Again I awoke early in the morning 4am, but at least not with constant waking throughout the night. After trying to sleep for the next hour I gave up and turned on the TV, to a showing of Phineas and Ferb, which does seem very early.
Showered and dressed and having been able to make a Skype video call home (so much better to see as well as just hear), I headed off to find breakfast, having seen on line that there was a Denny’s just around the corner, that was my target, I almost missed it but as it was still so early (7:30am) I was able to slam on breaks and turn right off of I-Drive in to the car park. Breakfast was fine and hearty and I was ready to go.
Now the original plan for today was a trip to the magic kingdom, but after having a look at crowd schedules and opening hours I decided to go to Epcot today and would pop to MK later in the week. And so I was off to the Epcot parking lot arriving at Journey row 6 just at 8:50am. So I only got to the gates after the park had opened and headed straight to Soarin’.
Soarin’ is one of my absolute favourite rides in the world, now I know that the film I starting to get a bit crackly and they seem to have dirt and hairs in the projector most of the time. But I still love the feeling of flying and being absorbed into the world. After the ride I grabbed a Fast Pass for later in the day, as 1 ride on Soarin’ is never enough for a trip, and headed to the Seas pavilion.
At the Sea’s I didn’t go through the ride entrance instead entering through the gift shop and heading to see when the next showing of Turtle Talk was expected, and just missed one as they had just sealed off the entrance to the theatre so instead of waiting in that area I did have a wander around the other lower floor level exhibits.
Again Turtle talk is a great show and we had some interesting children who didn’t get stage fright so asked questions and go some good interaction with Crush. My only issue was I had taken a seat on the right hand side (near the exit doors) and at least 5 different families decided to leave and each time the doors stay open for a while with all the noise from the queue to the Nemo ride coming into the theatre, which is a bit distracting. None of the children being taken out seemed to be crying so I do wonder why they were leaving?
As I left the Seas pavilion, the heat had already started to build for the day, so the walk to Spaceship earth was done via Innoventions West. Today was going to have to be highlights of Future world day, as I wanted to leave just after lunch to get to the convention centre for registration. There seemed to be nothing new in Innoventions West, and I still can’t quite understand why people play video games in Epcot, what a waste of time.
Today was also getting more crowded than I was expecting and there was a 20 min queue for Spaceship Earth, but no trip to Epcot is complete without a ride. Especially for that final revile when you get to see Earth, I also have a soft spot for the globe at the end when your picture is moved from one of the oceans to the city you said you were from at the start of the ride. Try somewhere strange next time you ride.
Leaving the ride and after a quick wander through MouseGears, I came across the Jamminators, a group of cast members that look like janitors but do a great percussion set on steel dustbins, the only problem was it was in the full glare of the sun rather than some shade, but I did manage to impress them by being able to clap my hands under my leg.
With Test Track closed and not wanting to be the Engineer yet again on Mission Space, the only attraction on this side of the park was Ellen’s Energy Adventure, but as I have mentioned it was hot so 45 mins in the Air-conditioning seemed like a good idea, especially as I still have about 1 hour till my fast pass time for Soarin’.
After the ride, I headed back over towards the Land pavilion, and as I passed under/through Innoventions East I noticed that they had larger Mickey Crocs (the ones with the mickey shaped holes) here so after 5 years I was finally able to find a pair that fit me (I have size 12 feet) as on all previous visits the largest size I could normally find was a size 10, so if you have large feet they now seem to be doing Mickey Croc’s that could fit.
So a final ride on Soarin’ was followed by lunch in Sunshine Seasons, I went for the Chicken and Cashew stir fry
Which was nice a filling, and so just at 1:30pm started to head back towards the exit, but as I got to the central hub I remembered that there was a new house of the future in Innoventions West, so made a quick pop in there. It now is much more what can be purchased now and was just like a show home at the Ideal home show, but with a guide. There seemed to be nothing that innovative in it, but maybe that is also some differences between the UK and US markets for houses. But we did find the hidden mickey in the foliage.
And with that I left the park just after 2pm and got back in the car and drove back to the hotel. A quick skype chat with home followed (have I said how much I like being able to video chat across the world – what a great invention – and for free, if you can find internet access). Then was the 20 mins walk from the hotel to the Orange County convention centre (OCCC from now on), which in the heat was not a great idea, by the time I got there I was so hot and sweaty and the Aircon as I entered came as a great relief.
Registration was a breeze, helped by the fact that on the Sunday there were very few of us checking in, which was my plan as I could see from the space allocated that it would be chaos there tomorrow morning. After registration, I got my bag, water bottle and T-Shirt, and started to try and get some barings as the hall seemed different from my memory. This is probably due to there being a temporary wall in place for that day, whilst they finished the other side of the hall.
Even though I had been to TechEd before I still attended the 101 class at 4pm as I always felt that I may be missing something during my attendance. The session was great and gave a good overview of the non-session activities that can be done to get the most out of the event. One of the presenters was from a group called TheKrewe and talked mainly about making connections and friends during the week, I was already aware of them as had tried to sign up for the welcome meet that night, but had been put on the wait list, but as he was talking my phone buzzed and I got the email saying that a slot had opened up and did I want to register to attend. Serendipity in action.
After the session and with most of the venue still closed, I headed back to the hotel. The KREWE welcome event was at 8pm at “Howl at the Moon” on I-Drive, and checking twitter I noticed that one of the other attendees I had started following on twitter was already there stuffing goodie bags for the event, which did make me feel that at least I sort of knew 1 person at the event. After a short while it was time to make the 20 min walk up I-Drive to “Howl at the Moon”, stopping at the Subway for a quick sandwich dinner. I got to the venue just before 8pm and just as it started to rain, but they were already letting people in, so I was checked in and given the goodie bag of logo’d stuff. The venue is a duelling piano bar, the drinks and some food was free, and after a wander around getting my bearings I decided to try and find my acquaintance, which I achived by asking the guy who had done the talk earlier, as with people on twitter you can have chatted but never seen each other. And when I introduced myself I was totally ignored, just a quick oh hello and then he wandered off.
So here I was in a bar full of people who seemed to know each other knowing no-one, a stranger in a strange land. I had a couple of drinks and listened to the music for a while and then decided to just call it a night and head back. But mother nature had other ideas, as I got to the door the rain was still coming down and as I was trying to decide if it was light enough to walk back anyway (no umbrella this evening) the weather made up my mind, but getting heavier and heavier very quickly and then the first lightning strike and thunderclap. Ok I will have another drink.
I found a quiet spot at the bar just by the entrance about 3 meters inside with my back to the door, I was joined there by a guy in leathers and various piercings and we had a chat about IT and the event and the 10,000 hours rule (that is that there this no such thing as natural ability but just practice and if you can practice for 10,000 hours you will be great at something, I remembered that there is a man trying this with golf, he has given up his job and is practicing 10 hours a day for 3 years to see if he can get on the pro-tours.) Whilst we were talking the storm was getting worse and worse, at one point the rain and wind combined to actually wet us and the bar staff through the door. I have never seen anything like this and as the other plan for tonight had been to go to see Illuminations, I felt a little better as that surely would have been cancelled.
After about an hour the thunder and lightning seemed to have gone and the rain had eased up so I made a run (well quick walk) for it, getting back to the hotel I was drenched but exhausted so fell straight to sleep. Tomorrow would be a working day.
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