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So, JP is at Disney (again) man is it hot! But still great.
day before yesterday Mrs. JP & I went on the "keys to the kingdom" tour at Magic Kingdom, this is a 5 hour behind the scenes tour that I had received as a birthday gift. It was amazing, if you don't already know, the Magic Kingdom is actually built on the second floor with utilidoors and corridors underneath to get around and move garbage supplies etc - very cool to see. Also got to see behind some of the rides as well as behind Main Street - it is amazing how close everything is to everything else without forced perspective to make it seem bigger and longer. Got to ride the Jungle Cruise but have the effects explained - even got to see one of the hippos outside of the water. ( hint. They call them hippobottomless) as well, got to see cast members practicing out of costume and spent some time in a warehouse with the floats - about 60% genious, 20% McGyver and 20% Rube Goldberg. All in all a very interesting proposition. oh and one thing that made it most interesting was that the guide was quite candid - refreshingly so, in a way that made Disney more appealing rather than less.
my one (none tour/ non Disney gripe) interestingly there is only one American Flag in the whole park - at the main entrance. (The rest are pennants, missing a star or a stripe so they can stay up all year round covering lightning rods) every day at 5pm, they have a flag ceremony, inviting a vet to lower the flag. Call me old fashioned but if you are a vet and have served your country and are out of uniform and have been invited to share in this honour, for heaven's sake, take off your ##^%*+ hat! There, rant over and back to the magic.
today, was at Animal Kingdom and took the safari ride. First off, in line, the gent ahead of me pulled something out of his pocket and some change went rolling, two young tattoed gents scrambled after it to return it - honest people everywhere (and most are!) got on the ride, advanced 200 feet and came to a halt as the truck four or five ahead had broken down. While we waited for the tow (which towed the truck passengers and all through the entire ride! With commentary, till they could disembark) since I was in the front row, got to chat about trucks with the guide. They have 44 trucks, the originals all GMC. The one I was in has 223k miles, 70,000 hours at 8 miles an hour! They are propane powered and slowly wearing out, so, they are being replaced by new Ford trucks (they all have the same platforms bolted on the back) they currently have seven new ones and they have all be prepared by Roush Racing to make them long lasting slow moving machines.
by the way, in the Haunted mansion, in the graveyard, there are five busts singing. The one that is broken is the guy who was also the voice of Tony the Tiger. And, the one "human" in the ride is the caretaker in the graveyard, has the same face as the bottom explorer on the pole, being scared by the rhino on the jungle cruise - i love stuff like that!
day before yesterday Mrs. JP & I went on the "keys to the kingdom" tour at Magic Kingdom, this is a 5 hour behind the scenes tour that I had received as a birthday gift. It was amazing, if you don't already know, the Magic Kingdom is actually built on the second floor with utilidoors and corridors underneath to get around and move garbage supplies etc - very cool to see. Also got to see behind some of the rides as well as behind Main Street - it is amazing how close everything is to everything else without forced perspective to make it seem bigger and longer. Got to ride the Jungle Cruise but have the effects explained - even got to see one of the hippos outside of the water. ( hint. They call them hippobottomless) as well, got to see cast members practicing out of costume and spent some time in a warehouse with the floats - about 60% genious, 20% McGyver and 20% Rube Goldberg. All in all a very interesting proposition. oh and one thing that made it most interesting was that the guide was quite candid - refreshingly so, in a way that made Disney more appealing rather than less.
my one (none tour/ non Disney gripe) interestingly there is only one American Flag in the whole park - at the main entrance. (The rest are pennants, missing a star or a stripe so they can stay up all year round covering lightning rods) every day at 5pm, they have a flag ceremony, inviting a vet to lower the flag. Call me old fashioned but if you are a vet and have served your country and are out of uniform and have been invited to share in this honour, for heaven's sake, take off your ##^%*+ hat! There, rant over and back to the magic.
today, was at Animal Kingdom and took the safari ride. First off, in line, the gent ahead of me pulled something out of his pocket and some change went rolling, two young tattoed gents scrambled after it to return it - honest people everywhere (and most are!) got on the ride, advanced 200 feet and came to a halt as the truck four or five ahead had broken down. While we waited for the tow (which towed the truck passengers and all through the entire ride! With commentary, till they could disembark) since I was in the front row, got to chat about trucks with the guide. They have 44 trucks, the originals all GMC. The one I was in has 223k miles, 70,000 hours at 8 miles an hour! They are propane powered and slowly wearing out, so, they are being replaced by new Ford trucks (they all have the same platforms bolted on the back) they currently have seven new ones and they have all be prepared by Roush Racing to make them long lasting slow moving machines.
by the way, in the Haunted mansion, in the graveyard, there are five busts singing. The one that is broken is the guy who was also the voice of Tony the Tiger. And, the one "human" in the ride is the caretaker in the graveyard, has the same face as the bottom explorer on the pole, being scared by the rhino on the jungle cruise - i love stuff like that!
