Part Two
Tuesday 26th January: This was to be my first Disney Park this side of the Atlantic, my expectations for this park were pretty low as I thought it would be something similar to Disney Studios in Paris, how wrong was I? This actually turned out to be my favourite park of the whole trip and we managed to fill a whole day there despite there not being a big crowd at the park. The entrance is not as grand as the Disney Studios entrance which I have to say I really love, but the centre piece of Mickeys hat really does make up for this.
The Great movie ride: This was a highly themed dark train ride which took us on a journey through the movies. Something which made the ride extra special in comparison to other movie rides was the cast member who guided us through the scenes and on several occasions took part in a show for us. We see our host try to stop a bank robbery and finally blow the villain into a skeleton! Really was a good ride!
Star Tours: I had previously ridden this at the Disney Land Park in Paris and as expected it was nearly the same except this time it was in English which was nice! Its a fairly old moving simulator themed around a tour which goes wrong. Wasnt the strongest ride the park had to offer, but Morgan (Gareths 5 year old son) seemed to enjoy it- hence we did it three or four times in total.
Muppets 3d: I thought things couldnt get as good as Shrek 4D! And I guess this show doesnt quite match up to Shrek, unless youre a big fan of the Muppets! Which luckily I am. There are some really comical scenes which appear to hit you in the face, looking back without my glasses on I saw an audience dazzled by the 3D effects, all reaching out as if to touch Kermit! Some interesting use of animatronics too, with characters up on the balcony telling some quite funny jokes and a finally ending on the back wall!
Tower Of Terror: Now I realise why the Disney Studios in Paris are taking so long to build this attraction, simply because it is so amazing and great attention to detail has been paid. (Interestingly the hidden message In the waiting area was there on our first visit to MGM but had gone a few days later!). We near enough walked straight onto this attraction a good few times, after watching a short video in the library room telling you about the Twi-light zone, we follow a queue path to one of many service elevators through a themed boiler room. We are given our seat positions and we enter the elevator to sit down and secure our safety belt. At this point I was under the pre-conception that the lift would start moving up and down gently and special effects or projectors would give us the effect of the fall but how wrong was I? Instead we move slowly up to see a ghost family and then our elevator car moves forward onto a track, that was impressive enough for me, just as I was coming to terms that I was in an elevator which moved sideways, we had entered a shaft which was about to drop us down hundreds of feet- well more than drop us, but the way the shaft works means we ware pulled down faster than gravity I believe. About 40 seconds of being pushed up and down this elevator we have survived and go running around for another go! Wow this is an amazing attraction! My only problem was that as we passed the windows in the hotel the sun was too bright in my eyes so my photograph was never very good!
Rock n roller coaster : Very similar to my experience at Disney Studios, we queue through the parks own recording studios where we are introduced to Aerosmith, they have to dash off but leave us with a fast car which turns out to be a launched Vekoma roller coaster. Launching straight into an inversion, this ride is quite smooth for a Vekoma and has the nice addition of an onboard soundtrack and stunning visuals throughout. Still prefer my Space Mountain Mission 2 though!
Lights Motors Action: I had previously seen this at the Disney Studios, a very clever car and motorcycle stunt show set against the back drop of Paris. It is very similar to the Paris version, again it is English which makes a little easier to follow, but some bits are done in a little different order. Also this show doesnt have the audience participation we have in Paris.
Fantasmic: This was something spectacular which I never expected, a firework/ character / projection show set in a massive stadium at the end of the night. To pull off an event on this scale every night really is a credit to all of the cast members at Disney! The soundtrack is still playing in my head today. We had quite a laugh when we watched back our video footage and saw Mickey fall backwards down the mountain for the finale!
At the end of the night we caught the boat over to Epcot as we needed to get to the transportation centre. We walked through Epcot during Reflections of Earth. Quite a weird experience walking straight through a theme park at night that I have never even been to! Which lead us to make the decision? Tomorrow is Epcot!
End of Part Two
Sorry i'm taking my time writing these! I'll try to fit more into part three
As for, did anything in America inspire me? Indeed it did! There were many initiatives and ideas which i have brough back with me such as the "No smoking on park" and "No bags in the queue line" which i think would really benefit parks back at home! I'll try to end my reports with a sum up!
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