Childhood Dream #503

I'm not 5.

Quite a bit past it actually. Almost a menace to society...except that I'm not exactly single. Quite married, I'd say.

I'm at Disney World presently, and I'm having a blast along with my wife and her family.

I've gotten into it, though I'll admit the plush I clung to in the store wasn't Mickey or Goofy; it was Perry the Platypus. I don't know all the references, and some things are surprising like seeing Jack Skellington merchandise, but everyone's excitement and the immersiveness and the not-quite-too-controlled-yet-manicured atmosphere helps a lot.

Due to parking arrangements, my first ride was the tram and my first line was at the bus. They run very efficiently, which means that sometimes they're a bit...infrequent, and often packed. Getting to the park early is very much worth it, and I recommend the single riders' lines and FastPass--in that order.

The initial launch of the Rock'n'Roller 'coaster is rather...rapid. I would enjoy running some analytics on good accelerometer data from it... :) My wife's grandfather says it's the closest he's felt to an aircraft carrier's catapult, and now I understand why, and it's a blast...almost literally. That's the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular. I could've tried harder to be one of the extras for it, but those that made it were ecstatic and looked like they had a ball...all except the guy the main actress beat up. ;)

Expedition Everest was the first 'coaster I've been on where it runs backwards, and that was trippy. It was also dual lift with track switching. The line has a fascinating Yeti museum, though high FastPass traffic after the parade easily doubled the promised 15-minute wait .

Construction and theming of the park are excellent. One area felt chintzy, but my wife says that's by design. We rode the dino version of the Dumbo ride and the actual mechanics were superbly functional--not like the poor little biplanes at Six Flags back home (my favorite ride as a child). Of course, I understand the pneumatic control system a LOT better ever since I did robotics in high school.

No sign of Tron, and a Portal theme park segment of this caliber would be AWESOME...but more at home at Universal methinks. Set design could use cameras, 3D, and careful construction to provide the illusion of portal passage, though proper flings would, themselves, be a special challenge.

One more detail: there is free, seamless wifi everywhere. My planless phone is quite operable and some great apps exist just for Disney World, including line wait readers. I think the wifi is a stroke of genius, as "coarse" phone location uses the nearby wifi points' info to guess your location and such coverage as is had here means that when GPS is compromised (like in any of the buildings) there is still a lot of precision available for their ride-load-balancing informational apps.