Dec 31 - Day 3

Thursday, December 31, 1998 - Day 3

Seth, Elana and Sara the EPCOT entrance

We got up at 7:00 and were out of the room by 8:30. The EPCOT bus was the second one to arrive. We were stopped by a photographer who took three different pictures of us, two of the whole family and one of the three kids. The line for Spaceship Earth was already long, so we went to the Land and rode Living With The Land. We then had breakfast from the bakery, which is the only one open in the morning. They have a continental breakfast that comes with a fruit cup, choice of bagel w/ cream cheese, croissant or Danish and a drink.

After breakfast, we went to Journey Into Imagination and saw "Honey, I Shrunk The Audience." I was disappointed to find out that the Journey Into Imagination was closed for Rehab. Somehow I missed that in al the preparation that I do before hand. We then rode Horizons. We like this ride and since I thought I remembered hearing about its possible demise, I wanted to make sure we got one last shot at it. After we got off, we decided to skip Universe of Energy, which is the other attraction the kids wanted to see, since I was nervous about the parks reaching capacity and wanted to make sure we had no problem getting into Disney Studios. We stopped by to check out our pictures and bought the one of the three kids, since it came out so nice.

We waited awhile for the bus, then two came out at once. When we got to Disney Studios, we checked out the entertainment first. Lots of choices for the night - Flash Cadillac, an oldies show featuring Peter Noonan, Davey Jones and Bobby Sherman and a 70s revival.

Plus, COMCAST was broadcasting from where Superstar Television used to be. It was a comedy show, featuring Margaret Cho, and Bob Zany. As we walked down Hollywood Blvd, CMs were directing people to the Beauty and the Beast show, so, not having seen it in a few years, we decided to take it in. We got tenth row seats on the right. There was a very good acapella group performing, called The Voice Overs. They were five young performers, three guys and two girls. The show itself seemed to be a shorter version of the one I remember when it was back in the theater that the Hunchback is now at. It was okay, but a little disjointed.

We got a snack and then I went to production info to get tickets for the COMCAST show, while Judy and the kids got on line at Indy. Apparently, each show featured one comic, so I chose the 10:15 show with Margaret Cho, since we had just seen her on Comedy Central's showing of the Drew Carey roast. The CM that gave me the tickets warned me that this wasn't a Disney show and that they couldn't control the content. I caught up with Judy and the kids and we got seats in the front row on the right. This time the airplane was working (see my August trip report), so we got to see the whole show. Seth wanted to get picked, but we forgot you had to be 18. I tried, but I guess I can't be lucky all the time.

We got out of Indy as people were lining up for the 1:00 parade. We went to the Great Movie Ride. The wait was only about 20 minutes and I asked for, and got, the western scene. While we were queuing through the movie room, some idiot was pointing a laser pointer at the screen, which was very distracting. He ended up on the car behind us and kept playing with it. I yelled at him at one point to cut it out and got approving nods from others on my car. They ought to outlaw these things. They're annoying and a distraction. What if he had hit the CM in the eye with it? The ought to add to the announcement of "no smoking, drinking or flash photography" ... and no laser pointers.

We decided to check out the line at Tower of Terror and were pleasantly surprised to see it at only a half hour. Elana reluctantly came one with Seth, Sara and me. She claims she was forced. I say it was more cajoled <g>. Even though she is a little frightened, she really likes the "thrill" rides, just refuses to admit it.

Seth, Sara, Elana and Sandy going "down"

TOT built up a good appetite for us, which was fortunate, since we were close to our 5:50 PO time for Mama Melrose. So we walked over and got there at 5:30. It was a mob scene. There isn't a lot of room for waiting and even with a PO, we ended up waiting an hour to get seated. One server told us that people were lingering more than usual. We finally got seated. Our server had been working since 11:00 without a break and had been asked to work until 1:00. The menu was a special one for the week. I had the oak grilled portobello mushroom appetizer and the oak grilled Chicken. Seth had the four cheese pizza, Sara the tortellini alfredo, Judy the tuna and Elana the child's personal pizza. Judy's tuna was too spicy (she can't eat spices or anything with tomatoes), so she asked if she could have it plain. The assistant manager came over to explain that it's cooked with the spices in it, so he nicely offered to let her order something else. She had the tortellini too. They left us the tuna, which was fortunate, because the pizza wasn't enough for Seth. This is just another example of how Disney really does go al out to make sure guests enjoy their experience at WDW. We were hoping to get into the 8:30 showing of Fantasmic, but since dinner ran so late, we knew we'd never make it.

Elana and friend

Since Mama Melrose was right near Muppet Vision 3-D, that was our next stop. Since it wasn't crowded, we were told we could sit anywhere, so we sat in the front row. We then stopped in the shop that's right at the exit, between Muppet Vision and Mama Melrose, so that we could get a Pooh sweatshirt for Elana (her favorite character.) We then walked through the Osborne light display after getting ourangel glasses. Absolutely incredible. They were giving out party hats all over the park and we got ours at a distribution site on Mickey Blvd. Unfortunately, they had run out of noisemakers by then. It was 9:30, so we checked in to see when they were going to let us in for the 10:15 show. It turned out 10:15 was the time we were going to be let in and the show was really 10:30, so we walked on to Star Tours.

We went for the COMCAST show and waited until 10:30 to be let in. We were able to watch the show in progress on the monitors above. I had a pleasant surprise in finding out that the Alexi Lalas band was also performing. Alexi Lalas is probably the most recognizable American soccer player (the one with the flaming red hair and goatee.) He plays for the national team and my favorite MLS team, the Metrostars (hence my ID, GOMETROS.) He is also a musician and recently toured with Hootie and the Blowfish. It was a madhouse getting into the studio as everyone tried to crowd into

the first door. Even though we were there early, we ended up sitting in the third row, but all the way on the right. We got the run down on how do behave during the show ("Don't worry, you won't miss the fireworks, so please don't walk out in the middle of the broadcast") The MC, Todd something or other did a little routine and when he introduced the Alexi Lalas band, I waited until the applause died down and shouted out "Go Metros!" Alexi saw me and gave me the thumbs up. I've met him a number of times, so he knows who I am. Anyway, Bob Zany had been standing in the aisle right by us and he was giving out prizes. One of the prizes was Alexi's newest CD "Ginger" and I got it, which also got me on TV. So, if anyone was watching on New Year's Eve at around 11:00, that was me. Margaret Cho did a 35 minute routine that had us rolling on the floor. After a little wrap up by Zany, we were told to make room for the next show. I stopped and chatted with Alexi a little bit before leaving. We got outside with about five minutes left in 1998. We found a good spot for the fireworks, which were dynamite. They must have lasted 10 minutes. I knew a lot of people would be heading toward the exits right after the fireworks ended, so we decided to see if we could get on TOT one last time. This time the line was up to 40 minutes, so we decided to leave and slowly walked to the exit, getting back to the room at 1:30.

NYE99.jpg (45198 bytes)

Sandy, Sara and Seth in New Year's Eve spirits