GregHowley.com

We've just gotten back from our big family vacation: DisneyWorld. It's not a cheap trip, but Disney Parks really do have their act together in a way that no other theme park I've ever seen does.

We got a meal plan which easily let us do a lot of the character meals, which were primarily for our 6-year-old, Ella. Lia, who's 11 now, also enjoys the experience, and even comments about how good some of the actors inside the costumes are. She's right - they do a great job of bringing personality to characters who aren't allowed to speak.

The food at those meals is also excellent. Our favorite is the Tusker House at Animal Kingdom, which is one of the many buffets, but Magic Kingdom's Columbia Harbor House and pretty much all the restaurants at EPCOT's World Showcase are excellent. The cool thing about EPCOT is that the “countries” around the lake in their world showcase are actually staffed with residents or former residents of the actual country in question. When we ate at the Italian restaurant, the waiter was a native from Rome. When we ate at the Mexican restaurant, our waitress was from Mexico. And by the way, the atmosphere at that restaurant was amazing. You can sit up against a rail, and on the other side, a ridge leads down to a fake river, through which a park ride silently moves every 60 seconds or so. On the other side is a facade of an old Aztec temple, and the background behind that fades up to a nighttime sky - this indoor restaurant is inside a stepped temple, so the ceiling is super-high. And there's a night sky projected on the inside. Beyond that temple, you can see an active volcano projected on the back wall, and it's done so well that you can't tell where the actual facade ends and the projection begins!

If you've never been on this vacation, I'll give you the quick of it. You check your luggage before flying, and the next time you see it is after they drop it in your hotel room. You're issued a "Magic Band" wrist band, and you can use it to pay for anything, so no carrying cash or credit cards. Since we'd bought our meals ahead of time, there was no stress about picking the steak over a ham sandwich. And every adult meal could include a drink, so we had mimosas with breakfast a lot of days. Those wristbands also enable your “Fast Passes”, which allow you to basically skip lines about 3-4 times per day. We made extensive use.

Many of the rides are the same as they were when I went as a child. In cases like The Haunted Mansion, Thunder Mountain Railroad, and the Teacup ride, this is a good thing. Nostalgia is fun. In other cases like EPCOT's Journey into Imagination and Spaceship Earth, it's not as great. Those rides need to be updated - Spaceship Earth goes over the history of human advancement, and they haven't yet reached a point where they acknowledge the existence of The Internet.

The kids loved the rides, especially the new Slinky Dog ride in Toy Story land, and Splash Mountain and Thunder Mountain Railroad in The Magic Kingdom. I was shocked that Ella, who's only six, loved Space Mountain, which I'd always regarded as a fairly serious roller coaster.

We rode the new Avatar ride, which is mostly virtual motion, showing you a large 3D screen and moving the mount you're straddling up, down, and tilting it to make it seem like you're really moving. They even simulate the wind, and spray water in your face when you fly beneath waves. It's very good.

Disney's fireworks (which they do every night) are also the best fireworks I've seen in my life. I am not exaggerating. Disney must have bought out a fireworks company and had them do extensive research on firework tech that they just don't share with the outside world. You know that graphic before Disney movies where Tinkerbell flies in front of the castle and you see fireworks? Those fireworks are the real deal. And they're long shows. They could project onto the smoke left in the sky afterwards.

Lia spent a lot of her time looking for “hidden Mickeys”, which are effectively any three circles which could be seen as Mickey's head and ears. They're definitely around.

The one issue I had with the trip is the fact that we'd gone in August and it was hot. I mean, it was crazy hot. I got a couple of those cooling towels - I saw a lot of people there using them - and they do help a lot, but not enough. Those things are neat - they function using evaporative cooling, and as the water evaporates from the towel, it does actually get a lot cooler than the surrounding air. But it was still hot, and I went through so many shirts that I had to hand-wash some in our sink. We went back to the hotel and hit the pool a lot. Very cool waterslide there.

In general, I think my family's favorite park is The Magic Kingdom, which isn't surprising since it had the most rides and the most roller coasters. Personally though, I really liked the Animal Kingdom. It's impressive the number of animals they're able to keep there: lions, giraffes, gibbons, hippos, and even an endangered black rhino. It's also got some great rides like Expedition Everest. Hollywood Studios was also neat if only because of the stormtroopers that would march down the street every hour or so, intimidating the crowd.

One time on the People Mover ride, which actually goes through the edge of Space Mountain, it turned out that they were doing maintenance on the side, so we got to see the inside of Space Mountain while the lights were on. It looked like someone had taken the track and tied it all in knots.

All-in-all, it was a great trip. I don't know how soon we'll be going back, because it's not a cheap trip. But a good time was had by all.