Heiss Family Boondoggle - January 2008

Date: January 12-19, 2008
Cast: me, Beth, (ageless) - DH, Mark, (kid at heart) - DS, Matt, (kid, 19)

DAY 5 - Wednesday - Space, the final frontier...

Since we've been to WDW so many times we decide to do something completely different today - we're heading to NASA. After a leisurely breakfast with my dad and stepmother, we say our good-byes and head off.

The GPS is having a very difficult time in Florida. Earlier, she thought that the outlet mall was directly on I-4, and today she can't find NASA at all. We try Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral; we can't even figure out what category to look in - is it an attraction? A museum? A point of interest? We head east and decide to wing it and follow the signs.

It turns out that NASA is about an hour from WDW, and the last part is a beautiful drive along the ocean. We get there at about noon and get tickets and decide to do the 2.5 hour bus tour first. There are a lot of other things to see at the visitor's center, but we figure we can do those later.

Well, the 2.5 hour tour turns out to take us all afternoon. There's so much to see there that we linger over everything. There's a shuttle on the launch pad that we get to see from the observation tower. We also get to see a real-live rocket (what would've been Apollo 18) and consoles from the Apollo and Gemini flights and mock- ups and walk-throughs of the space station. It's amazing and I'd highly recommend it. There's no way we can possibly see everything, but our tickets are good for two days so we decide we'll come back on Saturday before we head home.

We head out at closing time and drive back to Downtown Disney for dinner at the Rainforest, but the wait's at least 45 minutes and I have no patience at all. We end up at the Earl of Sandwich and Mark in particular is very pleasantly surprised. We top it off with sundaes at Ghiradelli's and then drag our exhausted and over-stuffed selves back to POP.

-Beth in CT
on a diet

DAY 6 - Thursday

We find ourselves in a bit of a quandary. We have 4-day park hoppers and we plan to go into the parks for 5 days. We had planned to extend our tickets, but it turns out we can't do that because we're not within the 14-day window. We buy one-day non-hopper tickets and decide to spend the whole day at AK. This will be a first for us. We always spend the morning in AK and then head to the park formerly known as Disney- MGM. We will force ourselves.

We start with a walk through the Oasis. Mark and Matt look at the bugs and I don't. The CM with the millipede doesn't understand why I won't look. I tell her I have this thing about anything with more than 4 legs. Mark heads over to get FPs for the safari while Matt and I head to Expedition Everest. While waiting, we chat with the CMs in front of the ride. Matt works at our local amusement park for the summer, so they talk shop. Matt's not the most outgoing kid, so it's nice to see him engaging in conversation with somebody. Mark comes back and we ride EE, although I do have a minor panic attack as the train pulls away from the station. I scream through the whole ride (but no tears this time Jud), and the the guys head to Primeval Whirl while I sit (I will not risk spinning at this juncture lest some poor CM has to spend the morning cleaning up my breakfast). From there it's onto Dinosaur, where we get a front seat.

This park is empty as well. I love being able to walk right on the rides.

We use our FPs for the safari. There are a lot of animals out. Maybe it's the weather - it's cool and just a touch drizzly. Our vehicle has to wait while three giraffes cross the road. It's wonderful. We walk along the Pangani trail afterwards and Matt gets some great pictures.

We decide to check out the Yak & Yeti for lunch. We opt for the counter service, and it's fine. Mark and I have sweet and sour pork while Matt has a beef dish. We swap a little and everybody eats and we're all happy.

We take the Maharaja trail and then decide to head over to Festival of the Lion King. We've never seen this show - to be honest, we don't do a lot of the shows because we really like the rides. We don't know quite what to expect, but this show is amazing and not at all what we expected. We're in the lion section and roar proudly. It's a terrific show and we decide we'll have to check it out again on our next trip.

Another ride on EE (no panic attack this time), then Flights of Wonder (okay, I lied, we've seen this show before. What can I say, I like birds). Back to Dinosaur again and then Matt plays a couple of the midway games (and wins a purple dinosaur) while Mark heads over to It's Tough to be a Bug (don't like bugs even in 3-D). The show's down so we all head to Nemo.

Nemo. It's a strange little show. We saw "Avenue Q" on Broadway a few months ago - it's a musical done with Sesame Street-type puppets. The Nemo show reminded me a little of this, only without the language and nudity. It was odd. I thought the puppets were beautiful and I loved the ray on a bicycle, but I thought the story was rushed and the songs were, well, lame. Still, it was nice to sit for a while.

We head over to Downtown Disney for dinner, this time at Planet Hollywood. We get right in and have a delicious (if very LOUD) dinner. Back to POP to get a good night's sleep to prepare for our last day.

-Beth in CT
reptile person

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