BBRRRrrrrrrrr. . . . 27 DEGREES ARE YOU KIDDING ME !!!

Now that my fingers have thawed out some, I can write mt first blog of the new decade. Wahoo !! The year 2010 came in like a lion with several days of low and mid twenties temperatures. I always have guests telling me, " This is Florida, you people don't know what cold it." WELL, when we are colder than Colorado the first week of January. . . Who's laughing now ?

We had a family with three kids who were dieing to go into the hot tub. They were gone maybe twenty-thirty minutes when i looked out the window and saw three little kids wrapped up head to toe leaving the hot tub. I guess it was a case of 'We came.We saw. We conquered. . . Now let's get back in side.

THe life guards are loving it. When the air is too cold to open the pool, they come inside and play games like Jenga (with giant Jenga blocks), chutes and ladders, ect with the kids. Not a bad gig . . . if you don't mind freezing your tail off when it's juuuust barely warm enough to have the pool open, but no one in their right minds would dare to go in the water.

Speaking of freezing your tail off. We had THE Disney Marathon on January 10th and 11th. And yes it snowed in Florida. Well, more like sleet and rain by the time it reached Disney. I was coming into on Saturday (during the half marathon) and saw the large mass of people running through Magic Kingdom parking lot. Actually, running isn't quite what was happening. It was more like walking briskly while huddled under panchos and silver heat wraps.

For the full marathon on Sunday, it was 27 degrees at the start. I had a guest from Detroit who said she had ran ten marathons in her day. She chose to do the Disney one because it was in Florida and she thought any where would be warmer than Michgan in January. Wrong. She told me that the 2010 Disney Marathon in Florida (of all places) was the coldest one she has ever ran. I was told that at the water stations, they had to squish the cups around to break up the ice in them.

Another event that always seems to have frigid cold weather is the Cheerleader competion. It could be the balmy-est tropical winter on record, but the day before Varsity Cheerleaders move in, the temperatures will drop like a rock.

"If it's cold out, it must be cheerleader season."

I always felt kind of sorry for the kids in the short cheerleader skirts huddled the space heaters waiting to go on stage, until I worked at All Star Resort and was having to field all of the complaints from other guests about the cheerleaders running amuck at the resort.

As far as the rest of the property, very little will ever actually close a park due to the cold. Pretty much just Hurricanes affect theme parks as a whole. The water parks are another story. So far as of January 12th 2010, the water parks have been closed about as much as they have been open for the year. People ask if they water's heated. . . Yes, but you do eventually have to get out. At which point you will freeze your hieny off.

I know that Indiana Jones Show will shut down if the the temperature gets below 42 ( I think). At extreme cold temps, the hydraulics in the set pieces will begin to freeze up. The characters love the cold. Your dog gets frisky in the cold weather, so do the Disney characters. . . except Jasmine and Ariel and a few other scantily clad folks. But sent Darth out with his black on black on black ensemble and he's ready to take over the Universe !!!