MAGIC KINGDOM
The fourth peak in the Disneyland mountain range of thrill rides---along with Big Thunder Mountain, the Matterhorn, and Space Mountain---Splash Mountain (left) is unlike the other attractions. In them, passengers ride roller coaster-style cars down tubular steel tracks, but in this nine-minute ride, they are taken on a waterborne journey through backwoods swamps and bayous, down waterfalls, and finally, over the top of a steep spillway, hurtling them from the top of the mountain to a briar-laced pond five stories below. Inspired by peaks in Utah's Bryce Canyon, Big Thunder Mountain is entirely a Disney-creation. The name comes from an old Indian legend about a sacred mountain in Wyoming that thundered whnever white men excavated its gold. The attraction took five years of planning and two years of construction, and it cost about as much to build as the rest of Disneyland put together---$16 million. Like the more sophisticated Space Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad attractions, the Matterhorn Bobsleds has to be counted among the most thrilling at Disneyland. The Matterhorn Bobsleds were considered quite an engineering novelty when they were dedicated in 1959 (by then---Vice president Richard Nixon) because of the block system dispatch, unique at that time, which allowed more than one car to be in action at once. Also distinctive were the cylinder-rail track and urethane wheels, which have since become commonplace on modern roller coasters. No longer a spectral white cone on the Tomorrowland-scape, Space Mountain is sheatheed in metallic greens and copper. In Disneyland's mountaintop roller-coaster experince, space voyagers are still propelled through pitch blackness and spinning stars and galaxies at white-knuckle speeds. But a state-of-the-art sound system has been added to each 12-passenger space vehicle, so that each has its own audio, including synchronized music, narration, and sound effects.
The background music for It's A Small World (left) is cheerful and sing-song, sometimes maddeningly so. It does grab your attention, starting with the pastel facade, embellished with stylized representations of the Eiffel Tower, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Big Ben, the Taj Mahal, and other world landmarks. The fantastic mechanized clock witht he loud ticktock is frosting on the architectural cake (not to be confused with the 25th Anniversary Walt Disney World Castle Cake). The whirling of gears and springs that marks every quarter hour along warrants a trip to the attraction's plaza on the edge of Fantasyland and adjacent to Mickey's Toontown. Rising above the treetops at the end of Main Street, U.S.A., it could be a figment of your imagination, or a mirage created by Tinker Bell's pixie dust. Closer inspection shows that is is as real as the swans in the moat that surrounds it. A composite of various medieval European castles, primarily in the French and Bavarian styles, Sleeping Beauty Castle (right) is constructed of concrete, with towers that rise 77 feet above the moat. Trimmed in 22-karat gold leaf, it appears shiny even on gray days. The entire structure, which got a fresh coat of paint about a year ago, seems larger than it really is due to the use of forced perspective, down to the bricks.
SEA WORLD
Four-ton killer whales glide through the air, astounding and splashing their fans in the 5,500-seat Shamu Stadium. (And when they say you will get wet, they mean: YOU WILL GET WET!) Dolphins, sea lions, otters, walruses, and birds steal a few shows, and hearts as well. In Wild Artic, Sea World's newest attraction, guests "fly" over the frozen north to a remote research station and come nearly nose to nose with real polar bears, beluga whales, walruses, and harbor seals.
UNIVERSAL STUDIOS
In Jurassic Park---The Ride, visitors board 25-passenger river rafts and enter a dense primordial forest with waterfalls and tide pools, steamy waterways (one of them leads to a daunting 84-foot plunge), and impressively lifelike dinosaurs, some docile and others more than menancing. The 45-minute Backlot Tour passes sets for Animal House, The Sting, Pyscho, and "Murder She Wrote." And you'll experience a collapsing bridge, an avalanche, an earthquake, a flash flood, and King Kong himself. Other hair-raising attractions at the park are the Back to the Future flight-simulator ride, which takes you from the Ice Age to the year 2015 in a souped-up DeLorean; Waterworld, a live sea-war spectacular featuring a barrage of stunts and special effects; and Backdraft, a realistic firestorm where visitors truly feel the heat. Tamer by comparison, but equally appealing, is the World of Cinemagic, which reveals some of Alfred Hitchcock's best-kept secrets; and the E.T. Adventure, where guests hop aboard bicycles bound for the stars.
