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Updatey Themey Parky
Feb. 9th, 2011 11:14 pmToday we ventured into the wilds of Epcot, to eat at a French restaurant that had been discovered while I was Out West. Epcot was initially designed as The City of the Tomorrow, and your arrival area has this whole Venture Brothers/Futurama "Welcome! To the world of the Future!" thing going on. The universal font is Space: 1999, and I got a couple of scientastic shots, including one with space-age "Stroller Parking".
Epcot also has the World Showcase, where a dozen or so countries are represented in microcosm. The general directive I got, both from the design of the park and from my companions, was "Take an interest in the subject. But not too much."
Each of the countries appears to be staffed by natives, so I got to go to Morocco and talk to the guy in the shop about North African Pop (once I proved my Street Cred by name dropping Cheb Mami), and picked up a new sampler. (With English! So I know who the artist is!) There's a combination of culture and shopping in each place, with more culture than I was honestly expecting.
Then we scooted off for a ferry ride to the Magic Kingdom. The first ride was the jungle cruise, and despite the awful collection of puns our Imagineer was given, her patter was excellent. It did sort of ram home some of what had twigged me during Epcot's International Expedition--the Cheez Wizzing of culture. For those of you who might not know what I'm talking about, let's pretend there's a "USA Pavillion". The attendants dress as cowboys in George Washington wigs and they all live next to Mount Rushmore and play football. Take a collection of familiar images and familiar beliefs and.... express them.
But we had some fun rides. And pretty much the one thing (aside from flying Dumbos) that I remembered from 1979 when I was last on campus is still here. The Haunted Mansion has a routine you go through before getting on the actual ride, including a bit in the lobby when the ceiling rises and the floor stays put--in fact there were a handful of really good theater bits in the Haunted House that I remembered. It's just a nicely done ride.
Alas, the child I am now can figure out when it's being directed to look somewhere, and it immediately gets curious as to why, and as to what it can't see right now. So I spent too much time twisting about in my eggshell seat trying to see around me rather than what was being presented.
I got to ride on an actual paddle steamer. I don't even think it was on tracks. It was probably good that I couldn't hear most of the announcer's commentary, but I thought it was neat that they integrated two of the nearby rides into the script.
We went to Stitch's Alien Invasion thing, which... was not what I expected. But I liked a lot of the technical aspects. And after dinner, we watched fireworks from the stern of the ferry back to the parking lot.
Epcot also has the World Showcase, where a dozen or so countries are represented in microcosm. The general directive I got, both from the design of the park and from my companions, was "Take an interest in the subject. But not too much."
Each of the countries appears to be staffed by natives, so I got to go to Morocco and talk to the guy in the shop about North African Pop (once I proved my Street Cred by name dropping Cheb Mami), and picked up a new sampler. (With English! So I know who the artist is!) There's a combination of culture and shopping in each place, with more culture than I was honestly expecting.
Then we scooted off for a ferry ride to the Magic Kingdom. The first ride was the jungle cruise, and despite the awful collection of puns our Imagineer was given, her patter was excellent. It did sort of ram home some of what had twigged me during Epcot's International Expedition--the Cheez Wizzing of culture. For those of you who might not know what I'm talking about, let's pretend there's a "USA Pavillion". The attendants dress as cowboys in George Washington wigs and they all live next to Mount Rushmore and play football. Take a collection of familiar images and familiar beliefs and.... express them.
But we had some fun rides. And pretty much the one thing (aside from flying Dumbos) that I remembered from 1979 when I was last on campus is still here. The Haunted Mansion has a routine you go through before getting on the actual ride, including a bit in the lobby when the ceiling rises and the floor stays put--in fact there were a handful of really good theater bits in the Haunted House that I remembered. It's just a nicely done ride.
Alas, the child I am now can figure out when it's being directed to look somewhere, and it immediately gets curious as to why, and as to what it can't see right now. So I spent too much time twisting about in my eggshell seat trying to see around me rather than what was being presented.
I got to ride on an actual paddle steamer. I don't even think it was on tracks. It was probably good that I couldn't hear most of the announcer's commentary, but I thought it was neat that they integrated two of the nearby rides into the script.
We went to Stitch's Alien Invasion thing, which... was not what I expected. But I liked a lot of the technical aspects. And after dinner, we watched fireworks from the stern of the ferry back to the parking lot.