On Tuesday, we planned to split the day between Animal Kingdom and MGM-Disney Studios. First we went to the Animal Kingdom on a bus from our hotel. You should see the Animal Kingdom when it opens in the morning, and make the first ride be the Kilimanjaro Safari – you get on little safari busses and go out into Disney’s wildlife preserve. Animals such as giraffes, gazelles, elephants, hippos and lions roam around and they tend to be more active in the morning. The only other must see attraction at the Animal Kingdom is the Tarzan Rocks show – it's held periodically during the day and is unique as it has a live rock band providing Tarzan soundtrack music with entertainers putting on a cirque du solei type show. It's definitely worth seeing. We skipped the Kali River Rapids because you don’t just get wet, you get soaked! Primeval Whirl is a very rough roller coaster that seems to inflict more pain then provides thrills. Dinosaur is an entertaining ride which simulates time travel. It didn’t take very long to see most of the Animal Kingdom but even though we went first thing to the Safari, the longest wait we had during our whole trip was at the Safari (about 30 minutes). Disney is building a large roller coaster on a “Mount Everest” look alike and it should be impressive when it opens in 2006.
We took a bus from the Animal Kingdom to MGM-Disney Studios next. I thought the studios were the most enjoyable park for rides. In my opinion the best rides in all of Disneyworld are the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror and the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster – The Tower is a vertical drop ride in a quintessential Disney package – The creepy looking and sounding staff load you into a library where Rod Sterling appears on the screen and puts you in the Twilight zone frame of mind. More creepy staff load you into the ride itself and you see all sorts of visual displays not knowing when what’s going to happen. It is a truly thrilling experience but I strongly recommend riding it once but only once – I believe that 75% of the thrill in this type of ride is the uncertainty, and once you ride it you know what to expect. The Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster is a nice coaster, smooth, loops upside down – again packaged as only Disney does with Aerosmith videos and music. It doesn’t have any significant drops and is way too short but certainly deserves to be called a thrill ride. I found the Disney-MGM Backlot tour to be very uninspiring as was the Great Movie Ride. I enjoyed and recommend seeing the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular, another scheduled show put on at various times during the day – it’s not especially unique but it is entertaining. Finally we saw the Fantasmic night time show at park closing – A few comments: it’s the only night time finale show that requires you to sit in a special amphitheater. Our park was so empty that we had nearly a 0 wait to get on the Rock ‘n’ roller Coaster and the Tower of Terror but the amphitheater was nearly filled before the show started. If you want to see it go early (it opens 2 hours before show time). The show is a combination of fireworks, water displays, videos projected on a screen made of water spray (unique!) and lighted floats with Disney characters. It’s worth seeing but it seemed quite scary for young kids, and I got to think it’s very difficult to get seating when the park is busy. You can get reserved seating if you have dinner at the Brown Derby but even at that you have to show up 30 minutes ahead of time. It’s also a pain to get out of the amphitheater. We hopped on a ferry after park closing that took us back to the Swan (we didn’t figure out it was much faster to walk yet.) We ended up eating dinner at the Swan Hotel Garden Grove Café – They actually have reasonably priced standard café fare (Traci had a salad, I had a pizza) but also have the bonus of Disney characters roaming around (Pluto followed by Goofy). They come to each table and take pictures with you (and sign autograph books for the kids). Many hotels and restaurants in the park advertise characters in attendance during meals – the more popular ones requiring getting on a priority seating list (sort of like an unconfirmed reservation) in advance – sometimes far in advance (month+).
Wednesday – we took a day off from the parks, and rented a car (National Car Rental at the Dolphin Hotel) to venture to the Kennedy Space Center. Many “experts” recommend taking a break from the parks after 2 days, we ended up doing this because I wanted to go to Kennedy on this specific day as they were launching a rocket shortly before 2 pm. The drive from the Swan/Dolphin to Kennedy was fairly routine, its about 65 miles so plan on a 90 minute drive – It’s a toll road and we ended up paying $4 in tolls (total) each way. Kennedy was abnormally busy for the time of the year because of launch. I made reservations in advance to get their “Up close” tour which is the standard tour plus some extra stops. I’ve been to KSC before but it was a first time for Traci and she really enjoyed it. You get to walk around old rockets, get into a mockup full scale model of both the space shuttle and the international space station. On that particular day we also got to see the launch of a rocket that is going to deliver a probe into a comet in deep space. The center was interesting to visit, Traci enjoyed the learning experience quite a bit. I don’t know if the up close tour offered that much more than the regular tour, however. Check their website for the schedule – the tours shut down during Shuttle launches which are scheduled to resume in May.
We drove back to Disney, making a stop at downtown Disney to buy souvenirs. The best place to get souvenirs for Disney is probably at Downtown Disney – between two stores, World of Disney “largest character store on the planet” and Team Mickey (Logoed Sports equipment and apparel) you can find about everything imaginable in these two neighboring stores. After returning the car to the Dolphin we had a special dinner planned – at Shula’s (One of America’s 10 favorite steak houses according to the American airline magazine). Fortunately our concierge was able to get us in (we didn’t get a reservation until that night) and Traci and I split a 24 oz porterhouse steak which was excellent. Prices were a bit lower then what Daniels Broiler or the Met in Seattle would charge – It was definitely a great meal, although I’d say the flavor was a bit below what I expect at Daniels Broiler (still what I consider to be the best steak anywhere). I enjoyed the Steakhouse immensely, although Traci learned from other reviews that the Disney Yacht Club steakhouse was higher rated.
Thursday – I made a mistake by forgetting our park tickets as we decided to walk to MGM-Studios in the morning. This turned out to be a great mistake for three reasons: First, by having to walk back to our room and then walking back to MGM-Studios we happened to be under the big Mickey Hat just as the time Mickey Mouse showed up to do pictures. Usually there are long lines of people wanting to take pictures with Mickey and other characters (and at this time of the year, there were some lines with many adults but no kids in them!). Anyway, Traci and I got a picture with Mickey which is the holy grail of character stalking! Second, the only reason we went back to the studios (we already saw most of the park) was I wanted to get tickets to see the filming of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire.” Usually the studio park has an attraction where a large audience plays a simulated game for prizes, but this week Meredith Viera was in town playing the real game and taping for TV sweeps month (May). Because we were late, we didn’t get tickets for the first show and we ended up being waitlisted for the 3rd show of the day and because of that got to sit in the 2nd row right behind Meredith! Look for us on the show May 26th! I was surprised there is so much lead time between taping and showing on TV. Finally, since we didn’t get into the early show of Millionaire, we decided to go back to Epcot on the bus to get breakfast. We arrived at the Norway exhibit quite late and despite having no “preferred seating” reservations, we got into the Princesses Buffet Breakfast (which I understand is another coup, especially for those with young daughters). While I was most interested in just getting fed, Traci got pictures with all the Disney Princesses. I’m told if you want to attend this breakfast you have to get on the preferred seating list weeks if not months in advance. After getting fed, we went to see some of the Epcot exhibits. In general I was kind of disappointed Epcot is the park that is in need of renovation/additions. I guess the #1 attractions are Test Track (where you are in a car acting like a test dummy as it speeds thru obstacles) and Mission: Space which is a virtual reality ride that simulates a trip to Mars. Both are good and worth seeing (although at least for me, virtual reality rides always make me sick even though roller coasters and other thrill rides never do), but neither are superb. After cruising around Epcot we went back to MGM-Disney studios to watch the taping of Who Wants to be a Millionaire which was quite exciting (I’ve never been to a real game show taping before). Before leaving we went to the Magic of Disney Animation exhibit – it’s about animators and their craft and I thought it was quite funny although most of the young kids didn’t get the humor during the presentation. Before leaving we got pictures with characters from the movie “the Incredibles.” We walked back to the Swan Hotel, rested, and then walked back to Epcot to watch the fireworks show – IllumiNations. Disney again put on a great show – it's best seen from around the USA exhibit area at the top of the lake. You want to find a place with an unobstructed view of the lake – it’s a combination fireworks, a big floating globe, and water fountain sprays (like Las Vegas’s Belligio) set to music. It’s the best show at Epcot, but I’d give a clear advantage to the newer Wishes fireworks show.
If you go at a off season time and plan very carefully (along with having an great amount of energy) you could see the highlights of the 4 parks in 2 days assuming you see the 7pm Fantasmic show and walk immediately to Epcot to see the 9pm Illuminations show. Staying at a Disney resort and taking advantage of the early admission program along with the extra 3 hour after closing program would also help. I don’t recommend it though, its very tiring bouncing around park to park. In retrospect though, I would have planned to do a 7pm Fantasmic show and 9pm IllumiNations show on the same night and see the Spectromagic parade and Wishes firework shows twice.
Friday: Our beautiful 80 degree weather left us and we awoke to a thunderstorm and deluge of rainfall. Fortunately, we really didn’t have very much planned prior to our 3:30 departure by car service to the airport. After packing and checking our luggage with the bellman, we hopped on the Disney Bus to the Magic Kingdom. We rode the monorail again from the Magic Kingdom to the main café at the Grand Floridian, this time to enjoy Mickey Mouse waffles. Despite being a hotel café in Disney’s highest end resort, the pricing was quite reasonable and the food was quite good (as before). In general, Disney does a good job at keeping prices relatively reasonable whether at hotel restaurants or hot dog vendors in the park. You won’t find any bargains, but $2 for a bottle of coke which costs $3.50 at Safeco Field is quite good. Eating at Shula’s was more inexpensive than a similar meal at the Metropolitan Grill in Seattle. Even T-shirts and sweatshirts are cheaper in Disney than at Seahawks stadium. Fortunately the rain became quite light as we finished breakfast.
After enjoying Breakfast at the Grand Floridian, we returned to the Magic Kingdom and went on some more rides – Winnie the Pooh, Peter Pan, and Snow White. While certain not thrill rides, it brings up an important thing about Disneyworld – the company is willing to invest quite a bit making a high quality ride with beautiful artwork based on characters well known to everyone – and yet make it gentle enough for even the youngest park visitor to ride. To finish up the day we took the Monorail to the Transit and Transfer station, and got on another monorail taking us to Epcot where we took the Mexico boat tour and saw the films from the China and France exhibits.
Finally, we made the walk from the International gate at Epcot to our hotel and found our car service driver waiting to take us away from the happiest place on earth. Alaska Air's non-stop flight from Orlando flew us in just over 6 hours back to the Pacific Northwest.
