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Sunday, December 26, 2010

USA 2010 (3)

Disneyland - where dreams come true.



I didn't update yesterday, but anyway - MERRY CHRISTMAS FOLKS!!!



After waking up at the most un-godly hour of 3am and catching the first plane out of San Francisco, we're finally here at Orlando, Florida! Arrived at around 1pm in the afternoon, and checked into the hotel, but didn't do much.

The next day, we got our passes to Disneyworld! We bought 6-day passes, allowing us to enter any of the 4 Disneyworld theme parks.



Our first Disneyworld park was Epcot, a futuristic-themed park. Epcot's famous for its firework shows at night, Christmas carolling, and of course, the massive white sphere at the entrance:



Though it had few rides, Epcot had many interactive events, such as "A Figment of Imagination" (the 2 pictures shown below), shows and of course, games...




The mascot for "A Figment of Imagination":



Another main attraction in Epcot - the Countries. This massive attraction is built around a main lake, where the fireworks show is usually held. The countries include

Mexico




China (where we also had our lunch)



Germany (where they had mini-sculptures of houses, trains and the countryside)






Italy




America (of course!) - where we watched a parade depicting America's Independence Day








Japan




The Middle East - I think this is Morocco







France



and of course, England, where they actually sold fish and chips wrapped in newspapers!



And within each "country", people who work there are natives of that particular country. For example, in the German-themed region, the staff are from Germany, and in the Chinese-themed region, the staff are from China.

Oh, and not to mention, the "countries" were built around this lake:




We then headed off to an ocean-themed place to watch a show, and they had a massive, 2-storey aquarium, as well as smaller aquariums.

Small stingray popping out its head to say hi:



Gorgeous lionfish. There were 3 or 4 in the tank.



Electric eel. I was thinking of unagi (Japanese eel) and felt hungry shortly after.



It was pretty dark by the time the show ended, and after dinner, we headed back to the lake to watch the fireworks. Meanwhile, I was experimenting with the "bulb" mode on my camera:




A shaky picture of the musical fountain, Christmas tree and famous sphere. It's shaky but I really love the effect. :)



And of course, the fireworks show:





Too bad we had to leave early to catch the bus back to the hotel, so we missed the best parts of the fireworks show. It was a really good day nevertheless.

Our next theme park would be the Magical Kingdom, also in Disneyworld. Do stay tuned!