We made it! Yea!
I can report that the new ticket media and ID program works only so-so.
My annual pass was swallowed and my fingers ID'd promptly, and without
need of additional identification. Not so Marta. She couldn't understand
what the Cast Member was saying about how to stick which fingers in the
scanner, and it took a long time to get her in. When we entered another
park later in the day, the system loved me, but refused to accept her.
She finally had to show her photo ID card to be let in.
It looks like Disney is beta testing a new system, with many artifacts
of the older system still in place. Same-day reentry still requires hand
stamps, which the finger scanners should eliminate the need for. It also
seems obvious that they need to put up some pictorial instructions for
the finger scanners.
On to the fun stuff: We began at Epcot, arriving about 20 minutes before
official opening and went right in. Caffe Mocha and cinnamon crossants
at Fountain View Espresso were deightful, especially when consumed while
watching the Jammitors.
                >>
The New Universe of Energy is pretty mediochre. We were not impressed.
My big beef was the loss of that wonderful pre-show on the rotating
screens--I always thought that was as good as the main show. Marta was
depressed by the lowered informational content. I hate to see anything
dumbed-down, especially when it was marginal in the first place. BTW,
the dinosaurs now have pretty colors on their hides, but since that all
takes place during Ellen's dream sequence, who knows if it was intended
to reflect change in the philosophy of paleontology. If you didn't like
this ride before, the changes won't likely help. If you did, sorry they
screwed it up.
Lunch at Akershus (in Norway) was as good as we recall, with the one
exception that Marta's lemonaide was on the watery side. I suggested
that lemons grew pretty poorly in the Norwegian climate, but she wasn't
buying it. By the time we finished lunch, the Maelstrom line was haning
out to the promenade, and didn't let up all day.
Most of the day was spent shopping, with four new t-shirts and two new
books (guess who bought what). The books included the full-size Disney
poster book (that six different Disney Stores in TN and GA had all sold
out of--we checked), and the hardcover edition of "Since the World
Began"--the 25th anniversary history of WDW. Now let's see if I can
manage to leave the shrink wrap on them until I get home.  8;-)
"Honey I Shrunk the Audience" had 45 minute waits by noon. Disney is
using a new form of queue control on this one. Instead of stringing
ropes between stantions, they just put masking tape on the pavement. It
looks pretty tacky, but it seems to work about as well! We hit Journey
to Imagination and the big ball with no wait at all.
Dinner at San Angel Inn: Tortilla Soup, Mole Poblano and Pollo Asada.
All excellent, but the service goofed up our drinks, our entres, (would
have goofed our soups if we hadn't had the same thing), and about eight
times kicked my chair going by. They can, and have, done better.
Off to the Studios to catch the Osborne lights and the last holiday
showing of Sorcercy in the Skies. I understand why the Osborne neighbors
threw them out--just the hum from the transformers would keep you awake!
Awesome, and Disney has added another 1/2 million lights this year to
bring the total up to about 3 million. And I though *my* light bill was
high in the wintertime!
Sorcery in the Skies was touted as WDW's best fireworks show. I think
that may well be correct. Tell you again after seening the other two
again this week. Saw little else at the Studios as it was as packed as
the time we went in May. We (and probably the cast members) hope it will
calm down by next week.
More later, right now it's 12:45 am and I've still got an upload to
(figure out how to) do. Hope y'all enjoy the reports.
()_()
 (_)  Bruce (annual passholder) Metcalf
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 þ OLX 2.1 TD þ She's upset 'cuz someone dropped a house on her sister.
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