This coming Monday, I'll be transporting myself, my wife, and our 3 kids to Florida for 10 days of fun in the sun.

 

 

Most of it will be spent at places like the Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios.

 

I have a great deal of memories wrapped up in Disney vacations from my childhood. What are some of your vacation memories?

Awesome.

There was a Back to the Future ride, I think at Universal. It took me a few minutes to figure out how we were crashing through a Texaco sign and flying into a dinosaur's mouth. Can you imagine a traditional ride doing that? Turns out the deLorean was stationary, but it rocked and shook, while the environment was provided by a projector. Like CGI in movies, this was a really cheap and easy way of doing something crazy. But also like CGI, the effect is not as good as real objects and motion.

I saw Caption EO in 3D (or 4D, as they were calling it) at Epcot Center. Also, the scene from Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds where the birds attack. Looking back on this, I'm surprised it took as long as it did for full color 3D movies using the circular polarization method to be made for general theaters.

On Main Street right near the entrance was a little theater looping Steamboat Willie and five other early shorts, each on their own screen. I stood in there and watched each of them in turn in full.

Another effect that impressed me was at the beginning of the haunted house, when the first room grows to double its starting height.

I made sure to enter the Haunted House last year (the first year I had been to the Magic Kingdom in probably over 20 years. It was virutally the same as I remembered it, with a few upgrades here and there.

I remember the Back to the Future ride. Some friends and I rode that one again back in 2001. It is much the same as the Star Wars ride (at Hollywood Studios?) where you sit in a moving theater and watch the screen while C3PO flies you around.

This year, they have added a new section to Fantasy Land. I'm anxious to see what all has been built there.

The New Fantasyland expansion:

The last theme park I was in was Six Flags. It's not quite Disney but it was really full of great rides. My favorite was Superman.

I spent a lot of my summers in Panama City Beach, FL.

I rode the Back to the Future ride when I was about 9 years old. I was one of the people who sat in front as we saw the scenery that went on while the Delorean we rode on was chasing after the one that Biff stole.

Also, at Universal, we checked out the Terminator 2 3D show. Would you believe that this felt more... well... 3D than the 3D movies that you see in theaters today. At least, that's what I recall. I was particularly blown away by it at the time and the way the Terminator head moved in front of everybody's faces.

There was also a Nicktoons photo booth there as well, where we would take pictures of ourselves on a stage featuring a set of Nicktoons characters. I'm not sure if we still have that picture or not.


So, that was all at Universal. I also went to Disneyland once when I was about 8 years old. We went on the Roger Rabbit Toontown ride. It's a simple little ride, but I really liked what they had on it.

There was also the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland. I remember ducking when I saw the giant bolder. Not sure what happened with that.

Well gang, the Fam and I arrived in Florida today! Can't wait to reach the resort at last!

Welcome to the south.

See if you can get me Princess Jasmine's digits, K?

I was pose to go but i told my Step dad no...
Because i wanna stay in NY and play a bunch of old school video games...