William Reardon’s Blog

Look at that intense concentration.

I spent the last couple of days with my sister and her family at Disneyland, or, as Quinn, my two year old nephew, calls it “Mickey’s House.”

The coolest ride was Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin . You sit in a chair that spins 360 degrees armed with a ray gun. As you pass through the ride, there’s bulls-eyes all about, so you can shoot at Zerg & the other baddies. Getting onto the ride there’s a life-sized version of Buzz describing your mission on etch a sketch (a la Toy Story). Quinn felt into silent awesome and stared in amazement, confronted by a life-size version of one of his favorite characters.

I was also impressed that Disney didn’t try to rip you off every chance they got. Like other amusement parks, they take your photo in the middle of the ride, and in some cases, like the others, Disney offered to sell them to you, but with Buzz, you could simply email them to yourself — for free. And like a lot of other parks, rides often had a shop at the ending, hawking theme-related shirts & trinkets. But whereas at Six Flags Great America, you’re forced to walk through these shops — much to the chagrin off parents already tired of dolling out money for over priced — Disney seemed to always have an additional path, allowing your to skirt the store. Drinks & food where, of course, overpriced, but maybe I’ve spent too much time at airports in that they didn’t seem that overpriced.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 23rd, 2006 at 11:38 pm and is filed under life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.