Roughly a half-hour after the conference ended, I got a series of text messages from Schroeder saying he was on a different flight than originally planned (the details of which are pretty humorous) and would be arriving shortly. Soon after the Disney Express à la Schroeder showed up, my cousin Justin pulled up in his truck and we all went out to dinner at Bahama Breeze where we listened to good reggae music and got the scoop from Justin about what to see and do. After dinner, we got a tour of Justin’s house (complete with fabulous planters, created by Justin), met some of his friends, and then headed to his fav watering hole where we were lucky enough to hear some fantastic live music and meet a couple giants. More on that later.
Friday a.m. we were up early and off to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. First up, the Kilimanjaro Safaris. This attraction, an off-road tour through a savannah, rivers and rocky hills, came highly recommended by everyone we talked to and we did see a bunch of interesting and not-so-interesting animals, including a baby giraffe, but the line was long-ish (45 minutes) and I think I’ve been spoiled by the free Madison zoo. Not really my thing. What was SUPER cool, was Expedition Everest, a new roller coaster that you can see from most areas of the park. The track takes you up the mountain, and then stops at the top where it appears to be broken, only to switch tracks and take you spiraling backwards into the mountain in the dark while a large yeti screams at you. Fun stuff. Justin caught up with us in the afternoon and rode it again with us… along with a few other rides. I’d also recommend the “Festival of the Lion King” production (amazing acoustics!), the Primeval Whirl (think tilt-a-whirl, my favorite type of ride), the Dinosaur ride, It’s Tough to be a Bug 3D movie and Pizzafari (we had a whole open-air room to ourselves!) The carvings in the Tree of Life are pretty amazing as well. There were a few more things to do and see but we retreated around 4:30 to get out of the heat for a couple hours before heading over to Pleasure Island for the evening.
Friday night really was a highlight of the trip… after cocktails and apps at the House of Blues on Pleasure Island we went to see Cirque du Soleil – La Nouba. I have never seen so much talent in that amount of space in that amount of time. It’s really beyond description so I won’t even try. If you’re able, go see it. We returned to the House of Blues afterward for more great live music, but I think we were both a little overwhelmed and exhausted from watching Cirque de Soleil (ok, and maybe going out the night before and touring the Animal Kingdom all day). At any rate the bus back to the resort couldn’t come fast enough and I think I fell asleep on the way back. Serious sensory overload.
Saturday we arrived at MGM Studios a little less early. Nothing like waking up with a 13-story elevator drop on the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror though! For good measure we also hit the Aerosmith Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster which starts out by going 0-60 mph in 2.8 seconds. The main draw of MGM was of course to see Justin though, who works in the Indiana Jones show and the Lights, Motors, Action production. We strolled into the Indy venue which seats about 5,000 people, took our third-row VIP seats and watched as Indy (Justin) dodged spears and ran from the huge rolling boulder. We were selected to be extras in the second scene, so I’m not really sure what happened… we were busy “acting” (we were supposed to be villagers shopping in Cairo but I was trying to watch Justin and Schroeder was freaking out about his headpiece not fitting in some bizarre version of stage fright), which I’m sure was comical in itself. It was all fun though, and then we got to sit down for part 3 and watch Justin battle the giant (who we met in the bar Thursday night) atop the plane. Justin’s stunts were impressive and it was cool to hear all the behind-the-scenes info (like Justin is sore after every show—for some reason I thought it didn’t hurt when stunt men fell down, go figure). We got to meet a few of the other performers after the show, and then grabbed some lunch before going to “Lights, Motors, Action”, another extreme stunt show involving cars, motorcycles, jet skis and more. Justin wasn’t supposed to be working that show that day, but called ahead and again got us VIP seating and, much to our surprise, walked on the set first as the Assistant Director, slipping a comment about his cousins into his lines and then later as a sniper, falling in one scene from a 3-story building rooftop. The show was entertaining, there was some great driving and it was fascinating to find out how they achieve some of the movie effects in race scenes. A couple hours after the show Justin caught up with us and we did the Backlot tour, which, of course, Justin and I were extras in again. We were to re-enact a nautical battle scene aboard a ship while they filmed, edited and spliced it together on the spot for the audience to show how the special effects were achieved. Justin assured me it wasn’t a big deal but when they dressed us head-to-toe in rain gear, I became skeptical. Moments later they dumped 20,000 gallons of water on us. The joke was really on them though, as the staff at this attraction didn’t know Justin was a stunt man, and he knew what was going to happen. Suffice it to say the audience was impressed with Justin’s dramatic flying wipeout and the staff was terrified. Justin just took a bow, it was classic.
We did see a few other attractions… the Star Wars ride, the Little Mermaid show, Muppet Vision 3D, and probably others I’ve forgotten. We also ended up staying late to see Fantasmic and that should not be missed. Great costumes, dancing, animations projected on water, lasers, fireworks, etc.
And that was our two very-well-spent days at Disney. My advice: go in early May after spring break but before school gets out, drink lots of water, make sure you see Cirque de Soleil, and most importantly, get to know Justin. HUGE thanks for the hospitality, and to Tom & Lona too for their advice on what to see and where to go.