SciFi Fourth of July in Celebration Florida

After sleeping in (badly needed) we headed to Epcot with one goal: spend the afternoon doing pavilions.

When I started going to Disney in the 90's the pavilions were horrible so I developed an aversion to them. Pavilions today are much better. They are filled with computerized interactive learning games (that are light on the learning and heavy on the game). One pavilion has a ride simulator on the end of a robotic arm that flips and turns the rider upside down and all around. We had a blast!


We did the Cool blast and tried various sodas from around the world. This was an experience I had read and seen youtube videos and really wanted to try. All the drinks were very sugary and strongly flavored. We decided to just stick with our Anerican favorites.

To cut costs we are eating at home and off property as much as possible. We passed by the Electric Umbrella and the smell of French Fries came waffling out of the restaurant and we decided we were all very hungry.

We left Epcot and ate dinner at the Wild Side BBQ on Rt. 192. We were smart this year: Linda and I split a meal and we still had to bring food home because we were stuffed. Everything was incredible except the garlic mashed potatoes had too much garlic. We were really excited because our youngest (who is a very picky eater) ate beef brisket!

Next stop was to Celebration for the SciFi Fireworks. We want to understand life as a local and one way to do that is to attend local fireworks shows.


Floridians are unique individuals in many ways. For example, it is highly discouraged to use turn signals in Florida. I suspect in Driver's Education classes students lose points if they signal for a lane change. Instead it is expected that the only person who needs to know where you are going is you, and everyone else is optional.

Another way Floridians are unique is that they have been conditioned for long lines. When you hear that there is a five hour long line to see the Frozen Princesses, or two hour wait for Toy Story Mania, you think nothing of a 90 minute wait for a bus. And that is exactly how long we waited to board the bus that took us to Celebration, and how long we waited for one of the only three busses to pick us up and take us to our car. Most of our Fourth of July experience was spent standing in lines.


A third way Floridians are unique is that they enjoy cramming themselves onto Main Street to watch fireworks. Celebration was so packed that people had to stand on top of other people 's feet. All of Market street and Front street were packed with people and nearly impassable. The Magic Kingdom gets packed but caste members keep the sidewalks open for emergencies. If there had been an emergency at the Sci Fi Fourth of July, emergency crews would not have been able to respond.

The fireworks were excellent, except for a tree we were standing under blocked the view. Otherwise they were excellent.


When we saw the return bus line was so long, I suggested we simply walk the 1.5 miles back to the car. I walk or jog 3-5 miles every morning, 1.5 miles would be nothing. But Linda was concerned about going through unknown neighborhoods in the dark. This is Celebration, the town Disney built! Their HOA doesn't permit rift raff. We had nothing to worry about! But Linda wanted to trade a 30 minute walk for a 90 wait.

Would I do Celebration's Sci Fi Fourth of July again? Not if I had to wait that long for a bus again. I would want assurances they employed more busses, or, I would want to be able to walk back to the car.

3rd Of July at Epcot

The kids got out of the pool this afternoon only to find a dinosaur sized turtle munching on weeds just outside the pool enclosure.

On the way to Florida, Linda inhaled chemicals at a Burger King that made her ill. Now, she is suffering cold symptoms that I relate to what happened at Burger King. Who goes to Florida in the summer and catches a cold? Her journey though the greatest place on earth is accompanied with a sinus headache and cough.

I have heard that Epcot does an incredible July 4 fireworks show, and I heard they do the show on July 3 too. Since we plan to see the SciFi Fireworks in Celebration on the 4th, we decided to go to Epcot today. One of the best places to watch the fireworks is France. So we parked at Boardwalk so we could enter through the back gate.

There was a storm so we decided to catch the boat. As we waited for the boat my youngest said "It is thunder and lightening out and we are standing on a metal dock!" OK, not the smartest thing. But that didn't prevent us from waiting 20 minutes on that metal dock for a boat that never came.

We gave up waiting for the boat and hiked into Epcot. After passing through the gate the skies opened and it really down poured. We jumped into a shop and paid $34 four four ponchos that would have cost $8 anywhere else.


I find it funny that Disney puts out signs on the sidewalks when it rains that says "Warning, the floor may be wet". You think? Maybe? When we are outside in the rain I don't think we need to be told it is wet!

As soon as we put the ponchos on it stopped raining. That is just how it always goes with us. Our wet ponchos got folded up and put into our backpack.

We headed over to France to grab wet table and chairs and to settle in for the long wait for illuminations.

The show started and was spectacular. There is a giant tree on an island blocking our view of the globe, but I have been told the tree is purposefully placed there to deal with the lasers. I watched to see if that were true and I couldn't tell. If that is the reason for growing these trees, couldn't they have used smaller trees? The tree completely blocked our view of the globe - not that you can really see what is on the globe anyway. I think the globe needs some reimaginaring refurbishment. If they can animate Cinderella's castle, they should be able to have a bigger globe that isn't blocked by trees.

During Illuminations we were entertained by a drunk guest yelling out for more beer. I don't know what was funny about it, but we all got a good laugh at his expense.

The fireworks ended and we got ready for the Fourth of July add-on. Instead, the lights rose and the "Thank you for coming... Take small children by the hand" message came on. Dumbfounded, Linda and I looked at each other. "That is it?" as if being in the most magical place in the world wasn't enough, we wanted the extra bonus July 3 magic, for which there was none.

Somehow disappointed, we headed back to the boardwalk. As we were leaving we were entertained by a magician who juggled, rolled balls around the brim of his hat, and squeaked as he performed. He was very good.

We loaded into the van and were home in 14 minutes. That marks our first trip into a Disney Park for 2014.

Port Orleans and Yeeha Bob

In my journeys walking around Floridian neighborhoods I have noticed an odd occurrence: people tend to leave their trunks open. Trunks, hatches, side doors, whatever. I don't think they are airing out the cars. My theory is that someone in the house sat on their car keys and remotely opened the door.

Our inability to fill prescriptions yesterday is turning into a medical calamity today. We need a doctor with a certain federal classification, not a nurse practitioner, to fill out the prescription on a federally approved prescription pad. However, doctors tend to go on vacation around the Fourth of July holiday. Even if a doctor could put pen to paper, that piece of paper would be over 1000 miles away, and the original federally approved piece of paper must be produced at the pharmacy - nothing else will do. The answer seems simple. Just spend a kazillion dollars to overnight the piece of paper. However, the post office tends to close on holidays, and weekend deliveries are unlikely. Our hospital only does priority mail, which is 2-4 weekdays. So, if a doctor can be found, the earliest we can get the medicine would be four days after we run out. Thank you to the overbearing federal government for "protecting us".

The next four days posts are likely to be "unmedicated disabled children attempting to navigate the new Disney guest assistance procedures." Buckle up - this is going to be a fun ride!

Today we had greater schedule discipline and was able to leave the house only 90 minutes late. At 7pm we drove to Port Orleans to see Yeeha Bob do his show.


Yeeha is a favorite of ours. Every October he comes to Upstate New York to do a benefit for Give Kids The World and we always catch him there. Bob is a piano player that sings songs everyone knows as he encourages crowd participation. The boys really get into it, so much so that my oldest accidentally knocked his full soda into my lap. That was cold. Unexpected. Icy. Did I mention it was cold? Yep. That sure put some excitement in the show!

After the show we decided to head back to the villa using the secret road that dumps us practically at the entrance to our subdivision. This secret road gets us from driveway to parking lot toll booths for Animal kingdom in about 7 minutes. But the road is so secret that we couldn't find it! We spent twenty minutes just going around in circles. Finally I pulled into Disney's McDonalds and set my GPS to get us home. Our first venture into Disney World was a good one. I am looking forward to possibly doing Epcot tomorrow night!

The Discipline Of A Well Run Schedule

Yesterday I wrote about running the house with military like discipline. I have determined this is a foreign concept because when I am not Around? It all falls apart.

At home I do most of the cooking. But on this trip the only way we will have time to do anything is if Linda has dinner ready when I finish work so we can eat quick and head out the door to Disney. To make this possible I assembled an assortment of easy to make dinners: canned ravioli, bologna sandwiches, hotdogs, etc.

At 4:42 today, I came out of my office and found the family still in the pool. I suggested dinner get started, let me know when it is ready. The next time I looked at my clock it was 5:34! Dinner should have been finished 34 minutes ago. By now we should be in the car approaching the intersection on Rt 192, center lane, 32mph to get perfect traffic light timing. I checked on the family and... They were still in the pool!

See what I mean? Absolutely no discipline to the schedule. The 38 page itinary is King, the schedule is the master and what I saw was complete anarchy! My family, believing they were on vacation, traded work list for reckless abandonment such that nothing was done!

I whipped up some Tacos, burritos, nachos and Taco Salad while everyone came in from the pool and changed. I packed the bags and at 7:48, with more than two hours of our precious Disney experience lost, we boarded the mini-van and headed out.

First stop? We needed to go to a pharmacy to fill prescriptions. Not the Walgreens that sat a quarter mile from our house. No. A pharmacy all the way out in Celebration! There are funny rules with the prescriptions. Linda spent hours coordinating the timing of the prescriptions and making sure we would be able to get everything we needed. Of the many challenges, prescriptions can only be filled within 3 days of running out, which makes traveling very difficult. Something new: in Florida the prescription must be signed by an MD, not a nurse practitioner. Therefore the pharmacy refused to fill the prescriptions. All the planning and coordinating is out the window. We don't know what we will do now, but we will figure it out tomorrow.

Frustrated, we decided to salvage the night with miniature golf. There wasn't time to do Winterland so we decided to golf at a place on Rt 192. But when we walked up to the counter the cashier explained their credit card machine was broken. Who carried cash anymore? Not I! So we left and continued down 192 to find miniature golf that accepted plastic. It wasn't the place we wanted to go, not even the second place we wanted, but we were trying to salvage a bad night that kept getting worse.

The golf was fun, except for the boys continually arguing who would go first. But I got my payback. Linda recorded them dancing with me on hole 17.

We had to hit a grocery store before returning to the house because, believe it or not, Walmart doesn't have everything. I was surprised to find neither store carried manwhich. Manwhich! I thought that was a staple. We loaded up with more wine and headed home around 11pm.

Three days in Florida and we have yet to set foot in Disney World. Maybe tomorrow.

Settling Into The Villa

They say getting here is half the fun. It can also be half the expense! Well, not really. But it did cost us $490 to take three days driving from upstate New York to Florida ($215 in gas, $178 in hotel, and $97 in food). We could have shaved $90 off by doing the trip in two days instead of three, but the would have been more difficult.

We spent most of today figuring out how we would like to set up the house to obtain the greatest domestic efficiency. There are workflows concerning getting ready every morning and shutting things down in the evening that work best under discipline and military-like precision. I stand in the kitchen with the task list on my clipboard making sure no one slacks on their responsibilities! The reward when done? The kids can have their electronics.


I am convinced that summers in Florida must mean rain. It rained yesterday. It rained this afternoon. And as I look at the 10 day forecast, it is unlikely we will get a day without rain! This is very similar to what we experienced last summer: the sunshine state is a thunderstorm capital! There was a tropical storm last summer that dumped rain on us. As luck would have it, Tropical Storm Arthur is building off the Atlantic coast this year! The guy from the maintenance company blamed us, saying we brought our New York Weather to Florida, but, I believe Florida is always like this.

We were gluttons for punishment because we returned to the social experiment called Walmart on Rt 27. Because the Walmart was so crazy yesterday we hit the eject button with only half our groceries. That made breakfast difficult this morning because we had no milk for our cereal. We are eating more at home this trip so our grocery list is crazy large. Now we needed to battle the crowds to obtain our remaining items. The crowd was lighter but the people were just as crazy. In one isle, a 17 year old boy was chasing his 14 year old sister, she was running while pushing a cart and slamming into everyone in attempt to get away. Also, everywhere we found opened and half eaten products. Nevertheless, we made it out of he store with all the groceries we could find and fight for. All the food, soaps, and paper products (some of which will last the entire month) for two days shopping was $500. This had better last a while!

I set my office up in the front bedroom today. One of the established goals of the trip was to give me an office with a view of the Florida neighborhood. That limited the kinds of villas we could rent, but we found the perfect villa! And all day a truck sat parked in front of the house blocking the neighborhood view. Just my luck! I hope the truck is gone tomorrow.

Linda has been hitting her head. No, not some Tourette's fit of slapping herself. She hit her head getting into the van hard enough to make the bells ring. Tonight she hit herself in the face when closing a cupboard door. She hit herself hard enough to nearly knock herself out. They say these things happen in threes so I'm waiting for the next big hit.

After dinner I decided to test my injured ankle with a walk around the neighborhood while everyone else went for a swim. My plan was be jogging around the neighborhood but the Father's Day Ankle injury has sidelined those plans. Maybe later in the trip it'll feel good enough to try a light jog. For now, I keep the ankle in a brace and try not to stay in shoes very long. I walked 3.2 miles on the ankle tonight and it held up well.

We finished the night drinking wine in the living room while watching the Magic Kingdom fireworks overtop the trees in the back yard. So far this has been an expensive trip and we have yet to step food on Disney World. Perhaps tomorrow after work.

Do Before Heading To Florida

There are many things to do before heading to Florida, but these two are very important!

1. Tell your credit card company that you will be traveling. Failure to do so could trigger the fraud protection and shut your card off. Simply call the phone number on the back of your card before leaving and tell them you are traveling.

2. Update the roaming capabilities on your cell phone. New towers are being built all the time and if your phone doesn't know how to talk to them you could be caught in a dead zone, or, have a weak signal. To update a Verizon cell phone simply call *228 before heading out. NOTE: if your phone uses 4G instead of 3G, it will auto update and you do not need to all *228.

I hope these tips help!

Arrived In Florida

We left the hotel with around seven hours driving before us. We practiced lip sinking the song "Love is an Open Door" for about an hour before we got the camera out. It took ten takes to get the perfect recording! Next, I need to load it onto YouTube.

We left South Carolina and entered Georgia. As we passed a truck weigh station a Semi rejoined the highway infront of us. The Semi had a broken front axel and the front wheel was wobbling. The Semi was rocketing to 70 mph while the wheel was ready to flip on its side and break off the truck, meanwhile causing the truck to bounce and jump. The van next to the approaching truck was terrified and pulled into the left lane, unaware of a black car that was already in that lane! To avoid a collision, the black car was pushed into the side of the road. The entire event happened twenty feet in front of us and was terrifying!

When we entered Florida, the Sunshine State greeted us with rain that followed us all the way to Orlando. It was pouring heavily and thunder and lightening burst all around us. "I just heard lightening!" My youngest said. We passed by one poor sole along side the road changing a tire in the downpour.

When we went through Orlando I was uncharacteristically leaving a healthy following distance between myself and a car in front of me. A small red car in the left lane tried to use the gap to shoot over three lanes and catch an exit. As the red car came into my field of view I dropped by break pedal to the floor causing the anti-lock breaks to kick on. But luckily I avoided a collision with that red car!

We took the exit off I4 to Rt192 and the rain lightened. It is good the rain became a drizzle when it did because our overworked windshield wipers quit and became stuck in the middle of the windshield! Nothing I didto the controls made the wipers move. I assumed I blew a fuse.

We reached the house we are renting at 4:30. Luckily the owner returned my email about gaining access to the door key and we were able to enter with ease. However, we found the maintenance company had not cleaned the house! The house wasn't disgusting but it was not clean. We immediately called the owner who apologized and arranged for a cleaning.

Since we had to wait for the cleaning before unpacking we decided to go grocery shopping at the Walmart on Rt 27. I wrote in 2013 about how insane this Walmart is.
Workers in every isle can not keep the shelves stocked as the crowd of customers push their way through the isle to get the last can of beans. This year I decided I didn't care if I was in anyone's way because it is impossible to shop without blocking someone from something. That Walmart is insane! It was difficult loading groceries into a van already filled with suit cases, so, we buried the kids in grocery bags.

We returned to the house after shopping. The house was now clean except for the maggots we found in the kitchen drain. We bagged all our groceries into ziplocks to keep any possible bugs away. Then we put all the mattresses into mattress bags before remaking them with our own linens (we just don't trust beds and bedding left behind).

It feels great to finally be in Florida!