 Michael and Rebecca Wong |
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Michael and Rebecca Wong |
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Click on "thumbnail" images to enlarge
Wow, another Canadian family going to Orlando in winter | |
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Day 1: Gatorland. Orlando isn't exactly broiling hot in February, but it's pretty warm compared to the snowy tundra we just left. Warm enough for the gators to be out, anyway. This picture was taken at Gatorland, which is a theme park that has alligators and ... that's pretty much it. You have to love truth in advertising, and it's actually a pretty good half-day outing. In fact, David ranked it as one of his favourite attractions, probably in part due to the fact that he actually got to sit on a live alligator (it doesn't look quite as dangerous when you look closely and realize that the gator's mouth is taped). |
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I love the way gators sometimes sit there with their mouths hanging open. It reminds me of those Looney Tunes cartoons when some character will run right into the open mouth of an alligator because he's not looking where he's going. |
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Gators really know how to relax, don't they? |
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One of the few non-gator creatures at Gatorland is this oversized turtle. Naturally, David jumped at the chance to feed him. |
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David fed the smaller turtle, and Matthew fed the behemoth. This sucker weighs more than 500 lbs. His massive bulk was exceeded by only the largest tourists. Coincidentally enough, these tourists also shared his walking speed, as I discovered to my chagrin while trying to walk around Disney World. |
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Day 3: Epcot (we mostly relaxed on day 2 except for a visit to WonderWorks, which was quite frankly lame; the Science Centre back home is much better). I still don't know why the fuck they put the Finding Nemo ride in Epcot since it doesn't really fit the theme of the rest of the park, but there it is. And there are my two boys, pretending to get eaten by a shark. |
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My boys loved the Chinese terra cotta soldiers. I have no explanation for David's bizarre gestures. That's just the way he poses for photographs. We've come to accept it. |
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Epcot actually looks quite nice at night. In the 15 years that had passed since my last visit, I'd completely forgotten that the park is basically a ring around a central lake. |
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Day 4: The Kennedy Space Centre! I still get shivers down my spine when I think about the idea that men actually walked on the Moon. By the way, if you're one of those people who thinks that the Moon landing was a hoax, don't bother E-mailing. You're an idiot. |
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One of the cooler parts of the tour is seeing the original control room used for the Apollo moon launches. It still amazes me that we strapped men on top of a column of rocket fuel with enough chemical potential energy to equal a small nuke, and then launched them into space with guidance computers that wouldn't hold a candle to a modern calculator. |
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I still can't get over the size of those Saturn V rockets. It really is a sight to behold. |
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The spacesuits are cool too. |
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And of course, there's always the obligatory tourist "stick your head in a crude cutout and snap a photo" trick. |
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Day 4: Disney's MGM Studios park. Here we're at the venerable Star Tours ride. We already went on the same ride at the Los Angeles Disney Land, so it was no big deal, but the big AT-AT walker is cool. |
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They put on a pretty good show. This was the "Extreme Stunt" show, where they had cars doing all kinds of stunt work, including one where it jumped an exploding ramp. Cool. |
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And here's the "Fantasmic" night-time show, which is probably the coolest thing in the entire MGM Studios park. I was glad that I overheard someone's advice to get there an hour early, though. The place filled up fast. |
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More of the "Fantasmic" ride. |
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Day 5: Disney's Animal Kingdom. This is one of the kiddie rides at DinoLand. |
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And of course, we had to go on the dinosaur ride. Unfortunately, David was scared by the ride, which has a lot of darkness and sharp turns. |
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Lilo and Stitch! |
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And this is the afternoon parade. |
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And finally, the Lion King show near the end of the day. |
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Day 6: Disney's Magic Kingdom! This is the big one, so we saved it for last. I wonder if the Magic Kingdom trained looked just like that on the first day the park opened. |
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Of course, no visit to Disney World would be complete without meeting Mickey. |
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Or Tigger. |
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Or seeing the parade. |
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The Swiss Family Robinson house! When you tour the house, you begin to get the strong impression that the Swiss Family Robinson was eventually rescued and when thy got back to Europe, they founded IKEA. The furniture resemblance is uncanny. |
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Obviously. Tomorrowland has been updated with new denizens since we last visited. Good ol' Emperor Zurg is imprisoned, but no doubt he will break free to wreak new havoc upon the galaxy. |
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But Buzz Lightyear will protect us! |
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Never mind the maniacal look on David's face. He gets a little jumpy as the day goes on. |
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(sigh) |
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You actually get used to this kind of behaviour after a while. |
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And of course, the obligatory shot of the Magic Kingdom castle. When we were at the Kennedy Space Centre, we were talking to somebody who said that Disney World is America's version of Mecca: everyone has to make the pilgrimage to Disney World at least once in his life. It sounds funny, but I think it's true, isn't it? Disney World is a secular Mecca, for kids. Once children reach a certain age, their parents all take them on the long pilgrimage to Orlando, where they can meet the icons of Disney. |
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Day 7: Finally, a day to relax at the resort. We stayed at the Marriott Grande Vista golf resort, which consists of a series of villas around a central lake. It's a really nice place, and we were glad we chose it. The rooms were good, the service was good, the grounds were beautiful, and the location was good. The only complaint I had was the local Internet wireless connection, which was a rather sluggish. |
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Yes, they have those four-person FrankenBicycles that you can rent, but it's rather tiring to wheel around the premises on those things, as every rider quickly discovers. |
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And this is the front page of the registration building. |
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Our rental car, a red Pontiac G6. we don't normally drive a red sporty car, but it was a rental. The boys took a couple of days to get used to pushing the seat over to squeeze into the back seat (it's a 2-door car), but by the end of the vacation they said it was like second nature. |
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And what resort trip would be complete without a campfire and marshmallows at the end? I must say that Rebecca was not pleased about leaving this to come back to the frozen tundra of Toronto, but hey, home is home. |
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