch; all I needed was to get on two attractions in Epcot and I would be done. I walked out the MGM gates and went left, toward the dock, where I was going to catch a Friendship launch to Epcot's International Gateway, but with no boat in sight, I thought I might make better time if I walked. There was a recently-completed path from the bus parking area of MGM to the Boardwalk, which now made it possible to walk from MGM to Epcot if one desired; I found this path and got moving.
I made it as far as the Boardwalk before I decided I needed a rest. But just as I was getting to the Boardwalk boat dock, the boat from MGM pulled in, and I jumped on it for the rest of the trip to Epcot.
The rain continued off and on as I finished eating and made my way to Future World. My destination was Test Track, which usually shut down during rain, but I hoped to be able to get on before it shut down. The rain was just a drizzle at this point, and I could hear the cars whooshing around the front of the building, so I got into the Standby line, and found myself being ushered directly into the pre-show area. The wait after the pre-show was only a few minutes, and I was soon strapping myself into a test vehicle.
I noticed as I got in, however, that the vehicle's windscreen was covered with rain water; it looked as if it had been driven through a hurricane. I knew that the ride would be shut down if the rain got too heavy, though, so I wasn't worried too much about getting wet. Still, I took out my sunglasses and prepared to put them, to keep the rain out of my eyes, when we went outside.
But we didn't go outside, at least not right away. The ride stopped on the first hill, at the seatbelt check, and sat there for at least ten minutes. Then we continued on, and stopped again, several times, for several minutes each. Once we stopped inside the 'corrosion test' room, where fake acid (water mist) sprayed us from the robotic arms. And we stopped again for another five minutes just before the 'collision test' which was supposed to take us outside. At last, however, we blasted through the wall and flew around the outdoor track. By this time, the rain had stopped, although it was obvious that there had been a period of heavier rain while I was on the ride. Presumably, the rain was the reason why the ride kept stopping.
I was now very tired; having awakened at 5:20 that morning, and run around with no rest all day, I was more than ready to get some sleep, but I had one stop to make first: when I left Epcot, I drove off Disney property to a Walgreens I knew at the corner of US 192 and International Drive to drop off a roll of film for developing. Then it was back to All-Star Sports.
When I got back to my room, I was ready to just collapse into bed; it was nearly 10pm, and I was beat. But the people in the next room had a different idea; they were, by the sound of it, watching some kind of sporting event. Cheers of "YEAH!" and "OHHHHH!" from a crowd would erupt periodically, as well as laughter and conversation I couldn't make out. It sounded to me like there were about 5 or 6 people in the room. I resolved to write out some trip notes and post them for my internet friends, and if the party continued to be noisy after 11pm I would call the front desk to complain.
The party, apparently, ended before 11, however, and I was left with a quiet room. I fell asleep almost immediately.
Unicorn 27
Amaze 36
Walk Miles: 12.99
Drive miles: 46.5
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