Florida Day 2: The Magic Kingdom (12/6/04)

Without being negative, I think I can say that some of the "magic" of the "Magic" Kingdom is lost on me. Maybe it’s just my age. Having said that, it’s still a damn fun time.

I tried a roller coaster for the first time! I didn’t like it. I’m going to revert to my anti-roller coaster stance. My sister told me I need to try more, to overcome my fear of rollercoasters. For the record, I’m not afraid of roller coasters. I’m afraid of vomiting while taking a turn at 90mph. Fortunately, there are very few ways to be put in that situation, and they’re easy to avoid.

The roller coaster in question was Thunder Mountain, a “Disneyfied” roller coaster for “kids.” The “kids” on the train seemed to like it. I, on the other hand, was not enjoying myself. I just don’t like the sensations brought on by a roller coaster. It’s just the way I am.

Other rides brought me much joy. Splash Mountain was a personal favorite of mine (although for fear of losing my glasses on the big splashdowns I kept them in my pocket. This kind of dampened the experience a little as I watched a Brer Rabbit-shaped blur being chased by a Brer Fox-shaped blur alongside the boat.)

Other favorites include Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin. A very tame ride, it’s more of a moving shooting gallery, which was… well… a blast. My mad video game skills were showing when I scored more than three times anyone else in my family. 78500 points! Go to Walt Disney World right now, hop on that ride a few times and beat that score, I dare you!

That particular ride was located in Tomorrowland, my favorite of the sub kingdoms within The Magic Kingdom (which is, itself, a sub kingdom of Walt Disney World). I loved the retro-future motif of that whole wing of the park, kind of a 1950’s view of the future, it’s was groovy.

The Haunted Mansion and other animatronic attractions like it were pretty anti-climactic, but fun nonetheless. They're still notable for all their visual tricks and puns.

We capped off the day by catching the parade… well, one of the parades anyway, apparently there are a LOT of parades in Disney World. At night the place lit up all sorts of colors and we were treated to various stage shows until we were to tired to stand, much less walk.

Pictures are up now at http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/radioactiveegg03/my_photos.