Before I get started on anything, I have to thank my Mom and
Dad for providing this great trip for me.
I had to miss three days of school in order to go and they let me go on
this trip. Thanks Mom and Dad!
This trip is one of the best I have ever been on, as I
believe it is the most we have ever done in one trip. The 5 parks being (in order of attendance):
Sea World, Epcot, MGM Studios, Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom and the 1
Convention being, well, IAAPA. The
International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions, try saying that
ten times fast. The five days my family
was in Florida
was starting on Wednesday, November 17 and ending on the 21st.
Now on with the report.
Wednesday we flew from Cleveland to Orlando and landed around
11:30ish. We then took a taxi from the
airport to the Sheraton World Resort, our home for the next few days. We decided not to rent a car, as it is a lot
less stressful for my parents if they do not have to drive and offers them a
much more relaxing vacation as they do not have to worry about driving, plus
the cost is right about the same.
Anyway, the Sheraton World was an official IAAPA hotel, which means they
offer a shuttle to the convention. When
we arrived, our room was still not ready, so they stored our luggage and we
went out to wait for a shuttle. Well,
the shuttle never came. We waited about
10 minutes for it and decided to take a cab over instead since the shuttle was
scheduled to come every 30 minutes.
IAAPA
Wow. IAAPA is
amazing! Ten miles of aisles with
everything you could possibly imagine at an amusement park. From insurance agencies to inflatable slides,
from fountains to pizza, everything is here. You name it, they are here, and they have
three different competitors. Now I don’t
remember everything so I’m just going to go through all the things I remember.
Dippin’ Dots, everyone has had at least one cup. Well, ever hear of Mini Melts? Or how about Frosty Bites? Well, they are Dippin’ Dots’ competitors, and
boy do they give them a run for their money.
After tasting all three of them, my whole family agreed that Mini Melts
are the best. They have much more texture
and have a natural flavor. There was a
huge suit between the three companies, as Mini Melts and Frosty Bites both
‘stole’ the idea from Dippin’ Dots and the owners of those two companies used
to word of DD. But I’m not getting into
that.
At IAAPA, you literally eat your way through. If you trying to get your food into a park
and to promote it, well, you have to let people eat it. Therefore, everyone eats the food. Pizza is the main food given away, as it is
the easiest to make. And yes, I did say
given away, everything is FREE here. All
the rides, games, and food, is all free.
For everyone who has bought a dozen mini-donuts at Cedar Point’s donut
time, I saw a similar product that makes those donuts, and it advertised a good
selling price would be $2.50, and lets just say Cedar Point is making over a $2
profit on them. Coke and Pepsi both have
booths giving away drinks. Rides also
appear throughout the convention also.
Probably the center-point of the rides this year, just like
last year, is Zamperla’s Disk ‘O’. Wow,
what an amazing ride. The ride consists
of a round disk in which everyone sits around the outside of, and the disk goes
up and down a “half pipe” type of figure and the disk spins. It’s pretty fun. To what I understand, it is a smaller version
of the Huss Frisbee. There was also a
cool Zamperla ride where you have to pedal to move your gondola. There are two separate cars, both holding two
passengers. In order to go higher and in
a circle, you have to pedal. It was a
fun ride and unfortunately, I cannot find any info on it on the net, nor do I
have a picture of it.
Sartori’s Techno Jump also was a big hit. This ride is, I would say, Dumbo on
steroids. It is the same basic concept,
except it ‘jumps’ you up and down very quickly, which gives you incredible air-time. The only negative thing about this ride is it
is long. For being just a spinny ride,
it is way to long and capacity is a serious problem on it, as it only gets 450
riders per hour. However, I am sure it
can be adjusted to the owners wish.
There were then a few other rides outside, but none of us
felt like riding those, so we skipped them.
But they were just some drop rides, nothing we haven’t experience
before.
The last thing I am going to go into with IAAPA is the
games. There are TONS of different game
manufacturer companies. The biggest, is
Bob’s Space Racers (BSR). Bob’s Space
Racers is probably one of the larger displays at IAAPA. Most of the games they produce are those
racing midway games at parks. Games such
as Top Glo, Top Glo 2, and their newest, Lights Up, are all produced by BSR. They also displayed many of their arcade
games in their booth, in which all games are free.
But there are a ton of game booths, many of them
Japanese. There are always new games
being produced. One of things that
surprised me the most were all the wanna-be DDR games. I probably saw three or four games that were
all similar to DDR, but none of course as good.
Overall, IAAPA is simply amazing. Unfortunately, I will not be going next year
because it is Atlanta. What the heck is in Atlanta for people to do? Yeah, lets go to Six Flags, like that will be
any better than Sea World (read on).
Wednesday –
IAAPA/City Walk
Wednesday morning we flew in from Cleveland, checked in, went to IAAPA, as I
said before. After IAAPA, we went to one
of my favorite locations in Orlando, Universal’s City Walk. We met up with some friends who were also
down for IAAPA and ate dinner at Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville, my favorite
restaurant in Orlando. Now we did not actually eat inside Margaritaville, it was a two-hour
wait at 7:30 when we got there for our party and the outside balcony was closed
for a private party. So things were not
looking to good, then we discovered we could order take out and eat it at the
bar area across the midway, which is apart of Margaritaville. We all ordered cheeseburgers, which are by
far the second best I have ever eaten, followed by Margaritaville Key West.
After dinner, we walked around City Walk. It was my Mom’s first time there, as the last
time she was at Universal the only thing there was Universal Studios. She was amazed at the amount of theming and
amount of work was put into everything.
After walking around for a bit, we went back to the hotel and went to
sleep.
Thursday –
IAAPA/Sea World
On Thursday, we woke up and finished IAAPA. We finished IAAPA around 2, and the Social
Event for that evening was at Sea World, which started at 7. We decided to take one last ride on Disk O
and head back to the Sheraton and just enjoy the fact that we were in Florida and it was cold and rainy back in Cleveland. We sat by the pool out in the 75 degree, blue-sky
weather. It was a very relaxing
afternoon and I believe it saved us from “hitting the wall” later in our
trip. Hitting the wall is where you just
use up so much of your energy and you are constantly moving, you just get so
tired and fatigued you almost can fall over.
Around 6:45, we caught the first shuttle over to Sea
World. Previous social events for IAAPA have
been extremely fun and it seems as if IAAPA bought out the park, as you can do
whatever you want without any wait and all the food is free. Last year the event was held at Universal
Studios, in which everything was opened and there was not a wait for
anything. It was a lot of fun last year,
and expectations were very high for Sea World as Busch usually does everything
better than Universal and Disney in this aspect. However, these expectations were not evenly
closely met, as Sea World screwed up BIG TIME!
We were dropped off in the pavilion area of Sea Wrong, were
under each pavilion there was food and in the largest there was a band
playing. We were one of the first of
many buses to be dropped off, and we quickly noticed the food was pretty much
the same at all the locations, there were not nearly enough tables/chairs, the
music was too loud, and the ‘dinner’ was more like appetizer’s. We could not find a table, so we stood around
a waiter’s tray on its little stand and ate on that, but it was better than
most people had. Next, we find out we cannot
leave this area until around 9, when the Shamu show starts. Remember, we arrived right at 7, we are done
eating around 7:30, so we have some time to kill. Sea Wrong did bring out some birds and
animals to let people look at, but that did not exactly help all too much.
Anyway, they let everyone into Shamu Stadium. After this was the best part, they let people go over to
ride Kraken and Journey to Atlantis. I
actually thought Sea Wrong would redeem themselves here, as my little brother
and I ran to the front of the crowd to be the first on Kraken, we saw all the
“desserts” set up for everyone and all the employees waiting to serve the
crowds. The good thing was that my
family actually got a table this time.
Kraken is an amazing ride. My
little brother and I were the first ones on it, and the only ones on it for the
first train out. Front seat center, we
were the only ones on it, that is the one thing I liked about Sea Wrong is that
I can say I was the only one on Kraken with my little brother. It was a ride I will never forget, as it was
fun, fast, and dark.
After Kraken we went to Journey to Atlantis, in which we got
soaked. I love Journey to Atlantis, I
love theming, I love themed dark rides, it is a really fun ride. After Atlantis, we rode Kraken once more to
dry off a little bit. Afterwards, we
realized we missed the Clyde and Seamore show,
and the next show was Odyssea. Once
again, we all had high expectations for this show as we all heard it was
extremely good. To a half-full theater,
the show started off excellent. I still
can’t figure out how they do those slinky guys, but after that, everything
seems kind of “frozen” to me. Oh wait,
they couldn’t get the scenery to change into what appeared a winter scene, so
they had to cancel the show. At the
beginning, there was a guy juggling penguins and as we were walking out my dad
said the penguins froze so they had to cancel the show. Don’t worry, it took me a minute to get it as
well.
After the “show” we had to leave, as there was nothing left
to do. The buses were at the main
entrance this time, so at least we got to walk through some of the park. Why didn’t Sea Wrong open up some of their
stores, I do not know, as they could have made a few more bucks off of
merchandise. They have such a beautiful
park, and unfortunately everything was closed.
Friday –
Epcot/MGM Studios
We decided to do open Epcot and close MGM because we wanted
to see Fantasmic at MGM that night and that Illuminations was not very
good. We arrived at Epcot around 8:30,
park opened at 9. They let everyone
through the gates around 8:45 but we could not go pass Spaceship Earth. My little brother and I got to the front of
the line and went immediately to Mission Space.
I have been on it before, but every time this ride amazes me, it is just
incredible. While we were on Mission
Space, my parents went to Text Track and got my little brother and I a Fast Pass. Since our time still did not come, we went
and rode Universe of Energy. I
personally like this ride, as you actually learn something while on it, plus it
is a little funny.
After Universe of Energy, my little brother and I went and
rode Test Track. Test Track is my
favorite ride at Epcot, as the theming on it is just unbelievable. Unlike Mission Space, a lot of the things
that occur in Test Track are real, which makes it even more fun. It was a little after 10, so we went over and
decided to ride the Figment of your Imagination ride. Ever since they renovated this, it just
hasn’t been as good. They really could
have done a much better job with it, however the area when you exit is
extremely good. After exiting, we just
made the Honey I Shrunk the Audience show.
It was right after 11 when we got out, so we headed over to
the World Showcase. It had two goals to
do in the World Showcase, eat at America
and see the show at America.
When we arrived we just missed the show, so we went and ate. The food was good, had the cheeseburger. We went to see the show, but it was cancelled
since someone got sick in the theater beforehand.
Since we had nothing to do, we started heading out. We rode on Spaceship Earth before we left and
heading toward the buses to go to MGM.
When we arrived at MGM, we couldn’t believe how crowded it was. The first thing we went to was Tower of
Terror/Rockin Roller Coaster. We decided
to get a Fast Pass
for Rocking Roller Coaster and then go on Tower of Terror. Tower
of Terror we had a good
ride, we bounced up and down four times, and Rockin Roller Coaster was alright,
really nothing compared to what I’m used to, but the theming was good.
Next we went to The Great Movie Ride. One word: renovation. After that we went to Muppets 3-D, but we
just missed the show again so we walked on Star Tours. Then we just missed Muppets again, but we
waited this time. I love the Muppets, it
is a great show and I am always laughing at it.
Afterwards we went on the Back lot Tram ride, which I thought was kind
of lame.
We then decided to go catch Indian Jones and we arrived
about 20min early, so my dad and I went to the ABC Commissary and got kids
chicken nuggets for everyone, which were really good. Indian Jones is cool, and I just hope they
keep it with the new stunt show coming.
After Jones, we went to see Fantasmic.
Wow. Fantasmic blows
Cedar Point’s laser show out of the water.
All the different effects, lasers, fire, water, boats, movies, actors,
stunts, and a surprisingly good storyline make it my favorite nighttime show. My only concern about this is if there is a
need for an evacuation, I did not see any other ways to get out, as the path is
small and crowded.
NOTE: Sorry it seems I’m rushing things here, I just noticed
I am on page 6 in MS-Word.
Friday – Animal
Kingdom/Magic Kingdom
We arrived at Animal Kingdom (AK) right at opening and
headed towards the Dinosaur ride. The
entrance looked really crowded, but I guess everyone went to the Safari
ride. We walked on Dinosaur, which was
really good. Better than Spiderman and
Indian Jones in my opinion. They allowed
us to stay on for a second ride, since no one was in line, so we rode
twice. Then after exiting, we decided to
ride a third time. Next was the spinning
coaster, I don’t even know what it is called, as I don’t really care. The ride wasn’t that good at all, I had high
expectations for spinning, and we spun for only half the ride.
The Safari Ride was next, and my little brother and I used
Fast Passes that my parents got for us while we were on Dinosaur. That ride was pretty something, I have never
been on anything like it before. After
that we did the 3-D movie, which was really good. The “pre-show” area I didn’t like, but the regular
movie was really good. We were done with
AK around 11:30ish, so we went to the Magic Kingdom.
We were all over the Magic Kingdom,
and we killed the park. We did
everything (even a parade!) When we
arrived, we went and got FP’s for Splash and Big Thunder Mt. Then we went and ate at the chicken
restaurant by Haunted
Mansion. After eating, we got more FP’s for Haunted Mansion
and rode Splash and Thunder
Mountain. Both good rides. We then got FP’s for Jungle Cruise and went
and rode Haunted Mansion.
Then we went to the Tiki Room. I
hate the new Tiki Room, bring back the original. We used our FP’s for Jungle Cruise and we
actually had a good captain. But I was
surprised, I was the only one on the boat to take a picture of the backside of
water as I have never seen it before.
Pirates isn’t as good as the one out at Disneyland,
but still is a fun ride. The Bear
Jamboree had its Christmas show playing so we had to see that. I personally liked it more than the regular
one, and Big Al is still my favorite.
We got FP’s for the Philarmagic show, and then went into
Tomorrowland. I don’t exactly remember
how we did everything, so I’m just going to list the rides. Philarmagic is amazing, a must see if you go
to MK. Space
Mountain is, well, Space Mountain. There isn’t a lot to be said about it, except
the FP line was way too long. Carousel
of Progress, ah, a classic. If they
remove this one, then I’m actually putting that Save Disney bumper sticker on
my car. Transit Authority, I still call
it the one-way people mover, but this is a nice relaxing ride to get a view of
everything. Buzz, wow, one of my
favorites. Cedar Point needs something
like this, maybe you shoot mayflies instead of Zurg. We then saw the Wishes show, which was really
cool. I love how they the music goes
right along with the fireworks. The
Light parade was also good, kind of short, but good. So, that’s my trip. Sunday we flew home to cold, rainy, gray
weather.
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