Kenversations™
Page 2 of 4

It’s Showtime
The first place we hit, naturally, was EPCOT Center (EC). I think it is being called "Epcot" now, but that doesn’t mean anything, so I’ll stick with EC, thank you very much. I seem to make more visits to EC when I’m at Walt Disney World Resort (WDW) than any other park there.

We needed to get a ticket for the younger of the two little rapscallions, and, as I should have remembered, although I think there is no problem issuing AAA and American Express discounted tickets at the Main Entrance, for some reason I had to go to a Company D or a Team Center to use my particular discount. So, we climbed back in the car and off we went to One Mile Island, a.k.a. Team Disney, where I walked in and made the purchase. We drove back to EC and finally went inside the park.

Being my first day back at WDW, I had to eat at Akershus in the Norway Pavilion. It is one of my favorite places to eat. Not only do I love the food, but it is also all-you-can-eat, so a guy can fuel up for a tiring day at the Resort.

Okay, so there is another reason I like to eat there. My pesky nephews found it highly comical that I have a thing for those beautiful young Norwegian women (and no, it isn’t a blond hair thing - my girlfriends have all had dark hair). But those stinkers are only nine and eleven, so of course they don’t have the same appreciation.

Oh yeah - we also did some attractions, such as the boats rides in Norway and Mexico. After walking over to the American Adventure and finding out that the attraction was down, we took the boat back towards Future World where we hit some more attractions.

One of my favorites - the old Journey Into Imagination, was replaced with the much shorter and simpler Journey Into Your Imagination, and that wasn’t even open (Yes, I knew this ahead of time). There was no point to seeing "Honey, I Shrunk the Audience" as we can do the same show here. Perhaps my favorite Future World attraction, the thematic centerpiece of Future World, Horizons, is long gone and the replacement, Mission Space, is clearly nowhere near completion.

We did ride Test Track, taking advantage of the single-rider line. I prepared the two young whipper-snappers by telling them it is just like "when your Aunt Binx drives." They loved it, and it is a fun ride and all, but I sure wish they wouldn’t have ripped out the World of Motion ride-through.

The Universe of Energy was nice as always. The Ellen / Bill Nye version is holding up as a great update and overhaul of the original.

We hit the Wonders of Life, and rode Body Wars, which I hadn’t done in a while. My favorite part of that pavilion is Cranium Command. The boys got into all of the hands-on exhibits and the exercycles.

Uhm, Yeah, We Wouldn’t Have Gotten This On-Property
Alas, it was time to leave and check in to the place we’d be staying at the rest of the trip. As things turned out, it was off the same exit from the I-4 that I was using for the place I was staying at in May.

The place was pretty big. We were on the second floor of a six-level building. Once going through the front door, there were two more doors. On the left was the main part of the residence, with a sizable living room with a sleeper sofa, a kitchen complete with all of the amenities, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, one with a hot-tub style bath. On my side, all too myself, I had a bedroom, a small kitchen area, a sleeper sofa, and a bathroom with a shower and a hot-tub style bath. Beyond our back balconies was a lake and the western horizon.

Some parts of Florida are quite nice.

For the price, it was great, especially since I could have my privacy and avoid the little rascals and their ‘tween trickery.

That smile is real, not forced for the camera.  I’m having a great time!”

A Pleasant Discovery
For me, the highlight of the trip was Anheiser-Busch’s award-winning new theme park, Discovery Cove, located across the street from their Sea World park. I knew that this was a different kind of theme park, and figured that I wanted to do something different and special for this trip, so I was willing to shell out the bucks and go. I was surprised that my sister (who may be more frugal than I) was willing to have the whole family go for the day.

Discovery Cove (DC) takes reservations and puts a limit on attendance to prevent the park from being too crowded. We didn’t need reservations though, and since the weather was still holding up, we decided to go on Saturday.

There are three different kinds of tickets for the park. The least expensive, which still is over $100, doesn’t include any interaction with the dolphins. The next ticket up ($199) includes a reserve time for one-on-one interaction with a dolphin, and a much more expensive package is called "Trainer for a Day".

There’s no separate charge for parking, and lunch and a group picture are included in the price. Also included are use of the lockers, towels, wetsuits, masks, and snorkels (snorkels are kept by the guest). Each person is given a photo-ID card with a bar code to wear around the neck that allows purchases of merchandise and extra food, drink, and pictures to be charged to a credit card.

With a tropical theme, the park is beautifully spread out with pleasant landscaping, white sand beaches, rockwork, and clear water everywhere. Guests have unlimited use of the saltwater coral reef area and ray pool, the "freshwater" resort pool / tropical river, and the free-flight bird aviary.

It has been a while since I’ve swam all day, but I didn’t seem to tire at DC. It might not sound like there’s a lot to do, but one of the pleasant things about the park is that it is a place to relax where you don’t have to rush around and do FastPass strategies or dodge strollers or look for cross-over walkway across a parade route.