Trip Report 2004 (Days 16 & 17)
[u]Friday, 7th May 2004 (Day 16):</u> Our group was going to split up once again on this day with the seniors getting a much needed extra day of rest in the villa while the rest of us went out. My wife was planning to invade the Premium Outlet Mall with her visiting cousin while I was going to take my niece and her parents to Disney Quest. Having never been there myself, I did not know what to expect. All I knew was that it was a huge 'Indoor Interactive Theme Park'.
We left at about 10:30am and when we arrived at Downtown Disney West Side half an hour later, the crowds were sparse and DQ had not opened yet. I imagine this was because it was such a beautiful day and everyone wanted to be in an outdoor park. We spent some time browsing around in the nearby Virgin Megastore and returned to DQ at 11:30am. To my horror, a very noisy school party of 10 to 12 year olds arrived just then and jostled their way into the complex. My heart sank at the thought of standing in line with a huge bunch of screaming kids, but the local Disney steward told us that the schoolgroup had a fixed programme and we could go around it. OK, then.
We went to the 'first floor' first, the so-called Explore Zone. We tried Pirates of the Caribbean; Battle for Buccaneer Gold first and found it to be great fun. We form our own team of up to 5 people (4 in our case) and are led to our own 'ship'; aided by 3D glasses, we try to 'shoot' down as many pirate ships as possible while searching for the treasure. The ship responds to rotations of the helm and can also be made to speed-up or slow down. At the end of the ride, we are awarded a marine designation for our efforts. We went 3 times in all, progressed from Swabbies to Captains Courageous and finally (and triumphantly) Kings of the Caribbean.
Also in the Explore Zone was the Virtual Jungle Cruise, a rubber raft that dipped and bobbed in response to our 'paddling' while the screen in front took us throgh a prehistoric jungle, waterfalls etc with the inevitable encounter with Dinosaurs. It was fun too. Next to it, the popular Treasure of the Incas Safari ride was closed and so we went to the mezzanine for Aladin's Magic Carpet ride. This was the start of our problems.
My only previous forage into 'genuine' Virtual Reality world was in Niagara Falls a few years ago. I should have recalled that I had not enjoyed it then. The Magic Carpet ride was supposedly a rescue mission to liberate a genie trapped in the Cave of Wonders. For this we had to don VR masks and mount contraptions that looked like sawn-off scooters, communicating with each other through some form of built in microphones. The oscilliatory movement of the 'flying carpet' seen through the VR mask caused severe motion sickness and it was all I could do to hang on till the ride was over. I promised myself that I would not try VR rides in the future without the benefit of motion sickness pills (which I had forgotten on that day).
We decided to go outdoors for a 10-minute breather; they stamp your hand and so re-entry is not a problem. On re-entry, we went to the Create Zone where one can have some fun with the Disney Song-Maker that allows one to creat once own mix 'n' match hybrid song from a huge pool and get a CD of the effort; assemble a virtual toy from various parts strewn about in Sid's Toy Shop - and purchase the real version of one's creation; practise computerised finger painting in Living Easels; and create,print or e-mail distorted photographs of oneself (which can sometimes bring about an improvement [msnsmile2]) or family with the Magic Mirror.
Also in Create Zone was a monster new attraction, the Cyberspace Mountain. Here one can design a 'Virtual Rollercoaster' with one's own spec and insert any twist, loop, roll or jump. But the fun is that one can [u]ride</u> once creation afterwards in a simulation chamber. It was for teams of two at a time and my neice elected to
