Sunday, March 30, 2014

Spring Break 2014 - Part 1 - Disney

Part One:  Disney World
I used to blog so I’d remember the amazing things in my life.  In these days of facebook updates, I share, but then it rolls off the timeline never to be seen again.  This will be my attempt to write a little more – something I’ll be able to search in the future to remember the good stories.

Wednesday started early – Pamela had done a great job packing us up, and my job was to get the dogs to the Pooch and bring back bagels.  Mission accomplished. The Chief was at the house to ferry us to the airport:  We checked our bags in:  none of the bags tipped the scales, so no fees, and the yellow tag meant we wouldn’t need to worry about them until they showed up in our room at Disney.

The flight was on time and uneventful – Isaac and Bella shared an iPad and watched a movie while Pamela and I reviewed our itinerary:  Wednesday Check in and dinner, Thursday Epcot, Friday Magic Kingdom, Saturday CRUISE!  Then 7 days at sea!  Also, we talked.  One goal of this trip is to unplug – minimal technology, no work, focus on eachother and the family.  (this blog is happening while Isaac is asleep in the next room and Bella and Pamela are having a date at a live show of Aladdin on the ship – so I’m not hiding from anyone!)

We arrived at the Port Orleans French Quarter – a Mardi Gras themed hotel – and were greeted at the door by a man wearing a bright satin king outfit who handed Isaac and Bella gold coins, and thus started the “wishing fountain” quest. 

Isaac got this idea a week or two back, looking at pictures of Disney, and decided that he wanted to have a whole lot of coins that he could pitch into “wishing fountains” throughout Disney.  We bought them both a roll of pennies, but almost immediately, these gold coins became the preferred wishing currency.  Though then as we walked through parks the next few days, Isaac would take a gold coin out, look at the fountain, and decide whether it was “wish worthy” – a good enough fountain to take his coin.  The King gave Isaac coins several times a day, but that made it even harder to give them up.

(The requirements for a wishing fountain include:  It must have running water.  There must be OTHER coins in it, and he must have a good wish in mind.  By the time we were on the boat, Isaac still had 5 gold coins unwished.  I know because he emptied his pockets into the xray tray going through TSA screening at the port.  The TSA agent actually giggled.  OK back to the story)

We took a bus to Downtown Disney and shopped a little – the Lego Store was a hit, but not really different from any other Lego Store.  Isaac was drawn to the big Disney store and was furious that his travel allowance didn’t mean he could buy a fake musket.  Sorry – we can’t take that on the boat, Isaac!  Bella got some Crocs with mickey-shaped holes to replace the canvas shoes she has picked out for the trip but that hurt just 5 hours into the trip.

We met Rick and Kari at Boma at the Animal Kingdom Lodge:  They were here for a week vacation and were our traveling companions for the parks.  After the delicious buffet and a visit to see the zebras and giraffes at the back (bringing back great memories of spring break 3 years earlier), Isaac and I joined a drumming and chanting parade and sat down to talk with a woman from South Africa:  She asked the group if anyone knew anything about Africa, and his arm shot up – he announced “my ancestors came from Africa!”  Love that kid.

Thursday started SO EARLY.  SO SO EARLY.  Awake at 645 and on the bus to Epcot by 8.  We met Rick and Kari at the gate and were very close to the front of the line:  When it opened at 9, we sprinted to the Test Track.  We had no wait to get in, and designed our own cars, then did a quick ride to “Test” the car.  Isaac and Bella wanted to ride again, but by the time we exited, the line was 30 min (it crept up to 70-90 min for the rest of the day).

A word about the technology of Disney:  They have new wristbands that serve as your room key, your charge card, and your “fast pass” – you can log into a website up to a month in advance and pick 3 “fast passes” a day – this puts you to the head of the line for a certain ride at a certain time of day.  You need to have a good strategy on this – if you get to a park early, you can pick your first rides without worrying about the pass, but if you have any hope of riding Soarin’ or Space Mountain at any time after 930am you need to plan ahead and get the fast pass.  Our fast passes at Epcot included Spaceship Earth, Soarin’, and Nemo. 

On to the International Village – we decided to try to see princesses Ilsa and Anna from Frozen – walked to Norway where they were at and found a very serpentine line – a Disney person grimly informed us that the line had formed immediately at park open, and that with the number of people in line, it would be 6 hours for someone hoping to see them.  There were a lot of resigned, disgruntled dads in that line, holding place so that kids could have a good day. 

We decided this was in no way a good use of our time, and went shopping instead – and wandered into the Norway shop to find the princesses were right in there behind a rope – Isaac and Bella were able to get a good look at them and move along.  Of course we shopped in England (got Arsenal jerseys) and Japan (POCKY!).  We looked through Morocco while a “fusion rock” band called “Mo’Rocka” played not-very-moroccan music.  We had lunch at the british pub (where lagavulin was available, so I had to had just a sip). 

While shopping in England, Bella picked up a small stuffed Tigger for herself, and the clerk informed her to QUICK run around back because Tigger himself was there!  We dropped everything and followed her directions, and yes, found Tigger and Pooh completely free to play with us, jumping around, high-fiving, and hugging.  We took pictures. 

This is how I think you should have Character experiences – not waiting in a long line, but turning a corner or getting a tip and walking right into their arms.  This is my favorite way to experience Disney, and it’s worked so far!

We finished the day back at the Contemporary Resort for a quick dinner, and then back to our hotel for an end-of-day swimming session.  Then we collapsed.

Friday was another early day and it was off to the Magic Kingdom:  We got there in time for the opening – the Steam Train pulled up and all of the characters got off and welcomed us into the park.  We blitzed to the back of the park (PAST THE STARBUCKS where I was NOT allowed to get a quad espresso to start my day – THE SACRIFICES I make for this family…  fortunately I was able to steal away late morning for my fix).

Bella loved the mellow Goofy’s Barnstormer rollercoaster, Isaac loved the Haunted Mansion – calling out everything he saw with an excited “LOOK LOOK!!!!”.  Bella was very proud of her driving at the Speedway, and Isaac was NOT A FAN of Space Mountain in the least.  He was hollering “STOP THIS THING – LET ME OFF” pretty much from the moment the lights went out.  No crying, just displeasure.  He really didn’t like not knowing what was coming next.

The park got insanely crowded and it was a folly to think we could do any more rides, though we did hop into the Tiki Room – they went back to their original script from the very ill-received refresh from a few years back.  I always love it when the tikis and totem poles join in, and I swear I forget every time that the flowers join in.  (my favorite).  The lines were terrible – even for the dole pineapple ice cream stand? 

Rick was a real hero:  There’s a new “video adventure” game where you get cards and a map and need to find “secret portals” – something that looks like a poster or a window, that transforms into a video screen and you go on an adventure trying to stop Cruella and other villains:  You first need to find the right portal, then at the right time, hold up a spell card from your deck (they give you a deck of cards) that will do a unique attack to vanquish the bad guys.  We did 5 adventures that had us running from one end of the park to the other – great exercise, and also a great distraction from the reality that we were not going to be able to make it on any more rides (Small World had a 45 minute wait by early afternoon!!!)  Anyway, Rick was the hero because he did the whole adventure earlier in the week and partnered up with Isaac and Bella to do the adventure, and they all had a great time.

Dinner Friday was at the very fun Wilderness Lodge:  a great BBQ meat extravaganza, with sassy waiters and lots of theater.  One of the fun things they do is at the beginning of the night, the first table to ask for Ketchup gets about 20 bottles delivered from all of the servers.  From that point onward, any table that wants ketchup has to yell “WE NEED KETCHUP”, and the ketchup-holding table has to ferry over ALL of the bottles to the new table.  Isaac of course got a hamburger and he needed the ketchup.  He simply couldn’t wait to holler it.  His glee was uncontainable. 

We gave hugs and headed back to the hotel for a bit more swimming while Pamela packed us up for the cruise. 

Some random other details:  Overcast both days, but sun by afternoon Friday.  60s Wednesday, 70s Thursday, 80 Friday.  Isaac was enthusiastic about everything, but the instant he got tired or hungry, he was throwing fits.  He’s not one for marching in the heat in big crowds.  Bella has been a bit reserved and Tweener, with some definite eyerolls, BUT she has had her iPod Touch on hand and has take lots of photos and videos – we’re going to have great pictures from this vacation. 

Saturday morning we had a little sleep in, finished packing and took the hour long drive to Port Canaveral in the care of a loud talking limo driver straight from central casting – demeanor and laughter consistent with Ernest Borgnine.   Running commentary on the development of Orlando sprawl, his kids and in-laws, his knowledge of cruise lines, and more.  We came over a bridge and caught our first glimpse of the twin red smokestacks of the Disney Fantasy….


More to come in Part 2!

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

The Crow Brain

I am a big fan of technology, but sometimes I struggle in that buying technology for me isn't always about what the tech can do for me, but rather an impulsive behavior that really isn't in my best interest - I call it my "Crow brain" in that it's drawn to shinyshiny.  It can be confusing sometimes to figure out exactly which technology decisions are made by my crow brain, and which are made based entirely on solving a problem.  Here's an example of a 100% real technology argument I had with myself just 2 days ago.

The problem:  I want to watch some TV shows on the airplane.

Ooooh, the new TIVO that came out last fall - it allows you to transfer recorded shows to an ipad for you to watch offline.  That would be perfect...   But that costs money, I can't transfer my current TIVO service to it, and I wouldn't have enough time to actually record shows and transfer them across before my business trip in 12 hours.   $700 Option = Nope

Well, I've downloaded a few shows to my laptop, but I can't watch my laptop on the plane because it doesn't have a good battery and the coach seats are too small.  I need shows on an iPad-sized device.  BUT the Apple IPAD won't let me load the tv shows that I downloaded via "alternate means"...  But that new Google Nexus tablet looks cool has a slot and I can load up my illicit downloaded shows onto it - I just need to go get that tablet... and....  I used to have one of those and I never used it for anything.   $300 Option = Nope

Or I could just use the iPad I have and download a show via legitimate means.  $2 option.  GOT IT.

Seriously, in the course of an hour to solve a simple problem (watching a TV show on an airplane), I actually priced out a complete change to our cable service (which would have driven Pamela insane), considered buying a new tablet (which I've already had AND sold in the past), before settling on just using the tools I had on hand and paying the cost of a cup of coffee to watch a show.  

Bella recently came back from time with friends and insisted she wanted to use some of her savings to buy some "Beats" headphones - they're expensive and have a status element to them.  I asked her questions - what does this do that your current headphones can't?  Why now?  Can you sit on the decision for a few days and talk to both Mom and me about why you want them?

I realized that I was telling her to make technology decisions with more rigor that I typically do:  It was a pretty strong lesson for me.  The Crow brain is always there, and it has some very compelling arguments as to why this shiny thing will really make a huge difference in my quality of life.  I'm working on identifying when that crow is talking to me, and make sure my technology decisions are made around real needs.