Good morning, everyone!

My thanks to all of you who took a shot at yesterday’s two trivia questions, and my apologies … they turned out to be a bit harder than I had expected!

I really enjoyed setting up Question #1 – The Flight Number. First, the answer … as you are loaded into the “gates”, you are given Flight Number 5505. 14 of 55 of you, or 25.45%, got that one right.

Just so you know, the “5505” stands for …

… May 5, 2005 – the day that Soarin’ officially opened inside Epcot’s “The Land” pavilion. And, the reason I had fun setting up the question was because I got to make up the other options! For example, your most popular response, Flight 1071, was an homage to the day Disney’s Magic Kingdom, and WDW itself, opened – October 1, 1971. Flight 8210 was a throwback to the day Epcot opened – October 1, 1982. Flight 3456 was just a quick throwaway option!

It’s amazing what you can learn when you set up a question like #2 – The Aircraft Carrier. For instance, did you know that the U.S. currently has 10 active aircraft carriers? In case you are curious, they are:

• USS Nimitz
• USS Dwight D. Eisenhower
• USS Carl Vinson
• USS Theodore Roosevelt
• USS Abraham Lincoln
• USS George Washington
• USS John C. Stennis
• USS Harry S. Truman
• USS Ronald Reagan
• USS George H.W. Bush

According to an old piece on WDWMagic.com, ‘the scene in which guests go Soarin’ over the USS John C. Stennis aircraft carrier as it heads out of San Diego port is unusual in that its jets and helicopters can be seen on the carrier. Normally, a carrier offloads its aircraft as soon as it comes into port.’  They go on to report that ‘when this scene of the film was shot, the vessel happened to be making a quick turn-around and had not had time to offload its aircraft.’

The USS Stennis weighs-in at 97,000 tons and has a flight deck area of 4.5 acres.  It was christened on November 11, 1993 in honor of Senator John Cornelius Stennis of Mississippi – who served in the U.S. Senate from 1947 to 1989.

This one stumped us all as it was the least-popular answer at 4 of 47 responses. Interestingly, the vessel represented by our most popular response – the USS John F. Kennedy – was actually decommissioned on March 23, 2007. However, for those of you that thought the JFK was the way to go, never fear … a “new” John F. Kennedy (as well as a Gerald R. Ford) are currently under construction!

Have a great day, everyone!