6 Days to Disney pt. 1: Goin on Safari

I don't see how I'd ever be able to write a blog about the best things at Disney and not talk at least a little about the single largest attraction in all of The World..

Animal Kingdom's Kilimanjaro Safari.

Before Expedition Everest gave Animal Kingdom a true thrill ride that would appeal to teens, Animal Kindom had very little to draw the masses. It was mostly a park full of simpler wonders, and simpler attractions like It's Tough to be a Bug and the better-than-I-expected "Flights of Wonder" show. In fact, there were really only 2 A-Level attractions, Countdown to Extinction (now called Dinosaur! after the movie came out in 2000) and Kilimanjaro Safari.

I've always felt that the Safari was one of the most amazing attractions I've ever experienced. It's the only thing at Disney that's so cool on it's own merits that the theming and the storyline almost detract.

The premise is that you've transported yourself (by way of a looooonnnngg queue line) to Africa and you're making your way across the Serengeti on a Safari. This is the most amazing part. The attraction area is over 100 acres all on it's own. To give you an idea of scale, the Cincinnati Zoo is 67 Acres. The Magic Kingdom would fit completely inside the grounds. The attraction is full of animals given a huge amount of land to roam, seemingly free. There are barriers... you know.. to keep the lions away from the zebras, but you can't see them. The ride vehicles are re-claimed buses, outfitted like safari trucks, driven (free reined) by guides. The trucks can stop, speed up, go around (to a small degree) depending on what the animals are doing.

Some would say this is essentially just a souped up, Africa-centric zoo. And that's probably the case, except that people from places like Cincinnati are jaded against other zoos, because ours is so good. It may be a zoo, but it's a GREAT zoo. You see animals doing things that they normally don't in zoos...things they can only do because the area they have here is so large. To quote Walt from his iconic TV show announcing plans to build Disney World:

"Here in Florida, we have something special we never enjoyed at Disneyland... the blessing of size. There's enough land here to hold all the ideas and plans that we can possibly imagine."

That's the thing that makes Kilimanjaro Safari so special. Of the parks, Animal Kingdom has most taken advantage of the expanse of land. The Safari most of all the attractions. It's a beautiful, exciting display of nature, and is the best example of one of the founding goals of Disney World.

The only thing I'd change about the ride, and I've said this multiple times, is that I'd remove the silly "Little Red" storyline. I think there was some concern at the beginning that audiences wouldn't enjoy just a simple zoo/safari attraction without the Disneyfied storyline, and they had just turned out to be wrong (which is rare). The premise is that there are poachers in the protected safari land, and they've captured Little Red, the baby elephant. We somehow save Little Red over the course of the ride, but it's silly and unnecessary. I'd remove it altogether, and they have definitely cut back on it's emphasis over the years, but even a little is too much on an otherwise perfect attraction.

And now... The Disney Trivia Question of the Day

Question: Approximately how many branches does the Tree of Life have (I'll accept a round number)?

If you think you know, please send an e-mail to blog@beefymuchacho.com

Everyone with the correct answer will receive a point. An incorrect answer gets 1/2 a point. The person with the most points will get a Limted Edition Pin purchased during my stay.

Standings are being updated daily at http://www.beefymuchacho.com/ on the "Contests" page.

I'll repost the questions with the answers at the end of the contest.

6 Days & 7 Blogs

In my "6 Days to Disney" blog coming up later today I've been forced to make a very tough decision.

You see... I've got 6 more Disney Blogs to write, and I have 7 topics. Not only that, but I've sort of painted myself into a corner, because I've built up this "Top 5" thing and now I've got 7 more things I want to discuss and 6 more days. I'm a little crazy, apparently, because I'm going to feel genuinely sorry about leaving out the 7th thing. So I've come to a decision... I'm going to blog about all 7, and they're not going to be ordered.

Looking back, I've already written about a bunch of things that I could have placed in my top 5. It was just asking too much of myself to take all of the thousands of things I love, or have loved about Walt Disney World, the non-person thing I've loved most in my life, and take them and actually rank them in some sort of un-scientific way.

Now... I think that, given a set of Disney things, I could actually rank them in order (if also given categories), but I didn't do that... Too late for that. So anyway, I'm going to give you my Final 7 items.

The Haunted Mansion
Pirates of the Caribbean
Hidden Mickeys
Pin Trading
Kilimanjaro Safari
Soarin'
Journey into the Imagination

My god... A daunting list. Exactly why I've decided to go this route. How can I possibly pare down such a group? I can't. You're looking at perhaps the heart and soul of the Disney Experience for me.


So anyway... 2 more for tomorrow, and then one more a day through Sunday to complete my quest....and then...on to Disney World.

Oh..one final thing... I went to the Ohio Renaissance Faire yesterday and had me a Giant-ass Turkey Leg. I did this only for the purposes of a post following the trip wherein I compare and contrast the Turkey of Renaissance-era Ohio and that of Walt Disney World, circa 2009. Here's a sneak peak:

7 Days to Disney: Ain't No Mountain High Enough

I've mentioned several times how big of a pansy I am.

It takes a pretty effing sweet roller coaster, and likely the Disney tag attached to get me to ride anything more intense than something like Big Thunder... Well, there are 2 roller coasters that actual roller coaster people seem to like that I also like and am not terrified to ride.

One of them is the Rock n' Roller Coaster at the Studios. The other makes it on to the countdown here, a week before the trip.

Expedition Everest.

That fucking ride is spectacular. I'll admit that it terrifies me every time, but it doesn't matter. Last time I was there it was the only ride at The Animal Kingdom I rode twice (that single rider line is effing fantastic.) I like every facet of it. Lemme break it down for ya.

The Theme: I mean... they spared no expense at all. It's pretty incredible down to every tiny detail. There's a courtyard in the queue area that looks JUST like a Buddhist shrine. There are those coins and the statues and all kinds of crazy things. Emmm... Not that Buddhism is crazy... moving on. The visual magnitude of the ride is incredible. The mountain is amazing looking. The ride cars are cool. The music is neat. I love it. They won me over. Getting a self-professed Roller Coaster Pussy to throw caution to the wind just out of the curiosity of seeing what all they did with the theme...that's tough to do.

The Technology: The Yeti, I believe, is still the largest and most advanced animatronic figure in the world. That's pretty much all I need to say. But also the ride seamlessly goes both backward and forward. There are sweet projections. It's amazing.

The Ride Itself: The ride itself is incredibly smooth and fun. The hill is the only thing that really psyches me out about coasters, but they really mask the intimidatingness by adding those themed elements. The big drop comes out of nowhere and isn't really projected beforehand, so there's no time to get worked up. It's awesome.

There's nothing else for me to say. If i actually liked coasters, this is easily in my Top 5, but it's not, because I don't. Can you tell?

Oh... small side note... You're not actually on Mt. Everest on the ride, despite the name and the misconception... See the trivia question for more details.

And now... The Disney Trivia Question of the Day

Question: What is the name of the mountain you're riding on in Expedition Everest?

If you think you know, please send an e-mail to blog@beefymuchacho.com

Everyone with the correct answer will receive a point. An incorrect answer gets 1/2 a point. The person with the most points will get a Limted Edition Pin purchased during my stay.

Standings are being updated daily at http://www.beefymuchacho.com/ on the "Contests" page.

I'll repost the questions with the answers at the end of the contest.

8 Days to Disney: Makes me all emotional. Like a baby kitten.

So, I think we've probably got it pretty well established that I am an emotional mess when it comes to some thing Disney related. I like to cry a little. I like going to Disney and tapping in to every weird little nostalgic tidbit I can.

I've realized that so much of why I'm so in love with that place, is that I love to revisit past great times just as much as I love to experience new great times. Well... if there's a single attraction in all of the parks that, for whatever reason, gets me more than almost any other is Mickey's Philharmagic.

Much like the Monsters Inc thing from yesterday, the concept of this attraction is pretty simple.

We're in a giant concert hall, there for a symphony concert conducted by Mickey Mouse and his enchanted instruments. Donald Duck steals Mickey's sorcerer hat and the instruments revolt and hide in all of these past Disney animated films. Oh...and it's in 3-D.

The thing that makes it amazing is the execution. It's easily the best 3-D I've ever seen, in terms of the huge number of layers and the details. It's fantastic. They also incorporate Donald and the instruments into the famous scenes from these movies seamlessly. He's on the Magic Carpet with Aladdin and Jasmine in "A Whole New World". He flies around Big Ben with the kids in Peter Pan. He enjoys Belle's feast in Beauty and the Beast. It's truly a beautifully executed film. The music is moving. It has a great, simple storyline that is crammed into about a 10 minute thing. It's funny, heartfelt, and the music is incredible and familiar.

When I went back to Disney for the first time in almost 5 years in January of 2005 and I experienced this for the first time, I think I said how incredible I thought it was. I've now seen it 5 more times or so, and without question it's one of the best things at The Magic Kingdom.

The only negative thing I can say about it is that while I've never really waited more than 10 minutes for it (fast pass is our friend, people, never forget it) the queue line is a little stuffy for my taste. As in the ventilation always seems a little bad. The wait seems longer than it is. There's not much to look at.

That's a very minor quibble in what is otherwise an A+ attraction. Something that every kid will love. Something that inspires the most nostalgic feelings of my youth in me.

And now... The Disney Trivia Question of the Day

Question: What is Donald's Boat in Toontown called?

If you think you know, please send an e-mail to blog@beefymuchacho.com

Everyone with the correct answer will receive a point. An incorrect answer gets 1/2 a point. The person with the most points will get a Limted Edition Pin purchased during my stay.

Standings are being updated daily at http://www.beefymuchacho.com/ on the "Contests" page.

I'll repost the questions with the answers at the end of the contest.

9 Days to Disney: Everybody has a Laughing Place

These days, in this time of economic tightwaddedness (that's a real word, I swear), even Disney World has been hit. In the last few years, Disney hasn't really added a ton of big attractions at the parks. Part of it has to do with a lack of space within the already existing parks, but even moreso it has to do with the development costs of a ride like Expedition Everest. There just isn't going to be enough of an influx of new visitors with the way the economy is to justify the expense.

This is not to say that Disney has been complacent. They've added a bunch of new smaller attractions. D-Ticket attractions, if you will. Among them you've got one of my new favorites.

The Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor.

I'd actually place it higher on my list, considering how much I enjoyed it the one time I experienced it, but I don't know how well it'll stand up over the course of repeated visits, so I'm keeping it out of the top 5.

The concept is pretty simple. Monsters no longer scare people for energy, they make them laugh, so they've brought us humans to the factory for their daily stand-up show to collect our laughs for their power plant.

The execution of this is what totally makes this thing something amazing. I have NO idea of how they do most of it, and it makes the whole thing far more fascinating to me than it probably would be otherwise.

First, it's all on these super high-def screens with the animated characters. The amazing thing is that they have the animated characters interacting deeply with the audience. I don't find it amazing that the characters themselves interact, because that's easily explained, but the animation also corresponds to the interaction, totally seemlessly.

It's really, really cool, and I am definitely going to be check this out again to see how different thing thing is from show to show. I'm sure there are a lot of things that are repetitive, but I don't know how they'd do some of it without some really cool special effect technology.

It impresses me is what I'm saying. I'm hoping that it re-captures the magic of my first experience, because I've built it up pretty high in my head, and it made me laugh a whole lot.

And now... The Disney Trivia Question of the Day

Question: What is the highest rank you can attain on Buzz Lightyears Space Ranger Spin?

If you think you know, please send an e-mail to blog@beefymuchacho.com

Everyone with the correct answer will receive a point. An incorrect answer gets 1/2 a point. The person with the most points will get a Limted Edition Pin purchased during my stay.

Standings are being updated daily at http://www.beefymuchacho.com/ on the "Contests" page.

I'll repost the questions with the answers at the end of the contest.

NOTE: The title of this post is from Song of the South, the Disney film that inspired Splash Mountain