Dec 2010: Mayhem Invades Disney World!!!

[mindflipper]

I am starting this thread for the multiple trip reports that will soon follow from my fellow mayhem marauders will be posting as they return from Orlando. Please be patient. Whereas I was there for just one day, many of them are still there in Orlando enjoying Disney World regardless of the mercurial weather that we're having lately. As one of us had discovered, he should have packed more than one just pair of jeans and suitcase full of shorts. That's Florida weather for you.

At the O'hana restaurant for the Subsonic Mayhem Marauder Meet-up, we had in attendance:

Amy
boilerbabe
Boilerdude
F1gment
Mindflipper
Mousekedude
Mouseoholic
NaCler

...and Len90 phoned in his brief attendance during the dinner.

There will be more details and pictures and forthcoming. I will be posting more tomorrow. The rest of my fellow mayhem marauders when they return...

[dichuy]

I can only imagine the fun that was had. Welcome back and looking forward to your report.

[elizabethswann]

I look forward to hear from the reports!

[mindflipper]

I left early in the morning (after waking up at 6 AM), and arrived at the Swan Resort shortly after 9:30 AM. I was able to check into my room there and then, which is a first for me at a Disney resort as usually I have had to wait until after 3 PM in the past. It took a while to get to the Magic Kingdom (the bus went into a "holding pattern" as another bus was parked in the specific spot he wanted - so we waited, and waited...) and I meet up with Mousekedude, Mouseoholic and F1gment shortly after 11 AM. Shortly after that, we met up with NaCler and his mom. And - after a late sleep-in, a 5 mile run and some swimming - the double-boilers eventually added their presence to our fold, increasing our merry band of Mayhem Marauders.

The park was very busy (largely due to the Parade Show taping) and the lines were long. Once the taping ended, the lines got longer. 50 minutes for the HM?? A line for the peoplemover? Really? The peoplemover? In all my life, I have never seen a line for the peoplemover! We managed, however, to ride many of the attractions thanks to our efficient use of the fast pass systems before the meet-up dinner:

Carousel of Progress
BTM
POTC
ETR: UNM
Philharmagic
IASW (they did that before I arrived - TG!)
Splash Mountain

And since I bring up Splash Mountain, I do have a picture of those of us who were brave to ride Splash Mountain given how weather was beginning to chill a bit as the sun was going down:



That's Amy and Mousekedude in the second row, and you can clearly see me in the first row. Oddly enough, somehow I came out less damp than those behind me. While Amy and Mousekedude were not amused, I think Boilerdude summed it up beautifully, "There's no requirement for you to be their human shield."

We crossed over to the Polynesian Resort via the boat launch and ate dinner at O'hanas, which was my first time at this fine dining establishment. It's a family dining style that features an incredible variety of food - salad, sticky wings, pot stickers, broccoli and noodles, and various meat. They come by these tables with these two feet long skewers (which I'm sure are more fatal to run with than scissors) and drop off a pile on your plate of beef, shrimp, chicken and pork. It was bit overloading for food. Before the food arrived, we even all got to talk to Len90 via cellphone, but I had to unfortunately had to cut the call short with Mark86 has they started to dump mass loads of meat in our plates (sorry, Mark86!). The dinner conversation flowed quickly and we even had a member join in the floor show (way to go, Amy!). In fact, the talk (and a little difficulty in getting the bill) nearly made us late for Dole Whips and Fireworks on the beach at the rear of the Polynesian.

But we did make it in time for the fireworks and got our Dole Whips to boot! Afterwards, we headed back by monorail to the MK for the 11 PM MSEP. As we were entering, the park was really emptying out - before the parade even started! We got a great spot for the parade, arriving just minutes before it started! After the parade was over, even more people streamed out of MK, and yet the park was open until 1 AM!!! I don't know when closing became 1 AM, because when I bought my ticket they told the park closed at midnight, and so did they tell us on the bus as well. But then again - who cares? We got an extra hour we didn't know!

After the parade, we were down to six of us: NaCler, the double-boilers, the Mousekecouple, and myself. Amy and F1gment went back to their hotel as it was late. The six of us covered a lot of the park, including:

BTM
HM (no lines now!)
Space Mountain
Buzz Lightyear
Peter Pan
Dumbo

After that, we left the park and said our farewells: the Mousekecouple took their bus back to their resort, and the rest of us took our bus back to our hotels along the EPCOT resorts area. The next day, after waiting for the rain to end first, I headed back to Jacksonville. The weather got a bit cooler, and I just saw on TV that there's an "arctic blast" coming that will be some seriously cold weather to my fellow subsonicers still at WDW for the rest of the week - I bet Boilerdude is going to regret packing all those shorts and only one pair of jeans. Next time, I think boilerbabe will need to check his packing before they leave.

[Future Guy]

Sounds like y'all had a blast! So sorry we couldn't be there. I wanted to eat at Ohana when we were there in January, but Future Gal's not as carnivorous as me so we decided to eat somewhere we'd both enjoy. Nice job on Splash Mountain, ducking down to let your compatriots take the brunt of the splash! I don't know what they were so upset about; the signs say you may get wet!

[mindflipper]

Sounds like y'all had a blast! So sorry we couldn't be there. I wanted to eat at Ohana when we were there in January, but Future Gal's not as carnivorous as me so we decided to eat somewhere we'd both enjoy. Nice job on Splash Mountain, ducking down to let your compatriots take the brunt of the splash! I don't know what they were so upset about; the signs say you may get wet!

...and I think in very tiny print on that sign is a legal disclaimer that has the following clause: "There is no reasonable expectation or obligation of the party in the first seat to bear the impact of any excessive aquatic backflow for the party in any subsequent seating..."

[theBIGyowski]

Love the shirts!

DW and I will definitely have to make the next trip! Please tell me someone got a group shot.

[mindflipper]

I think I may have one on camera I got to still offload; I know the Mouskecouple have a few, as well as the double-boilers. Maybe Amy does too.

[NaCler]

First, I want to thank my trusty colleague of the Mayhem Marauders and now good friend... the "Ghost Host" as you will, Mr. mindflipper for getting us started. It was a pleasure getting to meet the mysterious creative genius that is mindflipper. We had some fun, didn't we?

Now, time to get started with MY version of the story...

Day 1, December 2 (Thursday):

Let me start off by saying that I am one of those people who like to finish packing and rest a little before a trip out of town. However, as I have been on vacation several times this year with the family, this trip did not allow for that extra time away from work. So, unfortunately I had to work the day I flew down to Florida.

My flight was supposed to leave at 7pm having me in Jacksonville around 9pm. Weighing the possibility that traffic would be extremely heavy after 5pm in and around the Baltimore/Washington Parkway I decided I better leave a little early to accommodate for this. Of course, when you make these decisions, something always happens that makes you question your judgment. The flight was delayed for 2 hours as they were having MECHANICAL problems with the aircraft up in Hartford. There was talk of switching aircraft (this works for me as I don't want to fly when there have been MECHANICAL issues with my plane) and the other alternative was to cancel the flight altogether! That would have been really bad to say the least. Southwest graciously switched the aircraft for us.

I arrived in Jacksonville at 11:30pm, just enough time to head to my Mom & Dad's house to spend the night before the big trip.

Next installment... Day 2, The Eve of Mayhem...

(Yes, I understand Day 1 was boring, had no pictures and nothing remotely resembling Disney... but "bear" with me as I must setup the mood... there be Mayhem afoot... (Plus I need time to upload pictures AND video)

[momeja]

Love the pic, NaCler! I've never seen one with someone ducking. Well done!

[dichuy]

MORE! MORE! Next best thing to actually BEING at WDW? Reading trip reports and looking at all the smiling faces of those that did go!

[NaCler]

Love the pic, NaCler! I've never seen one with someone ducking. Well done!

Why thank you momeja, but mindflipper is to be commended on that one as it was his photo. I think we were riding on Buzz while they were on Splash Mountain, but more on that later. Also, I don't think mindflipper was avoiding the eminent water rush, I think he dropped a pen (or maybe a VINYLMATION) and was picking it up when the photo was taken, he just got lucky.

[dichuy]

Love the pic, NaCler! I've never seen one with someone ducking. Well done!

Why thank you momeja, but mindflipper is to be commended on that one as it was his photo. I think we were riding on Buzz while they were on Splash Mountain, but more on that later. Also, I don't think mindflipper was avoiding the eminent water rush, I think he dropped a pen (or maybe a VINYLMATION) and was picking it up when the photo was taken, he just got lucky.

Me thinks he is just trying to stay mysterious as long as possible hehe.

[mindflipper]

Love the pic, NaCler! I've never seen one with someone ducking. Well done!

Why thank you momeja, but mindflipper is to be commended on that one as it was his photo. I think we were riding on Buzz while they were on Splash Mountain, but more on that later. Also, I don't think mindflipper was avoiding the eminent water rush, I think he dropped a pen (or maybe a VINYLMATION) and was picking it up when the photo was taken, he just got lucky.

...or maybe he was shielding his camcorder from getting wet...yeh, that's it...and I'm sticking to it, too!...

[momeja]

Sorry MF! I read the wrong avatar.

As for speculation about the reason for that photo, I just think you didn't want your plainly stylish coif to get wet so you let the Mousekedudes take the wave instead.