WE’RE HERE! WE’RE IN DISNEY WORLD! I have wanted to come here my whole entire life!
We are walking through the entrance with our all-day (week) passes and Fen and James are trying to organise us all, and figure out what to do first.
As I look around, I don’t know what to even look at first! There are so many rides, shops, restaurants, and just about anything the perfect amusement park should have!
We decide to go to adventureland first, so we are going to see the Swiss family tree house first. I am pretty excited, because apparently there is a monkey called Knips, who was adopted by this Swiss family after their dogs killed his mother.
We climb up the millions of stairs. I am pretty relieved that the tour guide isn’t here yet, because he has been delayed in the traffic. Wow, this looks so pre-historic! They have hammocks instead of beds, a bucket on a rope to collect water from the river, one small table, and soooo much more... Hey, that must be Knips over there! Oh, it’s a person dressed up as him.. But wait, there’s a little boy around the age of eleven or twelve with a stuffed parrot sticking out of his backpack, wearing a black top with flames on it that say “legend”.
I don’t get the chance to talk to him, because we are finished looking at the tree house, and the tour guide has arrived. And listen to what he’s saying now, “ Walt Disney bought 43 square miles of land twice the size of Manhattan Island in the middle of Florida. Then he mastered a whole new plan of “Disney World, which is where we are now. It has been a dream of his, you know, to build a clean amusement theme park. He did this, as well as add heaps of restaurants, motel resort vacation centers, and his Experimental prototype Community of Tomorrow. After more than seven years of master planning and preparation, including fifty two months of real construction, the Walt Disney World Resort, including the magic Kingdom Park, opened to the public as a scheduled on October 1, 1971. EPCOT Centre opened October 1982 and on may 1, 1989, the Disney-MGM studios theme park opened.”
Okay, now we are at the magic carpets of Aladdin, and it’s our turn! We climb onto the carpets. Luckily this is a kids' ride, so it should be slow and I won’t vomit up my full breakfast just yet... The carpets are lifting up now. Since this ride isn’t that fast the tour guide decided to join us. “Did you know, that if you were to wash and dry one load of laundry every day for 52 years, you’d clean as much as the workers at the Walt Disney World Laundry do in a SINGLE DAY? The workers launder an average of 283,000 pounds each day. In total, between 30,00 and 32,000 pieces of clothing are dry-cleaned daily!”
We aren’t even talking about laundry! And yet he tries whatever he can to drench our trip in facts. Anyway, the ride is over now, but even though it was slow, the view was worth it! But to be honest, I actually don’t think it’s worth it, hiring a tour guide on each landmark. Especially because we keep on hiring the same guide, every time! But now, we are going to go and see the Tiki Room.
As we walk through the crowd to get to the Tiki room place, I can see the boy with the parrot in his backpack up ahead. Okay, now we are walking through the pathway. Hey, look at all these god and goddess statues. Whoa, that scared me, the first one actually started talking! It’s obviously mechanical, but still. (Please Note that I belong to a Christian family, and I do not believe in other gods. So don’t think I’m getting all excited about them and stuff.). We have seen heaps of mechanical gods, like the fire god, the god that balances the earth, the wind and rain gods, and the leader god who is disguised as a tree.
Now we enter into a dark room and sit on some chairs. I can hear heaps of mechanical sounds and stuff, so this sounds pretty good. Wait wait wait! A spotlight shines on a lady on the stage. She explains some things about the show, and gets us (actually the little kids) to “Wake up” a mechanical bird. And he immediately starts talking in an Indian accent, and then he “wakes up” all the other “birds” and they burst into song. They wake up all these other creatures, like plants and female birds, and they start singing too! All the other kids seem to have made this their number one favorite so far!
Next we climb onto the Jungle Cruise boats, and the parrot and his boy are in front of us. Finally, a chance to talk to him! I won’t say anything just yet, because I'd rather wait until Tianna notices him with the parrot, and I will see what she thinks. Our “captain” of the safari boat is saying some facts and explaining safety rules. Now he is finished, and is starting up the boat.
As we travel up the river, most of the other people take photos, chat to the people next to them, and ask questions. While we are all talking about our favorite parts of Disney world so far, the boy holding the parrot yells out, “Look, an elephant!” And he is right. In front of the boat, we see a mechanical (though life-like) elephant with her baby, standing in the lake, and spraying a whole lot of water out of her trunk. The group immediately starts taking photos and yacking on and on about elephants. And the tour guide says, “With millions of visitors annually, it’s no wonder the Disney world parks are among the most photographed places in the United States. On any random day, Disney’s PhotoPass photographers take between 100,000 and 200,000 of guests at Walt Disney World Resort. The PhotoPass service allows guests to view share and order their Disney photos online and create Disney products such as PhotoBooks and mugs.”
“Whoa!” a voice says, (and I realise that it is the parrot boy again), and his parrot says, “That’s a lot of photos!”
I turn to the parrot and whisper, so that the tour guide can’t hear, “It is interesting now, but you’re lucky you didn’t have to listen to him going on and on about the Mona Lisa in the Louvre!”
He laughs and says that I am lucky to not have had to listen to their guide go on and on about the history of the royal family when they were in London.
We finally agree that there is no point in hiring a guide and we won’t do it next time, because they seem to purposely ruin your trip by drowning you in more and more facts. It is as if they are trained to ruin the trip by making you learn during your holidays!
I ask him a bit about himself, and I find out that his name is Jonah and he had been given as a present to his owner, Jacob, a few months before they went on their tour. As it turns out, he is on the exact same tour as we are!
We spot a few more mechanical African animals, like a group of lions near the river, that have been made to look like they are munching on a zebra.
The ride comes to an end. It turns out Tianna’s parents and Jacob’s parents got along pretty well too. So Fen invites them to come with us to the Pirate League, where you get to transform into a pirate or another character like a skeleton (or something like that). Then, when we have finished at the Pirates league, we will all go to the Pirates of the Caribbean, where we can join “Jack Sparrow” (or his look-alike) as we “sail” through the Spanish Main.
Everyone buys costumes and while they get dressed up in them, with face paint, kids tattoos, crazy wigs, and other little bits and pieces on, Jonah and I wait in the chairs in front of the mirrors and talk about what else we are hoping to see at Walt Disney World. I am hoping to go on any ride that’s fast, because we haven’t been on any fast rides yet, and I am also hoping to do the hunt in the Magic Kingdom scavenger hunt, because that looked good. Jonah agrees, and says that he is dying to try the Buzz Lightyear Space Spin, because it looks exciting.
Everyone is finally done, and we have been dressed up too. We are extremely proud to look at ourselves in the mirror because we look just like pirates! Jacob's Mum even bought us each a weapon, like a sword, dagger, or a hook to put on our hands. I look like the dirtiest, smelliest and meanest pirate you could ever imagine a monkey to be dressed up as, while Jonah, is the supreme captain who will toss anyone he doesn’t like overboard, or else he will make them walk the plank.
We have our photos taken and leave the shop, stroll around down street, and into the Pirates of the Caribbean. We go inside, past the “pirate” at the door, past some areas that look like storage rooms in a boat, and line up in the queue.
When it's our turn, we all hop into the roller coaster carriages, and take off. We travel through a tunnel 'til we come to a waterfall, where a ghost of a pirate appears as a narrator - but it is really just a projector shining the image of the pirate onto the waterfall or a screen behind it. Then we go past an island, and on it there are lots of skeletons and a few holes, probably dug for treasure. An abandoned ship appears in front of us, and a storm brews, there is even wind from a fan, and the carriages rock up and down like we are on a boat in the waves! Then we see a boat next to us, and the passengers shoot cannon balls at us, but miss! I realise that this one is different because, instead of electrical figures, there are real people acting it out!
We sail on and arrive at a nearby island. From our ship, we can see the inside of a bar, where a pirate is threatening the poor tied-up barman to tell him the whereabouts of Captain Jack Sparrow, and whenever the barman says no, they dunk him into a barrel of water. We move on to the outside of the bar, where there are a couple of people and stuff, and see Jack Sparrow hiding in the stable behind.
Then we move on to another part of the town, where a whole lot of women are under auction as brides. We continue under the bridge, where we see a stupid pirate bragging to a dog that he is not only holding the map, but he is holding the key as well. He doesn't realise that Jack Sparrow is hiding in a barrel right behind him, listening to every word he says!
Next, we see a man sitting on a flight of stairs, trying to feed some kittens, a whole bunch of weirdo pirates singing “Yo ho yo ho! A pirates life for me!”, while a dog tries to copy them, a man feeding pigs, a live parrot, an underground prison with a dog holding the keys to the cells, and all the prisoners trying to sweet-talk it and bribe it with bones to come over to them, and Captain Jack Sparrow in a private room in an ornate rocking chair surrounded by riches, probably drunk, and talking to another live parrot. When the ride ends, I can’t stop thinking about it...
Then we wander back to the hotel, have dinner, and get some sleep.
We wake up the next morning, have breakfast, and make our way to the magic kingdom, because today we are doing the Mickey Mouse scavenger hunt.
The lady explains to us that it was going to be a normal tour of Disney world, when (in usual Disney fashion) something goes terribly wrong! Now Mickey is depending on US to save the magic kingdom from being taken over by evil villains because Peter Pan stole a hook from Captain Hook. We are each given Peter Pan name tags and are split into groups, each with a tour guide (luckily one that works here is in charge, and our guide can just tag along), and we set off to solve the clues throughout the whole park. We are supposed to find the hook and return it to Hook to save the magic kingdom.
First, the tour guide lays a whole lot of white dishrags on the floor and tells each child to pick one. Once they have all been removed, it becomes clear that a small leather bag with a skull and crossbones symbol on it had been at the center of the bundle. One of the moms in our group holds on to it until the tour guide returned. Then the tour guide looks inside the bag, pretending to be surprised, and exclaims that the whole bag is full of “Mickey Dust” and she starts handing out as much dust (Mickey Mouse shaped sequins) to all the children. She also explains that it will empower us to find the hook that caused all the trouble.
Next we are told we have to find the scroll with the missing clues. After a few moments of walking, Skyla spots a canvas scroll about 1 metre, by 1.6 metres, which is covered in handwritten clues that will take us from the garden to several other destinations and ultimately on to the location where Pan hid the hook.
Each of the clues is written in a riddle/rhyme form. The first takes us to the barber shop on Main Street, where we have to “sing a few bars” from “When You Wish Upon A Star” before proceeding.
As we walk down Main Street, our guide tells us we should “sneak up” on one of the pirate cast members at the attraction status board. After tossing some “Mickey Dust” at him, we should shout “Arrrrrrr!” The tour guide explains that if we do that, and the cast member responds with an, “Arrrrrr”, then we will know that he is a pirate working for Hook to overthrow the Magic Kingdom. We follow the instructions and the cast member doesn’t respond with the dreaded, “Arrrrrr!” and, besides, seems rather clueless about our task. He has no special help or information to offer, just looks at us blankly, and so we continue on to the next clue’s location.
The Partner’s statue, at the hub, is next. There, the tour guide asks everyone who his or her favourite character is. Then we are supposed to act out that character's behavior. I choose Baloo, from The Jungle Book, just because he’s funny. So then I have to give Tianna a big 'bear hug' (which is kind of embarrassing, actually - and a bit difficult to do if you are a monkey!). After about 10 seconds of funny acting, the tour guide tells the kids to get out the scroll and read the next clue.
Next we are off to find “the Claw that would choose.” - hey, that means that Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin is our next destination, and I know Joseph will be happy about that!
And so we continue on the scavenger hunt, reading a clue and then going to the destinations we identify. In our case, these are the Barber Shop, Partners, Buzz Lightyears Space Spin, the large granite spinning sphere in Tomorrowland , Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Café, the dwarves’ vault near Snow Whites Scary Adventures, the Cinderella Statue in the castle courtyard – right next to Tinkerbell’s treasures, the liberty tree in liberty square, the Diamond Horseshoe, the Tiki Fountain in Adventureland, and, finally, to a courtyard directly next to the Pirates Of The Caribbean.
At each destination, there is a small task to be done. Sometimes it is a “follow-the-leader" kind of walking activity. Some include looking for some detail (such as finding the vault), while some are just silly behaviour that is aimed especially at the younger kids in the group.
The best parts of the hunt for me were sneaking up on the cast member and scaring Captain Hook by acting like Tick Tock, the crocodile (with an imitation of the famous arm chop).
I'm so exhausted, I'm falling asleep in Tianna's backpack, can't even wait until we get back to the hotel....
