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Published: September 18th 2007
Welcome to Disney!
Fiona sitting in front of Cinderella's Castle with a statue of Walt and Mickey behind her.Having lived in Sunny Florida (its absolutely pissing down at the moment) for pretty close to 10 months now we thought it was time to check out the No 1 holiday destination in the US - the theme parks at Orlando. There are an absolute plethora of theme parks to visit in Orlando - Disney has six parks by itself, Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, Disney-MGM Studios, Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon. Then you have the two Universal Parks - Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios, plus Seaworld, Wet n' Wild and our personal favorite - Holy Land! (I'm serious - check it out at http://www.theholylandexperience.com/). So needless to say we had plenty to choose from.
On our last visit to Orlando we had sat through the Timeshare sales pitch that seems to plague popular tourist destinations like Orlando and Vegas, but thanks to our patience and ability to repeatedly say 'No, we don't want to buy a $35, 000 USD Timeshare', we were awarded with 2 nights free accommodation. So last Friday when Fiona finished work we jumped in the car and drove the 3 hours down to Orlando. After becoming geographically embarrassed (and no I'm not going to
Universal Studios
The big rotating globe out the front of Universal Studios. According to this map, Australia has a big mountain range running straight through the middle of the country!! say who is responsible for getting us lost because Fiona would kill me) and driving through a serious tropical downpour we arrived at our hotel at about 10pm.
Some of our American friends had some discount passes to the Universal parks so we planned on meeting then out the front of the Park early on Saturday and heading in. Unfortunately they had a big night on the turps and were running a bit late so Fiona and I bit the bullet and went in by ourselves. One thing we learned from our Busch-Gardens theme park adventure is to arrive when the park opens as it seems Americans aren't too fond of early starts, so usually you can get in and knock over the most popular rides before the crowds arrived. We started at Island's of Adventure and managed to get through some of the big roller coasters early on, but what we couldn't believe was the area put aside to extend the wait lines for the rides. It was relatively quiet while we where there, and it would take us over 5 mins to walk the length of the waiting line from entry to where the ride started -
Universals Jurassic Park
The settings for each of the different lands within the parks were quite amazing. They certainly spent a lot of money! that was with no line!! There were huge areas off the side of the main line they could open when the crowds were large - it was out of control.
We had some great rides at Islands of Adventure, but the best was definitely the Adventures of Spiderman which was a 4D interactive roller coaster. As the coaster made its way through the ride (it was pretty slow, not a fast one), Bad dudes would appear and throw fireballs at you which would come out of the screen using 3D accompanied by flames shooting out of the wall next to the car. They did the same using water which really made it a fun ride. We managed to knock over all the rides that we wanted to see in Islands of Adventure and headed across to Universal Studios. This park had many more 'show' and 3D style attractions rather than roller coasters, so was pretty good after a stomach churning morning. We saw some great shows like Shrek 4D, The Terminator, Twister etc etc, but after a tiring day we sat outside the park watching the sun go down over a nice cold beer. What better way could you
Islands of Adventure
This is Fiona looking over the entire Theme Park. end the day?? We had a quiet evening as next day was the big one - Disney's Magic Kingdom.
We arose early the next morning and I was so excited I could hardly contain myself. Not because we were going to Disney, but because our hotel was located next door to an IHOP restaurant!! For those who don't know, IHOP stands for International House of Pancakes - its open 24 hours and has kickass pancakes. AWESOME!!
After smashing some pancakes into the next century we jumped on the hotel shuttle and headed out to Disney. Once we arrived at the Disney Carpark we then took the Disney Shuttle to the Magic Kingdom - this place is freakin' huge. Six Different Theme Parks, 6 Golf Courses, 30 Resort Hotels all on 47 Square Miles......nearly as big as Jamo's Head (don't worry Jamo, its a good head, its just that there's a lot of it). Most of the transport in Disney is done via a Monorail which connects all the parks and some of the resorts so we made our way to Disney in Space Age Technology Comfort....
The first sight that greets you when you arrive at 'The
Don't Be a Bonehead!!!
The wait lines for the rides were so long that the Parks have spent thousands of dollars 'dressing up' the areas surrounding the waiting lines. This is Fiona in part of the line being a 'Bonehead'. Magic Kingdom' is Cinderella's Castle which sits right in the middle of the park. Its really lets you know that you are at Disney World. The 'Magic Kingdom' is made up of seven different lands, Fantasy Land, Adventure Land, Tomorrow Land and so forth, each with their own distinct theme. Super-Happy-Fun Music blares over the speakers all day so it makes it really hard not to be in a great mood except for the screaming kids and 33 degree heat, but it only adds to the Feng Shui of the park. Some of the better attractions we saw were the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, the Haunted Mansion (lots of crying kids at the exit, them crying made me laugh), Mickey and Minnies House, and the Mad Tea Party Ride (the Tea Cups). Unfortunately Fiona's Stomach doesn't take too kindly to 'Spinny things', so when we jumped in the cups and I spun for as fast and as long as I could I wasn't it the good books. Fiona was pretty close to coming unstuck (her yelling made me laugh, then cry) (From Fi - the bastard ;-) ).
The Spinning Tea Cups are certainly one icon of Disney,
but another is the 'It's a Small World' ride which we knew we couldn't miss. Well, I wish we had. About 10 mins of little animatronic robots singing the same freakin' annoying song over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over......I was only seconds from wigging out when the ride finally ended. Australia did manage to make it in the ride though - we were proudly represented by a bright orange kangaroo covered in purple stars, a green koala climbing a pink coconut tree, and anfro toting islander with a pink boomerang and a giant headed dingo.....awesome! (From Fi - I thought it was pretty good and soooo funny to watch Dan struggle through it!)
One of the highlights of the day is the 3 pm Parade that has all the well known Disney Characters marching and waving passed the crowds. We found ourselves a pretty good spot and sat in the sun waiting for the parade to start. To keep us entertained they had guys 'warming up the crowd'. One guy would point to one side of the crowd and they would yell 'Donald Duck', then he would point to the
other side and they would yell 'Mickey Mouse', he kept doing this faster and faster, Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, faster and faster. Then Fiona leaned over to me and said very quietly, 'Why are they shouting Donald Duck -Pick you nose?' (From Fi - yep, hard of hearing and there was lots of noise BUT....BEAT THAT NICOLA...Dumb Blond moment No 999) The parade was fantastic though, although I was slightly disturbed by some very suspect looking dancing mops (see the photos). I felt a bit sorry for the people in the costumes though, it was about 34 degrees and they would have been sweating like a pedophile in a playground in those suits. (From Fi - and in Cinderella's castle there was a boutique for little girls to be done up like princesses...you should have seen them! I was a bit surprised that there were no Mums getting in on it)
Shortly after the parade relief from the heat arrived in the form of a tropical downpour. Fortunately I had made the mistake of wearing cargo shorts to the park, instantly becoming Fiona's Man-Bag and one of the many, many, many things I had been
Wish you were Here....
Just thinking of you guys..... forced to carry was ponchos (I'm serious - I had trouble fitting into some of the molded seat rides because my shorts looked like a pair of the those WWII Nazi officer puffy pants - it was ridiculous). While the stupid people fled for shelter, Fiona and I strutted around Disney in our $1.50 ponchos, but unfortunately most of the rides were closed due to rain, so there was nothing left to do but keep struttin'. With no relief to the rain in sight we decided it was probably best to call it a day, so we caught a ferry to the bus to our car and headed home.
We had a fantastic weekend at the parks, it was so much fun, and Disney really did make you feel like a big kid again. Actually being in the park after seeing it on TV so much was really great. It was certainly an experience that made you say, 'Hey, I'm actually living in the states.....cool'.
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Lis
non-member comment
Don't worry sis, I hate the tea cups too !!! Must be a southy thing ...... Hey Dan, you might want to buy some bigger cargo pants for you'll have to carry my stuff too when i come visit !!!!!! Can't wait