Walt Disney World: 2018 Recap!
WDW Recap: Part 1!
WDW Report: Mexico Pavilion’s own King Kong!
This week, we are at Walt Disney World! This is always a treat for us since we live on the west coast so we do not take a trip to these 4 parks lightly. Robert’s favorite park is EPCOT and they’re in the middle of their 20th year of the Food & Wine festival in the World Showcase area of the park. Unfortunately, EPCOT’s guests have a bad reputation for taking advantage of the libations at the park and proudly wear their drunkenness on their sleeves (or matching t-shirts.) This year is no different, it would seem, as Robert took this video Sunday night which has since gone viral!
The guy climbing had been bragging to his friends that he would climb the stairs and one in his group said she would join him. So up they went! Well, he did, but she was quickly pulled down by Disney security. As you can see in the video, he made it to the top without being apprehended. Many online have wondered what happened after the video cuts out here, and we’ll post that upon Robert’s return! Unfortunately, he was able to snake down the side and away from security. Robert even saw him later with his friends before park closing. We’re not sure that he was ever caught and are waiting for some official statement from Disney about it. The strange thing is this isn’t the first time this happened. When I went in 2012, someone had tried to climb up the temple and I got this response on twitter:
@remainseatedpls Done it and did it when I was 8 years old when park first opened. — ERRT (@OFFICIAL_ERRT) November 11, 2015
Since that video and story went viral, we’ve been lucky (depending on how you look at it when one is on vacation) to be cited on several major news outlets. Here’s a fun one:
And since then, the Mexico pavilion has gone from looking as it always has: 
To looking more like this:
They’ve added some plants which I actually don’t mind but they’ve also included a theme-less sign here. This is at least the temporary fix that Team Disney Orlando has come up with but it will be interesting to see how it evolves from here. Robert mentioned there’s a security guard standing by as well. EPCOT’s Food & Wine Festival comes to a close for 2015 on Nov 16th.
Stay tuned to the blog as we will be posting Robert’s full video here as well as podcasting about it next week as we return from our hiatus. What do you think about actions like this at Disney parks and does it affect your experience? Or have you seen this happen before at this or another park? Let us know in the comment section below!
Throwback Thursday – Cranium Command at EPCOT!
I only went to WDW for the first time in 2012 so my knowledge about most things there is very limited — especially when it comes to classic and now legacy attractions like EPCOT’s “Cranium Command.” Today I was randomly scouring blogs and Reddit and found out about this attraction which occupied the Wonders of Life pavilion in Future World.
If you don’t know what “Cranium Command” was or want a simple refresher, according to Wikipedia, “It premiered on October 19, 1989; as of January 4, 2004 it began to operate seasonally, closing permanently on January 1, 2007.” You can take a look at WDW News Today‘s terrific video of one of the last showings of this attraction in 2005.
What a FUN attraction! It’s everything I loved about EPCOT when I saw it in 2012 and full of things many fans feel EPCOT is moving away from.
Sadly, here’s a recent look at what the pavilion is like during most of the year thanks to a brave YouTube-er that snuck in during the off-season:
When we went to Epcot, the pavilion was full of life as it was during Food & Wine. During the festival, it houses the Chase Card Lounge (closest I have come to being inside one of those fancy corporate lounges) as well as serving as the Festival Center for Food & Wine demonstrations, classes, shops, and more. It’s really a beautiful pavilion.
The strange thing is that while “Body Wars” has been dismantled and “Making of Me” has been removed, the theatre which houses Buzzy and “Cranium Command” remains intact!
And Buzzy still has a loyal fan base and is a sought-after commodity! Just check out the recent merchandise that has come out with this cranium commander:
With all this popularity, it makes one think about what the future of this attraction might be. Why keep the attraction intact? If it closed what’s now 8 years ago – why keep him around?
Here’s a theory I saw on a few blogs: does this look familiar to any Cranium Command fans?
How about now?
I bring this up because if you look at the trailer and premise, it’s pretty much the same idea as Cranium Command: your emotions are personified by characters driven by those very emotions.
It’s a timeless and relatable premise that Disney believes in. Is it possible that this attraction closed while this film was in development and refreshing this closed attraction was not outside the realm of possibility? If this film is successful (as most Pixar films are), there’s no reason not to keep this attraction around while the rest of Future World awaits a refresh.
What do you think? Is this an example of a film property layover you might enjoy? Maelstrom’s closure at EPCOT cause a bit of an uproar from the Disney Parks fans. However, the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage at Disneyland was initially met with praise from fans of the old attraction because it was being resurrected.
It’s all speculation for now, but if you know any better than we do, let us know in the comments below!
featured image source: yesterland.com
Walt Disney World – Day 4: Animal Kingdom and Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party
Our fourth day brought us into a whole new world for us with Disney – Walt Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Fun fact: The island across from the Contemporary Resort to the west was once the catalyst for what is now Animal Kingdom: Discovery Island. It has been closed for the last 13 years but not too long ago, some urban explorers set foot upon the island in a less-than legal manner but provided some amazing photos which can be viewed here. It’s a pretty fun, if not lacking, read. One is left wanting more from their exploration.
Well, today, we did not go to the original Discovery Island but we did head into Discovery Island – the land – at Animal Kingdom. Discovery Island is the main hub of AK park from which all lands protrude in classic Disney park fashion. Interesting that they kept that name. We hurried straight over to Asia to ascend our most anticipated Disney mountain on Expedition Everest!
This ride is by far the most amazing at this park in terms of thrill and theming. I absolutely love it and is my favorite of any of the Disney park mountains. You go forward, backward, fast, slow, and it’s just a super awesome thrill! According to friends and family, the Yeti has been inoperable for a long while. However, having never ridden it with it being operable, I didn’t notice anything strange about it and this is such a sense stimulator that one is never left wanting anything more or feeling cheated in any way.
We walked onto this ride three times in a row. We were able to take in the detail in the queue but not stop long enough to take any photos worth really posting. You walk through a base-camp on the way up to the base of Everest with some great artifacts, equipment both old and new, and a lot of strange footprints, photos, and books about the mysterious Yeti. When the train arrives to take you to the peak, you pass even more of what appear to be warning signs. Everything seems fine until you realize that the track taking you to the summit has been ripped from it’s ties and you immediately plunge backward! You encounter the creature a couple times on your trek and narrowly escape in the end. Such a thrill and an amazing attraction! We must have done it about 6 or 7 times this day alone!
My favorite part of this park was the early-morning mist that engulfed the entire park. Extra Magic Hours got us to the park at 7am on the very last day of Daylight Saving Time so it was the absolute earliest (in relative position of the sunrise) we could be at the park for the entire year. It was absolutely magical! My least favorite part? The smell — and unfortunately the mist did a lot to carry those smells throughout the park. The flamingos are largely to blame for it, I’m sure, as they’re a foul smelling bird. The early morning beauty, however, trumped any other sensory overload provided by the park.
The second attraction I was most excited for was the Kilimanjaro Safaris! We had gone to San Diego’s Wild Animal Park (now renamed Safari Park) 5 or 6 years back and were sorely disappointed by the fact that there is no safari included in the price of admission! I couldn’t believe how expensive doing a safari on par with AK’s safari was! ($130+). The Kilimanjaro Safaris is everything you’d want it to be and more!
The safari uses real vehicles to see real animals without visible (or literal in some cases) boundaries. The animals are all out and about and mingling with one another (when appropriate). We asked where the best place to sit was for photos and were told the back left side was probably the best place because your field of view is much wider. We ended up getting the entire back row to ourselves so we were able to get some incredible pics from all sides! Make sure you set your camera for a faster shutter speed as the vehicle rarely stops so you’ve really gotta snap away and sort thru the pics later!
Another great thing this park has is an abundance of walking tours. Each takes you into a different eco system with animals to all sides of you. You can really get great shots of different species in their different habitats. If you’re lucky, they’ll come right up to you or you may just see something unexpected and not necessarily on the tour.
We went to eat at Pizzafari for breakfast. Just your standard breakfast sandwich fare to get by. We snapped a cool pic while inside.
Next up was DinoLand U.S.A. which seemed to be geared toward children yet had some of my favorite attractions at the park including Dinosaur! and Primeval Whirl. Dinosaur is like Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye at Disneyland Park but with time travel and dinosaurs. Another ride with a cool queue (like being at the Jurassic Park visitor center) that we sort of flew past because there were no lines. There is, however, a cool intro video with Phylicia Rashad.
Primeval Whirl is as close to Hollywood Studios’ (at Disneyland Paris) Crush’s Coaster ride system as you can get here in the states. It’s like Goofy’s Sky School but instead of always facing front, half way thru the ride, the car unlocks itself from the base and you spin on an axis while the coaster continues down the track. It’s a tough explanation and I’ll post a video and pictures soon of this attraction.
There’s so much at this park to take in the first time because it’s so unlike any other Disney park so most of the best pics we took here were on our second visit to the park later in the trip.
There are also some great shows and characters at this park! So much so that this park is maybe best done in two days because the animals’ bed times are pretty early. This park was closing at 5pm today so we had to pass on some things this day and plan to do them on a return trip because we really wanted to see the Festival of the Lion King show at Camp Minnie-Mickey as well as meet a slew of characters in their AK “garb.”
“The Festival of the Lion King” is another stunning example of great Floridian theatre! Seriously, if you aren’t landing gigs on Broadway or in Los Angeles, head on down to Orlando because this city has some incredible theatre within the WDW resort.
The Greeting Trails at AK are pretty neat because the characters are in different outfits than you’ll see anywhere else in the resort. Since it was just at the end of Halloween Time, we caught them today in their AK-appropriate halloween garb.
Meeting these characters were among the longest lines of our entire trip but well worth seeing them in their different outfits. Before the day was thru, we wanted to see “Finding Nemo – the Musical.” We had a while so we ran into a quick showing of “It’s Tough to be a Bug” inside the Tree of Life. While it’s the same show we have at DCA, the attraction’s building is among the most elaborate of any Disney Park. The theatre is below the gigantic Tree of Life with animals carved within the bark and roots of the tree. Even more impressive is walking through the root system while walking into the theatre and seeing all the incredible details!
“Finding Nemo – The Musical” is a lot like DCA’s “Aladdin…” show in terms of scale and length. It’s a full-blown musical and an impressive one at that! This could be on Broadway, it’s so catchy and well done! The master puppetry keeps the audience engaged and the cast is just incredible. There’s incredible fly-work, sets, lighting, animatronics — the works! They even tie it into the song at the end of EPCOT’s “The Seas with Nemo and Friends” which makes sense but is still a nice touch.
At the end of the show, we had just enough time to ride Expedition Everest again before heading over to the Magic Kingdom for Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party.
Magic Kingdom has a lot to teach Disneyland Park in Anaheim about how to do Halloween! From the scarecrows in the Town Square, the pumpkins on the lamps down Main Street, the villain’s show in front of Cinderella’s castle and most importantly, the “Boo to You!” parade!
I cannot describe this “Boo to You!” parade in terms that would do it justice and since I only got to see it once, I am sure I would forget some of the greatest details like the headless horseman starting the parade off by riding along the entire parade route holding a jack-o-lantern. I’ll just focus on my favorite and most appropriate section of the parade: The Haunted Mansion scene. My goodness! It starts with the caretaker and his dog (A REAL DOG!) wandering the parade route complete with lantern-and-all!
He is followed closely by a flurry of dancing grave diggers doing a “Thriller”-style dance number with shovels as their dancing canes. Imagine a zombie Fred Astaire in Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” music video. They danced with those shovels with the greatest of ease and they would drag it furiously along the ground in time with the music shooting sparks all over the place. CHILLS, PEOPLE!
They are then followed by the hitchhiking ghosts themselves atop a huge furiously-fogging float! While cool in person, it did not provide great photos but I am telling you, the fog worked SO WELL in person. Super awesome parade and I really dislike parades. Disneyland has a lot to learn from it’s east coast relative about how to do Halloween Time.
What the Magic Kingdom has over the Anaheim resort is space. Therefore, fireworks times and vicinity is not at all a factor. Fireworks at WDW seem to go off later than Disneyland’s and in some respects, larger fireworks seem to be used all around. What I mean is when at Disneyland, we have scenes in the show where fireworks launch all around you depending on your location. At WDW, they’re actual fireworks and not just quick spurts of flame or sparklers. It’s pretty impressive when immersed in actual exploding fireworks rather than just bursts of light.
What I found lacking was the use of a large structure like the Matterhorn in conjunction with the castle. While Cinderella’s castle towers over Sleeping Beauty’s in Anaheim, Aurora’s castle plays with the Matterhorn in many ways — projections, flying characters, etc. They don’t have this luxury at WDW. So for the Halloween Fireworks show, there is no Zero, there is no Jack Skellington host (which I am totally fine with) but a rather fun narration by Corey Burton as the Ghost Host from Haunted Mansion. The lack of Jack Skellington makes for a better Halloween show, in my opinion. Yet I believe WDW cast members might disagree since most all of them that we spoke with longed for HMH. While I do absolutely love HMH, I wish the “Nightmare Before Christmas” theme stayed in that area rather than become the Halloween mascot of the park.
Other cool things for Halloween were a Jolly Roger projection on Big Thunder, one-stop-shop trick-or-treating (there were multiple stops but they were VERY generous), and the “Villains Mix and Mingle” show in front of the castle. Best part of the villains show? That it attracts other villains! We got to meet the evil step mother and those pesky step-sisters from Cinderella!
The cast members in Florida have their characters DOWN! So much fun to play wit! Usually the face characters are sort of awkward to meet because they’re your age. I think my favorite is Lady Renata in front of the Haunted Mansion. She watches over the mansion and has a sharp tongue and quick wit! We sat and watched her for about 30 minutes which she lampooned and chided the passers-by at the mansion.
I wish she’d come visit our mansion someday! Also cool were some special photo stations where you can take a picture with some Grim Grinning Ghosts.
All in all, a great time was had at Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party. Highly recommended and well worth the entrance fee for the parade alone! Well, it was back to the hotel for the night to prepare for our fifth day. Now that we had hit up every park, the (Walt Disney) World was our oyster and anything could go!
See our full gallery from this day below!
Walt Disney World: Part III – Hollywood Studios and More!
Today was the day I was to finally ride the original Tower of Terror. I was SUPER excited!
Disney’s Hollywood Studios is a smaller park that’s more focused on shows and entertainment than attractions but the few attractions they do have really pack a punch and the shows are among the best I have seen at a Disney park. Orlando seems to be a haven for film and stage hopefuls with plenty of roles to go around. Really top notch stuff coming out of these parks!
So we entered through some familiar looking gates — the new Disney California Adventure Park gates, while modeled after the Pan Pacific park theatre are actually modeled after Disney’s own Hollywood Studios park. I had no idea until DCA’s walls were about to come down in front of the new gates and a buddy of mine showed me a picture of the Hollywood Studios gate. I was surprised and thought that DCA’s walls had come down early. It’s striking how similar these parks look from the front!
And that’s not all. There’s even a Carthay Circle Theatre (which is a shop rather than a restaurant) and a lot of the same building replicas DCA has in it’s Hollywood Blvd. area. Even the gas station looks a lot like Oswald’s at DCA. I went to high school in Hollywood and lived there for about 5 years and they really nailed a lot of the tiny details. Their Crossroads of the World replica (information station at the park) is uncanny and their Max Factor building (a shopping plaza) is spot on.
After taking in the main drag Hollywood Blvd., we took a right and headed down Sunset Boulevard toward the Hollywood Tower Hotel known as Tower of Terror.
We took tons of photos of this attraction which seems to house more homages to the show than our DCA counterpart. Traveling through the 5th dimension caused me to laugh out loud in glee the first time the doors opened and we moved forward. It’s really neat and almost too stimulating upon the first ride. There’s just no way to sell how incredibly detailed and awesome this ride is. The day we came home we went to DLR and rode Tower and while it’s still a great ride and superior in a few areas, as a whole, I would have to say that Hollywood Studios’ version of the ride is in a completely different league.
Next it was onto Rockin’ Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith. We had done this at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Paris and I remembered really enjoying it. The queue in Paris seemed a little more detailed but the facade was much better at Walt Disney World.
This ride has some great holograms for the pre-show and a nice story and great theming. We are granted backstage passes to a concert that’s happening in 10 minutes and Aerosmith has demanded that their manager sense a limo our way to get us there. Unfortunately there’s traffic but our “driver” seems to know some back-alley shortcuts. We take off into the dark night past some hollywood landmarks along with some rockin’ tunes. It’s a whirlwind thrill and if I had to compare it to something, it would be a mix of Space Mountain and California Screamin’ at DCA.
We grabbed a quick bite at the farmer’s market area. What was nice was the even though this was standard theme park fare, it’s pretty regional so BBQ baked beans and cole slaw are common hot dog toppings. I loved it! They also had bacon macaroni and cheese toppings. A great treat I have yet to discover at our 3rd and Fairfax farmer’s market.
Our first new-to-us attraction at this park was The Great Movie Ride. While it’s a great ride, it seems to be a lot like Jungle Cruise in the way that your “skipper” can make or break the ride, and you have multiple ones so landing multiple good hosts can be difficult. We had two pretty bad ones but there are some great things to look at. I liked how large the ride vehicles were. They really move a lot of people in there!
The Voyage of the Little Mermaid was a fun show with some cool laser effects and some great puppetry. However, there’s a whole scene where Ariel is live on stage singing a song and animated Ariel is singing and swimming on a projection right next to her. Seemed like a mixed message. It’s also a very truncated version of the film’s story. You should go into this having already seen the film.
Star Tours! While exactly the same as ours in almost every way including the queue (minus a few things), the exterior of this one is superior to Disneyland’s. There’s an AT-AT out front walking through the Endor Moon terrain. Super fun to look at and walk through!
Walking straight into the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular, we had no idea what to expect. We walked into a very large set so we figured there’d be a lot of col stuff to see while the actors made their way from section to section in what may be a 15 minute show, or so. However, after the entire set gets used in the first scene, I was worried there wasn’t going to be much more to see. Then, the set change happened. This has to be some of the most incredible set design I have seen at any Disney park! The scenes are HUGE and the stunts are great. I highly recommend this show!
On our way back to Tower (I know, I know…), we stopped into the Beauty and the Beast show. Yet again, if you’re an out of work actor, make your way to Orlando because these shows are just top notch! Absolutely terrific performances all around and this show is a little longer than The Little Mermaid show although there’s still some plot holes if you have not seen the film.
Next was more of a showcase of all things Walt. Put together by D23, One Man’s Dream is a huge love letter to Walt with props from his boyhood desk with his name etched into the wood to his Glendale, CA office as it would have been seen on the lot. It’s a wonderful museum of Walt Disney treasures with an amazing film at the end that’s sure to bring tears to your eyes. Well done!
After this, we wandered the park awaiting Fantasmic! at 7pm. We planned on grabbing good seats at the amphitheater so a 5:30 arrival was key. We walked thru the Pixar area where their Toy Story Midway Mania was. We skipped it as the lines were just outlandish and we aren’t huge fans of the DCA version so we figured we weren’t missing anything. We saw Pizza Planet (having my birthday there next year for SURE! (I kid…)), a huge Muppet store (we skipped MuppetVision 3D), the backlot area (the backlot tour was down for the duration of our trip there), and skipped the Lights! Motor! Action! stunt show as we had seen it in Paris. After some sightseeing, it was time to go see the East Coast version of the Disneyland classic.
I took a little nap while waiting for the show but we certainly had GREAT seats! While it’s different, it was cool to see some added scenes with rarely seen characters like Pocahontas. Their dragon is like our old dragon and they have a smaller and sort of dinky version of the Mark Twain for the finale. All in all, it’s still a magical show but in the amphitheater setting, it seems a little too far away. I was still able to grab some awesome pictures. See if you can spot the Mickey with the weird eyes. What’s THAT about?
Tons more Fantasmic! pictures below! After leaving Hollywood Studios for the night, we headed over to The Magic Kingdom to take advantage of the extra magic hours. We headed over to the Tiki Room but they closed early so we went to Tomorrowland to check out Space Mountain which wasn’t bad. It’s very different and more like the pre-1998 DLR version. I really liked the star effect inside the queue — it was very convincing. Unfortunately we were not able to play with the interactive queue. Has anyone done it? Is it any good?
Before we left for the night, we went on TTA’s Peoplemover. It moved a lot faster than I expected and was visually different from our old Disneyland version but it was still a great ride with some incredible park views!
Another perfect day at WDW in the books! Nice touch upon exiting the Magic Kingdom for the night and retiring to our hotel room once again.
Walt Disney World: Day Two – Magic Kingdom and More!
Our first full day at the parks was a no-brainer — The Magic Kingdom! And Halloween Time was in full swing at the parks.
The first thing I noticed was just how large their Main Street Town Square was and with that space, how well they decorated for the season! I took pictures another day of all of the scarecrows and pumpkins around but even their gas lamp decor was a step above Disneyland’s. This park reminded me a lot of Disneyland Park Paris in terms of scale and decor around Main Street.
We had to see it all: The Chamber of Commerce, City Hall (and whether or not they had any nod to our park’s ever-burning lamp — they do not), the Car Barn (where they keep the horses, trollys, etc in plain view in a well themed barn), the Barber Shop (at which I almost got a haircut but decided against it for more time in the park), and many of the smaller shops. We were really taking this park in.
We decided to do the park the right way and hit as many attractions as we possibly could. This lead us into Adventureland and into the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse. This theme on the treehouse used to also reside at Disneyland Park but was re-themed in 1999 to Tarzan’s Treehouse. I really liked all of the details of the family living as primitively as could be. The treehouse also provided incredible views of Cinderella’s Castle and Space Mountain. Actually, the treehouse is not needed for an incredible view of the castle — it can be seen from miles around – towering over space and the Main Street Depot Train Station!
Already, Adventureland was very different for us. No Indy, a Magic Carpet ride with Aladdin smack-dab in the center, and a separated Dole Whip outlet. Next to the Tiki Room is Sunshine Terrace at which we looked but did not partake. Upon exiting the treehouse, we made a left and went straight onto the Jungle Cruise.
We had no clue what to expect but what we got was an amazing tour with the best skipper I have ever seen. He kept to the classics but added very subtle twists to them that made the “veterans” to the monologue chuckle. This version of the attraction also features an incredible cavern sequence that’s best seen at night, but was still awesome for our first trip! This is not to be missed and the queue has a little friend to keep you entertained while waiting.
Continuing on through Adventureland, we skipped Tiki Room for time and daylight (I prefer to do it at night) and made a B-Line for Pirates of the Caribbean!
Let’s say that this attraction really makes up for it’s much shorter and condensed ride-thru with it’s very detailed and illustrious queue. We walked onto the ride this day, but near the end of our trip, we really got into the nooks and crannies and took some amazing shots with my new lens! Can’t wait to share those but you’ll just have to wait a while. As I said before, this version of the ride, while better than Disneyland Paris and very similar to Disneyland’s, is very short and missing some key scenes. One thing that made no sense to me was almost immediately, you are taken under the Jones/ Blackbeard waterfall and then into a Mermaid scene (which is GREAT by the way) and then around the shores of pirate bones.
I have always interpreted the passage thru the waterfall to be the threshold through which the pirates then become full-fleged animatronics. In this incarnation of the ride, it’s more like the tiny “drop” is the catalyst and that doesn’t really work for me. As the Mermaids and waterfall are more recent additions to the ride, I think it probably made more sense originally, but I found that slightly jarring. Also, after the town fire and going under the pirate with the dirty foot (or hairy leg), the ride is over and you see Jack Sparrow about 25 ft. away (he can jump 30 ft. so he’ll just go right over us — I kid) inside this castle-like scene. It’s all so abrupt with numerous scenes missing and the Sparrow animatronic is so far away it’s almost a waste. Still a must and a classic, but that’s my two cents.
Walking through the rest of Adventureland, past the shops and restaurants, we found ourselves entering Frontierland, presumably through the back entrance. The first attraction we came to:
While not an attraction we frequent at Disneyland and no a particularly warm day (or trip, actually), we had to see what was different. However, since we are not familiar with the nitty-gritty details of the Disneyland version, I can say it was a great ride and nothing felt a-miss. Things felt different and new, for sure, but we didn’t get off thinking something was drastic or inherently wrong. Must have done something right!
Right next to Splash was a seemingly misplaced while at the same time appropriate Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Talk about a mountain range!
This version of the ride may be better than Disneyland’s in terms of thrill. It has all the close calls you have come to love at DLR with some additional “features” that I really liked a lot. There’s a section of the track that makes it seem as if the rails below you are collapsing and you really move through that section. I can only describe it as being similar to the collapsing mine scene (which they also have) but imagine rolling through that at 35 MPH! That part also happens through their mining town on the backside of the mountain. The front near the queue has a great snow-capped looking range and the dinosaur bone “tunnel.” The queue is setup differently, as well. Imagine our mining “station” but about 10x larger. Nearly the entire queue goes through the station and you board below it as if you’re already inside the cavern. It’s a tough description, for sure, but it’s a very effective method.
Now it was time for a slight break. We wanted to take in the sights, analyze the differences, and really take in what we were experiencing. Luckily, right after exiting Big Thunder, there’s a boardwalk from Frontierland all the way around the Rivers of America to Liberty Square. I would say Frontierland is sort of where Disneyland’s New Orleans Square and Critter Country are and Liberty Square is more where Disneyland’s Frontierland is. It is a slight change in configuration but it all flows together so well. On our way down the boardwalk, we saw a lot of the native birds that seem to love the Rivers of America and Frontierland.
En route to Liberty Square we stopped at Country Bear. I don’t remember ever doing this as a child and I love seeing the three left-over busts from Disneyland’s version hidden away inside Winnie the Pooh in Critter Country. I had a ball! It’s a well maintained attraction that I wish we still had. Pooh is great though!
Passing the Diamond Horseshoe (they just HAD to out-do our Golden Horseshoe!) we came upon Liberty Square. I loved this land the most. The look and feel, the detail and the sights — I was in awe. I loved the costumes the cast wore, I loved the liberty bell, the liberty tree, the Christmas Store, and most of all:
Maybe not most of all because The Haunted Mansion technically falls within Liberty Square but this attraction is absolutely stunning. WDI really outdid themselves when coming up with this attraction and the cast member inside introducing the show really knew his stuff! I could sit there all day and listen to him. It has a little of our Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln and a LOT of animatronic presidents! Truly a marvel topped off with a short speech by our sitting president Barack Obama.
We then took a trip around the Rivers of America by steamboat, naturally, aboard the Liberty Belle.
While not nearly as grand as her west coast cousin, she certainly packs in the sights. I wish the narration were louder as I struggled throughout most of the trek to find a spot where I could clearly hear it. Unfortunately I was unsuccessful. Getting older, maybe? Their Tom Sawyers island looked absolutely incredible (and it was! We went later in the trip). Their Native American village had some nice detail and their fort is still operational and kids can still shoot guns from the windows!
Next up was just about the main-attraction for me:
Boy did this ride deliver! It had an interactive queue, a terrific sound system, extra scenes, and some stunning effects!
As you may already know, the line divides into two sections — one which goes through the graveyard next to the mansion, and one that leads you straight to the front door. The cemetery offers some fun entertainment as you play music, dodge water, and solve riddles with some grim grinning ghosts. A lot of fun and something WDW has really mastered. More and more rides at Magic Kingdom are being outfitted with these play areas to keep guests entertained while in line.
Inside there’s a breezeway and the foyer with a terrific portrait of Master Gracey himself. This is where the attraction begins.
You are then brought into the stretching portrait gallery. The sound system, while a little overdone and erratic at times, is really well designed here. They even added some reverb effects to the ghost host that really give him an eerie aura. Be sure not to be too quick to exit the room as there’s some outstanding sound design you may miss urging you and your party to stick together. The scenes here are condensed slightly as you almost immediately board the doom buggies here. What’s neat, however, is you then ride through three scenes we do not have: a staircase scene a la M.C. Escher, a library scene where you may recognize a stalking bust or two, and a phantom pianist scene. This all skillfully blends into some blinking eyes which become the wallpaper and you are lead down the changing portrait hallway. It’s really an interesting journey through a new yet familiar territory. Plenty of pictures from inside in future posts.
Exiting the mansion, you can hang a left into Fantasyland.
We rode this classic which is similar yet different. No Pixar characters in this one and it’s on a much smaller scale at the Magic Kingdom. I enjoyed the differences and again, nothing felt a-miss.
Philharmagic was a great show and I don’t tend to like the 3D shows. 2 minutes in, I forgot all about what I liked and didn’t and just sat back and enjoyed Donald’s antics. Very charming!
Now, it was getting late and we were hungry. We were victims to the horrendously handled New Fantasyland debacle on the WDW website and were unsure whether or not we were going to be allowed into the land. We had heard they were doing dress rehearsals but were not sure when or how we would get in. Fortunately, we lucked out and never once had an issue getting into the New Fantasyland — but not without some due diligence.
We approached the entrance to a sign turning people away. However, after talking to a cast member denying us entry, he all of a sudden added “…unless you want to eat at the Beast’s castle? If so, then it’s all open to you!” Well in we went! Not knowing protocol and it being completely empty, we wandered toward what we thought was the Beast’s castle but found ourselves in the queue for Enchanted Tales with Belle. Do yourself a favor – DO THIS! It’s a technological marvel at every turn!
I’ll have to post video soon but you walk THRU a mirror, into a room with an INCREDIBLE animatronic Wardrobe, and then into the library where the most incredible puppetry I have ever seen was performed (or was it an animatronic?) I had to do this three times during our trip because I had to know how the mirror and Lumiere were done! Also, participate as much as you can! They take PLENTY of photos and give everyone that participated a photopass at the end.
Before dinner, we wandered through the rest of New Fantasyland’s Phase 2. Since there was a Halloween Party in a couple hours, we wanted to make sure we weren’t going to miss anything because we spent too long in the restaurant. Boy was I glad we did. The first thing we came upon was Gaston greeting women and children around the fountain. I had to be not only the only guy there but probably the most excited person there to meet him!
This face-character really had Gaston down! A pure delight. We then wandered into Gaston’s tavern just to look around. Now, I have not been keeping up to date on things posted to the Disneyland Parks Blog as of late because of work, but I was glad to have stumbled upon LeFou Brew!
This drink was super tasty! Highly recommended. I hear that Cars Land at DCA has the same drink. Just must be marketed better at WDW. Seems to fit better with the theme. If this is, in fact, the same drink then get yourself over to the Cozy Cone and have one because WOW! It’s basically a frosted apple juice with a hint of toasted marshmallow topped with a passion fruit-mango foam. YUM!
Then came Under the Sea: Journey of the Little Mermaid.
While identical to the DCA Ariel’s Undersea Adventure, the queue is to die for. Great details with interactive elements and animatronics. So much to see if there are longer lines. We would have taken more photos but there just wasn’t much time before we wanted to eat dinner.
And just like that, we were on to dinner! We put our names in and took in the sights to be seen. The construction of the new Snow White mine ride opening in 2014 right across the trail (future noise pollution issue?), the Beast’s castle high atop the hill, the gargoyles guarding the bridge and doors of the castle — everything just pristine and ready to go! We were truly lucky to be able to eat here because I’m sure these tables will be really tough to get after the December 6th opening!
This higher priced restaurant offers amazing food and the decor to match. There are three dining rooms as far as we could tell. There’s the Ballroom which seems to be the main dining hall, the West Wing, and the Rose Gallery. There were some other places curtained off but they looked like buffet stations and register areas.
Dinner and dessert were great and the waitress was a delight. She truly knew how to make us feel special!
The Magic Kingdom was now closed to the public for Mickey’s Not-so-Scary Halloween Party. We had tickets for Nov. 2nd so we were escorted out of the park by a ghost (held and lit by a cast member). That, however, didn’t stop us! It was off to EPCOT via the Monorail! I would say this was the biggest transportation “miss” for WDW. I always assumed we could take a monorail from park to park. You can only take a monorail to EPCOT and the Magic Kingdom. Also, those two monorail lines are not connected. The best you can do is take an express monorail (no resort stops) or the ferry to the Transportation and Ticketing center across the Seven Seas Lagoon in front of the Magic Kingdom to then board an adjacent monorail to EPCOT. I found this a bother because you’re made to walk more than necessary. I should have looked for an EPCOT bus — that would have almost been quicker, in my opinion.
Anyhow, we were off to EPCOT and I was very excited to ride Spaceship Earth! When I was a kid and saw it on TV, I always thought it was just a cool thing at the park. Learning that it housed a ride made it SUPER enticing! And that anticipation paid off in a very neat trip through time and how we as the human race evolved into the knowledge banks we are today! A little bit of education via a fun journey clearly laid the theme of the park out for me.
It was then off to the Seas with Nemo and Friends. It’s similar to our submarine version but less effective and impressive as ours. It’s an omni-mover system so the waits are undoubtedly shorter than our turtle of an attraction. The coolest parts of the ride are at the end when your sea-shell buggy rides through a real aquarium with the Nemo characters projected into the tank a la the Pepper’s ghost effect. Very cool to see Nemo with other real fish and it’s very clean and believable!
Along with full access to the aquarium, there’s a play area featuring Bruce the shark and a Turtle Talk with Crush theatre. This is one of the few attractions we did not visit during our trip. Onto The Land!
The Land features Living with the Land, a boat cruise through some incredible greenhouses and farm environments, Soarin’ which we did not ride as it’s the same as Soarin’ Over California at DCA however I hear their interactive queue is not to be missed, and The Circle of Life movie featuring Timon, Pumba, and Simba of The Lion King. I think Living with the Land was the best attraction and unfortunately the Circle of Life film was being projected onto the curtain so it took me out of it a little but I laughed and enjoyed the message. For Halloween, they had some great pumpkins out on display:
While we briefly visited Journey into the Imagination featuring the lovable purple dragon Figment and the Captain EO theatre, I did not take any pictures of that facility worth posting. The exterior is pretty cool, though. It was then to Mission Space!
Unfortunately Ellen’s Energy Adventure was closed for the evening and Test Track was down for refurbishment (bummer!) but Mission Space made up for that 10-fold! This is unlike any ride you have ever experienced! In fact, it was developed along with NASA! There is an extreme version (natural choice) or a less extreme version. My eyes were watering and my face was stretched and I loved every minute of it. While not for the faint of heart, we also went on the less extreme version and it was still pretty awesome. So awesome I would have been happy if that were as crazy as the ride got but I REALLY loved the extreme version and am glad they offer it!
You sit in a pod with three other people and you are all assigned tasks to complete your mission to Mars. You are then closed in with a joystick and viewer screen inches from you. Your trip is a take off and landing on Mars, but the technology involved in making that strikingly believable is astounding! You’re in a huge room spinning on a huge axis and your pod (1 of 5 spinning in this one huge room) tils up and down and side to side all while spinning around a single point. It’s a tough explanation but an incredible thrill! I can’t speak highly enough about this ride!
We then walked through the World Showcase and took full advantage of the Extra Magic Hours for the evening. First was the Three Caballeros in Mexico:
The only thing I think this attraction lacked was at the end, there’s a concert that the Three Caballeros play on a huge stage but they make no use of the stage and rather project them playing on a screen. Why not take advantage and make some great animatronics?! A miss but still a fun ride!
It was then off to Norway to ride Maelstrom and while I did not take pictures, it was probably out of sheer and utter confusion and amazement. There were trolls, backward-moving boats, oil rigs, and an empty movie theatre. We watched the film later and it’s very good but this ride is a trip — I can’t put it any other way.
The night wound down and the wife and I grabbed some drinks at the Rose & Crown pub in the UK. I had a guinness and she had a Strongbow (a new favorite cider, BTW) and before taking our first drink, I noticed this little detail.
Now to rest up for tomorrow’s Hollywood Studios journey! Enjoy the full gallery of photos from day 2 below:
My First Post-Walt Disney World Trip Report
Wow. I had expectations going into my first trip to the Orlando resort. The resort was large, the parks were differing and varied, things like that. Many of these were substantiated and many were exaggerated but one thing is for sure — it’s a different world on the East Coast!
This bus takes you from the Airport to the resort at which you are staying. This is included in your trip planning if you are in fact staying at a WDW resort hotel. They also take your checked bags on a separate trip to your room so upon arrival and checkin, you can head straight to the parks! We arrived at about 3:00 pm EST, checked into the brand new Art of Animation resort (The Little Mermaid wing), and headed to EPCOT where Robert, a veteran pro at the WDW resort, recommended we head as it’s his favorite WDW park.
Epcot’s Food & Wine festival was in full swing upon our arrival. We actually planned our trip when we did for several factors including this which also included Halloween Time at WDW as well as the start of Christmas Time. On top of that, from multiple sources and WDW aficionados, the week after Halloween is consistently among the lightest in the parks. This couldn’t have been more true and the weather was unseasonably cold but welcome due to Super-storm Sandy. Unfortunate for them, for sure, yet beneficial for the Floridians.
Our first task upon landing was to eat! It being Food & Wine, we headed straight through Future World at Epcot to World Showcase where we were met with dozens of quick-service gourmet meals from countries around the world. The first stop was the Hawaiian booth which featured a crowd favorite: Kalua Pork Sliders and they were incredible!
This small but DELICIOUS bite satiated us to the point where we had a very important question to answer. In just what country did we want to eat? Virtually every country in the World Showcase at EPCOT features a restaurant with authentic cultural food. We decided upon Japan for a couple reasons: it would be a lighter meal and it was deep enough into World Showcase that we could see the sights on the way of this new (to us) park!
We ate at the Teppan restaurant in Japan and were treated not only to a world-class meal and show, but some personalized food art representing our belated first anniversary (the trip was also considered my wife and my gift for each other) as well as our first WDW trip!
After dinner, we walked out to the 5 minute warning for the World Showcase lagoon show Illuminations: Reflections of Earth. We had been told that this show was absolutely incredible and not to be missed. While like World of Color it’s a technological marvel, we weren’t sure the show’s message was clear enough. That said, it’s still a fun show to watch and we caught some amazing photos!
As our first night came to a close, we realized just how tired we were and the park was closing. We knew we wanted to get up early for our first full day at WDW so we headed back to the hotel to rest up!
First impressions of WDW: the transportation system is surprisingly simple and well organized. We were worried that it would be confusing and were slightly intimidated by it but well placed and clear signage is abundant in the parks and at the exits. We had also heard how crowded the bus depots can get and while the queues were prepared for large crowds, we never waited for a second bus because of crowds and the busses ran much more frequently than the posted 20 min. approximation between departures.
This was truly the beginning of a great trip!
Here is the full gallery of photos for the first day:
