Thursday 29 November 2012
Highlights: Walt Disney World Parks “The Magic Kingdom” and “Hollywood Studios”

Another early morning to catch the shuttle to Walt Disney World at 7.15 am. The included breakfast at the Hampton Inn was filling which is good because I wanted to avoid the Theme Park food prices. The shuttle got us to the enormous Disney property around 8.00. This place is so large that it took another 5 minutes to get to the Epcot Centre and there was no traffic!

A one park entry costs $88 plus tax and for an additional $35 you can buy the park hopper ticket. Since pick up was at 6.00 pm we bought the combined ticket thinking we would visit all four parks however we learnt that this just is not possible. I should mention you need to use a combination of rail shuttles and buses to get around, I thinkWalt Disney World is better than some small island nations.

First visit was to the Magic Kingdom which is really for children put there are a couple of things worth doing as an adult, This park is very similar to the one in Los Angeles and as a result we only stayed for a few hours. One interesting point is that they use finger print technology on each entry to stop you giving you ticket to someone else, very high-tech. With Mum I went on the Jungle Cruise, a boat ride though different rivers of the world, and Pirates of the Caribbean as our mini boat sails past different scenes of Captain Jack Sparrow plotting to get some treasure.

By myself I went on Splash Mountain and made a donation of my Essendon cap 😦 that means with my Australian Cricket Team cap somewhere in Madrid I now need to purchase another cap especially going into warmer places.

Next visit was the Hall of Presidents with very life-like robots made into all the Presidents including President Barack Obama who gives one of his speeches at the end. The production stakes over anything bad like the Kennedy assassination and 9/11 terrorist attacks but does mention more in-depth the civil war. A very good production worth seeing even if you don’t buy the USA is always right and great propaganda.

We also went on the Liberty Square Riverboat cruise. Mum had a little trouble getting down the steps to disembark. From here it was a walk though Fantasyland and onto Space Mountain which really bought back memories from my youth (damn that makes me sound old). A walk to the classic Disney Castle and we got to witness a character parade. Mum seemed in her element and I’m sure she wished that the grandchildren were here with her.

While I enjoyed the Magic Kingdom it was the Hollywood Studios park I most wanted to see and what was the higfhlight of the day. We ended up staying at this park until we had to return to our shuttle bus pick up point at 6 pm. The Studios park was more for the shows, the ones we watched included;

• Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular which had many scenes from the first film recreated with some audience involvement
• Beauty and the Beat – Live on Stage which is a shortn version of the musical (30 minute show)
• The classic Studio Backlot Tour which first recreated some Pearl Habour effects and later had as one a stage with a truck on fire in the middle of an earth quake
• Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show which really lived up to it’s name very dangerous stuff with cars and motorbike performng lots of different stunts

In between this I went on the Rock n Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith which is not something you should do if you have a snore neck of any other medical condition. We also walked down the Streets of America which is a recreation of New York City. Before we knew it we had to head back to Epcot for our shuttle. While it is extremely expensive and I would have choosen a later shuttle if I had my tmie again it was still a great day especially the stunts shows.

We got back to the Hampton Inn around 7 pm and visited the IHOP again this time for dinner. Surprisely not many people were there compared to lunch the other day. This was the farewell dinner with my mum tomorrow we have a 7.15 am shuttle back to the airport and go our separate ways. During the last 36 hours in Orlando we did a hell of a lot.

USA Photos