A Disney World Vacation
Last week we took a family vacation to Disney World for a week. We left for the airport on Wednesday the 9th and lugged our suitcases toward the plane. Flying was really cool. Looking down, all the little lights were like patches of grassland and the highways looked like blood vessels. After about three hours, we arrived in Orlando. My ears hurt from landing, so I swallowed frequently. We came to our resort with no idea where we were going to get to our room, so we wandered helplessly in cold darkness. My ears were still bothering me, but now I was too thirsty to swallow.
It took awhile before we finally figured out where we were going. Then the hotel room wasn't nearly as big as I expected it to be. It was only one story and had only two rooms, the bedroom and the bathroom.
I was super tired, because we didn't go to bed until 11 p.m.
The next day we traveled to Epcot (my choice) as the first day of vacation. I had three things that I thought were awesome in Epcot. The first was the ride Spaceship Earth. It was a slow moving ride that showed the history of communication reinacted by mechanical people that actually looked real. At the end of the ride we were rotating backwards and observing what communication might be like in the future whie we watched cool swirling green lights.
Another thing I liked in Epcot was Honey I Shrunk The Audience. This was a 3-d show that was all about the inventor from Honey I Shrunk The Kids, and now he was getting nominated for an award. It showed you what it was like to be shrunken down. My favorite part of the show was at the very end when the inventor blew up the dog and the dog sneezed at the audience. They sprayed water on you to make it seem like the dog had really sneezed on you.
My last Epcot favorite was at the World Showcase. The World Showcase lets you view cultures of 11 different countries at the food and wine festival. The buildings were very authentic. My favorite ones were those of Mexico. The buildings looked like ancient Mayan ruins. It was so cool! We had dinner at the Tangerine Cafe in Morocco. Then we went to see a boat ride in the Norway exhibit. It was all about the spirit of Norway. I thought it was entirely interesting. At exactly 9:00 p.m., we saw a fireworks show called Illuminations: Reflections of Earth. It was by far the most amazing fireworks show we saw at Disney World. There were fireworks coming from all directions. At the center of the lake was a huge illuminated globe, and while it was spinning, it showed pictures inside the countries, like horses riding along pathways. As a grand finale, all the torches, which were positioned at each of the 11 countries, glowed brightly through the night. We passed all the other exhibits as we were leaving Epcot, like: China, Germany, Italy, America, Japan, France, the United Kingdom, and Canada!
On Friday we went to Magic Kingdom. Here are my three favorites there:
My first favorite is in Liberty Square. It's the Haunted Mansion ride. I liked it because it had ghosts appear, disappear, and reappear while they were on the dance floor or eating in the dining room. At the end of the ride, you saw yourself in a mirror and it looked like a ghost was sitting on your lap!
The second favorite I had at Magic Kingdom was in Fantasyland. It was another 3-D show (I'm a total sucker for those things), Mickey's Philhar Magic. In it, Donald picked up Mickey's magic hat and it whizzed him off into the middle of Disney movies like Peter Pan, The Lion King, Aladdin, and the Little Mermaid as he tried to get the hat back. I liked it when all the animals were being stacked on top of each other in the Lion King.
Here is one of my all-time favorites: Space Mountain. Space Mountain is a roller coaster in darkness that speeds around turns at high speeds. The cars glow in the dark, and you ride Space Mountain against a star backdrop. It's a really intense roller coaster.
On Saturday, we headed for Typhoon Lagoon. It's one of the two water parks. (Blizzard Beach, the other, was closed for renovation the entire month, so we couldn't go.) I had two favorites there.
My first favorite was a water coaster called the Crush n' Gusher. It was a raft ride where you could ride as one, two or three riders at a time. There were 3 different slides, the Banana Blaster, the Coconut Crusher, and the Pineapple Plunger. The Banana Blaster was the least intense, then the Coconut Crusher, and the most intense ws the Pineapple Plunger. It started out with a steep drop and went flying around turns.
Another favorite I had at Typhoon Lagoon was Shark Reef. You got to snorkel with sharks, fish, and manta rays that wouldn't hurt you. I snorkeled over blue and yellow fish, some rays and a hammerhead shark. Shark Reef was so inspiring! There was only one problem I had with it, the water was cold, and I mean like 65-degree cold. Brrr!
Since the waterpark closed at five, we had some time to kill afterward. We went back to the resort to relax and have a dinner at the Boatwright's dining hall near our room.
Sunday we were headed for Animal Kingdom. Animal Kingdom had some cool things to offer, but no really intense rides and no fireworks shows. I liked three things there. The first was part of Dinoland, U.S.A. It was the Dinosaur ride. In it, you had to go back 65 million years to find the Iguanadon, in the middle of a meteor shower. Big dinosaurs roar in your face, there are sudden drops, and your vehicle has to occasionally weave around incoming meteors.
Another thing youu really should visit is the Kilimajaro Safari. It's a 15-minute animal tour where you can see gazelles, cheetahs, elephants, and giraffes on a bumpy road in a safari car.
The last must-see in Animal Kingdom is the 3-d show there. (Yes, 3-d shows again.) It stars Flik and the Characters in A Bug's Life, and it's called, "It's Tough To Be A Bug!" Flik is the host, and he has some special guest bugs that demonstrate their survival skills. My favorite part of the show was when the acid spitting termite came on stage and said, "All enemies must be terminated." Then he spit acid in our faces. (Sprayers shot water at us so it felt like it actually was acid. When he stopped firing, he said, "Darn! Out of ammo. I'll be back!" Then he left the stage.
We left Animal Kingdom while the Jingle Jungle Holiday Parade was going on, so we had a hard time getting out through the exit. Then, since Animal Kingdom closed at 5 o' clock, we headed back for the Magic Kingdom to visit everything in Tomorrowland that we didn't see, since Magic Kingdom was open til 11 during the special Magic Hours. First we saw Stitch's Great Escape, then Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, then the Astro Orbiter, and finally, the most interesting, the Tomorrowland Transit Authority. It was a slow moving train ride that went through the entire area of Tomorrowland. You even got to see the inside of Space Mountain. That's when I figured out that the cars glowed in the dark.
Monday's destination was Disney-MGM Studios. As usual, I had three favorites there. Number One on my list was the Great Movie Ride. It was a tour that showed and reinacted some great events in past movies, like Indiana Jones, Casablanca, and The Wizard of Oz.
During my visit, I also enjoyed Muppet Vision in 3-d. (This is the last 3-d show, I promise.)
I had 3 favorite parts in this movie. The first was when the professors at Muppet Vision labs introduced the 3-d character Waldo. He was rather annoying, so when they tried blowing him up, he just multiplied himself. "Cool!" Waldo said. "Now I can start my own football team!" So then the professors tried sucking the Waldos into a vacuum, but they got every one except the real Waldo. In addition, they also also ended up sucking up the entire lab, and even themselves! Then Kermit comes up to the audience and says, "Sorry, folks. Right now the lab is a little...er,...sucked up." My second favorite part is when Fazzy brings out a remote controlled pie and instead of hurling it into the audience, he rebounds it back to hit himself. My last favorite part is at the end when Miss Piggy dresses up as the Statue of Liberty. THen Waldo shoots fireworks around Piggy and rips down the dress, so you can see her underclothes. Piggy shouts to Waldo, "You'll be hearing from my lawyer!"
My final favorite at MGM-Studios was the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. It's a ride where you're the star of a detective show and you travel into the Twilight Zone. The Tower drops you 13 stories at random through absolute darkness. Then you go back up and down and back up again several times.
By Tuesday we were starting to wrap up our vacation. We headed for Downtown Disney, which was a big shopping area. There was Lego, a store completely dedicated to Legos, World Of Disney, a pin trading store, Team Mickey, a place for sports stuff, and Once Upon A Toy, a toy store.
We took a pleasant ferry boat back to the Port Orleans resort. Then we headed back to MGM-Studios to do some of the things we missed the first time, like the Backlot Tour, One Man's Dream, Journey Into Narnia, and most importantly, Fastasmic, the MGM fireworks show. In it, Mickey was in a dream that Ursula, Jafar, Maleficent, and other Disney villains were trying to control.
Wednesday was our last day. We went out to the French Quarter section of the Port Orleans resort to eat breakfast at the Floodworks Food Factory food court there. Then we went back to our own Riverside resort for some fun at the pool before we left Disney World. I mostly felt like laying down on a poolside chair and soaking up the sun. Then we found where the hot tub was and I couldn't resist spending time there. After the hot tub, we boarded the Disney Magical Express to the Orlando International Airport. We got disappointing news there. Our flight was delayed about 2 hours because of bad storms in Dallas, the place where our plane was coming from, so there was an extra long wait. Finally the plane was ready to board. As we took off, I whispered out the window, "Farewell, Orlando."
My ears were bothering me when the plane landed, and the freezing weather wasn't comforting, either. The minute we got home, all I wanted to do was GO TO BED!
Well, that's a brief summary of what I've been doing for the last week. Still, the whole thing was rather depressing. I wish Alex could have been there. He would be surprised if I told him how much he changed me, and how much I needed him, even on vacation in Orlando, even though we were thousands of miles apart. If only I had him back...
Ciao for Now, from lost and emotionally altered,
-Jess
Last week we took a family vacation to Disney World for a week. We left for the airport on Wednesday the 9th and lugged our suitcases toward the plane. Flying was really cool. Looking down, all the little lights were like patches of grassland and the highways looked like blood vessels. After about three hours, we arrived in Orlando. My ears hurt from landing, so I swallowed frequently. We came to our resort with no idea where we were going to get to our room, so we wandered helplessly in cold darkness. My ears were still bothering me, but now I was too thirsty to swallow.
It took awhile before we finally figured out where we were going. Then the hotel room wasn't nearly as big as I expected it to be. It was only one story and had only two rooms, the bedroom and the bathroom.
I was super tired, because we didn't go to bed until 11 p.m.
The next day we traveled to Epcot (my choice) as the first day of vacation. I had three things that I thought were awesome in Epcot. The first was the ride Spaceship Earth. It was a slow moving ride that showed the history of communication reinacted by mechanical people that actually looked real. At the end of the ride we were rotating backwards and observing what communication might be like in the future whie we watched cool swirling green lights.
Another thing I liked in Epcot was Honey I Shrunk The Audience. This was a 3-d show that was all about the inventor from Honey I Shrunk The Kids, and now he was getting nominated for an award. It showed you what it was like to be shrunken down. My favorite part of the show was at the very end when the inventor blew up the dog and the dog sneezed at the audience. They sprayed water on you to make it seem like the dog had really sneezed on you.
My last Epcot favorite was at the World Showcase. The World Showcase lets you view cultures of 11 different countries at the food and wine festival. The buildings were very authentic. My favorite ones were those of Mexico. The buildings looked like ancient Mayan ruins. It was so cool! We had dinner at the Tangerine Cafe in Morocco. Then we went to see a boat ride in the Norway exhibit. It was all about the spirit of Norway. I thought it was entirely interesting. At exactly 9:00 p.m., we saw a fireworks show called Illuminations: Reflections of Earth. It was by far the most amazing fireworks show we saw at Disney World. There were fireworks coming from all directions. At the center of the lake was a huge illuminated globe, and while it was spinning, it showed pictures inside the countries, like horses riding along pathways. As a grand finale, all the torches, which were positioned at each of the 11 countries, glowed brightly through the night. We passed all the other exhibits as we were leaving Epcot, like: China, Germany, Italy, America, Japan, France, the United Kingdom, and Canada!
On Friday we went to Magic Kingdom. Here are my three favorites there:
My first favorite is in Liberty Square. It's the Haunted Mansion ride. I liked it because it had ghosts appear, disappear, and reappear while they were on the dance floor or eating in the dining room. At the end of the ride, you saw yourself in a mirror and it looked like a ghost was sitting on your lap!
The second favorite I had at Magic Kingdom was in Fantasyland. It was another 3-D show (I'm a total sucker for those things), Mickey's Philhar Magic. In it, Donald picked up Mickey's magic hat and it whizzed him off into the middle of Disney movies like Peter Pan, The Lion King, Aladdin, and the Little Mermaid as he tried to get the hat back. I liked it when all the animals were being stacked on top of each other in the Lion King.
Here is one of my all-time favorites: Space Mountain. Space Mountain is a roller coaster in darkness that speeds around turns at high speeds. The cars glow in the dark, and you ride Space Mountain against a star backdrop. It's a really intense roller coaster.
On Saturday, we headed for Typhoon Lagoon. It's one of the two water parks. (Blizzard Beach, the other, was closed for renovation the entire month, so we couldn't go.) I had two favorites there.
My first favorite was a water coaster called the Crush n' Gusher. It was a raft ride where you could ride as one, two or three riders at a time. There were 3 different slides, the Banana Blaster, the Coconut Crusher, and the Pineapple Plunger. The Banana Blaster was the least intense, then the Coconut Crusher, and the most intense ws the Pineapple Plunger. It started out with a steep drop and went flying around turns.
Another favorite I had at Typhoon Lagoon was Shark Reef. You got to snorkel with sharks, fish, and manta rays that wouldn't hurt you. I snorkeled over blue and yellow fish, some rays and a hammerhead shark. Shark Reef was so inspiring! There was only one problem I had with it, the water was cold, and I mean like 65-degree cold. Brrr!
Since the waterpark closed at five, we had some time to kill afterward. We went back to the resort to relax and have a dinner at the Boatwright's dining hall near our room.
Sunday we were headed for Animal Kingdom. Animal Kingdom had some cool things to offer, but no really intense rides and no fireworks shows. I liked three things there. The first was part of Dinoland, U.S.A. It was the Dinosaur ride. In it, you had to go back 65 million years to find the Iguanadon, in the middle of a meteor shower. Big dinosaurs roar in your face, there are sudden drops, and your vehicle has to occasionally weave around incoming meteors.
Another thing youu really should visit is the Kilimajaro Safari. It's a 15-minute animal tour where you can see gazelles, cheetahs, elephants, and giraffes on a bumpy road in a safari car.
The last must-see in Animal Kingdom is the 3-d show there. (Yes, 3-d shows again.) It stars Flik and the Characters in A Bug's Life, and it's called, "It's Tough To Be A Bug!" Flik is the host, and he has some special guest bugs that demonstrate their survival skills. My favorite part of the show was when the acid spitting termite came on stage and said, "All enemies must be terminated." Then he spit acid in our faces. (Sprayers shot water at us so it felt like it actually was acid. When he stopped firing, he said, "Darn! Out of ammo. I'll be back!" Then he left the stage.
We left Animal Kingdom while the Jingle Jungle Holiday Parade was going on, so we had a hard time getting out through the exit. Then, since Animal Kingdom closed at 5 o' clock, we headed back for the Magic Kingdom to visit everything in Tomorrowland that we didn't see, since Magic Kingdom was open til 11 during the special Magic Hours. First we saw Stitch's Great Escape, then Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, then the Astro Orbiter, and finally, the most interesting, the Tomorrowland Transit Authority. It was a slow moving train ride that went through the entire area of Tomorrowland. You even got to see the inside of Space Mountain. That's when I figured out that the cars glowed in the dark.
Monday's destination was Disney-MGM Studios. As usual, I had three favorites there. Number One on my list was the Great Movie Ride. It was a tour that showed and reinacted some great events in past movies, like Indiana Jones, Casablanca, and The Wizard of Oz.
During my visit, I also enjoyed Muppet Vision in 3-d. (This is the last 3-d show, I promise.)
I had 3 favorite parts in this movie. The first was when the professors at Muppet Vision labs introduced the 3-d character Waldo. He was rather annoying, so when they tried blowing him up, he just multiplied himself. "Cool!" Waldo said. "Now I can start my own football team!" So then the professors tried sucking the Waldos into a vacuum, but they got every one except the real Waldo. In addition, they also also ended up sucking up the entire lab, and even themselves! Then Kermit comes up to the audience and says, "Sorry, folks. Right now the lab is a little...er,...sucked up." My second favorite part is when Fazzy brings out a remote controlled pie and instead of hurling it into the audience, he rebounds it back to hit himself. My last favorite part is at the end when Miss Piggy dresses up as the Statue of Liberty. THen Waldo shoots fireworks around Piggy and rips down the dress, so you can see her underclothes. Piggy shouts to Waldo, "You'll be hearing from my lawyer!"
My final favorite at MGM-Studios was the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. It's a ride where you're the star of a detective show and you travel into the Twilight Zone. The Tower drops you 13 stories at random through absolute darkness. Then you go back up and down and back up again several times.
By Tuesday we were starting to wrap up our vacation. We headed for Downtown Disney, which was a big shopping area. There was Lego, a store completely dedicated to Legos, World Of Disney, a pin trading store, Team Mickey, a place for sports stuff, and Once Upon A Toy, a toy store.
We took a pleasant ferry boat back to the Port Orleans resort. Then we headed back to MGM-Studios to do some of the things we missed the first time, like the Backlot Tour, One Man's Dream, Journey Into Narnia, and most importantly, Fastasmic, the MGM fireworks show. In it, Mickey was in a dream that Ursula, Jafar, Maleficent, and other Disney villains were trying to control.
Wednesday was our last day. We went out to the French Quarter section of the Port Orleans resort to eat breakfast at the Floodworks Food Factory food court there. Then we went back to our own Riverside resort for some fun at the pool before we left Disney World. I mostly felt like laying down on a poolside chair and soaking up the sun. Then we found where the hot tub was and I couldn't resist spending time there. After the hot tub, we boarded the Disney Magical Express to the Orlando International Airport. We got disappointing news there. Our flight was delayed about 2 hours because of bad storms in Dallas, the place where our plane was coming from, so there was an extra long wait. Finally the plane was ready to board. As we took off, I whispered out the window, "Farewell, Orlando."
My ears were bothering me when the plane landed, and the freezing weather wasn't comforting, either. The minute we got home, all I wanted to do was GO TO BED!
Well, that's a brief summary of what I've been doing for the last week. Still, the whole thing was rather depressing. I wish Alex could have been there. He would be surprised if I told him how much he changed me, and how much I needed him, even on vacation in Orlando, even though we were thousands of miles apart. If only I had him back...
Ciao for Now, from lost and emotionally altered,
-Jess
posted by Jess's Field Trips @ 1:44 PM
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