Spring Break 2023 - Day 9 - Disney World Animal Kingdom

The animals wake up early in Animal Kingdom. It was a 7:30am start time for us today so we were up by 6:00am. I had a great sleep but apparently Carter did not. I briefly woke up around 2:00am to hear Carter and Kerry talking about me. Callie refuses to sleep in the same bed as her brother so it's Callie and Kerry in one bed and Carter and I in the other. I don't recall much of the conversation except the line from Kerry of "Did you punch him? That usually works." Anyways, we had cereal and granola bars in our room and then got on the bus to go to the park.

Our first ride was Avatar - Flight of Passage. It took a few minutes to walk to the end of the line but in the end it was only about a 40 minute wait. This ride has you sitting on what looks like a motor bike but is meant to be a banshee from the movie. There is a weird bit at the beginning where you 'merge' with your animal and there is a lot of buzzing and vibrating. While the ride is going you can also feel the animal 'breathing'. All a bit creepy but the ride is a lot of fun. Banshees fly so there is a lot of swooping. I generally close my eyes for the swooping. 

We considered going on the other Avatar ride which is a river boat but it was already a 75 minute wait so the rest of the family went on Expedition Everest while I watched the character boats go by in the harbour. It was at this point that I realized that my camera battery was about to die. Of all the days I needed my regular camera it was Animal Kingdom. A zoom lens is a must for when you are out on safari. I then got a bit stingy with the big camera and switched to my phone. A good reminder that I should get a second battery for our next trip.

Next up was Dinosaur which is very similar to the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland. I was reading recently that when California Adventure first opened, it was a bit of a flop and one of the key reasons was that the whole park was devoid of characters. That seems to be the issue with the dinosaur area of Animal Kingdom. This ride is really well done but the line up is usually pretty short. There was also a rickety roller coaster that has now been closed down with no apparent replacement planned. We skipped the sand box archaeological area. It was fun when the kids were younger.

We had attempted to go on the safari ride earlier in the day but it was closed for 'technical reasons'. Our assumption was that the lions were playing with a sleeping zebra. We eventually got on and were able to see the majority of the animals including hippos, elephants, giraffes, zebras and several others. The only thing we didn't get a great view of was the lions. We did however learn that their roars could be heard across the park so it was fun that as we were leaving we heard them. We would have assumed it was a recorded sound but apparently it's real. 

After the safari we went on the gorilla walk which includes gorillas as well as a number of kinds of monkeys. It is interesting sitting and watching the gorillas. They are more like us than the monkeys and I can't help but wonder what they think about each day. They don't have a job and being in captivity they also don't have any dangers to worry about. We saw a couple of rabbits in the cage and of course there were a lot of questions about how they interact with them. They are vegetarians but they have caught them a few times but they just hold and play with them. 

As a family we all went on the Kali River Rapids which is a tube ride and there is the potential of getting very wet. Kerry and I had our jackets which were water resistant and Callie wore one of the ponchos we brought. Carter chose to go with nothing but it wasn't a big deal since this was one of the warmer days of our trip. After the ride, Kerry spent some time drying out our things and the rest of us went on the tiger walk. The tigers look much less happy than some of the other animals at the park. This one was making horrific sounds to his mate in one of the other areas and doing a lot of pacing.

We had a dinner planned at the Rainforest Cafe. This is a tradition for us and we usually have at least one kid that is upset about something. This time both kids remained happy. We finished up the day with the Lion King Musical, A Bugs Life stage show and the Avatar Na'vi River Ride. The Avatar ride was one of the few poor experiences of our time in the park. The line moved incredibly slow and even when we got to the front, they were letting several minutes of fast lane riders ahead of us while avoiding looking at the other line up. Translation - "The mean lady wouldn't let us on." The ride is terrible anyways. Don't go on it.

Spring Break 2023 - Day 8 - Disney World Hollywood Studios

Day three at Disney World was scheduled for Hollywood Studios. I do actually mean scheduled. Post Covid, Disney parks require you to indicate which days you are attending. I'm not actually sure what happens if you don't. Hollywood studios entrance had changed a bit since were there last so the big sign where we usually get our picture taken was replaced with a new overhead tramway. Luckily as we entered the gate there was a guy with a sign that said 'This is the way'. Not sure what we would have done if he hadn't been there.

It was a very cold morning so not easy to decide what to wear. 8 degrees in the morning and a high of 20. I decided shorts were the right call. Callie was flagged at the entrance once again and we arrived just after they fully opened so we didn't have to wait behind the ropes. Today's first ride was Rise of the Resistance. This remains my favourite ride. I'm not even sure where the line ends and the ride starts. At some point you get loaded on to a transport carrier which takes you to the actual ride where you are moved through some very realistic scenes and eventually 'docked' for a Star Tours like 4D ride.

Galaxy's Edge is virtually identical to Disneyland. Everything from the layout to the rides and shopping areas. Hollywood studios used to be a bit of a dud when it came to rides but since they added Galaxy's Edge as well as Toy Story Land there is quite a lot to see and do. Since we were only going to be here for a single day we had decided last minute to get the Genie Pass. This confirms my suspicions about Disney's greediness. No apparent restrictions on Genie Passes. I had expected the passes to be sold out. Instead we forked over more money for a faster experience.

Even with the Genie Pass you have to be smart about what you sign up for. Early on you can sign up for anything but as they morning goes on, the time to the next available time slot gets farther out. If you were to show up late you might not get to use it at all. If you sign up for something at 7:30pm it means you get nothing else until that time slot. We chose volume and tried to select rides we wanted that were relatively soon. I think we got 5 fast lanes in while Disney says 2-3 is average. By noon we had done Smugglers Run, Mickey's Runaway Train, Star Tours and Toy Story where I once again had the family high score.

I try not to buy too much in the way of merchandise as it is both expensive and you can quickly run out of space in your luggage. I couldn't resist however getting a 'Droid Builders' hoodie. Hopefully in the next 2-3 years I will have earned it and finished building my first droid. Since I'm working on an R2D2 any of the R-Series droids were of special interest to me. They are everywhere in Galaxy's edge including on the cars on Rise of the Resistance. They share a common body and leg format with a number of different heads and various colour patterns. Many of the ones here are just shells.

By this time the access to Genie Pass was pretty much done so Kerry and the kids went over to the Slinky Dog Train to stand in line. It ended up being almost two hours fir them. It's a crazy roller coaster so I sat this one out and wandered around looking for a treat. Unlike Disneyland, Disney World is much harder when it comes to finding sweets. Instead of a sweet shop on Main Street each restaurant has one or two options so I had to wander around until I found something I liked which turned out to be a very good mint cheese cake at the ABC Commissary. 

We finished the day up with the Alien Swirling Saucers and had a bit of time left despite having done everything we wanted to do. We treated the aerial tramway as a final ride and took it over to Disney Springs where we had dinner and went to the Coke store. They were very tricky with the area where you can get your picture with the coke bear. It was lit with blue light and they had a flash so your pictures sucked forcing you to consider there's. Callie was tricky though and snuck pictures of the samples as the sales person was showing us our options. 

We tried out the coke sampler flight which includes samples of coke products from around the world. Some country out there thinks coke that tastes like ground up cactus is a good idea. We had a new favourite terrible favour though as some other country figures their coke should taste like BBQ sauce. We finished the day with churros and waffle sundaes and they headed back to the hotel for a dip in the pool. Good thing our hotel is redoing the pool next year because I hope they redo the hot tub. It's off in an adults only area and is a very small circle. Too many drunk adults staring at me for my liking. 

Spring Break 2023 - Day 7 - Disney World Epcot

Day two had us going to Epcot. Ordinarily we get a park hopper pass which allows us to do different parks in the morning vs the afternoon but they have gotten much more expensive so we made the decision to stick to one park per day. The weather for today was going to be the coldest so far with a low of 12 in the morning and a high of 19. Not terrible if  you were in the sun but not quite the Florida weather we had hoped for. Breakfast was beignets from our hotel. They were Mickey Mouse shaped which was fun but they still weren't as good as Cafe Du Monde. 

After waiting for Callie to get through security as she was stopped once again, we headed for Test Track which pre-dates the cars ride at Disneyland. You get to design your car at the beginning trying to balance performance and looks. Carter designed some crazy looking thing that looked like a small SUV on monster truck tires. Kerry and Carter missed registering their vehicle when we got on which was too bad because we didn't get to compare it to Callie's vehicle which was much more stylish. The ride itself gets up to 104km/h with a G-Force of 2 which you definitely feel. 

We attempted to do the Frozen ride next as we know it gets busy and isn't the fastest line up but it was temporarily broken so we headed over to the Italy pavilion to go on the Ratatouille ride. This is a 4D ride where you are experiencing the world from the rats perspective. There was a point where you are in front of a screen that has you scurrying under a table and it felt completely seamless. There is also a point where you are in the kitchen while they are making bread and you can smell the baguettes. It made us very hungry.

Next up was Soarin followed by the new Guardians of the Galaxy ride. The family claims they knew nothing about this ride but I don't believe them. It was new so rather than a separate fast lane, Disney had a virtual queue. You have to sign up at 7:00am and they tell you what time to come back and get in line. The line was still 45 minutes even with the virtual queue. The ride itself was definitely a 'close your eyes ride' from my perspective. It's a roller coaster like Space Mountain except the individual cars spin. It doesn't technically go up side down but it feels like it comes close. Never again for me. The family loved it.

The Frozen ride was open again but now showed a wait time of 65 minutes on the app, and apparently was 75 minutes by the time we were through the front door. Unusual for Disney was that the ride actually ended up being that long. The worst part about this particular line was that it was so incredibly slow moving. They Fast Lane was letting about 5 people through for every slow lane rider. All this for a basic boat ride like Pirates. We followed that up with the boat ride at the Mexico Pavilion that had zero line up and we walked right on. Mexico was better.

For lunch we had reservations at the Italian pavilion. It was good and I think for the first time ever, we ate every bite of food between the four of us. I had a minor issue with a bone in my chicken parmesan. Kerry attempted to hint for a discount but no luck. Although good, in hindsight, these sit down meals are pricy when you factor in inflation, tip, exchange rate and possibly credit card exchange fees. Ended up being $175 on our credit card. We then continued over to the Japan pavilion which I think is the nicest as they've spent so much effort on the gardens.

Next up was Canada house with its cobra chicken topiaries. The gardens are nicely done, the buildings look impressive and people seem to enjoy it there but as a Canadian it was mildly embarrassing. The 'ride' is a 360 degree movie showcasing the major Canadian regions including the east/west coasts, prairies, north etc. All was going well until they finish the movie up with an original song written for Epcot called Canada. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pi_wDsfGp00) Not our finest moment. Thankfully they had some fiddle playing lumberjacks in the evening on stage which were much better.

We then had a fun 'interaction' with Pooh Bear. He was spending some time in a field catching butterflies and as we were going to get his picture, he started to head out to 'get some hunny' as his handler explained. I've never seen a character head for the exit so quickly. He was definitely done and completely avoided interacting with a kid that was trying to say hi as he was leaving. His handler had to clarify that he'd been on the job from 10:00am to 5:00p. Not sure if this was entirely true but it was definitely time for the next Pooh Bear actor. This one was done. 

Next up was what I like to call the 'Lettuce Ride'. It's a boat that goes through several green houses that showcase what gardening of the future might look like. Lots of different techniques for aquaculture and fun to see Disney attempt to say that it is a 'research' area when it's pretty clear they grow things off site and bring them in at their peak. I still like it as it is fun to see different growing techniques plus it's a leisurely boat ride that is good for napping or as we are now calling them 'nap train rides'. 

After the 'Lettuce Ride' we finally found some manatees. Not as good as seeing them in the wild but they are still fun to watch. It would be nice to think they grow the lettuce for them in the local green houses but it would be tough to keep up. Apparently they eat 75 to 150 heads of lettuce per manatee per day. One of the manatees likes to wander the tank and spends the entire time spinning. Kerry noticed that we saw the same guy doing the same thing when we were here several years earlier. These are rescues but I think they've gone slightly mad in captivity. 

We had dinner at the United Kingdom pavilion and Carter and I had fish and chips. Mine was missing most of the batter and I should have rejected it especially after I saw Carters. It was still very good. The last ride as a family was Spaceship Earth which takes you through history from a very American point of view where everything in history was either in Europe or the US. No mention of the rest of the world. The rest of the family also went on Mission Space which simulates a rocket launch. We then headed home after a very long day. Tomorrow is Hollywood Studios. 

Spring Break 2023 - Day 6 - Disney World Magic Kingdom

There are a few benefits of staying at a Disney World hotel. The first is that there is early park entry for Disney World hotel guests. For Magic Kingdom this meant we got to enter the park at 8:30am. The other benefit is that you are able to use their buses to get to the parks. Disney World is the same size as San Fransisco so it can take 20 minutes to get there. Rather than having to rent a car you can just take a bus for free. We almost didn't get on the first bus but it would have been okay as another showed up as we were loading.

One major change for park entry this year was security. Since 9/11 they have had metal detectors and bag checks for all guests. It started with a second row of tents but over the years they've added permanent structures. This year instead of every guest being stopped they have some sort of AI that scans all guests and decides which bags are at risk. For us that meant Kerry's backpack was safe but Callie's backpack purse got flagged every time. We figure it was the aerosol deodorant.

The park doors open around 8:00am but they have ropes stopping you from getting to the rides so we had a bit of time to to wait until our first ride which was Seven Dwarves Mine Train. The line up ended up indicating 70 minutes by the time we got there but the estimates early in the day are a bit generous so it was only about 45 minutes. One odd thing was the hair band graveyard we saw on the ride near the end. I guess people get bored when they are stopped and once one person does it everyone does it.

While waiting in line for Seven Dwarves we saw our first 'Karen'. A father and daughter were making their way through the line to catch up with their party and the 'Karen' started yelling 'Sir... Sir...' to one of the Disney attendants saying they were cutting in the line. No action was taken. Carter's comment was 'Oooh. A real live Karen in the wild'. Next up was Space Mountain. I don't mind this ride but I really hate the down parts of roller coasters. I tolerate Space Mountain once on each trip.

One thing we noticed on all the rides was that the water marks on the automatic pictures were much bigger. I guess too many people just took pictures of their picture rather than buying. 

Another change this time was a return to refillable popcorn. For $13 you can get a bucket with $2.50 refills vs $5.50 for a cardboard bucket. The way Carter likes to eat popcorn, refillable is definitely the way to go.

On our way to Pirates of the Caribbean we walked by Splash Mountain which for Disney World was being retuned. It was previously based on a movie called Song of the South which is a fairly tone deaf portrayal of the south in the early years after slavery. They are retooling it to be based on Tiana which is a Disney princess. I'm assuming it will still be a log ride but it will be sad not to have zippity do dah as the main song. Hopefully they pay tribute to the old Splash Mountain in some way.

We stopped for churros by the water though I wasn't very impressed. They were not fresh and had lots of icing and sprinkles on them. They are always better fresh. We then headed over to the Haunted Mansion. Some good ideas for gravestones for Halloween. This is where we started to see the flaw in not getting the Genie Pass and the apparent greediness of Disney. They've made it more expensive to use the Fast Lanes but with a very high limit for the number they sell. We found they let way more fast lanes through and it really slowed things for us.

Our next ride was Goofy's Barn Stormer which is a roller coaster geared for kids. It's short and not very fast. I like to scream on this one as if it's the worst ride ever to see if I can frighten any kids. Best line I heard as I got off was 'Why is that man screaming. It's not that scary." It was now time for lunch which has sort of gotten easier as they have mobile ordering. As long as your phone has good wifi, you can order on the app and pick up right away. I had a chicken Caesar salad which was not very good. We finished the morning off with the magic carpet ride.

The start and end time for Magic Kingdom is enough that it makes sense to head back to the hotel for the afternoon for some time by the pool. We also had to wash clothes as it's difficult to pack for 10 days without washing clothes at least once. We wandered over to the sister hotel which is Port Orleans Riverside to check out their pool. We had thought our pool was going to be closed and we would have had to use Riverside but turns out that is next year.

We went back to the park around 6:00pm and tried to go on the Monsters Inc ride which we assumed was like Disneyland but turned out to be a life action comedy show. It was pretty funny with a bit of video interaction with the audience. One poor guy kept getting picked on. We also did the people movers where we saw the fireworks and Autopia where it's very noticeable they still use gas engines. I would not want to work on that ride in the pits. Hot and smelly. 

We also got to see the Tron ride at night. It wasn't open yet but was scheduled to open before we came to Magic Kingdom again. If we can get a spot in the virtual queue we'd be some of the first regular park goers on it. The outside looks amazing at night and you could see the cars running empty which you ride as if you are riding one of the Tron motorcycles. Probably too much for me. We headed back to Barnstormer which I decided to sit out. Apparently I was too busy on my phone because the family did it three times walking by me each time as there was no line up. 

Spring Break 2023 - Day 5 - Travel to Disney World

We got around 6:00am and got the car packed up because our hotel offered free breakfast at 7:00am. I made sure to make lots of noise as we were leaving to get back at the mean college kids who were blaring music walking in front of our room at 2:00am. Breakfast was not very exciting. Biscuits and gravy with cinnamon toast sticks and watery eggs. I had a bit but none of the family wanted anything so we left right away to go find Starbucks and Burger King. We also stopped at a Walmart to get breakfast things and water so we could avoid buying breakfast in Disney World.  Somehow we managed to forget the water though.

It was at this point where we realized we had missed out on the real Panama City Beach. Our hotel area was quite run down and there was even an abandoned amusement park nearby. As we were leaving though we realized there was a whole new area that included mini-golf with waterfalls and even the "Ripley's Believe it or Not" museum in a giant ship. Kerry now remembered that she knew about all of this from when we planned our trip three years earlier but had completely forgotten. My recommendation if you go to Panama City Beach is to not go where we went. 

One of the things that I dislike about Google Maps is that sometimes it offers you the quickest route that might only be quickest for a short period of time and is really not the best overall pay. Case in point for our trip leaving Panama City Beach was the dirt road it took us on before getting us on to the I-10. We ended up on several back roads before we were comfortable that it was sending us in the right direction.  Northern Florida was a very boring drive. Mostly just Forrests with relatively small pine trees. This is the part of the drive that we probably should have taken the older highway closer to the water.

Although our plan was to get to Disney World today we had one stop we wanted to get in on the way. There is a town called Crystal River that has a national park with wild manatees. They come into the inner channels at this time of year. We should have done more planning though as we had to get our car back by 6:00pm and forgot we were losing an hour with the time change. If the national park had parking we might have been okay but you have to park a ways out and get a shuttle. We walked around a bit but we struck out seeing wild manatees.

We dropped the car off at the Disney Car Care centre around 5:30pm and got a shuttle to the hotel. Check-in options are starting to change with hotels. If we had known we could have checked in remotely and used our phone to access our rooms. We checked in the old way, picked up our magic bands and started to explore on our way to the room. It was nice that we had done the real New Orleans before coming to Disney World. Callie picked up on things like fountains and architecture and the name of our gift shop was Jackson Square. Major difference was cleanliness and there were no holes in the side walks.

We had reservations at Planet Hollywood in Disney Springs at 7:00 and had just enough time to catch a boat to Disney Springs. Most of the hotels have a 'unique' way of getting to at least one or two key locations and ours was a boat. Others have things like the monorail or gondolas. Planet Hollywood was a bit much for me. Very noisy and lots of people. Even though I was hungry, the full rack of ribs was way more than I could handle. Presentation was nice. It came on a tiny picnic table. It was at this point that I realized these sit down dinners were going to be pricy. They averaged $175 for the three we went to.

We finished the evening off with dessert at Ghirardelli. It's not cheap but these are the best sundaes I've ever had. They put a big glob of sauce in the bottom before they put the ice cream in so you always get to end with the good stuff. I highly recommend. We also wandered around Disney Springs a bit. It was a Friday evening and it was St. Patrick's day so it was very busy. On our way to the restaurant we had to run past an Irish Pub and they had live music and it was packed. We took a bus back to the hotel and got rested for our first day at Magic Kingdom.

Spring Break 2023 - Day 4 - Panama City Beach

We weren't technically in a hurry this day but we still got up early and headed to the airport to pick up our rental car by 9:00am as soon as the place opened. We were headed to Panama City beach and since we were only staying a single night we wanted as much time there as we could and it was about a 5 hour drive away. Kerry had booked the taxi the night before which turned out to be a good thing as our taxi driver was apparently also the dispatcher and he had to say no to a ton of cars. They only had minivans in the immediate lot so we got a free upgrade and let Carter pick the colour.

We were on the road by around around 9:30am and we had several states we had to get through including Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. It would probably have been nice to take a few roads closer to the water but we didn't really have a lot of time so we stayed mostly on the I-10. I'm not sure what I was expecting for this area of the US but it felt a lot like other areas we have driven. Major highway with lots of fast food restaurants at the exits as well as Love's gas stations. It was interesting to drive some of the major causeways.

Our hotel was a typical coastal water front hotel. 7 or 8 stories with the balconies facing the ocean and the door on an outside corridor on the front. We had assumed spring break would be finished by now but a lot of the universities have different weeks. This meant a lot of drunk college kids doing everything from beach volley ball to beer pong on the beach. We also noticed that all the furniture in the room was plastic which is probably a good thing when you have to clean up after spring breakers every March. The room itself was great for me as it had separate rooms for each of the beds and a couch for Carter to sleep on. 

We had long planned to try out a beach side restaurant near our hotel called Harpoon Harry's but I guess they rent themselves out for special events during spring break so we wandered down the beach headed towards the next bank of hotels. Kerry didn't want drive and risk losing our parking spot as it was very difficult to find. We got about halfway there when Kerry realized she had dropped her room key in the envelope with our room number on it so we had to head back. Amazingly she found it where she had last taken her phone out for pictures. We ended up at a pizza joint across from out hotel where we shared pizza and wings.

While wandering up the beach we found a mini-golf place which only took cash. I assume cash only business tend to be for money laundering but it was still not a bad course. Most of the holes had multiple obstacles and often were mechanized in some way. Mini-golf continues to be Carter's nemesis. There was a hole with a turtle where you have to get it through the middle or it gets spit back out at you and it goes all the way back to the starting point. Carter missed at least a half dozen time and was not happy. Lesson learned for everyone else to lay up on the first shot. I ended up winning the evening by 10 shots. Fun night for me!

Spring Break 2023 - Day 3 - New Orleans and the National WWII Museum

We can't start every day with beignets at Cafe du Monde so today we had beignets at Cafe Beignet. Actually, just Callie and I did. Kerry and Carter branched out. To be honest we're not entirely sure we ended up at the right Cafe Beignet. Kerry and Callie had looked it up and we were heading in the right direction, but it turns out there our several and we may have been headed to one on Canal Street, but we ended up in a much smaller one. I think it was a lot nicer though. A hole in the wall that almost seemed like the inside of a streetcar with tiny birds wandering between your legs at the table.

From the beginning I had been attempting to get the family to go to the National WWII Museum as its one of the top museums in the US. They had it in their head that it was just some old planes at an airport. When we were driving to the swamp tour we drove by, and they realized it was an actual museum that looked pretty interesting. We didn't have anything else planned for the day so we decided we would come first thing in the morning. We had picked our breakfast location to be on the way, so it was only another 15-minute walk. 

The museum is incredibly well done. It takes you through the major events of the war and it has artifacts from land, sea, and air. If there is one fault of course it's that it is entirely from the American point of view. Not necessarily wrong but from walking through you would think the Americans lead the entire war effort. Kerry indicated she saw the word Canada mentioned once and I didn't see it at all. Even for D-Day they listed Omaha beach as well as 'four others' in at least one location. I still do strongly recommend you go if you are ever in New Orleans.

We spent the rest of the day in the French Quarter wandering around to some of the remaining sites we had on our list including Pat O'briens where Kerry and I got their signature Hurricane. The kids also had virgin versions. Mine was not virgin but perhaps it should have been. Those things hit hard. Kerry had the kids escort me through the French Market. We also stopped off at Hotel Royal which has a courtyard that was the inspiration for Marcel's house in 'The Originals'. As far as we can tell, they didn't shoot any actual scenes there.

We went to Louis Armstrong Park as there was a cemetery nearby that we wanted to check out. The Park itself consisted of some interesting ponds, statues and buildings though it was pretty empty. I think it has more going on when there are concerts in the concert hall. We attempted to go to the cemetery, but I should have remembered that the ones near the French Quarter are restricted to tours only. I think there would be too much traffic otherwise. Kerry got as close as she wanted to anyways by peering in through a gap in the front gate.

Speaking of dead people, Kerry and Callie had gone to Muriel's for dinner the night before and had to go back during the day today to check out the table set for Pierre the resident ghost. We now have our own official ghost story. As we were getting ready for bed, one of the lights flickered off casting half the room in darkness. Callie indicated it must be Pierre so I asked nicely if Pierre could turn the light back on until we were ready to go to bed. The light came on about a half a second later. Kerry is ready for us to get to Disney World now.