This is a long story, and not one that will be recounted in a single blog post at that, but as with most things it’s probably best to start at the beginning, a bit closer to home…
As frequent readers already know, and as should be apparent by the shear existence of this site, I have a long standing love affair with Disneyland. And for the past few years, as much as I’ve loved my park, I have wanted to go and see Walt Disney World for myself.
Well, last week I finally did it. I had 72 hours over four days in Florida to see as much as I possibly could. I started late in the day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios (Formerly Disney MGM Studios).
DHS reminded me a lot of Disney’s California Adventure – and I don’t mean that in a particularly good way. To be fair, I didn’t get to see three of the big shows, Beauty and the Best, Indiana Jones, and Lights Motor Action, but there was more to it than that. I started with their tram tour which was a disappointment to put it mildly. Had I not been familiar with the Universal Studios Hollywood Tram Tour I might have been more impressed, but to put it simply, Catastrophe Canyon simply pails in comparison to Universal’s Earthquake.
The big name attractions like Star Tours, Toy Story Mania, and Tower of Terror all also exist in CA. The Florida versions are a little different, such as the amazing outdoor queue are of Star Tours, but the rides are basically all the same. One interesting thing I saw late in the day was over where they did the Phineas and Ferb stage show…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45CfgCq2TyY
… It’s Ducky Momo! And yes, I just had to get a picture.
The next day took me to the Magic Kingdom. The 15 extra years of technology, design, and just experience in general really show at this park. The park is simply beautiful and with a few exceptions phenomenally well designed.
While there are many similarities between Disneyland park and the Magic Kingdom, there are a lot of differences too. the Fantacyland dark rides look similar on the surface, but are vastly different in reality. Peter Pan in particular gained a lot from improved technology and a continually moving loading/unloading area. Why don’t we have that here? The MK version of Snow White is a similar success story; such a shame it’s closing permanently as part of the New Fantacyland project.
But it’s not all smiles – the MK version of it’s a Small World doesn’t deserve to share the same name as the Disneyland Version. In Florida, it really is a small, small world. Pirates is another ride that didn’t transfer well. Despite a very cool queue area and exterior space, the ride itself is seriously abridged and lacks much of the charm of the original. With both it’s as if they said they decided it would be more efficient to create shorter rides in an attempt to push more people through.
But on the flip side, there is the Jungle Cruise. A Disneyland favorite of mine that they generally improved upon in Florida. The MK version is longer, more complex, and generally structured better. Despite my limited time, I made sure to ride this one twice: one in the daytime and once after sundown.
I also wanted to take a moment to discuss Tom Sawyer’s Island. At Disneyland, the island has been “enhanced” to be Pirate’s Lair, but the WDW version appears largely untouched. To my great surprise I found Fort Langhorn, the MK equivalent of Disneyland’s Fort Wilderness, with it’s gates wide open. The DL fort has been closed for half a decade due to “safety concerns” and has long been one of the places I have longed to return to.
It’s not even so much that the fort is that exciting, but it’s one of a few early memories I have of the park from when I was little, and it was quite amazing to explore the new fort. I don’t know how similar the two forts are, but MK’s Fort Langhorn does include the thing I remember most strongly – the guns on the upper levels that “shoot” out at the boats in the river.
Magic Kingdom’s Tomorrowland probably shares the least in common with it’s California Cousin. The peoplemover still runs here and adds a lot of motion and activity to the land, which is not at all cramped like Disneyland’s version. The Stitch attraction… is a disappointment. Stitch looks so fake and I appreciated the pre-show, but the actual show? Not so much. Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor was quite well done – the CDA isn’t the Child Detection Agency anymore, now they’re the Comedy Detection Agency! xD
MK’s Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin has much in common with DL’s Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters, but the later has benefited greatly from the experience of the former. The “guns” in Space Ranger Spin are attached to the cars and have very limited movement making Astro Blasters a much superior play experience. But at the same time, the two are different rides with different layouts and visual gags and it’s well worth the time to experience both. Oh, and watch out for Zurg.
The Magic Kindom also has one very unique experience that has no equivalent at the Disneyland Resort, at least, not yet. I am referring to Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom, a unique interactive role-playing game where guests are recruited to become sorcerers and help Merlin defeat a breadth of Disney Villains intent of taking over the Magic Kingdom. This game gets very addicting, very fast.
Speaking of interactive games, that brings us to the reason why I made the trip when I did. Today, May 18th, is the very last day for the Kim Possible World Showcase Adventure. I just had to get there and experience the attraction while I still could. Phineas and Ferb are set to replace KP in the park later this year.
The attraction itself really feels like KP. The banter is right on, and I think they had most if not all of the original voices. It took some four hours through the heat and the rain, but I eventually manged to complete all seven adventures, battling Duff Killigan, Senior Senor Sr & Jr, The Killer BeBes, Professor Dementor, Monkey Fist, Camille Leon, and of course Shego and Dr. Drakken. It really is bittersweet to see what they were able to do just for it to be gone forever after today.
As you can probably guess, the KP attraction took a huge bite out of my day at EPCOT. I had a good portion of time at the start of my day to explore Future World, including Spacehip Earth, Ellen’s Energy Adventure, Mission Space, The Seas with Nemo and Friends, and Living with the Land. All of which are very well done and impressive attractions (especially Spaceship Earth) with the exception of Nemo. I’d rather ride the Nemo Subs at Disneyland. Innoventions was generally uninteresting, much like it’s west coast counterpart.
World Showcase is huge and unlike anything I’ve seen before. Unfortunately, due to my limited time and the fact that the KP game play device would “lock” if you tried to take a break between games, I was unable to thoroughly explore World Showcase the way I would have liked. I saw much of it during the game, but I more or less had to skip over lands like Morocco that didn’t have KP adventures built into them. I was fortunately able to catch the second to last showing of the day of The American Adventure, the most interesting and well structured Audio Animatronics stage show I believe I have ever seen.
I don’t know when or if I’ll be able to return to the parks, but EPCOT is definitely up on top of my to see list. I was tempted to return on my fourth (half) day, but that day was set aside for the last park – Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
The keynote attraction of Animal Kingdom has to be the Safari Ride. While not entirely unlike the Safari caravan’s of the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park (I refuse to call it the “Safari Park” official rename or not) there is definitely classic Disney storytelling on display. Oh, and we basically got attacked by a Giraffe. xD
I was actually a bit worried about being in the actual exhibit with the rhinos, but I guess they’re used to it. That was quite impressive in retrospect.
The Lion King and Finding Nemo shows were also quite impressive in their own ways. Festival of the Lion King looked a little cheap, but it was fun. Besides, who am I to complain about cute girls in skintight animal print costumes? xD Nemo seemed a little long, and the puppetry seemed a bit cheesy at times, but it was a fun well organized show.
I didn’t do Expedition Everest, if you were wondering. Roller coasters just aren’t my thing. The mountain sure looked impressive though. The Tree of life on the other hand… it just looked so fake. Cool yes, but I dunno, I expected more.
Dinosaur was the only real disappointment with the park, though. I had expected something like Indiana Jones at Disneyland, except you know, with dinosaurs. Instead I got a jerky dark ride with dinosaur heads popping out at me. I guess it was budgetary restrictions, but there was just so much wasted potential with this ride. I had gotten a fast pass before getting in the standby line so I could ride it twice and well… once was enough.
And that concludes my trip. But before I wrap up this blog post, one more short story I wanted to share. On the bus ride back to the Airport, Disney showed a brief video advertising some of their other projects and offering some handy airport tips. At one point in the video, Mickey bounds off the bus at the airport and exclaims “Next stop, Disneyland!” which at the time, I found absolutely hilarious.