The Laughin' Place (3 Day Walt Disney World Trip)

[Director_Guy]

We arrived in Florida a day before some tropical storms broke out, but my dad made sure he looked his touristy best


After a few days of off and on heavy rain,

We saw a break in the clouds and figured that this was our chance.

Walt Disney World (Yes, WALT Disney World) was just a quick ten minute drive away. When I got there, I look behind me and suddenly these people start following me around.

Hmm....

First stop was Magic Kingdom. Because it's so similar, I felt compelled to compare it to Disneyland Park. Although, I shouldn't have out of respect.

What? We can't walk into the park? We have to cross a lake?

Okay, whose brilliant idea was this? Make us wait in even more lines before we get into the park? Why would the build a freakin' lake in front of theme park gates?

Some call it theming, I call it a waste of time.

Y'know I have the right mind to go.....

Ohhh! Pretty!

Okay, so far the score is 1 Disneyland, 1 Magic Kingdom.

Hey! Water is only two dollars at Disney parks!!!


The first ride we hit, was the greatest ride ever...

The Haunted Mansion



Needless to say, I was pleased.

I dislike the Mansion Facade, here....I like Disneyland's better...and I miss the changing portrait gallery.

Splash Mountain was one of those next....


Haha, a lesson that all coaster enthusiasts should learn.




"Laughin' Place? We got your laughin' place, right up here...."

"Ahhhh!"

"Yep.....I'm wet....."

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad only had a fifteen minute wait (which it did most of the trip)...

This is a tough one. It's almost just like Disneyland's only mirrored. This one has a few cool new effects, though..... Let's ask these guys what they think....

Hmm..... that's what I thought.


Yar!


Too much fun with potato head


Wowzers....Space Mountain is huge....


Whoa, so is the Autopia.....




Hey, cool. They're filming something here....


I admit it, I like WDW's castle better than Disneyland's.




Although, it's hard to make this picture work, now....


See the difference?


"Uhm....Minnie, does Mickey know you're over here "schmoozing" with Roy?"

Okay... While Magic Kingdom is muchly fun and alot bigger, I still prefer Disneyland to it. It's got alot more to do. Maybe if Magic Kingdom had Indianna Jones Adventure, I'd reconsider it.

Time for E.P.C.O.T.

Y'know, I've waited a long time to see this giant golf ball. I think just to see what the hell it is.

Spaceship Earth was our first ride. It was very cool. Very Old Skool Disney.

Then my dad's all....

"What the hell is that noise?

And I'm like....
Hey! It's Test Track!


My dad isn't exactly a, uh..... fan of thrill rides....can you tell?

"If I live, I am going to kill you."

Did he live? Yes. Did he enjoy it? Hmmm.... You decide.
http://www.lundopictures.com/images/wdw/testtrack1.MOV
http://www.lundopictures.com/images/wdw/testtrack2.MOV
(No sound)


CHOMP!


Hey, a ride I didn't ride! No one else wanted to go....

So, after we walked around Epcot a bit, saw a show or two, and found that Journey into the Imagination was closed, we hopped back on Test Track.



There's that golf ball again.....let's call it a night.

::sleep::

Hey! Awake again!

We start today off with a visit to WDW's newest park, Animal Kingdom.


Wow, the theming here really surrounds you.



And that tree looks really tree-like.

Wow...


It really looks like it's way out there....

The hour wait in line for Everest provided some decent photo opps

Excellent theming.






Disney's lines are great. They actually keep you entertained.

STEAM!

"Hahaha! We're gonna die, aren't we?"

"Yes we are!"


"Wow, we're up higher than I thought we'd be" says I.

Uh oh!..... WEEEE!

"AHHHHH! Dear God help me! We're gonna die!!!"


"That was awesome."

Hmm.... wasn't he just screaming bloody murder a minute ago?

As we walk toward Dinoland, I noticed that they were building something...


Maybe it's a new resort hotel?


Oh wow, the air conditioning is grown naturally in park soil.


Countdown to Ext.....I mean, Dinosaur was next.


"Steroid impact?"

I liked it, aside from being very very very loud. Aslo, I noticed it had the exact same track layout as Indianna Jones Adventure.


Haha! It's funny because Pooh is about to be mauled to death.

Now it's on to Disney/MGM Studios!

Hmmm.... I think I'm gonna like it here.

What's with the hat blocking the Chinese Theatre, eh?

I look to my right, and what's that I see?

T-t-t-t-ower of T-t-t-t-error?! OOOH ho ho ho ho!


Oh, it's so beautiful.....of terror.


He just stood there for about ten minutes debating weather or not to ride.
Eventually we just pulled him on....


Oh, this is cool....

Hmmm.... So far, inside is just like DCA's.

Whoa, scratch that.

See, right about here, I would have the hillarious on-ride photo that we bought. But as luck would have it, there's no scanner to be found.


But it was great.

I love this ride. I think it's my new favorite non-Haunted Mansion ride. This one is sadly much better than the Californian version. Us Californias always get jipped with Disney's new rides.

The park was almost empty. There was enough room to put my arms out.


We walked around a bit, ate food, saw Fantasmic, and then decided to drop out on the Tower again.



A few times, actually......

It was very fun....of terror.


Then, we headed back to our resort of terror.

::sleep again::

Whew.... this is a lot of theme parkage... I don't think it's even healthy to visit four theme parks in three days....

We came back to MGM to check out the things we missed

Like palm trees!


and that thing...

Oh, and Rock 'n' Rollercoaster




It was alright. Not the greatest ride in the world like some make it out to be, but I enjoyed it. AND I didn't slip into a VeComa....ha....yeah...sorry...

Hmmm.... now what..... OH I KNOW!


13 minutes? How lucky!

After one or two drops, we got some eats. It would've been okay, but someone stabbed my burger.


Back at Magic Kingdom,

We got the WORLD'S GREATEST ICE CREAM



Hey, that was great ice cream! Now what do you guys wanna do?

....No.....NO! Anything but THAT!




"Help me."

Whew, that was close.

And even though, you're no where near it, I betcha the song is in your head RIGHT NOW.

Okay, I feel scared....I need to calm down back over at The Haunted Mansion.


"Is this haunted room actually stretching? Or is it your imagination, hmmm?"




Wow,

The audio-animatronics get more and more real every year.

Okay, enough fooling around. We've only got a few hours left. It's time for the mountain.

In side, it was already different than Disneyland. Below us there were these weird playplace balls everywhere


Wow, very different.

Wow wow! Weird!

Still, a great ride. Tottally different than Disneyland, though.


Wow, that was an amazing three days. We were able to ride Tower of Terror (of terror) a total of eight times. Yeah....

Man,

I'm exhausted.

Goodnight.





Okay, here's today's trivia. WITHOUT LOOKING IT UP ( I have no way of knowing if you did or not, so I'm trusting you), "What does E.P.C.O.T. stand for?"

[Ilovthevu']

Experimental Protocol City of Tomorrow.

In constast to your belief, I can't see Dinosaur, and Indiana Jones having the same track. Yes, there are some parts that are exactly the same such as going down while the terdeactor is looking down at you, and the boulder on Indiana Jones is going down on you. However, if you notice, you will see that Indiana Jones is more open spaced, while Dinosaur is less. When your on the bridge on Indiana, you will see other cars. I wonder how many tracks Indiana Jones has. When I went on it tons of times, I did go into two different doors. So, are there really more than one track, or not?? Dinosaur is more darker than Indiana, but I still love them both. I actually love Dinosaur more!!!

On Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at DL, there is no "wacky worm." This is the part when you sway from side to side on straight track. This isn't on the lift hill. Instead, over there you go to the left down, and it's sort of like a hill over there. This is the part where they have a werewolf looking above you. I actually know think that I like DL's better.

The two things I was disappointed about at DL was Snow White, and Space Mountain. Snow White's story never finished, and Space Mountain was completely boooorring. Otherwise, I like you pick DL over WDW.

[!)EJAVU-FAN!]

another great Tr. ok i love you trips there da bomb now it makes me wanna go to six flags and all of the other places u did reports on right now. unfortunally i got another month but ill be there for 5 days (yup 5 days total at sixflags... it sucks) i wanted to go more but im going to disneyland about 2 weeks after this trip. once again awesome Tr.

[FRD714]

Great TR. Im going to WDW in August.

[Director_Guy]

Experimental Protocol City of Tomorrow.

Close.....very close. You're off by a word.

When I went on it tons of times, I did go into two different doors. So, are there really more than one track, or not??

In Indianna Jones, the "Chambers" are on a track that move to make it appear as if you're going through three diferent doors, when really....it goes into the same room.

[HoffmanMyster]

Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow...off by two words...

[Director_Guy]

^Yay! Ten points for you

[MerryDeath]

i'm still mad that you went without me.

but wow, what grrreat pictures!

[Director_Guy]

^Well, hey. There's always Cedar Point

[ragingbullchick]

Awesome TR! Sounds like you guys had a great time!

[Sedir]

Nice TR. That stinks Pirates of the Caribbean was being refurbished.

[Bob O]

Very good photo's!!!!
And i much perfer the theming of a lake before you enter, rather than looking out and seeing a parking lot.
The little wait is well worth it, it builds the excitement and gets you away from the sounds of the real world!!!

[shockwave guy mark]

cool.
Your friends choose Pump It Up, and not DDR? DDR is way better. But still looks like you had fun.

[w00dland]

What an excellent TR there sir.

Wait....is that?

Yes it is...you SOB.

"It's a world of laughter a world of cheer..."

I hate you. That'll be in my head all week.

[[jonrev]]

Nice TR. That stinks Pirates of the Caribbean was being refurbished.

From what I heard it's being changed to be more like the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. They've done it already at Disneyland and I hear it's bad.

Nice TR.

[Sedir]

Yeah I've heard that too. I wonder how they did/are going to do it. Retell the story of the first movie, or have a short mini story? But I bet they kept the part of the ride that was put in the movie. (The dog holding the keys for the jail cell).

[Ilovthevu']

Very good photo's!!!!
And i much perfer the theming of a lake before you enter, rather than looking out and seeing a parking lot.
The little wait is well worth it, it builds the excitement and gets you away from the sounds of the real world!!!

I believe the real reason for why Walt Disney decided to do this is the fact they he wanted there to be no pollution by the park, so he decided for people to park very far away, and take transportation to the Magic Kingdom. Now, later Disney (I doubt Walt had any influence in this.) decided to put a hotel right next to it, and buses so they don't really care about his idea. It was really a stupid idea anyway. If you go Disneyland (the regular), you will have to take a tram to that one, and then walk just a little bit.

I'm not sure about EPCOT, but I wonder if he died before opening that park. The reason I say that is because there is parking right next to it. He would've hated this. It's quite dumb how someone so smart could've thought of keeping the "pollution" away. It's not like it's smog in the air.

I have actually heard people say that EPCOT, and Animal Kingdom were once failures. EPCOT was too educational, and it's eventually changing. Food Rocks (teaching you about Food) is gone, the Heart pavillion might close, the Universe of Energy might close (with Ellen), World Motion is gone, Horizons is gone, and Wonders of Flight is gone. Recently, they were thinking about putting a rollercoaster in the ball. This won't happen because of the supports for it. Now, they are having problems with Mission Space. Hopefully, there will be no more catastrophies on this ride. In my honest opinion, I don't think Figment's (Imagination) doing that great. I imagine the other part (World Showcase) has stayed the same all the way through. The park is changing too fast, but it still does get people in.

I really doubt he was involved with MGM studios. I know he couldn't have been involved with Animal Kingdom, or DCA.

[Director_Guy]

Disney died even before Magic Kingdom opened. He did have influences on both Epcot and Animal Kingdom, though.

[greatamerica2003]

Walt was pissed at the development that surrounded Disneyland after it opnened. He wanted to make sure it didn't happen again. This is why you cross the Seven Seas Lagoon to get to the park. To get away from traffic, cars, a large paking lot. You can't see one automobile in the parking lot if you stand on the Main Street Railroad Station platform.

In the WDW master plan that Walt approved there were always supposed to be hotels near the park. This was not something that the company did after his death against his wishes. The just so happens that the Grand Floridian is located where an Asian themed resort was supposed to be. There was also supposed to be a Venitian resort between the TTC and the Contemporary (TTC is the Transportation and Ticket Center, where you can board the Monorail or Ferryboat to the Magic Kingdom) The site for this hotel was planned and graded and cleared of trees. But supposedly a sinkhole was discovered. The monorail rides right thru this site.

Another resort was planned for just up the shore of Bay Lake from the Contemporary, and this was to be a Persian resort.

[Director_Guy]

I still don't like it. There should be a way for people to walk across or around it.

[greatamerica2003]

I still don't like it. There should be a way for people to walk across or around it.

Walking around it would take much longer than taking the boat or the monorail.

[zjohn1988]

Pirates opens soon.

Bay Lake is there to add the effect that the MK is on the 1st floor, (when its really the 2nd.)

Figment is going thru a quick touch up.

Tarzan ROCKS has been torn down at AK and the new building u saw is the new theater being built which will have AC

Dinosaur is 1 track with 2 load/unload platforms.

[Director_Guy]

Dinosaur is 1 track with 2 load/unload platforms.

So is Indy at D-land.

Walking around it would take much longer than taking the boat or the monorail.

I realize that, but at least then I would feel like I'm doing something instead of waiting forever in line.

[twixmix0303]

When I was at Tower of Terror last year, someone actually complained right before getting on that the wait was less than 13 minutes, and that they need to stay on top of their wait time signs so as to not confuse their guests. Wow, nothing gets past some people...