Celebration, Magic Kingdom

Since my last post I've gotten my computer back in working order, decided not to go to Florence, and signed up for a trip to Israel for december break with the Jewish Resource Center, an educational facility here on campus. I also got an ipod w/video and am enjoying it very much. Florence would have cost about 14,000 all said and done, a large part of which would have been my savings. That kind of money just doesn't make sense because about 7,000 goes towards tuition, and I don't care about the classes or credits, just living there and traveling. So there will be better oppurtunities. The JRC lead the Israel trip that Andrew, Ari, and some others went on last spring. Most of it is subsidized, and for $400 we spend 12 days studying in a yeshiva each morning and touring in the afternoons. I'm very excited to get out of the US, let alone go to Israel. My passport, gotten for Florence most likely, came in last week.

Back to Disney World. In celebration we took some time to get lunch. Myself the grad students, Chris and Diana, and the adults on the trip, went to Columbia, a cuban place. Here they made fun of me for getting black bean soup. Cuban sandwiches are kind of out of the question though, for me.

We drove to some kind of office building at the other end of Celebration, I'm not sure exactley what it is called. I believe it is the headquarters of Celebration staff and Imagineers in related divisions. Here Matt Kelly (?), president of Celebration Co, spoke to us about the project. They look at their plan through five aspects, including education, community, and some other ones I cna't remember. New Urbanism, and their implementation of it here, are very interesting. The dictated styles of storefronts could be seen as homogenized, but the streets are still very welcoming. The focus on pedestrianism over cars, and the use of segways and smartcars is great. Apparantly, their schools use a conglomeration of unsual techniques found around the country and are very receptive to trying new teaching methods. Chris asked how much the view themselves as an offshoot of the EPCOT idea and its philosophies, but they do not purport to be that all.

David Stofcik, Imagineer in master planning, then took us through some slides of the WDW property. A suprising amount of land is swampland and cannot be touched, which is great. He also discussed the new road they are building into the property on the West side, said that there are no real plans for a 5th gate, and mentioned that monorails lines will be extended to the other two parks, using EPCOT as the center. When we were filing out, I stayed back and mentioned my interest in Imagineering and what I'm studying/would like to do at Imagineering, and asked if there were contacts in those areas he could give me such that I could tailor my studies a little better. He said he would pass along a list, which is great. I am following up with a letter today ( it took a long time to get his address). I also gave him my resume, cover letter, and a summary portfolio of a couple websites and videos.

And we went to Disney World! Well, the Magic Kingdom that is. We took our time heading up to the castle, saw part of a rather unfortunate show involving all the princesses, and headed to adventureland. Here we would begin the process of giving spiels about the attractions we researched and then riding them together. The first was Nate and Jungle Cruise, followed by Sarah and Pirates of the Carribean. Maybe it was the analytical context we were there with, or maybe it was thinking about how cheesy the others would think something is, or maybe its just a small departure from my childhood ability to get lost in these worlds, but by this point WDW felt like a place and not an entirely different space from the rest of Earth. There was not the constant euphoric sense of just being there, and I could see pirates as just robots in a box. I was certainly enjoying myself, and this would wane over the next couple days, but it just wasnt the level of attachement I would have liked.

Splash mountain was closed, but we managed Haunted Mansion and Small world, which was quite enjoyable I thought. We then had some free time, which Team Turkey Leg used to get some legs. Frontierland cart, tragically, was closed, but we headed to tomorrowland, enjoyed some poultry and went on space mountain. We had just enough time to get to the path back to the hub where we watched the fireworks show, which was pretty good, but didn't have quite the music or culminationn of some other shows.

Chris and I briefly went to Downtown Disney, and checked out the Art of Disney store. Because our room wasn' ready when we arrived, our bags were in a seperate room. The cast member at the front desk was kind enough to come out and open the other room so we could get our stuff! Quality. Will write about Saturday later.