Our Big Holiday Trip -- Our Favorite Things

And now, to round up Orlando, here's a list of our favorite things at Disney World.

Probably most people are most familiar with The Magic Kingdom, the biggest of the three main parks, because that's the one that's like Disneyland. But Animal Kingdom and Epcot have enough to fill up your day, as well. Animal Kingdom is like the Disney version of a zoo (the Safari being the actual zoo part), while Epcot is more like a Disney-sized science and culture museum.

We had tickets that let us choose two parks, one for each day. Since I'd been to Disneyland before, Uchenna said we should branch out and experience new things. He didn't mind skipping The Magic Kingdom, because he figured it would be more fun once we could bring kids.

So the first day we went to Animal Kingdom, and the second day we spent at Epcot (on a legitimate ticket this time, after our little preview the night before when the nice Customer Relations guy took pity on us and let us into Epcot to get dinner--see the previous posting).

Our favorite things in Animal Kingdom were:

(Walking through the Everest Trading Station, getting ready to face the yetti.)

(a) Everest rollercoaster. We rushed the ride as soon as we got in the gate, so we didn't have to wait in line or mess with those fast pass things. It zoomed, the yeti had torn up the tracks so we had to go backwards and turn around (that crazy yeti), and we went through pitch-black tunnels through the mountain. It was Uchenna's first roller coaster, and he laughed the whole time.

(b) Kilimanjaro Safari. You ride in a truck to see animals (real, not animitronic) out in the open (not in cages). Rangers come over the radio and tell you to watch out for poachers, then you help shut down their operation and rescue the baby elephant. We took way too many pictures of animals. It was great.

(Can you find three animals? Look for the long-horned cow thing, the giraffe, and the baby dear)

(c) Festival of the Lion King show. Just about worth price of admission to the parks right there. Huge animitronic floats, lots of dancers, tumbling monkeys on trampoline, acrobatic ballet (in fabulous bird costumes), music, everything. Even the long wait was worth it. Plus we were on the second row. Ooooh aaaah.

(Me in my 3-D bug glasses, getting ready to see the bug show. I loved all the play posters, punning on Broadway shows.)

(d) It's Tough Being a Bug show. Lots of 3-D, full-sensory surprises. It was tucked under the roots of the big Tree of Life.

Our favorite things in Epcot were:

(Waiting in line to go into Spaceship Earth, aka that great big ball. In fact, there's the ball up close, hovering over us.)

(a) Spaceship Earth. That's the huge ball that's the icon of Epcot. The track takes you up and around the inside of the ball, through scenes of history (mostly history of communication), and into the future, where on computer you see yourself in your own futuristic vision (with pictures they took of you at the beginning). The line was really long though.

(The scenes showing the development of technology--or at least communications technology--throughout western history. That's a medieval monk snoozing at his desk.)

(b) Mission SPACE Training. A spaceship simulator. We chose the less intense version, but it was fun in our little, bouncing-around space ship, each of us with a job to do (I wonder what would happen if we didn't push our buttons at the right time), and almost falling off the Martian cliff. Shwew.

(Looking at the big ball from the China pavilion, across the lake)

(c) The German shop. Cuckoo clocks, steins, beautiful glass, soccer shirts--stuff that kept making me go, "oh I remember these!"

(d) The street musicians of various types, from violins and belly dancers to drummer ensembles