November 11, 2010

We learned yesterday that school in the afternoon/evening does not work very well when we´ve had a day full of activities. We tried a new formula and did school in the morning, Much better! Everyone worked hard and we kept going until 1pm.

After some lunch we headed over to Disney Hollywood Studios, one of the four parks that make up Disney World. According to Wikipedia Disney World is the worlds largest and most visited recreational resort, covering 121 square kilometers (30 000 acres). It is also the largest single-site employer in the US with 66 000 employees. There are more people working here than there are inhabitants in the city of Tromsø. This baby is huge!

To our surprise we quickly discovered that November 11 is Veteran´s day and a school holiday. The park was completely packed. As we arrived a parade started and I went on a reconnaissance mission while the rest of the family watched the parade.

At the parks, as they have at Eurodisney in Paris, they have a so called fast pass system. It basically means that if you are patient you can put your park ticket into a machine that gives you the right to go in front of everyone else in line for a specific attraction during a specific time window later in the day. Of course, for such a system to work there can only be a very limited number of these available. I did the rounds and checked every single fast pass option in the park. There was not a single fast pass left. In addition the shortest waiting time for an attraction was 90 minutes. Ouch! Note to self: Check for holidays in the countries we are going to visit.

The parade was a good start for the kids with lots of dancing and jumping:

We ended up splitting in two. The girls went to see The Little Mermaid and the boys headed for the Aerosmith roller coaster. After 45 minutes in line for the roller coaster the speaker announced that due to technical problems they were forced to close the attraction. We were not amused.

OK. What now? I changed strategy from rides to shows and we bumped and elbowed our way to the other end of the park. We arrived at the Indiana Jones stunt show just as it started. Only standing room, but we are young and healthy, after all. The boys were very happy and the show was not bad at all.

We wandered a bit more around and watched some other less impressive stuff. I have to admit I was a bit disappointed that all the good stuff was blocked by ridiculously long lines. The model of selling day passes breaks down when so many people are allowed to enter the parks. I wonder if they even have a limit.

We decided to put all our remaining chips on one pot and managed to get seats to the fantasmic show an hour before it started. It took an hour of sitting, but it saved the day. Cool stuff! The stage was an artifiicial mountan-like hill on the other side of an artificial lake. Water sprays from the lake formed a thick mist that was used to project movies, Original and impressive.

In the end they burned the entire lake. Wow! Adrian, Viktor and I started discussing how they did it. Was it gasoline? Was it gas bubbling up from the bottom, or something else? We were intrigued and ended up betting on the gas theory.

Afterwards we even managed to get in to the most popular ride of them all, the Toy Story one. It is fascinating how the Disney parks have taken the art of waiting psychology to new levels. Waiting areas often seem larger than the attractions themselves. It has all been thought out in detail. You cannot see the end, so you never know how far you have to go, but there are always small hints. There are expos on the way. For this ride we needed 3D glasses. They are handed out about half way through the waiting line. Something happens and you feel better about standing in line. Both these photos are taken inside the waiting area for the ride:

Finally, after an hour, we arrived:

We all agreed that it was worth the wait. Shooting at targets in a virtual 3D world with computer generated ammo was way cool! Adrian became family champion with 125 000 points. I was defeated by a mere 2000 points. What a disgrace! The new generation is already taking over the gaming throne. What a shock and realization that I have passed my best years. It is too early, Lord, I am not ready yet!

On our way out of the park we were reminded that Christmas is getting closer:

All in all a very good day, after all.

Eirik

—–