Zadar!

Ok, before Zadar, let me finish up Dubrovnik.  I didn't go back into Dubrovnik.  We only had a few hours before All Aboard and I may have slept in.  Also, we'd have to take a shuttle into town, and, given the limited time, it wasn't going to work. 

Once we left, the seas got a bit choppier and I felt a bit greenish.

Drank some Coke, which calmed the greenish, and then led my team to victory on the Broadway Music game. 

(My "identity" on my last trip was "that woman what still wears a mask indoors."  Now it's "that woman what still wears a mask indoors and won the trivia three times."  I feel more comfortable with this.)

Ok, Zadar.

Here's the thing about Zadar.  The weather forecast for today was 100 percent chance of thunderstorms.  We'd signed up for a tour by (electric) Tuk Tuk.  Which didn't seem like a great idea in a thunderstorm.  Now, I could cancel the tour with 48 hours notice, but, otherwise, I was told this thing runs "rain or shine, unless it's unsafe."  After confirming the weather report 48 hours out, I cancelled the tour.

Fast forward to today.  It's still 100% chance of thunderstorms, but not until afternoon.  So with a couple of dry morning hours, I decided to have a wander around Zadar instead. 

I confess this is kind of my favorite thing to do in a new city.  I got a gps (and my vague memories of a 15 minute port talk yesterday), and the generic mission of "buy a souvenir" and I'm off!

See?  I'm happy already!

This solar panel thing - right next to where we parked - is a public art installation called Greeting to the Sun.  At night, it's supposed to give us a good light show.  (Our Destination Manager has never seen it because they leave port too early in the summer, but since days are so short now, we've got a shot.  Then again, it was so overcast today, I'm not sure how charged up the panels will get.)

This is another public art thing called a sea organ.  There are underwater pipes all along here (with little holes running along the tops of the steps) and the currents make music.  It's deep and sounds a little like whale song.

Given the total lack of people around these art things (and the Dubrovnik experience the other day) I was starting to wonder if there are actually people in Croatia.  I was excited to finally find some.

So, I'm walking mostly aimlessly down this shopping street and see what looks like a city wall at the end of it.  Google Maps marks it as a tourist attraction called "Land Gate," so I go through it (not much to look at) and then turn around.  Oh, yes; I see why it's marked now.

Turning back ahead of me (on the outside of the gate) it looks like a park.  (Queen Jelena Madijevka Park, Google Maps helpfully adds.)  There's a few stairs it looks like I can climb to get a view.  (I am aware that this sentence has gotten me into trouble before, as my knees are much better going up than going down.  But this really DOES look like Not Too Many Stairs.  So I investigate.  And am rewarded.)

Is this a great autumn day or what?

On my way back down, Google Maps tells me I'm near Five Wells Square, which had been mentioned in the port talk.  Five 16th Century Stone Wells.  Ok, I give it a look. 

For reals, I had walked through it already and missed the wells entirely.  Looks like they were setting up stands for some sort of outdoor festival or market there, and the wells were kind of ... just there.  But here's three of them anyway.

I start heading back toward the shopping street and nearly run into a Roman column.  Just hanging out by the coffee shop.

Actually, Roman ruins are just sort of THERE all around Zadar.  Here's the remains of a Roman forum right next to a church.

I had managed to find my souvenir (mug) by this point, so I was headed back toward the ship.  I was going to go down one street in particular, but saw two things that suggested a different route.  The first was this little pathway with Roman ruins set up on either side.  (You could touch 'em!  I touched one.  I like touching stuff like that and thinking about the stonemasons and artists who handled it all those years ago.  Did they know their work would still be admired 2000 years later?)

The other thing was the fact that the pathway ended at the sea, and this pier.  (Google Maps suggested is was the Best Place To View Sunsets.  I'm thinking not today.)  But it was a nice place to continue my walk.

And get myself back to our ship!

Unusual Day in Dubrovnik

I woke up to this outside my window.

Welcome to Croatia!  I'd been to Italy before, but we now have a new country I can check off the ol' list. 

When I booked this cruise, I was unaware that today is a national holiday in Croatia - a day of Remembrance for those who lost their lives in the Croatian War of Independence.  Which, if you've forgotten, was in 1991.

There was an element of surreality today - visiting this historic walled city which dates back many CENTURIES, but seeing damage it suffered during a war in my lifetime (my adult lifetime, even).  Our tour guide gave us some background on the war, and how she tries to teach her children not to hate Serbians; but, damn, there are still some fresh wounds here. 

Because of the holiday, most shops and restaurants were closed, and our day in the Old City of Dubrovnik (which is usually wall-to-wall people) took place in a largely empty city.  Humans were outnumbered by pigeons.  Probably by a lot.  (There is quite the pigeon population.)

(Notice the flags, alternating between the Croatian flag and that of the patron saint of Dubrovnik.)

I'm not saying "ghost town," but certainly under-populated.  Weather was nice and we got a good overview of the town. 

We also stopped at an overlook and got a really good overview of the city (and the view).

(People were looking in this general direction and saying "King's Landing!"  I do not watch "Game of Thrones," but hope I snapped the right picture.  Gorgeous either way.)

The weather is supposed to start turning on us tonight, but I managed a couple peaceful shots from the ship at sunset.  

We're actually staying overnight here and they're bringing some local entertainers onboard so's we can appreciate some traditional music and such.  (I prefer appreciating that sort of thing rather than snapping pics or video.  Something about keeping the moment ephemeral helps me connect with it in the present.)

(If you're keeping score - and some folks are - my team has won trivia twice.  A shipmate (on another team) requested a Broadway Name That Tune, even knowing my past as a critic.  She's pretty confident, but my team thinks I can take her.  I reckon we'll all get the easy ones, and it will come down to the one or two deeper cuts he tosses us.  I'm hoping for, say, something from "Boys From Syracuse."  Or "Assassins."  Seems like nobody knows "Assassins.")

Shockingly Good Weather

Not much to report.  Yesterday, we went to Messina ("Gateway to Sicily") where we had a largely forgettable walking tour and a possibly memorable cannoli.  (When in Sicily, ...)  

And today was a Sea Day as we sailed around the "boot" to head over to Croatia for a couple days. 

When I packed, the forecast was showing a good chance of it raining every day.  And while I'm pretty sure we're going to get rained out in Zadar in a couple days (and possibly in Dubrovnik tomorrow), we've had some stunningly good weather.  Not just "not rainy," but affirmatively warm and beautiful. 

The plot thickens on the jerky political dude.  We've all compared notes and it's apparent that the dude is lying to all of us about everything.  Lies about jobs, family, property ownership...  Hell, he showed someone a picture of "his" yacht, but they identified it as belonging to a particular celebrity.  Dude is still annoying and not someone I want to break bread with again, but he's also just kind of sad.

Herculaneum

(And, screw it, the upload is failing; I'll just write this from my phone.)

When we ("we" is me and a friend, who happens to be male) booked this trip (separate rooms, don't get excited), Windstar had ZERO shore excursions on offer in Naples.  So we booked with a third party, which offered an excursion to Herculaneum for less money than the ships usually charge, and promised on whatever oath they would take that they'd get us back to the ship on time. 

They picked us up at 1:00.  This was a little concerning because "all aboard" was at 4:30 and they said you could see all of Herculaneum in 3 hours, but whatever.  We reminded him of the "all aboard" at 4:30.  He made a call.  He was speaking kind of loudly in Italian and I heard the word "quattro" go by, but they seemed to have it under control.

They we drove to a hotel to pick up 2 guests.

And another to pick up 2 more.

The van was full at this point.  We'd killed a half hour and were still 15 minutes out of Herculaneum.  Color me ticked.

We finally get to the site and are meet by our actual tour guide - a fellow who was both archeologist and tour guide, who really enjoyed telling us the stories behind what we were seeing.

Short form:  See that volcano?  That's Vesuvius.  When it erupted, the dirt and stuff what came out of the volcano mixed with water near the city and covered the place with mud.  (Pompeii, being further away, was covered in ash.)  The mud preserved shit really well - we've got wooden and glass artifacts, as well as skeletons.

The tour guide then spent the tour flirting with me and my friend.  He first asked how long we'd been togethet.  When I said we were just friends, it opened the floodgates.  (When I got a question right, he celebrated by hugging me.  Twice.  Then he whispered in my ear and asked if my friend was gay.)  At the end of the trip, he asked if we were on Facebook (just us, not the other 5 passengers.)  I lied and said "no"; sorry dude.  

They got us back to the ship on time, but I feel like we were rushed - cramming three hours of tour into two hours of time.  I'm beat.  And apparently have another walking tour tomorrow.

So here's Herculaneum - where I took way too many pictures of skeletons.

Overview of city 

Persevered wooden ship 

Preserved coins and pile of melted coins 

Update on the Politics of the Ship.  I am told that the Trump dude who was super annoying last night has been on the ship for a week was actually ALMOST KICKED OFF during the prior cruise on account of saying racist stuff.  And another passenger nearly decked him on account of something he said to said
passenger's wife. 

So it doesn't seem so much to be Everyone Talking About Politics -- instead it's just one jerk, who expresses his jerkiness via his politics.  He's alienating pretty much everyone.  Let's see how this goes.

I'd proofread y'all, but I had some wine at dinner and can't keep my damn eyes open.  

Mosaic on floor of ladies' bath house

Cool wall from a private home

More of the same 

Columns painted on a wall inside a hotel dining room 

On the road (water) again

While I sit here waiting for today's photos to upload (oh, technology -- I remember when I had to get pictures DEVELOPED before I could put them in the blog, now I'm annoyed because my Wi-Fi plan is one device at a time), thought I'd take a moment to let you know how I got here.

Here, by the way, is sitting in a cruise ship just off Naples.

How I got here can best be summed up with these words of advice:  Changing planes in Heathrow - fine; changing terminals in Heathrow - best to be avoided.  For perfectly good reasons, I flew to London on United and connected to Rome on British Airways.  That requires landing in terminal 2, hiking to immigration and customs, scanning your passport (yay technology!), waiting for your bags, hauling your bags off the carousel, piling your bags on one of them carts, waiting for the lift (elevator), waiting for the lift, waiting for the fucking lift, pushing the cart down about four insanely long moving walkways until you get to the Heathrow Express station, (pushing past idiot tourists who don't understand you just press the giant button on the ticket machine for a free transfer ticket), bid a sad farewell to your cart, wait for the train, wait for the train, load onto the train (why you can't just wheel your bags on and off the train at Heathrow I'll never know), find yourself at terminal 5, reverse the whole train station process, get your ass up to the terminal and ...

OK, here's a fun fact.  If you're want to truly experience the Class System in Action, go to Terminal 5 at Heathrow.  OK, yeah, most airlines have multiple classes of service and various bonuses for loyalty card holders, including "priority" check-in lines and shit like that.  But British Air at terminal 5 takes this to whole new heights.  I had initially left something like two hours to make this transfer, but when I realized what it would entail, I ponied up a change fee to put myself on the next flight to Rome.  This gave me more like 5 hours for the transfer.  Not so bad, right?  I figured I'd just check my bag and kill a few hours at one of the restaurants in Terminal 5.

Ha ha, no.  You can't even CHECK YOUR DAMN BAG for a European flight more than 2 hours out if you're flying Economy.  I shit you not.  There's a whole bunch of folks just sitting (or snoozing) on benches outside the check-in area.  They're waiting for the bag check to open up for their flight.

(If, however, you're traveling a higher class, or have loyalty with British Airways or one of its partners, you can check your bag any time that day.)

So, here's me, with something like four hours on my hands and I have to spend two of them just sitting here waiting for my Bag Drop to open.

As it happened, I didn't have to.  I found myself a very helpful employee who (two phone calls and a bunch of computer clicking later) got me back on my original flight to Rome - for which I could immediately check in (and hope security wasn't too backed up, so I'd actually make it).

Overnighted in a Rome airport hotel.

Ride to the port.

Boarded cruise ship (Windstar's Star Legend)

More about this as it develops, but, um, y'all know how there used to be an unspoken rule about not talking politics on cruise ships and just ... you know, talking about the weather or travel or anything superficial so that you get along with the people you more-or-less can't escape for a week?  Yeah, none of that.  And it's on both sides.  It's like the liberals have just had it up to here (hand WAY over head) with putting on a facade that the Trump presidency is gonna be, you know, normal.  And the Trump folks, perceiving themselves to be victorious, feel privileged to no longer have to put on a facade that they give a fuck about the liberals' feelings.  Both sides have a "fuck all y'all" attitude.  Whether this is just because the election was so close (and Trump's cabinet appointments are trickling out) or actually going to be the new normal is anyone's guess.

Barbados

What the hell am I doing in Barbados?  It's a pretty good question.

After my mom passed, I didn't really take time to grieve.  It was all work, and teaching, and work, and going to Arizona to see Dad, and work, and going to Connecticut to see Joyce, and work, and dealing with the hip labral tear I'd been ignoring for the better part of a year, and work....  I'd joked that I was fine and just "postponing the grieving process to a more convenient time."  But grief don't play that way, and things were getting ahead of me.  I noticed I was getting unreasonably angry or unreasonably sad in a manner that was totally disproportionate to the provocation.  And the itty bitty voice of sanity (which I've trusted ever since it talked me down from a near-panic attack ages ago) said:  you need to take a break, and go someplace AWAY, and sit on a beach with a drink with a little umbrella in it, and get your damn head on straight.

I decided Itty Bitty Voice of Sanity was speaking truth (even though I don't even like drinks with little umbrellas), and told my boss I wanted to take off two weeks in March.  When he questioned the necessity of this at this time, I burst into tears in his office, which served to illustrate the problem and also get me my days off.

It was only after this moment that I realized I was looking at the weeks of Spring Break, and - unless I wanted to go to Mexico (which, in the past, has come with its own gastro-intestinal issues), most places with the drinks with the little umbrellas would be invaded by college students reenacting "Girls Gone Wild" videos, leaving me only with options expensive enough to be outside the traditional spring break budget (and possibly my own).  I was really about to throw in the towel on this plan when a Caribbean cruise on my favorite line (Windstar) popped up on the Reduced Single Supplement list.  (All hail the Reduced Single Supplement list.)  Throwing all of my frequent flier miles at the problem and picking up a cheap pre-cruise hotel on Hotwire, and next thing you know, I'm on a plane to Barbados.

And now, the travelogue.

Flight got in around 11 p.m.  I got through Immigration right quick (do the stupid thing online in advance and outrun everyone else on your plane who is stopped at the computer terminals) and then made a beeline for the restroom.  Not just for the usual reason.  I had also packed a hip support in my carryon, to be used for hauling my luggage off the carousel.  (Plan ahead, I did.)  What I hadn't counted on was jamming myself into a little stall with no purse hook, trying to balance my purse and my skirt, while wrapping the damn brace around me without the FUCKING VELCRO STICKING TO ITSELF or the purse sliding off my arm and me having to start again.  Much cursing.  Visions of Barbadian Security watching videos thinking, "she's been in there an awful long time; is she smuggling drugs?"  Finally got the damn thing on and out to baggage claim.  Then, I couldn't find my bag.  All the bags had come off the plane and mine was not among them.  (Now I REALLY thought security had questioned my bathroom stay and had pulled my bag.)  But the Luggage Guy was pretty laid back about it, and Laid Back is catching, and eventually my bag showed up on the carousel, as though it had been circling for an hour.  (The lock was missing, but whatevs.)

Got some local currency at the airport ATM.  The Barbadian dollar is linked to the US dollar, at a rate of 50 cents.  (Which makes it pretty easy to do the conversions in your head.)  Local currency is subtly encouraged.  The taxi to my hotel was a flat rate of 69 Barbadian dollars or $35 US.  (I see what you did there.)

I usually don't name hotels but let's hear it for the Radisson Aquatica which, upon marking my reservation for late arrival, realized there would be no food options at midnight, so left a little snack in room.  (A good one!  A small sandwich, an apple, and a slice of cake.  Actually, two of everything, as they didn't realize it was just me.)  Complimentary and everything.  Didn't quite realize how hungry I was until I inhaled two apples and a couple sammies.

I had a full day in Barbados today - cruise leaves tomorrow - and, like, zero plans for it.  Last night (while devouring the sammies), I was googling shit like, "what to do in one day in Barbados."  Most recommendations involved the white sand beaches, which didn't feel right.  (I mean, I'm gonna be doing a lot of relaxing on the cruise.  And also, here's me in a whole new country and I figure I could be a little respectful and check out something particularly LOCAL rather than just a beach.)

Lunch was sorted, though.  There was a really high rated food stall (Cuzz's Fish Stand) conveniently located, like, right off the hotel's property.  The internet says you should have a Cuzz's Fish Cutter and the Internet Does Not Lie.  It's a piece of (very) fresh grilled Marlin with a slice of cheddar on a soft nummy bun.  (And it's, like, $13.  BARBADIAN.)  Tasty and a deal.

After a day in transit, I really felt like taking a walk and taking in some of sights, if there was anything nearby to see.  Turns out (about 5th on the list of Shit To Do in Barbados) was a historical walking tour which involved two sights pretty freakin' near me.  (And, I mean, if I consider it walking distance, it's walking distance.)  

I started in the Barbados Museum and Historical Society which is a pretty small museum built in an old British Garrison.  Two facts about the museum:  (1) most of it lacks air conditioning; and (2) I was the only person in it.  This was a good thing.  I'm still masking indoors, but the humidity was making my mask damp (I doubted its efficacy at this point) and since I was the only one in the place, I just took it off, which seriously aided breathability.  As for the museum itself, I was kind of most stricken by, well, how small it was.  I mean, I'm in the whole "history of Barbadian people" section, and it basically starts with, "we don't know what became of the original AmerIndian [the museum's word of choice] population" and moves on to "after that, it was all folks who were in indentured servitude and others who were enslaved."  It's important to document this history, but it isn't like there are a whole lot of Barbadian historical heroes to celebrate.  I'm starting to understand why they have a statue to Rhianna here.  She's that big a deal.  Look, this was in the museum.

The next place to visit was the George Washington House.  Did you know Barbados was the only foreign country George Washington ever visited?  It wasn't a state visit or anything; he came when he was younger, to accompany his older brother who was trying to recover from tuberculosis.  Did not go will.  Brother eventually died of it and George picked up smallpox when he was here.  (On the plus side, the experience would eventually prompt George to innoculate the Continental Army against smallpox -- against the dictates of Congress.  That's right, y'all, we might not have won independence had George Washington not been willing to go against the government and innoculate the troops.  Fun fact.)  ANYWAY, the bottom level of the house is a renovation of how it looked when the Washingtons were there, and the upstairs is another museum - including more slavery exhibits and a discussion of George's own moral ambiguity on this; he wanted to stop selling human beings, but couldn't quite manage to free the human beings he personally owned.  (Lafayette apparently kept trying to get him to do so.  Go Lafayette.)  I was alone in this museum, too.  I can really get into all these private museum visits.  (I guess everyone else was at the white sand beaches.)

When they were renovating the George Washington house, archeologists found a series of tunnels under the house and, really, the entirety of the garrison.  Like, nine of them, one as long as a kilometer.  They were apparently designed to enable quick evacuation if the garrison were overrun, but never used.  They let you walk down one (from the cafe to the car park) for about 200m.  They've added lighting, which is nice, because the whole thing is, well, not for claustrophobics.  Single-file only is what I'm saying.

Got back to my hotel around 3:30 and with the extra time to kill, figured that NOW I should drop by the ol' white sand beach and at least dip my feet in the Caribbean.  The water was a bit... intense.  You know how sometimes when you walk on the beach, the little waves come in and deposit sand and if you're not paying attention, you end up buried up to your ankles?  This was the reverse.  The little waves came in and started eating away at the sand around your feet and the next thing you know, the sand disappears out from under you and you're standing on an unstable little sand platform.  This didn't seem fun, so I sat on a lounge chair to dry off.  There's music in the background and wave noises in front of me and there's a very good chance I dozed off because there's a half hour or so I cannot account for.

Had dinner at the hotel restaurant which was right above the beach.  The sunset wasn't much to look at, but my phone found some really pretty blues in there and this is one time the picture improved on the reality (with no filters)!

And that's all I got.  It's off to the cruise terminal tomorrow.  Maybe I'll be able to journal the trip; maybe not.  (Ship's wifi is pricey.  I'll likely have phone when we're close to the islands, and can maybe do a little tethering, but we'll see how it goes.)  ANYWAY, journalling isn't the first priority.  First priority is finding a tasty one of them drinks with an umbrella in it.

Disneyland -- Before All Hell Breaks Loose

Well, we cut that one close.
OK, so Laura joined me on this adventure, and she doesn't have Magic Mornings, so we just figured on hitting the parking garage at 7:00 and being inside the park by 8:00.
And we hit it pretty exactly. She picked me up at 7:00 and it took something like 8 whole minutes to get to the parking garage. Got parked, got through security, got on the tram -- all with reasonable speed.
And then we saw the lines outside the park. They seemed pretty freakin' long, but two things made this not as bad as it seemed. First, half the lines were taken up by Magic Mornings, so there were really only half the lines open for regular admission. And, second, the lines weren't open yet at all. So this was more of a logjam than a moving line. Once they opened up (ballpark 7:30) the lines moved quickly and we got in. Had about 20 minutes to link up our tickets (on both our apps) and find a nice corner with a good signal.
We'd done our research and read everything about how to best get a boarding group and fast, and although we got a little nervous counting down the seconds to rope drop, it was actually pretty straightfoward and the cheerful "Group 37" showed up on my screen. We cheered. We high-fived, but switched to a fist bump (because Corona). People next to us got 40-something, they were excited, too. We heard the people cheer down Main Street as everyone got the good news.

Three comments here: (1) Yes, we cheered a bit faster than everyone else. I'd like to say we're just that good, but we got lucky. (2) I'm pretty sure EVERYONE who was trying for a boarding group got one. At least, everyone who was trying then. It was probably a good half hour (or so) when Laura checked the app again and backup boarding groups were still available. (3) Not everyone was trying. This puzzled me, as I could not believe anyone in their right mind would get up that early to be in Disneyland at opening without having this as, y'know, a REASON, but whatever, less competition. (Still, despite all the publicity around this, there are still people who don't know you need to do this to get a boarding group.)
Here's what we did not know: They don't start boarding. We keep checking the app and the app keeps saying "Now Boarding" but listing no groups. We take a breath and ride Big Thunder -- we know it's going to rain soon so figure we'll get in an outdoor ride while we can. We go back to Galaxy's Edge and learn that NOT opening Rise on time is more common than opening on time. The helpful cast member to whom we spoke said they'd actually only managed to open with the park twice, so they usually aim for the first hour ... and if that doesn't work, the second.

We realized that, despite our relatively low boarding group, this could take some time. We didn't manage a cantina reservation, but thought we'd ask the nice cast member at the queue. She let us in, no problem. We got seated at a table. And had food! (They don't have a lot of breakfast options -- two, actually -- but the oaty yogurt thing was affirmatively tasty.) It had commenced raining right as we got to Oga's -- despite the weather app saying it wouldn't rain until 1:00, it had started sprinkling around 9:00 and never really let up.

By 9:45, Rise was still not open. (That might be a lie. We later learned it had opened briefly for a few boarding groups, but then went down again.)

The app tells us the wait at Astro Blasters is 20 minutes, so we start to walk over to it. By the time we get there, the wait is 40 minutes, and Rise is back up, calling boarding groups 11-21.

40 minutes? The hell. We figure we'll just kill time and avoid the rain in that Star Wars Thing That's Where America Sings Used To Be. We walk over. It doesn't open until 11:00.

Well shit, now what? Rise is adding Boarding Groups every few minutes and they're safely in the 20s. Maybe we get a FastPass for something and ride it after Rise? We go over to those Tomorrowland FP machines (which are totally new to me) and we're about to get Space Mountain passes (for a return time after 1:00) when I notice the Astro Blasters FPs have a return time at 10:10.

It's 10:00 now. It's a 40 minute wait in the stand by line, but 10 minutes on Fast Pass.

I am puzzled by this. Either everyone in that line already has a FP for something else or ... they don't know how FPs work. (Must be the same people who were in there at park opening but not trying for a Rise boarding group. Oooookay.) We get the FPs and ride Astro Blasters; we get out in perfect time to walk back to Galaxy's Edge at hit Rise just as they're adding 37 to the board.

N.B. Walking back to Rise was the first and only time we saw anyone wearing a surgical mask in the park.

We join the queue. There's a family behind us, little blond-headed kid. In the line, you go through caves. There's a little niche at about floor level; animal noises are coming out of it. The kid, excited, thinks there's bats in there. (There are no bats in there.) The parents tell him there are no bats in there. Laura bends down to look in the niche; there's definitely animal sounds (intentionally provided by Disney) coming out of it. She asks the kid what he thinks could be making the noises. Kid is happy (and returns to the "bats" theory). PLAY WITH YOUR KIDS, PEOPLE; you're in fucking Disneyland!

We ride the ride. No blow-by-blow here (largely because it's available from other sources; also because I wanted to be completely unspoiled on it, so, yeah). Impressions: I understand why it takes so long to reset it when it goes down. Holy kittens, there are a lot of moving parts in that thing! As a physical ride, it's probably a 5 out of 10; as a piece of integrated storytelling, it's off the freakin' chart. It's impressive in scale; most of the cast members with which we interacted were super into their parts (one wasn't -- send a note to Quality Control); and ... OK, let me put it like this: I was never ACTUALLY in the story to the extent of believing I was a genuine member of the Resistance on this particular mission; but they did such a phenomenal job of creating the mood, I DID FEEL like it would be super duper wrong to take out my phone and start snapping selfies there. (And No Sense Of Humor dude would probably cut me down where I stood.) And the attention to detail was so rich, I can totally see riding it again just for all the stuff I missed.

We get out and it's still raining. A lot. The wait time for Smugglers Run is something like 40 minutes which does not feel acceptable, so we Single Rider that thing and end up together anyway.

Question: So, the last time I went, they were still handing out the color-cards with your crew and your position. This time, they just said, "You're the Purple Crew" and orally assigned parts. Dude said, "It's something new we're trying." My question: Is this "something new we're trying" or is this "given Coronavirus concerns, we're not going to hand you a card someone else breathed all over"?

We get out around noon and consider options. It is now raining to the point that our "water resistant" jackets are demonstrating that "water resistant" is not "waterproof."

We consider hopping over to California Adventure and riding Guardians (we both LOVE that one), but the wait time is 75 minutes and quite a bit of that is uncovered.

Having accomplished our mission to ride Rise, and feeling quite soggy, we decide discretion is the better part of valor and maybe it's time to get the hell out. We make a quick shopping stop at Emporium on the way out and THERE look at our phones and learn that the Governor is strongly suggesting Californians cancel all gatherings of over 250 people, which will likely result in the park closing. We knew we were cutting things close, but had no idea it was THAT close. By the time I got home, Disney had announced the park was closing Saturday.

We had decided to go knowing very well that this might be not only our last chance to hit the parks for a while, but our last Outing Of Normalcy before life moved to quasi-quarantine. In between that decision and now: hockey game I had tickets for Saturday - not happening; friend's birthday party Saturday night - not happening; Dodger opening day I had tickets for - not happening; Vegas trip in April - not happening. If this WAS my last outing of normalcy for the foreseeable future, I'm glad to have spent it fighting with the Resistance.