>A Voyage of Discovery

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Soarin’ in Walt Disney world is found in the Land Pavilion. This is a fantastic attraction and the ride you take is amazing. But the Land is also the home to another great attraction that many people seem to pass on by, because of Soarin’. It is called Living with the Land. Living with the Land was one of the opening day attractions in Epcot. At that time is was called Listen to the Land and started out with an area that looked like seeds and plants were growing. It now opens with a rainforest scene; in both versions though, you get into a boat to enjoy the just about 15 minute attraction.



Jackfruit

 After the rainforest, you travel through different climates from around the world, and then through a small theater that shows how humans live within their environments and the way we are changing it to fit our needs. After this “show” area, you head into the Disney Greenhouses. There are five different areas which Disney considers Living Laboratories. The first of these is the Tropics Greenhouse. Here familiar and exotic foods grow in tropical surroundings. You may recognize the banana, papaya, and pineapple, but you may be surprised by the Jackfruit, and some of the other things they grow.

The next area is the Aquacell; this is basically Disney’s Fish Farm. This is a neat area to float through, with the many different fish that they have on display; catfish, bass and tilapia to name a few. The fish you see here can be some of the ones served in the Coral Reef Restaurant in the Seas with Nemo and Friends Pavilion.

The Temperate Greenhouse features crops from temperate climates. This is where you may see the Mickey Mouse Head Pumpkins or the Giant Citrus Fruits. And the String Greenhouse grows plants using experimental techniques like the nutrient film technique and the vertical growing techniques. Here you can see the Tomato tree. A lot of the food grown here is used in the Land’s Garden Grill and Sunshine Seasons restaurants. In the Creative Greenhouse, most of the plants are grown using Aeroponics. There is also a Biotechnology Lab, and a section where they work on pest control, that you don’t get to see from the boat ride, but they are contained in the same area of the Land.

There is FastPass for this attraction, but it is seldom used anymore. Most of the time, they don’t even open the entire queue area for the ride, as it doesn’t get a lot of people to it. I personally like the attraction and think it is one of those Unknown Magics that people don’t go to because it isn’t as exciting as Soarin’. Even though it may not be flashy, it is pretty neat to see how Disney is helping to solve food problems all over the world.

So, next time you go to the Land and get your FastPass for Soarin’ take the boat ride in the Pavilion. It will open your eyes to something new and also give you a Magical Experience.

>A Flight Over California

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You’ve heard it many times in your life, “Keep your hands and feet in the ride vehicle at all times.” But what if your feet aren’t inside the ride vehicle? What if they are dangling from the seat 40 feet above the ground in Walt Disney World? What then? Then you must be on one of the coolest attractions in Disney. You can find it in the Land Pavilion in Epcot; it’s Soarin’. Soarin’ was brought to Walt

Disney World (from California) along with Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show (from Paris) and Lucky the Dinosaur (also from California) as part of the Happiest Celebration on Earth, which celebrated the 50th anniversary of Disneyland, in 2005.

Soarin’ is one of those attractions that you need to be prepared to either, wait, get a fast pass, or get there first thing in the morning. It is super popular. After getting into the queue, the waiting area offers some fun, as there are


Check out the wait time for Soarin’ at the very beginning of the day.

 interactive games for you to play as you wait. When you get to the front of the line, the “Flight Crew” leads you into your boarding area. Here you see the names of the places you will see floating in the clouds, on a television monitor. After some instructions form a Cast member, your chief flight attendant, Patrick, comes on with some important safety instructions. They warn you if you have a fear of flying or of heights, you may want to by-pass the ride. My wife who has a fear of flying and my son who has a fear of heights both love this ride, so if you are on the fence about it, give it a try, if it gets too bad for you, close your eyes.

Once you are “airborne”, it is amazing, the scenes in front of you are projected on a huge I-max like screen and as you “fly” through California, the ride vehicle sways and moves as if you were actually on a hang-glider. You feel the

 wind whipping past you and smell the orange groves. You feel the ocean spray on your face and even duck when the golf ball is hit at you (at least I do). There are a few close calls, one with the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds and one with Fireworks, but overall, the fear factor is very minimal.

The Magic of this attraction is not only the projection process or the scenes they show, but also how the ride mechanism was invented. One of the Imagineers, Mark Summer, worked on the problem of how to load a large audience into ride vehicles, so that they could experience Soarin’, over a weekend. His weekend was spent playing with an old Erector Set that he had in his attic. After sketching and building all weekend, Mark came up with a model that showed how they could load the amount of people they wanted. This model became the basis for the ride vehicle as it is today.

The views of California are wonderful. My favorite parts are flying over the skiers, and the surfers, but I especially liked flying over Disneyland at night. This is one of those attractions that you must experience at least once. So, head over to The Land and enjoy Soarin’ over California.