Orlando

Who says Disney is just for kids? I just got back and I loved being at Disney World and Seaworld. We left Tuesday and had a long flying day and arrived to our rental condos in Kissimmee. We stayed in these beautiful homes that overlook a lake and have a screened in pool in the back porch. I have no complaints at all about where we stayed except maybe that the water there smelled and tasted like shit. The majority of the participants were great this week, but we had a few that were just plain weird… a lot of psychotic and neurotic tendencies and extremely bizarre behavior. I now know what it is like to be a parent at Disney World though. We had massive tantrums, accidents, people throwing up and everyone wanted to do something different and complained if they didn’t get their way. We spent the first day at MGM Studios and got to meet a lot of different Disney characters. We got to ride the Star Wars simulator, watch the Muppet’s 3D show, ride on a movie ride, take the Disney backlot tour, and ride on the Tower of Terror. The next day we went to Magic Kingdom where I returned to face the roller coaster that beat me up back when I was 6. When I was 6, my family took us to Disney World and I wanted to ride on the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. You know those signs that say you must be this tall to ride? Yea, well I wasn’t that tall and I sat in the last car and ended up getting whiplash. For a 6 year old it was quite a traumatic experience so I have been haunted by that damn railroad for 14 years but I got my revenge this week. I faced my fears and rode it with no problem at all. I have to say it was quite a bit more fun this time too. We also road Splash Mountain, It’s a Small World Ride (I’ve never had one, but if I had to imagine what an acid trip would be like… this ride was it. I mean thousands of little dancing figurines with too much color and that same damn song over and over… sensory overload.) We also got to drive the racecars and ride Space Mountain. It was definitely an awesome, but long day. The following day we went to Seaworld. I loved Seaworld but damn if I wasn’t getting tired after my third day straight of full on amusement park chaos. Seaworld was great though because we got to sit down and relax and watch a couple of shows. We got to see pets doing tricks, sea lions and otters, and of course Shamu. We rode two rides at Seaworld too… Journey to Atlantis and Kraken. Journey to Atlantis is similar to Splash Mountain with a 5 story drop into water at the end. Kraken was a very hardcore roller coaster that has made me fall in love with roller coasters. It got up to 65mph and has 7 inversions. I used to be scared of roller coasters but I rode this one twice and I can’t wait to find crazier ones. One good thing about visiting the parks with 11 mentally disabled people is that we got disability passes so we didn’t have to stand in the long lines for all the rides… that alone made the trip worth while. Yesterday, we did a lot of souvenir shopping and then took everyone back to the pool at the houses to swim. It’s almost 12 and I’m really tired from this trip but I have to be back in the Sprout office again at 8AM tomorrow because I am driving to Boston with another group. I get back Friday and luckily I have the weekend off to relax. Sorry if my writing on this update is pretty bad, I’m tired and want to get at least 5 hours of sleep before leaving on my next trip. I’m gonna load some pictures and get on my way. Send me some emails… I wanna hear from everyone!

---

---