Day 2: Feb 4th 2006 Clausterphobic in a Tin Can

Mmmm… I’m floating down Main Street USA. Its raining gumdrops and chocolates. A pink cloud zips by. And then a purple one. And then a polk-a-dot one. And then a huge bee zooms out of no where. I can hear it. “Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!” It sounds mad… “Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!”

I sit up in the bed… it’s the alarm going off. Both Matt and Mark are slapping at the alarm from either bed trying desperately to turn it off. One of them finally does and I lean over Mark to see what time it is. 12AM! Ugh! My head hits the pillow and I’m back to dreamland.

When 7am rolled around we got our real wake up call from Stitch and Mickey. That was much better! I get up first since being a girl and having to dry my hair it takes me longer to get ready. I don’t wake up this beautiful. LOL! That was a joke. I just do my hair and toss on some make up for the sake of others around me so they won’t be shocked by my hideousness. LOL! Still 40 minutes later we were all ready and heading out the door of our hotel room.

We headed down to the Everything Pop, which is a huge cafeteria type place with 5 stations serving different kinds of food through out the day. But its like the best cafeteria ever. I was really impressed with the food for the price. Coming from California I was overjoyed to see the price of food. Everything Pop also has a gift shop and sundries. It has… well… everything! For breakfast I had a chocolate croissant that I popped in the microwave they had there for about 20 seconds and it was prefect and melty. Mark had a yogurt parfait and Matt had a cinnamon roll.


The Everything Pop from the seating area.


Sorry Marky! Is it still too early for pictures? Mark enjoys his parfait… really.

After breakfast we headed to the bus area armed with hot chocolate in our mugs. Unfortunately it started raining while we were waiting for the bus to arrive. Thank goodness for our trusty ponchos!


Matt and Mark are unhappy about the rain.

Once we arrived at Epcot we were about 20 minutes early and they weren’t letting people in quite yet. We tried our best to stay under cover out of the wind and rain. As soon as they started letting guests in we headed over to the special Cast Member entrance. The Cast Member tried to scan Mark’s main gate pass and it wouldn’t work. She called over a lead and the lead couldn’t get it to work. She said she had been gone for a few weeks and they took out the special scanner needed to scan Disneyland Cast Member passes. She suggested we go to guest relations. So through the rain we trudged aaaaall the way to the other side of the entrance to Guest Relations. There was a great CM there. A cute old guy named Howard. He told us the other CM’s were wrong and called over to the gate to tell them how to do it correctly. He apologized profusely and told us to tell them Howard sent us if we had any problems. We didn’t and we were soon in Epcot!


If you can’t tell, that’s Space Ship Earth. It practically blends in with the gray sky!


No rain can stop our fun!

We rode Space Ship Earth. We all loved that ride. We all decided that the scene with Rome burning smelled like BBQ sauce. It made me think of Chili’s and every time we went through that room I sang “Chili’s baby back ribs…. I want my baby back ribs!” In the scene in Egypt there is a large man by the Pharaoh that Mark and I think is a drag queen. Mark’s favorite line from the ride was “Terry San… you are one cool dude” and said it through out the trip after that. I have never in my life seen a ride that uses so many fiber optics. It was pretty cool to see.

After Space Ship Earth we went to Innoventions (East or West… I can’t remember!). Its so much more interesting than Disneyland’s! There were actually fun things to do here!


Matt and Mark play with the virtual pond.


Yay! Smashing TV’s with sledgehammers is fun!


We sent a few picture emails to people.


If you are not in my family (or Mark or Matt who I explained this to) then you probably won’t get why this picture is so funny but my family will get a kick out of it.

After all the Innoventions Fun (Innfunventions?) we decided to try Mission Space. A little background for you about me. I am a teeny bit claustrophobic. Small spaces = bad. Small dark spaces = really bad. Small dark spaces where I am confined = VERY BAD! To top it off… motion simulators like Star Tours have been known to make me dizzy. And for those of you that don’t know… Mission Space contains all of these. You smoosh 4 people in a tiny tiny box and then get spun like a dradle. And I was about to go on it!


Sure looks pretty on the outside!


One last picture together before I’m crammed into a sardine can.


Oof! Its heavy!


Copy Cat!


What are they worried about? I’m the one afraid of small spaces!

We went inside and stood on our numbers. Lieutenant Dan from Forrest Gump told us about our mission. “Lieutenant Dan! You got new legs!!” He warned me that I could get sick. Thanks for watching out for me Dan! The doors opened and we followed the Cast Member to our corresponding numbers inside. She left us and Lieutenant Dan came back on the TV screen above us. He gave us our assignments. YES! I was the Commander! Haha guys! That means you have to listen to me! And then… it was time to board. Ok… I can do this. Its not so bad. The little room is attached to an arm which is attached to a biiiiig spinney thing and there are something like 6 or 8 cars like ours. We get in and sit down. Out little cabin can hold just 4 people. I lower the over the shoulder safety restraint. Ok… just remember to breathe, Beth. And then… ACK! The front wall is getting closer as the whole freakin’ cabin is closing in on its self. By the time the cabin is closed there is maybe a foot from my nose to the “window” I’m supposed to be looking out of. And I don’t dare turn my head to look at anyone because Lieutenant Dan told me 500 times if he told me once… DO NOT TURN YOUR HEAD. It will make you spew. So I didn’t. I looked straight ahead and tried not to hyperventilate. Mark grabbed my hand to make sure I was ok. And I’m happy to say… I did survive. I did my duty as commander and pushed the buttons I needed to and I came back feeling dizzy and with a headache but I lived. I think it’s a good ride… but its not a great one for me. In fact it’s probably the only ride ever I didn’t really enjoy but I think that had more to do with the confined quarters than anything else. It was time for some tamer stuff until my breathing returned to normal.


Ellen makes me laugh. Also Bill Nye the Science Guy is in this ride. Once when I lived in Seattle I saw him eating across from me in a fancy restaurant. He was with a bunch of men all wearing bow ties. LOL!


More Innoventions Fun! We helped put out fires and our tem won because we are good at spotting fire hazards. Don’t leave your curling irons on top of towels people!


Matt is amazed at all the fiber optics.


We headed to Club Cool to try the drinks. This is Mark and Matt trying the infamous Beverly.


Matt recoils in disgust at the taste.


Mark savors the taste. No kidding! He liked it. It actually wasn’t that bad. It’s the after taste that’s killer. Bleck!

We rode Figment. It was… interesting. Matt really liked it. After that we decided to check out the World Showcase. We went to Canada and watched O Canada! Matt was unimpressed. Mark and I liked it ok but I decided they need to install chairs that swivel in there so you can see the 360 degree movie without standing. We looked at all the pavilions and had Fish and Chips in the UK Pavillion. Mmmm! It was really good. Some of the best I’ve ever had. And I lived in seafood city.


“I want to have grown-up fun. Spoon and figgy pudding. Rabbitown dum druggary’s hollow.”


We’re bobbies! Don’t mess with us.


Watch out for the Poppins!


Bonjour, mon nom est Mark. Je suis un diable attirant!


Mon nom est Matt et ma peinture est magnifique!


Je suis Beth. Mes lèvres sont pouty et kissable.


As you can tell I’m more interested in the Éclair than the picture.


Matt makes friends with a cream puff…


And finds a chair attached to his back pack when he stands up. LOL! I laughed till my stomach hurt.


We found a belly dancer in Morocco. Psh… I can do that.


See… I told you!


Nice Fez’s guys!


Matt poses next to Super Happy Fun Robot in Japan.


Wow are we ever white in that picture!




Mark and I celebrate our Italian heritage in Italy.


And Matt makes out with a local.


Don’t hate because we’re so cool.


Mark looks like he could be in the Rat Pack.

We visited the exhibit in China about Hong Kong Disney. They had some great concept art there and a display of the costumes worn by their CM Ambassadors. They were beautiful!


Mark seems confused as to why he’s an astronaut in China.


Mushu! He was a big flirt.


I had to give Buddha a big hug. He just looks so happy!


Matt and I sure love the hats!


Just look away now and pretend you saw nothing…

We road Maelstrom on Norway. What an odd little ride. I thought it was hilarious and enjoyed it even if it was a little on the short side. The gift shop at the exit was full of troll items.




That troll is getting fresh with me!


Matt and I make some attractive blondes!


This was right before we rode El Rio Del Tiempo (I hope I spelled that correct). Awe… Look how much we love each other!

Somewhere in all of that we ate dinner in China at the Lotus Blossom. We had Orange Chicken and Egg Rolls. It was pretty good. I’m not much of a fan of fast food Chinese but it was some of the best I’ve ever had. Then we staked out a spot for Illuminations and attempted to stay warm. The rain stopped but the wind was wicked cold and cut right through us. We huddled under our ponchos until Illuminations started.

And I was unimpressed. Ack… I’m going to be banned from the Disney community now! I really loved the music and I loved the beginning that the end. It was just the middle with the spinning globe and nothing else going on that bored me to tears. I was expecting to love it but… yawn. LOL! Mark and Matt seemed to like it though although Mark agreed the middle was a tad slow.

We walked back to the bus stop and had to stand all the way back to the hotel. Once we got there Mark and I picked out dessert. He got cookied and I got the Tie Dyed cheesecake. It looks like playdough but it was really tasty!


Dessert or childhood modeling clay? You decide.