Dolphins, fish and food, food, food

Easter Sunday!  Americans are not really into Easter eggs.  When we went to the supermarket, I forgot to get some Easter Eggs and then, when I went shopping yesterday, I couldn't find any.  So I bought the kids some American candy - Skittles, M&Ms, bubble gum, giant suckers and Now and Laters.  When the alarm went off this morning, I jumped out of bed and hid the candy around the hotel room.  Ali woke up properly while I was putting some M&Ms in the microwave and she thought that I was going to melt them (for breakfast??!!)  Then the penny dropped and Luke, who normally takes about 15 mins to poke his head out from under the duvet, was out of bed and fully awake!  So we had a little Easter American candy hunt to start the day off with a real sugar burst!

 

Today was our Discovery Cove day.  I had been to the hotel reception to find out the best way to get there and they said we should order a cab which will cost over $50!   It's only about 7 miles down the road so that seemed excessive.  Darling Google helped me out and we caught the #8 Lynx bus which took us right to the DC entrance for a tenth of the price of a cab.  We'll be using Lynx a lot.  While we were waiting at the bus stop, this guy walked passed us and we all had a good laugh because when we said "good morning", it was clearly evident that he wasn't all that excited about the day of work ahead of him.

 

 

I've got very convenient amnesia when it comes to how much things cost.  I booked our DC day months ago and I don't have a clue how much it cost but I'm pretty sure it was worth every penny!  We had a really great day.  It started out with a monster breakfast (all food - breakfast, lunch and snacks, were included in the package).  We had ham and eggs, yoghurt and fruit, croissants, danishes, milk and fruit juice - the works (in addition to all the candy we'd consumed en route!)  The food felt as if it was for free (due to my amnesia), so we really took full advantage of it.  The snack cabanas had crisps, pretzels, ice cream sandwiches, strawberry ice lollies, slush puppy, sodas, chewy bars - we ate all of it.  Ali and Luke had 4 ice creams each (I had 3 - they were good!)  For the rest of the holiday, we've been sharing snacks to keep to our budget but today there was none of that.  And we had a proper lunch complete with rice and chicken, fries, caesar salad (I loved the caesar salads here - I think I've ordered one every day), fruit salad, chocolate brownies.  And I put 3 oranges and 3 snack bars in my bag for tomorrow.  Yes - we were PIGS!!!  Back to Ensure and frugality tomorrow.

 

OK - enough about the food.  I don't even want to know how much weight I've put on but I'm sure it will drop off when I get back into my normal routine of eating basic healthy food.   And don't worry, Lis - the food has been difficult but I really have made a huge effort to try and get some nutrients into Luke and Ali and I haven't allowed them to overdose on sugar (except for today, but it's Easter!)

 

So, first we got kitted out in our wetsuits.

 

And we put on sun cream which was supplied by DC because it's not harmful to the sea life.  It was like gluing on a layer of plastic.  Luke did not enjoy it.

 

Then we got into their coral reef pool.  Oh my goodness - it was like swimming in a fish tank!  We had goggles and snorkels and as soon as we got into the water, there were about 3 rays swimming right under us.  It was amazing.  I was so intrigued by all the beautiful fishes - their glorious colours and peaceful manner.  We swam into the deeper water and it was feeding time, so we were completely surrounded by fish.  After about 20 mins or so, I realised that Ali wasn't with Luke and I.  I looked around and couldn't see her.  Eventually I got out of the water and found her with our stuff near the sun beds.  She was scared of the rays and had missed the whole thing!!!  I felt terrible that I hadn't taken her by the hand and made sure that she was there with us.  We had to get the lady at the snack bar to persuade her that these sting rays couldn't sting - only then would she go back in the water.  Funny girl - did she really think that they'd let about 100 people swim in a tank full of stinging sting rays!!!  Anyway - she did get in and absolutely loved it and, by the end of the day, she even reached down to touch a ray. 

 

My camera isn't waterproof so there are no pictures I'm afraid.  And nor are they pictures of the next adventure - certainly one of the big highlights of the trip so far. 

 

I had booked a swim with a dolphin as a special Easter treat.  I knew that Luke would love the roller coasters and I was concerned that Ali wouldn't but I know how much she loves animals so the dolphin swim was her thing.  I didn't realise that she would turn out into such an adrenalin junkie and love the roller coasters just as much as Luke.  And Luke loved today just as much as Ali.  So it's all just a whole lot of great.

 

Anyway - back to the dolphin swim.  Our 'slot' was 10:30 and off we headed to the sea horse cabana to be guided to the dolphin swim area.  After a briefing and a video, we waded to a section of the pool where our guide met us and then introduced us to Rose - our dolphin.  Rose was AMAZING!  She came right up close so that we could all stroke her on her back behind her blowhole.  Her skin was silky and spongy.  On our hand signals, she showed us a flipper, showed us her tail, rolled over onto her back, made a farting noise, clapped her fins, waved goodbye etc etc.  All rewarded by sardines obviously.  Then we took it in turns to swim out into the deeper water and Rose came out and stopped next to us. Then we held on to her with one hand on the dorsal fin and the other hand on the pectoral fin and she swam about 10 meters pulling us along.  It was really incredible.  What training!  It takes about 4 years to train each dolphin and there are over 30 dolphins at DC.

 

Mum, I'm sure you're appalled and I don't want to Google Discovery Cove because I'm sure I'll find all sorts of negativity about how commercial it is and there will be animal rights activists out there that are trying to shut the place down I'm sure.  But Luke and Ali absolutely loved it and Rose seemed quite happy.  It was an amazing experience. 

 

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of our encounter with Rose.  There were photographers around, but the pictures were super expensive.  There was a guy sitting on a rock taking some pictures on his iPad because his family was in our group.  So I asked him to take some pictures of us too and he said he'd email them to me.  I haven't received anything from him yet, but if I do, I'll post some pics.  We did, however, get a picture of another bunch of people during their dolphin encounter through a glass window they had.  Not a great picture, but you can see the dolphin in front of them.

 

 

After the dolphin swim, we went in their fresh water stream where we glided along in the current for an hour or so.  There were no fish and the water was chlorinated so it was really just a big swimming pool, but it was fun.

 

Then we spent the rest of the afternoon in the coral reef pool watching the fish. 

 

I also have to mention the bathroom facilities.  There was a wall of shelves filled with fresh towels that didn't ever get empty.  Dad would have loved it.  We didn't have to use soggy towels at all.  The showers were hot and had Crabtree and Evelyn shampoo, conditioner, body wash and lotion.  I got cold after a while in the coral reef pool, so I went and had a warm shower, dried off with a fluffy warm towel and then put on a new dry wetsuit - what luxury!  Sandy VH, you'll have a fit to know that each of us must have used about 4 towels during the day!

 

 

 

We left at about 5 or so and got the bus back to the hotel and now the kids are reading and we'll go to sleep soon.

 

Tomorrow, we're going to get a bus to the west coast of Florida to go to Busch gardens.  Back to more roller coasters and, I fear, very long queues.  I have a sneaky suspicion that tomorrow's going to be the worst day for queues, so I'm just going to have to take lots of deep breaths.

Schloomph day

We all got a really long sleep last night but eventually I had to drag Luke away from his book because we had decided to go out for breakfast.  We've all been drinking supplement shakes for breakfast since we arrived so we were really excited to eat a breakfast that we have to chew.  I picked the right place because we went to Denny's which had a menu dedicated completely to bacon - Ali's favourite.  Check this out... a maple bacon sundae!

 

We had the works - complete with hash browns and pancakes.

Then I left the kids at the hotel and they had a relaxing day watching TV, reading books and swimming in the pool. 

I went to see if I could find a new pair of jeans and finish off my shopping at Gap.

This evening, we went out for a pizza and then ate an entire tub of Ben & Jerry's New York Super Fudge Chunk on the bed in front of a flick.

NASA

Today we got stuck in a tourist trap.  I'm sure you've been to the cable way when a big tourist bus has arrived carrying 50 or so tourists with their backpacks and happy snappy cameras?  That was us today.

The bus stopped at about 4 other hotels to pick up other tourists before finally setting off, so it took us 2 hours to get there.  I'm really interested in the whole space race, the technology behind sending a rocket up into space and the courage of those astronauts to sit in a little capsule on top of a massive rocket.  Luke and Ali were definitely not as interested in the whole day as I was.  I guess it's a really foreign thing to them.  I don't think that Ali understood the concept of the ISS - that there is a bunch of people up there right now orbiting the earth.  Also, I think that the line between actual artefacts and mock ups was difficult to understand because the replicas of the rockets were life size and looked so real. 

We've been really spoilt by Disney World's attractions bringing everything to life in such creative ways.  So walking through a museum hall was a bit boring for the kids I think.  And there was a lot of waiting in long queues.

Sorry - I'm sounding a bit negative.  I guess I was a bit disappointed, but all in all, we did have a good day and I'm sure the kids learnt loads.  It was quite ra ra America and I don't think that they gave the Russians quite enough credit for the success of their space program.

There also wasn't much mention of the Mir space station which I have read about and it's really fascinating. 

Anyway, we started off in the rocket garden.

I was interested in the big explosive bolts that they attach the rocket to on the launch pad that only release when there is enough pressure built up to adequately propel the rocket.  The Americans only realised that this was necessary after crashing quite a few rockets but retrospectively, it seems quite obvious.  In the rocket garden, they also had the original bridge that Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins walked across to board their rocket. 

After the rocket garden, we saw an amazing 3D Imax movie of the ISS which was the highlight of the day for me.  It was wonderfully real.  I love the footage of the astronauts moving between the modules and doing simple things like brushing their teeth.  Also, it's interesting to see what is up there in the ISS and all the little compartments and cupboards - everything that is up there has been transported up in a very expensive rocket.  I thought about Mark a lot today - about him being intrigued by space travel as a kid and then making a dream come true.  In some of the exhibits they said, "Maybe one day you too will go to space".  I guess that most people laugh this off as far-fetched.  I feel very privileged to know somebody who has actually been up there and my interest in visiting the Kennedy Space Centre was definitely thanks to Mark and his trip to space.  So thanks Mark!

The KSC has just opened a new Angry Birds experience at the centre.  It is a kids play centre where they have set up an interactive angry birds game.  Luke and Ali came alive here.

I guess it was good to have something there that they enjoyed doing.  But I felt that it was a bit out of place and took up some valuable time.  I would have liked to go to the astronauts Hall of Fame (which would have bored the kids speechless!) but we didn't have time to go.

Then we went on the Shuttle Launch Experience which was pretty cool and Luke's favourite part of the day.  We sat on a chair and strapped ourselves in and then they simulated a shuttle launch.  The whole room tilted up 80 degrees or so and then they shook the room about as if the rockets were boosting behind us.  I think it was quite realistic - but without the fear that those astronauts must feel.

After that, we got on a bus to go and have a look around the launch areas.  The first stop was a bit of a waste of time.  The kids had a hot dog while I went up to the viewing platform.

One thing that was really intriguing was the 'crawler' which carts the rocket from the assembly building (ENORMOUS) to the rocket launch site.  In this picture below, you can see a dual carriage way on the far right (not a great pic).

 

There is a massive tractor type thing called a "crawler" and one set of "wheels" is on one side of the dual carriage way and the  other set of wheels is on the other side.  Have a look at the crawler under the launch platform in this picture compared to the size of the people and the bus.

 

And this picture below shows 2 life size crawler cleats: 

That was fascinating to me.  The other thing that I didn't know was that there were over 160 shuttle missions between 1981 to 2011 - 2 of which ended up in fatal explosions.  I had no idea that there were so many of them.

I think we were all happy to relax in the bus on the way home.  When we got off the bus, we nearly crashed into a guy on a bicycle carrying a whole lot of parrots.  This was Ali's favourite part of the day.

The hotel has a very tacky and overpriced eat-as-much-as-you-like buffet and we had dinner there.  Luke was delighted.  The best meal that we've had in Florida in his opinion.  I've been trying to find some healthy gourmet food and all the kids want is spaghetti, canned peaches and soft serve.  Ali came to the table with a whole plate of canned peaches and was very disappointed when Luke and I pointed out that they were full of sugar and therefor no good for a main meal.  So she went back to the buffet and served herself a massive plat of rice and, the best thing that she could find to put on top of the rice, was the minestrone!  She wolfed that down, chased by the peaches.  Luke was delighted to be able to make his own cookie and icecream sandwich for desert and we all shared an American waffle (shaped like Mickey) with maple syrup and soft serve.

We're taking the day off tomorrow.  We all need a break.  So we'll schloomph around the pool, read books and maybe watch a movie.   It will be good to recharge.

Spending Spree!

 

Luke and Ali slept for 12 hours last night and weren't too disappointed about missing out on the fireworks.  When I phoned to get our car at 8:20, I was told that the pickup was hourly on the hour, so I woke the kids up and we had 35 mins to eat breakfast, shower, pack and get to the front desk.  They were up in a flash and ready on time and then we said goodbye to Disney World.  I had a very heavy heart - what an amazing place.  I'm sure I'll never come back again but it is etched in my fondest memories forever.

 

We picked up our car and I had some last minute doubts wondering if we were doing things in the most efficient, economical and safe way.  We got in the car and I asked Luke to remind me to drive on the right as much as possible.  When I have to drive on the right, I'm alwasy concerned about what my reflexes will do in times of an emergency.  Argh... anyway - the car driving was all fine and I think that hiring a car was a good idea in the end.  We had all our luggage and the flexibility to go wherever we wanted.

 

Luke loves these fire hydrants.... just like in the movies...

 

 

So we went shopping.  It was FANTASTIC!!!  I wish that we had such a selection in SA.  When I go shopping in SA, I just get in a bad mood.  I can never find anything I like, I find the sales assistant unfriendly, nothing ever fits properly and they often don't have my size.  Well, today, everything was superb and Flops, you'll be very happy to know that I bought a LOT of stuff.  Allan Gray will not recognise me - I think I have enough tops to wear a different one every day for a month!  Here's me with all my loot (I even bought 2 dresses... and 5 pairs of shoes!).

I had researched the best place to go beforehand and we went to a factory outlet place - similar to Access Park I guess.  And the best part was that ALL the stores had a spring sale on.  Oh my goodness.  We started out at Gap where they had up to 75% off but most of the stuff was discounted 40%- 50%.  I love Gap but I had to hold myself back a tad because I wanted to get away from my usual tom-boy attire and buy some more feminine clothes and Gap's not exactly the most feminine of shops.  It was so great - I went into the change room with about 20 things to try on and I didn't have to only take in a max of 5 items and get a tag etc.  While I was trying stuff on, a sales assistant knocked on my door to ask if the sizes were OK and off she went to get me some other sizes!  What a pleasure. 

Then we went to Loft which was also fabulous and I bought TWO dresses!  As I was walking around the store picking things out to try on, a sales assistant came and took the things away from me to put in the dressing room.  When I got to the dressing room, my name was on the door and all the clothes I had picked up were hanging up ready to be fitted.  It was bliss.

Then we went to Dress Barn and the clothes there was so pretty - I think I bought 5 things in one shop.  Then shoes and sunglasses and the obligatory ice cream of course.

After the factory outlet, we went to another shopping mall where I wanted to go to Ann Taylor (my favourite US shop from previous visits).  The clothes looked great, but didn't fit very well, so I (only) bought 3 things. 

For those of you that don't know me all that well, you may wonder why I'm going on about this so much.  But for those of you that do know me, will know that I haven't bought clothes in over a year because I just hate shopping.  But today was great.

May I just take this opportunity to thank my London tenants for their contribution to this US trip.

And what were Luke and Ali doing all this time you may ask...  Today was MY day and they knew it!  They were so good and just followed me along with a huge amount of patience.  The bought a couple of things for themselves.  Luke bought a pair of sunglasses which had the effect of changing his walk.  Ali bought a pair of very pretty shoes.  And we all bought something from Gap:

Finally, we stopped off at Pubic... er I mean Publix, the supermarket to purchase some supplies:

This trolley can be found in the Guinness Book of Records for the most healthy trolley ever purchase on US soil.  What you don't see (behind the scenes), is that there were also som Haribos, M&Ms and Skittles added later on.  Luke and Ali have been craving fruit and it hasn't been easy to get in Disney so now we have a supply to last us until we leave.  And loads of water!

We arrived at the new hotel at about 7pm and I was a bit ratty - the driving had rattled me a bit.  I was very happy to take the car to the drop off point in one piece.  Driving on the right with such precious human cargo is stressful!  The new hotel is not nearly as nice as Disney and we are all in one small room with Luke and Ali needing to share a double bed.  But it's adequate and has 3 swimming pools and the location is very convenient for everything that we want to do from here.

Wake up call tomorrow at 7am (Ali was intrigued that I can phone the reception and ask for a wake-up call).  Getting them call us is probably more reliable than me setting the radio alarm and we don't want to oversleep tomorrow - it's the day for the Kennedy Space Centre!

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

The kids have slept for 12 hours.... and counting....

Who thinks that we should take a day off on Saturday?

Last day at Disney

Today, we went back to Epcot and went straight to Soarin' to fly again.  Here are some pics of where we went:

In the last post, I told you that we boarded a large ski lift to soar.  Today, I was intrigued to find out how it works and how they manage to get so many people to have front seats while soaring.  The screen is really big.  The chair lift that each person sits on sits 11 people.  There are 3 chair lifts across there are 3 levels of lifts.  So the giant machinery that lifts us and sways us left and right as we soar, is actually carrying 9 chairs and 99 people.  While soaring you're unaware of the other 8 chair lifts that are right next to you.  This is replicated on the other side of the building, so they're able to move 198 people though the ride every 15 minutes or so.

Then we went on a boat trip through a green house which was a educational ride about green farming techniques and watched a movie with the Lion King characters talking about conservation.  Awesome huge digital screen (they've been a lot of those) with fabulous breath-taking pictures of our gorgeous blue planet.

We boarded a giant clam to go under the sea with Nemo and then we got into a human tank right up close to a fish tank with Crush, the turtle from Nemo in it.  Crush did a live totally cool "stand up" comedian show with questions from the little kids sitting right up close to the tank. 

You'll probably think I've gone bonkers now - what Turtles can do a comedian show?  Crush can at Epcot!  It was hysterical, dude.

A couple more flower beds during their flower festival...

 

Then we went on a 45 minute ride to learn about Energy with Ellen De-Generes.  Below, you can see the seating - each of these 'cars' carries 100 people and there were 5 of them in a very large room. 

We moved from one room to another and then through a jungle with the dinosaurs (we had to go right back in time to the big bang to understand where oil comes from).  The content wasn't any thing new, but the way that it was presented was incredible.  More huge digital screens surrounding us so that we really felt the big bang and felt that we were in the jungle.

 

Then Ali designed her own roller coaster in the Innoventions centre. Here's a pic that didn't come out very well because it's taken through glass.  But you can see Ali and Luke's feet in the air as they loop-the-loop while taking a ride on the roller coaster that Ali designed.  You too can see her design.  Go to www.mathmovesu.com and register.  Her design's code is UJJJTA7.  I've tried this and didn't get very far, but it's late.

 

 

Then we took a flip around the world and stopped off in Norway, China, Germany, Italy, Japan, Morocco, France and the UK.  Here's Ali and Luke in Italy: 

This is Epcot's World Showcase where they have 11 countries each with it's own area.  All the buildings look exactly like the countries that they are from.  But the incredible thing is that the atmosphere feels like the country too!  In each country's area, they only employ people to work there if they are actually from the country.  Because there are so many people here, there are bound to be many visitors from each of these countries and they gravitate to their own country's area to check it out.  So China had loads of Chinese people walking around.  We sat down for a proper lunch (thanks Mum) in Japan and were served by a Japanese lady who spoke Japanese English.  It was quite funny when we asked for water for the table and she didn't understand us until I said "wudder"!  This was only the second meal that we've had since leaving SA that we ate of a proper plate and drank out of a glass.  For every other meal, our cutlery and crockery have ended up in the bin.

 

We finished up in Epcot with Michael Jackson's Captain EO.  I didn't see this in the 80s and wasn't much of a MJ fan when he was alive so I didn't know anything about it.  They've managed to make the moving in 3D which is intriguing because the footage was shot in the 80s before they had 3D technology.  Wow - that man can move!  The music was wonderful.  It seemed like normal 3D movie until about half way through when our chairs started shuddering with the intensity of the dance.  The kids loved it.

 

When we got back to the hotel, showered, did our laundry and had one of those yummy steak salads and then we went for a 1 hour nap.  My plan was to wake up in time to go back to Hollywood Studios to see the fireworks there at 10 and then enjoy 2 Extra Magic Hours doing the Toy Story, Rock n Roller Coaster, Tower of Terror rides again and I was hoping to get the kids to see the Little Mermaid puppets.  But the alarm clock didn't work (actually, I forgot to turn it to 'on' after setting it) and I woke up at 22:30.  The kids will be disappointed I think, but sleep is valuable and it's too late now.  I really have messed up with these Extra Magic Hours and I could kick myself.  But, despite the fact that we are constantly in a World Cup-type crowd of people, the longest we've waited for anything was about 45 mins for the build-your-own-rollercoaster.  These Americans have mastered moving large crowds and these huge crowds of people move swiftly onwards.

 

So, that's the end of Disney World!  I can't believe that we're not even half way through our trip and this time last week, we were still in SA.  We have really managed to jam pack so much into 6 days.  Things should slow down a bit from now on, but we've still got some awesome days planned up ahead.  Tomorrow, I've rented a car to get us to our next hotel... via some shopping for me.  I went to the concierge to ask if they had a local area driving map for me so that I can find my way around tomorrow.  She gave me a 'Driving Directions From All Star Resort' brochure printed on thick paper complete with a detailed map which shows me everything that I need to know - including local shopping centres.  It is exactly what I need.  I guess I'm not the first person to ask for such a thing, but I'm blown away by how organised these people are and what detail they've gone to to make sure that every aspect of our trip is easy.

Revitalized!

Luke and Ali slept for over 5 hours this afternoon and woke up full of jokes and laughs.  No more lips.  Great!  We had an ice cream and then headed off to Epcot for supper (er... I know it's the wrong way around but re-established peace needed to be celebrated!) 

The fireworks display was fabulous.  Epcot has a green earth theme about it and, central to the fireworks display, was this seemingly suspended earth above the lake.

After supper, we could take advantage of Extra Magic Hours.  My one planning slip up has been to not use these properly.  Anyway - we headed off to Soarin',  In the queue, they had this volley ball game where the people in the queue could jump up to push the balls up.  Further up the ramp, this changed to a flight game where the crowds opposite the different screens all had to lean left and lean right to fly like a bird and race the other screens. 

Soarin' was fabulous.  There were 3 giant ski lifts that carried 11 people each and the lift was raised up above the ground so that our feet were dangling and there was a monster Imax-like screen in front of us that projected images of soaring... above the Golden Gate Bridge, above some PG golf course (Libs - you'll know which one), above the sea waves - swooping down to some surfers, above canyons, city lights ... etc etc.  When we go back to Epcot tomorrow, we're going to rush to Soarin' to do it again.

On the way out, the pavement was lighted up in various funky patterns:

Here's Ali and Luke holding up the weight of the Epcot ball:

We went inside there for a ride called 'Spaceship Earth' which is a ride up to the top of the ball showing the evolution of information from cave painting to the internet.  It finished with a 'create your own future' program on the way back down which Ali loved.  At the beginning of the ride, our photographs had been taken and these photos were used in the customised future video.  Very clever.

After the ride, there were some computer games to play - driving a car simulator, placing bones and organs on a body and this one shown below where Ali and Luke had to supply the power to a city.

While they were playing the game, I looked at the time and it was after 23:30.  The park closed at 23:00.  When we were leaving, I asked one of the cast members why they hadn't asked us to leave and ushered us out and he said, "We just don't".  They really are completely non-pushy.  All they want is for us to have a great holiday - whatever it takes.  Quite incredible. 

We stopped of at the hotel restaurant and bought some fruit and a Twix.  Luke, back on form, shoved the Twix in his cuff and said, "I've still got a couple of Twix up my sleeve!"

Meltdown

This morning we went to Epcot.  It's the flower festival at Epcot at the moment.

We went to Chevrolet's "Test Track" ride and I'm going to tell you all about it.  We got there early so we only queued for about 10 mins or so before getting into the queue inside the building.  The queue line was decorated with cars and designs by Chevrolet so it was interesting to look at everything while we were waiting.  The final bit of the queueing was a white model of a car with a television screen interviewing people.  One little girl said, "My ideal car would be decorated like an aligator..." and the white car was decorated as an aligator by projecting a very funky image on the model.  It was really cool.  When we got closer to the front of the queue,  a cast member checked our guest keys because we were going to need it to design our own car!  So as I mentioned in a previous post, these rides have "pre-shows" and the Test Track pre-ride was to design our own car!   A group of about 30 of us were led into a room which had 4 rows of giant touch screen pcs:

 

Luke got to design a car!

 

 

This is his car:

 

 

Once done, we boarded the car we'd designed (well... not really...  we boarded the ride):

 

 

And went for the ride of our lives:

 

 

Afterwards, in the post-ride we could see how our car did compared to the other cars in our group of 30 designs:

 

 

We could also then create an advert for our car - our car drove on the moon!

 

It was fabulous.

 

After Test Track, I asked Luke to go and get us some Fast Passes for Soaring while Ali and I waited for him.

 

 

Then we went to "Mission: Space". 

 

 

 

We did this ride twice - the tame version first and then the more hectic one. Again, the pre-ride was brilliant.  I particularly liked the space costumes that all the cast members were wearing.  We got inside a rocket that propelled us to Mars (we were in hypersleep, so the journey felt like it only took a couple of seconds).  The tame version was cool and the hectic version was absolutely amazing.  The g-force sensation in my stomach reminded me of the zero-g flight that I was lucky enough to do in Russia in 2002.  I loved it and was completely intrigued about how they managed to do it because we were all just sitting in a closed up box.  Ali didn't like it at all... but she did it!!!

 

The post-ride for this ride was really great.  We had to play a game in a big group of people which was divided into 2 teams and each team had a team of engineers that solved problems on the ISS and a team of astronauts who fixed the problems.  It was really clever and I loved it.

 

Then the meltdown occurred.  Lippy laggy grumpy... oh dear!  Just too much fun.  So I marched the kids off to the bus, got back to the hotel, fed them with a steak salad and chocolate chip cookie and told them that I was going back to Hollywood Studios to watch the Little Mermaid and they had to stay in the hotel.  No TV and no PC.  They could swim (but it's very cold today) and wonder around the hotel, or read a book.  But my instruction was that they needed to switch off and recharge. 

 

I headed off on my own back to HS and the Little Mermaid was fantastic.  We were in a ship wreck in the wind and the rain (yes - it was windy and wet in the theatre).  And then we sank underwater.  A bunch of very colourful fishy puppets (about 30 of them) sand 'Under the Sea" and then the little mermaid (a real mermaid - I kid you not) appeared on a rock on stage and sang a mermaidy song.  The show was only about 20 minutes long but it was well worth the trip out there.  After the Little Mermaid, I went on "The Great Movie Ride" which was 25 minutes on a massive big ride car with sets and special effects from some great American movies: Alien, The Wizard of Oz, Tarzan... etc.  I enjoyed it, but I was glad that the kids weren't with me - they would have found it boring.

 

I came back to our room and opened the door and both Luke and Ali are fast asleep in bed.  I think I might have knackered them!!!  I'm going to let them have a good sleep and we'll head off back to Epcot at 8pm tonight to see the fireworks and then 2 hours of Extra Magic Hours which will be great because the parks are really crowded and we'll be able to see some of the more popular things without having to queue for too long.  So tonight's going to be another late one.  Tomorrow's our last day in Disney World and I want to make sure that we've finished all of Epcot and, if it's warmer tomorrow, we'll go to Typhoon Lagoon in the afternoon.