Not Everyone Is A Fan Of Theme Parks, But Some Parks Manage Better Than Others At Making Sure That All Visitors Enjoy At Least A Few Hours Of Their Visit
Digging through some old photographs recently, I found pictures from various visits to the United States. I’ve visited a few places over there, and the one thing that I have done on every trip is to go to the local theme parks.
Naturally, the most renowned theme parks on earth are those run by the Disney Empire. As a young man Walt Disney had the idea to create a magical land where children and their parents could enjoy themselves together, and with his brother’s help he began to make his dream a reality. Disneyland in California opened its doors in 1955, and although there were countless teething troubles on its opening day which resulted in a large amount of critical feedback, the park was soon making a profit.
The Disney theme park empire expanded in 1971 with the opening of Disney World in Florida, which was renamed Walt Disney World by Roy Disney as a tribute to his late brother. In 1982, the Epcot Centre was opened close to the existing Florida park. Epcot was built as a permanent ‘World’s Fair’ with different parts of the site representing different countries from all over the planet. Other Disney parks have been built in more recent years near to both of the original American sites, and there has been expansion abroad as well – first Japan, then France and then Hong Kong which opened its doors in 2005 – fifty years after the very first park in California.
I am not necessarily the world’s biggest fan of theme parks, so it is a compliment to the Disney parks that I have visited that I very much enjoyed my visit. My most recent American trip was to Florida a number of years back where the party consisted of six adults, two young teenagers and a child. The trip was planned to spend as much time in the parks as possible, although a couple of days were also spent chilling by the pool.
We soon established a system of getting up early, arriving at the park just before it opened and going to the most popular rides early in our visit in order to miss the worst of the queues. Although, waiting in a queue at a Disney park appears much less like queuing than it does in other places, as the queue areas are apparently designed to be integral to the ride and there are things to look at and do whilst you are standing there. Also, for quite a few rides there is a walk on/walk off process which means that you get to move frequently, so it appears much less like you are just standing around doing nothing.
From my point of view, I can say that of all the Florida parks, I took to Epcot the most, but that’s probably quite predictable as it appears to be the park most designed for adults. It’s great to stroll around the side of the lagoon progressing from country to country. Each segment is beautifully designed to show off the country represented – every one of the attractions, all of the architecture, shops and food areas are entirely about that country. The countries represented come from all over the world, including Mexico, Japan, France, Norway and seven others. And I believe that it was Disney policy for the staff in each area to have be from the country represented.
Thinking about the rides in the various parks, I most certainly like the flight simulator kind most of all. The Spiderman and Star Tours rides are my favourites, though I love the Haunted House as well (a far more subtle ride, but very cleverly done, though I’ve no clue of how they form the ghosts that materialise – maybe some type of Laser eye beam?). Most of the others with me on that trip were totally obsessed with the rollercoaster rides – the speedier and more outrageous the better. One of the males was somewhat annoyed that he couldn’t enjoy a handful of the rides as he’d recently had Laser eye surgery, and although there were no restrictions laid down by the park in this respect, he thought that his eyes were still slightly sensitive and didn’t want to take the chance. Although I would have thought it was more fun to go on the rides after Laser eye surgery, as you have to remove your glasses to go on them which then means that you can’t properly focus on what is happening!
And the parades are fantastic too. On some days we opted to remain in the parks throughout the evening, and watched the extravagant parades which also included spectacular firework displays and beams of light playing across the sky from Laser eye slots dotted around the park. Simply an amazing thing to view and a great way to round off a day in Disney’s magical land.
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