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Ground / Goofy's HUGE!
/ Brain Salad--Jingle bells! |
TrpltJanie
Cast Member
Posts: 1661
Registered: Aug 2002
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Posted 01-20-03 09:31 PM
Trip report--November 30th-December 14th
Main characters:
Me-mid 30's with a frazzled look permamently etched on my "nun-like" face
Brad-my husband the straight man in our "Burns and Allen" marriage
The Chorus:
Sarah- 8 years, batty over Digimon and Dinosaurs
My 4 year old triplets:
Jonathan-adores Buzz Lightyear
Rachel-carries her much loved "Dot" beanie everywhere she goes
Samuel-loves cars and always has a pocket full of toy cars
My mother-semi-retired school teacher
Richard-my oldest brother with his 11 year old daughter
Michael-my youngest brother with Devon, his 5 year old son
December 3rd--Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party
After the fireworks, I simply could not tear myself away from my spot in front of the castle as I held and cuddled Rachel in my arms. You know, it is awfully hard to explain that wonderful and incredible lightness of being in experiencing these incredible sounds. For a minute, everything around me seemed to slow down: The outlines of people walking past me became fuzzy and their tired voices faded away as I focused on this extraordinary music; the castle shimmered with a plethoria of Aurora Borealis colors thanks to several well placed spotlights; and its diamond windows sparkled with etheral glow as the color of the turrents changed continuously from turquiose blue into slate blue then in deep purple. With delight, I watched a very gentle breeze catch a strand of my daughter's spun gold hair causing it to dance for a moment before it settled across her impish face. Rachel squeaked with delight---when she's happy, she squeaks. I was terrified that I would never hear her squeaks because everybody told me how cute she sounded and I will not forget my first "Rachel's squeaks"--- and told me as she brushed her hair back that it was Tinkerbell playing with her hair. Rachel squeaked with a "Mommy look!" and told me that she saw Tinkerbell bounce off of a spry grandmother's blue haired helmet and it made me giggle. I loved the little, white lights on the trees and how the fluttering leaves caused the lights to twinkle. I would have been happy to be stuck with Rachel in a rip of a space/time continuum if I could stay in this point of time forever.
Mr. Reality tapped me on my shoulder and everything was brought back into sharp focus, the muted voices became loud and clear, and the castle had lost its colorful glow. I turned my head to see who repaired the rip and it was Michael. He asked me with a snicker. "So, ready for Mickey's Christmas party?"."
I nodded my head and put Rachel down with a "You bet your bloomers, Snicker-boy!" Lemme stop right there for a minute. After I got my implant, I had to ask a very good friend to help me connect various sounds to the way people talk such as snicker, chortle, angry, sad, scared, and many more and that is when I discovered that my little brother loves to snicker so I ended up calling him "Snicker boy" for that, not for the infamous candy bar.
We found a CM by Walt's statue and exchanged our pass for plastic green wrist bands. My family and I headed over to Tomorrowland and watched the Christmas show. We managed to sit up front so had a very good view of the show. Our kids cheered when they saw Goofy come out wearing his Santa suit because they're huge, huge fans of Goofy and if they had to chose between Mickey and Goofy, guess who they will pick? I know it sounds trite and overused but I still cannot get over how seamless the music was to the show right down to the last note.
After the show, we decided to split up to do our own thing and planned to meet at Walt's statue in time for the Christmas fireworks. My mother went with me because Samuel wanted to be her riding buddy and Jonathan wanted to hang out with Brad while my brothers, their kids, and Sarah took off for Frontierland to take another plunge on Splash Mountain. We took another spin on Buzz ride, got a little sick on the teacup ride---What was really odd was when I spun around in the teacup with my triplets, the music sounded rather unusual so I talked to my audiologist about it and described the experience. She told me that I might have spun around too hard and my brain just "freaked". Wow...."spinning" implants equals weird music? Sooo, that it means I gotta spin on the Mission:Space ride to see if I can get "weirded" out. Hehehehehe....
We headed over to Main Street because I wanted to see the snow coming down.
Oh!! It was like being in a christmas movie: music everywhere while those little wisps of frozen water came down. I had a good time chasing the snowflakes with my triplets but got so embarrassed when I accidently knocked over a garbage can. Brad waved to other passerbys with a "My wife has Disney-itis and it is very contagious so be careful when she's around." My mother heard that and almost fell to the ground laughing so hard. I didn't know about that until my mother told me on the next day. I asked her why she didn't tell me right there and she told me that she didn't want me to cram Brad into the garbage can and get me kicked out of the park.
Went over to Adventureland and I'll NEVER get tired of those drum sounds that welcomed me and my family. It really got my fanny shaking in sync with the beats so I did the chicken dance for a bit before my triplets got out of their stroller and did it with me. Brad hung back ....I mean waaaaaay back while my mother pretended not to know me. Look it is WDW...NOT a DEMOCRAT convention! Sheesh! Jonathan did his manical laugh when he gets silly and it made Brad laugh.
Got some hot chocolate and my kids loved the cookies. It was lovely to have CMs serve the hot chocolate with huge smiles on their faces and cheery "Merry Christmas!"
Went back on Arrrrgh! ride. This time, we yelled "FIRE!" at the same time with the pirate captain and then we threw our arms up and screamed, "BOOM!" when the cannonball hit the water. It was okay to act insane because we were the only ones in the boat and there were two empty boats behind us. However, I freaked out so bad when they STOPPED the ride, TURNED OFF the music, and SWITCHED the floodlights on. We were by a drunk pirate with a muddy pig. I couldn't believe how......dinky the pirates looked. One of them had an open seam on its rubber chin and it made the pirate look very sinister--more like that "Resistance is futile" look. I pulled off my earpiece and covered my eyes. Someone tapped me on my shoulder to get my attention and I refused to remove my hands to look so I babbled. "Lalalalalalala...I cannot let these bright lights defile my fuzzy warm memories of the pirates! Lalalalalalalalala!" It was about a minute or so before the lights were switched off and the music started up again. After the ride, I told Brad that I've been damaged horribly by this experience. So horrible and I'll have nightmares for the rest of my mortal life. Sniffle-sniffle. Wonder if there a support group that helps guests to sleep better after being so traumatized by their experiences like mine. Wonder if there is a 12 step thingy....
Did Splash Mountain and it was NEAT to plunge into the inky darkness and hear all those sounds. I banged my right knee really hard when I got startled by the camera flash and after we left Splash Mountain, I rubbed my sore knee, limped a little bit and for a few minutes, I even dragged my right leg just to get my triplets laughing. "Arrrgggh! Gotta get me a brainy! Where is brainy?" Again--not very many people around but I got some pretty strange looks from CMs and they probably thought that I was Jim Carrey's twin separated from birth. Phhhhfffft! WDW!
Frontierland!! COUNTRY BEARS! COUNTRY BEARS! COUNTRY BEARS! OOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH! (slaps myself and reminds myself to CALM DOWN!) Went to Frontierland COUNTRY BEARS! COUNTRY BEARS! COUNTRY BEARS! Hang on.... (slams the door on my head) I'm calm. I thought it was a hoot to hear 'em bears and my favorite one was triplet bears! ;D The grey bear with an idiotic look had the best sounding voice. All those years of wondering what they sounded like and finally have this opportunity of being pleasantly surprised by the singing and talking.
Richard called us over our two-way radio and told us to meet them at Peco Bill's for a quick dinner so trotted over there. I got a salad--can't remember what it was but it was HUGE! It was pretty good and all of the kids got hot dogs while the rest of the family got hamburgers. I was talking to my mother about the Arrrgh! ride and how shocked I was with that robot-pirate when I heard music and faint singing so I stood up to take a look and was delighted to see that it was the Christmas parade. There weren't too many people watching the parade and a lovely middle aged couple made room in the front so our kids could sit down and watch the parade so I thank this wonderful couple and hope that I can do another magical gesture for someone else on the next time I visit WDW.
Four months before we left for WDW, I bought all of the Disney Christmas CD and listened to it constantly to make sure that I could tell which music it was. It was tough in the beginning because all of the music sounded the same to me: a jumble of noises. I sent an e-mail to my audiologist about it and she had me to come up to the hospital and did some tweaking on my processor. She upped its capability to tune out the background noises and brought the high frequency electrodes down a tad--sorta making it less sensitive to high pitched sounds so it wouldn't interfer with *important* sounds. Once that was taken care of, the music came though a whole lot better and I was able to follow the beat. However, I drove my kids nuts because I played that kind of music in the van as I carpooled, ran errands, and etc.
First song? JINGLE BELLS! I sang at the top of my voice---well, not exactly at the top of my voice but I did sing with Sarah and the characters. Sarah and I did the chicken dance and it prompted Brad to roll his eyes. The gingerbread house was divine! The smell of gingerbread wafted out and my kids told me "Mommy--that smells like that candy house you made at home!" I went NUTS when I heard the marching band. Ever since I first discovered marching bands at a 4th of July parade, I've been captivated by the music and yes, I think "Beer Barrel Polka" is charming! I never wanted the parade to end....never.
After we finished dinner, we rode the Dumbo ride and then, we decided to get together for a group picture at Small World ride. I loved those Christmasy buttons that the CMs gave us and put one on and my family did the same thing. However, Jonathan changed his mind a second later about wearing the button and had me to take it off. Without thinking, I put his button on my sweatshirt and herded my kids in front of the camera. and got ready to look absolutely divine for the photo. My mother looked at me and started one of her hysterical giggling. Michael was flabbergasted at what he saw and Jasmyne and Sarah pointed at my chest while Richard snorted-laughed. Brad's face was BRIGHT RED and he told me to look at my sweatshirt. I had placed the buttons over my tennis balls in tube socks so it looked....racy. I don't know but it seemed that Murphy's law was in effect there and it was just flat out surreal! Oh my curlers! I was sooo mortified. Look I get embarrassed easily but it is a good thing that I didn't walk AROUND the park looking like a chunky stripper begging to be thrown out of the park.
After the pictures, I grabbed Rachel and took off once again for the Small World boat. Hehehehehehe....I just wanted to drive my brothers nuts. Well, they tormented me when I was growing up so I just returning a favor. They didn't want to go but their kids did and they used their patented whiny voices to get my brothers to go because they didn't want to ride with me. HUMPF! Devon was afraid that I'll tip the boat over. Party pooper! Wheeee! Singing dolls do rock! (cackling as lightning flash and thunder booms!)
We headed over to Cinderella's Carousel and was so charmed by the music. My mother said that it was calliope music which I never heard of so when I got home, I did some checking on the 'net and found out what it was. I've seen one of those when I took Sarah to the cirus in my pre-implant days and my daughter loved the music so after hearing that, I could see why.
Zipped through Peter Pan and Snow White ride before we realized that it was almost time for the Christmas fireworks. Once again, I grabbed Rachel and took off. Went over the wooden bridge to the Castle, stopped for a second, turned around and went back over the bridge. I just needed a dose of "rat-a-tat" noise. Found a spot by good ol' Walt and waited. Michael found me and told me that the family voted to put a collar on me. I know that it isn't nice to take off and leave one's family behind but when I get excited, I get carried away. I asked where the family was and he told me that they were on the bridge watching the show.
BANG! Fireworks and the music started. I was so excited that I jumped up and down as I held Rachel and almost fell over when the 360 degree fireworks exploded. What a way to celebrate Christmas! We saw the most famous deer of all fly from the castle, and I ahhhhed and oohhhhed along with the crowd when excitable Goofy in his santa suit appeared. He flailed his arms all over the place, shook his head like a bobblehead doll, and did a bit of jumping before he disppeared as the fireworks did another spectacular 360 degrees show. The castle once again looked magical---utterly and simply magical. All right! I gotta find another word so I won't overuse the word "magical!" But then again, the excitement of being there is magical!
Went over to Fairytale Garden to watch Belle's Storytime. The CM playing Belle really made the story come alive with her facial expressions and getting the kids from the audience to partcipate in the story. She did pick Jonathan to be Forte' but he got scared and refused to come up on the stage so she ended up picking someone else. I do believe that we give far too little credit for CMs' efforts to make our experiences at WDW wonderful so after storytime, I took the kids over to Belle and had them to thank her for telling the story in a wonderful way. Belle smiled and accepted our thanks with a "You're welcome and thank you for coming to listen to my story."
Did a few more rides and decided that it was time to go home. We left the park, went down the Ft. Wilderness boat dock, and was shocked to see that there was a loooong line. Michael poked me in the ribs and said. "HA! I told you so...I told you so....I told you so....we should have taken the van!" I insisted that the line was a mistake and that these people were probably confused. Richard asked a CM that was waiting on the dock on which transportation was faster: boat or van. CM promptly said."Van!"
"AH HA!" Brad and Michael wagged their fingers in my face. "You're wrong! You're wrong! You're wrong!" DANG! I told them. "I went to WDW 15 times and this is your first time, Michael!"
"Fifteen times?" He repeated. "You didn't come here fifteen times."
"Ohhh, that is right," I said. "Actually I went to WDW 2,000 times!"
Michael held up his hand and barked. "Talk to the hand!"
I snapped with a "Quit picking on me! I've been horribly scarred for life over that Arrrgh! ride where one of the pirates looked like a borg."
At the same time--I gotta mangle that Murphy's law guy--my entire family said. "Poooooor Janie! She went to WDW five times!"
Oh SHEEEEESH! We waited about 30 minutes before we got on the boat to Ft. Wilderness. I got the kids settled down and Samuel went out like a light and the rest of our kids including Brad and Michael fell asleep and I can see why. The boat made a nice purring sound and the boat rocked with the waves like a giant hammock. I wasn't sleepy at all. I was so wired so I went through my "mental" sound files just to reflect on what I've discovered:
Clip-clop of the horse on Main Street,
Space Mountain' very noisy cars,
Adventureland drums---I stopped right there and got a little teary prompting my mother to ask me what was wrong and I told her with a sniffle. "I didn't see the Tiki birds....." She laughed and said that I'll get the chance to do it when they go back to MK
Brer Frog's singing--that was one incredible voice and I loved when the possums hanging upside down bounced their legs and arms with the beat.
Haunted Mansion--the cackling of the ghost at the end of the 'elevator' drop and the headless Madame's voice
Tinkerbell's "hello" at the beginning of Peter Pan ride.
Arrrrgh! ride--the three drunk pirates singing as the village burned.
Minnie Mouse's answering machine
There were so many but I have one regret however:
I never got the chance to experience the sounds of
Mr. Toad's wild ride. Michael told me that it was
the coolest ride in Fantasyland and loved that train
whistle and chugging as the car headed for the train
tunnel. Disney should have not taken it out. 
I "pulled" out a mental sound file of Small World and thought about how much I liked the ride especially these words: "It is a small world after all! It is a small world after all! It is a small small small world.....after.......aaaaalllll!" Or something like that. What a way to end the ride!
We finally reached our desination and we had a bit of a trouble waking up the grown boys and the children had no problem waking up. I even took a picture of Michael sleeping with his right hand tucked in his pants just like that deranged Al on "Married with Children" show. Hehehehehehehehe...be very handy for BLACKMAIL! Mwahahahahaha!
While we waited for the bus, the small world song popped into my head and I kept hearing this "Small....small...small world after.....aaaaalllll! Small...small....small world after aaaallllll!" I was SHOCKED and got pretty distracted until Rachel grabbed my hand and I realized that the bus was already here. Got on and as the doors closed, that stupid refrain of "Small....small....small world after aaaaaalllll!" came back. Brad said something to me but I couldn't understand him because of that dang "Small...small...small world after aaaaaallllll!" AAAAUUUGGGHHHHH!
Jumped off of the bus with my family and started singing "Jingle Bells! Jingle bells! Jingle all the way!" Brad stared at me and I said. "WHAT?! I'm just celebrating Christmas so kids, let's all sing Jingle bells together!" Our kids and I sang that song but unfortunately it went like this: Jingle bells...small...jingle bells....small....jingle...after aaaaaalllll...the way." Never told my brothers about that repeating loop because they would have used it as blackmail!
Our kids ate bowls of cereal because they were a little hungry. gave them a bath and put them to bed. They were out like a light as soon as their head hit the pillow.
Took me about 90 minutes before I finally fell asleep.
"Small....small....small world...after...aaaaaaaallllll!"
But I love those dang singing dolls!
Janie
The Curb Kicker
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Robey
Cast Member
Posts: 1023
Registered: Aug 2002
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Posted 01-22-03 05:52 PM
Perfect!......and magical.
Thanks for sharing Janie!
I always wondered why somebody didn't do something about that. Then I realized I was somebody. --Lily Tomlin
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Ajax
Cast Member
Posts: 1032
Registered: Aug 2002
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Posted 01-26-03 04:15 PM
Ooooh, that Yaney!! She a make-a-me laff!
Did you see me at EPCOT on New Years Eve? I was wearing a yellow poncho...
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Crank
Administrator
Posts: 1957
Registered: Aug 2002
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Posted 01-27-03 01:03 PM
quote:
Ajax wrote:
Ooooh, that Yaney!! She a make-a-me laff!
By yiminy, suren you got dat right...
I like persons better than principles, and I like persons with no principles better than anything else in the world.
Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891
BOYCOTT FRENCH TOAST, GERMAN SAUSAGE AND BELGIAN CHOCOLATES
Crank-->
All Content is © the Poster and is to be considered Intellectual Property. All Rights Reserved. Though Brilliant, Breathtaking and Extrememly Well Written the Content contained herein is Opinion and Opinion only.
ib4cruzn at charter dot net
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Common
Ground / Goofy's HUGE!
/ Brain Salad--Jingle bells! |
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