Laundry and Downtown Disney

Today Brock took the Yukon in so it could get its new hubs. He had a ton of work to do, so couldn't come to play with us today. The kids and I had a plan to quickly get the laundry done and our Animal Kingdom journaling and head in to Downtown Disney before noon. Best laid plans...laundry ended up taking about three times as long as estimated due to dryer issues and Brock returned in the completely repaired Yukon and we still weren't done. By the time the journal entries were done, we decided to go ahead and eat lunch before heading down. We hopped into our huge rental van and ended up arriving at Downtown Disney at almost 3 pm! As part of the conference Disney ticket offer, we got admittance into Disney Quest with the purchase of 2 days of park hopper tickets. We went ahead and went to Disney Quest first. The plan being to explore their five floors of virtual gaming and then check out the shops available on the "strip" of Downtown Disney.

How do I describe Disney Quest? Well, the kids enjoyed it. It was extremely loud with lots of flashing lights and sounds and crowds, but less people than at the outdoor theme parks. It was just a giant arcade basically. Brighton, Brynna and Spence got to go on a virtual raft ride which took them back in time to dinosaur days. The raft could only hold four people and Sky decided at the last minute that he didn't want to do it, so I stayed out with him, but we got to watch the others experience.


Then, we all went on a Pirates of the Caribbean 3D adventure where we all put on glasses and went into a gaming room. The screen is on three walls and we are on our own physical ship bow trying to sink other virtual pirate ships on the screens and get their gold. It was pretty fun. Brighton was the "Captain" of our vessel, meaning he steered our ship with an physical helm and the rest of us ran back and forth firing about 8 cannons by pulling physical strings and launching virtual cannonballs at ships that we would come to. Our ship sustained damage from cannonballs fired from opposing ships. We would see the ball coming and hear an explosion, then feel a physical impact on our ship. It was exciting! In the end, you are scored by how much gold you got to keep and we ended up scoring as "swabbies" which I think was about middle of the road.

After Pirates, we went on Aladdins Magic Carpet ride. You sat on a little motorcycle-type thing and put on a full virtual reality helmet and steered your "magic carpet" by turning the motorcycle handlebars and pushing forward or pulling back. We could hear each other talking and tried to work as a team, but weren't very successful. You tried to go down into the cave in the tiger's mouth like the Aladdin movie and retrieve a big gem. About 2 minutes into the "ride", I began to feel all sweaty and clammy. I didn't really know how to control my carpet and decided "virtual reality" is not really for me. In the end, there was a complete sense of failure as we didn't get very far into our "mission".

Typhoon!

The kids played some arcade games. I think the favorite was the Typhoon! where two people sit side by side and stare at a big screen and have virtual experiences like rollercoasters, rat races, and hovercraft rides. Two big fans blow on you from either side and your chairs vibrate and bump. There was tons of different kinds of games though including classics like air hockey and guitar hero and also the Fix It Felix game which is what the new movie Wreck It Ralph is based on.

Skylar's Donald

Spencer and Skylar enjoyed taking an animation class on how to draw Donald Duck.

The proud Artist

The other proud Artist

Spencer's Donald

Spencer played a human pinball game.

Spencer and Brighton both really loved a ride called "Cyberspace Mountain" where you get to go on a computer and design your own coaster. You could put in barrel rolls and loops or just straight tracks and camel humps. You could choose your speed and everything. Then you could go into a room with a simulator that was suspended on a couple of poles and actually ride your coaster. Brighton made his coaster with upside down loops and several barrel rolls and maximum speed. It was fun because I got to stand outside the simulator room and watch he and Spence's faces as they went on their rides. They both had huge smiles on their faces and now wish they had tackled the Hulk ride at Universal's Islands of Adventure.

Bryn and Sky driving a race car

After we were completely overstimulated (and I was WAY past that) I steered us out of Disney Quest with the promise of a visit to Wetzel's Pretzels. We were shocked to see that it was after 8 pm! Downtown Disney was more crowded than it was when we arrived, but everything looked cool being all lit up. At the pretzel store, we all chose a yummy, warm soft pretzel and most of us had frozen lemonades which were delicious, tasting like fresh squeezed.

Buzz & Woody Lego Sculpture

Hulk Lego Sculpture

It was really cool and breezy outside (and we were drinking frozen drinks!), but Brynna was on a mission to find her Disney Souvenir and everyone wanted to see the Lego structures and the overall look of Downtown Disney. There are human statues and live musician performers of many different types all along the walk so it is quite entertaining. I was quite the Nazi at the overcrowded Lego store and wouldn't let anyone shop. We looked ever so briefly and took a couple pics of the sculptures and then we headed to World of Disney, a huge Disney paraphernalia shop. Brynna finally found her souvenir. She has had in mind a new purse/bag for the last few weeks and has been looking everywhere we've gone, but she has inherited Brock's gene for making sure something is exactly what she wants before spending her money. We all know this is a good thing, but she was getting pretty discouraged with NOT finding exactly what she wanted. So we can all breathe a sigh of relief now! Everyone was beginning to get a little grumpy and why shouldn't we be, it was 9:30 at night and time to head back to the trailer and get into bed.

It will be an early morning tomorrow, as we have to pack up the trailer and take it in to the welding shop to have the hitch looked at by 8:30 and then we move sites within Bill Frederick City Park.