Walt Disney World, Orlando, Florida

proper answer is epcot btw

EPCOT

How many days u goin?

literally in the birthing stages of planning after finding out a buddy has free lodging and discounted tickets there. i'm hoping for 5-7 days because no way i'm not retracing every single step i took as a child. like, i'm excited to hang out on pleasure island. disney has a weird effect on me.

epcot

I nerded out over this place when I was finally there at the age of 12/13 or so

Pleasure Island is p much in half working order right now.

I'm planning for a 7-8 day trip sometime in 2012 tbh

xp i remember hearing they're renovating it, but still. worth it for disneyquest which was just about the coolest idea ever when i was 13 (roller coaster simulator!)

Right, Disneyquest is part of "Downtown Disney" not Pleasure Island, come on son

:P

http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/parks/epcot/attractions/maelstrom/

aw yeah

no idea what i'd vote 4 in the poll, haven't been to disney in a while

fuck yeah the maelstrom

Exploring Norway's heritage isn't going to be smooth sailing, so buck up like a Viking would!

uh BLIZZARD BEACH god damn

my man

http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/parks/blizzard-beach/attractions/cross-country-creek/

Epcot wins because it's so much fun to get hammered while Drinking Around the World.

I haven't been to the Orlando parks since high school (before that I visited several times a year), but it's now & always the Magic Kingdom. EPCOT's fun: does the dinosaur ride still have smell-o-vision or whatever it was? I listen to the land. The studio was pretty bad, at least in the early 90s. (The studio at Paris Disney was bad too last year.)

that kid feeling of waking up, parents say we're going to Disney today, stay all the hot day until it's late, watch the Main Street Electrical Parade & the fireworks, still ache to leave, exhausted, the 1.5 hr drive back home half asleep: that's kinda my filter for a good day still.

I gotta make a trip to Orlando one of these days.

I still go with friends approximately every eighteen months. If you stay in a Disney hotel, you can drink to your heart's content, and their table service restaurants are surprisingly very good to excellent (Disney takes the newly formed "foodie" crowd seriously).

Epcot is fantastic, my family would spend two days there and only one at the Kingdom. But I voted Magic Kingdom for nostalgia's sake.

Go to Universal instead

we're trying to fit it in but shit's expensive. universal > disney stans can fuck right off tho

What the fuck, ban Number None, give me a fucking break

Eh, i've only been to either once and i enjoyed Universal more. I'm not a "stan" by any means

OK,

1) Me Too

2) Epcot was bob, except for the 'around the world' bit, that was fine.

3) Animal Kingdom was best.

Magic Kingdom - The most robot rides. All the same ones as Disneyland I think. (Except maybe Alien Encounter which isn't really a ride). The Disney World Mr. Toad was better than Disneyland's Mr. Toad but it got cremated.

Epcot - Most different stuff than Disneyland. Less of a kid place. The Norway troll ride is kind of classic.

I'll stan for Magic Kingdom

EPCOT

And don't miss some of the sit down restaurants - Le Cellier in EPCOT is a great steakhouse, and Boma over at Animal Kingdom is great stuff, too. Be sure to make reservations in advance, however...

Magic Kingdom has a cool Monsters Inc. show where 3D characters can interact with you in real time

it weirds me out that Whiney is down with Disney World

It weirds me out that they have a place called Pleasure Island.

it weirds me out that Whiney is down with Disney World
--pathos of the unwarranted encore (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned)

Haha, why?

it just seems to me like a whole lot of the stuff about "the culture" that you'd hate is the whole Orlando vibe & especially Disney World. where I grew up we'd go to Disneyland at least twice a year though and it was kinda like no matter who you were you liked Disneyland in one way or another: sincerely, or as a cherished & relivable memory of childhood, or in a snotty fuck-shit-up-but-don't-front-this-place-is-fun teenage way. but like if somebody'd lightning-rounded me "quick, what would Whiney G. say about Disney World?" I would have said "Whiney G. wants to be the aerial DJ during the strafe bombing of Disney World"

Why I love Disney World:

I've said to fellow Disney stan PappaWheelieV that Disney World is the "triumph of attention to detail." A friend of mine called it "the positive aspects to fascism."

Basically every corner of Disney is microdesigned to perfection, working hard to really drive home the illusion that you're actually in fantastic places that previously only existed in some imagineer's mind. I think the cult of folks who try to find the "hidden mickeys" that the designers will hide in design elements like lamp posts and wall art is a testament to this theme. Even waiting in line for shit at Disney is fun, because there's always plenty to look at and think about. Anyone who pulls that "well, universal studios has better RIDES" ish is not exactly seeing the forest for the trees, and has a really shallow perception of the capabilities of a theme park. I always get sad at Disney when I luck out and get something with no line, and some dudes are just RUNNING past all the environment...

Also, like, a lot of people's anti-Disney arguments basically amount to COMMERCE ON PARADE! WAKE UP SHEEPLE! And I actually find some comfort in something that's WHOLLY inauthentic like a theme park or a cruise ship. You know that anxiety of sitting in Berlin eating a pig's knuckle at a pub because a guide book told you that was authentic, yet wondering exactly how authentic it could be if it was in a guide book? Or that initial shock when you learned that our beloved Burritoville is a chain? The search for "authentic" experiences is like mission number one on h*pster vacations, which is why so many of them so to unsafe and not very fun places to see the favelas or the rice paddys or getting captured on the Iran border or whatever. And usually the most/only "authentic" thing to do in ANY town--from bustling New York City down to the tiniest village in Siberia--is to sit around and drink alcohol with your friends.

So, with Disney World, I can safely remove all that anxiety from my life, knowing that everything square inch exists for the sole purpose of making sure I have fun.

best whiney post imo

It's also weirdly hilarious when you're in Disney World and Real Life intrudes. We were standing outside one evening, watching a rabbit eat the flowers in the Canada pavilion at EPCOT - this rabbit was just vacuuming up the flowers, really fast.

I'm sure it was a nightmare the next day for some poor Disney landscape artist, but it was great to watch... they can try, but they can't control *everything.*

The one time I was at Disney World I was going through an extremely unhappy time so it's hard for me to look at it objectively. It really could be the happiest place on earth but I didn't feel it and it makes me sad even remembering.

whiney otm. When you stay in a Disney resort the immersion is so complete that I actually get vertigo leaving the park. Real life isn't this attentive to detail and so concerned with cleanliness.

Walt Disney World, it must be pointed out again and again, isn't like Disneyland. Disney learned from his mistakes in Anaheim.

The history of Disney is in many ways the history of Florida. Walt Disney World is in every sense a sovereign state within a state: its own police force, electrical grids (all underground), city commmission (!). In Florida, it's common knowledge that Disney is the best place to spend a hurricane cuz the power never goes out, the booze flows, and Mickey's always smiling.

WDW played a big part in my childhood and adolescence despite my hating every Disney character except the Pooh gang.

Also, like, a lot of people's anti-Disney arguments basically amount to COMMERCE ON PARADE! WAKE UP SHEEPLE!

I'd argue against this - I think there's a distinction between the anti-commerce urge and the anti-Disney urge, which for me is part of the "you gotta love it!" syndrome I hate which I think is a hate we share: you know how people really sell you hard on this idea that you haven't really lived unless you've puked up your twelver of Milwaukee's Best on the stoop at 5:30 a.m. because getting fucked up is an essential part of youth? you know how you instinctively know that's bullshit? to me, Disney's "we've got how you feel about your childhood covered" deal is really sad. Not shake-my-fist angry, I got a sister-in-law who loves Disney and spends big vacation money going down there, God bless her I'm glad she has fun. But the whole "your sense of wonder's got our name on it!" deal, the broad-brush how-it-feels-to-be-a-child thing, that's just tragic to me: tonally it elides with obligatory patriotic responses for me, or how-you're-supposed-to-feel-about-your-family urges - these all bundle in with the-vibe-of-Disney for me, you can kinda guess how I have a li'l bee in my damn bonnet about anything that raises "family! you love it!" vibes

which is not to say it isn't fun, I'm more just surprised that that's not more your angle because you tend to bristle against obligatory responses when they're targeted at your general demographic and I consider anything Disney basically targeted-response central: with the target not just "fun" but specific moods/emotions

Walt Disney World, it must be pointed out again and again, isn't like Disneyland.

true, Disneyland is far superior

the whole story about walt's original plan for epcot as a kind of personal fiefdom/insane utopian city of the future is easily my favorite disney-related thing.

The community was to have been built in the shape of a circle, with businesses and commercial areas at its center, community buildings and schools and recreational complexes around it, and residential neighborhoods along the perimeter. Transportation would have been provided by monorails and PeopleMovers (like the one in the Magic Kingdom's Tomorrowland). Automobile traffic would be kept underground, leaving pedestrians safe above-ground. Walt Disney said, "It will be a planned, controlled community, a showcase for American industry and research, schools, cultural and educational opportunities. In EPCOT, there will be no slum areas because we won't let them develop. There will be no landowners and therefore no voting control. People will rent houses instead of buying them, and at modest rentals. There will be no retirees; everyone must be employed."

But the whole "your sense of wonder's got our name on it!" deal, the broad-brush how-it-feels-to-be-a-child thing, that's just tragic to me: tonally it elides with obligatory patriotic responses for me, or how-you're-supposed-to-feel-about-your-family urges - these all bundle in with the-vibe-of-Disney for me, you can kinda guess how I have a li'l bee in my damn bonnet about anything that raises "family! you love it!" vibes

Ehh -- perhaps. Have you ever been to WDW? I don't get that sense of coerced fun, and I recoil as easily as you from this sort of thing. Imagine the cleanest amusement parks in the world.

It's also weirdly hilarious when you're in Disney World and Real Life intrudes. We were standing outside one evening, watching a rabbit eat the flowers in the Canada pavilion at EPCOT - this rabbit was just vacuuming up the flowers, really fast.

The rabbit was whisked away by security and never seen again.

http://wdw2.wdpromedia.com/media/wdw_nextgen/Site/WDWContent/Media/InternetMediaType/HomePage/slideShow/memories.jpg?t=2011-07-22T09:37:47

http://wdw1.wdpromedia.com/media/wdw_nextgen/Site/WDWContent/Media/InternetMediaType/HomePage/slideShow/fy11q4rckfall_mediawindow.jpg?t=2011-07-28T10:19:04

I didn't have to search for these they were just the first two fade-up images on the wdw site

still though - wdw - wgw - think about it

wait until the sheeple see this

hey, maybe it's good.

lol Sotosyn, captain save-a-Walt

It's like pointing out there's too many bands in Williamsburg.

What's the deal with airline food?

Look at Alfred and Whiney. Like otherwise perfectly normal San Franciscans who'll argue that Barry Bonds deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.

A movie about a man's mental breakdown filmed surreptitiously at DisneyWorld. Sounds novel enough to me.

wish it was epcot center

Requiem for a Magic Kingdom

WDW = the whole complex. Magic Kingdom = what most people call "Disney World," perhaps because Disneyland is one park while WDW has four.

oh I've had several nervous breakdowns watching parents indulge their little bitches in princess costumes. I can't fucking stand Mickey Mouse.

I'd like to run the WDW marathon one day. But not the Goofy Challenge.

Yeah, I like Epcot. The Magic Kingdom is what would send me in a mental tailspin now.

WDW = the whole complex. Magic Kingdom = what most people call "Disney World," perhaps because Disneyland is one park while WDW has four.

Disneyland is two parks fwiw.

My niece wore her fairy costume to WDW this week. Aparrently Tinkerbell has a sister.

Hitchcock floated the idea of setting a film at Disneyland in an interview in the '50s; the Empire immediately smacked it down.

The nearest I ever got to WDW in Orlando was attending a tech writer's convention in May, 2000. I stayed in a Disney hotel and ate in Disney retaurants and sat in Disney meeting rooms. I don't think I ever made it into the official amusement park area, but I may have walked through some Disney-owned sub-suburb of the park, pathologically clean, overpriced and plasticized. It was like walking in a village of Barbie doll(tm) houses.

Florida was experiencing a serious drought and water restrictions were big news on the local tv station. Yet, everywhere I turned there were massive water-features, fountains, waterfalls, etc. going full blast. Every minute I spent there I wished I were somewhere else.

WDW is a sovereign state ftr. What Disney milked out of Tallahassee is stunning in its scope.

Orlando?

well, the legislature

Ah, yes.

Niece is on her third costume of the trip in WDW (Little Mermaid). Gott im himmel.

do you have a costume, Unca Morbius

Thanks to my parents and her paternal grandparents, my niece owns every goddamn princess. When I play with her, I whip out a toy dragon and pretend to incinerate them.

ok tuomas

cept Tuomas thinks "toy dragon" means "penis"

Walt Disney Corporation is traded on the NYSE under the ticker symbol DIS, which was once another name for hell.

I thought it was Bis...?

From Wikipedia:

In Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy, the City of Dis (in Italian, la città ch'ha nome Dite, "the city whose name is Dis")[1] encompasses the sixth through the ninth circles of Hell.[2] The most serious sins are punished here, in lower Hell. Dis is extremely hot, and contains areas more closely resembling the common modern conception of Hell than the upper levels.

diss

Fascinating thread. I'm intrigued by what the aficionados like Alfred & Whiney write here, because WDW has never exerted any pull on me at all, so to read all this is eye-opening.

I was in Orlando for a conference a couple of years ago. I had no desire to see WDW, and I didn't. If I'd been there with friends or family, or frankly if I'd read this thread beforehand, I might have gone. The odd thing is that, when I travel, even for work, I tend to go out of my way to explore and turn over stones. I'm the one who returns to the second day of a training with tales of what lies beyond the square mile surrounding the hotel. It may be that I'm so attracted to so many places and things in life that on the rare occasion that I find myself indifferent to something, I nurture that indifference with almost twisted sort of pride. It may also be that I like to stumble upon wonderful places, rather than be fully immersed in an environment entirely designed to elicit wonder. That said, this thread makes me question to what extent that preference -which feels like a genuine sentiment of the heart- might not also be symptomatic of a mind become somewhat stuck in some of its ways.

sounds like you need to hang out with some princesses and kill dragons and shit

haha probably.

If only WDW really were a place, it could be explored. Sadly, it is a product, not a place.

here's my fuckin costume

http://www.inetres.com/gp/anime/fantasia/f12_01.jpg

Thought your fuckin' days were over.

Just got back from 7 days in FL: 5 on a Disney cruise, 2 in Orlando. The cruise was insanely crowded but a logistical marvel. Unbelievably organized and clean for such a huge vehicle carrying so many ppl. One can only wonder how they treat/pay the crew. A nice surprise was the lack of in-your-face merchandising as compared to WDW.

WDW seemed kind of shabby after the cruise but I was impressed by how little it had changed in the 30 yrs since I'd been there. P cool to see the haunted mansion, space mountain, swiss fam robinson treehouse, etc but I was really happy to get out of Orlando. The Dolphin hotel was bizarre - like FL's pink answer to that huge pyramid hotel in N Korea.

Weather was great - I now see why anyone goes to FL ever.

by no means, E, I don't play racquetball or anything.

The closest I came to going to Orlando was when a comedy industry friend encouraged me to submit writing to the New Mickey Mouse Club -- the Justin-Britney-Gosling show.

More reasons to go to FL: lots of beaches and the best thrift stores ever.

But that is it.

Swiss Fam Treehouse is still there? I thought they turned it into Tarzan?

Swiss Fam Treehouse is still there? I thought they turned it into Tarzan?

I walked by pretty quickly and it looked the same. My son (big fan of the movie) went in later and said it was still true to the movie. Maybe they changed it back from Tarzan to the Swiss?

I had also forgotten about Tom Sawyer's island. Damn, I loved that when I was 6.

It was Swiss Family Treehouse at the end of 2010.

they changed it to tarzan at OG disneyland, but at least we still have the original tiki room.

Do you work there?

my parents met there, so i consider it my big corporate godparent.

My parents spent their honeymoon in WDW. With only a few days before Mom and my Air Force dad moved to Mississippi, they drove around Florida, pulled into the two-month-old Contemporary Resort, and asked if there was room. It hurt to spend the $35 a night.

I bibbity bobbity'd my boo there.

worst verb ever!

imagine Alicia Keys singing it

you wouldn't believe how many weddings took place on the 5-day Disney cruise.

I don't know what Alicia Keys sounds like, duh. "Bobbity" just makes me think of that woman who cut her husband down to size.

Tbh, don't see why any consenting adult(s) sans kids would waste time/money at WDW. With kids, it's pretty well-run.

My kids would disown me if we drove 16 hours to Florida and they woke up to this:

http://i.imgur.com/R92Q2SW.jpg