Focht Family Blog

Saturday, November 8 was my birthday. Nathan got me a pin to where when we checked in that said it was my birthday so I wore it for the day and every cast member that I passed wished me a Happy Birthday. It was fun to have complete strangers wishing to you. I even had Gepetto wish me a Happy Birthday from his float in the parade. :)

Nathan’s parents drove down Friday night and spent the weekend with us. Because they were only going to one park we decided to go to Magic Kingdom. We managed to go on all of the rides we wanted to although it ended up being the longest day that we spent at a park for our whole trip. Here is a picture of Samantha and Nathan’s mom riding the gocarts. Also, a picture of Nathan and his dad having some bonding time. :)

After a morning full of rides we went to Tony’s Town Square for lunch. We have been to Disney countless times during the Year of a Million Dreams and we were finally approached by one of the Dream people while waiting for lunch. He came up to Samantha and asked her who her favorite princess was. She said Belle which wasn’t the right answer. The right answer was Cinderella. Thankfully all he was giving was a private meeting with Mickey and Cinderella. I told Samantha that if it had been the night in the castle, I might not have forgiven her. :)

After lunch they were getting ready for the parade so the kids started hula hooping in the street.

While waiting for the parade the grownups got some ice cream for dessert (the kids had sundaes with their meals). While we were eating our ice cream the kids joined in a game of “Mickey Says”…

As the evening wore on, Josh had a final request of the carousel and Dumbo. Here is a picture of Ron and Barb while Ron was taking a picture of me and my mom…

On the way to Dumbo, the kids decided to try to pull the sword from the stone…

Once we were on Dumbo I was trying to get a picture of Nathan’s mom with Josh. However, Nathan kept sticking his hand out to get in the way of the picture. So, since he wanted to be that way, here is one of the pictures of Nathan and Samantha…

After Dumbo we went to the main store on the way out and the kids got to spend money from Nathan’s parents. Then we went to the boats and went to Whispering Canyon at the Wilderness Lodge for dinner. While waiting for the boat a snake came slithering out behind where Barb and my mom were sitting. I’m not sure what kind he was but I decided to take a picture…

Dinner was wonderful and while we were riding on another boat to Fort Wilderness the fireworks started at Magic Kingdom. The boat driver put the boat in idle so we could watch the display. What a wonderful birthday!! :)

I have always loved dolphins so for my birthday my mom gave me the Dolphins in Depth tour at Epcot. The tour is limited to 8 participants a day and the dolphins are not required to interact with you. They start out showing you the filters outside and then take you to the backstage part of the tanks. The tanks are so wide that they could put Spaceship Earth inside and still have room around the edges to walk or drive a bus. They have 4 male dolphins since they are mostly a research facility. We then get to learn about dolphin anatomy and environment. They show you what they eat and how they train them.

Next we get to observe a training session where one of the older dolphins, Calvin, is showing a younger dolphin, Mallomar, how to use echolocation. Calvin has his eyes covered and is then sent to echolocate a PVC shape. Once the shape is pulled from the pool he then swims to the other side where 3 choices are hanging. He has to decide which shape matches the first one. While we watched he got all but one right. Mallomar then gets a chance to try without his eyes being covered. The tour guide says he usually picks the one on the left. He has figured out that if he always chooses the one on the left that he will be right 1 out of 3 times. As he put it… he is figuring out how to play the game, he just hasn’t figured out how to win the game.

Next it was time to get dressed in our swimsuits and wetsuits. They provide you with a wetsuit and water boots, not a flattering look for anyone. Once in the water we take turns getting our pictures taken with the dolphins. Here is my picture with Keiberg. He is 16 and weighs 503 lbs.

They take the picture before your interactions because you end up getting splashed by the dolphins while interacting. We got to spend time with both of the dolphins that were in the main tank. We were able to rub the backs of both of them as rewards and we got to practice hand signals with both. The other dolphin we worked with was Ranier. He is the alpha male. He is 20 and weighs about 480 lbs. It is absolutely amazing to sit and hold 500 lbs of muscle. They are beautiful animals. Now I am even more anxious for Josh to be old enough to go to Discovery Cove. :)

We loved solving Japan so much we went back to the kiosk and asked if we could solve the other country they were testing that day, which was Germany. In Germany, Professor Dementor has created a mind controlling pretzel and everyone who eats one becomes a zombie who wonders around aimlessly like they are on vacation. Must have been a lot of customers! :) Your assignment is to figure out a tune that can be played that will reverse the mind control.

Your first location takes you to a miniature village that is plagued by giant squirrels. When you arrive at your location it triggers the clock on the church in the center of the town to light up and chime and various people in the village raise their hands like zombies and their eyes glow red…

While we were here two gentlemen noticed the chimes and lights on the church and kept watching it to see if it would do it again. I wonder how long they waited? I think that is the best part of this adventure. When something happens other people who are not on the adventure can’t figure out why things are happening. :) The next location was a store that has a display of beer steins over a mantle. When you are there it triggers the beer steins to start singing. Again… a lady was just taking a picture of the steins as they started singing. She jumped and wasn’t sure if she had done something….

The next location leads you to the toy store, Der Teddybear, where you trigger a train above you that has a coded message lit up on its back car…

The next location takes you to a cuckoo clock store where you have to find the correct clock display which triggers this clock to start up giving Wade more notes to figure out the correct tune needed.

Now we are back outside where we have to find a snack area and we are asked to give an answer as to what is on a particular shield. The next location we have to find is the Christmas store where we have to look for a display of nutcrackers. The large nutcracker in the middle lifts the lid of the gift he is standing on revealing the final notes needed.

Last stop is to play the correct tune and stop Professor Dementor. Once you find a particular window and stand looking across the street at the candy shop the doors above the shop open to reveal a German girl chasing Professor Dementor trying to hit him on the head….

Now that the world is safe once again, we are sent to a barrel to return our communicator…

I am hoping while we are still here for a few more days that we will be able to stumble upon another testing. I would love to solve a couple more countries and the kids are all anxious for more as well. All in all it was definitely the most fun we have had as a family at Epcot. When it is open there will be 7 countries that you can solve. For us, each country took about 30 minutes to solve.

Thursday was spent at Epcot. Nathan found out about a new thing at Epcot while on his tour. It is a Kim Possible experience where visitors are given a Verizon phone that has an RFID chip attached to it. It is in field testing right now. I think they said it would be open by January. When it opens there will be 7 countries that you can “solve” crimes in. We were lucky enough to spot cast members in the Kim Possible uniforms and found out they would be field testing two countries that afternoon.

When you check in with them you are given a communicator (phone). The phone gives you transmissions from Wade and Kim that tells you where you are supposed to go and what you need to do. Here is a picture of the family looking at the transmission and a close-up of the phone.

The first country we tested was Japan. It was the case of the Killer Baby Bebe. The Bebes are robots that look like women. The theory of this case is that a baby Bebe has been created and is out of control throwing tantrums all over the place. You have to restore the balance of the elements to calm the baby down. The first location you have to find is a koi pond. If you are in the right place when you push the button on your communicator water will flow from a rock restoring the balance of water. Here is a picture of the koi pond…

At this point we didn’t realize that we were supposed to be looking for things to happen so we missed that the water wasn’t flowing out of the top of the rock when we got there. Next we had to find some wind chimes that were hidden in an alcove. When you get there, wind blows up behind you and blows the wind chimes. Now balance was restored to wind. This is when we figured out that we were triggering events.

The next location you have to find is a zen rock garden. When you are at the right location LED lights light up a Japanese symbol on a rock. Now the balance of earth is restored. During the search you also have to find someone who speaks Japanese to translate a saying for you. The final element that needs to be restored is fire. You are asked to find a lantern at the opening of the castle. When you are at the right lantern, it lights up with a flame inside of it….

Now that all of the elements are restored you have to find the baby Bebe so that Wade can reset her and make her a good baby again. This search leads you to the store where you have to look for a wall of paintings. When you are there you trigger the baby Bebe to come out of a display with her eyes glowing red. Once she is restored she goes back down with her eyes glowing green…

Now that the world has been saved by the Killer Baby Bebe you are directed to another location where you return your communicator…

This was the most fun we have had at Epcot with our kids. :)

Wednesday Nathan took the RV and the truck to Independence RV to have a new braking system installed. The Brake Buddy only comes on when you slam on the RV brakes so he had a system installed where the truck brakes are tied into the RV brakes with an air line. While he was gone my mom and I took the kids out to the restaurant at Fort Wilderness for a VERY expensive breakfast and then let them play at the playground. Since Nathan wasn’t going to be back in time for lunch we decided to take the bus to Downtown Disney for lunch. If all else failed there is a McDonalds there. We decided instead that we would give the new T-Rex Cafe a try. It is like a Rainforest Cafe with dinosaurs. They have intermittent meteor showers and all the dinosaurs move and roar. Here is a picture of the octopus over the bar and of the T-Rex at the front of the restaurant.

We were sat at a table for 4 with a chair on the end for Josh. Two feet away was a rounded booth set for 5 people. When I asked if we could sit there instead I was told that there wasn’t a server for that table. However after 10 minutes of sitting at our table we still hadn’t seen our server so we left and went to McDonalds. :) From what I could see the prices were high and the service was bad. I won’t be going back to actually try the food.

After lunch we walked through a few stores. One if them is a LEGO store that has tables outside for kids to play at. Here are the kids building…

After this we headed back to camp just in time to help Nathan unhook the truck and park. :)