Well it took me thirty eight years but I got here in the end. And it is indeed magical.

We arrived in Orlando on a Wednesday afternoon and were checked into the Radisson Parkway by about 2ish. By 3ish we were in the Magic Kingdom, one of the four parks that make up DisneyWorld.

This was the one with the castle straight out of that Disney logo I had grown up with at the end of all my favourite movies. In Magic Kingdom we rode Splash Mountain, a boat ride through a mountain filled with scenes from the movie Brer Rabbit eventually ascending us to the top of the mountain and a 50 foot sheer drop into the pool below. Stomach lurching excellent fun!

After that it was over to Tomorrowland where we took in the Monsters Inc Laugh Floor which was good, but not as great as it could have been. Lots more could have been done on this one to make it better. Plus not enough Sully and no Boo!!

Something more exciting was Space Mountain, which was a pretty cool ride that shot us through a dark interior lit at one point very much like a Resident Evil scene with the walls around us lighting up in segments getting faster. Reminded me also of BattleStar Galactica scenes when the Vipers would take off.

We stayed for the 8pm Magic Kingdom Electrical Light Show but by that point it had been steadily raining and strangely enough they had to cancel the “Electrical” light show due to safety concerns for their performers. Bunch of wusses…where’s their sense of adventure? Didn’t they know I had travelled over 30 thousand miles to see them? Pfffft. Such little commitment all over for a tiny risk of possible electrocution. So we left after that and headed back to the hotel because after all it was THE SEASON 8 PREMIERE OF SUPERNATURAL! I had TV to watch! And it was required for the next day of big plans that we get to sleep at a decent hour (although with my show back and an epic first season 8 episode how I was going to shut my brain off to sleep once watching it was a feat I wondered if I could accomplish!) as we were up early for breakfast before taking the shuttle to Epcot.

So Day 2 started early and with a breakfast in us we took the 8.30am shuttle to Epcot which stands for Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow. It was Walt Disney’s first idea to name DisneyWorld this. I’m glad Marketing probably talked him out of it. Epcot World doesn’t have the same ring to it. It’s made up of two areas – Future World and World Showcase. Future World has the following attractions:

• Spaceship Earth
• Innoventions
• Universe of Energy
• Mission: SPACE
• Test Track
• The Seas with Nemo and Friends
• The Land
• Imagination!

Epcot has the brilliant ride Soarin’. This ride is like a massive imax surround screen and you are lifted up in a row of chairs to fly over the different parts of the USA, you feel the wind on your face, smell the forests and the orange trees, it’s truly a magnificent and strangely soothing ride. We rode it twice it was that good.

Epcot also has a very cool exhibit called The Seas with Nemo and Friends and Tim and I grabbed a moving clamshell and went on the 3D screen ride through there, it was great if you’re a fan of the movie which we both are. My love for Bruce nearly surpasses my love for Dory.  The aquarium there was also surprisingly good. I didn’t think it would be such a large capacity and have such a variety of species it was very cool.

The best things about Epcot though – the 11 different buildings representing a little piece of 11 different countries! Very cool – Germany, China, Japan, Mexico, Italy, France, Canada etc etc. Best one was the German town though – they had a GREAT restaurant with a fantastic buffet – Tim’s blog has the pics HERE. It was an extremely warm day that day in Orlando.We were glad when we came across the Cool Breeze exhibit sponsored by Coke you can go and try Sodas from around the world. As many times as you like. All free. Quenched our thirsts quite well there. Probably also imbibed way too much high fructose corn syrup. Ahh well free libation drinkers can’t be choosers.

The other Disney park we hit is Hollywood Studios – we didn’t get to the Animal Kingdom. We decided A: Couldn’t do it justice with the time we had and B: After doing San Diego’s Wild Safari Park nothing would really cut it after that. But Hollywood Studios had a number of pretty damn awesome rides we wanted to try.

The first one we went on was this:

It was set up Twilight Zone style and it scared the living daylights out of me. Mostly because the platform the three rows of seats were sitting on in the “elevator of doom” was dropped from a great height very rapidly at random and unpredictable moments and the feeling of being in an elevator as it plunges downwards like that is generally not a calm inducing moment. I’ll admit – I closed my eyes a few times. That still made it just as terrifying but much easier for me to be in denial about the fact that this thing could break and we would all die. It was GREAT! Better than an epinephrin pen shot straight in the heart. I then did the Aerosmith RollerCoaster. We did it twice – I loved it – speed, twists, turns, loud music, indoors in blackness interspersed with flashing lights…it was like FLYING. Super fast.

The Hollywood Studios park has HEAPS to do and see. We were selective but still managed to get heaps in.

The Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show, a car & motorcycle stunt show was FANTASTIC to watch and Tim took some video of it – it’s on his blog. We also got in the Studio Backlot Tour and The Great Movie Ride as well as half of the Indiana Jones show (they had to cut it short due to torrential downpour starting at 4.30pm). So this day started brilliantly and stayed brilliant till everything shut down due to near flooding torrential rains. But hey so far the weather gods have shined upon us so no complaints from me.

We spent a day chilling out at the hotel the next day before we hit Universal Studios for the next two days. That will be in another post!