A Couple weeks ago I had to go to Orlando for a 6 hour test for a job. Since it's a four hour drive up there I decided to make a weekend out of it. I didn't want to drive up before the test and be tired and stressed so I decided we would get a hotel the night before, I would take the test Friday, go to Disney World Saturday, and go home on Sunday. Even though I've lived here for six years now, and I saw more in the first two years I was here than most natives have seen in their life, I have never been to Disney World. I thought it would be fun to take Adri there before we leave the state (another blog for another day). Plus I had enough Hilton points to get the hotel for free all three nights.
So Thursday after work we drove up to Lake Buena Vista. Friday morning I made my drive to Winter Garden to take the test. I got there at 8:30am and left at 2:45pm. I had studied throughout the week but I felt like I didn't have enough time to prepare for this test. It was a pretty hard test with logic, English, math, and two physiological parts. I had to relearn algebra the night before in just an hour. I felt like I did pretty good on some parts but on others I was thrown off because it was so much harder than in the study material they provided. I ran into a coworker there, and sat next to him during the test. He has a masters degree and said he was thrown off by the same section of the test I was. So I left there feeling a little insecure about whether or not I passed it but everyone kept telling me that you always do better than you feel you did. It takes 4-6 weeks to get the test results so I had no idea how I did the whole weekend. In less than two weeks though I got an e-mail saying that I aced the test and they want to move forward in hiring process.
Anyways, back to Disney. Saturday morning we woke up early and took Adri to Magic Kingdom for the first time. I was surprised how long it took to get there since the hotel brags about being just a mile from Downtown Disney. At Disneyland Downtown Disney is close to everything else. Not the case in Disney World.. We left the hotel at 8:30 on a free shuttle which dropped us off at the Monorail nearly a half hour later. From there we had to ride the monorail through different sections of the park to get to Magic Kingdom. We finally got in the gate around 9:20. So much for that ten minute ride I was expecting to the gate.
I thought Disney World would be more like Disneyland than it actually is. The first ride we went on was Pirates Of The Caribbean, much better at Disneyland. At Magic Kingdom there is only one tiny drop and they don't have the bayou in the beginning of the ride or the bayou cafe. A couple things I thought were better were that they still had the Swiss Family Tree House instead of Tarzan's house, Dumbo has a play area where you get a pager and the kids play on a playground while you wait, they still had the people mover, and almost all the lines are covered so you don't have to stand in line in the rain. But overall I thought Disneyland was better. Disney World is split into too many parks so there is no Matterhorn (they're currently putting in Expedition Everest in another park there), Indian Jones (don't really like that ride anyways), Star Wars, and the Small World ride is in an area that looks like a strip mall of rides so it doesn't stick out like it does at Disneyland. There is also no Toon Town. They do a lot of shows which I don't remember them ever doing at Disneyland but maybe it's just because times have changed.
I thought Adriana would show more excitement than she did but I think she was overwhelmed trying to take it all in. She shows more excitement with little things like being tickled, hearing thunder, farting, seeing the moon, etc, than she did over any of the rides. On Pirates she sat there quietly looking around. The drop scared her but she was fine after that. She enjoyed running through the tree house and riding the magic carpet ride. Again, not much excitement on Peter Pan or Small World. Her favorite ride was probably Dumbo since she kept asking to go back on it but while riding that ride she didn't show much excitement. I think her second favorite ride was the carousel and the haunted house scared her. We got stuck at a spot where a ghost kept popping out of a grave. Every time it jumped up she got scared. She liked the train, slept during the monster show, and enjoyed the jungle cruise. I let her drive the race car and she had fun with that although she didn't quite now how to use the wheel. The wheel was crumbing though and she kept telling me "I make mess" with the bits and pieces falling off the wheel.
The weather was much better than expected for being mid August. If we were in S. Florida I would have died being outside all day since rain just makes it hotter here. But it was overcast, low 80's with scattered showers in Orlando and the rain wasn't nearly as hot as it is down south. When we first got there it was nasty muggy. By noon it was pouring rain and cooled down quite a bit. We actually went to eat 10 minutes before the rain started. There was no line for food but ten minutes later the place got packed with everyone trying to get out of the rain. I was actually surprised that the quality of food has improved at Disney. Expensive but it was a good burger. Last time I was at Disneyland my brother in law had to get me a refund because the burger was so soggy. After we ate we didn't wait for the rain to stop. I had bought 2 dollar ponchos at Walgreens the night before. We put on the ponchos and hit the rides. In the evening I embraced my inner fat kid and got the funnel cake with powdered sugar, strawberries, and whipped cream. It was awesome.
We stayed for the electrical parade. Adri was tired so she didn't show much excitement. She was really excited when she watched it a week later at home. But that night she was tired and laying on my shoulder. I know she enjoyed it though because she was trying so hard to stay awake. As soon as it was done she crashed out. We were going to stay for the fireworks but the last shuttle for the hotel left at 10:45, the fireworks were at 10, and there was no way we would have made it back in time. I have no idea why they schedule it like that.
Sunday morning we went to a Hilton Vacation Club meeting. It's like those deals for timeshares. They had given us a free ticket for Magic Kingdom, we just had to show up Sunday for their presentation. I didn't fall into the trap, we bought nothing, we scored free tickets. Afterwards a four hour drive and we were home.
2 comments:
oh! wow..
Disney World is really awesome place . and these pictures also much attractive & Awesome
Love what you are doing with the blog man!
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