Disney Whirled

Yes we finally did it. We made our way down to Disney World. After years of being annual passport holders at Disneyland, we made the almost traitorous transition to becoming annual passport holders at Disney World. I hope all Anaheim faithfuls will forgive us and understand the obvious reason for the change. It is much different than what we are used to and a little daunting. Fortunately our first experience was made much better by the help of my sister and her family from Washington. This sister is the Queen of Disney. She could probably make money by planning people's trips to anything Disney because she knows the ins and outs of how to beat the system. We don't wait in lines and always have plenty of time for food. We were able to go to all the parks and see the best of what they each had to offer.

The kids were thrilled to be with their cousins at a Disneyland-like place. Rhett was finally able to go on Big Thunder and Splash Mountain. There is definitely a love-hate relationship there. He was a big talker about the rides but when asked if he wanted to go on them again he said, "No thank you." Rhett and Rock also both went on Tower of Terror for the first time. Rock had himself so worked up he was already sick just standing in line. I'm proud of them for riding it, but we'll see if they ever go on it again! But their favorite ride was definitely the water rafting ride at Animal Kingdom. We went on it twice in a row and were soaked! I think they enjoyed seeing their mom get drenched by the waves.


Another fun thing we did, or rather I got to do, was at Disney Studios. They have the new attraction called Idol Experience where park-goers get to audition just as if they were real Idol hopefuls, to eventually perform on the Idol stage. I passed the first audition and was sent to the second phase at the "Coke Room" where I was handed an iPod with a list of about 50 songs to choose from for the next audition. I wasn't really comfortable with any of the songs, but oh well, it was fun to just be sitting in the room. I picked an upbeat song so there would be some entertainment value and went in to sing it for the first time in my entire life in front of a "producer".
As the song came of my mouth I kept thinking, boy I wish this song could have come out of my mouth at least one time before now... Anyhow for some unknown reason, no let me rephrase that, I know the reason: for the fact that I didn't sing a boring ballad, that I was dressed like a horrible Disney tourist in lame shorts and non-stage shoes (I had tennis shoes on earlier but they were so ugly my sister traded me for her sandals which were too big but looked better), sang like an obvious old has-been and hadn't washed my hair in two days... they let me on to the next round which was the actual show.

There are 7 shows a day, three people a show. They wanted us to have a quick but "complete" idol experience so we had 10 minutes with a vocal coach, 10 minutes with a hair and makeup artist (poor thing, there was no hope for my hair that day) 10 minutes alone for meditation, 10 minutes to learn the script and staging of the Live Show, and once through with our music on the stage with a mic. This was my second time through with the song, and it did sound a little better. Then they let the crowds of people fill the auditorium and the show started. I went last. I'll just sum up the 3rd and final time I sang the song in one word: Choke. It was horrible. My voice cracked several times and I was trying so hard to read the words on the screen at the back of the auditorium that I forgot to perform and listen to the music. I don't even think I was with the music... But it was so much fun to play the part. Everytime I get on a stage I remember how much I love and miss it, no matter how bad I was, I loved it!!!

We left Disney World Wednesday morning to race home to catch a flight to Utah that evening. More on that to come