The Wandering Disciple

Lake Buena Vista, Florida: As you enter through the wrought iron gates and pull up to the sounds of jazz fills the air as you approach the main building. No you are not in the heart of New Orleans, but rather the Port Orleans: French Quarter resort at Walt Disney World. It doesn’t take long to feel like your not in Florida anymore. Opened in May 1991, Port Orleans was designed to reflect the architecture of the French Quarter of New Orleans. The three story buildings feature the ironwork that is known to the French Quarter, giving the look and feel of the Big Easy. The resort featured just over 400 room when it first opened. Since then it has expanded to seven three story buildings featuring 1,008 rooms total. The resort is a moderate resort, meaning its room are slightly larger at 314 square feet each and feature side by side vanities and a sitting area. Another perk to being a moderate hotel is the amenities. The swimming pool features a serpent water slide as well. There i...

Lake Buena Vista, Florida: Since the Walt Disney Company was built on the silver screen, its only fitting that the third park at Walt Disney World Resort would be built around the movies. Disney-MGM Studios is not only a theme park but also a working production studio. Opening in 1989, the 135 acre theme park was built to resemble the golden era of Hollywood. The themed lands of the park were like soundstages from Hollywood dropped right in the middle of Central Florida. Unlike the other Disney parks, the park is not laid out with the typical wagon wheel layout, it is situated much like a city with intersecting streets leading to the different lands of the park. There are six lands to the park: Hollywood Boulevard, Sunset Boulevard, Animation Courtyard, Pixar Place, Streets of America and Echo Lake. The rides and attractions of the park pay tribute to the many great films from Hollywood. The Great Movie Ride features live actors that recreate scenes from some of the best known m...

Lake Buena Vista, Florida: The newest and largest theme park in the Walt Disney World complex in central Florida, Animal Kingdom is an entire theme park dedicated to animal conservation. With almost 10 million guests a year, it is the fifth most visited theme park in the country. Opened in April 1998, Animal Kingdom is dedicated solely to animal conservation. All rides and attractions focus on specie conservation and education. Since its opening, the park has been accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquarium for meeting and exceeding the standards of education, conservation and research. The park is layout like many of the other Disney theme parks with a wagon wheel layout. At the center of the wheel is the fourteen story Tree of Life, the icon of the park. The Tree of Life is found on Discovery Island and outward from there are the lands of The Oasis, Camp Minnie-Mickey, Africa, Rafiki’s Planet Watch, Asia and Dino Land USA. The park encompasses over 500 acres making it t...

Lake Buena Vista, Florida: Larger then life musical instruments adorn this resort on the Walt Disney World Resort. Like the other value resorts in the Disney chain, the All-Star Music Resort features brightly colored buildings and large icons that represent many genres of musical history. Opened in 1994, the resort is part of the Disney’s value class of resorts. It has the smallest rooms in the chain at 260 square feet. They maintain 1,604 rooms on the property and are very basic in décor. Most rooms have two double beds, table and chairs, TV and single bathroom. Recently several of the rooms have been renovated into family suites in which they are able to accommodate six people with a kitchenette and sitting area. The rooms are arranged into ten buildings themed Broadway Show Tunes, Calypso, Country, Jazz and Rock N Roll. The amenities of the resorts are basic but sufficient. The main building is Melody Hall which contains the check-in, Intermission Food Court, arcade and Ma...

Lake Buena Vista, Florida: Part of Walt Disney World resort in Central Florida, Epcot is one of the four main Disney theme parks. The park is unlike any of the other theme parks as its main function is to educate its visitors through rides and attractions. Here you can travel around the world without ever leaving the sunshine state or explore the depths of the oceans without getting wet thanks to the many pavilions that comprise the park. The park was inspired by Walt Disney’s vision of the future, his Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow or Epcot for short. He vision a community that was unlike no other but the dream never came to life and the ideas were packaged into the creation of the theme park. Construction began on the 300 acre theme park that would come to be know the Epcot Center. It took three years and $1.4 billion dollars to bring the park to life. The park opened to the public on October 1, 1982. Epcot was designed to be like a permanent World’s Fair. Laid ...

Lake Buena Vista, Florida: As you pass through the gates of the Magic Kingdom, Main Street USA welcomes you. The sweeping boulevard lined with shops your passageway to the adventures that wait within the park. Main Street is built to resemble an old Midwestern town. The buildings are designed to make it feel like a true American city, despite being just movie props. They even pump scents onto the streets to entice visitors to visit the many restaurants and candy stores along the way. Although there are no thrill rides on Main Street, you can board the Walt Disney Railroad from the Main Street Station near the entrance to the park. There is also a steady stream of Main Street vehicles, vintage vehicles and horse drawn carriages that can transport you the length of the boulevard if you wish to give your feet a break. Many of the parks shopping attraction can be found along Main Street. They have the Emporium, which is a shop that contains everything Disney. The Main Street Fire D...

Tampa, Florida: Every guest that visits Busch Gardens Tampa visits Morocco as it is the first themed land as you enter the park. Here you will find guest relations and most of the support staff of the park. This is also where most of the shops of Busch Gardens are located. Morocco is also home to the Moroccan Palace Theater. The theater currently houses the Broadway style show “Katonga”. Katonga is a musical in which the actors performs songs of the animals and the animals come to life. Debuting in 2004, Katonga has been a popular stop for young and old. The American Alligator exhibit is also located in Morocco, just outside the Moroccan Palace Theater. Here the alligator lay in the Florida sun waiting for their next meal. Several times a day you can meet a zookeeper here and learn about the alligators and watch them being fed. Shopping is the main attraction of Morocco. Here you will find the following shops: *Casablanca Outfitter; clothing. *Label Stable; Budweiser signature...