New Disney Update

It’s now 3 months and 5 days until we go away to Disney for our honeymoon. It only seems a few weeks ago that we were talking about it and booking the holiday. The time really is flying by, not that I’m complaining of course. The quicker the year goes, the quicker it’ll be before we go away. I just hope that time slows down a bit when we’re actually on holiday. 2 weeks just won’t seem enough, especially considering all there is to do in Disney and all the surrounding areas.

I suspect that out of the people who read my blog (about 5 of you probably!), none of you have gone to Disney. It wouldn’t surprise me if you were wondering why I’m so excited about staying in a complex that is heavily oriented around kids and families. There is of course the fact that I’m a big kid, so I fit in nicely. However, there are definitely more reasons than that….

Firstly, the weather. Nothing to me reminds me more of being on holiday than being in weather that we will probably never see in this country. So whether it’s -15c in New York (Jan 2005, in the middle of their coldest winter for 30 years), or 35c and 90% humidity in Florida, it’s weather we won’t be getting in this country and I love being in it. I’m lucky that I’m comfortable in either extreme so I’m never too bothered by it. Either put me in a big heavy coat, or a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, and I’m happy

Secondly, the vibe there. I’d never claim to be the most travelled of people, but I’ve been to a fair number of places in the UK, Europe and America, and there are only 2 places I’ve been to where there’s a tangible vibe there. New York is one of them, and it really deserves its title as “The City That Never Sleeps”. Even at 11pm in winter there was always activity and you can just tell you’re in a special city. Disney is the 2nd place with a vibe, but one completely different to New York. It’s just so relaxed and friendly, it really feels like a magical place where you can leave your troubles at the door and just enjoy yourself. You’re never rushed, never hurried, never made to feel like you’re a burden, and always made to feel welcome and special. The Americans are the best for customer service anyway, but in Disney it’s kicked up another notch.

Then of course, the parks themselves. As you’d expect there’s a lot there aimed towards young kids, but there’s still plenty of enjoyable activities in every park. Walking the World in Epcot is great, as you walk around the outside of a huge lake in the middle of the park, and each section is themed after a different country. You have places like England, France, Germany, Spain, Canada, Denmark, Japan, and more, each having it’s own building style from each country, along with appropriate shops. England has a pub that serves proper lager, and a fish and chip shop. Great stuff. There’s also shows like Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular and Lights Motors Action at Hollywood Studios, both of which are incredible to watch. That’s not even mentioning all the rides and stuff that adults can enjoy. Oh, and virtually every park puts on a fireworks display/show every evening at 9pm. The one at Epcot, entitled “Illuminations: Reflections of Earth” is easily the best firework display I’ve ever seen, lasting about 20 minutes and set to music. It finishes with so many bright fireworks that it virtually turns the night sky into daytime again. I’ve probably seen it 4 times now and I can’t wait to see it again. Then of course you have the other parks outside of Disney, such as Universal Studios and Sea World. Universal is amazing, probably even better than Disney for the rides that are there. Sea World is great fun as well, with Clyde & Seamore Take Pirate Island being one of the best shows you’ll see (Clyde and Seamore are seals, and very good actors too!).

After that, there’s Cirque Du Soleil: La Nouba. If you’ve never seen a Cirque show you’re really missing out on an incredible event. The La Nouba show in Florida is simply amazing, a mix of acrobats, clowns, jugglers, entertainers and great music. I’ve seen a few different Cirque shows now (on TV and in person) and La Nouba is easily my favourite. We were watching the website for weeks, and the moment the tickets went on sale we grabbed them. Last time we were only 10 rows from the front, and we’ll be even closer this time, a mere 6 rows from the front. They initially tried to put us on the back row of the front section, but a bit of ingenuity in reserving seats in seperate browser windows got us the seats we wanted

Next: Shopping! I’m not really a shopping kind of guy, it’s something that I do when I have to and not for any longer than is necessary. It’s different over there though, as everything is so much cheaper than it is over here. As an example, when we were in New York we picked up some pairs of Calvin Klein jeans for under half the price you’d pay in the UK. I’m not someone who tends to wear a lot of named brands (seeing I wear normal clothes in work, they’d get wrecked very easily), but when it’s as cheap as in America it’d be foolish not to buy some. We’re going shopping on our second day there in August so we can buy stuff before we spend all our money everywhere else!

I really could go on and on for some time about what we’re looking forward to the most over there, but it’s hard to narrow down exactly what we love about the place. All of the above, and so many other reasons, all combine to make it a brilliant place to spend 2 weeks. Roll on August 3rd!

Minor Disney update

Yay, we’ve finally managed to book our seats for the flights to and from Orlando. I’m not quite sure why, but it all seems a bit more real now, knowing where we’ll be sitting. I know it’s silly, but I don’t care It might seem a bit strange being so concerned with booking seats 11 months in advance, but it was definitely something we had to do. We really really wanted to sit in the upstairs part of Premium Economy on the way there, to give us more of a buffer between ourselves and the screaming kids (of which there were plenty last time). On the way back, it was also important to make sure we book early. We’ll fly there and back in a 747, which generally has a 3 – 4 – 3 seating arrangement (3 by the window, 4 in the middle, 3 by the other window), which means that as a couple we could easily find ourselves sitting next to some random stranger. While that does offer a chance to meet someone fun and interesting, it also gives the real chance for sitting next to a weirdo for a 9 hour flight with nowhere else to go. Thankfully, near the back of the plane the seating configuration changes to a 2 – 4 – 2, and we were able to book one of the few remaining banks of 2 by a window (and only two rows further forward than our seats 2 years ago). That’s a potential worry out of the way now anyway. Is there any way we can speed the next 10 months or so up?

On a completely random note, I’m sat here typing this while listening to Metallica’s new album, Death Magnetic. It’s a pleasant return to form for them after the mistake that was St Anger. It’s not up there with the Black album, but then again not many albums are, so I think it’s unfair to compare it to that. As a standalone metal album, it’s certainly a decent one. Hopefully they’ll carry on in this vein in the future.

I really suck at updating this

Yes, I know I do. I seem to go through phases where I really fancy blogging, and the others where it’s the last thing on my mind. Anyway, after reading Haly’s blog today I figured it was time I got something down. Not sure how long it will be yet, we’ll wait and see.

So, what have I been up to since my last update? Well, my last update was completely Disney related, and not much has gone on in that area, nothing concrete anyway. We’re always talking about it, what we’re looking forward to, what things we’ll absolutely do next time, but it’s still 11 months or so away so we’re too far away to go about booking anything. Hopefully we’ll be able to book our seats on the flight soon (I’m checking every day), as we want to make sure we get the best seats possible. I know that in Premium we’ll have good seats regardless, but I’d still like to have a decent choice on where we sit.

In gaming, it’s hard to pick out what I’ve been playing recently. I’ve almost completely gone off achievement whoring for the last few months, which is evident by the lead Haly now holds over me. It wasn’t that long ago we were neck and neck, but now she’s around 15k ahead of me. If I had the urge I think I could have a good go at pulling that lead back (there’s plenty more whoring games I’ve not touched yet), but I’m never really in the mood. I’ve currently got Fifa Street, NBA 2K7 and LMA Manager on rental, 3 games that with a bit of time and boosting I could get 3000 points from, but I’m not really bothered. I’m picking at Fifa Street as it’s fairly enjoyable, but I’m not sure whether I’ll get the urge back any time soon. I’d rather spend my time lately playing stuff like Tiger Woods 09 (which is very good) and the Fifa 09 demo (which is excellent, I’m really really impressed with it). Hopefully I can pick up The Force Unleashed soon as I’m looking forward to it, as I loved the demo and think I’ll really enjoy the full game.

3 games that do stick out as playing recently are Tiger Woods 09, Too Human, and Lego Indiana Jones. Lego Indy was great fun, going through it with Lynnie. I still have a few achievements left to 1k it, which will take me a couple of hours at some point. Tiger Woods is excellent, as the Tiger Woods games always are. I quite like the way your player attributes are handled this time, in general anyway. If you’re playing well, your stats will improve. However, all it takes is a bad round and your stats can drop drastically, a bit too much for my liking. Still, it’s very enjoyable and the achievements aren’t too bad either. It won’t be an easy game to 1k, but it’s certainly do-able with enough time and effort.

Too Human was a weird one, so much that it deserves it’s own paragraph. The gameplay had a lot of good things about it. There was a large variety of weapons and armours, and plenty of ways to customise them with runes to alter their properties. The control system was weird but very usable (using the right stick to aim melee attacks, with the triggers controlling your ranged weaponry). My two main gripes fall into two categories – gameplay, and story. Gameplay wise I was very disappointed with the lack of a block button. Surely in a game of this manner, blocking should be a critical part of the gameplay. Many times I found myself taking a lot of damage from attacks I had no way of blocking or avoiding. Unavoidable attacks are a real hated of mine, especially when games like Ninja Gaiden 2 show companies how you can make a combat game challenging, but still give you ways to defend yourself. My other gripe was with the story itself. It was very disjointed and difficult to follow. In the end I stopped caring about it and merely killed everything in my way without caring about why. It made my brain hurt less.

So what’s on the horizon that I’m looking forward to? As mentioned earlier, The Force Unleashed is one I’m waiting for. Also, Fifa 09 will be the first Fifa game since Fifa 99 that I’ll actually buy, in 2 weeks hopefully. Beyond that, I’m with everyone else I think in looking forward to Fable 2, Gears of War 2, and Fallout 3. I’m also desperate for a release date for Rock Band 2. Hopefully we’ll get that by my birthday in November. I’m pretty sure they’ll keep me going through to the end of the year, coupled with the 5 games I own that I’ve still not played yet (Civ Revolution, Condemned 2, The Darkness, Jericho and Lost Odyssey), and all the ones I’ve still got to finish properly.

Well, back to work for me, lunch is over I reckon. See you in 2 months probably!

A completely non-gaming update

A new update so soon after the last one is surely a record for me in recent months. For once though it’s not gaming related at all, so if you’re here for that, you may as well click your Back button now

Back in August 2006, my girlfriend Lynne and I went to Disney World in Florida. It was a wonderful 2 weeks, with the odd problem here and there (more on that later). One particular highlight of the holiday was when we went to Discovery Cove to swim with dolphins, and I asked Lynne to marry me. Being a woman of intelligence and fine taste (can you tell she reads this?), she of course said yes. Ever since then, we always wanted to go back, but buying a house and saving up for a wedding had to take priority (we planned to pay for the wedding ourselves), so we knew it would likely take us 5 years or so before we could get back there.

Things changed recently when I went to see my dad. He told me that he was going to give me some money towards the wedding. Then Lynne’s mum said the same thing. Then her dad said the same thing as well! So we quickly went from saving for the wedding ourselves, to having enough money for it from parents. This meant that, if we continued to save hard, we could put the wedding money to use for a great honeymoon instead. After about 30 seconds of discussion, we decided we should go back to Disney. It seemed fitting really. We got engaged there, so we can enjoy our honeymoon there.

Of course, it now means we have to wait 13 months till we go. 13 months and 1 day to be exact. It’s sad that I know that in 13 months and 1 day, we’ll be somewhere over the Atlantic, about 4 hours into the flight. It’s an indication of how excited I am already. Strangely, I think I’m more excited now than I was before we left last time. This will be my 2nd trip to Disney with Lynne, and my 3rd overall. I was hugely excited the 1st time, as it was my first time abroad, first time on a plane, first time to America, and so on.  I remember having real trouble sleeping the night before as I was so excited. I also remember enjoying the holiday immensely, though it wasn’t perfect, and that’s something that stuck with me. I’m sure that having a “perfect” holiday is impossible, but I think when you go to a place like Disney/Florida, with all the expense that it entails, you should be able to come home with no regrets. Both times I’ve been, I’ve not been able to really say that, for different reasons. The first time I went (with an ex and her parents), I regretted not doing as many rides as I would have liked. I have never really been a huge coaster fan, but I think you can’t go to a place like Florida and it’s theme parks and not go on them. Unfortunately, the girl I first went with wasn’t a coaster fan either, so we missed out on a lot of things I really would have liked, if only I’d pushed myself to go on them on my own.

The 2nd time was different though. I was less excited about the trip, simply because I was more used to going abroad then. I knew things would be familiar to me, but sharing it with someone who’d never been before would make everything seem newer to me. Lynne is more adventurous than my ex as well, so I knew we’d go on more rides this time (which we did). What spoiled it for us (albeit only a little bit) was when we went swimming with dolphins. You’re told not to put suncream on as most can be harmful to the animals there. When we got there and were given the safe cream to use, I forgot to put mine on, and Lynne only did the front of her arms. As we were in the water for hours there (though the dolphin side of it was only 30 mins long), we ended up with completely major sunburn, with me having the worst of it. My shoulders and back of my arms were burnt to the point of blistering, and it made sleeping properly impossible for me (Lynne wasn’t so bad and could sleep). We ended up staying in and around the hotel the next day to minimise our time in the sun, as even through t-shirts we could feel our shoulders melting. When we went to Sea World the day after that, it was agony sitting down to watch the shows as there was very little shade. It didn’t really ruin the holiday for us, but it put a damper on the last 4 days and meant we couldn’t do quite as much as we wanted.

This time will be different though. Even though we’ve both been and know what’s there, we’re already hugely excited about it. I think knowing what’s there will mean we can plan our holiday even better than before. We know what rides and shows can be missed, and we know what we absolutely have to see again (like Cirque Du Soliel in Downtown Disney). We’ll have more time to do other things as well now as we’ll be able to do the Disney parks quicker. We’ll definitely be going back to Universal Studios and Sea World. We’ll be going to Busch Gardens this time as well, a park that looks great fun with all the coasters it’s got. And we should still have plenty of time to go shopping, to relax around the hotel (the Dolphin Hotel, I forgot to mention that), to play on the 4 miniature golf courses, and to just enjoy being in my favourite place to be. Now all we need is for the next 13 months to hurry up and go so we can get on holiday!