Living the Disney Life: Adventure (11/15/06)
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Living the Disney Life
Adventureland
November 15, 2006
I'm lucky enough to be living the Disney life less than a mile from Walt Disney World so for one reason or another I'm on property almost every day. But sometimes it's fun to get to some of the other tourist attractions in Central Florida. Rebekah and I are annual passholders at Universal, Sea World, Busch Gardens and Kennedy Space Center. Today, at the invitation of a friend, I spent the afternoon at Universal's Islands of Adventure. I've been to IOA three or four times previously. It's not really my kind of park (too many thrill rides), but it's attractive enough and I usually have a good time.
Disney creatives are often fond of saying everything starts with the story. That really hit home for me today. From Seuss Landing to Marvel Super Hero Island the place is very attractive and well done, but it just doesn't connect with me. I've never been a Seuss fan, a comic fan or a Popeye fan. I am a big Jurassic Park fan and that's my favorite area of the park. It was really crystallized while riding Spiderman, an attraction many consider the best ever. The effect of it is truly amazing but there's no connection to the characters for me so I'm never really drawn in. So there we were riding through the city watching all the very cool special effects and I'm just thinking "why doesn't Disney do something like this with a story I care about?" And then something funny happened...
... as we rose to the top of the building then fell towards the ground, I just found myself giggling like crazy. Then, instead of leaving the park we ventured further inside. We explored areas of Marvel Island I hadn't been before. At Toon Lagoon I watched about a dozen Ripsaw Falls boats go down the hill. At Bluto's Bilge-Rat Barges I discovered there's a long, winding, out-of-the-way trail along the water with great views of the rest of the park. And it was standing there, on the water, looking across at the wonderful Mythos restaurant we'd eaten at earlier that I said something I never expected - "I think I could really come to like this park."
Mythos
I'll start to go to IOA more often, even if only to enjoy Mythos (had the mozzarella flatbread and a pasta similar to a Tequila Lime chicken - without the chicken - really good food and wonderfully themed). Most of the attractions are still too thrilling for me (ie: Hulk) or just plain dumb (the Sindbad stunt show), but it's never been attractions that drew me to theme parks anyway, so that's not a big deal. There's something about Disney that I've found at every Disney park (even the so-called bad ones) that set it apart from every other theme park I've visited, and I don't expect that to change. But I do wonder if I ever gave IOA a fair shake. We'll find out because I will go back soon. In the meantime, may tomorrow bring another great Disney day!
The view that made me think a second time
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-- Doobie Moseley
-- Posted November 15, 2006