Wednesday, March 24 1999

Good morning and welcome to Day 5 of the 6th Annual Spring Training Trek 1999!

It is a gorgeous day with not a cloud in site, a perfect day to travel the world. Although there is no baseball scheduled for today, there are plenty of things planned starting with a trip to Epcot. Let's see a show of hands. Who knows what Epcot stands for? That's right, you in the back. No, that is incorrect. Epcot stands for the Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow.

Originally conceived as a preview of the future of civilization, today it is a showcase for the science, technology, and imagination that make up our daily lives. In addition, Epcot includes a lagoon featuring countries from around the world. Each country has shops, restaurants, and architecture presenting their culture to guests. My interest in Epcot this year is limited to two areas, having exhausted this park in the past two years. The first, is the GM Test Track, a new attraction that has been 3 years in development. The problem? Computers.

The Test Track is a ride that simulates the test cycle an automobile is put through, from bumpy road conditions to brake tests, to environmental extremes, to turns and performance. The highlight of the ride comes when the car in which you ride is launched onto the exterior track where it reaches speeds close to 70MPH as it whizzes around the test center.

The ride has an average 85 min wait time. However, as a single person, I was able to jump to a shorter 'fill' line used to make sure each car is full before leaving the launch point. This way, I was able to run the ride twice in an hour. At the end of the ride are test simulators, computer controlled stations that let you take the wheel. I am proud to say I had no collisions.

Having survived the test track and beaten the urge to purchase a crash dummy Goofy, I took the boat across the lake to Germany, where I was able to walk to Italy (no passport required) for lunch. L'Originale Alfredo di Roma Ristorante is one of four restaurants around the world that trace their ancestry back to 1914 when Chef Alfredo created the dish now widely treasured as Fettuccini Alfredo. I had 5-cheese stuffed Tortellini with proscuitto in a tomato cream sauce. I am really eating too well.

After lunch, I had enough time to walk back through Germany, China, and Mexico before catching the bus from Future World to the Disney Institute. On the way out, I was diverted into Station Cool, a Coca-Cola attraction complete with indoor snow machine and polar refrigeration. Inside was plenty of Coke merchandise as well as samples of Coca-Cola products available around the world. For those of you who have not been to the Coca-Cola Museum in Atlanta (where Coke was invented), Coca-Cola has dozens of non-Coke products that are marketed in specific markets from colas to fruit drinks. Many areas of Epcot are being re-imagineered (Disney's term for marrying imagination and engineering), demonstrating that the community of tomorrow is an ever evolving thing.

At the Disney Institute, I participated in a class entitled, "Wine, Wonders, and Song" or Wine, Women, and Wickedness for those with ulterior motives. The class was hosted by a master chef and sommelier as we learned the proper way to taste white and red wines, how to select wines to go with meals, and other interesting information about the fruit of the vine.

Back at the Port Orleans Resort, I had to choose between watching breaking news on NATO attacks in Kosovo and losing myself in the virtual world of DisneyQuest. I took the boat to Downtown Disney's West Side and entered a world of Silicon Graphics based entertainment.

DisneyQuest is a 5-floor warehouse of video games, virtual reality rides, and more. Even the elevator ride, a Cybervator, to the main entrance becomes a virtual event. Broken into Adventure, Creation, Replay, and Score zones, DisneyQuest provides a full day's worth of entertainment.

Adventure rides include Aladin's Magic Carpet and Hurcules' Adventure, both team virtual reality games, a river rafting ride where your raft is bounced in front of a raging river screen using rapid air bag inflation and deflation. An Inca Treasure Hunt let's you drive remote control jeeps through a maze searching for treasure. In the Creation zone, you can build a toy using spare parts Sid from Toy Story left around, take classes in CAM design (Computer Aided Mickey's), and create your own roller coaster ride, which you can then experience in a full motion simulator guaranteed to toss your cookies. My coaster rated a 3 on the Get-Sick-O'Meter.

Packed full of traditional video and arcade games, you can work on your high score or earn enough tickets to purchase a cheap carnie toy.

Non-traditional rides include Buzz Lightyear's bumper attack which allows cars to scoop up volleyballs and shoot them at other cars who rudely bump into you. The Attack of the Alien Extra Terrestrials sends you and a team on a rescue of colonists. The Mighty Duck's Pinball Slam let's you become one with the pinball, competing with other balls for points. DisneyQuest is not for the queasy of easily unbalanced. More than once I found myself unsteady on my feet.

And so ended my off-day, taking the boat back to Port Orleans, walking kind of wobbly toward my hotel room. Tomorrow it will be back to the world of reality. Not real reality, but Disney Reality. See you all tomorrow.

Fuskie