Disney World

  Orlando, Florida, United States
Saturday, November 15, 2008

Saturday 15 November - Orlando

Disney World is a huge area in Orlando (actually Kissimmee, just south of Orlando) serviced by hundreds of hotels & motels so the prices are very competitive - our Quality Inn was $47 per night. We gave ourselves 2 days to see Epcot & MGM Studios (the more grown-up parks). Our hotel offered huge discounts on tickets - all you had to do was sit through 3 hours of a timeshare hard sell, but it saved us over $200.

EPCOT - Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (bet you didn't know it stood for that).
We made a 9:30 start at Epcot - using linear programming, a calculator & highlighter pen, I had sorted the attractions out in order of (my) favourites, worked out the optimum route through the park (with suitable stops so Barbara could sun herself), only to find that several of the attractions didn't open until 10:00 or even 11:00 - so much for planning.

I managed to get Barbara on several of the white (well pink) knuckle rides.
"Soarin" - a breathtaking flight simulated hang-glide over California &
"Mission Space" - a re-creation of a mission to Mars which rather than taking 6 months, took 6 minutes (my main complaint was that none of the rides lasted long enough).

Epcot Sphere

The gentle "Spaceship Earth" ride took you through the famous 180ft geodesic sphere & explored the history of Earth's agriculture, transport, energy & communication accompanied by the soothing voice of Judy Dench.
Barbara declined the "Test Track" roller-coaster where, after nearly being driven into a brick wall, you're fired round a steeply banked track at high speed - great fun. As you exit, there was an exhibition of the best of General Motors cars, illustrating why GM is going bankrupt.

Harry Ramsdens

We spent the afternoon going round the "World Showcase", eleven nations have pavilions arranged around a lake where they show off the pride of their national heritage. Each nation had its own distinctive type of restaurant which were packed until they closed at 9:00 pm.

The British Pavilion had a Pub selling draught beer & chicken in a basket (no Watneys Red Barrel, though). There was a shop inside a "typical Castle" selling typical British goods i.e. Beatles souvenirs & Abercrombie & Fitch clothes (everyone in America is wearing Abercrombie & Fitch !)

Outside they had a "Harry Ramsden's" fish & chip stall.

Beatles Tribute Band

Heavy Bagpipes

A Beatles tribute band played in a little square outside the Castle & were very good, but my favorite was a Scottish heavy metal band fronted by a kilted bagpipe player - if you've never heard Black Sabbath played on the bagpipes, you've heard nothing.

Fireworks

At 9:00 from the centre of the lake, they had a "Dazzling Symphony of Music, Lasers & Fireworks" (basically a firework display) which lasted until everyone was fed up with saying "ooh" & "aah". All we had to do then was find our hire car amongst hundreds of similar white Japanese cars in the carpark.


Hollywood Studios

The next day was just as exhausting at Hollywood Studios. Again I highlighted the grown-up attractions like the stunt spectaculars - "Indiana Jones" & "Lights, Motors, Action" which were great. I managed to get Barbara in a "StarSpeeder" on the Star Wars thrill ride which was another flight simulator. Barbara said she wasn't scared - she just closed her eyes!

One of the gentler rides was "The Great Movie Ride" where they drag you, in your little car, through "classic" movie scenes played by animatronic actors (electronically controlled models) - it was pathetic! The only good bit was the host, who had a squeaky voice impediment & who over-acted so much it was hilarious. The other pathetic ride was the "Studio Backlot Tour" where you were taken on a trolley round dusty old studio props & taken past armies of seamstresses sewing costumes for the next film, happily it was short.

High School Musical 2

I thought of Holly when we saw "High School Musical 2:" playing on a stage on the street - lots of young wannabe's singing & dancing their hearts out. My favourite show was the Muppet*Vision 3-D Theatre with Kermit & the gang leaping out at you, Miss Piggy in 3-D is very scary.

I went on a real white knuckle ride, "The Rock 'n' Roller Coaster" - you are blasted from 0 to 60mph in under 3 seconds before doing loop-de-loops, inverted loop-de-loops & firing through holes that don't seem big enough - all to the sound of Aerosmith played at 120 decibels. A truly buttock clenching experience - it took 20 minutes for my heart to stop thumping!
After that I was going to try "The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror" where you drop out of control through 13 floors in an elevator. Unfortunately I had to miss it, due to a prior engagement.

One trip they didn't have was "Honey, I shrunk the Pound" by Gordon Brown & Alistair Darling - this is a real horror trip.