Sunday, December 30, 2007

Our Great Escape


Up towards Cinderella Castle we go. There are people already lining up for the 10:30 parade!

As we reach the hub, I pause to take a video of the ice lights twinkling. It is a gorgeous sight – but the boys are anxious to ride something, and I can’t say I blame them! We turn towards Tomorrowland.

A short walk later and we are at Stitch’s Great Escape. On our last visit, it was new and we waited almost 45 minutes to see it. Now the sign is showing – 5 minutes??? Sure enough, there’s hardly any line! The previous group is being let into the preshow, and then we are waved into the holding area.

We look across the walkway to see the brand-new Monster’s Inc. Laugh Floor. I kind of doubt we’ll be able to get into it, but… is that right? The sign is showing a Standby queue wait time of only 20 minutes! Woohoo!! That’s awesome!

As we wait for the big metal doors to admit us into the SGE preshow, I check the “dedication plaque” mounted at the entrance. The sign is written in the Galactic alphabet, and I could tell pretty quickly that it was English in a wild font, so I snapped a pic of it at the time and then took it home for translation. That full story is on this page of our 2005 report. The big question: Have they corrected the typo on the sign in the two years since? They have not.

We’re soon into Stitch’s Great Escape. I know many fans think the attraction is a step down from the Alien Encounter it replaced. I can’t judge that, since I never saw it myself, but the boys and I are big Stitch fans – Benjamin especially – so we like SGE. The preshow is funny, and the “encounter” itself lasts longer than I recall from 2005. It has awesome effects.

They’ve changed the ending, too, I see. It’s still not the greatest ending, but better than just having Stitch riding the Astro Orbiter.

All in all, we enjoy the show – in fact, Benjamin is thrilled by it! We exit into the gift shop, which is filled with Stitch paraphernalia. This, of course, means it is Shangri-La for my youngest.

The three of us bop from one display to the other, calling out for the other two to see what wacky Stitch plush or other item we’ve found. My favorite is Stitch as a Disney guest, wearing Mouse ears and Mickey t-shirt, and holding a Mickey bar!

Benjamin finds a hat he likes. It has Stitch “breaking through” the front of the hat, complete with fabric fringe that makes it look as if he tore through. The back of the hat has Stitch’s backside sticking into the hat!

We go to check out, but before we can even talk to the CM behind the cash register, Benjamin’s eyes bug out at the mural behind the checkout counter – it’s a painting of Tomorrowland, but full of Stitch’s experiment “cousins”! Benjamin excitedly starts pointing out all of their names.

The CM, spotting a true fan, steps aside so we can see the full mural, and lets us know that Stitch is somewhere in the painting. Hmm, a challenge. Many of the cousins look like Stitch, so we guess wrong a few times, until I spot a spaceship zipping along in the upper right of the mural. It’s “the red one” from the movie. I point to it, and the CM confirms that I’ve found the one and only 626.

Benjamin purchases the hat and then we set out for the Monster’s Inc. Laugh Floor. I hope the wait time hasn’t gone up!


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