Disney Entry Mark 1

[trinityvixen]

My sister's cheerleading team didn't do as well as they'd hoped, and that was disappointing, but I think the trip to Disney was a fun one for them overall. Disney has a (deservedly) bad rap about a lot of things, but I don't fault them on their efficienct, efficacious way of managing a hoarde of teenagers and the entourage about them. Everything was much smoother this year, which is always appreciated given the hectic nature of the time spent down there.

Preliminary report on Disney World:

1) There's something either delightfully innocent or darkly perverted about the Jungle Safari ride. Either the creators didn't realize in 19-whenever that having a rhino shove its horn up a man's butt was sodomy, or they did and left it on a children's ride anyway.

2) Art imitating "life" imitating art imitating "life." The Pirates of the Caribbean ride, originally based on a movie (or so I thought--can't find the thing online), was turned into a movie and now the ride reflects the movie...based on the ride that was based on a movie. The changes aren't substantial, though Johnny Depp is welcome to sing anything he likes at me whenever he choses.

3) EPCOT is possibly the saddest thing in the world. MGM Studios has exactly two rides worth your time, and it isn't as sadly pathetic as the once and future Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (and yes, I remembered that name all on my own).

4) Fun fact: Disney does not sell alcohol paraphernalia. I bought a shotglass and the nice guy who rang it up informed me that it was actually a "toothpick holder." Scan the Mickey-ears etched maragarita glass through and it comes up as a "tumbler."

5) Wait, no, really, did they know about that rhino thing?

More to come!

Comments

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Mission: Space made us all violently nauseated for THREE DAYS after we went on it. I talk about that ride and get sick thinking about it. Apparently, someone died (heart attack) on it and since then they've added a tamer version of the same ride that involves no spinning. We didn't even dare take that one.

I wanted to try Test Track, but the lines were forbiddingly long. Body Wars is reproduced in Star Tours over at MGM, and that also made me queasy, just as I remember Body Wars doing. The pavillion where Body Wars was, "The Wonders of the Body" is still closed, much to my everlasting consternation.

When I say EPCOT is sad, I mean that, for what it was supposed to be, it's the most dated, left behind thing. Magic Kingdom and MGM have their themes rendered sort of timeless, and they update as necessary. Because EPCOT's "theme" was the world of tomorrow, and tomorrow, by the technology envisioned by most of the rides came, went, and lapped the theme park twice, it just seems sad--like old side shows and world's fairs, which it sort of was in its heyday. They need to actually update it to the point that it is focused on the future once more, which would be costly and need to be updated constantly thereafter to keep current and ahead of the technology.

[edgehopper.livejournal.com]

This is true (well, only for the Future World side--the World's Fair aspect is still good.) Especially when all but one of the pavillions (Mission: Space being the exception) are trade shows for products currently on the market. I was quite disappointed with the Innoventions pavillion in August, as the most technologically advanced demo they had was the Segway.

Thanks to all the publicity about the people dying on NASA's multiple G simulator, my sister absolutely refused to go on the side with spinning. Personally, it just made me a little light-headed, not particularly nauseated.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

My grandmother did just fine with Mission Space, but my parents, sister, and I will never go near the place again. The ride had barf bags and fifteen opportunities to opt out of going on it. We should have paid that some consideration.

The currently-available thing bugged me too, especially as the pavillion on one side seemed to have video game and internet kiosks. Whoop-de-doo.