Tag Archives: WDW

Favorite Ride at Disney World? Rock’n’ Roller Coaster

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I Recently polled The Fam and asked them about their favorite ride at Disney World.

Raymond didn’t actually have to respond to the poll.  You can’t be married to the same person for 24 years and not know their favorite Disney World ride – Rock’n’ Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith has been Raymond’s favorite ride since he first rode it in 2004 (the ride originally opened in 1999).

I did ask him what specifically about the ride made it his favorite…is it the introduction?  The dark?  The speed?  The loops?  The music?

Raymond’s answer?  “Yes.”  (Know what?  You just can’t get him to quit rambling on about stuff!)

What’s not to love about this ride?  If you are a thrill ride junky – this is as thrilling, as extreme a ride, as you will find at Disney World.  Here are the deets (Spoiler Alert):

Rock’n’ Roller Coaster is located in Disney’s Hollywood Studios at the end of Sunset Blvd.  Since it is right next to Tower of Terror, best to hit them both first thing in the morning and/OR score some fast passes for at least one of these if you love them.  Just FYI:  Toy Story Midway Mania (which I’ll talk about in detail at another time) is located very far away from these two rides (Pixar Place) and is also a headline attraction.  To tour successfully at the Studios, have a good plan for how you will accomplish all three with a minimum of wait time.  Use fast passes and early arrival (extra magic hour if available) to your best advantage.

Now back to R’n’R…

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The Studio at G-Force Records

Pre-Ride:  Enter the recording studio for G-Force Records where Aerosmith is busily working when their manager informs them they’re going to be late for their own concert.  Luckily you score back-stage passes and a ride to the concert in a super-stretch limo – head out into the alley to wait for your ride and get ready to blast off onto the LA freeways.

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Cheesy Ride Photo!

Brace yourself – this is no ordinary limo!  This ride hurls you from 0-60 miles-per-hour in 2.8 seconds!  Then you’re flying through banks, turns, dips, and corkscrews (yes, upside down!) before reaching your final destination.

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In the Alley Waiting for a Ride

 

 

 

 

Look for:  The limo’s licence plates!  There are five different limos, each sporting it’s own vanity plate.  (1QKLIMO for example) – while you’re looking at the plates, see if you can spot any Hidden Mickeys!  There are MANY both in the queue and on/around the ride.  For the most part, each limo plays different Aerosmith songs.  Listen carefully if you hear “Love in an Elevator” – the words are a bit different, recorded just for this ride!

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Safe and Sound Post-Limo Ride

You must be 48″ tall to ride.  There are health warnings for this ride and if you’re prone to motion sickness or have claustrophobia, I’d sit this one out.  Due to the nature of the ride, the harnesses that hold you in the limo are big and restrictive.  If you’re brave enough and get a kick out of a major adrenaline rush, you’ll love it just as much as Raymond does.

What’s your favorite ride at Disney World?

 

Magical Memory Monday – Walk Around the World Brick

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We took our first trip to Disney World with children in 1996.  Megan was four and Joseph was 13-months old.  This trip was taken during what I fondly refer to as “the lean years” – you know, the just-starting-out part of your lives when you’re living on love ’cause there’s not much else.  It was a big deal for us to take this trip.  A family reunion was planned at an off-site motel, so we flew down a few days early and splurged for an on-property stay at a value resort.  All Star Music is where we ended up.  In July.  Yes, just imagine!  We knew so little back then!!!  I will say, the Brazilian teens we encountered were very sweet and the girls all wanted to hold Joseph, marveling over his (then) blonde hair and blue eyes.  He soaked up the attention (and candy) they heaped upon his little baby self while he practiced his charm with the ladies at the guitar-shaped swimming pool.

Even though money was so tight back then, we were, of course, completely and totally IMG_1980enthralled by the perfection of Disney World as a vacation spot for The Fam.  We decided on an additional splurge: a Walk Around the World brick to mark our spot at OUR Happiest Place on Earth – even if we couldn’t visit again for a while.  I have found that Disney does a great job of inducing you to make emotion-driven purchases, but that’s another topic for another day.  Plus, I’ve never been a fan of being TOO practical anyway.

IMG_2076So the deal was, you dished out about $250 (if I recall correctly) for a personalized brick paver to be placed on the walkway which had been planned to circle the Seven Seas Lagoon.  Now, unfortunately, the circling was scrapped, but hundreds (thousands?) of us purchased bricks nonetheless.  Look down on the walkway outside Magic Kingdom!  It made us feel part of the magic – even if we couldn’t be there.  It took us a while to go back – about 8 years, but once we made it, it was time to see our brick.

A code on the certificate we received with the brick’s purchase indicated the brick’s location.  Ours started with a “W” so we knew our brick would be west of the Magic Kingdom heading on the walkway towards (but never reaching) the Grand Floridian.  Raymond did the research to narrow down the exact location.  We went in search of our little mark on Disney World.  A lot worn down and worse for IMG_1981wear, we were thrilled anyway when we found it!  Even though a long time had passed between trips, knowing that our hexagonal marker was waiting for us, made it’s very impractical purchase worth every penny.

 

 

Halloween Homage – Disney’s Haunted Mansion

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DWR2009 077We, being the normal, run-of-the-mill Disney fans that we are, have a love – a passion, for that most special, most Disney-ish of all Disney attractions – The Haunted Mansion.  So, like thousands of Disney fans everywhere, today, on Halloween, we salute our most favorite scary ride.

Ask us individually what our favorite rides are and we will each give you a different answer.  Ask us what ride we MUST ride together, multiple times on every visit to Disney World?  We will all agree it has to be The Haunted Mansion at Magic Kingdom.  In both it’s original form and it’s new post-2007-refurb-form – we have always loved every single thing about this 8-minute doom-buggy trip through one of the coolest attractions ever scared up by Disney Imagineers.

If you’ve been there, you know what I mean when I say that the “Ghost Host’ is a very important DWR2009 079part of the experience.  That voice!  Once he starts you off on your adventure, you can’t look around fast enough to take in all the carefully crafted details, thrills, oddities, surprises, not to mention ghosts the Haunted Mansion holds.  The stretching room with its crazy portraits and surprises, the dining room ghosts, the dancers, Madame Leota (“Goblins and ghoulies from last Halloween…Awaken the spirits with your tambourine!”), the bride, the cemetery, the busts singing “Grim Grinning Ghosts” , the hitch-hikers!  We love it ALL!  I guess that’s why we want to ride it again and again – we never feel like we’ve seen, heard, or experienced everything there is – and that’s just on the inside!  If you’re going, don’t miss any of the great tricks and treats that are in store for visitors in the Haunted Mansion’s queue.

DWR2009 078“Now I will raise the safety bar and a ghost will follow you home.”-Ghost Host, Haunted Mansion

“Hurry Baaaaaaack……Hurry BAAAaaaaaaaack….Be sure to bring your death certificate if you decide to join us.  Make final arrangements now.  We’ve been dying to have you…”-Little Leota

Happy Halloween Everyone!

Hidden Mickeys – Another Disney Addiction

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IMG_2918About 10 years ago, while planning for an upcoming Disney World vacation, I found and purchased, Hidden Mickeys a Field Guide to Walt Disney World’s Best Kept Secrets by Steven M. Barrett.  If you aren’t sure what Hidden Mickeys are, Mr. Barrett defines them as “a partial or complete image of Mickey Mouse that has been hidden by Disney Imagineers and artists….”

I thought the book would be a lot of fun to take along with us to Disney World where there are literally hundreds of Hiddey Mickeys to be found.  I explained to The Fam about Hidden Mickeys while we were driving to and waiting at the airport for our flight to Orlando.  Then I managed to locate and point out a couple of Hidden Mickeys right after we arrived at Disney World.  Joseph had always been a champion at finding things (money on the ground, Easter eggs, bugs, lizards, etc.), so he was quick to join the fun and soon everyone was caught up in the excitement of hunting the elusive Mickeys.  This was and still is a GREAT way to kill time while waiting in line for attractions!

DSCN2584Turns out, once you start looking for and discovering real, “official” Hidden Mickeys, it’s hard to turn off your Hidden Mickey “eyes”.  Ever since that first trip when we learned about those cleverly incorporated Mickeys and discovered our love for finding them, we all see Hidden Mickeys in our everyday lives.  It’s a very fun way to keep the Disney magic alive between vacations.

Soap bubbles in the sink forming a familiar image?  “Hidden Mickey!”  That shout-out, heard from time to time at our house, always answered with, “where? lemme see!” is a great reminder to me that not only have I done my job prepping the next generation of Disney fans, but also that our vacations to The Happiest Place on Earth make magical memories that last long after we’ve come home.

Yesterday when I was leaving for work, I passed a catch-all container in the garage and guess what I saw?  YUP!  You betcha!Med Cruise 2013 iphone 002