Jun 2, 2011

Epcot - A truly diverse world

From Europe to Asia to the Americas, Epcot has about everything covered and fitted into 300 acres of land.

You could see how all the cultures add up to make such a beautiful and perfect planet! The best thing was that in each pavilion, every little detail had been looked after. You couldn't find a single thing that hadn't been altered according to the culture of the pavilion. Even the people working in the pavilions were natives of that country!

There was also a lot of other stuff there, like Future World and The Land.

We started with Future World.

In Future World we went to Spaceship Earth, Universe of energy and Test Track.
Spaceship Earth was a slow ride where you could invent your own future. The showed us some history and development of technology in the beginning and then they zoomed into the future. There were screens in front of us and we were given options, such as 'where we would like to live?' and 'what mode of transportation do we prefer?' And then once we answered all their questions, they created our future and showed it to us.


Spaceship Earth

Universe of Energy was this show of Ellen Degeneres on dinosaurs and energy! It started with her going to sleep and having a nightmare of being beaten by her childhood frenemy in Jeopardy. So along with Bill, AKA science guy who happened to be her neighbour she went on a journey to the land of dinosaurs and to discover different forms of energy. They showed us all about stuff like solar energy, wind energy and the extraction of petroleum and oil. 

Test Track was a thriller ride, in which we went on a bumpy and rash car ride, as we helped test newly built cars in rough conditions. 

We went to the Pavilions next. These were of different countries. Pretty nice ones too. Managed to bring in the entire country's culture into such a tiny piece of land! 

The first pavilion we went to was Mexico. 

Pavilion of Mexico

Traditional Mexican Musicians play in a festival like atmosphere in the Mexican Pavilion

Mexican Hats AKA Sombreros!


Apart from that the Mexico Pavilion also had a boat ride which took you through a kind of an exhibition of Mexican Culture.

Next came Norway.


The Norway Pavilion
My brother tries to copy a viking's pose using an umbrella as the ax and a map of Epcot as the shield

Scary, isnt it?

Viking at peace!


Apart from window displays like these, there wasn't anything else to see here.

So we moved on to the next pavilion, that was Italy. (We kinda skipped China and Germany!)

There were mostly eating places and fountains and shops here.

L'Italia
One of the restaurants in the Italian Pavilion



A fountain of Italy

Standing on a bridge in front of the Italian Pavilion


Next we went to The American Adventure. They had a lot of activity there. They had this band marching and playing the national anthem and a museum and shows. Although we didn't see much there apart from the bad which happened to be playing at that time, it was still quite interesting.

Drum roll!

Singing the national anthem!


After America we moved to Japan.
Japan was beautiful! It didn't have much apart from restaurants and stores, but it was so beautifully built, that we spent our maximum time there. There was a shop there with Japanese Handicrafts. It had all kind of things from accessories to clothes to stationary to art!


The Japanese Pavilion

Shopping area of Japan!

A japanese statue

Japanese art work at one of the stores


After Japan we passed through Morocco to go to France. Now although we didn't intend to go to the Morocco Pavilion, it was so amazing that we couldn't help it.


The Moroccan Pavilion

A band plays Arabic songs 

My brother with Moroccans working in the Pavilion's store

A Moroccan fountain

We site Beauty and the Beast near the Moroccan pavilion!

Morocco also had all these really great stores where they had so spectacular jewelery. I am so going to visit Morocco some day!

Then came along France. Apart from stores full of perfumes and restaurants full of wines, there was a show called Impressions de France (which I did not see- i think it was about the French Revolution and the history of france)
The French Pavilion


Les Vins de France

Lets not forget the art..

...or the food!

My mom next to a woman in a traditional French costume


Sleeping Beauty AKA Princess Aurora

After France we passed through the pavilion of UK to go to Canada. There wasn't anything there apart from stores and restaurants, and those weren't anything great either.

A store at UK

English houses

And of course the old fashioned houses

Canada was really good. They had a waterfall which I'm guessing was to remind us that they have a part the Niagra Falls and a hell lotta greenery and culture. There was a show too which i did not see.



The Canadian Pavilion

Believe it or not-it's a photo booth!

Mini-Niagra

A garden in the Canadian Pavilion

With Canada we finished with all the country's pavilions. Since we still had some time left before the fireworks and laser show at 9 pm, we went to 'The Land' which included Soarin (a ride gave you the feeling  and view of flying over California), Living with the Land ( a boat ride through a built in greenhouse and fish farm) and the Circle of Life (an environmental fable featuring the characters of Lion King)

We couldn't go for Soarin' (which happened to be top priority) because of the 90 minute wait time in the queue. 
Living with the Land was pretty good. They showed us their huge greenhouse and fish farms.

Fish Farming

The greenhouse of epcot

Growing watermelons

and nine pound lemons!

We also went to watch The Circle of Life. It began with some Lion King Characters wanting to stop a river and build a resort in its place. Then Simba (The Lion) started telling the story of humans, how their never ending greed for luxury destroyed the earth and the home of 1000s of species and how they now move towards restoring it.

At the end of the day, we saw the laser and fireworks show, which was really beautiful! They also had this revolving earth structure in the middle, which they projected images and laser lights on. It was only 15 minutes long but it was incredible. And it was so well coordinated with the music in the background. Some of the fireworks were of the kinds I had never seen before.

Having seen about 10 countries in one day and with all the rides and shows and not to forget, the fireworks and laser show to top it off, theres not much left to say!

Jun 1, 2011

Magic Kingdom-Where all dreams come true

"Wish upon a star and your dreams come true"

12 hours at Magic kingdom were enough to make me believe that!

It was one of those days at the beginning of which you think that everything will go wrong and you will return home feeling all tired and unhappy. But I was in for a surprise!

Well let me tell you why i expected the day to be bad. To start with we were all running terribly late to leave for Disney. it was about 10:30 pm by the time we reached. It was quite ideal to reach late today actually, since we had to stay late at Disney in order to watch the 9 p.m. parade, but we still planned to reach early to avoid the incredibly long queues that we always found at the park entrances in Orlando and the roller coasters when we got there!

And as expected there was a long queue at the entrance. To get to Magic Kingdom we had to take the train or the ferry. We, like all the others stood in the line of the train. The train was more in demand 'cuz it was much faster and efficient. The heat made me feel like fire. The line was moving very slowly at first. After some time it stopped moving altogether! It turned out that the train had stopped working! And instead everyone, thats right, that tremendously HUGE line, had to go by ferry. So everyone rushed towards the queues of the ferry. Thankfully we got a good spot in the queue and were able to get into the very first ferry which went there.

We resort to our 2nd option-the ferry


Entering General Joe Potter's Ferry

Inside the Ferry's second deck

Once we got there, i once again saw all the excitement and happiness..and off course, THE MAGIC! 
The streets of Main Street USA


Special Disney Balloons

Welcomed by a horse!

Walt Disney-the builder of dreams!


A street show in Main Street USA

The famous Cinderella Castle

Magic Kingdom was pretty big. It included quite a few lands. There was Main Street USA, Fantasy land, Tomorrow Land, Liberty Square, Frontier Land and Adventure Land. And each land had about 4 or 5 things you could do. So if we tried doing everything, we would probably end up doing nothing. The queues, like every other attraction in Orlando, were really long. They were about an hour long on an average. 
Luckily, we had picked out the things we wanted to do earlier. So that way, we knew what all we wanted to do and what we did not want to do! 

We started with a ride of Pirates of the Caribbean. It was boat ride taking us through Jack Sparrow's ship and home! It was a long wait, but then again, we were kind of used to it by now!



Disney gives us something to look at while waiting in the queues

Dangerous stuff! 


Well after we were done with Pirates of the Caribbean (which was pretty calm and slow unexpectedly),we went to the Swiss Family Tree House. This was where we could explore the Robinson's (the family from the movie  'The Swiss Family Robinson')  tree house. It was quite fun. Very similar to what we saw in Tarzan's Tree house in Hong Kong last year.

The Swiss Family Tree House



Next to the Robinson's Kitchen


The Robinson's living room

We went for the Jungle Cruise afterwards. That was a safari boat cruise through the amazon with all kind of sets put up across the shores to make it look all real. It was quite kiddish!

Red Indian!

An Isolated Hut

The Inspiring Falls as they call it


An Indian elephant

Beautifully built-amazingly tall giraffes!

No worry-they aren't even close to real!


Oh I wish that was real!

After the Jungle Cruise, we went had lunch, during which was also managed to catch a glimpse of a Disney Show and the popular Celebrate a Dream come true parade.

A show on Main Street USA

Mickey and Minnie lead the 'celebrate a dream come true parade'

The beauty and the beast follow!




Pinocchio's nose in normal sized for a change!

A parade in the Magic Kingdom without Aladdin? Noo wayy!


Cinderella's evil stepmother-as arrogant as she looks


And off course, CINDERELLA..with her prince and fairy godmother!

After that we went to Tomorrow Land.

Mickey bars for desert!

Another Disney Fan, except a better equipped one!

Here is where came along the most promising part-Space Mountain! For those of you who don't know, it is one of the most popular Disney rides, which takes you through a roller coaster-in the dark! It gives you the aura of being in space!

SPACE MOUNTAIN!

There was a loong wait, but thankfully we got some people to talk to in the queue, so time just flew by!
And the ride was as usual-AMAZING! 

We went to Frontier Land next, where we went to the Splash Mountain-which was a water ride, similar to Journey to Atlantis in Sea World where there was a steep fall into the water, and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, a roller coaster which impersonated a train running around steep rocks and mines. 


Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

Both the rides were extremely fun and nervy!

Next we went to Liberty Square. In this land we went to the Haunted Mansion-a ride with a lot of 3D effects leading you through a haunted house and Liberty Square River Boat, which was a 20 minute ride on a ship with sets on the shores for us to see.


We find some interesting DEAD attractions in the queue to the Haunted Mansion

Happy and obliged to be posing with the dead and damned

Tries to imitate-not quite there YET!

AAhh! There you go! Much better!

A grave, which looks more like a bath tub!

We find a man wearing key chains all over in the queue-officially making the queue to the Haunted Mansion my favourite queue!

The most tragic life i've ever seen-but then karma has its ways!

A photo with one of the green witches (people who worked at the Haunted Mansion dressed that way!)
The Liberty Square Riverboat



Scenery from the River Boat- Lonely man in a lonely house

Tribal Town!



We stayed for the Disney at night parade which took place at 9 p.m. It was a parade with all the characters in lit up, bright carousels passing through the streets of Main Street USA.

Mickey leads the way!
A horse man- a very lucky one i must say!

Cinderella's step sisters fight over the Prince


A verry impressive carousel



A carousel which not only is shaped like a dragon, but blows out smoke every now and then from the mouth of the dragon

Needless to say, Disney is  the happiest place on earth.

And Magic Kingdom, paradise!


So have you wished upon a star yet?