September 2008

Since Tash went through the cruise side of our holiday I thought I would give you a round up of the Theme Parks. In Disneyworld Orlando, Florida, there are four main theme parks. Magic Kingdom (with its signature castle), Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios and Epcot Centre. Any guest staying at the Disney Resorts get a special treat… We had passes to all four parks and since we were guests we were entitled to the “Extra Magical Hours” promotion which allowed us to stay in the parks after closing time while general admission guests would have to leave. This meant that if the park closes at 12am, we were allowed to stay there until 3am with about 75% less people in the park which meant no wait times!!

What I loved about Disneyworld is that they have rides to accommodate both adults and kids. So for the more faint of heart there are the Dumbo and Giant Tea Cups rides, while for those who were after a bit more adrenaline there was the Hollywood Tower, Space Mountain, Rolling Thunder and a few other rollercoaster thrill rides. My favourite ride by far was the Toy Story Ride. It was an amazing interactive 3D shooting gallery that you ride through. At the end of the ride you score is compared to the other competitors in your team.

On a  funny note, while Cyrus and I were about to go on the Hollywood Tower ride, we were joking about how funny it would be to see our Mother in Law’s reaction if she went on it. We then though oh wait… maybe not because she’s got high blood pressure and probably would have a heart attack. She would never go on any sort of rollercoaster or thrill rides EVER. So with this ride, basically you sit in the carriage and go through a haunted tower in total darkness in your very own episode of the twilight zone and enter an elevator shaft. Once you’re in the elevator shaft the carriage free falls about 2 storey’s and then starts to rise again. After it goes up to about the 20th floor you see a window in front of you with the view of the entire theme park and you realise how high up you really are…. and then you free fall… This happens over and over from varying heights, so once you hit the bottom you might go up 8 floors before falling again. Each time you go on the ride you get a different algorithm for the free falling so its never the same and you can’t prepare yourself for how long you’re going to drop. Back to my Mother in Law… She unsuspectingly lined up by herself for the Hollywood Tower ride thinking that it was just a ghost house where people would jump out of a dark area and scare you. Little did she know that it was a free fall ride and she told me that she felt like she was about to die and was yelling “JESUS! JESUS!” the whole ride while her handbag was flying around because she didn’t secure it.  

The funny thing is, right after that ride she went into another line because she heard Aerosmith music and she thought it was them playing live. Little did she know that it was one of the most scariest roller coaster rides in the park (Route 66) and after about an hour waiting in line she approached the front and heard screaming. She turned to the person behind her and asked her what it was and after hearing that it was a rollercoaster she was outta there  like a bat out of hell… We can all laugh about it now though…

I must admit I was blown away by the quality of service during our entire stay at the resort and the parks. They’ve thought of everything that you would need at your disposal to make your holiday as pleasant as possible. The little things like “one check in only” for the cruise and resort, the baggage service where you don’t even need to carry anything because they include porter service, and also the free transportation between the parks and the resorts every 20 minutes.

All in all, I thought the parks were really awesome, the decor of the parks, the grandeur size of everything, and especially the fireworks spectacle at each park EVERY night… It truly does make it the most magical place on earth.

Yes, we just came back from the happiest place on Earth and Paradise island a.k.a Disney World and the Bahamas. Just how much did we look forward to this trip? Considering we both haven’t had a decent break since January last year, we weren’t gonna let the high level hurricane threat that was all over the news stop us! I didn’t care what they say, we’re going! And boy were we glad it was the right decision.

We spent 4 nights at the Dolphin Disney World Resort and 3 nights at the Disney Wonder cruise. My sister and I grew up with Disney cartoons and comics, we used to watch/read them all the time, although most of the classic ones weren’t really showing good examples for kids: Mickey Mouse always beats up Pluto, Minnie was a total bitch,  Daisy was a money hungry wh*re, and Donald was a grumpy old duckling… He always wanted to kill everything and anything especially Chip and Dale. And not to mention the environmentally UNfriendly story lines: whaling, fox hunting, hunting in general, war, Donald chopping up trees, and racism just to name a few.

Despite all that, I love Disney especially all the original characters. I love, love, love, them! We were very lucky and got upgraded throughout the holiday. We got a deluxe room in the resort and an outside cabin (with a window) as opposed an inside cabin. The resort was so beautiful. It had a man-made beach next to a lake with hammocks! I love hammocks, they are so comfy and Saj and I fell asleep on one… That one snooze accounted for Saj turning 3 shades darker… we have the tan lines to prove it!

 

We visited all the 4 theme parks, and I personally really liked the Disney Hollywood Studios. It took me by surprise; I thought I would’ve liked the Animal Kingdom the most knowing myself but I found that the sites were so far apart, it took so long to get from one place to another, therefore we lost a ot of time just by walking from one end to another. I got my face painted, so I guess that was the highlight of my day… until I sweated so much and smudged the paint.

Another cool thing that we enjoyed was having lunch at the Rainforest Cafe. It’s the coolest restaurant I’ve ever been in. The interior is so amazing, it is fully decorated with robotic animals and sound effects. You could be sitting underneath a tree where the snake will crawl down to just above your head and will hiss at you every few minutes. It’s an awesome place with good food and great service, it’s also very child friendly if you have small kids.

The Disney Wonder Cruise was also so fantastic, we were very impressed with the service that was provided. Every night we dined in different restaurants and were served by the same waiters (Vitcharon from Thailand and Raphael from Romania). Victcharon has such a good sense of humour, on our last night he asked me what would I like for dessert and I said “nothing”. A few minutes later he served me a plate with “nothing” written on it in chocolate sauce. Too cute!

The ship docked in 2 places: Nassau (Capital city of Bahamas) and Castaway Cay (a private island owned by Disney). We went on a local tour in Nassau (it’s much cheaper than purchasing  a shore excursion from the ship, so make sure you think twice before you buy). Our tour guide-Rodney took us to the Atlantis (the largest and most expensive resort in Nassau) it has the 2nd largest Aquarium in the world and also a private beach, we went to the local market, he drove us around town and residency areas (both the upper class and the ghetto side). The tour was about 5 hours for $30 per person which is CHEAP, compare to $45 for 2 hrs if you book from the ship.

Castaway Cay is a beautiful secluded island, and we spent the day basically sleeping on the beach (left with a few sunburnt spots) and we hired 2 bicycles and we pedalled around the island.

I couldn’t get enough of taking photos with Disney characters- although, who knows who was inside those Goofy/Donald/Mickey/Minnie/etc costumes, it could be some ugly sleeze mofo that put their arms around me and kissed me. Hell, it could’ve been a man in that Minnie Mouse costume! But I can say that I don’t care coz I love Goofy/Donald/Mickey/Minnie/etc too much to pass, and as long as I don’t see the true self inside… fine by me. Just like the old saying “Some things are better left unsaid seen”.

Our holiday was very memorable and we loved every bit of it, although all good things must come to an end, I would like to go back again one day, maybe we could go on the Disney Magic cruise next time. Just like what Mickey Mouse says: “we’ll see you real soon!”

Hell Yeah!