Day 3 or How I killed the Tower of Terror

Damn that alarm. I know 7:45 isn't that early but, geez, it sure seems like it after being up to nearly 1AM. Today we are headed for Animal Kingdom and MGM Studios.

First stop, Animal Kingdom. Got inside and headed straight for their premier attraction the Kilimanjaro Safari. I must say I was impressed at this attraction. The wall and fences are hidden so masterfully you think you really are travelling through Africa and that there's nothing between you and that cheetah or lion. You think there's nothing stopping a lion from walking over to a gazelle and getting a quick meal. The giraffes were out and about and walked right up to the truck. For me the coolest part was seeing the Defender 90 they had parked there to look like poachers were working the area. They had treated it to look rusted which made me laugh. Aluminium, which is what the body is made from, doesn't rust. We did this ride again because it was so neat. We also hit 'It's a Bug's Life' which had decent effects along the lines of 'Honey, I Shrunk the Audience'. A few more stops and we are on our way to MGM.

First stop, Tower of Terror. We walked right in and went through the little orientation and boarded a car. Oh. My. God. This is the coolest ride in all the parks I think. It takes you up 13 stories and drops you. When you hit bottom it yanks you back up as quick as you fell and drops you again. And again. And again. About 1/2 dozen times. 'We totally have to do this again' we said. Those were quite fateful words as you will soon see.

On our second trip through The Tower I was sitting against the outer wall to get a better view, not that it really mattered. During one of the bounces my seatbelt caught my fancy homemade belt clip just right and released the GPSr into weightlessness. Not a good thing but it's shock-resistant and should be okay I thought. On the next bounce it managed to work its way under the seat. Oops. That's not good but still retreivable. After the ride stopped I started reaching around under the seat trying to find it and all I found was thin air. The ride operator asked what I was looking for and I told him my GPS went under the seat. I showed him where. He said that hole goes out of the car but don't worry, there's a platform under the car to catch those kinds of things. I'll have a maintenance guy grab it for you. You can get it in a couple hours at the front gate. As he's saying this the whole ride goes into emergency shut-down and all the lights turn on. 'Hmmm, weird.' he says. About 10 maintenance guys pour out of the woodwork as the lights go on. I say 'It looks like you've got other problems. I'll swing by to pick it up later'. Right then a maintenance guy yells through a crack in the ride asking if anyone lost anything that looks like a remote control. I say that could be what I'm missing and he hands it to the ride operator. The operator turns to me holding the remains of my GPSr. Aw, crap. It was squished. The mechanic said it survived the fall but when the next car came through, it managed to lodge itself on the tracks and got run over by 6 tons of pissed off elevator car. He explained that the wheels of the cars have sensors and if they notice any kind of obstruction they stop immediately. Looking at the damage to the back of my GPSr it looks like it managed to stop the car in under 6 inches while ripping the rubber armor to shreds. Quite impressive. Once I had my now useless GPSr I skulked off before anyone realized who had caused the wait to ride the Tower to get 10 minutes longer. I got a plastic bag from a vendor and went on with my day. That was a very expensive ride to say the least.

Next we had to try the Rockin' Roller Coaster. An Aerosmith themed indoor coaster. Dakota was crying about not wanting to ride it as we boarded and the operator made him give her a thumbs-up before she would let us continue. For all his trepidation, when we got off he said that was the coolest ride ever and we did it again. A quick run across the park to catch the Indiana Jones Stunt show. My sis got picked to be an extra and ran around like a fool on stage in front of a few hundred people. She did get a much better view of the explosions than we did though.

We nox had to hurry back to the hotel to change to meet some of Shannon's friends who live in Orlando for dinner. Dinner went well and we dropped by Downtown again for a bit afterwards.

Yet another long day. I'm going to need a vacation from my vacation.