Disney Adventures

So while I missed the 5K, the day wasn't completely lost - Francesca and Joe wanted to visit the parks and they invited me along! They had free passes, and even chipped in for my ticket, so that was very nice of them. As a Florida resident, I can get a dayhopper pass (good at all 4 theme parks) for $66 plus tax, while the normal rate is $105 or something. So I bought one of those and we planned to visit Epcot and the Magic Kingdom.

We spent about 10 hours in the parks, mostly at Epcot, before taking the monorail over to the Magic Kingdom. Some of the highlights were:

• (Epcot) Mission: Space - a simulator of a launch to Mars. This ride uses a centrifuge effect which is quite powerful... in fact it left me a bit queasy as I am prone to motion sickness. However, after a few minutes I regained my equilibrium and we went off to eat in the Japanese section of Epcot.
  
• (Epcot) Taiko Drums - demos of a 3 person team pounding on big drums. Rhythmic and interesting. Later we tried to catch the Chinese Acrobat show, but it was apparently cancelled at the time we wanted to attend so we missed it.
  
• (Epcot) Test Track - a simulator of a car proving grounds. The ride accelerated our car up a hill, over some bumpy roads, did a braking demonstration, and then whipped us outside along a track. This was pretty good!
  
• (Magic Kingdom) Space Mountain - a classic coaster ride, inside a dark building with stars and whirling galaxies projected all over.
  

I got home and was exhausted from all the walking we did. I'm not sure how Francesca and Joe did it because they also ran a 5K while I sipped coffee and read a magazine.