{"id":12539,"date":"2014-10-07T00:01:19","date_gmt":"2014-10-07T00:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=12539"},"modified":"2014-10-04T20:00:16","modified_gmt":"2014-10-04T20:00:16","slug":"carys-adventures-in-the-magic-kingdom-part-7-disneyquest-and-downtown-disney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2014\/10\/07\/carys-adventures-in-the-magic-kingdom-part-7-disneyquest-and-downtown-disney\/","title":{"rendered":"Cary’s Adventures in the Magic Kingdom: Part 7: DisneyQuest and Downtown Disney"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"RALPH\"<\/a>During some of the afternoon and evenings when we weren\u2019t at the parks, there were a couple of other things that we did at Disney World. So to conclude my blog series about my Disney World trip, I\u2019m going to talk about the indoor arcade and amusement park DisneyQuest and the shops at Downtown Disney!<\/p>\n

Fifteen years ago when I last went to Disney World, they had just opened up a new area of the park geared towards adults called Pleasure Island. It had some clubs and bars and stuff.\u00a0 Well that part is under heavy construction so it\u2019s not even there anymore.\u00a0 But luckily, one thing that is still there is DisneyQuest.\u00a0 Last time I went to Disney World I thought DisneyQuest was so cool.\u00a0 It\u2019s a five story indoor amusement park and arcade.\u00a0 It has a few virtual rides, like Virtual Space Mountain, Aladdin\u2019s Magic Carpet Ride, and Virtual Jungle Cruise.\u00a0 But for me, the best part was the arcade!\u00a0 One floor had nothing but racing games, another floor had other modern arcade fare, and another floor was full of classic arcade goodness!\u00a0 I was in heaven.\u00a0 Best of all, it was all free to play!\u00a0 Granted, you do have to pay to get in, but once you\u2019re inside, unless you buy food or something at the gift shop, everything is free!\u00a0 I loved DisneyQuest so much that I knew I\u2019d have to go back there this trip, too!<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, DisneyQuest wasn\u2019t QUITE as good as what I remember. Don\u2019t get me wrong, it was still a lot of fun.\u00a0 But it\u2019s amazing how fifteen years can age a place. \u00a0Everything was still clean and maintained, granted, but it all just had a dated feel to it.\u00a0 Another thing that was surprising to me is that we went on a Saturday night and I was so worried it was going to be crowded.\u00a0 But the place was practically dead!\u00a0 I don\u2019t know why it was so empty; you\u2019d think that Saturday night would be the busiest time!\u00a0 Anyway, here\u2019s a picture of the front of the building.<\/p>\n

\"DISNEYQUEST\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t do hardly any of the virtual rides, as most require 3-D vision and I can only see out of one eye. But I did ride Virtual Space Mountain, which was neat because you get to design your roller coaster track first, and then you get to climb into a simulation station and ride it.\u00a0 You can make it as scary or as easy as you like.<\/p>\n

But I was mostly interested in the arcade games! They still had plenty of classic arcade cabinets, which made me very happy.\u00a0 I think I played Pengo until my eyes fell out.\u00a0 It was cool to show my younger brothers some of these old games, too.\u00a0 They had some neat modern games, as well.\u00a0 I was surprised to see a Sonic and SEGA All-Stars Racing arcade machine.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t get to play it because some kids were always on it, but that\u2019s OK.\u00a0 They had Pac-Man Battle Royale and a Tetris Giant game where you moved the pieces around with a HUGE joystick that was half the size as I was!\u00a0 But I think I was most surprised to see a Skylanders arcade game!\u00a0 I even took a picture of it.\u00a0 Granted, it was just a huge touch screen game, and not very good either.\u00a0 Actually a lot of the new arcade games there were just larger versions of tablet touch screen games like Doodle Jump and Fruit Ninja (as also seen in this shot).<\/p>\n

\"SKYLANDERS\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Aside from some of the modern arcade titles, the only other \u2018new\u2019 part of DisneyQuest was a special Wreck-It Ralph section. There was this statue greeting you at the entrance.<\/p>\n

\"RALPH\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And they also had a nook where there was a bunch of Fix-It Felix Jr. arcade machines you could play. I know these were new games designed to feel like old ones, but they look surprisingly unmaintained.\u00a0 Here is a picture of my brother Nathan playing one of the cabinets.<\/p>\n

\"FELIX\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Because of the dated feel of DisneyQuest, and the lack of any DisneyQuest themed items in the gift shop, it makes me worried that they might plan to close it down soon. And I\u2019d hate for that to happen because it would just be one less arcade in the world.\u00a0 But I do think they need to update it a bit.\u00a0 If I were in charge, I\u2019d change the name to Wreck-It Ralph\u2019s Game Central Station.\u00a0 I\u2019d beef up the arcade areas and take out some of the dated virtual rides (maybe not Virtual Space Mountain).\u00a0 I\u2019d also add a place where Disney could invite game companies like Nintendo or Capcom to come in for a few months and show off their new and upcoming games.\u00a0 Like a mini-E3.\u00a0 That would draw in a continuous and returning crowd, I think.\u00a0 So what do you think of my idea?<\/p>\n

Another place we went to nearby was Downtown Disney, which was a bunch of shops. They had a candy store and a pin store and a huge general Disney store.\u00a0 Last time I was there they had a Winnie the Pooh store, too, but it wasn\u2019t there this time.\u00a0 Too bad.\u00a0 The only non-Disney shop I saw there was a LEGO store, so I took some pictures of some things there.\u00a0 Like this dragon.\u00a0 Not sure if it\u2019s Maleficent in her dragon form or whatever.<\/p>\n

\"LEGO1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Outside they also had a LEGO sea monster in the lake. Sorry the picture is so dark; we were only there at night.\u00a0 It looks much better during the day, trust me.<\/p>\n

\"LEGO2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Inside they had a LEGO statue of The Hulk.<\/p>\n

\"LEGO3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And a couple of LEGO statues of Toy Story characters.<\/p>\n

\"LEGO4\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And that\u2019s really all the shops we went into. One new thing that was at every gift shop at Disney were collector\u2019s pins of nearly every Disney character out there.\u00a0 The idea is that you buy these pins and trade them with Disney employees who had pins of their own.\u00a0 Some of the super rare pins you could only get by trading.\u00a0 I told myself I wouldn\u2019t get into that because of the expense, but the last day we were there, I broke down and bought more of them, as well as everything I would need to trade pins should I go back to Disney World at some point.\u00a0 I have to say that whoever came up with the pin idea was pretty clever!<\/p>\n

Anyway, here is my Disney pin collection, small as it may be. I got a Oswald the Lucky Rabbit lanyard to put them on.\u00a0 I also got a Figment lanyard medallion to hang from the bottom.\u00a0 I missed out on getting the Chip N Dale medallion, but I settled on the Figment one because it also came with a pin as well.\u00a0 I do have a Chip N Dale pin, but I didn\u2019t get that one on this trip.\u00a0 A good friend of mine and his wife got that for me when they went to Disney World on their honeymoon last year.\u00a0 But the other pins I got on this trip.\u00a0 I got Mickey from Kingdom Hearts, an Oswald pin I liked, and a special Halloween pin with Chip N Dale.\u00a0 I\u2019m especially proud of the other pin I got of Chip N Dale Rescue Rangers!\u00a0 I wish they\u2019d make pins of other Disney Afternoon cartoons I watched as a kid, like DuckTales, TaleSpin, and Darkwing Duck!\u00a0 I was also disappointed they didn\u2019t have any Gravity Falls merchandise.\u00a0 That\u2019s such a great show.<\/p>\n

\"PINS\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Anyway, that\u2019s my Disney World trip. I think the best part of it, though, was getting to spend time with my brothers and dad and stepmom on that side of my family.\u00a0 I have to say that if you have family who doesn\u2019t mind being around you and accepts you for who you are, there\u2019s not much else in life you could ask for.\u00a0 I hope you enjoyed my Disney World articles and let me know if you have any questions.\u00a0 We now return to our regularly scheduled game reviews!\u00a0 –Cary<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During some of the afternoon and evenings when we weren\u2019t at the parks, there were a couple of other things that we did at Disney World. So to conclude my blog series about my Disney World trip, I\u2019m going to talk about the indoor arcade and amusement park DisneyQuest and the shops at Downtown Disney! […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12537,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12539"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12542,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12539\/revisions\/12542"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}