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[Patrick]

Day 1: 2nd September 2008

We started the trip at the Magic Kingdom, the park was quite strange to be in, as I found Paris a lot better, I see the imagineers had learned a lot by the time they came to Europe.  Main Street was nice, but felt rather small and I did miss the hidden walkways that are indeed all over the European Magic Kingdom.

Pirate's of the Caribbean was, interesting to say the least, running at 5 minutes it lacked some of the most interesting scenes, with only one small drop and not particularly a coheriant story, I felt confused.  The new animatronics and effects though were good, especially the final Captain Jack, he was so lifelike, I can't believe they created such an amazing human animatronic .

Splash Mountain was done next and I really enjoyed it, most effects seemed to be working as well, and getting a little wet in the humid Florida weather was a nice plus.  The themeing of the attraction is amazing and the queue was a walk on, which turned out to be the same most days.  Big Thunder was walked to after, which to be honest, was a real let down, yes I know not everything should be compared, but this ride just felt like it lacked something, could have been the lack of the first and last tunnels suppose.
Though the area of the park was quite nice to walk around, and not every attraction was deemed worse than its Paris counterpart.  I loved Haunted Mansion as it was so different, the narration was nice to have, as it felt like there was a story, and the new effects were rather amazing for Leota, the bride did seem a bit creepy and psychopathic, but then again that was the idea, I suppose :wink:.  The audio was great, and the whole attraction felt very well looked after.  

It's a Small world was next to be found, hmm is all I can say, it was ok, but the audio sounded very old and the attraction didn't look in its best state.  I am not the biggest fan of the MK Fantasyland as the land seemed confused, fair, european was not the best look for it.  Though by the time we had done all this our dinner reservation at Tony's at 1pm was beakoning, so off we walked to Town Square where Tony's is located.  It was a great restaurant, themed to an Italian / Victorian look and the food was amazing, I would recommend this restaurant to anyone.  The waitress we had was very attentative, and something we found was they refill your drinks for free, which was great, as we had rather dehydrated in the unfamiliar Florida sun that morning.  Of course one thing we noticed was to have a lot of dollars available to tip the waitresses, as were on the disney dining plan, the tip is no longer included.

After having this great and rather large meal we got a spot for the parade, after having a conversation with a cast member on main street, something I have never seen in Paris, cast members just around to generally talk to people, but it was nice in a way to see friendly cm's around the place.  We did finally get ourselves a nice place to watch the parade, and came a pre parade of a band like the magic music days in Paris, and following it was a rather strange thing, "Sleeping Beauty, Special Edition DVD" Pre parade :lol: .  Well it was a weird idea, but I suppose if it sells more dvd's then good, of course it was Hurricane season so after this pre prade came the rain, and rain it did, literally most people on Main Street disappeared, and I don't think they even came back.  Of course me being from the UK stood and waited, what's a little water :wink: .  It did stop just before the first float and the parade came with its corny soundtrack.  Stolen music from Tokyo's old parade, with new cornier lyrics, it was interesting and the parade wasn't as bad as I anticipated, but it was just no Once Upon a Dream.

Halloween in September?




Tony's

Roy Disney

Don't the 2 buildings on the left look familiar :wink:

Marketing campaign's galor




Remember this is Walt Disney World

What a change a little rain can make :wink:

Disney Dreams Come True























Part 2 of day 1 coming soon.

[The Butlin Boy]

Fantastic pictures, and a great trip report Pat. Thanks for posting them, I'm really looking forward to seeing the rest. :mrgreen:

[Epcot_Boy]

Fantastic pictures, and a great trip report Pat. Thanks for posting them, I'm really looking forward to seeing the rest. :mrgreen:

I second that =D>  =D>

Epcot_Boy :ears:

[peep]

Sounds like you were having an ok day, can't wait to read the rest of the report.

The rain sounds a bit random, it also looks like the peeps in that photo that stayed outside were Brits

I like the float for the Sleeping Beauty promotion.

[dagobert]

Great report so far. Can't wait to see part two. It looks that you had a nice time in Florida. In which hotel did you stay. We stayed in the Pop Century Resort.

we didn't like the Magic Kingdom too, especially Fantasyland is so bad, it's like a concret desert.
Haunted Mansion is indeed better than Phantom Manor. It's really time for an update in Paris. BTM was okay, but compared to Paris it's lacking something. We also have the opinion that Potc is much better in Paris. We just have been to DLRP and Potc is one of our favorite attractions. I liked the Jack Sparrow and Barbossa additions, but I'm not sure if I want to see them in Paris.

Main Street was also a little bit disappointing. The shops and cafes are not as good themed as in DLP.

Can't wait for the rest.

[Patrick]

Thanks for the comments the rest will come soon, sorry for the delay just been busy :oops: .  Though to make up for it, here's a video of Fantasmic :wink: .
http://blip.tv/file/1304666

[Epcot_Boy]

Fantasmic is very impressive indeed =D>

Thanks for sharing :wink:

Epcot_Boy :ears:

[Nala_84]

Hey Patrick, great report so far and I love your pics!!! Oooh, I also wanna go to WDW!!!

[davewasbaloo]

Thanks for sharing Patrick. I am with you. Compared to DLP or even DL, the MK is such a disappointment. Thankfully WDW has Epcot and DAK to counterbalance it, but if it was not for the Country Bears, Carousel of Progress and Hall of Presidents, I would never be interested in going to the Mk again.