dandaman

Neil's face on X-Scream is absolutely priceless. It looks like he's not sure whether to scream, cry or throw up.

Quick question... are you the same "DMC-12" from WDWMAGIC? (Even if you aren't, props on the username. Man, did I ever. The F&F series is like the damned nicotine of arcade games! Normally that's my case, too, but I quickly found out this trip that my bony back could barely handle the jarring of the boat. Rubbed my spine raw by the second switchback. Favourite post of the week! Thanks again, everyone. Now that I have my own camera, I honestly find taking pictures and posting them for people to see as half the fun of vacations. As time-consuming as it is, it's really awesome to know that some people appreciate my (really) amateur photography. I plan to have up the next two days of Epcot goodness within the next two days, but given schoolwork etc. I may fall behind a day or two on the resizing and caption-writing. (It took me about 4 hours to do the Animal Kingdom/Downtown Disney section alone, so you can imagine how much free time I need to do this trip report and do this right!)

Forgot to ask this in all the other TR's... did anyone else have as much trouble navigating the pitch-black Dragon Mountain queue as I did a couple of years ago? I must have hit my knees five times and my head twice just to get down to where it was better lit near the platform! For the record, the sign said "1 Milf" at that time as well. I actually joked then that Marineland would fix it by removing the '1' and putting it in the fallen part of the 'E's place. Looks like I was half-right after all.

LOL! You should inform her that the animators in Walt's time would relieve tension sometimes by drawing pornographic versions of their characters. Your doll "backpack" will seem like an innocent mistake.

^Canada only got unstuck from the 80's last year, so Norway should be welcomed to the 21st century eventually.

^Trust me, I do feel sorry for you guys! It's disheartening to see all those people breezing through the theatre after Maelstrom; that's mostly why I decided to stay and watch when I rode last Tuesday. The film isn't all that bad... if anything, those jarring splices to the Vikings when the kid's looking at the ship scares the crap out of me. Holy crap, 35 e-stops in around 11 hours? That's brutal. I can see how the re-sponsoring of the pavillion could breathe some much-needed life back into Norway. Dan "Still my favourite ride in World Showcase " Smith

I'm about a half-hour outside Detroit (in Canada, though) and I certainly agree. The humidity normally doesn't bother me too much... heck, if it means more brief but severe storms, I'm all for it... but Animal Kingdom is always the worst.

Day 4, Part II: Downtown Disney And I leave you good people with a crappy shot of DisneyQuest. The next two days will be pure Epcot action, so stick around! HOLY CRAP YES! And only $450! (I bought the smaller $20 version... the last one, no less!) My souvenir shopping so far is pretty much non-Disney, but totally worth it. I never really find anything worthwhile on the West Side, and I don't think tonight will be any diff... ...Who knows, Highlander? Is this locale overrated, with cool looks but subpar-quality food? R.I.P. I see the FOX Network's fall lineup is running previews. Once again, Disney fails at merchandising by neglecting to sell valuable "I got crabs at..." paraphernalia. "RAWR, I'm crazy Lego Ness Monster, now GIMME SOME BRICK HUMANS!" Ghost train! (Fun Fact: This was my first-ever Disney ride back in 1994.) Thankfully, these horses are NOT apocalypse-related. (Do those count as Hidden Mickeys?) Meet Bob, the happiest horse ever involved in the Rapture! Personally, I'd never buy a figurine that requires a second mortgage. (Yes, that does say $37,500.) Totally not planned. Yep. ...But it was all about hot fudge-filled chocolate cake with ice cream and raspberry/caramel sauce! Tied the Chocolate Wave as best dessert of the vacation. (Yeah, they're similar... but this one has ice cream!) Cap'n Jack's had some good New York strip, my standard meal for most of the vacation. Since Animal Kingdom closes at 5:00, we made a reservation at a Downtown Disney restaurant. (No, it wasn't Rainforest Cafe.) ...But so does not conclude the day!

Day 4: Animal Kingdom (I'd have thought the Epcot part above would be the most popular around here... no matter. ) And so concludes the day at Animal Kingdom... "Lovebirds" Right down there is where I took that last picture. Please note that there are hundreds of people behind me on the main path, and ZERO in front! Fibreglass tree photo montage! What can I say? Guy's got style. Uh... well, that's the main reason I went on the Trek, but hey, I'm flexible. Not pictured: Heath Ledger. OK, so for the next hour or so I was wandering around... and I discovered TONS of paths that little to no people were using. This is actually the Maharaja Jungle Trek, which can usually see a lot of people thanks to Kilimanjaro Safaris exiting out into the area. Not so much at 4 p.m.! "As usual, everything is perfect on Asia's Super Skyway..." LIES! "Guys, I've got an idea... let's all look really unsure about whatever lies ahead." "Like a politician faking his vision for the future?" "Exactly!" The pocket-sized map will inevitably place one of the least-popular but newer attractions on its cover. "Chakranadi Chicken Shop: voted best chicken in Asia by Theme Parks Magazine!" Before you ask, yes, this statue is supposed to mimic the mountain in its background. Glance between the two photos flipbook-style and you'll see it. Ze goggles, they do NOTHING! ...The Marineland branch is also scheduled to open next season. It will, however, actually open next decade. It's even authentic right down to the typos! "Theses mountains"... YetipaLOUza! Just realized the next 4 photos have a sort of zoom effect to them... Time for some REAL coaster action! It was all right, but I still like Festival of the Lion King better. (I still believe that Tim Burton should direct Pixar's next film, "Finding Emo".) "Hey ladies... you know what they say about big necks..." Ate at not-McDonald's just because Pizzafari was on the other side of the park. It's a spinning coaster, it has some themeing, and Elissa may or may not like it. NEXT. "I don't know why we built it, either!" "Come now... to a land before television... a land before Jesus... a land after John McCain..." The extinction of the world... sponsored by fast food! Some Everest action before the main onslaught. One of these things is not like the others... one of these things is a character! My "picture-taking-of-picture-taking" quota is half-met... but hey, it's got an HM, so we're good. Harambe Jambo! (Obscure Disney Sing-Along reference.) Random plant Finally from the Station, the smallest known Hidden Mickey on property. It's literally about half the width of my little finger. The well-trained staff appear to be playing a very serious game of "Got Your Nose" with a duck. Or, my personal favourite! Or these two... Or this one... Like this one... You know that giant mural inside Conservation Station? Well, it has about a bajillion Hidden Mickeys painted into the artwork. "Protect Yo Titi"... a.k.a. "The Guide to Riding Silver Comet For TPR Women" Eastern Star Railway < WDW Railroad This, however, wasn't half-bad. Like I said... no happy medium. Duma > kiboko Yakkin' Yeti... attached to Germany's Kaufhaus, no doubt. If you glanced at this and thought of new construction... you might be a theme park enthusiast! I can't even escape to a forest on the other side of the world without being assaulted by advertisements! One thing I didn't like about today was all the glare there seemed to be in 75% of my shots. If the sky was lit up nicely, the objects around it were shadowed (as pictured above). Vice versa, if the objects being photographed looked all right, the sky seemed to possess some ungodly gamma radiation. Not much I can do about it now. I've heard AK described once as "the best Disney park... before 11 a.m.". The heat was certainly turned on yet again today, with relative humidity around 95%. OMG, there's people in this shot! This is unacceptable! Mears was employed to help with the bussing service this morning. Nothing beats getting to a park in five minutes with cushioned seats and footrests. (When it costs something off-property, however, Mears service generally sucks.)

Holy crap, they even built an exact Maxair clone! ("Giant Frisbee")

Day 3: Epcot BONUS! The same clouds responsible for that sunset photo allowed me this golden opportunity off the balcony back at Pop Century later that night. Thanks for being so patient with these updates, guys. School + work = delays. In comparison, Robb has about 20x even less time on his hands, so I think we can all really appreciate it when he does his updates from halfway around the world! Tomorrow, the Dan Smith Epic Photo Spectacular goes wild! The glorious sea of humanity funneling out through Future World about 10 seconds after show's end. So I set up my tripod on the non-lagoon side of the Mexico bridge for Illuminations. Regrettably I forgot just how wide the lens could capture, but I guess my silhouette has its own special "charm" or some other word used to try to justify mistakes. Actually get a monorail in the frame? Naaaaaah. I <3 weather. Jolly jolly jolly! Ironically, they'd just taken out the Illuminations globe for rehab. You'll have to do a lot better than this temp job to impress the masses, Disney. Hey, let's throw in a Test Track picture I forgot... why the hell not? ...Unfortunately, the one part of the meal I didn't care for was the part I photographed. The lime and mango sorbets didn't do much for me. Strawberry was all right though. It was all about roasted chicken and authentic cheese plates tonight! C'est magnifique! (Ten years of French class led me to using that phrase.) There. Morocco. NEXT. Not high enough! Too high? ...And inventing the new sport of soccetball! Land-based tightrope walking... Like I said, I love the streetmosphere. Meet Sergio, performing such astounding acts as... O sole' mio... More rodent credits! Ah, this must be the doctor's office. Welcome to Sorenland! Judging by the ceiling, the China pavillion is sponsored by the DHARMA Initiative. I'd never seen Reflections of China before last year. The only World Showcase movie that wouldn't tie each other for #1 is Norway's, and that's not even the main attraction, so all is forgiven. I've always thought that Maelstrom could be greatly improved if they had an 11-foot Viking animatronic take a swipe at you. (They already have switchbacks, right?) Viva la... oh, right. Hooray for Norvay! [/cultural-insensitivity] Viva la ugly! Viva la fake-dusk! Viva la Meh-he-co! The mirror-image look on the water really adds to a photo op. ...All right, all right, so I skipped ahead to the evening! Now you'll have jet lag for the remainder of this installment. "We can buff that out." A LOT more Hidden Mickeys to come tomorrow! Let's ride the attraction that effectively KO'd my beloved World of Motion... "Birds may only feed from the space with their proper surname initial." Tried making a duplicate of a shot from last October... and failed. Tested out my macro zoom again inside Innoventions West... or East. (Pictured: Britain.) I've always loved these things hanging around the Innoventions plaza. ...The Chocolate Wave. It's like an orgy for your taste buds. (FYI, that thing's filled with melted white chocolate/Grand Marnier sauce. *drool*) Time for more free food. Coral Reef, besides being home to a giant tank (of the aqueous variety), is also home to... Just in case you already forgot what park we're at... so did she. "This is my happy face." Eh. Somewhere, Matt and/or Scott just joygasmed. Again. The two things I like about Soarin'... the music (especially in the queue, of all places... I have the full hour-long loop on my iPod) and those damned addicting orange and pine scents. If you know the importance of this picture, E-MAIL THE OTHER DAN! "This land is your land... this land is my land... that land over there is owned by a chocolate conglomerate." The universe has officially been endorsed by the U.S. = PMW + GIRL There's that handsome devil in all his pixellated glory! Glad to see they left the mural untouched. OK, so the "re-imagined" and apparently highly-controversial SSE was awesome! For all the complaints about losing originality, the new version certainly retained its uniqueness. Sub in Patrick Stewart for Dame Judi and you've got a D- or E-Ticket as far as I'm concerned! Even God's hiding the Jesus skywriting! "Wallpaper" The best place in the world, hands-down.

^About as much as "Behemoth" is apparently an exclusively Canadian term.

I think I can now count your bike excursions as "vacation planning", Cameron... just found out our high school band is heading to Chicago this spring!

Larry looks really unsure about wearing that particular leopard-print article of clothing. A Chuck TR never fails to make me laugh. (Or cry. From laughing, of course.)

LOL... you may have actually captured me in the worst pose ever, Hanno. Simply spectacular. I knew when I saw you and your SLR at the Bash we'd get some kickass photography added to the TPR repertoire.

That episode was on last night, too! Glad you decided to ride the Liberty Belle. It was just one of those things that, before having a camera, I never really thought of doing. Keep 'em coming!

^^Don't worry, man, your porn will be posted, with a little luck, tomorrow evening. ^I ate there last October, actually... not that impressed. A&W Canada is actually a separate faction from A&W America; the only things basically in common are the name and the root beer. While the 'Burger Family' names are largely the same, some of them have different toppings, etc. ...In other words, come eat at a Canadian A&W for a great fast-food experience. [/shamelessplug]

^Apparently I talk like it most of the time, too... which can be unfortunate among my friends. We've basically developed a 5-second rule for understanding any jokes I crack about politics, current events, wordplay, et al. Dan "Between only liking classical music and hating (my own) teenage generation, I'm already considering applying for AARP!" Smith P.S. Between school and work, haven't had time to resize/caption the Epcot photos. 99% guarantee they'll be up by tomorrow evening.

Like I said, that tripod is a godsend. I started using it last year and I've kept it in my shorts pocket while vacationing ever since. Thanks!

Day 2: Disney's Hollywood Studios See you either tomorrow or the next day when we visit the birthplace of the 21st century! ...But this might be one of my favourite handheld night shots to date. All right, so I obviously used my tripod here... Not pictured: Snow White premiere. If you look really close, you can see Sorcerer Mickey parading around in his big blue hat. CAUTION: FIRE HOT I started wandering up the ramp to Fantasmic just as it was starting to take those ToT backside shots... and I managed to find possibly my best-ever vantage point for the show! It may not be seating, and it may be at the far right in the back of the theatre, but it was totally awesome and totally unoccupied for the duration of the performance. Most decent shot of the Hollywood Tower I've snapped to date. Photogenic, though... Didn't actually get a chance to ride, as the truly WONDERFUL single-rider line admitted 5 people in 45 minutes before it broke down. Worst line setup I've ever encountered. "Sir, could you help me with the bags?" "Sure. You take the blonde, I'll take the one in the red skirt. BA-DUM *TSSSH*!" Jeff Johnson: Est'd... Please note: When checking in, do NOT ask the bellhops for a complimentary upgrade. Heading back to the Studios after the storms you can set your watch by pass through, it's time for some 15-minute-wait Good Tower action! "And the rain rain rain came down down down..." Huzzah! My trigger finger actually didn't fail me for once! Yep... looks about right! (Severe storms are half the fun of Florida vacations.) Meanwhile, back at the hotel... [/justiceleague] I give you, the reader, full permission to misconstrue this photograph at your own leisure. Rule of Streetmosphere: Assistant > featured star. Mr. Stokowski conducts the Hollywood Studios Invisible Orchestra. "Blargh, I'm Crazy Hard-Hat Guy... now GIMME SOME PLUMBING!" The Don Rickles Variety Hour was quite impressive. Overall, Toy Story Mania is a great addition to the Studio(s)... but be prepared to make your arm fall off to get a decent score! Curse you, Cherry Pitfall! You're the sole reason why I've never won at Candy Land! Especially this! Loved all the little details on a grand scale... "How could I make it any plain-ia?" And now for the game that's more fun than a greased pig in a wind tunnel... Aah, I can practically smell the hot dogs from here... and thanks to the hot Florida sun, the vendors... Mmmm, that's good reference. An unfortunate shadow of its former self... The following two pictures speak for themselves. "You're still here, dammit, stop asking!" Hooray! My first skywritten religious experience of the trip! (And certainly not the last.) "This is here, too" "You are here" ...Then she surprised everyone when she asked for a volunteer to "woo like nevah befo-ah!", and totally came on to the guy in a pitch-perfect Marilyn Monroe voice. Absolutely brilliant. She gets my vote as the best single Disney singer on property, tied with the Dapper Dans and Voices of Liberty. So when she started pouting, the lady in blue finally felt sorry for her and reluctantly agreed to her performance... ONLY at audience insistence, of course. Trying to show that she could perform, Rosie was shot down at every turn. I totally forget her name right now, but the basic plot was that this lady was a travelling talent scout, and had Rosie tag along with her. Street entertainment rules... especially Rosie Truski, the Cleaning Lady! DHS is really good for detail shots. Too bad mine suck. The best view of High School Musical... when it's leaving! "Get thee behind me Satan" is almost too apt a description. Damn you Disney for creating a whole new generation of prosti-tots for the world to contend with. ...All right, maybe I'm a little too harsh on it, but I'm an old man who happens to be 17. My personal philosophy: If the children are our future, I'm waxing nostalgia. Pictured: Valencia. The REAL reason I'm here! (Besides Good Tower) Apparently Disney downsized their production here so much, it's just one studio now.

Dude! We ordered a room service pizza when we stayed at Buena Vista Suites the night before our Pop stay began! Should have held out. Hollywood Studios should be up by day's end.

LOL. Awesome stuff Bryan. Too bad I missed you guys by a day or so.

Ouch. It definitely seems like they started with the Value resorts first, then... just as an example, three Caribbean Beach buses went by at MK before one Pop Century bus showed up, and the two resorts are like 30 seconds of driving time apart. (This happened quite a few times in the six days we were there.) I know I shouldn't be complaining, but it just really felt like we got the short end of the stick in terms of transportation this time around. Anyway, second batch of WDW Day 1 pictures posted now, and you have a braver soul than most if you've made it this far in!

Day 1: Magic Kingdom II And so closes our day at the most magical of kingdoms. Tune in tomorrow for a star-studded visit to Tinseltown! Goodbye, WDW Railroad! Long may you run. I really wish they still showed classic Disney cartoons in here... the old Goofy How-To series is still effing hilarious to me. "Standard" Don't much care for the glare on the signs. Buzz apparently suffered the same fate as the clock tower. EMH on Big Thunder Mountain, and you know what that means... singalong continuation! They say as legend has it on one foggy night in June, The train and crew pulled out at twelve beneath a darkened moon, With a boiler full of water and a tender full of coal, The whistle screamed a warning as the wheels began to roll... Then like a bucking bronco with a cougar on its back, The train began to run away down miles and miles of track, What happened to the crew that night no one has ever learned; The train pulled in all by itself, the men did not return... The history of Big Thunder continues to unfold, The stories of its danger continue to be told, Of avalanche and rattle snakes and earthquakes in the night, And voices of that phantom crew that chill your blood with fright. So please forgive me mister if I’m standing in your way, But before you buy your ticket, there’s one thing I have to say: Hear the legend, of Thunder Mountain, Victory come and try to stay away, From Big Thunder, Mountain railroad, Thunder Mountain Railroad ran away! Couldn't find an available garbage can or flat surface with a good sight line, so my fireworks shots once again suffered from my unsteady hand. Direct contradiction... everyone knows that decent "gifts" can't be found at an arcade! (Unless a certain someone wants to send me an F&F unit, in which case my Christmas wish list is DONE.) Now here's a clock tower that REALLY got struck by lightning! Re-entering the park around 9-ish. Tried to get a decent night shot of Main Street Station with no luck. Across the atrium lies the one reason I'd stay at the Grand Floridian: live jazz band. Testing out my kickass flexible tabletop tripod. Best $5 I've ever spent. To be perfectly honest, ever since I've bought my first camera two years ago, taking pictures has been half the fun of vacations. I'm more than content with just wandering around finding good places for photos. (Like Hanno but younger and more Canadian, really.) Ate at Grand Floridian Cafe this evening, courtesy of the free Disney Dining Plan which offers so much food... regrettably, to so many people. I can almost guarantee that there wouldn't have been as many screaming kids in the sit-down restaurants if it weren't for word-of-mouth about the late summer/early fall promotion. Nevertheless, the food was excellent as usual, and you can never go wrong eating free New York strip every night. Some hot monorail action to keep Scott going until we get to Epcot. OK... so we left the park for the hotel before the 4 p.m. storms rolled through. We got to our room to find this set up on our side table, along with a free fridge magnet. Disney Mousekeeping rocks. If even Goofy's hat somehow made it through, that must be the fastest cropduster in the skies! Something seems wrong with this photo... perhaps it's the woman at left clamoring for help? Time for Soren's first American credit! Slightly tweaked the family photo, just to show you... Belle totally has the hots for me. Just sayin'. (Also, I apparently have a gold tooth.) Screw Vekoma, this is the REAL sign of quality! *drool* ...And Mickey promptly signs a "Keep Back 50 Feet From Property" contract. Time to invade the Big Cheese's privacy! If you're a railfan visiting WDW, I wholly recommend the "Magic Behind Our Steam Trains" tour. A really in-depth look at the locomotives, rolling stock and maintenance area (directly under the monorail shed, for the record), plus you get in the park about an hour before other guests. (Far as I know they don't run it on EMH mornings.) The Roger E. #3's fine and all, but my heart lies with ol' #1. (Yes, I can have favourites. Shut up.) Toontown-Tomorrowland Walkway = best hidden path on property. (That's totally a Hidden Mickey.) If Disney really wanted to go green, they'd eliminate the thousand riding lawnmowers over here in Tomorrowland! Come on, guys! Just knock off the AIN, move her over from the Great Movie Ride and we're set! Hooray for the Disney Company in the Disney era! "It's been July 4th for like 30 years!" "I swear, if we walk out of here and it's still 1920, that would totally suck." Well, guess what, R&E? I caught a glimpse of that madness when our room got stuck between shows! Totally forgot to take a picture, but I couldn't stop laughing the whole damned time just thinking about Erik's video! ...Awwwwww. "Space Mount"... WDI must be converting it to a new Sigourney Weaver ride! Awesome! Much like Dr. Pepper, I thoroughly question the traffic reporter's credentials every time I ride the TTA. It was a 45-minute backup every time we passed! lol, lite speed 2 endor Super Wedway Peoplemover action! Couldn't take this from the other side, as the Liberty Square bridge was being completely rebuilt. Basically it was to make it flatter so that the Spectromagic floats wouldn't have great difficulty in getting over the rather large arc of a path. "And we all helped arrest the Scourge of the Neverland Chat Room." "Hooray!" "Book 'em, Danno." "We're cutting you off at the source." "NOOOOOOOO!" "Mr. Hook? Chris Hansen from Dateline NBC." "Damn you Hansen! Your disguise never betrayed you once! Wait, what are you..." "Look at me, the delightfully flamboyant pirate my merry men call Jimmy the Hook! And now, to go solicit children for..." He's either commenting on the hygiene of the wench at right or inventing a new Starburst Enjoyment Pose. The new "talking heads" were a bit disorienting at first, but gradually they just kinda blended with the rest of the characters. Ultimately I'd LOVE to see more technology like this being used, except for meet-and-greets. IMO only face characters like the princesses should be able to talk with guests, etc. Sorry 'bout that. Wanted to post about halfway through the photo "timeline" as a sort of save checkpoint. Happened to catch Dream Along With Mickey, formerly Cinderellabration, formerly Cinderella's Surprise Celebration, formerly... eh, whatever.

Day 1: Magic Kingdom I Finally for this portion of the day, the only picture I took of Pirates. Cherish it. Love it. Caress it. Now clean off your monitor, please, you'll enjoy the rest of the report a lot more. More coming soon... Too much sky, not enough signage lighting. Moving on. "Way down upon the Suwannee River, far, far... oh, wait, there it is." "I've got a great idea! Let's put all the Native Americans in the furthest corner of the park to symbolize Manifest Destiny!" Love how they've even put the striations on the rocks. 'Course it would have been better if BTM hadn't gone 101 before we passed by on the river, but whatever. Now I can say I got the elusive no-trains-in-one-shot credit! Part II of our singalong to continue further down the line. In the meantime... nice butte! Spontaneous singalong! At Big Thunder Mountain station there’s a frightened trembling man, His body’s weak and feeble and his skin has lost its tan, When I asked him for a ticket, he turned and shook his head, He grabbed my by the shoulder and this is what he said... "Before you get on board this train, there’s something you should know, When I finish with this tale you might not want to go." I listened with amazement at what he said was true, And now my friend the time has come to tell this tale to you. Hear the legend, of Thunder Mountain, Victory come and tries to stay away, From Big Thunder, Mountain railroad, Thunder Mountain Railroad ran away! Tom and Huck can build some pretty seaworthy craft... Rode Splash that night many times, also very good. All effects seemed to be working and I even got one boat to myself! Oh, and since I didn't get another picture... the "new" Haunted Mansion is awesome! The staircase scene and disappearing bride effect are nice and all, but the audio was crystal-ball clear, and really won me over. In all my years of visiting WDW, I'd never experienced the Liberty Belle Riverboat. I figured now that I had a camera, I could get some good shots of Big Thunder Mountain, which is my favourite Disney coaster because it totally counts as a railroad credit. Count 'em. Do you see one single smiling face? Exactly. ...NO, the clock guy doesn't count! "Oh God, this truly IS hell!!!" (A 10-boat backup on IASW is even worse than a 2-boat backup on the Nautic Jet boat jump, and is far more painful!) I think to make this ride complete, they should have this guy rotate completely around really slowly and have a slowly-building maniacal laugh. Welcome... to HELL! Am I the only one that doesn't sleep in the Hall of Presidents? I definitely seem to be the only one in my school who avidly follows politics, if only to poke satire. "In fact, many of our monuments are hydroponically grown and served here in the Castle hub!" You can actually see the castle lights already being put up for Christmas. "...Yes, we can, yes, we caaaaaaaaannn..." Come to think of it, 'New Horizons' shows a remarkable correlation to the Obama campaign. Is this an Elissa Bingo square? We'd never actually taken the trolley down Main Street, so we figured we'd give it a go. "Art" Welcome to Wali Dinsey World! Zoom testing. In case you were wondering, it's a Canon Powershot A550 with 7.1 MP, 4x optical and 16x digital zoom. Got it for $150 and between that and my $5 bendy tabletop tripod, it's been my greatest investment in recent times, nay ever. OMGWTFBBQ! Scott has his monorail porn... I have my Walt Disney World Railroad collection in unmarked boxes sold out of my white van. "A kingdom full of endless dreams..." Best billboard in world history. Dammit! I can't even get away from work! (A&W, for the record. It's a lot better chain up here in Canada.) Trust me when I say the irony was not lost on me that I took vacation days off to be surrounded by 50's memorabilia/tunes for the entirety of the stay. Might as well throw this in here... The joke behind this was that I kept going out to attempt lightning pictures throughout the vacation. (Due to short exposure times, my daytime shots usually prove fruitless with my lack of a trigger finger.) Every time I came back to the room, my parents would ask if I'd gotten struck by lightning... so I figured I'd get this shot on one of the nights right as it switched to 10:04 just for kicks. (Yes, you'll be seeing a lot more BTTF references in the coming installments!) ...15 seconds after I did this, lightning hit one of the many rods on a roof in the 60's section right next to me. Eerie but epic. Disneyland + 20K + Fess Parker = good nostalgia. Aah, so much comedic possibilities simply by calling it a giant Tramp. There was actually a lot of construction vehicles at the sad-and-pathetically-abandoned Legendary Years project across Hourglass Lake. Far as I've heard, they might even be currently taking measurements for this side's giant icons. (I say they got the funding back c/o the object of Robb's love/hate relationship, but I digress.) There's so much potential for the food court here... sell some 10-cent apples and hardtack at every meal with minors that shine your shoes and steal your wallet! If I remember right, and Jeff Johnson is a bowler... welcome to the 1950's, sir! OH, SH...! One giant what? No Johnny B. Goode? WTF! PLEASE STAND BY... CONTINUING COVERAGE OF PMW NATIONAL CONVENTION SHORTLY... I actually have that exact same back-scratcher... Ze lobby. The place on the left served both as a gigantic gift shop (for a resort at least) and an even bigger food court. (And for all you enthusiasts... Frozen Coke counted here as a snack credit!) ...But TWO Raw Thrills F&F slices of awesomeness! I seriously think I spent $20 and two hours total between both games. Speaking of arcade games... Cameron, they had not ONE... Aside from that, the place was really well-done. Giant pop culture icons, most of them not even Disney-related, adorned all of the individual complexes. We stayed in the 50's section, but props to the 80's for having a Pac-Man game going all around the balconies! Our accommodations for the next six days or so. Fairly good for a value resort, but because of its size, the bus stops (and buses) were always PACKED. One group of people, I recall, waited 45 for an Epcot bus at Pop Century, and a full hour at one of the All-Stars! Disney really needs to do something about the bus intervals at the value resorts. Halloo-hallay!