Magic Kingdom

Let me just say up front that I'm not a Disney fan. One reason it's taken us so long to do the theme park thing is that I find Disney so commercialized, uber-expensive, and fake. Yet, here we are, experiencing a rite of passage that, it seems, every American is supposed to have. I must say, as we drove onto the property, I was astonished at the sheer amount of land Disney occupies. Impeccably landscaped, expansive, and stretching for more miles than even this flat acreage will allow, I was truly amazed. I'm not sure how I feel about that, except to say they were smart to buy it up when they did. Once in the park, the landscaping efforts continued to amaze us. The flowers were beautiful.

  

I wasn't expecting it to take so long to actually enter Magic Kingdom. It was probably an hour from the time we parked to our first step into the park proper. First, there's the ticketing area, then you have to decide which mode of transportation to take across the lake. We took the ferryboat, had my bag checked (because Mom always has the bag with everything we might need), and finally entered the kingdom every little American girl is primed to dream of entering. 


    


Due to the ages of our daughters, we were able to skip most of the princess- and character-laden areas of the park. Thank goodness. I have never seen so many strollers in one place in my life. I'm not a Mickey Mouse/Donald Duck fan, either, so it was just as well that we moved on.


So, for all my cynicism, I must admit that we had a pretty good time. It was so hot, we decided to hit Splash Mountain first, and get good and wet, thus allowing us to stay cool for a while as we enjoyed other rides. Boy, were we disappointed. We hardly got wet at all. Despite what we'd heard, it was over-hyped, not nearly as refreshing as we'd hoped.





Disappointing, too, was Pirates of the Caribbean. The pirate mannequins were just so fake and it was way too short. We were just getting into it when it was over. Oh, well.


Big Thunder Mountain RR was pretty fun - and I survived! They did a convincing job of depicting the Monument Valley landscape - even if they did mistakenly claim it's in Arizona, not Utah. Hmm...


 

Space Mountain, on the other hand, was one of our favorites! I'm so proud of myself for going on it, and happy I didn't get sick. I am thankful it was dark, or I probably would have freaked out. It to, was pretty short, but that probably helped me keep my stomach in check, so that's OK. It was a pretty exciting ride while it lasted.

Larry talked us into doing It's a Small World. Yes, I've heard how annoying it is - that same song over and over and over. But, what surprised me was that it depicted the countries of the world in such a stereotypical manner, not at all PC. Maybe it's a bit dated since it was first built? I also felt it would have been more effective if there had been labels denoting each country as its representatives appeared.

I did enjoy the Haunted Mansion. I thought the ghostly special effects were well done. Emily disagreed. I have to say, though, the getting there was brutal. We were so crammed into such a small space while waiting to enter the ride. The woman behind be kept pushing me the entire time. I was quite uncomfortable with the lack of personal space; I felt that too many people were getting too familiar with my butt. And nobody needs that!

       

Now, I know I said we skipped the kid stuff, but Larry insisted we ride the Magic Carpets of Aladdin. His all-knowing bible of all things Disney said it was a three-star ride. Pretty cute, and I didn't have to worry about being sick!

  

For my literary fix, the girls and I visited Tom Sawyer Island and wasted some time while Larry attended Mickey's Philharmagic. The raft ride over and back was a cute touch. I may have to go back and read some Mark Twain again to refresh my memory of the sites depicted on the island.

  

We all met up again at the Hall of Presidents and appreciated the opportunity to cool off a bit. This area definitely had a colonial feel to it.

   

We left Americana behind when we entered Tomorrowland.

  

Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin was a fun ride. We had a good time shooting at all the targets, and accrued a much better score than in Universal's similar Men in Black ride.

 

For all my eschewing of the classic Disney princess overload, I have to admit that Cinderella's castle is quite a sight to behold when it's all lit up at night.

  

We stayed for the fireworks, of course, but got out of there before the final parade hit.

The monorail took us back across at the end of our day, and we dragged ourselves back home. This was our longest day yet (it's a lot of ground to cover), and we were beat.



I have to say, these theme parks, in general, are masters of crowd control. They know just how to keep everybody queued for maximum use of space and minimal confusion about who's turn is next. We loved Disney's Fast Pass option that is part of the ticket price, but thought Universal did a better job of keeping us entertained while waiting in line. Disney seemed to just herd us along. We also preferred Universal's use of lockers for storing bags. A hassle, but no concerns about stashing or losing our belongings on a "bumpy" ride.

This cynic's overall impression at the end? Gooey, yes. Plastic, definitely. Way too cheerful at times. Overly priced? Without a doubt - and so was Universal.  But impressive property and grounds, and a fun day for our family.