Travel tales - Place where dreams come true!!
I forgot to mention an interesting ride in EPCOT. Its the soaring in the sky ride. Again, a ride hell bent on making you disoriented :) But the more such rides you take, the mind acclimatises to those jerky twisty movements and i almost enjoyed it. Its like your normal ranga raatinam kind of setup where instead of rotating at ground level, they take you around 30 feet high and not just rotate, it moves forward backward sideways according to the changing scenery on the screen which is omnipresent. The screen is so huge, you feel as if you are really flying over the golden gate bridge and other landmarks of California.
After EPCOT we had planned for Magical kingdom. The next day we reached around 9.30AM in the morning to EPCOT entrance to catch the mono rail to the next park. To our surprise, we saw a notice board informing Magical kingdom is closed!!!! When we checked with the security people, they confirmed the status and told that the park is operating at full capacity and for the security of the visitors they've stopped taking in additional crowd. But those who had taken disney special pass or staying on disney resorts, they were being allowed to go to the park!! We decided to go to Universal studios instead and checked with the guy if there are any transport available to take us there. He flatly refused for they were competitors!! He even offered to drop us at any other Disney park, but not Universal. And since Disney was as big as a city in itself covering so much area, we were quite far from the nearest public transport to take us out. We called up our friend to pick us from the park and went to Seaworld instead. Luckily for us, one lady, who had booked the tickets in advance and had too many cancellations at the last moment, gave her tickets to us at 50% rate :)
Seaworld was amazing in its own way. The Shammu dolphin show is a must watch. The way it pirouettes and jumps and splashes water and dances to the tune of the people who are riding them is a real treat. They are like naughty babies on water and its really refreshing to watch them in action.
There was this seal and otter show. The seal behaved almost as if it understood english!!! The way it timed its comic act would put any lead performer to shame!! There was a 3d show about life of a turtle. Believe me, after a while it becomes nauseatingly too much to view!!! the theater is shaped like a dome and the entire ceiling is the screen where the picture is played. You've to rotate you head all around to follow the turtle and that too in 3D!! After a while i removed my glasses only to find no one else was wearing them :) But it was a nice picture and the music was amazing.
The next day, fresh from the setback of the previous day, we started around 7AM and reached the gates much ahead of time. Or that's what we thought only to find that the parking was already full. We literally ran to the entrance and just managed to catch the ferry that was leaving to the magical kingdom. As the park approached we could see the castle towering over everything. It was a sight to behold. When we got down the first sign that greeted us was, "The place where dreams come true". It was a magical moment. All throughout i had watched their cartoons and comics and movies and tv shows and now, there i was, standing at the very place dedicated to all those mentioned above. As we stepped on to the park, we realised, it was actually the smallest of the lot and most of the rides were having queues already. There was this race car track where in battery operated race cars where there for us to drive. One request for Disney management - thayavu senju antha carsoda lengtha increase pannavum . Paathia madinju naan ukkara patta kasthtam enaku thaan therium (pikaali mathiri kutti pasanga vandila erittu ipdi oru requestaanulaam kekkapdaaathu).
I would recommend adventureland first for any visitors to magical kingdom. We made the mistake of visiting it late and couldnt get into few of the rides. There was this splash mountain ride and one another train ride, which splashes into water. I enjoyed wandering around Tom Sawyer island. They had caves and bridges exactly like how its described on the book and the underground abandoned mines are thrilling to navigate on your own, without any light. There was this bridge, constructed using barrels and ropes over artificial waterbody. It was awesome fun to walk on that bridge that was see sawing and swaying in all directions. Then we entered the space land section. There was this Buzz light year ride, which had a huge queue and since we had all the time to kill took a pass for late in the evening and went for another space adventure ride. Kooda vantha pissasunga paathila kazhatti vitutu they went on their own to some rides. I was super scared but having been on ride after ride for the previous two days, decided to test my will and took a single person ride. What happened next were the 10 most thrilling, scary ad amazing moments of my life. It was a indoor mini rollercoaster and without even realising what i was getting into, i got into it!! May be that saved some scares initially. It was as if the machine did its level best to throw me off my seat to which i had welded myself in. By the time the ride got over, i was confident that, i can get into any ride on my own without fear :) It was a major major achievement for a person, who is super scared of heights. Riding the confident wave, i ventured alone into another space ride, this one being the tallest in entire magical kingdom and took us over and above the tallest structure - the castle. With chill air rushing against my face, i could see the sun set over the castle. Camera velila edutha adikara kaathuku pichikitu poida poguthu sollitu edukala. But real reason was, hands were entwined on the control rail holding me :D
Another interesting and must watch item is the Monster inc. A..W..E..S..O...M...E show and never to be missed. It runs under 10 mins..but THE best show. I wouldnt spoil the surprise for anyone planning a visit. But definitely dont miss this one.
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Comments
Thanks for this superbly described post, actually armchair travelled to disney land- a place which brings out the child in every human. so why kutti pasanga...a fair request to Disneyland. aana englishleyo illa latinleyo kelunga... avalukku tamizh theriyaday
oh.. yeah....bravo gils on overcoming the fear of heights... Travelling is really a great educator..na?
- Pathiya madinja Gils on the race car track
- Gils swaying on rope bridge in underground dark mine
- Gils getting splashed by Shamu - if it includes resultant mullamanri hairstyle, that would be a bonus.
- kooda vantha pisasunga
- Gils on Space Mountain (hands entwined on the control rail