The post-race day forecast called for rain, and in the morning I got a text from my friend Jason (a former Disney employee and the same Jason who took those great IM China photos) if I still wanted to go to Disney World. Of course!! No weather was too severe to deter the Wongstar from meeting Mickey Mouse at Disney World for the first time. I replied back, “YEAH! we’ll just have to wear Mickey Mouse ponchos!”
Jason scoured some local souvenir shops for Mickey Mouse ponchos, but they didn’t make them in sizes for big kids like us. And we weren’t about to buy the overpriced official Mickey ponchos inside the parks…so we went one better. We had nice bright yellow ones custom designed! Off we went to Epcot Center, which is the park with sci-fi futuristic stuff that nerdy kids like me would like.
The first order of business of course was to meet Mickey Mouse. These days there are no surprise “Mickey moments” as I remembered as a kid, now you have to line up to see him, kind of like seeing Santa Claus at the mall, or an Asian Triathlon Superstar at an autograph signing.
A bunch of kids in line were actually clutching autograph books and got genuinely excited about getting Mickey’s autograph. I decided that Mickey should sign my custom poncho! However, when I asked him to sign my poncho, he made me take it off. Apparently they are not allowed to autograph ON people (like some kind of “no touching” policy?) but I think Mickey just wanted me to take my poncho off.
I think I’ll implement a selective “no touching” policy for my autograph sessions too. That’s a great idea. So I won’t sign body parts. Unless I want to. 
You can also see that my custom poncho has Mickey in an “I Heart Wongstar” shirt. I will have to screenprint some real ones. 
Hilariously enough the Disney employees were watching in near horror as I derobed the poncho as it appeared I was not wearing any pants under the poncho. HAHAHAHAHAHA
Jason got Minnie’s autograph.
Minnie actually told me my shorts were too short. Either that or she liked my legs. They don’t really talk, but she was pointing at my legs and lifting up her skirt.
Donald was sort of grumpy, I don’t know what his problem was. I think he didn’t like feeling so short or something. or maybe he knew I was a height snob.
Goofy was fun, and goofy. And tall. I like ‘em tall.
So after meeting the Disney celebrities, we went for some rides and games. The first ride was Mission: SPACE, which is a flight simulator where you go on a mission to Mars as part of your astronaut training. We had to opt for the “less intense training” (which they kept rubbing in) because I get nauseous if I’m spun around, and it’s no fun to be nauseous after a triathlon. Especially if there was no alcohol involved.
We then went into Innoventions and took part in a team “competition” where we learned about recycling and garbage. It was fun, we got to push around these mini garbage trucks that would beep when you went in reverse.
This is where we came up with the name “Team El Poncho.” We were supposed to pick a team name, and the computer wouldn’t let us be “Team Wongstar”!!! WTF? Is it a bad word or something? Or so awesome that the computer would blow up? Maybe they are afraid I would sue for copyright infringement.
The other half of Epcot (other than the nerdy science stuff) is what they call the “World Showcase.” You basically get to walk through mini-countries, like Mexico, Norway, Japan, China, Morocco… They supposedly recruit people from the actual countries to work here! I had to take a picture with this guy from Norway because I loved his outfit. And he was kinda cute.
We went on the viking ride. All rides end in a gift shop. But why buy the props when the pictures will last longer?
There was a crash test dummy ride, called “Test Track.” I love a good photo op.
These were the cars, we got to be the crash test dummies.
The ponchos went back on because it was raining again. We weren’t the only ones wearing ponchos.
In fact, this guy had on TWO ponchos for some reason. We think that he, like many others, had a bad case of what we call “Poncho Envy” after see how cool the Team El Poncho ponchos were.
Well that’s all for now…I’m in the Miami airport and ready to head to the Big Apple! as Tigger says TTFN!
