We Am Return-ed
Back from vacation. Caught up on LJ! Triaged twitter. Stopped in at forum. Behind on webcomics. Maybe I internet too much? Nah.
Which reminds me, even when not on vacation, people shouldn't count on me seeing stuff only posted on Facebook, since while I do stop in there actually reading my whole news feed is usually the first thing I drop when I'm short on net-time.
Anyway. Vacation. Disney World, woo! akiko wrote a big long post, but I guess I'll write a few highlights and thoughts.
I'd never been to DW before, though I've been to Disney Land a number of times as a kid. So Epcot and Animal Kingdom were all new, while the Magic Kingdom was familiar but weirdly different in layout and details.
Epcot - I'd been under the apparently not uncommon misconception that the sphere you always see pictures of was *the* main thing, with lots of world culture stuff inside. In fact, it's just one attraction (Spaceship Earth, a diorama-style ride which largely chronicles the history of human communication and knowledge-building), and going under it leads on to a bunch of plazas with other buildings and then a huge lagoon around which are the actual World Showcase pavilions. The world stuff is pretty cool, mainly for its scaled-down reproductions of architecture (I just climbed that Venetian tower in Assassin's Creed II!). A lot of them are mostly shops and food (delicious food), though several have movies and Mexico and Norway have cheesy little rides. The fireworks over the lagoon at night are really awesome, partly because they felt much closer than your average big fireworks show.
Animal Kingdom - corpsefairy's suggestion to to do the safari attraction during special early hours paid off in spades and we saw tons of cool animals up and about during a foggy morning run around the back section of the park. Lots of good stuff in both the African and Asian forest sections as well. And although I'm sorry it made akiko vertiginous, I liked the Everest coaster - sort of a souped-up version of the Matterhorn coaster (which is not appearing in DW's MK) with a crazy backwards rail-switching segment.
Magic Kingdom - There's of course lots of good stuff here that's essentially the same as the Disney Land versions - Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain, the Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Carribean (now with surprisingly tasteful Jack Sparrow additions), and the relentlessly cheesy Jungle Cruise. The central Tomorrowland rocket circle ride was shinier and taller, I think. The new Stitch thing was pretty fun. Overall it seemed a little smaller than DL, but I'm not sure to what extent that's true (perhaps because some things are pushed off to the other nearby parks) or if it's just that *I* was smaller in DL.
We also visited the Polynesian Resort and the Animal Kingdom lodge for meals, both of which were very pretty. Oh, and we stayed at the Saratoga Springs treehouses, which are more like "10-feet in the air houses among trees" but was a very nice suite.
All in all, fun times were had. Woo, vacation! Now to relax at home while the rest of the world scrambles around for Xmas events and travelling.
Which reminds me, even when not on vacation, people shouldn't count on me seeing stuff only posted on Facebook, since while I do stop in there actually reading my whole news feed is usually the first thing I drop when I'm short on net-time.
Anyway. Vacation. Disney World, woo! akiko wrote a big long post, but I guess I'll write a few highlights and thoughts.
I'd never been to DW before, though I've been to Disney Land a number of times as a kid. So Epcot and Animal Kingdom were all new, while the Magic Kingdom was familiar but weirdly different in layout and details.
Epcot - I'd been under the apparently not uncommon misconception that the sphere you always see pictures of was *the* main thing, with lots of world culture stuff inside. In fact, it's just one attraction (Spaceship Earth, a diorama-style ride which largely chronicles the history of human communication and knowledge-building), and going under it leads on to a bunch of plazas with other buildings and then a huge lagoon around which are the actual World Showcase pavilions. The world stuff is pretty cool, mainly for its scaled-down reproductions of architecture (I just climbed that Venetian tower in Assassin's Creed II!). A lot of them are mostly shops and food (delicious food), though several have movies and Mexico and Norway have cheesy little rides. The fireworks over the lagoon at night are really awesome, partly because they felt much closer than your average big fireworks show.
Animal Kingdom - corpsefairy's suggestion to to do the safari attraction during special early hours paid off in spades and we saw tons of cool animals up and about during a foggy morning run around the back section of the park. Lots of good stuff in both the African and Asian forest sections as well. And although I'm sorry it made akiko vertiginous, I liked the Everest coaster - sort of a souped-up version of the Matterhorn coaster (which is not appearing in DW's MK) with a crazy backwards rail-switching segment.
Magic Kingdom - There's of course lots of good stuff here that's essentially the same as the Disney Land versions - Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain, the Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Carribean (now with surprisingly tasteful Jack Sparrow additions), and the relentlessly cheesy Jungle Cruise. The central Tomorrowland rocket circle ride was shinier and taller, I think. The new Stitch thing was pretty fun. Overall it seemed a little smaller than DL, but I'm not sure to what extent that's true (perhaps because some things are pushed off to the other nearby parks) or if it's just that *I* was smaller in DL.
We also visited the Polynesian Resort and the Animal Kingdom lodge for meals, both of which were very pretty. Oh, and we stayed at the Saratoga Springs treehouses, which are more like "10-feet in the air houses among trees" but was a very nice suite.
All in all, fun times were had. Woo, vacation! Now to relax at home while the rest of the world scrambles around for Xmas events and travelling.