Monday, March 19 2001

Good morning and welcome to Day 3 of the 8th Annual Spring Training Trek 2001!

We are on our way to Disney's Wide World of Sports complex for a third consecutive day of Braves baseball.  There is a 90% chance of rain this afternoon, which means there is still a chance we will get a game in.  A sliver of a chance, but a chance none-the-less. After an easy ride from the Port Orleans - Riverside resort to the DSports complex, I had lunch at the All Star Sports Cafe, a loaded turkey burger and a diet coke with cherry syrup.  I realize that the cherry flavoring is in conflict with the "diet" part of diet coke, but hey,  I am on vacation and my BG is normal.

10 minutes after I sat down, it began raining outside and by 1:30pm, the game was called on account of rain.  This does not present a problem, I think to myself as I stand in the rain to catch the bus back to Disney MGM Studios.  Rain, I mused, means shorter lines at the theme parks.  Rain is not a disappointment but an opportunity.  Carpe PM - Seize the night.  Oops, that's Pleasure Island.  Carpe Diem - Seize the day!

But first, let's stop in this building up ahead to get out of the rain a bit.  Kind of an old and worn out hotel.  Dust and cobwebs like no one has been here (alive) for years.  I stop and dust off sign that reads, "Hollywood Tower Hotel".  Irresistibly, I am drawn to the boiler room in the basement, where the service elevator dings and open's it's doors invitingly.  I can not help but enter, and have a sense of foreboding as the doors close.  The elevator goes up, the lights go out, and the mind is transported into a place where space and time have no meaning.  I have entered (all together now) the Twilight Zone.  The trip up 13 stories takes much longer than the trip back down, where strapped into the middle "jump" seat I get a good 3-4" of air between my seat and the Elevator's.  Free fall is probably the only thing free at Disney.

After picking up a FastPass for Aerosmith's Rock and Roller Coaster, I visited the Animation Courtyard for a showing of the very creative Voyage of the Little Mermaid.  This production combined light, water, fog, puppeteers, live actors, traditional animation, and laser animation to retell the story of Ariel the fish.  I mean the mermaid.  Sebastian was the fish.  Or was he the crab.  Or was he just lunch?  Meant for the kids, it was still a well crafted show that deserves appreciation. 'Nuff said.  Next I took a tour of Disney's active animation studio, where artists recently finished working on the summer release of Atlantis.  Mulan was the first full length feature created entirely at the Disney World production facility.

It was 5 or 6 years ago that I first came to Disney MGM Studios and saw the opening sequence to a movie I remember thinking for sure had no legs, The Lion King.  Actually, I remember thinking that if "The Circle of Life" was any indication, this movie would hit the ground running on all four legs.  I headed across the park to the Backlot Theater for a presentation of the live musical Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame (a musical adventure).  After the show, it was clear back across the park to the Rock and Roller Coaster where Aerosmith invited me and a few others from the recording studio to their LA concert across town.  We were going to ride in a really fast limo, going 0-60 in 2.8 seconds and straight into a loop in a black light indoor roller coaster that is the biggest rush next to the Richard Petty Experience.

Now it was time to leave Disney MGM Studios.  Not because it was now raining in torrents (it was), and not because I was tired (I wasn't) or because I was wet (I was).  But because I had priority seating for dinner at Spoodles at Disney's Boardwalk.  On the boat, a little boy told the captain that he had a flood in his shoes.  This was cute.  Kids at Disney World are cute, except when they are tired and whining which happens often when parents insist on dragging them everywhere, doing everything, when all the kid wants to do is play in the rain puddle. Anyhow, soapbox away, I had a delicious Fettuccini and dried out a bit before catching the boat to Epcot.

Epcot stands for the Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow. Remember that and impress your friends.  After dinner, the rain had stopped except for a misty drizzle.  I walked to the World Showcase and over to Norway to pick up a gift for a friend that would make her homesick.  The rains opened up again, and it was soon announced that the Tapestry of Nations parade was canceled due to weather.  Not bothered by a little rain, I went on the Maelstrom, an indoor boat attraction that presents the culture and people of Norway.

Next I walked to Italy to wait for Illuminations - Reflections of Earth.  This park-closing extravaganza presented by GE (they bring good things to life, I hear) orchestrates music, light, water, flames, lasers, a large globe with color video panels, and of course fireworks to tell the story of Earth from creation to present time.  When the final explosive boom finally settles to the ground all you can say is Wow.  Fantasmic wins for creativity and technological coordination. Illuminations wins for just being big and extravagant.

By now my jeans are soaked up to the knee, my shirt sleeves are soggy, and it is time to go home.  Rain just opens up new possibilities.  It is supposed to rain tomorrow, so just imagine the possibilities for tomorrow's report!

Fuskie