Walt Disney World Resort
Oct. 27th, 2008 01:26 pmI am on the train from Kissimee to Charleston.
I was going to travel overnight from Kissimee, but that includes a seven hour stop over in Savannah at 1am. So, no to that.
Kissimee is, by the way, where one stays when one wants to visit DisneyWorld, which is a little south of Orlando. Although I wasn't actually in Kissimee proper, I was just on highway 192 between Kissimee and DisneyWorld. The local bus goes to DisneyWorld for $1.75.
DisneyWorld is a strange, strange place. I spent most of yesterday afternoon at Downtown Disney, which is as much a theme park as any other part of the complex. You can only get there by car or by a bus from one of the DisneyWorld hotels (which you can get to via the monorail from the Ticketing and Transportation Center, which is where the local bus takes you). There are cafes and restaurants and clothing stores and a Virgin Megastore (where they have the 10th Anniversary release of Sports Night, but not on sale). There's also a waterfront and a paddle steamer with a restaurant on it.
I spent most of the afternoon just wandering. But I did go into DisneyQuest. It costs an extra $40 and wasn't really worth it in itself. But I am glad I went just to know what it was like. I discovered that I really like those Rock Band like arcade/video games where you get to "play the drums" or the guitar or something. Also, I played a few rounds of a car racing game that was pretty cool. And, the big thing there - I got to design a roller coaster and then go on it. They have these virtual reality pods that spin you upside down and everything.
I had dinner at Planet Hollywood, which was almost like a real place. I sat at the bar and had a glass on wine and a sandwich that came on ciabatta (so, not sweet) with pesto. Mmm. And I watched the New York Giants come back to beat Pittsburgh in the final quarter. I don't understand American Rules Football any better than I did, but I think I can follow it a bit better now. I did get a brief lesson from a Canadian when I was on the tour out of Halifax.
The day before was my day at the Magic Kingdom, which is what people think of when they think of DisneyWorld - with "Cinderella's Castle", which is definitely based on Neuschwanstein, and Pirates of the Caribbean ride, and "It's a Small World After All." I recognised that last one from the parody at Itchy and Scratchy world in The Simpsons. They have an Australian section, with one Aboriginal person holding a boomerang and a kangaroo and three platypuses holding either eggs or cricket balls and looking evil.
It's kind of a mad place. You spend most of the day waiting in line. Although they do have "fast track" tickets. You get one per ride per day and they allow you to go in the fast line about two hours after you claim them. You can have one at time. So you still have to wait around, but just not in lines. I worked them out after lunch and all was cool. I got to go on the Railway and Splashdown twice. Splashdown was Brer Rabbit themed, so you went through the briar patch and past Brer Fox and Brer Frog and Brer Roadrunner's houses. As well as dropping 50 feet into water and getting wet. The water is disgusting. I could barely clean my teeth in it. The Railroad is old west mining country, and I was reading Edward Abbey's Desert Solitaire - A Season in the Wilderness while waiting in line for it. That's mostly about Arches National Park and the canyon lands.
The Monsters Inc Monster laughfloor was pretty cool. The idea is that the Monsterworld, instead of sending monsters to collect kids' screams, has invited a whole lot of humans into the Monsterworld to collect screams that way. It was pretty cool. And so was the "Carousel of Progress", which is pretty twee, but has fantastic animatronics. These are the robots that will take over the park and kill all the humans. Aided by the Presidents. That was my first stop, after the shops along Main Street USA - the Hall of Presidents. It's an interesting history, acknowledging the racism that still exists in US society and basically stepping from the War of Independence to the Civil War to today. Then they go through all the Presidents, in order, spotlighting them. They nod their heads in acknowledge and look at each other as they are called. As current President, George W Bush gets to say something at the end. That annoyed me. Then we got Lincoln, and that made up for it.
My favourite ride was the Space Tower, which is an indoor roller coaster mostly in the dark. Well, not quite in the dark. It's a bit like the Mad Mouses - all twisted around itself. Everything is black except for the corners in the frame, and it's only lit by ultra violet light. So it's just flashes of which rushing past you. Awesome. I only got to go on that one once, because it was a long wait and I didn't have time to wait again before I had to catch the bus back to the hostel. The park closed at 11pm, but the last bus from the Transport Centre was at 9.53pm. I was tempted to go back to do that again and see Tom Sawyer's Island and go on the Paddle Steamer, but it's $80 just to get into the park and I wanted to see Downtown Disney.
It is a weird, weird place. I'm not going on my own again. I will take any nine year old who wants to join me. (After age ten, ticket prices go up.) It is really quite fabulous. Two days is a good time to spend at Magic Kingdom, although the food would get to you. It got to me just in a day. It's pretty well managed most of the time, getting people in and getting them their food. I suppose they're well used to it. It was quite crowded. I think it was school holidays in places as well as a weekend. But it definitely has to be seen to believed and properly - I wanted to put something kind of sarcastic or disparaging here, but I can't think of what I wanted to say. It is a giant theme park, and it does it really well.
I was going to travel overnight from Kissimee, but that includes a seven hour stop over in Savannah at 1am. So, no to that.
Kissimee is, by the way, where one stays when one wants to visit DisneyWorld, which is a little south of Orlando. Although I wasn't actually in Kissimee proper, I was just on highway 192 between Kissimee and DisneyWorld. The local bus goes to DisneyWorld for $1.75.
DisneyWorld is a strange, strange place. I spent most of yesterday afternoon at Downtown Disney, which is as much a theme park as any other part of the complex. You can only get there by car or by a bus from one of the DisneyWorld hotels (which you can get to via the monorail from the Ticketing and Transportation Center, which is where the local bus takes you). There are cafes and restaurants and clothing stores and a Virgin Megastore (where they have the 10th Anniversary release of Sports Night, but not on sale). There's also a waterfront and a paddle steamer with a restaurant on it.
I spent most of the afternoon just wandering. But I did go into DisneyQuest. It costs an extra $40 and wasn't really worth it in itself. But I am glad I went just to know what it was like. I discovered that I really like those Rock Band like arcade/video games where you get to "play the drums" or the guitar or something. Also, I played a few rounds of a car racing game that was pretty cool. And, the big thing there - I got to design a roller coaster and then go on it. They have these virtual reality pods that spin you upside down and everything.
I had dinner at Planet Hollywood, which was almost like a real place. I sat at the bar and had a glass on wine and a sandwich that came on ciabatta (so, not sweet) with pesto. Mmm. And I watched the New York Giants come back to beat Pittsburgh in the final quarter. I don't understand American Rules Football any better than I did, but I think I can follow it a bit better now. I did get a brief lesson from a Canadian when I was on the tour out of Halifax.
The day before was my day at the Magic Kingdom, which is what people think of when they think of DisneyWorld - with "Cinderella's Castle", which is definitely based on Neuschwanstein, and Pirates of the Caribbean ride, and "It's a Small World After All." I recognised that last one from the parody at Itchy and Scratchy world in The Simpsons. They have an Australian section, with one Aboriginal person holding a boomerang and a kangaroo and three platypuses holding either eggs or cricket balls and looking evil.
It's kind of a mad place. You spend most of the day waiting in line. Although they do have "fast track" tickets. You get one per ride per day and they allow you to go in the fast line about two hours after you claim them. You can have one at time. So you still have to wait around, but just not in lines. I worked them out after lunch and all was cool. I got to go on the Railway and Splashdown twice. Splashdown was Brer Rabbit themed, so you went through the briar patch and past Brer Fox and Brer Frog and Brer Roadrunner's houses. As well as dropping 50 feet into water and getting wet. The water is disgusting. I could barely clean my teeth in it. The Railroad is old west mining country, and I was reading Edward Abbey's Desert Solitaire - A Season in the Wilderness while waiting in line for it. That's mostly about Arches National Park and the canyon lands.
The Monsters Inc Monster laughfloor was pretty cool. The idea is that the Monsterworld, instead of sending monsters to collect kids' screams, has invited a whole lot of humans into the Monsterworld to collect screams that way. It was pretty cool. And so was the "Carousel of Progress", which is pretty twee, but has fantastic animatronics. These are the robots that will take over the park and kill all the humans. Aided by the Presidents. That was my first stop, after the shops along Main Street USA - the Hall of Presidents. It's an interesting history, acknowledging the racism that still exists in US society and basically stepping from the War of Independence to the Civil War to today. Then they go through all the Presidents, in order, spotlighting them. They nod their heads in acknowledge and look at each other as they are called. As current President, George W Bush gets to say something at the end. That annoyed me. Then we got Lincoln, and that made up for it.
My favourite ride was the Space Tower, which is an indoor roller coaster mostly in the dark. Well, not quite in the dark. It's a bit like the Mad Mouses - all twisted around itself. Everything is black except for the corners in the frame, and it's only lit by ultra violet light. So it's just flashes of which rushing past you. Awesome. I only got to go on that one once, because it was a long wait and I didn't have time to wait again before I had to catch the bus back to the hostel. The park closed at 11pm, but the last bus from the Transport Centre was at 9.53pm. I was tempted to go back to do that again and see Tom Sawyer's Island and go on the Paddle Steamer, but it's $80 just to get into the park and I wanted to see Downtown Disney.
It is a weird, weird place. I'm not going on my own again. I will take any nine year old who wants to join me. (After age ten, ticket prices go up.) It is really quite fabulous. Two days is a good time to spend at Magic Kingdom, although the food would get to you. It got to me just in a day. It's pretty well managed most of the time, getting people in and getting them their food. I suppose they're well used to it. It was quite crowded. I think it was school holidays in places as well as a weekend. But it definitely has to be seen to believed and properly - I wanted to put something kind of sarcastic or disparaging here, but I can't think of what I wanted to say. It is a giant theme park, and it does it really well.
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