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Wednesday at Animal Kingdom, Paddlefish
Apr. 21st, 2021 11:00 pmToday had a lot of Pinocchio goes to Paradise Island elements. It _seemed_ like a really great day. R. dropped us off at the park. We got on Flight of Passage and that was great. We decided to do Na’avi river journey, which we have not done since the rides were quite new, and there was a LOT of chaos in that line. The less terrifying part of the chaos was a family behind us that was struggling to control a 1-2 year old who kept getting away from them. I’m sympathetic! I remember when T. was that age. The family had a bit of a loose idea of social distancing anyway, and of course when a toddler puts his hand on your thigh, there is no distancing going on at all.
They went to a closed part of the queue to diaper the kid, and then we got a new family who was, surprisingly, a lot worse. Middle aged mom of the I Am Here to Be Decorative variety, no dad anywhere in sight (no Other Mom in sight either), a tweener or young teenager boy and a girl probably slightly older who was very careful to draw zero attention to herself, which honestly should have been a warning sign all by itself. They kept crowding, and I’d been pointing to the line for distancing behind us to the previous family anyway (they had older kids who would creep forward when the ‘rents were busy with the littlest, but who would comply happily with a reminder), and I hadn’t internalized the change. This family took it poorly. Boy starts snarking. Karen starts saying shit. I quit pointing out the line. When we lined up for boarding, she worked her hand around the plexglass barrier to “rest” awkwardly in my space. I stood back and ignored. We boarded. She fake coughed twice (through her mask) on me.
I reported her to the ride operator. I pointed her out. I repeated loudly and carefully what happened. I made sure the plexiglass barrier on the boat was ample and sat carefully with A. in the middle of the bench so that any effort on their part to reach around it would be obvious grounds for eviction on the spot. The ride continues to be great, and it was new to A. as she had no memory of it from a few years back. We let Karen’s group debark, then stepped off, and lo and behold, two of the Best Trained Cast Members Ever were waiting to hear my story of woe. We discussed options, which included them helping me report it as an assault to the police, or letting them handle it internally. I chose option B. They gave us a pass (fastpass equivalent) for Expedition Everest the remaining ride we had planned, and that was the end of that.
I’m writing this after my return (never mind the date — that 23:00 always means it was retro-posted), and let’s just say Karen and her family would have fit right in at Universal, but they would have been at the poorly behaved end of the range even there.
We went to Paddlefish for dinner. In theory, they have outdoor dining. As a practical matter, not so much. There is no shade, and they don’t even open it until after 5 pm. We wound up eating indoors. It was well-distanced. A little more foreshadowing — absolutely nothing we experienced at any park or restaurant compared to what would confront us on our return home.
They went to a closed part of the queue to diaper the kid, and then we got a new family who was, surprisingly, a lot worse. Middle aged mom of the I Am Here to Be Decorative variety, no dad anywhere in sight (no Other Mom in sight either), a tweener or young teenager boy and a girl probably slightly older who was very careful to draw zero attention to herself, which honestly should have been a warning sign all by itself. They kept crowding, and I’d been pointing to the line for distancing behind us to the previous family anyway (they had older kids who would creep forward when the ‘rents were busy with the littlest, but who would comply happily with a reminder), and I hadn’t internalized the change. This family took it poorly. Boy starts snarking. Karen starts saying shit. I quit pointing out the line. When we lined up for boarding, she worked her hand around the plexglass barrier to “rest” awkwardly in my space. I stood back and ignored. We boarded. She fake coughed twice (through her mask) on me.
I reported her to the ride operator. I pointed her out. I repeated loudly and carefully what happened. I made sure the plexiglass barrier on the boat was ample and sat carefully with A. in the middle of the bench so that any effort on their part to reach around it would be obvious grounds for eviction on the spot. The ride continues to be great, and it was new to A. as she had no memory of it from a few years back. We let Karen’s group debark, then stepped off, and lo and behold, two of the Best Trained Cast Members Ever were waiting to hear my story of woe. We discussed options, which included them helping me report it as an assault to the police, or letting them handle it internally. I chose option B. They gave us a pass (fastpass equivalent) for Expedition Everest the remaining ride we had planned, and that was the end of that.
I’m writing this after my return (never mind the date — that 23:00 always means it was retro-posted), and let’s just say Karen and her family would have fit right in at Universal, but they would have been at the poorly behaved end of the range even there.
We went to Paddlefish for dinner. In theory, they have outdoor dining. As a practical matter, not so much. There is no shade, and they don’t even open it until after 5 pm. We wound up eating indoors. It was well-distanced. A little more foreshadowing — absolutely nothing we experienced at any park or restaurant compared to what would confront us on our return home.