Greetings from Port Orleans French Quarter!  I’ve been wandering the parks for about four or five days now, and I’ve had a wonderful time so far.  I’ll have a more in depth report next week (when I have to go back to reality), but here are some pictures and some preliminary thoughts about some of things I was most looking forward to…

The Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor: I did not know what to expect going into this new attraction, I’ve heard a lot of mixed reactions and reviews ranging from abysmal to outstanding.  After watching it last night, I walked out of that attraction with a big smile on my face.  I don’t remember the last time I had so much fun experiencing a Disney stage show in a long while.  While I won’t give away any spoilers, I will say that I laughed at practically every joke, gag, and nod to the Monsters, Inc. movie.  It was very refreshing to experience something so enjoyable and entertaining, despite the lack of appropriate theming (Monsters in Tomorrowland?).  Here are some pictures of the preshow area; note the hilarious bulletin boards and notes.

Miniature Golf:  I’ve been going to the parks for a while now, and I have never been to the mini golf courses on property.  This time I had a chance to visit and tryout the Fantasia Gardens Mini Golf Course adjacent to the Swan and Dolphin Resorts.  For those of you that don’t know, the course is divided into two courses, the Gardens and the Fairways.  The Gardens is the more classic kind of miniature golf, with windmill like contraptions, funky uphill holes, ramps, obstacles, etc.  It was easier, but still frustrating at times.  The Fairway course is more akin to a classic game of golf, with physical obstructions like rocks, water, sand, and different green contours that block your way to the hole.  While very difficult I did manage an eagle or two (I won’t mention how many quadruple bogies I had however).  I want to try the Winter Summerland golf course before I leave.  More on that later!

Wandering Around The Streets of America:  While some of us are on vacation at Walt Disney World we often find ourselves in the commando style mode of touring, going from place to place as quickly as possible.  This time around I am making an effort to throttle my touring down a little, and smell the roses.  On Friday, I spent about an hour and a half and just walked around the Streets of America taking dozens of pictures of little things I hadn’t noticed before.  I also pretended to walk down the subway stop steps about three times (and it was just as funny each time to see other people’s reactions to my antics).  I definitely recommend taking an hour or so to just walk around and see the sights.  Here are a few pictures…

Meeting my fellow studioscentral.com staffers: Probably the most fun I have had and will have is meeting Jeanne a.k.a. Pixie Dust on the forums and our own fearless webmaster Matt.  Hopefully I don’t come off too dorky at first…I’ve learned that people have to slowly accept my dorkiness little doses at a time.  More on my meets next week!

Well, I need to get some sleep, I’m heading to Epcot tomorrow and seeing the Gran Fiesta Tour for the first time.  I will have a full report next week!  Until next time.