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Disney Trip 2009 (Part 2)
| Day three was at Hollywood Studios (formerly MGM studios). We started on the Rock'n'Rolla with Aerosmith ride. This ride started out like Andrew's humdrum work life with a 3 G acceleration. We also got on the Tower of Terror with almost no wait. The only line of substance was at a kiddy ride but it got up to 80 minutes through the day. |
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It hit us like a ton of bricks that we could get through the whole park in one day. We found that old fogeys like us only need to ride the rides once so we can get around to all of them (as opposed to spending hours riding the same ride 5 times). |
| We made a stop in New York. |
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And a short trip from there to San Francisco. Turns out Gratia was visiting Dad so we missed her. |
| The highlight of this day was the new American Idol Experience. They have shows all day with three contestants judged by the audience. We attended the second of these shows. We then stayed late to see the finals where 7 winners from earlier shows competed for the daily prize of a dream ticket (which allows them a pass to the auditions for next year's Idol). We enjoyed seeing what it felt like to be a studio audience. They did a completely realistic show just no commercials. |
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Day 4 was at EPCOT (Experimental Prototype City of Tomorrow). |
| The best ride at EPCOT is called Test Track. It simulates putting a car through a series of tests and finishes with a high speed test. Once again, we had no lines so went right through twice. |
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We did so well, they gave us this car as a prize. I couldn't afford the taxes so politely declined. We went on another ride that simulates a space mission to Mars. There as an easy version and an intense version. We went on the intense version which is really a combination of a centrifuge and a simulator. Big mistake. We were woozy for about three hours. |
| We decided to take a quick trip around our world. |
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Norway. |
| China |
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We went through Germany so fast we didn't have time to stop and visit Kara. |
| We didn't have time for Andrew when we visited Japan either. |
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While in the United Kingdom, we took in a British Invasion concert. We went to a number of shows at EPCOT. My favorite was a very hi-tech interactive show that allowed a computer generated character (Crush from finding Nemo) to have conversations with little kids while maintaining the illusion of animation. |
| By Day 5 we had used up all the main Disney parks (we skipped the water park). We went to Universal Studios instead. There are two parks there (Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure) so we got the both parks pass. That was good since we could get through either of the parks in about three hours. |
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A conspiracy of being off season, a recession and a cool rainy day contributed to no lines again. In case you didn't believe me, I took this one at the SpiderMan ride at Islands of Adventure (rated #2 in the nation next to the Simpsons ride at Universal Studios). The Incredible Hulk ride was similarly short. The only way we would have had to wait at all would be if we wanted the front seat. |
| Islands of Adventure has an area dedicated to Dr. Seuss. The rides are slower but faithful to the books. But like time with the Cat in the Hat, all good things must come to end. One last thing I realized about going to Disney/Universal as adults is that we HAVE to go during the offseason as I would not have the patience to wait in the usual long lines for the short rides or to only get through half the park at $90 per day! |
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