Orlando

tat2kc · Post by **tat2kc** » Thu Jun 10, 2004 3:44 pm

I was in Orlando for a few days to attend gaydays. I had a lot of fun, and saw some cool things.

The airport: Nice, pretty, but a pain in the ass compared to KCI. The walk from baggage claim where we returned the car rental to southwest checkin was much longer than a walk from ticketing to the plane in KCI. Security was running smoothly, but lines were so damn long. That's what happens when you have one security checkpoint (with mulitple stations, granted) for over 125 gates. I wouldn't trade KCI's design for any other airport in the country.

Convention Center: Really a beautiful building in a great setting, with lots of trees and flowers. Because its in a suburban setting, you really have to walk a fair distance for parking, even for different halls. There is an entertainment area not far away, but once again, since its a suburban setting, you have to hike from the convention center along a very busy (metclaf like) street. The entertainment center was cool, very compact and multiple levels. I saw Harry Potter at the Muvico theatre, on a 6 story screen. Very cool multi-story theatre. A good design that would fit the entertainement district here.

Disney's attention to detail: I thought that the Disney parks were adjacent to each other, but they are quite spead out over many thousands of acres that Disney owns. The parks and associated hotels are connected by multi-lane, divided expressways. Even the traffic signs were well designed, and not the typical rusty metal poles. In the parks, everthing from the color of the concrete to the design of the fence to the look of the streetlights is carefully designed. Even if you don't like the "Disney style" (which is silly), you must appreciate the attention to detail and pride in their work. They are masters at moving huge amounts of people in certain patterns. The Cordish folks would do well to talk to people at the Disney Institute (their urban planning division) to learn about doing the "small things" right.

The theme parks: We went to Universals two parks and the magic kingdom, Epcot, and MGM. Whew! The coolest ride was the new Mummy ride at Universal Studios. It combines a linear accelerator rollercoaster with sets from inside a pyramid, coupled with unbelieveable special effects including exploding balls of fire over your head to walls crawling with cockroaches. At one point, the ride stopped, the cars backed up, turned and swtiched tracks, accelerated, and dropped straight down into a hole you couldn't see into, but was filled with smoke. It was very intense! All in all, the parks are a lot of fun, but I wouldn't recommend trying to do 5 parks on one vacation though! The magic Kingdom came very close to reaching capacity by around 11:30, and they almost closed the park. It was insane!

Post by **chrizow** » Thu Jun 10, 2004 3:54 pm

REAL cockroaches????

tat2kc · Post by **tat2kc** » Thu Jun 10, 2004 4:02 pm

LOL no, but they looked real! Its an indoor coaster, so they had projectors, and special effects things all over. The exploding balls of fire over your head though, that was real. You could feel the heat as the ball of flames spread out over the ceiling.

cdschofield · Post by **cdschofield** » Thu Jun 10, 2004 7:56 pm

Disney's attention to detail: I thought that the Disney parks were adjacent to each other, but they are quite spead out over many thousands of acres that Disney owns. The parks and associated hotels are connected by multi-lane, divided expressways. Even the traffic signs were well designed, and not the typical rusty metal poles. In the parks, everthing from the color of the concrete to the design of the fence to the look of the streetlights is carefully designed. Even if you don't like the "Disney style" (which is silly), you must appreciate the attention to detail and pride in their work. They are masters at moving huge amounts of people in certain patterns. The Cordish folks would do well to talk to people at the Disney Institute (their urban planning division) to learn about doing the "small things" right.

Most top notch property managment companies are very aware of Disney's attention to detail and call it "Disney Green and Clean". A property management company my sister worked for would send new leasing agents and property managers there as part of their training. The last time I was there I couldn't even find a rogue cob web in the rafters of one of the train stations at Magic Kingdom.

eomaha.com · Post by **eomaha.com** » Sat Jun 12, 2004 10:30 am

I took my family on our one and only trip to Disney World the December immediately following 9/11.... there was NO ONE there. It took longer to walk through the long walkways (with the 1 hr/45 min/30min/15min wait signs) than it did to actually wait in line a the front. All those wait signs really intimidated me... I decided I'd never go back in the post 9/11 world. The rides aren't bad... but sitting through all the story line stuff sort of gets old (I guess that's what is supposed to calm people after having waited an eternity to get on the ride). Disney World doesn't really have any big thrill rides... as far as being REALLY intense (or at least not when I was there in 2001). Definitely a small kids/old folks type theme park (my kids enjoyed it).

We splurged and got the 'magic wishes' package or something like this... which gave us free reign to all parks... and 2 meals a day at any restaurants (basically all you can eat at Rain Forest Cafe/Hard Rock/etc... in downtown Disney).

It is definitely something people should do at least once in their lifetimes... but I pretty sure I couldn't handle an 'average' crowd (I think WOF can be bad enough some times! guess I'm a wimp when it comes to that sort of thing... ahh... peaceful little Omaha

).

tat2kc · Post by **tat2kc** » Sat Jun 12, 2004 11:49 am

we rarely waited in line for more than a few minutes. All the parks, both at Disney and Universal studios now post the wait times outside, before you even begin to get in line. They aslo had "fastpast" for most big attractions. Basically, you slide you ticket through a Kiosk that looks like an ATM. It will spit out a ticket with a return time. It gives you a window (usually 30 minutes to an hour) in which to return to the ride. So, for example, if you used the fastpass machine at 10:30, we were told to return between 11:20 and 12:30. When we returned, we entered the fastpass entrance and bypassed those in the regular line, waited less than 10 minutes and we on the ride. It really made the whole experience so much more relaxed.

trailerkid · Post by **trailerkid** » Sat Jun 12, 2004 12:26 pm

Am I the only one who finds the irony that there are devices to calm stress at an amusement park? I'll stay the hell away...thank you.

tat2kc · Post by **tat2kc** » Sat Jun 12, 2004 1:05 pm

let me make sure i understand you, trailerkid. Its 95 degrees plus with tropical humidity. The park is so popular that the wait for some attractions can exceed 60 minutes. Disney has developed a method to keep kids entertained and cheerful, as well as a method to reduce the wait for people in line, who may vey well become overheated. And this bothers you?

Sorry to disagree with you, but I'd rather be next to happy, cheeful kids instead of miserable, uncomfortable children crying because of the heat and the wait and such. Disney has done a remarkable job in trying to improve the comfort of tens of thousands of people who want to see the parks in the worst kinds of heat and humidity.

trailerkid · Post by **trailerkid** » Sat Jun 12, 2004 2:12 pm

I guess I'm just making a statement against the whole American ideology of vacations. We try to escape crumminess in our lives so we jam into crummy airports and wait in endless lines at an amusement park with subsaharan climates and humidity.

I just find it very funny that even places we try to escape to are often just as stressful if not more than our everyday lives.

eomaha.com · Post by **eomaha.com** » Sat Jun 12, 2004 5:51 pm

I hear you trailerkid... that's why you'll find my family spending a quiet weekend at home during Memorial Day/Labor Day weekend/etc. I regularly take weekdays off during the summer to go boating, to the zoo... or travel to KC, etc (weekday ball games are so much more relaxing!). The day after I heard the news reports about business at Disney World being way down after 9/11, because of fears of terrorism... was the day I called to book our trip!