Things I've Learned at Disney World: 2021 - Part IV

Day 4: Animal Kingdom

1) While I can't say this is my favorite park, I CAN say that it has my favorite ride (outside of the Star Wars ride at Hollywood Studios.) The DINOSAUR ride was a lot of fun. Just bumpy enough, and the special effects were great. Had so much fun I rode it twice, the only ride in Disney I've done so with so far.

2) Best Disney coaster so far too. The Expedition Everest coaster was faster and bigger than all the other coasters I've been on, including Space Mountain. Plus, it goes backward for a few moments. Don't normally care for backwards-running coasters (for the same reason I think the darkness of Space Mountain diminishes the ride) but in this case, it was just brief enough to add to the fun. A nice little coaster that gets better as it goes along and finishes strong.

3) My vertigo-infested head doesn't handle the virtual-reality rides all that well, so I avoided the most popular attraction -- the Avatar-themed hang-gliding VR trip.

4) I remembered AK being much more bright and vibrant. It's actually very dim and somewhat dreary in its decoration. The Mrs. seems to think it WAS brighter almost 20 years ago, right after the park debuted, but I'm not sure. The overcast sky (though welcome, from a temperature perspective) probably didn't help the ambience, but the decor is very earth-toned and drab. I realize it's basically a zoo with some rides, but still...

5) VERY fun Lion King production. Top-notch, but then, it's Disney. Worth seeing.

6) My feet are feeling the effects of walking 5+ miles each of the last four days. Ready for a break.

7) Rather than picking and choosing, we decided to pre-purchase a photo package ahead of time to take advantage of all the photos the parks offer to document your trip. Is it worth the money in the end? I don't know. But the Mrs. and I are taking advantage of EVERY SINGLE ONE of them we encounter. We are stopping at every photographer we see, and will have access to literally hundreds of photos taken by the staff during our visits when it is all said and done.

8) Skipped the River Rapids ride as well. To our detriment, I think.

9) Walking down the path, I hear, "Paul Uhls!" Some friends from Mooresville visiting Disney these days as well. Ironic, I think, to bump in to someone over 800 miles away from our hometown. Even though I live in SC now, and they're still in Indiana, what are the odds?

10) Lot's of White Ibis birds wandering around the grounds, amongst the patrons, especially near the food establishments. Sat next to a couple very interested lads as we ate lunch. Even saw one hop up on a table in a flash and steal a bite of mac and cheese from the patron's plate. That being said, I ate all my lunch, except for the cole slaw I had scraped to the side off the top of my own mac and cheese dish. Being that cole slaw is vile and awful tasting, and knowing I'm not supposed to feed the wildlife anyway, I literally and verbally apologized to my Ibis friend that I had nothing to offer him expect a scrap of cole slaw. Being the schlep I am and feeling bad at the sad look at the end of his long, sleek beak, I caved and dropped a small sliver of the cole slaw to the ground. He immediately pounced, picked it up, slung it around a bit, and dropped it cold, refusing to eat it. Read in to that what you will.

11) People watching is such an interesting and fascinating social study. As a society, it's trendy right now to pretend that stereotypes don't exist, or worse, are somehow bigoted or racist. But darn if we just can't escape reality, no matter how hard we try. A very wise man once told me, "Young man, there is a reason there are stereotypes in the world." He was right. Remember though, "different" doesn't necessarily mean "better." It just means "different."

We have one more day at Disney coming up on Monday. Likely, it will be Hollywood Studios again to take another stab at the Star Wars attraction. Meanwhile, we go to SeaWorld tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Things I've Learned at Disney World: 2021 - Part III

Day 3: EPCOT

1) The Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. In 1980, this was a great concept. Problem with building a futuristic anything is that eventually, the future arrives and passes you by. This is almost the case with EPCOT. Most of what used to be breathtakingly innovative seems quaint and old now. Even the stuff they're still hailing as futuristic is stuff we're either already doing or can easily see around the bend. Make a boat ride for "It's a Small World" or even "Pirates of the Caribbean," (before the grubby cancel-culture Libs got their hands on it) and that ride can last forever. Make a ride about the future and at some point, it's not longer relevant.

2) EPCOT, of course, is not a thrill park, but rather a futuristic community, or it once was. The only real "thrill" ride in the park is the Chevrolet Test Track. And while it's been upgraded since I was there almost 20 years ago, it's still the same basic concept, and not an edge-of-your-seat ride. Fun though.

3) In the interest of fairness, there's a HUGE area of walled off construction just on the other side of the big sphere. One can only guess they're making some of the needed upgrades to the park. Be interesting to see what they do there.

4) The World of Wonders trek around the main lake in the park is pretty much as it was 20 years ago. Hasn't updgraded much. But still nice to check out a small -- albeit, Disney-dumbed-down -- taste of other cultures. Long walk though.

4a) As an aside, we visited during their annual Food and Wine Festival. Won't bore you with all the details. Suffice to say, there was a lot more people hanging around to imbibe than probably would be otherwise. The prices and food selections at each of the various countries for the festival aren't really worth it, in my opinion, especially as a non-drinker.

5) As such, had a nice time in the Mexico pavilion, with a quaint little boat ride, and a very cool little glass shop where a couple nice glass dolphins for the Mrs. were procured.

6) And speaking of THAT... relatively speaking, the prices of the retail shopping in the park were not near as expensive as I expected them to be. I mean, "expensive" is relative to each independent person's taste, but I was pleasantly surprised at some prices I figured would be much higher.

7) Food is still too expensive though.

8) Dumb that you have to pay parking when you already have to pay a gazillion dollars for a ticket into the joint. Dumber still there is no parking pass deal available for multiple-day ticket holders.

All-in-all, not a bad day, but as I write this after Day 4 trip to Animal Kingdom, EPCOT has proven to be the least fun and least impressive of the four parks. If I still had kids, I'd probably buy tickets again for any future trip. What IS there is definitely aimed at children. But as an adult now, I'd be surprised if EPCOT as it is will be a part of our next visit, whenever that is.

Tomorrow: Animal Kingdom.

Things I've Learned at Disney World: 2021 - Part II

DAY 2: Magic Kingdom

1) See #2 from yesterday's post. According to the "experts," crowd-wise, Tuesday is the best day of the week to attend MK. Having not been there for nearly 20 years, I've got nothing to compare it to. Overall, not too bad.

2) Much bigger park than Hollywood Studios, in terms of square mileage. Which means, more walking. I'm feeling it tonight.

3) That being said, I'm almost certain that the Mrs. and I would be in far worse shape energy-wise were we both still carrying around the extra 30-40 pounds from just a couple months ago. All-in-all, we're feeling great! Our diet plan makes it very easy to stick to, even at a place like Disney. (And saves is a TON of money.) Check out some of Ginger's FB posts if you want to learn more.

4) Something VERY interesting happened today. The Mrs. and I attended the presentation at The Hall of the Presidents. If you've never been, you should. If you've been, you know how cool it is. As they introduced each President, a few actually garnered a smattering of applause -- Abe Lincoln and Reagan, to name a couple. I'm not sure why, but I was actually prepared for a smattering of boos when Donald Trump was introduced. Instead, his animatronic received a resounding cheer and applause from the crowd, FAR more than any other President. (Joe Biden's introduction was met with dead silence.) Read into that what you want, but I found it very interesting.

5) Even though most of the attractions at MK have been there for decades (and yes, I remembered much more about MK) they haven't lost their luster at all. Being obviously all very Disney-esque, they're just so dang cute and enjoyable. There's just something very special about riding leisurely in a boat with your sweetie listening to "It's a Small World" about a thousand times. It never gets old.

6) Space Mountain would be much cooler with the lights ON. Half the thrill of a roller-coaster is seeing what's coming. Every twist and turn is past and gone before you have a chance to be scared by it. (Kings Island's "Racer" roller coaster is the same way. The forward coaster is much scarier than the backwards coaster.)

7) Positive Cinderella's castle used to be white. It's pink and blue and now.

8) Disney sure does love their parades.

9) Very few Disney characters just wandering around now. None, in fact. Apparently because of COVID. Not as much fun. I have a serious crush on Jasmine from Alladin. In 2003, I got my picture taken with her. No such luck this time.

10) I don't know, I think the whole matching T-Shirt thing, especially in the bigger groups, is way overdone. Cheesy and certainly un-original anymore, and CLEARLY not enjoyed by everyone in the group.

11) I'm surprised I enjoy Disney so much given that I have seen very few of their movies from start to finish. Was always more of a Warner Bros. guy than a Disney guy. Weird?

Vacation tip: Find out what restaurants are around where you're staying, and buy gift cards for those restaurants from Sam's Club at a big discount before you go. Saves a lot of money. Bought a $100 worth of GC for Logan's Steakhouse from Sam's for $87. Among others. All our dinners for this trip are already paid for, at a significant discount.

Tomorrow: Epcot.

Things I've Learned at Disney World: 2021 - Part I

On July 14, 1991, my wife and I arrived for our first day at Disney World celebrating the honeymoon of our new marriage. I'd been to Disney World once before, but quite honestly, I was too young to remember it.

On September 13, 2021, my wife and I arrived for our first day at Disney World to celebrate our 30th Wedding Anniversary. I've been to Disney World once since our honeymoon -- in 2003 with our two then-young boys. But that's almost 20 years ago now. I've slept a lot since then.

So, with the background laid out, I simply want to chronicle our 30th Anniversary celebration, and keep a little diary of sorts of our trip.

(As an aside, we did actually go out to dinner and a night out in Savannah on our actual 30th Anniversary date back in July. But this was our planned anniversary celebration, and chose September because that's the slow season for Disney. This trip involves a little more than just Disney, as well, so stay tuned.)

DAY 1: Hollywood Studios

1) I remember very little of this park. Virtually nothing is familiar to me from my two previous trips here in the last 30 years. The Muppet 3D Movie attraction is about the only thing I remember (apart from Indiana Jones -- more on that later.) I'm not sure what that says about me.

2) Crowds aren't bad at all, but I'll say this: If this is Disney's slow season, I don't want to be here when they're busy.

2a) Supposedly, Disney is restricting the number of guests in the parks, presumably because of COVID, requiring "reservations" at the park. NO ONE checked our reservation, although I'll admit it could be programmed into our admission card. But who knows. While masks are required indoors at all times, there is no social-distancing to speak of, so the guest restriction seems pretty pointless.

3) The general populace has become VERY accustomed to wearing masks, even when they are absolutely not necessary or beneficial, which is most of the time.

4) The ratio of shops, retail, and food establishments vs. attractions is way out of proportion.

5) The Star Wars area of the park is very cool. A couple cool virtual-reality rides, for which the wait wasn't too bad. Lots of other cool stuff to see. However...

6) The Rise of the Resistance attraction is everything it is cracked up to be! Outstanding. Because of its popularity, one has to log in to a virtual queue in order to garner a place in line for the attraction, and the queue for the day fills up within seconds -- literally. If you are one of the lucky ones to get in, you know what I'm talking about. We did, on the second opening of the queue for the day. If you haven't yet, and you're a Star Wars fan, a trip to Orlando and a ticket to Hollywood Studios is worth it. We might go again later this week just to do it again -- IF we can get in.

7) Buy the photo package. It's worth it and can literally save you hundreds of dollars if you get sucked in to buying all the pictures they offer of your time in the park.

8) Lot more children this time of the year than I thought there'd be. Apparently, parents have no problem yanking their kids out of school for some time at Disney. Given the state of public education these days, can't say that I blame them.

9) The Indiana Jones Spectacular is not running these days. Bummer that.

Tomorrow... Magic Kingdom!