More Disney

Had a nice comment from meggie over at http://lifesfreetreats.blogspot.com/. She reminded me about a couple other Disney memories.

If you are considering visiting DisneyWorld in Orlando, you should be very careful about what ticket you buy. Each park charges a separate admission unless you buy a multi-park ticket. Parking at each is separate (generally $11 a day) and not included in the admission. The multi-park tickets cover more than one park but you need to check carefully that you are buying what you want. The web site is very helpful and you can buy the tickets ahead of time. That way you don't have to make all these decisions at the ticket window in the heat surrounded by anxious kids and adults. AND be very careful to wear the most comfortable shoes you have. You'll be walking miles. In the week we visited we walked over 29 miles by my wife's pedometer.

Disney is simply Disney. I've never found a substitute and I doubt if there is one (not to mention that I wouldn't look for it - LOL). It is always clean, the people are always happy, the messes cleaned up rapidly. The Orlando Disney complex includes several distinct parks: Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, Disney Hollywood and more. That isn't counting the zillions of resorts. Here's the list: http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/wdw/common/siteMap?id=SiteMapPage Every employee has their name tag with their 'home' listed. There are a lot of kids from all over the world working at Disney. (Kids being defined as anyone under 30! LOL) In Epcot at the various national pavilions, of course, they are nationals of that country. We've always liked Epcot but it is the clean, fake world of Disney; not the warty real world which is so much nicer in our opinion.

Magic Kingdom (the children's park) is totally unreal. Many people bring children who are too small thus by early afternoon there are whiny kids all over the place from missing their naps & too much sugar. It's not the kids fault but they sure are annoying. There are strollers everywhere; often double-wide strollers. There is a parade every afternoon, several live shows daily, and everything is Disney, happy and smiley. You see adults, grownup people without kids in their party, having their photo taken with an actor dressed as Beauty (from Beauty and the Beast). Do you hear my inner grouch coming out?

Mickey Mouse is everywhere. Croc's are a cheap plastic shoe that are all the rage right now. They have holes in the top for ventilation and cost $30. At Disney, the holes are in the Mickey Mouse shape and the shoes are $39. The candy is in the shape of Mickey. The balloons are Mickey shaped. The topiary is great; every cartoon character you can imagine. Come to think of it, it may be plastic; I didn't check.

For me the biggest annoyance is built into the nature of theme parks. They want you to stay a while and spend money; you want to see things then leave. There is no motivation for them to reduce waiting for rides so they keep the lines as long as possible while not actually having riots take place. On many rides, you wait in line, are taken into another area and wait in line there, then are taken into another area to wait more and finally get onto the ride. The ride itself is seldom more that 3 or 4 minutes. I think the only things that take longer are the films in the French & Chinese pavilions; those are about 15 minutes. Even in January, the slowest time, there were 20 to 50 minute waits for many things. (In summer there are other entrances to the rides that are opened to keep waits under control. In winter these are closed off to reduce the staffing required and keep those wait times up. See Queuing Theory 101 in your college catalog.)

The park has two ways you can beat the wait but neither really works to your advantage. Some rides have a 'Single Rider' line that you can use if you don't care about being with your party. They have a 3 seat ride. Lots of couples ride it together and don't want to be split up. So a 'single' can be slid in with the couple, raise the usage rate of the ride and go through faster. Of course, the wait in the single line can be manipulated just like the other waits. The other idea is the 'Fast Path'. Here you use your entry ticket to get a ticket for the ride at a predetermined time. You might arrive at 13:00 and get a ticket good for a ride sometime between 14:30 and 15:30. You go do something else for an hour and a half then go get on the ride. Of course, there is a wait in the 'Fast Path' line! And, needless to say, the timeframe you get is determined by the parks desire to keep you around, not the actual number of people wanting to go on the ride.

There is one thing that definitely adds to the need to wait in line and it is something that just isn't handled very well. There are many people who use wheelchairs to get around Disney for a variety of reasons. These people want to ride the rides as well and Disney does everything they can to accommodate them. Usually this includes stopping the ride for the 3 or 4 minutes it takes to get someone into the ride. Thus all two or three hundred people waiting in line stop and wait for this one person to get on the ride. I applaud Disney for enabling these wheelchair bound people to ride. I just wish they would do it in some better manner. For example, every 10th car might be designed for wheelchair bound folks with special easy entry doors. Why stop the ride so we can all watch someone struggle to get a chair into a standard car? Stop it for the 15 seconds it would take to roll the whole chair on. It's just dumb but then again, there is no motivation. The wheelchair bound get directed to the front of the line. They seldom have any wait at all and the park is giving them that perk so who's to complain? Only the politically incorrect who have had 4 kids going crazy in line for the past 20 minutes.

Would I go again. Well, yes, possibly after the sugar high wears off. But we left Orlando in 1988 & that was the last time we visited until just now in 2008. It could be another 20 years....

Have a good one, it's dangerous out there.