Walt Disney World: Animal Kingdom - TriceraTop Spin

Date of Visit: July 30, 2011

TriceraTop Spin is kind of like the Magic Carpets of Aladdin at the Magic Kingdom except you are flying in a Triceratop.  Of course, it makes pretty much no sense.  Sure, a flying elephant like Dumbo is odd, but at least that is based on a movie.  The whole flying land dino is totally weird, but gotta love that it actually is totally wheelchair accessible.


They were not sure Mik's chair would work, but they were totally willing to try and if not there was a chair you could transfer to and ride in, although that would not work for Mik.  Luckily, though, Mik's wheelchair fit on the ride no problem.


The control, however, is kind of awkwardly located on the left side.  Mik had no problem since he is a lefty and he just likes to go straight up and stay anyways.  He did think it would be better if it was in front of him like on Dumbo, but hey at least he did not have to transfer (totally dreaming of a wheelchair accessible Dumbo with the remodel by the way!!!).

Destination Info:
Disney's Animal Kingdom - TriceraTop Spin
Lake Buena Vista, FL

Walt Disney World: Epcot - Reflections of China

Date of Visit: July 29, 2011

Reflections of China is a Circlevision show.  You go in and stand in rows separated by hand rails.  The screens are all around you will different images.  In concept the movie was cool, but it did not really work for Mik.


For one he was sitting among the crowd of people standing.  This was not too big of an issue, as it was not crowded and we could choose to stop where the people were not too close to be in the way of his view.  The real problem, though, is he could only see about half of the screens.  He not only felt like he was missing what was going on like in the Ellen ride, but in fact he really was missing some of the stuff, as it was not all the same view.

Basically, Mik says no more to Circlevision unless he has a way of turning around his chair when and how he wants.  Technically, he could do that, but in the dark it is hard to know where others feet are and not quite sure there is actually enough room for his turning radius.

Destination Info:
Epcot - Reflections of China
Lake Buena Vista, FL

Walt Disney World: Epcot - Mexico Pavillion

Date of Visit: July 29, 2011

The Mexico Pavilion is one of the more interestingly designed ones at Epcot.  The shops and ride are set up inside a Mayan Pyramid.  It is always night in this Pavilion.


Outside the Pavilion Mik and I enjoyed the cheese empanadas at La Cantina de San Angel.  Mexican food is not any special treat considering we can get plenty of that kind of thing at home in Tucson, but Mik was hungry and he had never had empanadas before.


To enter the Pavilion there is a ramp off to the side to get up to the doors into the pyramid.  Once there you can go around and enter even from the front, but at least the side doors at the top of the ramp do have a button to open them.

See review of Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros Boat Ride here.

Destination Info:
Epcot - Mexico Pavillion
Lake Buena Vista, FL

Walt Disney World: Epcot - Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros

Date of Visit: July 29, 2011

Mik and I both liked the Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros boat ride in the Mexico Pavilion at Epcot, but the accessible boat is freaky and I doubt we would ever do it again.  The boat is designed so that you roll on in the back and then go down a ramp in the center and park the wheelchair in the front of the boat.




There are no tie downs or anything to make the boarding process faster, but I wish WDW just had the same wheelchair boat in their boat rides like 'it's a small world' uses at Disneyland.  The problem is that the chair tips backwards when you leave the loading area as well as when you return.  The Cast Member warned us about it happening when we were leaving, but said nothing about it actually being worse when the boat comes back to unload.  Luckily I was paying attention, as we do not even use the tippers most of the time at Disney parks because they get in the way for hopping trolley tracks and like to catch my shoelaces.  We do usually have the tippers in the backpack and I would put them on for this ride if we did it again, but Mik would still freak out and ultimately it would really only work with people sitting on both sides and holding down the front wheels.

Destination Info:
Epcot - Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros
Lake Buena Vista, FL

Walt Disney World: Epcot - Living with the Land

Date of Visit: July 29, 2011

Living with the Land is a boat ride through greenhouse rooms.  There is a wheelchair boat that you can roll right onto.  They kept insisting to wheel Mik on and off, but they we like training someone that day and took way longer to maneuver him off than necessary.  Would have been much smoother if they had just said he has to go on and off backwards and let me do it rather then the inexperienced them.  Mik was a trooper and actually did not fuss, but that is the kind of thing that would usually annoy him.  Instead he got annoyed at the elevator taking so long to get down to the ride and back out of the building after.


Both Mik and I did not know what to expect from the ride, but ended up really enjoying it.  Mik like the view he was able to get with the chair being on a platform level with the edge of the boat instead of being down like the seating.  It was actually quite smooth and he would later learn that the other boat rides at WDW were not.  Good thing we did this one first, though, as otherwise he might have been too freaked to do it and this was actually a very interesting ride we were surprised we had never checked out before.


As you go through the greenhouse the narration talks about the various plants being grown and the fish being raised.  A lot of it is experimental stuff and quite interesting, such as the growing of normally ground plants in a way that they hang down and with hydroponics instead of dirt.

Destination Info:
Epcot - Living with the Land
Lake Buena Vista, FL

Walt Disney World: Epcot - Ellen's Energy Adventure

Date of Visit: July 29, 2011

Ellen's Energy Adventure is an interesting ride, but it is also rather long and not exactly something we would do more than once a trip or maybe even less often.  It was worth checking out, but Mik ended up not really liking it much.  The beginning part is a movie with you in a waiting area.  The area is pretty roomy and the screens are easy to see.


After an intro movie you go into a giant circlevision movie room with ride vehicles.  There is plenty of places of wheelchairs to be loaded into the back with the rest of the group sitting on the benches next to the wheelchair seating area.  The ride is mostly a movie on the screens around the room, but you also leave the room and go into set ups.


Mik found that the screens being all around made him feel like he was maybe missing something since he cannot really turn around and see stuff since his spinal fusion.  However, he really did not, as the action was always only really in on the screens in easy view in front and slightly to side.

Destination Info:
Epcot - Ellen's Energy Adventure
Lake Buena Vista, FL

Mickey's Halloween Party 2011 at Disneyland

Date of Visit: September 30, 2011

We cannot remember ever doing Disneyland during Halloweentime, although we must have, as we came for my 18th birthday back in 2005 and Mik's first Disneyland trip was my 10th birthday back in 1997.  I know the Haunted Mansion Holiday at least was a thing in 2005, but somehow we do not remember there being Halloween decor or anything and really only rode Haunted Mansion Holiday once before when we visited during Thanksgiving weekend once.

This year we decided to go to Disneyland for my birthday, since we seem to most times it falls on the weekend.  Plus, we wanted to get more use out of our Premier Passes.  It also worked out great as a chance to experience the Mickey's Halloween Party for our first time with the first date of it being last night.  Also, nice to get the tickets for that when we had Annual Passes, as we saved even on the ticket for Mom.

We went into Disneyland about 4 hours before the party.  Yeah, your supposed to only get in 3 hours before, but our tickets said the party started at 6pm (bought and printed when only for sale for Annual Passholders) and somewhere along the line it changed to a 7pm start time.  We had absolutely, no problem getting in right after 3pm, as we had planned for months to do.  Would have been nice if the party was at 6pm as we originally thought, though, as Mik did not appreciate having to waste 4 hours in Disneyland and me not wanting to wait 30 minutes to have to transfer him on Star Tours.  We did at least luck out and basically walk on to Haunted Mansion Holiday through and ride Buzz twice.


The main thing we did during the actual party was wait around for the parade to start at 8:30pm.  It was kind of cool, but Mik got tired by the end of it and we only ended up hitting one more trick or treat trail.  We hit a good one, though, as we went to the one the goes through the beginning of the Pirates of the Caribbean regular queue and Mik thought it was fun to go under the archway for once, since he has only ever been through the exit.  He kind of got into the trick or treating after that, but then heard the fireworks were about to start, so we hightailed it out of the park and to check for Grumpy clothing at World of Disney.


I liked Main Street lit up after dark with the green lit windows and the projections of spiderwebs on City Hall and the Train Depot.  The Mickey ghosts and pumpkins are the park were also cool lit up and of course the Mickey Pumpkin on Main Street.

Overall a fun evening, although, next time I would hit the trick or treating spots and skip the parade, so we could actually do more before leaving the park before fireworks.  I should have known we would not last past the fireworks, since we usually purposely leave the park before them.

Now to celebrate my birthday in Disneyland with Mik today.

Destination Info:
Disneyland
1313 South Harbor Boulevard
Anaheim, CA 92802