The Same, but Different

Orlando observations, day 1.

We arrived without any incident, but with a plan. We walked off the plane, followed our rehearsed and orchestrated plan, walked straight onto our shuttle, picked up our resort key and packets (online check in, thank you very much) and left for the bus stop, knowing that our luggage would be dropped off soon and we could enjoy our time at Magic Kingdom hassle free.

Things were a little slow in getting to the park and getting a bite to eat, but we made it past all of the regular tourists who had to leave at 8:00pm after the fireworks show, grabbed a bite (we even have the Disney dining plan, a pretty good deal, I might add) and off we went in search of adventure. As resort guests, we have different hours in the parks each day, so tonight things stayed open for us until 11:00pm. Holly has our whole itinerary planned out based upon these Magic hours.

There is indeed an odd sense of familiarity to this park. Patterned after Disneyland, Magic Kingdom has a castle, Cinderella's Castle, to be exact (pop quiz, who's castle reigns over the Anaheim, CA location...anybody?) and many of the same rides that we know and love from our lifetime of visits to the original park. We went on several of them tonight - Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain, Stitch's Adventure (well, that last one is not a West Coast standby, but it is cute).

The interesting thing about all of these is how at first glance they are exactly what you think of when you mention them by name. Look around a bit, or get further into the queue, and you start to see some differences, some large (Space Mountain has two tracks that run through the ride AND the coaster is set up more like a single-rider rocket so you follow behind one another, you don't sit next to each other), and others subtle, it kind of messes with your head a little bit! As our boat launched through Pirates, I leaned over and said to Holly, "It's the same..." she was right there with me, finishing my sentence, "...but different!"

Two parks, two dining reservations and less than six hours of sleep beckon, more tomorrow!