I was yanked about wildly, and as my vision cleared, a huge skull formed at an altitude, lit with green and yellow colours. A path of colourful fires lit towards us from the skull, and we were climbing up at break neck speed towards the gigantic skull, which was screaming in earth shattering voices. As it guffawed, we screamed, as we were being hauled into the enormous, green smoke filled mouth of the skull. As the shrieks of the females in our cart reached its zenith, to my horror, we were pushed into the mouth of the skull, and all I saw was green, green and greener smoke. Suddenly, everything went black, as we had been hauled into an endless pit, which did not seem to end. Within the batting of an eyelid, we were scooped up, and thrown into a maze of caves through which our cart scurried around, and finally halted to view the smiling face of Brendon Frazer on a flat screen, declaring the end of the ride .
"Hope you liked the Mummy Ride" he says. Believe me, he has no idea how much I liked it.
The most attractive of all rides, for me, at Orlando were the Mummy ride, and the Back To The Future. Visit them the last, if you wanna enjoy the other rides :-)
Earlier, in the day, we had managed to get out of the hotel by half past seven, with Sandy getting out earlier than the previous day. He had given up on swimming practice I guess ;-)
A little more than three hours drive in the Ford Focus, by the gentleman driver Shiva (he did manage to break the speed limits, going at about 110 miles an hour, but only when challenged by that blonde in that red convertible ;-) ). No stopping for trash disposal, or rest rooms. There was no time to lose, and everything had to be carried to Orlando.
At Orlando, we parked the car in the huge parking lot, where one can easily lose track of where one has parked it. As we moved towards the entrance, I was entranced by this world, which was different from the world outside. A wave of nostalgia swept over me, reminding me of the summer of 89, when a friend of mine had narrated me his adventure at the Disney World of California. I had been listening to his story with such devotion that, though I do not remember the complex (?) circuits of Basic Electronics of my engineering student days, but definitely remember every line of his ancient story. And this was supposed to be better than that one.
The tickets cost a whopping 70$. There was an offer too. If one would buy tickets for two days i.e 140$, he would get three additional days free.
We bought tickets for a single day.
Though, the tickets cost a lot, there is no ticket for the individual rides inside. The rides can be taken unlimited number of times. But, to finish all the rides, one would require almost a day. But, one would have to be quick to move from one ride to another, as there is a waiting time of fifteen minutes to thirty minutes for every ride (displayed outside the rides).
Ah! Yes. Shiva met his old buddy, and the buddy was envious that Shiva had developed skin since they last met. ;-)
We started off with the Twister experience.
You are taken through a series of torn down rooms of a house (one of them has a car wrecked into the roof of the room, still dangling dangerously), while continuously being enlightened by the Twister movie stars Helen Hunt, and Bill Paxton, through giant screens, about the havoc that tornadoes can create. Then you are taken into a setting where the tornado is recreated, right in front of you. Ripping electric poles, breaking light boards, heavy rains make way to the slender, but dangerous tornado, with flying cows, and crushing roofs. You are not witnessing it. You are right there in the middle, experiencing it.
Mummy is an experience beyond description. The mysterious structures, the falling shutter, the popping mummies, and then there is the dash into the devil's cave, which shames all other rides on this planet.
Terminator is a show, which involves the wearing of 3-D goggles. As the story of Terminator unfolds, the on screen drama makes way to the offscreen, on-stage actors, as the story toggles between the reel and the real. The war between the men and the machines is not what you see on the screen, but in the war field where you are at the center.
The Men In Black ride had us shooting at aliens, and scoring points. This is purely for the kids. (As Sandy outrageously beat me, I would refrain from sharing my tips with you. Also, it has made me hate the ride, for life ;-) )
A pizza at the Pizza place, ( $3 off says the sign, but nobody's speaking about the 'on' price X-( ), and we were off to the Shark Adventure. A boat ride with an enterprising boat woman into a lake swarming with sharks, popping now and then, the fun was more in getting drenched when the boat tilted to and fro, whenever a shark popped up from below.
And before my friends start worrying about my life, and 'cruel' friends start worrying about my Life Insurance amounts, I would want to reveal to you that the Sharks were all wooden. ;-)
The 'EarthQuake' ride has all the passengers of a train right in the middle of a 8.0 earth quake. At an underground station, the earthquake starts off mildly, then there is the breaking of the water supply pipeline, gushing waters all over the station, the blinking tubelights, the short circuited roof's electrical linings, and finally the roof of the underground station breaks loose, with a road above falling down into the station, bringing along with it an oil tanker, which comes close to hitting the train on which one would be seated at the edge of his seat.
The Back To the Future takes off where the last movie of the series [Back To the future 1,2, and 3] left off. Here, we are chasing Biff ( the villian) in a car which can not only move between different times, but can also slide, fly and rip through the building boards, tower clocks, and hover over oceans. We chase Biff's car at different times of history, present and future, over mountains, ridges, heavy traffic city streets, and into the waterfalls.
This is nothing but the best.
And all these things by the car, are simulated!!! Such realistic is the simulation that Shiva developed motion sickness, and refused to come a second time, though actually the car had not moved an inch. It had just turned at different angles, and moved in sync with the dome screen in front of us.
In between all these busy rides, Sandy still managed to hunt a shark, and steal its soda.
At about half past five, we started on our walk back towards the huge parking lot, to find the car, and zip away towards our sojourn at Fort Lauderdale.
Tomorrow: Do not miss the trip to the Miami South Beach, the exotic beach of the world. Also, Shiva's love story with his cell phone, as misses out on the love story, which could have been with a stunning girl. And again, my nerve wreaking experience - I MISS THE PLANE BACK HOME.
Have a great day.
with warm regards,
Teju
the pictures of the trip at
http://community.webshots.com/album/322459456dLVbhf
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