Buzzed in Tomorrow Land

Wednesday Evening, the 26th.

We returned to the Magic Kingdom to watch the fireworks.  OK, and ride the Pirates of the Caribbean and Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin rides.

Rain threatened as we arrowed our way to the pirate ride.  I've been leaving the details out, but most of the rides we got on we would try to use Fastpass.  This involved someone taking all our tickets, running ahead, and using them to get an assigned Fastpass entrance time that the rest of us would use once we got to the attraction.  Some of the times we were able to ride a ride twice by getting a Fastpass ticket, waiting in the regular line once (if the wait was under ten or fifteen minutes), and then going through again in the Fastpass line.

In Adventure Land, we rode the Pirate Ride twice.  I think they turned up the lights on this ride since I last rode it in 2005.  On one hand, this is probably a good thing for folks who have problems seeing in the dark.  On the other hand, I remember the initial entrance had a ghostly pirate face wailing "Dead men tell no tales" and a skeleton pirate sailing a raft.  This time, the lights were much brighter and the sailor looked less spectral.  At the end of the ride, you are forced to walk through the Pirate Schlock Shop.

Then it started to rain, hard.  We broke out our rain ponchos and continued to the next adventure.

In Tomorrow Land, we rode the Spin three times.  I don't know if it was the late hour or the rain or both, but there was almost no one there.  The first time through, I rode with Mark. The idea is to get into a cart and then ride through a futuristic arcade using a laser gun to shoot Z's -- for Emperor Zurg -- in an attempt to foil Zurg's wicked plot.  You can turn the cart with a joystick in order to be able to aim at targets behind you.   At the end when you get out, a picture of you on the ride's cart shows up.

My picture was hilarious. I think I was getting a little annoyed because I wasn't sure what my laser was hitting, and I was getting into the game. So in the photo I'm hunched over the gun, gripping it with both hands, and my teeth are bared. You can almost hear me muttering, "Eat hot photons, Martian scum." Mark looked serene as he calmly fired.


Since I had to own so funny a shot, I rushed up to the photo counter, told them the photo humber (222220) and decided to order a big copy of the photo. I must have gushed a little, and it was 9:30 on a really rainy night, and I guess since I was a greying 47 year old in a Tigger sweater with a matching Tigger park pin on my collar, and because the photo was sooo Space Man Spiff, the photo clerk put the photo into my hands and said, "From us to you, we'd like you to have this as a gift."  (I didn't realize it at the time, but in the print, she switched my and Mark's scores so I'd be a Galactic Hero; but I guess I should say that for the record, Mark got the high score).

And then it was time for the Wishes Fireworks Show.  I like the fireworks, especially the signature white blaze arcing over the signature Cinderella castle.... and, I wish the narrative included something about how a wish is the first step to getting something you want instead of the final step. My and Mark's favorite quote from this show is The Wicked Queen from Snow White proclaiming, "I can make a wish, too!" (and I like the accompanying green and purple fireworks.)