First visit to Walt Disney Magic Kingdom – Aug 1997

Here goes a narrative of my experiences over the long weekend for Labor Day (Sept 1st ):

Our plans of enjoying the long weekend seemed to go awry when our friend’s relatives paid him a surprise visit. So, he was unable to join us. However, lady luck smiled on us Friday night when two of our friends from Tampa (the next city) arrived to see Orlando. We laid plans for our visit to Disney World on Saturday. We decided to take our car for the trip. We decided to start early in the morning at 8.30am, going by the adage ‘The early bird catches the worm’. So, at 8.40am the next morning, we set off in anticipation of an exciting day’s adventure. It was quite surprising though, that we managed to leave almost on time. We made a short detour to Winn Dixie for buying some food stuff for the day and also to fill gas for our car. And then, we started for Walt Disney World on I-4. We had taken directions from our friend to go to Magic Kingdom, one of the three Theme parks of Disney World. However, once we reached the right exit on the Freeway, his directions seemed to be redundant as all the roads clearly indicated the directions to Walt Disney World. It seemed as though ‘All roads lead to Walt Disney World’ ! The morning rush was beginning to pour in. We parked at the Diamond parking lot assigned specially for AAA members. (It was small consolation though, b’cos we were not given any rebate on the parking fee of 5$) This parking lot was very near to the Disney World entrance and we were happy that we were spared from the relentless heat of the sun, that early in the morning at about 10am. We headed straight for the ticket counter. After a brief wait in the queue, we spent a long time at the counter looking for the best deal we could lay our hands on. After a lot of debating, we finally decided on getting a seasonal pass to any of the Disney World theme parks (given only to Florida residents). Our mind was in a turmoil, of course, to shell out 150$ for this pass. We thought it was worth the money, and we were proved right at the end of the weekend. We were quite impressed with the patience and courtesy of the man at the ticket counter, which stood in dire contrast with the treatment in India.

There was a monorail which took us from the ticket counter to the entrance of Magic Kingdom. We were shown around the entire area of Magic Kingdom on our trip which lasted about 10 minutes. This brief trip gave us a preview of the fun we were to have through the day. The moment we landed at the entrance, we started clicking away with our camera. We first went to the Welcome center where we were shown a small film about the future of Disney World called ‘Mickey’s Magic Workshop’ and we were given small souvenirs on the occasion of the 25 th anniversary clelebrations of Walt Disney World. We were quite disappointed with the souvenirs as it did not live up to our expectations. We only got a couple of Disney World stickers and a photograph of the Cinderella castle of Magic Kingdom.

Then, we started our way to one of the Lands in Magic Kingdom called TomorrowLand which offered a lot of thrilling rides demonstrating the latest in technology. I am not the type interested in thrills but nevertheless I wanted to see the technology – or that’s how I consoled myself. First, we went to a ride called Take Flight, which gave a superb simulation of an aircraft taking off from the runway. We then took off with a ride in Space Mountain after a long wait. The ride started off slowly but soon afterwards, became a speedy monster going thru’ a series of twists and turns much to my agony. There were a lot of butterflies screaming away in my stomach as I wished the ride to stop. And finally, the ride came to a stop but not before my nerves were at their tensed best. My friends said they enjoyed the ride but I felt that it was more of putting up a brave front rather than really enjoying it.

Then, we proceeded to Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress, which did not offer any unwanted thrills but it was a technological wonder with almost life-like representations of the coming around of America thru’ the ages. I was impressed with this ride. Then, we mounted the Space Orbiter, which was not really up to our expectations. It was meant to be a relatively less speedy ride in a plane high up above the ground. But our planes never really went up, much to our chagrin b’cos there was quite a long wait for this ride. It was time for seeing the Disney Parade at 3pm. We didn’t want to miss it b’cos there was a lot of talk about it and we wanted to see if it was one more of the American hypes. We went near the Cinderella castle which is the nerve-centre of Magic Kingdom in that all Lands lead to the castle which is at the very centre. The parade started on time. There were colorful Disney characters on Chariots and on foot inviting the small children to dance with them. Also, there were beautiful parades of famous disney films like Aladdin, Lion King etc. To put it in perspective, the parade is something not to be missed. After a brief halt at a bakery to satisfy our hunger, we again started off for Tomorrowland to see the remaining attractions there. We were not really in a hurry to see the entire park b’cos we had a seasonal pass. What other way to put it into full use than to spend the maximum time seeing ALL attractions at a leisurely pace ? We then went to the Extra ‘Terror’estrial Encounter – an exciting simulation of an encounter with an alien monster in a spacecraft. The monster was breathing hot air down our necks in the dark eerie simulated environment. Brilliant ! Then, there was the Time Machine show which took us from the Dinosaur age till late into the next century. The show was spectacular. Then, we went to the Speedtrack, which claimed that Goodyear was sponsoring it and it was an exciting race car track. After the ride was over, we were thouroughly disappointed since the ride was all about driving a small car on a small metal track for approx. 10 minutes. There was absolutely no thrill (Surprised I am saying it !!!) After this, we boarded the train to show us around Tomorrow Land. This ride was on the wrong side of our plan, since we should have embarked on the tour of TomorrowLand, first thing in the morning. But we didn’t want to miss anything. After this tour, we took the Skyway (A winch) to the next land called Fantasy Land.

Fantasy Land didn’t offer any spine-chilling rides and I was very relaxed. We went on a ride called It’s a small world which showed us a lot of cultures around the world, created by puppets. But the show was a piece of extravaganza, with all the glitter and colorful settings. No wonder Disney World is little children’s heaven ! Then, we attended a live performance of The Legend of The Lion-King by Kodak. That was simply wonderful, with Simba stealing the audience’ hearts. It was dusk and by 8.30pm, the sky was laden with thick threatening clouds.

Threatening, b’cos there was another colorful lighted Disney parade called the SpectraMagic Show at 9pm. Again, this parade started on schedule and it was another feast to the eyes. What was most memorable was the lighted spectacle of the peacock. It was a work of art. At about 9.30pm, the sky was ominously dark and a light drizzle had started. We decided to leave before it started pouring cats and dogs. So did most of the crowd. It was a sea of humanity at the Exit which slowly wound it’s way back home. We didn’t wait for the promising fireworks display at 10pm. At 10.15pm, we were back in our car.

But the final thrill was beginning to unfold. We had switched on our headlights in the morning and forgotten to switch it off. The car battery had drained out completely and the car refused to start. We went in search of some Disney World volunteers to help us jump-start the car. After an agonising search for the elusive park security, we finally found them. They came and jump-started the car. Were we glad we started early ! It was really heartening to see the Park operating so professionally. After all, this is America ! We thanked the stars as the rain had stopped by then. We reached home at about half an hour to midnight after the drive back home. By then, the battery had charged to capacity again.

After a quick dinner, we went to sleep at 12.30am, reminiscing the adventures of the day. Our plan for the morrow was Disney MGM studios, but we would not leave very early. The earliest we could plan, was for 11am.

So, wait for my next mail for my adventures at MGM.

Till Then,

Bye Jagan