10 Parks, 40 Some Coasters and MORE! FINAL Part

[Delirium_Guy]

Soo.......

Somewhere between our Sea World, Busch Gardens and Universal visits, we spent 4 fantastic days at Disney. The past few visits that I've had to Florida have included a one day visit to Disney. I have a good friend that works there that usually hooks us all up with one day park hoppers. The result is a big group of us frantically hopping between the 4 Parks trying to hit as many of the big E-Ticket attractions as possible. I'm tired of doing that. Its fun. Its challenging. Its exhausting. This time, I wanted to spend some time at Disney. It had been probably 10 years or so since I last visited and spent more than a day on property. Both Robb and James had both only spent one day. There were so many things that they had yet to experience and see.

Keeping up with the theme of our entire vacation, Disney was empty. Labor signals the beginning of a ramp down period before things crank back up for the Christmas holiday. Good for us. No joke, we never waited more than 10 minutes for ANYTHING during our visit!

We started off Monday by hitting up Animal Kingdom first, since they closed the earliest of all the parks at 5PM. We pulled in promptly at opening, following my friend Matt through the lot for complimentary parking! I've always been a fan of Animal Kingdom. While it certainly lacked attractions upon its opening year, it has really started to develope nicely. With walk-ons for ALL attractions, we still spent 5 hours or so in the Park. It is fast becoming a park that you CAN spend the day there, if you want.

The first thing that grabs your attention from the Parking lot now is no longer the Tree of Life, but rather the icy slopes and peaks of Expedition Everest. The thing is huge. Seeing this thing under construction on my past few visits then finally seeing the finished product is amazing! Obviously, this was our first stop of the day. The queue line itself is an attraction as far as I'm concerned. Fortunately, Matt was with us so he gave a pretty detailed report of the story that the queue tells. The detail is unbelievable here. The different ancient yeti shrines and statues, the shop to purchase all of your gear, the museum all leads up to the loading station. The very first thing that you can't help but notice are the trains as they barrell back in the station. Upon stopping, a huge release of steam comes out from underneath the engine. It also releases again once the train is dispatched.

After a 10 minute wait we were on board. My one complaint are the abnormally high seat backs on the trains, but other than that they were super comfy with a nice pouch to secure loose articles as you ride (think Tomb Raider). The train rolls out of the station and up a short lift. A few small dips and turns quickly leads the train to climb the main lift hill. Quickly the train ascends, traveling through the temple that is located about halfway up. The view is spectacular, with ALL the theme parks easily in view. Once at the top, the train dips down and makes a quick turn into a cave before heading up an incline propelled by drive tires. You stop. From the front, you can look past the end of the track, straight down. Over head a bird swoops by. Then you are released backwards and into the cave. I *still* can't get my bearings straight here. I'm pretty sure it just does a helix, but god does it ever screw with you. Super. Another quick stop on an upward incline. A projection of the Yeti is seen on the cavern wall ripping up the tracks in front of you. The track ahead flips over and off you go to the big drop out of the mountain.

The last half of the ride is much faster than I anticipated and surprisingly has some kick with it. The final tunnel is quite the shock as the ENORMOUS Yeti animatronic swipes his claw just above your head. This is no normal animatronic. This is so large that an entirely seperate structure was constructed within the mountain to hold it. Its unbelievably realistic!

Overall, Everest is fantastic! Its a great family ride, but it has enough thrills to satisfy everyone. Its a much welcomed addition to DAK and really has helped to round out the Parks collection of attractions.

Just a few notes from DAK:

*Finally saw the Festival of the Lion King show. Superb. Funny, Disney rounded up 4 old Lion King floats from a parade at Disneyland and turned them into one hell of a show. Saw this one three times over our trip. Its that good.

* Dinosaur is still hella fun. Its a lot jerkier than I remember, not a bad thing though. I still prefer the amazing Indiana Jones attraction at Disneyland.

* Primevil Whirl. Ya know, I hated this area when I first saw it a few years ago. Now I get it though. The area looks like a cheap carnival, completed with cracked asphalt. But thats exactly what its supposed to be. The coaster is your normal Reverchon spinning mouse. Nothing out of the norm.

* Tough To Be A Bug -- Super 4d film inside the tree of life. Some hysterical effects get me everytime.....especially the beetles who must exit the theater before everyone else :-) It feels like they are crawling right underneath ya. Nicely done.

* Kilamanjaro Safari -- Again, to think that Disney built this from scratch. You truly have to experience it to appreciate it.

THanks to the short lines, were soon on our way to Epcot. We decided to park at Magic Kingdom though and ride the monorail over.

Again, Epcot is one of those places that grows on you. When I was a kid, I hated it. Now, its probably my favorite of the 4 parks. Its not necessarily about the rides, but more about the atmosphere. Anyone who knows me well knows that plays a huge factor for me. The World Showcase is a beauty. I can easily spend hours there walking around and just taking in all the different smells and sounds from each of the countries.

Again just some highlights. No lines either.

* Test Track -- ran very reliably the whole trip. Seems like they have finally gotten this thing to run at an acceptable pace. Fun ride, though I still miss the old World of Motion attraction

* Mission Space -- Perhaps one of the most intense attractions I've been one. Its not one that I can re-ride. I need a spacer between spins. We never did try the new Green Team side, which doesn't involve the spinning centrifuge. The ride itself is amazing and just a blast to experience. You can't help but play with all the gadgets and buttons inside your capsule :-)

* Soarin' -- Hands down the best new attraction since Tower of Terror. A simple IMAX-esq film taken to the next level. The smells that are piped through from the various scenes, the wind blowing in your face all combined with the fact that you are dangling about 70 feet in the air. Its beautifully done. We probably rode about 15 times total. Couldn't get enough.

Once again, we did EVERY attraction in the Park in just a few hours. We couldn't have closed the night at Epcot with no worries at all. However, Magic Kingdom was open until 10PM, so off we went.

Magic Kingdom

We arrived back to the Transportation around 6, then hopped the express monorail over to the Kingdom. With 4 hours to spare and no waits once again.......plenty of rides were had. We managed to hit every attraction except Philharmagic, Jungle Cruise and the Tiki Room.

* Space Mountain -- Never have I walked on to this before! At one point, there were only about 15 people in the building. We took 4 spins. Can't help but love this thing. While it only goes about 25mph, it sure gives the illusion of so much more. Honestly, it still reigns as the best indoor coaster out there for me. FoF is the more thrilling ride obviously, not saying that. Space is just so much fun though. Especially with the stars and meteors flying over head. Atmosphere once again prevails.

* Pirates of the Carribbean -- I was a tad worried about what I'd think of the newly updated version. Pirates has always held a soft spot for me. Its a brilliantly done attraction for its time. It didn't need to be changed. And it didn't. Its the same old ride, just with some new pirates joining the crew. Davy Jones, Captain Barbosa and Jack Sparrow have taken over. The Davy Jones effect is superb, I really wasn't expecting it. Basically before the boat drops down into the ride itself and fog curtain looms ahead giving the appearance of going through the middle of a water fall. Davy Jones is projected on this giving warning of what lies ahead. The first change you will notice is the Ship scene. Barbosa has now taken over. I miss the canon shots that hit the water, but the bursts of air that gave the illusion of the shots flying over you was a VERY nice touch. The most impressive additions are the Jack Sparrow animatronics. Easily the most life-like you've seen. You'd swear that Johnny Depp was standing there himself. The best was the final scene. Jack is sitting in a chair. His motions rock it back and forth. Meanwhile, his hands are full of treasure as he lassos and twirls it around in the air. Props to Disney for keeping the old Pirates pretty much intact. I think that speaks volumes for the popularity of the original attraction.....soon to be 40 years old!

Through out the next couple days, we did everything multiple times. We saw Spectromagic (the night-time electrical parade) and Wishes two times each. Wishes gives me chills. Everytime. My favorite night time show on property, followed closely by Fantasmic at the Disney Studios.

Disney Studios was fun as ever. Tower of Terror still ranks highly for me as one of the best attractions ever developed. The random programs it features make you guess every time which way you are going to go first......up or down? Just when you think its over, it either drops again or goes flying back up to the top of the tower.

Again, we did every attraction and show in the Park. Multiple rides on Tower and Rock 'n' Roller Coaster.

This was the best trip to Disney I've ever had. We did everything we possibly wanted to as many time as we wanted. Leaving was very hard to do. I don't know how anyone can NOT enjoy themselves here? Yeah, they don't have record breaking thrill rides, but so what? The attractions that they build are among the best anywhere. All are very thorough and well through out. They tell a story. They put the guest in the middle of the story. They are ALL an EXPERIENCE. Disney does so many things right. Its amazing to see a project the size of Everest. The amount of detail and time they put into it blows my mind. In general, the entire property is a sight. 4 theme parks, 2 water parks, Pleasure Island, DIsney Quest, Downtown Disney, all the hotels. Its like a different world. Its also very easy to see why people can come down and easily spend 7 to 10 days on property. Theres just that much to do.

That pretty much wraps up our trip. I could go on for hours about Disney. The good news is though, Robb and I will be moving to Orlando in November! Its a big move to make, but an opportunity has presented itself and I can't just pass it up. It'll be wierd to consider parks like Disney and Universal as our home parks, but freaking awesome at the same time! Can't wait!

Thanks for reading!

- Todd

[BoddaH1994]

Moving to Orlando eh? That's kind of a sad thing for me to hear. I'm sure most of you don't know this but when I joined my first PKI site, PKIGuide, Delirium_Guy was so kind as to email me and welcome me to the forums. Not only that, but he hooked me up with being on my first Travel Channel filming at PKI where I met some good friends like Charles Infosino, George Spathe, and good 'ol Jeff Siebert for the first time. That's what really got me into the park, so you can vicariously thank him for PKIC being what it is today.

Thanks, Todd...

[CoastersNSich]

Todd, I hope to run into you one more time before you move down to Orlando. It's been nice hanging out with you over the past few years. Best of luck to you.

- Tom

[Delirium_Guy]

Moving to Orlando eh? That's kind of a sad thing for me to hear. I'm sure most of you don't know this but when I joined my first PKI site, PKIGuide, Delirium_Guy was so kind as to email me and welcome me to the forums. Not only that, but he hooked me up with being on my first Travel Channel filming at PKI where I met some good friends like Charles Infosino, George Spathe, and good 'ol Jeff Siebert for the first time. That's what really got me into the park, so you can vicariously thank him for PKIC being what it is today.

Thanks, Todd...

Ahh, I remember that video shoot! Didn't you do Tomb Raider? I think I did Delirium. Good times :-) But yeah, I've wanted to move to Florida for a few years now. An opportunity has finally presented itself, so I'm going to jump on it! Just think though, now you can come hit the Florida parks but have a free place to crash! And CoastersNSich, I'm sure I'll make it to PKI one more time before the season ends, so I'm sure we'll bump into each other.

- Todd