I took a vacation last week with my wife to Florida. We spent the first three days visiting some family in Clearwater and Lake Wales, and then we spent four days at the most magicalest place on earth: Walt Disney World!

I'll spare you the boring parts (family, waiting in lines, paying $12.00 for a large soda... I'm not kidding) and skip straight to the things that rocked my world about being in Disney World.

The first day, after checking into our hotel room at the All Star Movies Resort (which has an arcade in the lobby!!!!!), we hopped on the Disney Transport bus and headed off to the Disney-MGM Studios Park. There are so many great rides and shows at this park: The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, Aerosmith Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, along with the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular and the Muppet-Vision 3D movie (you actually get to sit in the old Muppet Theater! It's soooo cool!) Although there are a few disappointments in this park too. The forty-five minute backlot tour is a snooze-fest, the Great Movie Ride is like a moving park bench, and the Star Wars Star Tours flight simulator is a HUGE letdown. I mean, with the Star Wars franchise, you would hope and expect for a great ride. It is sadly not. But there is some cool sculpture outside of it:

The next day we went to the Magic Kingdom. There is just something amazing about strolling down Main Street with that big silly castle in front of you that makes you feel 8 years old all over again.

The Magic Kingdom's trifecta of mountains: Big Thunder, Splash, and Space make for a classic day of rides- not the thrill-a-minute of Six Flags or Cedar Point, but definitely three amazing ride experiences. But I think my favorite ride at the Magic Kingdom has to be Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. This ride combines the fast-moving lines of the Haunted Mansion with a video game. Each car has two laser ray guns, and a knob that allows you to spin the car. The ride takes you through room after room of black-lite lit alien planets where you blast all the logos of Emperor Zurg you can find. At the end of the score, the winner in your car gets bragging rights. That night we got to see a great fireworks show over the top of Cinderella's Castle.

We decided to spend the next day at Walt Disney's Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, more commonly known as Epcot Center. I have to say, of all four of the Disney parks, Epcot is by far the shabbiest and the poorest experience. For those of you who don't know, it is divided into two sections: FutureWorld and the World Showcase. The World Showcase is a blast. So many cool countries, lots of great food, and drinks, drinks, drinks! But the FutureWorld, which sounds like it shoud be a lot of fun and super cool, is, well, not. It seems like no good rides or attractions have been added since Reagan was president. It also feels like that was the last time anything was washed. I will say, however, that Epcot does offer the best fireworks show at Disney World called Illuminations.

We spent our last day at Disney's Animal Kingdom. I was warned by people ahead of going that Animal Kingdom is the worst park of the four, this is not true. I think that Animal Kingdom is the best park of all four that I went to. It has great rides like Kali River Rapids (the only boat rapid ride I've ever seen with a hill drop on it) and the roller-coaster Expedition Everest. There are also great safari experiences, cool shows (a bird show called Flights of Wonder was AMAZING!). It didn't hurt that when we walked in the gates of Animal Kingdom we were given Dream FastPasses which allowed us to go right to the front of the line for six of the best attractions in the park.

All in all, I have to say that it was a GREAT vacation. Very very expensive, but I would highly recommend Disney World to any gaming minded person.