The Amtrack AutoTrain

I recently went on a trip to Disney World, and I used Amtrack's AutoTrain service to get there. The trip down was distinctly different from the trip back, so I'll talk about them separately.

From Lorton, Virginia to Sanford, Florida

On the way down, we got three seats in the coach car, one apiece for myself, my mom, and my youngest brother. The seats are distributed in rows of two, and no one sat in the fourth seat near us, so we had four seats between the three of us. The seats were fairly comfortable, except that I was wearing jeans, and eventually you don't want to be trying to lie down in jeans. But that's my own fault, not the fault of the train.

The train provides a dinner to each passenger, and dinner was pretty good. I got some kind of fish, cod I think, as did my brother. My mom got a chicken meal, and the fourth guy sitting at our table (a stranger) got a beef dinner. Overall it was tasty, certainly better than the kind of stuff I usually cook up. Apparently, the guy who sat with us was from New Jersey, and he knew a woman named Stacy, a friend of my mom's, before Stacy moved from New Jersey to Maryland. This of course prompted my mom to make "small world" references for hours, though the fact that we were on our way to Disney World probably helped that as well.

Sleeping was less awesome. I had a cold, and as I said, the jeans weren't great, so I had trouble getting comfortable. Altogether, I probably only got about 90-120 minutes of sleep. It's not a perfect setup, but I do think that I'd do better in a future trip, knowing about wearing the right pants/shorts, and trying to, you know, not be sick.

Arriving in Sanford, we waited about forty minutes for our car to be unloaded, then headed off to Disney World. It was only about another 40 minutes to get there, and we had a car to use the whole time. That advantage cannot be understated, as you save quite a bit of money being able to buy groceries at a grocery store, rather than at the convenience shops at Disney resorts.

The Return Trip

The trip back from Florida was very different. First, we were ending a trip to Disney World. So we were all kind of bummed about that.

From a more logistical standpoint, the trip back was considerably sparser than the trip down. I guess there were a lot of "snow birds" heading down to Florida in January, but not a lot of people heading back north. As such, the price of the trip was considerably cheaper. So, in an attempt to maximize our experience, my mom upgraded us from coach seats to one of the sleeper suites. These suites have two pull-down beds in each room (we got two rooms), as well as bathrooms and sinks in the room.

Theoretically, this all sounds great. But the bathrooms were far too narrow, and I think they'd be too narrow even for someone of average size. So I ended up using the community bathrooms a couple times, despite the fact that we had accommodations in our room. The beds were also just not that great. The lower bunk starts out as a couch, and honestly, I think it's more comfortable for sleeping in couch form than in bed form. But unfortunately, I didn't realize that until after the attendant had switched them into beds.

Dinner tasted good enough, but after being spoiled with fantastic food at Disney World for nearly a week, there was really no chance it was going to measure up. Also, I deduced that something I had didn't agree with me. My stomach felt funky most of the night, and I got really nauseous on the drive back to my house from the train station. Lack of sleep probably didn't help that, either.

Overall Thoughts

I would take the AutoTrain again, I think. You can have all sorts of ideas going into an experience like that, but you can't really know what it's going to be like until you do it. Now that I've done it, I do feel like I could prepare a lot better to be able to get through the trip in the best shape.

My thinking is this: assume you're not going to get any sleep. Depending on your accommodations, you might be able to, but you want to prepare for the possibility that you won't. This means that you'll want to sleep as late as you can on the day of your trip, and try to figure out something to do early in Florida when you get there. Early check-in would be a beautiful thing for riders.

But if you've got a good group, a group that can entertain each other for hours and hours, it just might be the best way to get down south. Especially if you're like me, and could do without plane trips.

Rollercoaster Tycoon

As a lot of you probably know, I spend a lot of time playing computer games. As some of you don't know, I also like Disney World a lot. And pretty much every time I go to Disney World, I come home and start playing Roller Coaster Tycoon again.

This year, I actually didn't start playing right away. I got back into World of Warcraft, and played some NHL '09, and even revived MLB Front Office Manager and League of Legends. But when the huge storm hit on Wednesday and we lost internet, I lost my two big computer game time sinks (WoW and LoL). Roller Coaster Tycoon was the inevitable beneficiary.

This blog post is for RCT fans. Here's some of my own discoveries, for your edification:

• The first thing you should do when you start a level is go to your research screen and do the following: bump research up to maximum, disable Ride Improvements and Scenery and Theming, disable roller coasters if you already have the Steel Roller Coaster (see below), and disable shops and stalls if you've already got the following: any food, any drink, information kiosk, bathroom.
  
• The Steel Roller Coaster's pre-made track called Shuttle Loop is a great money-maker. It's cheap to build, takes up a small area on your map, and doesn't require you to try to work out the intricacies of banking turns and minimizing nausea. There are other small tracks in the other versions of the Steel Roller Coaster. I recommend them as well.
• Go Karts has the highest potential excitement of any ride. Seriously. It seems like as long as you don't have too many level straightaways, the excitement just goes up and up with each block of track you add.
• People like the Log Flume more than the excitement level would make you think they do. It's inexplicable, but it's true.
• Charging admission to the park rather than for each individual ride is almost always the best way to go. It keeps your rides popular, and I think you make more money anyways. You can also still charge a small price for roller coasters and other similar rides.
• The desert parks are the best, because you don't usually have many trees to get around, and you don't have to worry about whether or not you should let your handymen get distracted by mowing the grass (answer: you should not let them).
  

What about you guys? Got any of your own advice? Post it in the comments.

Disney World 2011

This year's Disney World trip was great, despite the fact that I was under the weather for the duration of the trip. My mom, my youngest brother Kevin, and I took Amtrak's AutoTrain. It was interesting enough that I'll devote a separate post to it, but for here, we'll say that it got us down there, and I didn't get much sleep in either direction.

My other brother Eddie and his wife Rachel came with the three of us, creating our own little Party of Five...except without Neve Campbell...or Matthew Fox...okay, it's nothing like that show, it was just a reference to the number of people.

Our accommodations were at Old Key West. It was a very nice, very quiet area, with a restaurant, a couple pools, and We got a three bedroom villa, which was big, but lacked a little on community areas. Also, the seating wasn't particularly comfortable, but hey, you're in Disney World. Get off your ass and go do stuff.

The one big disappointment on this trip was that several of my favorite rides were closed for refurbishment/repairs: Star Tours, Kali River Rapids, and my favorite ride, Splash Mountain. Lesson learned, though. Next time, we'll be planning our trip on short notice, and making sure that the important rides are open.

I went on a couple new rides, including finally trying out Space Mountain. Now, I apparently misspoke about the ride. I told Rachel that I thought Space Mountain was the fastest ride at Disney World; I wasn't even close. Space Mountain tops out at 28 miles per hour. I have no idea where I got it in my head that it was the fastest.

As I did last year, I'll give you ratings on the rides I went on for the first time:

Maelstrom Adventure Cruise (Epcot) (3/5)
This is an attraction in the Norwegian portion of Epcot. It's basically a short boat ride with a couple of tiny drops. I think if Splash Mountain wasn't closed, this would've gotten two stars, but it was closed, so three stars.

Space Mountain (Magic Kingdom) (4/5)
It may not be as fast as I thought, but it's definitely fun. My only qualm with it is that the ride is perhaps TOO dark. Still, it's a fun ride with a lot of twists and turns. I'm glad I finally checked it out.

Yep, that's it. Just two new rides for me. But I've got big plans for my next trip to Lake Buena Vista. First, Splash Mountain will be open the next time I head down there, and I'll be getting my fill of it. Second, it sounds like Star Tours is getting a dramatic overhaul that includes incorporating 3D video; that should be a lot of fun. I also want to go on the Silly Safari in Magic Kingdom; I wanted to go this year, but it closes at night. So, next time.

Who's in?

Lords of the Realm 2 / Summer Reading

First and foremost, any of you who played Lords of the Realm 2 need to listen to this song:



(You can download the track for yourself here)

Now that that's out of the way, let's talk about the other topic: summer reading. Remember when we were in school and we were expected to read on our own over the summer? I say "supposed to" because I know I never actually did, unless I could get away with something I was going to read anyways (Michael Crichton's Sphere comes to mind). But now, as an adult, I've come to appreciate the occasional foray into literature. I've even purchased more than one book in the past twelve months. I've got at least one extremely long road trip, and I'll likely have many other opportunities to get some serious reading done.

So I turn to you, my loyal readers...or reader. Offer me suggestions of books I should perhaps attempt to read this summer. Particular attention should be paid to books in two categories:

1. Books that you yourself own and could let me borrow.
2. Books by Nick Hornby.

I look forward to your suggestions/offerings.

Disney World '09

I went to Disney World again, December 2nd through the 6th. It was a fun trip, though I'm starting to realize that I need some freshness in future trips, if they're going to happen. My mom and my youngest brother are fun, but I think I'd like to have the opportunity to mix things up from time to time, and that's not easy with a three-person group.

I had a sore foot for the entire trip (and still do today), so all the walking around wasn't great. I'm sure that also contributed to the trip being not as much fun as last year. No pictures this time, sorry, you'll just have to trust me when I say I was there. :)

We stayed at the Contemporary Resort, which is a monorail ride away from the Magic Kingdom and Epcot Center. The value of this convenience is substantial. Since the Magic Kingdom is my favorite park, it gave us the opportunity to mix in a Magic Kingdom trip whenever we wanted (just twice, but still). The resort also has lots of the standard Disney amenities: swimming pool with a slide, convenience mart, several restaurants, and an arcade.

The coolest thing about our room, though, was the view. Our room faced the Magic Kingdom, which had two big positives. First, we could see Cinderella's castle lit up at night, glowing in the distance. Second, we were able to appreciate the Magic Kingdom's nightly fireworks show from our pair of balconies. I'm a man who likes his fireworks.

Longtime readers may remember that our group really enjoyed the Yak and Yeti restaurant in Animal Kingdom on last year's trip. We went back again this year, and it was good, but not as good as last year. I think part of the reason is that this year, we elected to go with Disney's dining plan, which lets you choose a drink, an entree, and a dessert. It's nice, and it's a good deal, but appetizers can be just as good as main courses. It was a shame to feel like we ought not order appetizers, so that we didn't waste our dining plan. So, that part I regret.

• Read a full-length book in less than 24 hours.

I read all of one book and part of another during the trip. I bought Slam by Nick Hornby in Dulles Airport on Wednesday morning, and finished it Wednesday night in Orlando. It was very good, though the first half was better than the second half. I bought Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk in the Orlando airport, and finished it a few days ago. It was also good, though if you know anything about Palahniuk, you know it had its share of depravity. Not necessarily in a bad way, and it definitely adds to the story, but it does prevent me from recommending the book to people who I don't perceive as having at least some level of depravity (so yes, Greg, you can borrow it). I decided somewhere in the middle of Slam that I wanted to read more books, and Chip let me borrow High Fidelity, so I started reading that (though at a normal, non-vacation pace).

Now, as I promised to Plundo, the review of Disney attractions that I saw for the first time this trip.

• Went on a new ride (or rides) at a theme park.

Snow White's Scary Adventures (2/5)
There are a lot of rides at Disney World that are pretty similar. Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, Little Nemo, etc. They're all slowish rides along a track that follow a particular Disney story, and Snow White is no different. Part of the problem for me is that I never found Snow White particularly entertaining. The ride was fine, but I'd put it behind most similar rides.

Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor (4/5)
Okay, truth be told, it's more of a three star attraction, but it was a four star experience. It's essentially a brief comedy show where they use real-time cartoons on a movie screen stage. What makes it pretty funny is that the monster comedians actually interact with people in the audience, reacting to what they say, and calling people by their names. They have a separate screen at the front that shows who they're talking to, and how they react. What made our experience particularly good is that my mom was one of the audience members featured in the show. Embarrassment is always funny. :)

Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress (1/5)
I considered giving this ride zero stars out of five, but that goes against the grading standard. Plus, it's got some marginal value. You get to sit, which is nice, and I hear that it's especially good when the weather is hot, because it's indoor and air conditioned. The attraction sits you in a rotating theater that goes through a few different years, and the scenes play out with an animatronic guy telling you about all of the new technology of that particular era. If possible, it's more boring than it sounds. Also, the guy has a dog who lives to be like 80, which would be cool, but come on.

Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular (4/5)
There are two parts to this attraction. There are a few action scenes with lots of stunts, including an airplane, machine guns, explosions, spears, and of course, a giant rolling boulder. The rest of the show is in between, where they involve the audience, make some jokes, and talk about what it's like to make a movie, and do stunts. The in between time is okay, and the stunts are pretty bad ass. Boom. Four stars.

Soarin' (5/5)
My sister had reported that Epcot's Soarin' was kind of a disappointment when she had gone on it, and that the line was astronomically long. The line was very long, but I thought the ride was fantastic. You sit in a row of chairs that gets lifted, putting you in front of a giant screen. The screen then goes through several hang-gliding scenes, with ups and downs, mixing in smells to go along (orange orchards and pine trees were what I remember). I think you have to let yourself just watch the screen, rather than look around at the other riders, but as long as you do that, it's an awesome ride.

Walt Disney World Trip: Day 4, Part 2 (Monday PM)

We got back to the hotel at around 2:00, and my mom left for her massage at about 2:40. When she left, she said if we wanted to head to the park before she got back, she would just meet us there. Initially, I didn't expect to do this, but as time went on, it became more and more of a plan. I can only watch so many episodes of Disney Channel shows before I get antsy. So Kevin and I headed to the park at around 4:15, and left a note for my mom.

Kevin and I weren't really sure what we wanted to do when we arrived, so we wandered around Fantasyland for a while to ponder our plan. We stopped by Mickey's Philharmagic, but sadly it was closed for refurbishments. This might mean they're adding to the show, which is cool, but it sucks that we missed one of the better attractions. My mom called as we were wandering around and let us know she was leaving the hotel. Not having any other plans on what to do, we hopped on Mad Tea Party, which had virtually no line (this would sort of be the standard for the evening). Kevin and I then hit up Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin again, and met up with my mom as we were leaving this ride.

As it was getting to be nighttime and the weather was cooling off, my mom wasn't crazy about going on Splash Mountain, so she waited and watched the evening parade while Kevin and I went on the ride. There was no wait. And I don't mean there was a short wait. There was no wait. We followed the queue right up to the ride boat. And after the ride, we could've just stayed in the boat for another round; there was no one waiting to get in. Apparently the parade is a big hit, but also, the park switched to Extra Magic Hours around this time, so it was clearing out a little bit, too.

One of my mom's favorite rides is the Haunted Mansion, so we headed over there next. We probably waited all of five minutes for this ride, three of which were because the ride stopped briefly and the line didn't move forward. As we were exiting the Haunted Mansion, we heard the booming of fireworks, and tried to find a good spot to watch them. It's a nice show with some Disney music to go along with it, and there's something that gets me about seeing the fireworks with "When You Wish Upon A Star." What can I say, I'm a sap.

After the fireworks, we stayed in Fantasyland and hopped on The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, the last of our favorites from the 2008 trip that we hadn't ridden yet. At this point, we were once again in a wandering mood, and we headed over to the Tomorrowland Transit Authority for a night ride (separate review below). Kevin and I made the Tomorrowland Speedway our last ride of the trip, while my mom went to the Carousel of Progress, which I've still never been on.

We stopped at Cosmic Ray's, which is a diner, for some horribly unhealthy food (they got burgers, I got a chili cheese hot dog), and set out for home, satisfied that we had a great trip, but a little sad that we'd be flying home the next day. We took a few pictures with a view of Cinderella's castle that came out pretty well, and would be a good Facebook album cover if I ever get around to posting these pictures on Facebook...don't count on it, though.




The next morning was fairly uneventful. We rode Disney's Magical Express back to the airport, and encountered no difficulties at security (it was stunningly fast, actually). We took off from Orlando where it was 78, and landed at Dulles International Airport, where it was 28 degrees and snowing. Welcome home, vacationers. And that was the trip. I'm already organizing our next trip in my mind. More time at the Magic Kingdom seems to be a no-brainer. Oh, and we've got to go back to the Yak & Yeti restaurant at Animal Kingdom! And I'd like to try out Soarin', and eat in Norway, and...



Ride Reviews

Haunted Mansion (4/5) - The ride itself is more like a 3 star ride, but my mom is such a little kid when it comes to Halloween and ghosts that going on the ride with her was a lot of fun. It's a slow-moving ride through, well, a haunted mansion. There are ghosts and ghoulies at every turn, and I could see little kids either having fun or being terrified...both of which could make the ride more enjoyable.

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (5/5) - This is one of the most fun rides in any park if you've got the right group on it. The Pooh theme is one that most people know, and the characters are a little more interesting than those in Peter Pan or Pirates of the Caribbean. Probably the best part of the attraction, though, is how your ride changes in each section. You hop-hop-hop along with Tigger, you float down the river, it adds to the environmental feel of the ride, rather than the unchanging rides of the aforementioned.

Tomorrowland Transit Authority (5/5) - The difference between this ride at night and during the day is like...well, it's like the difference between night and day. The outdoor parts of the ride are the same, but the indoor parts are just great at night. There are shooting stars, and you get to see Space Mountain much better than during the day. It's the same fun ride with noticeably better scenery.

Tomorrowland Speedway (2/5) - I didn't give it a 1 star rating because it was a little fun, but it was generally a bust. The line was among the longest at Magic Kingdom, but I have trouble figuring out why. You drive your car on a track, but you're limited to your lane, which means you don't get to really race anyone, which is good, because your car goes pretty slow. Probably the best part was the trash talk that Kevin and I threw at each other beforehand, even though it was obvious we weren't going to be able to race. Probably would not ride this one again, especially if the line is as long as usual.

Walt Disney World Trip: Day 4, Part 1 (Monday AM)

We took a few minutes Monday morning to briefly decide where we were going to go before going to the Magic Kingdom in the evening (the Magic Kingdom was the beneficiary of Extra Magic Hours that evening, and I've found that it feels right to end a Disney World trip at the Magic Kingdom). After a short discussion, we all decided that we hadn't really seen any of Epcot in our previous trip, so we'd head over there for a few rides and lunch.

Epcot doesn't have a ton of great rides, as its main attraction is the World Showcase. And because the World Showcase brings a lot of traffic with only a few rides, most of the rides have fairly long queues. Because of this, we didn't end up going on Soarin', probably the most popular ride at Epcot. Instead, we headed for Test Track, which had been recommended to Kevin by one of his friends (and which made me think that it was going to be pretty hazardous). I did survive, but I selected a gentle ride as a follow-up, Living with the Land, which sported a five-minute wait. I assumed it would be a lecture about taking care of the environment, but it was a boat ride, so I was willing to take the chance.

For lunch, we decided to go to the U.K.'s sit-down restaurant, the Rose & Crown Pub and Dining Room. I wasn't crazy about a lot of the stuff on the menu, but the burger I got was pretty good, and I had some of my mom's fish and chips, also pretty good. Additionally, I got a beer sampler which had Guinness, Harp, Boddington, and a couple others I don't remember. They were all okay, but I've found that I'm more of a sweet drink kind of guy. The bitterness of the average beer just doesn't sit that well with me. Still, it was a fun experience and a good meal.

We finished lunch around 1:30, and it was time for us to head back to the hotel. My mom wanted to take advantage of the fact that Saratoga Springs is a spa, so she set an appointment for her first ever massage at 3:00 PM. Kevin and I were up for a break after a very filling lunch, so we all headed back and got ready for our final park visit of the trip: the Magic Kingdom.

Stay tuned.

Ride Reviews

Test Track (4/5) - The introduction video was pretty funny (and starred John Michael Higgins), and the ride itself was sort of as expected. It was a little bit chaotic, and boasts the fastest speed of any ride at Walt Disney World. It gives you a better appreciation of how fast you're going when you drive 65 miles per hour. It was Kevin's favorite ride of the trip.

Living with the Land (3/5) - I was pretty surprised that this was as enjoyable as it was. We checked out a movie called "Circle of Life" when we came last year, and it was basically a lecture on taking care of the Earth. This ride started out that way, with pictures from around the world of how people were working to be more efficient and conserve resources, and I was a little suspect of the rest of the ride. But it ended up kind of cool. You pass through a fish farm (all you eco-freaks can shove it, breeding fish to be eaten is no different from breeding corn to be eaten) and a horticulture lab (with a Mickey-shaped pumpkin). The whole ride is on a boat, which I believe I've mentioned I enjoy. On a warm day, it was a nice, cool, soothing ride.

Walt Disney World Trip: Day 3, Part 2 (Sunday PM)

At the hotel, we relaxed for a bit (I spoke to my cousin Mike briefly on the phone), and we geared up for Hollywood Studios. After all of the hype that Plundo built for Toy Story Mania, I was looking forward to a pretty fun evening, and for the most part, I wasn't disappointed.

When we arrived, we checked out the big board that has all of the rides' wait times, and saw that Toy Story was an hour wait with the Fast Passes depleted for the day, so we opted instead for Star Tours, which was a 5 minute wait. The alleged 5 minute wait might have been all of 2 minutes, and we quickly and happily rode one of our favorites from last year. After that, we hit up another favorite of ours in Muppet Vision 3-D (again with no wait), before deciding to try out the line at Toy Story. It was listed as a forty minute wait, and even though it would be the longest wait of the trip, the line didn't seem to be getting shorter, so we hopped into the queue.

(It bears mentioning here that the camera batteries ran out at this point, which is why there aren't more pictures of Hollywood Studios).

After enjoying Toy Story, we contemplated getting in line again, but the wait time was back up to an hour, despite being after 7:00 PM, and thus into Disney's "Extra Magic Hours" (the last and perhaps greatest advantage of staying in a Disney resort). So, we headed for Rock n' Roller Coaster, one of Kevin's favorite rides. I didn't end up going on the ride (I'm wary of how my girth is handled by coaster seating systems), but Kevin had virtually no wait, and enjoyed it. Choosing instead to embrace my heft, I grabbed a Flavor Blast ice cream cone, which is soft serve vanilla ice cream with some sort of syrup lining. I had a banana split flavored cone, and it was tasty.

We looked around for a few places to get dinner in Hollywood Studios, but by this time, most sit down restaurants were closed, and the ones that were open were diners, which are okay, but not worth waiting in line for. So we headed back to the hotel and ordered pizza and breadsticks from Disney World's delivery service. The pizza was surprisingly excellent, I'd say better than Papa John's or Pizza Hut (though still miles behind Zio's). I curled up with Moneyball and finished it, and went to bed, looking forward to another day full of rides on Monday.

Ride Reviews

Star Tours (4/5) - The ride is pretty fun, but the best part is all the little Star Wars lines and characters and such. I'm a sucker for Star Wars. There's also an AT-AT outside the ride that makes laser blast noises at night, and a whole themed area around the ride. They have a life-sized replica of the Ewok village toy that I have about six of in my basement, but unfortunately, it's not designed as something you can go into. Hopefully they'll consider adding that...or creating an entire Star Wars theme park...man, I would go to that.

Muppet Vision 3-D (3/5) - As Plundo said, the best part of this show is the two old cranks who make fun of the show. "Hey, how did you get such good seats?" "There was a contest. I lost!" I feel like I should go back and try to find some episodes of the Muppet Show, because I'm pretty sure I would appreciate the old guys more today than I did back then.

Toy Story Mania (5/5) - It wasn't my favorite ride of the trip, but it was a damn fun ride. Like I said when I talked about Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, I do like the mission concept a little better than just the general shooting gallery style of Toy Story Mania. But there's no questioning that the technology is superior here, and while it was essentially a video game in a ride car, I like video games, so it was a blast.

Walt Disney World Trip: Day 3, Part 1 (Sunday AM)

We woke up a lot earlier on Sunday than we had on Saturday. The early start was mostly my doing, since I wanted to make sure we had enough time to spend at Animal Kingdom (which closes at 5:00). I had gone there last year early with Eddie, and while we saw a couple of things, there were definitely some things on the park map that I would've liked to have caught but we didn't have time for. I had some Frosted Flakes for breakfast, and we were ready to hit the park by 9:30 AM.

When we arrived, we weren't really sure where we wanted to go, so we defaulted to my favorite ride last year, DINOSAUR. We briefly debated getting Fast Passes, but the twenty minute wait seemed reasonable enough. Then, it turned out it was more like a five minute wait when we actually got in line, so Fast Passing it would've felt foolish. Next on our to-do list was the Kali River Rapids. Kevin and I were both eager to do this one, but the warnings of getting wet were enough to make my mom shy away from it. The line wasn't too long (a legit 15 minutes), so we waited in line and my mom watched from the concourse (a picture of us on the ride is down with the ride reviews).

Kevin hadn't eaten anything all day, and as usual, I could eat, so we went to get an early lunch at the Yak & Yeti, a "pan-Asian" restaurant that is as advertised. It's got Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian, and Thai cuisine. My mom ordered the crispy honey chicken, Kevin got the baby back ribs, and I got the tempura shrimp. Additionally, we shared an order of pot stickers and an order of wok-fried green beans. Everything was AWESOME. Without hesitation, this was the best meal we had all trip. Every dish was flavorful, different, and delicious. We ended up sharing pretty much everything, and amazingly, everyone liked everything. Animal Kingdom isn't amazing when it comes to rides and such, but this restaurant might push it over the edge as a park I'd recommend.

After our fantastic meal, we grabbed Fast Passes for the Kilimanjaro Safari to ride it in about an hour, and walked around looking for ways to kill time. This first manifested itself in a couple of photo opportunities:



When I went to Animal Kingdom last year, I went on the Maharajah Jungle Trek. It's basically just a path through a zoo, but it's much smaller than a normal zoo, and only has animals from India and southeast Asia. It was interesting the first time, so Kevin and I set out for that. Meanwhile, my mom watched a show called Flights of Wonder, featuring exotic birds. She said it was cute, a little cheesy, but enjoyable. We then headed off to our safari, our last ride of the day at Animal Kingdom.

At about 2:30, we had done most of the stuff at Animal Kingdom we wanted to do, and since it was a warm day and we'd done a lot of walking, we decided to head back to the resort. We were planning on hitting up Hollywood Studios later as well, so we didn't want to exhaust ourselves at Animal Kingdom.

The day continues in Day 3, Part 2, which will be posted this evening.

Ride Reviews

Dinosaur (4/5) - Would've gotten a 5/5 last year, but the surprise factor is pretty important when it comes to the thrill rides. Also, last year I was in the front row, which is a little more scary when those giant dinosaur jaws are coming at you. Still, very fun.

Kali River Rapids (4/5) - The four stars say a lot about how much fun this ride is at its best, because generally it's very tame. You ride around at a slow pace, go up a few lift hills, have a few decent drops, and one great one. And you get very, very wet. The warning signs they have are appropriate: "You will get wet. You may get SOAKED."





Maharajah Jungle Trek (3/5) - It's really more of a two star attraction, but while we were watching the tigers, one of them stood up and sauntered over to the glass. The beast was maybe three feet away. That was a thrill. Pictures from the trek below (mostly of tigers...they're awesome):

















Kilimanjaro Safari (2/5) - One of the more disappointing rides. The safari vehicles you take are so rigid, and the path you take is so bumpy, that most of the time I couldn't get good pictures because I was too worried that I'd lose the camera. The Jungle Trek was better because you got to see a few animals really close. The Safari was mostly viewing from a distance, which I get is safer when there's no glass wall, but makes for a less impressive experience. Here are the pictures that didn't suck too much:

Walt Disney World Trip: Day 2 (Saturday)

(With regards to rides, I'm going to use the same strategy that Plundo did, waiting until the end of the post to rate the rides, and using a 5-star system).

Friday night was nice, but the reason you go to Disney World is to ride rides (or at least, that's the reason I go to Disney World). And when you want a lot of rides, there's no better place than the Magic Kingdom. Kevin slept until about 11:00, so we didn't start our day until around 11:30.

The sit-down restaurant at Sarasota Springs is called the Turf Club Bar & Grill. I had a good burger (not a Goodburger), and Kevin and my mom both got the yellowfin tuna per our waiter's recommendation. They seemed to enjoy it, and I enjoyed mine, so we started our day's activities on the right foot. We hopped on a bus to the park and arrived in ten minutes or so.





When we arrived, we realized that there was a parade scheduled to come through the park shortly, and we weren't really looking to watch it, so we hopped on the Walt Disney World Railroad, which carries passengers to a couple stops around the park. We got off at Frontierland, and picked up Fast Passes for Splash Mountain. If you're unfamiliar, a Fast Pass is essentially an appointment for the ride. You can pick it up at any time during the day (only one at a time, though), and you'll be given a window later in the day during which you can redeem the pass and ride with virtually no line. It's a nice feature, taking some of the waiting time out of your theme park visit.

Armed with Fast Passes for Splash Mountain in 2 hours, we decided to check out a couple other rides. We hit the Mad Tea Party, Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, and the Tomorrowland Transit Authority. We stopped off for ice cream and headed back to ride Splash Mountain (which I hadn't ridden in our trip last year, so it was a new and exciting experience).

Sufficiently happy (and a little soaked), we basically wandered the park for the rest of the day, hopping on whatever struck our fancy: Pirates of the Carribean, It's a Small World, and Peter Pan's Flight. Tired and pleased, we grabbed a bus back to our resort, and went back to the Turf Club for dinner. Our meals were good, but the real highlight was dessert. They cook some chocolate cake with chocolate from Madagascar, then top it with vanilla ice cream and some raspberry sauce. It was delicious.

Back to the room, I read more of Moneyball and got to bed early for Sunday, which would be our first "park-hopper" day.

Ride Reviews

Walt Disney World Railroad (2/5) - It's a railroad, fairly straightforward, and with surprisingly vanilla scenery. I only gave it two stars because it's functional, and it did what we wanted it to do, which was drive us to Frontierland.

Mad Tea Party (4/5) - It's not at all the kind of ride that you couldn't see at a standard amusement park, but it was a lot of fun. For those of you who've played Rollercoaster Tycoon, think Scrambled Eggs. There's a disc in the middle of each cup that you can spin manually to adjust your level of spinning; Kevin and I went pretty nuts with it.

Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin (4/5) - Plundo was right about this being sort of an outdated version of the new Toy Story ride at Hollywood Studios, but the Space Ranger Spin has more of a story to your shooting, rather than the shooting gallery setup in the Toy Story ride. I like being on a mission, what can I say?

Tomorrowland Transit Authority (3/5) - It's a simple transportation ride (as its name would indicate), but for whatever reason, I like it. It's relaxing, it's never in direct sunlight, and it gives you a tour of Tomorrowland.

Splash Mountain (5/5) - I loved the music and the atmosphere of the ride, and the drops are fun. This is my mom's favorite ride at the Magic Kingdom, and when we rode into "Brer Rabbit's Laughin' Place" at the end of the ride, they both laughed loudly and intentionally, which made the ride even more fun. It's also got comfortable seats, something that's particularly valuable for such a giant of a man as myself.

Pirates of the Carribean (3/5) - I like water rides, so Pirates gets a bump there, but really it's not a very exciting or interesting ride. It's essentially a slow river ride through a pirate town. They added a ship and a fort with some cannon fire, but in my opinion, not enough, and not enough explosions and damage on either side. I guess it's supposed to be a gentle ride and they have to maintain that, but I'd like a little more excitement. The Jack Sparrow singing at the end of the ride is pretty neat, though, and it gets the song in your head.

It's a Small World (2/5) - Another first-time ride for me, there was no line and I felt like I ought to do it at least once since it might be the most famous ride in Disney World. It was okay, not as good as some people have told me, but also not as bad as some other people have told me. It was another boat ride as well, so that was alright.

Peter Pan's Flight (2/5) - The line was 30 minutes, but my mom likes the ride, so we hopped in and waited. I remembered not liking the ride at all last year, so I wasn't expecting much, and the ride met expectations. I tried to like it more than last time, though, and that seemed to work, because last year I'd have given it a 1/5.

Next up: A split Sunday between Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios

Walt Disney World Trip: Day 1 (Friday)

As many of you know, I went to Disney World last weekend, and as per Plundo's suggestion and example, I'll give you a run down of how the trip was (along with the occasional complementary picture and relevant Wikipedia links). I took the trip with my mom and my youngest brother, Kevin.

For starters, I was sick. I got sick at the beginning of last week, and just got sicker as the week went on. Friday morning, the day of our flight, I was sick as a dog, and had been swigging Dayquil and Nyquil to try to bust up the cold before the trip. No such luck. I ended up blowing my nose at least 100 times over the course of the trip, but I was able to shut out most of the sickness with the distraction of the parks.

We left the house around 9:30 to catch our 12:00 flight out of Dulles. We were able to get through security without too much of a wait. Our flight was fully booked, but without any of the hullabaloo that Plundo had to endure, and the rest of the transportation went off without a hitch. During this trip, I spent most of my downtime and flight time reading, starting with Moneyball. If you're unfamiliar with Moneyball, it's a non-fiction book that reports on how the Oakland A's were able to field a highly competitive team despite having a small payroll and a lack of big bopper power hitters. It's honestly one of the most exciting and interesting books I've ever read, and I'd recommend it to any reasonably intelligent sports fan.


When we arrived in Orlando, we were all pretty hungry, so we got a table at the airport Chili's. I don't know if I've ever had their fajitas before, but they were better than I expected. The steak was very flavorful, and it was just enough food that I would be sated until dinner time.

We stayed at the Saratoga Springs resort, which is a Disney resort. There are several advantages of this, and the first one starts when you step out of the airport. Disney has a Magical Express service that allows you to ride one of their private buses from the airport directly to your resort. After checking in, we were offered a cart ride to the front of our building (which of course we accepted), and we headed up to the room.

The Saratoga Springs rooms are suites with a bedroom or bedrooms, as well as a kitchen and a common area. The resort has a small grocery on the property, and we went there to pick up some essentials (most importantly an Entenmann's raspberry danish). We put the groceries away, and then decided to head to Epcot (each Disney resort offers free bus rides to all of their parks, another perk of stayin at a Disney resort).

Kevin's big thing this trip (although it would slip away fairly quickly) was that he wanted to eat at as many of the different countries at Epcot as possible. This started on Friday night, when we went to the Japanese portion of Epcot. We ate at a restaurant called Teppan Edo, which is essentially a Benihana. The food was very good; they offered three sauces, each of which was different and tasty. I got New York strip sirloin steak, but everyone's food looked good (even the vegitarian selection, which was somewhat surprising). Additionally, I got a drink called a "ninja," a combination of sake and plum wine. I'm not normally a wine fan, but this was good enough that I got two.



We walked around Epcot a little more after dinner, but it was surprisingly crowded, and we were all fairly tired after a travel day, so we decided to head back. At the hotel, I grabbed a slice of danish and read a chapter of Moneyball before hitting the hay.

Next up: Saturday at The Magic Kingdom.

Memorial Day Weekend

I'm heading to Atlantic City for the long Memorial Day weekend, hoping to come back with at least the clothes that I arrived with. Anything on top of that (you know, like cash) is just a bonus. We're staying at Resorts on Thursday night for free, as I'm finally taking advantage of the money I've lost in the past and getting a free weekday room. Then, Friday/Saturday/Sunday nights, we're going to the Showboat, which had slightly lower prices than the other casinos with vacancies.

There was some discussion when we were making plans about staying in a crummy hotel as opposed to one of the casinos. Initially I figured a hotel/motel would be better because of the price, but a few factors changed my mind:

• Convenience. There's nothing quite like walking out of your room, taking an elevator, and immediately placing bets. Hotels can get close, but they can't match it.
• The "Fancy" factor. I've stayed in a couple of very nice hotels, but casinos are just a little bit better. The room we got at Resorts a few years back was just huge, and while you don't use much of that space, you feel more comfortable with it there.
• Safety. Atlantic City is not a nice town. If you go more than one block off the boardwalk, you're asking for trouble. Staying at a casino means that you never have to set foot on the sidewalk if you don't want to, and trust me: you don't want to.
• Price. I know what you're thinking. Casinos, Joe? They're always so expensive. And you're right, staying in a casino is substantially more expensive than staying in a motel. But really, what's the value of that price? You'd still be paying around $200/night at the crummiest of places in Atlantic City, and if you're going to be shelling out that kind of cash, don't you at least want to enjoy the place you're paying for? You work hard for the money. You'd better treat you right.

Best wishes for everyone this weekend. Have a fun and safe holiday, and we'll see you Tuesday.