Laura Goes to Disney World
Apr. 26th, 2007 02:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rusty_haloHmmm, I think ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
10zlaine wants me to post here. I feel loved.
I'm trying to catch up with my FL, but I've been away so much that it's not happening as thoroughly as I'd like. Sorry. (And I know I rarely comment, but I actually do read every journal on my list normally.)
I'm trying to catch up with *everything*, since I've been away every other weekend for the past month and a half. (I went to Boston, then Cedar Rapids, then Orlando.) And I don't have much to post about, because I'm in one of those blah stages when I don't have any compelling fannish interest. (Something will come along--it always does--but until then I'm just drifting...)
I guess the main fannish thing right now is The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. Did you guys see that Sean Penn/Stephen Colbert metaphor-off? One of the funniest things I've seen in my life. They should put out a compilation of these special episodes on DVD or something. And Jon Stewart interviewing John McCain was amazing. (*loves Jon Stewart so much*)
And Orlando was fun. I arrived late Thursday night and got up first thing Friday to go to the Magic Kingdom (by myself!). I had this guidebook with a plan for getting to all the best rides with the least amount of wait, so I mostly followed it, and managed to see everything I wanted to see with almost no lines. Although I skipped the ending in Tomorrowland and instead rode Pirates of the Caribbean and Splash Mountain for a second time each.
I also randomly wandered into the start of a pirate show and stood to watch it for about 20 minutes. It had a great Captain Jack impersonator who took kids from the audience and taught them how to sword fight. It also had some very clever adult jokes that flew right over the children's heads, and the actors were very funny. That was awesome.
Oh! And the Pirates ride now features Captain Jack! Three times! Barbossa and Davy Jones also show up. I was worried that it would take away from the original spirit of the ride to have the movies incorporated, but it wasn't too intrusive, and the ending--Captain Jack and his treasure--was just too awesome for words. :)
Then I helped my parents make dinner (spaghetti and salad--they actually ate vegan with me!) and swam for a bit (the place had a nice heated pool, hot tub, and sauna).
The next day my dad and I went to Epcot. I'm not really fond of the Future World part of it, but I rode a bunch of those rides with him (except the space one--I have no desire to throw up at a theme park). I probably would've had more fun alone, since that's a place that's more fun to browse (with all the technology displays and pretty gardens and interesting World Showcase shops). But Dad was on his best behavior, so it was actually kind of nice to spend a little time with him.
We wandered around World Showcase--I liked the Viking ride, though it didn't compare to anything in the Magic Kingdom. I really liked browsing through the shops, but didn't spend much time on it because I could tell my dad was getting impatient. There's a lot of interesting stuff to think about in these parks--how they represent the typical American views of other cultures, the ideals they present about what happiness is or what the future should be like, the ways they construct gender, that kind of stuff. Also better to think about when you're alone since your Dad thinks you're crazy for babbling about them.
So in "Germany" I bought some dark chocolate with marzipan (vegan!) and we both had German beers. Then Dad ate in "Japan" and I ate in "Morocco" (cous-cous, tabbouleh, hummus, and olives). Oh, and I had this really yummy "shaved ice" dessert in "Japan," like a snowcone flavored with watermelon, strawberry, and tangerine. And we missed the fireworks because we ran to get in line for Soarin', the last ride we hadn't done, which was okay (but the fireworks might have been better).
On Sunday, my dad, brother, and I went to the Animal Kingdom. They mostly talked and ignored me, and my brother spent most of the time complaining about how lame the rides were and how annoying I was for rushing around. (Look, I want to ride as many rides as possible with the least amount of waiting as possible, so I plan and it works. He didn't have to follow me, and it's not like he had any kind of alternate plan.) And my Dad spent most of the time complaining about how old and tired he was. Anyway, I tried to stay positive, since it was vacation. We went on a roller coaster which kind of made me sick, then we went on Kali River Rapids, which is my favorite ride. We all got soaking wet, which feels awesome on a hot day. (They didn't agree, but whatever, I loved it.)
We rode every ride and saw most of the shows (and I had a terrible strawberry daiquiri in "Africa"), then headed over to the Animal Kingdom Lodge for dinner, where my mom joined us. I picked it because they have vegan offerings, but we had to wait an hour and a half to eat. So we sat upstairs and drank crappy Disney drinks. (They made the mojito with a mix. A mix! It's just lime and mint, if you muddle them properly you don't need a mix!!!)
Dinner was a buffet, so the chef gave me a tour and told me everything that was vegan. It was pretty good--green bean tofu coconut curry, lots of cous-cous, vegetable salads, roasted potatoes, and so forth. Then he surprised me with coconut vegetable soup (yummy) and olive hummus. Yay! I was totally stuffed and then he brought out a huge entree, which was gorgeous and delicious, but I was far too full to eat much of it. It had barbecued tofu, roasted mushrooms, lentil-spinach something, this crunchy topping stuff, big pieces of crunchy fried bread... well, I have no idea what it was, but it was gigantic and gorgeous, so I ate as much as I could. (He was also supposedly bringing a dessert, but my family was sick of being there and insisted we leave before I could get it. Argh. I was too full to eat it anyway, but I felt so rude leaving, since he had totally gone out of his way for me and was really nice.)
So then we headed back to our hotel and I had to get up at 4am to catch a plane to New York and go to work. (Which I did, without falling asleep or anything.) Still, I've been pretty exhausted this week, from all that running around in theme parks.
I'm thinking I'll go back after DragonCon, because I still have some days left on my ticket. (It turned out an old ticket I'd saved for the past six years actually still had three days left on it; I'd had no idea, I thought maybe it had one.) The Magic Kingdom is having a "Pirate and Princess" party the night of Monday September 3, so I'll probably fly from Atlanta to Orlando, go to the party, and then stay another day to go to the Magic Kingdom. Maybe MGM. And then fly back to New York from Orlando. Hopefully I can talkdrujan and perhaps other friends into joining me. Disney has this Caribbean Beach resort and the pool is kind of pirate themed.... ;)
Anyway, and now my friend from Iowa is arriving tonight and staying with me this weekend (he's going to the Tribeca Film Festival, so I probably won't see him much). I spent the last couple of days cleaning and recovering from Orlando. And hopefully I'll have a chance soon to catch up with friends soon. :)
10zlaine wants me to post here. I feel loved.I'm trying to catch up with my FL, but I've been away so much that it's not happening as thoroughly as I'd like. Sorry. (And I know I rarely comment, but I actually do read every journal on my list normally.)
I'm trying to catch up with *everything*, since I've been away every other weekend for the past month and a half. (I went to Boston, then Cedar Rapids, then Orlando.) And I don't have much to post about, because I'm in one of those blah stages when I don't have any compelling fannish interest. (Something will come along--it always does--but until then I'm just drifting...)
I guess the main fannish thing right now is The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. Did you guys see that Sean Penn/Stephen Colbert metaphor-off? One of the funniest things I've seen in my life. They should put out a compilation of these special episodes on DVD or something. And Jon Stewart interviewing John McCain was amazing. (*loves Jon Stewart so much*)
And Orlando was fun. I arrived late Thursday night and got up first thing Friday to go to the Magic Kingdom (by myself!). I had this guidebook with a plan for getting to all the best rides with the least amount of wait, so I mostly followed it, and managed to see everything I wanted to see with almost no lines. Although I skipped the ending in Tomorrowland and instead rode Pirates of the Caribbean and Splash Mountain for a second time each.
I also randomly wandered into the start of a pirate show and stood to watch it for about 20 minutes. It had a great Captain Jack impersonator who took kids from the audience and taught them how to sword fight. It also had some very clever adult jokes that flew right over the children's heads, and the actors were very funny. That was awesome.
Oh! And the Pirates ride now features Captain Jack! Three times! Barbossa and Davy Jones also show up. I was worried that it would take away from the original spirit of the ride to have the movies incorporated, but it wasn't too intrusive, and the ending--Captain Jack and his treasure--was just too awesome for words. :)
Then I helped my parents make dinner (spaghetti and salad--they actually ate vegan with me!) and swam for a bit (the place had a nice heated pool, hot tub, and sauna).
The next day my dad and I went to Epcot. I'm not really fond of the Future World part of it, but I rode a bunch of those rides with him (except the space one--I have no desire to throw up at a theme park). I probably would've had more fun alone, since that's a place that's more fun to browse (with all the technology displays and pretty gardens and interesting World Showcase shops). But Dad was on his best behavior, so it was actually kind of nice to spend a little time with him.
We wandered around World Showcase--I liked the Viking ride, though it didn't compare to anything in the Magic Kingdom. I really liked browsing through the shops, but didn't spend much time on it because I could tell my dad was getting impatient. There's a lot of interesting stuff to think about in these parks--how they represent the typical American views of other cultures, the ideals they present about what happiness is or what the future should be like, the ways they construct gender, that kind of stuff. Also better to think about when you're alone since your Dad thinks you're crazy for babbling about them.
So in "Germany" I bought some dark chocolate with marzipan (vegan!) and we both had German beers. Then Dad ate in "Japan" and I ate in "Morocco" (cous-cous, tabbouleh, hummus, and olives). Oh, and I had this really yummy "shaved ice" dessert in "Japan," like a snowcone flavored with watermelon, strawberry, and tangerine. And we missed the fireworks because we ran to get in line for Soarin', the last ride we hadn't done, which was okay (but the fireworks might have been better).
On Sunday, my dad, brother, and I went to the Animal Kingdom. They mostly talked and ignored me, and my brother spent most of the time complaining about how lame the rides were and how annoying I was for rushing around. (Look, I want to ride as many rides as possible with the least amount of waiting as possible, so I plan and it works. He didn't have to follow me, and it's not like he had any kind of alternate plan.) And my Dad spent most of the time complaining about how old and tired he was. Anyway, I tried to stay positive, since it was vacation. We went on a roller coaster which kind of made me sick, then we went on Kali River Rapids, which is my favorite ride. We all got soaking wet, which feels awesome on a hot day. (They didn't agree, but whatever, I loved it.)
We rode every ride and saw most of the shows (and I had a terrible strawberry daiquiri in "Africa"), then headed over to the Animal Kingdom Lodge for dinner, where my mom joined us. I picked it because they have vegan offerings, but we had to wait an hour and a half to eat. So we sat upstairs and drank crappy Disney drinks. (They made the mojito with a mix. A mix! It's just lime and mint, if you muddle them properly you don't need a mix!!!)
Dinner was a buffet, so the chef gave me a tour and told me everything that was vegan. It was pretty good--green bean tofu coconut curry, lots of cous-cous, vegetable salads, roasted potatoes, and so forth. Then he surprised me with coconut vegetable soup (yummy) and olive hummus. Yay! I was totally stuffed and then he brought out a huge entree, which was gorgeous and delicious, but I was far too full to eat much of it. It had barbecued tofu, roasted mushrooms, lentil-spinach something, this crunchy topping stuff, big pieces of crunchy fried bread... well, I have no idea what it was, but it was gigantic and gorgeous, so I ate as much as I could. (He was also supposedly bringing a dessert, but my family was sick of being there and insisted we leave before I could get it. Argh. I was too full to eat it anyway, but I felt so rude leaving, since he had totally gone out of his way for me and was really nice.)
So then we headed back to our hotel and I had to get up at 4am to catch a plane to New York and go to work. (Which I did, without falling asleep or anything.) Still, I've been pretty exhausted this week, from all that running around in theme parks.
I'm thinking I'll go back after DragonCon, because I still have some days left on my ticket. (It turned out an old ticket I'd saved for the past six years actually still had three days left on it; I'd had no idea, I thought maybe it had one.) The Magic Kingdom is having a "Pirate and Princess" party the night of Monday September 3, so I'll probably fly from Atlanta to Orlando, go to the party, and then stay another day to go to the Magic Kingdom. Maybe MGM. And then fly back to New York from Orlando. Hopefully I can talk
drujan and perhaps other friends into joining me. Disney has this Caribbean Beach resort and the pool is kind of pirate themed.... ;)Anyway, and now my friend from Iowa is arriving tonight and staying with me this weekend (he's going to the Tribeca Film Festival, so I probably won't see him much). I spent the last couple of days cleaning and recovering from Orlando. And hopefully I'll have a chance soon to catch up with friends soon. :)
