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Not Everyone Is Obsessed With Theme Parks, But Some Parks Make Much More Effort At Making Sure That All Visitors Enjoy At Least Some Of Their Visit

Trawling through some old photos recently, I came across pictures from various visits to America. I’ve stayed in a few states over there, but the one thing that I have done on every trip is to spend time in the local theme parks.

Of course, the best known theme parks on earth are those run by the Disney Empire. In his early years Walt Disney had a vision to create a magical land where children and their parents could spend a fun day together, and along with his brother he drew up plans to make his dream a reality. Disneyland in California opened its doors in 1955, and in spite of numerous teething troubles on the first day which prompted a considerable amount of critical feedback, the park soon started to make money.

The Disney theme park idea expanded in 1971 with the development of Disney World in Florida, which was renamed Walt Disney World by Roy Disney in memory of his late brother. In 1982, the Epcot Centre was added near to the existing Florida park. Epcot was built as a permanent ‘World’s Fair’ with different parts of the site representing different countries from all over the globe. Other Disney parks have been built in more recent years near to both of the original American sites, and there has been expansion outside of the US too – in the first instance Japan, then France and then Hong Kong which was opened in 2005 – fifty years after the first park in California.

I am not really the world’s biggest fan of theme parks, so it says a lot about the Disney parks that I have been to that I very much enjoyed the experience. My most recent American trip was to Florida a couple of years back where the party consisted of six adults, two young teenagers and a child. The holiday was generally to spend most days in the theme parks, although we also managed a couple of days chilling by the pool.

We quickly established a routine of rising early, reaching the park just when it opened and starting off with the busiest rides early on hoping to avoid the worst of the queues. Although, queuing at a Disney park seems much less like queuing than it does usually, as the queue areas are apparently designed to be integral to the ride and there are things to watch and do whilst you wait. Also, for a lot of rides there is a walk on/walk off plan which means that you get to move frequently, so it seems much less like you are just loitering around doing nothing.

Personally, I can say that of all the Florida parks, I enjoyed Epcot most of all, but that’s probably not a surprise as it seems to be the park most aimed at adults. It’s great to take a stroll along the side of the water progressing from one country to the next. Each segment is well designed to display the country represented – every one of the attractions, all of the architecture, shops and eating places are completely about that country. The countries represented hail from all round the planet, including Mexico, Japan, France, Norway and a number of others. And I believe that it was Disney strategy for the staff in each area to have come from the country represented.

As for the rides in the various parks, I really like the flight simulator type most of all. The Spiderman and Star Tours attractions are the best in my opinion, though I love the Haunted House too (a far more gentle ride, but very cleverly done, though I’ve no clue of how they form the ghosts that appear – perhaps some sort of Laser eye beam?). Most of the people with me on that holiday were totally obsessed with the rollercoaster rides – the speedier and more outrageous the better. One of the males was a little upset that he couldn’t experience some of the rides as he’d recently had Laser eye surgery, and despite the fact that there were no restrictions laid down by the park in this respect, he felt that his eyes were still slightly sensitive and didn’t want to take the chance. Although I would have thought it was much better to experience the rides after Laser eye surgery, as you have to go without your glasses to go on them which then means that you can’t properly view what is happening!

And the parades are amazing too. On some days we chose to stay in the parks for the evening, and followed the big parades which also included spectacular firework displays and beams of light aimed all over the sky from Laser eye slots positioned around the park. Simply an amazing thing to view and an ideal way to end a day in Disney’s magical land.
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