Biggest “Disney World” or What attracts downtown Orlando?
More recently, a little more than 40 years ago, the site of Orlando was a small settlement, a tiny town in the tropical lowland swamps, swarming with mosquitoes and alligators. And suddenly, in the short term, he has become the largest in Florida metropolis with a population of nearly half a million inhabitants. And every year come here to relax and entertain tens of millions of people not only from the U.S., but also from other countries. City of Orlando, in the heart of the Florida peninsula, has grown and gained popularity thanks to Walt Disney (Walter Elias Disney), who in 1965 bought this huge piece of land, 60,000 acres, for a knockdown price of just $ 100 per acre, and created huge family entertainment complex “Disney World” (Walt Disney World). It was the second such park, or rather, a network of parks.
Its first theme park – Disneyland, Walt Disney created a 60 km south of Los Angeles (California), in Anaheim. Its opening was held on July 17, 1955. The construction of the Park has been spent 17 million dollars, but all investments quickly paid for itself tenfold. Since the founding of “Disneyland” was visited by more than 515 million visitors from around the world.
The idea to create a second entertaining and educational center at the other end of America paid off, as between western and eastern coasts of this vast country of about 4000 km distance, and not everything can go so far. “Disney World” opened in October 1971, after the death of Walt. Later, these parks have appeared in Paris, Tokyo, Barcelona, Hong Kong. But “Disney World in Orlando is the biggest! The scale of it is hard to imagine not having been here. Disneyland in Los Angeles, Paris, Spain and Tokyo, together constitute nearly half of the Orlando parks.
At the entrance to “Universal Studios” spinning globe.
View of the Hard Rock Cafe.
In 1990, almost in the center of Orlando, has opened another set of family entertainment – park “Universal Studios”. Later, in 1999, next to him there was “Island Adventure” (Universal’s Islands of Adventure) and the original Downtown “Universal CityWalk” – with shops, cafes, restaurants and a multiplex cinema, where you can walk all night, listening to music, etc. etc. Go tell: to visit all the parks in Orlando, will not suffice and weeks, because they are huge and very full of activities and attractions. In addition, tickets to the parks are not cheap – one ticket for two days at one park is from 75 to 100 dollars per person. Americans to such visits are prepared in advance, save for the trip. Especially if the family was traveling with school-age children during the holidays, when prices grow at the hotel.
“Jaws” shark and we will
We also traveled to Orlando during the holidays, combining a trip with a visit to St. Petersburg (the fact that on the Gulf of Mexico), and Sarasota. So Orlando we have left only two days. After some discussion, decided to stop on a visit to the park “Universal Studios”, as the son and grandson in the two parks, “Disney World” already happened, and I was interested in everything.
Experiences surpassed all expectations! Starting from the parking lot, which consists of a giant multi-storey garage, divided into zones with names – “Jurassic Park”, “King Kong” and so forth, and the number of series, then to make it easier to find your car. From parking lots to the entrance are escalators and moving walkways, as in airports. First you get to the shopping and entertainment zone “Universal City Walk”, where even a day more brightly illuminated, thunder music, a continuous stream of moving crowds of people – a solid “celebration of life”! Entrance fees to the park were made in the form of magnetic cards, stand guard at the entrance and checked bags pass through the gate with a metal detector like at the airport. Better come early in the morning – and the park easier and faster to enter the park, as later in the input queue is already impressive, especially during the holidays. At the entrance give a detailed plan for the park with a list of all attractions.
Street of the old New York City, all as the present.
Park is divided into several zones. There is ‘Hollywood’ with Star Square, corner of old New York, like the Roman Coliseum building the Hard Rock Cafe, a restaurant and gift shop in the National Basketball Association (NBA), before which stands a huge figure of a basketball player and basketball balls are made of stone prints the hands of famous American champions. There is a children’s area for kids – with swings, roundabouts, playgrounds. In the middle of the park several small lakes connected by channels through which spanned pedestrian bridges, a lot of different trees, flowers, very picturesque.
Disney World Attraction – “Fear Factor”
On any of the attractions have to stand in a queue of 15 to 30 minutes. On the ride “Back to the Future” we do not hit, did not want to wait half an hour – each attraction are posted signs indicating the approximate waiting time in queue. Each ride lasts from 30 to 50 minutes. I liked “Terminator 2″ and “Shrek 4D”, where they show how to use new technologies film movies with complicated tricks, robots, explosions, etc. The show takes place in a large auditorium, in front give special glasses – like we used to give a stereoscopic. This combination of actions live actors, special effects and film. Before the beginning of a little talk about the shooting and warned that if someone gets too scary, it is necessary to remove glasses or turn a blind eye. As you shoot fire beams in separate moments of a voltage, so chairs for the audience begin to tremble, fly real splash, as though you are pouring rain. The feeling that you are a direct Orlando van shuttle place on the stage events.
For two days we walk up to the buzz in the legs, but have visited more than half of attractions. Worst of all were feeling in the attraction “Earthquake” (Earthquake), when a subway car in which we allegedly got into the epicenter, shaking him flying concrete blocks, barrels of fire, water, etc. Was tested for courage, when we were seated in open carriages, gave into the hands of a pistol, shooting a red beam, and the train rolled into the underground “country of horrors” where different “monster” attacked the “trip”. Feeling that everything is happening in reality! Likes cognitive Show – “How to create horror” (Horror Make-up Show) and a concert of monsters – Beetlejuice’s Graveyard Revue. A more entertaining spectacle of “Fear Factor”, where they could take part wishing to visitors after the test.
The only negative, characteristic of all the parks – astounding prices on food and drink, 3-4 times higher than outside the park. Calculation of the traders accurate: by the middle of the day, even adults will pull “stay one’s stomach – not to mention the children if they are with you. Even ice cream and a bottle of water costs between 7 and higher dollars. But in general – the mass of vivid impressions!